Sadly with each passing day we can see the impact this awful policy has had on the UK. Tied up in red tape and tariffs with lower GDP than before the pandemic whilst the others in the G7, including Italy, are above. The lower GDP means we do not have the headroom to pay our way in the world and must resort to borrowing.Whilst there are rich people in the UK; a great many of us are poor and now we are poorer still. What steps can we take to generate more income during quantitative adjustment? That is everywhere. The problem is, with a rising labor shortage, that industry will be the hardest hit. Fundamentally, restaurants as an industry are only viable with cheap labor and cheap rent. Right now, we have neither.

I just wished our governments cared more about manufacturing jobs. Our economy is so heavily based on services it's frightening.

I emigrated a long time ago. The UK has turned into a nation of 'haves', 'have nots' and a hollowed out middle class who is expected to pay for it all.

Been to London in March 2023 and the city was great, but I could feel something was really, really wrong. Protests happening in Trafalgar square. I have seen people getting arrested at a tube station because of drugs. Scarcity of products in the market, some foods were even rationalized and I saw some empty shelves in a few groceries stores. Wages are stagnated while the inflation and taxes are among the highest in the European continent. Affording housing is ludicrous. No joke, my friends who live there and are native brits are considering migrating to another country. The overall experience in London was great, but it did not feel like somewhere stable. In any sense. I could feel a bit of Latin American mayhem in it. Perhaps that was the feeling someone who arrived in Argentina during the 40s felt before the whole country went to hell.

It's the running theme we see in all Western democracies to different degrees: Destroying manufacturing jobs, while cutting social welfare to the working class has caused extreme damage to the social fabric and the democracy. It's not about paying people to do nothing but when children grow up in horrible conditions, get not enough support and have only access to low grade education, they won't become doctors or software engineers. So the next generation will not be more productive but rather even less and they won't feel any attachment to society.

The Murdoch media had a fair role in austerity and Brexit.

The U.K. has been in trade decline since 1948.

Unfortunately its true As a citizen of the uk many of us aren't feeling to happy about the future considering that,food is getting stollen due to inflation.

I am sick to death of hearing about Labour shortages when nobody is mentioning zero hours contracts.

Thatcher broke the UK political mould as well the economic one, in which future governments were focused on the short-term instead of having a longer-term plan.

I think the 2008 crisis deserves a video on it's own. The millenials grew up on mac and cheese, have no savings and a pay all their income for rent. And these days everybody is disposable. Your teamchef tells you, that you are special and they don't know what they would do without you... (x)doubt.

It's just so hard to run a business at the moment in this country. With rising expenses and less revenue it's just better to shut it.

Before Brexit, leave supporters constantly said to reports of things getting bad - how much worse can it get. And now we know: a lot.

The cause and the consequence were both mentioned in this video, but not connected together. It was the Tatcher's (and Reagan's in USA) deregulation of the financial and banking industry that were at the roots of the 2008 crysis. So this boom in 80's came at very high price later.

By watching this series it seems we are all dealing with the consequences of globalization. Because our economies are so intertwined, when one party falls, we all fall, and there is no one to bail anyone out.

When you say Thatcher's reforms "worked", from the perspectives of the working class overall, I'd say this is not the case. Under Thatcher, unemployment rates sky rocketed to levels not seen since the great depression. In addition was the cultural rift she created inside the UK, using tactics that mimic Brexit strategies today as isolist. She is and was looked at today as a highly controversial PM and not what most UK citizens would look on fondly. The 80s were tough years and many point the finger at her for this. Which is why the feat of John Major is that much more impressive in having to fix over 10 years of misaligned policies. So no, I don't agree her policies were "working". I guess you had to be there to understand.

Austerity was introduced in 2010 with a change in government - you should have made this clearer in your video. You also gave an unbalanced view of Thatcher, she was a VERY controversial prime minister and many working-class people despised her policies. Otherwise a good video. To any non-Brits reading this, the situation is made even worse by our government hailing Brexit as a triumphant success and its failure to admit it has made the average person poorer.

