Lord Lamont: George Osborne deserves good press

George Osborne’s austerity measures have consistently come under criticism, with many believing them to be excessive. But could they actually be the ticket to a richer economy?

November 21, 2014
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Transcript

World Finance: Your contemporary George Osborne has come under a lot of flak of late, with his dealings in the economy, so what would you do differently?
Lord Lamont: Well I don’t think George Osborne has come under such a lot of flak, I think by and large he’s had a pretty good press, and I actually think he deserves to. I think he’s done pretty well.

I think [George Osborne] has done pretty well

We hear an awful lot of talk about excessive austerity. I don’t think the austerity has been excessive, what was excessive were the debts we rang up before all this started, and we like many other countries have had to rein in after the financial crisis, but I think it’s been done in a moderate way and with skill. I think it’s been well judged, and the result of that is evident in the faster growth Britain is enjoying, and the much fuller employment that we have.

So I think the government have done well. We obviously want to look forward to a new stage where, hopefully, living standards will improve. Obviously, in this period that we’ve just been through, living standards have not been improving. That’s been unavoidable, because of the excessive indebtedness, the amount of prosperity that we borrow from the future, but hopefully, if we continue on the right path, gradually living standards will start increasing again.