New Year’s message

2018 teems with opportunity.

Technology is driving amazing change. Robotics, artificial intelligence, social media and the internet are the children of today’s digital age. They offer us scope to achieve more, understand more, relate to each other better. They offer the UK the chance to be a digital pioneer and a global   exploiter of the scope for positive change these ideas allow.

The UK is well set to be a leader of the knowledge based businesses that are the hallmark of the digital world. With world class  universities, a capacity to set up small businesses easily and quickly, with flexible entrepreneurial people and a willingness to experiment, the UK can prosper from innovation.

Restoring our ability to govern ourselves and to provide the legal and social framework we need to succeed in this exciting era is part of our mission for 2018 into 2019. Brexit offers us scope to grow more of our own food, to control our own fishery, to make laws that support and help entrepreneurs whilst ensuring high standards, and to develop our global role with Agreements and Treaties as we see fit. The UK will return to the top tables in areas like Trade, the Environment and business regulation, expressing views and helping shape the global standards that increasingly dominate.

Across the Atlantic the Republicans in Congress are aiming to speed their economic gr0wth and to make the USA a magnet for investment by lowering tax rates. This will provide a welcome boost to world activity, and act as a reminder of the need to set competitive tax rates to allow jobs to grow and prosperity to flourish.

The world is a better place for less military intervention in the Middle East by the western powers, and for the planned withdrawal of Russia from Syria. It will not of itself stop all the Middle Eastern civil and religious strife, but it will remove some of the complications in the conflicts. I would like to see a period of relative peace when the west turns swords into helpful  robots. We can help transform the world by economic growth, technology and greater investment.

I wish you all a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

90 Comments

  1. Peter Wood
    December 31, 2017

    Dr. Redwood, I support your positivity for the UK in the New Year; opportunity awaits. However we need to be prepared for far worse than experienced up to now from the EU, as they become increasingly desperate. A warning here from the Italian ‘technocrat government’ debacle:

    “At one point that fall, a few European officials approached us with a scheme to try to force Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi out of power; they wanted us to refuse to support IMF loans to Italy until he was gone,” Geithner wrote in his book, “Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises”, extracts from which appeared in the Italian press this week.
    “We told the President about this surprising invitation, but as helpful as it would have been to have better leadership in Europe, we couldn’t get involved in a scheme like that,” he wrote. etc ed

    Should we expect any less underhand efforts from the EU to derail our leaving?

    1. jerry
      December 31, 2017

      @Peter Woods; Not sure that I follow your rational, unless you are suggesting that the Vote Leave and UKIP style ‘bravado’ about the UK only being able to gain from Brexit was wrong? Surely it is the UK who holds the upper hand, after all we could simply walk away on WTO terms, pay not one more penny to the EU, trade with who ever we want if the EU27 do not want to sell us their goods & chattel.

    2. margaret howard
      December 31, 2017

      I think most EU country prefer not to have to deal with a country whose prime minister paid £1b in Danegeld for the 10 votes of a disagreeable party to keep it in power. Nothing the EU can think of doing is quite as desperate and despicable as this!

      1. Lifelogic
        January 1, 2018

        It is worth at least 100 times that to keep Corbyn from destroying the economy. Corby & Mc Donnall would be far, far more expensive.

    3. Rien Huizer
      January 1, 2018

      Your leaving is somewhat welcome. Italy’s was and is not.

  2. sm
    December 31, 2017

    Best wishes for 2018 to you too, John.

  3. Cheshire Girl
    December 31, 2017

    I wish you and your family, a very Happy New Year, and thank you for all your efforts to keep us informed, and allow us to share our thoughts. Sometimes I think it is the only way we can make our voices heard.

    1. Linda Jones
      December 31, 2017

      Cheshire Girl – may I second that? Happy New Year!

  4. Fedupsoutherner
    December 31, 2017

    Technology and the internet are going to be a fantastic asset to us, I’m sure but we can’t even purchase a new 4k TV because we have no hope of fast broadband where we live. We don’t even get 1mb. Its a joke. The country is definitely one of two halves. We have to pay for a very poor service and its not good enough. Am I right in thinking that fast broadband is going to be a legal requirement or is it only going to be in England? We believe this is one reason we cannot sell our home.

