Labour’s next IMF moment
Jon Moynihan has a usefully depressing CAPX piece on what the next four years are likely to bring for us here in the UK.
The economic consequences of Labour – the story so far
- Growth toward the end of last year was bound to be slow-to-no; and so it proved
- Before the election, recession looked likely. After the Budget, it was becoming pretty certain
- Why are we stuck with more government, more tax, more regulation whatever the party in power?
The end of this week, one in which we have had both the Chancellor‘s Spring Statement, and the second reading of the awful Employment Rights Bill in the Lords, offers a useful moment to take pause and look back over what economic plans Labour have managed to put into play so far; what economic effect their actions have had; and what we can expect to happen in the coming months and years.
So, what will be the economic consequences of Labour? Four years or more to go before the next election. Will the size of government be slashed? I wouldn’t gamble on it. Will taxes be reduced? It’s not in their DNA. And regulation? Much of the barrier to building houses in the UK is the enormous cost of being required to provide 50% of build in social (i.e. zero profit) housing. Is reducing that number a nettle the Chancellor is prepared to grasp? Will the Government dump the ludicrous Football Regulator bill; be prepared to abolish Diversity, Equity, Inclusion across the public sector, as has been done in the US? Will Ed Miliband be fired and the more egregious of the net zero regulations and costs be rolled back? Will we finally realise we can’t go on having the highest electricity costs in Europe, and cease the egregious renewables subsidies?
We can hope for all this, but I doubt that much of it will come to pass. Most likely, the current pattern of talking good stuff and doing bad stuff will continue. In which case, things can only get worse; and we are on our way, some time in the next few years, to Labour’s next IMF moment. Oh dear.
Source: https://akhaart.blogspot.com/2025/03/labours-next-imf-moment.html
