A lunch held last Friday by the German-British Forum, founded in 1995 by David Marsh, now vice-chairman of Hawkpoint Partners, was no place for Eurosceptics.

The event drew no fewer than five Bundesbank presidents past and present. They included the incumbent Ernst Welteke and his immediate predecessor Hans Tietmeyer, and all of them were reportedly unruffled by the Danish 'no' vote. Also present were around 50 prominent German industrialists.