The government response to the pandemic here and in most countries around the world damaged the free enterprise parts of economies, boosted state spending and borrowing and greatly increased state control. In the next few blogs I am going to look at where this is now unhelpful and how it can be reversed as economic recovery advances and as pandemic controls are dismantled. I am conscious that some officials in government posts and most MPs in Opposition parties will see the special measures for countering the pandemic as desirable in themselves and an advance they wish to consolidate and extend . The Opposition parties have been ever keen to vote for more restrictions and more state spending, and reluctant to countenance relaxation or tapering of special financial support. There have been few voices speaking up for the many small businesses that supply so many of our needs.
Whilst people were prepared to accept direction of where they worked or whether they worked, when and where they could go out and which if any friends and family they could meet in order to defeat a killer disease, there is no reason to carry on with such draconian controls with the death rate massively down thanks to vaccines. Government should expect increasing opposition to lockdown and growing resistance to the advice on how to lead our lives. We cannot still claim to be a free society if we carry on with the very detailed controls and regulations we experienced during the various lockdowns. The first necessity is for government to reassure us we will not be going back to lockdown if cases rise again of a disease that usually now remains mild thanks to vaccinations.
The economic cost of lockdown must remain a one off for 2020-21, not a recurring scarring of our economy matched by a progressive build up of state debt. The sooner furlough is no longer needed, the sooner the labour market finds the people to fill the many vacancies there now are, the better. The remarkable thing is how many businesses are ready to go and wish to recover quickly despite all the obstacles of lockdown and the long delay in removing controls.
July 23, 2021
Shutting down the economy through ovveraction to health scares, shutting down Parliament itself which was illegal, putting huge barriters to free trade with our neighbours and worst of all smashing our United Kingdom to smithereeens thanks to your Protocol – Conservative values? pull the other one
July 23, 2021
We have been lied to and fed misleading information throughout this “pandemic”, in order to justify the lockdown measures.
July 23, 2021
Is the government losing the trust of the people? It has lost mine!!
July 24, 2021
+1 ( in truth, I have not trusted the Tory party for, a decade. Turns out I was right all along – and John Redwood is here to just nip at our heals like a sheepdog herding sheep. )
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+1
Much as I dislike Dawn Butler she is correct that Boris has lied and disseminated to justify these draconian measures.
He has let the EU annex part of the UK. Instead of walking away he allows the humiliation to continue.
Now we have the government graciously exempting some people from isolating. Since when has it been the governments remit to say who can and cannot work
3 weeks to flatten the sombrero, yeah, pull the other one.
Net zero lunatic Carrie Antoinette will destroy your party.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
There are few with conservative values in the Tory Party anymore. Just watch and listen to May, Cameron, Major, Damian Green, Mitchel etc. etc. They are all closet Liberals. No one believes in them anymore or a Priti Promise. Good luck with public support for 0% rises for the police and teachers when inflation is soaring. I’m afraid your party leaders have been found out. Taking our cars and boilers is going down like a lead balloon. Who’s going to vote for that?
July 23, 2021
Frank Wilhoit said that the essence of Conservatism – I paraphrase – was the creation of in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, and out-groups whom it binds but does not protect.
By that definition John’s party since Thatcher have been Conservatives par excellence, and their attacks lately on Judicial Review are a perfect illustration of that.
Indeed they take that further, and apply it not just to laws, but to all codes, conventions, manners and standards, notably – by their placemen and friends – those relating to journalism in the latter case.
July 23, 2021
A quotation attributed to Prof Wilhoit – unfortunately, it appeared 8 years after his death.
July 23, 2021
Yes, it is a different Wilhoit, not Francis but Frank – a technical type, I read.
July 23, 2021
…as I wrote.
July 23, 2021
…but what matters is what is said, NOT who is saying it.
July 24, 2021
Oh well that’s OK then Mart.
Next time just make up a quote and make up an author too.
Why not its what is said that matters.
Well as long as you agree with it.
July 24, 2021
Neither the quote nor the author are invented.
It’s not my fault if lots of other people got them confused.
The quote certainly sums up the conspicuous aims of Conservatives in the US and here.
July 24, 2021
Who said then Marty
Some classical music lefty?
Who is it ?
I think it is important.
Wasn’t you was it?
July 23, 2021
perhaps he always spoke slowly?
July 23, 2021
Frank Wilhoit – the American that died in 2010? If so he was an ‘American political scientist and author’ he lived alone and to the great age of 90.
I first heard of him in a Guardian article because he said “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.’ There are a lot of people quoting this on twitter right now, to be honest I don’t know why? However, his Wiki page says “There’s a quotation[10] floating around the internet originally written by the composer and software architect Frank Wilhoit:[11] Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. Several authors have misattributed this quotation to Francis M. Wilhoit: e.g. [12] with people later realizing that the comment was made 8 years after Francis M. Wilhoit died.”
July 24, 2021
No, the other Wilhoit, Frank, a composer and tech designer, Tracy.
He was actually paraphrasing Wise Owl, who said:
“The objectives of the young male owl in spring consist of exactly one proposition,
to wit, to woo.”
July 24, 2021
Lol
July 23, 2021
A quick Wiki search says “this quote is floating round the internet and is falsely attributed to Wilhoit. With people later realising the comment was made 8 years after his death”
Maybe it was written by some odd lefty who hates the Conservatives.
July 23, 2021
@Malone, are you sure. Parliament is shut down in the same way virtually every year – MP’s need to go on holiday ahead of the crowd. We the UK have ‘never’ had free trade with our immediate neighbours, it was always conditional and costly and under the laws, rules and regulation of an un-elected, un-accountable Trade Commission. Trade with our neighbours was always about creating a protectionist zone against and in fear of the World. But yes- the Protocol is the result of a UK Government refusing to respond to the UK electorate and leaving the EU and its Overlords – servitude for the surfs
July 23, 2021
Malone
Agree. But do not forget that while the Conservative Party has been infiltrated even to the highest level, there are still a few that hold with proper values, they have not all been ‘turned’.
I and many others would like to see the few survivors break away and form a new party, which would naturally include our host.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
Agreed.
July 23, 2021
Indeed.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
Agreed. A proper conservative Party.
July 23, 2021
We have several parties fighting over the same part of the political spectrum , Reform,
Reclaim and Heritage to name but three. They should join forces and take down the legacy parties.
July 23, 2021
You’re exaggerating. It’s been the same problem for countries all over the West not just the UK. Boris always had to deal with the fear of millions of people who wouldn’t go out to work and to the shops to buy things because of people being frightened of catching Covid. A fear put into them by the media and by their own human nature. Boris didn’t really have that many big choices. And it was all something new. New things coming at him super fast. Including the fear of millions of people getting Long Covid.
Whether people were right or wrong to have this fear, doesn’t matter, you have to react to this fear (or you get booted out – like President Trump).
But Boris did have a clear choice with the jabs and he did push his ministers to get them implemented really fast. So well done to Boris on that.
July 23, 2021
OK, but who spent north of Ā£300 million on advertising with the media to produce this fear porn?
zorro
July 23, 2021
Yes, I agree with you to a degree. But it’s not as if the Ā£300 million was buried in a black hole. People in advertising benefitted who then spent the money on cars, restaurants, consumer good etc .. But in theory, I agree, money like this must not be spent by government (but their opponents can also exaggerate this as well).
July 23, 2021
@Zorro,
But what’s far, far more important than this is that we now have the jabs. Science. Something to be really grateful for. And that Boris got it right with the jabs. If it wasn’t for the jabs, this crisis could go on for years. Years. We need more to be cheerful about.
July 23, 2021
The first lockdown created the fear which authoritarians and the media have fed on since.
Until we locked down there was no question that people would go out and go to work
July 23, 2021
I think you’re partly right. But there were other elements causing that fear as well for millions of people: Fears of:
1) Of going to hospital
2) Long Covid
3) Passing it on to someone in family who could die or get Long Covid
And of course stirred up by the government.
If it hadn’t been for Boris pushing for the jabs, I would have given the government a D, perhaps a C, for its handling of Covid overall. But because of the jabs, I definitely give them a C, perhaps even a B, for how they handled this Crisis overall.
July 23, 2021
‘And of course stirred up by the government.’
– Sorry, stirred up by the media ..
July 23, 2021
“A fear put into them by the media” but encouraged by the goverment who are in awe of the ‘experts’ like Chris Whitty of the politically aligned Sage.
It is government propaganda through the BBC that has made people frightened.
July 23, 2021
My thoughts exactly.
July 23, 2021
SPI-b and the other 10 or 11 psyops nudge teams in Whitehall.
July 23, 2021
Stirred up by the Government using the media would be more accurate.
July 23, 2021
Good morning.
It is not the opposition parties that have an 80 seat majority in the HoC, and it is not they that have been saying one thing only to do another. That has been the sole preserve of this government and the PM and his advisors.
Lockdown was suppose to be a temporary measure, as was furlough. We were told to; “Flatten the sombrero” and, “Save the NHS”. And when all the goal posts were met another reason was invented to continue this nonsense. That and the shameful fact that the government abdicated its responsibility to us and place us into the hands of unelected and unaccountable Shamen. We were not being led by ‘the science’ but by dodgy data and groupthink.
My one and only wish, which I very much doubt I’d get, is for a great reckoning from the voters for what has been done and, for the things not done (eg closing the borders).
July 23, 2021
Mark
“We were told to; āFlatten the sombreroā and, āSave the NHSā
We were also told “let’s get brexit done”…….which turned out to mean done like a kipper as were conned with BRINO.
It proves you can’t trust a word Johnson says, it’s all shit to be honest.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
Why are people being so negative?
The overall picture is that thanks to science we are now beginning to emerge out of this pandemic. If it wasn’t for the jabs, we’d be looking at chaos for years.
Boris had to implement rules of protection because if not, millions of people wouldn’t risk going to work and the shops because of a fear (rational or otherwise – the fear still objectively exists for Boris to deal with) of going to hospital and / or Long Covid.
Boris reacted positively and quickly to the scientists and their incredible work on the jabs – Boris needs to be congratulated on that.
