If there is a single lesson to take away from these indictments, it is that we must always remember that human nature dictates that the invisible hand that moves markets and economies gets every nudge it can, by any means fair and foul, from anyone who can contriveto gain power over it.
Ministers were well aware that the latest official statistics on England's house-building were due for release yesterday morning and their contents but, rather than contriveto coincide with the most recent data, the prime minister and his deputy invited the cameras to watch them plod through the mud of a housing development precisely 24 hours earlier.