Our first benchmark is to cut the deficit more quickly to safeguard Britainโs 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.
George OsborneWell 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.
George OsbornePrinting money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed.
George OsborneWe can help people. We have got to move this economy from its over-dependence on debt. People should have manageable debts, a manageable mortgage.
George OsbornePeople 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.
George Osborne