Last Monday must have been quieter for George Osborne, a few days ahead of a play-it-safe budget. No rabbits to hide in hats, an extra mark on his report as prime minister in waiting, and Westminster insiders were even gossiping about the rumour that he was plotting an early general election.
How quickly things fall apart. Now it’s all headline quotes from senior Tory members of parliament saying Osborne is dividing society, a potential rebellion on the finance bill, and his leadership ambitions in tatters.
Anyone with a dog in the early days of this Tory civil war has their reasoning for why Osborne’s budget has flopped in such a tumultuous way and why Iain Duncan Smith has thrown a grenade at it: it is the same Tory splits on Europe, it is a lost focus on One Nation government, it is personal revenge which has been waiting for the right moment to burst into the open.
All of these are probably true to an extent, but all of them have the common trait of a chancellor who has taken too much for himself and stretched the elastic of political consensus far enough for it to hurt him when it snaps back. Osborne’s botched budget has reaffirmed one of the oldest laws in politics: every politician has an extraordinary capacity to overreach.
As some in Labour have been arguing for some years, Tory MPs are realising that Osborne’s relentless focus on the deficit, above all else, is an error. He does not see it this way: for Osborne, delivering set piece financial statements (four in the last 12 months) has been a way for him to slowly accumulate power at his desk, while promoting allies to exercise it on his behalf.
It is a reality far removed from the rhetoric Cameron and Osborne employ to suggest they have a shared modern Conservatism: that they trust the people and society’s ability to care for itself.
This rhetoric regularly proves itself to be baseless. The Big Society became a way of replacing public sector employees with volunteers. Local government has been offered limited devolution while the Treasury’s grip on its finances has tightened. Schools have been ‘freed’ while their oversight transfers from communities to the centre.
Each of these are policy areas are now in Osborne’s control. He does the devolution deals with cities, he announces school reforms, he declares what should be cut from the welfare budget; his cabinet colleagues get a quote in a press release and have to deal with it when things go wrong. It is no way to run a government – or build support for your own personal ambitions.
The warning signs that Osborne’s obsession with power have become damaging have been there for a while. The tax credits debacle last year was one. Another was a threatened Tory rebellion last month over local government cuts, staved off at the last minute by a ‘cuts relief’ package for Tory councils.
The budget last week took this brinkmanship to new levels. Duncan Smith should not be exonerated for the mess he has made of welfare reform, but his implied criticisms of the government this weekend carry some truth. Osborne’s sole purpose of getting the deficit down eclipses all other considerations except for his own political ambitions.
It is also worth pausing to remind ourselves that there’s a new ‘quiet man’ in British politics. Over the last week that role has been filled by David Cameron, whose abdication appears to have allowed Osborne to accumulate power in the way he has. He kept warring cabinet colleagues – particularly his chancellor and work and pensions secretary – together during the last parliament and the turmoil of the last week surely stems in part from his early resignation.
Now the men who worked in politics under Thatcher and Major are re-learning what happens to Tory politicians who over-reach without taking their party with them: things fall apart.
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Alex White is a member of Progress
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It remains to be seen if Labour will be able to benefit from this – it looks like we are naval gazing and failing to grasp political opportunities. If we had a credible dynamic leader they would be able to jump into action and present ourselves as the alternative to political infighting. (And its not an anti-corbyn rant: I dont think any of the leadership candidates would have put Labour in any better a position)
Jeremy gave an excellent speech in reply to the Budget!!! As to the Front Bench, he has such a small pool of “potentially loyal” MPs [and, therefore, extremely limited talent/experience, save for one or two] to choose from. As to Cameron and his rich mates, they are the most hypocritical and disingenuous bunch of Career Politicians that has served in the House of Commons. It is these traits that Labour should list and build upon. Whatever one feels about Jeremy and his personal views on policy, he is decent, genuine, honest and squeaky clean. This is in total contrast to the current government and, if played and presented correctly, an election winner as many “thinking” voters are sick to death with spin and dishonesty. Having heard John Macdonald face to face at conferences, we have a Shadow Chancellor who is articulate and argues the case against austerity extremely well.
Whilst those in the Westminster Bubble are focussing upon the Conservative Soap Opera, one of the most far reaching announcements was the long term damage to Education through the conversion of ALL State schools into academies. This is ideological in that it is Privatising State Education. Although demoralisation of the teachers started under Thatcher [and continued by New Labour], the Coalition and Tory Governments have State Education in tatters. Short of teachers? You haven’t seen anything yet!!! Labour should conduct a high profile campaign against this back door Privatisation- another Osborne/Cameron policy disaster!
As a former Senior Lecturer in Teacher Training, with 26 years service, I believe I have a bit more credibility than politicians’ whose experience is limited to being a pupil/student!
Vic Parks [email protected] Several years ago Tribune published my article: “Is Gove Ignorant or Cleverly Destructive?” Both apply! Of course, Progress editorial ignores me!
I think you’ll find the Shadow Chancellor spells his surname ‘McDonnell’. Attention to detail (or lack of it) gets noticed.
It’s scary to see a lecturer in teacher training using so many unnecessary upper case letters for common nouns. It’s no wonder so many of our children are leaving school with such poor levels of literacy.
All the Westminster parties, not just one in particular, are full of career politicians. As someone once said, professional politicians make for amateur politics.
What pathetic criticisms!!! Instead of nit picking about points of grammar [and I do
not pretend to be a SL in English!!] and the mis-spelling John’s name, address my
main arguments!! Perhaps you are the type of person who would condemn a
Dyslexic sufferer?
Various sad Blairites are briefing Blairite hacks like George Eaton and Kevin Schofeld that “Corbyn woz rubbish” in the HoC this afternoon. I can only assume they didn’t see Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall, etc