In case you missed the news, Brazil has deposed Britain as the sixth largest economy in the world, according to the annual world economic league table compiled by the Centre for Economic and Business Research.
Britain’s steady economic and industrial decline is one of the most remarkable events of the past century, on a par with the epic surge in the economy of the People’s Republic of China in the past 50 years.
In the 1840s Britain was “the workshop of the world” and the world’s biggest manufacturer as well as the world’s biggest exporter.
In the 1980s, it reached a dramatic turning point and became a net importer of manufactured goods (thank you, Iron Lady!). Since then, the spivs, coupon-clippers and parasites of the City of London have become the centre of the UK economy, providing invisible income from banking and finance activities: instead of making things, they’ve been making money.
This is a pretend economy founded on credit, paper money, equities, derivatives etc and when it crashes so will Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron won’t be able to ask the EU for a bail-out because he has just told his European counterparts that he won’t support their bail-out plans for the Euro zone.
If he believes the UK will be rescued by President Barack Obama, Washington and Wall Street he is deluded. They can’t and they won’t. One tiny group of Empire loyalists believe that the Commonwealth will come to Britain’s aid. That is why Britain, after years of diplomatic neglect, is suddenly paying so much attention to the old British empire.
But will India, Canada, South Africa and Australia rally to the Union Jack when the Mother Country starts sinking beneath the North Sea? If John Howard was still prime minister, the answer would be “Yes”. With Tony Abbott in charge, the answer would also be “Yes”. Gillard is from Wales where republicanism and brown-nosing live in equal measure.
If the Prince of Wales asks for an Aussie bail-out, his loyal subject can be relied upon. More royal tours in 2012.
Britain’s steady economic and industrial decline is one of the most remarkable events of the past century, on a par with the epic surge in the economy of the People’s Republic of China in the past 50 years.
In the 1840s Britain was “the workshop of the world” and the world’s biggest manufacturer as well as the world’s biggest exporter.
In the 1980s, it reached a dramatic turning point and became a net importer of manufactured goods (thank you, Iron Lady!). Since then, the spivs, coupon-clippers and parasites of the City of London have become the centre of the UK economy, providing invisible income from banking and finance activities: instead of making things, they’ve been making money.
This is a pretend economy founded on credit, paper money, equities, derivatives etc and when it crashes so will Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron won’t be able to ask the EU for a bail-out because he has just told his European counterparts that he won’t support their bail-out plans for the Euro zone.
If he believes the UK will be rescued by President Barack Obama, Washington and Wall Street he is deluded. They can’t and they won’t. One tiny group of Empire loyalists believe that the Commonwealth will come to Britain’s aid. That is why Britain, after years of diplomatic neglect, is suddenly paying so much attention to the old British empire.
But will India, Canada, South Africa and Australia rally to the Union Jack when the Mother Country starts sinking beneath the North Sea? If John Howard was still prime minister, the answer would be “Yes”. With Tony Abbott in charge, the answer would also be “Yes”. Gillard is from Wales where republicanism and brown-nosing live in equal measure.
If the Prince of Wales asks for an Aussie bail-out, his loyal subject can be relied upon. More royal tours in 2012.