The January trade figures were disappointing, showing a marked fall in exports to the EU which has caused some concerns by those who did not study the figures. The ONS has decided to change the basis for compiling the import and export figures, and by its own admission there was a one off hit to reported exports to the EU by delaying the dates of record.
During the first year after leaving the EU customs union both exports and imports were higher for non EU than EU. In the first half of 2021 we had a welcome balance in total trade, with a strong services surplus offsetting the usual large goods and food deficit. EU trade continued to be in deficit and the rest of the world in surplus. In the second half the trade deficit we were used to in the EU returned, with a total deficit of Ā£24 bn for the six months. The top five imports are vehicles, medicines, gas, non ferrous metals and oil.
The strains on the balance of payments will increase this year given the high oil and gas prices. ItĀ underwrites the need to extract more of our own oilĀ and gas. The government has said it has now shifted policy on this and IĀ look forward to the executive decisions being taken to make this a reality. The UK offsets a substantial part of the vehicles deficit by strong exports of UK made vehicles mainly to non EU markets. It will be important to invest in and retain a strong car industry as EVs become more common. It should be a welcome challenge to the UK motorĀ sector to seek to make and sell attractive products to home consumersĀ that can substitute for the high volumes of EUĀ vehicles still coming in.
The balance of payments was still sandbagged in the last quarter of 2021 by a large Ā£5.8bn payment to the EU. One of the big balance of payments wins from Brexit will be the ending of these payments. It is a pity the UK offered such an attractive deal to the EU on payments after exit, as this has slowed down getting the benefits.
April 2, 2022
It’s good to see you focusing on the trade deficit. In order to finance it we must either borrow money from abroad or sell off assets. The malign consequences of the deficit thus include our practice of selling off all our promising young companies, such as ARM, before they get to be giants. We have also sold our ferries and ports, P&O, and parts of our utilities, National Grid. People complain about he consequences but there is little focus on the cause.
April 2, 2022
The uk did not offer, Johnson and your party gave away our taxes for nothing. UK has no mind or policy making ability, your party and govt reneged on Johnson saying go whistle for the money!
April 2, 2022
[…] Read more about Balance of trade affected by change of accounting […]
April 2, 2022
Good morning.
For what in return ?
I am prepared to ignore these figures as there is so much that has, and continues, to go on that makes things very unclear and uncertain. Certainly once things settle down we can get a better picture of things. We also have to take into account the so called, Rotterdam Effect where, UK exports going to places other than the EU, have to go through the port of Rotterdam. I am not sure how much if anything, but if correct then this can be said to distort figures.
One question I would like to ask is, does the import figures include that which Ulster has to import from the RoI / EU ? Because if it does, then it makes it even more imperative that we trigger Article 16 and relinquish their grip of the UK.
April 2, 2022
Ademdum
Today is the 40th anniversary of an event that changed the course of history and the fortunes of a beleaguered PM and government. It also changed the course of the two nations involved, both as it turned out, for the good.
To those on both sides of the Falklands war, we will remember them.
April 2, 2022
Amen to that Mark. I will remember my brother from 3 Para.
April 2, 2022
That payment was treaty obligation, but which the Tories claimed was a triumph, and had got brexit “done”.
There’s plenty more to come like this.
April 2, 2022
NLH
YEP, Sadly offered by a closet remainer PM who did not have a clue about what she was even trying to do, and who so far out of her depth, she thought giving was better than asking.
Thus the reason she never won an election with a majority.
April 2, 2022
I object to that comment Alan – May was never in the closet about being a remainer!!
April 2, 2022
Withdrawal Agreement payment schedule
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1632/idt2/idt2/f7edf4f8-18a3-43f1-a1b1-0195124faad2/image/816
BTW. Emma in France is today getting the equivalent of 15 pence off a litre of fuel and Alex in Spain is getting 17 pence. How come we only got 6 pence?
April 3, 2022
the unacceptable face of capitalism?
April 2, 2022
It seems the ONS is still in the pay of the EU, still doing their bidding and still acting in a manner that is contrary to its sole purpose, ie the collating and delivery of accurate numerical information. In effect, manipulating data, no doubt inaccurate data, to construct a false perception. That sounds about right for the fake world in which we live
I wonder if during the last industrial revolution the British government collated daily or weekly figures relating to output, exports and imports and if they did did it in anyway add to the greater stock of value for the nation? Do we really need the ONS?
