Welcome to London, Mrs Carney!

Well, that didn't take long!  Mark Carney is still three months from taking over as Governor of the Bank of England, but already the tabloid press is sinking its claws into his wife, Diana.

Mrs Carney was foolish enough to tweet a response to the news that France's President, Francois Hollande, is scaling back punitive taxes on the wealthy, taxes that have led many rich French folk to relocate to London:  "Maybe I'll be able to find a place to live in London after all".

It's perfectly clear that this is intended in jest, or at least, if there is a serious point, it's about the availability of housing, not the price.  The top end of the market in London has been largely unaffected by the problems in the global economy, and the presence of an influx of wealthy Parisiens has only added to the scarcity of supply.

That's not how the tabloids have chosen to see it, though.  This piece from the reliably venomous Daily Mail is typical, asserting that Mrs Carney has no right to plead poverty (which she wasn't) when her husband's contract provides a 5000 pound per week housing allowance in addition to his chunky salary.  The Mail even provided its readers with a photograph of the Rockcliffe Park area in Ottawa, where the Carneys currently live, noting that "many residents enjoy river views".  River views, indeed!!  How very dare they??

The reader comments at the end of the article indicate that all of this concocted fury has hit a chord with the misanthropic knuckle-draggers that make up most of the Mail's readership*.  Mrs Carney, who is a British citizen, is probably not entirely surprised by the reaction, but she may be starting to think that she's in for a long five years.

* And with one Labour MP, John Mann, who is a member of the Treasury Select Committee that grilled Mark Carney a few weeks ago.  He's offering to rent out his London flat to the Carneys, for "just four percent of her housing allowance".   Mann is MP for Bassetlaw, in Nottinghamshire, so the flat he's talking about is actually his second home.  No word from the Mail on whether it, or his main home in t'Midlands, has a river view.