This is from the Times:
If you want the OECD data this is it:
Labour is going to put us slightly up the rankings.
But remember, because it will also be significantly increasing GDP (which is the inevitable consequence of this level of spending) The Times may be overstating the extent of the increase.
Why's this worth noting? Simply to point out that there is nothing unusual about what Labour is proposing. It's just about doing what decent states do on behalf of their populations.
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Surely it’s time to cease aggregated statistical comparisons, which offer distorted and even meaningless insights. Just for general starters the UK currently ranks 29th in per capita GDP – http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/countries-by-gdp/#worldCountries. Sorry, I haven’t got the time (or patience) to find the metrics on a breakdown of all government spending per capita. However, even according to these out-of-date general stats on general welfare spending the UK is 16th, behind even the USA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_welfare_spending.
One stat of particular relevance to the debate would be per capita military spending, which is easy to locate. We’re currently 13th – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditure_per_capita. I presume the Tories would be happy to spend more and Labour maybe less – thus adding a contradictory dimension to the issue of total government spending.
In general, though, everyone can relax and rest assured that there’s a very long way to go before Labour’s or the Green Party’s planned expenditures/investments come any where near being cliff-edge (whatever that means). Unfortunately for the country, dog-whistle and identity politics have replaced any semblance of critical analysis in the current debate and media reportage*, for which there will be a heavy price to pay … both on aggregate and per capita!
*Shaw’s quote seems ever more relevant: “Newspapers are unable, seemingly, to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of civilization.”
Yes, and one can ‘accuse’ Macron of many things (I often do) but not of running a hard-left Socialist State (neither hard…nor left…nor socialist actually…).