In this civil service led government the aims are to preserve the EU legal framework, promote net zero in all things, keep obedient and good relations with all international  bodies, allow quangos to take most of the decisions and bind U.K. defence, resilience and economic activity into the  European model.
Some Ministers welcome this. The Treasury runs on rephrased Maastricht rules and pays up for all the bills to the EU and foreign governments and bodies without ever pushing  back on them. The Business department until the recent Ministerial led change of energy policy got on with running down U.K. industry and energy to cut domestic CO 2 only to import more. The defence department joined many procurement and deployment systems with allies leaving the U.K. unable to arm herself easily in case of need.
We now need a reset for the new world we face. The USA, the EU, China and other important players are promoting more self sufficiency and less reliance on imports. The world is splitting into two large informal blocs, a democratic state one led by the USA and an autocratic one led by China. In this world the U.K. needs to follow policies which strengthen our national resilience and draws us closer to allies we can trust.The 5 Eyes grouping is central to our future, just as NATO is crucial to our defence.
The U.K. needs a strategy to ensure we have all the technologies and capabilities we need to feed ourselves, to defend ourselves and to keep the lights on. The policy of binding our energy system into  an EU one when the continent is chronically short of oil and gas was a bad idea.The growth of dependence on continental food was short sighted.The shedding of core industrial activities like steel making, ceramics and aluminium was unwise.
The new national security policy has to be based on the perception that we need to do more for ourselves. The Ukraine war should be a wake up call to how vulnerable the European  continent is if it loses access to Russian gas and Ukrainian food.
May 2, 2022
Very sound analysis as usual
May 2, 2022
Whose governments prided themselves over the growth of the service sector at the expense of manufacturing?
Who was their policy advisor, Sir John?
Reply Another lie. I was keen on industry and helped put in policies to attract industrial investment.
May 2, 2022
Reply to reply: Indeed, you were keen on attracting foreign investment, which after some years made a sizeable number of important UK industries be largely foreign owned and therefore easily transferable to other EU or non-EU countries when the new owners decided it would be beneficial to them to do so.
So, the question might be rephrased: were you at the origin of multiple cases of ill-thought consequences, and of deindustrialisation?
What about one of your daily comments on your role in this interesting topic?
Reply I worked for domestic investment as well as Japanese and US.
May 2, 2022
JR and Hef,
What about reverting crown servants to their original unique employment role when they were exempt from most employment legislation? Same for military and police. Their roles have been vastly diluted by making them included in recent employment and work legislation. I think the roles significantly changed after the Employment Consolidation Act making them similar to other employees.
Same for prison officers I suggest. There used to be genuine occupation qualification ie when people are in a state of undress: male for male and female for female. Perhaps we would not have so many cases where prison guards are being charged for shagging prisoners on duty!
But after 12 years to introduce change for the better of society through public service changes and get rid of left wing woke in the establishment thinking, JRâs party are further left and woke than Labour!
We are still waiting for that bonfire of left wing quangos, or at least appoint conservative heads to change society back to a sense of normal. However, no strategic direction, ideology or purpose other than to get in office. Unlike Thatcher and Blair.
May 2, 2022
H,
I would have to agree that the transfer of many long-established British manufacturers to foreign ownership was shameful. Other European countries would not countenance it.
Cadbury is but one example. Itâs similar to Macmillan’s âselling off the family silverâ theme.
A proud and well-governed nation state would not permit it.â
May 2, 2022
Reply to reply 2: When any company is bought by another one based abroad, even from the US or Japan, it is inevitable that control will pass to those whose focus is primarily based not on the UK but on their home market. This is where R&D will tend to be concentrated. This is where the loyalty of the top management will be. This is where taxes are more likely to be paid, if paid at all thanks to cleverly moving around the profits, and where the links between the businesses concerned and the government are likely to be strongest.
May 2, 2022
You forget the UK has huge investments in other countries.
Creating wealth for many investors and pension funds.
Would you restrict investments in the UK to only be allowed by UK people?
How do you think other countries in the world would view that attitude?
One minute you and NHL talk of the post brexit UK as being inward looking…little England etc.
Now you both demand that as a policy.
May 2, 2022
Agree ,when ‘selling out GB’ was happening in the late 80’s /90’s I wondered who hated us so much .The anti GB followers were diverse , but we all heard echoes of the hate towards GB and its occupants. The guise put forward was delusional .
May 3, 2022
Thank you, P2, I am well aware that there is UK investment abroad, by individual and corporate investors, and by insurance and pension funds.
Could you please give some examples of foreign companies that following some UK investment have subsequently settled in the UK, and if any (there are some as I am sure youâre going to tell me) could you provide the ratio of (UK companies with foreign investment that have moved abroad) over (foreign companies with UK investment that have moved to the UK).
Thank you in advance.
May 4, 2022
Yet another failure to respond to reasonable questions by posing red herring questions.
I realise the tactic hef.
Trying to desperately move onto fresh ground.
It’s so obvious.
May 2, 2022
I just asked a couple of questions.
I didn’t make any claim, Sir John, did I?
May 2, 2022
You are nasty.
May 3, 2022
No, I’m nice – I’m very very very nice.
May 2, 2022
Fully agree with Sir John’s comments
May 2, 2022
Agreed
May 2, 2022
Indeed it seems so. So was Boris a closet climate alarmist, tax to death, socialist remainer & supporter of the dire NHS (like these civil servants) all along?
You missed out manifesto ratting and increasing taxes and energy prices at every available opportunity.
As to the NHS see the Tim Knox report – UK’s healthcare is ranked as the second worst in a cohort of 19 similar countries.
I see that the sensible and delightful Katharine Birbalsingh is in trouble for telling the truth again. It is a very dangerous thing to do in politics as James Damore discovered when Google fired him over a leaked, polite and perfectly correct private memo.
So who is this female minister who reported the phone porn watcher. I assume she is very proud of herself – so why exactly is she hiding or is it now known?
May 2, 2022
It is a matter of duty for a person in public life to prevent their institutions from degenerating to a position unworthy of respect.
So it is not a matter for pride or for any other vice as you strangely – but revealingly I think – suggest.
May 2, 2022
Aw! Grow up NLH your acting like a total school boy. Teacher does not know all! The man committed no no offence in law and broke no rules. Only the woke ( iâm offended) morons pushed the rubbish.
He was at least and honest and hard working Member of Parliament unlike the unproductive whinging far left labour nurds.
Sir Johns words this morning are true , we must divest all connections with the eu as it wants to destroy Great Britain. Then again the left Labour are work shy and lazy, they dont understand that independance is the security.
Ps I see Macron is stirring the population with electronic ID just like the eu wanted,
He did not waste time before he kicked them. Electronic tagging comes next!!
Glad we ARE OUT of that , Brits must stay FREE!
May 2, 2022
Agreed, MFD. Interesting that in a tweet last Friday Neil Parish complained about government policy in much the same terms as our good host here: ‘The Government has again delayed starting import checks on EU food. As weâve noted, this puts our negotiating power, biosecurity, and competitiveness all at risk, which could mean more EU food imports while British jobs are in effect exported.’
Parish was chair of the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee. Now the EU-friendly green blob will be able to get on with its agenda with one less critical voice raised against it.
May 2, 2022
@Clough – Mr Parish has been pro-EU for over a decade, so there is actually an opportunity for a tough, pro-UK voice – as new MP, and in committees, including the PPA.
May 2, 2022
Thanks for the revealing post – you might have no problem with degenerates in government but many normal people do.
May 2, 2022
I certainly would not vote for the two unpleasant women (one a minister it seems) who shopped him in. If I knew who they were!
May 2, 2022
‘Degenerates’, Nottingham Lad? Strange to see you using 1930s National Socialist vocabulary against people you don’t like. I hope you don’t think they should be dealt with in concentration camps, as happened to ‘degenerates’ back then.
May 2, 2022
NLH,
The â Remainers trying to reverse Brexitâ defence is now commonplace even if when it defies credibility.
May 2, 2022
Keep cool, MFD, all French citizens have a ânumero de SĂ©curitĂ© Socialeâ based on male/female, year and month of birth, numbers of their âdĂ©partementâ and place of birth, and position in the birth register where they were born, plus three random digits, already used for social security and pension, tax purposes, required when looking for employment and for most French administrative procedures.
This is the string of 16 digits that most French people are likely to have memorised. This is likely to have been introduced just after WW2 when the French Sécurité Sociale was created.
It is what has been encrypted in both âCarte dâIdentiteâ and French passports.
It has been like that I would think for at least 40 years (not in an electronic form originally), it was already the case when I worked in France in the 1980s and at the time this was âtypically Frenchâ and nothing linked to the EU as far as I could remember.
I do not think it will make any difference to the French people whether this ID becomes âelectronicâ or not. This is a âtempest in a tea cupâ stirred especially for the British readers of a âcertaine presseâ.
May 2, 2022
Any kind and sensible person would surely just have told the dope to stop being such an idiot and switch it off.
May 2, 2022
Could you explain Angela Rayner’s “Sharon Stone” antics intended to divert Johnson’s attention which she subsequently boasted about and then pretended outrage when someone else repeated her story?
May 2, 2022
Odd as the despatch box was in the line of view anyway – unless she intended doing a handstand perhaps.
Rayner seemed as excided about it all as was Dawn Butler MP when she got stopped by police in London and then suggested the poor officers might be stopping them for “racist” reasons.
May 2, 2022
Where is this ‘matter of duty’ written, and how is it committed to by people in public life?
May 2, 2022
NLH
Please tell me, do you spend your entire day posting comments on John Redwoodâs diary?
May 2, 2022
I didnât think that there was any chance of that seeing the light of day!
May 2, 2022
I didnât think that there was any chance of that seeing the light of day!
And no I havenât said that before, yet another form of censorship
May 2, 2022
Lester. Yes, surely there must be better things to do in Cardiff? I’m on holiday near there so must investigate.
May 2, 2022
Should this be so NHL?
Would you demand retention of institutions that are underperformed or failing totally?
How does change for the better ever happen with your frozen view?
May 2, 2022
I canât see how anyone could tell exactly WHAT another person is watching on their phone.
What business is it of anyone else anyway?
Why didnât the MP just deny it?
Or can phones now be snatched and searched for non illegal viewing?
Reply The MP accepted the allegations made so the informants clearly saw it.
May 2, 2022
Who were the informants and are they proud of themselves?
May 2, 2022
+100
Indeed.
Is watching porn worse than self-flaunting with a view to diverting?
AnywayâŠsuccessive govts have encouraged/done little to discourage porn.
And mobile phones are VERY small and how nosey!!!
ActuallyâŠWOOOâŠinformant was watching it too!!đ€
May 2, 2022
**
Distracting rather than diverting maybe?
May 2, 2022
”He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone”
May 2, 2022
Another false binary, with one half that didn’t happen anyway.
May 2, 2022
+1 E H
May 2, 2022
She should be proud of herself. They, supposedly, are paid to work. Yet they all sit there tweeting and reading tweets. Is that what we pay them for. As for watching porn!
May 2, 2022
+1 The apologists conveniently forget where the MP was when watching porn. I imagine it would be a sackable offence in most workplaces.
May 2, 2022
I agree, Shirley.
May 2, 2022
MW, +1
May 2, 2022
More misogynistic comments. I would hope anyone would report it. Unacceptable in any modern working environment.
May 2, 2022
So Kwarteng is against Sunakâs idiotic plans for an energy windfall tax (in the Times). Kwasi has actually got one thing right then.
May 2, 2022
A good piece on Conservative Woman by Prof. Angus Dalgleish FRCP FRCPath FMedSci, professor of oncology at St George’s, University of London:- Strike off the truth tellers? No, strike out Whitty & Co!
May 2, 2022
Good morning.
Would that be Oceania and Eastasia ? You know, two of the three from George Orwell’s, 1984 book with Eurasia being the EU.
Just a thought.
May 2, 2022
No.
May 2, 2022
+1
Yes!
May 2, 2022
Agreed. Mark B. The growing similarities between Orwells 1984 and our country cannot be ignored.
May 2, 2022
Yes Mark B. There certainly are many parallels.
You’ve missed out Right Speech and the present censorship of the inter-net.
May 4, 2022
Eurasia is Russia;the Eu is just an offshore colony of Oceania…for now.
May 2, 2022
What happened to the proposed bonfire of quangos spoken about years ago?
Just more duck shoving as we used to call it creating work for ones own job security. Diluting the areas of responsibility and accountability so nobody ia at fault.
