The measures would signal that we are a national community, membership of which brings particular rights and also obligations. It sounds pretty Conservative to me.
These may take time to bear fruit, but must reassure the markets now that the growth path in expenditure will be measurably lower. Such measures must involve doing less, as well as doing things differently.
His comments follow criticism from Penny Mordaunt that welfare rates should rise in line with inflation.
There is strong Conservative support for a robust safety net to save the most vulnerable from destitution.
With war tipping economies into a downturn across the world, unemployment will be near the top of the in-tray for the new PM. But long-term problems with the welfare state remain.
In future, the economy may run into inflation bottlenecks earlier in economic recoveries than before, thus constraining growth.
The Government seems to have no plan to communicate as cost of living woes multiply. Here’s a first stab at one.
His Spring Statement was a missed opportunity despite some welcome measures – and further measures may be unveiled during the months ahead.
A key economic problem during the 1980s was union power. Now it is weak incentives to move and retrain.
The criticism of him in the newspaper most read by Party activists took little account of the effects of war and pandemic on the choices he must make.
It is absurd that people willing to work must instead sit on their hands and depend on state benefits.
The Chancellor should not feel constrained by the OBR’s forecasts into limiting the actions he can take.
Pandemic and war, like two horsemen of the Apocalypse, leave the Chancellor scrabbling for a response.
The third in a series of articles on how the Chancellor should approach the upcoming Spring Statement.
Millions are facing hardship and those people in the most vulnerable circumstances need our support the most. We need to be a government for everyone.