Mr Trump rose to the occasion and delivered a powerful address, seeking to bring more people into his vision of a faster growing USA with more jobs and more take home pay
He was full of the American dream, though not so full of the American dreamers that the Democrats champion. The President hopes he has done a deal on migration. He gets an end to wider family members having an automatic right to entry, and more wall across the Mexican border, in return for offering full legal citizenship to the Dreamers, the young people born of illegal migrants and brought up in the USA. Republicans are presenting the extra border wall as an extension of the Democrats 700 mile border fence. Democrats includingĀ Mrs Clinton legislated for that in 2006. The Democrats see it differently.
Mr Trump pointed out that companies are offering to pay higher wages or special bonuses to their employees following the corporate tax cuts. He reminded the nation that these pay increasesĀ are worth more with lower taxes. He told them that a family of 4 with an incomeĀ of $75,000 would be $2000 a year better off. A married couple on $24000 will pay no income tax. He took credit for the decision of a number of car makers to expend or establish new factories in the USA. He announced the end of “the war on American energy” as he takes measures to produce more oil and gas at home. It looks as if his tax cuts will provide a welcome boost to jobs, earnings and US investment.
He was full of praise for the USA and for Americans, as he sought to get more buy in to his idea of making “America great again for all Americans”. He concluded with some history from the founding of the Republic, saying the USA is:
“home to an incredible people with the revolutionary idea that they could rule themselves. That they could chart their own destiny. And that, together, they could light up the world.”
February 1, 2018
Have we got a politician who will give us a speech to remind us how great we are?
February 1, 2018
Not a chance Bob. And as far as the place called England is concerned, they are trying to obliterate it’s very existence. To even mention it’s name would bring them all out in hives.
February 1, 2018
And a review commissioned by the Grey Lady herself has today concluded that Sharia marriage should be recognised in British Law(presumably not just for the transition period).
February 1, 2018
Meanwhile, Tory minister calls supporters swiveled-eyed following Cameron’s turnip taliban, closet racist and swivel eyed comments. Creates a manifesto to insult its supporters and tax them at every and any opportunity. Housing minister Javid blames his supporters for owning houses and Hammond wants to tax savers more! Hunt wants to make immigrants front of the que for health services and amay tops them by wanting a dementia tax and sell their house to pay for social adult care while she gives away tens of billionss to the EU not legally liable and Ā£14 billion in overseas aid! She wants to build on red eds EU energy policy!
JR did Davis answer the question from Proti Patel correctly? He claimed the U.K. Share of assets were taken into account to reach the huge amount being labelled as the divorce bill. I would like all items listed so we know the truth. Davis has no credibility we need the honest facts.
February 1, 2018
Right. I’m getting to resent having to tick in drop-down boxes “British citizen” or “United Kingdom”. A Frenchman can choose France or French, a German can choose Germany/German, etc. etc. An Englishman only seems to exist in literature.
February 1, 2018
I’ve just realised: we’ll soon be able to tick “Vassal state”.
February 1, 2018
Bob, no, only how great the EU is and how wonderful it is to be ruled by others.
February 1, 2018
Fedupsoutherner..the EU is a club and within that we had a part to play but we thought we were exceptional and could run our own club with Oz NZ and China USA etc well now we see that the world has moved on into regionalism..thinking ahead and we are very badly prepared..am afraid theres no going back to the old days of empire
February 2, 2018
Rubbish James. The world is our oyster justlije it is for many other countries not in the EU.
February 1, 2018
In pc that amounts to Hate Speech.
The policies of the Home Secretary are Great
February 1, 2018
We have, but not one is on the front benches of any party in parliament.
That is the sole reason they are condemned to remain there.
February 2, 2018
EF, we don’t need reminding. We already know.
February 1, 2018
Yes, Theresa May…. She’s ‘getting on with the job’ just like Gordon Brown used to say, and we all know what a success he was. She carries herself uniquely on the domestic and world stage with her own demonstration of brimming with confidence and elan, eager to stand up for her country and negotiate in its its best interests and fully negotiating the leave vote mandate to ensure that we have controlled EU immigration, full control of our laws, money and economy. That’s right isn’t it John?
zorro
February 1, 2018
Having to be reminded of how ‘great’ one is a key sign of narcissism / insecure ego ..
February 1, 2018
I was watching Brexit-enthusiast Lord Howard Flight being interviewed on RT’s Going Underground last night.He was rather good-cogent,firm,well briefed,better,frankly,than the Three Brexiteers on recent form.His lack of recognition with the wider public and a faintly odd air probably preclude him from greater mass media exposure but he’s an asset certainly.
February 1, 2018
No Bob, our politicians never miss an opportunity to remind us that we are a weak, insignificant and poor country without any human talent (unless you count EU migrants).
February 1, 2018
Britain ‘greatness’ is Shakespeare, famous Quaker companies, Magna Carta, Jeeves and Wooster, Oxford and Cambridge, Churchill, Spitfire pilots, soldiers of WW2, Sir Isaac Newton, Jane Austen etc ..
We don’t need a man who gold plates his office, or whatever, to tell us what ‘greatness’ is thank you very much.
February 1, 2018
It doesn’t answer your comment but suggest perhaps you listen to Lamont’s input to the Lords yesterday which may help fill you with a modicum of pride in these British Isles of ours…
February 1, 2018
Bob Dixon, No we haven’t got leaders of Trump’s ability. But we have got Anna Soubry to remind us that wanting to actually leave the EU is according to her “not particularly good for [our] mental health”. In reality Soubry offers only the same policy as Labour – BINO. What’s the difference?
More, it is people like Soubry (and May, Hammond, Morgan, Heseltine, etc) who are destroying the Tories. What incentive is their to vote Tory for most ordinary people? Most don’t care whether the last bit of British railways is re-nationalised. Most do care about LEAVING the EU – that’s what we voted for. And we do care that our vote is being ignored. That is unforgivable.
