I’ve been reading about research done on UK economic performance over the last 50 years (breath a sigh of relief, this isn’t a Brexit post). Some things stand out in this review of UK performance - the most shocking one being that the trend is that each government in this time has achieved a lower GDP growth per annum than the one before. Even Thatcher did worse than Wilson or Callaghan. And for every £1 of growth the national debt has gone up £2 (!!!).
I’ve felt for some time that the UK tends towards short term gains based on opportunism - rather than long term investment. There are exceptions to this but there has been a lack of new technology, low levels of R&D and innovation leading to new companies (that are retained as British and not sold on) and the reflection in every reducing balance of trade. Instead the bright and connected become hedge fund managers or city traders or other non-productive jobs.
What are other people’s views on this? Why do we again have two candidate PMs not focusing on this?
Coincidentally I was just reading a news report about the UK and it looks like the next couple of years are going to be awful for its citizens.
The Bank of England warned that a long recession was on its way, as it rushed to smother a rise in inflation which is now expected to peak at 13.3 per cent in October — up from its previous forecast of 11 per cent.
This would be the sharpest rise in consumer prices since 1980, due mostly to the surge in energy prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UK economy would begin to shrink in the final quarter of 2022 and contract throughout all of 2023, making it the longest recession since after the global financial crisis.
That is not to say that everything is coming up roses here either.
At least you’ll be poor and warm though…!
Sad isn’t it when the doom-mongers get to work on the statistics. The BoE interest rate back then (1995) was 6.63%, today it’s 1.75%. Here’s where I got the data from:
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/boeapps/database/Bank-Rate.asp
Great isn’t when someone in France is studying about England and its troubles and problems yet totally fails to mention their own country and the complete mess they have made of things. For starters can’t stop llegal immigrants from crossing the channel.
I remain a UK citizen. I have investments in the UK. I have friends and family in the UK. I was educated in the UK and worked & paid taxes in the UK until fairly recently. I think that qualifies me quite well enough to comment on the UK. Moreover I can vote in the UK but cannot vote in France.
So your comment was ignorant and inaccurate. And utterly failed to address the issues being discussed.
Exactly, living in France but can’t vote in French elections I think says it all
I said years ago that no one over 50 would live long enough to see any benefit from brexit.
In the short term, some with a pension fund will fare better than most as interest rates hit double figures.
That might be true but circumstances were very different in 1995. There wasn’t massive government debt or stagnant wages or Brexit, one can’t look at just one figure one has to look at the situation as a whole.
Having said that it could also be true that it is being said to make us feel better about $2 a litre fuel and rising electricity prices.
@strathmore , For once l agree with you !! On my returnn to uk 7yrs
ago after 37yrs absence
,it soon became apparent to me that the country had actually gone
backwards since l was last here !!
I put yhis down to a combination of Maggie Thatchers policies of
everything is for sale and of being a member of the EU ??
for instance everybody in my old circle of freinds had become lorry drivers,
or worked in retail or had market stalls etc. The only factory work had
become in food manufacturing and packaging, whereas we still had a
half decent machine tool manufacturing industry and were still building
and designing aircraft when l left the uk, ??
Everything now is focussed on banking and making money from money !!
Our skilled labour have been dispersed and devalued and it is doubtful if
our old industries can ever be revived ??
So , strangely, l have to agree with your most recent post!! 
It says what? This is normal for a citizen of one country living in another country. To have the right to vote you need local citizenship. This was the case before Brexit as well. So it says nothing.
Agreed, but I wasn’t living in the UK back in 1995 so what do I know about the economy at that time?
@Percy_Vere , " what do l know about the economy then"?
Same here Percy, but my absence only made the difference between
when l left and when l returned so much more obvious ??
Not all could be blamed on the EU , But being a member only magnified
the errors of our leaders ?
For instance due to the CAP policy of the EU we ended up losing the bulk
of our fishing industry to european fishing fleets,mainly because our
politicians of the time failed to put UKs interests first , and now those same
european fisherman now believe they actually have some sort of claim to
ownership ??
Sorry to bring brexit nto this, but membership of the EU did have the effect
of exagerating our own mistakes and weakness !!
The EU could not believe their luck and wasted no time in capitalising on
our stupidity, especially we when we started selling off our ndustries and
giving contracts to them to run our utilities and build our power stations?
We are paying the price now for our ‘short termism’ as strathmore calls it!!
Am I the only one on the forum who is going to benefit from the higher interest rates?
Bring it on…
No, you are not the only one. I doubt many here will have a mortgage and most will have investments I would have thought
@OldGreyFox , Nope, you are not the only one OGF !!
About ten thousand bankers are making a killing due to Rishii borrowing
about £30 billion on our hehalf just before the BOE decided to raise the
rate,(twice !!) ??
Coincidence ???
I’ve not had a mortgage since I turned 43 and improved my/our investments since that day. Wise investments will always provide good returns even in times of a squeeze. Also it’s knowing when to divest and where to reinvest to good advantage 
Ha Ha…I’m happy to get the scraps that fall off the bankers table Donkeyman…
@strathmore , “why do we have two candidate PMs not focussing on this ??”
Because the two candidates you speak of are members of that elite
group of bright and connected individuals in non-productive jobs is the
answer !
As you have stated or inferred somewhere before, this country needs people who are prepared to get their hands dirty and do the nitty gritty? Instead we
get hordesof uni-graduates carrying high debts and degrees in mythology and an inability or unwillihgness to even put a bicycle chain back on ??
These things are part of the problems causing “poor performance” in uk!
We also use the services of so called “advisers” and " think tanks" far too
much? Given the poor performance rating we have earned whilst using these
" adviser/ thinkers"it seems to me to be counter-productive to what we need ??
Perhaps its a way of making jobs for them, as they do do seem unwilling to
do what is really needed ??
Co incidentally I was the same age when I finished my home mortgage however I had mortgages (a few interest only) on investment properties because I negative geared them as much as I could.