Consider the 2022 figures for GDP per head
USA. Ā Ā Ā $75 000
UK. Ā Ā Ā Ā $45 000
EU. Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā $37 000
The UK has spent the last 50 years trying to align itself more and more in trade, economic regulation and general laws with the EU on the grounds that this political direction and sacrifice would help our economic progress. The way the US has pulled ahead and stayed ahead of Europe shows this was a generally mistaken view. The US per capita figure is twice the EU.
I am not suggesting we should instead have sought a close political link with the US or should have accepted their law codes . Better would have been to make our own laws, set competitive taxes and traded as freely as possible with the wider world. The Ā Republic of Ireland showed how simply setting lower tax rates can make you prosperous and greatly boost tax revenues. Their 12.5% tax rate meant they attracted massive turnover and investment from the US giant corporations, delivering $ 105 000 per head of GDP last year, almost three times the EU average.
The truth is the US has set a legal, tax and educational framework that has produced all the great non Chinese world companies of the digital age. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Meta and Nvidia are the US giants that have generated so much cash, made so much investment and created so many jobs, boosting US success.
The EU and UK should be alarmed that they have produced no trillion dollar tec successes. I will write future pieces on why. Today I just wish to remind the UK it is free to set a competitive tax rate. As Ireland shows that allows your economy to get a boost from US success.
August 28, 2023
Good morning.
I do not like comparing countries and, comparing the UK and the USA to the EU is even worse. All three are so different such comparisons are meaningless. For example. We could compare the GDP per head in say India, no one is suggesting everyone in India is wealthy as we keep sending money to them or, that they are so poor that they cannot afford a space program and send probes to the Moon.
The EU’s figures look bad because there are countries that are really poor and that distorts the figures. German’s are doing better than those in Greece, and so on.
The only measures worth looking at to garner any sense of a nations wealth is its debt to GDP and its National Debt. In this our kind host has a point. Ireland’s low tax rate and attracts many Company Nameplate companies. It is not a net exporter of cars, electronics and white goods.
I see no reason why the UK government could or should do the same. In fact, I think the UK could do even better and attract real companies into the UK and provide manufacturing jobs, creating real wealth.
But you will never get this from someone who was born into and has married into great wealth and never had to get their hands dirty.
August 28, 2023
Mark, accept the difficulties of comparing GDP figures across countries. What is useful though is to compare how these numbers change over time. 40 years ago GDP of UK/Europe was as high or higher than the USA. Sir J is correct to point out the EU strategies have suppressed wealth per person.
August 28, 2023
What does he expect with the tax and wast polices of this so called tory government.
The only tory was chased our by the deep state after 44 days. Three cheers for Nadeen Dorries for exposing the culture at the top.
What incentive is there for hard work when the government wasted money on 4 star hotels hor illegals and councils buy newbuilds for asylum seekers.
Strangers in our own land are we.
August 28, 2023
++++1
August 28, 2023
Sunak publicly stated he did not want to compete with neighbours! Therefore it should be no surprise UK will try to mirror EU as it is in lock step. Dorries is right, Sunak has no mandate for his national sell out or to give away N.Ireland to EU. Your PMs stated no British PM would sanction a border down Irish Sea then did exactly that!!
August 28, 2023
Germans will soon be on a par with Greece, ask them!
August 28, 2023
So ….. when Sunak’s time as Prime Minister is over … and he returns to the US …. he can proudly announce …. “mission accomplished” ?
August 28, 2023
Why? Taxes far too high, government spending (largely wasted) is far too high, regulation far too high, net zero rip off intermittent energy an insane anti-growth policy, the soft loans for largely worthless degrees, the failure to deliver a real Brexit or take any full advantage of it, the governmentās moronic wars on the self employed, motorists, small businesses, landlords. Plus of course they got almost every single thing wrong on Covid. The lockdowns, the (huge net harm vaccines that have cost far more health damage than Covid and to young people), the sick joke test and trace, the QE inflation, the vast waste of tax payers money, the closing of schoolsā¦
Now we have thanks to all this green crap socialism from Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak the prospect of 15+ years of Labour or Labour/SNPā¦ why invest or build a company in the UK?
August 28, 2023
Precisely.
August 28, 2023
LL,
It is not just EU regulation. Tories were going to take back control of our laws! Snake even stopped scrapping EU laws only allowing obsolete ones to be got rid of!! Unbelievable. He is currently wrecking our UK businesses after wrecking the economy. He has slapped them with so many taxes to force them uncompetitive! He has ensured ESG will also add regulation, bureaucracy and huge cost, especially to small and medium sized businesses.
August 28, 2023
Note also that the US still has huge problems and could be better still in economic and other terms. Their legal system and excessive litigation are out of control, crime, murders, drugs and law and order very poor, government debt too high, government still far too large and inept. Vast damage has been done by big Pharma and the Covid āvaccinesā also the obesity levels, their healthcare system is nearly as dire as the NHS but in different ways. They still suffer much socialism and rather/very poor government.
August 28, 2023
Very few Brits would want to see or would accept UK cities descend to the depths reached by US ones.
We love visiting the US, but the places we go to are the carefully selected ones we see in those inviting USA tourism adverts currently on our screens. I did take a wrong turning in the Florida Keys one night, and ended up in a ā¦..shanty town ever bit as dire as you would find in the third world. It’s just as well US cars are programmed to automatically lock the doors once the car is moving ! We beat a hasty retreat !
August 28, 2023
Self sufficiency in Energy could help UK businesses, but no, Sunak crippling taxes for North Sea energy businesses prevent exploration, stopped fracking even though he stated the opposite to get elected!
Serve with integrity? I think not. He claimed he would Implement the 2019 manifesto, liar. He does not give a stuff, he will be off to his Californian home.
August 28, 2023
Hope
He is implementing some of the 2019 manifesto. The net zero bit!
August 28, 2023
Succinct, comprehensive, and embarrassingly accurate.
