Budgets used to be transformative - now they're met with dread. But Rachel Reeves has a chance to rewrite the rules, simplify the system and deliver a fairer, smarter tax plan that could please voters and markets alike says Guy Stenhouse

Looking forward to the budget at the end of November? I thought not. We all expect the budget will be dull, bad for our finances and full of disingenuous buck passing to disguise Government errors and cowardice.

It wasn't always like this. In the 1980s when Nigel Lawson was presenting a budget you looked forward to it. There would be clear thinking rather than muddle, an overall logic, a simplification of the system, decisiveness.

Rachel Reeves faces more challenging circumstances than Nigel Lawson did and is a Labour Chancellor rather than a Conservative one. These, however, are not excuses for timidity and fudge, in fact the opposite, they call for bold action.

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Rachel Reeves could announce a budget which was bold as well as keeping Labour's manifesto promises and also........

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