As a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, I am uneasy about the bail-out of Flybe. Every time a private business is bailed out by the taxpayer, the pressure grows.
The Prime Minister’s spending commitments sit alongside welcome proposals for devolution and reform.
Can have a bold enough economic policy that people in these newly gained seats can see the difference in five years’ time?
That’s a legitimate political agenda, and people are quite welcome to vote for it. But they deserve to know what’s coming.
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.
Labour is banking on our innumeracy. I don’t say that they are taking us for fools. Plenty of clever and educated people can’t process numbers on that scale.
And, the Chancellor notes in his Bolton speech, that excludes 59 Labour policies “which don’t have enough detail for us to cost fairly”.
It presents an exciting agenda spanning everything from hiring more staff to investing in key infrastructure and supporting innovation.
A shallow minded and lazy tax and spend policy can only go so far on tax taken from the highest earners.
Without one, spending on older citizens will so far outstrip revenue from workers that future governments will face some unpleasant choices.
Economic competence has been the cornerstone of the Conservative appeal. Remove that cornerstone and the entire structure becomes fragile.
The second piece in our series this week about what the Conservative Manifesto should look like.
The first piece of a series this week about what the Conservative Manifesto should look like.
Marr criticises the Conservatives for “spending money like water” in a way they formerly criticised Labour for doing.
The first in a mini-series on Strenghtening the Union in the wake of Johnson’s Brexit deal.