Quotes By George Osborne

I think the British people have a strong sense of what is fair.

I believe in public services.

A generous basic state pension is the least a civilized society should offer those who have worked hard and saved through their whole lives.

I want Britain to be the home of successful competitive and stable financial services.

The Conservative party, the modern Conservative party, is on the side of people who want to work hard and get on.

I will listen to any argument put to me.

Unless they have disabilities to cope with, no family should get more from living on benefits than the average family gets from going out to work. No more open-ended chequebook.

Believe me, I understand that most higher rate taxpayers are not the super-rich.

I would say I have taken substantive action to make things easier for people.

The rise in world oil prices has been larger than anyone forecast.

You know the illusion of the cheap money is over and now Britain has to go out there and graft and earn its way and create wealth and prosperity in a very competitive world.

I get a lot of letters from people.

In opposition, you move to the centre. In government, you move the centre.

You cannot tackle Britain's debts without tackling the unreformed welfare system.

There was a real fear that a euro-zone bank might fail, that we'd have a sovereign debt problem in one of the larger European economies. That's dissipated, thanks largely to the action of the European Central Bank.

Tax cuts should be for life, not just for Christmas.

The British people think that if someone is disabled, then they should get all the care and support that we can offer.

If someone believes that living on benefits is a lifestyle choice, then we need to make them think again.

I understand the damage the expenses crisis has done to Parliament, and the paramount importance of restoring trust in our politics.

I want Britain to be a global financial centre but I want it to be properly regulated.

I had the closest thing I have ever had to an out-of-body experience lying in bed one morning. I turned on the 'Today' programme and item four on the news was: 'The shadow chancellor has ruled himself out of the leadership.' I lay there thinking that's interesting, then I realised it was me.

If you want to change the way your banking system is regulated, if you want to learn the mistakes of what's gone wrong, then you have to change your government.

I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.

I want to see genuine talent rewarded.

The Conservative Party mustn't sound like the old man on the park bench who says things were better in 1985, or 1955, or 1855.

Well British pension funds have not been investing the savings of British people in British infrastructure.

I've learned to be true to yourself, stick to the big arguments, don't get distracted by the everyday kerfuffle that is in the nature of any democratic system.

I think you can look at the British economy with confidence.

Some things never change, suck up to the government and you get an honour.

Well can I just say unlike my predecessors, Conservative and Labour, I have set up an independent body that studies whether what I'm saying is true, whether I've met the targets that I set out.