Contrasting fortunes of two similar countries

NOW we have officially come out of the EU, I thought it worthwhile to compare our actual performance in coping with the Covid-19 virus with that of a near neighbour in the EU.

My choice, Germany, is particularly pertinent as the country is democratically, culturally and climatically similar to ours. But as we have a smaller population, 66.65 million to their 83.02 million, and we have the added advantage of island status, we should have outperformed Germany over the year.

Initially, German deaths peaked at 2.78 per million people, compared with 13.88 in the UK.

Whilst we have also incurred excess deaths, Germany has not had any. Perhaps this vast difference in performance against the same type of pandemic, and at the same time, is to do with two marked differences. Germany’s political head, Angela Merkel, is a serious person who has qualified as a scientist. Against this, we have Boris Johnson.

The other important difference is the vast difference in proportion of both our GDPs spent on health care since the year 2000.

It is calculated by experts that for Britain to have matched Germany’s spending in 2018, we would have had to spend an extra £260 billion.

It is also estimated by experts that a reasonable wealth tax in the UK could easily raise £260 billion.

The above proves that we do have stark choices to make as a country. Lower taxes are not all they are reputed to be and I hope that this clear message can be conveyed to our Boris and his team.

Suresh Chauhan