Jeremy Hunt is using his time on the slopes in Davos to tease voters that he might be gearing up for more tax cuts in his Spring Budget on March 6^th. Speaking to the limousine liberals  at the World Economic Forum yesterday, the Chancellor said lower taxes were the “direction of travel”, and that he is “confident” inflation will continue to fall which will leave room for lower taxes, a different stance from when he delivered the Autumn Statement. Chance would be a fine thing…

Hunt admitted voters were “very angry” about the record high tax burden, and that he will focus on “pro-growth policies” to grow the economy and cut taxes. In the biggest hint yet that the government will announce a package of new tax cuts, perhaps the Tories are planning on a return to being the party of lower taxes. As Labour are more more likely to win the election, if the Tories announce tax cuts that Labour would be likely to reverse (e.g. inheritance tax abolition), then Labour would be pushed back to being the party of higher taxes again. An agenda for the 2029 general election?

John Kerry has flown his private jet to Davos to lecture on reducing the world’s carbon emissions. For once he demonstrated an incredible degree of self-awareness…

Whilst Sir Keir is out in Davos, schmoozing global elites, he’s been bringing out all his usual party tricks of political point scoring, cosying up to Europe and changing his mind on his own positions. Starmer was speaking at a panel yesterday called “Repowering the World”, where he pledged an end to North Sea investment and, of course, took the opportunity to hit out at Rishi for not making the 700-mile flight to the ski resort. Captain Hindsight also reared his head again, this time over the Government’s approach to the energy crisis:

“We have capped, frozen, energy bills for the vast majority of people across the country and we’ve funded that with a form of windfall tax on oil and gas companies, particularly in the North Sea. But that is only a short-term solution, it’s what I call a sticking plaster solution” 

For co-conspirators suffering with short-term memory loss, these were the very policies he was repeatedly championing just months ago.

Sir Keir had a lot to say about the EU, he’s been repeating calls for closer trading relations and regulatory alignment – read more red tape. Though he’s not touching free movement or single market membership with a barge pole. If there’s one thing we know about Sir Keir, he always sticks to his pledges…

His Brussels charm offensive seems to be working, the i splashes with the claim that the EU is “aching” for PM Starmer, quoting remainiac heartthrob Guy Verhofstadt. That’ll go down well in the Red Wall.

Angela Merkel was out in force making the case for Brexit better than most UK politicians yesterday at this year’s virtual Davos summit. Following a line laid out by the Chinese Communist Party’s Xi Jinping on Monday urging the EU to avoid building of blocs, Merkel said:

“I don’t think it would do justice to many societies if we were to say this is the United States and over there is China and we are grouping around either the one or the other. This is not my understanding of how things ought to be.”

If you think there is moral equivalence between a genocidal communist state and a free democracy then you have a problem. Thank God the EU no longer controls UK trade policy…

He’s just repeating himself on his environmental crusade at this point…