Comment: Tight squeeze with all those elephants

There was the expected elevation of Charlie Bean to Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, only hinted at by Chancellor Alistair Darling, who said an appointment would be announced today (why not announce it then?). That suggested Mervyn King, the Governor, had won his battle with the Treasury to have his candidate replace Rachel Lomax.

The Chancellor told us he was bolstering the Bank's ability to control financial stability with a new committee.

In truth, Sir John Gieve, the co-Deputy Governor charged with maintaining stability, sitting along the top table, had quit but nobody said so. Why had it taken a pregnant nine months for Gieve to head for the door after a lamentable performance before MPs inquiring into Northern Rock?

Darling made it clear he would decide who would sit on the new FSC, assuming that's what it's to be called (as opposed to the MPC - under Labour, nothing beats an acronym), not King.

When it was King's turn, he emphasised the importance of not allowing above-inflation pay awards to get embedded.

Meanwhile, in the bars and pubs outside their depots, the Shell tanker drivers were celebrating their 14% rise.

The Chancellor was doing his best to suggest the chaos of Northern Rock was down to the Bank, which should have seen it coming.

For his part, the Governor said he'd warned in his address to the same gathering last year of too much credit in the system and the risks posed by fancy new financial instruments (memo to King: don't say "I told you so" because it only highlights the fact that nobody listened to you).

And while we sat or stood again, to toast "prosperity to the public purse and the health of the Chancellor of the Exchequer" (yes, really), around the world the oil and commodity markets were continuing on their relentless, uncompromising path.