There needs to be a paradigm shift in policy and culture. Our state should work to keep us healthy and allow us as individuals to be responsible for our actions.
The price of being thought business-minded is that it reflects particularly badly on Tory ministers when the private sector gets it wrong.
It is not especially low tax, nor is it unregulated – though it is certainly a more business-friendly environment then the UK. Here is why it works.
From healthcare and education to food and transport, privately-developed solutions can help ministers make a big difference at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods.
Divert funds from easing tuition fees into funding Further Education; sensible railway investment in the North; and refocus devolution on cities.
To reduce investment in infrastructure or R&D is to take away from the future – just as surely as running up unsustainable debt does.
The simultaneous creation and collapse of a new force has been written off an establishment failure. The truth is more interesting.
Not only will it free up much-needed capacity for commuters and freight on the existing network, but we’re ensuring a huge skills footprint too.
The first article in a five-piece series by the author on how Britain must prepare for March 31 2019 – and has less than 600 days to get it right.
Despite the evident problems, and large opposition, the scheme continues.
I strongly believe that the region is poised at one of the most exciting and opportunity-rich junctures of its post-modern history.
Overall, grassroots priorities cut across the stereotype of Tory supporters and suggests that Mayite conservatism has a strong appeal to activists.
Why spend money on grammars, rather than dealing with school overcrowding? And why back Trident rather than the Navy’s conventional fleet?
This first piece of a mini-series on what should be in the manifesto argues that the Conservatives must get serious about living within our means.
A winding road through the Cumbria countryside helps to show, with many others like it, that small improvements can help make big things happen.