May 2, 2022
+1 and the bonfire of red tape!
May 2, 2022
bonfires are not very socially acceptable!
May 2, 2022
Take then to Drax and generate some electricity from them.
May 2, 2022
“In this civil service led government the aims are to preserve the EU legal framework…” Simply untrue. You have no basis to say this, and it is not true. If we want to depart from the EU legal framework, we can and will. The trouble is you Brexiters have no concrete ideas how and why to do so. That is why the Minister for Brexit Mr Rees Mogg asked readers of the Sun to send him ideas. You won your referendum, you have no clue what to do with it, you never did. Brexiters are the dog that caught the bus
May 2, 2022
Your totally wrong Gary. The actual problem is the brainwashed who cannot see the woods for the trees.
Ms von de Liar has said much but it falls on some deaf ears.
We brexiteers as you call us have an ambition to see the eu fall as it is the pit of doom- electronic implant is next now they have achieved digital ID. Do you call that progress? Although Iâm now approaching 80 I do not want to be part of the eu legacy and so will fight for Britain to be free.
May 2, 2022
“If we want to depart from the EU legal framework, we can and will.” Who is we?
Voters who voted LEAVE are not in the government and apart from electing and trusting in what was meant to be a Brexit-supporting party, have no way of breaking away from the EU.
As it turns out, members of parliament and the civil service are for the most part Remainers and have no inclination to move away from the EU.
Until we get a Prime Minister who supports Brexit, we will remain attached to the EU and there is not much that ‘Brexiters’ can do about it.
May 2, 2022
Nice metaphor to finish, Gary.
May 2, 2022
I listened to Iain Dales Cross Questions podcast just now with Simon Heffer and others. Heffer certainly want Boris out but no one suggest any decent replacements who have any chance at all.
I am always surprised by how many people (politicians and BBC types often) are so very proud of their total ignorance of (and inability to do maths and science) and so pleased they dropped it all after O levels or GCSEs.
I also listened to his Neil Kinnock (long but very soft) interview he is now 80 – the daft pro EU/socialist he still thinks Thatcher did massive damage when in fact she did very many good things and especially good things for his Labour voters – perhaps why she won three elections and he won non.
âShow me a young Conservative and Iâll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and Iâll show you someone with no brains.â
â Winston Churchill
The poor chap was off the rails & damaged from a very young age by “Chapel” and being brought up in area of Wales with so many other deluded, chip on the shoulder, socialists and miners. Though his parents like many were desperate that he should not go down the mines. Needless to say if was John ERM Major who appointed him to be another dire EU commissioner.
May 2, 2022
These people who are so very proud of their total ignorance of (and inability to do) maths and science are usually the most convinced by the net zero, CO2 devil gas religion and the so called “renewables” lunacy.
BBCByte size says for GCSEs:- “Renewable energy is defined as energy that is collected from resources that will never run out or which are replaced by nature in less than a human lifetime. Non-renewable energy is defined as energy collected from resources that cannot be replaced when they are used up, such as oil, natural gas or coal. I assume defined by some politics or social science graduate!
This is of course scientific B/S. All so called renewable energy comes from Nuclear Fusion on the Sun or rotations of the earth, or warmth from the earths core. All will run out eventually. Also oil, natural gas and coal (old wood) can all be replaced (or grown in sunlight or artificial sunlight).
So to get that marks I have to tell my daughter to write some complete drivel in her exams!
May 2, 2022
Could you give us the timescales for replacing oil, gas and coal, please.
And if grown in artificial sunlight, what is the energy source for it?
May 2, 2022
I was questioning the entirely bogus concepts of ârenewableâ or ânon renewableâ energy. As to what energy source then it could be any in theory, but most would make no economic sense. With natural light the source is (non renewable but long lasting) radiated fusion energy from the sun. It could be fusion here on earth soon.
May 2, 2022
My son, now 41, had a similar conversation with one of his teachers , when looking at practice A level papers. He was told his answer was correct but had gone beyond the expectations of the question and to keep the answer simple!
In fact it was when he was at high school the new national curriculum came in . The school taught that in the Autumn term and then taught more on the subject during the next two terms. Crazy situation.
May 2, 2022
More arrogance. What an appalling view of proud working communities. Give me miners over property developers any day.
May 2, 2022
I am past caring about GDP and debt. Our country no longer belongs to us, it belongs to foreign investors because those unnecessary imports have to be paid for somehow and those foreigners and foreign countries have to be kept sweet with our money. It is no longer British. We are following the path of Sweden and I doubt anyone will think that is a good ideal.
So far as economics go, I would rather be an ‘also ran’ than the winner, if being the winner means we lose everything we value and become some mixed up country with lowering living standards and full of ‘anywheres’ and ‘everywheres’ with no love for our country, and who would quickly run to the next ‘wealthy’ country rather than defend our country. When we voted for Brexit we suspected we would take a knock for a few years, but we voted Brexit to keep Britain as a sovereign Britain, to get rid of a foreign government, reduce foreign interference and reduce immigration, ie. to keep Britain British.
May 2, 2022
From the heart Shirley M. I agree.
May 2, 2022
+1
sadly not under Johnson. He sold out to the EU then lied to the nation and N.Ireland in particular. We did not leave as one nation, checks are made on goods from one part of our country to another by a foreign body, ECJ still applies, our taxes still sent to EU by the multiple billion, fishing waters given up to France for nothing in return. Etc etc no wonder Lord Frost and Lord Agnew resigned.
JR and chums need to stand up to the plate and oust Johnson to get Brexit done not get involved in another unnecessary war in Ukraine. That is a matter of EU expansion foreign policy not UK.
May 2, 2022
SM,
Agreed.
May 2, 2022
Dan Hannan paints a bleak picture of Ministers helpless to get the Civil Service to do anything it doesnât want to on the basis it is âincestuousâ, they mark each others homework and rely on each for advancement.
Methinks Dominic Cummings was spot on for the need for âhard rainâ and they got rid of him.
Without levers, what can you do?
May 2, 2022
+1
May 2, 2022
Yes, of course those in favour of a right wing dictatorship want a politicised judiciary, civil service, police force, etc.
Putin’s bingo card is pretty complete.
May 2, 2022
NLH the police, judiciary and civil service ARE politicised. What are you talking about ?
May 2, 2022
I didn’t say a word.
