Gone are the days when new employees would be sent for a tin of tartan paint, a long weight, or other jokey requests.

In certain trades, however, there are still induction processes to go through, tests that have to be passed. For new party leaders these include the acceptance speech to the party faithful, the first Prime Minister’s Questions, and the first major broadcast interview.

Kemi Badenoch, the new leader of the Conservative Party, did the first on that list on Saturday and will do the second on Wednesday. The third took place on BBC1’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. So how did the heir to Thatcher, Major, Hague, Cameron, et al fare? Well, it was different.

Before Badenoch could have her moment, the Chancellor wanted another go at selling her Budget. If the government spends as much time briefing after the Budget as they did before it, Ms Reeves could still be at this task come Christmas.

It is all in a good cause though as far as Reeves is concerned. The markets, being more caught up in what is happening in the US this week, have so far not taken fright at her sums the way they did with Liz Truss’s, and the government wants to keep it that way. If that means getting up even earlier to do Sky News’ Sunday with Trevor Phillips, then so be it.

Viewers who did the same would have been rewarded by witnessing that rare thing - a politician saying they were wrong. It happened like this. Phillips played a clip of Reeves saying there would be no tax rises if Labour won the election. “I was wrong,” she told........

© Herald Scotland