The UK government found out the hard way that raising taxes on businesses for daring to employ people leads to fewer vacancies and more job losses. Still it refuses to cancel the damaging tax. It does not seem to have learnt that increasing the already high taxes on people with savings and investments drives millionaires as well as billionaires abroad and will result in less tax revenue, not more. Under the 1970 s Labour government it became a damaging brain drain as it was called. Our pop stars joined entrepreneurs in the rush for the exit. When the following Conservative government made major cuts in tax rates on the better off many rich people came back and revenues from the wealthier soared.
The government does understand extra taxes imposed on our exports to the US are damaging and like me would like to get these taxes called tariffs down. It could start by offering to take our tariffs off US exports in return for the US cancelling tariffs. Played right Trump’s tariffs could be an opportunity for freer trade from lower taxes through a deal.As the government knows US tariffs are wrong it should see UK tariffs would be even worse. They are a direct hit on UK consumers.
The last few months have shown just how much economic damage higher taxes by the UK government can do with growth extinguished, inflation up and new jobs cancelled. The US tariffs have led to a big market sell off as investors fear reduced growth and disrupted trade. The Uk government needs to use the excuse of the Trump tariffs to reboot its own approach to growth. As it knows US taxes on our exports are harmful and need reversing it needs to see its taxes on jobs and wealth have already proved to be destructive. Remove these taxes.Take up ideas for saving wasteful public spending from this site and elsewhere without robbing from pensioners and people on disability benefits.
April 6, 2025
Good morning,
This is good advice, and common sense, that Ms Reeves should follow without delay. The Telegraph recently explained, again, why the lesson of the Laffer Curve seems to have been missed or ignored in the recent tax increases, and showed why CGT tax take will actually fall in coming years, the level having been raised in the last budget. The same applies to property stamp duty.
However, what I don’t understand is why our Scandinavian friends, who pay an even higher proportion of national income to the state, live better, and say they are happier than us. What can we learn from them?
April 6, 2025
Well in Scandinavian public services are rather more efficient than ours (not that that is hard as ours are abysmal) this despite absurdly high taxes. Far less debt as a % of GDP, less Covid lockdown lunacy, cheaper energy costs…
April 6, 2025
‘The Uk government needs to use the excuse of the Trump tariffs to reboot its own approach to growth.’
That will not happen. The government will proudly compare American tariffs on the UK to American taxes on the European Union. They will claim this is due to Kier Starmer’s charm and diplomacy in dealing with the Americans.
Nothing else will happen though.
April 6, 2025
Donald Trump is strange. For some reason he secretly seems to prefer Democrats to Republicans. At least at a personal level. And same might stand for Keir Starmer over Tories.
I think that Trump needs a lot of soft, feminine-like reassurance. I think he probably got this from his mother whom he seemed very fond of. And that he had very a tricky relationship with his father. His father was a very TOUGH individual. And I think Donald Trump has many insecurities stemming from his relationship with his father. And this plays out in adult life and how he conducts himself with others.
What Donald Trump likes most in people are people who are STRONG but also CHARMING and KIND. This is how to win him over. NOT being a wimp. Nor being rude or aggressive either (or over kind of Alpha Male which Republicans are like more than Democrats – Democrats can also be ‘nice guy’ wimps). Stands for everyone really. But Donald Trump is a particularly sensitive individual.
Don’t ever underestimate PSYCHOLOGY! It’s key in business (in general including branding), the military – and politics!
April 6, 2025
Indeed a perfect excuse for Reeves’s moronic “let us kill” all growth and reduce the tax take in the medium term budget!
April 6, 2025
Yes, people tend to be content with paying taxes when they see that the money is efficiently managed and well-spent. It’s equivalent to paying for a high quality service at a low price, or donating to charity and seeing the money being used in adding to the health and happiness of local genuinely needy folk.
The current UK Labour bunch waste and waste again on increasing ineptitude and incompetence at taxpayers’ expense.
April 6, 2025
Exactly if only!
April 6, 2025
There is far more private provision in the nordic region especially in health. There’s no substitute for market forces, market pricing mechanisms and competition. It’s true they are highly taxed societies. But as you say they have far lower debt and are in fact very business friendly environments. Bureaucracy is relatively light and markets are competitive.
