The Business department loves imports

BEIS stands for the Department for Business, energy and industrial strategy. I wonder if it has quietly been repurposed as the Department for Blocking Enterprise and for Import Success.

Its Energy desk is turns down or delays new oil and gas field developments at home. It prefers the UK to import LNG from around the world, creating more CO2 when that is burned than if it had allowed us to produce more natural gas from the North Sea. It has set out a so called transition plan which is a plan to run down our own domestic gas and oil industry whilst we will still be needing those products from elsewhere.

Its industry desk is busy imposing high carbon taxes on all our businesses that need to burn gas to transform materials with heat as well as encouraging higher prices for fossil fuels by limiting domestic supply. Our steel, ceramics, glass and similar industries are struggling to keep open against cheaper foreign competition which does not face such high energy prices.

Our steel industry needs specialist coal for its furnaces. The department blocks a potential UK mine that could supply them, again forcing imports. Our steel industry almost halved under the last  Labour government from 18.5 m tonnes to 9.7 million tonnes by 2010 is now around just 7 million tonnes. We import much of what we need.

Our aluminium industry has been reduced to just one main smelter of ore running on Scottish hydro power. The Anglesey and Lynemouth smelters are long gone with no plans to rebuild our ability to make this essential metal thanks to energy prices and availability. Our petrochemical industry has been slimmed as the availability of domestic feedstock has reduced.

Isn’t it time for a rethink? You do not save the planet by outsourcing most of the high energy and gas using products you need. You transfer the CO2 production elsewhere and with it the jobs, added value and security of supply we need at home. If the government wants to level up it should grasp the importance of ceramics to the Potteries, of steel to Sheffield, of chemicals to Merseyside, of oil and gas to Aberdeen and many other locations for all of the above.

153 Comments

  1. Christine
    February 1, 2022

    This is the problem with setting targets. It doesn’t matter that the British economy suffers as long as the Civil Service hits its target set by the Government.

    This Green religion will make most of us much poorer and for what benefit? It won’t make an iota of difference to our planet. We won’t ever reach the target anyway as we import far too many people. It’s just a big scam to make the selected few a lot richer at our expense.

    1. turboterrier
      February 1, 2022

      Christine
      Are the government capable and understand fully what they are trying to do let alone achieve? Too much talk , too much not attention to detail, too much waste, and not enough action.

      1. Christine
        February 1, 2022

        Enough capable people, including Sir John, have told them. They refuse to listen. I can only think they are following orders from a higher authority. Nothing else makes sense.

    2. Michelle
      February 1, 2022

      Well said Christine.

    3. Mark B
      February 1, 2022

      It has nothing to do with saving the planet but everything to depart you from your wealth.

    4. Lorna Ainsworth
      February 1, 2022

      Excellent article Sir John
      The emphasis on import rather than self sufficiency needs questioning
      I would be kern to hear the response from
      The Minister
      A full explanation is required as to what progress is being made in making UK less reliant on importing gas

      1. Paul Cuthbertson
        February 1, 2022

        Lorna A – You will not want t hear the response from the minister as it will be the standard “new speak”and a full explanation will be nothing but waffle. This is government we are talking about. Many words but no substance. “Yes Minister “comes to mind!!!

    5. DavidJ
      February 1, 2022

      Indeed Christine. Boris is under the control, willingly, of his globalist mates. We need and deserve better.

    6. Brian Pugsley
      February 2, 2022

      Absolutely right

  2. Mark B
    February 1, 2022

    Good morning.

    I wonder if it has quietly been repurposed as the Department for Blocking Enterprise and for Import Success.

    If it has it has been done over the period the Conservative Party has been in power.

    You have no one to blame but yourselves, and we have no one to blame but the Conservative Party.

    1. Ian Wragg
      February 1, 2022

      You own this mess. 12 years in power so no one else to blame.
      I see you make no comments on the removal of vat from energy because you’ve outsourced vat rates to Brussels.
      It’s time we had a rebellion against all this green crap which is the road to ruin

      1. DavidJ
        February 1, 2022

        +10 on the green crap. It has been comprehensively disproved by real scientists but they hold on to it as yet another means of control.

    2. lifelogic
      February 1, 2022

      Indeed and all the new housing/letting red tape, bank lending regulations and the taxing of non existent profits is destroying this business too.

      1. lifelogic
        February 1, 2022

        We must stick to our recovery plan — tax will rise to pay for it
        Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak in the Times today.

        Economic illiteracy from the pair. How on earth will governments taxing the productive and then spending the proceeds inefficiently and largely on pointless or damaging things help the recovery or encourage inward investment.

        1. lifelogic
          February 1, 2022

          This on top of the absurd net zero/rip of energy agenda and other net zero costs plus the endless new and hugely damaging red tape.

        2. lifelogic
          February 1, 2022

          “We have a plan to do what no government has done in decades” Sunac and Boris say.

          So what is that great plan? To improve the economy by taxing to death, regulating to death and giving us all very high costs & intermittent energy, other greencrap costs and very high inflation?

          Great plan it should go well and be very popular politically too. How much government expenditure will be enough for them? 50%, 60%, 70% of what will be a declining productive sector?

        3. Mickey Taking
          February 1, 2022

          ‘tax will rise to pay for it’.
          Growth in production, in exports, reduction in imports, investment in energy developments, large scale efficiency targets and projects, cancellation of pipe-dream nonsense projects…..
          those might pay for it.

    3. BOF
      February 1, 2022

      Exactly, Mark B.

