IlluMyFi

In such a crucial double act, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves must be on the same page over the EU

The relationship between the prime minister and chancellor is one of the most crucial in British politics. My old friend Nigel Lawson (chancellor 1983-89) certainly thought so, which is why it pained him and Margaret Thatcher when they fell out over whether the UK should put the pound into the European Union’s exchange rate mechanism in the 1980s.

Denis Healey (chancellor 1974-79) thought so too, and once told me his good working relationship with James Callaghan (prime minister 1976-79) was one reason the cabinet held together during the fraught negotiations with the International Monetary Fund in 1976.

Sentiment

-0.01

Bearish/Bullish

26.12.24 10:00

by theguardian.com

So Gloucester services is the best in Britain? Let a true pitstop connoisseur be...

With its herb garden, deli counter and ‘living roof’, the M5 stop-off is definitely swish. But I’m a Monster Munch man at heart

If you know me, you’ll know there is nothing I like better than a good old-fashioned service station. Where else can you jump out of the car for an overpriced Burger King, a go on a driving arcade game from 1993 and – most importantly – a wee? Service stations are mini utopias, housing everything that a human being needs for basic survival. Come the apocalypse, you’ll find me happily holed up in my nearest Moto.

Rightmove recently published a list of the happiest places to live in Great Britain, and I suppose I can see why that might be of interest. But it was a survey of the UK’s service stations by the consumer group Which? that really caught my eye, partly for its ludicrous claim that “no one visits a motorway service station for fun”. What nonsense. Although with all the hassles of Christmas travel, I suppose some people may fail to find them quite so entertaining. In any case, ranking service stations is old news: my friends and I have been doing so for years.

Rich Pelley is a freelance writer

United States of America