Banks might be forgiven for finding it a little trying to have to listen to government ministers lecturing them about their lending practices. While playing to the public gallery with blood-curdling threats has its appeal, coercing the banks into lending randomly to all comers is hardly the best way for ministers to help the economy manage its way through the recession. While everyone wants to assist hard-pressed homeowners, for example, there is surely no sense in propping up an overpriced housing market with generous mortgage deals.

Berating banks that fail to open up their publicly replenished coffers to small and medium enterprises is the latest government obsession, with Peter Mandelson, the business minister, its cheerleader. True, SMEs, which account for 99.9 per cent of UK businesses and employ 59 per cent of the private sector workforce, are critical to the economy. Working capital is drying up for many as big customers, such as supermarkets, extend terms of payment, customers stay at home and insurers refuse to provide cover to weaker companies. Many SMEs short of working capital will try to borrow from their banks to tide them over. If they fail, they will go to the wall. Like it or not, that is what happens in recessions.