  3. DOM
    February 1, 2022

    Mate, we all know there are leftist and Europhile forces at work within the body politic whose focus is on doing damage to the people, freedoms and democratic capital of this nation but it cannot be denied your party’s hand in such treachery is all too obvious and can be seen all too clearly if only people would open their eyes, minds and ears. You appear not accept this fact. Indeed, by encouraging support for the Tory party you are actually making the problem worse

    The BEIS is a pro-EU governmental body. It will nudge trade and climate policy to strengthen our dependency on the EU and EU players that then allows degrees of control over how we manage our affairs but we know this has been occurring for years

    The PM of the day can drive all the changes we would like to see but he doesn’t have the will, the belief, the moral courage or the principles to enact such change. That leaves us open to threats from the EU, PC bigots, Neo-Marxist unions, progressive fascists etc etc…the list of Tory party betrayal if endless

    We need a hardline Thatcherite. A populist who dismantles the Socialist client state and makes it work for us, the public not the unions, Labour and their allies. Slash taxes, cut public sector spending to starve Socialist vested interest and remove all dirty neo-Marxist ideology out of the classroom, out of our lives and banish into space

    The more the Tory government increases public sector spending the more powerful and embedded and the left become. You cannot buy peoples votes using our money, that’s Labour’s tactic

  4. SM
    February 1, 2022

    It seems Government personnel have been handed an instruction booklet entitled ‘This is what you should NOT do’, only someone has crossed out the word NOT.

    1. lifelogic
      February 1, 2022

      Indeed it does.

    2. Lifelogic
      February 1, 2022

      And furthermore ramping up inflation and lack of choice for tenants.

  5. Oldtimer
    February 1, 2022

    The dire situation you describe is the consequence of the parliamentary addiction to net zero. The solution is to remove Johnson from office and select as replacement a competent pragmatist, not a green zealot, capable of organising and running a complex operation. This will not guarantee a revival of the UK’s industrial fortunes but would improve the odds. It might even improve the economic prospects of those parts of the UK that have suffered from industrial decline.

    1. lifelogic
      February 1, 2022

      Any replacement for Johnson will surely be even worse and rather less likely to save us from a Starmer and Strugeon disaster. It would though have the advantage of removing Carrie from a position of malign influence.

      Carrie and May’s insane expensive energy/net zero agenda and Sunak’s vast tax increases are largely the reasons Boris is heading for economic and political disaster.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        February 1, 2022

        LL. Yes and Sunak is ahead in the polls for PM. We’re between the rocks and a hard place.

      2. oldtimer
        February 1, 2022

        If Johnson leads the Conservative party into the next GE it will enter the political desert as it did in 1997. Johnson is toxic waste.

      3. X-Tory
        February 1, 2022

        Why on earth do you believe that “Any replacement for Johnson will surely be even worse “? For one thing, I doubt that *anybody* could be worse that Johnson. Secondly, as you rightly say, it will remove the real power at number 10, the appalling Carrie Antoinette. And thirdly, it will give the successor the opportunity to move the disgraceful Sunak (who is determined to increase taxes and who is against revoking the NI Protocol).

        The party will need a leader with the right political instincts, and a willingness to adopt popular policies. Step forward Dominic Raab. He would take us out of the ECHR, which would allow us to tackle the Channel invasion fleet, he is a genuine Brexiteer who would stop kowtowing to the EU, and would have the parliamentary authority to take a more balanced approach to net zero (by simply returning to the manifesto pledge of implementing this by 2050, not bringing this date forward as Boris has done). I believe that if the party were to be seen to be adopting the right policies the voters would return to it.

    2. Everhopeful
      February 1, 2022

      +1
      Very good idea.
      But Johnson held such opposite views ( or appeared to) for years, even in his blog.
      Any new potential leader would have to sign off his avowed intentions
.in blood.

      1. lifelogic
        February 1, 2022

        Deliberately lying to or misleading the House of Commons seem to be regarded as a rather serious matter & yet lying to the public is many politicians favourite activity. “Brexit means Brexit” Theresa May. “A treaty is not a treaty once ratified” so you cannot have your Cast Iron Promised referendum Cameron, we will not increase Tax, NI or VAT and we will control our borders
 Boris – just a few recent examples.

        1. alan jutson
          February 1, 2022

          +1

        2. Everhopeful
          February 1, 2022

          +1
          Agreed. Very true.

    3. miami.mode
      February 1, 2022

      Agreed Oldtimer. Boris Johnson is in too deep to change direction.

    4. X-Tory
      February 1, 2022

      The problem is that most Conservative MPs are clearly just very stupid sheep. Let’s analyse the situation. Why is partygate such a big story? Fistly, because Boris has no control over the number 10 staff. All appointments and sackings (such as the idiotic sacking of Dominic Cummings) are at the behest of his stupid and appalling wife. And then Boris neither monitors what his staff do nor directs them in any way. And the other reason partygate is a big story is simply because there is NOTHING POSITIVE that the government has done which deserves reporting! The government done NOTHING to get Northern Ireland out of the EU, NOTHING to help Britain’s fishermen, NOTHING to cut energy bills, NOTHING to stop the Channel invasion fleet, NOTHING to boost British manufacturing, NOTHING to cut taxes, NOTHING to reduce imports, NOTHING to reduce inflation or cut the cost of living … basically, NOTHING good at all.

      And yet. And yet Tory MPs still cheer Boris Johnson at meetings and in the chamber. We are told that he made a number of vacuous, deceitful promises to backbenchers yesterday (promises he has NO intention of keeping) and they lapped these up and supported him. Boris does not give a DAMN what policies backbenchers support. Just look at how he ignores EVERYTHING our very own Sir John says. And yet these Tory MPs are too stupid to send their letters in to Graham Brady. They are sheep, bleating their support for the man who has betrayed them, their country and every one of us.

    5. DavidJ
      February 1, 2022

      Indeed Oldtimer.

    6. Brian Pugsley
      February 2, 2022

      Perfectly put.

  6. turboterrier
    February 1, 2022

    It’s the same in a lot of retail outlets.
    Staff are order takers not sales people.The rise of online shopping has all but destroyed the need for real sales people. Everything can be done on line.

    It is therefore very easy for staff in government departments to take the easy option. For years the military have outsourced their land controls, facilities, transport facilities, leasing equipment all on the pretext of saving money. Less bodies needed on the ground to carry out all those duties contr

    1. Everhopeful
      February 1, 2022

      +1
      Absolutely spot on!
      And remember the BBC making fun of those wonderful department stores we used to have? Grace Bros. Making service shameful and somehow smutty.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      February 1, 2022

      Turbo. Correct. I miss the department stores where there was a good choice and some kind of personal service.

