What a recovery package would look like

We soon will need to put the worst of the pandemic measures behind us and concentrate on the promotion of prosperity for the many. Controlling the disease should rest on the offer of vaccinations, better treatments, individual decisions about reducing the risk of infection and better air extraction and cleaning in public buildings.

The Treasury needs to acknowledge that its policy is going to squeeze the economy too much in the first half of next year. If they persist with their raft of tax rises in April, hitting just when energy prices rocket with the shifting of the price caps, we will see an unwelcome relapse in confidence, incomes and output.

The Treasury should announce now that it will not impose the hike in national Insurance, a tax on jobs and on take home pay, at the peak of the cost of living troubles. It should remove VAT on domestic fuel to ease the large rise in energy costs for consumers.

The Treasury should work with the Business department to increase the supply of domestic energy. Gas is a so called transition fuel which will be much needed this decade before new nuclear and other reliable carbon free electricity comes on stream. Gas also remains the dominant way of heating homes, as people are not yet ready to adopt electric and heat pumps based home heating. The government should give the go ahead of additional UK gas production, starting with the Jackdaw field and other projects ready to go. The government should also commission more gas storage capacity to help smooth wild fluctuations in  spot market prices of gas.

The government should procure more reliable electricity supply from domestic sources as we are too dependent on imports when there is little wind.The Treasury should work with the Environment Department to fashion support schemes to promote more food production at home instead of offering money to prevent farming here, supporting imports.

All the time government advisers tell us to avoid social contact the Treasury needs to offer help to social contact service businesses.It needs at least to continue  business rates relief and lower VAT, and should offer direct assistance for cash flow problems of otherwise solvent businesses.

145 Comments

  1. Mark B
    December 21, 2021

    If they persist with their raft of tax rises . . .

    Sir John. The governments largess at the beginning of the mythical pandemic has to be paid for. Its policy of locking up healthy people along with those who are vulnerable and thereby damage the economy was a mistake.

    . . . increase the supply of domestic energy.

    The government is busy knocking more down than they are building. Its policies on increasing electrical demand will not help just add to the problem of supply over demand. A complete shambles !

    . . . promote more food production at home instead of offering money to prevent farming here, supporting imports.

    This is where certain pressure groups have found their way into government departments and created policy. A policy designed to promote vegetarianism and veganism. I can provide a link to one such quack but our kind host does not like links. The idea of rewilding farmland is designed to reduce cattle and so increase the cost of beef. There are also other nonsense ideas that the government if promoting, such as carbon output of farms and the banning of certain pesticides leading to a reduction in crop yields.

    If the Tories are relying on the electorate being frightened by a Labour government, they need not be. I mean, worse could they be ?

    1. Peter
      December 21, 2021

      A “recovery package” is jumping the gun when you simply don’t have people in place that can and will implement it.

    2. Donna
      December 21, 2021

      Precisely. “We’re not quite as c..p as the other lot” was never a very convincing electoral pitch. Now they can’t even argue that.

    3. Mockbeggar
      December 21, 2021

      You could reduce the amount/number of pesticides if you allowed genetic Modification.

  2. Mark B
    December 21, 2021

    Sorry. Good morning.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 21, 2021

      I’m all for brevity.

      We know what a recovery package will look like.

      Keep the property bubble inflated.

      1. miami.mode
        December 21, 2021

        Excellent comment, Lad. The LibDems should have been bursting a ‘Housing Bubble’ instead of the ‘Boris Bubble’.

      2. Oldwulf
        December 21, 2021

        @NLH
        Yep…. protect the banks. Negative equity will be a problem for them.

  3. Oldtimer
    December 21, 2021

    These are sensible and necessary measures. To the current Treasury imposed squeeze must be added the many inflationary pressures on people’s spending and that other elephant in the room – the likely rise in interest rates. This will squeeze government, business and consumer alike. The least that future government policies can do is to remove the self inflicted harms of its past policies which you rightly expose and oppose. Times are already hard enough for too many people.

    1. Ian Wragg
      December 21, 2021

      But of course they will do none of these. We have a high tax big spending (wasteful) government modelled on the EU.
      The civil Serpents won’t change without a radical cull which Bozo is incapable of doing.

      1. Ian Wragg
        December 21, 2021

        So only 43 deaths with Covid yesterday. The figures are relentlessly down but still talk of lockdown.

        1. Sea_Warrior
          December 21, 2021

          With Omicron racing though the population, it’s fair to assume that most deaths in the country will soon be recorded as ‘with COVID’. The government’s COVID-death measure is no longer fit for purpose.

        2. glen cullen
          December 21, 2021

          Its the end of the world’ I tell yeah, the end of the world
          Better put up taxes and VAT….the people wont notice with the doom of omicron

        3. Denis Cooper
          December 21, 2021

          I check this every day:

          https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

          The number of tests and the number of cases are both rising sharply, with only about 6% of the tests proving positive, while so far hospital admissions are still just bumping along and deaths are drifting down. Anecdotally a lot of the positive tests are with school children who generally have mild or no symptoms but can pass it on to older people, especially members of their families. I do not see how the government’s medical advisers can sensibly restrict their attention to the direct benefits and risks of vaccination for children when there is a substantial additional indirect risk that they will transmit the disease to their parents or older siblings.

