A former Health Secretary once told me, with an understandable degree of despair, about the frustrations of being in ultimate charge of the NHS. He had all the policy levers at his disposal in his office, but however many he pushed, or pulled, nothing he did seemed to make any difference to anything going on at hospital or GP surgery level.
That must be a bit how it feels for Rachel Reeves, but on the far bigger canvas of the entire British economy. The Chancellor is six months into the job, with the finest brains of the Treasury and 11 Downing Street on speed dial for advice, and a debut Budget under her belt. Yet the needle on the economic dial refuses to budge in the right direction. If anything, the net impact of Project Reeves thus far appears to be resolutely negative.
