There are many things that can be done to resist the tide. The first would be for ministers to make the philosophical case for where state responsibility ends, and personal responsibility starts.
It is important to note that real wage growth is a feature, not a bug, of Brexit and one Conservatives should be vocal about. Put simply, leaving the EU has begun to deliver on its promise to give greater economic power to the British worker.
One might see this not as an aim to replace current fiscal prudence, but to ensure a greater focus on where public expenditure takes place. It’s more than a balance sheet or accounting exercise.
The evidence from the local elections is not that the voters are abandoning the Tories to back Reform or Ukip , but parties of the centre and the left. Their situation is bad, but it can be made worse.
A major target of Government policy in respect of the domestic and trade economy ought to be the rebalancing of our unsustainable balance of payments deficit.
We need to look at improving efficiency, and new ways of doing things. Many who work in the NHS are frustrated with the waste of both time and money, resulting from inefficient practices and poor management.
Labour like to say we are the only major economy whose GDP has not recovered to prepandemic levels. But looking at GDP at constant prices in national currency the UK economy in 2022, according to the IMF, was one per cent bigger than in 2019.
Merely “looking at” such measures as raising the pension age and reforming the benefits system will not be enough to demonstrate fiscal credibility.
As Robert Kennedy put it in 1968: ‘it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile’.
The second part of a mini-series on ConservativeHome this week about how the Government can help Britain’s economy to grow faster.
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.
Rather than an ideological approach, these four ideals – pragmatism, stewardship, One Nation and empowerment – should be the foundations of Conservative economic policy.
There’s an obvious precedent for the sorts of pro-growth policies that Truss is offering: that of Ronald Reagan and his supply-side revolution.
82.5 per cent of all jobs in this country are in the private sector. Of these, 61 per cent are in the SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises. In other words, over 50 per cent of all jobs in the United Kingdom are now in small businesses.