The stage is set for a post Covid recovery. Adopting a Conservative approach to liberty and prosperity is the best way to promote the greater happiness of the greater number.
Anti pandemic policies damaged incomes and jobs and removed many freedoms. The first task is to restore all our lost freedoms so the quarter of our economy that was effectively closed down can flourish again. The successful vaccination programme should give us the scope to relax, leaving it to each individual to judge how much exposure they want to others given the risks.
The second task is to make the case anew for work as the best means to banish poverty and improve life styles and chances forĀ families. Conservatives have done more than the socialist inclining parties to advance prosperity, because we recognise it comes primarily from enterprise and effort byĀ millions of people and hundreds of thousands of businesses.Ā Markets generate choice and opportunity. Profits reward those who venture their capital and put in their effort, and help pay for the new investment employees and consumers need . Prices fluctuate toĀ bring forward more supply where needed or to reduce output where the popularity of the product or service is waning. Governments must allow price systems to send their signals.
Markets are not cold impersonal enemies of the many . They are the way we all have choices of what to buy and where to work. All humanity participates in the market. Of course Conservatives believe that the state needs to step in to help those in need, to support the ill and disabled, to prevent monopoly exploitation or market abuse. Conservatives believe in the rule of law to keep people using markets honest. We also know that public sector monopolies that charge customersĀ also need taming to avoid poor service, high cost and no choice that we used to get from nationalised industries.
The immediate need to is to get some tax rates down. Lets forget the National Insurance rise, the tax on jobs. Lets relax the IR35 rules so they do not stop people developing self employed businesses. Lets take VAT off domestic heating and insulation products.Ā Lets offer a tax boost to those who will substitute home grown food, home produced gas and home produced timber amongst other things for the large import bills we currently pay and all the extra energy cost of long haul transport.
Let’s help more people on their personal journeys with great education, better training , and easier access to buying a home and setting up your own business.
October 4, 2021
Good morning.
Nice speech, Sir John. Alas your party has moved on and, not only does it seek to occupy the mythical centre-ground, it wants to go left field.
It seems, as Dom has posted here many times, that the LibLabCON have been working very closely on Climate Change policies as a link by, turboterrier yesterday proves. This Unholy-Tripartite have pledged, yes pledged, to tackle climate change and rid the world (well the UK at least) of CO2 polluting fossil fuels. Now I can understand the LibDems getting into bed with the looney left but, the Conservatives ? Then I read it was CMD that signed it and all was made clear. Something else I am sure he can be proud about whilst at the same time knowing no one voted for this crap !
October 4, 2021
who is CMD?
October 5, 2021
“Call me, Dave”
Google it.
October 5, 2021
I did, CMD ltd ergonomic power solutions. then CMD ‘It is also commonly referred to as cmd or the Command Prompt, referring to the default window title on Windows. ‘ then ‘Lightweight security platform for protecting your cloud infrastructure at runtime.’ etc.
š
October 4, 2021
How can the a fake Tory party/Govt. through Cameron openly state that āRed Edāsā price capping policy is āMarxistā, then the next fake Tory PM May say in parliament she would implement his policy and build on it! Johnson goes even further!
We also have the level playing field in Johnsonās Brexit sell out on the environment with an appointed, not elected eco warrior, environment minister Goldsmith. Then somehow we are expected to think the parties are not the same even though May stated quite clearly she would further than Red Ed!
More choice we were told by this govt is the way to cut energy prices, in stark contrast the govt introduces price caps which will bring into question the viability of smaller companies. The govt is responsible for the smaller companies currently going bust. Why did another useless quango Ofgem allow it?
Look at Sex Relationship Education Act as another clear example. Vaccinating children against parents wishes, all culturally Marxist policies implemended by the Fake Tory party.
JR, it strikes me your piece today is aspirational and about nostalgia rather than current reality.
October 4, 2021
Actually, by the three parties making a decision on climate change, global warming/cooling (whatever you want to call it) without the electorate voting for itā¦ is that even legal in a democracy?
October 4, 2021
Indeed. An unholy alliance like their EU agreements. NO, NO,NO. We dont want their stupidity!
October 4, 2021
Polar bears did not become extinct and are increasing in number and the antarctic ice has increased (except for one very small region that the climate activists concentrate on). The Great Barrier Reef has recovered and has more coral than ever before. The sea levels haven’t risen. Have the Climate Activists got anything right, or they like our Remainers … grasping at every possibility while quietly ignoring everything they get wrong … like the polar bears and the Great Barrier Reef.
If we have a cold winter (as seems likely) and high heating costs, then I can imagine the Conservative Party being very unpopular, but to be fair, the whole of Parliament will be responsible.
.
October 4, 2021
PS. I do understand the need to move away from fossil fuels, as we do not have an infinite supply, but neither do we have an infinite supply of resources needed for batteries. I would prefer to retain fossil fuels until we have an realistic alternative in place and would think this the wisest course, rather than relying on hostile nations to sell us energy, whatever form it comes in.
October 5, 2021
The naysayers have been saying for 50 decades that reliance upon fossil fuels will run outā¦.and yet every year the exploration teams keep finding bigger and bigger oil reservesā¦enough for another 200+years
Kurdistan Region, the Falkland Islands, Bermuda, the Ivory Coast, the Biggest un-developed oil field in North Sea is found off Shetland and shale gas throughout the north of England
If we tapped into the gas and oil around our island; our fuel costs would only be a tenth of current costsā¦. imagine petrol at 20p a litre and home energy bills at Ā£100 per year
October 4, 2021
Yes but your party is now socialist certainly to the left of Blair.
What about freedom of choice and fair competition in education, transport and healthcare or cutting the vast largely parasitic state sector down to size it should be spending 20% of a large GDP not 50% of a much smaller one. MUCH of what it spends does positive harm anyway. NET Zero, the lockdown, test and trace, renewable subsidies and HS2 for good examples.
October 4, 2021
A tax borrow and piss down the drain Conservative party hooked on the net zero expensive energy religion is no use to anyone.
October 4, 2021
L/L. Yes the chancellor dudnt do a great job of ruling out further taxes. At this rate we’ll all be working for nothing
October 4, 2021
FuS – We have to pay more taxes because we have nearly 6 million on Universal Credit and to pay off debts incurred by the lockdown that the vast majority wanted when asked.
The BBC in an article on 13 Sept wrote that a charity (Resolution Foundation is mentioned in the article) said someone would have to work 9 hours to make up Ā£20 per week because of loss of UC payments. Surely not, surely someone isn’t paid Ā£90, a 10 hour day for most folks for doing nothing?
RF claimed ‘for every Ā£1 worked once someone was claiming the full allowance it would reduce their benefit by 63p!’ Really? They go on to say ‘Ā£8.91 per hour – and with an income of at least Ā£6,100 a year would take home just Ā£6.60 for two hours work (falling to Ā£4.48 if they pay tax and NI)’ why would they pay tax and NI Ā£6,100 is well below the threshold NI starts at Ā£9570. ALSO, so what! All of us only take home Ā£6.15 when we work over the thresholds and the government wants another 1.25% of everyone working to put a roof over their heads.
