Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s latest big speech is an emergency attempt to stop businesses, investors and families surrendering to despair.
It is the equivalent of the pilot coming on the intercom as passengers are thrown about in a terrifying storm to assure them that the plane is not about to crash.
Ms Reeves is fighting to rescue Britain from recession and save Labour’s future.
She must signal that the team in the cockpit are not in panic mode, there is fuel in the tank and they can land safely.
Time is running out to stop people writing-off Labour as the architects of an economic disaster.
The all-important date is March 26 when the Office for Budget Responsibility will publish its latest forecast on the economy and public finances.
If these boffins warn that Britain is a growth-free zone which faces ever-higher borrowing costs then the Chancellor will face the horrific choice of hiking taxes even higher or taking her axe to public spending.
If she goes for cuts, her foes on the Left will accuse her of introducing Tory-style austerity. The Conservatives will say that Labour has proven in less than a year why it should never again be trusted with the economy.
And if Britain does tip into a true recession the results could be terrible for households and employers. Low interest rates made it easier for Britain to weather the pandemic but this time there is no cheap money for businesses and families.
Mass profit warnings, the dip in the number of employees on payrolls and expectations that output will fall in both the manufacturing and services sectors should set alarms ringing in the Treasury and the Bank of England.
Ms Reeves wants to demonstrate that her department is a hive of activity but there is little she can do to deliver instant results in the weeks leading up to March 26.
Support for expanding Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton is a way of telling business she is serious about growth, but it will be years before planes are taking off from new runways. If this plan triggers a fight with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and even a resignation or two it will be great for optics – it would look like she is battling for growth – but Britain needs much more than a new round of spin.
She shares her Tory predecessor Jeremy Hunt’s enthusiasm for getting giant pension schemes to become major investors in UK infrastructure but this will take time. And while her ambition to turn Cambridge into a rival to Silicon Valley is laudable, this has been chattered about for many years while kids in Californian garages have been busy reinventing the internet.
The agony for Labour is that it has all the responsibilities of being in office but lacks the power to deliver life-changing reforms. There is no cash to deliver historic improvements to social care and there is the real danger that nightmare experiences in hospitals will convince many voters the NHS is broken beyond repair.
Meanwhile, local government is in crisis, with the country’s 20 most indebted councils reportedly owing more than £30billion. If voters see bills rise and services worsen they will want to punish Labour at the polls.
All this comes when the UK needs urgent investment in a host of areas. If Britain does not spend 2.5% of GDP on defence until after 2030 this will enrage the White House and delight the Kremlin.
The latest warning that the UK will miss its target for generating electricity from solar and wind will hit morale in Labour ranks. A party elected on the promise of change is now scrambling for loose change.
There will be no sympathy on Opposition benches. Conservatives are angry at how Labour arrived in office and started rubbishing their economic record; they blame them for talking the UK into turmoil and hitting businesses with a “tax on jobs”.
Ms Reeves and Sir Keir are in control of the flight deck. Businesses and families can only hope they can get the country through the turbulence without the wings coming off.