April 2, 2022
In answer to your question, probably not. But they are a useful manipulator of statistics for the Pretendy-CONs so there is no chance they’ll dispense with them.
What we should do is change their title to Office of Statistical Manipulation or OSM for short.
April 2, 2022
Oh, “fake news” eh?
April 2, 2022
NLH
Like *the laptop* was Russian fiction. Women have willies, Biden is mentally fit, Smith is a hero fighting for women with alopecia, heat pumps work and Putin caused Brexit. I could go on and on.
The BBC makes up anything it wants.
April 2, 2022
Thanks NLA, my blood pressure is now off the scale! š
April 2, 2022
Look up what the OED definition of a woman is.
No one in any serious position is claiming anything else, and there is no law to say that they must.
The European Union’s accounts have been properly signed off to higher standards than the UK’s for many years.
Trump lost the last US election, comprehensively.
April 2, 2022
NLH
Trump lost the election comprehensively?
Thatās not how I understand it, youāre obviously not acquainted with the electoral fraud which took place?
April 2, 2022
No, because there was none of any significance.
That is, to the satisfaction of literally scores of US courts.
April 2, 2022
For most countries no GNP data had been collected before the 1910s. The UK only started to be interested in such national income-related country-wide data due to its debt to the USA after WW1. And Kuznets only started to collect such āGDP-relatedā data for the USA in the 1930s.
April 2, 2022
Well DOM, at least we know from the ONS that the number of people that died OF Covid was less than 17,500. A far more credible figure than the 165,000 plus the government keeps pushing that died WITH Covid!
April 2, 2022
I am pretty sure that the families of the 147,500+ who died WITH instead of OF Covid feel so much better.
April 2, 2022
They need to know their government lied to them, Hefner. How they feel about *that* is the real question. For people to understand how the statistics were cynically misused will help to prevent the country from being duped again.
April 11, 2022
Yes indeed Hm. The families that have lost any member will certainly feel about *that*, the āreal questionā.
Fortunately ridicule does not kill as much as Covid as some here might already have met their Maker.
Such an interesting point of view.
April 2, 2022
Indeed but the government are still pushing for ever more wind turbines. This does nothing when the wind does not blow and does nothing for CO2 (certainly in the short term) as these monsters have to be built, imported generally, connected to the grid and backed up so perhaps 10 years at least before any CO2 can be saved. Little sign Kwasi is actually moving to a sensible energy policy. It is not just electricity but the other 80% of human used energy needed for heating, transport etc. Get fracking, mining, drilling, nuclearā¦
Kwasi says fracking in the UK will not reduce the gas prices – so is he a damn fool or a liar? Of course it will Kwasi if only by transport costs plus the profit, tax and jobs are then in the UK.
April 2, 2022
Agree re Karteng and both. All he has to do is agree a cost plus rate for gas extracted.Part of our nuclear power station deal included an agreed price for the electricity generated.
April 2, 2022
Would that not be government intervention?
April 2, 2022
This government is now explicitly intent on destroying our British way of life. More and more wind turbines mean continued expensive energy and further despoiling of the English landscape. Mr Redwood calls for the car industry to make attractive products for home consumers but the 2030 new ICE car purchase ban prevents investment in the manufacture of cars people actually want. It will bring a continuing overall reduction in car sales to the detriment of those manufacturers, their employees and investors, as the government well knows.
April 2, 2022
One thing for sure is that electric cars costing Ā£30k lasting perhaps 8 years and costing over Ā£1 a mile all in to run are not very attractive to someone running an old car costing perhaps 20p a mile all in. They create loads more CO2 too when the materials for build or car and battery and recycling is accounted for.
April 2, 2022
Perhaps like the ultra-zealous Holy Roman Emperor,Ferdinand II of Habsburg,they would “rather rule over a desert than a land full of heretics”.
April 2, 2022
Patriarch Kirill seems of a similar bent, Mitchel.
April 2, 2022
So the government are now encouraging the vaccination of children aged 5-11. Surely given the known and documented side effects and very tiny risk to children from Covid this is surely very foolish. It surely does serious net harm and wastes money too (outside some special very special situations perhaps).