          1. Hat man
            December 21, 2021

            Denis, you’re right that this is a very useful official site. But I can’t see where it gives the positivity rate for Covid tests, even though this is an essential figure if we’re to understand what so-called ‘case’ numbers actually mean. Our World in Data does give this figure for the UK, most recently 4.4% as of last week: https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing. It is lower than it was in October. You wouldn’t know that from media reporting, though.

          2. acorn
            December 21, 2021

            I see Trump has now had all three of his COVID-19 vaccinations. Must be sole distroying for his denialist worshippers on this site. Hypocrisy rules OK.

          3. Denis Cooper
            December 21, 2021

            Hat man, I’ve just taken 584,688, the number of people tested positive reported in the last 7 days, and divided that by 10,315,179, the number of tests conducted reported in the last 7 days. They are not actually identical 7 day periods but only one day out. For myself I have performed two LFT’s in the past 7 days, for specific reasons, both tests were negative and as reporting results had proved to be a hassle I didn’t bother to report either. I’m sure that I’m not alone in this, back in the summer there was an official worry that of the 691 million kits which had been distributed only 14% had been registered, but that doesn’t mean that the rest had been wasted or flogged on a black market.

          4. Micky Taking
            December 21, 2021

            acorn : – I suppose it could be sole distroying, depending on how many marches they attend.

          5. Nottingham Lad Himself
            December 21, 2021

            Well the position remains very unclear.

            Researchers at Imperial College London compared 11,329 people with confirmed or likely Omicron infections with nearly 200,000 people infected with other variants. So far, according to a report issued ahead of peer review and updated on Monday, they see “no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta, judged by either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms, or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection.”

            We will just have to see how many of those cases go on to become severely ill, which typically takes two or three weeks.

          6. acorn
            December 21, 2021

            This is transitioning into being the pandemic of the unvaccinated, non mask wearing, virus super spreaders. They insist of having the “freedom” to infect anyone anywhere. After all, it is their right to do so; this is the selfish freedom that Brexiteers promised they could have.

            I say, if you are one of the above who ends up occupying an HDU/ICU hospital bed, I want the freedom to charge you the ÂŁ1,500 to ÂŁ1,800 per twenty four hours, for the use of that austerity limited critical care bed.

            Rishi S has been in the US looking at its HMO based private health system. He will have discovered that an overnight stay in a US ICU bed, will cost from ÂŁ7,500 to ÂŁ10,500 a night. You can understand why circa 65% of all US bankruptcies, are the result of medical bills.

          7. Peter2
            December 21, 2021

            Then move onto charging the obese or those who smoke or those who drink more than you do or those who engage in dangerous sports or passtimes or those who don’t keep themselves fit to your definition.
            Soon it will be those born disabled or ill that you target
            acorn have you really thought this slope through?

          8. dixie
            December 22, 2021

            @Acorn just what have you got against a poor defenceless fish, assuming your friends in the French fishing fleet have left any in our waters.

        4. JoolsB
          December 21, 2021

          And over half the Covid cases in hospital were already there being treated for something else. So they probably died with Covid rather than from it. Madness.

          1. Hat man
            December 21, 2021

            ‘Cases’ of Covid are usually determined using the PCR test, as we know, Jools. I see in the US that the Centres for Disease Control announced that after December 31, 2021, CDC will withdraw the request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization of the PCR test. The CDC now recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have been using the PCR to transition to another FDA-authorized COVID-19 test. Those said to be diagnostic are molecular and antigen tests.

            The reason for the withdrawal of the PCR for use in 2022 is its unreliability as a diagnostic, first acknowledged by the WHO in January this year. Let’s see whether UK health authorities will take note and follow suit.

          2. Micky Taking
            December 21, 2021

            well it is reported that 120,000 NHS workers are not vaccinated at all !
            Pretty high chance of catching it in a hospital?

        5. Ian Wragg
          December 21, 2021

          Wind today supplying 1.76% of demand and Greg Hands has effectively shutdown further exploration in the North Sea. This on the pretext of going to net zero and having to import more oil and gas.
          Please rid us of these idiots in charge.

  4. DOM
    December 21, 2021

    The fact that such practical recommendations require public assertion and indeed reassertion is an indictment of those who purport to govern the UK.

    1. formula57
      December 21, 2021

      @ DOM – true enough. We have just had the Sunak Slowdown and the Sunak Slump threats so Sir John’s proposals are a signal to the rest of us to show that things do not have to be the way they are, that we can have something more suitable and much preferable.

  5. David Peddy
    December 21, 2021

    Totally agree with all of this
    I am pleased to see that Greg Hands ,Energy Minister, published a set of ‘tests’ proposals for consultation yesterday ,which would be used for determining whether to issue licenses for more oil & gas drilling . I would infer that this is just a smokescreen to enable a U turn on the dotty decision NOT to issue said licenses which was an unjustified genuflection to the unwanted influence of Mrs Johnson ?
    Our Balance of Trade deficit is appalling at over ÂŁ90billion p.a of which over ÂŁ50 billion is energy imports – gas, oil,electricity and coal .
    Drilling our own oil and gas in the North Sea, fracking our own gas and mining our own coking coal in Cumbria makes perfect ecological and economic sense as we will need all of these for some time to come. Continuity and security of supply ; reduced imports , increased exports , employment with high wages; good for GDP and tax revenues
    Ticks all the boxes.
    No need for consultation , just get on and do it !