  5. Lifelogic
    December 31, 2017

    Indeed technology changes are amazing, but more to the point they are accelerating away exponentially in so many areas. This as an invention or improvement of one technology “tool” (such as a electronic computation) helps hugely in the development of many other areas (medical genetics or robotic manufacturing for example and indeed almost anything). The positive feedback here accelerates the improvement process which feeds back to improve it again in a virtuous circle.

    I remember, in one of my first jobs, designing some electronic control circuits using non volatile memory chips (circa 1983) they cost £100 for 8 kilo bytes. Now you can get 64 gigabytes for rather less than £10. A cost reduction of 1/80,000,000. If only the rest of industry, the legal profession & especially government could have made such efficiently changes! But their are not forces acting on government to make it more efficient quite the reverse in general.

    Brexit is a huge opportunity and we are indeed very well placed indeed despite T May.

    We just need to:-

    Hugely deregulate
    Get the government straight jacket off and out of the way.
    Kill the litigation culture and stop our, often absurd, courts inventing or augmenting laws (that kill, for example, our ability to deport people (or have a sensible litigation risk balance in employment tribunals, or kill the gig economy),
    Move back to cheap, reliable on demand energy (until renewables are actually genuinely cost effective)
    Stop government pissing money down the drain on vanity projects and other absurdities.
    Lower taxes so the rich and hardworking do not leave and are not deterred from coming or investing. IHT at 40% over just £325L and stamp duty at 15%, CGT on non real gains at 28% and income tax at 45% are hugely damaging. As are the appallingly low pension cap rules.
    Relax planning laws and the OTT green crap building control laws.
    Kill the damaging litigation culture that in the main does huge damage to the economy. In Japan they manage with about 1/12 of the number of lawyers we have in the UK and the US is even worse. We should aim to release 11 lawyers out of 12 to get a more productive job too.
    Patent and IP laws often make things worse not better they need relaxing and amending they often damage innovation not aid it.
    Turn May into a pro business, low tax, not green crap, deregulating, real Conservative – so change her completely by 180 degrees in almost every area.
    Avoid Corbyn’s Labour, the Libdims & SNP at all costs.
    Get some real competition in our appallingly inefficient banking sector.
    Stop subsidising green crap, electric cars and other things. These thinks will fly when they work economically and the market wants them. Without rolling them out prematurely using other people’s taxes.
    Fund STEM subject education far, far more and make people pay fully for their own hobby subject degrees.
    Get the absurd PC & loony left wing, green crap politics of envy and magic money tree economic lunacy out of schools, the BBC, our economics departments and academia in general.
    Reduce government expenditure to about 20% of (a much larger) GDP.
    Top up voucher and freedom for education.
    Privatise health care sensibly with a pay as you go an catastrophic insurance system the anti-competitive NHS is a disaster killing thousands and damaging productivity.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2017

      Daniel Hannan on the British Empire and Simon Heffer on May’s Team are both spot on in the Telegraph today.

    2. Monza 71
      December 31, 2017

      What happened to the principle of long posts being delayed ?

      1. Bert Young
        December 31, 2017

        Monza , Well said!

      2. bigneil
        December 31, 2017

        Depends if you have a season ticket or not.

      3. Jagman84
        December 31, 2017

        Is there anything in that post that hasn’t been written hundreds of times before? Nothing for our host to check again, so no delay!

    3. Lifelogic.
      December 31, 2017

      Another positive feedback mechanism is the Internet, as information on how to do things can be disseminated widely, rapidly and cheaply. There is an excellent book, by mathematician and sound climate realist Freeman Dyson— The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolutions.

      Indeed all his books are excellent.

      1. APL
        December 31, 2017

        Lifelogic: “as information on how to do things can be disseminated widely, rapidly and cheaply. ”

        Yes, bloated academia is in the cross-hairs of the information technology revolution now.

        That’s the sector that is impoverishing our young children and encumbering their future prospects for their own selfish padded salaries.

    4. Rien Huizer
      January 1, 2018

      You sound like a classical liberal, not a conservative..

  6. Richard1
    December 31, 2017

    And to you. The massive dark cloud hanging over the U.K. is the threat of a far left Labour Govt. Post Brexit the U.K. Govt will have more independence. Good we say – unless of course it’s for Corbyn and McDonnell to expropriate property and bankrupt the Country. The Conservatives need to focus all efforts in making sure this disaster never comes to pass.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2017

      Indeed but this can be avoided if we can just get May to get a new working compass. Instead of the tax borrow and piss down the drain, PC. green crap, interventionist, anti-gig economy, Corbyn light one she is currently using.

