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     I am writing to wish you a happy Christmas and to look forward to a better new year. I have been keen to support those in government determined to avoid any ban on family get togethers and visits to local restaurants and cafes over Christmas in contrast to 2020.  It looks as if we will enjoy some  of our traditional freedoms.
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   I have not taken this view without considering very carefully the evidence of how we can best control the pandemic. Reliance on vaccines is our first line of defence and they seem to be working well. The gradual introduction of better drug treatments also helps cut serious case rates. I have been urging completion of more drug trials and more work on better air extraction and UV cleaning of circulating air to cut the risk of the virus in indoor public spaces.The government promise me they are pressing ahead with this. The early evidence on Omicron suggests this is for most  a milder version with less infection of the lungs which has been the danger in other variants.Â
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    We are going to have to live with strains of this virus for some years to come, just as we do with flu which can also be a nasty killer for some. The U.K. government did well to back and support one of the first successful vaccines and then to roll out a large and early vaccination programme to greatly reduce the risks of death for many people. Armed with  other improvements we should  now let people make more of their own judgements about how to cut the  risks of the disease themselves.
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     I am pressing the government to get on with measures to promote more prosperity, more and better paid jobs, and more U.K. self reliance in everything from energy to food. I am proposing how to cut supply shortages which lead to inflation and how to reduce the  cost of living squeeze which will be bad in April without further changes of approach.Â
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     There is some disquiet about the apparent breaching of covid rules by senior officials in government. The PM is right to commission a proper enquiry and will then need to take disciplinary action if offences occurred.Â
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December 23, 2021
A very happy Christmas to you and your family too John. Thank you for all your hard work over the past year. I wish there were more like you, continually pushing for more sensible solutions to the difficulties we face in so many areas. The best thing about having no restrictions at Christmas is that many people won’t feel isolated and lonely. I just hope Boris doesn’t bow to the pressure from the opposition and the ‘experts’. We don’t want to be locked away for the forseeable future. We have the vaccines abd now need to get on with our lives. Yet another doctor said yesterday that cloth masks do NOTHING to stop the virus. Please no more.
December 23, 2021
Correct FES, cloth masks do nothing, but they do make the lives of staff in hospital pretty miserable.
December 23, 2021
Correct. Happy Christmas John to you and your family.
Good luck trying to get some sense out of this non tory government.
We need changes and we need them now.
December 23, 2021
+1
December 23, 2021
+ 1
December 23, 2021
Seconded on comments about John.
Regarding cloth masks, they do something but not a lot. If you’re sat down wearing one, then your breath isn’t projecting so far. However, on the move you’re leaving your breath behind you.
I do wonder whether breathing through the nose is just as good. Wearing a mask I find squashes the nose and encourages breathing through the mouth, which is not so good.
December 23, 2021
(That’s why God gave us a nose AND a mouth. Ingenious really.)
Happy Christmas to you, Sir John.
Thank you very much for all that you have done this past year. So often I’ve felt completely powerless in the face of what has been happening, but your Diary has always uplifted me at the beginning of every day, and I have known that if I felt strongly enough about something, you personally would read my comment.
Yours is a voice of one crying in the wilderness, but a voice of common sense. Here’s to a happier 2022.
Mary M.
December 23, 2021
The great advantage of masks is that they keep Project Fear in clear and present sight.
It is a great wonder that the powers who-should-never-have-been did not impose Plague masks âŠthe long pointy ones that look like birdsâ headsâŠ.filled with dried herbs.
That would have shown us!
And actuallyâŠcome to thinkâŠthe long pointy bit would have ensure âsocial distancingâ!!
December 23, 2021
E H. +1
December 23, 2021
E H.
My last word on masks. I learned in the QE2 Birmingham, a huge hospital, that masks were not worn in the 1st lock down but were worn from Sept last year and it made absolutely no difference to Covid infections. I would trust my source implicitly and this will be on record.
December 23, 2021
+1
Lovely to get that confirmation!!
December 23, 2021
I doubt the masks many wear will stop the virus but they should at least reduce the viral load, in enclosed spaces, which will give a better outcome for anyone catching it.
I see Spain has reintroduced the wearing of masks everywhere. This really is a step too far and will be another blow to their tourist industry.
December 23, 2021
The fine mist of unseen particles, rather like the tiny specks seen in a shaft of sunlight, are the issue.
Any mask will tend to force the collection of the particles into larger pieces thus on escape dropping to ground far quicker than open release. They also give the wearer time to deal with a suspected sneeze etc coming on. Abandoning in close proximity is foolish.
