Has the Government met its 2019 manifesto commitments? Here’s my assessment on where we are at.

Please see below my article published at Conservative Home:

Manifestos matter. They are the way for an incoming government to set a direction for the country and to provide a work plan for the civil service to implement.

In 2019 the Conservatives put forward a strong positive manifesto to the public. Its key messages helped the party win its first substantial majority since 1987. The main pledges were getting Brexit done, not raising the three main taxes, reducing immigration and boosting money and personnel in the NHS, the police and schools. There was also a commitment to net zero by 2050 without a detailed road map for the first few years of that long journey.

The Government will comfortably exceed its money pledges to the three main public services singled out for front page promises. I would expect it to hit its recruitment targets for more nurses, doctors, police and teachers over the Parliament. Fifty million more GP appointments should be achievable, maybe with a different balance between face-to-face and remote exchanges. So far so good.

Net zero will be more than honoured by a wide range of initiatives already taken. The danger is in going too far beyond other countries efforts with measures that have serious costs. Making and growing less ourselves to cut carbon dioxide, only to import from big fossil fuel users, is a loss for us and no win for the planet.

More difficulties surround the related issues of getting Brexit done, cutting low and no skilled migration and keeping taxes down. The idea behind these policies is to expand national wealth and income, to promote more prosperity for more people, and to level up the lower income areas and groups.

The policies were right in 2019 and remain right today. The optimistic spirit of the manifesto was its prime attraction. The idea was to boost people’s real incomes through more and better paid work. As the document stated there is “only one way to pay for world class healthcare and outstanding infrastructure and that is to foster and encourage the millions of British businesses large and small that create the wealth of the nation”. Levelling up is above all about individual personal journeys into better and more skilled jobs, into self employment and into ownership of homes and businesses.

Taxes worry people. High tax rates can kill confidence, drive business and investment out of the country and stifle entrepreneurs. The tax rate that collects the highest amount of tax is not the highest tax rate. Politicians who promise lower taxes and then put them up usually come unstuck with the electorate.

The 1974-9 Labour government presided over a nasty recession, raised taxes substantially and suffered a big defeat in 1979. The John Major government stood accused of putting up many taxes by the time of the 1997 election. It was defeated by its own backbenchers over a very unpopular attempt to hike VAT on fuel. The higher taxes contributed to the massive defeat in the general election as the outward reminder of the big Exchange Rate Mechanism recession the government had imposed.

The Labour government in 2010 was crushed by the great banking crash recession it helped bring about. The increases in income tax and fuel duty in its last budget underwrote the unpopularity. The first George Bush was a one term president because he was unable to keep his promise of no new taxes, the best thing he said in the election.

Fortunately this government has recovered the economy quickly from the sharp and sudden economic collapse brought on by anti-pandemic policies. The public is likely to be more understanding of this setback than they were of the big recessions that overwhelmed previous governments. The public will be less understanding if the Government presses on with its increase in National Insurance at a time of squeezed real incomes. It would be bad economics, as the Government needs to promote a further recovery. It is worse politics, taxing jobs and breaking a promise. The Government should drop the idea before it hits wage packets in April.

The Government also needs to redouble efforts to fulfil its promise over immigration. It said Brexit would allow real control over who comes into the country. It promised “We will not allow serious criminals into the country. If people abuse our hospitality we will remove them as quickly as possible”. The UK can now legislate as it wishes to exercise the controls it wants at the borders. The current Bill going through the Commons needs to be fit for purpose to deliver. Only a sharp drop off in illegal migration and in total numbers will now reassure people.

The manifesto showed concern for people’s fuel bills and promised “new measures to lower (energy) bills”. Instead the Government is presiding over a worrying energy shortage. We rely too much on imports, exposing us to the expensive vagaries of European markets during an acute European energy shortage. The manifesto promised the North Sea oil and gas industry ” a long future ahead” before getting to net zero, yet the Government is currently blocking a number of important new gas and oil developments that could ease the supply squeeze. Once again we need to ask why we stop our industry to cut carbon only to import fossil fuels from elsewhere generating extra CO2 to transport them.

The manifesto promised that the whole of the UK would leave the UK together. We were reassured that Northern Ireland with the rest of the UK “would maintain and strengthen the integrity and smooth operation of our internal market”. Work to do there then. The Government needs to remove obstacles to goods moving from GB to Northern Ireland where they are certified as being for UK consumption.

This may require UK legislation to reinforce the message to our officials. It is fully compliant with any reasonable interpretation of the Northern Ireland protocol, which can anyway be suspended if there is diversion of trade. The protocol expresses respect for the UK internal market and is meant to be compatible with other Northern Ireland Agreements that respect the place of NI in the UK. The promise to end the jurisdiction of the European Court over the UK must be carried through.

There are enough potential wins from the freedoms Brexit brings us to be the topic of another article. The manifesto holds out the realistic expectation that government will use its creativity and power to promote a more prosperous UK forged from that independence.

There needs to be more effort to implement that great vision. Success will come if the Government cuts taxes rather than raising them and if it promotes UK production rather than importing more. It needs to concentrate on helping people achieve their aims of better paid and more skilled employment and to do more to create a great environment for setting up and growing a business.

136 Comments

  1. beresford
    January 10, 2022

    1. The Government have caused an exodus of NHS and care staff personnel with their unscientific jab mandate. They propose to replace them with more immigrants.

    2. Breitbart carries the story of an Afghan migrant suspected of the rape and murder of a 13-y-o girl in Austria who subsequently ‘fled’ to Britain by dinghy and was put up in a hotel at taxpayers expense. The extradition court is currently considering ‘whether’ to allow deportation to Austria.

    1. Shirley M
      January 11, 2022

      We know the criminal Afghan migrant will not be deported, don’t we! Nor will all the other violent immigrants. Their ‘rights’ are greater than the rights of law abiding citizens. My view is that anyone who violates the rights of others should be made to forfeit their own rights. Minorities also have ‘rights’ that take priority over the majority. There is no equality, anywhere, for the majority.

