Some will take the view that someone’s tax bill is their own private business. This is hard to maintain when the person concerned is Chancellor of the Exchequer.
From renationalisation of the energy and train companies to a bonfire of environmental and employment regulations, taking back control from Brussels has opened a new range of possibilities that were previously off the menu.
His plan for 2024 is to say: “I may not be most exciting politician in the world. But I’m the more reliable of the two before you. What I promise I then deliver.” It’s unlikely to be enough on its own.
Over this period, the UK’s economic growth was level with the US’s and exceeded the other five members of the G7. In other words, on international comparisons, we did well.
It’s a tribute of a kind to the topsy-turvy nature of 2022 that Johnson, Truss and Sunak were all eligible to be both Minister of the Year and Backbencher of the Year.
The public sector has just swallowed another semi-autonomous set of institutions with little protest or controversy.
The Prime Minister must make up his mind whether or not to see through a policy to stop the small boats – now an issue of profound symbolic importance.
It’s unjust to sack an Minister, rather than suspend him, over unproven claims. Now those against him have been dismissed, he should be restored to government.
Is he fated to be a fire-fighter, a leader grappling with crisis? Or can he find the political space to deliver a more personal message – perhaps to do with education?
If we are to grow as a nation and pay for public services we need to encourage entrepreneurs and support businesses – not make life harder for them and kick them in the teeth.
A lower tax burden will be impossible without less supply of government. And for there to be less supply, there must first be less demand.
Investors in science and technology need to be able to rely on the assurance that we will not fall behind nations such as the US, Israel, Germany and South Korea in our investment to science.
We now have created a situation where the OBR is effectively setting the immediate stance of fiscal policy. If economic expectations are poor, the finances look poor, so austerity or tax hikes follow – but these in turn make the economy and finances worse.
The second part of a mini-series on ConservativeHome this week about how the Government can help Britain’s economy to grow faster.