Britain’s economic performance is waning. Another indicator of this is that fewer new businesses are being set up.

Figures released last week show that the number of business births fell last year (from 414,000 in 2016 to 382,000) for the first time since 2010 and the number of business deaths rose from 288,000 to 357,000. This is the narrowest gap between business births and deaths since 2012. The very low cost of capital ought to encourage business investment and start-ups, but uncertainty over Brexit probably is helping to restrain business creation.

It’s worth saying why entrepreneurship has economic benefits, because it’s not always for the reason adduced by free-market enthusiasts. Entrepreneurs can spot new ways of combining and deploying assets in order to meet the