Douglas McWilliams had fun doing a little math like economists love it. The founder of the Center for Economics and Business Research, a consulting firm, tried to measure the extent of the nationalizations in preparation across the Channel. Conclusion: ‘Boris Johnson’s government set to intervene in companies to the tune of £ 100bn [110 milliards d’euros], one and a half times more than what Jeremy Corbyn promised [l’ancien leader très à gauche du Parti travailliste]. “ By Mr. McWilliams’ own admission, the calculation is crude, based on very uncertain assumptions. But the result gives an idea of the scale of the economic revolution underway in the United Kingdom: never in the history of the past forty years has a British government been so interventionist.
With the Covid-19 epidemic, the country of Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), in power from 1979 to 1990, chose to spend lavishly. He created a partial unemployment system, on a European model. He nationalized the trains, taking back control of all rail operators. More than 1.3 million SMEs have benefited from loans guaranteed 100% by the State, for an amount which reached 45 billion euros in mid-October. As Boris Johnson acknowledges, all the traditional economic taboos are popping up one after the other: “Rishi Sunak [le chancelier de l’Echiquier, chargé des finances et du Trésor] did things that no Conservative chancellor wants to do. “
In total, for the year 2020 alone, the bill reaches 200 billion pounds of direct intervention, to which is added 100 billion pounds due to the economic slowdown, according to the calculations of the research institute. That is to say a deficit which should reach 17% of gross domestic product.
“ He’s a Gaullist ”
The country of austerity, under Prime Minister David Cameron (2010-2016), privatizations and the free market, under Margaret Thatcher, is it turning to the left economically? Boris Johnson, the hero of the brexiters, is he burying their dream of a “Singapore-on-Thames”, this idea of a United Kingdom practicing social and environmental dumping at the gates of Europe? “ He’s a Gaullist, dared Simon Hix, political scientist at the London School of Economics. He defends a sovereignist line, in favor of state intervention, not at all libertarian. “
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