I agree with the Chancellor when he says we need to boost investment to boost productivity. I would add we need to increase capacity in many areas to curb inflation and improve the balance of payments.
Which brings me to my disagreements with the Chancellor. His high tax and Ā new taxes policy makes the U.K. a less desirable place to invest. His stupid proposal to increase corporation tax substantially will deter investment. Windfall taxes also put people off. Why invest if you could face a supertax should your investment Ā suddenly do well?
The Chancellor thinks if you Ā give businesses a good allowance for the Ā initial costs of the investment that will overcome higher and variable rates of tax once the investment is up and running. Instead the investor is likely to do a long term cash flow and DCF calculations which will demonstrate that the big increase in tax on the profits of the venture will overwhelm the tax cut on the original cost.
The Chancellor needs to overcome negative Treasury orthodoxy and explain to them that lower tax rates produce more investment and more growth which in turn yields more revenue. He also needs to mend the mess he is making of oil and gas investment. We need to open up new gas and oil fields now. When will Cambo, Jackdaw and the Ā others get the go ahead? How much more tax will he burden them with?
May 29, 2022
Good morning.
Strong language indeed.
The problem with this government is that, as Dom often points out, its reluctance to have an ideological fight with the Left in this country and purge our institutions of who Labour installed whist they were in office. This is why Labour can, rightfully, crow about this government adopting their policies. It as if the Tory Party, and especially its MP’s, have become ashamed of being Tory or Right Wing, allowing Labour and the Looney Far Left to set much of the agenda.
The PM, and the Chancellor want to be liked by everybody but as always are in danger of pleasing nobody and this, couple with no firm Right Wing ideology leaves them cast adrift and blown around by the wind to all manner of nonsense.
The Ideology Thatcherism is called Thatcherism because that is the name given to it by those that wish to both attribute to the person that is seen as created it (yes I know there was more than just one) but also to date it in time. That, whatever you might think, is a true legacy. And before you Lefty Trolls start typing, think of your own brand of ‘ism, namely Marxism, and the countless tens of millions it has murdered. Just for balance š
May 29, 2022
Thatcher and Thatcherism made very many huge errors – closing many excellent grammar schools, falling for the climate alarmist religion, failing to cut taxes, the size of government or red tape sufficiently, burying us further into appalling EU treaties, appointing daft as a brush John Major as Chancellor and then even allowing him to take us into the ERM (this despite the wise council of Sir Alan Walters), failing to sort out the dire state monopoly free at the point of (non delivery and delays) NHS…
But Blair was clearly the worse in terms of the vast damage he did with almost everything he touched – idiotic wars, botched devolution, open door immigration, mad economic policies, endless duff degrees, Gordon Brown as Chancellor… he got nothing right.
It is a damning indictment of all the PMs and governments over my lifetime so far that she was still far better than any of the others.
May 29, 2022
A Peopleās thoroughly well-planned and implemented TAX BOYCOTT might cause a change of policy.
This bozo Govtās change would probably be:
Category A: Release all violent prisoners onto the streets to create space for āTAX OFFENDERSā instead.
Category B: Borrow billions building prison cells and punish millions of overtaxed citizens inside for life.
However, this Govt is the serial Tax Offender itself.
May 29, 2022
I see Brussels is vetoing the freeports.
It appears the NIP gives Brussels control of all uk tax policy.
It’s starting to come out of the woodwork now and another month passes with HMG capitulating to Brussels.
May 29, 2022
I was rather surprised to see reporting that Brussels had to give its approval for the Chelsea sal because Abramovich was a ………………………….. Portuguese national. If true, that would be truly amazing. I want to see a bit more economic nationalism.
May 29, 2022
JR,
I thought backbenchers were going to have a say in govt. policy? What happened?
May 29, 2022
+agree entirely
Plus, right wing politics has been demonised in a terrifying way.
This really should be stamped on, for the safety of everyone, by those MPs who still have the vestige of a brain.
Marxism has seeped into the very fabric of society and it is so dangerous.
Our leaders do not confront it because they believe in itā¦or are forced to!
May 29, 2022
+1
May 29, 2022
First time in modern history over a million migrants allowed into our country. Add on the illegals and it makes you wonder how this helps Johnsonās new green world, housing, electricity, gas, hospitals etc etc.
Madness.
He has to go.
No one in govt serious about controlling immigration. Complete open doors.
May 29, 2022
+1
A disastrous PM. He does NOT get the big things right.
May 29, 2022
To be replaced by?
May 29, 2022
MB,
Point very well made. Policy comes from the top, and when it doesn’t then we have a purely reactive system, by definitiion always playing catch-up.
Where are Mr Reese-Mogg’s proposals for taking advantage of Brexit?
Where is the self-sufficiency energy policy?
Where is the new home food production policy?
etc.
There’s plenty to do that WOULD be Conservative philosophy, lets see some!
May 29, 2022
Extended gas Grid, incentives to convert HGVs, buses etc to low carbon, low NOX and particulate emissions compressed natural gas, incentive scheme for communities near a fracking pad…
JF
May 29, 2022
Rees-Mogg can’t think of any.
May 29, 2022
All the Government comes up with is the return of imperial measurements. I’ve never heard anyone under the age of eighty asking for this. Metric is one of the best things to come from mainland Europe.
May 29, 2022
Well, dimpled pint pots have made a comeback…
Green Shield stamps, anyone?
May 29, 2022
Nostalgia often makes come back.
Sadly socialism is the worst example NHL
May 29, 2022
NLH,
I always preferred a straight glass.
May 29, 2022
Clackers ? Space Hoppers ???
May 30, 2022
I cheer the return of legal Imperial weights and measures. We only went metric because Harold Wilson was sucking up to the the imperious French and Germans. Let the customer choose and not have Metric measures forced down his or her throat. BTW, The units used in metric systems are no more ‘Fundamental’ in scientific terms than Imperial.
May 30, 2022
Metric units were first permitted by an Act of Parlament in 1864 (yes, 1864, that’s not a typo), and Imperial measurements have never gone away. It’s always been possible to have imperial measurements alongside metric ones and I’ve never once been told I can’t order a pint of beer (or a half or a third).
