Wednesday 22 October 2008

An indiscreet fool who hasn't grown up: the perfect qualities for a Tory chancellor?

The entertainment provided by the ludicrous saga of the Bullingdon Set at war is tempered by a realisation of what this tells us about the would-be Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.
  • First, he is a fool. Otherwise, why would he have leaked the details of Peter Mandelson's alleged indiscretions when he himself had been behaving rather more badly at the same time? And when the incident was at the private party of someone whose family was vital to Tory fundraising?

  • Second, he is utterly indiscreet. Given that discretion is important for any government minister, especially a Chancellor, this hardly inspires confidence.

  • And third, he hasn't grown up, and still enjoys schoolboy japes. A would-be Chancellor shouldn't be wasting his time dispensing witless gossip.
How any of this makes the man capable of being a Chancellor of the Exchequer at a time when - in the words of the governor of the Bank of England - we are going through a banking crisis as bad as anything seen since the first world war, is beyond me. That David Cameron thinks he is still fit to do so tells is a lot about the Leader of the Opposition.

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