April 6, 2025
Science demonstrates that most middle-class people are just OK paying 50% tax but once it goes beyond 50%, then people begin to dramatically oppose it. They’re much more comfortable with 40%. And ideally don’t want to be paying more than 20%. This is why 40% for middle-class people and 20% for working-class people is the kind of norm now in the Western World overall.
Whether this is right or wrong doesn’t matter (I want taxes brought right down but that won’t happen because of the way there is so much dysfunctional behaviour in the Western World – stemming from childhood and manifesting itself in addictions, unhealthy relationships, poor mental and physical health, low productivity etc – basically the country needs to focus on how to HEAL people so they can become more functional, productive and better citizens overall and so leading to much lower taxes. No way can politics or economics alone fix this huge problem). It’s the psychology that matters.
What is more important to battle, fro, a political POV, is trying to get value for money for the tax payer.
April 6, 2025
You are speaking only of income tax. We all pay a very much higher percentage of tax than you cite.
April 6, 2025
@PW. I agree with the first part of your comment.
However I saw somewhere that the world happiness index is to be taken with a very large pinch of salt, especially when it comes to Scandanavian jollity. They have markedly higher suicide rates than us (in some cases double), and immigration has blighted Sweden’s social cohesion, in particular. Norway and Sweden have some of the highest rates of alcohol addiction in Europe. Doubtless we could learn from them, but that might also include learning things to avoid, rather than replicate!
April 6, 2025
Those negative things you mention seem to relate to lack of sun (SAD ) and cold. Scotland is worse than Southern England on these measures. Perhaps they should move to more southern climes or southern hemisphere for their 8 months of winter?
April 6, 2025
Good point.
But hard to get rid of these stealth taxes. But we can at least challenge getting value for money.
April 6, 2025
The Scandinavians have higher taxes but are on average wealthier. They also don’t suffer the Marxist uniparty trait of putting other countries first to the detriment of the taxpayer.
Sweden and Denmark have recognised that the electorate are anti immigration and are reversing recent policies by stopping bogus asylum claims and actively deporting them
Ideology trumps common sense where 2TK and his cowboys are concerned. Keep talking growth whilst actively destroying enterprise.
You’re wasting your breath John because the tories are kneeling a the altar of net zero swingeing taxes and kowtowing to higher authority. ie wef, un and encryption.
April 6, 2025
I can testify that higher taxes emphatically don’t make me happier.
April 6, 2025
Peter
Why Scandinavia…
Guess their Civil Service is not 600,000 strong, with most working from Home.
Guess they are not housing illegals in hotels at £145 per person per Night.
For Comparison :
Just got back from a 35 night cruise on Cunard Queen Mary 2, balcony cabin cost £135 per person per night !!!!
Also guess they do not have 25% of the population claiming they are unfit to work.
So many other comparisons.
Etc etc etc.
April 6, 2025
First, it must be decide what government has to do. Defend the nation, police the nation, physically and mentally heal the nation, educate the nation and look after those whose disabilities prevent them from looking after themselves.
The above is what taxes are for. If those we elect to govern could accept such a limitation, and just as important do it well, then the tax burden on industry and the individual could be considerably less. This would lead to a vast expansion of national and individual wealth.
I read that Jeremy Hunt, on a recent trip to Damascus, has had a realisation that getting the spending and taxation balance right could lead to us becoming a Singapore. Bit late Jeremy, but I suppose it is progress. He must have read some of my past contributions here. In the present composition of those who think they govern and most of those who aspire to govern, I see little of this level of visionary thinking. Head offshore against the negative flow onshore, life is too short to await that turbo charged bus on the road to Damascus.
April 6, 2025
Isn’t it strange how so many LibCONs have a Damascene Conversion as soon as they’re out of Office and can’t implement any of it?
I haven’t forgotten that Hunt wanted the UK to implement Covid restrictions properly, like the Chinese. Or that he raised taxes to the highest post WW2, until Reeves was let loose to finish off the job of wrecking the finances of most households in the country.
Damascene Conversion? I very much doubt it. Political expediency, because he can see the way Trump is changing the zeitgeist.
