This will be part of what I say today at the Politeia meeting at Conference:
As we leave the EU it falls to the Conservative party to set out a new vision for our country.
We voted leave to belong to a confident outward looking UK, trading with the whole world, with friends in all continents.
We voted leave to spend our own money on our priorities. The Ā£39bn we save if we just leave in March 2019 can provide a great boost to our public services, and to take home pay from suitable tax cuts
We voted leave to limit the numbers coming to our country, to create more better paid jobs for those already settled here
We voted leave to take back control of our fishing grounds and our farms, so we can produce more of our own food, cutting food miles and the import bills
We voted leave to make our own laws, so we can have high standards in areas like employment where that matters, and business friendly approaches where we need to boost enterprise and encourage more small businesses
The Conservative government needs to set out an agenda to modernise government. Applying new technology can raise standards of service and cut costs. Buying the best from the UK when we no longer have to apply EU procurement rules can lead to partnerships between government and business at home that are mutually beneficial. Pursuing the agenda of educational reform to raise standards and widen opportunity is crucial.
The Conservative party should be the party of higher pay and lower taxes.
Higher pay comes from working smarter. That requires more training, more support and more career progression for the many.
Our educational revolution has to equip and energise people to set up their own businesses or to promote the best interests of the customers of the company they work for.
Higher pay comes from harnessing modern technology, excellence in customer service, and high performance from well trained people supported by excellent machinery and artificial intelligence back up.
All this is so much easier if we take back control next March and free our budget to get on with stimulating our economy.
October 2, 2018
You have not found Ā£39 billion down the back of the sofa . That is money we had that you lost . We already had high standards of employment , that is why the Unions wanted us to stay in the EU. High pay ? You have had years and pay has gone backwards.
What an abysmal choice . Dumb or dumber
October 3, 2018
No. We don’t have Ā£39bn down the back of the sofa… but you’re still happy to give it to the EU every year !
October 3, 2018
The most successful* of unions (the RMT and ASLEF) told their members to vote Leave.
*Depending on what you think of them.
October 3, 2018
Newmania
Most of the Unions supported Leave
There are still countries in the EU with no minimum wage
Whilst being in the EU wages have slowed and productivity has dropped
Luckily those small businesses who DO NOT trade with the EU have managed to add 3 million new jobs to the economy
October 2, 2018
Part of what is put forward in this speech previes doesnāt depend on EU membership or Brexit.
But Brexit might just have another end-game than suggested in the speech:
* May survives.
* A max 21 month implementation period as the EU doesnāt accept a longer one.
* During that period a Norway/BRINO option – but enabling the UK to start trying its own trade deals.
* A mutual give and take climb-down on the Irish no-border issue.
* After 21 month a Canada like FTA. Nothing super.
October 3, 2018
Certainly during the “implementation” period the UK needs to be able to negotiate and sign trade deals that come in to play at the end of this transition time.
Unfortunately I think May will survive because the logical alternative Boris is too “Marmite” for many š
Not sure that Norway is achievable because of the way EEA is setup/structured. Canada or Canada ++ will do.
October 2, 2018
Iām in Birmingham. Hope to go to the meeting tonight. An impressive panel. I think a very good attendance is guaranteed.
October 2, 2018
Indeed and the way to higher pay and lower taxes is clearly to have smaller government, freedom of choice with our own money, cheap reliable energy, simpler taxes, quality only immigration and a bonfire of red tape.
But what we have from May and Hammond is the complete opposite.
āI will maintain enough fiscal firepower to support our economy if that (no deal) happensā and āThe Conservative Party is, and always will be, the party of businessā said Hammond yesterday. But May and Hammond are profoundly anti-business in every action they take. The last thing the economy needs is more fiscal firepower from an economic fool like tax and regulate to death Hammond.
He is perhaps not quite as bad as the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, whoās declared aim in life is āfomenting the overthrow of capitalismā. But basically Hammond and May are on exactly the same anti-business and ever more government, tax and regulaltion track.
Please get rid before we get Mc Donnall and Corbyn.
October 2, 2018
Fine words but I feel it will never come to pass.
PAYE serfs are too easy a target when government needs to raise money.
Child benefit clawed back through taxes.
Personal allowance removed from high earners
Additional rates of tax for high earners.
Fiscal drag on leaving thresholds unchanged (personal allowance withdrawal, child benefit removal, higher rate threshold, top rate threshold). These catch more and more taxpayers when they are not raised proportionatly.
PAYE upper earnings limits raised to collect the money released to top rate taxpayers when the thresholds were eventually raised.
(Perceived) high earners are too easy a political target for politicians, the tax ’em til the pips squeak mentality prevails n society and politicians will pander to this when raising taxes. PAYE serfs are easy fodder.
That is not to mention stamp duty and capital gains rates being set at politically punitive rather than revenue raising levels.
October 3, 2018
NI upper earnings limits
October 2, 2018
Far too much focus on the economy and not enough on our party’s disgraceful and unacceptable embracing and enthusiastic adoption of liberal left, identity politics and the politicisation of the British people. This reeks of a political party or certainly its leadership that is intent on social control and social engineering using oppressive laws, diktats and a liberal left State that is determined to impose its fascist will on those of us who are now portrayed as the threat.
Yes, we want the UK out of the EU. Yes, we want absolute control of our laws, money and borders. Yes, we want the democratic will of the people applied in full and shown respect but what I would like to see is the absolute de-politicisation of human relationships that liberal left politics as imposed upon the country
A return to the politics of individualism and the private and a rejection of social group politics, victim based politics and faux-grievance politics designed to ‘incarcerate’ certain people.
May’s appalling adoption of Labour’s liberal left fascism is without question one of the most shameful periods in Tory party history
I cannot begin to express my contempt for the current leadership of a party that I have voted for all my adult life and I’m still under 50 years of age
October 2, 2018
The Withdrawal Agreement keeps us tied to EU procurement rules.
October 2, 2018
In fact almost everything you mention is banned under the Withdrawal Agreement and May was on television this morning trying to defend the indefensible.
No more huge payments to Brussels just large annual payments in exchange for trade.