5.9 million people receive UC in the UK. almost double the 3m claiming before the pandemic.
Only 40% of these claimants are employed doing some work.
It is time the British public were told the truth of exactly how much none working universal credit claimants are getting in all the benefits including free fridges and cookers. Where are they in the Country? How old are they? Are they mainly young parents?
Then how many hours the 40% of UC claimants are working each week and what are their benefits.
October 4, 2021
FUS Yes but on the other side look how many new arrivals are happy in hotels NO bills, etc – – – and NO chance of ever leaving, Their families will all be arriving soon – f0r US to pay for.
October 4, 2021
Big state, big tax, curb personal freedom and choice, authoritarian even railways now going back to state control! Quangos still expanding with bureaucratic dictate and of no use to service delivery to the public whatsoever. Look at NHS Simon Stevens and co, absolute failures in preparing the nation and providing a proper service. Where was the govt and NHS cost benefit analysis? They literally killed people by moving them from hospital to care homes!! No shame whatsoever. BBC was the subject of much fake Tory talk, head now given Ā£75 k pay rise while over 75yrs struggle to pay for the left wing garbage!
Their record over 11 years is appalling:
Economy failed
Brexit failed
Immigration failed
Public services failed
Taxation failed
Promote business failed
Bonfire of quangos failed
Socially and culturally failed
October 4, 2021
+1
October 4, 2021
Think you may well be banging your head against the proverbial Sir J…. I agree with much of what you say and others who rightly point out this government is sometimes more socialist than B.liar.
Get the basics right, energy, food and fuel security. Keep vaccinating.
Unpick IR35 and release the self employed who take more for their risks.
Like your VAT suggestion too.
If rishi really wants more NI stick it on the over 50k earners only.
Cut the vanity projects and purge the HMG departments and quangos asap.
Keep the trade deals coming.
October 4, 2021
+1
October 4, 2021
+1 Vote Conservative get cheated as a Socialist Party turns up
October 4, 2021
+ 2 Vote Blue and you get Red/Green. There is no longer a Conservative party to vote for.
October 5, 2021
+1
October 5, 2021
+1
October 4, 2021
Oh did you see that 3 Labour MPs are rumoured to be defecting to theā¦.erā¦.Conservative Party?
October 5, 2021
defecting to the ‘new’ conservative party (social democrats)
October 4, 2021
+10
They have not changed any of Blaireās substantial left wing policy changes ie Human Rights Act, Equality, House of Lords, devolution etc etc. Public services extreme left wing bias now firmly established and moving left. They built on it!!
How come Maggie could stop miners moving across the country and this bunch cannot stop eco loonies but help them to sit down!! Same for tens of thousands of boat people, yet govt. priority should be national security!!
October 4, 2021
Nota#,
+1
Itās what the globalists want rather than conviction politics.
October 4, 2021
@LL; “Yes but [the conservative] party is now socialist certainly to the left of Blair.”
That doesn’t make the conservative party “Socialist”, Blair would have been at home in Thatcher’s govt, a “wet” perhaps but still very much an active pro-capitalist. Your comment probably tells us more about your own whereabouts on the political spectrum than it does others.
“What about freedom of choice and fair competition in education, transport and healthcare “
No one is forcing you to use the NHS, you are free to take out your own private healthcare plan, nothing is stopping you sending your (grand)children to a fee paying private school, no one is forcing you to use any form of transport over another.
Tell me Life(-il)logical, once you have taken out that private healthcare plan, and you have told HMRC not to collect a pro-rata amount of income or business tax from you, will you still expect access to the NHS provided 999 ambulance service, still expect to use the NHS provided A&E service, should you or your employees have an accident. If so are you not expecting others to subsidise your lifestyle choices.
What is more, if you can deduct taxes for govt spending you do not approve of why not others, such as those who subscribe to the ideals of say CND, should a pacifist be allowed to de-fund the MOD, should anarchists be allowed to de-fund the Police?
October 4, 2021
Depressing speech from the clearly Socialist (tax borrow and piss down the drain) Sunak, nothing about getting government out of the way of business, deregulation, or saving on all the vast government waste just more daft government schemes to āhelpā paid for by even more taxation. This will not work it never does!
The first part of the speech railed against the idiotic policies of tax borrow and waste that he himself has adopted for the last 20 months! Idiotic schemes like āeat out to help outā, test and trace, net zero, HS2, the net damaging lockdowns, vaccinating children and people who have had Covid – then vast tax hikes – stamp duty, CT, NI, entrepreneurās relief. PPE Oxon. is supposed to included āeconomicsā did he not attend those lectures or are they taught by left wing green crap pushing idiots and he believed them?
October 5, 2021
@LL; Indeed I found it a deeply unimpressive, depressing, speech from Mr Sunak, not because he was espousing “Socialist” policy [1] but because he is espousing a rather (in my opinion) ‘Woke’ view of what capitalism needs to be, he was actually celebrating AI, claiming it will bring work to the masses, when in fact AI, like robotics and automation before, will actually cost huge numbers of jobs. Sure his speech went down well in the hall but I doubt most if any of them will be the ones loosing their own employment to AI…
[1] although he did seem to be trying to evoke Harold Wilson’s ‘White heat of technoligy’ speech!
October 4, 2021
Good speech. We need a government that believes in these policies.
October 4, 2021
+10
October 4, 2021
@Cynic +1
October 4, 2021
Sadly that rules out the current bunch of incumbents masquerading as Conservatives but anything but.
October 4, 2021
+1
October 4, 2021
Hear, hear
October 4, 2021
The immediate need?
Get a team together that can say what they do and do what they say. The present incumbents don’t cut the mustard. Words are cheap and are not fooling everybody.
The youngsters have had a fair crack of the wipe. Let’s get some real experience, qualified and Conservatives leading and managing this country.
Any one from the so called front runners for possible elevation in the existing team is just a case of same meat different gravy.
October 4, 2021
Well said Turbo
October 5, 2021
+1
Any competitive organisation worth it’s salt runs red teams which could provide the alternative leadership. LabLib are certainly not acting as a proper opposition and holding the government top account so perhaps dynamic internal competition with a sense of purpose, rather than compromise, is needed.
October 4, 2021
The Chancellor trumpets Ā£500m on jobs, whilst preparing a National Insurance increase to take Ā£12bn (he hopes) out of jobs.
If he can just stuff both, businesses will be better off to create jobs.
October 4, 2021
@Dave Andrews +1 This Government is at war on jobs that are not in the State. Constant interference is killing the economy. Its about Control, control, control
October 4, 2021
Nota
Last three words sum it up !.
October 4, 2021
Well said
October 4, 2021
And he wouldnāt rule out this morning allowing councils to increase already exorbitant council tax bills by 9%.
October 5, 2021
That’s lovely – have you not worked out yet, that transferring the cost of public services from central, income tax-funded, to CT is counter-redistributive, exactly in accordance with the Tufton Street doctrine to which John apparently subscribes?
