Australia is no longer competitive in the nickel market, largely due to Indonesia’s recent domination in the sector. This domination strategy has been carefully planned by Indonesia as it looks to boost its downstream industrial policy in critical minerals processing with the backing of Chinese investments. Since 2014, there has been strategic planning by Jakarta Continue reading »

The debate about climate change is far too often in denial. It needs to change to focus on the positives of how Australia can become a Superpower based on green energy and products that rely on green energy. As in many other developed economies, over the last decade, or more, Australia’s economic growth has stagnated. Continue reading »

Three quarters of voters do not believe Rishi Sunak's claim that his "plan is working" for fixing the UK economy, findings from a damning new poll for Byline Times suggest.

The British economy entered recession at the end of last year, according to official figures published earlier this week.

The figures revealed that the UK has gone through its longest period without economic growth per capita since the 1950s.

In the wake of two massive by-election defeats on Friday morning, the Prime Minister again insisted to reporters that “our plan is working” and he can “give everyone the peace of mind that there is a better future for them and their families”.

However, a new poll conducted this week for this paper by pollsters We Think found that 73% of all those surveyed do not agree that the Prime Minister's plan is working, with even one-in-three Conservative voters disagreeing with his claim.

The poll also suggests that voters have little faith in the ability of the Prime Minister to provide the “better future” for them and their families that he promised this morning.

Asked which of the two main parties would be most likely to make them personally financially better off, just 26% of those surveyed picked the Conservatives, compared to 48% who picked Labour instead.

Both Sunak and Starmer Seen as Flip-Floppers

The findings come after a tumultuous week for the Labour Party following revelations about antisemitic comments made by its candidate in the upcoming Rochdale by-election. Keir Starmer was accused of failing to act quickly enough in the wake of the revelations, before ultimately disowning his candidate.

However, while the Conservatives have sought to use the row as further evidence that Starmer is a “flip-flopper”, our poll reveals that voters are actually marginally more likely to see the Prime Minister in these terms than the Labour leader.

Asked whether they saw Sunak as more of a flip-flopper that decisive, 64% of voters picked the former over the latter. This is actually slightly more than the 61% who said the same of the Labour leader.

Voters were more split on the subject of Starmer’s decision to abandon his £28 billion green growth plan, with 54% saying it was the right decision compared to 46% who disagreed.

Three Worst Prime Minister of Modern Times

We Think also asked for the public’s overall view of recent Prime Ministers since Margaret Thatcher and the findings suggest that voters’ are least enamoured with the most recent occupants of Downing Street.

Among all those surveyed Liz Truss came top with 34% saying she was the worst PM of all those listed, followed by Boris Johnson on 22% and Rishi Sunak on 13%. The three most recent PMs were followed by Thatcher on 10%, Tony Blair on 8%, Theresa May on 6%, Gordon Brown on 4% and David Cameron on 3%.

Asked which was the best of the listed Prime Ministers, Thatcher came top with 24%, followed by Tony Blair on 21%. However, despite being picked as the second worst prime minister, Boris Johnson was also listed as the overall third best by those surveyed, showing how polarised opinions are about the former PM.

Today’s news that the UK went into recession at the end of last year is even worse than the headline figures suggest.

Although the UK economy officially shrank by just 0.3% in the last quarter, that figure fails to take into account the big increase in the country’s population over that period, due to high levels of immigration.

Once you take that into account the UK’s performance is far worse. According to today’s figures, GDP per person - which shows the real impact of the economy on individuals - actually fell by 0.6% over the last three months of 2023.

It gets even worse when you look beyond the last quarter. According to today’s data, the British economy has not grown at all, per person, for almost two years. This is the longest period without per capita growth in the UK since 1955.

The longer term picture is even worse than this, with the UK’s economic growth a huge 24% lower than it would have been had we remained on the same growth trend we were on before the financial crisis.

There are good reasons for this extended period of stagnation. A decade of austerity, Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic have all contributed to what has been the biggest real-terms fall in living standards in the UK since records began. 

So given this grim outlook, you might expect that the Chancellor would be talking about bold plans to finally kickstart the British economy after 14 years in Government.

This is not what’s happening. Instead the Financial Times today reports that Jeremy Hunt is considering plans to make even bigger cuts to public spending after the next general election than those he has already set out.

According to the paper, "economists have warned that current plans for a 1 percentage point increase in public spending until 2029 are a “fiction”, as they would imply serious real-term cuts to some stretched public services.

"But people close to Hunt said Treasury officials were considering going further and reducing projected spending rises to about 0.75 percentage points a year, releasing £5bn-£6bn for Budget tax cuts."

This plan, which is predicated on the political desire to offer voters a series of pre-election tax cuts, would leave many of Britain’s already crumbling public services under the threat of complete collapse.

Now you might expect that such plans would trigger big public debate about the future of the economy and public services.

Yet despite Hunt’s slash and burn agenda already being signalled months ago in his Autumn Statement, these plans for a big new wave of austerity have so far received next to no coverage in the British press, outside of the FT, with most papers instead focusing on an endless debate about taxes and borrowing.

This focus, which has culminated in the Labour Party last week rowing back on its own plans to kickstart growth in the UK, is wildly out of step with what the economy needs and what the public actually wants. According to recent polling for Byline, voters in all parties now prioritise investment in public services over tax cuts. 

Yet instead of having a big debate about actually investing in the UK’s stagnant economy, while restoring Britain’s failing public services, both major parties in Westminster remain focused on the same sterile debate about ‘balancing the books’ and ‘fiscal rules’ which helped lodge the British economy into its current slump in the first place.

The truth is that unless this changes, Britain's lost decade of stagnant growth and low productivity will only continue well into the future.