The left-right analysis stemmed from the division of the French National Assembly in to supporters of the King and supporters of the Revolution, with the King’s people sitting to the right and the revolutionaries to the left. As some have mentioned here itĀ no longer represents a great way of explaining the complex positions and views ofĀ modern political parties.
Today in the UK as we can see from recent election results there is still a divide between Remain and Leave. Maybe a quarter of the country still regrets the decision to leave the EU and actively encourages the Lib Dems, SNP and Labour to adopt negative tactics against all things related to Brexit instead of accepting the democratic verdict. Labour’s decision to send a Remain former MP who had done his bit to derail and delay Brexit into Hartlepool where most people want Brexit was a needless added difficulty for theĀ party in that important by election. All the time these Opposition parties fight the will of the people and the reality that we are now out they will find it very difficult to build more support and creep towards a majority.
The SNP are trying to divide the country over whether the Union of the UK should remain or whether it is time to split up the UK. The EU from outside is also seeking to split the UK with its one sided, heavy handed and legalistic approach to Northern Ireland relations with the Republic. None of these identity issues, Brexit/Union/EU relations is a right/left matter, with people from all parts of the so called right-left spectrum holding differing views on identity. We now know people have been Ā willing to move their vote from Labour and Lib Dems to Brexit parties and then to Conservatives owing to the refusal of Labour and the Lib Dems to back and help Brexit. In Scotland Some Conservative and Labour voters were voting tactically for each otherĀ to support the Union.
A third important division inĀ our country is between lovers of liberty and supporters of more government control. There are some lovers of liberty on the left, as well as many on the right. There is an authoritarian left and a civil libertarian left, just as there is a law and order right and a freedom loving right. CV 19 has brought this out , with some supporting prolonged lockdown and precise instructions over how we should lead our lives whilst others support people making more ofĀ their own judgements. Again traditional party lines do not reflect this division.
Meanwhile the main parties agree on a lot. They agree about climate change and the need to pursue net zero. They agree about membership of NATO, the desirability of the so called international rules based order, and the need to encourage tolerance and understanding for all people whatever their background. They agree about the importance of the NHS and free schooling. Ā Challenger parties to these views have attracted very little support.
There needs to be a clear division on economic policy, with Conservatives backing growth through setting competitiveĀ tax rates, encouraging free enterprise, backing self employment and going for growth.The next few months are best spent securing a strong recovery, helping create many Ā more well paid jobs and bringing home Brexit wins.
May 12, 2021
Left and right may not address the voting behaviours in Britain but neither does Leave and Remain.
Many people are socially conservative but not completely in thrall to traditional Conservative Party principles.
I am not sure about the penultimate paragraph. The major parties mostly pay lip service to these ideas but there are rumblings below the surface. It is often easier and politically useful to go along with certain policies rather then openly challenge them.
Many people also feel the major have nothing to offer them.āChallenger partiesā are famously difficult to establish. However they still have value as pressure groups who can cause big parties to change their ways on occasion. Sometimes they can wipe out a big party. Nationalists in Scotland destroyed a complacent Labour Party.
May 12, 2021
Nigel Farage’s UKIP/Brexit put a bomb under all UK political parties. Perhaps the Queen in gratitude for the return of her realm should dub him Knight, as the establishment won’t, only sighing in relief at his departure from the field.
May 12, 2021
Indeed he should be given a Dukedom, but it will not happen far too political. Yet some of the Traitors who tried to assist the EU with the appalling Benn Act so as to prevent Brexit were elevated to the Lords or even allowed to returned as Tory MPs.
JR says āMeanwhile the main parties agree on a lot. They agree about climate change and the need to pursue net zero… They agree about the importance of the NHS and free schooling. Challenger parties to these views have attracted very little support.ā
On these issues the main parties are all very, very wrong, the NHS is killing hundreds of thousand and failing millions with nearly 5 million now awaiting operations many die or suffer for years as a direct result of this incompetence. The NHS has appalling outcomes relative to many countries. Most state schools are very poor indeed as are most university degrees. 75% or so who attend university have clearly not understood their A levels having CD grades or even lowers. Most university degree have little or no value & nothing like the Ā£50k of debt incurred. The reason that challenger views on Climate Alarmism, Expensive Intermittent renewables, the dire NHS and poor schools have support is again due to vast, hugely misleading, government propaganda, scare to death porn and blatant lies mainly funded by tax payers and ācharitiesā. This comes from Gov. the dire BBC, in schools universities, so called ācharitiesā and the endless radio and press adverts. In short the people are paying taxes and these are being used to con them endlessly. Pay more taxes so we can con you even more is the Gov. line.
May 12, 2021
LL. +1
May 12, 2021
+100 LL.
There is still a remain leave divide. Certainly no difference between fake Tories and Labour. Cosmetic at best. I take it JR was being numerous? When he wrote about tax, well, we know that is simply untrue. Come on JR do not try to make fools of by fake claims when the record reflects the opposite and your govt over 11 years has made a basket case of the economy. It was deliberate in part and a horrendous mistake to lockdown, but a choice your party and govt made.
May 12, 2021
100% Agree
May 12, 2021
Sammi Wilsonās view is that the Tories over ten years have become fans of big govt. and sold out N.Ireland and they will impoverish our nation. Read article on his views in Breitbart London today.
He reminds us how Johnson told the nation no serving the terms of the WA were so terrible no PM would sign up to it! Ah well, add that to the list of lies. Perhaps those in the fisheries might equally feel the same.
May 12, 2021
No need for me to comment L/L. You’ve said it and covered it all! Brilliant post.
May 12, 2021
I find that too often there is a wish to occupy the centre-ground of politics, between left and right; surely the sin should be to occupy the common ground on any issue which is where the majority of opinion will be found.
I think the confusion over the Prime Ministerās popularity is thinking along left/right lines whereas BJ is a natural common-groundsman.
May 12, 2021
The pursuit of net zero implies that every last molecule of CO2 must be extracted from the atmosphere. Yet it is essential for plant life .
Some must be allowed to stay but how much ?
Over the past twenty odd years we have gone from 0.03 to 0.04 of 1% of CO2 in the atmosphere .
The temperature has not changed but the benefits to plant life are all too evident with increased crop yields, greater leaf area and density, the advance of scrubby plant growth into the Sahel by 50 miles a year .
There is nothing negative about any of this .
Yet our politicians responsible for COP24? cannot see this , as for John Kerry ā we must get rid of every last molecule ā he clearly has no idea what he is wishing for – a world of poor crop yields where the USA just gets by and the rest are condemned to poor harvests and famine .
Every politician must say what amount of CO2 they wish to have in the atmosphere and why
Now thereās a challenge that will not be met , unless you Sir John care to lead the way ?
May 12, 2021
New free speech laws ‘will counter chilling censorship’ at English universities it seems what about lack of free speech on the dire BBC. No climate and energy realists allowed on the BBC, nor indeed is anyone without the BBC’s mad woke, lefty, pro EU views, nor anyone who points out the real reasons for the gender pay gap (market forces, different jobs, different A levels and degree subjects and the free choices women and men make). Commute or do not commute – to fit in with children for example is one huge reason for the gap in some areas.
May 12, 2021
Indeed LL.
May 12, 2021
Spot on Lifelogic!
