By the end of the decade, a Polish family is expected to have more annual income and a better standard of living than a British one. A Slovenian, even before that. If you take London out of the equation, the GDP per capita is higher in Mississippi, the poorest American state, than in England. The question of whether the UK has become a poor country (relatively speaking) is in economic debate forums, in the press and on the street. And she doesn’t look out of place.
As the country moves towards elections likely to be held next year (January 2025 at the latest), the economic statistics could not be more bleak due to the cumulative effect of fifteen years of austerity, Brexit and the pandemic. Although unemployment is officially a modest 4.2%, in reality there are 5.4 million people of working age who are out of the labor market and living on state unemployment benefits (with an annual bill of 90,000 million of euros), for whatever reasons. In Blackpool, one in four. In Liverpool and Manchester, one in five. In Birmingham – the second largest city in the country – the City Council has declared bankruptcy.
And it’s not just the statistics, but the everyday reality. Mr. John Smith, to mention an example, has finally managed, after waiting two years (there are seven million people in the queue) to have a hip operation in the pubic health. But his original flight from Greece was canceled due to an error in the country’s air traffic control system that led to the suspension of thousands of journeys, his low-cost airline has not yet given him a seat, and he is running the risk of missing your appointment. On your arrival at Gatwick airport, you will find a strike by passport control staff and a delay of hours to get through immigration, and another on the trains to central London (you will have to pay 150 euros for a Uber ride). The price of his consumer basket has risen by 1,000 euros in the last year, but his salary has been stagnant in real terms for a decade and a half. Her children’s school has been closed after it was discovered that it was built with poor quality cement and is in danger of collapsing, like several thousand across the national geography. Some of their neighbors are among the 11% of compatriots who depend on food banks to avoid starvation. And on top of all that, the taxes it pays are the highest in 70 years.
Brexit, which many are stubborn to continue defending, has cost five points to the GDP according to official data; the pound sterling has devalued by 10% since leaving the EU; foreign investment has decreased by 2.3% in the last year; productivity is one of the lowest in the OECD and there are 330,000 workers missing, especially in the service sector; growth is stunted, with the consolation of fools that Germany’s is even lower; every day they close 50 shops; the cumulative trade deficit amounts to 1,800 billion euros; the zero investment in infrastructure since 2015 means that the country is ostensibly falling apart.
During 13 years of conservative mandate, the country has opted for austerity over investment, and finance over industry. It has fewer doctors per capita than any other OECD nation and is the most unequal European society after Bulgaria.
