Most Chancellors have intellectual influences and mentors. Dalton and his successors had Keynes, Howe had Friedman, and Brown had several east coast US economists. Who, then, is George Osborne's influence? The answer is...

Katie Hopkins.

Her schtick is simple: imagine what reasonable people believe, and then say the opposite. Osborne is copying this. For example:

Reasonable people: use negative real interest rates to borrow cheaply. Osborne: borrow from China and pensioners at unnecessarily high cost.

Reasonable people: build more houses. Osborne: stoke up even more demand through Help to Buy.

Reasonable people: raise the minimum wage carefully and on the basis of evidence and research. Osborne: jack it up as political grandstanding.

Reasonable people: incentivize work and support the low-paid through tax credits. Osborne: cut tax credits.

Reasonable people: ensure that governments have discretion to loosen fiscal policy if needed. Osborne: legislate for a return to surplus regardless of economic conditions.

Reasonable people: delay fiscal austerity until interest rates are above the zero bound. Osborne: implement it anyway, even if it is self-defeating.

Reasonable people: if you must cut public spending, do so after consulting workers about where waste can be identified, and after studying best practice in public services around the world. Osborne: cut anyway and hope for the best.

This, I think, explains something. Osborne's policies generally lack consistent support from economists. Of course, there are some that support austerity, and some that support the higher minimum wage. But I suspect there isn't a single one who supports both. This seems puzzling. However, once we regard him as a Hopkinsite, the puzzle vanishes: he is perfectly consistent.