Let’s have a Conservative Queen’s speech
     It is a sobering thought that the Queen’s speech on 10 May this year provides the government with the last opportunity to lay out a programme of work that can be up and running by the time of the next election. The two year preoccupation with covid took energy and resources that the government would like to have applied to its central agenda. It needs to show how a post Brexit UK can flourish and prosper, and how Conservative policies can offer hope and success to many people who voted for levelling up. Now is the time to be bold and ambitious for the UK, country and people.
     Central to the task is to show how Brexit opens up opportunities and freedoms. We hear there will be legislative space to amend and repeal some of the many rules and laws we have kept from our membership of the EU. At the time they were passed the UK often wanted substantial changes or would have been happier with no EU law at all. We need a strong piece of legislation which shows left to ourselves we can regulate better and legislate less. We want high standards of safety, animal welfare and employment conditions, but we do not need as much economic regulation and limitations on innovation and competition that many prescriptive EU rules entail. Let us have our own data regime, our own system for ensuring medicine safety, our own approach to innovation in farming and the rest that can flow from freedom. The EU Ports regulation, opposed by all UK interested parties, should be repealed.
      At the Treasury we need a new framework for economic management. The attempt to tweak the Maastricht framework that delivered us austerity with its controls over debt and deficit has so far not produced a good new approach. I propose the government has two targets. It should pledge to 2% inflation and seek average 2% growth. The government needs to adopt the current Bank inflation target as its own. For all those who think the current inflation is the result of capacity shortages particularly in energy and food it is obvious government needs to take some responsibility and put in policies which expand our domestic supply. Those who think money creation has something to do with it want the Treasury bound in because they sign off on the Quantitative easing that prints the extra cash. The Treasury should want a growth target to drive work across Whitehall seeking to raise productivity and investment to raise the rate. 2% is higher than we achieved over the last decade. The Treasury needs a VAT reform bill to take VAT off things that do not deserve it like domestic energy and to simplify its structure.
      The Environment Department needs a bill to stop ultra large foreign trawlers taking too many fish and damaging our fishing grounds. The fishing legislation should include a bigger programme to rebuild a  UK fishing fleet of sea going trawlers. The aim should be to catch less overall in UK waters but for many more of the fish caught to be landed in the UK by our own industry. The Agriculture section of the department needs a Food self sufficiency bill. The aim should be to restore the lost market share of home grown fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy, and other temperate products. There needs to be appropriate subsidy for food production, with the emphasis on promoting more investment in modern machinery, smart farming and glass and polytunnel acres to extend the growing season. The Environment Department needs to understand that the net zero revolution it wants needs plenty more electrical generating capacity and a range of new electrical products that people think are better than the fossil fuel ones they will replace. It needs to work with the Business department to make this practical and popular.
      The Business department needs to major on more domestic energy production. It may need a bill to simplify and clarify current regulatory approaches. The Bill should include all necessary powers to allow landowners and local communities to participate in the turnover or profits of onshore gas, oil and mineral extractions. No-one should be made to have these, but all should be eligible for incentives so we do produce more. The Energy department has revealed that using our own gas brings a big cut in carbon dioxide emissions compared to imported LNG which adds to the case to get on with it. Using our own means more money for local communities and an avalanche of extra tax revenue for the state. The more we import the more energy tax we send abroad.
     The Health department needs to concentrate on getting value for all that extra cash put into it. The NHS needs more doctors, nurses, treatments and appointments, but it needs fewer quangos, chief executives and complex trust structures. It could do with a more precise safety and reporting regime. The social care policy development has concentrated on payment and financial responsibility. We also need to consider the quality of care and the balance of options for those who need it. These matters mainly need better management, following recent legislation. It is likely, however, that the government will need more powers in the jungle of semi independent bodies to try to find a way through. Getting waiting lists down is a central priority. For too many people needing care and treatment but not needing emergency care they face a long wait. A short Bill with essential measures to help create more health capacity and to offer sufficient choices for those in need of long term care may be needed.
      The Welfare department has a recently remodelled scheme for the main benefit, Universal Credit. It has had to suspend for one year the promised triple lock for the State retirement pension. It needs to ensure going forward the pension is fair and reflects the pledge, with just the extreme of earnings growth in recovery year smoothed out. For Universal Credit there may need to be further changes to make it even more worthwhile to work, and there may need to be other changes to make it easier for people to get jobs from welfare. There is joint work to be done with Housing to help people where homelessness or poor housing gets in the way of getting a job.
      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.
       The Trade department may need legislation to implement the various trade deals that are now being negotiated at pace with places around the world. Our own trade system should be streamlined further to reduce border delays.
      Much of the work that needs to be done is in securing better value and more purpose from the huge sums in the budgets. Levelling up will need billions of private sector investment and sufficient freedoms and opportunities for many people who want to get on in the world from modest backgrounds. This requires a low tax pro enterprise society. It needs a can do attitude from government to show everyone what can be done by being positive. Government needs to trust the people more and resort to rule making less. This Queen’s speech needs to set that tone.
May 3, 2022
Good morning.
This won’t get much attention either here or elsewhere. But if we can house people who have illegally entered the country with little trouble, then we can address this problem. All it takes, much like everything else mentioned by our kind host, is the will.
Sadly, the will is not there for anything unless it advances their personal careers and / or the party.
