Skills shortages are directly linked to transport shortages. It is possible that better transport connections linking our small towns to our major cities could do more for productivity and employment than almost any other initiative.
Perhaps are finally waking up to the fact that our economic model, relying on government subsidy to provide cheap human capital and debased wages, has only provided the illusion of prosperity.
The key problem is stagnation. Margaret Thatcher’s reforms promoted mobility and opportunity. Now we are an economy which doesn’t change enough.
Monday’s speech and today’s announcement show them choosing their ground for the next election. And since Hunt may find no money for further tax cuts next spring, the option of a May general election is opening up.
82.5 per cent of all jobs in this country are in the private sector. Of these, 61 per cent are in the SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises. In other words, over 50 per cent of all jobs in the United Kingdom are now in small businesses.
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.
It is important to note that real wage growth is a feature, not a bug, of Brexit and one Conservatives should be vocal about. Put simply, leaving the EU has begun to deliver on its promise to give greater economic power to the British worker.
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.
The evidence from the local elections is not that the voters are abandoning the Tories to back Reform or Ukip , but parties of the centre and the left. Their situation is bad, but it can be made worse.
A major target of Government policy in respect of the domestic and trade economy ought to be the rebalancing of our unsustainable balance of payments deficit.
We need to look at improving efficiency, and new ways of doing things. Many who work in the NHS are frustrated with the waste of both time and money, resulting from inefficient practices and poor management.
Labour like to say we are the only major economy whose GDP has not recovered to prepandemic levels. But looking at GDP at constant prices in national currency the UK economy in 2022, according to the IMF, was one per cent bigger than in 2019.
Merely “looking at” such measures as raising the pension age and reforming the benefits system will not be enough to demonstrate fiscal credibility.
Our forebears worked hard to place us in our privileged place in today’s world. But we inherited that position without having to work for it, and now we’re far more interested in spending and consuming our wealth than in earning it.