Last week’s decision by Gordon Brown to stop people using residential property in self-invested pensions may have caused some upset for City directors looking for ways to avoid tax on their annual bonus. But did TS sense a slight touch of sarcasm in the response we received from Tenon?

‘Tenon directors are also disappointed, as their personal collections of fine wines, antiques and Stanley Gibbons stamps have been gathering dust pending A-Day.’

It continued: ‘Peter O’Sullivan, director of Financial Services at Tenon, has extended a warm invitation to high net worth individuals. He is offering to help them drown their sorrows in Chateau Lafite while he licks his antique stamp collection and uses them for this year’s Round Robin while dreaming of the chalet in Meribel that now will never be.'