Tax cutting governments

As a young man I was Economic Adviser to Prime Minister Thatcher during her middle period. It was good to work with a tax cutting government. We set out to prove that lower rates of tax on income, work and investment generate a larger economy and more tax revenue. We went for growth.

Over the Thatcher years as a whole the standard rate of Income tax was cut from 33% to 25%. The topĀ  rate of Income tax was cut from 80% to 40%. The investment income surcharge of 15% was removedĀ  completely. These measures led to a large increase in total income tax take. They also led to the richer taxpayers paying more tax in real terms and paying a larger proportion of the total Income tax take. Only a very jealous socialist could legitimately complain. Anyone else was invited to see that lower income tax rates delivered more growth and more money for public services, and led to the rich paying more as a proportion. As we regularly stated, the rich stay and pay, they invest and work more when they keep more of the earnings. Those on lower incomes needed tax breaks to boost their spending power and paid less tax.

It is true we took over from an extreme socialist position under the previous Labour government. Charging 98% tax on the richest people with investment income was a good way to send them offshore. 1970s UK was characterised by the so called brain drain, where everyone from successful entrepreneurs to popular bands and singers based themselves abroad to escape the tax net. Ending the penal rates let them come home, to be joined by others who found the UK attractive again as a place to work and invest. The Thatcher government also cut the main rate of corporation tax substantially and abolished various smaller taxes entirely.

Today I am pleased to hear the current Chancellor praising past glories and expressing enthusiasm for tax cutting agendas. So far he has not cut the Income tax rate, and has set out a substantial rise in the corporation tax rate. He says he will cut theĀ  Income Tax rate from 20% to 19%. This is a long way short of taking it down from 33% to 25%. It also has to be seen against the background of the introduction of the social care levy which offsets some of the putative cut in the Income tax rate. The total tax rate rises from 33% when he took office to 36.2% (total tax as a proportion of national income). It will take some bold moves on cutting Income tax and Corporation tax rates to grow the economy enough to get a decent tax cut.

171 Comments

  1. Mark B
    March 25, 2022

    Good morning

    One only has to compare countries and principalities with low tax rates to those with high tax rates. The wealthy do indeed go where their money is safest. They spend it on luxury items which creates business and jobs which in turn create more wealth for those lower down the income scale. There is low crime and overal a pleasent enviroment is created.

    Look at what low tax has done for the Republic of Ireland. I has provided it with much more money that its size can hope to generate. The UK could do the same. We also have the example here if Stamp Duty. A now complicated and expensive tax. People will now no longer move because of the cost of this tax makes up a far greater amount of their expenditure. The government reduced Stamp Duty over the pandemic and saw more transacion and a greater amount of tax.

    Government has to realise that people like and will control their money as they see fit. As mentioned, those with real needed skills elsewhere will go elsewhere leaving only low skilled and poor people to make up the shortfall, which they can’t.

    We saw the end result of the ‘Great Post War Socialist Experiment’ in the 70’s. Overly powerful unions. Poor mamangement. Lack of investment. Poor products. Power cuts. Little food on the shelf and so on. This and successive governments cannot claim not to know what the consequences of their Socialist actions will be, not even this one.

    If you do not tuen back now, it will have to fall to the electorate to do it for you.

    1. Lifelogic
      March 25, 2022

      Lots of rich people do not really spend their money on luxury items, many just reinvest it in their businesses or investments, on charitable works or give it to children or others. Taxes on luxury items I do not really object to. Taxes on profits such as corporation tax at 24% on money you want to reinvest in a business is foolish – this as government will usually “invest” it appallingly.

      1. Hope
        March 25, 2022

        Please to hear the chancellorā€¦ Good grief JR you are not that gullible. 75 year high in taxation and 12 years of tax hikes under your party and govt. worse cost of living since 1950, the record shows wasteful economic mismanagement and two socialist budgets. Do you actually believe Sunak when his first budget was 11 days before covid lock down!! Remind us of his harking back to the good old days! I did not remember him saying anyth8ng about the Ā£11.8 billion stolen from his school boy error frauds that Lord Agnew resigned from. Did he say he was raising taxes because of his lack of grip. Another example being NHS wasting Ā£37 billion on test and trace or Ā£34 billion to a failed computer system. I actually thinkĀ£82.8 billion lost on three items to be a lot of my taxes wasted.

        Any business would have sacked him for gross incompetence, not tell to demand more!

        1. Lifelogic
          March 25, 2022

          Are all these sums actually being negligently ā€œlostā€ or are they just being hosed into friends of friends personal pockets? Hard to believe they are that incompetent and it is all just genuine ā€œmistakesā€. Hard too to think Net Zero is driven by gross stupidity rather than pure corruption and/or vested interests.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 25, 2022

            Yes, the ball is always fumbled in such a way that certain types from particular schools benefit, isn’t it?

          2. Peter2
            March 25, 2022

            What like Barry Gardener?

        2. Lester_Cynic
          March 25, 2022

          Hope

          Nigel Farage accused the chancellor of Sophistry which perfectly describes him

          The photo-op of him filling up his (not!) car at the pump at a branch of Sainsburys before the minuscule cut had even come into effect

          Sky News asking him about his wifeā€™s investment in a large Russian company, he acted like a rabbit caught in the headlights

          Perhaps some gullible people still believe him but heā€™s not fooling me, the vast majority of the problems weā€™re currently facing are a direct result of government action or inaction , hopefully this will be rectified at the Polls

          1. Bryan Harris
            March 25, 2022

            Our ‘tax cutting’ Chancellor has nothing to gloat about.

          2. Peter Wood
            March 25, 2022

            While I dislike agreeing with your cynicism, your comment rings true. It seems there is little or no honesty in the PCP government these days.
            Bunter, wishing to meet with the recently released Iranian detainees points to where the problem originates. He is the reason they spent so long in clink.
            The Tories will lose their natural electorate at the next GE if they don’t get rid of the problem and start looking like a Conservative Party..

          3. Timaction
            March 25, 2022

            Indeed. He’s raising taxes by stealth. No increase in income tax thresholds for 5 years, ditto Capital Gains and inheritance taxes. Raises in National Insurance. All state pensions and other pensions below inflation rate. Worst ever cost of living crisis. Plus he wont bend on his net zero stupidity. Banning our cars and boilers. Nothing done about the boat people or even trying to deport them. Can’t get an appointment at the Doctors, 6 million backlog of patients in the NHS because of your Governments mass migration, free for all health service. Education taught by left wing activists with woke/PC agenda. Highest energy Bill’s ever. Who’s going to vote for your party? Only the stupid, the games up.

      2. Nigl
        March 25, 2022

        +1

  2. Lifelogic
    March 25, 2022

    You say “It is true we took over from an extreme socialist position under the previous Labour government” – indeed good old Denis Healey with his double firsts (but zero common sense) with his 98% income tax insanity. But who can take over from the current government’s with its clearly equally extreme socialist position?

    In many ways the current position is even worse as there are far more red tape and compliance costs heaped on the public and businesses. Plus other costs like the absurdly expensive net zero energy religion, restrictive employment laws, OTT building regs. and health and safely. The latest (of these very many lunacies) seems to be that any new house will have to have an EV charger. This even though many will never be used and will be redundant, broken and scrapped before they ever will be used.

    Encouraging new EV (short lived) cars and batteries to be build and old ICU cars to be scrapped increase overall world CO2 output since you ask. Also about 5 times more expensive per mile with depreciation and financing costs. This is even before they start to tax them.

    Many taxes are at more than 100% of profits now – CGT without indexation, taxing landlords without allowing them to deduct legitimate interest rates costs, Stamp duty and IHT for some examples.

    A bonfire of red tape would be a win, win but the Tories just heap more and more of it onto the private (and state) sector. Then foolish ministers have the temerity to complain about poor productivity and lack of investment.

