All centre left and left parties want large and continuous expansion of government

The third law of government is its expansion is built into all the policy programmes of centre left and left parties. It is easier being a left Minister as you are going with the flow of continuous government expansion set out in the first law.

The left welcome the idea of higher taxes to pay for more government. They see higher taxes as a good in themselves. They enjoy inventing new ways of taxing success and attacking independence and enterprise.

The left seek to monopolise the votes of public sector workers by being a kind of extended Trade Union for the  state sector. They constantly seek better conditions of employment for public bodies, and more staff to carry out tasks, at the expense of the private sector.

The left believe public delivery of goods and services is morally better than free enterprise doing the job.

 

The left believe that people and families allowed to make their own choices and allowed to keep more of their own money to spend will make bad ones. Government is necessary to restrain and tax the successful whilst making the less well off dependent on the all providing state who can then control and direct their lives.They hope for gratitude for state hand outs they conjure, but rely more on making false claims about the threats to people they allege the right represents. They seek to create a myth that right of centre parties enter politics to harm others.

193 Comments

  1. jerry
    May 7, 2021

    The usual nonsense, ALL political parties like to expand govt, Whitehall (and their quangos) was larger in 1997 when the Tories left Downing Street than it was when they arrived in 1979 – what with all the freshly created offices of oversight for the privatised utilities and the self governing NHS Trusts etc.

    1. MiC
      May 7, 2021

      The vast increase was largely the centralisation of power away from local authorities, which was essential, in order to prevent them from demonstrating that communitarian enterprise could work very effectively.

      Well, it was essential to right wing doctrinaire types anyway.

      1. a-tracy
        May 7, 2021

        MiC communitarian enterprise doesn’t always work very effectively. Our local area lost 14% of council housing stock when the HA bought then at bargain basement prices, they didn’t keep up their commitment to spending promised at several meetings they are about £167m under. We now have 1000 less social housing and the shops are rotten. Their pensions are healthy though they found £10m to pop into that the year before last and their workers are working for the best employer for the fifth year running. The customers though! Well who cares about them, they have no political clout or voice. Left wing doctrinaire types.

      2. Sam Vara
        May 7, 2021

        Yes, most people would love to be governed by the Labourite types who rise to the top in places like Liverpool, South Wales, and other left-wing local authorities.

        Fine people, honest to a fault, and generating so much wealth for those who elect them.

        That’s why people with money and education are clamouring for houses in these inner-city local authorities. The schools, local services, crime rate and general standard of living are just what informed people want.

        1. SM
          May 7, 2021

          +1

      3. oldwulf
        May 7, 2021

        @MiC
        Sadly, personal experience of my local authority has demonstrated that communitarian enterprise has not worked very effectively. Having said that, I am not convinced that centralisation of power is always a guarantee of success.

      4. Peter2
        May 7, 2021

        But Councils have continued to expand as well so your argument fails MiC.

      5. jon livesey
        May 7, 2021

        “…communitarian enterprise could work very effectively” Communitarian enterprises typically work very badly. Remember the Coop Bank? Been watching Venezuela recently?

        This isn’t strange. Management is a skill, and it isn’t a skill that a few randomly chosen people who decide to get together and run things often have.

        If you want to convince people that communitarian enterprises work well, you have to present evidence. You can’t just dogmatically claim that it’s true and expect everyone to believe you. Especially someone who has made far too many erroneous dogmatic claims in the past.

    2. Lifelogic
      May 7, 2021

      Indeed they do (certainly in the UK) nearly all expand government up to (often way past) the level the private sector can just about survive. That Intelligent idiot (double first Greats and a Communist at Balliol) Denis Healy gave us 98% income tax rates (thus way past the Laffer point). But then the (Modern History Magdelen) George Osborne idiot went even further and taxes rental income at well over 100% by taxing profits that people have not even made! Does not work for long as they sell up!

      The private sector get more and more efficient at making things and providing services but then governments steel nearly all the benefits and pisses it down the drain on lunacies line Net Zero plant and tree food or HS2.

    3. glen cullen
      May 7, 2021

      I believe we have more civil servants today (456,410) than we had at the time of our global empire

    4. John C.
      May 7, 2021

      I suppose you must approve of Tories in this respect, then?

  2. Lifelogic
    May 7, 2021

    I assume you Consider this government to be centre left or just pure left and certainly strongly against freedom of choice and liberty.

    You say “The left believe that people and families allowed to make their own choices and allowed to keep more of their own money to spend will make bad ones.” This when all the evidence is completely to the contrary and to a massive degree.

    Much talk of fixing tax rates to maximise the tax take at the Laffer point as if this were a sensible goal. No thanks, taxes are in essence partial slavery (nearly 50% slavery in the UK). They are only justified to fund the rather few things government can do better than individuals. Defence, law and order and not much else. 20% of GDP (a GDP that might well then be double anyway) is plenty for this.

    1. MiC
      May 7, 2021

      It is completely against freedom of choice.

      It denies people the choice of getting their utilities from a not-for-profit socially accountable supplier.

      It prevents democratically-elected councils from providing a wide range of in-house services, which their voters might very well want, for instance.

      1. a-tracy
        May 7, 2021

        MiC, how are these ‘not-for-profit socially accountable suppliers’ accountable? What organisation exists to hold them into account because I would like to pass on a whole load of statistics I’ve been producing.

      2. Lifelogic
        May 7, 2021

        Democratically elected councils would use taxes to buy votes of the poor which is always a huge danger in democracies. Would you 80% of the electorate like to steal all the money off the richer 20%? Allowing them to supply say power would make this even worse. We will give you cheap subsidised electricity and you will not have to pay more tax for it as we will steal it of “the very rich”. This makes everyone poorer in the end.

        Far more concerned about the appalling NHS (that kills thousands and fail millions every year with its incompetence and rationing) and the fairly dire Education and Indoctrination virtual state monopolies.

        1. DavidJ
          May 7, 2021

          +1

        2. MiC
          May 8, 2021

          No one is proposing your silly example.

          But how can you claim to be a democrat, when you argue that a 52% win in an advisory vote must be implemented in its most extreme form, and that no further votes are allowed, and when you also claim that local people cannot decide to pay their own bin men a decent wage and pension if they so vote?

          Oh, you don’t need to make any sense. I forgot.

          1. Peter2
            May 8, 2021

            But it hasn’t “been implemented in its most extreme form”.
            A trade deal with the EU has been agreed and signed MiC

          2. MiC
            May 8, 2021

            Yes, against the fanatical demands of most commenters here, it has, thank goodness.

            It’s still rubbish, naturally.

          3. Peter2
            May 8, 2021

            No.
            The government and the EU always said they wanted a trade deal.
            You used to tell us it would never happen.
            Now it has…together with loads of other international trade deals you move your position.
            The usual lefty revisionism.

      3. jon livesey
        May 7, 2021

        “It denies people the choice of getting their utilities from a not-for-profit socially accountable supplier.”

        No, it does not deny anyone that choice. If they want to do the work themselves, operate a non-profit business, and manage it for free, who is stopping them?

        What is really happening is that you expect someone *else* to operate a business for no profit and manage it for free so that *you* can kid yourself that you have a “choice”.

        You are expecting someone else to pay for your free Socialism so that you can fool yourself that Socialism “works’.

        1. Jim Whitehead
          May 7, 2021

          J.L. well put, an easy to understand illustration of the delusion of ‘non-profit’. Wonder why it doesn’t catch on worldwide? Perhaps it’s more popular than I’d thought, but is simply another name for a loss making business.

        2. a-tracy
          May 8, 2021

          JL not for profit organisations, there are always selected people at the top of the table making plenty of money, bonus and pensions in these not for profits and the financial people that fund them. For example, who financed the Housing association on what terms, why in nineteen years doesn’t this not for profit own 50% more houses instead of 14% less housing? Who chooses the people on the high remuneration how were they elected, who overseas them? Who checks that they do what they said they would do and what penalties are there if they don’t?

    2. Everhopeful
      May 7, 2021

      Meanwhile the tories collude with globalists, lock us in our houses, destroy our country and force new medicines on us…in return for a little bit of liberty…maybe.
      And all on the back of a totally unelectable non opposition.

      1. jerry
        May 7, 2021

        @EH; Stop lying, no one has been ‘locked in their homes’, no one has had ‘new medicines forced’ upon them.

