Getting the growth rate up to 2.5% a year is a bold ambition. It must be about increasing average income per head by that amount, not about inviting even more people to swell GDP but not average incomes. The right kind of growth means more better paid jobs for people already settled here. That means working smarter with more investment per employee to generate the higher incomes. It may well entail more people of working age being in employment. Getting it up to 2.5% is not going to be easy. Stopping some tax rises is a good start but there now needs to be a concerted effort to make, grow and produce more at home to replace imports. It will take all of the below
1. More self employed. Rolling back IR 35 as set out on friday will help. Buttressing training courses for everything from plumbing to baking and from building to gardening will help. Teaching self employment as a careers option would help. Benefits that are more flexible when someone out of work tries to start a business would help.
2. More small businesses. More generous rates relief, exemption from more regulations, break out of public sector contracts to manageable sizes for smaller firms to bid, mentoring, finance for growth. More generous enterprise investment relief.
3. National resilience policies to support self sufficiency in energy, a greater U.K. presence in strategic minerals, more support for domestic fishing and farming
4. Attracting more overseas investment. The new top rate of income tax of 40% helps as it is more internationally competitive. The return to 19% corporation tax rates helps, to be allied to generous investment allowances.
5. Encouraging more home grown entrepreneurs. Extend the CGT allowance for creating a successful business. Offer favourable terms on start up properties in the new Enterprise zones. Work with them over workforce recruitment and training.
6. Faster improvements in infrastructure to provide broadband, affordable energy and water. Remove the carbon tax on high energy using industries as this leads to UK closures and more imports, not less global CO2. Have sufficient gas powered generating capacity for the transition whilst awaiting battery and or hydrogen storage solutions to intermittent wind. Put in new reservoirs.
7. Cut the traffic jams to allow easier and safer deliveries and work journeys. A national strategic motorway network and strategic local networks of A roads where action is taken to improve flows and vehicle safety by junction changes, road widening, by passes and other improvements. We need more capacity which will lead to less wasted time and less CO2 from sitting in traffic jams.
8. Faster decisions on licences and planning permissions to reduce the costs of both successful and unsuccessful applications, with simpler limited criteria for rejection based mainly on safety or on local community compatibility.
9. Encouraging more people into the workforce. The government has announced some plans to do this. They need to include assistance with training, mentoring and demonstrating to people how they will be better off in work rather than on benefits.
September 25, 2022
Good morning
All well and good. But we have almost maxed out on our credit card and the markets are not too sure we can pay our debts. Again and again I say, we need to make ‘strategic’ cuts. Get rid of overseas aid. This will be both a vote winner and save us money. Get rid of of ENIC, or at least work towards getting rid of it. Restrict the buying of property below £500k to UK citizens only. THis will stop foreign speculators driving up the prices of so called affordable homes. Stop health tourism. This will save both money a free up resources. No longer make private health insurance a taxable benefit. Those with disposable will be able to go private and help reduce the waiting times and pressures on the NHS.
There is so much you can do and it is not that difficult and can be done BEFORE the next GE.
Get too it !!
September 25, 2022
MB,
Lot of good suggestions, these can be activated right away.
The currency problem. The mrkets see the £ as a soft target, there will be a run unless action is taken very soon and very aggressively, 1% per month from now till January, and announce it first. You’ve done the fiscal stimulus, now you have to balance it by monetary tightening to protect £. A recession is already baked in, so lets make it hard and fast and over with.
PS, don’t you love the arrogance of the leader of the EU Politbureau; if they don’t like the way a nation votes, then measures will be taken. So much for respecting democracy in the Peoples Republic of Euroland.
September 25, 2022
The EU Politbureau is much more honest than our own Parliament. We were ‘allowed’ to vote to leave the EU, but our undemocratic politicians in Parliament (and some wealthy people) did their best to scrap it, and failing that, gave the EU the upper hand in negotiations and sabotaged the UK, making Brexit as painful as it could possibly be. At least everyone is well aware that the EU works in the EU’s best interests (not its members), which is more than could be said for many of our own politicians who think the UK is just a cash cow for their EU sycophancy, virtue signalling and back scratching … and we wonder why the UK is in such a mess! It may well be irreversible unless the politicians start putting UK interests first, just for a change!
