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Now cut tax
JEREMY Hunt now has the windfall he needs to fund bumper tax cuts on March 6. He must be bold.
It is true we are still borrowing huge sums. But those are less than forecast, leaving the Chancellor as much as £20billion to play with.
Debts as vast as ours would normally be the priority. But these are not normal times.
Our tax burden is at a 70-year-high. It is strangling growth and inflicting immense pain on households. Easing that must come first.
Fuel duty must be frozen again. Our crippling income tax rates must be lowered or the pay thresholds increased.
Aside from some much-needed relief in the upcoming Budget there are other reasons for a little more cheer.
Although inflation ticked up a fraction last month, analysts reckon it could be back to its two per cent target by April. The Bank of England should then cut interest rates.
Meanwhile typical energy prices are set to fall by £300 a year by April too.
But the Tories cannot rely on these green shoots to revive their fortunes. In 1997 they had turned the economy around and still lost power for 13 years.
They will need much more.
Crucially, they must stop the small boats — which Labour never will.
Block party
LABOUR’S campaign to block the Rwanda scheme is a display of political cynicism which places the nation’s interests last.
They know stopping the small boats at last could help save the Tories — and secretly fear this deterrent might do it.
Of course they claim they are objecting on principle — yet some Labour politicians have previously backed offshoring illegal immigrants.
And consider the hypocritical Labour peer leading the sabotage attempt in the Lords: Peter Goldsmith, the ex-Attorney General who gave Tony Blair legal cover for his hideously reckless war in Iraq.
Last year he earned £381,000 from the government of Azerbaijan, which is accused of torturing its citizens.
He can spare us his supposed concern for migrants’ safety. So can his party.
Peace off
WILL reality ever penetrate the closed minds of the “ceasefire now” mob?
Let’s spell it out.
Hamas. Doesn’t. Want. One.
Israel is reported to have offered a ceasefire in which it would free Palestinian prisoners and even let Hamas leaders flee abroad if they, in exchange, released every hostage.
But no. The terror group won’t give up its violent 17-year stranglehold on Gaza.
It prefers to kill Jews, to torture captives, to use its own hapless citizens as shields against retaliation.
Protesters genuinely interested in peace should be marching against Hamas.
