Reading the text of the Today Business Lecture that Bob Diamond gave last week, I got a nagging sense of déjà vu. Diamond was talking about the people he has met in his travels around the country since he took over as chief executive at Barclays.

Sometime between the description of his encounter with Sukhpal Singh - who arrived in the UK as refugee from Uganda in the 1970s and, thanks to a loan from his local bank, now owns the largest supplier of car parts in the UK - and Gavin Smith - who runs a small greetings card business and recently approached Barclays about drawing up a business plan - I realised what the anecdotes were reminding me of.