Much has been made of Chancellor George Osborne’s erratic behaviour of late. First there was his dazed and bovine appearance in the Commons last week — which brought to mind someone on a balanced diet of ketamine and Quaaludes, or a major dose of magic mushrooms washed down with methadone.

Glassy eyed and slack-jawed, he all but drooled as he sat on the front benches appearing to be watching his own private internal movie in his head.

Knowing him it was probably torture porn.

Then we had his megalomaniacal meltdown on the Today programme when he clashed with John Humphrys over his Autumn Statement, which led to the postulation that his morning pick-me-up had rather more of a kick than your average strong cup of coffee. But more of this in a moment.

Between times there was of course the Autumn statement.

As Osborne took to his feet it was tempting to imagine the strains of the Jaws theme tune.

And there was more than a hint of “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…” about his pronouncements.

By the time he’d finished it was more like the music from Psycho. All he was missing was a wig, a dress and a bloody big knife.

Earlier in the proceedings Cameron had botched an attempted sex joke about shadow chancellor Ed Balls by accusing him of “maso-sadism.”

It’s not like Cameron to get things arse about face is it?

The attempted jibe was something of a gamble for the leader of a party with its track record on the subject and several of whose members are facing allegations of serious sexual assault. One of whom, Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard, had been arrested by appointment the previous evening. And another, former Thatcher Cabinet minister Leon Brittan, who is likely to face serious questions at the child sexual abuse inquiry, if it ever gets off the ground and they can find someone who isn’t one of his mates to chair it.

Cameron should leave the innuendo and sex gags to those who know something about it, like er … Osborne. He used to be best mates with a dominatrix after all.

But speaking of deriving pleasure from the suffering of others, back to the Autumn Statement. As is now traditional with this coalition, and Osborne in particular, there was little in the way of detail but what there was will have sent a cold chill down the spines of many.

Basically, amid the feeble attempts at populism, the message was that when it comes to brutal austerity cuts he’s barely scratched the surface, with another £55 billion to come.

Now, as with most of Osborne’s utterances, this was not exactly new. We’ve known for some time that the bulk of the cuts had yet to come — it’s merely a matter of the ambiguity over exactly where the axe will fall.

That is still unclear although it’s possible to make an educated guess given his history.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the plans would require government spending cuts “on a colossal scale” after the election next May if the country is demented enough to let these blood-suckers back into power.

Voters would be justified in asking whether the Chancellor was planning “a fundamental reimagining of the role of the state,” the IFS said.

If reductions in departmental spending were to continue at the same pace after the May 2015 election as they had over the past four years, welfare cuts or tax rises worth about £21bn a year would be needed by 2019-20, it calculated.

But Osborne condemned “hyperbolic” predictions about the consequences.

Claiming the poll in May was a choice between his “course to prosperity” or a return to Labour “chaos,” he blamed economic “storms” for the coalition’s failure to clear the deficit on schedule.

Funny how it’s always conveniently someone else’s fault isn’t it? I’m just surprised he didn’t blame it all on immigrants, or gay marriage.

Then, as previously mentioned, he totally lost it in the interview with Humphrys, whingeing that the media’s treatment of him was “unfair” and that the BBC’s coverage was like “listening to a rewind of 2010.”

So was sitting through his statement.

“You had BBC correspondents saying Britain is returning to a George Orwell world of the Road to Wigan Pier,” he said. “It is just such nonsense.”

I quite agree. It’s much worse than that.

And speaking of outrageously hypocritical and cynical statements in the Commons, it was a case of “another day another scumbag” yesterday.

Tory MP David Nuttall staggeringly claimed in a debate on whether to enshrine in law Britain’s commitment to a 0.7 per cent of GDP foreign aid target that to do so could encourage the public to give less money to charity.

Nuttall speciously claimed that people might feel the government is “doing their job for them” if Parliament passed the legislation.

Ok, three points here. First, there is absolutely no evidence to support this claim. Second, that’s what government is supposed to do — that’s why you’re elected. And third, everybody knows this shower don’t do anything for anyone but themselves.