Letter to Michael Gove

Dear Michael

Congratulations on your new Cabinet appointment. Levelling up and the defence of the Union are two huge topics of great importance.

Levelling up is sometimes seen through the narrow focus of place. Attention is given to the built environment and the public service fabric. Of course providing capital to allow replacement school buildings or better hospitals can be an important decision for a local community. These can be necessary to show commitment to high quality public services with good working conditions for valued staff.Ā  Providing funds for a new community centre or a tram system will not in themselves transform the lives of the many people who live in the place though there may be a case for them.

What many voters want from levelling up is tangible improvement in their own lives. If there is a gap in public money between the more prosperous communities and the less so in our country, it is one where the lower income community receives moreĀ  per head for its school places or its health provision than the higher income area. It is true that the more prosperous south and London does attract substantial capital for additional facilities and especially for transport, but that is because there is rapid population growth in these areas. London and the south attracts a disproportionate amount of the new private sector housing investment and in turn needs the roads, schools and surgeries to service the new estates.

I suggest that we need to pull together current and prospective policies around the theme of improving people’s personal journeys through life. There need to be better pathways to owning your own home, to gaining a good education, to acquiring necessary qualifications, to working your way up to a better paid job, to setting up your own business, and to expanding a business to take on others as staff. The places that want to level up need to attract more housing investment to attract people with high qualifications or established entrepreneurial skills to help lead the localĀ  economic recovery. Policies to raise school standards for all, to expand vocational qualifications that enhance a person’s earning power, to make it easier to set up and expand a business and which encourage buying British and buying local are all crucial to this task.

The vision of everyone an owner, with the chance to own a home, own their own business, own a share in aĀ  bigger business, have some savings for a rainy day should be our vision. It is still too hard for many people to get that better job, to get that qualification, to get thatĀ  mortgage to get on the property ladder. I look forward to an opportunity to discuss these matters with you, and wish you well with this great task.

 

Yours

John Redwood

210 Comments

  1. Mark B
    September 17, 2021

    Good morning.

    One would have thought the slogan; “Build Back Better”, rather than, “Level Up” would be more appropriate given his, technical, demotion.

    /sarc

    Obviously, and once again, our kind host ignores the Elephant in the room. Or to put it another way, supply and demand. People would be able to buy a home if there was not such a demand from an ever growing population and, when hundreds of thousands of people can be simply waved in each year, such demand will always outstrip supply.

    Minister for Housing = Poisoned Chalice, methinks šŸ˜‰

    Reply I have often written about the need to reduce the number of migrants. This is about a different topic.

    1. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2021

      The simple solutions are fewer people and/or build more houses. To get more houses you just relax planning, cut all the green crap building regs, kill IR35, kill the absurdly high stamp duty, simplify employment laws, relax mortgage and development bank lending restrictions, cheaper utility connections (they are a rip off), cheaper energy … – just get the state out of the way basically.

      This is the solution to most UK problems. Alas Boris, Carrie, Sunak and Gove are clearly tax (and regulate) to death green crap pushing, big state socialists.

      1. glen cullen
        September 17, 2021

        Even the CEO of E.ON (UK) said today that this government should remove the green environmental tax from energy bills to help consumers

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          As if lockdown hadn’t been enough, eh ?

      2. Hope
        September 17, 2021

        JR, it is not a different topic it is the cause root of the problem same for schooling you mention. Moreover, your govt. and your party have failed the nation on this topic for 11 years!!

        It was going to cut immigration, provide better public services and it changed the planning legislation under Nick Boles! You appear to have a very selective memory over your govt.ā€™s record. What about the housing and mass immigration policies acting against Johnsonā€™s green agenda? Not a different topic at all, all inter linked. Your govt. introduced free meals for all infant school pupils, come ye from around the world everything is free- or at least an enormous burden on the taxpayer! 70 year high taxation also directly linked.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          +1

          Intrinsic to any supply and demand debate, crime, jobs.. the lot .

          It is virtually a taboo subject.

      3. dixie
        September 19, 2021

        This is not the solution – except for the sole benefit of property developers.

        As reported in the Reading Chronicle – Reading Borough Council is considering the removal of Permitted Development Rights (PDR) in large parts of Reading which allow some applications without plannin permission. This because PDR developments are often of poor quality and rarely provided with essential private/communal outdoor space with residents being introduced to areas that are wholly inappropriate for residential living for reasons such as noise and disturbance. Other concerns are the loss of shops, essential services and affordable housing that are turned into flats.

        Clearly developers are far too greedy and shoddy not to be kept on a leash.

    2. Lifelogic
      September 17, 2021

      I find the phrase “Build Back Better” profoundly depressing, who wants to build things back worse? Well Boris clearly does – his idiotic green crap, ever bigger state, every higher taxes, expensive energy and every more regulation agenda of this socialist government will be far worse.

      But we will be free again to buy 1lb 8oz of delicious English apples, plumbs, chestnuts, pears & cob nuts this autumn (finally) it seems – so not all bad. It has taken over 20 years. So have the Metric Martyrs been pardoned yet?

    3. Mark B
      September 17, 2021

      Reply to reply

      Yes, but as now practically as nearly everyone here now states, MASS IMMIGRATION is a major cause of many of problems.

      And it is not about immigration parse, it is about the numbers of people coming each year. It is simply too many !

      1. alan jutson
        September 17, 2021

        +1

        1. Hope
          September 17, 2021

          Let us not forget all that free university tuition to EU students at English taxpayersā€™ expense! JR, that seemed to slip your memory.

      2. glen cullen
        September 17, 2021

        300,000 net each year….the tories can hide them for a few years but after 10 years its nolonger feasible

        1. Hope
          September 17, 2021

          GC, No it is not. It is much higher. The NI numbers do not correlate with the estimates provided by govt. this govt. is fiddling the mass immigration figures. We had one year where 800,000 new NI numbers but the alleged net figure not even half of that before illegal, refugees etc.

          Look at the way the police dealt with anti COVID protests and compare with helping eco lunatics March across the M25!! The police have powers to direct and control demonstrations as they did with anti vaccinations as well. Why not extinction rebellion!!

          The police are acting in a very left wing political way as we also saw with BLM protests. Patel needs to be sacked.

        2. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          I’ve given up.

          I’m now glad to see the Tories being caught red handed.

          We now know there isn’t much to lose by letting Labour win.

      3. Fedupsoutherner
        September 17, 2021

        Sorry John but actually most of the problems we face are because of demand and too many people so Mark is right to bring up the large numbers of illegals and those allowed coming to the UK. We have a housing crisis and we also have an energy problem and more people just doesn’t make sense.

        1. glen cullen
          September 17, 2021

          Spot On

      4. Shirley M
        September 17, 2021

        +1

    4. Michelle
      September 17, 2021

      Quite so Mark B. Many a small child can grasp the basic fact of limited capacity. They soon learn that there is a limit to how much water their cup can hold before it overflows with unpleasant consequences.

    5. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2021

      +several million.
      Spot on!

    6. Andy
      September 17, 2021

      The large growth in population since WW2 is caused mainly by people living longer. The elephant in the room is too many old people.

      People would be able to buy a home if granny wasnā€™t ā€˜bed-blockingā€™. Pottering around alone for 20 years in one room of a house which is far too big for her.

      1. alan jutson
        September 17, 2021

        Ok Andy, so YOU have identified what you think is the problem, now tell us YOUR solution, and at what age would you like whatever the solution is to start. ?

        Come on be brave, spill the beans.

        I hope you and your partners parents and grandparents wil be proud of your solution.

        1. alan jutson
          September 18, 2021

          Well Andy, still waiting for your suggestions

          Given you are usually so quick to find fault, I thought you would accept the invitation to broadcast your solution with equal speed.

      2. Peter2
        September 17, 2021

        Twaddle
        Seven million new arrivals since 2000 is the biggest increase in the population of the UK in our history and has driven a huge demand for homes.

      3. Micky Taking
        September 17, 2021

        Maybe granny procreating had a little to do with it? Take your share of the blame for a planet with billions on it!

      4. Fedupsoutherner
        September 17, 2021

        But at least granny has paid her way and has every right to be here and live in her own house. You must have had grandparents or are you the son of God as you seem to think you are?

      5. John C.
        September 17, 2021

        You’re getting too predictable. Your shock trooper tactics are just dull. Come on, Andy, some real power, stir us all up. Get that fantasist imagination to work.

      6. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        Part of the problem, definitely. They leave it too late too move and I know many in their third decade alone in a big family house – I was in one yesterday and she keeps the heating on throughout the five bed all Summer.

