OSBORNE IMPRESSES

by RAY FLEMING
THE shadow chancellor George Osborne went a long way in his speech to the Conservative Party Conference yesterday to erase the impression he has often given of being something of a loose cannon apt to make statements and promises that have not been thoroughly thought through. His speech was sound, sensible and serious -- qualities that all voters want to see in a potential Chancellor of the Exchequer even if he is not of their own political persuasion. “We're all in this together” was his theme song and it reflected the elusive sense of political inclusiveness that has run through several of the proposals made at the party conferences this year. When Mr Osborne told the party faithful yesterday that he would keep the Labour 50 per cent top tax rate -- saying it would be “grossly unfair” to drop it -- he got a surprising round of applause from the delegates. Similarly the big new proposal to raise by one year the age at which the state pension operates is a difficult measure to criticise in present circumstances -- except for the negative effect it may have for women, a problem that Mr Cameron acknowledged in his morning round of TV and radio interviews. Two years ago Mr Osborne electrified the party by proposing to raise the Inheritance Tax threshold. The announcement unsettled Gordon Brown sufficiently to make him decide against a snap election that he would probably have won. This year Mr Osborne said nothing more about it.