If the Takeover Panel governed the recent statements by John Varley or Steve Crawshaw on capital raisings, the chief executive of Barclays would have been slapped with a "put up or shut up" and his counterpart at Bradford & Bingley would have been banned from taking action for six months.

Under panel rules, if a bidder teases a target about whether it is making a firm offer or not, it is given a deadline by which it must make its intentions clear. Likewise, if a bidder says it is not making a bid, it cannot bid for six months.