The government is we are told working up an agenda to show how levelling up will take place. Under Secretary Gove all the main departments are being harnessed to the task.
They should begin with the Treasury. The anti enterprise policies of IR35, higher National Insurance and higher corporation tax have to change. The temporary super deduction from Corporation Tax for investment is not sufficient given the longer term big hike in rate. The treasury should take Corporation tax down to 15% and cut taxes for the self employed and small business.
Mr Goveâs own department should come up with a planning policy which encourages more house building in parts of the countries  with cheaper land and a shortage of new homes to buy. Now many more people are home working for at least part of the week there is less need to overbuild close to London.
The Business department should take more positive steps to encourage import substitution and more made in the U.K. It should revitalise domestic oil anÂŁ gas to displace imports, and put in more reliable electricity capacity. An industrial revival needs more affordable anD reliable energy.
The Environment department needs to reboot its subsidies and regulations to foster more home food production, in place of its current model of wilding the U.K. and importing food.
I will look in another blog at training  and education, to help more people on a personal journey to job and business success.
November 15, 2021
Good morning.
In other words – “We now need to work out what this means now that we have said it.”
Typical cart before the horse thinking.
November 15, 2021
Mark B, +1, truly a mark of the febrile fertility of our ‘celebrity’ PM’s headline hunting habit.
November 15, 2021
Reminds me of the Cameron ââbig societyâ project
November 15, 2021
Mark B,
Quite so, typical off-the-cuff comments by Bunter Boris, just like his ÂŁ100 Billion more cash for the Red Wall constituencies. Does Rishi Sunak know of this, was it in the budget?
Sir John, we know you are a good party man, but surely you must by now know Bunter is a cancerous liability to the Tories, he will only get worse as the issues build up. He is not equipped to run a country. You and colleagues need to get rid of him soon or you WILL lose the next election.
November 15, 2021
It’s what we get when people vote for the things they want to hear and shout down the people who are telling the truth.
November 15, 2021
That’s my take too, Mark.
Some election slogans are more feasible than others, however.
Also there’s a problem in that “level” is an absolute term.
You can’t sensibly make someone a bit less unlevel with someone else.
They either are or they’re not.
November 15, 2021
Futile unilateral carbon cutting is “levelling down”, not up but now we are committed to it and so much for leading by example. The Red Wall didn’t want the South penalised either but wanted an end to political correctness and mass immigration. We are getting both at accelerated rates.
And may we please dispense with that other silly phrase “Stay at home, save lives, save the NHS” seeing as I now know nine who have died of non-Covid illnesses (none of Covid) and 110,000 NHS workers haven’t even bothered to have their first jabs for the sake of the organisation that we have all given so much to save.
November 15, 2021
Those unjabbed NHS workers, are those the ones who were caring for patients when the pandemic was at its height whilst you were sat at home contributing very little? The covid-19 vaccines don’t prevent transmission and herd immunity has been reached. The unwanted NHS workers may have better immunity through natural infection than you.
November 15, 2021
I am a key worker and worked throughout the pandemic and did so from the outset even when I thought there was a serious risk of me becoming very poorly or even dying from it.
I spent very little of the crisis at home.
November 15, 2021
Do you remember the vicious backlash against the government from every side when it turned out the Wuhan infection had been carried into a third of nursing homes by staff, especially agency staff serving several institutions? It was the same on the Continent. (It was blamed on hospitals sending patients back but that was a tiny fraction of it.)
November 15, 2021
@NLA; The Red Wall merely agreed with Boris, “Get Brexit Done”, that is all as no one has ever been asked what .type of Brexit the majority wanted. Thus BRINO, by way of joining the EEA (and thus keeping freedom of movement) for example would have still been Brexit, just as much as leaving on WTO rules would have been.
“We are getting both at accelerated rates. “
Indeed, just as some on the Remain side of the argument said could happen with Brexit, we are getting an increased number of illegal migrants, given that 1/. their goal was always to reach the UK; 2/. due to Brexit there is no point in them first formalizing their status in a EU27 country as it no longer gives access to the UK.
As for your silly comments about CV19, I do not personally know of a single person who was killed due to being hit by a drunk driver, nor anyone who died in a car that was being driven by a drunk driver, nor of a drunk driver killing themselves, does that mean the laws on alcohol and driving should be scrapped?!…
November 16, 2021
Jerry
Boris knows what we meant. And we are an independent island nation but seem unable to repel people traffickers as can Andy’s beloved New Zealand.
You miss my point about my ‘silly’ Covid comment.
ALL of the people I know who died missed NHS treatments and appointments during lockdown. One a dear uncle last week and I have a friend with terminal bone cancer aged only 54.
That people are killed in car crashes owing to alcohol does not mean that we should ban cars. That would have been a more pertinent analogy to lockdown – especially in the presence of a measure that reduces risk by 95%.
Thanks for your compassion btw.
November 17, 2021
@NLA; Are you seriously suggesting Boris knows what all 13,966,565 who voted Tory in 2019 wanted from Brexit, nor is 14m an outright majority anyway, hence no second referendum! Stop projecting what you think or want as what the electoral majority think or want.
With regards illegal migration, I note you did not respond to anything I said, just the same old nonsense about being an independent island nation. The UK has always suffered from illegal migration, it did not start with our membership of the EEC, and yes many illegals in the past also came via boat and the near continent.
I seem to recall some suggesting, in the past couple of years or so, those being counted as dying from/due to CV19 would have died anyway from their other co-morbidities, how many being counted now as ‘dying due to the Lockdown restrictions’ would have died from their morbidity anyway?
The UK was, in any case, never in a Lockdown to control CV19 [1], just as cars have never been banned to stop drunk-driving. just sensible and appropriate laws and restrictions being put in place to reduce risk. Some though are just selfish, they think they have a right to do as they please, but then object if others disobey or circumvent laws or social norms.
[1] the legislation and later govt briefings made that very clear, actually writing into law permissible reasons not to remain at your own home, but also the legal right not to leave home, take furlough etc, if an individual felt they or another was at risk
November 15, 2021
N L A
Or, from my experience gained after a year in hospital (yes I will be home again) many staff have chosen NOT to be vaccinated! It should be a matter of choice, not compulsion.