I relocated to emerging Asia from London last yr! It was one of the best decisions. Although I hope UK recovers.

United Kingdom: i saw, i conquered, i ruled, i declined. cycle of empires

they decided to print 2 trillion of unbacked currency to play 'property investors' and have bankrupted the entire nation and social structure 😂

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

Growth at the expense of most of the population😢

*I don't live in the UK so can someone please explain why UK citizens keep paying high taxes to support their public sectors (like the NHS, education, and police dpt) yet the government keeps cutting/capping spending based on "austerity." Like where the hell does all the funding go then?*

Because the Brits don't grow their own food.

It's called Little Britain now.

The striking's so bad, that even the chickens have gone on strike - walk into a supermarket in the UK, there's barely any eggs.

Banking in Switzerland employs 4% of the workforce and generates 10% GDP. As bad as Credit Suisse meltdown was, no clients lost money (only shareholders did). So, Switzerland is far from being the place to worry about just yet ;)

The boost after the 1970s also mainly came from joining the EU. Basically the EU saved the UK economy.

It is really crap here at the moment. The rich are obscenely rich. The poor are ridiculously poor. And even the middle classes are really struggling.

This story is unbelievable because the British government followed very praised conservative principles: live within your means, avoid debt and unnecessary expenses, even military expenses. Common sense. I will always remember American conservative pundit Pat Buchanan comparing back in the 2008 crisis times what America would need to cut to be like the UK. Reality always turns out more complicated.

Good video. The problems go way back. I wish I could list all of the problems: class, private schools, poor wages, Thatcher,, Brexit, the apathy of the oppressed working class etc etc. I am very depressed by how my home country has been ruined.

Kinda glossed over the fact that Thatcher was a tory and her policies on housing, water privatisation & energy privatisation are causing all sorts of problems. Also, austerity 2.0 didn't start until 2010... when David Camerons tory party came back to power, not to mention that brexit was tory driven... Kinda starting to see a pattern.

Hi, I have a question In around 5:30, low productivity was mentioned How is this measured? How do you know that UK has it lower than US, Germany, or even France?

I love watching your videos, thank you for creating them ❤

Can you do a dark side of Holland?

Much of this is true but thecore problem is a longstanding lack of investment in physical and human capital. The current Sunak government looks set to continue making this and other mistakes which undermine the ability of citizens to thrive and the country to prosper in its post Brexit world. However re-entry to the EU as many chickens are now coming home to Europe and the bills growing e.g. Target 2.

You have a great channel dude, loved your Europe video! Keep up the good work!

My guess is violent crime stems from the increase in poverty. Those are probably related one for one.

Thatcher also has the huge benefit of North Sea oil.

I checked the numbers of UK government spending and at a quick glance it looks like they kept spending at a stady level since 2008 not deep austerity as you presented. Also if they did cut government spending and living way below their means i don't think the british bond crises would have happened. The investors whete fearful they couldn't pay back their loans, thats a sign of living way past your means.

Yes I do feel rather than solving problems, the gov seem to causing more. Plus it really feel like the bankers who caused at lot of this are protected and even rewarded (banker bonus are back) to keep them sweet and stay in the country because we know we not got much else anymore.

Well thank goodness King Charles and The Firm are still getting their $133M/yr

GOOD explanation 👏

We all are not just west but the whole humanity suffering by 2008 crisis. Economic liberation needs some other alternative.

The imminent bankruptcy of the UK (I believe it will be the first domino to fall) reminds me of the next story ; A man meets an old friend in the park and is surprised his old friend who he didn't see for a few years is homeless and spending his days and nights begging in the park. He asks his now homeless friend : ... " You were much richer than I was only ten years ago. How did you go bankrupt and end up here "? His homeless friend replies : " Going bankrupt was a very slow process and then it happened very fast ! "

Excellent video though. Very accurate, and informative. Thanks.

