Data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on March 13th said that GDP – a measure of national economic output – rose by 0.2% in January, following a decline of 0.1% in December. Chancellor Jeremy Hunt said: “While the last few years have been tough, today’s numbers show we are making progress in growing the economy”. And Prime Minister Rishi Sunak insisted Britain’s economy has “really turned the corner” and this was proof his economic plan was working.
U.K. GDP is about £2.274 trillion. That’s £2,274,000,000,000. Let’s be generous to the Tories and imagine that by the time of the next election, the U.K.’s GDP is growing by 0.4%. If I’ve got my decimals right, this means the U.K. economy will be running at a rate of about £9.1 billion a year more than in 2023 supposedly thanks to the economic brilliance of Sunak and his chums.
Now let’s just play a silly game and think about what might be causing this ‘wonderful’ £9.1 billion (0.4%) economic growth. Well, for a start there’s the money we’re paying to support illegal migrants. I’ve done a rough calculation which suggests that it costs us British taxpayers about £50,000 a year for each migrant to pay for things like accommodation in three and four-star hotels with meals, smartphones, pocket money, medical and dental care and, of course, legal expenses to beat our almost non-existent immigration control. So, if around 50,000 illegal migrants come to the U.K. in 2024 (which seems very likely), that will cost us around £2.5 billion We don’t actually have this money. So the Government will have to borrow it as part of the £114 billion it’ll probably borrow this year.
What else can we think of? I know, the cost of our ‘work-from-home’ civil servants who seem incapable of delivering anything of value to the people who pay their generous salaries and eye-wateringly expensive pensions. There are now about 19,260 more of these individuals than there were a year ago. That’s a rise of 4% in just one year. If we assume that each of these creatures costs us around £100,000 a year in salary, pensions, office space (though they’re seldom ever actually in the office), travel expenses, special allowances and amounts of our money they waste on worthless and expensive projects to justify their generous salaries and pensions, then these extra 19,260 public-sector layabouts are probably costing us around £2 billion.
I should also mention the 5.5% pay rise all civil servants will be pocketing this year. The cost of the civil service was about £16.6 billion in 2023. So a 5.5% pay rise will add about £1 billion more to Government spending on things which bring absolutely no value at all to the British economy.
So, just with the billions being wasted on illegal migrants, the cost of ever more unnecessary civil servants and the civil servants’ pay rise, we’ve already accounted for £5.5 billion of the supposed £9.1 billion of a 0.4% economic growth which the Tories would claim is wonderful proof of their economic genius. And, of course, all this money has to be borrowed as, despite the highest rate of taxation since WWII, our floundering excuse for a Government isn’t taking in enough in taxes to pay for its financial incontinence with our money.
Then there are the nine million people of working age, some of whom are rather disinclined to do anything looking like work in spite of a record level of job vacancies. A large number apparently claim they have mental problems preventing them from even looking for a job. There are around 355,000 more benefits claimants than there were a year ago. The average benefits bill for each of these excellent citizens is probably between £5,000 and £6,000 a year. Then, of course, they don’t pay council tax and get huge help with rent and other expenses. So, these 355,000 extra benefits claimants are costing us at least £2 billion a year. We’ve now managed to reach £6.5 billion of the £9.1 billion (0.4% GDP growth) which Sunak would inevitably claim is a world-beating economic success story.
In fact, the total benefits bill, including these 355,000 more benefits claimants, is expected to rise from £147.26 billion in 2023 to £161.79 billion in 2024. That’s a rise of £14.53 billion. Ooops, just the increase in benefits alone is greater than the £9.1 billion (0.4% GDP growth) which Sunak would trumpet as a massive economic success story.
There are probably lots more billions of unproductive money, such as the mountains of our money being used to subsidise useless, unreliable, intermittent and hugely-expensive so-called ‘renewable’ energy (wind and solar), which the bunch of charlatans pretending to be a Government will borrow and waste but will add to the GDP supposed growth number. However just these few items I’ve mentioned so far give us about £21 billion, more than twice the £9.1 billion (0.4% GDP growth) which the less-than-honest will try to paint as indicating a growing economy.
