Behind all the turbulence of changing Prime Ministers, the whole period since 2010 could have had a stable policy for indexing tax allowance and benefits with earnings.
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.
When we look at the priorities of Conservative voters, 46 per cent want the cost-of-living and inflation tackled, 36 per cent want energy security improved, 30 per cent want economic growth to return, and only 14 per cent want taxes cut.
No fewer than seven provincial premiers, including one from the Prime Minister’s own party, are lined up with the Conservatives against next month’s planned increase.
The Opposition cannot deliver a 1979-style transformation without making difficult decisions, or only picking fights with easy targets such as non-doms and parents of private-school children.
Last week, Jeremy Hunt took important first steps toward solving three serious problems: the system’s anti-family bias, too much disparity in how earned and unearned income is treated, and absurd marginal rates.
I have a theory: more often than not, a political party is better at evaluating its opponent’s political weaknesses than its own.
To those who say that election year budgets should offer short-term giveaways, I say this: history tells us that the British public is much too smart and much too sceptical to be bribed.
The Health Secretary is pressed by Trevor Phillips over whether freezing tax thresholds means that the Government is really raising the tax burden, not lowering it.
“You’ve always got to explain where the money comes from”, the Shadow Chancellor tells Laura Kuenssberg.
Just over one fifth preferred no increase in the military budget and more tax cuts. Grant Shapps’ demands for more cash have cut through with members – but show little sign of having persuaded the Treasury.
Ministers have no business giving British investors bad investment advice; much less forcing them to follow that advice.
Maintaining the current welfare state will mean wringing even more taxation out of a shrinking working-age population – and a growing grey vote means politicians have little incentive to change course.
There is some truth to the claim that there has been a big shift in power away from Parliament and a narrowing of politics – but in the British constitution, a government with a majority could fix that.
If she really has the legal advice she claims, this damaging story should be easy to close down. If he can’t even make his own deputy show it to him, what does that say about his authority?