    Scrap net zero, stop the vast amount of government waste, kill the free at the point of (usually delay and non delivery) healthcare for all who can afford to pay, have a bonfire of red tape and cut and simplify taxes. Real freedom and choice and fair competition between state and private in health care, education, housing, broadcasting…

    1. Hope
      March 25, 2022

      It is worse because JRā€™s party and govt claim to be conservatives where people know best how to spend their money. The trouble is Johnson and Sunak have pissed it away around the world virtue signalling while more people go to food banks and million of pensioners scared to know whether heat or eat! Meanwhile millions more foreigners invited here for a totally free lifestyle some of whom (criminals) in four star hotels!

      1. Shirley M
        March 25, 2022

        Yes, I also despair that this government’s priority is anywhere but the UK, and we are just the cash cows, but the cash cows are running out of cash!

        1. Lifelogic
          March 27, 2022

          The English are the cash cows.

      2. Hope
        March 25, 2022

        LL, do you recall Osborne claiming there would be 80%cuts and 20% tax rises and JR conceding that the opposite was correct? You might also recall how in fact it turned out to be much worse in percentage terms. Then we had the sling of deficit percentage to GDP. We had repeated claims of balancing the structural deficit, revised date after revised date. Then abandoned! Many here warned to actually make severe cuts to fix the economy as the Tories were suffering the label of austerity. There was a minuscule difference between Darlings plan and Osbornes. The main difference was rhetoric.

        Why any right minded person would believe any MP that the Tory party that is a party of low taxes when as a matter of fact and 12 year record shows the exact opposite is beyond me. Sunak claiming to be low on taxes while he raises them. Moreover, we have the biggest waster in the history of our country as PM. Debt, deficit show this to be the case. More tax increases in Two years than Gordon Brownā€™s entire term in office!!

        Undoubtedly we will get excuses to blame, the Treasury, the weather, EU, no one told him, the world, the moon came out or whatever it might be. The stark fact is it was the deliberate policy choices of the Tory party to reach these devastatingly high taxes, high debt, high deficit, high energy bills, high immigration, soft on crime, promote BLM and Ex Reb to cause economic harm to city of London and country. Use Met police and BBC to promote a culturally Marxist agenda.

        From what I can see JR and chums sitting on their hands letting it happen. Not learning what damage May did to the country, democracy and their party, she is still there. She even expressed concern over the high spend first budget!

        1. Shirley M
          March 25, 2022

          + 1 Hope. Well said.

        2. glen cullen
          March 25, 2022

          Where are the men in grey suits !!!

      3. MFD
        March 25, 2022

        I agree Hope, paying the wage bill of the Ukraine army is Bojos latest mistake. We cannot trust him with our money.

        1. X-Tory
          March 25, 2022

          I have no problem with helping Ukraine defeat Russia (especially after the unforgivable Russian attacks here on British soil which prove Russia is our enemy), but Boris is such a traitor and an imbecile that he is paying for the help provided out of departmental budgets, instead of out of the Foreign Aid budget. For instance, the cost of all the munitions sent should be paid for from foreign aid money, not from the budget allocated for BRITISH defence!

          1. Hat man
            March 25, 2022

            Completely agree with your last point, X-Tory. But doesn’t that tell us what’s really going on? Our military budget is being spent in Ukraine because… we are fighting a war in Ukraine. A proxy war, of course, as in Syria, but nonetheless a war in which Britain is engaged, pursuing foreign policy objectives. This time, unlike Iraq and Afghanistan, we won’t have any British soldiers killed, and we won’t be blamed for carrying out atrocities. From the government’s point of view, not a bad plan, surely?

      4. BOF
        March 25, 2022

        Yes Hope, still Dishi ng it out around the World.

      5. Mitchel
        March 25, 2022

        Dr Tim Morgan of Surplus Energy Economics has just published his latest report(surplusenergyeconomics.wordpress.com-21/3/22 #224:”Unaffordable,stranded,at risk-Discretionary compression and the vulnerability of assets.”He points out some obvious but stark realities using his ECoE(Energy Co-effecient of Energy)model:

        “The argument has been that as renewable energy sources(REs)displace fossil fuels,demand for oil,gas and coal will slump,causing energy companies to lose money on investments “stranded”-cut off from consumers-by this supposedly inevitable revolution in energy markets.In reality,this has always been unlikely,not least because WE CANNOT EXPAND AND MAINTAIN RE CAPACITY WITHOUT RECOURSE TO LEGACY ENERGY IMPUTS FROM OIL,GAS & COAL. This means that the ECoE of REs are linked to those of fossil fuels.

        As energy costs rise,so,too,does the cost of everything-including steel,copper,cobalt,lithium and plastics-required not just to expand RE generating capacity itself but also to advance the technologies powered by electricity,rather than by oil and gas.

        A simple example is that,just as rising fossil fuel prices make conventional vehicles more expensive to run,so battery and hydrogen alternatives become costlier to produce,as does the RE infrastructure by which they are supposed to be powered.

        A proper appreciation of actual rather than hypothecated trends reveals that we need to re-define “stranded assets”.

        Instead of oil and gas projects,the investments cast adrift by decreasing demand are likely to be aircraft,hotels,leisure complexes,broadcasting rights contracts and ANYTHING ELSE PREDICATED ON THE FALSE ASSUMPTION THAT CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY SPENDING WILL INCREASE INDEFINITELY.”

        The whole report is well worth reading,as are his previous two-#222 and #223.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 25, 2022

      Yes, there were quite a few doctrinaire communists in Labour post-war, and they were drunk on previous socialist successes, and therefore blind to the illogic of some of their excesses.

      It’s a bit the same with the Anglo-American Right post-Cold War, Reagan and Thatcher of latter years, but recent events are perhaps sobering up a few.

    3. Mike Wilson
      March 25, 2022

      @LifeLogic

      My sonā€™s girlfriend has moved in with him. They are marrying soon. They have let her flat out. Oddly someone paid a yearā€™s rent up front-Ā£14,400.

      She has a sizeable mortgage. Is it the case that she is not allowed to deduct the interest paid on the mortgage from the rent she has received as income? If that is true, as a 40% taxpayer, I guess she is in for a hefty tax bill?

      1. Lifelogic
        March 25, 2022

        If she is a 40% taxpayer already she only gets a partial deduction roughly half of it is deductable. Plus any other costs insurance, maintenance, agents fees, transport to look check on it, any employees you use to manage it… are allowable. How to Save Property Tax By Carl Bayley BSc FCA is a good & accessible guide to save as much as you can.

        Also you have to consider the CGT position when you sell – you can get some letting reliefs if it was her PPR before. But no inflation indexation now which is another back door tax.

        1. Mike Wilson
          March 25, 2022

          @LifeLogic

          Thank you for your reply. What is the ā€˜inflation indexationā€™ you mention?

          She bought the flat a few years ago and only rented it out recently. If, for example, she paid Ā£300k for it and when she let it out she had it valued and it was valued at Ā£350k and when she sells it in, say, 3 years time it is worth Ā£380k – would her capital gain be Ā£50k or Ā£80k? I assume the lack of ā€˜inflation indexationā€™ means, for any capital gain, you canā€™t say ā€˜itā€™s gone up by X% due to inflation so I can deduct that from the capital gainā€™?

          1. Lifelogic
            March 26, 2022

            Is complicated but basically they would look at the total gain after purchase and sales costs and improvements (keep bills) then apportion it for part PPR (tax free) part let so CGT at 28% but then you get some special ā€œletting reliefā€ and last 2 years (I think) is still ignored. Then you get the CGT personal allowance Ā£12,300. Gains used to be adjusted (tax reduced) to allow for inflation but no longer.

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 26, 2022

        Make quite sure that the Address For Service on the flat has been changed at Land Registry to wherever she now lives.

  3. Lifelogic
    March 25, 2022

    You say:- “Today I am pleased to hear the current Chancellor praising past glories and expressing enthusiasm for tax cutting agendas.” alas while actively doing the complete opposite – very few are fooled Rishi by you take with one hand then give 1/6 back with the other act. After wasting much in collection and admin. costs too.