        Help to Move, not Help to Buy.

      7. Mike Wilson
        September 17, 2021

        As usual, you talk nonsense. When use of the pill became widespread, our population started to fall. Governments soon put it right with mass immigration to the rescue. Itā€™s the only way they can get GDP up. Working class Labour Brexit voters said theyā€™d had enough you of competition for jobs and housing.

    7. MiC
      September 17, 2021

      Mark, if high property prices are caused principally by immigration, then why did they fall precipitously in the 1990s and after 2008?

      There wasn’t a sudden exodus of people, was there?

      Think again, old chap eh?

      1. Peter2
        September 17, 2021

        MiC
        Immigration really took off after 2000
        Since 2000 house prices have trebled.
        Think again old chap eh?

      2. SM
        September 17, 2021

        For family reasons, downsizing and settling estates, I bought and sold several residential properties in Greater London in 2002 and then in 2010, 11 and 12. At no time did I encounter any drop in prices, steep or otherwise.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 17, 2021

          Huge house price falls when that idiotic John Major gave us 17% + mortgage rates with his moronic ERM experiment in his misguided desire to shadow the Deutsche Mark. Plenty of suicides, repossessed houses, broken marriages and jobs & businesses destroyed – still no apology from the pathetic dope he just went on and buried the Tories for 3 – 4 terms. Boris seem keen to destroy the parties reputation for economic competence yet again!

          So when they finally pardon the metric martyrs will they charge the appalling politicians who pushed through the EU weights & measure bill and the evil idiots who prosecuted these traders for the appalling crime of selling apples to customer using the weights and measures they wanted them?

      3. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        They bounced back up. Don’t say that adding 10 million plus to the population in twenty years doesn’t have an effect on house prices. That would be silly.

        1. Micky Taking
          September 17, 2021

          amazing isn’t it? For years and years we didn’t build enough housing, now we build too many.
          Wonder why that is?

      4. a-tracy
        September 17, 2021

        MiC, people couldn’t afford to pay their 100% mortgages when interest rates rose and certain lenders went out of action. Prices dropped for quick sales and many buy to letters sucked up the bargains to rent out to immigrants and single parents who can claim housing benefits.

      5. Micky Taking
        September 17, 2021

        asking him to think is the problem.

      6. Mike Wilson
        September 17, 2021

        They are not caused by immigration. They are caused by the banks lending ever more money into the housing market.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          Printing by commercial banks. Hence the West has ended up in more debt than multiples of the money ever printed by central banks.

        2. a-tracy
          September 20, 2021

          Mike, who would live in these ‘For Rent’ housing if we hadn’t increased the population wanting immediate rental housing ‘According to the latest estimates by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), net migration from overseas to the UK in the year ending March 2020 totalled 313,000 – the highest in four years and approaching the all-time record of 331,000 in the year to March 2015.’As a result of this mass immigration, our population is projected to rise by half a million every year ā€“ the equivalent of a city the size of Liverpool ā€“ for as long as immigration is permitted on the present scale. England is already twice as crowded as Germany and 3.5 times as crowded as France. source Migration Watch.

          If benefits weren’t an issue for the immigrants coming to the UK with nothing the EU would have made the concessions requested by David Cameron prior to 2016.

    8. John Miller
      September 17, 2021

      Poisoned chalice indeed!

    9. Peter Parsons
      September 17, 2021

      The increasing percentage of the population of retirement age was 18% in 2016. It is projected to increase to 24% by 2042, an increase of a third in a generation.

      All those retired folks (by 2042 I hope to be one of them) will have certain expectations around benefits (pension, health care etc.). I know I will. I also know that if the level of those benefits are to be maintained, then the working age tax base paying for them needs to grow in proportion to deliver that. Given the birth rate in the UK is well below what is needed to do that, the only way to plug that gap is net immigration.

      So, if you want less immigration, fine, but be prepared to also state the negative consequences of it for current and future pensioners, as one will naturally lead to the other.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        That pension money was meant to have been invested to generate income. And it is no good immigrating illiterates and expecting them to be able to pay for it all.

        1. Peter Parsons
          September 17, 2021

          Well, it wasn’t. The current generation of pensioners want/expect their pensions and the triple lock, and the next generation will no doubt have similar expectations, and it will need to be paid for.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            September 17, 2021

            I wish I could have invested my NI money as I have my own cash. I’d be far richer.

          2. a-tracy
            September 20, 2021

            Peter ‘the current generation of pensions want/expect their pensions’. Do you not accept the punishing changes to pensions that the waspi women took costing each one a lost pension entitlement of around Ā£40,000 to Ā£45,000 plus the employee’s national insurance that they had to continue paying staying on in employment that previous pensioners didn’t pay. Men have also had their retirement age increased to 66 and then 67, 68 and up. Where has all this saved money been put? We are wasting billions. Ageist comments about the elderly are being allowed to flourish from the left – with Tumbler being acknowledged to ‘radicalise’ under 25’s in an article by Owen Jones in the Guardian. These supposed wealthy pensioners collectively leave around Ā£11,000 (median) inheritance to their 55-64 year old offspring.

            Just what % of immigrants actually produce more than they cost to be here in maternity care, housing benefits, working tax credits, child tax credits (often going abroad – if this wasn’t a big issue then why didn’t the EU allow this to cease), schooling, healthcare, disability payments. Each person costs at least Ā£155 pa just registering with a GP. Perhaps if people were given the facts they would be calmer about it. Actual facts and figures down through the pay range, not just the top-earning lawyers and doctors all these meatpackers and fruit pickers that we are told we can’t do without. Would the left support no benefits allowed at all until you have been living in the UK for five years contributing (not as a student).

            Reply The state pension is pay as you go, there is no asset backing. People are living longer which is why pension ages increased.

      2. John Hatfield
        September 17, 2021

        Assuming Peter that the immigrants would all be wage-earners and tax-payers and not themselves a drain on resources. I think the problem of an aging population should be solved by the folk already living here.

        1. Peter Parsons
          September 17, 2021

          And given that the an aging population continuing to grow requires an ever larger amount of tax take to fund it, what would your solution be? I’ve offered mine.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            September 17, 2021

            Our population decided to get smaller. The governments decided otherwise. They forced mothers to work and smashed the nuclear family which would have sorted all this out.

      3. Mark B
        September 17, 2021

        Peter

        Do not look to 2024 but now !

        Now we are paying the highest taxes, with Social Care on top.
        Now we are paying the highest energy bills because we cannot generate energy for ourselves despite having coal, gas and oil.
        Now the NHS is overloaded.
        Now our prisons are overloaded.
        Now our transportation systems are overloaded.
        Now we are debasing our currency (QE) and are going to experience large inflation. A wealth killer especially for the poor.
        Now we have the lowest interest rate in our history.

        And I could go on. This despite millions of immigrants from all over the world coming here to work. You would have thought with all those people we would not have the above and not have to borrow vast sums of money, some of it then given away, but we do. So just imagine, given current trends and our government’s current form, what 2042 is going to look like. Because my friend, if you can, you may not want to retire, if that is you will be allowed to.

        1. Mark B
          September 17, 2021

          Sorry, I meant 2024.

        2. Peter Parsons
          September 17, 2021

          Well, I do expect to be able to retire at some point, and I don’t expect to have those of working age to face a constantly increasing tax burden when I do. Apart from keeping to spread that tax burden across more and more people, what other solutions are there?

      4. Peter2
        September 17, 2021

        The Ponzi scheme argument PP
        The millions of new arrivals have also been growing old.

        1. Peter Parsons
          September 18, 2021

          So offer a credible, workable alternative then please.

          1. Peter2
            September 18, 2021

            Reduce immigration to pre 2000 levels.
            300,000 net immigration per annum is not a sustainable nor manageable number.

            Why do you think retirement ages for the state pension have risen recently?
            Women now 67 instead of 60 for example.

          2. Mark B
            September 19, 2021

            Reduce public spending and the overall tax take.

          3. a-tracy
            September 20, 2021

            Peter Parsons, could we only allow benefits to be claimed by anybody that hadn’t been living and working (contributing both tax and NI) in the UK for five years unless they had been living in the UK for at least fifteen years (i.e. children) and then early benefits would be to allow them to attend university, shared living in high employment areas to allow them to work and shared living communities to support single-parent mothers who in return help to care for elderly dependent people living in the same community.

            I expect our health service to help people back into work not just leave them for 28 weeks whilst sick.

      5. a-tracy
        September 20, 2021

        Peter, is it still this figure even with Covid decimating this age group and the big fairly regular flu pandemics see 2018.

    10. John Hatfield
      September 17, 2021

      But still they keep coming John. Until when? When is the government going to say enough is enough, which is what the indigenous population has been saying for a long time?

    11. Sir Joe Soap
      September 17, 2021

      With respect, it’s not different, it’s totally interlinked. How can you possibly “level up” a population which is constantly being dragged down by less qualified incomers? Equally if immigration equalled allowing into that area only highly skilled or entrepreneurial people, the task would be easier or even unnecessary.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        Yup. What do poor people want ?

        MORE poor people imported into their area.

        Lorry drivers a case in point.

        Andy thinks the EU is good because it means he gets cheap food delivered by a man who doesn’t see his kids, sleeps in his cab and craps in a bush.

        All so HIS kids can have a *gap yah* (gap year) in the French Alps. (Mine were too busy on intercalation MSc medical Research projects to bother. That was what they did on their *gap yah*)

  2. lifelogic
    September 17, 2021

    This the socialist (and fake green) Gove who wanted 20% VAT on private school fees to destroy many excellent private schools and force the State to educate them costing the state far more. Making such parents either pay four times over or use state schools this reinforcing a state virtual monopoly in education. The exact opposite of what is needed. So will Gove give us the same idiotic agenda of unfair competition between state and private in housing?

    The very large tax increases CT, NI, Entrepreneurā€™s Relief, the frozen allowances, 55% pension pot attacks and large immigration levels will surely force far more onto state schooling.

    Plus he cost me my wager on Boris first time for leader when he knifed him in the back inflicting Appeaser May on the nation.

    Not exactly a real Conservative in favour of real and fair competition is he? Which we need in education, healthcare, broadcasting, transport, energy, banking and much elseā€¦ but we are clearly heading for a 50% plus state sector with consequential huge economic harm for the productive sector and our ability to compete.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 17, 2021

      Quite happy for private schools to be scrapped.

      They should have to compete by entry exam like my kids had to.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        Then they might care more about immigrated competition.

  3. Ian Wragg
    September 17, 2021

    How about reducing the bung given to the outliers which enables them to get free university tuition prescriptions and care fees all courtesy of the English taxpayer.
    That would be a great start.

  4. turboterrier
    September 17, 2021

    But with all aspirations of a country, company even a family the vision and firm belief that it can and will happen has to come from the leader.
    Successful leaders are those that that are being led have supreme faith and belief in them and their vision.
    It was with rather a wry smile that yesterday I came across the several comments in the media discussing the changes in the cabinet under the title of “Carrie’s cabinet”
    With some of the directions we are being forced to take, the perception is that due to outside influences they are diluting the total conviction that we should have in our leader. As a country we would seem not to be alone in the phenomenon.

  5. Nig l
    September 17, 2021

    Be careful. The mans an untrustworthy snake. His manoeuvres for Priti Patels job are the latest example.

  6. JayGee
    September 17, 2021

    “Levelling up is sometimes seen through the narrow focus of place.” By whom? That’s not what levelling up has ever meant to me.
    “What many voters want from levelling up is tangible improvement in their own lives. ” Many voters? Most voters? Or all voters?
    “If there is a gap ….. it is one where the lower income community receives more per head for its school places or its health provision than the higher income area” Or did you omit the word ‘should receuve’?
    “There need to be better pathways to owning your own home” True, but that’s not the number one priority and not the starting point for levelling up.
    You missed out the fact that levelling up must mean earning more than the minimum wage when trying to put food in your belly by working 40+ hours a week. Could you, Sir John, live comfortably earning that hourly rate of pay? Even if you were one of our much needed key workers.

    Reply Yes, I support better paid work and have set out how we can get there

  7. Lifelogic
    September 17, 2021

    You rightly say:- “The vision of everyone an owner, with the chance to own a home, own their own business, own a share in a bigger business, have some savings for a rainy day should be our vision.”

    But this is not the vision of Sunak, Boris, Carrie, Gove it seems. They want vast tax increases, expensive energy, state virtual monopolies in healthcare, education and over regulation of everything … So far we have had a 90% cut in entrepreneur’s CGT relief (before Covid) a 25% increase in CT tax to 25%, freezing of all the allowances, council tax increases, NI increase 2.5%, pension pot mugging and huge green crap costs too.

    You also say – “It is still too hard for many people to get that better job, to get that qualification, to get that mortgage to get on the property ladder”. Well it is rather too easy to get the many worthless degrees and rather too hard to get some worthwhile qualifications, mortgages and loans for new businesses. Give more Ā£50k soft loans for suitable people to start new businesses or to get valuable practical qualifications and cut back on the duff degree funding. Bank mortgage lending regulation are over the top, irrational and rather misguided. The FCA even seems to enforce one size fits all personal overdrafts at circa 40% in the UK so moronic are they. The some banks do not rip people off overseas in this way just lucky UK customers.

    The agenda should be less state, fare competition between state and private, freedom and choice a smaller state, cheap energy and far less red tape. Always remember the state is far, far less efficient than people and businesses are at investing or spending their own money on what they want and need.

  8. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2021

    Sorry.
    However, the key issue is a stated by Mark B.
    Too many people purposely brought into this country.
    Johnson is doing it right now and according to various footage he has promised new houses.
    Problem ( caused by governments)
    Reaction ( draconian gagging laws)
    Solution ( build, build, build on a crowded island).
    How can anyone talk about opportunities and housing without mentioning immigration?
    Governmentā€¦sort out the problems YOU have created!
    YOU have stolen the common from the goose.

    1. Everhopeful
      September 17, 2021

      *as stated.

  9. Michelle
    September 17, 2021

    Michael Gove’s new position puts him in charge of defence of the Union does it? Oh dear, I see even more baubles being offered to Scotland then while such as Gove strip us of even the paltry EVEL while no one in Parliament bats an eye lid.
    ‘Levelling Up’ alongside ‘Build Back Better’ are just catchy little phrases, a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. The medicine being the continuation of the destruction of so much from culture to the once ‘green and pleasant’ to try and bring about ‘Global Britain’ and all who sail in her and are yet to come aboard.

    I note now we are all communities. Whatever happened to towns and villages. I suppose that is not Global enough and harks back to the sense of real solid connection.
    I wonder if the book Keywords, written by a Marxist academic in the 1970’s has become today’s Little Red Book for our political elite.

  10. Andy
    September 17, 2021

    Dear Michael

    You have not been near a department you havenā€™t made a mess of.

    Your time at Education saw you impose unpopular and unnecessary changes hated by parents and teachers alike.

    You reformed prisons during your time at Justice. Brexitists will soon get to experience the results first hand.

    You were put in charge of ensuring your Brexit went smoothly. That went well, didnā€™t it?

    Now you are in charge of housing. No doubt our countryside will be dug up and replaced with Japanese style sleeping pods.

    Perhaps, Michael, you are just not very good as government. Maybe it would just be better for our country if you went off to do something else with your life instead. (Not dancing).

    Love,
    Us

    1. Richard1
      September 17, 2021

      Meanwhile in the actual world education standards have rocketed since the Gove reforms by any objective measure, 80% of secondary schools are now free of local authorities, and parents are queuing up to get their children into excellent free schools, a Gove initiative, such as the excellent Michela academy in London.

  11. MiC
    September 17, 2021

    John, your party has been foremost in assisting the rentier class to inflate their assets, notably residential property.

    That is at utter and complete odds with your declared objective – which I genuinely hold – of everyone enjoying the increased freedom which comes from owning their own home and from not being over-indebted.

    It strikes me as a “mum’s apple pie” utterance therefore, and not really serious at all.

    1. Micky Taking
      September 17, 2021

      Are you going to gift your properties to the renters, also friends? Just asking.

    2. a-tracy
      September 17, 2021

      MiC you have a selective memory Martin, google ‘this is money’ buy to let crisis. This government is actually doing a lot to destroy buy to let landlords. The buy to let boom took off in 1997, the average property cost Ā£70,000 according to the Halifax House Price Index, compared to Ā£197,000 at the end of 2007. Brown destroyed private pensions, private pensioners sought what they thought was a safer refuge in housing. Not something I actually approve of and didn’t do myself. But after more threats to my private pension by this government, it is no wonder people looked to alternative sources for their old age savings. We aren’t all in safe public sector style tax payer guaranteed final salary schemes.

      1. MiC
        September 17, 2021

        I’m sorry Tracy, repeating myths does not make them fact.

