The expansion of Universal Support is hugely welcome, as is news of a Chance to Work Guarantee. The Chancellor’s decision to restrict access to higher rate disability benefits, however, is harder to defend.
There is also a moral point: if someone works, they should be the main beneficiary of their labour, rather than being forced to give most of their extra earnings to the Government.
Sentences in the community can be just as punitive, provide a better opportunity for rehabilitation, and can reduce reoffending rates.
The demographic tide can’t be turned back, but its advance can be slowed – by the self-reinforcing triangle of stronger families, better schools, good jobs, and the stronger society that these help to build.
If Britain’s productivity problem could be fixed by politicians tilting at unpopular targets – in this case, an assumed army of scroungers – it would have been fixed long ago.
Couples are waiting later and later to have children due to the cost of living in many areas of the country – of which housing plays such a massive part. It is certainly encouraging to see action is being taken to reduce some barriers to building, but this should be done with more haste.
Our Commission has begun to build consensus around what is needed, and we must now work together to extend that consensus and generate the coordinated action that is required.
The Government is now trying to make T levels the main vocational alternative to A levels. It is not clear that they can take on such a big role.
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.
The twenty-sixth 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.
The twenty-fourth 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.
The fifteenth 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.
And this is the fundamental problem: it allows us to dodge a broader long-term industrial strategy, precisely because the short-term labour fix is so easy.
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.
Governments who want to set out a clear vision for their electorates need to have an accessible story that explains their direction, aims and values. Here are some core conservative beliefs with which to start.