    You also say:- “Ending the penal rates let them (the wealthy) come home” yes but the current taxes IHT 40%, CT going up to 24%, income tax up to 45%, CGT up to 28% (with no indexation so often over 100% in reality), council tax, fuel taxes, green energy taxes, IPT tax 12%, road tax, stamp duty up to 15%… will easily take more than 90% of your capital off you over say 20 years compared to many low tax regimes.

    Why would anyone rich want to come back to (or come to) the UK unless they love spending all their time and money with tax consultants perhaps or spending !

    People would also pay taxes rather more readily if it were spent sensibly, efficiently and on things people actually wanted. Not for example diversity officers, HS2, net zero, expensive intermittent energy, road blocking, over paid and pensioned failures like Cressida Dick, subsidies for EVs, the dire NHS, second rate schools, pointless/worthless degrees and the likes.

    1. PeteB
      March 25, 2022

      Spot on LL.

      Sunak is trying the “do as a say, not as I do” line with a promise of future tax cuts that still leave the tax take at a 70 year high. Inflation to be in double figures later this year. Government debt at a record percentage of GDP – and BofE buying that debt back with new minted monopoly money.

      The only way out of this mess is a massive cut in government spending, cut in regulations and cut in taxes to incentivize work. It is unfortunate Boris and the buffoons are doing the opposite.

      Move along, no Tory policies to be seen here…

      1. Lifelogic
        March 25, 2022

        ā€œdo as a say, not as I doā€ – this is very fashionable currently with princes, actors, celebrities, private jet to Australia for Ā£250K ministers or to Blackpool for ā€œNet Zero B/S ā€ PMs.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 25, 2022

      Like brexit, you can only do these things once though, can’t you?

      That is, cut tax from this legendary 98% to 40%.

      Cutting it from 40% to 37.5% hardly carries the same drama, does it?

      And try as you might – and fail, deservedly and completely – to milk glory from it time and time again, brexit was hardly the Battle Of Britain, was it?

      1. Lifelogic
        March 25, 2022

        20% of GDP in taxes is about right. If the government are efficient, honest and only do the very few things governments can do better than people, businesses and charities can.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 25, 2022

          If only it were just a few things that cannot be done better by properly-organised, national-scale, socially-accountable, not-for-profit entities, then yes.

          Unfortunately your premise is wide open to question.

      2. Peter2
        March 25, 2022

        You forget to add NICs
        Today it is still over 50% for higher earners
        In my opinion when the State takes over half your income that is theft.

    3. a-tracy
      March 25, 2022

      There is something seriously wrong with this governments media and awareness, they put this out about University Education in February 2022:

      ‘The higher education system in England will be made fairer for students and taxpayers thanks to major reforms announced by the government today.

      Student finance will be put on a more sustainable footing by ensuring more students are paying back their loan in full, and there will be a clampdown on poor-quality university courses that donā€™t benefit graduates in the long-term.’

      https://www.gov.uk/government/news/fairer-higher-education-system-for-students-and-taxpayers

      ‘This include providing more funding for courses that support the NHS such as medicine, dentistry and midwifery as well as science and engineering. ‘

  4. Lifelogic
    March 25, 2022

    Sunak it seems is the latest politician unable to say what a women is (on JHB talk radio yesterday) waffling about what Boris had said being excellent but that he could not remember what it was.

    Can the Minister for Women and Equality (Liz Truss) help perhaps? Might it be an Adult Human Female perhaps? Was it covered in PPE perhaps not? How can one be both for Women “and” Equalities anyway. Do we have one for Men and Equalities? So no equality there then!

    1. Everhopeful
      March 25, 2022

      Was that when Boris said ā€œ basic facts of biology are overwhelmingly importantā€?
      In reply to Starmer.
      A small act of rebellion at a time when telling the truth is a crime.
      We are in such a mess.

      1. Lifelogic
        March 25, 2022

        +1

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 25, 2022

        Telling the truth is a crime in Russia, but not here.

        Dictionaries are free to print whatever definitions are generally accepted usage for “man”, “woman” etc.

        If they print anything else then they are not dictionaries, but whatever they might, no one will be prosecuted.

        Will they?

        1. Peter2
          March 25, 2022

          Tell that to those cancelled in their professional lives and abused online, including death threats because they dared to use your dictionary definitions.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 26, 2022

            a) If employers are allowed to dismiss people for expressing their reasonable views then that is because they have too much arbitrary power under UK employment law, over which the Tories have presided for twelve years now.

            b) If people choose not to buy the works of certain artists because of their views then that is for them alone.

            c) People commit the crime of making death threats for all manner of things, e.g. for objections to planning applications, and should be prosecuted for that every time. If they are not then that is a police failure, again under this government.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 26, 2022

            J.K. Rowling remains a highly popular best seller.

            The fact that she might have been “cancelled” by a self-obsessed minuscule minority has virtually zero effect on that success.

            If the police – under this government – do not prosecute all death threats then that is a failure by both.

          3. Peter2
            March 26, 2022

            Tell that to the people who try to arrange meetings or debates at Universities and Colleges where woke mobs force their cancellations.

            Tell that to publishing companies who refuse to publish their contracted authors after the woke mob protest.

            Tell that to people never seen or heard on radio or TV after saying something the woke mob don’t agree with.

          4. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 26, 2022

            Universities, quite rightly, will not generally allow their premises to be used as platforms for those who have a record of spreading proven lies to continue to do so there.

          5. Peter2
            March 26, 2022

            There are rapidly reducing opportunities for non woke guest speakers in Universities.

            Proven lies you say NHL
            Roughly translates to people who hold any opinions you disagree with.

    2. wanderer
      March 25, 2022

      I heard a Democrat commentator yesterday gushing about how a $392m emergency fund set up by the Biden Admin to help “civic structures” in Ukraine had specific funds earmarked to “protect LBGQ rights”. I had to laugh, but it just doesn’t sound adult to me, particularly given we are talking about a war. I would have thought that protecting “human rights” (presumably from atrocities in a war zone) might have been a more appropriate aim. Now that would have been what used to be called “inclusive”.

      Much of the rest of the fund was apparently going to prop up the media, whatever that means.

      1. R.Grange
        March 25, 2022

        Wanderer, it means ensuring that the pro-Kiev narrative goes on being relentlessly pumped out as now, and Ukrainians and the rest of the world aren’t allowed to hear any dissenting voices. Under the guidance of BBC Media Action, which has been getting around Ā£15m p.a. in British taxpayer support in recent years. Not money well spent as far as I am concerned.

        1. Mitchel
          March 25, 2022

          Ukraine has been subjected to intensive “nation building” by the full gamut of anglo-american NGOs for a decade.Wherever they are,you will find the BBC’s Lyse Doucet,late of Afghanistan.

          You probably won’t see this on the MSM but earlier this week Business New Europe drew attention to an opinion poll(conducted by RBK) which shows that the percentage of Ukrainians in favour of NATO membership,having risen from 62% to 76% on the breakout of war,has now slumped to 44%.

          And Leon Panetta,Obama’s Defense Secretary,has this week,admitted that this is indeed a proxy war-with the Ukrainian people expendable.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 26, 2022

            Your claims may well be correct.

            However, none of them change the fact that Putin’s Russia has mounted a murderous, destructive, unprovoked invasion of a democratic nation, and the list of crimes committed grows daily.

            Such a response is utterly unwarranted, disproportionate, and criminal.

            It is rightly condemned by all civilised nations, and all possible assistance is being given to the Ukrainian people to defend themselves and to repel the aggressor.

            I commend that help unreservedly.

        2. hefner
          March 26, 2022

          Putting things in perspective: Ā£15 m p.a. out of the BBCā€™s annual budget of Ā£5 bn, so 0.3% for sending additional reporters and their transmission materiel to Ukraine.
          Isnā€™t it useful to get a picture different from the one that Pravda, RT or other Russian channels are providing?
          Even Nadine Dorries, the Culture Secretary, not an usual fan, was praising the BBC on 03/03/2022.

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 26, 2022

        Just to translate from Dailymailese, “protecting LGBT rights” simply means trying to ensure that those types of human are not denied their human rights, as eastern European countries have had some form on doing.

