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.

We have a chancellor who hates money and doesn’t think anyone should have any. And this is somehow good for the country. Make it make sense 😵‍💫

Well maybe if she had SHOWN some empathy, she might be getting it now?

https://x.com/KevinASchofield/status/1940143354836394128

After the welfare climbdown, one Labour MP was heard saying: “I don’t understand why this means tax rises when it’s only a few billion pounds.”

They'll all melt away from defending any government action that ends up raising taxes to cover this

No they didn't.

Sky news were saying that prior to entering the chamber, Rachel has a row with ‘a senior party figure’ then had a spat with the Speaker. Wonder who the senior figure is?

She worked there for 5 and a half years as an economist. Not a single Chancellor in the whole time the tories were in power ever worked as an economist. It’s absurd to say she isn’t qualified for the role when she has more experience in economics than any previous Chancellor.

I will be encouraging my son to leave, but not to save money, but to experience the world, improve his languages and cultural outlook, before returning here if he wants.
You can be an entrepreneur and also have morals. There are many wealthy people who stay and pay their fair share of taxes. And then there are some who move around to the lowest tax regime. We can't and shouldn't compete with tax havens to be graced with the presecence of these tax dodgers.
There's nothing wrong or jealous with expecting the rich as well as the poor to pay their fair share of taxes.

Ange or Pat McFadden?

We can't and shouldn't compete with tax havens

Why not if it brings in more taxes and employment?

Cracking demonstration of faulty reasoning.

one could also say … with 5.5 years as an “economist” why would RR need to lie and announce it was 10 years??

OR,
RR is demonstrating that 5.5 years experience as an “economist” is TOO MUCH as others did the job better with no experience as an “economist”

Rachel Reeves was my MP for years. She was a really good, principled and hardworking MP. I met her a few times because she actually worked within her constituency and gives a crap.The abuse she has received since becoming CoE is shocking, misogynistic hate.

Labour inherited an absolute shit show. Tory policy since David Cameron has been catastrophic for the fabric of the UK unless you are very rich. Wages have been kept low and public services have been run into the ground. There has been lots of priviitisation within the public sector which is costing tax payers a lot of money (for example a placement for a looked after child can easily be 10 000 a week). Council funding has been slashed. Then the unfunded NI decrease, crazy spending in covid and giving contracts to mates such ad Michelle Mone etc.. etc. On top of this we have a right wing media who continue to pedal hatred to an extent that the joke that is Reform are gaining traction. Going back to my initial comment, Farage does not even pretend to give a shit or spend time with his constituents.

Uk politics has become toxic. People want a 'personality' and we ended up with Boris who jumped on the Brexit train to get voted in. David Cameron pledged a referendum to stay in power and sold the country down the river. People seem to have very short memories about the last government. Apart from the Brexit shitshow we had Boris who was never fit to be PM and caused 1000's of pointless deaths in covid whilst number 10 partied, Liz Truss who crashed the economy and Rishi who was totally out of his depth and a far worse chancellor than Rachel Reeves.

I’ve noticed that many of the more developed tax havens are cleaner, safer and provide high standards of living and health for residents.

So fuck she cried. This isn’t a politician who has been made to finally act humble on camera by tabloid revelations or clear evidence at last of their caught out lies, or a contrite apology after shagging a junior at work, or stealing public funds or breaking any other laws. She was crying. We can all imagine a thousand reasons why and it’s not a reach to speculate that this was all work related. But still.
I don’t agree with what she has done and I’m so angry with the labour party because of their attacks on disability welfare support, it’s a party I don’t recognise. But I think we’ve forgotten too soon what politicians we’ve only fairly recently been spared of. Boris Johnson acted as PM throughtout the shitshow of Ppe corruption, partying during lockdown and all the deceit that came with his leadership, played out in plain sight for months and months. It’s sad to see anyone crying, but it’s not a crime and I’m more concerned now about what is next for those of affected by this welfare bill.

Who’s talking about saving money? You’ve spectacularly missed the point. Dynamic people need to be around dynamic people to thrive, get businesses off the ground, access to the best global talent, education, funding, cultural enrichment. Those things thrive in certain environments and whither in others. It’s not just the rich who are leaving, it’s our young talent as well. There aren’t exciting prospects here now.

If you think these policies won’t negatively affect your life you’re sadly misguided. The people you revile contribute infinitely more tax than most and take almost nothing, whilst creating ecosystems that make us competitive. The exodus will hurt us all. All those juicy philanthropic gifts to our institutions and charities for example? They won’t happen once they’ve gone, why would they? I can’t blame them for being sick of funding a country that sponges off them. I’d be off too.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/kemi-badenoch-black-tory-leader-dawn-butler-tweet-white-supremacy-labour-mp-b1191815.html

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64835061.amp

There's nothing wrong or jealous with expecting the rich as well as the poor to pay their fair share of taxes.

Why do you think the top 10% paying 60% of taxes is not their ‘fair share’? What do you think their ‘fair share’ would be?

I dont think reeves is a bad CoE per se

What i think the real problem is is the severe lack of basic economic education of the electorate

" I want AMAZING public services but

Dont even THINK about raising my tax you thief

Dont even THINK about any welfare reform you murderer

Dont even THINK of incentivising business growth you cronies"

While the public at large expect scandanavian level public services with american level tax burdens and treat drains on the economy such as an nhs and welfare system that are simply unsustainable as fcking religions - no chancellor or indeed government stands a bloody chance.

We'll be stuck in this limbo forever frankly

People want competence. I don't see anyone calling for Reeves to be replaced by someone with 'personality'. She deserves the criticism she has received in her time as chancellor because she has made multiple, catastrophic errors of judgement. From what you've written, it sounds as though her level is on the backbenches working for her constituency. Let's hope she's finally realised that herself.

People who think Westminster is bad should take a look at the Scottish Parliament…

Id rather not the building is an eyesore

Quite. The poor don't pay their fair share. They don't pay anything.

I’d be delighted if we all paid the same amount of tax

Politician shedding a few tears during retirement/resignation/seat loss speech = fine.
Politician crying at a vigil or event for disaster victims or terror attack victims or a deceased colleague = fine.
Politician becoming emotional while speaking about a tragedy that befell a constituent = fine.
Politician fighting tears as they tell an interviewer about a personal loss = fine.

Things being so bad that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is weeping on the front bench as the Prime Minister delivers PMQs = really, really not fine. Does anything say 'we are truly fucked' more than this?

(Although let's not forget the glorious Frack Night of Liz Truss's mad, brief PM fling, when Thérèse Coffey was allegedly shanghaiing recalcitrant MPs through the voting lobby, others were weeping in corners, while some were having meltdowns live on BBC News.)

A huge sense of entitlement to other people’s money and no idea how money is made. Both the populace and our government. Doomed.

What's left of it.

Our shower in Wales are running around like headless chickens because of next year's elections. They've moved boundaries to get themselves elected. They've threatened dire consequences to dissenters they've spread rumours that plaid and the conservatives have done a dirty deal with reform to oust them.

Starmer came to their conference on Saturday and slunk out of the staff entrance at the back of the building to avoid the protesters and the tractors.