Why is the debate about fixing the country’s bombed-out finances only ever on raising taxes? Along with the weather and football, talk about tax hikes has become another national obsession.
Yet, as Thomas Tuchel’s decision to have England play defensively showed, it’s game over when you take the easy option and stop attacking.
It’s the same with the chattering political classes and policy-makers, of all party colours. They are playing defensively, too.
Raising taxes is a lazy way out of our fiscal problems, and will do nothing to solve deep-seated structural issues, be it fixing poor infrastructure or helping those on benefits back to work.
Take the latest research from the University of York. Of the 15m adults in the UK who are obese, four in every 100 are likely to be unemployed. That’s more than 600,000 who are too fat to work. Even more damaging than the economic cost is the toll on their self-belief and their families.
