Osborne’s milestone article

George Osborne’s article today is a breakthrough in the public debate about cuts. I argued in the NotW yesterday that, so far, no party is telling the whole truth because the Tories have been using phrases like “spending restraint,” which is hardly commensurate with the cuts in prospect. That point is now out of date. As Osborne puts it:

“Even we – like Labour politicians – have fought shy of using the “c” word” – cuts. We’ve all been tip-toeing around one of those discredited Gordon Brown dividing lines for too long. The real dividing line is not ‘cuts versus investment’ but honesty versus dishonesty.”

This is what we have been calling for here at Coffee House. Osborne goes one better: that extract I just quoted is implicit recognition that the Conservatives have been worrying for too long about what Gordon Brown might say.