Andrew Strauss, England's Ashes-winning captain, famously elected to play cricket rather than pursue a career in the City. Good choice. While Strauss and his teammates lapped up the plaudits of a grateful nation for their victory over Australia this week, contemporaries of his who went into investment banking were accused by the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, no less, of engaging in “socially useless” activities, such as derivatives trading.

It's hard to overestimate the shock value of Lord Turner's intervention. The regulator's comments in Prospect magazine are the equivalent of the head of the England and Wales Cricket Board accusing Strauss and his teammates of misleading the youth of Britain by spending too much time messing around with a pointless ball game.

“Useless banker” (or words to that effect) is hardly a new charge, however. By now, more than two years since the credit crunch started to expose them to criticism, City survivors have grown accustomed to being called names. The jibe stings far less than the FSA chairman's claim he is open to a “Tobin tax”, which would clip a tiny amount from every financial transaction and could have practical implications for traders' day-to-day business.