The government is right to spend substantially to offset the lockdowns and other anti pandemic measures, all the time they stop people working or prevent businesses trading. Once they do at last remove the regulations which damage jobs and the economy there should be a sharp fall in public spending and a large rise in tax revenues as the economy bounces back. The measures to help offset the anti virus actions are costed at a whopping Ā£ 250 bn this year. There has also been a substantial revenue loss. Correcting both these adverse moves in the accounts will slash the deficit.
Given my worries about the balance of payments the government would be wise to reduce spending in foreign currencies.It is now seeking to reduce the overseas aid budget. Mrs Mayās deal against my advice was weak on contributions to the EU so next year the UK is still budgeted in the Red Book to send Ā£10 bn to them. This needs review, as it seems far too high given we have left. The government should review all public purchasing to see where there can be import substitution.If more the Public sectorās needs can be met from domestic supply it will Generate more jobs and offsetting tax revenue at home. Defence procurement, purchase of all trains and vehicles, food for public sector institutions and many other items could be shifted to more U.K. sourcing now are out of the EU.
Within the fast growing public capital spending plans rests the very expensive HS2 which remains a bad investment. The state also needs to grips with the huge railway subsidies and set out new timetables and service plans geared to our changed And reduced needs for train travel.
March 7, 2021
Good Morning,
The conversation will go something like this:
Sunak to minister of Spending. ” We have to cut back on total government spending, your department will
have its budget cut by 30%..”
Min. of Spending: ” But you can’t do that! my department is one of the most important in
government, we have great plans…”
Sunak to Min. of S: ” I can’t help that, we’ve got to find ways to cut our costs”
Min of S: ”But if you cut MY budget, it’ll mean I’M LESS IMORTANT..”
Until you nice folk in government stop equating the the amount you’re allowed to spend, of our money, with your ego’s we’re not going to make much progress….
March 7, 2021
@Peter Wood; But if you cut MY budget, itāll mean IāM LESS IMPORTANT..
Yes indeed, and the Chancellors reply to the SoS will be; “But if you don;t cut your budget, itāll mean IāM EVEN LESS IMPORTANT.ā
A govt can not cut its way out of a balance of payments crisis, only invest its way out.
March 7, 2021
This government (indeed most governments) would not know a good investment if it punched them in the face (witness HS2 and the Ā£ many trillions war on harmless plant food). The best investment for this government would be minimum redundancy payment for all the many people working for it but doing little or nothing of value (or often even doing active harm). That plus large tax cuts to encourage UK investment and growth.
March 7, 2021
Indeed LL.
March 7, 2021
LL,
JRās question after 10 years shows how slow he and his party are on the uptake! After all it was one of their many promises!
March 8, 2021
Reaction Engines – even someone with a degree in underwater basket weaving should be able to see the potential.
JF
March 8, 2021
It all depends on what kind of return you are looking for. A sole concern with costs and profit results in zero PPE, a reduction in generation capacity, all valuable jobs and industry moved offshore, etc.
March 10, 2021
Whereas property developers make the best investments for the public good?
Clearly I have the incorrect perspective on all the concreting, building large estates on flood plains and shrinking the size of residential hutches.
March 7, 2021
+1
March 7, 2021
Good grief JR we had this ten years ago! Osborne said 80% cuts against 20% tax rises, then changed based on economy rot.
Osborne era hired 2,000 more tax inspectors! How about Cameronās disgraceful smearing Carr for offshore tax scheme when he did it himself!
Same for balanced structural deficit by 2015 then pay down the debt! This was your partyās central economic plank for ten years! Lies all lies.
Fake Tories are a low tax party is for the birds.
Immigration policy -cut to tens of thousands! How many new policies without any changes whatsoever and all categories having historic rises !
The mess in public finances is yours to own. Not financial crash, not an inanimate virus govt. liesetc. Your govt choices to tax, spend and piss down the drain.
March 7, 2021
“Time to consider controlling public spending”.
Shouldn’t we always be considering ‘controlling’ public spending ?
March 7, 2021
Spot on. Itās frightening to think it is not always the case. Lord Dan Hannan who sits on one of Liz Trussās committees shreds the government on its tax hikes in the Sunday Telegraph today quoting the achievements of Ronald Reagan and Nigel Lawson in getting deficits down by cutting taxes.
From Sage lockdown scientists to Sunak. We are truly in the grip of the mad.
March 7, 2021
Nice,
PHE/NHS pamphlet with invitations for vaccinations is worth a read. It is clear from the leaflet it is not known if the vaccines stop the spread of the virus so why is there talk of passports?
A lot of āshouldā included with indeterminate language, even when referring to pregnant women to another website rather than give definitive advice etc ed..although good to read pregnant women not āpeopleā like the Marxist govt uses.
Where is the evidence for compulsory wearing of masks? Why no reference to the latest Danish study last year where masks make no significant difference as Van Tam originally told this nation. No check on quality or standards. Again, why a recommendation for children to wear them! All about scaring people into govt. totalitarian compliance. The quality of some masks are visibly about fashion not medical infection reasons. Good to see people some US states burning them.
An absolute never-ending govt. horror show on every level- socially, economically, educationally, way of life, freedoms, liberties and governance.
JR, suggest review of NHS in dispensing with all management tiers with a view to converting to operational duties like nurses, doctors, cleaners.
March 7, 2021
Why vaccine ‘passports’, Hope? Surely because passports are used to control people. That’s all this has ever been about. Not public health, as you obviously realise.
March 7, 2021
Yes, I thought that coming from a Tory that was unusual.
But given John’s worries about the balance of payments deficit, I wonder how they are affected by the news that Gove’s Cabinet Office has been reprimanded for using unverifiable figures, to try to refute the RHA’s observation that trade volumes during January were down 68% on the previous January’s?
