Business bank: has Vince Cable been watching The Thick of It?

Peter Mannion (Roger Allam) in Saturday's episode of The Thick of It. Photograph: Des Willis/BBC

Life imitating art is an occupational hazard for BBC2's political satire The Thick of It. Ed Miliband's lifting of Malcolm Tucker's phrase "omnishambles" to describe the coalition government even crossed the Atlantic, when Mitt Romney's suggestion Britain might not be ready for the Olympics saw his visit to London collapse into a "Romneyshambles".  "It feels more like they copy us," star and co-writer Will Smith has said.

So viewers of the programme may not have been surprised by a slight feeling of deja vu today when they heard about Vince Cable's announcement of £1bn to establish a British business bank to help small- and medium-sized enterprises.