Martin Winterkorn’s resignation as chief executive of Volkswagen arrived five days too late. It should have been obvious to the entire board, not only to Winterkorn himself, that the boss could not survive the emissions scandal that broke last Friday. Winterkorn says he is “not aware of any wrongdoing on my part”, but the buck always stops with the boss.

Wednesday’s statement tried to promote the impression of dynamism within Volkswagen’s boardroom. Further “personnel consequences” are expected in the next few days; a criminal complaint has been filed with prosecutors in the local state of Lower Saxony; wrongdoers will face “the full consequences”.

Yet the longest of the nine paragraphs was a flowery tribute to Winterkorn’s career at Volkswagen. He made “invaluable” and “towering” contributions and the carmaker’s rise to global status is “inextricably linked to his name”. His willingness to resign is “illustrious”.

Maybe that’s how they talk in German boardrooms. But come on, Volkswagen’s long-term survival as an independent company is in doubt if this scandal turns much uglier. This was not a moment to pretend that the fallen chief executive, one of Europe’s highest-paid executives, is still a hero – the catastrophe happened on his watch.

What about iron, chancellor?

How splendid: the chancellor is giving £3m of our money to a Premier League scheme to train 5,000 football coaches in China. Why the Chinese – or even the cash-bloated Premier League – can’t pay the bill themselves is unexplained. Not for the first time this week, George Osborne invites us to celebrate an example of the UK working with China “to benefit both our nations”.

Tell it to the UK’s steelmakers. They will gather in London today to lobby the government for what they describe as “half a chance” to compete with other steel-making nations on equal terms. The threat to the huge Thai-owned plant in Redcar adds urgency to the cries, but the plea is made of behalf of the whole of a UK industry that still employs 30,000 people.

The chancellor’s current love-in with China should add spice to the occasion. Many forces are undermining the economics of the steel industry in the UK, but the biggest is not in doubt: the dumping of excess output on world markets by Chinese producers.

There is little UK Steel can do on that front other than try to stiffen the government’s (sometimes wobbly) support for EU anti-dumping measures. But Osborne and co could certainly act on the industry’s other requests, such as speeding up relief from environmental costs for energy-intensive industries. France and Germany appear to have acted far faster. As for supporting local steel content in major construction projects, why not? China wouldn’t hesitate to favour its own.

BBA Aviation reaches for the sky

Here’s a refreshing throwback: a UK company buying a US rival and funding the deal via the old-fashioned means of a rights issue. It’s how capital markets used to work before share buybacks became an obsession in UK boardrooms.

The buyer is BBA Aviation, until Wednesday one of the lower-profile FTSE 250 companies. Its business is refuelling and servicing corporate jets, mostly on small US airports. It is number one in its field in the US already and is buying the third largest operator, Landmark Aviation, for $2bn (£1.3bn), funded via a £750m right issue and a large helping of debt.

It’s a substantial bet given that BBA itself is worth only £1.3bn. Nor can the deal be described as cheap: it is only by making a series of assumptions about tax and cost savings that the price tag falls below 10 times Landmark’s top-line earnings. Note, too, the seller: private equity firm Carlyle, not an outfit renowned for leaving much fat to be trimmed.

Yet BBA’s share price reversed its big opening fall to end marginally higher on the day, demonstrating that shareholders are convinced. On balance, one can understand why. Use of corporate jets is so ingrained in US corporate culture that the market should continue to be stable. Leadership is probably worth paying up for. The financial arithmetic is bold – BBA’s debt will rise initially to 3.5 times top-line earnings – but not off the radar.

And, for BBA chairman Sir Nigel Rudd – traditionally typecast as an inveterate seller of businesses from Pilkington to Boots – it is an opportunity to show that the caricature was unfair.

London flies finance flag

So much for the idea that London’s standing as a financial centre would be undermined by bank-bashers, meddling eurocrats, homegrown regulators, Scottish nationalists, UKippers, or any number of supposed perils. London has once again overtaken New York as the world’s top financial centre, according to a survey that samples the opinions of local professionals.

There’s no room for complacency, City lobbyists will no doubt argue. Well, yes, complacency is rarely a good policy, and, at a push, it might be argued that the looming referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU represents the next danger. Even so, London is so far ahead of its European rivals (Frankfurt is 14th in the rankings) that one strongly suspects that, one way or another, the London-New York axis will continue to dominate.