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<\/p>\nIn little more than three weeks, on November 22, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will present his Autumn Statement to Parliament. In reality, this is his and the Government’s last opportunity to grab back the political and economic initiative.<\/p>\n
It is an important chance. The result of the next Election, despite conventional wisdom, is far from settled. Many disaffected Tories are only waiting for some sort of sign of resolve and conservatism, and they will return to the colours.<\/p>\n
Yet Mr Hunt appears to have talked himself into overcautious inaction, when his job is to be bold. Sources in the Treasury growl, in tones similar to those of Labour’s Gordon Brown, that there is no money. In fact, as Mr Brown himself repeatedly demonstrated as Chancellor, there is always money if you have the will and the skill to find it.<\/p>\n
What a pity it would be if Labour wins the Election and promptly spends the money Mr Hunt claims not to have. He should grasp that Labour’s poll lead is wide but shallow, actually far from firm. Sir Keir Starmer continues to be one of the most unconvincing party leaders in modern history, and his travails with his members over the Middle East crisis show him as a weak man who, in trying to please everybody, ends up pleasing nobody.<\/p>\n
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In little more than three weeks, on November 22, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt will present his Autumn Statement to Parliament<\/p>\n
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Sir Keir Starmer continues to be one of the most unconvincing party leaders in modern history<\/p>\n
It is also very hard to see him, or his Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as convincing managers of the economy, let alone as tax-cutters. Ms Reeves will be haunted and teased for years to come by the allegations of plagiarism in her new book. Not that purloining the ideas of others is necessarily a failing in politics. Labour’s Alistair Darling famously stole a Tory plan to cut inheritance tax thresholds for couples in 2007, and it did him no harm.<\/p>\n
Let us hope Ms Reeves does not also borrow a very good idea now circulating among thoughtful Tories. As The Mail on Sunday explained last week, an unexpected bonus of extra tax revenues offers Mr Hunt far more room for manoeuvre than he had previously thought.<\/p>\n
There are many ways in which he might use this, but one especially strong candidate is a revision of the stamp duty rules which deter huge numbers of retired people from moving to more modest homes.<\/p>\n
The current system punishes them for doing this, and so discourages them from downsizing. Thanks to the threat of this state-sponsored grab at their hard-won savings, they stay put. Their houses are not available for others, including young couples with children in need of more space.<\/p>\n
If they do move, they have less cash to pass on to their sons and daughters to help them to move into the larger homes they need but often cannot afford. As a result, an important part of the housing market is frozen.<\/p>\n
Unfreezing it would be an imaginative bonus to both older and younger citizens, and would be very likely to give the housing market the sort of boost that benefits the economy \u2013 and the total tax take \u2013 in general. Come on, Chancellor. You have everything to gain by action.<\/p>\n
Writing in our sister paper, the Daily Mail, 17 years ago, the matchless Ann Leslie wrote: ‘Oh God. Oh Allah. Oh whoever you may, or may not, worship \u2013 how long must this go on? The crisis and bloodshed in the Middle East seems endless, and insoluble.’<\/p>\n
And in all that time since, we have moved even further away from the peace which all sane people desire. How can this be? For certain, what we have been doing until now has not worked.<\/p>\n