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Mr Obnoxious

#067 - John O'Connell - We're £12 Trillion in Debt

Mr Obnoxious

Peter McCormack

Technology, News, Politics, Money, Investing, Finance, Bitcoin

4.82.7K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

John O’Connell is the chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a UK-based campaign group advocating for lower taxes, efficient government, and greater transparency in public spending. With years of experience analysing government budgets and economic policy, he has become one of the most vocal critics of Britain’s bloated bureaucracy, broken tax code, and failing public services.

In this interview, John lays out why Britain has stopped growing, how the tax burden has hit a post-war high, and why throwing more money at failing systems is making things worse. We explore the rising cost of living, the impact of over-regulation on small businesses, and how poorly designed taxes like inheritance tax and stamp duty are crippling opportunity and ambition. John argues that political reform, economic discipline, and a simpler tax code are the only way to reverse the UK’s stagnation and unlock real growth for working people.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Our real national debt is over 12 trillion. And people sometimes say, oh, that doesn't really count because, you know, so-and-so person isn't dead, so we don't have to give them the money tomorrow.

0:08.2

And that might be true when it comes to pensions. But somebody at some point has to pay for it.

0:12.9

In order to have stuff that we want today, we're saddling our future generations with enormous debts and liabilities that are getting increasingly distant on the horizon in terms of

0:22.9

being able to afford them. You know, if you're able to reform tax, get economic growth going,

0:27.6

start to get debt under control, things of this nature, then you can start to more confidently

0:31.8

approach big subjects like reforming the NHS, like getting public sector pensions under control.

0:37.4

I don't think you need to wait really in order to start reforming the NHS, like getting public sector pensions under control.

0:41.7

I don't think you need to wait, really, in order to start reforming taxes.

0:46.6

I think that's something that can happen as quickly as a politician or a leader or a chancellor dames it to.

0:50.1

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1:21.4

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1:26.8

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1:29.3

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1:31.5

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1:32.5

com.

1:33.4

We good.

...

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