Years of government intervention have shifted public expectations in a dangerous direction for any centre-right programme.
Voters’ assessments of their ability to pay their bills make grim reading. Ministers will need to tread very carefully in the months ahead.
My guess is that she is too smart to allow the worst case scenario to happen. To do that, however, she is going to have to move swiftly from focusing on winning the confidence of Conservative MPs and party members to winning the confidence of the markets.
The contrast between those blithe campaigns and this appalling landscape is unnerving, and raises profound questions about politicians and truth.
We cannot afford a lost summer of masterly inactivity when the challenge of the cost of living crisis is so urgent.
Time and again the Whitehall regulatory reflex markets which are at once overpriced and inadequate to need.
We need a supply-side strategy from the whole of government to produce more energy, food, and other goods and services.
The Government should give the working poor a £730 million tax cut through an emergency uprating in line with inflation.
From new housebuilding techniques to green manufacturing, the West Midlands is leading the way towards greater security.
When numerous existing schemes are ill-publicised or difficult to sign up for, vulnerable people miss out on much-needed help.
“A government of the moment would use the great powers it has to tackle this head-on. Bring forward an emergency budget!”
There are several different revenue models, but the best avoid knee-jerk levies in favour of long-term surety.
It won’t fix the problem on its own, but this is an opportunity to drive through worthwhile reform.
We cannot fall into the Corbynista trap of being more obsessed with running the party than running the country.