Ministers and Whitehall culture

Whitehall has many talents and strengths that Ministers need to use and motivate to do their jobs. They also need to be aware that there is a kind of default mode that applies to many policies and areas that does not reflect the mood of many to make a success of Brexit and to use the freedoms it brings to help create a more prosperous and successful UK.

There are many in Whitehall who seem to regret our exit from the EU and wish to stay close to EU rules, laws and policies.Ā  There is a readiness to take what the EU says as right and necessary and to see anything we do differently as unwise . We see this most obviously in the reluctance to sort out the Northern Ireland Protocol by failing to press on with legislation to uphold the parts of the protocol that respect our internal market and reflect the wishes of Unionists as part of the Good Friday settlement. We see it in the reluctance to challenge the EU over our residual payments to them, to push back on their aggressive stance to cross border trade and in the unwillingness to remedy bad past EU legislation. One and half years on from exit and still there has been no repeals Bill, no major changes to VAT, no regaining of our fishing industry.

There is then the similar enthusiasm for a range of other international bodies. Many in the public will be alarmed if Whitehall wants us to sign a health Treaty giving powers to the WHO over the NHS.

The major controlling idea in Whitehall apart from welcoming every form of global government over us is the priority afforded to net zero policies over almost all others. This has led to the accelerated decline of domestic energy with increasing reliance on unreliable and expensive imports. Far from cutting global CO 2 this I’ll judged response has increased world CO 2. It is leading to the wilding of the UK to reduce the amount of food we grow for ourselves at a time of worrying international shortages. It is often self defeating in its own terms, as we come to rely on foreign products for our needs which produce more CO2 globally than if we had made or grown them at home. It runs down too many U.K. industries as they propose we import more instead.

These are some of the things Ministers need to change.

175 Comments

  1. Mark B
    May 22, 2022

    Good morning.

    These are some of the things Ministers need to change.

    Well there is one thing that does need to change in this piece, and that is to swap the word, ‘Whitehall’ with ‘Westminster’, because none of what I have just read is remotely the fault of the Civil Serpents.

    When you have a political party that wants 50% of its MP’s to be women, irrespective of whether they are any good or not, then you will never have effective administration.

    A fish rots from the head down.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 22, 2022

      Some truth in this it is Whitehall and much of government too.

      One and half years on from exit yes, but six from the EU referendum result. The dire Cameron and the civil service in an act of gross negligence totally failed totally to prepare for both of the fairly equally likely outcomes of the EU referendum. What general would be forgiven for such negligence in a war? They would probably have been be shot.

      Some discussion the other day as to why Ann Widecombe is not in the Lords – why indeed especially when we have twice resigned and failed fools like Blunkett are in there (listen to the dope on Any Question this week. Widecombe one of the handful of people who sensibly did not to vote for Edā€™s moronic climate change act. Even Gavin Williamson to be knighted it seems!

      1. Lenart
        May 22, 2022

        How could anyone have possibly prepared for a vote to Leave? The Leave campaign promised we’d get the exact same benefits as membership with no downside only considerable upsides and also freedom to set our own rules different from the EU’s. You can no more prepare for that than you can prepare a kids’ party with unicorns and fairies

        1. Mark B
          May 22, 2022

          If I recall, it was Remainer David Cameron who refused to allow the CS to plan for a Leave result.

          If our kind host allows :

          https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/20/david-cameron-accused-gross-negligence-brexit-contingency-plans

          1. Hope
            May 22, 2022

            Head of Bow Group succinctly lies the blame with the government. As he points out govt needs shift in foreign policy to act in UK interest.

            Stop following EU or globalist left wing green group think.

        2. No Longer Anonymous
          May 22, 2022

          Lenart.

          “You can no more prepare for [Brexit] than you can for a kid’s party…”

          As opposed to what ?

          Establishment fantasies of cutting our carbon emissions whilst enduring ever increasing levels of immigration via the EU ? Expanding the EU (under the aegis of Nato) ever Eastwards without coming into deadly conflict with a nuclear power and food and energy shortages ???

          Establishment fantasies that The People would not object to their plans and would not force the Brexit vote on them in the first place ?

          They pushed too fast too hard.

          It’s not that the people bought Brexit promises… it’s that they rejected the Civil Service version of EU membership and the 2016 vote came after many warning shots that were totally ignored.

          1. SM
            May 22, 2022

            Terrific response, NLA – 100 upticks!

        3. MFD
          May 22, 2022

          Don’t exaggerate Lenart, there was no such claim. In fact I voted leave solely to prevent our country being subsumed into a European dictatorship and governed by unelected people nominated by globalists with a plan!!
          I still boycott as much of EU produce as I can, holiday in our beautiful country and pray for the day the eu collapses.

          1. DavidJ
            May 22, 2022

            Me too MFD.

          2. John Hatfield
            May 22, 2022

            Seconded MFD.

        4. Lifelogic
          May 22, 2022

          Well they did eventually plan & we did leave alas about four years later than we should have done. This thanks to abandon ship, gross negligence Cameron and the appalling, letā€™s just pretend to leave (and pusher of the insane net zero agenda) one Theresa May!

      2. formula57
        May 22, 2022

        @ Lifelogic – re A. Widdicombe, recall she joined the Brexit Party, becoming an MEP. Also a PPE graduate!

        1. Lifelogic
          May 22, 2022

          One of the few PPE graduate who seems to have survived with brain still intact – Nigel Lawson, Tony Abbottā€¦ She read Latin first at Birmingham.

      3. Denis Cooper
        May 22, 2022

        A letter just sent to the Maidenhead Advertiser, Theresa May’s local newspaper as well as mine:

        “Six years ago we were embroiled in the EU referendum campaign, with some people on both sides straying from the truth. But it was George Osborne who did most harm, with “Project Fear” predictions.

        His warning that a vote to leave the EU could collapse the economy proved false, but his forecasts of long term economic disaster if we left without a special trade deal still coloured subsequent debate.

        The EU said the “four freedoms” of its Single Market were inseparable, with uncontrolled movement applying to people as well as goods, and a customs union meant the EU running our trade policy.

        Too much for Theresa May, until Irish politicians discovered that a molehill on the land border was in fact a mountain, which could only be overcome if the UK stayed largely under EU economic control.

        Mrs May could have given that small pile of soil a kick and shown that it was just a molehill, but it suited business lobby groups that she went along with the pretence that it posed an intractable problem.

        When she could not get her proposals through Parliament Boris Johnson took over, but he too was constrained by false fears of economic catastrophe if the UK left the EU without a special trade deal.

        However the EU would only grant such a deal if he agreed to leave Northern Ireland behind under swathes of EU laws, which he did agree while declaring that it would only happen over his dead body.

        So here we are now, with the EU refusing to change a word in the Irish protocol, true to form, and threatening to get its retaliation in first if Parliament passes an Act to allow ministers to ignore parts of it.

        What a sorry story; and to be clear no blame attaches to those who voted to leave the EU, only to those who would not accept the result and set out to sabotage, and as they hoped prevent, our withdrawal.”

        1. Hope
          May 23, 2022

          +100

      4. Lifelogic
        May 22, 2022

        Matt Ridley today in the Sunday Telegraph:- ā€œFeeding the world was made possible by genetic science ā€“ we cannot stop now. The Government must put science at the heart of Britainā€™s food policies ā€“ before itā€™s too late.ā€

        Real science should replace the climate alarmist, net zero religion too.

      5. Peter
        May 22, 2022

        It is all about excuses and blaming somebody else now.

        Brexit will not get done. So if all else fails blame Brandon Lewis. Unfortunately his followers have now said that he was pushing a hard line, like Frost, but Johnson was not interested.

        Either way, nothing will happen except net zero and the great reset to please globalists and pave the way for a lucrative life for Johnson post politics.

    2. Everhopeful
      May 22, 2022

      +1
      Crazy decision.
      As bad as Cameronā€™s Turnip Taliban.
      How to alienate the voter.
      And shudder, shudder femocracy ( my female view).
      The tories have no idea.

