Chancellor George Osborne said yesterday that the EU order to seize up to £170 million from private bank accounts in Cyprus — including those of 60,000 UK expats — is a result of nations failing to deal with their debt crisis.
It wouldn’t happen here, he said, because David Cameron had kept us out of eurozone bank bailouts.
Then Osborne added that the Government would be compensating UK service personnel in Cyprus who lost 10 per cent of their money in the German-inspired, EU move. Meaning we’ll be taking part in eurozone bank bailouts whether we like it or not.
Just days before his latest Budget, the Chancellor looks a bit twitchy. As well he might.
A ‘triple dip’ recession is threatened. It’s predicted that our economy will grow at only 0.7 per cent this year instead of the 1.2 per cent we were promised.
Osborne’s name has become ‘toxic’ to voters, says a new poll. They more or less back the Government’s debt-reduction programme — but not when Osborne’s name is attached to it.
Among Conservative voters, a shocking 53 per cent of those polled supported the pro-stimulus arguments of Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls.
Osborne claims that Cameron has kept us out of eurozone bank bailouts, and this will prevent seizure of funds from private bank accounts, such as what has just happened in CyprusNot even the luxurious wallpapers produced by his family’s firm, Osborne & Little, could cover up the damage to George’s image. Now some senior Tories say Wednesday’s Budget is his last throw of the dice as Chancellor.
More from Peter McKay... In 70 years, have we gone from the greatest to the weakest? Silly spats prove how weak our leaders are 19/05/13 Is Cameron readying his lifeboat like Blair? 12/05/13 Don't panic yet, Dave. It's Red Ed who should be worried... 05/05/13 Sir, we are charging you with being a celebrity... 28/04/13 Will one of our cities be next to face 'lockdown'? 21/04/13 Grocer's girl who 'got above herself' 14/04/13 Ed needs a dose of the old Blair snake oil 07/04/13 Labour's addiction to welfare hurts us all 31/03/13 Now Dave's 'dog whistle' guru is calling the tunes 24/03/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEWill it be a glorious new dawn for George — or a chorus of jeers over ‘too little, too late’ tinkering?
The message from the party is that it will be a ‘steady as she goes and batten down the hatches’ Budget. Only minor tweaks are predicted.
The 3p-a-litre fuel duty increase due this September may be postponed. There could be a small increase in the amount we’re allowed to put into tax-free Isas. And more promises to build more homes.
Friends of Osborne say it’s not fair to dismiss him, nor to yearn for the solutions suggested by his critics. He just doesn’t believe in the kind of Reaganite economics urged on him by Right-wingers, like cutting taxes in the counter-intuitive hope that this will increase revenues. He’s a balanced-budgets Tory.
Nor is he inclined to slash taxes in the hope of promoting a consumer boom. He takes the traditional Treasury view that in a recession-battered economy, people would simply use such tax respite to reduce their debts.
Besides, say Osborne fans, being in Coalition with the Lib Dems means he can’t be a proper Tory.
He’s had one hand tied behind his back, so it’s not fair to dismiss him as the most unpopular Tory Chancellor in living memory. But life isn’t fair.
Others say there’s no obvious alternative to Osborne — and who’d want the job right now? But there is at least one good candidate, the Defence Secretary Philip Hammond.
A funereal figure who could moonlight as a professional mourner, he — unlike Osborne — took the precaution of making his millions before devoting himself to politics.
So he has actual economic experience, as opposed to merely theoretical knowledge. At the Ministry of Defence, he is now known, I am told, as ‘Forensic Phil’. This on account of him being able to read and analyse defence ministry accounts, a rare if not unique ability in Defence Secretaries.
Gwyneth Paltrow has spoken out for the first time about her miscarriageOnce he’s sorted out our military spending, might he not move on to an even more pressing task — sorting the national economy?
Gwyneth Paltrow, 40, says she nearly died after miscarrying her third child, but adds: ‘My children ask me to have a baby all the time.
‘You never know, I could squeeze one more in. I’m missing my third.’
Some might deplore Ms Paltrow’s readiness to give interviews discussing often delicate aspects of her personal life. But she must also provide comfort to many less-advantaged women who have suffered the same experiences.
