For the past 48 hours, No. 10 has dismissed this as “fictional accounting.” But backbenchers are not fools. They represent constituencies where a new MRI machine or a bypass road is now being weighed against a tax break for tech investors in the South East.
It was a needed reminder. For all the drama of resignations and ultimatums, the machinery of government is not a game. It is the only thing standing between order and the quiet chaos of a state that cannot function. jessie ames bbc
BBC Senior Political Correspondent
I went to a coffee shop across from Parliament this lunchtime. A nurse in scrubs was staring at her phone, refreshing a news page. “I don’t care who wins,” she told me. “I just need to know if I can pay my rent on the 1st. You lot in the media talk about ‘process.’ I talk about my daughter’s school shoes.” For the past 48 hours, No
Let me be clear about what that means. It means that a single misplaced vote, a coughing fit that keeps a loyalist from the lobby, or a Labour MP’s well-timed defection could bring down not just a bill, but the entire precarious architecture of this administration. It was a needed reminder
To understand how we got here, you have to look not at the green benches, but at a spreadsheet. The memo, which I have seen in redacted form, originated from a junior analyst in the Office for Budget Responsibility. It suggests that the government’s own growth forecast was inflated by nearly 40% to justify the spending cuts buried in Schedule 5 of the bill.