        Gordon Brown introduced a dividend tax for managed pension funds, just as many countries have. It cost an estimated average of less than a hundred pounds per beneficiary per year, to be met by increased employee and employer contributions. In fact it helped many funds, because they changed their composition away from shares, protecting them from the 2008 crash. The Tories have never reversed it, and it would make little difference to pensions if they did. People went into BTL etc. because of appalling annuity rates, and not because of that.

        My own pension is from such a fund, and it was not even significantly affected by the tax, let alone “destroyed”.

        1. a-tracy
          September 17, 2021

          Just because other Countries do things doesnā€™t make it a good idea for the UK, Martin. Why do you believe annuity rates fell through the floor? Ā£100,000 pension pot buying Ā£3,500 to Ā£4,500 income per year depending on age over 65 of retirement and whether you have spousal transfer or not. I know why actual people stopped saving into pensions and put their investments into property – do you not know anyone that made this decision because of poor pension annuities and returns from pension savings? Isolating one event from another Country and making out it will work here is unrealistic, it is just one piece of a jigsaw and we donā€™t all have the same jigsaw puzzle.

          ā€œBefore 1997, a pension fund could, for example, be paid Ā£80 in dividends and get Ā£20 in cash back from the Treasury in tax relief. On Budget Day, 3 July 1997, Mr Brown axed the tax relief, a move which slashed the income of Britain’s 20 million pension savers.ā€ Dr Ros Altman – is this a myth?

          Terry Arthur, a fellow of the Institute of Actuaries, warns ā€œthe decision has cost Britain’s pension savers at least Ā£100 billion. This huge figure is equal to the entire economic output of Ireland, or 50 years of Tesco’s annual profits at Ā£2 billion a year. For every one of Britain’s 20 million people currently saving into a pension scheme, it means they will retire on less money.ā€ Is this a myth?

          ā€œ it would cost every worker who pays into a pension about Ā£300 a year, or Ā£6 a week, according to accountants Grant Thornton. If the Ā£100 billion figure is accurate, this is equal to Ā£5,000 for every person who is currently saving into a pension scheme in this countryā€. A myth?

          ā€œWhere personal savers were offered only defined contribution schemes, their response to lower returns was often to save less, cutting their charges but cutting their returns as well.ā€ Civitas. If we save less privately then the state has to make up the difference – its just kicking the can down the road.

          1. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            Why don’t you look at e.g. how France and Germany provide pensions?

            There are alternatives beyond the American Way, although if you watch the BBC you’d never realise this.

            But I repeat, the main thing which has hammered pensions is appalling annuity rates, a blessing largely of QE.

          2. a-tracy
            September 18, 2021

            Martin, if you already know why donā€™t you tell me. Are all of Franceā€™s pension investments in investment funds safeguarded, are all their pensions not funded from current taxes at all? Did France take the equivalent ā€˜national insuranceā€™ contributions and invest them from day 1 of setting up the scheme. Is Franceā€™s state pensions available for everyone even those with no contributions with a similar pension credit scheme we operate?
            You tell me what Germany did with their basic state pension investments, with no war debt to pay off Germany had an advantage over the UK, we had years of war debt with America that we as the victors had to pay off (doesnā€™t seem fair or right to me), I do not hold up America as some ideal Country so why bring them into our conversation?

  12. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2021

    Apparently health and housing needs to be realigned.
    Sounds to me very much like a notion of building geriatric estates ( Alms houses?) and booting residents out of their previous houses to free them up.
    Oh lovely! Thatā€™ll work.
    Gove has a reputation for pushing through unpopular moves.
    All I know is that when he was Education Secretary I was talking to a teacher.
    I mentioned Mr Gove.
    She said ā€œ You and I will fall out if you mention that name againā€.

    1. John C.
      September 17, 2021

      Everhopeful, your last comment does suggest Gove has some good qualities; perhaps he insists on high standards.

      1. Everhopeful
        September 17, 2021

        +1
        Yes I agree.
        He was good in education.
        Shame Cameron caved to the teaching unions ..just like Johnson is doing now.

  13. Micky Taking
    September 17, 2021

    Have you written to all the people awarded (!) a role in the ill-destined Johnson Government? Just wondered why you chose the ā€˜marmiteā€™ character? Hoping for the opening of a door to promote your views on housing, local councils and even the ā€˜stateā€™ of the union? It is certainly is in a state.

    1. glen cullen
      September 17, 2021

      I’m surprised he did write to the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps MP for keeping his jobs and HS2 on track, the biggest sycophant of this government

  14. oldtimer
    September 17, 2021

    You identify worthy objectives. But slogans like “build back better” are meaningless in the flat earth world of net zero, adopted by the flat earthers who believe that “climate change” must be blamed on CO2 and not on natural causes. In reality our climate ultimately revolves around the sun, not around man made CO2. Fantasy gesture politics like a heat pump in every home need to be binned and replaced by practical measures that promote efficiency not destroy it.

    1. Sharon
      September 17, 2021

      + 100

  15. Everhopeful
    September 17, 2021

    As Mark B saidā€¦this job is a poisoned chalice.
    It isā€¦.to the point of impossibility.
    And everyone knows it.

  16. Sakara Gold
    September 17, 2021

    I see that this morning – before the sun rises higher in the sky – renewables (23%) and carbon-neutral (34%) sources are generating 57% (16.90 GW) of electricity demand. This has reduced the interconnector imports to 7% – the projected output of one of EDF’s new nuclear plants. In spite of the ongoing overload outage fire of the IC France interconnector.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 17, 2021

      I read that electricity prices are going through the roof and several energy companies have gone bust because they have sold too many fixed price contracts way below cost now. (Including mine.)

      1. acorn
        September 17, 2021

        Yesterday the “Day-Ahead” price for wholesale electricity was Ā£96 per MWh (ā‚¬113 per MWh) in the Nordic Pool market. It was Ā£414 per base MWh in the UK. That is what happens when you leave the EU Internal Energy Market. You can understand why Norway is keen to get the new NSL Link, 1,400 MW interconnector fired up. The UK is now that energy deficient, non-EU country, at the far end of Europe’s electric cables and gas pipes.

        1. MiC
          September 17, 2021

          I read a Leave voter’s comment recently, saying “If you want to make an omelette then you have to crack eggs”.

          As someone else once said in response to that line “Right – so where’s this omelette then?”

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            September 17, 2021

            MiC

            The egg mix is in the catflap where Remainers flung it.

            5 years of pissing about to await:

            – a 100 year pandemic

            – a senile anti-Brit Potus

            Well done Remainers !!!

            As lorry drivers prove, you depressed wages, enjoyed lorry drivers pooing in bushes (I’ve seen it) and reintroduced *modern* slavery into the UK (a phrase which came into being before 2016) and slagged off the working class.

            You’re reaping what you sowed.

          2. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            Nah – it was smashing the unions which did all that old chum.

          3. No Longer Anonymous
            September 18, 2021

            MiC… It was you that mentioned a few weeks ago that US venture capitalists were salivating about the “… lack of UK workers’ rights because of leaving the EU.”

            And the unions weren’t smashed at all – the only thing that was smashed was secondary picketing and non-secret balloting (which led to bullying and intimidation.)

            The best jobs in the country have highly effective unions still. The lorry drivers have a union too but the flood of labour (from the EU) into this open-market job debased their pay and conditions in a way than no union can resist and Brexit is now providing the proof that this happened.

            Fact:

            During the time in the EU…

            – lorry drivers were on pitiful pay

            – lorry drivers didn’t know when they were getting home to see their kids and had to sleep in cabs

            – lorry drivers had to crap in bushes

            – modern slavery was reintroduced into Britain and became a major policing issue.

            In what way is this acceptable ?

            In 2016 those with their arses closest to the fire decided that it wasn’t. Those that wanted continental gap yahs (gap years) to continue decided that it was – they happen to have Teslas and want their delivery drivers to work in summer heat in masks while they WFH in the garden office.

          4. Peter2
            September 18, 2021

            You get more ridiculous with every post MiC
            Now claiming Trades Unions would have stopped Covid, altered the USA Presedential election and stopped the illegal immigration which feeds modern slavery.

        2. Mike Wilson
          September 17, 2021

          At the risk of being thick, are you saying that the people in EU countries are paying a quarter of what we pay for electricity?

          1. hefner
            September 18, 2021

            No, certainly not in France: typical consumer price of electricity in France is 0.15-0.16ā‚¬/kWh, a bit less than the 16-18p/kWh in the UK.

        3. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          Hey. All by design.. to deliberately make EU nations dependant on each other.

