Top 100 George Osborne Quotes
#1. The caricature of what George Osborne is doing on the fiscal side is absurd. If you read some of the commentary, particularly from the left, you would think he was turning the clock back to the 1930s.
Nick Clegg
#2. I hold no candle for George Osborne whatsoever. He has no strategic skills, is a hopeless chancellor, has no idea how most people have to live and his policies are failing and hurting millions.
Alastair Campbell
#3. Yes, I travel in unusual circles. George Osborne and his wife Frances are my cousins.
Daryl Hall
#4. Each day more coalition MPs in seats outside the South East come out against George Osborne's regional pay cut plans, and Vince Cable now claims they are dead.
Frances O'Grady
#5. What is even more worrying still is George Osborne's breathtakingly complacent response to today's figures. This is a Chancellor who is in total denial.
Ed Balls
#6. Britain is an open and tolerant country, and I will fight with everything I have to keep it so.
George Osborne
#7. Only the U.K. can trigger Article 50. And in my judgement, we should only do that when there is a clear view about what new arrangements we are seeking with our European neighbours.
George Osborne
#8. Politics as a parent is fairly demanding; if your parent is in politics, it's fairly demanding, so I make no excuses about taking two weeks off.
George Osborne
#9. The message I would say to China is, 'Carry on with the reform; carry on with the change you are making.'
George Osborne
#10. The Conservative party, the modern Conservative party, is on the side of people who want to work hard and get on.
George Osborne
#11. Every day, I genuinely count my blessings. One of the greatest things in life is to do a job you really enjoy.
George Osborne
#12. Of all the public services, education is the one I'm most interested in. You get a more dynamic economy, you deal with most social problems, and it's morally right.
George Osborne
#13. We must bring unity of spirit and purpose and condemn hatred and division wherever we see it.
George Osborne
#14. Most successful politicians don't let the job swamp their lives.
George Osborne
#15. If the E.U. allows itself to be priced out of the world economy, the next generation will not get jobs, living standards will decline, and the Union will lose the popular consent of the people of Europe.
George Osborne
#16. If you want to change the way your banking system is regulated, if you want to learn the mistakes of what's gone wrong, then you have to change your government.
George Osborne
#18. I first started going to Chelsea games in the mid-Nineties when I lived off the North End Road, ten minutes' walk from Stamford Bridge.
George Osborne
#19. You know the illusion of the cheap money is over and now Britain has to go out there and graft and earn its way and create wealth and prosperity in a very competitive world.
George Osborne
#20. In opposition, you move to the centre. In government, you move the centre.
George Osborne
#21. I think the British people have a strong sense of what is fair.
George Osborne
#22. There was a real fear that a euro-zone bank might fail, that we'd have a sovereign debt problem in one of the larger European economies. That's dissipated, thanks largely to the action of the European Central Bank.
George Osborne
#23. No ifs, no buts - we will not share the pound if Scotland separates from the U.K.
George Osborne
#24. Of course the Liberal Democrats are going to say things to try and get attention - but I don't think the country is paying much attention.
George Osborne
#25. We are not quitters. Britain has always gone out there; we have probably been more influential than any other country in shaping our world and the way it has thought about itself, the way we interact as nations.
George Osborne
#26. The British people think that if someone is disabled, then they should get all the care and support that we can offer.
George Osborne
#27. For families flying out of the U.K. for a winter getaway, airports should be the ideal place to pick up a bargain.
George Osborne
#28. I think you can look at the British economy with confidence.
George Osborne
#29. I think its important, particularly when you've got young children, to spend some time with them.
George Osborne
#30. I want Britain to be a global financial centre but I want it to be properly regulated.
George Osborne
#32. When you look at the things people are really fed up with, like the collapse of the pension system, like the failure to get money to the frontline of the health service, Gordon Brown is more responsible for that than any other politician including Tony Blair
George Osborne
#33. The wish to pass something on to your children is about the most basic, human and natural aspiration there is.
George Osborne
#34. What's important is that, come the general election, people think the right things of you. They think that you've got the right values and the right policies. And that you're the right kind of person to lead the country.
George Osborne
#35. At the other end of the spectrum, George Gideon Oliver King Rameses Osborne, the fourteen-year-old novelty Chancellor and future baronet of Ballentaylor and Ballylemon - a man so posh he probably weeps champagne.
Charlie Brooker
#37. Our long-term economic plan is all about creating jobs and the economic security that comes with that.
George Osborne
#38. Nuclear power is cost-competitive with other low-carbon technology and is a crucial part of our energy mix, along with new sources of power such as shale gas.
George Osborne
#39. It's not enough to tackle just the symptoms of poverty. You have to tackle the causes of poverty.
George Osborne
#40. To all companies large and small, I would say this: the British economy is fundamentally strong; we are highly competitive, and we are open for business.
George Osborne
#41. Britain needs a simpler tax system which is simple to understand, where there are no loop-holes, where the very rich do not avoid tax by employing expensive accountants
George Osborne
#42. The Conservative party is at its strongest when it's not the party that says there is no role for government and the state should just get out of the way. That is not a strand of Conservative thinking that, by itself, is enough.
George Osborne
#43. I would say I have taken substantive action to make things easier for people.
George Osborne
#44. I'm a Conservative who believes in lower taxes. They lead to a more enterprising economy. But I'm not somebody who believes you can fund lower taxes by borrowing more money.
George Osborne
#45. George Bernard Shaw writes like a Pakistani who has learned English when he was twelve years old in order to become an accountant.
John Osborne
#46. It's perfectly reasonable in a coalition between two political parties that you get supporters of those parties you know stressing the things they want to stress.