There is in fact no reliable evidence at all that the RHA’s figures were anything other than highly representative.
March 7, 2021
@MiC
āTime to consider controlling public spendingā.
…. you imply that the comment coming from Labour would not have been unusual ?
…… although maybe it would ?
March 7, 2021
I havenāt recently bern reading about a sorry litany of British defeats since 9/11, Iraq/Afghanistan etc as indeed they were despite the spin. A critical military precept for operational reasons is tell the truth.
āToo many ministers flout itā
Seems to be endemic in government not helped by Borisās known attribute of treating it like a piece of elastic.
March 7, 2021
Balance of payments never appears not to have their minds when considering the the servitude agreement between EU and UK!
March 7, 2021
MiC you canāt compare locked down January 2021 with free and open January 2020 for goodness sakes, compare January 2021 with April 2020 when the first lockdown was on, or if you prefer June 2020 when lockdown was still on.
March 7, 2021
Indeed but Governments almost never do HS2 for example. Not their money nor they who get the value from the spend (perhaps vested interest with good connections benefit but rarely in general). So they care not the price nor the value delivered (be it positive or often even negative).
The most important single fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit. With government the money is just demanded with the threat of jail. In the UK we do not have free markets in energy, healthcare, education, broadcasting, banking, housing and very many other things.
March 7, 2021
rarely the public in general – I meant.
March 7, 2021
LL,
Including BBC tax and now forcing over 75ās with jail!
March 7, 2021
Indeed and IHT tax threshold is still frozen at Ā£325k. We were promised Ā£1 million each by Osborne years back when Gordon Brown bottled is early election plans. Surely now no one can be under any illusion that the Tories are a high tax, borrow, over regulate and waste party. Major buried the party for 3+ terms with his idiotic ERM fiasco (apology still awaited) and the Tories reputation for relative economic competence. Sunak is now doing the same for taxation levels and damaging the recovery hugely in the process.
March 7, 2021
Don’t forget the Residence Nil Rate Band, of an extra Ā£175K.
March 8, 2021
Well yes but only applies for a PPR in certain cases and gifts to children and grandchildren. More idiotic complexity. Most sensible countries have no IHT at all in the US it cuts in only after about $10 million and we have Ā£325K.
March 7, 2021
+1
March 7, 2021
Good morning
Sir John
Yesterday I wrote about ‘government displacement activity’. To elaborate on one of my examples given, and to remain on topic, I will choose housing.
Currently we are undergoing a bit of a housing boom. This in part is being driven by MASS IMMIGRATION. I mean, all those foreign healthcare workers have to live somewhere, even if it is at the expense of our own. To this end government is still promoting its Help to Buy Scheme. This scheme is artificially inflating demand. But where is all the materials, equipment and labour coming from ? Well a lot of it is coming from abroad. So if you want to lower our balance of payments you are going to have to lower or completely stop MASS IMMIGRATION and the importing of all said materials, equipment and labour. Not going to happen as the government is hooked on higher GDP as a means of controlling inflation.
It is very simple to say these things but, in the real world life is much, much more complicated.
š
March 7, 2021
@Mark B; How many legal adult migrants arrived in the UK in 2019, how many British born children became adults and left their parental/guardianship homes in 2019, unless the former is a larger sum of the latter your just peddling the usual hard right anti-migrant nonsense, a legal way of being offensive; might I also suggest that far from a housing boom all we have is a house price boom, caused by a LACK of houses?
As for legal migrants, there was the usual anti Brexit bias on the BBC news channel yesterday, apparently British cut flower growers are having to let their crop whither in the fields because there is a lack of labour to pick them this year, all blamed on Brexit of course, when actually -as the grower pointed out- the real cause the problem is the laziness of the average young, fit, health, British unskilled job-seeker. The grower said he had indeed employed some UK sourced labourers but they lasted 3 days before walking off the job….
March 7, 2021
Young people donāt want to pick flowers. It was mostly old people who voted for Brexit. Why are you not all in the fields picking for your country?
March 7, 2021
I did strawberry and potato picking when young. That’s how we spent our school holidays. Earning our own money.
March 7, 2021
Most older people grow their own flowers in gardens. Flower purchases are mostly by the younger generations – like yours.
March 7, 2021
@Andy; EXACTLY my point, how unintentionally spot on you are! There is a difference won’t and can’t, you might be wise to understand that before mouthing off, Brexit has nothing what so ever with modern-day youth refusing to do a bit of hard physical work.
March 7, 2021
When I was young there was the job of potato picking where I lived. It was hard work and often done in miserable weather but when it was all over and we had recovered from the aches and pains we mostly felt good and had aquired bragging rights. We were boys, and some girls too, and we had been doing a grown ups work.
March 7, 2021
Well perhaps if their benefit was stopped it might focus the mind a bit more.
March 7, 2021
FU S
Exactly
March 8, 2021
If the young person has a family they can keep their benefits and also keep the tax free earnings from picking fruit and vegetables under Universal Credit.
It is a very generous benefit for families.
March 7, 2021
“The grower said he had indeed employed some UK sourced labourers but they lasted 3 days before walking off the jobā¦.”
Yes. Hard work is a bit of a shock to the body. Many who grumble about the lazy are incapable of doing it themselves. We have a severe problem with our aversion to strenuous movement and exposure to the elements in the UK.
March 7, 2021
That’s because it’s far easier to lay your backside in bed picking up benefits than getting out to work. Try this in Spain. Benefits only last a limited time and then you work or starve.
March 7, 2021
@FUS; It is also easy for some types to sit their backsides on office chairs all day, often doing non-jobs, having previously created the non-work to justify their own employment.
March 7, 2021
Indeed. Well if the grower cannot find people he will have to pay more or mechanise more or change his business.
March 7, 2021
Yes. Effectively the farmer has been subsidised by our welfare system.