November 15, 2021
Depends on demands of the customer frankly. Has anyone asked them?
November 15, 2021
BOF
Sorry to hear of your illness. I wish you comfort at least.
Nor should I be told to stay at home, with whom I can mix, where or what to wear on my face. These things should be a matter of choice too.
That NHS workers don’t have to take the jab renders the phrase “Stay at home, save lives, save the NHS” a silly one and that is all I’m trying to say.
November 16, 2021
@NLA; So basically you think people should be free to pick-n-choose which laws to obey?
November 16, 2021
So Jerry you think you should always obey any laws the State imposes without hesitation.
Like in 1930s Germany or 1960s South Africa?
November 16, 2021
That’s exactly what we’re going to do now, Jerry.
This government has zero credibility.
They cannot be trusted on a single thing.
November 16, 2021
Please read what I say.
“Nor should I be *told*…”
This was meant to be a temporary Act of Parliament. Even a 95% successful vaccine is not good enough for them.
November 17, 2021
@Peter2; I take your point, so you would support those trade unionists who disobey the laws on organizing closed-shops, strike balloting and secondary picketing etc, those members of CND who use direct action? After all at worst they are just spreading their political ideals, not a deadly virus…
@NLA; The laws are temporary (on a rolling 6 month review?), the pandemic is not over by any means, and we have very few current active restrictions. Some measures are being held in reserve, just as with many other types of civil emergency contingency planning.
Even if we had 100% vaccination coverage, from age 5 up, vaccines do not stop the spread of the virus (indeed there is growing data that suggests higher transmissions rates, no doubt due to the miss selling of the vaccines by govts), vaccines do not stop someone catching CV19, just hopefully preventing them becoming a hospital case or mortality but no one should assume because they are vaccinated it means they can not become either a hospital case or mortality.
November 18, 2021
No Jerry I wouldn’t support that but I realise they have the right to take such action and take the consequences of their actions.
And you?
November 16, 2021
Did you have the basic right to insist that only vaccinated staff should be anywhere near you?, or as someone said in a film ‘ask yourself punk, do you feel lucky?’
November 15, 2021
What does “levelling up” even mean?
November 15, 2021
It means taking money from richer people in the south and giving it to whinging Northerners.
November 15, 2021
You old socialist you, young andy.
Hilarious
November 15, 2021
or even taking rich people’s Teslas and giving them to people in the North.
November 15, 2021
Or even letting northerners have a holiday in France in Andys second home for free.
November 15, 2021
Andy,
True. And I think the Tories have deliberately misread the Red Wall vote.
They didn’t vote for a redistribution of wealth. They voted Right wing NOT to do that but to get rid of mass immigration, political correctness and Leftism in general, in other words Get Brexit Done.
November 17, 2021
Right, so you believed that a Leave win would “get rid of mass immigration, political correctness and Leftism in general”.
Where on the ballot paper did it say any of that?
Historically, by far and away most immigration came from outside the European Union – over which the UK always had complete control – and as Remain predicted that has now increased to meet UK capitalism’s wants and to replace that from Europe.
The UK is still a democracy, and its people can vote for whatever government they want, left or right, and that never had anything to do with the European Union either.
As for the language people use to describe certain other people and ideas about politeness, that seems to be set by the Americans.
So brexit doesn’t address any of this for the curtain-twitchers.
November 15, 2021
@dixie a headline, for the sake of ego
November 15, 2021
It is or seriously risks becoming the “back to basics” of our time.
November 15, 2021
Thatâs the beauty of it, no one knows – it canât be measured, canât set targets, canât say it isnât a success âŠ.and its even the name of a government department
November 15, 2021
Well, I suppose that if you take the very poorest few in the country, and make them only as poor as those very slightly better off, then you can claim that you have done what you said that you would.
So what does that mean?
The poorest five million?
Or the poorest five?
November 15, 2021
So if you were really poor and you got and extra 20 30 or 40 pounds per week you think that isn’t useful or good NLH?
November 16, 2021
He wants everybody to magically have the income and taxes like Andy does.
I do too – think of that easy increase in state pensions!
November 15, 2021
These are good, sensible proposals. The fact that you feel the need to make them is a striking example of this governments failure to understand or act on the obvious.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
I fear a lone voice in this government, but please keep it up Sir J .. there are many in this country who are absolutely behind you.
November 15, 2021
Oldtimer, +1, all so simple and so true.
November 15, 2021
Indeed. It does show gross Government incompetence.
November 15, 2021
NB
Nobody wants to see more houses, expensive area or not.
I understand from a friend that the Windsor area is being suffocated by more and more houses.
People in âcheaperâ areas still value their familiarity and room to breathe. They still count!!
Your government is currently welcoming in over 1000 newcomers ( at least, who knows??) onto our shores every day.
(AND I might add, apparently finding the resources and will to help protect borders elsewhere).
How will it âlevelâ anything when the level keeps rising?
November 15, 2021
Have you been anywhere near Horsham in Sussex recently? They are concreting over acres and acres of the countryside south of what used to be a pleasant, small market town, with thousands of little boxes, all made out of ticky-tacky.
Still, the foreign freeloaders, and in due course their extended families, will have to be housed somewhere.
November 15, 2021
Yes. It is horrific.
Politicians have totally destroyed this country.
November 15, 2021
Dona. I was born in Worthing and lived there for over 20 years. My siblings still live there so I visit on a regular basis. It has changed out of all recognition. There are new houses being built on every green field available and with no space between them and no roads wide enough to pass other cars in placed. There are no front gardens and very small back gardens. The traffic is really bad to the point of being almost gridlocked at times. This is being repeated all over Sussex. It’s a real shame. There are no extra hospital beds, schools or GPS. What was an attractive place to live is now undesirable especially once you have moved away and go back to visit.
