It’s never, ever, a good idea to come between the English and their pies.

And that’s what David Cameron’s government is trying to do. I’ll spare you too much VAT-arcana, but, up to now, the tax (20 percent) has not been payable on hot foods served by shops and supermarkets, a happy exemption in a country that enjoys its hot pies, sausage rolls, and Cornish pasties. Under provisions included in Britain’s new budget, that exemption is scheduled to go.

This was bad taste and terrible politics. The fact that these delights are seen as everyman fare has only made matters worse: Cameron and finance minister George Osborne both come from Britain’s, uh, upper crust. In the land of Downton Abbey, people care about such things.

The Press Association takes up the story here.

Chancellor George Osborne was accused of being out of touch after he was unable to recall when he last bought a pasty as he answered questions on Tuesday about the so-called “pie tax” in Parliament.
But Mr. Cameron was quick to declare himself a keen pasty-eater, telling reporters he recently bought a large one from an outlet at Leeds station, adding: “And very good it was too.”

But was the prime minister telling a pork pie?

Leeds station’s last pasty shop closed earlier this month. The Cornish Bakehouse concession stands empty in the main concourse. Workers said the station once had a branch of the West Cornwall Pasty Co but it shut in 2007.

Piegate?

Guido Fawkes is reporting that Cameron’s spokesman is now back-tracking from the claim that Leeds station was the scene of this feast, reviving ugly suspicions that the prime minister (Eton & Oxford) has been nowhere near a Cornish pasty for months. The Labour party leadership, meanwhile are, as Guido (unable to restrain himself) notes, “on a roll,” busily buying OTC pies whenever there is a press photographer in sight.

The final twist?

EU Referendum’s Richard North (inevitably) reveals that the real culprit may well not be Cameron, or Osborne, but Brussels.

Of course.