When I landed at Heathrow this morning, I had no idea that I was stepping into a country hurtling towards irrelevance. But if you’re looking for the economic future, it apparently isn’t here.
According to a new report, the British economy will be hardly worth talking about in a few years. Four years ago, Britannia had the fourth-largest economy in the world. But the Chinese, French and Italians (!) have surpassed it since then, and the country is set to drop out of the biggest top 10 list in business by 2015.
Coming on hard already are Brazil and Russia, which are likely to surpass old Albion in the next couple of years. But mark 2015 as the year the empire strikes back, as India and Canada are poised to take their place in the top 10, and the U.K. in the not top 10.
“Those who are increasingly setting the world agenda have a degree of post-colonial resentment against the British,” Douglas McWilliams of the Centre for Economics and Business Research said. Next thing you know, they’ll be taking away Britain’s permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Now, one could very rightly take issue with any study that shows the Italian economy in anything other than a shambles, but the report comes at a fragile time for the once-mighty United Kingdom, brought low by the economic crisis and by European allies who seem intent on turning London into a provincial backwater.
Not that the country’s leaders are doing much to help at the moment. After earlier this year driving many a hedge fund manager into friendlier offshore climes with a big tax increase, the Treasury is considering a one-time windfall tax on investment bankers.
They better get it while they can. It might not be worth levying special taxes on investment bankers in the world’s 11th-largest economy (and sinking).
Why it matters if the British economy drops out of top 10 [Telegraph]
UK planned tax on bankers criticised [Times]
“When I landed at Heathrow this morning”
No one cares, Greg.
Brilliant!
Almost as irrelevant as you Jon…Please stop writing!
@1 fuck off. shazar is so much better than greg, and that joke is so old.
that’s what happens when you have an all-finance driven economy, you produce nothing and when the bubble burtsts you’re fucked.
5- sounds familiar
I guess their currency will take a dive and I can look forward to some cheaper “dates”. Not bad.
@4 it wasn’t a joke you bitter idiotic fool.
Canada in the top 10? How is that possible?
@9
Canada has a lot to be proud of you $#$@
Terence & Philip
@9 – Canada’s 3 major industries:
1- Oil & Tar Sands
2- Beer & Hockey
3- The Canadian Ballet, ie strip clubs.
– A Patron of the Arts
Do they really care about this if their per capita GDP still remains at the top?
RBS Sucks
that’s what happens when you have a wonky eyed cunt running the shop.
Shazam,
I’m going to wrap my fish & chips in your favorite pink Oxford shirt, while claiming 9 on your IT-2104. I will then break a bottle of malt vinegar on your floor, while peeing in your cat’s litter box. I will then call your mother, repeatedly, telling her your plane has disappeared, and authorities have told me you’re actually a Somalian pirate. Lastly, I will take her out to lunch, where I’ve paid our waiter to loosen the cap off our table’s salt shaker. I will eat grilled cheese, and tell her she’s looking morbidly obese lately.
-Jeff Macke
Christ, Macke, grilled cheese, man?
@11 Brilliant. Canada’s major exports
1- Oil
2- Rocks
3- Wood
4- Strippers
Dear DealBreaker Commentariat
I notice I’ve been having some ED lately, and I know I should see a doctor, but in this economy I just can’t afford to take time off from work. Is there anything I could do without leaving the office using readily-available equipment and supplies?
Sincerely,
an Unleaded Pencil-Pusher
New York, NY
18,
1. Click here: http://www.meredithwhitneyllc.com/
2. Wrap telephone cord around neck, and pull snug.
3. Wrap legs around computer, and feel slight vibration from fan.
4. Place spiral binding on peen.
5. Place binder clip on left nip.
6. Finish with washable marker.
@19
that’s fantastic, can’t believe I’ve never thought of it!
measured in ppp terms uk isn’t doing so badly. this is headlkine grabbing tosh
the economist
Headline is 60+ years too late.
johnbull….know your history and stfu
Disgusting interlopers. The wogs begin at Calais.
we might become less relevant but we aint going no where. anyway once we get the scottish socialist raj out of power we will bounce back…..perhaps
@24 – An oldie but a goodie.
Anyone who lives here in London knows that if not for the Russian and Middle Eastern benefactors, this Atlantic scab would be a parking lot for France’s latest Super-Carrefour.