Quantitative easing is a costly habit we should have kicked long ago | Larry Elliott

Ex-Treasury mandarin Lord Macpherson is right to compare QE to heroin - it required ever bigger doses to get a high

Things have moved on in the civil service since the days of Yes Minister. Back then senior civil servants remained the soul of discretion even after retirement. When Sir Arnold Robinson has advice to give to his successor, Sir Humphrey Appleby, he does it over lunch at a Pall Mall club.

Lord Macpherson, until recently the Treasury's top mandarin, has some advice for the current government: it's time to move on from quantitative easing, the scheme that has been pumping electronic money into the economy since early 2009.