    1. Roy Grainger
      December 21, 2021

      I like Greg Hands, he always seems keen and competent, the fact he retained a ministerial job, albeit at a low level, despite his links to the failed Cameron/Osborne regime suggests this is the case. Pity he’s not in charge of a department like Education.

      Reply He is Minister of State for Energy in charge of what used to be a separate Energy department. Looks like a critical role to me given the current energy shortages

      1. Original Richard
        December 21, 2021

        Roy Grainger : Greg Hands :

        Sorry but I do not believe we should have a graduate of modern history as the minister of such an important and technical department as Energy and especially if he had any involvement in the BEIS’ Net Zero Strategy, a project designed to cause economic collapse.

    2. SM
      December 21, 2021

      +10

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      December 21, 2021

      Thank you David for pointing out these figures which are shocking. Yes, John, brilliant ideas which should be implemented without delay but we know they won’t. It seems the whole of the EU have an energy crisis but we don’t have to if only some common sense was rolled out. Boris must start by saying there WILL NOT be another lockdown. The data and the science does not add up.

    4. Timaction
      December 21, 2021

      Indeed, I read the lies and deceit of the Energy Minister and the so called tests to see if gas, oil production was to be allowed. This is a fake conservative Government who are prepared to virtue signal to the world their green credentials whilst exporting our industry and carbon footprint and then importing it back but not adding to our own CO2 production! Absolute madness. Importing coal, gas and oil whilst we could produce our own. Making us reliant on foreign electricity so we can be blackmailed is total madness and not in our National Interest. Time to rid ourselves of these fools.

  6. Sea_Warrior
    December 21, 2021

    A sensible raft of ideas, Sir John. I hope that the government resists the temptation to spend big on infrastructure projects of questionable value. But you might wish to look at how the revenue from NS&I’s ‘green bonds’ is being directed. ‘Energy Resilience Bonds’, paying higher, inflation-matching interest, would probably sell like hot cakes.
    P.S. I passed my second, winter sports holiday decision-point yesterday, without making a booking. The reason? Because of the return-trip barriers the government has erected between me and a destination that is markedly SAFER than the UK.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 21, 2021

      I think that you will find that for many destinations, those countries have understandably erected barriers against people from this country, precisely because it is safer there than it is here.

      This “government” try to hide that embarrassment by putting up theirs to fill the newspapers instead.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        December 21, 2021

        You’re right about other countries. Austria, for example, has an infection rate that is a quarter of ours, and falling, while ours is rising. Despite that, ‘boosted’ Brits can easily enter the country, without ‘admin’ and tests, while HMG erects barriers against their return to here. That is illogical.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 21, 2021

          Yes, many, but not all by any means.

          1. Peter2
            December 21, 2021

            First you said…safer there than here.
            Then when challenged you alter and say…many but not all.
            Make your mind up NHL

        2. Micky Taking
          December 21, 2021

          but as you said yourself, tourists are not decending on Austria to spread etc…

        3. glen cullen
          December 21, 2021

          What ever happened to all the refugees at the Belarus Poland crossing……Poland held firm

      2. Micky Taking
        December 22, 2021

        Are you really a SPAD?

    2. graham1946
      December 21, 2021

      Regarding infrastructure, we certainly do need more gas storage which has not been provided under the present privatised model (in fact it has been cut to make short term profits, often for foreigners). This should be met by the companies taking the profits – we do not provide supermarkets with new premises so they can just rake off the cream, so why do it with energy? They must be forced to make adequate storage arrangements according to their size, or if they won’t then we build and make a tax on profits to pay for it.

  7. javelin
    December 21, 2021

    The biggest casualty of this pandemic is the FACT that the British people have been exposed as fear ridden, low IQ, compliant herd animals lead by deceitful, manipulative, fraudsters. It has been shown to be a myth that the British are the same brave, independent, boffins that won the world wars.

    Today the British are not lions led by donkeys but are sheep led by foxes.

    In fact it could be argued the British were never brave, just sheepish all along.

    And any great leader will tell you that such a reputational loss will encourage our enemies and dwarf our short term economic damage.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 21, 2021

      That claim was proven correct in many cases rather by the Leave vote five years ago.

      1. graham1946
        December 21, 2021

        It is braver to change something than to carry on with a thing that we don’t want and doesn’t suit, which it never did. It is Remoaners who lack courage and vison and see no future for this great country unless it is checked by foreigners, most of whom are not successful anyway (19 of the 27 on life support of handouts because they cannot manage, even in the EU).

      2. Peter2
        December 21, 2021

        Very cheap shot NHL
        Still abusing over 17 million people who decided to vote in favour of Leave.

    2. Everhopeful
      December 21, 2021

      +1
      I agree.
      Elite = the same who sent “brave” Tommy into battle.
      But actually he was just DOING AS HE WAS TOLD. Same as now.
      (White feathers, “Your Country Needs You” 
all similar to now.
      Again BUT
we have been taught that going to war for king and country saved us from a commie revolution.
      Now, obeying orders appears to enable that!
      Maybe always these fake, imposed divisions have been the scam?

      1. Everhopeful
        December 21, 2021

        Would the patriotism manufactured by elites in 1700s have been enough to temp farm boys from their villages?
        I have no idea what propaganda was used but it must have been very persuasive.
        “Wanna go and drown in the mud young man?”
        “Wanna help destroy your own gene pool mate?”

