The Osborne Identity

[Twilkes]

Has George Osborne quietly been doing a very good job over the last 6 years? I've not seen him interviewed much so can't comment on him as a leader/motivator, but quite a few of the things he announces I've thought 'actually that's quite good', even if some of it was nicked from Labour manifestos. But even that shows that he doesn't let party allegiance/ideology get in the way of a good idea.

Not sure I can see him as Prime Minister, but he seems to know what he's doing in his current role. Or is it all an illusion?

[Twilkes]

Fittster said:

Of the goals he's set for himself around borrowing and the deficit how many has it actually achieved?

I don't know, that's kind of why I'm asking.

If he doesn't have an economic background, I'm guessing he picks and chooses who and what he listens to very well, which must be one of the keys to being a good politician. Maybe he developed the skills of critically selecting and analysing research during his History degree.

[Twilkes]

I think the ideal situation would be for Osborne to be Prime Minister In Hiding, doing all of the work and decision-making but never exposed to sunlight; and for Boris Johnson to be Prime Minister's Spokesperson, representing the government in public but not allowed to have thoughts or opinions of his own.

Gove just shouldn't be allowed.

[Twilkes]

Fittster said:

What I find interesting is how so many people think they know better than economists. If a noble winning physicist makes a statement about physics you don't see lots of people in the media and internet forums jumping up to say "He doesn't know what he's talking about, although I've no qualifications at all in the subject I know more about it than him!"

Economics has more in common with sociology than it does with physics, so two economists could have opposing opinions but neither of them necessarily be wrong (or indeed, right).

It's about scarcity of resources and the behaviour of people - if there was an infinite amount of everything then we wouldn't need economics because everyone could just get what they want whenever they wanted it; and if people could be trusted to behave like computers then all of the economists little graphs and formulae would be correct every time.

My favourite quote about economists is that they are very good at predicting what has just happened. Usually on late night news programmes.

[Twilkes]

And when the speaker told him to sit down he said 'Are you a boz boz, or are you THE boz boz?'