      1. Ian Wragg
        May 22, 2022

        The election will be lost because of those failures.
        We will be stuck with a labour/lib/snp stitch up which will destroy the remainder of the country.
        Bozo is an appeaser and just wants to please Brussels, the UN and WEF.

        1. Everhopeful
          May 22, 2022

          +1
          Agree.
          Wouldnā€™t it be nice to have a govt. that cared about the electorate.

          1. Peter Parsons
            May 22, 2022

            For that you need a voting system where all the electorate matter. When 85% of the electorate are written off as irrelevant by the political parties before a campaign even starts, is it any wonder that we are constantly ignored. They don’t care about our voted because they know that they don’t need to.

          2. Peter2
            May 22, 2022

            Like the Belgium political elite cared when they spent many months after an election unable to find a resolution.
            Leaving the nation without a government.
            That’s the chaos PR creates.

          3. Peter Parsons
            May 23, 2022

            And life carried on in Belgium while the politicians sorted themselves out.

            As 2017 proved in the UK, chaos is created by politicians, not voting systems.

          4. Peter2
            May 23, 2022

            “life” carried on…yes of course it did Peter
            But government was paralysed.
            Strong majorities create strong government

          5. Peter Parsons
            May 24, 2022

            What, like what the UK has now?

            FPTP creates a situation where a small minority of voters are very important and get all the focus and attention and the rest of us are ignored as irrelevant. The politicians don’t care about us or our votes because they know they don’t need to. When millions have no say by design, how is that a modern democracy?

          6. Peter2
            May 24, 2022

            Odd that the system you dislike returns different governments and even some coalitions
            Better than Belgium’s chaos.

    3. Lifelogic
      May 22, 2022

      In my opinion we have far too few MPs with any understanding of STEM subjects and one disadvantage of moving to 50/50 male female is this is likely to get even worse as only about 20% of Stem undergraduates are female currently. Very few indeed in Physics, Engineering, Computer Studies, Maths…

      Will this proportional (discrimination) rule stop with just gender or be extended to race, sexuality, disabilities, transgender people, religions… Can we please just elect the best and most competent people for the job regardless?

      1. Original Richard
        May 22, 2022

        Lifelogic :

        Diversity is a device hatched up by Marxists to stamp out meritocracy, one of the enlightened Westā€™s most powerful tools for equality and prosperity.

      2. Everhopeful
        May 22, 2022

        Oh goodness me!
        Heaven forfend that they should do anything SENSIBLE like that.
        No, no! It has to be world turned upside down.
        Nothing else will do.

      3. L Jones
        May 22, 2022

        It may not make any difference. It seems many MPs are not qualified for the position they hold (eg Secretary of State for Health with a PPE – though perhaps it was thought by those with classics degrees that this stands for Personal Protective Equipment, and therefore is a qualification). No doubt they lean heavily on their civil servants – after all, why keep a dog and bark yourself?

    4. IanT
      May 22, 2022

      I care not whether our MPs are male or female – provided they are competent (e.g. can define what a “woman” is in terms that I can both understand and believe)

      1. Mark B
        May 22, 2022

        +1

      2. Lifelogic
        May 22, 2022

        Some half competent ministers would be a massive improvement.

    5. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 23, 2022

      I love the use of the word “culture”.

      As if, for one moment, the Tories’ new voters have even the feeblest beginnings of an insight as to what that word means.

  2. Sea_Warrior
    May 22, 2022

    Could I ask, Sir John, for your thoughts, next week, on just how the conservatives in Australia managed to lose the election yesterday.

    1. BOF
      May 22, 2022

      Might I suggest SW, that they have lost by getting rid of sound conservative leadership and not being conservative. Sound familiar? Too close for comfort?

      1. Sharon
        May 22, 2022

        BOF, exactlyā€¦ that could so easily happen here!

        We seem to have a cult at global level that is luring too many governments under their spell.

        Here we have weak ministers as a left over of being under the EU cult (because they are, the way they behave) for too many years, being told they couldnā€™t do this or that because itā€™s against EU law. And civil servants, were/are wholly on boardā€¦

        And then thereā€™s the remainers Lords and Co being funded, Iā€™ve no doubt, to talk down Brexit at every opportunity,

        1. Timaction
          May 22, 2022

          So when are the fake conservative Tory’s going to take action? Never.

          1. Bill B.
            May 22, 2022

            About the Australian election: Johnson doesn’t read or understand the documents put in front of him. There is no chance he’ll read the writing on the wall.

      2. Lifelogic
        May 22, 2022

        +1

      3. Everhopeful
        May 22, 2022

        +many
        Spot on!

      4. Sea_Warrior
        May 22, 2022

        My thoughts too, BOF. I’ve just been looking at some of the punditry over at the Australian Sky News and that seems to be their verdict. The swing to ‘independents’ also seems to have been a big factor.

      5. Pauline Baxter
        May 22, 2022

        BOF +1
        Very familiar.

    2. Lifelogic
      May 22, 2022

      They foolishly moved to support the mad climate alarmist religion for one and plus their total incompetence in dealing with Covid.

      1. Pauline Baxter
        May 22, 2022

        Lifelogic. That sounds VERY VERY familiar!

    3. Lifelogic
      May 22, 2022

      The voters thought they might as well have some real, hard line, green crap pushing socialists rather than just the basic green crap pushing socialists. Plus the appalling mishandling of Covid in Australia.

    4. hefner
      May 22, 2022

      Looking at disasterassist.gov.au and counting the number of flooding events and bushfires important enough to create some damage and require some state intervention:
      In the five years from April 2017, 104 flooding incidents and 72 bushfires.
      Could it be that there might be a connection between what the members of the public perceive, the (in)action of the previous government, and the recent vote? I wonder.

      see also naturaldisaster.royalcommission.gov.au

      1. Peter2
        May 22, 2022

        Is that really a significant number for a nation the size of Australia?
        Is those figures you present actually showing a significant increase in frequency compared to decades ago?

    5. Pominoz
      May 22, 2022

      Sea Warrior,

      Preferential voting system resulted in Labour winning with 32% of the primary vote whilst the conservatives had 35%. A massively biased MSM never questioned the gaffes and disastrous policies of the left and the first act of the new government is to discriminate positively for the Aboriginals by amendment of the constitution. Having said that, Scott Morrison destroyed his chances by cosying up to Boris at the Glasgow climate summit. Absolutely ridiculous for a nation with vast quantities of fossil fuels which they will continue to supply to those countries sensible enough to use it.

      No doubt Albanese and Biden will have a most stimulating conversation in Tokyo tomorrow!

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 23, 2022

        You didn’t complain when Trump lost the popular vote but still became president.

        What changed?

        1. Pominoz
          May 24, 2022

          NLH
          What Changed?
          The Dems rigged the next election so that their guy could become President without needing to actually win any genuine vote count.

  3. Peter Wood
    May 22, 2022

    Good Morning Sir J.,

    A lovely ‘best practices’ piece when everybody does their best. A benign government working for the betterment of those it governs. Shouldn’t promulgation of these principles be the responsibility of the leader of such a government, along with honesty and decency? Such principles should be clear by example, front and center, day in day out.
    Remind me again who the leader of our government is…

    1. margaret brandreth-jones
      May 22, 2022

      Challenging the status Quo is always difficult. Ministers and Civil Servants have worked hard and had a little luck to get where they are. They got their posts on what they believed and had achieved ( how ever little it seems to us). If employees put a spanner in the works ,it could possibly trigger the need to ‘spend more time with the family.’
      Restocking our waters with fish should be started as soon as possible. It take s a long time to breed and stay in the surrounding waters for a continuing stock which could be well fished . We don’t only have competition from those who claim the areas for themselves , we also have competition from sea birds and bigger fish.

  4. Bloke
    May 22, 2022

    The UK should be led by the authority of its leader, who presently has a substantive majority in parliament.

    Ministers who do not follow that lead should be replaced with those who do. Whips discipline errant MPs.. Civil servants should do as Ministers instruct or be more easily removed to other roles, or penalised.