        Human rights apply to everyone, the clue is in the first word.

        1. Peter2
          March 26, 2022

          Be nice if these human rights applied to JK Rowling and many others the woke mob want cancelled.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 27, 2022

            The Human Rights Act protects people from actions by the State, but not by private employers, members of the public etc.

            So that is why publishers can decide to discontinue, or employers to sack on the basis of views which are quite lawfully expressed.

            The internet also allows small minorities of fixated attention-seekers to over-represent themselves, and it is irresponsible of the MSM to amplify their silliness, but as you and I know they do this endlessly.

            It’s how the Leave campaigns built up their following after all.

          2. hefner
            March 27, 2022

            Oh, P2, I see you have increased your accessible vocabulary to include ā€˜woke mobā€™. Could you please provide a definition of what or who this encompasses. Thanks in advance.

    3. Shirley M
      March 25, 2022

      LL: You missed the new agenda. Minorities get whatever they want, even if it means trampling over (or totally obliterating) the rights of the majority. Women (natural women) are not a minority as they comprise 50% of the population. Males who ‘identify’ as a woman, even if they have all their wedding tackle, can now enter female changing rooms. A voyeur’s and paedo’s dream come true. Unbelievable! Likewise with putting rapists ‘identifying’ as women in women’s prisons, with the inevitable result. Where has common sense gone? Are they too afraid of the vociferous minorities to do the ‘right thing’ or just too lazy to defy them?

      It appears the safety of UK people is becoming less and less important to this government, in so many ways.

      1. glen cullen
        March 25, 2022

        This is actually happening under a Tory government…..I wouldn’t have believed it 10 years ago

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 26, 2022

        Shirley, there is no law which says that shops or anywhere else must allow this.

        Some stores, on their own private property, have said that they will, however.

        Plenty of places have unisex toilets and washrooms too, which seems a simpler solution, and denies the very small number of attention-seekers any basis to make a silly fuss.

        1. Peter2
          March 26, 2022

          Easy for you to say as a male NHL
          Imagine you had young daughters.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 27, 2022

            Take up your grievance with the private stores which have done this – I don’t recommend it at all.

    4. Donna
      March 25, 2022

      Put on a dress, slap on a bit of lippy and you can magically become “a woman” and therefore more equal than either a man or a woman.

      I think I shall self-identify as a 66 yr old ….. and start claiming my State pension. After all, what my birth certificate records is irrelevant …. it’s what I FEEL that matters.

      1. Shirley M
        March 25, 2022

        +1 Donna – I had a chuckle at a cartoon yesterday, where a motorcyclist ‘self identified’ as a bicyclist and broke the world speed record.

        Maybe we should all self identify as LGBT+ blacks, just to take advantage of all the ‘protected characteristics’ and minority rights and level the score. Equality counts? Yes?

        1. glen cullen
          March 25, 2022

          +1 I heard some Tory MPs are self-Identifying as Labour MPs

          1. Mickey Taking
            March 25, 2022

            they seem to ‘come out of the closet’ once in the Commons.

      2. Lifelogic
        March 25, 2022

        Can you get it at 66 I thought it was 67+ by the time I get there it will likely be 75 of something or they will just not have the cash!

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          March 25, 2022

          66 at the moment. It changes to 67 soon though. My sister is 7 years younger but she will be 67 when she received hers.

    5. Hope
      March 25, 2022

      Ā£5 billion of PPE being burnt by the NHS as it was not the correct standard. Add to the previous Ā£82.8 billion making Ā£87.8 billion of our taxes wasted mainly by NHS and Johnsonā€™s answer is to give it more without asking how it will be spent! Same for the Ā£400 million of our taxes he sent to the Ukraine knowing it was one of the most corrupt govt.s in the EU and world!!
      Johnsonā€™s health secretary saying how the waiting lists will last longer for at least two more years while telling us the whole of the Ukraine can have free health care as it is our moral duty. People who paid into the system and contributed all their life told they must die on a waiting list to give priority for the world to the health service! Disgraceful does not even begin to describe what he said and is doing.

      1. alan jutson
        March 25, 2022

        Hope

        Why is it being burnt, why not send it to a third world Country that may be able to use it in some way, surely that would be better than nothing !

        I guess perhaps the moaners would say then that it would be discriminatory or racist to send them second rated goods, so to be on the safe side burning is considered a better solution.
        The World has truly gone mad !

        1. dixie
          March 26, 2022

          Why is it being burnt – typical public sector ignorance of value and lack of imagination.
          Meanwhile a Bristol University reserach group have established a simple workflow to turn those used plastic Covid masks into rigid plastic housings .. for covid test kits.

          If it is truly Ā£5b wasted then many heads should roll, salaries and pensions withheld, careers ruined. But this is the public sector so they will probably get an OBE or gong.

    6. X-Tory
      March 25, 2022

      As a scientist I can tell you very precisely the difference between men and women: MEN HAVE Y CHROMOSONES AND WOMEN DO NOT.

      Referring to the presence or abscence of the Y chromosone is a precise and simple way of differentiating not only between the vast majority of people (who are either XY (men) or XX (women)), but also takes into account the very small number of people born with three chromosones: XXX (women) or XXY (men). It also prevents people from claiming that they are something they are not – their chromosones reveal the truth.

      The problem is not only the lack of courage and common sense among MPs, but also the fact that so few have even a basic understanding of science.

      1. dixie
        March 26, 2022

        But opinions matter so much more than scientific facts.
        It’s the nuances that are so very important now, otherwise the ignoramuses in government and activism have no purpose, nothing of value to offer.

  5. turboterrier
    March 25, 2022

    Lower taxation across the board must be the goal for any and every government but until they get completely on top of the horrendous waste and the over the top expenses situation , they are entering the fight for radical change with severe handicaps. Whe the country see the waste being addressed they will be more inclined to get behind the government.
    Government has to be seen to be changing with actions not words in every department.

    1. Ian Wragg
      March 25, 2022

      Today’s update, for the forth day in a row wind is currently supplying 2.6% of demand and gas a stonking 57% of demand
      If this isn’t reason enough to start fracking then I don’t know what is.

      1. Dave Andrews
        March 25, 2022

        2.1% as I look now, although solar photovoltaic has gone up to 5.9%. Renewables are a good idea, but we need to select ones that are more reliable. The deep rocks are always hot, so develop technology to drill down and exploit it.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        March 25, 2022

        Too right Ian

      3. glen cullen
        March 25, 2022

        Build Back Better – Build More Wind-Turbines

      4. Lifelogic
        March 25, 2022

        +1

      5. glen cullen
        March 25, 2022

        Spot On Ian

  6. Atlas
    March 25, 2022

    Re: The current Chancellor,

    The old adage, “Actions speak louder than words”, is as true now as it ever was. So in the Chancellor’s case the words are ‘tax reducing’ but the actions are ‘tax increasing’. Hence the Chancellor has a credibility problem.

    1. Lifelogic
      March 25, 2022

      +1 A huge one.

  7. oldtimer
    March 25, 2022

    This government lives in a fantasy world, spending money it has not got, making promises it cannot keep. The opposition says it will spend and promise even more if it gets the chance. Less taxation, not more, is the only way the UK can start to dig itself out of the hole that MPs keep digging deeper and deeper for themselves and for the rest of of us.

    1. alan jutson
      March 25, 2022

      Oldtimer.

      Indeed, but not only politicians, many voters also equally deluded.
      Viewed Question Time last night, first time in ages, absolutely astonished that most of the audience seemed to want unlimited, unchecked free movement of people into the UK, but they object to major housing development, complain about waiting lists on the NHS.
      They also seem to want more government subsidy and control on almost everything, want lower prices on everything, but want higher wages, Higher benefits, more jobs, but lower taxes.
      Far too many people living in absolute dream land, and far too many politicians promising it, instead of setting out some simple mathematical facts.

      1. MFD
        March 25, 2022

        The lefties still think there is a money tree in the Downing Street garden.
        More more more- deluded!

