Episode Details

Last month Harry Cole visited Mississippi to see how the US state is outperforming the United Kingdom economically.

Mississippi in the deep South had long been a byword for American poverty, but something remarkable is happening. Mississippi is growing, household incomes grew by 6% last year, placing them as the second highest growing state in the entire of America. It's a state on the up, and it's a state ripping up the old rules. How have they done it? They've introduced a radical flat tax, shredded regulation, slashed energy bills, and they've reformed their education system. Meanwhile Britain is stuck in a doom loop under Keir Starmer, with Rachel Reeves' crippling taxes, endless red tape, and the cost of living crisis that just won't die. We're just told that's the way things are. But Mississippi is doing things differently, Harry Cole talks to the people driving this change about how they've done it and what comes next. As the State of Mississippi turbocharges the US South with a free market revolution, the United Kingdom has to ask whether its way of life is worth preserving.

00:00 Introduction 01:57 BBQ and what people in Mississippi think of their economy 06:30 Downing Street in Jackson, Mississippi 07:23 Gerard Gobert - Tech entrepreneur and host of Supertalk Mississippi 10:13 Importance of a skilled workforce 13:39 Dangers of increasing taxes 16:37 European Union doing the opposite of Mississippi 18:07 'Young New Yorkers should come to Mississippi to escape Mamdani' 20:03 'Young people have gone too far to the left' 21:40 Part 2: College students applying to Mississippi in their droves 25:35 'Mississippi is rocking, Trump is President, lets go!' 26:01 Why students are falling in love with Mississippi 30:40 Part 3: Douglas Carswell on how Brexit failed and he moved to Mississippi from UK 33:07 Free Market Reforms driving Mississippi economy 37:09 'Britain has exhausted Tony Blair's orthodoxies' 41:06 'Free schools on steroids' 42:37 How Great Britain's recovery could be inspired by US southern states 44:33 Is life in the United States worth preserving

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