Perhaps even criminal in my judgement looking at the statistics. What is driving this insanity? Money, corruption, stupidity, vested interest or just group think inertia?
April 2, 2022
+1
All of the above I would imagine.
Is debt at the bottom of it ?
April 2, 2022
I agree LL
I also find it extraordinary that health professionals and doctors actually go along with this madness. They could not even have taken the trouble to look at the yellow card reports which are also a gross under estimate.
April 2, 2022
+1
April 2, 2022
What proof do you have the āyellow card reportsā are grossly underestimated?
As of 23/03/2022, about 140 m Covid vaccines have been injected in the UK.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk āSummary of Yellow Card Reportingā quotes about 410,000 reports of negative reactions to the vaccine, with details of the various symptoms.
Overall a 410,000 / 140,000,000 = 0.0029 i.e., a 0.3% incidence of negative reactions (NB, not death).
Only a statistically-ignorant person could claim āmadnessā from health professionals and doctors, when about 30,000 people die of flu every year in the UK.
Anyway I do not expect to convince you BOF, you (and a couple of others on this blog) are too far gone.
April 2, 2022
Hefner, the MHRA acknowledges that adverse effects from all sorts of medicines and vaccines are under-reported, not just from Covid vaccines. The same with VAERS in the US.
Also, you are evidently wrong to claim 30,000 die in the UK every year ‘of flu’. Check out government figures and you will see it’s 1,200- 1,500 in England and Wales.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/influenzadeathsin20182019and2020
You may have meant ‘died of influenza and pneumonia’, but that is a different matter.
April 2, 2022
Philip P, youāre right, from influenza and pneumonia. Thanks.
April 2, 2022
I do not think many doctors bother to look at the figures they just follow top down advice from people like Nice, Whitty and Ferguson. JCVI did not even vaccinate men a bit younger than women as would (very obviously) have saved a lot of lives as was pointed out to them. The figures to me suggest vaccination children is a big mistake just on the known vaccine risks and the very low Covid risks.
Government even had an advert and Gove saying “the virus does not discrimination” when it clearly did hugely and this was well known.
April 2, 2022
Lifelogic : āLittle sign Kwasi is actually moving to a sensible energy policy. It is not just electricity but the other 80% of human used energy needed for heating, transport etc. Get fracking, mining, drilling, nuclearā¦ā
I donāt think it is yet understood by the population at large just what BEIS/the Government have planned with their Net Zero Strategy.
The Strategy acknowledges that windmills cannot provide on-demand electricity so it plans for the consumer to accept that demand must follow supply instead and electricity will become intermittent with āvolatile pricingā (National Gridās description).
The Strategy also recognises that windmills have a low energy density and hence is looking to halve our total energy use through forcing the introduction of expensive and sub-optimal electrification such as heat pumps and restricting travel with evs.
The question is whether the population are prepared to accept these enormous lifestyle changes in order to save the planet from our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions.
April 2, 2022
+1
April 2, 2022
As long as they are kept from knowing the actual consequences, yes they will accept the changes, Original Richard. That is what the media, lobbyists and PR agencies are all about. The current strategy is to ensure that the energy deficits due to the Green agenda will be attributed to the Ukraine war, and thus on Putin. Deflecting criticism by setting up a hate figure to take the blame is a tried and tested strategy, so it’s likely to work this time, unless determined resistance is mounted. Reform UK candidates must spell out loud and clear in the local elections what the government’s craven surrender to Net Zero is going to do to our living standards.
April 2, 2022
Regarding that Ā£5.8 bn, May’s big mistake, when the EU quibbled over the size of her initial offer, was that she didn’t immediately reduce it. Trump, for all his failings, would have done exactly that.
April 2, 2022
But May wanted to stay in the EU.
It’s time we had a clear out of all these Brussels inspired civil Serpents.
Stop paying the EU immediately until Northern Ireland is sorted, that will concentrate their minds.
April 2, 2022
You say that it is outrageous that anyone should lose their job because of their views on, say, race, but want anyone with a pro-European outlook to lose theirs..
Ever heard of double standards?
April 3, 2022
Bit of a difference between pro-European outlook, and EU controlling protectionism I’d say!
