Really enjoyed this. For housing delivery, rather than the actual number of homes built it would be interesting to use Housing Delivery Test results - measuring what proportion of housing need local authorities are actually satisfying. My guess is that will give a different answer. But it might not!
I had been reading about Matt Goodwin’s “elite” and was wondering why they seem so determined to mess things up for the rest of us with net zero. Martin Wolf I think qualifies as as one of the “elite”. Your excellent summary of what’s wrong with everything quoted him wrapping up with …and brexit. I wish he would get over it. But of course, I should remember that two thirds of our MPs, probably more of our civil servants, academics, tv and newspaper columnists - the “elite”, in other words, were for remain. And they are used to winning, and they like to think they do good. So it is not surprising that they don’t give up. And I was also reminded about how fed up I was when Martin Wolf’s FT started lecturing under Lionel Barber - his editorials featured the word “must” a lot. I switched to the Wall Street Journal. The Economist sadly seems to have gone the same way - still anti brexit, now anti science in its climate alarmism. TL, perhaps.
"Which rather raises the question: where is the British Google? Or Apple?"
ARM, Virgin, Deepmind, Revolut, Dyson, etc.
For an economy a small fraction the size of the US (and significantly lower productivity), the UK does fairly well producing disruptive, innovative global brands.
Also worth noting that, while the entire United States shares the same financial and political model, only a very few states produce all the innovative global brands. Compared to, say, Illinois or Georgia, the UK is doing quite well for itself.
Very glad I came back to this - an excellent, lucid post.
Based Milton Keynes being the only place in England that both wants to build houses and actually does build them.
Really enjoyed this. For housing delivery, rather than the actual number of homes built it would be interesting to use Housing Delivery Test results - measuring what proportion of housing need local authorities are actually satisfying. My guess is that will give a different answer. But it might not!
Martin Wolf. Stop it, please.
??????
It was a clumsy remark.
I had been reading about Matt Goodwin’s “elite” and was wondering why they seem so determined to mess things up for the rest of us with net zero. Martin Wolf I think qualifies as as one of the “elite”. Your excellent summary of what’s wrong with everything quoted him wrapping up with …and brexit. I wish he would get over it. But of course, I should remember that two thirds of our MPs, probably more of our civil servants, academics, tv and newspaper columnists - the “elite”, in other words, were for remain. And they are used to winning, and they like to think they do good. So it is not surprising that they don’t give up. And I was also reminded about how fed up I was when Martin Wolf’s FT started lecturing under Lionel Barber - his editorials featured the word “must” a lot. I switched to the Wall Street Journal. The Economist sadly seems to have gone the same way - still anti brexit, now anti science in its climate alarmism. TL, perhaps.
Excellent read. Complexity of local attitudes reflected well here.
"Which rather raises the question: where is the British Google? Or Apple?"
ARM, Virgin, Deepmind, Revolut, Dyson, etc.
For an economy a small fraction the size of the US (and significantly lower productivity), the UK does fairly well producing disruptive, innovative global brands.
Also worth noting that, while the entire United States shares the same financial and political model, only a very few states produce all the innovative global brands. Compared to, say, Illinois or Georgia, the UK is doing quite well for itself.