A class apart?

Rex Burr

I agree.
My first thought, 'The Tories still don't get it'.

AR

I don't get why you and Fraser are fans of Osborne. He might be a useful tactician and he almost certainly has been instrumental as an adviser to Cameron. But he is, undeniably, woefully under qualified to be Chancellor.

william

it seems that these photos,Of toffs dressed like total pricks..Contain a large part of the torie power base.a CLUB?is this the real reason that David Davies left hes position.Wrong school did not fit in?

mac

Matthew d'A: "Nobody wants to be governed by a clique of rich kids at war with one another".

True, but the Rothschilds and their like play their part in controlling (I deliberately avoid the word 'governing', which you used) us irrespective of which party has a parliamentary majority. Please, let's hear about how similarly cosy Blair, Mandelson and Brown are with these manipulators too.

You are right that the Labour spinners will continue to probe every angle to make the 'toff' jibes stick. Concentrating the key Tory message-delivery in the hands of Cameron and Osborne presents an open goal. Let's hear more from the likes of Davis and Hague.

The frightening alternative is prolonged rule by Labour's idiot schoolboys and ideologue student-types (the Milibands, Balls, Burnham etc) or the shrill harpies (Harman, Cooper etc) repeating their mantra of 'ee-kwali-tee, ee-kwali-tee' and insisting on "investing" ever more taxpayers money on self-defeating social engineering schemes designed to bring about the 1950s East German utopia they cherish.

mac

william - that you again, DES?

anthony a

I don't warm to Osbourne - it's not a class thing but I have an impression of him as the swotty little boy in school who was clever, but knew it, and was quite arrogant and patronising to his classmates...
Whereas the other "toffs" in the shadow cabinet seem normal - it's just him.

Andrew Simms

This only highlights the need to bring forward more working class and northern voices for the Conservative Party. Step forward Eric Pickles, your party needs you.

C Powell

Oh for heaven's sake: it's Labour which has been sucking up to the rich and infamous for the last decade. What on earth was Mandelson doing with a dodgy oligarch? He was in power after all - and is now in the Cabinet - and has yet to answer fully. So let's put the pressure on him to reveal fully all his links with these individuals and none of this nonsense about his private life. If GB wants to ask for an investigation into Osborne - who foolish as he may have been has not done anything wrong - let the Tories ask - LOUDLY - for a clear answer on Mandelson's links, on Jowell giving dodgy answers about the Ecclestone donation, on David Abrahams, on Harman's dodgy donations, on Labour's funding, on the Smith Institute - which was found to break charity laws etc.... There is plenty of Labour sleaze for the Tories to get stuck into.

As for class, this may be an issue. But what bothers me more is that it is clear that Brown views the economic mess we're in as a wonderful opportunity for him to save his job - and stuff the voters - and that Mandy was brought back to save his skin - not to save the economy or help the voters. This is what the Tories should be saying at every possible opportunity. Labour are playing games for their own advantage with the very real fears which voters have about whether they'll have a job, whether their savings will be obliterated by inflation, how they're going to pay the bills, what future their children fact etc... We need David and others - I favour David Davis - to make these points and to make much much more of what the outgoing DPP said yesterday about Labour's assault on civil liberties, a far more important story than Osborne's holiday plans.

carol42

All this has done is remind me of the return of Mandy and Campbell. This scares me more than anything Osborne may or may not have done which compared to the sheer corruption of Labour is insignificant. What happened to all those investigations anyway, Peter Hain etc.? I would vote for the devil to get this lot out, they have ruined our country in every way and we may never recover.

Brassed off

Question time, I was so bored, no one is hitting the mark, Brown has forgotten who caused the problems - how convenient.
We are going into a serial decline, come on lets see Brown and his friends draw in their horns and tighten their belts and make sacrifices - it is called governing by example,now there is a rare thing

Margaret

What exactly is Osborne for? Vince Cable has danced rings around him in the, hopefully, current financial crisis but boy George has hardly raised his head. Maybe he should spend a little time talking to the electorate instead of potential donors to the club.

Kram Ekosum

Yes, Osborne is only a boy! Good grief have you guys only just noticed! Where have you all been for the last three years? Bunch of posh people pushing money around, is that new? What has New Labour been doing for 14 years? Nothing is likely to change significantly other than we may have government ministers who actually know what the Libor or an investment bank is! Then maybe HMG might know what the banking system does?

Rhoda Klapp

HMG, or the UK parliament, didn't make up the banking rules that caused the recent unpleasantness, nor can they change the rules unilaterally. They are forced to pretend that they are in charge, but really they are irrelevant. They have not even managed to call for a proper enquiry into what happended, nor will they. Our parliament now only exists to provide PMQ theatre for Today and Newsnight, and indeed Coffee House. Complete waste of time. I can't do anything about it, but political journalists could, by refusing to participate in the farce. Except they have their roles too, and cannot face the truth.
Stand up, Spectator Hacks! No? I didn't think so.