April 6, 2025
+1
April 6, 2025
Apparently the top priority is to save the planet from overheating. If that means deindustrialisation and cutting the UK’s economic growth rate to less than half of what is was before, for six decades after WW2 up to 2008, then so be it, we should be grateful that there has been any growth at all over the past sixteen years.
April 6, 2025
DC:
There is no likelihood of the planet “overheating”. The villain, CO2, the gas of life, is a trace gas that has no effect at all on warming the planet (currently 0.14 degrees C per decade) as shown by Shula & Ott not only theoretically but experimentally.
Why don’t they curb the emissions of the biggest greenhouse gas, hydrogen monoxide? It is between 10 and 100 times more prevalent in the atmosphere and absorbs far more of the planet’ emitted IR radiation?
To quote H.L.Mencken: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
You may be happy to accept abject poverty with restrictions of food, heating and travel in return for our leaders “saving the planet”, but please don’t count me in.
April 6, 2025
snopes.com 01/04/2013 ‘Is dihydrogen monoxide dangerous?’
Dihydrogen monoxide aka water vapour.
April 6, 2025
The government does NOT have to physically and mentally heal the nation. Neither does it have to educate the nation.
Since the government took a hand in these issues we have become sicker and more ignorant.
April 6, 2025
Sunak’s 25% corporation tax is also starting to bite. This needs to be added to the hikes in employers nation insurance and the mayhem arising from Trump’s new tariffs regime which will hit their revenues. Cash flows are under real pressure now. Many businesses won’t survive the storm.
April 6, 2025
Higher tax rates from the absurdly high tax rates left by Hunt/Sunak and the absurd Con-Socialist after they gross incompetence through the Covid lockdowns and their all shall have multiple ineffective and dangerous Covid “vaccines” agenda and their moronic war on tree, plant and crop food. This when a little more CO2 in, on balance a good thing.
Take up ideas for saving wasteful public spending indeed about 35% of it does positive harm (like Net Zero and over regulation and paying people to deter them for working) another circa 35% does no real good and the rest could be done for circa half the cost.
On education for example you should give people education vouchers that they can top up and nearly all schools should be private. The government is idiotically killing private schools with VAT the complete reverse or what is needed. The net zero agenda is insane, the vast subsidies for public transport likely wise. Train fares already very high are only about 50% of the true cost. Benefit payment are out of control and work is just not worth it for many people after rent, NI, tax, loss of benefits and commuting costs. We should also encourage more people to pay for health care with tax breaks to save the dire NHS some money.
The Reeves budget for growth was anti-growth in every way. Then we have the worker rights bill, the war on landlords and motorists, net zero, 20+ new quangos… this governments agenda is even more suicidal than the Sunak/Hunt one.
Now Hunt want Singapore on Thames he says after doing the complete reverse in office and doing nothing to reform the NHS for 5 years either!
April 6, 2025
+1
Not only that, he wanted to implement an even stricter Covid Tyranny, Chinese-style.
April 6, 2025
+1
April 6, 2025
Parents choosing where to spend their Education Vouchers wisely would cause schools to strive toward delivering the best for their children. The finest teachers and schools would thrive. The bad ones would starve toward non-existence.
The Conservative Assisted Places Scheme sensibly recognised that parents who contributed toward their child’s education by paying privately, reduced the burden on the State.
Reduced taxation on Private Medical Insurance did similarly by helping the NHS.
Idiotic Labour opposes the sensible, and favours high tax waste, and waste again.
April 6, 2025
+1
April 6, 2025
Tell that to our (pathetic apology for a) Chancellor. Everything she does leads to beREEVEment instead of growth.
April 6, 2025
“Taxes always do damage” – well very nearly always!
Simple reason you take money off people who have earned it and are generally good at doing this and managing money (certainly far better than is government). This obviously deters some of this activity making it less attractive and leaving them less to reinvest. Then you have the collection and costs then government spend what is left often doing positive harm or very little good and it is spend very inefficiently. Much is spent of propaganda you money stolen then use to lie to you on things like Net Zero, Covid Vaccines, the net harm lockdowns, renewables, EV cars, Heat-pumps…
How can government know how best to spend your money? Your are at the coal face and know you car need repairing and your roof needs fixing and you need a new XYZ machine at work and those are the best thing to spend it on. The government has now such knowledge so they bribe you with your money to buy and EV or a Heat Pump due to Ed’s mad religion.
