Here is a very Labour conundrum. Two-thirds of respondents, according to the latest Ipsos poll, think it is more likely that a centre-Left Opposition will be in Downing Street after the next election than the Tories. The requirement is then to behave more like a government-in-waiting, which means not only doing heart-stringy interviews on how you grew up suffering from decades of Conservative rule.
In the case of Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, you then do something oddly rare for a party which claims to like the EU but hardly ever goes there and wants to sell Britain “in the world” but seldom leaves SW1 either. Reeves embarked on a fact-finding (aka contact-making) trip to the US, leaving in her wake a a soulful message behind about “economic dignity”.
