The UK economy is larger than first thought, according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. Can I hear the distant sound of Mark Carney dry-retching in the style of Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s former director of communications, after the EU referendum result was announced?
No, because I can guarantee that you won’t hear a peep from the Remainers about Britain’s GDP now being 1.8 per cent above pre-Covid levels.
When they’re not too busy listening to Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart furiously agreeing with each other on a podcast, they’re studiously ignoring any positive economic news about Britain.
The last thing these “despite Brexit” types want to hear is that UK growth has been stronger than that of both Germany and France. Hell no! They’d much prefer to see Britain as critics like Canadian Carney do, recently deriding us as “Argentina on the Channel”.
But the trouble with that theory is that, if we’re Argentina, who on earth are Germany right now?
Weak on the war in Ukraine, economically stagnant, and riven with political infighting that has spurred the rise of Right-wing populists AfD, Germany has now been Scholz to pieces.
By comparison, instead of performing worse than France and Germany since the start of the pandemic (and since Brexit, which took effect six weeks before the lockdowns began), little old Blighty has outperformed them both.
Of course we shouldn’t get too carried away, since the whole of Europe’s GDP remains sluggish – just look at Italy. And let’s face it, Britain’s glacial growth rate is hardly anything to write home about. Indeed, we should really be comparing ourselves to the much more dynamic markets outside the European Union.
But it is tempting to write to the former Bank of England governor and all his mates pointing out that their prediction Britain would be irreparably harmed by Brexit while the EU thrived wasn’t just project fear – but project nonsense.
The UK economy is larger than first thought, according to figures released yesterday by the Office for National Statistics. Can I hear the distant sound of Mark Carney dry-retching in the style of Craig Oliver, David Cameron’s former director of communications, after the EU referendum result was announced?
No, because I can guarantee that you won’t hear a peep from the Remainers about Britain’s GDP now being 1.8 per cent above pre-Covid levels.
When they’re not too busy listening to Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart furiously agreeing with each other on a podcast, they’re studiously ignoring any positive economic news about Britain.
The last thing these “despite Brexit” types want to hear is that UK growth has been stronger than that of both Germany and France. Hell no! They’d much prefer to see Britain as critics like Canadian Carney do, recently deriding us as “Argentina on the Channel”.
But the trouble with that theory is that, if we’re Argentina, who on earth are Germany right now?
Weak on the war in Ukraine, economically stagnant, and riven with political infighting that has spurred the rise of Right-wing populists AfD, Germany has now been Scholz to pieces.
By comparison, instead of performing worse than France and Germany since the start of the pandemic (and since Brexit, which took effect six weeks before the lockdowns began), little old Blighty has outperformed them both.
Of course we shouldn’t get too carried away, since the whole of Europe’s GDP remains sluggish – just look at Italy.
And let’s face it, Britain’s glacial growth rate is hardly anything to write home about. Indeed, we should really be comparing ourselves to the much more dynamic markets outside the European Union.
But it is tempting to write to the former Bank of England governor and all his mates pointing out that their prediction Britain would be irreparably harmed by Brexit while the EU thrived wasn’t just project fear – but project nonsense.