Remind me again how much does Canada pay for a FTA.
October 2, 2018
I see that almost no one wanted to see the Party Chairman, Brandon Lewis session yesterday (perhaps 30 or so from the pictures and most of them mandated to be there or doing their jobs one assumes). Hardly surprising, what a misguided and tedious, vacuous bore he is. Mayās choice one assumes, he right up her street.
Yet Mogg has them queueing round the block and we have Boris today.
October 2, 2018
Is this the “technology” that led to countless delegates having their private details on public show and meant that there was no functioning wifi for journalists? You Tories are all bluff and bluster
October 2, 2018
Sir Bill Cashās conclusion in his excellent paper.
Conclusion
Wake up Britain and wake up the Conservative Party. The EU have rejected Chequers. Chequers is dead and should never have been born because it is undemocratic and inconsistent with the referendum vote. If the government continues to pursue Chequers, the UK will be reabsorbed into this authoritarian EU in dangerous respects. We will also be subjected to its undemocratic machinery of majority voting by the 27 Member States and legal interpretations by the ECJ behind closed doors in critical areas of our trading relationships. By maintaining the Chequers plan we would transmute the gold of our own democracy into the base metal of EU subservience, a perverse alchemy.
https://europeanfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Why-the-Chequers-Plan-is-bad-for-the-UK-and-Defies-the-Referendum-Vote-to-Leave-the-EU.pdf
Exactly we must chuck chequers and chuck May & Hammond too. They are complete electoral, political and economic liabilities.
October 2, 2018
Higher pay isn’t going to help British industry compete globally.
What is needed to make people better off is a reduction in housing costs.
What is the point of having more pay if it is just gobbled up by increased rent?
Then there’s the upward pressure on council tax to pay for increasing adult care costs.
It’s not that pay isn’t high enough, it’s the cost of living that’s the problem.
October 2, 2018
Thanks for your vision John.
Its the sort of speech The present Chancellor should have given yesterday, instead we got no vision at all from him.
He said he backed business, but his policies to date have just landed them with additional costs and taxes.
He said he loved invention and progress, but only after trying to tax and control the self employed.
Not a single idea of a forward looking policy, and not a hint of anything good and positive which may be in next months budget.
A deadpan speech from a deadpan Chancellor.
Sadly our Prime Minister does not have much vision either, so they are probably suited to each other.
Having set out a plan which keeps us in the EU in all but name, and worse than WTO terms, she it would seem is prepared to make further concessions to the EU.
If we sign up to a form of Chequers then the EU will continue to be a festering sore that will be picked over within the Conservative Party for the next 20 years.
Time for them both to go.
October 2, 2018
I agree. Unfortunately you have, in Mrs May, a party leader who appears to lack the imagination to think this up for herself or to articulate it to the world at large. She also seems completely oblivious to the Law of Intended Consequences as is all too evident in her Chequer’s proposals.
October 2, 2018
The Conservatives are doing very well on education locally. Rubbish schools are now transformed. There seem to be less down and outs. More people have some kind of job – easy to sniff if you have never been out of work. Things are going well.
Well done!
Shame that on 30.3.19 we are going to crash heartily as every single one of the points made so clearly in the Advice to Stakeholders comes to pass. On October 11th there is the Council meeting which will cement Brexit and make a hard Brexit inevitable.
Moderate this out as much as you please: it is going to happen.
Unlessā¦
October 4, 2018
Mike
I agree. But it is too late now. It is Chequers Plus or WTO.
October 2, 2018
All good ideas but you represent a left of centre Tory Party. High tax, mass immigration, high regulatory control of free speech, vast foreign aid budget, bigger than the Police budget for England and Wales. Cutting military spending whilst upping EU aid. The majority of the Tory Party are in favour of remaining and openly demanding a second referendum until we vote the right way. Your party have lost the trust of the people and need to go so we can vote for a Brexit candidate in every constituency!!! Who can trust your party any longer?
October 2, 2018
Excellent comments and then I hear that taxes will rise to pay for the NHS and then I despair when I hear from an insider about a grossly inefficient Trust nearby. Government waste, inefficiency and stultifying beauracracy are millstones round the countryās neck.
Sock it to āem JR and have a great day.
October 2, 2018
John, you simply highlight that this is not what mainstream Conservative MPs are calling for.
October 2, 2018
Intelligent content, worthy of full support.
October 2, 2018
Ps. The word is that TM is going to sell out by keeping us in the customs union. How much more do we have to take/you are going to accept?
October 2, 2018
On āhigher standardsā, you should make more of the EUās generally poorer food hygiene and safety standards (or outcomes at least). Irish horse meat, Continental toxic eggs, infected pig meat in sausages and bagged chlorine-washed salads have all come into Britain courtesy of the EU.
October 2, 2018
‘Higher pay comes from working smarter’. Not in the unionised public sector it doesn’t. As a State employee you enjoy levels of employment remuneration that the equivalent private sector worker can only dream of.
In the public sector higher pay comes from continual threats of strike action from monopolistic unions who spend all their time fighting reform, fighting against methods to work smarter and indulging in propaganda directed at how Tory governments are evil and exploitative. And Tory MPs simply capitulate to this campaign because it’s easier to transfer the cost to the taxpayer rather than suffer a few critical headlines in the liberal left press
We want reform. We want reform of the public sector. We want the dismantling of Labour’s client state and the purging of all its placemen and place-women that now populate all aspects of the State
The taxpayer doesn’t exist to finance Labour’s client state and all the juicy benefits that now come from public sector employment while the private sector is kicked repeatedly simply because kicking it is politically advantageous without downside
October 2, 2018
You are assuming that we will leave the EU, but as each day passes my suspicion that this will never happen is increasing. I suspect that we will have an agreement that will leave us in the EU in everything except name.
I no longer trust the PM to deliver Brexit.
