Is Britain Ready to Be Honest About Its Decline?

Change is hard and requires, perhaps more than anything, honesty. There’s a reason that the 12-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous includes “making a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.” How can we hope to know where we’re going unless we’re willing to understand and acknowledge where we are now? Britain’s greatest challenge in reversing its relative economic decline may be in recognizing that it’s happening at all.

London-based think tank The Resolution Foundation performed a service to the cause this month by spelling out, in monetary and percentage terms, just how far the country has fallen behind. Most Britons would consider France and Germany to be comparable nations, doing slightly better or worse on occasion perhaps, but part of the same general neighborhood. So it may have come as a shock to be told just how wide the gap has become. Middle-income households are 20% poorer than those in Germany and 9% behind those in France. It’s even more grim for the low-income group: 27% worse off than counterparts in both countries.