Sunday, September 21, 2008

Osborne Passes the Interview Test

The interview with George Osborne in the Mail on Sunday magazine today is well worth a read. It's online HERE.

It's easy to make a complete arse of yourself in interviews like this, so I was relieved to read George had done no such thing. Indeed, it was quite a revealing interview and showed that he is far from the 'toff' the Labour Party likes to make out.

4 comments:

michaelmph said...

Well, an interview with the deep blue Mail on Sunday hardly constitutes a 'test'. With the Guardian or Times, maybe. It reads like pure PR puffery.

Unknown said...

Is he not a toff? I suppose it depends on your definition. As the piece points out, though a long way down

"He has an estimated personal fortune of around £4 million, as the beneficiary of a trust fund that owns a 15-per-cent stake in Osborne & Little, the wallpaper-and-fabrics company co-founded by his father, Sir Peter Osborne."

It's a bit different from, say, Alan Johnson's upbringing....

Not a sheep said...

Help me out Simon (7:18) Are all toffs rich? Are all rich people toffs? Is being a toff a handicap to being a politician? Are you more real if your family were poor? Above which level of family income should someone be disbarred from becoming a politician?

Unknown said...

Not A Sheep

Not al toffs are rich and not all rich people are toffs. However, someone with a £4m trust fund set up by his titled father seems to me to fulfil the basic criteria for toffdom.

As to your other questions:

Is being a toff a handicap to being a politician? It was for Douglas Hurd and Douglas-Home, so, yes, it can be.

Are you more real if your family were poor? As far as I understand the slightly odd question, we're all equally real, rich and poor alike.

Above which level of family income should someone be disbarred from becoming a politician? No bar in my view.

I think you're reading rather too much into my comment, to be honest.