George Osborne school report: could try harder, might try something else

Georgie: he may already have found a better place
in which to pursue his career

Exclusive: following Moody’s decision to downgrade Britain’s credit rating, we have received an old school report for George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who previously asked to be measured by his success in retaining the AAA rating he felt was such a source of pride for Britain.

As a public service, we reproduce it here in full.

School Report

Student’s name:	George Osborne
Subjects:	Economics, economics, economics

We were all pleased to see Georgie decide to take up the challenge of a tough course of study, triple economics, even though he hadn’t previously had much success in this subject area. He agreed at the time that he would have to make quick progress to catch up with other students better qualified than himself, and it was refreshing to see his attitude, summed up by his desire to set himself demanding benchmarks to judge his own performance.

However, we are a little concerned that he may not have picked his benchmarks well. Choosing to eliminate the structural deficit before the end of the course was always ambitious, and it’s unfortunate that he has had to abandon the goal early, as deficit is growing again.

The decision to abandon the goal was no doubt justified, but Georgie does need to ask himself whether he was right to have made so much of adopting it in the first place: he will undoubtedly have created disappointment among his examiners and possibly in himself (though his wonderful self-confidence seems to be protecting him from showing any).

Equally, he is having to overcome a possible sense of failure over his objectives on debt, growing rather than falling as the deficit is creeps upwards.

We are also concerned that, if the end of this quarter sees us in a triple-dip recession, he may begin to wonder whether he made the right course choices.

Finally, it was a great regret to us that he set himself the task of holding on the AAA credit rating. We tried to warn him that he was perhaps attaching too much importance to a rather discredited measure, but he did insist on turning it into a ‘benchmark’ against which he expected to be judged. Since that rating has now been lost, he may wonder whether he ought to look at different career options.

Georgie has made it clear that he intends to persevere with his selections for now. But we feel he needs to be thinking about possible alternatives. The end of the course in May 2015 is not that far away and he has to be aware that things at that point may not work out as he hopes.

At any rate, the signs are not particularly encouraging for the moment.

Effort:-	B-
Achievement:	D
Overall:	Might consider a change in career