At a private dinner in Manhattan this summer, the chief executive of a big US company astonished his guests by declaring that America needed an industrial policy. It wasn’t his business that needed the boost, he assured us – his company would be as comfortable manufacturing in Guangzhou as in Detroit, he insisted; and that is probably true – no, it was America itself that needed some protection against the tides of globalisation and technological change. Otherwise, he warned, cities such as New York and San Francisco would still flourish, but the likes of Cleveland would fall into decline.

I assure you this conversation was conducted in English, not French, and – because he told us so – I can report that the pro-industrial policy CEO has never voted for a Democrat in his life. So why should a Republican corporate boss whose company has been a big winner from globalisation sound like a European socialist? I think his remark is part of a wider concern among pro-business centrists in this country that while the forces of globalisation and technological innovation have made the whole world richer, they may also be changing America in worrying ways.