On the day the Bank of England announced that inflation is still more than double the target of 2%, Mervyn King is to be knighted. When the target has been missed for the last three years, you have to wonder what is the point of it? Whatever happened to performance related rewards?

There was the first run on a bank in some 200 years on his watch. The Bank of England’s official position is that deflation is the danger. He’s been photographed repeatedly during crisis days at Wimbledon and Lords, and now he’s off to the Palace. Arise Sir Mervyn of Credit Crunch…