It was a strange idea that in the Red Wall seats Labour voters had lent their votes to the Conservatives in 2019. It was an even stranger idea that that meant those voters wanted a Conservative government to behave more like a Labour one.
A vote is a vote. People mean it at the time. They will change at a later election if the party or person they voted for lets them down. In 2019 Conservative voters voted for Conservative ideas and abilities. They wanted levelling up tory style, where government gives people more chances to earn a good living, keep more of their own money, buy a home, get training and education to help them get on in the world. They look for a hand up not a hand out. They did not vote Conservative to have a bigger bureaucracy, more government or higher taxes.
Today in the aftermath of a couple of bad by election results the soul searching by Conservative Ministers should be easy. They should ask why haven’t they yet delivered the lower taxes, the greater freedoms, the better opportunities to start a business, grow a company, own a home and all the other features of a successful growth and prosperity strategy. Why are taxes going up and why is the economy slowing down?
The way to recover is not to double down with Treasury austerity, new taxes and higher taxes. The way to recover is to live the dream, restore the brand – being a Conservative is all about backing people to succeed, getting out of the way of those who can do well and offering appropriate help to those who want to follow them.
June 25, 2022
Good morning.
People have been conned. Political parties know that they can put any old guff into manifesto’s knowing full well they are not legally bound to fulfill a single promise. On this they, especially the Tory party, open lie to gain power. That is the nature of the game. Labour did it under Jeremy Corbyn MP as did the Lib Dems under Nick Clegg. All make promises they have no intention of fulfilling.
Someone should write a book and give it a title of, “We don’t believe you !”
June 25, 2022
The problem with manifestoes is that voters likely donât agree with every policy. Just because they vote to Get Brexit Done doesnât mean they are in favour of the Net Zero policies. Governments think that being elected gives them the green light to implement policies we disagree with. Nobody is against improving the environment but the cost of any change has to be acceptable. Very few can afford an electric car or a heat pump and itâs unfair to expect the poor in this country to subsidies the affluent to switch to green products.
All people see from Boris is more waste on bureaucracy and him giving away our money to foreign countries whilst the living standards in our own country decline. Itâs time for him to get off the world stage and fix the problems at home.
June 25, 2022
You say- âNobody is against improving the environment but the cost of any change has to be acceptable.â Indeed but what has the idiotic, pointless and vastly expensive net zero war on harmless CO2 plant food got to do âimproving the environmentâ – quite the reverse.
June 25, 2022
I agree and if the Boris government and tory party had any honour theyâd have called another election straight after wining and implementing the single issue of brexit
June 25, 2022
I have explained before that the manifesto commitment to net zero was for a date of 2050. That meant that there would be no rush, no pressure, and no need to do ANYTHING for the time being. That was fine. We could have waited for the RR SMRs to come into production and for technology to advance in terms of battery and hydrogen power, and then made a step change (with no need for progressive change before then). The problems all started when Boris the Cretin and Traitor brought that date forward by 15 years for electricity production and by a whopping 20 years for cars. THAT is the problem. He had no democratic mandate for this but his pathetic MPs did and said NOTHING. Go back to the manifesto commitment and all will be fine.
June 25, 2022
Agree – nobody voting in the 2019 election considered net-zero, as the idea was three decades away….who knew the tories would advance this woke green revolution
June 25, 2022
+1
Brexit was easy to deliver. It could still be delivered if there was someone with courage to deliver.
Same for immigration control. Deliberately lied and let in 1 million last year!
Same with taxation. We are being taxed three times for the same thing ie adult social care.
June 25, 2022
They now suggest benefits and pensions should go up in line with the large ~10% inflation rate but not workers pay. Thus increasing further the incentives not to bother working. This increases further still by the (non tax deductible) large increase in commuting costs.
June 25, 2022
LL,
Plus Johnson allows a mortgage on welfare! He is really nuts and JR talks about conservative policies. JR, explain why taxpayers should have highest taxation in 70 years for those on welfare to buy a house?
Explain why illegal criminals entering our country get to stay in four star hotels instead of detention centres? They burn down barracks that our troops live in. Javid was proud to announce he shut them down as HS!
June 25, 2022
The other problem with manifestos is they rat on them anyway. On pensions, on getting Brexit done, on immigration and on tax/NI so far!
June 25, 2022
12 years of lies.
June 26, 2022
HOPE – ONLY 12 years!!!! Considerably more regardless of party.
June 25, 2022
Everything except net zero.
June 25, 2022
Everything except net zero.
June 25, 2022
Politics is such an easy game to play. If you get elected it’s because the public like what you have promised. SO JUST DELIVER ON THOSE PROMISES! Then you will be re-elected next time. So simple. But if you renege on your promises the public will feel betrayed, as I do, and their support will turn to hate and they will kick you out at the next election – as I plan to do.
Boris the Traitor has failed in EVERY respect. He has betrayed me on Brexit, on taxes, on immigration, on net zero, on energy, on inflation, on pensions, on manufacturing, on farming and fishing, on freedom, on EVERYTHING. Of course I’m not voting Conservative next time!
June 25, 2022
We just need to find some real tories with a backbone
June 25, 2022
Mark B :
I have recently noticed Boris Johnson smirking when answering questions just as Tony Blair used to do.
June 25, 2022
It’s arrogance in the knowledge, or belief, that no one can depose them.
June 25, 2022
He’s confused by plebs asking questions that he doesn’t want to answer….how dare they!
June 26, 2022
The main problem for the liar is not that he may be found out.
It is that he cannot believe anyone else.
And it doesn’t matter how many times you repeat the lies and excuses as to why your brexit is the pile of muck that it so obviously would always be.
They remain just that – lies and excuses.
June 25, 2022
I imagine itâs frustrating being a Conservative MP when the cabinet goes full woke on you.
I would not worry. Every comment in every online newspaper, social media, blog, vlog, tweet and everything in between are all saying the Conservative party are absolutely nothing like the manifesto they promised, they are WEF babies and are as destroying the country.
The voters not give a vote to a cabinet of woke imports.
June 25, 2022
Hence the expression, âvote labour, get labour; vote Conservative, get Labour anyway!â
June 25, 2022
Sharon. Or vote blue get green.
June 25, 2022
Worse still you get a watermelons green on the outside red in the middle!
June 25, 2022
Cameron smeared his own supporters and went with lib dumbs to change his party. He could have gone alone and then back to the electorate. May betrayed the nation, her party, cabinet and let parliament go against democracy. She was even prepared to have a joint agreement with Labour if you recall. That is how strong her conservative beliefs were/are.
People actually thought Johnson would have learned from her ghastly behaviour and delivered on what they voted for. Hence he was leant votes from the north. Like Cameron and May before he has betrayed the nation with promises he never intended to fulfil. He created laws for little people that he deliberately broke- we are sick of being lied to and acting in stark contrast to our wishes and what we voted for! May and her close allies were not even banished from the party. Some were given titles like Hammond and Clarke. Exiled would have been more appropriate!
