Even some of Gordon Brown’s fiercest critics may have felt a twinge of sympathy in recent days for the battering the chancellor of the exchequer has taken over the release of the Treasury’s 1997 papers on the ending of dividend tax credits for pension funds.

On the back of a freedom of information release, Mr Brown has unjustly been accused of single-handedly destroying final-salary pension schemes. He has been charged, in addition, with ignoring or defying so-called “time bomb warnings” and even of “forcing” the change on civil servants.