        1. Lester
          May 7, 2021

          Jerry

          Look around you in the U.K. and see what’s happening!

          Any now say that we’re not locked in our homes and being coerced into taking an experimental gene therapy and being micro-managed as to who we can see and what we’re “allowed “ to do

          1. jerry
            May 7, 2021

            @Lester; Unlike you, and al the other conspiracy theory seekers, I do live in the real world, thanks.

          2. Jim Whitehead
            May 7, 2021

            Lester, +1

          3. Everhopeful
            May 7, 2021

            +1
            Exactly!

        2. DavidJ
          May 7, 2021

          -1

        3. Everhopeful
          May 7, 2021

          We have an extreme government.
          Not certain whether fascist or Marxist.
          So I will speak plainly about what they have done to us, while I am still free so to do.
          It is certain that the care home doors were/are locked.
          And the jab is new technology.
          And we are signed up to global pacts to “fight pandemics”.
          You should not underestimate what is happening.
          No comforting lies at bedtime!

          1. a-tracy
            May 8, 2021

            Everhopeful, you are correct care home residents were locked in their homes, school children weren’t allowed out to play with their friends for months on end, patients in hospital weren’t allowed visitors (even from one immediate family member in ppe). Anyone in care was locked in. Even people like my father in law have spent 12 months housebound baring contact with one adult child in his bubble, clinicians and emergency workers.

            People weren’t allowed to sit with their mother at their father’s funeral and similar stories, husbands weren’t allowed to attend scan appointments and not all of these scan appointments end well. Other people had to hear very bad news about their health alone.

            All the time this was going on we had thousands of people arriving from high infection zones all over the world, travelling on public transport or taxis, not quarantining, France immediately cut the UK off when a foreign variant arrived here after this free for all visitors passes that we allowed. Isn’t it strange how when we started to take it serious this year and had more lockdowns on air flights it cleared up and now spikes are caused by the Indian variant!

          2. jerry
            May 8, 2021

            @EH; “So I will speak plainly about what they have done to us, while I am still free so to do.”

            That is your privilege, for as long as our host chooses, but be careful, you are becoming so shrill you’re in danger of shattering your crystal wine glasses!

            “It is certain that the care home doors were/are locked.”

            No they were not, simply and sensible restrictions were placed on visitors & visiting.

            Where care home doors are physical locked they were likely locked well before CV19, being locked to keep residents safe, nor did anyone think it strange, that care homes would see fit to protect their more vulnerable residents from wondering off – especially those with dementia, in fact the next-of-kin were often most insistent, when they delegated their own responsibilities upon others. Stop playing politics with such people.

            “You should not underestimate what is happening.”

            Oh I do not, and that is why I’ll contest every lie the real “extreme government” (in waiting) make…

      2. Suzette Burtenshaw
        May 7, 2021

        +1

      3. DavidJ
        May 7, 2021

        +1

    3. Cynic
      May 7, 2021

      Cutting taxes is a vote winner. It seems that people only like higher taxes if others are to pay them. They seldom realise that the taxes raised on companies will fall on customers and reduce profits going to pension funds etc., nor that the definition of wealthy will eventually include them.

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        May 7, 2021

        Quite, Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell campaigned at two elections (quite successfully in terms of votes) by saying that they would raise taxes but not for you.

      2. Richard1
        May 7, 2021

        +1

  3. agricola
    May 7, 2021

    Who in UK politics is markedly different, who is right of centre. All political parties in the UK believe in more government. You are now legislating for how we are supposed to think. It has become immoral to express views that are right of centre.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 7, 2021

      Indeed virtually all UK parties idiotically want virtual state monopolies in healthcare and education for example. Why on earth not extend this to water, food, transport, clothing, electricity, entertainment, holidays, housing and everything else. That seems to be their agenda (and you can only leave your house when Gov. say so and with your mask on and only with your health and vaccine passport proof in order.

      1. steve
        May 7, 2021

        LL

        +1 Bang on.

      2. a-tracy
        May 8, 2021

        Lifelogic, it is because the NHS is perceived as being ‘free’ even though the majority are paying sufficient national insurance (and no less than say those in Germany or France as a % of pay). If change is suggested then the American survival of the fittest with the deepest pockets health service is wheeled out. It is never other more successful Countries models of healthcare that are used to compare.

        In my experience hospitals in some areas are quite superior and almost private, whereas hospitals in some areas of the North are just dreadful experiences, the NHS services are not equal it is a postcode lottery just like State schools, and yet those with the worst State schools just keep electing the same old governors.

    2. jerry
      May 7, 2021

      @agricola; “It has become immoral to express views that are right of centre.”

      I disagree, people only get into problems by how they express themselves, not for what they think, often using very broad brushes whilst doing so, an obvious example are the comments to this site that try to castigate all migrants, not just illegal (economic) migrants.

      1. Lifelogic
        May 7, 2021

        Most of the evil originates from the left – the National Socialist German Workers’ Party for example or Chairman Mao the Chinese communist revolutionary who caused the deaths of millions.

        Right and Left are vague terms that mean different things to different people. I want a small state, low simple taxes, good defence, law and order, freedom & freedom of choice. Not much sign if this from the current Boris at all!

        1. glen cullen
          May 7, 2021

          Yeah..but Boris is new labour with a big helping of green

          1. DavidJ
            May 7, 2021

            +1

        2. Sharon
          May 7, 2021

          Life logic

          Hear, hear!

        3. Jim Whitehead
          May 7, 2021

          LL and G.C. +1

      2. Philip P.
        May 7, 2021

        Jerry, people are getting into problems *because* they express themselves. If they kept quiet and didn’t ask questions in public about what the biosecurity state is doing to our lives, they wouldn’t be fined ÂŁ10,000. If they didn’t stand up and quote what the Bible says, they wouldn’t be dragged off in handcuffs to the police station. And if they decided not to reveal documents showing surveillance of the public by a foreign government, they wouldn’t be banged up in Belmarsh jail. Fortunately, not everyone’s as keen to go along with state repression as you seem to be.

        1. agricola
          May 7, 2021

          +5

        2. jerry
          May 7, 2021

          @Philiph P; No, people are getting fined ÂŁ10,000 because they are BREAKING the law, the right to protest has not been banned (unlike say secondary picketing…), you can protest about your dislike of social distancing or whatever without BREAKING the law (secondary pickets can not even turn out…), just as petrol-heads for could, for example, protest about the 70mph speed limit on the UK’s motorways being far to slow for modern vehicle technology without exceeding the speed limit or breaking some other law.

          1. Philip P.
            May 7, 2021

            Which law? Half the time the police didn’t know, Jerry. Kids have been fined for a snowball fight, never mind even protesting.

            When an NHS union rep was fined ÂŁ10,000 for organising a protest against the miserly 1% nurses’ pay rise, the Mayor of Manchester asked the police to review it. Maybe he remembers Peterloo was an ‘illegal gathering’, too. We all should.

          2. Margaret Brandreth-
            May 7, 2021

            How people express themselves is only part of the problem, how others perceive or misperceive what is being said has similar clout. In this respect generalisations will always find an opposite intention of meaning as not everyone ‘fits the bill’. Language is complex . It is interesting to see how people vary in their reaction to a statement of fact either in the written word or spoken word .Imagined hidden meanings , inability to understand words, relative obtuseness are rife.

          3. jerry
            May 8, 2021

            @Margaret Brandreth; Indeed and that is what the anti lockdown movement have narrowed down upon, picking up on ever little nuance that has a mixed meaning, despite the wider context.

        3. Jim Whitehead
          May 7, 2021

          P.P. +1

      3. matthu
        May 7, 2021

        “people only get into problems by how they express themselves, not for what they think” ??

        Try expressing the view (on social media) that there are only two genders, or that ALL lives matter, or that IQ may be to some extent influenced by gender or race.

        Not that I am advocating any of those positions I hasten to add – merely pointing out that it is not for how you express your thoughts, that you risk being cancelled. It is for having the thoughts i the first place.

        1. jerry
          May 7, 2021

          @matthu; Well if you will use inflammatory rents, rather than reasoned debate!

          1. Richard II
            May 7, 2021

            Jerry, there are now plenty of doctors and scientists who have been cancelled from online media because they don’t follow the official Covid/vaccine narrative. They have been cancelled for the fact of expressing those views. As you may know, Ofcom has the official remit to suppress dissent from the government line on this subject. However calm and reasoned it might be. Doctors and scientists aren’t given to inflammatory rants (which I guess is what you meant to say, though goodness knows rents can be pretty inflammatory these days too!).

