Today I Learned

[DanaC]

Yup.

We've done much the same thing.

Look at the resume of the former Chancellor of the Exchequer - architect and key drivin force of the austerity strategy still playing out, devastating whole sectors of the economy and big chunks of the population as it goes -

Osborne was educated at independent schools: Norland Place School, Colet Court and St Paul's School.[9] In 1990 he was awarded a demyship at Magdalen College, Oxford,[3] where in 1993 he received a 2:1 bachelor's degree in Modern History.[6][10] Whilst there, he was a member of the Bullingdon Club.[11] He also attended Davidson College in North Carolina for a semester, as a Dean Rusk Scholar.[12]
In 1993, Osborne intended to pursue a career in journalism. He was shortlisted for, but failed to gain a place on, The Times' trainee scheme; he also applied to The Economist, where he was interviewed and rejected by Gideon Rachman.[13] In the end, he had to settle for freelance work on the Peterborough diary column of The Daily Telegraph.[14] One of his Oxford friends, journalist George Bridges, alerted Osborne some time later to a research vacancy at Conservative Central Office.[14]
Early political career
Osborne joined the Conservative Research Department in 1994, and became head of its Political Section. One of his first roles was to go to Blackpool and observe the October 1994 Labour Party Conference.[15]
Between 1995 and 1997 he worked as a special adviser to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Douglas Hogg (during the BSE crisis), and in the Political Office at 10 Downing Street. Osborne worked on Prime Minister John Major's campaign team in 1997, in the run-up to the Tories' heavy election defeat that year.[16] After the election, he again considered journalism, approaching The Times to be a leader writer, though nothing came of it.
Between 1997 and 2001 he worked for William Hague, Major's successor as Conservative Party leader, as a speechwriter and political secretary. He helped to prepare Hague for the weekly session of Prime Minister's Questions,[16] often playing the role of Prime Minister Tony Blair. Under the subsequent leaderships of Michael Howard and David Cameron, he remained on the Prime Minister's Questions team.

A second rate academic and (at the time) failed journalist whose entire working history prior to becoming Chancellor was as a political assistant/advisor and being a member of parliament. I think he also did a little internship at daddy's company.

He set in place the 1% cap on public sector pay - that is still in place and means nurses, for instance have effectively taken a 15% reduction in wages in real terms over the last 7 years. Told the nation to tighten our collective belts - and thought it would be a great idea for our economy if everybody tightened their belts so much that they had no room left for spending.

Cameron wasn't much more connected to the 'real world', as they say.

and you could pretty much see them getting hard when they stood there all statesmanlike delivering speeches about how they had to be brave enough to make the difficult decisions.



Pretty sure it wasn't always like this. I seem to recall a time when conservative leaders were people who'd had successful business and industry careers, or, if from a more academic background, had a serious grounding in economic theory.


Labour haven't been much better on that score in recent years (though Corbyn is certainly a different case).