The nation celebrates as England makes it a clean sweep in the European football championships. English football seems to be on the up and our European rivals look on in admiration. But look at some other tables with our European neighbours and the picture is quite different.
UK productivity statistics were published this week and unsurprisingly it shows that we are all working harder with an increase in hours worked of 2.0% over the year. Unfortunately GDP only increased by 1.8% and the sad conclusion is that our productivity fell again for the third successive quarter. We seem to have a national problem as productivity has only increased by 2.7% between 2010 and 2017. Contrast that with Ireland at 38%; Germany at 7.6%; and France at 5.9% and the UK is propping up, not topping the table.
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