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‘Efficiency’ is the deficiency at the heart of the UK’s false economy

The Conservatives are supposed to be known, above all, for ‘sound money’. That’s shorthand for a party that knows how to make decisions that are, in the long term, more sensible and sustainable than their opposition.

Liz Truss’s trust in instant growth via unfunded tax cuts arguably sent the party past the point of no return. But Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt represent an attempted return to ‘competence’.

Given that the chaos of crumbling schools and hospitals is now acting as a visual metaphor for ‘the natural party of government’, it seems crass to point out the obvious.

However, as it still seems beyond those still banging the drum for ‘efficiency’, the obvious still requires pointing out. Maybe some glitter, bright lights and a bit of Coronation-like pageantry would help to ram it home.

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March 13th 2017

Till I can’t take it anymore

In the end, Nicola Sturgeon had to call for a second referendum on Scottish independence. Since the Brexit vote, she had been dancing precariously on the head of a pin. The result had snuck up...
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March 10th 2017

We’re caught in a trap

There is a paradox at the heart of this week's budget, and in the popular reaction to it. On the one hand, the landmark changes to National Insurance for self-employed people signal the level of...
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Night Changes

It's a tribute to the uniquely low electoral expectations that Jeremy Corbyn inspires that calls for his resignation today are muted and unconvincing. It is safe to say that any other major party leader who...
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Sail Away, Sail Away, Sail Away

It was Theresa May's overwhelming armada of support in the parliamentary Conservative Party that made her Prime Minister. Had her coalition of MPs not been so broad and so deep she may have found herself...
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If you don’t know me by now…

This week Jeremy Corbyn returned to work after a lengthy (and hopefully restful) Winterval break. As the Labour Leader toured breakfast TV and radio studios, many of his backbenchers were given cause to regret their...
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