The Budget: a rapid response thread 1/ Sunak broke with the Tory austerian decade to extend the short term stimulus. But he's promised £68bn of fiscal austerity between 2023-26, mainly tax rises...
2/ The aim is to trap Labour into a position where it cannot promise fiscal expansion during a Labour govt, and to tee up a snap election before April 2023....
3/ Labour was right to oppose up front CT increases, and would be right to support them form 2023 onwards, for reasons of redistribution, not "balancing the books"....
4/ But Labour's strategic task - so clear from now until the election - is to make the case for a fiscal expansion: borrowing to invest, reject arbitrary debt ceilings and with clear focus on social, environmental, racial and economic justice...
5/ Likewise for the left, the task is pretty clear: to come up with concrete proposals and borrowing/investment sums to match them. Sunak said nothing on NHS, social care, social housing, radical green energy...
6/ Now the argument is no longer about strategic fiscal austerity, Labour's focus has to be on values and vision. You can't outsource that to focus groups: it's what we believe in free education, a world class health service, well funded local services and human rights...
7/ Having seen the void of values at the heart of Sunak as a politician on display today, nobody should fear going up against him if he takes over because Johnson gets bored... Rishi believes in Rishi, was today's performance highlight...
8/ And what was the point of Labour attacking each other over a Tory tax rise that never happened? Social democracy is winning an argument about investment, growth and borrowing - let's go on the front foot.
9/ By the way, the "spend now, tax later strategy" is also a time-bomb for Scottish independence. The Growth Commission report should be shredded: if Scotland wants independence it will have to experience something nationalists don't contemplate - class struggle.
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