Actually I had another look - the date on which Osborne was saying that, with such a roguish giggle as he talked about the "pretty clever financial products", was in fact 15 May 2003.

That was at a time when his crooked friends in the City were still wrecking the place without being unmasked, and the Tories were crying out for still more deregulation of the financial casino. (And of course they were still swearing blind that no Tory government would ever cut benerfits or public services.)