Sir Stuart Rose and Sir David Michels make an odd tag team. Investors are looking to Sir David, as deputy chairman and senior independent director of Marks and Spencer, to help rein in the M&S boss if he oversteps the mark. His presence was one of the few reassuring elements in last year’s elevation of Sir Stuart to the executive chairmanship. Yet Sir David now seems to have adopted the role of the irritable bloke who reignites the brawl just as the tough guy who started it all is apologising.

Perhaps it was Sir David who advised Sir Stuart and Steve Sharp, M&S marketing director, that they should renounce a third of the shares they had been conditionally allocated by the remuneration committee. Perhaps it was Sir David who signed off on Sir Stuart’s emollient declaration that he was “committed to ensuring that M&S engages in full and constructive dialogue” with its shareholders. That is conjecture. But it was certainly Sir David who approved the tetchy-sounding postscript, in which he said the remuneration committee (on which he sits) was “disappointed at this unexpected reaction” from investors.