Economist explains how to fix Britain - Torsten Bell MP
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- Опубліковано 19 вер 2024
- Economist-turned-Labour MP Torsten Bell knows all too well that things have not been going great for Britain - but is optimistic that a different future is possible.
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The UK’s economy has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the last few years: wages are flatlining, taxes are on the rise, and public services are on the brink of collapse. The younger generation can’t afford to buy a home, the old aren’t receiving the social care they need and an increasing number of people are reliant on food banks. So what’s at the root of all these problems - and crucially, how do you fix it?
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Torsten Bell, the Labour politician and former Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation, talks to Krishnan Guru Murthy about Britain’s “catch up potential” to turn things around and build a more equal and better off country.
Produced by Silvia Maresca.
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The 'great' is not an adjective in the way he suggests, it's historic reference to relative size. Part of the problem in UK is that most people from there think they are 'Great' in the exceptional sense when they are much poorer and worse off than many other nation states.
It's highly dishonest of Torsten to say inequality has not risen and only mention income inequality.
What he is leaving out is that wealth inequality has shot up over the last few years. That means people have no assets to fall back on. They cannot afford a house so they have to rent one so a landlord siphons off 40% of their income. Etc
And at a macro scale, the rich have also been acquiring assets that used to belong to the state. So now the state is in the same trap - renting assets and services from the private sector at inflated prices so the capitalist class can earn a rent. Meanwhile we get shtty services and terrible value for money.
He's saying the gap hasn't grown.
Everyone is worse off.
I bet he knows more than us....
@@alingard1 he is talking about INCOME.
He is ignoring WEALTH inequality.
UK wealth inequality remains lower than it is i Germany and even Norway.
@leegregorypeck so your point 👉
Wealth inequality is not well understood (people mix it up with income), but before anything else the U.K. would need better data on the issue. Do we even know who the wealthiest 10,000 people in the country are? Not even sure if HMRC knows this, all they know is the income people declare.
OK Krishnan, it's great that you got Torsten on, but why didn't you grill him about the fact he voted to impoverish pensioners having previously been the CEO of an anti-poverty think-tank? I like Torsten but that decision of his was a mistake.
LOL. Hopefully you will get a resolution to this conundrum!
I hope this is an ironic comment
Would these be the same pensioners who repeatedly voted for a party determined to cut back benefits for young people and young families? Now they're against benefit cuts? Time for them to learn why it pays to be in it together.
Pensioners at risk of poverty are still covered by the winter fuel allowance. Elder poverty is a much smaller issue than child poverty and working age.
I'm on an ENORMOUS housing estate, full of wealthy pensioners who left London and the home counties. Their spending power has totally changed the town. How many bespoke travellers tours(not holidays 🙄) , high end wine importers (not off licences😂) ,hat shops, wedding boutiques,tax avoidance specialists (& that is what they call themselves!) and related luxury service industries do you think could fit in a small market town? Because we have more! Why should they get a winter fuel allowance?? It's almost twice what a disabled person can get for theirs! And babies and young children are just as vulnerable to cold and black mould...of course it should be spread around those who actually need it! And the people who've retired aboard 👏 how did they ever get it!! And the TV licence, and the free bus pass. The rich old people are the ones with all the money and still grasping for more. No-one is talking about little frail old ladies on their state pension sitting in wooly hats and not lighting the fire, but to hear them scream😱 the cost of fuel is so high the fuel allowance isn't a deal breaker anyway.
High tax is the problem. Useless policies that the British people are paying for time after time. With no accountability
The one thing we HAVE learned since the 1987 Market Crash is that AUSTERITY doesn't work. The economy can only be fixed by those with the greatest income / wealth flexibility shouldering ALL the burden.
I have literally no idea why Torsten Bell isn't a senior minister in the treasury. He is exactly the type of politician that we need!
Sorry I'm obviously missing something. Why is Torsten a minister??
In the treasury or business. We must have an amazing govt if we can't fit him in it!!
Not a minister I meant
Tax the money not the people
Yeah what we really need to do to fix the economy is taking away fuel from the elderly
Half of the salaries paid in London goes to bankers (who make up 10% of the working population in the capital).
Inequality undermines GDP per capita (the maths is obvious).
But how can we expect to grow our economy if our money is more interested in investment banking than producing products and services?
Think about the brain drain. We could have had a competitor to Google, Tesla, Uber or NVidia, but instead we're using those skills to increase wealth inequality!
"Shared prosperity is what we are about" It doesn't have to be that way!
ILL NEVER TELL THEM THE THIRD TIME
I WANT THEM TO ALWAYS WONDER
IS IT TIME?
Never has so much been said with such little content, this will not fix Britain. Labour is throwing money to all of the wrong places & is guided by political correctness rather than pragmatism. Labour is now the polluted water system, ignoring the basics of recovery while indulging in self interest. The housing proposals are a fraction of what is required & will be given to illegal migrants who do not want to integrate, work or follow British values. Billions are being thrown at people who arrived by criminal means, aid to other countries (including India which is wealthier) & pay rises for well paid Union workers. I leave out Ukraine as there is a moral responsibility. Labour has shown incompetence & a lack of compassion to the elderly although the sum is small, they are soon to punish single people & pensioners further. Their priorities are wrong & trust is totally lost. Because of the green agenda Britain is not exploiting natural assets, there are oil & gas reserves across land & sea yet they choose to buy it instead - this makes no change to the environment. Norway got rich from it's oil because their government took 30% rather than the 10% the British took. There was no talk of reducing rents & house prices. All services are mostly foreign owned & companies make record profits while prices rise. Banks are not regulated, no matter how badly they perform they get a huge salary, shares, bonuses & golden handshakes - any benefit should relate to performance, it has worsened over decades. We do not invest in production or encourage new businesses. Farming practise needs changing to end waste. I could write pages on how the country could be fixed, but it won't happen because they are focused on the trivial. I would say to Mr Bell that he should vote for what is morally right not go with the herd to further his ambition, that is self interested narcissism; he has ditched his previous ideas on poverty because it will not benefit him to take a stand. I think he would make an excellent Kenneth Williams tribute act, he is a mediocre politician without any true ethics to serve & rescue Britain.