I’m writing.
Are you hearing voices?
May 2, 2022
Tell us exactly who you are referring to when you talk of ” those in favour of a right wing doctatorship”
Is this another of your regular conspiracy smears NHL?
May 2, 2022
Semantic pedantic.
May 2, 2022
trouble is we still see your words.
May 2, 2022
That’s an interesting comment. It was Blair – who “toyed with Marxism when young” – who politicised the police, judiciary and Civil Service. Funny that ……
May 2, 2022
+1 agree NIGL
May 2, 2022
The policy of long-term secret surrender to the EU was indeed unwise.
It was also treacherous.
May 2, 2022
+1.
It started with the dire Ted Heath in Jan 73 when he took us in without the people’s authority and is still continuing under Boris nearly 50 years later.
May 2, 2022
+1
May 2, 2022
+1
May 2, 2022
We need a leader who understands this.
We have lazy people in Parliament who are happy to follow all EU and international bodies whims.
We need a party that is pro Britain and I look forward to Farage picking up the mantle before the next election.
We have very few pro English members in Westminster and it needs a jolt.
May 2, 2022
+100 Ian
May 2, 2022
+1
NF was correct re the Rwanda proposal.
Newcomers still pouring in daily ( and nightly) according to footage.
The apparent hiatus was indeed just the stormy weather!
May 2, 2022
Everhopeful
But hopefully the planes are all fuelled up and waiting on the runway ready for take off. Take the first 500 out of here and it will stop. It’s a stand off. Who blinks first?
May 2, 2022
+100
A very optimistic view. A very nice one too!
But wonât there be loads of lefty legal stuff and glueing to runways.
And then the weak capitulation?
Added to which and I do not understand thisâŠwe take Rwandaâs âmost vulnerableâ(refugees?).
So we send 10,000 and get 10,001 back?
The document/agreement is online.
May 2, 2022
Turbo
Agreed, if the illegals are not sent packing within the next 24 hours, the Government have lost this one before it has even started.
I will not hold my breath !
May 2, 2022
Agree Ian,
If the Conservatives acted on JR’s suggestions they would walk the next election, however they will not, so won’t.
I simply cannot understand why ALL of the Political Parties cannot see what us outsiders can see.
Surely it’s as plain as the nose on your face, that the route they are all going and supporting, will eventually lead to self destruction.
The cost of the very basics of life are now far too high due to shortages and cost:
Power, fuel, food, properly treated water, housing, car ownership, bus/train travel, then on top of all of that, Government and Local Authority taxation at the highest level in peace time.
Meanwhile our infrastructure crumbles through lack of proper maintenance, whilst the population grows ever larger.
May 2, 2022
Not all due to shortages but certainly due to cost as we are being ripped off by the power and oil companies making record windfall profits they did not plan or foresee. Plus of course we are taxed to death on these things and taxation in general to finance government waste. Latest reported today is half a million a day to store PPE which is rapidly deteriorating and becoming unusable because it is not properly stored in warehouses but in shipping containers on airfields etc. These things were never designed for long term storage. Better to burn the stuff now and make some electricity than to wait until it is ruined and pay for it to be stored until it is no use. Someone is making a lot of money again out of government incompetence and lack of respect of tax payers money.
May 2, 2022
graham
Why not send to a third World country that cannot afford to buy PPE , surely that will be of more use than burning it, certainly surely better than having no PPE at all.
May 2, 2022
Today wind is supplying 0.5gw. Will someone grab the government by the throat and show them the stupidity of building yet more of these useless monstrosities.
Come this winter you are going to be banished from power for a generation because of the useless bankrupting energy non policy.
12 years in power so you totally own this dogs breakfast.
May 3, 2022
Ian
They will just blame, President Putin and the fools will believe it.
May 4, 2022
These being the same “fools” who voted Leave then, I take it?
May 2, 2022
Spot on Ian
May 2, 2022
In this country now one canât even enjoy a quiet Bank Holiday ( indoors ). So typical that with all the bending over backwards to adopt EU laws we didnât opt for any of its noise control measures.
The only useful noise initiative is Shappâs ânoise camerasâ âŠand that is probably only being pushed because of the Zero Carbon malarkey.
How I resent my taxes! Especially Council Tax.
May 2, 2022
Further evidence that the Chancellor is not just advocating socialist economic policies, he is deliberately over-taxing us for all the wrong reasons.
It’s not just Boris making a hash of everything, it’s the whole Cabinet!
It is looking ever more likely that Boris will face a leadership challenge, so it is imperative that nobody from the Cabinet is allowed to win number 10 — for they are all tarred by the same brush.
A heartfelt request goes to our host to stand himself or sponsor/support another REAL Tory for the top job…. This country so badly needs something better than what we are getting –Â We need someone with mettle and moral fibre to actually lead, someone that understands what Conservative Thatcherism is all about!
Please…………
Reply The PM is not going to resign. There is nowhere near 181 Conservative MPs wanting to vote him out. There are not even 55 letters for a vote.
May 2, 2022
Reply to reply: So the sycophancy goes on. Your party would rather support the PM than the country. Oh, how we wish for a political party that would put the country and its people first. We won’t find it in LibLabCon.
May 2, 2022
Shirley M +1
There have, its seems, always been two parts to the Tory party — unfortunately the left side is on the ascendant
May 2, 2022
Wait until the power cuts start then watch their backsides twitch.
No blaming liebour or the limp dumb as they will have been in Ower for almost 13 years.
May 2, 2022
wait till the energy bills start arriving
May 2, 2022
Ian – Russian bots are going to be blamed for the power cuts and we will be told it is necessary in the war for freedom.
May 3, 2022
Thats when the government takes advantage of home smart meters, EV software, smart motorways……and starts regulating use
May 2, 2022
Hear hear. And it is not just the PM who needs to go, but the whole lot of second raters currently ruining us. Alas, in this ‘democracy’ after you have voted you have to put up with what you get, no further input required.
Labour front bench is even worse. There must be some talent in the Commons somewhere surely, but of course personal ambition always comes before country for politicians.
May 2, 2022
That my wish everyday – country first
May 2, 2022
Support for Boris and support for this Country are not mutually exclusive.
Ne’er cast a clout ’till May is out!
OT. WFH is all very well if one is productive. Whilst there are people who have not yet received the correct amount of State Pension or their Driving Licence or their Passport, WFH should be curtailed.
