So the government plans to spend Ā£280bn more this year on their response to the pandemic. Some of this was much needed compensation for people who were not allowed to work or trade their businesses, and some of it was necessary extra spending on NHS capacity to handle the disease.
Now it is most important the government seeks value for the spending, and get the NHS up to full running on all the non CV 19 work.
November 25, 2020
The Great Reset.
November 25, 2020
Greatest transfer of wealth ever. And they had a good old go in 2008!
November 26, 2020
Cameron, who is opposed to cutting his idea of giving away our taxes to despots, ought to consider giving away more of his own money rather than avoiding tax by offshore means which he criticized others for doing! Nothing stops Blaire, Mitchell or Hunt giving away more of their own money if it is such an issue for them. All very wealthy on the back of the taxpayer.
November 26, 2020
There are no other words than Johnson is an absolute Prick. Totally unfit to govern. Effectively shutting down our country until next summer! Last year he did not give a fig when hospitals were overcrowded, he went to the caribbean with his mistress source of funding unknown!
He needs ousting by his party or the nation ought to do it for them. We cannot afford his stupidity or dishonesty any longer. Our country deserves far better.
November 26, 2020
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) actively promotes mass migration, Julian Braithwaite UK ambassador to UN (a Blaire speech writer) bragged the UK is the second largest donor and will connote to support its aims.
So much for cutting immigration lies by your govt. so much for responsible spending.
Fisheries Act sneaked through to deceive the public the Fake govt is taking back control when the Act allows underhand procedures for foreign owned boats and companies- read Hookem’s article on it.
I think your Fake Tory govt is possibly the most dishonest in its history?
November 25, 2020
True, as I said weeks ago, this lockdown has been planned for some time. It’s no longer about saving lives but a means of bankrupting drink only pubs and hitting the motorist.
Most of the country north of Watford will be placed in tier 3 so that Boris can quietly renege on Brexit whilst preventing a backlash by keeping us locked up.
Sunak who seems reasonably sensible will be thwarted by the limp dumbs in the tory party and continue to shovel aid money to India and China whilst the next generation pick up the tab.
November 26, 2020
Local authorities can charge what they want under Sunak ‘s review, lock down to continue to beginning of next summer! Not a jot from JR!
Rather significant I would suggest.
November 25, 2020
Five-star restaurants already fully booked for the 3 DEC no matter what tier they are in will your restaurants or pubs be open for you or is it just Big Mac, KFC and a pizza for you.
November 25, 2020
Good! About time people stopped being so ovine.
November 25, 2020
JR said: “it is most important … [to] … get the NHS up to full running on all the non CV 19 work.” You can say that again. It is outrageous that selfish covid19 pandemic fanatics – whether hysterical academics like Prof Fergusson, or amateur fear-mongers – have been responsible for (among other harms to this country) an 11.3% fall in GDP – the worst in 300 years – and the creation of a 4 million long waiting list for NHS treatment.
Covid19 is a serious disease, but not more so than previous serious outbreaks of influenza, for which we did not destroy other people’s health, nor the economy. Getting it wrong in March and April was forgivable – we did not know what we were dealing with – getting it wrong these last six months is not.
November 25, 2020
Borrow Ā£400bn give Ā£10bn away in aid ā utter madnessā¦and the people know it
November 26, 2020
Amazing how many pretend Tories stood up in parliament today to declare they would oppose the cut in aid. Philip Davis, one of those rare things nowadays – a real Tory in touch with his constituents followed them to say āthose in the real world will not be asking why it has been cut but why is it still so highā . MPs must know how unpopular foreign aid is with their constituents but since when did our views matter?
November 26, 2020
Iāve been saying for years make foreign aid voluntary then those who want it kept can pay for it. It would be interesting to see how much these bleeding hearts collect. The question of giving aid to China comes up every year and yet nothing is ever done about it. This shows me it is just a gravy train for ex-politicians and their mates to climb aboard. Of course, the fact that aid is linked to our GDP and this has gone down means we will be giving less anyway. Every cloud.
November 25, 2020
It’s difficult, sometimes, to avoid the feeling that some of the articles here are either a joke or deliberately provocative.
I mean, I have read so much lately about jobs being handed to friends of friends and daughters of colleagues, and jobs being handed to people with no experience and contracts being awarded to companies set up the previous month … it is difficult to take this:
seriously. Indeed, one does not know whether to laugh or cry. I applaud your ability to presumably keep a straight face.
November 26, 2020
Check out how many MPs stick their spouses on the payroll at Ā£40k a pop for āsecretarial dutiesā
November 26, 2020
Or Peersges to brothers.
November 25, 2020
Investment not spending should be the priority.
November 25, 2020
+1 and only the people know how to invest. Stop taking our money from us!
November 25, 2020
Stand by for the importation of people to be over 500,000 a year into the country.
November 25, 2020
Value for the spending? LOL. The greatest fraud of all time coupled with the greatest destruction of the value of currency of all time and we’re talking about value? This government has sowed the wind and the whirlwind is just getting started.
