I am sure George Osborne has some admirable qualities. He is most likely a loyal husband (20 years married next year) and a loving father to his son and daughter, who are 16 and 14 years old. Many on the Left think he is a nasty piece of work for implementing ‘savage’ Tory cuts to get the national debt under control and the economy moving (though it is debatable whether he succeeded in either).
The last few months, however, have seen any sense of decency when it comes to Brexit die a long and painful death. And Osborne has led the charge. His relentless personal attacks on Theresa May have earned him the title George ‘Psycho’ Osborne.
The former Chancellor has previously described the Prime Minister as a ‘dead woman walking . . . on death row’ and likened her to the ‘living dead in a second-rate horror film’. The Times reported yesterday that Osborne told a colleague he would not rest until May was ‘chopped up in bags in my freezer’. Enough!
This is not doing anyone any favours: neither George Osborne, May, Leavers or Remainers. This rhetoric is only causing more division.
I do not expect Osborne to jump on the Brexit bandwagon which he himself along with Cameron actually kicked off, calculating incorrectly they would be able to control it and ultimately destroy it. That miscalculation is on him.
Osborne ferociously opposed granting a referendum in the manifesto but ultimately stayed with the party and campaigned on the basis that the people should be given one. That misjudgement is on him.
Osborne and Cameron also wrongly gambled that a possible coalition with the Lib Dems would give them an excuse to ditch the referendum: that error, too, is on him. But instead of taking responsibility for these decisions, Osborne has engaged in a deeply sinister campaign against May.
I understand that politics is brutal, and that May was pretty shoddy in her handling of Osborne’s sacking. However, this war of words has surely gone far enough: we passed that line with talk of chopped-up bodies in freezers.
It does not say much for Osborne’s famed social liberalism, either. I oppose social liberalism on principle – namely, because of the havoc it wreaks on less privileged members of society, especially children. Osborne is a classic walk a conservative walk (see 20-year marriage + 2 kids) but preaches a liberal talk. As such he fails to preach what he practises.
I still cannot decide which is worse – the socially conservative hypocrite having an affair with the nanny, or the socially liberal ‘cool dude’ who protects and supports his family behind the scenes which greatly benefit his own children, while failing to explain this to the wider public.
Anyway, what all of this demonstrates is that being socially liberal does not necessarily make you a nice fluffy guy. Those huggable liberals have just as much capacity to be nasty – on a personal level – as the next Leftist. Perhaps Osborne should reflect on what his daughter must think about referring to our second female Prime Minster as best suited to being chopped up and put in a freezer.
Osborne should take some advice from a woman with common sense in his life – and I am sure there are many. Put a sock in it! You are only letting yourself down.
