UK Deputy Prime Minister Clegg today delivered a key speech in which he called for a ‘horizon shift’. Our political culture, he said at the Institute of Government, “and in many ways our society more generally – has become too focused on immediate needs and demands, rather than considering our obligations to the future. We need to look towards a further horizon.” So far so good.

Of course it is no coincidence that the kinds of cuts in public spending that are heading our way might be easier for the government to implement if we all shared a …