When things go wrong in politics, those in the eye of the storm tend to respond in one of two ways.
Some batten down the hatches, weather it as best they can and vow never to let anything like that happen again. Others feel the sting so personally that they can’t help but tell anyone who asks, and many who don’t, just how bad things really are.
The latter feed the endless cycle of stories about political rows. But the former, those who get their heads down and try to work out how on earth the mess happened in the first place, are the real operators in Westminster.
Rachel Reeves is shaping up to be firmly in this camp and the row over removing the universal winter fuel payment was her “batten down the hatches” moment.
The Chancellor never doubted the need for the policy change, but the response to the announcement was politically damaging and a repeat must be avoided at all costs on Budget Day. The lesson from the fallout was: to avoid a backlash, you have to roll the pitch.
Good Treasury teams understand this instinctively. It is better to have the row weeks ahead of the Budget itself so that people are fed up of talking about it when the announcement is finally made.
Those who fail to manage expectations in this way end........