Last Thursday lunchtime I was walking along Portland Place, outside the BBC’s HQ, and looking at my mobile at the same time. Suddenly a moped swooped past me on the pavement, and the passenger on the back reached out and tried to grab my phone. His hand slid off, the moped sped away, leaving me still clutching the phone and completely stunned. At next morning’s news conference, our picture editor said that he’d got hold of an extraordinary photo of two thugs on a moped, with the one on the back wielding a hammer. We put it on the front page, and it was picked up by the dailies. When we asked the sharp-witted photographer Ian Lawrence where and when the photo was taken, he replied: ‘Yesterday, on Portland Place.’
This is an extract from George Osborne's diary, which appears in this week's Spectator