November 15, 2021
Lots of people want to see more houses built – there is an entire generation that cannot afford to get on the housing ladder and which is forced to raise children in rented accommodation. You would be correct in saying that there are many people who oppose new house building, typically those who already own a home, don’t want to see their previous views spoiled by new houses, and who don’t want their expensive assets to be devalued. Added to these NIMBY-its are all the financial institutions with their wealth tied up in property, who definitely don’t want to contemplate the impact of falling asset values on their loan books…
Nonetheless, the government needs to un-rig the housing market so that younger people can start to build asset portfolios. The alternative is the creation of a generation of opposition voters dependent on the state, who will certainly vote in their own best interests.
November 15, 2021
If in rented accommodation, they have a house. Who occupies that when those people buy?
The whole thing is nuts, and has been said here a system where Tory government props up housebuilders who prop us Tory coffers.
November 15, 2021
No self regarding person will want to live in this country, or what is left of it!
November 15, 2021
All to cover a demographic bulge that is going to be over soon enough.
We have known there was an ageing population for decades so why have we been hit by a panic ? What changed in the last 20 years ?
November 15, 2021
Why is the housing crisis accompanied by a schools crisis and a road crisis too ?
November 15, 2021
Correct â I canât see any attempt by this government to restrict the number of illegal immigrantsâŠ.just the opposite this government openly welcomes them
Is that the âlevelling-upâ from French benefits to UK benefits
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
Everhopeful.
Not sure about Windsor having a problem, (no large developments of late to my knowledge) but certainly JR’s home Town of Wokingham and its surrounding areas certainly has, with over 20,000 houses granted planning in the last 20 years, many now built, with even more in planning, and now the Council searching for more new sites with the proposed new structure plan, for another 900 houses per year up to 2035.
Infrastructure already failing to cope with the huge increase in the local population.
November 15, 2021
+1
Absolutely terrible.
Friend was struggling in traffic and saying that jams etc were being caused by all the building sites.
Winkfield area?
Happening everywhere.
Devastating.
November 15, 2021
+1
Wokingham Council is ‘just obeying orders’.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
Totally agree John. Keep banging this drum
November 15, 2021
It might sound like beating a drum to these readers, but it seems to have the significance of noise of a leaf falling to the Government.
November 15, 2021
@David Peddy +1
November 15, 2021
And by the way.
We all know that this âlevelling upâ is a bonkers, authoritarian globalist notion.
It just ainât possible to âlevel upâ without a real injection of proper, hard cash.
I imagine that ME countries did it when oil was discovered making all the people richer.
We donât have a source of wealth (We leave it under the ground and crush all innovation) so it can only be about more counterfeiting, more borrowing and TAKING from those middling sort of folk who work and pay taxes.
It is therefore pure communism.
November 15, 2021
Saudi Arabia should be paying oil reparations for their role in perpetuating climate change. Instead we borrow billions and give it to China and India.
November 15, 2021
The West was uber keen to make itself dependent on Saudi oil.
Grovelling even.
And now Saudi is looking to hydrogen I think.
So no doubt we will beg them for that.
November 15, 2021
Everhopeful, +1, dishonesty and deceit, treachery even. A scam. I used to trust Gove, never took Johnson seriously, thought more of Patel, never been starry-eyed over Sunak, and never thought that Javid could be the answer to anything ‘Conservative’. Alok Sharma, well, same bin as Greta, Lucas and co.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
@Everhopeful – ah, but, but you can level down by increasing controls on the people
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
Give me a few free months in a four star hotel.
That might go a small way to paying back all the tax money stolen from me and mine over the years.
It would level me up a treat!
November 15, 2021
E H
Two excellent comments.
November 15, 2021
+1
Thanks đž
November 15, 2021
Now many more people are home working for at least part of the week there is less need to overbuild close to London.
Makey uppy and you go alongy ? …..The housing shortage as ever close to London as expressed in the price of a house .No conceivable building programme would fix that anyway, the purpose of letting building industry rip was to avert the Brexit recession without more borrowing, the cost being merely the despoliation of our sacred fields and spaces. It has now been abandoned .
All in all it just about sums up this Government
November 15, 2021
So NM are you in favour of zero (or at least much lower levels) of net migration or are you in favour of trying to reduce the rise of house prices by a big programme of house building or are you against new house building?
Your recent posts, like this one, seem to be arguing for all the angles.
November 15, 2021
Unless we stop the massive increase in population numbers in the South-east, we will continue to have a housing crisis there. Our good host has made this point more than once, and in any rational planning framework it would be essential to address it. But with the Conservative ministers in power that we have now, there will be no attempt to tackle the problem at the root.
November 15, 2021
State reform and cutting direct taxes is the only method to unleash economic value creation.
Levelling Up is political State intervention of the worst kind with one purpose, further State control. These ideologues simply cannot leave us alone, they refuse to leave us alone.
It is the arrogance and deceit I cannot abide
November 15, 2021
+ agree with every word!
November 15, 2021
I agree that fostering an economic environment that enables wealth creation and then getting out of the way of the people are the two key deliverables that the government should provide.
Levelling up, as I see it, just means rejecting treasury investment analyses that favour large populations in favour of smaller communities, something that is clearly long overdue given the condition of the road and rail network outside the South-East and major cities.
November 15, 2021
Correct – its social engineering by another name
November 15, 2021
Why on Earth are they not looking at cutting Government expenditure? Lots of places to save.
November 15, 2021
I admire your persistence Sir John, but what we need is a new PM, and possibly a new party. One tht puts the UK and its citizens first. One that uses common sense and logic instead of virtue signalling and appeasement.
November 15, 2021
Shirley M
It has been obvious what is needed for a long time. But it ain’t going to happen
The con continues apace.
November 15, 2021
@Shirley M – if only, we have nearly gone to far down the hole of becoming a totalitarian state. Just look at every action and proposal from this Government it is about control of the People. Control and manipulation on the way the surfs get to live and obey, the evangelistic new religion in Downing Street.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
Shirley M it sounds like it will have to be a new party like Reform U.K. as they appear to have common sense policies.No main parties donât seem to have any common sense or logic.
