Tories need to come out of the starting blocks fast to show they do offer something worth voting for in 2024
The home front
JEREMY Hunt’s announcement of a March 6 Budget effectively fires the starting gun for the 2024 election campaign.
Cue Tory talk of tax cuts and help for first-time buyers, both of which should be the bread and butter of a Conservative government.
The party which brought us “Right to Buy”, giving generations the chance to own their own home, has watched on as housing shortages, rising interest rates and inflation have put home ownership further out of the reach of young people.
The Tories must urgently give them reason to believe they share their home-owning aspirations.
Cuts to the record tax burden are also crucial — with particular focus likely to fall on making changes which Labour will be unwilling to match.
One dividing line may well be inheritance tax, which is inherently unfair, since it’s often levied on hard-earned wealth that has already been taxed.
Families are also desperate for cuts to income tax, and changes to the thresholds which are dragging in more and more middle and lower income Brits.
What the Tories mustn’t do — no matter how gloomy they are feeling — is indulge in yet more suicidal in-fighting.
They should recognise there is little appetite among voters for flip-flopping Sir Keir Starmer, whose ratings lead seems entirely based on Labour NOT being the Conservatives.
Rishi Sunak and his party need to come out of the starting blocks fast to show the electorate they do offer something worth voting for in 2024.
It’s elementary
THE clear-up rate for domestic burglaries is appalling.
It is a heinous crime that violates homes and blights lives, yet in three-quarters of all residential break-ins in England and Wales no suspect is identified, and someone is charged in less than four per cent of cases.
Meanwhile, a shocking 92 per cent of criminal damage and arson reported in the last year still hasn’t been solved.
Hard-working coppers feel ground down by criticism and the public’s lack of faith in them to solve crimes when too often the failure is above their pay grade.
Now the National Police Chiefs’ Council says domestic break-ins should be attended within an hour of a report.
It’s sad it should even need saying, but hopefully it’s a step in the right direction.
I, Roadbot
IF fully driverless cars really are just three years away from appearing on our roads the impact on our lives could be seismic.
But with fears over AI’s potential to destroy the human race, we’d sound a note of caution.
As they will soon have to navigate Britain’s 20mph roads, potholes, and Sadiq Khan’s blitz of charges, the odds of a robot uprising are about to get a lot shorter.