Social historians will record this week as one when unhappy shoppers began discussing the potential collapse of western capitalism in the same breath as butter prices. The credit crunch that began in the US came home to roost in the UK with Lloyds TSB’s government-sanctioned rescue bid for Halifax Bank of Scotland.

The realisation that Britain’s biggest mortgage lender had risked insolvency has shifted the public mood. Before, perplexity predominated. Now many ordinary people are angry with the bankers they regard as having blown national prosperity on the roll of a dice.