The heart of Britain’s problem is that we don’t invest enough in ourselves – a pattern that has grown most acute over the last 14 years of misgovernance, but reaching back for decades. It shows up in everything from having the lowest number of MRI scanners per million people compared with our peers, to the paucity of new great companies coming forward on our stock market, and above all in stagnating productivity and real wages.
The recession we are living through and the prolonged decline in living standards could be better faced if there were a prospect of a robust reversal in the years beyond. As matters stand, there is not.
