George Osborne and the Hooker

Guido, with his customary desire to pursue and publicise any political story that offers any sort of titillation whatsoever, has been pursuing the George Osborne allegations with his customary salacious zeal. If you want all the details then head over to his site and have a look around some of his more recent posts - I've no great desire to rehash it all here.

The questions is, though, whether Osborne will survive these allegations. Realistically, I think he will. If John Prescott can cling to office despite boffing his secretary at the taxpayer's expense then Osborne can survive allegations made about his conduct prior to attaining high office.

But it isn't just that. We're dealing with George Osborne here. There's something about George that makes him come across as deeply unpleasant. I think it is the fact that he has the appearance and demeanour of a bloated puff adder. Therefore, any scandal involving him doesn't really come as a surprise. Seriously, if I heard that he spent his spare time punching old women in the face, I wouldn't be surprised. And that will work in Osborne's favour. The expectations about his behaviour are so low that he could probably get away with just about anything. The Daily Mash have their tongue planted firmly in their cheek with this one, but there is more than an element of truth in the idea that this sort of scandal actually and perversely (no pun intended) humanise him a bit.

Make no mistake about it, this will be embarrassing for him - almost regardless of whether it is true or not. But career ending? I doubt it somehow.