Look at the polls: Britain is a Labour country, not a Tory one | Martin Kettle

George Osborne struggles because the post-Thatcherite mood that swept Tony Blair to power has still not receded

Gordon Brown and George Osborne have much more in common than either of them is happy to admit. Both have famously served as intensely political chancellors. Both are bywords among colleagues for big-picture thinking shot through with meanly partisan calculation. Osborne’s big setpiece speeches can often feel like a Brown tribute act with their rapid-fire delivery, deceptively partial information and love of rabbits pulled out of hats to wrongfoot the opposition.

There is, however, no direct connection between Brown’s retirement and Osborne’s autumn statement except that the two events both took place this week. Yet the coincidence is a dramatic reminder of what happens when the public turns against a government. It happened to Brown in 2010; and now he is gone. The same thing may well happen to Osborne in 2015; and he knows this better than anyone.

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