October 3, 2018
She will and is unable to save you from yourself, isn’t that clear by now? The UK will end up with either a difficult (at least the transition) no deal/no withdrawal agreement result or a result that will turn out to be unstable and will require constant renegotiation. That constant renegotiation is lethal for foreign direct investment and likely to drive the car industry (96% foreign owned and heavily dependent on exports for scale) away. If on top of that a US trade agreement (as people who follow the pareliamentary process around NAFTA (a high priority trade deal for the US) , know, Congress is the bottleneck and Congress has no space for more approvals for quite a while) is discussed but not concluded, involving ever increasing US agriculture demands, the farm sector will be in an even more difficult planning environment. Not hard to see, I guess. All of this thanks to a few irresponsible egomaniacs preying on the ignorant.
October 2, 2018
I note the words “take back control” – so the Common Agricultural Policy becomes the British Agricultural Policy.
No wonder Mr Corbyn looks happy – lots more state control. The market will continue to be rigged to keep food prices up.
October 2, 2018
JR
This assumes a dividend with leaving the EU and you have not proven that this will be the case, it will mot likely cost the country much more than Ā£39 billion you believe we will be saving by not paying not paying to the EU Even, if we have already committed
No, I am sorry I do not share nor see the vision you have projected
October 3, 2018
hans
“No, I am sorry I do not share nor see the vision you have projected”
Thats good because you’re wrong about most things going forward
October 4, 2018
Libertarian,
That makes two of us, so it is nice to be in good company
October 2, 2018
Good for you, I could not agree more. The question to be asked is why are you not allowed to deliver this to the body of the main conference. What are they afraid of. It is because you and the likes of Boris and Rees-Mogg are denied a voice on the main platform that I hold those who are running the conference, including the PM, in the greatest suspicion. It shows a great lack of confidence in their own version of events. It is not a matter of lack of space because they manage to fill the gaps with many of monosyllabic, uninspiring, modes of presentation.
October 2, 2018
As regards Conference, it seems nothing will happen to Chequers or May. Boris scathing criticism has been fended off.
October 3, 2018
Boris,
Second rate speech at the conference was well delivered, but that does not mean it had any content because it did not
October 3, 2018
chi
No content ?
Contained rather more than Hammond, and summed up our present position with the EU very well I thought.
Some historical facts, and some vision of a future.
Lets wait and see how it compares to Mrs may shall we !.
October 3, 2018
Lifelogic,
I am not sure whom I think is less impressive or the DUP leader?
October 3, 2018
Alan,
Do you always set your expectations at this low a level?
October 3, 2018
hans
ha ha ha ha , No content… OK if you say so smh
October 2, 2018
If only that was what the PM was saying John. Hammond’s smirk couldn’t get much bigger but might match his ego soon.
Please God, that Mrs May sees some sense in what you and others are saying.
October 2, 2018
We would work with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, says DUP leader, as she praises his ‘positive’ Brexit vision.
Great please just get on with it. May is very likely to lead to defeat, a deranged and hugely damaging Brexit deal, lots of lost Tory seats and a dire Corbyn/Mc Donnall/ SNP Venezuela disaster. What more incentives do Tory MPs need to ditch her and the grim reaper Hammond?
October 2, 2018
Perhaps also mention? If Tory MPs fail to deliver a proper brexit, free of all EU controls, as a party of government you stand to be permanently destroyed at the next general election, by enough Leave voters willing and ready to exact their revenge.
October 2, 2018
But we are not leaving the EU – at least not in the way she said in her Mansion House speech:-
‘First, the agreement we reach with the EU must respect the referendum. It was a vote to take control of our borders, laws and money……’
Her latest concession appears to have us continue to be bound by the EU rules etc when we try to negotiate our own trade deals around the World.
What is wrong with this women? Does she not know the meanings of the words in her Chequers Agreement (which the EU has not approved) and how they do not fit in any way with her statement above?
With regard to her No. 10 advisers and the sycophant members of her Cabinet, I am reminded of the adage – knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit cocktail!
At least Dick Turpin wore a mask.
October 2, 2018
What vapid nonsense this is, utterly devoid of content. If politicians were paid based on working smarter they would be in the poor house.
Try getting a job in the real world outside London for a while. Then you might regain some link with reality.
October 2, 2018
JR, Theresa May is now daring you and your friends to sack her.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/may-agrees-curbs-on-trade-to-break-brexit-deadlock-37j2jjs9g
“May agrees curbs on trade to break Brexit deadlock”
“Britain prepared to stay in customs union until deal struck over Irish border”
“Theresa May is preparing to limit Britainās ability to strike free-trade deals after Brexit in a significant concession to the European Union aimed at breaking the deadlock in negotiations.
The prime minister is ready to propose a āgrand bargainā, according to her colleagues, which would keep Britain tied to European customs rules on goods after the transition period ends in December 2020.
No 10 will claim that the UK has left the customs union at this point, but by keeping key rules the ability to agree trade deals would be curtailed for many years. Britain would also accept demands that goods entering Northern Ireland from Britain must meet European standards, with the potential for checks in the Irish Sea.
Downing Street hopes that the concessions ā¦ ”
So can we expect several cabinet resignations, starting with Liam Fox?
October 2, 2018
Later in the article:
“Under the government proposals the arrangement would end only when a mutually acceptable technological solution to the Irish border issue was found.”
Well, that could be never, given the stated position of the Irish government:
https://news.sky.com/video/is-the-norway-sweden-border-a-solution-for-ireland-11141058
From 30 seconds in, the Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar robotically intoning:
“No hard border, no physical infrastructure on the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland.”
From 3 minutes 3 seconds in, their Europe Minister Helen McEntee propounding their absurd, extreme and intransigent doctrine:
āWe have been very very clear from day one, there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland, it is not an option for usā.
And even further, the Foreign Minister ruling out the use of drones:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/05/13/technology-at-the-border/#comment-934809
“The Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney was interviewed on the BBC Andrew Marr programme this morning and he not only reiterated his governmentās implacable opposition to any kind of physical infrastructure on the ground at the border, he went even further than usual and explicitly rejected the use of drones.
If that aerial gambit goes unanswered by the UK government then I expect next stage for the Irish government and the EU will be rejection of the use of satellite observations or GPS tracking.
