That is strange. It is strange that the political party which led Britain into this current economic disaster should be talking of winning the next election as a "hope", not as a risk. Two years ago Tories embraced golden-boy Sunak's unprecedented 400 billion pound give-away as a masterstroke. (And, to be fair, Labour weren't far behind in hailing it as a latter-day miracle)

Well, the music's stopped. Because the bill's arrived. And it's time to pay the piper.