William Atkinson

Is it time to ban George Osborne?

(Credit: Getty images)

George Osborne has taken a break from his myriad jobs to give his thoughts on health policy. Orange juice should be taxed, and smoking banned, according to the ex-Chancellor. Doing so had been ‘too controversial’ while he was in government; those ‘anti-nanny state Conservatives’ who oppose it are ‘not worth listening to.

Leaving aside the lack of evidence about whether sugar taxes reduce calorie intake, and whether Conservative governments should impose such draconian measures, Osborne’s intervention is oddly timed. Negotiations with Greece on the Elgin Marbles’ future are ongoing; one would have thought the chairman of the British Museum has better things to be doing than opine on orange juice.

But this intervention shouldn’t surprise followers of the former MP for Tatton’s post-parliamentary career. Since he left the Commons, Osborne has not only shown an alacrity for picking up plum roles at think tanks, universities, and hedge funds, but a passion for producing inconvenient headlines for his ministerial successors.

Today’s Tories increasingly believe Osborne’s cuts were mistaken

Who can forget Osborne’s stint at the Evening Standard? Appointed with the total journalistic experience of editing a student paper, and a few gigs on the Telegraph diary in the 1990s, he used it to wage a one-man war against Theresa May’s government – supposedly with the goal of having her ‘chopped up in bags in (his) freezer’.

Once May was gone, Osborne soon lost interest in the tawdry task of being a newsman. Not because he wanted to properly devote himself to one of his other existing sinecures, but because other gigs were in the offing. But when he didn’t manage to become head of the IMF or the BBC’s chairman – second time lucky? – he settled for the British Museum. In his role there, Osborne has reportedly kept himself busy holding secret talks about returning the Elgin Marbles to Athens – from where they would almost certainly never come back.

Since the government has both a legal duty and a desire to keep the Marbles in Britain, he only succeeds in creating headaches for his fellow Tories.

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