𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

What on earth has happened to aspiration in this country? Not so long ago a young and ambitious type would put everything they had into getting on in life, bettering themselves, achieving something in this world. Now we’re in a situation where the Government is paying out more in welfare than it takes in income tax, a situation anyone with a brain could see is utterly untenable. Class war has broken out, jibes are made about “the rich” (just who do they think is paying the income tax that funds those benefits?) and it’s seen as immoral to want a big house and a nice lifestyle.

And even those who have managed to acquire a big house are being told to get out of it if their children have left home: they’re holding back the younger generation, dontcha know. No question of being allowed to reap the rewards of a life well spent. It is famously and truly said that in the United States, if someone sees a Rolls-Royce in the street, they’ll say, ‘One day I’ll have one of those’, whereas in the UK, they’re more likely to key it.

It’s also true that this country suffers from tall poppy syndrome: if someone stands out in their field, we’re likely to try to cut them down. But, mock the yuppies and their successors as you might, they at least contributed something.

The 1980s put this country back on its feet again, the 1990s produced Cool Britannia. And now? Hollow laugh.

Part of this is the fault of this awful government, which doesn’t understand that economic growth comes from the private sector, not the public. As my husband, the financier Justin Urquhart-Stewart puts it, taxation cannot create wealth, but wealth brings in a bigger tax take. Why can’t our politicians grasp that?

And if you punish aspiration, which is what Rachel Reeves, the worst Chancellor this country has ever had, is doing, you’re just going to drive the clever, the entrepreneurial and the talented away.

But they’re too blinkered to see this and are also utterly incapable of understanding the consequences of their actions, such as pushing through the Renters Rights Act. This has, totally foreseeably, led property owners to leave the rental market, with the result that there are now fewer rental properties out there. Whoda thunk?

But we need a whole new mindset in this country, one which celebrates success and aspiration and one which strives to reward the virtues of hard work and self-sufficiency. That used to be the Tories’ natural ground and if Kemi Badenoch manages to recapture it she will deserve her stint in Number 10. Otherwise – Nigel Farage, over to you.