Sometimes “stodginess” is a good thing.

And stodginess has certainly been order of the day for the Bank of England when making its monetary policy decisions – interest rates in particular.

It isn’t a criticism by any means.

The virtues of stodginess – dull, uninteresting, tedious, boring and so on – were extolled by Sir Jon Cunliffe the Bank of England’s deputy governor for financial stability when I met him just over a year ago during a visit to a secondary school to talk to students about careers in the financial sector.

At that point interest rates were at 0.5 per cent – the same level they had been since March 2009. Just days later he, along with his colleagues on the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised the figure to 0.75 per cent.

A big small move. Not particularly bold and not overly cautious. Just about right, said many business leaders. Some would say stodgy.

Since August 2018 the rate has remained the same as the Bank tries to strike a delicate balance between earnings and inflation, while economic uncertainty swirls around its ¬– and everyone else’s – ears.

In its last meeting before the Brexit date of October 31, it decided to hold the rate once again.

And of course, there are potentially much darker forces than Brexit at play – with a slowing global economy and ongoing US-China trade war.

Was the MPC right to leave things as they are?

I doesn’t feel like it had much choice.

The Institute of Directors’ chief economist Tej Parikh said the Bank’s decision making had become a “hostage to uncertainty”.

And it clearly has. Because clearly none of us, including I suspect Boris Johnson and his EU counterparts have any idea what the outcome will be on Brexit when the looming self-imposed deadline hits.

If there’s no deal then growth slows, the pound will soar and inflation rises, we’ve been warned. The economic tsunami begins and interest rates highly likely to be cut, so we’re told.

If we get an “orderly” Brexit then the rate goes up bit by bit until we get somewhere towards what we used to call normality.

And no-one can predict what the outcome of the global economic slow down will be and where the US-China tensions will lead, particularly if Trump holds on to power.

The UK economy is still going through a “slow healing process”, to use Sir Jon’s words, following the impact of the 2008 economic crash.

Like any wounded patient it hardly wants or needs a few more heavy blows reigning in.

And while the Bank continues its sterling work applying the plasters, it is the politicians who are intent on ripping them off and poking around the wounds.

Throw in a potential snap election into the broth of Parliament prorogation, legal challenges, bitter battles between “remoaners” and Brexiteers and Labour’s latest dire bid to clear up once and for where it stands on the issue, the situation is now beyond clear as mud.

It is about as clear as a thick, semisolid, heavy substance – another meaning for stodgy.

The old saying goes that businesses thrive on certainty, but many I speak to don’t subscribe. They just want to have some idea of where things are going and at least an inkling of the rules of the game. After all nothing is certain.

But it is a sad day when one business leader admitted that they had clung on to, with great relief, the tiny bit of certainty holding interest rates had given them. Like a patient clinging on to pain relief.

We now wait for October 31 to see just what the medical requirement will be for our businesses and economy.

Luckily, we’ve already been feverishly stockpiling medical supplies, which hopefully includes plenty of bandages.