April 2, 2022
So Bozo wants to carpet the country in windmills when again today they are producing 1.6gw or 4,% of demand on a quiet Saturday afternoon.
Who will rid us of these fools.
April 2, 2022
“Trump for all his failings”. BBC speak.
April 2, 2022
So a new battery for my wifeās ~ five year old car today. But as it has auto start-stop system so the battery is absurdly expensive @ Ā£250. It even has two batteries & this is just for one. So Ā£1 a week in depreciation for five years just for that one battery (which only holds just under 10p worth of electricity). In the driving she does I doubt if it has saves as much as 10p per week of fuel using the start stop system. It could even make it worse as the battery after a start needs to be charged a little more. Let alone save enough to manufacture and fit the new battery. Some misguided EU emissions regulations or green crap doubless driving this expensive and CO2 increasing lunacy I assume.
Even if you live in London where all the roads get traffic jams & blocked by Khan (and other fools trying to increase pollution and decrease productivity) I doubt it makes any sense. I switched off the engine anyway in a long traffic jams.
Also the start stop makes it stall if you set off to quickly and far more to expensively go wrong too.
April 2, 2022
Lifelogic
You need a special battery charger as well for start stop batteries, the normal old fashioned trickle charge ones should not be used.
Only knew that when I went to purchase a new battery charger to replace the 30 year old one that had failed, thus got one that did both (just in case) as I was purchasing probably the last one I will ever need, they are more expensive as well !!
April 2, 2022
And this is only the start. My Audi A7 is what is known as a “mild hybrid” It has 48v electrics provided by a 4.5kW Lithium Iron battery in the boot as well as the standard 12v battery for starting. The purpose of the 48v system is not to provide a small amount of propulsion but to power the electric power steering and other systems when the car is coasting on motorways, something it does very rarely, if ever !
Heaven knows how much the Lithium Iron pack will cost to replace when it inevitably fails.
All these extra systems have been added at great expense to enable the manufacturers to record a decrease in emissions and improve by a tiny margin the daft EU fuel consumption figures which bear little resemblance to the real world anyway. Ludicrous.
As for stop start batteries, I suspect that fitting a standard battery at a third of the cost would probably last not much less than the expensive one, especially if you extend its life by turning off the start stop system, which you can on all of these cars.
April 2, 2022
Indeed not sure you can fit a standard ~ Ā£60 battery as it seems the right ones have some chip in to stop this – rather like those rip off ink jet cartridges do.
April 2, 2022
It’s progress, don’t knock it.
I was told by the dealership six years ago that my stop-start diesel needed a new battery.
I’d had no problem so ignored it.
Still seems OK.
That makes ten years total.
April 2, 2022
Well this one kept not starting on colder days a d even after a recharge & after only 5 years.
April 3, 2022
garaged or parked facing the elements.? I remember being surprised when I had a BMW735 years ago. The battery was housed in the boot next to a wing. Theory was – not exposed to heat of engine compartment, nor possible very cold open ground area in winter.
April 2, 2022
Chris
I understand that some EV cars also have a separate battery to power many ancillaries as well, to help protect Mileage range.
Good point about the power steering, I guess possibly the same thing with power assisted brakes ?.
All this extra weight gradually builds up to make the car less efficient with normal running.
April 3, 2022
We have a Yaris hybrid. Iām fairly sure I read somewhere the battery (which does provide some propulsion) is guaranteed for 15 years.
April 2, 2022
Switching off the engine in traffic jams then allows the catalytic converter to cool, so when you re-start the emissions are increased until the CAT gets back to operating temperature, so I am informed.
I have no incentive to replace my old ICE vehicles and can’t understand why anyone could actually desire what passes for modern cars.
April 2, 2022
Meanwhile out in the real world the cost of living crisis takes a huge jump thanks to the disaster that is the (dis)UK energy policy.
However, it’s good to see you and your fellow MP’s won’t be troubled by it. Having just been given a pay rise of over Ā£2000/annum. Nice work if you can get it …………….
April 2, 2022
As Private Eye suggested recently – instead of a pay rise, let us clap them instead.
April 2, 2022
BeeCee. Better still just boot them out of office.
April 2, 2022
Cant wait for this pathetic fake Conservative Government to get booted out of office FUS. Just hope enough people have the guts to vote Reform.
April 2, 2022
I’m with you there Jools.