Reply Under European law we did have to buy foods in metric, not pounds and ounces
May 30, 2022
Reply to reply – it was always permitted to have imperial measurements alongside metric ones on packaging.
May 29, 2022
The problem Peter is we have too few politicians who have business experience, let alone those who have actually run and been responsible for such, (I exclude our host) thus if they have never been at the sharp end, they do not have a clue how decisions made by those with the same lack of commerce and business knowledge, really do affect those who have to deal with the fall out of those stupid policy decisions.
The idea of anyone setting up a business deliberately not to make a profit, but simply for the public good is simply a fantasy, otherwise it would be called a charity, which likewise should certainly not be funded with taxpayer money as many appear to be !
Too many politicians have now seemed to have lost the plot completely as far as a commercial business is concerned.
May 29, 2022
But which tendance od Marxism ? Chiquism, Harpism or Grouchism?
May 29, 2022
Thatcher-ism was actually Keith Joseph-ism; a philosophy, not an ideology. Right-wingers of her generation, were heavily influenced by “The Road to Serfdom”, by Austrian school economist Friedrich Hayek. Also heavily influenced by the Chicago school theory of “Monetarism” attributed to Milton Friedman. Fortunately, Friedman won out; otherwise the UK would be back on the Gold Standard, with no Central Bank or Treasury; all money would be issued, circulated and controlled by private sector banks.
May 29, 2022
acorn
I am well aware that the late, great Sir Keith Joseph was one of the main architects of Thatcherism, hence my comment in brackets which you seem to have missed.
I have to keep my comments short these days otherwise I end up being moderated. Please bear that in mind in future mate š
May 29, 2022
Yes, the so-called “Institute” of Economic Affairs basically wrote her policy.
May 29, 2022
Wrong as usual NHL
The Guardian isn’t the best source of history.
June 2, 2022
From the horseās mouth: iea.org.uk āLady Thatcher and the IEAā, John Blundell, 09/04/2013
May 29, 2022
We are sitting on coal!
About 400 years worth.
May 29, 2022
Indeed coal can easily and cheaply be stored and could easily be used to generate reliable & on demand heat and electricity for about 10p per KWH retail. Also rather better still we have huge natural gas fracking resources.
Alas we have deluded tax to death, deluded green loons like Boris (Classics), Carrie (Theatre Studies, Sunak PPE & Kwasi (History) in charge. This rather than sensible, competent engineers and physicists.
May 29, 2022
+many
May 29, 2022
Repetition compulsion is a psychological phenomenon in which a person repeats an event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes re-enacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again. This “re-living” can also take the form of dreams in which memories and feelings of what happened are repeated, and even hallucinated.
Repetition compulsion can also be used to cover the repetition of behaviour or life patterns more broadly: a “key component in Freud’s understanding of mental life, ‘repetition compulsion’ … describes the pattern whereby people endlessly repeat patterns of behaviour which were difficult or distressing in earlier life”
May 29, 2022
Sorry JR the above posted on wrong site, busy day.
May 29, 2022
You did it above acorn with your odd re take on the history of Thatcherism.
Hilarious.
May 29, 2022
How is it that you have made seven comments with zero intellectual content that add nothing to the subject being debated except the toxic negativety of ignorance?
May 29, 2022
You’ve been counting acorn
Touched a nerve I see.
Maybe try to understand not everyone agrees with your political world view.
Try a proper response rather than cheap abuse.
May 29, 2022
More like 25 pence per kWh at current coal prices.
May 29, 2022
No far less.
May 30, 2022
I calculate my price to within a couple of pence for imported coal at currently $406 per tonne; using a typical 2,300 kWh per tonne of coal output, from a PF 500 MW generator.
May 30, 2022
I did the detailed explanation of the sums the other day. Coal ended the week at $292/tonne, or Ā£231.75/tonne x3/7 gives Ā£99.32/MWh, or almost exactly 10p/kWh before green taxes, which will almost double the cost.
At least Kwarteng has finally written to OFGEM/National Grid asking them to ensure that remaining coal is available for next winter while claiming the target to shut them down by September 2024 remains in place. Not sure what he has in mind to substitute. He should have done this when I called for it a year ago when we had 5GW to preserve, not just 3GW – and removed the final deadline. Moreover, he should be seeking to have coal run in baseload over the winter. That would ensure a much more competitive market in the balancing mechanism, reduce demand for scarce and expensive gas, and reduce costs for the country and for billpayers. Still no sign of getting Calon CCGT back into action.
May 30, 2022
I don’t know any old coal generators that can get 3/7 (43% thermal efficiency). A heavy oil plant could get 40% flat out base loaded. Don’t forget to add the transmission/ distribution and sales markups to the generator cost.
May 30, 2022
The 3/7ths factor relates to 7MWH/tonne coal gross calorific content of which a third is turned into electricity. (Ā£/tonne)/(MWh/tonne)/efficiency gives net Ā£/MWh.
May 30, 2022
I am talking about industrial coal prices and without the CO2 market rigging carbon and other taxes.
May 29, 2022
Yes. And as far as the New Blue / Greens are concerned, like shale gas, it can stay there. And woe betide anyone who dares to make a profit, you’ll now be taxed !
May 29, 2022
I think that the G7 wants us to keep it there.
May 29, 2022
Indeed plus the insanity of the expensive intermittent energy agenda and endless OTT red tape on top.
UK taxes with rates up to (NI 26%, IHT 40%, IT 45%, CT heading to 24%, Council Tax, Car taxes, CGT without indexation 28%, inflation taxes, stamp duty, energy taxes, landfill taxes, congestion taxes, VAT 28%, flight taxes…) can easily take 90%+ of your wealth off you over 20 years. Not a place to invest unless you like spending lots of money and time with tax advisors. Even then with windfall taxes and clearly just thieves in government changing the rules why bother?
May 29, 2022
Sir JR
We need much more focus on education on the job and an improved apprenticeship scheme.
Our productivity is low compared to northern Europe and the issue is education
May 29, 2022
Indeed but the right education not endless worthless degrees in social sciences and humanities. But really the main issue is bloated and inept government with very poor monopoly public services like the dire NHS. Over taxation, over regulation, lack of investment due to government disincentives and the expensive energy agenda. Government as usual is main cause of the problem and certainly of low productivity.
