Persnuffle surprise

Today saw Chancellor Rachel Reeves deliver the first Labour budget for 14 years. The headline figure is the extra £40 billion in tax, raised mainly by increases in employer NI and CGT, which, along with a modest adjustment to the way government debt is calculated, has given Reeves enough headroom to direct some cash towards patching up the tattered national fabric, while sticking to her promise to avoid increasing the burden on the average worker.

After Keir Starmer spending most of his time since the election warning the population of bitter medicine to come, this relatively pleasant prescription is certainly a relief, which I guess was the point of all his doom and gloom. I would have liked it to be a bit more tax-and-spendy, but at least it marks a break from the ruinous austerity that disfigured the country under the Tories.