August 28, 2023
Because itās the only place we have in the world. There is nowhere else that we stand a chance of gaining control. So for British people, the U.K. remains the safest investment bet.
August 28, 2023
Simple the UK and EU governments in general are far too large, taxes & regulation far too high plus they are hooked on the bonkers, green crap, expensive energy agenda religion too. Why invest or live in the UK if you have any money or want to work hard? Labour about to win a landslide too perhaps for 15+ years thanks to the abject failure of these tax to death Consocialists..
August 28, 2023
Labour also likely to extend the vote to people over just 16 and non British people in order to reinforce their electoral position. They will be able to almost anything with the majority they are likely to win.
August 28, 2023
LL,
Tories are brainwashing 4 year olds a man can be a woman! They are teaching them they can be a cat! FFS get real. Our children are being brainwashed through forced left wing education to be socialists from 4-21years old! This is current Tory policy and has been for 14 years! Tories forced them to stay in education until 18, then to make it the norm to stay for duff left wing meaningless degrees. JRs lot had 14 years to bring change but gold plated Blaireās education dumbing down policies!
August 28, 2023
Based on the GDP figures in this article, Ireland’s EU membership lead to it pulling ahead of the US?
I would still prefer us (the Netherlands) to become more like the (high tax, high service, lower inequality) Scandinavian countries.
August 28, 2023
The way Rutte was going, you’ll be more like Uganda.
Net zero to bankrupt the country as in the rest of Europe.
August 28, 2023
Irelandās GDP figures are an anomaly as they are distorted due to large US corporates basing themselves there for tax reasons, in a country with a small population. However it would be a legitimate objection to Sir Johnās piece that average EU GDP per capita is not a relevant comparison for the U.K. as the EU includes a dozen or so former communist countries which are effectively developing economies. There are some major European corporates at least in the $1/4 – 1/2 trillion range, including Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Nestle, Roche, AZ, LVMH, Hermes. But I think his conclusion is right – the EU and the U.K. are sclerotic and the economic model needs to change if we are to achieve relative prosperity in the decades to come. Based on measures implemented so far, there was little economic point to Brexit, very little of the Leave agenda has been adopted. On the other hand there are clear frictions and inconveniences. Labour will try, surreptitiously, to unwind Brexit anyway.
Reply. UK GDP per head is comfortable higher than Italy and Spain and similar to France. All are well below the US. The EU/UK have no companies in the world top ten by market value. This reveals the way the EU has missed out on a whole big wave of economic change, the digital revolution. Germany has a bit higher GDP per head thanks to its past successes with vehicles, engineering and chemicals. It is still well below the US and is currently in danger of losing much of its vehicle success to China, Tesla and others who are making the EVs.
August 28, 2023
True. The Nordics are higher than the UK though. The EU’s approach to regulating AI is likely to be highly detrimental.
August 28, 2023
The Nordics did a lot of resettlement, their food is very expensive and their cost of living. There suicide rate is higher than the UK a lot higher in the case of Finland, all is not what it seems.
August 28, 2023
@a-tracy: some of the suicide may be due to a different attitude towards living and dying. E.g. in the Netherlands petitions for “voltooid leven”= “completed life” were very popular. It means allowing older people to take their own life (in a less dramatic way than jumping from a high building).
Countries like Finland and other nordic countries score very high in “happiness” rankings.
August 28, 2023
And their birth rates are collapsing! Lithuanian demographic destruction continues apace. Births in the first seven months of 2023 down 11+% compared to the same period 2022. Also worse than first six months ~9.5% decline. TFR on track for worst ever at ~1.15, roughly the same level as Spain.
Finnish births down ~4.6% in the first seven months of 2023 vs same period 2022. This is an improvement on the first six months when births were down ~4.9%. Still Finland is on track to have a TFR around the same level as Italyās this year ~1.26.
August 28, 2023
Interesting twist on it Peter. The suicides in Finland have become fewer but the rates over the age of 20-40 and 40 – 64 are high for a country at the top of the āhappiness rankingā. Immigration is only 4% there and an OECD chart I read said 28% of those arrived in the last five years so they are not dealing with the housing problems and high immigration housing costs we are presented with in the UK.
August 28, 2023
or like us, stopping farming to concrete over for immigrant homes?
August 28, 2023
No. Irelands ultra low Corporation tax, which the EU seeks to overturn, has caused it to be per capita better off than the US. I donāt think they yet include the asylum seekers in that number crunch.
You will certainly have your way and be a state dependent nation like the Scandinavians. That is your right. We donāt want to join you and want to take the opposite route.
August 28, 2023
Peter
If Irelandās EU membership led to it pulling ahead of the US, as you suggest, why is the rest of the EU performing so badly?
August 28, 2023
@Barbara: there are at least 10 EU countries with a better GDP per capita than the UK. Your question should have been: How come that the UK, which entered the EU together with Ireland perform so poorly in comparison. An EU membership doesn’t prevent a country to have a better GDP per capita than even the USA. Now that one of them, the ROI is still an EU member it makes sense that this blog suggests a lower company tax rate for the UK. But even if that happens, the ROI based companies have a single market of 450 million people, Many times more than the UK’s internal market.
August 28, 2023
āYour question should have been: How come that the UK, which entered the EU together with Ireland perform so poorly in comparisonā
Perhaps because, as a net contributor, we had to finance them?
August 28, 2023
The rule is 1% of your GDP.
With a higher GDP per capita, Ireland wuld automatically contribute more per capita than the UK.
August 28, 2023
Not really difficult to understand Peter, Ireland is given preferred status in the EU, allowed to undercut their EU partners dramatically on corporation tax, it wasnāt so long ago we had to bail them out but it suits the EU to have them seen to be more successful for now. However, they donāt pay their 2% GDP into NATO for world peace and protection. Itās just the EUs own little tax haven for now, Rishi went along to his G7 buddies meeting and stitched our businesses up.
August 30, 2023
PvL – this is interesting https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/united-kingdom
It doesn’t seem to have such a downer on the UK.
Ranks us as
#4 for Entrepreneurship.