JR, you even stood up for Johnson in your blog on this site for his double standard behaviour. Good grief.
June 25, 2022
Then May left the moronic ânet zeroâ time bomb behind her to destroy the Conservative Party even further. A policy further encouraged by Borisâs deluded wife!
June 25, 2022
I still think the alternatives to Boris (that have any chance) are even worse. It is policy that needs to change. Boris with JR and Lord Frost navigating!
June 25, 2022
Vote Reform
June 25, 2022
Reform voting will give us no MPs and a Labour/SNP/Plaid/Green Government alas.
June 25, 2022
Sounds reasonable
June 25, 2022
It’s tragic for this nation’s peoples, our identity, our culture and our personal and civil freedoms to see the only opposition to the brutality and destructive hate of collectivism and Neo-Marxism disappear.
The vast majority of voters tend to focus on economic issues, I don’t do that. My focus has always been on the ever increasing grip of the Socialist State over our lives and that direction of travel can now only accelerate now the Tories have capitulated to such it seems unstoppable forces that include Labour, their unions and their activists and their allies now ranged across the entire power base of this nation.
We will all pay a heavy price when this State that seeks to destroy voice and identity centralises and digitalises our economic life by abolishing cash. At that point and Hayek understood this only too well we will have entered into a state of totalitarianism.
I never hear a Tory MP try to defend freedom of expression and the right to offend which are fundaments of a free world. It seems they think it benefits and protects their party if we cannot talk about issues of any kind. We all suffer, eventually
June 25, 2022
Agree 100%
Maybe Tory MPs view everything through the prism of what happened to one very brave, clever and farseeing manâŠ.political annihilation! Fear makes them toe the line?
And some pay with their lives because of it.
Political parties have exceeding large brooms and very capacious mats when it suits!
June 25, 2022
Dom. Correct again. This country is just a shadow of what is once was. We have our useless politicians (host not included) to thank for that. They have systematically broken this country and it’s the people that are suffering. It would be great to see an uprising against all the nonsense that’s making us unecessarily poor.
June 25, 2022
Our political class just don’t see reality….our free world is getting smaller every day
June 25, 2022
In full agreement, DOM.
June 25, 2022
Indeed but it is all part of the same think. Free speech, less government, low taxes, less regulation, more of you own money left to spend or invest as you wish – âreal freedom to chooseâ as Milton Friedman would have put it.
June 25, 2022
Dom
I have never heard a Labour of Left politician saying “I must think of the people would didn’t vote for me.” or “I appreciate you have lent me your vote.” in their acceptance speeches. They NEVER consider watering down their promises on the other side’s behalf.
The Russians have cut Nordstream 1 to Germany.
The ensuing economic crash and blackouts about to befall Britain will see the Tories utterly destroyed. Never mind union strikes.
Why is Boris buggering around in Ukraine making Britain the #1 Russian target ?
Our worst ever PM by far.
June 25, 2022
Who instead of would.
June 25, 2022
Nordstream 1 : Look it up, you’ll find that was one more crazy example of boomerang sanctions. Owing to sanctions on Russia, the Canadians won’t let Gazprom have the parts back that they were refurbishing, which are needed for maintenance of the pipeline, so Russia has reduced the gas pressure. So now eco-champions Germany have started importing coal. Brilliant!
June 26, 2022
DOM – It is all part of the globalist plan. The slow creep of CONTROL.
June 25, 2022
Good Morning, Sir John,
I can’t resist commenting on your clever way of not explicitly naming the elephant in the room, but instead listing what voters expected from ‘levelling up tory style’.
It is the elephant in the room that denies people ‘more chances to earn a good living, keep more of their own money, buy a home, get training and education to help them get on in the world’.
How can they benefit from tory-style levelling up when this means that they and their children have to share these life chances with the millions of others who have been invited into the country or who have been encouraged to enter illegally by this Conservative Government?
Red Wall Labour voters lent their votes to the Conservatives in 2019 because they believed the promise that immigration would be managed and controlled.
There, I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it.
Mary M.
June 25, 2022
+330,000!
June 25, 2022
+1 spot on. We cannot obtain services we paid for all our lives but have to wait to take the same turn as those who just turn up!
June 25, 2022
+1
June 25, 2022
Well said.
1 million visas in a year. And our hotels stuffed with 30,000 illegal chancers, most of whom were given a free ferry ride into the UK and a Life of Riley, courtesy of British taxpayers.
June 25, 2022
Politicians think that the threat of being sent to Rwanda is a deterrent. Being put up for free in a 4* star hotel with 3 meals a day and ÂŁ90 a month spending money is not a deterrent. Many British people would jump at the chance to have this lifestyle.
June 25, 2022
Rwanda can only deter if it actually happens – and this is not in the interests of the Lawyers!
June 25, 2022
It would work if we sent them back to France
June 26, 2022
It seems it may be a deterrent though in encouraging some to just disappear from where they are supposed to be, as in the report in recent days where 30 have not returned & gone missing from a relatively new Asylum Centre at Cottingham ( Thwaite Hall – MP David Davis’ constituency I believe ) It’s not a detention centre, but, ahem …. they are supposed to notify authorities if they move or find their own accommodation. So where are they now and how many more that we don’t know about, including the Slapton Sands Twelve. Heard no news lately about Linton on Ouse either.
June 25, 2022
tsk tsk !
June 25, 2022
Spot on Mark BâŠ.people voted at the last election over brexit, the next election will be immigration, taxes, cost of energy and net-zeroâŠ..no one and I mean no one will be decide to vote based on the policies of âlevelling-Upâ
June 25, 2022
We won’t get a real choice, because all the main parties will offer the same thing, even if their manifestos differ. We have (unfortunately) learned not to believe the manifesto of any of the main parties, but we do know they are all pro-EU, pro-mass immigration, pro-net zero, pro-high taxes, pro-big government, pro-totalitarian, pro-socialist.
What a choice! Democracy has been manipulated beyond belief. I wish the electorate would be brave and vote for change, ie. a new party. UKIP didn’t get any MP’s but it did force the biggest change in our politics. Let’s do it again, and teach these arrogant undemocratic parties that the electorate wants real democracy, and we want respect. We pay for the UK, we keep the nation going, not the politicians. The politicians are currently destroying everything we have worked for.
June 25, 2022
Agree – I’ll be voting Reform
June 25, 2022
I hope every Brexiter votes Reform. None of the main parties can be trusted to complete Brexit, or indeed, anything that may be good for the country.
June 25, 2022
and me!!!!
