Are all governments doomed to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors?

Keir Starmer came to power with the best of intentions: Labour, he promised, would avoid “sticking plaster solutions” and address the long-term problems the Conservatives had ducked. Yet some ministers worry privately that Starmer and Rachel Reeves are about to sleepwalk into a familiar elephant trap, by cutting spending on building projects to protect the day-to-day budgets of public services in next month’s Budget and the spending review that will follow. The NHS Confederation, which represents 500 NHS bodies, warns of a “very real risk” of a crisis this winter, with ambulances queuing outside hospitals, overcrowded accident and emergency departments and people stuck in hospital because of the problems in social care. We also cannot repeat the mistakes of the past by raiding already overstretched capital budgets to plug holes in day-to-day spending.” Previous winter crises offer a graphic example of how governments lack the time and space for long-term decisions because they are inevitably sucked into fighting one fire after another. That’s what the Budget must provide.” Reeves should prove the doubters wrong by using her Budget to reform her fiscal rules to allow higher borrowing for productive investment, to count a new hospital or school as an asset rather than a liability.