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The Guardian view on George Osborne: a too-clever-by-half chancellor The Guardian view on George Osborne: a too-clever-by-half chancellor
(about 14 hours later)
Everything in the world, it is said, is about sex except for sex itself. And everything in a George Osborne speech means something all right, it’s just that it’s never the thing the chancellor is actually talking about.Everything in the world, it is said, is about sex except for sex itself. And everything in a George Osborne speech means something all right, it’s just that it’s never the thing the chancellor is actually talking about.
There were, to be fair, some parts of his turn at the Conservative conference on Monday that it didn’t take a cryptologist to decode. Being introduced by Andrea Jenkyns, the new MP for Morley and Outwood, simply reminded people of how Mr Osborne had routed her predecessor, Ed Balls, without him brazenly spelling this out. His veneration of “my friend, our prime minister: David Cameron” was a pitch to move next door and pick up where the PM leaves off. All this was routine political tact; it was when he turned to the detailed policy stuff that the audience was led into a hall of distorting mirrors.There were, to be fair, some parts of his turn at the Conservative conference on Monday that it didn’t take a cryptologist to decode. Being introduced by Andrea Jenkyns, the new MP for Morley and Outwood, simply reminded people of how Mr Osborne had routed her predecessor, Ed Balls, without him brazenly spelling this out. His veneration of “my friend, our prime minister: David Cameron” was a pitch to move next door and pick up where the PM leaves off. All this was routine political tact; it was when he turned to the detailed policy stuff that the audience was led into a hall of distorting mirrors.
Prosperity, he said, would be founded upon budget surpluses, with an additional pledge – that “every penny we raise” from selling Lloyds shares “will be used to pay off our debts” – thrown in to reaffirm the message of rectitude. One might accept or dispute his obsession with prudence, but one surely cannot square it with his simultaneous boast that those same Lloyds shares “will be offered at a discount”. Selling assets off on the cheap offers free money to a minority with cash to spare at the expense of taxpayers in general, and indeed of the national debt.Prosperity, he said, would be founded upon budget surpluses, with an additional pledge – that “every penny we raise” from selling Lloyds shares “will be used to pay off our debts” – thrown in to reaffirm the message of rectitude. One might accept or dispute his obsession with prudence, but one surely cannot square it with his simultaneous boast that those same Lloyds shares “will be offered at a discount”. Selling assets off on the cheap offers free money to a minority with cash to spare at the expense of taxpayers in general, and indeed of the national debt.
Similar paradoxes bedevilled all the other chief themes. “We are the builders” was repeated to the point of risking tedium in the hall. The morning papers had lent apparent credence to the pose with the signal that the former Labour cabinet minister Andrew Adonis was – as the Express put it – to “defect” to Mr Osborne’s infrastructure taskforce. In fact, Lord Adonis is to hang on to his Labour membership card, ceasing only to take the Lords party whip, the apparent price of taking up this apolitical role – so hardly a real desertion, still less a defection. Even if it had been, there is a gaping mismatch between the Osborne rhetoric about rekitting Britain’s road, rail and runways and the Osborne record of presiding over a halving of public investment, which has collapsed from 3.2% of GDP in 2009-10 to just 1.5% this year.Similar paradoxes bedevilled all the other chief themes. “We are the builders” was repeated to the point of risking tedium in the hall. The morning papers had lent apparent credence to the pose with the signal that the former Labour cabinet minister Andrew Adonis was – as the Express put it – to “defect” to Mr Osborne’s infrastructure taskforce. In fact, Lord Adonis is to hang on to his Labour membership card, ceasing only to take the Lords party whip, the apparent price of taking up this apolitical role – so hardly a real desertion, still less a defection. Even if it had been, there is a gaping mismatch between the Osborne rhetoric about rekitting Britain’s road, rail and runways and the Osborne record of presiding over a halving of public investment, which has collapsed from 3.2% of GDP in 2009-10 to just 1.5% this year.
To observe these inconsistencies is not to dismiss everything the chancellor had to say. Britain’s grip on what the French call grands projets is often feeble, so an infrastructure commission has much to commend it, as does setting local government pension funds to work on financing new public buildings and bridges. There was some substance, too, in the big announcement on local taxes. The old straitjacket on business rates, which Mr Osborne candidly admitted was a past Tory error, is to be partially released. And yet this “biggest transfer of power to our local government in living memory” was caveated in important and weird ways. To observe these inconsistencies is not to dismiss everything the chancellor had to say. Britain’s grip on what the French call grands projets is often feeble, so an infrastructure commission has much to commend it, as does setting local government pension funds to work on financing new public buildings and bridges. There was some substance, too, in the big announcement on local taxes. The old straitjacket on business rates, which Mr Osborne candidly admitted was a past Tory error, is to be partially released. And yet this “biggest transfer of power to our local government in living memory” was caveated in important and weird ways.
Town halls will automatically gain new tax powers only where they use them to do what Mr Osborne would like, and cut business rates. Councils who are instead interested in raising revenues for the common good face all sorts of obstacles. They must embrace the elected mayoral form of governance, which voters in most big British cities rejected in 2012. They must secure a “majority vote” among businesses in their local enterprise partnership, an unprecedented extension of the franchise from human beings to companies, from the same chancellor who went on to declare “power to the people”. Even after reshaping themselves into mayoralties and winning the backing of business ratepayers, town halls will still face an absolute cap on rises, probably set at 2p on the rate. You can have any colour of local democracy you like, as long as it’s blue.Town halls will automatically gain new tax powers only where they use them to do what Mr Osborne would like, and cut business rates. Councils who are instead interested in raising revenues for the common good face all sorts of obstacles. They must embrace the elected mayoral form of governance, which voters in most big British cities rejected in 2012. They must secure a “majority vote” among businesses in their local enterprise partnership, an unprecedented extension of the franchise from human beings to companies, from the same chancellor who went on to declare “power to the people”. Even after reshaping themselves into mayoralties and winning the backing of business ratepayers, town halls will still face an absolute cap on rises, probably set at 2p on the rate. You can have any colour of local democracy you like, as long as it’s blue.
Mr Osborne also pushed his claim to be a northerner by adoption. But, as the IPPR thinktank warned, unless the new devolution is coupled to new redistribution of resources, then poorer parts of the country will inescapably lose out to those regions with healthier tax bases. George the unlikely northerner went on to hail the Conservatives as the unlikely “only true party of labour”.Mr Osborne also pushed his claim to be a northerner by adoption. But, as the IPPR thinktank warned, unless the new devolution is coupled to new redistribution of resources, then poorer parts of the country will inescapably lose out to those regions with healthier tax bases. George the unlikely northerner went on to hail the Conservatives as the unlikely “only true party of labour”.
A clever June budget caught everyone by surprise by hiking the minimum wage at the same time as slashing tax credits. But as the months go by, as hard-hit constituents complain, and as the Institute for Fiscal Studies explains that the overall losses for the working poor will be thrice any gains in pay, even some on Mr Osborne’s own side are now wondering whether the budget conjuring was “clever” only in the pejorative sense. Mr Osborne’s conference speech confounded and surprised in all sorts of ways, but it could soon run into the same nagging question. A clever June budget caught everyone by surprise by hiking the minimum wage at the same time as slashing tax credits. But as the months go by, as hard-hit constituents complain, and as the Institute for Fiscal Studies explains that the overall losses for the working poor will be thrice any gains in pay, even some on Mr Osborne’s own side are now wondering whether the budget conjuring was “clever” only in the pejorative sense. Mr Osborne’s conference speech confounded and surprised in all sorts of ways, but it could soon run into the same nagging question.