George osborne

The Spectator’s Notes | 23 February 2017

Last month, at Policy Exchange, I met a charming, quiet American general called H.R. McMaster. In conversation, I was struck by his zeal for Nato and his concern wherever the alliance is now weakest, as in Turkey. In his speech to the thinktank, he said clearly that Russia and China are attempting to ‘collapse’ the post-1945 and post-Cold War ‘political, economic and security order’, with unconventional forces hiding behind conventional ones, subversion, disinformation, propaganda, economic actions and ‘proxies’ such as organised crime networks. The situation had echoes of 1914, and the risk of a great-power war was the highest for 70 years. He emphasised that, ‘despite public comments by our

George Osborne is to blame for the business rates fiasco

It is almost always unwise to postpone the introduction of a big, scheduled tax change, but often tempting at the time. George Osborne, when Chancellor of the Exchequer in the coalition government, postponed the revaluation of business rates, when it was due two years ago, for obvious political reasons. So now it is happening, and it hurts worse than it would have then. The current rates are based on the rental value of business properties in 2010. Since then, the scene is transformed. The internet has called the whole concept of the ordinary, physical shop into question. Values have vastly altered and the political problem – as with the poll tax

The Bank of England is (slowly) overcoming its Brexophobia

It has been clear for some time that the pre-referendum warnings made by Bank of England governor Mark Carney were wide of the mark. Last May, he said that a vote for Brexit would pose an ‘immediate and significant threat’ to the UK economy, increasing unemployment, hitting growth, possibly to the point of recession. Today, however, the bank effectively admits that it was still being far too gloomy about the economy even last November. It upgraded its forecast for economic growth in 2017 from 1.4 per cent (as announced in the Autumn statement) to two per cent – saying that consumer spending has been stronger than expected and that the

From Socrates to Osborne

Ex-chancellor George Osborne is planning a book to be titled The Age of Unreason. He says that ‘it will be my attempt to understand why populist nationalism is on the rise in our western democracies’. An Athenian would have been most surprised by that title’s implications. If the ancient Greeks are famous for anything, it is for the invention of western ‘philosophy’. By that is usually meant the attempt to explain the world in humanly intelligible terms, i.e. by the exclusive use of reason and evidence, without calling in aid the supernatural. This sort of thinking, begun by eastern Greeks in the 7th century BC, reached something of an apogee

My time in the ‘Naughty Corner’

An unexpected silver lining to leaving government is that I have a much nicer parliamentary office. The Chancellor’s traditional room in the House of Commons is rather dank and gloomy, with peeling ceiling plaster. Despite repeated efforts by pest control, it is overrun with moths. As a backbencher, my new office is, by contrast, a large, bright room overlooking the Thames and the London Eye. The office used to belong to David Davis, who was — rather reluctantly, I understand — forced to vacate it on entering government. So far I have resisted the jovial advice from various fellow MPs to have my new room swept to make sure it

My run-in with Ivanka Trump

I’ve never met Donald Trump, but I have come across his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared. I met them this summer at a media conference in Aspen organised by the great US network anchor and renaissance man Charlie Rose. It’s fair to say the event was not stuffed with Trump supporters, and there were a few crass barbs aimed at Ivanka. But she and her husband handled it all with great dignity. On the first night, I was heading up to my hotel room when I saw the two of them having a drink at the bar alone, and they asked me to join them. They were a serious, intelligent

By focusing on Assad’s grim regime, MPs are ignoring a greater evil

Well, is it our fault? George Osborne has repeated his claim, which he has made already, that the situation in Aleppo did not ‘come out of a vacuum’ but was due to a ‘vacuum of Western and British leadership’. Specifically he was taking issue with the Commons’ vote three years ago not to back airstrikes on the Assad regime on account of its use of chemical weapons – you know, Barack Obama’s red line issue. There’s a lot of this kind of thing around. The Commons yesterday was in full blown tearful mode yesterday in the debate on Aleppo called by Andrew Mitchell in the course of which George emerged

Isabel Hardman

On Syria, it is easier for MPs to reflect on their past mistakes than confront the present

Whose fault is the bloodshed in Aleppo? Yesterday the House of Commons discussed this at some length in an emergency debate on the onslaught by Syrian and Russian planes on the city. One of the most powerful speeches came from George Osborne who spoke about the impact that the 2013 Commons vote had on Syria and on American politics. It is worth reading in full. ‘Of course, once this House of Commons took its decision, I believe it did have an impact on American politics,’ he told MPs. ‘We cannot have it both ways – we cannot debate issues such as Syria and then think that our decisions have no

George Osborne’s stamp duty hike is starting to bite the Treasury

The existence of the Laffer Curve can be proved by thought-experiment alone. If a government levies an income tax rate of 0 per cent it will raise zero revenue. If it levies a rate of 100 per cent it will also raise zero revenue, as no-one will bother to earn any money – or at least declare any earnings. Somewhere between those extremes lies an optimum point at which the tax-take reaches a maximum value. Trouble is, no-one really knows where the peak of the Laffer Curve lies for income tax, or for any other tax for that matter. George Osborne asserted that – at least for income tax in

Fraser Nelson

‘I get so frustrated with Whitehall’

The Prime Minister’s office is a small, unimpressive room in 10 Downing Street with miserable views and unexceptional furniture. Since moving in, Theresa May has spruced it up — but only a little. There is now a large glass meeting table; her predecessor preferred to chat on the sofas. She has also delved into the government art collection to retrieve two pictures of Oxford, where she honed her interest in politics and met Philip, her husband. She has also picked a painting of an English country church (she is of course a vicar’s daughter), and that’s about it. It’s a place for work and — very occasionally — interviews. We