        1. Micky Taking
          December 21, 2021

          The Lord of the Manor, assisted by the clergy (God is on our side) was typically required by the King to provide significant soldiers for battle. If deemed well done, and victorious he might be granted vast lands -the basis of much of the ‘elite landed gentry’ much of whom his descendants are still enjoying.

          1. Everhopeful
            December 21, 2021

            +1

    3. oldtimer
      December 21, 2021

      @ Javelin: there is much truth in what you say. It would not surprise me if the limits of “persuasion” by fear are being explored during this pandemic by the practitioners of these dark arts.

      1. Oldtimer
        December 21, 2021

        Since posting this comment my attention has been drawn to the book “A State of Fear” by Laura Dodsworth. This book explores the use of fear to control people including the role of the Nudge unit, or the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) to give it its formal title. Since then other units have been spawned by government including the SPI-B, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour which reports into SAGE. Is this unit the source of advice to SAGE to emphasise the worst case scenarios exposed by Fraser Nelson?

    4. Mitchel
      December 21, 2021

      Sheep lead by foxes?

      More like sheep lead by hyenas…they’re laughing at you while feasting off you.

      1. Donna
        December 21, 2021

        Good observation.

      2. dixie
        December 22, 2021

        … or bears. It is the same in all countries.

  8. Bob Dixon
    December 21, 2021

    You are looking to the Treasury to work with other ministries.

    Prior to Brexit George Osbourn and the Treasury produced horror forecasts of the economy if we left the EU.

    George has gone. His civil servants are still in control.

    What chance they will change their spots?

    1. turboterrier
      December 21, 2021

      Bob Dixon
      Bob that has always been the problem in this country you can change government’s, politicians but the civil service remains the same.
      It is they that run and control this country because there has never been anyone in power to change the mindset of they know best by having a clear out to bring in new blood with new ideas.

    2. Timaction
      December 21, 2021

      Not a chance under this junta. 11.5 years and it’s the same left wing, eco loons in the civil service and all public services, having been recruited and retained under Bliar and Campbells recruitment and selection processes. Right of centre people need not apply. Woke/pc only to lead all of these organisations. The Tory Party not capable to change this after all these years! In fact they are now part of the problem NOT solution.

  9. PeteB
    December 21, 2021

    Sir John,

    As I predicted when I commented on your post 2 days ago your suggestions are the sensible ones you have made before.

    My question from 2 days ago remains unanswered. HOW do you get the Treasury to adopt these strategies?

    Would a back-bench campaign of c100 MPs help? I know it didn’t against C19 restrictions, although perhaps it gave Government food for thought. Could you get 100 MPs to support you? I have to say I don’t think a blog will suffice.

    Reply There is a lot of support for lower taxes in principle. Only nine other Conservative MPs voted with me against the NI increase. Why do people think all I do is write a blog for an idea? I do whatever an MP can do to advance chosen proposals to government including plenty of working with other MPs.

    1. PeteB
      December 21, 2021

      Sir John, pleased to hear you are pursuing this in parliament too. Would suggest you make this point every so often within your blogs.

      For my part, I will provide my views to my MP. If the population shouts there is a chance Government will listen. If not, there’s always an election in a few years.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        December 21, 2021

        Peter. An election? What would that solve when the opposition parties want more of the same but faster?

        1. PeteB
          December 21, 2021

          Fair point, although the ballot box is our only recourse. See what parties stand and vote for the best of a bad bunch!
          Worldwide we seem to be moving towards ‘big government’. I am much more in favour of Henry Thoreau’s position: “The government that governs best, governs least”.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            December 21, 2021

            But you want a government that oppresses very forcefully anyone whom you don’t happen to like, don’t you?

            That would probably run to many millions here.

          2. Peter2
            December 21, 2021

            How did you manage to extrapolate that from what PeteB has just said NHL?

        2. Timaction
          December 21, 2021

          Reform Party as we’re showing signs of madness. First sign of madness is voting for the same parties and expecting change!

          1. Fedupsoutherner
            December 21, 2021

            That’s what I don’t understand about the British electorate. Their unwillingness to vote for real change. I will vote Reform unless there is a big improvement which I can’t see happening. It can’t be any worse than spoiling my ballot paper.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            December 22, 2021

            “If things don’t change…
            …they’ll have to stay as they are”

        3. Narrow Shoulders
          December 21, 2021

          Spoil your paper FedUp.

          If enough of us do it, lasting change will come

          1. hefne
            December 21, 2021

            ‘Lasting change will come’: how?
            What would appear in the announced results would be the total number of rejected ballots. As long as that number is not a sizeable fraction (e.g., the number of spoiled ballots more than the difference in recognised votes between the first two candidates) it is likely that that spoiling ballots will be of little use.

          2. Narrow Shoulders
            December 23, 2021

            @hef @mickey at present by abstaining or voting for the least worst option you are legitimising the vote.

            By turning up and saying I vote for none of you as there is no representative for me you are registering dissent.

            Hey you are correct, it needs to be in very large numbers to make a difference but all the while we vote least worst, that is all we will get.

            The groundswell must start somewhere.

        4. Micky Taking
          December 21, 2021

          What would that solve? – an opportunity to dump the MPs aiming to keep the job, who let the electorate down during this parliament. An assessment of the people and parties competing for the most plausible lies?

    2. a-tracy
      December 21, 2021

      John, was it a whipped vote on the NI increase or a free vote?

