George Osborne

George Gideon Oliver Osborne is a member of the Conservative Party, serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2010 through 2016. A blue blood, he's the heir apparent to the Osborne baronetcy and a descendant of the Anglo-Irish aristocracy, known in Ireland as the Ascendancy. He was sacked as Chancellor by incoming Prime Minister Theresa May.[1]

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Since leaving parliament he became the Editor of the Evening Standard, and routinely takes pot-shots at his old rival May.[2]

Politics

He gained notability for running David Cameron's campaign for party leadership; he became Shadow Chancellor while the Tories were in opposition versus New Labour. As Chancellor, Osborne was responsible for the economy of the United Kingdom, and was personally responsible for the Tories' neoliberal budget cuts to social spending and hiking of taxes to the workers. He derided stay-at-home mums for their "lifestyle choice" and punished them by denying them tax breaks that working mothers will get.

Controversies

George reached some level of intrigue in 2014 when it was revealed that evidence of his brother Adam's conversion to Islam and marriage to a Bangladeshi Muslim in 2009 was removed from European Google searches through the "Right to be Forgotten" law.[3][4]

One of his least popular moves was to announce and insist quite forcefully on the necessity of direct cuts to working and child tax credits. These are state benefits paid as a form of top-up wage principally to low-paid working people, so cuts to or restrictions on these directly hurt the poor and low-paid disproportionately - even those who are doing what would otherwise be considered the "right thing" and working for low wages rather than just remaining unemployed and therefore taking other state benefits. Indeed, the plans are such that a low paid person on tax credits that took on more hours or otherwise earned more money would effectively lose more than half of their additional earnings due to a faster withdrawal rate of tax credits. To add insult to injury, David Cameron was specifically asked about the potential for tax credit cuts and gave a categorical denial that they would be cut, making this an astonishingly bare-faced lie by any standard.[5]

Post-political life

Since quitting parliament he has been busy, being widely derided for the media for his many jobs including:[6]

  • Editor of the Evening Standard, London's main local newspaper
  • A fellow of John McCain's leadership institute
  • Advising investment firm Blackrock
  • Advising football-to-car-making Italian conglomerate Exor
  • Chair of think tank the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

Footnotes
  1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/13/george-osborne-sacked-as-chancellor-and-replaced-by-philip-hammo/
  2. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/26/george-osbornes-evening-standard-front-pages-mock-theresa-may/
  3. Wikipedia link to be hidden in Google under 'right to be forgotten' law, The Guardian, August 2014
  4. Now Google BANS Express story about George Osborne’s ‘Muslim’ brother, The Express, July 2014
  5. http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/12-things-tory-tax-credit-cuts.html
  6. Nine Jobs George Osborne, The Guardian, 14 Dec 2018
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