Without listing them all (we’ve had five in the past 12 months after all) these schemes have all had one striking similarity in that they have tried to boost lending to small businesses by giving vast sums of money to the banks.

This would be a fantastic plan if only somebody had told the banks that that was what the money was for. As it is we have seen hundreds of billions of pounds (including QE) poured into the top end of the economy only to see very little, if any, trickle through to the bottom.

However, following the spectacularly unsurprising news last year that banks drawing cash under the optimistically titled Funding for Lending scheme (presumably the next one will be called Money for Businesses Not Banks) had actually decreased net lending, someone in government seems to have taken notice.

Last Friday, Michael Fallon (for it was he) revealed that the BIS and Treasury were working on a plan to force banks to publish lending figures by region and business size to "increase transparency" about where the lending is going.

When and indeed whether this will happen is anyone’s guess but for the sake of the print sector and the wider economy I hope it is sooner rather than later, because it strikes me that without the proper checks in place then throwing money at the problem isn’t solving anything. Or is that just crazy talk?