, faced an online backlash given the deep funding cuts to health, nurseries and other public services between 2010 and 2015.On their Political Currency podcast, Osborne told Balls, his Labour opposite number during the austerity years, about how the Queen “directly interfered” with politics.
At a state dinner, Osborne says the late monarch asked him not to close the army’s Highland bagpipe school.“So the next day I get into the Treasury, I said: ‘Is there a bagpipe school? And for God’s sake, tell me we’re not closing it down?’“And they scurried on, they said: ‘Yes, apparently there’s a kind of Highland music school as part of the army bands, and we are making some cuts to those.
At least the bagpipe school was spared. Shame there was no one as influential to advocate for SureStart, the youth centres, the working poor, the libraries, the NHS, the FE colleagues, the English language classes, the local councils, young people etc. etc.
This absolutely sums up Westminster...Tory and Labour ministers laughing with each other about the Monarch lobbying them to protect frivolous things while children starved.Ah, bless, Osborne delivers another cozy fireside story about how inherited power was directing policy so its personal whims could be satisfied, while 330,000 of us died as a consequence of his austerity.