October 4, 2021
Thereās only one way to make people less poor..and that is to encourage enterprise. Stop taxing!
Cut red tape as people on here have said many times.
Oh yesā¦and donāt close down everything when āflu strikes!! Might help!!
If I were starting up another business I would want to see anti regulation legislation in place.
And letās not forgetā¦it was the governmentās RESPONSE to what they said was happening that has caused the problems. The government has applied a ācureā that is far worse than any disease.
October 4, 2021
@Everhopeful +1 Everything that was promised to get elected, then trashed once achieved – honesty from honest people!
October 4, 2021
+1
Exactly!
October 4, 2021
+ 100000000 Everhopeful
October 4, 2021
The irony is not lost. Taxes will inevitably rise to pay for Covid aftermath, we now have a quagmire and ridiculous anount of red tape to trade with our closest, largest and most developed market (never heard of a 71 page document to export fish to the EU in the past…), the rich get much richer in the UK whilst 90-95% of the population is seeing its living standard eroded due to govt self-interest, incompetence and lets face it, inability to lead a 21st century country. The whole political sysyenm and its antiquated structure is badly failing the UK in 2021….
October 4, 2021
@EH; It is not taxation that stifles enterprise, a prime cause for new businesses not getting beyond the business plan is the planning system and NIMBYs. The investment funding is agreed but planning consent can not be got to change the use of an existing building or construct a new build, even when planning consent is given many costs are added by added clauses. Sometimes existing businesses are forced to relocate to secure access to a local workforce or the necessary housing for them. Watched, via YouTube, the CPC welcome speech given by Oliver Dowden on Sunday, trumpeting his support for the anti enterprise NIMBY, oh dear…
“Oh yesā¦and donāt close down everything when āflu strikes!! Might help!!”
Even if it CV19 was “just Flu”, at the time without a vaccine, the likelihood is it would have still shut-down much of the face-to-face economy, many people would have simply decided themselves not to enter pubs, go on holiday etc. shop on-line rather than in person, companies would have introduced WFH, given how even unvaced seasonal Flu can cause mass sick leave anyway.
“If I were starting up another business I would want to see anti regulation legislation in place.”
Why do I get the feeling by that you mean only the regulations you dislike, not regulations that protect your interests, planning restrictions, tax relief etc…
October 4, 2021
Spot On
October 4, 2021
Now convince the other 350 MPs.
Boris certainly isn’t amongst your followers. 0
October 4, 2021
How very true – and he shouldn’t have to convince his fellow 350 Tory MPs to be conservative
October 4, 2021
Just been reading a very interesting article in conwoman about emissions. The UN document specifically allows developing countries to make as many emissions as required to level up their population.
It’s only our brain dead PM who is pushing us all to penury for a target which globally will double in 10 years whilst we freeze to death
It’s time you made this document public John.
October 5, 2021
and we’re going to help fund them to level up
October 4, 2021
What is your view Sir John on the extra Ā£20 on Universal Credit. Should it stay or should it go?
October 4, 2021
Go
October 4, 2021
It should go. She have been paying increasing amounts for decades to allow people who can work but choose to sit on their backsides.
October 5, 2021
I think it should go. I also think that it should only have been applied to people who,lost their jobs because of Covid, or had their income affected, and not those who had been on it for quite a while, and whose income was unaffected by Covid.
Having said that, I guess in the turmoil caused by Covid, it would have been quite impossible to separate the two.
October 4, 2021
Why not cut in half to ease the pain for those in dire need for a suitable time.
October 4, 2021
Well, all jolly nice, like Mum’s Apple Pie And Motherhood, Sir John.
Unfortunately, your party has handed monopolies to many entities such as the water and sewage companies, and also failed in regulation, in oversight, and in enforcement, with the result that the Whitstable oyster export industry has been wrecked, along with others, owing to high levels of faecal bacteria in the product, stemming from Southern Water’s gross breaches of untreated sewage discharge limits. Those failures have also resulted in the energy industry’s ditching gas storage facilities and exposing UK customers to shocking price spikes. Germany, with some forty times the UK’s storage capacity has nothing like the same problem. There are too many more to detail.
Leaving things entirely to the market, including of labour, and then abruptly disrupting that market with an utterly slapdash brexit has given us miles long queues for fuel too.
But keep smiling everyone.
October 4, 2021
The water was acceptable before Brexit.
After that, spiteful, āthird countryā rules were put into place.
October 4, 2021
NLH :
Southern Water were convicted at Canterbury Crown Court this year for dumping 16 to 21 billion litres of raw, untreated sewage into the sea through 6791 illegal spills from 17 sites in Hampshire, Kent and West Sussex between 2010 and 2015.
The presiding judge described the action as ādeliberateā and āshowed a disregard for the law from the top downā.
This disgraceful affair has nothing to do with the Government creating utility monopolies but rather the utter failure of our quangos and judiciary to protect our environment and health:
Firstly, why did it take DEFRA so long to discover the 61,704 hours of illegal discharges each one lasting 9 hours when there were persistent evidences coming to light?
Secondly, why did the judiciary hand Southern Water a derisory fine in comparison to their yearly profits and if the discharges were ācriminalā why did no-one go to prison when the possible penalties that could be applied to me for fly tipping are an unlimited fine and up to 5 years imprisonment?
October 5, 2021
@Original Richard – who pays the ‘fine’ not the Company – but their customers. Its part of the not thinking it through from UK Governments
October 5, 2021
Very interesting OR – now who do we ask for those answers? Wouldn’t you think the BBC would be asking this on our behalf?
October 5, 2021
The Government will not resource inspection and enforcement sufficiently to enable that to happen.
It is ideologically opposed to creating the necessary public sector jobs for scientists or for anyone else required to do that. The same is true for building regulation and for every other kind.
You know this.
Stop trying to excuse yourself for the appalling consequences of your vote and of millions like you.
October 5, 2021
Parliament sets the statutory penalties for breaches of the regulations, not the judiciary nor any quango.
The Tories have a majority of………eighty.
So don’t blame anyone else.
October 4, 2021
You admit, Sir John, knowing “… public sector monopolies that charge customers also need taming to avoid [the] poor service, high cost and no choice … we used to get from nationalised industries.”
Lamentably, however, recently privatized parts of what are inevitably monopolies, having brought competition in name only, often deliver high cost and poor service : something bodies like Of-this and Of-that have done little to mitigate. The choice for which one might have hoped is often just an illusion.
Ī Ī
October 4, 2021
@Vernon Wright Competition, should mean just that competition. As you note privatization and still a monopoly is not serving anyone other than the new owners. The overseeing QUANGO’s are lamentably just as bad. Its not and never has been free enterprise it is jobs for the ‘boys’
October 4, 2021
You’re getting the hang of this Toryism lark, aren’t you?
October 4, 2021
Nota#
+1
October 4, 2021
+1
Heartily agree.