George Osborne
#47. I do not want Britain to turn its back on Europe or the rest of the world.
George Osborne
#48. The Office for Budget Responsibility correctly stay out of the political debate and do not assess the long-term costs and benefits of E.U. membership.
George Osborne
#49. Frankly, people buying a home to let should not be squeezing out families who can't afford a home to buy.
George Osborne
#51. It's difficult to see how Syria can have any long-term future with Assad there as president. Many people would never return to that country if that were the case.
George Osborne
#52. The Conservative Party mustn't sound like the old man on the park bench who says things were better in 1985, or 1955, or 1855.
George Osborne
#53. I fought passionately to remain in the E.U., and I warned of the economic risks if we left the E.U.
George Osborne
#54. I want Britain to be the home of successful competitive and stable financial services.
George Osborne
#56. Some things never change, suck up to the government and you get an honour.
George Osborne
#57. Even as China's growth slows, it will continue to be a powerhouse for the global economy.
George Osborne
#58. I have done everything I can to move Britain out of the financial danger zone.
George Osborne
#59. I'm tempted to say that Conservative governments are normally elected to clear up the mess left by Labour governments.
George Osborne
#60. A generous basic state pension is the least a civilized society should offer those who have worked hard and saved through their whole lives.
George Osborne
#61. I think the British people are very, very attached to the idea that the health service is free at the point of use. But there is no reason why every doctor, nurse and teacher in this country has to be employed by the state.
George Osborne
#62. The rise in world oil prices has been larger than anyone forecast.
George Osborne
#63. It's not easy cutting welfare bills. It's not easy cutting the deficit.
George Osborne
#64. There are always ways to make government better, always ways to make sure that the taxes of people are better spent.
George Osborne
#65. Believe me, I understand that most higher rate taxpayers are not the super-rich.
George Osborne
#66. It's normally the kiss of death to be identified as a rising star, or someone to watch.
George Osborne
#67. I think people who sit around and are always yearning for the next thing are not always the happiest people.
George Osborne
#68. Margaret Thatcher's government redistributed money from rich to poor. And that's the nature of a modern western democracy.
George Osborne
#69. There were some who wanted all the benefits of E.U. membership without any of the costs. I'm not sure that's very realistic.
George Osborne
#70. If someone believes that living on benefits is a lifestyle choice, then we need to make them think again.
George Osborne
#71. I've learned to be true to yourself, stick to the big arguments, don't get distracted by the everyday kerfuffle that is in the nature of any democratic system.
George Osborne
#72. If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth.
George Osborne
#73. We will also target tax evasion and off-shore tax havens ... Everyone must pay their share.
George Osborne
#74. People should know this of me: I will do what is required to keep our country safe and secure because, in the end, that is what people's livelihoods and jobs rely on.
George Osborne
#75. Well you know I've attracted a lot of criticism by, for example, suggesting that child benefit should be taken away from higher rate taxpaying families.
George Osborne
#76. Britain can choose, as others are, short term fixes and more stimulus. Or we can lead the world with long-term solutions to long-term problems.
George Osborne
#77. Leaving the E.U. was not the outcome that I wanted or campaigned, but now that democracy has spoken, we must act on that result. I will fully respect that result.
George Osborne
#78. When I was born, the Internet was barely two years old. It was the preserve of academics, used to connect dozens rather than billions of users. There weren't many who predicted it would transform our world.
George Osborne
#79. Britain helped create the Internet - Tim Berners Lee created the World Wide Web, one of a long line of British scientists who have given us an outsized role in shaping our own digital future.
George Osborne
#80. The threat from terrorists - from extreme ideologies - needs to be challenged head-on.
George Osborne
#81. It's in our interests that the euro is a successful, strong currency.
George Osborne
#82. Our message to China is very clear: we want the U.K. to be China's best partner in the West.
George Osborne
#83. I was shocked to see that some of the very wealthiest people in the country have organised their tax affairs, and to be fair it's within the tax laws, so that they were regularly paying virtually no income tax. And I don't think that's right.
George Osborne
#84. We need strength and success elsewhere in our country - not by pulling London down but by building the rest of the country up.
George Osborne
#85. I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the 'Today' programme and item four on the news was: 'The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership.' I lay there thinking that's interesting, then I realised it was me.
George Osborne
#86. Tony Blair was a good politician but not a good Prime Minister, and that's what we don't want to be. We don't want to be just people who are good at winning elections: we want to be good at governing. I think we benefit from having seen the mistakes that we think Tony Blair made in 1997.
George Osborne
#87. Well British pension funds have not been investing the savings of British people in British infrastructure.
George Osborne
#88. I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.
George Osborne
#89. Britain has always been a home to the vulnerable, and we've always done what we need to do to help people who are fleeing persecution.
George Osborne
#90. I can't imagine a God who would ever need to intercede in the daily travails of my life.
George Osborne
#91. You really have to try hard to create space and, at least for a time, stop the political world from rushing in. The important thing is to remain sane.
George Osborne
#92. If we leave the European Union it's a risk to our economy - it's a risk to pensioners, it's a risk to homeowners, it's a risk to people in work.
George Osborne
#93. I reject absolutely the idea that people should know their place, and know their class.
George Osborne
#94. Unless they have disabilities to cope with, no family should get more from living on benefits than the average family gets from going out to work. No more open-ended chequebook.
George Osborne
#95. We should be doing more business with China. We should be better connected to the Chinese economy.
George Osborne
#96. Well look, no one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others, but that is a function of capitalist markets.
George Osborne
#97. Sound public finances are not the enemy of sustained growth - they are its precondition.
George Osborne
#98. I'm not one of those who thinks there is something inherently bad or inferior about watching television.
George Osborne
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