BRITAIN is experiencing a slight “very natural” downturn in its economy according to billionaire Phones 4u founder John Caudwell.
He told GB News: “Where we are at the moment is a very, very natural downturn. It is only slight at the moment, and I am actually amazed at the robustness of the UK economy, because it is only a slight downturn, but it was inevitable.
“I thought it would be a lot more severe than it is because as money runs out in people’s pockets, which is also incidentally fuelled inflation, as that runs out, then people are going to be spending less money and that move us towards recession. But that really hasn’t happened.”
In a discussion with Andrew Pierce and Bev Turner, he said: “Britain is a very unproductive society, you can only increase productivity by bringing on better efficient means of producing things, or by working longer hours.
“So, you either need to increase your hours or increase your efficiency and we haven’t done either of those things.
“In addition to that, we’ve got a geriatric population, way more people now who are past retirement age that we have to support.
“But it’s all to do with productivity, we get the productivity up then the percentage of tax that we pay can remain low, and that’s where we’re failing as a country.”
Asked about the Welsh government’s plan to give £1,600 a month to asylum seekers, Mr Caudwell said: “I do think Britain has to take a proper and fair share of asylum seekers because that’s the only humanitarian way to be, but also, we do need to control immigration correctly.
“That money could have been used to try and stimulate those asylum seekers to find some useful jobs in Britain and for them not to be asylum seekers fighting the government, but actually be repatriated into Britain and put to useful work so that they’re contributing to British society, instead of being a drain on it.”
He said he has taken in refugees from Ukraine: “I think she’s as happy as she can be but she’s living with her son in the grounds of my estate, and of course terrified for her country, relatives and her husband, especially who is in the forces.
“So, it’s really, really difficult. She has regularly broken down in tears, I think as you would, because she’s terrified of everything that’s going on, but she’s got the best life that she can have under the circumstances.
“And so many people have done this around the UK taking refugees and I think it’s a wonderful characteristic of the British people.”
