53 Comments

  1. formula57
    October 27, 2021

    You give us a glimpse of what we could have had instead, what would leave us advantaged over what we are getting from Mr. Sunak, and what may be obliged to be provided in due course once this Government wakes up.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Indeed. A misguided socialist budget from a tax to death and piss down the drain socialist chancellor pretending to be a Conservative. I see Rachael Reeves (PPE) yet again claimed he was cutting taxes for bankers. He wasnā€™t Rachael or you a dope or was it just a lie? He is actually increasing taxes for almost everyone it wonā€™t work you will kill growth, deter investment and/or push it overseas.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 28, 2021

        Allister Heath in the Telegraph today, as usual is spot on:-

        The Toriesā€™ nightmare conversion to Brownism will end in catastrophe
        Staggering tax rises and reckless spending werenā€™t forced on Sunak by Covid: they were an active choice.

        I am from the government, and Iā€™m here to help: that was Rishi Sunakā€™s message, repeated over and over again, as he unveiled a historic, epoch-defining rise in public spending financed by ruinous tax increases.

        This while pathetically pretending to be in favour of lower taxes. It will not work Rishi you are daft, PPE, deluded, socialist fool.

      2. a-tracy
        October 28, 2021

        Lifelogic, I think Rachel is misguided but ppe isn’t her only qualification even you will be impressed by her A Levels: A-Levels in Politics, Economics, Mathematics and Further Mathematics, she read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at New College, Oxford (MA), followed by graduating as MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

  2. X-Tory
    October 27, 2021

    I have commented on the budget under your previous post so here I just want to say that it is an absolute disgrace that MPs are so restricted in the time they have to express their views. You did very well (as one would expect) in your short intervention, but it was obvious you were rushing through your comments, with your eyes constantly darting to the clock. If we want our MPs to take their responsibilities seriously they must analyse proposed policies more thoroughly and scrutinise the government in a methodical and detailed fashion, so we cannot limit their speeches to what amounts to no more than a few soundbites. No wonder the quality of our governance is so poor!

    1. formula57
      October 27, 2021

      X-Tory “…it is an absolute disgrace that MPs are so restricted in the time they have to express their views” – true perhaps but it is a bigger disgrace that so many have such restricted thinking that they have no views worth expressing.

      1. DennisA
        October 28, 2021

        The photo of the Commons demonstrates that exactly. Why turn up if you have nothing to say, or are just not interested.

  3. Freddie
    October 27, 2021

    Growth is the way I agree but it has to come with interaction and trade with outsiders. At this time we have burned our bridges with the EU and are sailing by WTO rules,
    but with no favoured trade status with any of the other large world economic areas or countries- we need trade agreements if we are to progress. Then as far as I know WTO terms apply to goods trade only and says nothing at all about services and if this is true then I cannot see any hope for growth the way we are at present.

    1. John Hatfield
      October 27, 2021

      There is no evidence that EU Single Market membership was of any benefit to the UK. Neither was there a Single Market for services. And EU membership came with too much politics attached. We are well out of it.

      1. Freddie
        October 27, 2021

        John hatfield ..yes all ok except we have no plan in fact Government hasn’t a clue. We are making budgets on the basis that money will be going round and round but with no growth. For growth to succeed we need trade but we have no trade regime no deals no deep sea shipping companies anymore – the East India company is long gone.. America has turned its back.. in fact we are sunk.. pretenders.. pathetic

        1. dixie
          October 28, 2021

          Being a member of the EU never avoided the rampant protectionist bureacracy of the EU not the nationalism of members, in my industries we traded far more with the rest of the world than we ever did within the EU.
          The remainers that kept us in the EU had no plan except to agree to everything the EU (ie France and Germany) dictated and then put gold bells on it. The remainers did not, do not and never will represent our best interests but solely their own.

        2. a-tracy
          October 28, 2021

          Freddie, there is much I don’t agree with increased NI is one of them, however, cheer up there is good news out there not reported often enough.
          Bentley announced the biggest ever intake of apprentices for 2022 at Crewe working across all sectors of the business.

          Greggs are planning to double their turnover with an ambitious five-year plan.

