The Chancellor should have seized the initiative by declaring that we cannot go on with the public finances in such a parlous condition.
You may not like what Dubai has to offer, but don’t tarnish those who do with the brush of ‘tax exiles’ and ‘washed-up old footballers’. If we were able to attract their like and their ambition, instead of scaring them away, we would all feel the benefits.
The scheme risks further diluting the NHS’s performance, introducing a new layer of bureaucracy, and undermining our democratic choices about how money is spent. Services are best when they are focused – not when they are trying to do everything.
A minimum wage can work perfectly well in markets – but for it to work we need to actually use markets. A real pay disparity that anyone can see is plainly unsustainable.
Behind the fond memories of a holiday to the coast lies a difficult reality – our coastal economies are being slowly choked, not for lack of talent or ambition, but by a government that doesn’t understand how they work.
If nothing else, there may yet at some point be another Tory chancellor, and if past performance is any guide their budgets are going to leak.
It’s not so much the measures in the Budget that matter but the confirmation that this is a Labour Government in its comfort zone, led by a Prime Minister and a Chancellor who can’t or won’t challenge their party’s instincts and prejudices on the economy.
The BBC needs to ask more questions of itself to understand the haemorrhage of viewers and the rising number of its critics. If we are to continue with a “national broadcaster” having access to funds from a media tax we must insist on impartiality.
The government must ensure that the financial services sector works for everyone. UK banks and large lenders must step up and play a more active role in serving those who are currently excluded. That could deliver an additional £6.4 billion in GDP every year.
Older couples delay downsizing because they cannot justify the cost, while younger families cannot move up. Fewer homes come to market, so prices remain high and supply tight. Britain’s housing market has become a game of musical chairs with the music turned off.
There may be good arguments why we do not want to trade with a country or, at the least, putting barriers in place. We should certainly be sanctioning Russia, and there are good reasons to be wary about China. But these are not cost free choices.
I trust the OBR will not give their forecasts of growth a boost from the proposed reset. They should see the reset wants to lock us back into a system of controls, tariffs and taxes that will be negative for our economy.
Most of Labour’s ‘increase’ is either wholly unfunded, or is the rebadging of other non-Defence spending that will not buy a single bullet, but which will be cynically used to make the amount we spend on the military look far bigger than it really is.
Learning from our own mistakes, others’ mistakes, and having the savvy to take on board some of their better ideas is not weakness it’s strategically essential.
Having now forced a partial u-turn, Kemi Badenoch has been vindicated. It goes to show what can be achieved when you stick to your guns.