FOR all the hours of discussion on the Government's 30-point plan to squeeze out speculators - eight hours in total - there has been a certain lack of straight talking.
Yesterday morning, the regulatory bodies made a valiant attempt to stand four-square behind the government measures, despite the fact some of them obviously had serious reservations about the changes.
Earlier in the week, Hong Kong Futures Exchange chairman Geoffrey Yeh Meou-tsen had voiced his fears that tightening the regulation of the exchange would drive investors into the arms of Hong Kong's rivals. By yesterday, his tune had changed. Suddenly, he 'couldn't say what the effect would be'.
The Hong Kong Securities Clearing Co (HKSCC) chairman and chief executive also seemed to be biting their tongues.
Clearly bristling at the verbal attacks from legislators - who obviously thought the HKSCC had helped the speculators get away with their short-selling - they still managed to spit out a few words of support for the Government. The HKSCC board had agreed in principle to the changes, they said.
Nor could stock exchange chairman Alex Tsui find any problem in giving a political appointee with no direct finance experience the power to tell the exchanges what to do. There might be no effect on the market, he said, before adding a polite request that the chief executive not use those powers too often.