Alex Brummer

The conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have underlined the importance to all our lives of energy security and put fossil fuels back on the agenda.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves (pictured) and colleagues see building more houses and better infrastructure as keys to economic expansion.

The conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have underlined the importance to all our lives of energy security and put fossil fuels back on the agenda.

Instead of the pro-growth Budget Reeves had pledged, she and Keir Starmer have levelled swingeing taxes on business, hiked the cost of hiring people and inflicted penal levies on enterprise.

Gordon Brown may have tested everyone's patience but one can never imagine him delivering anything as challenging to the public finances as Rachel Reeves.

Instead of the pro-growth Budget Reeves had pledged, she and have levelled swingeing taxes on business, hiked the cost of hiring people and inflicted penal levies on enterprise and entrepreneurship.

Rachel Reeves was in her element at the annual meeting of the IMF in Washington last week. None of her recent Tory predecessors attracted anything like the same level of attention.

As an industry, farming's contribution, put at £13.9bn, is relatively modest. But the family-owned farm is critical to the UK's culture.

It has unsettled the bond markets which forced Liz Truss from office, raised questions over interest rates and has been disdainfully received by credit rating agencies Moody's and S&P.

Any Budget with £40bn of tax rises, hitting almost every citizen, is never going to win hearts and minds. Even the OBR had doubts.