      2. SM
        March 25, 2022

        100% agree, aj. There has been a pervasive culture for decades that says: whatever you want, you can and should have. Unfortunately, there has been little explanation of the downside, as Mrs T said in other circumstances, that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.

      3. Peter Parsons
        March 25, 2022

        I was in the audience for Question Time last night, and the message from the audience to government was to treat Ukranian refugees the same way that every other European country is treating them i.e. don’t expect them to fill in 50 page online forms, show proof of whatever that they almost certainly didn’t even think about bringing with them when getting away from Russian aggression was their priority etc.

        Even the Conservative voters in the audience had nothing good to say about this government’s response to Ukranian refugees or, indeed, the Chancellor’s spring statement. Watching the broadcast back later, the real sense of anger and frustration with this government that was there in the room didn’t come across at the same level.

        Even Kate Andrews was struggling to find something positive to say about this government’s decisions and actions during the program.

        1. alan jutson
          March 25, 2022

          Peter
          I agree genuine Ukraine refugees need help and help quickly, but that was not what the audience wanted last night, they wanted an open house (without checks) for everyone and anyone who wanted to come here from anywhere in the World.
          Can only suggest you view your recording again.
          On your other point, I certainly agree with you that the Conservative Government have failed, and are continuing to fail on so many fronts, they have and are disgrace.
          Mr Hinds showed he was and is completely out of touch and out of his depth last night.

          1. Peter Parsons
            March 25, 2022

            I was in the live audience and I am sharing what I experienced. There was not an ounce of sympathy or support for the way the UK government has reacted to and managed the situation with regards to refugees from Ukraine. I don’t agree that the entire audience wanted an open house as you characterise it. Individuals, yes, but not the entire audience, whereas the entire audience was very much as one with regards to refugees from Ukraine.

            Damian Hinds was even worse live than came across in the broadcast.

        2. a-tracy
          March 25, 2022

          Peter, if the neighbouring countries in the EU have taken everyone in with open arms and are getting financial support from other regions, and they are not asking for any checks on who they are and provided accommodation and are treating them so well why would they want to travel 1500 miles to the UK?

          To imply the UK is doing nothing to help the Ukraine isn’t correct: “UK largest bilateral humanitarian donor to Ukraine” gov.uk 7th March
          https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/home-secretary-statement-on-humanitarian-support-for-ukrainians

          The UK pledges extra Ā£100m in aid, UK now the largest bilateral humanitarian donor to Ukraine.
          Builds on earlier announcement of $100m (Ā£74m) cash injection into Ukraineā€™s economy and takes UK total offer of support to the current Ukraine crisis to around Ā£400 million.
          ā€˜International Ukraine Support Groupā€™ will coordinate the global community to deliver long-term support for Ukraine.
          New initiative follows the Prime Ministerā€™s six point ā€˜plan of actionā€™ for the international community to ensure Putin fails in his ambitions.
          Separately ā€“ UK and Canada agree to strengthen bilateral cooperation across security, defence, trade, science, global travel health and climate sectors.

          “Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterates the UKā€™s commitment in standing ready to guarantee up to $500 million in loans to support Ukraine and mitigate the economic effects of Russian aggression.”

          Then there are all the UK aid charities raising money for Ukraine refugees.

          1. Peter Parsons
            March 25, 2022

            Most won’t and don’t, but some will have family and friends here, some will feel more comfortable in a country where they can speak the language.

            I didn’t imply the UK is doing nothing, but the audience reaction to the government’s treatment of Ukrainian refugees was a very simple, stark and direct message.

          2. a-tracy
            March 26, 2022

            My point Peter is the BBC our main media channel is not informing the public of the good work the uk is doing, it only ever bashes us and Iā€™m sick of it. Iā€™m sick of being told to fund neighbouring countries so that refugees could stay near to their homes and then to do more and it being implied weā€™re doing nothing. Absolutely sick of it. I donated to the Ukraine and it feels like its being frittered away rather than being spent on the purpose I was told it was being raised to house refugees just over the border.

            Poland and other Eastern European countries are in a good place to house refugees because they had an awful lot of people (millions) leave those Countries to move West. We have no spare homes, no spare capacity, 150,000 offered spare rooms in their homes to have processed refugees for safety reasons. Iā€™m sick of none thinking people who think we can just accommodate everyone that rocks up in the UK, whilst telling British born children there are no social homes for them when theyā€™re starting out.

      4. BOF
        March 25, 2022

        +1 alan jutson.
        I blame education, or rather, lack of education.

      5. Lester_Cynic
        March 25, 2022

        AJ

        Rest assured that they audience was hand picked to reflect the BBCā€™s views

        You only need to look at the Jeremy Vine show, a participant had to effectively lie to the researcher to get on his show much to Jeremyā€™s consternation

        1. Peter2
          March 25, 2022

          Well said Lester.
          QT is a failing programme.
          A panel biased towards those who are remain supporting and left leaning.
          And an audience stuffed full of Labour voting public sector workers.

          1. Peter Parsons
            March 25, 2022

            The largest group in the QT audience last night was people who voted Conservative in 2019.

          2. Peter2
            March 26, 2022

            Who said they voted Conservative…

          3. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 26, 2022

            Out of a randomly-picked audience only about one-in-three would be Leave voters.

            37% of the electorate voted Leave, and a good few of those are no longer with us either.

            You can do a similar thing with Tory voters.

            So where’s the surprise?

          4. Peter2
            March 26, 2022

            Exactly NHL
            The quote from QT was disingenuous.
            The audience did not have anywhere near a Conservative majority.

          5. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 27, 2022

            Not really, “largest group” does not have to mean a majority.

      6. Bill B.
        March 25, 2022

        Agreed, Alan. People don’t think issues through for themselves, but just react to the latest news story on TV. There’s even politicians who keep on about the need for our country to be more self-sufficient with food, yet say and do nothing about so many fields in their constituencies now being concreted over for housing. Funny old world, as someone once said.

      7. BeebTax
        March 26, 2022

        The worry is if that audience represents a majority of voters. Then we really are going down the pan, led by self interested politicians and cheerlead by the MSM.

  8. DOM
    March 25, 2022

    My hard working, law abiding,decent parents will not apologise for breathing and existing in their own country. A country they worked hard to build using through sweat, toil and graft.

    The Tories panderng to the urchinesque race lobby and their demands has brought shame on tens of millions of British people

    The Tories are pure bred guttersnipes

    We deserve better than filthy Labour and a Tory party that is now utterly without shame in their pursuit of social justice brownie points

    PATHETIC

    And by the way, why don’t you try SLASHING PUBLIC SECTOR SPENDING TO THE UNIONISED GRIFTERS IN LABOUR’S POLITICAL MACHINE?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 25, 2022

      In answer to to your last question Dom, maybe because the country needs teachers, doctors and other hospital staff, police and emergency services, security, the military, council services and all the rest?

      It can’t survive on driveway-tarmaccers and fly-tipping waste disposal contractors alone.

      1. a-tracy
        March 25, 2022

        NLH can’t we ask why the trained HR recruiters in the NHS aren’t diverse in their selection to hire and train already? Why does a diversity officer earn more than the Prime Minister?

        Can we ask what % of total rates collected in each Council should be spent on administration staff and their pensions alone? Not direct works. Can we ask to compare direct work costs between councils? It’s not front line staff people are concerned about.

        You insult a whole raft of other workers in the private sector in your rush to protect the unionised workforce.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          March 25, 2022

          I didn’t express a view on any of those questions, Tracy.

          1. a-tracy
            March 26, 2022

            NLH oh I must of misunderstood your reply that all of the public sector are needed such as ā€˜teachers, doctors and other hospital staff, police and emergency services, security, the military, council services and all the rest?ā€™
            There are plenty of ā€˜unionised griftersā€™ that people donā€™t believe are needed, that are coasting in none jobs, that spend years on sick leave instead of being redeployed. Why should the rest of us pay for pilgrims, if the unionised workforce want them it should come out of their subs.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            March 26, 2022

            Get worked up about stuff that people have not said or even implied if you like, Tracy.

