The government's record January surplus makes for cheerful headlines today. Higher taxes filled Treasury coffers. But those same tax records tell a darker story about what happened to Britain's job market in 2021.

In 2017, the labour market was worth 12.4 billion. It kept climbing: 12.4 billion in 2018, 12.5 billion in 2019. Even through the first year of COVID, it held steady at 12.5 billion in 2020. (Source: ONS, Labour market overview)

Then 2021 happened. The figure collapsed to 4.2 billion. That's not a recession. That's not a downturn. That's two-thirds of the labour market simply disappearing.

Think about that timeline. For a decade, from 2011 onwards, Britain's labour market had been growing. It survived the eurozone crisis. It weathered Brexit uncertainty. It even made it through the first wave of lockdowns.

But something in 2021 broke it completely. While politicians debated vaccine passports and argued over trade deals, the foundation of Britain's economy crumbled beneath them.

This wasn't gradual decline. This was economic collapse on a scale that makes today's political arguments look trivial. The government can celebrate its tax surplus all it likes, but those taxes are coming from what's left of an economy that lost two-thirds of its labour market value in twelve months.

The data doesn't lie about what those years cost us. 2017 to 2020: steady growth, even through a pandemic. 2021: economic catastrophe that nobody talks about.

So when ministers boast about higher tax revenues today, remember what they're really telling you. They're collecting more money from the ruins of what used to be a functioning labour market. The surplus isn't a sign of recovery. It's evidence of how much we lost.