March 7, 2021
@LL; Says the person who has obviously never worked on a farms or market gardens, and most likely has never set foot on them either, some work can not be automated, nor can profit margins be cut any more – well not if the UK is going to be self-sufficient in basic food.
March 8, 2021
@ Jerry.
“Says the person who has obviously never worked on a farms or market gardens, and most likely has never set foot on them either”
Actually FYI I have done all of these things in Lancashire, Suffolk and Kent.
March 8, 2021
@Lifelogic; I meant as a career, not a summer holiday job! Otherwise you would fully understand not all jobs can be mechanised, due to machines not being able to handle delicate crops and/or for the lack of a trained eye that no AI will likely ever match.
Then, who is going to manufacture and finance all these new machines, assuming they can be designed, in the past mechanical/technological advances in farming and growing tended to be aided via MAFF & HMT, and if the equipment is imported that’s not going to do our balance of payment much good either. Surely the best solution is just to stop filling our school age youth with grand ideas about them being the next Dyson or Musk by the age of 30, no?…
March 7, 2021
@jerry – deaths > births for people living here except those of first generation immigrant so population would be falling if it wasn’t for immigration and immigrant births.
There might be enough houses. There might not but the chances would be greater.
March 7, 2021
@NS; So still no hard figures then….
March 8, 2021
@jerry – prove me wrong!
March 7, 2021
Mark,
High energy required to make cement and concrete! Farming land built over for roads and housing.
In stark contrast to the green whacko announcements in Sunak dishonest budget. We know it is dishonest because he has every statistic he could wish for and claimed low tax conservatives when taxation at a 70 year high and more to come. Wait for your council tax bill!
March 7, 2021
Indeed tax to death Tories surely everyone can see this now?
March 7, 2021
Were Overseas Aid to remain at the same percentage of GDP it should reduce as a finite sum. There are grounds for reducing it further to eliminate the obscenity of the oganisers of it desperately trying to spend it all at the end of the accounting period, as if that was a measure of their success. We need an independent audit of where it goes and what it achieves. I find it hard to swallow when there is so much humanitarian need at home.
HMG has not to my knowledge spelt out what and why we are continuing to pay the EU after we have left. Time for a public reconing. Too many of the deficiencies of the deal struck are seeping out already. NI, fishing and the burocratic nature of ongoing trade need resolution by leverage. There is nothing better than money, for which the EU are desperate, to act as leverage. Time to get tough.
On HMG spending , corporate spending, and individual spending, we should all be asking figuratively, do we need that Mercedes or BMW, can we not use something home grown. The answer in most cases is yes.
With railways, as the pandemic subsides and we know the full affect of home working, the market will have decided. HMG only needs to taylor its input to the new demand. There is great scope for asking how best to use the railways for goods traffic. What does goods traffic demand that railways do not currently provide. Can their business plan be changed to reduce the need for road transport or should we turn railway lines into motorways in some cases.
If there is one urgent need for HMG spending it is in home grown power generation, and the opportunity is there to do it with Small Nuclear Plants from Rolls Royce, unless their advertising is fantasy which I doubt.
Having solved this mornings problems I will rest my pen.
March 7, 2021
+1
March 7, 2021
You are continuing to pay the EU because that is what Conservative MPs signed up to in the withdrawal agreement. The last payment will be made in 2064 – more than 40 years from now. I will be in my 90s by then. Most of the proponents of Brexit will be in wooden boxes. Their grandchildren left to pay the bill for their folly.
March 7, 2021
You really do propound some idiot logic. Had we not left we would be paying the normal heavy bill as the second highest nett contributor to the EU folly each year, increasing and for ever. Assuming you have any, would you like to predict your grandchildrens thoughts on such a bill. Anyway if your ageist philosophy takes off with them they will be buying you a one way ticket to a Swiss clinic. Au revoir grandad.
March 7, 2021
But they will have saved you me and everyone else, and all our children, grandchildren etc Ā£12 bn pa net, and rising. So even at present prices thatās at least Ā£1/2 trillion by then. Imagine if we were still in the EU. Even leaving aside the vaccine fiasco, which weād have been sucked into, we would have been on the hook for several tens of billions of euros for the ā¬390bn euro bailout transfers (ācovid recoveryā). The ādivorce billā, unnecessary as it was, was a small price to pay for these huge savings.
March 7, 2021
and your point is what? We incurred massive loans from the US during the WW2 who did very well from the industrial gains on our massive consumption. We continued to pay back over decades. The payments to the EU are membership fees for which no discernable advantage has been made, quite the reverse being true.
March 7, 2021
You keep going on about this, but home-grown UK crime – at twice the pro-rata European Union average – costs us ORDERS more.
Conservative analysis puts it at seven percent of GDP, but the contingent costs are literally incalculable.
Why is THIS not your priority?
Is it because Labour were actually quite good at reducing it?
March 7, 2021
We’re not allowed to have a debate on the crime demographics.
March 8, 2021
Rubbish.
It’s a fact that the UK’s prison population in terms of its ethnic make-up as between UK born and non UK born is pretty well exactly the same as those on the outside.
You can break down those groups further if you like, and no one will prevent you from publishing and discussing that information.
The UK does not have the most immigration of European countries anyway, and those manage about half the UK’s crime rate pro rata average.
March 7, 2021
I cannot take the Boris/Sunak government remotely seriously they are clearly green crap pushing, tax borrow and piss down the drain, lock down socialists. The budget was an avoidably bad one that will haunt the Conservatives for years to come.
The UK needs far less government, far lower taxes, cheap reliable energy, to unlock now and a huge bonfire of red tape. But this government has not even got the gumption to cancel HS2 or the Net Zero plant food emissions agenda. Thatcher showed how to win serial elections. All the other Conservative PMs (and of course the Labour ones) in my lifetime have been a disaster. Boris &Sunak have a duff socialist compass too.
