Inevitably the dramatic departure of RBS boss Stephen Hester on Wednesday evening was followed by a frenzy of speculation yesterday.
Did George Osborne, desperate to raise the funds for a pre-election giveaway, force out Mr Hester because he did not agree with the Chancellor's hurried timetable for returning taxpayer-owned RBS to private hands?
Had Mr Osborne been persuaded by Vince Cable to replace the undoubtedly arrogant Mr Hester with a more compliant figure, who would cede to Government demands to lend more to small firms?
Whatever the reality, the markets took fright at the idea of political interference – with the bank's value slumping by £1.6billion at one stage.
Analysts fear that – with the man who recently dragged RBS back into profit gone – it will now take even longer for the Chancellor to dispose of an institution which cost £45billion to bail out, but is currently worth only £19.3billion.
True, it is not Mr Osborne's fault he was saddled with RBS (and Lloyds) by a Labour government which, unforgivably, allowed the bankers to run amok.
But we worry about the Government's meddling in this affair. Meddling politicians and incompetent civil servants should have as little as possible to do with running huge commercial enterprises.
Instead of trying to appoint a biddable successor to Mr Hester, Mr Osborne should leave recruitment to the RBS board, which has the expertise so sadly lacking in the Treasury.
More... Hypocrisy and the shaming of Mr Clegg Enough to make you gag! Spending OUR money to stop US being told the truth about OUR public services More than £1bn wiped off taxpayers' share in RBS after boss Stephen Hester is oustedThen the new man should be left alone to complete the only task that matters to the taxpayer: getting our money back.
Bring back grammarsThe Ofsted findings could hardly have been more devastating or depressing.
Inspectors found that, at England's non-selective secondary schools, 'low expectations' are causing tens of thousands of pupils to miss out on the top grades their intelligence deserves.
Shamefully, some staff did not even know who their most able pupils were.
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw sensibly suggests that schools should return to streaming pupils, to stop staff from 'teaching to the middle'.
But, with social mobility so tragically stalled, isn't the case for re-introducing grammar schools now overwhelming?
By opening a large school in every town, and allowing pupils to enter at any age post-11, the criticisms of grammars – that they favour the wealthy through catchment areas, and that they shut out late developers – can be overcome.
Michael Gove deserves huge credit for his efforts to restore rigour to the nation's failing education system. But, for the sake of Britain's children, he must now go further by overturning David Cameron's bewildering opposition to grammars which, for years, encouraged far more social mobility than exists today.
The migrant trapIn a landmark report, the OECD yesterday revealed that male immigrants to Britain now have a higher employment rate than their UK-born counterparts.
Nobody should blame the migrants, whose work ethic contrasts so sharply with the workshy culture of welfarism so prevalent in significant sections of society. But isn't it mad to continue importing so many foreign workers, while a quarter of the home-grown workforce is jobless?
A week ago, an EU report revealed Britain (despite being a much smaller country than Germany) is the favourite destination for European migrants. Yesterday, the OECD predicted that one million Bulgarians will emigrate once they get free access to the EU jobs market. No prizes for guessing where they'll be heading.