DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Flailing Tories must get UK back to work

2023-01-23

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Flailing Tories must get UK back to work

When the latest polls show, astonishingly, that Labour is more trusted by voters to cut taxes and fix the economy, it’s time the Tories asked themselves a serious question. What exactly is their point and purpose?

They are supposed to be the standard bearers for Conservatism – a small state, and an unflinching commitment to low taxation, growth, entrepreneurialism and aspiration. That philosophy has served the country well over the years.

The problem is, the Tories have been seduced into believing that state intervention and high taxes are necessary to win the love and support of the public.

Well, now they’re finding out that they’ve made a grave mistake. By savaging the economy with tax hikes, the party has wrecked its hard-earned political reputation for being on the side of hard workers.

Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor must return to first principles – leaving people with more of their own money to spend, incentivising business to create jobs and the wealth to fund our public services, and reducing the bloated state to a manageable, affordable size. And they have to start getting people back to work – urgently

Yes, we need to balance the books. But Jeremy Hunt mustn’t aggravate the party’s problems in this spring’s Budget

Shamefully, this is higher than under Tony Blair, who deliberately created an army of people who did so well out of welfare handouts that they shunned employment.

High earners are, of course, bearing the brunt of the cost, with the best-paid 10 per cent paying 53 per cent of income tax.

Far too many people are indolent and unproductive. As a report by Civitas warns today, a troubling ‘something for nothing’ culture has developed. This sense of entitlement has grown since the pandemic. First furlough, then energy subsidies, have helped convince people that whatever befalls them, the Government will bail them out.

By presiding over the highest tax burden since the Second World War, ministers have further reduced the appeal of working harder – or indeed at all – damaging investment, growth and prosperity.

Yes, we need to balance the books. But Jeremy Hunt mustn’t aggravate the party’s problems in this spring’s Budget.

If the public finances are in ruder health than forecast, it would be an error to press ahead with punishing tax rises.

Already too many Britons aren’t working – and that means Britain itself isn’t working.

A healthy proposal

With hospitals and GPs facing unprecedented demand, it makes sense for pharmacies to treat patients with minor ailments, as a report by MPs recommends.

This could help free up beds, let family doctors focus on people with more serious illnesses and save the NHS money.

Yet thousands of community pharmacists face extinction because of financial worries, as the Mail’s Save Our Local Pharmacies campaign has highlighted.

If they are to play a bigger role in the nation’s health, perhaps they could be exempt from business rates. And of course, it would have to be proved safe for them to prescribe a wider range of medicines.

But let’s not forget, pharmacists stayed open during the pandemic, when GPs’ surgeries padlocked their doors.

This is a neat solution to ease pressure on the NHS. But ultimately, it is a sticking plaster to patch up a creaking healthcare system designed for an earlier age.

The jail sentences handed to the people- smugglers responsible for the deaths of a family of migrants in the Channel, including a toddler whose body washed ashore in Norway, send a powerful message that those found to be involved in the evil racket will be punished. The truth is, however, that unless Britain and France do more to stop small boats setting off, while ensuring those who land on our beaches illegally are swiftly deported, the trafficking trade will flourish.

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