May 12, 2021
That it is the rule that telling lies in the HoC is OK is rather odd in a modern ruling system – or os the ‘out’ to say, ‘Oh yes I made mistake there’.
As there is no immediate fact checking , at least in PMQs, later the truth should be found at at the start of each new PMQs the PM should state all the ‘mistakes’ he made last time. This should be a HoC rule – why isn’t it? Otherwise the public has no faith, ever, in the truth of a PM. Answer please JR.
May 12, 2021
+100
It will take a Farage figure to rid us of this net zero and other job destroying policies.
This is the most left wing tory government in history.
May 12, 2021
I. W. +1
May 12, 2021
Ian Wragg
+100
This is the most left wing government in historyā¦ the decent MPs being on the back benches.
May 12, 2021
Reading the Queenās speech and all the other signs it is indeed an appallingly socialist agenda, with a very big state, over regulation of almost everything and a tax borrow and piss down the drain expensive energy agenda. This combined with dire virtual monopolies healthcare and education. Certainly well to the left of Blair about the same as Ed Miliband and his Tomb Stone. Where is the old sound Boris? He needs a new non socialist/alarmist Girlfriend who is a real Conservative.
May 12, 2021
@LL, its not about Governing the UK for the whole of the UK, its not about setting the UK economy up to flourish.
It is simply about the next election, and clearly the thinking is the Government doesn’t need to pander to those of a traditional conservative persuasion, the would never vote the alternative. Its is simply about attracting those that are ‘entitled’, ‘we have to be given – because!, the millennials.
With all elections even at extreme times at best only 6% swap properly from one side to the other – if a Government appeals to those, the sound bite readers they get elected.
It is not about the ‘ego’ of look at me I can ‘virtual Signal’ better than the other guy. The Country never comes into it beyond that.
May 12, 2021
John, just how much sole power does Boris Johnson have over Conservative party policy, the queen speech, etc.? Is the conservative party run like a total autocracy? I do not believe for one minute he has solo control. He has personally stated he doesn’t like ID cards yet now he is told by ‘whom’ that it is to be done under his watch?
Does he write the overarching Mission Statement, the main goals all by himself, and if you listen to Lifelogic with his partner?
What internal party policy votes are there from MPs? Do you get an individual chance to vote in mini-referenda or do you have to just go along with whatever Boris proposes?
Who steers Boris?
May 12, 2021
The sudden lurch to the left has been achieved by the Bright Blue sect in the Conservative Party. Bright Green more like. Johnson’s latest, her friends and the selection of a lot of young new MPs newly converted to Brexit. They are unable to understand the engineering of zero carbon dioxide but have their eyes on the money from the wind and solar lobby. Electricity prices have doubled and are now 6x gas per kWh and as more offshore wind is installed the cost will continue to rise as happens in Germany and Denmark. The few MPs that understand the problems that will be becoming apparent by the next election need to get together and change policy or leave. Reform will be exploiting the unpopular and needless changes.
May 12, 2021
And yet Boris will say heās got the mandate from the voting conservatives, the general election manifesto, the recent local election celebrating his past 18mth in office and the acceptance of the Queens speech to secure his mad green revolution ā sadly its only his own MPs that can stop him
May 12, 2021
LL
Boris was cloned whilst he was hospitalised!
Why would he need the Covid vaccine if heās supposedly had the virus ?
May 12, 2021
@a-tracy – those are state secrets and as you have seen by no answer you won’t get JR spilling the beans.
May 12, 2021
Anthony Brown MP yesterday on Talk Radio talking about the damaging war on CO2 plant and tree food. – I am convinced of āthe science of itā we must adapt āin a way that does not harm jobs or damage the economyā. Sure mate what possible āwayā might that be? The solutions proposed will make trivial or even increase CO2 production, they just export jobs and its associated CO2 and hugely increase energy costs rendering the UK uncompetitive in many industries.
This is a man with a Maths degree from Cambridge (pure maths I assume) but he really should do some research and should know better.
But then as they say:- āIt Is Difficult to Get a Man to Understand Something When His Salary Depends Upon His Not Understanding Itā
In 2002, when Health Editor of the Observer, Browne co-authored a report titled NHS Reform: towards consensus? for the Adam Smith Institute,[15] which was serialised in the Guardian newspaper.[16] It urged greater funding for the NHS and to retain the principle that it should be free for users, but that the NHS should adopt the practices common in the German, French and Belgian health services.
So he got this wrong too. Free at the point of use healthcare kills nearly all competition and innovation in healthcare it is a disaster. That is why we have such huge waiting lists and such a poor service. What next free at the point of use food, houses, hotels, furniture, cigarettes, alcohol … should work well?
May 12, 2021
I find that I usually agree with you LL.
Just a small point. Once again I see a great deal of dissatisfaction of GPS when I read the Letters to the Editor in todayās Daily Telegraph.
I should have thought that it would be a relatively easy matter to change the renumeration of GPs from being based on numbers on their books to number of patients they see annually.
I wonder how one can set the ball rolling on this?
May 12, 2021
Farage and ukip were a product of the UK press.
If not him, they’d have promulgated someone else to do it.
May 12, 2021
Farage and UKIP were the product of the EU.
May 12, 2021
Gosh who knew.
Amazing revelation from MiC
Farage never existed, hecwas just a product of the UK press.
Was it the Guardian wot done it?
May 13, 2021
Ann Widdicombe thinks Farage broke party loyalty up north with Brexit. Once party loyalty is broke people choose more freely.
May 12, 2021
John seems desperate to try constantly to resuscitate the now dead issue of brexit.
Like the vote on same-gender marriage, it is done and dusted.
People have lost interest in which side politicians may have taken on the latter – I doubt whether Hartlepool’s voters knew that about the Tory standing there.
Despite John’s efforts, they will soon forget about the first too.
They’ll start to notice what a dystopian shambles Tory England is then.
May 12, 2021
Here’s some news about that dead issue:
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2021/0511/1220990-brexit-northern-ireland-protocol/
“UK warns on sustainability of post-Brexit N.Ireland trade rules”
May 12, 2021
MiC
Strange that you are on here many times a day moaning about brexit
May 12, 2021
Well, if John will constantly assert things like “Isn’t brexit wonderful and aren’t you thankful to us Tories for that?” then it needs some of us to say, “Er, actually, no it’s not and no we aren’t, John”
May 12, 2021
When did Sir John actually say the words you actually have put in quotation marks MiC
More fake news from you.
May 13, 2021
They’re speech marks.
Writers of fiction – plausible I would claim – are entitled to use them too.
It’s called “creativity” – look it up.
May 12, 2021
I agree with Peter, but would add that there is another divide in politics, that between authoritarian and liberal government. This is complicated by the rise of multinational corporations which dominate aspects of citizens’ lives.
May 12, 2021
In my 1988 book The Emancipated Society I proposed the vertical authoritarian- libertarian axis was the best replacement for the left right horizontal axis of politics.
May 12, 2021
The Tories have been elected to a large degree on Identity Politics, I think.
There has perhaps not been such an outstanding example of an issue, over which these were played, in all of British political history, as brexit.
It worked well for the Tories, and it’s easy to see why John etc. are so keen to keep it going, even though the matter is now history.