And for people to CHEER UP. Part of the problem with our GREAT country is that there are so many people moaning and complaining and being negative. Instead of looking at big picture which in this case are the jabs – that normally take 10 years to develop – and Astra Zeneca in less than a year I think.
Well done Astra Zeneca – and if I am ever rich enough to own a race horse, I will name it after you ..
CHEER UP everyone please!
July 23, 2021
Well said Ed. It was always a no win situation for the PM especially with the opposition acting as fault finder general.
Another reason to be happy… Japan has told the EU that their flag will not be flown at the Olympics dispite the EU insisting it should be.
July 23, 2021
‘Japan has told the EU that their flag will not be flown at the Olympics dispite the EU insisting it should be’ – ha .. ha .. I’m glad that the EU have their nose put out of joint as well sometimes!
I think the EU is on the last of its legs (I might be wrong). It did well for Europe after WW2 – up until the 80’s or something. But it’s outgrown its purpose. Let’s hope for them and us its demise is painless.
July 23, 2021
Ed
The reason vaccine trials usually take years is that the medium- to long-term effects of vaccines often donāt show up until then. Skipping safety protocols to rush vaccines out into arms is not a good thing. You cannot do the same amount of due diligence in a few months as you can do in several years. None of the injections with which people have been mass-medicated have passed their Phase III clinical trials, although the public was not made aware of this. People have been experimented on without their knowledge.
July 23, 2021
Exactly Barbara and with how many are dying and over a million adverse reactions, a lot of them life changing, this is only the start of a massive downward slope and then for the government and prime minister to keep pushing the vaccine onto younger people and eventually children, with zero long term research, is atrocious, he then goes into overdrive by introducing vaccine passports to coerse young people to get it, otherwise they can’t have freedom to do as they wish, like go to night clubs and large venues, this is disgusting and very wrong, curtailing people’s freedoms unless they have a medical procedure, ie, the vaccine, that they don’t want, is utterly wrong and what about the true numbers concocted about the virus, when most were put down as covid deaths, when it was not covid.
Adverse reactions and death numbers are going through the roof and people have a right to choose whether to have the vaccine or not, they should not be coersed to have anything against their own wishes.
If the vaccine is so good, then people are protected from the ones who choose not to have the vaccine, one such analogy is, would anyone be told to go on a diet, in order to help others lose weight, I don’t think so!
July 23, 2021
@Barbara,
Fine. But the alternative is the Abyss. Years of living cooped up in small spaces, masks, our economy decimated. Who knows what else. As a risk-taker, I think easily worth the risk.
(And doesn’t matter what you say, millions of people scared off 1. Going to hospital 2. Long Covid 3. Passing on Covid to a relation that kills them or leaves them with Long Covid).
Boris had no choice.
July 23, 2021
What you say is true. Equally, normal vaccine or medicine trials are usually limited to quite small sample sizes, which means there is a good chance that some rarer side effects may not be noted at all despite the length of the trial. For example the low platelets phenomenon has an incidence of around 15 per million doses. A normal big trial with say 50,000 people would have an expected 0.75 cases. There is a probability of around 47% that there would be no case in the trial at all, around 35% of one case, and 13% of two cases and just 5% of 3 or more. It’s possible that even if there is a case, it gets missed. So there are also advantages to having so many guinea pigs.
It’s also worth noting that a number of side effects are well known and arise from the reactions to the carrier and adjuvant ingredients that are already widely used in other vaccines, so these are not really novel unknown territory. Much work has already gone into recipe design on the back of that history to reduce the risks, in much the same way as avoiding allergy risks in food recipes.
July 24, 2021
I say again. I do not know of anyone who has died of this disease. Neither do I know anyone who knows anyone who has died of this disease. For such an alleged big killer, I am surprised by this.
The only people that were at risk, were the very old, the very ill and those who were obese. Mostly fit and healthy people were denied work, human contact and a reasonable life to protect people who could protect themselves. This government overreacted to something it could have dealt with back in late 2019 when reports were coming in of a new disease.
They failed. End of.
July 24, 2021
Not knowing anyone who was killed by the virus is perhaps not quite as unlikely as you assume. Deaths amount to roughly 0.2% of the population. So the probability that you friends are all survivors is roughly 0.998 to the power of your number of friends. If they number 100 that about 81%, 500 gives 36.7% and a gregarious 1,000 still gives 13%.
July 24, 2021
I should have noted that in practice social clumping will change the odds. If you live in an area with a higher number of deaths or work in a care home the odds of knowing people who died will be much greater than the random statistics I quoted. If you live in a small village then it’s much more likely that your friends are untouched by the disease, even if you know a few people living in higher mortality areas.
July 23, 2021
Unfortunately none of this is intended to be āa one off for 2020-21ā.
There will be no ends of āvariantsā. Winter will be another excuse for further restrictions.
It suits the āGreat Resetā. āBuild Back Betterā and all that.
Boris Johnson buys into all this because he thinks it will be good for Boris Johnson.
July 23, 2021
Exactly Peter. We need rid of BJ and those who support all that.
July 23, 2021
As always follow the money To find the truths.
July 23, 2021
Yes please, but rather unlikely under the new bonkers Boris with his daft Carrie/socialist green crap agenda. The Conservative party is stiffed with socialists and Libdems. Net zero is another huge socialist con trick. The Starmer/SNP alternative is even more horrific. Increasing taxes from here will raise less tax not more.
July 23, 2021
@lifelogic, agreed the cloak of Socialism is all embracing, the SPAD’s have taken over the asylum
July 23, 2021
Pray for the voice of Reform.
July 23, 2021
@Lifelogic,
You have a heretical view of Conservatism. You reduce everything essentially to taxes and money (like Socialists – although they from the other side of the coin). That is NOT Conservatism (and Conservatism is much bigger and greater than NOT being a Socialist – important as not-being-socialist is).
Conservatism is a movement that covers – or should cover – every area of public life / civilisation. From Politics and Economic Policy, yes, but also to Education, the Media, Arts and so on … even The Church of England or non-religious bodies that do the same kind of work as The Church of England should embody Conservatism.
And some of the values we should be trying to defend in Education, Media, Arts – and Politics etc – is The Family / Men being men and women women / Men taking responsibility for themselves and their families and relying on extended family not the state / of sense of Public Duty and Patriotism. And so on. If we achieved all this, the taxes would absolutely tumble down – and for the long term. And people would be much, much happier. And our GREAT nation with a far stronger and more stable and interesting economy for the future.
Sorry, to be harsh. But I am not here to win friends, but do defend Conservative values and the Conservative Party and our GREAT nation which like the rest of the nations of the Western World, is fast in decline – precisely because we’ve rejected all of our great Conservative values – and traded them in for cheap hard left-wing or hard right-wing alternatives.
July 23, 2021
By over-focusing on politics and economic policy as you do, the economy over-heats and then self-destructs in bust and a socialist government gets into power (although socialists have been so useless in recent years, this hasn’t happened, so we just get complacency in Conservatism that helps to undermine Conservatism and our country – although better a knocked-up old Tory party than Labour).
And our economy needs to be invested in – a bit – not too much – by clever capitalist-like, government investment and care in the High Tech / Digital Sector (like the US government in Silicon Valley, German government in its car industry, and Israeli government helping to establish Tel Aviv as leading High Tech hub. And then focusing Conservative Values and the War (non-confrontational one) to Education, the Media and The Arts. Politicians aren’t magicians. They don’t have a magic wand to solve all the dysfunction in our GREAT country. To think so only damages the Conservative Party and our GREAT country in the long-term.
July 23, 2021
Ed, your pontificating makes me feel ill.
July 24, 2021
@John,
Yes, I agree, I need to trim things down a bit. But not completely. Our Western World is becoming increasingly relativist – and quickly collapsing. And everyone too scared to speak up for anything they really believe in for fear of standing out from the crowd etc
July 24, 2021
Also, how is what I say more ‘pontificating’ than others. Just because you might not agree with me doesn’t mean I am pontificating.
Also, Churchill was accused of pontificating right through the 30’s. He was greatly disliked by many Tories.
NOT saying that I have Churchill’s strength of character. But my views are way more similar to his than many of the comments on this site. His Conservatism was more universal. Where as many of the comments on this site are more narrowly focused on economic policy, things like that.
If people are going have their own strong views, then they should have the good nature to allow others to as well, even if they find their views annoying or ‘pontificating.’
But if people find my views annoying – and I’m a Tory – then I guess the Tory party is becoming more and more a bunch of cats – no real unity, each man for himself, people just coming together for their own narrow self interests.
July 24, 2021
On second thoughts, I think I am pontificating. I will try and stop. Thank you.
July 24, 2021
Hold on! You said I was ‘pontificating’ on about Conservative Policy. I mis-read what you were replying to. This is NOT pontificating at all. I stand 100% by what I wrote!
Conservatism that over-focuses on politics and economic policy is NOT true Conservatism but a modern, heretical version of it. True Conservatism embraces politics and economic policy, yes, but far more – i.e. Education, Media, Arts. It’s a movement that should affect Civilisation in general not just politics.
And I believe am 100% right about how over-focusing on economic policy can over-heat the economy.
Now I might be wrong. But I challenge you to challenge me by argument not feeling ‘sick’ because someone challenges your philosophy on Conservatism!!
If Conservatives can’t take some good-natured flak from other Tories, then that’s not a very good example of Conservatism to set to others.
July 24, 2021
What is probably at issue here are two different forms of Conservatism:
1) Modern Anarcho-capitalism
2) The Conservatism of Traditional Christendom
There are overlaps. But important profound differences. If I am ‘pontificating’ is it because I am defending The Conservatism of Traditional Christendom which Conservatives such as Winston Churchill and before (Edmund Burke and others) would have had more in common with than modern Anarch0-Conservatism.
I am very, very happy to defend The Conservatism of Traditional Christendom which leads to more long-term stability and happiness than Anarcho-capitalism which is, I believe, over-individualistic and short-term.
I might be wrong. But it’s certainly more wrong to shut other Conservatives down with ‘pontificating’ just because my views my be quite at odds at yours. And I want to fight for the values of what I believe to be True Conservatism. Of Conservatives such as Churchill, Burke, Jane Austen and others. Again, I might be wrong, but then happy to defend my case.