  7. David Peddy
    February 1, 2022

    Quite right

  8. turboterrier
    February 1, 2022

    Sorry Turbos finger had not woken up

    Cont::- Contracted out

    1. Rhoddas
      February 1, 2022

      I would hope a decent barrister could make the case for Maladministration in BEIS. Designing an energy strategy that allows everyone’s bills to double is a textbook c0ckup of the first order.. and it may well be more than double.

      An existential threat to many already in financial difficulties and imho, this government too..

  9. Andy
    February 1, 2022

    Your party just signed naff trade deals with Australia and New Zealand – literally on the other side of the world – after you burned your bridges with our nearest neighbours with your pointless Brexit. Making all trade pointlessly harder, pointlessly more bureaucratic and pointlessly more expensive for consumers.

    However I did notice the interesting and amusing story of the Tory MP on a Brexit fact finding mission to your massive Brexit lorry jams in Kent. The Tory Brexit pensioners have failed to build toilets for the lorry drivers who are now having to pointlessly wait hours and hours and hours. So the drivers go in the lay-bys instead. A the Tory MP on his fact finding missions accidentally stepped in human poo. This story sums up Brexit.

    Badly planned and poorly implemented by people who didn’t have a clue about what they were doing or why.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 1, 2022

      Andy. Do you want a medal for getting in the phrase Tory Brexit pensioners?

      1. Mike Wilson
        February 1, 2022

        Yes, it’s an interesting thing to observe. The working class areas of the UK are where most of the Brexit votes came from. The middle class pensioners where I live – that’s most pensioners in Tory areas – were all ardent Remainers. Maybe if he says it enough, he’ll start to believe it.

      2. DavidJ
        February 1, 2022

        +1

    2. Michelle
      February 1, 2022

      The lorry drivers were using lay-by’s way before Brexit.
      The lorry drivers were parking in residential areas and leaving all their waste strewn around, including human waste, a long time before Brexit.
      Having lived in and around the areas affected I know this as fact.

      There is still plenty of produce on the shelves from EU so I presume we are still trading?
      Africa isn’t next door but I doubt you’d say we shouldn’t trade with African nations due to distance.

      I can only gather from your frequent reference to ‘Brexit pensioners’ that you have a problem with people over a certain age??

    3. Nig l
      February 1, 2022

      Thanks. You regularly remind me of Mark Twain.

      Never argue with an idiot. They will wear you down and beat you with experience.

      1. Michael McGrath
        February 1, 2022

        Nig l
        I also subscribe to the saying
        “never argue with an idiot….from a distance it may not be clear who is who”

    4. Sharon
      February 1, 2022

      “ The Tory Brexit pensioners have failed to build toilets for the lorry drivers
.”

      Oh, Andy, if they’re pensioners they will be retired
 so it’s not down to them, but current workers to build toilets!

      There’s a shortage of toilets everywhere
. The public loos have mostly all closed. So nothing to do with us leaving the EU membership!

      1. DavidJ
        February 1, 2022

        +1

    5. DOM
      February 1, 2022

      Democracy, democracy, democracy. Stamp that term on your psyche fella and understand that democracy is the people’s vehicle to assert control and accountability over politicians who think they can act ultra vires and behave like despots.

      Without democracy we have authoritarian barbarity

      1. agricola
        February 1, 2022

        Dom,
        We have a veneer of democracy but consider how it has been deliberately subverted over the last five and a half years, particularly by those in the supposed home of democracy. Democracy is a very fragile flower, too easily undermined by those who find it inconvenient. Tend it with great care and pour Roundup on its enemies.

      2. Excalibur
        February 1, 2022

        Authoritarian barbarity is what we have DOM. Try saying what you really think.

    6. Original Richard
      February 1, 2022

      Andy,

      There was no point in EU membership when it meant a large net contribution to the EU budget, a trading DEFICIT of ÂŁ100bn per YEAR and uncontrolled immigration and planned to come from all the countries as far as the Urals (Cameron Kazakhstan 2013).

      How can (Brexit) pensioners be responsible for the shortage of toilets? Unfortunately we still have a Europhile Government, Parliament and civil service in control and who are determined to make Brexit look like a failure.

    7. Denis Cooper
      February 1, 2022

      “after you burned your bridges with our nearest neighbours”

      The same kind of piffle as Len Peel is allowed to post here, so the same answer:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/30/the-eerily-quiet-collapse-of-the-uk-car-industry/#comment-1296268

      “So what do you think this chart means, that we have ceased to trade with the EU? … “

    8. agricola
      February 1, 2022

      Bog standard Andy.

    9. Lester_Cynic
      February 1, 2022

      Andy

      I see that you’re back to your hate speech about the elderly, that didn’t take long did it!

      I thought that those comments wouldn’t be permitted?

    10. ukretired123
      February 1, 2022

      Francophile or Gallophile like Andy failed to notice thousands of makeshift tents on the Paris Boulevard Périphérique ring road and Calais well before 2016 inspired by the EU until the French had enough and commenced under Sarkozy to bulldoze and sanitize them off their beloved soil?
      French supermarkets used to have free spotless toilets as we provide here in the UK but started closing them down sadly around 2008 as the privilege started being abused and trashed.
      We renovated a village house in the South of France for 8 years but travelling by road to and from the Channel got to see how it was rapidly deteriorating esp in the poorer South.
      Where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise – and old hey?
      See no evil, hear no evil.
      The world is not a perfect place but the more you have lived and worked abroad you realise the UK has a history of success on many fronts and whilst devoid of Sun 365 days a year many like Andy fail to see what’s under our very noses.
      Look up and not down and you see the beauty around you like Constable, Turner ,Shakespeare, Wordsworth and many more!
      Bonnie journee!

