The UK economy: an ever-changing picture of work in progress, part three.
In what follows I wish to make the case that persistent unemployment is not some inevitability whenever the UK is shocked. To do so, I will cast my mind back to the UK economy as I have experienced it, studied it and worked in it. For each instance – BEFORE THIS – that the UK suffered a major labour market failure, I will argue that events could at worse have been moderated and made much less protracted, or at best avoided entirely. Having made a case for why the UK labour market is resilient when actually not imperilled by poor leadership or allowed to self-heal without restrictions, I will argue the UK can and will recover from the present unavoidable crisis extremely quickly, certainly faster than many are warning. It will recover swiftly thanks to it being unencumbered by ‘frictions’ in the ways it once was and also because it is in the capable independent hands of the Bank of England and a Chancellor who is best in class. With class in mind, let me begin by reflecting back at the now long-retired angry young men of Britain’s manually skilled working-class past.