December 23, 2021
How unfortunate, Micky, that your insights were not available to the specialists who carried out a review of research on mask-wearing in 2019 against influenza-like illness (ILI). None of the trials found a statistically significant benefit of face masks. Same story earlier this year when a study in the Int’l. Research Journal of Public Health compared US states with and without mask mandates, and found no advantage for mask wearing. Same story again this February when the European Centre for Disease Prevention Control looked at the situation and concluded that ‘evidence for the effectiveness of non-medical face masks, face shields/visors and respirators in the community is scarce and of very low certainty’. Same story with SARS Cov-2 in the randomised control study conducted in Denmark last year: no significant difference in infection between mask-wearers and non-wearers. The droplets theory is theoretical and doesn’t match the public health facts.
The UK mask mandate in summer last year was not medically based. It was ‘political’, to quote BBC 2’s medical correspondent Deborah Cohen.
December 23, 2021
Seriously. I have yet to see anyone sneeze onto their mask. They ALWAYS take it off to do so. If they did sneeze in their mask what would they do afterwards ? Carry on wearing it with all that snot ?
Do they carry two or three of them ?
I am yet to hear anyone say “Oh. I forgotten my masks” (plural) or “Don’t forget your masks.” (plural)
How many of you carry more than one mask and how many of you sneeze into your mask ?
So the at the very point that so called studies say that masks are most beneficial (sneezing and bad coughing) people take them off in real life.
December 23, 2021
When I feel sneeze coming on I usually have a second or two to decide ‘squeeze top of nose, sometimes works – or grab hanky or tissue from pocket to smother nose/mouth. Maybe you have no warning?
December 23, 2021
Dear Sir John – thank you for your ceaseless dedication both to your work in Parliament and to the wider public, via this Diary.
May I wish you a happy, healthy and rewarding New Year.
December 23, 2021
I agree fully Happy Christmas.
As to âmeasures to promote more prosperity, more and better paid jobs, and more U.K. self reliance in everything from energy to foodâ we just need cheap reliable on demand energy, no net zero lunacy, tax cuts, cuts in the vast government waste, real freedom and choice in the NHS, Education⊠and vast cuts in red tape.
Alas Sunak, Boris, Carrie, Javid are clearly tax borrow and piss down the drain socialist and enthusiasts for ever more top down regulation.
December 23, 2021
Alas an omnipotent property developer with zero political empathy not in the corridors of power instead of the people democratically elected.
I wonder why.
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas to you and thanks for all the work in the public sphere that you do, as well as this blog.
I hope that simple, cheap prophylactics (e.g. Vitamin D, C, zinc) are amongst the “drug” treatments that government looks at. It appears many medical professionals are taking these themselves. Suggesting to people that they can take measures to protect themselves would go some way to undoing Project Fear, as well as improving health outcomes.
December 23, 2021
Wanderer, is there any evidence vitamin C, D and zinc work against covid? It makes me wonder why the pharmacies donât advertise this if there is scientific evidence and market them in packs of three with the doses required. People have got to start taking some responsibility for themselves I agree with you (what is up with people that they hang on to authoritarian leaders dictating what to do), their health, weight problems, bad diets (not all to do with poverty in Aldi the other night my daughter told me that their special offers of five large packs of vegetables enough to last a family a week were under ÂŁ1 and included 19p for a kilo of potatoes. If Aldi can do it why arenât the other supermarkets and why arenât they doing low cost meal cards for their customers as schools failed some generations of students by not doing proper home economics classes (cooking). At my low grade secondary school we not only did cooking but budgeting, cleaning, simple stitching to repair your own clothes from years 7 to 9.
December 23, 2021
A-Tracey, I was influenced early on in the epidemic when there was no vaccine. Someone on this blog posted a link to a US teaching hospital’s treatment regime for Covid outpatients and inpatients. In both cases C, D and zinc played a large part in the treatment. Since the arrival of the vaccinations that sort of advice disappeared as rapidly as big pharma’s profits and government spending rose.
Nevertheless, if you hunt around, there’s still evidence out there. Dr John Campbell seems a serious commentator on Covid with specialist scientific knowledge – in his videos he’s looked at a lot of evidence and comes to his own conclusions. You’ll find him on Youtube. He’s a brave man in the current climate, probably near retirement age so he’s not concerned about his career prospects.
December 23, 2021
Thank you.
December 23, 2021
Good morning.
I would like to wish our kind host and all those here on this diary a Merry Christmas, and to thank him for his efforts.
December 23, 2021
agreed, but for a few I doubt they have it in their soul to be happy and make merry!
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas and thanks to you too.
December 23, 2021
Your party in government is destroying our nation and all that it is. It has embarked under orders upon a year Zero journey that will lead to the wholesale destruction of all civil freedoms and social liberties.
A virus weaponised to impose unwanted changes. A pandemic deliberately created to justify the Great Reset to come
We can see with our own eyes the lies, the deceit and merry dance with our emotions and expectations by politicians, public officials. They really do have the fascist bit between their teeth and they are revelling the power of control over us.