November 15, 2021
They are all the same woke/PC, lefty greens. Pro mass immigration and illegal immigration, expecting English taxpayers to pay for their rank stupidity, whilst lying about everything.
November 15, 2021
All the things you say would encourage economic activity. This would be seen by Boris as increasing CO2 and diametrically opposite to what he wants to achieve.
Complete de industrialisation and a return to subsistence living.
Not for him and his family of course.
November 15, 2021
not for him and Carrie’s family.
November 15, 2021
I almost forgot to mention. Today wind is providing 0.8gw or 2% of demand.
We are running 3 coal plants and inefficient open cycle gas turbines to meet demand. This is on3a relatively mild day.
Can you give Boris a ring and explain the physics behind this.
Three cheers for China and India fot not being dragged into this nonesense.
November 15, 2021
So Michael Gove is introducing a big new initiative to improve things in this country, is he? Last time he tried, it was in July of last year, when he introduced a plan to regain control of our borders, including ‘a migration policy which ensures weâre open to the worldâs best talent’.
Down at Dover, we can see how well that’s going.
November 15, 2021
Read, I think, that Gove is going to stop flat owners having to pay many thousands for dangerous
cladding to be removed. Sounds good.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
Someone needs to tell the Tories that they have been in office for over ten years and, if they think things need improving NOW one can reasonably ask what the hell have they been playing at all this time ?
November 15, 2021
Sounds like you are in the wrong party John, most of those suggestions are directly contrary to government policy. Why 15% on corporation tax ? Why not 14% to signal that Joe Biden doesn’t set our taxes ?
November 15, 2021
+1
I do understand not screwing up a long career for ideals/morals/truth etc.
But I really think that at this point I would consider âjumping shipâ.
Things have gone TOO FARâŠ..dangerous even.
November 15, 2021
RG, +1, I find it mystifying also. Sir John’s presence in the ranks of the Conservative MPs only serves to legitimise their derangement and the leadership have no interest in enacting any of his proposals, presumably for fear that they would be portrayed as ‘right-wing’ and ‘toxic’ by the BBC and even the tepid Telegraph..
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
R G
Why not 10% to completely undercut Ireland. That should put the cat amongst the pigeons.
November 15, 2021
Sir J – I agree with your list, especially the critical point about cheap and reliable energy. The price of energy sets the level of all our prosperity; a low price results in high prosperity – just study the Industrial Revolution.
November 15, 2021
âWildingâ=no food.
âWildingâ=no houses.
So which is it then?
More chaos I dare say.
Leave us alone!
November 15, 2021
About the only people benefiting from ‘levelling up’ are housing developers and 4* hotel owners due to an invasion of illegal immigration. Oh, sorry, I forgot the criminals working in the trafficking industry. Job done.
November 15, 2021
Instead of just a heading which can mean anything or nothing depending who is listening every department should be publishing its own direction statement.
One for the benefit of its staff and two the benefits of the people , organisations they serve.
This should be closely followed with a plan setting out time scales and costings of the roll out of their proposals. All which create targets , timescales etc. More importantly it would let the left hand know what the right is doing, thereby creating an internal market between departments stopping the doubling up on research and development. You should end up with all the government departments going forward together to achieve the stated aims. That is how very successful corporations and big business work totally focused, efficient and effective.
November 15, 2021
Having comprehensively blown up the economy with the ridiculous over-reaction to a Low Consequence Infectious Disease, with ÂŁbillions spaffed on un-costed, poorly managed schemes (like Test n Trace) with no cost/benefit analysis done, the Government hasn’t got to level up, it’s got to rebuild from the rubble they’ve created.
But the Eco-obsessed CONsocialists in Government haven’t got a scooby-doo how to do that. Instead, we’re getting Corbynomics “Tax ’em ’til the pips squeak.”
Nothing is going to change until we rid ourselves of the lefties who infest the Civil Service and Quangocracy. And now Cummings has gone and the current Mrs Johnson appears to be setting the Government’s Agenda, that will never happen.
November 15, 2021
Sir John, we have said it all before and for a very long time, but to date nobody has listened because they have no understanding of entrepreneurship or self employment, the eggs from which golden geese grow. Your government try to sound like Conservatives , but fail to act like Conservatives. Make that Biden gesture 10%.
November 15, 2021
Boris plans to be PM for many years.His major achievement is getting the U.K. out of the EU. How ever the EU have their fingers around our throuts.
Boris has no sensible plan going forward.
He needs to go or be replaced.
November 15, 2021
I have commented many times on the obsession government and environmental pressure groups have on the planting of more trees especially around the edges of perfectly good agricultural land and those who at the same claim they can validly promote more food production here to reduce reliance on imports.
I saw the other day some details of a new scheme, even more extreme, which is now promoting the planting of trees either in small clumps or strips in the centres of grazing land (at present). One claim was that environmentally the trees would absorb more water and reduce flooding! They don’t seem to care about the reduction of grazing space and impoverishment of the grassland, and the prevention of any change to a growing purpose. This may well be one of their aims not disclosed. I imagine the government supports this scheme too.
There is a world of difference between practicality and sense, and government and civil service ideologues and authoritarians who while claiming to save the planet will impoverish the least well off people.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
I see from reports that HS2 looks like it is going to be abandoned North of Birmingham, and instead existing routes are going to be upgraded with a few Beeching cut lines restored.
Sounds like a more sensible option, but does that not render the original reason for HS2 running South from Birmingham a very, very expensive mistake.
What is the sensible gain of a high speed line which only runs for 100 miles, very high speed lines are only sensible and of use, when the distance is over many hundreds of miles, when you can then save large chunks of time, not just a few minutes.
November 15, 2021
They said two years ago that it wouldn’t really go at high speed….and now it wont go every far
It will be faster, cheaper and more convenient to go by national express bus
November 15, 2021
You do really need to reconsider your position in this Party. These are completely contrary to everything being done by the government. I’m not sure, however, where the legions of MPs are to support government policy at all apart from careerist sycophants.
