A chancellor who shrinks the state will end up shrinking his popularity
by William Keegan from on (#FFCH)
The rhetoric about 'scroungers' plays well, but the size of Osborne's assault on services is so large that he may end up facing a widespread public backlash
The Conservatives are riding high at the moment and Labour are laid flat on the floor. Seldom has a serving chancellor of the exchequer appeared as triumphalist as George Osborne - although memories are evoked of the high points in my old friend Nigel Lawson's chancellorship during the boom of 1988.
However: history demonstrates that Labour is capable of coming back from the dead - eventually. And to my mind, with his naked experiment in social engineering and drastically reducing the size of the state, George Osborne could well be riding for a fall. I for one would not risk too much money backing him to become prime minister.
Let's face it. All this stuff about "one nation" and "compassionate Conservatism" is so much guff
Continue reading...