Economic Times Editor: There’s a truth emerging about Britain. There’s no money – apparently. The mini-budget just proved this point. Worse, the government – and by that, I mean any government now or in the future, is completely hamstrung by the markets – as we have just witnessed. The finances of Britain are now controlled by the calculations of bondholders, banks, pensions and hedge-fund managers, day traders, speculators and even money launderers. Combined, they make up ‘the markets’ and they have just demonstrated that when the numbers don’t add up – they start throwing their toys around.

The government is now raking in a bigger percentage per capita of people’s hard-earned cash than at any time since the 1950s. There are no low-hanging fruits left. Squeezing the middle classes even further than they are right now might cause a few avocado eaters loaded with pips to head for parliament square.

Alternatively, we could be the first western economy in the G7 to actually go for the tax evaders. It’s only worth £100bn a year.

Not in the news but at the recent Labour party conference – Keir Starmer vowed to prioritise companies paying full UK tax over those registered in offshore tax havens when awarding government contracts. That’ll be interesting. When The Tory government sold off the HMRC buildings portfolio (yet more privatisation), which the taxpayer now pays rent for – it went to a company registered offshore that doesn’t pay tax in the UK. There’s a cheeky little irony in there isn’t there? It was one of the many little wheezes of George Osborne – eventually branded Britain’s worst-ever chancellor. Until the KwasiKami turned up!

The example of the tax dodgers helps to explain the malaise the country finds itself in. No company or individual should be allowed to live or trade in Britain if tax evasion is found. Immigrants do in fact help to build an economy, they always have done – tax evasion does the opposite – it always has done. Yet the former is accused of thieving taxpayers’ money – the latter are often knighted and paraded as the captains of industry.

Catching these offshore tax dodgers is costly. One way might be to offer a cut to bounty hunters. Perhaps PwC, Deloitte, EY and KPMG, with all their insider knowledge, might fancy turning poacher and bring down their own law-breaking clients for immunity and a slice. How about arresting the money launderers in the City of London and shock/horror take their assets too. Apparently, that’s called seizing the proceeds of crime for which there is even a law. It just isn’t exercised often. Or, as they say in Toryville – not at all.

So where else is the money coming from? The answer is – nowhere.  This puts the ambitions of Labour and any progressive policy it might have up its sleeve in the shadow of the markets. The problem is this from now on. If it’s unfunded – it’s off the drawing board. So to increase spending on say education, some other service has to pay.

This week, the Institute for Government published its annual assessment of the state of nine public services. They were identified as; general practice, hospitals, adult social care, children’s social care, neighbourhood services, schools, police, criminal courts and prisons. It will surprise no one with some functioning grey matter that after a decade of austerity, the report found that many public services went into the pandemic much weaker than they should have been. Longer waiting times, reduced access, missed targets and other signs of diminishing standards was all the report found. So take your pick of those to reduce spending on – in favour of another.

There are now 7 million people on NHS waiting lists. This is set to get worse, much worse. In fact, by the time the Tories are set to be hammered at the next election – analysis suggests another two million will have been added to those same waiting lists. But, there’s no money to allocate to the NHS unless you take it off one of the aforementioned. Or the military.

Holding down public sector pay is only going to make everything worse. And guess what – after more than a decade of austerity, there’s no appetite to stomach any more of it. In fact, both Labour and the Tories have pledged to end it. How they will achieve this – or indeed increase spending on any public service – is now anyone’s guess.

From a policy point of view – there’s only one way to go – efficiencies. And we all know what that means – top-down restructuring and the inevitable failure that will bring.

There’s always the elderly, of course. Drowning the pensions triple-lock will save money, tip a few dependents on the state off the cliff-edge and raise death duties. What’s not to like if you’re a hard-nosed chancellor with the emotional intelligence of an alligator? Bring back George – he’ll do it.

In the end, as the saying goes – you run out of someone else’s money – and they have, the markets just said so as a response to the mini-budget.