July 23, 2021
Alas they have also failed on most of those areas too. Highest taxes for 70 years, borrowing hand over fist and still dire and declining public services too.
July 23, 2021
There are PLENTY of ākiller diseasesā that have been totally ignored over the past 18months of imprisonment.
And many of those do not have an estimated recovery rate of between 97% and 99.75%.
July 23, 2021
The same cruel measures have been taken in many countries.
Small businesses wiped out.
It is not logical and it makes no sense whatsoever. BUT it is centrally directed.
And as for extending the whole charade with ( no doubt modelled) variantsā¦well honestly!
How can we have any sort of recovery when every effort is now being made to finish off theatres, restaurants, nightclubs and pubs with disgraceful āpassportsā which will no doubt be needed for EVERYWHERE eventually. More lies by the minute.
I honestly did think better of Conservative MPs until they allowed our lives to be sacrificed on the altar of I know not what. ( Communism? Financial chicanery? Foreign invasion? What?).
July 23, 2021
It was Fear that did it Everhopeful
You can see it vividly in the eyes of so many too afraid to remove their masks.
The reason – just look at who has gained during the last 2 years – how many multi-billionaires have grown excessively richer while the rest of us approach a future devoid of hope.
July 23, 2021
+1
Agree entirely!
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
I am utterly convinced that lockdown (in varying forms) and masks are here to stay – forever.
The Track and Trace fiasco is lockdown by the back door. It is a way for the Government to abrogate responsibility for further furlough commitments and to wilfully wreck the economy, destroy livelihoods and our way of life. All at the behest one-track-minded and tunnel-visioned scientists.
There is absolutely no logical justification for what they are doing and even less in the way of scientific cost benefit analysis of the criminal measures they are forcing upon us.
We are one step removed from tyranny, we are are near the final move to be check mated by the totalitarians.
Boris is a lunatic.
He is utterly destroying Britain and has totally squandered the vaccine effort by this nation.
He is the worst Prime Minister leading the worst Government in our history.
He has lobotomised the mind of the nation and turned vast swathes of our population into petrified, mouthless automatons.
I detest the very sight of him for what he has done.
July 23, 2021
Finding it hard to disagree with any of that sadly.
July 23, 2021
+1
And how!
July 23, 2021
Is creating a lobotomised electorate a symptom of Long Covid.
July 23, 2021
What a sad life you live, so much negativity and subjectivity.
July 23, 2021
I have a very good life – through not being bound to material things and a love of physical activity, simple chores, good deeds, kind words, fresh air and open space. I offload here and then am free of toxicity for the rest of the day.
July 23, 2021
Me too.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
He is weak and tried to please all without doing his homework hence he pleases no one. He needs to stand up to these fake scientists, Whitehall and the EU or be seen as an abject failure. Only good thing he did was to outsource the vaccination programme. At least thst worked unlike the NHS App.
July 23, 2021
A āone offā?
In our dreams! ( Donāt worry about the debtā¦weāll pay..itās on us!)
Notice the non medical, non elected creators of all this, licking their lips for September restrictions.
And ALL of it based on insane predictions.
Remember the needlessly slaughtered cows all you MPs!!
But thenā¦that suited the agenda didnāt it? Saved all that methane and ruined a few farmers.
Goshā¦āNasty Partyā..what a mild memory. What might one call it now?
Accepting that the other parties are also beyond the pale.
July 23, 2021
The government base their restrictions largely or wholly on the number of infections, yet no one seems to agree on the reliability of the PCR and lateral flow tests.
Wouldn’t it be part of a more pragmatic approach to sort this uncertainty out in order to have the facts and nothing but the facts on which to make the important decisions which affect lives and livelihoods?
July 23, 2021
MP’s of all Parties need to re-educate themselves as to who who pays for all government\State expenditure, because the Government has no money, it only has what it takes from individuals and business, or at least that was the case for centuries, until the Government realised if they thought they had a worthy cause, then they could also borrow in the peoples name, now it would seem virtually every cause is a worthy cause.
Now wee seem to have thousands of worthy causes, indeed so many, we increase our borrowing and need to raise more and more each year in taxation because enough is never enough.
We now have a situation where the population and its businesses actually work for the government for free, for a good part of every year, thus reducing the incentive to work harder or smarter for yourself, because now the individual is the last to benefit, instead of being the first.
How many pages of tax law do we now have, is it around 20,000 or more.
Time methinks for a complete a rethink with a blank piece of paper.
July 23, 2021
+10
July 23, 2021
@Alan Jutson – Unfortunately Alan most in the HoL & HoC are no longer there as a calling and a desire to serve, but purely to ensure the ‘surfs’ pay for their personal asperations. Look at every situation, problem, the UK faces and you see that a crowd that suggests they are the elite, the special the chosen ones that want a society in their image and toeing the line.
Individuals, creative thinking, achievement has to be suppressed for the purpose of the collective thought of your rulers. Pay up and keep quiet is the request by your overlords.
July 23, 2021
Nota
Would be interesting to know if all of those Government and Local Authority department workers are still being paid the London waiting allowance, even though they are working from home, or being furloughed.?
Likewise when Government Departments move to another part of the Country where it is less costly to operate from, do the wage scales drop to mirror the local level. ?
I assume the reason to move to a lower cost area is to reduce costs, and not to just do it for sake of publicity or to try and look diverse.
Do you have any information on that JR ?
July 23, 2021
+10
July 23, 2021
Alan Jutson
+1 Well said Alan. Bang on the money
July 23, 2021
I agree but wonāt hold my breath. To me the utterly shameful part is Tory MPs on the books saying nothing putting their careers above their voters and the rest of the MPs apart from an honourable few doing similar.
Cue the jelly spined U turn on NHS pay, if we could only afford 1% a few weeks ago how can we now fund 3% a 300% increase and why justified now not then? Oh I forgot people said boo to Boris and he caved in. A person who spends an eye watering amount on wall paper and a holiday without any idea of how or who will pay is not fit to have hands any where near the financials of this country.
Return to any values, let alone Conservative ones with this lot. Fat chance.
And in other news real data, not b.s has proved that 98+% of kids sent into isolation did not get Covid so hundreds of thousands lost school time unnecessarily, not to mention the effect on the parents. Extrapolate, not the percentage maybe, to the rest of the population and one can see the effect of the ruinous and totally unjustified policy of this backbone less government. People are doing their own thing and you have lost control.
Even worse is the schools in the programme who tested instead of the mass quarantining and saw the benefits were forced to return to a system that didnāt work.
There you have it Sir John, force kids and their families to suffer unnecessary isolation because Johnson/Williamson are too weak to stand up to the Blob delighting in imposing state control beloved of the Left.
July 24, 2021
Well some kind of return is needed.
I read that of the directors of Southern Water – which was fined Ā£90 million for dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into rivers and the sea for years, and for falsifying mandated self-reporting – no one is even going to lose their job.
THAT is today’s Tory UK.
July 23, 2021
“A return to Conservative values” from this government is about as likely as Stalin deciding to move to California to become a flower power hippie.
The evidence is overwhelming that vaccines are more dangerous then the virus yet your ministers are forcing poeple to take it- completely against the law, whilst removing the right to travel, criticise the government or protest at all. Has this not sunk into any MPs consciousness yet? You are actively turning Britain into the kind of state tyranny that Eric Honecker would have been proud to run. What kind of life will your children and their children have in this awful new reality? Are you proud of yourselves?
July 23, 2021
I would like to see a reply to this.
July 23, 2021
I, Why? It does not contain anything sensible:
1/ whereas the vaccine is not without risk, it protects a large majority of vaccinated people to get a worse version of the disease; and the ever increasing number of vaccinated people allows the refuseniks to be able to continue braying;
2/ the government encourages people to get vaccinated but does not force them;
3/ the right to travel is not removed, there are plenty of British people moving around the British Isles, and some even going to destinations farther away;
4/ I see plenty of criticisms of the PM, the Home Secretary, or other members of the Cabinet in various newspapers (or on this blog);
5/ there had been protests against lockdowns, against vaccines, and I do not think all the participants in these are now decaying in prisons.
Lisa, are you serious? Is that a joke? Or is it the overall slant of the contributors on this blog that makes you create āyour own evidenceā?
July 23, 2021
Correct. None of our MPs seem able to understand this.
July 23, 2021
Dr(Professor?) Robert Malone who was a pioneer in producing the vaccines has wondered why all the countries with high vaccination take up also have surging cases. He wonders if the vaccines themselves are causing mutations.
Israel is concerned they have more Covid deaths following vaccination than have died from Covid. The āscienceā needs constant reassessmentā¦ itās never āsettledā.
July 23, 2021
This is still an unknown quantity. We don’t know how long the immunity given by vaccine can last, whether it is as effective as natural herd immunity and whether all the variants present and expected will be protected by the original vaccine. There is one way to find out :- let all controls down. We can’t get herd immunity if we don’t allow covid to kill and make many people ill first of all. Cases are beginning to climb rapidly again. My own daughter has contracted the virus and has had two injections of vaccine. She is still in isolation .
I think the government has done a good job in achieving the numbers already vaccinated. I do not think that their implementation of social rules and advice is social control. I think they realise that there are many stupid people around who have their own misguided ideas on virus spread and believe things will get better if we leave it to god , nature or others to handle the situation from afar . It is something even management cannot claim to be theirs alone. Thankyou lab workers!
Survival without a good solid business background is not good, however gearing everything to quantity , quick qualifications and an appearance of knowledge or expertise is not going to get us anywhere. We need action based on practice and knowledge to maintain the established framework . Most understand whether the financially orientated admit it or not that money and not well being is the focus of those attempting to get health completely in private hands and if they focus on the higher paid , they will get results. This is definitely not true. I have managed many aspects of health care over the last 50 years and yes believe it or not, I have more insight into the workings of systems than those naively in the first ten years of practice and management .
July 23, 2021
Since Thatcher the Conservatives appear to want to conserve nothing, but only to destroy.
They have done this with everything from red telephone boxes to manufacturing, and from the UK’s relations with the countries of the Continent to the very basis of the union of the UK itself.
