The director-general has been forced to stand down amid allegations of misconduct. There are allegations against others inside the organisation of harassment and even rape. And a culture of bullying and misogyny has been revealed. It is just possible that the CBI could be in worse shape. It could have been engaged in satanic rituals, perhaps, or turned out to be funded directly by Vladimir Putin, or short-listed Nigel Farage as its new boss. But it could not be a lot worse.

For an organisation that is meant to represent British business, the last few weeks, culminating in today’s dismissal of Tony Danker, are about as bad as it gets. As a new boss is drafted in, there will be lots of talk of clean-ups, of change, and restoring its reputation, starting with an announcement today in which the CBI apologises to victims for the ‘organisational failure’ and sets out its immediate operational changes. But the real question is this: why bother? The CBI is well past its sell-by date, and the best thing it could do now is wind itself up.

The CBI is well past its sell-by date, and the best thing it could do now is wind itself up

If its members were not already wondering whether to renew their subscriptions, today’s events will have forced them to confront the question. Tony Danker was dismissed as director-general, following complaints about his conduct in the workplace (he apologised last month for causing offence and said it had been unintentional). Other allegations of misconduct have been made about those in the organisation and are being investigated by lawyers. In response, its recently departed chief economist Rain Newton-Smith has been drafted in to try and sort out the mess. Whether her track record in the CBI’s dire warnings about leaving the EU, with forecasts of a million jobs lost, really make her the right person to radically change the organisation is, to put it mildly, open to question. Still, there probably wasn’t anyone else they could find at short notice.

The allegations of misconduct, if true, are bad enough. A body that is meant to be setting the standards for the rest of British industry certainly shouldn’t be run like a trucking firm from the 1970s. And yet, the real problem is that the CBI doesn’t have any purpose anymore. In reality, the brand of corporate centrism that the CBI personifies died when we voted to leave the EU.

The lobbying corridors of Brussels were the only environment in which it genuinely shone, but the UK is no longer welcome there and won’t be for a long time. The government is no longer interested in what it has to say. And the small group of giant multinationals it represents have very little interest in the UK. In reality, business has lots of ‘voices’, depending on whether they are large or small, in tech or finance or manufacturing, or any of a multitude of factors. But no one body can speak for all of them.

As an economist, Newton-Smith should recognise that the CBI has long since outlived any useful purpose it might serve. There is no unified ‘voice of business’ for it to represent, and there is no point in pretending that there is. The best thing she could do would be to preside over the winding up of an organisation that is no longer needed. It would be a lot less difficult than trying to ‘reform’ or ‘renew’ it – and a lot more dignified as well.