At least Ronald Reagan was joking when he said the deficit was “big enough to take care of itself”. British politicians show similar insouciance about their fiscal crisis, and they seem to mean it.

During the first three years of this parliament, politics revolved around the central fact of scarcity: the state spends vastly more than it reaps in taxes, and this cannot last. But this summer brought surprisingly strong economic growth. And each new morsel of happy data – and it really is radiant, in services, construction and consumer spending – has lured politicians away from bleak talk of fiscal rectitude.

The debate about the deficit has turned into a critique of the recovery. Do people feel better off? Is growth coming from the dangerous old standbys of property and financial speculation? How shall we dole out the proceeds?