Rachel Reeves’s error before last autumn’s Budget might have been written off as the act of a ministerial rookie. She kept making us miserable by telling us about fiscal black holes and telling us that huge tax rises would be required to fix it – with the result that, come Budget day, the outlook for the government’s finances was worse than it should have been.

Reeves had helped to stall economic growth by damaging confidence. When you and I bleat on about how bad the economy is, nothing much happens. The same even applies to a shadow chancellor. But when you are in office, making the decisions, you have to be a lot more careful what you say. Talking down the economy can all too easily become a self-fulfilling prophecy if you start discouraging people from investing.

The economy is being

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