George (henceforth known as Jeffrey) Osborne tweeted out a picture of him eating a burger whilst getting the Spending Statement ready. Nothing wrong with that, except it was a bit of contrived nonsense to show he was 'with the people' by eating a burger. Worse still, it was a £10 burger from Byron. Very nice I can tell you...I've had one. But I don't claim to understand what it's like trying to feed five kids on benefits because I'm an unmarried mother who's not had a job for a decade. I would never, ever pretend to be something I'm not but our politicos can't help themselves. They'd be much better off coming out and saying, "Yes I've had a privileged upbringing, I've been very fortunate in life and I shall use the experience I've gained to help people less fortunate than me." Who knows, they might even be able to say it in a less patronising way. Anyway Jeffrey, enjoy the burger, hope you don't choke on it.
In case you think there may be some political bias here. This is a quote from scandal rag Popbitch,
"While Chancellor George Osborne ate his mid-market Byron burger last night, Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls was sat in Rotary Bar, Shoreditch, enjoying a nice pack of crisps. And, as befits a politician sitting by Silicon Roundabout, it wasn't a packet of Frazzles. He was tucking into Leighton Brown sweet potato, cheese and jalapeno crisps. Like to see him burnish his man- of-the-people cred on Twitter with that."
When gas and oil were found in the North Sea, the Norwegians did something very clever. They put some of their new found wealth into a fund. It's something that your granny might have taught you to do....save for a rainy day. The result is that Norway is a wealthy country with a large social resource. What happened in the UK? We spent it. We didn't save a penny of it. There was no grand plan. The treasury took what they could in tax revenues and spent it. Some would say not very wisely. I couldn't possibly comment. I know that's a somewhat simplistic way of looking at it, but it's true enough.
The question today is, now that UK shale gas reserves are thought to be double the size previously thought, will the government tuck the extra revenue away for a future generation? After Jeffrey has a plan to ensure our nation's finances are balanced, so extra revenue isn't something we need to spend is it?
Answers on the back of a postcard please.