Social care reform – and why we can’t simply tax our way to better public services

The cat of Tory tax rises has fewer than nine lives. Especially if these breach manifesto pledges and are generationally unfair.

Howard Flight: Parkinson’s Law revisited

The NHS employs 1.75 million people and is too monolithic. The number of civil servants has risen to 460,000. This is territory which the Chancellor needs to examine in detail.

Budget 1) This was less a Conservative Budget than “the People’s Budget”. From a Vote Leave Government – not the usual Tory one.

It may be necessary, given the Coronavirus, and could even work. But Britain has a long, long record of state spending failing to turbo-charge growth.

Ryan Bourne: The limits of weirdos and misfits

“Bad management” or “the wrong skills” or “incompetent people” are held up as the root cause of bad government.My central gripe is that I doubt this is true.

Robert Colvile: Here’s how to show that the Left doesn’t have a monopoly on compassion

My new pamphlet for the Centre for Policy Studies sets out a programme which would empower voters truly to Take Back Control.

Rachel Wolf: In defence of Cameron

My local secondary schools were no-go areas and no one from my primary school went to one. That won’t be my children’s experience, and he can take a lot of credit.

Chloe Westley: Public sector pay – and why centralised bargaining must end

On the whole, pay rises should go to those on the frontline, or be used for recruitment and retention, or be based on performance.

WATCH: Philp describes the “difficult and painful process” of controlling public spending

The party’s Vice Chairman for Policy was being pressed on police cuts.

Alan Mak: To be fit for the future, the health service must “axe the fax” – and the pager

These archaic machines cause NHS patients to miss appointments, hospitals to lose records, and cost millions of pounds in paper storage each year.

Rachel Wolf: On policy, it’s not the Independent Group that’s driven to the margins. It’s the Conservative Right.

The new group’s platform is not very inspiring. But its biggest problem is it they won’t be very different from the Conservatives’.

Phillip Lee: The Birmingham prison scandal. And why it’s time to roll back the frontiers of PFI in our public services

We spend £251 billion each year on outsourcing and contracting without evidence that this is a good deal for taxpayers.

Jeremy Hunt: On its 70th anniversary, we must not let the left claim the NHS

Our new, outcome-focused, and patient-centric plans fit into a long tradition of careful Conservative stewardship of the Health Service.

Alex Morton: A win for those spending Ministers would be a defeat for the taxpayer – not just Hammond and Truss

The Comprehensive Spending Review has to be seen as a way to reset the narrative. Government need to focus on reform as a positive – not expenditure.

Rob Wilson: Bold ministers could breathe fresh life into popular capitalism

Some on the left – and perhaps the right too – believe this agenda has run out of runway. Here are a few ideas to get it airborne.

We have not adjusted to what an ageing society means or requires. Green’s speech on social care – full text

“Using their own money would enable older people to take greater control over their care options.”