Going
South: Why Britain Will Have a Third World Economy by 2014
By
Larry Elliott and Dan Atkinson
Published
by Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, £14.99
LARRY
ELLIOTT and Dan Atkinson’s latest book, Going South, provides a
description of the “long, steady decline” of British capitalism.
It argues, largely by analogy, that this decline is reducing the
status of Britain to that of a developing nation. This argument is
clearly a sobering thought, although during the course of this
362-page survey the argument is snipped at by caveats.
As
well as providing a useful summary of the decline of British
capitalism, this book suggests the shape the economy will take by
2014. In short: what Britain could look like after nine years of
crisis and austerity. The economic situation, of course, will provide
the backdrop for the likely general election in 2015, unless there is
a breakdown of the coalition before then.