When whichever govt. de-nationalised/privatised, OUR assets were put up for grabs.
(We were bribed with shares that in some cases became worthless).
And how those āliberatedā assets have been squandered or stolen.
October 4, 2021
The paradox of your Conservative approach to making work pay being “the best means to banish poverty and improve life styles and chances for families” is house prices.
House prices prop up the ponzi economy due to government intervention as ridiculously low interest rates but then those who you want to make work pay for then have to pay silly prices to buy or rent a house.
Please return to sound money and stop intervening in this (and other) markets.
October 4, 2021
+1
October 4, 2021
@Narrow Shoulders +1 As with all subsidising it is just a way of awarding those that can afford something without it the subsidy, being funded by those that cant even afford to dream about it. That is why this Conservative party gets the banner hung on it of ‘the rich get richer while the poor get poorer’. That is not and never has been Conservativism, that’s un adulterated Socialism.
They are not ‘Listening’ and not ‘Hearing’
October 4, 2021
Thank you – Comment Of The Day, I’d say.
It also gives away the lie, that today’s Tories are somehow not the party of Rentier Capitalism.
October 4, 2021
Unelected bureaucrat David Frost is due to speak at the Tory conference today – where, according to the Telegraph, he will whinge like a baby about the Northern Ireland Protocol which he negotiated. Even for a Brexitist Frost is a particularly pitiful man. Embarrassingly out of his depth, he didnāt even understand the basics. He has negotiated the two worst deals in our countryās history. His incompetence will not be forgotten.
Still today will give him practice at doing something first thing in the morning. Thatāll be good experience for the public inquiry and his subsequent sentence.
October 4, 2021
If only Nicky had been in charge!
October 4, 2021
To be honest they are all out of their depth. The current Tory crop has about as much talent as Derby FC no waith Scunthorpe FC. The opposition is hardly better. And meanwhile the country is going down the panhandle of lies, slogans and deflection. When will the public wake up and start demanding proper institutinal and democratic reforms fit for 2021 country not one stuck in 1920?
October 4, 2021
I can see Lord Frost in the rogues gallery alongside the Lords Lamont and Lawson and all of those other Lords and deluded ones who led us into this cul-de-sac Imagine he negotiated and agreed the International treaty and now he wants to renege on it – and thinks that if he does there will be no consequences or repercussions – strange thing about Frost is that he is not elected by anyone – nobody elected him – and we are on the side that has been complaining all these years about the EU Commission being unelected – it’s mind boggling stuff.
October 4, 2021
You never answered my reasonable question andy.
Do you think supermarkets sould have their lorries stopped, opened and inspected, which delays them for hours?
These vehicles are destined to go to other supermarkets owned by their company.
Do you?
October 5, 2021
But you – Leavers collectively – want every single vehicle entering the UK to be strip-searched, for stowaway migrants, don’t you?
Why should European Union member countries be any less careful?
October 5, 2021
Who wants that NLH?
You are making things up.
Ridiculous comment from you.
October 4, 2021
It is absurd for a Conservative MP at this time to take such a stance . Taxes are
nose-bleed high and they are on income at the lowest level. The only enterprise the Government has any interest in is politically visual ones like car manufacture and shipping .Every single growth industry has been hit by No Deal Brexit and increasing corporation tax.
The UKs business community did not want the most protectionist Government of my lifetime, it did not want shortages of petrol ,culled pigs, dumped veggies, inflation, debt, or indeed an administration whose every word is found to be an in exactitude within minutes ( I am referring Jonson’s disgraceful Marr interview ).
Those people who believe Brexit was a mistake now vastly outnumber those who were persuaded of the whole pile of piffle in the first place and this is only going to get worse .
October 4, 2021
+1
That interview was dreadful.
All the piffle about immigration!
( I havenāt changed my mind re leaving EU but it looks like we are now all globalists).
October 4, 2021
We are Globalists now but without a merchant navy – and we took back control but with nobody in charge – not Boris anyway – after listening to him yesterday on Andrew Marr
Now Lord Frost who negotiated the WA and Protocols for NI, Cyprus and Gibraltar wants to
Activate article 16 of the NI Protocol and so everything should revert back to the way it was before ie.. the WA will also collapse and we’ll be right back where we started from back in the EU , SM and CU until something else is agreed.. International Law will be invoked.. Meanwhile the Spanish will do the same with Article 10 of the Treaty of Utrecht – who knows where all of this will end up – we don’t know – but one thing for sure – things will never be the same.
October 4, 2021
Globalism is dead,just not buried yet.Russia and China and their allies have killed it.What you are seeing in the west,and in the UK in particular(whose elite, post WWII,has bet everything on globalism) is a last gasp.
October 5, 2021
Could define the salient points of your “globalism”, please?
As it stands, it is no less vague in meaning than “bigness” or “everythingness”
October 6, 2021
Global governance-one world government.
October 6, 2021
It seems to me that the many Leave fanatics – in truth just US supremacists – would be happy with a global dictatorship ruled by a Trump type, and it’s just the thought of a global democracy, with other nations having an input, which horrifies and terrifies them.
October 4, 2021
Even BBC Countryfile (yes, Countryfile) admitted yesterday that the use of foreign workers in fields was abusive and exploitative. Finally we’re getting somewhere.
Slavery.
Lorry drivers. Low pay and awful conditions. But you were happy with Eastern Europeans being forced to live away from their kids for weeks on end while crapping in British bushes because – heaven forfend – Eric might earn more than Tarquin.
A guy living in Lewes and working in the City will never EVER understand.
October 5, 2021
No one forced them, they did it because Sterling was worth a lot more in their local currencies, and because sovereign – it always was – UK employment law permitted it.
Brexit has knocked down Sterling, and they have been told to push off, so I don’t think that they’ll be returning whatever.
October 4, 2021
Newmania, protectionist? We certainly need to start asking more questions. Who owns the abattoirs that are causing problems for British farmers, are they British owned? I discovered yesterday the fuel carrier that owns Hoyer a strategic delivery requirement is German (that doesn’t sound very protectionist).
Wouldn’t you expect any inflation after an 18-month covid pandemic?
October 5, 2021
I did a bit of research last night; in the 1930’s there were 30,000 abattoirs in the UK. Virtually every town and village had at least one, with most attached to a butcher’s shop. An ideal, transparent short supply chain.
The Yorkshire Post reported in 2018 less than 250 abattoirs exist in the UK. Most meat is now sold through supermarkets supplied by a handful of ‘multinational companies operating huge factory-style abattoirs’.
The movement to less choice and more ever-larger businesses isn’t always to our benefit as we’re being told we will be starved of meat this Christmas. In 2018, 34 diverse organisations wrote to Michael Gove at Defra asking him to take urgent action. They offered solutions. Did he take them?
October 4, 2021
Not every single growth industry, as you assert. I know of six businesses which have increased revenues in their past financial years by over 20% “despite Brexit” and despite Covid-19 and another three that have achieved double digit growth.
October 4, 2021
‘…no deal Brexit…’
If only.