      1. DavidJ
        January 12, 2022

        +1

  2. Gary Megson
    January 10, 2022

    It is false to claim the protocol can be suspended if there is diversion of trade. It simply does not say that, you are just making things up. Also there was no promise to end the jurisdiction of the European Court – quite the opposite, Article 12 of the Protocol clearly maintains the role of the European Court, and Boris was voted into power on the basis of his promise to implement the oven ready Protocol (and the rest of the Withdrawal agreement). You really are desperate to re-write history, but it’s not going to work. This is your rubbish Brexit

    1. mancunius
      January 11, 2022

      Read Section 16 (1) of the Protocol. One or other party may take ‘appropriate safeguarding measures’ if the application of the Protocol leads to ‘serious economic, societal or environmental difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade.’ It is self-evident that as the EU inflexibly refuses to mitigate its wanton application of tariff barriers inhibiting trade between NI and the rest of the country, the UK’s only appropriate safeguarding measures are to counteract those barriers (which are causing social and political disruption and are breaching the Belfast Agreements) by restoring free trade between the regions of our sovereign nation, and to override the NI Protocol until the EU replaces its stonewalling with negotiation.
      Alongside passing the loose framework of the NI Procotol, Parliament passed a law that made its every part subject to Parliament.
      Further, it is expressly stated in the Protocol that any and every section of it may be revised in the Joint Committee. For the EU side of the Joint Committee to refuse to even discuss the EU’s attempt to use their political court to dictate prejudicial arrangements that are deliberately aimed at disrupting trade within the UK, shows bad faith by the EU, and taken together with the ‘laws’ emerging from the ECJ, makes a unilateral restorative act by the UK absolutely essential, to avoid the civil war that the EU appears to be wilfully provoking.

  3. Tergo
    January 10, 2022

    Love it! So many potential wins from Brexit you can’t name even one!

    1. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      I’ll start a list just as soon as we achieve ‘brexit’

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 11, 2022

        If you can’t even name a potential win, then why did you vote for it?

        It seems to me that you are saying that brexit has not been achieved in the same way that a particularly messy execution has not been carried out simply because all the gore has not yet all been mopped up.

        The point is irrelevant to the substance.

  4. Denis Cooper
    January 10, 2022

    Well, you cannot remove Northern Ireland from the jurisdiction of the EU court until you extricate it from EU Single Market rules, for which the EU court is necessarily the supreme arbiter, and if you do that then some of the goods produced in Northern Ireland may no longer comply with EU requirements, and if you want to be a good neighbour you will act to prevent any such non-compliant goods being carried across the open land border into the Irish Republic. Which system of export controls would also make it unnecessary to apply EU checks and controls to goods imported into the province, any non-compliant goods in that stream which were intended for the Republic would get intercepted before they crossed the border. Later, it may be that we would need to need to set up a system of import controls as well, with check sites set well away from actual border, but for the moment goods which meet EU standards will be OK to allow into the UK as freely as they have been since 1993 when the EU Single Market started and we were part of it. I know some people will say “Why the hell should we bother to protect the EU Single Market, they’ve just been bloody awkward from the day we voted to leave”, and I sympathise with that but nonetheless I want to see this ridiculous saga brought an end before my own life comes to an end, and even if that means Boris Johnson’s close to worthless “Super Canada” free trade deal vanity project goes down the drain.

  5. Len Peel
    January 10, 2022

    But the Protocol says there have to be checks on all goods moving from GB to NI. And you voted for it!

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 11, 2022

      It’s a bit like saying to a promiscuous spouse that they vowed to be faithful, Len.

      They simply don’t care.

      Plenty of others who matter do, however.

  6. Nottingham Lad Himself
    January 10, 2022

    The ERM fiasco was mere comedy, after the numerous dystopian horrors of the Thatcher years.

    I understand why Tories would prefer to remember the first as the reason why they suffered such a thumping defeat in 1997, therefore.

    However, the voters are probably being reminded of the second as I write, by what they see all around them right now.

    1. Peter2
      January 10, 2022

      Yet I reckon you would vote to move to having the euro if it meant rejoining the EU.
      Am I right NHL?

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 11, 2022

        I do not advocate wasting the important time of the European Union’s people by having this Tory mess of a country apply to it for anything as it stands, Peter.

        1. Peter2
          January 11, 2022

          Well dodged NHL
          I didn’t think I would get more than a politician’s non answer.
          The fact remains that to rejoin the EU we would need to drop the pound and replace it with the Euro
          And reduce state spending by a large amount to get to the EU’s proscribed debt levels.

          1. Bill Smith
            January 12, 2022

            Peter 2

            there are a number of Countries who are not members of the EURO like Denmark, Sweden Poland and Hungary. The debt levels of a high number of countries are much lower than the UK for example Denmark with 17,8 %.
            You really do not know what you are talking about so much rubbish

          2. Peter2
            January 12, 2022

            What an odd intervention ftom you Billy.
            The talk was about rejoining the EU and the requirements of new members applying to use the Euro and reduce debt levels to the target before being allowed in.
            I thought debt targets were a single figure?
            17.8% seems high.

        2. Nottingham Lad Himself
          January 11, 2022

          I don’t want this country to rejoin the European Union in the foreseeable future.

          It would harm the most civilised, enlightened project that the world has so far seen.

          Verstehen?

          1. Micky Taking
            January 12, 2022

            Strewth. You really set the bar low.

    2. Peter2
      January 11, 2022

      The ERM fiasco was mere comedy?

      What!

      Millions of hard working decent people out of work, others losing their homes, others losing businesses they spent decades building up, marriages breaking up, some people close to suicide.

      Dreadful comment from you NHL

      1. DavidJ
        January 12, 2022

        +1. I guess the remoaners will carry on moaning…

        1. Bill Smith
          January 12, 2022

          David J,

          What does the ERM have to do with the EU we joined and our economy was not strong enough this is the responsibility of theUK government not the EU

          1. Peter2
            January 12, 2022

            You obviously haven’t researched the economic history of that time bill.
            The EU and UK were determined to join the Euro.
            Stage one was the ERM
            The agreement was that the would peg its currency value to Euro.
            It was a failure as every currency trade on the planet knew the policy.
            Look it up bill and get informed.

  7. Denis Cooper
    January 10, 2022

    As we are on this kind of theme here is a letter I have just sent to a journalist on the National in Scotland:

    “Dear Ms Garton-Crosbie

    If you think Liz Truss needs a fresh idea about the Irish land border, why not help her out with the SNP idea for the Scottish land border?