          Cadbury have re-shored chocolate production, the bicycle maker Volt, and Heinz from the Eu to the UK,

          The first three UK freeport have only recently been given the go-ahead to start operations, Humber, Teeside and Thames to start from November 2021.

          Almost a third of cars made in the UK are now electrified – SMMT.

          Hellermann Tyton a British manufacturer is investing millions Ā£ doubling its factory in Plymouth creating 100 jobs.

          There are more.

          No trade regime you say yet the UK in 2020 the UK is France’s #2 wine export market after the USA. They import less goods from us than we import from them during 2020 there was a trade surplus in goods of Ā£5.6bn (ons), it is not wise to strike up a problem with the UK. There is no need for all this animosity i.e. France banning UK seafood – it won’t end well.

      2. Andy
        October 27, 2021

        Simply not true. You have been listening to lying idiots again.

        This is why we are swimming in sewage.

        1. Peter2
          October 27, 2021

          Cheap trolling andy very disappointing.

        2. Blazes
          October 27, 2021

          Andy .. where are we as a nation now.. and then I ask myself what trading friends have we got? we don’t even have suitably owned British merchant ships anymore and are now talking aboug trade deals with PPE partners on the other side of the world.. complete BS

        3. a-tracy
          October 28, 2021

          You know Andy I do agree with you, must go and lie down. I want to know who owns these companies. What is Ofwat doing about the problem?

      3. Lifelogic
        October 28, 2021

        +1 but the government are not making good use of the freedoms we now have.

    2. formula57
      October 27, 2021

      @ Freddie “…we need trade agreements if we are to progress” – no, we need to provide things foreigners wish to buy from us.

      Trade agreements can harm trade, the Australia-U.S. deal provides a current example.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        October 27, 2021

        The ToryUK provides loads of those, F57.

        High rise blocks in London, utility companies, you name it, they buy it – and no questions asked as to how they got the money to do so.

        1. Peter2
          October 27, 2021

          Thought you said they were all foreigners NHL
          Make your mind up.

          1. hefner
            October 28, 2021

            Cheap trolling P2, very disappointing.
            What is your decent debate comment answering NLH related to the foreign purchases of UK companies, and possibly about how some of the buyers got the money to enter such deals? Are you happy when Russian oligarchs buy newspapers, multi-million London properties, Chelsea and Everton football clubs?

          2. Peter2
            October 28, 2021

            Not a cheap cheap comment at all heffy.
            You miss my point which is:-
            One minute NHL complains about the poor performance of utilities due to them being owned by foreigners and next he says its due to Tory public school boys.
            If you cant see the confusion and contradictions in that position then I cant help you.

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        October 28, 2021

        Sorry, I missed out football clubs.

        1. Peter2
          October 28, 2021

          Would you like only UK citizens to be able to buy UK businesses?
          Then you must accept all other nations would soon stop the UK from buying and investing in their nations.
          Isolated Britain as you often say NHL
          Have you thought through this policy?

    3. Mike Wilson
      October 27, 2021

      Growth is the way I agree but it has to come with interaction and trade with outsiders

      Why? Trade is bad for this country. We import far too much and export our money to other countries. This has to stop. We buy goods from other country thereby outsourcing the carbon used in production to them and kid ourselves we are world leaders at getting carbon down.

      It’s all nonsense. Growth! Mr. Redwood used that word over and over again in his first minute or two. Growth of what? The economy! Why? Because increasing GDP is the only way this government can get tax take up to finance all the extra people they keep letting into the country and the extra borrowing they never stop. Growth! More consumer tat produced. More waste. More landfill. More nonsense.

      Stop the obsession with growth.

  4. John Hatfield
    October 27, 2021

    Brilliant John.

  5. Jim Whitehead
    October 27, 2021

    A tour de force, Sir John, by a most eminent back bencher for whom this government has no need and has no time or ear for. It says everything about the governments of recent years except, Sir John, why are you still in the ranks of the this unheeding Party?

  6. acorn
    October 27, 2021

    BTW. Has anyone got a photo of John Redwood MP wearing a Covid face mask, in any environment, public or private? Please post a dated link here.

    Reply I always wear a mask in shops or other enclosed public spaces in my constituency and on the tube in London.

