Lloyds sell-off teaches George Osborne a valuable lesson in timing

The chancellor may blame the markets for cancelled share sale, but a stock like Lloyds is a weathervane for health of UK economy

George Osborne has discovered that share prices can go down as well as up. The chancellor has postponed his plan to flog 2bn of Lloyds Banking Group shares to the public because stock markets are deemed too "turbulent", by which he means that Lloyds shares sit at 64p, well below the state's break-even price of 73.6p.

Spring had been the deadline for the sale - now it's not. The scheme can be resuscitated at a later date but there is a simple moral to this tale: don't make promises on timing, because markets can make you look foolish.

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