May 2, 2022
Or Green, Shirley M.
May 2, 2022
What a very dismal prospect. No knight on white charger. No change. No shuffle.
I dare say the checks and balances are there to prevent us becoming a âbanana republicâ.
Unfortunately this horror is what they create.
A political closed shop.
Nearly a dictatorship?
May 2, 2022
Each day I hear about campaign groups that are developing and growing to address precisely the bits that government are ignoring. There is a growing bottom up revolution. Perhaps these can do the pushing on govt that labour et al have been doing.
Together Declaration got rid of the vaccine passports, NHS100 got rid of mandatory jabs etc . There are numerous womensâ groups that are forming to defend against trans invasion of womenâs spaces. Weâll survive, despite the poor governance! But think how well we could do with a proper conservative government willing to do the right thing for the country.
There are some MPs, SJR, including yourself, willing to speak out for the people; but not enough.
May 2, 2022
In the Prime Minister’s contituency, the local election choices are:
None of the above
Conservative
Labour
Liberal Democrats
Where are these pressure groups of which you write. UKIP showed a single issue party could gain momentum, why are others not following the same path?
To be clear, local elections should be about local issues and our Conservative Council does a good job but where is the pressure on the establishment?
May 2, 2022
EverHopeful +99
Exactly
May 2, 2022
That just goes to show what a shocking state the current rag, tag and bobtail of Tory MPs is in!
Led by a joke of an Eton posh-boy, surviving on loans from wealthy but dim backers, whitewashing anything critical, and having a grand old time at the country’s expense.
The lemmings happily following to the cliff edge.
May 4, 2022
Well, they voted Leave, so they probably would, eh?
May 2, 2022
Reply to reply
Then it would appear if the MP’s fail to support those who voted them in, a huge proportion of your party will end up being voted out of power. Hopefully that includes my constituent MP who only sounds like a Johnson echo chamber.
May 2, 2022
We are told that the winter will be the crunch time for Boris — NOW is the time to prepare…
May 2, 2022
Reply to Reply. Does this not demonstrate the paucity of talent in the PCP of those that might be chosen?
May 2, 2022
Right to reply
SirJ you’re correct, Boris is even going to to resign…even right up to losing the next gereral election
May 2, 2022
never going to resign
May 2, 2022
Bryan Harris,
After the local elections the Conservatives will try to spin it as not as bad as it might have been under the circumstances.
Johnson will cling on for as long as he can.
It is still important to deny Conservatives votes though.
May 2, 2022
The Cabinet takes direction from the Prime Minister. Unfortunately, he’s of little use. An 82 seat majority deliberately and maliciously wasted on the altar of progressive and vested interest appeasement and personal aggrandisement.
This lack of action is an admission that the Tory party is now a vehicle for careerists and nothing more. They don’t intend to govern as per their manifesto but intend to implement policies not included in their manifesto that are openly authoritarian and contain policies that will eliminate our most divine freedoms.
Future careers outside of British politics are at stake so taking decisions today that may jeopardise that is simply not part of the British PM’s and indeed other Ministers remit
The British voter is akin to those German voters (though they were hungry and desperate for bread and water) in 1929, utterly unaware of what they were voting for and being led into a world that we do not approve of
May 2, 2022
@Dom +99
May 2, 2022
Dom,
A good post. All the better for the calm and considered tone.
Though we are not in the dire straits of German population in days of yore with wheelbarrows full of worthless money and widespread political violence.
May 2, 2022
Yet.
May 2, 2022
Why does the UK need the EU’s clumsy old VAT system with all its awkward complications?
Switching that tax value source to Energy instead could keep consumer costs near-equal and cause less waste of energy used.
May 2, 2022
VAT has something going for it, in that it’s a tax that hits both imported and British goods and services, unlike NI, corporation tax and business rates that just tax British industry.
My problem is that with VAT why do we need all the other taxes?
May 4, 2022
who would vote for above 50% VAT?
May 5, 2022
Even 100% VAT may not matter if it became the only source of tax, but Energy Tax at source would be simpler to collect & yield other advantages.
May 2, 2022
On Andrew Doyleâs programme last night, I saw a part of a podcast he made with a British Iranian. A very astute young man.
This man described the Conservative party as having one main cause; self preservation. That since the days of Gladstone it had been so. They do have conservative values, he said, but always need a push to act.
Although it took a long time, Farage pushed and the conservatives took us out of the EU (sort of.)
Unfortunately, the people doing the pushing at the moment are Labour.
Certainly, the actions of the government is very labour tainted.
All a bit hopeless then, so until the govt feel threatened, nothing will change for the better?
May 2, 2022
He’s correct.
The CONs only ever adopt conservative policies when there is a threat from the Right. Until that threat is presented, they will happily adopt socialist policies to appease the Civil Service/BBC/Public Sector.
Reform UK is the only party to the right of the CONs.
May 2, 2022
Perhaps Sir John could remind us when we voted for “a civil service led government.”
And then could he give us even one good reason why we should bother voting at all since the civil service (like the House of Frauds) is apparently untouchable …… let alone bother voting for the CONs who have thrown away an 80 seat majority and the best opportunity to implement some genuine reform since Margaret Thatcher entered Downing St in 1979.
In order to be in the democratic bloc he references, surely you first have to be a democracy?
May 2, 2022
+1 Donna – Many politicians think democracy exists only to elect dictatorial politicians who obtain their seats through fraud with fake promises and fake manifestos. The CONS are not alone in this. The so-called LibDems even had the gall to brag about their anti-democratic intentions. When will Parliament, and politicians, start to respect democracy and the electorate?
May 2, 2022
When the electoral “tumbrils” start to look really threatening ….. as they did when UKIP got 12.9% of the vote in a FPTP General Election and again after the 2019 EU Parliament elections when the CONs got less than 10% of the vote.
May 2, 2022
‘The Australian Government has announced a policy to buy 40% stake in private homes. Under the new policy the government would contribute 40% of the purchase price of a new home & 30% of the purchase price for an existing home.’
This is nothing less than Communism in which private property ownership and therefore personal freedom is extinguished and replaced by State dependence and therefore enslavement. I’m sure this is a WEF idea and I’m sure coming to the UK through hook or by crook
This is the direction in which WEF acolytes want to take the West. We will own nothing and be happy they say, I doubt that this will be the case when compliance to authoritarian control is removed by tens of millions of previously free people who have reached the end of their tethers
May 2, 2022
Unfortunately Boris is an enthusiast of the WEF. Hopefully we will be rid of him soon.
