Was the answer to the banking crisis to give the banks more freedom? That was certainly the view of George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, when Northern Rock got into trouble. The answer he said, was 'less regulation, not more.’ Vince Cable for the Liberal Democrats, took a similar view at the time and made a speech favouring 'light touch’ regulation. Now they try to claim they had been calling for tougher controls on banks for years, but anyone can be clever with hindsight.

When the banks began to get into trouble some people took the view that the Government should allow them to go bust. The Conservatives certainly took that position and opposed the nationalisation of Northern Rock. That was until the public came to understand that if one bank could go bust then they all could and then everyone’s savings and pensions would be at risk.

After that the Tories began to support the bank bail out and said they wanted to form a 'united front’ with Government. That position lasted no more than a few weeks. Now they talk about Gordon Browns debt, but they never explain how they would have stopped the collapse of the banking system without putting government money into it.

Of course, it suits them to raise fears about how the money the Government has put into the economy will be paid back as they think it’s a vote winner. So how will it be paid back?

The money put into the banks was used to buy a stake in those banks. When the banks recover and the share price of the banks returns to normal the Government will sell its stake at a considerable profit to the tax payer. Even the Tories privately acknowledge that some future Government will benefit from this huge windfall but they don’t say it in public.

Instead they call on the Government to cut public spending. They don’t say how, of course, because they know cuts in public spending are unpopular and there is public support for Government efforts to help families and industry in these tough times. They just want to have it both ways, supporting every spending proposal but opposing the spending itself.

The Government has already set out its stall for normalising public finance once the crisis is over. It has said the VAT cut will be reversed and a 45 per cent income tax rate will be introduced for people who earn more than £150,000 pa. We say, the better off are going to have to pay a bit more to help lower income families and help businesses create new jobs and we have acknowledged that some tough choices lie ahead.

And the Tory response? They remain committed to pressing ahead with a cut to inheritance tax, benefiting just 3,000 millionaires, and costing you, the ordinary tax payer, another £1.2 bn. Far from having a plan to control public spending they only have plans to tax the poor and help the rich.