          By what madness do you think it was ever acceptable to make us dependant on foreigners for strategic infrastructure ?

          An energy shock will do our nation the world of good. It will give youngsters a glimpse of what Boris/Carrie’s greenism looks like.

    2. Ian Wragg
      September 17, 2021

      What pray are these carbon neutral sources of generation. I can only assume you mean nuclear because as we speak ccgt, nuclear and coal are providing 62% on what is a quiet day as I type. Yesterday at this time it was 69%.

  17. Andy
    September 17, 2021

    Levelling up means the Tories taking more money from richer people like me in the south and funnelling it to their largely disagreeable new friends in the north.

    Those of us who have made a success of our lives should not have to pay even more tax to subsidise these whinging Faragists who largely choose to blame foreigners for their miserable lives.

    The hardworking people of Wokingham should know their taxes are funding plenty of new stuff in Workington but nothing in their own town. That is what levelling up means – giving our money to people that we donā€™t like.

    1. MiC
      September 17, 2021

      Andy, by far and away most Leave voters, like Tory ones, are in the very populous Southeast.

      Yes, under marginal circumstances some more in the North can make the crucial difference, but take a look at Prof. Danny Dorling’s lecture on this very point.

      Let’s not fall for inaccurate caricatures.

      1. Micky Taking
        September 17, 2021

        but not London, where more voters are Remoaners largely due to the merchant bankers making fortunes from operating inside that den of thieves the EU.

        1. MiC
          September 17, 2021

          OK, so what about Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Bristol, Bath, Cardiff, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Glasgow then?

          1. MiC
            September 17, 2021

            Where are their “merchant bankers”? Not that London is quite the international financial centre that it once was for some reason…

          2. Micky Taking
            September 19, 2021

            you obviously are not familiar with ‘merchant bankers’ – is it just a London euphemism?

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        “very populous”

        There’s your problem.

    2. Micky Taking
      September 17, 2021

      well the people of Wokingham have witnessed thousands of lovely new rabbit-hutches, oops homes being built. Perhaps ‘your’ disagreeable new friends in the north will come here. My friends in the north are farmers, so I would prefer to go join them, than them come here.

    3. Peter2
      September 17, 2021

      Voters see these insulting comments, where snobby rich southerners like andy calls voters in the North “disagreeable” “whinging” “miserable lives” “farargists” “people we don’t like”
      Keep it up andy you will help keep Labour and the Lib Dems where they deserve to be, in opposition for many more elections yet

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        precisely. Andy caused Brexit. Andy caused the Red Wall to collapse. He forgets the decades of abuse the white working class were getting before Brexit.

    4. John C.
      September 17, 2021

      Good try. I chuckled.

    5. IanT
      September 17, 2021

      Actually, Wokingham seems to be thriving but that certainly doesn’t seem to be the case elsewhere…

      1. Micky Taking
        September 18, 2021

        Whatever gave you that idea?

      2. hefner
        September 18, 2021

        Wokingham is a relatively large constituency, I am not so sure all bits are thriving.

  18. formula57
    September 17, 2021

    Alas, we know (formerly the people’s) Blue Boris’s vision for defence of the Union is to spend even more government money in Scotland. So if money is at the root, then “Levelling up and the defence of the Union” are incompatible aims, presuming there is no funding to spend an extra c.Ā£2,000 per head in England.

    Mr. Gove may have been set up to fail therefore, but if he can do his levelling such that Samuel Johnson would be correct no longer to say “The noblest prospect which a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to England!” then he will have worked a miracle. (Would anyone recommend Scotland as a venue to an entrepreneur with the SNP poised to always make life more difficult?)

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      September 17, 2021

      F57. Why would anyone want to invest in Scotland?

  19. Bryan Harris
    September 17, 2021

    Good things talked about here, but I’d address different issues to Gove.

    Fundamentally, the excessive level of bureaucracy needs to be handled.

    People should be able to build their own homes, easily, and without a thousand inspectors poking their noses in, nor should there be so many expensive things that have to be included.

    As for ‘levelling up’ – the phrase means nothing, and suggests the government is pursuing another NWO agenda.

    1. MiC
      September 17, 2021

      You appear to be in favour of legalising shanty towns.

      1. Mike Wilson
        September 17, 2021

        Again, utter nonsense. The most attractive towns and villages in this country pre-date the creation of planning departments in 1944.

        1. MiC
          September 18, 2021

          So, how can you prevent shanty towns without rules as to what people may build, please?

  20. Dave Andrews
    September 17, 2021

    Whilst aspirational people will always have an avenue for a better job, that will be on the basis of their own initiative rather than anything the government can help with.
    For the many less aspirational people, getting a better job means a vacancy and a burden on the employer to retrain and replace the lost training investment. If other employers are just buying in talent without investing in training, they will wonder whether it’s worth the bother and be content with staying small.
    Rather than individuals going on to better jobs, shouldn’t the target be to make their current jobs better? Government can hep in this regard by making buying and renting a house more affordable. Government can do this by restricting who can own residential property to reduce demand and lower prices. Government can also improve people’s lot by shrinking the state and lowering taxes, giving people more money in their pocket.
    Currently government is working against British people by increasing their taxes, raising the bar on what people need to do just to stay still.

  21. Mike Wilson
    September 17, 2021

    The chance for everyone to own a home? Really? There is no chance.

    For 50 years you have allowed the banks to create money out of thin air and lend it into the housing market. Even now house prices are still rising. It has little to do with ā€˜supply and demandā€™. There is always limited supply – at any one point only a small percentage of the housing stock is available to buy – and constant demand – many people hope/want to move to a nicer house.

    Itā€™s too late now – the best that could happen is that by limiting the amount of money banks can create and lend into the property market, house prices could be stabilised. House price falls cannot be countenanced as that would cause recession.

    The ONLY hope for young people is to earn enough to pay a massive mortgage and pray that interest rates never go up.

    My youngest las has just taken on a mortgage of Ā£300k (on a new shoe box in your constituency, Mr. Redwood) – and put in Ā£95k as a deposit (from us and his girlfriendā€™s parents). Itā€™s bought him a 2 bed terrace you could not swing a cat in – were that something you fancied trying. No garage, no storage and a garden I would describe as a ā€˜back yardā€™ – overlooked by 7 other shoe boxes. Heaven help them if they ever want to have children or if interest rates rise.

    Still, at least he is not paying some parasitic buy-to-let landlordā€™s mortgage for them.

    1. Mike Wilson
      September 17, 2021

      And there is no provision for your governmentā€™s mad obsession with electric cars. Each property has designated parking spaces – but not next to the house. There will be cables running everywhere in due course.

      It is difficult to imagine less joined up thinking. Even now you are allegedly encouraging massive levels of house building (to accommodate your massive levels of immigration) and the new houses being built still have had boilers! I thought you were getting rid of them?

      1. a-tracy
        September 17, 2021

        Mike, do you live in the same area?

      2. Micky Taking
        September 18, 2021

        Thanks for confirming what us Wokinghamites living here for a number of decades have witnessed. The quiet green leafy ‘best place to live’ in the polls, is fast turning into the concrete muddle – only uptodate satnavs will get us out if we venture into new built areas. Those green fields, where some had cows are sprawling brickyards or piles of builder detritus. Lark rising or JCB engine racing?

    2. MiC
      September 17, 2021

      Excellent post Mike – thanks.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 18, 2021

        Wholeheartedly agree and worse.

        This nation is valued on its fictional residential property total …. which if it were ever tested by a realisation of any meaningful amount of those ‘assets’ would sink like a stone.

  22. alan jutson
    September 17, 2021

    The problem with many promoted policies is the constant switching of Ministers who’s remit it is.
    They just seem to get comfortable with their brief, and then they are moved on or out.
    This constant merry go round must frustrate everyone, the civil service included.

    1. miami.mode
      September 17, 2021

      But, aj, new minister equals new policy and ditching of an unpopular one. It’s politics!

  23. Mike Wilson
    September 17, 2021

    ā€˜gas boilersā€™ – not ā€˜had boilersā€™. Pesky phone.

  24. a-tracy
    September 17, 2021

    Great letter. If Michael wants to experience living in a deprived town with no transport, a job on a business estate with no decent public transport links for a week, actually current difficulties would be a good example of disruptions to people’s lives the council agrees to with no checks and balances. No lifts available in the week or arranged meetings with party members. My husband and I would be happy to accommodate him. No ulterior motive, no publicity or news, I just want him to see an unfiltered version of life in a northern suburb and give him some challenges to get to key places on time.

