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Hello, and a very merry Christmas from me, Michael Simmons and everyone at Reality Check.

I'm really proud of this new show that we launched in just October. So I wanted to use this Christmas episode to go over some of the

highlights from the show and some of my appearances on Spectator TV this year before the

Hogmane bells ring in 2026. We were really chuffed with our launch episode of Reality

Check because we managed to secure

the famous American economist Arfer Laffer.

He was so full of energy when he came into the studio.

I was kind of awestruck just to be sat opposite him.

He explained the history behind his famous Laffer curve and how a staggeringly high tax burden is killing Britain.

Here's some highlights.

The US, I guess, might be making some headway, but it's harder to make that case in Britain.

Our overall tax burden is heading for a post-war high, even if individual taxes on sort of middle

earners are actually relatively

low to where they've been in the past. You said we're on the wrong side of that. Two questions.

What would be the optimal tax rate on the Laffer curve for Britain? And given that we're

about to have this budget that there's going to massively raise

taxes again. How far wrong are we? Let me just say the optimal is so far away from anything we

...