The centre-right ideology vacuum

At times of economic crisis, successful governments need vision as well as competence. Recent events have called the coalition’s competence into question. What about its vision?

As I argue in a new report, ministers have yet to present anything in the way of a novel philosophy. Coalition policies are sold in Labour language, and tested against Labour benchmarks. It seems that Cameron and Clegg aspire simply to be more competent, slightly less spendthrift versions of Blair and Brown.

Vision is vital, because a government that is going to rescue Britain from crisis has to stand for something, and voters need to know what that something is.

That we are in a crisis is beyond question. The economy continues to deteriorate, and we have failed to find new drivers to replace private borrowing and public spending. Governments have tried sharp devaluation, £520bn of deficit financing, £320bn of QE, and three years of near-zero interest rates, yet Britain is still in recession.