The Government can’t deliver levelling up without more supply-side change, localism and public service reform.
Lidington writes that “the UK has the potential to be world-leading in areas such as fintech, life sciences, artificial intelligence and genetic modification”.
Providing small businesses with technology and training will accelerate our recovery from Coronavirus.
Japan, Korea, Taiwan and now China, have all invested heavily in new technologies – through government support for new industries.
The Budget was, if truly honest, a sign that the Government shuns spending cuts and embraces tax rises – which is ultimately unsustainable.
Conservative messaging implies an implicit belief that there are no major state functions ripe for reform in any fiscal repair.
Perhaps the simplest way of putting it is: it’s all about economic credibility, stupid. Because come 2024, it certainly will be.
It’s one thing to endure them to prevent people dying, and for a relatively short period of time; quite another because we might return to this situation.
If first dose efficacy proves strong, the Prime Minister will have to break with those who fail to think about the marginal costs and benefits of shutdowns.
The best way of thinking about it isn’t to fix one’s gaze on direct subsidies, but to look wider – at our failure to turn British ideas into British prosperity.
The first piece in a ConHome mini-series this week on industrial strategy after the pandemic.
We need to pace ourselves. We don’t want to go for a big bang reopening only to trigger a new wave and be forced backwards.
I’m delighted to have been asked to help set up the new Taskforce for Innovation and Growth through Regulatory Reform.
As Johnson put it yesterday: “we can’t think of this just as a project for us and us alone”.
It’s hard to think that the right future is to be a less research-intensive country than the rest of the world, and so I hope our commitment will endure.