May 3, 2022
The Crown owns all the real property in England.
Your freehold – if you have one – is a right to occupy that without limit of time and which may be transferred to others, no more.
It can be extinguished – e.g. in bankruptcy, adverse possession, etc.
May 4, 2022
Ridiculous post NHL
Compared to the many millions of people who own freehold land and property how often do your scenarios happen?
May 2, 2022
In your blog yesterday and today Sir John you have described the ”road block” that is and has been preventing us taking advantage of the benefits that Brexit offers. This is due to the fact that very few MPs and almost every Civil Servant is too young to ever know what it is like to be a free sovereign state and think and plan for ourselves. Two generations have grown up being told what to do by the EU.
Many very bright people are physically lazy and we have too many of them in parliament and in the civil service. If they were not lazy they would carve out a successful career in industry or commerce before standing as an MP or taking up a place in a quango.
The EU is on the downward slope and the war in Ukraine his illustrated this very clearly. We need to cut ourselves free and concentrate on becoming self sufficient and not vulnerable to the bad decisions of other states
May 2, 2022
Very Good argument there George Brooks. Particularly your final sentence.
May 3, 2022
Yes, that’s exactly what Ukraine are trying very hard to do as we write.
May 2, 2022
Indeed George.
May 2, 2022
Thanks for explaining to me why I need not to vote Conservative.
Until a new party is formed that can deliver the Brexit we need I can fritter my vote away
May 2, 2022
I feel the same Bob…thats why I’ll vote ‘Reform’
Boris has a short memory – he only got elected because of the red wall vote and Farage withdrew the brexit candidates….that support has gone
May 3, 2022
You say “only” but Farage, ukip and brexit were only ever a ruse by the Right to enable continued Tory rule.
Of course he did!
May 3, 2022
There was a large group called ”labour leave”
May 4, 2022
There was a far larger one called Labour Remain, however,
May 4, 2022
martin, but Labour Remain still lost.
May 2, 2022
Bob Dixon. If we ALL vote N.O.T.A., none of the above, perhaps the message might get through.
I am tempted to point out that apparently Cromwell ruled Britain better than Charles 1st did!
May 3, 2022
Ah, you want to be “ruled”, do you, Pauline?
May 4, 2022
If we are not already, what would it look like Martin?
May 2, 2022
@Donna
At a local level, this week we have an opportunity at the ballot box. Personally, I have a choice between “Conservative” and three other left wing parties. I don’t think I’ll bother. The Conservatives at Westminster still have time to sort themselves out.
May 2, 2022
May I suggest you still go to vote, but write ‘None of the above’ on your ballot paper. Imagine the message it would send if 50% of the voters did this.
Though I do appreciate the politicians will publicly pretend it hasn’t happened. However, the ‘we do not consent’ message is still being sent and they will have to consider the repercussions if they continue abusing half the Nation.
May 2, 2022
Indeed, my vote will probably go to “none of the above”
May 2, 2022
I see the secret Labour-LibDem pact is in operation already for these local elections. Expect it for the general election of course, probably with the Scottish separatists also. The points of agreed policy will be a list of fatuous nonsense about equality, global warming, gender identity and racism etc. But buried deep in the list will be the 2 things that really matter: a change of the electoral system to PR with no referendum, and an attempt to get back into the EU, again with no referendum, most likely by putting forward EEA membership as a solution to existing frictions.
Conservative MPs canât leave it much beyond the summer to make a change if we arenât going to get policies to boost growth innovation and investment from Boris Johnson.
May 2, 2022
I have heard no politician or apparatchik, particularly Conservatives ones speaking out against net zero. Even you, Sir John, have accepted it as policy and have tried to focus on the practicalities of implementing the policy.
So do not blame net zero on the Civil Service. The Civil Service is inert and EU centric, I will accept, but net zero is driven by zealous Parliamentarians, compliant business leaders and the worthy middle classes.
Everyone is so afraid of being on the wrong side of an issue (any issue) that incorrect consensus often rules.
Reply Not an accurate description of my view. I have said government cannot achieve net zero unless it helps business produce great and affordable products people want to buy to implement it.
May 2, 2022
Reply to reply – I would describe that position as concentrating on the practicalities of implementation rather than speaking out against the policy Sir John. You may say that you are opposing it as there are no practical solutions but without anyone making a rebuttal to the principle of net zero the policy has become accepted.
May 2, 2022
Narrow Shoulders : âSo do not blame net zero on the Civil Service.â
Net Zero is being driven by a Marxist fifth column within the civil service â namely BEIS â who are conning the vast majority of MPs who are incapable of understanding any science or engineering.
Weâre heading for another ERM type event.
John Major, driven by the Treasury civil servants to lock the pound into the ERM, a precursor to the Euro, expended billions of pounds worth of foreign exchange reserves in an ultimately futile attempt to prevent Black Wednesday.
This time, Mr. Johnson, driven by BEIS civil servants, will spend billions of pounds in a futile attempt to reduce our 1% of global CO2 emissions to zero using expensive and technologically impossible wind energy/electrification schemes and will eventually be forced into an enormous U-turn by rocketing inflation, rolling blackouts and shortages of fuel and food.
May 3, 2022
I rather think that view is letting MPs, SPADs and business leaders off the hook @OR
May 2, 2022
@ reply – as you stated in your book “Build back Green”.
May 2, 2022
Reply to reply — You have still not agreed that the 25percent of power bills by green subsidy going to the rich should be abolished or taken into general taxation which is less regressive and would help the mid to lower paid most. The high paid would then pick up more of it in a progressive way. Perhaps that is the problem.
May 2, 2022
Some of us would like you to criticise net zero as a concept, a stance you have the knowledge and skills to excel at
May 2, 2022
Right to reply
Sirj is disingenuous about net-zero….the last election was about brexit and only brexit, the Tory push for net-zero should go to the people….democracy isn’t delivered via the back door or sleight of hand
May 3, 2022
Politicians avoid any democratic vote that they know they will lose. Net zero included. The cartel of LibLabCon either offer the same thing so we have no choice (ie. all pro-EU), or they totally avoid asking the electorate and just implement it as the CONS are doing now with net zero, immigration, and a host of other things that they know goes against the electorates wishes, but they will fraudulently claim that the electorate supports it.