Mr Redwood does his best and he’s one of the few British politicians whose instincts have not been usurped by this dash to authoritarianism but what does that add up in the final analysis? It means nothing
And then we have the politicised Tory-Labour Online Harms bill to come next year when all online discussions will become criminal and verboten. Yes, all discussions will become subject to fascist laws designed to destroy and obliterate opposing voices whoever they may be.
This is no time for a Merry Xmas nor a HNY with restrictions to come in 2022 and snakes like Blair calling for continual jabbing ad infinitum to stay ahead of the curve. I feel sick at this drive to destroy our world
December 23, 2021
DOM. Quite a depressing post, but I think very accurate.
December 23, 2021
+my whole heart.
Dom, you are, as usual, right.
How can we say âHappy Christmasâ on such a day as this?
December 23, 2021
And for some time now I have not understood how forums like this can continue in the face of the Online Harms Bill ( which no one much else seems remotely concerned about). AND wonât the (Police Bill?) prevent any protests?
Bleak midwinter.
December 23, 2021
We just have to keep fighting. A great win in the appeals court last week against the police recording non-crime hate accusations.
We have been on the path to living in a dictatorship for the last few decades.
Everything this Government does is part of the great re-set. We now have a department for levelling up which is just a means to introduce communism by the back door. You will own nothing and the state will control everything.
December 23, 2021
+1
Well said!
December 23, 2021
+1
December 23, 2021
Happy Xmas, JR. Have you any thoughts on this ‘Online Harms’ Bill? Do you agree with Dom as to its impact?
December 23, 2021
Yes, we want more debate on this bill and what it will mean for our comments on Sir John’s posts.
Unfortunately, the majority of the Conservative MP sheep, with the support of the non-opposition will vote through anything that curtails free speech.
December 23, 2021
+1 and Blair even calls young people idiots for doing a rational risk benefit analysis on the vaccine and often deciding on balance not to take it. Is Blair numerate? The ArchB of Cant. Equally deluded and offensive.
December 23, 2021
Just when you think you can’t despise Blair any more, he goes and proves you wrong. I am proud I saw right through the charlatan from the outset and never once voted for him.
December 23, 2021
Me too but then I could not vote for the dire John Major either.
December 23, 2021
Agree Dom, along side the Online Harms bill the Tories are bringing forward an Vehicle Anti Tampering BillâŠ.basically a spy in your car, just imagine a electronic box that can controlled everything in your home and issue fines for bad behaviour and arrested if you attempt to remove itâŠ.thatâs our future and nobody is stopping them
December 23, 2021
Agree with you. The WHO, WEF plan for a global tyranny, aka Great Reset, centred in Europe this time rather than the USSR. They have no plans to end the endless lockdowns and want to completely destroy our economy and way of life to enforce vaccine passports and digital banking with social credit scores like China.
December 23, 2021
“It” was always meant to be centred on (western) Europe;Trotsky expected it to pan out that way as the (Russian)Revolution spread to Germany.But the Revolution stalled when the German and Hungarian uprisings were suppressed.And Stalin’s hero was not Marx but Peter the Great (whose portrait he had on his wall).On Lenin’s premature death Russian history re-asserted itself.
The reverse is happening now,the western globalist revolution is being halted in Eastern Europe.
Btw there was a tour de force performance from Vladimir Putin at his marathon press conference this morning-demolishing the dim stenographers and hirelings sent along by the BBC and Sky.Sergei Lavrov was also on his usual masterful form at the Q@A for RT’s foreign correspondents yesterday.Both worth catching online if you are interested in foreign affairs and have the time.
December 23, 2021
Yes. Boris even mentioned a ‘cashless’ society in one of his speeches. Don’t behave ? You get cancelled.
December 23, 2021
And a Merry Christmas to you too, Sir John. This forum, being lightly-moderated, and by a human, is one of the best.
P.S. Job One for the New Year: remove the petty restrictions on our lives, as soon as possible.
December 23, 2021
+1 – the govenment enforced restrictions should go now they have done more harm than good.
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas everybody.
December 23, 2021
I would like to add my thanks, and good wishes, to Sir John, for his work to help, and inform us, throughout the year, and also to everyone on this blog, that they may have a very Happy Christmas, and a safe and happy New Year.
I have greatly enjoyed reading the articles, and all the views expressed here.
December 23, 2021
“There is some disquiet about the apparent breaching of covid rules by senior officials in government”
Congratulations Sir JR, the understatement of the year !!
Merry Christmas and thanks for letting us mere Plebs have a chance to speak.
December 23, 2021
Except it’s not just senior officials, is it. That photograph of the garden party did not just contain officials; since when has the current Mrs Johnson been either an official or a member of Government? It was not a business meeting …. it was a jolly.
