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A Generous Basic State Pension Is The Least A Civilized Society Should Offer Those Who Have Worked Hard And Saved Through Their Whole Lives.

-George Osborne

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A Generous Basic State

George Osborne

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A Generous Basic State Pension Is The Least A Civilized Society Should Offer Those Who Have Worked Hard And Saved Through Their Whole Lives.

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Let's Also Teach People About Pensions And Savings, Insurance And The Like. But If They Aren't Already Familiar With Numbers That Won't Be As Effective As It Might Be.

Every Day As Chancellor I See Alerts Telling Me Of Risks Around The World.

Around The World

I Understand The Damage The Expenses Crisis Has Done To Parliament, And The Paramount Importance Of Restoring Trust In Our Politics.

Whether [people] Run Their Own Business, Work For A Business, Go Out There, Pay Their Taxes And See The Money Wasted, Fed Up With The Money Going To The Next Door Neighbor Sitting Permanently On Out Of Work Benefits. There Needs To Be A Coalition Of Change.

I'm Fed Up With Britain Being Condemned To This Future Where We Borrow The Chinese In Order To Buy From The Chinese The Things That They Make For Us.

Believe Me, I Understand That Most Higher Rate Taxpayers Are Not The Super-rich.

Britain Is Not Part Of The Single Currency. That Is A Decision We Have Taken, A Voluntary Decision Of This Country, But As A Result Are Part Of A European Union 19 Of Whose Members Are Rapidly Integrating, Creating Political, Fiscal, Monetary, Economic Union To Make Their Currency Work. And That Is Increasingly Rubbing Up Against The Operation.

Of All The Public Services, Education Is The One I'm Most Interested In. You Get A More Dynamic Economy, You Deal With Most Social Problems, And It's Morally Right.

Establishing Proper Economic Governance That Allows The Eurozone To Undertake The Integration It Needs Whilst Protecting The Interests Of The Single Market For All 28, The Rights Of Member States Who Are Not In The Euro - Including Of Course The Uk - Is Really Important For The Future Of The European Union.

What I'm Interested In Is Britain Projecting Itself Abroad, And Through That Its Values And The Things It Holds Dear. And I Don't Think You Do That By Refusing To Talk To The World's Second-largest Economy [china]. In Fact, That Is Positively Counter-productive In My View.

I Very Much Support Financial Education In Schools.

Financial Education

I Was Shocked To See That Some Of The Very Wealthiest People In The Country Have Organised Their Tax Affairs, And To Be Fair It's Within The Tax Laws, So That They Were Regularly Paying Virtually No Income Tax. And I Don't Think That's Right.

Put On Top Of That The Fact That The Whole World Is Looking At Britain And Saying How Is This Country Going To Pay Its Way In The Future. They Are Looking At Other Countries Like Greece Who Can't Pay Their Way In The Future And You See Savage Spending Cuts, Big Cuts In Pay.

Well British Pension Funds Have Not Been Investing The Savings Of British People In British Infrastructure.

Just As We Should Never Balance The Budget On The Backs Of The Poor, So It Is An Economic Delusion To Think You Can Balance It Only On The Wallets Of The Rich.

Printing Money Is The Last Resort Of Desperate Governments When All Other Policies Have Failed.

The Foundations Of A Strong Economy Don't Rest Alone On The Decisions Of Chancellors Or The Spending Programmes Of Government.

Well You Know I've Attracted A Lot Of Criticism By, For Example, Suggesting That Child Benefit Should Be Taken Away From Higher Rate Taxpaying Families.

You Need To Have A State Pension That Doesn't Drag More And More People Into Means-testing Each Year And Make It Very Difficult For People On Low To Medium Term Incomes To Save And Not See Their Savings Clawed Away.

Cutting Budget Deficits Can Never Be Just An Exercise In Economics.

You Also Want To Look At How The Tax System Encourages And Rewards Pension Saving. I Have Set As An Ambition Reversing The Effects Of Gordon Brown's Tax Raid Which Heralded The Beginning Of The Age Of Responsibility. We Are Looking At Some Very Specific Tax Measures On How We Can Encourage Saving.

I Believe In Public Services.

