Unintended consequence

Good piece by William Keegan in the Observer on how George Osborne deserved the sack as Chancellor, just not for the EU. Or, as Keegan continues, did he? Because Keegan notes:

There is also a sense in which Osborne, while being on what I regarded as the right side during the referendum campaign, in fact contributed to the disastrous result.

The Leave campaign’s propaganda was stuffed with falsehoods, and the Remain campaign was distressingly feeble. But Osborne’s contribution to the latter – precise figures for hits to the standard of living in 2030; laughable threats of an emergency budget – was beyond parody, and seen as such by the general public. As for his warning that house prices might fall after a No vote, this made him a laughing stock among all those people who were already priced out of the property market. At the very least, the former chancellor’s contribution to the campaign did not help.

But as Keegan outlines the shambles that was Osborne’s policies well in advance of Brexit it is difficult not to agree that his departure was long long overdue.

And here’s a thought-provoking point from Keegan about the current Tory crew:

The new team at Nos 10 and 11 may have abandoned Osborne’s damaging and economically unnecessary plan for a budget surplus – on current and capital spending by the end of the decade – but there are still a lot of cuts in the pipeline.