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Comment by hcurtiss | Hacker News Reader

>As far as the UK goes though, this is just result of multiple terrible decisions and incompetence on the part of the government.

What is your evidence for this? It seems most countries in the euro zone are identically situated.

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Most countries in the Euro zone aren't on their third government since the summer, and didn't have one of those governments collapse in the fallout of introducing a tax cut for the rich, funded entirely through borrowing, which made their bond yields shoot through the roof.

Political turnover doesn’t really substantiate the idea that Britain is entering a recession because of bad economic choices. Again, the rest of the eurozone is in the same boat. To me, it only substantiates political discontent and a system of government where that kind of turnover is possible. I see little evidence that Britain’s current state of affairs is because of Brexit.

Most countries in the world didn't stick up a middle finger to their largest trading partner, and then failed to replace it, in a timely fashion, with alternative trade deals.

Most countries in Europe aren't also selling gas's to other countries, knowing full well they will have to buy it back at a higher price in the winter. The UK has very little gas storage compared to other EU countries.

UK seems to be in a different boat due to Brexit. While definitely suffering from the same issues as the EU, they're not in a place to bounce back. Even before the current crisis, it was looking increasingly gloom.

See also the wikipedia page on the economic effects of Brexit for reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_effects_of_Brexit

The government was planning to do tax cuts (further increasing demand during a period of already-high inflation) when the central bank was trying to get inflation under control. The market saw the writing on the wall and people began selling off UK currency, causing the value of the pound to plummet. The central bank had to reverse course and decrease rates to prop up the pound in the short term to stabilize the economy. Ultimately the PM fired her economic minister and then she was ultimately forced to resign herself. This situation was unprecedented anywhere globally as far as I'm aware.

EU has its economical problems, but nothing like Britain.

AFAIR the United Kingdom is the only country whose economy still has to reach pre-pandemic levels. Our political system has been fighting over that thorny issue for 6 bloody years, and everything else has been put on hold.

GDP Q2 was +0.7% in EU, 0.8% in euro zone[0], 0.2% in UK[1].

It's not a huge difference, but it's sizable.

[0] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php... [1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp

The UK isn't part of the Euro Zone anymore. That's the simplest reason. The fallout from that decision will continue to drag the UK down as they continue the process of not being a Euro Zone economy. At some point things will steady, but they're not there yet.

uk never was part of the euro zone

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