The tax burden isn’t a full measure of the size of the state. But it’s arguably the pre-eminent factor and certainly that which most concerns the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
I am arguing that there is some limited space for radical candour with the electorate on the difficult choices facing the country in the 2020s.
Marr criticises the Conservatives for “spending money like water” in a way they formerly criticised Labour for doing.
The financial crisis, Brown, Osborne and then the EU and Scottish referendums did not cover the discipline in glory.
We apologise for not being swept away by the mania for new announcements that infests this leadership contest.
The Treasury should not simply accept the growth figures given by the OBR, but seek to raise them.
“The approach that I’m going to be setting out tomorrow is based on the assumption, as is the OBR’s report, of a deal being done with the European Union.”
The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union cites the way in which the OBR repeatedly fails to predict the deficit as an example of inevitable modelling errors.
It is not that he dares to be dull, but that he cannot help being so. He has prudently turned it to his advantage.
But he says the way the Chancellor presented the OBR’s growth figures was “interesting”.