Wow! A picture might well paint a thousand words, but the one above also cost the nation’s economy around £3 billion as last week the markets were as comprehensively spooked as they had been in the days of Liz Truss. On a human level, it’s impossible not to have some sympathy for Chancellor Rachel Reeves as tears trickled down her face during a Prime Minister’s Questions that was desperate not just for her, but for the thousands watching live and the millions who have subsequently seen it on endless news bulletins.

And yet her tears also served as a fitting illustration as to how most of us feel as we mark the first year in power for this Labour Government. After the calamitous collapse of the previous administration, even many prominent Conservative cheerleaders found it nigh-on impossible to support the party. The broad consensus was the nation needed a complete change of tack.

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Keir Starmer is forcing us to foot bill of cowardice dressed up as care

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Kemi Badenoch blazes at ‘immoral’ cost of benefits bill as country braces for tax raids

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Rachel Reeves’s plans blown apart by £4.8bn hole as Labour minister stokes tax fears

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Desperate businesses plead with Keir Starmer to promise no more tax increases

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Rachel Reeves nightmare as she could be forced to make ‘six’ massive tax rises

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Rachel Reeves may target millions with punishing income tax hikes to plug £40bn hole

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Keir Starmer’s welfare cuts narrowly pass as 49 furious MPs stage rebellion

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Rachel Reeves starts crying at PMQs as Keir Starmer refuses to say if she can keep her job

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Piers Morgan has brutal response to Rachel Reeves ‘crying’ with nine-word question

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Labour’s first year in power sees economic growth promises turn into broken dreams

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Rachel Reeves in the firing line as ‘lame duck’ Prime Minister plots reset

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Keir Starmer brands himself a ‘hard b*****d’ as he defends humiliating U-turns

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‘Humiliated’ Keir Starmer torn apart on GB News with crushing ‘U-turn’ verdict

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Keir Starmer signs UK up to new high-tax UN manifesto

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Ed Balls issues devastating verdict on Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves

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Starmer branded ‘puppet of the Left’ over welfare U-turn after Rachel Reeves meltdown

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POLL: Do you feel sorry for Rachel Reeves?

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Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall hides during PMQs after benefit U-turn humiliation

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One year of Labour: Take part in our exclusive nationwide survey

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Labour insiders ‘fear Rachel Reeves’ PMQs tears have made her ‘unsackable’

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Keir Starmer is forcing us to foot bill of cowardice dressed up as care

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Kemi Badenoch blazes at ‘immoral’ cost of benefits bill as country braces for tax raids

Comments

Rachel Reeves’s plans blown apart by £4.8bn hole as Labour minister stokes tax fears

Comments

Desperate businesses plead with Keir Starmer to promise no more tax increases

Comments

Rachel Reeves nightmare as she could be forced to make ‘six’ massive tax rises

Comments

Rachel Reeves may target millions with punishing income tax hikes to plug £40bn hole

Comments

Keir Starmer’s welfare cuts narrowly pass as 49 furious MPs stage rebellion

Comments

Rachel Reeves starts crying at PMQs as Keir Starmer refuses to say if she can keep her job

Comments

Piers Morgan has brutal response to Rachel Reeves ‘crying’ with nine-word question

Comments

Labour’s first year in power sees economic growth promises turn into broken dreams

Comments

Rachel Reeves in the firing line as ‘lame duck’ Prime Minister plots reset

Comments

Keir Starmer brands himself a ‘hard b*****d’ as he defends humiliating U-turns

Comments

‘Humiliated’ Keir Starmer torn apart on GB News with crushing ‘U-turn’ verdict

Comments

Keir Starmer signs UK up to new high-tax UN manifesto

Comments

Ed Balls issues devastating verdict on Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves

Comments

Starmer branded ‘puppet of the Left’ over welfare U-turn after Rachel Reeves meltdown

Comments

POLL: Do you feel sorry for Rachel Reeves?

Comments

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall hides during PMQs after benefit U-turn humiliation

Comments

One year of Labour: Take part in our exclusive nationwide survey

Comments

Labour insiders ‘fear Rachel Reeves’ PMQs tears have made her ‘unsackable’

Comments

Keir Starmer is forcing us to foot bill of cowardice dressed up as care

Comments

Kemi Badenoch blazes at ‘immoral’ cost of benefits bill as country braces for tax raids

Comments

Rachel Reeves’s plans blown apart by £4.8bn hole as Labour minister stokes tax fears

Comments

Desperate businesses plead with Keir Starmer to promise no more tax increases

Comments

Rachel Reeves nightmare as she could be forced to make ‘six’ massive tax rises

Comments

Rachel Reeves may target millions with punishing income tax hikes to plug £40bn hole

Comments

Keir Starmer’s welfare cuts narrowly pass as 49 furious MPs stage rebellion

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Little did we realise the ship we were climbing aboard was heading for the rocks. The list of almost exclusively unforced errors seems endless and ranges from the relatively minor such as free football and concert tickets, dodgy CVs, free use of apartments and an inability to know where a multi-billion pound river crossing began and ended, to appalling policy mishaps and screeching U-turns that gave the nation a severe case of whiplash more than once.

Indeed, it was another picture that summed that up last week when the Prime Minister stumbled on the steps of Number 10 on his way to PMQs – a mis-step that spoke volumes about his stewardship of the nation.

If we go back to the morning of his stunning electoral victory, Sir Keir Starmer’s words then ring as hollow as a promise to cut the welfare bill as he said he would lead us into a bright new dawn. Twelve months on then it seems fair to ask: who turned the lights out?

The answer is abundantly clear. It is a Government that is strong on rhetoric but lamentably short on delivery. Take, for example, the promise to “smash the gangs” and tackle the absurdly high level of people arriving illegally into the country on small boats crossing the English Channel.

Under Labour almost 50,000 asylum seekers have landed in Britain, most of whom are young men with unknown backgrounds, in an increase of 48% on the same time last year.

The promise to cut the nation’s unsustainable addiction to sickness benefits – currently costing around £80 billion each year – has been abandoned amid chaotic scenes last week that came close to leaving the government facing a vote of confidence.

Add in the vindicative cut in winter fuel payments, the attack on farmers at a time when the industry most needed help, the spectacularly mis-judged Chagos deal, the pledge for growth for an economy which is moving at a glacial pace, the jobs-killing hike in National Insurance and chasing an unprecedented number of millionaires and billionaires out of the country thereby denuding the Treasury of billions in tax receipts, and the picture of incompetence is stark.

The talk in Westminster bars after the latest spectacularly mishandled U-turn was to try and limp through the rest of this month and get to the summer recess – and then return to fight another day.

So be it – but the Government needs to be aware if that fails, it’ll end in tears for all of us.