Rachel Reeves is acting as if she's been reluctantly forced to act by events beyond her control. It's all the fault of the Tories, Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Vladimir Putin, Liz Truss... anybody but our actual, literal Chancellor. Don't believe it. This Budget belongs to her, as the last one did. Her fingerprints are all over it.
Reeves and PM Keir Starmer crushed a recovering economy the moment they started banging on about the need for huge tax hikes straight after the election. Something they strangely forgot to mention during the campaign. Households and businesses took fright, and they were right. Last October's Budget was even worse than feared.
Reeves slapped on more than £40billion of tax rises, the biggest raid since the early 1990s. Most of the pain landed on employers thanks to her £25billion "jobs tax".
Since Labour took power, more than 270,000 jobs have vanished. Growth has ground to a halt. Yes, the Tories left a mess. Trump's tariffs aren't helping. And Liz Truss was rubbish.
But Reeves is the main culprit here. And now she's coming back for even more.