As the British are often first to point out, Europe is responsible for some pretty odd rules. Brussels has banned bendy bananas, said water can’t be promoted as a rehydration product and even outlawed marketing prunes for the “maintenance of normal bowel function”.

Yet these meddlings were apparently trumped last week by Europe’s plan to impose the first legal curb on bank bonuses. Never mind the past few decades, Boris Johnson said the rules were the most absurd to approach the continental statute book for 1700 years. “This is possibly the most deluded measure to come from Europe since Diocletian tried to fix the price of groceries across the Roman Empire,” said the Mayor of London.