    A good idea, “parallel marketability”, was proposed in paragraph 152 of the December 2016 document “Scotland’s Place in Europe”, and that better solution could also be applied to the Irish land border:

    “The laws of the European Single Market would apply only to those goods and services traded between Scotland and the rest of the European Single Market … this involves applying the principle of “parallel marketability” whereby goods and services originating in Scotland may be legally marketed in both the UK and the EEA.”

    By analogy, EU laws would only apply to goods and services exported from Northern Ireland to the EU including the Republic of Ireland, not to goods produced and traded only within the UK including Northern Ireland.

    I look forward to SNP MPs supporting that alternative proposal when it is finally tabled at Westminster, as it would have been several years ago if my own MP and then Prime Minister Theresa May had listened to sense.

    Yours etc”

    And here is a cracking broadcast on GB News:

    https://www.gbnews.uk/gb-views/mark-dolan-we-will-never-erect-a-hard-northern-ireland-border/201476

    “Mark Dolan: We will never erect a hard Northern Ireland border”

  8. No Longer Anonymous
    January 10, 2022

    Green on speed

    Wokery on speed

    Immigration on speed

    Lawlessness on speed

    The State on speed

    This is not what anyone voted for.

    The Red Wall wasn’t just about getting Brexit Done. It was Northerners fed up with political correctness and Leftism … and if you want the truth that is what Brexit was a rebellion against too.

    1. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      +1

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 11, 2022

      I agree with your last line.

      A lot of voters of a certain kind perhaps imagined that by voting Leave that they would be hurting imaginary people whom they hated, as if there were millions of Owen Joneses throughout the country, plotting to deprive them of their right to watch Sky Sports in the pub or whatever.

      The poor deluded suckers.

      1. Peter2
        January 11, 2022

        More made up fantasy nonsense from you again NHL

        1. DavidJ
          January 12, 2022

          +1

          1. Bill Smith
            January 12, 2022

            David J

            be careful Peter 2 does write a lot of nonsense because he does not understand the underlying facts

          2. Peter2
            January 12, 2022

            Oh it’s you again bill
            It’s like having a personal troll.

        2. bill brown
          January 13, 2022

          Peter 2

          the ERM was not a failure for the core members whick later joined the EURO which was the precursor, look it up

        3. Bill brown
          January 13, 2022

          Peter 2

          The pound was pegged to the Deutsch Mark not the EURO which really not even exist. Look it up

  9. Shirley M
    January 10, 2022

    Nick Clegg suffered the consequences of abandoning manifesto promises. So have Labour. So far, the Conservatives have also abandoned manifesto promises. Will they survive the consequences?

    Will the fact that every one of the main parties are as bad as each other in the honesty stakes? I doubt it.

    1. Mark B
      January 11, 2022

      Good points.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 11, 2022

      But they are not alike.

      There are the matters of degree, seriousness, circumstance, and impact to consider.

      1. Peter2
        January 11, 2022

        The voters will decide.

  10. lifelogic
    January 10, 2022

    Exactly right in most of what you say.

    You say “The tax rate that collects the highest amount of tax is not the highest tax rate” indeed nor should the tax rate “that raises most tax” be the aim of government at all. That should be the maximum good for the people, it should only tax for the rather/very few things government can actually do better than individuals, charities or businesses can. We have very high taxes indeed on income and not only this but many costs of working are not even tax allowable such as child care, travel, clothing, interest for landlords… High taxes thus deter people from working at all. It is perhaps best look after your own children unless you earn ~ three times what you have to pay the nanny.

    I am doing my sister and her husband’s tax return – they can it seems claim a tax deduction of £6 per week for working at home (so a £1.20 per week tax reduction) clearly not even enough to cover the extra heating costs! Yet people in the House of Lords get £305 a day (totally tax free no receipts needed) just for attending for five minutes, plus subsidised bars, restaurants… Is this fair and proportionate do you think? Surely tax laws should be the same for all?

    1. lifelogic
      January 10, 2022

      Bit then membership might have (corruptly?) cost them £2 million or so in party donations – so perhaps they want that back off tax the payers!

  11. Peter
    January 10, 2022

    “The main pledges were getting Brexit done, not raising the three main taxes, reducing immigration and boosting money and personnel in the NHS, the police and schools. ”

    Has the government met its 2019 manifesto commitments?

    1. No. Brexit was not “done”. We only have BRINO. Northern Ireland is still cast adrift.

    2. No. Taxes are up.

    3. No. The boats keep coming and the illegals are never returned. Instead we get government statements saying we should take in more Indians.

    4. There has been more money thrown at the NHS but much has been wasted a new set of overpaid bureaucrats has been added when useful front line staff are required. GPs have a new remote way of working where they don’t meet patients.Schools now have more useless overpaid bureaucrats on the payroll. Police are useless but staffed by incompetent politically correct types.

    However NetZero is taking great strides forward.

    So that’s alright then.

  12. Peter
    January 10, 2022

    I note the article on ‘Conservative Home’ takes second place to one by a student from Leicester on the theme ‘Muslims Matter’.

    The only thing missing is an article by David Gauke.

    1. Micky Taking
      January 12, 2022

      or even David Icke.

  13. Mark B
    January 10, 2022

    Good afternoon

    Fortunately this government has recovered the economy quickly from the sharp and sudden economic collapse . . .

    No it hasn’t ! If anything, this government has impeded growth with its sill lockdowns and laws. Its taxes and regulations.

    There needs to be more effort to implement that great vision.

    The ‘Great Vision’ was aspirational and designed to get the Tories into office. This it achieved. Now it is of no further use and, bearing in mind the ‘Great Vision’ would have had us diverge from the EU, it is clear it is more and impediment rather a way forward.

    Just sit back, relax, and watch the last Tory government you will see in a long, long time destroy itself and the nation.

    Anyone got any popcorn ??

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 11, 2022

      No, indeed, the people who have moved Heaven and Earth to keep their businesses going during the twin catastrophes of Tory brexit and covid19 are those with whom the credit entirely rests.

  14. a-tracy
    January 10, 2022

    “to do more to create a great environment for setting up and growing a business.”

    Like what?