April 6, 2025
Yet the government cannot even provide a competent NHS, police service, social service, education service, fix the roads and pot holes or take the rubbish away. Then then coerce multiple dangerous and ineffective Covid “vaccines” into people who never needed them even had they been safe and effective (the young and those who had already had Covid).
April 6, 2025
Governments are usually grasping. In my latest Council Tax bill, each of the three tiers of local government (Town, District, County) has raised its tax take by the maximum permitted under law. No question of cost cutting. Police authority, too.
They partly get away with it because a lot of the public have a mindset that government should “keep us safe” (from practically any potential or even imaginary harm) and even provide for us, should we choose not to provide for ourselves. If we had more of a frontier mentality and stronger family structures it would be easier to oppose the ever-increasing grasp of the bureaucratic state and its lower-tier equivalents.
April 6, 2025
No wonder local government are hiking council tax, when every time election comes round the candidates fall over themselves in promising to spend more.
I sometimes wonder whether I should stand for election on a platform of cutting waste and excess spending. But then, like anyone who has this ambition, I’m otherwise engaged in my own successful business.
April 6, 2025
@Wanderer – weird isn’t it when there is a maximum applied to anything, those that cant manage choose the maximum and then pat themselves on the back.
Primarily it is also those that feed of the taxpayer, need the taxpayer to fund their ‘personal’ political terrorism. The personal political choice of DEI, funded by the taxpayer – do they deliver better less costly services or just pander to personal ego?
University fees, a maximum fee is used by all regardless of the quality of the output. And so on
April 6, 2025
The British get taxed when they earn it, taxed when they spend it and now, they get taxed if they save it if they get more than £1000 pa in interest. Many retired folk have money in tax-free cash ISA’s; the interest supplements their meagre state pension.
Reeves is now under pressure from the investment industry, eyeing the £87 billion cash saved in these accounts. They want the money invested in the UK FTSE stock market, which has underperformed global markets for years.
Mostly the only thing your average saver knows about stocks and shares ISA is that they are “risky”. For them, cash ISA’s are rainy day money – now, for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis, paying decent rates of interest
My view is that the retail financial services industry wants the public to be forced into investing in the worst-performing stock market in the world for a reason. They want out. Let Sid take on the risk.
April 6, 2025
People are currently free to invest up to £20,000 in a shares ISA each year, not one penny of which has to be invested in UK shares, which as you point out have performed worse than other deveoped world markets. Use a world ETF, and you can also avoid paying stamp duty tax as well.
April 6, 2025
SG – and now more than ever (before?) taxed when you die, unless you donate it all to charity.
Even a part donation to charity means a little less than the donation made gets passed on!
April 6, 2025
SG
Also remember Inheritance Tax and the fact that any unused Sipp Pension Funds will also be included for tax as well, then the recipient will also be taxed on it again when they withdraw what is left of it.
Thus 40% taken on death, then another 20% at least.
Sure it will not be long until the 25% tax free lump sum will be abolished.
April 7, 2025
I wonder if you could leave it to a Grandchild who perhaps isn’t using their tax allowance each year?
I can’t help feeling this was the long-term plan all along. Get people to defer income into pensions so that the stock and share investment schemes were propped up, say they will be tax efficient, but on retirement, means testing is now being floated as an option, so people will end up paying more than their 40% tax anyway.
April 6, 2025
The Digital Pound will be with us soon. The government will then confiscate our savings for ‘investment’ in infrastructure etc. I think a debt crisis is coming where institutions will refuse to buy new government debt. At which point our personal savings will be raided to compulsorily buy gilts.
April 7, 2025
Mike
Savings raided, Happened in Cyprus a couple of years ago.
April 6, 2025
Unconvincingly, Harold Wilson attempted to mock claims of the Brain Drain as being merely a few pop stars moving overseas to avoid paying tax.
Tit for tat tariffs are like combat in war, as each side escalates into revenge tactics until one decides too much is at stake to continue.
Offering incentives on our buying some US imports might quell the 10% and 25% levels into reverse!
