Last week, the Tories strengthened their tax-cutting credentials with a smart policy on national insurance. I’m sure you didn’t miss it. But one part of the recent Tory resurgence is, to my mind, being underplayed: they now have a much stronger message on government waste. After all, the NI policy is being funded by cutting waste. And then there was that spoof website which pulled the limelight onto Labour’s wasted spending. And then there are the interviews in which Tory frontbenchers – such as William Hague today – say stuff like:
It’s a punchy and persuasive argument. But it’s also very remiscent of the case the Lib Dems were making over a year ago. Ignore the specifics about what waste is going to be cut, and which tax cuts it will be used to fund, and you’ll find much the same argument in, say, Nick Clegg’s speech“If there’s waste in government spending, which the Labour Government says there is, we should be saving the waste, not saying we’ll go on wasting it for several more years.”
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