February 1, 2018
“‘…the end of āthe war on American energyā as he takes measures to produce more oil and gas at home.”‘ And coal. “Clean coal”, he said.
February 1, 2018
Clean coal indeed.
There is nothing dirty about plant food CO2 after all. It is greening the planet wonderfully and increasing crop yields everywhere. Still no warming for 19+ years after all.
Nearly all coal turns to clean, odourless CO2 plant food when burnt, The other trace pollutants (nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter (PM), mercury) can be dealt with and are not really a major problem.
February 1, 2018
Dear Prigger–America apart I asked here late last year, and some time back, how Germany can use coal, and dirty coal so I understand, whereas we are told we cannot. Answer came there none yet an answer seems to be needed to what is a very serious and consequential question. Instead we get the likes of Gove talking about banning wood, which during power cuts (which could be less temporary than a lot of people seem to think is their right–solar flares, polar flipping, the Russians) can be the difference between life and death and which can give people at least a degree of independence from the Energy companies and their wretched “smart” meters.
February 1, 2018
Dear John–If you are going to sit on such as this, which is neither long nor complex and which you used once to say you would not do, I doubt an answer is going to forthcome today–not even third time lucky. Sob!!
February 1, 2018
The British Dream is to have one vote, just one measly vote in the 800 hundred years of Parliament where we actually decide on one issue from its onset, and not have traitors be full of “They didn’t vote to be poor”
February 1, 2018
Dear William–Yes–The most disingenuous and disgraceful utterance imaginable
February 1, 2018
‘The British Dream?’…. More like a prescient British Nightmare with the way she is conducting these negotiations!!
zorro
February 1, 2018
It would be interesting to learn what the British negotiating team has said NO to? Perhaps having sugar instead of sweeteners in their coffee.
February 1, 2018
And nor will they be poor as a consequence of their decision. They may be a little less prosperous than they would have been if they had voted to stay in the EU, or more likely they will be a little more prosperous than they would have been if they had voted to stay in the EU, but in neither case will they be poor.
I’m not expecting that after ten or twenty years many people in this country will be saying either “If only we’d stayed in the EU we’d be a lot better off” or “We’re a lot better off thanks to leaving the EU”. No doubt there will still be a few eurofanatics working to get our country wound up and telling us lies as they always have done and always will, but they will no longer be in charge.
February 1, 2018
The British (establishment) dream is to keep pushing inch by inch to reverse our independence. I believe the Americans just upped and said “we’re independent”. The don’t seem to have negotiated, never mind capitulated.
Now the Telegraph says Mrs May has immigration as a red line but we are open to staying in the EU’s customs union. Another day another capitulation. This is salami slicing us out of Leave. It has to stop. No, it has to be reversed. Oh for a Donald Trump to lead us.
February 1, 2018
Man’s life is short.
Shakespeare was pretty scathing of politicians, mocking them by getting Hamlet to hold up the head of one in the grave.
Lots of hard nationalists, through history including the 20th century, have damaged/wrecked their countries through lofty, grand, impractical ‘dreams’ that they hoped would resonate through history. Fantasy.
Brexit COULD turn out an event like the Gun Power Plot, Charge of the Light Brigade, or the South Sea Bubble – but worse – and be remembered like that – for the next 800 years.
February 1, 2018
Brexiters can still come out heroes for challenging the EU where it does need reforming (it needs to be less bureaucratic, more accountable).
But Brexit (Hard Brexit) can’t work right now. Our economy is too weak (and we don’t have a strong enough leader in the Brexit camp not a strong enough strategy). If things change in the future, then we can think again about leaving the single market and customs union.
But right now, the evidence is pointing to Brexit being very bad for this country. We seem to be the only country around the world that doesn’t see this.
February 1, 2018
And the economy is key. Without a strong economy, you lack the support of ‘the people’ who will simply vote in such a way that Brexit will be stopped (either via an election and/or demand for a second referendum).
Don’t Brexiters see this? How their strategy of wishful thinking over the demands of the economy is fundamentally flawed. Brexit right now is simply impractical.
‘It’s about the economy stupid’ (someone once said to Bill Clinton). Only Brexiters have themselves to blame for trying to impossibly square the circle.
February 2, 2018
Now it is about security stupid, all over Europe.
February 1, 2018
Has anyone ever said:- “Therasa May rose to the occasion and delivered a powerful address”?
Her Davos speech was appalling, who on earth wrote it? No change, no chance as they correctly said of the appalling John Major before the Tory MP’s allowed him take the partly over the cliff for many terms.
February 1, 2018
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pms-speech-at-davos-2018-25-january
If you do read it try not to get too depressed or fall asleep.
February 1, 2018
Meanwhile back in Blighty, under T May and P Hammond we have yet further tax increases, increases in tax complexity. more expensive and unreliable “renewable” energy, Brexit in name only (with a vast fee to pay to out EU competitors), a majority thrown away with a punishment manifesto, a total lack of leadership or vision, dysfunctional badly over regulated banks, a government that wants “to build on EU employment rights”, a phony war on plastic and on the non existent gender pay gap, further attacks on the self employed and gig economy and zero leadership or positive vision from the wet Libdem T May.
February 1, 2018
Don’t know what any of this has got to do with us?
February 1, 2018
Compare and contrast perhaps – the American Dream or the British Nightmare – Tedious PC socialists May & Hammond warming up for the even more socialist Corbyn.
February 1, 2018
They are our largest trading partner and most important ally. Whoever sits in the Oval Office is a person of real interest and importance to us. President Trump is part British through his mother. He loves the UK and its people.
Unfortunately we have a PM and a whole political, media and establishment class that hates him and is doing all they can to rub him up the wrong way. We have never been so poorly led in peace time. A diplomatic gift from heaven has landed in our lap, and those in charge are screwing it all up. Unbelievable !
So yeah, it matters.
February 1, 2018
Indeed, you could see it in her standoffish manner when meeting with him in front of the press – rocking that disinterested pose of hers….
zorro
February 1, 2018
Mark B.
Sorry to have disagree..but our greatest trading partners are the countries within the EU itself.
If you think that Trump has somethong bettet to offet..well?
February 2, 2018
Yes. All those German cars, French wine and cheese, Spanish fruit, Dutch , Irish, Danish meat and dairy products WE BUY and of course, reducing their unemployment levels whilst sending them vast sums of OUR money too them.
Yep, that’s some trade – NOT !
Short enough for you Mr.Redwood MP sir ?
February 1, 2018
Please tell me that’s not a serious question?
February 1, 2018
LukeM
Because with Trump encouraging US coal production it may affect our huge exports of coal , close scores of our coalmines and make thousands of our coalminers unemployed with catastrophic implications for greater coalmining and steel making communities, negative equity of their homes and others, impoverishing whole regions.
February 1, 2018
what bloody coal mines have we got they have all been closed down and the miners thrown on the scrap heap
February 1, 2018
What “huge exports of coal”? You are at least 50 years out of date. “Scores of coal mines” – there no longer any deep mines, only a few open cast mines. Get your facts right before pontificating.
February 1, 2018
Luke, its a comparison between a country with a leader wanting the best for his people and one where they haven’t got the where withal to run their own country. In the UK the leader has no faith in the people. In the USA they believe in themselves. Trump isn’t going to let anybody tell him that his country and his people aren’t the best on this earth. We could really do with him right now.
February 1, 2018
Before we get too excited,there was a little something in the speech about Afghanistan(which following NATO’s doubling down last year has rather predictably exploded again):-
“We’re going to finish what we have to finish,what nobody else has been able to finish,we’re going to be able to do it.
Now,assuming he means what he says,that will take a huge number of extra combat troops(without any guarantee of success whatsoever).When will May get the call….and what will she say?
February 2, 2018
They cannot even write an election winning manifesto ! It is that bad.
February 1, 2018
Luke
“What any of this has got to do with us”
Simple, when The USA grows the World grows, you may not like it, but thats what happens.
When the USA lowers Corporation tax by nearly 40% then Companies move back from areas/countries where they have been and will be paying more.
Again you may not like it, but it happens.
February 1, 2018
EU flakes wouldn’t.
February 1, 2018
Yes, the USA have Trump as their leader while we, in the UK, have…Jesus wept
Someone wake me up when this liberal left nightmare is over and the Tories have elected a leader that embraces all that we know to be right and proper, rejects liberal left politics and confronts the EU and its attempts to scuttle our country
Why can’t my party ELECT an aggressive leader to do the right thing?
February 1, 2018
Dear Duncan–Personally I’d prefer smoke-filled rooms without the smoke–ANYTHING has to be better than what happened past time.
February 1, 2018
Duncan many of us join you with feelings of despair. I’ve never known politics to be so bad in this country. We are truly in a bad place.
February 1, 2018
Agree …
But, just like nationalism, a real Tory leader with fight and attitude is something dirty, and they try to avoid it – otherwise the damned socialists call them FAR-RIGHT, and that wouldn’t do, would it?
February 1, 2018
Duncan, Most wards here have already received their glossy well laid out Labour leaflet ready for this May’s local election. UKIP are in a mess, and the Tories are nowhere to be seen. But then the Tories were nowhere to be seen at the Referendum either.
And we’ll be stuck in the SM and the CU and probably the rest of the EU, just as the Remains and the establishment want. Vote Leave . . . get Remain. All the advantages of a quick clean break with the EU have been squandered. Now we can vote May, Hammond, Clarke, Soubry, Heseltine, Morgan, etc, . . . and get Corbyn.
February 1, 2018
Also:-
Project fear III is clearly still going on at the treasury,
The NHS has become a sick joke killing thousands and with appalling cancer outcomes.
Many people at DPP & in the police seem to have been trying to convict the obviously innocent (in certain fashionable areas of criminal law), by the selective and much delayed release of evidence to the defence or at best just not bothering to even look through it.
The police (who have clearly given up on most crimes) now want to prosecute people for doing 31 in a 30 mph zone instead. This while reported knife, gun, violent crimes and burglary are up about 20-30% in a year.
The government has once again proved to be totally hopeless at subcontracting efficiently. Capita (the governments motorist mugging company) now also under huge pressure.
This with the appalling vision of Corbyn (with his fake magic money tree and government will confiscate & run everything appallingly agenda) waiting in the wings.
Local elections shortly too.
Compare and contrast as the they say – May and Trump.
February 1, 2018
A history born from the Magna Carta that, much like Parliamentary Sovereignty, those that seek to keep us shackled to the EU (are you reading Mr. Clegg) see is as nothing more than an old document.
Boy, no wonder the so called ‘Progressives’, aka Cultural Marxists, hate him.
February 1, 2018
Opps!
Good morning š
February 2, 2018
Still in moderation.
I know you are busy and all that, but taking into account what you have recently said, how is this, my first post of the day, either long or multiple, especially compared to others ?
Just edit, Clegg out if you want to. This is just childish.
February 1, 2018
Trump speech was good. The fact that Jordan Peterson’s book is top selling book on Amazon US site also shows that the neo Marxist liberal elite views are no longer the only game in town.
February 1, 2018
Sounds compelling. Lets have some of that.
February 1, 2018
āA wall, more jobs, lots of deportationsā was what Ann Coulter described as Trump voters expectations.
It seems Trump has caved in on the deportations with the offer of citizenship to the so-called āDreamersā.
February 1, 2018
He is surrounded by people who can read and write and understand that Trump’s own audience is far too narrow for reelection, assuming the next opponent will be someone better than Mrs Clinton. Trump is no Reagan. The problem with that audience is that normal people tend to be ashamed to be associated with that (look at the Republican parliamentarians before he was elected -possibly to his own surprise). The “achievements” of 2017 are in reality things that were on the Republican agenda forever. They got what they wanted. The Wall is not one of these and just look at this whole theatre around the Dreamers. Could anyone find a more irrelevant political battlefield? So, if Trump goes on reading good speeches, controls his Twitter account and plays a lot of golf, while professionals run the country (after getting rid of the other family members of course) every one will be OK. If then in a couple of years he lets Mr Pence run for president (with a less awkward #2) there may be some Republican policy continuity and a Trump Library for a man who does not read himself. . Not that many credible Democrats on the horizon.
February 1, 2018
Trump is a negotiator. He asks the highest price when selling and the lowest price when buying. This is why people in Asia and the Middle East understand him perfectly and contrary to Liberal-leftie belief are okay about his rhetoric. They are closer to the basics of human interaction. It’s called Hunger.They know instinctively everything is prior to talking it over.
February 1, 2018
This blog was out early this am , but captcha wasn’t allowing. Mr Trump gets things done and using an idiosyncratic delivery in speeches rouses passions and persuades. We do not need aggression in this country . More force and direction would be helpful , but aggression: no! We have Mrs May doing a very difficult job in her own way with no others to show the way. 1:27 in a whip .. think about it!
February 1, 2018
You can be assertive without being aggressive. I don’t believe a British politician could stand the constant attacks on the person and their family that Trump has endured, even Farage caved in at the end.
I believe it is time for a Lords reform if we have them at all they should go in on PR election and in smaller numbers. There should be titular Lords who don’t get paid but can carry the title they all think is so important to them and the paid distinguished and knowledgeable Lords should be clear on our ballot form so that if we don’t like who the party puts forward we can vote for an alternative Lord someone we admire from another party even.
February 2, 2018
+1
February 1, 2018
I don’t know about the EU being out to destroy us. May and her cohorts are making a pretty good job of it. Looks like we are actually going to be paying for someone else to tell us what we can and can’t do. Its the ultimate humiliation.
February 1, 2018
The EU is keen on destroying the UK as everyone knows.
February 2, 2018
Rien, The EU is keen on destroying every independent European nation. As we know and you are still willfully blind to.
February 1, 2018
We need a Trump in Britain.
The more the celebrity elite get angry the more Trump wins. It is fantastic to watch.
February 1, 2018
Agree one hundred per cent. Our own leaders pale in comparison.
(But I do wish everyone would stop misusing the word ”elite” – it makes these people sound special, which they are NOT. It simply confirms their inflated idea of their own self-importance.)
February 2, 2018
And I do wish everyone would stop misusing the word, Leader as well.
They are servants.
February 1, 2018
I gave you my very positive reaction yesterday off piste. There were items in his address that really appealed.
1. He intends to sack civil servants who fail to perform. We might learn something from this.
2. He is ending the war on coal, perhaps I should put him in contact with carbon Clean Solutions in Chennai who the UK have invested in but failed to take advantage of.
3. He intends to fight artificially high drug costs, with a professional drug purchasing organisation for the NHS maybe we could to.
4. He plans to get rid of infrastructure barriers in planning and accomplish improvements using a combination of State, Local and Private enterprise.
5.He emphasised tax reduction both individual and corporate to repatriate industry and gave example of where it is already working. He stated his belief in fair reciprocal trade with the rest of the World.
All the above translates to the needs of the UK directly. While the republicans in the house showed their appreciation in spades it was revealing to see the Democrats sitting there with clenched teeth , buttocks and looking very po – faced. They equate well with our socialists and remainers. The negative state knows best element in our society. We now await a leader to take us along a Trump inspired path.
February 1, 2018
Is this censorship through inertia.
February 1, 2018
I read in the Spectator today that Owen Patterson MP has managed to break his back while hunting. We can ill afford to lose such a sound MP. Especially after the foolish May threw her majority away with the punishment manifesto.
We have far too few decent MPs already. Please wish him a speedy recovery.
Riding horses is however statistically is very dangerous indeed with about 6% of riders being fully hospitalised each year. So if you ride nearly all your life perhaps four full hospitalisations due to horse riding on average. Not that I am against it but perhaps people should have to insure themselves to cover the hospital cost rather than expecting other to cover them?
I also just hear the economic illiterate, IHT ratter, inventor of project fear and of 15% stamp duty rates, Osborne on the BBC. Surely we have heard enough from this foolish man.
February 1, 2018
Not that P Hammond has seen fit to undo any of Osborneās fiscal lunacies, he is just as bad.
February 1, 2018
Where do you stop, joggers, dancers and sports people have more knee and hip replacements and injuries should they insure for that?
Builders, Gardeners, you’ll have them analysing A&E use and one day it might be a hobby or job you do.
Accidents happen that’s why we need a health service and pay insurance.
February 1, 2018
Plus how do you know he wasn’t a private patient?
February 1, 2018
Lifelogic
Reported in todays news, Hammond has asked for more research into the way the IHT system works.
I guess he is not looking to cut the tax, given his record so far.
May I suggest another tax grab may be in the pipeline, which will upset voters just like the social care nonsense of the last election. !
Know anything about this John ?
February 1, 2018
…….perhaps people should have to insure themselves to cover the hospital cost…..
Good point about insurance there LL. It was reported that he was on a sponsored horse ride in which he helped raise Ā£60,000 for the hospital where he is being treated so doubtless he will have used up a fair chunk of it, unless of course he has some sort of private health insurance.
February 1, 2018
What a shame they banned fox-hunting. What fun people must have had in the old days, dashing across our beautiful countryside.
(Foxes vermin. Battery-farming worse than hunting. Hunting brought different classes together. And provided living and special trades for many, including helping the horse racing world).
I hope the Tories bring back fox-hunting (seriously)
February 1, 2018
Superb speech …may he not only turn around America financially – Let’s hope he can kill off the creeping socialism that the democrats love so much…
.
One has to say, whether it’s the UK or USA, that socialists are poor losers, and I’m tired of their attitude. Just like Trump is pushing them back, we need to do the same here, otherwise, they will bring in the death of democracy.
February 1, 2018
According to Mrs Sourbry you have mental health issues Sir. I am really sorry to hear that as I seem to be similarly afflicted along with 17.4 million other voters in the UK.
Has there ever been a better example of the old adage of Pots and Kettles?
February 1, 2018
According to Ms Perry a lady in the cabinet I’m swivel-eyed because I did call my MP a traitor to my vote. She is and she won’t be getting my vote in the future.
February 1, 2018
Stuck in the house, I turned the box on yesterday afternoon. Crap soaps on all 12345. Turned on the news. 1 and Sky had some unknown woman droning on for all afternoon telling unknown MPs how miffed she was at only being paid Ā£135k to report on China occasionally. She had resigned but the licence payer is still paying her to do something else. Another BBC reporter who was playing an offensive clever dick to Trump and had him call the BBC ‘a booty’ is paid an even more ludicrous amount.Perhaps the unknown one should have gone to |China and tried being rude to Mr Ping. That would have saved the licence payer a few years salary.
Turned over to the Parliament channel and Sobery was moaning about her Brexit disaster and how we are doomed for not letting Junker and Mogherini run the UK. Turned off after thinking nasty thoughts and on again half an hour later. She was still on saying the same stuff over and over. Couldn’t some MPs persuade her to go up north to her constituency and suggest that the constituents would love to hear her long rousing speech to all the EU fans.
February 1, 2018
Trump has “delivered” . In the short time he has been President he has introduced a degree of change that has shocked the Democrats . He is absolutely right to control immigration and to maintain a state of “America First”. We need that determination here . His aggressive style does not suit the established bureaucracy or the media ; he over-rides these hurdles and simply gets on with the job he knows has to be done .
February 1, 2018
He may be too long in the tooth to take on training to ensure his assertiveness is less aggressive but that is what I’d do if I were him, learn how to play the game whilst staying true to his principles of saying what he thinks and not being totally politically correct. One of my favourite people in this Country is Prince Phillip and I love the faux outrage he creates when he speaks his mind we will miss him when he’s gone. We say we want people not to obfuscate and answer interviewers questions in this Country but clearly, half the Country don’t and can’t cope with it and politicians are better off skirting around the edges of all questions they are asked.
February 1, 2018
Trump is a mixed package. He has some good policies and some very bad ones but best of all he is not a Democrat or Hillary Clinton. The Democrats are demonstrating to the world the awfulness of the left and many of those who espouse it’s virtues and support it. Many come across as deluded quite a few show that they are also demented. Labour allied to Momentum, Lib-Dims, Greens and nationalist parties are doing their bit in the UK to expose the dreadful faces of socialist and progressive ideologies. Perversely it is not turning people away from continuing to following them or into reappraising their belief in these now discredited dogmas. I note many Conservatives are bitten by the socialialist and progressive bug even Theresa May is. Perhaps they do not realise it that now makes them socially on the they left and economically on right. Totally out of balance so a liability to the right and a blessing for left.
February 1, 2018
Trump also said in the Piers Morgan interview.
I am a cheerleader for my Country, why, because its so easy.
Yes viewed the whole of the recorded speech.
Not so sure I like the constant standing and almost continuous applause, but that’s the American way, and the figures were quite positively staggering.
If only we had a Leader and Government Ministers who were as positive and who had such a radical programme to get things moving.
Trump only has a small majority as well, and its not been easy, but the more positive the news and results, the easier it will get, as those who did not originally support him on his own side, will eventually come around, as their own future electoral success grows positive results.
Perhaps another lesson for our own Leader.
February 1, 2018
Oscar Wilde would have had a field day with Donald Trump’s gold-plated office. Jane Austen would have been violently sick.
Have we Brits lost our sense of style and class? In the old days, people aspired to being a gentleman or a lady, a good education, and some culture. Now it’s all about loads of money, and being in owe of rich, brash Americans.
February 1, 2018
And meanwhile back here naturally, and as many have said, the ‘transition’ period for our leaving the EU is in truth a ‘continuity period – denied by government, of course. We have also said that the EU will introduce requirements we must meet in that continuity period, to achieve a ‘punishment beating’. Denied by government of course.
And yet, on the subject of migration which President Trump is handling successfully, today we hear that the EU is demanding that EU migrants arriving after March 2019 until the end of the continuity period (whenever that may be) be given the same residency rights as have been conceded for those arriving before March 2019. Many people said we should not have conceded the initial rights, certainly not so readily. Many said Mrs May was weak and foolish to do so.
We now have what I suspect is the first of many demands for the continuity period. Many suspect that May is too weak to and unwilling to resist this latest and any others. She has said she will oppose it but that doesn’t mean she won’t concede. Get ready for yet another concession everyone. Appeasement is the order of the day from this appalling led government.
We are constantly lied to, misled and deceived by the ‘leadership’ – I am reluctant to use the word leadership where May is concerned.
She must be removed urgently. She has led us to this crisis, it is of her making.
February 1, 2018
‘Meanwhile, the FT has a remarkable report on an EU strategy paper for Brexit. The report claims that the EU will seek a deal that prevents Britain deregulating or slashing taxes after leaving, and that, if it canāt secure what would be an unprecedented level of restrictions in a trade deal, the bloc will instead use lawsuits, sanctions and retaliation to stop Britain. “….
This is what the EU will resort to. The EU will, at all costs, try and prevent the UK from becoming the new Taiwan, a haven for foreign investment diverting capital AWAY from the Eurozone and into the UK
And May, Hammond and his grubby ilk are conspiring to prevent the UK from leaving and becoming an economic powerhouse
I urge all Tory MPs to depose these two anti-UK, pro-EU bigots before it’s too late
February 1, 2018
I did think a presidency by Twitter was a bad thing but it’s the only way to break the liberal grip on news, politics and entertainment.
Where’s our Trump ???
February 1, 2018
To be honest JR, I would rather be hearing from you about the continuing capitulation to the EU and it’s Brexit demands.
February 1, 2018
So “He told them that a family of 4 with an income of $75,000 would be $2000 a year better off. A married couple on $24000 will pay no income tax.”.
Poor old Trump, so out of step with the approach of the SNP where its budget deal with the local Greens reportedly means: –
” Overall, the changes mean Scots earning Ā£50,000, Ā£75,000 and Ā£100,000 in 2018-19 will be Ā£824, Ā£906 and Ā£1324 worse off respectively than their counterparts in England and Wales.
However the 55 per cent of Scots taxpayers who earn less than Ā£33,000 will pay around Ā£20 less over the year than people south of the border.”
So at long last SNP largesse is not funded solely by the over-generous Barnett formula. I wonder if N. Sturgeon and pals will claim they are Making Scotland Great Again?
February 1, 2018
Would you believe! A conservative GOP President, has turned the neo-liberal austerity religion, upside down. There was no mention of national debt or federal budget deficit in his speech. The Republican Congress simply rubber stamped Trump’ budget; the Conservative Deficit Hawks, have flown the nest. WTF!!!
The US is running a federal budget deficit to GDP circa 3.4%; UK circa 2.4%. Now Trump wants to take it back up to 5 – 6%. Which is exactly the correct thing to do, if there is spare capacity in the US private sector that will not trigger inflation.
He must be reading MMT literature. Plus, all the campaign stuff Bernie Sanders got from University of Missouri – Kansas City professor Stephanie Kelton. US debt to GDP is circa 104%, which is about the same as the UK, if you include the Banks.
Sadly, such exciting US moves are impossible in the sclerotic UK. The self serving Westminster swamp, may as well be on another planet as far as the 99% are concerned. Arron Banks for President of the Republic of UK anybody!!! Can you imagine?
February 1, 2018
There is detailed coverage of the speech, and most importantly of the FISA abuse Memo, on The Conservative Tree House website. There is also a fascinating videoclip of an interview by Hannity with Donald Trump Junior on his reaction to the speech on Insider Fox News website. What a straight talking, positive, enterprising individual he seems.
On a broader note, which is of huge significance to how one perceives Donald Trump and his achievements to date, is the scandal, bigger than Watergate, unfolding in the US. It demonstrates clearly what an incredibly strong, principled man Trump is and how he has triumphed over huge adversity in all that he has done so far (and by extension what he can do in the future). If anyone is interested in understanding all the intricacies of the drama unfolding and the key players, the Conservative Tree House website is the place to go. Painstakingly researched and evidenced and continually updated. Trump is very much in command, but the full force of the Deep State is against him. There are going to be very significant changes in the DOJ and FBI as a result, simply from the evidence found so far, and the Russian collusion theory is going to be turned on its head. It is becoming very clear that the ones colluding with the Russians were not Trump and his team, but rather those who are trying to frame him. What a supreme irony.
February 1, 2018
Cannot understand this obsession some of us have ovet the US? In anything we have ever done in the past hundred years or so Britain has always been the junior partner..then Eisenhower even screwed us at the time of the Suez debacle in ’56. America will always put its own interests first..and there is only first with them nobody else counts..Bush screwed Blair over the Iraqi invasion..all just for Bush’s own reasons and pleasure and that of the oil magnates..when will we get it into our heads that we stand alone in this world and cannot rely on anyone.. even today I see Liam Fox is rowing back on the possibility of a deal with China in the short term..not even in the medium term?? Don’ know what else to add except it is awfully sad to see a once great nation kowtowing at the feet of the USA or China?
February 1, 2018
I read the transcript, good speech and even more important Mr Trump believes in his country and is doing things for the benefit of it’s people. The contrast with our own establishment, government and leadership is blinding.
We need a government that puts our people and country unequivocally first, not the interests of the EU. Instead, we get a Minister for Loneliness – pathetic.
February 1, 2018
I have never been as quick as some people to condemn or even criticise Donald Trump, preferring instead to give him time. The ones who do so often criticise him seem mostly to be of the liberal left. I have grave reservations about past US involvement in foreign military adventures, not least by the very people the liberal left swoon over such as Obama, as if he were some kind of messiah.
How could anyone criticise such a figure they ask? Not realising he dropped one bomb for every twenty minutes of his presidency that inevitably killed many innocents in the process. I feel it is safe to say the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize was somewhat premature and undeserved. It made a mockery of what should have been a fantastic accolade. Donald Trump may yet eclipse his immediate predecessor with his policy of America first, and in keeping with the founding fathers, to avoid foreign entanglements.
Trump might also be a true friend of the United Kingdom. He has already said the US would come to our aid which seems to place us in a special category, and has promised flourishing trade between our two nations. Contrast that with what the EU intends to do according to Open Europe this morning, and see which you prefer:
EU seeks powers to prevent āregulatory dumpingā by Britain after Brexit
The EU has outlined plans for safeguards against Britain undercutting the continental economy by cutting taxes or relaxing regulations after Brexit, according to a leaked strategy paper seen by the Financial Times. The measures, outlined in a presentation to EU27 member states last week, include the possibility of āblacklistingā the UK if it becomes an āuncooperative tax jurisdictionā, and ārobust provisions on state aid to ensure a level playing fieldā. The slides warn that the UK is ālikely to use tax to gain competitivenessā, and acknowledges that the EU only has āvery limited legal/political restrictions to prevent thisā. Other proposals on the āmenu of optionsā outlined on the slides range from āfinancial sanctionsā and injunctions against companies, to ācross retaliationā that suspends UK trading rights. On social and environmental rights, the slides revealed that the EU is pushing for a ātailored approachā to future relations, including ānon-regression clausesā that ensure EU standards are not diluted after Brexit.
Tad Davison
Cambridge
February 1, 2018
DJT is a true businessman and not a politician.It really shows as when he says he wants to do something it gets done TODAY not TOMORROW and thatās the difference .He is carrying out everything he said before he was elected whereas our politicians do what they want to do,not as the country instructed them to do.
February 1, 2018
I wonder which foreign Leader will be invited and attend a State visit to the UK before Trump. I shall demonstrate against that person even if I have to do it all by myself. In fact it will be a great honour and privilege way beyond my dreams for me to do this for my Country single handedly.
February 1, 2018
I’ve taken the liberty of writing President Junckers’ address to Europe.
More direct taxes because so your national governments don’t have to worry about spending it on their own priorities
Keep wages low for hard pressed businesses by knocking down border walls and easing the passage of millions more young unskilled men into Europe
Let’s Make Europe Great Again: For All Non-Europeans
February 1, 2018
The Trump wagon keeps rollin’ on! Good I say, really good!! – although he may get down to three wheels come mid term elecs…
Anyway, TM ‘seems’ to have found some backbone and will fight the EU on immigration after brexit day? Problem I have is when exactly will brexit day occur!! Let’s have a good stab at it shall we – 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024,2025, 2026??
A couple of observations from yesterday: Liddington wiping the floor with Thornberry, Labour laying into TM for not being in the house to answer questions – I suppose she woke up last week and decided to muster 50 trade ministers to embark on a surprise visit to China????? This is the sad state of party politics today when the opposition can only come up with this utter shite.
February 1, 2018
Baby Leave for Members of Parliament
MPs are voting to not bother attending Parliament and instead get someone else there to do their work for them. They call it a “Proxy Vote”. It is similar to that of Local Authorities where certain staff stay at home “and work” š nudge nudge wink wink
It is a good idea and is not just “as Harriet Harman ” LABOUR pointed out “the thin of the wedge” but no it is a good length up the thick of it!
All workers throughout the realm should be able to get a colleague at work to do the most vital things, get credit for it, and any bonus by way of public and company recognition and annual bonus attached to it.
A win win win for all true and dedicated workers! Unfortunately the downside is even the Chief Whips will not be able for fear of hate speech and discrimination to get MPs out of their homes and TO WORK TO GO and do a full decent days work like the rest of us ( except LA workers, a select minority )
February 1, 2018
A very good point was made by Trump – but not, of course, repeated or highlighted by any of the MSM – black American unemployment is at an HISTORIC low. The black Democrat representatives sat stony faced and refused to applaud this fantastic news during Trump’s announcement, demonstrating that they do not care what happens to the constituents they represent, they just want to resent and resist Trump, no matter how much good he does and how fast.
February 1, 2018
Having a property developer (and not a very good one at that, given his banking troubles) and casino owner as a president is interesting. At least in this case he sems to be folloing the script. A couple more years like this and he will be able to retire with some dignity..
February 1, 2018
Today in the Commons, an MP raises the possibility that some civil servants have been seeking to influence policy by deliberately misleading the government, and Parliament, and the general public, and a minister replies that he regards this as an extraordinary allegation and wishes to proceed with great caution.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-02-01/debates/20945C56-E446-4A52-B3B9-6CC645A717B6/TopicalQuestions#contribution-372B5356-8DF2-4FBD-A2E0-1CAA444BFC35
“Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con)
Will the Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker), confirm that he heard from Charles Grant of the Centre for European Research that officials in the Treasury have deliberately developed a model to show that all options other than staying in the customs union are bad, and that officials intend to use the model to influence policy? If that is correct, does he share my view that it goes against the spirit of the Northcote-Trevelyan reforms that underpin our independent civil service?
Mr Baker
I am sorry to say that my hon. Friendās account is essentially correct. At the time I considered it implausible because my direct experience is that civil servants are extraordinarily careful to uphold the impartiality of the civil service. We must proceed with great caution in this matter, but I have heard him raise the issue. We need to be very careful not to take this forward in an inappropriate way, but he has reminded me of something that I heard. It would be quite extraordinary if it turned out that such a thing had happened.
Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)
You said it was correct.
Mr Baker
I did not say it was correct. I said that the account that it was put to me is correct. It was put to me, and I considered it an extraordinary allegation – I still consider it an extraordinary allegation. [Interruption.] To be absolutely clear, I said it was correct that the allegation was put to me. I did not in any way seek to confirm the truth of it. What I would say is that we need to proceed with great caution, because it is essential that we continue to uphold and support the impartiality of the civil service.”
Somebody has leaked what seems to amount to a new edition of an earlier Treasury report which was made public, and very actively publicised, in April 2016. That is not to say that the new edition is identical to the previous edition, as is often the case it may well be a corrected or revised, perhaps even radically revised, edition, but nonetheless it has come to similar doom laden conclusions as the previous report which has already been subject to considerable criticism. Yet the new edition is being treated by Remoaners as offering post-referendum “facts” rather than just pre-referendum “fantasies”.
Personally I do not share the minister’s inhibitions about voicing suspicions that a group of civil servants have set out to deflect government policy from that laid down by the Prime Minister in her Lancaster House speech last January. To my mind the first question is who gave authorisation for these intrinsically unreliable economic projections to be made, or repeated, at public expense; the second question is who decided that the results should be leaked to the media; and the third question is who did the leaking.
February 1, 2018
https://openeurope.org.uk/daily-shakeup/theresa-may-rejects-eu-proposal-to-extend-citizens-rights-agreement-until-2020/#section-7
“The Times reports that the Prime Minister has delayed the first piece of legislation preparing the UK for leaving the EU without a deal, a Bill on road haulage that would ensure UK lorries could continue to travel in the EU. Delays are reportedly due to concerns that public preparations for no deal may upset the EU at a time when the UK is aiming to strike a transition deal.”
