Let's be honest - could we really bear to have this man as our next chancellor?

carolt

Absolutely hilarious:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/21/george-osborne-ken-clarke

"Call off the search – George Osborne lives! Given he had been entirely absent from public view for a week, the logical assumption was either that the Tory party had covered up the shadow chancellor's death in a bizarre croquet accident, or that he had been vanished somewhere to avoid repelling the voters.

Considering that Osborne himself is coordinating the election campaign, the latter would have indicated an almost admirable self-awareness – so do imagine the thrill when he called a press conference this morning, acting as though nothing had happened. It was like Bobby Ewing coming out of the shower and saying: "Morning, Pam. Let's talk about these unemployment figures."
...
At least we had Ken, who declines to spew infantile catchphrases like "we're all in this together", but fell back rather predictably on one of those letters against the national insurance rise, in this case signed by 1,100 small business owners. Alas, this is an election in which both Labour and Conservative economic teams seem to have assumed that no one could possibly believe a word they say, so they have contracted out the business of justifying their policies.

Thus the public is constantly referred to a letter in the Times from 100 moguls, or a letter in the Telegraph from 100 economists, or a letter to David Cameron signed by 50 Asian businessmen. If only such a posse could be got up to pen a simple missive – "Dear politicians, do your own bloody legwork, love from some shopkeepers" – perhaps we'd be free of this increasingly tedious device.

In the meantime, Osborne seemed content to travel in Clarke's slipstream, declaring: "I'm sitting next to someone who speaks with enormous knowledge and experience on these issues." This had the effect of draping Ken in an invisible "I'm with stupid" T-shirt." :rotfl:

tessie_bear

i saw osbourne on earlier....what the hell has he done to his hair...it looks awful...worse than usual

grubby23

Everyone and everything is better than Darling & Brown in power.

tartanterra

carolt wrote: »

Absolutely hilarious:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/21/george-osborne-ken-clarke

"Call off the search – George Osborne lives! Given he had been entirely absent from public view for a week, the logical assumption was either that the Tory party had covered up the shadow chancellor's death in a bizarre croquet accident, or that he had been vanished somewhere to avoid repelling the voters.

Considering that Osborne himself is coordinating the election campaign, the latter would have indicated an almost admirable self-awareness – so do imagine the thrill when he called a press conference this morning, acting as though nothing had happened. It was like Bobby Ewing coming out of the shower and saying: "Morning, Pam. Let's talk about these unemployment figures."
...
At least we had Ken, who declines to spew infantile catchphrases like "we're all in this together", but fell back rather predictably on one of those letters against the national insurance rise, in this case signed by 1,100 small business owners. Alas, this is an election in which both Labour and Conservative economic teams seem to have assumed that no one could possibly believe a word they say, so they have contracted out the business of justifying their policies.

Thus the public is constantly referred to a letter in the Times from 100 moguls, or a letter in the Telegraph from 100 economists, or a letter to David Cameron signed by 50 Asian businessmen. If only such a posse could be got up to pen a simple missive – "Dear politicians, do your own bloody legwork, love from some shopkeepers" – perhaps we'd be free of this increasingly tedious device.

In the meantime, Osborne seemed content to travel in Clarke's slipstream, declaring: "I'm sitting next to someone who speaks with enormous knowledge and experience on these issues." This had the effect of draping Ken in an invisible "I'm with stupid" T-shirt." :rotfl:

Bang on the money. (And very funny too!)

I won't be voting for any of the main parties, as I am disgusted with them all after recent events.
However your right, Osborne appears to be as plausible as an MP's expenses claim.

lostinrates

I dunno, after all how long did we stand Blair for?

sjaypink

Heard... whatever his name is... the lib dem leader... (:D Clegg)... on radio 1 today, sounded ever more confident- some might say passionate- I was tempted to go for aggressive :cool:. I remember old tony got aggressive like that at times (WMD rings a bell)- think they are seemingly ever more similar. I hope not.

Anyway, back to the torys, I haven't heard much on them full stop. Although confess my choice of media stretches as far as R1, and the odd snatched few moments of C4 news or this week

Emy1501

Watched a debate on the BBC with the 3 wanabe chancellors. They were all pretty poor and the Vince Cable was torn apart to be honest. They all came across as bad as each other with AD probably the best of a bad bunch.

The honesty card from Vince was shown up again in that he could not cost the 30b black whole even though he promises that the Lib Dems have a fully costed proposal to get us back on track. Had to admit that poster regarding VAT and the Tories was misleading as they had not ruled out a rise in VAT themselves. Was pointed out to him that he agreed on merger of Lloyds/HBOS and backed tracked, that he called QE the school of Robert Mugabe economics and that he had called for public spending not to be increased back in 2008

kabayiri

I remember listening to Vince C on a podcast. It was quite alarming. He gave direct answers to the bank bailouts and the level of legal tax avoidance being implemented by big UK companies (which incidentally was truly alarming numbers).

Even if he doesn't know all the answers he gets credit for being direct from me. I wouldn't trust anything Mandy,Brown,Darling told me; and probably similar for quite a lot of the Tories.

I'm fed up of spin masters and career bred politicians. It's about time we get what we pay for; something better.

StevieJ

kabayiri wrote: »

I remember listening to Vince C on a podcast. It was quite alarming. He gave direct answers to the bank bailouts and the level of legal tax avoidance being implemented by big UK companies (which incidentally was truly alarming numbers).

Even if he doesn't know all the answers he gets credit for being direct from me. I wouldn't trust anything Mandy,Brown,Darling told me; and probably similar for quite a lot of the Tories.

I'm fed up of spin masters and career bred politicians. It's about time we get what we pay for; something better.

A bit harsh on Darling, considering he has had the hounds of hell unleashed on him for telling the truth

Doctor_Gloom

carolt wrote: »

Absolutely hilarious:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/apr/21/george-osborne-ken-clarke

"Call off the search – George Osborne lives! Given he had been entirely absent from public view for a week, the logical assumption was either that the Tory party had covered up the shadow chancellor's death in a bizarre croquet accident, or that he had been vanished somewhere to avoid repelling the voters.


:rotfl:

Carol, It's not just Boy George. There's also the frightening prospect of Chris Grayling, another absolute lightweight, as Home Secretary . :eek:

carolt

I am pleased to say I know nothing whatsoever about him, other than the name. Care to share why we should be worried?