Slow economic growth is not the new normal, it's the old norm | Larry Elliott

Only after the second world war did average growth top 2%. We must prepare for a fight to benefit from meagre spoils

There have been periods in the past in which the Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged for a long time. In 1719, official borrowing costs were raised from 4% to 5%, where they remained during the South Sea bubble, the seven years' war, the loss of the American colonies, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars. In 1822, Seven years after the Battle of Waterloo, the Bank decided it was again time to act and reduced rates to their level of 103 years earlier.

By comparison with their 18th and early 19th century forbears, the current crop of policymakers in Threadneedle Street are positively hasty. Rates were cut to 0.5% in March 2009 and left there for a mere seven-and-a-half years. A year ago, in the aftermath of the Brexit vote, they were reduced to 0.25%. And there they are likely to stay.