The Telegraph, June 5 2022, Roger Bootle
Economic success holds the key to everything the Government wants to achieve. Admittedly, there are some people who think that prosperity doesn’t really matter. While they are right to highlight other values, such people under-estimate the centrality of prosperity to achieving goals including health, security, global influence, sustainability and even the preservation of beauty in the countryside and its promotion in our towns and cities.
Governments cannot achieve prosperity. But their actions can promote or impede it. Promoting it first requires that governments recognise the importance of economic matters and make sure that this is reflected in everything they do. This recognition must start at the top.
It isn’t necessary for the Prime Minister to be an economist or even to have a detailed knowledge of economics. Mrs Thatcher is the prime example. Even though she took a close interest in economic ideas, she was not a trained economist. But she had strong economic instincts and was utterly determined to arrest Britain’s relative economic decline. She was completely focused on ensuring that just about all government policy was directed towards this end.
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