Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the podcast with me, Steve Richards,

and as promised,

a second episode this week.

Thank you all for tuning in.

And here is the context for the second episode.

Just before the Labour Party conference, I did the live rock and roll politics show in the main concert hall in King's Place.

And yeah, we had a lot of fun and we shed light and we all left having had an evening of

catharsis and feeling much lighter, really.

You know, it's like a religious experience.

Anyway, what I thought was interesting at great expense, the event was recorded.

In the second half of the live show, I asked the audience to become Rachel Reeves, the chancellor.

And during the interval, buy a drink and think, well,

what would I do in this coming budget if I were Rachel Reeves? And so the second half opened,

the audience all looked drained with stress, having become Rachel Reeves, totally different mood.

And we explored the options or some of the possible options for Rachel Reeves in the

budget and crucially too, how she would explain them.

In other words, what happens if she breaks one of her pre-election tax

pledges? Now, this has all become urgently topical again. We've had Rachel Reeves herself in

interviews acknowledging. Unsurprisingly, you've got to acknowledge these things and then start making the case broadly

before a budget.

That tax and spend is very much on her agenda.

And what was interesting in our lighthearted look at tax rises was the range that came

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