    1. rose
      October 27, 2021

      And he was wearing one today in the House when he wasn’t speaking or about to intervene.

      1. Hat man
        October 28, 2021

        How pointless. It has been shown inone research paper after another that cloth face-masks do not stop a virus, except hypothetically in globules when sneezed by a symptomatic person. I did not see Sir John sneeze.

        As should be obvious by now from the opposition benches, and from the US Democrats, masks merely make a political statement. It is very disappointing if any Conservative MPs are now behaving like the Labout opposition.

        1. rose
          October 28, 2021

          A lot of people wear a mask out of good manners, not to protect themselves.

      2. DennisA
        October 28, 2021

        What good would it have done him? The idea that a face mask controls Covid has been disproven by the manifestation of Covid over the last two years. They are a comfort blanket and nothing more. Why does the PM wear one for photo ops? Purely for show, he has had Covid and recovered from it.

    2. Narrow Shoulders
      October 27, 2021

      Sir Kier Starmer and his clan all wear masks. Did not stop them giving it to him.

  7. Micky Taking
    October 27, 2021

    If only those in power would listen to you Sir John. Well done!

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Indeed, had they do so for the past 40 odd years we would have been far, far better off. Especially over the ERM disaster, the climate change act, the EU treaties, HS2ā€¦

  8. DOM
    October 27, 2021

    A Tory party that abuses the private taxpayer to appease Labour’s public sector leviathan is without moral shame and has no place in politics. It is the politics of parasitism, shamelessness and abuse.

    No reform of the unionised State sector, just more cash rammed down their throats for an easy life of appeasement and then post the invoice to ‘British taxpayer’

    It will all end in catastrophe but by then Johnson and Starmer the griftes will have moved on to richer pastures to line their pockets in a more creative way leaving the privatetaxpayer to pick up the cost of their vile politics

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      +1

  9. acorn
    October 27, 2021

    The UK tax structure is now so complex and complicated that no Mickey Mouse Chancellor could ever get to understand 1% of it. Successive governments have introduced myriads of discounts, dodges and allowances for its donor mates and sponsors.

    Hence, merging Capital Gains tax into Income tax will not happen. The top 1% now arrange for their income to come as Capital Gains, which is much lesser taxed than Income. Similarly, merging Business Rates into Council tax, to form a Land tax at about 0.8% per year of the market value of all residential, industrial and commercial land and buildings; won’t happen either.

    The government, like corporations, are only as good as there cash flow statements say they are. Actually working out the cash flow of a government that issues its own currency, is deliberately made very difficult.

    1. Peter2
      October 27, 2021

      Tell us how you arrange for your income to be treated as a capital gain acorn
      Come on eh as MiC used to say.

      1. hefner
        October 28, 2021

        You might want to study HS275, 2020, ā€˜Entrepreneursā€™ Reliefā€™. Or ask LL.

        1. Peter2
          October 28, 2021

          That is a very specific scheme with complex rules where the government is trying to encourage investment in risky new ventures.

          So I still have no answer from acorn to his claim that you can arrange for your income to be treated as capital gains for tax purposes.

      2. a-tracy
        October 28, 2021

        Peter2 I’d like an explanation too from acorn. If you draw down an income it has to be from taxed profit, this corporation tax rate has increased, you pay dividend taxes on what you draw which have also increased.

        Thanks Hefner, looked up your suggestion but that is only on business disposal.
        Entrepreneurs’ Relief reduces the amount of Capital Gains Tax ( CGT ) on a disposal of qualifying business assets on or after 6 April 2008. It is now called Business Asset Disposal Relief.

        1. Peter2
          October 28, 2021

          Correct Tracey
          heffy and acorn haven’t the faintest clue what they are on about.
          Typical of people who have never ever run their own business.

    2. Mike Wilson
      October 27, 2021

      Land tax at about 0.8% per year of the market value of all residential, industrial and commercial land and buildings; wonā€™t happen either.

      No thanks. That would move my ‘council tax’ or ‘land tax’ up by 40%. Would I get any more service for that massive increase. An incredibly stupid idea, to be honest. Governments ramp up house prices all the time as it is, if they thought they’d get more revenue by have a market value based percentage, they’d be encouraging 0% mortgages.