    11. Donna
      February 1, 2022

      Lack of toilet facilities for HGV drivers parking-up in laybys and other “unofficial” sites has been a sanitary problem for decades. But the provision of toilet facilities can (and does) lead to other anti-social problems.
      The solution is to provide more, better and cheaper sites for HGV drivers and also to restrict them from parking overnight in laybys and other “unofficial” sites where there are no facilities.

      It has nothing whatsoever to do with Brexit. Although a reduced number of foreign HGVs on our roads may have had a beneficial effect.

    12. Mickey Taking
      February 1, 2022

      Loving France as you do, would you go and run a fact finding mission into your massive lorry jams en route to Calais? and check out the merde..

  10. turboterrier
    February 1, 2022

    Until you get experienced, high skilled, candidates for selection to stand for election all with that inner sales drive who can operate continually thinking outside the box, improving performance, cutting out waste then nothing is going to change.
    This is the calibre of person we need controlling these monolithic departartments. They are the people that will change the departments they control. No more the easy way out ordering LNG when you could work to get the planning sorted to drill our own.
    It will cost more money o be attractive to the people that are required, but in the private sector these are the people who slash waste and pay for themselves. Consider paying ministers a higher %basic and a % of the monies proven to be saved. 0.05% of ÂŁ29bn is a lot of incentive as a starter rising up, the more waste that is eradicated.
    Getting the right people in position will obviously impact on the civil service structures. The days of free loading are over.

    1. BOF
      February 1, 2022

      +1 turbo, but it sounds like herecy!

  11. Lifelogic
    February 1, 2022

    The government also subsidise new electric cars with grants and tax breaks (which when manufacture of car & battery plus charging is properly considered) causes more CO2 then just keeping your old car running for a few more years. Plus they send private jets to Australia for ÂŁ500k.

    1. dixie
      February 2, 2022

      Governments have subsidised property developers and oil companies so what is your point?

  12. Fedupsoutherner
    February 1, 2022

    It seems to me that these departments would be put to better use in a Monty Python sketch. Or as Littlejohn would say, you couldn’t make it up. Only problem is, we don’t have to make it up. They are perfectly capable of running a farce on their own. Time for change me thinks.

  13. Shirley M
    February 1, 2022

    A deliberate strategy to weaken the UK, kill our economy and make us as reliant on the EU as possible which means following EU rules and back into subservience, without a vote even?

    Too many UK organisations are wedded to the EU, and I don’t understand why. Do they think killing off our economy and our democracy will be a good thing?

    1. Denis Cooper
      February 1, 2022

      It looks like that.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      February 1, 2022

      The UK depends on access to European Union roads, rail, airspace, and ports for its very survival.

      It also only grows around half of the food that it needs.

      Give your head a little wobble, eh?

      1. Mike Wilson
        February 1, 2022

        It also only grows around half of the food that it needs.

        Yet you still want more and more people here!

        Give your head a little wobble, eh?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          February 1, 2022

          No, I don’t want ever more people here.

          I think that anyone here unlawfully should be expelled, and that people who reject the values of the European Enlightenment should not come to Europe at all.

          However, the processes for implementing the first appear to be woeful, and those coming often don’t care about the second.

          Sadly, there are plenty with ancestry going back centuries here who also reject those values, and some of them apparently comment here.

          1. Peter2
            February 2, 2022

            NHL
            Re your last dreadful sentence
            You as usual mix up Europe and European values with the EU

      2. Mickey Taking
        February 1, 2022

        eat less, go to the pub more, eh?

    3. Mitchel
      February 1, 2022

      The management consultancy companies they all feel compelled to bring in for advice are there to make sure everything is globalist-compliant.

  14. Sea_Warrior
    February 1, 2022

    Running out of CO2 would be justice for the the eco-fascists in the government. As for BEIS, it seems that the department isn’t very good at horizon-scanning.

    1. alan jutson
      February 1, 2022

      Sea-Warrier

      I seem to remember that we had a couple of CO2 producing plants (American owned I believe) getting government grants just a few months ago because they were being effected by a Covid/fuel shortage, apparently they need to actually produce CO2 to their customers for use in food packaging, to help the longevity of product, it is also used in green houses to help the growing cycle.

  15. turboterrier
    February 1, 2022

    The way things sĂšem to be going. could this be the beginning of the end of the political career type politician?

    Is it lack of vision or understanding that has allowed a lot of these madcap ideas to be adopted?

    Looking at what is possibly available to replace BJ doesn’t give a lot of hope and confidence.
    Across the whole of parliament there needs to be a seismic change, the last thing the country needs now is a case of same meat different gravy.
    But are all the central offices taking any notice?

    1. Peter
      February 1, 2022

      turboterrier,

      The current best option for the ‘political career type politician’ is the Conservative Party. It has long periods in power and is fairly flexible about what MPs can say, or not say.

      So ‘seismic change’ would probably be best served by removing that option so that the Conservative Party was broken like Labour and the Liberals before it.

      That is currently a worry for Conservative MPs. If Johnson goes, voters might focus on Conservative values leading to a dramatic loss of support.

      The likelihood of that happening is not known and then there would be issues with small, unstable governments.

      The hope would be a brand new party emerging from all this. At the moment, it is difficult to see how that would come to pass.

  16. Hat man
    February 1, 2022

    Why wouldn’t a globalist government favour global trade ? The BEIS is doing what is expected of it by those who make policy. As our beleaguered leader once said, Britain is open to the world for business – open to the world’s imports.

    It’s got worse in recent years, but it’s not all that new. You’d have to go way back to a Labour Prime Minister to find one campaigning on ‘Buy British’, I seem to remember.

  17. Nig l
    February 1, 2022

    Indeed. A metaphor for so much more. This mornings DT. It reflects Boris’s searing incompetence at the heart of government to take advantage of post Brexit opportunities and it didn’t need the DT to remind us. We now see his pathetic attempts to move the narrative away from his egregious behaviour during lockdown by spinning up his achievements which are to date, and typically Boris, more at the BS end of the scale than actualitee.

    Not forgetting the risible attempt to use Jimmy Saville to attack Starmer. You? And your colleagues are truly demonstrating the nasty party is back, did it ever go away and a total lack of moral rectitude. In the image of your leader, again.

