How bad is the UK's economy?

The Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said the UK economy is in its worse state in decades and today one think tank released its evaluation saying the UK has seen 15 years of economic decline.

Sky's economics and data editor Ed Conway has been looking at the numbers and what future governments could do to fix it.

#economy #skynews #sirkeirstarmer

[tobefree]

Why do they rush through this in 50 seconds. This deserves 30 minutes of proper discussion. Treat the data responsibly and respectfully and explain it properly to the public. The decline in quality journalism in the uk should be the final slide on that list.

[deanwoods]

I'm 24, and my solution to this is i'm planning to move abroad in the next 3 years. Lifestyle is restricted heavily in the UK

[EnglishAbundance]

A society that values hard work and entrepreneurship would tax wealth. Instead, we tax work. It's because we're not really a capitalist society. We're an oligarchy. The biggest lie out there is that the Tories love hard work and hate taxes. Nonsense. They love wealth. And they love tax! They can't get enough of tax. It's just that they love taxing the average person.

[whateveryoulike]

Meanwhile the PM who is a billionaire insists the problem is with the poorest people who can't find work and are trying to survive on less than £100 a week.

[RenovationMan]

It's quite simple. After all the bills are paid, only a few have any money left to spend within the economy. Therefore the economy will suffer.

[alibarcelona]

14 years of Conservative government 😢😢

[jenn_]

Actually enforcing a ban on offshore tax havens would do us wonders as a country, the fact that Cameron is back in parliament after the Panama Papers scandal goes to show how little our government cares about taxing the rich. Our PM worked for a hedge fund and made millions during the 2007-08 financial crash and then he went onto scrap the cap on bankers bonuses, says it all really

[majormoolah]

UK wanted to be a smaller version of USA. This is what we got.

[Aklith]

How bad is the UK's economy? ... it's bad fam...

[snh]

The graph is clear. The stagnation started when the Tories took power. They say that they are the party of economic responsibility, stability, prosperity, etc... but the truth is that they have no idea about it. They keep saying that the inflation is going to get better next year, etc... not because they are doing something to sort the problem but because they are waiting for it to sort it self out. They can't fix the economy with their ideological set of tools.

[rossspenser]

How can we vote this lot in again .They have done nothing

[laurochaves]

We are a top economy on paper because on the ground we are below poor countries. No dentist, doctors, roads in disrepair, old hospitals and schools cement crumbling and list goes on . The difference is we get taxed here to our eye balls.

[longbowman]

The UK has something to show its people: it's a middle finger

[mjribes]

I'm 42 and am not on the housing ladder. I live in London and have no bank of mum and dad to fall back on.

[sriig]

I worked in investment banking for a few years. Almost everyday at work, I talked to someone in NYC with an English accent. And the number grew with time. Turns out that countless finance professionals in the London scene are leaving, with those able ot transfer internally within their companies seizing the first opportunity to do so, and starting over in the US, a place where a finance professional can have seemingly unlimited growth prospects.

That seems to be the number one complaint about the UK economy across a wide swath of walks of life. There is simply no upward mobility. There's no business growth. No job growth. No entrepreneurial engine. A place totally gripped by a moribund spirit.

[kristoffscuba]

That graph showing wealth disparity across city’s, by country, is excellent. Well done whoever in the production team came up with that. 👍

[bz]

Most Can't afford bills, car insurance going through the roof, councils going bust and want to hike council tax at above 10% (above the 5% allowed by law). Rents nearby doubling in the space of 2 years. Cost of shopping and groceries are getting ridiculous. Tories have completely mismanged this country.

[osborne]

Having spent the first 40 years of my life in South Wales, (I note Powys is on the chart and I spent 10 there) I can safely say every worker I knew (including the managers) were on Income Support. The wages were tiny, the work usually unreliable and contracts short, and most people I knew were poverty trapped because welfare was usually more generous than work. The only option was to move away. But the system stopped every attempt at that.

[jamesj]

Just our entire generation (90's babies) missing out on a proper economy at the time of our lives where we need to create a financial foothold.

[billycorgan]

The biggest lie on Brexit was people never assumed the huge gap between London and the rest of UK. That's the big issue and nothing had to do with EU.