    My suggestion – take back over the insurance scheme paying sick pay and sick holiday pay (to stop the hidden tax) on an insurance scheme policy that employers contribute to (reduce employers ni that was supposed to cover sick pay leave) – then again what % of earnings would public sector sick pay schemes cost an employer 10% of every £1 paid in earnings or more? If full earnings were paid what would that scheme cost 20% of every £1 paid in earnings + the same contribution from the employee?

  15. PeteB
    January 10, 2022

    I’d venture to suggest the manifesto topic that was the top priority for most people who voted Tory was around getting Brexit done (Those ‘red wall’ voters had an expectation). I’d also venture to suggest those same votes would say right now that Boris has failed to deliver in this area.

    Next most important – cutting taxes nor raising them.

    These will be the things that cripple the Conservatives at the next election – not that another party would offer anything more by way of independent free thinking or positive economic strategy.

  16. Dave Andrews
    January 10, 2022

    “The tax rate that collects the highest amount of tax is not the highest tax rate.”
    Personally I prefer the tax rate to only be sufficient to pay for the essential obligations of local and central government.
    I would like not to contribute to government vanity projects, healthcare for those who having been well have made themselves sick, subsidising pensions for those who haven’t saved up for their own retirement, putting up illegal immigrants into hotels rather than sending them home and frittering money away on handouts to overseas despots (inappropriately labelled foreign aid).

  17. Everhopeful
    January 10, 2022

    Really and honestly I have given up hope.
    Our life here is an ongoing misery of noise and disturbance.
    I really did believe that Johnson would reimpose some sort of conservative social responsibility.
    Instead he has added to division and hatred ( Oh whoops sorreee….HATE 🤮).One against the other.
    Oh and by the by he has destroyed the country for the flu and now for the common cold.

    1. Everhopeful
      January 10, 2022

      Oh yes…and have we really left the EU?
      A clumsy, thoughtless exit with many strings attached?

      1. Gary Megson
        January 11, 2022

        The strings were agreed by Johnson and Frost. The strings were voted for by the British people when they approved the oven (string) ready deal at the last General Election. The strings were supported by every single Conservative MP in the vote on the deal in parliament in Janury 2020. You won, get over it

        1. Everhopeful
          January 11, 2022

          I will.
          When you get over losing!

        2. Mike Wilson
          January 11, 2022

          Nonsense. Remainers, STILL unable to accept they lost the referendum, have thwarted the process and dragged it out for years – emboldening the EU and causing many people to be so desperate to get it over – somehow, anyhow – that they voted for any fool that would shout ‘Get Brexit Done!’

          This Brexit is not the Brexit Leavers voted for. It is YOUR Brexit. You own it.

          1. Gary Megson
            January 11, 2022

            I voted against Brexit because I thought it would be rubbish. But I lost. I voted against the Conservatives in 2019 because I thought the Brexit they proposed would be rubbish. But I lost. You have got exactly the Brexit you voted for. It’s rubbish. I knew that. You’re now catching on.

          2. Micky Taking
            January 11, 2022

            Gary – well we’ve certainly learnt that a large majority of MPs, Civil Servants, Lawyers, Media darlings etc without the bitter and twisted EU – all conspired to ‘wrong-foot’ and prevaricate and attempt to make a mockery of the ‘we the people’ took a decision.

    2. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      Agree with every single word EverHopeful

      1. Everhopeful
        January 11, 2022

        +1

  18. lifelogic
    January 10, 2022

    “not raising the three main (rates) of taxes” was a totally worthless promise anyway as total overall tax is what matters not specific ones. But even that they ratted on.

    They have put up NI by 1.25%x2 and by freezing allowances they have also put up income tax, NI, CGT, the 55% pension tax and for good measure CT going up to 25% and council tax and renewable taxes too. Yes public services get worse and worse – try finding a decent NHS dentist or GP to see.

    1. lifelogic
      January 10, 2022

      And they have frozen the IHT threshold putting that up – still just £325k each and not the £1 million each promised by G Osborne some ~ seven years back. When Brown foolishly bottled his early election plans. So IHT tax is still going up too

      I note that Osborne (now Chairman of the British Museum) tweets – “British jury system again acquits itself brilliantly. Would have been stupid to convict those who pulled down Colston statue.”

      So what is to be the next Target Osborne? Something in the British Museum perhaps?

      1. Everhopeful
        January 11, 2022

        +1
        Lol
        I was puzzled when a senior Tory said that George had better hope the Elgin Marbles weren’t harmed/pinched/drowned.
        Didn’t know our former Chancellor was Chairman of British Museum!
        Apparently the marbles need not be returned because they were acquired legally. Was that statue erected illegally then?

        1. Mike Wilson
          January 11, 2022

          Was that statue erected illegally then?

          It doesn’t matter whether a statue was erected legally or not. What matters is who the statue is of. A slave trader? Tear it down and throw it in the harbour! Too right. I applaud the people that did that. I suppose a statue of Adolf Hitler should be left to stand?

          1. Everhopeful
            January 11, 2022

            Autres temps, autres mœurs,
            Except that of course we know there is plenty of slavery around still.
            Those who are so bothered should maybe do something about it?

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 11, 2022

        The museum is precisely the place for objects such as the Colston statue, where they can be set in a balanced historical summary, rather than being presented to the world at large as of “a most wise and virtuous man”.

        1. Everhopeful
          January 11, 2022

          +1
          I agree.
          Our towns and cities have been bastardised, destroyed and betrayed to such a point that they are no longer fitting plinths for the men who built, loved and supported them.
          This country no longer deserves heroes.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            January 11, 2022

            Colston caused the deaths of at least 19,000 people, in the most wretched, hellish conditions, before they were even sold into slavery, on his ships transporting them to the Caribbean from Africa.

            You call him a hero.

            Take note, decent people.

          2. Peter2
            January 11, 2022

            Have you got any links so we can check on your 19,000 deaths claim NHL?
            Directly involved?

          3. Everhopeful
            January 11, 2022

            Why would statues be erected except to those deemed heroes?

          4. hefner
            January 18, 2022

            P2, en.wikipedia.org ‘Edward Colston’, Career: 3rd paragraph ‘… from 1680 to 1692 it is estimated that the company (Royal African Company of which Colston was deputy governor) transported 84,000 men, women and children to the Caribbean and rest of the Americas, of whom as many as 19,000 may have died on the journey’.

