There are many specialist terms that have descended into common speech and are used pretty indiscriminately. “Competitiveness” originally had a clear meaning but has now been taken up by politicians and business leaders as an all-purpose slogan. It is a relative concept. We cannot all be competitive against each other. I still remember Emil van Lennep, a former secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, asking: “Against whom should the world be competitive? Against the moon?” If one needed a quick critical reaction to John Redwood’s economic report to the Conservative shadow cabinet, it could have been provided by its title, “Freeing Britain to Compete” and its frequently asserted stress on competitiveness.

Unfortunately this debatable concept is now too generally accepted in the political world for such repudiation to be feasible. Originally some economists and officials mentally substituted the word “performance”, but now themselves talk of competitiveness, presumably thinking: if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. This includes some on Mr Redwood’s team who surely should have known better.