George Osborne Quotes

Printing money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed.

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.

Well look, no one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others, but that is a function of capitalist markets.

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

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

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

We will also target tax evasion and off-shore tax havens... Everyone must pay their share.

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.

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.

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.

I did meet Mickey Mouse in California, and he seems to be writing the Labour party's economic policy at the moment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

I support gay marriage. I support gay marriage because I believe Conservatives support the institutions of commitment.

If we don't get a grip on government spending, there will be no growth.

I want to see genuine talent rewarded.

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 get a lot of letters from people.

Autism is a very serious condition.

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

If you're looking for ways to cut waste in government, you can start with John Prescott.

Britain has no divine right to be one of the richest countries in the world.

Everyone in our society has had to make a contribution towards dealing with the debts.

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

The foundations of a strong economy don't rest alone on the decisions of Chancellors or the spending programmes of government.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

British taxpayers should not bear the costs of problems in the Eurozone.

Each time I come it's amazing to watch the development of this incredible country [China].

Britain is China's best partner in the West.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We need a coalition in this country. A coalition of change. People who have had enough of this.

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

I very much support financial education in schools.

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 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.