On some issues, he got it wrong. On other issues, he got it right but is misrepresented by some of his cheerleaders. And on other issues, he was right in the context of the time but circumstances have changed.
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.,
“They’re all part of the Barmy Army which call themselves the Referendum Party. They’ve got many problems – one of which is that they don’t know what questions to put in a referendum.”
It would be desirable to see an informed and open-minded ongoing debate about global warming, rather than being dictated to.
Setting a target for three decades in the future is illusory, lending itself to virtue-signalling and ill-thought-out measures.
The former Chancellor can become spokesman for a cause, and it isn’t hard to see what it could be: lower spending and taxes.
In the final instalment of our new mini-series on families and tax, the authors explore how errors in the current arrangements might be fixed.
The political sting must be taken out of our healthcare debate. Conflicting ideas over privatisation, taxation and automation should be given serious, non-partisan review.
Party member opinion on the negotiations is clearly at the harder end of the spectrum on independence and economics – though not invariably on immigration.
Though if May moves Philip Hammond, or seeks to, she is also likely to move Boris Johnson, or try to.
May should have cut fuel duty pre-election – and longer term, we will need to switch to taxing congestion.
She points to the opportunities to imitate New Zealand agriculture, and to crack down on big businesses which evade tax.
Preventing as much long-term damage to the economy as possible now should be the Chancellor’s priority.