April 6, 2025
The most useful thing the Government could do is to shut down the BBC and OFCOM and allow real political debate to take place.
Because until the apathetic, brainwashed electorate is confronted with some very basic home truths they will not stop voting for political parties which propose nonsense-on-stilts like the Net Zero SCAM.
This Government isn’t going to do what is necessary, any more than the last one did (over 14 years ) and for the same reasons: their Controllers won’t allow it.
April 6, 2025
Donna :
Yes, the fact that the BBC, our state broadcaster, refuses to allow any discussion on climate change and Net Zero, shows it to be shamefully anti-democratic and consequently makes our country a disgrace in the eyes of true democracies.
The Civil Service will never allow the BBC to be privatised or shut down because it is too valuable a propaganda tool. The best we could achieve would be to run the BBC along the Sky model. BBC “news” would be free-to-air and paid for by a much reduced licence fee and the entertainment side financed by voluntary subscription.
April 6, 2025
Can anybody suggest a reliable, UNBIASED, well balanced NEWS channel?
How much our society has lost over the last 30 years….
April 7, 2025
What about Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France Presse. They collect the news and do not put a spin on it.
April 7, 2025
Like the Morning Star?
April 6, 2025
Who do you think their controllers are? And why do they do as they are told.
April 7, 2025
Globalists (ie the WEF) … and because, providing they do what is required, they will be “looked after” with lucrative global roles and therefore personally enriched when they leave Office.
April 6, 2025
Taxes have shaped history, I recommend Daylight Robbery by Dominic Frisbee as a very good read to demonstrate this. The American Civil War was actually fought over tariffs not emancipation.
April 6, 2025
Conservatives don’t understand that either – Sunak increased corporation tax by a massive 6% and tax cutting Truss was quickly removed – they will never dare cut taxes again.
April 6, 2025
Harold Wilson used to like to philosophise that government had two approaches to making the people do what it wanted them to do; the stick and the carrot.
The stick would be more taxes, with the carrot being a promise of a better life if only the people could produce more for export. (My interpretation).
Starmer’s government are still working to this schedule, but without an achievable goal the stick, or extra taxes, becomes a huge bludgeon. Most feel taxes are going up for no good reason and will achieve nothing but more waste.
The carrots dangled in front of us, the promises of a prosperous future, are mere illusions, created out of wishful thinking to keep us in line and compliant.
This government may look like incompetent amateurs but they do have a goal in place with all of the sticks they hit us with, and that has nothing to do with a prosperous future for any of us.
April 6, 2025
No room for the carrots, it is all stick stick stick.
April 6, 2025
+1
April 6, 2025
Carrots for the elite and stick stick stick for the plebs
April 6, 2025
The US tariffs should be seen for what they are. They are a wonderful opportunity.
DJT wants fair trade and so do we. We can therefore negotiate with him to remove these tariffs and the existing obstacles to free and fair trade between us. That outcome would be a win-win for both the US and the UK but especially the UK as we will be heralded by the US as a genuine, intelligent, free trader and a reliable partner. With that re-confirmed we will facilitate even more goodwill from the US eg in the form of an official free trade deal etc.
We will also outperform our competition who stupidly did the complete opposite and engaged in retaliatory tariffs and provoked a trade war none of them can win.
I am a Thatcherite Conservative but I would afford the Labour government much deserved respect if they achieved these outcomes. Carpe Diem!
April 6, 2025
If the Starmer government does enact a free trade agreement it will be because they are cornered like a rat.
All credit will have to go to Trump! He is saving us from the calamity that is Continental Europe too.
April 6, 2025
There has always been a fundamental problem with any Labour government.
They think they can tax and tax again with there being no consequences but that has never been true.
The perfect example is Theeves raid on businesses by increasing NI contributions.
To have increased the rate for all employees and at the same time halved the income point at which the tax is charged was inevitably going to cause great damage and a large loss of low income jobs, particularly in Hospitality and Healthcare. To exempt the state sector like the NHS while applying the higher taxes and wider tax base to private healthcare providers like care homes was crass incompetence. What did she think was going to happen ?
The girl from accounts and complaints should never have been made chancellor : she is just not intelligent enough to hold down the job. Starmer can only have left her in place to protect his own back. She will be gone before too much longer.