In other words, all the methods of surveillance which might be available to the state authorities on both sides of the border to investigate and control criminal activities will be totally prohibited in some potentially lawless zone of unspecified width around the border.”
So basically those who objected to rule from Brussels – of course Theresa May was never one of them – will now get supreme rule from Dublin.
October 2, 2018
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/pressure-builds-on-may-to-present-her-brexit-border-plan-1.3648155
“Pressure builds on May to present her Brexit border plan”
“EU negotiators work on softening ābackstopā plan to give political cover for compromise”
[Read “surrender” for “compromise”.]
“Two weeks. That is the time the UK has to present its own guarantee to avoid a hard Irish border and prevent negotiations slipping to a crunch EU summit in November and ever closer to a hard Brexit.”
Well, of course it was in her quietly treacherous Mansion House speech of March 2nd 2018 that Theresa May gratuitously accepted responsibility for ensuring that the EU and the Irish government would not create a so-called “hard border” on their side, basically agreeing that they should be able to hold us to ransom and impose their will upon us:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-our-future-economic-partnership-with-the-european-union
“We have been clear all along that we donāt want to go back to a hard border in Ireland. We have ruled out any physical infrastructure at the border, or any related checks and controls.
But it is not good enough to say, āWe wonāt introduce a hard border; if the EU forces Ireland to do it, thatās down to themā. We chose to leave; we have a responsibility to help find a solution.”
And being on their side she will allow them to be the judges of whether her plan to stop them being damn stupid is good enough.
October 2, 2018
Yes..all of that but what is being said at the conference ( as reported in Times) surely means that we are NOT leaving. Feeling most betrayed and unhappy!!
October 2, 2018
John, I wish you were in charge. We seem to have a Government that would rather give our money away to foreign entities. We want our money spent on our people. We want training for proper jobs for our people. We want jobs for the towns rather than just the cities, particularly in the north of the country. We want more money spent on law and order. We want fairer housing policies. We want a proper BREXIT.
October 2, 2018
I believe Mr Hammond intends to raise tax to pay for increased spending in the NHS.
October 2, 2018
Once again I see the PM has saved Gerald Scarfe much artistic effort. She really needs a wardrobe assistant.
October 2, 2018
When Churchill switched the Royal Navy from burning coal to oil, there was a need for a supply of oil. This was achieved by the British state linking up with, first D’Arcy , an Australian gold prospector who struck it rich, who bought the Persian oil prospecting rights, and when that became too much, the British state brought Burma oil into mix, this beginning developed into BP.
What I am saying is that though there is a need to have to right tax and economic conditions for industry to develop, there is also a need to some state direction. We did it, Germany has done it, Japan has done it, South Korea has done it. But we, following the disastrous post war nationalisation, seem to have forgotten about it. Its not about the state owning and running industries, but the state bringing together resources of universities, industries, capital , etc to act as a catalyst to develop new industries. We are told that robotics will make a lot of us redundant, we are also told that we need cheap labour for agriculture. Cheap labour that is unsustainable. So you might have thought the State would see a need to bring the demand for crop picking and robotics together to solve a national need, while developing a new industry at the same time. But if they are I haven’t noticed it. We are though supporting foreign industry with our Aid budget, even pop stars like the Ethiopian Spice Girls. So why can’t we do it here?
October 3, 2018
Have a look at Innovate UK, it’s Knowledge Transfer Network and Catapult programmes, the Faraday battery challenge.
October 2, 2018
Mr Redwood,
Your vision entails building a different sort of economy. As you know, that will take time and may be quite costly (redundancies, retraining, transportation infrastructure, etc. Maybe that will result in better economic performance, if the UK does this significantly better than other countries (naturally, the only way forward for a white collar educated community) which is far from certain, given certain constraints.
But lower taxation in a country already heavilyy indebted and having a substantial trade deficit can only be achieved (in the short, ie relevcant term) by lowering expenditure. Defitit financing under the UK’s circumstances will not be appreciated by the markets.
October 3, 2018
Rien
You hit the remainer problem squarely on the head. You all live in the past. Fixated on what is there now. ALL things evolve, they evolve without government, bureaucrats or politicians. The task is to adapt to the future. The EU response is to attempt to ban the future, its why 90% of growth is now outside the EU.
If you think lower taxes will make the markets unappreciative you are deluded.
Its called RISK , Rien, its what those of us with skin in the game handle when we attempt to invent the future
October 3, 2018
Heroic but not wise.
October 4, 2018
Rien
Yes because staying locked in the past and hanging on to what you’ve got always worked well…. oh hang on !!!
Failure to adapt is the biggest cause of failure
October 2, 2018
Good morning
This is a joke, right ? Because no one believes this anymore.
October 2, 2018
The Tory conference is a complete humiliation to any proper Conservative. A stream of identikit non-entity ministers addressing a largely empty room with pointless policies. The few seats that are taken are filled mainly with dozing old white men, with a couple of eager posh, privileged, public schoolboys in ill-fitting suits taking the rest. Beyond ranting there are no answers to the Brexit incoherence this party has inflicted on the country.
To think the great pro-European party of Churchill and Thatcher has been reduced to this embarrassing angry rump of raging economic illiterates. If you want a nasty failed party of the right the UKIP conference was two weeks ago.
October 3, 2018
Andy
Whoops Churchill was a pensioner when he saved the country, & Thatcher in her 50’s when she saved the country for a second time
So trust in the pensioners to save the country for a third time
ps You forgot that you told us your kids go to public schools ….lol
October 4, 2018
Libertarian
You are back with your personal attacks not a good idea
October 2, 2018
Well then looks like none of what you voted for is going to happen..what you repeat time after time is not going to happen..some think it would be nice..until reality bites home
Problem is the leadership in Britain is not there anymore, when we have another foreign secretary comparing the EU to the soviet union..my oh my!..the mind boggles..so you see You, your good self, IDS of bavarian car workers fame, Dr Fox and Gove have become a big joke in brussels..not to mention the other half-wit Boris with his bicycle clips..the EU will run rings around you and at the end of the day you will have no choice now but to accept whatever is offered. Shame really and could have been so much different if only you had behaved yourselves.. so now watch out for barnier and junker..they are only warming up.