The growth of British economy during the 1970's and 1980's was almost based on the discover of plenty of oil fields on the north sea. Without the Revenue of the North Sea Oil,Mrs Tachter wouldn't be able to do such successfull reforms.

Buyer's remorse with Brexit. Way to go.

Largely accurate analysis if a bit simplified. Some of the issues go much further back. We were a warfaring nation that built an empire by forced trade. When change happened we started to decline. We then thought we didn't need to reform or have a strategy necause we had "won" WW2 (actually we were saved by the US and the application of our and their industrial complex). In comparison Germany lost so had to rethink and start again with a long term plan, deciding to make high value high quality manufactures and export them and investing in the country. Since WW2 the UK has had no consistent industrial strategy and generally milked assets rather more than investing. This left us as a generally legacy nation. At this point your story in the video kicks in and shows how we exacerbated the problems with short termist finance and a narrow economy followed by austerity in a legacy infrastructure with poor long term investment. Its now a vicious circle to build out of with a weakened economy and poor leaders.

I saw an entire engine plant get shutdown a few years ago

Did you pay to use the Pathe footage at the start of the video, where you blurred out their logo?

The Main fault is the House of Parliament and its Political Parties, they are more concerned with fighting each other than making the United Kingdom a better place to invest and to work, but now with the high cost and taxes, the United Kingdom is now with to much Red Tape and the Labour Party against big business once they are in Power. A not a good place to invest and open a new business and with Brexit and with it’s fallout. Europe is now a better place to invest such as Poland and Hungry will be the new super power in Europe in the coming decades.

So the 2008 austerity measures never ended and they’re going to cut back even more whilst stopping trade with Europe 😭

And yet they tell you that the monarchy is relevant because it brings in so much revenue. So why is it not helping the people!!!!!!!! Afterall, your King was crowned today.

I did part of my PhD in the uk, so i considered staying afterwards, especially because i was told there is a severe shortage of people with my qualification (so much so that companies now hire people with master degrees for positions which normally require a PhD) Once i was done, i started applying for jobs but 1)roughly 70% of employers turned me down because they would have to pay for my visa (which would cost them 7k) 2) the wages are quite lower than similar countries (ireland, Germany, Netherlands etc), even if the lower tax rate makes up for it to some extent 3) job applications easily take several months, because of all the red take and extra steps. In the end i took a position in a different country, despite the fact that i don't speak the local language fluently. Honestly the UK isn't that attractive for skilled migrants too these days.

To see one negative Brexit impact all you have to do is look at the rate of GBP to EUR. The average rate for 2015, the year before Brexit, was 1.38 and today it's 1.13. Nuff said.

Honestly I blame UK politicians. You have some of the oldest universities of the “western “ world and yet a simple Brexit can’t even occur smoothly. Root cause analysis and meaningful mitigation measures are a start, managing expectations with the public is another.

UK is the new Italy. It has now a lowest gdp per capita on PPP lower than Slovenia and soon it will be lower than Poland.

It was indeed "a masterclass in shooting one´s self in the foot" because they didn´t just do that but also blew both their bloody legs off as well !

at this point making the UK a 51st state would do better for their economy then the path they’re heading down

It has been all down hill since the 2008 crash. The economy has been stagnant ever since. I would not say things are desperate here. Unemployment is still low and we definitely do not see the levels of poverty that you see in the US (tents/malnutrition/rampant crime/drug use etc) but things are not good. I personally think the country will at least attempt to re-join the European Union within the next decade. Though I very doubt the EU will accept the UK back into the union.

While Thatcher may have quickly turned around the economy, have no doubt that the sweeping changes she made & the following years of Conservative rule, made Britain the economic & social failure that it is today.

Most of the money is sitting in Tax havens that's why the economy is stuffed!

Will UK economic stagnation also affect local or overseas tourism?