However, these things will fade as material reality starts to bite – and bite it will – hard.
May 12, 2021
They eventually followed the wishes of the voters in the referendum.
Since then it has worked well for them.
How did Labour do MiC?
May 13, 2021
Actually, not as badly as the Tory media make out.
The Tory vote in Hartlepool was only increased by a handful, and Wales had its equal best ever result. That’s incumbency for you.
We did OK with the mayors too.
But enjoy your relative successes while they last.
May 14, 2021
Martin, you will never understand why ‘The Tories have been elected’ that you believe it is ‘to a large degree on Identity Politics, I think’ shows how wrong you are. The Tories do not have a strong ‘identity’ message. I had to look it ‘identity politics’ up.
āIdentity politicsā is a very vague phrase, but it generally refers to the discussion of and politicking around issues pertaining to oneās, well, identity. The focus typically falls on women, racial minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and religious minorities, such as Muslim Americans. All the social issues you may have heard of in the past several years ā same-sex marriage, police shootings of unarmed black men, trans people in bathrooms, the fluidity of gender, discussions about rape culture, campus battles about safe spaces and trigger warnings ā are typically the kinds of issues people mean when they refer to identity politics.”
You constantly come on here insulting people who elect Tory representatives I would no sooner go on Left-leaning blogs to insult and barrack their posters once never mind multiple times per day. You should concentrate on the blogs and possible electors on your preferred side rather than just bash the opposition telling us we’re all bad, ignorant, and uneducated and that you’re right on every issue.
May 12, 2021
Generalisations, not untrue, but not specific either. I submit that we are looking for specifics.
I was otherwise occupied when it came to the Queens Speech and your contribution. Discovering how expensive good food has become in the UK, in comparison with my life elsewhere.
I caught a bit about sorting out care for those in old age who need it. Nothing specific as to what is proposed or how it is to be paid for. I will resort to the press to ascertain detail if any.
In numerous respects we are in need of detail post Brexit/Covid. What is to be rectified, at what cost if any. There are immediate problems, not the time for aspirational musing. In place of left, right or centre I want effective.
May 12, 2021
Sturgeon is biding her time for the next vote on leaving the U.K.Boris is wasting our money in the hope Scotland will not break away.He should concentrate on laying out the financial madness of breaking away.
May 12, 2021
I am sure Boris is now the best person to lay this out and win Scottish heart and minds.
The election benefited those in power in London, Parliament, Wales, Scotland, Bristol … much helped by very extensive tax payer funded adverts pretending to be about Covid, the NHS … or London transport (to the Mayor of London every journey matters) these were surely crafted and funded for political reasons and should have not been funded by taxpayers. It has largely worked and it should certainly be illegal. It also corrupts the media they buy these adds off.
May 12, 2021
not the best person to win Scottish hearts and minds I meant.
May 12, 2021
Bob
Agree Boris should, but he will not, it’s not his style, he will continue to waste more of our (the taxpayers) money trying to bribe them again.
May 12, 2021
As your side said endlessly about that silly brexit – “it’s not about money”.
And I sincerely doubt that for Scotland it is.
May 12, 2021
@ MiCk
So, it is okay for Scotland to leave a Union but not okay for the UK to leave a Union. Joined up thinking is not your strong point.
May 12, 2021
It’s perfectly legitimate in both cases.
However, one might be a far better idea than the other.
May 12, 2021
Freedom of expression is more important than life. We are slaves without our voice. That right has been deliberately and maliciously destroyed by politicians, parties, academics and lobby groups seeking to assert control over all things
The innate right to express our views without fear or favour removed except for certain privileged groups who now enjoy special status as a result of either their identity or the protection they enjoy from their Labour controlled Socialist State
The right to offend others destroyed except for certain privileged groups who are still allowed to slander, abuse, malign, accuse without evidence and generally demonise knowing they enjoy the protection of Labour’s client state. I can give two examples of this in the last month but my identity and the identity of those involved would expose me to prosecution. Maybe I should change my gender or race so that I may enjoy such immunity?
The right to expose politicians and their parties who use subtle laws to prevent discussion on issues that have the capacity to damage their party’s interests as they scramble to appease aggressive and efficient lobby groups
We have to TOLERATE the political class of the UK across all parties who now they can silence, demonise and legislate against those with a certain identity.
Our most cherished freedoms and liberties sacrificed to protect the authoritarian British political State and those who feed off it.
I always thought freedom in all its forms was innate and that all parties had a duty to protect it. I have been naive. In the last decade or so as Tory went into rebranding mode and working with Labour they have crushed debate to protect themselves from open debate.
Voting Labour and Tory is a recipe for authoritarianism. And that’s a fact
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
Not voting tory is a recipe for a Labour govt – which in the last election would have meant a bunch of far left extremists, and may still as Starmer is so weak and stands for nothing it seems. I am also critical of the failure – so far – of this govt to implement proper Conservative policies. But Donāt let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
May 12, 2021
There is left in the left and left in the right… if you know what I mean.
The modern Tories would be considered to be New Labour as they were a couple of decades ago. Boris/Carrie is a Blairist.
And those that favour masks and lockdown in the Conservative party are of the left too. We have on this site Andy and Newmania who purport to be Conservatives but who show clear left wing traits.
Those of us who have old Conservative values are now called *faaaaaar* right or even extremists.
Let’s not allow Brexit to confuse the issue. What is confusing the issue is that the Tory party has become infiltrated with leftists as it responded to May’s awful and incorrect ‘nasty party’ speech.
May 12, 2021
Exactly. The UK government is a gigantic, parasitic job creation scheme and destroyer of real & productive jobs. Parasitic jobs in the state sector and also created in the private sector in compliance with reams of red tape.
Real jobs are exported every day due to over taxation, over complex taxation, the expensive energy agenda, restrictive planning and various other red tape lunacy.
May 12, 2021
Didn’t the Queen say that the tax scam was going to be simplified? The sun will be exploding out to our orbit some time – which will come first?
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
@DOM +1
May 12, 2021
DOM. +++++1
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
DOM
Absolutely correct!
+ 1
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
Dom,
You say āFreedom of expression is more important than life.ā
You donāt mention values and neither do the major political parties most of the time. Issues are reduced to economic arguments – for and against.
Traditional values in this country are in decline. New bogus causes fill that void. Christians can now get challenged and prosecuted for a strict interpretation of the bible. During lockdown, I read Cameronās biography( a library book not a purchase). Seven hundred pages. No mention of Greensill or an influential foreign billionaire. Instead his proudest achievement was gay marriage. The biggest laugh was him trying to sell the idea to Putin and his disappointment with Putins rebuff.
Labour used to be grounded in the development of the cooperative movement and a desire to get on and better oneself. Not entitlement and grievance. Free education and health care were great achievements.
Conservatives stressed self-reliance, traditional morality, abiding by the law, patriotism etc.
Career politicians were not so numerous or obvious. Wealthy Conservatives did not look to politics primarily for personal gain. Labour politicians mostly came from the union movement and a working background. For all the Oxbridge graduates there were trade unionists and MPs who had done manual work.
May 12, 2021
Agree, DOM!
