"Banks are there to make money, not provide an emotional prop for a Chancellor out of her depth"

Rachel Reeves is in perpetual search of an echo. She seems to be having converstions in as many corners as possible until she finds someone that agrees with her. The answer is staring her and the Starmer government in the face but it would take a dose of humility and some knowledge of the economic system to reverse some of her hideous Budget decisions so we shouldn't hold our breath.

The Chancellor and Labour are like a puffing old steam train running out of coal looking for someone else to stoke the engine. They have run out of the few ideas that they did have at the risk of not making it out of the station let alone the end of the track. The economy is flailing and deterorating rapidly but the saving grace is at least they are asking people at the coalface itself. Regulation is a good thing as it keeps things in line but sometimes too much is strangulation so relaxation of the right things is important. The housing market is such a pivotal marker for the economy that has been ignored and undervalued by previous encumbents. We still need housing to be promoted to a senior department as it is a fundamental basic need.

We all know the big banks struggle to balance their own risk and reward strategy so asking them for advice on growing the economy is like asking Mr Blobby to lay the dinner table. SMEs are the backbone of the UK economy and often run by seasoned and successful entrepreneurs. These are the people we need to get the UK out of this mess and into a solid future of prosperity.

Rachel Reeves meeting with the banks is all well and good, but the real question is why she needs to do this just months into the job. Did Labour not spend 14 years in opposition developing a proper growth strategy? And if the financial sector is so crucial to their plans, why has it taken this long for her to sit down with them? It’s been obvious for years that the UK’s fundamental problems—low growth, high debt, weak productivity and a persistent balance of payments deficit—need more than just tweaks to mortgage lending and consumer confidence. We need a real economic strategy that prioritises long-term investment, infrastructure and supply-side reforms. If Labour didn’t have a fully-formed plan ready to go on day one, what exactly were they doing for the past decade and a half?