Kram Ekosum

Thankyou C Powell. Sadly most people are salivating over this Mandleson inspired nonsense. Lord Mandy has stuck the revenge knife in. What about the millions on incapacity benefit, the negative equity, rising inflation, the trillion pounds of public+private debt? What about the wasted billions on failed IT, the fallen soldiers, falling health status, rising knife crime? Ah well, yada yada yada........

Roy Simpson

In my view, only Ken Clarke on the Conservative benches has the stature, knowledge and experience to take on - and consistently get the better of - Brown and Vince Cable. If that were not possible, my second choice would be Davis Davis.

Both Clarke and Davis have too much talent going to waste on the back benches.

anne allan

I'm afraid George Osborne's lack of judgement only confirms that he is out of his depth. Yes, he may be 'clever', but he's not intelligent. To visit a dodgy Russian billionaire's yacht once is pushing your luck - but 4 times?
If he is a clever as is made out, he must have known that Mandelson & Campbell were looking for any whiff of 'Tory' sleaze and boy, did he fall into the trap.
The roles of both Rothschild and Mandelson (especially as at the time of his 'stay' on the Queen K, he was the EU Trade Commissioner) need a thorough investigation; why the close friendship with someone so murky? But since, I suspect, any inquiry would be conducted by the likes of Lord Hutton, we know the outcome already.
With Labour, we expect all these shenanigans - I had hoped the Conservatives knew better.
Stick Georgie boy somewhere in Central Office where he can play to his heart's content and impress the Jemimas and Ruperts with his cleverness; apart from his IHT moment over a year ago, he's been useless as Shadow Chancellor, particularly over the last few weeks when he's made a Trappist monk appear positively chatty.
Still, I'm pleased that the Telegraph leader writer and I think alike - we've both used the word 'twerp'.

David Lindsay

The company through which Oleg Deripaska was planning to funnel his donation to the Tories was Leyland Daf. Which he owns.

That company used to be called British Leyland. And you used to own it.

Whether against sharp practice, or in defence of national sovereignty, wasn't privatisation great, eh, Maggie? And Tony? And Gordon?

gerry

what do you lot of tories expect from capitalism. Money has no friends, you either have it or you don't. Like intelligence, some of us have it some of us don't, from a poor boy.

hadrian

As I have just written in another Coffee House thread, this Bullingdon Club is precisely what turns ones stomach- drunken, loud, wastrel spoiled brats who seemingly revel in such boorish behaviour. There are many Tories out there who believe public servants should be absolutely above reproach and of the highest moral rectitude- true 'old values', not the money grabbing, grubbing scoundrels lacking all principle or sense of service to country. Hopelessly old fashioned, maybe, derided by many in our largely depraved and cynical society, but there are those of us who still like old fashioned puritanism. It made us great as a nation and we'd like to think it is largely best preserved through the Tory tradition; nothing wrong with capital and wealth( every society needs it, none can avoid it) , it's just what we do with it that counts.

Sharon

Mr Osborne must understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch. In future he should take a family holiday in an obscure place away from millionaires and oligarchs or Lords of the manor. That is the way to the top, not schmoozing with the wealthy and the famous. He is a clever man, but maybe a bit naive, where his friends and those he partied with are not. Maybe he has learned his lesson and will make it to be chancellor and get this country back on its feet after 12 odd years with Gordon Brown redistributing the wealth and creating a society of service workers supported by the few who actually create wealth.

Charlie

The problem is that Osborne and Cameron have done nothing of significance since coming down from university. If one reads the obituaries what is amazing are the many acts of leadership and selfless behaviour of many people during WW1 and 2, from both poor and wealthy backgrounds at a very young age. I have heard on more than occasion when someone was faced by questionable behaviour " I did not fight the war for this". In the 18 and 19 centuries many of the great engineers were in the 20s and 30s. Cameron and Osborne have lived in a comfortable coccoon and have never had their mettle tested- that is the problem; not thir birth.

cuffleyburgers

Time for a reshuffle, Osborne take a breather, Ken Clarke to come in as shadow chancellor, with strict instructions not to mention the Euro.

This has been a welcome wake up call for the Tories, reminding them that Mandelson is an evil scheming son of a bitch, and they have to raise their game.

In some ways this could all prove to work in their favour as Brown has unquestionably consolidated his position, so the likelihood has to be that their fall will be that much more precipitous, more painful and more permanent as a result.

Huw Thornton

Great article, Matthew.

What gives this whole story legs is not just political machinations, accusations of chicanery etc, but rather a horrified fascination about the world of the super rich.

It's like a kind of Great Gatsby unfolding before our eyes.

Given that the TV series "Dynasty" ran for years, I think that this story, and future variants of it will continue for some time to come.

This cannot be good for Osborne's involvement at a high level, or indeed Cameron's leadership.

........but we really need them both. The only thing that I could suggest is encouragement of more demotic voices in the Shadow Cabinet as a counter-balance.