          2. matthu
            May 8, 2021

            I said “Try expressing the view”, you assumed inflammatory rants without giving due consideration to what I was saying.

            Kind of proves my point.

          3. jerry
            May 8, 2021

            @Richard II; “there are now plenty of doctors and scientists who have been cancelled from online media”

            Why the (unspoken) conspiracy theory about social media companies, given that most social media companies are the child of, and require, a fully working & accessible economy, why would they do anything to needlessly delay the resumption of ‘normality’?

            There are still many comments and videos up on social media that debate and question official Covid/vaccine narratives, but what they do not do is preach unproven alternate Covid/vaccine narratives as if scientific fact – remember all the fuss that a certain (now ex) President made about taking Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine to prevent or mitigate against catching CV19, when the science was done the drugs were found to be ineffective and possibly dangerous.

            “Doctors and scientists aren’t given to inflammatory rants”

            That very much depends on their own politics, after all those who lean to the left are always engaging in inflammatory rants to promote Climate change…

            @matthu; I replied to what you actually posted, not what you might have been thinking.

      4. MiC
        May 7, 2021

        John seems interested in morals this morning.

        “The left believe public delivery of goods and services is morally better than free enterprise doing the job.”

        This is nonsense.

        The Left are aware of one, simple, fatal fact, however. That is, that if you are there to make money rather than to provide a service – an unwanted overhead – then if breaking rules will enable you to make more money, then that is an inducement for you to do just that.

        We have seen the disastrous results of this in everything from banking to the manufacture of cladding to the supply of “beef” by abattoirs.

        If you are salaried staff in the public sector, then you might be lazy or have some other fault, but you won’t make more money personally by behaving dangerously.

        1. agricola
          May 7, 2021

          If you are in business to make a profit, by definition you must provide a service and will be judged against other businesses doing the same.

          Banks who you cite are a monopoly acting as a cartel. There is no real competition in banking.

          There was nothing intrinsically wrong with the manufacture of cladding. Faults lay in the regulation of what you could use on a tower dwelling. If a particular cladding is deemed safe by the regulatory authority it will get used in good faith.

          You ars correct with Beef. The food industry lacks a standards regime like ISO9000, in effect allowing all sorts of abuses. While the buying public get fussed at the prospect of chlorinated chicken, WW1 trench warfare and all that, they tolerate bacon pumped up with water just to increase its weight. Hence the white slime in the frying pan.

          For salaried public employees there is no incentive to devise ways of making their service more efficient and less costly to their tax paying customers. I for one would make their pension contributions self financed, as for the self employed. That would blow a chasm in local rates payments. It would be their gateway to the real world.

        2. Narrow Shoulders
          May 7, 2021

          Competition marty, that is what stops what you describe.

          1. MiC
            May 8, 2021

            It absolutely didn’t stop it though, did it?

            These things all happened and continue to happen with increasing frequency.

        3. Peter2
          May 7, 2021

          Breaking rules as a business leads you into trouble.
          Prosecutions Court cases and the fines can be very big.
          It creates reputational damage and can ruin your brand.
          The Internet allows customers to post reviews and this can ruin businesses.
          So if you are dishonest and or treat your cusand other stakeholders with disdain you will fail.
          Profits which I realise is a dirty word to you MiC are made through other ways.
          Like good products, good quality, good customer service and a competitive price.

          There has been many examples of bribery and corruption in the public sector.

        4. jon livesey
          May 7, 2021

          MiC, we tried this for decades. We had nationalised industries coming out of our ears, and the voters simply got sick of the inefficiency of the whole thing. They also got sick of paying through their taxes so that nationalised industries could be vastly over-manned to make up for their inefficiency.

          The voters have made an informed choice, which is that it is better to take the risk of a few bad actors than have the entire economy run in a slugging publicly owned fashion. And that is a perfectly rational trade-off.

        5. a-tracy
          May 8, 2021

          MiC, I have provided sources and evidence many times in reply to you that the ‘beef’ you keep banging on about from one abbatoir in Todmorden in the UK was a very small part of an EU wide horse meat scandal, look closer to your EU mates and their so called ‘gold standard meat checks’ in Ireland, Spain, France and Poland where the main prosecutions were. This scandal was found by pure accident by the Irish food standards agency they noticed a discrepancy between the packaging and labelling of frozen meat in a complex EU supply chain.

          Wasn’t the cladding manufacturer a French company who wouldn’t send their three requested executives to the enquiry meetings?

      5. agricola
        May 7, 2021

        I do not believe in nuancing ideas and opinions to the point that they are not clearly understood. Understanding does not include libel, foul language, or denigrating anyone for the colour of their skin. For instance an illegal immigrant or resident, an illegal who has been overlooked, is not defined by the colour of his/ her skin, but by their illegal presence.

    3. Everhopeful
      May 7, 2021

      +1

  4. Lifelogic
    May 7, 2021

    Meanwhile China’s military are threatening Taiwan, Russia the Ukraine, The French Jersey and the EU Northern Ireland. Yet Boris is idiotically still locking the country down, Sunak is increasing taxes massively and wasting most of it and both are pushing the insane Net Zero Carbon agenda cheered on by Carrie from her rather unpleasantly and very expensively decorated flat above No. 11 . Yet in the UK and US people seem far more interested in woke lunacy, the destruction of women’s sport, none crime hate incidents, micro aggressions, statues, climate vandalism and a Snow White cartoon stolen (sexual assault?) kiss to bring her back to life.

    This and clapping for the appallingly run NHS where many cannot even get to see or even speak to so much as a GP.

    Try doing defence (or anything else much) with net zero Carbon – electric tanks, planes, boats, trucks, missiles, guns, ammunition and the likes and loads of recharging stations on the battle field. Total insanity from these dire politicians.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      May 7, 2021

      Fantastic post L/L.

      1. DavidJ
        May 7, 2021

        Indeed.

    2. Hope
      May 7, 2021

      +100

    3. Richard1
      May 7, 2021

      If only Churchill had ordered that no Spitfires or Hurricanes could fly in the Battle of Britain unless powered by non-carbon fuel. Think how much lower emissions would now be, as the Axis powers would surely have followed our example.

    4. glen cullen
      May 7, 2021

      Agree

    5. Lester
      May 7, 2021

      LL

      + 100

      When will the lunacy cease?

      1. John C.
        May 7, 2021

        A good question. I suppose it will need to reach some sort of crisis before mass revulsion demands an end to this nonsense. But the cost, meanwhile…?

    6. oldtimer
      May 7, 2021

      In California it is reported that no less than one in five owners of BEVs and PHEVs have reverted to old fashioned petrol ICEs when they trade on their old EVs for a new vehicle. It seems that the slow speed of recharging is an intolerable bugbear. That is despite the incentives to buy EVs. People will not be forced to make this choice. This will become more evident as they sit on their hands instead of replacing vehicles.

      1. glen cullen
        May 7, 2021

        Apparently the biggest bugbear is that after they’ve used their EV for the return journey to work, they plug it in at home and have to use other transport in the evening to visit family & friends, shopping and leisure

    7. RichardP
      May 7, 2021

      +1

    8. MFD
      May 7, 2021

      +1

    9. Jim Whitehead
      May 7, 2021

      LL +1

  5. Mark B
    May 7, 2021

    Good morning.

    The third law of government is its expansion is built into all the policy programmes of centre left and left parties.

    Of which the Conservative Party is now very much apart.

    The Conservative Party has seized the Centre / Centre Left ground and is pushing evermore towards the Left. This has forced Labour, not that it needed much encouragement.

    The State is becoming ever larger and evermore powerful. It is consuming more and more wealth and its attacks on the profit making part of our nation will come back to haunt us. It, the State, is eating its own tail.

    There are many solutions but, as we are seeing on these pages, first step is to identify the problem(s). Trouble is, it is ONLY on these pages and not in the government.