April 3, 2022
Not sure that will work.
April 3, 2022
The difference is that we could clap them to shame every week but can only boot them out of office every five years.
O/T: Have you ever considered the quality of the UKIP-TBP-Reform candidates? Ever read the Reform program? Ever read the āLeaderās viewsā on the energy price cap rise or cost of living crisis or resignation of Cressida Dick? Ever read the CompaniesHouse page of Walbrook Economics Ltd (their economic partner)? Ever read their 16 page āeconomic planā?
Well good luck to you if you consider that is a Party with a future.
April 3, 2022
‘clap them to shame every week but can only boot them out of office every five years. ‘
YES it really is about time 5 years was reduced to say 3. We are getting shafted by lying incompetent Governments for too long a term.
April 2, 2022
Also in the real world, OA, we now learn that blockades by Just Stop Oil fanatics have forced ExxonMobil UK to suspend oil tanker operations at four terminals in England. This blockade lunacy is obviously designed to make fuel costs even more painful for the public to bear. Does the government have a policy to counter this threat effectively, I wonder? Or are the police supposed to go on forever spending their resources on laboriously containing, arresting, charging and finally releasing the perpetrators, who will then go and repeat their blockade somewhere else?
The Reclaim Party have denounced the antics of these eco-fascists, and a good thing too. But so far no clear signal from HMG that these acts of economic sabotage won’t be tolerated any further. This is no time to be increasing pressure on fuel prices, after all. But perhaps HMG doesn’t mind that (hint: tax revenue)? Or perhaps She who Must be Obeyed won’t let Boris come out and say what he should be saying.
April 2, 2022
Ā£2,000 a year on top of their Ā£82,000 plus Ā£16.000 for joint committee work plus their lavish London apartments with their council tax and no limit heating bills (probably keep the heating on.24 hours a day) paid for by the taxpayer. Oh and lets not forget travel to work and parking all free as well. This when this nasty Government have started charging NHS staff again (England only of course) for parking to do their work. Oh how the other half live. No wonder they havenāt got a clue or any desire to do anything about the worries of these costs for us mugs who donāt have such luxuries.
April 2, 2022
Jools. Never a truer word spoken. It’s sickening.
April 2, 2022
How can businesses based in Great Britain have sold anything at all to the EU in January, when Northern Ireland is now the only part of the UK with access to that market – according to SDLP MP Claire Hanna:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/northern-ireland-assembly-election-2022/businesses-need-to-make-their-voices-heard-on-protocol-benefits-sdlp-mp-says-41507819.html
āThe fact is that the protocol offers us an unrivalled opportunity to export into both the UK market and the EU market, something that businesses on the rest of this island, or in Britain, will not be able to do.”
If it was a fact 12% of our economy would have been wiped out through the cessation of exports to the EU.
April 2, 2022
Think about it Denis. To the Republic, GB is now a “EU third country” so export to GB via Northern Ireland, free and easy. GB exporting directly to the Republic, is the same as exporting to any other EU State; much expensive form filling. GB exporting via Northern Ireland to the Republic and on to the rest of the EU, easy peasy lemon squeezy. It would be a brave Customs Officer who would interfere in that supply chain. How long before some WTO members will be demanding a slice of that loop hole?
BTW. The UK is supposed to be fully implementing border import controls this July; don’t hold your breath.
April 3, 2022
I have thought about it, and apart from anything else what you are describing is clearly “diversion of trade”, one of the cited grounds for invoking Article 16 of the protocol.
https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/article-16-why-is-it-even-there/
“It has been pointed out before that the preconditions for the UK employing Article 16 are clearly in place. Trade has been diverted from GB-NI to EU-NI. The EU freely admit this. They are very pleased about it.”
Beyond that, I have also reported here:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/02/17/resolving-the-northern-ireland-trade-issues/#comment-1300384
“Only 3% of the trucks from GB are physically inspected at Dublin”
“But the same trucks from GB would be treated with much greater rigour if they were routed via Belfast, expect that at present only a small fraction of the EU mandated checks are being performed”.
