I knew I was putting myself out there by including the energy bit. I suppose I generally meant to say they've been better at managing the gobshite economy than I would've imagined. And i'm giving credit where credit is due. They do have ideas - they're stating them publicly. Vapid Reeves does not or is not at liberty to state any because that's Starmer's campaign strategy maybe - "don't give the voters and the Tories anything to hang us with, so whatever we do once we're in power we aren't breaking any promises"
I agree with point #1. I think #2 is just plain wrong but i'm not going to get into macroeconomic theory here - simply said, Sunak and Hunt have to given some credit for navigating the economy in their respective durations as Chancellor. They had to deal with Covid, Russia-Ukraine, and everything else that came as a result of that. The tricky bit is that their own party their Tories are primarily to blame for how much of a hole we found ourselves in to begin with, but those two in particular have been decent technocrats (albeit in a pool of really low quality alternatives). #3 - I think they're both bullshit tbh, just that Sunak-Hunt are a little more specific about their bullshit while with Reeves I just feel like i'm watching a Hogwarts wand-wavy person than someone grounded in reality.
I somewhat "enjoy" talking about economic theory so i would be interested in why you disagree regarding my claim that sunak and hunt have done nothing in terms of them as respective chancellors inacting policies which directly and significantly impacted inflation coming down and the easing of the cost of living crisis. To be more specific i believe that the cost of living and inflationary pressures, as well as the general malase of economic crisis we we have seen over the past 2/3 years in particular (so not specifically as a result of the productivity drop and lack of investment due to austerity for example), have come about as a result of:
1) the impact of Brexit (which is on the conservatives hands)
2) the war in ukraine impacting energy security and worldwide markets (not their fault),
3) Covid (not really their fault but also decisions taken such as furlough and others like eat out to help out (lol) under Sunak taken over covid have added a inflationary pressure that we are going to be dealing with for a long while to come)
4) Liz truss and Kwarteng absolutely destroying the UK's market credibility and bond market significantly to the extent they had to remove virtually the entire cabinet to stop the complete freefall of the pound.
5) Private sector Profiteering off the back of growing inflationary pressure. For example Sunak cutting fuel duty and energy providers not passing it back on to the consumer. Increased profitability on virtually all essential goods beyond the price ratio that the wholesale price was correctly moved by levels of inflation. To be clear, the price of a can of beans for example, has increased due to supply side inflation rising energy costs etc, however, Markets have used the crisis to realign for the maximum profitability possible under the guise of "inflation" beyond what was needed for them to maintain the previous levels of profit. Usually this would be fine because in a free market this would be checked by competition underdcutting, which would keep prices somewhat equitable, however due to the scope of the crisis everyone was in on it simultaniously. If tesco were profiteering in normal times asda would just undercut as long as it was still profitable and take market share.
There are no policies inacted by either Sunak or Hunt as chancellor that made a dent into any of this, some of which would be unfair to expect them to be able to combat in fairness in terms of energy specifically, but that doesnt change my claim that inflation has essentially come down of its own accord due to prices capping out at the absolute maximum they could do for consumers to still be able to purchase and not cause public dissent, and supply side factors realigning closer to previous sustainable levels.