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.

Britain Needs A Simpler Tax System Which Is Simple To Understand, Where There Are No Loop-holes, Where The Very Rich Do Not Avoid Tax By Employing Expensive Accountants

I Think You Can Look At The British Economy With Confidence.

One Big Theme For Me Is That We Have Got To Move From An Economy Built On Debt To One Where We Save And Invest In The Future.

Britain Cannot Afford To Cut Itself Off From What Is Going On In The World, We Are Too Interconnected With What Is Going On, We Have A Powerful History And Tradition Of Taking An Interest In What Is Going On In The World, We've Also Got A Very Real Interest In The Future, In Remaining Connected.

I Would Also Like To See Children Aged Between 11 And 18 Taught Financial Education In A Structured Way In Schools. I Would Also Say That That Is Not Enough. You Have Also Got To Improve Numeracy Skills, Mathematical Skills In Schools.

I Have Done Everything I Can To Move Britain Out Of The Financial Danger Zone.

Tax Cuts Should Be For Life, Not Just For Christmas.

When You Look At The Things People Are Really Fed Up With, Like The Collapse Of The Pension System, Like The Failure To Get Money To The Frontline Of The Health Service, Gordon Brown Is More Responsible For That Than Any Other Politician Including Tony Blair

We Have To Be Pretty Tough With Mortgage Companies And Say You Have Got To Give People The Chance To Work Out Their Debts, Sort Out Future Mortgages.

[banks] Have A Clear Obligation To Help Get This Country Off Its Addiction To Debt Because They Sure As Hell Helped To Get This Country Addicted To Debt.

I Think It Is Absolutely Central To Our Economic Plan As A Country Not Only That We Put Our Own House In Order But That We Better Connect Ourselves With Other Parts Of The World, Particularly The Faster Growing Parts Of The World.

We Have Supported The Banks, They Should Be Supporting The Economy Now.

Just As It Wouldn't Be Right To Only To Have An Economic Dialogue With China, Equally You Shouldn't Restrict Your Dialogue Solely To Issues Around, Say, Human Rights. You Can Raise All Those Issues, And That Is What Reflects A Mature Discussion. So I Don't Think Essentially We Have To Choose Between Being Partners In China's Economic Development And Being Proud Defenders Of British Values.

Britain Should Not Be Forced To Make A Choice Between Joining The Single Currency And Leaving The Eu, Because If We're Forced To Make That Choice We Would Leave The Eu.

I Think The British People Have A Strong Sense Of What Is Fair.

Everyone In Our Society Has Had To Make A Contribution Towards Dealing With The Debts.

I Would Say I Have Taken Substantive Action To Make Things Easier For People.

I Think Essentially If You Look At British Public Debate Around The Issues Of Our Interconnectedness With The Global Economy You Do Not Find A Ready Audience, Of Any Large Scale, For Pulling Up The Shutters.

People Know That Billions Of Pounds Are Wasted. Billions Of Pounds Never Get Near The Families That Need It. It Is An Absolute Outrage That Hard-working People Go Out To Work Every Day, Get Up Early, Come Back Late, Don't See Enough Of Their Families In Order To Pay Taxes To Fund Vast Bureaucracies That Are Inefficient In Order To Fund A Welfare System Which Allows Too Many People To Sit For The Whole Of Their Lives On Out-of-work Benefits Without Going Out To Look For Work.

At The Moment We Are Hard-wired Into The European Markets - 50% Of Our Exports Go To Europe - And That Has Not Been Good For The Uk. So I'm Not Saying "make Britain Entirely Dependent On China". I'm Saying "let's Diversify A Bit". When I Became Chancellor, China Was Our Ninth Largest Trading Partner. This Is The World's Second Biggest Economy. China Was Doing More Business With Belgium Than It Was With Britain.

I Think We Woefully Failed To Connect Britain To The Growing Chinese Economy In The Previous Decade, And I Have Sought To Remedy That. China Is Now The Sixth Biggest Trading Partner With The Uk. We Have Attracted Now The Lion's Share Of Chinese Investment That Is Going Into Europe.

