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Notes -
The choice between taxation and services is not quite a false one, but at the same time, if the national GDP was 20% or more above what it currently is (and there is no reason it couldn't be, because the national GDP hasn't grown over the 2007 level), it would give way more room for maneuver, and we wouldn't see this same lack of confidence from markets.
Maybe not, but the current situation is in part a result of the UK's GDP growth being consistently behind nearly every other developed economy. The United States have managed to grow their economy substantially over the past 15 years. There's no reason we can't too.
And yet, the country consistently punts on those tough questions, and we fall further and further behind. Time and time again the country chooses to consume and consume, and never to invest or to build for the future. The tough choice to make is not whether we increase taxes or cut spending. It's between consumption and investment.
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