Michael Lambert: Brexit Has Weakened the UK Economy and Made Growth Almost Impossible

Jul 27, 2024 | The new Labour government under Sir Keir Starmer has started well with many excellent new measures which include 40,000 more NHS appointments every week and 700,000 urgent dental appointments per year. All of these new measures are fully funded. However, any further extra spending which is urgently needed will have to come from economic growth.

The UK economy is not doing well with a recent survey showing that almost 540,000 businesses are in significant financial distress and 47,000 are on the verge of collapse.

The previous Conservative government squandered £100 billion which contributed to the current dire economic situation. However, it is Brexit that has caused so much economic damage and made it so much more difficult, if not impossible, for the UK economy to recover. Growth seems impossible.


We all know whom we can thank for that ridiculous Brexit. All the clowns! The first three clowns that come to mind are Cameron for calling the Brexit referendum, Farage for instigating the trouble in the first place, and BoJo for lying to the electorate and making a dog’s dinner of the whole thing. – © Mark Alexander

Starmer’s Growth Plan ‘Doomed’ without Access to EU Markets, Warn Economists

THE OBSERVER: Labour leader told if elected he will have to rejoin the customs union to meet party’s manifesto pledges, while 56% of voters say Brexit was bad for economy

A Labour government under Keir Starmer will fail to maximise the UK’s economic growth unless it takes the country back into the European Union’s single market and customs union, leading economists and diplomats have said.

The warnings come as an Opinium poll for the Observer finds that 56% of voters now believe Brexit has been bad for the UK economy as a whole, compared with just 12% who believe it has been economically beneficial.

Some 62% of people questioned also believe Brexit has contributed to higher prices in shops, against 8% who think that it has had the opposite effect. » | Toby Helm and Phillip Inman | Saturday, June 22, 2024

This is precisely what I have been saying on this forum, and in many comments elsewhere, since the very beginning. Even Economics 101 teaches us that one cannot expect economic growth when walking away from the largest single market and customs union which this world has ever known, and which is on one's doorstep. Where is your growth going to come from? A nation should do the bulk of its deals with its nearest markets whenever possible.

The idiots who pushed Brexit clearly had never heard of the adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’! Moreover, those right-wing loons failed to understand that one of the Single Market’s founding architects was no other than Margaret Thatcher herself. (She must be turning in her grave!)

We can all thank Nigel Farage for the lunacy that was, is, and will forever be Brexit. He screwed up big time. And Cameron did for running scared of him, too. The Tories screwed up under Cameron, and have screwed up ever since as well, truth to tell.

The best thing Farage can do now is hang his head in shame. Perhaps, as a face-saving measure, his American chum will give him sanctuary in Florida. – © Mark Alexander

Michael Lambert: Starmer Stubbornly Sticks to Disastrous Brexit

Jun 15, 2024 | The Labour Party manifesto was launched this week. Much of it concerned economic growth which will be essential if damaged and neglected public services are to be fixed.

Keir Starmer claims that growth can be achieved whilst ignoring the major reason for our economic troubles which is Brexit He claims he will be able to improve our deal with the EU despite having been told repeatedly that this will not be possible.

Starmer has made it clear that beyond certain funded changes other reforms will only be possible if funded by growth. Outside the EU, the UK will find it almost impossible to grow.


This is an excellent synopsis of the parlous state of the UK economy and its outlook for economic growth under Keir Starmer's leadership. I agree with Mr Lambert's viewpoints TOTALLY. The Conservative Party in recent years has been a disaster for this country; now, the Labour Party is promising to be equally disastrous in so many ways. How can our economy hope to grow after locking ourselves out of the BIGGEST single market in the world, which is right on our doorstep?

When we were in the EU, this country was doing rather well. Have these politicians never heard of the old saying — 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it!? Whilst in the European Union, there was truly nothing to fix!

Nigel Farage really has been the architect of this country's downfall. The man is a bigoted, loudmouthed, troublemaker. History is not going to be kind to that man. Unfortunately we have to live through the nightmare the clown has created. One can but despair. This country's future is bleak indeed.

At no other time in my life have I ever felt DISENFRANCHISED. Now, I do. TOTALLY. There is no decent political party to vote for. I had pinned my hopes on the Liberal Democrats, but Ed Davey hasn't had the courage to promise the country that he would try and take us back into the EU. That is a great disappointment to me, and probably to many other Remainers as well. In fact, in my opinion, he has lost his best chance of elevating his party ahead of the Tories, because I believe that such a move might well have catapulted the LibDems to a powerful position. He would have had nothing to lose by such a commitment, and everything to gain. Again, one can but despair.

I cannot vote for any party that is not committed to our return to the EU. So that leaves me without a say in the future of this country. I find it difficult to vote for a party whose policies I disagree with. The whole thing saddens me. – © Mark Alexander

Russian Economy Growing despite Sanctions | BBC News

Jun 7, 2024 | Russia is the most sanctioned economy in the world - yet this year Russia is set to grow faster than all advanced economies, according to the International Monetary Fund.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects Russia to grow 3.2% this year, significantly more than the UK, France and Germany.

