I’ve already mentioned George Osborne’s interview with the Telegraph, but it certainly merits another. As Ben Brogan
says, Osborne is in a rich vein of
‘election that never was’ form. As befits the inveterate schemer, Osborne’s tactical grasp is impressive. He is quietly vociferous about Labour’s ‘historic
mistake’ in electing Ed Miliband. Revealing senior Tories’ continued respect for the electoral tenets of Blairism, he says:
“They have chosen to move off the historic centre ground of British politics. I’ve seen more pictures of Neil Kinnock on television in the past week than I’ve seen in 20 years. That’s old politics.”
The old politics is the preserve of captive minds, wedded to ailing methods if not a defunct ideology. Osborne damns Labour as moribund:
“The intellectual pulse is not there. They’re flatlining.”
In the coming months, Osborne will hint and intimate that Ed Miliband is vacuous: a thoughtless disciple of Gordon Brown and a union placeman, a shelled pea’s pod for vested interests seeking to subvert the national interest.
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