Darling by name, darling by nature. Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, is set to hand the recalcitrant Lloyds Banking Group the get out of jail (almost) free card it was angling for – and a few bells and whistles on top.

By sanctioning the bank’s proposed rights issue and accompanying package of tricks designed to raise up to £25bn, the government gives Lloyds the all-clear to escape the asset protection scheme. That would have brought with it more government whipping (“Lend! I don’t care if you don’t like the colour of Hull bakers’ credit ratings, just lend!”) and a hefty £15.7bn toll charge. But government largesse does not end there. By agreeing to take up its own rights in the issue, the government is sticking a shiny gold stamp of approval on the capital raising. That should encourage other investors to dip into their pockets too, helping assuage any niggling worries about how a bank can raise the equivalent of its existing market capitalisation virtually at one fell swoop.