            So no P2, the good Edward did not directly whack their heads with a machete. But I really wonder what you are trying to prove with this type of comments. Certainly nothing of your emotional intelligence.

        2. Micky Taking
          January 11, 2022

          So perhaps you will educate me, did the candidates standing for election in any Bristol ward declare they thought the statues (any others, too?) ought to be taken down (legally) since they represented profiteers from slave trading?
          No?
          And did the many landed gents in this country standing for a seat, and eventually moving to the ‘other place’ declare how sad they were that the beautiful estates they owned were from slavery – although many years ago?
          And on that theme, did the many landed gents in this country standing for a seat, and eventually moving to the ‘other place’ declare how sad they were that their local peasants gave their lives to wage war for the Lord of the Manor, and thus for the Monarch, so acquiring the beautiful estates they owned were reward for fighting- although many years ago?

  19. lifelogic
    January 10, 2022

    High tax rates can (do!) kill confidence, drive business and investment out of the country, stifle entrepreneurs, and deter hard work.

    They also drive people into DIY rather than employing professionals, encourage the black market and push people into non less or non productive activities like tax avoidance, creative accounting, moving overseas, profit shifting to say Dublin…

    1. Mark B
      January 11, 2022

      This is it LL, it is all about incentive. If the incentive to move either your business or money elsewhere becomes too great to resist, you move it.

  20. X-Tory
    January 10, 2022

    “The Government needs to remove obstacles to goods moving from GB to Northern Ireland where they are certified as being for UK consumption.” No, No, No. I’m sorry Sir John but I really have to disagree with you on this occasion. You are suggesting that goods will need to be certified as being for UK consumption. But certification involves administrative costs for businesses and policing costs for government. The checking of these certificates also slows down movement and increases costs further.

    And apart from the costs, there is the issue of PRINCIPLE. Do you need a certificate to transport goods between other parts of the country (such as from Kent to Surrey)? NO. So why should you need a certtificate to transport goods between one part of the country this side of the Irish Sea and another on the other side? It is still our ONE COUNTRY. Movement should be absolutely UNFETTERED in ANY way. We should be emphasising and restoring the unity of the UK, not creating new barriers which divide us!

  21. Bryan Harris
    January 10, 2022

    Let’s just hope that Brexit has been fixed before the next manifesto comes out..

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 11, 2022

      Well, the Ukrainians have done their best to fix Chernobyl, and it’s just about holding, so perhaps there’s some hope for your brexit too?

  22. Micky Taking
    January 10, 2022

    Well a report card should be about 5 out of 10, indicating failed on Manifesto promises.
    The big economic number may not seem so bad, but more jobs are low skilled, warehousing, delivery etc and the consequent wages are low. Indeed it would appear more and more people are paid at the minimum pay level, a level where cost of living rises already underway will hit very hard indeed.
    Any taxation rises where the very low paid are affected will ensure zero votes for Conservatives.
    Even better paid are feeling the pinch, and well paid like Andy are sure to resent increased taxation in support of low income pensioners.

  23. X-Tory
    January 10, 2022

    One more thing, Sir John. I think the statement “The danger is in going too far beyond other countries efforts with measures that have serious costs” skates much too quickly and lightly over the enormity of the damage the government is doing to the UK by moving too fast to reach ‘net zero’.

    As I have mentioned previously, SUBSEQUENT to the election, and not set out in the manifesto, the government has decided to reach net zero for electricity by 2035, and net zero for cars by 2030. Bringing net zero forward by 15 and 20 years respectively was NEVER agreed by the electorate. It imposes huge costs on consumers and businesses and cripples us compared to our main global competitors. It is idiotic, undemocratic and treasonous.

    1. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      There was once a saying – ‘’the only thing worse than being late…is being early’’
      I wonder why the good old USA isn’t imposing an ICE car ban ?

      1. Mark B
        January 11, 2022

        glen

        They will not ban ICE cars in the USA because of the electoral system there makes it political suicide for them to do so. That is why President Biden is backtracking so soon. He knows (I think) that he could well lose both Houses and cripple his presidency. Not so our PM. The only things we have here is we can remove our PM far more easily. Or at least the political parties can.

  24. glen cullen
    January 10, 2022

    There has to be consequences and penalties for breaking solemn guaranteed pledges in the manifesto….pledges that were listed on the front page – does the leadership think we’ll forget

    1. Shirley M
      January 11, 2022

      Likewise, there should be penalties (a forced bi-election?) for MP’s who blatantly lie during their election campaigning. I think back to those who promised to uphold the referendum result and then made every effort to overturn it once elected. Even better, would be charges of treason and for attacks upon democracy.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 11, 2022

        Well the Leave campaign’s main people should all be in the Tower then, Shirley.

        1. Peter2
          January 11, 2022

          Project Fear proven lies?
          Presumably you want the same punishment NHL?

      2. glen cullen
        January 11, 2022

        +1

    2. Micky Taking
      January 11, 2022

      Andy didn’t forget. I doubt most of the electorate will forget.

    3. Mike Wilson
      January 11, 2022

      @Glen Cullen

      does the leadership think we’ll forget

      They do think you’ll forget. They know that at the next election you’ll vote for them to keep Labour out. Which is why they will never change to a democratic voting system.

      1. Peter Parsons
        January 11, 2022

        +1

        A democratic voting system isn’t in their interests when they can “win” with little more than 1/3rd of the votes.

  25. agricola
    January 10, 2022

    There are two reasons Boris’s government finds itself in its current position.

    Failure to deal with the poisoned chalice that May handed him in an unequivocal manner. In my judgement he should have drawn a line under her attempt to keep us tied to the EU and gone for WTO terms in trade. This would have removed EU leverage in sorting all the peripheral aspects of our ongoing relationship. As part of this the NI Protocol should have been seen for what it is, an attempt to divide and conqueur part of the UK.

    Second, laudable though green aspirations may be, it is being imposed on UK citizens, unmandated and ill thought out. The cost will be very expensive and fall on the majority of the electorate. Going green, as concieved by Boris, is his “Poll Tax”. It could be achieved with the support of the electorate , but current government does not appear to have the brain cells to realise this.

