Britain is in far better shape than Labour can admit

Otherwise, it’s pretty much Labour that wins the gold every time when it comes to leaving things in worse shape than they found them. Unemployment has been higher on leaving office than at the start under virtually every Labour government since the party’s inception in 1900.

Success in politics is all about dictating the narrative, and it is certainly true that Reeves has become quite good at that. Voter distress is plainly heartfelt, and she seems to be pushing at an open door in depicting the UK as an economic basket case.

The objective truth is very different, yet it is the language of declinism that seems to have captured the public’s imagination, and if it’s not countered soon will become a self-fulfilling prophecy, poisoning international capital against us and turning the country into a pariah.

Is today’s economic inheritance really any worse than at any stage since the war? Worse than 1979, when much of British industry was effectively falling into the sea and the nation was paralysed by a strike-ridden “winter of discontent”? Worse than 2010, when the cabinet secretary had to instruct the Tories to hurry up and agree a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats or the markets might cause the whole economy to collapse?

I don’t think so, yet Reeves gets away with it. People demand solutions. She has none that I can see to offer, yet they wallow in her depiction of a nation which is on its knees meekly awaiting its final death blow.

I hold no particular candle for the Tories, who unfortunately for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak have after 14 years in power simply run out of road. Even if firing on all cylinders, the Government would struggle against the remorseless grind of the electoral cycle.

As it is, the Conservatives have been particularly unfortunate in the cards they have been dealt. The usual pattern is for a recession once every decade or so, yet over the last 14 years, we have had to confront three particularly deep ones – first the financial crisis, the negative impact of which went on for years; then the pandemic, which virtually bankrupted the country; and finally the energy price shock.

Throw in Brexit on top, which acted as a massive distraction from all the other pressing demands of government, and it is a wonder the economy is still functioning at all.