This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor.

I welcome Joseph Sternberg, a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal. He's based in London.

He writes political economics. And here to introduce the labor government dominantly in control of the parliament for the next five years, and perhaps ten, the numbers are so lopsided.

However, they've been out of authority for more than a decade, and there seems to be some clumsiness here as they begin their first budget.

I learned from Joseph's most recent column.

We need to do some definitions because things are the same, but then again not compared to the American government.

Joseph, a very good evening to you.

Rachel Reeves is the British Chancellor of the Exchequer.

What does that mean? What are her powers?

Are they more or less than, say, the Treasury Secretary in the United States? Good evening to you.

Hey, John. Yeah, so the Chancellor of the Exchequer over here is essentially the Treasury Secretary,

and the job is basically the same. Maybe a little more powerful because, you know, the chancellor really is the political figure who's responsible and perceived by the public to be responsible for budget decisions, which is why we're going to end up talking so much about her for the next few minutes.

You know, in the U.S., when the administration presents

its budget to Congress, the idea really is that although the Treasury Secretary might do the

talking, it's something that they've worked out in close coordination with the White House.

Over here in Britain, the concede is much more that the chancellor is solely responsible for it,

although in reality, the prime minister is always very much involved in this. But that is creating

the situation where Rachel Reeves has become the figurehead and then also kind of the focal point

of everything that has gone wrong since she presented the new labor government's first

budget in the very last days of October. And let me tell you, a lot is going wrong as a result

of that budget to the point where it's becoming a little hard to know where to start.

Is there a law or guideline in Parliament that the budget delivered by the chancellor,

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