May 29, 2022
Why would you train a millennial on the job when they will be off to their next job within two years?
Expectations from employees need to become realistic as well as employers upping their game.
Time served on the lower rungs is actually time well spent even if it does mean that avocado on toast is a treat rather than a staple.
May 29, 2022
Partly bill, but it is investment in labour saving machinery and automation equipment that boosts productivity per person.
May 29, 2022
Peter 2
It’s a mixture and it depends on sector and profession
May 29, 2022
No it affects all sectors and professions bill.
Please name labour saving machinery and automation investments that do not improve productivity per person
May 30, 2022
Bill has gone quiet.
May 30, 2022
There is lots of good news out there on apprenticeships, if John will allow the links to just a handful a quick google search reveals, there is even a space
https://www.independent.co.uk/business/firms-pledge-to-create-thousands-of-new-apprenticeships-b2009016.html
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/career-planning/study-and-training/nhs-apprenticeships
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60208466 1500 new apprenticeships at Amazon
https://new.siemens.com/uk/en/company/jobs/search-careers/apprenticeships.html
https://www.truro-penwith.ac.uk/latest-news/out-of-this-world-apprenticeship-a-south-west-first
May 29, 2022
Letter in the Telegraph today:- Rishi Sunak said: āThis government will never stop trying to help people.ā
Ronald Reagan said: āThe nine most terrifying words in the English language are: āIām from the government and Iām here to help.āā
Whom to believe?
Obviously Reagan! Governments can only help with money they have taken off people in the first place so giving a bit of it back (with strings attached and after collection and admin. costs) does huge net harm. Things like Sunakās halfwitted āEat Out to Help Outā insanity.
So Boris want to name and shame petrol stations for āprice gougingā. I name Sunak for tax gouging yet failing to deliver even half competent or well directed public services.
May 29, 2022
100 Agree LIFELOGIC, Britain now only attracts the GIMMEās their inward migration is of no value to our country.
May 29, 2022
I think the plan is to bring in Universal Basic Income and implement the WEFs āYou will own nothing and be happyā plan.
A person striving to do well in life will probably take out a huge student loan where the interest rate is set at a disgustingly high rate. They will then take on a huge mortgage. They are expected to contribute towards their own pension scheme to support themselves in old age. If they manage to earn Ā£50k per year, not a huge salary these days, HMRC will take away their Child Benefit and tax them at 40%. If in their old age they need to go into a nursing home the local authority will take away the house they have strived to pay for. Finally when they die HMRC will take 40% of any assets over Ā£325k, not a huge amount if living in the south of England where the average house can cost circa half a million.
Contrast this with the person living off benefits in council subsidised accommodation who doesnāt repay any student loans, gets free house maintenance, legal aid, nursing home fees, prescriptions, glasses, dentist, food bank, child care costs, school uniforms, reduced council tax and water bills, discounted travel costs and gym membership, cold weather and warm home discounts, pension credit top-up in their old age and pays no inheritance tax.
Is it any wonder that people are coming to the conclusion that itās hardly worth being in the middle classes where this Government takes away most of the incentive to work hard.
The squeeze on middle-income England has never been higher and Rishi Sunak just keeps adding to this disparity taking from middle earners to give away to the rest of the world because the left tells him itās the right and moral thing to do.
May 29, 2022
Exactly – plus people in work have other costs that are not even tax allowable. Travel to and from work, lunches, child care, work clothes and cleaning of them, less time to shop efficiently, cook efficiently, do repairs/diy…
May 29, 2022
I keep saying this, it is all part of, Levelling up
You cannot bring poorer people up without massive State intervention and ultimately, theft of other peoples’ wealth through the double millstone of taxation and inflation. The plan is to bring everyone, except the very wealthy, down by a lot, and the poorer up by a little, creating what some would regard as a fairer more equal society.
Quite why so many people cannot see it is beyond me.
May 29, 2022
Your government is the most expensive thing you will ever buy
May 29, 2022
Well mate, in that case they can keep it and I’ll spend my hard on on something more worthwhile.
š
May 29, 2022
Indeed. Sunak cost my wife and I significant money last week with his threats to have windfall taxes on power suppliers as well as oil and gas. The stock market was listening to the fool. This lefty liberal Government is useless in every policy area and doesn’t seem to understand economics at all. As you have rightly pointed out instead of giving us all a one off Ā£400 power subsidy it should reduce taxes both direct and indirectly as we know better than them what to do with our money!
I see the latest immigration figures show over 820,000 allowed into the Country in the last 12 months alone! Our population increased by 10 million since Bliar. They of course have no carbon footprint, don’t need health services/dentistry, education, housing or transportation. Then we have the never get rid of the boat people but house and feed them at Ā£5 million a day and rising. This lying Government needs to be out of power……..permanently and replaced by a new right of centre party like Reform!
May 29, 2022
I just don’t understand why reform isn’t winning votes. Everyone I speak with is saying the same thing about the bad policies of the main political parties.
May 29, 2022
While Boris is PM the U.K. Government will flounder about.
Borisās best days are behind him.His MPās need to bite the bullet and end the stupid things that are going on.
The sooner he is gone the sooner he can match his earnings with his outgoings.
May 29, 2022
Last month’s bookies favourites to replace Johnson in order. Liz Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Ben Wallace, Jeremy Hunt, Rishi Sunak, Penny Mordaunt.
Johnson’s government is a mess for sure. But I don’t think changing the leader will change the general direction of Tory policy such as prioritising Net Zero over almost anything else. It is the policies that are causing the problems.
May 29, 2022
EA, bookies only respond to the amount of money wagered on each possible candidate and the whole point about changing the leader is that previous policy can be revised.
May 30, 2022
The bookies now seem to be responding to the rumours swirling that supporters of Hunt are planning a coup. That would mark a total disdain for the electorate.
May 30, 2022
5 of the last 8 PMs have got the job by winning a party leadership election rather than at a general election.
May 30, 2022
Surely you understand the difference between Presidents and Prime Ministers Peter.
