Michael Howard, leader of the UK Conservative Party and the opposition, didn't spare Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he entertained guests at a British Venture Capital Association's (BVCA) dinner last week. Howard told the 100-strong audience at London's Lanesborough Hotel that Brown was a "regulation junkie".

Acknowledging you have a problem is, we all know, the first step to beating an addiction. Howard posed a series of questions, designed by a London clinic to diagnose dependency disorders, to help Brown confront his embarrassing condition. "Do you use regulation to help cope with your problems?" "Do you need to regulate more than you used to in order to get the effect you want?" and "Have you lost friends since you started regulating?" were some of the more illuminating questions.