    One possible solution is to limit the amount, in percentage terms, that any government department can spend on salaries. More staff will lead to lower salaries, and higher salaries will lead to fewer staff. Win-win 🙂

    1. Timaction
      May 7, 2021

      Indeed. With only a few exceptions the Tory Party are no longer conservative and it is plain for all to see. Mass immigration continues with the obvious consequences to the standards of our health, education, congestion, building on our greenbelt, taxes the highest they’ve ever been in over 70 years, HS2 that no one wants, no reform of the woke left wing selection processes in all our health, emergency services, public services, no bonfire of the quangos, no standing up to the bullying EU, the betrayal of Northern Ireland and our fisherman. Boris had an oven ready Turkey. He can’t manage his own finances let alone the Country.

      1. a-tracy
        May 8, 2021

        Boris could get a financial advisor like Martin Lewis (who doesn’t need any more promotion) perhaps John Redwood could offer his services to educate him on how to sort out his own personal finances and what he can do to affect change in his own life and become personally responsible along with his partner. Boris get advice on how to budget, make better personal choices and spend more wisely which is a problem in many split families. Boris isn’t after all in charge of the Treasury, people need to be taught how to sort out their own debt, Live within their means or find ways to do more paid work or increase that hourly rate of pay by training for a better paid job, and if they don’t want to simple shut up moaning about it. Perhaps Carrie should realise she’s not married a multi-millionaire yet until he leaves office and gets his book deal! Or his housing portfolio. However, I don’t agree with mainly men that suggest Carrie is pulling all of Boris’ levers, he is personally responsible for his decisions and Carrie shouldn’t be his fall guy.

  6. DOM
    May 7, 2021

    The left-tight narrative is a throwback to the French Revolution and serves little purpose in illuminating this debate. There is no left. There is no right. There are those who see the political State as a weapon to crush, cajole and control others by all means (Marxists, Socialists and the Collectivists) and there are those who see the political State as a necessity that as a limited role to play in peoples lives. I am firmly in the latter camp.

    Socialism seeks to usurp humanity and replace it with politicised human herds controlled by the all consuming Communist-Socialist State. Such inhumanity has caused unimaginable suffering over the decades. From Lenin, Stalin and Hitler, to Pol Pot, Mao and Castro. All Socialists with one aim, to take control over humanity for political ends.

    I despise the political State. Today, the UK has become an appalling nation whose peoples are exposed to a State apparatus that has dangerous intent. We now see this in the US as well. It is shameful that this has happened under the Tory party under pressure from the Labour party and their myriad of allies, unions, lobby groups and thug activists.

    Labour’s client state still remains. The Tories build upon it, continually. And we are the losers, again. Socialism is as close to us today than it has ever been if only people would open their eyes and see the glacial creep of State power take control of their assets, their lives, their minds, their actions and their minds.

  7. agricola
    May 7, 2021

    A thought occurs, if the Reform Party cared to read the submissions to this diary over the past two years they would have the basis for a manifesto.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      May 7, 2021

      If Richard Tice follows the policies that the Brexit Party wants to bring in then the Reform party can’t go far wrong.
      https://www.thebrexitparty.org/contract/

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        May 7, 2021

        Sorry I should say wanted to bring in.

      2. forthurst
        May 7, 2021

        Reform UK is the Brexit Party with a new name. The Brexit Party was founded by Catherine Blaiklock who left UKIP claiming that it was engaging in institutional thoughtcrime. She herself left the Brexit Party but subsequently failed to join the Tory party because of her own published thoughtcrimes. The problem that patriotic English people have is how to oppose mass immigration without committing thoughtcrimes according to laws enacted by the enemies of the English to control their public utterances .

    2. jerry
      May 7, 2021

      @agricola; Who says the Reform Party did not do as you suggest, hence why they did even worse in Hartlepool than TBP did in 2019?

    3. Andy
      May 7, 2021

      I’ve read Reform’s ‘manifesto’. It’s like a angry comic of incoherent, poorly considered, rantings. Perhaps they do read your contributions?

      1. Sharon
        May 7, 2021

        Andy

        I disagree.

        The Reform Party have some great ideas that are being developed further.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          May 7, 2021

          Agree Sharon. In fact most of what contributors on this site want is covered by Reform party policies.

          1. jerry
            May 8, 2021

            @FUS; Given the apparent low voter turnout for The Reform Party on Thursday, I fear your comment might do nothing more than prove how out of touch many of the commentators to this site are! 😳

      2. Peter2
        May 7, 2021

        Did you see that Reform got more votes than the Green Party and the Lib Dems in the Hartlepool by election andy?

        1. lifelogic
          May 8, 2021

          Well done to the sensible people of Hartlepool – alas not so in London where the dire Kahn will get back in mainly due to the Tories (Cameron I think) having chosen a pleasant but dull and almost invisible candidate.

        2. jerry
          May 8, 2021

          @Peter2; Wow, talk about not only trying to gild a lily but also put in to a purse made out of a sows ear!

          Did you see an Independent get substantially more than the Reform Party candidate in the Hartlepool by-election Peter? Also let’s face it, Reform is TBP reheated, so when one looks at the percentage of the vote they actually suffered a -24.6% fall in their vote compared to a +23% rise in the share of the vote to Boris and the Conservative party.

          Of course the LibDems were always going to do poorly in a staunch “Leave” area, and even more so with the Green Party also standing (to split the vote between to very similar parties) yet they still did better than the Brexit backing Reform/TBP when the share of the vote is considered, only seeing a -2.9% drop in their vote

          1. Peter2
            May 8, 2021

            Andy told us how dreadful Reform are.
            I pointed out they got more votes than either the Greens and the Lib Dems in Hartlepool.
            Two parties I assume Andy likes.
            He never mentioned the independent candidate, who did well.
            But I agree, it is another reason to rubbish his contention that an electoral pact for a three way coalition would bring down the Conservatives in future elections.
            PS
            I’m not a Reform party voter if that is what you are thinking Jerry.

          2. jerry
            May 8, 2021

            @Peter2; It was you who brought voting numbers into the debate, and I simply pointed out the change in the % for Reform/TBP since 2019. Andy made no mention of the number of votes, nor any possible electoral pact, at least not in this part of the thread.

            His comment was about the merit of the Reform Manifesto, condemning it as, in his words, “like a angry comic of incoherent, poorly considered, rantings”, and by the looks of things the voters of Hartlepool might well have thought similar, given Reform/TBP received 10,235 fewer votes compared to 2019.

            Even if half of the TBP vote has switched to the Conservatives, after all Boris has got Brexit done & more than enough to top the 2019 Labour majority, were did the other 5k+ Reform/TBP voters go?!

          3. Peter2
            May 8, 2021

            No Jery
            That isn’t correct.
            Off onto a tangent as usual.
            You love playing devils advocate.
            Even backing Andy just for your sport.

          4. jerry
            May 9, 2021

            @Peter2; So stating the FACTS is now going off on a tangent, playing devils advocate?!

            As for ‘backing Andy’, well I have made no secrete of what I think of Reform/TBP (based on their manifestos), but you appear to be very defensive of the latest Reform manifesto for someone who doesn’t support the party – which is not the same as not voting for them, they might simply not have stood any candidates in your area…

          5. Peter2
            May 9, 2021

            Jerry
            You remind me of that sketch in Monty Python where there is a man who offers to argue with you for a set amount of time for money.
            Look it up on the internet.
            PS
            I repeat I don’t support nor vote for the reform party.
            Nor would I if they stood in my area.
            Do you want a signed statement?

      3. jon livesey
        May 7, 2021

        Pretty much the same as your daily shower of comment, then?

  8. J Bush
    May 7, 2021

    As I read your article, the overwhelming impression I got is that you were describing the current government.

    They are certainly following we need more taxes to spend on our idiotic pet projects. They are protecting the public sector and treating it with kid gloves, whilst letting so many private businesses and jobs go to the wall. We will decide what medical treatment you can have and we have no problem with you feeling suicidal because you have lost your job and we have made is difficult to find another job because we have crushed the job market. Or because of the isolation restrictions we have decided.

    We will tell you what type of vehicle you can drive and what type of heating you can have. We tell you, you must wear face nappies and make sure we reduce your ability to socially interact if you meet a friend in the street, unless you want to use raised voices/shout. We will tell you where you can go, who you can see, and we will tell you when you can hug someone!

    1. Richard II
      May 7, 2021

      +1

    2. a-tracy
      May 7, 2021

      J Bush, i feel we crushed the job market because when they removed job centres ‘Indeed’ isn’t a completely suitable replacement. People click to apply to jobs they don’t want just to prove they have applied, you offer them an interview slot and they just don’t turn up, even when interviews were on-line over zoom, it was about clicking a number of interview buttons to maintain their benefits.