Oddly enough the EU doesn’t seem too bothered about upsetting us, even insisting that if nothing is going to change during the oxymoronic “status quo” transition then that must include the rights of EU citizens who migrate into the country during that period, which may be less than two years or just more than two years or forever …
February 1, 2018
There is only one cabinet minister who has similar charisma – of course I don’t have to mention who it is blindingly apparent.
If Mrs May REMAINS as PM by the council elections it will be ABC for me.
February 1, 2018
President Trump has taken more positive actions in his first year than Obama did in the previous four years.
He is heading for a second term.
Which is why the media and the left are increasing their campaign of hysterical vilification of him.
It’s all so amusing to watch.
February 1, 2018
The following statement keeps being repeated in the media, Mr Redwood, Is there any truth in it? From the Telegraph Brexit Bulletin this afternoon via email:
“The Prime Minister will be relieved that Brexiteers like Mr Duncan Smith remain supportive of her, despite the potential compromises she will have to make. Liam Fox suggested that Britain could stay in some sort of customs union with the EU, which would be tough for Leavers to swallow given it could limit the UKās scope for independent trading policy”
This is not acceptable as it is simply not Brexit.
February 1, 2018
Well, I’ve just watched a Sky reporter tell a brazen lie, and the lesson is that you cannot take on trust anything in the media including the Telegraph.
February 1, 2018
If Countries had their own heavy industries then there would be no need to ship vast quantities of Chinese heavy industry good across the globe in huge diesel ships and for them to burn coal in unregulated plants.
Its far greener to be doing what Trump is doing than what the liberal lefts want which is to place it out of sight and have it transported to their countries.
February 2, 2018
Re-open the pits?
February 1, 2018
We had a good speech maker too, just after the referendum. Strong and just right to deliver Brexit means Brexit…..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1307374/Brexit-means-Brexit-Theresa-lays-case-PM.html
February 1, 2018
They most certainly did light up the world – 15 years of war in the Middle East, Afghanistan, North Africa, Ukraine…where to next? Empire building is stagflationary so I don’t buy the Trump hype. What is the inflation adjusted GDP of the US?…a few basis points! and I’m not even counting inflation like it used to be measured.
February 1, 2018
Trump is doing so much right. (Data from Reuters, and reported on Gateway Pundit website:
“…The Atlanta Fed upgraded the US first-quarter GDP growth to above 5%.
To put this in perspective ā Barack Obama never pulled off a single year ABOVE 3% GDP growth.
Reuters reported:
The U.S. economy is on track to grow at a 5.4 percent annualized rate in the first quarter following the latest data on manufacturing and construction spending, the Atlanta Federal Reserveās GDPNow forecast model showed on Thursday.
The latest estimate on gross domestic product was faster than the 4.2 percent growth pace calculated on Monday, the Atlanta Fed said….”
February 2, 2018
blue pill economics
February 1, 2018
Dear John Redwood,
It is a serious matter that we do not have a Conservative Leader and Prime Minister who has a more Trump-like ethos, passion and approach to policy at this time. A Brexit that means Brexit is threatened by the fact that the Left have a Majority in the Lords and the Conservatives don’t have one in the Commons and the Left have enough clout to wangle through state regulation of the Press, as evidenced by the victory of those wanting another inquiry in the House of Lords a few weeks ago.
In the meantime, we have Jeremy Corbyn and his Shadow Cabinet inching closer to power, a man who wants rid of the Nuclear Deterrent, wants votes for children (16 year olds) and wants rid of our dear Queen! And what seriousness is your Party, the Conservatives actually giving to the gravity of these threats from the Left?
The Conservatives really should be strategising, straining every sinew to radically boost foot-soldiers through the offer of Conservative Membership for just Ā£3 a year, get techies to greatly boost the Online Campaign and a Rapid Rebuttal Unit and there has got to be a major re-think of policies.
The policies to go into the next General Election Manifesto have to radically appeal to a large cross-section of the electorate and they must be Conservative and also appeal across the board. Big tax cuts (boosting the economy), more Police, tougher sentences, a Referendum on restoring the Death Penalty for the most heinous crimes, a Victim Compensation Fund, more money for nurses and doctors in the NHS, two million new homes sold cheaply to first-time buyers. And of course, leaving the European Union and not paying a penny.
This is the sort of stuff the Conservatives need to start offering if Jeremy Corbyn is to be kept away from Downing Street.
Funding all this will require our Party to break out of the comfort zone, land-taxes on big estates, slashing Foreign Aid and Green subsidies, tariffs on Steel and Car imports would protect these key industries in Britain and raise extra revenue and, a Money Printing Bullion Production programme so that the economy (and therefore revenues) is related without depreciation of the value of the currency (which would be backed up by the Bullion).
You, Sir and other Conservatives might think that could cause inflation: Yes, it might – many thought the same about Quantitative Easing ten years ago. However, inflation could be contained by using the excess revenues this might produce to cut VAT – making things cheaper. Some inflation can be cured, the same cannot be said of the Constitutional Wreckage that might result from five years of a Press-muzzling, Queen-hating, gerrymandering hard-left Labour Government.
The Conservatives have to wake up to the stark choice that faces them: Only a Trump-like figure leading the Conservative Party, certainly with respect to economic policy, will succeed in making sure that Labour, in its current manifestation, never gets near power and that the Conservatives regain their Parliamentary Majority.
Ian Pennell
February 1, 2018
P.s. A big increase in the Minimum Wage, to (say) Ā£12 per hour combined with business rate cuts would also be very popular. The business rate cuts would help businesses pay the higher wages. This would generate more demand in the economy and extra revenues to pay for the business rate cuts.