Be brave, Mr Hammond, and give us a Budget that can drive the country forward
It seems more likely that Monday's budget will be delivered by a Chancellor incapable of getting us out of first gear
Budget bravely
MONDAY’S Budget is a chance to drive Britain forward — but this Chancellor seems incapable of getting the country out of first gear.
For more than two years, Philip Hammond’s dour vampire act has sucked what little life there is out of this Government’s domestic agenda.
Bereft of any vision for the future, he has only succeeded in coming up with fiddly new ways to separate Brits from their hard-earned cash, from a latte levy to the sugar tax.
Rumours are he’ll now go after scotch whisky for a few more quid — precisely what we don’t need to do to one of our leading exports.
Is that what this Conservative Party is about? Corbyn-lite tax-and-spend economics?
The Tories will have only themselves to blame if the public is tempted by the full-fat Labour version. Where’s the ambition? Where’s the belief in the free market and in British people?
What he should do on Monday — but almost certainly won’t — is grab this vital moment in our history by the horns and deliver the sort of Budget that is talked about for decades.
He could embark on a radical simplification of the tax code, stripping out page after page of loopholes and making life easier for small businesses.
He could overhaul the business rates regime with root-and-branch reform, as well as the sticking plaster of increased relief.
And he could promise that IF we leave the EU with a clean break, we will use the £39billion-worth earmarked for our “divorce bill” to launch a massive programme of tax cuts — attracting businesses from all over the world to these shores and giving working Brits the chance to spend more of their own money.
The promise of a hyper-competitive United Kingdom just off the coast of the EU would certainly focus minds in Brussels.
We are used to the Prime Minister’s lack of ideology. She’s almost made it a strength.
But the Chancellor has to have more to him than that. He MUST paint a picture of a prosperous, thriving Britain that is ready to take on the world.
And above all, he MUST give people a reason to vote Tory.
Never forget
WILKOMMEN, President Steinmeier.
We’re all for the German head of state laying a wreath at the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day.
One hundred years on from an awful conflict which took millions of lives across the world, if now isn’t the time for reconciliation, when is?
This centenary is not a happy occasion. It is a time for reflection, and for education. Generations to come must know the sacrifice of their forebears.
And we must say once more: never again.