October 4, 2021
@Newmania; Nice rant -not, problem being, the UK very much does have an EU exit deal, many peoples lives and our wider economy would be in a dammed sight better condition today had Boris not signed that WA (along with the NIP), Brexit should have been either an undemocratic BRINO or exit on WTO rules.
Many of the retail and B2B supply shortages have nothing to do with Brexit, take a look at the number of container ships at anchor off the south-west coast of England awaiting access to Southampton port, or in the North Sea waiting access to Rotterdam etc. Many of these vessels appear to have sailed from the Far East well after their due sailing date and have thus missed their booked berth, or European ports are short of staff due to the pandemic.
Then, quite literally in some cases, there are the home grown shortages, caused by idiotic polices from previous govts, some from the Thatcher/Major years but most were introduced during the Blair years, such as brainwashing our school leavers to think they all deserve and will get Degree level jobs and pay, whilst the UK Climate Change Act 2008 must count as one of the worst act of self-inflicted vandalism ever inflicted by a UK govt on the UK economy.
October 5, 2021
China-Europe rail freight across the Eurasian landbridge doubled in 2020-still only a small part of the total- but that is the direction of travel,so to speak.
October 5, 2021
@Mitchel; There are no shortage of ships, nor crew, who (can) operate in almost perfect Covid secure bubbles. The major problems are apparently a lack of available empty containers due to delays in dealing with containers at their origin/destination. If there are no containers to load fresh shipments into it matters not one jot what mode of onward transport is used, nor is anyone going to pay to ship empty containers around the world.
October 6, 2021
You miss the point;there is a concerted effort -in Russia,in China and in the EU,esp Germany-to move east-west freight onto land.
There’s been another c50% increase in the first eight months of 2021- and no shortage of containers for these routes.
October 6, 2021
@Mitchel; Nice anti EU/Russia rant, but you are the one who misses the point, otherwise explain even why the USA (not involved with the Eurasian landbridge, nor did they lockdown any thing like how most European countries did) are suffering the very same issues with regards container shipping as European countries are, hence why there are around 64 container ships waiting outside the Port of Los Angeles to gain access/berth.
October 4, 2021
It sounds all very nice, Sir John , but what is your government actually doing about getting these people into work, who are keen to be doing a job that the country needs desperately right now?
‘Thousands of army veterans are ready to help tackle the HGV crisis but are being ignored by the government’ according to the Telegraph this morning.
Bill B.
October 4, 2021
@Bill B – that reminds me the Army as HGV drivers, subsidising the bully boys of the RHA are the only cause of the problem. The Army guys get half the pay of a regular driver which is then half the going rate for the job and at the end the Army guys are promised redundancy soon under this Government
October 4, 2021
Exactly my point when people go on about nurses expecting higher pay for DOING THEIR JOB through the pandemic just like many others. Our armed forces get no extra freebies or pay rises. They don’t moan.
October 4, 2021
Can’t the army just recharge the companies that can’t cope for their drivers at Hoyer’s normal rates of pay?
October 4, 2021
+1
DVLA needs a rocket. Get the military in there instead.
October 4, 2021
I did suggest that there are thousands of ex military HGV drivers who have let their licence lapse because the job is rubbish who could be offered a temporary permit in a national emergency. Even if it was merely to act as a co driver to drive whilst the main driver rests. I never got a reply.
October 4, 2021
There are many, many thousands of HGV drivers who would be tempted to return behind the wheel if only the government took advantage of Brexit to scrap the cretinous EU rules that restrict their employment. I’m specifically thinking of the CPC (Certificate of Professional Competence) and the limits on hours worked.
The CPC is an absurdly bureaucratic rule – typical of the EU (and typical of the sort of rules we voted to unshackle ourselves from!) – which requires drivers who have already passed their HGV tests to prove that they have have not forgotten on Tuesday how to do the job they were doing on Monday. Yes, every five years a driver must pay hundreds of pounds, and waste 35 hours of his time, on taking a test to carry on doing his job. In NO other profession do you have to do this. And, of course, this is a huge disincentive to retired drivers who might otherwise be willing to return to the job.
The limits on drivers’ hours are another moronic EU rule which this government has retained. We should be using modern technology to prevent accidents – such as **driver drowsiness detectors** (which should be made compulsory in all lories) – rather than arbitrary rules which are overly-restrictive and hinder our economy. Brexit COULD make us a more efficient country if only the government grasped the opportunities. Brexit is NOT the problem. The problem is the LACK of Brexit by this stupid and cowardly government.
October 4, 2021
Good morning Sir John
Well reasoned with the proof of logic and history supporting your assertion
Is anyone listening or more importantly hearing
Have a good day and enjoy…
October 4, 2021
Logic? I would assume that cults and obsessive movements have very little of it.
October 4, 2021
After I had finished reading the speech I looked out of the window and there was a huge rainbow overarching the sky!!
Powerful stuff JR.
October 4, 2021
Yeah, Everh., and I saw a flying pig!
When SJR’s speeeches start getting good coverage in the Mail and the Telegraph, we’ll know that something has changed.
Until then, we’ll know they don’t fit the real Tory agenda.
October 4, 2021
Have a read of the Pandora Papers instead, EH.
It think that you’d gain a more realistic insight into what, exactly, motivates many in Sir John’s party.
October 4, 2021
Rainbow of nonesense and yet more gibberish perhaps…
October 4, 2021
Blxxdy Hell !!!
October 4, 2021
Cynic: “We need a government that believes in these policies.”
A good start would be a political party that believes in these policies. That ain’t the ‘Tory’ party, the Tory party used to make a good fist of believing in a reasonable amount of individual freedom. Not Redwood’s ‘Tory’ party, that’s a rotten idealogically as it is corrupt politically.
I see Sajid Javid is coercing health care workers to get vaccinated.
1. That’s against the Nuremberg code.
2. He weeps crocodile tears about the vulnerable.
Didn’t care two hoots about the ‘vulnerable’ in care homes ( 2020 ) when it was government policy to inflate the death rate by discharging COVID-19 infected patients into Care homes. Forty of fifty thousand dead as a result of that policy alone.
Suddenly, because he has another ‘target’ to meet, ie, everyone in the country ‘vaccinated’ with the mRNA therapy ( it’s not a vaccine ). Suddenly, he’s got hot flushes and a fit of compassion.
This government is rotten.
October 4, 2021
+1
The more they jab the more any side effects are camouflaged!
October 6, 2021
Everhopeful: “The more they jab the more any side effects are camouflaged!”
Well of course. Once they get to 100% of the population, an increase in myocarditis will just be the norm for a vaccinated population.
And now they claim children have the capacity to consent to medical treatment. That is obscene.
Somebody who is in his/her 60s with a life expetancy of perhaps 25 years, does it really matter if that person elects to take a medication that might knock ten years of his/her life?
But a child that can expect 70 years ahead, with a reasonable expectation of good health, there are no longitudinal studies of the anti COVID-19 vaccines. We have no idea of the long term effects of this gene therapy.
