As MPs spent the afternoon debating second jobs, a former colleague who knows all about the subject was holding court elsewhere. George Osborne, the part time banker and full time mischief-maker, was unveiling a plaque in Piccadilly to the legendary caricaturist James Gillray – a satirist who would no doubt have had great fun with the former Chancellor.
Wearing one of his many, many hats, Osborne – in his capacity as chairman of the British Museum – told the assembled crowds of his love of the great British tradition of print cartoons, remarking:
As a teenager I used to go to Camden Passage to the antique shops there to try and get hold of some Gillray prints. The very first one I ever bought was called ‘A Merry Dance’, and it was all about a coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberals. Of course that was all consigned to history back in those days… There’s a basic truth about politicians which is that you’d much rather have a cartoon about you than not have a cartoon about you.
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