Despite upping sticks to a new £1.6 million Somerset house, George Osborne is yet to sell his Notting Hill pad, originally listed on Domus Nova in March. The six-bedroom mansion was listed for £4.95 million, however the pandemic has clearly taken its toll on the luxury London housing market as just four months later Guido spots a million quid has been sliced off the asking price. Osborne did warn house prices would take a hammering in post-Brexit Britain…
At its new bargain price of only £3.95 million, Guido once again invites you through the keyhole of Osborne’s house; with a reception room, dining room, family room, grand study, two guest bathrooms, a terrace and a walled garden.
Guido presumes the painting of Frances in the living room won’t be included…
Having stepped down as editor of the Evening Standard, George Osborne has wasted no time fleeing London, buying up a new £1.6 million five-bedroom Somerset mansion. Guido imagines George will now be regretting the 3% stamp duty surcharge he introduced in 2016, which will cost him £150,000…
His new house, in the village of Bruton, will fill the gap in Osborne’s property portfolio after selling his Notting Hill pad for £4.95 million in March after his divorce was announced in 2019. Bruton has been described in Country Life as the “new Notting Hill”, so he’s not exactly stepping out of his comfort zone…
The 18th century Grade II listed house comes with 5 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 2 bathrooms, outbuildings, a cellar and over three acres of land
The garden includes a courtyard, a vegetable garden, three paddocks, an orchard, a former timber stable block, and – the jewel in the crown – a private vineyard.
£1.6 million seems like a steal, no need for “Help to Buy”…
From the first of next month, Emily Sheffield will replace George Osborne as editor of the Evening Standard. Osborne himself will move upstairs to editor-in-chief. Osborne has overseen tens of millions in losses at the paper and had no idea how to turn it around. As many have pointed out, Sheffield is Samantha Cameron’s sister.
After 3 wonderful years I’m stepping down as @EveningStandard editor to become editor-in-chief. Thanks to the team who’ve made the paper a must read + helped me steer it through the greatest crisis in its history,never missing an edition & producing some of its finest journalism
— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) June 12, 2020
Very proud to be the announced as the new Editor of the Evening Standard. It has been a core part of my daily life since I moved to London aged 18. And spent five formative years there as a young journalist in my 20s. @standardnews @mrevgenylebedev @George_Osborne
— Emily Sheffield (@emilysheffield) June 12, 2020
She is charged with making it a profitable digital first offering. That’s not an easy trick for a paper dependent on property and consumer advertising with little must read content. Congratulations!
In a marked departure from the attitude he would have taken in office, George Osborne’s newspaper has published a guide to today’s Black Lives Matter protests, set to begin in Hyde Park. The Standard advises those choosing to break the lockdown to wear “non-identifiable clothing” to make it harder for the police to identify criminals, and which won’t help with organisers’ first request of “remain peaceful”. The organisers also envisage the need for “shatter resistant Swimming Goggles” and “shoes you can run in” for a planned “peaceful protest”…
The Standard also directs readers to the website of Green and Black Cross, an anarchist legal aid service that is avowedly anti-police. If the paper’s retail advertisers get their windows smashed in this afternoon, am sure they will appreciate the advice given to those planning looting and rampaging. Guido’s not sure The Standard’s crime and coronavirus-riddled London audience will thank them for the stance they’ve taken on this one…
A familiar tanned face returned to Question Time last night, with George Osborne making his first appearance on the show since before the 2010 election, when the panel were discussing how to respond to a global economic crisis. How times change…
Asked whether, in light of Coronavirus, we’re heading for “austerity Mark II”, the former Chancellor said
“I don’t necessarily think it’ll be the same, I think hopefully the recovery from this – although the drop is deeper because we’ve shut down the economy – I think the recovery will be more quick, it will take place more quickly… but the basic truth is sadly our country, because of this virus, is not as rich as we thought it would be.”
He also prophesied that the next election will once again be fought on the economy, “the economy has moved back centre-stage in British politics”. Not usually good news for Labour…
Writing in this week’s Spectator Diary, the former Chancellor and Evening Standard editor attempted to encapsulate how Boris operates…
“My children have the measure of our prime minister. A couple of years ago, my son and I went for a lovely Sunday lunch at his house in Oxfordshire — where he has a Kalashnikov mounted on the wall. Boris suggested we play a game. A tug of war, but with a difference. The rope is tied around your waist and the contest takes place across a swimming pool. If you lose you end up in the water, fully clothed.
That’s Johnson for you: fun, inventive but ruthless. I suspect his brother Jo had one ducking too many.”
