Britain needs a gilts crisis

Fifty years ago, as a currency crisis threatened Britain’s finances, Denis Healey was forced to leave the VIP lounge at Heathrow and rush back to the Treasury. He was due to fly to Manila for the IMF’s annual meetings, but sterling was plunging. Within days, Britain had gone cap-in-hand and applied to the Fund. That same week in Blackpool, James Callaghan, in a moment of intellectual honesty, told the Labour conference that the old option…