Our economy is firmly up — and imagine how much it’ll soar when Brexit is done and dusted

It’s all grow

OUR economy is firmly on the up — despite Brexit uncertainty and Remainer negativity.

Imagine how it will soar once our exit is done and dusted.

Wages are growing at their fastest in three years, and above inflation. Unemployment is at a 40-year low.

Youth unemployment has NEVER been so low.

Growth has ticked up to 0.6 per cent.

There is a record number of vacancies.

With EU migration down and jobs galore being created, the competition for workers is pushing up pay. Good.

Brexit scaremongering falls on deaf ears, doesn’t it?

Brits just keep calm and carry on.

The only person threatening to slam a brake on it all is Chancellor Philip Hammond, by raising fuel duty.

What folly that would be. He moans that keeping the level frozen costs too much.

But the drag on the economy from hammering every driver will outweigh the extra revenue, especially with prices already at a four-year high.

Working people struggle to make ends meet as it is.

Mr Hammond must not use them as a Treasury cashpoint machine.

Fix defence

THE dress-rehearsal for World War Three by Russia and China is transparent sabre-rattling propaganda.

But it is also a timely reminder of how badly run-down our own forces are — and the fractured state of Nato.

America is rightly demanding its allies dramatically increase military budgets. And, though we DO meet Nato’s spending target, ours has declined steadily.

Defence chief Sir Nick Carter has rightly warned “our ability to pre-empt or respond to threats will be eroded if we don’t keep up with our adversaries”.

France has finally committed to raise its defence spending.

We must too . . .And convince Donald Trump that a strong, united Nato is vital for global security.

Floored idea

THE Help To Buy scheme is a vastly expensive and flawed sticking-plaster to the housing crisis. Its future must be reviewed.

Some £8billion of public money has been splurged on George Osborne’s idea to give first-time buyers interest-free loans to buy a brand-new property.

And while it HAS helped many, they have often paid over the odds and will be stuck with a home which they can’t sell or is in negative equity if prices dip.

Meanwhile, Help To Buy has made fortunes for building giants and their lavishly paid bosses. They have built more houses, but not nearly enough for the extra demand the scheme created.

The REAL solution is for the Government to free up land and relax planning rules to get hundreds of thousands more homes built for our booming population.

That, and that alone, will help make them genuinely more affordable and get a generation on to the property ladder.