In the spirit of 'I listened so you don't have to', perhaps you could pick out the bits that are either surprising, persuasive, or suitably contrite?
Well, as ever, you asked and so I granted. Just know that in order so to do I had to forego my usual choice of Showaddywaddy's Greatest Hits whilst on the bike for an hour very early this morning and listen to this instead.
Unfortunately, what with the intense demands of work, I've forgotten most of the salient points, but actually that is the point in that it was quite anodyne, at least from Osborne. It struck me that he is far from a great intellect, very little academic weight to what he said and no real insights. Actually, I don't mind that, because part of why I listen/read to these people is to find out who they are and how they think.
He gave the impression of Tory politics as a chumocracy as he seemed able to wave away the dire consequences of the Johnson era with a few humorous anecdotes of Johnson's renegade behaviour, whilst having just said that Johnson achieved nothing. Didn't have many nice words to say about May, seeing her as rather unnecessarily spiteful. Again, in terms of her treatment of colleagues rather than anything else.
In terms of reflecting on his time in politics he did not budge on austerity and presented it as the only choice at the time. He also attempted to say that shadow Chancellor Alistair Darling was also proposing deep cuts. Campbell tried to pin him down suggesting that Osborne had to accept that the current crisis in public services was his legacy, but Osborne wouldn't take responsibility for anything.
There was some talk of Labour's current situation and here he emphasised the need to communicate a strong message offering something, which he felt Labour were not currently doing. WRT to Starmer he pointed out that during the Corbyn era (which he excoriated) Starmer had to swallow things he didn't agree with. I know this is contentious on this forum, but I appreciate what he means. If you are part of a leadership team you have to present a united front even when, inevitably, there are aspects you do not like.
What else? Some talk of Brexit, and how it came about, with Campbell succeeding in not allowing Osborne to pretend that the referendum was answering national questions about, say, immigration, rather than an attempt to shut down the eurosceptic wing of his own party by Cameron.
Yeah it was a bit bland, but then he is bland. We are also a little to close to his time in power, I feel. Possibly the most interesting part was about his time in opposition and how effective he felt the Labour triumvirate of Blair, Brown and Campbell were. He also rued the poor quality of Conservative leaders during their time in opposition. IDS coming out particularly badly.