    In conclusion we have a failure to take advantage of Brexit, a shambolic expensive rush to green, with the vagueries of Covid dumped on us for an extra layer of uncertainty. Missing is well informed leadership

    1. alan jutson
      January 11, 2022

      +1

    2. Mike Wilson
      January 11, 2022

      Most of the electorate is in favour of ‘the green stuff’

      1. alan jutson
        January 11, 2022

        Mike

        They may be in principle Mike, until they eventually realise the cost of the timescale involved, and the poor performance of the options offered as an alternative.

        No problem moving towards a sustainable futures long as it evolves sensibly, rather than it being forced by zealots at any cost (not just financial either).

  26. Sir Joe Soap
    January 10, 2022

    In other words
    They’ve taxed and spent too much + cowtowed to EU, pro-immigrarion & green lobbies = weak and socialist

    1. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      Good succinct summary

      1. Mark B
        January 11, 2022

        +1

    2. Shirley M
      January 11, 2022

      +1

  27. Andy
    January 10, 2022

    This is what the first page of the manifesto actually said – copied and pasted:

    “We will get Brexit done in January and unleash the potential of our whole country.
    I guarantee:

    – Extra funding for the NHS, with 50,000 more nurses and 50 million more GP surgery appointments a year.

    – 20,000 more police and tougher sentencing for criminals.

    – An Australian-style points-based system to control immigration.

    – Millions more invested every week in science, schools, apprenticeships and infrastructure while controlling debt.

    – Reaching Net Zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and pollution.

    – We will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or National Insurance.

    Thank you for supporting our majority Conservative Government so we can move our great country on instead of going backwards.

    Boris Johnson

    Well:

    – Brexit isn’t done and what has been done has been done badly.

    – The NHS has had more money but Brexit has left us with fewer nurses. Anyone tried to get a GP’s appointment recently?

    – I’ve seen no evidence of more police, there seems to be a lot of crime though.

    – The immigration system has been reformed. You have made it harder for Britons to leave and easier for dinghy people to come here. Your party now wants to invite Indians here to do the jobs Brexitists do not want to do.

    – Tory MPs spend more time whinging about their net zero by 2050 promise rather than trying to achieve it.

    – “Controlling debt.” LOLZ.

    – National insurance is going up. Millions more are being pulled into higher income tax brackets. VAT is not being cut.

    I’d say that is a complete fail.

    1. Peter2
      January 10, 2022

      I expect you won’t be voting Conservative in the next election then young Andy.
      Gosh another vote lost.

  28. Ian Wragg
    January 10, 2022

    On the things that matter it has been a complete disaster.
    Ever increasing channel invaders, zero deportations. Loss of coal and nuclear power stations with nothing to replace them. Increasing taxes and dragging modestly paid into higher rate taxes. Government departments recruiting staff on eye watering salaries and handing out contracts to grace and favour people.
    3 out of 10.
    Opposition in 2024.

    1. Mark B
      January 11, 2022

      +1

  29. glen cullen
    January 10, 2022

    Buckshee in the army = spare equipment that nobody needs
    Buckshee in government = department of levelling up & manifesto
    If you have to invent departments to plicate friends/enemies then perhaps you shouldn’t be in government
    If you have in invent manifesto to voters then you really shouldn’t be in government

    1. Everhopeful
      January 11, 2022

      +many
      Much shenanigans with PPE and nasty swabs.
      Annihilation of everything. No country left.
      Photo of son in newspaper…can’t tell if he is coming or going. Poor little sausage needs a proper haircut.
      For shame!

  30. Pauline Baxter
    January 10, 2022

    So far Boris Johnson has not fulfilled ANY of those manifesto promises has he.

  31. X-Tory
    January 10, 2022

    Given the speculation about who will be the next leader of the Conservative Party, I was astonished to read that Michael Gove has defended Tony Blair’s knighthood, saying the Labour PM was “an outstanding statesman”. This must surely be the nail in the coffin of his hopes of ever leading the party.

    Tony Blair was one of the worst prime ministers we have ever had – if not *the* worst. A lot of people object to his foreign wars, but I would focus more on the fact that he destroyed the unity of the United Kingdom (this alone should mean that all unionists despise him), surrendered to the IRA, flooded the country with immigrants, and imposed the appalling Human Rights Act on us, resulting in the destruction of democracy, as the government is now unable to implement the policies the public voted.

    1. Mark B
      January 11, 2022

      Oh he went much, much further than that.

      As for Michael Gove MP, I stated here on this site that it was alleged that both he and David Cameron referred to him as, The Master. Such sycophancy.

      Whether Tony Blair gets his Knighthood or not is none of my business as it is the personal gift of the Queen. But I do think it high time that we stopped giving politicians and Civil Servants gongs for basically doing their jobs. They are, in my opinion, rewarded well enough.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 11, 2022

        Yes, it’s a quaint, antiquated nod from the person of the Queen, one of this country’s many curiosities, no more.

    2. Shirley M
      January 11, 2022

      Plus his destructive act of wanting 50% of school leavers into university, merely to reduce youth unemployment, but the consequences have been extremely damaging to the UK by increasing student debt that never gets repaid, and the consequence of making more public sector jobs reliant on degrees so as to find these graduates a job, any job. This results in even more taxpayer funding to pay higher wages (as expected by graduates) and higher expectations of quick promotion and excellent perks and benefits. All funded by the taxpayer.

      Blair was a UK destroyer and Boris is following in his footsteps.

  32. alan jutson
    January 10, 2022

    Would certainly agree with the thrust of your Post John, but you left out completely another reason why Major lost the 1997 election, and that was the amount of perceived sleaze and disorganised chaos that was evident in almost every aspect of the governments policies and actions at the time.
    Major it seemed at the time no longer had any real control at all, indeed I actually voted for the Raving Looney Party at that time (could not bring myself to vote for smug Blair) rather than Conservative, because at least I knew what their policies were, and they had the right name.
    Indeed some of their (RLP) policies actually came into force via the Labour and Conservative Party as their own after many years, 24 hour/extended opening hours for Pubs, Dog passports, and a number of others.
    Indeed the present Conservative Party looks a lot now, like it did back in 1997, with the same chaotic traits.
    At the moment you have 6 months to turn it around, any later, and peoples memories will be too fresh in their minds to forgive.

