By George, you're a horrible little man, aren't you?

Are the Tories and the Daily Heil in some kind of arms race against benefit claimants? No sooner has the latter shamelessly and disgustingly presented the tragic deaths of six children as justification for the former's all-out war on the welfare state and its beneficiaries, than the Tory chancellor - that charmer George Osborne - has come out and essentially endorsed that viewpoint. As his Labour opposite number Ed Balls has said, this is the very worst kind of cynical, opportunistic political points-scoring.

That would be the same George Osborne whose chauffeur happily parks in disabled spaces, by the way. Given Monday's introduction of the welfare cuts, the chauffeur's sense of timing could probably have been better as far as Tory HQ is concerned. Osborne, meanwhile, has been described as "unaware" of his driver's indiscretion - though "unaware" is a perpetually applicable adjective when it comes to describing him.

(Incidentally, Matt Carr's Huffington Post commentary on AN Wilson's Heil piece is one of the best I've read.)