November 15, 2021
I am concerned that its not just a small faction thatâs moved to the left and greenâŠI believe itâs the whole party
November 16, 2021
ever watched sheep? If the leader is encouraged to go left or right and the rest will follow.
November 15, 2021
I have made this point many times to no avail. It does not matter how extreme or dangerous to sovereignty or legality or sense the Tory party becomes Sir John will remain with them.
November 15, 2021
“I will look in another blog at training and education, to help more people on a personal journey to job and business success.”
There can be no “leveling up” unless people have fair and equal access to education, not just as children and young adults but also as mature adults, especially with state retirement age increasing and state sponsored shifts in technology – so will this leveling up bring back free tuition for Further & Higher education, why do I somehow doubt it.
November 15, 2021
John, you obviously don’t get out much. Overbuilding in the North has been happening for years. Where I live three huge civil service offices have been demolished, with the loss of thousands of jobs, to be replaced by housing estates. This week we learn that the last remaining newly built offices are to have the same fate. This time though ÂŁ50,000,000 is being spent building a replacement office in the centre of town, with no parking. Is this levelling up? I don’t think so. Is it value for money? No. Is it forcing the green agenda on workers? Yes.
November 16, 2021
Christine. We’ll they’ve got to house the thousands of illegal migrants somewhere and by all accounts most are sent to the north east of England.
November 15, 2021
For levelling up to succeed, the UK needs a public transport system equivalent to the system in London.
In the West Midlands, the Metro tram service has closed down for the foreseeable future. Someone purchased the wrong type of tram. You couldn’t make it up.
November 15, 2021
The Guardian: Government to finally drop plan for HS2 link to Leeds â reports.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/nov/14/government-to-finally-drop-plan-for-hs2-link-to-leeds-reports
November 15, 2021
Levelling up, Get Brexit done, Bonfire of the Quangos – all trite phases which come to mean nothing. This Government just does not appreciate that words mean nothing – just keep drawing the expenses.
November 15, 2021
Sounds like more ‘equality’ or rounding down as the effect is likely to be.
By all means let us develop those places that need it, but why don’t we call it ‘investing in an area for a given reason’? Levelling up is just another phrase invented by the nudgers to make us believe something good is to happen, whereas it just means resources are being targeted and some areas will miss out on funding.
It also sounds far too much like a labour policy of throwing money at a perceived problem, with no real cost case done, nor any real evaluation of what benefits, if any, will occur.
Are the government going to provide a detailed, costed plan, of where our money is to be spent, or will it all go down the same hole? Will they provide statistics on what these measures achieve?
November 15, 2021
Off topic, the Irish Independent has an interesting article today which starts:
https://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/a-perfect-solution-to-brexit-for-north-was-never-likely-due-to-set-of-conflicting-challenges-41051588.html
âTwo articles recently by former senior officials, one by former Irish Ambassador to the EU Rory Montgomery in Dublin Review of Books, and one in encompasseurope.com by Philip Rycroft, the former British Head of DexEU (set up to manage Brexit), give a candid analysis of the Northern Ireland Protocol. Montgomery reflects on whether it could have been avoided and Rycroft on whether it is currently the only option.
Montgomery reflects that early on the Irish government, led by Enda Kenny, investigated placing customs checks away from the Border, but eventually decided against it because of Theresa Mayâs âhard Brexit red linesâ and âregular Commission officialsâ (not Michel Barnier and the taskforce) adoption of an âorthodoxâ approach toâŠEU lawâ. Irish officials âwould have been banging their heads against a brick wallââ
Given that we now have a “hard border” at Belfast and Larne and the other EU approved points of entry to Northern Ireland, and at airports and postal depots and other places across the island:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/06/16/president-macrons-revealing-view-of-northern-ireland/#comment-1236978
and also given that from next year the Republic will be checking imports of solid fuel from the north at sites in local authority areas away from the border:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/14/carbon-counting-has-its-limits/#comment-1276171
I wonder why the UK government has allowed Dublin and Brussels to get away with the nonsensical mantra mentioned by Montgomery:
âIt became our firm position that any checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard border.â
And thatâs not just the crazy idea of some has been Irish politician:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/10/the-eu-has-clearly-broken-its-uk-agreement-and-northern-ireland-protocol/#comment-1275274
but the official, carefully considered, position of the Irish government.
Montgomeryâs review may be read here:
https://drb.ie/articles/the-professional/
while Philip Rycroftâs piece may be read here:
https://encompass-europe.com/comment/the-northern-ireland-protocol-is-there-another-way
November 15, 2021
I guess it’s not for no reason called the Irish position.
Akin to May’s hard Brexit “red lines” lol
Whether to laugh or cry…?
November 15, 2021
A lot of people are hoping some sanity returns to the Tory party. Labour and the Libs have shown what idiotic policies ensure. You are our last hope. You will stay in power for a long time if you keep it simple. If you go down the route of forcing your ideals on voters they will respond in the way that Starmer and Davey are suffering.
November 16, 2021
Are they waiting and hoping for ‘a second coming’?
Good luck with that.
November 15, 2021
Sir John, as you have in part intimated so-called levelling up will easily and more effectively implemented by the releasing of the UK People from the ever burdening centralised state control.
The people will always do better, release more enterprise, create more wealth for the Country than any centralised controlling bureaucracy.
The persistent desire for Government ‘grandstanding headline’ to be the ones that do everything is the root cause for the greater majority of the UK’s ills. You could say good Government is not about doing – but releasing the people to do!
November 15, 2021
What can we expect from the Government, Oh yes another self indulgent ‘pat on the back’ headline. COP26 is a raving success. But no Country has lived up to the promises of COP21 in 2015.
So leveling-up what does it mean. Yes more control, more manipulation from our Centralist Socialist Leader.
Its difficult not to use similar jingoistic handles as we have emanating from Downing Street, so much dumbing down, levelling down, and patronising from those we expected to have a little bit of inteligence
November 15, 2021
From reports I gather levelling up includes reducing rail journey times in the north of England whilst re-opening some stations closed by Beeching. Who is to make these journeys, for what purposes and how do they cope at present? Will any future travellers consider they have been levelled up?