    Any collective group can expose, oppose and discipline those in authority who abuse their position or are set on a damaging course where they have evidence and enough others in support.

    Such matters should be much more open to remedy. Leading to better starts at the PM. Often he’s not.

    1. Shirley M
      May 22, 2022

      Agreed. Parliament, and indeed the political parties themselves, tolerate those politicians that tried to destroy democracy in the UK. Maybe they are even encouraged to go against the electorate by some party leaders? MP’s did not have to agree with the result, but they should have accepted democracy by accepting the electorates choice and worked to get the best deal for the UK. The majority worked to stop Brexit and/or to seriously damaged the UK’s negotiating power and hand that power to the EU. The electorate got rid of a few of these undemocratic scumbags, but too many remain, and are tolerated by their respective parties or maybe even welcomed? This should amount to treason!

      It appears that MP’s fiddling their expenses is taken more seriously than deliberately damaging the UK and its democracy.

  5. DOM
    May 22, 2022

    So where exactly does the seat of power reside in the British political system if it doesn’t rest with the elected PM of the day as this piece appears to imply?

    Either John is deflecting blame onto others for his party’s utterly appalling appeasement of the progressive left or an admission that the constitutional powers of the elected (MP) PM of the day are now of limited scope.

    1. Everhopeful
      May 22, 2022

      +many
      Exactly.

  6. Fedupsoutherner
    May 22, 2022

    The more I read this diary and your entries John the more I think your party is deliberately wrecking the UK. There is NO good news and everything your party does is to the detriment of our nation and it’s people. You couldn’t blame us for turning our backs on the Conservative party at the next election. Please get Boris to call an early one.

    1. Sharon
      May 22, 2022

      Thereā€™s an author who writes for UK Column, Iain Davies, who shows a chart as to the hierarchy of governance. National government is the third level down.

      I find this website a bit depressing as it proves what we are witnessing is deliberate and looking at the dates some of the articles were written, has been building up and accelerating for some time.

      1. Donna
        May 22, 2022

        Mandelson announced about 15 years ago that the age of democracy was over. He should know ….. Blair did more than any previous PM (except, arguably, Heath) to ensure that was the case.

      2. Everhopeful
        May 22, 2022

        And theyā€™ve been warning for a long time.
        They were banned from YouTube for truth telling.

    2. Everhopeful
      May 22, 2022

      +1
      Entirely agree.
      The Great Reset or to hand us exhausted, poor and defeated back to the EU?

  7. MFD
    May 22, 2022

    Sir, I find it perverse that OUR government seek to bring in legislation to protect the eu single market. That is their business not ours, we must spend our time more in the interests of Great Britain , not our enemies and competitors !

    1. X-Tory
      May 22, 2022

      I agree, but even our host, who is normally sensible on EU matters, thinks that we should be helping the EU which hates us and is trying to harm us. WHY??? We have ZERO interest in protecting their single market. Protect it from WHAT, exactly? If you need to ‘protect’ something it implies that it is in danger, but how do UK-made goods or produce endanger the EU? Our standards may increasingly diverge from those in the EU, but that does NOT mean they are any worse. So talk of needing to ‘protect’ the single market is offensive and abusive to the UK and to our standards.

      We want to have a system of mutual recognition, so that we accept EU standards and they accept ours. That way there is no need for any checks and goods and produce can move freely between the UK and the EU, making trading easier for all concerned. So if this is what we want why don’t we just IMPOSE it in Ireland, where WE have control, by the simple expedient of lifting all checks and controls, both East/West (between GB and NI) and North/South (between NI and Eire). We voted to Take Back Control. A patriotic government would now do so!!

      1. Jason
        May 22, 2022

        X-tory, The system of mutual recognition that you would like is what we already had when we were part of the EU and now you want it all back again ‘ mutual recognition with free trade – no checks’ the works! we had it all before but we threw it away –

        Then you say – why don’t we just impose it on Ireland where we have control – but I say – what control? where?

  8. turboterrier
    May 22, 2022

    The civil and public services have for decades been heavily influenced by EU laws and processes, but so have our politicians.
    As soon as the referendum was won by the leave vote all of the political parties should have had a total rethink on the skills, experience and commitment that was going to be required for the new non EU order by our politicians.
    Too little has been done to show not only the EU but the rest of the world GB plc was under totally new management.
    They see too many key areas still appearing to be operated with very little change. As the Scots say ” you can only piss with what you got” but too many are to be found wanting and the leadership has to be included in that group. Massive seismic change across the whole of parliament is required.

    1. DavidJ
      May 22, 2022

      + many

  9. Nigl
    May 22, 2022

    In the image of Boris, this government thinks it can get away with talking a good game. Unfortunately no action follows and the electorate has given up waiting or indeed believing that anything will change.

    We have known that transport and education are controlled by hard line unions for decades.

    Three year into a government with an 80 seat majority, it is spinning that it is thinking about taking action.

    Big headlines about migrants to Rwanda. Tens of thousands coming in. How many being sent to Africa. Maybe a few hundred.

    I rest my case.

    1. DavidJ
      May 22, 2022

      +1

  10. Lifelogic
    May 22, 2022

    Ed Milibandā€™s, Theresa May’s and now Kwateng/Boris/Carrie’s net zero war on CO2 is vastly expensive, hugely damaging & totally deluded.

    This as:-
    1. The solutions being pushed by this government (wind, solar, bio, electric vehicles, walking, cycling, public transport, heat pumps, hydrogen, pushing energy intensive industries overseas…) save virtually no worldwide CO2 anyway. Pushing new EV cars and vehicles actually increases CO2 in general.
    2. To reduce CO2 requires worldwide cooperation with China, Russia, India… and this simply will not happen.
    3. The effects of CO2 on the climate have anyway clearly been hugely exaggerated, it is probably (on balance) a net benefit to have a little more CO2 (it greens the planet) and even to be slightly warmer.

    Anyone of these statement being true is sufficient to make the policy entirely pointless and all three of these seem to be true to me. The policy is not even politically popular and does huge economic harm. But still this damaging religion and virtue signalling group think continues in government and number 10. But then had I studies Classics, PPE, Divinity, History or Law rather than Maths/Physics & Electronic Engineering perhaps I would understand better!

    1. Everhopeful
      May 22, 2022

      +many
      To me, the future looks like a nightmare.
      But there is nowhere to hide.
      One aspect of the horror has caught up with people in that N Yorks village and they are speaking and thinking very candidly. Whereas in other places women gather tins and toothpaste for distribution.
      Soon however, the nightmare of greencr*p and overcrowding will affect everyone.
      And what will poor Johnson do then? Poor thing!

    2. Lifelogic
      May 22, 2022

      The Sunday Times suggest the government is to go ahead with a windfall tax on the oil and gas companies. Absolutely moronic damaging socialism from Sunak let us hope he is stopped. Even waffle about it being OK if it is spent on “clean energy” whatever that is!

      Reply That paper also lies today about me, wrongly alleging I am warming to the idea of a windfall tax!

      1. graham1946
        May 22, 2022

        No, no windfall tax to warn the companies not to abuse the public and keep prices reasonable.. Encourage them Sir John, we love being ripped off by your friends and seeing our pensioners and poor being fleeced on the altar of excess profits which are not being and will never be invested. They said any windfall tax would not affect investment and are spending on, among other things, buying back and cancelling their shares, to push prices up even further and ensure another bonus bonanza next year. The Tories truly are the nasty party again, their only belief is money, but to ensure it is kept away from the ordinary people. Pensions and benefits at 3 percent whilst inflation running at 11 per cent on RPI and everyone can see that is an underestimate. And you truly believe we are going to vote for it again? Might just as well have Labour in, as the public in a recent survey said they believed they were more financially competent now than the Tories! Some achievement which can only get worse.

        1. Pauline Baxter
          May 22, 2022

          graham1946.
          Don’t be daft man. How could a windfall tax warn the companies not to abuse the public.
          I believe Sir John himself suggested, much better to ensure those profits were invested in developing our own North Sea oil.

