Time for the government to move on from managing Covid

The latest case numbers for Covid suggest this latest wave is peaking. The figures also suggest thanks Ā to vaccines serious cases and hospital stays will be lower proportionately than previous waves. On 26 January the government review should be able to decide the remaining restrictions can be lifted. The pandemic disease can move to being endemic, something we will live with. Everyone can make their own decisions about vaccines and how much risk to run of catching it.

The government needs to refocus. At the high Prime Ministerial level we know what this government is about – getting Brexit done, levelling up, improving public services. At departmental level there is often a lack of clarity or a failure to work away at contributing to the main aims. Particularly disappointing is the way so many departments have gone out of their way to avoid using Brexit freedoms. So many advisers and civil servants seem to want to keep us closely aligned to the EU.

There is also a slow start to levelling Ā up. This should be primarily about helping people on their journeys to ownership, self employment, better training and qualifications. So where are the Freeports as centres of investment and new jobs? Why arenā€™t they up and running , with low taxes and friendlier conditions for setting up and expanding business? Where are the plans to help us grow more and make more of what we want?

Cabinet Ministers need to set out how their departments will shape the post pandemic world and how this contributes to growth and levelling up.

I would also be interested in your views on the PM ā€˜s statement yesterday on the conduct of those working in Downing Street during lockdown.

296 Comments

  1. Mark B
    January 13, 2022

    Good morning

    . . . remaining restrictions can be lifted.

    So am I to take it that the government will remove the 2020 Coronavirus Act and all other laws and powers it has bequeathed itself in the aftermath of what has been the most shameful episode in our nation’s history.

    Shameful, because it started with a government cover up (Operation Cygnus) which led to absolutely no proper preparedness, to a government unable to act due to a host of reasons, none of which are sufficient for the inaction in the first few critical months (ie stopping people entering the country from infected areas), to following deliberately misleading data from a source xxx that was known to be suspect, to taking advice from those who have no knowledge of viruses and taking actions (lockdowns) which after attempt after attempt have failed to control the virus. And notwithstanding the fact that, people’s lives, business and general health have been massively impacted. We also have a State and its organs paralysed and not functioning due to staff shortages.

    People have been lied to and deceived. But then, we all, including myself, forgot the the first rule in British politics – Never trust the Tories ! A rule that from now on will be well remembered at the voting booth.

  2. Everhopeful
    January 13, 2022

    The sweet sound of sanity!

    I spoke to a friend last night.
    She was, at first, a fervent believer, mask-lover and jab-seeker.
    Now she is tearfully begging for it all to ā€œjust endā€!

    This government has stolen lives and done untold harm.

    1. lifelogic
      January 13, 2022

      Indeed it seems so. Much of what the government has done has done far more harm than good both to health and to the economy (causing even more damage to health). We even had daft people like Neil O’Brien MP attacking the Great Barrington declaration and sensible people like Sunetra Gupta.

      A good interview with the sound Lord Frost on the Planet Normal podcast. But even he thinks we have a serious problem with climate change, though he thinks Boris needs to move more slowly. He read History and French at university.

      The reality is there is no climate emergency and even if there were the solutions being pushed – biofuels, wind, solar, EVs, hydrogen, heat pumpsā€¦ will save no sig. CO2 let alone change the climate. A bit more CO2 plant tree and crop food is. on balance, a good thing anyway. To reduce world CO2 we would need world cooperation with China, Russia, Indiaā€¦ anyway which will not happen.

      The Carrie/Boris net zero agenda is totally unscientific and Political and Economic suicide. It needs a U turn.

      1. Iago
        January 13, 2022

        Yes, but the government is not going to abandon net zero. It comes from the new (and horrible) global government level, where Carney for example is currently flying, and to which the government and civil service are utterly beholden. The UK government is no longer ours; we are paying for this and will eventually pay everything we have.

      2. Everhopeful
        January 13, 2022

        +many

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      January 13, 2022

      Because it’s 100% clear that even the people inventing the rules didn’t believe in their efficacy. Ferguson, Hancock, Johnson, Cummings and now half the Civil Service in Downing Street…
      The investigation needs to follow the process of how these daft and damaging rules were arrived at rather than who attended a party.

      1. Sir Joe Soap
        January 13, 2022

        One could hypothesise it was all a stitch up by NHS glitterati to protect themselves and their empire.

    3. Ian Wragg
      January 13, 2022

      And they won’t relinquish control without a fight.
      Boris has shown himself to be a lying authoritarian PM. He is being ill advised at every level and too much influence from the real PM his wife.
      He is destroying this lovely country by not stemming the channel invasion and continuing with his net zero nonsense.
      Time for a change of direction.

      1. glen cullen
        January 13, 2022

        The biggest problem to date is that Boris doesnā€™t believe heā€™s done anything wrong, which is backed up by his green wife, sycophant cabinet, EU civil servants and the woke backbenchesā€¦.its only the people and now today the polls that proclaim heā€™s a wrongin

      2. Everhopeful
        January 13, 2022

        + all very true!

    4. jerry
      January 13, 2022

      @EH; Your comment is undiluted hyperbolic nonsense on stilts. If you want to understand a government that “has stolen lives and done untold harm” due to the pandemic you only need to look at Brazil.

      1. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        So our horror story is fine – because it appears not as bad as somewhere else?

        1. glen cullen
          January 13, 2022

          I feel better already

        2. jerry
          January 13, 2022

          @MT; “So our horror story is fine”

          Well no, it would have been far better had the UK far fewer CV19 infections, especially those that lead to hospitalization and death, thus far fewer non CV19 moralities due to patients not being able to access their expected/usual hospital treatments because the hospitals were full of totally preventable CV19 infections, never mind far fewer deaths in nursing home settings etc. but that would have meant earlier, harsher and longer restrictions, just as say Australia has/has -but that govt had the guts to put health before wealth…

      2. Everhopeful
        January 13, 2022

        Tut tut! Ad hominemsā€¦the final resort of the Left!
        Brazil has suffered from exactly the same sort of nonsense as we have here.

        ā€œFor the hospital system, just the fact of having an increase in influenza and coronavirus is already a risk,ā€ Urbano said. ā€œMost cases will not require hospitalization, but if the volume of infections is very high, a small percentage is already enough to overload hospitals.ā€

        Virtually word for word.
        Lots of arms in Brazilā€¦the fleshy type.

        1. jerry
          January 13, 2022

          @EH; Oh sorry, perhaps I miss understood, you (and I assume your friend) wanted Australian style restrictions, lock-downs, closed boarders etc?

        2. Nottingham Lad Himself
          January 14, 2022

          “Tut tut! Ad hominemsā€¦the final resort of the Left!”

          You do realise that that is a classic ad hominem itself?

          The comment to which you refer isn’t, however. It refers only to a claim, not to the maker of the claim.

      3. Peter2
        January 13, 2022

        I looked up the UK and Brazil Covid statistics and the UK has had 220 cases per 1000 people, Brazil has had 106 cases per 1000 people.
        UK has had 2.9 deaths per 1000 people Brazil has had 2.9 deaths per 1000 people.

        Reply Wrong figures

        1. Peter2
          January 13, 2022

          Typo sorry
          Should read:- UK has had 2.2 deaths per 1000

        2. jerry
          January 13, 2022

          @Peter2; Extracted current figures from data publicly accessible, collated by Johns Hopkins University

          Deaths per million.
          2,900 Brazil
          2,536 USA
          2,215 UK
          2,065 EU27 (grand total)
          _ 818 Canada
          _ 97 Austraila

    5. glen cullen
      January 13, 2022

      And the supporters of Boris have been and are proclaiming the countries covid success is all down to the leadership of Borisā€¦.putting the country & its plebs in lockdown isnā€™t leadership
      If Boris is a charlatan, and if the civil servants at No10 are charlatans does that mean the current covid Plan B is charlatan

    6. Cheshire Girl
      January 13, 2022

      Im afraid I cant agree with you there. I think the Government has saved many lives, and tried to mitigate any harm. They may have made mistakes, but action had to be taken very quickly at the start. I wouldn’t have wanted to face what they did.
      I think that the Chief Medical Officer and some other advisors got a lot of unwarranted flack, from ā€˜armchairā€™ experts. They were very stoic to put up with it. In my opinion, we owe them a lot.

      1. Cheshire Girl
        January 13, 2022

        The comment above was to Ever Hopeful. Unfortunately I sometimes forget to put the name of the person I am replying to. Apologies.

        1. Everhopeful
          January 13, 2022

          So how do you account for the ā€œbring a bottleā€ party
          Why werenā€™t terrified of a supposedly lethal disease?
          Where were the hazmat suits?
          Covid, they said, was SO terrible that they had to LEGISLATE for it.

      2. DOM
        January 13, 2022

        CG

        The British people owe these people NOTHING. Ferguson, Whitty, Johnson, Michie and co invented such rules and then refused to conform them themselves.

        Ferguson especially has proven vindictive and destructive acting politically

        They need to be held accountable for their political actions

        1. Everhopeful
          January 13, 2022

          +1,000000

  3. Gary Megson
    January 13, 2022

    Here you again, trying to blame the failures of Brexit on anyone but yourself and your fellow zealots. Those Brexit freedoms so far – higher costs for mobile phone roaming, shortages on supermarket shelves, not enough care workers or fruit pickers, nurses going home to Eastern Europe, inward investment collapsing as firms move HQ out of the UK to the EU, Northern Ireland cut off from GB. This isn’t the fault of civil servants. This is what Brexit is – cutting GB off from the world outside. We’re all poorer as a result, and it is you Brexiters who are to blame

    Reply Typical Remain rant. Plenty of inward investment, Virgin no roaming charges, plenty of empty shelves in many countries, 6 million EU citizens staying etc

    1. Gary Megson
      January 13, 2022

      You really need to stop living in the past, Mr Redwood. We left the EU two years ago. “Remain” is not possible, it’s ancient history. What’s happening now is the reality of Brexit. Not project fear, but project right here. And it’s going very very badly. And it’s very very your fault, Brexiters

      1. oldwulf
        January 13, 2022

        @GM
        The UK should have left the EU shortly after its democratic vote. Sadly, leaving the EU was delayed until the middle of a pandemic which makes very difficult (= impossible) to judge “the reality of Brexit”.

        The UK left the EU on 31 January 2020 at 23:00 GMT ending 47 years of membership.
        We should judge Brexit in 2067.

      2. a-tracy
        January 13, 2022

        Gary Megson, the UK were only outside after the withdrawal agreement ended, so from 1st Jan 2021 [one year out] it was called the implementation period, up till then the UK had to follow all rules and directions when May agreed to that, yet she backed down from our turn leading instead of hard-facing it out. In 2020 we were in the EU, the CU, Single Market, commons fishery policy following all the rules and laws as if the UK were still a Member State, it ended midnight Brussels time 31/12/2020.

        2022 GDP source IMF
        UK + 5%
        France +3.9%
        Germany +4.6%
        Italy +4.2%

      3. John Hatfield
        January 13, 2022

        Whatā€™s happening now is the result of having too many Europhiles in Westminster. If ‘Brexiters’ were in government we would be a lot better off.

        1. glen cullen
          January 13, 2022

          I wish ‘brexiters’ were in government

    2. Roy Grainger
      January 13, 2022

      UK has more venture capital investment flowing into the tech sector than any EU country – we’re way ahead of Germany who are in second place. So your “inward investment collapsing” is just what you want to happen rather than what is actually happening.

    3. jerry
      January 13, 2022

      @Gary Megson; Other than mobile roaming charges all the other problems you list have been caused just as much by the pandemic. Brexit has not been the cause of increased international shipping costs, or reduced production from far eastern manufacturers.

      I do agree that this govt has made a unholy pigs ear of Brexit, there was only ever going to be two options, BRINO or a WTO exit, currently they appear to have landed themselves in a sort of no-mans land, surrounded by political minefields.

    4. Mike Wilson
      January 13, 2022

      And it was Remainers who thwarted Brexit and gave us the poor deal we have. But, who cares about ā€˜dealsā€™. This will (should) force us to focus on being self sufficient in food and energy and with less imports – both of goods and people. Mind you, with the present government ā€¦

      As for Johnsonā€™s excuses – they are beyond derision.

      1. jerry
        January 13, 2022

        @Mike Wilson; “it was Remainers who thwarted Brexit”

        Nonsense, it was the post Dec. 2019 Johnson majority who voted through the WA & the NIP.

    5. lifelogic
      January 13, 2022

      @ Gary – What deluded drivel. We can let in whomever we choose to let in to work. Many companies moving to the UK Shell HQ for example. The UK just has to be competitive, abandon the net zero expensive intermittent energy lunacy, cut the size of government in half, cut taxes and have a bonfire of red tape.

      Simple really – but alas Boris and Carrie seem to have the opposite letā€™s be uncompetitive, full of green crap and big state regulate to death socialists agenda.

      1. a-tracy
        January 13, 2022

        Is it just Boris and Carrie though Lifelogic? It seems the vast majority of conservative MPs agree with this agenda or they would be able to overrule Boris.

        1. lifelogic
          January 13, 2022

          @a-tracy – True – totally deluded nearly all art graduates suffering from ā€œgroup thinkā€ lunacy on the net zero agenda. The ā€œsolutionsā€ pushed do not even work in CO2 terms. They must surely be either too thick or ignorant to understand reality or they must have vested interests, are dishonest or are actually just completely corrupt. No other sensible explanation that I can see. Rather the same for HS2 and the over reaction to Covid that has clearly done far more harm than good.

      2. acorn
        January 13, 2022

        God you are boring LL. same rant every day, several times a day. “Cut taxes”, the mantra of this site is laughable; none of you would have the first idea where to start. For instance, the gross tax base in UK legislation is a little over Ā£1,200 billion (2019), about 57% of GDP. Thanks to over a thousand tax reliefs and allowances, that figure is reduce to a net Ā£780 billion (2019), which is the number the OBR publishes. Not a lot of people know that.

