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.
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.
Imagine that every day a British Minister dealt with their counterparts in Germany or France, they observed that their own living standards were 25 per cent lower (the gap for Britain’s poorest compared with those two countries).
A party in office for fourteen at the likely time of the general election will find it hard to escape being held responsible for all that’s gone wrong. This can result in a vicious circle of unpopularity leading to division leading to greater unpopularity.
Policy Exchange proposes a Tiered Energy Relief Scheme: restructuring household energy bills for a six-month period, saving the average household up to £936, at a nationwide cost ceiling of £26.6 billion.
People need a sense of hope and optimism about their prospects. And one of the best ways for the new Prime Minister to deliver that credibly is indeed to show how they will grow the innovations which will make life better.
But the Labour Party chairman is “concerned that there doesn’t seem to be any plan to deal with the causes of the cost of living crisis”.
Above all, to what extent will he present a clear plan and message? My starter for ten is “help hard-working people and go for more growth”.
The shock-absorber is a looser fiscal policy. Although the budget deficit is higher than one would like, the good news is that it is falling sharply.
A key economic problem during the 1980s was union power. Now it is weak incentives to move and retrain.
The Chancellor should not feel constrained by the OBR’s forecasts into limiting the actions he can take.
The Russian invasion in Ukraine is not a reason to give up on it. Rather, it is a reason to redouble efforts to get there as quickly as possible.
The third in a series of articles on how the Chancellor should approach the upcoming Spring Statement.
The barrage of letters and calls that some people struggling to make ends meet are receiving is causing grave distress —in some cases, it is even contributing to people becoming suicidal.