We kick off a ConservativeHome project on strong families, better schools and good jobs today – indispensable means of achieving a smaller state and a stronger society.
Blair said that he wanted Britain “to be a young country again”. It wasn’t one then and isn’t one now. There is a fittingness in King Charles being the oldest monarch ever to take our throne.
It could be used towards that first deposit, or for a small range of other approved purposes, such as education and training, setting up a business, or putting money into a pension.
My argument is simply one of affordability (including, by the way, by dropping the triple lock) if our public finances are going to be sustainable.
Tax incentives are all well and good, but the Government also needs to tackle the discrimination faced by too many older people in the workplace.
A hypothetical, perfectly average 58-year-old could have increased their wealth by 40 per cent between 2017 and 2022, and paid very little tax, all by following the rules.
Turning complaints about headline figures into a detailed programme to bring them down would teach us a lot about whoever tried it.
Our new paper from the Adam Smith Institute finds there is more political space to deliver one than the politicians might imagine.
The old, simplistic idea of ‘learn, work, retire’ is badly out-of-date – but 20th-century thinking is preventing the UK from moving on.
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.
The measures would signal that we are a national community, membership of which brings particular rights and also obligations. It sounds pretty Conservative to me.
There is a limit to what can fairly and sensibly be achieved by raising other taxes and cutting public spending – especially when it comes to pay.
The effect of benefit policy changes on the incomes of working-age adults and children since 2010 has been an average loss of £375 per year compared with a boost to pensioners of £510 per year.
The first article in a new series on ConHome about how government might be made smaller, taxpayers better off and and society stronger – through strong families, better schools and good jobs.