    1. glen cullen
      September 17, 2021

      but they’re building a million miles of new cycle lanes…..isn’t that good enough

      1. a-tracy
        September 17, 2021

        Glen, we havenā€™t got cycle lanes they just painted some white lines on a couple of pavements on the high street and odd random wide pavements elsewhere in town, one actually goes around a lamp post making the pavement too narrow for both the bike and a mum and buggy. The joke is bike riders ignore the cycle lanes on pavements and still ride in the road! They donā€™t join up to get you to the Town Centre or the Railway Station or the Industrial Estate – pointless.

        1. glen cullen
          September 18, 2021

          We have many visitors to my little seaside town, people arrive by car, cycle, train and walk by either the north or south route
          My council decided to shorten the width of a road by half and introduced a fantastic cycle lane stretching some 400 meters just off the centre of town in a quiet residential area THAT ABSOLUTELY NO VISITOR GOES DOWN and to date (12 mths) no cyclist has been see using itā€¦ā€¦thatā€™s okay it ticks a government box ā€“ at Ā£1m of taxpayers money
          I complained to my council, they said donā€™t worry its not council tax funded money its central government – madness

          1. a-tracy
            September 18, 2021

            Glen, I went to a town today where a similar cycle lane was created a double carriageway reduced in half when a bypass was built with the other half of the previous dual carriageway isolated for safe cycling, two cyclists in the main road causing people delays unable to get around them whilst the cycle highway was empty! The houses in the area have gone up in value astronomically – lots of people inconvenienced to aid a few very wealthy people.

  25. Peter
    September 17, 2021

    This is all rather general and vague. Though you do return to a previous theme that building upmarket homes in rundown areas will attract people who will revive the fortunes of these areas. I donā€™t believe this would be the case.

    The cost per head of the population argument seems like a plea for not cutting support for the South.

    The vision at the close of the letter is unfortunately very difficult to achieve nowadays for reasons that have often been voiced on here before.

  26. Peter
    September 17, 2021

    The Brexit article by Delingpole today is very apt. Shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic.

    He praises Liz Truss for getting good headlines on trade deals while studiously avoiding comment on toxic issues around covid and government policy.

    He claims the government is utterly devoid of principles and only interested in maintaining power under a belief that voters have nowhere else to go.

    We will see. As for principles, I think for many in Parliament they are look after number one and court favours of those who will be useful after politics.

    1. Peter
      September 17, 2021

      Breitbart article not Brexit. Spellchecker change.

  27. Donna
    September 17, 2021

    “The vision of everyone an owner, with the chance to own a home, own their own business, own a share in a bigger business, have some savings for a rainy day should be our vision.”

    That was Mrs Thatcher’s vision, when we had a genuine Conservative Party.

    Now we’ve got a bunch of left-wing, green-obsessed, Communitarians who call themselves “Conservative” whilst pursuing socialist policies.

    This Government’s vision has been decided by the Labour and Green Parties and their pressure groups.

  28. Newmania
    September 17, 2021

    Yes I have made these points myself. The South East has been triangulated and the reason is the simple question ” …well who are they going to vote for ..Labour ?” . The reverse in fact of New Labour`s strategy with regard to its heartland constituencies .
    Centre right moderate voters like myself are offered
    1 Tax transfers from our services to other areas -( already considerable )
    2 More neglect of inadequate roads ( Compare the A27 with Torquemada`s finest work)
    3 No Deal Brexit , our jobs risked ,our livelihoods regarded as expendable
    4 Our moderately liberal values derided and scorned
    5 A Government whose awful Daily Express attitudes are clearly not aimed at us
    6 Our environment wrecked with cheap nasty development encouraged as a quick fix for growth
    7 Higher taxes of course
    8 A continued squeeze on school budgets
    9 The ongoing disregard for anyone under 70
    This Government does not have our interests at heart , does not look or sound like us and is full of people with whom we would not enjoy a cup of coffee and a bun .

  29. Hat man
    September 17, 2021

    There you go again , Sir John, trying to make the Conservative Party look electable! Whatever happens, at least you tried. If you are listened to, an improvement in economic prospects for the North would help to relieve the unacceptable pressure on housing and infrastructure in the South. That would be good. It would also show if Johnson is serious about keeping the votes of the Red Wall.

    Your party conference might give some idea of whether this is at all likely to happen. I fear it’s going to come down to what the priorities really are: cosying up to the Green agenda, keeping the public service unions happy over Covid 19, continued high migration, HS2 etc., or will they be spending more on the targets you propose? We shall see.

  30. Andy
    September 17, 2021

    The Brexitists are now getting excited about pounds and ounces. It really is quite amusing to watch them salivate about it.

    It is, of course, a British law – the Weights and Measures Act – which required products also to displays in kilos. We havenā€™t taught pounds and ounces in schools for 50 years so this was pretty sensible.

    Supermarkets will not stop selling in kilos. You may get the odd dimwitted greengrocer in a Brexity area who chooses to just sell in pounds and ounces to his elderly customers. Those who are still traumatised by decimalisation. (Will they never get over it?). The amusing things is that, because of all the Brexit related shortages, such a greengrocer is unlikely to have very much produce to sell.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 17, 2021

      The average kid couldn’t get their head around imperial which I had to use when working on jet engine refurbs in the aircraft industry – my HNC in engineering came in useful for that but you say my qualifications are worth less than a modern degree in Theatre and Dance.

      1. Ian Wragg
        September 17, 2021

        I spent 50 years working on gas and steam turbines. The engines were frequently imperial and the generator metric.
        I have similar qualifications but have never experienced any problems with either system

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          Quite a few engineers on this site then… except Andy and MiC and Newmania.

          (Mine was in construction btw… it transferred quite well to aeronautical as it happens.)

          1. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            I’m ex-UCL engineering – electronic and electrical – and the thirty five years in the profession, old flower.

          2. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            That didn’t stop me also studying law and several languages, however.

          3. Micky Taking
            September 18, 2021

            MiC – polymaths don’t brag , but then …

          4. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            Decent people don’t invent rubbish about others which requires correction.

          5. Micky Taking
            September 19, 2021

            oh..MiC your role as a barrack room lawyer is not needed, but keep giving me the laughs, especially when the Boy Wonder is just too vitriotic.

  31. Iago
    September 17, 2021

    I presume the treason on the south coast continues this morning (and at the airports out of sight?). Not levelling up, rather patting down the grave.

  32. The Prangwizard
    September 17, 2021

    PS. Michael.

    You’ll need to subdue the indiginous English even further to make space among them for more houses to impose foreigners as the French will take revenge for losing out on the AUKUS deal and will send even more across the channel. And they won’t be stopped by ‘Boris’ or Priti who are too afraid to do anything but talk.

    1. MiC
      September 17, 2021

      The French are not “sending” anyone over, they are trying to stop them, and with reasonable success.

      However, were the position reversed, then I suspect that you very much would send similar people to France who were trying to leave these shores?

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        Pranglewizard – French troops in Africa rely on our aerial reconnaissance.

        MiC – You don’t tell us why refugees are trying to escape France for the UK. Something to do with being treated inhumanely and left in muddy fields.

        1. hefner
          September 18, 2021

          Operation Barkhane:
          UK, 3 Chinook helicopters, about 250 personnel.
          Sweden, 3 UH60M helicopters, 1 C130 plane, 150 personnel.
          Estonia, 50-100 personnel.
          France, 20 helicopters, 10 transport planes, 6 fighter planes, between 3,000 and 5,100 personnel.

          How wonderful isnā€™t it that 3 British helicopters can do as much reconnaissance as the other 23 helicopters from other countries. And obviously French troops must be unable to use satellite imagery for reconnaissance (13/07/2021 asafrance.fr, 27/11/2020 defense.gouv.fr).

      2. Micky Taking
        September 17, 2021

        We do keep urging Andy to take up residence in France, and you being an Englishman in Wales are welcome to join him – you’d have plenty to talk/moan about.

      3. Peter2
        September 18, 2021

        They seem desperate to leave your beloved EU and come to the UK.

        1. MiC
          September 18, 2021

          A very few percent of them are, yes.

          Probably to join family already here or for like reasons.

          the other 95% + would rather stay on the Mainland.

          1. Peter2
            September 18, 2021

            Do they really prefer that MiC?
            Several hundred a day means 70,000 per year.
            And thats just those who arrive by dingy.

          2. Micky Taking
            September 19, 2021

            to join family here? Why are all these 20 odd young lonely men living in muddy camps ignored by the French and risky life to paddle across the Channel? No relatives over here, just economic migrants. If family was here they could simply apply for that fact, and they do get let in.

