Enough. It is time to put aside the stocks and stand down the firing squads. Pursuing the bankers who filled their wallets while the financial system crashed has been satisfying sport. Retribution must be put on hold. It has become a diversion from, and an impediment to, the more important task of fixing the economy.

Do not misunderstand. My personal enthusiasm for holding to account those responsible for the present mess remains undiminished. I am as appalled as any at the vast pension extracted by Sir Fred Goodwin as the price of his departure from the ruined Royal Bank of Scotland.

In time, others too will have to bear their share of the blame. The failure of the Bank of England, to take one example, remains a largely unwritten story. All this will have to wait.