A failing health service, people unable to afford meat… and neither candidate seemed prepared for a bold break from the status quo.
Policy thinking aimed at raising taxes and squeezing spending is misplaced and needs to be turned on its head.
I draw on Public First’s Conservative Leadership Policy Tracker which is being continuously updated for all the above.
For starters, a leader with integrity, a reasonably competent Cabinet, a less divisive tone, a new seriousness of purpose on policy and, in particular, some pragmatism on Europe.
The Treasury orthodoxy is that Britain is a slow growth economy, and that tax cuts are inflationary. Neither of these are permanently true.
The effect of benefit policy changes on the incomes of working-age adults and children since 2010 has been an average loss of £375 per year compared with a boost to pensioners of £510 per year.
It is the economy that will make or break the Government. We cannot afford not to stimulate innovation and creative destruction.
it is almost impossible to disentangle any effect from the much larger shock resulting from pandemic and war.
In future, the economy may run into inflation bottlenecks earlier in economic recoveries than before, thus constraining growth.
A free-market Chancellor would have prioritised growing the economy over good headlines.
As one Cabinet Minister put it to me recently, the Treasury has never been interested in growth, just in collecting taxes.
Above all, to what extent will he present a clear plan and message? My starter for ten is “help hard-working people and go for more growth”.
The shock-absorber is a looser fiscal policy. Although the budget deficit is higher than one would like, the good news is that it is falling sharply.
Despite being stuffed with bills, the Government’s agenda looked confused, with not enough effort made to address the cost-of-living crisis and stagflation.
It would help reach that holy grail for all politicians: to find the key to long run economic growth. To grow the pie so that all in society can benefit.