While the Bank of England had been making contingency plans for a possible Greek default which would push the Eurozone yet deeper into the mire, did the Chancellor of the Exchequer:
a) Hold counsel with his senior advisers
b) Decamp to South West London to watch tennis
Watching Roger Federer play Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on centre court is obviously more fun than protecting the UK economy from the effects of a Greek crisis which could spark contagion across the continent. Osborne was pictured laughing as he sat in the front row of the Royal Box alongside England Lawn Tennis Club chief Philip Brook.
Amazingly, our finance minister seems to have been spotted before the Greek parliament approved an austerity package which calmed financial markets.
Gideon was giggling as Athens burned.
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images
4 Comments
He whitnessed a historical event though, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga just beat Federer.
Osborne smiled at wimbledon? How evil
I think when he went home to his family, Greece was still an economic carcrash- shall we begrudge him family time as well? Pathetic petty whinging
I am always puzzled why people refer to Osborne as Gideon. He uses another Christian name as preference, just like (James) Gordon Brown and (Walter) Menzies Campbell.
He is not responsible for the names his parents gave him. By all means criticize him for his actions and decisions, but it is not very liberal to visit the sins of the fathers on the children.
@Paul: The All England Club will have invited plenty of politicians will have been invited to the tennis. But I do “begrudge” the chancellor of the exchequer watching tennis on a weekday afternoon while the Greek parliament is still voting on proposals of not inconsiderable import to the UK.
@Alan: Gideon is a funny name, and funnier than James Brown, Walter Campbell and all the other examples Matthew Barrett et al came up with the other day. It is also partly a class/privilege thing though too.