Britain became rich from harnessing new (industrial) technology. Nothing has changed, the only true path to increasing prosperity for our society is not the fictitious wealth creation of the Bankers, but again by harnessing emerging technologies and putting them to good use. Britain is exceptionally fortunate, we still have significant resources in key emerging technologies. What our governance must enable is the development of these technologies to power our own society and enable growth from exporting our developing technologies to the rest of the world.

We must ensure that tax spending, (our money), moves from consuming to investing – this is when we get our money to work for us – this is commonsense.

Tax spent on preventable issues - unemployment, ever increasing prison populations, social costs due to young people lacking core life skills and abilities - does not lead to wealth creation.  The true path to sustainable wealth creation is investment that reforms these areas along with investment in key technologies & infrastructure that also provide Britain with a competitive advantage.

Yes, we do need to be smart about how we invest and make sure our money is used to create jobs and exports for the UK, but the current economic plan that derives growth from people spending more and more is facile.  Politicians - most of whom neither understand business or economics - see an ever increasing population and consumer spending as the only way to deliver economic growth.  This is an unworkable situation - we are effectively leaderless.

A well run business is principally interested in the return on the money invested and with maintaining a healthy competitive advantage – this must be the basis for any long term plan for 'UK plc'. Growth can only be achieved as a by-product of improving efficiency (through the application of technology), or by increasing the working population. The total wealth of the UK is derived from what we as a people produce, (and this includes the third sector economy), along with the net result of our exports minus our imports. This is not so difficult to understand and Britain's policies should always incorporate these principles.

CST see's the main issues as:-

1) Long term funding - at a time when we have an almighty debt. The argument here for the reforms is that if we don't mortgage the future even more, at least in the medium term, then we really do face an almost impossible situation. One where we cannot afford to adequately repay the debt (more quantitative easing?) and the smarter people in our younger generations may decide for themselves not to partake in this fiasco and vote with their feet. We may then be on a slippery slope to a second-tier country both economically and socially.

2) How do we (the people) gain enough sway to change the short sighted politicians and inadequate political systems to enable such deep reforms and long term approach?

3) Once embarked upon, like all major changes there will be a time that causes significant disruption with no immediate gains on the horizon. The society as a whole needs to behind these reforms with their eyes open - it will take great courage to see them through, but then again, Britain's people, have historically been stalwart.

4) Can anyone come up with a better overall plan? - CST