Energy bills, consumer price inflation, mortgage rates, government borrowing, public sector spending and our tax bills are going up, up, up. And it will get even worse next April when Budget tax hikes come into force.
At the same time, plenty of things are going down, down, down.
Economic growth, business confidence, retail sales, jobs and the private sector generally. Oh, and the pound.
And Labour’s economic credibility. That’s through the floor. As are the party’s poll ratings.
Some things have vanished altogether, like the Winter Fuel Payment. Along with the prospects of millions of pensioners staying warm this winter.
Whatever Reeves touches goes the wrong way.
She told fibs on her CV to boost her credibility, only to destroy it altogether.
Reeves swanned into power with a head full of half-baked theories from left-wing think tanks and a wardrobe full of power suits that somebody else had paid for.
Like almost everybody else in the Labour Party, she has no idea how business works, and thinks it only exists to fund the public sector.
And it shows.
Her big Budget idea was to soak British businesses for £25billion in extra national insurance (NI), without considering the impact.
Everyone from the Office for Budget Responsibility to the Bank of England (by way of the Institute for Fiscal Studies) has pointed out what a disaster this was.
Three-quarters of the cost of that employer’s NI hike will be passed on to the “working people” Reeves claim she wouldn’t tax harder.
We’ll see the impact next year when companies hike prices, lay off workers or stop hiring altogether to protect margins.
When I skim the business news, I can’t believe what I’m reading. Even Labour-backing papers like The Guardian can’t ignore the chaos Reeves has unleased.
Here’s a taster of its business headlines this week:
‘Firms give ‘thumbs down’ to the budget, hitting pound.’
‘Public sector pay rises and debt interest costs push up UK government borrowing’
‘UK manufacturing output hit by political jitters’
‘UK consumer confidence drops as household finances are squeezed’
‘Budget blamed for first contraction in private sector for a year.’
It’s nothing good to say about Reeves because there’s nothing good to say.
Labour can’t blame all this on the Tories. The Conservatives left the UK in a mess but at least the economy was growing in the first six months of the year.
In September, it shrank by 0.1% thanks to pre-Budget fears. Many fear it will shrink in October, November and December, too. Next year, we may slip back into recession.
The cost-of-living crisis is back with inflation set to rebound to 3% next year.
At the same time, the US is booming. Its stock market breaks one new high after another, as investors celebrate business-friendly Donald Trump’s landslide.
Here’s another headline from The Guardian: ‘US company growth hits 31-month high.’
If only that was happening in the UK.
The prospect of a Trump presidency is powering the US economy to new highs, while Starmer and Reeves are crushing the life out of ours.
Trump will bring his own problems but at least he knows the importance of talking things up, up, up, when all Reeves has done is put us down, down, down.
