Where's the money gone? Not here, say guilty three

The three men sat, in a row, looking like a trio of naughty, if rather aged, schoolboys. They may, in reality, be the most powerful men in the land when it comes to the economy but, for their appearance before the Treasury committee, they had donned the careful blank faces of pupils caught red-handed. John McFall, the Labour committee chairman, effortlessly adopted the persona of the stern and humourless headmaster as he faced the guilty three: Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, and Whatshisname, the new guy at the Financial Services Authority. They did, actually, look furtive.

Beside Mr McFall was a stack of 5,000 e-mails with questions for the Guilty Three from the Great British Public. The trio gulped. Mr McFall read out the first question, from Ted W. “Where,” he demanded, “has all the money gone?”