May 29, 2022
No one who has any realistic change of winning would be any better than Boris. What is needed is the old pre Carrie Boris back with a working JR controlled compass.
May 29, 2022
The government’s policies are Boris’s policies. So unless Boris goes the policies will remain the same and nothing will change or improve. Ergo, Boris must go.
Given the nature of the MPs – who will present the members with a choice of two candidates – and the membership – which is overwhelmingly Brexity – it is safe to assume that whoever becomes the next leader will be a Brexit supporter (at least nominally) and will therefore (a) not be Hunt, and (b) not be worse than Boris.
So the decision to dump the stupid, cowardly and treacherous Boris and try to find a better leader is an obvious one. MPs just need to bite the bullet and get on with it!
May 29, 2022
I’d like to see Penny Mordaunt front and centre. She seems to have a level head and is grounded in realism. It would be interesting to see her go head to head with Angela Rayner.
May 29, 2022
E A.
If that is all they have to offer, God help us.
May 29, 2022
With Mr Hunt apparently in the ‘favourite to win’ frame, be careful what you wish for!
May 29, 2022
Indeed they man who what in charge of the dire NHS for five+ years yet did nothing to make it work even half competently. Also in charge of the appalling pandemic planning.
May 29, 2022
We need a period of stability and a return to traditional conservative normsā¦.Iād recommend Iain Duncan Smith or SirJ as a transitional PM until a ārealā Tory can be found
May 29, 2022
IDS will not even win a seat at the next election at this rate.
May 29, 2022
+1. Rudderless government. Our country run by the civil service aided by mainstream media.
May 29, 2022
Not only an investment revolution but also a revolution against all the waste.
As fast as the money comes in , it goes out faster and the country is always playing catch up.
The real problem is that people are in positions totally outside the scope of their abilities, knowledge and experience.. Very few in reality make the transition from shop floor to the boardroom. You end up with enthusiastic amateurs who in turn are controlled by their back room staff.
The level of competence across Parliament is woefully short of what is required in such difficult times.
Until the selection criteria is dramatically overhauled across all political parties and we get people who fully understand finance, commerce, engineering, and the other critical areas then parliament is just pissing into the wind. The right people with the right backgrounds and experience will turn parliament and the civil service on its head.
May 29, 2022
Or as Chief Exec of Offshore Energies saidā¦
ā “Historically when this has happened, it doesn’t work, it undermines investment and, for the last almost 10 years, we have had fiscal predictability and stability which has brought investment back into the basin.”
She said that, unless new investments were made now, oil and gas production in the North Sea would “drop off a cliff” by 2030ā
Well thatās precisely what the govt wants isnāt it?
May 29, 2022
Stupid x several million = ‘temporary Energy Profits Levy’ (aka Windfall Tax) 65% on U.K. gas and oil profits!!
Handing victory to Labour and Lib Demās on a silver platter.
But then ā¦is he just following global diktat?
@nomoreheatand light
May 29, 2022
Johnson’s government has gone down the morally bankrupt, free-lunch, Socialist authoritarian route and it will end with the cancer of Labour taking power and destroying all that is left, and they will.
If things are bad now in terms of high taxes, less freedom, State intervention, mass immigration as a weapon to restructure the UK for political gain and the tearing apart of identity then Labour can do this stuff far more efficiently than the Tories
I have said so many times that a captured Tory party is so dangerous to the majority population that it wouldn’t surprise me if they go the full hog and declare a Socialist republic to protect their party from the fascist left
Cameron’s destroyed a once great party. I hope Eton boy’s happy with the damage he’s unleashed
May 29, 2022
Dom, you need to look to the Conservative selection committees who approved the candidacy of the many new Tory MPs elected in 2015 and 2019. Those committees, not Cameron, are in my view responsible for the decline of the Conservative parliamentary party that we have today.
May 29, 2022
Philip
I think Conservative Party Central Office has quite a say on who can be candidates especially as they have declared that they intend 50% of all Tory MP’s will one day be women. So if you are someone like,Sir John and want to be an MP, forget it.
May 29, 2022
If you want a non-fictional example of “destroying all” for a change, then look at what Russia has done to Mariupol and to other cities.
That doesn’t seem to bother you however.
May 29, 2022
NLH – Yet again an example of what the Left ends up doing in extremis.
May 30, 2022
Putin claims to be a Russian Conservative with a flat tax, admired by Farage etc.
The commies are part of what opposition is left in Russia.
May 29, 2022
We need to revert back to proven, well tried Conservative policies and principles. For that we need the true blue salt of the earth Conservative politicians.
We need our leader to concentrate on our problems, not swanning off to every world stage building up his own international legacy and place in the history books.
Every street in the country you will meet someone with the same thought ” I have never know it to be so bad as this, where is the direction , where is the hope and belief ? They cannot be trusted anymore”
May 29, 2022
True blue, salt of the earth, Conservative MPs – perhaps 50 at best in the house – all very depressing. Perhaps even fewer as only a handful did not vote for the Climate Change Act (not even costed) or support Mayās moronic net zero insanity?
May 29, 2022
Daniel Hannan today is surely spot on:- The Tories have almost wholly given up on conservative principles. What a tragic waste. Covid has turned a centre-Right government statist, even though Brexit and an 80-seat majority gave it a shot at tackling the cost of living a better way.
Still we can now finally have the freedom back to use pints, gallons, pounds, feetā¦ should we and the vendor want to. Will we see signs for petrol Ā£8.70 per gallon? Better still would be signs saying petrol Ā£4.00 a gallon but taxes, duty & green crap government market rigging an additional Ā£4.70 on top. Will the metric martyrs be pardoned (and those parasites who persecuted them ne locked up) as they deserve to be?
May 29, 2022
Unfortunately this is another example of fatuous gesture politics which will make no difference at all to peoplesā standard of living or life prospects. For which reason it will also be politically useless. There will be no prospect of growth and a better outlook for people and businesses unless and until we get the sort of policies which we know will bring that about – lower taxes and supply side reforms. Itās not rocket science. I think itās time to thank Boris for his magnificent political achievement in stopping corbyn in 2019, but make a change and try a couple of years of proper Conservative policies. We may as well. thereās little to lose, we seem to be heading for a big defeat as it is.