There Are Those People Who Don't Want Change. Well There Needs To Be A Coalition For Change Amongst The Hard-working Mainstream Majority Of The Country To Crack On And Sort Out Britain's Problems.

I Think Britain Needs To Get Out There On The World Stage And Make Itself Heard. And For Much Of My Political Career, There Has Been A Sense Of Retreat From The World Stage Because Of What Happened In The Iraq War.

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.

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 Want To See Genuine Talent Rewarded.

Well Look, No One Takes Pleasure From People Making Money Out Of The Misery Of Others, But That Is A Function Of Capitalist Markets.

Autism Is A Very Serious Condition.

The Conservative Party, The Modern Conservative Party, Is On The Side Of People Who Want To Work Hard And Get On.

If You're Looking For Ways To Cut Waste In Government, You Can Start With John Prescott.

Britain Wants The Single Currency To Be A Success. It Is Massively In Our Interests That We Have A Stable Financial System On Our Doorstep.

I See No Real Argument In Britain That Is Concerned That An Indian Company Owns Our Most Successful Car Manufacturer Or That The Sewer System Under London Is Being Renewed In Part By Chinese Investment. There Are The Odd Voices That Express Concern But They Are Very Marginal And They Are Not Being Listened To By The British People.

Britain Is China's Best Partner In The West.

If We Don't Get A Grip On Government Spending, There Will Be No Growth.

I'm Not Saying "job Done" But I Am Actually Pretty Confident That Britain Can Be One Of The Biggest Winners From These Big Global Changes That Are Taking Place And Indeed Become The Richest Of The Major Economies In The World In This Coming Generation.

I Believe That I'm Entitled To Regard My Pre-political Life As Off-limits In Terms Of What Can Be Looked At And Judged.

The British People Think That If Someone Is Disabled, Then They Should Get All The Care And Support That We Can Offer.

British Taxpayers Should Not Bear The Costs Of Problems In The Eurozone.

Our First Benchmark Is To Cut The Deficit More Quickly To Safeguard Britain’s Credit Rating. I Know That We Are Taking A Political Gamble To Set This Up As A Measure Of Success. Protecting The Credit Rating Will Not Be Easy The Pace Of Fiscal Consolidation Will Be Co-ordinated With Monetary Policy. And We Will Protect Britain's Credit Rating And International Reputation.

I Find China Such A Fascinating And Interesting Country. Each Time I Come Back Something Has Changed And It's Moved On In Leaps And Bounds.

Each Time I Come It's Amazing To Watch The Development Of This Incredible Country [china].

Britain Has No Divine Right To Be One Of The Richest Countries In The World.

It Is Not Fair That People Who Are Born In The Uk To Parents Who Are Domiciled Here, Can Later In Life Claim To Be Non-doms And Live Here, It Is Not Fair That Non-doms With Residential Property Here In The Uk Can Put It In An Offshore Company And Avoid Inheritance Tax.

Even A China Growing At 7% Or Indeed Less Is Still Adding To The World Economy An Economy Equivalent To The Uk Or More.

For Example At The Moment There Is A Compulsory Requirement To Buy An Annuity. That Is Something We Would Get Rid Of. It Puts Some People Off Saving.

I Support Gay Marriage. I Support Gay Marriage Because I Believe Conservatives Support The Institutions Of Commitment.

I Want Britain To Be The Home Of Successful Competitive And Stable Financial Services.

No Other Chancellor In The Long History Of The Office Has Felt The Need To Pass A Law In Order To Convince People He Has The Political Will To Implement His Own Budget.

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 Get A Lot Of Letters From People.

There Are A Lot Of Examples Where People Aren't Getting The Right Information. We Could Do A Lot More With Credit Card Bills So People Properly Understand That If You Pay Off The Minimum It Could Take You 41 Years To Pay Off Is That Right.

We Support The Auto-enrolment But We Have Our Doubts About The Way The National Pension Scheme Is Going To Be Structured.

We Should Be Looking At Putting A Limit On The Interest That Can Be Charged On Things Like Store Cards.you Don't Want To End Up With Totally Draconian Credit Controls But You Want Some Common Sense. We Want Cooling-off Periods For Store Cards So People Can't Take Them Out And Go Straight To The Counter And Buy Things.

