Seeking a super-injunction is never going to make a scandal go away

It’s impossible to see where the merit in this legal heavy stick lies, says Chris Blackhurst – time and again, the measure has proved to be a red rag to a bull

Sir Philip wanted to prevent allegations against him made by staff from being published (AP)

As he contemplates the rubble of his demolished reputation, Sir Philip Green is entitled to wonder where it all went wrong?

The obvious answer lies with the man himself, that he was a tycoon with a management style that belonged to a different age, that he failed to keep pace with the times, to evolve, to absorb a very changed way of doing things. At the heart of that, of course, may have been the traits of arrogance and hubris – that he simply did not see the need to alter, to concede.

There could have been other factors at play, however. On the BHS debacle, Green stuck rigidly to the legal rule book. He was not under any obligation by law to plug the pension deficit after he sold the store chain. Forget the moral duty, or how his refusal to pay would play out in the court of public opinion – there was not any strict requirement for him to shell out a penny.