Rachel Reeves delivered a bold speech that set a clear sense of direction for the Labour government. She pretended that there are no contradictions between going for economic growth and other objectives that matter to her party, but the implication was that she was prepared to overcome internal opposition to deliver in the national interest. If that turns out to be true, we will look back at this speech as a significant moment.
Of course, many of the benefits of the policies that she announced will take a long time to materialise. There is nothing wrong with that. What was wrong was that Ms Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer sometimes appeared to suggest that there were easy answers to the nation’s problems – it was just that the Conservatives failed to adopt them.
