If two years of intermittent lockdowns, compulsory masking, and all the other effects of Covid haven’t convinced our remaining Dr Panglosses that we still live in ‘the best of all possible worlds’, a simple counter remains: commonly-observed reality.

A quick trip around any of our cities and a glance at their inhabitants – the overweight and obese; the drunk and drug-addled; the unemployed and indigent – soon confirms that something is seriously amiss.