As for some hypothetical other WTO member complaining about the trade arrangements on the island of Ireland, I think that any other WTO member who shared a land border with the UK could certainly have the standing to do that, but even such a fictitious WTO member would have to take account of Article 7.4.4 of the WTO Trade Facilitation Agreement mentioned here:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/04/01/cost-of-living/#comment-1309788
“4.4 Each Member shall base risk management on an assessment of risk through appropriate selectivity criteria. Such selectivity criteria may include, inter alia, the Harmonized System code, nature and description of the goods, country of origin, country from which the goods were shipped, value of the goods, compliance record of traders, and type of means of transport.ā
Plus the WTO has already explicitly stated that it is not their concern what level of checks and controls are applied to goods moving across the Irish land border:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/17/text-of-the-true-brexit-elf/#comment-1284732
I note there in that comment made last December:
“That is from two years ago, and the statement from the WTO official was a year before so that was three years ago, so isnāt it about time Remoaners caught up with that?”
Don’t you think that it’s time you caught up with it?
April 3, 2022
and what slice of EU export to UK is now wiped out?
April 2, 2022
Re the money sent to the EU. Where is Ollie Robbins? Even back in his student days (PPE) he was nicknamed Sir Humphrey and was president of the Liberal Reform Club whose policy was closer EU integration.
Theresa May would have known his views and deliberately chose a person who would negotiate against the country she represented. Eternally dammed as far as I am concerned.
Ollie Robbins swanning around with his K no doubt enjoying a bullet inflation proofed pension.
April 2, 2022
Nig1
Did he not go to live in Belgium ?
April 2, 2022
After the way data and statistics have been manipulated during the last 2 years how can any government, or their agencies, figures be given any credence?
April 3, 2022
+1
April 2, 2022
Our balance of payments monthly results used to be headline news back in the 1960’s and 1970’s
Can still remember some of the excuses today.
Also remember some of the restrictions on holiday abroad spending as well.
Those were the day’s !
Nothing much changed, just the figures are larger due to inflation.
April 2, 2022
Why was the Ā£5.8 billion gift to the Evil Empire not withheld pending resolution of the issues affecting Northern Ireland?
Another pusillanimous retreat from a government that is plainly not on our side perhaps?
April 2, 2022
In order to judge the real situation we need to know just how much the export figures were influenced by the change of reporting method. It’s unfortunate that the amount of this “one off hit” wasn’t stated in the piece.
April 2, 2022
Yes, not easy to discern from Sir John’s piece, is it?
April 2, 2022
So “The top five imports are vehicles,…” – that would be vehicles that the Evil Empire commission ruled could be priced higher than their left hand drive counterparts by the manufacturers because of the alleged extra costs of manufacture?
Why has the BEIS not long ago over-turned that ruling? Yet another pusillanimous retreat from a government that is plainly not on our side perhaps?
April 2, 2022
A quote from Norman Tebbitt a true giant in every sense. āOn the whole the people in the Cabinet are of questionable qualityā
Certainly gets my vote for understatement of the year.
April 2, 2022
Is it too late for a come back can we clone him perhaps. Ann Widecombe generally sound too, she even like JR and Peter Lilley and one or two others did not vote for the insanity that was Ed Milibandās climate change act.
April 2, 2022
Looks to me like it’s already been tried, and with varying degrees of success.
April 2, 2022
Hear, hear to that LL.
April 2, 2022
+1 Nigl
April 3, 2022
Thank you Norman – but most of us have already noticed.
April 2, 2022
“challenge to the UK motor sector to seek to make and sell attractive products to home consumers”
Challenge indeed with the high taxes levied by the government, and high housing costs generated by government policy. How could they possibly compete against imports that don’t face these obstacles?
April 2, 2022
Has our conservative government done anything today to mark the 40th year of the Falklands Warā¦.its not a statement Iād really like to know
April 2, 2022
Glen. I’ve not heard a thing on the news yet.
April 2, 2022
Beg your pardon. Just heard about the Falklands war at 15.05 on GB News.
April 3, 2022
Also discussion etc., on GB News 31 March – Mark Steyn’s 8pm evening show with commentary also by Lt Gen Jonathon Riley. Conservative Woman article 02 April refers to that programme too with YT video. FYI
April 2, 2022
Or as Hannah A. could have said āJohnsonism in power replaced all first-rate talents with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyaltyā.
April 2, 2022
Our balance of trade with the EU whilst members at Ā£100bn/YEAR was unaffordable. The Government should be concentrating on looking at ways to reduce our EU imports.
