lets clarify things, as things to think about
If the UK is complaining of no growth, we need to see empirical evidence to show how statistically they've dropped from so and so year, to so and so year. If there has been no growth, is it in terms of productivity from industries and firms, or the growth rate is on the part of the citizens unwilling to work due to grands they enjoy from government,
a business can grow by having less employee's. for instance by mcdonalds moving from walk-in face to face with staffed service, to a model of drive-thru AI assisted order taking.. mcdonalds can actually make more profit due to less expense and then use that profit nationally to add more restaurants in the country(add more real estate assets to portfolio and multiply profit model)
yep reducing expenses can lead to more profits which can lead to expanding production amounts which leads to growth in a society of less employment
just look at farming for instance, 1900's era farming done by hand only allowed a farming family(one entity) to be able to own just a small patch of land and need the whole family and friends to help out..(limiting education and future prospects of working away from the family farm)
modern farming however, as one entity can own more land, doing more production with less people managing the land, allowing the kids to go school, learn new skills and seek employment in other industries (or be lazy) without the need to farm with the family
because the thing is that, if people are not working government obviously won't be generating enough revenue to sustain the system not to talk of paying citizens that are idle.
uk unemployment benefit is £90 a week (£4.68k/yr) so with 60m working age people in UK and 4% are unemployed(2.4m) means the unemployed budget is only $11.2b
the UK treasury has a revenue of £1trillion. which if they just kept hold of 2023 budget to spend in 2024-25 year, and hold it in an account offering just 1.2% interest, the interest alone would fund the unemployment costs
infact the UKGI separately manages £1.3trillion of government assets in its portfolio and it generated £33b in last fiscal year
So for me, I think we need to see empirical evidence of how the UK has been growing over the years and how that growth has stunted lately according to your analysis. London is the Heart of UK and if they are still doing well based on your assertion then, there is still much hope at the end of the dark tunnel.
the evidence is just looking at the highstreet and seeing all the vacant/boarded up store fronts. where by local, national and international businesses are no longer interested in serving the uk populous. which then doesnt excite the economy to grow
less stores to sell goods, less goods sold, less goods produced, less employment creating goods
yes london SEEN a unnatural bubble of property growth, but thats the fake finance game of the property market, unnaturally held up by making weird policies to deny new property builds, new policies of "15 minute cities" to make fake(pricing) demand for properties due to lack of real growth of new housing(physical asset number count)
now heres the hypocrisy
when we all believe our taxes should fund us when we are in need(like an insurance). EG when we become sick or disabled or made unemployed due to multiple issues.. or have a safety incident like needing health fire or police assistance.. it seems private society wants to point fingers at governments £11b spending of the unemployed as a unnecessary spend of our taxes.. yet we dont question the government giving £111b to banks
yep we pay banks 10x more then we pay our poorest populous
its like the meme/analogy
a group of 100 citizens(4 are unemployed), sit next to a bunch of businessmen, politicians, bankers at a tea and biscuit party.. the waitress puts 100 biscuits on the table. everyone reaches in
the banker takes 11 biscuits, 7 biscuits are taken out to be put aside for future investments, and others take theirs..
the plate is empty. everyone looks around and sees 4 unemployed people all sharing 1 biscuit(0.25 biscuits each)
the businessmen and politicians and bankers all whisper to each other and then tell the 96 employed citizens that the biscuits are gone and they should look at and blame the 4 unemployed people sharing the single biscuit as the cause
Your analysis are in-depth and that was what I was expecting from the the OP so we can understand the dynamic of the narrative he is trying to portray. However if the UK government has a Treasury revenue of £1 Trillion, it then means servicing an unemployed burden of £11.2 billion wouldn't be a big deal for them, which doesn't support the OPs narrative of stunted growth, because with Such kind of massive capital base, the complain on economic instability should be minimized as the reality is far from that.
You also talked about vacant/boarded up stores front, and you Also mentioned local and international Businesses are no longer interested in servicing the UK populous, for which doesn't stimulate growth, however this i cannot ascertain this information, because I don't stay in the UK, so we would need verified information to come into conclusion on that, because there are lots of investors who would gladly want to take their investment to the UK, and I also believe they're are lots of availability of persons who are still job seekers that would want to fill in those vacant positions. For an economy that has Such capital base, trust me, investors won't think twice to make investment hence the opportunity is there.
Lastly I enjoyed your assertion on the hypocrisy part.
Trust is that, it is more like a political underplay, where the system is always manipulated for the benefit of just the microscopic few, this sort of thing is not only happening in the UK, some of us in our countries are witnessing it first half, some times they don't even hide the biasness and manipulation from you, they actually do in front of you.