内容摘要："The sun is lethal. You don't need to be tanned to be beautiful either, so what if you're pale?"

"The sun is lethal. You don't need to be tanned to be beautiful either, so what if you're pale?"

And what about his supposed zeal for reform, rewiring the state? Enthusiasts would argue being short of cash is the best argument for making big change.But as an experienced Whitehall insider asks, "How do you avoid political momentum dropping out of everything else, if most departments are spending the next few years managing decline? How do you maintain political momentum in a world of down arrows?"

Changes that might save lots of cash, and more importantly provide better services to voters in the long term, can cost money at the start.newsletter to get Laura Kuenssberg's expert insight and insider stories every week, emailed directly to you.In the coming weeks you'll hear government sources boast about the importance of this Spending Review and say it's disgraceful that the Conservatives swerved doing full audits for years.

But process isn't always good politics. The modern spending review was conceived by Gordon Brown in an era when he wanted to flaunt his largesse.New Labour had cash to splash, and spending reviews were big moments to show it off. In contrast, Sir Keir's Labour confronts fragile public finances.

Treasury sources argue, with obvious logic, that it's helpful to spell out long-term financial plans so departments and the public know what's coming.

Yet there's a risk the event of the Spending Review serves to highlight political division and cuts, rather than any pluses of Downing Street's decisions.US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has warned of China posing an "imminent" threat to Taiwan, while urging Asian countries to boost defence spending and work with the US to deter war.

While the US does not "seek to dominate or strangle China", it would not be pushed out of Asia nor allow its allies to be intimidated, Hegseth said while addressing a high-level Asian defence summit on SaturdayIn response, China has accused the US of being the "biggest troublemaker" for regional peace.

Many in Asia fear potential instability if China invades Taiwan, a self-governing island claimed by Beijing. China has not ruled out the use of force.Speaking at the Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore, Hegseth characterised China as seeking to become a "hegemonic power" that "hopes to dominate and control too many parts" of Asia. China has clashed with several neighbours over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea.