The return of George Osborne
George Osborne, the former Tory Chancellor, and architect of austerity, is back as an advisor to Jeremy Hunt.
Osborne quit as an MP after falling out with Theresa May. He subsequently became Editor of the Evening Standard, picked up various roles in the City which involved doing not much for lots of money. Latterly he also fronts up the British Museum.
Osborne is an historian and heir to a wallpaper business and has no particular qualifications in respect of running the economy. His 2012 Budget for example was a disaster. He still claims that after the 2008 financial crash there was no alternative to his austerity policies. No alternative that is if the policy was to promote the wealth of the rich by bashing the poor.
Commentators seem to think that while Hunt may be inclined to Austerity 2 history won’t be able to repeat itself quite in the same way. Rather as a piece in the current London Review of Books points out Osborne’s talent is not really in economics but in political manoeuvres. His ability to find measures which the opposition struggle to deal with is his strength, and with an opponent like Keir Starmer that could prove very useful.
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