George Osborne’s Banana Republic

George Osborne wants to introduce Mugabe-style property grabs into the UK. His latest wheeze is to force the sale of private property owned by housing associations to their tenants at a huge discount. The associations will be 'compensated' for this confiscation by the taxpayer. By offering this electoral bribe, he hopes to win votes in marginal constituencies.

As Jonn Elledge writes in City Metric, this policy is a bizarre combination of Thatcherite economics and Soviet-style confiscation. Voting Conservative means voting to destroy property rights.