      1. Glenn Vaughan
        December 31, 2017

        There is far too much from Lifelogic on this website. Every day the same long, tedious, boring messages. What happened to editorial control and why is this individual allowed so much space? Encourage him to start his own website and leave space for those who wish to make intelligent contributions!!

        1. M. Davis
          December 31, 2017

          So where is your, ‘intelligent contribution’, Glenn? Leave Lifelogic alone, he contributes a lot to this site.

          A Happy New Year to our Host and a big thank you for this blog!

          1. Glenn Vaughan
            January 1, 2018

            That’s the point. He “contributes” far too much and too often!

          2. Lifelogic
            January 1, 2018

            Thanks, I will try to repeat myself less often. What what I say perhaps repetitively is at least true.

      2. Miss Brandreth-Jones
        December 31, 2017

        Do you really need to swear to make your point which we hear again and again and again. ?

        1. Lifelogic
          January 1, 2018

          Is that actually “swearing”?

          “Indelicate” perhaps, but then perhaps it is rather more indelicate to kill many pensioners as they are unable to afford to keep warm (or indeed have decent health care). Or to waste hard earned tax payers money hand over fist on nonsense!

      3. Rien Huizer
        January 1, 2018

        You are on a roll here! Too much bubbly?

    2. rose
      December 31, 2017

      Hear, hear Richard. But the Conservatives should not try to be a pale imitation of what you rightly fear. People will only vote for the real thing in response.

      When Osborne responded to Mr R’s suggestion to remove IHT below a million pounds, pundits and amateur pundits responded with scorn and disapproval. They said it would only help the rich and be extremely unpopular. It was so popular that Brown had to cancel his election plans.

      People who pull the parties ever leftwards just don’t understand that for every person who wants to live on the welfare state, there are a whole lot more who have aspirations, for themselves, and their descendants.

    3. Anonymous
      December 31, 2017

      The sight of union militancy should get Tory voters out to the polling booths. Let’s hope the unions are stupid enough to be active in the run up. What a prospect ! Having to hope for union activism. The Conservatives so dire that – yet again – we must vote for them because the alternative is unthinkable.

      Why can’t we have a Conservative Party we *want* to vote for ?

      Happy New Year to Redwood and all.

      1. jerry
        December 31, 2017

        @Anonymous; “The sight of union militancy should get Tory voters out to the polling booths.”

        That didn’t seem work in areas affected by the on-going RMT and ASLF strikes, of which mine is one, in fact there appears to be quite a lot of sympathy for the union positions. Also it would be crass to provoke union militancy, social media is simply to powerful and direct, unions like anyone else can by-pass the MSM to get their message across, JC did not win the Labour Leadership (twice) because the MSM backed him….

    4. jerry
      December 31, 2017

      @Richard1; Nice attempt to scare, but if you think the last Labour manifesto was “far left” you need to talk to some of the older eastern European migrants here in the UK, they know what a ‘far left’ (not communist) govt. really is and means. Mr Corbyn is a right wing liberal by comparison!

      1. Richard1
        December 31, 2017

        We have to assume that Corbyn and McDonell more or less believe in the causes and policies they’ve been supporting for c. 30-40 years. These include: a return to pre-Thatcher union militancy; a profound anti-business, anti-market approach which will alienate huge swathes of domestic and international business and capital; a belief in confiscatory taxes for the purpose of whipping up class hatred – we’ve seen the result in Venezueala and elsewhere; a default sympathy and support for more or less any and every anti-Western / anti-UK-US regime or terrorist group.

        No doubt all this would be diluted in some way by force of circumstance and perhaps the odd Labour ‘moderate’ growing a backbone (no sign of that yet…). But the damage done by 4-5 years of this absurd Marxist-inspired drivel would be incalculable.

        1. jerry
          January 1, 2018

          @Richard1; It was Thatcher who moved away from the post war consensus, not Labour, when you criticise the pre 1979 era you are also criticising the “profound anti-business, anti-market approach” governments of Churchill, Eden, Macmillan & Douglas-Home, not just the Labour party…

          “But the damage done by 4-5 years of this absurd Marxist-inspired drivel would be incalculable.”

          Nonsense, unless they banned elections, and even then…. What those on the hard right are worried about is that TINA would be seen for what it always was, a lie, there is always two or more ways to achieve an economic goal, I have no ish to live under such a political system but China currently sits second in the league of economic power and wealth creation.