    1. Peter
      February 1, 2022

      The newspapers cover all bases on partygate.

      They might as well let their racing tipsters write the articles.

      So whatever the Telegraph says about Johnson and incompetence it will also have an article by someone like Charles Moore detailing why Johnson will/should remain.

      That way, when the dust settles, they can claim they backed the winner.

  18. Michelle
    February 1, 2022

    I find it very hard to believe that you Sir John, do not know the trajectory of the party you so loyally stick with.
    It has been perfectly clear to many on the outside for quite some time, so I find it odd it can’t be seen on the inside.

    The British establishment and the duopoly that run it give a facade of choice. In the end it all seems to come down to one thing, managed (not very well) decline of our nation in every aspect imaginable.
    Selling England by the pound.

    1. Shirley M
      February 1, 2022

      +1

    2. Mitchel
      February 1, 2022

      The article(Foreign Policy,30/6/20) is about the USA – Britain is hardly a great power – but the principle remains:

      “How a great power falls apart-Decline is invisible from the inside.” by Charles King.

  19. Sharon
    February 1, 2022

    Save the planet? This sounds more like wanton self destruction!

    None of what you describe, JR, makes any sense to me as a lay person. So the question is why are they doing this? Even the argument of trying to make our CO2 output look low doesn’t hold water – it already is tiny.

    1. turboterrier
      February 1, 2022

      Sharon
      Well said, you are not alone.

  20. Nottingham Lad Himself
    February 1, 2022

    We could have a high wage, high skill, knowledge and expertise-based economy.

    However, that would require educating more of the population better, and, as a rule, such people then do not vote Tory.

    They only have a majority of 80ish today thanks to those who can only name one politician – Johnson – and they know it. So does he.

    1. Peter2
      February 1, 2022

      NHL
      Hilarious to see you yet again abuse the voters you need to get to vote for your Labour Party in order to get into power.
      They realise you posh lefties hate them.

    2. Know-Dice
      February 1, 2022

      Martin,

      A corollary to your comment “those who can only name one politician”…

      A friend of mine once gave Arthur Scargill a lift (I won’t explain why) and he asked Mr Scargill “why didn’t you every try to become an MP?” and the answer was…

      “most people don’t even know the name of their MP” 🙁

    3. agricola
      February 1, 2022

      NlH
      You started well but drifted back into the usual rubbish. Education defining political intent is a bad day at the Guardian.

    4. a-tracy
      February 1, 2022

      I am shocked you criticise our teaching workforce, I feel it is just a false statement NLH our children in the UK are formally educated from rising 5 to 18 years of age are you saying that our education system isn’t working? We are funding more teenagers than ever into our University system are you saying they are failing? There are more children this past year than ever being offered apprenticeships, record intakes a bit of good news don’t you think?

    5. Mickey Taking
      February 1, 2022

      I could be wrong but I don’t think the name Johnson appeared on many voting lists, and when it did the unwary voter probably got more than expected.

  21. Everhopeful
    February 1, 2022

    Department of Treacherous Trading?

  22. Narrow Shoulders
    February 1, 2022

    Eleven years of Conservative or Conservative-led governing.

    Least worst option?

    Sir John, how many Back benchers agree with you on energy policy? Is there any chance of turning it around?

  23. BOF
    February 1, 2022

    ‘The Department for Blocking Enterprise and Import Success’. Well done Sir John, you have hit the. Nail on the head.

    The Con Party and the civil service working hand in glove with the EU to destroy British business while obeying every EU rule,or is that orders from France and Germany that now sell us cars and every other product they can push our way. Germany now makes cars in East European countries where they have coal fired power stations.

    Never mind making anything here, we will not even keep warm with this lot in charge. They are turning us into ‘a nation of shopkeepers’, as Napoleon said, now buying every thing from abroad.

    1. Shirley M
      February 1, 2022

      +1 BOF. There has to be some reason for the deliberate destruction of our economy and our country. The EU fear us, therefore they have to destroy us, and it appears they have plenty of willing accomplices in our government, the Civil Service and other organisations.

  24. Donna
    February 1, 2022

    I’m getting tired of repeating myself.

    We are still complying with the EU’s strategic policy of energy inter-dependence and the UN/WEF Climate Change Agenda. They require us to be Energy Insecure; colder and poorer.

    Ministers can change both the energy-interdependence and Net Zero agenda; but they won’t. Ministers could reform the Civil Service and clear out the worst of the pro-EU Senior Mandarins, but they won’t. Ministers could scrap the Quangos which push the Eco Agenda, but they won’t.

    So Sir John is right: the BEIS has effectively been repurposed as the Department for Blocking Enterprise and for Import Success.

    1. Mickey Taking
      February 1, 2022

      Donna – ‘I’m getting tired of repeating myself.’
      In competition with the main two repeaters? They never tire.

  25. Walt
    February 1, 2022

    Do you know enough MPs with the vision and courage to fix it?

    1. agricola
      February 1, 2022

      Morning Walt,
      The ERG, the Spartans, Reform on paper, all led by Nigel Farage. How about that to curdle Andy’s croissantes.

      1. Walt
        February 1, 2022

        Well Sir, they could make enough waves to get things started!

  26. Everhopeful
    February 1, 2022

    “it might seem like carrying coals to Newcastle to truck beach sand to a beach”

    I venture to suggest that no one weaving all this mischief has even the slightest wish to “save the planet”.
    The planet does not need “saving” from its inhabitants ( who love it).
    It just needs saving from evil, corruption and greed!

  27. Bryan Harris
    February 1, 2022

    A truly sad, if accurate, analysis of how our own government is working against the best interests of the British people.

    You couldn’t make this up — it’s unbelievable what is being done in the name of a huge fallacy.

    Like many I want a change of government – A true right wing party would be the aim, one that would reverse the decisions made by this and previous governments to tie us into a future where socialist dogma rules.
    We simply cannot go on like this – so many things driven by irrationality – We have great potential, we cannot let it be denied, perverted or washed away, for our future happiness is far too sacred for it to be crucified in the way that it is.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 1, 2022

      Bryan. Great post with so much conviction. You speak for many.

