LAST week’s Budget was as depressing for Scotland, for Wales, for Northern Ireland, as it was for most ordinary working people in every country in the UK – for pensioners, and for just about everyone who does not have more than two children, as I predicted it would be in these pages over the past couple of weeks.

That has made me reflect on Rachel Reeves ’s failure. Doing so, I recalled a friend’s comments made years ago. He was a vicar. He always explained to people that the concept of sin in the Bible does not mean that you’ve done something terribly wrong. What, he said, it actually means is that you have missed the mark. You have failed to meet expectations. The promise you had to offer has not been fulfilled. You have, in the kindest possible way, been deeply disappointing. Using t

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