On paper, it looks like an unfair fight. A committee of 13 already busy Members of Parliament, supported by a dedicated team of just eight specialists, ranged against the might of HM Treasury, the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and the entire UK banking system.

So it is lucky that Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, is rather clever. An economist before being elected to Parliament in 1997 - the year his Conservative party was dumped out of office for three terms - Tyrie's wiry build and bookish character give him the air of an old school headmaster or Oxbridge academic, with brains to match.