#8 Best Country overall
Income Equality
Netherlands #9 (#12 Best Country Overall)
UK #15
Ireland #14 (#23 Best Country Overall)
Now I wonder what causes our Income inequality statistics. Is it the high number of people working in the Public Sector? The High Number of International footballers? The top 3 world-ranking Finance Sector? Down at the average grassroots region I’d love to know how the North West for example compares to the top 3 nations in the list, or Scotland or Wales and is it London that distorts the figures for us. A new rabbit hole for me to jump down.
August 28, 2023
Culture is not sufficiently altered by tax rates to make much difference though. To emulate American business success we would need wholesale cultural change and where would that leave us?
August 28, 2023
Formula 57,
Learning fom Sir Francis Drake to our overall benefit.
August 28, 2023
Gosh. It looks like the millions of “highly-qualified, highly-skilled” immigrants the Westminster Uni-Party has been shoehorning into the country for the past 20 years haven’t cut the mustard.
I guess they’ll just have to import another 10 million or so. The Not-a-Conservative-Party is certainly doing its best to do just that. It’s the only thing they do seem to be doing their best to achieve.
August 28, 2023
D – The millions: Official H O stats show that 7.2 million applications for the EU Settlement Scheme were received up to 31/3/23 with 7.1million having been concluded.
Heard earlier today ( UKG minister ) the UK has, with a great deal of effort & pride, managed to resettle now a large majority of the 25.000 legal / scheme based Afghans brought to the country in permanent accommodation with around 400 per week being housed. On the other hand, we still read from time to time from other commentators & individuals that we should do more. I recall that the original intention was that 20.000 would be resettled over 5 years so our progress so far seems not to deserve the criticism it appears to get.
We read that some councils are purchasing housing to accommodate legal refugee arrivals; one such example in the news repeatedly recently where a council is accessing funding from the UKGās LAHF (Local Authority Housing Fund- totalling Ā£ 500 million availability nationally ) together with its own funding, with Ā£millions earmarked, to purchase some properties on a new housing estate ( reported to be in Lincolnshire )
With regard to permanent social housing placements for illegal arrivals in councilsā areas I suspect that there are no formal overall statistics kept or available and if they are then maybe they could be considered not a matter of public interest. I could be wrong.
It seems a number of other debt ridden councils are likely to declare bankruptcy pretty soon and at an unprecedented rate adding to those that have already done so not that long ago. No doubt all sorts of reasons for the severe strain on finances, two cited as being the demand for childrenās social care services and inflationary pressures but the survey ( of 47 councils ) mentioned in the article read, reports that a number were councils of the North, Midlands & South Coast.
August 28, 2023
The ongoing US Senate investigation into UFOs, at which many high ranking military whisteblowers and Pentagon officials with impeccable security clearance have discussed the recovery of crashed alien craft, is informative.
Much of their testimony – delivered under oath – has concerned the reverse engineering of technology found inside these craft. Having access to advanced alien technology has clearly given the US tech companies their edge.
The Americans also have a well developed venture capital industry that is lacking here. Entreprenurs in the UK are knocked and obstructed at every turn and if their companies do succeed, the government encourages them to be sold off, as it brings in foreign currency
The discussion of UFOs has now entered the mainstream; the days when trained military observers would not report sightings etc for fear of damage to their careers are gone.
Reply I do not wish to get dragged into debates about UFOs. the authorities have not stated they have identified any such alien craft, let alone reverse engineered them.
August 28, 2023
Were it not for divine agency, there would be no minds on earth to create technology.
August 28, 2023
Good point, SG, about innovation in Britain being bought up by the Americans. US capital has the power to crush any competition in countries that allow it to.
August 28, 2023
So, nothing to do with our slavish adherence to NetZero nonsense which the rest of the World seems to ignore?
And all for <1%
August 28, 2023
Indeed just 1% but not only that a bit more CO2 plant food is a net benefit anyway, there is no CO2 caused climate emergency (it is just one of millions of things that affect the climate), the solutions they push EV, wind, solar, walking, heat pumps, burning wood at Draxā¦ properly accounted for save no sig. CO2 anyway, finally China, India, Africaā¦render the policy bonkers
August 28, 2023
Render the policy bonkers (this even if CO2 were causing a climate emergency I meant). It is not even the most sig. āgreenhouseā gas. Furthermore even if the climate did require cooling reducing CO2 is not the most effective method anyway, How many reasons do people need to see this policy is insane? Spending trillions on a war against a harmless net beneficial gas is either a deluded group thing religion or more likely a scam, con-trick for more taxes and vested interests!
August 28, 2023
I see 2 windmills in Norfolk are advertised for sale as an āinvestmentā – the investment generates Ā£450k pa. So at least we know that these windmills generate something, whether the wind blows or not.
August 28, 2023
Would be good to know how many MWh of intermittent irregular energy they actually deliver for that Ā£450k PA of mainly subsidy. Also what the likely maintenance and depreciation costs are and the costs of the grid connection & maint, dep. of that too.
August 28, 2023
Windmills scrapped two hundred years ago for reliable coal fired power stations to make our country wealthy and to help the rest of the world. Tories bring our nation back to the dark ages, cold hungry and poor!
August 28, 2023
Yes. I might enquire and get accurate detail that they would not otherwise give. Estate Agents have to answer honestly.
August 28, 2023
So nothing to do with our adherence to NetZero nonsense, which the rest of the World seems to ingnore, and all for <1%?
August 28, 2023
If you’re referring to the extra Ā£trillions the UK taxpayers are going to pay …You’re correct
August 28, 2023
Rather than reduce corporation tax to entice global companies to invest here, how about doing it to help home grown business?
Or is the object to attract global companies with subsidies, whilst the government spends money like water and taxes its domestic business into the ground?
Can the UK not generate its own prosperity, or is it dependent on foreigners to do that?
August 28, 2023
Low taxes would benefit all, including UK companies. It is just having them here would be icing on the cake.
August 28, 2023
We won’t have progress until we have a new Chancellor.
