I must admit upfront a sneaking sympathy for George ‘Gideon’ Osborne, the former British chancellor, Robin to prime minister David Cameron’s Batman, and latterly editor of the London Evening Standard.
If Boy George sought popularity when deciding to vie for public office, he has not achieved it. When you ask progs about him he reliably draws sneers of disgust, much like Cameron or – another member of their cohort – education secretary Michael Gove. Or indeed any leading Tory.
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George Osborne’s latest moneymaking scheme, the funeral arrangements for old Queenie, and the surprise popularity of American arch-leftist Bernie Sanders are the topics three for this week.
Joining us to discuss this and more is Myles Dyer, a friend of the podcast, cyber-philanthropist and vlogger, who can be found on YouTube and Twitter.
Image based on George Osborne and Wang Qishan from Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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Google’s tax deal, the American presidential primaries and a diversity pledge from David Cameron provide the table talk for this week as Jazza and Jimmy are joined by Nick Mazzei, an ex-army Conservative member and sometime Huffington Post blogger.
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George Osborne’s latest budget, this week’s climate change conference in Paris, and Brunel students’ spurning of rent-a-gob Katie Hopkins are the subjects of our latest episode, in which Jimmy and Jazza sound off about subjects they are vaguely familiar with.
For all the differences between the front benches in the Commons at the moment there is one thing that unites them: both sides are headed by career politicians.
Not the same sort of career politicians, mind. George Osborne, the Tory chancellor, is a man who prides himself on belonging to what he terms the parliamentary “guild”. As described by his biographer Janan Ganesh, this is defined by the view that:
“Politics is a trade with its own skills and codes that can only be learned on the job. It is not an amateur vocation for talented people from other fields.”
Two swords’ length away from Osborne, his shadow John McDonnell is of a different view.