Folly on fuel
JEREMY Hunt would be crazy not to extend the 5p fuel duty cut in next month’s Budget.
Treasury wonks doubtless believe the Chancellor has been “generous” long enough — that drivers will meekly accept the reduction couldn’t last forever.
In which case they are as wildly out of touch as ever.
To motorists the end of the fuel duty cut simply means a 5p-a-litre rise — a monstrous new burden for drivers already paying eye-watering sums.
A suicidal decision, too, for an economy already technically in recession.
Mr Hunt must forget tax hikes of any sort. This Budget looks like his last chance to begin rebuilding the Tories’ tattered image as the lower-tax party.
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Fuel must get cheaper, not pricier. Taxes must fall regardless of whingeing about how little money Mr Hunt has to play with.
A frugal Government would create “headroom” worth billions by slashing public spending.
Start with the monstrous and corrosive welfare bill . . . and all those Whitehall “diversity and inclusion” salaries.
If the Tories don’t put more money in workers’ pockets, the wheels really will come off.
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Peace posers
LABOUR’S ever-shifting stance on Gaza is of huge significance to these groups:
Labour MPs. Labour activists. A few Labour voters. The hard-Left. Islamist anti-Semites. A few politically engaged Muslims. The BBC. A few journalists.
Notable exclusions? Israel and Hamas. Neither of which is remotely interested in Keir Starmer’s views on anything, but Gaza especially.
This is even more true of the SNP’s hot takes from Scotland.
In fairness, Gaza’s warring parties aren’t bothered about our Government’s pronouncements either.
Starmer’s latest position is to demand a permanent ceasefire “now”. How this would happen was not explained. Labour still apparently accepts that both Israel and Hamas would need to agree on peace, and Hamas doesn’t want to.
What, then, is Labour’s posturing about — other than political parlour games and a noisy display of self-importance?
Phoney war
LABOUR isn’t alone in wasting its time. The Tories seem to be at it too.
Outlawing mobile phones in schools might have more clout if many didn’t already operate bans and if the Government was laying down the law instead of mere guidance which can be ignored.
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Not to mention that this policy might improve behaviour in the few classrooms where phones are still allowed – but won’t stop a far greater problem: Kids being endlessly exposed to harm on social media outside school hours.
It all smacks of a ruse drummed up to distract from failings on other issues much closer to voters’ hearts.
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Andrew Whiteford
