For decades government has betrayed the British people. Nothing has been done, failure has followed failure.

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The biggest waste in government is policies and programmes that are not effective, failing to achieve their objectives or past their sell by date.

Honesty in public finances is essential. We cannot go on as we are. The United Kingdom’s public debt and unfunded liabilities are unsustainable, getting in the way of good government, economic development, and future prosperity.

Put simply Government is spending far more than we earn. In the last 15 years borrowing has ballooned, massively increasing public debts and interest payments. Irresponsible government, poor and often sloppy accounting, weak fiscal control and management, expecting our children to pay for our failure to grasp the nettle is no way to run a country.

Current UK government liabilities, including public sector pensions and debt, are over £5 trillion or around £80,000 each for every man, woman and child. Realisable assets are virtually zero. It is our duty to deal with the problem once and for all.

Public sector deficits and borrowing go hand in hand with bad government, poor value for money and the scourge of inflation. People should pay for what they get, judge the quality of the services and vote accordingly.

Economic growth rather than extra taxes or borrowing should finance increases in public spending. A key aspect of the proposals in this book is that they do not involve any public sector borrowing or interest payments on existing debt.

The solution needs to be managed to avoid the consequences of default. We must put arrangements in place for holders of gilts to sell them at face value to the Bank of England. The Bank would then write off these purchases and the existing debt it holds. We must not support “unfunded” public sector pensions schemes. The fantastically generous, unrealistic pension promises are not underwritten with any actual pension fund and cannot be afforded by current and future generations.

In recognition that governments have betrayed public employees, we must introduce hardship arrangements to ensure that every public sector pensioner whose scheme is unfunded receives a pension equivalent to the average private sector pension. We must also stop routine early retirements. In future, we must ensure that public sector employees’ pension contributions are invested to create proper pension funds with real investments.

As a principle, we must not burden the young through taxes and borrowing to pay for the old.

So often political parties talk of cutting taxes or not putting them up, only to do the opposite once the election is won. In this context, the massive increase in the tax burden under the Conservatives is indefensible.

The tax system must be straightforward and transparent. It is vital that people should be aware of what they are paying in tax to assess the value of the services they receive. If they want greater provision, then they should expect to pay higher tax, and vice versa.

Basic rate Income Tax and National Insurance Contributions must be replaced with an Education Tax and Health Tax. Initially these should be set at 22% and 10% of income respectively, making a total flat tax rate of 32%, the same as the current combined rates of basic rate Income Tax and Employees National Insurance Contributions. The level of the flat taxes will be determined by the funding needs of education and health policies.

Using 2023-24 figures, tax would only be due on income above £12,600. The next £5,000 of income would be disregarded for people with one child, with a further deduction of £2,000 for each subsequent child. A family with two children would not pay any income based tax until earnings passed £19,600, rising to £32,200 if both parents worked.

All adults over 30 should be sent a simple “one page” tax return, asking them to confirm their income from employment and to disclose any additional income. In return, they will be automatically entered for a national tax lottery, with a weekly top prize of £10m. Prize winners would undergo a full audit of their tax affairs before receiving their winnings. Those under 30 should be exempt from income tax.

Removing allowances and broadening the tax base will reduce the scope for tax evasion and avoidance. With the exemption of the personal allowances and interest on savings, all income would be subject to tax. To help cut the tax burden on most people, we should also consider a “rich” or “wealth” tax.

Simplification will make for easier compliance and enforcement, which will cut the tax losses from the “black economy”. Those subject to an investigation would be entitled to free accountancy aid.

The tax code, currently millions of words long should be cut to no more than 1,000 or about 4 pages of A4. Loopholes, inconsistences, anachronisms, complexities, unfairness, confusions, opacity, uncertainty may be good for civil servants, politicians, lawyers and accountants but for no one else.  The tax year should be a calendar year, starting on 1^st January, not 6^th April.

Duties on beer, wine and spirits are outdated and should be abolished. The price of a pint of beer would fall by about 70p and wine £3.50 a bottle.

We must cut the burden of taxation from over 35% of GDP to less than 30%. This level is widely accepted as being optimum to finance the delivery of good government and to secure sustained economic growth. Lower taxes will not only give a better deal from government, but in allowing people to keep more of their own money, make them better off.