Comment: 12 months on Starmer's keynote speech in the West Midlands, the foundations seem far from fixed
A year ago today, Sir Keir Starmer took to the stage in Birmingham, and told us he was 'fixing the foundations' of Britain's econoimy.
He prepared us for tax rises in the forthcoming Budget, assuring us that the pain we were about to endure would be worthwhile in the long term as it would allow the Government to invest in public services and bring to an end the period of austerity.
Better times were around the corner, he said. While he was not going to write his budgets for the next five years, he told us that the painful medicine was being implemented now, so that we would not be stung with tax rises year after year. There was no prospect of him, or Chancellor Rachel Reeves coming back for a big tax grab the following year.
Well, over the past 12 months we have certainly felt the pain. Anaemic growth, shops restaurants and pubs falling like ninepins, supermarkets blaming the National Insurance rise for rising prices at the checkout.
Now, with speculation rising that the Chancellor will need either increase taxes by £22 billion, or cut spending just to meet her own fiscal rules, she pointedly refused to rule out another tax grab.
We hope we are wrong. But with every passing day, it feels that the foundations are far from fixed, and seem considerably shakier than they did a year ago.
And the good times seem as far away as ever.