This is article one of the NC
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This
means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent;
should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without
the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching,
or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient
knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved
as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This
latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision
by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature,
duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is
to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected;
and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his
participation in the experiment.
October 4, 2021
APL
Not Redwoods ‘Tory’ party……
Well Panorama seems to picked up on a few awkward situations.
But nobody has done anything wrong!!!!!
October 4, 2021
I take it this is a ‘trailer’ for the full speech you will be giving at one o’clock today. I ask again – as I did the other day – will this be livestreamed, either on YouTube or on the Bruges Group’s own website? The website merely says “Attendees may be filmed”, but makes no mention of a livestream: why not???
October 4, 2021
Sadly SJR you are preaching to the converted. The message needs to be shouted at the Cabinet from the floor of the conference, but it will not be allowed. Conference will only hear what they are allowed to hear, they will clap themselves silly and the conservative boat will remain up shit creek without its paddle.
October 4, 2021
It’s now being reported your Gov. has free prescriptions for the over 60’s in it’s sights. Already it’s only those in England who pay for prescriptions, they’re free in the rest of the laughingly named UK.
How does this fit in with “the equality act 2021” ?
Already we in England are considered second class citizens in health needs. This is borderline racism.
If this policy is adopted, it’s goodbye from me and I suspect most of the over 60’s.
October 4, 2021
Your speech sums up what most of us would like, shame that is not what we are going to get.
October 4, 2021
It seem that the MoD has again – prematurely – retired crucial intelligence-gathering RAF assets. The last E-3D Sentry aircraft flew its final operational sortie on the 30th July over Iraq as part of the counter-Daesh Operation SHADER.
Mark Francois, MP for Rayleigh and Wickford, who has an interest in military matters, asked in a written parliamentary question on 20July2021:-
āTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the date on which the (a) last E-3D sentry aircraft will be retired from operational service and (b) first E-7 Wedgetail will achieve initial operating capacity in Royal Air Force service.ā
The ubiquitous Jeremy Quin, MoS at the MoD, responded last week:-
āWe will retire the E-3D Sentry from operational service later in 2021, as part of the transition to the more modern and more capable fleet of three E-7 Wedgetail aircraft, which are expected to enter service in December 2023″ Originally the RAF needed five E-7 Wedgetail replacements.
So, the RAF will have no long-range intel gathering aircraft until Dec 2023 at the earliest. Given the poor performance of the MoD in managing this sort of thing, we can expect that date to slip, quite possibly to H2 2024.
October 4, 2021
It’s a great speech but it is your own government that is working against conservative principles.
October 4, 2021
We have to stimulate the economy. The only route to more tax is more trade. The Tories are skating on the thin ice of socialism. What can be better than printing the money?! Everyone wins!
Sadly, the fires of inflation, stoked by the mad Democrats in the USA, are about to sweep the world. We are doing our bit, so will be included in the blaze.
October 4, 2021
An excellent speech, but I wish it could have been made in the main hall of the Conference, with leading members of the government listening to the applause.
Incidenatally, my membership of the Conservative Party expired two weeks ago and I have received no reminder to renew my subscription. I always did when it was in the hands of the local Association.
October 4, 2021
I am exceedingly disappointed that the government has little or no ambition to make serious improvements in our country. You mention IR35 and the NI hike. These are mere tinkering around the edges. What we need is a Chancellor prepared to re-write and simplify the whole tax code, including IR 35, but we also need to change how we fund all forms of health care and come up with an alternative to VAT. If that puts thousands of accountants out of business, that’s a small price to pay.
For decades each government has added layers of complication to the tax system redering it impossible for almost everyone in business to deal with without professional help. Even retired people with, maybe, one or two buy to let properties have to employ an accountant, thanks to the retrograde changes made by the last three conservative governments.
The tax guide is now some 12,000 pages. The target should be to get back to no more than 2,000.
Personally, I would go further : introducing a single flat tax covering everything.
October 4, 2021
Frost said this morning that the ultimate sanction ref NI Protocol is Art 16. The World knows that. No indication of when so a useless contribution except to exercise the happy clappers.
October 4, 2021
We now have a grandchild, our first. She was born last month in Thailand where our son started and runs a division of our marine business. There are no restrictions on going, but we have been waiting to see whether we will be allowed to get on a plane without the need to spend upwards of Ā£5,000 on quarantine and tests to come back.
It has been announced that the system is being reformed and the number of Red List countries is to be reduced to, maybe, just 9, but the list is not to be published until Thursday.
It is rumoured that we may be allowed to go to Thailand at last but why the delay ?
The decision has been made and announced, so why must the list be withheld until Thursday ?
Yet another case of Civil Service sloth.
October 4, 2021
From the MsM – Amusing, a Government Ā£500million job plan. It is this Government that has put a tax on jobs, set out to cripple the economy and burden the people. No one else just this Government single handedly all on its own, un listening – not hearing. There own personal(and I mean personal) Socialist Doctrine is drowning everything else out.
This Government is pledging it will finance all the countries ills, shortages etc – who’s money, oh yes the taxpayers ā¦ so a further tax on jobs. Can’t they see they are the problem, their thinking is the problem.
Things can sort themselves out once this Government gets over its personal ego and releases the people, releases enterprise – what we need is the Conservative Government that was proposed when seeking election. This Government is the most anti UK Government we have ever seen.
All the time the Government wants to interfere in one sector, another hard done by sector pops up with its own demands. This Government is feeding the problems, no one else.
October 4, 2021
Nice to see the Great Leader endorsing the World Economic Forum’s Agenda with his Conference Slogan “Build Back Better.”
Unfortunately, he omitted to add the WEF’s intention that the peasants “will own nothing and be happy.”
The conservative approach to liberty and prosperity is being killed in the Not-a-Conservative-Party by Johnson and his fellow lefty, Eco loons. It IS being kept alive in Reform UK.
October 4, 2021
I have just listened to Lord Frost’s very, very short speech. Does he really have nothing more to say about how he is going to deliver Brexit? But apart from being shocked at the speech’s brevity my two main complaints are:
1. He goes on again about the failure of the NI Protocol. Yes mate, we KNOW it has failed, which is why you should SCRAP it. But instead he just talks about applying article 16, which is only a very limited remedy. If I am sick I want to be permanently CURED, not just given a painkiller! And worse than that, there is NO DEADLINE given by which the EU either agrees to a few minor changes to the Protocol to make it more palatable or article 16 will be triggered. So, to paraphrase the words of your excellent book, I DON’T BELIEVE HIM. It’s all just words. All talk and no action. All bark and no bite. The man has zero credibility.
2. He reels off a string of new government initiatives which he says are the proof that Brexit is being used to improve Britain. Well, yes, this is fine as far as it goes, BUT these are all just proposals. Not one of these measures has actually been implemented! We are now almost TWO YEARS into this government’s time in office and nothing, exactly NOTHING, has been done! And don’t you dare use ‘covid’ as an excuse. Dealing with covid was the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Health (as well as the PM, of course), but all the other ministers could have got on with their jobs as normal. There was NO reason for the whole of government to come to a complete stop. This is just an idiotic excuse for an appalingly incompetent government.
