Osborne says “we’re in this together” – so why’s he playing divide and rule?

It took him long enough, but towards the end of his statement to the house, Osborne finally pulled out his battered, bruised and moth-eaten old rabbit out of his rather shabby looking hat. “We’re in this together he said” to muted cheers and louder jeers.

Ta-da…

Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Osborne is a classic “divide and rule” politician. There’s no trace of One Nation here folks – he’s taking care of you or he’s casting you into the gutter. He wants your vote or he doesn’t care a jot.

Today was a prime example.

The centrepiece of his Autumn Statement was a plan to boost current pensioners incomes, whilst at the same time hiking the retirement age ever higher for young people. Targeting older people with pre-election goodies is smart politics. I don’t need to tell you that older people vote far more than young people (which is why telling young people to stop voting is foolish Mr Brand), but it’s also worth noting, for the record, that the average age of Tory Party members is 68. Got to give something to the base, after all.

But when so much of the government’s argument has been that we can’t continue to spend today only for our children to have to pay for it, that’s exactly what Osborne is doing. Current pensioners better off – future pensioners paying for it. What was that about “making our kids pay for current spending” George?

Because if you look closely, it’s clear that Osborne is offering a nightmare vision for young people. High unemployment, low wages, negligible help on homes and a pension that’s further away than it was when you woke up this morning. A life of insecure work and housing followed by poverty in old age awaits – and that’s if Generation Y cane expect any sort of state pension at all. If he was in any way terrified that these young people might march down to the ballot box and vote him and his party out he might be more circumspect, but I think he’s safe in the knowledge that they won’t. Young people should be outraged, but instead they’re disillusioned and turned off. Labour must bear plenty of blame for that malaise.

But the politics of divide and rule wasn’t just confined to age. Osborne claimed he was standing up for British families. But it seems only (some of) those who are married count. The married and pitted against the unmarried. As usual the in work were pitted against the out of work. And those trying to get onto the housing ladder and pitted in permanent unwinnable competition with those who already own homes. Osborne won’t build the million affordable homes Britain needs because it’d slow or pop the housing bubble – but he’ll never admit that, of course.

The not so subtle subtext was “I’m so very clever and right and if you disagree, you’re wrong”. Fine. The OBR says “We do not expect real take-home consumption wages to reach their pre-crisis peak until late 2015”, so lets see how the British people feel as the price of goods and services continues to outstrip their ability to pay. Tell them they’re wrong George. I dare you.

Or perhaps instead he could explain why we need to give him a pat on the back for eliminating the deficit almost a whole parliament too late? Osborne is the kind of guy who turns up at your birthday party as everyone else is going and expects you to thank him for it.

And what of the response from Ed Balls? Well it was rather similar to last years. Balls will have better days at the dispatch box than this one, that’s for sure. But it was clear that a deliberate government strategy was in place to shoot, jeer, heckle and boo. So loud was it in the chamber that Labour MPs struggled to hear what was going on – and it was barely any easier watching on TV. It has evidently been decided by the Tory leadership that forcing Ed Balls to shot above the din makes him look angrier. And they’re right. But I’m certain I’d do no better if I were asked to stand in a wind tunnel of bile for 10 minutes and read out a speech I’d had to write on the spot.

So the discomfort of Ed Balls will give George Osborne the superficial sense of victory today. But he’d be wrong to get carried away. Shouting down your opponents is not the same as proving them wrong. Osborne still has no answer on the cost of living. Wages are still falling behind prices. Getting by for too many is still too hard. And Osborne is still whistling “steady as she goes”…