As recently as the two decades between 1990 and 2010, the UK economy — on a US dollar, per capita basis — grew in near perfect synchrony with the pre-eminent US economy. Indeed, the decoupling of US and UK living standards has not coincided with a relative slowdown of nominal GDP growth in the UK. In the last 15 years UK growth has averaged a very spritely 4.5 per cent a year by that, inflation-unadjusted, measure. This process has diluted the spending power of households, and the level of growth that UK businesses can achieve. The loss of control of UK inflation has been triggered by decisions taken by MPs in Westminster.
