Why has Britain been declining for the last century or so? Well, there are probably lots of reasons – competition from around the world for one, legacy issues (old-fashioned equipment and systems in businesses that newer rivals don’t need to deal with), and… too much taxation.

Much too much taxation, indeed. At least, that’s what Eamonn Butler the author of this video, “Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story” and Director of the Adam Smith Institute, believes. He makes the interesting point that it cannot be correct that government spending can stimulate an economy, because such spending comes, ultimately, from individuals and businesses in the form of taxation, preventing those people and businesses from spending on goods and services. In other words, although he doesn’t say it, Keynsian economics must be wrong. I don’t know what the counter-argument may be, but certainly this side of it sounds, well, sound.

Britain’s Trillion Pound Horror Story [playlist, 5 parts of up to 15 mins each, 1h 12m total]