Previous high oil prices created? the first bubble of in the summer of 2008. reached its highs in December of 2007 and briefly topped above $300 around the same time that oil was peaking. Over the past month, that trend has been inverted, with oil rising as solar stocks have fallen. I'm not predicting another solar bubble, but I expect solar stocks will see a steady rise for well executing companies.

Then there are the others. Tatyana Chernova, dispatched from Moscow centre. Lilli Schwarzkopf, who has flown in direct from Berlin. And the exotically named Hyleas Fountain: "I'm Hyleas Fountain". "But of course you are".

Westminster, she says, has too many politicians who "theorise about business. You need people who are right at the cutting edge. I wish a lot more business people did get into politics. Wed be in a much better place now."

The government passed a law that critics said allowed large companies to bring in cheap labour to work on construction projects. Hammond has promised to revise the law.

He relents, slightly. "Well it wasnt really like the war because it was the first time the working classes had a mass voice and lots of people were doing really interesting things. But I was never that interested in fashion. It was just the only way that a photographer in those days could earn a living creatively. Back when I was an assistant I had to go and look at fashion shows so Id do it with another assistant and wed take turns sleeping."