The Republic of Ireland? We were in the perverse situation of once having to borrow, to lend to a country that hated us. And, until leaving the EU, we were also subsidising the ROI’s development while it had a higher GDP/capita than us. I’d happily see us undercut the country in every way possible.
August 28, 2023
No chance with the two buffoons in charge running the country. Sunak has already said he doesnāt want to compete with Europe. I agree we wonāt have progress until we have a new Chancellor but I would add Prime Minister to that. The pair of them have to go and go now. What are the handful of true Conservatives in the party such as yourself waiting for John? Anhililation at the next GE?
August 28, 2023
I’m afraid that’s a given at the next election. Too many lies and betrayals. Who’d believe a word they said or any manifesto promise? Anyone with half a brain won’t be voting for self destructing legacies. They will continue with mass immigration, collapsing health and public services and massive debt. We need REFORM!
August 28, 2023
Totally agree. The Reform party are the true Conservative Party now. John is in the wrong party.
August 28, 2023
Maybe we should stop funding foreign space rockets, vastly over generous social security hand outs and being a sanctuary to the entire world?
We could then invest those vast sums in tech research and development and possibly incentivise the resulting companies to stay rather than sell up to foreign buyers or move?
August 28, 2023
Gets my vote
August 28, 2023
Cut the state in half and at the same time and have serious review and reform of the NHS who have the same more funding than France and USA with worst/awful service provision and outcomes. Whilst we’re at it halve the number of politicians of all persuasions and remove the unwanted and unneeded EU driven Mayors.
Still no Tory reform of the selection processes (only 14 years in office) brought in by Bliar/Mandelson etc for all our Public, Health, Quangos and Emergency services. Woke supporting left wing individuals etc. I see a senior Home Office Official in charge of immigration has left to join a pro migration charity, well who’d have thought it. Not a Tory Government that’s for sure.
August 28, 2023
+1
August 28, 2023
John, totally agree with your thinking on this. Our taxes and regulations have been crippling us. Our lack of people with skills for various sectors from high-tech to engineering are also crippling us. Our energy costs which will continue to spiral higher under NET ZERO policies will also push the high-energy mining, refining and manufacturing work abroad – without which many other sectors cannot exist without relying on long supply chains from unfriendly countries. We’ve got it all wrong and it is time for a major shake up and reversal of policies – those introduce by the EU, sucessive GB governments and our current one. There is also the question of the measure of the GDP per capita which does not look at the the spread of wealth from top to bottom. We do have too many low skilled jobs and too many people who are on benefits. We do need to attract more investment and make more millionaires, but we need to educate and reward the peoplle comng up from the bottom. Hard work should pay and get rewarded. Skilled jobs should pay. Currently however with our open borders policy wages are low, criminality is high and even high skilled jobs have vacancies and high turn-over due to lower wages than the countries you have already mentioned. As for things like NET ZERO from the skilled labour front, we don’t have enough engineers to do it either. Drop taxes, close the borders to both legal and illegal migration, restructure education (and the media that drives much of the behaviour and woke thiinking) and switch back to fossil fuel and nuclear power and centralised rather than decentralised power system. Go 180 on everything the idiots in power across the West have been doing to disadvantage us these last 50+ years.
August 28, 2023
Absolutely on the button. All of this must be undertaken as a matter of urgency. The politicians have no sense of urgency. They have time to note the make of the PMās shoes! (Nadine Dorries).
August 28, 2023
Correct
August 28, 2023
Thatcher did her best when in office but then the Tory party being what it is did its best to try and destroy her legacy though it can be argued that innovation and entrepreneurial acumen has always been regarded in this country as somewhat vulgar. ‘Know thy place’ is still more important than individualism and freedom
When Labour come to power they’ll finally finish the job the Blair-Cameron filth started in 1997 when they go full-on State dependency and totalitarian with UBI, road-pricing and vicious woke barbarity or ESG infect and control.
The Tories have become even more dangerous than the SNP-Labour woke despots
Bring down Sunak who’s a WEF grifter and elect a leader with a small-State libertarian agenda, repeal all speech laws and unleash the energy of individual creativity and drive.
August 28, 2023
What say democracy and fulfilling the desire of the voting people, when of party of government, the conservatives, wonāt even challenge our own civil service, the Mayor of London, international bodies & international treaties
August 28, 2023
Dear Sir John, I don’t think we could disagree with the general point about the factors you list impacting GDP and how these have gone in the wrong direction in the UK. But we do have to take into account that we are not exactly comparing like with like in regard to population count, natural resources, geographical location. Ireland benefited from not being a net contributor to EU funds but the UK was a net contributor. We could say we subserdised Ireland’s financial improvement. Another factor is we no longer have an EngIneering culture like the US, Germany, The Netherlands which does.
We did have this problem when in the EU. Leaving the EU should have forced us to be a bit more self-supporting. But not withstanding we are a democracy the ruling Remain elite has done it’s best to not fully implement the will of the majority. It is suprising we are performing as well as we are considering the mess we are in as seen from the shop floor and the overall incompetance of those in charge to be able to get us out of the mess.
August 28, 2023
The fact that you are using the USA as an example of success when it is in so many ways a basket case shows just how badly modern control freak governments have wrecked our economy and society. If you run any country exclusively for the benefit of corporations and their rich owners you get what we have now and yet every single politician seems hell bent on continuing to make things worse.
August 28, 2023
Our apparent financial lethargy is down to Treasury, BoE ,and Government having a small town bank manager mindset. They war on Del Boy and have a sclerotic attitude to enterprise with a tax regime to ensure against success. None of them have been at the coalface so they are a total sea anchor for the entrepreneurial. Better they depart the field.
August 28, 2023
+1
August 28, 2023
The more regulations the more the economy is dragged down, and we have had more than enough stifling laws and diktats to destroy our competitivity.
By now we should have removed all the inept EU laws and reduced the many others that sap our economic potential – Instead we get politicians play acting, promises and more inept painful regulations.
