Mr Osborne added that the Government would "learn" from the verdict delivered at the ballot box on Thursday.
He told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show: 'I think what people are saying is focus on the things that really matter, focus on the economy and on education and welfare.
'Focus on those things, don't get distracted by too many other issues.'A tiny flicker of realisation from one of our Westminster wallies. Do we believe that these 'distracting issues' might include minimum pricing and plain packs and that they should be ditched? Nah, course not, they only got a slight spanking at the polls, not a brain enlargement operation.
On the futility of banning colour schemes to make health warnings more visible and frightening, for example, if only Gideon would listen to anti-smoking advocate Gerard Hastings.
Fear messages are important. The first step in tobacco control is to inform people of the dangers of smoking. But repeating this to a population that knows it, two thirds of whom already want to quit, is of questionable value. To return to our initial example, there comes a point where the theatre-goer shouting “fire” is reduced to the irritation of a malfunctioning alarm. Furthermore, searching for evermore powerful warnings is fruitless. There is no ultimate deterrent in smoking, no mother of all health warnings that will finally alert smokers to the error of their ways.Though written a while ago, his conclusion is strangely ironic.
All we have to do is be a better friend to the smoker than the tobacco industry. Surely we can manage that.One might say the same about Cameron and Clegg's government.
If they can't manage to be more popular than a Labour party which ripped up civil liberties, bullied its public, signed away vast tranches of our sovereignty, engaged in two unpopular wars, and bankrupted the nation for decades to come, there really are no limits to their ineptitude.
UPDATE: Cameron agrees.
The message people are sending is this: focus on what matters, deliver what you promise – and prove yourself in the process. I get it.He 'gets it', does he? Deliver what was promised, eh?
Forgive me for asking, but can anyone point to the part in either the Tory or Lib Dem manifestos which mentioned minimum pricing or plain packaging?