October 2, 2018
What a loada bunkum..pied piper stuff
October 2, 2018
Cannot see much chance of hanging on to the Ā£39bn as Mrs May and her cohorts seem determined to get some, or indeed any, sort of deal so that we have to pay it.
Do we also pay the regular amount of around Ā£10bn per year for the so-called transition period? I guess the rebate for 2020 will be forfeited as this is normally deducted from the following year’s payment. Just another Ā£25bn. but hey, what does that matter to a Chancellor who is happy to tax us more.
October 2, 2018
John, you are a Conservative. The problem is, many MPS in your party including May aren’t!!
October 2, 2018
John, Why aren’t social landlords, housing associations etc. making sufficient funds and landlords to build? If rents are subsidised by the taxpayer then what are they spending the money on? Just themselves the staff and Management teams and their pensions and providing happy work offices for them? If they’re profit-free organisations how much are they taking out of the pot in full remuneration packages and office costs and how does this compare to private landlords with big property portfolios running costs?
Social landlords should be looking at the needs of London and other main Cities transient workforce where graduate recruitment is high and we need to provide single rooms with a shower room for around Ā£550 per month plus bills and a double room for Ā£1100 per month with double the sq foot of room to accommodate two renters together. If you could so that as a social project it would leave the worker with enough spare resources to save for a deposit to invest in their own properties after a few years, people could upsize and you could provide more collegiate style living for people who don’t go to University but would like to move say from the North East to London to undertake good training courses.
We need to really look at how we build social housing too, there are many 2 and 3 bedroomed homes that could be increased in size at low cost, private landlords do it why don’t social landlords and take all of these big families out of extortionately priced large private homes, no one should overly profit from having over three children, then the money you save from that bill could be reallocated to do up old neglected housing stock and repurpose office buildings that have been empty for over ten years!
October 2, 2018
I don’t think this Government does want to help small businesses, you allocate government contracts to just one large provider and they strip down the prices that each small business was charging that establishment individually that enabled them to pay secure good wages and pensions and training and expect them to do it at cost so the big company can make the profit and save a few pennies to the government contractor, in the past two years this is happening more and more. You’ll reap what you so and Brexit will be blamed when it is your Governments actions.
October 2, 2018
sew
October 2, 2018
I think it is good to remind the government of the many reasons we voted to leave
Based on solid values that underpin our democracy
October 2, 2018
Thank you John. Let’s keep the pint half-full and let Remainers bemoan their half-empty glasses.
October 2, 2018
Jeremy Hunts EU comparison with Soviet Union is not only absurd it is gratuitously insulting to our neighbours..as our new foreign secretary and the government will see very soon..not very smart
October 2, 2018
Laudable, but when will you have a leader that listens? You all apparently support her, so I suggest your list is wishful thinking. A huge tragedy. Your input and talent could be used to huge advantage in our government.
October 2, 2018
Why is Theresa May being allowed to do this? A headline from D Express:
Brexit LIVE: Theresa May to DELAY Brexit with major EU concession that BLOCKS trade deals
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1025536/brexit-news-latest-update-theresa-may-EU-trade-deal-conservative-conference
October 2, 2018
How about the party of capitalism, the people have never had one before, or it will be Marxism which your party and the country are nearer to than capitalism.
October 2, 2018
I forgot your party cannot do capitalism because do not know what it is.
October 2, 2018
Sorry to be so cynical – but, we’ve heard it all before. And taxes go up and the size of government goes up and service provision gets less. One wonders where it all ends. Glad I’m old.
I have been a keen Leave supporter for years. Primarily because I have always felt the EU is undemocratic. No-one can vote out the EU ‘government’ in an election.
I have just changed, on balance, to Remain. Why? Because I have no faith in this government – or the one in waiting. The negotiations have been little more than a farce with industry so uncertain of the outcome that Toyota and BMW are going to move production into the EU and close their UK plants. If we’d come up with something – anything – they could plan but, here we are, two years on and we have the square root of nothing.
Much more of this farce and you’ll have people marching in the streets to overturn the referendum result and, now, I think I’d agree with them. We voted to Leave assuming our government would do it competently. You haven’t. We should give it up and accept our government is not up to the job of governing.
October 3, 2018
What a defeatist attitude, imho, the farce as you put it, has been a deliberate ploy by government along with project fear to make leaving look far too complicated and detrimental to our future in order to persuade us to change our minds and ask for another referendum, rest assured if they think they have turned the tide in favour of remain they will go for one.
October 2, 2018
A refreshingly attractive vision that alas offers a stark contrast to the actual offering, one that at a macro level compromises our liberation by shackling us to the increasingly moribund Evil Empire and at the micro level takes such action (doubtless really important and long overdue) as ensuring waiters’ tips are not snaffled by restaurateurs and property-buying foreigners are stung for even more stamp duty.
I am clear which choice would see my vote withheld.
October 2, 2018
Fine words, Mr Redwood.
Sadly, the Conservative Party is being poisoned by your leadership.
We hear that eu free movement will end. Then, we are told that this will be replaced by a mutual “mobility” arrangement. What’s the difference?
We are being treated like idiots and this is undermining your party. Where is the respect for the British People?
October 2, 2018
She refused to honour the Referendum and continues to ignore it. We didn’t vote for any kind of deal. We voted OUT
October 3, 2018
Kenneth:
If you feel idiotic based on how you perceive others treat you, change your attitude for better.
October 2, 2018
“Harnessing modern technology” will only be possible with a radical roll-out of broadband, nationwide. Many of the structural problems of this country (transport, urban and particularly metropolitan concentration of people) could begin to sort themselves out.
BT have been dragging their feet for years in this chicken and egg situation. ‘Not enough people to justify’ they say, pursing their lips at the very idea of providing coms to a business park – so of course whatever their interest in breathing purer air, entrepreneurs naturally all huddle where the tech provision is best. Roll it out everywhere, no exception.