        Capital Gains Tax (CG) and Corporation Tax (CT) discounts, encourage the shifting of income out of the Income Tax base. A whole range of exemptions, allowances and reliefs make income earned from wealth, rather than from work less taxing. Hence, using the rules to swap earnings out of the Income Tax regime, into CG and CT regime beneficial. Hence the IR35 legislation. (HT: Modern Monetary Theory and the Changing Role of Tax in Society. Cambridge University)

        Imagine an annual Capital Gains Tax on assets held by individuals, including residential property. Would do away with Corporation Tax; Inheritance Tax and a couple of others.

        1. lifelogic
          January 13, 2022

          @Acorn – Not actually compulsory to read it! What matters overall is how much government are spending now nearly 50% of GDP and how efficiently they are spending it.

          In the UK it is largely being pissed down the drain on things of little or no value to tax payers. Much is of net negative value.

        2. dixie
          January 14, 2022

          @Ache – so your vision is one where we own nothing, save nothing and must work until we drop.

        3. a-tracy
          January 14, 2022

          acorn – I can’t imagine anything like an extra annual tax on living in your own home in addition to council tax. Would you have to have your home valued every year? By whom? What would that cost? Then would you be able to offset redecoration, new kitchen, new windows, reporting, new roof, insulation, replacement driveways etc? Would you be able to offset anything in your ideal little fantasy world?

          You should be pleased there are people like my parents existing on around Ā£14,500 per annum between them, squirrelling away their little nest egg for a rainy day so they’re not a burden on the state, in a home probably worth less than you and your partner’s cars. But they cost zero in housing benefits than many of their friends in 3 bed council houses now cost the state, and no pension credits compared to friends who saved nothing and blew the lost on caravans and foreign holidays and left themselves with nothing, do people like you actually prefer people that are totally dependent on the State, given up and given in to every whim you people have.

    6. Everhopeful
      January 13, 2022

      Theyā€™d very soon have an army of keen fruit pickers and care home workers.
      If they stopped benefits.
      And insisted (not incentivised) farmers and care homes to provide accommodation.

    7. alan jutson
      January 13, 2022

      Gary

      You do know that the EU is a member of The World Trade organisation under which 97% of the worlds trading is completed didn’t you.
      Yes we will leave the EU proper eventually, problem is the EU is trying to do their best to make this as difficult as possible, and so far we have not yet shown the courage to take matters properly into our own hands.

      As for those who made the decision for a get together in the garden of No10, never called a Party (other than by the media and opposition), or even sounds like a Party from the description.
      Like so many other civil servants, Government Departments and Local Authority workers who appear to be completely out of touch with reality, you do actually wonder how they become employed and hold such key positions in the first place, or indeed at all.
      Alcohol was always banned in every workplace I attended, as it can fuddle the brain, and is dangerous where machinery is concerned.
      The worst statement was not a get together invitation for working colleagues who were already working together, but “Bring your own Booze” an absolutely crass suggestion, but I guess the muddled thinking was that it would avoid cross contamination if you shared a bottle, such is the weird thinking of priorities of those involved.
      No Surprise Boris was around, it is his home and office after all, but he should have put a stop to it as soon as he was aware.
      Given the above you have to wonder about the priorities and thinking process of all involved !

    8. Original Richard
      January 13, 2022

      Gary Megson :

      Nonsense

      We have more EU nationals in the UK than the total population size of 12 EU countries. How do these countries survive with so few people?

      Shell and Unilever have moved to the UK.

      Our problem is that we have too many people working in useless, unproductive jobs in the public sector ā€“ civil servants, quangos and the educational establishment. Pro-EU and now falling into the hands of the Chinese ā€“ why do we allow China to have 250,000 ā€œstudentsā€ in the UK?

      1. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        Well the Chinese pay higher uni fees, and that finances the superb salaries for the top tier and indeed the ‘few hours a week’ lecturers.
        I agree though, stop the infiltration – just what does this 5th column do for UK, welcoming stolen Intellectual Copyright.

    9. Fedupsoutherner
      January 13, 2022

      Reply to reply. No shortages in supermarkets around our area John. Talk about over load at Christmas. Shelves stacked to the ceilings!! No fuel shortages either now that the media aren’t panicking everyone.

  4. Sea_Warrior
    January 13, 2022

    Yes, where are the ‘free ports’? And who is to blame for a lack of action? Know-nothing Spads fresh out of university? Civil servants ‘working from home’? Ministers with no real interest? Perhaps the Spartans need to demand a meeting with the relevant minister and ask to be shown the project plan, getting down into the details. There is a project plan, isn’t there?
    P.S. And the onerous provisions of the EU’s Ports Directive should also have been ditched by now.

    Reply There are regular exchanges with Ministers!

    1. Nig l
      January 13, 2022

      Agree but also knew what the reply would be, thatā€™s how Government works. What we are never told is why these exchanges are proving fruitless because apart from the problem of Boris, the restā€™s inertia looks like political suicide.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        January 13, 2022

        I often find it useful to measure the time it takes for the government to do something, against the length of WW2.

        1. glen cullen
          January 13, 2022

          It took this government(s) longer than 5 years just to agree the route of HS2ā€¦.in that time we designed and equipped a whole country and fought a global warā€¦.without todayā€™s computers and smart-phones

        2. Lifelogic
          January 13, 2022

          +1. Indeed it takes several time longer than WW2 just to get planning for somethings such as a nuclear reactor, a coal mine or new runway.

    2. Andy
      January 13, 2022

      Free ports = tax dodging bases.

      Why do you want to encourage tax dodging? Who do you expect to pay your pension?

      1. Mike Wilson
        January 13, 2022

        Who do you expect to pay your pension?

        You.

        Just like I paid for your dadā€™s.

      2. Lifelogic
        January 13, 2022

        Few things more moral than paying less tax (where you legally can do) this as people and businesses will invest or spend the money far more efficiently than the government will on average. This benefits the economy, generates jobs and grows the tax base.

      3. Peter2
        January 13, 2022

        The construction group Mace said free ports could create over 150,000 jobs and add Ā£9 billion a year to the UK economy whilst narrowing the North South divide.

    3. acorn
      January 13, 2022

      Lizzy backing Boris 100%; start packing now Boris.

      There have been many reforms of the Civil Service (CS), few things have changed. Amateur politicians always forget that the CS works to, and advises on, the law as written; not the law as politicians think it is and the CS is deliberately not implementing it, because they are all socialist EU fanatics. You change the law minister and the CS will implement it as best they can. Meanwhile, the rules are what the last government left you with; and the pile of rules is getting bigger and more contradictory with previous rules, every year.

      Worth a read and still relevant https://www.civilservant.org.uk/csr-permanent_secretaries_objectives.html

      1. Mitchel
        January 13, 2022

        And Liz Truss’s next (hoped for)photo shoot….Moscow.

        Liz in (fake)furs!Liz on (thin)ice!Liz doing Doctor Zhivago!(I don’t think Julie Christie has anything to worry about).

        There’s even talk about meeting Putin-wishful thinking;the very best she could hope for,as protocol would suggest,is Sergei Lavrov,and he is unlikely to find the time for her unless she’s got something worthwhile to say,like “I submit”.

    4. X-Tory
      January 13, 2022

      Reply to reply: I’m sure ministers do meet MPs, as they have an obligation to do so, but clearly these meetings have no practical effect as your views are always ignored. Your meeting with Kwarteng is a case in point. So what matters is what you do when ministers fail to take your suggestions on board. Do you publicly declare ‘no confidence’ in the minister and vote to oust him in the Commons? No. You do nothing. And that’s why you get nothing. And nothing improves. It’s very sad.

    5. Gary Megson
      January 13, 2022

      No, there is no project plan. Let me set you a test. Show me the publication: “How to do Brexit, why to do Brexit, and the specific benefits of Brexit”. Where is it? Doesn’t exist, does it. Because Brexit was driven by people throwing tantrums that their life wasn’t as nice as they wanted it to be, like a toddler screaming it’s not faiirr. Never had a plan. Which is why every serious economist thought it madness, and every politician not of the far left or the far right thought it madness

  5. DOM
    January 13, 2022

    John’s prescription of more State spending and zero reform is destroying liberty, voice and the civil space and expanding the power of the now all politicised, all unionised public sector lobby than to all intents and purposes has become the State itself

    Every Tory MP is now a prisoner of the progressive left

    Reply I do want reform and will return to this in future posts

    1. Michelle
      January 13, 2022

      I don’t buy that every Tory MP is a prisoner of the progressive left.
      We have had an allegedly Conservative Government from 2010 (apologies if the date is wrong) and all we’ve seen is a strengthening of the progressive left and that in my opinion is because the Conservative party is nothing more than New Labour .

      I forget the MP’s name who in an interview during Cameron’s era talked of the civil service’s deliberate tactics to undermine departments during a former Conservative Govt.
      Desks had to be thumped to show just who was in charge back then and that wasn’t happening during Cameron tenure in many departments.

      So is there lack of wit or lack of will to put an end to this rule by progressive left, civil servants and advisers.

      Sir John replies to the post that he does want reform, but I don’t see how a few squeaks during a Parliamentary debate from an ever growing minority of those who say they are Conservative (yet remain in a party clearly not, on many issues) is going to actually achieve that.

      1. Timaction
        January 13, 2022

        Indeed. Nail on the head. Nothing has been done about wokery, political correctness everywhere, same recruitment and selection processes from Blair/Campballs time in all civil serpents, health, police, Councils etc etc. All have to be believer’s in equality (positive action in reality), climate change, mass legal and illegal immigration is good, all English people are racist bigot’s and bad etc. All very much left of centre. The truth is ………..everyone inside and outside of these organisations know it. The Tory’s are NOT conservative and haven’t been for a long time.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      January 13, 2022

      I hear of yet another young man retired at 50 doing karate practically full time. Retired police constable who thinks he’s paid for the multi million pound pot that has enabled him to retire after a mere 30 years work.

      Could be mistake for a forty-year-old.

      Andy bangs on about pensioners but the pensioners he should be banging on about are state sector pensioners enjoying old fashioned pensions (when shift workers really did die young and were unfit) that the private sector can no longer afford.

      This is what we are prisoners of.

      People who know right from wrong but who enforce undemocratic policy because they are scared of losing gold plated pensions. And then there’s the impossible economics of having to pay for it all, to rub the salt in.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 13, 2022

        The private sector manages to afford DB pensions very comfortably for the CE’s and seniors of banks, corporations, etc.

        What ever do you mean?

      2. hefner
        January 13, 2022

        NLA, Are you talking about MPs (researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk ā€˜MPsā€™ Pension Schemeā€™, 27/05/2016; thetimes.co.uk, 13/11/2021 ā€˜MPsā€™ pension perks equivalent to an extra Ā£40,000 a year on top of Ā£81,000 annual salaryā€™).

    3. Lifelogic
      January 13, 2022

      Well most Tory MPs are indeed green crap pushing, big state, high tax and regulation, pro EU membership lefties who even want to keep dire, virtual state monopolies in education and healthcare. We have had vast tax hikes from Sunak and endless waste too.

  6. Peter
    January 13, 2022

    ā€œAt the high Prime Ministerial level we know what this government is about ā€“ getting Brexit done, levelling up, improving public services. ā€

    I donā€™t think we do know that. Whatever was in the manifesto seems to have been replaced by ā€˜Build Back Betterā€™ and NetZero.

    1. Michelle
      January 13, 2022

      You mean you actually believed the manifesto?

      Let’s hope your’e once bitten twice shy when the next one comes around.

  7. Shirley M
    January 13, 2022

    Everything points towards Parliament pushing us back towards the EU. I hope I am wrong, but EU appeasement seems top of the list, and Brexit freedoms and opportunities at the bottom. Big claims and big announcements but no action become predictable and even more trust gets lost.

    A little bit of honesty goes a long way. How many Tory PM’s have told us immigration will be reduced? The reality is reducing the required points to a very low level, and rolling out the red carpet to make illegal immigration as attractive as possible. I’m surprised Boris doesn’t send the QE2 to pick them up straight from Calais (sarc).

    Our country needs help and rescue from this totally incompetent government.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      There are no brexit freedoms.

      It is a huge LOSS of freedoms and of rights.

    2. Timaction
      January 13, 2022

      …………. Iā€™m surprised Boris doesnā€™t send the QE2 to pick them up straight from Calais…….no, he sends the Border Farce and RNLI instead and then puts them up in 4* Hotels all around the Country with everything free. No deportations…ever. That’ll put them off coming then………NOT!

    3. Andy
      January 13, 2022

      It is inevitable we will rejoin the EU one day. Older people, who tended to vote leave, are dying out. Younger people who are joining the electoral roll are more pro-Europe than ever.

      They see their country impoverished by Brexit, their politics corrupted by Brexit and their opportunities reduced by Brexit. They will inevitably undo it.

      My one hope is that we rejoin in time for as many elderly Brexitists as possible to see their Brexit fail. Pay their pensions in Euros to rub it in.

      1. Original Richard
        January 13, 2022

        Andy ; ā€œYounger people who are joining the electoral roll are more pro-Europe than ever.ā€

        Yes, the educational establishment, corrupted by EU money, have produced a young generation who are afraid of freedom of speech and critical thinking and quite prepared in the case of Net Zero and the EU to act as turkeys voting for Christmas.

        The Chinese have learned from the EU and with their 250,000 ā€œstudentsā€ are now busy corrupting our universities themselves faster even than the EU.

        So perhaps theyā€™ll be voting not to join the EU but the CCP although I suspect like all previous generations their views will change as they get older and wiser.

  8. Nig l
    January 13, 2022

    And in other news Borisā€™s defence that it was a works event. So any organisation could have held a massive get together with booze and food, unsanctioned, whilst people sitting on park benches were threatened with prosecution.

    Insulting rubbish and the pathetic Cabinet Ministers rushing out meaningless statements of support, either because they know he is their sponsor and might/will lose their job under a new leader or are buying time to get their own leadership campaign up and running.

    In terms of your post Sir JR, first job, of the government stop treating us with contempt and as fools.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      January 13, 2022

      Plod would undoubtedly been on our doorstep in the event of the same in May 2020.

