I’m a sucker for a political memoir. I’m currently with Ken Clark, having this year read Alistair Campbell’s and most recently, Ed Balls’. His was finished in 2016, and his prediction, for instance, that Boris’s hopes of becoming PM had disappeared forever, show how long four years, let alone a week, is in politics. He did, however, talk about the many hours spent in 2003 by cabinet members and civil servants ‘wargaming’ what should be done in the event of a pandemic (which, at the time, SARS might have become). Should they close schools, for instance? Yes, because parents would keep their kids at home anyway. How early should they lockdown and start cancelling stuff? As soon as possible was the conclusion. And so on. In other words, the preparation was done years ago. And completely ignored.
“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”
Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.