Writing to the Financial Times in late 2024, John Glen — Economic Secretary and City Minister from 2018 to 2022, and so effectively responsible for financial regulation — said something that even ex-ministers rarely say out loud. The FCA, he observed, had become the convenient target for two contradictory demands made at the same time: that it should impose lighter and less bureaucratic burdens on growth, and that it should guarantee ever higher standards of consumer protection. His conclusion was blunt: "We cannot have both unless we agree the trade-offs."

Two things I did last week. The first was to catch the final week of the M.C. Escher exhibition at Somerset House. It was an extraordinary show. The second was to read the statement issued by the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, who met in Asheville, North Carolina, on 31 August and 1 September. The Chair’s Statement ran to seventeen paragraphs and was agreed by everyone present except China.

Three of those paragraphs repay being read together, which is not how documents like this are designed to be read.

Paragraph 7 identifies the common impediments to growth. Regulatory and administrative burdens come first on the list, ahead of inefficient tax regimes, inadequate investment and the cost of capital. The remedy is stated without qualification: simplify and reduce red tape and overly burdensome regulations.

Paragraph 15 sets out the financial-sector programme. Ministers commit to modernising regulatory and supervisory frameworks to ensure financial stability, and to promote the resilience and efficiency of their financial systems, in order to support strong and durable economic growth.

Paragraph 9 turns to the standard-setters. It calls on them to support private sector-led innovation and to commit to the principle that standards should be “well-calibrated and fit-for-purpose”.

Read on its own, each paragraph is reasonable. Read together, they describe a structure.

The King's Speech on Tuesday included two bills aimed squarely at regulatory burden: the Regulating for Growth Bill and the Competition Reform Bill. The first will impose a statutory mandate on named regulators to prioritise growth and pledges to cut administrative costs for business by 25%. The second will speed up aspects of the CMA’s work. Both are framed not as deregulation but as "modernisation".

UK’s deregulation debate is a dangerous game of Jenga in which no one knows which pieces are load-bearing.