May 3, 2022
Mark,
I would prefer the first sentence to read let us have a Conservative party to vote for.
If the socialist Tory budgets are anything to go by pointless having a Queenâs speech; first they never honour their promises in manifestos or Queen Speeches, secondly, they introduce key legislation without a Queenâs speech or public mandate like gay marriage. Cameron claimed it was his biggest achievement. Does that mean best con on the public or best legislation? Who knows.
May 3, 2022
Good article with sensible list
May 3, 2022
Good article with sensible list but not applicable to this tax and spend government.
May 3, 2022
You are right to identify the urgency in making some measurable progress before the next election but I fear that the lazy Liberal PM will ensure that opportunities are missed. Because of that failing, the backdrop for the next general election will be a poor economy and a poor fiscal situation.
P.S. I do not favour giving Housing Association tenants the ‘right to buy’ at below fair-value.
May 3, 2022
There is nothing in this offering that a Socialist wouldn’t disagree with. It is merely an endorsement of the big State status quo that is destroying liberty, freedom and scarce resources. It’s a sop to Labour, the unions and the woke fascists.
The Tories realised some time ago they can abuse the private person and private sector in all its forms but must appease the real political foe by joining them.
I recall seeing the GS of the TUC stood outside No.11 alongside Sunak when the Tories came to power. I knew then they’d gone to the dark side. Indeed they’ve been in bed with the left and the woke since 2010
The Tories now despise everything that Thatcher believed in. That’s how low the Tories have descended
May 3, 2022
+1
May 3, 2022
It’s all a bit moot isn’t it?
The whole world is going through abrupt and shattering transition, and we have no clear idea how the pieces are yet to fall.
This piece seems to assume that the future will be business as usual on the other hand.
May 3, 2022
NLH. It should be business as usual. We are not at war and there is no climate crisis and there is no pandemic here. If people got off their backsides and got back to work it could be business as usual.
May 3, 2022
What is the best way to cope with problems – rush around wailing and flailing one’s arms while tearing one’s hair, or trying to rebuild and/or develop methods of dealing with the kind of problems that life inevitably chucks at us, as individuals or nations?
As a general rule, I trust our host’s perceptive attitudes.
May 3, 2022
NLH
You always have got the wind in your face.
Do you not do optimism?
Or is it you, who are a different person when your side wins and you always get your way?
May 3, 2022
I do realism.
May 3, 2022
I think that there will be a lot less tolerance for Woke at the end of it.
May 3, 2022
So are we only allowed to comment on your obsession NHL?
May 3, 2022
No, Sir John decides – have you not noticed?
May 4, 2022
Above you ranted against those who don’t concentrate pessimistically, as you do about Ukraine and other issues you feel are the most important.
So what I said is what you demand we all do.
May 3, 2022
JR: “Government needs to trust the people more and resort to rule making less.”
No chance of that happening. The welfare of the people of the UK are the least of the Government’s concerns. They are working to an altogether different agenda where they impose more rules and take away our liberty and freedom.They have seen how easy it was to impose authoritarian control having inculcated a state of unneccessary fear in the population (the tactic of despots through the ages). The whole democratic system has been subverted. The majority of MPs are complicit and unworthy of the role. Who do they really represent?
May 3, 2022
You are complaining about temporary unavoidable midge bites in the course normal life when you and the rest of the free world are being stalked by bears and by wolves intent on eating you.
Pull yourself together for pity’s sake.
May 3, 2022
There’s none so blind as those who will not see.
May 3, 2022
Your last sentence is sage advice you should re read and take NHL
May 3, 2022
It wasn’t me shrieking and wailing about my “mental health” being damaged by wearing a little bit of cloth on my face for ten minutes in shops, was it?
Or by having a vaccine already proven safe by hundreds of millions already having it with very few problems?
May 4, 2022
Brian never actually said that NHL
You are making things up as usual.
Try and keep calm in your responses.
May 3, 2022
I read your Conhome article and it was excellent.
The response will be the same on this site which is we need a conservative government not a dripping wet ecolune industry destroying lib lab.
It will be more useless windmills and failure to tackle the gimmigrants.
May 3, 2022
On this dismal May morning wind and solar are contributing 1.7gw to the grid , gas and nuclear are giving 79% output.
Please let Lord Frost take over as PM as he seems to have a modicum of intelligence.
May 3, 2022
+1
May 3, 2022
Ian. I’m staying in a holiday property now and they have their own wind turbine. This morning it’s barely turning.
May 3, 2022
Just come back after a day out and the turbine isn’t moving at all. It wouldn’t power a light bulb.
May 3, 2022
This PM is a complete joke (see GMB interview).
Lord Frost has never been elected, not even as a local councillor. How could he become PM? Strange comment.
May 4, 2022
Is the PM really a completes joke heffy?
He led us to the best election result for the Conservatives for decades.
The worst election result for Labour since 1935.
He will get another election win for us at the next election
Mark my words.
May 3, 2022
Wouldn’t it be great if Lord Frost could take over as PM!
May 3, 2022
It would indeed be great if the chump were Tory leader and it were put to the electorate, yes.
May 4, 2022
Whoever led the Conservatives you would never vote for them NHL so why are you bothering to comment?
May 3, 2022
An excellent suggestion
May 3, 2022
Good luck with all that, there’s not a chance of most of that being even mentioned.
