Titles are important, as any self-respecting civil servant will tell you. So important, in fact, you might want to spend, oh, minutes discussing it before accepting a new job.

And it looks as if it took even less time for the European Commission's new anti-fraud commissioner to reflect on his new job title when he joined at the end of last year.

Estonian Siim Kallas was given the rather grand moniker of commissioner of administrative affairs. Fairly innocuous you would agree, until you realise that this title sounds suspiciously similar to that of Yes Minister Whitehall mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby.

Given that Sir Humphrey's sole aim seemed to consist of achieving as little as possible, let's hope Kallas isn't from the same school of bureaucracy that his title might imply.