November 25, 2020
It is irritating to have to hear so many MPs up on their high horses about the reduction in what we are to borrow to send abroad to countries like India and China. It is the height of folie de grandeur. They seem to have all the wrong reasons for borrowing to give, such as it makes them feel good, and they can hold their heads high on the world stage, and it gives them “soft power”. Ugh. True charity is done discreetly and often anonymously.
November 25, 2020
Official Development Assistance 2017 (in Ā£millions) gov.uk
Pakistan 402, Nigeria 327, Ethiopia 326, Syria 314, Somalia 282, Afghanistan 227, Yemen 205, Bengladesh 176, South Sudan 168, Tanzania 167, DR Congo 166, Kenya 153, Uganda 140, Turkey 138, Burma 121, Sierra Leone 118, Lebanon 115, Nepal 100, Zimbabwe 94, India 90.
India in 20th position, China not among the first 20.
Then look at the list of countries, figure out those in which there are conflicts of some kind and where good British armaments are likely to be part of ‘development aid’.
But obviously that’s not the right-wing to look at these figures, isn’t it irritating?
November 26, 2020
Isn’t Nigeria awash with oil?
November 26, 2020
Thank you, Hefner. My point about China and India was the one you are helping to make: these pompous MPs aren’t paying attention to the detail of where the money is going and what it is achieving. They just want to grandstand around the world about the total amount being more than anyone else’s. Is that right wing or left wing? I think it is just very Westminster.
November 26, 2020
Good article in Con Woman by a man who worked for the wasteful overseas aid programme today. Suggest you read it to see what an utter sham foreign aid is in helping allegedly poor people.
But Hef indirectly makes a good point why are giving money to a nuclear power like a Pakistan with horrendous human rights record and still abuses women into forced marriages? He also makes the point about Nigeria that allows Boka Harem to flourish while the world condemns it. Why is the U.K. giving aid to it? The same for the other countries like India he gives a special attention. I am with Hef aid to all the countries he names should be stopped. I take it that is his point?
November 27, 2020
12 years of education for girls, which the PM is very keen on, and was when he was Foreign Secretary, is going to be needed in some very oppressive countries, as well as countries which are just poor. I am all for that.
My quarrel with aid is it makes the local rents soar and prostitution likewise. Far too much of the money goes on career charity workers who can earn enormous sums. ( named person ed) for example, earns at least a quarter of a million a year at Save the Children. ……… Charities, NGOs, ex politicians, big business, big pharma – all seem to merge into a caste which doesn’t look charitable at all, and which laps up a large amount of our aid money.
The MPs should be scrutinising all this.
November 26, 2020
Hefner, What on earth are you talking about? Government aid consists of rich people in rich countries giving poor people’s money to rich people in poor countries. All foreign aid should stop, apart from direct practical emergency aid for natural disasters.
November 26, 2020
Hefner:
You seriously think armaments are part of development aid? You are a fool. Say something sensible or say nothing at all.
November 26, 2020
+1
November 25, 2020
significant cuts now required.
HS2 the easiest and most urgent.
Overseas aid- you know the Ā£billions paid out to Space Programs, Nuclear arsenals, advanced weaponry, trivia projects and finally boosting corruption paid off-shore and into Switzerland – cut by Ā£4bn.
Zero salary/wage increases for Public sector.
November 25, 2020
Ethiopia have an army budget Ā£300m and UK in 2020 supplied aid Ā£292m ā utter madness
November 25, 2020
HS2* is an investment of Ā£100bn over two decades for all phases, that will leave UK with more capacity and better connected cities. This will aid growth in the future (as long as PM’s green rush doesn’tdestroy everything). Mr Sunak has spent three times this amount on a seasonal coronavirus (with the typical spring later Autumn/early Winter pattern) in less than 1 year. HS2 is cheap.
(*Nonetheless it has been very poorly run and the Old Oak Common – Euston bit is less justifiable.)
November 26, 2020
Youād have to be blind to realise that the people donāt want HS2….its a vanity project
November 26, 2020
Eyes wide open as to what it can achieve (with correct policies around it).
November 26, 2020
HS2 is a white elephant – expensive as only government wheezes can be. It addresses a C20th problem with C19th technology, and has already been overtaken by C21st technology. If the government is going to spaff Ā£100bn away, then we would get better value by spending it on the UK’s own space program – we could have a base on the Moon for that money.
November 25, 2020
Teeny tiny article on BBC News website.
āCoronavirus cases in Liverpool have been brought down “quite remarkably” following a rollout of mass testing, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
Cases in the city are down by more than two-thirds in the last few weeks, he told BBC Breakfast.ā
Yes well…that was with lateral flow test and shows a far lower % of āpositivesā than PCR.
Not been given much publicity has it?
(I remember JR saying right at the beginning of all this wool pulling that he would not take the test because it was not accurate).
November 25, 2020
ābrought downā is nonsense āshown to be far lowerā perhaps.
November 25, 2020
The cases in Liverpool havenāt come down because of more testing, I believe thatās because the lateral flow test is more accurate than the PCR test! Itās shower a truer result!
November 26, 2020
Matty actually believes that it’s due to his strict measures in the centre of Liverpool and that in the areas outside, where they used the older PCR test, the residents were four times less strict. He also thinks that Herr Schwab is a great guy with his Reset.
