don’t put my business on the street, wallpaper boy

As Alex and Ajay commented downblog, the Rothschilds were doing serious business when Osborne’s ancestors were painting their cave wall. Now check out the voice of cold command:

Nat Rothschild, the merchant banker who accused shadow chancellor George Osborne of soliciting a £50,000 donation from Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, has warned he will destroy Osborne if the Tories continue to question his account of the discussions that took place at his villa on Corfu.

Declaring a form of uneasy truce, friends of Rothschild said he did not at this stage want to escalate the public battle with his old friend. They said Rothschild had not intended to bring Osborne down by disclosing the shadow chancellor's involvement in talks about raising money from Deripaska. Instead, the friends said, Rothschild had intended it as "slap on the wrist" because he was furious that Osborne had breached confidences in an attempt to damage Labour business secretary Lord Mandelson.

 …a source close to Rothschild said: "If anything is put out that in any way contradicts what he has said, Nat will come back." Rothschild has insisted that Osborne did solicit funds, contradicting the shadow chancellor's account.

The source added that Rothschild had written witness statements from two friends, including James Goodwin, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Hey, Gideon: he’s not just calling you out on what you said: he’s telling you to say he’s right. What are you going to do about that, paperhanger? But it’s not about the money or the Russians any more, except as a vehicle for getting other things out there.

Mandelson brushed off Osborne's indiscretion at the time with a light-hearted warning to the shadow chancellor that he might be tempted to reveal his unflattering thoughts about the refusal of many Tories to come to terms with the modernisation of their party.

Not serious? Well the folkways of the overclass always have a certain interest. It also ties into the way the Tories have responded to the economic crisis. In fact there’s a parallel here. You have two cases of Tories sneaking around, marginal, trivial, looking for an edge: not ready for prime time, way past their bedtime.

Comments

[Charlie]

I think maybe you're overdoing it a bit with the noblesse oblige attributions here. It looks to me as though Rothschild Jr (also ex-Bullingdon) is moving into Prince Charles territory with the weightiness of his pronouncements. Imagine Highgrove relocated in the Med. for purposes of tax avoidance ... much safer for Rothschild to return to the quiet enjoyment of extreme wealth, surely?

The more troubling question is why we have a senior Tory politician socialising with Mandelson and various Russians. As if to tell us we have no hope at all of getting an honest set of politicians elected.

[HelenGB]

The Independent had an interesting comment about the Rothschild's motivation in simon Carr's sketch.

Rothschild knifes George

"Mandelson's name is attached to £200m of aluminium tariff gains. His wealthy friends have lost billions in the crash. The Rothschild reaction is far too detailed, pointed, damaging to be a response to a lapse of manners. It is a shot at destroying an old friend in order to protect... well, who knows?"