They sold us a myth and we believed it, so let’s not make the same mistake again (Image: Rex Features)

MY STORY starts with a theory that Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher sold us. It is called “supply-side economics”, and it claims that economic growth depends, first, on the rich (not the poor) being rewarded with tax cuts; and second, on markets being freed from regulation.

Clearly the theory is flawed. The rush by bankers to pay themselves large bonuses, even as their failing banks were being nationalised, reveals the true function of this bloated remuneration – to benefit only …