And after more than a decade in power, the Tories’ commitment to traditional market-oriented policies has been weakened by Whitehall. The failure to break a manifesto pledging not to raise basic taxes last fall, with the creation of a new National Health and Social Security contribution, was a moment when the Council of Ministers officially lost its way. Rishi Sunak’s latest allusion to unexpected taxes on oil and gas companies is further evidence of this confusing thinking. Nothing in the Chancellor’s political background will suggest that he really believes that a one-off tax on profitable companies is a good idea or beneficial to the economy in the long run. Mais’s lecture at the Bayes Business School earlier this year revealed his real goal: to make businesses invest more voluntarily. What companies need is not the threat of more taxes, but the Tories’ traditional commitment to creating and maintaining a business-friendly environment. But the spasmodic reaction is still playing in the gallery and suggesting that the corporate world needs extra regulation. Maybe the crisis will now force the Conservatives to defend the free market again – not because they believe it will win votes, but because it obviously works. This week’s announcement that Johnson wants to give tenants the “right to buy” from their housing associations provides further evidence that he believes, as a last resort, that exploiting Thatcherism will provide some solutions to his current political woes. Unfortunately, it has to go much further. Thatcher brought life back to the UK economy as smart economic principles – reducing government intervention, prioritizing light-touch regulation, pursuing economic growth – were applied to the chronic policy problems that haunted Britain at the time. The British now need someone to follow the tried and tested principles of Thatcherism and apply them to today’s afflictions in a much more focused way than Johnson has so far proved capable. Giving tenants the right to buy their home from a housing association at a reduced price, for example, may be a benefit for the lucky ones who can benefit, but the policy does nothing to add homes to the total housing stock and completely fails to address the current big issue of under-supply. Recycling old financial ideas is perhaps a step in the right direction – better yet, at least, than the government’s recent decisions to abandon supply-side planning reforms and increase the tax burden again. But critical thinking must be applied to today’s unique economic conditions in order for such an agenda to really escape. If Johnson, the political chameleon, can reinvent himself as a true Thatcher, at least one good thing can come out of our current predicament.
