Now that I've moved here, and because I haven't opened a Hungarian bank account, I've had to take an active interest in exchange rates. I can tell you, for instance, that the people who run the exchanges at Luton airport are absolute crooks (278 HUF to the pound!) or that Sterling seems to have dropped by about 4% against the Forint in the last week. So, imagine my joy and surprise this morning when I logged onto BBC News and discovered George Osborne, the Old Etonian shadow chancellor who looks like nothing so much as one of the actors who play 'inept, corrupt, nepotistically-advanced politician #3' on Spooks*, is attempting to cash in politically on the economic crisis at the same time as collapsing the pound against every other currency in the world! As it seems to me, looking to make party-political headway by talking about a run on the pound is precisely the kind of thing which would cause a run on the pound.

You have to wonder just how many of the people who are responsible for the current crisis are personal (school) friends of Mr. Osborne. One might also think that the shadow chancellor would want to steer clear of stories about soiled banknotes after certain articles that were published during David Cameron's leadership candidacy...


* The ones who always try and stop what MI5 are attempting to do until Harry whips out a file containing pictures of them on yachts with prostitutes. Or Russian oligarchs.