Rachel Reeves has managed to terrify herself with consequences of own actions

from Accounts has spent her tenure since gaining office trashing the economy, but there are signs that, dim-witted and ineffectual as they are, the Government is finally realising successful businesses are crucial to a flourishing country.

There was more misery yet to arrive courtesy of , a woman who makes Rachel from Accounts look like Einstein: she was going to enshrine the in the Workers’ Rights Bill, making it illegal for employers to contact workers outside normal working hours. This crazy plan has now been dropped.

That it was considered in the first place shows you quite how much this crew fails to understand how business works. Sometimes it is essential to contact people outside normal working hours: doctors if there’s been a medical emergency, at its most obvious.

But there’s a lot that isn’t obvious: I know someone who was in charge of logistics in the redevelopment of London’s Battersea Power Station site and some massive equipment had to be delivered in the early hours of the morning in order to avoid major disruption to traffic.

If there had been an emergency on site after hours, it would have been all hands on deck there too. Even in my own profession, getting hold of journalists at any time of the day and night is crucial and when I was freelance, I was delighted when it happened. It meant more dosh in the bank.

On which note, my most financially successful year as a freelance, some years ago, came when I was essentially employed on a number of zero-hours contracts. wants to get rid of these as well, of course, but what it doesn’t understand is that they can suit workers as well as employers, because of the flexibility they entail.

They can also get you, the worker, more work. An employer might not want to commit to another full-time staffer, but they may well be prepared to pay someone on a no-strings basis.

This person then goes and spends their pay. Hey presto, you have an economy moving in the right way. Some union woman was droning on at the weekend about how people shouldn’t be expected to work with no protection, no holiday entitlement and all the rest of it, but here’s the thing: she wanted full protection from day one.

Is that going to encourage companies to take on more staff with all the enormous costs involved? Don’t all shout at once. from Accounts is looking increasingly terrified, as well she might, as the consequences of her wrecking actions become clear.

Forcing Ang to tone it down a notch is a start. Now if she would just reverse some of her other disastrous decisions, above all the inheritance tax on farms (another form of business), perhaps we might see a few rays of cheer. Oh, and reinstall the poor pensioners’ cold weather payments – it has nothing to do with the economy.

And it might just show that Rachel has a heart