          You mention confiscatory taxes, but appear to forget that whilst direct taxation went down after 1979, indirect taxation went up, and that disproportionally affects the least well off, in the first Howe budget (1979) the standard rate of VAT rose from 8% to 15% for example and under your beloved monetarist system VAT has kept rising ever since, now being 20%, what is more its scope has broadened too. The Left do not need any lectures on confiscatory taxes…

          You mention Venezueala, you need to check your facts.

        2. jerry
          January 2, 2018

          To add

          @Richard1; ” But the damage done by 4-5 years of this absurd Marxist-inspired drivel would be incalculable.”

          To anyone who has bothered to read the 2017 Labour Manifesto, with an open mind, your comment tell us far more about how faryou are to the right than anything else.

  7. Miss Brandreth-Jones
    December 31, 2017

    I can see blue skies and white cumulus clouds . I can see fruitful growth and a cleaner greener UK. I can see our waters cleaning up their act. I can see waste becoming less. I want rid of the abusive aggressive sects of people. I want good manners. I want appreciation of what we have and a cessation of rudeness and downing of those who are trying to make the UK great . I want the UK to be more desirable and not totally because of wealth , but because we care about cleanliness, the environment and each other .
    Happy New Year,

  8. Duncan
    December 31, 2017

    And to you JR

    I hope these things come to pass

    – We once again become an independent, sovereign nation

    -We destroy Marxist Labour by telling their traditional voter that they’re under attack from their own party. By voting Labour they are signing their own death warrant

    – The party dispenses with a liberal left feminist as our leader and installs a person who embraces the individual, the free-market, a smaller state, lower taxes, liberty, freedom of speech and dispenses with all the liberal left tosh that elevates races, gender and sexuality above all else allowing these issues to be used as a form of social control

    – The BBC is brought to its knees. As the self appointed agent of social, political and economic change it’s influence is now getting out of hand and it is disgraceful that this Conservative party has conspired in its.

    I want a return to social decency not a liberal left utopia in which all are politicised.

    Stop the politicisation of people. Privatise life once again.

    Legislate to force the State to LEAVE US ALONE

    Finally, a message to my party – GROW SOME BALLS and get angry. The time for being nice is over

    1. Duncan
      December 31, 2017

      typo – ‘its influence’ – ‘in this’

  9. agricola
    December 31, 2017

    Well it might work if the politicians have the sense to get off the backs of the enterprising. I would applaud you if it happened, but I am not holding my breath. It is a fact of life that once you give individuals power over others they strive to increase that power and never relinquish it.

    1. Rien Huizer
      January 1, 2018

      Maybe increase and never relinquish is not correct. There is a point where politicians (unless they are saints, in which case their Party has poor selection practices) must start to exploit their position for economic gain. Otherwise they have wasted their talents for public service. to the detriment of the people nearest to them.

  10. alan jutson
    December 31, 2017

    Happy New Year to all.

    I hope your thoughts prove to be correct John.

  11. Brian Tomkinson
    December 31, 2017

    Happy New Year to you and all your readers.
    Many thanks for your daily insights.
    It is a pity there are so few of your calibre in Parliament.

    1. Lifelogic
      December 31, 2017

      A great pity indeed. Perhaps the problem is that most people who aspire to be MPs are unsuitable. Why would many sound, intelligent and rational people, (without any desire to boss others around or milk the gravey train) want to make all the sacrifices of being an MP? Unless heroically dedicated and selfless that is?

  12. formula57
    December 31, 2017

    Indeed, there are good grounds for encouragement and Brexit properly exploited may let a thousand flowers bloom. As we were told in the Beveridge Report, nothing is more important to economic success than business confidence and so the government would do well to offer the same positive messages that you provide here, and preferably do so frequently and loudly.

    My best wishes to you for a peaceful and prosperous New Year. (This of course is our last full year under the tutelage of the Evil Empire.)

  13. Peter Davies
    December 31, 2017

    Happy new year to you and thankyou as ever for your informed content which informs us of what is really going on.

  14. Turboterrier.
    December 31, 2017

    I wish you all a peaceful and prosperous New Year.

    And to you and all your family.

    Thank you for all the time and effort in running this blog.

    How people who in the minds of the vast majority of the population have achieved three fifths of naff all for this country can get a knighthood, and you are always out there in some shape or form trying to improve this great island is beyond me.

  15. Ian Wragg
    December 31, 2017

    America is certainly trying to kick start their economy so why is Hammond and other EU non entities crying foul to the WTO.
    David Davis is today reported to have said that Brexit may never happen.
    Just what is wrong with Westminster.
    Happy New Year to you and your family.

    1. Denis Cooper
      December 31, 2017

      David Davis should have learned by now that whatever he says there are bound to be dishonest attempts to distort it into something he didn’t actually mean, so he would do well to make a New Year’s resolution to be less casual and a lot more careful. He – and we – are still up against people whose devotion to the EU outweighs any vestiges of personal integrity they may once have possessed, just as much now as before they lost the referendum. And he should also have learned by now that he must assign a small number of his 600 (?) civil servants to a rapid rebuttal unit to counter the lies which our opponents are pumping out into the media day after day.

    2. rose
      December 31, 2017

      I think his words were distorted. Nothing unusual about that.

      1. DaveM
        December 31, 2017

        They were – the headline was contradicted by the text in the article. Never mind – New Year’s Day’s newspaper wrapping.

    3. Turboterrier.
      December 31, 2017

      @ Ian Wragg

      David Davis is today reported to have said that Brexit may never happen.

      Surely it has got to be fake news because if it is not then it’s time to put him out on gardening leave. Only the bravest of believers are going to get us out of the EU in a manner and style that 17.4 million voted for.

    4. Roy Grainger
      December 31, 2017

      DD’s comments were more nuanced. Of course the rabidly Remainiac Mail On Sunday twisted his words for their own purposes.

    5. Rien Huizer
      January 1, 2018

      There is nothing to kickstart in the US, their economy was getting close to overheating a year and a half ago. Fortunately tax cuts do not stimulate as much as people used to think.

  16. Mark B
    December 31, 2017

    Good morning.

    I think with regards to the second paragraph our kind host is rather getting ahead of himself. None of the things that he states can happen until AFTER we have left the EU. Infact, thanks to the PM’s negotiating skills, much praised by the very people she was negotiating against, we shall be shackled to the EU for quite sometime, if not for all time, too it.

    Indeed opportunities await us. But I am a little less optimistic. The next phase of our national humiliation at the hands of the EU awaits. How much more Danegeld will they demand for us to have the privilege of having them sell more to us than we do to them. It’s; “Fill ya boots” time at the EU. Its is not, Soft BREXIT we are being sold, it is Soft REMAIN ! The mythical trade talks the PM is so desperate to have as a monument to her Premiership is nothing but a sweetener to make the UK people and parliament swallow what is a very bitter pill. And a pill we need not take.

    Opportunity did await us. But thanks to the regulatory convergence which shall be used at every opportunity to keep us under the economic jack boot of the EU by throats, we shall see little benefit.

    The political class and the establishment have proferted much from our membership of the EU. All the people of this country, and in particular those parts of England that have had to bear the brunt of both policies and largess of the Westminster cabal, want is a fairer deal. Jobs, income and a happy future. You have burdened them with political cronies via City Mayors and extra layers of bureaucracy whilst denying them an effective voice via their own parliament.

    2017 was never going to be as good as 2016 – never ! But it could have been the year that set up 2018 and beyond. But the Tories blew it ! You blew it big time boys and girls. BIG TIME !!

  17. oldtimer
    December 31, 2017

    Best wishes for the New Year.

    For the next year let us hope that the government possesses the wit and imagination to enable people to make the most of the undoubted opportunities that are out there.

  18. Prigger
    December 31, 2017

    President George W Bush upticked welfare benefits for families with children.Just a few dollars a month. The economic pundits went wild for three months prior to it. The extra money in the economy in retail in particular, they said would boost it immediately. The first extra payment day , the stock market went up “a massive 2%” They were over the moon.
    Since Trump took power, the Blue-chip stock gauge has climbed 28.50% in 12 months.
    Much reduced wage taxes ….. start in February 2018. Corporation tax, halved, rolls out in 2019.
    Hold tight in 2018!!!! Our stock markets will likely blast higher with Remoaners moaning about Brexit, of course Trump and how we are all starving to death, living in a shoe box in the middle of the roads of Sheffield, Wolverhampton, Luton and Wokingham.

    1. Rien Huizer
      January 1, 2018

      The more the Pound goes down, the more the large stocks go up. A simple bet then.

