One of the more unexpected features of Theresa May’s pitch for the leadership of the Conservative Party was her proposal for company boards to include a representative of the workforce. She has since backed off a little. The Government will consult industry, she told the Confederation of British Industry this week, saying there may be other ways to achieve her aims. She has highlighted the way the average remuneration of directors has escalated year by year while average rates of pay have barely kept up with inflation. Leaving it to shareholders to correct these tendencies has clearly failed.

This growing disparity is partly a product of British company law, compared with, say, Germany, where workers participate in “co-determination” regarding company policy. In Britain, directors tend to see it as their legal duty only to maximise shareholder value, both through dividends and through increases in the share price. And they are usually shareholders too.