Hard truths would help my generation more than a few Budget freebies

gravy train enjoyed by our parents and grandparents will be there for us too.

Few will even whisper it in public, but growing longevity means the state pension, for example, may be unsustainable without toxic increases in the pension age, unfair on the poor who tend not to live as long. There are no assets to support the scheme, and national insurance contributions are already insufficient to meet outgoings.

If the state pension has an unhappy future, we will need to save far more on an individual level. Yet there appears to be no urgency to inform anyone of this. The pain will be much reduced if preparations begin sooner rather than later. This looks like an enormous mis-selling scandal.

The same principles apply across government. Does anyone really believe there will be enough money to fund growing demands on the NHS in perpetuity without contributions by patients, for instance? The state as it stands might be sustainable if we could ramp up taxes à la Corbyn, but the evidence suggests that the percentage of money that can be squeezed out of an economy is falling because of intensifying tax competition and the rich being more willing to flee overseas.

Many have bought into the Left’s argument that austerity is a choice. They will eventually realise it is not. Hammond would be doing my generation a service if, instead of tempting us with a few freebies, he laid out the hard choices. There is a way to make those choices easier, of course. The fiscal picture looks much rosier if we stop postponing the radical decisions required to make the state fit for purpose. But that will involve everyone ending their holiday from history – not just the young.