June 25, 2022
+1 and what is the net cost of each arrival in legal costs, housing, schools, policing, the NHS, social services, extra roads⊠£400K + perhaps? Probably far more when children, extended family, parents⊠arrive too.
June 25, 2022
+1. Mary M.
June 25, 2022
Far less government, far less regulation, no net zero, cheap reliable energy, sound currency, far less government waste, do not rat on manifesto promises – it is hardly rocket science we know what works economically and politically. So why are Boris/Sunak doing the complete opposite?
Mathew Paris (wrong on almost everything) in The Spectator attempts to defend Carrieâs interference in politics. He misses the point. The problem Mathew is her views on energy, climate, net zero and green crap are uninformed (as one would expect or a Theatre Studies graduate), idiotic and hugely damaging to the economy, to Boris and politically. As daft and politically damaging as her extravagant tastes in wallpaper and interior design were to Boris.
It is nothing to do with her being a PMâs wife rather than a husband it is being totally deluded and doing huge damage that is the problem.
So DRIVERS in London face a ÂŁ160 fine for veering into cycle lanes under powers that come into force next week. Transport for London (TfL) and borough councils will be able to issue Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) to motorists who drive within or cross cycle lanes marked by a solid white line.
So we see the purpose of the generally empty and expensive bike lanes – to further congest the roads and to further mug and tax motorists. Bikeâs will of course not have to stay in the bike lanes and will continue to use pavements, roads, bike lanes, pelican crossing and to jump red lights and go the wrong way down one way streets with total impunity.
June 25, 2022
+1
June 25, 2022
@Lifelogic,
The reality is that NO-ONE really knows what’s g0ing on with the climate. Neither the hysterical greenies nor their harshest opponents. Nor really how to fix the problem.
But there certainly is a problem and it’s certainly man-made to a large degree.
But the good news is that mankind has done incredibly well the last 50 years not to make the climate even worse. And the good news is that it is fixable. And the good news is also that it is fixable without us having to give up on a strong and stable economy. But it will require effort / imagination / perseverance / spirit of adventure – and some courage!
Can we start off by agreeing on a few things:
1) Fossil fuels are out (We can’t rely on Putin / dodgy states for our fuel / price fluctuations)?
2) Electric cars are here to stay and will only grow (for starters they reduce pollution and noise in cities). Car batteries getting better all the time.
3) Gas-guzzling Americans tried to make the argument for those big gas-guzzling cars but lost the argument. Americans are now embracing the more efficient European-style car.
4) There is a strong connection between renewables and the electric car
5) Wind energy has taken off in last few years. Becoming far more efficient. And not surprising, technology always improves especially when a real need for it.
6) There is a tonne of money to be made out of renewables / green tech / electric cars. It’s not a case of IF but WHEN and whether the UK is going to jump on board, making lots of money from it, including exporting abroad.
June 26, 2022
No i do not agree with your alleged facts. Climate has changed since the world began. Nor do you have to follow a baseless narrative.
June 26, 2022
But you’ve made no effort at argument. ‘Climate has changed since the world began’ is just completely vague and so fallacious / useless.
You’re just encouraging complacency / mediocrity.
June 25, 2022
The divide is getting biggerâŠ.its them and us
June 25, 2022
I seems they wanted a ÂŁ150,000 tree house at Checkers too – would that been interior designed by Lulu Lytle too?
June 26, 2022
I wish the government would cover this country with trees, hiding the ugly, grey parts of the country. Making the country more beautiful to look at (and listen to – birds!). Naturally clearing away pollution. And blocking out noise. And we could also use a lot of this timber for industrial use instead of importing (so becoming self-sufficient in timber).
Also, people could build and live in tree houses, in particular single people. Seriously. You can build and live in a beautiful tree house now for about ÂŁ50K. With loo, shower, TV, internet, all the modern stuff. Leak proof. Really comfortable. And think of how stress free it would be!
We got to think creatively (like entrepreneurs do).
June 25, 2022
Did the all Women candidate list in Tiverton and Honiton help the Tories or the reverse?
June 25, 2022
Whereâs the equal opportunitiesâŠsounds discriminatory ”OR WOKE”
June 27, 2022
Well, the man looking at porn and having to resign certainly didn’t help did he if you want to make this about sex.
June 25, 2022
Good post today LL.
June 25, 2022
Well said Sir John. +++
June 25, 2022
Errant âConservativeâ MPs should be given compulsory lines to train and remind them of what is right.
Todayâs SJR Diary piece is an ideal corrective training device. Every errant MP should write it out word for word every day until they are fit enough to know what to do properly.
The PM and Chancellor should each read their own manuscripts aloud at every Cabinet meeting, and place them personally in the Commons Reading room for thorough scrutiny and quality control.
June 25, 2022
well it is always the PM and Chancellor who set the tone for the Cabinet and thus the Government.
When you have a room full of wets you will get a soaking in the next GE.
June 25, 2022
Except he didn’t mention immigration, so not very well said after all.
June 25, 2022
True. At least a government should be seen to try to deliver on its manifesto promises.
In this case, manifesto pledges were swiftly abandoned and a new set of Net Zero and globalist ideas are being pursued instead.
Boris Johnson decided to ignore the voters that got him elected and look after the Davos set instead.
June 25, 2022
Get fracking and open the Cumbrian coal mine . Create some real well paid jobs up north. Reduce reliance on foreign imports and reduce balance of payments.
It’s only a matter of time before a real conservative steps up I.e. Farage and your history.
June 25, 2022
Theyâre still only at the stage of considering whether or not to consider issuing licences https://drillordrop.com/2022/06/24/minister-to-consider-next-steps-on-fracking/
This government wont make a decision till after the next general electionâŠbut will keep promising to review the situation
June 25, 2022
A question was asked of extreme green political PM on Wednesday about Germany’s, in particular, reversion to burning their own coal, and if he thought it wise for us to import foreign coal. He replied saying we should use our own resources.
Question – did he mean our own coal or gas? Or did he mean more windmills?
No prizes for spotting his attempt to deceive. I hope no-one fell for it.
June 25, 2022
The manifesto was a lie and Boris election speech was a lie
June 25, 2022
Unfortunately, the majority of so-called Conservative MPs are anything but conservative in outlook. I, and I am sure many others, have been waiting since 2010 for a conservative party and government actually prepared to address the disastrous Blair/Brown legacy. With an 80 seat majority I thought that might happen, but we have been let down on so many fronts. BJ may be good at winning elections, but as a PM he has been a disaster, his choice of ministers, particularly Chancellor, seriously wrong.
The two by-election results this week underscore this.
June 25, 2022
Will. Most Con MPs should join either the greens or lib dims. Others should join Farage as he is a true conservative.
June 26, 2022
Rees-Mogg is probably the most Conservative in the Tory Party.
