George Osborne has demanded the G20 tackle tax abuse by multinational companies.

And he has at the same time demanded that he have the right to create the most competitive tax regime in the G20, so setting out to undermine the attempts of all its other members to collect the tax owing to them.

Maybe he has not spotted the obvious paradox in these objectives, but anyone with an ounce of wit will not have done so. That will include all the multinational companies that will continue to take the second objective as an open invitation to undermine the first.

What did we do to deserve such a man as Chancellor?