City damns lightweight Osborne

This blog has always felt that would-be Chancellor George Osborne rivals his shadow cabinet colleague BMA spokesman Andrew Lansley for the sheer fatuousness of his public statements. It would seem I am not alone. The new Spectator editor, Fraser Nelson, explains what the City thinks of him, in a pretty damning column this week.

Financiers who attend his soirees grumble that it is all politics and no economics. When asked about economics, I am told, he becomes rather glum and evasive. But when asked about political strategy, his face lights up. There are no specific policies causing the City particular concern, but rather a general impression, which one hears repeatedly in the City, that the soon-to-be-chancellor has no expertise — and not even much interest — in the job he is about to inherit.