    2. MFD
      March 25, 2022

      Well said DomšŸ˜Š

    3. MWB
      March 25, 2022

      Very well said, particularly about the so called Tories.

  9. Donna
    March 25, 2022

    Today we’re living under an extreme Socialist Government, which is growing the size of the State and spending the largest proportion of our GDP since WW2, and is ramping up stealth taxes for ideological reasons.

    The alternative “under our two-party system?” Another extreme Socialist Government which will do the same, or worse. And you pretend it’s a democracy.

    We already knew Johnson had a real problem discerning the difference between the truth and what he would like it to be. Sunak is no different: he talks tax-cuts whilst increasing them and hope we won’t notice that he’s helped himself to more of our money to p!ss away on the State.

    1. Shirley M
      March 25, 2022

      A democracy is not a democracy when it gives you two choices of the same thing. This has been going on since the 70’s, in one form or another, ie. we had a choice of a pro-EU party or another pro-EU party. Now we have a choice of one set of socialist idiots (still pro-EU), or another set of socialist idiots (still pro-EU but trying to hide it). We need another Farage.

      1. X-Tory
        March 25, 2022

        The public have always had the option of voting for parties other than the big two, including patriotic parties on the right. The problem is not a lack of alternatives but a lack of brains and guts from the voters who always vote the same way, or are put off these smaller parties by idiotic accusations that they are extreme, or far-right, or fascist or racist or whatever. There is now the option of voting Reform UK, but how many will do so? Most will probably not want to ‘waste their vote’ (as if there was any bigger waste than voting for a party you don’t fully support) or will vote for one party to keep the other one out (as if there was any real difference between the two main ones). Don’t blame the system – look in the mirror.

  10. middle of the road
    March 25, 2022

    Each individual welcomes a tax cut for themselves but public services must be paid for. Look at the Scandinavian countries that are successful but with relatively high tax rates.

    1. glen cullen
      March 25, 2022

      Correctā€¦.we the taxpayer must fund the public services including billions on HS2, billions on the rebuilding of parliament, billion in subsidy for EVs, billions on the Green revolution, billions on illegal immigrants, billions on foreign aid and billions on government quangos

  11. Michelle
    March 25, 2022

    Sir John mentioned the popular bands and singers of the 1970’s who took flight due to the high taxes, many being staunch Labour supporters no doubt.
    It seems to me the majority of the so called principled socialist I’ve ever met are wealthy or very comfortable by comparison to those they claim to champion.
    They always seem to have ways and means of protecting and growing what’s theirs and do so very fiercely.
    I’ve worked for them, worked with them, lived in (and do so now) areas where they congregate, and married into a family with many of the type, so feel well qualified to flag up their hypocrisy.

    I’ve no doubt this 1% tax cut of the future will receive a fanfare throughout the land as a gift from on high and we should be grateful. It will of course hide the reality, a nice piece of window dressing for an otherwise dire establishment.
    Rather like the Online Harm Bill. How can anyone not want to protect the little children!
    Yet this is all opaque for something potentially more sinister going on behind that window dressing.

    1. Mickey Taking
      March 25, 2022

      A 1% cut in basic income tax rate, 20 to 19% Is hardly reason to shout ‘praise be to Rishi’.
      Taking millions paying basic rate on earnings (or added pension income) of Ā£20k to Ā£30k (less allowance) – they would see tax reduced by Ā£75 to Ā£175.
      We just can’t wait 2 years for this generous assistance. I’m so excited. /sarc

    2. BOF
      March 25, 2022

      Yes Michelle.
      Online Harms bill to curtail freedom of speech.
      Police and Crime bill to clamp down on peaceful protest.
      It is all about control, and definitely sinister.

  12. Nigl
    March 25, 2022

    The Institute of Fiscal Studies brands Sunak, a fiscal illusionist.

    Just like his ridiculous photo op yesterday with a borrowed car and pretend card and then a round of the studios.

    A total charade. You were elected to reform the Civil Service. You have down nothing allowing waste and incompetency to feed through to my lower living standards.

    Oh and Rees Mogg thinks No 10 ā€˜partyingā€™ whilst others couldnā€™t visit ill/dying relatives is fluff. I think a slightly shorter word would cover the whole of this wretched administration.

  13. Brian Tomkinson
    March 25, 2022

    We live under an elective dictatorship (there is no meaningful opposition) with the worst Parliament in my lifetime. The calibre of MPs is an all time low and most seem to have forgotten, if they ever knew, that they are the servants of the people not their masters.

    1. glen cullen
      March 25, 2022

      Very true Brian…..bring on the Reform Party

  14. formula57
    March 25, 2022

    It is all very well referring to what the Thatcher Government did but it had a tax strategy, linked to an economic strategy and an industrial strategy. In short, it knew where it was and what it wanted to do, clearly, and, unusually based on what now passes for normal, achieved it. Great days, will they not come back again?

  15. Walt
    March 25, 2022

    Sir John, we are not fooled. Taxes are high and this government has further increased them. Lifelogic’s post above lists many of the imposts forced upon us. And our services deteriorate. Mr Sunak’s hypothecated tax (NIC) is risible: it will not solve a problem and probably will not be used for its stated purpose; and what small relief there is in his Spring Statement mini-budget is too little too late. This is not a recognisably conservative government.

  16. Glenn Vaughan
    March 25, 2022

    There’s a greater chance of Russia surrendering to Ukraine than there is of receiving genuine tax cuts from Sunak. UGH!

    1. glen cullen
      March 25, 2022

      But Sunak said we’d get a tax cut in 2 years…..but then again Boris said in the manifesto that there wouldn’t be any tax rise !

  17. Dave Andrews
    March 25, 2022

    The media continues to fuss about what P&O have done. Everyone insists they shouldn’t have made all those people redundant. Well if they hadn’t been allowed to do it, they would just have made themselves uneconomic against the competition and gone out of business. One way or another the British jobs would go.
    The problem isn’t with P&O, it’s the practice of excessive UK taxes and housing costs that make employing British people too expensive.

  18. Bryan Harris
    March 25, 2022

    After the outright success of the Thatcher years and her economic policies, it was concluded that every one had learned the lesson that high taxation is always counter productive.

    So why do we now have a Tory Chancellor doing far more damage to the economy than is warranted and doing far better than labour in the volume and extent of taxation imposed?

    Here we have a government that is not only ignoring it’s own history as a party, we have a government that has badly lost it’s way. (Polite version)

    1. glen cullen
      March 25, 2022

      Wise words Bryan

  19. Ex-Tory
    March 25, 2022

    Even if the Chancellor can’t or won’t cut taxes at the moment, he could simplify them. Instead he continually makes them more complicated.

  20. agricola
    March 25, 2022

    I too have pleasant memories from my youth and early career. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing, so sad we are denying it to the young of today. The Brexit opportunity is ebbing on a spring tide, very disappointing.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 26, 2022

      Opportunity for what, exactly?

  21. Denis Cooper
    March 25, 2022

    Off topic, here’s a minor but nonetheless interesting item:

    https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tobacco-products-and-e-cigarette-cross-border-sales-registration/guide-to-making-registrations

    “Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, the EUā€™s Tobacco Products Directive will continue to apply in Northern Ireland. This means retailers making cross-border distance sales into or out of Northern Ireland are required to register to supply tobacco products and e-cigarettes (including e-liquids, refill containers, devices, and components).

    This includes retailers in Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) selling to customers in Northern Ireland and retailers in Northern Ireland selling to customers in EU member states.

    Retailers located outside of Northern Ireland (including those based in Great Britain) who want to sell to customers in Northern Ireland must also register with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). Retailers located in Great Britain who want to sell to customers in other EU member states must register with that member stateā€™s relevant competent authority.”

