Its place today as the most useful language to know out of 6,000 is a quirk, due largely to Western European geography and the technological innovation it encouraged.

POLAND is the only economy in the European Union that kept growing all the way through the crisis. Its ability to insulate itself from external shocks stems partly from history and geography.

The IASB insists geography was no consideration but it surely helps that he is a continental European who should be acceptable in Britain and America.