Just back from two great functions – George Osborne’s excellent speech to the Centre for Policy Studies and the HM Treasury summer reception. Osborne’s speech was basically the best Cameron ideas without any of the dodgy ones (like that Chapter 11 malarkey) – and a full narrative, focusing on worklessness and Labour’s failure in unemployment. Osborne said the most important statistic he wanted us to take away was that youth unemployment is now higher than the OECD average where in 1997 it was way below. “Know that fact, and you will know why Labour has failed
There were lots of powerful points in Osborne’s speech. None new, but put together in a powerful way that may make – dare one say – a Tory narrative. Afterwards, a once-senior Tory said something to me along the lines of “by George, I think he’s got it” as if Osborne had just come out with the ideological equivalent of ‘the rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain’ (aficionados, click
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