    2. Everhopeful
      February 1, 2022

      +many

  28. alan jutson
    February 1, 2022

    Yes it is absolute madness John isn’t it.
    So what is the new promised set up at N0 10 going to do about it ?
    Can Parliament not see they are self harming us on a national scale with these ridiculous net zero policy time scales !

  29. Richard1
    February 1, 2022

    The public are beginning to realise the cost of virtue signalling green crap, and it’s uselessness and humbug. The mood is changing. The Govt needs to recognise this before it is too late.

    1. Christine
      February 1, 2022

      Wait until the new Clean Air Zones hit this year and the winter fuel bills land. The public will then wake up to the cost of the green agenda. We just have to hope they don’t just switch their votes to the other main parties who will continue to take our country down the same disastrous path. We need to see the rise of one of the small alternative parties like Reform. It’s the only hope for our future and that of our children. The main parties are a lost cause.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        February 1, 2022

        Christine, Oh, what a true post. Voting for any of the 3 main parties will give us the same if not worse. No real point. We will be here years after another party gets in still moaning about the same things in our cold homes without our own transport but feeling thankful. Sarcasm.

    2. Nig l
      February 1, 2022

      And misinformed. We are now reading what has been public knowledge for some time, but hidden by Ministers, namely real cost of air pumps up to ÂŁ50k and is a mockery/highlights the stupidity of whoever thought up the latest green scheme and Ministers who spun it.

    3. Mark B
      February 1, 2022

      +1

      But will their pride prevent them ?

  30. Original Richard
    February 1, 2022

    BEIS also loves to import people to keep wages low and to save money investing in modern machinery and the training of our own people.

    Aided by Mrs. May signing the UK up to the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and REGULAR Migration (CGM) without ANY Parliamentary vote let alone a referendum.

  31. George Brooks.
    February 1, 2022

    Our heavy industry was strangled for decades by the EU wanting to down grade (and grind down) the UK and the present ministers involved are too young and the same is most likely true of the civil servants, to know the strength we had 40 or so years ago.

    They have jumped onto the ‘Green Crap cart’ and the ‘Net zero’ ridiculous target dates and ignored the damage they are inflicting on the economy.

    Instead of employing young political advisors fresh out of Uni’ and wet behind the ears, they should be replaced with the 60+ age group with years of relevant experience.

    Or is that department stuffed to gills with quisling remainers hell bent on destroying this country?

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 1, 2022

      George. +100

  32. majorfrustration
    February 1, 2022

    The disconnect between Government and the voters and Government and the Civil Service continues.

  33. Keith from Leeds
    February 1, 2022

    Hello Sir John,
    Another article which is spot on. But what is driving me and many others mad is how do we change it? Does our PM listen to anybody with an iota of common sense? Does no one in government have the ability to ask questions & change direction? What is the matter with our backbenchers? Why are they not rebelling against all this net-zero nonsense? The PM talks the talk but he does not walk the walk! He claims to be a low tax conservative but what he does speaks so loudly I can’t hear what he says! Taxes up, pensioners betrayed, the NI situation drags on, Illegal Immigration via the channel grows, little advantage taken of Brexit. When will the government govern for thew benefit of the UK and its people?

  34. MPC
    February 1, 2022

    We have a PM who, in relative terms, took an age to come down on the side of leaving the EU. It’s no surprise that he lacks commitment in forcing through the changes that you recommend. If he did have that commitment then we wouldn’t have Net Zero, an overarching and highly damaging framework which binds our parliament all the way to 2050 in the same way, if not worse, than new EU laws used to do. He probably isn’t be all that bothered either that he is in effect paving the way for the next Labour led government to realign with EU laws. A policy which some senior Labour Party figures make no secret about.

  35. agricola
    February 1, 2022

    As far as the green lobby and its accolytes in Downing Steet are concerned CO2 creation starts at Calais. It does not concern them providing the UK looks squeaky clean and impoverished. As far as the majority of the UK population are concerned Brexit and its bonus is a revolution in the wings. Brexit to all UK political parties is an embarassment, but the dilema is that this puts them in direct conflict with the electorate who only await the leadership necessary to impliment Brexit.
    Did you catch the hypochracy of May pouring her pennyworth of bile on Boris having overlooked her lies to the electorate and Parliament on her intentions to leave the EU.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 1, 2022

      Agricola. Yes, agree with your comments regarding May. How can a woman who claims to be a devout Christian lie or perhaps I should say deceive the electorate like she did? The woman is a disgrace.

  36. Original Richard
    February 1, 2022

    “You do not save the planet by outsourcing most of the high energy and gas using products you need.”

    Sir John, You’ve already demonstrated that the BEIS Net Zero Strategy is not about saving the planet by using BEIS’ own figures which show importing gas produces more CO2 than producing it ourselves.

    The Net Zero Strategy has been designed by pro-EU Marxist Britphobes to destroy our economy and eventually our democracy through the crazy idea that we can power our whole country on “the breezes that blow around these islands” (PM Conservative Party conference speech October 2020).

    However, we may yet be saved by the EU declaring that gas and nuclear are green

  37. John Miller
    February 1, 2022

    Net Zero has no plan attached because it is dreamed up by fantasists and supported by politicians because it merely requires the favourite attribute of politicians; talk.
    Action needs so much more. The whole philosophy is incoherent and riddled with internal contradictions.
    That’s why so many Greens are Lefties; they are used to dealing with concepts that require you to believe several different, contradictory, things at once.
    That’s why this country’s only hope is the Conservative Party. The Liberal Party will say anything to get in power, but will do nothing, should they achieve it.
    Mr Johnson is not the man for the job. Forget Partygate, it is merely a symptom of the reasons why the man cannot lead to country out of this feeble insanity.