I'm from London (which voted overwhelmingly for remining in the EU by the way) and I honestly can't understand how the UK could be dumb enough to vote for Brexit. Granted, only 4% more voted for leave, but it honestly makes me sad when European countries associate us with Brexit, when I would say over half nowadays don't even support it.

OK, every nation wants it's heavy industry to prosper so that a lot of people work at steady jobs. The question is who will buy those products? When the British political influence is not what it used to be, which other nation will buy british aeroplanes, ships, cranes and trucks ? These questions are relevant to every nation in the first world.

Thieves and Rogues always broke especially if you dont have anywhere to steal from

When you fail to tax the rich.

The reason Britain is struggling is because taxes are so high that an average earner is paying around half of their salary in taxes when stealth taxes are taken into consideration.

UK is focus on politics rather than economy, but it will venturing into difficult water

Thatcher's reforms encouraged high levels of personal debt. And ever since personal debt levels have risen, from 50% the size of the economy in 1979 to 200% now. The growth was predicated on debt, but now the old have assets supported by this debt, and the young (the wealth creators) just have debt, debt and more debt to come. Wanna buy a home? Put yourself into financial precarity The debt boosted the economy on the way up - while destroying manufacturing, which is why Thatcher is reviled in the north - but it killing the economy on the way down

The billionaires aren't doing too badly.

All self inflicted but the rich have got richer and that’s all that matters.

Why are you surprised at the "crisis" it was always predicted by Austrian economists!

Engineers, farmers create actual economies. Bankers, real estate people are dependent on them once the economy picks up.

Dom: the economic downfall of every country

Let me run your country. I will personally challenge all politicians to see who can lift the most weight. When or If I win, I will then declare myself leader of this new liftocracy and all people's of the Country shall make their choices based on who can lift the most.

No one reading this comment (including myself) will remember what happenned to the UK in the 1920s. Much worse than today. There was mass unemployment, the country was almost broke (because of the war), there were few jobs (some regions experienced over 20% unemployment), soldiers returning from the front remained unemployed for years, etc. Then the Wall Street crash happenned circa 1929 which just exascerbated the situation. The difference today is that young persons expect much more and of course there is the UK's notorious welfare state which is being constantly exploited by all and sundry, including the masses who are arriving on the south coast of England and invading the country, claiming asylum.

Should have added The specials song- you’re wondering now, to this video. Fits in perfectly, this uk is now.

It's difficult to know where to start. Britain's economic decline started in the 1800s when Germany and the USA started to overtake it. British industry had grown fat and complacent on the protected markets of the empire and had stopped investing and innovating. The second issue is education and training. It was only in the 1960s when Britain first started to spend as much on education on defence. Vocational training was too focused on outdated methods and declining industry. Industry in general suffered from chronic underinvestment, bad labour relations, poor management, and an inherent conservatism that made both management and unions reluctant to move into new industries and techniques. The Labour Party didn't know how to handle the decline, and the Conservative's answer under Margaret Thatcher was simply to smash what was left of industry and instead gamble everything on an unbalanced economy based on services. The UK's institutions and systems of government are antiquated and unfit for purpose, and the two major political parties have seriously let the country down. Perhaps underpinning it all is a complete misunderstanding of our position in the world. We still have delusions of grandeur, which explains a lot of the Brexit vote. In many ways, we in the UK are the Austria Hungary of the 21st century. Stuck in the past and falling apart at the seams.

Dark side of USA 😂

East or West the main trope is always the same. Capitalism pushed way above the extremes. Also..the UK blamed the EU for the austerity...yet since 2016 ( Brexit) the wild cuts and austerity still running.