      The colleges and Universities never directly help their students to get jobs its not in their remit even though their are employers wanting trainees it would only take someone one day per week co-ordinating job adverts to the relevant department info sections on their web pages.

    3. nota#
      May 7, 2021

      @J Bush – you forgot how and when to wipe you nose!

    4. glen cullen
      May 7, 2021

      100% correct – I do not see a conversative party here……I also don’t see a labour party and loyal opposite

    5. Suzette Burtenshaw
      May 7, 2021

      A resounding +1!

    6. Paul Cuthbertson
      May 7, 2021

      J Bush – all part of the World Economic Forum great reset. Have you noticed who is promoting this crap and you will get a better picture. Say no more.

  9. Iain Moore
    May 7, 2021

    With Boris Johnson’s command economy on all things greenery, are you including the Conservative party in this description.

    1. nota#
      May 7, 2021

      @Iain Moore, There hasn’t been a Conservatives party in eon’s . Blair, Cameron, Boris are left leaning control freaks out of the same mould, they are and have been frightened, then have chosen to fight the People of the UK. They live in fear that some one other than them selves should have a good idea.

      1. glen cullen
        May 7, 2021

        Spot On

  10. Will in Hampshire
    May 7, 2021

    I’ve enjoyed this series of three posts about the essential characteristics of governments, parties and their supporters in the British system.

    One aspect that our host hasn’t mentioned, and upon which I would be interested in hearing his views, is the role played by population density. The closer people find themselves living together, and the more people live in a particular area, the more negative externalities are created by any given person’s choices. Painting ones house bright pink, playing heavy metal loudly, keeping malodorous animals in the garden – these are all examples of reasonable free choices that an individual might make in his or her property which would go unremarked upon if that property was a remote farmhouse but which would prompt vociferous complaint in a dense street of terraced houses. The same goes for businesses, whether it’s noise from aircraft on final approach to a runway or fumes from small factories producing goods.

    The natural tendency seems to be that the more densely populated a place is, the more negative externalities there are and hence the easier it is to muster a sufficient majority to support imposition of statutory restrictions on peoples’ freedom to make their own choices about how they live and what they do.

    Interesting to think about that in a country where policy is still one of unrestricted immigration. Dense cities tend to swing left, and perhaps this is why.

    1. a-tracy
      May 7, 2021

      Will, I was in much agreement but your end sentence, I’m not sure how the population density correlates to swinging left? The left are very lassez-faire about the state of an area, parking on pavements, dog barking, loud street parties, it takes a lot to stir them. Or are you saying left wing councils never say no to filling up the social housing stock with immigrants rather than naturalised Brits and that’s why they swing left to keep priority over the housing?

      1. Will in Hampshire
        May 7, 2021

        I was trying to suggest that it’s in cities where density rises over time – often immigration led – and hence where local government can easily get given new mandates to control negative externalities that might not have existed before (e.g., noise control orders, parking permitting schemes, no-alcohol areas, that kind of thing). These things are all quite sensible when done well, I have no objection to them per se. But they acclimatize both politicians and voters to using statutory measures as the easiest way to deal with negative externalities, and hence you can argue that they establish the seemingly-unstoppable trend which our host describes in the expansion of the powers of the state.

    2. Walt
      May 7, 2021

      That’s an interesting thought Will. Thank you.

    3. Alan Jutson
      May 7, 2021

      Interesting comment, as surroundings in my view certainly play a very important part in attitude and behaviour.

      Inner City life could be described as like living in a clenched fist, with little free space and lots of tension all around, whereas living in a rural market town is more like a relaxed hand, where people have the advantage of more space, with support and facilities still available, but in a more relaxed manner.
      True rural life is for the rather more independent, who perhaps feel the need to control to a degree their own immediate surroundings.

    4. SM
      May 7, 2021

      +1

  11. Sakara Gold
    May 7, 2021

    Off topic

    Many MP’s have now demanded that PHE publishes data on the community spread of the India variants that arrived here last month. One variant in particular (B.1.617.2) is spreading rapidly in London care homes among residents and staff that have been double-vaccinated with the Astra, also N West Midlands and Ulster. In excess of 500 cases in over 40 clusters are now known and it appears that this variant is spreading even more rapidly than the Kent variant that caused to many fatalities earlier this year.

    As has been posted here before, large numbers of people are arriving at Heathrow with forged Chinese plague virus test certificates, coupled with those declaring their beach holidays or visits to India or West Africa as “business trips” this is now a huge risk to the successfull vaccination campaign.

    Shapps needs to get a grip on this and enforce the preventative travel measures, which have obviously failed. One would think that with over ÂŁ35 billion thrown at it Hancock’s Test and Trace would be on top of this situation, but don’t hold your breath.

    We must take the very unwelcome arrival of the sort of India variants that have caused their mass cremations as a threat to national security, close down the borders now – and aggressively hunt down the contacts of those who have brought it here.

  12. Narrow Shoulders
    May 7, 2021

    The demos, unfortunately, encourages governments to expand and they like to be looked after and are used to it. Out of 16 candidates for Hartlepool, a constituency that will make no difference to the government’s majority or the opposition’s ability to oppose, 13 lost their deposit because the voters would not register their distaste for the establishment, that is shocking and a damming indictment of the electorate.

    It will take some time to wean the country off support but an 80 (now 82) majority should have given leeway to make a start.

    Left and Right these days is much more difficult to define, there is authoritarian and laissez faire, not too many laissez faire parties around, pandering to minorities while ignoring the majority vs looking after your own voters, climate extremism vs climate realism. The first type are really just after more control and there are two few of the second cohort.

    Your government and parliamentary party falls into the first type Sir John. That is a concern for us all.

  13. nota#
    May 7, 2021

    All centre left and left parties want large and continuous expansion of government

    That’s the whole ethos of the left, control, control and control. Your world is as defined by our image deviation is not permitted, Corbyn took it up a notch, destroy and rebuild in MY image.

    This doctrine requires every one to beholden and thankful by basically law. Self reliance is not only not encouraged it is frowned on – ‘your own thoughts’ are to be drummed out. That is why the mantra of entitlement of the millennials is played into and nurtured, the State Control and no longer serves.

    The Labour, Conservative, Liberals, Greens you name it they have morphed into a class, a culture, all basically of the Left controlling and manipulative. So-called freedoms, democracy and sovereignty cant be had via this ‘new-order’ of the ‘re-set’ Elites.

  14. turboterrier
    May 7, 2021

    Good to see that the party won Hartlepool, that gives him a 81 majority
    Will it make any difference that the country are trying to support him, showing they dont want labour?
    NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST NOTHING GOING TO CHANGE THIS HELL BENT ROAD HE HAS SET US OUT ON.
    With such a large majority this government could be moving mountains and all we are getting is crap we were never asked to vote on as it was not in the manifesto. The local election results might tell another story.
    Boris. Please give us a country we can be proud of and all united together to make it greater than ever before. Dont be fooled by this result, perception is that members are not all happy bunnies.

    1. MiC
      May 7, 2021

      There are about seventy million people in this country.

      One-in-five of them voted Tory.

      How, exactly, do you propose to “unite” the other four-fifths with them?

      I, and millions of others, want nothing to do with them.

      1. Peter2
        May 7, 2021

        Now you know how I felt when Blair, Campbell and Brown were in power for 15 years MiC

  15. Sir Joe Soap
    May 7, 2021

    Here we go again. Your party going left enough to take Hartlepool. It only need Labour to start speaking up for the self-employed, self-reliant bulk of the population and the Tories will lose. Labour just don’t get it.

    1. glen cullen
      May 7, 2021

      Correct – the Torys didn’t win Hartlepool, the labour party lost it !

  16. J Mitchell
    May 7, 2021

    In the past the essential difference between left and right was the divide identified here. No one enters politics to do people down, except perhaps the left who actively seek to do the successful and their political opponents down. Those on the right believe that people do best when allowed to forge their own path with minimal interference from the government; you don’t help people by hosing money at them and making them dependent. You provide an environment where people have the chance to succeed and to keep the fruits of their success.

