At the Olympic Stadium, 62, 000 paying customers were treated to three hours of noisy, colourful, bolshie brouhaha.

BBC: London Paralympics opening ceremony: Media reaction

Lord described him as "very English, a troublemaker, bolshie, awkward, opinionated, political, all kinds of good things like that".

BBC: Oscars 2013: Animators fly the flag for Britain

Even in Benghazi, Libya's second-biggest city, the hotels are a centrally planned flourish of broken lifts, leaking lavatories and bolshie chambermaids.

ECONOMIST: Libya��s fair-skinned nonconformists

That could well embolden rebels in what is an increasingly bolshie parliament.

ECONOMIST: This week's U-turn

Above all, he must decide if the business model, with precious investment bankers and bolshie brokers under one roof, needs to be reconfigured.

ECONOMIST: Investment banking