George osborne

It's been a bit of a bad week for the British Museum. High temperatures forced staff to close the site early on Monday and Tuesday, damaging revenue flow and prompting renewed criticism of its BP sponsorship deal. Then today Sadiq Khan – the museum's own local mayor – called on the government to find a way of sharing the highly-prized Elgin Marbles with Greece. In such circumstances, the British Museum needs all the friends it can get. So it was no surprise therefore that two new names have been appointed as directors of the British Museum Friends, which serve as trustees of its collection. One of them is private equity chief Weijian Shan, who joins the star-studded board alongside the likes of Grayson Perry, Mary Beard and, er, chairman George Osborne.

Over Christmas, Steerpike was just one of those enjoying the memoirs of doughty Brexit street-fighter Mark Francois. Some 4,000 copies have now been sold, according to the Essex MP, whom Mr S encountered at a favourite Westminster haunt last week.  And book sales are not the only cause for the self-styled 'Spartan' to be celebrating, as Francois (successfully) proposed on New Years' Eve to longtime girlfriend Olivia Sanders, the mayor of Brentwood and one half of the Posh and Becks of Essex politics. What better way to mark the first anniversary of the end of the Brexit transition period?

George Osborne hasn't been shy to take the occasional pop at Boris Johnson's government and now the reason why seems clear. His family firm Osborne & Little's annual accounts up until 31 March have just been published and they don't make for entirely happy reading. The leading wallpaper manufacturer has been forced to report a pre-tax loss of £106,000, down from last year's profit of £1.4 million, with Brexit cited as having an 'immediate adverse effect on profits.'  Boris Johnson's successful efforts to take the UK out of the EU on 1 January 2021 caused the company 'unforeseen costs' amounting to an extra £400,000, thanks in part to increased shipping charges and higher duties on goods.

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.

Oh dear. It was less than six months ago that Mr S was remarking on the number of onetime George Osborne acolytes now ensconced at the Evening Standard . But the winds of change now appear to be blowing through the corridors of Northcliffe House as owner Lord Lebedev has today unceremoniously axed the paper's editor Emily Sheffield after just 15 months in the role.An email was sent out to Standard hacks this morning, informing them all that Sheffield was stepping down by 'mutual agreement' along with the obligatory platitudes for her 'role in turning the Evening Standard Digital First.' The former Vogue writer gets a column in the paper as a consolation prize, with publisher Charlotte Ross assuming the role of acting editor.

George Osborne might be famous for collecting jobs but is he having any success with them? Since leaving the Treasury in July 2016, the onetime master of British politics seems to have acquired a reverse Midas touch. Having quit as an MP at the 2017 election – when Theresa May’s setbacks meant he could have been first in line to succeed her – Osborne has tried his hand at various gigs with, err, varying degrees of success. As editor of the Evening Standard, Osborne’s reign witnessed falling circulating, dozens of job cuts and losses which ran into the tens of millions.