Reply to: Osbourne as chancellor

[bogeyman]

Then we really are DOOMED!

He could bring Lamont back to help him?

The last thing we need is another financially-incompetent badger in the HOC.

[thelace]

Portillo will come back

Then we really are DOOMED!

He could bring Lamont back to help him?

[expat]

Portillo will come back

[Doggy Styles]

I said what I thought about Osborne here. Bit unkind I know, but it's how he comes across to me at the moment:

He's got to go. No credibility, no ideas, no vision.

But I don't see Cameron ejecting him.

If he did, Ken Clarke can never do that job for the tories. Vince Cable has been great for exposing Brown's weaknesses in parliament, but even if he were to join a tory government, I suspect he'd be a disaster as Chancellor.

Davies or Hague have enough gravitas to make a fist of it, but it might require a right barstard that we don't know about yet. As someone said, the next ten years will require a long term plan to turn around the mess we're in, with a lot of hard and painfull decisions.

The Chancellor will have to do the sort of things for which Thatcher is still villified today. Worse perhaps. It has to be somebody very strong and single minded.

[expat]

I think you have all assessed the options comprehensively.

Now I'm really depressed.

[thelace]

GO - More a featherweight than a lightweight...

The only effect he has on me is wanting to turn the TV off.

DC & GO - the Eton Trifles?

[Ruprect]

I'm not sure that I care to be honest, I don't trust the Conservatives to do any better than Labour have since they aren't so much different sides of the same coin as merely a few degrees round the radius on the same face.

An argument trotted out when one can't be arsed to look for the differences.
ID cards is one clear divide, for example.

[TykeMerc]

I'm not sure that I care to be honest, I don't trust the Conservatives to do any better than Labour have since they aren't so much different sides of the same coin as merely a few degrees round the radius on the same face.

[Cyberman]

Dr Vince Cable. Talks more sense than any of them on economics - probably because his doctorate is in economics so he has more of a clue about the subject than most of them. Pity he's in the wrong party.

He was also the guy that constantly stated that the Rock owed the taxpayer so many thousands for every family in the country and used this to justify nationalisation and the reduction of the loan book , which has HURT MORTGAGE LIQUIDITY.

How often do we hear that sort of rhetoric from him now that all of the other banks are borrowing much more than the Rock !!! He's a total IDIOT and you have gone further down in my estimation than you were before. Quite an achievement !!!

[Ruprect]

Personally, for the tories at least I think David Davis or William Hague are the only realistic options

[Cyberman]

Dr Vince Cable. Talks more sense than any of them on economics - probably because his doctorate is in economics so he has more of a clue about the subject than most of them. Pity he's in the wrong party.

VCs an idiot !!

[Solidec]

Dr Vince Cable. Talks more sense than any of them on economics - probably because his doctorate is in economics so he has more of a clue about the subject than most of them. Pity he's in the wrong party.

Socialist Ideology and Chancellor not a good mix do make. Chancellors make tough decisions, usually unpopular, and whilst I agree he is a venerable sage when it comes to economics, I do fear that his foundation of principals will make him a terrible chancellor especially in the present economic climate.

[PM-Junkie]

Dr Vince Cable. Talks more sense than any of them on economics - probably because his doctorate is in economics so he has more of a clue about the subject than most of them. Pity he's in the wrong party.

[Solidec]

Incindently, who would you say is the best qualified through Academia AND Business Experience to fullfil the role of Chancellor? Cross Party?

Ken Clarke for obvious reasons, main one being he has done the job SUCCESSFULLY before.

I am not convinced Alistair Darling is entirely useless, more straight jacketed by his Supreme commander into doing what is rigth for Gordon Brown and not what is right for Great Britain. I do feel he has a semblance of economic and financial acumen to call upon, just that he has not had free rein, without the shadow of imminent elections and McStalin over his shoulder.

[Solidec]

I think Osbourne doesnt do much thinking of his own unfortunately. He seems a bit raw for Chancellor just now, maybe in a year he will be ready, but at the moment he doesnt carry the required gravitas nor the confidence of the electorate. he needs less rhetoric and more substance in his speeches, show us he the economic credentials and intellect to let the figures do the talking, not the spin/rhetoric.

I think Ken Clarke will help him enormously and lets hope WHEN (rather than IF) he becomes chancellor he conducts himself frugally and respectifully, unlike Mein Gorden, our Maximum Leader.