Can Britain’s economy grow as fast as it needs to?

A fear looming over British politics in the 1960s was that France and Germany would soon surpass Britain’s economy. Today, worrywarts fret that Britain may be poorer per person than Poland within the decade. Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour Party leader, has voiced this concern repeatedly. Donald Tusk, the Polish prime minister, has made overtaking Britain an explicit goal. If both countries were to stay on the same per-person growth trend as in the past ten years, Poland would slip ahead of Britain in 2031. That is unlikely. But the fact that this scenario no longer looks fanciful is a reflection of Britain’s sorry recent growth record.