The UK Becomes a Case Study in How Not to Fix a Floundering Economy (John Phelan, December 18, 2025, Daily Economy)
Public sector workers were rewarded for supporting Labour with a £9.4 billion pay hike — 42.9 percent of the alleged “black hole” — while the perpetually cash-hungry National Health Service received £1.5 billion. To fund this, Reeves raised taxes by £40 billion — the largest increase since 1993 — including a two-percentage-point hike in employer NI contributions. She denied breaking her pre-election promise, noting that the employee share was unchanged, but this convinced no one. Overall, taxes were forecast to reach “a historic high” as a share of GDP.
Incredibly, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR, Britain’s version of the Congressional Budget Office) projected that Reeves’ budget would push government spending, taxes, borrowing, inflation, and interest rates up, while driving employment, disposable income, and GDP growth down.