A Lawsonite touch on the Thatcherite tiller could save the election for the Conservatives
SIR – Patrick Minford is an economist I have admired most of my adult life and certainly since his days as one of Margaret Thatcher’s key monetarist economic gurus. He supports Liz Truss’s plans for growth through tax cuts and borrowing, the cost of which he admits will be significantly higher interest rates in order to control the resultant inflationary pressure.
Nigel Lawson was probably the greatest chancellor of the post-war era, building on Geoffrey Howe’s soundmoney foundations to deliver ongoing tax cuts and consistently reduce the proportion of GDP consumed by what he frequently labelled the bloated public sector. He supports Rishi Sunak’s approach of sound money – control inflation first, cut taxes later.
Who is right? They both are – but, as you would expect, Professor Minford’s is the view of an economist and Lord Lawson’s that of a politician.
I can’t argue with Professor Minford’s monetarist logic but the fact is as a politician you need to look two years down the road to where the two approaches are likely to leave the economy at the next election. The Minford/Truss agenda – by their own admission – lands much higher interest rates (for this read mortgage payments) on the electorate bang on time for the next election. As a result it will be swing voters in both true blue and Red Wall seats who will be picking up the bill for Ms Truss’s agenda. A generation of voters who have only known low interest rates will face hikes in their mortgage payments that will make the current utility hikes look like chicken-feed. This will spell certain electoral disaster in these seats.
I would describe myself as a true-blue Thatcherite Conservative street soldier, previously 12 years a constituency chairman in a Red Wall seat. I ask all party members to vote for Mr Sunak and his policies, because these will give us chance to keep the socialists out at the next election. Richard Greenwood
Wheelton, Lancashire SIR – Many readers will be as surprised as me that Mr Sunak continues in this contest, when there is so much that Liz Truss should already be tackling .
All the other leadership contestants support her, as do the two I wanted to stand – your columnist, David Frost, and Ben Wallace, the Defence Secretary.
Surely now is the time for Mr Sunak to do the decent thing.
David Harris Kintbury, Berkshire