And finally…

The Treasury’s top official has been knighted in the new year’s honours list for his role in dealing with the credit crunch. The decision to give Nick Macpherson, who was appointed in 2005 as permanent secretary at the Treasury and who has overseen the peak of the lending boom and subsequent £500 billion bail-out, a knighthood has been savaged by critics who say it is too early to claim the bail-out successful. Vince Cable Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman called it a rather ‘premature judgment on government policy, which is far from assured of being a success’.