It will be interesting to see what the GDP numbers are for 2023 – I suspect they will be very sour in comparison to 2022, considering what is happening to Western economies. Future prospects look no better, as big government intends to take over every aspect of our lives, legislating what we should be doing, from birth to death as well as how we should think.
By then people will have no interest at all in the GDP figures.
August 28, 2023
Regulations and too much sympathy for shirkers and hard luck stories. The American dream involves helping yourself
That is the differences
August 28, 2023
But sadly, your final word, ‘Success’, is an anathema to our ruling elite. Their goal for their subjects is drab uniformity.
August 28, 2023
To compare us /EU to the US is telling but disingenuous as Sir JR knows. They do not have the stifling welfare state comfort blanket leading to our risk averse approach, instead creating an enterprise risk accepting population/economy.
Any attempts to do similar in the U.K. would be political suicide.
August 28, 2023
The answer simple one set up (the UK/EU) is about control and dictating to the people by unelected unaccountable bureaucrats(that now includes the UK, big time) who work for their own personal self gratification. The other (the US) no matter how flawed runs as a democracy(to bureaucrats it is democracy that is flawed), while some with power might get ahead of themselves, the majority, the people, are still released to peruse happiness and personal endeavours.
The UK just as with the EU fights democracy, holds it back and bypasses it at very chance. There is a concept that only what the bureaucrats define as āelitesā have the right to rule.
August 28, 2023
Frankly SJR I have grown weary of all this financial pathology we are fed, explaining economic death.
I want to see and hear a positive plan towards financial success. You try, but government does not. Opportunities are out there in the World almost always, I want to see us creating the incentives and lack of barriers to get out there and take advantage. How much increased investment and national income would be generated if the tax regime was designed to encourage it rather than predate on it. I want us to become the Singapore/Gibraltar of Europe, but this does not ensue from a Parliament of lawyers and PEPs.
August 28, 2023
The UK (and possibly the EU) are past the tipping point of too much socialization of responsibility and too little individual self responsibility.
Our public spending on the expanding NHS, social care and in general “safety nets”, has expended the state role to the point of unsustainable situation where the public sector is overwhelming the private sector and spiraling state budget.
Sunak’s inability to deal effectively with illegal immigration is large and growing expense, all together the parliament has agreed to fund too much for the ability of the public and the results are being seen now.
August 28, 2023
In 2021, the UK signed away the right to set corporation tax below 15% by agreeing to the OECD led campaign for countries to commit to a minimum rate. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58847328
Ireland wouldn’t sign at first but then did so when the wording was changed from ‘at least 15%’.āThe BBC leave me unclear as to how the wording change helped Ireland. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-58832429
Ireland’s 12.5% corporation tax rate remains for ‘small’ companies, those with turnover of ā¬750m or lower which is all but a few dozen, I think, which pay the ‘large’ rate of 15%.
Is Britain free to set corporation tax to 12.5% like Ireland given the OECD agreement?
August 28, 2023
āI am not suggesting we should instead have sought a close political link with the US or should have accepted their law codes. Better would have been to make our own lawsā
That is exactly the core of the UK is flawed. The desire for Political links is naive and plain silly. Its a dog eat dog world, those other Countries that bang on about NetZero, entertain the next version of COP are themselves refusing to damage their own countries in pursuant of this political figment. But, they want the political clout to dictate to others.
Having what passes as elections for MPās to create our legislators, then refusing them their job. No law should be on the UK Statute that hasnāt been originated by our MPās cannot be amended or repealed by our MPās. Think about it, what other job does an MP really have to do? If we cant accept MPās as the UKās legislators we might as well get rid of them.
Then there is the Law itself, a subtle difference between the free people of the World and those enslaved is as simple as the Laws creation its self. The EU doctrine -nothing is ālegalā unless the unelected unaccountable bureaucrat has deemed it so, in other words all rights are removed from the people at birth. The only to be awarded as a prize if the unelected unaccountable deem it so ā the Napoleonic system. Then there is English law (Not now used in the UK), nothing is illegal unless the free democratically elected Legislators, MPās, have deemed it to be illegal. One is about ever evolving progress the other is about control.
The UK as with the EU is about Control, not about releasing the ābest of the bestā from all of us.
August 28, 2023
From the media
“Suella Braverman warns of ‘forces’ trying to sabotage Rishi Sunak’s small boats pledge” Hint, the UK Parliment its Legislaors are not the ones creating what passes for UK Law – they are dictated to by others. So are given the run around. Are our MP’s 100% that bad that they cant make, amend or repeal UK Laws? Again if the answer is they cant we need to get rid of them they superfluous window dressing.
August 28, 2023
It is very hard to know for certain why one country has a significantly higher GDP per capita than another. UK at US$56k is much higher than the Euro area’s US$40,755 and the EU’s US$37,150 (World Bank 2022). Sir John highlights Ireland’s untypically high figure and attributes it to low taxation.
Our World in Data shows a scattergam of GDP/capita vs tax revenue as % of GDP (for 2020) which shows a positive correlation between them, ie higher GDP/capita correlates with higher taxation. But across that general trend there is a wide spread and Ireland stands out as Sir John says. But Luxembourg has 30% higher GDP/capita than Ireland and 79% higher tax revenue.
I would argue that in addition to low taxes, investment is also attracted by an abundance of human capital: resourceful, hard working, skilled people. Most venture capitalists know that the quality of the people in a company, given any particular tax environment, is fundamental to success. UK simply does not invest in its human capital by training its own people in the skills most needed by enterprising businesses. It imports cheap labour instead and there is no cap on immigration. The UK needs to put in place incentives to train and employ its own people in preference to importing from overseas. This is what Australia does and its GDP/capita is nearly 50% higher than the UK’s. Taxation is also lower and the two go together.
August 28, 2023
This is a particular tragedy because we birthed the tech modern world. I will jump the gun and point the finger at Wilson who strangled our potential trillion Ā£ tech companies ICT for example, by undertaking to buy British no matter what. So they rested on their laurels and fell back fast.
