The first myth – one could even call it a lie – is that the NHS will be able to survive indefinitely without any major, structural change to the way it is financed and delivered; the second is that Britain’s long-term fiscal problems can be tackled merely by trimming a few benefits or hiking a few taxes on the better-off, rather than through a fundamental rethinking of the welfare state and tax system that will profoundly affect all of us; and the third is that a handful of tweaks to public policy will solve the housing crisis, one of the seminal issues of the next decade.