Focus on ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ misses the point of Budget

THE headlines will already be written, and the reporters are poised to answer: who are the winners and losers from this year’s Budget? How will the changes affect YOU?

These are, of course, questions worth asking. Readers will want to know, and it’s right that journalists will tell them. Most people have better things to do than actually watch Chancellor Rachel Reeves deliver her speech, or even read a comprehensive summary of everything it contains. They want to know what it all means for themselves, their own families, their own businesses.

That’s understandable. But we have to hope Reeves and Keir Starmer are thinking beyond those headlines, and those case studies, to consider the bigger picture. It’s their job to explain why any changes that might not benefit a given individual v