  19. jerry
    December 31, 2017

    “The world is a better place for less military intervention in the Middle East by the western powers”

    If only that woudl happen. 🙁

    I assume what you meant was less direct military intervention…

  20. Epikouros
    December 31, 2017

    I could not agree with you more. However as good as we are at the things you describe we could do so much better if we reexamined our thinking on the efficacy of many of the systems, agencies and institutions that we have created and/or support. We would find I believe that most are not fit for purpose and do nothing for the public good as their actions and policies restrain us economically and socially by imposing obstacles to improving productivity and alarmingly increasingly strip us of our civil liberties and human rights.

    The new US tax bill will now create a new challenge as our competitive edges in parts of our economy will be eroded. Not to be feared if we rise to that challenge after all competition is good as it keeps us on our toes and spurs enterprise and innovation. Technology of course has brought us great economic and social riches but has also thrown us challenges as adapting to it is not easy. Especially intellectually and the rapidity of it changing our world of work and our means to wage war. Robotics, AI and nuclear energy can be used for good or evil and if we intellectually do not keep pace with rapidly changing face of technology then either by design or accident it will in the end do us no good at all. We do not appear to being too well at improving our intellectual ability. In fact we appear to be regressing in that area.

  21. Stred
    December 31, 2017

    New year resolution. Give up blogging. They never take any notice and will go on wasting taxes and doing Brexit no while we pay for the nothing of and we are told that we don’t understand.

    1. stred
      January 2, 2018

      Resolution 2. Find a way to switch off predictive text on my phone. It added ‘the’ and ‘of’ while the script was out of sight to do captcha and post.

      Mark B’s comment is dead right. If May and her little helpers think voters are too stupid to notice what she is up too, she is even more clueless than is apparent.

  22. Sakara Gold
    December 31, 2017

    A happy new year to you too. I admire your sentiments, but I’m not sure all your wishes will come to pass. For what it’s worth, here’s my take on 2018

    A major new war in the middle east seems inevitable, as are more terrorist outrages in the UK. The modernised Russian military will continue to probe our defences looking for weakness. etc ed
    In spite of Graham Brady’s gong, the party will subject the PM to the traditional stab in the back later in the year, whichever way the Brexit negotiations go.

    A series of unexpected black swan events may cause volatility in financial markets – possibly initiated by a failure of structured financial products related to car financing or an outbreak of hostilities in Korea or Iran.

    Reply This site does not offer investment advice so the investment bit is deleted

  23. APL
    December 31, 2017

    JR: “Technology is driving amazing change. Robotics, artificial intelligence, ”

    Yep, so we will not need hundreds of thousands of low skilled, illiterate, innumerate migrants – in their own tongue let alone English, signing on to welfare.

    You John have probably not been inside a McDonnalds [ever], but I have, and the company has now introduced automated tellers, you no longer have to queue to ask for your horrid burger, you can order it at the ATM and pick it up from a counter. Pretty soon. your burger will slide out of a slot pre-packed.

    That represents automation of some of the lowest paid entry level jobs.

    So your government can stop indiscriminate migration to the UK, completely and we’ll not notice it.

    1. Anonymous
      December 31, 2017

      It never was about filling jobs. It was about changing the electorate to a welfare dependent one and cleansing the despised working/middle class. (Labour gerry mandering.)

      1. APL
        January 1, 2018

        Anon: ” (Labour gerry mandering.) ”

        So after seven years in government, the Tory party has done nothing about reviewing the constituency boundaries.

        And nothing about the BBC.

        That makes the Tory party complicit in the Labour gerry-mandering,

        1. Anonymous
          January 1, 2018

          Indeed.

        2. Peter Parsons
          January 2, 2018

          Get rid of First Past The Post and replace it with a fair, representative system, and you can get rid of gerrymandering. Until that time, it will remain.

  24. Bert Young
    December 31, 2017

    My wishes go to John and all his responders for a happy and prosperous New Year . Technology will certainly play a much more dominate role in all our lives and I am glad that schools and universities emphasise its place and contribution . Whether the world will be a more peaceful place is another matter – fingers crossed !.

  25. English Pensioner
    December 31, 2017

    Happy New Year to you and your family.

    And congratulations on keeping the blog going with a daily posting, it must be hard work. I know because I tried, and even being retired, found it difficult to think of something worth writing about each day. Congratulations!

