Echoes of Rishi Sunak in Rachel Reeves's rite of passage speech
Rachel Reeves was given the chance to follow in chancellor footsteps and outline her economic plans. But we're left wondering if there are any sizeable Labour policies after a speech that was deceptively similar to one that Rishi Sunak gave two years ago...
Perhaps the simplest accusation one can direct at Ms Reeves is that her plan sounds deceptively similar to the ones proposed by the current government.
Indeed, the three priorities from Rishi Sunak's own Mais lecture of 2022 - encouraging businesses to invest more, improving technical skills and cementing Britain's position as the most innovative economy in the world - all feature in Ms Reeves's own lecture.
2 comments:
Much ado about nothing. A huge amount of speech-making and explaining how our lot is better than the other lot, but it turns out to mean very little difference in practice.
I thought this article by Mary Harrington was brilliant:
https://unherd.com/2024/03/how-the-tories-lost-their-heads/
Ostensibly about Penny Mordaunt, it provides an insightful summary into our looming constitutional and political crisis. The legislature merely provides a ceremonial role now, like the monarchy. Power lies with the civil service, judiciary, NGOs, and media, and our elected representatives differ only in the extent to which they acknowledge and embrace that.
Sam - yes it's an interesting article. Many people must have seen Penny Mordaunt with the sword and wondered if a Parliamentary role has become ceremonial. Yet Parliament passes the laws, but as Mary Harrington says, "now we’ve forgotten how to fly the plane".
I suspect we have a number of complex cultural problems both in Parliament and the permanent administration which can't be fixed by targets, budgets or passing laws.
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