We may yet see other 1970s trends on her watch, such as power cuts, blackouts, energy rationing and resurgent trade union militancy. In parts of strike-ridden Birmingham, where rubbish has gone uncollected for months, we’re already there. Rachel Reeves isn’t the only Labour figure to drag us back to one of the most dismal periods in our recent history. Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner have done their bit. But Reeves’s damage extends further than the era of Abba and Slade. She’s now hauling us all the way back to the 1940s.

That war-torn decade was, of course, far tougher than this one, as Britain fought a war of national survival against Adolf Hitler’s evil Nazi regime and Imperial Japan. We couldn’t duck that war, which is why Parliament chose a proper leader as PM, in the shape of Winston Churchill. Britons faced real austerity on the home front, not the fake version Labour moans about today. There was also the threat of being bombed or gassed. Things may feel bad now, but they’re nowhere near as tough as they were then.

But in one crucial respect, Reeves is taking us back to the darkest days of the 1940s. Because that’s the last time our tax burden was as high as it is today.

Governments always hike taxes in wartime. Income tax was originally introduced in 1799 to fund the Napoleonic Wars. The Second World War was even more costly. In 1939, government taxes took 23.4% of total national output. By 1945, that had soared to 37.6% of GDP.

Thanks to Margaret Thatcher’s government, that retreated to a post-war low 28.3% in 1993, but Tony Blair’s New Labour quickly drove it back up again, and the Tories did their bit too. By 2023/24, the last full tax year before Keir Starmer’s Labour Party took office, tax swallowed 34.9% of GDP.

Under Rachel Reeves, taxes have taken off like a V2 rocket. This year, she’ll grab 37% of everything the country produces in tax. And that’s only the start. Last week, the IMF warned that Reeves is raising taxes at the fastest pace in the world. A view that will surprise absolutely nobody.

After pledging not to increase taxes on “working people” before the election, Reeves has already imposed nearly £70billion in extra tax, and she isn’t finished yet. Next April, she’ll slap inheritance tax on pensions, and a 2% surcharge on savings interest. Income tax thresholds will remain frozen until 2031, dragging millions further into the net.

By 2031, the UK’s tax burden will reach a staggering 42.1% of GDP. In other words, we’ll be paying far more in tax after years of relative peace than we did to fund total warfare against fascism. It’ll cost every household £4,500 on average.

Incredibly, Reeves now claims there’s no money for defence, even as threats from Russia, China and Iran multiply. Why? Because she’s splurged like a drunken squaddie on VE Day. And she continues to tax and spend as if there’s a war on. Another £130billion will be added to the national debt this year alone.

For the record, we’re not fighting Adolf Hitler. But if Britain is pulled into one of today’s mounting conflicts, we won’t have a penny to defend ourselves. We’ll be beaten before we’ve even begun.