October 3, 2018
mancunius I agree
October 2, 2018
may is toast
boris will be pm within days
somebody better tell her
October 2, 2018
Nor is Boris very smart..speech was very badly delivered..nothing new
October 2, 2018
lots he said I disagreed with, and he could be a lot better advised by someone like me
but he is the least worst option
October 3, 2018
Coming on here with a new ID every day – and yet always being found out.
Not very smart.
October 3, 2018
Tosh. It was excellent, Boris said exactly the right things and was hugely well received. No one even wanted to listen to the appalling Hammond speech.
October 3, 2018
The dire misguided Chairman Brandon Lewis had almost no one listening to his. He said he did not listen to Boris. It was negligent not to listen. He might have learned where the membership of the party clearly are, how to attract an audience and where the future of the party lies.
October 3, 2018
Bret. Boris is brilliant. He says what has to be said in a non PC way. I am fed up with having to be PC when there is a message to get across. He is the man of the future, in touch with the grass roots people and I love him!! I think you’ll find that many others do too.
October 2, 2018
If anyone in the Tory Party hadn’t realised already…when you go into ‘battle’ with a Conscientious Objector leading the Troops…you have 0% chance of winning.
Get Theresa Chamberlain-May out asap…and appoint someone who believes in Brexit, and will deliver a clean Brexit!
October 3, 2018
Exactly May is the exact opposite of a leader. She has zero leadership qualities, a compass 180 degrees out and is a robotic, electoral liability to boot.
October 3, 2018
She is not just proving to be a total failure on any real Brexit but also is a misguided idiot on economics, green crap, endless government waste, at the Home office and almost everything else. She is a robotic electoral liability to boot. Does she have any good facets at all? She even retains tax to death Hammond as Chancellor.
She always looks as if she is talking while suffering from a painful tooth abscess. She usually sound like a primary school teacher addressing dim six year old’s.
October 2, 2018
“…this is the moment, to chuck Chequers” – and much else besides!
It warmed the cockles of my heart to hear the Conservative Party cheering the people’s Blue Boris as he spoke for Britain.
October 3, 2018
Indeed. May just depresses the nations and will lead to the even more appalling (but quite similar lefty in many ways) Corbyn.
October 3, 2018
LOL – he mentioned āPraemunireā too – been taking counsel from comments on this blog perhaps š
zorro
October 2, 2018
This is a surrender of our Sovereignty a clear Act of Treason under the 1351 Treason Act
and a Praemunire, under the 1392 Act of Praemunire, it is Treason under the 1559 Act of
Supremacy and the 1688/9 Declaration and Bill of Rights.
Lord Kilmuir, Lord Chancellor.
It is a Praemunire to allow any laws or regulations not made by the Sovereign in
parliament to take effect as law in England. This is illegal under the Acts of Treason 1351,
the Act of Praemunire 1392, The Act of Supremacy 1559, and the Declaration and Bill of
Rights 1688/9……………… Lord Kilmuir, Lord Chancellor.
The Constitution confers treaty making powers only on the Sovereign and the Sovereign
cannot transfer those powers to a foreign power or even our own parliament because
they are not the incumbent Sovereigns to give away as they only hold those powers in
trust for those who follow on…………. Lord Kilmuir, Lord Chancellor.
In answer to a letter from Edward Heath written on the 30 November 1974, Lord Kilmuir, the Lord Chancellor, makes it plain that there are real problems with the constitutional limitations imposed on government which prevent our joining the EEC.
The PM would do well to read this because if she gets her way with Checkers (deliberate),
there will be no Tory party for you to advise after the next election. 17.4 million will not stand for being betrayed. That revolution I cautioned you about 2 yrs ago is looking more and more likely by the day since if Democracy is betrayed, what other action is there. Are we to just shrug our shoulders and say ‘ Ho Hum, never mind, we tried.’? I think not.
October 3, 2018
And where would the Conservative voters go, in your scenario? To the charlatans and weirdos of UKIP, or worse?
October 4, 2018
Yes, Rein it poses a serious problem an end to the two-party state and the government is made up of a hodgepodge of coalitions that never give the public anything they voted for using each other as an excuse for not delivering.
October 6, 2018
Not giving the public (precisely) what they (thought) they voted for is called “democracy”. It comes in many forms and is a compromise between anarchy and dictatorship resulting in government largely with the consent of the population.
October 2, 2018
Off-topic: Reading about the row emerging about the ‘Good Friday Agreement’, it appears that the UK government has shackled itself to the big elephant in the room, which campainged against the Good Friday Agreement and lost against the people north and south of the border. It only represents 28% of the N.I voters.
October 3, 2018
The present Rutte government in the Netherlands governs with 27% of the Dutch vote – and even that percentage is only after Rutte’s coalition with the Labour Party. Rutte’s party got only 21% of the vote.
In Belgium the largest party that formed the government (Flemish Nationalists) won 20.36%. The Prime Minister is the leader of a Walloon party that polled only 9.3% of the vote.
October 3, 2018
You are a bit behind the times. The current Dutch government (Rutte’s third, not Rutte II you seem to be referring to) governs on the basis of a parliamentary majority (76 out of 150 seats), which in a proportional representation system like The Netherlands has (and a very radical one, with a very low threshold) also equates a majority of the votes cast. So you are wrong re the government in power and wrong re the elactoral basis of the current government. Rutte’s party by itself does not have a majority of course (in proportional rep systems, one party majorities are very rare) but that is irrelevant. The current coalition does. Actually, this is a very democratic system. When the Australians had “Federation” (ie their first stage of independence from England), they deliberately avoided a first past the post system and had a system of seats plus preferential voting, thus ensuring that few votes would get “lost”. Democracy has many forms, as you see.
October 4, 2018
Results of the Dutch General Election 15/03 2017:
VVD – Rutte: 21.3% – 33 seats – losing 8 seats
PVV – Wilders: 13.1% – 20 seats – gaining 5 seats
etc.
Of course Rutte had to form a coalition cabinet with other parties, which took a full 255 days: one of the government parties, CU, had polled only 3.4%.
So the people ended up with a government nobody voted for.
October 4, 2018
@mancunius: We vote for parties and programmes, even if we select individuals on the ballot paper, knowing that coalitions will be formed which require compromise.
