The Postie’s twinkle

The Postman’s eyes twinkled as he met George Osborne across the dispatch box for the first time this afternoon. With the air of an apologist who isn’t remotely contrite, Alan Johnson told the House of his ‘vast experience in this job’ and gave the impression he was having a blast.

This jolly masque hid an insubstantial performance. Johnson latched on to Chris Huhne’s vow that he would not be ‘lashed to the mast‘ of needless spending cuts – Johnson wondered if the deficit might not be eradicated within one parliament. Osborne said that it would. Then Johnson repeated the substance of his attacks of the weekend. The government lacks a growth strategy, he said, and then argued that it is suicide to cut before private sector recovery was established; we were moments away from the promise of a double-dip.