I think that the ERG etc. wanted to destroy the European Union above all, but have failed completely, and have only achieved something of a renaissance amongst the twenty-seven.
That last point is a cause for genuine celebration whatever.
Reply The ERg and I have always wished the EU well with its mission of economic social and political Union. We just do not want the UK to be part of it.
July 23, 2021
Thank you John, and if you are sincere then I apologise for any misrepresentation.
However, you seem to attract a devoted following of people who take the opposite extreme view.
Do you have an explanation for this phenomenon, I wonder?
July 23, 2021
Which? The devoted following (phenomenon) ‘We just do not want the UK to be part of it. ‘
or The devoted following (phenomenon) ‘I have always wished the EU well’.
The more strange phenomenon would be you, English, wanting both to be part of it (EU) and not wishing UK well.
July 23, 2021
The opposite of wishing the European Union well.
July 23, 2021
Martin, Who are you accusing of being ‘devoted’ followers having ‘extreme’ views and then perhaps they can answer your accusation?
July 23, 2021
I think you still are misrepresenting the majority of posts on here MiC.
I and many more on here do not wish the EU to fail.
It needs reform but not failure.
I just wish it would adopt more policies, towards its own member nations and towards the UK, which would improve their standards of living
July 23, 2021
Brexit and “red telephone boxes”, Wow. The screens, nurse!
Oh, and this “renaissance” in the EU. Does that include Hungary and Poland? Does it include Switzerland terminating negotiations with the EU? Does it include the usual 8% unemployment rate the EU has had for decades now? Does it include coastal guards pushing refugees back into the seas around Europe? Does it include energy dependence on Russia?
If this is a renaissance, I would hate to see decline.
July 23, 2021
John,
Can you press hard to ensure the promised enquiry asks the questions that the media and opposition fail to ask, namely:
– What has been the cost – benefit outcome of Government actions? We can measure benefit in terms of lives saved/extended and know the costs..
– Is there real evidence that lockdowns reduced deaths? The worldwide data now allows comparisons of experience for different countries/states that took different actions.
– If masks are so effective, why did every country see cases go parabolic as soon as they were introduced.
I fear we will just see an enquiry that asks, why wasn’t lookdown, mask-wearing, isolation done sooner and harder. Explicit assumption that each action was helpful.
July 23, 2021
May I impose
The petition āTrigger Article 16. We want unfettered GB-NI Trade.ā:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/573209
July 23, 2021
The electorate voted for fettered trade at the 2019 general election. What part of democracy do you not understand?
July 23, 2021
trade being what part of democracy?
July 23, 2021
“fettered trade” ?
Which party put that idea forward at the last election?
July 23, 2021
Andy
“What part of democracy do you not understand? ”
Well you clearly don’t since you expressed support for an MP who demanded the 2016 referendum result should be ignored. Hardly democratic, is it.
July 23, 2021
“there is no reason to carry on with such draconian controls with the death rate massively down thanks to vaccines”
This is a very irresponsible statement. The controls were never draconian, just a sensible strategy to reduce person-to-person contact after the pre-lockdown explosion of cases, hospitalisations and deaths.
Fatalities are still rising, currently in the 50-100 per day range. Caution is still warranted. Yesterday I thought it prudent to go shopping and to my surprise nearly everybody was wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing. Which suggests to me that the public is still fearfull – and worse, does not belive that the current date-driven relaxation of controls is sensible.
Also irresponsible is your attempt to link objections to the government’s incompetent response with political opposition. Labour voted with the government on most of the measures and this has cost them significant support.
July 23, 2021
I would say that the public are not so much fearful, as generally concerned and rightly sceptical as to the safety – think “eat out to help out” – of some of the Government’s decisions.
There are many unknowns, such as the duration of vaccine immunity, the likelihood of a more lethal and vaccine-immune strain arising and so on.
These people that you see are probably being civic-minded and responsible, not scared.
July 23, 2021
Sakara
“The controls were never draconian ”
Yes they were. Facemasks being the prime example. They don’t make any difference whatsoever, if you can detect smells and odours while wearing them……they won’t be stopping any virus.
July 23, 2021
Steve I would suggest that “they make no difference what so ever” is a comment a bit wide of the mark, yes that may be your opinion, but that is not necessarily the opinion of many scientists and medical experts.
No not everyone agrees about mask wearing or face coverings, but after many previous and ongoing debates by the experts, few of them have agreed with your statement, so people have to make up their own minds about what they do.
The important thing is, we now have for the most part a choice when entering an enclosed space, always have had a choice when outside.
July 23, 2021
I think the difference between you and Steve may be this: he’s aware of what the research says, whereas you may have just listened to the media pundits who talk only of what they’re paid to tell us. Correct me if I’m wrong and you know e.g. about the 2020 Danish study of mask wearing. It was the only serious random control trial investigation of the issue so far. It used the methodology preferred in scientific enquiry, not speculation about droplets, homely anecdotes, or computer simulation. And if you’re up to speed on this, you’ll know what the researchers found.
July 23, 2021
Richard
I think it depends on what you call a face mask and a face covering, they are completely different, and give different results, most people (from observation) are appearing to wear a face covering, or a cheap disposable covering (usually not worn properly, and I would agree they are probably nowhere near as efficient as a medically approved mask when worn in a proper manner, thus you will clearly get different results for those different situations
Ask anyone working in hospitals if they would prefer to go without a medically approved mask, the alternative being nothing , because that is what is being suggested by the comment, they make no difference whatsoever.
July 23, 2021
Most mask wearers are fearful of social condemnation and not the disease.
Believe me. You do NOT go to a pub or a pizza takeaway if you are fearful of The Plague.
You do NOT think you are safe to sit in a restaurant without a mask but are safe to go to the toilet with a mask on in the same restaurant, if you are fearful of The Plague.
You do NOT even go to the restaurant, theatre, cafe’ non-essential shop AT ALL … if you are fearful of The Plague.
So what is it that people are fearful of if not The Plague and why are they wearing masks ?
They are fearful of being pointed at and shamed.
Seeing as how effective the fear of *shame* can be then how much better things would be if only the same shame were directed at avoidable obesity which is a much MUCH bigger threat to life expectancy and the NHS than CV-19.
The mask is the ultimate symbol of the oppressor. Not even Orwell predicted them.
The worst misogynists force their wives to wear them while telling them it’s for God and their own good.
Never underestimate the fear of shame which is often worse than the fear of death and my wife and I know this only too well having ditched the masks and – in some places – being made to feel worse than any 1950s immigrant ever did.
July 23, 2021
Rubbish – they are generally just civic-minded, responsible people.
July 24, 2021
When will we be rid of them, MiC ?
We are told CV-19 is here to stay.
July 23, 2021
‘Fatalities are still rising’, Sakara Gold? Yes, but caused by what?
In mid-June onwards there was a big increase in testing for Covid in the UK, according to the ONS figures. And not surprisingly, up to the middle of July there were a lot more deaths ‘within 28 days of first positive test’.
If you test more, you find more Covid. Including in people who died of something else.
I’m only surprised this still needs to be said.
July 23, 2021
Fatalities are a lagging indicator, and remain very low. At the moment it looks like we have an infection spike among the young usually unvaccinated who indulged in exuberant support of the football at close quarters. We shall soon start to see whether the limited freedoms granted on 19th July make much difference. But for now infections are falling.
July 23, 2021
“Fatalities are still rising”
As they will for about another week. But new cases are already falling, and that is what counts.
July 23, 2021
Sakara
Mind you, if it later turns out that the controls kept the virus down more than the vaccines then we’ll be in real trouble.
July 23, 2021
Return to Conservative values – well lets see some action rather than all the promises. But before values comes Leadership. Not with the bumbly one. For the last eighteen months its been a policy of saving the NHS but kill the Country
July 23, 2021
+1
And we did not save the NHS.
It shut down as the backlog of treatments attest.
I have a serious knee injury and have yet to see a doctor (any doctor) after 5 months. I have an appointment at an Acute Knee Injury Clinic next month – the very same injury that Ben Shephard has and was described as “a very nasty condition” by Dr Hillary.
I am not complaining that the NHS have given me NO treatment but please don’t tell me that we saved it because we didn’t.
Trust me. The hold up in training in the NHS is going to cause a lot of death and suffering in years to come too.
July 23, 2021
I know it is your blog Sir John but your government has a majority of 80, referring to the opposition does not cut it. Your party is enjoying these measures (if not the cause of the measures). Have you to yet realised that your party and Labour now represent mainstream politics driven by narrow focus groups and twitter. Both are evermore detached from mainstream views within the population with minority their focus and love of authoritarianism.
Unfortunately most of us are too busy just trying to get by to push back.
You are the opposition Sir John and MPs and politicians like you really need to form a new party unless you wish to get ever more marginalised. Voters are not sticking with the Conservative party because they are confident in its delivery, there is no alternative to get behind.
But yes, let’s get back to normal and roll back as many “temporary” measures as possible.
July 24, 2021
This epidemic has been world-changing.
There is never any “going back”, only going forward to the future, and that may be different permanently from the past in some respects.
July 23, 2021
This current situation has taken several decades to be reached. Membership of the EU has left us with a large number of second rate MPās unable to display any convictions. All the PC nonsense has left people scared to speak out or they have been brainwashed into wokeness in university.
There is definitely a global co-ordination in play. When I read a translated German report last year, on all that was going on there, it could have been Britain that was being described.
Why, last year, were we constantly being told from every advert etc this was the ānew normalā ? And Build back better, the same phrases in most countries, the whole thing seems scripted. And the continuing terror campaign, thatās deliberate. Money put aside for Covid marshalls, further advertising and Covid certificates and passports put out to tender months and months ago. This isnāt intended to stop.
Unless more MPs and the public wake up, this will continue, possibly forever.
July 23, 2021
Sharon
“There is definitely a global co-ordination in play ”
I too am convinced of this. I racked my brains trying to figure out what the agenda was, and eventually concluded it must be enslavement to debt. Ā£30K – Ā£40K for an EV which won’t be worth a toss second hand and might only last three years. Another Ā£40k to keep slightly warm in winter. Then there’s all the cost of living increases because of Johnson’s servitude to the architects of this climate scam.
