Osborne proves self deluded.

He's a fucking arsehole. He tries to present himself as a fearless campaigner for truth and justice, but it's difficult to hear him very clearly while he's gagging* on oily** neoconservative CIA cock***

*metaphorical
**also metaphorical
***metaphorical. And satirical, obviously.

wtf? is it me or has paxman got more and more mental as he's got older or i've got older or both?

See above. He's a fully-paid-up member of the idle, selfish rich, aka British-American Neoconservatism.

yea i gave up on paxo some time ago

I'm sure it won't happen, but there looks to be reason to force Osborne out, given that he's either lying or totally incompetent.

If they were the only criteria the whole fucking lot of them would go.

Well this is the thing that boils my head; he does, of course, know that the richest people pay very little tax because he's chancellor of the exchequer and even he must read the papers every now and then. So what does he gain politically by saying he's "shocked and appalled" ? It doesn't make any political sense to me, far better say, to pretend to bow to public opinion and announce an inquiry or vow to bring in tougher rules or whatever.

He's proved himself a clumsy politician.

I heard that treatment for smokers far outweighs their tax contributions

Well you are wrong. Smokers taxes vastly outweighs the costs of their treatment on the NHS. Many many times over. In fact the last time I looked, the excess of smoking taxes over costs was enough to fund 10% of the whole NHS.

Cool. Any idea where I can find a link to the evidence for this? It would be good to show to the doctor who told me otherwise.

I don't know if there are more recent stats available, depends if the budget document spells it out or hides it in other figures.

Anyhow I got it from some time ago :

[from about 2000 [2]] the UK Government raises more than £8 billion in smoking duties and taxes.
Smoking costs the NHS up to £1.7 billion each year" [1]
So smoking revenue covers NHS smoking costs with excess of £6.3 billion clear profit per year.

[1] Source: Department of Health report "Smoking Kills..”
[2] Source: HM Treasury Budget March 2000.

please do post links

my oldest friends is a doctor (whom every time we meet bums smokes and blames me for his actions ) and his missus is a f2 (preachy non smoker) would love to tell them both to get to fuck over the subject



well unless of course I die from smoking

Plus of course, which I was unable to calculate, smokers tend to die younger than non smokers so the state has to pay less in old age state pensions, which is another saving to the state. Though it beats me how to work out what this value in saving actually is.

Good data, thanks

Edit: already done above.

He was trying to say that rich people were getting away with it under Labour's rules but that he's tightened it up in the last Budget and that's why he was "shocked" (he wasn't really, he was exaggerating to make a point.)

But it backfired quite spectacularly. People blame the rich, not the system, and so he ends up looking like a prime tool.

"has a reputation as a master political strategist" acording to nick robinson and other political hacks.

Fuck knows why. He's hugely arrogant, utterly charmless and politically incompetent - not a winning combination really.

But rich people have got away with it for aeons, including several tory parliaments, so yes you're all quite right, he is a prime tool. If I stop trying to find logic or sense in anything he says I'll save a fortune on the nurofen. Huzzah

"Master political strategist."

We talk about virtual reality: the rich have had it for years.

It has been posted before but what the heck

According to JK Galbraith if you feed enough oats to the horses, sparrows will get enough to live off too.

Why not get rid of the horses and feed the sparrows directly?

Because then the maggots don't get to feed on the horseshit.

Gideon's rotting corpse would feed a few.

hmm what kind of parents would call their sprog Gideon anyhow ... ?

Ones who knew he wasn't going to the comprehensive I went to, that's for sure.

He's bored with Newsnight. Fact.

I don't use Twitter very much any more, but it strikes me that some of the posters in this thread might like to follow @Gideon_Osboner

This isn't my account, and I don't know the guy who owns it, so please don't accuse me of pimping Twitter accounts. I just think he's funny and appropriate.

From what I've heard, that reputation comes mostly from the fact that he's adept at charming journalists and others he can use, and his press secretary is very good at screening him from any scrutiny that might show Gideon in a bad light.
A kind of 2nd-rate Gordon Brown, if you will.