"Britain is permanently poorer, and the British state weaker, as a result of Covid, the collapse in GDP and the gargantuan debt binge that has kept us going." The implications for all of us are going to be immense according to Allister Heath who despairs at the political response so far:
"Set against the economic carnage, it is therefore staggering that our political landscape remains stuck in an absurd state of suspended animation. Our political classes seem to believe that they can continue as if nothing had happened. The Government clings to an obsolete manifesto predicated on the very opposite of a Covid shock: an assumption that we were richer than we thought, that the supposedly austere 2010s were over, that we could afford to live beyond our means."
He continues: "The Chancellor, a free marketeer and fiscal conservative, perhaps couldn’t convince Boris Johnson that now was the time to tackle the public sector; instead, he set the scene for a future ideological reckoning in the Tory party, one which will determine whether we become more like Italy or more like Singapore.
"As Sunak knows full well, the challenge isn’t just about the deficit: it’s also about growth and competitiveness. Brexit needs to be accompanied by radical cuts and changes to tax and regulation, as well as longer-term reforms to training and education, to succeed. Massively increasing taxes would kill that dream, and Johnson’s legacy, stone dead."
Here is the article in full and a link to the original beneath it:
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