May 29, 2022
I predict Boris will actually win – no sensible English voters (or indeed sensible Scottish or Welsh voters) want Labour/SNP/LibDim remoaners in charge of England with another Scottish independence referendum do they?
May 29, 2022
@ Lifelogic – yes please! (1) Would we even notice adoption of Labour policies (to the extent the civil service allowed them)? (2) The Conservative Party might provide an effective opposition, and (3) the real joy, we get shot of Scotland to thereby slash our foreign aid bill by at least Ā£15 billion per year in perpetuity and down-size Westminster! What is not to like?
May 29, 2022
+1
May 29, 2022
I hope that Boris will be gone *before* the next election, and if not that he loses it. He is a traitor, a coward and a moron. He has done NOTHING right since getting elected, and has betrayed Britain to the EU. Labour could not do worse, and it will allow the Tories to find a better leader. As for Scotland, of course I do not want them to destroy the Union, but if Labour won and there was another referendum I predict that the seperatist traitors would would lose again. Even now, with the appalling Boris as PM the unionist side is a majority, and if Labour won the election the seperatists would have even less support.
May 29, 2022
Replaced by whom?
May 29, 2022
Lifelogic. I really don’t care anymore.
Ā£8.70 a gallon would bring it home to many people. Bring on imperial, I say.
May 30, 2022
“Ā£8.70 a gallon” with Ā£6.52 of that being tax. About Ā£75 tax going to the government every time you fill up your family car.
Going imperial should concentrate minds.
May 29, 2022
Please don’t say we. I’m a conservative voter but stopped voting for the Tory’s in 2010. I only foolishly lent my vote for Bunter in the belief he would give us a proper Brexit and follow a conservative policy agenda. Well? Fool me once etc etc. Never again.
May 31, 2022
Tory voters thought they were going to get a Conservative leader and Cabinet with Dave Cameron, then a safe pair of hands with Mrs May, finally rallying round the joker insisting on ‘Get it done’. Well they have been ‘done up like a kipper ‘ with the latest fraud.
May 29, 2022
Looks like we are heading for defeat at the election unless something changes. Possibly sack of potatoes sir beer Starmer wonāt win, but there could be a Labour-LibDem-Scots separatist minority govt. I predict 1) PR, possibly with no referendum and 2) back into the EEA, again with no referendum in order to āsolveā the contrived āproblemā of NI. And of course all sorts of foolish leftist-green gesture policies, high taxes etc. and another independence referendum in Scotland of course.
It looks like Conservative MPs need to reprise Sir Johnās 1995 dictum – āno change, no chanceā. I disagreed at the time and urged my MP to support the incumbent John Major. But that was wrong, to have had any chance in 1997 the Conservatives should have made a change in 1995, major was beyond salvaging. Boris Johnson very much resembles John major now, though he wouldnāt like the comparison. Heās got elected saying one thing and gone and done another.
May 29, 2022
I agree.
May 29, 2022
Richard,
Johnson did promise things to get elected. He then dropped those things once elected and concentrated on things that were hardly mentioned before.
However, it is not just Johnson that is the problem. If you look back over the years the Conservatives have been dire. They are past their sell-by date. It would be better if they went the way of the Whigs and the Liberal Party. A new party is needed and there will be a lot of pain before that happens.
May 29, 2022
Peter
I argue that, Johnson’s plan was to become Tory Leader and get elected as PM with a working majority, all so that he could implement policies for his future employers so that his next career move will be a most profitable one.
May 29, 2022
Mark B,
It could well be one of Johnsonās options. I think personal vanity meant that staying in power for as long as possible would be his first choice with lots bridges, airports etc named after him.
Second option was to have a lucrative post politics career. Clegg and Milliband are the lowest acceptable comparisons, but Tony Blair would be the standard to achieve or surpass. David Cameron would be the reminder that there are no rewards for failing to deliver to globalists.
May 30, 2022
Very much agreed, and I think we have both got the measure of the man and his aims.
May 29, 2022
Well when Conservative Party stalwarts like, Richard1 start turning up the, ‘need for change’ mood music, you know your party is in trouble.
May 29, 2022
The opinion polls suggest so
May 29, 2022
Agreed, Sir John. Now with the worst energy crisis ever, inflation (welcomed by government) heading for 10% and many in dire financial straits, the Chancellor shows a steely determination to deter investment and keep taxes at an historic high. Investment in N Sea oil and gas should not be delayed a single day but who will invest only to have profits confiscated?
You do not get more socialist than that, surely.
May 29, 2022
Is it true that over 1 million visas were issued over the last 12 months? If true, then it is a joke that Labour are the party of open borders. The CONS have well exceeded Labours expectations.
Maybe if the government got serious about deportations (and actually deported more than the token few), we wouldn’t have so many illegal citizens and foreign criminals wandering around our country causing hardship for others (and not forgetting the increased CO2)!
May 29, 2022
Today, I was reading about the SAS’s storming of the Iranian embassy (Operation NIMROD). The one surviving terrorist was jailed but is now amongst us on parole. Yep – even he couldn’t be deported.
May 29, 2022
And about 740,000 in the year before that, the year of the shutdown of British society.
Unlimited immigration from the third world on a scale certain to end the country in the near future seems to be the main policy of the government. One can see why the airports were not closed.
May 29, 2022
So long as the working class right wing voters have their anti-intellectual and anti-education vehemence the modern economy will need to import young people from countries which do not have this dreadful anticulture.
The Tory vote and their maintenance of power depends on it, however, so don’t expect much change.
May 29, 2022
What a snobbish take on millions of people NHL
You just hate non tribal voters.
May 29, 2022
So who were those people who had “had enough of experts” then?
Doctors, scientists, lawyers, teachers, musicians, technologists…?
May 29, 2022
Switching the original argument won’t alter your weak assertion NHL
Experts are only OK if their predictions are correct.
Otherwise they are just charlatans.
Modern day high priests that must be blindly believed.
May 29, 2022
NLH – We have record numbers of graduates with ‘firsts’. Exam results at all levels have been getting higher and higher for decades.
