The UK has suffered its worst annual slump on record, with the economy contracting almost 10% last year amid the pandemic.

The Office for National Statistics reports that over the year 2020 as a whole, GDP contracted by 9.9%, “marking the largest annual fall in UK GDP on record”.

That is slightly worst than the deep recession in 1921, when GDP fall by 9.7% amid coal strikes, soaring unemployment and depression following the first world war.

It is only beaten by the annus horribilis of 1709, when the Great Frost froze the country, driving GDP down by an estimated 13% -- well before we had proper economic statistics.