One needs to ask one’s self who will be making a killing in Johnson’s new world ? Follow the money, it will be financiers, credit reference agencies etc. i.e the WEF crowd and the Bilderbergers.
July 23, 2021
Lenin supposedly said (I think it was in an interview with J M Keynes)that “the way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of tax and inflation.”
They are both hurtling down the track.
Wilkomen,Bienvenue,Welcome……..to the Cabaret,old chum!
July 24, 2021
Those closest to the money spigots will have a buyout fuelled bonanza, before the money is devalued.
The price will be paid by those not able to secure inflationary increases. Usually the low paid private sector worker. Who may just decide to pretend to work as employers pretend to pay them.
. Competition will be stifled prices will rise , costs will fall, service will fall.
Sunak needs to resign now.
July 23, 2021
IMO, I suspect there are very few UK MP’s who are not already signed up to global co-ordination. Afterall, they all received a huge salary, pension, expenses and various other perks to just be EU rubber stampers. To now be expected to take responsibility and be held accountable to the electorate is probably a frightening prospect and without doubt, beyond the capabilities of most of them.
However, I do wonder if they have ever considered, global co-ordination is more than likely an altogether different ballgame and that once the desired aim has been achieved they will have served their purpose, so what use are they? USSR referred to them as useful idiots…
July 23, 2021
There were about eighteen thousand pages in 2010, although that includes some duplication , which one could argue should not be included in the count, but one can also argue that cross-references and shared sections confirm how overly complex the regulations are
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/603470/OTS_length_of_legislation_paper_published_Apr12.pdf
July 23, 2021
What do you get if you don’t have explicit complicated regulations? You get a vague system where outcomes depend on the ad-hoc whims of individual officials.
I will take explicit and complicated every time.
July 23, 2021
Have you still not realised that this is about authoritarian state control and not about controlling a virus?
MPs have let us down very badly. We no longer have a functioning parliamentary democracy but live under an elective dictatorship intent on implementing authoritarian state control. We didn’t vote for this. The Chinese Communist Party must be watching in delighted admiration.
July 23, 2021
The British state is constitutionally little different from China.
Parliament is supreme, so it could pass an Act to do whatever it likes, say, to make elections only every fifteen years, to ban whatever party, or what you will.
China, equally, could decide to allow other parties, proportional representation, and at a stroke be more democratic than the UK.
In neither case is there anything formal to prevent this.
July 23, 2021
Your opening sentence is just hilariously wrong MiC
July 23, 2021
Do elaborate, Pete.
July 23, 2021
This country has never been so divided and nasty. First, we had the Brexiteers and Remainer, then we had the knee takers and the non-knee takers, then the climate change warriors and the deniers, now we have the vaxxed and anti-vaxxers. I believe this is all orchestrated to divide and conquer us and the media is complicit in this agenda. As we are busy squabbling amongst ourselves, China is taking over the world and our own liberties are being eroded on a daily basis. Itās time to put our differences aside and come together as one people and move forward as a nation. We need to put a stop to the draconian policies being implemented by our politicians under the auspice of a virus that is now no more deadly than the flu.
July 23, 2021
You did not mention devolution – unionists and nationalists. Which ‘country’, which ‘nation’ are you referring to?
Might you be thinking of England?
July 23, 2021
Perhaps you weren’t around in the 1970s and ’80s, Christine ?
Back then, it really mattered who won a general election because Labour was very left wing and the Conservatives well to the right. Only the Corbyn era gave similar levels of difference, but then Corbyn was never a serious prospect for PM, whereas Kinnock and Co might conceivably have won and changed the whole direction of the Country.
The true level of nastiness was worse, certainly more than today, but because of the lamentable growth of Twitter and other Social media platforms, it sounds more extreme.
Should Starmer ever get to Downing Street, the fundamentals would be exactly the same. On all the important issues, the two parties would be the same.
July 23, 2021
What is important varies greatly from person to person, and each is fully entitled to their assessment as to what is.
It is not for me or for you to tell them what is, however incomprehensible their values might seem to us.
July 23, 2021
Conservative principles of freedoms, responsibility and self reliance have been drummed out of the psyche by this Socialist Centralist Controlling Government in cohort with their master in Brussels and direction from our Socialist’s run MsM. Ask yourself why have we not left the EU as we requested in the ballot box, why are we not a free and sovereign nation inside our own territorial area. Why does what should be a foreign power get to decide UK laws, rules and regulation and not our own Parliament. Why is it Parliament cant create, amend or repeal all laws, rules and regulations that relate to activities that only affect UK citizens inside the UK – because it is a ‘Colony’ of a foreign power perhaps.
Our upper management only believes in ‘virtue signalling’ and ‘grand standing’. Forty Years of someone else dictating and they have forgotten Parliament is only sovereign because of the power the people lend it. Its how they then use that privilege, do they serve or pontificate. They confirm they are subordinate to a higher authority and also confirm ‘the Great Reset’ every day.
A good Conservative Government ‘buts out’ gives the people back ‘their’ money.
The Conservative Party are not Conservatives they have been highjacked, you could say they should be in court for miss-representation and fraud.
July 23, 2021
We won’t return to what most of us call Conservative values with this set of politicians.
Original Conservative principles as per the period 1975-1992 include self-reliance, economic competence, low taxation, friendly to savers and small business, strong on the Union.
Now we have the juxtaposition on most of these, so much so that there is little for the Labour opposition to oppose. There is nowhere for original Conservative voters to go, and there’s a field day for socialists-whoever they vote for, Conservative, Labour or Libdem, they get what they want.
July 23, 2021
State intervention, in the form of high spending funded by high taxes, will simply transition from being a Covid response to being a response to Global Warming. For example, specific airline travel restrictions for Covid which have led to a collapse in air travel will simply transition to restrictions on airlines via taxes and other rules in furtherance of a Net Zero agenda. The result is the same, air travel is only for a few rich people now.
July 23, 2021
10 comments so far this morning and what expressions of apoplexy from sensible readers.
This government of Johnson and his pseudo Conservatives is a Party to be opposed on almost every part of their work and intentions, not supported from the wings.
Get them out!
July 23, 2021
“10 comments so far this morning and what expressions of apoplexy from sensible readers.”
Is that what you see? What I see is the usual crop of brand-new anglo-saxon sounding names trotting out their “spontaneous” quota of psuedo-Marxist ranting.
I often ask myself: how can we see a dozen new names, day after day, all sounding identical to yesterday’s crop of new names?
How many individual people are actually writing comments? How many are just the same old fools with new names?
July 23, 2021
What I perceive is a rudderless ship, of decisions made and promptly reversed. There is absolutely no picture of where we are heading with Covid, the NI Protocol, or the illegal immigrant problem. Has long covid struck government I wonder. For sure the whole act needs cleaning up, given direction, and executed with conviction. Incidentally conservative values went out of the door long ago with your shift to the left. They are now just a nostalgic talking point.
July 23, 2021
A very interesting and as usual honest blog Mr Redwood.
I agree with what you say, but in my opinion a psychological connection has been generally overlooked.
During WWII every family gave not just their tolerance for rationing and loss of many freedoms but also in the majority of cases the supreme sacrifice. They did so with the determination to emerge victorious as a united people. They did not make these sacrifices thinking they would end up sueing for peace with or surrendering to Hitler. Churchill understood the connection, and knew how to use it hold the country together even when Britain stood alone.
Much has been asked of people lately, we have sacrificed many freedoms – because of another country’s lifestyle / abysmal food standards / abysmal animal welfare….or even ‘perhaps’ meddling in stuff they should’nt have been.
We need to see action taken against the country that did this to us – government(s) should rebuild our manufacturing base to service our own needs and work as fast as posible to cease trading with China.
We need to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we need to trust that governments will make this country immune to the actions of other countries, whether foolish or malign. This believe it or not IS the primary duty of any government.
Your government led by Boris Johnson is falling way short of the mark. All Boris Johnson is doing is fudging and bodging for the short term, while kowtowing to the wants of other countries.
Boris Johnson is not fit to lead the country. He has no plan, only ill informed fantasy and is incapabable of contructing anything that works.
Desdpite his quasi -churchillian stage act, which has passed it’s sell by date with the public, the difference between him and a strong patriotic leader is like the difference between a three year old child with a lego set and a qualified Craftsman. The former will produce a mess all over the place and hurts like hell when you tread on it, the latter will give you something that works, lasts, and that you can be proud of.
Get us a leader who will ensure the country can feed itself, service it’s domestic needs – start with white goods. Believe it or not there is still a British company making a washing machine in England, and another making a British television. IT CAN BE DONE !……we need more.
We need another Mrs Thatcher or Mr Churchill, not a foreign-serving clown.
Made In Gt Britain………..deliver, or we don’t elect and we sure as hell won’t be making anymore sacrifices.
July 23, 2021
‘We need another Mrs Thatcher or Mr Churchill, not a foreign-serving clown.’
– No, no, no!
Mrs Thatcher was great in her time – the first 5 years of the 80’s in tacking socialism in the trade unions. She did a fantastic job. But she was NOT a business woman (she wasn’t terrible at economics either – but privatising many of the things she did wasn’t rocket science either). She wouldn’t know how to develop our High Tech / Digital Sector that desperately needs developing but which no Tory government has really tried to do.
And Churchill was brilliant in war. But not necessarily in peace time.
We need a leader who is wise enough to face the great problems of the world / civilisation we live in today.
July 23, 2021
Churchill (who was half-American) sold us out to the Americans,particularly after WWII-perhaps seeing our power was gone and that a semblance of power (for the elite)could be maintained by living vicariously through the USA.See also Macmillan’s we can be”Greeks to their Romans”.
July 23, 2021
Churchill wasn’t perfect. But he was pretty great in WW2.
July 24, 2021
A war, just like the one before, we did not need to fight.
