Stephen Reid

Ellie Mae O’Hagan and Nicholas Shaxson explain why countries don’t need to "compete" on tax: the latest Mythbuster from nef and the Tax Justice Network.

“There are two distinct groups of people, one good and one bad; individuals choose to be in one group or the other. ‘Strivers’ work hard and put money into the economy while ‘skivers’ are just lay-abouts who take money out. Claiming benefits traps people in dependency, which is a social evil, passed from one generation to the next. People not in paid work contribute nothing of value to society.”

If Britain is broke at the moment, then – looking at this longer series – it was also broke for a whole century between 1750 and 1850, and for 20 years after the Second World War. In reality, in neither case did the UK default, and reveal itself as bust – both periods were times of investment and national renewal. Today, our national debt is significantly lower than Japan’s (about 200% of GDP), and comparable to Germany’s (83%) and the US (80%). By international or historical standards, the national debt is not high.

Rolling Jubilee, a project of Occupy offshoot Strike Debt, has caused quite a stir online and in the media (see the Telegraph, Huffington Post, and Guardian).