Review Net Zero interventions, cut immigration; freeze Civil Service recruitment, reduce railway subsidies – and tell the Bank of England to stop selling bonds at a loss.
Targeted help can be provided to those in need, as was the case during the energy crisis. That’s what we should stick to – not a return to bureaucratic mechanisms.
Whilst this was the largest monthly fall in inflation in over thirty years, it was still below estimates. Core inflation remains high, and interest rates will need to continue to rise.
I suggest an “all-monetarist shortlist” for appointments to the Monetary Policy Committee in the near future, to address the collective delusions that blessed us with this current bout of inflation.
On some issues, he got it wrong. On other issues, he got it right but is misrepresented by some of his cheerleaders. And on other issues, he was right in the context of the time but circumstances have changed.
He was the most formidable Chancellor of the Twentieth Century and a titan of the modern Conservative Party – voting for Sunak and endorsing his approach in last summer’s Tory leadership election.,
High standards of governance helped the City establish itself as a global centre for finance. We should seek to make of the digital pound another trusted institution.
While no-one should be complacent, the initial evidence is that current problems are specific and not systemic.
Recent problems with Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse are examples of the stress that interest rate rises are putting on the financial system. But relaxing monetary policy now risks entrenching inflation.
It exercises its independence selectively, and losses can generate a huge bill for taxpayers with no oversight from ministers.
The Chancellor, too, is right to focus on using incentives to encourage those who can work to remain in the labour force and this should figure prominently in the March Budget.
Even though she won a big majority of the Conservative members plus the largest number of MPs declaring, there was a feeling from the very outset that she would not be allowed to govern in the way she wanted.
The ex-Prime Minister tells Fraser Nelson and Katy Balls that she’s “not desperate to get back into Number 10”.
More and more Quangocrats paid well in excess of the Prime Minister have added to costs without adding to performance.
Perhaps it is time to start to learn to love quangos; perhaps with greater democratic control, such a romance would be possible.