The day he was fired as chancellor in 1993, Norman Lamont recalls a child pointing at him and saying: “Mum, it’s that man who has ruined the country.” Alistair Darling, alumnus of the same school as Lord Lamont, will hope for a happier ending to his tenure at the Treasury. But he too has inherited a nasty mix of weak finances and a slowing economy.

Just how tight the numbers have become can be seen in two respects. First, the net impact of Mr Darling’s initiatives – some of which mimic opposition proposals – is to raise revenue. In spite of this, forecasts for cumulative net borrowing over the next four fiscal years have deteriorated by £12bn, or 1 per cent of gross domestic product.