Far superior to the outdated UK system, which at least, I’ll grant you that, has not been copied in any of the later established devolved parliaments.
October 4, 2018
Macunius,
You just do not understand the European coalition government which also work very well in the NOrdics
October 3, 2018
@mancunius:
The Netherlands always has coalition governments and, because of pure porportional presentation the coalition always represents more than 50% of the vote.
I’ll grant you that there is a kind of coalition governmetn now in the UK, together representing LESS than 50% of the population (due to winner takes all system), but in this case the DUP is in the all consuming Brexit disunion becoming a kind of one-issue party, which will hold the rest of the country to ransom with its veto. Considering that the DUP actively campainged against the’Good Friday Agreement’ gives an insight into their hearts.
October 4, 2018
The DUP is not in a coalition with the Conservative government. They can remove their support at any time.
For a government to represent more than ‘50% of the population’ (rather than of the voting turnout), I fear supernatural powers of divination would be required, or a law forcing every living human being to vote, from birth on.
Perhaps the EU is planning such a law? I rather think not.
October 2, 2018
If only these words came from Mrs May! I hope she reads them. AND Acts on them.
October 2, 2018
Mrs. May is speechless
October 2, 2018
Pie in the sky! There is nothing we can’t do as EU members.
October 3, 2018
…including leaving the EU, as we have freely chosen to do.
October 3, 2018
Freely? You mean under our inadequate system 17m out of 65m voted Leave, about a quarter of the population.
Like our first-past-the-post general election system, it is totally inadequate for a modern democracy.
October 3, 2018
Only 37% of young people eligible to vote bothered to vote.
Presumably that is older peoples fault too.
October 4, 2018
If you don’t vote, you can’t expect to influence the result. And incidentally, many of those 65 million are children.
October 4, 2018
You’d have found it more than adequate had your side won!
It would certainly be a challenge to organise a referendum on a binary issue on PR lines…
I’m afraid in criticising the result you show contempt for the parliamentary system that legislated for it and assured the voters the simple majority would decide the issue once and for all.
But you didn’t. And what bad losers you are.
October 3, 2018
Sign independent trade deals? You havenāt thought it out, as usual.
October 3, 2018
macunius,
that is what most of Europe’s coalitions look like and they seem to do just fine also in the Nordics
October 3, 2018
Cut tariffs to zero? Allow GM crops to stop the countryside being wrecked with pesticide? Spend the saved Ā£10bn pa on something else? Allow equality in immigration between people from Australia and Romania? Etc etc
October 3, 2018
margaret howard:
Your claim exaggerates beyond belief.
October 3, 2018
Margaret. There’s a lot we can’t do as EU members. Like run our own country for a start and make new trade deals unless we are told we can. Get real.
October 2, 2018
I find it somewhat odd that higher pay and lower taxes, particularly the latter, has to be described as a’New vision’ for Conservatism; I thought tha tthe right to keep your own money and spend it how you choose, and not how the Government dictates was what Conservatism has always been about. You are absolutely right though that it would be a very new vision for the current Prime Minister and Chancellor. There can be no New Vision, or hope for the future of our party until they are removed. And Boris Johnson makes Mrs May ‘Cross’: how petty !
October 2, 2018
JR
“All this is so much easier if we take back control next March”
No ifs about it Sir, we ARE taking back control in March.
There is only one ‘if ‘ which is; if we don’t get the brexit we voted for, or there is any unacceptable capitulations, Government will find the electorate simply ignoring them. Trouble can be expected.
I might also suggest that the next general election is one that the conservatives are best advised not to lose, as the circumstances will ensure the demise of the party.
I hope all of you in government can see the Northern Ireland issue for what it is; an intention by the EU to ensnare the region.
I also hope Mrs May is sincere when she says she will not allow the break up of the UK, however especially after Salzburg we want to see some teeth and grit shown to the EU, followed by actions. Words are one thing, being ‘seen’ to defend our sovereignty is another.
There’s no doubt Mrs Thatcher would have given that mob at Salzburg a proper mauling.
Face it: we need to just walk away from the EU right now and get on with the world beyond. Anyone who says we need to negotiate with the EU is is totally wrong, we don’t need the EU and we owe the ungrateful sods nothing.
October 3, 2018
Steve
Ungrateful sods? We begged those ‘ungrateful sods’ to let us join their club which turned us from a failing economy of the 1960’s/70’s into the world’s 5th wealthiest.
You also seem to forget that is was this country that voted leave under an antediluvian voting system that made a mockery out of a modern democracy.
However, the general view in Europe now is ‘good riddance’!
Can’t think though that there are many countries out there who would trust us enough now to ever want to have anything to do with us.
October 3, 2018
It wasnt the EU that improved our nation.
We had 3 terms of conservative government under a good leader.
The UK has been a big contributor to the EU for every year bar one since we joined the Common Market
October 3, 2018
Margaret Howard
“We begged those āungrateful sodsā to let us join their club”
Was a different club in those days, and while you may be the kind of person to beg, I am not and would die rather than doing so. Moreover I don’t know of anyone who begged to be let in the EC, except the short sighted idiot who took us in.
….”turned us from a failing economy of the 1960ās”
Depends on perception, personally I find the 60’s (and 50’s) were the best post war years, we never had it so good and McMillan was right when he said it.
We built the best aircraft, ships etc. We were world leaders in sciences and astrophysics.
In those days you only needed a guitar and /or an idea and you could do well.
You had to learn skills to keep the car or bike going.
Mend and make do was an accepted part of life. People were practically minded, not thick as hell like they seem to be these days.
In shops, proper service was forthcoming. Nowadays they seem to go out of their way to be as useless as possible and generally refuse to accept that they are there to serve.
Food was mostly home grown and seasonal. Green Shield stamps were the thing back then.
People talked to and watched out for each other, and weren’t so driven by ‘must have it now pay later’ greed and the lunacy to commit to debt at any short sighted opportunity.
There wasn’t the knives on the streets then, and anyone who did pull a knife had to get out of town fast. It was considered lower than a snake’s belly.