          1. graham1946
            May 23, 2022

            Firstly the excess profits are not and will not be invested, as I have said. North Sea Oil investment is decided years in advance and based on normal trading conditions, the excess being ripped off are not those. I’ve said where they are going. A windfall tax will warn companies to keep prices reasonable and not to fleece the public, by removing the excess profits and using them to refund the abused. If they continue, we could do it again. Are you really unable to see that? I take it you are quite happy with the energy price increases now and to come in October. I’m not. I also hate to see people unable to heat or eat whilst a few get even richer by taking them to the cleaners when it is not necessary.
            Don’t be daft woman.

        2. graham1946
          May 23, 2022

          Interesting is that the shares on the FTSE in general are falling whereas the oil and gas companies are rising by up to 14 percent, doing exactly what I said they would do, to provide even bigger bonuses for the managers in future. Nothing to do with rip off prices?

      2. MFD
        May 22, 2022

        Not surprising Sir John, the msm have the plans to push for their globalist masters irrespective of the fact they tell lies.

        1. Pauline Baxter
          May 22, 2022

          MFD.
          Yes the msm have switched masters. It was the EU. Now the Globalists.

        2. graham1946
          May 22, 2022

          No it is the globalists the government are protecting excess profits for.

    3. Original Richard
      May 22, 2022

      Lifelogic :

      I agree completely.

      The BEIS Net Zero Strategy is :

      1) Pointless as we currently contribute just 1% to global man-made CO2 emissions.

      2) Unnecessary as there is no ā€œclimate crisisā€ (increase in extreme weather events) or catastrophic global warming (just 0.15 degrees C per DECADE).

      The history of global temperature and CO2 concentration shows no correlation. In fact, man-made CO2 may even be saving the planet as CO2 levels have dropped 90% in the last 150 million years and at 400ppm is now very close to the 150ppm below which plants cannot grow.

      3) Illogical and irrational to base our energy on low density, weather dependent, intermittent and very expensive wind instead of high energy density, weather independent, reliable, affordable nuclear, which is also low carbon. Also technologically impossible as there is no economic non-fossil fuel backup for grid stability and long-term storage.

      4) Economically damaging as food production and manufacturing will move abroad to take advantage of cheaper fuel costs. Net Zero will make us all poorer.

      5) Socially damaging as the Net Zero Strategy pathways to 2050 include fuel, food and travel rationing and restrictions which will cause increased crime and social instability. Smart meters will control rolling blackouts and we have already been warned not to expect to be able to own a car.

      6) Increased dependence upon foreign states, in many cases hostile, for our food, goods and energy making us militarily weak.

      How can making us dependent upon China for our wind turbines, solar panels and batteries make our energy and nation secure?

    4. Dave Andrews
      May 22, 2022

      For an example of the folly of green religion, look at Sri Lanka. Their government decided the country should go organic and banned chemical fertilisers. The country which had been self-sufficient in rice production then had to start importing at great expense, as well as crushing its tea and rubber exports.
      The government then U-turned on the ban, but not after it was too late to prevent cancelling school exams through lack of paper (no money to import it), power cuts 6 to 13 hours a day, no Paracetamol, fuel and gas shortages, families having to cook outdoors on firewood even if they can collect meagre rations for a meal.
      What do you know, there are people in this country who want the UK to follow their lead.

      1. Lifelogic
        May 22, 2022

        +1

      2. Pauline Baxter
        May 22, 2022

        Dave. I’m sorry about Sri Lanka.
        But I’d still rather WE spread animal muck on our fields as much as possible rather than chemical fertilizers.
        No need to go overboard on the issue but apart from the smell I’ve heard of no harmful effects from muck.
        Nor have I heard proof that chemical fertilizers increase yields, without harmful side effects.
        Strongly suspect Sri Lanka did not have any muck. So naturally yields would fall, without either.

    5. DavidJ
      May 22, 2022

      Absolutely spot on LL but lets remember that the ultimate objective of those globalists’ rules is a world government over which we will have no control, not that we have sufficient control over our own government now.

  11. Gary Megson
    May 22, 2022

    Of course there is a desire to stay close to EU rules. The EU is by far our biggest trading partner, and following its rules makes good economic and political sense. You Brexiters claimed we could take back control and set our own rules but that hasn’t happened because no exporter or importer wants UK-specific rules, because they simply then become barriers to trade. You got your Brexit – well done! – but each day that goes by underlines how utterly pointless and self-defeating it is. You won, get over it

    1. Shirley M
      May 22, 2022

      The largest proportion of UK businesses do not trade with the EU. Why should they have to suffer all the cost and inconvenience of EU laws? Complying with trading laws is a very different beast to complying with ALL EU laws.

      1. a-tracy
        May 22, 2022

        Facts4eu say 6 Oct 2020 ā€” 99.3% of all UK businesses do NOT export goods to the EU Ā· Even after excluding sole traders, the picture is similar Ā· 97.2%.

        Of the 0.7% surely they are all compliant with all of the EU regulations anyway Gary?

        12 Apr 2016 ā€” Britain Stronger in Europe says: “Over 200,000 UK businesses trade with EU countries out of 5.4 million (figure from DBIS). Source BBC reality check of figures from Britain stronger in Europe. I wonder how many of those 200,000 are still trading now? Arenā€™t we supposed to have a deal at the cost of upset in Northern Ireland to ensure these businesses could trade, have Europe not followed through on their side of that deal?

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 23, 2022

        No, the millions of one-man businesses – self employed tradesfolk – generally do not trade with the European Union.

        Neither do the millions who holiday in Ibiza, or in the Costa Del Sol go there to perform virtuoso classical piano recitals.

        Your point is what, exactly?

        1. Peter2
          May 24, 2022

          The point NHL is what Shirley M said in the post above.

        2. a-tracy
          May 24, 2022

          The British tourist is the consumer not the provider, I think people are now getting the message that Spain doesn’t want Brits there, it is the PROVIDER that has to comply with the EU laws in providing the service or product.

          I wonder how many of the companies that are stated in that 200,000 as trading with the EU were Northern Irish and also how many of them were mainly exporting to Ireland?

    2. Denis Cooper
      May 22, 2022

      The same nonsense that Theresa May came out with on March 2 2018 in her Mansion House speech.

      https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-our-future-economic-partnership-with-the-european-union

      “… businesses who export to the EU tell us that it is strongly in their interest to have a single set of regulatory standards that mean they can sell into the UK and EU markets … ”

      She forgot to insert these words: “the 8% of”. Or possibly only: “the 0.7% of”. From April 2021:

      https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/04/01/dame-lucy-is-still-ensuring-continuity-of-government/#comment-1219537

      “Maybe your bit of the UK economy needs close alignment with EU rules, but then even if you are telling the truth you are in a small minority of all the businesses that comprise the UK economy.

      A very small minority, if sole traders are included:

      https://facts4eu.org/news/2020_oct_truth_about_UK_exporters

      ā€œ99.3% of all UK businesses do NOT export to the EUā€

      Some would be more generous to you in their estimates, but still say:

      https://briefingsforbritain.co.uk/the-government-should-ignore-the-special-pleading-from-business-by-john-longworth/

      ā€œThe Government should ignore the special pleading from businessā€

      ā€œOnly 8% of UK businesses export to the EU. These exports represent just 13% of the economy. In fact, 17% of the economy is related to exports to the rest of the world and 70% is domestic.ā€

      I expect you have got used to the idea that the whole of the UK economy should be run for the convenience of the small minority of businesses which trade with the EU, but that may no longer be the case.”

      1. Dave Andrews
        May 22, 2022

        We export to the EU and the rest of the world, and I tell you trade barriers are as nothing compared to the barriers put up by government – to stifle British business with excessive tax and maintain policies to put housing costs nearly out of reach of ordinary workers.

