The country has a huge amount of debt, paying £100bn of interest pa. So any excess of income over expenditure can be used to pay off the debt Or to have a reserve for the next big hit that is just round the corner. Also the bond markets have responded okayish. Not sure why they will not say that. The OBR is not that well regarded. Of course the Torygraph, Daily Heil and Daily Getsmuchworse... are trying to make much of it. Then of course the multiple little taxes hurt and benefits have to be reduced somehow. In spite of a £6bn cost for SEND.
She misled us mate. In her now infamous Breakfast speech, which was against the spirit of the rules, if not the rules themselves, she painted a more bleak picture than she was being advised. Where she clearly misled everyone was when talking about productivity and the negative impact it was having. At the time of the news conference she had been told by the OBR that tax receipts were higher than anticipated and they more than offset productivity losses. She did not share this information. In this she painted a worse picture than was true.
No money is being paid off the debt. There is no suggestion that there will be. The last chancellor to do that was Lawson. Since the turn of the century it's been spend , tax and borrow, and now with steroids. There is no "reserve". The budget forecast predicts an extra £40bn to £60bn of borrowing, on top of the massive tax hikes. There is plenty wrong with the OBR. In particular their forecasting , which is poor. But it was never ever meant to be regarded as the Holy Writ. It's main job is to count up money. But, as with so many other things, Labour, Starmer and Reeves in particular quoted the OBR relentlessly when they thought it clever to do so, giving the impression that they were some ancient oracle. Now they don't like it. But Reeves clearly misled people, and a chancellor can never get away with that in the long run.
I feel it’s worse when people like her come from a humble background and work their way to the top only to lie and steal off the people who put them there, Mind there are Labour luvvies who don’t think her and Starmer have done anything wrong. What sad people.
