Northern Rock and Banking Reform

I know; I understand. I do not mind people disagreeing if they put another theory into the frame. Here is one—although I could not push it. In Committee, I picked up on strains between all three parties. The Chancellor was always very loyal, although hon. Members will expect me to say that. The Bank of England, on occasions, attempted to land the Chancellor in it. The FSA and the Bank had some bad vibes and were unwilling to be forthcoming about the conversations that they had had. That points towards bad relationships that, I think, might have contributed to the problem. We should think about those relationships. My right hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire spoke about war games. Another factor was the newness of the Chancellor. We should remember that he had been in office for only a month, whereas the Governor of the Bank of England had been in post for five years and McCarthy has been around for a considerable time. Strong, able and confident as the Chancellor is in such situations, he has to look at those people of experience—[Interruption.] Am I boring the hon. Member for Twickenham already? The Chancellor would certainly have to look to long-standing officials of such stature for advice. The conflicts that went on are very interesting. I agree that we should be careful about regulation. The trouble is that when there is a crisis or when something has blown up, we change the regulation to deal with that. However, that is not why we should be changing the regulation. We should think of what will happen in the future. We should say, ““That's what has happened; deal with it by changing the regulation lightly, if you will, but do not over-regulate.””