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.

Ryan Bourne: Sunak shouldn’t try today to restore pre-virus Britain. It’s gone – and we must now adapt.

What normalisation should mean is the return to a functioning market economy where our wants and needs are met in today’s circumstances.

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. 

Howard Flight: High streets, air travel, restaurants, the arts. How the virus is transforming our lifestyle.

It should be remembered that the arts contributes more to Britain’s international earnings, in the aggregate, than does the City of London.

Charlotte Pickles: Ten million people are at risk of becoming unemployed. They must be Sunak’s priority this week.

The Chancellor should use his statement on Wednesday to announce a comprehensive and ambitious plan to counter the threat.

Javid delivers the Budget he never got a chance to – via the Centre for Policy Studies. He wants to go for growth.

It’s a good thing for former senior Ministers to keep thinking, going and contributing, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see a comeback to government.

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.

Robert Halfon: There must be no tax rises for lower income voters to help meet the costs of the virus

No fuel duty rises, self-employed taxes, income tax rises, more taxes on food and drink – and the like.

Sam Robinson: How can the UK pay off its Coronavirus bill? A carbon tax and reformed wealth taxes would help.

The Government has to generate revenue quickly, but austerity and spending cuts are not viable options.

Eamonn Butler: After the lockdown. If there is a role for the state, it is in getting out of the way of recovery.

It should remove those taxes and regulations that will stop business from applying their ingenuity on the problem of rebuilding from the ruins.

Ryan Shorthouse: Next steps for the Chancellor in helping to support the self-employed

By adapting the Statutory Maternity Pay system, the Chancellor’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will improve the lives of thousands of people.

The rights and wrongs of the Government’s treatment of the self-employed

The Chancellor should make further provision for them. But the vast though necessary expansion of state spending will need emergency powers-type checks.

The Budget we want will have to wait

The Coronavirus will punch a hole in Sunak’s sums sufficient to throw levelling-up, Boosterism, Brexit bonuses – what have you – off course.

Howard Flight: Business rates, childcare, inheritance tax – and reforms we need.

Finally, the television licence. The principle ought to be that those who wish to watch the BBC pay a fee and those who don’t watch it do not.

Johnny Leavesley: What Johnson should do to help boost business

The most important sector is one usually ignored. Small firms constitute 99 per cent of all business in the country.