Maurice can bank on his friend's Hans-on approach

Maurice O'Connell, the governor of the Central Bank, will be carefully assessing the latest comments from Hans Tietmeyer of the Bundesbank on the single currency and the possible revaluation of the pound.

But we should remember that the two men know each other's form well. Both served together through the currency crisis on the secretive EU Monetary Committee, the group of central bankers and finance officials who basically run monetary policy under government direction.

Indeed it is Tietmeyer who, legend has it, approached O'Connell on the way into a meeting towards the end of 1992 to suggest that the pound be devalued.