There was something fitting about the way one of George Osborne’s last tweets as Chancellor left a great, pendulous, counterfactual swinging in the background.

“I hope I’ve left the economy in a better state than I found it” he wrote on the social media platform.

But of course one would certainly expect that after six years any economy would be in a “better state”, that GDP per capita would be higher, that jobs would have increased, that wages would have risen.

And they are.

But this is hardly the appropriate metric to reach for.

What matters when it comes to judging a Chancellor’s record is whether the economy is in as good a state as one might reasonably have hoped and expected before they took office.

Could things – should things - have been much better? What was the counterfactual?

And here, alas, history is not likely to judge Osborne kindly.

His tenure will be defined by “austerity” but the crime was less austerity than inflexibility.

Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Show all 27 1 /27 Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Andrea Leadsom Andrea Leadsom has been appointed Secretary for Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Getty Images Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Priti Patel Priti Patel has been appointed International Development Secretary PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Alun Cairns Alun Cairns will stay on as Welsh Secretary Reuters Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Karen Bradley Karen Bradley is now Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Rex Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Greg Clark Greg Clark has been appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? James Brokenshire James Brokenshire has been appointed as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Stephen Crabb Stephen Crabb has resigned as Work and Pensions Secretary PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Theresa Villiers Theresa Villiers will not return as Northern Ireland Secretary. She was reportedly offered a role by Theresa May, but turned it down, saying it was not one she felt could take on Getty Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Chris Grayling Chris Grayling has been appointed Transport Secretary PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Damien Green Damien Green has been appointed Work and Pensions Secretary Getty Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Liz Truss Liz Truss has been appointed Justice Secretary Getty Images Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Patrick McLoughlin Patrick McLoughlin who was Transport Secretary has been appointed Tory Party chairman and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster Getty Images Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Justine Greening Justine Greening has been appointed as Education Secretary Getty Images Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Gavin Williamson Gavin Williamson is to become the new Government Chief Whip Reuters Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Jeremy Hunt Jeremy Hunt will continue as Health Secretary Getty Images Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Nicky Morgan Nicky Morgan lost her job as Education Secretary Reuters Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Michael Gove Michael Gove has been sacked as Justice Secretary Reuters Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? John Whittingdale John Whittingdale left his job as Culture Secretary EPA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Oliver Letwin Oliver Letwin, the Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, has been sacked from his role in the cabinet PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Philip Hammond The former Foreign Secretary has been made Chancellor EPA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Boris Johnson Leading Brexit campaigner is given the role of Foreign Secretary Getty Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Amber Rudd Leading Remain campaigner takes Theresa May's old job of Home Secretary PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Michael Fallon Stays as Defence Secretary AP Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? Liam Fox The former Defence Secretary is named as head of new Department for International Trade PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? David Davis The former shadow Home Secretary and leadership rival to David Cameron is named Secretary of State for Leaving the European Union - aka Brexit minister PA Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? George Osborne Gone as Chancellor - and fails to secure any new role in May's government GETTY Theresa May's Cabinet: Who's in – and who's out? David Mundell The Conservative Party's only Scottish MP retains his role as Scottish Secretary Getty Images

In 2010 he embarked on a clumsy assault on the deficit, mainly by slashing state capital infrastructure spending.

He cut hard before the UK’s recovery from the Great Recession was assured, ignoring the great insight of Keynesian economics that to do so can make matters worse.

Hindered from without by the eurozone’s self-inflicted agonies, UK growth duly stalled, as Osborne’s was warned by many that it might.

The recovery from the 2008-09 downturn was already by far the longest from any recession in UK post-war history.

A major fiscal stimulus U-turn would have been wholly appropriate and would have boosted UK output – and living standards - with no credible risk of an investor run on UK debt (indeed UK Gilt yields plummeted rather than rose as the reviled deficit flatlined).

But the Chancellor’s hardline rhetoric on the national debt and the size of the deficit and his cocksure early rejection of the need for any “Plan B” had made that politically impossible.

In the end, aggressive monetary loosening from the Bank of England came to the economy’s rescue, along with one the Chancellor’s very worst policies, a "Help To Buy" scheme that stimulated consumer confidence in 2013 but only at the terrible price of perpetuating the country’s housing disaster.

On the supply side of the economy in general he was far too timid and ideologically hidebound.

He was allergic to any form of direct state funding for house building, sorely needed though it was and remains.

Nor would he countenance the foundation of a proper state bank to fund small firms or infrastructure.

For all his bold rhetoric on cleaning up finance in the wake of the crash, Osborne was never really interested in breaking up the giant banks and he has delivered a wholly unsatisfactory half-way house of “ringfencing”.

His proclaimed desire to take on abusive oligopolies in energy and other markets came only at the eleventh hour of his Chancellorship and nothing has been delivered.

When it came to tackling corporate tax evasion he spoke with a forked tongue, proclaiming his intolerance of multinational tax dodging while also seeking to turn the UK into a kind of semi-tax haven by slashing corporation tax to unnecessarily low levels.

Politics, far too often, got in the way of the economics for Osborne.

His obsession with creating lurid fiscal “dividing lines” with Labour was arguably his undoing.

It boxed him in when his initial austerity drive proved counter-productive.

And his economically illiterate surplus target in this Parliament, again primarily designed to embarrass Labour, forced him into the terrible blunder of trying to find savings by cutting working tax credits and disability benefits. His reputation has never recovered from those debacles.

In fairness, he did some good and brave things, mainly towards the end of his time in office.

The big rise in the minimum wage was a gamble, but one worth taking and it belied his image as a small state ideologue.

The apprenticeship levy on corporations was a fine policy and one that Labour should have implemented itself when in power.

His emphasis on the need for a “Northern Powerhouse”, though coming rather late in the day and hardly fleshed out as a policy, was a welcome recognition of the need for a regional economic rebalancing.

And of course he argued passionately and responsibly for Britain’s continued European Union membership, which he knew would do his career prospects no favours in a massively Europhobic Tory party.

Yet, in the end, he didn't learn fast enough from his many mistakes. And the youngest Chancellor in 120 years never quite managed to shed the whiff of the callow ideologue who was not as clever as he thought he was.