‘And remember to give them hope.’ Alastair Darling, November 2024.

I wrote this for Sceptical Scot’s poetry section in November 2024 when there still seemed some room for sceptical hope. Reposting in March 2025. Where’s the hope for the losers in Rachel Reeves Spring Statement?]

Looking back, the words seem to echo.  On 19 December 2023, Rachel Reeves was speaking from the pulpit at the memorial service of Alastair Darling in an overflowing St Mary’s Cathedral, the Episcopal one at Edinburgh’s West End.