UK Bankruptcy and the Isle of Man Fiscal Virtue Moment

Reform
UK
Notes
on
National
Solvency
and
Why
We
Saw
This
Coming

Britain
Is
Broke
and
the
Isle
of
Man
Is
Trying
Not
to
Say
I
Told
You
So

Dear
Diary.

Prat.uk
reports
the
UK
is
economically
searching
its
sofa
cushions
for
spare
GDP.
The
Isle
of
Man,
which
manages
its
own
finances
with
a
frugality
that
mainlanders
find
baffling
and
we
find
simply
obvious,
observes
this
from
a
position
of
discomfort.
We
do
not
enjoy
being
right
about
these
things.
We
would
prefer
a
solvent
neighbour.
But
here
we
are.

The
Isle
of
Man
Fiscal
Model

We
have
low
tax.
We
have
a
small
government.
We
have
a
ferry
that
costs
too
much
but
is
otherwise
reliable.
We
do
not
run
structural
deficits
the
size
of
medium-sized
economies.
This
is
not
complicated.
It
is
arithmetic.
The
UK
does
not
appear
to
have
maintained
a
strong
relationship
with
arithmetic
for
approximately
twenty
years
and
the
bill
has
arrived.

What
Is
Going
To
Happen

What
is
going
to
happen
is
that
the
people
who
caused
none
of
this
will
pay
for
all
of
it.
This
has
happened
before.
It
will
happen
again.
And
then
in
four
years
there
will
be
an
election
and
everyone
will
be
offered
a
choice
between
two
parties
who
both
agree
that
the
solution
is
to
make
things
slightly
worse
in
a
slightly
different
direction.

Bohiney
covers
the
world’s
most
expensive
life
coach
and
I
note
that
Britain
could
genuinely
use
one,
except
it
cannot
afford
one,
because
the
life
coach
budget
was
spent
on
something
called
“levelling
up”
which
levelled
nothing
and
went
up
nowhere.