October 6, 2021
Yes, what a hoot eh?
October 4, 2021
Iāve read the conference agenda, the main thrust on almost every page are the words ālevelling upā and ānet zero, green, decarboniseā
On this forum and the talk down the pub is mainly about tax, immigration, HS2, Brexit, NIP, energy, foreign aid and the green revolutionā¦..none of those topics are headlining the conference (they didnāt headline the labour conference either)
The divide is getting bigger
October 4, 2021
Sir John, have you had that meeting that Kwasi Kwarteng promised you yet, or was that just another government lie?
And on the subject of energy, I know that you support the development of RR’s SMRs, but you said that planning permission would take a long time. Well, here’s an idea: why doesn’t the government identify where these will go (assuming they are approved) NOW, and begin the planning process right away? We don’t have to wait to do this. It does not even commit the government in any way. Let’s get ahead of the game and get the planning approval BEFORE the SMRs have been built! Why not? Or is that just too efficient for this government?
Reply Yes I have put my points to Kwasi
October 4, 2021
Also I read where UK has applied to join the countries of the Pacific Alliance CTPPP – I notice that all of these countries are in Asia or are bordering on the Pacific rim – great ‘ so where do we sign up to their rules and what exactly are their rules? and do they have a higher court of justice equivalent to the ECJ? now if only we had the old British shipping companies back again and the return of the East India Company. Sigh…
October 4, 2021
Rather than raises taxes and NI contributions, the Chancellor should consider urgent action against the tax avoidance/evasion issues raised in the Pandora papers.
Why should the ordinary people pay when the rich and powerful can easily avoid paying their rightful taxes ?
October 4, 2021
Principles before Politics!
Rishi Sunak was apparently very keen to emphasise how he had been warned that if he backed Brexit, his career would be over. But he was proud to put principles before politics and he chose to back Brexit!
What does this say to people who are threatened with job losses if they do not submit to being jabbed? And would Rishi back their right to stand up for their principles?
October 4, 2021
Have you forgotten Sir John, the Globalists (including Prince Charles) have vowed that by 2030 we will own nothing and we will be happy. As far as I can see the Conservatives are only too happy to oblige.
October 4, 2021
APL – I have a relative in a nursing home over 100 miles away. She is 75, has had Covid (apparently), and got over it uneventfully. She has not had the vaccine, nor have I, and nothing other than physical force will induce us to do so (I will not rehearse the reasons here, except to say one aspect is an ethical aspect of the vaccine development). The staff in the home are wonderful. It’s such demanding work, and they do it so cheerfully and tirelessly, and do not earn a great deal. I am so saddened at the dictatorial tones uttered by Mr Javid over the weekend. ‘Can’t be bothered’, indeed! Does he not know that vaccinated people may be the problem? Ask the Israelis, who are now having to embark on their third and fourth round of shots. The world was warned, but instead chose to censor expert opinion that did not follow the desired narrative. Much the same with Climate issues. But who will listen?
October 5, 2021
Did all the people whom you no doubt infected also do OK?
I surmise that you couldn’t care less.
October 5, 2021
Israel is recommending further shots precisely because of the less vaccine-sensitive strains, which have arisen in places like the UK, where there are lots of people like you, who apparently don’t give a monkey’s if they do.
October 6, 2021
Norman: “She is 75, has had Covid (apparently), and got over it uneventfully. She has not had the vaccine, nor have I, and nothing other than physical force will induce us to do so (I will not rehearse the reasons here, except to say one aspect is an ethical aspect of the vaccine development)”
So now she has immunity. Good for her. By the way, there is a Spanish study from back in 2020, of the illness in a care home in the city of Toledo, where they had an outbreak of COVID-19, 3 residents died, but they then introduced a treatment regime of Claratine ( or similar ) and Azithromycin to all other residents. 100% survival rate, regardless of co-morbidity, or obesity condition.
Redwood refuses to publish the retrospective study, which is from a reputable source, at least I know where he stands on the matter.
Nottingham lad himself: “Did all the people whom you no doubt infected also do OK?”
According to our Glorious leader, “Two weeks to flatten the curve”. What he didn’t tell you is that ‘flattening the death curve’ , doesn’t reduce the number of deaths, it simply prolongs the duration of the dying.
Then, actions taken by the government actually made the situation worse.
You, NLH, are suffering from Stockholm syndrome.
Or a paid government schill.
October 4, 2021
It’s not a Con/Lab thing.
That’s old skool.
It’s Good v Evil.
October 4, 2021
Michael Gove and levelling up, heavy on rhetoric , but very light on substance. Is the meat all being saved for Boris on Wednesday or are we all to be left at conference end with the question, what was it all about, answer not a lot.
October 4, 2021
TAX today JAM tomorrow LEVELLING-UP in the future
October 4, 2021
At a Policy Exchange fringe meeting on the Irish protocol Lord Frost proclaimed:
“The unity of the country is paramount”
It’s a pity nobody thought of that before repealing Article 6 of the Act of Union.
October 4, 2021
Will the future of Conservatism finally see the Britannia Unchained Five*, finally taking command of the top table? Patel; Truss and Kwarteng, three of the five, have glued themselves to the table, Raab came unstuck but has been duct taped to the top table by Liz, Carrie and Priti; Skidmore (who he?) has faded badly in the post Brexit straight.
Can Boris survive? Will the alpha females of the party finally do for him? Alas, Rishi, is yet another Tory Chancellor who thinks we are still on the gold standard; government budgets have to be balanced just like regular household budgets. Only a large dose of MMT thinking is going to get a post Brexit, post Covid GB out of the soft and brown. *= Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Prosperity 2012 by Kwarteng, Kwasi; Patel, P.; Raab, Dominic; Skidmore, Chris; Truss, Liz.
October 4, 2021
Teach all children under 7 to read.
They can make their own minds up then.
Young gullible males need to be protected from
older predatory males.
October 4, 2021
Sir John,
I agree with your sentiments. The problem is that you are a Conservative, and the Conservative Party is not.
Today Boris Johnson has said that all our electricity will be derived from “green” sources by 2035. This is plainly impossible, and if tried will lead to the demise of Britain as a modern industrialized society. The man is a clear and present danger to the future of Britain, and must be removed. Nothing else will do.
October 4, 2021
I was most relieved to find I could still access your Diary, considering all the Facebook owned sites were down. How would we cope without the daily critics and angst described on here?
October 4, 2021
Pretty much what I would have said. I hope they listened.
October 4, 2021
It may seem like a very long way away, but China has now violated Taiwan’s airspace several days in the past month, yesterday with 52 planes.
HMS Queen Elizabeth is currently exercising with the US Navy off Okinawa.