November 26, 2020
and alarmingly the so called experts are basing a lucky dip (is it +ve or -neg ?) test on frightening the shit out of Government and a percentage of the people, which results in plunging the economy down a deep mineshaft. Decisions based on science – utter claptrap.
We are still shoving ear-bud sticks up nostrils instead of more careful wiping from the back of the throat. That tells you enough about science.
Witch doctors rule!
November 26, 2020
The cases are down because everyone has had it.
November 25, 2020
I did note that he intends to reduce the aid budget to 0.5% for 2020/21 and that it will return to 0.7% “when the fiscal situation allows”. Given that the forecast of national debt as % of GDP will still be 97% in 2025/26 it looks as though that will not be for the foreseeable future.
No doubt these announcements will still not be enough to satisfy the “Gimme!, gimme!, gimme!” demands from MPs on all sides of the House for their special interest groups and/or their constituency.
November 25, 2020
A shame it is nearly always spent so inefficiently (or worse) by governments. The NHS has performed appallingly much of it is shut down so many of the current excess deaths could have been prevented. Many Covid infections perhaps as many 20% occurred in hospitals. Many Covid deaths occurred at home or in care homes with no or little medical care given at all.
We need an ugent inquiry as to why they were so badly prepared and so poorly run. Why were deaths in Germany half the number per 100,000 infections as the UK. I assume the NHS is only half as competent as the German system and so we had about 70k of excess deaths half of which preventable perhaps. The current excess death are now over 1000 per week are mainly due, not to covid, but to excess deaths with other conditions due to NHS failures yet again. Due to free at the point of rationing the NHS also kills most other options.
November 25, 2020
No mention by Sunak about the real unfairness between the state sector and private sector. The gold plated, index linked pensions which mean they are about 50% over paid relative to the private sector. Paid for by taxes often on people without any pensions at all beyond the state one.
November 25, 2020
+1 needs to redressed fast!
November 26, 2020
Itās time public sector pensions were based on contributions just as they are in the private sector. Why should those in the private sector guarantee pensions for public sector workers that they can only dream of for themselves. And theyāre still retiring much earlier.
November 26, 2020
I don’t object to the defined benefit so much as how that benefit is worked out.
I understand they have moved away from final salary but need to recognise the average salary during tenure more than the final salary.
November 25, 2020
Deaths from CV19 in Germany overall (and with a rather higher population) only about 30% of the UKās. Why was the NHS so ill prepared and why did it perform so appallingly in relative terms? Perhaps Jeremy Hunt, Matt Hancock and the dire Simon Stevens can explain?
All three PPE Oxon I think – great training for running a health service? – it seems not. Who did all the dire pandemic planning?
STILL killing a thousand or so each weeks due to the cancellation of other services cancer, heart ops and the likes.
November 25, 2020
The NHS should get performance related pay. That would save Ā£100billion next year!
November 26, 2020
……….and would force the managers to their jobs properly, get rid of the dead wood and promote excellence in order to get their just rewards. In other words, the unions wouldn’t allow it, because it’s based on merit.
Perhaps when public sector salaries begin to rise again, it should be on the basis of a flat amount across the board, not a percentage of salary band . It would still be a salary increase and would leave little room for Labour posturing, as it would equate to a larger percentage increase for the lower paid than those in the upper echelons, i.e. a controlled contribution to closure of the pay gap. It might even prompt the unions to beg for performance related pay!
November 25, 2020
Sunak The “economic emergency” caused by Covid-19 has only just begun… (Gee Thanks.)
UK TO SUFFER WORST ECONOMIC DECLINE IN 300 YEARS. So the government just intends to allow this to happen?
Cut in overseas aid, just 0.2% is pathetic – What do the airlines tell you to do when you need oxygen on a flight – Get yours first then look after others – That is what we should be doing with our finances.
Low paid will see increases – but pensioners already on breadline won’t
Splashing the cash is one thing – but are there any real plans to restore our economy, and our way of life – IT SEEMS NOT.
The Stock exchange appears to have little praise for these moves — From what I’ve seen there was no reaction at all!
WHEN is this government going to understand that if they ruin the economy, it won’t matter how good BREXIT is, or isn’t – depending on what fudge Boris gives us, there will be nothing left of our society to take advantage of of
November 26, 2020
The “economic emergency” hasn’t been caused by Covid, it’s been caused by the flawed judgment of our parliamentarians. The reality is that they’ve decided on a policy of actively seeking out something that’s going to be circulating in the population forever, i.e. seek and ye will find……..and justify your actions.
Meanwhile, we’re hearing much wailing and gnashing of teeth over a relatively small reduction in Foreign Aid, whilst conveniently ignoring the billions we’re still handing out. There appears to be a collective loss of reasoning in Parliament as no-one seems to question why the billions already provided by the UK taxpayer over many decades, hasn’t acted as an enabler resulting in a natural and substantial reduction in aid, anyway.
November 27, 2020
Well said BJC -My thoughts exactly
November 26, 2020
Not caused by Covid19, that was a blatant lie to deflect responsibility. It was caused by people who made the decision in govt, like Johnson and Sunak!
