00:00But I will say, even if the delivery was deadpan, and without many jokes, it was assured.
00:10It was competent at every level.
00:12It was a different league to the two efforts by Rachel Reeves.
00:19He appeared absolutely in control of what he was saying, what he was doing,
00:23and he was leading a party that appeared to be pretty unified behind him.
00:29Yes, it was the kind of delivery you would expect from a career politician.
00:35But it was also deeply cynical.
00:38Deeply cynical in so many ways.
00:40So cynical, in fact, that the man who'd resigned from Starmer's government
00:46after their drubbing in the local elections in May,
00:49who'd done so on a point of principle that we had to increase defence spending
00:54in a very uncertain world with threats coming from Russia, Iran, etc.
01:00And yet, the very point of principle upon which he resigned
01:04was something he wasn't prepared to meet in his very first budget today.
01:09So it was deeply cynical.
01:11Nothing of any value on defence whatsoever.
01:15Quite a bit of a long time ago.
01:15I think this has been a difficult time for him to be trying to be.
01:15Just as a bit of a bit of a bit of an 토ment.
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