It wasn’t always that way. In 1870, average working hours were longer in France, the Netherlands and Germany than in Anglo-Saxon countries such as Britain, Australia or America. By 2000, those positions had reversed – except Britain had followed the continental European decline. Since 1950, average UK working hours have fallen by a third. Globally, the statistics are disheartening. In the first decade of the new century, the average German worked 14 per cent fewer hours than the average Briton, and 20 per cent fewer hours than the average American – who in turn worked much less than his counterparts in Singapore, Hong Kong and South Korea.