March 7, 2021
Matt Ridley is as usual spot on today in the Sunday Telegraph.
The petty, isolationist EU is wrecking Europe. It is a tragedy to see a beautiful and cultured continent stifled by bureaucratic tyranny.
There is something rather apt in the coincidence of an Italian ban on vaccine exports to Australia and the negotiation by Liz Truss, the Trade Secretary, of lower tariffs on trade with the United States. One is as pure a demonstration of spiteful EU protectionism as one could imagine; the other a clear demonstration of mutual gains from freer trade.
March 7, 2021
+1
March 7, 2021
And read āthe big lieā by Jeremy Warner putting Sunakās so called honesty into context.
March 7, 2021
Indeed when a politician says āI have to honest with youā you know what is coming. He put up stamp duty by up to Ā£15k per house (from later this year) to absurdly high rates and then claimed āstamp duty – cutā.
March 7, 2021
Indeed LL. Clearly they are dancing to the globalists’ tune.
March 7, 2021
It is not only the public services that should told they have to purchase British products. What about all the charities and other organisations that receive funding in the way of tax relief and other indirect public assistance?
Is it really expecting too much to purchase all their vehicles for example that are manufactured or assembled in the UK. The NHS and police forces are prime examples of organisations all driving a very high percentage of foreign badges vehicles. Companies used for government building contracts told that plant etc must be British manufactured. Small price to pay for a multi million pound contract.
March 7, 2021
All very sound in theory but I guess cost will be a key differentiator. Whose going to pay the extra to āgo localā
Put our taxes up even higher, reduce services?
March 7, 2021
Nig 1
If British companies get more orders from within and they have to increase manufacturing, labour and subcontractor suppliers, with everyone producing more and making more money does not the extra taxes being paid on company profits and the wages offset or even eradicate the initial outlay help the exchequer and enable companies to adopt better practices and become even more competitive? There must be a cost-saving knowing you have a secure home market that your company is not then totally relying on exports to impact on the bottom line. It may even satisfy those that wish to see less manufacturing-related transport journeys and the subsequent overall reduced carbon footprint.
March 7, 2021
Naive to think that overseas manufacturers have not efficiently squeezed all the costs out. James Dyson a perfect example. High value work done in the U.K. manufacturing overstates where costs especially labour are noticeably lower.
Germany could be an examplar, they have protected their markets by making the standards so high (costly) that there are few entrants and indeed everything oozes extraordinary quality but I found the prices eye wateringly high, German consumers seem content to pay. I wouldnāt be.
March 7, 2021
I used to visit Malmesbury (Dyson’s base) frequently ~ the Company wanted to build a factory there but the Council refused planning permission. None of the locals could understand why, and then manufacturing went overseas.
March 8, 2021
You are being a bit naive to think it is that simple. I’ve been involved in business in Germany where even if you exceed the standards and meet the financial case they still protect their local industry.
March 7, 2021
More taxes would be paid by these companies and the employees to benefit the treasury. If we don’t buy British then say goodbye to companies and jobs.
March 7, 2021
@FUS; Indeed, good old Keynesian/New Deal economics…
March 7, 2021
@turboterrier; We all need to be encouraged to buy British, where ever possible, and be far more aware of a products origin otherwise (as a percentage, if of multiple origin), people also need to be made more aware of company ownerships.
March 7, 2021
Great post Turbo
March 7, 2021
Time for your Gov. to recognise the English NHS workers and award them a fair pay rise, not the insulting 1% announced.
Funny how it’s ‘all we can afford’ for Nurses. But when it comes to MP’s pay the sky’s the limit.
Shame on you all.
March 7, 2021
How many of the Critical Care staff are English? Perhaps you intended England’s NHS?
March 7, 2021
Indeed I did.
March 7, 2021
To be fair many people (likely to be me too) have sacrificed their jobs to make NHS jobs among the most secure and most coveted in the country (record application rates.) We have wrecked our economy and way of life to “save the NHS.” The Army doesn’t award pay rises for wars fought, it awards only medals.
March 7, 2021
Spot on No Longer Anon
March 7, 2021
Which is why I didn’t appreciate seeing lots of highly choreographed TikTok videos from ‘busy’ hospitals. Only a minority of staff were in the front line of the CV-19 battle.
March 7, 2021
This was most annoying when we were told to relax and stay at home by people whose jobs and pensions were secure (actually I’ve worked throughout the crisis but my business is bust and I’m on anti depressants.)
March 7, 2021
Don’t military personnel get an active duty enhancement?
That’s a question not a statement
March 7, 2021
Millions of people took a 20% pay cut to protect the NHS. Many businesses went bankrupt to protect the NHS. Hundreds of thousands of people had their cancer appointments cancelled by the NHS. Is the NHS grateful for the sacrifices made by these people ? It appears not. Their 10.5% pay demand is an insult to those people who pay their wages.
March 7, 2021
There is PLENTY of money to go round.
Ā£340k payout to civil servant who took Priti Patel to a tribunal.
Ā£2.4 million to turn a Grade 1 listed building into a media centre.
Mr. Redwood – everyone knows the list goes on and on in every sector and department of government. No-one in government has any intention of ācontrolling public spendingā.
Iād like to see it made a criminal offence to waste public money with a simple process to report a waste of money, a small panel (not government appointed) to reach a decision and personal liability for anyone deemed guilty of the offence of ā a gross waste of public moneyā.
March 7, 2021
+1
I would like to this happen over scare mongering covid costs. SAGE, Johnson and Hancock are most certainly culpable.