    2. Michelle
      January 13, 2022

      I’m less annoyed about the shindig at No.10 or wherever it was and more annoyed and worried that the electorate actually believed that such things wouldn’t be going on.
      I think a fair few from across both sides broke the ‘rules’ laid down to us.

      The electorate are treated with contempt and as fools simply because they keep offering themselves up for it.
      The, ‘I always vote…….’ (fill in the gap) proves that.
      No doubt there are plenty out there bemoaning the state of ‘their’ party, yet will trot back out and vote for it again because they always have and Mum and Dad did too.
      Then people wonder why nothing has changed and they are not getting anything like they were promised.

      1. Mike Wilson
        January 13, 2022

        First past the past creates the situation you describe. What sane person would vote Tory? Or Labour. People on here vote Tory because they think Labour would be worse. Not for any other reason.

    3. Stred
      January 13, 2022

      Johnson is under the influence of his wife and her Bright Blue green zealot friends. They are aware that their expensive and impractical plans are in danger if he is deposed and ate giving support despite his obvious lack of reality.
      If the Conservative Party fluffs this opportunity to lance the boil and get rid of these deluded fools, followed by huge bills to pay for greencrap, say goodbye to office.

      1. Timaction
        January 13, 2022

        In reality who’s going too vote to their gas boilers and their ICE cars banned? Then have to pay for the electric cars, charging points, Ā£10,000 for new heat exchangers that don’t work. Energy bills and inflation about to go through the roof. This is all based on a religion that is not proven where no one can voice opposition without being called names. Some scientists, like yesterday in TCW have noticed a correlation between ………the Sun and its sunspots to cyclical temperature changes on Earth. Who’d have thuunk it. The Sun and not that 0.04% of the atmosphere that is essential for all plant life on Earth and without it, no other animal species could survive! What could possibly go wrong with net zero?

        1. glen cullen
          January 13, 2022

          So why is this government pushing forward all these mad plans….and no-one in Westminister is even trying to oppose them

        2. alan jutson
          January 14, 2022

          Timeaction

          Indeed Sun activity/Sun spots/flares and the like sound a rather more likely reason for temperature changes on earth over the years.
          There have always been mad schemes about, but common sense has prevailed in good time in the past.
          This time the Green Zealots seem to have gained real traction with Governments all over the World, although not with the same degree of success in some Countries..
          Sadly if there is no change of thought or direction, only when our way of life, finances, and jobs have been completely changed for the worse, will we know who was really right or wrong.
          Given the risks involved, you would think the Government would proceed slowly with any change, and certainly with caution, but that form of action has been thrown out of the window, so to outline a popular phrase.
          It’s now S..t or bust !

    4. Peter Wood
      January 13, 2022

      Quite so. It’s not the ‘party’ that makes me want rid of Bunter, that is only a symptom. It indicates he is not a Manager. He’s a showman, entertainer, writer of sorts, but NOT a manager, and that is what the country needs now. To do all the things Sir J. has been writing about recently, we need a strategic planning thinker with exceptional people management skills. Who…?

      1. SM
        January 13, 2022

        +10

      2. alan jutson
        January 14, 2022

        +1

    5. a-tracy
      January 13, 2022

      Nig1 – was there food as well as a bring your own drink? How many other people were working indoors with 100 people at the time still at 6pm in the evening? The whole lot of them inside downing street that attended must have thought that because they were working together to finish the day together outdoors wasn’t an issue but they should all have known better these aren’t low paid, low skilled workers I’m sure. But is it a dismissal or a big fine for Boris and the Managers to pay (not the taxpayer).

      All the hundreds of people that were fined for VE Day bank holiday breaches when they visited parks, beaches, in the gorgeous weather, the conga run crowd in Cheshire that got told off for walking in the street with a rope 2m apart thinking they were being compliant too as long as they were 2m distant from each other, all those dashing out a few days later that May to go on protests and marches in London. The panic from Wales for the latter May bank holiday as people were trying to go to holiday homes to stretch the rules to suit themselves. These are more the comparisons of the event in the garden not hospitals not allowing visitors for goodness sakes that was at the sensible demands of the hospital workers and their unions because they would be indoors with lots of people. Some hospitals did allow deathbed visits others none at all.

      1. alan jutson
        January 14, 2022

        a-tracy
        We are informed only 30-40 turned up, so I assume the majority thought it was a crass idea !

        1. a-tracy
          January 14, 2022

          alan, but did they say so to the Private Secretary or did they just not feel like staying behind late after work when the vast majority of people were off work on furlough!

    6. jerry
      January 13, 2022

      @Nig l; No any other business could not have held such a ‘business meeting’, at least not without risk of prosecution, either by the police or the H&SE should the fact become known, that is why so many companies paid (and still do) good money to use secure VPN’s and video conferencing etc.

    7. No Longer Anonymous
      January 13, 2022

      The problem all along was that we should not have been in lockdown and this proves that the Tory Party knew so instinctively.

      They know masks don’t work (they don’t wear them in Downing Street. They know lockdown doesn’t work (they had numerous parties.)

      We now hear that Lord Frost resigned because he disagreed with Covid Theatre and comments that lockdown and masks will be viewed as a huge policy mistake (as I have said repeatedly over the last two years.)

      The coming economic depression will carry with it a far higher mortality rate than Covid.

      Our enemies now know that all they have to do is release a vial of moderate disease on our tube network to cripple our economies and we won’t even know we’ve been attacked or by whom.

      We are a weak people. Covid has shown it.

      The West is about to become the new Third World.

      Boris should go not because of the parties but because he is a serial liar and not a good one at that. He should go not simply because he broke his own lockdown rules but because he made those rules knowing instinctively that he shouldn’t have done.

      I was never fooled by him and I don’t think many of the public were – we voted for him to keep the Reds out.

      The Red wall collapse was a vote against Left. The vote for Blair was a vote against Left (he had to disguise himself as a conservative) … and this country has voted against Left for over forty years now.

      Boris turned Left.

      That’s why he has to go.

      1. glen cullen
        January 13, 2022

        With the reports of ā€˜reds under the bedsā€™, was it all a Chinese plan to disable the west (the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu would be proud)
        Nope its all down to Boris

    8. rose
      January 13, 2022

      As far as he was concerned it was work. Do you really think he is the party animal the media have dishonestly depicted for the public? He is a loner who likes books and painting and making models. But just as they and the EU made him out to be a fascist, sexist, racist, homophobe, islamophobe, etc at the beginning, so they are now making him out to be a heartless hedonist. This Italian style EU coup should be resisted, not abetted.

      1. rose
        January 13, 2022

        Our disgracefully dishonest media have managed to crush all news out of their bulletins. Is it really a coincidence that there was a chance we might have taken back NI after Christmas? Who leaked and therefore brought forward Lord Frost’s departure? Who wants to distract the FS from completing the job? Who wants the Cabinet to avoid the turbulence of defying Macron? Keeping hold of NI means the EU keeps hold of us.

      2. Mitchel
        January 13, 2022

        Johnson’s supporters evidently don’t know the difference between a libertine and a libertarian.

      3. jerry
        January 13, 2022

        @rose; It matters not one jot what “he” thought then, or thinks now, the law (at the time) said otherwise.

      4. hefner
        January 13, 2022

        So over the last few months you attempted to exonerate first Hancock, then Raab, Sunak, and now Johnson. Your level of day-to-day political understanding and how it relates to that of your fellow Brits is absolutely outstanding and incredibly brilliant. Hats off, really.

        1. rose
          January 14, 2022

          “Exonerate”? Again and again you misinterpret what I say here. The one I exonerated was Mr Paterson, but you don’t mention him.

          1. jerry
            January 14, 2022

            @rose; Your point being what, other than to prove @hefner’s general point, mention of one name or another aside. You appear to have poor judgment of late, there were a lot of mitigating factors in the Paterson case, what are yours – being a CCHQ staffer perhaps?

          2. Bill brown
            January 14, 2022

            Paterson what ever for

  9. Cynic
    January 13, 2022

    In my opinion the party gate incident is the last straw. It comes after: unnecessary lock downs, vaccine mandates, costly energy policies, tax increases and increasing illegal immigration. I’m afraid that the “Teflon coating ” has warn too thin and things are starting to stick.

    1. Michelle
      January 13, 2022

      Increasing ‘legal’ migration too according to Migration Watch (and only surely a surprise to those who still believe in tooth fairies).
      Legal or illegal it has been a desire for a long time now of poor old ordinary Joe public for it to be drastically reduced. Promises broken, which should never have been believed in the first place given the Conservatives trajectory from Cameron onward on many issues not least immigration.

    2. matthu
      January 13, 2022

      During a period when fathers were threatened by police action for playing with their children in their own front gardens, when people were threatened with fines for walking with a cup of coffee in their hands, when people were fined for sitting on a park bench, occupants of number 10 were aware that the dangers had been overstated. They laughed while the electorate were being bullied by he police, many were being abused within their own homes, and some were suffering severe mental despair.

      How many MPs stood up and proclaimed that this was madness. That this was government fear mongering and coercion. Why did it take nearly two years for these leaks to come out?

      Why aren’t we even now hearing many more voices saying that lockdowns and domestic passports and police bullying must never be allowed again.

      Where are the voices? Still too many are covering their own elbows. None deserves a place in government.

      1. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        You forget the fear the bog-standard newbie Tory MP carries.
        They all dare not raise an objection, the political Stasi are watching…..

        But at the next GE, when ejected they might reflect on not speaking up!

      2. Mark B
        January 13, 2022

        Careful, you’ll end up in moderation like my post of this morning. Eh, Sir John šŸ˜‰

      3. BOF
        January 13, 2022

        matthu.
        Well said. And then there was the small group of MP’s that gathered in the chamber when the Corona Virus Act was renewed and laughed as it was waved through without proper debate, showing only disdain for the people of this country, while trampling democracy and liberty underfoot.

    3. Stred
      January 13, 2022

      Johnson is insulting the electorate with his obvious untruths. He must think they are stupid.

      1. Mark B
        January 13, 2022

        He does not think we are stupid. He knows that no one will dare remove him and that there is no one that can win elections. That will of course change after May this year when it dawns on the Tories that the electorate is prepared to grasp the Labour nettle.

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 13, 2022

        A few million of them have repeatedly put the matter beyond all doubt.

        That’s not wasted on him.

      3. Mike Wilson
        January 13, 2022

        They are stupid. Deeply, utterly stupid. I heard a woman interviewed on the radio yesterday who said she thought ā€˜Borisā€™ was doing a great job. Thatā€™s what youā€™re up against. People like her have the vote.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          January 13, 2022

          Yes, and they generally voted Leave.

    4. Everhopeful
      January 13, 2022

      +1
      I would say that the truth has set us free!
      Never mind any old party.
      The in-the-know-party-goersā€¦
      WERE NOT FRIGHTENED OF GETTING ILL!!!

      Thank the Dear Lord for human stupidity and frailty.
      Who will now dare to keep demandingā€¦ā€Put on your maskā€?

  10. Andy
    January 13, 2022

    379 Covid deaths confirmed yesterday.

    Thatā€™s the highest since February.

    The families of the dead will be moving on – planning funerals and burying their loved ones.

    Afterwards at least they can now have a party. Which hopefully they wonā€™t confuse with work.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      Yes indeed, the number of cases – those who think that it’s even worth reporting their test results – may have peaked, but following the predicted delay deaths and hospitalisations are rising sharply as you say.

      Then there are the problems simply caused by absenteeism through illness.

      The young parents next door are still feeling rough twelve days on.

      1. Hat man
        January 13, 2022

        Yes, sadly deaths go up in January, lad, as they have always done every year. It’s tough.

        You won’t have noticed, because real data don’t seem to be of interest, but the UK 7-day Covid deaths average in early January this year was 181, in early January 2021 it was 848, according to the ONS. Things are going better this year than last. The emergency is surely over.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          January 13, 2022

          Yes, in general we can hope so.

          However, sensible restraint to avoid unnecessarily high infection and hospitalisation is clearly the right thing to do, as the civic-minded in the Far East do anyway for seasonal colds and flu.

      2. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        12 days after New Year’s Day – – – did they have an ill advised party Martin – did you join in?

      3. Mike Wilson
        January 13, 2022

        ā€˜Rising sharplyā€™. Itā€™s this sort of hyperbolic nonsense that got us into the lunacy in the first place. I case yesterday. 2 cases today. Quick, run inside and seal the windows and doors with gaffa tape. Far better to suffocate slowly than catch a cold.

      4. Denis Cooper
        January 13, 2022

        It is too early to be certain but the daily number of hospitalisations also seems to have peaked:

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

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      January 13, 2022

      How many “with” diabetes, or flu, or a cold, or bedsores?
      My guess far more but sugar isn’t banned, neither is staying in bed. Whoever thought banning people from doing reasonable things would end well?

      1. glen cullen
        January 13, 2022

        +1

    3. Bill B.
      January 13, 2022

      Andy, you missed out the next sentence in the news report you are parroting. It says:

      ‘Deaths data on a Tuesday is often higher due to a weekend lag.’

      1. Andy
        January 13, 2022

        Thatā€™s true. But yesterday was Wednesday.

        1. Bill B.
          January 13, 2022

          Sorry Andy but the 379 Deaths figure was reported as of Tuesday, and the sentence you missed out applies to that day:
          https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-uk-records-379-more-coronavirus-related-deaths-and-120-821-new-cases-daily-figures-show-12513750

      2. Andy
        January 13, 2022

        335 dead today. Itā€™s a Thursday.

        To put it in context – more were confirmed dead with Covid today than have died in ANY UK disaster since the war. That is just todayā€™s deaths. There are many Covid days like today.

        Today was about the equivalent of 3.5 Hillsboroughs or 4.5 Grenfell Towers or 1.25 Lockerbieā€™s. Just to put it in perspective.

        Shocking, isnā€™t it?

        1. Richard II
          January 13, 2022

          What is shocking, Andy, is the way you ignore what you yourself wrote -‘ deaths with Covid’ – but fail to understand what that means. Not deaths from Covid, as you imply. The fact is, you don’t know why they died.

