The Government could have done better in presenting the mini-budget - Bernard Ingham

They got rid of Mrs Thatcher after she had won three elections and transformed the economy. Then they hounded the wayward but charismatic Boris Johnson out of No 10. Now they are conspiring to oust Liz Truss within a month of taking office. What rotten luck having to face them in the annual conference this week.

I only wish I could line up the entire Tory Backbench and warm their backsides with a headmaster’s cane. Reason might then reach the parts it has so far evaded.

But judging from opinion polls, giving Labour a lead of anything from 20 to 30 per cent, grassroot Tories are in a tizz, too. This stupidity would be incredible if the Tories were not known as the stupid party.

It advertises the party’s divisions and throws a cloak over Labour’s left-right split and its eternal addiction to high taxation, spending other people’s money and virtue signalling – e.g. its promised new green drive.

The essential issue facing Ms Truss was whether to stick with the orthodoxy that has brought stagnation, or little economic advance, or make a dash for growth. She has decided to make a dash for it.

Since the Tories are supposed to be for growth, small government and entrepreneurial flair you might have thought they would support her in the effort.

I do not pretend the issue was easy with tax cuts and more protective spending against the price surge on top of the £400bn bill for the pandemic. But the plain fact is that no government could bring the nation’s finances back into balance before the next election in 2024 or conceivably within the space of another Parliament without more “austerity”, as the 10 years from 2010 are called.

All this demonstrates the extent to which the Establishment has been captured by timidity and ready to settle for managed decline. It is not the stuff great nations are made of – or what we need in this dangerous world.

I should also point out that the economy did grow this last quarter, the pound has bounced back from serious reverses and the latest estimates suggest that the cost of the mini-budget might be below initial estimates. We are also emerging from the pandemic in a better state than many nations.

But that does not mean the Government could not have done better in presenting an admittedly rushed mini-budget. As an ex-No 10 press secretary, I do not pretend it is easy to get presentation right. The broadcast media have also progressively brought the nation’s attention span to that of a gnat with the result that too much communication is now soundbites and sloganising.

But, as Ms Truss concedes, they might have done better. It did not take a genius to see that tax cuts for the “wealthy”, even to encourage growth, and a refusal to impose windfall taxes would be a gift to Labour. And, given the scale of our indebtedness, trailing more tax cuts without detail as to how our debts would be reduced was guaranteed to cause concern.

Yet it seems we shall have to wait until the November 23 budget to learn more. We need to know now how this debt is to be managed and over what period.

If the Tory party were doing its job it would be putting down five Parliamentary Questions:

1 – what is the current strength of the Civil Service, how has it grown over the years and what is the total current bill for the taxpayer;

2 – how many quangos are there, how many do they employ, what is their cost and do we need them since they do not seem very effective in promoting efficiency;

3 – how many special advisers are employed (Mrs Thatcher tried to ration them to two per Cabinet Minister), how many Civil Service press and information officers are there (I managed with a No 10 press office of eight but 10-15 years later it has grown sixfold); and their total cost;

4 – how many staff per department, quango and other agencies are still working from home?

5 – what is the estimated possible financial saving from a reasonable cull of staff and red tape?

The public would then know how to judge Liz Truss is performing as a gutsy cost-cutter.