The coronavirus has not changed the rules of economics, corporation tax is still a tax on jobs. As Rishi himself said in the 2015 budget debate:

“… the Opposition suggested that they would raise the rate of corporation tax – a move that would damage jobs and growth. Will he confirm that that is still Labour’s policy, or will he start backing British businesses?”

No spin or sophistry can change the truth of that, no argument can be advanced that says the recovery will be helped or jobs created by increasing taxes on big businesses or small businesses. Just because the polling and focus groups tell policy makers that taxes on big business are less opposed by voters does not make it a good policy. Populism will keep you in power, it won’t necessarily drive good policy.

Sunak has reportedly told the Cabinet this morning that “we must be honest with ourselves and the country about what that has meant. We are borrowing on an extraordinary scale – equivalent only to wartime levels.” True, wartime debts were unpaid a half-century later. It would be better to once again put the bill for spending on to the national credit card, rather than onto the productive part of the economy that needs to thrive in order to pay down the debt. When the economy rebounds government spending as a proportion of GDP should be cut back to the level it was pre-Gordon Brown…