The Bank of England has just raised interest rates for the first time in three years, from 3.75% to 4%.

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It says it’s acting to stop inflation taking hold. But this is the wrong medicine for the wrong illness.

Prices are rising because of a war. The conflict in the Middle East has pushed up the cost of oil and gas, and that’s feeding straight into what we pay at the pump and on our energy bills. Inflation hit 3.5% in September, and the Bank now expects it to reach around 5% next year, mostly because of energy.

No interest rate set in Threadneedle Street can lower the globally set price of oil. What a rate rise can do is make mortgages, rents and business........

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