We are back in 1980, sliding into the economic precipice. That, anyway, is what equity markets have lately seemed to say. It is also what most people seem to think. Britain’s voters are more pessimistic than at any time since Margaret Thatcher’s inaugural recession 28 years ago.

For those with only hazy memories of that downturn, it was the worst since the Great Depression. In the first half of 1980 alone, output fell by nearly 3 per cent. Unemployment rose by more than 100,000 a month; every month. Inflation soared to more than 20 per cent. Oh, and interest rates were at three times today’s levels.