We Can Help People. We Have Got To Move This Economy From Its Over-dependence On Debt. People Should Have Manageable Debts, A Manageable Mortgage.

We Need A Coalition In This Country. A Coalition Of Change. People Who Have Had Enough Of This.

One Of The Big Problems We Have In This Country Is That Not Enough People Understand How Important It Is To Save, Understand The Details Of Credit Card Statements, To Be Able To Compare Different Aprs And The Like. I Support The Idea.

The Foreign Office Is A Very Important Arm Of The British State And I Think Britain Has A Fantastic Diplomatic Service. We Are The Only Country In The World Spending 2% Of Our National Income On Defence And 0.7% Of Our National Income On Aid. We Are The Only Country In The World Doing Both Of Those Things.

The Positive News Is That The British Economy Is Continuing To Grow And Is Creating Jobs. And It Is Positive News Too That At A Time Of Real International Instability We Are A Safe Haven In The Storm.

I Am Actually Quite Encouraged And I Think, Actually, The Uk Is Coping With Globalisation A Lot Better Than Most Other European Countries. And That Is Reflected In The Fact That (whilst Of Course There Are People Who Are Still Unemployed) Our Unemployment Rate Is Low And (whilst Of Course We Need To Export More) We Are Attracting A Huge Amount Of Inward Investment Into Britain.

We Want People To Have A Stake In The British Economy So I Am In Favour Of Actually Encouraging People To Have Small Shareholdings And Feel They've Got A Stake In Our Economic Future.

The Rise In World Oil Prices Has Been Larger Than Anyone Forecast.

There Are Those Who Are Trying To Create An Anti-business Culture In Britain - And We Have To Stop Them. At Stake Are Not Pay Packages For A Few But Jobs And Prosperity For The Many.

We Have Management Questions. On Increasing The Basic State Pension In Line With Earnings, Because We Have Made A Clear Promise And Said That The Increase In The Pension Age Has To Be Brought Forward, That Is An Affordable And Deliverable Commitment From The Conservative Party.

I Want Britain To Be A Global Financial Centre But I Want It To Be Properly Regulated.

There Is A Big Problem. The Problem Is The Country Borrowed Too Much. We Went On A Borrowing Binge, There Was A Housing Boom. You Want To Help People De-leverage And Deal With Those Debts Over Time.

There Are Plenty Of People Who Don't Want Change - The Labour Party, Some Of Their Militant Trade Union Friends Like Unite Busy Causing Strikes At The Very Beginning Of A Fragile Recovery.

China Is Absolutely One Of The Biggest Players In The World And If Britain Wants To Be Connected To The World It Has To Be Connected To China.

I Did Meet Mickey Mouse In California, And He Seems To Be Writing The Labour Party's Economic Policy At The Moment.

What Makes People Angry And We Are On The Side Of Hard-working People Who Want To Get On In Life And They See How Government Is Wasting Their Money.

Why Don't We Save And Invest In Our Future And Start Making The Things That Millions Of Chinese Consumers Are Going To Want In The Future.

What's Interesting Is Whilst Shanghai Has Gone Stellar - Literally, In These Massive Buildings Which Have Appeared Since I First Visited - Beijing Has Become A Much More Vibrant And Interesting Place. A Lot More Business Is Done Here.

I Reject Absolutely The Idea That People Should Know Their Place, And Know Their Class.

We Will Also Target Tax Evasion And Off-shore Tax Havens... Everyone Must Pay Their Share.

We Are Pretty Tough In Saying For Example If You've Got Unsecured Debts And Less Than £25,000 That Should Not Be An Excuse For Repossessing Someone's Home.that Should Not Be Allowed.you Have Got To Help Manage People Through This Process. I Don't Want To Pretend That It Is Going To Be Easy Getting Out Of Gordon Brown's Hole.

I Didn't Come From A Traditional Tory Background; It Was Urban And Metropolitan.

You Cannot Tackle Britain's Debts Without Tackling The Unreformed Welfare System.

We Need To Think Deeply About Whether We Can Sustain Banks That Are Not Only Too Big To Fail, But Potentially Too Big To Bail.

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