Meanwhile, other reports say Ministers now prefer to save ÂŁ10 billion by cancelling plans to run HS2 to Leeds on the grounds saving 15 minutes of journey time is insufficiently worthwhile. If true, it is stunning that Ministers have suddenly developed such a capacity for common sense. Would that it were applied in the Treasury, BEIS, Defra, and Mr. Gove’s oddly named department. (I exclude the Home Office on the grounds of impossibility.)
November 15, 2021
I can tell you what levelling up means. Taking money from those that pay in, and throwing it at those the don’t. That’s about it really.
November 15, 2021
BW
Simple, but so true.
November 15, 2021
Got it on one !
November 15, 2021
John, could you comment in your blog on the recent Treasury paper on financial regulation. The main changes appear to be to set international competitiveness as a secondary objective and to move regulation out of legislation into regulation.
The former seems to be a straightforward good thing, but I wonder whether it goes far enough? Should there be a requirement to set out measures for competitiveness by which the regulator’s performance can be monitored? Or some other way to generate pressure to make sure we scrap regulation that produces a greater burden than benefit? Some way of measuring the burden perhaps?
Meanwhile, getting detailed regulations out of legislation is surely a good thing but this approach seems to hand more power to an “independent” body – an approach to governance you have written persuasively on many times. I’d be interested to know what your thoughts are on whether more power for the regulator is a good thing.
Reply I do not comment on financial regs.
Anthony
November 15, 2021
Enough is Enough
Oliver Cromwell: Speech to Parliament – 20th April 1653
20 April 1653, London,
”It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government”
November 15, 2021
1653? really ? It sounds like it was spoken in the last year or two, possibly by one of the Supreme Court Judges.
November 15, 2021
UK case study: The Underachieving Kingdom? (Google: These Were The Worldâs Most Productive Countries in 2020 By Dan Barraclough | Updated: 13 September 2021)
Milling around in mid-table obscurity, the United Kingdom is the 13th most productive country in our ranking. Unsurprisingly, its average position comes down to its average stats in productivity per person and annual GDP per capita.
The UK worked the third fewest hours in 2020, yet still only produced $35.43 in productivity per person. Thatâs about $12 less per person than Norway which worked a very similar number of hours, and a paltry $4 more than Australia which worked an extra 316 hours in 2020.
In terms of GDP per capita, the UK sits in the middle of the park again at 17th. Thatâs a staggering 15 positions below our neighbours in Ireland, and 12 places below our cousins in the United States.
November 15, 2021
Acorn, sounds like Ireland should take a few more asylum seekers, a fair share doesnât it?
I wonder how they produce productivity per hour. The PAYE returns donât detail hours for gross pay? Theyâre guesses, estimates at best. Subbies always either exaggerate their hours, unless they were challenged to pay themselves at least the NMW per hour worked, then they might lower the hours.
Can you tell me from the statistics you have observed to be productive, in the top 5, how much gross turnover (is that what it is based on?) should be expected per hour worked? How is it worked out? Because some workers are on ÂŁ10 per hour and some ÂŁ100 per hour or more, how much per ÂŁ10 per hour should the business turnover be in order to be considered productive on the measures you talk about. perhaps more businesses would achieve it if they were told the targets! If the only people that know the target are the government then business is never going to achieve it.
November 16, 2021
This is macro-economic data not microeconomic. Quoting Expert Market, “We gathered the latest information from the OECD and World Data Bank (sources found below the table), taking the annual GDP and annual working hours of each country into consideration, ranking 42 countries by their productivity per person.
With our calculations, we were able to work out which countries had the most effective financial return while spending the least amount of time in the office. Further down the article, we discuss our findings, explaining which factors are at play in producing the least and most productive countries in the world.
November 16, 2021
Measuring productivity is one of the most vague statistics currently being produced.
November 16, 2021
Acorn, again Iâll ask you how do you know how many hours each companies workers are serving? You canât know because its not recorded in the UK! It is not on the annual P14/P60. Itâs not recorded monthly. Overtime hours are at a higher rate of pay so hours worked are equitable in relation to turnover its all damned lies.
November 17, 2021
The ONS publishes the Labour Force Survey.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/uklabourmarket/november2021
HMRC and the DWP use this data.
November 18, 2021
Thank you for the link.
As I thought the opening paragraph says ‘estimates’ they can’t possibly know. ‘Latest Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates are based on interviews that took place from July to September 2021.’
I also believe it is time the government tell business owners clearly and simply how productivity should be calculated for their organisation with the comparable figure for that business sector so people know if they are falling below the measurement. It is getting on my nerves now that productivity is claimed to be measured against other Countries based on 3 month selected surveys that I don’t believe are properly representative.
November 15, 2021
It’s all distorted by Governments mass migration policies and low wages subsidised by English taxpayers. In and out of work benefits. Each migrant at ÂŁ3000 subsidy. Madness.
November 15, 2021
“The treasury should take Corporation tax down to 15%….”
The Treasury should say it will match the lowest rates in the EU, which includes Ireland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
It will still be in the EU’s eyes “a level playing field”.
November 15, 2021
I like that approach…..maybe we could do the same with fisheries and do the same as the French
November 15, 2021
Levelling-UPâŠdonât think so
The build for HS2 didnât start in Leeds because this government never had the funds, intent nor vision, everything must start and finish in LondonâŠ.the saving ÂŁ100bn can now be spent on refurbishing parliament
November 15, 2021
I hope not – build a new 100 member building in Birmingham, Leeds or Sheffield.
November 15, 2021
Hello Sir John,
All of what you say makes sense so why are the government not doing it? As a voter I am disgusted with the failure to stop illegal immigrants crossing the channel, disgusted with the broken promises on tax & pensions, shocked at the Patterson affair & the PM’s crass stupidity. Not just over Patterson but his blinkered approach to Global Warming. Has anybody, MP or Civil Servant done some proper research about the Earth warming & cooling? Why this blind acceptance of a doomsday cult to solve a problem that does not exist!
