http://conservativehome.blogs.com/centreright/2009/01/dont-be-too-qui.html:
Don't be too quick to dismiss 'Red Toryism

Response in a debate at the Tory blogs:
"Being 'progressive' is to invite disaster. A phrase more suited to Liberal boarding-school headmistresses who encourage their girls to practise eurythmics on the lawn, it has, historically, never been taken seriously."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8194719.stm:
We're the progressives - Osborne

'George Osborne: "The modern Conservative Party is now the dominant progressive force in British politics"'

Some wishing thinking from Georgey.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/11/cameron-economy-tax-and-spend:
Cameron's basic error will cost this country dearly

'Just as Labour has got the economy fluttering to life, promised Tory cuts to the public sector would put it all at risk'

'With encouraging indicators this week that Britain is starting to emerge from recession a little ahead of Treasury forecasts, early signs suggest public opinion is shifting to the view that Labour's fiscal stimulus worked. Recovery will be fragile all next year, with fear of a double dip. So where are the Tories? Thoroughly trounced, proven to be wrong when all through the crisis they alone in the world opposed all intervention, including the bailing-out of banks. They have virtually no reputable economic allies.'

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/09/osborne-banks-must-rebuild-balance-sheets-and-they-must-not/:
Osborne: Banks must rebuild balance sheets, and they must not

'"As happened in Japan, lower policy rates will be absorbed by the banks in the form of higher margins and profits in order to rebuild their balance sheets, instead of being passed on to households and businesses."

But later he argues:

"Indeed, if banks pay out huge bonuses on the back of taxpayer support instead of using profits to rebuild their balance sheets, that is not only bad for the broader economy, it is bad for the City itself.”"
err?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/09/george-osborne-budget-deficit:
Revealed: £3bn mistake in George Osborne's budget plan

'George Osborne's reputation as a would-be Tory chancellor was unravelling tonight after his claim that he would save £13bn by raising the state pension age was challenged by the respected thinktank that provided the basis for his figures.

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said the shadow chancellor's proposed saving, outlined at the Conservative party conference this week, would take five years longer than estimated and fall £3bn short.'

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/18/george-osborne-faces-sleaze-probe-over-expenses-115875-21975930/:
George Osborne faces sleaze probe over expenses


'Shadow Chancellor George Osborne faces humiliation this week when a sleaze probe is expected to order him to pay back overclaimed expenses.

Mr Osborne is under investigation for taking out a £450,000 mortgage on his Cheshire farmhouse - more than the property was worth.

The parliamentary verdict due tomorrow will condemn him for claiming the maximum payments back from taxpayers.'

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bfdd803e-03a1-11df-a601-00144feabdc0.html:
Business challenges Osborne tax plans

'George Osborne faces intensifying business lobbying over how a Conservative pledge to cut the headline rates of corporation tax will be funded, amid manufacturers' concerns that his pre-recession plan to axe certain capital allowances to finance the cuts would be a "disaster".'

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100022337/george-osborne-the-cuts-start-now/:
George Osborne: the cuts start now

'Like many Tories, George Osborne loves a Swedish model and this evening was with Sweden's finance minister who like him is young and articulate but has the added advantage of being in power and fresh from his role in his country's EU presidency (not that much of a triumph some say). The Shadow Chancellor used their get together to issue a message that should by rights make waves, namely that the Tories will cut spending as soon as they get in (if the voters allow, natch).

I repeat: spending for FY 10/11 will be cut under a Conservative government.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1244517/Multi-millionaire-Tory-George-Osborne-DID-breach-expenses-rules-flipping-450-000-mortgage.html:
Multi-millionaire Tory George Osborne DID breach expenses rules by 'flipping' £450,000 mortgage

'Multi-millionaire Tory George Osborne rebuked over mortgage claim

A report by Parliament's sleaze watchdog is expected to reprimand the Shadow Chancellor after concluding he broke Commons rules - albeit unintentionally - by overclaiming on his mortgage.

The committee on standards and privileges, which met yesterday, is understood to have decided he should be ordered to repay some of the money. Mr Osborne - heir to the Osborne & Little wallpaper empire - claimed for interest payments on a the £450,000 mortgage for a second home he only bought for the £445,000.