  26. Norman
    December 31, 2017

    However much technology advances, it will not fix fallen human nature. Political ideologies will try, but will always fail. What we have in Britain, won through fire, blood, sweat and tears, proved the best flexible consensus – humanly speaking, you couldn’t have made it up! For me, that’s why Britain’s exit from the EU is desirable – not, of itself a panacea – but it’s a POTENTIALLY healthy start. No wonder the opposition to it has proved so deviously intense.

  27. DaveM
    December 31, 2017

    Happy New Year to everyone here. Just a shame we won’t be celebrating on 24 June as we should have been. I just hope 29 March 19 will be a proper celebration, not a day full of frustration and anger at a government which has failed to deliver.

  28. Anna
    December 31, 2017

    Best wishes to you and your family for 2018. Thank you for your optimistic outlook on our future post-Brexit; but what a pity that your knowledge and experience are not being used in order to ensure a good outcome. We live in hope!

  29. hefner
    December 31, 2017

    Best wishes to all for the New Year, and keep this blog so entertaining.

  30. Herumm
    December 31, 2017

    According to the Metro David Davies said the opposite!
    Less chance of no brexit.

  31. Cortona
    December 31, 2017

    A very Happy New Year to you Mr Redwood.
    I rarely comment but read this blog every day and assume there are many more like me. I really wish that the cabinet were more in tune with your views and it is a mystery to me why you are not in a more influential role in government. You are a reassuring and inspirational voice in a turbulent sea of negative views from the MSM and we live in hope that your vision will prevail. All this nonsense that no one knows what Brexit means could be easily addressed by following your comments here and I believe your party could thrive if it was bold enough to ignore the oh so vocal doommongers and adopt more of your common sense shared daily here. The nation has rejected the madness of Clegg and his ilk so why should their views dominate the news and undermine the national interest as they do currently?
    Please keep up the fight and share this view as far and wide as you can with your party if they want to succeed in future.

  32. Man of Kent
    December 31, 2017

    Thank you for this excellent blog which has daily dispensed sanity and common-sense .

    With all best wishes for a very Happy and Prosperous 2018.

  33. Andy
    December 31, 2017

    2017 was the Tory right inflicted Brexit car crash.

    In 2018 we’ll be able to assess the extent of our injuries – though these will not be entirely clear for several more years yet. By which stage a significant number of the people who voted for it will be dead anyway.

    Meanwhile, the prospect of a Corbyn hard left government becomes ever more real as voters – faced with the realities of May’s UKIP/Tories and socialist Labour – decide that Labour is the least unpalatable of the two. (Though it is like being given a choice of dogs mess and cats mess and asking which you prefer. Both are sh*t – just different types).

    Oh – and younger voters continue turning against the Tories in droves, guaranteeing that – within a decade – the Conservatives here will be completely irrelevant for generations.

  34. Prigger
    December 31, 2017

    I guess Mrs May is all for popular vote gathering policies for the New Year
    1/Reintroduction of the dog licence, except for Hunt Hounds
    2/A new cat licence with 50% off it, £20, to help OAPs
    3/ Compulsory cat-flaps in front and back doors.
    4/ Ban on sharp tools such as spades , forks , rakes and hedge-trimmers being used within 50 metres of road.
    5/ Increase of 200% on the TV licence fee to help the BBC present even better programmes.

    Mrs May knows how to win elections and help Northern Irish disabled people, in particular

  35. Amanda
    December 31, 2017

    Thank you for that – quite inspiring, and something to think about and return to when the going looks difficult and long.

  36. Newmania
    December 31, 2017

    Universities, IT and High Tech industry Creative industry, add Financial Services and you have the fizzing heart f the modern UK economy with quite a bit of specialist manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals thrown in
    As one, these sectors and the people, often quite young , who work in them begged the coalition of old and unemployed and poorly educated, who have inflicted Brexit on them; not to , this REMAIN UK you are talking about .

    Let us hope the next year is better than the last , it could not be worse

    1. Anonymous
      December 31, 2017

      They didn’t beg. They did no such thing:

      – they took part in a referendum, their participation a pledge to honour the result.

      – many did not take part at all but could have turned the outcome the other way if they had.

      75% of the electorate did not vote to Remain in the EU. That is hardly ‘begging’ to stay in.

      For 2018 may Lewes be blessed with a similar level of housing estate building as around here. To accommodate the rising population that Remainers are so keen on. (No new schools, surgeries or roads allowed mind you, that would be cheating !)

