To find Rachel Reeves an irritating pain in the neck

[Viviennemary]

Just been listening to this Spring Statement. What a load of total waffle. About how great things are going to be. Absolute and utter nonsense.

Also, when people say she's not experienced enough to manage the country's money (which she is), do you think she sits at work with a big old spreadsheet totting things up and coming up with a plan?
It's largely a political role with advisors from all sorts of backgrounds that do the analysis and come up with proposals. Her role is largely political.

I'm not a Labour bot I'm afraid....

People just see the situation in different ways.

She's only competent if she's giving tax breaks and more benefits right???

But that’s not how appointing the cabinet works. They can’t go out and recruit the most qualified person for the job, it’s not an open market. Look at all the previous Chancellors, would you say that have the correct CV for the job? Or any other cabinet position for that matter.

I've just watched a conservative stuttering to answer the question that they had pledged to make double the level of cuts that labour have made in the election and what would he have been cutting.

Perhaps she'd be better if she did do a bit of number crunching herself? It may help her avoid making mistakes!

But Phil Hammond got ridiculed and called "Spreadsheet Phil" as he was reported to actually want to do the number crunching of the options he was presented with and the decisions he made.

I'd rather have a Chancellor who checked things out for themselves, especially to think about the "unforeseen" consequences that they always claim, which were utterly foreseeable by most other people with half a brain!

Maybe you are under estimating the capability of your investment banking colleagues?
Would love to know what credentials you would like to see in a Chancellor. Education and experience.

You don't need to be a real economist to know that you can't grow the economy by hobbling business.

You need to be an ideologically fuelled innumerate.

Wrong. She's only competent if she's making decisions that benefit the country. She has no credentials whatsoever for the role she's in and not even a basic understanding of economics. She's literally fighting for survival.

Nail on the head. She's obsessed with political ideology and envy politics.

Yes ok, I do expect she has and should have oversight of the detail.

But my point is that it's not HER on her own making decisions. They have teams of people and draw on experts from private and public sector. Like CFOs don't do all the finance work of a company.

Nor can you grow an economy where 1 in 5 adults are CHOOSING not to work.

I think it's really insulting to say she doesn't have a grasp of economics like any of you would know more!!

You genuinely have no idea what you are talking about 🙄

Absolutely this. It’s just so basic and fundamental.

You seem to want to blame everything on anyone but the Chancellor. She has delivered a disastrous budget and has now had to take from the disabled to cover the shortfall. Reeves is a disaster.

I loathe that woman. She couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery.

Actually there are many of us who do have a better grasp of economics.
Firstly from studying it then running my own company for 36 years.

Sadly there’s hardly any politicians who have any experience of running a business or the private sector as a whole.

By Labour’s own pledges when not halving growth, wiping out headroom and resulting in cuts.

Genuine apologies-actually googled it and you're right. My bad.

I think it’s obvious that people will have different views about her and her policies. Some will agree and some not, and that’s fine.

However she needs to be judged by the same standards and measures as a male chancellor. I’m not convinced that anyone would call a man they disagreed with “an irritating pain in the neck”.

All this talk about her qualifications and competence also strikes me as misogynistic- she’s clearly at least as qualified as many other chancellors. As others have said, it’s a mainly political role anyway.

Fine disagree with the policies, but don’t sink into misogyny.

”Irritating” is often a word people use about women who dare to speak up or have their own opinions.

Absolutely not, however the vitriol towards one woman trying to turn around the country's finances and dealt an extremely difficult hand is astonishing. The socio economic and political environment is dire, depressing and getting worse every day... economy has been static since 2008...but it's her fault we aren't growing and prospering?

I think I'm just a realist. There is no land of milk and honey for any of us anymore.

Not only that but a) she's allegedly not qualified enough and b) not many people have the requisite experience for Chancellor because it's an extremely tough job.

My guess is you'd be disappointed with most people in the post.

Same here. I'd happily explain to Reeves exactly why I have no respect for her and know I'm right!

I laughed out Everytime she said "that is the difference this labour government is making" 😁

It must have been drilled into her to make that point very clear to differentiate themselves 😂

The only thing she could actually do that would help is rejoin the EU, and Keir Starmer has removed that from her range of options. So she’s buggered before she even started really!

Rishi Sunak on the other hand.....

So if you have a better understanding of economics than she does, what would you say were her main mistakes?

I have seen a lot of women in business rubbished and personally attacked by people who 'know better' but have neither the means nor inclination to step forward with practical help and suggestions. I'm sure you have too?