Reeves remake really takes the biscuit
The Chancellor is in trouble and changing course. A touch of humility on the way wouldn’t go amiss.
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The weekend’s newspapers carried several extraordinary pieces about the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. On Saturday The Times ran an interview with Rachel Reeves, fresh from her trip to Davos, the Annual General Meeting of the globalisation era elite. Reeves explained that she is optimistic and wants people to be much more upbeat about Britain’s prospects. Gone was the downbeat demeanour and the grim warnings delivered in a staccato-style. In its place came happy invocations delivered in a staccato style. Reeves had clearly been told by advisors to get grinning and keep grinning. Britain is open for business, she said. She suddenly wants to slash regulation. Do so and our best days lie ahead of us, she said. When asked by Steven Swinford, the political editor of The Times, whether Britain needs some Trumpian economic optimism she concurred (without using Trump’s name).