Then of course he destroyed āthe Ā£ in your pocketā and all those with the white heat of technology in their hands went to America to deploy it there. Socialism and nihilism in the U.K. since the war, implemented by all political parties has killed all hope.
The opportunities that have be denied Britain, in the capabilities of her own people, are heartbreaking.
August 28, 2023
Our host constantly points out the route we could easily follow to greater growth and prosperity, yet so-called Conservative governments ignore the obvious and seem contentvto allow our continuing decline. The corporation tax issue is the one that alarms me the most. The cost to the Treasury to match Ireland’s 12.5% rate would be minimal yet Sunak and Hunt have raised it to double that! I would signal an intention to drp it to 10%
Sunak and Hunt’s policies are completely inexplicable when the effect would probably be a net increase in the tax take.
August 28, 2023
āThe truth is the US has set a legal, tax and educational framework that has produced all the great non Chinese world companies of the digital age. Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Netflix, Meta and Nvidia are the US giants that have generated so much cash, made so much investment and created so many jobs, boosting US success.ā
Also because US energy has been cheap, reliable, abundant and secure.
The UK and the EU, with their ridiculous following of the CAW cult are going to destroy their economies chasing Net Zero.
Although we were promised on P19 of the Net Zero Strategy ā Build Back Greener :
āOur power system will consist of abundant, cheap British renewables, cutting edge new nuclear power stations, and be underpinned by flexibility including storage, gas with CCS, hydrogen and ensure reliable power is always there at the flick of a switch.ā
We now find that the CCC are advising us preheat our homes during the day and to not heat our homes in the evening because of insufficient renewable power and to prevent overloading the grid, using the excuse to reduce our CO2 emissions.
How can our industry exist with supplies of expensive and intermittent renewable power?
BTW, I donāt how the CCC know that there will be more wind energy in the mornings and afternoons compared to the eveningsā¦There is certainly less solar power at night….
August 28, 2023
And in the meantime Sir John goes on his merry way, ignoring the elephant in the room and pretending that everything is Hunky Dory!
What will it take to get him to admit that itās not fine, far from it, no doubt his intentions are admirable but the country is collapsing around his ears and heās still trumpeting that everything is fine, however we see with our own eyes the reality and we donāt like what we see
Reply I am campaigning for change. I have not said everything is fine!
August 28, 2023
Reply to reply
despite all your staunch efforts and hard work no one is listening
It must be extremely frustrating to put in mildly
Iām definitely not an economist but I could fix things in a couple of days by just carrying out the 2019 manifesto and the true tories would be in power for the rest of this century
After all it delivered an 80 seat majority
Thereās no will to deliver a victory, as Iāve said before, the plan is to destroy our country, and the mission has been accomplished, the public sector is larger than the private sector, the part that supplies the taxes and prosperity mind you the amount of tax I provide by way of VAT Iām not far behind
Sunak doesnāt need the job, heās wealthy enough
August 28, 2023
Corbyn and a few careful lies secured that majority.
August 28, 2023
Another island nation, Singapore, has a per capita GDP of $82,794,000 putting all of us to shame.
So what are we doing so wrong that they are doing so right?
August 28, 2023
In a word………………..WELFARE in all it’s forms. Sucks the life out of all taxpayers, that’s the 46% who are net payers and the Tory’s refuse to take action! Bit like the pretendy actions on the boat people. Doing nothing is easy. Taking hard actions can be tough. We need REFORM.
August 28, 2023
you want DECISIONS? Living in the wrong country mate!
August 28, 2023
They are deploying the system be bestowed on them. We abandoned it.
August 28, 2023
As the energy producing countries are now all in BRICS and ditching the USD, no longer needing to buy US treasuries, the USD is about to come up against reality and its own debt. The USD will fall as demand disappears and inflation, etc will take hold, destroying US PPP.
It is critically important that the U.K. is totally independent of both the failed EU and the about to fail USA. We need to restore our own inquisitive interest in the world without seeking to dominate any part of it other than our own islands.
We are beginning to realise that we are engaged in an existential cultural war which we are losing. Who knows if European identity will be allowed to survive as a minority group in Europe?
We need to start looking facts in the face and move the lunatics to the asylum- there is no time to debate whether a man is a man or not.
August 28, 2023
We own a lot of US Debt.
August 28, 2023
Yes, but not as much debt as Germany owns in the EU. We are in trouble but as usual, not as much trouble as everyone else – in the west.
Go east young man ā¦.
A friend sent me pictures of āThe English Parkā in Yerevan – plain trees, Coldstream guards painted on the walls. We need to live up to the standards of those who made us!
August 28, 2023
As soon as we have a successful company we seem to sell it off to the first foreign bidder. Maybe we should follow Germanyās example and ban this practice.
August 28, 2023
Christine
Absolutely correct, we had a successful Chip manufacturer, AMD (?) and it was sold off
August 28, 2023
ARM
August 28, 2023
Timaction
I was close, do I get a point for a near miss?
August 28, 2023
no – compare AMD & ARM not in the same game.!
August 28, 2023
Yes.
August 28, 2023
correct.
August 28, 2023
We canāt ban it. We have to sell everything to fund the massive amounts of money which leave the country.
People still tell me āwe have so much – we donāt deserve itā. How do we communicate to them how poor they are?
August 28, 2023
Isnāt our government doing the opposite of Ireland? Liz Truss had the right ideas but your partyās coup against her and the installation of this useless PM have permanently damaged your future prospects. Maybe you should ask them for the reasoning behind this. I can only think they are following orders from a higher authority.
August 28, 2023
Could it be your governments policy of net-zero and high taxation ?
August 28, 2023
The USA is on the decline. Itās the BRICS nations that have recently expanded considerably, this barely getting a mention in the media, which you need to be wary of and perhaps emulate. They donāt tolerate all this net zero nonsense or allow their countries to be overrun by illegal immigrants. They remain focused on knocking the US off its pedestal and growing their economies. They are buying up gold and will soon challenge the dollar as the reserve currency. China and Russia now have control of much of the mineral resources in Africa. Your lot are asleep at the wheel trying your best to please all the wrong people.