May 12, 2021
āMeanwhile the main parties agree on a lot. They agree about climate change and the need to pursue net zero.ā
This is a problem. When the main parties agree, there is not enough public debate about the objectives, and the policies/practices of implementation, and their burdens and implications.
The man in the street does not agree with the need to pursue net zero. Until they are convinced (IF a case can be made, when all the implications are taken into account, and other alternatives considered), there is a certainty of a massive backlash and resistance as ever more unpopular measures are introduced.
And that backlash can extend to the ballot box. The Conservative Party needs to present a much more balanced view. And not just mindlessly, inconsiderately leap on every Green measure. āIt must be good, because itās Greenā, is an absurd mantra that makes the party look utterly ridiculous.
May 12, 2021
+10
May 12, 2021
+10 Giles B
May 12, 2021
You have no evidence āthe man on the streetā does not agree with net zero. You may not agree but then maybe you reject science.
In any case the Conservatives won a majority at the 2019 election with net zero being one of their few manifesto promises. So who are you to go against the will of the people?
May 12, 2021
Andy, an opinion survey conducted in Spring last year found that 2/3 of the public had never heard of ‘net zero’, and a further 10% had heard of it but didn’t know what it was. On that basis, it’s premature to say whether the public does or does not agree with ‘net zero’. It is clearly not ‘the will of the people’.
May 12, 2021
Andy
Iām donāt remember any mention of the ruinous policies regarding Climate Change, Green Energy and the banning of the ICE in the 2019 manifesto?
Getting Brexit Done is my abiding memory from 2019
May 12, 2021
To suggest that someone rejects science because they do not agree with the Net Zero mantra demonstrates that you have perhaps done little investigation of the issues yourself. There is no such beast as Net Zero, it is a fallacy. The only way for the UK to pretend Net Zero is to involve creative accounting and “carbon” credits.
There is no science that says CO2 is driving global temperature out of control, there are only computer models, which only deliver what they are told to deliver. Observations constantly disprove the models. The supposed objective of “leading the world in fighting climate change” is fairy dust.
If it were true that CO2 were the demon gas, at 0.041% of the atmosphere, that it is portrayed to be, the UK produces just 1% of global anthropogenic emissions, China produces around 30%.
If the UK were to be shut down tomorrow, China would replace the UK’s annual emissions in just over 13 days. There will be no reduction in China’s emissions. In the (in)famous agreement between Presidents Obama and Xi Jinping, China committed to peaking its emissions by 2030. This was their commitment under the Paris agreement but it was presented as “China is reducing its emissions”, whereas in fact they will increase year on year until that date. Once they reach that date, those power plants will be in operation for possibly another 50 years. Emissions will not decrease.
https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/current-policy-projections/
Chinaās actions abroad will also have an important impact on future global greenhouse gas emissions, due to the financing and building of both fossil-fuel and renewables infrastructure worldwide through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which involves 126 countries that could account for as much as 66% of global carbon emissions in 2050 (Jun et al., 2019).
Since 2014, Chinese banks have invested over five times more in developing coal-fired capacity than wind and solar capacity in Belt and Road countries; since 2000, loans have totalled upwards of USD 50 billion (Reuters, 2019b). Of all coal-fired power plants under development outside of China, one quarter, or 102 GW of capacity, have been committed to by – or involve proposed funding from – Chinese financial institutions and companies (Shearer et al., 2019).
The now departed Claire Perry-O’Neil said in 2019:
“By 2050 the UK will have ended its contribution to climate change completely. Read that back. Itās an almost unbelievable sentence to write [indeed] and encapsulates one of the most ambitious and significant climate targets set by any major economy in the world.”
Reaching a net-zero target will be felt across the economy: how we work, play, and travel. Net zero means the UK will need to slash emissions from all sectors, it will transform [kill] old industries and build new ones.
It is puzzling to understand how the massive and economically disastrous re-structuring of our economy by top down control, to remove 379 million tonnes of CO2 from a global total of over 35 billion tonnes, that will continue to increase, is going to affect global temperatures in any way whatsoever.
May 12, 2021
If the public do agree with net zero it is because they (perhaps being not skilled in climate, physics and energy) have been lied to endlessly by government, the BBC, charities, schools and many others. They have perhaps accepted these lies from “experts”.
May 12, 2021
What is very clear indeed and can be show clearly is that the “solutions” the government are pushing (to reduce C02) do not even work to any significant degree at best they export it. Indeed they may increase CO2 and certainly make very little difference indeed. Not that CO2 is really a serious problem it is probably a net good in greening the planet and increasing crop yields.
May 12, 2021
Andy
An opinion poll survey carried out in Spring last year found that 2/3 of the public had never heard of ‘net zero’. Another 10% had heard of it but didn’t know what it was. On that basis, it’s premature to say whether people agree with it or disagree with it. It’s clearly not ‘the will of the people’.
May 12, 2021
In thw West, the science is now completely politicised by some unimaginably wealthy Marxists.
The real truth is; There Is No Climate Emergency.
It is widely known that CO2 has minimal effect on climate and which has been agreed by the International Panel for Climate Change. Also the alleged increases in Hurricanes and other events are proved not true.
It’s just that this message is now so difficult to reverse so our gutless elite woke politicians avoid the subject and are prepared to make us all suffer unnecessarily high energy costs.
If the Climate Change propagandised threat was a reality, then China, India, Russia and many other countries would cut their CO2 emissions. But they are not so completely stupid as we are.
May 12, 2021
@Andy
Make your mind up mate. You have worn your fingers to a frazzle telling us that there wasnāt a majority for Brexit and that we have a Tory goveyin power on a minority vote. But, hey, when they do something you agree with, they have legitimacy.
You appear to be a hypocrite. Get a grip.
May 12, 2021
Goveyin power – I thought I had typed government. Pesky phone.
May 12, 2021
No, Govey is in power. You were right first time. Borisy does the speeches.
May 12, 2021
+1 Its shameful that there is no political alternative to the green agenda due to fear of the media
May 12, 2021
Indeed there should be a group of honest scientists and economists funded to challenge and expose the damage and costs of this the idiotic agenda. Parliament need to hear both sided of the issue they only get one.
May 12, 2021
+100
May 12, 2021
+10
May 12, 2021
I am “A Man of the street”.
Now traffic is flowing again, try standing on the curb to cross the road, without being asphyxiated
by traffic fumes.
May 12, 2021
I must admit that walking back to the car after a nice walk along the beach this morning, a bus passed me. I was still choking on its horrible diesel exhaust fumes a quarter of a mile later.
May 12, 2021
Yes the many joys of lockdown shows how much more pleasant life would be with a drastically reduced population – what would that not solve of our myriad problems.
May 12, 2021
OT; I see the Govt plans to control “harmful content” on social media [1], apart from having to define what is and is not “harmful”, how is the Govt going to police this law when social media companies can exist outside of UK jurisdiction and company regulation, they don’t even need to have servers in the UK, is the Govt seriously proposing the ISP’s police this – creating the ‘Great (Firewall of) Britain’ in effect, users trying to access such social media feeds getting a “451 Unavailable For Legal Reasons” notice instead?
The DfE should mandate schools to teach children how social media accounts can be deleted, better still, teach them how to resist social/peer pressures to sign up in the first place, and fund out of school activities which will create real friendships that do not need Emojis and Emoticons!