These two numb skulls have caused the worst self destructing economic outcome our country has ever experienced. Totally unnecessary. Their action being far worse than anything an inanimate object like Covid could ever do. It was people who caused this economic devastation and those people were led by Johnson and Sunak. Tory MPs now have to ask do they want to be responsible for allowing this continuance or get rid of them? That is also a choice.
November 27, 2020
+++
November 25, 2020
The decision to stop calculating RPI is robbing pensioners and a good reason never to lend money to HM Government. Presumably it’s not an actual default on index linked bonds, but morally it is.
November 25, 2020
JohnE,
But UK pensioners resident in the UK will get 2.5% next year. What about the continuing and indefensible situation of the ‘fully contributed’ pensioners living in Australia, NZ, Canada and other places whose pensions have been frozen for decades?
Half a billion Ā£ would sort this disaster out once and for all. When money is being thrown about like confetti, why not?
November 25, 2020
– and it could rightly be termed ‘overseas aid’.
November 26, 2020
None of the pensioners in my extended family have been financially put out by this crisis. So, I’m surprised to see the ‘Triple Lock’ surviving yesterday’s announcement.
The freezing of pensions paid to those now living abroad is morally indefensible. They should be getting exactly what a UK resident, with the same contributions history, gets.
November 25, 2020
I saw a kind of flo chart showing the M8ās network of advantageous contracts re this virus.
Most interesting.
And hugely profligate and profitable.
Poor oldāpublic purseā!!
Indeed..much spending.
November 25, 2020
The Bank of England said Britain could be headed for its biggest economic slump in over 300 years – why aren’t you outraged at the parlous state to which Johnson has brought this country in response to a virus with a very low mortality rate? How much more damage and misery will he be allowed to inflict on this country? He must go very soon.
November 25, 2020
But you are violating your manifesto commitment on aid spending. You all stood on a manifesto pledging 0.7%. And now you are breaking that. No wonder nobody can trust a word this government says.
The only way we beat Coronavirus is if it is beaten everywhere in the world. Otherwise infections will just come back. And todayās decision – by the worst government we have ever had – made that harder. Fortunately as we regress again to being Little England, America is about to be made great again. The grown ups will soon be back in the White House.
November 25, 2020
are you offering to join them?
November 25, 2020
How come we haven’t beaten flu or the common cold yet? It is not possible to eradicate this virus, we have to learn to live with it and find medicines which ameliorate the effects on the small number of people who are seriously affected. Coronaviruses mutate and there is a risk we will force covid19 to evolve into something nastier.
November 26, 2020
New Zealand and China have eradicated it.
November 26, 2020
bullshit! China have been testing cities of 10m – why bother if it doesn’t exist – -just quarantine the flight arrivals.
November 26, 2020
MiC,
Fred H has covered China. New Zealand have welcomed the Pakistan cricket team. What now?
November 25, 2020
āThe only way we beat Coronavirus is if it is beaten everywhere in the world. Otherwise infections will just come back.ā
And how do you propose to do this exactly? You really do not have a clue. We will live happily alongside this virus as we do with very many others. It will almost certainly survive and continue to mutate in both animals and humans for many years to come.
November 25, 2020
Andy. Polls say 60% agree with cutting foreign aid. You are always keen to tell us what polls say on Brexit but you are silent on this one. Odd.
November 25, 2020
You keep saying the only polls which count are elections and referendums. How many voted for parties advocating foreign aid cuts at the last election?
November 26, 2020
how many voted for parties that didn’t?
November 26, 2020
Well make your mind up, Andy – do you think we should be governed by what polls say, or not? Because you’re wrong one way or the other – either this time or previous times.
Me? – I think we should have a referendum about foreign aid. Then we would know specifically what the electorate thinks, rather than it being just one policy buried in a long manifesto at a general election which concentrated on the unfinished Brexit.
November 25, 2020
One minute you want greater public spending now here you want less.
Time to make up your mind Andy.
Bear in mind all the opposition parties you support want greater spending.
November 26, 2020
Edward 2
Are you still waiting for the outcome of the US election with a judgement from the Supreme Court, so Trump can remain President?
November 26, 2020
What on earth has this got to do with my post?
Go away and troll somebody else bill.
For your information.
I dont care who wins the American election.
Only that their election can be seen to be fair and accurate.
November 25, 2020
Iām delighted that Sunak has stuffed your pension good and proper. You donāt have to forego it now which invitation you never accept.
PS HMRC has a dedicated line for all those who wish to pay more taxes. I understand they guarantee never to say no!
November 25, 2020
“America is about to be made great again”
Surprised that you, of all people, have conceded that Trump will get re-elected.
November 26, 2020
Pominoz
YOu have to stop drinking or takting the medicine you are taking
November 26, 2020
Andy, Biden is so “grown up” he is unlikely to benefit from the full four years. And that’s only if his “victory” is found not to have been because of vote and vote-counting fraud. Even if he gets away with that, there is Ukrainegate and Chinagate. Biden, even if he gets inaugurated, is already a lame-duck president.
