Crushed by tax
OUR economy cannot grow under the massive tax burden crushing families and firms.
Cutting it and kickstarting growth is the only way out of the current quagmire — as well as perhaps the Tories’ only realistic election chance.
We understand Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s fixation on inflation and ensuring that it continues to drop. He’s right to stick at it for now.
But keeping taxes indefinitely at their highest in decades, with no end in sight, condemns us to low growth . . . with incomes hammered, workers dispirited and investment driven away.
Before long Mr Hunt MUST reduce them, and state spending too.
Lower-than-expected Government borrowing from April to July has given him unexpected room for manoeuvre, to the tune of £11.3billion.
He must use that wisely, and ultimately put more money in Sun readers’ pockets.
Bilge on boats
WHEN will either main party be honest about the illegal migrants crisis?
The Tories should stop claiming they are making headway when hundreds more arrive each day and the 2023 total has hit 18,000.
And Labour should stop insulting voters’ intelligence by pretending it has ANY answers.
Today it brainlessly demanded Rishi Sunak “stop messing around”, “go after the criminal smuggling gangs”, accelerate removals and negotiate a new returns deal with an unwilling EU.
These are not serious new proposals. Where possible they are already under way.
But then Labour does not really want the boats to stop. They are too useful as a political weapon.
The PM should be more frank about that.
He should admit his hands are tied by the Left’s battle to thwart the Rwanda deterrent in the courts — and by our membership of the ECHR.
If those flights to Africa ever take off, illegal migrants will know instantly that a new life here is no longer an option.
Small wonder Labour MPs oppose them. They are terrified they will work and Sunak will succeed.
Unhappy hour
OUR drinking laws are absurdly out of date.
Some pubs could not serve booze during Sunday’s World Cup Final until the second half. That’s bonkers.
Parliament should not have to reconvene and vote to tweak the Licensing Act every time the nation wants to come together in our bars to watch a major event outside normal hours.
A simple edict from No10 would do.
Britain in 2023 is a 24/7 economy.
Consumers like being able to shop, and enjoy a pint, far more freely than we did years ago.
But unwieldy pub restrictions, like our archaic Sunday trading rules, remain stuck in the past.
Let’s call time — and change them.