  10. Peter2
    October 27, 2021

    I first found this site some years ago now, after being really impressed by a speech Sir John made after a budget and here again are two excerpts of another great post budget response from our host which is full of sensible and positive advice for the Government.
    Let us hope they are listening.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      They clearly are not listening.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 28, 2021

      Total government revenues look like hitting 40 per cent of GDP while they are spending and borrowing (and largely wasting) even more. Taxpayers are being hammered more savagely than in any single year since Norman Lamont and Ken Clarkeā€™s disastrous 1993 Budgets which directly led to the wipeout of 1997 and Blair – not a plan to emulate.

  11. ukretired123
    October 27, 2021

    Superman Boris to the rescue? How sad he cannot be a real Churchill and hides behind others like Sunak. Opportunity missed – big gamble to appease everyone will end up pleasing no one. There are many unhappy and very angry after lockdowns, inept handling of important issues and Boris’s utopian wishful dreaming out of touch with the basics of life on the receiving end in 2021 and next year.

  12. Sir Joe Soap
    October 27, 2021

    Quite correct against the bunch of amateurs we call government. Their data input and advice given to them is second rate and many of us could do better from the empirical evidence seen in our everyday lives. Huge increases in timber and building material costs – the very foundation of the building program – will surely blow forecasts off there too.

  13. Derek Henry
    October 27, 2021

    Well said John,

    Pure Common sense .

    Under very difficult decisions with the supply side shock.

    I don’t know how you manage to keep fighting the way you do and always come up against the idiotic OBR and IFS and not get frustrated.

    Neither of them can explain Japan. Japan has destroyed their forecasts and theories for nearly 30 years.

    Brexit Britain has to do a few things well rather than a bunch of things poorly. Build less better and keep building at every budget. It will be an enormous success.

    When you look at the real data as I do, it always cuts through the Noise as I trade currencies. This Inflation mania is being over played by the OBR , IFS and the mainstream media.

    The inflation mania reminds me of the Ā£ mania by Remainers when the Ā£ fell after the brexit vote. Everywhere you look they are over playing it.

    Let me give you a few concrete examples.

    1. In the US the fact that different parts of the global economy have been switched on/off at different points in time for the last 18 months and inflation is coming in at is pretty damn remarkable 5.4%.

    That last time US inflation came in at around 5.4% was in was in the 1990’s and 2000’s under normal circumstances. When the US economy was fully open.

    2. In the UK the fact that different parts of the global economy have been switched on/off at different points in time for the last 18 months and inflation is coming in at is pretty damn remarkable 3.1%.

    That last time UK inflation came in at around 3.1% was in was in 2013 and 2017 under normal circumstances. When the UK economy was fully open.

    3. Japan inflation comes in at 0.2% which is incredible last time it was 0.2% was between 2017 and 2019 and was even higher then under normal circumstances.

    The list is endless John

    Inflation mania is being overplayed like the Ā£ by Remainers in the brexit vote.

    It is transitory because once the private sector sorts out the supply side it will fall. Consensus is it will peak first quarter of next year.

    Ignore the OBR and IFS they are clueless John. Keep calm and carry on !

    This Inflation mania is as bad as the Ā£ story after brexit. It is all the usual faces pushing it.

    Looking at the real data and comparing it with normal times paints the true picture. Everyone can breathe and relax. Once the supply side shock is fixed it will all be forgotten about just like the Ā£ mania after the brexit vote.

  14. Donna
    October 28, 2021

    Nice to see an admission that it was the pandemic POLICIES which crippled our economy, not the virus itself.

    1. rose
      October 28, 2021

      What you might call man-made destruction.

  15. Iain Gill
    October 28, 2021

    The obvious question is why does the NHS have less total beds now than it did at the start of the pandemic.

    NHS is not salvageable, other than as a brand, we need to just copy the Australian or New Zealand healthcare systems completely, as they provide much better service levels to patients.

    IR35, and open doors to cheap imported graduates, need fixing, its no way to spread prosperity among the British people to destroy their freelance community.

    But the budgets is far too tax, borrow and spend, its far too lefty. Conservatives should be coming up with a Conservative narrative, and not just adopting every virtue signalling fashion going.

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