    3. Peter2
      May 22, 2022

      Another post by someone (Gary) who has never exported nor imported.
      Over 80% of businesses trade just within the UK and never export.
      Of the rest they are quite capable of producing goods that meet the rules and regulations that apply in every different national market they supply into.
      If you supply America there are different requirements to Canada.
      Even in Europe there are many different requirements between EU member nations.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 23, 2022

        See above.

        1. Peter2
          May 24, 2022

          Yes see above where Shirley and a-tracy demolished your argument.

    4. Pauline Baxter
      May 22, 2022

      Gary Megson.
      As usual you are talking out of your hat.
      Even if you are somehow stuck in a time warp you are still talking nonsense.
      The EU was NOT our biggest trading partner prior to brexit or even the referendum.
      In fact I don’t think it was when Heath took us into the EEC.
      More likely, the Commonwealth, EFTA and emerging African Nations (particularly South Africa and Rhodesia).

      1. hefner
        May 26, 2022

        UK Exports 2016: EU: Ā£235.8 bn, RoW Ā£284.1 bn (USA: Ā£99.6 bn, China Ā£42.3 bn, ā€¦)
        UK Imports 2016: EU: Ā£318 bn, RoW Ā£243 bn (USA: Ā£66.3 bn, China Ā£42.3 bn, ā€¦)

        All figures available from the ons.gov.uk ā€˜Who does the UK trade with?ā€™

        Website accessible to anybody curious enough to check and not wanting to write things as funny as ā€˜more likely the Commonwealth, EFTA and emerging African Nations ā€¦ā€™.

        And this person is thinking she is not ā€˜talking out of her hatā€™. What a laugh, this website. As Alice would say: curiouser and curiouser.
        Or for the religiously inclined, Matthew 5:3 ā€¦

    5. Mike Wilson
      May 22, 2022

      Indeed. It is amazing how we manage to trade with the USA. How on earth do we manage that?

  12. IanT
    May 22, 2022

    Well I’ll vote for you Sir John – but until many have good reason to believe that your views are shared by this Government – then I’m afraid the Conservative Party is going to do very badly at the next election.

    1. Timaction
      May 22, 2022

      I agree. Less and less conservatives in the Green, socialist Tory’s.

  13. Everhopeful
    May 22, 2022

    But who is In overall control?
    It seems that Johnson is a mere puppet of global bodies who spends his time thinking up the most hurtful new laws to both carry out their bidding and make our lives as awful as possible.
    Ohā€¦and the crackpot laws donā€™t apply to him!

  14. Maylor
    May 22, 2022

    I read the other day that the government’s much heralded Rwanda re-settlement programme has gone adrift due to legal challenges from human rights lawyers.

    This was to be expected given we have been unable to deport rapists and other serious criminals because of the HR Act – so why did the government not foresee this and make provision ? They pushed the covid acts through Parliament at lightening speed.

    Yet again, they have made themselves look like fools and will lose trust from the public as this appears to be one of their few popular policies.

    I expect that civil servants will get the blame but the clue to the real culprit is in the name of those that they are trying to blame = servant. As far as I am aware, like everybody else, civil servants have to obey the law.

    1. Shirley M
      May 22, 2022

      This government never intended Rwanda to be a solution. They were just appeasing the electorate and now they will try to blame others for its failure. We were not fooled, and we know where the blame lies!

    2. turboterrier
      May 22, 2022

      Mayor
      As a short term action to bypass all the legal challanges, send them to the South Alantic. When I last checked the Falklands is part of Britain. Would the legal sharks be able to stop them from being sent to Scotland, Wales and Ireland if the dingy invaders decided they did not want to go there.
      It would be a good investment opportunity for the Falklands to become a big processing centre not only for the UK but other countries with the same problems. It least the money spent stays within our community and can be accounted for.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 24, 2022

      “Human rights lawyers” = “lawyers”

      Don’t you think that people should have a right to representation under the law simply as it is?

      Do you want to lose all fourteen of your human rights?

      Can you even list them?

  15. Bob Dixon
    May 22, 2022

    Should only take 20 years!

  16. Jack
    May 22, 2022

    If we had the international structures in place and the trading relationships like we had in the 1960’s the 1970’s , if we had a merchant navy anymore with shipping agents in situ at the four corners of the world – like we used to have, then I would say ‘yes’ we can make a go of brexit – but we don’t – and we can’t.

    There is no doubt in the minds of a lot of thinking people that Brexit was a huge mistake – and now we have lost another valued friend in Morrison of Australia – also we are about to offend an American caucus party visiting out of zeal to bend over backwards to please a NI Unionist minority as if they were the only thing that matters in NI or Ireland. If we proceed along these lines we are only digging deeper into the mire of bogged down isolation and Macron of France hasn’t even stirred himself yet. You must know that Boris Johnson and his team is held with little respect around the world because of his disrespect for laws and norms and we are really going nowhere without proper leadership in today’s world. We need to get back to old fashioned ways of decency, respect and honesty in our dealings.

    1. Everhopeful
      May 22, 2022

      Splendid isolation = SPLENDID!

    2. graham1946
      May 22, 2022

      You are harking back to the 60’s and 70’s. That was years before the EU. Everything you describe has been destroyed since we joined the so called ‘Common Market’ and we spent hundreds of millions in the interim to achieve a big deficit in our trade and be ruled by foreigners who never had any regard for us. We owe the Americans no respect for their views on Northern Ireland. For years they held rallies to raise funds for the IRA to bomb us. The know nothing except a misty eyed romantic idea about it. Unionists are not the minority. If the Republicans can muster a majority, they can go with our blessing. I doubt the Republic could afford such a drag anchor on their economy.

    3. hefner
      May 22, 2022

      I wonder: we were told numerous times on this blog that the SNP tail would be wagging the Red Labour dog if it were ever to approach power. Now where is the brilliant logical analyst commenting on the DUP tail wagging the Conservative dog?

      1. Peter2
        May 22, 2022

        We’re we told that numerous times hefner?
        Or is your memory playing tricks?

      2. Marie
        May 22, 2022

        Lifelogicā€™s comments often have this type of warnings.

        1. Peter2
          May 23, 2022

          Marie
          LL occasionally mentions that there could be a future parliament where Labour and the SNP join together in a pact to create an overall majority.
          But that is different to what hefner was claiming because the Conservatives currently have a huge majority on their own.

    4. Mike Wilson
      May 22, 2022

      In the minds of ā€˜thinking peopleā€™ Brexit was a higher mistake. Well, I think. I think a lot. I think being one the EU was a big mistake. You might that being in a trade relationship with a massive trade deficit is a good thing. I canā€™t see it myself. I would like us to be a lot more self sufficient.

  17. John McDonald
    May 22, 2022

    So “Yes Minister ” was not fiction but a documentary. But all the blame can’t be put on the Civil Service. We have too many “Professional” Politicians and Civil Servants in White Hall and Westminster with no actual working experience outside these two Political institutions, particularly in science and engineering.
    We have a big problem if a Minster for something does not understand the basics of the something and has to be advised by Civil Servant who also does not understand or is politically movated and there is the excuse to call in consultants at great expense. And their recommendations carried out without the basic understanding to make a judgment on them.

  18. […] Read more about Ministers and Whitehall culture […]

  19. Brian Tomkinson
    May 22, 2022

    JR :”Many in the public will be alarmed if Whitehall wants us to sign a health Treaty giving powers to the WHO over the NHS.”
    What is proposed will not just give powers to the WHO over the NHS but over government actions in response to what the WHO declares as a pandemic. In other words lockdowns and mandatory vaccinations and all at the insistence of an unelected, unaccountable and incompetent organisation heavily influenced by China. This is totally unacceptable. MPs say the government would never do such a thing but it has never been debated and most of the public are in blissful ignorance of what future tortures they face. Remember, too, that this government signed up to the Northern Ireland Protocol and now claims they didn’t foresee the consequences!!
    The worst government and House of Commons in my lifetime.

