The patient is not responding. Liquidity infusions, co-ordinated rate cuts, state-sponsored bank bail-outs – nothing seems to be working. The London market is in cardiac arrest.

On Friday, the FTSE 100 plunged a further 8.9 per cent, extending losses over the week to 21 per cent – its worst run since the stock market crash of 1987. The blue chip index has dropped 41 per cent from last June’s high and closed at its lowest level since May 2003 last night. Only the bear markets of the 1970s and 2000-03 have been more severe.