Were the past 30 years of British prosperity an illusion? The case for saying so goes like this: Margaret Thatcher’s Big Bang – the deregulation of the City of London – provoked a flurry of financial activity that has now crashed. Manufacturing was left to die: Britain no longer makes anything. The UK government and people lived well beyond their means. The idea of the UK as a model for anyone else is now a joke.

Not all of this is true. The UK does still make things – it remains the world’s sixth largest manufacturing nation. But much of the rest is undeniable: the public finances are in a dreadful state.