      We thought we were electing conservative people but we didn’t.

      Reply Yes of course it was a heavily whipped 3 line vote

    3. graham1946
      December 21, 2021

      Reply: Isn’t that some kind of oxymoron – ‘there is a lot of support for lower taxes in principle, but only 9 voted against a big tax increase?’ What that shows is that the rest either do not actually believe in what they tell you or have no courage to stand up against an overbearing government, but are more interested in their own futures than the good of the country.

  10. Newmania
    December 21, 2021

    The part of the economy that will be worst affected are those sectors where large gatherings are required . Sport, leisure hospitality entertainment and so on. The idea that Covid will be eradicated is a, in my humble opinion, a chimera, and the tax payer cannot go on funding industries which have no natural place in the economy for the foreseeable future. Many must be left to die .
    Those that can be saved will have a much better chance if we introduce proper Vax passports and , if it were up to me , at the same time , the ID cards which were so popular and were denied us by the the Political right.
    That would solve much of the illegal immigrant problem and the channel `s boat people.
    John Redwood and his like need to learn how to solve problems without simply throwing more borrowed money around .I do not wish to have any more debt or to pay for the antisocial and stupid behaviours of others .

    1. Walt
      December 21, 2021

      With respects, Newmania, just how will ID cards stop illegal immigration and especially people coming across the Channel in rubber boats? All such cards will do is keep those people from legitimate activity when they get here. Our problems of how to house them, feed them, find potential evildoers among them and perhaps return at least some of them are not altered one whit by ID cards.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        December 21, 2021

        Read up on how they prevent clandestine labour etc. – which is why many come to the UK – in countries which have them, e.g. France.

        That said, all those countries have proper constitutions which prevent abuses by the authorities.

        1. Peter2
          December 21, 2021

          Modern day slavery is rife in Europe.
          Open your eyes NHL

        2. Micky Taking
          December 21, 2021

          so you think they come here to work invisibly in the black market? Enough to ensure we don’t let them in !

    2. Philip P.
      December 21, 2021

      What are ‘proper vax passports’, Newmania as opposed, say, to ‘improper ones’? Are they the ones that have slots for 6 boosters or so as in France? Are they the ones that track your movement everywhere you go, as in China now? Are they the blockchain ones that could be used as ID for digital currency? Are they only for adults, or do children aged 5 and upwards have to have them, as in New York now? Do tell us.

      1. hefner
        December 21, 2021

        What are you talking about? The French TousAntiCovid app does not have slots for 6 boosters or so: it is an app on your phone, and given that the NHS vaccination status that can be downloaded is only valid for 30 days and that I had not properly understood how to replace previously stored documents on it, I was ‘able’ to store three times my first vacc last spring, three times my first two vaccs this summer, and recently my three vaccs, for a total of 12 ‘pages’ showing my ID, date, type, reference of vacc, and place of injection (silly me!)
        And contrary to what you claim, I doubt very much that the app itself tracks your movement. Your phone might do that if you do not make sure that all bits related to localisation are not turned off (this on an iPhone).
        And for the NHS app, it only stores the latest version of your vaccination certificate, in my case three injections.

    3. Narrow Shoulders
      December 21, 2021

      If we just get on with it @New those mass gathering industries have a very healthy future as people rediscover the joys of being out.

      It’s only if we go along with the premise that mass gatherings are bad or dangerous that we have to accept that they are doomed. I do not accept that premise.

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      December 21, 2021

      Newmania

      Stop thinking like Sage do.

      The NHS certainly won’t survive your proposals. There won’t be any money left to pay for it.

  11. Julian Flood
    December 21, 2021

    Sir John,
    There is a post on TCW entitled ‘The sensible speech on climate the PM will never make.’ It charts a safe route to Net Zero that for about fifteen years does not cripple our economy. By abandoning such madness as the European Pressurised Reactors and deploying RR SMRs it looks to a energy rich future.

    The route to that future, however, would need political courage and there I’m not sanguine. Our own onshore shale gas would be needed to keep our industry competitive – it would also drive our cars, buses, trains and boats, it’s low carbon and low particulate and good for the balance of trade – so my fictional PM proposes ample compensation for those disadvantaged by the process.

    Walk hand in hand along the road to Net Zero for fifteen years. At the end of that time the decision to take the final extreme measures will be so obviously wrong that it would be a no brainer even for a STEM-illiterate decision maker.

    Current policies will lead to power cuts, rationing, hypothermia, and Net Zero will be abandoned. Is that the plan?

    JF

    1. Lester_Cynic
      December 21, 2021

      JF

      Why is there a need for Net Zero?

      Merry Christmas Sir John

      1. Timaction
        December 21, 2021

        Indeed. All based on unproven science and is actually a religion for the fools in Parliament. Let us pray………….that they come to their senses or we elect the Reform Party.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 21, 2021

          All science is unproven.

          That is, it cannot be shown that there will never be an exception to whatever analysis there might be.

          However, it has given us everything from vaccines to space travel to mobile phones to the internet.

          1. Micky Taking
            December 21, 2021

            what is this about? To claim science it should be repeatable, consistant, and peer reviewed.

          2. Peter2
            December 21, 2021

            I presume NHL when you say “all science is unproven” that means when people challenge the science around global warming and climate change you now will not shout denier at them.