July 23, 2021
EdM “Between 2010 and 2020 investment in the UKās tech industry grew from Ā£1.2bn to Ā£11.3bn, with most of this increase taking place since 2015 when investment was Ā£4.1bn, according to figures from the governmentās Digital Economy Council” I read this in ComputerWeekly May 2021. āUK tech has seen record levels of growth over the past decade, turning a nation of startups into one of scaleups. Investors are interested in backing UK startups because of a combination of cutting-edge research, skilled engineering and tech talent, and operators who understand how to build a strong, sustainable business,ā said digital secretary Oliver Dowden”
“Technology businesses are at the heart of the UK economy, making cities greener and underpinning the financial, health, manufacturing, and mobility sectors.” Department for International Trade. Pioneering
The UK has one of the worldās largest technology ecosystems with thousands of tech start-ups, built around a strong entrepreneurial culture.
Multi-purpose
UK technology fuels our most successful sectors, including digital, healthcare, transport, creative, entertainment, financial services, cyber security, agriculture, and communications.
Diverse
Many of the worldās best-known companies use technology innovations from the UK including artificial intelligence, Internet of things, data centres, and 5G communication.
The UK is the 4th most innovative place in the WORLD.
July 23, 2021
OK, thanks for this. I’ll follow up and do some research myself. But, anyway, be still great to see the UK leading the way in High Tech / Digital (considering our great history in science / engineering in industry and in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well).
July 23, 2021
EdM. We are leading the way. Top 3 leading.
The UK doesnāt only have two historic great universities. Many are centred in London Imperial College, UCL, Kings, the London School of Economics. The University of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol and Warwick are also in the World top QS/THE 2021 – top 100 ranking
July 23, 2021
The majority of UK families did not suffer a bereavement in WWII, Steve.
The Russians, Poles etc. probably did, however.
WWI was the hecatomb for this country.
July 23, 2021
Steve
You are right about BJ.
In the Guardian today all about a rudderless Johnson. His original crew that put him into No 10 have virtually disappeared. He is listening to the wrong people and most of them are acquaintances of his wife. I have lost all faith and hope for the country on the path being proposed. It needs the stalwarts of the party to have a word and he can either walk away or get thrown out.. We are running out of patience and time.
July 23, 2021
We’re nearly out of the (Covid) forest. All all thanks to the scientists who came up with the vaccines super fast. Everything that has happened in politics regarding Covid – good and bad – pales in comparison the success of the jabs. And for all the failures (and successes) of Boris over the pandemic, he got it right – big time – by pushing his ministers on the vaccinations.
But big thank you to the scientists.
July 23, 2021
The āvaluesā I read expressed by many of the contributors to these pages have little in common with Conservative values.
Whilst I have never agreed with āConservativesā I thought they were at least supposed to be kind, law abiding people. Instead we mostly now see a frothing mass of hate from a collection of mostly angry old men.
Ken Clarke is a proper Conservative. Be like Ken.
July 23, 2021
Both Jane Austen and Scrooge were Conservatives. Jane of the hopeful, cheerful, benevolent kind. Scrooge of the negative, gloomy, mean-spirited kind.
The real enemy to Conservatives isn’t Socialism (horrible as that is). It is the enemy within (inside the person him / herself).
July 23, 2021
Thank you,Jacob Marley!
July 23, 2021
‘Thank you,Jacob Marley!’
– Ha .. ha .. Well said, sir. Yes, I can be grumpy, too.
July 23, 2021
Pot kettle andy.
Have a re read of some of your previous posts.
Full of hate and anger.
July 23, 2021
Andy,
Be like Dad
Keep Mum!
July 23, 2021
Andy
“Ken Clarke is a proper Conservative. Be like Ken. ”
Enoch Powell was a proper conservative, as was Lady Thatcher……..be like them.
Not like someone who is on record for demanding a constitutionally and legally binding referendum be simply ignored because he personally didn’t like the result.
July 23, 2021
That’s why andy likes Ken !
July 23, 2021
Peter 2
Yes I know, he [Andy] even gives him dispensation as Tory of senior years……….So our Andy doesn’t like Tory pensioners….unless they think democracy should be assassinated.
Complete twit obviously.
July 23, 2021
The referendum was advisory only by definition.
The UK Constitution says only one thing: Parliament alone is the law.
Therefore no referendum can trump it.
Even if it promises to implement a result, it can always change its mind under that Constitution.
Don’t make up silly stuff, Steve.
July 23, 2021
Martin, how do you square it that the Lib Demās offered to overturn the referendum if people voted for them twice in 2017 and 2019. The Labour Party stood on a ticket ā Rather than backing either Leave or Remain during the election campaign, the party will remain neutral until a later date.
Should a referendum under a Labour government be held, voters would be able to choose between a “credible Leave option” and Remain. The party would organise the referendum within six months and decide which position to back at a special conference in the build up.ā. Source BBC – BUT the public didnāt elect them.
July 23, 2021
MiC
Have you read the constition MiC ?
July 24, 2021
Steve, through the English Reformation, the Civil War, the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the Act of the Union 1707, Parliament became the dominant branch of the State, above the judiciary, executive, monarchy, and church.
Yes, legal authorities have declared many laws from Magna Carta onwards as having constitutional status, but there is in principle nothing to stop Parliament from repealing or amending them – unlike in countries which afford them a higher status subject to special rules.
July 24, 2021
“This your decision. We will implement what you decide”
The leaflet sent to every household.
A promise from Government to the voters.
And still you tried for 4 years to sabotage the result.
July 24, 2021
Yes, that was Cameron’s government.
It cannot bind a different one, and certainly not Parliament.
No, there was no attempt to sabotage the result. It was accepted by all that Leave won.
You’re getting mixed up with Trump and the last presidential US election.
July 24, 2021
MiC if it had remained at just that referendum you might have a point. But Theresa May got re-elected on a ticket to implement the leave agreement with a No Deal is Better than a Bad Deal mantra. Then in 2019 Boris got a stomping majority to implement leave making his own set of promises that binds him and this government.
July 24, 2021
Yes Tracy and you have left, so where’s the beef?
July 24, 2021
I’m not getting mixed up at all Marty.
I watched as a dreadful speaker and a remain Parliament refused to enact our decision for years.
But now we have an 80 seat majority and your awful remain parties are in the distance where they will remain for many more elections.
Nothing to do with Trump.
July 25, 2021
You clearly cannot grasp, that in the UK the people are NOT sovereign.
Parliament IS and it cannot bind its successor.
That means that it can always change its mind too.
It was for Parliament alone to decide how to implement the referendum vote if it so chose.
July 25, 2021
You forget the referendum result was promised to be implemented MiC
A solemn promise made by Parliament.
We were lied to.
Parliament is supreme but it should have very carefully reflected on its promise to the voters.
However many of those who tried their best to frustrate that result have now found themselves voted out of that rouge Parliament.
July 23, 2021
Your last line says everything about you, and your views. Dinosaur.
July 23, 2021
Be like Ken.
And I suppose you’re Barbie, then ?
(On that, how did the meat free BBQ go the other week ? I bet you’re a real hoot at a garden party.)
July 23, 2021
BBQās are fine thanks. John Major was PM the last time are meat. He was a proper Conservative too. Probably the best Conservative PM since Churchill. Mind you, the bar is pretty low.
July 24, 2021
You only like Major because he was so useless he kept the Conservatives out of power for the next 3 elections.
July 23, 2021
The only person frothing with ageist hate is you dear boy, check the mirror.
July 23, 2021
I appreciate the optimism, but I fear Sir John that you are almost a lone voice in the wilderness.
which is all too real given that as a nation we have been shoved too far left.
Officials and ministers are already lining up the next lockdown, with their talk of ‘excessive cases’ – This is a deliberate part of the NUDGE psychology to get us used to the idea that we are going into a NEW NORMAL….. Meaning the old normal will have to be destroyed in some fashion, otherwise how is Boris going to BUILD BACK BETTER?
The economic cost of lockdown is already far too high – Should we be made to endure another one then I fear we will be lost as a nation.
July 23, 2021
The Government seem to have collapsed into chaos with almost as many suggestions, policies and opinions as there are ministerial mouths, and mostly conflicing. Having got a vaccine why can we not trust it? What is happening now makes being vaccinated seem pointless and I am not surpised the take-up rate has gone through the floor.
I wish I thought that the view that the measures to control the pandemic were desireable in themselves was confined to Opposition MPs and the Civil Service. I think their are plenty on the Government side, and indeed in it, who hold the same view.
I applaud your efforts to get a return to Conservative values, but I am afraid you are going to have to shout very loud.
July 23, 2021
+ 1
July 24, 2021
It is not the vaccine itself that I do not trust, it is the reasoning behind it. If I am NOT one of the high risk groups that I have nothing to fear.
July 23, 2021
Nice to see that Mr Redwood is still plugging the government line through thick and thin, I do admire his perseverance despite the overwhelming opposition from sensible contributors,
All the usual Trolls receiving more than their fair share of space, do any of their contributions go unmoderated?
From the absolute madness of Net Zero to the vaccine roll out, Mr redwood unfailingly supports Comrade Johnson even when itās becoming more widely recognised by the sheep exactly what the game is, presumably he has been promised a place on the vessel which is denied to us plebs?
And I guarantee that wonāt make it past the censor!
Conservative Woman is the site if you wish to express an opinion without the censorship and you can up or downvote opinions
July 23, 2021
What hysterical and inaccurate nonsense from start to finish!
Either you are incapable of understanding Sir John’s very clear writings or you are just very silly.
July 23, 2021
Lester
Loyalty is a commendable quality, even in an adversary.
Remember our host is also loyal to us. Every other MP I can think of would not dare provide provide publicly accessible site like this. Moreover if they did they would not dare invite opinion on many of the topics John Redwood addresses.
John Redwood does a pretty good job at maintaining balanced discussion, which is not easy these days with all the woke PC & litigation etc.
Also account for the fact that there is an awful lot of anger and frustration out there right now….John Redwood MP has not run away, he’s still with us.
Personally speaking; I remain grateful that there is one MP at least who hasn’t got his snout in the trough, gone with the flow, or been ‘turned’ and he speaks for Great Britain. Quite a rare thing these days.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
+2
July 23, 2021
steve
+ 1
July 23, 2021
Totally agree Steve. This site is worth its weight in gold.
