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There was a time when the importation of a central banker, even from a land as chillaxed about sharing our head of state as Canada, would have inspired some anger. So it is an encouraging sign of a growing realism that it aroused no more than some muted harrumphing along “why can’t we produce a competent governor of our own any more?” lines. The explanation for this tolerance can only be the knowledge, painful as it is, that (with the exceptions of pageantry, one-off £9 billion events such as the Olympics, and quality newspapers) we cannot produce a competent anything any more. In which case, who could object to handing positions of great power to people from countries that can?