June 25, 2022
I see the Conservative candidate in Honiton and Tiverton was selected from an all-women list: what could possibly go wrong?
June 25, 2022
Better than putting up a remainer candidate in a vote leaving constituency, especially one who BRAGGED about being a remainer and made disparaging remarks about Brexit. The stupidity of both candidate and selection committee is staggering, but par for the course with the CONS these day. Stupidity is what we have learned to expect from them.
June 25, 2022
The Conservatives won the last election on a promise to get Brexit done. And it is done! So our traders face massive extra red tape, holidaymakers stand in huge sweaty queues, investment in the UK has collapsed, we have labour shortages in all our critical industries and Northern Ireland has been abandoned. Brexit is done and now the truth about it is finally out, a lot of Conservative MPs will pay the price at the next election
June 25, 2022
Spot on Gary
June 25, 2022
Brexit isn’t done. It isn’t sufficient to get the UK out of the EU, you also have to get the EU out of parliament and the civil service.
June 25, 2022
Correct – Brexit is most certainly NOT done
June 25, 2022
Seen elsewhere – and I quite agree
âIf we had not been in the EU, many of our base load coal fired power stations would still be running. Why did Ed Miliband so readily agree to the EU edict in 2008 to limit these power stations to an artificial 20,000 hours operating life? Was this done to limit our manufacturing base because the UK was already a strong financial services base and according to the EU, particularly Germany, we couldn’t be both? Our membership of the EU was a disaster and Remainer politicians like the Millibands, Blair, Heseltine and Clarke are, to my mind , traitors who saw the EU as an opportunity to line their own nests.â
June 25, 2022
To them, its other people who have to pay energy bills
They’re to rich and powerful to even consider household bills….thats for the plebs
June 25, 2022
A better question would be to ask why the government totally disregarded everything in their manifesto once elected, and even went in the completely opposite direction.
‘We don’t believe you’ has become so justifiable. Why would I trust future promises and manifesto’s? The answer is, I won’t. This government reminds me of the 2017-2019 rogue Parliament. Democracy, decency and promises mean nothing to this government. I don’t know in whose interests this government is working for, but it certainly isn’t the electorate interests, or the UK!
June 25, 2022
Totally untrue Shirley. The Conservatives promised to get Brexit done, and Brexit is done. It’s such a disaster that even Conservative MPs hate it – look at them complaining about the Northern Ireland Protocol which they all voted for ! – but Brexit is done. And at the next election we will be able to join with the voters of Tiverton and Wakefield and have our say on this Conservative party’s policies and its leader
June 25, 2022
In your opinion, maybe. I doubt many will agree with you.
The remainers in the 2017-2019 Parliament destroyed all possibility of a mutually beneficial agreement with the EU, so please don’t blame Brexit when remainer sabotage was entirely responsible. We have a lousy agreement with the EU, just as the remainers in Parliament wanted to happen, if they didn’t manage to destroy democracy and Brexit. We see the result now, but we will NEVER go back into the EU. We still have 40 years of EU rule to undo, if we can get a patriotic and DEMOCRATIC political party into power.
June 25, 2022
Too true in all respects Shirley.
How can you have a meaningful negotiation when the other party already knows what your backstops are?
June 25, 2022
Just employ our civil servants to tippex and erase the words âEuropean Unionâ from every law
June 25, 2022
I do understand your despair Shirley, but please understand Brexit is not going badly because of âRemainersâ. Brexit is going badly because cutting ties with our closest and biggest trading partners is a really bad idea
June 25, 2022
You talking about the USA
June 25, 2022
Why do you always go back to the Parliament of 2017-2019? In December 2019, Johnson got a majority of 80 with a non negligible number of Remainer Conservative MPs losing their seats. With that, he and Frost had their hands free to provide the Brexit they wanted. They came out of the discussions with the EU with an âoven-readyâ Brexit treaty that was subsequently voted by the majority of Conservative MPs, some convinced that parts of it could later be unilaterally redrawn by the UK.
To go on saying that the present problems are all the faults of Remainers is to be oblivious of the simple facts that the good Lord Frost and the PM either were not the brilliant negotiators they advertised themselves to be to the UK public or they have been taking the same UK public for fools these last two and a half years.
But isnât it so much easier not to recognise oneâs own mistakes and blame outside actors than to look at what actually happened and realise that the Leave voters have been conned by Johnson into believing the promises of the 2016 referendum campaign?
June 25, 2022
Totally untrue Gary for Brexit is only “done” when we make use of the opportunities being free from Evil Empire control permits. The simple act of ejecting ourselves from its lair is insufficient.
June 25, 2022
So, first point, do you accept that the UK has ejected itself from the EU lair?
Second, why do you think the present Government is procrastinating using the Brexit opportunities?
I see that some here show regarding the 2017-2019 Parliament the same resentment as some Germans had in the 1920-30s vis-a-vis the Versailles Treaty. Remember how it turned out?
There have now been a number of papers on the 2016 referendum, an interesting statistically based one being âThe UKâs referendum on EU membership of June 2016: how expectations of Brexitâs impact affected the outcomeâ (by S.D.Fisher, A. Renwick, 2018, open access @ link.springer.com ) showing (Table 1) that on average people were not expecting much change in economic prospects but expecting a sizeable drop in immigration.
Also Brexitland: Identity, diversity and the reshaping of British politics, 2020 by M.Sobolewska & R. Ford and on similar topics Lord Ashcroftâs poll of 24 June 2016 (available at lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why).
There are also books on the UK-EU discussions between mid-2016 and end 2020 from E.Stourtonâs Blind Man Brexit, 2019 to M.Barnierâs My Secret Brexit Diary, 2021 to Little Book of Brexit Benefits to Chris Greyâs Brexit Unfolded, 2021 to P.Stephensâ Britain Alone, 2022.
I am waiting for JR-Mâs next âouvrageâ on all the Brexit opportunities and actual advantages that will befall us ⊠not yet but soon.
June 25, 2022
More rejoiner propaganda from hefnero
June 26, 2022
If people didn’t expect much change in economic prospects after Brexit, Hefner, it may have been because they naively expected the EU to negotiate a post-Brexit deal in good faith, not seeking in every way possible to punish Britain for leaving. Perhaps also because they expected our government to bat for us, and not try to undermine the referendum result.
June 26, 2022
P2, To you I would recommend âThe Little Book of Brexit Benefitsâ. It should fit your abilities at a âdecent debateâ.
June 26, 2022
Always grateful for your self proclaimed superiority heffy.
June 25, 2022
To coin a phase – ”in name only”
June 25, 2022
Well really Gary Megson.
Would you prefer the even Higher Inflation of many EU countries? (particularly eurozone.)
Would you prefer the greater shortage of energy in Germany, than we have here?
I am totally bemused by your comments.
