Follow The Money: How Much Does Britain Cost?

by Paul Johnson

Follow the Money: How Much Does Britain Cost? is an absolute stunner of a book by Paul Johnson, an economist at the Insitute of Fiscal Studies, a London-based independent think tank. It’s a book every UK voter should read—since wishful thinking is not something that we can just blame on politicians. As Johnson points out, nearly £4 out of every £10 we earn goes in taxes, so we do need to understand the nuts and bolts of where that money goes, both at a national level and a local level. We also need to know what we can expect to get for that money because, as he writes, “What we can’t have are American levels of tax and European levels of public spending.” The book is completely accessible to the non-economist, and if you’re a UK resident you’ll find yourself underlining multiple facts on almost every page, as you go, ‘Oh! That’s why…[local councils have no money/the NHS is falling apart etc.]’