You could have a punch up and the police would see it as just two blokes having a sort out. Nowadays it’s an offence to even look at someone.
You could say what you thought in those days as there was no political correctness, and it wasn’t a criminal offence to dislike or object to something. True democracy.
We were also much less materialistic, but you know what?……we were better for it.
“However, the general view in Europe now is āgood riddanceā!”
Until Europe gets itself in a spot of bother again and wants to be friends. Trouble for them is we won’t want to know next time around.
However the feeling’s mutual, I plan on burning the french and EU flags on March 29th. Good riddance to the EU !
October 4, 2018
And we think good riddance to the EU, especially the EC. So everyone is going to be happy.
Just think, one day we may be able to deal with individual EU Member States.
October 2, 2018
Boris! Boris!
Bit sad that this man is our last hope for a decent Brexit.
October 2, 2018
Great piece in the Daily Mail today from Richard Littlejohn. Good to see BJ got a good reception and so many there. Mrs May won’t be swayed though. The writings on the wall but she refuses to see it.
October 2, 2018
You cannot make tax cuts with a single Ā£39 Billion saving.
Public spending has to funded every year. And when the Ā£39 Billion is gone it’s gone for good.
You can pay off some National Debt with Ā£39 Billion and release around Ā£1 Billion or so to make tax cuts that last year after year or spend that sum year after year.
The real savings from leaving the EU are the net Ā£13 Billion we save every year from not paying into the budget, and the freedom we have to spend as we wish, the difference between the Ā£13 Billion and our Gross contribution of Ā£18 Billion as we wish.
But all that’s already been spent in the Ā£20 Billion extra the Government has committed to the NHS.
In any case Ā£39 Billion is only slightly more than one year’s current State borrowing and Ā£13 Billion is less than half the sum we are still borrowing year in year out. Even with money we’ll still have deficit.
Whatever the advantages of leaving the EU these sums of money are the least of them.
A sum of Ā£39 Billion to a country which has a National Debt, which at this rate will soon be Ā£2000 Billion, or an annual sum of Ā£13 Billion, to a country which has a National Income of well over Ā£2000 Billion and rising, at the rate of Ā£50 Billion every year anyway is neither here nor there.
Endlessly planning how to spend it, is playing into Remainer hands because in the end even of it does materialise, no one will notice any difference and feel cheated.
The best thing that Hammond can do in this budget is to say that the Ā£20 Billion is being funded wholly out of the Brexit dividend, and that no tax rises will be required to pay for it.
We can then boast that the Ā£350 Million a week some leavers unwisely promised for the NHS has been more than delivered. But if we don’t leave we’ll have to pay the extra Ā£20 Billion in tax rises, e.g. 3% on Employees NIC of 3% on VAT.
October 3, 2018
Believe me. It wasn’t the money that made us vote to leave the EU.
October 2, 2018
When the Chancellor sees a dot of an “enemy” as a major importance and speaks of anchors, he IS afraid and IN Panic
we know what of, and it isn’t the dot itself.
October 2, 2018
Chancellor Glum is “up” with a different tune of “Money for all after Brexit”. I don’t know what to make of him
October 2, 2018
Boris
Bojo just nailed it, an inspiring speech of vision and conservative party values that a lot of us have been waiting many years to hear.
A powerful, positive rallying cry. Now watch the Tory wets screw it all up…… again
October 3, 2018
Libertarian,
I thought your demands were higher a well presented speech, with little content and actually rather second rate
October 2, 2018
I’m no fan of Mr Johnson, but his unscripted jibe today at Mr Hammond and the Treasury’s forecasting record was very amusing!
October 2, 2018
I completed my review of social media today. I have concluded that May will lose the next election if she pushes chequers through. The observation is simple. Chequers is not Brexit and the Conservatives are no longer trusted. Nick Clegg found out the hard way that after betraying your voters your party cannot stay in power for a generation.
October 2, 2018
@Javelin
“I completed my review of social media today”
I never watch it. Mostly you find one or two points of view. So I switched channels and nothing was there.
October 2, 2018
This written summary does not do justice to what you said this evening. You stirred the blood and were excellent both terms of content and delivery. Congratulations.
October 2, 2018
I see the Scottish government are planning to ban free poppadoms and prawn crackers with takeaways, come on somebody in the Conservative party has got to have a pop at the SNP over this?
Its an open goal waiting for someone to kick the ball…
October 3, 2018
Iain, just one of many.
October 2, 2018
The joy and laughing stopped today. I don’t know why..in my immediate area where I walk my alsation.
Two comments out of thin air without anyone mentioning politics, I truly didn’t hear anyone ask a question “I don’t like Mrs May”. No discussion was had.
Another spoken by one person amongst a group out of hearing …”.I don’t , the minimum wage” No answer was given by anyone around.
Make of it what you will.
I see.
Nothing to fear quite yet.It is when nothing is heard and no-one laughs about this and that…
October 3, 2018
PPPS So was his assistant
October 3, 2018
PPPPS We’re all like this in Yorkshire
October 3, 2018
How will you ensure that the European Commission, aided by EU Member States, does not apply non-tariff barriers (delays, quotas) to our exports, which could cost us dear?
My solution is to use the Ā£39 billion exit fee as a bargaining chip. It will be paid to the EC in instalments, each instalment dependent on there having been no non-tariff barriers in the previous year.
What is your solution?
October 3, 2018
Isn’t that illegal under WTO rules?
What happens after the last installment has been paid?
You can’t guarantee what the EU will or will not do, if they don’t want fair trade then I suggest we should ensure they enjoy the same restrictions to our internal market.
October 3, 2018
I read that there is not going to be a tax rise on petrol.
It’ll take a bit more than an attempt at bribery to win us over. But by the sounds of it Mrs May is toast unless this all blows over. If she is to go it needs to be within the next 24 hours and send Hammond with her.
While I have sympathy for Mrs May over the appalling way she was treated at Salzburg, I maintain this is what happens when you go to the EU unprepared to rip them a new backside, which Mrs T understood well.
Personally I think the time is now for her to step aside with some dignity. Sacking Hammond a few hours beforehand would also be the right thing to do.