August 28, 2023
Christine – Yes the USA under its present Deep State control is in decline however when Donald J Trump is “officially” back in office and HE WILL B E BACK IN OFFICE, the situation will change world wide.
Are you aware of NESARA / GESARA and the QFS?
Do not forget, if the the USA fails we are ALL slaves to the NWO. However the USA will not fail and will return stronger and better so have faith, turn off the TV and do your own research.
August 28, 2023
Yes the problem is actually a very few people in the west. We need to circumvent them and get back on track. But the USA has lost the reserve currency and the petro-dollar. That is the cost of Biden. They will have to work very hard and they canāt afford to carry the dead wood. Just like us!
August 28, 2023
I think the root of the problem is the abuse of trust over the last 20 to 30 years. From Tony Blair’s successful attempt to attract immigrants from all over the world, and they are still coming, to the dishonesty in Parliament refusing to accept the EU referendum result and really making Brexit work, to the blunt refusal to accept that the UK cannot afford the size and cost of the government, equally the refusal to do anything about it, to the still unbelievable Covid lockdowns, clearly based on what the Heath Secretary and his advisers felt, not based on careful analysis and examination of the facts, to the nonsense of Net Zero, where ignorant MPs vote and make decisions which are incredibility expensive, again with no desire to analyse and examine the facts carefully.
In addition, the BBC is no longer a trusted source with its constant bias, but again the government does nothing about it!
Sir John, you are a conservative but how many of your party agree with you? The PM and Chancellor certainly don’t! We are crying out for proper leadership and vision, but we get nothing.
August 28, 2023
GDP per capita does not take into account the effects of exchange rate fluctuations which is why to compare the prosperity of countries, GDP per capita at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is the correct measure.
Our problem as a country is that we have never had a government or civil service, infested as they are by Arts graduates, that valued science and technology and was determined to retain those companies that were presently successful or were the harbingers of future success. If they had they would have smashed GEC, a toxic unpatriotic disaster, and would not have allowed a Japanese hedge fund to run off with ARM Holdings which is now destined to be owned by the USA like so many other small companies with potential in science and technology.
The chaotic and hyper-expensive response of the government to the covid scam with its rush to give emergency authorisation for a so-called vaccine with no pharmacological activity apart from dangerous and lasting side effects together with closing the economy is a typical example. Don’t forget to get the jab1, jab2, jab3, jab4…jabn, by the way: new variants are constantly under development.
August 28, 2023
Having spent most of my career working for US tech companies. I have always thought that living in an enormous single market/currency/language/regulatory framework, country gave US companies a great start and enabled them to grow very quickly to a sustainable size. This coupled with strong rule of law, very competitive marketplace and government purchasing enabled the very good ones to get to a dominant size quickly.
Europe has the disadvantage of multiple languages and, since we left, has become a more fragmented and difficult environment to grow a tech company.
August 28, 2023
….and employment law frustrates what a ruthless employer would like to do. No such problem with US companies.
August 28, 2023
Are the figures at Purchasing Power Parities?
August 28, 2023
No.
August 28, 2023
Not sure what value such comparisons have. The EU incudes a wide range of very different countries.
Ireland has a population of 5 million. We are 70 million. We have outsourced manufacturing and have lots of low value service industry jobs. As for the USA, who would want to be poor, black or ill in that country?
Itās a shame we have successive governments committed to so called āfree tradeā that any UK company that is a huge success is allowed to be sold to foreign buyers.
August 28, 2023
There’s a lot more to Ireland than a low corporate tax rate. On the weekend fifty thousand Americans flew into Dublin just to watch an american colleges football game played at Aviva stadium ‘US Navy vs Notre Dame’ also watched by millions on TV back home in the States I suppose all followed by a few dublin guinness and Irish coffees.. it takes more than low corporate tax rates to do it and if you don’t know by now well then I’m not going to explain. Murphy
August 28, 2023
Southern Ireland is the most corrupt country within the EU.
August 28, 2023
would that be the politicians, officials, the people?
Did you study the competitiors in detail?
August 28, 2023
I’ve just spent a number of days in Manchester, a city I lived in when I was younger. I was able to see clearly the cumulative changes the political classes and public sector have made to the city over the last decades. And I am in a position to compare and contrast with competitor cities here and abroad. The news is not good. Vast amounts of public money spent on counter productive nonsense. Vast impediments put in the way of the productive sectors of the economy. (Sentence left out Ed) The city centre drowned out by a religion of peace ramming their view of the world down everyone elses throats with loud amplified sound, and the LBGTQWERTY+++ crowd partying (although granted it was pride week or month or whatever) loudly. The normal routes from A to B completely blocked to cars to force them into long diversion and extra journey time, big long cycle ways with physical separation (which will be invisible in a light dusting of snow so that many vehicles will get damaged) with mixed uptake. So many electric bikes and scooters that are so much faster than pedal cycles that they sometimes dont want to use the bike lanes as one with slow down the other. So many wanting to go the opposite direction to the cycle lanes or turn where they would be prevented by the cycle lanes that they dont bother, they stay on the road or barge through the supposedly pedestrian paths. A complete nightmare for anyone with children or elderly relatives on foot. Trams that are doing not much that the buses were not doing far better before the trams at far less cost. Cops putting massive resources into stopping street traders selling to the LGBTQWERTY++ crowd, while open drug dealing going on outside the betting shops. Lots of shops in areas that cars no longer allowed to visit boarded up and shut. Big buildings that were once software houses paying vast amounts of tax are now hardly used, and being desperately let to anyone who will pay ting amount for a small corner. None of these planning decisions, policing decisions, etc were ever in any parties manifesto, its all nonsense fashions THAT SIMPLY DONT WORK AND THE EVIDENCE IS RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF EVERYONE.
We are being governed by idiots.
