Two of the most remarkable characteristics of the long stock market boom of the past decade or so have been the almost endemic presence of financial scandal and the persistent attempts by business leaders to claim that it’s all due to a “few bad apples” and should not lead to “over-regulation”.

Until yesterday the most famous alleged inducement to a Federal parliamentarian was the case of proto-Keynseian and newspaper and mining magnate, E.G.Theodore.

It is possible that we are currently witnessing one of the biggest single successful investment calls since George Soros and sterling.

Given the role of religion in US politics these days it is perhaps not surprising that the great biblical yarn, Exodus, seems to be enjoying a re-run since the recent election.

Amidst the page after page and hour after hour analysis of what George W.’s re-election might mean, one small fact stands out.

There is something profoundly immoral about arguing about the precise number of deaths in various situations.

The health authorities’ policy of preventing fish and chip shop owners from wrapping their products in yesterday’s papers has removed, sadly, one of the last constraints on journalistic ahistoricism.

If voting made any difference it would be illegal, London Mayor, Ken Livingstone once said – sometime before he was elected as an independent against staunch opposition from Tony Blair.