Thread by @sam_bidwell

Britain has some of the best human capital in the world - and some of the worst government policy 🇬🇧

We mustn't lose sight of this fact. There is so much to celebrate about our country.

A 🧵 with some reasons to be bullish on Britain - if we can just get the basics right

Let's start with London.

The capital ranks alongside New York as one of the world's truly 'global cities'.

The City of London in particular is a financial powerhouse. 38% of global foreign exchange transactions take place in London - more than any other city in the world.

The City generates over £97 billion in economic output annually - and the UK as a whole exports over £175 billion p/a in financial and professional services.

London sits in second place, behind New York, on the Global Financial Centres Index - and the UK is the second-largest services exporter globally.

London is such a financial services powerhouse that our secondary services hub, Canary Wharf, produces more annual output in this sector than European hubs like Frankfurt.

London is also the world's leading arbitration hub - 85% of maritime contract disputes are settled here.

With 83.8 million total passengers in 2024, London's Heathrow Airport is the fourth busiest in the world, and the busiest in Europe.

This is a huge infrastructural advantage - Heathrow's connectivity makes it easy for business travellers from around the world to visit London.

London's other airports contribute a further 90 million passenger journeys.

Gatwick is Europe's 8th busiest airport, with more annual passengers than Rome or Munich.

Stansted is Europe's 20th busiest airport, with more annual passengers than Copenhagen, Oslo, and Berlin.

The UK also has some of the world's best universities.

The Times World University Rankings puts three British universities - Cambridge, Oxford, and Imperial College London - in the top 10 globally.

The UK and the US are the only countries with universities in the top 10.

High quality research institutions like these help to make the UK one of the most innovative economies in the world, pound for pound.

The UK consistently features in the top 5 of the WIPO Global Innovation Index, and in the top 10 of the BCG International Innovation Index.

When it comes to VC funding, London ranks 4th in the world - the nearest European equivalent is Paris, in 11th.

The UK is 7th in the world for VC funding ($207 per head), with more than double the per capita funding of France ($101 per head) and Germany ($86 per head).

As a result, the UK has the biggest tech sector in Europe, and the third largest tech sector in the world.

Given the UK's terrible policy environment, many of our brightest people move to the US - where they're overrepresented in creating successful companies.

Of US Fortune 500 companies founded by immigrants, nearly a quarter were founded by people from the UK.

Rolls-Royce, headquartered in London, is the world's second-largest maker of jet engines.

The company also produces engines for helicopters, fighter aircraft, and the F-35B LiftSystem.

Rolls-Royce is also working to develop a fleet of small modular nuclear reactors.

The UK is the world's 8th largest arms exporter - and was 2nd as recently as 2020. Unfortunately, the Government has actively worked against the interests of our defence industry.

BAE Systems remains Europe's largest defence contractor, with £23 billion in revenue as of 2023.

The British aerospace industry is the second-largest in the world, after the United States, and the largest in Europe.

The UK produces the high-technology wings for all Airbus models, and is also responsible for the design and supply of the fuel systems for most Airbus crafts.

Founded by British entrepreneur James Dyson in 1991, Dyson Ltd. maintains a significant UK presence.

In 2017, it opened a new high-tech campus on the former site of RAF Hullavington, near Malmesbury.

This 'Dyson Institute' is responsible for much of the firm's global R&D.

UK-based Ineos is the fourth largest chemical company in the world.

Around 75% of the world's motorsport R&D takes place in the UK.

Cambridge-based ARM is a specialist CPU design firm, and is responsible for producing the processor designs for almost all modern smartphones.

The UK is a top 10 global exporter of pharmaceutical products.

Cambridge-based AstraZeneca is the world's 9th largest pharmaceutical company. London-based GlaxoSmithKline ranks 13th.

The UK was famously the first country to roll out a clinically approved Covid-19 vaccine.

The UK is the world's largest exporter of alcoholic spirits, exporting around 1.8 billion bottles a year. This dominance is largely owed to the Scottish whiskey industry.

We're also sixth in the world for beer exports - and exports of English sparkling wine are growing quickly.

Despite our expensive hotels, the UK is the seventh largest destination for international tourism in the world, with 38 million visits from abroad in 2023.

The UK is home to 33 UNESCO World Heritage sites, including Stonehenge, Westminster Abbey, and Canterbury Cathedral.

We share a language - and close cultural links - with the United States. The US is our biggest single source of investment, and the UK is the third-largest source of investment for the US.

We remain a bridge into Europe - but with the regulatory freedom to diverge from Brussels.

We have developed investment relationships with the Gulf monarchies, India, and Japan.

So why aren't we the richest country in the world?

It certainly isn't the quality of our people - it's all down to policy.

Thanks to our arcane planning system, building in the UK is expensive and time-consuming. This is true of housing, but it's also true of lab space, data centres, transport and energy infrastructure.

The most harmful outcome of this is on energy.

We have the highest industrial energy costs in the developed world - which forces many British companies to close or relocate. How can innovative, but energy-intensive, companies operate in such an expensive environment?

This is particularly depressing when we consider that the UK has yet to fully exploit its domestic energy reserves. We still have enough North Sea oil to sustain production for another 35 years.

The size of our untapped shale gas reserves is even more remarkable - but politicians refuse to allow fracking.

Even if you can survive the expensive energy and the restrictive planning rules, you have to contend with our regulatory environment.

The UK has more than 90 regulators, and several hundred quangos.

Rather than using our Brexit freedoms to regulate less, the British regulatory state is dominated by bureaucrats who believe that their job is to eliminate all risk or negative externality.

As a result, these regulators end up eliminating growth altogether. New technologies are regarded with suspicion rather than excitement. Ordinary Britons lose access to new products.

The list of policy failures goes on.

Our migration system is poorly calibrated - life is made difficult for genuinely high-skilled migrants, while the floodgates remain open to low-skilled migration.

We're driving away high net-worth individuals, by scrapping policies like the non-dom scheme. Britain now loses more millionaires per year than any other country, besides China.

Rising crime in London, alongside a generalised sense of disorder, makes the UK less appealing to international investors.

If we could just get the basics right, the UK could be one of the richest countries in the world.

Provide cheap energy. Make it easy to build. Crack down on crime. Control the borders. Let businesses grow.

This isn't rocket science - but it does require political bravery.