The spectre haunting George Osborne

Rather more attention was paid last week to the strange position of George Osborne’s feet than to the dark shape lurking behind him. My own theory about his stance on the conference platform is that he was imagining himself as a operatic tenor, belting out an aria in praise the magic elixir he has administered to the formerly consumptive heroine, the UK economy, and pitching to be her next prince. But operas, like political careers, tend to end badly: so why the rumbling bass notes from the orchestra pit, and what is that sinister thing in the shadows?

I’m not talking about Corbyn and McDonnell fighting in a sack with their own colleagues: they’re a comic subplot. What I’m referring to in this overstretched metaphor is a chorus of gloom about the global economy, emanating most recently from the IMF meeting in Peru. We all know about the slowdown in China, and its effect on economies from which it buys raw materials.