September 25, 2022
JR when I asked if the withdrawal of bill of rights was to allow more immigration you claimed it was to tighten it up. Truss announces today to loosen immigration for business growth!! Just as we suspected. How much more loose could it be!!
Over a million last year making the point based system useless plus all illegals. Your party’s mass immigration policy keeps rolling on. That is she did not mention mass immigration as a priority when she came to office! Another Shyster.
When will growing food be a priority, capturing water, getting rid of waste, making enough energy to house your mass immigration policy? And truss believes in net stupid while importing by the million!
September 25, 2022
If we had really taken back control.
a) reduce VAT b) have single market within the uk c) reduce taxes to have an even playing field say with Ireland d) prioritise UK industry ,labour, citizens. e) restore the UK fishing industry to a sustainable UK based one.
6) New resevoirs & could be closed loop hydro for winter and in Summer extra water resource if sited correctly. Expand the ones we have we clever tunneling to capture runoff on both sides of a mountain.
September 25, 2022
+ many
September 27, 2022
Much truth in this alas.
September 25, 2022
This is correct. Though our host argues for not increasing rates on the basis that low rates aren’t causing inflation, that just leaves us exposed to market sentiment which would rapidly change with a couple of 1-2% rises. The cost x time element can be relatively low if action is taken quickly.
September 25, 2022
Growth hmmmm.
370,000 families, not people, have never worked all their lives from grandchild to grandparent not working! That is a life style choice, what is not to like with the Channel invasion, get back to work until you are eighty to pay for them. That is the Tory way.
Oh, Tories will throw away another £12 billion to the EU, announce another £2.3 billion thrown to corrupt Ukraine and another £14 billion in overseas aid!! Public sector still working/child care from home- Cost of living, come on stop griping get working.
You lot have to pay for net stupid and a pointless war. It is all Putin’s fault of course not 12 years of Tory economic mismanagement and mass immigration. Okay they encouraged Russian money here and to buy big houses but that was all last week get with the narrative or they will lock you down and shut you up from speaking. Get too rowdy and a covid narrative will have to be made.
September 25, 2022
Hope – The West made energy deals with a tyrant and now bleat about war crimes he’s causing.
You don’t start or support a war and then bleat about war crimes. War crimes ALWAYS happen during war which is why wars must be avoided at all costs.
September 25, 2022
Mark B
It all comes under the W word. It might be in different guises but it is waste.
If money is not being used efficiently and effectively it is being wasted.
The state of the country at the moment demands the real management of resources is paramount.
September 25, 2022
Where are the public sector cuts or value for money initiatives? When will Whitehall get back to work? Is growth and producing just for the private sector to pay for Tory largesse in the public sector?
Bailey on over £500,000 to consistently fail to hit his target, policing is no longer about crime it is about promoting woke and clamping down on dissenters of woke or lock down, MPs: no energy crisis for them it is on the exes along with inflation busting pay rises year after year to get them to £83,000 plus RPI pensions for a part time unqualified job. They feel the pain among 1500 of them (the 650 and 850 Lords) on a guaranteed £300 a day allowance. They floated the idea of cutting numbers and reform to appease the masses after corruption scandal but had no real intention and knew it would go quiet after a few years.😉
September 25, 2022
Mark B
Plus 1
September 25, 2022
MarkB, check out dermot_daly on twitter this thread about the Tory manifesto from 2019 being rolled back on, one of his complaints is the broken promise in foreign aid from 0.7% to 0.5%. In that foreign aid total the UK doesn’t include the costs to the NHS to cover those foreigners families not contributing NI, that needs totting up and adding back in. Do you know if it covers the hotel and other Serco accommodation for our boat people and their own going allowances, food, clothing, etc.? That needs totting up and including. Does our contribution to the Ukraine count as foreign aid? That should be totted up and included too.
September 25, 2022
Yes, a-tracy, everything which is spent on foreigners is foreign aid.
September 25, 2022
@Mark B; “Those with disposable will be able to go private and help reduce the waiting times and pressures on the NHS.”
