Best Twitter gags as George Osborne joins the site

Chancellor George Osborne who insisted Britain would not "run away" from its problems after Moody's downgraded the country's AAA credit rating (PA)

Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has chosen today, Budget day, to join the international Twitter community, becoming @George_Osborne. He tweeted his first around 8.40 this morning, and sadly it wasn't a LOL cat link.

@George_Osborne: "Today I'll present a Budget that tackles the economy's problems head on helping those who want to work hard & get on pic.twitter.com/20nyTj0UCF"

The excitement on the social media site was immediately palpable (but not always polite):

@Pheebs_13: Best hashtag ever regarding George Osbourne #briefcasewanker

@davidschneider: George_Osborne to cut tweets to 135 characters by 2015 except for people with +200K followers. We don't want to drive them abroad budget

@‏StephenMangan: The outpouring of love towards the new-to-twitter george_osborne is bringing a tear to my eye. Reminds me of this http://youtu.be/qqM0Ube0oLs

@‏Herring1967: Oh my God George_Osborne is on Twitter! Another slid decision from him that I can't see even possibly going wrong.

@johnprescott: George_Osborne One personal plea. Please don't introduce a tax on tweets. It'll ruin me twitterbudget

@The_Dolphin_Pub: George Osborne should have "I like to budget, budget. I like to... BUDGET!" as his walk-on music. Then people would like him.

@‏james_blue_cat: George_Osborne HELLO WHAT IS YOUR WORST ENCOUNTER EVER WITH SPIDER-MAN?

@tom_watson: George_Osborne You're posing for a twitpic? Here's my one piece of advice: sack Shapps. (Google twitpic, you'll thank me later)

@GuidoFawkes: Unemployment up by 7,000. Happy budget day george_osborne.

@datacurator: George_Osborne's avatar lol *concerned for the country face*

@PatrickStrud: The only growth we're going to see from George_Osborne today is his follower numbers.

@OwenJones84: Having had his appetite for interaction with the public whetted at the Paralympics, George_Osborne has joined Twitter

@Joey7Barton: Gonna follow george_osborne to see if he actually tweets. If it turns out to be one of his servants, he'll be getting unfollowed sharpish!

@harrynwilson: One tweet and nearly 4,000 followers - that's the type of multiplier effect George_Osborne has been dreaming about for the last three years

@AdamBienkov: George_Osborne's arrival on Twitter not entirely welcomed by users so far: pic.twitter.com/tjHlCavxDg