    1. Mark B
      January 11, 2022

      alan

      I remember an interview of Screaming Lord Such. To my surprise when asked about what he would do regarding the economy he came out with what were some very sensible ideas.

      There is another interview on YT “Unedited rare interview with Screaming Lord Sutch”. After pet passports he mentions turning the UK into a tax haven. Something the RoI and Luxembourg seem to be good at doing 😉

  33. John Hatfield
    January 10, 2022

    ‘Fifty million more GP appointments should be achievable’, with a UK population of circa 70 million, how can that be right John?

    People who are Illsee Drs several times a year

  34. Rhoddas
    January 10, 2022

    Yes Sir J, stick to all the committments made in the manifesto and glad you are sticking it to those in charge.
    Plus:
    * Sort out local production of energy in these Isles incl clear support for more transition oil/gas, plus nuclear/tidal etc.
    * Sort out growing more soft fruit / veg under greenhouses, fastrack approvals.
    * Rollback as many old EU regulations as possible, free up businesses to grow. Make freeports really work, not Rishi’s/Treasury’s weakened versions.
    * Purge the blob and quango’s of remoaners, make them impartial by special auditin; BBC too.
    * Fix NHS by standardisation/optimisation/automation, adopt best global practice, clear backlog by utilising private sector. Only backfill the 10% due to be fired for non-compliance to being double jabbed, by redeployment of existing staff or new recruitment via ministerial approval or similar.

    All the best for 2022 🙂

  35. lifelogic
    January 10, 2022

    You say- “The Government will comfortably exceed its money pledges to the three main public services” well yes perhaps it has but what matters to the public is not the spend but what value (if any) was actually delivered to the public by way of decent public services – on that measure delivery has surely been dire.

    1. Everhopeful
      January 11, 2022

      +1
      And while the slightly sneezy or quite well workers are all at home not answering the phone absolutely NOTHING is achievable.
      ie “disappeared” bank transactions just can’t be sorted. Amazingly Kafkaesque!

  36. acorn
    January 10, 2022

    Give it up JR, this post Brexit, phoenix from the ashes, type revival, is not going to happen. If it was ever going to happen in the UK, it would have been busting out of the seams of the EU corset you claim the UK has been in for the last four decades. I see no evidence of that having happened. The truth is the EU has not been a corset, but a lifebelt for the UK’s lazy unproductive economy since the fifties. The cheap living the UK used to get from its tethered Commonwealth, no longer exists; get over it.

    1. a-tracy
      January 11, 2022

      acorn, you are in the City aren’t you? Robert Kimbell shares that:
      UK Employment market – it is the best time in 50 years to apply for work or switch jobs as vacancies hit record levels, source CityAM – Reed CEO so these are jobs advertised with a job agency a 38% year on year increase, 139000 roles added to the site.
      Rolls Royce celebrated highest sales in its 117 year history – in a covid year!
      UK manufacturers are optimistic, Make UK forecasts Manf would grow +6.9% in 2021 and further growth of +3.3% for 2022 – my opinion it would probably be more enthusiastic than that if the large proposed tax increases go ahead as discussed.
      BAE recruiting serious numbers of apprentices setting records. There are still far too many young people out of work, this needs investigating as I know that SMEs need recruits and aren’t being sent applicants.
      FinTech investment up.

  37. Fedupsoutherner
    January 10, 2022

    There’s only one reason you’re not in the cabinet John. You talk sense, have great vision and would be a threat to other ministers. Great post and agree with all of it. Bring it on.

    1. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      Totally Agree

    2. Micky Taking
      January 11, 2022

      perhaps having morals and responsibility has a little to do with it?

  38. DOM
    January 10, 2022

    The contents of this manifesto is neither here nor there. No believes the crap that’s included in these deceitful publications anyway but I do know that this PM is knowingly governing (taking policy decisions that affect all areas of our lives) in the name of a vile politics that no one voted for. That action alone is deplorable and despicable.

    Johnson’s embraced Socialism and woke cultural Marxism to protect himself, his party and his future career

    I would hope that at some point some Tory MPs decide enough is enough and that they choose to speak out before this PM drags us even further into the authoritarian leftist abyss where voice, identity and privacy are completely obliterated

    It is wrong for any Tory MP to pretend that all is fine and wonderful when in fact a seismic change has occurred that has given the cultural and political left total domination

    We’ve been silenced using speech laws so we now hope some MPs do speak out

  39. Fedupsoutherner
    January 10, 2022

    So an email emerges showing that No 10 invited fellow mps to a party in the grounds of Downing St when the rest of us were banned ftom meeting more than one person. I am truly disgusted with your party and unless Boris goes you are toast. It really is one law for us surfs and one for those that think they are better.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      January 11, 2022

      Sarah Vine highlights the tragedy of this balls up. The people present had been putting in all the hours god sent during the crisis.

      Not excusing it but all of that effort and sacrifice has been overshadowed for the sake of warm wine and nibbles.

    2. Micky Taking
      January 11, 2022

      FUS ….except they can’t wash this one whiter.

  40. cat
    January 10, 2022

    Truth is everything

    Truth is everything.

    1. glen cullen
      January 10, 2022

      Wise Words CAT

  41. glen cullen
    January 10, 2022

    SirJ your assessment is spot on
    SirJ I appreciate that you’re your own man, I know where you stand and I understand your vision for the UK…..I wish I could say the same for your fellow MPs and party

  42. Oldwulf
    January 10, 2022

    “The manifesto showed concern for people’s fuel bills and promised “new measures to lower (energy) bills”. Instead the Government is presiding over a worrying energy shortage. We rely too much on imports, exposing us to the expensive vagaries of European markets during an acute European energy shortage.”

    The real crisis is no longer covid but is the cost of energy, particularly for the poorer members of our society. It is worrying the the mainstream media reports only solutions which will rely on taxpayer money.

    The near constant covid news now seems to be a diversionary tactic.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      January 11, 2022

      In the ’70s at least people had warm pubs with cheap beer in them to go to on a winter’s night.

      Coronation Street/EastEnders style, moderate community drinking really did exist then in working class communities. It has been prohibitively expensive to saunter into a pub every night for some decades now.