July 23, 2021
+1
Conservative Woman is one place you can visit and read other peopleās opinions.
“We read to know we are not alone”. Shadowlands – C S Lewis
July 23, 2021
You beat me to it Lester. My plain view is that to me Sir John will remain a totally loyal Tory no matter what horrors of policy and practise his masters and party approve. He will object and thus claim innocence but it will go no further.
The Tory party is above everything, certainly the likes of us who are ignored even though we appreciate his giving us a platform – for the moment.
July 23, 2021
Our host is far too modest and busy to point out that he has voted against the government on several occasions. One crucial occasion being over the NI Protocol.
July 23, 2021
Lester,
Conservative Woman does seem to cover topics that would get moderated out on this site. However, I have not posted there so I donāt know what is permissible there and what might get rejected.
July 23, 2021
Hoist by your own petard, Lester.
July 23, 2021
NLA
Perhaps you would care to elaborate?
July 23, 2021
NLA
Iām not hoist in anything, I stated my opinion and if you donāt like itā¦ tough!
July 24, 2021
CW does censorship.
July 23, 2021
and more power to the individual, and less to the state. in ALL areas of our existence, including secondary healthcare, social housing, schools, stop the top down corrupt allocation and rationing and give the power to individuals.
July 23, 2021
The allocation of social housing is the most contemptible, rotten to the core decision making body. It splits up families and casts men asunder as women can get homed with her children faster and easier without a partner. I personally know a woman who is far better off financially, training wise, child-care wise without her partner living with her he was earning Ā£35,000 pa. Now with housing benefits, universal credits, training allowances, and all the rest, free school meals, etc. She is quids in better off and has her home paid for by the State.
July 23, 2021
For a man who cannot get through an hour without saying ,”More borrowing….and lower interest rates “, this is an interesting “adjustment”.
I guess you are panicking because the Brexit and Covid spending cannot be on our card any longer . Tax rises are coming as is inflation. After Chesham & Amersham you are concerned that the good people of Wokingham may be getting sick being asked to pay for Brexit #, Levelling up, Boris Bridges, airports in Hartlepool and jobs at Nissan, while trying to cope with the no deal Brexit they got lumbered with.
You will simply have to tell the charming voters of your constituency it is all worth it for the sake of “sovereignty ” and that they voted for it so they can lump it.
Happy to help
*beam*
July 23, 2021
You lost some credibility earlier this week when you said it was OK to inject GM drugs into kids for something which is not going to hurt them and will not stop them spreading.
I suppose you were one of those who baulked at chlorinated chicken and would scoff at an MP who fed his kid a GM burger in order to say that leaving the EU was bad.
You also hid away during this pandemic whilst letting people like me keep the country running (I was as scared as everyone at first but still got out and did my bit.)
You even admitted to hiding away right up until vaccine day and saying to yourself “Phew ! Made it !!!”
So.
As well as pointing out how wrong headed and cowardly you can be I want to level some blame at your firmly closed door and equally closed mind.
YOU were one of the squealers who helped force us into an economy wrecking lockdown and keep us there.
You are also one of those virtuous creeps who invoke “But what about the children !!!!” to shut down argument, as though none of the rest of us care about our children.
You don’t happen to be pro abortion too ? That’s far more lethal to children than CV-19 will ever be, I think.
Etc ed
I’m so glad I opted for technical college and not arts at university.
July 23, 2021
Before we have a return to conservative ‘values’ we need a return of the real conservative party !
July 23, 2021
The problem you have, Sir John, is that – as we know – thre is nothing so permanent as the temporary. This is, coincidentally, well articulated in this article in today’s CityAM: https://www.cityam.com/status-quo-anxiety-covid-foreign-aid-change/ Just look at the opposition there is to the withdrawal of the ‘temporary’ Ā£20 increase in benefits.
The Left are good at making changes, because they deceitfully wrap these up in words about ‘fairness’ and ‘progress’. The Conservatives have NEVER been good at resisting – let alone rolling back – the Left’s vile political changes because they don’t have the courage of their convictions and are afraid to defend them bluntly. Take the recent Rashford campaign for free meals for children. The government should – as I stated at the time – have resisted this campaign by saying “there is NO poverty in Britain today because we are proud to have one of the world’s most generous welfare systems and NOBODY goes hungry. Those who claim there is child hunger are liars who are denigrating Britain and the British people”. But instead Boris the Buffoon meekly caved in.
So I doubt you will have much luck with your campaign. The Conservative Party has always been afraid (for reasons that I can only ascribe to moronic cowardice) to upset or antagonise those who do not, and never will, vote for them. Why is your party too stupid to understand that those on the Left are your enemies and they and their views DO NOT MATTER. You should o what YOU want, and when the Left kick and scream you should just laugh at them and tell them to get stuffed. But no, you never will, and that’s why you will always lose.
July 23, 2021
I have not seen a skinny kid in the UK for decades.
They claim that sugary food is the cheapest (untrue) but that does not explain a recycling bin full of Fanta and beer bottles when the healthiest thing one can drink also happens to be the cheapest and is also unpackaged.
July 23, 2021
‘ āthere is NO poverty in Britain today because we are proud to have one of the worldās most generous welfare systems and NOBODY goes hungry. Those who claim there is child hunger are liars who are denigrating Britain and the British people’.
Breathtakingly ignorant and dismissive, I feel sorry for you, but hope you have to starve for a week.
July 23, 2021
OFF TOPIC.
The French power company that co-owns a nuclear plant in China would shut it down if it could, due to damage to the fuel rods, a spokesperson said — but the decision is ultimately up to the plant’s Chinese operator. The spokesperson for Electricite de France (EDF) said on Thursday that while it was “not an emergency situation” at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant, located in China’s southern Guangdong province, it was a “serious situation that is evolving.”
If the reactor was in France, the company would have shut it down already due to “the procedures and practices in terms of operating nuclear power plants in France,” the spokesperson said.
https://us.cnn.com/2021/07/22/china/edf-taishan-nuclear-plant-china-intl-hnk/index.html
OR browse Taishan China nuclear
July 23, 2021
It is a concern that we seem to be ploughing ahead with yet more EPRs despite their considerable technological problems in France, Finland and China. We really need to adopt simpler and more proven technology from South Korea or Japan until we have the ability to look at SMRs as being shovel ready.
July 23, 2021
What conservative values do you want to return to?
Brittanica says ‘traditional conservative values are: using political and cultural institutions to curb human’s base and destructive instincts’
Well, that is what your party is doing, so tick.
Brittanica says: ‘to restrain peoples passions and bridle and subdue’ tick.
Use ‘family, religions and education establishments to teach the value of self-discipline and those that fail to learn this lesson need discipline imposed by government and law’ tick.
July 24, 2021
Seems to me that the Tories today depend almost entirely on appealing to people’s “base instincts” for their election.
July 24, 2021
Isn’t that what political parties need to do MiC
Be popular.
Formulate policies that appeal to a majority of electors.
base instincts…Labour spin talk for popular policies.
July 24, 2021
MiC – which base instincts do you refer to?
July 24, 2021
Every single one that they can, Tracy!
July 23, 2021
It is very ‘conservative’ to want to have a greener, cleaner country. Conservatives tend to prefer classical pretty architecture, communal spaces, not iron railings, brutalist ugly buildings, concrete multi-stories. You don’t see many mismatching, brutal shop signs of any description in conservative run councils. Recycling, minimising waste, preserving, not wasting money on things you don’t need all seem to be conservative values to me, striving, training and bettering the position you were born into.
We are frustrated right now because your government is throwing money around like confetti. We want a fairer society but you are asking working people to carry to much of the people sat doing nothing at all. These people don’t even feel obliged to do community, voluntary, work from home jobs, nothing at all. Some I know have been sat on furlough for over a year loving it, going out horse riding every day and doing up their homes on the coin of others that are working through this.
July 23, 2021
A-Track. I totally know what you are on about when talking about furlough. Chap here working as normal but on furlough and saving for a holiday of a lifetime using his furlough payment which is a nice little freebie.
July 24, 2021
I know of similar.
July 23, 2021
Only so much government can do to get people working.
We need to instil it in people so they want to. We need the Conservatism movement moving more into Education, the Arts, Media etc. Any ideas how to achieve that?
And the C of E need to do far, far, far more as well. Instead of pussy-footing around about people’s ‘feelings’ so much (yes, to a degree), we need them giving more tough love to young men, for example, to be real men and stand up for themselves (not just out of duty – but out of the self-satisfaction this will give them to be real men).
On my soap box today. But if our GREAT country and the West in general is quickly spiralling into decline – as China quickly emerges as a strong leader.
July 23, 2021
Ed, children are in education now until they are 18 years of age. Eighteen! How much more āinstillingā by the educational institutions do you want? 50% of them are going into further indoctrination, sorry education, a massive increase all taking place as I have commented before in the years Conservatives have run the Country. We are told many arenāt able to earn sufficient after graduation to pay student loans, I donāt know the truth in this because all the English grads I know are paying back big and many have paid off completely! The conservative movement well and truly moved into Education, it introduced pupil premiums, classes have teachers assistants, special needs teachers, nothing good that has been achieved over the past 50 years is ever mentioned and yet we are told by the left constantly everything is underfunded. These are all examples of massive increases and continuous investment in public sector spending on education. How much more moving into Education do you want? What precisely are you after? Iād say there is too much moving into one sort of āeducationā and not enough on practical trades, guilds and skills for the none academic.
As for the Arts and Media – the government put billions into the Arts and Media. Ā£6.1bn in employee compensation alone last year enabling artists to use their time last year to be inventive, learn new material, and create new projects, they also funded the majority of the venues they closed down. The artists I know got SEISS but they all previously declared their income in the UK and pay tax and ni every year for the past three years as required for the SEISS. The Arts Council 17 Apr 2019 ā issued a report – the highlights: The arts and culture industry has grown Ā£390million in a year and now contributes Ā£10.8billion a year to the UK economy. This is not insignificant. The Conservative government needs to spell out exactly what they invest to facilitate this in training courses, arts support, every penny needs accounting for and celebrating. I think the government needs to get out of this sectors way now and let them flourish, encourage more entrepreneurialism and risk taking, reward success and profit instead of it being seen as a dirty function with a preference for not-for-profit but high earning directorships for the in clique, why is it ok for certain people to earn millions from the arts but not actually have any profits?
