Last June Gordon Brown reached his promised land: he became prime minister. Since then he has discovered that, far from being a land of milk and honey, it is full of perils. Many of them, alas, are self-created. This is not because Mr Brown has been trying to do the wrong thing. It is often because he has tried to do the right thing, for the wrong motives, at the wrong time, in the wrong way.

These strictures apply with force to the nationalisation of Northern Rock, reform of capital gains tax and changes in tax treatment of residents who claim their “domiciles” are elsewhere. What these examples share are the drawbacks of putting political advantage ahead of principles.