I am also of the opinion that the politicians who voted for this carnage for the last 12 months are also made culpable. They still have not lost their jobs, lucrative expenses and pensions, unlike the nearly million people they have made unemployed and who can’t pay their mortgages etc. They have not given a second thought to those who have died because treatments for anything else, other than ‘covid’ were stopped. Nor have they given any consideration to the mental health created as a direct result of then agreeing to this draconian cruelty.
March 7, 2021
Mike
“. . . a small panel (not government appointed) to reach a decision . . . “
That would be the Legislature’s job. Trouble is, until we separate the Legislature from the Executive, and elect them on differing election cycles, the Executive will always have the Legislature in its back pocket.
March 7, 2021
Indeed Mark, particularly your suggestion about wasting money.
March 7, 2021
Sunak says he wants to be āhonestā. Perhaps some one could explain to him that increasing stamp duty by up to Ā£15,000 per property later this year is not ā Stamp duty ā cut.ā not is it honest, as he claimed in the budget speech. Surely even a socialist PPE graduate can grasp this?
To be honest he should have ended:-
Stamp duty increased, income tax increased, National Insurance increased, 55% pension tax increased, council tax increased, corporation tax increased, energy prices increased, energy reliability decreased, tax complexity increased, red tape increased.
So investment, jobs, competitivity, tax revenues and growth all duly throttled for years.
And, yes to be honest and fair in all that we do.
Madam Deputy Speaker.
This is a Budget that meets that moment.
And I commend it to the House.
March 7, 2021
Agreed. I will be paying more income tax because there has been a slight rise in my State Pension!
Giving with one hand and taking with another slight of hand is so obvious. Does he really think we wouldn’t notice?
March 7, 2021
LL,
I thought to include the words honest, to be straight crap garbage made him look utterly ridiculous and quite rightly allowed everyone to rebut his false claim. The statistics and facts over ten years show what an utterly easily led fool he is with his dishonest claim of low tax conservatives and the distortion, to say the least, of his partyās record!
March 7, 2021
The stamp duty will not be increased, the stamp duty holiday will end up. The stamp duty will return to what it was before Covid hurt the country. Even a Cambridge graduate should see that? Or is this too complicated a notion for you to āget itā?
And have you realised that at the end of 2010, you were already proffering a similar type of comments (I read with delight some of your contributions on JRās blog of these days). Did you realise that the last governments in (2010), 2015, 2017, 2019, have all been (Conservative driven or) Conservative (which I guess you must have been supporting)?
Do you also realise that your āall so rightā Telegraph and Spectator columnists only just talk but are basically just inept ringside watchers feeding small heads like yours with ātheir great ideasā without themselves having to bear the consequences of their weekly well remunerated pensums?
March 8, 2021
Her,
Your flaw in thinking is that Chinese virus did not cause economic hurt. It is simply impossible. Johnsonās govt made choices and decisions. You will recall he flip flopped with his response. Sometimes U-turning within a day. That does not bode well for cogent thinking or instil confidence in govt.
Repeatedly lies of following the science when it was evident that was not the case.
I guess some of those Spectator columnists worked under Johnson as editor. Some of them very intelligent in stark contrast to your false claims.
March 7, 2021
The govtās certainly following IMF orders. ( As usual gold plating every command!).
Spend, Spend,Spend they were told….and they are…with a vengeance.
The arrogance is staggering.
We live here too.
March 7, 2021
Which reminds me of (Mrs x ed) a British woman who became famous when she told the media she would “spend, spend, spend” after her second husband won Ā£152,319 (equivalent to Ā£3,500,000 adjusted for inflation ) on the football pools in 1961. She became the subject of tabloid news stories for many years due to her and husband’s (he died 4 years later) rapid spending of their fortune and her later 3 more marriages chaotic life. Similarities to Tory PMs?
March 7, 2021
+1
March 7, 2021
A cold and frosty morning.
Someone should tell Jack Frost about you-know-what.
He obviously doesnāt know!š¬
March 7, 2021
Your headline “Time to consider controlling public spending?” says all we need to know about the out of control direction of travel of the Johnson government. He is bankrupting the national finances and thousands of private businesses. The Conservative party needs to replace him before he causes irreversible damage to the national economy.
March 7, 2021
Cancelling the HS2 vanity project would solve 1/4 of the covid / lockdown ā¬400bn borrowing problem at a stroke.
Mrs may did negotiate extraordinarily badly with the EU. But at least once the ādivorce billā is paid, there is a saving of at least Ā£12bn net pa (rising indefinitely).
March 7, 2021
The Net zero carbon agenda will cost far more than Covid and achieve nothing at all anyway.
March 7, 2021
We’ll see on that saving. I want know what and why are we paying this huge sum having been a positive contributor in all years of our membership bar one. Useless Government.
March 7, 2021
Die to the ādivorce billā which became inevitable once mrs may agreed to the eus sequencing of negotiations.
March 7, 2021
EU determines how much and when it will be paid. Many think it will run to over a hundred billion! Any disagreement ECJ decides. Yet Johnson claims UK no longer under this court and has taken back control of money! As for taking back control of borders we all know what is happening in N.Ireland makes that another in a long list of lies.
March 7, 2021
And I want to know if we are now collecting VAT for ourselves or still the EU ??
March 7, 2021
I understand the GB has stopped sending VAT to EU and are keeping the lot….that an extra 20% VAT to our government – however I believe that the NI protocal requires that we still send that 20% VAT to the EU ?????
March 7, 2021
Talking about the railways, can we resurrect the spirit of Richard Beeching (in the form of a modern day hatchet man) and set him to task over government departments and quangos? If they don’t return value for money, they get the chop. As a guide, any job or department containing the word “diversity” could probably go.
March 7, 2021
With an eye to the future.
Most people will be unable to for to run an electric car.