Very little security with life in the UK, it can all change in an instance

Where to start mmm. Well when the UK was doing well because of Margaret Thatcher's polices most people actually did see any of the increase in the countries wealth. This is the period where the gap between the rich and the poor got bigger and it's never been returned to were it was before. Hence a low motivated unproductive work force. Not helped by the lowest investment in research and development in Europe ! Then there is the fact that the Bank of England no less agreed with people on the right wing that cheap foreign labour was holding down the wages of the working class. Hence leaving EU. People in UK voted to leave EU in the hope of causing a labour shortage and increasing their wages through good old supply and demand. In some sectors it is starting to work IE HGV drivers. None of this mess would have happened if Margaret Thatcher hadn't decided to shit on the young and poor in the 80's and she never even had the majority of the voters support. Under the UK's 13th Century system of democracy you can still win an election if the boundary commission rigs it.

Everybody is scratching their heads about how this country with no resources, no big factories, no farming no nothing to offer to the world is still standing and their currency is the most expensive of the world… no surprise their non existent economy is failing… and the timing is not a coincidence

Really? I look up Britain's inflation and it's only 6.8%. This is a rookie number. Are you kidding me?

What I’m seeing in the video and reading in the comments are the major problems of high taxes and excessive government regulation, always a bad combination.

1)Austerity policies have never worked (Mark Blyth). 2)Thomas Piketty's observation of r > g; r = rent, which can be Gov Bonds, Housing, Land, Patents, Stock and Shares as pure speculation. None of these create a product; they gain income from others' labor who create a product. g = growth, which is wages from productive growth, i.e., selling a product and gaining a wage for an exchange of labor (note surplus labor that is taken by capitalists is rent). This has been further exaggerated as the UK has become a service provider, with the social sector considered a product under the rules of GDP. It's not. 3)Universal acceptance of the theory of Marginal Utility (A. Marshall early 20th century), which states that value is the point of sale price. This means Rent is productive, and the product's only value is the point of sale price via supply and demand, ignoring production costs, labor costs, and the transfer of money from a productive source to the rentier (of whom you the renter are paying their mortgage). It also assumes all transactions have no monopolist variables, no lying, no bullying, no threats, no strong-arm tactics, thus in reality we are still living in a Mercantile system (of who holds the most wealth, manipulates the market, governments, and whole societies, i.e., large corporations) under the guise of a free market where all trades are honest and fair. Note; the Mercantile system believed in a free market, but only for themselves to trade. If others wanted to trade with the dominant mercantile countries, then up went the 'trade barriers.' Sound familiar? 4)Shareholder Value (via Milton Friedman), meaning only shareholders (rent seekers) gain from a profit, not the other stakeholders who helped to create the profit, i.e., the workforce from the cleaner to the researcher. (Unlike Nordics and Germany 30-50% on boards of directors, UK, zero, only shareholders, thus the problem Hedge funds asset stripping and creating rent only products ie housing, cars, creative computer products that you can only rent, etc ). The UK still hides behind the free market myth, while the strong and powerful gain rent for doing nothing (thus the return to the rent of pre-1910, the 10% who owned 90% of everything remaining, and the remaining 90% owned nothing and paid rent 10%). Thus revolution and war. Thus wage stagnation for over 40 years, where all the values from the increase in production have gone to the top 1%. And I have not even mentioned Brexit which has turbo charged the above effects since 2016.

One thing I for certain the global economy is plummeting and will take a mericle to recover from

brexit was so fing dumb lmao literally the UK punching itself in the face while yelling "STOP HITTING ME"

As long as toerags like kingdom, rees-mogg, Françoise, cash, bone etc. (Brexiteers basically) are anywhere near power we will continue to decline.