Always assuming those treating private patients are not ‘moonlighting’ after doing their NHS shifts, rather then agreeing to do the same amount of overtime for the NHS, thus also reducing NHS waiting lists…
September 25, 2022
Sorry John but your last suggestion made me chuckle. Don’t you think most people on benefits have already worked out that they are a lot better off on benefits already? They get hand outs all over the place, a nice house thrown in if they have kids, a bigger house when they produce more kids with more money thrown in and many work on the side while claiming to be unemployed. They get many other perks on top. We know people who are juggling work and the cost of child care and travel to work who look at these people and see that life on benefits actually isn’t that bad today and you can practically have a life on benefits as many do. There are so many job vacancies now but the money and perks on benefits mean the jobs aren’t worth the bother.
I see illegal immigration is costing well over a billion a year now and overseas aid hasn’t been cut even though the country is going down the route of debt. You couldn’t make it up. It’s all been brought about by the shortsighted thinking of governments who continue to virtue signal over net zero which has been responsible for much of the crap we find ourselves in now. Do our politicians realise how much damage they’ve done and continue to do when they and yourself John continue to talk about this energy transition to renewables? Really?
September 25, 2022
F U S
Brilliant interpretation of the situation.
Overseas aid is nothing more than a bribe, if we help you please do business with us in the future. Or, we give you money to enable you to buy from us if we are lucky in the future that never comes.
September 25, 2022
It’s time you got a grip on the channel invasion. That alone will cost you the next election.
Farage is watching in the wings ready to pounce.
The chancellor has done good, now it’s Bravermans turn to show what she’s made of.
September 25, 2022
Clever cookie is Farage. Two weeks off of the GBNews and he is in Australia and within hours he has a letter published about the state of our energy crisis on the STT web site.
Love him or hate him. Is it not time to consider bringing him into the tent?
It is far better to have him in pissing out, than outside pissing in.
Once a lone voice over the illegal migrants and dingy invaders but people are sure listening now. Take away the 50 odd MPs that are worthy of their
place in parliament and it is easy to understand how and why Farage gets his supporters.
September 25, 2022
Yes Farage is a clever cookie. Which is precisely why he won’t “come inside the CONs big tent” and effectively be neutralised. The time when they could have done that is long gone.
September 25, 2022
Donna, +1
September 25, 2022
“Let us be clear” Truss is for the invasion. She announced loosening immigration controls today!! That means no controls going by the invasion and the no point based system in operation!
A true remaining Lib Dem. She is no Tory by our standards. She is a left wing new labour Cameron free/red Tory.
If you value your country, values and way of life Tories and Labour must go.
September 25, 2022
Well the UK Border Force and the Royal Navy have given up
September 25, 2022
Turbo. Correct about Farage. If we had to rely on the left wing secretive BBC to find out what was REALLY going on we’d wait forever. Farage is rarely wrong on things and at least when he’s around things that are important to many of us get exposed for what they really are. Keep it up Nig.
September 25, 2022
He is too scared to admit the American election was rigged, though he has been brave about the illegal immigrants. And he was brave about BLM which cost him his job at LBC.
September 25, 2022
Correct – its an invasion
September 25, 2022
600 men yesterday (Saturday) apparently.
September 25, 2022
How do the policing agencies not see 656 people on 15 boats….its a joke
September 27, 2022
Iago: Just to update you – Last week: Saturday was recorded as zero but Friday 662 / Thursday 1150 / Wednesday 667 / Tuesday 93 / Monday zero. ( MoD figures )
Total Channel arrivals 19th to 25th Sept inclusive : 2572 / 54 boats. Still averaging at between 45-50 per vessel. How many stopped by our friends and partners, no idea.
September 25, 2022
There’s an easy solution to the Channel crossing issue. Under the current rules someone has to be on UK soil to be able to make an asylum claim. The government could instead choose to permit claims for asylum to be made at any UK embassy or consulate anywhere in the world.
Not doing this is a political choice made by this government.
If someone has a legitimate claim for asylum and they can walk into a building and lodge that claim, I see little reason why they would pay significant amounts of money to criminal gangs to be smuggled across the busiest shipping lane in the world in ways which are unsafe.