August 28, 2023
IG – ALL part of the Globalist Plan. CONTROL the minnions. You are irrelevant.
August 28, 2023
I used to love Manchester, going shopping there every Saturday, the Chinese restaurants, bowling alley at Belle Vue, ran a business there, glad to sell up and get out. Too many high rises now without parking crammed together, too much concrete without trees and the changed road systems are a nightmare and not just at rush hour. The Manchester Health Trust has the longest waiting lists in the Country, families no longer able to get social houses with reasonable rents, priorities elsewhere, so couples renting in high price tiny private homes. The only bright spot is Man City helped a little to rejuvenate Beswick, Bradford Mcr and Philips Park, the tram did help to connect Bury but cut off Cheshire as there is now only a longer train journey or a transfer at the now dead Altrincham that the tram ended as a retail centre.
August 29, 2023
I tried to visit Altrincham but nowhere available to park at all, nowhere, all the streets full of cars, the tiny car parks full. At least Didsbury still has some parking, and you can visit by car still, and is rewarded with the roaring trade their expensive shops are doing.
September 1, 2023
Car Parks, was the start of Altrincham’s decline, and the tram to Manchester. I no longer go. There were three very large FREE car parks attracting shoppers from all over Cheshire, all a short walk distance into town with little ginnels and shops all along that walking route. Successful shops on the main road near the car parks and a great central retail centre with a House of Fraser that used to sell furniture, Debenhams, M&S, and large Boots, now only M&S has survived.
It got sold out to two large supermarkets, which built on the free car parks, so you could only stay 2 hours (it got put up to 3 hours, but it was too late to stop the rot) if you shop with them, leaving no time to get into town to get your hair cut or have a decent shop and mooch around with lunch, and maybe cinema visit. The price of the central car park went sky high. The House of Fraser used to reimburse people for parking but had to stop as footfall dropped, then it shut completely. All the little family retail shops in the ginnels closed down.
You won’t find parking on the streets for free because that’s where all the tram users try to park, causing much upset to local residents, hence more double yellow lines and resident-only parking permit areas.
September 1, 2023
I used to live there, in my days there, there was lots of parking, for residents and visitors alike. Even then there were many shared houses with 6 cars to a house, but still masses of space for cars.
I dont think anyone with a normal job needing a car could live there now in a terraced house.
It’s such a shame.
National Trust are doing a poor job of running Dunham Massey park too.
None of this done with the support of the majority of the voters, its all chip chip chip little by little change by an anti car public sector, determined to throw money away at nonsense that is counter productive to an efficient economy.
September 1, 2023
I meant Wilmslow not Didsbury. Sorry.
August 28, 2023
IG – ALL part of the Globalist Plan. CONTROL the minnions as they are irrelevant.
September 2, 2023
If the conservatives had a clue they would be taking electoral advantage by coming out strongly against massive spend on cycle lanes, and lots of the nanny state anti driver agenda. There is a groundswell of voters who hate the money wasted by labour councils on this, and the ridiculous environment we end up with where ambulances cannot get through and so much more.
August 28, 2023
The USA under its present Deep State control is corrupt along with the EU.
I do not have any concern regarding the comparison of figures of GDP at this particular time. The time to possibly be concerned is once Donald J Trump is ” Officially” back in the office and HE will be back in office. The US Swamp will be cleared and the EU will collapse. PANIC will ensue world wide which I look forward to.
August 29, 2023
Paul – I will say a prayer for you – God bless
August 28, 2023
Tory Party survival plan:
1) Name Boris Johnson as the candidate for Nadineās seat
2) He wins the by-election by promising root and branch reform of the Tory Party and Civil Service – now that Covid is out of the way. He appears as an avenging angel ready to rescue the country he loves etc.
3) There is a coup that puts him back as PM and he clears out the Aegean stables.
4) He wins election in late 2024 with a much reduced majority.
If that were to be done, it needs to be done now.
August 28, 2023
Oh, and he appoints Liz Truss as Home Secretary to āstop the boatsā.
August 28, 2023
Boris is no longer a winner because of the green lunacy he has spouted.
Ordinary voters want some common sense.
August 28, 2023
You are under the mistaken impression that green lunacy is unpopular. It isnāt. Rightly or wrongly, most people buy into it.
August 28, 2023
Mr Johnson is marmite, certain to maintain the division.
August 28, 2023
Yes, but he has a solid core of people that love him. You only need 24% to vote for you to get a big majority.
August 28, 2023
Mike
Johnson is not going to be anyone’s saviour and I cannot believe that so many people are deluded over him.
He and Sunak trashed the country and you want him back ?
August 28, 2023
Good lord, no! I was playing devilās advocate. I could not care less about the Tory Party. I am slightly concerned that the forthcoming Labour landslide will give us something even worse.
Seriously, without recommending or endorsing Johnson in any way, I do believe the Tories have one, very slim chance of avoiding an electoral wipeout – and that is Johnson. He can legitimately claim he couldnāt get things done because of Covid and, letās face it, Partygate is a distant memory.
August 28, 2023
Mike
It does not matter which colour rosette they wear, they ALL take their orders from ‘others’. MP’s are just the ‘Middle Management’
September 1, 2023
I’d prefer Boris come out to support Hall to get elected into London and actually get his hands dirty rebuilding his reputation as a person only interested in himself.
Yes, I do think he would be a great help in getting out the London vote.
August 28, 2023
The ruling class of the west has no political economy whatsoever. They are confused when their āplansā fail. Here is a basic and classic example from Bild which published details of Scholz and Macron’s conversation about Putin: the German chancellor regretted that the Russian president had not mentioned anti-Russian sanctions during their bilateral communication.
The newspaper does not specify when exactly Scholz spoke to Putin, but the date of 4 March 2022 is mentioned in the communication with Macron.
“Something bothers me more than the talks themselves: he (Putin) does not complain at all about all these sanctions. I don’t know if he did in his talks with you. But he didn’t even mention sanctions”. Macron replied: “Not with me either,” the tabloid quoted the German chancellor as saying.