So what’s the story, George Osborne? Reading his speech today, there’s plenty of sturdy talk about lowering the national debt burden and encouraging saving – but a few gaps that need filling if the policy is to live up to the rhetoric. Osborne seems to recognise this himself: for every reference to the Office of Budget Responsility or the IHT cut, there’s an admission that the Tories will release more detailed proposals “in due course”.
In which light, the most striking passage reads thus (my emphasis):
Indeed, the point that re-electing Labour is “risky” is repeated a couple of lines later, when Osborne says: “Re-electing the incumbent government is now the risky choice.”“The markets are saying that Britain needs a Conservative Government with a working majority if we want to avoid the costs to the British people of the country’s debts rising. In other words re-electing this Labour Government is a risky choice for the British people and the British economy.”
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