I ask because of the uproar in the Tory Party over covering £10bn extra spending on elderly care and the NHS with a modest increase in National Insurance contrary to a 2019 election pledge.

Once Tory MPs think they are going to lose the next election - in this case because of the tax increase - they are ruthless. After all, they got rid of Margaret Thatcher who had won three

elections in a row. I would, however, counsel them in their panic that, if they think the Government should commit £10bn it does not have, they have a moral duty to explain how else the

money should be raised instead of wittering about the iniquity of breaking a manifesto promise by raising NI contributions. Surely even the thickest Tory MP should recognize that the

billion), roughly equivalent to our national income in a good year. In the light of those figures it would be financially irresponsible for any Government to contemplate spending another

penny without somehow covering the cost. After wrestling with Tory MPs’ - and Ministers’- ideological insecurity and uncertain grip on reality for 11 years in the 1980s I should be used to

their inconsistencies by now. If there is one thing up to now that has generally distinguished Tory Governments from Labour administrations, it is their financial responsibility The two

possible exceptions are Ted Heath’s presiding over soaring money supply and Nigel Lawson losing control by shadowing the D-mark behind the Cabinet’s back. I shall never forget the Treasury

Permanent Secretary holding his head in his hands about money supply before a meeting with Heath or Mrs Thatcher discovering from the Financial Times what Lawson was up to. Rishi Sunak has

presided over unprecedented spending because of the pandemic and few will be ready to criticise him for doing his best to keep the economy going during lockdowns. He has also had to contend

with a free-spending PM who loves big projects and Ministers who chronically always want more than the economy can afford. In short, a responsible Chancellor at the best of times has an

unenviable task. But these I must say, at risk of sounding Dickensian, are not the best of times. They are, in fact, pretty desperate times when you look not merely at the state of the

economy but also a whole range of public services. Education, social care, the NHS, law and order and defence in a dangerous world are all crying out for attention without a single penny in

the Treasury’s pocket to supplement agreed spending. Yet at the same time we are throwing billions at the HS2 rail link for dubious reasons. In these circumstances we desperately need an

Iron Chancellor who is more concerned about the nation’s welfare than his popularity. In fact, Rishi Sunak will have to be made of steel if he is to do his duty by the nation. On current

evidence he is unlikely to get much sympathy or help from many of his colleagues. He needs publicly to argue the unanswerable case for restraint in these hard times. He also needs to educate

his own side on the risks we are already running if inflation and interest rates take off. That would just add to our heavy indebtedness. A nation in debt is a weakened nation deprived of

room for manoeuvre in times of crisis. And only a fool would argue that we are not living in dangerous times with China and Russia out to dominate and oppress the world. Consequently,

Chancellor Sunak needs to sound a call to arms this week. John Fitzgerald Kennedy put it in a nutshell: “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country”. We

all have a responsibility to work our socks off to clear debt and to take what is inevitably coming in the form of tax rises without moaning. There is no future for a nation divided and in

debt. There will be no “evening up“ of the nation without a successful economy. The so-called “Red Wall” should want to get the country’s finances on an even keel as soon as possible. And

let’s have no more silly talk about “austerity” which PMs Cameron, May and early Boris are alleged to have inflicted on us after a financial crisis and Gordon Brown’s £153bn deficit ten

years ago. There’s not much austerity around when patrons of the Reading Festival, like Glastonbury before them, leave everything behind, including tents. Nor are Extinction Rebellion much

better even though they are supposedly campaigning for the environment. In all fairness, judgment on Chancellor Sunak should await his deeds as matters come to a head. He will be cursed and

vilified. But, if he really is a tungsten-hardened Steel Chancellor and steadily restores Britain’s economy, he will earn our grateful thanks and deserve No 10. Meanwhile, we should make do

and mend - as they used to say in my native Hebden Bridge. It will do us no harm. Indeed, it will do us a lot of good.