Does the PM not listen to senior MPs like yourself?
I am waiting for the conservative government I voted for.
November 15, 2021
K f L
Cause he doesn’t listen to Sir John.
He wouldn’t have a clue what he is talking about. Common sense and understanding are not in his DNA.
If there are angels that looks after Great Britain please make it that Sir John can lead this country to the promised land.
You know it makes sense.
November 15, 2021
Paterson does not have a blinkered approach to global warming. Cameron sacked him for that.
November 15, 2021
And Paterson has been traduced. That is what you should be shocked at.
November 15, 2021
Thereâs a lovely little cafe in my town that I used to go to regularly.
Sadly it has had to close down. They cannot find staff because of Tory pensioner Brexit (TPB).
It used to be mainly young Spaniards and Portuguese who worked there. Mainly young people coming for a year or two.
The Brexit pensioners didnât want the jobs of the people they accused of coming over here and taking all our jobs. Shame. So the cafe has closed. Another business destroyed by TPB. Lives ruined.
Here in Chesham and Amersham we made pretty clear at the by-election what we think of TPB.
It isnât just cafe owners without a job. The Conservative by-election candidate doesnât have one either. I suspect many Conservative candidates will have similar experiences at elections in coming years.
November 15, 2021
So young Spaniards and Portuguese abandon their families and come to our country to work in a cafe.
Grateful for just 1 years employment.
Confirms our view of the young and zero prospects of a future in EU countries.
A disgrace for those countries.
November 15, 2021
Tell them to try recruiting UK staff young andy.
There are 70 million to choose from.
Offer them a wage better than minimum wages and give them good pensions and good conditions and good training as well as opportunities for career advancement and they will come.
Or is a few pence added onto the cost of your daily Latte too much for you?
November 15, 2021
No such problem here.
The staff are all excellent and nearly all British and that includes Indian restaurants where young white people work.
The use of cheap immigrant labour is an addiction that Londoncentric Remainers have.
November 16, 2021
Yeah – but then you live in a place with negligible economic activity.
November 16, 2021
Why is that andy?
Where is your data or proof?
November 16, 2021
A typically Londoncentric response.
No. I don’t live in an area of negligible economic activity. And we’re not cheap either.
November 15, 2021
This and every government needs to get its priorities right
Dying from climate change is a fantasy
Dying from levelling-up is a fantasy
Dying from using the wrong pronoun is a fantasy
Dying from energy poverty is a reality
Dying from knife crime is a reality
Dying from terrorists is a reality
November 15, 2021
Glen Cullen
Well said Glen.
November 15, 2021
+1
Exactly.
November 15, 2021
+1
November 15, 2021
Well said !
Dying from lockdown is a reality too.
November 15, 2021
Sir John,
On the 2nd of October you addressed this issue and stated: “A relatively affluent community like Wokingham is not affluent through more public spending”.
I previously lived near Wokingham for around 20 years and have now lived in Leeds for 10 years, and though I agree with much you say I think on this you are missing the point. Leeds has one of the worst public transport systems in the country, it is massively more expensive and less reliable than any in London and the South East.
To wake up this morning to hear on the news that the investment in transport (rail links) in Leeds is going to be scaled back after having read recently on the vast sums (of tax payers’ money) being spent on Euston and HS2 in the SE I find very disappointing.
The problem (as I am sure you must know) is that transport subsidies based on value added per capita tends to give you a positive feedback loop. The main reason I, and many others, spend our economically most active years in the South East is because that is where the better job opportunities are – producing “more affluent communities” – and therefore justifying more public investment (which can be afforded from higher paying local taxpayers).
MY understanding was that the vote by many in the “left behind red wall leave voting areas” for the current Tory party was that voters thought that Boris understood why people were fed up with always getting only crumbs that were left over. However I am beginning to have my doubts – and the slogan is getting tarnished like “northern power house”.
You can win elections with slogans – but you will not stay in power unless you deliver. A decent opposition will sniff out where electors are feeling betrayed (as Boris did with his EU leaving slogan) and focus their own promises on that. Boris did at least recognise that the votes were being lent – many may now be starting to look elsewhere
November 15, 2021
âLevelling upâ is doublespeak to hide the Governmentâs real intention which is to save the World.
Firstly by unilaterally zeroing our CO2 emissions by cutting back on transport, heating, industry and farming. Increasing imports of goods, food and energy are the preferred options.
And secondly by increasing immigration from all the Worldâs trouble spots. No problem with inviting up to 1000/day of unidentified young men of fighting age by offering free accommodation in 4 star hotels, free healthcare, ÂŁ40/week pocket money for mobile âphones and the complete freedom to roam our streets.
November 15, 2021
Oh whats the average cost to the private citizen (non state supported of course) per week which must be funded privately. What is the point of working and paying tax? Why not just give up, cash up and spend it (while its still worth something).
Do you treat citizens and long term legals in the UK in the same way?
November 15, 2021
Once again Sir J you have put the case for Capitalist leveling up but I am afraid that what we will get is the socialist/marxist version from the power base of your party.
Btw, on minimum wage, that you do not mention, as it rises it simply becomes the baseline and is inflationary. More competent staff have to be paid more and we end up in exactly the same place as before. But how would a Classicist understand that?
November 15, 2021
Just watching the ludicrous coronavirus downing street briefing
Why is it mandatory for NHS care workers to have the covid-19 vaccination but not for illegal immigrants crossing the channel
November 15, 2021
I thought we knew by now that with coronavirus you weren’t supposed to ask questions.
We just have to believe that the government has our best interests at heart with this issue. It’s a matter of having faith. Then perhaps we’re more likely to believe it’s looking after us on other issues, like the Green climate religion.
November 15, 2021
Here we go again.
A stricken Government trying to create a war time moment to distract the population.
I am grateful to those NHS staff refusing the jab – it renders “Stay at home, save lives, save the NHS” a very silly phrase after most of us have done so much to save it while they won’t.
November 15, 2021
“Mr Goveâs own department should come up with a planning policy which encourages more house building in parts of the countries with cheaper land and a shortage of new homes to buy.”