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas one and all!
And thank you John, for tireless efforts in parliament and while moderating this blog.
December 23, 2021
Thank you Sir John for being a voice of sanity in a world gone mad.
December 23, 2021
+1
December 23, 2021
Indeed.
Happy Christmas John to your and your family, and to all those who read and comment on here, no matter what their views.
Also special thanks for your daily blog (a must go to daily read) which must really try your patience at times, and for your continued work and efforts in trying to unravel, make sense, of so many complex and confusing Government announcements and polices, for trying to hold to account those responsible, and alter those which clearly have not been properly thought through.
Can only hope for a better 2022 for all.
December 23, 2021
A very merry Christmas to one and all.
December 23, 2021
And you NLH.
December 23, 2021
I wish Sir John and all those MPs who work in the interests of the British people a very happy Christmas.
Sadly, that doesn’t include the Prime Minister, his Cabinet or the lunatics in SAGE. They have destroyed our Civil Liberties, wrecked the economy and deliberately set out to ruin the mental health of millions with their disgraceful PsyOps campaign over a Low Consequence Infectious Disease with a mortality rate of roughly 0.2%.
I doubt if the Government will do any of the sensible things Sir John suggests. They are fixated on Net Zero, despite the evidence that it will further devastate our economy, is unaffordable for the vast majority and will make our lives colder, poorer and harder.
I don’t have much hope for 2022 or the years after. And I’m not in a forgiving mood.
December 23, 2021
I fully agree with your comments Donna
December 23, 2021
I wish you and yours a very happy Christmas Sir John and thank you for your ceaseless efforts to bring some vestige of sanity to Government thinking.
Right now I am still in hospital with a neurological condition after 14 months but hope to be home in weeks now. Here I have seen first hand patients with serious side effects from vaccinations come in and out of my ward. I think you should go into this in depth as it is not right that these side effects are acceptable. Neither are the getting on for 2,000 deaths in the UK, following vaccinations! Neither is it right that the pharmaceuticals have been absolved from blame. Neither was it right that cheap, effective and safe anti virals were denied Covid patients (myself included sith 3 trips to ICU). Who was responsible for that, and how many died as a direct result?
My concern now is for my wife who has been vaccinated, as I witness the vaccinations clearly failing. Oh no they’re not, they say. We just need more of them! What planet are they on. It is now the vaccinated who are catching Covid and passing it on. When every interview with an expert ends with, ‘go and get your booster’ you know they are selling. Now heading for vax number 4, why? Because the others did not work?
Now the insistence that Omicron patients will ‘overwhelm’ the NHS. More rubish. The NHS was not overwhelmed during the first or second wave, no more than a bad flu year. Happy now, that when I told the doctors here that Omicron was the one that should be welcomed, I was right.
December 23, 2021
Reply to self. I should not have said ‘from vaccination’, but rather post vaccination, before anyone says there is no proof, which would be true but when side effects are displayed often enough following vaccination, questions must be asked.
December 23, 2021
My question is ‘why do you suppose these brilliant vaccinations will work for every single person?’
The designers, researchers, stated very clearly they can never be a total cure, but any sad casualties statistically are far less than the casualties WITHOUT vaccination. A simple truth constantly misrepresented. Consecutive vaccinations are merely an attempt to raise the protection level as high as possible, accepting that for a very few it may not be enough.
People faced with a sound lifebelt in rough seas can still die of hypothermia….
December 23, 2021
What statistics, Micky? Look at the statistics in the most recent UKHSA surveillance report. They do not show that deaths among the vaccinated are proportionately ‘far less’ than among the unvaccinated, as you claim. In the age range 60+, who are most at risk from Covid, and 90% double-jabbed, they show a modest advantage for the double-jabbed as compared with the non-jabbed, that’s all. 77% of that total dying within 28 days of a positive Covid test were double-jabbed. That’s better than the 90% you’d expect if the vaccines were having no effect. But it’s still not much to get excited about.
December 24, 2021
So I take it you are unvaccinated? And will refuse the paramedics to take you to hospital in your hour of need? Take the consequences by all means, but don’t burden the NHS for foolishness.
December 23, 2021
Agree completely and I applaud you for saying it.
I currently have 1, 853 reasons for not being jabbed with one of these poorly trialled, experimental and failing gene therapies ….. plus 1.3 million+ further pieces of evidence known as adverse effects.
All recorded by the Yellow Card system ….. and that’s before we get onto the data in the American, EU and Australian systems.
Yet Ministers and SAGE continually parrot the line “safe and effective” when the data shows precisely the opposite of that.
December 23, 2021
A very merry Christmas to you Sir John and also to all those who contribute to your diary and make it such an (mostly) informed and opinionated chamber.
