Britain?s youngest Chancellor of the Exchequer in ?more than a century,? 38-year-old George Osborne, gets at least some ideas right. At least that?s the impression a fan of limited government should take away from a short piece in Bloomberg Business Week:

Osborne has given government departments until May 24 to cut $8.5 billion from their 2010 budgets, and he has promised a pain-packed emergency budget on June 22. At the same time, he wants to simplify and cut corporate taxes to help business.

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He was trying to signal that a Conservative government would not mortgage the nation’s future by indulging in reckless Keynesian stimulus.

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He wants to shrink the budget deficit by more than half in the next four years and argues that tackling bloated costs in the government will be far more effective than raising taxes.

If Mr. Osborne also learns to channel the economic wisdom of Margaret Thatcher, there’s a decent chance he?ll be able to help his country return to the path of prosperity.