The supposedly 'soft left' Tribune Group has produced an agenda for a new prime minister which includes taking responsibility for economic growth away from the Treasury and the OBR to a new department..
This has been tried before in the shape of the Department of Economic Affairs created by the Wilson Government in 1964. Admittedly this was partly to find a berth for the mercurial George Brown and to set up 'creative tension' with Jim Callaghan as Chancellor.
Brown eventually became foreign secretary and then left government altogether. In the meantime, the Treasury asserted its authority as it was dealing with the short term, leaving the DEA to come up with hopelessly optimistic long term plans.
I arrived at the DEA in 1969 as a civil service intern and morale was incredibly low with civil servants desperately trying to find something worthwhile to do. A huge computer printout of economic forecasts arrived and no one knew what to do with it.
The Treasury is unpopular because someone has to say no to spending requests when taxation and debt service costs are at record levels.
The sad fact is that expectations of what government can provide are out of kilter with economic reality and reviving the DEA will solve nothing.
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