The U.K. government did well to back and support one of the first successful vaccines and then to roll out a large and early vaccination programme to greatly reduce the risks of death for many people
And then withdrew the backing and and relied on the expensive alternatives in the booster campaign. For our fourth, fifth and subsequent vaccinations could we buy British once more please? The Astra Zeneca offering is a much cheaper alternative and should be used wherever possible. I’d rather a thrombosis than myocarditis.
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas Sir John!
I enjoy reading your daily blog, and understand you feel as frustrated as a lot of your readers at what we see going on around us. Letâs pray that âgoodâ prevails over âevilâ.
December 23, 2021
Thank you Sir John for all your entries this year and I only wish you were at the helm.
A very happy Christmas and New Year
December 23, 2021
+1
December 23, 2021
+1
December 23, 2021
+ 1
December 23, 2021
Happy Xmas Sir John and to all who post here.
PS: It sounds as though the Australian PM has had a change of heart about how to tackle the Omicron version of covid – now trusting the common sense of Australians.
December 23, 2021
The consensus from Owen Jones across to the Far Right is that countries cannot go on with endless lockdowns.
There is now nothing in that regard, over which to fuel a culture or identity politics war.
We can only admire those such as NZ who have never had to do this anyway, on the other hand.
December 23, 2021
trusting sheep for good advice.
December 23, 2021
What time is it in New Zealand ? Goes the old joke.
Fifty years. Comes the answer.
Do you really want us to go back fifty years, NLH ?
December 23, 2021
Do you mean the Moronic version? They’re laughing all the way to the bank.
December 23, 2021
Dear Sir John,
Thank you for all your hard work this last year. You have stood up for what is right and set an example to many of your hesitant MP colleagues which I hope more will follow in 2022. Enjoy a relaxing and well-deserved break over the festive season.
December 23, 2021
A merry Christmas to you Sir John and thank you for all your efforts on behalf of the people and for giving us this diary.
December 23, 2021
And to you and thank you for not forgetting true Tory values. If the enquiry into the Christmas parties throws up any more than a âsacrificial lambâ and a slap on the wrist on unnamed people, I will believe in Santa Claus again.
It looks as if the government were fed and accepted without question a load of âliesâ from the doom laden Sage. Just another example of its weakness and that this country has been taken over by the extreme Left political elite with no pushback.
Not to have modelled the social and economic effects of the virus as well as medical to cover up the NHSâs incompetence is nothing short of âcriminalâ
December 23, 2021
80% of VAT used to go to the EU Commission and 20% on administration, so why do we need this tax now?
December 23, 2021
Come on, Rose.
It was 397% of the amount raised by parking tickets, so lets scrap those fines eh?
December 23, 2021
SUNAK has made vast tax increases all over the place. I assume he wants to strangle the wealth creating sector. This so he can piss it down the drain on HS2, test and trace, eat out to help out, net zero, vast government waste, the dire NHS, duff degrees, importing US wood to burn, renewable subsidies… he is a socialist idiot it seems.
December 23, 2021
And where is it now going? It wouldn’t surprise me if it was still going to the EU.
December 23, 2021
CHRISTINE
Ah yes, did Alexander Johnson not leave us with a bill of about ÂŁ40billion to pay to the EU. For what, exactly?
December 23, 2021
Agree with your sentiment, we should be removing robin-hood taxes
December 23, 2021
Post brexit, UK keeps all VAT revenue regenerated in GB and a percentage of VAT in NI while the EU gets the administrative 20%….thats right folks we still send some of our UK generated taxes to the EU, agreed by this government
December 23, 2021
That why this government can’t remove any VAT
December 23, 2021
You’re getting muddled there, rose. The 80/20 split related to import duties/tariffs and the actual percentage of chargeable VAT that went to the EU was nearer 1%. Currently the Exchequer will keep all the VAT and if it wasn’t in place then it would only be replaced by some other consumer tax.
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas to all.
December 23, 2021
“How does the BBC do it? Their Today programme expert on energy did not think producing more of our own gas when there is a shortage would help!”
And how does the CBI do it? (From their conference events):
“Emma Pinchbeck is the Chief Executive of Energy UK, a position that she has held since July 2020. She is an expert in whole-economy decarbonisation and the energy transition. She also holds several board advisory positions.
Emma had her first baby in October 2019 and shares childcare with her husband. She is passionate about efforts to improve diversity in the energy industry.
From 2016-2020, she served as Deputy CEO of the trade body Renewable UK, in which role she also sat on the Board of Scottish Renewables. Prior to this, Emma was Head of Climate Change at WWFU-K. She has an MA from the University of Oxford.”
December 23, 2021
+1 – Pinchbeck – An MA in what Languages, English, PPE (she seems reticent to say) does not sound like an energy expert to me. The BBC “EXPERTS” are hopelessly out of their depths.
