You can achieve a great deal in four hours. It is quite possible to run a marathon, for example. Or fly to Moscow. Or even, at a pinch, wade through one of Wagner's operas.

However, it is staggering to learn from a UK government-sponsored survey that the average UK pension fund trustee only spends four hours a year considering investment issues at board level. Debating times vary from two hours and 18 minutes as far as small schemes are concerned, to nine hours and 24 minutes at the largest funds, according to the survey, carried out by Consensus Research.