Alistair Darling will be holding a "grill party" today, to which the CEOs of Britain's leading banks are invited.
Darling will use the "grill party" as an opportunity to express government "concerns" over the lamentable level of bank lending that is holding back the possibility of pulling out of the recession.
Lloyds Banking, RBS, HSBC and Barclays will all attend the meeting.
Darling is quoted:
"That is why we will be going through with each individual bank asking them why is it, at a time when the cost of borrowing is coming down, it would appear that the cost to small business appears to have gone up?
We're playing our part, the banks have got to understand that the public will not understand it if they do not play their part to the full."
Quite what Darling thinks he will be able to do to persuade the banks to lend more is not clear.
Additionally, as Vince Cable notes, why has it taken Darling this long to realise that there is still a problem wrt bank lending?
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