November 27, 2020
NickC
There is no significant fraud or vote counting fraud, Chinagate and Ukrainegate are most likely also not going to come to anything.
The lame duck secenario will most likely play out if the democrats loose the Senate seats in Georgia.
But this is like your write up aboult Poland and Hungary on beig forced to take refugees from German, you are constantly getting your facts wrong.
November 26, 2020
Defeatism re coronavirus? Oh dear, we can do nothing. We must wait until it is defeated everywhere …But it’s good to see you optimistic about Trump’s victory not being scuppered by massive electoral and computer fraud.
November 25, 2020
Does anyone have a reasoned argument why the NHS and MPs are exempt from the public sector pay freeze?ā¦..Where all in it together – NOT
November 25, 2020
I missed the statement. Will the government still be burying the A303? The Johnson government is the most profligate I can remember. I look forward to the man’s political demise – and I’m a Conservative.
November 25, 2020
Yep, me too. Iām also a Conservative but of course he is not!
November 25, 2020
The OBR forecasts assume Tiers 2&3 for everyone till next Summer. Didnāt hear Risho mention that.
November 25, 2020
The NHS needs of course to be rather better than full running! It was not coping even before Covid it was already rationing and killing people, plus it now has the Covid backlog to catch up on plus lots of vulnerable staff sheltering at home.
November 25, 2020
You havenāt heard?
There are plans for an NHS RESET!
An online conference was held yesterday presumably to decide how to deprive us of the healthcare we have all paid for.
A non hospital oriented service is one suggestion.
But I imagine it will involve total privatisation..only under a different guise.
November 26, 2020
I will be honest, I much prefer having the option for phone appointments because it means I can actually get one quickly (and without sitting in a waiting room full of other ill people for an hour). Being able to phone up and say “yes, it is this again” seems to be one of the greatest time savers the NHS has invented.
I am surprised this wasn’t in use before COVID.
November 25, 2020
Value for spending should have always been the mantra for the foreign aid budget. Sadly this wasnāt the case all the time. Now itās been cut perhaps this will force the issue and moving forward we will only spend tax payers money on legitimate projects that really do aid the countries involved.
November 25, 2020
Value for spending should always be the mantra for all government spending. Sadly it never is.
November 25, 2020
I see that the BBC is reporting that as a response to the pandemic (!) the Conservative government has wasted and mismanaged finances on an industrial scale. Or similar words.
Boris really fell into that one didnāt he? The left will now demolish him and his party for doing as they told him!
November 25, 2020
Not the left to demolish him …it will be us who voted for the Party, believing they would have set checks and balances to ensure he did what the electioneering said they would.
Instant dismissal required.
November 25, 2020
Fred H
+1 Fred.
Even if Boris doesn’t capitulate to the ungrateful EU and delivers the brexit we voted for, the conservatives are probably finished for good – so much of what Boris is doing is without our consent, we can’t have such a situation any longer it has to stop, he’s dangerous and the electorate simply don’t trust him anymore.
For me it was Oct 15th that finally did it.
November 25, 2020
defo the 15th October – a disgrace to the people and a disgrace that Tory MPs didn’t shout about it
I agree – that deadline did it for me ”we don’t believe you”
November 25, 2020
+1
November 25, 2020
Your second paragraph is the important one: we must get value and experience shows that we will not get value from just chucking money at the NHS without doing a great deal more to it besides. The PPE fiasco says it all.
Still, at least there has been a reduction in foreign aid, and Mr Cameron’s angst on BBC TV convinced me that it must have been the riight thing to do, as if I had any doubt.
November 25, 2020
Same old same old. It appears Sunak is a bog standard neo-liberal Tory Chancellor. He is operating to the headlines in the right wing press, as per normal. He has no idea how to push output in all sectors and sub-sectors of the economy to the point of inflation, using his fiat currency fiscal toolset.
Inflation signals there is lack of output from a sector or subsector to supply customer demand. That could be caused by a lack of output capacity due to poor productivity; outdated machinery; lack of educated skilled employees.
Dynamic taxation can shut down hyperinflation in any sector in a business day. That is what taxation is meant to do. Stop stuff happening that society doesn’t want; and, divert private sector activity to the public sector to “level up” society.
Don’t be surprised, post a no-deal Brexit, that debt to GDP hits 200+% by 2023. That just indicates that the non government sector is saving the government’s money and not spending it. Rushi can’t get his money back via taxes, if you are not spending his money. Alas, he can wait for decades to get his money back; and, if he stopped issuing Gilt bonds to match his spending, it would cost him nothing by waiting.
November 26, 2020
Acorn, Same old, same old. It appears Sunak is a bog standard socialist Tory Chancellor. He is operating to the headlines in the left wing MSM, as per normal. He has no idea how to set people free in all sectors and sub-sectors of the economy. Instead he is using MMT destruction of our fiat currency, politician’s wheezes, top-down state planning, and socialist authoritarianism to emulate the DDR.
November 25, 2020
I hope you are watching what National Grid are tweeting…
@ng_eso
“Weāre exploring measures & actions to make sure there is enough generation available”
As if we are not in enough of a mess we are a hairs breath away from having power cuts in cold weather.
