If the Tories are right, and there are lots of fraudulent claimants to be scared off unemployment rolls by workfare, Mr Blair might get lucky.

ECONOMIST: Working for your welfare

Plenty more of the stuff is in the ground, and only a quarter of the country has so far been explored for oil, so Libyans could have been twice as rich, if only their government had not scared off foreign companies, especially American ones, with the know-how to find it and get it out.

ECONOMIST: Libya