  38. Know-Dice
    February 1, 2022

    Off Topic for today:

    I see that both petitions to overturn the recent highway code changes have been rejected. The reasons seem to be that no alternative was offered….hmm… the alternative [in particular] was to go back to the old logical way of dealing with pedestrians crossing minor road junctions.

    How many dead and injured pedestrians and cyclists it will take before people realise the foolish danger that has been created?

    1. alan jutson
      February 1, 2022

      Exactly.
      Common sense out of the window.
      Change for changes sake, and it is for the worse, as they will eventually find out.
      Why just why do the Government and Politicians always want to complicate matters.

  39. Original Richard
    February 1, 2022

    “Our steel, ceramics, glass and similar industries are struggling to keep open against cheaper foreign competition which does not face such high energy prices.”

    The pro-EU Marxist Britphobes in BEIS and elsewhere have a plan to deal with this, which they call “carbon leakage”. Not because they wish to save UK industry from competition but because we should be responsible for our total carbon consumption, not simply our own territorial carbon emissions. They plan to adopt the EU’s carbon import tax (CBAM – Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism).

    Foreign exporters will be able to pay the carbon tax to their own Government and it will simply make all our imports more expensive. The Chinese are laughing.

  40. The PrangWizard
    February 1, 2022

    This problem requires urgent and aggressive attention. It’s one of the most vital subjects, and the failure of ‘Boris’ to care that his views on it are destroying our economy and national security, is another reason why he is not fit to be in his position. Ministers are happy to go along with him.

    His getting dressed up in hi-viz jackets and a hard hats every other day is just stunt publicity, as everyone knows. He has sold his soul – not that he has one – to green fanatics and his wife’s views. This means we are lost. How any Tory MP can support him cannot be forgiven because he is a permanent deceiver.

    And OT on yesterday – he did not make a personal apology. His apology was for what others had done, nothing he had done, and his vicious side was on display on a day when he should have been quite different.

  41. Original Richard
    February 1, 2022

    The BEIS Net Zero Strategy doesn’t just apply to business, energy and industry. It is the top priority for all civil service departments and intended to change every aspect of our lives. BEIS and Ofgem intend to deliver this strategy whatever the economic and social costs in the Marxist belief that “the ends justifies the means”.

    Everyone should watch the Public Accounts Committee Meeting of Monday 25 October 2021 :
    https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/e7153087-35c9-44c4-8d7f-6522b4acf8e1

  42. glen cullen
    February 1, 2022

    I agree with your comment SirJ
    I’d like to know how many other Tory MPs support your views or are we just blowing in the wind

  43. glen cullen
    February 1, 2022

    BEIS policy isn’t to support UK business ….its to support Boris ‘green revolution’ at the expense of UK business

  44. Everhopeful
    February 1, 2022

    The “woke” are calling all the shots.
    They are wilding agricultural land.
    They are bringing in DANGEROUS traffic laws. ( Which will INCREASE emissions and block roads).
    Find out where all this and the rest of it comes from.
    “Agents for Change” maybe? Working at local level? Plenty around here, using social media to wreak their mischief.
    Seek them out and deal with them.
    They are a fifth column.

    1. glen cullen
      February 1, 2022

      You’re describing the Cabinet

      1. Everhopeful
        February 1, 2022

        +1
        Odd that, isn’t it?
        đŸ€”

  45. BOF
    February 1, 2022

    Sir John, for some time post after post in your diary has made it obvious that government is not working. Without radical change, especially a change of PM, nothing will change!

    The farce of course continues. First we had the Sue Grey enquiry, now redacted because there is a police investigation. Will the next step be a judge led enquiry when the police investigation is about to end? Fields of long grass yet to explore?

  46. Thames Trader
    February 1, 2022

    Department of Madness would be a better title.
    Examples:
    – Importing wood via ship from the other side of the world to burn in our power stations
    – Closing our coal mines and importing all types of coal (steam, coking, power station)
    – Blocking development of new North Sea oil fields to pander to the Scottish green lobby, quietly ignoring that we need to import that oil and gas instead
    – Running down our gas storage so we’re even more vulnerable to gas price fluctuations

    1. glen cullen
      February 1, 2022

      Also importing wind turbines from Denmark, army trucks from Germany, gas from Norway and electricity from France

  47. Denis Cooper
    February 1, 2022

    Meanwhile, the Belfast News Letter notes that Northern Ireland will be left out from “Brexit freedoms”:

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/as-long-as-protocol-exists-ni-will-keep-on-drifting-from-gb-3549980

    “As long as Protocol exists, NI will keep on drifting from GB”

    “Johnson claims that the legislation, which should make it easier to remove old EU laws, will “unleash the benefits” of leaving the single market and customs union.”

    “For Northern Ireland, this bill is likely to emphasise how much we have been distanced from the rest of the UK by the Northern Ireland Protocol.”

    While the Irish News notes that Belfast Harbour has been doing well thanks to the imposition of new checks on goods moving direct from Britain to Ireland when those checks are not being applied at Belfast, and of course thanks to the folly of our Prime Minister there are no checks on goods crossing the land border:

    https://www.irishnews.com/business/2022/02/01/news/belfast-harbour-posts-record-freight-volumes-as-roi-traffic-shifts-north-2575381/

    “BELFAST Harbour handled a record breaking 25.6 million tonnes of cargo during 2021 as freight traffic switched north to avoid new post-Brexit checks between Britain and the Republic, new figures suggest.”

    “It’s unclear how many vehicles are northern hauliers who have abandoned the Dublin crossing, or whether it represents a significant re-routing of British shipments to the Republic via Belfast.”

    “… Northern Ireland ports … experiencing improved trade volumes whilst grace periods continue to apply.”

    Absolutely crazy, and it all springs from Boris Johnson’s desperation to get his “Canada style” trade deal.

  48. miami.mode
    February 1, 2022

    Boris Johnson has dusted off his old Lee-Enfield .303 from his Cadet Force days at school, oiled up his pull through and marched off to Ukraine to show that we could possibly export our soldiers.

    1. Mitchel
      February 1, 2022

      “To the Slanderers of Russia” – Pushkin,1831.

