For lawmakers who believe that 90% tax rates would be an effective way of punishing the financial malefactors who continue to flourish as the rest of us founder, take careful note: Not only will you punish the innocent as well as the guilty, you could also extinguish the innovative spark we’ll need to eventually make this moribund economy catch fire.

So Labour got smashed in the local elections. No big surprise, really. It’s tempting to quote Bill Clinton’s famous maxim on what decides an election. In fact, it’s so tempting that I will.