As UK economics editor, my life for the last week has felt a lot like surrealist movie Being John Malkovich — but with Rachel Reeves in the central role.

For years the biggest enemy in the economic life of the UK was short-termism — a term hurled around like a rude word, often prefixed with “chronic” for good measure. But this morning as I listened to the chancellor speak from a Siemens factory in Oxfordshire,

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said on Wednesday that "economic growth is the number one mission of this government" as she unveiled a series of proposals to boost the UK's economy. But how quickly could the government get growth from the plans she announced?

Rachel Reeves delivered her big speech on growth. It contained a number of measures: some good (the Oxford/Cambridge arc tops that list), some bad (the third runway at Heathrow) and some added to give the list of growth initiatives the appearance of a more even regional distribution (the regeneration of Old Trafford).

Soon after her UK budget on Oct. 30, as economic sentiment plummeted and businesses protested higher taxes, an under-pressure Rachel Reeves had one key message for Treasury officials: “We need to go further and faster on growth.

Rachel Reeves is set to announce a series of major infrastructure projects in a speech in which she is also expected to back plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. The chancellor will outline plans to create "Europe's Silicon Valley" between Oxford and Cambridge,

British finance minister Rachel Reeves spelled out her plans to revive the country's slow-moving economy on Wednesday, adding to recent pledges to reform investment and planning rules with a commitment to back airport expansion at Heathrow.