That is entirely bollocks. Man should be ashamed of himself for saying it.

Firstly, the report which said that quite deliberately includes private pension assets but not state pension. The state pension is an annuity just like a private sector one is and should thus be counted. The state pension is thus an asset worth some £60k or so (depending upon how you measure life spans and future inflation). And no, you can’t sell your private pension plan either.

Secondly, social housing tenants have a housing asset: their right to occupy subsidised social housing. This is again best treated as an annuity for valuation purposes.

What is so intensely annoying about the current debates about “wealth inequality” is that everyone is ignoring the things we do to reduce it. Everyone in this country has a valuable financial asset. It’s called the welfare state.

Asking a government to promote the interests of the majority is pointless when that majority has little power. It’s a chicken-egg conundrum. With the break-up of unions, political power over the economy has been lost, and with the collapse of party membership numbers, power over the party system has been lost.

Until we discover ways of giving the majority of people political and economic leverage, the left will struggle to find electoral success. The obvious question is how exactly do we do that?