November 25, 2020
We need a really cold snap and power cuts. That would be the end of the green crap and people would fetch their relations to huddle together as best they can – ergo end of lockdown crap.
November 26, 2020
“That would be the end of the green crap” – Lynn Atkinson
Sadly it would also be the end of a great many pensioners, as recently we’ve had estates built that are not only all-electric, but locked to one supplier by the contract covering construction.
To no one’s surprise but the green lobby’s, that supplier was found to be charging its captive audience twice the national rate for electricity.
November 26, 2020
Like in France where they have re-started 4 coal power stations
November 26, 2020
It would be the end of privatisation in essential utilities, and not before time.
November 26, 2020
Funny that!
WEF has been saying that the next āemergencyā, which like covid will āproveā we are ill prepared for a climate āemergencyā(???), will be POWER CUTS and COMPUTER CRASHES.
And there was me thinking that all those little hamsters in wheels were running round like the clappers…..and that the wind was blowing in the right direction!
November 26, 2020
I had to endure another phone call from my energy provider wanting me to have a ‘smart meter’ installed. It’s time some brave MP got on his feet and called-out smart meters for the complete waste of money that they are. How much has the programme cost? And how many SMR’s could we have built with the money? I am confident that I will live long enough to see rolling black-outs in this country. I hope that the flat above No 11 Downing Street gets its fair share of them.
November 25, 2020
I’m over seventy but during my long life I have never witnessed such gross irresponsibility , Lock upon the nation should never have happened.
November 26, 2020
Mike Durrans, It’s not as if the lockdowns have achieved anything (just look at the death toll graph) either. The first was excusable – just – because we did not know enough about covid19. The subsequent continued restrictions and second lockdown have been an utter disaster.
November 25, 2020
“…and get the NHS up to full running on all the non CV 19 work.”
I’m not sure that the NHS has ever been “up to full running”. Too big, too bureaucratic, too wasteful, too inefficient.
November 26, 2020
+10
November 25, 2020
Bye-bye faux conservatives.
November 25, 2020
yep at the moment I cannot see anyone voting for this lot again.
November 26, 2020
The problem is a lack of options. Last election the Brexit party bailed, resulting in our current predicament. The Greens and Lib Dems are going further in the wrong direction and Labour’s anti-semitism is a major concern.
Could we have a common sense party please? It used to be the Conservatives, but that’s long gone.
November 26, 2020
Nahhh…most of you will.
November 26, 2020
how depressing for you – and ME!
November 25, 2020
At last a sensible cut in the overseas aid budget, for far too long we have wasted Ā£billions on giveaways to Countries who simply do not need it.
Should be for humanitarian aid only, much better to encourage Trade not Aid.
November 25, 2020
A sensible cut would be a 100% cut
November 25, 2020
you disapprove of helping countries with funding for their munitions, their space exploration, their advanced railway building, large sums go to Pakistan, Nigeria, Afghanistan?
Only five countries in addition to the UK met or exceeded the 0.7% of GNI target in 2015. Those countries are the Netherlands, Denmark, Luxembourg, Norway and Sweden, according to the United Nations.
Germany, France, Italy, the US, Japan and Canada each spend 0.4% or less.
November 26, 2020
Aid is a killer
November 26, 2020
Good points Fred
November 25, 2020
+1
November 25, 2020
Why have a figure demanded in law? The need for overseas aid clearly varies month by month year by year. A set % of GDP is an absurd way to do it.
November 25, 2020
Trade not aid indeed. Give a man a fish or teach him how to fish?
November 26, 2020
Agree
November 26, 2020
Lifelogic, Indeed. And stop stealing his fish, as the EU does, both here and in Africa.
November 27, 2020
NickC
and so do the Chinese , Japanese and Taiwanese, so tell us something new
November 25, 2020
Aren’t we spending enough on the illegals entering the UK now?
November 25, 2020
āNow it is most important the government seeks value for the spending, and get the NHS up to full running on all the non CV 19 work.ā
But the government will probably just waste the money on contracts for cronies (with no relevant expertise on pandemics) again.
Consultants will certainly get their snouts in the trough too.
The government is never properly held to account on waste.
November 25, 2020
JR
“…get the NHS up to full running…”
Good luck with that.
Also consider abolishing left wing PC woke-ism from the NHS, and make it illegal for the NHS to set ‘security’ on any member of the tax paying public who dares to complain about bad practice.
I also think now is the time to prevent NHS biscuit eaters and office loafers from getting discounts in the supermarkets for no other reason than they have an NHS card.
Yes, I am a key worker – in the defence industry, and yes I too work bloody hard to save lives, and no – I never got any discounts WHY ! ?
November 25, 2020
Steve yes. A friend is an electrician in the NHS. He was given a Ā£200 bonus from money raised by Sir Tom and his partner who is a receptionist got a very large bag of goodies. She and he get discount on mobile phones, clothing etc. Utter bloody irresponsible madness.
November 26, 2020
I wonder if the people donating to Sir Tom knew that was where the money was going? I rather imagine they thought it might be going to the patients. The staff get paid for their work, and presumably can afford their own biscuits.