      Then send your numbers without number,
      Your madden’d sons,your goaded slaves,
      In Russia’s plains there’s room to slumber
      And well they’ll know their brethren’s graves.

      Referencing the 1830 Polish uprising in which the French and possibly the British were thinking about intervening.In the event they didn’t.

    2. glen cullen
      February 1, 2022

      Boris is offering them millions in aid
.why ? the Ukraine doesn’t need aid, it’s a financially stable country – by all means allow free trade but not taxpayers money

      1. glen cullen
        February 1, 2022

        ÂŁ80 million

    3. Original Richard
      February 1, 2022

      I read :

      “Boris Johnson today warned the world must face up to the ‘grim reality’ of more than 100,000 Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine as he held a joint press conference in Kiev with President Volodymyr Zelensky.”

      But he does not consider important the “grim reality” of the expectation of 100,000 illegal immigrants arriving on our shores this year, mainly young men of fighting age and without ID to whom he provides 4 star accommodation, £40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets.

      Perhaps this is the way Mr. Putin should invade the Ukraine?

  49. Mark
    February 1, 2022

    My version is Business Eradication and Industrial Suppression, but it amounts to the same thing, at least while we can still afford the imports. It should have been a Brexit bonus that we deregulated to allow many of the businesses back that had been forced to export themselves by EU regulation. That would provide economic growth through exports and import substitution, and increase tax revenues quite naturally without any need to try to use carbon taxes to plug the holes. Instead we see carbon taxes soaring with no intervention, adding cost to industry and agony for energy bill payers.

    1. Mark
      February 1, 2022

      Now I read that Boris plans to do precisely the reverse: maintain all the regulations, and pursue net zero madness. This really cannot continue. The right moment and the right successor must be found, and he must go.

  50. X-Tory
    February 1, 2022

    Sir John, your criticism of BEIS is right in every detail. Its destruction of our industrial base and the harm it is causing to consumers is undeniable. It is following a policy that is both moronic and treacherous. I have only two questions which genuinely puzzle me:
    i. Are you the only Tory MP who sees what a (mistake? ed) Kwarteng is? I do not see any concerted campaign against him emanating from the backbenches.
    ii. Why on earth haven’t you taken the only logical step in these circumstances and publicly declared that you have no confidence in this appalling failure of a minister?

  51. Alan Joyce
    February 1, 2022

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    It occurs to me there is hardly a strand of government strategy and policy that you now agree with. In recent months you have ‘trashed’ just about everything the government stands for. This is fine because I hope all conservative voters want a return to traditional Tory values. Indeed, you wrote a blog entitled ‘We need more Conservative values’ on the 20th January.

    The Conservative Party is officially called the Conservative and Unionist Party. Perhaps, it should now be renamed as the Conservative and Unionist and Green Crap Party. Ah! I hear some say. Boris has, rather carelessly, allowed part of the Union to drift off into the clutches of the EU and we already have a Green Party. Just lately, many people have even begun lamenting the loss of Conservatism in the Party. I wonder what that leaves us with!

    I hope that you and your like-minded colleagues are taking the opportunity of Boris’ current weakness to impress upon him the need for a return to traditional Tory values and to ensure these are applied to his agenda of levelling up the country and unleashing Britain’s potential or the party will be annihilated at the next general election.

  52. Denis Cooper
    February 1, 2022

    Which reminded me that before Christmas I put in a Freedom of Information request to try to find out how much that special trade deal with the EU may be worth to our economy, and have not yet had any reply …

    1. Mark B
      February 1, 2022

      Maybe because it is so small they cannot find it 😉

  53. The Prangwizard
    February 1, 2022

    We, the people, of England in particular, must get active. I’d like to see the truckers, many many hundreds of them, block both directions of a major motorway includung the shoulders – solid. Demand abolition of many of ‘Boris’ destructive and insane ‘green’ policies.

    Another OT. The BBC has announcd government policy of giving Ukraine money to help abolition of corruption. More sickening remarks from the Tories.

    1. glen cullen
      February 1, 2022

      Agree with every word

  54. a-tracy
    February 1, 2022

    Just reading at lunch that France is demanding wet signatures on outbound freight from the UK instead of the digital paperwork, just do the same right back for all shipments in from France and cause them the same problem. Stop dealing with them as though they are friends when every week there is something else that shows that they are not acting in good faith.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      February 1, 2022

      A-Tracy. I totally agree with this approach. See how they like it.

  55. alan jutson
    February 1, 2022

    a-tracy
    Strange, they were happy to accept any imports from the UK without paperwork from 1939 – 1945.
    Then I guess we were also deemed to be a third World Country.

    Afraid they are just playing political games now, as they are with Northern Ireland, it is plain for all to see, so I would agree with you, we should treat them and their goods to us in exactly the same manner.

    My guess is we will not, because our Government does not seem to have the backbone..

  56. Denis Cooper
    February 1, 2022

    Yet another set of complications arising from Boris Johnson’s reckless, self centred decision that it would be worth selling out Northern Ireland to the EU to get the low value trade deal that he wanted:

    https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/69/european-scrutiny-committee/news/160704/government-urged-to-clarify-position-as-new-eu-customs-portal-risks-affecting-gbni-trade/

    “Government urged to clarify position as new EU customs portal risks affecting GB-NI trade”

    For God’s sake, just put the customs and regulatory border back where it was for a century and belongs, coincident with the international land border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

  57. Tony Sharp
    February 1, 2022

    Sir John,
    This policy is of a piece with Mr Johnson’s Go Green. Indeed he is sticking closely to EU policies to do so and has abandoned Lord Frost’s programme of taking advantage of our Leaving the EU by adopting our own plicies on energy and regulations.
    Time to put in your letter to Sir Graham brady.

  58. Pauline Baxter
    February 1, 2022

    Your opening paragraph Sir John – Blocking Enterprise and Import Success. So apt.
    I hope it raised a laugh in ‘The House’.
    But it is not really at all funny is it?
    Why, oh why, can not your government listen to it’s own sensible back benchers?

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