Age of insecurity

Labour has committed to spend. Now it must show a restive public exactly where the money will go

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Over the past few weeks, Labour backbenchers have done a fair impression of a noisy creative writing class. “We need to tell a better story”: a story about what this government exists to do. All around them, the story is being written. There’s war on Europe’s doorstep, democracy is in doubt in the US, and violence breeds violence across the Middle East. For too many, work doesn’t pay; for others, Al is threatening jobs. This is an age of insecurity.

The government’s spending review last week was a deliberate attempt to meet the accelerating questions with solid answers: a tale of priorities and the possibility that government can make a difference. The choices Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, made were big and broadly correct — security, the NHS, nextgeneration energy — and the sums involved were significant.