Theresa May repeated 11 times in parliament on 26 April that Britain boasted a strong economy that depended on her strong and stable leadership. Is that the case and will any perceived weakness in the economy hamper our efforts to negotiate a good deal with Brussels? Certainly, our economy is no basket case and, based on current exchange rates, Britain is the world’s fifth-largest economy but on a purchasing power basis, we drop to ninth. The UK’s prosperity is not even in the top 15 per cent. While Britain enjoyed a relatively strong period between 1979 and 2007 the performance in the following decade was weak. That strong economy hailed by Mrs May had one of the deepest recessions and weakest recoveries of its peers. We often think that the UK cleverly combines American levels of taxation with a European welfare state. The truth is that we sit uneasily somewhere between the two. At 36 per cent of national income, the tax burden is six percentage points higher than in the U.S.

Spending on public services is severely constrained: at 39 per cent of national income, it is 5 percentage points below that of Germany. And then we come to productivity: the US, Germany and France are way ahead of us and output per head and worker do not even match that of Italy. We are stuck in the middle without low taxes, great public services or high productivity. Nor is it easy to see a way out – the public gets angry about increases in taxation, stories of inadequate public services and becomes incandescent at things that would increase productivity such as building projects in its own back yard. What has all this to do with the negotiations to leave the EU? Simply this, if we go in like a card sharp with a poor hand we may never get the deal that we seek.