[1] yet also demands Universities, and the such, enshrine Freedom of Speech…
May 12, 2021
jerry – you and I vote for different Parties, but there is often a lot that you write that I agree with, this comment being an example. I also appreciate that you do not succumb to overblown rhetoric, as several posters on this site do, all too frequently.
May 12, 2021
They don’t even curb harmful content on Freeview.
May 12, 2021
@Dave Andrews; That is the point, one man’s poison is another man’s syrup of figs, but which is which, or indeed which is witch!
May 12, 2021
Or the BBC!
May 12, 2021
I consider PMQs is a haven for harmful content – to hear them makes my blood boil. Should be taken off the air.
May 13, 2021
@Dennis; You make a serious point, if the populist TV and rolling news channels & radio stations did not broadcast PMQs, if it is was confined to a dedicated parliamentary broadcaster [1], I do wonder how rowdy and/or irrelevant PMs would be (in normal, non CV19 times), no MP is ever going to admit to playing to the media but that is what most use PMQs for.
[1] The UK needs a Cspan equivalent, editorially independent of the main broadcasters
May 12, 2021
Can I suggest that all manifestos and Queens speeches should come with a health warning.
May 12, 2021
Agricola
If only!
May 12, 2021
Even though we 100% fund universities, this government(s) will never step in and tell them what to do ā why not ? we fund them ?
May 12, 2021
+1
from conservative to Orwellian via the Queens Speech, but no mandate
May 12, 2021
jerry, “The DfE should mandate schools to teach children how social media accounts can be deleted, better still, teach them how to resist social/peer pressures to sign up in the first place”
As a mother to three, I saw that as my job. None of my children signed up to social media until they were sixteen that was my judgement after an early impression gained from one of the first platforms that were actually promoted for use by the children by school. In fact it was my eldest son who came home from school one day and changed our search engine to Google telling us it was much better than all the others!
May 12, 2021
Good morning.
This is the issue for me – The individual versus the State. I believe that the State should be small and subservient to the people. It has, over many years, slowly creeped into our everyday lives. What we can and cannot eat. What we can and cannot buy. What we can and cannot do. Who we can and cannot meet. Of course there has to be laws that govern our lives, but these laws must be proportional. The Covid laws are not proportional since the risk is not as great as has been made out to be. The only risk I see, is the risk to the NHS from being overloaded.
Governments find evermore ways to interfere in our lives and seek both powers, monies and the creation of an ever growing bureaucracy / little empires. We have witnessed in the former Communist countries what happens when the people rebel over too much State.
We can do without the State, but the State cannot do without us !
May 12, 2021
But what happens when the State is “subservient to the people” when the people are such as John McDonnell or Len McClusky or ‘Andy’ or ‘MiC’, in your view?
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
+10
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
“The next few months are best spent securing a strong recovery, helping create many more well paid jobs and bringing home Brexit wins.”
But instead we’re going to legislate that fish have feelings. Marvellous.
May 12, 2021
They are British fish and happier for it. Probably because they know the fishermen are all going out of business because of Brexit.
May 12, 2021
Apart from the immoral of murdering fish, it is environmental vandalism to fish in Scotland and then transport them to other countries.
May 12, 2021
I think it would repay you to spend some time studying biological food chains.
May 12, 2021
Next will be people claiming to be fish or even mermaids and demanding special rights against micro-aggression.
“I was born as a human but now I am a sea cucumber.”
And why not ?
Someone tell me why not ?
11 years of Tory rule and we have this sort of insanity whilst police officers murder women, ignore burglaries and lunatics have sword fights in broad daylight.
May 12, 2021
Brexit win is definitely an oxymoron
Fisheries no change for the first 5 years followed by a year by year negotiated reduction = oxymoron
NI a sovereign country within the UK but has to follow the laws and regulations of a third country = oxymoron
We pay millions to the French to stop illegal channel crossing and they provide the taxi service = oxymoron
We have the cleanest air and environment for over a century but this government is pursuing a green revolution = oxymoron
May 12, 2021
Glen, I think the five years – five-year divorce payment, five-year no change fishing for the EU is the time period the UK governors expect to change Brexiter’s minds about alignment with the EEA and the Single market customs agreement.
Boris wants to give away UK taxpayers money to a French-owned railway company who take the profits in the good years but wants to socialize the losses at Britains cost whilst allowing the French to set off hundreds of dingies from their coast. Are they giving up shares for our bailout as the banks had to?
Northern Ireland unfortunately can’t face both ways, NI can’t expect to stay in the EU with their EU passports, free movement into Southern Ireland and Europe of goods and people but remain 100% part of the United Kingdom. Boris should align their corporation tax. He should put the exact same restrictions on the EU including Ireland into the UK that the EU put on certain of our goods, why didn’t they. Tell us all what these goods are Boris, give us all a list of just what is banned right now or awkward to get paperwork passes for.
May 12, 2021
Next they will ban fishing. Then they will ban the killing of animals for food. They won’t ban eating fish or meat of course – that would be unreasonable and dictatorial!
May 12, 2021
To save the planet and reduce our own CO2 we should always import fish & meat from China
May 12, 2021
The sooner the better.
May 12, 2021
They won’t do anything of the sort whilst religion has sway and ritual killing is in religion in a big way.
May 12, 2021
I am seeing it reported in today’s press that Lord Frost is admitting that the Brexit deal he nogotiated and John Redwood voted for is damaging business in Northern Ireland. I would much prefer to see that those responsible for negotiating it and for voting it through Parliament took responsibility for the consequences of the choices they made. Instead we get “it’s all the EU’s fault” yet again.
Reply I did not vote for the final deal and argued against the NI settlement
May 12, 2021
It’s not all the EU’s fault. It’s true that the preamble to the revised protocol says that the circumstances of Northern Ireland are unique and so a unique solution may be required, but now the EU is insisting that it must stick with its standard “zero-risk” way of doing things. And it’s true that its refusal to consider a risk-based approach to checks and controls on imports into Northern Ireland runs contrary not just to this agreement with the UK but also to obligations that it readily assumed for itself and for each of its member states – which included the UK at that time – under the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement. And it’s true that when Michel Barnier rejected Theresa May’s plan his stated reason was that the UK could not be trusted to implement the scheme properly once it was no longer āsubject to the EU governance structuresā, which makes me think that even if we agreed to maintain alignment with EU food safety laws, which is what the EU is angling for, the next thing would be that we must accept the oversight of the EU Commission and the EU Court of Justice. However while I do blame the EU I blame Boris Johnson even more. What is all this really about? Was he really driven by an obsessive desire for a “Canada style free trade deal”, even though it had long been obvious that any such deal would be of little overall economic value to the UK?
May 12, 2021
Blair during his time in office did his best to confuse the status of political parties, but the divisions mentioned above are purely politics in action.
It is still possible to define a party by the thrust of it’s desires – It can still be possible to determine what policies are to the most benefit for the majority, and where they stand in terms of survival potential.
Non-survival is as far left as you can go – Ultimate survival is to the right.
On the left we still have big government, socialism, communism and high spending along with excessive taxation as well as a large degree of central control of the masses.
To the right is freedom from centralised control, and generally more opportunity to survive better.
Where it becomes blurred is where parties to the right invoke too many socialist policies as is happening with the current and happened with recent Tory governments.
