Yet on the economic side, George Osborne finds himself in rather a better position than he might have expected. Not so long ago, it was fashionable to opine that the UK would be the next shoe to drop in the great financial crisis. Yet now the euro project is crumbling, provoking quite a run of Schadenfreude on this side of the Channel. As Greece, Portugal and Spain face crisis after crisis, Britain has somehow established itself as a safe haven. The interest rate on our 10-year gilts – a pretty good yardstick of whether investors think you will default (either through inflation or outright refusal to pay entirely) has dropped from around 4 per cent to just over 3.5 per cent in the past few weeks. Growth rates in the British economy are expected to outstrip those of its sickly European neighbours; tax revenues are coming in faster than expected, grinding away the deficit even before the Chancellor has to do much of the hard work.