April 6, 2025
Two-Tier told us why she was there. “The first woman Chancellor in history.”
Labour has never had a Leader from the DIE Hierarchy. Chancellor was the next best thing.
April 6, 2025
When enough hits the fan she’ll be blamed, quite rightly, and some other leftie will get stuck with the mess.
April 6, 2025
Chris S :
I’m afraid you don’t understand that Socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor.
April 6, 2025
The obvious thing Theeves could have done when she needed more money was to cut back on expenditure, not increase taxes which were already at an all-time high.
Reducing Foreign Aid was at least a token effort but the real solution would have been to cancel Net Zero which could have been disguised as a ten year pause to allow the big polluters to catch up. The amounts earmarked by Miliband are truly staggering and I suspect even a majority of Labour MPs realise that his policies are undeliverable.
Allowing more oil and gas extraction would do wonders for our energy security and greatly increase the amount of tax generated and improve our dire balance of payments position. Leaving valuable oil and gas in the ground is insane. The money saved and taxes genreated would cover all of our increased military expenditure and much else besides. There might even be enough left for some modest tax cuts !
April 6, 2025
“already at an all-time high” and above the point where higher rates will raise less revenue and further strangle the golden goose that lays the eggs!
April 6, 2025
Chris S :
Socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor.
April 6, 2025
Indeed ,but with Oil and Gas companies being taxed at 78% on profits as reported, why would they even bother to invest to search for more gas and oil at great expense.
April 6, 2025
Every penny taken in tax is a penny removed from the economy. Yes, some taxes are needed to pay for our safety, security and maybe education but there is very little after that. The big over-ride is the the Government, the State are not capable of running anything that demands day-to-day results.
April 6, 2025
No reason at all for the state to run education it would be far better if they did not and just gave people education vouchers to spend!
April 6, 2025
When the facts change, I change my mind! If only Starmer and Reeves would learn that lesson, but they won’t.
The US tariffs are an opportunity, not a disaster. Get busy negotiating a tariff-free trade deal with the US to the advantage of the UK, both for our own exporters and, who knows, some EU companies might move to the UK for the tariff advantage.
Then, state that the facts have changed, so the N.I. rise on employers is cancelled with immediate effect. Then, cut the Corporation Tax to 15%. Also, giving 100% tax relief on R & D spending. That will get businesses onside and employing people again.
Then lift the tax-free allowance to £20k, with a pro-rata increase in the other bands and what the economy grow!
April 6, 2025
Trump has addressed an important point – VAT is effectively a tariff on trade. It grew out of wartime austerity – luxury tax, then purchase tax. It has no merit at all.
It always amuses me that every time the purpose of VAT is questioned, the only answer any party politician can give is that it represents £176bn of taxes ‘that would have to come from somewhere else’. Exactly why it would have ‘come’ at all, why the state cannot efficiently cut its expense to match its income – a task the rest of us are forced to manage – never seems to occur to politicians.
Or perhaps it does occur, but they immediately visualise a life with fewer ministerial posts, smaller departments, fewer jobs for politicians, and above all that horror of horrors: Being Less Important.
April 6, 2025
The aim of every government should be never to be mentioned in the news media. At that point they will have succeeded.
Lester Piggott came out of retirement aged 54 to ride in the Breeders Cup. He said it was the ultimate ride – he never moved (he won of course). My dog trainer says when you can walk you dogs and say not a word, you have attained control.
All of this proves that mastery of anything makes it look effortless. All this flapping and running in circles shouting and screaming by the political class is evidence of ineptitude.
April 6, 2025
Whilst my economic reasoning fully agrees with the zero tariff free trade approach I can fully understand the sentiments of millions of unskilled and low skilled workers whose jobs have been offshored to lower cost countries.
These are the people who have not benefited from globalisation and now languish on benefits in post-industrial towns across the first world.
What have our leaders done to address their plight? Given them more benefits and undermined the value of jobs they could do by importing low cost migrant Labour.
It is no wonder they voted in droves for Trump.
What is the free trade low tax solution for the Somewhere’s, John?
April 6, 2025
For the EU to say the imposition of tariffs by the US is appalling and shouldn’t happen is hypocritical.
