Working lives and labour markets may have changed radically over the past quarter-century, but some values remain the same. The modern worker might not express it in quite the same terms, but he or she would be sure to recognise the aspiration implicit in the old trade union demand for “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work”.

This is not, it should be noted, the same as wanting the highest possible day’s pay. Very few workers conform to the maximise-at-all-costs model of classical economic theory, least of all in countries where markets are run in closest conformity to those theories.