In Budget week, Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak were rightly optimistic about the UK’s economic outlook, which has markedly improved.
Hunt offered considerable extensions in childcare coverage and pensions allowances to get Britain back to work. With an ageing population, we have to encourage people to continue being economically active. Older workers have so much to offer.
The Budget also takes further Hunt and Sunak’s vision of the UK as a Science & Technology SupWerpower. Innovation is at the heart of the country’s future. That is certainly true in my own constituency, where the county town of Trowbridge, once a nationally renowned centre of the textile and food industries, is becoming a hub for fast-growing tech businesses. The more we cultivate innovation, the brighter the future for us all. I am glad we have a Prime Minister and Chancellor who understand this.
The Windsor Framework proceeds apace. The irreconcilables, the usual suspects, are calling out what they see as fatal flaws. But these are merely the compromises inherent in agreements between actors with different interests. The EU would never agree to a framework which contains no protection for its precious single market. But thankfully we have achieved a solution which reduces these encumbrances to the bare minimum and secures Northern Ireland’s place in the Union. Reaching this point without resort to unilateral action, which could never have built a lasting settlement, is a great achievement. Unsurprisingly, Rishi Sunak’s position in the polls has improved further as a result of this display of statecraft.
The framework’s small number of detractors say the so-called Stormont Brake safeguard – which the vast majority of MPs on both sides supported in the vote last Wednesday – is not enough because it is ultimately in the hands of Westminster, not Stormont, policymakers. That view overlooks the fact that the Government is obliged to trigger the Brake when conditions under the framework are met. That is real progress from the unsustainable Protocol.
The promise of the deal is highlighted in the backing it has already received from businesses, including supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s. Remember all the anxiety over the totemic British sausage? Supermarkets once again will have no difficulty stocking that centrepiece of the great Ulster fry-up in Northern Ireland.
More seriously, as we approach the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, I’m optimistic about peace in the island of Ireland and the strength of our United Kingdom.