At this time of 1.25 per cent mortgages, interest-free credit cards and current accounts so uninviting that you would do just as well to hide your money under your bed, it’s difficult to remember that the country’s finances used to be very different — and that wasn’t so long ago.

As recently as July 5, 2007 — with Gordon Brown newly installed as prime minister and Rihanna and Jay-Z at No 1 with their single Umbrella — the Bank of England base rate reached 5.75 per cent (a six-year high), the fifth increase in 11 months, with inflation persistently higher than the Treasury target of 2 per cent.

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England at the time, said that the high rate