George Osborne: I did make a mistake over Deripaska but I didn't break any rules

Highlights, not verbatim, from George Osborne's interview on Radio 4's World at One programme:

Yatchgate: I didn't break any rules but I did make a mistake. It didn't look good. I regret how I operated. I will no longer be involved in party fundraising.

Sterling's slide against the dollar: There is a "flight from sterling" because of concern at the UK economy. It represents an international vote of confidence in the UK economy and our levels of borrowing.

Interest rates: The Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor should not speculate about the future of interest rates but should respect the independence of the Monetary Policy Committee. Keeping control of the public finances makes it easier for the Bank to cut interest rates; something everyone in the country wants.

Public spending: Gordon Brown "is a man with an overdraft not a man with a plan".  The extra borrowing he is advocating is not a strategic move as part of a plan but simply a reflection of reduced tax receipts and higher benefit payments associated with the recession.

Comments

[Malcolm Dunn]

I listened with interest to that interview. I'm glad that George realises he made a mistake but could have made a more fulsome apology. Equally his analysis on our financial woes appear to me to be correct. What's missing is what he would do instead.

[ChrisD]

Come off it Malcolm, an apology for what?!!

"Public spending: Gordon Brown "is a man with an overdraft not a man with a plan". The extra borrowing he is advocating is not a strategic move as part of a plan but simply a reflection of reduced tax receipts and higher benefit payments associated with the recession."

Osborne needs to keep hammering home this point over the next few weeks and months.

[michael m]

Let's hope that Lord M will continue to be pursued.

It is extremely difficult for the Conservatives to say "what they would do" when they would not have got into the mess in the first place. Doubtless Brown's whole strategy will be based on frightening the public into believing that unless they borrow more, hospitals/schools etc will be closed. What the Conservatives have to do is to be able to answer this in order to allay fears- not easy!!

[James Burdett]

I think it is refreshing that a front rank politician can admit that they made a mistake. It is to be commended that Osborne can state that it didn't look good.

[Jennifer Wells]

Good on George Osborne for his admission. Let's move on to the real issues now.

[ChrisD]

"I think it is refreshing that a front rank politician can admit that they made a mistake. It is to be commended that Osborne can state that it didn't look good."

I agree James, and I think that its important that he should be able to admit to a mistake rather than apologising for something he has not done.

[Felicity Mountjoy]

I hope the BBC now admits its slanted coverage was a mistake.

[meli]

It is a rare politician that will actually admit when they made a mistake. I'm not holding it against him as he didn't actually do anything illegal. But I hope the Tories take this opportunity to get rid of corruption once and for all in government. We have a war on absolutely everything from fatty foods to global warming, so lets see a war on corruption in politics please.

[pp]

Clear blue water. The tories know that noone is perfect; whereas gordon brown thinks he is perfect (or at least expects the public to beleive he is).

Osbourn continues to go up in my estimation - now that this is cleared out of the way, he needs to ensure that he doesn't repeat past mistakes but holds brown and labour to account, forcable, vocally and at every opportunity.

And why is mandlesons EU diary secret? what are they hiding? looks like the HoC expenses publication fiasco all over again - open, open, open, publish, publish, publish, transparent, transparent, transparent.

[Matt Wright]

Good line - "man with an overdraft"

[Sammy Finn]

George was good on Radio 4 but he now needs to get out there on BBC1 and ITV and in to The Sun and Mail.

[euro]

Sinister or Stupid?

Contrast Osborne's interview with Gordon Brown's extraordinary comments to BBC Scotland, where he continues to defend Mandelson while contradicting himself.

[Louise]

"It is extremely difficult for the Conservatives to say "what they would do" when they would not have got into the mess in the first place. Doubtless Brown's whole strategy will be based on frightening the public into believing that unless they borrow more, hospitals/schools etc will be closed. What the Conservatives have to do is to be able to answer this in order to allay fears- not easy!!"

How? They've already had three years to come up with a solution.

