In For a Penny, In For a Pound

A video semi-frequently circulates around X where Jamie Dimon talks about the virtues of America and how lucky people born in the US are. Warren Buffett has similarly spoken of the ovarian lottery; his odds of being born an American male were 80 to 1. If the US were a company, it would be the most successful start-up ever.

As a Brit, I thought I’d do something similar for the UK and stop the perception that we’re all top hats, cream tea and Brontë. Neither are we the sick man of Europe. Before I start, though, I’m a reasonably well travelled man. I could write glowing reviews of pretty much every country (even France), but for now, let’s look at the UK.

Everything is downstream of economics. We have one of the world’s strongest economies. The UN, the IMF and the World Bank all agree: we have the 6th highest GDP in the world. We are a highly developed, industrialised, modern economy. According to the good folks at the Organisation of Economic Complexity, the UK is the 11th most economically complex country in trade, the 14th in technology (patents), and the 2nd in research (publications).

Put all that together, and you’ve got the 8th most economically complex economy in the world. This is generally a good indicator of future prosperity.

From Brunel to Branson, the UK has a long history of entrepreneurship and is regarded as one of the world’s most entrepreneurial countries. We have some of the world’s leading companies and are home to 15 of the Global Fortune 500 (Shell, BP, HSBC, Tesco, Unilever, Rio Tinto, Vodafone, Barclays, AstraZeneca and GSK). The Big Four professional services firms (PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY) were founded or incorporated in the UK.

Then there’s engineering. Rolls-Royce is one of the most successful engineering companies ever and has an 18% market share in the aviation engine industry. BAE Systems is one of the largest defence manufacturers globally, and the UK is home to the wing, fuel supply systems and landing gear manufacturing centres for Airbus. Six of the world’s ten Formula 1 teams are UK based (Alpine, Aston Martin, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams). Formula 1 optimisation led to the creation of Quantum Black, the data science consultancy now part of McKinsey.

Then there’s technology and science. Arm is the world’s leading semiconductor design company based in Cambridge (we’ll, ahem, overlook the fact that it’s listing on the Nasdaq). Architecture designed by Arm is used in 99% of the world’s smartphones. DeepMind, one of the world’s leading AI research firms (now part of Google), was founded in London. Other technology firms include Revolut, Monzo, Wise, Deliveroo, Inmarsat, SkyScanner and Dyson.

And what about the money? London is one of the centres of world finance (second in the Global Financial Centres Index after New York), with deep and broad financial markets, and ideally placed to be the centre of world fintech. London has been, and still is, the world’s preeminent trade and business centre. We import and export with our trading partners globally; as of June 2023, we have a trade deficit of £4.79 billion.

All of this combines to give us the eighth largest stock exchange by market cap, with the 6th largest monthly trade volume, and we attract the third most venture capital in the world.

We’ve got friendly and fantastic Western and Northern European neighbours in Ireland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway.

We’re a sporting phenomenon. This tiny island of 68 million people finished 4th in the Olympic medal table in 2020, 2nd in 2016, 3rd in 2012 and 4th in 2008. England have won the football, cricket and rugby world cups. The Premier League is one of the world’s most watched sports leagues, with the highest broadcast value per game (£8m) of all football leagues, the second highest revenue per match (after the NFL), and the fourth highest revenue generating sports league in the world. It attracts the world’s best talent: 115 nations have had players in the Premier League.

Though it’s hard to get the data, it’s the same across many aspects of the economy: you'll find a microcosm of the world if you step inside any office in London. The UK economy works thanks to the free flow of capital and labour. It’s worth remembering that.

Much of the world would love to come and start a new life in the UK. That’s a good thing. 10% of the world’s international students study in the UK, the second highest destination country after the US. We’ve got some of the world’s best universities: Oxford, Cambridge and Imperial are in the top 10 universities in the world. About one in every four students (23%) in the UK is an international student. The top five countries span four continents: China, India, Nigeria, the United States and France. These students make massive contributions to the UK economy, to the tune of £42 billion. Companies such as Revolut, OakNorth, Wise, Checkout.com, Farfetch and JustEat were (co)founded by migrants.

17% of the population of England and Wales is foreign born. In terms of diasporas, the UK has the largest Australian, Irish and Polish, the 2nd largest Jamaican and South African, the 3rd largest Pakistani, the 4th largest Hong Kong, the 5th largest Bangladeshi and Nigerian, the 6th largest Indian, the 7th largest Sri Lankan and the 9th largest American. In 2022, 1.2 million long term migrants came to the UK.

We have one of the best militaries in the world and are one of nine states with nuclear weapons. The SAS is one of the world’s best special forces. The RAF is one of the world's most technologically advanced air forces.

We’ve got the world’s second busiest air border at Heathrow (75.3 million annual passengers). We’ve got the world’s 5th busiest sea border at Dover (11.7 million annual passengers). Thanks to the Channel Tunnel, we’ve got one of the world’s grandest international rail links and a connection to mainland Europe, a true feat of engineering.

Speaking of airports, London is one of two cities (the other is New York) with six international airports: City, Gatwick, Heathrow, Luton, Stansted and Southend. London is the busiest city airport system worldwide. Heathrow is the world’s busiest two runway airport, and Gatwick is the world’s busiest single runway airport (although that speaks more towards our failure to build more runways).

London, the “Capital of Capitals”, is one of the world’s only two Alpha++ cities and is a global powerhouse. It’s consistently one of the most visited cities in the world.

The UK has around the 10th best health system, the 30th highest life expectancy, a 99% literacy rate and the widely accepted 2nd best education system.

English is the global language of business, sport, culture, everything. We speak it for free. The UK is a shining beacon of hope and freedom. So there we go, we’re beyond lucky. Maybe we don’t appreciate it enough, and sure, we need to keep building, but if you doubt me, take a trip around the world or watch one of the excellent Simon Reeve documentaries. You’ll realise what a gift it is to be born in the UK; none of us would have achieved as much had we been born elsewhere. Not better, just lucky.

Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next time!