Osborne, class and competence

The Sunday Mirror and the Independent have jointly commissioned an opinion poll which finds that George Osborne is ‘too posh’ to be chancellor. This just happens to fit the prejudices of both newspapers, and I for one do not believe it. Poshness certainly obsesses Tory strategists, and Gordon Brown sometimes played the class card because he saw how much agony it caused them. But Brown’s card was not the winning trump he hoped for because the British public is not as obsessed about class as the British elite. That’s why it backfired when Labour tried a class strategy in the Crewe by-election campaign.

That by-election suggested that the average British person cares more about competence than class. This is Osborne’s present problem. His reputation has crashed since the Budget, which is still unraveling. Osborne is the only cabinet member who has no experience of work outside of politics, so isn’t as au fait with the dynamics of wealth creation as someone who has had to hire, fire and cope with regulation.