Why has it taken a war and cost-of-living crisis for Government to try bring prices down?

Tariffic idea

WHY has it taken a war and a cost-of-living crisis for the Government to use its imagination over bringing prices down?

The Cabinet’s emergency proposals for cheaper imported food, clothes, fuel and gadgets are of course welcome. But they are also an admission that the public has been ripped off for years.

The same holds true for the plan to shelve the ban on half-price supermarket treats, originally planned as a misguided anti-obesity measure.

That just proved that the Tories have always known how vital such offers are to those on low pay but didn’t care enough until soaring bills made life actually impossible.

What’s more, we suspect that if they do agree to trim tariffs on some food today it’ll make a small difference to overall shopping costs.

Meanwhile fuel duty, and green levies and VAT on energy, will continue to add a fortune to bills.

A radical idea would be to slash those.

Terror sabotage

THE failings of the Prevent anti-terror ­programme are self-evident.

But it is also undermined by propaganda from rogue left-wing Islamist charities.

The Policy Exchange think-tank says activists from CAGE, MEND and others urge Muslims to boycott the scheme, falsely depicting it as racist and creating an exaggerated grievance culture.

These extremists are not only winning the PR war against a Government afraid to stand up for Prevent. They are also treated as trusted voices by some state institutions. That must end.

None of this excuses the failures which have seen six of the 11 biggest recent attacks carried out by terrorists AFTER going through Prevent’s processes.

But it does raise questions over whether the desire to avoid offending Muslims has led Prevent to focus disproportionately on far-right extremism instead of the greater danger from Islamists.

A major review into Prevent concludes shortly. The answer must be to reboot and bolster the scheme.

Then cut off and marginalise extremist groups whose dangerous lies sabotage it.

Bully beef

HOW much patience does Labour imagine ordinary working people have for highly paid Whitehall penpushers who refuse to come back to the office?

Here’s a clue for Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves: It’s “none”.

Yet she has chosen to side with union-backed sofa-workers and risk enraging the very people whose votes she needs to win back.

This is the danger for Labour, aggressively opposing everything Tories do.

It’s absurd to consider it “bullying” to deliver three notes politely hinting Whitehall staff might deign to come in. Some departments’ inefficiency shames the nation.

Home working isn’t helping.

Reeves needn’t bother lobbying for them anyway. They’re already Labour voters.