By fiddling around a bit with a few numbers, I’ve managed to find £21 billion – almost 1% fake economic growth – just from a few areas where the Government will borrow and waste money. Yet if we go into the next election with the British economy appearing to be growing at around 0.4%, the Tories will tout this as an impressive economic achievement.
So, please, don’t be fooled by our Government’s “the economy is growing” fairytales.
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.
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tldr:
1) Out of depth despite Oxbridge despite education & fancy accent
2) James Delingpole > you; at least he’s humble and still fun.
3) Your cultural chauvinism is rather disgusting.
Good god are you out of your depth regarding the AfD being a “white ethno-nationalist” movement! The AfD was founded in protest to the conservative government’s reaction to the Euro currency crisis. Islam, migration and other things only came later. The AfD’s party manifesto is more or less the same as the one of the CDU until Merkel turned the party inside out, added by references to various crisis that were manufactured in the past decade.
Also, if you dare taking a closer look at the AfD’s voting base, it’s the by far biggest party among immigrants excluding Muslims. I really don’t know where you get that sentiment that the AfD is grounded in ethno-nationalism or that it may see itself as a resurrection of the 1930s German nationalists. In fact, the 40 years of Eastern German socialism are much, much more important for the AfDs identity.
Take for instance Anetta Kahane who was put in charge of some pro-censorship because of anti-racism NGO heavily funded by the Merkel government. Kahane said that the biggest mistake in the 1990s (and perhaps before) was that Eastern Germany remained “too white”. The woman is known to have been a f*cking Stasi snitch! Anything you see was instigated by the Merkel government and green/left circles. Therefore, what Eastern Germans are railing against is the resurrection of the Stasi apparatus, but they’re certainly not Hitler fanatics looking to ethnically purify themselves.
To sum it up: While the Eastern German AfD is fighting the Stasi again, the Western German AfD is desperately trying to re-establish the old post-WW2 Western German economic model.
Given your high-profile in the English media business, one should expect more, much more. James Delingpole (who is much more fun to follow) is 100% right with his critical opinion on you.
If you want to learn about the Eastern German experience, then follow Michael Klonovsky’s acta diurna blog. If you want to learn about the Western German experience in the dissident scene, then follow Hadmut Danisch. He’s Germany’s by far most important blogger, but ignored for various reasons. It’s your fault that you don’t know these two names or their blogs. They also wrote books that you should read, or is that too low for the fancy Oxbridge educated these days?
Oh, and while I’m at it: Eugenics is not a German invention, but an English one. It became fashion at around the same time as the industrial-scale genocides against the Irish and Cornish reached their peak.
Addendum: When browsing German media content with Google Translate (or any competitor), be careful not to trust the automatic translations when it comes to political attributes. The training data is manipulated, which leads to politically right attributes being moved to the extreme end, while politically left attributes appear more centrist in the translation. A German blogger found that out and analyzed it in this blog post (archive link because the blog doesn’t exist anymore). Maybe you just fell for Google’s political bias machine?
IBM the German company that contributed to the holocaust.
“We in the UK are not susceptible to fascism”……No Toby, we’re just susceptible to Globalist agendas and are taken in by their ‘inclusive’ language. Remember not all European fascism was about race, BUF as an example.
“Woke Police hates British flags”…..Aye while the Proms are full of EU flags!
“young people usually support Palestine”….True, when have we seen schools on an Israel march!
“Libertarianism not been tried properly”…..The 1800s in England were very free Dr Sean Gabb Libertarianism Alliance.
“Not inconceivable that AK47s were not planted”…..Planting a tunnel is a bit less likely!
“They demand religious respect”…I bit like BLM harassing people in a Caffe enjoying a coffee!
Hand-cock in the jungle, well bet he wasn’t asked hard questions like the guy did on the train regarding Medazolam or another occasion ‘Patent 0.
“Farage naked in shower”….Pat on GBN mentions his vivid memory of Milean Class, yup i still got the stains from that scene!
I’m usually responding to Toby, maybe cos Dixon is just too based haha!