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That’s good for the economy, though fiscal drag (earnings rising faster than prices so people pay more tax) will still mean a rising tax burden. But it is also important politically. George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, hasn’t had a chance to have much of a go at Brown recently, and David Cameron, apart from nappy-changing duties, is having to deal with an assault from the Tory right over his lurch to the political centre.

Osborne and Cameron’s task would have been a lot easier if Brown had to come to the despatch box and announced that, contrary to the impressions given, he was going to hit everybody with another big tax hike. I have always argued that was highly unlikely; last week’s figures confirmed it.

As it is, the word from the Treasury is that Brown, apart from further efforts to show he is rounded enough to step into Tony Blair’s shoes at any time, is in “consolidation” mode. After the discomfort of autumn, when he was forced to halve his growth forecast, the March 22 budget will, it is said, be a firework-free zone. The broad, macroeconomic numbers will be those set out in December.

Brown may even be holding out the hope that January’s figures are the precursor of even better things to come. His projections for public spending from 2008 will remain illustrative and will not be set in stone until March 2007. He would love it if a revenue surge means he does not have to be quite so tough in the next spending review, due to be completed in summer next year.

But consolidation it is at the Treasury, as it is at the Bank of England. For three monetary policy committee meetings now, Steve Nickell has been a lone voice voting for lower interest rates. The other eight MPC members disagreed.

His case is based on the Bank’s consumer-spending forecasts being too upbeat and inflation coming in below the 2% target as higher energy prices drop out of the calculation. He will probably be proved right. Whether it happens in the three meetings he has left before his MPC term expires is touch and go.

PS: No sooner is Dragons’ Den off the air than the BBC treats us to a new series of The Apprentice, with Sir Alan Sugar.

Not since the heyday of Crossroads, which lifted the lid on the Birmingham motel trade, have business viewers been so well served.

Or have they? Every week on Dragons’ Den a bunch of oddballs turns up to discuss new business ideas. I’m talking here, of course, about the “expert” panel.

On The Apprentice, Sugar barks “You’re Fired!” at everybody from the tea lady up and interrupts repeatedly, like somebody with a nasty case of Tourette’s.

It reminds me of the tale, possibly apocryphal, of the late Robert Maxwell. Encountering somebody lounging in the corridor outside his office, cigarette in hand, Maxwell summoned him in, asked him how much his annual salary was, wrote a cheque and told him never to set foot in the building again. But the victim of this summary dismissal, it turned out, was a visiting rep, not one of the Bouncing Czech’s employees. He left happy, cheque in hand.

In these politically correct days few bosses would dream of screaming “You’re Fired!” at anybody. The closest they might get to it is offering to improve somebody’s work-life balance, but even that would fall foul of half a dozen EU directives and have the employment lawyers rubbing their hands.

I love the BBC and I’m sure the corporation would say it is doing its bit to make business more accessible to viewers. But the conspiracy theorist in me wonders whether a bit of the Beeb’s traditional, anti-business agenda isn’t peeping out here; if business people are so awful, how much more attractive a career in social work.

Explore Economics

• Pre-Budget Report 2009

• Budget 2009

• World Economic Forum

• The Times MPC

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