July 23, 2021
The Tories do not have any ‘values’ other than getting re-elected by hook or by crook. This is why they steadfastly resist reforming the unfair electoral system. This is also why they only ditch leaders when they become an electoral liability not because their policies are not ‘Conservative’. What are Boris Johnson’s values; we’d love to know?
July 23, 2021
So try and become a Tory MP.
Seriously.
July 23, 2021
Yes, I’d say so.
July 23, 2021
A Government and Party which intends introducing what is effectively compulsory “vaccination” with unlicensed gene therapies, using Vaccine Passports to force compliance has not business calling self Conservative.
It appears that Government Ministers and most Conservative MPs have absolutely no idea what conservative values are.
July 23, 2021
+1
July 23, 2021
Well said, Donna.
July 23, 2021
Those Conservatives who post here, dreaming of a return to the unbridled capitalism of the Thatcher era are living under a misunderstanding of the modern electorate.
It is a matter of some regret to me that the electorate have gone soft. They would not accept going back to the Conservatism of the 1980s any more than they were prepared to vote for Corbyn’s style of socialism.
Boris and the majority of his PMs realise this and that is who he has a good majority. It is true that they are rather more generous with public spending than I would be ( HS2 and the 0.7% aid budget being prime examples ) but for justifiable electoral reasons I am afraid we are stuck with a Conservative government that has much more in common with Blair than with the late, great Margaret Thatcher.
At least we have a Home Secretary who is trying her best to sort out illegal immigration, although her colleagues in cabinet are not prepared to tackle the need to reduce legal immigration to the much more manageable numbers needed to eliminate our so-called housing crisis.
July 23, 2021
Some people argue Mrs Thatcher wasn’t in practise that right wing at all (that some of her fans are more right-wing than her – that is where the confusion lies).
I don’t know. Personally, I think Mrs Thatcher had more sympathy for helping the Average Joe than she was making a few rich people stinking rich.
July 23, 2021
I agree with you, Ed.
Margaret was very keen to help those anyone who had genuine aspirations to get on by their own efforts, hence her council house sale scheme which utterly transformed council estates from ill-kept gettoes into genuinely nice places to live.
Today you can drive through many former council estates and not realise immediately what they once were.
As an ex-pupil of Maidenhead Grammar School, my biggest regret has been the loss of the Grammar School system, a Labour idea born out of greed and envy, that was allowed to continue under the Conservatives. The leftie/liberal educational elite will never accept that Grammar Schools were responsible for a great deal of upward mobility.
Over to you, Andy !
July 23, 2021
Union-based worker protections, T&C’s – notably pensions – have been drastically eroded since the 1980s, and worker insecurity has increased enormously.
Real incomes – i.e. what kind of home they will buy – have been slashed.
UK capitalism is far redder in tooth and claw today than it was back then in Thatcher’s time.
July 24, 2021
Hear hear.
July 23, 2021
Off topic
JR
Are you aware that there is a plan for introducing digital IDās that will be āas commonplace and secure as passports and driverās licenseā? But they will have your qualifications, ready for a job interview etcā¦ā¦so itās not just your name and address on it.
There is consultation from the public until 13 September, but this has not been widely advertised that I can see.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/plans-for-governing-body-to-make-digital-identities-as-trusted-as-passports
Seems a lot of people are correct in their assertions that covid passports etc are leading to national ID cards!
July 23, 2021
Sharon Iāve no doubt national ID cards are well on the way. Most of the children and young adults think nothing of losing cash and having every penny, every on-line movement click of their mouse, their whole lives and likes tracked and traced. They donāt believe theyād ever be ācancelledā and say it āwouldnāt bother me I donāt do anything wrongā. I say āwhat like going to the wrong restaurant, at the wrong time, with the wrong crowd and scanning yourself in at the door by accidentā – āno that could never happenā. Not being allowed into certain Countries because when they check they donāt like your browsing history if someone has hacked you. Getting the wrong health record allocated to you with the slip of a mouse button. Nothing would be private. At least we have the illusion, chimera of it now. Lol.
July 23, 2021
Sir John. It does not often happen that your Diary makes me furious but this time it did.
IT NEVER WAS A KILLER DISEASE!
Well to be fair, reading it a second time more carefully, you did not say it WAS/IS a killer disease. You actually said we were happy to accept government’s reaction to a killer disease. Which means that we assumed and governments assumed, the propaganda that it was a killer disease, was ‘truth’.
Almost nobody reads things that carefully and you probably did not intend that they would.
I’m sorry but this time you have continued your Party’s propaganda machine.
You also continue the pro government propaganda that the vaccines are wonderful, no downsides, so because of THEM we can now dismantle the draconian measures that have done so much harm.
But YOUR GOVERNMENT IS NOT DISMANTLING THEM.
Your government or perhaps it’s civil service and other ‘departments’, are hanging on to those draconian measures.
Power Corrupts.
It is not just the ‘Opposition Parties’ that want to maximise state control. MOST of YOUR Party are now just as bad.
July 23, 2021
I think a lot of people here are missing the point that the real problem for the left in the next few years will not be the Conservatives at all, but the Labour Party entering terminal decline.
Labour had an organic role to play up to about 1980, when Thatcher’s reforms exposed the fact that Government does not have a natural managing role to play in the economy, and since then we have been seeing Labour thrashing around trying to find a role that does not include nationalisation and the command economy – and not finding one.
This is why Labour not tries to be a party that represents and protests, but as Corbyn showed, if you dig in too deep in protest and representation you risk adopting the methods and values of some incredibly nasty groups who are all too eager to use your dwindling power for their own motives.
Where Labour goes now in the short run is anyone’s guess, but in a decade it will have been replaced by a technically-based social democratic party. Starmer might create this from the rump of the current Labour party, or it might be a new party, but Labour as we know it today is over.
July 24, 2021
Indeed.
Part of Blair’s and ‘New Labours’ success was getting rid of Clause 4. It also convinced the electorate that it was not only different from the party of old, but political parties in general – The Tories were having scandal after scandal at that time. But the electorate chose them and we have been paying the price since.
July 24, 2021
“Terminal decline”?
Funny how the Tory media never said that about the Tories, when Blair had around twice Johnson’s majority, isn’t it?
July 24, 2021
‘Things can only get better’ – only they didn’t.
oh..that is until the electorate woke up, and they will again.
July 24, 2021
If you think that an end to things like Toxteth and other areas ablaze, the Mainland IRA bombings, Poll Tax Riots, Miners Strikes, leaking school roofs, and the rest were not “things getting better” then I’d say that you have a rather unusual view of good and bad.
July 23, 2021
After all the lies we’ve had to put up with from slimey Cameron, sanctimonious May and now Boris I don’t have any faith in the party John. Values? What values?
July 23, 2021
Whats the conservative party value of adopting green party policies
Heard today that local councils are expected to develop and build electric vehicle charging stations
Petrol stations are a commercial arm/franchises of energy/fuel producers and zero cost to the taxpayer ā in fact they produce a massive amount of revenue for governments
So why are the taxpayer via the council, expected to subsidies, build and manage charging stationsā¦..no market forces here, no competition here, no conservative values here
July 24, 2021
The government take on projects no sane person would put their money into. They can also raise endless cash and happily pay through the nose for it. After all, it is NOT their money.
July 24, 2021
Zero cost to the taxpayer? Really?
So what was all that blood and treasure spent in the Middle East for?
July 23, 2021
I offer a couple more charts taken from the coronavirus dashboard data for England.
Firstly, testing against rate of positive tests.
https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-a9fac4bf-b4a1-4651-bd5d-d3bae3664555
It is clear that initially testing was wholly inadequate to identify cases and indeed many people died at home or in care homes without ever being tested. Capacity increased by the autumn surge in cases. It is clear that testing was ramped up in response to rising positivity. The Christmas period produced a particular spike in positivity as fewer people were asking for tests unless they were unwell – duly followed by a big spike in testing in the New Year. Testing has been at particularly wasteful levels when the case incidence was low.
Secondly, looking at the rate of case hospitalisation.
https://image.vuukle.com/9ffc6604-feed-474e-a82d-c2de2f561502-c63af252-e012-45e8-9485-ae0c940ccfa7
Again we see the effects of inadequate testing at the beginning of the epidemic, with testing not covering many actual cases, and being predominantly centered on hospitals. Please note that the hospitalisation rate is plotted on a log scale, with the risk halving for each division on the graph. It looks as though vaccines and the milder nature of the Delta variant have reduced hospitalisation risk for a positive case by about a factor of 8, or 87.5%. It’s time we stopped worrying so much about case numbers, and kept a more beady eye on hospitalisations instead. Testing gives little advance warning of hospitalisation.
Some readers may not be aware that I posted a series of charts the other day which can be found almost at the bottom of the comments here:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/07/20/what-precautions-should-people-take-for-covid/
covering age related trends in the data on cases, hospitalisations and deaths, vaccinations, and apparent risk.
July 23, 2021
Invermectin
July 24, 2021
Pure comedy this title
July 24, 2021
So Conservative Values split into 2 main areas:
1) The Traditionalists / Strong Monarchists / The Conservatism of Christendom
2) The Anarcho-Capitalists.
Anarcho-capitalism is a modern form of Conservatism that really emerged proper in the 1980’s but the seeds of which go back further. It is the Conservatism of some / many in Finance / Business / Media.
The Traditionalists / Strong Monarchists / The Conservatism of Christendom. It is the Conservatism of some / many in Finance / Business / Media but also of The Army / Education (Eton / Grammar Schools / Oxford / Cambridge), The Aristocracy, The Arts, The Church of England, The Monarchy, and so on. This goes back much further in time. With a much more universal understanding of Conservatism that covers Conservative Values in Civilisation in general as opposed to being hyper-focused on economic policy / radical libertarianism. This is much more the Conservatism of Conservatives such as Sir Winston Churchill, Jane Austen and Edmund Burke.
I think. Happy to be challenged!