The EU have had tariffs on textile goods, agricultural products and other commodities for decades to protect vested interests in the EU.
April 6, 2025
If the EU did not have established tariffs and non-tariff barriers there would have been no need for a post-Brexit trade agreement.
April 6, 2025
Exactly – from their point of view. We should have turned our back on them and succeeded economically elsewhere – as Russia has done in response to the sanctions.
April 6, 2025
But Russia isn’t a great example of an economy we want to mimic. Most of Russia is poor except for Moscow, St Petersburg and the oligarchs (although the UK is becoming more and more like that. There are huge swathes or relative poverty in the north of England compared to London (although the SE is relatively wealthy like London).
Vladimir Putin has helped his own inner circle to the tune of billions and billions, as well as Moscow and St Petersburg (but neglected more-a-less the rest of the country). And in fact, Moscow and St Petersburg aren’t that wealthy. London is far, far wealthier. And even Manchester.
April 6, 2025
3% growth in the 1st Quarter 2025.
You are wrong, Purchasing Power Parity shows that Russia is now the 4th richest country. We have Armenian friends in Krasnodar who live very comfortably with a summer house on the Stepp and an apartment in Moscow. Krasnodar Putin a Cherry blossom display to rival Tokyo. Sochi is glorious.
Very low taxes, 13% (I think they have just introduced a higher rate too) and very cheap energy.
Your broad sweep statements re Britain are not quite right either.
April 7, 2025
Russia is a dictatorship that has amassed a fortune from raw materials in the country and distributed this wealth to relatively few people Your analogy is more in line with the economy of say England under King John. But even back then you had Magna Carter to challenge his power – power that had powerful influence over everything including the economy and who benefitted from that.
April 7, 2025
Magna Carta ..
April 7, 2025
Russia is 4th by GDP (thanks to oil, gas and other extracted minerals), 67th by GDP per capita (2025) (UK, 20th), 45th by GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (2025) (UK, 28th).
April 7, 2025
LA, why do you not invest in the Russian stock market?
April 6, 2025
If we look at USA’s GDP per capita, it’s soaring compared to UK
However, Germany is not that much ahead of the UK.
And France is below the UK.
And Sweden can’t be happy Denmark 10% ahead.
And Netherlands particularly strong at nearly 15% ahead of UK
United States 90
Denmark 72
Netherlands 71
Australia 68
Sweden 60
Germany 58
Canada 56
United Kingdom 54
France 50
April 6, 2025
Since at least 2014 we have been conned by all governments who have measured our economic success ( or rather the lack of it ) by GDP, rather than GDP per Capita. This is why the figures say we were getting richer when to most of us, the opposite was obviously true. The Politicians have been allowing in millions of poor people who cost the rest of us thousands in taxes but contribute nothing themselves.
The figures don’t look too bad when measured on pure GDP but the useful table Ed has posted tell a very different story! Looking a little further, our GDP per capital in 2023 was $49,493. Back in 2007, it was $50,398
With inflation, $50,398 would today be worth $99,194, but in the intervening years, the value of the pound has dropped by 44%.
No wonder we feel very much poorer !
April 6, 2025
Good point.
I wasn’t trying to be that scientific. I appreciate there are many factors that reflect real wealth or poverty of a country’s population.
April 6, 2025
Now she has returnd from her very short tri to Israel, perhaps Starmer should appoint Yuan Yang as his Chancellor ? At least she is a real economist and we can assume she has some knowledge of the subject ?
The present incumbent is only fit to handle complaints.
I presume her IN box is bursting at the seams !
April 6, 2025
You assume. Truss is an economist too. Didn’t know that she needed to cut spending to balance her tax cuts.
April 8, 2025
Liz Truss was ousted in a thinly-disguised coup orchestrated by Bailey at the B of E and his friends in the city and the civil servce with the intention of slotting in their preferred candidate, Sunak, whom she had defeated.
If you look carefully, Bailey created a significant problem which could have bankrupted pension schemes which was easily foreseeable and avoidable. Instead he let it happen and Truss paid the price.
