It is easy to see the political attraction for Nigel Farage of promising to reverse Rachel Reeves’s decision to end the 5 pence cut in road fuel duty. The idea that we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis has not gone away – in spite of the fact that, notionally, average wages are rising well ahead of inflation. It will seem a very different picture for homebuyers who are coming off fixed-rate mortgages this year – rates which were fixed in the months of ultra-low interest rates during and immediately after the pandemic. But is it really such a good thing to suppress taxes on road fuel at a time when the roads are in such poor condition? It might be a better and more popular policy to let road tax rise – and to ring-fence the money for resurfacing work.

We have been thumped with all manner of tax rises in recent years as governments have tried and failed to tackle an enormous deficit. But fuel duty is the tax that got left behind. It has not been raised in 15 years, when George........

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