So, to sum up. The Council for Financial Stability replaces the Standing Committee on Financial Stability. The Council for Financial Stability members are the same as the members of the Standing Committee on Financial Stability: the Treasury; the Bank of England, which produces the Financial Stability Report, hosts the Financial Stability Committee and now has a statutory responsibility to protect financial stability; and the Financial Services Authority, which produces the Financial Risk Outlook and will shortly receive a formal, statutory objective for financial stability and clearer authority to set rules to protect financial stability.

At this rate, the first meeting of the CFS will resemble the scene in Monty Python’s Life of Brian when insurgents from the People’s Front of Judea argue about which out of the Judean People’s Front, the Judean Popular People’s Front, or the Popular Front of Judea (“Splitters!”) they hate most. If the CFS ever gets to a first meeting, that is. The Treasury’s adoption in its proposal of almost all Lord Turner’s blueprint for reform simply underlines how deep the trench is between warring factions – the government backing the FSA on one side; the Conservatives backing the Bank on the other.