George Osborne - The Shallow Chancellor
So the Government makes a mistake, put its hands up, listens to the people and rectifies the situation. This pleases most people - aside from Tory MPs, who call it desperate to actually listen to public opinion (after all it is worth pointing out they haven't suggested any solution to the 10p Tax Rate problem, even though they are happy to score points saying the change was wrong - it is rather hollow if you don't plan to rectify the situation).And so George Osborne, the Tories' Shadow Chancellor does the rounds on the media this morning jumping up and down that the Government have addressed the problem (and scuppered his hopes in the Crewe by election).
My favourite interview with him came this morning on the Radio 5 Breakfast programme with Nicky Campbell - listen again here, it is hysterical. The interview starts about 1 hour 44 mins in.
At 1 hour 47 mins and 50 secs George starts the giggles as he claims he went into politics to help the disadvantaged. Campbell gets increasingly frustrated with Osborne's claims that the Tories are the party of the poor - especially when they did things like oppose the minimum wage - and by the end of the interview it is all he can do to stop himself from saying "Yeah, right, ok, whatever mate".
Instead he says, at 1 hour 52 mins and 55 secs: "We have to leave it there, George Osborne - the shallow chancellor".
The SHALLOW chancellor? You said it, Nicky. You said it.
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(Photo Source: Saint sim, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GeorgeOsborne.jpg)
Labels: george osborne, nicky campbell, Radio 5, Shadow Cabinet, shallow
posted by Kerron @ 10:38 AM
8 Comments:
Here are my proposals for reducing the tax burden:
Withdraw from the EU. Stop mass immigration, including from EU countries. Expel all illegal immigrants without delay. Deport all existing foreign criminals as soon as they are released from British jails - i.e. they are taken directly from the prison gates to the airport. Any new offences committed by foreigners on British soil means they get deported immediately. Encourage foreign guest workers to return home. Get the workshy off their backsides with a combination of incentives (e.g. back to work bonus, training) and punishments (e.g. those unwilling to work don't get benefits or free housing). No public money for foreign cultural events (e.g. Diwali, Eid). No public money for translating official literature. No public money for promoting "diversity". Sack judges who pass ridiculously lenient sentences.
I'm sure I could think of plenty more.
Why not just deport all foreigners immediately, Benny? In fact, why not make that anyone who can't trace their ancestry all the way back to the Anglo-Saxons (though they, of course, were foreigners themselves)?
George Osborne is a shallow man indeed. But then, sadly, it often pays to be that way.
Never mind all this "Government makes a mistake, holds up its hands, says sorry" malarkey.
The 10p abolition wasn't some oops-mistake. It was a calculated ploy by Gordon Brown on the eve of his Premiership to engineer a tax cut [SIC] to grab a few favourable headlines.
Then some honourable people like Frank Field got wind of this trick, called Brown to account over screwing the poor, have been twisted about and hung out to dry (see Ed Balls' comments), but eventually, after suffering all the slingshots and arrows, get the right result.
The Tories are late to the fore but if Cameron is a genuine One Nation Tory (not the evil Thatcherite of yore) then he is right to call Brown to account too.
And again this is not some noble move. The abolition of the 10p was a cynical ploy to win an election (the leadership), and was the wrong move with it. This allowance is not going through because Brown believes in it, though it is for once the right move, but is another cynical move in his calculating mind to win a different election (Crewe).
The sad thing is that both of these might work, which will simply confirm Brown in his "I always know best" mode.
Firstly, when did we decide that I wasn't allowed to have my own view of what is and isn't happening in Government? I disagreed from the start over the 10p tax rate changes - but the Government have listened and done something about it. Would they have been better to ignore public opinion and carry on with such an unpopular policy?
Secondly, why aren't you brave enough to attach your name to your own comments?
And finally, I presume you didn't hear Frank Field's comments in the House today?
You're more than welcome to have your opinions. And you have. And I similarly have the right to dismiss them contemptuously when they are apologias for a Government with no principle. And I have.
But the Government have not "listened". Gordon does not "feel your pain". He instead fears he might get some pain from a kicking in Crewe, and that is all that matters to him.
So, OK, a round of applause to him for reversing an unpopular policy. And three boos for bringing it in in the first place. They might have been better off listening to public opinion back then.
Frank Field has obviously been got at by the whips, and I feel sorry for him. He was quite right to make his campaign personal, and I imagine he is still very p----d off that those on £7,500 remain £32 worse off.
As for the irrelevant anonymity point, if I put some pseudonym to the post does it make the points somehow more valid?. If it make you feel better, why not call me - say - Adlestrop Rhubarb-Trombone? There, now I really *must* have defeated you in blog argument.
"I wouldn't piss on a Tory if they were on fire!" N.Campbell 5am outside Conservative Central Office, 8 June 2001
Oh dear, Michael. It looks like I touched a raw nerve there. Just to be clear, by "foreigners" I mean anyone not entitled to a British passport. Yes, there are exceptions - most notably those who have served in our armed forces but who are not British.
As a lecturer you're not likely to have to compete with cheap immigrant labour for a job. Unfortunately not everyone is in such a happy position. But do you not think that it is absurd to import foreign workers as a quick fix instead of taking the time and trouble getting British people into work?
It's Government propaganda to suggest that immigrants are prepared to do the jobs that British people won't do. The simple fact is that British people cannot afford to do the lowest paid jobs beause they have more outgoings than an immigrant who is prepared to live rough or in a tent or 20 to a house.
In many cases foreign workers are men who either do not have dependants or whose dependants are back home where the cost of living is much lower. In many cases immigrant workers are paid cash in hand which makes them cheaper to employ.
How can an unskilled British worker compete at such a disadvantage?
Clearly, if we can get the unemployed off benefits and into work then they would no longer be a financial burden on the state. Not only that, but a family where at least one parent is in work is less likely to spawn the sort of social problems typified by the recent Shannon Matthews case.
Regarding foreign prisoners and criminals, why would we want to keep them here at our expense when we already have enough home-grown ones? Why should we look after another country's garbage for them?
Here are yet more pieces of foreign rubbish that we are expected to house and feed for the next 30 years. The estimated cost to the British taxpayer? £6 million.
Now, how many unemployed British people could we train to do useful jobs with that kind of money?
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