If you consider what has happened since, by contrast, Theeves has been allowed to get away with increasing expenditure by £40bn with no come back from the markets – yet. But, she has now run out of wriggle room but nobody but Reform is calling for the sensible solution : “postpone” net zero for a decade which will save many more billions than are needed to reduce expenditure to survivable levels.
Reply There was a market impact. Ten year rate well above highest Truss level
April 6, 2025
“The last few months have shown just how much economic damage higher taxes by the UK government can do with growth extinguished, inflation up and new jobs cancelled.”
So the Civil Servants’ plan is working. Socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor.
They know that CO2 does not control temperature and will admit this when their goal to de-industrialise, complete the transition to electrification and have made us dependent upon China for all our energy infrastructure and strategic goods, has been achieved.
April 6, 2025
Cut VAT, down to 10% or even 5%!
Cut all NetZero, Carbon Capture Subsidies, and Green subsidies!
U turn on NI!
License Oil&Gas in North-sea, and Fracking!
Increase Tax on imported Energy!
Negotiate FTA with USA, ASAP!
Cut regulation, (IR35), reform Planning, and repeal Devolution!
Suggestions?
April 7, 2025
Repeal Human Rights Act,
Rewrite Equality Act to emphasise selection on merit.
April 7, 2025
Dig a bunker if you have a garden, stock canned food for at least a month, unplug that tv/radio. Ignore internet and newspapers. When you re-emerge Trump and Musk might be gone!
April 6, 2025
I see it is being reported that Trump has been approached by more than 50 Countries now, who all want to talk trade.
Interesting that they all want a better deal now that high tariffs are going to work the other way ?
Simple answer I guess they will get, reduce yours on us, and we may do the same for you !
April 6, 2025
Trump announces inward investment of 5 Trillion. Well that was a couple of hours ago, might be more now.
April 7, 2025
Sounds a bit far fetched. Did he say that? I don’t remember him saying that.
April 7, 2025
Mike
Did he say that ?
Yes he did.
Exactly how true that is, we wait and see.
April 7, 2025
The following companies have actually announced:
Johnson & Johnson announced an investment of $55 bn in the US over four years.
Softbank $100 bn over four years, the UAE $1.4 tn over 10 years, TMSC $100 bn + $165 bn in the US over a period not defined, possibly $400 bn on AI development by Oracle and OpenAI. Apple announced $500 bn over a period not defined. NVidia announced 100s of bn over four years.
Which are big sums but not $5 tn and possibly only about an extra $1 tn/year: this should be compared to what has been the FDI into the USA over the last ten years (about $5 tn: for example in 2023, NL invested $717 bn, Japan $688 bn, Canada $671 bn, the UK $630 bn, … bea.gov, US Dept of Commerce, 23/07/2024).
Plus, obviously, if these investments bring new R&D centres and factories to the US, it might take some time (a few months? a few years?) to have them up and running.
April 7, 2025
So what?
Your post is almost unintelligible hefner
April 8, 2025
Rather say you are unable to understand it …
April 7, 2025
DJT said yesterday onboard Air Force One ‘These tariffs next year will bring us $1 tn’.
In the meantime over three days the US companies in the NYSE lost between $4 and $6 trillions. They might get some of it back but it is not clear when and how.
Overall as of today (07/04/2025 09 GMT) the total losses over the various world’s stock exchanges (Far-Asia, Australia, India, UK, Europe, US) appear to be in excess of $9 tn (bloomberg.com).
April 7, 2025
Like others, hefner, you think reductions in the share prices of public companies equal an actual loss.
You only make a loss if you sell at a price lower than you bought at.
Theoretical calculations are irrelevant unless you are forced to sell.
April 8, 2025
Oh thank you Sam for telling me all that …
What about the US pensioners who are getting dividends based on the value of their portfolios? Or who were considering a drawdown?
April 8, 2025
Who said dividends are down.
April 9, 2025
Who said the dividends are maintained? Then how do you think people like seeing their pension pots being 5, 10, 20% lower?
You are so keen on shutting me up that you don’t even think about what you are writing. But given you are only producing ‘flotsam’ …
April 7, 2025
May I suggest that Starmer and his sidekick Reeves do a bit of history reading from the 1970s when the Labour Party last brought us to our knees with what they are pursuing now. Do they never learn?