Without it, we won’t be able to have better public services, less debt and lower deficits, or a fairer deal for younger people.
Pay is a business cost and, in reaction, profit-seeking firms will raise prices, cut worker benefits, slash services, or leave the sector if profits are squeezed.
I thought it would be useful to pass on some phrases that have fallen into disuse, but might be needed again if the authorities don’t get their act together.
The Chancellor announced 2,000 new scholarships to promoted Artificial Intelligence, “a sign of our ambition for the future.”
The Chancellor will have have more money to play with than was forecast. How he uses these additional resources will tell us a great deal about his priorities.
For all the focus elsewhere, the most important domestic department for the next two years will be the Department of Health.
Conservative governments can raise tax rates temporarily as part of a clear plan – which wasn’t the case with last week’s announcement.
My view is that the only way to help square this circle is to rediscover our concern for public service reform.
The first piece in a mini-series on ConHome this week on Net Zero and climate change.
The problem is that spiralling spending demands quickly use up the options which voters don’t notice. Eventually you need other big sources of revenue,
Some good things, a few bad ones, some absences – and an opportunity missed not so much to level up Britain as to level with voters.
Both the short and long term implications of this rise are baleful. Demography is destiny – and the Government should act.
What we need is to promote a higher wage, higher productivity economy. Our economic targets should reflect those aims.
The pandemic has regularly pitched the economy and health on different sides of the policy response. This is a false choice.
When he was Mayor of London, I outlined to Boris Johnson how we have the potential to become the largest economy in western Europe.