Whaaat ?
You’re saying they’re bogus ????
May 30, 2022
As the BBC reports:
“Graduates from the world’s top universities will be able to apply to come to the UK under a new visa scheme.
The government says the “high potential individual” route, which opens on Monday, will attract the “brightest and best” early in their careers.”
So apparently we do not have enough.
It’s no good relying on the young of ex red wall Tory voters to fill that gap though, is it?
They spent their school days bullying and mocking their classmates who might, had their education not been disrupted and ruined by them.
May 30, 2022
NHL
Where is your proof that people from previously tribal Labour constituencies “spent their school days ” bullying and mocking their classmates……..et al.
Come on eh?
May 29, 2022
I didn’t have a great deal of confidence in the CONs when I held my nose and voted for my Conservative candidate in 2019. I did expect something approaching a genuine Brexit to be delivered and I hoped that Brexit-supporting MPs would have sufficient influence to set the UK firmly on a new path, underpinned by conservative principles and away from the left-wing policies which have prevailed since 1997.
To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. Johnson has been an unmitigated disaster. He had an 80 seat majority and an incredible opportunity to lead a genuinely reforming Government. And all we have got is Blair/Brownism on steroids and an economy-wrecking obsession with Net Zero.
Sunak is inexperienced and over-promoted; just like Johnson and pretty much everyone else in the Cabinet.
I won’t be voting for these fools at the next election.
May 29, 2022
So you’ll be voting for geniuses like Neil Hamilton then?
May 29, 2022
If he wants to NHL
Not my choice but why not?
Next thing you want will be approved candidate lists
May 29, 2022
“He”?
May 29, 2022
Come on eh…do tell us NHL
Or is this another of your unsubstantiated smears.
May 29, 2022
Sad you avoid a proper response NHL
Run away and avoid the actual argument.
May 29, 2022
Peter 2
I must agree with Acorn comments but absolutely no real information or content in your contributions
May 30, 2022
Well bill you are perfectly entitled to agree with acorn’s comments.
I note nearly all of acorn’s posts (like yours) are either negative in tone towards our host or the Conservatives or any economic policies which are not left wing or pro EU.
I look forward to your next lengthy post full of information and interesting comment.
May 29, 2022
+1 Donna – The CONS manifesto was a work of art (I’m trying to be polite)!
I’ve just looked back at it, and yes, we left the EU, sort of, in a fashion, although we still appear to be under EU control and give them everything they ask for, and that’s it! Nothing else in the manifesto has even been attempted.
May 29, 2022
You are right to highlight the appraisals/DCF and rate of return calculations that informed business investors, large and small, carry out before any major investment decision. They do this now in the context of the one policy area here to stay – Net Zero. That is never going to change under this PM even if thereās some caving on tax rates. Ever increasing utility costs for major new sites that could employ many people, are now prohibitive. Multi nationals also note the fudging and delaying of approvals for vital domestic energy generation. The investment appraisal assumption they make from that is that higher future costs will erode profitability such that the investment is too risky to make. They see that we are a nation to avoid and which is in decline, with a government that is quite content to manage that decline through its intransigence.
May 29, 2022
The Chancellor says we need to boot investment?
Is this some kind of sick joke? Is he laughing up his sleeve at UK business?
Perhaps he should come clean and say to business – “We’re taking all your money you need for investment in taxes, and giving some back to others who will waste it. We’re the government and you can’t do anything about it. Then when everything goes pear-shaped we’re going to blame you for not making the investment the country needs.”
May 29, 2022
The urgent needs outlined will not be achieved during the present party and government leadership. A few details around the edges may be announced, ( as publicity only ).
Our decline and ruin will continue also with Boris and Carrie’s green fanaticism. As you write no real change in meeting our urgent energy needs, only talk by Boris to deceive. Windmills and far off nuclear are his only wishes.
I dare say he believes he can hold on to see present world and domestic difficulties resolved and then claim personal victory and heroism.
The cabinet and ministers takes orders and inspiration from the leader seeing personal advancement that way. A new and true Conservative leader is needed, and now.
May 29, 2022
We could have done so many good things for our economy now we are free from the shackles of the eu but instead we are running socalist policies.
Apparently Downing St is briefing about bringing back feet and inches. It’s nonsense of course, but, if this briefing is true and has been sanctioned by the pm’s office, it shows what contempt they have for the British public.
We need proper economics and not childish PR
May 29, 2022
To do the ‘proper economics’ bit we need two things to be in place :
1) A Conservative Government with real conservative policies.
2) True freedom from the EU. It seems, as I have long suspected, we have only left its institutions but not its control.
May 29, 2022
Bring back gallons and they’ll be utterly stuffed when people realise what they’re paying for petrol… to get to work to pay taxes.
May 29, 2022
The country needs to invest rapidly back into fossil fuels, including coal, to provide reliable, affordable energy.
This requires a PM no longer trying to save the world and a chancellor no longer working for his previous hedge fund employer and cancelling the communist driven Net Zero Strategy which is:
– Unnecessary as there is no CAGW. I recommend everyone to check out the data for themselves.
– Pointless as we contribute just 1% to man-made CO2 emissions.
– Unworkable as we are exchanging affordable reliable fossil fuel and nuclear for expensive, unreliable and intermittent renewables.
– Destroying our economy by replacing transport and heating with sub-optimal vehicles and heat pumps which then causes a fortune to be spent on increasing grid capacity.
– Increasing our dependency upon a hostile state, China, who are supplying the wind turbines and the raw materials for motors and batteries.
May 29, 2022
O R. Absolutely.
May 29, 2022
And at ‘street’ level, I saw today, in my local supermarket, Tesco, that China was their supplier of some food; mangetout was one item.
I dare say we will see more of this in future since Boris is plannjng to ‘wild’ up to 30% of the agricultural land in England, taking it out of food production. We need food security and less dependency on imports. He destroys it, promoting importation.
May 29, 2022
The very fact that the Net Zero Strategy involves replacing our own affordable and reliable nuclear and fossil fuels with an unworkable scheme based upon Chinese made expensive and intermittent renewables requiring 100% fossil fuel backup is in itself proof that our ruling elites know that CAGW is a scam.
