What is the right economic medicine for the UK? In my column on Wednesday, I argued that rebalancing the economy towards higher investment and higher net exports is a big part of the answer.

Mine is a somewhat different perspective from that offered by Luke Johnson in the Financial Times this week. Labour, he argues, is “an entirely fraudulent organisation that pretends to believe in business, then buries it in bureaucracy and tax. Five more years of Gordon Brown would leave Britain an economic wasteland.” I do understand his objection to the over-regulation and the over-complication of the tax system. A great deal has been lost since Nigel Lawson simplified taxation in the 1980s.

Mr Johnson makes two further assertions. He argues that “the state's percentage of gross domestic product in Britain has risen from about 38 per cent in 1997 to perhaps 52 per cent today. Funding this vast amount of public largesse means the UK borrows 25 per cent of all its state spending. Clearly the country is living beyond its means.” These points need to be put into context.