Osbourne "shocked"
Apr. 11th, 2012 11:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackApparently George Osbourne claimed to be "shocked" at how little tax the richest people in the country pay. And many people were legitimately cross that he couldn't plausibly claim to be surprised. But I think that's a little unfair. It's common, if not entirely accurate, to use "shocked" to mean "I always knew this was going on, but when I saw a fresh example of it, I was outraged all over again, and I'm going to go ON being outraged until its fixed, even if people get a bit weary of it".
If he'd been a left-wing campaigner, everyone would have understood him to mean primarily "outraged", not "surprised" per se. I mean, I think he's probably lying about that too -- at this point in the government, a chancellor proposing something new seems more likely to be acting from public opinion than from a previously-concealed conviction. But that's just a guess, I may be unfair in either direction.
If he'd been a left-wing campaigner, everyone would have understood him to mean primarily "outraged", not "surprised" per se. I mean, I think he's probably lying about that too -- at this point in the government, a chancellor proposing something new seems more likely to be acting from public opinion than from a previously-concealed conviction. But that's just a guess, I may be unfair in either direction.