George Osborne quotes:

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  • I understand the damage the expenses crisis has done to Parliament, and the paramount importance of restoring trust in our politics.

  • The positive news is that the British economy is continuing to grow and is creating jobs. And it is positive news too that at a time of real international instability we are a safe haven in the storm.

  • The Conservative Party mustn't sound like the old man on the park bench who says things were better in 1985, or 1955, or 1855.

  • I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the 'Today' programme and item four on the news was: 'The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership.' I lay there thinking that's interesting, then I realised it was me.

  • Of all the public services, education is the one I'm most interested in. You get a more dynamic economy, you deal with most social problems, and it's morally right.

  • You know the illusion of the cheap money is over and now Britain has to go out there and graft and earn its way and create wealth and prosperity in a very competitive world.

  • There was a real fear that a euro-zone bank might fail, that we'd have a sovereign debt problem in one of the larger European economies. That's dissipated, thanks largely to the action of the European Central Bank.

  • The Conservative party, the modern Conservative party, is on the side of people who want to work hard and get on.

  • If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth.

  • The British people think that if someone is disabled, then they should get all the care and support that we can offer.

  • Tax cuts should be for life, not just for Christmas.

  • I support gay marriage. I support gay marriage because I believe Conservatives support the institutions of commitment.

  • Most successful politicians don't let the job swamp their lives.

  • Britain has no divine right to be one of the richest countries in the world.

  • You cannot tackle Britain's debts without tackling the unreformed welfare system.

  • I'm a Conservative who believes in lower taxes. They lead to a more enterprising economy. But I'm not somebody who believes you can fund lower taxes by borrowing more money.

  • Everyone in our society has had to make a contribution towards dealing with the debts.

  • I would say I have taken substantive action to make things easier for people.

  • I think you can look at the British economy with confidence.

  • A generous basic state pension is the least a civilized society should offer those who have worked hard and saved through their whole lives.

  • The rise in world oil prices has been larger than anyone forecast.

  • Just as we should never balance the budget on the backs of the poor, so it is an economic delusion to think you can balance it only on the wallets of the rich.

  • Well can I just say unlike my predecessors, Conservative and Labour, I have set up an independent body that studies whether what I'm saying is true, whether I've met the targets that I set out.

  • Some things never change, suck up to the government and you get an honour.

  • It's normally the kiss of death to be identified as a rising star, or someone to watch.

  • I reject absolutely the idea that people should know their place, and know their class.

  • I'm not going out to parties every night.

  • It is not fair that people who are born in the UK to parents who are domiciled here, can later in life claim to be non-doms and live here, it is not fair that non-doms with residential property here in the UK can put it in an offshore company and avoid inheritance tax.

  • They all said I was a very young guy. Well there is nothing I can do about that but with each day that passes the problem solves itself.

  • Well you know I've attracted a lot of criticism by, for example, suggesting that child benefit should be taken away from higher rate taxpaying families.

  • The foundations of a strong economy don't rest alone on the decisions of Chancellors or the spending programmes of government.

  • It's perfectly reasonable in a coalition between two political parties that you get supporters of those parties you know stressing the things they want to stress.

  • We will also target tax evasion and off-shore tax havens... Everyone must pay their share.

  • You really have to try hard to create space and, at least for a time, stop the political world from rushing in. The important thing is to remain sane.

  • Unless they have disabilities to cope with, no family should get more from living on benefits than the average family gets from going out to work. No more open-ended chequebook.

  • We need to think deeply about whether we can sustain banks that are not only too big to fail, but potentially too big to bail.

  • If you want to change the way your banking system is regulated, if you want to learn the mistakes of what's gone wrong, then you have to change your government.

  • Well British pension funds have not been investing the savings of British people in British infrastructure.

  • I think the British people have a strong sense of what is fair.

  • Cutting budget deficits can never be just an exercise in economics.

  • Every day as Chancellor I see alerts telling me of risks around the world.

  • I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.

  • I want Britain to be the home of successful competitive and stable financial services.

  • Believe me, I understand that most higher rate taxpayers are not the super-rich.

  • I believe in public services.

  • Autism is a very serious condition.

  • Britain needs a simpler tax system which is simple to understand, where there are no loop-holes, where the very rich do not avoid tax by employing expensive accountants

  • I believe that I'm entitled to regard my pre-political life as off-limits in terms of what can be looked at and judged.

  • I did meet Mickey Mouse in California, and he seems to be writing the Labour party's economic policy at the moment.

  • I get a lot of letters from people.

  • I have done everything I can to move Britain out of the financial danger zone.

  • I want Britain to be a global financial centre but I want it to be properly regulated.

  • I want to see genuine talent rewarded.

  • I was shocked to see that some of the very wealthiest people in the country have organised their tax affairs, and to be fair it's within the tax laws, so that they were regularly paying virtually no income tax. And I don't think that's right.

  • If you're looking for ways to cut waste in government, you can start with John Prescott.

  • No other chancellor in the long history of the office has felt the need to pass a law in order to convince people he has the political will to implement his own Budget.

  • Our first benchmark is to cut the deficit more quickly to safeguard Britain's credit rating. I know that we are taking a political gamble to set this up as a measure of success. Protecting the credit rating will not be easy The pace of fiscal consolidation will be co-ordinated with monetary policy. And we will protect Britain's credit rating and international reputation.

  • There are those who are trying to create an anti-business culture in Britain - and we have to stop them. At stake are not pay packages for a few but jobs and prosperity for the many. Everything in politics encourages more red tape - everyone insists government must step in - 'something must be done' is always the cry. We have to resist these pressures.

  • Well look, no one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others, but that is a function of capitalist markets.

  • When you look at the things people are really fed up with, like the collapse of the pension system, like the failure to get money to the frontline of the health service, Gordon Brown is more responsible for that than any other politician including Tony Blair

  • Printing money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed.

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