The government faces a dilemma: it is under increasing pressure to ease up on its austerity programme without exhibiting financial recklessness. Public sector workers seem tired of the pay cap. While they might have endured it for a year or two to help the UK out of the financial crisis, they think it has gone on too long and should be stopped.

None of the four classic ways of funding deficit spending is without its drawbacks. Raising taxes would put extra pressure on already-squeezed pay packets. Printing money would lead to inflation, and rising prices would hit spending power. The political upside of this is that people tend to blame higher prices on shops and businesses rather than on government, but it still would not solve the problem.

Borrowing billions from the future à la Corbyn has the political advantage that future people do not vote in the present, and the politicians dishing out the largesse now will be long gone before the burden falls on the children and grandchildren of the present recipients. But it is irresponsible.