May 3, 2022
Sadly, I think you are correct. We simply don’t have the right man for the job. Lord Frost makes the right noises..
Sir J. Fabulous set of suggestions, took some time to write so thanks for giving us hope.
May 3, 2022
Good Morning, Sir John. Thank you for setting out what we can only dream of.
Please add ‘Retain freedom of speech’, as we knew it before people could be cancelled or censored for expressing views that others disagreed with.
Are we too late to have a proper discussion about the Online Safety Bill? What started out as a desire to protect children from ‘online harm’ could well lead to the curtailing of freedom of expression.
May 3, 2022
Good luck with that lot Sir JR…..
May 3, 2022
“It needs to show how a post Brexit UK can flourish and prosper”
I find it difficult to relate that comment to the current government policy of actively preventing and/or discouraging self sufficiency in the most important supply of energy and food, and instead replacing home production with totally unnecessary imports which adversely affect our balance of payments, therefore requiring the sale of more UK assets to foreigners. Both foreign investment and reliance on imports increases the blackmail potential for hostile countries such as France to withhold supply altogether. They have threatened this many times!
What this government says, and what this government does, are opposites, and many actions, such as those detailed above, are extremely damaging to our economy and our ability to feed and and care for our citizens, the population of which is literally exploding! I will be interested to see if more than a handful of economic migrants get sent to Rwanda, and how many thousands of ‘vulnerable’ we take from them in exchange. Boris loves and encourages immigration, so I doubt anything will change.
That also goes for deportations. I doubt we will deport many immigrant murderers, rapists and violent criminals. We will just spend a fortune on them to make sure THEIR human rights are not breached, and to hell with their victims. 12 years to do NOTHING about it! Grooming gangs/rapists/violent criminals freely walking the streets where their victims live. It is an insult to victims everywhere and is a good example of the double standards of so-called human rights.
May 3, 2022
Princess Nut Nuts has different objectives and, rather like Harry, it’s obvious who is calling the shots.
May 3, 2022
Indeed but it is action that is needed rather than speeches.
We need much smaller government that actually works rather than bloated incompetent and misdirected government as now. One that pisses money down the drain hand over fist. We need decent defence, police & law and order that deters, cheap on demand energy, abandonment of the mad net zero religion and HS2, real border controls, a healthcare system that is not one of the worst in the world for such developed nation, scrapping of soft loans for the circa 75% of degrees that have little or zero value and a bonfire of red tape. Public spending as a % of GDP should be under 25% not heading for nearly 50%.
May 3, 2022
In short Ll we need a conservative government.
May 3, 2022
So the Rwanda immigration policy will not apply to Women nor it seems men who are or just claim to be gay. Also I assume not to men self identifying as women.
What does out absurdly titled Minister for Women and Equalities make of this? What will our lefty lawyers & courts think of this clear & blatant anti hetro male discrimination?
May 3, 2022
Anti-male? I thought it was males who demand to infiltrate female only spaces, not vice versa. It is female rights that are being eroded, not mens! As to heterosexuals, they are not a minority, therefore will get no protection at all, in fact the noisy minorities will erode any existing protections and ensure their rights are greater than those of the majority, and the government will assist them.
May 3, 2022
Very clearly anti hetero-males as only they get sent to Rwanda for processing it seems – if indeed this does ever happen.
May 3, 2022
Yes, I see Rwanda (if it ever happens) will probably only apply to hetero males. It appears the majority of both sexes is under threat, from different groups. Par for the course these days! Minorities have greater rights than the majority in virtually every field.
May 3, 2022
I very much doubt if anyone will be deported to Rwanda.
“Children” aged up to 21 ….. stay
Women ….. stay
Gays …… stay
Anyone who claims to be Trans ….. stay
Religious minorities in their own countries ….. stay
Disabled and elderly ….. stay
Anyone with serious health conditions which might be life threatening (Aids etc) …… stay
Family members in the UK ….. stay
The solution is to repeal the HRA, remove ourselves from the ECHR and stop funding Immigration Lawyers through legal aid ….. but they Government hasn’t got the guts to do it.
May 3, 2022
Donna
+1 So very true.
May 3, 2022
No doubt being prepped before they leave the safe shores of France on what to say
Why don’t they just turn them around mid channel and escort them back to France ?
May 3, 2022
+1
May 3, 2022
And if you read the Memorundum of Understanding between the two countries you will find that, under Article 16 the UK is obliged to accept Rwanda’s assylum seeks from other parts of Africa.
And you fret of a mythical Labour / SNP coalition.
May 3, 2022
Mark B
If that is the case, I guarantee we will get more from them, than they will from us !
Why oh why oh why do politicians make things so bloody complex and confusing which, ends up costing us even more, time after time, after time.
Clueless the lot of them, absolutely clueless.
May 3, 2022
If thatâs its central agenda I wouldnât like to meet it when it wasnât!
There was ( one presumes) CHOICE in the degree of covid compliance followed?
The govt. didnât HAVE to waste billions ÂŁÂŁÂŁ?
Or who (!) was twisting its feeble arm?
May 3, 2022
Sorry but you’ve had so long to do these things and haven’t. Nothing is likely to change now.