          It’s the problem just about everyone acknowledges now – cause of decease is not straightforward, and to blame it on Covid when the deceased had a positive Covid test in the previous 28 days is very dubious. Even the NHS is improving its game, and has today released figures which show that half of London patients in hospital ‘with Covid’ are actually there for another medical reason.

        2. No Longer Anonymous
          January 14, 2022

          The usual suspects just don’t want this to be over !

    4. Roy Grainger
      January 13, 2022

      But only 77 three days ago, more than ten times lower than February. See, I can selectively misinterpret the data too.

    5. Dave Andrews
      January 13, 2022

      How many of those deaths were of people who were vaccinated and previously in good health, as opposed to morbidly sick anyway or had decided not to take the vaccine or had really died of something else and the Covid result is just a detail?
      How many deaths yesterday of those who had flu within the past 28 days? Quite a lot I would imagine seeing as people die in their thousands every day and flu is a frequent infection. Yet we don’t get the complementary numbers for flu deaths.

      1. Sakara Gold
        January 13, 2022

        @Dave Andrews
        There is no influenza circulating anywhere in the world this winter, nor last winter (2020). The lockdowns appear to have eliminated it

        1. Bill B.
          January 13, 2022

          But funnily enough the lockdowns didn’t eliminate Covid. Ain’t that strange?

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            January 13, 2022

            CV is far more infectious than influenza.

        2. Bill B.
          January 14, 2022

          But that’s because there is no influenza test being used all over the place, Sakara. If there was, we’d be hearing daily about influenza ‘case numbers’. As I said, Covid is mainly a testing pandemic.

    6. Zorro
      January 13, 2022

      Yes, grasp at that figure which represents deaths over a number of days. Someday you will move on.

      Zorro

    7. Diane
      January 13, 2022

      Yes deaths are still generally high, as you say, sadly, UK 379 Tuesday. But look at Germany with 387 and Poland with 493. The last 10 days of reported death statistics show the following totals: UK 1831, ITALY 1973, GERMANY 2448, FRANCE 2549, POLAND 2812. Thankfully, in terms of ‘critical’ numbers the UK continues to compare better than most, maintaining a steady or slowly declining figure. The four other states mentioned above are still recording high ‘critical’ numbers over the same period. Again, of the 5 comparisons above, France’s daily new case numbers are still huge compared to the others. Nothing to be pleased about in all that but a bit of perspective. ( Worldometer figures )

  11. Peter
    January 13, 2022

    Speculation before the PMs statement yesterday in the Daily Telegraph predicted that he had five options.

    The major Mea Culpa never happened. Instead we got a half hearted apology – of sorts.

    The PM also clung to the idea that it was ā€˜workā€™ not a party; and that anyway he did not realise this sort of gathering was now forbidden and he was only there for twenty five minutes.

    He tried to buy time with the excuse that he would wait until Sue Gray had made her report before saying any more.

    So unsatisfactory but par for the course.

    The smirk had disappeared though.

    If Boris does go major problems stillremain unless the government gets back to what voters were promised on completing Brexit, tackling immigration etc.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      You seem to cling to this myth that your brexit has somehow not been completed, and that if it ever were then your life would be transformed.

      All except for a few hundred thousand people in NI you have the hard brexit that you crave, and that will not change.

      They on the other hand are flourishing, thanks to the relative advantage that they now have over the rest of us by still being in the SM and CU.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        January 13, 2022

        *Eighteen hundred thousand, that is.

      2. Peter
        January 13, 2022

        NLH,

        Brexit has not been completed. We have BRINO.

        ECJ would have no say in a true Brexit.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          January 13, 2022

          OK, so if the ECJ’s role in NI were removed, then how is that going to transform your life as utterly as you English brexit fanatics imply that it would?

      3. Denis Cooper
        January 13, 2022

        You have already been corrected on that:

        https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/27/the-norwegian-and-swiss-approach-to-economic-management/#comment-1288064

        ā€œEconomist: Leo Varadkar is wrong to say Northern Ireland has benefited from the protocolā€

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          January 13, 2022

          Oh, that’s that then eh?

          šŸ˜‚

          1. Denis Cooper
            January 14, 2022

            Unless you, or the FT, have some kind of reply to what is explained in that article.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            January 14, 2022

            Denis, I’d rather listen to those in NI with skin in the game.

            Manufacturers there have ranked the post-Brexit arrangements for trade in Northern Ireland as the least of the challenges facing their businesses, according to a quarterly industry survey, with 28% saying trade with the European Union has increased over the last year.

            The top concern was listed as labour shortages caused by the pandemic, but also the end of freedom of movement that prevents European Union citizens living in border counties in the republic of Ireland crossing into Northern Ireland for work.

            ā€œThe protocol was the least of their worries,ā€ said Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing Northern Ireland (MNI), which conducted the survey. While we all get caught up in the political narrative, in business the bigger concerns are staff recruitment, productivity and then the pandemic itself.

            ā€œIt shows the narrative favoured by the DUP [Democratic Unionist party] and others that Northern Ireland is going to hell in a handcart because of the protocol is quite clearly not the case, quite the opposite,ā€ Kelly added.

            He said there was a ā€œhuge uptickā€ in the number of firms accepting that the ā€œprotocol is here to stayā€, but many want it to work better through simplifications of paperwork.

            The survey reveals some businesses are now enjoying a Brexit dividend, with 28% saying they have experienced an increase in trade with the European Union including the republic of Ireland. Two in five businesses also want the Northern Ireland executive, the equivalent of the governmentā€™s cabinet, to seize the unique opportunities the country has to trade with both the UK and the single market.

            Are you happy now, Denis?

          3. Denis Cooper
            January 15, 2022

            They might think differently if the protocol was actually being fully implemented:

            https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/14/putting-things-right/#comment-1291647

            ā€œWhat people need to understand at the outset is, in terms of the protocol, probably weā€™re operating at less than 10% of the checks that would be applied with the full implementation of the protocolā€

            And in any case it is obvious that the cost-benefit balance is different for different groups; it is perfectly credible that a company based in Northern Ireland which exports a lot of goods to the EU may feel that on balance the protocol is beneficial but they make up only a small percentage of the companies and the economy.

          4. Nottingham Lad Himself
            January 15, 2022

            But the key point is that the good people of Northern Ireland voted handsomely REMAIN.

            So your imposition of your desired North Korea status on them is utterly unwanted.

          5. Denis Cooper
            January 15, 2022

            My imposition?

    2. Sharon
      January 13, 2022

      I agree with your comments Peter about Boris, howeverā€¦ who the dickens might come next, if Boris were replaced? Conservative members can only vote for the available candidates, and you can bet your bottom dollar, whoever is trying to get rid of Boris will ensure a remainer will be put in place. We need a strong minded conservative, of which there there a number on the back benches. But will any put themselves forward, and more importantly, will they get the deserved support?

      1. Peter
        January 13, 2022

        Sharon,

        Agreed. Removing Boris might be what he deserves. However, it does not address the problem of finding a decent Prime Minister, or addressing the problems the country still faces.

    3. Nig l
      January 13, 2022

      And civil servants are traditionally loathe to pull trigger so get ready for a ā€˜dancing on the head of a pinā€™ get off free decision with a few ā€˜fall guysā€™ lower down.

      It wont matter. The Peopleā€™s Court has decided and if I guess the local election results correctly in May, a hatchet job will follow quickly.

      1. Bill B.
        January 13, 2022

        Yes Nig, especially since a lot of people at the garden party – sorry, business meeting – would have been civil servants.

    4. Dave Andrews
      January 13, 2022

      He bought time to find out the scale of the revelation so he could calculate what lies he could tell. In the end he judged he couldn’t lie his way out of it entirely (his preferred option), so he plumped for a partial apology mixed with just a few lies.
      The honourable decision to resign he leaves to people of integrity.

    5. Stred
      January 13, 2022

      A working office meeting to celebrate the weather and bring your own booze. Invites from the PM’s secretary. Invitation accepted by PM and his bird. Great working perks.

    6. jerry
      January 13, 2022

      @Peter; “unsatisfactory but par for the course”

      Indeed, I did not take anything from Johnson’s ‘statement’, tacked on to his first PMQ, as an apology of any sort, being sorry means more than being told to say the the word “sorry” whilst at the same time making excuses for unacceptable behavior.

      “The smirk had disappeared though.”

      I didn’t notice.

      As for your last sentence, if any new leader picks up and runs with the 2019 manifesto they are leading their party into defeat, the country, the world, has moved on, it would be a bit like the Tory party in 1945 attempting to win re-election using a pre war manifesto as their foundation -oh hang on…

      1. Peter
        January 13, 2022

        Jerry,

        ā€˜If any new leader picks up and runs with the 2019 manifesto they are leading their party into defeat, the country, the world, has moved on….ā€™

        No it has not. The red wall are still waiting for what was promised.

        ā€˜The world has moved onā€™ is just wishful thinking – the sort of phrase Lord Adonis would come out with.

        1. jerry
          January 13, 2022

          @Peter; Here we go again… Stop making crass assumptions, no one knows what the majority actually wanted from Brexit, no one was ever asked, BRINO, the WA/NIP, a WTO exit are all “Brexit”, just perhaps not what you and I might have wanted.

  12. turboterrier
    January 13, 2022

    The state of government and our political state this country finds itself in was just about summed up when political commentators showed concen that if there was a challenge to the Prime Ministers position there is a very good chance he would win such is the state of our political base. Hurry up and get the numbers Sir John the country needs you more than ever.

  13. Narrow Shoulders
    January 13, 2022

    No mention of energy outsourcing or raising taxes as part of what the government’s is about at high Prime Ministerial level? High energy costs and increased taxes stifle levelling up and increased ownership.

    As to Ministries not taking opportunities arising from leaving the EU I would suggest that any Prime Minister unable to influence departmental direction, either through laziness, lack of attention to detail, lack of authority, lack of application or lack of talent is but a figurehead and should move over to let someone who can influence have a go. For all his other faults, Tony Blair had an iron grip on his government and it did what he wanted, if the Johnson Administration does not have an iron grip, with an 80 seat majority it is through design or incompetence. We benefit from neither.

    1. Narrow Shoulders
      January 13, 2022

      To comment on the behaviour of those working at Downing Street – They were working closely with each other and could have infected each other through day to day contact, I don’t see having some drink outside as a problem. They were plenty of people in the country who ignored the rules and the non sequitur of “I couldn’t hold my dying granny’s hand, or go to their funeral so I am incensed that people who were working closely together had drinks outside” is overly emotive.

      Boris Johnson made it very clear he did not want to lock down but was being forced to by the circumstances so breaking lock down by him is much less hypocritical than if lock down had been breached by Starmer, Sturgeon or Drakeford.

      I see no reason for Boris Johnson to resign for this, he should resign because he is incompetent as written above. He is my MP and will not receive my vote next time round, he has been neither a good constituency MP nor a good Prime Minister so there is no reason to vote for him.

      1. Shirley M
        January 13, 2022

        I agree, NS. The ‘parties’ are a sideshow, although typical of his disdain for the electorate. His incompetence in looking after the UK’s interests is the reason Boris should go, and go quickly! His sycophantic yes-men in the cabinet should go too. Every last one of them.

  14. Sharon
    January 13, 2022

    As you say, there are too many at advisory and department level, who have not embraced the freedoms and opportunities that leaving the EU should have brought. Thatā€™s because, I believe, a majority are remainers. The EU was set up to have civil servants in the various countries, ā€˜working as oneā€™ [for the EU] according to the late Christopher Booker.

    The government is consequently working with their hands tied.

    Listening to a few wise people such as Calvin Robinson, why have these party leaks come out now? Who wants Boris gone, and why now? Is it these same remainers, who fear that Boris, despite his green credentials, and who is not part of the ā€˜in setā€™ has thwarted their plans (whatever those might be)? Heā€™s allowed us more Covid freedoms, heā€™s put Liz Truss in place- who may well trigger article 16ā€¦donā€™t know?

    On GB news, Michelle Dewberry showed a screen shot of the recent party invite email, and noted the name of the sender was blacked out, and she wondered aloud why the date was too! Curiousā€¦

  15. Sir Joe Soap
    January 13, 2022

    The right thing to do was to have a party in May 2020 to celebrate us having followed the Barrington Declaration rather than follow other countries into 100% lockdown. Anything done by Downing Street ref Covid since other or since then is a mixture of hypocrisy and incompetence. Clearly Boris and half the civil service never believed the rules were approriate.

    1. R.Grange
      January 13, 2022

      + 1

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      January 14, 2022

      +1

  16. Javelin
    January 13, 2022

    They also need to move on from Net Zero Carbon and Mass Migration to Net Zero Migration.

    1. glen cullen
      January 13, 2022

      Spot On Javelin

  17. Wokinghamite
    January 13, 2022

    It seems premature to consider that the endgame has arrived with COVID, when infection rates are still remarkably high.

    The lockdown party is not a matter over which the P.M. should resign.

  18. Richard1
    January 13, 2022

    Of course the party shouldn’t have happened – another reason to stop over-praising our civil service, it obviously has some useless dunderheads in senior positions. Fire the one who organised this absurd event.

    Boris having seen it was happening should have sent them packing not attended it for 25 minutes. Is that a reason to change PM? No.

    Here are a few things prime ministers should be forced to resign for:-

    – selling off half the nation’s gold at a 40 year low
    – denying a referendum contrary to manifesto promises when signing away democratic rights in EU treaties
    – Wasting Ā£70bn on a flawed bank bailout
    – Crashing the economy following a tax borrow and spend splurge
    – starting an illegal war in Iraq and screwing it up when there
    -stoking up Scottish separatism with a flawed and divisive devolution policy.

    Did we see the BBC and the left wing media clamouring for Blair and Brown to be chucked out after these really massive blows to the Country? No. I think Conservative MPs should boot Boris latest by mid-22 if he doesn’t implementing Conservative policies. But we can’t allow the left to hound him out for stepping out into his own garden, albeit for an event which shouldn’t have happened.