Making this simple change would likely cause a massive drop in the number of people attempting to cross the Channel.
September 25, 2022
Peter Parsons
Whatever happened to the law it is illegal to enter a country without a passport? These invaders throw away all means of identification and their mobiles. Am I missing something here?
September 25, 2022
You’re missing the point that it is currently not possible to claim asylum in the UK unless you are already in the UK. That is what should change.
September 25, 2022
No it wouldn’t. Those who know they have a good chance of being accepted would make their application at their local embassy. Those, like the majority of the criminal migrants who know they don’t have a valid case, would still come illegally.
September 25, 2022
Well over 75% of asylum claims in the UK are currently granted.
September 25, 2022
Where are they stored once they have made their claim in an embassy outside the UK @PP.
They know it is more difficult to navigate the worthies and get rid of them once they are here than claiming at an embassy.
I don’t think you have suggest a solution really. The solution is not to entertain claims from people who arrive here illegally but to turn them straight round and ship them back to whence they came.
September 25, 2022
That would be up to them. If they’re not giving money to smugglers, maybe they’d be in a position to sustain themselves somehow. Combine that with a requirement to report to the embassy their claim was made at on a regular basis until their claim is decided.
September 26, 2022
NS. Quite right which brings us back to Turbos point that if they have no passport they shouldn’t be allowed to claim asylum or stay.
September 25, 2022
So those who are found to have a legitimate claim ‘come on down’. And those who don’t find a smuggler and get into a dinghy. Getting into a dinghy is a de facto admission that you believe you have no legitimate claim.
Meanwhile the Sun reports that Truss intends to loosen the rules to allow even more ‘legal’ immigrants. Time to recognise that for the rich and powerful mass immigration isn’t a problem.
September 25, 2022
Naive PP. If asylum seekers are refused a legal route they will pursue an illegal route knowing they run a miniscule risk of being deported.
September 25, 2022
Given that over 75% of current asylum claims are granted, why would legitimate asylum seekers not use a route such as I suggested?
September 25, 2022
We cant take all the potentials and nor should we try to do this the admin and cost would be beyond the nations carrying capacity. In case you missed it the West is broke.
September 25, 2022
Maybe we connect them to various telephone challenges like how to successfully get an NHS dentist or NHS GP or NHS Ambulance turn or Social provided house. But always with the UK numbers getting precedence.
September 25, 2022
The UK doesn’t. Germany and France grant far more asylum claims that the UK does. Even Greece grants more asylum claims than the UK.
September 25, 2022
We certainly need to lance the boil. Or perhaps lance the inflatable. In French waters of course. Let the French coastguard rescue them.
September 25, 2022
Eh? Why risk rejection, Peter? Once they get here, they are here for keeps, even if their asylum claim is rejected. They stay here even if they turn out to be violent offenders or rapists. Getting INTO the UK guarantees they will stay in the UK, regardless of how criminal/undesirable they may be, and no doubt their extended families will soon follow.
September 26, 2022
Well said, Shirley. I think the same about the temporary agricultural workers Truss and Kwarteng wish to introduce – will they ever leave? We keep on bringing more ‘cheap’ labour into the country but when the time comes to find workers there are none.
September 25, 2022
Just a thought John despite all these measures to alleviate the energy crisis the 5% vat continues to be charged on bills.
Is this because of some agreement with Brussels and the level playing field which it definitely isn’t.
I think k we have a right to k ow.
September 25, 2022
It really is suspicious that in all the changes on Friday, VAT was not mentioned at all.
September 25, 2022
VAT, the standing charge, the green levy, the fuel duty, collective smart meter charge….yeah know; all those extra taxes our government puts on the domestic energy bills – NONE have been removed
September 27, 2022
Ian W: Ms Braverman – I believe she is doing a review. That must be fast. News online that there are to be two new/reopening centres to be used for detentions, one in Hampshire & taking into account the uncertainty now of Rwanda. I believe that she does understand the public debate & without doubt the legal issues & hopefully some kind of announcement will be forthcoming in the not too distant future. I understand too that she is one of three Cabinet members resisting the pressure with regard to free movement from India presently vv trade presumably.
