Andrew Bailey, Governor of the Bank of England, is not given to emotional outbursts or shooting from the hip.
Being measured in your public comments is part of the job description for running a central bank, and Mr Bailey has stuck to it since succeeding Mark Carney in 2020.
(To understand the constraints of the job, consider the transformation in the Canadian’s public persona since he swapped Threadneedle Street for his country’s premiership).
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So it felt significant that Mr Bailey should speak with controlled anger – emotion even – when asked by Sky News for his reaction to the revelation that Peter Mandelson was sharing market-sensitive information with Jeffrey Epstein while business secretary in 2008.
“I mean, I am shocked by what we’re hearing. I am shocked by what we now learn about what went on during the financial crisis period.”
That context matters.
Back in 2008, Mr Bailey was part of the bank’s senior management battling, in harness with the Treasury and Downing Street, to prevent the financial system toppling over.
There was the genuine prospect of cashpoints running dry and of governments being unable to sustain the borrowing required to bail them out.
In the UK, ministers and officials pondered selling off state-owned assets worth £20bn to ease the burden, while in Europe, the EU was working on a €500m (£435m) rescue package.
