This is not the way of the media narrative in the run up to the event. Ever since George Osborne’s rather obnoxious tweet (“We got there in the end - a remarkable national effort. Thank you.”) commentators have dutifully promoted the idea that the books are on the verge of balance.

In November the Office for Budget Responsibility expected the ‘cyclically adjusted current budget deficit’ to move into balance in 2018-19, following a small deficit of 0.3 per cent of GDP in 2017-18. Improvements in the economy relative to the OBR November economy forecast may mean this surplus comes a year sooner.

But Philip Hammond discarded George Osborne’s target. In January 2017 he committed to reducing the ‘cyclically-adjusted deficit’ to below 2% of GDP by 2021 – note the absence of ‘current’, his new target included capital/investment spending. Osborne’s target was discarded because it had proved irrelevant to the health of the public sector finances. A new parliament of cuts required a new target measure. But the new target does not detract from the fundamental point that the public debt ratio is in far worse shape than the countless champions of austerity ever envisaged, Yesterday on Andrew Marr’s show Philip Hammond quietly redefined up to 100 per cent of GDP what bad debt looked like. The academic literature (admittedly now proven flawed) warned of the perils of 90 per cent, but this was the context for Osborne’s aiming at 70 per cent.

An end to austerity

Workers have endured a lost decade since the global financial crisis.

With another five years of cuts, hardship will be extended indefinitely.

These cuts to public services and infrastructure, the attacks on the pay and conditions of public sector workers, and the dismantling of welfare payments to those in greatest need of protection are unjust and harmful from a social point of view. The experience of the past eight years proves they are also unsound from an economic point of view. Is this ever going to get through?

The only way to protect the economy and to ensure rapid improvements to the public finances is to reverse future cuts, begin to invest in the UK infrastructure and public services, and deliver pay rises across the board.