    And so forth, there’s a lot more, all helping to give people in Northern Ireland that “best of both worlds”:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/11/10/the-eu-has-clearly-broken-its-uk-agreement-and-northern-ireland-protocol/#comment-1275202

    “It may be recalled that both Michael Gove and Brandon Lewis celebrated the fact that Northern Ireland would still be effectively in the EU Single Market and would therefore get ā€œthe best of both worldsā€.”

    Yesterday I wrote to the Prime Minister asking him to sack Brandon Lewis and appoint somebody who will be unequivocally on our side and who will not say stupid things like this:

    https://www.rte.ie/news/brexit/2022/0323/1288005-border-controls/

    “”We don’t have borders on the island of Ireland,” he said at a joint press conference with Simon Coveney.”

  22. John Miller
    March 25, 2022

    You appear to have lit the blue touchpaper today, Sir John…

  23. ukretired123
    March 25, 2022

    Disappointing Sunak is a lightweight boxing shadows. All smoke and mirrors, razzle dazzle, here’s good looking. Nothing much here (in his “budget”) let’s move on – so he thinks……

  24. JoolsB
    March 25, 2022

    I see Sunak is raiding a further 10 billion from graduates by reducing the payback level to Ā£25,000 and extending the write off period from thirty to forty years. So in other words our hard working Junior Doctors and Nurses working for the NHS will now be required to pay back 42.5p of their incomes in taxes and can expect to spend their whole working lives with this debt hanging over them. When is this odious little man and his boss going to reduce the tax burden instead of thinking of ever more ways to increase it?

    1. Sea_Warrior
      March 25, 2022

      May I suggest that nurse-training is reduced to two years, dragged away from the dead-hand of universities, and that the training should be free, provided the nurse then works a certain number of years in the NHS. Student nurses shouldn’t be wasting time writing dissertations, which some of them have to do.
      Next week’s rant: why turning policing into a graduate-profession is barking-mad.

      1. JoolsB
        March 25, 2022

        Totally agree sea warrior – nursing should never have required a degree. Doctors however have no choice however and Junior Doctors just graduated are having rich boys Sunak and Johnson putting them in a position where they will spend all their careers paying back almost half their salaries when they should be paying nothing as long as they work for the NHS. No wonder morale is low and many are leaving the profession. STEMM subjects should be free and this pathetic Government should put an end to worthless degrees and concentrate the money on STEMM subjects instead.

      2. glen cullen
        March 25, 2022

        Gets my vote

      3. alan jutson
        March 25, 2022

        Sea-Warrior

        Said exactly the same many times, for many many years, Our armed services train people in many professions and pay them, providing they serve their time.
        Likewise completing an apprenticeship, training and earning, without debt.

    2. Lifelogic
      March 25, 2022

      Indeed. They start on less than Ā£30K with perhaps six years of student debt say Ā£120,000. So salary, less tax & NI, council tax, less commuting costs & just interest only on the debt might leave them with just Ā£1000 PM (about the rent on fairly dire studio flat in London). Nothing to heat or eat though!

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      March 25, 2022

      Jools. Meanwhile it’s all free in Scotland.

  25. Original Richard
    March 25, 2022

    We have a socialist Government who are too weak to curb spending, even totally unnecessary spending like HS2, and thus must keep increasing taxation. The inevitable result will be, as we experienced under a Labour Government in 1976, a stepping in of the IMF to sort out our finances.

    But worse still for the country are the policies of the fifth column communists in the Civil Service and elsewhere.

    They are driving the country to economic ruin through unilateral Net Zero where we will be suffering expensive and intermittent power.

    [Wind this morning as I write is providing 0.69GW of power out of an installed capacity of 24.6GW and just 2% of demand]

    And driving the country towards social instability through continued mass immigration.

    By the end of this year our ā€œborders are a painā€ Civil Service will have invited into the country with 4 star hotel accommodation, Ā£40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets, more unidentifiable young men of fighting age than the number of Russian soldiers who have invaded Ukraine.

    1. glen cullen
      March 25, 2022

      I understand that we the taxpayer are going to fund 30,000 EV charging stations…..I don’t recall the government nor the taxpayer being asked to pay for ‘petrol stations’

      1. glen cullen
        March 25, 2022

        It was something old fashioned called ‘market-forces’ and ‘competition’ under a conservative policy of government….one for the history books

      2. alan jutson
        March 25, 2022

        +1

  26. BOF
    March 25, 2022

    You say, Sir John, that the Chancellor praises past glories and expresses enthusiasm for tax cutting agendas. But where, I ask, does he back this up with appropriate action? Instead, we have the highest rate of taxation since WW2 for goodness sake!

    The Chancellor speaks with forked tongue, all mouth and no trousers.

  27. oldwulf
    March 25, 2022

    “It is true we took over from an extreme socialist position under the previous Labour government. Charging 98% tax on the richest people with investment income was a good way to send them offshore. 1970s UK was characterised by the so called brain drain, where everyone from successful entrepreneurs to popular bands and singers based themselves abroad to escape the tax net.”

    This was the time that the UK went cap in hand, to the IMF, for a loan. Wikipedia may be correct when it says: “Only half of the loan was actually drawn by the UK government and it was repaid by 4 May 1979. Denis Healey, the Chancellor of the Exchequer at the time, went on to state that the main reason the loan had to be requested was that public sector borrowing requirement figures provided by the treasury were grossly overstated.”

    These days, we presumably don’t need a loan as we can print more money instead.

    1. forthurst
      March 25, 2022

      What, you mean like Zimbabwe? We had a floating exchange rate at the time the we ran out of money to pay for the stuff not produced here. Nowadays, the Tories balance the books by selling off our businesses and the properties the English can’t afford because of demand from foreigners.

      I see the jackals are still squabbling over the entrails of Arm Holdings whose sale to the Japs was with the blessing of the Tories (Inward investment, you understand).

  28. agricola
    March 25, 2022

    Essentially government is on commission. They are very limited in what they can do to earn that commission. Their best effort would be to incentivise those who are going to pay that commission to go out and gross as much as they possibly can. They would then benefit from their percentage on a much larger pot.

    One of the worst aspects of the government percentage is that much of it comes in an up front franchise type payment before any commercial activity takes place. For a fee, business rate, we will allow you to go out and work for us. I cannot attempt to simplify all forms of taxation, but at the end of the day it will cost you 36 to 42% of everything you earn. Effectively everyone works for government January through May. That is one hell of a percentage for the abysmal services government provide. One could tolerate it were those services efficient and value for money. Without being unkind they are crap.

    To rectify matters government need to facilitate a rapid increase in productive turnover, reduce their percentage take and rapidly increase the quality of the services they do provide. If they gef it right they would have a bigger tax pot to play with.

  29. BJH
    March 25, 2022

    After the outright success of the Thatcher years and her economic policies, it was concluded that every one had learned the lesson that high taxation is always counter productive.

    So why do we now have a Tory Chancellor doing far more damage to the economy than is warranted and Ā doing far better than labour in the volume and extent of taxation imposed?

    Here we have a government that is not only ignoring it’s own history as a party, we have a government that has badly lost it’s way. (Polite version)

    1. Your comment is awaiting moderation
      March 25, 2022

      “high taxation is always counter productive”
      If the aim of the government were to maximise revenue which could be used to reduce the debt burden and provide better public services then the government would be optimising tax rates to levels that generate the best returns. It appears however that tax is being used as a virtue signal to show how the government dislikes success and loves the financially feckless and inactive. This is self evident.

  30. Andy
    March 25, 2022

    Well done to the US and EU for signing a deal on energy security. President Biden and President Von Der Leyen really leading the way on taking on Putin. And where is Bunter in all this? Sent packing. Little Brexit Britain all alone.

    Most impressive of all is Europeā€™s response to the refugee crisis. They have opened their doors to fleeing Ukrainians whilst the Brexitists have shamed our country – shamed it – with their mass of pointles bureaucracy, which is all they are good at, in their desperate attempt to keep all foreigners out.

    1. agricola
      March 25, 2022

      Paragraph one being the Lord Haw Haw version of events. One can even sense the sneer in delivery.

