George’s marvellous legacy

SO AFTER all that George Osborne has decided he cannot serve the people of London and voters in his Tatton constituency at the same time.

But Osborne still has ‘five jobs’ and like Donald Trump, who is constantly peppered with conflict of interest questions, the former Chancellor has to resolve how it is possible to be on the payroll of one of the world’s largest asset managers BlackRock – with a role in investment and corporate governance – and edit a newspaper.

At a moment when the Tory government he used to serve is seeking to change the shape of free market Anglo-Saxon capitalism so as to curb pay in boardrooms, scrutinise overseas takeovers and to create a fairer society, it will be increasingly hard to serve two masters. This is especially true when BlackRock pays Osborne so much, £650,000 per year, for doing so little.

Be that as it may one should not underestimate what Osborne did for Britain when he was Chancellor. The chaos in the public finances and in City regulation he inherited from Labour was daunting and the world shattered by the Great Recession.

Osborne showed enormous courage in seeing off ferocious critics on the Left such as former MPC member David Blanchflower who predicted big increases in unemployment and the former chief economist at the IMF Olivier Blanchard who warned austerity was playing with fire. Both were proved wrong when the UK economy bounced back showing the resilience which has placed it among the fastest growing advanced economies over the last several years.

That, together with the success in putting more people into work in Britain and lowering the jobless rate below 5pc, must be considered among the great achievements of his period in office.

As Chancellor, Osborne also was instrumental in putting in place more robust arrangements to try to head off the next financial crisis. The current regulatory structure in the City and the appointment of Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England were his personal doing. This paper may have issues with Carney over his negative view of Brexit but there can be little doubt that his close attention to financial stability and understanding how markets need to work for people are refreshing.

On the global front Osborne often seemed to cut a less impressive figure than Gordon Brown. The former Labour Chancellor and PM was a real player at global meetings, full of bright ideas such as the creation of the Group of 20 as the institution best-equipped to manage the world out of crisis.

Brown played a key role in debt relief for poor nations. Osborne saw the Washington meetings as a means of elevating his status and attached himself to easy causes such as endorsing Christine Lagarde to lead the IMF despite legal difficulties in France.

Osborne may have been on the wrong side of history with the Remain campaign and his foolish ‘punishment’ budget. But his achievement in returning Britain to prosperity and stability makes Brexit possible.

Bad banks

WE DON’T need the International Monetary Fund to tell us of the appalling state of the European banking system.

The travails of Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank and here at home Royal Bank of Scotland and Co-op Bank have been closely monitored on these pages.

What is shocking is the sheer scale of the hangover from the financial crisis and subsequent meltdown in the eurozone in 2010. European Union banks still carry €1trillion of non-performing loans. The number has come down by €120bn (£100bn) over the last year but it is still at alarming levels.

It largely explains why the banking system in Europe, the main source of credit for business, has been hopeless in firing up the eurozone economies and restoring output. Better for Britain to be free of this shower.

Fox affair

OFCOM has a tricky task in giving the goahead to the £11.7bn 21st Century Fox bid for the 61pc of Sky it doesn’t own.

Fox News is embroiled in controversy over compensation payments made by its biggest star Bill O’Reilly to settle alleged sexual harassment claims. As always, the issue is not the payments in themselves but what Fox News knew, when it knew it and why there wasn’t fuller disclosure.

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox last night said ‘O’Reilly will not be returning to the Fox News Channel’.

But it is not clear that that will be the end of the matter.