To implement the kind of reforms proposed by the 2020 Tax Commission, we need to reduce spending to around 33pc of national income. Rolling back spending to this level needn’t mean destitution. The governments of Australia and Switzerland spend roughly that share of their economies. There are differences between theirs and ours, but they show that spending a third of your national income doesn’t equal disaster. There has been a lot of talk of austerity, but it perhaps hasn’t happened on a scale that matches the publicity.