The enthusiasm of some of my colleagues for ever greater state involvement in crucial industries is a gift to Labour.
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.
William Gladstone once complained that the Liberals were washed from office by a “torrent of gin and beer”. Tory MPs fear they face a similar – if smellier – fate if the Government doesn’t get tough on the water companies.
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.,
Miles Bassett is not alone in claiming that an excess of libertarianism is at the root of our problems. But the Government’s record refutes the claim.
Privatisation has made our water industry more efficient. Continuing issues stem from existing regulation.
Downing Street needs to be laser-focused on the issues which matter most to voters – not gimmicks or distractions like privatising Channel 4.
Crying wolf works every single time. Large sections of the broadcast and print media can be relied upon to provide the wolf-criers with megaphones.
It needs to be able to raise capital and kick-start in-house production, which the current model prohibits.
A key economic problem during the 1980s was union power. Now it is weak incentives to move and retrain.
The Business Secretary needs to review the mesh of subsidies, regulations, penalty taxes and import arrangements that passes for an energy policy.
Why is it that those on the Right who urge higher pay are vilified, while the Left applauds a low pay model for the economy?
A new volume of essays puts special advisers in historical context, and suggests the Cabinet has been marginalised by a succession of over-mighty PMs.
There were plenty of Yes Minister routines and scripts to live through then as now. Much of the system did not like the privatisation programme.
Seoul built a strong technical base, and then concentrated state support on producers with proven commercial and global appeal.