On days like these, someone as serious as Rachel Reeves comes into her own. You can have too much excitement. Librium Liz and Kamikwasi Kwarteng might find it a blast to indulge their Britannia Unhinged free-market fantasies, but the rest of us could do with a breather. Some of us have homes to heat, mouths to feed and mortgages to pay. Unlike Tory hedge fund donors, we haven’t all made a fortune by shorting the pound the moment the new crew moved into Downing Street. It takes a special kind of genius to drive the pound to a new low in early trading on the first working day after the mini-budget. And it was only because the markets had already priced in the Bank of England raising interest rates still higher that the pound recovered a couple of cents. In plain English, this was an independent central bank pissing all over a chancellor’s dangerous threadbare economics. Imagine. We are now relying on the Bank to undo the worst of the government’s self-inflicted disasters. Even then, we’re not in the clear. Gilt yield rates – the cost of government borrowing – is at its highest since the financial crisis of 2008, and many market analysts predict the pound is heading for parity with the dollar. That will show the Americans. Teach them that they can’t get away with undercutting us indefinitely. Way to go, Trussonomics. Weirdly, Truss and Kamikwasi seem intensely relaxed about the situation. That there’s nothing really to see here. If there is a problem, it’s that they haven’t made nearly enough unfunded tax cuts for the trickle-down benefits to kick in. That what the country is crying out for isn’t more doctors, nurses and hospitals, it’s more bankers and financial institutions that are required. How else will everyone be able to pick up their uncapped bonuses? So the shadow chancellor comes as something of a relief. Someone who appreciates the scale of the crisis. Someone who sounds as if she hasn’t done a couple of lines of coke off the cabinet table and dashed off to the casino to bet someone else’s money on 0. Right now, we want someone who seems a bit dull. Bookish, even. Someone who actually understands macro-economics. Not someone who acts as if all their knowledge comes from a bluffer’s guide. We’ll take competence over charisma any day. What a difference a year makes. Back then it was hard to imagine Labour overturning the Tories’ 80-seat majority at the next election. So there was a vague feeling of futility at the Labour party conference. That shadow ministers could make all sorts of promises that there was no chance of them being expected to keep. It was merely performative politics. Now, though, there is a real feeling of change. Not just in Liverpool, but in the country. And with it has come a surge of energy. The Tories are in the process of self-combusting and Labour is ready to pick up the pieces. You feel this nowhere more than in the conference hall itself. There is a new unity in the party. People are falling over themselves not to disagree with one another. And the far left has gravitated back to the fringes. There were a few whoops as Reeves took the stage before a packed hall – it was standing room only – and she tentatively acknowledged the applause. She looked and sounded nervous. Public speaking still does not come entirely naturally to her. No matter. No one had come to be entertained. Reeves has finally realised she can’t land even the best of gags so she has now abandoned trying. This was to be a joke-free half hour. Rather, people had come for her intelligence. Her insight. And to be reassured that there was a grownup ready to take the place of the loved-up lunatics. Reeves didn’t disappoint. There was something quite calming about the way she addressed the ongoing crisis. It was shit. But it was reversible. She carried on, working her way slowly through the text. Cost of living crisis. Ukraine. Green energy. Each section ending with the refrain: “It is time for a government that is on your side, And that government is a Labour government.” On one occasion she even became quite animated. So much so that everyone – even Jonathan Reynolds, looking a dead ringer for a minor royal – thought she had finished and stood up to give her a standing ovation. Eventually, everyone sat down. Trying not to look embarrassed. Reeves kicked on with her last announcement about using the reinstated 45p tax rate to fund thousands of doctors and nurses every year. Unlike Boris Johnson, she sounded as if she intended to keep her NHS promises. Then she launched into her final “Labour government” refrain and everyone could breathe a sigh of relief and stand up and applaud her, knowing it was really the end this time. Job done. It had been an extended job interview and she had passed easily. You could close your eyes and imagine her running the economy from No 11.
Elsewhere, it was hard to find anyone who wasn’t living their best life at the conference. An unexpected outbreak of happiness everywhere. Keir Starmer even came round to the press area to shoot the breeze and have a laugh. And Ed Miliband continues to be a revelation. For most of his time as leader, he looked hunted and miserable. Now he’s well out the other side and gave the leader’s speech he could never give when leader. No forgetting how he met Dorothy Deficit on Hampstead Heath. Just brilliant timing, brilliant delivery and upbeat content. The audience loved him. The Labour party has forgiven him for his shortcomings. And he’s forgiven the Labour party for its.