Is it worth following George Osborne on Twitter?

Recently I went on my annual Twitter cull. It’s similar to a Facebook cull - where you delete dormant connections - only without the terrifying potential to bump into one of them, and be forced to explain yourself.

Among some sporting scalps; Kevin Pietersen (fatuous) and Rio Ferdinand (too blasé), several politicians got the boot. Tory chairman Grant Shapps was culled alongside Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg. The reason was the same for both - they were boring.

So with the entry of Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne to the social platform, is it really worth following him? I mean, I tuned out during his budget speech and had to rely on newspaper bullet points to summarise its implications. The economy is something that makes my brain ache and while I feel duty-bound to stay aware of what’s going on, a triple-dip recession is so dire as to actually appear tedious.

Despite this, I am genuinely interested in the person holding the reigns to the UK economy. The choices he makes on a day-to-day basis will quite literally change people’s lives, so it’s natural to be curious.

Osborne’s personality is something about which we can only speculate, and despite our better judgement, fundamentally we want to like our leaders. For this reason, it’s worth asking - does the ‘Submarine Chancellor’ actually have anything to hide?

Actually, his most notorious evasion of publicity may have had good reason. Many will remember the disastrous Newsnight interview with one of his staff - the Treasury minister, Chloe Smith.

Here, Jeremy Paxman roasted Osborne’s junior in front of the cameras with his signature brand of aggressive interrogation. The impression was that Smith had been fed to Paxman so as to avoid Osborne receiving the same roasting. Is Osborne capable of taking on terriers like Paxman?

Similarly, when Osborne was booed last year at the Olympics, his reaction to this mass display of public hostility was to adopt his customary Bullingdon Club sneer. A move that did nothing to lift the public impression that he is a cosseted, silver-spoon toff.

Gideon ‘George’ Osborne is the heir to a Baronetcy and spent his entire youth in private schools. When he graduated from Oxford, he dabbled briefly in journalism, but after two years was installed at Tory Central Office in a research role.

Because of this, it is difficult to understand George Osborne away from upper-class institutions and as such it is undeniable that there are profound presentational challenges associated with communication with the public at-large.

The impression I get is that Osborne is exactly as he appears: all cut-glass English, white tie dinners and an undeniable ‘us-and-them’ mentality.. Having said this, I do not think his upbringing disqualifies him from being a good chancellor.

It is his record in office that suggests that!

Actually, it feels intuitive to entrust a Chancellor of mind-blowing personal wealth with the keys to the Treasury. If he can manage to control his own finances well, then surely he is well placed to handle ours?
Well, it comes down to the man’s values, doesn’t it?

Is he really capable of understanding low income families or does he subscribe to the kind of market fundamentalism that has ravaged the world economy but protected him? The budgets he has announced until now have displayed the same centrist safety of Cameron’s government at large, so it remains difficult to define the exact opinions of the George Osborne.

So follow him I will. Though the days of a purely aristocratic political executive are gone, Cameron’s elite have an old world authenticity that genuinely interests me. Will I get this additional insight via Osborne’s Twitter page? I doubt it, but it’s a start.

It does pose the question though: would Winston Churchill have had a Twitter account? How about Margaret Thatcher? We demand access to our politicians with increasing vigour and to many this will provide a real challenge going forward. There is such a thing as a good politician who is weak in front of the cameras. It would be nice to think that we could be a little more tolerant of this.

But I’ll click ‘follow’ for now, and come next year’s cull - re-evaluate. If my forecasting is wrong and he bores me to tears like Shapps and Clegg did, I’ll just have to cross that bridge.

After all - my decision on this has fairly minor repercussions. I think I’ll roll the dice and see what happens!