May 3, 2022
Fanciful I know but I would like a Queen’s speech that reduces the size of government. A pledge to cut public expenditure by 20%.
Some ideas for how:
End wind farm subsidies.
Restructure the civil service and front line service delivery to make it leaner, customer service driven and less policy focussed (practical solutions not wide eyed speculation).
No border force in the channel.
No accommodation or support for illegal immigrants and certainly no legal aid.
Cut the size of the Lords and Parliament in half.
Cut the number of university places funded by soft (overpriced) loans.
Stop HS2
Make the NHS delivery driven with payments for procedures not existence.
Make public service delivery funding dependant on customer outputs not just being there. No more grant funding, payments for delivery.
Cut ALL diversity positions within public sector, stop paying money to Stonewall – it has achieved its mission.
Have the bonfire of the quangos – make government departments leaner and accountable.
May 3, 2022
We won’t get any of the good suggestions you list. We will just have more taxes and regulations with a Prime Minister who loves to give our money away to foreign countries. This Government seems determined to not realise any benefits from Brexit and keep us firmly aligned to the EU. Thank goodness the pandemic has slowed them down. I can only think all the main political parties are working for the same global entity and against the wishes of the British people.
May 3, 2022
I donât know how you can write this stuff with a straight face. âFor every one piece of new legislation, we will repeal twoâ. David Cameron said that.
Has any government left office with less laws in place than when it took office? No, of course not. Youâve had six years to decide what EU legislation to repeal and what to keep. Johnson may have been preoccupied with Covid for a couple of years but what about the rest of your 359 MPs. Youâve had six years to work on this. What do you all do all day? Youâve had two years of âworking from homeâ.
You have a minister for âBrexit Opportunitiesâ. Do you think Mogg spends even one second thinking about what EU legislation to repeal or amend to provide better opportunities for us?
May 3, 2022
Boris is too busy with his “net zero” to implement any sensible and needed policies. I expect any new policy would be subject to the approval of his mates at the UN and WEF before being implemented.
We need a true British government and PM, not puppets.
May 3, 2022
Also his Ukrainian World Stage and what he clearly believes is his ‘legacy’.
It is ionic that Boris does not seem to understand that his bellicose and weapons support for Ukraine is actually prolonging the killing rather than shortening it. Where is the diplomacy?
May 3, 2022
Beecher, Good. This is a vital point that is just ignored.
May 4, 2022
Ignored by the Ministry of Truth, yes, but not by me, nor by many others who follow what is really going on. The experience of being lied to every night in Covid news conferences did it for me.
May 4, 2022
The Donbass militias have been posting photos of all the western equipment they have captured(in addition to all the nazi paraphernalia they’ve found in Mariupol).Even CNN have said they have no idea where all these arms shipments will end up-no-one seems to care,certainly not the arms manufacturers,who have no interest once their invoices are paid.
May 5, 2022
There’s plenty of nazi paraphernalia to be found in the homes of militia members across the US and of extremist groups in Europe and the UK.
These are generally small minorities however, and election results indicate that the position is similar in Ukraine.
It’s therefore no more of an excuse for an invasion involving mass murder and the levelling of whole cities there than it would be in any of these other places.
It’s quite plain who the de facto nazis are, and their upside-down speak only makes that plainer.
May 3, 2022
David J
I second your last sentence. We have to get rid of Boris the spendthrift who throws OUR money about so freely, we are laughed at! Lets start by putting a maximum of three months on so called â benefit paymentsâ . We must force people off their backsides and back to work. We are engulfed by lazy so called migrants, I call them hangers-on!
May 3, 2022
MFD
Many years ago when I lived in Spain you could only be on the brew (social) for three months no matter what you circumstances were. After three months it was get a job or several part time jobs if you didn’t get work the responsibility as far as the state was concerned.was your family to support you. I heard in a government social office a man being told if you find work and work hard you will never starve.
May 3, 2022
Yes to all of that. However I want the NIP removed before it damages the Union irrevocably. I want to see regular flights to Rwanda to temove illegals. I want the tax book drastically reduced to increase and reward enterprise. A Queens Speach minus these elements is a disasterous 2024 election.
May 3, 2022
What’s the point in sending illegals to Rwanda when we have to take vulnerable Rwandans back? Once again an idiotic policy.
May 3, 2022
Quite right, FUS.
See Article 16 regarding the MoU.
If our kind host allows *
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/memorandum-of-understanding-mou-between-the-uk-and-rwanda/memorandum-of-understanding-between-the-government-of-the-united-kingdom-of-great-britain-and-northern-ireland-and-the-government-of-the-republic-of-r#part-1–transfer-arrangments
*It is a government website, Sir John.
May 3, 2022
You do realise the Rwanda deal is a con trick, don’t you ?
May 3, 2022
It was also a con trick giving the French millions
May 3, 2022
đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»đđ»To all that Agricola
May 3, 2022
The last opportunity to get elected is what you mean really and we are already seeing a vast spin effort to evoke bygone years.
Return to grammar schools, right to buy, nuclear power stations built annually ( more risible Boris BS) Rwanda (it wonât happen in any numbers) desperation to blame the civil service for Ministers weakness, trying to smear Sue Grays report because of the political allegiance of one of his team, pretending to do more on Brexit, more empty threats on the NI problem etc. Boris pathetically trying to do a Churchill.