November 25, 2020
+1 1/3rd are āself-isolatingā – at home watching TV!
November 25, 2020
Do not raise my taxes to pay for this.
I have not benefited so don’t expect to pay.
November 25, 2020
Concerning Baroness Sugg and her notions about claims on taxpayer funds, would it not be a kindness for someone to introduce her to Marcus Rashford?
November 26, 2020
or the dole office?
November 25, 2020
Not a word today from Mr Sunak about the opportunities of Brexit. Not a word about Brexit at all from Mr Sunak. But lots of words from Mr Gove about queues, waiting time, blockages and portaloos as a result of Brexit. Not quite like 2016 is it
November 25, 2020
At least Mr Gove understands how much commercial traffic goes through Dover, which is more than can be said for Mr Raab.
My heart does sink though when I see the aerial pictures of contractors concreting over the Garden of England to make lorry parks.
November 26, 2020
Oh please, not again – Dover doesn’t even feature in the top 5 of UK ports for handling freight. Yes it handles a lot of the ro-ro cargo, and passenger traffic, but let’s not add to the hysteria about lorry parks.
November 26, 2020
Indeed, lorry traffic between the UK and the empire should be discouraged.
November 26, 2020
Apparently the queues may not be that bad.
Many UK hauliers have simply given up and won’t even try to export from the UK for anyone.
Now, what about that balance of payments deficit with the European Union?
November 27, 2020
Where is your evidence that many UK hauliers have given up?
What % of previously UK owned haulage companies have closed?
November 25, 2020
If Baroness Sugg was so concerned why didn’t she resign from the House of Lords
November 25, 2020
+1.
I suppose she likes the daily allowance, the subsidised restaurants and the company of all those lefties of a similar mindset. They seem to just love giving other peopleās money away. On vital things like Ā£9 million for the Ethiopian girls band.
November 25, 2020
Cameron to blame yet again. As he was for the dire Baroness Warsi and many other huge mistakes.
November 25, 2020
She would lose her Ā£305 per day attendance allowance, plus travel expenses and subsidised restaurant facilities, that’s why she didn’t !
A nice little earner, isn’t it !
November 26, 2020
Tax and NI free Ā£305 per day too.
November 25, 2020
Now people are seeing the bills for Eat Out to Help Out and furlough. These are about to backfire.
The opinions on lockdown (and whether it was right) will change.
It is now being reported that CV-19 deaths are being outstripped by nearly 5:1 in the excess death figures week ending 13 Nov and this hasn’t even got going yet. And they cannot even tell us if those CV-19 deaths were *with* or *of*.
11000 were killed by lock down that week, if they’re going to be that vague about Covid then.
November 25, 2020
There must be more to Foreign Aid. I simply donāt understand why anyone would resign because we are reducing the amount of money that we give away that we donāt have and we have to borrow. Am I missing something. Is this foreign aid some sort of bribe to other governments. Why would we give aid to China? None of it makes sense.
November 25, 2020
These leftie-liberal do-gooders are never happier than when they are giving away other people’s money.
There can be no justification for giving a single penny to any country with a space programme, nuclear weapons or a large military.
November 26, 2020
We could borrow from the China to give aid to the China to help fund an inquiry into where the virus originated, and to assess what compensation is due to the those countries affected by the virus – less the country responsible for infecting the planet.
November 26, 2020
I see there is no progress on a trade deal with Brussels and, according to the Express, Barnier is threatening to stay in Brussels unless Boris instructs Frost to cave in on fishing.
Even though there appears to be agreed text covering 95% of a deal, the talks on fishing, the level playing field, and the disputes mechanism are going nowhere.
The time has surely now come for some decisive action :
Lord Frost should publish the deal we are offering in these three areas and let the 27 argue amongst themselves whether or not to accept it.
November 26, 2020
We are better off without an FTA because they would only cheat, and the conditions would not be in our favour but theirs.. Through their intransigence and overweening arrogance they have given us many opportunities to say good bye and thank you, but I fear the Government and its advisers are surrounded by people who think no FTA spells failure.
November 26, 2020
We will get a decent trade deal after we leave transition, not before. Until we finally leave, the EU will not believe we are serious about leaving. For an EU bureaucrat, the idea that a state would voluntarily leave the nirvana which is the EU is simply impossible to contemplate. Only when we are out and German industry is banging on Mrs Merkel’s door will they finally deign to treat us like a sovereign nation.
November 26, 2020
ChrisS
For the umpteenth time, This is not a FTA. It is a new ERA Treaty and the EU and the UK Government is playing us. The Government knows it cannot give on on fish, not at least without a fight, even a made up one. So the EU play tough and gives a the Government the excuse it needs.
November 26, 2020
Mark B
“the EU and the UK Government is playing us.”
==========
Yep. If Johnson was genuine he’d have closed the door firmly shut on Oct 15th…..like he said !
He’d also be warning Biden to keep his nose out of British sovereign matters or else a few USAF bases would be asked to leave.
And, he’d have been scraping Macron and Varadkar off the bottom of his shoes if he was half a man.
