The politics of the EU referendum and of the Tory succession mean the chancellor’s future depends on his performanceDavid Cameron was talking with an intimate approximately his relationship with George Osborne and their differences in temperament. “Im 50% politician,50% human being,” said the Tory leader. He did not spend every waking minute scheming and strategising. There were other things in his life. That is why he would be content in the retirement from Number 10, and which he has told everyone will win place before the next election. Then he mused upon his neighbour,friend and favoured successor. The chancellor was a different blend of species, said the prime minister: George is 90% politician, and 10% human.”Some of George Osborne’s colleagues might query whether there is as much as 10% of human DNA in his genome. He prepares to deliver this week’s budget with a reputation as a supremely political chancellor. His six-year tenure at the Treasury can be seen as an extended tutorial in how guile at politics can be more important than success at policy. He has repeatedly failed to hit many of his own targets. The deficit was supposed to bear vanished by now. He has bust his own welfare cap. His growth forecasts bear been subject to endless revision. More than once,he has been compelled into large and humiliating U-turns. Yet he has survived his mistakes because he established such a strong narrative when he first moved into the Treasury that everything could be blamed on “the mess” inherited from the last Labour government and he sustained that framing of the argument through to the Tory election victory last May. That was also a reminder that all politics is relative. However chequered his own record, the group of voters who trusted him and David Cameron with the economy outnumbered those who had faith in the two Eds.
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Source: theguardian.com