  19. The Prangwizard
    January 13, 2022

    I agreee, we must get on urgently with running the country properly. There is a lot to do, in particular in my view, regaining our total independence for the whole of the UK and sovereignty. There are many things I disagree with him on.

    But for ‘the garden’, I support ‘Boris’. Whilst obviously I don’t know how No.10 works, the limitations were to deter the creation of new groups of people who were usually separate, not aimed at people who had been working together and mixing all day.

    So we should leave him alone and let get him on to the real jobs.

  20. Brian Tomkinson
    January 13, 2022

    This government, supported by most MPs & their propagandists in the MSM, promulgated an atmosphere of fear in the country which they clearly did not feel themselves. As a consequence, they hurt people directly & indirectly, wrecked children’s education & trashed the economy. Contracts were awarded for equipment to close associates of the Conservative party . This was never about control of a virus but control of people and to a large extent it worked as we see masked zombie-like figures walking the streets, in shops and their cars. This is unforgivable. The perpetrators must be held to account.

    1. J Bush
      January 13, 2022

      +10

    2. BOF
      January 13, 2022

      B T. +1

    3. lifelogic
      January 13, 2022

      +1 but more likely to receive honours or even be knighted.

  21. Cartimandua
    January 13, 2022

    I do wish press would not endlessly engage in trivial spite entirely for their own reasons. Russia and China are a real threat and all press can do is look to whip up “down with our side”. Yes indeed lets focus on making things better but somewhere someone should say “thanks you have done well in a terrible situation” . The British govt did do well in a terrible situation. We still have many to mourn but the enemy was a virus not
    our govt. There never were any “right” answers except perhaps for pushing the development of vaccines and getting them into peoples arms. The pandemic was a wicked problem with no right answers.

    1. BOF
      January 13, 2022

      ‘The enemy was a virus’. No. The virus was not the enemy, it targeted a specific group that deserved, and could have been protected. The virus never made a law or issued a dictatq, ever. The enemy was our own government that legislated to remove our freedom and liberty and all the damage that followed.

  22. Javelin
    January 13, 2022

    Itā€™s not just Boris who thinks apologies can win the public over. A German (Bild) and Danish newspaper have apologised for not questioning their Governments narrative. Most politicians and MSM will now be apologising over their authoritarian overreach and willingness to go along with the narrative. This also applies to 90% of the population who have simply gone along with it.

    The kind of mass transgression of power must not be forgotten or forgiven. Itā€™s like the axis leaders apologising after the war. We can prosecute a few leaders to set an example but we all know a vast swathe of the public went along with it.

    I suggest once the Government carnage is fully documented and leaders prosecuted that we lay a peace wreath on Nov 11 to remind us how easy it is to slip into authoritarianism.

  23. George Brooks.
    January 13, 2022

    Boris is and was the only person to get us through the pandemic and come out the other side with a fast growing economy and record numbers in employment. All this wiped away by the media for an error of judgement made only a month or so after coming out of intensive care in hospital. Many of those trying to build the story would have stayed off work for 6 or 8 weeks.

    The quickest way back for Boris to the top of the polls, is to draw back from the world stage, put COP26 back in the filing cabinet f t b, and drive those minister and their departments to implement the Brexit opportunities which you have frequently spelt out Sir John plus accelerating ”levelling up” in the midlands and the north.

  24. Old Albion
    January 13, 2022

    Sir JR, isn’t it time for you to address the ‘elephant in the room’ you know, the one with a blonde bouffant.
    What are you and the Conservative party going to do about this immoral creature?

    1. formula57
      January 13, 2022

      @ Old Albion – do about this immoral creature? Award him a KG is one option now isn’t it?

    2. Blonde Bouffant
      January 13, 2022

      Who are you calling immoral ? I’ll sue if I’m impugned.
      I’ll leave no stone unturned and proceed at pace.

  25. Graham
    January 13, 2022

    Ditch Boris and move on so you can avoid answering the questions about who has made all the money from pushing poisonous injections, PPE contracts and all the other lucrative deals for friends of politicians. Very convenient.
    In reality the truth should result in prosecutions of an awful lot of the ruling class and their minions.

  26. Roy Grainger
    January 13, 2022

    “At the high Prime Ministerial level we know what this government is about ā€“ getting Brexit done, levelling up, improving public services.”

    Do we know that ? Why did you leave out Net Zero ? That seems to be their only clear objective.

    Boris’ non-apology was rather odd. It seemed to be based on the idea that he thought the party was a “work event” even though there was no such “event” that was allowed under the rules. Still, he sounded very confident that Sue Gray would clear him personally so let’s see. What is clear is that all the civil servants and political staff who organised and attended the event should be prosecuted.

  27. Peter van LEEUWEN
    January 13, 2022

    ” So many advisers and civil servants seem to want to keep us closely aligned to the EU.”
    Your recent examples, Norway and Switzerland are keeping closely aligned to the EU.
    I’m afraid to say that they are doing rather better than the UK.

    1. Micky Taking
      January 13, 2022

      Why would any fellow prisoners of the EU attack Norway or Switzerland?
      It is clear the EU politicians with snout in the trough continue to build hurdles against the UK.
      These childish protests for a member who tried to leave the gang have not gone without us carrying a permanent memory.

    2. Mark B
      January 13, 2022

      The majority of their trades is between them and the EU. Not so us.

    3. Sir Joe Soap
      January 13, 2022

      And Australia and South Korea are not. Sorry, what are you trying to prove?

    4. Richard1
      January 13, 2022

      Norway and Switzerland are Europes 2 most prosperous economies, indeed. What should give some who post here pause for thought however, is that neither country is in the EU.

    5. Timaction
      January 13, 2022

      ……………Iā€™m afraid to say that they are doing rather better than the UK…………….. that’s because they had the good sense to never join that awful undemocratic bureaucracy called the EU! The majority and rising over here are glad we’re shot of you and imports from the EU dropping like a stone. Glad your organisation abused us now? Treasure Island is on the move!

    6. a-tracy
      January 13, 2022

      Hello Peter, Happy New Year,
      In what way are “they doing rather better than the UK”?

      You are comparing much smaller Countries -Switzerland 8.75m = London in size.
      Norway 5.48m -similar size to Scotland.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        January 14, 2022

        Hello A-Tracy, Happy New Year to you too,
        Recently, Mr Redwood used Norway and Switzerland as examples in his blog, even though they are much smaller than the UK. Obviously any comparison can be criticized.
        I have no problem with Brexit, the EU made some integration progress which wouldn’t have been possible with the UK as a member. But this animosity and anti EU “religion” doesn’t do the English any good. Actually, remaining closely aligned to the EU like Norway and Switzerland would, in my humble opinion, have been better.

        Reply Its the EU which cannot accept Brexit and still wants to keep the UK as a colony

        1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
          January 14, 2022

          Reply to reply:
          Mr Redwood, apparently we have very different perceptions, which I repsect. Different bubbles?
          I will continue to glance over your blogposts in as much they touch on UK-EU relations, not to stay in my own bubble too much.

        2. a-tracy
          January 14, 2022

          Peter VL, I read the blog most days but can’t remember every article. You didn’t answer my question in what way are ā€œthey doing rather better than the UKā€? Compared to how things were before 2016? What have they improved that the UK didn’t improve since January 2021?

          “But this animosity and anti EU ā€œreligionā€ doesnā€™t do the English any good.” Is this directed generally at all the English, just bloggers on this blog or myself in particular? To reassure you I have no anti-EU religion, I hope you have never perceived me as such! Unlike Scottish nationalists, and EU zealots I have no hatred for anyone or any establishment.

          I do however have some animosity that has grown with the insults, accusations and general disrespect shown to the UK after the decision to leave. From the petty treatment dished out to Theresa May, to the talks of punishment from Macron and his henchman, the unbalanced treatment -v- the allowances the UK made to EU imports into the UK for the past year and to visitors and travellers, actors and others. The UK allowed Ireland their independence, they didn’t treat them in the way the EU treats the UK (even though we are still paying the EU divorce fees/notice period!) When does that end and the payments from the UK stop?

          1. Peter van LEEUWEN
            January 14, 2022

            @ A-Tracy,
            * ā€œwhat are they doing rather better than the UKā€? – Their economies aren’t suffering.
            * ā€œthis animosity and anti EU ā€œreligionā€ – directed at tabloids and some bloggers, not you.
            * Individual politicians (e.g. Macron) are not the EU, and as such not my concern. I havenā€™t heard such statements from e.g. Rutte or Merkel.
            * I believe allowances were made because the UK implementation wasnā€™t prepared, the EU was prepared. E.g. the Netherlands had 1000 extra custom officers ready and good IT.
            * Wasnā€™t Irish independence the outcome of a war some 100 years ago? I see no comparison with the UK and the EU.
            * The payments are simply what both parties agreed to, and are implemented accordingly.

          2. a-tracy
            January 14, 2022

            Thank you Peter, in what way is our economy suffering compared to theirs? I read that the IMF were expecting a 5% growth next year and the UK did better than our government predicted last year. We have to see what happens after the covid pandemic when we are finally free to live more usually.

            Macron is the President of the EU at the moment isnā€™t he? Our tabloids tell us that he has a personal vendetta against the UK and is trying to lead the EU to his side of each argument. No-one really knows who is ā€˜the EUā€™ do they?

            That is very poor of the UK, I wonder why they didnā€™t treat the EU like any other 3rd Country as the EU treated us, surely the paperwork and systems were in place for that. The Netherlands were very efficient taking ham sandwiches to protect their own pig meat trade. Oh well! At least theyā€™ve finally got their act together on this now.

            I know Ireland is British history but unbelievably we werenā€™t taught about it in school at all, nor is it really mentioned in the UK on tv, in series, films (other than the Gangs of New York) that Iā€™ve seen. I donā€™t know why there is a common travel area with the UK, I wonder if they had a divorce payment to make to the UK? Do you know why they donā€™t have to pay into NATO or why they get lower tax rate concessions from Europe is it to do with America and their fellowship with them?

            I was intrigued and looked up the divorce payments on the BBC they say ā€˜Originally, the settlement was estimated to be about Ā£39bn, but a lot of that was paid as the UK’s regular contributions to the EU budget. From January 2021, there was about Ā£25bn left to pay by 2057, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), almost Ā£18bn of which will be paid in the first five years.ā€™ 2022 Ā£5.5bn, 2023 Ā£3bn, 2024 Ā£1bn- the rest seems to be to pay pension agreementsā€¦. But there will also be money paid back to the UK from things like its money in the European Investment Bank (just over Ā£3bn) and the European Central Bank (about Ā£50m). It doesnā€™t say when those payments will be returned. The UK will also receive a share of any money paid to the EU in fines that were imposed before the end of 2020, which is estimated to be worth about Ā£1.2bn.ā€™

        3. Micky Taking
          January 14, 2022

          Peter, have you forgotten about Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland?
          I’d like to, but others keep reminding me.

        4. Bill brown
          January 14, 2022

          Sir JR,

          I understand Peter’,s response this is one of the most naive responses you have come up with in a very long time. You really don’t understand Europe

          1. Peter2
            January 14, 2022

            When will you actually explain why you hold these views bill?
            Some facts or data or statistics would be nice.
            Prove your statement ” you really don’t understand Europe”

  28. Donna
    January 13, 2022

    I’m afraid at the Prime Ministerial level, all he seems to be obsessed with is making us poorer, colder, less mobile and with severely restricted lives so he can pursue the Net Zero Eco lunacy. The complete absence of any remotely Conservative policies is why he has lost so much support from voters who thought he was “on their side.” Allister Heath in the DT expresses it beautifully today.

    What I find most infuriating about the Garden Party is that it proves beyond doubt that neither Johnson, many of his Ministers (nor his Officials believed) what they were telling us about the lethality of Covid or the necessity of the ludicrous restrictions they placed on the entire country. If they did, they would never have put themselves and their families “at serious risk” by 100 of them (the invitees) gathering together for a jolly. By May 2020, at the latest, they knew it was only dangerous for the very elderly and those with serious co-morbidities but they continued with the fear-generating PsyOps campaign for a further 18 months ….. wrecking the economy and ruining millions of lives.

    I do not accept Johnson’s non-apology. How he could look Her Maj in the eye at the next audience is beyond me ….. when she sat, alone, at the funeral of her beloved husband so that she complied with the vicious, evil, inhuman “rules” Johnson and senior members of his Government imposed (remember Handcock) …. with no intention of following them themselves.

    He has to go. We need a trustworthy Prime Minister …. preferably an experienced former Brexit-supporting Minister currently on the backbenches. I think that restricts the candidates to Sir John, IDS or David Davis.

    1. J Bush
      January 13, 2022

      +10

    2. R.Grange
      January 13, 2022

      None of whom will get the job, alas. Donna, I’m afraid comments like this are helping to open the door of No. 10 to a Remainer vaccine passport-pusher.

    3. Timaction
      January 13, 2022

      +1

  29. Oldtimer
    January 13, 2022

    Re Johnson’s statement it reminded of a verdict I once heard that was passed on someone’s essay: “A bald and unconvincing narrative”.

    Re government at large the failure to get a grip on opportunities starts at the top, in No 10. Without clear direction, clear thinking and unremitting focus on the job in hand then opportunities wil go to waste and the bureaucratic treacle will slow or stop change. That is the real reason Johnson needs to go even if party gate turns out to be the immediate cause

  30. Oldwulf
    January 13, 2022

    The Government needs to perpetuate this covid management stuff – to try and prevent us from thinking about everything else.

    The PM is toast.

    1. Micky Taking
      January 13, 2022

      Desperation now apparent.
      The leader of the House of Commons Jacob Rees-Mogg has called Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross a “lightweight” after he said the prime minister should resign.

      1. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        Yes time to move on…
        MI5 has issued a rare warning to MPs that a Chinese agent has infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics. An alert from the security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee “established links” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with current and aspiring MPs. She then gave donations to politicians, with funding coming from foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong.
        It comes after a “significant, long-running” investigation by MI5, Whitehall sources told the BBC.
        The security service said anyone contacted by Ms Lee should be “mindful of her affiliation” and its “remit to advance the CCP’s agenda”.
        Conservative MP and former party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, brought up the alert in the Commons, confirming it had been emailed out to MPs by the Speaker. He said it was “a matter of grave concern”, calling for Ms Lee to be deported and demanding the government make a statement to the House.

