DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Now Hunt must match fine words with deeds trends now
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For months the Mail has exhorted Jeremy Hunt to articulate a vision – and a detailed strategy – for Britain's economic renewal.
Still reeling from a year of vicious party infighting and spiralling inflation, the Chancellor and his boss, Rishi Sunak, have naturally been preoccupied with steadying the ship.
But while they have been cosseted in Downing Street trying to balance the books, Labour, aided and abetted by the pathologically Tory-hating BBC, has been hawking a relentless narrative of declinism and despair.
Is this jeremiad really valid? It's true that Britain is in a sharp economic downturn but claims that we are languishing far behind our main competitors are simply false.
It was good to see Jeremy Hunt defying the doom-mongers and spreading a message of optimism
UK inflation and growth are comparable with Germany's and the EU average. Meanwhile, our unemployment is less than half that of France.
Contrary to almost all forecasts, we are not yet in recession. However, if the Government's enemies keep talking Britain down, they may well succeed in putting us there.
So it was good to see Mr Hunt defying the doom-mongers yesterday and spreading a message of optimism. And his 'four pillars' of reconstruction undoubtedly identified the areas where improvement is vital if we are to bounce back.
They are, enterprise (incentivising innovation and hard work); education (upskilling the workforce); employment (getting Britain back to work and cutting welfare dependency); and 'everywhere' (his shorthand for levelling up).
However, diagnosing the problem and