      1. Anonymous
        December 31, 2017

        PS Clegg was thrashed at the last election.

        What utter tosh, Newmania.

      2. jerry
        December 31, 2017

        Anonymous; Almost 28% of voters did not express an opinion one way or the other, thus you can not claim a 75% Leave majority, just the official 51.89%.

        Why can’t there be new schools, surgeries or roads allowed, choosing not to build such things is a choice made by govt. not migrants, if your area is short of such infrastructure then you should be complaining to the Govt. not about migrants -many, if not most. of who pay UK tax too.

        1. Anonymous
          January 1, 2018

          A) I can state with some confidence that 75% of the population are not EU enthusiasts – otherwise they would have voted to stay in it.

          B) There is no money for schools, surgeries, roads etc. These housing estates are being built in panic to cope with an uncontrollable population boom. Lewes needs to take its share.

          I did complain but was ignored. I complained again and was ignored. So I turned to Brexit and find I am still being ignored.

          1. jerry
            January 1, 2018

            @Anonymous;
            A). No you can’t, quite the opposite in fact, the status quo is membership of the EU…

            B). The current migrant issue has existed since the early 2000s, the 1990s at most, poorly funded public services, and social housing has been poor since the early 1980s.

            As for complaining, what did you complain about, your scapegoats or govt. polices, had you complained about the latter you would have voted either Labour or LibDem – yet us you moved your vote even further to the right.

    2. Yogi Bear
      December 31, 2017

      Not one Remoaner celebrity who said they would leave the country for good if we voted Leave has left. They just keep moaning like maungy lambs missing mummy’s love bumps.
      The Norwegian fjords are good at this time of year. Take an oar or two! Live off the land, eating berries and deer lichen! Let’s have an extremely interesting— cliff-hanging— of course, BBC documentary seeing you making friends with seals, migrating thrush, walruses and penguins not forgetting snow-white wabbits and snow leopards and, very hungry bears who ridiculously scoff at Green issues and all they wanted for Christmas was a comfy warm log cabin and heated canned fish instead of fish tasting like ice-cubes.

      1. jerry
        January 1, 2018

        @Yogi Bear; “Not one Remoaner celebrity who said they would leave the country for good if we voted Leave has left.

        YET … Brexit is yet to happen, as the europhobes keep reminding everyone – except when it doesn’t suit their rants.

        Like everyone else, I suspect, they are waiting to see what the A50 negotiations bring, no need to ‘jump ship’ if RMS Great Britain is going to dock alongside RMS Norway or RMS Switzerland.

  37. Melvin Cornwell
    December 31, 2017

    Davis did NOT say that, he in fact said the exact opposite! We will face ferocious anti Brexit behaviour over the next 3 – 6 months from Blair and his cronies, and we will need to IGNORE it and just keep pushing along. Some of you are too trigger happy… the gov’t is BANG TO RIGHTS to deliver Brexit, after one of the biggest turn outs of public opinion EVER, and it is inconceivable that it would dare to fail to do so.

    Best regards for the New Year to you and your family, John, you have been the voice of sanity for many during 2017, and we all appreciate that.

  38. mike fowle
    December 31, 2017

    Happy New Year, despite some of the more pessimistic comments here, I am filled with optimism for the future. It’s very simple – those who support the EU are either deluded or venal.

  39. Prigger
    January 1, 2018

    Just seen the London effort at fireworks.
    Next New Year’s Eve, people will head for Hong Kong where they have colour/music/ reflected light in water coordination.
    The music in London was like a prolonged Andrew Marr Show musical ending leaving one with the desire to commit suicide but suddenly bereft of all Will do enact it. The fireworks were seemingly just chucked up in the air and hoped it would all gel together. There is such a thing as Art. This was not it.
    The German effort was practical but it worked. The Dubai laser show was something one should have expected from London perhaps. Minimal and remarkable.The Russian show was minimal and traditional but their lighting over the river was as usual with all their light shows a truly wonderous happening that gave the impression it had gone on for the last 500 years with the total acceptance and joy of the River God.
    Let’s see what America can do. Hope the music is acceptable , at least music of some kind like Hong Kong’s.

  40. Rien Huizer
    January 1, 2018

    Mr Redwood, all the best for 2018. Peace and prosperity who could argue with That? Cheers!

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