June 25, 2022
I believe that the northern electorate voted Conservative in order to “get Brexit done”. Brexit is not yet “done” and it is increasingly looking like it never will be. This is a problem.
Also, during my lifetime, Labour has been clueless when it came to money. It is disappointing that Conservatives are now also clueless. Maybe the UK should be run a little more like a business and a little less like a charity ?
June 25, 2022
++
Oh very spot on indeed!
June 25, 2022
When you have a system that allows politician to build little empires to enhance their careers there is a tendency for them to demand more and more money for all their pet projects and supporters. Self promotion using other people’s money.
And currently at the head of the government, we have a perfect example of such a creature.
June 25, 2022
Quite so, and listening to Bunter this morning, he continues to repeat, ‘we got Brexit done’. That tells you he doesn’t intend to put any effort into actually finishing it properly.
Further, Bunter talks about ‘focusing on the things the voters elected him to do’ ie the manifesto. Again, hardly anything done. 2+ years, and all the money, wasted on locking down the nation, while hosting Prosecco parties in Downing Street.
It is the character of the man at the top that is the problem, that is what needs to change to be replaced by someone who DOES do the things the Party talks about.
PS, we’re in an economic calamity and we’ve got an economic illiterate running the country; could it be a worse situation?
June 25, 2022
@ Peter Wood re PS – we are in a worse situation for we also have economic illiterate running the Treasury, aided and abetted by other economic illiterates on its staff and at the Bank.
June 25, 2022
Charles Dickens often made references of the consequences of debt (his own father got ‘banged up’ ), this quote from his novel David Copperfield, âAnnual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.â
Now multiply that by ÂŁbillions …and you have this Conservative government MISERY.
June 25, 2022
Glad to hear that âlevelling upâ doesnât mean what I thought it did.
I thought it was a woke term meaning that the West ( guilty of industrialisation) had to give all to the poorer countries. (Or supposedly wealthier south U.K. to north). Globalists bang on about it a lot.
Very happy with JRâs conservative interpretation!
June 25, 2022
But ”levelling-Up” still can’t be measured….how do we know its been successful…whats its KPIs
June 25, 2022
Well said Sir John.
Voters also wanted a government that would keep the promises of the Brexit referendum, ‘get brexit done’!
They also did not want WOKE policies or legislation to restrict the freedom to protest peacefully, or to trample all over freedom of speech.
They did not vote fora government that would be a servant of WEF, WHO and the UN.
June 25, 2022
They also didn’t vote for a Prime Minister who spends more of his time and OUR money on Ukraine than on the one he is supposed to lead.
What with that and the ridiculous posturing he put on at COP26 it’s blindingly obvious that he’s campaigning for a Globalist role when he leaves Downing St. You’d think he’d at the very least he’d be a bit more subtle about it.
June 25, 2022
To add yo my comment above, we did not vote to be overwhelmed with immigration, both legal and escorted across the channel by Border farce.
The trouble is, there is no other party that will do all of the things we want, so we are indeed sunk.
June 25, 2022
But does the present government realise this
June 25, 2022
Voters want honesty not broken pledges or empty rhetoric, a sense of direction and courageous leadership.
Despite the one eyed stance of Borisâs acolytes none of the above are being met. They try to narrow the narrative to partygate but there are far more reasons that people neither believe or trust him and I do not know anyone who thinks differently.
The best Raab could come up with is more listening to the people. A pledge broken already. The people have spoken in two bi elections which were only ever about Boris and he proved to be toxic.
June 25, 2022
It seems to me that the civil service is running things now.
There has been a coup.
June 25, 2022
Civil Servants have been running the Country since Salmayr came to power in Brussels and empowered our bunch with ‘ideas’ (divide and conquer). 90,000 should not be there (come on get rid)and much of what is left rule with their own Agenda. “Iron Lady” all is forgiven and the real problem is no one has the balls to stand up to all this except one or two presently leading Industrial Action who,it pains me say, have fearless courage, determination and fighting spirit in shovel loads but who are committed to the wrong FOCUS. Why do ‘rong-uns’ always pick the wrong Agenda?
June 25, 2022
I’ve been wondering what the Conservatives should say to win the next election and now I’ve got it –
Policy – Boris Johnson should be PM
Campaign slogan – ‘Labour would be slightly worse’
The trouble is Labour would actually be much worse but by the time people notice, as they eventually did with Blair – brown, it will be too late.
June 25, 2022
Precisely, JR – couldnât agree more with what you say here.
Trouble is, there are two many with socialist ideals behind the scenes⊠and I wonder if, bizarrely- it was thought that labour voters voting Tory, meant they should be given labour ideals.
And the net zero malarkey⊠the idiots that thought that one up, have really sold the western world a pup – a very professional indoctrination job! Getting rid of that would go a very long way to securing conservative ideas. That and freedom of speech – the online safety bill and all the surveillance we experience in various shapes and forms.
June 25, 2022
Many of us now believe that it makes little difference who you vote for as the Uniparty will get in anyway. Who will cast off globalist policies such as population replacement, wokery, health fascism, and illogical ‘green’ measures? Worrying about the economy is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic as it starts to go down by the bow.
June 25, 2022
It is the utter woke madness that I canât stand.
Gives me nightmares.
I always thought that Johnson was a rational scholarly type.
I read his diary and liked his ideas..that windmills were rubbish and that ID cards should be chewed up.
Didnât realise that politicians altered their views with the prevailing wind.
Thought they were noble souls. Ho! Ho!
June 25, 2022
From where Iâm sitting (a patriotic English pro-union anti-EU middle aged taxpayer who worries about my childrenâs and grandchildrenâs future), I want a government that controls inflation and lowers taxes, has an eye on the green agenda but doesnât obsess over it, and focuses on self-sufficiency as much as possible, creating jobs and prosperity as well as resilience when global events cause problems. I also sigh at the woke nonsense and wish to god the home office would grip illegal immigration.
What I see is a lazy, scruffy, publicity hungry control freak who wonât let his ministers do anything and who spends his whole time appeasing his wife and chasing voters who will never vote for him whilst alienating those who did in 2019.
Forget the âelectoral appealâ; Iâm pretty sure the red wall voters you mention would settle for a sensible boring Tory PM who addresses the issues I listed above.
June 25, 2022
And in other news we read that the freeze on tax free mileage allowances means that effectively it is costing people more to get to work.
As usual double standards from this government. Working from home should be reversed and will will charge you more to do it.
June 25, 2022
45p per mile was always very generous.
June 25, 2022
JR: “If you vote Conservative you want Conservative policies”
Wow!! A tory [claims] to get it!
Problem is the Tory party has been infiltrated and is nothing more than a skin suit worn by Greens and Communists.
I am glad to see your faux party has lost two by elections just recently, losing a 20,000 majority in one instance. You deserved it. The sad thing is, voters had to go to the Liberal Democrats to register their protest vote.
