Guy Dampier

ICYMI, some EU fans are now comparing the UK's post-Brexit performance against the Netherlands, and you can see why they would want to based on the chart below. But the Netherlands is not a good benchmark, for many reasons. In particular: 1⃣ the UK economy was hit much harder by Covid, with more long-term scarring 2⃣ Dutch energy prices (especially the cost of industrial electricity) are relatively low 3⃣ Dutch government debt is much lower (about 44% of GDP), creating more fiscal space 4⃣ the Netherlands benefits from the "Rotterdam effect", which the UK could never replicate 5⃣ Dutch GDP statistics are distorted by the activities of multinationals (not to the same extent as Ireland, but for similar reasons) 6⃣ the Netherlands has a more competitive tax system, especially for corporate dividends and expats 7⃣ the Dutch have kept minimum wages at a sensible level and avoided a large increase in labour market regulation, which has helped to keep unemployment low... I could go on but life is, of course, much simpler if you just blame everything on Brexit... 😉

One way or another immigration being sharply down yet the salience of immigration being very high is a major failure for the current government.

Two separate instances of luring teenage girls to rape them, each three times, at knifepoint, while filming it, subsequently sharing the videos on social media. Hard to understand this judge's conclusion that the outcome should simply be 3 months curfew and 3 years supervision.