George Osborne’s speech to the Tory spring conference today showed the classic left-right way in which he wants to frame the political debate about the economy ahead of the Budget on the 23rd of March. In a move straight out of the election-winning centre-right playbook of the 80s, he attacked Balls and Miliband as “Two left-wing politicians who don’t understand anyone who wants to get up and get on, anyone who want a better life for their family, anyone who want to create wealth, and start a business, and create jobs, and leave something to their children.” He tried to portray the Conservatives as the antithesis of this, as the party on the side of those “who work hard, who save, who want to provide for their family without depending on the state for everything.”
There was a small preview of what is going to be in the Budget, a promise to do what he can—which is actually rather a lot as tax makes up most of the price—on the cost of petrol and to tackle “the planning delays, the new regulations, the bureaucracy and the costs that hold business back and stop jobs being created.” Certainly, with world oil prices rocketing, the Budget will need to do more than was initially thought necessary to get growth going again.
Interestingly, Osborne also moved to take credit for the low interest rates which are providing a continued monetary stimulus to the economy. He argued that the reason Britain has interest rates similar to France and Germany when it has a budget deficit greater than Spain or Portugal is because of the credibility of his deficit reduction plan. As he put it, “That is the boost we have provided to our economy.”
One other thing worth noting from the speech was Osborne’s re-iteration of his long-standing neo—conservative, or more accurately liberal, foreign policy beliefs. He declared that people in the Middle East “want what we want. Freedom” and that “Democracy and stability are not alternatives – they are indivisible.” In the Cabinet divide on this issue, it is quite clear what side Osborne is on.
Comments