Let's talk about BREXIT !!!
Love to see him in an interview with Rory Stewart. He's very new.
Rory became disillusioned.
Two of my favourite people made this a must-watch. ❤
High inequality means overworked and under paid . Wages stay the same and taxes are going up . We need to address 1 in 5 children below the poverty line. Parents are relying on food banks . Parents cant afford to buy clothes for there children. People are being overworked on low pay this results in people claiming more disability benefits because there overworked and they have mental health issues. There is lack of work in small towns . Working people are always attacked. High rent means more homelessness. You cant get mental health support which means there is a mental health crisis . Towns look run down . Businesses are closing down . There is nothing for young people to do
Boy did the Tories and Farage mess up,
The very very equal Norway? That would be the Norway with higher wealth inequality than us?
Torsten talks a lot of sense and I've ben a fan of his for a while, it will be a to see what he does when the labour party dont move in the right direction.
Im hoping he won't sell out like Lamy and Thornbury.
He will
@@FreeSpeech-q7v let's wait and see, he does seem like he has integrity, but time will tell.
He is different to those two but never say never. Humans eh..
@@MeBeardedWonder we will see
Deluded
Stop messing it up should have been the slogan for the last election! Along with be kind I think that just about covers everything! Sorted 💪💪✊
I was really excited when Torsten announced he was running for Parliament but I'm afraid his boss has completely destroyed whatever hope there might have been.
2 months into a 5 year Parliament and it's already over. 4 years and 8 months to wait until they're out and we can try again with someone else yet again.
It's just pointless at this stage, isn't it?
Britain feels like it's very much every man/woman for himself right now
A fairly hysterical viewpoint. Judging a government after two months is fairly ridiculous
@@zeddeka Your words, not mine 👍
Labour just got in and immediately started passing completely anti-Labour policies.
The winter-fuel payment abolition is frankly far-right. It's at least right of Thatcher.
I voted Starmer to be leader back in 2020 so I'll call it out for what it is.
Truth
@@wattbenjand it's been two months in, that's all, and you're hysterically saying it's the end of the world. Look at other governments (notably the Thatcher government) who were in serious trouble for most of their existence, and yet won by landslides each time. It's almost like you're some kind of troll with a series of "talking points"....
@@wattbenj So just one policy? We still have to see what other policies they come up with so I won't be judging them till after the October budget at least.
A Labour MP wanting to fix the economy 😂😂😂😂😂😂. About as likely as finding a female ginger Tomcat
Great interview. I think if the government can stop illegal immigrants spent, it will help a lot of problems in UK.
I used to like this guy but he's entirely sold out to the party now doing the same things that Bell used to criticse
Britain IS DONE 👎🏻🇬🇧
Joke Tinpot PONCE country 👉🏻🏴
Joke FINISHED UNION 👎🏻🇬🇧
🏴☮️🇪🇺
These politicians are a waste of time, paper qualification and and the old boys network has propelled them into position they should never aquire. Policies deiving invest abd peopl OUT.
Keir Starmer getting off the, Pity Party Express, would be a good start. Torsten Bell, has been drinking too much of the feel good Cool aid clearly. He seems to have, veered off message. The Whips will be along shortly to enforce some message discipline, ahead of the Austerity Budget...
The Country is drowning in Tax thats the problem
No buddy, that's the opposite of true.
@@hendrixinfinity3992 its at a 70 year high
Okay, but at least _some_ people have done well over the last couple of decades. Surely that's reason for celebration.
i agree, i made loads of money on the covid contracts and through the post office
😂@@maximusk2883
The guy studied PPE at Oxford. He's basically the same as Reeves et al. PPE at Oxford, then behind the scenes for a party, then an MP with a safe seat and then a cabinet member.
The extremes are being voted for because of people like this MP. They are the cause - not the solution.
Are you saying you don't like him because he's well educated?
@@dannyquinn9128I wouldn’t have anything against him, not particularly interested in his education, his policy recommendations are embarrassing.
@@Nah762 Then why does your original comment make a point of his PPE degree from Oxford?
the UK is united by common ancestry (anglo saxons, nordics, celts) and by beeing Subjects of the British Monarchy, also by religion (christianity). Other concepts to that are foreign, and should not be accounted as they are not part of the Constitution of the country.
Untrue, by the 1600s, England had already started several colonies overseas and started to follow a path of tolerance and acceptance, which was a very large reason for why Britons were able to exchange and work with places to gain footholds, most famously shown in the East India Company. We are a Constitutional Monarchy, without any actual constitution. People could argue the Magna Carta is our baseline for our constitution, though our political system has changed so much since the Doomsday Book, I would argue the encroaching mess that's being made in politics is due to this. To exclude other cultures which has enriched our nation and allowed us to rich higher levels of development than would have been possible, is folly, and you would do well to remember our history and what ACTUALLY built this country. Hint, it was definitely not just the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Celts & Romans.
@@TheLukeLambert 1) british colonization and empire was not about tolerance; 2) The UK has an unwritten constitution. Every State have a constitution. Mostly are written. A few Countries have unwritten ones.
@@rodolphodecastrorodrigues7457Why not just be racist, instead of doing all those mental gymnastics?
For those accusing him of selling out and just following the party line, he addresses that criticism at 29:58.