Gove’s push for intellectual and regional diversity in public appointments

His recent announcement to the Commons suggests the Government may be making another effort to grasp a nettle which his predecessors have neglected.

“Seriously concerning.” “A Gordon Brown-style budget”. Centre-right think tanks resist the Budget’s main platform.

But some free marketeers are concerned about the huge borrowing rise and the reliance on “bureaucrats picking winners.”

WATCH: “People need to be really careful what they wish for.” Robbie Gibb on abolishing the licence fee.

May’s former Director of Communications was interviewed by Mark Wallace at a Taxpayers’ Alliance event.

Sam Packer: The Government is still packing quangos with left-wing activists

Appointments go to those who conform with socialist “groupthink”. Genuine diversity is needed.

Duncan Simpson: Three tasks for Johnson. Cull quangos. End taxpayer-funded lobbying. And reform appointments.

Cleaning up the state won’t be a quick and easy task. But if Boris Johnson doesn’t grasp the nettle, it will certainly come back to sting.

James Frayne: Ten errors that Conservatives must avoid making about the new working class voters who backed them last month

Listening to conversations in Westminster in recent days, I fear a number of misconceptions will drive bad decision-making.

HS2’s financial case gets weaker and weaker – but has its political justification held up any better?

The project has its vocal supporters, but there are many areas in the North of England which it will not help at all.

Simon Cooke: We need more politicians. It is the only way to tame the unaccountable bureaucrats.

Instead of seeing local councillors as a potential saving, maybe we should see them as an asset.

John O’Connell: Why supporters of low taxes should be optimistic about this Government

The Prime Minister’s spending commitments sit alongside welcome proposals for devolution and reform.

Sam Packer: Less than a third of municipal-owned art is on public display

The average value of collections for each council is around £7 million.

John O’Connell: In an age of socialist-lite spending policies, what has become of the low-tax Tory?

The second piece in our series this week about what the Conservative Manifesto should look like.

Harry Fone: Sheffield City Council employs 24 press officers

Residents want low taxes and regular bin collections, not big PR budgets and regular spin.

John O’Connell: The case for a simpler, more competitive tax system is overwhelming

We need an overhaul to meet both the immediate challenges posed by Brexit and to maintain our global position as other countries start catching us up.

Lord Ashcroft’s Conference Diary: Perhaps Johnson really is the British Trump. And voters like it.

And: Gove says MPs can sit at weekends to get a deal through. Plus: Brisk business at the bookstall – and the menace of the “offence archaeologists”.

‘We probably didn’t cut enough’ may be the most important revelation from Cameron’s book

The heated debate about fiscal policy a decade ago is often forgotten. It matters that the former Prime Minister now acknowledges he came down on the wrong side.