A few weeks ago on the Lady Daphne, Z/Yen and a dozen or so distinguished guests debated the proposition that "The UK has more to gain as the Hong Kong to Europe than as the Manhattan to Europe", courtesy of Sir William Purves. When we first met him, Willie was relieved to hear that we preferred a puzzle or koan to an after dinner speech. Willie went at the problem with the gusto of a former rugby player who gained a DSO in Korea.

You may remember Willie as the former Chairman of HSBC and a director to companies such as Shell, however, from 1986 to 1993, he was a member of the Executive Council, Hong Kong's highest policy-making body.

The assembled group wrestled with Willie’s poser for over two hours. The general tone of the evening appears to have been that the great opportunity for the UK, and London in particular, is to progress with Europe, but keep a definable, separate and commonsense regulatory system for the financial markets.

Despite grappling with one of the world’s major problems before the port and brandy, our assembled crew happily made ports and brandies the morrow’s major problem. We didn’t close our final, final, final discussions (and a few other averted world crises) until midnight. Our next challenge is to find a puzzle-poser and chair as engaging as Willie and a few remaining global problems in need of resolution.