March 7, 2021
Too true – only a quarter of home have a garage or driveway ….the other three quarters cant charge an EV
March 7, 2021
Good morning
Surplus corona virus vaccines donated to other countries should be UK manufactured and accounted for in the foreign aid budget. The UK may also wish to consider supplying countries with extensive travel links such Ireland and the Commonwealth.
Here on the Isle of Man, we purchase vaccine supplies from the UK. They are much needed, as we experience a covid outbreak which originated from infections to passengers on the Heysham/Douglas ferry from a crew member.
The UK should learn from our experience and prioritise vaccination and daily covid swab testing of all ferry and air crew, including those who live outside the UK (eg those based in France, Holland, Ireland etc…)
March 7, 2021
Yes tax income may rise after the lockdown but by how much?
Companies which have not traded for a year or at a fraction of their normal turnover may not even make a profit for the next couple of years, so no Corporation tax bill for them, like wise all of the self employed who failed to work normally, less earnings so less tax.
Yes VAT may get a faster boost but the chancellor is allowing a lower rate for some industries for 6months.
Then we have the default on Government loans to companies which have gone bust.
Thus my view it will take probably a couple of years before we get back to anything like the normal tax take.
March 7, 2021
We could stop wasting taxpayers money on Hancock’s pet schemes
I noticed, hidden deep in the small print of the budget, an extra Ā£15 billion over next year for Dido Harding’s useless “NHS” test and trace scheme. Despite Hancock’s spin, it is run by the Dept of Health and Social Care, not the NHS
Test and Trace has been dogged by criticism since its launch last April, with critics seizing on its use of private consultants at Ā£1,000-a-day, its outsourcing to firms with no experience and its failure to deliver contact tracing rates or the rapid test turnaround times seen as vital to stop the spread of the Chinese plague virus. Test and Trace faced fresh criticism on Thursday, when Sky News revealed that its App had barely used any of the check-in data from hundreds of millions of people who visited pubs, restaurants and hairdressers before lockdown.
We could have bought ten of Johnson’s new Type 32 frigates, or several new Astute class hunter-killer submarines, or given every child a laptop, or fed the starving kids for years for the Ā£15 billion
March 7, 2021
Well said. This spend is scandalous
March 7, 2021
Sakara
Not defending the scheme at all, but starting something of this size and scale with a panic timescale will always be expensive, will always require a lot of money, and much will be wasted during that start up as lessons are learnt and the programme modified, but it is now up and running, and it would appear at over a 95% success rate. Something many countries in the World would only dream of when they are still operating as a democracy.
No not everything has gone right, mistakes have been made, and money wasted but remember, hindsight is a gift for those who wish to find fault.
Look at the pathetic arguments now over PPE when the government were criticised for searching the World for PPE instead of filling in paperwork on time or failing to go out to tender when immediate decisions had to be made, then it was, do you want it or not, because someone else does.
March 7, 2021
I wholeheartedly agree with the comment above that the UK should deploy its technological expertise, rather than overseas grants, as its contribution to reducing global co2 emissions.
The UK’s modular nuclear tech could soon be exported worldwide and government needs to find ways for UK R&D to be funded under our existing international commitments.
March 7, 2021
The only āanti-pandemicā measures a country needs ( if there is ever a pandemic) are a ready-to-go health service and moth-balled isolation facilities.
The cost of a prepared health service = nothing in contrast to present devastation.
āJust in timeā really does not cut it with healthcare!
The pandemic plan 2011 contains a modicum of sense.
Handing out antivirals to reduce pressure on primary services for example.
An alleged stockpile of PPE (??). Where did that go then?
āCatch it, bin it, kill itā was the catchphrase then!! So still a lot of stupidity.
Strangely though there was no mention of incarceration or coercion. But that must be because of this……š¤
āIt is important to note that there are distinct differences between a coronavirus pandemic and pandemic influenza. While Exercise Cygnus fed into pandemic preparedness plans that informed the UK COVID-19 response, not all recommendations from Exercise Cygnus can be applied to the current COVID-19 responseā. From govt. āPandemic Preparednessā.
March 7, 2021
You also need mothballed extra staff, either that or greatly reduce the “normal” workload for health workers.
That doesn’t fit with the Tories’ Tufton Street doctrine at all.
So it won’t happen – even after what we’ve been through, or if it had been ten times worse.
Do you still not see?
March 7, 2021
Of course I do!!!!
Do you even begin to believe that I am remotely happy with the present situation?
Do you think I would EVER trust ANY political party?
Re mothballed staff…govt. CLAIMS to have recruited thousands of retired doctors etc. That might work in an emergency?
But govtās āPandemic Planā, which is relatively sane, talks of redeployment of emergency trained staff and volunteering for extra duty. That would probably work.
But of course they did not follow their own plan.
Oh no…not barmy enough.
March 7, 2021
You are quite right Sir John and therein lies the rub.
The UK is a mature middle aged middle sized player with expensive tastes and some abilities – but not enough to keep it all going. We will have to draw our horns in. The world is suffering from a shortage of true innovation. Where are the Time Machines or the Hoverboards or the Transgalactic Transporters? They don’t exist because they can’t exist. In many many areas we are up against the laws of nature. All we can do is do the same things as everyone else – but slightly better or slightly more cheaply.
We could cut down imports but that idea has a short lifetime. We could become a pariah nation, supplying drugs and armaments and financial fiddles to all and sundry – but that idea too has a short lifetime. Batten down the hatches for home-produced tinny cars we can just afford. All to spend their time broken down on our un-smart motorways ready to be smashed by heavy German trucks delivering our groceries.
In short the only thing government can do is cut barriers to competition and open the country up to trade. But this does mean a race to the bottom – we will get poorer. We could cut our Green credentials – but that takes us down the pariah route and ultimately unprofitable.