    The left believe in “fair” (i.e. whatever is their particular hobby horse) distribution of money. They think there is a finite amount and it is a zero sum game. It is unfair that some have more than others so you must take for those who have and give to those who do not have. The problem is that as an economic model it does not work. The result is the creed of socialism. You have to believe in it because it does not work. Having a belief gives you a sense of moral superiority and a licence to be thoroughly unpleasant to your non-believing opponents and colleagues.

  17. nota#
    May 7, 2021

    What we are seeing is Orwell’s 1984 and the ‘The Great Reset’ being played out in real time. This directions is no longer just warnings (in Orwell’s Case) or asperations of WEF being thought of as a Conspiracy Theory. This is the ‘Left’ view of this Government coming and finding its home in the UK.

  18. Lifelogic
    May 7, 2021

    Dense cities or dense (propagandised or ill-educated) people tend to swing left. Perhaps this is why?

  19. a-tracy
    May 7, 2021

    JR ‘All centre left and left parties want large and continuous expansion of government’. Where do you actually see your party sitting John? Because it’s not a right wing party when it comes to quango’s and expansion of government in my opinion.

    Why has the right never set up workers protection unions in direct competition with a centre right bias? There are many people forced into left wing unions that really don’t like the campaigning side of the organisation and don’t agree with a lot of their policies but they have no choice because they’re closed shops.

    I know lots of people that haven’t voted this election sadly, not because of covid which will probably be blamed but because the offering of the ‘Candidates’ didn’t talk to them, all it did was try to bash their opposition instead of concentrating on what they would do. Starmer isn’t solely to blame for Hartlepool, the left, deserted these voters, the left has spent five years telling them they’re thick and uneducated, including from the candidate who Labour expected the public to vote for. The Tories need to move quick in Hartlepool the red wall area and Stoke (the ex-Labour heartlands) and actually follow up to show how you’re different otherwise it really doesn’t matter and they could elect a monkey. You are now aligned a massive majority Tory government and a Tory local area just get on with it and tell them a ten year plan.

  20. nota#
    May 7, 2021

    The more you see this Governments ‘Leftish’ agenda in play, when coupled with NOT permitting the UK to leave the EU by letting the EU Rulers remain our master. You fear for the future, fear for the right of a peoples self determination and freedom.

    Purgatory and Poverty is on its way, aided by the removal of the UK’s Wealth and Resources that allow People and Communities to respond to need by a deliberate policy of the UK Government.

  21. rose
    May 7, 2021

    Another factor in the inexorable expansion of government is the demand by a multiplicity of apolitical individuals for government intervention and government money in their particular interest. We have seen this at its most obvious during the period of the Wuhan virus, but we have also seen people demanding money and control from government in areas like sport which have not been connected to the Wuhan virus or the measures taken. How we educate people to understand where this all goes when the teachers themselves want it, is one of the most urgent questions we face.

  22. Brian Tomkinson
    May 7, 2021

    Parliament currently contains only centre left and left parties.

    1. glen cullen
      May 7, 2021

      House of Commons ‘Left’, House of Lords ‘Far Left’ & The Supreme Court ‘Ultra Far Left’

    2. Paul Cuthbertson
      May 7, 2021

      So true. They have seen the results of both labour and conservative in name only parties and the fickle public STILL vote for them.

  23. agricola
    May 7, 2021

    The comment on your second paragraph Will is, that any one person should limit their freedom at the point at which it impinges on another individuals freedom. It is largely a personal choice because the law cannot cover every nuance of behaviour, and in any case is too slow and expensive.

    1. Will in Hampshire
      May 7, 2021

      Well, yes, you would hope that everyone learns by adulthood that it’s not only wise to think about the impact of one’s choices on those around you but also essential for the harmonious functioning of society. But the reality is that most people have blind-spots about the impact of their choices on others. The music fan loves the music and can’t understand why people object. The airline manager is passionate about the destinations and thinks the noise is a perfectly reasonable price to pay for the opportunities to get to them.

      The last person able to spot a negative externality is the person who causes it. Herein lies the problem.

  24. Andy
    May 7, 2021

    This is a really silly characterisation of the left. I am centre left – like a significant majority of voters in this country. I don’t want bigger government and higher taxes. I want smarter government and fairer taxes.

    But so long as children are growing up hungry – and they are – I consider it obscene that billionaire Tory donors and big tech companies are avoiding paying their fair share of tax. And they are avoiding it.

    As far as I am concerned government has one duty: to help make people’s lives easier and better.

    The Tories have always failed to do this.

    1. Dave Andrews
      May 7, 2021

      Does being centre left mean you believe in the government borrowing and spending, clocking up a colossal national debt for the next generation?
      That appears to be what centre left believe just as much before the Brexit referendum as since. I think it’s just wrong.

    2. Lifelogic
      May 7, 2021

      The Tories have indeed failed at this, but Labour has been far worse. PLUS the Tories have always had to start by undoing the financial mess and other insanities left behind by Labour. BLAIR’S dire devolution mess and his further EU integration lunacy for example.

    3. Peter2
      May 7, 2021

      Seems voters prefer the Conservatives at national and local level.

      1. MiC
        May 8, 2021

        Not where I am.

        Mark Drakeford has increased his majority by over 6,000 and a swing of about 14%.

        It’s easy to see why too.

        1. Peter2
          May 8, 2021

          Plenty of free things for the growing client state.

          1. MiC
            May 8, 2021

            No, he’s been consistent, straightforward, and as good as his word.

            And people here know that those like you in England hate him.

        2. a-tracy
          May 9, 2021

          Hmm are you back full time in Cardiff Martin, I thought you’d told us you’d moved to Yorkshire and you weren’t in Wales anymore or was that just a flying visit to Yorkshire and you based your judgement of that areas restaurants and traffic and drivers on just that short stop over?

        3. Peter2
          May 9, 2021

          No MiC
          I don’t hate him.
          Nor any other mainstream politicians.
          Unike you.

    4. steve
      May 7, 2021

      Andy

      “As far as I am concerned government has one duty: to help make people’s lives easier and better.
      The Tories have always failed to do this.”

      No Andy, it isn’t just the tories. It makes no difference who gets elected, people’s lives get more miserable.

  25. Richard1
    May 7, 2021

    All very true. A particularly absurd example was when Jeremy Corbyn used to talk about the need for such and such a service to be provided by an entity with a “public service ethos”. As if the 80% of people employed in the private sector – supplying goods and services which people want – is somehow morally inferior. To this socialist economic nonsense, from which Starmer has not done anything to distance the Labour Party, the left has now added the pernicious and absurd doctrine of wokery.

    I suppose as a Conservative I should say bring it on so we get more Hartlepools, and a whole Country of them come the next election. But I’d rather have a decent and credible opposition – this govt needs challenging on a number of fronts using common sense. But no sign of that, except occasionally from the Conservative back benches.

  26. No Longer Anonymous
    May 7, 2021

    It’s all irrelevant. This is just football. Inconsequential Red Team vs Blue Team drama for the masses to create the illusion of democracy.

    11 years of Blue Team rule and I can’t remember the country looking so Communist yet the populace seem to suck it up going by yesterday’s elections – I despair.

    It is quite clear that the Tories are so addicted to mass immigration that they even allow it during a pandemic and put freedom of other people’s movement above everything else, including the health and safety of their own voters. The EU can no longer be blamed. The Tories were ‘H’ all along !

    I have never felt so under threat from Thought Control as I do now. The masks, social distancing and restrictions complete the feeling of living in an embryonic totalitarian state.

    It’s becoming a wakening nightmare.

    After my second jab I refuse to wear a mask. They inhibit all sorts of human interaction and their continuance will sound the death knell for much of hospitality and live entertainment – our way of life. Yes. There is much to fear from them MiC.

  27. glen cullen
    May 7, 2021

    Hartlepool By-Election Results
    · Jill Mortimer (Conservative) – 15,529
    · Paul Williams (Labour) – 8,589
    · Sam Lee (Independent) – 2,904
    · Claire Martin (Heritage) – 468
    · John Prescott (Reform UK) – 368
    · Rachel Featherstone (Green) – 358
    
and the justification & argument for following ‘green’ policies is ???

    1. J Bush
      May 7, 2021

      +1

    2. Sharon
      May 7, 2021

      Glen

      Exactly! There is no justification for following ’green’ issues.

      1. steve
        May 7, 2021

        “There is no justification for following ’green’ issues.”