December 23, 2021
‘She also holds several board advisory positions.’
In other words ‘has lots of influential chums’.
December 23, 2021
Thank you Sir John. Best wishes to you and to my fellow countrymen and women for the year ahead.
December 23, 2021
And in other news we see the Governments impotence in the energy market. Totally failing to plan or even care about the utter mess they have been party to.
Unprepared to boost self generated capacity and not monitoring the Regulator who with weak oversight allowed the market to become a jungle of small under capitalised providers using our summer credit moneys for cash flow leading to me and I suspect many others to lose hundreds of pounds.
To add insult to injury it has now agreed a sum of ÂŁ1.8 billion of our money to offset the costs of the providers who have taken over the duff contracts. Yet again zero price paid for failure by the public sector.
December 23, 2021
Sir John
A Happy Christmas and a fulfilling New Year to you and yours.
To all Sir Johns contributors on this forum the wish is the same.
Thank you Sir John, thankyou all
December 23, 2021
A happy Christmas and to a better new year is what we all wish, and I wish that to our host who has done a great job in keeping discussion alive, and giving us a venue to complain about issues and tell the truth as we see it.
I don’t think we have done enough to convince our host that ‘climate change’ and the pandemic, to mention just two issues used to overwhelm us – to make us subservient, are not what they seem to be.
There is plenty of evidence available to rip up the government’s knowledge of and reaction to many of the issues we face, but that is being suppressed daily.
Before that vital information is lost to the censors, for we are moving into a world where there will eventually be just one view of everything, we must use it to good cause.
I suggest any arguments we use in future be backed up with knowledge based data – Clearly we cannot use the likes of the BBC for that, but there are still good sources out there. Let’s provide our host with the full data he needs, to get the complete picture, and help us in the process.
Even when links are not accepted, we can point at appropriate sites.
December 23, 2021
Enjoy your Christmas and stay safe. A Happy New Year to you.
December 23, 2021
God I hate that phrase. “Stay safe.”
It plays right into their hands.
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas to you Sir John.
I was pleased that the PM made the announcement that there would be no further Covid controls before Christmas Day ( in England ) but I did get the impression from his presentation he would rather be saying something else and I heard later there were rumours that he had been under pressure to say what he did.
Whether this is correct or not it is vital now that the hysteria we have endured for so long and especially in recent weeks about the latest variant be abandoned and countered.
Government has to take the lead and counter media and doubtful ‘scientist’ activities, especially when it comes to statistical exaggeration. There is one so called expert in particular who has been almost always wrong but is constantly quoted time and again.
Too many groupings in society are now taking advantage of the situation to promote their own selfish interests, personal and business. We must get back to a much more normal society and people’s confidence must be restored.
December 23, 2021
I wish a Merry Christmas to you and yours Sir John and a Happy New (normal) Year.
December 23, 2021
I’d like to wish this genuine conservative-libertarian a very Happy Christmas …… along with all the free people of Florida:
“At the end of the day Floridians know we will not let anyone lock them down. We will not let anyone take their jobs. We will not let anyone ruin their businesses and we will not let anyone close their schools.” Ron de Santis.
Now THERE’S your Churchill. Not the wet lump of jelly we’ve been landed with.
December 23, 2021
âTo Sew Or Not to Sew: A Poemâ – Christmas 1915 Edward H Douglas
With eager heart and eager hand,
We stitched and stitched, with tightening thread,
Bags, to be later filled with sand,
To shield a gallant Tommyâs head.
Hark! from the trenches rings the cry â
âOh! help us in our deadly strife;
Provide us bags, or else we die,
For, lack of these costs many a life.â
But now from War Officialdom
Issues the order â âCease your task.â
It fell upon us like a bomb,
And what to do, we humbly ask?
For still there floats the same refrain,
We can but feel its plaintive touch,
âSend all you can,â and then again,
Send more: we cannot have too much.â
âŠcâest la mĂȘme choseâŠ.and millions die.
December 23, 2021
I was quite cheerful until I read that Everhopeful, then the sombre knowledge that my grandmother got news ‘eventually’ of her husband’s death on 21st Sept 1918 was stirred again. Surviving trenches warfare for years until just 50 days from Armistice his number came up…
Brings reality to the fuss the nation makes over Covid, when the great majority of deaths were hastened on, not a sole cause from Covid.
December 23, 2021
Those war poems always make me cry.
I think how innocent those young boys wereâŠno idea of what might happen.
My husbandâs grandfather joined up at 14, lying about his age to go.
My grandfather suffered terrible mental decline having been in the trenches.
I think that specifically that poem points out how the powers that be chop and change.
Just as we have seen recently.
Is it to confuse and discombobulate or to cause harm?
Wars, plagues, terror attacksâŠall much the same.
