It isn’t only that large swathes of the UK and EU are sinking deeper into poverty, mass unemployment and inequality, as the Red Cross rightly notes; it’s also that the UK economy remains profoundly dysfunctional and incapable in its present form of yielding sustainable growth. Regional imbalance has reached drastic levels, and not just since the crash of 2008-9. Outside London and the south-east there was no private sector job creation in the decade to 2008 when growth appeared still strong.

Today many of these regions deliver the basics of food, electricity and medical care, but almost no private sector entrepreneurial activity. The average size of a British-owned manufacturing company in the regions is now about 14, largely subcontracting workshops which hardly ever develop into large-scale companies. Almost no new major British companies have emerged during the past two decades and many that have managed to grow over long timescales have been swallowed up into global multi-nationals with their strategies now dictated from abroad. Continue reading →