If it is so bad here why are we being swamped by thousands of boat people landing on our shores

Few things I take issue with. 1. Brexit was very, very much a response to the post 2008 system both Labour and the Conservatives implemented. People (particularly the working classes) were fed up with becoming a low wage, low skill economy for many. Even today, many of our political and business leaders refuse to recognise this reality. Take carers for example, their pay and conditions are crap. We know it, they know it, everyone knows it. Yet, despite an ageing population and a growing need to provide more carers, pay increases have not been discussed once. Both our political and business leaders want more carers from abroad to undercut British workers because they want more profit. If anything Brexit has been rather good for the working classes because wages finally went up, now that cheaper labour (mostly from Eastern Europe) wasn't so prevalent. Also, the EU itself is hardly in great shape and I'm sceptical by claims stating we would be far better off were we still in it. I also expect that anti-EU sentiment would be through the roof right now were we still in. 2. Speaking of immigration, mass migration is a massive factor here for the decline in living standards. Between 1980 and 1999, net migration increased the population by some 630k, most of which was in the late 1990's. Between 2000 and 2019, net migration was 4.7 million, 235k per year which amounts to a city the size of Norwich arriving into the UK each year for 20 years. While much of this immigration was skilled, most of it arguably was not. While it looked good for GDP figures and productivity, it heavily covered the wage suppression and deterioration of working conditions those at or near the bottom faced. In some cases, effectively being British was to be blacklisted from certain sectors. Combine that with low levels of house building until around 5-10 years ago, this has seen house prices escalate (particularly in cities) while also pushing our infrastructure to its limits. Migration isn't the only factor here, but it certainly can't be ignored. 3. Nimbyism is also a huge issue here that didn't get mentioned. Getting things built or developed in the UK is a nightmare with every single objection being given often far more scrutiny than it deserves and homeowners absolutely refusing to support anything if it even modestly lowers their house prices. See the third runway at Heathrow, Crossrail or HS2 to name a few, not to mention house building, reservoirs and other key areas of infrastructure. The new runway at Heathrow has been going back and forth for decades with nothing being done. Crossrail and HS2 are fairly similar with the usual moaning although in the case of the former, if anyone has used the Tube during rush hour in the last few years, you can see how badly overcrowded it is. With HS2, all the evidence shows we need a new line connecting (or enabling connection from) London to the north of England and Scotland. The current West Coast Line is rammed and the aim of HS2 is to get the faster trains off that, onto the new line with more freight and local connections instead. This means more efficient local services and more trucks off the road. Go on a fairly short motorway journey and you can see how much of an issue this is. Meanwhile you have any new development facing massive opposition for the most pathetic reasons such as, slightly obstructing a view of some woods for example. These objections usually come from older homeowners who then also wonder why their children and/or grandchildren struggle to buy a family sized home. Heck, you even have Tory MP's bragging whenever they block a development in their area. You see objections with reservoirs and nuclear plants too. I learned this summer during the heatwave that we haven't built a new reservoir since 1991 which was when I was born and there were 10 million fewer people in the UK at the time. No wonder we had a freaking drought. I am also staggered by the opposition to expanding nuclear power in this country. How anyone has lived through 2022 and not seen the importance of energy security is breath-taking. Nuclear is far more powerful and safer than it has ever been at any point and sometimes the green alternatives like solar and wind don't do the job, particularly in winter. We need nuclear or we're screwed. Not a bad video overall, but it did overlook a few key areas that I felt have had massive impacts in the last decade and a half.

I still don't understand Brexit.

So, how would you describe germanys position?

Doing better than the EU and the US, both have currency problems. That being said, the whole world is having a recession, it's just the definition has been changed.

You didn't mention all the main factors. The other significant factor is that the UK pays extremely high amounts on supporting economic migrants from Africa and the Middle East. It literally costs billions and such people are not skilled labourers who bring value to the country. Instead they turn many areas into Third World rough areas which means educated Brits get fed up and leave. The other drains on the economy include the welfare system and the amount the UK spends on defense (again, helping other nations).

This video should just say "13 years of conservative government" that's the reason.

Britain has always had incredible poverty alongside crazy wealth. That's the story of the country. Take two steps out of the Buckingham palace and you'll see people living in crumbling shacks, eating plain oat.

You can have a service based and a manufacturing based economy simultaneously.