Treasury questions is one of the more entertaining spectacles on offer in the Commons. There’s the standard banter between George Osborne and Ed Balls – today we saw the Chancellor dub his opposite number ‘the member for Unite west’, with Ed Balls noting in his reply that at least he’d only been heckled by a few trade unionists rather than the entire Olympic stadium. There were new ministers to welcome too: Greg Clark received such a warm cheer that he joked he felt ‘like Boris Johnson’.
But the centrepiece of the session was – along with the confirmation that the Autumn Statement will take place on the rather wintery date of 5 December – George Osborne’s announcement about the appointment of the next Bank of England governor. He said:
‘I can tell the House today that the appointment of [Sir Mervyn King’s] successor will be conducted through a fair and open competition.
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