Vicky Pryce and Andy Ross chart UK’s economic trajectory from industrial superpower to an IMF bailout. In 1976 m the global financial crisis, Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, is a wake-up call to politicians and policymakers of all stripes. How did the UK transition from being the world’s workshop to having the dependent, service-driven economy of today, prone to severe negative shocks and daunting economic challenges?

Mismanaged Decline gives an urgent reality check that will embarrass politicians from all parties, and track the forces that have shaped the UK economy since the Industrial Revolution. The authors tackle complex issues such as the reaction to globalisation and the legacy of deindustrialisation; the responses to Brexit, Covid and the war in Ukraine, the impacts of climate change, inequality and immigration, and whether the lack of investment of recent years, were in fact, inevitable.

Politicians must now be honest with the public about the difficult road ahead. Advocating pragmatic solutions over political dogma, Mismanged Decline proves that good economics heeds no ideology.

At a time of rising geopolitical uncertainty, this balanced, non-partisan account offers a blueprint for a stronger fairer and more resilient economy.

Mismanaged Decline: What Politicians Won’t Tell You About the Economy by Vicky Pryce and Andy Ross, Biteback Publishing £22