Monday 10 November 2014

Just how stupid is George Osborne?

I have been reading with incredulity this morning about the hole which George Osborne has dug and then jumped into regarding the UK's EU contribution. Osborne claimed he'd halved this, through his tough negotiating stance, only for it to be revealed that it would have been laved anyway, due to the rules regarding the UK contribution.

Osborne and his rathe dopey advisers have managed to take a fantastic good news story and make themselves look like a bunch of dodgy spivs. You see the reasonfor the extra payment is because the UK economy is doing so much better than the rest of Europe. Osborne should have come out and said that the higher payment is a testament to the success of his policies. He should have castigated his UKIP critics for not understanding that the more you earn, the more tax you have to pay - a principle all of us understand. He should have used the opportunity to point out that UKIP have zero experience of even running a whelk stall, let alone a country, so they clearly are clueless about how such financial matters work.

But no. George had to revert to type and give it large. As a result he's been caught out and is now on the back foot. I'm no fan of the Coalition government, but on the subject of the economy, the figures are there for all to see. You have to wonder why the Chancellor is not shouting the story out, don't you? Well not really. The truth is that whilst the economy is growing at an unprecendented rate, the amount of money in the pockets of most of us has not gone up at all. If George shouts too loudly about how well the economy is doing, the average voter will start asking "where's our share of this new found wealth?". Sadly for most of us, the answer George has to give is quite simple. Only the mega rich, who he gave a big tax break, are actually seeing a difference in their bank account. The rest of us are simply working harder to ensure the top 1% can afford another luxury yatch or a new Rolls Royce this year. I always laugh when we hear the term "The Politics of envy". Seems to me that when the disabled are having core services cut, maybe they have a right to complain that George has facilitated a huge tax cut for the mega rich.

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