âItâll be over before Christmas.â
December 24, 2021
So why don’t you back the most successful anti-war project that this troubled world has ever seen?
The European Union, that is?
I suspect that you actually quite like the idea of wars?
December 24, 2021
Going well in Ukraine and the EUs provocative attitude towards Russia.
December 23, 2021
Sir John.
A very happy and peaceful Christmas to you and your family may you be surrounded with love and affection and copious amounts of good wine.
Thank you so much for your dedication to this site and your work both in and outside parliament.
I fervently hope that in the new year that you and senior members of the party can unite to present a real alternative to what we have at the moment representing us as a government. There is nothing like real life and business experiences to bring about the change we so desperately need. Some of the plans smouldering under the surface need watching very carefully. We need doers not talkers, too many areas of concern to the electorate are just being bounced about like the proverbial ping pong ball.
December 23, 2021
Once again the British tabloids and press have excelled themselves. Anyone remember the scaremongering and advice given out on rushing out early in the year to get your Christmas fayre because the supermarket shelves would be empty? Well I’ve just got back from my local supermarket and the shelves are packed to the rafters. No shortage of anything. Hats off to all supermarket workers who have carried on throughout this pandemic without moaning about their lot. I’m sure we all appreciate them and I hope they enjoy their well earned rest.
December 23, 2021
+ 1
December 23, 2021
And the final Christmas message, it is confirmed that Truss will sell out by allowing a role for the ECJ in NI and therefore by inference the rest of the U.K.
Weak Government crumbling yet again to the Remainer political elite.
Sir JR, just how can a country with its own Supreme Court be truly independent when it has to comply with a court whose judgments will reflect the will of a group of third party countries?
The answer is. It canât be. Weâve been fed the usual bolleaux by the establishment.
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas to you Sir John, but mine has been greatly marred by this appalling government.
1. The government has LIED to you. They are NOT rolling out UV air purifiers in hospitals and they are NOT adopting widespread medication of covid sufferers. The NHS’s own website makes it clear that treatment will only be offered to a limited group of people considered most at risk, leaving everyone else to suffer and die.
2. After betraying Northern Ireland by failing to scrap the Protocol, and allowing the problems to drag on interminably (every day permanently destroying more GB-NI trade), now we hear that our fishermen have been betrayed once more, with their permitted catch next year CUT. Yes, that’s right, far from British fishermen getting bigger allocations of British fish each year, their quotas are going DOWN by 20,000 tons, earning them them some ÂŁ20 million LESS. This is how the FT reports it: “UK vessels in 2022 will be allowed to catch around 140,000 tonnes of fish, estimated to be worth around ÂŁ313m â a drop from this yearâs 160,000 tonnes worth ÂŁ333m.”
I didn’t think it would be possible for me to despise Boris the Traitor any more than I did already, but after this latest epic betrayal I have managed to do just that. The man is a vile disgrace who has betrayed every one of us.
December 23, 2021
JR HAS been wonderful!!
He doesnât rant in Parliament but just gets on doggedlyâŠ.working for change.
Ceaselessly seeking out means of promoting his views.
And I think it may be working!
May his Christmas tree shimmer with hope and his turkey be succulent and joyous!
JR you keep us all going!!đđâïž
December 23, 2021
+1
December 23, 2021
Many thanks for that, and for the effort you put into this blog. I just hope that you get something positve fro our comments in return for all that we learn from you.
A very happy Christmes!
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas, Sir John.
Thank you for your tireless efforts throughout the year and thank you for your blog.
Happy Christmas to all my fellow commenters and let’s all wish for a mutually prosperous New Year.
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas Sir John!
December 23, 2021
Seasons greetings. Live long and prosper
December 23, 2021
The Prangwizard of England
The ‘so called expert’ is the one and only Prof Ferguson, I can say loud and clear, he has been wildly inaccurate with every forecast he has ever made. They are all on record! Yet, he is still consulted by Govt. and interviewed with reverence by the BBC. I for one am heartily sick of it.
December 23, 2021
BOF, Ambrose in the Telegraph has a good take on that which he says is “academic etiquette” That says it all really. Nobody dares argue with him – they might be cancelled!
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas John.
I believe Boris will be deposed in July 2022 and that won’t be too late for you to launch a successful leadership campaign!!
December 23, 2021
I wouldn’t wish the further strain of being PM on Sir John, but rather hope he could lead and mentor candidates. Abandon SPADs and listen for advice to our host. And reduce the payroll !!
