The vote to raise Bank rate from 5% to 5.25% earlier this month was a knife-edge one, just 5-4 in favour against market expectations of 7-2. Significantly, three of the Bank's "insiders" - Rachel Lomax, Charlie Bean and Paul Tucker - voted to hold, along with David Blanchflower. They would have been concerned about the surprise element in the hike, and about the danger of instilling a sense of panic. They were also worried about what would have been seen as a knee-kerk reaction to the 3% inflation figure, which the Bank had notice of. The minutes are here. They overshadowed Mervyn King's Birmingham speech, which conveyed a tough message to pay bargainers but did not give any obvious clues on rates.