The next leader of the Conservative Party will have many problems to solve. This is a big, complicated, powerful country going through a lot of huge changes.
We are recovering from the multiple crises caused by Covid – impacting education, health, criminal justice, employment and transportation.
The BBC and its license fee clearly cannot survive much longer in its present form, and this large and important institution will require imaginative and thoughtful reform.
We are only just beginning to understand the enormous opportunities and changes that Brexit has brought and will continue to bring for decades to come.
We need to develop informed policies that will keep us prosperous and safe in the century to come. Yet the struggle for Tory leadership has so far centered almost entirely on the narrow question of taxation
We are deeply embroiled in the biggest European war in a generation, and while we don’t really participate in it, we are deeply committed to Ukraine. Partly because of this, we are confronted with the most urgent energy crisis that Europe has ever experienced.
Nationalism in Scotland and Wales puts constant pressure on the Union. Our system of government, especially the House of Lords, is clearly cracking. The long and tumultuous reign of Queen Elizabeth II, in which one beloved person has held us together through personal charisma and selfless restraint, will come to an end in time.
And, as National Farmers’ Union president Minette Batters argues on the right-hand page, the huge issue of food security, linked to our cherished countryside and much of our economy, remains largely unresolved.
Rhetoric and slogans will not help us solve these issues.
We need to develop informed policies that will keep us prosperous and safe in the century to come. Yet the struggle for Tory leadership has so far centered almost entirely on the narrow issue of taxation.
Sir Keir Starmer seems to lack the strength to take on the militants, he fails to convince as a reborn Brexiteer and he certainly lacks the glamour, determination and brio he would need to match Tony Blair’s success
This is undoubtedly important, and it is good that we know the views of the candidates on this. But it gives little idea where Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak stand on the many other issues that will take up the time and energy of who becomes prime minister in September.
In fact, sad experience shows that no matter what tax commitments governments may make, circumstances may force them to renege on what were truly firm promises. Mr Sunak knows this all too well. Mrs. Truss may one day find out the hard way.
Ultimately, taxation is secondary to political ends.
Here, in one of the world’s most mature democracies, a major political party contemplates its future and its purpose. It would be a shame to miss the opportunity to debate much more broadly about what it stands for.
It would greatly benefit both party and nation if Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak chose to do this together from now on.
After all, a clear and coherent stance on the country’s urgent needs would give the Tories a huge advantage over the Labor party, again up to its axes in controversy over its purpose.
Should Labor be merely the political arm of increasingly militant and irresponsible unions, and still its paymasters? Or is it the voice of the metropolitan, awake Left?
Is there anything useful to say about economics, industry or agriculture? Not that we’ve heard. Does it offer a truly new approach to our national problems?
In reality, Labor remains an uneasy pantomime horse coalition of middle-class remainers and union militants.
Sir Keir Starmer seems to lack the strength to take on the militants, he fails to convince as a reborn Brexiteer and he certainly lacks the glamour, determination and brio he needs to match Tony Blair’s success.
The Tories have done themselves a lot of harm, but if they can now come up with a coherent program to keep this country at the forefront of the world’s civilized nations, they have little to fear from a fractured, bickering left.