Investment, not austerity and pay cuts – that’s the only way out of the mess Britain is in

‘We could double capacity in green steel, safeguarding jobs and creating opportunities in red wall communities.’ Rehearsal of We Are Still Here, a National Theatre Wales play about Port Talbot. Photograph: Dimitris Legakis/The Guardian

This year will be another defined by the political choices we make. With the severity of our predicament becoming ever clearer, the only difference will be the importance of the decisions being taken.

If Britain were a hospital patient most doctors would mark us down as being in a “bad way”, our recovery touch and go. But the anaemic position we find ourselves in is not down to some unassailable global force rammed up against us. It is down to our actions. Things we have done.