  33. turboterrier
    September 17, 2021

    No matter what name you give to the process there is the inescapable fact that there has to be the foundations (infrastructure) in place to ensure the businesses that will make it happen can be properly serviced and supplied in all areas critical to success.

  34. glen cullen
    September 17, 2021

    I watched to new cabinet meeting on the news this morning
    Is it televised to stop open dissent in the cabinet or to show the public collective thinking (nodding dogs)
    Either way televising these planned PR meeting is something you see in the gulf states, china and Russiaā€¦..not a good look ā€“ image over substance

  35. X-Tory
    September 17, 2021

    Sir John, being MP for the delightful town of Wokingham your knowledge of deprivation is theoretical rather than practical.. You can certainly not be blamed for this in any way, but let me tell you that one of the greatest blights that affect deprived neighbourhoods is ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR. The problem is that the police just don’t want the hassle of policing these areas, especially in the evening and at night-time. Take an area where I have a couple of friends: Jaywick, on the outskirts of Clacton-on-Sea. This is one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in Britain, but receives no funding and no attention because it is overwhelmingly white. There are a lot of decent people there, just trying to live their lives as best they can, but gangs of aggressive youths make life very difficult. And where are the police? In peaceful Clacton. Of course, when you complain, the police lie and say they are active in Jaywick, but they only attend when called: they are not present around-the-clock with continuous patrols stopping and deterring the thugs.

    And this leads to another point: solving the problems of these neighbourhoods is not the responsibility of one minister. You need the Home Secretary (to force the police to maintain patrols). You need the justice minister (to force judges to jail anti-social scum not just give them a slap on the wrist and let them back on the streets to continue hassling decent folks). You need the transport minister (to ensure good public transport from poor neighbourhoods to where the jobs are). You need the Housing, Communities and Local Government minister (to provide investment in better housing and to encourage more shops and offices in these areas). You need the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy minister (to provide incentives for manufacturing industry to open new factories).

    Good luck getting Michael Gove – or even Boris Johnson – to do anything meaningful. It’ll never happen. They don’t really care.

    1. Donna
      September 17, 2021

      You seem to be suggesting we have joined-up government from Johnson and his Comedy Crew.

      I love an optimist.

    2. Micky Taking
      September 17, 2021

      If the Police are seen actually stopping traffic to assist the likes of sit down protests on the M25, NOT MOVED FOR HOURS…then they will not stand a chance against the mobs of mouthy yobs recent parents are breeding. Law and Order? pah…what a country that was once respected.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 17, 2021

        Look to the City of London and Westminster to see how effective beat policing is.

      2. alan jutson
        September 17, 2021

        MT

        Whilst I agree with your points, I think the Police moral is on the floor because in many cases, the Courts no longer support them at all with sensible sentences, which could deter further crime,.
        Seems you can now treat the Police with complete and utter contempt, even assaulting them on occasion, without any punishment given when the perpetrators eventually appear in Court.

        Many seem to just get a slap on the wrist, a small fine, and leave the Court laughing.

        In many cases the fine does not even cover the police time to cover their wages, let alone all the overheads and Court costs.

        No wonder many in the police are completely disheartened, and think why should I bother.

        1. Micky Taking
          September 17, 2021

          well the buck stops with Police. Drag them off the road, handcuff and take away under arrest. With luck a criminal record. Night in a cell, if busy 3 to a tiny box – shared bucket. An example to all.

          1. alan jutson
            September 17, 2021

            MT

            Rest assured I am with you but the Courts are not, just wait and see what these protesters, if they ever get to go to Court, get in the way of sentencing !

        2. No Longer Anonymous
          September 17, 2021

          But they still stick around to collect their pensions.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            September 17, 2021

            I used to be a police officer (I know my claims seem to be untrue) and I would have arrested the senior officer on duty had I still been in service.

            They were abetting the obstruction of a MAJOR highway.

            That I am so individualistic answers why I lasted only five years as a police officer but my PACE stop-to-arrest ratio was astonishing.

  36. Denis Cooper
    September 17, 2021

    Off topic, I have a little letter in the Irish News, as follows:

    “EU jam would be very thinly spread”

    “I donā€™t know if bread and jam is a normal part of the diet in his native Slovakia, but I am surprised that EU vice-president Maros Sefcovic should think it would be a good idea to put jam on both sides of the bread.

    (ā€˜Investors keen to benefit from having ā€œjam on both sides of breadā€ā€™, September 10)

    It is the kind of thing that a young child might try out, until he was told not to do it and had his sticky fingers wiped.

    However, on a serious note, the jam to which he refers, the economic advantages of the EU Single Market, would in any case be spread pretty thin.

    According to a report issued by the EUā€™s erstwhile chief negotiator Michel Barnier in 2013, the net benefit averaged about 2 per cent of GDP across the EU member states, while another analysis agreed with that estimate but reckoned that the benefit to the UK was only half of the EU average.

    For nearly six decades Tories greatly exaggerated the economic impact of EU membership, which was always marginal, and probably marginally negative rather than positive, and if the present Tory government has gone along with this nonsense about the benefits of the protocol that can only be because old habits die hard.”

    1. Denis Cooper
      September 17, 2021

      And the same with a prospective special trade deal with the US, more recently, and here is one of a veritable tsunami of articles about the latest threat/prediction from Nancy Pelosi, which curiously enough does not actually say how much any such special trade deal might be worth to us:

      https://www.politico.eu/article/us-speaker-nancy-pelosi-brexit-transatlantic-trade-deal-uk/

      “US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warns Brexit could scupper transatlantic trade deal”

      In contrast this official assessment does offer estimates of how much it might be worth:

      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/869592/UK_US_FTA_negotiations.pdf

      On page 32:

      ā€œA trade agreement with the US could increase UK GDP in the long run by around 0.07% (within a range of between 0.02% and 0.15%) or 0.16% (between 0.05% and 0.36%) under scenario 1 and scenario 2 respectively. This is equivalent to an increase of Ā£1.6 billion or Ā£3.4 billion compared to its 2018 level.ā€

      This rubbish about the huge importance of a special trade deal with the US started with David Cameron:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/02/13/lets-get-rid-of-eu-austerity/#comment-801195

      “So there we have it. A projected boost to government revenues of Ā£4 billion a year arising from the proposed EU-US trade deal would be so important that we must stay in the EU and not miss out on that cornucopia, the good times will roll, while the government saving Ā£10 billion a year by leaving the EU is just a ā€œjokeā€.”

  37. No Longer Anonymous
    September 17, 2021

    Sorry, but the quality of life and environment in Newcastle has always far outstripped the areas of London I lived in for most of my life. I have family in both locations.

  38. alan jutson
    September 17, 2021

    The problem I have with levelling up is the use of deliberate discrimination in all of its forms.
    Sometimes life is just not fair, not anyones fault, just a fact of life.

    1. formula57
      September 17, 2021

      @ alan juston – the much larger problem is that when levelling up fails there will be a subtle but real change to levelling down, the principle of levelling by then being established as an immutable norm.

    2. glen cullen
      September 17, 2021

      Quite right, if we all ā€˜level-upā€™ and we achieve the utopia of ā€˜same-levelā€™, isnā€™t that communism
      By all means give everyone the opportunity but not the right e.g universities

      1. DOM
        September 17, 2021

        Of course it’s Communism, by the back door and Mr Redwood, who I genuinely respect and admire, knows it. I have no doubt that this politics will at some point lead to the destruction of private property rights and the State ownership of the private in all its forms. We can see today across all areas of the private, how the vile political State asserts its domain it.

        The Tory party’s subtle shuffling towards Societal engineering is utterly abhorrent, criminal and deeply offensive to humanity. They have embraced Critical Theory not because they believe in it but because it serves a party purpose.

        We are being sacrificed on the altar of political gangsterism

    3. Micky Taking
      September 17, 2021

      Exactly some are restless or entrepreneurial, or simply want more than the next man.
      Others have simple needs and little motivation, happy to be told what to do – you know, remainers just leave everything to the EU Commission and hope they don’t s*it on them.
      Problem is – they did! and are still trying hard to defecate.

  39. X-Tory
    September 17, 2021

    In other news, the EU are trying to enveigle us into a defence and security pact. Hmm, I wonder if they are doing this to help us? Let me think … NO – they’re doing it to take advantage of us and help themselves. I wonder if Boris Johnson will be stupid enough to fall for this. I wouldn’t be surprised. The fact is that the EU is NOT our friend or ally. It is our ENEMY. They are doing their utmost to harm Northern Ireland, our fishing industry, our finance industry, our exports, our expats, our national security, our manufacturing industry, our agricultural sector, and probably other areas I’m not even aware of.

