Sunak needs a big, big, bigger bazooka
So said a cross-section of Conservative MPs today – and rightly. They grasp that even the unprecedently statist package he’s announced is only a start.
The prospect seems remote. But is National Government on its way?
One can conceive of Ministers seeking an all-party public front, and Labour objecting to responsibility with no power.
Is Sunak being dragged in the direction of a Universal Basic Income?
Some form of the scheme may be necessary as an expedient. But beware: nothing lasts so long as the temporary.
The Chancellor’s statement. A firm second step – but he must go further to deliver “whatever it takes”.
The most significant part of his announcement was talks with employers and unions “to urgently develop new forms of employment support”.
The Conservative Spring Forum in Harrogate has been cancelled
The Liberal Democrats had already pulled their own event, and it was only a matter of time until the Party followed suit. A refund of registration fees is available.
The economy and the virus. Tear up the rulebook – we need Big State Government on a scale unknown in modern times.
The implications of the crisis are such that Johnson and Sunak need not so much to think outside the box as to trample it to tatters altogether.
Vallance and Whitty can’t be everywhere at once
The same people who complain about politicians now fronting for the Government would doubtless also be complaining if they weren’t.
Daily press conferences – and what should happen next
Needed during the coming weeks: a Government information campaign for older people, their families, employers and businesses.
Johnson’s main aim: to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed
In this way, he hopes to minimise the loss of life among the most vulnerable and others that will now happen.
Johnson’s extra virus mission. To help “save the world”.
Neither Trump, Merkel nor the EU institutions are showing the global leadership necessary. Over to a joint ticket of the Prime Minister and Macron.
Budget 1) This was less a Conservative Budget than “the People’s Budget”. From a Vote Leave Government – not the usual Tory one.
It may be necessary, given the Coronavirus, and could even work. But Britain has a long, long record of state spending failing to turbo-charge growth.
The crucial decisions on the virus are not scientific. They are political.
As the old saying doesn’t quite put it, scientists advise, but Ministers decide – on moving to mitigation or anything else.
The Budget we want will have to wait
The Coronavirus will punch a hole in Sunak’s sums sufficient to throw levelling-up, Boosterism, Brexit bonuses – what have you – off course.
British politics begins self-isolation
It froze up during Brexit stasis, thawed when Boris Johnson won his majority – and is closing down again as the coronavirus advances.
Our survey. Over half of Party members give a thumbs-up to fracking – so dissenting from Johnson’s manifesto.
They don’t believe that the Government’s moratorium on it is justified by the evidence about safety.