Whatever happens with the Danish ferries, we must recognise that by the end of the year, even if the contract is completed - as we pray it will be - we shall be coming to the Cyclical Crisis of where the next order will come from.

Over the past 20 years, John Radcliffe hospital has experienced a sort of Cyclical Crisis: either the chief executive or the chairman is sacked or removed, and then there is a new internal review or a suggestion that the hospital has an internal problem.