The preposterous pomposity of the Shadow Chancellor

When George Osborne embarked on his suicidal attempt to smear Peter Mandelson over his conversations in Corfu earlier this year, he showed extraordinary political misjudgment. But in an interview in today's Sunday Times - apparently part of his 'comeback' from those events - he inadvertently reveals another unappealing side of his character. Martin Ivens and Jonathan Oliver report:

We are in his Commons office, decorated with ugly cartoon caricatures of the prime minister. On the mantelpiece is a bottle of Newcastle Brown, relabelled “Bottler Brown”, a memento of a Conservative stunt following last year’s election U-turn.

Serious politicians of all parties have the ability to laugh at themselves and the maturity to respect their opponents. They even make a point of acquiring grotesques of themselves by the likes of Steve Bell or Scarfe to decorate their walls. But not, apparently, George Osborne of the Bullingdon Club - he clearly takes himself far too seriously. And through such pompous self-regard he once again demonstrates why the rest of us can't bring ourselves to do so.