Eddie Barnes: As Osborne stays wedded to Tina – there is no alternative

The Chancellor’s speech to the Conservative party conference yesterday suffered from familiarity. In 2009, the then shadow chancellor told the watching public they were in for rough times ahead. Then, it felt brave. Yesterday, three years on, the Chancellor told the watching public they were in for rough times ahead. Now it may feel a little tired. Osborne is, of course, trying to make a virtue of his steadfastness, repeating his central argument: it is only the government’s determination to reduce the deficit that is keeping interest rates low, and out of the mire.

Once again, he portrayed himself as the Goldilocks option; he would cut spending neither too much, nor to little. And pouncing on the central weakness of Ed Miliband’s speech last week – the absence of anything much on the deficit – he sought to portray himself, not Labour, as the true One Nation party. The speech also contained a powerful analysis of the global shifts in power and money. Osborne didn’t quite say the British had become too soft to cope against the hard-charging strivers in Asia and the Americas. But this is clearly what he and other Tory ministers believe.

Reacting to the speech, fellow Tories offered sympathy. His predecessor Norman Lamont took a slap at those demanding a “vision” from the Chancellor. There was, he insisted, no getting around the overwhelming issue of deficit reduction.

The fact remains, however, that Mr Osborne promised pain and gain. And with no sign of the latter, he was unable to come up with much positive. Instead, the meat of the speech was on yet more cuts, this time to welfare. That spells more trouble with the Lib Dems, and Nick Clegg yesterday made it clear none of the cuts had been agreed.

In tough times, and with green shoots still to emerge, only bad options are available.

Eddie Barnes: As Osborne stays wedded to Tina – there is no alternative – a sense of déjà vu creeps in