      2. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        Senior UK government figure Jacob Rees-Mogg was quizzed in the Commons as to who the leader of the Welsh Conservatives was. It came after the Mr Mogg had called the Scottish Conservatives leader Douglas Ross a ā€œlightweightā€ in an interview.
        Labour MP for Cardiff West, Kevin Brennan, asked what the House of Commons leader meant when he called him a light weight adding: ā€œDoes he think the leader of the Welsh Conservatives is a lightweight figure, and can he name him?ā€
        ā€œMy honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Wales is called Simon Hart,ā€ Mr Mogg said in reply.
        Oh dear….who is lightweight again?

  31. Bryan Harris
    January 13, 2022

    Even if they could, would the government let this crisis slip through their fingers.

    Governments want to be seen as dynamic and worthy of their salt, but without a crisis they are left with the mundane, which gets them no merit marks.

    A crisis allows ministers to shine and lead, no matter they may go in the wrong direction, they feel good at being able to show off their abilities.

    The only way we are going to reduce the attractiveness of net-zero and the pandemic is to reduce their appeal – by making other issues into greater crises.
    Lack of Energy is a good one to promote to a high level, along with the broken economy and
    immigration.

    We have to keep shoving these new crisis in the faces of ministers – just as they did with us with covid,
    ,
    until hey get the message.t

  32. John Miller
    January 13, 2022

    The pandemic is over. You won’t hear that from the profit takers or the NHS but a review of the data shows the truth.
    Most people read newspapers or watch TV. None of those august organisations will tell the truth either. The newspapers because it sells copy, Sky and the BBC because they hate England and the Tories and ITV because they don’t want to be left out.

    1. formula57
      January 13, 2022

      “The pandemic is over” – over, or over until the mutation of some further, new, more lethal variant in due course?

  33. ukretired123
    January 13, 2022

    Christmas bought Johnson only temporary relief (just like wine and parties). We now live in a shambolic reality dealing with broken trust.
    Basic electricity is a major headache or rather shock for everyone whilst he fiddles while Rome burns and opportunities for reform dwindle. This is serious for the country not least the Tory conference Sir John.

  34. Iain Moore
    January 13, 2022

    Boris Johnson had lost me over his Green rubbish, fiscal incontinence, and failure to get control of our borders, the party thing was of no interest to me, probably shouldn’t have happened, but I can figure out the working environment in No10 is probably a very odd one, unlike any other, where social interaction keeps the show on the road.

    The more the BBC attempts to unseat Johnson, the more likely I will support him, for I will never knowingly give those b…… a scalp.

    As usual with Tory Governments of late they pander to the left trying to ingratiate themselves with people who will never ever give them their vote, like how many friends has Johnson brought with his Green garbage? If the calls for his removal are anything to go by , none. Meanwhile they antagonise their support base by being a Labour Government in everything but name. This mess Johnson has got himself into could be seen as an opportunity for conservatives, if he wants a route back it should come with a clear price tag, deliver on stuff we want, its probably too much to ask for him to row back on his Green garbage, but mass immigration and the invasion, that should be well within his grasp.

  35. ukretired123
    January 13, 2022

    Errata Party

  36. Walt
    January 13, 2022

    Re ‘partygate’. It is media-sponsored anti-government tosh, in similar vein to manufactured outrage about Cummings’ Barnard Castle trip. The restrictions, to the extent that they were necessary, needed to apply to most of us, the millions of ordinary Brits. We would not expect our military and our government to be so constrained. The country still needs to be run and those doing it should be allowed some slack. It doesn’t matter if a small number of people do not adhere to the rules that apply to most of us; it is mass behaviour that matters.
    Number 10 Downing Street is a place of work and a home. Working life and personal life goes on there, regardless of what is happening elsewhere.
    This week, whilst berating the PM about the May 20th event, the media were still showing the photo in the Guardian of the earlier event, which has been explained as a series of meetings. A glass of wine doesn’t make a party, nor does government work colleagues meeting and talking. Life at No. 10 does and should go on as normal, or as near to normal as possible.
    If there is fault with the PM and others at No. 10 in this matter (apart from the photo-taker, the email-leaker, and other mischief-makers) it is perhaps the need for more discretion and for better personnel management.

  37. acorn
    January 13, 2022

    Imagine if Second Permanent Secretary (Cabinet Office) Sue Gray; finds out that she also was at one or more of those parties and has to recuse herself.

  38. Nig l
    January 13, 2022

    And in terms of Brexit, especially NI, i wonder to what extent the dynamics will be influenced by Liz Trussā€™s prime ministerial ambitions with the opportunity now getting closer.

    Play hard ball, attract the Spartans plus many in the wider party, getting it done with a spun sell out attract the Remainers/pragmatists/ civil service?

    Interesting times!

    1. Mark B
      January 13, 2022

      The party is majority Remain

    2. Denis Cooper
      January 13, 2022

      I hope that Liz Truss will not have to play hard ball. Because she never really believed in Brexit Theresa May behaved as though she was an impartial mediator trying to settle a dispute rather than being the advocate for our side, and Boris Johnson quickly followed her off the rails. From almost exactly a year ago:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/01/21/my-question-during-business-questions/#comment-1205431

      “Next time you see Jacob Rees-Mogg you could remind him of something he said to Andrew Marr … Then ask him to agree that it was also an error for Boris Johnson to start off down the same wrong road as Theresa May and then just fork off onto a different, but worse, track than the one she had chosen.”

      https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/130695/irish-border-a-problem-for-the-eu-not-the-uk.html

      ā€œIrish border a problem for the EU not the UKā€

    3. acorn
      January 13, 2022

      There is a chance the DUP will get wiped out at the MLA elections and the next Westminster election. Lizzy needs to keep the plates spinning till mid May.

      Northern Ireland is booming. Free access to the EU over the border and free access to GB for its exports. It is the only territory of any EU “third country” that has those privileges. You can guess there are some WTO members asking the EU how they can get some of that.

      1. Denis Cooper
        January 14, 2022

        Nope, Northern Ireland is not “booming”.

        https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/27/the-norwegian-and-swiss-approach-to-economic-management/#comment-1288064

        ā€œSince the protocol came into force, the evidence from official statistics is that economic growth in NI has been one of slowest of any UK region.ā€

  39. None of the above
    January 13, 2022

    I am sick and tired of this media frenzy, fueled by a bitterly desparate opposition.
    I am bored with this constant drivel about so called parties. I am content to wait for Sue Grayā€™s report.
    From my years working in London, I always realised that Boris Johnson was a bit of a ā€˜Marmiteā€™ character but I never realised, until now, just how unhinged his detractors had become.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      Yes, I hear that the child molester Jimmy Savile did quite a lot of good charity fund-raising.

      People can be so petty, eh?

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        January 14, 2022

        NLH – The BBC clearly thought along those lines !

      2. Micky Taking
        January 14, 2022

        lovely sarcasm…is this turning a new leaf Martin?

  40. Aaron Shone
    January 13, 2022

    The past year has had plenty of news stories of other people being fined tens of thousands of pounds for having parties and gathering whilst in lockdown. I assume these fines will be returned and records of convictions quashed, given the government and prime minister were also holding parties?

    I agree with a lot of your thinking Sir John, but Iā€™m not confident in your partyā€™s ability to deliver any of it while in government.
    For this party to have gone ahead, a lot of people would have had to decide deliberately that it would be OK to do so. The rot and weak will extends down from the PM, all through government, private secretaries, civil service advisors. All the people who, it seems, cannot figure out why energy bills are increasing, or why we need Freeportā€™s and power stations.

    To me, it looks like the wrong team, heading in the wrong strategic direction, concerned about the wrong things. Either change the top team and set a new direction, or stand aside and let a fresh team start delivering what is needed.

  41. Sakara Gold
    January 13, 2022

    “The latest case numbers for Covid suggest this latest wave is peaking”

    That must be why it was reported yesterday that “only” 4.4 MILLION people were actively infected with the Chinese plague virus last week. Today hospitals in Greater Manchester have called for urgent military support as the regionā€™s NHS is overwhelmed. Of course case numbers have “plateaued” because the government has stopped the PCR tests!

    I could not imagine a more cynical outbreak of disinformation and – following Johnsons’ lead – just plain lying by the CRG and the usual hangers on. There are 20,000 NHS beds occupied by virus patients, with 350 people dying per day, 2450 per week. Nearly 10,000 a month. So it’s over is it?

    1. Denis Cooper
      January 13, 2022

      No, it’s not over, but the daily case rate and the daily hospital rate seem to have peaked:

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

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

      I’m keeping my fingers crossed but continuing to avoid unnecessary risks.

    2. Bill B.
      January 13, 2022

      That’s right, Sakara: ‘Cases’ climb when tests are ramped up, and they plateau when they’re dialled down again. You’re getting the hang of it now. It’s a testing pandemic.

      Numbers of Covid patients in hospital are half what they were this time last year. If the NHS in Manchester or anywhere else is overwhelmed, it’s because of the stupid ‘ping’ epidemic.

      Then if you look at the cases of serious illness (ICU beds), they’re still going down from their peak in November. This is the reality, not ‘lying’ by the RCG.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      January 14, 2022

      Of or with.

      Vitally important distinction but still we are not told.

  42. Nig l
    January 13, 2022

    So on the basis of Brandon Lewisā€™s comments this morning it would have been acceptable for a large cheese and wine gathering to be held in the atrium of one of the large buildings at Canary Wharf. Hard working and multi offices just like No 10.

    Keep digging guys. The more ridiculous the excuse, the more obvious the guilt.

  43. agricola
    January 13, 2022

    First let us get a sense of proportion re Boris. Yes he has done some stupid things and deserved to have to abase himself before the HoC and the country. However in the present state of affairs in the UK it is small beer. Additionally the opposition are just being politically opportunist, having little to say on the big questions that face the UK. No doubt too are some members of his own party.

    Boris has three problems. Being a product of the Bubble he has a detachment from the everyday and suffers from a belief that his own rhetoric is the end of the problem. He also has a green obsession that pays little attention to science and engineering, the thought being it pays more attention to his wifes agenda.

    On the plus side he had the wisdom during the pandemic to put its resolution in the hands of scientists and an outside administrator. In effect taking it away from failed on PPE NHS administrators and showing faith in private enterprise and NHS medics. He now needs to apply the same principals to all our really serious problems.
    The NI Protocol,
    Self Sufficiency in Power,
    Immigration,
    Taxation for enterprise, Taking advantage of Brexit.
    Political Correctness in Education at all levels and in much of the Media.

    Success in the above could get him off the hook. Think of Winston Churchill’s screwups from which he came good in spades, but he was blessed with a lack of modern day media. I would encourage him to hang in there and “Ne illigitimos carburundum”, with apologies to my classics master.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      I would just mention that the Queen herself sat alone at her late husband’s funeral, wearing a mask.

  44. BOF
    January 13, 2022

    When a government starts with telling lies, it must continue, and that is what has happened with Covid. It has been one big lie after another starting with the need for lockdown, then masks, then the removal of safe effective treatments such as ivermectin from the approved list. Most egregious of all was the loss of liberty for all citizens (except some who were exempt, allegedly) with the disgraceful legislation that MP’s show a determination not to repeal.

    When the news came from S A that Omicrom was a mild disease it was obvious that this was the variant to be welcomed. It was not and instead became the new casedemic, the new killer, if our scientists were believed.

    Should we get a new PM, how on earth will the CONservative party find one, including the present one, to carry out their promises regarding Brexit that they have consistently refused to do since the referendum in 2016?

    1. Martyn G
      January 13, 2022

      The simple answer is that they won’t, because far too many Con MP and the Civil Service barons are rabidly pro-EU and would like to take us back, regardless of how bad a move that would be. To my mind, the best indication of this is that the NI Protocol issue which, despite the petty intransigence on the part of the EU, could and should have long ago been resolved.

    2. agricola
      January 13, 2022

      BOF, it is easy to be clever after the event. We started with a blank sheet of paper, hospitals stacking up and many patients dying. Even the virologists were in the dark at this point in time. Government acted in various hopeful ways and it failed to act in others. In my view it was a classic reaction to blitzkreig, a new form of warfare. Initial reaction was retreat, regroup, and then get on the front foot. When you understand the enemy you are fighting you can plan more sensibly to win.

      1. Bill B.
        January 14, 2022

        No, Agricola, your memory is at fault. We started with a pandemic preparedness plan which the government stuck with at first, then tore up. Sweden kept to that plan, and emerged with a better Covid outcome and a less damaged economy. Anyone looking at the Diamond Princess cruise ship medical report data, available by mid-March 2020, could see that Covid-19 was not the lethal plague the media were claiming. Yes, government policy was erratic, but not for the reason you say.

  45. a-tracy
    January 13, 2022

    JR “The figures also suggest thanks to vaccines serious cases and hospital stays will be lower proportionately than previous waves.”

    Wouldn’t the figures requiring hospital stays be much lower still if therapeutics were given to the most at-risk patients with multiple co-morbidities that catch covid – immediately instead of just leaving things to develop in them?

    Reply Yes I am pushing for more to be offered drugs that cut the risks when you have the infection

    1. Denis Cooper
      January 13, 2022

      Eventually we will need appropriate over-the-counter treatments in our medicine cabinets which we can take if we suspect that we have it without the need for a confirmatory test or a consultation with a doctor.

      1. a-tracy
        January 14, 2022

        Denis, at this stage I’m not after self-administered drugs for everyone just those deemed seriously at risk, the obese, the diabetics and other co-morbidities. It is by the grace of God that this guy hasn’t required a hospital stay (possibly because he is only just in the new category of obese and is only 55). He was considered serious enough to pay to be tested for the past two years!! Perhaps if the NHS treated them early they wouldn’t end up on wards.