As regards your first point, I think that the problem is that the Tories were not in power from 2005 onward when the problems were becoming obvious. Thus they need to say what they would do to try and get things kick-started, not just pull faces at Brown for getting it wrong. Personally I've always had my doubts about the last election, and we didn't have a much better Shadow Chancellor back then (knowing John Redwood personally, I know he was reluctant to be brought back as a full-time frontbencher because he was too used to being a full-time constituency MP; he was wasted in the half-role he had under Howard and would I believe unfortunately decline a fuller position under Cameron for the same reasons), but at least we had some ideas and were prepared to say how we would do things differently. We've been slamming Labour for three years. It's now time to put our money where our mouths are.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Chris D, an apology for the damage that he did to our party and himself.
Do you really think that hammering Brown is all that's required? I don't.

[David (One of many)]

"We've been slamming Labour for three years. It's now time to put our money where our mouths are."

I still don't quite get this angle. I don't see why the Conservatives have to solve the problem. We said what we'd do differently in the 2005 manifesto; which also contained very accurate criticisms of Brown's debt-built economy. I don't see why 'we told you so' isn't a valid point to make when we did precisely that.

[Tony Makara]

Most of Sterling's problems relate from the fact that it was overvalued for far too long and the MPC must take the blame for keeping rates too high. This was clearly done to mask inflation as credit was lavished on cheap imports to create the illusion of a boom. This was a politically motivated strategy and to my mind proves that the BOE is dancing to the government's tune.

[Iain]

Felicity Mountjoy, some hope, the BBC's Today program this morning covered the issue, spending most of the time on Osborne and in their own words, 'in brief' touched on Mandelson, even though the spotlight was on Mandelson. Now the BBC is gleefully putting Osborne's admittance of a mistake as the leader to their new bulletins.

PS Can someone conform that the BBC was late coming to the cash for peerages scandals, for in the back of my mind I feel sure this was the case. If so the BBC is getting form on being unwilling to scrutinise Labour party problems, whilst of course dwelling on any Conservative embarrassment for as long as Mandelson and Campbell want them to.

[Louise]

David -

Admitting that Howard was right took some time coming, but thanks for that. If you are prepared to back the 2005 manifesto that I fought 24/7 for (giving up a good job in the process) I am prepared to concede that point.

The problem is that Dave scrapped that whole document the moment he took over. I'm perfectly happy to admit Howard was right, it gives me more confidence that at least part of the party is recognising the virtues of that period after all.

We did tell them so. Now let's try and think what we can do to put things right and say them properly and with the thought that went into the last manifesto. Perhaps the people who gave heart and soul to that campaign might not have been so divisive or unpopular after all, as people here were so happy to claim when we had a real march on Labour.

[Iain]

David (One of many), I agree, their 2005 Conservative manifesto was a good plan for Government, and the Conservatives could point to this in it.....

" Today, government is spending too much, lasting too much and taxing too much. Britain cannot continue indefinitely to spend more than she is earning without higher taxes or higher interest rates – either of which will harm our economic prospects. If we are to secure our future
prosperity, government must once again start to live within its means. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_04_05_conservative_manifesto.pdf

whilst the Libdems were cheerleading for more spending and more taxes. Unfortunately the Uber Modernisers in the Conservative party are trying to have their Poll Pot moment, so unwilling to recognise any past Conservative values or if any old Conservative policies have any relevance today.

[ChrisD]

"Chris D, an apology for the damage that he did to our party and himself."

Really? You don't think that some media organisations behaved in a completely over the top manner when there was not even a case for an enquiry by the electoral commission, because there was no donation?

George Osborne has played a vital role in bringing the Conservatives into a position where they realistically might win their first GE in 16 years, it is not an accident that the Labour party are gunning for him right now.
He and his family were on holiday, and he jumped on a billionaires yacht for tea?
I think that you need to get this into perspective, in the grand scheme of politic sleaze and scandal, he hasn't even dipped his toes in the water.

[Edward Huxley]

I heard the interview and although I`m not an Osborne fan, he did come across quite well. Unfortunately "not breaking any rules" is the sort of stuff all three parties come out with. They do all they can to get the money as long as it is not actually illegal. They don`t worry about the moral aspect of sailing too close to the wind.
They`re all the ...... same is what the general public think.

