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When Rachel Reeves stands up to deliver her second Budget on November 26, she’ll be doing so in an economy wrecked by 14 years of Conservative rule — but also after nearly a year and a half of Labour government that has done nothing to change the economic landscape.
Isn’t it odd that nobody mentions any of that in discussions/speculation about the forthcoming statement?
It just seems to slip everybody’s mind that the damage may be Tory-made, but Labour’s refusal to break from their fiscal orthodoxy means the same failed logic still rules.
Reeves talks about “fiscal responsibility” and “targeted action” as a smokescreen for policies that are little different from those of the Tories before her.
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The Tory legacy of wreckage
It’s hard to exaggerate the scale of the damage: 14 years in which the Tories literally threw money at their mates while starving the rest of us of services and opportunity.
The most infamous single episode came under Liz Truss’s ill-fated 49-day premiership. She presided over a mini-Budget masterminded by her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, that detonated the United Kingdom’s credibility with global investors.
Her unfunded tax cuts for the rich wiped an estimated £30 billion off the public finances, sent borrowing costs soaring and forced the Bank of England to intervene to save pension funds from collapse.
But Truss was only the loudest symptom of a long-term disease.
Conservative government between 2010 and 2024 was an unmitigated disaster that left the United Kingdom weaker, poorer and more divided than at any time in modern history. Just look at the litany of (other) unforced errors:
-
Austerity gutted the public realm, permanently lowering growth and productivity, and deliberately crippling government ability to handle crises.
-
Tax cuts for corporations and high earners drained revenue that could have been reinvested.
-
Brexit, pushed through without any plan for recovery, throttled trade and raised costs.
-
Pandemic profiteering and fraud saw tens of billions funnelled to friends and donors through “VIP lanes” and shell companies during the Covid-19 crisis.
Each of these policies was sold as sound economics. Together, they were a slow-motion act of national vandalism.
Labour’s self-imposed straitjacket
The tragedy today is that the new government has chosen to work within the cage the Conservatives built.
Reeves’s economic rules are self-imposed limits that deliberately prevent her from drawing on the only sources of wealth that could repair the damage – the vast fortunes accumulated by the richest few.
The Chancellor’s “borrowing rules” are meant to reassure markets. That they do – but only by guaranteeing that the cost of stability is paid by ordinary people.
Reeves has ruled out a wealth tax, major windfall taxes or large-scale public investment funded by progressive levies. Instead, she is likely to offer tinkering: minor VAT adjustments, frozen thresholds and narrowly “targeted” help.
This isn’t prudence; it’s paralysis dressed up as credibility.
In effect, Labour is preserving the central logic of Conservative economics.
Remember the old “Starve the Beast” doctrine? It was first articulated during the Reagan era in the United States, back in the 1980s, and became the guiding principle of George W Bush in the early 2000s, before being adopted by David Cameron and George Osborne in the UK from 2010 onwards.
The principles were simple: cut taxes for the rich, watch revenues collapse, then claim there’s no money for public services.
The result was predictable: weakened government, permanent austerity and millions forced into debt that was intended – it seems – to be permanent.
Reeves’s framework keeps that logic alive – a stance that in itself betrays the Labour Party’s reason for existing; it exists to support poor people and build a better life for them.
By refusing to tap the reservoirs of wealth that could transform the United Kingdom, she is condemning the poorest to another round of the same squeeze – “discipline” for them, indulgence for the elite.
The obvious alternative
At the same time, the state continues to haemorrhage money through privatised rents.
Public assets – from energy to housing, even hospitals – are being bought up by private investors, who then rent them back to government at inflated prices.
This quiet asset-stripping siphons off billions of pounds every year, enriching shareholders while forcing the public sector to pay more for less.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Economic commentators such as Gary Stevenson have shown repeatedly that the money exists to rebuild the United Kingdom – it’s just trapped in the accounts of a small minority whose wealth has exploded during decades of stagnation.
A modest wealth tax, even one solely targeting assets of more than £10 million, could raise tens of billions without harming growth.
The unspoken solution
If Reeves genuinely wants to make “working people feel better off”, she could start by reclaiming the wealth that working people already create – through fair taxation, public ownership of essentials, and investment in productive capacity rather than private profit.
Until she does, the story won’t change.
Labour may wear a different badge, but it’s running the economy like a substitute Conservative Party: punish the poor, protect the rich, and call it responsibility.
