The Government keeps telling us the UK economy is in great shape. It rather depends what they mean. Retail sales seem to be holding up quite well. Manufacturing shows signs of responding to the exceptional opportunities offered by the low pound. Shares are high and property prices may be off the boil although still simmering. Wages in real terms are rising and unemployment is low.
But and this is a very big collection of buts; too much spending is funded by borrowing, we are a nation of borrowers not savers, the balance of trade is horrific, the gap between rich and poor grows, opportunities for the young shrink, the taxation base is too small to balance the government’s books, the industrial base may now be too small to generate the needed new wealth, infrastructure decays faster than it is renewed, public services are starved of cash and standards are falling, there are problems on the rail network and throughout the NHS and to add to many other issues kicked like rattling cans down a dusty road, there is the looming uncertainty over Brexit. Not one single element of this and certainly none of the details which made people vote for it, is clear, even in outline.
So if you think you know where we are headed think again. Nothing will become clear until the new government starts to govern. So far it just comments. And many of these comments make little sense. Time is running short. If May is not careful it will run out.