Markets go in cycles so we should not be surprised that Barclays bank has agreed to acquire two new shareholders: the Chinese and Singaporean governments. Two decades after the UK pioneered the privatisation of state-owned enterprises, it is allowing companies to fall into government hands. The governments just happen to be foreign.

Britain’s sanguine view of the potential €13bn ($17.8bn) deal that would involve banking and investment arms of China and Singapore taking stakes in Barclays extends elsewhere. The government has shown little concern about a potential bid for the supermarket group J. Sainsbury by a Qatar investment fund. Alistair Darling, chancellor of the exchequer, this week emphasised that it welcomed private investments by the growing array of sovereign wealth funds (SWFs).