    1. Everhopeful
      May 22, 2022

      +agree
      141,541 managed to rouse themselves to sign the online petition against the Treaty.
      https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614335

    2. Mark B
      May 22, 2022

      If the government claims is did not foresee the consequences of signing the NIP but our kind host did and would not vote for it, then one must conclude that either the government or our kind host is lying.

    3. turboterrier
      May 22, 2022

      Brian Tomkinson
      Well said Brian you are definitely not alone on your last sentence, it’s not just terrible it’s embarrassing.

    4. Pauline Baxter
      May 22, 2022

      Brian Tompkinson.
      Yes! I meant to pick up that point. J.R. made a mistake in that sentence. The W.H.O. treaty would put them in control of just about every aspect of the U.K. actions.
      Whenever, as you say, W.H.O. decide to declare a pandemic.

  20. Peter from Leeds
    May 22, 2022

    There is currently a very clear example of a country that decided just a year ago to embrace the “green agenda” by banning all chemical fertilizers, weed killers, pesticides, fungicides etc..

    Sri Lanka.

    Enough said.

    1. graham1946
      May 22, 2022

      I think their weather is a bit different to ours. India has had a massive crop failure in wheat because of freak weather. Our soils are being killed by artificials, so a mixture would be better before we turn into an American style dust bowl.

  21. Barbara Fairweather
    May 22, 2022

    I hope your views are expressed in Parliament and that you tell them these are also the views of Conservative voters. We are utterly dejected

  22. MPC
    May 22, 2022

    Itā€™s Boris Johnson who wants, and is leading, the destruction of our way of life, rather than Whitehall or Ministers.

    1. Shirley M
      May 22, 2022

      Also, having surrounded himself with yes-men, there is no alternative or sensible voice to be heard among the cabinet.

    2. Mark B
      May 22, 2022

      +1

  23. agricola
    May 22, 2022

    Not an impossible situation SJR. Above a certain level identify the nay sayers. A P45 or sidways promotion to less damaging positions and the message will percolate to lower levels. Carrying a fifth column is not acceptable. My best guess is that weakness at ministerial level and lack of support from Downing Street are the reasons why all the ommissions you list have dragged on inconclusively for the past 18 months. Change is now imperative if conzservatism is to retain power after 2024.

  24. R.Grange
    May 22, 2022

    Yes Sir John, I am indeed alarmed that the British government has so far expressed no reservations about the WHO’s plan to give it control over the NHS and public health policy in this country. But I’ve given up looking to Westminster for sensible discussion of future policy directions. Might I recommend instead that your readers acquaint themselves as I did with the current Davos 2022 programme:
    https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_AM22_Programme.pdf
    This may give us a better sense of the direction of travel than anything we get from politicians and civil servants in this country. And I find it far from reassuring.

    1. Donna
      May 22, 2022

      Remind me who elected Klaus Schwab and most of the delegates who are seeking to control our country. I can’t seem to find any record of it.

    2. hefner
      May 22, 2022

      RG, if you can make ā€˜a better sense of the direction of travelā€™ from the WEF programmeā€™s 90 pages, I guess you must be one relishing a dish just by looking at a menu.

      1. R.Grange
        May 23, 2022

        You need to think about it too, not just look at it.

    3. Sharon
      May 22, 2022

      I love the bit about re-building trust! Oh the irony!

      ā€œWorld leaders face losing trustā€¦.ā€ I wonder why? Could it be all the lies, concealing of information, mis-leading data, crashing of economies, the authoritarian approach to the pandemic etc. etc

      Bit late, mate!

  25. formula57
    May 22, 2022

    O/T – Concerning this site, I am impressed and delighted to find that the spell checker is no longer set to American English but to the honest and true version. Progress in action. šŸ™‚

  26. Donna
    May 22, 2022

    Once again, Sir John has correctly identified the main problems this Not-a-Conservative-Government needs to remedy. And once again, the Socialist Eco Loonies in Government will ignore him.

    Johnson and his bunch of lefties, have forgotten or mis-understood the strapline of the Leave campaign which was “Take Back Control. ”

    We didn’t mean “Take Back Control from the EU” and then return to business as usual and comply with all the EU’s rules AND those globalist policies handed down by the UN/WEF/WHO etc.

    We meant “Take Back Control from the EU AND the British Establishment which did everything it could to try and overturn the result of the Referendum.”

    Johnson was given an 80 seat majority and had two jobs: deliver Brexit and reform our governmental institutions, starting with the Civil Service. He has refused to do it; instead we got BRINO+ (with NI and the fishing industry betrayed, again) and then left-wing/globalist and Eco Loony policies shoved down our throats.

    As far as I’m concerned, being elected to lead a Conservative Government and then delivering left-wing policies is electoral fraud. I can’t think of a single reason why I’d bother to hold my nose and vote to be CONNED again.

  27. Everhopeful
    May 22, 2022

    Wow!
    PP has just tweeted remembering Lee Rigby who was murdered this day in 2013.
    You know, the one nobody ever spoke of.
    Probably rather cynical of her politically but neverthelessā€¦.
    Now letā€™s talk about poor Mr Amessā€¦ā€¦

  28. William Long
    May 22, 2022

    Clearly these are things that Ministers need to change, but I think a bigger question than the attitude of the Civil Servants, which is really only to be expected, is: do Ministers really want to change them?
    Every sign that I have seen is that Ministers in this Government, with very few exceptions, are only too happy to take the line of least resistance and go along with what their officials are telling them to do. Some, and the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is a prime example, seem not just to be going along with it, but have grasped the ‘Official’ line with great enthusiasm and do all they can to promote it.
    I am afraid, Sir John, in this instance you are blaming the wrong people. In most cases Civil Servants appear to be operating in a vacuum of leadership, and in this situation it is hardly surprising that they choose to go their own way.

  29. a-tracy
    May 22, 2022

    March 2021 it was announced 8 new Freeport had the green light to open, how many of them have your government opened? If any have opened what have they produced? What are ministers dithering around at its been over a year and was in process long before that.
    Today the papers are telling us Spain is walking all over us and British products exported at a cost of ā‚¬180 have an extra duty of ā‚¬160 added on ? If this is true and its in print so one would assume the editor got their reporter to check their facts, what is this deal Boris got? This same article said Spain wouldnā€™t accept British driving licences for residents – could one paper please expose all of the anti-British Spanish actions so that the people can take their own direct action if the government is too ineffective to do so. Tell us what we import from Spain? Do we whack Zara and Desigual (isnā€™t O2 Spanish – British Telecom should get their advertising out with support Britain choose BT headquartered in the UK for your mobile contracts) with these duty costs? I believe in an even trade agreement not this.
    Who is the Minister who should answer Pelosi in the press in a firm manner for her threats?
    We are told a charity is stopping Priti Patel going through with her removal actions, which charity? Who is funding this Charity? How come we only ever get one half of a negative story against this government and no rebuttal? Many British people canā€™t get legal aid, yet anyone that rocks up seems to get legal aid for all manner of claims.

    1. Shirley M
      May 22, 2022

      +100 a-tracy – the UK comes a very poor second in the priorities of this government.

    2. hefner
      May 22, 2022

      Headless chicken, arenā€™t you?

      People can get from any UK Post Office an International Driving Permit for Ā£5.50, valid up to three years on presentation of the original driverā€™s license.
      It allows one to drive in most countries for up to one year, more than enough time I would think for one to be able to exchange such an IDP with a proper Driving License of the country of residence.

      And that applies to most EU countries not only to Spain.

      As for your other questions, follow PCā€™s advice: do your own research ā€¦

      1. a-tracy
        May 22, 2022

        Not headless at all hefner, strange insult I must be on to something. Here is the quote I read:
        Ā«Ā From May 1, Britons living in Spain were unable to use their UK driving licence on roads in the country. A Foreign Office spokesman said: “An agreement to swap UK driving licences for Spanish licences has not yet been reached.Ā Ā». I wonder if Spaniards in Britain have to do the same I doubt it. Iā€™ll be making my own little protest with Spain, I know lots of people switching their holiday plans to Portugal and other more Brit friendly locations.

