As the dust settles on Rachel Reeves's £600bn spending review, in the opinion of The Independent's leader column at least, the chancellor of the exchequer "seems a woman transformed". During her surprisingly upbeat Commons statement, she got unusually personal, wise-cracking about Nigel Farage's pub-going habits, and calling shadow chancellor Mel Stride "Baby Steps". But she also spoke of "nothing less than the renewal of Britain" – offering, as our editorial noted, "significant and genuine increases in investment in the NHS, schools, housing, industrial, AI, defence, and in infrastructure. The statement was a dizzying cornucopia of road, rail energy and other schemes reaching every corner of the kingdom." Sean O'Grady said the spending review would reveal just how far the government has been blown off course. Our veteran Commons-watcher Andrew Grice thought Reeves' plan "felt more like one that would be made towards the end of a five-year parliament – not four years out from the next election". Meanwhile, John Rentoul was positively scathing, declaring that Reeves had "nothing new to say". Worse, he said, she came across as "a politician pleading for her political life". Chief business commentator James Moore spotted a sting in the tail of what he termed the "Klarna spending review". There were other alarm bells, too. Wes Streeting – no doubt giddy from his placing in the Independent's Pride List 2025 – emerged as the "winner", having secured the largest departmental increase. But, following a fall in productivity across the NHS, Rentoul asked if the health secretary could be about to "blow his winnings". Reeves herself had given some clues to her spending priorities when she wrote exclusively in The Independent at the start of the week, about her commitment to offering free school meals for all children. Her piece, headlined "I saw first-hand what the Tories did to kids of my generation", is shot through with uncharacteristic passion. I could warm to this Rachel Reeves 2.0… Until next week! |
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Cartoon of the week by Dave Brown |
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FEATURED COLUMNIST: SCARLETT WESTBROOK
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| The crew of the Madleen put their lives on the line in an effort to bring aid to the most vulnerable people on the planet. Rather than being a "selfie boat", it was a truly "selfless" act... Read more |
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| In a country where the population is heavily armed and political division so stark, it's easy to see how all this could go horribly wrong |
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| No energy generation is ideal – renewables produce waste that is not easily recyclable. Miliband has made the right decision based on the available scientific evidence |
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Its not just about how much money we spend it is also about what we spend it on. More private healthcare instead of investment in enabling NHS to provide those services such as dialysis which seems to have been subcontracted out everywhere as an example. |
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