UK no longer ‘sick man’ as France burns, Germany slumps and Trump threatens civil war | Personal Finance | Finance

The UK was in disarray last year, going through three prime ministers, four chancellors and two monarchs in 12 months.

It all came to a head in October, in the aftermath of former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget fiasco.

His decision to unleash £45billion worth of unfunded tax cuts almost brought the country to its knees.

Our enemies (and many of our friends) laughed as the pound plunged towards parity with the US dollar and our pension system almost collapsed.

Remainers were particularly gleeful, as they saw this as just punishment for voting to quit the EU.

The nation was so cowed there was barely a murmur of complaint as new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt taxed us all to death to soothe the bond market, which as we now know really runs the UK.

Much has changed since then. Today, the UK is still peaky but at least we’re off our sick bed and taking solids. Sadly, I can’t say the same for our allies.

France has whipped itself up into a revolutionary fervour over pensions and threatening to guillotine King Charles for some reason.

The US is on the brink of civil war, as politically motivated attempts to imprison Donald Trump look more likely to dispatch him to The White House instead.

Germany is heading into a recession, according to the Bundesbank, while the UK looks set to escape (if only by the skin of our teeth).

It’s quite a turnaround.

The US banking crisis quickly engulfed Swiss bank Credit Suisse and Germany’s Deutsche Bank, but in the UK Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC and NatWest stood firm.

Plus we got it right on Ukraine.

That’s the good news out of the way. Unfortunately, the UK still faces a heap of miseries.

Daily life remains a battle for millions as the cost-of-living crisis continues to rage, with inflation climbing to 10.4 percent in February.

Nothing seems to work anymore, including the trains, the NHS and HMRC helplines, while our police now spend more time committing crimes than solving them.

In our supermarkets, tomatoes have become as rare as truffles, and about as expensive with food inflation running at 18.2 percent.

Energy prices are still sky high and Hunt’s next tax grab kicks in on Thursday, as if taxes weren’t high enough.

Life expectancy is falling while the state pension age will keep rising to 70 and beyond.

Sunak’s incremental progress has yet to feed through to our daily lives and Labour leader Keir Starmer remains favourite to win the next election.

Yet Sunak cannot be ruled out with inflation set to fall sharply this year, making voters feel a little better off.

Whoever wins, the contest won’t tear the country in two. British voters remain committed to democracy, whereas in France and the US I’m no longer sure.

The UK is still in a bad way, until you look at the others.