Economic Policy

3 articles

Jul 21, 2025 • via The Standard

The £100,000 Trap: How Britain Built a System That Punishes Success

Only in Britain Earning £100,000 Makes You Poorer

The mathematics of modern Britain reveal a peculiar achievement: we've constructed a tax system where earning £99,999 leaves you better off than earning £149,000. This isn't a quirk or an oversight. It's the logical endpoint of a state apparatus that views productive citizens primarily as revenue sources to be squeezed, rather than assets to be cultivated.

Jun 22, 2025 • via Financial Times

HMRC's Small Business Tax Collapse: When the Revenue Collector Can't Collect Revenue

Again, the Numbers Tell the Story

While Treasury ministers promise to make "everyone pay their fair share," the latest HMRC figures reveal a tax collection system in institutional breakdown, with small businesses now successfully avoiding 40% of what they owe.

Jun 19, 2025 • via The Guardian

HS2: A £100 Billion Monument to Institutional Failure

The Numbers Tell the Story

HS2 was supposed to cost £20 billion in 2012. It will now cost over £100 billion and won't open until at least 2035. The first trains were meant to run in 2026. That target became 2033. Now Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admits there is "no reasonable way" to meet even that revised deadline.