Rachel Reeves has taken Britain back to the 1970s - what happens next is terrifying. The Chancellor's policies are the embodiment of every Labour Government in living memory - tax more, spend more, and borrow even more. This approach has extinguished hope on the high street, with public finances in an even bigger mess than the 1970s. The government's dangerous, dithering, and dogmatic approach is presiding over crisis after crisis, rather than prioritizing spending restraint and growth. Being taken back to the 70s is a terrifying prospect for anyone who remembers the pitiful state of the economy for much of the decade. The once-thriving thoroughfares of our bustling towns and cities are now a testament to this ineptitude. Labour has historically and most recently done much to harm this country and its way of life. The appalling assault on businesses launched by Chancellor Rachel Reeves has just seen the life sucked out of the high street, and so it is not difficult to see why some experts are predicting that the next financial crisis might be lurking just around the corner. When even Poundland and charity shops are closing at a rate, there is clearly a problem. Clearly, we should all be terrified at what could happen next if the experts are right. But others must also shoulder their share of the blame for the ruin being wreaked from Paisley to Penzance. Since 2015, the banking giant Lloyds Banking Group has shut more than 1,000 branches, despite being given £20.3 billion of taxpayers' money amid the 2008 financial crisis to prevent collapse. The bailout was triggered by disastrous losses from the acquisition of HBOS. Things were so bad that it was once 43% owned by the public. So you might think they would be 'by your side' as per its long-standing marketing slogan, designed to demonstrate support, reliability, and partnership. Last year, it reported a 12% increase in pre-tax profits to £6.66 billion. But this year it plans to close a further 95 branches in a devastating rolling programme of cuts that further isolates and alienates communities. A more treacherous act to the people - disproportionately pensioners - it claims to serve is hard to imagine, especially when a company spokesman trots this drivel in a statement: 'We're giving our customers the flexibility to bank wherever and whenever they need us.' Except, of course, any number of towns and cities where they have cut and run. Between January 2015 and December 2024, some 6,609 bank branches closed. Today, only about 38% of the network from a decade ago remains operational. There was a time when businesses were unashamed champions of the high streets they inhabited and served. Not now. Ms. Reeves embodies the same pattern that has marked every Labour Government in living memory - tax more, spend more, and borrow even more. Under Labour, we are not only seeing the life sucked out of the high street, but the life being sucked out of Britain too.
