mmm… You make some interesting points BUT forgive me you fail to understand the history and reality. The Victorian Industrial Revolution was based on light touch government intervention, on low taxation, and low regulation. That made Birmingham the workshop of the world. As soon as (post 1908) Britain began creating gradually a Welfare State by raising taxes and nationalising industries decline was inevitable. Countries like the USA and now China, Singapore, Vietnam, which have long taxation and low regulation and no welfare state to speak of… are countries where industrial production took off as ours declined. And we became reliant on the City of London… 75% of the wealth of the UK comes from in and around London… giga centre you mention is unlikely to happen because our energy prices are too high and our electricity and water supply too small for such development. And why do we have the highest energy costs in the world… taxation… and why is our infrastructure so poor… taxation… every pint of water i drink… every therm of gas i use every litre of petrol the car uses… taxation… be it 30% for water… or 60% for petrol. So forget the giga centres… what company will actually invest in a country that charges 60% tax in energy and 30% for water… and giga centres need both in huge quantities… and what company will invest in a country whose water and energy infrastructure will collapse as soon as the factory opens. It is not too little tax but too much that prevents Britain developing today… but what government is prepared to abolish the welfare state or the NHS, which consumes over 60% of all government expenditure? No wonder migrants see the welfare state as their promised land! No wonder vast numbers of the young live on the dole and will never work, except for selling drugs on the side. Then there is government interference in picking industries and projects to support. We have been here before… British Steel in the 1960s a £million pounds a day then to keep it going… that is today £25 million a day… then British Leyland… and projects like Concorde… pretty but pretty useless…and the Humber Bridge from nowhere to no where and still the tax payer is paying interest on it. No the answer is not for government to intervene in the market or have vanity projects, which turn out too be useless, but for government to spend less and cut taxes and create thereby the environment for companies to flourish. But then governments love spending my and your hard earned cash because the control of my wallet gives it power. And then it has the cheek to say how good it is by giving back some of my cash as eg the winter fuel allowance. No as Thomas Jefferson put it the least government is the best government. And since 1776 the USA has done pretty well on that dictum!
PPS… I could add HS2 to vanity projects which we will still be paying for in 100 years time just to cut the time from London to Birmingham by 10 minutes!
Excellent piece
mmm… You make some interesting points BUT forgive me you fail to understand the history and reality. The Victorian Industrial Revolution was based on light touch government intervention, on low taxation, and low regulation. That made Birmingham the workshop of the world. As soon as (post 1908) Britain began creating gradually a Welfare State by raising taxes and nationalising industries decline was inevitable. Countries like the USA and now China, Singapore, Vietnam, which have long taxation and low regulation and no welfare state to speak of… are countries where industrial production took off as ours declined. And we became reliant on the City of London… 75% of the wealth of the UK comes from in and around London… giga centre you mention is unlikely to happen because our energy prices are too high and our electricity and water supply too small for such development. And why do we have the highest energy costs in the world… taxation… and why is our infrastructure so poor… taxation… every pint of water i drink… every therm of gas i use every litre of petrol the car uses… taxation… be it 30% for water… or 60% for petrol. So forget the giga centres… what company will actually invest in a country that charges 60% tax in energy and 30% for water… and giga centres need both in huge quantities… and what company will invest in a country whose water and energy infrastructure will collapse as soon as the factory opens. It is not too little tax but too much that prevents Britain developing today… but what government is prepared to abolish the welfare state or the NHS, which consumes over 60% of all government expenditure? No wonder migrants see the welfare state as their promised land! No wonder vast numbers of the young live on the dole and will never work, except for selling drugs on the side. Then there is government interference in picking industries and projects to support. We have been here before… British Steel in the 1960s a £million pounds a day then to keep it going… that is today £25 million a day… then British Leyland… and projects like Concorde… pretty but pretty useless…and the Humber Bridge from nowhere to no where and still the tax payer is paying interest on it. No the answer is not for government to intervene in the market or have vanity projects, which turn out too be useless, but for government to spend less and cut taxes and create thereby the environment for companies to flourish. But then governments love spending my and your hard earned cash because the control of my wallet gives it power. And then it has the cheek to say how good it is by giving back some of my cash as eg the winter fuel allowance. No as Thomas Jefferson put it the least government is the best government. And since 1776 the USA has done pretty well on that dictum!
PS I hope to finish the ward by ward analysis of the Birmingham council election results this week and put the rest on here if OK…
PPS… I could add HS2 to vanity projects which we will still be paying for in 100 years time just to cut the time from London to Birmingham by 10 minutes!