Cameron may be PM – but it’s Osborne who really runs this government | Simon Jenkins

The embattled chancellor has emerged from the budget with his reputation enhanced. Win or lose in May, he will endure.

David Cameron may be monarch of Britain’s coalition but George Osborne is its first minister. He is keeper of the purse, custodian of the flame and author of the narrative.Over five years he has been sometimes hesitant, sometimes bombastic, but today he surveyed the forthcoming election battlefield and sent his party forward: slogan-shouting, banner-flying – “from austerity in...