October 4, 2021
And still this government recognises a communist state while ignoring a sovereign democratic state
October 5, 2021
South China Morning Post (and other Asian media) reported last week that,although nothing has been signed yet,China is probably going to buy at least 36 Russian Black Shark attack helicopters(the naval variant of their fearsome Ka-52K heavy assault helicopter)to install on their new fleet of amphibious assault ships.China’s defence industry has been unable to develop one that remotely matches the Black Shark’s capabilities.
October 4, 2021
Nigel Farage has just given a summary of the state of the UK now. It’s not working. We are in a crisis and this government is completely out of touch with what is wrong. Then we have Boris saying he’s going to quadruple off shore wind farms. Is it me or has Boris completely lost the plot? I’m sorry John but this nation us going to the dogs and everything you stand for abd point out to your party is not being listened to. You have a mad man in charge.
October 4, 2021
Nigel also described the tories today as the new social democratics….he maybe right
October 5, 2021
That process began with CMD. That is why he was so much more comfortable going into coalition with, Nick Clegg. Kindred Spirits.
October 4, 2021
F U S
Totally agree.
October 5, 2021
Thanks to the clown himself largely.
There’s shameless, and something else for his kind.
October 4, 2021
The one part of JR’s speech I did not agree with is his by now ritual call for lower taxes. For three reasons.
First, borrowing is still too high, and taxes versus borrowing is a pretty common sense trade-off. Secondly, it makes no sense to be calling for Government to improve people’s lives by supplying education and training,plus the infrastructure to get new businesses going, but then to make no provision for paying for it all. If you ask for a collective project to improve skills, you have to have a collective way to pay for it. That’s not “collective” in the sense of Socialism, but just in the sense of paying for what we receive. Same story for environmental costs.
And perhaps the most important reason is that as the economy recovers from Covid, incomes will rise – as will the tax take – and history tells us that when UK incomes rise we have a tendency to celebrate by buying imports and then the trade deficit blows out – the familiar boom and bust.
The Chancellor has to have the sense to know when incomes are rising too fast, along with consumer spending, and moderate that by raising tax levels. It will be unpopular because “lower taxes” is an unthinking hind-brain thing, but it has to be done. Start with a super-tax on the super-wealthy and treat the voters like adults by telling them why taxes have to rise, not for drivel like “social justice”, but to manage the economy.
October 4, 2021
I agree with Frost’s comments on the NIP. We need some sort of agreement for the short-term, but not “heavy handed” administration of it.
However, Frost has to be aware that you can only threaten to invoke Article 16 just so many times before the threat begins to lose its potency. I think there would be merit in invoking it right now and dealing with the fallout rather than allowing the EU time to organize a consensus that it is some monstrous move.
Invoking Article 16 is not synonymous with denouncing the GFA and it would have a lot of support in NI, and we should be saying that today, loud and clear.
At some point, administering Ireland within the British Isles has to be a joint UK and Irish Republic project, without direct EU involvement. We need to get started on that pretty soon.
October 4, 2021
Frost is a very good speaker but he is not calling the shots.
The EU have started laughing at Lord Frostās threats.
October 5, 2021
It’s not just the officers of its institutions who are laughing.
Look at the popular press on the Continent. So are 450 million people, Peter.
And well they deserve it too, for generally having the sense not to put in power anyone remotely like the English Tories.
October 4, 2021
Take care at the conference John, I can honestly say I am ashamed at my neighbours in Manchester pursuing IDS today and swearing and using Angelaās new favourite word, this is why opposition leaders shouldnāt behave like thugs because it provokes followers to be even more brazen.
October 4, 2021
FaceBook, Instagram & Whatsapp down
China okayā¦.its only effecting western countries using renewable energy
October 4, 2021
Consumer spending has not yet reached pre-Covid levels but it is rising very fast, about 20bn quarter over quarter.
If domestic output does not rise as fast as consumer spending, that extra spending *has* to go into imports. That’s just arithmetic. If you can’t meet extra consumer spending from domestic output you *will* import the extra goods people buy.
And if that goes on long enough, you *will* have an increased trade deficit and eventually you *will* have a balance of payments crisis, and you can imagine how joyfully Remainers will jump on that.
The answer is to increase taxes soon so as to calm down rapidly increasing consumer spending. You do not have to agree with this, but I think that you do have to allow someone to say it.
October 5, 2021
Cheers, Jon
October 4, 2021
Panorama was very interesting tonight. Sleaze and corruption. It’s what politics are all about. The vast donations are sickening. When are we going to get some honesty?
October 4, 2021
4000 off shore turbines?
How many will be built with British steel?
How many manufactured in the UK?
How many jobs real jobs for British people?
Will British companies be installing them?
How much is this going to cost the energy bill payers?
Has any research gone into the long term effect on the eco structure of the sea bed?
How the gods of the snake oil salesmen must be laughing, similar to the tailor of the emperor’s new clothes.
Must be that the new generation of turbines operate 24/7 with no wind or very high winds. Where is the infrastructure to support all this?
It’s time call in the men with white coats to take this madman away.
October 5, 2021
Some great points there Turbo. The UK doesn’t get much back for the vast sums of money involved but don’t worry, there are plenty with their noses in the troughs.
October 5, 2021
And who will be running and owning the companies we buy our energy from ? I bet they won’t be British.
October 5, 2021
MarkB – we need to start asking a lot more questions about the companies that are causing difficulties right now and which Country owns them.
We have allowed a strategic delivery service to be run by a German company, who employed exactly how many EU drivers to run fuel around the UK? How many EU drivers did they employ before covid that are no longer on the payroll? Why didn’t they train British drivers? This is a plum job in the industry and we have allowed this company to bring us to standstill in some parts of the Country.
Who owns the strategic abattoires? Especially the one in Yorkshire that is causing British pig farmers on the news such problems right now? Why aren’t GB News interviewing the owner of the problem as well as the pig farmer. How much do they pay their workers? How long have they been advertising for butchers? There are lots of ex-butchers that had to close down their family shops because of this new abattoir way of working, perhaps this is an opportunity for them to take back their business in Yorkshire.
October 5, 2021
Who is paying for them and who owns them
October 4, 2021
Ideologically a sound – I’m not sure whether to call it “Tory”, as the Thatcherites were always more closet Classical Liberals than Tories – position, but for all its apparent sincerity & seeming common sense, it has an odd, slightly museum-piece air about it somehow. Q.E. for the financial sector has re-introduced, forcefully, the idea of the financial might of nations’ Treasuries being a major driver of their economies, and has fundamentally challenged the 1980’s Laissez-faire paradigm which prevailed until 2008. I’m not sure this genie can be returned to its bottle before it has played itself out in some way, for good or ill. In light of this the 1980’s-esque pep-talk pronouncements from the assemblage in Manchester feel inconsequential.
October 5, 2021
“Adopting a Conservative approach to liberty and prosperity ”
With Johnson in charge that is never going to happen. If your party is going to survive you need rid of him and his associates. Blair was bad but Johnson is set to be worse unless he drops his green and other globalist inspired (instructed?) policies.
October 5, 2021
NLH it’s quite obvious you are MiC in disguise.