“No”, we need a Government to stop doubling our natural population increase of 1800/day (England and Wales) by importing 1000/day legal immigrants and encouraging 1000/day illegal immigrants (mainly young men of fighting age with no ID) to come with an offer of 4 star accommodation, free health care, ÂŁ40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets.
November 15, 2021
What we get from you John, are sound words on what the government ought to be doing but never does.
Please join Reform, a party which is more in line with your politics.
November 15, 2021
If we want more land available for housing, we need to remove the upper limit on Council Tax so that the impoverished part of the aristocracy – who are very pround of their ancestral home and lands but cannot afford to develop them – will be forced to sell some of their land or property.
The banding system of Council Tax introduced by Michael Heseltine in 1991 effectively imposes a maximum on Council Tax (band H). The system proposed by Enoch Powell as early as 1964 was a continuum based on the capital value of properties rather than a banded system and was to my mind superior because there was no cap.
And if we want houses built, we should ensure that the land is sold to small building firms, not the big boys who hoard land and thereby control prices.
November 15, 2021
Lindsay
Do you live in London by any chance ?
Council tax based on Property values with no upper limit would bankrupt many pensioners in the south east where a 3 bedroom mid terraced victorian house could be valued at over ÂŁ1,000,000 if located inside the north and south circular roads. (the latest ULEZ boundaries)
At the moment I live in Berkshire, my council tax is ÂŁ3,000 which is about half the standard state pension.
I would support to bring back the pole tax, and spread the load, where everyone contributed equally for all of the services, (used or not) then perhaps more people would understand how much the Council spends/wastes, on all of its services, and may argue and vote accordingly.
November 16, 2021
I suggest ID cards for legal citizens first then the government should know how many people there actually are, then a poll tax to spread the load fairly.
November 15, 2021
All correct.
But good luck getting any of that done with a Chancellor whose father in law is co-founder of Infosys, the 2nd largest Indian IT consultancy.
IR35 benefits consultancies. That’s why they lobbied for it and ensured that the media mis-reported it.
November 16, 2021
Good spot and well said.
November 15, 2021
Kids stuck on the sink estates in the north more than anything need far better schools.
Their schools have been failing for decades, all through fancy name changes and fashions imposed from London.
If there was one single thing to show they really mean business it would be tanks on the lawns of these schools, and really radical change.
November 15, 2021
The Treason Tory Party is not trying to promote the interests of the UK; it is in fact doing the opposite and claiming that this is saving the planet which it is not and for which they were not elected either.
We badly need a fair electoral system to allow patriots to vote for a party which does want to promote the interests of this country.
According to the EU, controlling their border with Belarus is the responsibility of Poland so why are British forces involved? We are not in the EU but we are in NATO and so is Poland so it must be a NATO matter which indicates that we are helping to stem a foreign invasion so why are we not dealing with the foreign invasion on our South coast?
November 15, 2021
remove the last line?
November 15, 2021
Who’s in charge no one knows and whilst many embarrassing events can be blamed on a variety of factors Boris has outlived his useful to the Red wall and the country.
His legacy will be a trail of expensive bills and vanity projects to delight big consultants and impoverish the rest of us. Sadly he has no opposition of any note.
November 15, 2021
To me Levelling up is a bit like Ireland beating New Zealand at rugby three times in the last five years.. it was never supposed to happen.. but it did
Here we’re talking about irish pride in a small country that the Empire in its time conveniently forgot about but the diaspora never did
November 15, 2021
Did anybody note the collective sigh of relief when China and India rewrote the final communique of Con 26, I mean that given by our government, oh! I exclude the crocodile tears of the President ( he’ll be relieved too) that there will be no requirement for real change, no holding to account for not fulfilling savings promises.
We will all go collectively to the hell of penury on a handcart ( that’s the ones daft enough to buy into the carbon scam and China and India, who have realised all along that man made global warming defences are a scam.
And we will let them, better India to be left to grow her industrial might, even if they do have to use coal, to offer a real alternative to imposition of Chinese hegemony
That’s not to say India won’t want her place in the sun
November 15, 2021
Footprint :
Fortunately for us China and India have made it less likely we will have power cuts this winter as we will be able to turn on our coal-fired power stations (very expensively because it will be an emergency measure) when the wind doesn’t blow.
If wind was the cheapest form of power generation, as our Government and climate activists now claim, how come China and India are building coal-fired power stations instead of wind farms?
Do China and India not have any wind?
November 15, 2021
Thousands of air-miles, attendees, documents, presentations and millions spent just to include the word âcoalâ in their final reportâŠ.and oh boy are they all thrilled
November 16, 2021
glen
Made me smile, but not far from the truth.
November 16, 2021
Except China, Australia, Germany, Russia etc who see the word included in the report as a profanity.
November 16, 2021
Hi John,
“The treasury should take Corporation tax down to 15% and cut taxes for the self employed and small business.”
Corporation tax should be done away with altogether it just gets passed on anyway and waste of skills and real resources trying to collect it. Since capitalism is run on sales give tax cuts to consumers.
Both the self employed and small business will benefit from the increased sales.
Ideally, it is best if tax move countercyclicallyâincreasing in expansion and falling in recession. That helps to make the governmentâs net contribution to the economy countercyclical, which helps to stabilise aggregate demand.
Tax rates should be set so that the governmentâs budgetary outcome (whether in deficit, balanced, or in surplus) is consistent with full employment. A country like the UK (with a current account deficit at full employment) will probably have a budget deficit at full employment (equal to the sum of the current account deficit and the domestic private sector surplus).
A country like Japan (with a currrent account surplus at full employment) will have a relatively smaller budget deficit at full employment (equal to the domestic private sector surplus less the current account surplus).
November 17, 2021
Is it the case that, if we were to match the Republic of Ireland’s corporation tax rate, a lot of businesses – e.g. American companies – would relocate from the Republic to UK? Or is it the case that a big attraction of the Republic is that it is an English speaking country within the Eurozone. Many of us would like to know Sir John’s take on this.