Propaganda now exists at all levels of society, as does the urge to join in and be the same.
That political parties are in agreement doesn’t make it right.
May 12, 2021
“Meanwhile the main parties agree on a lot. They agree about climate change and the need to pursue net zero.”
And there we find another divide, between those in Westminster and Whitehall who assert “we know best”, and the electorate at large who vainly plead “we never voted for this attack on our quality of life”. Who will stand up for the latter?
May 12, 2021
The other division in opinions is around “green” stuff. I listened to Ed Miliband this morning criticising the government’s policy proposals with a demand for more “green jobs” which was, to say the least, repetitive. He didn’t however add much to his plans except talk about giga factories ! I am all for taking care of the environment, but cannot see how moving to electric transport is going to be any better than improving emissions from existing power systems. However, this theme is now so important that a party, which interesting is also anti brexit and therefore is anti democracy, has now been created on the back of that argument.
May 12, 2021
Green jobs? You must be having a laugh. When we lived in an area with a high number of wind farms we became aware that most of the work force came over from Ireland and many from Spain. A local person was killed by a Spanish worker driving on the wrong side of the road. There weren’t many British workers to be found. Most of the windfarm developers are foreign and bring their worksforce with them. The most we gain from it all is a few B&B places who let out rooms for a few months and then it all goes dead again. We don’t even manufacture the turbines.
May 12, 2021
Also the wind turbines donāt reduce domestic electric bills, the fibreglass blades lifetime usage is 10 years and canāt be recycled and the break-even cost is between 15-25 yearsā¦.subsidy subsidy subsidy
May 12, 2021
The shrillness verging almost of panic from the BBC in its attempt to propagandise us into believing the biggest lie ever perpetrated on a global scale of the AGW theory. Because we have not experienced the so-called predicted ‘Global warming’ on the ground, it was changed to ‘Climate Change’.
Indeed there is now a developing groundswell of disbelief in the AGW theory which unfortunately for the BBC, suspicion is growing for a lack of permitted proper debate on the subject, conspicuous by its absence. Motivated by unjustified increases in energy costs to both the Treasury and Bill Payers, the more the BBC goes on pushing the mantra, the more it quietly feeds into peoples’ suspicions.
May 12, 2021
“Indeed there is now a developing groundswell of disbelief in the AGW theory ” is to be welcomed but too many still follow the lies. I wonder if there are some in government who are not believers but are using it as a stick to beat us with.
May 12, 2021
Great to hear some sensible attempt at a logical analysis on the basics compared to the MMS emotional froth SJR.
May 12, 2021
The biggest divide is age.
Old people – who have received everything for free from the state throughout their adult lives – complaining about younger people who have never got a thing.
May 12, 2021
Gosh Andy, I never realised young people don’t get free health care and a free education anymore.
Well that is surprise.
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
Your posts get more silly by the day. We were young once and I can assure you we didn’t get anywhere near the benefits they get today. NO free childcare and child benefit wasn’t as lucrative either. Do get a life Andy and stop talking about things you know nothing about. You could apply your argument to every generation that lived.
May 12, 2021
University may have been free but it was for a decent degree then and not for the Micky Mouse things today.
May 12, 2021
Andy
Once again you completely miss the point that us oldies have contributed to the system all out working lives…. weāre not getting something for nothing, Iām still paying tax on my pension!
Do you imagine that Iāve not contributed a Penny and that Iām now reaping an undeserved reward?
And thereās the inescapable fact, that if youāre fortunate, perhaps you will be in receipt of …whisper it…. a pension!
May 12, 2021
You may have contributed, but many of your generation didn’t – at least not enough. You may observe that throughout your working career the government of the day borrowed more each year, so the contributions of the tax payer didn’t cover costs.
Let the generation that voted for borrow and spend governments take responsibility for paying back the national debt they are otherwise passing on to the next.
May 12, 2021
Oh dear, another one!
May 12, 2021
Andy, a great many younger people are now receiving furlough income (soon-to-be Universal Basic Income). When I was their age I didn’t get money for staying at home. I got free healthcare – young people still do. I got a free school education – young people still do. University fees, yes OK, but there’s a case for getting young people to pay (eventually) for what will be a big career advantage for them, rather than expecting all taxpayers to contribute to it.
What matters is that when I was young there were plenty of jobs, but not now, even though we have the likes of Ed Miliband burbling on about ‘green jobs’.
May 12, 2021
When I was ‘young’, I worked a 42 hour week, which was pretty standard, except in the public sector and demand for bigger and bigger pay rises, culminating in their Winter of Discontent, when bodies really did pile up, rubbish was not cleared and power cuts were the norm. I worked overtime to save for a deposit for for terraced property with a mortgage interest of 15% and inflation equal. Top rate of IT was 83%, hence the ‘brain drain’.
I left school at 15 and worked for over 50 years with an NI contribution of 47 years when I retired on a State pension of less than Ā£750p.m.
So please tell me young Andy, what did I get for free, that the young of today don’t get?
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
Andy, you are the only Ageist I regularly read.
Young people who have never got a thing you say? They get 18 years of free education instead of 15/16. Better access to higher education up from 6% to near 50%. Baby bonds. They get Working Tax Credits. Child Tax Credits. Longer and better paid maternity leave up from 18 weeks. Paternity leave that didn’t exist. Minimum wages you and I were expected to work for a much smaller wage for about five years or did you forget?
May 12, 2021
Andy writes ….
…. errr, that’s strange. I have paid taxes all my adult life. I didn’t realise everything was free. Can I have my money back please?
As an aside, you do write some utter bolleaux.
May 12, 2021
I see unelected bureaucrat David Frost is complaining about the Brexit deal he negotiated. He whines that his Northern Ireland Protocol is not sustainable.
We know David. We told you beforehand. You knew best, except you didnāt.
This is why we usually let competent people negotiate for our country rather than clueless clowns.
Still, the public inquiry will be fun David. Though not for you.
May 12, 2021
Andy
Iāve noticed that you never respond to questions put to you, but instead go off on a tangent, isnāt that supposed to be the mark of… dare I say it… a troll ?
May 12, 2021
@Lester
Indeed. He makes ludicrous statements just to wind people up. He cannot engage with anyone as he cannot sustain the ludicrous things he says. The latest is that old adults have had everything free from the state all our adult lives. We haven’t paid any taxes at all!
May 12, 2021
Of course it is. Over the last 12 months he has been one of the youngsters he keeps saying have got a raw deal, a businessman in his 30’s with a young family and also in his 50’s with business dealings in the EU countries and if I recall correctly, with children at uni. Pretty impressive don’t you think š
May 12, 2021
@Andy
Here’s one for you. Unelected bureaucrat Michel Barnier says:
He seems to be under the impression that the EU is in charge of immigration to all its member countries. Wow! Did they know that? Is that what they signed up for? Have the people ever been asked?
Mind you, they won’t make the schoolboy error of asking the people. Stuff that pesky democracy. Look what happened when we got asked! We left on a minority vote by retarded, bigoted old sods who have never contributed a thing in their lives!
May 12, 2021
The majority of people who are not obsessed with left or right political views are drawn to personality politicians.
Boris is a personality politician, he takes criticism and shrugs his shoulders.
