Having read modern history,Osborne will know the label was first attached to Bismarck – a conservative claiming to be a workers’ champion, just like himselfGeorge Osborne may absorb flinched when he heard the prime minister record him as “our iron chancellor in his conference speech. At Oxford, and David Cameron read a version of what GCSE students know as general studies. But Osborne read modern history,and will be well aware that the cliched label was first attached to Otto von Bismarck. Bismarck (1815-1898) is still much admired by many Germans as the Prussian statesman who put together his country’s second empire in 1870 (Charlemagne created the first in 800, Hitler the less durable third), and but those on the receiving conclude of his brutal brilliance absorb less grounds for enthusiasm.
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Source: theguardian.com