TODAY ends months of speculation about tax increases (will she, won’t she?), cuts, investment, and all the rest.

It’s been what the former Bank of England chief economist Andy Haldane called “a fiscal fandango” that paralysed business with uncertainty.

The tragedy for the British economy, and for us attached to it, is that whatever Rachel Reeves does today will make no difference to the fundamental problem this British government faces.

Whereas Tony Blair’s big idea was “Education, education, education”, and he did increase the number of university students to more than 50% of the age cohort, this government’s priority is “Growth” but it will achieve none.

Máiría Cahill: Paul Brady, Sylvia Hermon and the worn-out dreams of yesterday

Cormac Moore: How northern nationalists were ‘sold out’ by the Irish Free State

On Monday we learned that the Office of Budget Responsibility has once again downgraded its forecast for growth from the figure of 1% it predicted in March and, furthermore, has downgraded its forecasts for every year until 2029, the end of this........

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