In the papers yesterday, there was an unflattering cartoon of Transport Secretary Chris Grayling. It blamed him for the current Carillion crisis imploding in the press. The construction firm's liquidation does beg questions as to why the Government allowed one private contractor to manage numerous schemes in the first place.
"The Conservative Party has been drifting further to the left"
Ben Howlett's tweet proposing the Conservatives should consider nationalising the construction firm, however, raises more serious points about the Tories' economic outlook.
Luckily, the Prime Minister does not support the former Bath MP's position. Equally, under Theresa May, the Conservative Party has been drifting further to the left. This shift started under David Cameron, and Jacob Rees-Mogg rightly called out the modernisation project as a failure.
But the party seems to have learnt no lessons from 1990. After ousting their most successful leader since Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, the Tories have failed to win substantial majorities like they did in the 1980s. Many of Cameron's and May's policies have been an extension of New Labour, particularly the National Living Wage and the Sugar Tax. These are anti-market policies that will hinder economic growth in the long-term.
Once Brexit is completed, it is time for the Conservative Party to become the voice that supports free markets. The 2017 General Election proved that if the electorate want true left-wing policies, they will vote for the real thing.
Economic liberalism would rejuvenate the Conservatives' distinctive identity. Even after Thatcher brought in the most radical policies since 1945, there remain large swathes of the economy that are nationalised.
With the railways, Railtrack is still government-owned. The housing market is strangled by restrictive planning laws. The Tories cannot meet their housing targets until regulations are modernised. In relation to the energy market, it is not competition that is failing there, it is taxation. For every energy bill, VAT and green taxes are added onto them.
This drives up prices. Brexit provides an opportunity to repeal VAT on energy prices. Leaving the EU is a chance for the Conservative Party to take advantage of the economic wealth it will create.
It is time for Conservatives to be proud of its free market tradition stretching back to Sir Robert Peel. Even the one-nation Tories, or 'wets', can collaborate with the Thatcherites in the party on this. Wealth creation is what unites the Tories, and a free market is the only mechanism to achieve that goal. The one-nation Conservatives do not have to copy Labour's policies; they can achieve compassionate conservatism in a capitalist economy. Even Adam Smith did not believe in no regulation. Labour policies always result in disaster- why would even the most left-wing Tories want to embrace them?