Given the unprecedented damage about to be wrought on our economy today, the self-imposed restrictions of party political ideology hardly matter. This is no longer the early 1970s when Ted Heath’s government refused to bail out “lame duck” industries. The companies facing devastation today include just about all of them, and their problems are in no way their own responsibility. Neither are those problems the fault of government, but that doesn’t matter. It is government that we look to for solutions. Politically, we can all oppose the theory of intervention until we need it ourselves.

Even the Heath government bit the bullet and nationalised Rolls Royce rather than see it go bust, and Boris Johnson is in a far stronger position than Grocer Ted. Johnson is known to be an admirer of Winston Churchill; he even wrote a book about the great man, lest there were still some who failed to take the hint and draw the correct comparison. If ever there was a time when the current incumbent of Number 10 felt drawn by destiny to come to the rescue of the nation, it is now.

The arguments against People’s QE are predictable and they are valid too; unprecedented levels of borrowing would leave Britain’s economy in a precarious situation for decades. We could see a return to the years of austerity, perhaps even of inflation and consequently higher interest rates, which would in itself increase the amount required to service the outstanding debt.