Hopefully, this electoral trend will be translated into the next election, and heralds the obliteration of the Tory party, for ever.
30% swing to the Lib Dems, the LIB DEMS! in Tiverton and Honiton. Well, good!
This government had an 80 seat majority, we voted for a government that would establish British independence and implement sensible economic policies. Johnson even had the headroom to conduct some unpopular policies, if they could be demonstrated to be of benefit to the country inside five years.
But instead, we got the COVID crony corrupt mismanagement, ÂŁ10bn of PPE bought by the government has been destroyed because it was substandard! Parties at 10 Downing street, while everyone else was locked down and being prosecuted for attempting to save their own businesses. Yet the only thing Boris Johnson is concerned about is a one time media personality in Kiev who has been pushed into the limelight by one of Ukraine’s obscenely wealthy corrupt oligarchs.
June 25, 2022
JR: “They wanted levelling up tory style, ”
No we didn’t, no one who voted Tory wanted Communist policies.
This exactly comports with my assertion the Tory party is just a façade behind which the Trots and Communists are concealed.
A 30% swing to the Lib Dems. That the second most corrupt party in Britain is considered a better option than the Tories, suggests Boris Johnson has ruined the party. Let’s hope so.
Go away, and don’t come back.
June 25, 2022
Agree
June 25, 2022
APL, +1, and some people worry that backing a small or new Party will be a wasted vote!
June 25, 2022
Boris on the radio this morning waffling and bumbling with opportunities, ambitions, planning etc which is OK if he’s got good strong people around him who have firm ideas of what they want and how to get it, but he hasn’t. Therefore the whole lot of them come across as the same as him with a metaphor of a rudderless ship in a maelstrom.
June 25, 2022
Miami. Trouble is it’s all talk and bluster. The party has no intention of actually doing ANYTHING useful.
June 25, 2022
FUS
+1 Situation Normal.
June 25, 2022
Correct â Iâd donât know why Boris and his cabinet even bother with PMQs or select committees as theyâre going to do there own thing anyway
June 25, 2022
@ miami mode – just so. Boris makes the common error of choosing to have no “good strong people around him” because he views them as a threat, rather than realizes that they are the key to his own success. Where would Margaret have been without Sir Keith Joseph, Geoffrey Howe and Nigel “my brilliant Chancellor” Lawson amongst others?
June 25, 2022
The Conservatives government is exhausted. A period in opposition is needed and that would also have the advantage of exposing the Lib/Lab/SNP pact to real world problems which they would struggle to solve.
June 25, 2022
The people who voted Conservative in 2019 REJECTED Socialism and the lunacy the Green Party was offering them. They didn’t vote for Corbyn’s Policies or a Party that wanted to turn the country back to a fictional pre-industrial nivarna …. which in reality meant millions of poor people living a hand-to-mouth existence in abject poverty.
But as soon as he’d delivered his BRINO+, all we have had from Johnson is his Covid Propaganda and constant lectures about Net Zero and his (UN/WEF orchestrated) planned destruction of our standard of living.
I very reluctantly voted Conservative in 2019 in order to Get Brexit Done. Goodness knows your Party didn’t deserve it after the treachery of the previous 2 years, but since the MP in my Constituency had dispensed with the services of one of the chief architects of the treachery (Oliver Letwin) I held my nose and voted Conservative after my Brexit Party candidate was withdrawn.
I, like millions of others, was CONNED.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
June 25, 2022
Donna, +1, another good comment, thank you. I’m glad that I didn’t trust Johnson back then.
June 25, 2022
+1
June 25, 2022
Just one, timely successful flight to Rwanda ( not a by-election dodging jolly there) just might have delivered different results?
June 25, 2022
IMO, the reason that the Red Wall fell to the Conservatives was simply because the Labour Party no longer represented their interests. It was the lesser of 2 evils.
The current Labour Party is the greatest asset that the Conservatives have going into the next election. But, if the Labour leadership were to become more aligned with their working class roots …………………………..
June 25, 2022
The Red Wall voted Tory because they had previously voted to leave the EU. They voted to leave the EU because they hated mass immigration. They still hate mass immigration. Unfortunately, the liblabcon loves mass immigration, particularly by etc ed.
June 25, 2022
100% correct in the 2016 referendum, 100% correct in the 2019 general election….and still 100% correct today
June 25, 2022
What you say is correct Sir John, unfortunately there are (at least) three different types of Conservatives now – Scottish Conservatives, Northern Conservatives and Southern Conservatives who have emerged from Conservative campaigning in those areas, each targeting a different demographic.
William Hague was the last leader to campaign on Conservative values and even he watered them down to compete with Blair.
Your party needs to go back to its base and win the ideological argument that a rising tide lifts all ships. Until that happens we will be subject to pandering to minorities interests and those in receipt of handouts.
June 25, 2022
Well said JR – although I fear that ears have already been tuned to ignore such important advice.
Indeed, if the government had been true to it’s ideals, it would have retained those seats — This proves that even labour voters can see the damage done by socialist parties, and support those on the right until, as has happened, those on the right adopt more pervasive socialist dogma and ideology than labour even.
What is the point of the Tories if they pursue ever more destructive socialist ideas than the libdems or labour?
June 25, 2022
BH
+ 1.000 s
June 25, 2022
I did note that Carrie was wearing a Lib Dem yellow dress on the morning of the by-election results. Of course the intention was to look like the Ukrainian flag together with Boris in blue, but the UK is not the Ukraine either. I suppose at lest there were no star patterns on the dress.
June 25, 2022
Please, please get on with it. I am convinced our hard-won freedom is at stake. I’m an unaffiliated voter who believes in sovereignty and democracy, and you lose both in the EU. On Thursday (23-6-22) at the UKICE event, Stephen Kinnock and David Lammy gave us some information about what Labour would do re the EU if/when they return to power: return to EU alignment, signing up to EU defence/security frameworks (including ‘avoiding duplication’ of military purchases with France and Germany). That puts us firmly back under EU control (and the EU would demand multiple enormous annual fees).
The Tory government has two years to turn things round.
Could the government also please do a bit of joined-up work – make sure that one measure doesn’t mess up something else?
June 25, 2022
Too late.
Nordstream 1 has been cut off. The impact on us is going to be calamitous.
The Tories are about to be in office during the biggest levelling down in British history.
June 25, 2022
What you say should be self evident to any Conservative, but voters do not only want policies and attitudes that they approve of, they need to be confident that the party they are supporting has a leadership that believes in what it is promising from the heart, and not just because it is what it thinks the voters want to hear. That is why the Conservatives cannot and will not win under the present leader.
