The Prime Minister will want to avoid the trap that Gordon Brown created for himself in the autumn of 2007.
I suggest an “all-monetarist shortlist” for appointments to the Monetary Policy Committee in the near future, to address the collective delusions that blessed us with this current bout of inflation.
I do not believe there are conspiracies by officials to stop this or any other Government from getting on with its business. But there are deep-seated problems in how government works. Here are three issues that need to be tackled.
Gordon Brown entered the Treasury with low inflation, falling unemployment, steady growth, and shrinking taxes and spending. Rachel Reeves would not be so lucky – nor will the Chancellor, if we win the election.
As we know, simply paying poorer parts of the country more will not abolish inequality – or the Barnett Formula would have gone years ago.
A brief series highlighting how the Labour Party used to be intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich, as long as they paid their taxes.
“‘Rift’ claims as Treasury Chief retires,” the Independent reported in 1998, after Brown eased out Terry Burns.
The burden has grown alarmingly. Even mediaeval serfs only had to work around a third of their time on behalf of their feudal overlords.
Clear milestones are needed to reassure people that action is being taken now to clear the backlog.
Gove is ready to localise as much either as he wants to or as his colleagues will let him, or both. I hope it’s work in progress.
He said that we cannot vaccinate the population every six months. Ostensibly this sounded like bad news, but his message was, overall, a positive one.
In this feature, we look at some of the most memorable podcasts of the last few weeks.
Policymakers should be asking themselves whose quality of life worsens thanks to the current unplanned mess.
The Chancellor extolled principles that point to the possibility of meaningful pro-growth reform of how revenues are raised.
Sunak will hope he is spared a crisis, even if the electoral politics of it could be advantageous.