Labour and the Tories carry on cross-dressing at Treasury questions

In last week’s Autumn statement, Philip Hammond appeared to channel his inner Ed Miliband as he banned letting fees and went on a borrowing splurge. Today at Treasury questions, it was Labour’s turn to cross-dress. After John McDonnell sparked much laughter from Tory benches by referring to Mark Field’s chief of staff — behind yesterday’s so-called Brexit leak — as a senior government official, his shadow chief secretary went on to press Hammond to make a guarantee — as Labour are — that he would keep the triple lock throughout the next parliament. While the pension triple lock — introduced by the coalition — was something George Osborne championed throughout his tenure as

Philip Hammond delivers a politically placid autumn statement

Philip Hammond started his autumn statement to the House of Commons by saying his style would be rather different to George Osborne’s. Yet the Chancellor still had a rabbit to pull out of his hat at the end — albeit one designed to show he wasn’t a political meddler like previous holders of his job by saying there would no longer be two economic statements involving changes to fiscal policy ‘for the sake of it’ — and even continued Osborne’s practice of announcing money to restore a historic building. While his statement still had a clear political message about helping the ‘Jams’, telling the Commons that ‘the announcements I have

Will Philip Hammond be arrested after the Autumn Statement?

So, austerity is to end. Or that is what the briefings for Wednesday’s Autumn Statement seem to indicate: Philip Hammond will loosen the purse strings, relax his fiscal targets and give the economy a big public spending-induced buzz – if indeed buzz is quite the right word for what happens when governments spend money. There is just one problem with what Hammond appears to be proposing. No, not that it almost certainly won’t be enough to please Ed Balls, Yanis Varoufakis, the unions, the Guardian and everyone else on the left who accused George Osborne of trashing the economy by making ‘cuts’ – or, more accurately, by refusing to grow

George Osborne turns his attention to the special relationship

Although George Osborne is now a backbencher, the former Chancellor still harbours leadership ambitions. On that note, it’s not gone unnoticed that since his sacking, Osborne has been doing his bit to keep close ties with America — joining Tina Brown for a Manhattan soiree to show that — despite the Leave vote — there was still hope for Britain and the US. Now he’s back again. Steerpike has been passed a photo of Osborne strolling in San Francisco. When asked what he was doing across the pond, he said he was there for the election. Given that Osborne has pledged his support for Hillary Clinton — suggesting Trump was ‘odd’

George Osborne cashes in on Brexit

Things are looking up for George Osborne. Not only have bookies slashed his odds of making a political comeback, the former Chancellor is adapting nicely to life on the backbench. According to the latest register of interests, Osborne has managed to trouser almost £100,000 from giving just three speeches across the pond. So, what did he talk about for the fee? At the SIFMA event, he is reported to have told attendees that when the UK makes decisions like Brexit ‘that make us more remote from our European partners, we will pay a price for that’. He also is reported to have ‘grieved deeply about the impact on the economy of

George Osborne keeps his hat on

Given the number of people Theresa May managed to offend at last night’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards, the Prime Minister’s decision to accept her gong from George Osborne wearing the former chancellor’s hard hat and high-vis jacket was pretty low-ranking. Nevertheless not one to be easily outdone, George Osborne has hit back today. The MP for Tatton has shared a photo of him in his infamous attire, with the caption ‘back with its rightful owner’. Back with its rightful owner … pic.twitter.com/cx5NtbVXOH — George Osborne (@George_Osborne) November 3, 2016 However, Osborne doesn’t have much to worry about — Mr S can’t see May returning to the attire anytime soon.

Steerpike

Parliamentarian of the Year 2016, in pictures

This year’s Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards, sponsored by Benenden, saw Theresa May reunited with her former Cabinet colleague George Osborne — and Boris Johnson declare that Brexit will be a Titanic success. Here are a selection of photos from the event, courtesy of Alan Davidson:  

Full text: George Osborne’s speech at the Spectator Parliamentarian awards

I am honoured to be invited to present these awards. Thank you very much for taking me out of my unemployment. When I read the Spectator front cover on the eve of the referendum, I thought it was advice on how to vote: ‘Out – and into the world’. But it turned out to be career advice to me. And of course, normally these annual awards are presented by last year’s winner of ‘Politician of the year’, David Cameron. And it’s another example of where he’s disappeared and left me holding the baby. I wanted to support the Spectator magazine – a brilliant weekly compendium on the arts, on politics,

Full text: Theresa May’s ‘Politician of the year’ acceptance speech

Oh come on, we’re all builders now. Thank you very much indeed and it’s a great pleasure to receive this award. I am particularly pleased to receive the award from George, because I gather when it came to the voting it actually got very tight and I owe it to George – he just nudged me over the line because he told all the other members of the jury that if they didn’t vote for me, the economy would collapse and world war three would start. I feel I just have to make a comment or an intervention on a previous speech: Boris, the dog was put down, when it’s

Theresa May eviscerates Craig Oliver

This time last year, George Osborne was the Chancellor of the Exchequer and tipped to be the next Prime Minister. One year on and — in the aftermath of the Brexit result — the MP for Tatton is now a backbencher. Happily, Osborne had a chance to reunite with his old Cabinet friends, aka ‘besties’ — as the host of the Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year awards. Like or loathe Osborne, his speech was sensational. Following a turbulent year in politics, tonight’s gongs made for some interesting acceptance speeches. While Sadiq Khan paid tribute to his mayoral rival Zac Goldsmith for helping him to achieve his large mandate, Boris Johnson