And in that respect one your legacies will be bringing a united Ireland closer, so the EU wins again.
We now see you desperately trying to smear Starmer with âbeergateâ because you have nothing of substance to tell us about.
I donât care whatâs in the Queens speech, your party following the example of the Leader breaks itâs promises and achieves little.
You have had your chance and let us down big time. Thursday will be the start of a long goodbye.
May 3, 2022
I recently had this letter published in the Belfast News Letter:
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/it-is-beyond-time-for-london-to-take-the-action-that-it-said-it-would-take-on-the-northern-ireland-protocol-3673938
“It is beyond time for London to take the action that it said it would take on the Northern Ireland Protocol”
It started:
“It is now nine months since July 21 2021 when the UK government issued its Command Paper on the way forward with the Northern Ireland Protocol, and that is a long time for them to âstand readyâ to pass UK legislation to protect the EU single market from non-compliant goods.”
and ended:
“… I am afraid the answer is that Boris Johnson never had any intention of doing it. But if Jacob Rees-Mogg wishes to prove me wrong on that, then let us see a proposal for this legislation included in the Queenâs Speech on Tuesday May 10.”
That would be legislation for export controls on all goods crossing the land border into the Irish Republic, both goods brought into Northern Ireland from outside and goods produced locally. You can check every shipment of goods into Belfast for imported widgets which do not meet EU standards and so should not be allowed to cross the border, but that will not catch any non-compliant widgets turned out in a factory in the province and driven down and across the border. Both would be caught with rational export controls rather than the irrational import controls required by the protocol.
May 3, 2022
Two year preoccupation with covid. Well whose fault is that? It became more than a preoccupation didn’t it and the taste of pure power and control over the population is one I wager many in the halls of power aren’t too keen to let go of.
It would be nice to hear that there will be more capacity for our own people to train in healthcare instead of importing huge numbers from other places. This, like dependency on others for energy and food will come back to bite. Thousands of students wanting to study medicine still turned away for lack of places according to Migration Watch and I’ve met a fair few all dressed up with the required grades, but no place to go with them.
I’m sure the speech will be big on ‘diversity’ and a million and one promises alongside a lot of verbal gymnastics and chicanery, then it will be business as usual.
May 3, 2022
+10
May 3, 2022
Foreign students pay the universities much higher fees.
May 3, 2022
Well said, Michelle +1
We should also send a team to the Philippines to find out how it is they manage to churn out so many more nurses than they need, while we seem unable to train enough. Recruitment should start here and prioritise our own people. Scrap the 25% target universities set for overseas medical students as well – those places are wanted and needed by talented and well-suited British people.
May 3, 2022
Very well put Michelle.
May 3, 2022
Everything you suggest is a recipe for winning the next election, perhaps with a windfall tax on energy companies ? This is hard to counter when one is being proposed by every other party to help keep energy bills down.
We are entering a dangerous phase in politics. There appears little chance that Starmer could overturn an 80-seat majority at the next election but our party is vulnerable to a coalition of opposition parties that might just gain a majority of seats, if they can form an uncomfortable coalition. I say uncomfortable because it would have to include the SNP and we know what their price is likely to be. One of the strongest counters to that in the polling booths would be the thought in voters’ minds of Blackford or Sturgeon around a Starmer-led cabinet table!
It is likely that we can hold on with a much smaller majority but with the way policy is developing, and the war being fought against Boris across almost the entire media, very reminiscent of that waged against President Trump, it will be difficult. Tax cuts, more leveling up, Brexit-reinforcing measures, and other policies that will find favour with voters are going to be essential.
Unfortunately at the moment, the government seems to be doing the exact opposite.
May 3, 2022
Interesting but I do not understand why dealing with Covid has stopped the Governments proposed programmes.
Can the Government only concentrate on one thing at a time.?
Given the large number of Government Departments, and the tens of thousands of staff they employ, why can they not have worked to have at least done the very basics to have filtered, and then got ready to introduce new programmes/policies into the mix.
Good grief, Private industry during the same period came up with thousands of different ideas to make new ideas work, with new working, production, marketing, and customer policies.
The Self employed did not just sit around and do nothing because of covid, they just got on with the job as best they could.
Instead of messing about with making up silly rules for fining people for sitting in a Park, why could the Home Office not have sorted out a workable immigration policy ?
I know government works slowly, but for goodness sake this is just a stupid excuse, and many of them are still “working from Home” and taking the London weighting allowance, which is doing nothing more than “taking the p…”
Face it John this Government is out of control and making a mess of everything it now looks ar, let alone touches.
How many planes on standby for the illegals ?
May 4, 2022
+100 alan – I’ve been saying the same thing. We never expected the PM to do everything himself, so why didn’t he delegate his manifesto promises to his ministers and thousands of minions? That’s what they are there for.
May 3, 2022
It is a fine & relevant statement of what is important to remedy, yet we must be needy as ‘need’ is expressed about 35 times within it.
May 3, 2022
⊠and one could have assumed that such âneedsâ had been addressed over these last twelve years, couldnât one?
May 3, 2022
Good suggestions. It will be interesting to see how much of this or similar is adopted.
We are in last chance saloon. Letâs hope the govt recognise this or we will have to say no change no chance
May 3, 2022
I’d vote for that Manifesto Sir John but since we are not likely to get anything as sensible as you describe from this Government, it’s a real problem deciding what to do.