Made even more obvious by their own actions, such as flying their private jets each year to holidays and to COP and WEF conferences.
May 29, 2022
…….we need to increase capacity in many areas to curb inflation…….
Government doesn’t seem to understand the basics of supply and demand and will therefore constantly be in trouble. It’s solution to everything is to throw money at it and with Boris Johnson in charge it is toddler hairdo, toddler mentality.
May 29, 2022
Completely off topic
Iām not entirely sure that I believe the narrative that weāre being fed about the war in Ukraine, I have a degree of sympathy for Vladimir Putin, he warned what would if the West continued to poke him with a stick!
The fact that Bunter and Joe are splurging weapons and money on Ukraine is worrying, the war in Ukraine has been going on for, I think, 14 years, Zelensky is a crook, what is happening to our money plus itās an ideal distraction for Bunterās problems .
May 29, 2022
It is not only, Johnson that is using the suffering of the people of Ukraine as a convenient cover for failed policies, so too is President Biden.
May 29, 2022
Well, Lester-Cynic, I _am_ starting to believe the US media on Ukraine, now that even the pro-war left NYT and WAshington Post are starting to realise that Kiev is losing, and saying that a peaceful solution needs to be found. I’ve also noticed that Zelensky’s fans on this site don’t have much to say for themselves these days. All good signs that realism may finally be breaking out.
How long the message will take, though, to get through to Bunter and his chums remains to be seen. In the meantime, as you say, he has decided that nearly Ā£2bn are better spent on weapons for Ukraine (or whoever will get them on the black market) than on the cost-of-living crisis in Britain.
May 29, 2022
It isn’t Russia being physically wrecked and sanctions are blowing back just as hard on the West.
May 29, 2022
While Russia may be making a few very small and frankly insignificant gains in the east of Ukraine, the fact is that thanks to British and US weapons and sanctions Russia’s military and economy are being decimated. Russia needs to be punished for their attacks on UK soil, both in Salisbury and previously in London.
May 29, 2022
I’m afraid you are deep in Fantasyland, X-Tory. Sanctions are hurting the West really really badly, and the rouble is doing fine, with all the extra money Russia is getting from higher energy prices. Did you know Russia has just increased pensions by 10%? On top of that the Ukrainian army in the Donbas is close to collapse, and even Zelensky is now admitting things are going badly. That’s why Scholz, Macron and the US adminstration have just recently been making phone calls to Putin, to see if a settlement can be arranged while there’s anything left of Ukraine. Putin isn’t suing for peace.
Surely it’s time to call off the pointless slaughter – of Ukraine’s unquestionably brave soldiers, and of the European economies. This time Johnson has to agree to negotiations, not block them as he did in March when some kind of peaceful outcome could have been arranged in Turkey.
May 29, 2022
X-Tory – Had it not been for a couple of people raiding a bin in Salisbury the attack would have been more precise than – say – the drone strike on a wedding party that Biden sanctioned on leaving Afghanistan.
May 29, 2022
If you have objection with Putin for doing that (and I do) don’t fight a proxy war with him costing thousands of other nation’s lives.
May 29, 2022
Assuming the latest YouGov poll is correct ā¦isnāt it time someone got up and trumpeted EXACTLY what a Labour government will mean?
Everything they hate about Johnson with extreme far left bells added!
Unless of course the tories want to cede power.
May 29, 2022
The one advantage of the Conservatives is that they alone are capable of u-turns in order to remain in power, such as they should on the economy destroying Net Zero Strategy, whilst Labour/Lib Dem/Greens/SNP would continue with such policies to the bitter end in the communist belief that the ends always justifies the means, no matter the hardship forced upon the population.
May 29, 2022
+1
Agreed.
I hope the tories hurry up and do one huge U turn.
Get their quivering noses out of our day to day affairsā¦
And give us back our lives!
May 29, 2022
I really can’t see it being any worse.
May 29, 2022
How does this totally bonkers hot tub/celebrate extra benes/ noise fest/huge bbq steaks Bank Holiday help productivity? Haha!
In what way does the nasty party think all these acts of ābenevolenceā will delight their core voters. The ungrateful recipients will vote LABOUR!!
May 29, 2022
Is it the Saturday that people are having the main celebrations? Because its over 4 days people donāt know what the actual main day of celebration is meant to be. The extra bank holiday has caused a real big dip in trade as many companies have half closed down for not just next week but the last two days of last week.
May 29, 2022
It struck me that one of the strengths of Thatcherism was that it recognised the idea that, say, to increase investment it was necessary to create the conditions that would entice investors to come. Which was done by reducing tax rates and regulation. From Blair onwards we have seen the continued erosion of this. There was at one point the excuse of the EU, but after that has gone we don’t see any reversals, or any intention so to do. Boris seems happy enough to cherry pick a few policies that he felt generated a lot of enthusiasm amongst electors without any real understanding of what it was that won 3 elections in a row. Feynman, that great iconic bongo player and physicist, coined a phrase – cargo cult science. What I think we are seeing with Boris is cargo cult politics, but I doubt he will ever re-create the conditions that won him a large majority at general election. And one thing he really doesn’t get – the electors were not voting for his personality, as magnetic as it might have been.
May 29, 2022
Higher allowances only really work for established companies which continually invest. Start-ups don’t benefit as there’s no profit to claim against. Even established profitable companies end up paying the higher rate on residual profit and any profit in later years when they don’t invest
Far better the Irish system which helps good startups with 50% grants against plant and equipment in the year of investment. Also 50% against new employee costs for first 6 months. Then 15% corporation tax when profits are made.
Coupled with rent costs at half that in the UK outside Dublin and access to UK and EU markets it’s a no brainer
May 29, 2022
I for one do not believe it will happen. Consequently, short of a Brexit Party type emergence, I will not be voting for any of the existing parties. The conservative policy of leeching off the enterprise of the entrepreneurial few is pure socialism, a betrayal of everything they pretend to stand for. From individual to party their dishonesty is endemic. They talk the talk and fail to walk.
May 29, 2022
Agree wholeheartedly Sir J, we simply need normal conservative policies….
