In recent years, governments looking for good news on growth have sounded increasingly desperate, like a doctor looking for signs of an improvement in a terminally ill patient.
In the first quarter of this year Britain’s economy grew by 0.7 per cent, slightly higher than expected – a fact seized upon by this already beleaguered government. Both Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have clung furiously to the belief that we are ‘the fastest growing economy in the G7’, a fact only true on the most selective of snapshots.
Our industrial energy costs – among the highest in the world – are killing off what’s left of UK production
Both statements mask a much bleaker reality. Britain’s economy is stuck – GDP per capita has actually fallen year on year as the economy has failed to keep pace with our expanding population.
A wider, underlying trend cannot be denied: on a per-person basis we are almost no richer than in 2008, and we are poorer than we were in 2019.
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