We need more announcements like Rachel Reeves’ on infrastructure projects - David Blunkett

Take the two things that were headlining in early January. The first was that the pound had dropped against the dollar. Any meaningful commentator with the slightest economic knowledge would have known that the Euro and the Yen had also dropped against the Dollar, and it was self-evident that the inauguration of Donald Trump was going to upset the international financial markets.

The second, again, a direct result of the incoming US President, was the rise in the cost of borrowing on the international bond markets. Yes, there was a blip which came at a cost, but this was true across the world, and it soon dropped back.

Given that January is the month in which the Treasury draws in the largest tax yield of the whole year and that borrowing (or rescheduling existing borrowing) for a one-month period should be easily managed, the hype was unwarranted.

In fact, the British Retail Consortium reported a 6 per cent uplift in footfall and the Bank of England reduced interest rates, albeit by a modest 0.25 per cent.

To accelerate growth a much bolder cut would have been both logical and beneficial.

Given that I had been in favour of quite dramatic change which demonstrated an entirely new trajectory of not only our economy but of our attitude and actions as a nation, the announcement of support for major infrastructure programmes from Chancellor Rachel Reeves was both a relief and something to cheer.

She even used the word “optimism" and was clearly and openly reversing the downbeat messages of ‘miserableness’ of the previous six months.

I'm rejoicing in both the change in messaging and the support for radical transformation. But this doesn't go far enough.

Backing such programmes, including the expansion of key airports; the Lower Thames Crossing (costing £9bn raised privately) and the tentative go-ahead of the new transit system for Leeds Bradford, have one thing in common. They are going to take years to implement.

Yes, there will be jobs in the meantime – both from the preparation and establishing the early infrastructure to make the long-term investment doable. The preparation itself will lead to greater economic optimism and hopefully inward investment, which will help kickstart the growth in productivity – now at the top of the Government's agenda.

Yet for men and women going about their daily lives, this is all very distant. In many cases, that means geographically, as well as in terms of perception and personal impact.

So many of the projects mentioned by Rachel Reeves are based down south. This is partly inevitable because of the nature of where the existing facilities are based and where the demand exists.

However, unless more projects are developed quickly to a point where investment will make a real difference here in Yorkshire, prosperity will seem a distant dream.

The politics of this are profound. Next weekend the Germans go to the polls, and it looks as if the far-right AFD Party will do extremely well.

At home, in May, there will be elections for a new mayoral post for Hull and East Yorkshire, and just across the Humber, for Greater Lincolnshire.

You don't have to be a genius in analysing the current state of politics to understand the very real possibility of the Reform Party taking both of these newly created centres of political power – with all the propaganda and potential for simplistic mischief which would go with them.

Where does this leave those of us who are strongly backing the new government and willing them on? Quite simply, to want more of the speech made on January 29 by the Chancellor.

The difference will have to be rapidly implemented and seminal policies which touch those going out to work, struggling to make ends meet, or looking on with despair at the deteriorating physical environment in which they live.

No good saying, "there's no money" because we live in a very rich and talented country. The notion that the increase in employers’ NI is somehow unmanageable and will lead to all kinds of disaster, is, in my view, nonsense.

Of course, there will be pain as businesses, big and small, adjust. Some will look to improve their productivity by investing in technology, where previously they would have relied on low wage alternatives.

What is clear – and I think unarguable - is we need to put an electric shock through our economic and social life.

In other words, to become energised; to have the drive and the innovation that made Britain an economic powerhouse in the past.

It's not impossible, but it entails people setting aside the whingeing and putting their shoulder to the wheel.

We should expect government, at every level, to be there backing us, removing the bureaucratic barriers and yes, the inertia, which has so deeply damaged Britain's prospects over recent years.

David Blunkett is a Labour Party politician, and served as the MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough.