Getting the economy growing faster

The combined policies of a fiscal squeeze – eliminating the deficit – and monetary tightening – cutting back on car loans, mortgages and consumer credit – has predictably slowed our growth rate in recent months, as forecast here. Last year the government produced a budget where the deficit undershot by £19bn over the course of the financial year. The Chancellor could report much faster and better progress with cutting the deficit, but in so doing took more money off us in tax than planned which helped slow the economy.

If  he had   spent all the £19 billion on a mixture of lower taxes and higher spending as identified in recent posts, there would have been up to  a 1% boost to output. This in turn would have generated more revenues, allowing the deficit to come down a bit  as well.  The good news is this would reduce the amount of extra borrowing  a bit more. The amount we borrow is quite sensitive to the pace of growth of the economy. When growth speeds up more revenue comes into the Treasury from people earning and spending more. As more people get into jobs, so the cost of their benefits goes down.

The UK economy has the potential to expand at more than 2% per annum, so we should be aiming to boost its current growth rate which is  below that level.

 

188 Comments

  1. Tom Rogers
    July 29, 2018

    I would prefer less focus on relentlessly increasing growth and more focus on:

    (i). Uniform growth – increasing prosperity should be enjoyed by all, not just by an elite few. I’m not suggesting that everybody should be rewarded the same. I agree the more able should be rewarded more than the less able, but the majority who work hard don’t seem to share in the rewards.

    (ii). Policies to underpin uniform growth, such as security of contracts, free trade (as an obverse to and replacement of mass immigration), and industrial investment/aid where we have comparative advantages.

    (iii). Population control – there are too many people in this country. We don’t need 30 million people on these islands, let alone 70 million. We should end mass immigration and shift policy towards maximising prosperity, freedom and happiness, rather than this cold, mechanical fixation with the bottom-line.

    In short, the country needs a complete change of direction and a new vision based on the interests of the British people.

    1. Nicholas Murphy
      July 29, 2018

      Interesting points, Tom. The fixation with ‘GDP growth’ needs to come under attack. Perhaps the government should focus more on GDP/capita, the deficit and our balance of payments. If these would show progress then I would be relaxed if GDP was below-par.

      1. Lifelogic
        July 29, 2018

        It should really focus on the maximum good for voters. This would mean halving the size of the largely unproductive state sector (at least) and giving people more freedom as to how they made, kept and spent their own money.This rather than taking if off them and wasting most of it.

        Government waste money hand of fist often doing far more harm than good.

      2. Hope
        July 29, 2018

        JR, your blog has the correct sentiment but will not and cannot happen under May and Hammond. Your party lost fiscal competence reputation under Major and his Black Wednesday that costs thousands of jobs, homes and business. Your current leadership is even worse. They take this action to keep the U.K. as a vassal state to a foreign power!

        No rebuttals over two years to all ten fake stories and scares about Brexit. No rebuttals over the deliberate lies. Dennis has commented about it numerous times. This is not an accident or coincidence. Allowing a foreign power to make threats and veiled threats to our nation. What true patriotic leader would allow this? Even a polite rebuttals from statesmen. Nothing. Civil service allowed to be caught on tape advocating. KitKat policy to hide true costs and ties to EU. That is the act of traitors. No intervention, nothing. Encouraging head of states from other. Countries to make veiled threats to our country. This is disgusting behaviour by your party leadership.

        These two are directly acting against people and our national interest. To propose keeping the U.K. as a vassal state is treasonous. To scare people about food and medicine when not true is treasonous. Today we read stories the miliatary prepared to distribute food in case of no deal.

        Trump has proved to be an economic success for his country and citizens. Each time he goes into bat he is fighting for his country, to protect his citizens and make them financially better off. May is underhand, untrustworthy and a liar. She has not and is not acting in the national interest or public vote. May’s behaviour is totally disgraceful. etc ed

      3. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Nicholas Murphy, Indeed. Since immigration has been running at over 250,000 net average increase every year since 2004, we should have seen a GDP growth of 3.8% per year to match it, just to stand still on GDP/capita.

        That means the underlying economy is in recession, and has been for years (all whilst in the EU too). That also means the current above target inflation is not down to a “booming economy”. That in turn means we should tend towards QT but keep the BoE rate low.

        1. Lifelogic
          July 29, 2018

          Indeed. GDP per cap is largely what matters to people not GDP for the UK.

      4. Ed Mahony
        July 29, 2018

        GDP / Money is REALLY important. But so is a country having SOUL. People having a sense of humour, cheerfulness and nice to each other. Patriotism. Strong sense of family life and respect for elders. Strong arts (every generation should try and produce its Shakespeares, Handels, Austens). Strong architecture (like that of the Queen Anne era). A country low on drugs, knife attacks and crime in general). And so on.

        If we focus on just GDP and not SOUL, then the whole enterprise is worthless, and life over way too soon.

        (Plus GDP and SOUL are not enemies of each other, as some cynics think, they actually compliment each other, because SOUL provides a civilisation with: work ethic / diligence, sense of public duty, sense of patriotism, and so on, as well strong arts, and great people – that get along with each other whether in workplace, family or life in general).

    2. Turboterrier.
      July 29, 2018

      Tom Rogers

      Totally correct on all counts

      1. eeyore
        July 29, 2018

        Our host is addressing how to get the economy to grow faster. Solving the problem by government control of wages and investment, not to mention disposing of 40m people (who, exactly, and how?) is a radical programme indeed.

        As it happens, it has been tried twice before. Chairman Mao really did dispose of 40m; soft-hearted old Joe Stalin only managed 20m.

        I wouldn’t vote for it myself.
        .

        1. NickC
          July 29, 2018

          Eeyore, Too right … I wouldn’t vote for it either.

        2. Ed Mahony
          July 30, 2018

          The experience I had of the Divine in the beautiful English countryside was something like this (from Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol): ‘“I don’t know what to do!” cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man.’

          I say this to suggest how Christ can utterly transform people’s lives – to happiness of a profound kind – and away from the kind of darkness and ruin that dwelling on dictatorships from the around the world bring.

          BW

      2. Spratt
        July 29, 2018

        I agree

        1. Dennis
          July 29, 2018

          Reducing population always brings up poverty of thought – Stalin and Mao – no mention of Hitler? Always people think the reduction is proposed to be done tomorrow.

          Iran reduced it population successfully in the 1990s I think, with user friendly methods supported by women and men. Now they have stopped it perhaps with an eye on the policies of Trump.

          Altho the gross overpopulation of the UK is an emergency not only for the UK but others (as we use other’s resources for own own riches) it is not realised by most so no thought is given to it.

          200,000 odd leave the UK yearly (doesn’t help word population of course) but if we import fewer then the UK population would reduce quickly. Of course those who leave can choose to return which they may do if they see the UK is becoming a more sane society,

          Reduced fertility helps – Japan is also overpopulated and thinks this a great problem for it as the only consideration now is money which is strange considering their well developed aesthetic senses – diminished now I suppose. S. Korea has a fertility rate of 1.1 and has a population of 50 m with an area less that half of the UK so it will be interesting to see what they do with their low fertility.

    3. David Price
      July 29, 2018

      Agree with all your points – the focus must be on the benefits to the people here not the sole interests of transnational companies or governments.

      Nicholas Murphy’s point on GDP per capital is well made, though perhaps the measure should be GVA per capita?

    4. Caterpillar
      July 29, 2018

      Tom Rogers,

      Yes GDP per capita is key, as is the distribution .
      The basic points to support potential (trend) GDP per capita growth are (i) increase K/L (more capital per worker) and (ii) better technology (i.e. Knowledge, ways of working, training/education).
      The UK is currently failing by having low net capital formation and increasing population (so it is difficult to maintain let alone grow K/L). Once out of the EU, the UK could help this by linking immigration only to qualifications and investment, moreover international students being allowed to stay some period and seek high grade employment (after B+M or M+PhD) could increase investment, quality of workforce and links to other parts of world. Improvement of financing to help small and medium businesses (especially those with external scale economies) may assist. Maintaining the health of the population and avoiding the waste of resources coping with antisocial and criminal behaviour would also help the supply side (early, serious intervention is needed).

      (aside – obviously much international trade isn’t comparative advantage based).

    5. agricola
      July 29, 2018

      Tom Rogers.
      I like the direction of your argument. A reduction of population to around 40 million would improve the quality of life for all. At present we are on a continuous spiralling game of catchup to provide services and infrastructure. There is no visible end to it, bar ever increasing problems in services and infrastructure. Robotics and ever increasing computerisation should remove the need for low cost labour while providing better paid jobs for those needed to design and look after advanced mechanisation. The downside is that we do not have the quality of thinking in government, and as it is a self serving entity, the prospect of ever getting it. Given a blank sheet of paper who would consider 650 MPs and 800+ Lords were an essential to running the country.

    6. Timaction
      July 29, 2018

      Good post. Also Government should look at quality of life issues as well as real expendable income per capita. Its about the people, not just the Corporates and vested interests!