You could look at government efficiency and I don’t mean cutting the pay of low level workers, I mean getting rid of the fat cats and the consultants and advisors and the SPADS. Go back to a well trained Civil Service that is not afraid to say ‘No Minister’ because most of the ideas brought out by your SPADS and consultants and apologies for ministers are rubbish, we need professionals not amateurs. We need more well considered bureaucracy. Tell Boris and Carrie – sorry, all you get is a gas fire and some second hand brown furniture.
March 7, 2021
It would help.
So far it seems that only one side of the coin has been examined – how much tax money can be squeezed further out of an already over-taxed society.
Having gotten into the mood for spending, the government has forgotten that they already spend excessively on many things that we don’t need, that many of us want reduced in significance and money spent on them.
Boris spending Ā£Millions on a number 10 media centre sends all the wrong signals, and suggests that he really doesn’t understand economics or even the idea of working to a budget.
You’d imagine Boris would know when to stop spending on things that can wait, things that we have no need for and things that will become their own white elephant.
We need a vastly reduced central government – bare bones administration costs – Quangos reduced / removed by 90%.
Likewise Parliament should be in control and responsible for all the functions it has sub-let to other organisations over the years.
It was a sad day that Boris let Cummings go, for with his departure went much credibility.
March 7, 2021
I’ll go further by pointing out that the government has been seduced by the generals and the admirals, and persuaded to plough yet more money into defence. I have no problem with actual defence (i.e., control of UK airspace and waters; strategic intelligence; security & counter-terrorism) but the focus seems to be on the eye-wateringly expensive idea of being able to sail an aircraft carrier & escorts through the South China Sea from time to time.
In these straightened times, our senior officers need to curb their ambitions and accept a realistic defence posture for the country in the part of the world in which the country sits.
March 7, 2021
As I understand it, in the case of many of the large international charities the government will match my contribution pound for pound. That should stop.
It will of course have a double benefit. It will save taxpayers money and of course detach these ‘charities’ from government circles where they have too much influence.
If private donors are upset they can simply give more of their money.
March 7, 2021
In the Telegraph today unelected bureaucrat David Frost tells the EU itās their job to make Brexit a success.
The goon who negotiated the two worst deals this country has ever agreed blaming someone else for his mess. Tell the public inquiry Frosty – coz one day youāll have to.
Meanwhile Farage has stood down from politics – again. Whatās this, the 96th time? Now we canāt sell fish and now your grandchildrenās futures have been harmed his says his lifeās work is done. Not yet Nige. There is still your sentence to serve yet.
March 7, 2021
Yet you support unelected bureaucrats in the EU. Get some new material please, your old stuff is stale.
March 7, 2021
Our four biggest items of household expenditure – after our taxes – are our mortgage, schools fees, holidays and cars. If we want to save money we look at these areas. We could take our son out of private school – that would save money. We could remortgage. That would too. We could to on cheaper holidays or none at all.
We could also swap our regular products for supermarket own brands. This would save a little bit but it would be negligible compared to tackling the big items.
Government spending should be the same. If you want to save money tackle the big items. Instead you lot bang on about overseas aid and money to the EU. Negligible expenses.
The biggest single item of government expenditure is pensions and welfare. Almost a third of government spending in total. Another massive item of expenditure is health care. The majority of the health budget goes on the old. The defence budget – what a waste of money. Our cash so some toffs can play with big boys toys and pretend we are still a world power. Debt interest. Criminal justice when, if we invested in education, we wouldnāt need it.
Axe pensions, make the elderly pay extra for their health care, scrap the military- aside from a small emergency reaction force – and divert half of the criminal justice budget to education. This is how you save money. A lot of it too.
You do not save much money by allowing poor brown kids in Yemen to die. But it does make you a worse person.
March 7, 2021
Pathetic comment as usual. What do you suggest pensioners live on? I’d love to hear your suggestions. Are you going to take away nurses pensions that they have paid in for when they retire? You really are dense and it’s laughable that you have the nerve to show it in public.
March 7, 2021
Heās doubtless talking about the state pension as he probably thinks he wonāt need to rely on it in retirement.
OAPs might want to use their electoral muscle to fight back against āAgeistā Andy and lobby for limiting tax relief on pension contributions to the basic rate, removing charitable status from independent schools and levying VAT on the fees they charge. Those with the broadest shoulders must pay their fair share, apparently.
March 7, 2021
I donāt care what you live on. Thatās your problem. I donāt see why my taxes should fund your pensions.
And, no. Virtually none of you have paid as much into the system as you now take out. You paid in on the basis that you would live 5 to 10 year beyond retirement. Many of you are now 10-20 years beyond retirement.
Your contribution has long since been repaid in full and you are now living off the generosity of others.
But as you point out, electorally it is easier to blame foreigners than granny for our economic ills.
March 7, 2021
Letās hope you can get these ideas into the next Labour manifesto.
March 7, 2021
cheer up Andy, possibly 100,000 OAPs died in the last year from issues that ended with Covid. That means the State doesn’t pay Pension to them, private pensions will be reduced, IHT will kick in – lots of additional tax to pay, Funeral Directors having a wonderful time financially. Look on the bright side?
March 7, 2021
Boris Johnson`s ‘deal’, depended on agreement to the payments of which Macavity Redwood, complains . This is the Brexit approach, in its most exquisite form.
Denial- The settlement, estimated at Ā£39bn ( remember ?), was an invention of remainers.
Argument – The (grossly unfair …) accounting of the EU`s budget had a ramp on and a ramp off . The dispute was a confected and has been quietly dropped.
Pretend it never happened – Conveniently forgotten, this money, that was spent ten times on a daily basis has been quietly handed over. A lot has been paid in regular contributions with Ā£25bn left to pay of Ā£18bn , in the next five years…
Sir John ,may, of course, review it, to his hearts content. I think its nice for him to have a hobby .
