I went along to my first treasury select committee yesterday. Unfortunately, the show’s centre-piece was our Chancellor, Alastair Darling. Gone were the wallet-swollen fat cats Sir Fred and Sir Tom and gone, too, was any conviction from the MPs selected to bring economic big players to book. Darling, flanked by two identically balding accountants, was on peerlessly dull form. His bushy slugs rarely raised their heads above his wire-framed specs as he steadfastly refused to give MPs anything resembling a straight answer.