George Osborne is not fit to be a government minister.

[Yachtie]

You ought to be able to spell YACHT. I make that three mispelled yachts in one day!

[David Sergeant]

I still say Osborne did the right thing going on the yacht. I would hope any Tory leader would be happy to go and talk to the man that had just bought Leyland whether in his yacht or Smart Car. I wonder if some of the critism is from people who think we should only talk to smart city types in suits with posh accents, every one else is beneath them. If so we have problems.

[Henry Mayhew Ukipper / traditional conservative]

I thought GO handled his apology pretty skilfully.

[Malcolm Dunn]

Media organisations (particularly the BBC)did not behave well Chris. I would never claim that they did.It was a pity that George gave them the excuse. Anyway it seems he's learned his lesson and it will never happen again.

[snegchui]

Malcolm Dunn:
You're hopeful, aren't you.
Eternal vigilance is very wearing, but it is what will be required to avoid future "non-stories" like this still leaving mud on the Tory image - maybe not at the "Village level", but at waverers central who were the probable main target.

[Perdix]

Amazing on PoliticsHome that GO's reputation is badly tarnished when he did not do anything that was corrupt. Shows how the lazy herd journalism and bias from the BBC and MSM can have such an impact. I hope the Tories will be in a position to tell the Rothchilds where to stick their money.They are probably more comfortable with the sleaze bags in NuLabour.

[GB£.com]

Well George has apologised, so it's time to move on and instead focus on the serious matter in hand of finding a better Shadow Chancellor.

[Ulster Tory]

I'm reasonably sure the Beeb have bound to have broken some sort of codes over this.

Ofcom regulations for a start -

7.1 Broadcasters must avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes.

7.9 Before broadcasting a factual programme, including programmes examining past events, broadcasters should take reasonable care to satisfy themselves that:
- material facts have not been presented, disregarded or omitted in a way that is unfair to an individual or organisation;
-anyone whose omission could be unfair to an individual or organisation has been offered an opportunity to contribute.

7.10 Programmes – such as dramas and factually-based dramas – should not portray facts, events, individuals or organisations in a way which is unfair to an individual or organisation.

7.13 Where it is appropriate to represent the views of a person or organisation that is not participating in the programme, this must be done in a fair manner.

[strapworld]

I didn't hear Osborne apologise for bad mouthing (behind their backs!) Dr. Liam Fox and David Davis and, I presume other top table tories! when he was dining with his new best friend, Mandleson!

How can people just accept this apology and forget the man's lack of common sense and total lack of loyalty to his colleagues.

George Osborne is now a major liability to the Conservative Party.

Mr Mercer got sacked for telling the truth, for Cameron incorrectly and disgracefully labelling hima racist!

Osborne denigrated his colleagues, was stupid FIVE times and can carry on regardless. Thats the ETON spirit!

[pp]

What a lot of trolls there are here...

I thought osborne was very poor when browns meltdown (its not a bust see....) began. And when the yacht thing first came up, I thought it would be a convenient excuse to call for him to be 'moved'.

However the way he has handled this episode has been absolutely faultless -- he is now well known, seen as honest/reliable (if slightly naieve regarding the yacht thing) -- I think he has massive potential to do a fantastic job.

He just needs to use his raised profile as a spring-board. And take confidence in the fact he has taken a full blown attack from the dark lord and shrugged it off.

Go get 'em George.

[David Sergeant]

"he is now well known,"
Posted by: pp | October 27, 2008 at 20:26

Which a big plus for him and the party. That's the way things work these days.

Strapworld please calm down so you make some sense.

[Martin]

I am not a member of the Conservative Party. (yet!)

But can I just say that your chap George has come out of this smelling like a rose garden!

It was obvious that there was a plot to fit him up, which did not work, and which has blown up in the face of Mandelson.

Look after George. He is a good man.

[CJH]

strapworld, you do realise that George Osborne is not an Old Etonian don't you?