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Labour can’t clear up the Tories’ multi-billion-pound mess while continuing to ‘Starve the Beast’
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When Rachel Reeves stands up to deliver her second Budget on November 26, she’ll be doing so in an economy wrecked by 14 years of Conservative rule — but also after nearly a year and a half of Labour government that has done nothing to change the economic landscape.
Isn’t it odd that nobody mentions any of that in discussions/speculation about the forthcoming statement?
It just seems to slip everybody’s mind that the damage may be Tory-made, but Labour’s refusal to break from their fiscal orthodoxy means the same failed logic still rules.
Reeves talks about “fiscal responsibility” and “targeted action” as a smokescreen for policies that are little different from those of the Tories before her.
Support Vox Political!
With social media algorithms acting as gatekeepers – allowing users to read only what their owners want them to, sites like Vox Political need the support of our readers like never before.
You can help by making a donation:
https://Ko-fi.com/voxpolitical
The Tory legacy of wreckage
It’s hard to exaggerate the scale of the damage: 14 years in which the Tories literally threw money at their mates while starving the rest of us of services and opportunity.
The most infamous single episode came under Liz Truss’s ill-fated 49-day premiership. She presided over a mini-Budget masterminded by her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, that detonated the United Kingdom’s credibility with global investors.
Her unfunded tax cuts for the rich wiped an estimated £30 billion off the public finances, sent borrowing costs soaring and forced the Bank of England to intervene to save pension funds from collapse.
But Truss was only the loudest symptom of a long-term disease.
Conservative government between 2010 and 2024 was an unmitigated disaster that left the United Kingdom weaker, poorer and more divided than at any time in modern history. Just look at the litany of (other) unforced errors:
Austerity gutted the public realm, permanently lowering growth and productivity, and deliberately crippling government ability to handle crises.
Tax cuts for corporations and high earners drained revenue that could have been reinvested.
Brexit, pushed through without any plan for recovery, throttled trade and raised costs.
Pandemic profiteering and fraud saw tens of billions funnelled to friends and donors through “VIP lanes” and shell companies during the Covid-19 crisis.
Each of these policies was sold as sound economics. Together, they were a slow-motion act of national vandalism.
Labour’s self-imposed straitjacket
The tragedy today is that the new government has chosen to work within the cage the Conservatives built.
Reeves’s economic rules are self-imposed limits that deliberately prevent her from drawing on the only sources of wealth that could repair the damage – the vast fortunes accumulated by the richest few.
The Chancellor’s “borrowing rules” are meant to reassure markets. That they do – but only by guaranteeing that the cost of stability is paid by ordinary people.
Reeves has ruled out a wealth tax, major windfall taxes or large-scale public investment funded by progressive levies. Instead, she is likely to offer tinkering: minor VAT adjustments, frozen thresholds and narrowly “targeted” help.
This isn’t prudence; it’s paralysis dressed up as credibility.
In effect, Labour is preserving the central logic of Conservative economics.
Remember the old “Starve the Beast” doctrine? It was first articulated during the Reagan era in the United States, back in the 1980s, and became the guiding principle of George W Bush in the early 2000s, before being adopted by David Cameron and George Osborne in the UK from 2010 onwards.
The principles were simple: cut taxes for the rich, watch revenues collapse, then claim there’s no money for public services.
The result was predictable: weakened government, permanent austerity and millions forced into debt that was intended – it seems – to be permanent.
Reeves’s framework keeps that logic alive – a stance that in itself betrays the Labour Party’s reason for existing; it exists to support poor people and build a better life for them.
By refusing to tap the reservoirs of wealth that could transform the United Kingdom, she is condemning the poorest to another round of the same squeeze – “discipline” for them, indulgence for the elite.
The obvious alternative
At the same time, the state continues to haemorrhage money through privatised rents.
Public assets – from energy to housing, even hospitals – are being bought up by private investors, who then rent them back to government at inflated prices.
This quiet asset-stripping siphons off billions of pounds every year, enriching shareholders while forcing the public sector to pay more for less.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
Economic commentators such as Gary Stevenson have shown repeatedly that the money exists to rebuild the United Kingdom – it’s just trapped in the accounts of a small minority whose wealth has exploded during decades of stagnation.
A modest wealth tax, even one solely targeting assets of more than £10 million, could raise tens of billions without harming growth.
The unspoken solution
If Reeves genuinely wants to make “working people feel better off”, she could start by reclaiming the wealth that working people already create – through fair taxation, public ownership of essentials, and investment in productive capacity rather than private profit.
Until she does, the story won’t change.
Labour may wear a different badge, but it’s running the economy like a substitute Conservative Party: punish the poor, protect the rich, and call it responsibility.
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