James Forsyth James Forsyth

Budget brings the focus back to Britain

As the EU vote puts everything else on hold, George Osborne puts the Tories’ modernising agenda in the spotlight

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[/audioplayer]George Osborne used to tell his aides to prepare every budget as if it were their last: to throw in all of their best and boldest ideas. But this week, the Chancellor has opted for political as well as fiscal retrenchment. This was a cautious budget. Its emphasis on infrastructure was as laudable as it was uncontroversial. There were few hostages to parliamentary fortune, which is sensible given the Tories’ small majority and the way in which the EU referendum is challenging party discipline.

British government is on hold. Ever since Cameron struck his EU deal he has done little else but make the case for it. Even pro-EU ministers complain how difficult it has been to claim a spot on the government grid for anything unrelated to the referendum. Loyalist Tory MPs have urged No. 10 to put some other issues on the agenda and give the party something — anything — else to talk about. This problem has been compounded by the PM’s many trips to Brussels to deal with fallout from the migration crisis.

That Cameron’s domestic agenda has been superseded is particularly depressing, as he had been hitting his stride. His one-nation social agenda had given him a defining purpose as Prime Minister and was moving the Tories into new and electorally fertile intellectual territory. At its best, Tory modernisation is about achieving progressive ends by conservative means, and he had begun to do that on a host of issues, from addiction to prisoner rehabilitation.

Osborne’s Budget sought to bring some of these themes back to centre-stage. The government’s plan to make every school an academy is a sign that the domestic reform agenda continues. Cleverly, it also reminds Conservative MPs that they are on the same side against the vested interests of the educational establishment.

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