Rachel Reeves and Chess

[Roger Lancaster]

The UK's sovereign debt rating was downgraded three times during those 14 years of misrule, something that had never happened once before under any previous government since the ratings were first instituted. I imagine that RR will do everything humanly possible to avoid ever seeing the sovereign debt rating downgraded, rather than the previous approach of the public schoolboy chancellors chortling and stuffing NAO reports down the back of their short pants as they headed off to Moody's or S&P's to get a jolly good thrashing.

Just to add that I look forward to seeing the business of governing the UK being treated with the seriousness and commitment it deserves, instead of as a glorified Oxford Union debate.*

Fact of the matter is that Standard & Poor's, arguably the most significant ratings agency, assesses the UK at AA. Top possible rating is AAA, enjoyed by 10 countries, followed by AA+ (another half-dozen, including USA) and then AA which the UK shares, among others, with the European Union but ahead of countries such as France (AA-), China and Japan (both A+). I wouldn't want anyone to read too much into those ratings as they are subjective and other agencies differ, generally taking a slightly less favourable view of the UK than S&P.

As to the general question of economic competence, I'm not really sure that either of the main political parties emerges with much credit. Looking back to the Blair/Brown governments, Gordon Brown was the Chancellor who sold off 400 tons of gold at rock-bottom price, barely more than 10% of what they would be worth today, which the Daily Mail gleefully reported "cost the country more than £21 billion", despite which a later Treasury minister left the infamous "I'm afraid there is no money" note for his Conservative successor. Granted, the note was intended jovially but it's not hard to deduce that the vaults didn't contain an enormous legacy of cash for the incoming Cameron government. It's no part of my brief to argue that the Conservatives were more economically literate than Labour, just to inject some balance into the issue.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Politics on the forum, yawn.

Don't worry, its just a flurry of post-election excitement - I have little doubt normal service will be resumed soon.

[Chris Goodall]

It's no part of my brief to argue that the Conservatives were more economically literate than Labour, just to inject some balance into the issue.

I think of Paul as this forum's Marina Hyde - he'll deliver the best verbal right hook you've ever seen, as long as his target is already unconscious on the canvas.

[Paul McKeown]

I see my personal cyberstalker is up his usual. Amazing how one can live rent free in the mind of someone whom one has never met in real life.

[IM Jack Rudd]

[Geoff Chandler]

Sir Keir Starmer moving into No.10 or it could be Rishi Sunak moving out.

[PeterFarr]

Somebody - on twitter I think - said it was nicely on-brand that the lorry parked diagonally.

[John Clarke]

What's all that about, Jack? The allusion (if any) is lost on this expat. (But I do find it odd that a Devon resident should display a Cornish-style cream tea. )

[Geoff Chandler]

Hi John,

That picture is used by Jack to calm things down when posters disagreements get too heated. It does not take much to get people fired up here and for posters to disagree on the most trivial of subjects.

By the way you are WRONG! that is not a Cornish style cream tea. Those are Perth scones served on Portobello designed china.

[John Upham]

There is more:

She's made her opening gambit. What's the chancellor's long game?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjjw6l53xe2o

[NickFaulks]

Fact of the matter is that Standard & Poor's, arguably the most significant ratings agency, assesses the UK at AA.

The rating agencies are supposed to be rating the likelihood that a borrower will repay the loan which the lender makes to them. The UK Government, which borrows in a currency which it can print, is therefore by definition AAA. Whether you will be happy with what you can buy with the repaid capital is a different question, but beyond the scope of S&P's ratings.

I have rarely heard a rating agency executive asked about this puzzle, and when they are you just get answers that are gibberish. The question "are you seriously saying there is a non-zero chance that the US ( or UK ) Government will not pay out on its bonds" is simply bypassed.

Also, we should not forget that these rating agencies played a large part in the 2008 financial crisis by giving ( by which we mean selling ) AAA ratings to a horde of financial constructs that were only ever one accident away from defaulting. Of all the corrupt elements of the global financial system, I put the rating agencies close to the top.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

There is more:

She's made her opening gambit. What's the chancellor's long game?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjjw6l53xe2o

I had initially thought the chess reference was only in the headline. It is worth quoting the rather cringe-worthy chess bits in full... (for the record):

Rachel Reeves' favourite chess move is the Sicilian Defence.

It's an opening move designed to open up the board for later in the game - and one the chancellor used often as a junior chess champion. It's “particularly good when you want to go on the attack," she suggests.

Growing up, Reeves was driven around the country by her parents to compete and beat privately educated boys, often as the only state school-educated girl

The story has echoes of the fictitious chess prodigy Beth Harmon - the lead character in Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, of which Reeves is a fan - playing out entire imaginary chess games on her bedroom ceiling, several moves ahead.

Most of the rest of the article (wisely) drops the chess analogy but sadly it comes up again at the end.

Rachel Reeves’ team says her chess-like strategy is to fix foundations first, then to rebuild Britain, and then to make every part of the UK better off.

Her first moves this week show that she and her government are playing a rather long game.

Am I the only one cringing slightly at this?

[John Clarke]

Am I the only one cringing slightly at this?

Nope. It looks to me like a typical (if unusually subtle) piece of white-anting by the RW MSM*. They'll keep on and on chipping away at her chess-playing background (" .... and Brutus is an honourable man!" - that kind of approach) and then use it as a stick to beat her with the minute something goes wrong.

* Right-wing mainstream media

[Dragoljub Sudar]

Not even by the widest stretch of imagination can the BBC be regarded as 'right wing'

[Nick Burrows]

Socially liberal, economically conservative.