He just couldn’t resist.
Grinning smugly with his Action Man hair and donning a two-piece suit, George Osborne reckoned he was delivering a winning Budget.
It was all boasts of a successful “long-term economic plan” (three of those), “fixing the roof” when the sun is shining (two) and he even decided to have a pop at Ed Miliband’s second kitchen.
The Chancellor’s swagger extended to taunting the SNP with the old “it goes without saying an independent Scotland would never have been able to afford” his North Sea support package.
Want more ridiculousness? MPs and viewers who had stayed awake long enough to catch this part of the speech were treated to a reference to the Battle of Agincourt. Yep, you read that right.
All this mick-taking seems awfully arrogant and presumptuous, doesn’t it? The problem is he has reason to lord it over his opponents.
Osborne has found a big enough carpet to sweep some huge impending doom under.
The Office for Budget Responsibility has pointed out that next year’s cuts are going to be four times that of what’s happening this election year.
They say: “A much sharper squeeze on real spending in 2016-17 and 2017-18 than anything seen over the past five years followed by the biggest increase in real spending for a decade in 2019-20.”
Basically, there’s a lot more belt tightening to come under the Tories’ plans.
Poll after poll puts Osborne and David Cameron streets ahead of the two Eds on the benches opposite when it comes to who is trusted to run the economy, however. They reckon more cuts aren’t a big problem because voters trust them, not Labour, with the money.