September 19, 2019 - 3:53pm
George Osborne is so steeped in politics he just can’t help himself. His review of the memoir of “my friend David” in today’s Evening Standard sends a shiver down the spine – under cover of an apparently fawning review he gently sticks the knife in.
I’ve written a review of David Cameron’s memoirs for today’s @EveningStandard – a book about the future as well as the past pic.twitter.com/O5zNPkLmpN
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) September 19, 2019
First of all he lists all of Dave’s projects that have died a death and now feel like a lifetime ago – “the long term economic plan; deficit control; coalition with the Lib Dems; the Big Society; education reform; Tory modernisation; vote blue to go green; hug a hoodie…” It’s half wistful, half cleverly designed to draw attention to the fact that while Cameron’s life has been on hold ever since, stuck in “a kind of purgatory” as George describes it sympathetically, Osborne has most definitely Moved On.
But the same list, summing up in so few phrases the project of his entire government, accidentally draws attention to the fact that while the tectonic plates were shifting under their feet, they were filling the air with the wrong obsessions. “Hands up who yearns for a time when the biggest row in British politics was whether to tax Cornish pasties?” Osborne asks. Well, kind of, but you’re the ones who should have been directing our attention to what mattered.
But the dagger really comes out later in his review. Sandwiched either side by a compliment, he finally gets to the main event:
On page 409 you’ll find my unsuccessful attempt to stop it.
Oof. Blame delivered, complete with page reference. And all within a lyrical, sweet-smelling, positive review. Not so much as a mention of his own part in losing the referendum with an economic scare strategy that backfired.
With friends like these…
Freddie Sayers is the Editor-in-Chief & CEO of UnHerd. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of YouGov, and founder of PoliticsHome.
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SubscribeThis is pure rubbish. Any voter may request a mail-in ballot. In fact, every registered voter is mailed a form asking you if you would like to request one.
Unfortunately mail-in ballots has shown to have more fraud than other types of voting with ballots being hidden, thrown away and unaccounted for. There is also ballot harvesting where people go door to door to collect ballots and “help” voters decide on how to fill out their forms.
One trouble with mass mailings of voter ballots is very inaccurate voter rolls. For example I believe I am correct that Los Angelos California had about 1.2 million more people on their voter rolls then there were eligible voters in that district. If you automatically mailed a voting ballot to all of those ineligible voters you can imagine how that could be abused.
So as I stated, anyone, including those concerned about virus exposure may request to vote by mail.
Democrats always harp on ‘voter suppression’ but in fact it’s a ruse. The ability to vote today has been widely expanded via elongated voting time blocs and absentee ballots. But this seems to be the conspiracy theory that the Dems hang their hat on every time; their policy platform is lacking, so that’s all they’ve got.