Two quotes from the chancellor and the prime minister get to the heart of this Budget.
“The money New Labour had in the 90s is simply not there now….Britain has it harder now,” the Chancellor, John Healey, said last month.
And from Andy Burnham, days before he became prime minister: “This change…is the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years.”
So what happens when the economic realities confront the political ambitions of this new government?
As Helen Miller, director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), puts it, external: “We have a relatively new government with seemingly big ambitions but facing a long list of constraints.
“Some of those constraints…are self imposed, others are being worsened by global events, most noticeably war in the Middle East.”
Let’s be clear, plenty in Westminster in all parties will say that the amount of money around isn’t everything – how well taxpayers’ money is spent and where it is spent matters too.
And spending less and taxing less, plenty argue, should be a priority.
But in the bones of many in the Labour Party is an instinct that the government, the state, can and should be a vital agent in driving change and improvements in people’s lives – a worldview grounded in a sense that governments should proudly step in, rather than one that believes they should get out of the way.
And how do you deliver a proudly proactive state, delivering for people in a noticeable way, when the tax burden is generationally high, the national debt is sky high, energy bills are rising and inflation is higher than expected?
In short: it is not easy.
