A few days ago, I sailed past Sir Philip Green’s new superyacht Lionheart: nearly 3,000 tonnes of floating bombast at anchor off the Greek island of Skiathos.

It reminded me of the only time I boarded such a boat — belonging to another tycoon with pension troubles, Robert Maxwell. In 1988, he flew me and other journalists to Corsica to join him on the Lady Ghislaine so he could explain his latest publishing deal over lunch. Three years later, the media mogul disappeared from the same yacht, thus dodging the personal consequences of his looting of the Mirror media group pension funds.

Unlike Maxwell in 1988, Sir Philip, recently lambasted by MPs for his poor stewardship of retail chain BHS, was not in a forthcoming mood. (He is not accused of any illegality in relation to the underfunding of pensions at BHS, which he sold last year). The retailer did not respond to my text offering to buy him a drink and he declined other reporters’ attempts to interview him.