Vladimir Putin is hosting an International Economic Forum in St Petersburg, where it's claimed that delegates from more than 130 countries and territories are taking part.

The Telegraph: “Britain to Outgrow Germany for Years to Come as Eurozone Growth Engine Stutters”

THE TELEGRAPH: High interest rates risk plunging Europe into recession while UK expected to rebound

UK growth will outpace Germany and the eurozone for years to come as the Continent faces a deeper recession caused by higher interest rates.

While both the German and UK economies shrank in the three months to September, putting both at risk of recession, analysts at UBS expect Britain to bounce back within a year.

That is unlike Europe’s largest economy. Berlin is already grappling with a budget crisis after Germany’s top court ruled that the government broke the law by using Covid cash to fund net zero spending.

House prices across the country have also suffered double-digit declines. » | Tim Wallace | Friday, December 29, 2023

If you believe this cr**, you’ll believe ANYTHING! There is no way that the weak UK economy is going to outgrow the much stronger German economy. The only way that this might be made to appear so is by the use of sophistry in statistics.

Diese Behauptung ist lächerlich! Die deutsche Wirtschaft in den kommenden Jahren wird mit geringem Aufwand schneller wachsen als die britische Wirtschaft. Die deutsche Wirtschaft wird in keiner Weise von Großbritannien entwachsen sein. Überhaupt nicht! Schön wäre es für uns Briten; aber dies wird nicht passieren. – © Mark Alexander

Average UK Household £8,800 a Year Worse Off Than Those in France or Germany

THE GUARDIAN: Thinktank blames inequality and poor productivity as CBI calls for investment policies to fuel growth

The UK’s failure to get serious about inequality and weak growth over the past 15 years has left the average British household £8,800 poorer than its equivalent in five comparable countries, research has found.

A “toxic combination” of poor productivity and a failure to narrow the divide between rich and poor had resulted in a widening prosperity gap with France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands, the report from the Resolution Foundation said.

The thinktank said that if the UK matched the average income and inequality levels of those countries, typical household incomes in Britain would be a third higher and those of the poorest households two-fifths greater.

Its chief executive, Torsten Bell, said: “Britain is a rich country, with huge economic and cultural strengths. But those strengths are not being built on with the recent record of low growth leaving Britain trailing behind its peers.

“This forms a toxic combination with the UK’s high inequality, leaving low- and middle-income households far poorer than their counterparts in similar countries. » | Larry Elliott | Wednesday, July 13, 2022

The Observer View on Britain’s Dire Economic Outlook

THE OBSERVER – EDITORIAL: The true cost of Brexit is becoming painfully clearer by the day

The OECD has predicted that the UK economy will not grow at all next year. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
Britain’s growth prospects are the gloomiest of all developed nations. The OECD predicted last week that the UK economy would not grow at all next year, the worst outlook for any OECD nation. This follows warnings in April from the IMF that the UK will experience the worst growth out of the G7 nations in 2023. After a decade of stagnant wages, it seems Britons need to resign themselves to the fact that the buoyant growth of the 2000s is but a distant memory.

Every country has suffered the shock of the pandemic, followed by the spike in oil and wheat prices triggered by Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine. But other developed economies have proved more resilient, enjoying export-driven recoveries in the wake of Covid. Here in Britain, the economic malaise left exposed by the 2008 financial crisis is long term and structural.

This crisis was supposed to prompt a big economic rethink: a reckoning with Britain’s addiction to growth fuelled by rising levels of consumer debt enabled by rising house prices. The then shadow chancellor George Osborne pledged to rebalance the economy away from debt-driven growth to more productive development, driven by business investment and exports, underpinned with an expansion of the UK’s manufacturing base and a reduction in the huge regional inequalities between the south-east and the rest of the country. » | Editorial | Sunday, June 12, 2022

We are being led by clowns, fools and jesters. These dickheads wouldn't be able to arrange an orgy in a brothel! Brexit is for the birds. – © Mark Alexander

Growth in Germany and France Ends Euro Recession

THE INDEPENDENT: 17 countries that use euro saw collective economic output grow by 0.3 per cent

Germany and France finally powered the eurozone out of its longest-ever recession between April and June, official figures showed today.

The stronger-than-expected 0.3% growth ends six-successive quarters of economic contraction for the single-currency bloc and also heralds better news for the UK’s exporters, which send around 40% of their goods to European markets.

The recovery was led by the eurozone’s two biggest economies as powerhouse Germany managed 0.7% growth and France cheered markets with an unexpectedly strong 0.5% bounce-back from a mild recession of its own. This was France’s strongest advance for two years. » | Russell Lynch | Wednesday, August 14, 2013