You can hear the spin a mile away; as the Chancellor’s team prepares for the Spring Statement the political groundwork is being laid. The economy is struggling and Rachel Reeves is running out of palatable options.

So, despite the fact that the inevitable consequences of the government’s multi-billion pound tax raid on businesses have been clear for months, with economic growth suffocated, sources close to the Chancellor are now telling the media that “the world has changed.”

In other words, anything unpleasant that Reeves has to announce at the end of this month is a result of unforeseeable geopolitical developments.

It’s a convenient line, and I don’t dismiss it entirely, but before we let the government off the hook let’s just recap on the situation we find ourselves in.

We now have months and months of hard data revealing the impact of government policy, of ministers’ choices, on employers and industries across the country.

From agriculture to family businesses, from retail to hospitality, leisure, manufacturing and the services sector, businesses are meeting the imposition of higher taxes in a number of entirely predictable and rational ways.

Helpfully, these were outlined this week by........

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