        It is up to John whether he answers my questions or not, they were not directed at you, feel free to ignore them lol. Previously the government has made a positive thing about Freeportā€™s and Iā€™m interested if there is any positive news about them because itā€™s interesting donā€™t you think?

    3. acorn
      May 22, 2022

      The post Brexit UK Global Tariff (WTO registered), has basically made UK Freeports not worth much if anything. Importing components and ingredients duty free to manufacture goods; only paying the import tariff on finished goods when they are exported into the UK, will create very little import tax ā€œwedgeā€ (tariff inversion).

      1. a-tracy
        May 22, 2022

        Acorn, how does this impact on things manufactured here and sold within the UK? Are you saying there is no saving there and the manufacturer isnā€™t incentivised?

        I actually think the government should get on and increase the number of Kia cars the UK can import, incentivise Kia and other manufacturers to open plants here and weā€™ll increase the numbers they can sell. There is nothing wrong with the cars and they do have a market they are just restricted and we need to crack on, weā€™d also like light commercial vehicles to be available here to compete with an EU market that is taking clients for granted, unable to get parts to keep your vehicles on the road, going into limp modes all the time, short life on the vans. Why arenā€™t we taking advantage?

      2. acorn
        May 22, 2022

        It cost an expat 200 Euro to get his laptop, imported from the UK, out of Spanish Customs; he says it’s all down to getting Gibraltar back. (We have had similar import charges in the UK on Italian wine recently. This TCA is really c***. Driving for expats in Spain; think Gibraltar again.
        https://www.euronews.com/travel/2022/05/03/everything-you-need-to-know-about-spain-banning-british-drivers#:~:text=British%20expats%20have%20been%20banned%20from%20driving%20in%20Spain%20after,use%20their%20UK%2Dissued%20licenses.

        1. Peter2
          May 22, 2022

          If they want to play us up acorn…
          Two could play that game.
          Sad that our European partners are behaving like this.

        2. a-tracy
          May 23, 2022

          acorn our national news and newspapers really need to highlight all the pettiness from Spain as you have just done.

    4. Diane
      May 22, 2022

      a-tracy: Good analytical points from you as always. Agree. It’s quite clear as time goes by that just basic mutual details were not anticipated & tackled sooner with what also seems a repeated failure of not fighting our corner.

    5. Donna
      May 22, 2022

      If you listen to Richard Tice on Talk Radio this morning, you’ll find out that it is we taxpayers who are funding the “charity” which is suing the Government.

      1. Shirley M
        May 22, 2022

        +1 Donna – unbelievable, isn’t it. Why is the government supporting a charity that encourages and facilitates illegal immigration to the UK which then takes the government to court? There is only one answer! We are being played.

        1. a-tracy
          May 23, 2022

          ShirleyM – I agree but who is playing, Boris, Sunak, Patel, or the entire Conservative government, the opposition, the Lords, in other words, the whole UK establishment.

      2. Dave Andrews
        May 22, 2022

        Well lawyers are so difficult to find these days. Evidently it’s a tough profession to learn, not suited to the WFH generation that expects to perform a job after 1 week training, and then go on to do something else in a couple of years.
        No doubt the government feels a need to invest in the profession to save it from extinction.

    6. DavidJ
      May 22, 2022

      +1

    7. margaret brandreth-jones
      May 22, 2022

      I am not keen on percentages … there are too many omissions and incorrect information which have been collated from none of the above,But however inaccurate percentages are , they are vital for generalisation in elections etc. I prefer anecdotal evidence for coming face to face with reality and hearing from the experience of others. Of course this is not satisfactory when dealing with big numbers. I had a small research unit and I was told that due to my management 25% of my staff were absent. This equated to one person who had rheumatoid arthritis…..Incorrect correspondence of facts to reality and a presented overblown percentage!

  30. Donna
    May 22, 2022

    Off topic – except, of course it isn’t because it is why we have “lost control” of our country – there is a very timely commentary in TCW on the impending DAVOS / WEF Boondoggle, scheduled for next week. Not least the observation that attending Royals have forgotten that their allegiance is supposed to be with the British people. I wonder if Prince Charles, freshly back from discussing “Sustainable financing to deliver Net Zero” with Trudeau will take that on board? Somehow, I doubt it.
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/davos-a-parasites-paradise/

  31. hefner
    May 22, 2022

    ā€˜Oyez oyezā€™ all WEF watchers, the meeting opens today for five days.
    See www3.weforum.org for the program and the attendees:
    Alok, Gerry and Vincent are there for the UK.

    ā€˜Keep your children inside when night falls for the devils spread out thenā€™

    1. Peter2
      May 22, 2022

      And those who want to be ruled by unelected technocrats like hefner does, close their eyes and ears to reality.

    2. Donna
      May 22, 2022

      Oh dear. That part of the WEF website is out of action. They obviously don’t want the peasants finding out who is there or their motives.

  32. Mark Thomas
    May 22, 2022

    Sir John,
    So now Australia has joined Canada, the United States and New Zealand in a swing to the left. That leaves the United Kingdom as the odd one out. If the government carries on as it is then we may well be joining them. Labour could win the next election not from popular support, but from sheer indifference. There’s no point voting if all the main parties are promoting different shades of the same policies.

  33. Sea_Warrior
    May 22, 2022

    How disappointing to see The Sunday Times reporting that an energy ‘windfall tax’ is all but a done-deal. I had intended to use some of my dividends to pay my energy bills – a better use of the money than anything that Johnson or Sunak will think up.

  34. DavidJ
    May 22, 2022

    “There are many in Whitehall who seem to regret our exit from the EU and wish to stay close to EU rules…”

    Then they need to be told, in no uncertain terms, that they work for us and will be fired if they try to compromise our independence. Even Boris should be removed if he continues to try and subject us to rules of his globalist friends who are seeking to rule over us.

    1. Shirley M
      May 22, 2022

      + many – I will never understand why our government tolerates undemocratic people in positions of authority.

  35. Original Richard
    May 22, 2022

    I do wonder what is going on.

    The Government and the CS must know that their Net Zero Strategy is pointless, unnecessary and unworkable and will impoverish the country and make it less secure.

    Yet they continue.

    The Government and the CS know the country wants a reduction in immigration from the current 13,000 or more each week, plus a halt to the 1000-2000 illegals landing each week in Kent so as to reduce the pressure on housing, healthcare, infrastructure and finances.

    Yet it continues, and in fact immigration numbers have actually increased since Brexit.

    And when the PM announces the Rwanda deal but says he expects it to be challenged in the courts, but without putting in place the necessary legislation to prevent such a challenge, despite an 80 seat majority, you begin to think that this was a signal from the PM to the taxpayer funded human rights groups to please use the courts to stop his Rwanda deal because he is happy for this illegal immigration to continue unabated but to keep his voters happy needs to keep looking like he is acting in accordance with their wishes.

  36. acorn
    May 22, 2022

    “One fundamental skill, therefore, is to establish a productive relationship with Ministers so that we can help them achieve their long term goals.” https://www.civilservant.org.uk/skills-working_with_ministers.html

    For long term goals you have to have long term Ministers that have a clue; which is where the UK falls at the first hurdle. For the last four decades, the European Council has set the UK’s overall policy directions; the UK, playing musical Cabinet chairs was just for local tabloid headlines. The UK and EU Civil Service have just gotten on with the job, while defending against random policy missiles being misfired from Downing Street.

    Now, post Brexit, the music has stopped. Nine of the current occupants of Cabinet chairs campaigned to remain in the EU; but since, have had Road-to-Damascus conversions to fervent Brexiteers, purely to progress their personal political ambitions. What could possibly go wrong?

  37. X-Tory
    May 22, 2022

    The easy answer (easy because it’s true) is that a strong and sound minister would immediately tackle any Civil Service internationalist traitors and make sure that the culture in his department reflected the government’s position. But we know that most ministers are weak, lazy and stupid, and therefore cannot be trusted to impose their views on their officials. And that is why I have repeatedly said that the best solution is for ministers to have the power to sack and appoint their officials – just as happens in the US, where each new administrations appoints its own people to public office. A Civil Service made up of patriotic Conservatives is what is needed!

