OBR’s leak was the only leak Reeves wasn’t responsible for in pre-budget shambles
Just maybe Rachel Reeves had a cunning plan all along.Most budgets have a tendency to be moderately well received on the day, only to fall apart when the economist wonks have had a chance to go through the small print 24 hours later.Rachel has tried a rather different approach.The budget of dialectics.Her mission has been to get her budget to fall apart in the weeks and months before she delivered it.
Own goal after own goal.It was a thing of Hegelian beauty.All in the hope that everything would be all right on the day and in the weeks after.She is keeping her fingers firmly crossed.Desperate measures for desperate times.
You certainly can’t fault Reeves for effort.A pre-budget shambles on this scale doesn’t happen of its own accord.It takes a lot of hard work to create this much chaos.Imagine going to the trouble of calling an early morning press conference to signal you were planning to increase income tax by 2p, only to decide against it the following week.You’ve shown you can’t be entirely trusted to keep your word while getting none of the fiscal benefits.
A headless chicken is more sentient than that.The mayhem continued right up to the wire.Just as Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves entered the chamber for prime minister’s questions, it was revealed that the Office for Budget Responsibility – AKA the Office for Budget Irresponsibility – had accidentally posted the entire budget on its website.Somewhere in the OBR, some bored junior had just pressed “Send” before skipping off to an early lunch.No one had told him it was time-sensitive.
What’s 90 minutes between friends?Rachel looked ashen – as if she was being filmed for a hostage video – and reached for her phone.Texting “Help” to Torsten Bell, the junior Treasury minister who was seated behind her.Torsten likes to think he is the go-to man for any crisis.No one rates Torsten higher than Torsten.He answers only to the name “Genius”.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man.Torsten dashed off some advice, which Reeves wrote down, and she could smile again.Nervously.She needn’t have worried.Gilt yields feed on the news.
The markets weren’t spooked, everything was as expected.Borrowing costs were falling.Public speaking isn’t Rachel’s natural forte.She stumbles over her words and her delivery is flat.So a one-hour statement is an ordeal for her.
And for her audience,But needs must,At least she only has to do it once a year,First came the non mea culpa,The leak of the OBR report was all the fault of the OBR.
Nothing to do with her.She was as appalled as the next person.Though possibly not as appalled as Kemi Badenoch.There is nothing that doesn’t appal the Tory leader.Still, the OBR leak turned out to be just about the only leak for which Rachel wasn’t responsible.
Because the rest of her statement seemed to be a word-for-word rehash of policy announcements and leaks to the media that the country had been drip-fed over the past month,Not even one mini surprise,No rabbit to be pulled out of the hat near the end to make us all forgive and forget,No wonder the Labour backbenchers looked a bit weary half-way through,It is possibly true, as Reeves suggests, that no one has a plan that’s any better.
Though you could also call it a low bar,No one is exactly waiting on Mel Stride’s every word,His credibility rating is substantially less than zero,The shadow chancellor who wants to cut the welfare benefits that he increased to record levels as work and pensions minister,And he doesn’t even see the irony.
Or realise that the country still is a long way off forgiveness for the mess they created in the past 14 years.It’s going to take a lot longer than 18 months with no apology to wipe the Tory slate clean.It was to the Tories Rachel turned next.Austerity, Brexit, Liz Truss.They were the reason she had had to break the promise she made last year on freezing tax thresholds.
Which might have been more convincing if they hadn’t also been the reason she had raised £40bn in tax the year before.So they could hardly have come as a surprise.But successive governments – the Tories included – have always considered fiscal drag a matter of semantics.A promise that no one had ever had any intention of keeping.Replying to the budget speech always used to be one of the more thankless tasks for a leader of the opposition.
This time, Kemi had three distinct advantages.Reeves had already briefed its entire contents.Thanks to the OBR she had full knowledge of the growth and inflation forecasts.And, lastly, she had free licence because no one was very interested in what she had to say.The verdict from the Institute for Fiscal Studies and other economics thinktanks were the ones that counted.
The budget would stand or fall on their response.So the dice were loaded in Kemi’s favour and it looked as if she could hardly fail.Though she did her best.There is no situation she can’t misjudge.She is a woman with no personal affect.
No warmth.A better politician would allow for nuance.Kemi just has one note.There is no room for reflection.Otherwise she would not have insisted Reeves resign and then unresign so that she could then resign again.
A 20-minute speech leaves everyone feeling exhausted.She accused Rachel of self-delusion: something that could equally be levelled at her.You could sense her disappointment that Labour hadn’t broken the promise not to raise income tax.She even suggested that a £2m house was just an ordinary family home.“Don’t pretend you’re not interested in what I’m saying.
” she snapped near the end.Only no one was interested in what she was saying.The Lib Dem MP Steve Darling’s dog was getting all the attention.Jennie was sitting up to beg and then rolling on her back, demanding to have her tummy rubbed.She was nothing less than adorable.
Kemi could learn a thing or two in people skills from her,Rachel got up to leave,It had gone about as well as expected,A solid five out of 10,Her backbenchers had waved their order papers performatively.
Largely because they had got their own way.Her budget had survived initial contact with reality.She would keep her fingers crossed it stayed that way tomorrow.
