The Comprehensive Spending Review has to be seen as a way to reset the narrative. Government need to focus on reform as a positive – not expenditure.
What is the Defence Secretary up to? Why now? And is the extraordinary threat he is reported to have made true?
There is zero chance that the public are going to back any meaningful reform of the service any time soon.
The Vote Leave director is the onlie begetter of this cashfest. But we’ve said it before and say it again: Britain can’t tax its way to prosperity – or a better health service.
After our recent series asked ‘What should Tories tax?’, the Adam Smith Institute’s Head of Research kicks off a new mini-series seeking routes to lower taxes.
Day-to-day spending being brought back into balance is good news, and it makes some spending decisions easier, but beware hype about the ‘end of austerity’.
Right now, a whole host of things are said to be top infrastructure priorities. Yet, remarkably, housing is not among them. This needs to change.
Someone has to take control of the Government grid and plot a series of activities designed to reinforce each other and to build a positive narrative.
Councils could encourage more schools to specialise and give more children in care the chance to attend boarding schools.
But he says the way the Chancellor presented the OBR’s growth figures was “interesting”.
The FT has the balanced “Grim outlook overshadows housing drive” while the Times goes for “Hammond eases off austerity”. The i has “Hammond’s hard-hat budget”.
It continues to clear the deficit, prepare for Brexit, and back our businesses with the support they need to boost productivity.
The Shadow Chancellor doesn’t know the current cost of debt interest.
The Chancellor pretended to be bold when he was actually being cautious.
Hammond’s plan – from abolishing Stamp Duty for most first-time buyers, through to reforms to help Universal Credit recipients.