Moments ago Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as leader of the Labour Party. Given that the challenge to his leadership was held after a vote of no confidence saw him lose by 172-40, it seemed an ideal time to think about his shadow front bench in the classic group analysis of forming, storming, norming, performing... 

Former Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls is doing an excellent job re-inventing himself in his post Parliament period, and it seems you can't, right now, open a newspaper or turn on the TV without seeing Ed. And I don't think it is overly cynical to believe that Ed's ubiquity is in part a strategy to publicise his memoirs, which are now in print. While I haven't had the chance to read the book yet, a couple of points that have been reported in the media are classics of their kind.