Top scoop by @AnnaSophieGross and @JBSteins:

Labour has alienated business *and* has shed votes to the populist left: because it is sceptical of its instincts where they have been best, and indulgent of them where they have always failed in the past. This week's column:

Does he also believe in the Tooth Fairy? That, and other questions raised by this excellent piece: https://t.co/Pvoqw6tj9q

Just saw “Blue Moon”. Really brilliant and moving film. Ethan Hawke is amazing in it, the performance of his career so far.

Right by @stephenkb: Reeves *played down* the parlous state of public finances, rather than exaggerated it https://t.co/3qV7hFKZ6u

Feel like I'm going mad. The Budget's 'headroom' is based on frankly irresponsible and wildly optimistic claims about what Labour will do in the final year of the forecast, and on ignoring a bunch of upward pressures on spending, and the claim is that she was being exaggeratedly

So much chatter about a topic to which, as @TejParikh90 sets out brilliantly today, we already know the answer:

Seeing a lot of debate about what the best Christmas song is. The bronze-silver-gold is 1) Fairytale of New York 2) Bob Dylan's Must Be Santa 3) this by Duke Ellington, obviously

Fun piece by @emmavj on office blunders, like uploading your market sensitive information an hour early or emailing invective about your boss to your boss:

Rachel Reeves has said her Budget did three things. Did it? (Spoiler: no, but read it anyway)

"This continues to be a government whose rhetoric writes cheques that its actions cannot cash." Brilliant, brutal piece by @stephenkb. And every word of it true. https://t.co/LtaQXEsPWg

Just saw 'The Spy Who Came In From The Cold' at Soho Place. Really great and clever stage adaptation.

The second year of magical thinking: this evening's newsletter on the Budget:

OBR's finally achieved the wonk's dream of publishing the Budget docs before the Chancellor speaks. By mistake, sure, but you've gotta take the wins where you find them. Some more serious thoughts and all the news on our liveblog:

Great piece on the four audiences Rachel Reeves will be thinking about tomorrow:

Great piece this:

My column in today’s FT: the vision since 2016 has been that the lever British governments pull to fight poverty is to increase the minimum wage. Time for government to start pulling its weight again too:

1965 and all that: some thoughts on the government's fare freeze in England and whether nationalisation in the 2020s is going to end up playing out the same way as it did in the postwar period in today's newsletter:

Absolutely magical gig by Tina Carr at the Puppet Theatre Barge. There’s nothing quite like a small venue. Also I love that a) there’s a children’s puppet theatre on a narrow boat in London and b) they also do music for adults in the evenings. That’s why cities rock. #wearejazz