Raising taxes is the exact opposite of what is required.
Reduce unnecessary expenditure like HS2, foreign aid, four star hotels for illegal immigrants and the rest. It would just deter those who are driving the economy and in any event would not work.
In my view the tax burden is already too high and a reduction in tax levels would spur more productivity, which would in turn increase tax revenue. I seem to recall that tax receipts from Corporation Tax actually went up when the taxation level was last reduced.

To take this chain of logic further; Ministers are not stupid and can see the effects that their draconian lockdown, face masks, etc., measures are having upon the High Street and the economy in general. They can also see the damage being caused to the population's mental and physical health (e.g. lack of cancer treatment, etc.), and yet they not only continue with these failed policies whilst the COVID 19 death drops down to very few but appear to be 'doubling down' on their approach by increasing fines for non-compliance, etc. It is now at the stage where one has to ask whether this harm is not just due to mere incompetence but is intentional and if so, why?

Never. What next?

Absolutely right and straight away.

I was really shocked that a Conservative government that I had voted for could mandate this measure; a fascist transgression against freedom of the individual in my view and completely unacceptable in principle.

In addition I do not think the measure works to achieve the stated objectives. The protection given against disease transfer would appear to be minimal if anything at all and I think mask wearing puts off at least as many people from shopping as it does encourage others to go out. For example, I refuse to be muzzled and have shopped to the absolute minimum since the measure was introduced and will continue in this way until the mandate is removed and I am certain that many other people feel the same way.

Totally agree

It is way too early to tell what will happen at the next General election.
I'm more concerned about the current Conservative Government trying to be New Labour Mk II and not having conservative values, such as the principle that the state is there to serve the individual and not the other way round and generally standing up for the rights of the individual. I shall certainly not vote for this current authoritarian shower again, some of who's members are arguably guilty of manslaughter (Covid patients to nursing homes, banning of Hydroxychloroquine, lockdown suicides, etc., etc.), have mandated the muzzling of my family and seem keen to press unproven vaccines on everyone.

Agreed!

"Hancock has done an excellent job at health". Err no; he's been worse than hopeless and continues to be so.

Either his knowledge of science is so poor that he has been misled (presumably with the rest of the Cabinet) by some very poor 'expert' advice or he is complicit in the most draconian, authoritative and criminal response this country has ever seen to an average winter flu season.

Loughborough and Sheffield Universities reported studies recently that show the Covid 19 death statistics have been grossly overstated by potentially more than 50%. That leaves around 23,000 people dying with Covid 19 and still only around 1,500 dying only of Covid 19, when the death figures for a normal, bad flu year are around 55,000. So the economy's been been smashed, debt gone through the roof, the population scared out of their wits, authoritarian face masks, tracking and social distancing imposed and for what reason pray? Comprehensive incompetence on a massive scale or another reason?

What of the old people with Covid who were sent back to nursing homes that resulted in so many deaths? Murderous incompetence or evil intent and by whom? Under Hancock's watch though come what may.

According to the Daily Telegraph recently, potentially 200,000 people are likely to die because of the lockdown measures and the stopping of normal NHS cancer, etc., treatments; all to save 23,000. The Loughborough study also concluded apparently that more people will die as a result of the lockdown measures than will have been saved. Genius.

And next, it would appear that we are all to be brow beaten into taking some very dodgy DNA altering vaccines that have not passed the usual long term rigorous safety testing procedures; all to save us from a virus with a survival rate in excess of 99%.

No; sorry but Hancock has been worse than hopeless and the government's response to this whole affair has been arguably criminal in my view. For example, I have seen it suggested that it was decided at Nuremburg that masks should be considered as weapons of torture, so how does the government's imposition of mandatory mask wearing avoid that? There is going to be a very serious inquisition when this is all over and Mr. Hancock, Mr. Johnson and crew had better have some very good answers available.

I find the level of support that the PM apparently retains is truly unbelievable. I don't know anyone who thinks he's done a good job. A quick review:
* Less than 1,500 people without any underlying major medical conditions have died from a virus.
* Around 45,000 people have died with the virus in their system but no-one knows how much the effects of the virus actually prompted their death and included in this total are any people who had the virus and recovered but then died of another cause. In essence, the death statistics relating to the virus are very suspect to say the least.
* Entirely by coincidence hardly anyone seems to have died of influenza recently; strange that.
* Around 55,000 people die from a 'normal', bad flu season and 85,000 people died in 1968 from a very bad flu season.
* Notwithstanding the above figures, the freedom of individuals in the UK has been reduced in a draconian fashion, courtesy of lockdowns, social distancing, etc., etc. and an estimated 200,000 people will die as a result of missed cancer and other treatments whilst the NHS has been obsessed with the virus, not to mention suicides and the general state of depression and stress in existence throughout the country courtesy of 'project virus fear'.
* Just by the way, said lockdowns and related measures have crippled the UK's economy and plunged our country into a quagmire of debt for future generations to pay off.
* The lockdowns and other measures were meant to shield the most vulnerable people in our society, so to help this along, some fool or psychopath in either the NHS or government thought it a good idea to send infected people to nursing homes, which had the result of killing off an awful lot of very vulnerable people. Genius.
* Now that the death rate from the virus is thankfully down to very few, the government thinks this must be the right time to muzzle everyone in the country, when many, many experts contend that at best face masks are completely ineffective and at worst they can help to cause people to be infected with the virus or diminish their immune system so they catch something else.
* The Government next ignore an apparently successful treatment regime using hydroxychloroquine + Zinc + Antibiotic and instead spend a fortune of tax-payers money upon vaccines that alter the recipient's DNA to work, have not been tested to the usual rigour and expect everyone in in the country to rush out and get a jab as soon as the wonder cure is available, without explaining why anyone would want to risk taking such a dodgy vaccine to possibly prevent a disease that has a survival rate in excess of 99%.
* Next in the pipeline we apparently have so called 'health passports' to make sure that all citizens can evidence that they've had the potentially dangerous jab they they neither want nor need and if they cannot so evidence, they will be denied access to services , transport and goodness knows what else.
Unbelievable, completely unbelievable. This is either all part of a very sinister plot shared with other countries world wide (if one believes a million voices on the internet) or surely the most appalling governmental incompetence this country has ever witnessed.

So you think that the advice from Mr. Imperial College was quite correct then and that 500,000 people would have died if there had have been no lock down? I don't think that the people of Sweden would agree with that premise.

As for my credibility, I have none whatsoever, as I am not pretending to be an expert, merely an incredulous observer trying to make some sense of this mess.

My point with reference to the forecast 500,000 deaths was that the government's so called expert who made this prediction with his dodgy spreadsheets and the many other experts that the government have chosen to rely upon regarding the potential benefits of vaccines, have taken a particular view upon the virus and how best to deal with it, whereas others such as the doctors I mentioned in the U.S. (one of whom I discovered today is apparently a Yale expert in epidemiology) are suggesting an alternative approach involving H+Z+A. I am just saying that all options should be considered very carefully and I am particularly suspicious when such experts as doctors who have apparently treated patients successfully are quickly silenced by the media and appear to be debunked at every opportunity by figures in the Establishment.

If H+Z+A really does work then that would surely be a much better future treatment plan than more lockdowns or authoritarian 'phone tracking and tracing, health passports and multiple suspect vaccinations, so why isn't our government considering this option more carefully and seriously? It looks to me like the government have a pre-planned agenda here that they are following, rather than reacting sensibly to information as it becomes available but then, I accept that I may be wrong on this and I shall leave it up to you and any other readers to decide for themselves from their own research whether this is a credible position to take or otherwise.