How to turn the dregs of a jar of Marmite into a brilliant glaze for roast potatoes – recipe | Waste not
I never peel a roastie, because boiling potatoes with their skins on, then cracking them open, gives you the best of both worlds: fluffy insides and golden, craggy edges. Especially when you finish roasting them in a glaze made with butter (or, even better, saved chicken, pork, beef or goose fat) and the last scrapings from a Marmite jar.I’ve always been fanatical about Marmite, so much so that I refuse to waste a single scoop. I used to wrestle with a butter knife, scraping endlessly at the jar’s sticky bottom, until I learned that there’s a reason the rounded pot has a small flat spot on each side. When you get close to the end of the jar, store the pot on its side, so the last of that black gold inside pools neatly into the side for easy removal
What’s the secret to great chocolate mousse? | Kitchen aide
I always order chocolate mousse in restaurants, but it never turns out quite right when I make it at home. Help! Daniel, by email“Chocolate mousse defies physics,” says Nicola Lamb, author of Sift and the Kitchen Projects newsletter. “It’s got all the flavour of your favourite chocolate, but with an aerated, dissolving texture, which is sort of extraordinary.” The first thing you’ve got to ask yourself, then, is what kind of mousse are you after: “Some people’s dream is rich and dense, while for others it’s light and airy,” Lamb says, which is probably why there are so many ways you can make it.That said, in most cases you’re usually dealing with some form of melted chocolate folded into whipped eggs (whites, yolks or both), followed by lightly whipped cream
The small plates that stole dinner: how snacks conquered Britain’s restaurants
It’s love at first bite for diners. From cheese puffs to tuna eclairs, chefs are putting some of their best ideas on the snack menuElliot’s in east London has many hip credentials: the blond-wood colour scheme, the off-sale natural wine bottles, LCD Soundsystem and David Byrne playing at just the right decibel. The menu also features the right buzzwords, such as “small plates” and “wood grill”.But first comes “snacks”. There are classics: focaccia, olives, anchovies on toast
‘Alicante cuisine epitomises the Mediterranean’: a gastronomic journey in south-east Spain
The Alicante region is renowned for its rice and seafood dishes. Less well known is that its restaurant scene has a wealth of talented female chefs, a rarity in SpainI’m on a quest in buzzy, beachy Alicante on the Costa Blanca to investigate the rice dishes the Valencian province is famed for, as well as explore the vast palm grove of nearby Elche. I start with a pilgrimage to a restaurant featured in my book on tapas, New Tapas, a mere 25 years ago. Mesón de Labradores in the pedestrianised old town is now engulfed by Italian eateries (so more pizza and pasta than paella) but it remains a comforting outpost of tradition and honest food.Here I catch up with Timothy Denny, a British chef who relocated to Spain, gained an alicantina girlfriend and became a master of dishes from the region
Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy recipe for spiced paneer puffs with quick-pickled carrot raita | Quick and easy
These moreish little pastries are as lovely for a snack as they are for dinner, and they take just minutes to put together. I like to fill squares of pastry and fold them into little triangular puffs, but if you prefer more of a Cornish pasty look (*food writer cancelled for suggesting paneer is an appropriate pasty filling!*), by all means stamp out circles, fold into half-moons and crimp the edges.Prep 20 min Cook 25 min Serves 3-4225g block paneer 2 spring onions, trimmed20g mint leavesZest of 1 lime, plus 15ml lime juice1 green chilli, deseeded if you wish1 heaped tsp flaky sea salt1 tbsp self-raising flour320g roll puff pastry 1 egg, beatenFor the quick-pickled carrot raita ½ tsp fennel seeds ½ tsp coriander seeds, lightly crushed30ml white-wine vinegar½ tsp flaky sea salt, crumbled2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped300g carrots, peeled, quartered lengthways and finely sliced150g natural yoghurtHeat the oven to 220C (200C fan)/425F/gas 7. Tip the paneer, spring onions, mint leaves, lime zest and juice, green chilli and salt into a food processor, and blitz, scraping down the sides occasionally, until the mix resembles very fine couscous. Add the flour, and blitz again until the mix has broken down even more finely
Chef Skye Gyngell, who pioneered the slow food movement, dies aged 62
Tributes have been paid to the pioneering chef and restaurant proprietor Skye Gyngell, who has died aged 62.The Australian was an early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredients and built a garden restaurant from scratch, the Petersham Nurseries Cafe in Richmond, south-west London, which went on to win a Michelin star.A statement released by her family and friends read: “We are deeply saddened to share news of Skye Gyngell’s passing on 22 November in London, surrounded by her family and loved ones.“Skye was a culinary visionary who influenced generations of chefs and growers globally to think about food and its connection to the land.“She leaves behind a remarkable legacy and is an inspiration to us all
England plan extra training sessions in wake of howling first Ashes Test defeat
Molly McCann: ‘I’m a scouse female gay athlete who supports Everton – it’s like my cards are marked already’
Players warned not to sign IPL-style Hundred deals in standoff with owners
Wallabies’ 2026 schedule brings hope but also potential for bigger headaches | Angus Fontaine
Perth pitch not the problem for England in first Ashes Test as it receives highest ICC rating
Tuilagi could face England with Samoa while Marchant return is boon for Borthwick