Although it's considerably more important to be able to do a good job, than talk about doing a good job, I was impressed with Rachel Reeves yesterday.
As someone who has previously come across as a weird AI-generated robot, her delivery was impressive, getting the tone just right, with well-timed touches of humour to break up what could otherwise be a very, very dry monologue.
When she popped up for a Q&A on 5Live this morning, lacking a prepared script to fall back on, I assumed she'd revert to type, but she still came across well.
The first question she faced related to the Employers' NI uplift, where she was challenged that it did represent a tax rise on working people. She didn't try to squirm out of that and was accepting of the OBR's analysis, which states it could affect 50,000 jobs and will impact people's wages.
On a follow-up point, referencing the OBR stating that people will feel poorer because businesses will deflate wages / wage rises now, she said she expressed contrition, saying she was not "immune to that criticism."
It was refreshing to hear a politician accept the charges levied against them. They were just and fair, of course, as illustrated by the OBR analysis, but too many times we hear politicians try to weasle their way out of such challenges.
The one area where I think she didn't come across well was on the farm inheritance tax change. It's not something i have any awareness of, but she seemed a bit tone deaf to the potential implications on cash-poor farming families who have no desire to sell off any of their business in order to stay in farming. She said the government were going to speak to the NFU to understand their concerns - shouldn't that have been done before now?
As someone who has previously come across as a weird AI-generated robot, her delivery was impressive, getting the tone just right, with well-timed touches of humour to break up what could otherwise be a very, very dry monologue.
When she popped up for a Q&A on 5Live this morning, lacking a prepared script to fall back on, I assumed she'd revert to type, but she still came across well.
The first question she faced related to the Employers' NI uplift, where she was challenged that it did represent a tax rise on working people. She didn't try to squirm out of that and was accepting of the OBR's analysis, which states it could affect 50,000 jobs and will impact people's wages.
On a follow-up point, referencing the OBR stating that people will feel poorer because businesses will deflate wages / wage rises now, she said she expressed contrition, saying she was not "immune to that criticism."
It was refreshing to hear a politician accept the charges levied against them. They were just and fair, of course, as illustrated by the OBR analysis, but too many times we hear politicians try to weasle their way out of such challenges.
The one area where I think she didn't come across well was on the farm inheritance tax change. It's not something i have any awareness of, but she seemed a bit tone deaf to the potential implications on cash-poor farming families who have no desire to sell off any of their business in order to stay in farming. She said the government were going to speak to the NFU to understand their concerns - shouldn't that have been done before now?