That’s how they kept us in the EEC/EU for decades and how they keep immigration so high.
May 3, 2022
Brexit may have featured significantly in the last election but it was by no means only about that.
Stop being silly, Glen.
May 3, 2022
Of course the last election was ONLY about brexit….stop being silly NLH
May 4, 2022
it was about fear of Corbyn led madness, now we have a Johnson led madness.
May 4, 2022
You won’t have got far in life convincing yourself of these falsehoods, Glen.
May 2, 2022
I agree with you Narrow Shoulders.
May 2, 2022
JR: “We now need a reset for the new world we face.”
Sounds like something straight out of the WEF script.
Are you a signed up member /supporter of WEF?
People have a right to know just who is setting the policies for those who are supposed to represent them in House of Commons.
May 2, 2022
Brian Tompkinson. I raised my eyebrows at Sir JR talking about a reset.
However, I believe it is B.J. that is well in, with the W.E.F.
May 2, 2022
JR: ” The world is splitting into two large informal blocs, a democratic state one led by the USA and an autocratic one led by China”
The democratic state bloc has moved much further to the autocratic one during the past 2 years. In fact democracy is under threat everywhere, no doubt at the behest of the WEF, its sponsors and supporters.
May 3, 2022
Democracy is under threat from the likes of Trump’s armed militias and the mob who stormed the Capitol, certainly.
May 3, 2022
Come off it NHL.
The history of the event and its conclusions today shows it had very little actual effect on American democracy.
May 3, 2022
But you claim that our democracy is in mortal danger from a few people gluing themselves to roads, let alone trying to lynch elected representatives.
How does that work in what passes for your brain then?
May 4, 2022
when a few feeble brained nutters with time on their hands glue themselves to public things like roads, signs etc – they should be warned ‘5 mins to free yourselves or be pulled off.’ Then prosecuted. Why allow major disruption of people going about their lawful business for a few sad loners?
May 4, 2022
When did I say that NHL?
Stop making things up.
May 2, 2022
I see that Russian state TV is now threatening the use of ‘underwater nukes’ against the UK. I’m still waiting for our useless, spineless government to impose permanent travel bans on every last ‘journalist’ spouting Putler’s threats and lies. Action, please.
BTW, the Independent candidate called over the weekend. He’s the only one to have bothered, so although my original plan was to spoil my ballot-paper, he will be getting a positive vote from me. The title of today’s post by you gives a clue as to why this long-standing Conservative now hates it.
May 2, 2022
And in other news a question for you to ask of Kwarteng. âGiven that the Chinese smelt, using coal fired power stations, most of the rare metals mined, how much CO2 are they creating so you can claim we are moving to net zero?â
May 3, 2022
It’s a perfectly valid question, and one with which the scientists of the world are fully engaged.
May 3, 2022
But only rarely do they bring it up.
All concentration is on America and European countries.
May 4, 2022
evidence or your mere hope?
May 2, 2022
We never hear of any public employee from the civil service, quangos or our institutions being sacked for laziness, negligence, incompetence, malfeasance, corruption, misbehaviour and now we learn, outright mutiny.
Unfortunately we have an âanywheresâ PM who despite a whopping majority is not prepared for the good of the country to take on these public employees and release many of them from their posts so they can pursue their real interests elsewhere within Labour/Lib Dem/Green/Communist/XR/Moscow/Beijing organisations.
The fact that a head of the CPS could leave his position to support a Corbyn far left/communist government is clear evidence of the state of our institutions.
May 2, 2022
This is exactly what BREXIT should have given us — A springboard to reinvigorate our economy and define our purposes as a nation.
Instead we have globalism, complete with warts, blemishes and cracks. We are failing as a nation because we were never meant to be lemmings!
What will it take to get us back to that springboard moment?
Why was that springboard moment allowed die so easily to smash us in the teeth?
May 2, 2022
I’m resigned to this country going down the pan.
I only hope that the next Government – it will be a Labour one- does not abolish democracy as the Left are wont to do. Then we will desperately need a Tory government led by a Tory.
May 2, 2022
Well said SJR John and it’s about time people stood up for the country instead of navel gazing and wasting precious time shuffling papers just wasting the opportunity.
Too much drivel by MSM and attention seekers diverting priorities.
As for the idea that Putin intends to send saboteurs here I think they are here already disrupting the country overtly and covertly.
Security should be out top priority economic, military and trade wise.
May 2, 2022
Anyone in search of a succinct, powerful and compelling condemnation of this rotten government need look no further than your opening paragraph.
We await in hope the Conservative Party rejoining you.
May 2, 2022
I completely agree that we need a “reset” in government – but a reset needs a new PM to accomplish this. Clearly Boris the Traitor has no interest in such a reset or he would have done this already! The only question therefore is: ‘who should the new PM be?’ Given the appalling mismanagement of the Treasury (so clearly eviscerated by you: “The Treasury runs on rephrased Maastricht rules and pays up for all the bills to the EU and foreign governments and bodies without ever pushing back on them”) the next leader must NOT be Sunak. Truss pretends that she is an ex-Remainer and is now supportive of Brexit, but she has proved this is not true by betraying Northern Ireland by refusing to scrap the Protocol, so it can’t be her. What about Dominic Raab? He seems as though he might have the right ideas, although obviously you will know him better than any of us.
May 2, 2022
X-Tory :
Lord Frost.
May 2, 2022
50% female Tory MPs now official Tory party policy. What happens to those male MPs they will replace and how will those they replace be chosen by CCO?
What we are seeing is planned as part of an agenda to woke the Tory party and turn it into Pelosi-Obama-Harris Democrat Party
May 4, 2022
redact the word Democrat.
May 2, 2022
JR, in your conservativehome article today:
https://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2022/05/john-redwood-lets-have-a-conservative-queens-speech.html
you correctly write:
“The Government believes in the Union. The Northern Ireland Protocol is a threat to both the Union and to the Good Friday Agreement. The Government must legislate to instruct our customs officials that goods bound from GB to Northern Ireland will pass with no additional checks under our own domestic system of control. The legislation should assure the Republic and EU that we will police the traders to ensure none of these products are sent on to the Republic.”
