Orban has lessons for UK prosperity

IN Britain, the Conservative Party has reinvented itself as a workingclass party. It has parliamentary seats inwales, the North and the Midlands that had voted Labour until the General Election. But other than Brexit, what on earth can the Tories offer supporters there?

Well, Prime Minister Boris Johnson could learn a lot from Central Europe in general and Hungary in particular – if he ignores the vilification of the country by liberal commentators.

For a start, the PM’S Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban has identified radical liberalism as the enemy because it was making people culturally and economically insecure. This has earned him endless enmity in Europe from people like French president Emmanuel Macron.

But which of his policies might the Tories learn from?

Firstly, his family policy is a wonder to behold. It directly addresses the gender pay gap, which many studies say is mainly caused by women having to return to lower-paid and part-time work after

having children. Hungary tries to compensate for this by offering every married couple an interest-free loan of more than £28,000.The more children the couple have more of the sum is written off. Have three, and you owe nothing.

They also offer low-interest mortgage loans and progressive mortgage tax relief the more children you have. Mothers of four or more are exempted from income tax.

Secondly, when Orban and his Fidesz party won power in 2010 there was huge unemployment in Hungary, so they made work pay. For those without a job they guaranteed the state would provide training to take jobs in the private sector. this was a huge success.

What thetories could learn from this is that giving the responsibility to provide job training and guarantee schemes to local government could give places likewrexham and Bolsover a real shot at prosperity.

Countries like Hungary and Poland have always been among our closest friends and allies within the EU and now we are exiting.

It is time to create relationships anew and learn how nations, such as Hungary, changed the lives of their citizens for the better, so we can do the same.