The UK used to be the most attractive economy for EU foreign investment, easily first in foreign direct investment. Now it isn't.

It used to be a low tax economy. Now taxes are rising faster than in any EU country.

It used to have the most successful private pensions sector in Europe, bigger than all the other countries' private pensions investments put together. Now that's being killed by the UK Chancellor's £5 billion-a-year raid on the pension funds. So there are now more pensioners in poverty than 1997.

We're creating jobs - but in the public sector. The 350,000 new public-sector jobs we have created consume wealth, they don't produce it.

There have been at least 60 'stealth' tax rises since 1997. The average household in Britain pays £4000 more in tax than six years ago. That means working an extra week every year, just for the Chancellor. After tax, Britons have suffered the first fall in take-home pay in 20 years.

Taxes yielded £360 billion when this government took office. Now it's up to £500 billion. Yet despite all the spending, half of us think that health and transport are worse than in 1997.

Meanwhile, people earning £40,000 a year find themselves eligible for social benefits; doctors, teachers and small businesses spend more time filling in forms than ever before.

Am I just being cantankerous, or is this all a bit of a mess?