May God protect me from my friends. That, I suggest, should be George Osborne’s reaction to Ben Brogan’s Telegraph column this morning. As best I can tell, it’s supposed to be a supportive piece, reflecting on the Chancellor’s efforts to rediscover his mojo in the aftermath of his justifiably poorly-received budget. If so, then, with friends like these…
Consider Brogan’s opening salvo:If this is true then Mr Osborne will be welcome at every poker game in the land. Only a sucker prefers long odds. As a general rule, you should only play when you have good reason to think you have the upper hand and the odds are in your favour.Optimism comes easily to George Osborne. In the face of adversity he chooses to smile with the confidence of a politician who relishes a challenge. There is something of the high-stakes poker player about the Chancellor, a keen student of the Lyndon Johnson Texas school of hard-nosed politics. He prefers long odds and a winner-takes-all throw of the dice.
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