28/03/2025
It’s had incredible coverage and is a fascinating watch, but I have to say that outside of only one of those interviewed by him came out with any credibility in my view.
Gary Stevenson clearly had an agenda and stuck to it, conceding on only irrefutable fact, and seemingly having no desire to even consider the very reasoned arguments/points put forward by Daniel Priestley.
The subject matter could not be of more importance for those of us in the UK, and yet despite all parties agreeing the fundamental backdrop only one came up with a clear solution backed up by evidence to demonstrate what needed to happen. Diminish government influence and provide the wealth creators with the right environment to thrive. The result will be reduced poverty and a wealthier average population.
The oversimplification by Gary was repeatedly referenced as raising taxes that penalise the wealth creators IS NOT THE ANSWER. In fact, by his own admission he came up with no ‘workable’ solution.
Those of you who take an interest in my posts may recall I picked up on some of the issues discussed last year, and sure enough some of my points were reinforced.
I can forgive Gary not understanding entrepreneurship as he mentioned at the outset, but I cannot accept the ignorant attitude he displayed many times, interrupting Daniel or even looking towards the floor clearly not interested in what Daniel tried to explain repeatedly. Instead, he constantly chipped in with rude remarks inferring Dan did not care when he clearly articulated he did albeit he knew the solution was not the simplified TAX THE RICH because it is proven NOT to work.
Steven re-counted his friend leaving the UK to avoid paying years of £20MM per annum because he was successful.
We have the largest numbers of wealth creators fleeing the country than any other recorded nation!! Why? Because the UK far from encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship penalise those that are successful. Carry on and the UK will become a third world nation. Is this what the masses really want?
As a serial entrepreneur myself, I have created over a thousand jobs through various businesses which has enabled all those that work or worked for me to pay taxes. I have and continue to generate jobs which provides households with incomes and resulted in millions more tax paid in its many forms into the UK coffers. Gary would argue that I was lucky to have the ability to do that, but I wasn’t born with that ability. I had to learn, and I made soooooo many mistakes and sacrifices along the way.
To name a few, I missed countless evenings, weekends and holidays. I risked my personal money and that of family and friends. I went from a decent income to no income for twenty months (and no benefits claimed either), took nearly 4 years to get back to the wage I earned years before. My ex-wife would say I sacrificed our marriage. My older kids rarely saw me during their formative years. Oh, and I worked bloody hard too.
So, after all this I feel I deserve any success if it comes my way, and so does my family.
And here’s the rub, nine out of ten businesses do not survive and so most entrepreneurs who put themselves through this never get to taste wealth, but these are people who I feel the country should support above all others because they at least tried to improve the status quo.
Gary would have us believe that most of the rich are unscrupulous and the poor are not. Sorry, that’s just rubbish. I reiterate a point I made in the article I released last year, in my experience most wealth creators care about others more than those that do not create wealth. I am old enough to remember when you looked out for others, such as elderly neighbours, nowadays too many people are bloody selfish and there’s an unnerving percentage that are just plain lazy (and this includes some of the poorest in society).
Another point that was discussed was the post war decade, in which Gary suggested it was the one time we got it right and there was a wider distribution of wealth. Really? Not sure that is true, as my working-class grandparents never gave me that impression. On the contrary, I recall commentary from those that lived it that on how hard it was after the war with post-war rationing and a broken country that sought to rebuild itself. They were not happy times.
The reality is that wealth creation will raise the standards and earnings of the masses and so as counter intuitive as it might seem to some the lowering of tax implications for successful entrepreneurs and regulations on many commercial activities is the only way to see an economy improvement. I do agree however with ensuring overseas entities being forced to pay their fair share of tax. The big seven alone could make a huge contribution.
It was clear to me that Gary just wanted to generate more followers of him, no doubt to massage his ego further as he apparently has more money than he needs, he even told people to follow him! He earned his money by plotting the continued demise of the UK economy. Well a few of us could have done that, and carry on as we are and it’ll continue.
Personally I am tired of commentary from people who over no solutions backed by evidence to support the same.
I truly want a strong UK economy that benefits all that are prepared to work hard and for the children of our future of which I have four.
My advice to my kids is to seek relevant knowledge and apply it smartly whilst working hard. I extend the same advice to everyone as the more wealth creators we have the better it will be for us all.
Of course, we also need a government that understands this, is brave enough to change the narrative but unfortunately that seems unlikely in the foreseeable future.
Is the economy on the brink of collapse? Gary Stevenson and Daniel Priestley break down the emergency financial crisis no one is talking aboutThe Diary Of A ...
