Cut our taxes NOW to secure our future, Rishi, or the Tory ship of state will sink rapidly
THE Tory ship of state appears to have been holed below the waterline and is sinking rapidly.
On the bridge, Captain Sunak turns his wheel, pulls his levers and barks his orders but so far has been unable to stop the descent below the surface.
In his office, Hunt the Purser continues to go through his ledgers as if nothing has happened, a wintry smile on his lips, an icy stillness in his manner.
Among the crew, a few angry deckhands talk about mutiny but the general mood is one of fatal resignation rather than panic.
Yesterday’s two by-election results really brought home to the Conservatives the scale of the disaster they are now facing when the country goes to the polls later this year.
Both these seats — Wellingborough, in Northants, and Kingswood, near Bristol — had Tory majorities of more than 10,000 at the 2019 General Election, but those huge margins proved no defence against the Labour surge.
Culture of dependency
Rishi Sunak inevitably has become the focus of blame for this crisis of credibility, but the Tories’ problems go far beyond his leadership.
In truth, the party is now paying the savage price for ruling Britain badly for the past 14 years, despite repeated election triumphs.
On so many fronts, ministers have proved ineffectual or been overwhelmed by the challenges that have confronted them.
They have colluded with the woke agenda across the public sector, failed to maintain our defences at a time of growing international turmoil, done little to uphold free speech against the zealots of the cancel culture and presided over the catastrophic loss of public faith in the criminal justice system.
But by far the Tories’ greatest failure has been on the two related issues of the economy and immigration.
They repeatedly promised to build a dynamic, prosperous nation by cutting taxes, controlling our borders, reducing immigration, reforming welfare and promoting enterprise, but none of those goals have been achieved.
Instead, the burden of taxation has climbed to its highest level since the 1940s.
Those huge demands are needed partly to pay for the bloated public sector, which has become a byword for wasteful mismanagement and empire-building.
The civil service payroll alone has expanded by almost 100,000 since 2016, yet so much of corporate Britain no longer works properly.
Productivity in the state machine is far too low, reflected in the outrageous rates of staff absenteeism — last year in the civil service 1.8million working days were lost to long-term sick leave — and in the continual rolling programme of public sector strikes that do not have a shred of justification.
Ministers should have shown the smack of firm government to the militant unions, as Margaret Thatcher did with the miners and the print unions, but they have feebly confined themselves to empty rhetoric.
Growing taxation is also needed to pay for the colossal benefits system, which was originally envisaged as a safety net for the most vulnerable in society.
The reality is that, with the economy flatlining, a refusal to cut taxes is even more unaffordable
But today its vast annual expenditure of £265billion-a-year feeds a destructive culture of dependency that allows claimants to be economically inactive.
It is the politics of the madhouse to pay 5.8million people of working age to remain on benefits when there are more than one million vacancies in the economy.
Of this huge army of dependents, 2.8million have dropped out of the labour market on the grounds of disability and sickness, with mental health problems the biggest single cause.
It is estimated that by 2028 no less than £80billion will be spent on benefits linked to disability, an utterly unsustainable cost.
What compounds this lunacy has been the Government’s pretence that hard decisions on tax, welfare and the size of the public sector can be avoided by importing ever greater number of immigrants.
But the theory that a relentless influx of newcomers was the easy route to prosperity has been completely demolished in recent years.
Just as immigration has reached a net figure of 672,000 in the year to June 2023, so our economy has stagnated, and now even slid into recession.
In their wishful thinking, the advocates of open borders ignore two vital factors: First, contrary to their propaganda, only a third of migrants come here to work, with students, family dependents and asylum seekers making up the majority.
Second, the huge waves of migration impose their own crippling burdens on the civic infrastructure, especially schools, welfare, housing and the NHS.
Just on accommodation for asylum seekers alone, the Government is spending £8million a day.
Flatlining economy
The Government cannot go on like this.
With its ravenous appetite, the state is now devouring the economy.
The cycle of ever higher taxes to pay for ever more unproductive extravagance has to be broken.
A bold step must be taken to reduce the tax burden on businesses and individuals, preferably by reducing corporation tax and income tax.
Such measures should be at the heart of Jeremy Hunt’s budget next month.
Yesterday, the Treasury was hinting that, with the slide into recession, the Government cannot afford any serious cuts.
But the reality is that, with the economy flatlining, a refusal to cut taxes is even more unaffordable.
The best way to boost wealth creation, on which all our economic prospects ultimately depend, is to allow people to keep more of the money they have earned.
Job holders are wiser guardians of their own cash than spendthrift politicians eager to win cheers from allies and pressure groups.
Tax cuts may help the Tories a little, though the party may already be doomed.
But the real purpose is economic: To secure our future.
The Government should have adopted this policy years ago.
But even at the eleventh hour, it is not too late for the sinner to repent.