James Millar: Without opposition George Osborne could overreach himself

BLACK FRIDAY may be on shoppers’ minds but it’s not the only frenzied dash for savings taking place this week.

On Wednesday, Chancellor George Osborne will reveal the full scale of cuts to departmental budgets in his Comprehensive Spending Review.

Yesterday was Settlement Saturday, the deadline for departments to have their penny-pinching proposals rubber-stamped.

The Chancellor is like a teacher passing judgment on primary school pupils presenting their paper snowflakes for the classroom window.

Have they made enough cuts and are they in the right places?

Many get the nod, others are sent back to their desks to think again.

Remarkably, it’s rumoured that in an effort to be teacher’s pet, some ministers had to be held back from going too wild with the scissors.

It’s whispered that Business Secretary Sajid Javid was one of those too keen on cuts even for the Chancellor’s liking.

He may have been currying favour in the hope of replacing Osborne in Number 11 Downing Street should the Chancellor move next door.

But Osborne’s elevation will not be automatic.

Having masterminded an election victory and an economic recovery albeit a very slow one that repeatedly misses the targets he sets he ought to be the darling of his party.

After his conference speech in October in which he reached out to Labour voters and set out a vision of the Tories in the centre ground, all seemed set fair for the succession.

Then tax credits tripped him up.

He could dismiss criticism from the laughable opposition and he could even reverse a vote by the Lords to delay tax credit cuts.

But he could not ignore MPs on his own side pointing out that a government on the side of hard-working people doesn’t take money away from hard-working people.

And so the one thing we know will be in Wednesday’s statement is a rethink on tax credit cuts.

It’s a pattern with this Chancellor.

He is too tactical for his own good, not as smart as he thinks he is.

Most notably that was demonstrated in 2012 when, having got his feet under the Treasury table, he unveiled an ambitious budget, which soon became known as the omnishambles budget as he was accused of trying to tax some of the best things about

Britain pasties, caravans and grannies.

Since then he’s had a haircut and a better run of results.

He’s lashed himself to the Northern Powerhouse project to devolve power to the English regions and he’s regularly photographed in hard hat and hi-vis jacket, often in the middle of the night for some reason, to show he backs big infrastructure projects.

He’s increasingly veering away from his brief. Last week, he went to spy base GCHQ to announce more money for spooks and it’s claimed he’s trying to get the Treasury’s teeth into the process of renewing Trident.

Bringing nuclear bombs under his remit isn’t so much a Whitehall power grab as a coup d’etat.

And it’s a sign, yet again, that he’s over reaching himself.

Osborne is perhaps the clearest example that, for good government, you need good opposition.

In the last Parliament he faced-off against Ed Balls who could juggle the numbers as well as Osborne, but who the public couldn’t forgive for being at the scene of the crime when the economy crashed.

Now Osborne’s opposite number is John McDonnell. A man who last week denied calling for MI5 to be disbanded, only to be pictured smiling with a declaration saying just that.

He then summed up his economic vision as “socialism with an iPad”, a phrase so meaningless as to be beyond mockery.

So whatever he announces this week, Osborne will easily see off the opposition.

The biggest barrier to his promotion to Prime Minister before the next General Election is himself.Politics Podcast: SNP on Syria, Paris reaction and Labour’s position on Trident – click here to listen