Talking to my youngest son and daughter-in-law this weekend, my wife was upset to discover that they don’t intend to vote. They “don’t see any point” – “They (Politicians) are all the same”
They live in Wokingham btw….
May 3, 2022
Even if all those things were in the next CONS manifesto, could we believe it? I couldn’t. We have been betrayed too often, and in too many ways.
May 3, 2022
The Civil Service led Government needs to cut back on, or better still, cancel the Online Safety Bill, a bill pretending to provide safety for children online but really designed by the Left to curb and then cancel free speech and control the news.
The Left started with curbing free speech with political correctness and now has moved on towards full blown cancellation and sackings, as we are witnessing in our universities and elsewhere, and even attempting to change history in the classic 1984 style.
This bill would give the Left the powers it needs for authoritarian rule by controlling the news/narrative.
Putin would not be able to pursue his invasion of Ukraine if were not for the total control he has over the Russian media.
May 3, 2022
Unlike the totally free media in this country that we saw during the Covid business! All the papers with the same government paid-for wrapper on some days, remember, Richard?
May 3, 2022
Sir
A very impressive wish list.
Good luck with that.
Maybe the most amusing comment was “At the Treasury we need a new framework for economic management”. A huge, huge understatement. How about the Treasury starts to make a serious effort to get its forecasts right. This would make planning soooooo much easier.
May 3, 2022
The Civil Service led Government needs to cancel BEISâ economy destroying Net Zero Strategy or at least amend it to be technically and economically feasible.
Chinese supplied wind turbines and solar panels will not provide affordable, reliable and secure energy. Only our own designed and built nuclear can do that.
The electrification of transport and domestic heating through expensive sub-optimal products will cause even greater shortages of electrical power.
A better solution for transport and heating is to use green methane, which, since its production removes CO2 from the atmosphere means we can mix it 50/50 with North Sea methane (natural gas) to achieve net zero CO2 emissions and thus halve energy production losses.
Using green methane we can continue with existing home boilers and gas distribution networks and run all existing ice vehicles, including HGVs, with relatively minor modifications. There will be no need to increase the capacity of our National Grid, no need to scrap our whole vehicle fleet for bevs and no need for charging points. And no dependence upon China for our batteries.
BTW, burning methane (natural gas) in air produces one sixth of the NOx emissions of burning hydrogen because it burns at a much lower temperature.
May 3, 2022
I think Iâm gonna start doing like Elsie, spend the day on the bus thanks to my OAP free bus pass. I will save on heating at home. And it will have another big benefit, I will contribute to increasing the number of bus passengers during daytime outside peak hours, which I am sure is something that Lifelogic can only support.
May 3, 2022
Hopefully your new hobby of bus riding might reduce the number of your daily contrary posts hef.
Please take your close friend NHL with you.
May 3, 2022
Averaged a week you have more comments than I have, P2.
May 3, 2022
Someone has to reply to to you two.
Otherwise you will bask in a false glow thinking you are always right.
PS
Add you and NHL’s posts together and you dominate this site.
May 3, 2022
Across all departments, in government, it is nothing short of fire fighting resulting in waste and more waste Basic roles in managing applications and contracts, bread and butter stuff are costing billion paid out to one windfarm as reported on GB news,
There must be real hard questions about leadership, management and training. WAH is not the answer and the sooner the staff are back in the office and communicating with one another and questioning “why are we doing this?” nothing is going to change and just get worse.
Do they not realise that all the while the predator legal sharks are circling and having a feeding frenzy due to incompetance and in some cases ignorance due to lack of or wrong training. Big business cannot survive in these circumstances and there has got to be a complete rethink from the government at every level and across all parties and ask very seriously “WTF are we doing here” Some long hard honest looks into the mirror. If we are not already there we are rapidly approaching a national crisis unless government grasps the nettle and takes full advantage of the Brexit opportunities that exist and are out there. If laws and legalities are in the way or slowing the advance get rid of them. If politicians or civil servants don’t fancy the journey, Get off and let others who want to get on board.
May 3, 2022
12 years
No EU
80 seat majority
Looking like 500 lost councils at the next local elections. Oh dear. What went wrong ?
Thinking that being chummy with the likes of Angela Raynor was more important than respecting your core votership was one thing.
May 3, 2022
What went wrong â Our dear leader went completely off piste
May 3, 2022
It all needs doing Sir John just as you say.. but I fear its only sage Tory backbenchers making the right policy moves.. all I see is our thespian PM preoccupied in the floodlights of the Ukrainian theatre and not focused on fixing the tangible issues at home.
Keep pushing đȘ thank you
May 3, 2022
When-I-were-a-lad I used to get in a lot of fights.
Never my fault.
There was always a small gobshite with Napoleon Complex alongside the hard-nut who would goad us into a fight.
I learned after a while that the best thing to do was to hit the gobshite first and hit him hard. If it didn’t put Hard-Nut off a fight at least I’d had the satisfaction of having tw***ed the gobshite before I got my pasting.
I think Boris is in danger of making the UK the gobshite over Ukraine.
“Finest Hour” indeed.
May 3, 2022
It came to me why there are so many fact checkers ,
worldwide security service controlled comment sites etc.
