What is Holding Britain Back From Growth? (Free Market Road Show - 21st May 2024)

With Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP, Maxwell Marlow and Rian Whitton, chaired by Fred de Fossard

[@JohnSmall314]

The main thing holding Britain back from growth is Brexit since it's blindingly obvious that putting up barriers to trade with the largest market on our doorstep will hinder growth. The second thing holding Britain back from growth is an insidious form of corruption. Corruption means resources are badly allocated in an economy, people 'invest' in buying influence instead of innovation and efficiencies in companies. In the global south corruption is very overt, you pay public officials to get stuff done that should be done anyway, or you pay to get contracts for work which you never complete to a satisfactory standard. In the UK corruption is less overt, you pay to get your children into expensive schools which guarantee them high ranking places in government and industry, regardless of their actual ability. The net result is the same as in the global south, high ranking positions are allocated through nepotism and connections instead of ability, and therefore there are lots of high ranking people with very low ability, such as Robert Jenrick MP, and a large number of others. The Economist calls this system the 'chumocracy'. Chums hand out jobs and contracts to people inside the gilded circle of chums. It means that resources are misallocated in the economy such that gains go to people based on nepotism and connections rather than actual ability and work. The full power of the intelligence of the nation cannot be used to good effect. So the two best things that should be done to boost growth in Britain is to reverse Brexit and ban fee charging schools.