Levelling up our communities with post-Brexit investment | Ethan Thoburn
Post-Brexit investment and trading opportunities keep coming for Britain, although the government must be aware they cannot rely on putting all of their eggs in one basket and that they must ensure meaningful leveling up for the parts of the country that voted Conservative for the first time in December 2019, rather than ‘levelling up’ rhetoric.
Budget 2021: Rishi’s economic placebo | Joseph Robertson
For what seems like a long time, budget announcements (or for now, perhaps we should call them ‘spending announcements’) from the Chancellor of the Exchequer have seemed to be a placebo to the common man rather than an attempt to stabilise the economy. Rather like living in a comfortable house that is built over a subterraneous cavern and has no foundations, we are waiting for a collapse of our comfort. Many are beginning to see cracks in their floors appearing and see dust seep in from fissures in the walls. The government is sent to inspect the property frequently but as a solution, keeps adding new floor levels to the property, building upwards, rather than inspecting the lack of foundation underneath.
A review of Budget 2021
All in all, this budget is an honest and balanced attempt by the government at sustaining demand while outlining a longer-term plan for fiscal restructuring. What is clear is that the government is deeply committed to ensuring that it does everything in its power to restart the economy in the near future. This is not a problem per se, but it will have to make sure it gives back control of the economy sooner rather than later.
If not, the risk is that the public becomes too comfortable with, and dependent on, this type of government intervention, triggering a slow return of the Big State and a new normal economic policy based around a combination of high taxes and high spending, all with the approval of the Conservative party.
Rishi’s big fork out | Alex Brown
The 2021 Budget is a mixed bag of policies that do not have our long-term economic recovery at the fore. The Chancellor is using his ‘fiscal firepower’ to keep on spending – resulting in a further £65bil to support the economy – which translates into borrowing 17% of the national income. To some extent, the reality that some spending is not being cut is an indictment – especially as the Prime Minister has outlined our road to recovery and the gradual Great Unlocking. But it is welcome news that the government’s economic intervention has prevented peaks in unemployment. Can we be sure of this after the taps are turned off and the handouts cease?
The corporate and metropolitan assault on the British countryside | Adam James Pollock
While a sensible degree of competition is healthy and integral in capitalist societies, malicious intent is not; the CEO of Impossible Foods, Patrick Brown, has recently stated that his sole aim is to “put the animal agriculture industry out of business”.
Overdue tax reform in Britain for the common good | Laura Sánchez Pérez
If marginal tax rates are too high in the UK compared to other developed economies, investment is likely to go elsewhere, and economic growth is likely to suffer. This will have a detrimental effect on society. After all, investment brings employment opportunities and with that, economic growth for households up and down the country.
Conservatives must build an alternative to capitalism | David Sergeant
Global corporations, many of whom now rival the power of small states, use their wealth and influence to manipulate cultural direction. It is really surprising to see ‘woke’ companies push radical individualism? The more families they split into atomised consumers, the more their profits bulge. Likewise, corporate support for identity politics – designed to divide ordinary people into a multitude of exclusionary social tribes – is the perfect distraction from unjustifiable and unpopular wealth differentials.
In defence of the tax on tampons
What the anti-tampon tax advocates failed to realise is that the VAT was not put into place by some evil patriarchal organisation scheming to hurt women from every possible angle, it was there to help them. Indeed, proceeds from the tampon tax created a Tampon Tax Fund worth millions of pounds from which thousands of women across the country benefited, establishing an intergenerational support scheme between women of all income, race, and sexual orientation on a strictly, and intimate, feminine issue. What could be more feminist than that?
Reimagining cooperatives for post-pandemic inclusive growth | Dan Mikhaylov
Mindful of the common good, conservatives must recognise the need for inclusive post-pandemic growth. Since unemployment is as much an economic phenomenon that undermines economic growth and local development as a social malaise, capable of fuelling extremism and other malevolent behaviours stemming from disaffection with the public, ensuring that Britain’s poorer counties are not left behind by the government’s blueprint for financial rejuvenation must be a priority. Since the conservative ideology cherishes social cohesion and national unity, exacerbating the existing socioeconomic divisions in the UK is not only pernicious for the country’s territorial integrity, but also in contravention of the tenets, to which we expect the Tory government to subscribe.