The reassuring story is that Britain is much like its neighbours - lower taxes, similar growth, cheaper in places. That story is how the disease hides. Britain isn't comparable. It's a low-investment economy that has been deferring the bill for fifteen years.
Crossbencher · 19 July 2026
The comfortable version is built out of true facts, and that's exactly what makes it work. Britain does tax people less than France or Germany - the burden on a wage really is lighter here. Headline growth has, in stretches, kept up. "We're doing better than Germany" is, on some measures, true, because Germany has a mess of its own. Nobody reciting these lines is making them up.
They are just arranging true facts into a false comfort. The lower tax didn't buy higher growth. It bought lower investment. For fifteen years Britain has under-invested, public and private both, and the damage compounds quietly instead of announcing itself.
Members only
Every writer, every column
The last 30 days of the argument are free for everyone, always. The archive beyond that is a Member thing - it is part of what keeps the whole record free.
One email a day: today’s quiz, the Bench question, the argument and what broke - every figure with its source. Free, and it saves your streak. Stop it any time from one link at the bottom of it.