Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Damian Pudner
“Britain was once the workshop of the world. Later it became one of the most open and dynamic economies in Europe. When the post-war economic model began to falter in the 1970s the country eventually recognised that incremental tweaks would not suffice. Structural reform became unavoidable. What followed was neither cautious nor gradual. The reforms of the 1980s dismantled large parts of the existing economic model and replaced them with something far more competitive. Nowhere was that clearer than in the financial sector. The Big Bang of 1986 swept away restrictive practices, opened London’s markets and helped turn the City into one of the world’s dominant financial centres. Whether one applauds or criticises those reforms, their ambition is undeniable. That sense of ambition is strikingly absent from Britain’s economic debate today.” (03/12/26)
https://fee.org/articles/britain-once-led-the-world-what-happened/