Good morning. There are certain phrases in news stories about government, aren’t there, where your eyes glaze over like you’ve just wound down the window and asked someone for directions. Autumn statement; early day motion; fiscal rules; white paper; ping pong, weirdly. They’re definitely all very important, but it would be cruel to stop the average punter halfway through a news story and ask them for a crisp definition.
Today’s case in point: the spending review. I mean, we all know what a spending review is, obviously – it’s when they review the spending. But it’s also one of the defining moments in the life of any government – and the one now being undertaken by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been billed as the crucial first step in Labour’s plan to hit the “milestone” targets Keir Starmer set out last week, and on which he has said the government should be judged.
