Don't Be Fooled by the 'Britain is Growing' Fairytales

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.