An hour of labour in Italy costs euro19, and in France euro30: the equivalent in Poland is euro2.

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The more government forces everyone to save, the less additional consumption a worker will be able to enjoy from each additional hour of labour.

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Yet it may still not be good enough: the best mini-mill firms can make a ton of steel using less than one man-hour of labour.

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We thus get less per hour of labour this way.

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France's 35-hour week, which restricts the supply of labour, lowers this limit.

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After falling in the first half of the year, American labour productivity (output per hour) was 2.3% higher in the third quarter of 2011 than in the same period a year earlier.

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Despite the robust growth of the French economy, few within the government expect the 35-hour week to perform job-creating miracles for the tenth of the labour force still without work.

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"The largest security company in the world, providing a contract to their biggest UK client, turned years of carefully-laid preparations into an 11th-hour fiasco, " Labour MP Mr Vaz said.

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The party would still find itself well to the left of Tony Blair's Labour Party, though: for instance, Mr Hollande defends the 35-hour week.

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