Britain can learn from Florida’s economic success

It is impossible to know who will be the next Republican presidential candidate, let alone the next president of the United States. But Ron DeSantis, whom this newspaper has exclusively interviewed, is certainly a leading contender. He visited Britain this week – a country he describes as his “second home” and for which he clearly feels a lot of affection – to meet business leaders and ministers.

As Florida’s governor, Mr DeSantis has proven to be a fascinating case study on how to turbocharge an economy with low taxes and a range of other conservative policies. He has enticed entrepreneurs, families and professionals to a state with a sizeable elderly population, helping to generate buoyant employment rates and economic growth. He has achieved this by doubling down on policies of low taxes and fiscal responsibility, while rejecting lockdowns during Covid and cracking down on crime and woke excesses in its aftermath. He champions free enterprise and small businesses, while taking on woke capital.

Unsurprisingly, Florida’s economy has been in much ruder health than that of the UK, barely shrinking at the height of the pandemic and booming since. Indeed it is much larger than it was before Covid, while ours isn’t much bigger. Lockdowns, says Mr DeSantis, were “based on a lot of flawed modelling and a lot of flawed data”. This is an analysis which, like Sweden’s, looks more prescient by the day. His take on America’s current economic woes, some of which have inevitably contaminated Florida, also merit close reading in the UK.

While British conservatives are reluctant even to talk about monetary policy or to criticise the Bank of England, Mr DeSantis correctly lambasts the US Federal Reserve, which he believes overdid quantitative easing during the pandemic with little regard for its potential impact on inflation, and forgot the basic rules of monetary economics.

In fact, there are many similarities between the problems Mr DeSantis is successfully tackling in Florida, and those that continue to plague us here in Britain. While low taxes have helped make the sunshine State attractive to skilled labour and capital, we continue blindly down the path of tax rises. While he talks of the natural rights of Englishmen, some Tories struggle to articulate any foundational philosophy. And while he sings the praises of Brexit – “a good idea”, which he would have supported had he been British – Westminster has failed to profit from its newfound freedomss outside the EU.

Of course, there are also many differences between Britain and America. We do not have a system of federal taxes, for instance. Nor have we seen the same levels of political polarisation. Nevertheless, our MPs should be able to look out for evidence of success in other parts of the world and consider how to replicate it. The message from Florida is that traditional conservative principles of sound money and low taxes, when implemented carefully and rigorously, lead to economic success and popular support.