The Chancellor should make further provision for them. But the vast though necessary expansion of state spending will need emergency powers-type checks.
The Coronavirus will punch a hole in Sunak’s sums sufficient to throw levelling-up, Boosterism, Brexit bonuses – what have you – off course.
Finally, the television licence. The principle ought to be that those who wish to watch the BBC pay a fee and those who don’t watch it do not.
The most important sector is one usually ignored. Small firms constitute 99 per cent of all business in the country.
That’s a legitimate political agenda, and people are quite welcome to vote for it. But they deserve to know what’s coming.
Our businesses have the ingenuity, skills and talent to succeed, but they need to know what the future will hold before they can invest, hire and deliver.
The ignorance of many MPs and ministers towards the state of seaside communities is particularly surprising as coastal constituencies elect a quarter of all MPs.
Keep them low where possible; find the optimal point on the Laffer Curve; avoid taxes which are expensive to collect; and undo the harm of Stamp Duty and Inheritance Tax.
The rest of our economy is shifting to greater sustainability. The system to provide places to live should do the same.
Also: don’t cut members out of the contest. And the right exam question for candidates is: who can best win a general election?
With average household energy bills around £1000 a year, it would be a cut of about £50 per year per family.
The Chancellor has been fortunate that the public finances have improved substantially at a particularly convenient time.
Targeted tax breaks on investment create jobs and pay dividends for the public purse. The long-term interests of our public services are not served by cutting them.
In the first article of a new mini-series, the economist urges the Chancellor to deploy the savings and revenues secured by leaving the EU.
By adapting the Statutory Maternity Pay system, the Chancellor’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will improve the lives of thousands of people.