But then we all know Johnson is a bull-shitter who is owned by big business and is watched over by their minders SAGE.
His Churchillian waffle trick doesn’t work with me. It might work selling knock off on Petticoat Lane, but not for leading a nation.
November 26, 2020
I don’t think 95% is nearly good enough as a basis to conclude the talks so I think we can forget about a trade deal- instead Boris should be looking for an alternative- but look where? A deal with Biden’s US is not going to fly especially if we force EU to erect a border in Ireland and then Australia and NZ are so far away as to be not practical for many reasons. But maybe we could have a deal then with African countries or India it could be like the old days again’ if only we had a merchant navy? Alas everything has changed so much since the 60′ 70’s
November 26, 2020
While it would be great to see our exports under a Red duster, I have little doubt the mega containerships bringing all the Chinese imports would go back happy with our exports. India is en-route. Let it be the (only) problem.
November 26, 2020
Pre covid growth was becoming difficult as markets in general were becoming saturated.We have to start again from a different point.Availability of Jobs could not possibly meet the growing population and the inevitable state debt under these circumstances was bound to increase. We cannot accommodate an increase in population.We are overcrowded.I personally have no wish to distinguish between colour race or ethnicity however we need a smaller population of motivated intelligent people who do not think that university education will give them the ability to contribute successfully in our society.
November 26, 2020
The legally mandated 0.7% was and is absurd and some of the reasoning & posturing behind it also. There has been much news in the past too that suggests our aid has not always been well managed & with questionable oversight. The reduction makes sense & is something many UK citizens will support. It was, I believe, Nigel Farage during the election period last year who suggested Foreign Aid should perhaps be halved. We tend to forget the vast sums we also incur in providing for the livelihoods and security for the thousands of illegally arrived foreign nationals here in the UK, assuming that does not come from our foreign aid budget. Before someone tells me that the cost is negligible, I would beg to differ. It’s never negligible. A billion or two here, a few million there, not much when you say it quickly ! We should also consider that monies from the EU’s pot under various schemes also go to non EU countries to which we have all been contributing and not just to pre accession states. Then on the individual level, many people personally & willingly support both domestic & international charities on a regular basis from their already taxed income. So no, those who support this move should not accept being chastised by the usual suspects calling for status quo.
November 26, 2020
Whoās going to pay for all this? Iāll tell you who it will be. It will be the middle classes. It will be the people who have worked all their lives to buy their home only to have it taken from their family in inheritance tax. The rich tax exiles and trust fund owners wonāt pay a penny but we all know they will be in line for knighthoods. Be honest we arenāt all in this together, are we?
November 26, 2020
I have just received a (massive) business rates demand for an empty shop I have. So CV19 business rates were suspended for a year EXCEPT THOSE LEVIED ON LANDLORDS!
We canāt even dispose of a property to meet this bill, because there is no indexation for long term held assets against CGT. But my brother-in-law sold a car and made over Ā£7 million profit exempt from CGT . I see main homes AND CARS remain exempt from CGT. Why?
Even worse is applying income tax rates to capital gains. Income tax is paid after an annual allowance adjusted every year for inflation. But those annual allowances are not available to long term investors. So investors are punished to breaking point, but multi-millionaire speculators in cars are protected.
The corporations who are ātenantsā exploit their extraordinary advantages in the Landlord and Tenants Act. The powerful tenants delay lease renewals many years after the due date and wait for downturns like this, to settle at āmarketā rent for 10 or 15 years. During Lockdown rents have not been paid and the high street collapse has allowed tenants to exploit the crisis to force massive reductions in market rents payable, not for a short period but for several years.
Sunak thinks deciding not to increase state sector pay āwas a hard decisionā. Bankrupting 25% of the economy, the wealth creating sector, and all the investors apparently was a breeze!
Time for a Great Peopleās Reset!
November 26, 2020
End foreign Aid, you do not help people by giving them Money, trade trade trade only , and I would thank someone to stop the advertising for aide on the TV, anyone who wants to give there own money, that is entirely up to them .
This is as we keep saying, the very worst ever Government, it is doing exactly what the Establishment wonāt, they are not incompetent, they are doing everything they can to kill this Nation.
Still think your PM will go TMO, he has no intention, I mean what the Hell is he waiting for.
Sorry Brexiteers we are never going to get what we voted for, the same reason that they have torn up the Manifesto.
If they can do that, why would you think we will ever get our freedom.
Surely you can not still believe?
Wake up England ? Wear are the 1922 people.
It is just not going to happen is it ?
Oh do not get me wrong, I what what the majority wants
Why has there been no stop on the boat people, and send them back to France.
Is he still going to bring in 1 million from H K ??
We are to be broken as a Nation and crushed by the EU, who do you think will give us any money ?
November 26, 2020
So the government plans to spend Ā£280bn more this year on their response to the pandemic.
……
the pandemic of bull shit?
its called communism John.
November 27, 2020
I think I know why the Government is putting so much of the country under tier 2 and tier 3 restrictions. Because non-COVID hospitalisations peak in January and February, the Government is desperate to reduce the number of COVID-19 hospitalisations. That way there may be adequate ICU beds for non-COVID patients.