Rishi Sunak has dropped the ball by ruling out an October Budget

Yes, other countries are borrowing heavily, but that’s the point. We need to demonstrate Britain takes fiscal prudence seriously, that we can have the tough internal discussions, within Government, to commit to written predictions of where we think our public finances might go.

We want ministers dealing with “the here and now” but focused on the future too – because the future is full of tough challenges.

“It’s hard to understand, when we’re handling such huge magnitudes, that we’re not at the same time explaining clearly our medium-term strategy to get debt levels down,” remarked Professor Jagjit Chadha, director of the highly-respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Quite.

Ideas matter. At a time of spiralling debts, the connected set of ideas that Britain is a well-managed economy, that Cabinet rivals can debate tough choices, that our currency is sound, matter hugely, not least to financial markets. That’s why we need regular and more, not fewer, public updates on our macroeconomic and budgetary outlook.

When it comes to taming a rising debt-to-GDP ratio, we should be stressing the need to raise the denominator, boosting growth – so, again, from this Government we need ideas.

Plenty of vested interests – big business, big finance – are still trying to thwart Brexit. So let’s hear about the free ports, the enterprise zones, the investment incentives we can implement once we’re free of EU rules. We need to get that investment going.

And there are plenty of political vested interests too, of course, determined to talk down Boris Johnson’s administration not just as incompetent at day-to-day management, but lacking purpose and direction.

Sunak’s statement was well judged. But, when it comes to “the vision thing”, a narrative of coherent ideas, this Government needs to try harder.