    2. Original Richard
      March 25, 2022

      Andy : ā€œWell done to the US and EU for signing a deal on energy security. President Biden and President Von Der Leyen really leading the way on taking on Putin. And where is Bunter in all this? Sent packing. Little Brexit Britain all alone.ā€

      The US has promised an additional 15bcm this year which is tiny compared to the 150bcm that the EU buys from Russia each year.

      During a speech to the United Nations in 2018, President Donald Trump warned Germany against becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas. The German delegation was caught on camera laughing at him for saying it.

      Germanyā€™s vulnerability to Russian hydrocarbons is unsurprising given their leader, Mrs. Merkel, a Russiaphile, was a senior member of the Russian propaganda organisation known as Agitprop, built the Nordstream pipelines but no LNG terminals to take gas from the US and the ME, and began closing down Germanyā€™s nuclear power stations.

      I understand that the German economy minister Robert Habeck went this week to the ME to look for gas supplies even though they do not yet have any LNG terminals.

      Boris was out there last week.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      March 25, 2022

      Andy. Get in tge real world. Ukraine is always praising the UK actions and thanking us for our help. Boris might be bumbling over many things but he has led well over Ukraine and they are extremely grateful. Why haven’t you left this country you hate so much yet? Get on with it.

  31. Iago
    March 25, 2022

    A country without borders is no longer a country.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 25, 2022

      I think that the Scots and Welsh might have something to say about that.

  32. Bob Dixon
    March 25, 2022

    Modern comedians fail me.
    However yesterday I was tickeled by Parliaments enquiry into P &O.
    What else could the directors of P&O do to save their company from the receivers?
    Fuel costs have rocketed so where can they save costs other than to use their flag of convenience and employment status than to replace their crews with cheaper labour.
    Questions rained down on P&Oā€™s director except what other action could have been taken.
    And then this morning our brave Transport Minister took to the airways threatening hell fire and damnation.
    We are poorly led by this government who have no concept of severe inflation.

    1. Lifelogic
      March 25, 2022

      +1

      1. dixie
        March 26, 2022

        I am not surprised you support an act of “easy hire and fire” but do you seriously applaud premeditated law breaking! That is hardly the Conservative way.

    2. dixie
      March 26, 2022

      Are you honestly suggesting they had zero time planning or recognising they needed to cut costs?
      If I were a shore-side employee of that company I would be looking for another job immediately and transfer my pension double quick as there is no guarantee they won’t break any more laws.

      They had a choice over how and when to go about things and they chose the most damaging to their employees and chose to break the law.

  33. Bob Dixon
    March 25, 2022

    Further to my earlier reply.
    How useless is the Maritime Union?

    Do they advise new employers about flags of convenience and that they would not benefit from U.K. employments laws?

  34. The Prangwizard
    March 25, 2022

    Traitor Boris was on Wednesday up to his determination to remain a pimp, prostituting this time our sovereignty and business relating to Freeports. Sir John has been pushing for these so I assume he is happy they will be foreign owned, and of course free of many controls, these things don’t matter to Tories.

    Boris is desperate for foreign money and meeting big people around the world, so everything we have is for sale and this time Freeports to the parent company of P&O Ferries the behaviour of which he claims he will do something about. Don’t believe him. After all he is going to let them have free reign on our land now so he’s not much bothered about foreign shipping operating here.

    He won’t mind if they own all of our ports, control all the trade in and out of them, the workers and the profits.

    He thinks owning no shipping and no ports is a great idea for the UK as an island. He thinks pocketing foreign money is the best thing ever.

  35. Rhoddas
    March 25, 2022

    Quite Sir J…. our current socialist-leaning government…. “wrong way, go back” (as in the Aussie road sign).
    Why do we have to keep on banging the drum, we know low taxation levels work, you & Mrs T proved that!
    What’s needed from this point on is less sophistry from Rishi and some real action on policy and costs:

    * Energy & basic foodstuff independence, incl wheat/grains. Get the energy bills down. Basic foods too.
    (Nb. If energy bills double, Rishi gets twice as much in 5% VAT receipts, really really unfair).
    * Forget HS2, no-one’s travelling anymore in great numbers. There are other white elephant projects too.
    * Cut all Govt departments, by process automation and rolling back legislation. Use less building space with more hot desking and retaining some Work from Home.
    * Cancel the Corporation Tax rise, we’d be much better to be nearer to Ireland/Luxembourg’s CT rates.
    * Reinstate CPI uplift for frozen personal tax allowances and benefits to protect everyone from estimated 10% inflation shock.
    * Stop sending billions to the EU, for goodness sake, they’re still malign over NI and border processes, time to hit them in the pocket.

    We could all go on, there is so so much wrong which needs either fixing asap or a new team and leader.

  36. X-Tory
    March 25, 2022

    You say: “I am pleased to hear the current Chancellor praising past glories and expressing enthusiasm for tax cutting agendas.” You may react positively when you hear him say these things, but I just think: ‘what a filthy f*****g liar’. I don’t like being taken for a fool. He is deceitful, stupid, cowardly and incompetent. His stewardship of the economy has been a disaster. As for his ambition to become party leader and then prime minister – God help us if that ever happened!

    1. Mickey Taking
      March 25, 2022

      He thinks highly of you too !

  37. X-Tory
    March 25, 2022

    Sir John, if you are in touch with the big supermarkets (as indicated in your Tweet) then please tell them to highlight on their labels those products made in the UK – both their own-brand products and those of the big brands which they stock. They will find that sales will increase!

  38. anon
    March 25, 2022

    Tax is a distraction we have 70 style inflation now!

    Democracy requires good faith by our state actors. This is clearly not the case.

    Seriously why cant we have referenda. It would be so much easier and we generally be heading in the right direction or be directly to blame.

  39. Geoffrey Berg
    March 25, 2022

    There are psychological and political dimensions to taxes as well as financial dimensions and most politicians, including the Chancellor, Mr. Sunak, overlook this. The psychological element is that most people want to get , and most cerainly keep, what money they can for their work. If people can’t get and keep (after taxes) a substantial amount of money for their work why bother or bother much with work? People are motivated by personal income, not by equality in the real world. This even applies to Labour M.P.s who claim their very unequal (to others) salary for preaching equality! Though they won’t admit it, they are living a lie, saying one thing in public about equality but in their own personal lives acting contrary to what they are saying.
    The political element to tax primarily concerns credibility. There may be a financial case for minimising debt (I do so being cautious, arguably too cautious, in my own business) but there is no political case for not so far as possible -and it is possible now-keeping one’s core financial promises. So if need be instead of cutting fuel duty or raising the NI threshhold, the Chancellor should have prioritised keeping the specific election promise not to raise the rate of National Insurance. The political point Sunak fails to grasp is that if one breaks a core promise made at the last election, how is that political Party going to get people to believe the key promises it makes at the next general election, promises that are so vital to its winning at the next election? As Sunak doesn’t comprehend that, Sunak doesn’t have sufficient political ability to ever become Prime Minister as he seems to wish. In fact he shouldn’t even be Chancellor of the Exchequer as that is a political as well as an economic job.

  40. Mike Wilson
    March 25, 2022

    I saw a clip of (Sunak) on LBC being challenged by a woman with two young children telling him that, despite working in a reasaonabky well paid job, she has to use food banks and cannot afford to have the heating on. The eegit said ā€˜yes, I have two children tooā€™ – as though he is in the same boat! Youā€™re married to a billionaireā€™s daughter mate! Donā€™t pretend you have a clue how badly your uselessness is screwing up peopleā€™s lives.

  41. Paul Cuthbertson
    March 26, 2022

    Just ask yourself why you pay tax, then do some research. Wake up people you have been misled for centuries. Nothing can stop what is coming, Nothing.

    1. hefner
      March 26, 2022

      ā€˜Arise, wretched of the Earth
      Arise, convicts of hunger
      Reason thunders in its volcano
      This is the eruption of the end
      Of the past letā€™s swipe the slate clean
      Masses, slaves, arise, arise
      The world is about to change
      We are nothing, letā€™s be allā€™.

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