      According to both soaps ordinary people have several cafe meals a day and a couple of drinks in a pub in the evening. Who earns that kind of money in reality ???

      1. Micky Taking
        January 11, 2022

        Bachelors….

        1. alan jutson
          January 11, 2022

          M T.
          “Bachelors”.
          If they have a job, and are living at home with Mum and Dad, agreed.

          1. Micky Taking
            January 11, 2022

            Wives, ex-ones, children, grandchildren, keeping up with the Andy-ies buying crazy-priced cars….you can’t spend every evening in the pub – even for that thing that’s dying out – ‘just a half’.
            Then we have taxes – and OMG don’t we have taxes!

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 11, 2022

        The average weekly wage expressed in pints of beer is more now than it was in the 1970s.

        1. Micky Taking
          January 12, 2022

          Is that gross wage, or net after taxes?
          Have you taken into account Council tax, energy spend, food and rent/mortgage?
          Perhaps we could drink more pints, but live with parents, not heat our homes, and not take holidays?

          All this, you being old, was once calculated using the Mars bar as a measure – do you remember that?

  43. Nig l
    January 11, 2022

    Spinning manifesto successes when you have allowed the Blob to continue its hold, Treasury, Sage, NHS lies even today, Border Force, Education MOD, NAO reporting a pitifully low percentage of government projects evaluated for effectiveness so eye watering waste coupled with energy failure, out of control inflation, higher taxes and another broken promise on the triple lock.

    Coupled with a whopper telling PM who has regularly broken rules, in terms of lockdown that other people have been fined for. Plus his get Brexit done BS.

    Bye bye Tory party.

  44. Donna
    January 11, 2022

    Sir John …. I’m afraid you are over-generous in your assessment of the Government’s performance in delivering its Manifesto “promises.”

    Whilst some slack could have been given because of the virus in early 2020, the utter travesty of the last 20 months is unforgiveable. As is the sight of Johnson, wife and chums having Garden Parties whilst they were preventing elderly people in Care Homes from seeing their families and had placed the entire country in an Open Prison where they were only allowed to associate with one other person, not from their household, in their own gardens.

    Thanks for reminding us what an utter failure this Government has been.

  45. Remington Norman
    January 11, 2022

    John, you obviously don’t get it: Johnson and thus government have let its supporters, and more importantly the country down. They are incompetent, wasteful, deceitful and have lied repeatedly. Vacuous verbosity has supplanted decisiveness. The opposition is gathering. The sooner this whole lot go the better.

  46. Christine
    January 11, 2022

    I don’t think the Government has done anything to recover the economy quickly, this has happened despite Government not because of anything done to promote growth. The UK is overtaxed and over-regulated. These net-zero policies will be the death of many small businesses. I can’t see any of its manifesto promises being honoured.

    It has increased taxes, reneged on the triple lock, failed to stop illegal immigration, brought forward net-zero, failed to get Brexit done, failed to take advantage of Brexit, failed to provide secure and cheaper energy, allowed the seriously woke to take over our institutions, failed to control increases in crime, failed to abide by its own lockdown rules.

    It would have been easy for this Government to stay in power for decades if only it had appealed to the majority of voters but just like many previous governments, it has listened to the loud lobbying minority and gone off on an ill-thought-out agenda.

    If Boris is to stay then he needs to clear out half his cabinet and replace them with some real Conservatives, like yourself, who have a vision for this country that the people will buy into.

  47. Geoffrey Berg
    January 11, 2022

    There are points to be made here.
    Though I agree with the policy direction John Redwood advocates, it is not as simple as that.
    Few people read the whole Manifesto or vote just on it. Some parts are important, especially the promises not to increase taxes which affects them personally. Some Manifesto promises are unimportant. Few Conservative or floating voters were bothered about breaking the foreign aid promise-most such people think that promise should never have been made in the first place.
    Certain items were highlighted (such as ‘Get Brexit done’ in the marginal Northern constituency I live in even though the majority for Brexit in the Referendum in that constituency was very slim) and most of the rest of the Manifesto was ignored.
    Much hangs at General Elections on the personal appeal of the main leaders – it was Johnson v Corbyn.
    Boris Johnson has a much more popular personality than anybody else the Conservative Party could put forward (I say this despite supporting Redwood rather than Johnson economics). He is quite a good Prime Minister. He has been relatively good over Covid and over negotiating with the EU and in foreign affairs (which other world leader managed to get on well with both Trump and Biden?).
    However what Boris Johnson does lack and need is proper active support from Conservative M.Ps. They are just standing silently aside (as they did with Owen Paterson, who should have been entitled, as is any accused, to proper process before judgment) while Johnson is accused now of breaking lockdown rules. Will nobody point out that the activity in Downing Street was work related and not merely social? Essential workplaces weren’t subject to such stringent Covid rules. ( For instance my brother was an essential worker in a food factory and they were allowed to keep the staff canteen open when outside restaurants were closed and not to adhere to social distancing rules that would have made production impossible).
    The attacks on Johnson are opportunistic (such as the fuss Labour made about M.Ps having second paid jobs when Starmer himself and indeed Ed Davey had previously had them and it was left by Conservative M.Ps to Boris Johnson himself to make that point).
    The Conservative Party is plummeting in the polls in large part because Conservative M.Ps are not doing their political job of countering nonsense from the opposition.

    1. alan jutson
      January 12, 2022

      G B
      Agree with many of your points, but Boris needs to surround himself with good sound sensible people who support the manifesto pledges, and he does not appear to have done that.
      Boris is reasonably good at broad brush concepts, but I would suggest not a man fond, or good at detail, or of thinking out possible unintended consequences of some actions.

  48. Aden
    January 11, 2022

    Leave the EU? A pass just. Unless you are in Northern Ireland, where is a fail

    Take back control over our money? A fail. Your still paying them

    Take back control over the borders. A fail. Look at the criminals crossing the channel.

    Leave the EU courts. A fail. We are still in.

    Deporting the criminals. A fail. They are still running around.

    Cut taxes? A fail

    Cut the debt? A fail.

    So over all, its a fail.

    PS Where is that report we were promised.
    PPS. I’ve got the Home Office in the FOI tribunal in couple of months.

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