Not many people have much good to say about Liz Truss, our recent Prime Minister of 50 days. I do. She got it right on the need for growth to finance our recovery and pay off debt. Unfortunately, she rushed her fences, frightened the markets and failed to tell us how and over what period she would return the economy to balance.

Now, we seem to have gone to the other extreme under Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt. Not a day has passed since they took up the reins of government but we have heard of cuts. tax rises, stealth taxes and prolonged measures to rake in the brass for the Treasury. The anti-Brexit “Project Fear” now seems a rather mild exercise in doom mongering.

The Treasury could, of course, be up to their old trick of making what comes out of tomorrow’s autumn statement seem a relief. But this is a dangerous game. Just as Ms Truss under-estimated the concern at the lack of detail in her plans, so a more benign statement tomorrow could bring allegations of going soft. And that would never do.

Orthodoxy is now firmly back in charge and everybody is going to feel the pinch, even if it damages growth. It is being sanctified by Margaret Thatcher’s tough 1980 budget. Elimination of debt is the order of the day. This is all morally admirable. Neither a borrower (beyond a mortgage) nor lender be, we were told growing up. But there is another serious consideration: will it win the next election?

'Liz Truss got it right on the need for growth to finance our recovery and pay off debt.' PIC: Victoria Jones/PA Wire

And that is a very serious matter because the advent of a Labour Government in its present form is in nobody’s interests. Still less is a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Before we know where we are we would have reduced our government to an eternal haggle with the introduction of proportional representation (PR) and probably ensured the break-up of the UK.

It may, of course, be that the Tories think that, if they can bring order to the nation’s finances over the next two years and so provide a springboard for growth over the next Parliament, all will be forgiven. It’s a gamble with a notable downside: why should the electorate think that the dumbclucks in office today should suddenly re-discover their entrepreneurial flair when the economy is back in a state of balance?

After all, by then, judging from the austere noises coming out of Whitehall, we shall probably be more heavily taxed than we have ever been since World War II.

Small government that works seems further away than ever thanks to the dependency culture undoubtedly encouraged by the covid pandemic. As for personal responsibility, another hallmark of what we used to call Conservatism, well, activists show not the slightest regard for the welfare of their fellows as the wokerati clothe their totalitarianism in a concern for public welfare.

I am trying to imagine what Margaret Thatcher would have said about the Civil Service issuing supposedly soothing bedtime reading for the poor bloody infantry who have probably never been near the office for months, even though essential services are not working. A fearful explosion would have been heard all over Whitehall and Westminster.

More to the point, what will the electorate – the sane and sensible majority of Britain’s electors – have to say about the condition into which Britain has fallen under 14 years of Tory rule come 2024. They are not daft enough to blame it all on the Tories.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have much to answer for over illegal immigration, throwing money at GPs who are now disinclined to earn their keep and a lack of financial control. The Lib Dems were a deliberate and calculated brake on David Cameron’s first coalition government. And the Tories certainly cannot be charged with causing the pandemic or encouraging Vladimir Putin to invade the Ukraine.

But they are in charge of a country which is going to the dogs if something is not done quickly. The issue is whether, assuming they come together and recover their appetite for responsible governance, they can then in turn convince the electorate they really have turned over a new leaf and are determinedly riding to the nation’s rescue?

Well, miracles have happened before but I fear all is lost unless they acquire Suella Braverman’s backbone and wage war on the slackness that has pervaded our national institutions. The Tories once had a winning election slogan “Labour isn’t working”. They have at best two years left to deny Labour banners persuasively claiming: “The Tories are not working”.

Treasury noises suggest everybody is going to feel the pinch, even if it damages growth - Bernard Ingham