It's delusional in the extreme to think that investors, even in magical-thinking Silicon Valley, would be willing to put money into a project with absolutely no possibility of being profitable. Public projects are for public benefit, not profits. The central question respecting the high-speed rail now is whether, short of making all the money in the world available to build it, it can be built at all in the current century.
Rachel Reeves is in favour of radical tax reform or at least she was in 2018. We need a radical overhaul of the tax system because our current system of wealth taxation isn't working, she argued in her pamphlet The Everyday Economy. Seven years later, in her second year as chancellor, Reeves appears to be returning to some of the themes in that pamphlet, especially as it relates to the UK's convoluted and unpopular system of taxing property.
UK government borrowing costs surged as speculation over Rachel Reeves's role as chancellor intensified. City investors flagged a multibillion-pound deficit due to Labour's welfare policy reversal.
The party is writing to all Labour MPs this week asking them to join forces in a push for a much more comprehensive deal with Brussels, arguing that this would help revive the public finances.
