In the diplomatic words of Emma Little-Pengelly, “a considerable amount of confusion has been allowed to develop” over last Friday’s ‘pause’ in Northern Ireland’s four city deals.

While the exact cause of that confusion has yet to be explained, there is no mystery over why the government is behaving so strangely in general.

It is the same reason Chancellor Rachel Reeves has means-tested the winter fuel payment – a justifiable economic policy, but still a bizarre thing to announce in isolation three weeks after taking office.

It must also be part of the reason for cancelling Casement Park.

Letter: Godless fools don’t deserve to be called Protestants - Wallace Thompson

Labour wants to tell a gloomy story – but could its tale come true? – Newton Emerson

Labour wants to tell a story, or ‘create a narrative’, to use the tiresome political phrase, about inheriting a broken economy from the Tories and doing the hard work to fix it.

Its aim is to reverse the public’s deeply-ingrained sense that Conservative governments look after the public finances and Labour governments bankrupt the country.

Although the Tories wrecked their reputation over the past 14 years, Labour must burnish its own to complete the reversal. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to........

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