      2. Julian Flood
        December 21, 2021

        There may be not actual need but there is a political need to pay lip service to climate hysteria. The beauty of the gradualist approach is that it kicks the dividing of the ways fifteen years into the future. By then the hysteria will have died down,

        JF

  12. Donna
    December 21, 2021

    As Ben Marlow says in the Daily Telegraph, the Government is overseeing a gutless plan to destroy our energy independence by making it impossible for new oil and gas exploration in the north sea using a new “climate change compatibility checkpoint” that will effectively prevent it ….. unless it can prove it meets Net Zero targets.

    It is impossible to drum common sense into Eco Zealots and we have an Eco Zealot in No.10 (hint, it’s not Johnson, but then he’s not running anything).

    Greenpeace is effectively running this country. This Government, as one part of the LibLabGreenCON, is ruining it.

  13. alan jutson
    December 21, 2021

    John your ideas are far too sensible and simple to be adopted.
    We all know by now that government policy always seems to be driven by big idealist thoughts and policies, which also happen to be, the most complicated and expensive, with unrealistic time scales.
    So many policy examples exist, past, present and future.

    Keep on plugging away, eventually you may get some traction and support from other like minded MP’s.

  14. MPC
    December 21, 2021

    You made comparable pleas to government when Mrs May was in office and caving to the EU – ‘the government must not……’. You still need to keep doing it, for which we are grateful, yet there is an 80 seat majority government (with an EU negotiator in Liz Truss who warned of calamity if we left the EU). It’s so hard to find any grounds for optimism that this trenchant PM will see any sense at all in the areas you discuss.

    1. Everhopeful
      December 21, 2021

      +1
      And so delighted to see that JR has got himself a bit of a platform on GB News.
      So clever! And he can actually say what he needs to
unlike being gagged on BBC.

  15. Alan Holmes
    December 21, 2021

    A recovery would require punishment for the guilty, a total rearrangement of the political system to prevent a small group of wealthy individuals buying politicians, running a ridiculous fear campaign to make the gullible consent to removal of freedom and the wrecking of an economy.
    Chances of that? About nil.

  16. majorfrustration
    December 21, 2021

    Agree all your points – what we need is a conservative government.

  17. Walt
    December 21, 2021

    Agreed, Sir John. Can you find enough conservative MPs in the House to drive that through?

  18. Nig l
    December 21, 2021

    Grant Shapps with his new North Sea etc policy making it almost impossible for new fields to be developed has scotched your energy ideas already.

  19. Bryan Harris
    December 21, 2021

    It’s all too easy to imagine that the unannounced government policies; such as the squeeze on economic revival, individual prosperity, personal freedom and longevity, are all about a government stumbling from one crisis to another.

    But no government could be this bad, this tyrannical, that is operating with integrity and serving the people of the UK.

    It is all very deliberate.

  20. Old Albion
    December 21, 2021

    All good stuff Sir JR. Unfortunately Bumbling Boris cannot or will not understand it.

  21. Everhopeful
    December 21, 2021

    NONE of them should have done ANY of this in the first place.
    People said at the beginning 
.burn down your whole house to remedy a wasps’ nest.
    In terms of prosperity, health, well being, societal cohesion in EVERY possible way
that is what they have done.
    And they SHOULDN’T have.
    Forcing a country into war is a crime but at least there may be a victory parade. There is only one group of winners in this equally cruel charade.

  22. paul
    December 21, 2021

    If I don’t get my 10 new coal frie power stations and 4 gas and oil wells i will polish the turd off.

  23. Everhopeful
    December 21, 2021

    Oh sorry.
    Were we asked to be brief?
    Please just cut out my meanderings.

  24. Nig l
    December 21, 2021

    And in other news you can see the Doomsters spin calling Boris’s decision a gamble, sub text for reckless.

    Agree with them is a wise science driven choice disagree a gamble. On the basis of their statistical accuracy I would say accepting any of their advice is a gamble.

  25. Original Richard
    December 21, 2021

    All great ideas Sir John but unfortunately not ones the current government will be adopting as they wish us to become more dependent for our food, energy and goods.

    With regard to our energy supplies see the Net Zero Strategy where the Marxist Britphobes at BEIS have decided to close down domestic oil and gas and replace it with insufficient low energy density unreliable wind energy (currently supplying less than 3% of our electricity as I write and which has been the case for the last few days) and for which they have no plan for non-fossil fuel backup.

    BEIS are claiming that the cost of wind power has been reducing but this is only based upon recent bids where there is no penalty for not providing the wind power contracted and most importantly where there is no costing for the necessary back-up when the wind isn’t blowing or even for short-term grid instability caused by the variableness of wind.

    On this plan we are heading for constant but unpredictable blackouts, what BEIS call “demand management”.

    1. graham1946
      December 21, 2021

      The proof of the pudding – if wind is cheaper, electricity bills will fall, but they don’t and won’t. Its all a big con. I was with a ‘green’ provider, but my bills just kept going up, this time by 50 percent as I am now stuck with one of the ‘big six’. It is ‘no competition’ time again, just as the big people always like it.

      1. Original Richard
        December 21, 2021

        Graham1946 :

        The “proof of the pudding”, if one were needed, is that the Chinese are building hundreds of coal fired power stations for their energy and not wind farms, even though we’re told that “wind is free”.

        The Chinese are building wind farms to act as demonstration/test models to sell us their wind turbines.