He is a risk taker and enjoys the gamble.
To me the biggest challenge this Gov has got is to ālevel upā in the red heartlands that have so far rejected Labour.
If this is seen as a failure then voters will turn against the Gov.
The big balance is to satisfy the MPs in former Labour areas whilst trying to appease the old tradition Tory faithful.
This is very much similar to New Labour under Blair who needed to reach out to Tory voters.
Every thing this Gov wants to achieve can easily turn to dust if voters feel there are austerity cuts in the public sector or tax cuts to the wealthy. Itās happened before and will again itās just a fate of Politics.
There are bigger battles than so called Brexit wins that will not get reported because they are so minor.
I want to see more reality star Politicians who are personality driven. There are some but sadly not many.
Probably we need a baby boom so we are a much younger country rather than an ageing population who cling to the past.
Thatās why immigration is good because they are all young people.
Good to know the young Indians will be able to come. I know many who came to study and stitched up a deal with Asian employers to get sponsorship and stay well good for them.
May 12, 2021
M. barnier, the āliberalā, āmoderateā, ācentre-rightā, āurbaneā etc EU negotiator who was so much praised (rightly actually) for running rings around Mrs May and her hapless ānegotiatorā in the Brexit negotiations has proposed a new policy for France. He wants a total ban on non-EU immigration! How moderate is that?!
Hereās a better and more liberal and moderate idea for you, Monsieur B – stop āfree movementā and have a points based immigration system which doesnāt discriminate against people wherever they come from. Treat people from the U.K., the US, Romania, India, Libya, Nigeria or Germany all just the same.
May 12, 2021
Where have you been all these years?
The first thing that countries around the world want as part of a trade deal is a relaxation of visa arrangements, residency, work permits etc.
May 12, 2021
Sorry, and your point is?
May 12, 2021
Avoiding the subject is what his point always is when it comes to the EU
May 12, 2021
@MiCk
Really? So, if we do a trade deal with New Zealand they will allow me to move there? Yippee. Bring it on.
Trade deals are principally about trade – about tariffs and barriers to trade. You are mixing up trade deals with the rather odd ‘freedom of movement’ the EU thinks is a good idea. Great idea if there isn’t an imbalance and it is between people with similar cultural values.
May 12, 2021
Not just France, the whole of the EU:
https://www.cityam.com/michel-barnier-calls-for-halt-to-immigration-across-europe/
“Michel Barnier calls for halting of immigration to EU”
May 12, 2021
When he succeeds you’ll be clamouring to rejoin, won’t you?
What a giraffe!
May 13, 2021
What a silly comment!
May 12, 2021
So JR, it sounds like you think the political argument about green policies is over, and requires no further discussion or input.
That would be a big mistake, or course we need more discussion, and lot more facts from differing sources, before any programme is settled.
I agree we have to clean up the planet and to stop abusing and poisoning it, I also agree with sensible recycling, but climate change being completely man-made , really. !
Reply No I do not think that and am engaging regularly on green matters
May 12, 2021
Reply -Reply
I am aware of your views John, as you have made clear in many postings, but in you posting today you have suggested all of the main Parties agree on Climate change, as if the argument has been won, and it was to that statement I was referring, because I do not think anywhere near enough factual discussion/debate has been conducted to make things that settled.
May 12, 2021
Alan, I have noticed a degree of resignation in our kind host’s posts of late. There appears to be a weary acceptance and a lack of the old fighting spirit.
Reply You are wrong. I am pursuing a number of big issues, never been busier.
May 12, 2021
“there is a law and order right and a freedom loving right”
I don’t accept that these constitute opposing positions.
May 12, 2021
Indeed Laurence.
May 12, 2021
Sir John
I agree with your thoughts this morning. I would add as no single entity has the monopoly of doing what the majority would wish, it is the UK Party system of Politics that is the barrier to Democracy. For all intense and purpose our Democracy is crippled by the need for one single party to be the dominant Club. It has degenerated in to Clubs, sort of Gangs with the toughest and the ugliest ruling the roost.
The leader of the cabal gets to choose who should be a candidate in each territory not the people the are to represent. In essence this means a candidate is not chosen by ability but by loyalty to the gang leader.
Some will say, but any one can enter the race. But the way our political has evolved the main gangs are supported in many ways directly by the taxpayer so as to ensure those that challenge the status quo cant quite get there.
At the end of the day the real battle is to achieve Government for the People by the People, the general ideal of democracy. Which ever way you shape our system it is about the Political Ćlite fighting the People. All compounded by the ludicrous and what ever way you frame ridiculous undemocratic ‘House of Lords’ – an insult to the People and Democracy at every turn
May 12, 2021
nota// – can you nominate a nation with a political system that you believe provides a better form of democracy? I can think of several Western nations with proportional representation voting systems: their political Parties proliferate, but often this seems to cause frequent governmental upheavals (eg Italy); it also results in either small and extremist Parties wagging the dog’s tail (eg Israel), or a semi-permanent coalition (eg Germany).
What is your definition of government for the people by the people? As far as I can see, we have representatives of a wide variety of people’s viewpoints in UK Parties and UK governing systems, which leads to changes every so often – or should there be a one-party system, as in China and Russia, providing it agrees with YOUR beliefs?
May 12, 2021
JR: “the desirability of the so called international rules based order”
What exactly is that? Is it the ‘New World Order’ from the WEF?
When were we asked if we agreed with the desirability of such an order. This country has become a form of elective dictatorship with the connivance of MPs. Our liberty and freedom have been denied by government aided and abetted by complicit MPs and MSM.
How pleased the Chinese Communist Party must be to see our own politicians following their lead and destroying their own democracies.
May 12, 2021
@Brian Tomkinson – the declared ‘Great Reset’ – considered a conspiracy until it gained momentum via the great dictators of the World
May 12, 2021
Sir John
While sort of agreeing.
Isn’t the Problem is we do not have a Government of the UK. We do seem to have a bunch of people that believe in ‘Virtual Signalling’ so as to be on side with the MsM and the noisy Metro Left.
Without the economy out and centre there is nothing – absolutely nothing – just noise.
May 12, 2021
Theyāve forgotten what it means to be an honourable MP and to represent their constituency and its people above all
May 12, 2021
The real danger and what the opposition takes comfort in, the UK has not achieved Brexit in the terms most voted for. It is not a free sovereign democracy all the time the EU can dictate how the UK citizen must run its life inside it own domain.
You are only free and a democracy when it is the People that create, amend, repeal, the Laws, Rules and Regulations in their own , Country – Domain – Territory. The EU as we have seen will not permit this. The UK EEZ is theirs NI is theirs. We are permitted to buy their goods and services without hinderance but this is not reciprocated. It is the Remainers that have won, they get to salami slice our life back towards full control of the un-elected, un-accountable. After isn’t that they same as living in the UK now.
May 12, 2021
+1
May 12, 2021
There is an awful lot of food for thought in this post, I find. I suppose the current fluidity is not surprising given the sea change of Brexit. ‘The new normal’ is likely to take some time to become clear; probably as long as politiacl parties took tore-crystalise after the 1832 Reform Act and the subsequent split of the Tories over the Corn Laws. As well as the differences you highlight, there is also some overlap between them which clouds the picture still further: those who prefer liberty to more state intervention would tend to be the same as the people who prefered Brexit to control by Brussels.
