The subject of tainted money has broken out on to the public stage once again.

Not long ago the then Archbishop Justin Welby had become convinced that the historic funds of the Church of England had been irreparably corrupted by association with investments in slavery, and that he needed to give them away as reparations to the distant descendants of the original slaves. It turned out that historically he had been mistaken, but such was the anxiety caused that this just might have been true, even though it wasn’t, nothing could shift the fear of taint and change his mind.