David Gauke: How Sunak can do his best to ensure that Big State Conservatism is a success
If we are going to need to raise a lot of money in tax, this needs to be done in a way which minimises damage to our capacity to create wealth.
Lagarde, von der Leyen and Merkel have all failed to take charge of Europe’s response to the virus
Nation states can act decisively when they wish to do so: the EU seems paralysed.
Iain Dale: The virus may give a permanent boost to home working – as employers learn to trust employees to do it
Plus: Cometh the hour, cometh the Hancock. And: Why Phillips doesn’t hate Muslims, Clinton could become U.S President and the Budget could all go wrong.
Paul Maynard: The Coronavirus and airlines. There’s an urgent need to suspend the slot allocation rules.
Common sense must prevail. The ‘use it or lose it rule’ should be relaxed so that airlines can consolidate services where there aren’t enough passengers.
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.
Budget 2) John Glen: The challenges we face of the virus and of weak productivity can’t be met by the repetition of small state mantras
The Chancellor’s measures leave us well prepared to tackle its short-term challenges as well as helping to shape the long-term trajectory of the economy.
Garvan Walshe: The virus shows the decline of Western democratic culture. Rebuilding it will take hard work.
Sensationalising data is all too common in politics. We have to end this trend if we want to keep people safe.
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.
Robert Halfon: The Budget we need today is for social as well as physical infrastructure
Plus: As of writing, I’ve had hardly any communications at all from constituents about the Coronavirus.
Rob Roberts: The BBC cannot be both a public service broadcaster and a commercial-style ratings chaser. It must choose.
It can’t be right for it to risk cutting millions of older and vulnerable citizens off from its services whilst ploughing vast sums into replicating the work of commercial stations.
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.
Victoria Hewson: The law on gender and trans rights is confused and confusing – the Government must bring clarity
The culture wars over sex and gender are increasingly being played out in the courts, with insufficient regard for coherence or the intentions of legislation.
Patrick McLoughlin: Rail fares are in urgent need of reform and simplification
For the good of passengers, taxpayers and the railway, this pre-internet system needs a wholesale reset.
My row with Gordon Brown. And what it taught me about the state of the Union.
At one point he even started firing questions back at me from the stage, putting paid to the moderators’ hopes of continuing the Q&A.
Neil O’Brien: The balance of power between economic and social conservatives may be shifting to the latter
We lost Putney, but gained loads of poorer seats in the north and midlands. That’s highlighted the tensions.