But having won on Brexit, paradoxically, those like me who dislike control by an over mighty State, are having a hard time of it, with what was expected to be a libertarian Government, apparently revelling in the powers that it has been legitimised in taking by Covid.
Sir Keith Joseph talked about tenure of ‘The common ground’ being the key to political success, and for the moment, Boris seems to have found it.
May 12, 2021
For the progressives that have now captured both Tory and Labour parties tolerance is code word for SILENCE.
When you begin to understand the deceit at the heart of progressive, even the term is an act of deceit, fascism then you begin to understand it uses a specific language using certain terms with encoded meaning. On first glance their aim appears moral and virtuous but when one digs deeper this POLITICAL (read power over others to assert control) movement has one aim, to crush your voice and impose their retrograde culture upon moral, freedom loving human beings
I treat others as I find them irrespective of race, gender and sexuality. The progressive (read Marxist) seeks to politicise human differences views humanity as a machine and seeks to stoke resentment, demonise and assert total control
Hate Crime laws for example are designed not to combat hate, harm and discrimination but to incite fear, impose silence and protect the political status quo. It is a blatant attack on freedom of expression for the majority
It is utterly repugnant to see a once libertarian party like the Tories embrace this wicked politics and understand it is about politics not about the human condition and humanitarianism
May 12, 2021
The true but, of course, completely ignored divide is between native and non-native, and by extension between those who argue for being and nature, love and kinship in Man and those who argue for artificial desiderata like liberal self-authoriality, economic man, racial equality, genderism, and so forth.
May 12, 2021
What we need is a Conservative government. We do not have one now.
May 12, 2021
Sir John,
A loud and vocal display of the condescending divide in UK politics could be observed whenever there was another “People’s Vote” march through central London. Fortunately they seem to be a thing of the past, along with Mr Shouty-Man of College Green.
May 12, 2021
Morning John,
So true….
The travesty for me is food banks. They should never be a part of Brexit Britain.
Shows we are doing something wrong. The economic policies need to be fixed and we can’t blame the EU anymore.
Food banks remind me of the film the beach when the guy gets attacked by a shark and is put in a tent away from everybody else. Out of sight out of mind.
It is incredible how as a nation, we become so used to things that should never be the norm.
Please sort it out John and get rid of this madness.
May 12, 2021
“They agree about climate change and the need to pursue net zero. ”
In other words they are wholly uninformed sheep who need to waken up to the real threats which face us, especially the possibility of an ever more totalitarian government.
May 12, 2021
Spot On DAVIDJ
May 12, 2021
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/lord-frost-calls-on-eu-to-show-pragmatism-on-the-protocol-after-meetings-with-a-number-of-business-and-community-representatives-in-northern-ireland
“Lord Frost calls on EU to show pragmatism on the Protocol after meetings with a number of business and community representatives in Northern Ireland”
āWeāre committed to working through the issues with the EU urgently and in good faith. I hope they will take a common sense, risk-based approach that enables us to agree a pragmatic way forward that substantially eases the burdens on Northern Ireland.”
Surely he must know that is a forlorn hope, given that:
https://www.ft.com/content/ce74cfcd-6a9d-47e0-a422-5bdf2232dd2e
“A senior EU diplomat said that while the commission was keen to find technical solutions, it was determined to take an āorthodox approachā that would limit any trade facilitations only to what was possible under the basis of existing EU laws.”
And the “existing EU laws” are based on a “zero-risk” approach:
https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2021/0507/1215936-northern-ireland-protocol/
“The British government has been pressing the EU to adopt a risk-assessment approach to managing large volumes of food of animal origin entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, under the terms of the Protocol.
However, it is understood that, following an exploration of the issue within the European Commission, it has been concluded that allowing more flexibility based on risk would jeopardise the EU’s body of rules on food safety and animal health, and run counter to the EU’s zero-risk approach.”
For reference, Article 7 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement is here:
https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/tfa-nov14_e.htm#art7
and Article 7.4 reads:
“4.1 Each Member shall, to the extent possible, adopt or maintain a risk management system for customs control.
4.2 Each Member shall design and apply risk management in a manner as to avoid arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination, or a disguised restriction on international trade.
4.3 Each Member shall concentrate customs control and, to the extent possible other relevant border controls, on high-risk consignments and expedite the release of low-risk consignments. A Member also may select, on a random basis, consignments for such controls as part of its risk management.
4.4 Each Member shall base risk management on an assessment of risk through appropriate selectivity criteria. Such selectivity criteria may include, inter alia, the Harmonized System code, nature and description of the goods, country of origin, country from which the goods were shipped, value of the goods, compliance record of traders, and type of means of transport.”
May 12, 2021
There is a simply answer to the disenchantment of the Political Class/Elite. Level the playing field on representation. Ensure Candidates for all elections are chosen by the constituents they wish to represent. Ensure that all election campaigns are funded by those registered to vote in that constituency.
The you get a Democracy we can all support. The trouble is the incumbent tribes will fight against any leveling that permits the People to be seen to be representative and create a Democracy
May 12, 2021
Left – Right – there is no clear dividing line there, I know people that I’d consider very right wing in some of their views who vote Labour. I know others that I’d consider to have very left-wing leanings on some of their views who vote conservative.
I’m not sure what a green industrial revolution means? How is Labour’s green industrial revolution any different from what the Tories propose to do?
Investment in the economy? In what ways are the two main parties different does Labour only back investment in the public sector and just how is the Tory party any different in what it invests in? The Tory party protects public sector pensions whilst raiding private sector pensions so it isn’t quite a divide that Labour suggests it is.
Equality legislation and better work conditions? It was the conservatives that brought in Age Discrimination, NLW, lowered that to 23 years of age, NEST pensions with a 3% contribution from employers on top of the 13.8% national insurance (Employers NI including for those over retirement age). It was the conservatives that made employers responsible for paying Holiday pay accrued during sick leave. It was the conservative party that introduced average – accruing over time in the 13 weeks prior to a holiday has to be paid on top of holiday pay. All people on zero-hours contracts accrue 1 days holiday every 9 days worked inc average hours.
It is right-wing now is it to punish our best graduates with a high graduate tax but mainly for the English who have to take on the full cost of tuition fees and have to pay it for 30 years with a higher rate of interest than you’d pay on a mortgage.
May 12, 2021
Otherwise, there is some truth in what you say. There is still a division between Leave and Remain. Well remain will just have to accept the majority decision on that.
As for breaking up the Union of Great Britain. Boris has failed to protect it for N.I. and I have little faith in any ‘main party’ to protect the union with Scotland.
Wales? Unfortunately they seem happy with, Blair Labour’s, devolution.
Why isn’t Boris’s Conservative Party moving towards dismantling that devolution? It was blatantly part of Blair’s intention to make this Nation nothing more than regions within the EU.
May 12, 2021
The manifesto for Net Zero
They promise you will be poor
They promise you will be cold
They promise you will be hungry
They promise you will be ill
They threaten you will lose your job
They threaten you will lose you house
They threaten you will lose your car
Have they lost their minds?
May 12, 2021
+1 and thatās the implications of the current Tory manifesto