And isn’t she a breath of fresh air compared with the snivelling showbiz types who seek the adoration of fans without offering anything beyond their one-dimensional professional performances?
No smoke without papal firePope Francis is said to scorn the dignities of papal office while being devoted to the poor. But has any incoming Pope ever exhibited enthusiasm for the papal perks and interested himself only in the wealthy?
For the faithful — and those who provide media commentaries for them — it’s always necessary to find goodness, even saintliness, in new Popes. At the same time there are always naysayers who claim the Holy Father isn’t all he’s made out to be.
Newly elected Pope Francis I is said to scorn the dignities of papal office while being devoted to the poorPope Benedict’s German ancestry was trawled over, as were his actions — or inactions, said some — over sexually abusive priests. Now we’re told Pope Francis had sinister connections with the Argentinian junta whom we fought in the Falklands.
The faithful won’t believe a word of it. His detractors will believe the worst.
Pope Francis will totter on into history, trying not to alienate too many believers while resisting pressure to align the Roman Catholic Church with the sexual assumptions and mores of the 21st century.
The Prince's visit to Saudi Arabia comes days after seven men were beheaded for stealing Charles of ArabiaThe Prince of Wales’s visit to Saudi Arabia came a few days after seven men were beheaded for thieving. Some were juveniles when the crimes were committed. This isn’t Charles’s responsibility, of course. So I wouldn’t expect him to raise the matter with Saudi authorities. But it might have been embarrassing to him if the executions had taken place on the day he and Camilla arrived. Were they brought forward for that reason?Charles has let it be known he is studying the Koran. He wishes his subtitle when monarch to be Defender of Faiths, rather than Defender of the Faith.I wonder if he raised with his Saudi hosts the possibility of establishing a Christian church there — a friendly, reciprocal gesture for Britain’s tolerance of mosques. And if not, why not?
Funny how it’s always a twitThe Cheltenham Festival racegoer who was photographed tweaking Prince William’s ear is identified as one of his ‘oldest and closest friends’, banker Harry Aubrey-Fletcher, son of Buckinghamshire’s Lord Lieutenant, Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher.
Why did he tweak William’s ear? As an attempt to distract him during the first race, apparently. As a joke. Sort of. Harry, a banker with JP Morgan in London, plainly sought to demonstrate his closeness to the prince — thus emphasising his seniority among royal guests in the private box.
Harry Aubrey-Fletcher, son of Buckinghamshire's Lord Lieutenant was identified as the 'ear pincher' of Prince WilliamHow fortunate that a photographer was on hand to record for posterity his telling gesture.Racegoing Harry would be a favourite for Monty Python’s Upper Class Twit of the Year.
Ear we go: Wills at the races
The SAS will be shooting insurgents in Afghanistan with new weapons and ammunition that are more likely to kill than wound, says a Mail on Sunday report.
A source at the regiment says: ‘The shoot-to-wound policy was based on the assumption that once he was wounded, an enemy combatant would stop fighting, and so would his colleagues to give him first aid.
Keith Waterhouse founded the AAAA‘But this backfired against the Taliban. The 5.56mm rounds did not take a big enough chunk out of them, allowing fanatical insurgents to keep on fighting despite their wounds. Tests are now taking place on at least three rifles specially designed to fire 7.62mm rounds.’
When our own troops carry on fighting after being wounded, they’re described as courageous and are sometimes awarded bravery medals. Taliban fighters who do this are ‘fanatical’. Isn’t the language of warfare interesting?
Britain’s AAAA ratingMy late colleague Keith Waterhouse would have savoured the story about Mid Devon council abandoning ‘confusing’ apostrophes on street signs.
Keith founded the Association for the Annihilation of the Aberrant Apostrophe, which dealt primarily with shop sign horrors such as ‘Price’s down while stock’s last’.
But his AAAA was vigilant, too, over apostrophes dropped altogether, such as St Paul’s Square in Birmingham becoming St Pauls Square. Members threatened to pelt councillors with ‘overripe tomato’s and banana’s from the greengrocer’s’.
The battle is lost, though. There are Oxford graduates who don’t understand apostrophes. And the state of spelling is worse. The Sewing And Stitching Show, advertised outside the Olympia exhibition venue in West London as I passed last week, had a huge banner calling it ‘Sewing and Stiching’.