December 23, 2021
100% agree Sir John and good luck with moving the dangerous groupthink in the areas you have highlighted.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
December 23, 2021
When youâre the government for everyone youâre the government to no one
Boris has tried for the past 2 years to satisfy the needs of the brexit and of the remain
Boris has tried for the past 2 years to stop the spread and eradicate covid (lockdown) and on the other hand three series of vaccination (herd immunity)
Boris has talked big on illegal immigrant, on fisheries and the NIP to no prevail..talk is indeed cheap
Merry Christmas
December 23, 2021
+1
“He is the only leader who speaks to all parts of the country at once so we can’t afford to lose him.”
Um. That isn’t a good thing, actually.
December 23, 2021
It feels like weâve been in a coalition government for the past eleven years
December 23, 2021
Dear Sir John,
Thank you very much for all that you’ve done in the name of common sense and in promoting economic and social policies that I believe would make a significantly positive difference to the people in the UK. It’s a sad reflection on our society that you and others like you currently remain in the minority. Hopefully, that situation will volte face when the inept policy decisions surrounding lockdowns, net zero, etc. come home to roost. Though one would hope that that would occur within the Conservative party rather than allow Labour back in.
December 23, 2021
Sir John there is much to do in the year ahead, and I’m sure most of us welcome your tireless efforts to bring commonsense and better policies to bear.
Most of the last year it seemed to fall on deaf ears, and that makes us wonder what sort of thinking is behind the mistakes.
Have a relaxing time with family and friends!
Enjoy !
December 23, 2021
Makes me wonder if there is ANY thinking behind the mistakes, MT.
December 23, 2021
more a question of motives rather than mistakes?
December 23, 2021
Happy Christmas John and thank you for everything you do on this blog to help people to connect and opine on interesting topics each day. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all here I enjoy reading your comments.
December 23, 2021
I hope the freedoms over Christmas extend to our full week off work, Iâve only managed to take a couple of weeks off this year and Iâm worried about rumours that Boris is locking down from Boxing Day for 14 days, according to some people I know large companies (over 500 workers) have already been told this – if that is true (and I hope it isnât I believe it is time to give the people the facts in their areas and advise but stop controlling) then what does it say about your governments concerns for SMEâs many that donât get the full support that government allows larger concerns.
People have booked hotels for their holiday break, those hotels will have bought in food for them, if people know this is going to happen it wonât go down well at such a late stage. Government expects supermarkets and shops to open, takeaways to stay open and deliver, drivers to work throughout for just 20% more than all those at home, how many more of those staff that worked fully for the past two years died? We need to know.
December 23, 2021
Someone who claims to supports traditional freedoms ought to post critical comments. Personally I take a good humoured and tolerant view of cant and hypocrisy most of spout when it suits .My fellow citizens , however ,seem to get awfully cross about it. Party on dude
December 23, 2021
Merry Xmas Mr Redwood and family and thanks for the blog and your efforts
Best wishes to all contributors
December 23, 2021
I wish you a happy Christmas and thank you for all your hard work and efforts this year. Also for your diary and for allowing us to make our comments.
Hopefully the Covid deaths next year will fall to pre-Covid pneumonia levels of around 80/day and hence when there will be no excuse for any further restrictions.
The âapparent breaching of covid rules by senior officials in governmentâ :
It seems as though these people, who must know far more than we do about Covid and its effects and treatment, do not consider Covid to be a serious desease?
Next year the government needs to be tackled hard to rein back on their economy destroying unilateral drive for net zero CO2.
December 23, 2021
A very merry Christmas to Sir John and the wonderful commentators to this diary. Thank you for providing this conduit for our thoughts and ideas. Long live free speech.
December 23, 2021
Sir John,
Being a habitual reader of this site and your accompanying Twitter feed, I can’t help but notice the disconnect between your sensible, logical and rational proposals, and actual government policy. One can only hope that at some time in the near future the government wakes up and starts to listen to you.
December 23, 2021
Sir John, a huge thank you for fighting for decency and democracy for our great nation.
I wish you and your family a very Happy Christmas!
December 23, 2021
To all on this blog, a very happy Christmas and a better New Year.
December 23, 2021
Hi, Sir John, hoping you and your family have lovely chrismas and a happy new year.
I my view, Brexit will never be done till tax is charge at the border with EU.
December 23, 2021
Sir John, here’s wishing you an excellent Christmas and New Year, and thank you for hosting this lively and informative website. Seasonal greetings likewise to all sharing their knowledge, experience and views on it.
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas Sir John
THANK YOU for all the time you spend in giving us a voice.
I don’t know how you do it !
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all.
December 23, 2021
A very merry Christmas to you and yours, Sir John, and to all the commenters who have come here to contribute, whatever their views.
Best of luck, health and strength to continue fighting the good fight.
December 23, 2021
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your family. Thank you for your principled and patriotic service on behalf of our constituency and country over the last year.
Zorro
December 24, 2021
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone in England from Co Clare the west coast of ireland – and allowing for everything ‘brexit which we hate’, we are your closest neighbours and we love you all the same. James