The UK is technically in recession – it has had two consecutive quarters with negative growth. Worse, the economy has been at best stagnant for over two years and productivity has been falling.
Our Prime Minister, when he got the job, gave 5 pledges, one of which was to grow the economy. He failed in four of them, including the one relating to growth.
What is the problem?
Putin is part of the problem. The UK is a significant network importer of energy and Putin’s actions over the last few years have resulted in massive cost of energy rises.
One could try, therefore to defend our Prime Minister and suggest he is just unlucky in his timing. BUT…
The Conservative Party has been in power for fourteen years and seems to have had no consistent energy strategy over that time … so it can be argued that they are reaping what they have (not) sown. Perhaps the global warming crisis should have made an energy crisis obvious and triggered some planning response.
The job of government in creating higher productivity is to build the infrastructure that creates the potential for higher productivity – the macroeconomic, transport, communications, energy, education and training infrastructures.
How many of you can say that your government is doing a good job?