The PM’s leadership has not provided for them and as for Rishi, well you’ve called him out repeatedly.
Time for wholesale change at the top!
Hope you’re available too!
May 29, 2022
+1
May 29, 2022
Sir John, I could not agree more. An “investment revolution” is exactly what is needed, and needs to be both encouraged through lower taxes (both lower corporation tax – which should be 15% – and 100% tax deductions for all investment, whether in buildings, equipment or research), and also contributed to directly by the government, in the form of state aid for critical industries. Freedom from the EU’s restrictions on state aids was one of the principal attractions of Brexit. By investing in critical industries the government can leverage private investment. Take semiconductors, for instance. The current shortage is crippling manufacturing and shows that we need to be completely self-sufficient. Far from allowing the Chinese to buy Newport Wafer Fab, the government should help a British consortium both buy the company and enlarge it, doubling or tripling output and encouraging other similar companies to start up and grow. In the modern day, without a thriving electronics industry you are a third-world country.
May 29, 2022
They’d prefer to give money to furlough fraudsters and leftist causes.
May 29, 2022
This side of the general election will no limit at all be imposed upon the freedom Mr. Sunak enjoys to wreak harm?
May 29, 2022
Sir John,
I don’t think I’ve seen a single contributor here who in any way supports the government’s policies. At the same time almost none of them are from the left. If the government continues in it’s inept and blinkered way for the next two years then the next election will produce a very different result from what they were hoping.
May 29, 2022
+1
May 29, 2022
+1
May 30, 2022
I think a majority of Conservative MPs take the view that they ‘may’ survive the next GE, but are sure rocking the boat early will certainly mean they will become unemployed.
philosophical?
May 29, 2022
As far as I can tell, there are two guiding principles in the formulation of government policy at the moment:
Always go for the option which will involve the greatest amount of government intervention.
Always go for the option which will prioritise the short term at the expense of the long term.
May 29, 2022
Why is the government doing nothing about the Northern Ireland Protocol?
May 29, 2022
Because they like it just the way it is
May 29, 2022
May I add there is a developing massive personal savings problem. What is the sense in holding cash savings if you may get 1% or 2% a year in interest after tax but are likely to lose 10% a year, let alone much more long term, through inflation?
A nation where almost nobody has sizeable personal savings will cause further big economic problems.
May 29, 2022
+ 1
May 29, 2022
The communist driven CAGW/Net Zero scam is not only destroying Europeās economies, and eventually military capabilities, but also funding Russiaās war in Ukraine to the tune of Ā£23bn/month.
If the UK and Europe do not reverse this insanity and re-start investing urgently in its own fossil fuels, including coal, in the short term, together with nuclear in the long term, Russia will continue with its push through Ukraine and further westwards.
In addition the Net Zero Strategy is designed to make us dependent upon China for our expensive and intermittent wind turbine energy and for the raw materials for our sub-optimal electric vehiclesā motors and batteries.
May 29, 2022
We need more people taking Humanities degrees with a stress on philosophy.We need people to be able to think what they say and do and understand how it affects others and opinion.Of course philosophy teaches how to apply every aspect of living including science and arts to an evolving mix of society.We need to invest in green and beauty for it is the desirable which sells.
May 30, 2022
Humanities rather than engineering, aeronautics, wider mathematics, physics and a whole host of newly important applications in the changing world.?
‘what they say and do and understand how it affects others and opinion’
Pity so many politicians and media (owners) and commentators don’t demonstrate a particular system of beliefs, values, and principles!
May 30, 2022
Why do you presume it is one thing rather than another. I didn’t say that, however it is no use taking engineering/ science degrees if the person holding the qualification cannot use them. Do you hold the opinion that you can insult people , denigrate firms , bring down experience. and are unable to communicate effectively and still obtain confidence and contracts ? Your comment is an example of why people need to understand.
May 30, 2022
I contemplated your words for a while and concluded my response to you was in no way an insult. I do indeed need to understand – and now I will risk an insult – I haven’t a clue what you are going on about. Vague, waffle, missing the point, I could do with humanities being directly compared to practicalities?
May 30, 2022
Can’t you understand that I said more people need to take humanities degrees with an emphasis on philosophy to help them reasonl It beats me that you think communication is waffle1 I did not write anything about taking humanities degrees at the expense of other scientific degrees. You imagined that.
Why do you think I referred to you as making an insult?
It is very simple: when industry eventually uses progressive scientific products it has to sell . If derogatory comments are placed forward in abundance and an inability to rationalise what is real and what is arrogantly competitive then we will not prosper.
Would you buy from someone who constantly downs everything and demonstrates passive aggressiveness.?
May 30, 2022
I have responded to this but so far it hasn’t been published. This is important
because firstly you could not agree that you interpreted it in a way which I did not state ; a great problem in politics , secondly you became defensive suggesting that I was personally writing about your remark being insulting when I did openly state that the inability to reason , denigrate others , insult others, would not get any products sold . It is very simple to understand .Could I suggest that this is not about you.
May 31, 2022
margaret….so you think more people should take humanities degrees – but not at the expense of other scientific degrees. Which ones WOULD you suggest they drop in favour of ‘philosophy to help them reason’.
Or- are you hoping youngsters who are not currently taking degrees, perhaps cannot finance them, do not see how they will be employed as a result, or will not reach entry standards of education?
I await enlightenment.
May 29, 2022
Has anybody read āLosing our moral compass: Corrupt money and corrupt politicsā, March 2022, The Policy Institute, 96 pp, available from kcl.ac.uk/policy-institute/assets/
Thatās Margaret Hodgeās report on the poor state of the UK regarding ātransparency, regulation, enforcement, accountabilityā.
Page 7 has the recommendations.
May 29, 2022
That well known economic guru Margaret…lol
May 30, 2022
I suppose the idea is she has plenty of experience of cover ups.
June 2, 2022
Obviously being for five years the chairperson of the Public Account Committee counts for nothing for the brilliant businessmen and economic whizzākidsā commenting on this blog.
See āCalled to account: How corporate bad behaviour and Government waste combine to cost us millionsā, 2016, Little & Brown Publ., 398 pp.