Boy George unnerves Merv

The annoying talking donkey hasn’t just been getting up Gordo’s nose:

In a policy document handed to the Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank, in January and published yesterday, Mr Osborne raised the idea of removing the majority that the Bank’s staff currently hold on the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC).

However, the Bank was annoyed by a newspaper report that said the shadow Chancellor was “in constant dialogue with the Bank at every level”.

In an unusual move, the Bank issued a statement saying: “The Governor has never met George Osborne and has not had discussions with him on any of these ideas”.

Mr Osborne’s advisers sought to play down the significance of the gaffe, saying the shadow Chancellor had not used the words that were used in the newspaper.

As for the policy itself, I’m unclear at the moment whether this is an attempt to make the Bank even more independent or to bring it back under government control by stealth. Given that the extra nominees appear to be government, rather than parliamentary, ones, I would suspect the latter. Only Old School Ties need apply, eh George?