It's even worse than the Mail says, I'm afraid. The Business covered this in detail yesterday. Growth is already way below forecasts. Inflation is up. Unemployment is up. Private sector job creation is declining, and in some areas reversing. Business Investment is at it's lowest for 40 years.

This is something that's effects may not become apparent for some time. However they will be severe - one of the few areas where we had a competitive advantage over the eurozone was our tax rates. Now like employment costs and labour flexibility, this government has got rid of that too.

Posted by: James Hellyer at January 16, 2006 01:10 PM

Hi James,

Just to let you know that similar stuff was reported in The Business this weekend.

Try these if you want a link (with a little more credibility than The Daily Mail) to back up the stats:

1) The Article:

http://tinyurl.com/ac9nt

2) The Business's comment

http://tinyurl.com/9ou66

3)A great one about government waste, consultants etc (in the spirit of your book):

http://tinyurl.com/9d6up

Posted by: Alec Hodgson at January 16, 2006 01:51 PM

What I can't understand is the British media who continue to perpetuate the myth that Gordon Brown is the 'best chancellor for x years', when in fact he has done the most damage in generations. He has single-handedly turned the British economy from being on the right track post-Thatcher to what we have today.

The worst thing is the destruction of a generation by the welfare state: the kid who grows up in a house of benefit layabouts will be damaged forever by watching the way his parents 'earn' their money.

As economic liberals we have the vision to set our society free from this. It's a shame that nobody else seems to be listening. By instigating a low tax regime and shifting the provision of healthcare into the private sector, Britain could easily become the most competitive environment in which to do business in the Western world. We could lead the way for the way states could be run in the future. Instead we've had Brown. He will be a stain on Britain for a long time, both reversing and engraining the modernisation of the British economy.

Posted by: Alec Hodgson at January 16, 2006 05:35 PM

Socialism is like the common cold for which there is no cure. Once it has infected and sickened a society wiser heads such as Thatcher appear to restore that society to health. However, as soon as relative prosperity is established the disease always re-appears. It's a generational thing, lessons once learned are always forgotten.

I know this is fanciful, but imagine if it were possible to teach the evils of collectivism and big government. Maybe our grandchildren and their descendants could be spared the sickness.

Posted by: John East at January 16, 2006 06:25 PM

"What I can't understand is the British media who continue to perpetuate the myth that Gordon Brown is the 'best chancellor for x years', when in fact he has done the most damage in generations."

Primarily it's becasue the effects of many of his decisions are long term and so haven't been felt yet. While people still feel well off, they won't realise how bad things are.

Posted by: James Hellyer at January 16, 2006 08:02 PM

And becuase you can logically expect the millions on benefits to vote themselves in real work, or the millions of comfortable public sector workers to vote themselves out of a job.

Posted by: Alec Hodgson at January 17, 2006 12:11 PM