No sleepless nights over austerity for happy-go-lucky George

Maybe it’s the the glut of swanky jobs, the palatial new homes or the lovely wife-to-be, but George Osborne looked rather happy with life at the Covid inquiry. A pity the years haven’t been so kind to the rest of us, writes Tom Peck

There are doubts to be found absolutely everywhere, with regard to what Osborne regards as an unassailable truth (PA Media)

George Osborne has never been happier. It said so on the front of The Times not so long ago, the source of the quotation being George Osborne himself. New baby, new wife-to-be, new ten-million-pound house in Notting Hill, and countless seven-figure jobs doling out the kind of strategic wisdom that was not quite enough to prevent him and David Cameron from taking their country out of the EU by accident – but that’s someone else’s problem now.

It was his turn, on Tuesday to tell the Covid inquiry what David Cameron had told them on Monday. That none of it was his fault. That, if anything, people should be lining up to thank him for austerity and the world of possibilities it would later open up.

What’s especially intriguing about Osborne is he hasn’t reached the same conclusion as his former boss, namely that the world would like to see as little of him as possible. In a private meeting in 2015, George Osborne is understood to have told David Cameron that having a referendum on membership of the European Union was a terrible idea, which in the years since, appears to have, as far as he is concerned, unburdened him of the same requirement of contrition.