For those of a certain maturity, the Nineties offered mixed messages. The overthrow of Margaret Thatcher, the ERM debacle and the humiliation by elements in his own party of John Major were all associated with enduring economic misery. The arrival in 1997 of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, the independence of the Bank of England and Britpop, in contrast, were linked with what turned out to be a rather impressive subsequent economic renaissance.
Could we be on the verge of another such turnaround? If current opinion polls are any guide, the political answer is, perhaps, “yes”. For Blair and Brown, read Starmer and Reeves. And, who knows, perhaps Messrs Sunak and Hunt are laying the foundations for a renewed period of sustained economic advance following the precedent established by Major and Ken Clarke in the mid-Nineties. Inflation targeting and healthy public finances were not so much delivered by Blair and Brown but, rather, handed to them on a plate courtesy of the previous government.
