Britain's economic failure

I knew that parts of Britain were in less-than-great economic condition, but I had no idea that things were this bad:

Parts of the United Kingdom have become so heavily dependent on government spending that the private sector is generating less than a third of the regional economy, a new analysis has found.

The study of "Soviet Britain" has found the government’s share of output and expenditure has now surged to more than 60% in some areas of England and over 70% elsewhere.

Experts believe the recession will tighten the state's grip still further as benefit handouts soar and Labour directs public sector organisations to create jobs to soak up unemployment.

In the northeast of England the state is expected to be responsible for 66.4% of the economy this year, up from 58.7% when a similar study was carried out four years ago. When Labour came to power, the figure was 53.8%.

Astonishingly, those aren't even the worst: in Wales it's 71.6%, while in Northern Ireland 77.6% of the economy is government spending of one form or another. It's a very bad sign when government spending becomes a majority of all economic activity in a region or country (because the government doesn't actually create wealth: it just collects it from those who do).

H/T to Perry de Havilland. for the link.