    1. acorn
      May 23, 2022

      So basically, you want the UK to become the North Korea of the North Atlantic!!! A dominant party authoritarian dictatorship. If, by some miracle, a non conservative government was elected, it would have to replace a thousand or more of the SCS,with patriotic socialists. A US President makes about a thousand political appointments who serve at his pleasure but they are not civil servants.

      1. Peter2
        May 23, 2022

        North Korea…come off it acorn
        You have just read a post where someone suggests an American style option of Ministers being able to appoint civil servants they like and transport that idea into fantasy land.

        1. acorn
          May 24, 2022

          Well, this is the fantasy Brexit channel that caters to your end of the autistic spectrum.

          1. Peter2
            May 24, 2022

            Rudeness and personal abuse when your argument is challenged seems to be a typical response from those on the so called Liberal left.
            Very poor acorn

    2. hefner
      May 27, 2022

      So, X-Tory, ā€˜ministers are weak, lazy and stupidā€™. Where are ministers coming from if not from the party who got the majority (a 80 seat majority ā€¦) at the last General Election. And please remind me, who voted in this large majority, if not the Great British Public.
      Are you saying the voters made a mistake?

      And are you not a bit starry-eyed when considering the US system?
      Do you know how many political advisors are presently helping our ministers? About 120. How many right-wing think tanks are lobbying and pushing their ideas to ministers and conservative MPs (some of them blissfully bleating these think tanksā€™ messages to the voters)? The IEA, the Free Enterprise Group, the Legatum Institute, the Initiative for Free Trade, the GWPF, the US-based American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, the Atlas Network ā€¦

      And how do you think it would improve the present situation if people from these various groups were even more directly involved in the day-to-day running of the Government?

  38. Pauline Baxter
    May 22, 2022

    True enough, Sir John.
    Of course the mass of the Civil Service would prefer that Brexit had never happened. But –
    Is it really the C.S. that has prevented Liz Truss ‘sorting’ the NI Protocol?
    Or Priti Patel from sorting the illegal immigration?
    Doesn’t it rather look like the selection of Ministers might be at fault?
    In which case surely the Party Leader is at fault.
    Something was said recently which gave a tiny ray of hope. The party was being encouraged to listen to it’s Back Benchers.
    Not much time left for it to improve matters.

  39. forthurst
    May 22, 2022

    There is a free trade agreement between the Faroe Is. and the UK with regard to mutual access to each other’s fishing grounds. Is there any point to this or was it a case of signing up FTAs to earn brownie points having left the EU, ho hum. Having examined the agreement, albeit not being a lawyer, it would appear that the definition of a Faroese vessel is fairly explicit and covers the ownership, the master and crew. However the Faroese have also signed a FTA with Russia (yes, them) for mutual access to each others fishing grounds with defined quotas of catches of different species. It would appear that Russian factory ships are in operation south of the Faroe Is. and west of the Shetland Is. within our EEZ and helping themselves to quota allocated by the Faroese which is in excess of that available to our own fishermen. Is Defra aware of this or are all our fisheries protection vessels subserving their dual purpose of assisting foreign invaders? Is there anybody in Defra that knows anything about fishing or cares about it or are they so used to having the fish stocks determined by the ICES and the quotas allocated by Brussels that they have no clue how to take back control of our fish and build up our fishing industry after forty years of depredation by the EU.

    On the subject of definitions, there are Spanish trawlers with gillnets 80 nm long operating in our waters, but its ok because they are flagged as British. Actually it is not ok; our fish should not be available to foreigners sailing under flags of convenience. There are also Spanish trawlers landing catches on the East Coast and being loaded directly onto Spanish lorries without any interest being taken by Fisheries Enforcement Officers when the latter examine and weigh every catch landed by our trawlers with hefty fines for those going over quota whilst there is also a prohibition on discarding marketable fish: catch 22! Another consequence of this is that fishermen are actually avoiding grounds where there are ‘too many fish’ for fear of going over quota! How do they even know when they are simple fishermen rather than scientists employed by ICES?

  40. ChrisS
    May 22, 2022

    While the few Ministers who really believe in Brexit allow themselves to be swayed by civil servants who most certainly don’t, we will never make progress towards a truly independent future. Similarly, the government has been taken over by climate change fanatics led by the PM’s wife who clearly has far too much influence over a policy which only the activists want. Every husband wants a quiet life, but not at the cost of impoverishing the nation!

    There is a vast Remainer network that is determined to make Brexit fail and allow Starmer and Sturgeon to lead us back into the fold. We are in very dangerous territory : every other political party represented in Westminster is led by Remainers and now each of the three devolved assemblies is led by Remainer First Ministers.
    Labour has not been able to win an election outright since the SNP took almost all their seats in Scotland,
    so, if the Conservatives so much as falter, England is going to be governed by a motley collection of opposition parties, none of which has its best interests at heart.

    As an English taxpayer I would like to see an independent Scotland and United Ireland, which is inevitable, give NI demographics. Why not bow to the inevitable and save ourselves over Ā£25bn a year ?
    Wales can choose whether to stay with England or go, at least they don’t constantly complain about us !

    Failing that, we must have an English Parliament with full control over our economy and an end to the Barnett Formula.

  41. rose
    May 23, 2022

    “Scotland proving rail nationalisation means less service, more cuts and big bills for taxpayers. Nationalisation of commercial businesses always used to bring worse service, bigger losses, larger tax bills and more strikes.”

    Perhaps you didn’t want to be ghoulish but there were also many more crashes under nationalisation.

  42. a-tracy
    May 23, 2022

    Whitehall culture is a problem and drinking at work is part of that. It needs to be cut out. However, Boris raising a glass of wine (when wine seems to be as free flowing as tea in Westminster) when someone is leaving their job in the office and then returning to work after saying goodbye and good luck, how is that different to Starmer having a beer and returning to work? This is getting ridiculous now.

  43. a-tracy
    May 31, 2022

    John, you must be getting full e-mail boxes and post boxes about passports by now. In 2014 your government knew there was a problem with passports with a 500,000 backlog of passport applications in June 2014 when Theresa May was in charge of it. If people are charging for passports why isn’t there sufficient money to pay for them to be processed quickly?

    At the end of the main covid lockdowns in December 2021, with the restricted travel for two years, were there 0 passports waiting to be processed? Was the service on top of it an all applications processed? No one was furloughed were they, they worked the entire two years more productively because a lot was done at home.

    We’ve been told by the papers that this current backlog is that there was a massive reduction in applications because of covid and they’re coming in now all at once and causing a bottleneck.

    Why didn’t the passport office offer to give people six months extra on their next 10-year passport if they sent in their applications for 2022 early?

    Why weren’t extra staff hired and trained coming out of covid lockdowns? Has overtime with bonuses been offered to process the backlog on Saturdays?

    These monopoly services don’t even have to try to meet customer service requirements there is nothing in it for them to speed up so you need to incentivise the staff as one would in a private company. We are now told there are 800,000 passport backlogs, not helped by Martin Lewis telling everyone even if they have November holidays to send them in now, so what does that do, cause a toilet roll run on the service. People fast-tracking have jumped people that have had their passports in since January, my husband was talking to someone today who got a passport for one twin but didn’t get one for the other, they have been told they will have a call from the helpline to try to fast track their application within 48 hours three times with no call backs, they have sat in queues in the rain without an appointment for 10 hours to wait in the hope of getting in, but people jump them if they have a flight the following day or in 48 hours. The office is closed for two days and one lady has a flight on Saturday she has been in the queue with a baby from 6:30am in the rain and cold because she will lose Ā£4000 if she doesn’t get her passport by tomorrow as she has flights on Saturday but they won’t process her even though the office is shut from Thursday. People are desperate! I wonder if they will allow Brits to float into France on these dingies they send us without their passports and let them disappear into Europe for their holidays.

Comments are closed.