A chunky increase in public sector pay would, realistically, have to be financed by spending cuts and long-term savings – through driverless trains, for example.
They seem to be more back in vogue with all political parties than at any time since the 1970s.
It is a generation since Margaret Thatcher abandoned Neo-Keynesian thinking, set her face firmly against prices and income policies, and made it clear that the key to tackling inflation was curbing the growth in money.