Only a large-scale skills programme can protect against Covid's fallout

Huge fiscal support has safeguarded jobs and demand, but only skills and training can prevent long-term economic scarring

• A glimmer of economic hope at the end of the tunnel
• UK economy poised to recover after Covid-19 second wave

Keynes famously likened the economy to a piece of string which, in recessions, could not be pushed. A better economic metaphor now is that it is like a piece of elastic. Stretch it too far and the economy becomes permanently distended - so-called hysteresis.

The stretching of the economy's elastic in the first half of last year saw activity fall anywhere between 10% and 25% across the world. There are very few historical precedents of the economy being stretched quite so far, quite so fast.

Related: This Tory budget is Keynes reborn | Will Hutton