        A caterpillar might argue otherwise.

    3. Lifelogic
      May 7, 2021

      To export jobs and damage living standards and the economy with zero benefit for climate perhaps. OR TO justify yet more taxes and regulations on every one.

      1. Lifelogic
        May 7, 2021

        OR just vested interests. Crony capitalism or corruption cannot see any other explanations. THEY surely cannot actually think they can control the climate in this way can they?

  28. JoolsB
    May 7, 2021

    But with the exception of the Reform party and UKIP who are never going to form a Government thanks to the first past the post system stacked in Labour and the Conservatives favour, the only choice we have are left of centre parties. Conservative, Labour, Lib Dums, Greens, all Socialists, just some more leftie than others. Your party might call themselves Conservative John but they are anything but. Johnson is a big state, big spending, high taxing green crap socialist. The only surprising thing is how well they did in the council elections yesterday which I suspect is more to do with Labour voters rejecting Labour than anything else. The Socialists masquerading as the Conservative party were the unworthy beneficiaries.

    1. J Bush
      May 7, 2021

      +1

  29. nota#
    May 7, 2021

    From Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph today –
    “The problem is endemic and deeply ingrained; confronted by almost any difficulty, we tend as a nation to look not to self help but to the Government for solutions”

    It would appear the Control Doctrine is getting a hold everywhere. The ability to be resilient and self reliance is being drummed out of Society – the Left in Action

    1. nota#
      May 7, 2021

      @nota#, he then went on to write – “The danger is that in attempting to level up, we merely level everyone down instead.” isn’t that the aim of the Leftish Culture.

  30. Lester
    May 7, 2021

    Sir John

    I’m not sure if it’s my imagination but you seem to be adopting a more realistic attitude to our current travails?

  31. Bob Dixon
    May 7, 2021

    Labour is split between the metropolitan elite and the down trodden blue collar workers.
    Conservatives have moved left.
    The next 10 to 15 years need to pass for politics to settle after Brexit. Civil Servants and MP’s
    have to learn how to exploit the opportunities now offered by not following EU rules.
    So sit back to see what happens next.

  32. Sharon
    May 7, 2021

    OT
    The election results seem to be showing Labour going the way of LibDems. As someone who lives in a London suburb, I just pray that anyone but Sadiq Khan gets voted in as mayor. (Sadly it seems unlikely – one of life’s mysteries)

    This election will leave the Conservatives feeling empowered, so we have until the next General Election for the three newly formed parties to really get their respective acts together to pose a true opposition to the current incumbent.

  33. Original Richard
    May 7, 2021

    The logic is simple.

    Since the political left claim to be the party for the poor, the unemployed, the illiterate etc. it is clear that in order to increase their popularity they always want to increase the number of people who fit into these categories.

    Once this is understood all their policies and actions become transparent.

    Do constituencies vote for the political left because they are deprived or are they deprived because they always vote for candidates from the political left?

  34. formula57
    May 7, 2021

    Your laws of government show why we need political office holders who provide leadership rather than just mind the shop and watch the world slide by. Poor us eh!

    O/T I remain grateful for your recent diary on the 2021 census even though my plan to read it to the Count in my defence (with consequent cheering from the public gallery, the jury weeping, and even the flinty judge wiping away a tear) is not needed, the census snoopers having not troubled me. Per the accountants’ philosophy of money not spent becomes money earned, pleasingly I now have the ÂŁ1,000 I might have been fined to spend as I wish.

  35. Norman
    May 7, 2021

    Back in the 1950’s at grammar school we had an English master who, like many of his ilk in those days, was alleged to be a communist. We challenged him in class one day, and he replied that this no longer was the case, as he’d seen that due to human nature, it did not work. In his own way, he was a decent sort, probably an idealist who was dissatisfied with the status quo of those days. I guess it’s much the same today – just different terminology. Such revolutionaries all mean well, but in the long run, it turns out that they were deceived and deluded – the story of fallen humanity from the beginning.

    1. Norman
      May 7, 2021

      I ought to add, he and others like him would have fought in the Spanish Civil War. Many saw the rise of Fascism in Europe as the terrifying evil it was, but sadly it took longer to understand that Soviet style Communism was no better. What a terrifying time it was, and there were many heroes. We had a history master who’d been in a Japanese POW camp, whose face would become suddenly blank mid-paragraph. It was said that he suffered flashbacks. How easily we forget historical context. Now, with hindsight, I think of them all with gratitude. May, common sense and compassion win out in the end – a tall order!

  36. Dave Andrews
    May 7, 2021

    Steve Reed on the news this morning, telling us the Labour party has changed but needs to change more, in the light of the Hartlepool by-election defeat.
    No mention of what that change has been and what further change needs to take place. From what I observe, the Labour party hasn’t and isn’t changing and is still wedded to the woke agenda, which perhaps doesn’t garner that many votes. I think the change they are really looking for is a change in the electorate, which they hope might come round to their way of thinking.
    Perhaps what is needed is a real Labour party, that stands for people who actually work, rather than the current crop of London led champagne socialists. What they need is a complete clear-out of the current leadership; unfortunately they are led by people who have the conceit that they are right.

    1. Andy
      May 7, 2021

      Labour unquestionably has a problem. But they really are overthinking it. Labour is struggling to reconcile the ‘working’ people of places like Hartlepool with those derogatorily described as the ‘liberal metropolitan elite’. The reality is that the two cannot be reconciled so Labour must pick.

      And its choice is clear. The vast majority of its voters backed Remain, and are appalled both by the Tories and by Brexit. Labour should throw its lot in with those people and leave places like Hartlepool to the Tory Faragists.

      There are very many millions of Greens, Lib Dems and moderate Tories who could easily be brought into the Labour camp this way. But it means Labour accepting that its old heartlands have gone and turning its back on them. In the same way the Democrats had to accept the same about the southern states.

      This will take a number of electoral cycles to play out but it ultimately leaves the Tories with the long term problem. That problem being that traditional Tory voters in the south want very different things to the new Tories in the north. And if places like Hartlepool are going to get more money, it will come from places like Wokingham.

      An alliance of Labour, Lib Dem and Green is really not as far fetched as it sounds. And such a candidate would have wiped out many Tory majorities in the south last time around. And it is coming. These parties realise now that they will only win by working together. And they only need to win once to stop the Tories ever winning an overall majority again.

      1. Peter2
        May 7, 2021

        You will never win with just those you like andy.
        There are not enough of them, and there never will be.
        Old tribal loyalties are shifting especially amongst younger aspirational people.
        You need to reclaim 80 seats just to break even.
        With your attitude (which is typical of many of opposition politicians) towards capturing potential non Conservative voters you never will.
        I mean, why would senior citizens, for example, ever vote for people or parties with your views?

      2. MiC
        May 8, 2021

        Your first para nails it, I think Andy.

        Workers means teachers, nurses, call centre staff, shop workers, office staff, technicians, engineers, and the many other categories of employed people.

        By “working class” what is meant is really “tradesmen’s class” and these are often quasi feral, cash-in-hand, tax-dodging, fly-tipping, safety regulation-ignoring types, still looking for revenge for the smoking ban in pubs.

        They will never vote for any form of social democratic party, so Labour might as well ignore them. It is the first on whom they should focus. And pick up all those Home Counties seats – again.

        1. Peter2
          May 8, 2021

          In a recent survey of NHS staff there was 10% lead for Conservative over Labour.

          I note you are again slurring a large number of potenential voters.
          Keep up the good work Martin.

          1. MiC
            May 8, 2021

            You prove my point re NHS staff Labour should focus on them more.

            But no, those other people generally never have voted and never will vote Labour.

        2. Peter2
          May 10, 2021

          Please carry on abandoning potential voters MiC
          Other parties will encourage their vote.

  37. ChrisS
    May 7, 2021

    We desperately need a proper, right of centre government to reduce the size of the state and lower taxes as a result. However, I am afraid we are not going to get one !
    Boris has been doing a pretty fair job generally, but right of centre he certainly isn’t, otherwise the Foreign Aid budget would have been cut permanently and the Barnett formula would have been abandoned before now. Instead, Boris proposes to attempt to appease the Nationalists with billions more of English taxpayers money ! That will be a fruitless waste of resources and will not do anything to stop the SNP. Better to call their bluff and give them their second referendum when the pandemic is over.