The committee is understood to have asked him to repay the interest on the £5,000 overclaim - which is expected to amount to a few hundred pounds.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1247190/PETER-OBORNE-They-close-friends-growing-splits-Dave-George.html:
They are still close friends but there are growing splits between Dave and George

By Peter Oborne
'During the entire period of Tony Blair's government, it would have been impossible to understand the true dynamics of British politics unless you were aware that he and Gordon Brown hated each other.

The complete opposite situation now applies to the relationship between David Cameron and his Shadow Chancellor George Osborne. They are like Siamese twins. They have adjacent offices and confer all the time.

In utter contrast to Brown and Blair, there is total mutual trust and not an ounce of rivalry. Indeed, Osborne managed Cameron's dazzling leadership bid in 2005 - when the latter was the outsider who came from nowhere to grab the prize.'

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/film/tory-deficit-spending-plans-in-disarray--$1356941.htm:
Tory deficit, spending plans 'in disarray'

'Conservative spending plans look in chaos after David Cameron appeared to contradict George Osborne within hours of him insisting immediate action was needed to tackle the deficit.

Appearing on the Politics Show on BBC1 Mr Cameron said the Tories were "not talking about "swingeing cuts".

"We're talking about making a start in reducing our deficit," he said.

But just hours earlier on Andrew Marr's show on the same channel, his shadow chancellor Mr Osborne had said: "We've got to show early action to get credibility with the international community and with domestic businesses."

Last week figures showed that Britain came out of recession by the narrowest of margins at the end of last year, but economist have warned that governments who withdraw stimulus plans risk a return to falls in GDP.

"For the moment, the recovery is very much based on policy decisions and policy actions," said Olivier Blanchard, the International Monetary Fund's chief economist.

"The question is when does private demand come and take over. Right now it's OK, but a year down the line; it will be a big question."

That left the Tory pledge to take immediate action to cut Britain's £178 billion deficit looking increasingly isolated on the world stage, with the government insisting it would not cut public spending until 2011 at the earliest.'

http://news.scotsman.com/news/George-Osborne-sidesteps-questions-about.6036964.jp:
George Osborne sidesteps questions about timing of Tories' public-sector cuts

'SHADOW Chancellor George Osborne was accused of "failing the credibility test" yesterday after he gave a keynote speech on the future of the British economy but refused to say where the axe would fall on public spending. After a week in which he appeared to disagree with leader David Cameron over how quickly severe spending cuts would need to be introduced by an incoming Tory government, he tried to avoid the subject yesterday.

In separate TV interviews on Sunday, he said severe cuts would start in the first 12 months of Tory government but Mr Cameron said they would not.'

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/2010/02/22/shadow-chancellor-george-osborne-blasted-over-plan-to-sell-shares-in-taxpayer-owned-banks-86908-22061278/:
Shadow chancellor George Osborne blasted over plan to sell shares in taxpayer-owned banks

.SHADOW chancellor George Osborne was branded the economy's Private Pike yesterday over a scheme to sell off cheap bank shares.

Osborne unveiled plans to sell shares in Government-owned banks at knockdown prices if the Tories take power.

But the plan - which would mean people buying what they already own - provoked derision from Labour and the Lib Dems.

According to Osborne, the taxpayers who bailed out banks such as RBS and Lloyds deserved their own "people's bonus".

He added that low-earners and the young would be offered extra discounts.

But the bizarre move left him looking like the Dad's Army "stupid boy".

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said Osborne's latest wheeze was "a rather silly little gimmick" and attacked the plan as "headline-grabbing incoherence".

"What on earth are they doing playing around giving away the assets and shares in RBS at knock-down prices at this stage which would be at the expense both of the taxpayer as a whole and our future ability to reduce the deficit?" asked Mandelson.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/22/conservatives-selling-taxpayers-short:
Conservatives: Selling taxpayers short

'Auctioning off state-owned banks for less than they are worth is no way to restore the Treasury's books'

'Tony Blair was explicit in naming education as his top three priorities, but David Cameron's claim that "we can't go on like this" is barely less blunt in suggesting that curbing the deficit must be priorities one, two and three. But that message has now been compromised by George Osborne's proposal for flogging off the nationalised banks at a discount.'

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article733821.ece:
Look and learn from across the Irish Sea

A generation ago it would have seemed ridiculous to go to Ireland for economics lessons. Not any more

By George Osborne