Theresa May’s other legacy proposals are just as flawed.
She wanted a vast £27 billion to be spent on education over the next three years, until she was wisely stopped by the Chancellor Philip Hammond.
But even he could not prevent her reckless pledge that Britain will set a legally binding target to cut carbon emissions to “net zero” by 2050, a step that could cost the economy in excess of £1 trillion.
More immediately, May announced a package of measures to fuel “the next great revolution in mental health.”
These include training for all new teachers, extra cash to promote “local suicide prevention plans” and new professional standards for social workers.
May’s whole approach is a pointless exercise in vanity.
She seems to think that she can rebuild her name with a sudden splurge in expenditure and the expansion of officialdom.
Typical is her scheme, launched last week, to set up a new quango, the Office for Tackling Injustices (OfTI), which could have come straight from Labour’s playbook as a quango that will just become another box-ticking, edit-issuing, statistic-peddling extension of the huge grievance industry.
But an enriching legacy is constructed by statesmanship over the long haul, not by subsidies over the short-term. Through her selfish, irresponsible conduct, she just reiterates how hopelessly ill-suited she is for the job of Prime Minister.