Rationalisation is a popular strategy at the moment: in addition to merging the various inspection bodies, the government has plans to weld the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise into a single entity.

ECONOMIST: New plans to cut red tape address only part of the problem

No matter that the deal would weld the country's fourth and fifth biggest banks, by assets, into its biggest retail-banking outfit: ministers argued correctly that saving the financial system was more important than fussing about competition.

ECONOMIST: British bank mergers