This hair-brained scheme is the latest in a series of gaffes by the Tories on the economy. And it seem the voters share my concerns as the polls are now showing the gap between the two parties is narrowing fast.

I remember being alarmed early last year when David Cameron wrote in the Daily Telegraph that, thanks to Labour, "Britain is once again on the brink of bankruptcy".

It was a stupid and irresponsible thing to say. The UK was not on the brink of bankruptcy then and it isn't now, despite the huge budget deficit. Either Cameron didn't know what he was talking about or he was deliberately talking down the UK economy to make political capital.

Now this week we have Osborne's jolly wheeze of offering the Government's shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds to small investors at a low price. It doesn't take a Nobel Prize-winning economist to spot the flaw.

It takes away the main upside of the Government taking stakes in the banks in the first place.

The bail-out added to the country's debt but there remains the prospect that when the banks' shares prices rise above a certain level (break even is 50.5p for RBS and 74p for Lloyds) then the state can sell its stakes and make a profit for the taxpayer.

Osbourne's idea would mean a tiny minority of people would benefit from a low price while the rest of us would get shafted as the value of our stakes plummeted.

As the election draws nearer the prospect of the Tories implementing this madness could spook the city and put downward pressure on the share prices of the two banks.

Nice one George.