  46. Micky Taking
    January 13, 2022

    Prof Sir Jonathan Van-Tam is leaving his role as England’s deputy chief medical officer.
    Health Secretary Sajid Javid said it had been “an honour” to work with the scientist and he was “hugely grateful for his advice”.
    Prof Van-Tam will continue to work for the government until the end of March.
    He said it had been the “greatest privilege” of his professional career “to have served the people of the UK during this time”.
    The professor, who is leaving to take up a new role at the University of Nottingham, also said it had been the most challenging time of his professional career, especially the Covid response.

    Even the publically respected figure providing easily understood explanations has decided ‘fronting’ for this government to be too much.

    1. rose
      January 13, 2022

      He may judge it is a good time to call it a day for someone who has been associated with shutting the country down, and being intransigent on the rules, now that more voices of criticism are being allowed to surface. These could turn into a majority.

  47. Keith from Leeds
    January 13, 2022

    While no PM is perfect we do expect a basic level of honesty & integrity from whoever holds the position. We could even forgive the last two months of self harm if we were getting Brexit done properly. After tax rises & breaking the triple lock, plus the Owen Patterson affair & now No 10 parties, how can we have any faith in a word that the PM says? I wanted Brexit done so I voted for the PM, but I am not getting what I voted for. The net-zero nonsense, the current energy situation, the refusal to do anything about it using our resources & the lack of Freeport’s do not inspire confidence in the PM or the government. Likewise, the response to the Covid situation has done immense damage to ordinary people. How many extra deaths has lockdown caused, & will cause over the next few years? The NHS is a money pit that needs serious & sensible reform. Why does every new hospital have fewer beds than the one or more that it replaces? Why do we have so many civil servants who appear to achieve nothing but inertia? Why is the first reaction to a problem to throw money at it, instead of cutting spending elsewhere? The triple lock promise could have been kept by saving money elsewhere. We are overtaxed, our government appears to have no vision to make the UK a low tax, prosperous & dynamic economy. You keep saying it, Sir John, & we agree with you, but why does nobody in government appear to be listening? We now have Liz Truss threatening to use article 16 to solve the NI trade problems, but the PM will never have the courage to allow her to do it. Don’t talk about it, just do it. The EU won’t budge so let’s have some action instead of words.

  48. a-tracy
    January 13, 2022

    “better training and qualifications.”

    Yet your government and the last Labour government spent an absolute fortune on “better education, training and qualifications”. The % of children completing education to the age of 18 expanded exponentially to 100% now, this all had to be funded (what it the most sensible use of training money if you still believe we need even more better training and qualification?)

    The student tuition fee loans when they were first introduced to ENGLISH students only, were only Ā£1000 per year, so Ā£3000 student loans were taken out in 1998 a simple question to see how effective these degrees were to the people that took them, how many of them have repaid the Ā£3000 (a quarter of the average cost of a course at the time) in the past 20 years? I would expect every single one of them have managed to pay off such a small amount. If not then the higher education training is questionable isn’t it?

    1. a-tracy
      January 13, 2022

      English tuition fee loans were Ā£1000 in 1998 to be paid back when earning Ā£10,000 pa at 9% graduate tax.
      So a graduate on earnings of Ā£15,000pa would pay Ā£450 pa.

      20 years payback period, Ā£3000 tuition loan, is only Ā£150 per year, to pay Ā£150 pa they would have to earn Ā£11,666 pa.

      A minimum wage job at the time of graduation in 2001 would pay f/t Ā£7995.

  49. Original Richard
    January 13, 2022

    There will not be any ā€œgrowth and levelling upā€, rather decline and levelling down if the Government continues with the BEIS Marxist Britphobesā€™ unilateral Net Zero (CO2) Strategy.

    The BEIS Strategy is to reduce our energy consumption by half by 2050 despite a population increase of 10 million and this can only mean one thing ā€“ reduced living standards.

    Weā€™ve already been told by a transport minister that car ownership is now ā€œoutdatedā€ and we must in future accept ā€œactive travelā€, public transport and ā€œshared mobilityā€ to provide ā€œgreater flexibility and personal choiceā€.

    Pull the other one.

    It is becoming clear that the unilateral Net Zero Strategy is not about saving the planet by reducing our 1% contribution to man-made CO2 emissions but restricting our freedoms.

    1. BOF
      January 13, 2022

      O.R. +1 They will have to confiscate my car, forcefully.

  50. Zorro
    January 13, 2022

    As per your recent tweet – the real crime in my eyes is that they knew that they were exaggerating the danger deliberately to sate the media in full knowledge that they were imposing restrictions which they did not believe and would not abide by. A pathetic lack of leadershipā€¦.. That is despicable. Good to see that Van Doom is moving on. Whitty should follow quickly but should first be held to account for his inaccurate ā€˜adviceā€™ before Xmas. These people must be made to pay for their many errors. They have not lost a penny whilst others have suffered real hardship because of their stupid policies and advice.

    There is grief but real anger will probably follow soon when the facts come to light.

    Zorro

    1. BOF
      January 13, 2022

      ZORRO. They should all appear in the dock.

  51. Fedupsoutherner
    January 13, 2022

    Personally I couldn’t give a stuff if the monkey from the local zoo was in charge if only the really important issues regarding immigration, net zero, fuel crisis, high taxes, wokism and getting back to work get sorted. For God’s sake, all this fiasco around Boris is costing time and money and meanwhile nothing is being done to get this country up and running. Boris has missed the biggest opportunity any PM could have had in history to do something positive but instead we find he’s fighting for his very existence over parties and his blantant stupidity.

    1. Shirley M
      January 13, 2022

      +1

    2. BOF
      January 13, 2022

      FUS. +1 And reneged on every one of his promises.

    3. turboterrier
      January 13, 2022

      F U S
      I suspect that you are like a lot of us.
      Pretty pissed off with what’s going on.
      For all of that well said.

    4. alan jutson
      January 14, 2022

      +1

  52. formula57
    January 13, 2022

    As for government at last taking the actions needed, Blue Boris has chosen a weak Cabinet. Sacking a third of them post Shropshire North would have done no harm, although justice likely required that he include himself in that third alas.

    Reaction to his statement may well be fashioned by whether his replacement is desired or not. I want him to stay provided we can have the old peopleā€™s Blue Boris back, one not seen for c. eighteen months. No-one from the present Cabinet appears a suitable replacement.

    Being asked to await the findings of the Gray enquiry seems fair. Downing Street being an office with substantial staff who, obliged to conform to the physical limitations of the building, had no choice but to interact if work was to carry on, inevitably would mix together. Allowing it was a period of great strain, some informal drinks gathering there in the course of the working day including making use of the garden could do not practical harm, rather it seems a good idea not the dreadful sin portrayed by some. Clearly though, there is the issue of whether the gathering flouted the rules (that may look inappropriate in this light) imposed upon the rest of us and severe problems arise if that were so. I suspect not, but await Gray.

  53. Peter Parsons
    January 13, 2022

    A “lack of clarity” comes from the top, from those in charge (the elected politicians). If there’s no clear direction from the leadership, it’s very difficult for those charged with doing the work to deliver on outcomes. Placing responsibility for a lack of delivery on civil servants in such a situation is unfair, it’s the fault of those in government.

    As for yesterday’s statement, well it contained contradictions from the previous one and, based on the track record of this government so far, I’m sure there’ll be another one along soon enough which will say something different again. Along with the yesterday’s High Court ruling that the “Covid VIP lane” was unlawful, one can only draw the conclusion that the attitude of this government is “do as I say, not as I do” and rules are for the little people. There’s been a pattern of behaviour – Cummings and his Barnard Castle trip, Hancock not being sacked nor resigning straight away. All this points to weak and indecisive leadership and a complete unwillingness to take responsibility for ones actions. Meanwhile millions of pounds of our tax money has been given to companies run by friends, families and donors of the Conservative party.

    Bad decisions are not just related to Covid. Anyone remember the shipping contract made with the shipping company with no ships?

  54. Andrew S
    January 13, 2022

    It is an opportunity to leverage action to speed up the implementation of the good things we want as sovereign UK free of the failed EU. Also to force major policy changes to align with those you have written about here in detail. Covid was a battle no one would have planned for and I’m sure reasonable people will accept that. Talking to friends, we’re viewing covid as endemic now. Time is running out to win the real battle for hearts and minds in 2024. It could well be lost by then if he doesn’t buck up and get a grip. If so, it will have been thrown away by conservatives rather than won by a socialists.

  55. Norman
    January 13, 2022

    This lather over ‘No. 10 parties’ is all rather fake indignation, for anyone opposed to Boris to howl over. Just look at the BBC for a prime example!
    Boris is human – I like the way he supports people who find themselves victimised by this vicious hypocrisy – sadly, not always reciprocated it seems.
    What is scary are the increasingly totalitarian antics of certain governments in Europe, as well as Canada and the antipodes.
    In my opinion, its just such a pity that Boris is such a kite flyer for net-zero, and other big globalist projects (surely nothing to do with his wife.)
    But yes, Sir John – may Omicron give the government the excuse to butt out of people’s private lives over this non-pandemic ASAP, and to get on with the real job in hand. Hold him to it!
    I would also like to see 100,000 carers, and a large number of NHS workers, from being denied their rights to refuse the vaccine. Think what harm that this will yet do.
    The way statistics have been used in this, and Climate issues has gravely injured public trust.

  56. Enigma
    January 13, 2022

    Yes indeed it is time for the government to move on from managing COVID ā€¦.. without any further delay. I agree with Lord Frost who says lockdown has been a serious public policy mistake that hasnā€™t worked and we need to end it and focus on stuff that does work instead.

    1. Andrew S
      January 13, 2022

      I think back to the first lockdown where hundreds of thousands of elderly and vulnerable lives could have been prematurely ended by covid. There were no vaccines available at the time. But there was a massive economic support package in place. True some people were prevented from travelling to loved ones funerals but think how many deaths were avoided by the lockdown. The country accepted it in the main because it was reasonable in the grip of adversity. Parliamentarians accepted it. It worked at the time, Frost didn’t have to bear any responsibility. Itcwas a huge call and Boris handled it.

  57. beresford
    January 13, 2022

    Lord Frost has now said that the reason for his resignation was covid policy, and the Government should abandon ‘covid theatre’ (facemasks, lockdowns etc.) and focus on the stuff that works like improved ventilation and anti-viral tablets. Even as the shrill voices in the tabloids urge action against the ‘anti-vaxxers’ with increasing desperation their moment seems to have passed. Meanwhile Europe doubles down on totalitarianism, with mandatory state medical intervention set to come into play in several countries. Will Boris get to play Churchill yet, facing the massed ranks of a syringe-wielding EU Army across the Channel? Will we have an influx of refugees from Austria and Germany fleeing persecution?

  58. Newmania
    January 13, 2022

    Pah …while the rest of the country was on rations Churchill was lapping up champagne and caviar …. its really trivia. One of the things I dislike about Conservatism being replaced by po faced self righteous Brexity populism is the permanent self righteous anger and tolerance of human frailty.
    Conservatism used to be good humoured proportionate pragmatic and, above all, fundamentally decent. I am still a little sad to see it gone.
    This Government needs to go because it is stupid irresponsible and incompetent not because or a glass of wine or two
    On which subject
    Free ports – Things we did not need in the EU.
    Centres of investment and new jobs- he means throwing your money at politically convenient boondoggles
    Lower Taxes – He means more borrowing ( even more borrowing )

    Mind you it would be a laugh to get T May back and make her deal with the mess in N Ireland ….snicker

  59. Newmania
    January 13, 2022

    oops I mean intolerance of human frailty …

  60. J Bush
    January 13, 2022

    All this talk about cases (which are just positive or false positive tests) and the number of patients in hospital ‘with covid’.

    I recently found out the health trust covering the North East and North Cumbria insists all potential inpatients even those waiting for orthopaedic operations such as knee or hip placements, must have a covid test prior to admission. The fact you are multiple jabbed, or have had the virus, or even have no symptoms/don’t feel ill to justify testing is irrelevant. If you refuse, the trusts management will remove the person off the waiting list!

    One doesn’t get tested for flu or measles etc prior to admission. After all, these and other infections are also transmissible. So why this fixation on covid, which has a 99.7% survival rate?

    This appears to be just another way of keeping the number of ‘cases’ or patients ‘with covid’ bumped up, to justify what exactly? The Johnson regimes flimsy excuse to forever extend its control freakery via its fear mongering programme?

  61. Kenneth
    January 13, 2022

    I ‘m not bothered about what happened in the no. 10 garden.

    I am alarmed at the slide towards communism and extremism.

  62. Atlas
    January 13, 2022

    What Boris does in his private life is his own affair – but when hypocrisy enters the fray then matters get serious. His problem is that he says one thing then seems to do the other. The only thing he is really keen on is Net Zero and unfortunately that is based upon over-egged thinking. I get the feeling that the remoaners are using these events to get him out of office and so can shackle us again to the EU.

  63. paul
    January 13, 2022

    Cannot wait till the court cases start for Covid, a few courts have had paper filed overseas including the Hague and in the UK filed at hammersmith police station, mind you the corruption might be so bad that you never get hear of a court case on Covid, then you know you are really in trouble.

  64. William Long
    January 13, 2022

    I quite agree with you, and with Lord Frost in the Telegraph this morning, that it is time to move on from Covid. I am far more doubtful though, that under the present leadership, it is possible for this Governmment to ‘Refocus’ with any degree of credibility.
    This is not just because of the Prime Misister’s twisting and turning on Downing Street Parties: it is very convenient to say ‘Wait for the review’, but for those that set the rules, observation of their spirit is just as important as observation of their letter.
    An even more important question, is whether the Prime Minister and his henchmen actually still believe in thew Conservative principles on which they were elected, and all the indications from their actions, price caps, tax rises in the face of manifesto commitments, lack of progress on exploiting Brexit freedoms, indicate that they no longer do. The whip was withdrawn yesterday from our local MP who had the temerity to vote in favour of withdrawing the 5%VAT on heating fuel: something we were told by the PM would be a welcome result of leaving the EU; apparently not now though. For this Government to change its course would involve such eating of words that noone will have any confidence in it and it will remain on the slope to inevitable electoral defeat.
    To give a Conservative Government any chance of credibilty, we need a change of leader and we need it quickly.

