When the bills hit the mat and taxes go up, Labour’s talk of ‘short-term pain’ will feel intolerable to poor households
When writing profiles on Rachel Reeves, eight out of 10 journalists like to record her past as a chess champion, largely as a pretext for chuckling through metaphors about gambits and defensive positions.
Never in danger of prodigy status, these days I skulk on a chess app, slugging it out with other amateur thugs. But as Reeves and Keir Starmer settle into Downing Street, one of the game’s sayings returns to my mind. It’s from the Polish grandmaster and wit Savielly Tartakower, who observed: “The blunders are all on the board, waiting to be made.”
The blunder is a huge, match-losing error, which only becomes obvious in hindsight. Tartakower is saying that however good either player is, the board will confer a defeat. You can take his point further: loss may not come from that rash exchange, but the foolproof strategy you swore would win. That lesson is one that Labour’s leaders should bear in mind.
Starmer and Reeves don’t do surprises. Deliberative as any club player, they make a plan and stick to it for as long as is tenable. That way, they present the tiniest of targets for opponents and the press.
Aditya Chakrabortty is a Guardian columnist
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