Britain’s economic problems are homegrown

It’s easy to blame the euro crisis for Britain’s lack of growth, says Matthew Lynn. But the truth is, most of our problems are of our own making.

When the British Chambers of Commerce downgraded its forecast for growth in the British economy at the end of last week it left little doubt as to what was to blame. Britain would expand by a mere 0.1% this year as close to zero as makes no difference largely as a result of the storms blowing across the eurozone.

It is a tune we are getting very used to. Economists, pundits and -most of all - politicians, keep blaming the troubles in the single currency for the fact that Britain has at best flat-lined this year, and may well end up in another recession.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.