Something very strange is happening in Britain at the moment. Look at the economy. Things aren’t really too bad: for a start it’s actually growing, if only a little. At the same time, inflation is falling. Real incomes are on the rise too – with earnings going up 4.4 per cent in the year to October, while inflation was 3.6 per cent.

Meanwhile unemployment is at 5.1 per cent, which isn’t terrible. The government is raking in the sorts of taxes that would make the Sheriff of Nottingham weep with joy; and yet our taxes as a percentage of GDP are still only a hair above the OECD average – so, in other words, we are plainly a pretty well-off country with plenty of money left to splash on railways and hospitals and frigates.  

Our national debt is lower as a percentage of GDP than that of the US, Japan, France, Italy or Canada. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, is soaring – at 9,700 it’s near record levels, with the astonishing benchmark of 10,000 hoving into view after a decade in the doldrums (consider that it was at 6,500 in 2021). 

Similarly, our banks – one of the business sectors where we still have global heft – are in buoyant health after years of recovery from the global financial crisis, with big profits and five of them in the world’s top 50 judged by assets. The share values of the likes of NatWest and HSBC and co. are also soaring – HSBC alone is worth £190 billion.

But despite the economic indicators and ample evidence of our........

© The Spectator