However the legislation also needs to ensure that goods produced within Northern Ireland, as well as goods brought in from outside the province, do not get sent across the open land border into the Republic unless they conform with EU requirements. Or we could have British Widgets sending EU-compliant widgets to Ireland from its factory in Great Britain while its factory in Northern Ireland is turning out widgets which the EU regards as unacceptable and they are just driven across the open border.
May 2, 2022
Is the plan to blame Russian bots for the Green power cuts that are coming ?
May 2, 2022
Of course it is, NLA. Just like inflation is Putin’s fault.
May 2, 2022
‘this civil service led government’. I found this phrase truly shocking to read and cannot imagine how you felt writing it.
Did we really vote for this complete abrogation of duty by ministers and transfer of power to the unelected?
May 2, 2022
Which of the bloc’s have gained on the back of free trade and non-developed status?
How many of our vested interests have made cause with more autocratic tendencies because it suited their interests? We seem to have a lot of placed or appointed people actively working against a true to the people democracy, with protections of the individual. Our democracy has been targeted via this mechanism to undermine a true and faithful democracy.
All western countries have been affected similarly. There is a struggle going on between the money changer printers and the slave economy producers.
In truth have the blocs separated or being re-alligned into tributary dominions, by our new gang-masters.
We do not trust you or believe you.
May 2, 2022
I find it dificult to agree Sir John, that we are part of a democratic bloc led by the US. On the record of the last.two years, we, and much of the Western world are well and truly on the path to autocracy.
The US has a chance to escape that fate with their powerful constitution. But not with Biden as POTUS.
May 2, 2022
Take Back Control… both a Brexit and Manifesto Promise, not backed up with any real comprehensive Transformation strategy/plan/detail, including for the Civil Service?
Where is the leadership?
Accepting Covid took precedent early doors, but now?
PM too busy jetting to India/Ukraine, like a butterfly …..
Cabinet’s focus? Too busy jostling & positioning for next PM …
May 2, 2022
How exciting it must be for the disaster capitalist and media types watching the indignant, divide and rule type posts the little ants make. A real turn on.
May 2, 2022
I see that GB News has caught up with the fact that wind farms are not taking up their CFDs, making the idea that wind is cheap redundant. Of course, it further enhances the case for tackling the scandal of ROCs being paid on top of sky high market prices, themselves driven up by carbon taxes and shortages of reliable generating capacity. Providing this protectionism for wind is driving prices higher, not lower. Mr Kwarteng needs to explain what he intends to do about it, and if he is not prepared to tackle it he should be replaced by a minister who will.
https://www.gbnews.uk/news/wind-farms-earn-hundreds-of-millions-more-from-energy-crisis-after-delaying-government-subsidy-contract/285252
May 2, 2022
John you are asking for a revision of aims now after Borisâs government was elected in 2019 with what we thought was a set of clear manifesto promises. Surely every minister already has his goals and aims from then? Every minister should have a website, it should on the front page set out their goals, measurable objectives/aims for this parliament.
Our national government is falling down on their job.
However, if the local election fails I donât fully hold the national government responsible. I was talking to friends who have an election this month (we donât), they have had leaflets a plenty from the other parties but not the Conservatives, the Greens have been hammering them but not about what they are actually going to do locally, I said did you know they were supporting this, that and the other locally go and look it up – are you willing to lose your car, have roads closed locally so that deliveries have problems getting to you and shops have problems restocking and getting deliveries, as for labour did you realise they are the reason you canât get a permit for your fitters next week to park outside your residence with all the products they need to unload and load on a regular basis. They are the reason your apartment charges have gone up through the roof way over inflation, have you actually looked them up online. No they said, so they went away to check, the two local conservative councillors have no details whatsoever, no online presence, no twitter, no photo, no leaflets, they werenât even sure what ward they were in I had to tell them to go and check their polling card. your local operation is in a mess and there is a lot Boris is responsible for but itâs almost as though youâre trying to lose local seats this month.
May 2, 2022
John Redwood is absolutely right in his observations. The civil and diplomatic service and the legal establishment is inherently contemptuous of the UK and its historically independent status, and has been since well before WW2. It now regards itself as the EU’s fifth column, and only wholesale replacement will alter this. Such a change of personnel after a change of government is perfectly normal on the continent, but here it is not, and the current Departmental leadership of the cs and Foreign Office is – rather impudently – making the most of their virtual unsackability to promote Blairite globalism.
May 2, 2022
No progress will be made until we get rid of europhile Johnson.
May 4, 2022
Who are “we”?
May 4, 2022
isn’t it ‘bleedin’ obvious?
May 2, 2022
I suppose you are getting a bit nearer to Common Sense today, than you were yesterday, Sir John.
I realise that it takes time to completely re-orientate Government policy.
Even so, many voters believe that your Party has failed on most fronts.
1) You have failed to get a full Brexit.
2) You have failed to reduce immigration.
3) You have failed to understand that CO2 is a beneficial gas and that climate change is not EITHER a FACT or HARMFUL.
4) Then there is the question of Ukraine.
Why are we interested in Putin’s invasion of Ukraine?
It seems we have run down our own defence to the extent we can not even defend our own borders from a dinghy invasion! So why are we giving any help to Zelensky?
To what extent has alignment with the U.S.A. kept us out of expensive and sometimes quite frankly immoral war?
Quite frankly, we can not trust the U.S.A. and I fail to remember any way that NATO has defended us, since the end of the USSR.
Nowadays, Russia can grow enough food of it’s own. Can the E.U.? At the moment we can’t, so we have to import.
If we just get our finger out over fracking and nuclear power, we could remain independent for energy.
Why has your Government decided to end production of I.C. vehicles at an early date? E.V.s are a totally different ‘animal’. Let new firms grow up to produce them.
China is a dictatorship and growing in power. The U.S.A. is declining in power.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland should be INDEPENDENT.
May 3, 2022
+ thousands
May 3, 2022
Independent?
About half of the UK’s diesel comes indirectly or directly from Russia.
So how’s that to be, then?
May 4, 2022
A sixth.
May 2, 2022
Everything that you list in your first paragraph is totally unacceptable. We need to assert our resistance to their takeover of our country but I fear that Boris will welcome all.
May 2, 2022
Now that the Royal Navy are in control of managing illegal crossing of the English channel, the taxi service efficiency has increased tenfold