        1. Original Richard
          December 21, 2021

          PS : As I write I see that wind is supplying 1.76% of our electricity.

          1. glen cullen
            December 21, 2021

            I’m going out shopping today for another blanket and woolly hat

          2. Micky Taking
            December 21, 2021

            for those fans ‘what a blow!’

  26. a-tracy
    December 21, 2021

    The only thing that amuses me about this spendthrift high tax government is when you leave office the account will be emptied and in the usual state, you come in to office with, as all the usual conservative money management has gone out of the window, leaving Labour/SNP in a different situation to usual. “I’m afraid there is no money” won’t be such a joke then when they hammer everything that moves with taxes.

    1. Micky Taking
      December 21, 2021

      It won’t be ‘there’s no money left’ note in the drawer, it will be ‘you will find the debts everywhere you look, enjoy!’

  27. John Miller
    December 21, 2021

    The public voted for the Conservatives because the other parties were ridiculous.
    Another lockdown would be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for many people and would likely lead to civil unrest.
    We need a vigorous, vibrant economy to withstand the inflation shock about to hatch. Politicians have taken to QE like a man in the desert looks at a glass of water. The consequences of drinking too deeply will be felt soon.

  28. glen cullen
    December 21, 2021

    I fully agree with your conservative views SirJ….its a pity the government and party don’t share those views

  29. agricola
    December 21, 2021

    This is a Conservative agenda that will have little support within the conservative parliamentary party or the current leadership, it mostly being largely Blairite. Outside among Conservatives there is much support but it is currently looking for a home. Provide a home in 2022 or loose in 2024.

  30. JoolsB
    December 21, 2021

    It’s a double whammy on tax rises as not only is NI going up but the personal allowance has been frozen for the remainder of this parliament. This fake Conservative Government have given Labour a big stick to beat them with come the next election – “you can’t trust the Tories to stick to their manifesto pledges” and they’ll be right for once.
    England can also look forward to massive hikes in their already exorbitant council tax bills this spring, a tax which takes no account of income or ability to pay. Funny how Sunak and Johnson can keep finding billions to bung (bribe) the devolved nations with yet insist on starving English councils of cash. Johnson was bragging the other day that Scotland have received the biggest block grant in 20 years on top of their already over generous existing settlement, this at a time when here in England, we are seeing massive cuts.

  31. Denis Cooper
    December 21, 2021

    Off topic, with Liz Truss taking over negotiations with the EU from Lord Frost it has become necessary to forward on my recent Freedom of Information request, with this covering note:

    “As you can see below I recently submitted a Freedom of Information request to the FOI team at the Cabinet Office “to establish, as far as may be feasible, the overall economic value to the UK of its Trade and Cooperation Agreement with the EU”, and I would be perfectly happy if that team responded to my request (which they have in fact not yet acknowledged) or equally I would be perfectly happy if the FCDO unit responded, or indeed if both responded, but I hope that the request will not fall between the two stools. As the Foreign Secretary will in any case need to have this information to hand before she enters into serious negotiations with the EU I hope that she will be prepared to share it with the public who have paid for its production.”

    In response to my FOI request in late 2020 officials in three ministries all said that they had no idea how much a “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU might be worth to the UK, but now that there is a treaty perhaps somebody in the UK government apparatus will have some realistic notion of its economic value.

    1. Denis Cooper
      December 22, 2021

      The FCDO unit has replied promptly to say that the DIT is the lead department for the information I request and recommending that I ask them, helpfully providing the email address. Of course that is where I started asking about the projections for a “Canada style” trade deal more than a year ago.

  32. Dave Andrews
    December 21, 2021

    Sadiq Khan has cancelled the New Year’s party over fears of Covid, and do whatever he can to slow the spread of the new variant.
    How about closing down the underground mate, if you’re that worried about it?

    1. DOM
      December 21, 2021

      Those unionised public sector workers need an extended break over Xmas so that recover from extended periods of working from home for weeks on end and all to stop the spread of this virus thingy.

      Covid, the gift that just keeps on giving if you’re employed by the State. Meanwhile in the private sector it’s ‘go and rot in hell’..Yours with much love and a Merry Xmas from Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci

  33. Peter Aldersley
    December 21, 2021

    New gas storage in old gas fields (like Rough) will be very costly. It very much depends on how long this energy “transition” is going to be, whether or not the outlay would be justified. Buying expensive gas for cushion and working gas (about half each, where cushion is not recovered until decommissioning) is not nearly as attractive as bringing on new gas fields, of which there are almost certainly many at current gas prices. Also locking in LNG contracts is much more economical than gas storage.

    1. Will in Hampshire
      December 21, 2021

      Interesting, thanks for your commentary – I was about to ask a question about Rough and you’ve given me the answer. The effective loss of the 50% cushion until decommissioning and teh widespread availability of new sources explains why this option is unattractive.

  34. rose
    December 21, 2021

    How about this for sound administration? I applied on-line for a paper “NHS Covid Pass”. It arrived today, December 21st, 2021, though dated December 10th, 2021. It says “2D barcodes expire on 14 Jan,2022, and it has added the word “Domestic” which suggests it may not be valid for travel.

    1. glen cullen
      December 21, 2021

      Just Brilliant….no point in me applying for one than

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      December 21, 2021

      Rose did you specify the one for travel? It asks if it is for domestic or travel. My GP surgery keeps inviting me for my booster which I had on the 15th November.

