Osborne in line for award

Yet again, you couldn`t make this up. Manchester University, an institution which is "currently planning to axe 171 jobs", has offered an influential position to a multi-millionaire whose arrogance knows no bounds, and who has so many jobs not one of them can possibly be done efficiently or conscientiously (Morning Star, 30/06/17).

  Even worse, this is the same man who masterminded the Tories` austerity programme from 2010 to 2016 with the aim of shrinking the state back to 1930s` levels, with all the reduced responsibility of government which that entails, to which the Grenfell Tower residents can sadly attest. Osborne should certainly be in line for one of  the University`s "Making a Difference" Awards, presented annually to staff and students who have made an "impact on the social well-being" of the community and wider society. There isn`t room here to list all those whose "social well-being" has been affected by the ex-chancellor`s actions, but a few include:

       the school pupils whose attendance at sixth form, and future hopes for A-level success were prevented by the ending of the Education Maintenance Allowance;

       those claiming benefit, including the thousands with disabilities, whose lives were damaged, and sometimes ended, by the then-chancellor`s severe cuts;

       state sector workers who endured repeated pay freezes, which led to recruitment crises, particularly in the teaching and nursing professions, and to huge reductions in their real wages;

       HMRC workers and inspectors who lost their jobs, but whose absence helped insure tax evasion and avoidance carried on enriching the wealthy, and depriving the Treasury of billions every year.

       local authority workers and inspectors who lost their jobs when councils, particularly Labour-run ones, had their budgets slashed by 40%;

       the millions of us whose health and safety have been put at risk because of the inevitable cost-cutting local authorities are still having to make;

       the rich, whose wealth Osborne allowed to increase hugely,and who refused to tax either efficiently or fairly;

       the people in the north of England who were fooled by Osborne`s 2015 election wheeze of creating a "Northern Powerhouse" at a time when polls were predicting electoral Labour success.

         Manchester University`s newest economics professor, someone incidentally whose degree was in History, certainly has impacted on the "social well-being" of millions of people in this country. One would have thought no institution, with any respect for the feelings of its staff, "consumers", or neighbouring locality, would even contemplate offering Osborne any position, especially one for which he has no obvious qualification, and to which he is so evidently unsuited. It`s little wonder that news of this broke when all the students had started summer vacation!