Three weeks till budget day – and Rachel Reeves is ‘being honest’ about tax, just in time | Marina Hyde

The chancellor is levelling with us about the pain to come. Is there anyone outside Planet Rachel who couldn’t see that truth two years ago? This would actually have been quite an understandable day for Rachel Reeves to cry at work. “I’m really clear,” the chancellor told the CBI less than a year ago, “I’m not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes.” Can I shock you …? “We did wipe the slate clean,” she continued less than 12 months ago. “[We] put public finances and public services on a firm footing, and as a result we won’t have to do a budget like this ever again.” Again: can I shock you …?So, then, to Reeves’s podium appearance from Downing Street this morning. Vibes-wise, it was like knowing you were going to be very incompetently mugged in three weeks’ time, but having to listen to a speech from the mugger about the context of it all. Or maybe a speech from an asteroid trying to get out in front of what people are going to say about it when it craters the West Midlands.Marina Hyde is a Guardian columnistA year in Westminster: John Crace, Marina Hyde and Pippa CrerarOn Tuesday 2 December, join Crace, Hyde and Crerar as they look back at another extraordinary year, with special guests, live at the Barbican in London and livestreamed globally. Book tickets here or at guardian.liveComments will open here later this afternoon (UK time) Continue reading...

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