George Osborne was Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 to 2016.
One thing I won’t miss about No. 11 Downing Street are the Christmas cards: 2,056 Christmas cards to be exact. That was the number I had to sign every year. The recipients included 87 FTSE chief executives, 209 foreign dignitaries, six EU commissioners and one shadow chancellor. They all added up, and it involved several days
I am honoured to be invited to present these awards. Thank you very much for taking me out of my unemployment. When I read the Spectator front cover on the eve of the referendum, I thought it was advice on how to vote: ‘Out – and into the world’. But it turned out to be
After just eight weeks in the wilderness, George Osborne is back – and wants to put the pressure on Theresa May to use the phrase ‘Northern Powerhouse’ and the agenda that goes with it. Here’s an edited transcript of his BBC Today Programme interview this morning with Nick Robinson. NR: We want to talk about
Today I’ve been at the Shanghai Stock Exchange – the epicentre of the volatility that spooked global markets over the summer. I deliberately chose to come here because I wanted to make sure this simple message would be heard in both our country and China: through the ups and downs, Britain and China should stick
Mr Deputy Speaker, Today, I report on a Britain that is growing, creating jobs and paying its way. We took difficult decisions in the teeth of opposition and it worked – Britain is walking tall again. Five years ago, our economy had suffered a collapse greater than almost any country. Today, I can confirm: in
To Sydney for the first of three G20 meetings in Australia this year. It’s a long way to travel, but as the formidable Treasurer, Joe Hockey, reminded the jet-lagged finance ministers and central bank governors of the world: now you all know what Australian ministers have been putting up with all these years they’ve been
Every so often American Presidents let people know that they are reading a book. When George W. Bush was seen clutching a copy of Andrew Roberts’s History of the English Speaking People, acres of newsprint appeared on this elegant apologia for neo-conservatism. Now his successor in the White House wants us to know that he
I asked Henry Kissinger recently whether he had been to see the hit play Frost/Nixon. He told me that he made it a rule never to see plays that included characters he knew in real life, which I guess must mean that he hasn’t seen much post-war political theatre. He also said that he doubted
The bookshelves of any self-respecting library used to be weighed down with the monographs of the titans of 19th-century politics. The three volumes of John Morley’s masterly Life of Gladstone would jostle for space as each new volume of Moneypenny and Buckle’s six-volume Life of Benjamin Disrael was published. Yet one Victorian politician would have
Waiting for David Cameron’s speech, which is going to be a great end to a great conference. General buzz here amongst those who were at Labour’s Conference last week is that contrast has been striking: their Conference was all very hollow, lots of election speculation covering up the lack of no real substance; while ours
Woke up to blanket coverage. Seems the speech went down well.
I’ve just been speaking to over hundred business people who have come up to Blackpool for our Corporate Day. I spoke alongside Miles Templeman, Director General of the Institute of Directors. Richard Lambert of the CBI, the British Chambers of Commerce, and Federation of Small Business were also there in force. The event was just
George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor and Tory election co-ordinator, will be contributing to Coffee House throughout conference. Here is his first entry: The first full day of conference. Morning meeting at 8am with David and the team, setting out exactly what we’ll do today. Much as I’d like to share the details, I cannot, even with you,
Visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, high on a hill overlooking Simi Valley, California and you are greeted at the door by a bronze statue of the former president dressed as a cowboy. For many on the Left in Britain that is exactly how they saw the 40th president of the United States. They should
Through all the changes of the past decades, Tiananmen Square still sums up China. I was there last week and the first thing that strikes you is its size. Like many things in China, it is the biggest of its kind in the world. China also has the largest population and the biggest army, produces
This week an unusual piece of junk mail joined the forest of pizza delivery leaflets and minicab cards on my doormat. It was a white envelope marked with six chunky coloured circles under which was written: ‘Inside: Important Information from HM Government’. I assumed the ‘important information’ would be that I had been specially selected
George Osborne says that on the basis of the ‘keys’ forecasting system George W. Bush will be President next year and Michael Howard will be in No. 10 In the next few months George Bush and John Kerry are going to spend more than $1 billion trying to win the presidential election, while everyone else
Welcome to CNN’s Presidential Election Night Special. We’re just getting the results in live from the 51st State. We can confirm that the Great State of Great Britain has voted overwhelmingly for Senator John Kerry. This is a big blow for George W. Bush, and a humiliation for Governor Blair, who viewers will remember strongly
American Dynastyby Kevin PhillipsPenguin/Allen Lane, £18.99, pp. 397, ISBN 071399746X The prosperous Floridan seaside resort of Sarasota should be natural Bush country. Home to golf courses, marinas and retirement condos, the town’s Republican Congress- woman Katherine Harris shot to fame in the 2000 presidential election as the official appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to make
Here’s a good rule of thumb: never read a book by a politician running for office. Whether it is George W. Bush’s folksy evangelism in A Charge to Keep or the then Opposition Leader Tony Blair’s toe-curdlingly awful New Britain: My Vision of a Young Country, they are all the same. Safe, saccharine, ghost-written by