June 25, 2022
I fear that voters will vote for anyone rather than the CONS, due to huge damage and destruction this government has made. We have seen it in these bi-elections. I can’t believe they voted for Labour policies (what are they?) or the undemocratic LibDems who have zero respect for democracy. These were protest votes and will be repeated at the GE. The UK is in very serious trouble, democratically, and all caused by Boris and his sycophantic yes-men.
June 25, 2022
If we donât give the tories a bloody nose at the next general election, theyâll just continue to become more woke, more marxist and more new labour
June 25, 2022
“They look for a hand up not a hand out. “ – well yes, so something like Margaret’s help to buy scheme rather than Boris’s mortgage funded by benefits then?
“It was an even stranger idea that that meant those voters wanted a Conservative government to behave more like a Labour one.” – well yes, and completely bizarre that they then actually get a Conservative Government that does behave more like a Labour one but with added Green destruction!
Your final paragraph shows the way to recovery but Labour need not fear, Boris and pals will not adopt your ideas.
June 25, 2022
Boris has not even heard your ideas! Quoted today by Guido Fawkes (with Boris voice recording): –
“…the only actual argument that Iâve heard some of my critics make of substance about the change of direction theyâd like to see is for us to go back into the EU Single Market â thatâs literally the only manifesto point that Iâve seen”
Literally condemned by his own words. Does he not know that once a premiership has failed, there is no point in prolonging it for that only adds to the humiliation?
June 25, 2022
Thatcher’s Right to Buy was one of the biggest handouts the UK has ever seen. Up to ÂŁ87,200 of other people’s money. Nice if you can get it, I’m sure.
June 25, 2022
Even if the Tories did a volte face on all their current policies, they don’t have enough time or money to make anything useful happen before the next election. Any more borrowing from the Treasury will be met with loss of confidence in the money markets.
The only thing that will save Johnson’s premiership is the thought that Labour is a barrel bottom the electorate aren’t prepared to scrape.
June 25, 2022
We can expect the PM to waffle on and throw more money at the voters in the hope they will forget prvious broken promises. Usual buy them off policy.
June 25, 2022
“Today in the aftermath of a couple of bad by election results the soul searching by Conservative Ministers should be easy. They should ask why havenât they yet delivered the lower taxes, the greater freedoms, the better opportunities to start a business, grow a company, own a home and all the other features of a successful growth and prosperity strategy. Why are taxes going up and why is the economy slowing down?”
They should also ask why our borders seem to be completely porous, and why nothing has been done to prevent schools, universities, and the BBC to raise the next generation of Britain-haters.
June 25, 2022
Dear Sir John
Thank goodness for once again showing us what Conservatives really should be proud of and defining the core beliefs of the Conservative party.
Now Boris needs to be reminded daily along with many others who have lost their bearings.
Many thanks for your helpful daily dose of common sense and proven experience.
June 25, 2022
How best to sum up this excuse for a Conservative government?
Jesus Wept.
June 25, 2022
Off topic, this silly article came my way:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/20232014.snp-president-suggests-northern-ireland-protocol-independent-scotland-england-border-fix/
The SNP president obviously has no idea what he’s talking about, so I’ve sent this letter to the editor:
“I read that the SNP President visualises that an independent Scotland within the EU could benefit from an arrangement similar to the Northern Ireland protocol.
(Herald, June 23, “SNP president suggests Northern Ireland protocol as independent Scotland-England border fix”.)
So has he settled in his mind which common market in goods both Scotland, and the continuing UK, would belong to under that scenario?
Does he think that the EU would allow Scotland to remain as part of the UK internal market, overseen by English courts, and with UK inspectors checking that all goods entering Scottish ports and airports conformed to UK standards?
Or does he imagine that having left the EU Single Market England and Wales would willingly rejoin it, just to avoid customs checks along the Anglo-Scottish border?
A much better solution, based on the principle of “parallel marketability”, was proposed in paragraph 152 of a Scottish government document âScotland’s Place in Europeâ published on December 10 2016.
And in fact it is a similar collaborative arrangement between neighbours, with “mutual enforcement” of each others’ standards, which should replace the noxious elements of the Northern Ireland protocol.”
June 25, 2022
Denis Cooper.. Nicely put but I think the NI Protocol is here to stay at least until UK rejoins the Single Market ‘ so then another bleak winter ahead of us followed by the removal of Boris and his team from office will make the difference. Scotland will have to bide it’s time – truth is the EU has already turned away from us – they are looking to Eastern Europe now .. I suppose tired of Boris, Frost, and the non stop brexit stuff.
June 25, 2022
Agreed Sir John.
To be brief: I for one have had enough. A new leader is required.
June 25, 2022
You’re all logging a dead horse John. It fit for the knackers yard. If the cabinet started to read what the public are saying it might be a start. Carry on like this wit Johnson and his useless army and you’re doomed. Trouble is you take the people with you and we don’t want to go there.
June 25, 2022
Pure unadulterated conservatism Sir John Redwood. Once again I agree 100%
June 25, 2022
What is the Fataturkâs overall ambition for Great Britain?
If things carry on as they are I canât see the electorate meekly submitting to his plan, will riot police be employed?
June 25, 2022
Interesting point.
Apart from expecting us to follow rules that do more harm than good — Just what is Boris’ overall plan and vision for the UK?
Judging by everything that has been going on, and extrapolating the direction we are being taken politically, it is to turn us into a 3rd world banana republic dictatorship.
June 25, 2022
For him, the country or, to be precise, the condition it is in when he leaves office is a means to an end.
June 25, 2022
Yes well, Sir John.
You have hinted at part of the problem. Particularly regards Wakefield.
I am quite sure the electorate there did not expect the country to be told it must be run on sun and wind alone !
Isn’t Honiton/Devon a farming area?
Perhaps they expected Defra to think of a BETTER policy than the EU’s C.A.P.
Face it. Your Party is no longer CONSERVATIVE.
I think you ARE. I also think you are arguing here for your party to return to conservative values.
June 25, 2022
An inspiring job application, but will the message arrive. Most of us contributing to this diary have been saying variants on this theme for a very long time. Getting no response, I suspect that many fellow Conservatives decided to abstain last Thursday, our vote is the only weapon we have. You have about two years to get it right, getting it wrong is unforgivable.
June 25, 2022
Well, here we are, just two days after two very bad by-election losses, and the Johnsons give us Treehousegate. I’ll be expecting your backbenchers to start lobbying for changes to the ‘No Confidence’ process as soon as they get back to Westminster from their treehouse-less constituency homes.
June 25, 2022
The problem is it is going in the wrong direction with increasing speed. There’s little hope and a lot of delusion.
June 25, 2022
Boris maybe in No 10 but he is making the same basic mistake as Blair believing in his image and his invincibility “First along equals” who are not in any position to out-debate him – egged on by his wife.