Anyhoo, on the proposed cosy deal between protected UK suppliers and the public sector . Well what could possibly go wrong with that ?
Yours Despairingly
Newmania
March 7, 2021
Boris should be concentrating on improving internet and mobile phone coverage rather than wasting money on white elephant projects like HS2 and a tunnel between Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Also, Goveās idea of re-wilding our countryside by paying farmers to stop growing produce is utter madness.
This Government is out of control with its expensive green initiatives and the chumocracy that seems to have taken them over.
Do we not have an effective audit department that can reign in excessive wasteful spending? Maybe look to introduce some of the ideas from the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
March 7, 2021
If the tunnel gets approval, NI with continued betrayal by ‘Boris’ returns to total EU control, and Scotland gets independent how does that benefit England? It simply gives advantages of course to those who are our rivals and enemies.
Answer that ‘Boris’.
March 7, 2021
Why are we not sending a bill to the French for cost of processing every illegal economic immigrant they have allowed to leave their shores. They are not refugees. They are not asylum seekers. Why are we not suing them for the cost of their problem that has been readily inflicted on the U.K. They allowed them into France, we didnāt!
The French borders seem very efficient the other way. Why are we being so soft.
March 7, 2021
There aren’t any rubber boats going UK to France. I wonder why.
March 7, 2021
By far and away most unlawful entrants do not come from France in boats. That number is tiny.
No, they land normally at airports on visas, from much further away, and then just melt into the crowd never to leave.
Do you not even know this?
March 7, 2021
Foreign students shouldn’t be allowed to work in the UK, they’re here to study – most are a scam
March 8, 2021
so you are pointing out the illegals amongst us? Overstaying visa etc?
What do you propose doing about it? Stealthy night raids by armed forces to drag them away for interrogation?
March 8, 2021
You Tories along with a few rebels prevented Labour’s ID card scheme, which would have gone a long way to resolving the problem.
What I’m pointing out is the illogic of frothing at the mouth over what accounts for only a few percent of the numbers and ignoring the rest.
March 7, 2021
Cut the consultants. Not only do you save their fees but you also save the orders of magnitude greater cost of their incompetence.
Smart motorways take ages to complete, much longer than it took to build that section of motorway in the first place. Now it has been found that they are dangerous. They were told this beforehand by people with common sense, but of course they took no notice.
Inevitably the hard shoulders will end up being closed to traffic again, so there is no real increase in capacity.
Billions wasted as a result of incompetent advice being followed and a complete lack of basic intelligence all along the way. And this is just one example out of many.
Get rid of consultants and ban professional lobbyists. Institute advisory boards selected from people with some common sense instead.
Start with the roads. Sack the lot and start again from scratch, the new people can’t do any worse.
March 7, 2021
Seconded.
March 7, 2021
Sir John, I agree with your comments 100%. What a pity your own government doesn’t seem to! As for those backbenchers opposing the cut in foreign aid, they really are an absolute disgrace.
March 7, 2021
Why do successive Governments in this Country always want to give away British tax payers money to another State or Union?
We certainly cannot afford it with National debt exceeding Ā£2 Trillion (>100% GDP) so, isn’t time that they dropped ALL of their charitable foreign plans and their vanity projects and took care of their own citizens? Well isn’t it? Just for a change, put us and our aspirations, FIRST? Putting their own people first is just like every wise Nation on the planet?
If not, a change of Government is again on the cards and I shall not be voting for them.
Wake up! We cannot afford to feed the world nor house the world nor even provide handouts to the world, be they in Europe or further afield.
March 7, 2021
If HS2 wasn’t bad enough the idea that English taxpayers alone should pay for a tunnel between NI and Scotland is completely barking !
Both Scotland and NI are going to leave the UK sooner or later, so a United Ireland and independent Scotland can pay for it themselves. In the meantime, while we are subsidising both provinces to the tune of Ā£25bn a year, this is a ridiculous idea.
March 7, 2021
Cut 100% HS2, Cut 100% Foreign Aid, Cut 100% Trident, Cut 100% EU divorce bill
Public accounts in balance
March 7, 2021
Government spending is not a zero-sum game. You can break recent Government spending into two categories; one to pay for pandemic costs, which was pretty much unavoidable. And the second being spending to make up for reductions in consumer income and spending that were side-effects of the pandemic.
The direct pandemic costs will come down of their own accord in time. The support spending will also decline as people go back to work. There is absolutely no need for cries to “Cut” because support spending has not been of a damaging kind. You can worry about cuts when some future Corbyn wants to nationalise everything in sight.
Oh, and Ā£10 bn in foreign aid for the EU? Well, I don’t know why we signed up for that, but apparently they need the hand-out, and we can easily afford it. Why don’t we have an annual EU Charity day, when the Prime Minister hands the EU their cheque?
March 7, 2021
The fact that we are budgeted to pay the EU Ā£10 billion next year gives us an opportunity for rough diplomacy. We should tell the EU right now that any costs imposed on our exporters to the EU and (internally) to Northern by bloody minded EU bureaucracy will result in a deduction from the Ā£10 bn by an amount to be determined unilaterally by us, reflecting our estimate of the costs to our exporters resulting from the bureaucracy. We can legitimately point (for example) to the fact that only 2% of American containers imported through Rotterdam have their contents inspected. We have far more power than we think; we could scrap the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is driven by pure mischief making, right now.
March 7, 2021
+1
March 7, 2021
An option open to us is to complete phase 1, London to Birmingham, of HS2 and treat the other phases as additional projects to be justified anew, learning from the experience of constructing phase 1. More generally, we should slow down investments in new railways and rail improvements until we have established that demand for rail services is once again on an upward trajectory. If the public perceive public transport as a super spreader of COVID-19, that may take some time. Top priority for railway investments are the east-west routes in northern England, a firm Conservative manifesto commitment.