“An era may be said to have ended when its basic illusions are exhausted,” said American playwright Arthur Miller in 1974, the turning point of an earlier epoch. And that is where the UK finds itself today, with a central illusion underlying much of this country’s economic policies over almost four decades now finally exhausted: that domestic savings and investment do not matter in a services, especially financial services-led economy, particularly in a global market where we can rely on continuous access to capital from overseas. The jury is well and truly in on this three decade-long experiment and the results are calamitous: protracted stagnation of per capita income (0pc growth for 15 years and counting, per World Bank), an unsustainable dependence on immigration to maintain UK GDP and its public finances, and an irresponsible dependence on foreign capital that has massively eroded our economic sovereignty – think of vital national infrastructure like Thames Water and Heathrow Airport – and our national security – think Chinese ownership of sensitive technologies. It has also led to the dissipation of the wealth generated by this country’s uncommon creative energy, which is now reflected in patterns of accumulation that do not do justice...