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Financial Services Bill

The Chancellor raised the European issue too early in his speech. Surely we should have our eyes open and be aware that Frankfurt and Paris will see an opportunity to challenge London's primacy on the European markets. More importantly, unless the red lines are robust, is there not a danger of mission creep from regulators in Europe? The combination of a dirigiste approach to regulation and the past history of the FSA of putting through a lot of irrelevant regulation which, in the end, did not save us from the crisis, could mean that we have a tremendous burden of more micro-level issues than the rather grander macro issues which, as the right hon. Gentleman says, are important for European regulatory co-operation?