Its nothing to do with left/right/communist/democrat/black/white /intelligent/thick
Some peoples brains are wired differently.
These people were written off until it dawned how many thought differently
Both sides just cannot comprehend each other AT ALL
May 3, 2022
John, seriously how many conservative thinkers like you are there left in this conservative party? How many would sign up to this Queens speech you created?
You want private investment yet your government deters it. You favour foreign owned companies who don’t pay corporation tax here, who don’t employ people using them as self-employed labour so they don’t pay your social charges such as sick pay, sick pay holiday, Employer’s national insurance, Class 1A NI on perks provided as they rent them their equipment and vehicles and they use them to offset rather than pay for the perk of using them for private use.
Your government is killing entrepreneurialism at its roots. You ask for so many hoops to jump through ISO’s etc then when we get them after investing in them you change the rules and award to companies who don’t have them.
As for labour people like Owen Jones show their true colours.; socialism is just a power grab for those who are not capable of creating any wealth for themselves. If they were capable there’d be social enterprises everywhere not only those tied into monopoly services like housing where they were virtually gifted the housing portfolios from the Councils the same people used to work for, their housing figures drop, the number of properties available drop, their estate shops are the worst around. It is the repatriation of wealth and power to the few leaders and their lieutenants it doesn’t filter down to the people.
Reply I do not favour the kind of foreign companies you decribe!
May 3, 2022
An excellent alternative Queen’s speech. Good to see there is a parliamentary opposition of some kind!
May 3, 2022
But this should all have been in the Queen’s Speech five years ago. All vitally necessary and all urgent. But no we have been failed badly since we voted to leave the EU, first by May and now eaqually badly by Johnson and I expect no better for the future.
More greencr*p, more net zero, more climate change. Two years wasted and lives damaged unnecessarily by wrong headed policies over Covid. ÂŁ400 B wasted.
May 3, 2022
+1
May 3, 2022
I read that despite promises, where have I heard that one before, U.K. farmers are still suffering from being shackled to the EUs CAP which as we know was designed to benefit the French.
True? If so why and is anyone embarrassed about it?
May 3, 2022
The UK left the EU on 31/01/2020, the UK farmers left the EUâs CAP on the same date. There was a UK government ÂŁ3 bn support package for farmers (gov.uk 30/12/2019 âFarmersâ ÂŁ3 billion support confirmed in time for 2020â).
See also instituteforgovernment.org.uk âAgriculture subsidies after Brexitâ.
In 2018, the EU payment to farmers were ÂŁ3.5 bn. Farmers might be unhappy of the decrease of the subsidies but I donât think itâs because they are still âshackled to the EUâs CAPâ.
May 3, 2022
The results of Lord Ashcroftâs poll of 8,000 people, also on Conservative Home are (also) very interesting, and possibly more relevant to the coming local elections.
May 3, 2022
And we saw the usual waffle approach from the PM with Susana Reid this morning and this man is meant to be leading the country.
May 3, 2022
It was near pure Mrs. Merton.
May 3, 2022
In the last 5 years an additional 3 million people have registered with GPs .
When you don’t control your own borders it makes planning for anything an irrelevance
May 3, 2022
The last time I looked at Quangos/ALBs, there were circa 1,100 spending ÂŁ102 billion. A recent guess was there are some 600 to 700 with no idea how much they are spending now.
Consultancies including KPMG, PwC and Baringa have won ÂŁ14mn in work with Ofgem so far this year as the energy regulator seeks advice on how to address the effect of surging gas and electricity prices.
The ÂŁ14mn awarded in the first quarter outstrips the ÂŁ13.54mn paid over both 2020 and 2021. It will fuel concerns that the regulator is increasingly relying on expensive consultants following an extensive restructuring led by chief executive Jonathan Brearley, which saw it lose experienced staff.
https://www.ft.com/content/cda3eabc-001a-481c-8969-ce52bf1c873e
May 3, 2022
acorn, But should we not be happy to have all these quangos feeding good ideas to ministers outside the dreaded Civil Serpents đ ? Some of these quangos might even propose things similar to what Sir John is advocating in his alternative Queenâs Speech.
May 3, 2022
You didn’t mention immigration Sir John. Or Defence for that matter.
Still, why bother.
It won’t be you writing the Queen’s Speech will it.
Reply Defence needs more cash and better purchasing, not new laws. We have just legislated on border control.
May 3, 2022
+1
May 3, 2022
Reply to reply.
Yes, the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 has become law. And with what result?
The Daily Mail yesterday reported: ‘Up to 230 migrants have crossed the English Channel this morning… UK officials, including a Border Force vessel, escorted seven small boats of men, women and children into Dover Harbour, Kent, at around 12.30am.’
Same old same old, as far as I can see.
May 4, 2022
What did you expect?
Torpedoes?
May 3, 2022
Reply to reply.
And now it is announced it will be months before any illegals may be moved out. That means none wiil. That’s the fantasy Tory life you live in Sir John – pass a a law which is not implimented and you think it is an achievment.
Reply I did not it was an achievement. It will be if it works. I have urged more effective controls. Government said this is the way to get them so voted for it. Time will tell if it works.
