WITHIN hours of Rachel Reeves giving a speech about boosting economic growth, my hairdresser tearfully shut her salon after a decade in business. She says Labour’s Budget destroyed her dream. Impending tax rises meant her hourly rates for her younger staff would soon double, the landlord had already put up her rent and the cost of commuting on the train was going to cripple her. She was a hard-working young woman who had done everything she could to make her business work but thanks to Labour’s Budget, she knew she couldn’t.

Yet she is exactly the kind of person our Chancellor and her boss Sir Keir Starmer claimed they wanted to help when they came into power. And that is why Rachel’s galling speech about the sparkly new future of the UK this week was so hurtful. Rachel trampled over the feelings of all those people as she blatantly turned her back on them during a speech about economic growth where she announced huge plans for another runway at Heathrow, more houses, a fancy new Old Trafford and an upgrade of the northern train system.

They sound great. But it could be 2050 before anybody jets off from Heathrow’s new runway or years before they buy tickets for the new Old Trafford (because most people don’t get freebies, unlike Sir Keir Starmer and some of his team). Meanwhile, there are millions of people — just like my hairdresser — who are struggling right now. Her salon stands empty alongside bars, restaurants and shops that are also battling day to day for survival already and fearful for the future when the crippling taxes flood in.

But Rachel still had the barefaced cheek to say: “This is a Government on the side of working people . . . everything I see as I travel around the country gives me more belief in Britain. And more optimism about our future.”. I would love to know which areas of the country she actually travelled through to see that optimism — because it certainly wasn’t mine. She went on: “We as a country have huge potential. A country of strong communities, with small and local businesses at their heart.”.

But if she had got off her high horse to speak to some of those working class people during her tour of the country, I am sure they would have given her some home truths. Yes, we are a country with huge potential and we do have strong communities. But they are packed full of people who are terrified for their future thanks to the tax hikes. Rachel has turned her back on them as she embraces this shiny, grand vision for the future.

But she glossed right over that fact this week as though she was living in a different country to the rest of us. Instead, she is trying to convince us that Britain is as bouncy as a model in a L’Oreal advert. And that just won’t wash. IF anyone captured the decadence of the Swinging Sixties it was Marianne Faithfull, the iconic rock chick who died this week. Rock stars were obsessed with her, and when cops raided Mick Jagger’s house they found Marianne naked, wrapped in a fur rug.

She symbolised the excesses of the decade and paved the way for the likes of Patsy Kensit and Kate Moss. I doubt we’ll see her like again. I DON’T blame Wynne Evans for the latest Strictly drama – I blame the BBC for ever allowing him on the show. They apparently knew that he was capable of telling some inappropriate jokes. And, with all the scandals, that should have been enough to tell him to foxtrot off, long before he got anywhere near the dance floor.

The BBC has been plagued by scandals. Now Wynne. There’s been grope-gate with dance partner Katya Jones, the “joke” to a make-up artist where he disgustingly likened the folds on his double chin to a vagina. Yuk!. And then a “spit roast” comment allegedly directed towards host Janette Manrara. He has also been accused of making inappropriate comments while filming a new travel show. He has stepped away from the tour and a BBC radio show.

This seems like Gregg Wallace II. Wynne was apparently warned by “multiple” BBC execs last year about his jokes, sent for media training to help him cope with the spotlight without making any further mistakes. They knew about Wynne, they knew about Gregg. How many more are there?. Taxpayers are footing the bill for the training – and the investigations. The BBC needs to clean up its act. Because this is no joke.

THERE has been plenty of whinging about Lidl’s plan to open a pub within its supermarket in Dundonald, just outside Belfast, but now the High Court has ruled it can go ahead. It would work for me and The Geordie. He refuses to shop with me because apparently I spend far too long obsessing over calories and prices. But if I left him in the pub for a while he could still come to the till to pack, pay and carry if he’s not too drunk by the time I’ve finished.