to believe Rachel Reeves was crying because

[LargeDeviation]

1. she was upset when Lindsay Hoyle told her to keep her answers short

2. she had an argument with Keir Starmer (possibly about her keeping her job, or about how to handle the inevitable questions about the new £5.5bn per annum black hole) just before PMQs

3. Keir Starmer refused to say she would keep her job in front of the whole country. If he genuinely wanted her to stay, he would just say 'of course she's going to still be Chancellor' and that would be that.

4. she is under immense pressure because she knows she will have soon to breach her fiscal rules, she knows she is responsible for many of the decisions that will lead to that, and she knows the how serious the consequences of her failure will be. We have seen recently (even just today) how vicious the bond market can be.

In short, I believe she was crying because of professional pressures (understandable ones, though largely of her own making, and about which I have little sympathy) and not nebulous 'personal' reasons.

If her parent or partner or child or grandparent or pet is ill the natural thing is to just say 'sorry, a close relative is in hospital and my emotions got the better of me'. Everybody would understand. You don't need huge reams of evidence but you need to give the bare bones of an explanation. She is trying to style it out but we can all see through it.

I will apologise if I'm wrong but long experience shows that 'personal reasons' almost always means 'I'm skiving or jobhunting' when a colleague in the workplace uses it to excuse their time off.

I believe it means even less when uttered by a politican.

Major was state educated and held three of the four great offices of state with just three O levels.

I’m 2 of the things on your list and I’ve got no issues whatsoever with her.

Really? He’s not chilled. He’s too craven for that.

That's probably because Trump doesn't have the weight of the world on his shoulders @bluewanda . That kind of thing doesn't bother him. He's only interested in people kissing his arse. And if they don't do it fast enough, he goes after them. Mob boss tactics.

There are a few others on that state school list. Major. Callaghan. Clarke.

Corbyn's cabinet should have been voted in. His policies were the ones we needed and remember that starmer agreed with them when he was in his party.

Starmer's not fighting for survival, that's absolute bollocks. He's capitulated on one policy. And absolutely no labour party politician would want to challenge right now.

What he has got on his hands is a now empowered bunch of backbenchers (which I personally think is much more healthy in a large majority). So the number 10 machine can expect to be challenged much more robustly.

And yes, exactly, May got it when no man wanted it.

More civility in politics is needed. Less below the belt hitting. Adults can disagree politely and constructively.

(And it's no more Rayner's job to offer empathy than it is all her male front bench colleagues, or is she supposed to do all the emotional labour for them as well? Does having a penis preclude empathy?)

No, we don't all know it.

Because the end result is certain if we can’t control the benefits bill (which means very substantially cutting it) and that being the case it would be better to precipitate the crisis quickly and then get on with the long, painful process of fixing it.

The government has just demonstrated that although its leaders seem to have an understanding of the problem we’re facing, they have no ideas for generating the growth they bet the farm on and no ability to whip their MPs to do anything about costs. We’re cooked and the sooner we face up to it and impose some real discipline, the better.

The Corbyn Tardis is not available. Labour are in the cold reality of spending 109 billion on debt repayments thanks to COVID. Reeves hasn’t even made a dent in that problem

I am not perfect, nowhere near, and have never claimed to be.

But I haven't falsely claimed to be an experienced economist nor had the arrogance to make decisions of huge impact on peoples' livelihoods without having a clue what I am doing. RR on the other hand ......

Chancellor of the Exchequer is a hugely important role that affects every one of us. No matter how much sympathy you may feel for an exhausted and out-of-her-depth woman, she cannot do the job, her inability is undermining our economy and so she must stand down.

Vulnerable OAP’s didn’t lose anything though, only people with an annual income higher than the average U.K. wage for working people.

Margaret Thatcher went to a state primary school (I presume) and then a grammar - and she was the first female PM in an era that was far tougher for women in terms of misogyny and sexism than it is now. I remember reading an article about the comments she would get from men in the HoC and they were horrific. I don’t think Reeves’s current predicament has anything to do with schooling or being the first female chancellor personally - it’s more that she’s just out of her depth and exhausted in what is an incredibly stressful job.

I believe Rachel is not equipped for such a big job and does not have the heart or expertise.

It is sad for anyone to be in this position but probably never understood the enormous pressure of such a position.

Best she steps down before she breaks down completely!

The country needs an organised highly effective and experienced team that work together!

Of course he isn't. Wishful thinking on your part.

You sound very gleeful at the prospect of putting families in poverty.

But only after weeks of protest and the govt being forced into yet another capitulation.

Looking at a bbc report I would say it's less black and white than your wiki article @Mounjarorookie and @Bluebellwood129.

edited to add link
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c77r05nx11po

Oh, the irony.

Doesn't mean they can't revisit policies. Most of the benefits are to parents and in work benefits which could be cut if people had a decent wage. Also pensioners on the wealthy end of the scale, The real villains though are the tax loopholes which the corporate world's accountants sale through costing us billions.

Don't get me started on fagagge. The whole 'charge non doms a one off payment' Also pushing the lie that many of the wealthy have left the country. Repeat a lie long and widely enough and it becomes 'truth'.

Poor Theresa May I mean I completely disagreed with Brexit and wasn’t keen on May as a politician, but she worked hard trying to negotiate a half decent withdrawal agreement ( even though I criticized at the time)

You can’t possibly say that OAP are more vulnerable. You cannot just lump a whole group like that. And that’s where the issue lies, the public doesn’t think longer than 0.1sec about things and forms their opinion off their split second reaction.

A bit like a certain referendum….

It was very noticeable that KS and AR completely ignored RR, to me it looked like they knew or were the reason she was crying.

Her performance hasn't inspired confidence in the markets and they don't believe the "personal" BS as we'll see on the markets tomorrow.

At this rate Reform will be in by Christmas!

Winter fuel allowance was kept for pensioners on pension credits. IE the poorest

But hey let's restore it for Rod Stewart and Lulu