The big points in the chancellor's speech that won't get the headlines
The big points in the chancellor's speech that won't get the headlines
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Rarely has a speech been so heavily trailed in the media, with so many of the details - from the third runway at Heathrow to the revived Oxford-Cambridge corridor and the nine new reservoirs across the country - pre-briefed and leaked to the press in advance.
So you might have thought there were no surprises left from the chancellor's big speech today. But here are a few intriguing lines worth pondering. The first was something Rachel Reeves said quite early on in the speech itself. Before she even made any of those big announcements, she said a key priority was "building on our special relationship with the United States under President Trump.".
Money latest: Ryanair boss launches blistering attack on chancellor. That the relationship with the US was given such prominence, mentioned before the EU, is not without significance. It's a coded message intended for the White House - that while it may be set on slapping tariffs on many of its allies, Britain is keen to do business.
Doing a deal with Donald Trump might stick in the craw for some in the Labour Party, but if there was one overarching message from this speech it's that sometimes, if you want the economy to grow, you have to do stuff that might stick in the craw. Consider: one of the biggest problems with Britain's economy is that it's way too dependent on what happens in London and the South East. That's where most of the gross domestic product (GDP) is generated, it's the most productive region of the country, where house prices are highest, and transport links are, already, better than anywhere else.
