Epithets of “banana republic” and “sick man of Europe” have returned to haunt the British. No wonder it has been a week of name-calling when the deficit projections in the UK Budget were so dismal. The deterioration in the public finances can indeed take one’s breath away – even on the government’s optimistic assumptions about growth and the cost of saving the banks. If independent forecasts are any guide, the current plan to issue an unprecedented £220bn of gilts this fiscal year will not be enough.

Some speak in earnest of an emerging market crisis in Britain. They point out that Britain’s deficit numbers and wobbly banks are usually found in countries on their way to IMF rescues – and that the UK itself needed one in 1976 with finances less parlous than today.