    We must have NOTHING to do with them. Indeed, we should should end the help we are curently offering the Baltic countries through NATO and should make it clear that we will NOT help any EU country if it is attacked. They are our enemies and we should treat them as such, until and unless they have a fundamental change of heart and reverse all their anti-British policies.

    1. formula57
      September 17, 2021

      +1

    2. MiC
      September 17, 2021

      Just a little thought experiment for you, X.

      If Germany had spoken English as a first language, then which side do you think that this country would have taken in WWII? Or would it have gone neutral perhaps?

      1. Micky Taking
        September 17, 2021

        bizarre. Have you nothing else to fill your day?

        1. MiC
          September 17, 2021

          Well, Churchill placed great store by The Friendship Of The English Speaking Peoples, didn’t he?

          Seems that many care more about that than they do any philosophical alignment, perhaps?

          1. Micky Taking
            September 18, 2021

            and how is all that relevant today? Any more day-dreaming fantasy nonsense ideas to waste readers time?

          2. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            Didn’t you enjoy that little flight of fancy then?

            Aw, pity.

          3. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            How is that relevant?

            Well, unpick AUKUS perhaps?

    3. The Prangwizard
      September 17, 2021

      ‘Boris’ – will he be stupid enough to fall for it?

      He’s probably already involved in the planning.

    4. Will in Hampshire
      September 17, 2021

      As I thought, eventually Brexit will reach NATO.

  40. paul
    September 17, 2021

    He should sent north of the border and left there.

  41. Roger Hart
    September 17, 2021

    I hope you did not send this letter, a waste of both your time and our money. The ‘reshuffle’ has merely moved a few faces and rather more non-entities around – pointless, achieves nothing.

    Two suggestions. For all towns and cities north and west of London extend the Green Belt by 3 miles with a presumption in favour of building. Require all councils in those areas to zone and be granting the extended belt within 6 months or have zoning imposed on them – with a thick black marker pen. Objective, to grow into under occupied England.

    Hasten the construction of nuclear power stations at pace – who cares if you lose face with the Chinese or French. Objective, to grow greenly until a better power source comes along.

    Reply I sent it as an email – no extra costs. His office has acknowledged receipt and I look forward to pursuing these issues.

  42. Mactheknife
    September 17, 2021

    My local area has suffered massively through the closure of traditional industries. It is desperately in need of regeneration and more knowledge based or high skilled jobs. It was also part of the red wall that turned blue. So when a train manufacture from Europe is looking to build a new production facility and decisions are being made in conjunction with the government on location, they view us very favourably but decide to manufacture the trains in Scotland.
    How is this ‘leveling up’ when the trains are being made 250 miles away from where they are required and where they have close access to the line and a proposed new maintenance depot ? It doesn’t make any sense except if the government has bowed to SNP pressure to have have it in Scotland. As Jim Royal would say “leveling up… my a**”.
    London has private investment on a massive scale, way beyond what even governments can do. I noted a figure when Blair was in power and trying to move government departments into the regions. For every Ā£1 the government invested regionally, the private investment in London was Ā£20.
    Structural change is needed, not Fred-in-the-shed trying to get enough business to set someone else on. That change can only come from government.

    1. MiC
      September 18, 2021

      It’s interesting, that in England, such areas as you describe were heavily Leave-voting.

      However, in Scotland, a very similar town, Motherwell, voted 68:32 Remain.

      The Scots’ emphasis on education would appear to have been highly effective.

      1. Micky Taking
        September 18, 2021

        standards in Scotland, and exam passes are the poorest for donkeys – we know we have a brother, nieces and nephews there.

  43. Nota#
    September 17, 2021

    Levelling up – Sir John does any one know what that means? Surly it is just a mealy mouthed ‘virtue signal’ by the PM to be seen to be on the MsM’s message.

    Equal opportunity would be more important. That doesn’t mean because some one has earned something every one else should be rewarded the same. It means everyone should have a similar chance of reaching their full potential. It is for them to then choose.

    1. glen cullen
      September 17, 2021

      ā€˜ā€™levelling upā€™ā€™ is already a success as there isnā€™t anyway to effectively measure it

      Remember David Cameron’s Big Society Programme, same thing

  44. Nota#
    September 17, 2021

    The Union is in tatters by design. Government has removed the premise of equality by awarding those that make the most noise receive the greatest reward. It become an entitlement. Those that receive a disproportion award by design will always want more.

    The Barnet Formula says the people of Northumberland are richer than those in Edinburgh, so the taxpayer in Tyneside has to subsidies them.

    There is a massive disparity between everyone being treated the same in the UK, after all that is the only thing real people ask for and those that receive because it is on message.

  45. Nota#
    September 17, 2021

    An illustration of what is well basically rotten in the UK. No sooner has ‘Emma Raducanu’ stepped off the plane the MsM and their trolls set out to destroy her. (It was just tennis, being enjoyed and well served up by a young girl)

    Why most of us are disappointed with this so-called PM, is he will ‘Kowtow’ to the MsM agenda at every opportunity while ensuring he never really supports the real people of the UK. While all the time his former collogues and chums in the MsM go about trying destroy the very fabric of the UK. He will focus on the ‘virtue signal’ rather than creating an economy. He keeps a high focus on supplying tomorrows headline or byline so the MsM has a story long before any attention is paid to the UK economy .

  46. G.Wheatley
    September 17, 2021

    Nadhim Zahawi in the Education post?
    Seriously?!

    I suppose it helps to further indoctrinate the young in regard to the importance of the ‘vaccinations’?

  47. Sayagain
    September 17, 2021

    Twelve pence in the shilling, twenty shillings in the pound, 21 shillings = I guinea, all above for those born after decmilisation 1971 – and now with the trend back to Lbs and Ounces was wondering is this where we are headed?

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      September 17, 2021

      I still set my scales in pounds and ounces. I still measure everything in feet and inches and prefer pints to litres.

      1. MiC
        September 18, 2021

        Yes, I approached a tradesman in Yorkshire to make me a non-standard door for a cottage.

        He said that the measurements MUST be in feet and inches.

        I went elsewhere.

        1. Micky Taking
          September 18, 2021

          and are you still hanging a bit of ply – or did you get a door that won’t close?

          1. MiC
            September 18, 2021

            I got what I wanted – a hardwood panelled door 1866mm x 735mm, thanks.

          2. Micky Taking
            September 19, 2021

            the people were short in those days – less than 6′ 2 ” – remember to duck when you visit your tenant. And at 2’5″ wide you better not get fat, turn sideways to enter, eh?

  48. Lester_Cynic
    September 17, 2021

    Once again my comments have vanished!

    Do you not experience a pang of shame, oh silly meā€¦ youā€™re a politician and shame isnā€™t something experienced by politicians, as if more proof were needed

    This diary is a sham, backed up by many people who also post on TCW

    The sooner we see the back of Johnson and the rest of you the better, whereā€™s Cromwell when heā€™s needed?

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 17, 2021

      God. Get a grip. It’s an unpaid, voluntary blog.

      Start your own.

  49. Iain Gill
    September 17, 2021

    got to take radical measures to ramp up the quality of new build homes

    forget about the silly “housing ombudsman” idea of the previous holder of this office, instead fund homeowners to take builders to something similar to the small claims courts staffed by proper judges.

    online public domain register which shows which building inspector signed off precisely each and every house, and a right to complain and get them struck off if they have been approving obviously substandard houses. professional register of building inspectors needed.

    increase the cost of planning permission applications proportional to how many new build warranty claims have been made on their previous builds.

    approve a list of generic house designs already approved for use up and down the country, and prevent planning depts from altering these for any reason whatsoever.

    1. Micky Taking
      September 18, 2021

      Apply Section 106 contribution to every house to be built – no discount deals for mass building companies. Forget the immaculate roads often built on the approach to the estate and in it – use the Council ‘builders’ income for needed services, not raising/dropping a kerb for a bus nobody uses.

  50. Will in Hampshire
    September 17, 2021

    Continuing on its trajectory of ever-increasing madness, The Spectator has burst into print today with the idea that every asylum seeker in England should be granted asylum. I’m flabergasted. The right answer of course is that the vast majority should be sent whence they came, being undeclared economic migrants when you really get down to it. But for the The Spectator to cave-in on this issue beggars belief.

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