  35. hefner
    December 21, 2021

    As you applied on-line and I guess had to put your name and NHS number to create your request, you could have produced your NHS Covid Pass immediately making sure that it was the travel version and printed it right away.
    Just to check your story, I have just carried out the procedure myself and the document showing my three injections is valid from today till 20 January 2022.

    Isn’t it much better for one’s little ego to complain about the ‘administration’ when one actually has their ‘two feet in the same clog’?

    1. Peter2
      December 21, 2021

      What a dreadful teacher or trainer you would have made heffy.
      Why can’t you just explain to people how to do something without appearing all superior?

      1. hefner
        December 22, 2021

        As if ‘rose’ needed to be taught or trained.
        So somebody is complaining about the ‘administration’ when it appears that it is very unlikely the mistake had anything to do with such an entity.
        What would you have written P2 not ‘to appear all superior’?

        1. Peter2
          December 22, 2021

          I would just have avoided your last sentence of cynical criticism of someone who just needed some information.

          1. hefner
            December 23, 2021

            What a gentleman you are, P2.

          2. Peter2
            December 24, 2021

            Thanks heffy.
            A rare glimpse of friendliness from you.

  36. The Prangwizard
    December 21, 2021

    Perfect sense, Sir John, based upon good sovereign and national economic interest.

    Tragically however, your leader and our PM demonstrates no real.interest in such policies as he has sold us out to globalist desires and is also afraid to challenge, or deny EU demands.

    He may say he is listening to you but I don’t think he has any intention of changing and adopting such good sense.

    He has abandoned us to green authoritarianism and encourages it at every opportunity and expects us to abandon our lifestyles urgently. He has not said a single word to my knowledge to deserve the faith you seem to have in him.

    You said you want him to succeed, but in what?

  37. BOF
    December 21, 2021

    Sensible suggestions as always SJR. But, the Brexit Elf has already discovered the futility of approaching Govt on these, or any other matters when every good idea was brushed aside, swatted away like an annoying fly. It is as if the intention from this Govt. (and the other parties) for the UK to fail. Almost as if someone other than our
    elected Govt were on control.

    As for controlling the virus, are the vaccines not a proven failure? Apart from providing limited antibodies for a short period of time? In addition to serious side effects and death, is it not time for sensible people to say loudly and clearly that natural immunity is far superior to vaccinations and must ne recognised as such?

  38. John Hatfield
    December 21, 2021

    I predict he ‘government’ will do none of those things you recommend, John.

  39. No Longer Anonymous
    December 21, 2021

    A recovery package would be to stop scaring everyone and trusting us to live normally. Focused shielding should be possible now even if it wasn’t last year (it was.) The issue of personal proper PPE to people who are known to be vulnerable on a “I protect ME” basis.

  40. glen cullen
    December 21, 2021

    Gender recognition ‘should move closer to a system of self-declaration’ says Women and Equalities Committee Caroline Nokes MP (Conservative)
    Will the last Tory in the house please switch off the lights

    1. Micky Taking
      December 21, 2021

      Gender recognition could be done by the bleedin’ obvious.

  41. ChrisS
    December 21, 2021

    It gives me no pleasure to say this, but I am afraid none of the changes you rightly and sensibly suggest are going to happen under the current Government.
    They will require a complete change of direction and this is simply not possible under Boris Johnson.
    We need a new leader capable and willing to implement changes necessary to buy us time to adapt our industrial base and domestic infrastructure to the 21st century and beyond.

  42. Peter Parsons
    December 21, 2021

    Whatever, let’s hope it’s better put together than the Australia trade deal which it’s being reported today will hit the farming, fishing and semi-processed food industries by hundreds of millions of pounds.

    And the politician who was in charge of that is now in charge of sorting out the Brexit mess. What could possibly go wrong?

    1. Peter2
      December 21, 2021

      Or maybe they will compete.

      Every action a reaction PP

      Same logic doesn’t seem to apply to better priced goods coming here from say India or China does it?

  43. Micky Taking
    December 21, 2021

    OFF TOPIC.
    Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban says his government will defy a European Union ruling and stick by its controversial immigration laws.
    Last month the EU’s top court ruled that Hungary’s law criminalising lawyers and activists who help asylum seekers was in breach of European law.
    A long-running row over Hungary’s migrant rules means it could miss out on billions of euros in EU cash.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 22, 2021

      Kick ’em out of the European Union.

      Let them look east alone.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 22, 2021

        the best escape route from the oppression of the disguised stasi.

      2. Peter2
        December 22, 2021

        Look how friendly the 27 are.
        Any different opinions from the norm and commissar NHL wants you expelled.
        Some happy future.

  44. Lindsay McDougall
    December 23, 2021

    I agree with you that domestic production of gas should go ahead, together with giving the green light to Rolls Royce to build one of their small nuclear power stations.

    However, I am not at all convinced by your fiscal stance. Yes, we can and probably should cancel the projected increases in NI and corpoation tax, but you need a sizeable reduction to total public expenditure to go with that. I have yet to see you make significant proposals.

    It’s not clever to pretend to a nation in the grip of 5% inflation that everything is for the best in the best of possible worlds.

    Reply I have put forward many savings on spending. You are also ignoring the large increase in tax revenues going for growth will bring. Remember ÂŁ50 bn off the forecast deficit in the first half of this year when we were growing fast. Big cuts in pandemic offset spend.

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