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George and Mandy Go Wild on Corfu

Sometimes its the incidental details of a scandal that are most revealing

John Stuart Mill once famously dubbed the Conservatives "The Stupid Party", but surely few Tories have ever been as stupid as George Osborne. Why on earth did he take on Mandelson while knowing what he did about his activities on and offshore in Corfu? It's almost as if he knew what he had done looked bad and, like a little boy who has done something naughty, was unconsciously desperate for the news to get out. I am told Gerorge Osborne is an honest man. Was he looking for some sort of absolution?

No rules were broken. No donations made. But it just looks so awful for a senior politician in a party attempting to rid itself of its image as the party of privilege.

My favourite detail in all this is that George Osborne broke his holiday among the super-rich to give a speech in London abour poverty.

But the Labour Party should be careful too. It isn't great for the Prime Minister that every time this story is raised, the quote about Mandelson pouring poison in Osborne's ear about Gordon Brown appears again. And the more reporters focus on the social networks of the Business Secretary the worse it gets.

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5 comments from readers

John
24 October 2008 at 09:45

Osborne tried to stick the knife into Mandy, he failed and now Mandy has given him a good-kicking.

Osborne is the student (not a very good one), Mandy is the Master.

gnuneo
24 October 2008 at 14:28

oh, its bigger than *that* Martin, this news item showed up today...

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/4/20081024/tuk-cameron-in-private-j...

not sure yet what it will turn into, but it would require someone with the naivety of a saint not to smell some Corruption in there somewhere.

Roger Fah-Fah
29 October 2008 at 12:59

What interests me is whether this scandal has done more damage to Labour or the Tories? It like rowing? Oford or Cambridge!!! Close every year!

taghioff.info
02 November 2008 at 12:28

Martin

"abouthis[sic] won [sic] activities "

I think he lost bad actually. Upsetting Nat Rothschilde, whose dad is one of Murdoch's right hand men, was a biiiig mistake.

It also brought the whole Bullingdon thing out into the open again.

I just hope the Rothschildes take this really, really personally, and that we see a few more leaks about what Osborne was up in his youth, possibly in News Corporation publications...

Martin Bright
04 November 2008 at 13:11

taghioff -- typos corrected. Thanks for that

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