  65. Mactheknife
    January 13, 2022

    Over the last 12 months or so I have been a little critical of the PM from Covid policy to the endless Greenwash policies brought forward. We seem to have lost the concept of Conservatism and the small state, low tax, pro-choice concepts that Conservatism should embrace. Sadly I think we have now reached a crossroads.

    What is now clear is that the PM regards himself as above any laws, regulations or guidance issued by the government, or more importantly this is the perception within the general public.

    We have had NI tax rises which will come in April, scandals over redecoration of No 10, the resignation of Lord Frost who clearly disagreed with the PM, and now party in the garden. I’m not particularly bothered about who paid for the refurbishment of No10 but I’m more concerned with tax increases which break the manifesto commitments, the apparent change in direction on Brexit, green policies which seem to come via his wife and most importantly the response by the PM to the ‘party’ incident. To say he did not know if he was there when he was clearly pictured is an insult to the intelligence of the public. It doesn’t matter if it was a work gathering or a party, the public have made their decision.

    With the fuel prices set to rise in April its a perfect storm. Whilst on the subject its worth saying that our energy policy is to blame for this increase. We have gas but with the government focus on the ‘God of Green’ the gas E&P has effectively all but stopped. We have trillions of cubic feet offshore and we should be utilising it. Even the EU has now declared gas a Green fuel ! Our energy policy is a mess and we need to have both multiple sources of energy for our own energy security.

    I will finish with this. The government poll ratings are tanking and its due to one man who has become a walking disaster. Surely now we all have to concede that things have gone far enough and its time for a change in PM and a change back to Conservatism. The ‘Red Wall’ didn’t vote for the Green Party or New labour, and its time to reset and become a true Conservative government again.

  66. Denis Cooper
    January 13, 2022

    Off topic, I’ve sent a letter to CityAM, a large circulation free newspaper which also has an important second use for lining rabbit hutches, and how we missed it when the print edition was paused!

    “Chequers for Northern Ireland”

    “It is understandable that some business groups in Northern Ireland are broadly content with the present protocol.

    First, think back to the second half of 2018 when the Confederation of British Industry warmly welcomed Theresa May’s “Chequers Plan”, while others including Boris Johnson condemned it as “vassalage” and “Brexit In Name Only”.

    Second, recall that after he campaigned to “chuck Chequers” and replaced Theresa May as Prime Minister he negotiated the present revised protocol which one expert commentator characterised as “Chequers for Northern Ireland”.

    Boris Johnson described himself as a “fervent and passionate unionist” on a visit to Northern Ireland, but apparently in his view – and that of most Tory MPs – “vassalage” and “Brexit In Name Only” are good enough for its people.”

    1. Micky Taking
      January 15, 2022

      There are usually stacks of left over ‘METRO’s outside Railway stations if you are near one.

  67. X-Tory
    January 13, 2022

    “At the high Prime Ministerial level we know what this government is about ā€“ getting Brexit done, levelling up, improving public services.” But it’s not, is it?

    The Prime Minister is REFUSING to ‘get Brexit done’, either by delivering Brexit to Northern Ireland, or to our fishermen, or to the taxpayer (who is still giving money to the EU), or to the country at large, as he is not utilising any of the freedoms we now have to actually make any changes.

    On ‘levelling up’, again NOTHING is being done. Two years after the elction and we have no major investment in industry, only one freeport has even got started, and when a job and wealth-creating proposal is put foward – such as the new coal mine in Cumbria – this is ctually blocked! Why is here only one battery gigafactory being built (very slowly, due to a lack of government investment) in the UK, while the EU is building 15 of these? We have a PM who doesn’t care about making Britain successful, let alone the North.

    As for “improving public services”, you must be having a laugh. Throwing money at public services without any idea what the outcomes are or will be is not improving anything.

    NO. I’m afraid that at Prime Ministerial level all that this government is about is Net Zero, helping illegal immigrants across the Channel (despite the pretence of the new Bill which will achieve NOTHING), imposing restrictions on our liberty, appeasing the extreme Left in the culture war, appeasing the EU and increasing taxation. That is NOT a set of policies that I am willing to vote for.

  68. Micky Taking
    January 13, 2022

    I should apologise. Sir John you sometimes don’t include my opinions, but it is a pity that you feel my honest remarks are misunderstood. I have suggested that Johnson is not fit for purpose, and the Party has lost its way. You ought to be able to see through these opinions and humour my jest and publish. Perhaps, like the media and whistleblowers, I am often construed as finding fault, when that is an over-simplification of the facts.
    13.09 Not in the garden, at least 2m from the nearest person, and not imbibing – it as after all still working hours.

  69. X-Tory
    January 13, 2022

    I see from the sidebar that you have tweeted “the U.K. must set out how we can allow free flow of trade between GB and NI without damaging their single market” – NO!!

    I simply don’t understand this obsession with the notion that we mustn’t ‘damage’ the EU’s single market. This is genuinely incomprehensible to me. Firstly, I don’t understand why WE would care about THEIR single market? Why should we give a toss what happens to the enemies of Britain? The EU have behaved ABOMINABLY towards us, so as a result we should now have nothing but HATRED for them. The EU is doing NOTHING to help us, so we should so NOTHING to help them. Unrequited love is for cretins.

    And secondly, I don’t, in any case, understand how would we could possibly ‘damage’ the EU’s single market by simply opening the border to our goods? ‘Damage’ in what way??? If UK and EU goods are just as good (which obviously they are), then how do unchecked UK exports cause any ‘damage’? Surely the unchecked and unrestricted import/export of goods would be the very BEST solution between the UK and the EU as a whole. We would have the benefits of the single market without any of the costs and burdens. So if this is what we want we should IMPOSE it there where we have the power to do so – in Ireland. We voted to take back control. So let’s be in control then!!

  70. Denis Cooper
    January 13, 2022

    The Irish News has an article by one Newton Emerson:

    https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/columnists/2022/01/13/news/newton-emerson-the-parties-are-asking-for-much-the-same-thing-on-protocol-2558006/

    suggesting that “The parties are asking for much the same thing on protocol”

    If that turned out to be a correct assessment then it could be because in their slightly different ways they were both still focusing on the wrong stream of goods, namely those coming into Northern Ireland from outside, rather than on the trickle of goods leaving Northern Ireland for the Irish Republic across the land border which could theoretically pose a threat to the integrity of the EU Single Market.

    Some of which goods exports have not come in from outside but have been produced within the province, and so would not be caught by import checks and controls but would be caught by export controls.

    As was explained in this letter published in the Maidenhead Advertiser nearly four years ago, and directly copied to the then Prime Minister Theresa May as my constituency MP:

    https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/news/letters-to-the-editor/130695/irish-border-a-problem-for-the-eu-not-the-uk.html

    “Irish border a problem for the EU not the UK”

    The last three paragraphs:

    “In contrast the EU cannot assume that the trickle of goods moving the other way from the UK into the Irish Republic and the rest of the EU will continue to conform to EU standards once we have left the EU, and that could create a problem.

    However the problem will be for them, not for us as they like to pretend; in principle we could just tell them we will do nothing to restrict the present free flow of goods coming in from the Republic, and it is entirely up to them to decide what they want to do on their side of the border.

    On the other hand we could decide to overlook their unreasonable attitude and helpfully offer to enact and enforce new UK laws to prevent any goods which the EU would find unacceptable being exported across the border into the EU, and if they were prepared to trust us on that it might at least ease their near-paranoid concern about the integrity of their precious Single Market.”

    This is getting so tedious, how can be so difficult to get politicians to understand something so simple?

    1. alan jutson
      January 14, 2022

      Dennis
      “how can………………. so simple”
      Many of them have never been in business, been self employed, been managers of anything, been responsible for a sales force or figures, purchasing, manufacturing, or have a clue how trade works in the real World.

      If any of them did, then perhaps they may understand, and see things a little clearer.

  71. Ed M
    January 13, 2022

    Vast majority of adults I know are sensible about Covid (wearing masks when appropriate, taking precautionary tests, all that kind of thing – as they don’t want to pass on to someone vulnerable i.e. someone whose got some underlying illness etc). Yes, it’s time now to leave things to people to choose.
    Younger people might be less sensible. But then they are young. They have their young lives to live to the full.

    Although government still needs to keep an eye on the jabs – ensuring that they are being rolled as quickly as possible etc ..

  72. BOF
    January 13, 2022

    As for finding a new leader, I urge readers to go to TCW and read the article by Alexander McKibbon ‘After Johnson? More of the same.’ For me this article sums it up.

  73. Micky Taking
    January 13, 2022

    Yes time to move on…
    MI5 has issued a rare warning to MPs that a Chinese agent has infiltrated Parliament to interfere in UK politics. An alert from the security service said Christine Ching Kui Lee “established links” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with current and aspiring MPs. She then gave donations to politicians, with funding coming from foreign nationals in China and Hong Kong.
    It comes after a “significant, long-running” investigation by MI5, Whitehall sources told the BBC.
    The security service said anyone contacted by Ms Lee should be “mindful of her affiliation” and its “remit to advance the CCP’s agenda”.
    Conservative MP and former party leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, brought up the alert in the Commons, confirming it had been emailed out to MPs by the Speaker. He said it was “a matter of grave concern”, calling for Ms Lee to be deported and demanding the government make a statement to the House.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      None of this was successfully done in secret. The relevant MP(s) contacted the security services years ago about it, and remained in contact on the matter, owing to their concerns.

      Some “infiltration”, then.

      Doubtless there are plenty of foreign nationals here ostensibly running businesses just like this woman, but who also serve their respective governments.

      The main thing corrupting our democracy is rather those in public life who are non-transparent about the private interests which they serve, and this is no doubt very handy as a diversion from that.

  74. Elizabeth Spooner
    January 13, 2022

    It is not probably a good idea to change leaders at this point despite current events – a victory for the anti Boris Media and Labour. Holding any kind of drinks event in Downing Street in Lockdown was absolute madness and someone should have realised this. That they didn’t suggests that the Government needs to sort out staffing of advisers and aides there. A more cabinet centred government is required with enough members who see how things like the mad rush for net zero will impact on everyone’s lives. Not many of us voted for a life for future generations which is not energy or food secure – cold and hungry in reality. Re-wilding, wind & sun generation and mass forestation are impractical in a country as densely populated as this one – housing everyone should be a major preoccupation. Not being honest about their intentions for private transport – only the elite being able to afford it and the rest shoved back onto expensive and union driven buses and trains. This is the intention of climate change fanatics and the Government seems to be following them and not their supporters’ interests. I am disappointed in 2 wasted years – even allowing for the epidemic – some of the proposals will send us back to a 1950’s or even pre-war life style.

  75. paul
    January 13, 2022

    Two weeks ago Joe Rogan a podcaster in the USA interviewed Dr Robert Malone the inventor of mRNA and blow away nearly every government in the world by what he said. If he ever goes to court, head will roll. He not the only one, thousand lining up to have say after being block by the media and these people are filing in courts all over the world and the hague. Time coming.

    1. hefner
      January 13, 2022

      Funny, the Atlantic article dated 12/08/2021 by Tim Barlett ā€˜The vaccine scientist spreading vaccine disinformationā€™ has a rather different view of this gentleman.

      1. rose
        January 14, 2022

        What view, if any, does it take of Dr Fauci and Sir Jeremy Farrar?

  76. Glenn Vaughan
    January 13, 2022

    “Satan, your kingdom must come down
    Satan, your kingdom must come down
    I heard the voice of Jesus cry
    Satan, your kingdom must come down.”

    1. Russ
      January 13, 2022

      The saints and prophets are taking over

  77. paul
    January 13, 2022

    The question is not about parties and lies, it’s about how many people could been saved by giving the right treatment on the NHS instead just oxygen and people were taken to hospital when they could stay at home with oxygen or in the care home, that was and still is the only treatment the NHS and Government will allow.
    Big question to answer when India and Africa have side steped most of C19 by giving out penny drugs which saved millions in those countries.

  78. Mike Wilson
    January 13, 2022

    Being asked to await the findings of the Gray enquiry seems fair.

    Do you think the enquiry will be impartial?

    1. Micky Taking
      January 13, 2022

      The outcome will be a clue.

  79. Mike Wilson
    January 13, 2022

    Perhaps you could have another word with the lunatics running the asylum. I see Russia has decreased gas supplies and lowered the pressure. Prices will now jump again.

    OHHHHHHHHH for a government that thought of the people of this country first – that allowed companies to extract gas, store it to keep prices stable and not make us dependent on the despot running Russia.

    1. glen cullen
      January 13, 2022

      No worries weā€™ll just turn on the fracking gas in Lancashire and natural gas in the North Seaā€¦..oh we canā€™t due to this Tory governments green revolution

  80. rose
    January 13, 2022

    What is the constitutional position when a faceless civil servant from the Blair era is given, by general woolly consensus, not law, the power to remove a Conservative PM?

    1. rose
      January 13, 2022

      And not just any old civil servant, but the head of Gove’s department.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      January 13, 2022

      Better read what it says in the constitution eh, Rose?

      Oh, there isn’t one…

      1. Micky Taking
        January 13, 2022

        I think you might possibly have said that before once or twice? Correct me if I am wrong.

  81. paul
    January 13, 2022

    That might be so hefner, but these people now want to be heard in a court and it not just one or two profssor or a highly qualify doctor, the media shut them out from having a say and now they going to court to have their say and these people are really up set about what going on in the name of science and what it put things right for the record.

  82. Micky Taking
    January 14, 2022

    Looking ahead, after the days of Starmer PM, or even Davey PM, how will our man be titled?
    Sir Boris of Bullshit, Sir Jolly Japes Johnson, probably Sir Johnson of Bullingdon.

  83. Bill brown
    January 15, 2022

    Peter 2

    The EU has enough challenges without a colony, , Russia, Poland, Hungary and Turkey to just mentioning few
    The EU wants prosperous UK as a fellow trading partner. A colony these days only costs money just ask the French with 4 million citizens outside France in

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