George osborne

Today's Cabinet meeting in Aberdeen, now underway, has given ministers plenty of opportunity to stare earnestly at Scottish things while trying to make the case for the Union. Here are some of Mr Steerpike's favourites. [caption id="attachment_8719911" align="alignnone" width="620"] Image copyright The Cabinet Office[/caption]   All captions gratefully received in the comments...

Today's borrowing figures are, on the surface, not good for the Tories. The surplus on the public finances in January 2014 was lower than for the same month in 2013, at £4.7 billion compared to last year's £6.0 billion figure (although it's worth pointing out that the difference could get even smaller with subsequent revisions). That disappointing figure means that over the year, Osborne has borrowed just £4 billion than at the same point last year:- These figures give Labour the opportunity to remind voters that George Osborne has failed to meet his own targets.

A recording of a conversation between Alex Salmond and George Osborne has been leaked* to The Spectator. An edited extract follows: Alex Salmond: Scotland and England are different countries. So different, in fact, that we should no longer live together. Our interests have diverged and so must our futures. George Osborne: I do not think that is the case. Nor, by the way, do I hope it is. Alex Salmond: But it is! George Osborne: [wearily] Perhaps you are right. Very well; if our interests and futures diverge then perhaps, as you suggest, present arrangements will no longer prove as satisfactory as once we thought they were. Alex Salmond: I knew you would see the light.

‘If Scotland walks away from the UK, it walks away from the pound’, the Chancellor said this morning. In a speech aiming to blow a hole in the SNP’s campaign, George Osborne has set out why sharing the pound isn’t on the cards for an independent Scotland. Here are the key points from his speech, the reactions and why a currency union with the rest of the UK won’t happen 1. The Tories, Lib Dems and Labour have united on a technical fight It’s very rare that George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander can find something to agree on. The fact they’ve publicly united against a currency union with Scotland shows how pressing the matter is.

Last Thursday’s cover story makes alarming reading, Alex Massie arguing that Alex Salmond may come close to achieving victory in September’s vote. Alex wrote: ‘It is beginning to be appreciated, even in London, that Alex Salmond might just win his independence referendum in September. The break-up of Britain will have begun, David Cameron will have to contemplate being Prime Minister of a rump country — and HMS Britannia will be sunk, not with a bang but a whimper. It will be due as much to English indifference as Scottish agitation.’ I would still put my pound sterling on a No vote, and current odds for independence are around 7/2; but I suspect that ultimate victory will probably go to the SNP. There a number of reasons why the union is doomed.

That Danny Alexander struggles with appearing to have gone native in the Treasury has been well known in Westminster for a long time. He gets on well with George Osborne on a personal level, and I reported in December that he'd been rebuked for accidentally using the Tory term 'global race'. Today Nick Clegg was asked about some rather amusing quotes by George Osborne's PPS Rob Wilson (who described himself as the Chancellor's 'wingman' in an event with party members last night) that the Deputy Prime Minister himself thinks that Alexander has gone native. The Huffington post has the full report here but here's the key quote: 'I think Nick Clegg complains quite often that Danny Alexander has gone native in the Treasury.

Quite naturally, there were rather more Conservative than Labour MPs in the House of Commons for Treasury Questions this morning. And quite naturally, George Osborne and colleagues on the Treasury front bench spent most of the session goading their Labour opponents about this morning's growth figures. Deputy Chief Whip Greg Hands and Ed Balls had a wonderful extended session of heckling one another across the Chamber as the exchanges went on, with Hands mocking Balls' flatlining gesture. Other MPs, though, were kept waiting rather longer to do what they'd turned up to do: jeer the Shadow Chancellor when he eventually stood up. But when he eventually stood up, 50 minutes into the session, the Conservative benches went wild with roars.

Never interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake. On the other hand, when your opponent has made a mistake try not to match him by making an equal blunder of your own. That's not how Westminster politics works, of course. For reasons that presumably make sense to the respective parties, Labour and the Conservatives have each managed to cock-up their tax policies. Specifically, they are both wrong on the politics of the 50% rate of income tax. That is, the Tories should never have cut the rate of tax paid by those few Britons earning over £150,000 and Labour should not be promising to restore the 50% rate. This is not an argument about finances but about signalling.