care to take inflation out and track the number on a chart. I would be interested to see if spending per capital started to go down during the thatcher years... which set the stage for Britains financial rebound... and then I would not be surprised if it started going back up more recently.
if that is accurate... then I guess it shows govt gets to spend more when it lowers taxes significantly.
The chart of real TME (which is the UK term for broad public sector expenditure) is attached. In general, it's a little difficult to generalize, as the ratio on the chart is a function of both the numerator and the denominator. One thing that's somewhat clear is that the Labour-inspired increase in public spending between 2000 and 2006 is the structural, rather than the cyclical sort (thanks to the dream team of Tony & Gordo).
Here's a chart for spending and receipts as a percent of GDP: (Lemme see if I can embed...) <iframe src="//charts-datawrapper.s3.amazonaws.com/tU51u/index.html" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen width="460" height="500"></iframe> U.K. GDP since 1960: <img src="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/charts/united-kingdom-gdp.png?s=wgdpuk&d1=19600101&d2=20131231"> Per capita GDP since 1960: <img src="http://www.tradingeconomics.com/charts/united-kingdom-gdp-per-capita.png?s=gbrnygdppcapkd&d1=19600101&d2=20131231"> Hmm, what's this... ? <img src="http://www.newworldeconomics.com/archives/2011/091111_files/usdsgbp1971.png">
first of all thank you for posting those charts. 2nd... my thesis would be It seems to me a lot of that big runup was caused by thatcher and her dismantling of socialism and it economy crushing policies.
The important thing is that we keep looking at what is happening to france. France's socialist big govt porcs are turning their country into PIGGs.
Time Series Chart of UK Public Spending, per capita, in £2005, 1970 to 2015: <img src="http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/ukgs_line.php?title=Total%20Spending&year=1970_2015&sname=&units=d&bar=1&stack=1&size=m&spending0=4324.98_4417.60_4445.51_4778.00_5335.78_5512.86_5421.84_5042.61_5250.10_5420.02_5525.14_5538.84_5678.49_5567.92_5625.38_5697.45_5779.05_5682.38_5628.25_5424.16_5612.07_5714.65_5944.84_6336.00_6502.25_6720.95_6810.26_6782.23_6765.57_6914.02_7019.61_7411.69_7637.80_8018.56_8418.27_8851.92_9075.07_9259.26_9459.72_10071.97_10329.77_10280.51_10085.17_9545.17_9898.14_9791.35&legend=&source=a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_a_e_g_g"> I'm still not seeing the Thatcher miracle, or even a "dismantling" of socialism.
Perhaps you were referring to Thatcher's war on labor unions (but not management unions): <img src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/11/28/1322494306532/Top-income-and-union-memb-001.jpg"> Big change there. But also a big change to income equality: <img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Gini_since_WWII.svg/800px-Gini_since_WWII.svg.png"> But who cares about inequality if a "rising tide lifts all boats", right? <img src="http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/files/inequality_01.jpg">