    As for Labour, despite the catastrophic loss of Hartleypool, John McDonald was wheeled out on the Today programme and just repeated the Left Wing Labour rallying call that they lost because the Labour Opposition isn’t left wing enough ! It took Mandelson to state the obvious : Labour have lost 8 of the last 11 General elections, including 4 in a row. HW went on to point out that the only ones they won were under Blair who understood how to bring Middle England on side without alienating Scotland.

    For Labour to win another General Election looks impossible while the SNP are in the ascendancy and, as Miliband discovered, English voters will run a mile if there was any prospect of a Labour/SNP Coalition.

    But that still means we won’t get a right of centre, small state government in the next decade. Pity.

  38. agricola
    May 7, 2021

    Indications are that the conservatives are doing well at yesterdays feast of elections. The way in which Boris detatched the vaccine programme from the administrative side of the NHS and scored highly in any rational judgement of the end result, may have indicated to voters that here is a man who can deliver. The action also infers that government institutions were judged to be not up to it. The medical foot soldiers of the NHS did superbly well in executing plan A. It was a bit like the japanese of Nissan telling us how to make cars and UK management and workforce doing so in complete contrast to the record of Longbridge. Hartlepool may be the residual result of percieved competence. However there is a catalogue of just the opposite in most other government activity, and a reluctance to step out and take risk. Something private enterprise and the self employed do every day. I site UK tax as a burdon on a post Brexit/Covid recovery.
    I have not forgotten that Labour are still suffering in a post Corben vacuum, plus not having much to shout about in opposition to the fight with Covid. They have a golden opportunity in the near future to re-think their purpose and there is much they could pick up on. They may be in an ICU but are not dead yet. For the present the electorate seem to have decided that voting for them is a wasted vote.
    Reading this diary suggests to me that the conservatives have much to do before facing the real test at the next GE. Prioritise, learn from the vaccination programme, and accept that traditional Tory voters have doubts that the present government is a true centre right party. For instance, were illegal immigration and illegal residency taken out of the Home Office and given the Beaverbrooke treatment, would that not indicate serious resolve.
    Do not get carried away by the results of this latest skirmish, there is a long campaigne ahead and judgement awaits. You have done well largely because the alternative is abyssmal.

  39. rose
    May 7, 2021

    How much of a backlash has there been against the massive, minutely timed smear campaign by opposition and media? I would say quite a bit. People aren’t as thick as the media think, or as easily and crudely manipulated.

    1. Peter2
      May 7, 2021

      Indeed rose.
      Labour is all smears and no popular policies.
      They insult the very voters they need to get into power.

      that bigoted woman et al

  40. Richard II
    May 7, 2021

    I’ve enjoyed these pieces, too. I think a very good book is on the way.

    Population density is quite a hot potato, when the government is deliberately forcing up the population of e.g. our host’s constituency – by setting ever higher figures for new housing, taken in very many cases by people from outside it.

    1. Iain Moore
      May 7, 2021

      Of late we have been having a daily announcement regarding the relaxation of immigration restrictions. India graduates allowed to settle one day, actors , engineers etc from around the world allowed to settle the next.

  41. Mactheknife
    May 7, 2021

    Sir John, as you have probably gathered in the comments so far, the Conservative party is currently doing its best to become a party of the left with its idiotic and economically damaging policies such as 2050 NetZero (or is it 2035 or 2030 I seem to lose track of the announcements from Carrie…..err I mean Boris). The public, bar a tiny percentage of hair-shirted greens, have not asked for it and do not want it. We still seem wedded to EU targets and objectives which will require massive tax increases as we have seen already via Renewables Obligations on the power companies, which have been passed to the consumer.

    1. Iain Moore
      May 7, 2021

      I see a report out today says China emits more greenhouse gases than the entire developed world combined, meanwhile Johnson is doing everything to make our lives as miserable and expensive as possible removing our minuscule contribution to these greenhouse gases.

  42. Iain Gill
    May 7, 2021

    my business has just got a letter from HMRC quoting a long list of Commission Regulations (EU) that it wants my business to comply with.

    didnt we just Brexit? has nobody told HMRC?

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      May 7, 2021

      Iain , no, you only thought we had.

  43. nota#
    May 7, 2021

    Sir John

    By all accounts from the MsM today the PM still doesn’t ‘get it’. He is trying to suggest that getting ‘Brexit Done’ won Hartlepool – its tragic.

    The Labour Party decided to insult the People of Hartlepool with a candidate they (The proud people of Hartlepool) would never themselves choose in a million years, so they kicked them into touch.

    The only arrangement the PM has delivered on the Brexit Issue is that the EU can trade into the UK what ever they want, The EU can take fish form UK waters but not export it to the EU. NI must integrate itself with the EU and sever its connections with the UK. UK commerce is now restricted from the EU on a level that the EU would never apply to any other 3rd party Country.

    The PM has gone on then to further handicap the UK in that the EU and more particularly the French Government have ultimate control on the UK’s energy supplies. (Its not just Jersey, and they are not in the UK). Germany will now supply our armed forces with transport, update our tanks, so that the UK workers can loose their jobs and the UK taxpayer will pay even more. The French Navy will take on the Royal Navies minesweeping duties, while supplying big chunks of the tech and infrastructure to those white Elephant not fit for purpose Aircraft Carriers.

    It’s a very long list, but as people become aware of how much their livelihoods have been given away and additional cost this has now created for them as taxpayers by this ‘anti UK party’ they will also take their revenge at the ballot box.

    The EU is laughing because our Political Classes is still(Still predominantly Remain) wanting them to boss them around and tell them what to do – that is why they have been left in charge.

  44. Roy Grainger
    May 7, 2021

    The present government must be “left” then.

  45. acorn
    May 7, 2021

    Conversely JR, all centre right and and right parties want small and continuous reduction of government. Alas it it more complex than that. The Party within the Conservative Party, known as the European Research Group (ERG), is not just an anti-immigration party that; by the way, will pick up thousands of anti-immigrant voters from the now defunct UKIP party, in todays elections. It is time the ERG (a child of the original Monday Club), came clean and nailed its own colours to its own mast separate to the “one nation” conservatives.

    The ideological passion of the ERG is driven by three interrelated strands of thinking. (1) A hostility to government and especially supra-national government like the UN, EU, Schengen, WTO etc., for instance. (2) A conviction that Britain (essentially England) is inherently culturally superior to other countries. (3) A distrust of reasoned compromises and bargained solutions; especially those informed by expert opinion; such as experts in virology and pandemics. These three are summed up as (1) anti-statism. (2) pro-cultural chauvinism. (3) anti-intellectualism. This thinking will dominate the next decade of elections, get used to it.

    Reply More lies from someone who has never attended an ERG meeting

    1. Peter2
      May 7, 2021

      I realise you must be hurting acorn but that is such a predictable counter attack.

      1. acorn
        May 8, 2021

        Is that it? No well reasoned, extensively researched counter argument; logically argued with debating skill?

        1. Peter2
          May 8, 2021

          I agree with Sir John’s blunt comment acorn.
          His rebuke to you has never been stated so strongly ever on this site in my memory.

  46. DOM
    May 7, 2021

    A free lunch politics offered up by both main parties and the fascist SNP financed by the issuance of paper money and sovereign debt (future wealth consumed today for slimy political advantage) conceals the true nature and cost of British politics

    If each adult had to pay from their bank account each month the current and past costs of the British State, the public sector and all the other dependent politicos we have to finance them I am telling you that both Labour and Tory would die in a ditch

    Sovereign debt is allowing Tory PMs and past Labour PMs to deceive their true aims. Buy electoral loyalty and then take away our freedoms using speech laws, cancel culture, woke fascism and cultural Marxist strategies designed to change the fundamental nature of who and what we are

    These moral criminals are not being exposed by the compliant, bought media

  47. jon livesey
    May 7, 2021

    When Labour have radical leader like Corbyn they go down to a historic defeat in 2019 because enough ordinary Labour voters simply will not vote for Socialist nonsense..

    When Labout have a normal sane leader like Starmer they go down to an even more historic defeat because enough radical leftist Labour supporters simply will not turn out to vote for mainstream policies.

    All you can conclude is that Labour are not in a self-contradictory situation. There is no coalition of Labour supporters big enough to win an election.

    We need a strong opposition party, but we don’t need it to be based on a bankrupt 19th century ideology.

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