    7. Peter Wood
      July 29, 2018

      Gentlemen,
      This is incorrect on a number of levels, but primarily the implied notion that we pay into some kind of fund or trust for the NHS and state pension; we do not. Both are paid by current taxation; whatever you pay in now goes to costs or pensions paid now, PAYGO if you like. that is why we need at least a stable population. To shrink it would mean the national pensions and NHS could not be paid.
      Our aging population, with increasing life expectancy at a higher than expected cost, and a falling birth rate are difficult issues.

      1. Dennis
        July 29, 2018

        Peter Wood – “To shrink it would mean the national pensions and NHS could not be paid.”

        How do 1st world countries with populations of 4m, 5m, 8m 320,000 do it then?

  2. Lifelogic
    July 29, 2018

    The UK economy could expand at rather more that 2% PA. Technology improvements alone should give this. One only has to get the bloated, largely parasitic and inept government off its back. May and Hammond however have been doing the complete reverse. The appalling prospect of Corbyn/SNP make things even worse. Several areas of the economy are dire state monopolies such as education and health car. Several others hugely damaged by government banking, refuse and energy for example.

    The solution is simple a proper Tory party, a non robotic leader with some real vision. One who is not an idiotic, PC socialist, believes in Brexit, tax cuts and moves rapidly to a far smaller state sector. This would be electorally popular and would boost confidence, the economy, investment and living standards hugely. Alas it seems the Party would prefer to bury itself for many term again in the John Major manner.

    1. Lifelogic
      July 29, 2018

      A government that also cut all the fake green crap and gave us cheap reliable energy and easy hire and fire. The inability to fire useless staff and understandable reluctant to take new people on is a huge drag on the economy that could be made to go at a stroke. As is the appalling, expensive, arbitrary and slow planning system (and indeed the legal system).

      1. Adam
        July 29, 2018

        The economy needs the chance of a competent Chancellor. Philip Hammond is unsuitable. He should be re-assigned to work in a Govt call centre cold calling to sell his policy. Then sensible folk shall reject his crazy ways & reduce his traction, enabling him to remain there.

        1. Lifelogic
          July 29, 2018

          Perhaps in a tenant advice centre. Here he could explain why his idiotic landlord taxes are screwing up the rental market for tenants and landlords alike.

          1. Lifelogic
            July 29, 2018

            And people who just want to move home!

      2. Lifelogic
        July 29, 2018

        Complete and utter drivel from Amber Rudd in Sunday Times today on no deal Brexit and “Climate Change”. What sort of idiot would appoint a second rate innumerate history graduate to be a Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change? Does she even know the difference between a mega joule, a kilowatt and a gigawatt hour one wonders. The climate has always changed dear and always will, so grow up and learn something please.

        By climate change one assumes she means runaway, catastrophic global warming caused by man made C02. But there is no solid science to suggest this is remotely likely. Furthermore the idiot green crap pushed by tax payer grants (the so called “renewables” and storage system) will do nothing to prevent this even if it were. Talk to some proper engineers and physicists before you pen something else so idiotic please.

        Also “Tories sliding towards oblivion” says Osborne. Well he is right under T May but she is largely continuing the total lunacies of Cast Iron Cameron the IHT ratter and dope Osborne. Just go away man and let some real blue Tories replace May and Hammond & sort out the appalling mess you made and Cameron left behind. At least Cameron keeps schtum now.

        1. Lifelogic
          July 29, 2018

          And a bit warmer is almost certainly better than a bit colder anyway.

        2. mancunius
          July 29, 2018

          Perhaps she thinks the temperatures are generally warmer because she just feels the heat more acutely than she did when she was younger – but so do many others in late middle age. Forcing everyone else to pay for one’s own personal discomfort seems excessive.

      3. fedupsoutherner
        July 29, 2018

        @L/L Indeed, its been reported by the Renewable Energy Foundation that in the last 8 years £395m has been paid to switch off wind turbines in Scotland alone. They are currently erecting more. It’s all to do with the community benefit they receive which is paid for by us all.

      4. Bob
        July 29, 2018

        @lifelogic

        “The inability to fire useless staff and understandable reluctant to take new people on is a huge drag on the economy “

        Absolutely correct. With some employees, they’re on best behaviour for the first two years and as soon as they gain protection from “unfair dismissal” they start slacking. The management is then bogged down in an endless series of meetings with them trying to resolve behaviour issues that would never exist if the boss had the same power as the employee to terminate the relationship at a stroke.

        1. Lifelogic
          July 29, 2018

          Exactly.

    2. Mark B
      July 29, 2018

      I am informed, although I cannot confirm this, that the SNP are finished. Bad governance.

      1. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Mark B, Hmmm, finished? I tend to think that the SNP will become more nationalistic as their policies and governance are shown as failures over time. And there is always a nationalistic minority.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        July 29, 2018

        Nick c. You are so very right in what you say. It is however bad news for Scotland.

    3. Bob
      July 29, 2018

      Tax cuts boost the economy. Who knew?
      The American economy is booming, as figures released today show US GDP grew by a scorching 4.1% in 2017. Employment rates are the best they have been for decades, black and hispanic employment rates are the best they have been in decades. Each percentage point is equivalent to three trillion dollars, and ten million jobs.

      Before his election, ‘experts’ predicted precisely the opposite.
      From order-order.com

  3. Lifelogic
    July 29, 2018

    “Let’s call the EU’s bluff and prepare for a no-deal” Dan Hannan sensibly suggests today in the Sunday Telegraph.

    1. Lifelogic
      July 29, 2018

      Also “ HS2 is over-budget, unpopular and unjustified. Stop pouring billions into it”
      Richard Wellings

      Just why are the government pushing the idiotic lunacy of HS2 and indeed of Hinckley C?

      1. Stred
        July 29, 2018

        French TV just reported another huge delay and overspend at Flamainvile, the prototype nuke for Hinckley. May chose the most expensive one with the worst track record for design and construction in the world. Her top advisors may not have told her and it is doubtful whether she reads the technical press or blogs. Possibly she wanted to be nice to our friends across the Channel in the run up to capitilating.

        1. hefner
          July 29, 2018

          Well, it has been in the French news since 12 March 2018 (Ouest-France), then Liberation (31/05), and most French newspapers on 25/07.
          Has anybody read Dieter Helm’s (Univ.Oxford)’ “Energy, the State and the Market” (1979, Rev.2004) and/or “The Carbon Crunch” (2012).
          Successive, (repeat, successive) governments, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, etc have cocked it up: May is simply the last one in the row of PMs. And what about the corresponding Energy and/or Business secretaries playing their part in this sad saga?

          1. fedupsoutherner
            July 29, 2018

            @Hefner. Yes, read quite a bit from Dieter Helm. Brilliant stuff and like you say, why don’t our politicians listen to people who really are in the know?

          2. NickC
            July 29, 2018

            Hefner, Rubbish. In 1997, 26% of UK electricity was generated from nuclear power, but by 2012 that had declined to 19%. The entire current (and closed) fleet of reactors were connected to the grid between 1956 – 1995.

            It was the Blair governments that stopped building, and Brown who sold off our nuclear construction capability. We are paying for those appalling decisions now with the expensive, poorly designed, French/Chinese efforts at Hinckley.

          3. hefner
            July 29, 2018

            NickC, rather untrue: 1996 saw the privatization of seven advanced gas-cooled reactors and of one PWR. Then despite some positive noise made by Blair about new nuclear power stations in 2004 and later, the private sector (originally British Energy) did nothing. And yes, Brown let the market work, and a large part of the UK nuclear electricity building capability (privatized more than 10 years earlier) went in several stages to foreign ownership. So Conservatives as white as snow?

          4. Stred
            July 29, 2018

            I understood that the latest news was confirmation of just how bad it was.

          5. NickC
            July 30, 2018

            Hefner, The point is you originally blamed “successive governments, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, etc”. Yet actually new Nuclear capacity was being built under Thatcher and Major. Nuclear build stopped under Blair and Brown (for 13 years) – because it was their policy to oppose new Nuclear.

        2. Bob
          July 29, 2018

          @Stred

          “May chose the most expensive one with the worst track record for design and construction in the world.”

          I wouldn’t trust Mrs May to run a whelk stall, nor Amber Rudd, Anna Soubry, Nicky Morgan or Philip Hammond.

        3. Lifelogic
          July 29, 2018

          Indeed, she get almost every single decisions she takes wrong.

        4. Steve
          July 29, 2018

          @stred

          That woman does not know one end of a spanner from the other, and letting her loose with taxpayer’s money in relation to anything technical is doomed to failure.

          But, to be fair she is a rather good quisling with a track record of capitulation to the franco german walloon empire.

          She’s also successfully consigned the tory party to oblivion.

    2. cryingoutloud
      July 29, 2018

      It’s much too late for the game of bluff..D’l Hannan would have us over the cliff edge just to make the point..where will we be then?- better still where will D Hannan be?..collecting his big fat EU pension no doubt.. which the rest of us will subscribe to through the 39Billion owing that sooner or later will have to be paid. Tks a mill Dan’l

      1. Jagman84
        July 29, 2018

        There is no ‘cliff edge’ as we already trade profitably through WTO arrangements. The looming ‘cliff edge’ is for the EU when our membership ends. Also, the £39bn was foolishly offered by our feckless PM for simply talking about trade. We have no legal obligation to pay a single £ (or €) other than current membership obligations.

      2. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Crying, WTO is the best deal. Indeed at the moment the WTO deal is the only deal – because we use it already for 60% of our exports and the EU hasn’t agreed to any deal.

      3. L Jones
        July 29, 2018

        Cryingoutloud – you seem to be someone else who regurgitates BBC-speak. ”Cliff edge” and ”crashing out” etc, wherever these phrases can be slipped into a so-called ”story”. (Good word, that, rather than ”report”.) Like the story of how we ”owe” this money to the EU.
        No, we don’t – it’s called a ”bribe”.

        Or perhaps you are a Facebook Clicker – one ”like” click and hey presto! You are suddenly well-informed. Magic.

    3. Leslie Singleton
      July 29, 2018

      Dear Lifelogic–If it is remotely true as is said that the average WTO tariff would be 2 – 3 % what can the fuss possibly be all about?–Even then would be very very hard to believe that in due course some kind of FTA would not be agreed–Are we not their largest customer??

      1. Denis Cooper
        July 29, 2018

        Well, taking into account the preferential trade deals made by the EU the average tariff on imports into the EU is even less than that.

        https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/facts-figures/customs-duties-mean-revenue_en

        In 2016, €25 billion customs duties collected on total imports into the EU of €1707 billion, €20 billion transferred to EU budget = 80%.

        Which works out as an average import duty of just 1.46%, and some might question whether it is worth imposing a heavy burden of compliance costs on importers for so little revenue.

        That is not identical to the average tariffs that would apply to UK exports to the EU with or without a preferential trade deal, but basically overall tariffs are no longer such a big factor as they once were.

    4. Richard1
      July 29, 2018

      Dan Hannan makes an eloquent argument as ever. But I don’t see it being possible to call the EU’S bluff with Mrs May as PM. I see she is taking her holiday in Switzerland. Perhaps she will come back from there with her eyes opened as to how an economy can be out of the EU, the single market and customs union, enjoy low taxes and a balanced budget – and be much richer than we are now in the UK.

      1. Bob
        July 29, 2018

        When asked how she would vote if there was a 2nd EU referendum, Mrs May refused to answer.

    5. Mark B
      July 29, 2018

      They’re not bluffing. Life for them will continue add they do not have trouble of having to set up parallel systems.

    6. Original Richard
      July 29, 2018

      There’s no such thing as “no deal” because as far as trade is concerned we revert to WTO terms.

      But what we have is the EU, egged on by their UK collaborators, threatening illegal trade sanctions against the UK together with threats of grounding aircraft and any other measures they can find to cause chaos.

      We’re only leaving the EU!

  4. Ian wragg
    July 29, 2018

    The economy. must not flourish so that Brexit can be blamed
    Mrs May wants to sign up to all EU rules and regs so we aren’t in competition.
    She is working on behalf of a foreign government against the British people. That is treason.

    1. oldtimer
      July 29, 2018

      In its recent report MPs have complained about fake news misleading people. Unaccountably they failed to mention Mrs May’s declaration that Brexit means Brexit when she really means Brino. Similarly the Treasury has not only warned us all of doom and disaster and has done its worst to bring them about by implementing policies described in JR’s post. Fortunately the public seem to have rumbled May and the economy has survived the Treasury’s efforts to put it into reverse gear. Yet the Remainers have not given up; indeed they are in full cry, determined to make the UK a vassal state.

      1. Denis Cooper
        July 29, 2018

        That report is itself fake news, more fake news directed against Brexit.

      2. Bob
        July 29, 2018

        @oldtimer
        The BBC is in full cry on the “fake news” meme. They have no shame.
        Their sneering mocking tone when reluctantly reporting Mr Trump’s success is a disgrace.

        End the Licence Fee.

        1. NickC
          July 29, 2018

          Bob, Complaints to the BBC are an utter waste of time. Calling for the TV tax to be abolished has only a slim chance. The ONLY way to make the BBC take notice is to refuse to pay the TV tax. Obviously to stay legal you would have to stop watching live TV. But believe me that is a relief not an imposition.

          1. Bob
            July 29, 2018

            @NickC

            “refuse to pay the TV tax”

            We haven’t bought a TV Licence for over ten years now. We have a smart TV with Amazon Prime & Netflix plus all the other on demand content. But it annoys me that people who want to watch ITV or any other non BBC provider are forced by law to fund Common Purpose propaganda (i.e. the BBC).

        2. L Jones
          July 29, 2018

          Yes, indeed – end it. I wouldn’t mind paying even more for a proper, balanced, informative, unbiased, well-run national broadcaster.

          But for one that gets plenty of funding from a foreign regime, and therefore pushes an agenda that is contrary to our country’s stated wishes – then a mandatory licence fee should be ended.

    2. Turboterrier.
      July 29, 2018

      Ian Wragg

      Sad but very true

    3. Lifelogic
      July 29, 2018

      I tend to agree. Treason? Well certainly very close to it, the dreadful robotic, pro remain, PC lefty dope and electoral liability really must go now.

      1. Timaction
        July 29, 2018

        I think what really annoys about May and her cohorts is the blatant lies. In this day and age it takes less than five minutes to get to the truth, to read the white papers ourselves or the latest speech from Barnier. So when we triangulate the real news it just leaves us exasperated with the current crop of lying politicos!
        We really do need root and branch reform of our voting system so that when we vote, it actually has meaning. FPTP is for the legacies and should go. A 19th Century system that needs to be replaced by proportional representation so that EVERY vote counts!

        1. NickC
          July 29, 2018

          I prefer direct democracy to fiddling with the voting system. And I would replace the current HoL. The new HoL would have about 200 elected Eldormen who could work, speak and vote, with existing and future Lords only allowed to speak and work but not vote.

          1. Original Richard
            July 29, 2018

            At each GE the whole HoL should be dissolved and the Lords for the next Parliament should be (re-)appointed by each political party with the numbers allowed for each party to be in proportion to the votes cast for that party at the GE and include those parties who did not manage to win a seat in the HoC.

      2. Bob
        July 29, 2018

        “PC lefty dope and electoral liability really must go now.”

        The sooner the better!

      3. zorro
        July 29, 2018

        I think a modern day form of Praemunire is more accurate a charge against May and her conduct over the last two years.

        zorro

    4. Chris
      July 29, 2018

      Something that is staggering and has been revealed by Martin Howe QC is the Moldovan strategy which has been woven into the Chequers Brexit Plan whereby we would indeed be answerable to the ECJ. More trickery and deceit from No 10, I fear. Another gem from Martin Howe is that this was incorporated into the Brexit plan last August. Totally unacceptable. What are Tory Brexiter MPs going to do about this?
      https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/995696/theresa-may-abandoning-brexit-uk-courts-eu-martin-howe
      Theresa May is ‘abandoning Brexit’ with latest plan as EU will rule the UK – warns expert

      “THERESA MAY has been accused of Brexit “abandonment” by a top QC who says her Chequers deal means that UK courts will still be ruled by the European Union. European law expert Martin Howe QC warns that under the White Paper terms, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) “will have direct jurisdiction to bind the UK to make its law comply with the EU rulebook”.

      Rather than restoring the supremacy of British courts, the Government’s plans would make the UK “subservient” to the EU. The chairman of Lawyers for Britain slams the Prime Minister’s claims that ECJ jurisdiction in the UK will end as “sophistry at best” and accuses her of breaking her Brexit promise to take back control of our laws….”

      1. Bob
        July 30, 2018

        “The chairman of Lawyers for Britain slams the Prime Minister’s claims that ECJ jurisdiction in the UK will end as “sophistry at best” and accuses her of breaking her Brexit promise to take back control of our laws….”

        She has lied to the country and deceived her own party, she must be replaced by someone who can deliver what we voted for. Refer to the Tory government’s £9.5 million referendum pamphlet:

        “The Government will implement what you decide. “

    5. zorro
      July 29, 2018

      I think a modern day form of Praemunire would be a more easily provable charge against her.

      zorro

  5. Peter Martin
    July 29, 2018

    If he had spent all the £19 billion on a mixture of lower taxes and higher spending as identified in recent posts, there would have been up to a 1% boost to output. This in turn would have generated more revenues….

    Yep. The Government’s income is highly dependent on its spending. That’s quite unlike ours which is highly independent . If we are overspending we can cut back until our bank balance looks healthier. If Government adopts the same approach it’s unlikely to work as the economy will most likely contract or, at least, not grow in the planned way.

    The income of the UK as a whole also needs to be considered. If we are spending more than we are earning, ie we are running a current account trading deficit, then someone in the UK has to fund that deficit by borrowing. That can either be by Govt borrowing or Private Sector borrowing and will show up as an inflow in the capital account. The current and the capital accounts do have to balance. If there is a tendency towards imbalance the £ will move in value on the forex markets. Both create extra debt. It’s just a matter of deciding whether it’s better for that debt to be held publicly or privately.

    This is just a matter of simple arithmetic and accounting theory BTW. Nothing to do with Keynesian economics at all!

    1. Edward2
      July 29, 2018

      If the government cut back and returned that money to taxpayers there would be no contraction in the economy.
      I’m my opinion growth would rise.

      1. Peter Martin
        July 29, 2018

        Your’re right that if Government cut back its spending and gave everyone a tax cut which everyone also spent there would be no contraction of the economy.

        But if they didn’t spend it, or ‘spent’ it buying Premium Bonds or some other form of Govt debt, or saved it in a Bank which used the money to buy Gilts, the economy would contract.

        Growth has to mean more spending. That’s how GDP is measured. So if you want growth then someone has to spend more. That could be you or I or Govt or maybe the Germans could decide that it was our turn to supply them with cars and they would then spend some of their accumulated £ based assets.

        1. Edward2
          July 29, 2018

          The State doesn’t great wealth.
          Individuals create wealth.
          If I fecide to save then someone else gets a loan to help them develop wealth.
          Money supply is a different thing.

          1. Peter Martin
            July 30, 2018

            Edwards2,

            You’re right that everyone who participates in the economy creates wealth as measured by GDP. Then there are others who just ‘do things’ on a voluntary basis, but this isn’t counted. So GDP is an imperfect measure.

            But to make all this work the State has in important role in the creation of a monetary system. The Govt creates the money, spends it into the system, and gets some of it back in taxes. Obviously less than it has created.

            Borrowing money used to be thought of as you describe, but if you Google the words {boe money creation in the modern economy} you’ll see a paper by McLeay et al which offers some contemporary thinking on the topic.

          2. Edward2
            July 30, 2018

            I realise you believe certain economists who feel the State can just carry on creating wealth by printing or creating more and more money but I feel it is like a shipwrecked sailor trying to survive by drinking sea water.
            The idea that the more the state borrows the wealthier we will get is ridiculous.

    2. Mark B
      July 29, 2018

      If the government was to spend the money on something useful and not waste it on vanity projects of dubious value and subsidies the its expenditure would generate real wealth.

      1. Lifelogic
        July 29, 2018

        Yes but that is highly unlikely. Government so rarely ever do. Not their money so what do they care!

      2. Peter Martin
        July 30, 2018

        Yes the Govt should spend its money wisely. This means different things to different people – of course.

        Govts do have some discretion, and hopefully more after Brexit, to spend in the UK market rather than buying imported goods from overseas. So one problem which will arise, if you want to replace Govt with private spending, is the tendency of the private sector to want to do just the opposite.

    3. Richard1
      July 29, 2018

      The issue is it is much more likely a private sector investor / borrower will make economically rational decisions. They do not have the get out of gaol option of printing money and are guided by market prices. Govts are guided by whoever whinges loudest.

  6. Kenneth
    July 29, 2018

    Mr Redwood, your views are backed up by evidence and mathematics.

    Trouble is, your government doesn’t agree with you.

  7. Andy
    July 29, 2018

    If I were Prime Minister (hold that thought for a moment….) I could make the economy boom overnight.

    I would cancel Brexit, travel to Brussels to apologise to Mr Tusk for the disgraceful behaviour of the Tory and UKIP hard right pensioners, and I would pledge to work with him and other European leaders to further reform the EU to make it work even better for citizens and nation states. The pound would soar, delayed investments would materialise and – overnight – you would be richer. And so would your children as I would have cancelled your Brexit bill that they will still be paying off when they are pensioners.

    Sure, the Leave voting Victor Meldrews up and down Britain would complain but what Brexit has made clear is that complaining is their way of life anyway. They exist to complain. They know nothing else.

    They complained when we were in the EU. They complain now we are leaving. They complain about the people in charge of leaving. They complain about everything else. Professional whingers – all of them.

    So they could whine at me – but on the plus side at least they wouldn’t have to rely on the military to helicopter in their supplies of Ovaltine. Today I learn military support is the latest plan for Brexit from the incompetent Tory goons in government who are destroying our country. Going well your Brexit malarkey – isn’t it?

    1. Edward2
      July 29, 2018

      Don’t believe project fear 2.0 Andy.

      PS “further reform” what reform has there been ?
      The EU will not reform.
      Cameron found that out and so would you if you tried.
      They have a plan.
      Read the 5 presidents report.

    2. A.Sedgwick
      July 29, 2018

      Sounds like a re run of Labour’s capitulation to the IMF in 1976 , but your scenario would see the undemocratic Brussels politburo in charge not Callaghan and Healey.
      Ironically EU policies are fermenting serious hard right support, which is not present in the UK, whatever crap you come up with. We are still a fair and tolerant nation.

    3. fedupsoutherner
      July 29, 2018

      @Andy. If I were Prime Minister (hold that thought for a moment….) I could make the economy boom overnight.

      Please, don’t make me hold that thought for any time. I would have to reach for the valium.

    4. graham1946
      July 29, 2018

      Andy

      1) We don’t owe 39 billion. We have had no invoice and it is just a con on May who accepted it because she is a Remainer who loves the EU, just like you, who would see our country done down just so you can ‘win’ a point and go against democracy. Very EU – its what they have always done.

      2) If we stay in, the £39 billion will become seem like chicken feed as it becomes hundreds of billions over the time of membership which your children will pay, just like the hundreds of billions we have paid for European infrastructure over the last 40 odd years, for no return, while ours crumbles. Every penny is borrowed so you are lining them up for interest as well. Very caring parenting.

      3) The EU is not reformable. They like it just the way it is. After you have grovelled to them, they would send you away with a flea in your ear, be told you don’t count and probably increase your subs and you would say, ‘Thank you for listening Master. Sorry to have troubled you’. They owe the UK, we saved their bacon twice in the last century having caved in and they and you would be wearing jackboots if the ‘pensioners’ parents had not had the courage and faith in our country which you so obviously lack. Thank God men were men then, not snowflakes.

    5. Timaction
      July 29, 2018

      ……………..and then you woke up and realised that you have no skills or understanding of the undemocratic control the EU has on all of our lives.
      That democracy has become increasingly irrelevant as most Government competencies have been handed over by stealth to the unelected bureaucrats in the EU with no accountability! That we have been increasingly taxed to give it to the EU who pay for infrastructure improvements and foreign farmers in competing Countries whilst recycling a fraction of those taxes back here and putting an EU flag on it! That our successive legacy Governments have been lying to us for over 40 years on those treaty’s and powers and their true intentions. A Federal superstate under Franco/German rule by incremental stealth! Then despite election manifesto promises by Labour and Conservative parties to implement Brexit, per the referendum, that the majority MP’s in Parliament are opposed to this plan and won’t deliver on their promises! Mays secretly produced and sprung on us white paper is NOT taking back control of our laws, borders or money.
      Then an election should be called and Brexit champions placed in each seat to deliver the will of the people.

    6. Tad Davison
      July 29, 2018

      Oh boy! By what they say, ye shall know them!

      Apologise to Mr Tusk indeed. You’re starting to sound like Theresa May and Anna Soubry. Such creeping subservience only goes to show your loyalty is not to the United Kingdom as it should be, but to a foreign entity.

      You say you would pledge to work with Mr Tusk and other European leaders to further reform the EU to make it work even better for citizens and nation states. You do at least acknowledge that reform is necessary, but further reform? What makes you think you would be any more successful at getting the EU to alter course than Cameron? Don’t you ever listen to the likes of that arch-federalist Verhofstadt who wants to bind everyone in more closely still, and thereby dispense with democracy and the nation state altogether?

      You are also very dismissive of those who have years of experience and have witnessed duplicitous politicians continually giving away our birth right. They have seen all this pandering before and it gets the UK nowhere. Making other more junior members of society aware of the dangers of the EU isn’t whinging, it is giving them the benefit of that experience, and helping them to see that to break away from the EU sinking sand that is slowly dragging the United Kingdom under, is the best way to go.

      It isn’t too difficult to see the advantages of leaving the EU, especially if you actually bother to read what is written on these pages. I look forward to the day of your ultimate and inevitable conversion.

      1. Andy
        July 29, 2018

        I do read what is written on these pages. It is largely a work of fiction. No facts, no evidence to back it up.

        It would be a lousy way to run a small business but it is nothing short of a criminal way to run a country.

        Virtually all of the evidence says Brexit will be bad – not just for me and my children but for all of you and all of your children.

        So what do you all do? Dismiss the evidence. The flat Earthers have taken over. (PS – the Earth is actually not flat).

        1. Richard1
          July 29, 2018

          Read Patrick Minford’s papers also roger bootle’s.

          You are old enough to remember that there was the same line up in the early 90s on the ERM and the late 90s on the euro: more or less the whole corporatist ‘centralist’ establishment vs the right wing eurosceptic Conservatives (& a few left wing Mavericks). In retrospect it is clear it was right to stay out of the euro and that John Major – though I supported him at the time and thought he did a good negotiation – should have vetoed the Maastricht treaty. The same vituperation was directed against the (then) small band of Conservative eurospectics as is now directed at the likes of John Redwood and Jacob (His dad William In the old days) Rees-Mogg. It turns out they were right then – are you really so sure they are wrong now?

        2. Edward2
          July 29, 2018

          It isn’t evidence.
          It is just predictions.
          Guesses into the future.
          Made by the same organisations that failed in their predictions for what would happen immediately after the vote day.

        3. Tad Davison
          July 29, 2018

          As I said in the first line of my response to you, ‘By what they say, ye shall know them!’

          Don’t you feel even the slightest bit embarrassed by being so wrong, so often?

    7. Anonymous
      July 29, 2018

      I DON’T belieeeeve it !

    8. hefner
      July 29, 2018

      You know what? I really really want a no-deal Brexit at the end of March 2019. I want the EU to slam the door in our faces. I want to have the big guys in the ERG taking over, and showing all of us not what they could but what they can do.
      Right now, they have had it very easy, they criticize this bit and that bit, they put amendments, they threaten, they tell us JR-M might be 99 and JR 117 by the time the Brexit benefits will become so obvious.
      What are they doing right now, I guess not much, and possibly at the end of the day strictly nothing … which when I think of it is more or less what those among them who had previously been in Government had done at the time.
      So liberate the (creative and otherwise) energy of the Brexiters, go for it! Go for the sunny uplands! The only thing to fear is fear itself (oops, already trademarked).

      1. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Hefner, “Right now, they have had it very easy, they criticize this bit and that bit, they put amendments, they threaten ….” Sounds like Remain; and Remain commenters on here.

      2. Denis Cooper
        July 29, 2018

        “I want the EU to slam the door in our faces.”

        Where in the EU treaties does it say that if a member state decides to leave under a provision in those treaties then the EU is allowed to ignore another provision in its treaties and slam the door in its face?

        http://www.lisbon-treaty.org/wcm/the-lisbon-treaty/treaty-on-european-union-and-comments/title-1-common-provisions/6-article-8.html

        “1. The Union shall develop a special relationship with neighbouring countries, aiming to establish an area of prosperity and good neighbourliness, founded on the values of the Union and characterised by close and peaceful relations based on cooperation.

        2. For the purposes of paragraph 1, the Union may conclude specific agreements with the countries concerned. These agreements may contain reciprocal rights and obligations as well as the possibility of undertaking activities jointly. Their implementation shall be the subject of periodic consultation.”

        Oh, but hang on, as Michel Barnier sees it the EU won’t be able to conclude any neighbourly specific agreements with the UK because when the UK is no longer an EU member state and so subject to EU governance it could not be trusted to keep to any agreement, could it … so the special relationship will be one of mistrust and hostility, by the EU’s choice.

    9. Dave Andrews
      July 29, 2018

      The decision to leave the EU was the result of a democratic referendum.
      In your EU world, the position of PM is just a figurehead, there to carry out the will of Brussels.
      The emancipated slave may find himself economically worse off than his former colleagues, but his freedom is worth far more to him than the brief hardship it is now in his power to overcome, and that’s the way I feel. You may be comfortable in your slavery, I sort of respect that, but this was a decision that had to be made as a collective.
      You could of course emigrate to the EU27, very likely you will be happier there. There’s always Ireland if like most Brits you’re no good at learning a second language.

      1. Anonymous
        July 29, 2018

        More bluntly…

        We were ignored time and again over uncontrolled immigration. What did they expect ?

        The rise of the far right across the Continent makes Brexit look moderate.

      2. Andy
        July 29, 2018

        ‘Emigrate’ is the sort of pathetic comment we expect from Brextremists.

        27% of the population voted for Brexit – and two years on you still don’t even agree what Brexit means.

        You are not a majority. You are a nasty and very dangerous minority.

        1. NickC
          July 29, 2018

          Andy, Less than 25% of the population voted for Remain – and two years on you still don’t even agree what Remain means.

          You are not a majority. You are a nasty and very dangerous minority.

        2. Anonymous
          July 29, 2018

          We do agree what Brexit means. Remainers keep saying that we disagree.

          A) Control of our own laws
          B) Control of our own borders
          C) Control of our own money

          Anything less is not Brexit.

          Disaffection with the EU is not among a fringe but mainstream. That 27% of the population are unhappy enough with the EU to vote against it is a failure.

          That around 75% of the population did not vote in support of the EU is a failure.

          That the EU has the far right on the march on the Continent is a failure.

          The far more moderate Brexit movement could not be ‘dangerous’ if we were only a minority.

          1. Anonymous
            July 29, 2018

            True to EU characteristics there is no give with you Andy. No acknowledgement that the EU needs serious reform and has got things very wrong.

            Such rigidity is brittle and so the cracks are showing.

    10. Glenn Vaughan
      July 29, 2018

      Nurse! Nurse! Andy is out of bed again.

      1. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Glenn, Well at least this time he doesn’t think he’s Napoleon, he has downgraded himself to Prime Minister.

    11. Original Richard
      July 29, 2018

      Andy,

      At least you understand and acknowledge that the EU needs reforming.

      I previously thought that you believed the EU to be perfect.

      So the difference between yourself and those who wish to leave the EU is that the latter do not believe the EU is reformable and no longer wish to be charged a fee of £20bn/year gross (£15bn/year loss of control and £10bn/year net) together with a trading deficit of £80bn/year and increasing massive immigration whilst we try to reform an ever expanding and increasingly anti-democratic EU.

      Whatever damage the EU can inflict upon the UK when it is out of the EU it is nothing to the damage the EU can inflict upon us when we are in the EU and subject to all their rules, laws, directives and regulations.

    12. libertarian
      July 29, 2018

      Andy

      Please dont forget, free unicorns for everyone. Paid holiday 360 days a year, 100% income tax and as much Dutch cheese as you want

    13. mancunius
      July 29, 2018

      And you complain about ‘whining’ and ‘whinging’? Superb irony. That made me chuckle.

    14. Peter Martin
      July 30, 2018

      @ Andy,

      I suppose that you’d want the UK to sign up for the euro and Schengen too? Or are you one of these people who like the idea of the EU providing we don’t have to have too much EU?

      There is an argument for that. To have any real influence in the EU we need to be members to the same extent as France and Germany. The snag is that the euro only works for the big net exporters of Northern Europe and we’ve never been one of those. The economy would slump.

      Good Luck getting your ideas accepted by the UK population!

  8. Mark B
    July 29, 2018

    Good morning

    Is it not worth mentioning that all the while the UK is a member of the EU we are bound to reduce our budget deficits.

  9. alan jutson
    July 29, 2018

    I would just like government policies to be simple, practical and honest.
    Perhaps then with more open and truthful policies, the right people may get elected, and we as a population may truly get what we vote for.

    At the moment have a range of complicated and confused policies by all Parties, on almost everything, that has lead to over complicated and confused legislation in a whole range of departments.

    Just look at our tax, social benefit and welfare systems. who actually fully understands them, certainly not the Government or Opposition, as they all seem to rely upon chosen self serving so called experts to fix the figures, of whatever they want, in their favour, because they are incapable of either understanding or sorting it out with their and in own minds.

  10. Mike Stallard
    July 29, 2018

    Mr Redwood – a personal request for you.
    We both want the UK to leave the EU and we both support Brexit Day on 30/3/19. We both want to leave the Single Market too (EU/EEA).

    How do you feel about remaining in the EEA though? Once we have left the EU, we could join Efta and stay in. I have just read the EEA agreement and the way the Efta three are treated is not only very considerate but vast amounts of the Agreement are devoted to making sure their voice is heard.

    (If anyone on your site would like a copy of my condensed version (11 pages compared with 40), please could they e mail me on stallardmike59@gmail.com? Free delivery!)

    Reply I just want to leave and be self governing

    1. Denis Cooper
      July 29, 2018

      If I were to email Mike Stallard it would only be to ask why he keeps offering the same silly ill-informed time-wasting suggestion again and again, here and elsewhere, and apparently never reads any of the replies that he gets.

    2. acorn
      July 29, 2018

      EFTA is not keen on the UK joining and swamping that little organisation. Neither the EU, nor its current 28 member States, are members of EFTA. To become a member of the EEA after leaving the EU, the UK would first have to negotiate and conclude an accession agreement, to become an EFTA member (art 56(1) of the Convention establishing EFTA).

      The EEA cannot apply to non EU member States, with the exception of the current members of EFTA (art 126(1) EEA). Thus, the UK will have to negotiate an accession treaty to EFTA , with the four members of that organisation: Switzerland and the three EEA EFTA members.

      Once becoming an EFTA member, the UK will then have to negotiate an EEA accession treaty with the 31 members of the EEA: the EU, its 27 member States and the three EEA EFTA members.

      Accession Treaties for EFTA and EEA cannot be signed before Brexit and will take time. Those Treaties would involve ratification by all contracting parties. If an Art 50 Withdrawal Agreement is not agreed (i.e. No-Deal) on future UK-EU relations, WTO rules would apply between the UK and the EU from Brexit day. (Para’d from Jean-Claude Piris)

      1. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Acorn, that is correct. I, and others, keep telling the EEA proponents this but they ignore it. More, since the EEA is the EU’s rules, the EU is not obliged to even offer it to us, even if the UK did re-join the EFTA.

      2. Mark B
        July 29, 2018

        The UK economy is far larger and more important to the rEU27 than the 3 EFTA/EEA member countries. I am sure that an agreement can be reached ad the UK is already an EEA member courtesy of being in the EU. We voted to leave the EU but leaving without having parallel organisations in place is going to cause much difficulty. EEA membership skirt round this problem and allows the UK more time to get its act together.

        1. NickC
          July 29, 2018

          Mark B, We are only in the EEA due to being part of the EU. When we abrogate the EU treaties we will be out of the EEA at the same time. Therefore the process outlined by Acorn is correct.

    3. getahead
      July 29, 2018

      Reply to Reply.
      Which is, despite all the Remain propaganda, what most people want.

  11. William Long
    July 29, 2018

    If May and Hammond are to remain in office, and the Conservative party clearly lacks the will to dislodge them, they must be locked in a room with a copy each of Professor Hayek’s masterpiece, ‘The Road to Serfdom’ and not released until it becomes clear that they understand it and will live by its thesis.
    As things are, we might just as well have Corbyn.

  12. Glenn Vaughan
    July 29, 2018

    We have a high tax and spendthrift socialist government. You’re in the wrong party John.

    1. fedupsoutherner
      July 29, 2018

      @Glenn. Indeed, John must despair at what the Conservative party has become. It bears no resemblance to the party in the Thatcher years or before that.

      1. libertarian
        July 29, 2018

        Thats true JR and one or two others must indeed despair. The trouble is they won’t do anything about it. No-one has the bottle to launch a new free market, localist based iDemocracy party

  13. Freeborn John
    July 29, 2018

    Looks like ‘sideshow John’ Redwood is well and truly back with 9 consecutive posts on irrelevant topics. Not coincidently Theresa May stays in place unchallenged as the recess begins while Hammond and Soubry concentrate 100% on reversing Brexit.

    Reply I set out my views on the Chequers statement and explained it would be rejected by the EU as has happened.No point in going* on about Chequers. Go back to thise posts as they remain an accurate statement of my views on Brexit. The answer is either WTO or a free trade deal.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      July 29, 2018

      Reply to reply
      Unfortunately it’s not enough to make your point and then retreat to the arm chair. Every day, those looking to subvert our democracy are weaseling their way into the minds of the populace with scare stories, and these need to be refuted.

    2. Tad Davison
      July 29, 2018

      Last night, I revisited some very enjoyable and articulate lectures given by Professor Patrick Minford on leaving the EU and trading under WTO rules, and as FDR once said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

      I find it difficult to comprehend that anyone, least of all the chancellor, could not be persuaded by Professor Minford’s arguments – that is, unless they didn’t want to be persuaded.

      JR sets out the legitimate and plausible case for different actions to the ones taken by Mr Hammond. Before the EU referendum, we were told we would have a punishment budget for merely having the temerity to vote a different way to that which George Osborne wanted us to. The sky was going to fall in. Well that clearly hasn’t happened, but maybe Mr Hammond (an arch-remainer himself) might like to make it seem that the UK is doing comparatively badly, and that to do well, we need to think again. If that isn’t the case, then he ought to make way for someone who can make the right call, and preferably a Brexiteer.

      These remainers will stop at nothing, so I wouldn’t put it past him, or any one of them to deliberately slow things down, but in the hope nobody would notice the sleight of hand.

      Tad

      1. Mark B
        July 29, 2018

        Tad

        Professor Mindford is an economist. He sees the EU through the eyes of an economist. The problem is, the EU is not about economics, it is about politics, power and regulation. Not his subjects I am afraid.

        1. Tad Davison
          July 29, 2018

          So……….I can’t see what you’re trying to tell me Mark. With an intellect such as Professor Minford’s, I doubt if the political significance has passed him by.

          Tad

        2. mancunius
          July 29, 2018

          Which is why we need a powerful defence force to dissuade the mediocre desk-jockeys in Brussels from sabre-rattling.

    3. Chris
      July 29, 2018

      Reply to reply:
      the trouble is, Mr Redwood, that May is presenting the Chequers Plan as the plan agreed by all of you (as you have not challenged her effectively), and there is a likelihood that after the initial shock/horror, no, we can’t possible accept that attitude from Brussels that they will start to say that there is some wiggle room and if Mrs May will only concede on a bit more we could have a deal. She will of course concede if past track record anything to go by.

      The huge problem is that the initial Plan, the Chequers Plan, is not Brexit i.e. leaving the EU, and under no circumstances should it have been used as the starting point for these latest negotiations.v

      Reply Untrue. Many Conservative MPs have made clear they do not support the plan! As the EU doesnt either theres not much point in discussing it.

      1. NickC
        July 29, 2018

        Reply to reply: Barnier has stated “Let’s keep in mind that we have already agreed on a large part of this Withdrawal Agreement – more or less 80%.” (facts4eu). The Robbins WP is based on the concessions in the Withdrawal Agreement. So the EU has not rejected the Robbins’ WP in its entirety. Far from it – Mrs May’s capitulations have been banked and the EU is just asking for more.

        1. alan jutson
          July 30, 2018

          Nick C

          Agreed

        2. Chris
          July 30, 2018

          I fear you are right, NickC, and what is worse the Dublin agreement, which the EU definitely “banked”, forms the basis for Robbins’s document/WP. This has all been carefully planned, right under the noses (and apparently with agreement from many) of Tory Brexiter MPs. The Dublin agreement represented a “complete capitulation” and it was left to journalists like Charles Moore to point this out. The Tory Brexiter MPs did not seem to realise the full significance of the Dublin deal and what Theresa May had agreed to hand over. Yes, they complained a bit, but it was nothing of significance, and the May/Robbins policy rolled on, or “evolved” as they euphemistically describe it.

          The Tory Brexiter MPs have only themselves to blame, but their complacence and refusal to acknowledge what Theresa May was actually doing, is having, and will have, enormous and hugely damaging effects on our country. We will have lost our chance to become sovereign again, free from the EU, and able to operate as an independent country again.

      2. Mark B
        July 29, 2018

        Reply to reply

        Many is not ALL and you only point to Conservatives. The majority in the HoC and HoL are for Remain.

      3. Chris
        July 29, 2018

        I remain to be convinced, Mr Redwood.

  14. Denis Cooper
    July 29, 2018

    “The UK economy has the potential to expand at more than 2% per annum”

    I’m not sure that is true, or at least I’m not sure that we can increase the long term growth rate much beyond the averages which have been running during my lifetime.

    As I described in my rather lengthy comment here:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/07/28/raising-productivity-a-policy-all-claim-to-like-in-general/#comment-950745

    since 1948 UK economic growth has averaged 2.55% a year for total GDP and 2.14% a year for per capita GDP, and while annual growth rates have been all over the place, positive and negative, the numbers seem to converge around those long term averages as if there are fundamental historical, societal and geographical factors which act together as a kind of governor preset to give that kind of natural rate of economic development.

    I’m not saying that public policy, including trade policy, makes no difference at all, or that we should be blindly indifferent to potential economic effects, but there does seem to be some kind of inertia so that the overall longer term course of our economic history is little changed by those public policy changes.

    I suppose that if the population was viewed as a single living organism with millions of interacting elements then we could talk about a form of homeostasis:

    https://www.britannica.com/science/homeostasis

    “… any self-regulating process by which biological systems tend to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are optimal for survival …”

    1. Ian wragg
      July 29, 2018

      The USA is growing at 4.5% despite all the prediction of economists.
      Empoyment is the highest in years and many businesses are onshoring. Diametrically opposite policies to what this socialist government is pursuing.

      1. Denis Cooper
        July 29, 2018

        Well, the UK economy has had its spells of high growth as well as its spells of low growth and recession, as can be seen here:

        https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/gdp-growth-annual

        but while that has UK annual growth rate averaging 2.46% from 1956 until 2018, the corresponding chart for the US:

        https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/gdp-growth-annual

        has its annual growth rate averaging 3.20% from 1948 until 2018.

    2. forthurst
      July 29, 2018

      The economy does not exist in isolation; since the war it has been guided by slippery pole climbers with no understanding of how to create the appropriate environment for the encouragement of high added value industries and their retention here. Instead they have created an environment in which spiv accountants can create massive conglomerates in a very short space of time which inevitably become supernovae.

      For decades we had total lawlessness in industrial relations leading to the elimination of large swathes of the engineering industry. Meanwhile British engineers can be found working in the City or for foreign companies either here or abroad. What we have is an economy which is optimised for rentiers not wealth creators.

      Until the FPTP system is replaced with PR, the liblabcon will continue to wreck the potential for prosperity of this country and its people.

      1. Denis Cooper
        July 29, 2018

        There’s a chart here:

        http://www.edmundconway.com/2015/02/the-uk-germany-and-france-gdp-over-history/

        showing estimates of per capita GDP for the UK and the US back to 1850, and the US was doing just a shade better than the UK until WW2, when it seems that the US had a much better war and pushed ahead.

        Picking off numbers, in 1939 the US and the UK were equal with 6560, but by 1945 it was 11709 for the US and only 7056 for the UK.

        That was a ratio of 1.66 in 1945, but during the post-war years the UK has slowly caught up with the US in those terms and by 2010 it had reduced the ratio to 1.28; which works out as the UK enjoying a tiny advantage over the US of about 0.4% a year over those 65 years …

        Both curves show irregularities, usually shared but often with a slight lag, and neither shows any clear effect from UK accession to the EEC or from the later creation of the EU Single Market … I put it like that because the advocates of the EU are always telling us how beneficial it has been for our economy, yet our economy shows no more sign of those supposed benefits of EU membership than does the economy of the US.

        I also note that there has been nothing special about the last two years as far as the UK economy is concerned; the growth rate peaked around 2014, two years before the referendum, and that downwards trend has continued over the two years since the referendum:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/06/19/the-bank-succeeds-in-slowing-money-and-credit-nothing-to-do-with-brexit/#comment-941549

        1. Denis Cooper
          July 31, 2018

          I have worked out the average compound growth rates for per capita GDP over the entire 160 year period from 1850 to 2010, and I find that for the UK it has been 1.46% a year while for the US it has been 1.77% a year. For the UK per capita GDP has risen by a factor of about 10 since 1850 while for the US the factor is a little over 16.

  15. A.Sedgwick
    July 29, 2018

    I find it incomprehensible how the vast majority of Conservative MPs do not realise what a political disaster Mrs. May is. The effect of her time as Home Secretary is now becoming increasingly evident e.g. immigration, lack of police and from the off as PM she has made one disastrous “decision” after another e.g. Hinckley C. With her in charge you could just as easily write about our manned exploration of Mars as developing the economy and improving productivity.

    1. DUNCAN
      July 29, 2018

      I am also intrigued as to why May is still the leader of our party.

      She is without question the most objectionable politician that I ever been exposed to. Corbyn and McDonnell are a real danger and an existential threat to our freedoms and liberties but they do not hide their resentments and intentions. May is on a different level. All three are offensive but May’s duplicity and nefarious persona is off the scale

      What can we deduce from the inability for Tory MPs to remove her? Fear of change? Fear of Boris as leader? Fear of what may come after May?

      I know one thing. Tory voters despise May. They despise her betrayal of our nation. They despise her liberal left politics and the use of race and gender to infect our daily lives. They despise her capitulation.

      My party led by this politician is a TRAVESTY of a biblical proportions

      I will not vote Tory again until this offence to morality, honesty and decency is removed as our leader

      1. hefner
        July 29, 2018

        What can we deduce from the inability of top Brexiters to take charge? Is it their fear of being held fully responsible after 30 March 2019, and not been able to blame Remainers, May, the EU, whatever, for possible failure?

        Two recent books/articles studying the situation over the last few years in the USA (Strangers in Their Own Land, Arlie Hochschild, 2016; Group Identity is All, Amy Chua, 2018) address in an American context questions, which I think, are directly relevant to the present state of the UK and the role of the so-called “movers” in letting things rot. JR-M as head of the UK “Tea Party”?

      2. Stred
        July 29, 2018

        It’s fear the loon would call a general election and blow it, like last time. It’s like having a mad aunt driving the bus with 2/3rds of the passengers thinking she’s a good driver.

    2. Anonymous
      July 29, 2018

      How is Sadiq Khan to blame for knife crime ?

    3. Prigger
      July 29, 2018

      The Chancellor’s attitude in the main is in line with other EU Chancellors.

      He went to France a few months ago to sign his name away on a joint protest by “the important ones” ( Germany France etc ) against tax cuts for workers in the USA. ( He no doubt learned later from Mr Hunt the Foreign Secretary that the USA is not in the EU but in the EAEU )

      Who knows whether the majority of Chancellors of EU nations would have signed it, they were not asked as they are not important from the perspective of “the important ones” )

      The Chancellor is not anti-American, just against their democratically elected leader, tax cuts for workers ( they would only spend it on trinkets ), against their Defence spending when he would need to thermic-lance-open his piggy bank.

    4. Tad Davison
      July 29, 2018

      People, usually professional political commentators, say that they disagree with May, but admire her resilience. I would substitute the word ‘resilience’ for ‘obstinacy’ or maybe even ‘opportunism’.

      She has made the United Kingdom a laughing stock. She’s doing an awful job. The people know she’s doing an awful job, and she cannot possibly be unaware that the people know she is doing an awful job. She is vilified and pilloried, even hated. Her record as Home Secretary was appalling too, and she is mostly responsible for the endemic crime upon our streets. Anyone in her position with a sense of propriety would resign as a matter of principle – but she won’t do that, because she thinks she has both factions, pro and against the EU, leave and remain, under her control to such an extent that no-one dare challenge her.

      So for now, she buys herself a little time, but to what end? To deliver a Brexit in name only, in keeping with her true instincts?

      This nation deserves far better, and we can do far better. The bit I don’t get, is why won’t the Tories give us someone better, rather than useless pro-EU jelly babies in the John Major mould?

      Do they not realise that to keep with May, they are literally gambling with the very future of the Conservative party, and that her continued tenure as Prime Minister poses an existential threat to all who are in it?

      Tad

    5. Chris
      July 29, 2018

      Agreed, AS. It seems to be a case of ordinary people being wiser, better informed and possessing much more common sense than the politicians.

    6. Lifelogic
      July 29, 2018

      Indeed:-

      The government has announced funding for a new spaceport in the north of Scotland, and Cornwall is partnering with Virgin Orbit to launch small satellites from its airport. First launches could be as early as 2021.

      This exciting new development is several years in the making, but for many people outside the space industry it’s raised questions of just what is a spaceport and what exactly does the UK need space for?

      1. Original Richard
        July 29, 2018

        “…and what exactly does the UK need space for ?”

        I believe we need to develop our own version of Galileo as I would not trust the EU27+ with our data or hand Mr.Juncker/Mr.Semayr/Ms Mogherini with the capability of threatening us (as they have been doing recently) with switching us off the system.

        1. Stred
          July 29, 2018

          Galileo is a stationary satellite on an equatorial orbit. The Scottish spaceport is for small satellites going the other way around.

          1. Original Richard
            July 30, 2018

            The GPS satellites circle the Earth at an altitude of about 20,000 km (13,000 miles) and complete two full orbits every day. The GPS satellites are not in a geostationary orbit, but rise and set two times per day.

            Anyway I was answering why we needed “space”.

  16. bigneil
    July 29, 2018

    Is today an all-time record? A reply to their own reply to their own reply to their own comment. I celebrate with a chocolate biscuit and a mug of tea if I get one post on in a week.

    1. Mark B
      July 29, 2018

      Yippie ! I am not alone

    2. Anonymous
      July 29, 2018

      Quality not quantity, bigneil.

      I look forward to the posts of yours that do get through.

      (I value JR’s moderation of me. He usually gets it right.)

  17. fedupsoutherner
    July 29, 2018

    I know I keep saying it but if you read the UKIP manifesto you would think you were reading a Conservative version. Your party has lost its way big time John.

    1. Adam
      July 29, 2018

      UKIP, with Suzanne Evans’ input, developed an intelligent high-quality manifesto. The party could, with proper leadership & organisation, become a fine government worthy of Conservatives’ support.

      1. Hoorah!
        July 29, 2018

        Unfortunately for UKIP their still leading members all want to be Chief Farage excluding the real-thing Farage and have incessant power struggles. Fortunately the British people, who are better.

  18. Match box collector
    July 29, 2018

    Misers often prefer accumulating wealth instead of spending it on a new money box as the first step in really lashing out and investing in a factory producing more money boxes.

  19. hans christian ivers
    July 29, 2018

    JR,

    We are returning your argument about lowering taxes from earlier in the week, where you said they had lowered taxes in the US, France and were planning to do so in Italy.

    The US has faster growth whether this will turn into a lower deficit is still up in the air we will know over 3 to 5 years. In Frane they have lowered some taxes like wealth tax and taxe de habitacion but have increased overall taxes , so the tax burden is till the same and in Italy with 130% government deficit, the tax cuts might not actually not happen.

    I would say your theory has not really been proven as we already have lower taxes than France and Italy and a significant government deficit.

    Reply Clearly my theory says you gave to put through tax cuts to get the extra growth and to choose the right tax cuts to get extra revenue . This worked in the UK with Income tax rates and CGT and is now working in the US with income taxes

  20. GregH
    July 29, 2018

    Let us first of all pay off our debts, eliminate deficits, and then cut back on loans for cars, fancy holidays abroad and other superflous things..we don’t need the economy to grow either..stagnant is ok

    The UK population, especially in parts of England, as others have remarked upon is too much at 60 million..30 million would be enough for the land area we share..we need quality and not quantity..we should look at the old chinese rule..one child per family for the next 50 years

    1. hefner
      July 29, 2018

      The problem I have got with your type of comments is: how would the lucky 30 million be chosen, and whom by? Will you volunteer to let yourself/ child(ren)/ grandchild(ren) know (depending on your present age) that one future child is the state (I guess, imposed) limit? How such likely resultant reduced consumption will play with future GDP (growth?) If you rely on future death/birth rates, how long will it take to get to your optimal balance? If it appears that it might take too long, would you volunteer for euthanasia? or what type of policy will you favour to get rid of the redundant people? Are you a 1984-er or BraveNewWorld-er?

      1. mancunius
        July 29, 2018

        hefner – you’re just replying to a bot who multiposts here daily under a constantly different ID (another such ID further up the page, if you look) who is trying here (very clumsily) to parody and ridicule what he thinks is a right-wing view.

        His timewasting nonsense is not worth addressing.

  21. Denis Cooper
    July 29, 2018

    Apparently the army is on standby to deliver vital supplies across the country while the supermarkets are stockpiling tea and coffee, both silly season news items fed to the media by this government which has now set out to make itself into the enemy of the people, and because this is what a no deal Brexit would actually look like:

    http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/07/27/this-is-what-no-deal-brexit-actually-looks-like

    and it would involve food shortages in this country because our farmers might not be able to export their produce to the EU and the EU would allow and encourage fraudsters to send us illegal and possibly hazardous products and then it would be the UK which was instantly downgraded to pariah status by the EU and the rest of the world for not stopping and inspecting every truck which came across from the EU …

    Some might think that part of the role of the government would be to rebut these false claims and maintain public confidence and calm; but, no, it is exactly the opposite under our present Prime Minister, she is so determined to force through her favourite’s crazy BRINO plan that she is deliberately trying to stir up panic.

    1. NickC
      July 29, 2018

      Denis Cooper, Just as there is no such thing as “No deal” – it is the “WTO deal” – Theresa May’s (actually, Olly Robbins’) WP is not Brexit In Name Only (BINO) but RUAN – Remain Under Another Name.

      1. Denis Cooper
        July 30, 2018

        Thanks for that correction!

    2. Prigger
      July 29, 2018

      I’m not stock-piling, just waiting with my wad of money to take advantage of give-away deals from supermarkets a little later who will have excess stock because of wholesale regular orders already ordered by them much in advance. Of course stockpile shoppers won’t want even more . It is the survival of the fittest. Remoaners are decidedly unfit. The Brexiteer is the future! We should procreate more! I’ll do my bit!

      1. Anonymous
        July 29, 2018

        Still. I don’t fancy my chances scrapping with Shazza and Gazza over the last doughnut in Morrison’s car park.

        I’ve always stockpiled for life’s little hiccups.

      2. Denis Cooper
        July 30, 2018

        In a purely selfish kind of way I could quite look forward to the glut of British meat when our farmers could no longer export any of it … it was beef during the BSE period, we ate a lot more than usual, but in fact the UK is only a net exporters of sheepmeat so that would be in greatest over-supply …

    3. graham1946
      July 29, 2018

      Silly season indeed. What could the army do if no food is coming in? Where will they get it to distribute? If the supermarkets and wholesalers whose business it is could not get things, how would the army? Supermarkets cannot stockpile, their model is just in time. The old cold stores and wartime food warehouses no longer exist. Would the army be employed in supermarkets with machine guns making sure only one loaf at a time is taken? It is ludicrous project fear again. We were told a couple of weeks ago that there would be a constant drip drip feed of this stuff in order to destabilise Brexit. The government must be encouraging it as no minister ever says its isn’t so. The first casualty of any such problem would be Ireland. They would be finished in a week if their exports to the UK was stopped.

  22. Javelin
    July 29, 2018

    Conservatives could have cut taxes but Blair opened the door to millions of net tax consumers. The Conservatives have done very little to stop this, because they would rather virtue signal than create growth.

    One day the penny will drop.

  23. Denis Cooper
    July 29, 2018

    Well, I’ve sent a little message to all the major supermarket chains, as follows:

    “I was concerned to read in this article:

    http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2018/07/27/this-is-what-no-deal-brexit-actually-looks-like

    that after we leave the EU supermarkets such as XXX may accept much lower standards on food imported from the EU.

    “Overnight, there would be no protections whatsoever for UK consumers on the food they eat.

    This would be a betrayal of ministers’ assurances of high food standards after Brexit … Opening the border in this way would provide an open invitation for fraudsters. They could send anything to the UK they like – any food product, any drink, with any ingredient – knowing there would be no checks. The spot check system operating under EU law would vanish. There would be no documentation, no safeguards, no court oversight, and no supervision.”

    Please reassure me that XXX will not under any circumstances accept any such departures from existing EU standards by its suppliers, and preferably issue a public statement denying the possibility.”

    So it will be interesting to see what responses I get, if any.

    Maybe they will all be quite content to be used in a scaremongering campaign.

    1. Chris
      July 29, 2018

      I wonder who leaked these plans. More ridiculous scaremongering with regard to Brexit: army deployment, food, medicine, blood, fuel. What next? Theresa May has not rebutted this so does that indicate that she approves of the leak/doom-mongering?

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6003837/Plans-drawn-troops-deliver-food-Britain-leaves-EU-without-deal.html
      Army on standby for Brexit chaos: Troops will deliver food, medicine and fuel if Britain crashes out of EU without a deal as supermarkets issue warning to stockpile essential items
      •Plans have been drawn up to use helicopters and trucks to deliver supplies
      •The revelation will provoke fresh claims from Brexiteers of ‘scaremongering’
      •Supermarket have warned suppliers to start stockpiling fuel, food and medicine
      • Brexit secretary Dominic Raab insisted there would be adequate food supplies

      1. Denis Cooper
        July 30, 2018

        I can no longer express my true opinion of Theresa May in terms which would be fit for publication here or in any other decent place.

        1. Chris
          July 30, 2018

          That is precisely what I feel, Denis. Yet everything carries on as normal, and the MPs go on their holidays leaving the White Paper in place, the WP which they are so verbal about. Action is the evidence that is required, not verbal utterances/protestations. Nothing less will convince betrayed voters.

    2. Original Richard
      July 29, 2018

      We’re less open to EU fraudsters after Brexit than now.

      Do we really think the EU national governments are carefully controlling the food they export to us ?

      And membership of the EU didn’t stop us falling victim to the German diesel emissions testing fraud.

      But it did stop us demanding our consumers were paid compensation as they were is the USA.

      1. Chris
        July 30, 2018

        …and apparently the vacuum cleaner fraud. How many others? Man made global warming is probably the biggest.

    3. Sir Joe Soap
      July 29, 2018

      Goodness, these people inhabit a completely different planet.

      This chap’s thesis is that major supermarkets will close through either having no food to sell or placing poisonous food on their shelves! Simultaneously our EU suppliers will all go bust because nobody will pay for rotten meat sitting in lorries at Calais!

      We really need to contradict this rot. It’s like millenium bug gone crazy.

  24. margaret
    July 29, 2018

    Oh John we all want to be free. We can see what a line of thought and potential actions can do , we know that total freedom does not exist.I have just been to Ikea and I couldn’t even understand the English new way of speaking never mind all the other languages bounding about. This new way of cutting all ‘t’s out offends me ( but I will be in the minority and language evolves), this new way of saying’ summit’ instead of ‘something’ make me cringe . I was brought up in Manchester and my generation always said’something’. I want my freedom to’ be’ but I don’t want to join this lot and call it freedom.

    1. margaret
      July 29, 2018

      I realise you are talking about self rule , but even the law and law makers put money as the divide between types.

  25. Chris
    July 29, 2018

    Do a President Trump on the economy:

    “…The US GDP for the second quarter accelerated to a whopping 4.1% under the leadership of President Donald Trump.

    This is another BIG Trump win.
    This doubles the first quarter growth of 2.2%….”
    Source Gateway Pundit

    1. Hoorah!
      July 29, 2018

      Chris
      Trump’s really good news
      All this happens and continues to happen with the democratic Party saying there would be nuclear war with N. Korea, big sanctions imposed on all the world including China
      The US stock market and everything else continues to climb into the positive.
      Just think what happens when he reaches deals and the sanctions and counter-sanctions are removed!!!
      BOOM!!!!

  26. DUNCAN
    July 29, 2018

    Less unproductive, parasitic public sector spending (political spending equals waste and abuse of the taxpayer for political ends) and more incentives for the productive and private sector investment

    More self-financing economic activity
    Less parasitic public sector activity

    Stop abusing the productive to finance the politically controlled and unproductive public sector

  27. Hoorah!
    July 29, 2018

    USA elections will mostly be held 6th November.
    All 435 seats in the House of Representatives plus 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate will be contested.
    Trump is predicted to win. This will increase his strength with more nudge power on Brussels and hopefully our Chancellor who by then will have finally got it where the wind is blowing and cheery weather is well on the way.

  28. Ken moore
    July 30, 2018

    JR ‘cutting back on car loans’…desperate stuff if we neeed to make the car loan bubble even bigger just to get growth. Perhaps we need to start judging people on who they are rather than what they own?. This economic model of relying on consumer spending and the housibg market to achieve growth is bonkers

    1. Ken moore
      July 30, 2018

      …and low wage service jobs. The rent on a smallish shop is £48,000 a year in York…plus £19,000 business rates..thats before any staff or stock has been bought. Then the council are surprised half of the shops are empty!

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