We also need to have a plan to reduce our dependency and imports from China. Firstly any items requiring technology for our security and secondly for general household goods with policies for home production, mend and repair and small scale/individual production with the development of 3D printing.
April 3, 2022
+10
April 2, 2022
This is essentially how you account, a game for government accountants to play. One hopes that it does not drift too far from reality just to tell a good story.
Of much greater importance is a new form of theft set up by the Chancellor and his Treasury. I emphasise the word THEFT. If you spend a working lifetime saving money in a pension and it proves successfull, anything in your pension pot over Ā£1,073,100 will be taxed to the tune of 55%.
I cannot think of anything less conservative than this Chancellor/Treasury theft scam. Pensions have been destroyed by miserly interest rates as it is. I think the pension parrot is now dead.
April 2, 2022
Agricola, so how does this work on the invisible public sector pension pots? If their nominal pot size calculated and taxed and their benefits reduced? It is a piss take.
April 2, 2022
Probably the change was deliberate if there was a change in narative with the government wanting to convey a different message! Surely not to help justify a change of position on oil and gas?
This morning the BBC had Brandon Lewis on about energy. He was holding forth on the large new arrays of off shore wind turbines. He seemingly believes that doubling up, or more, on abysmal failure will solve the problem. I despair.
There were also two worthies frightening us over the number of cases (yes still) of the Omicold. Also telling us that we should all be wearing masks! Yes, there is no evidence that they work but we should wear them. They have an adverse effect on the wearers health and are an environmental hazard when discarded, but we mist wear them for the good of ‘wider society’. The language of tyrants never changes.
April 2, 2022
BOF. Not only will doubling the amount of wind farms not work but it’s costing us billions for no result. I’m fed up with my money being spent on crap.
April 3, 2022
+1
April 2, 2022
Seen the news about China, Sir John? Some more difficult decisions about sanctions in the week ahead, methinks.
April 2, 2022
How will the government coerce the foreign owners of UK motor manufacturing to make more EV products here?
The furore over Newport Wafer Fab being Chinese owned when we all know, having been regularly informed, that the Chinese are bounders and not to be trusted, but as not as bad as those darned Ruskies, is symptomatic of the short-sightedness of British politicians and their fellow Arts graduates who decide what is important for the people to read about..
When will the government understand that our true national security is in having our industries home owned like JCB so that decisions about their futures can be made here and not in some foreign capital?
JR points out that we have a current account deficit in physical stuff but a surplus in immaterial stuff; however these later are very much in the sights of several EU states with varying degrees of plausibility.
The government needs to get a grip and put the need to promote the interests of home manufacturing front and centre of its policies and stop shrugging over foreign takeovers and imagining they can save the planet by inflicting expensive and unreliable energy on manufacturers (those that haven’t already been driven to the wall) and people, especially poor people who struggle to make ends meet.
April 3, 2022
+1
April 2, 2022
a small aside …but an enormous slap in the face like err ….
Plugged my smart meter remote control thingy in for the day yesterday.
OMG …..one day cost me Ā£15, combined gas and elect.
Used a dryer for a bit — but April would be Ā£450 at that rate.
Who said nobody would freeze to death? We might.
April 3, 2022
next day turned off bathroom underfloor heating, and no dryer use – cost Ā£12 for the day.
Next might be eating salad or heating soup – no cooker use?
What a brave new world we are facing.
April 2, 2022
Sir JR
As a nation we left the EU and stuck to our obligations according to the agreement.
On the deficit we will continue to have a deficit as long as we remain uncompetitive due to low productivity with or without the EU..
April 3, 2022
Oil and Gas:
“The government has said it has now shifted policy on this…” They can say this for evermore but, until we get some action, they are empty words.
April 3, 2022
exactly – Policy is NOT Action.
April 3, 2022
Meanwhile, the EU’s Green Deal is to rest for a while. EU proposing measures to help with EU food sovereignty, to allow countries to lift some environmental rules to free up land for food production, allow looser State Aid rules and EU cash help for farmers ( Politico 23/3) Good to see Lithuania has abandoned completely Russian gas ( reporting that having taken actions, made plans in previous years, they have been able to do that ) The first EU country to do so.