Liz Truss is right to look at family taxation

Launching her campaign for party leader and prime minister, Liz Truss said something that barely registered amid the big tax-cutting promises, but made me prick up my ears in a very positive way. She talked about trying to make sure that parents and other carers were not penalised by taking time out of paid work.

‘To ensure people aren’t penalised for taking time out to care for their children or elderly relatives,’ she said, ‘we will review the taxation of families’, describing families as ‘a vital part of our lives and the crucial building block for a stable society’.

Now many will see this as a typical sop to those nostalgic for a time when marriage was the norm, most babies were born (as used to be said) in wedlock, and women gave up paid work to stay at home with their children, at least until they started school. And maybe Truss’s pledge was tailored to exactly that constituency.