Rachel Reeves has never shied away from presenting herself as a pragmatist. Since taking office as Chancellor, she has repeatedly stressed her determination to restore stability to the UK's finances come hell or high water.

The degree of her single-mindedness is understandable against the backdrop of the thankfully brief but nonetheless catastrophic Truss/Kwarteng period in 2022, when the Tory Prime Minister and her Chancellor fired a bazooka through the UK's fiscal credibility that is estimated to have cost the economy as much as £30 billion. No one wants a repeat of such chaos, particularly Ms Reeves and the current Prime Minister as they hang by fingernails to their political lives.

There are many words to potentially describe the run-up to tomorrow's Budget , but "normal" isn't

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