By James Hanson

Is it just me, or have we been here before?

A Labour PM under siege, a stagnant economy, stubbornly high inflation, militant trade unions, and an all-pervading sense of managed decline. Flared trousers aside, it’s beginning to feel like the 1970s all over again.

If the struggles of Jim Callaghan’s government taught us anything, it’s that things can always get worse. However bad things may seem for Sir Keir Starmer currently, he hasn’t had to go to the International Monetary Fund with a begging bowl or faced a winter of industrial strife… yet. Sadly, I fear both may be coming.

Rachel Reeves’ November budget will be the most important for a generation. Economic growth, supposedly the government’s number one priority, remains notable by its absence. The cost of borrowing is at a near 30-year high. And our national debt is now as large as the entire UK economy and continues to grow. In short, Britain is on the brink of bankruptcy.

The reason international lenders are hiking gilt yields is simple: they’re losing faith in the UK’s ability to repay its debt. If that continues - and our........

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