His secret conversion the Catholic church defies my understanding of living up to what you promised the voters. Basic stuff no diversions.
June 25, 2022
Judging by the election results and the boos at St Paul’s the comments here on the JR blog represent true opinion on Boris. Ignore the polls and vox interviews. They are ALWAYS wrong.
June 25, 2022
Conservative policies needed? Let’s look at some policies this government is currently trying to get through Parliament:
‘Online safety’ Bill – enforcing online censorship of ‘mis- and disinformation’ (however defined)
‘Bill of Rights’ – undermining freedom of expression and other fundamental human rights
‘Public order’ Bill – restricting the right to protest, protesters to be stopped and searched without suspicion
I do not recognise these measures as Conservative. On the contrary, they restrict the rights of the individual and give more powers to the state.
June 25, 2022
The Tory party died in 1990, Labour died 1979. We now have a brutally efficient, brutally determined political class taking their direction from Washington and Brussels without a nod to Davos-Bilderberg. And dare anyone confront this vicious, nasty vested interest.
Democratic governance is dead and the main parties are openly contemptuous of freedom of speech and the sovereign, free individual. We are now mere rats to crush and sheep to herd
John’s party have more in common with Mick Lynch as they both support the prevailing orthodoxy,
June 25, 2022
So the Japanese hedge fund that owns ARM Holdings has decided to list on the Nasdaq. The brainless Arts graduates of the Tory party do not protect British companies from predation because although they mouth off
about improving our woeful GDP per capita, they have not yet connected that wish with supporting high technology businesses which will achieve that aim for them. To them high technology
means foreign marketing businesses which are the users of high technology rather than the creators of it. Show them a British business that makes offensive weapons, however, and any sign of a foreign takeover and they get into a lather about ‘national security’ unless of course the predator is an ‘ally’ in which case its still ok by them. Useless people.
June 25, 2022
If we want to be able to afford to keep ownership of companies in the UK we have to make large inroads into our balance of payments deficit. That means supporting industry (rather than constantly attacking it) to enable import substitution (see e.g. gas, coal and so much that has upped sticks and re-established in China) and increase exports, and not seeing large remittances out of the country by migrant workers. Otherwise we have to find things to sell and mortgage abroad to pay our bills.
June 25, 2022
When are you going to put some numbers to your recovery plan, that will dig the UK out of your own party’s Osborne austerity decade JR?
For instance, have a look at Table 4.3 in PESA 2021. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1003761/PESA_2021_CP_Chapter_4.xlsx Public sector expenditure on services by function IN REAL TERMS.
The austerity decade came in slightly above the net zero target for real expenditure, at slightly less than 0.5% compound per year. It had been a real 4.4% compound increase in the previous twelve years. So, what’s your target for each of the ten COFIG categories? What budget deficit/surplus target will you have?
Please could you explain to the voters how the Public Sector Gross Debt, increased from ÂŁ857 billion in 2008 Q3, to ÂŁ2,891 billion in 2008 Q4; and, how the extra ÂŁ2,000 billion went directly from the Treasury “magic money tree” into the Banking sector, not into the non-banking household sector?
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/timeseries/bkqa/pusf?referrer=search&searchTerm=bkqa .
PS. Didn’t UKIP and Reform UK do well in the two byelections. đ
Reply I am proposing easing the tax squeeze on the private sector, not increasing public spending
June 25, 2022
Reply to reply
Indeed. Tax cuts at the fuel pumps would be a good start.
I can tell you. Mortgages to welfare claimants has gone down like a cup of cold sick in your voter base. It is an attack on those who make effort.
June 25, 2022
I honestly don’t know how this is possible*.
Sky news interviews Mick Lynch of the RMT, she reports that Boris Johnson has said the RMT demand for a pay rise it too high!
As far as I can make out, they got 0% last year, 0% the year before.
But guess who has awarded themselves a ÂŁ2,200 pay rise, this year!?
*I never thought it possible. I’d side with Mick Lynch of the RMT against a Tory government. But, guess what?
June 25, 2022
Rail workers’ pay has been frozen for over two years (hitherto without complaint from them.) Yet two TOC’s have made ÂŁ500,000,000 between them and ticket prices have gone up !!!
Rail workers on the mainline have not been on strike in over 30 years.
The first thing Richard Branson did was DOUBLE THEIR PAY !!!
June 25, 2022
no no no no…you must have that wrong, there’s no way our leaders would take a pay rise before the plebs…would they !
June 25, 2022
Test
June 25, 2022
I voted to remain in the EU. However, once the electorate had decided otherwise, I wanted the Conservatives to behave as such and do what the People had asked for. I wanted the current Conservative Government to respond to the current crises by taxing the people less, protecting our borders, guaranteeing the integrity of the Union against foreign (EU) interference and deliver on the 2019 manifesto.
My father was a working class Tory. He wanted better for his children. He would despair at a high tax, socially left wing Prime Minister who seems not to care for hard-working people.
I do not want the PM to have a âpsychological transformationâ. I do want him to be penitent and to learn from his mistakes. I expect him to deliver a Conservative manifesto.
June 26, 2022
I wish John Redwood were correct politically but sadly he isn’t (as in economic terms I agree with his low tax and growth strategy).
The saddest election results this year were the Conservatives losing control of Westminster and particularly Wandsworth Councils, their outlier very low Council Tax Councils.
Most voters, certainly Red Wall voters who have seen Labour fail to benefit them economically for decades, no longer believe any Party will benefit them economically. In general people voted in 2019 ‘to get Brexit (which they had voted for) done’ in the words of the oft repeated in 2019 Conservative slogan. Labour offended many voters over Brexit more seriously than it realised in 2019 and Boris Johnson brilliantly exploited that. Basically the Conservatives’ only hope in 2024 is for Boris to find and exploit another such non-economic ‘wedge’ issue – no other British politician is as talented at electioneering as him.
It would have helped at the recent by-elections if so many Conservative M.P.s had spent months attacking Starmer (an even more flawed character than Boris e.g.he condemned M.P.s outside earnings forgetting he himself had earned money as a lawyer while in Parliament) rather than publicly attacking Boris. and how can they complain about Boris’ character and integrity when it is now they who are refusing to accept the democratic verdict of the leadership vote of just a few weeks ago?
June 26, 2022
To be generous, I would say that there are many things the government has little control over but we all see in our daily and busy lives what is felt to be the undermining, erosion and decline of our culture, our freedom of speech, our language, our freedom of choice, our history, our artefacts, our health, our wealth, our businesses, our education, our educators, our English literature, our security vis a vis policing and illegal immigration, our laws & even our governmental authority +++ And people just see that all this is happening under a Conservative government. It’s only natural to look elsewhere in desperation. I know a number of longstanding Conservative supporters who all feel negative about future voting, including myself but will not choose to vote Labour or Lib Dems either.