May 3, 2022
It certainly is a sobering thought that Boris Johnson has achieved absolutely BUGGER ALL after two and a half years of government – and with a huge majority. What a wasted opportunity. It’s all very well you putting forward sensible policies for a conservative agenda, but why hasn’t all this been done already? Because Boris doesn’t believe in it. Or at least, he doesn’t believe in it enough to make an effort to push it through. You – and your likeminded colleagues (I assume there are a few) – just don’t seem to accept that unless you replace Boris Johnson with a genuinely conservative leader you are not going to get any conservative policies.
May 3, 2022
General Practice needs patients who understand that they cannot see a Dr for coughs colds, minor illness, female problems etc. A lead GP earns the equivalent of a consultant or more. What a waste of time and a clogging up of the system for something like itchy dry skin or a vomit last week!
In secondary care , the patient is seen by a new house Dr who learns how to clerk a patient, decides, with the help of ward staff what investigations to take , liase with others learning from the ward staff and get advice from those who have a couple more years experience . He will occasionally get advice from the registrar and patients may see a consultant probably once a week .Why do people expect so much more in primary care?
.In primary care some patients want to see this consultant equivalent without going through the motions.An advanced Nurse with decades of experience can easily do initial tests like ECG’s , blood tests etc investigations, make referrals, make provisional diagnosis , investigate findings and have evidence and information which, if required, the lead GP can be consulted. This attitude of ” I want to see the Dr” is clogging the system and is a totally outworn and an unnecessary waste of time. ‘ If the patient sees the GP first he will then send to other staff to get the evidence and results before he comes to a definitive diagnosis.Why? what a waste of time when these investigations need to be done anyway ! This backwards and forwards movement is causing chaos . Most general practice Drs do not do their own investigations and are referred to different clinics for investigations!.. What a waste of time and waste of resource!
The NHS has many Nurse consultants and Advanced Practitioners who are being undermined by a young Dr without much experience. Remember Drs and Nurses do not learn the greater part of their work at University ; it is carried out on the job . It is experiential learning . Of course there are some people who believe that after a few years university the Medics can step straight out of books into practicing , but that is not the staff themselves! Lets have a view of reality and not title chasing.
May 3, 2022
mbj
Thank you for your outline, much of which I agree with, but why given the so called professionals know what the problems are, can they not fix them themselves, if all it requires is a change of working practice ?
Sadly in our area, Wokingham, you cannot even get a phone call answered, (waiting 30-60 mins not unusual) let alone actually talk to anyone, or even heaven forbid actually see a Nurse.
May 3, 2022
Boris seems to be doing a lot more to help Ukraine and is very popular there, perhaps he should consider relocating?
May 3, 2022
He’s morphed into a pound shop Winston Churchill. Desperate beyond belief. This is a leader who fell silent when Democrat Party shock-troops desecrated the Cenotaph with its racist poison.
The man’s an actor, a deceit. How I yearn for a Thatcher reborn
I actually feel that this nation’s ruling class despise this nation’s indigenous population in a way I have never seen before. This appears to be the case in the US of A also. I find that utterly reprehensible
May 3, 2022
Churchill was himself a seasoned, battle-hardened warrior.
All that Johnson has done is to steamroller a schoolkid whilst re-enacting his own schoolboy rugby exploits for the camera.
May 3, 2022
While I agree that it’s a jolly good list of policies and ideas, many of them won’t happen simply because the government has given up focusing on the native population; you know, the ones who were actually born in these isles, as opposed to the economic scroungers such as those who hitch a lift on a RNLI boat .
At 66 I’m beyond anger-control, as I watch money, benefits, housing and free stuff being handed over to these people as soon as they step ashore. They aren’t “needy people”, more like “greedy” people. They come here, wind up in our four and five star hotels, then moan about the standard of accommodation offered; and the food. Then they expect to be given a house, over and above the natives who are still battling to save enough money to buy.
Piles more houses mean piles more electricity grid demand; and heating; and water, and food; all of which are rapidly showing signs of strain and supply shortage; even the loony idea of covering fields with solar panels (instead of food) won’t solve the problem. Yet the borders remain jammed open for all and sundry, while government pours cash into a foreign war.
It’s a huge recipe for disaster. I was done with LibLabCon years ago. With no disrespect meant to our host, the whole edifice needs annihilating.
May 3, 2022
Is it true that the government are opening up British citizenship to thousands more people, allowing qualification going back generations?
If true, is there no stopping Boris and his invitations and welcomes to immigrants,whether legal or illegal. We have a Merkel among us, who invites mass immigration into our country and no consultation with anyone affected by it! Then again, he knows what the response would be, which is why he will avoid asking! So much for his manifesto promises. I will never trust a Tory again!
May 3, 2022
Oh, you will. Again.
May 4, 2022
Gov.UK website figures â Last 3 days: 254 in 7 boats, 293 in 9 boats, 149 in 4 boats. Footage filmed in the Channel in the last few days which clearly shows at least three mobile phones being thrown into the water from one dinghy (GB News â N. Farage ) On the Rwanda initial announcement it was stated that the programme was legally compliant, the first departure to be in weeks, probably towards the end of May, that it would include people having arrived illegally since 01 Jan 2022, by dinghy or by other illegal means. Yesterday it was reported that around 6 legal challenges already made. At what point does the UK pay the first ÂŁ120 million to Rwanda & whilst Iâm at it Iâm wondering what has been done exactly with the ÂŁ10 million to Belgium, announced in March.