Regrets, I've had a few

I voted Labour in the general election on 4 July with very few expectations and, in that respect at least, I haven't been disappointed.

I admit it was more than a little annoying to find myself almost immediately worse off by two hundred quid. Rachel Reeves' announcement that she was axing the winter fuel allowance for ten million pensioners was unexpected, though it was always apparent she was set on out-Osborne-ing Osborne as an austerity Chancellor. So why vote Labour, then? Well, had we had a sensible electoral system with PR I probably wouldn't have - goodness knows, there are myriad reasons not to - but that option wasn't available.

My first objective was to get rid of the Tories for five, possibly ten, years, by which time I'll be beyond caring. Secondly, I wanted to support my local MP, Rushanara Ali, against a pro-Palestine independent. I'm pro-Palestine myself but, after supporting Oona King in the dreadful 2005 campaign which George Galloway won, I didn't want to see my community go through that again. (Bad enough we have to endure Lutfur Rahman, our Aspire Mayor!) And, thirdly, it was very likely that, had Sunak won, Hunt would have done what Reeves has done and worse, much worse.

Of course, Reeves still has time to out-Hunt Hunt - we'll discover that on 30 October when she unveils her first budget - after which we can mobilise if necessary. Until then I'm keeping my powder dry and enjoying the discomfiture of the Tories in their cataclysmic defeat. Labour would do well to keep a low profile over the summer while the Tories tear themselves apart (again) in another protracted leadership battle. That, to borrow a phrase, will be a good time to bury bad news.

And I'm under no illusion that there's plenty of that yet to come from Labour. My hope is that it will be offset by some sensible policies and that, over time, when they find their feet (I was going to say balls but in the circumstances, where the Deputy Prime Minister and two holders of the four 'great offices of state' are women, that would clearly be inappropriate) and implement them. In doing so, though, Reeves would do well to ditch her "if we cannot afford it, we cannot do it" mantra. It may have served well enough in her recent face-off with Hunt in the Commons but it could soon come back to haunt her. A warning from history: Osborne and Cameron's "fix the roof while the sun is shining".

Both literally and metaphorically, they didn't - the RAAC scandal in schools and other public buildings is testimony to that. If Reeves wants 'growth' - as she must do having pinned her entire political credibility on it - she has to will the means to achieve it. Thus far, the auguries are not good, with planned infrastructure projects being abandoned. Still, those were Tory projects and largely - like Johnson's forty 'new' hospitals - chimerical. But she, and her colleague, Angela Rayner, must start to deliver quickly or risk losing, a) the initiative and, b) the trust of the electorate, which was anyway highly conditional.

More cutting just won't cut it.

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