Sunak whistles in the dark

The Chancellor is groping his way, knowing well that the future is unknowable, trying to hold on to as much of the past as he can.

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Daniel Hannan: What broken windows can teach the Chancellor about mending the economy

When a government takes money out of it, it is creating unseen costs. Subsidising jobs is no more a route to growth than smashing windows.

Sunak’s statement tomorrow. How much like the Old Normal can we afford to make the New Normal be – or try to?

Given the Coronavirus uncertainties, whatever he announces could be even more provisional than most schemes of most Chancellors. 

WATCH: Hancock claims recent investment in NHS ‘unprecedented’

However, he doesn’t recognise the £10bn figure bosses are reportedly asking for on the NHS’ 72nd anniversary.

“Take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

The big picture is that Johnson is dashing for growth. We devoutly hope it works but the precedents aren’t promising.

Cummings makes the weather as a hard rain falls on Sedwill

Three cheers for three reforms: of the civil service, of Ministers and of one that this Government tends to avoid – of public services.

David Gauke: Big Government is back. It didn’t work before. It may not now. Here’s why we should be wary of it.

Post-Covid, the environment is likely to be egalitarian and interventionist. For libertarian, small state Eurosceptics, this must come as a disappointment.

Six months on from last year’s general election, it’s only the LibDems who bang on about Europe

The CBI supports the Government’s timetable and Starmer is keeping his head down. It is quite the turnaround.

Sooner or later, Conservative MPs will have to remaster the vanishing art of Just Saying No

An election that saw them returned to say yes to Brexit and boosterism leaves Johnson vulnerable to events and reality.

Warwick Lightfoot: The Government must borrow more to boost the post-Coronavirus recovery

After a decade of forward guidance, credit easing and quantitative easing, it was clear even before the Covid-19 crisis that monetary policy had run out of road.

Imran Ahmad Khan: We musn’t and won’t let this rolling forward of the state become permanent

It represents an emergency call to arms – not a permanent transition towards a command society.

Owen Paterson: Cameron’s Coalition was formed ten years ago today. It left us a message of hope that we should honour.

As a member of his first Cabinet, I was tested in Northern Ireland – as elsewhere the new government reduced the defict and reformed public services.

Phil Taylor: Labour’s Austerity 1) How Brown’s Government planned £94 billion of cuts

As the tenth anniversary of the 2010 election approaches, the author says that Labour’s own austerity record and plans were almost as tough as the Coalition’s.

Neil O’Brien: Salvaging the economy. Could we just live with more borrowing for a bit? Maybe, maybe not.

Hopefully it will be crisis averted, and we’ll have a bit more time to fix the hole. But sooner or later, difficult choices on tax and spending are coming.