Rolling our eyes is a very British reaction to Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s latest comments about Britain’s taxes and decline. A billionaire tax exile in Monaco telling Britain that it has lost its way inevitably invites scepticism from people like Labour bigwigs Bridget Phillipson and Torsten Bell. Nobody likes being lectured by someone who appears to have stepped away from some of the responsibilities he is urging others to embrace.

But once the irritation subsides, there is an uncomfortable message worth hearing – despite what our feelings might be about the messenger. Britain does have a problem that runs deeper than the economy: it’s a loss of confidence. Where has our belief gone that we can build and create things, or make things happen? Increasingly, we seem trapped between nostalgia for a lost past and a fear of changing the present, distracted by trivial nonsense like the royals. Every major project becomes a battle and every development faces opposition. Infrastructure decisions disappear into Kafkaesque consultations.

Elsewhere, countries just get on with it. My daughter, currently in Singapore, keeps telling me about a revolutionary notion: things work. The clean trains arrive on time. Infrastructure is planned years ahead. If something needs doing, the default assumption is that it can be done. Singapore is expanding its MRT subway network and building Changi airport’s enormous new Terminal 5, designed to handle tens of millions of passengers a year. It’s not just the engineering that’s impressive, but the attitude: a belief that improving things is normal. Then look at China. The Huajiang Grand Canyon Bridge in Guizhou, the world’s highest bridge, has transformed a journey that once took hours into one lasting minutes. It’s one of several new bridges. You do not have to admire China’s politics to recognise the ambition and engineering achievement.

Then there’s Britain. We still cannot properly resolve the future of my local Hammersmith Bridge, closed to motor traffic since 2019. Our water companies symbolise failing infrastructure and public frustration. HS2, once intended to demonstrate a confident, modern Britain has instead become a dog’s dinner of delay, cost and political hesitation. Heathrow and Gatwick expansions have been in limbo. And, our air traffic control system is creaking. This doesn’t mean Ratcliffe is right about everything. Lower taxes alone will not fix Britain’s problems, nor is every regulation an obstacle or every objection unreasonable. But we have somehow lost something important: the confidence to try.

As a teacher, I have to be optimistic. Every day I tell young people they can create, innovate and make a difference. But as a parent, I feel more pessimistic than I have since my daughters were born in the 1990s. I encourage them to look abroad. Not because Britain has nothing to offer, but because I want them to experience places where ambition is encouraged rather than viewed with suspicion. Because successful countries need people willing to build, invest and take risks. People need incentives to succeed and the confidence to believe tomorrow can be better.

Perhaps we don’t need lectures from billionaires, who can’t even fix . But we do need to ask why while others build the future we seem trapped arguing about our past. Our greatest danger is not that Britain has lost the ability to create and grow. It is that we are losing the belief that we can.