Osbourne was voted in on a mandate of cutting public services and welfare. The people who voted for him were clear about this. This is what the "electorate" wanted .. or at least the minority that voted the Government into power.
When George tried to implement the policies Conservative voters mandated him to carry out, there was a realisation in Westminister that (belatedly) this was not the right thing to do hence the attempts to stop him. Attempts that proved succesfull.
Don't forget that cuts are still planned, together with welfare cuts phased in over a longer timeframe via Universal Credits. A lot of these, ironically, will hit the typical Tory voter:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2...tumn-statement
It it good that he "listened" because he went too far with his cuts. Pity he doesn't "listen" more. I am sure that the electorate who voted for the Tories didn't really take it all in at the time, they didn't think about the cuts promised in this parliament. They were just numbers .. only when the consequences were spelt out, did the reality hit home. Well, there is more reality coming to a Tory voter near you: higher council tax bills, less local council funded services, etc. etc.
George also saw this as a politically expedient opportunity to cement the Tories position as the party most likely to win the next election. Look at me he says: 'I was going to do a really bad thing, something I told you I was going to .. but hey, I am a nice guy really and I am been doing some soul searching and I have changed my mind". The U turn has no risk given where we are in the electoral cycle and given that there is no credible opposition to constrain what he does.
George will learn from this: even he could not push through policies which, when looked at in detail were so patentedly unfair. Even he could not cut Police budgets by upto 20% when we have just had the Paris incident. George will just be more cunning next time
---------- Post added at 21:49 ---------- Previous post was at 21:44 ----------
Osem is stuck in the past (with his beloved Labour party). You just don't call people "Toffs" anymore ..
Interesting etymology