Labour announcing that they will cancel the Rwanda scheme.
September 25, 2022
Fed up Southerner:
You are quite correct. Its people already on benefits who are getting the biggest energy hand out, whether they need it our not, while highly paid Charities, are always saying ‘ more needs to be done’.
I personally know some people who are in perfect health, but haven’t worked for years, and get the full raft of benefits., to which they think they are fully entitled.
You are correct about illegal immigration too. It continues to rise every day, and the Government never addresses it. Taxpayers must be fuming – I know I am.
September 25, 2022
370,000 families, not people, have never worked all their lives from grandchild to grandparent not working! That is a life style choice, what is not to like with the Chanel invasion, get back to work until you are eighty to pay for them. That is the Tory way.
Oh, Tories will throw away another £12 billion to the EU, announce another £2.3 billion thrown to corrupt Ukraine and another £14 billion in overseas aid!! Cost of living, come on get working. You lot have to pay for net stupid and a pointless war.
September 25, 2022
Hope +100
September 25, 2022
+1
September 25, 2022
I think the point is that removing those benefits and putting in place an obligation to work/community service might kill two birds with one stone.
September 25, 2022
Indeed the people on benefits are often behaving rationally given the system that pertains. Why work if you only end up only a tiny bit better off? Plus you have commuting costs etc, and far less time to diy or do illegal cash in hand work. Another reason for far lower taxes.
“Getting it up to 2.5% is not going to be easy”. Why on earth not? Just fire about half of the state sector (most of whom produce almost nothing of any value and often do much harm to productivity) and release them to get a productive job. That alone should give about a 10% increase. Then cut out all the duff university degree loans so that about 130k PA fewer go to university thus releasing them for work (and giving them no student debt) also releasing lots of university staff to produce something more useful than duff graduates in grievance or media studies or similar. A vast bonfire of red tape could give another 10%, scrapping net zero and HS2 another 10%, then get real and fair competition in healthcare, banking, transport, housing, education…then stop the government’s idiotic wars on landlords, tenants, motorists, the self employed, small business and the religious war on CO2 – tree, crop and plant food.
September 25, 2022
Stop pushing expensive, ineffective and often rather dangerous Covid vaccines – especially at the young. Denmark have already sensibly stopped them for under 50s. This as they seem to be doing sig, net harm.
September 25, 2022
We limit the number of doctors being trained in the UK due the high costs of training. Yet we still train some doctors who are middle aged and might only have a few years of working life life after qualifying while turning away 18 year olds. Bonkers yet again.
We should train some doctors only for certain specific medical jobs directly in perhaps two to three years not 5-10! Engineers do not need to know everything about an aircraft to replace an engine turbine or change a tyre. They can consult others when other skills are needed.
September 25, 2022
+100
Agree entirely.
That was an initiative in Africa.
Training up locals to carry out specific procedures. It worked.
Just saw JR on GB news.
Exceeding good!
September 25, 2022
The human is an organism not a bill of materials. As to medical training, there have been strong indications that a deficit of English doctors has been used as an excuse for importing prospective members of the upper middle classes from the third world in order accelerate the replacement of the English at all levels of society, not just at the minimum wage, black economy and life-on-benefits class levels. Furthermore, third world trained doctors have been selected in preference to English ones for the further training leading to Consultant level qualifications. This is all social engineering of the most mischievous and egregious variety. Doctors need to be paid to stay and the funding can come from removing the administrative toilers at all levels.
September 25, 2022
Just firing half of the state sector alone would do the trick.Starting with the diversity managers;
September 25, 2022
@John Hatfield. +1 it would also free up people to take the pressure off the need for immigration
September 25, 2022
Excellent. Couldn’t agree more. As usual you are spot on identifying our problems
and the necessary remedies. The whole of the public sector is riddled with waste.
Much of yesterday’s announcement was good but more needs to be done quickly
if the Conservative Party hopes to be re-elected. Massive cost savings must now
begin to steady the markets and non-productive PS staff as in a business
must be redirected into proper jobs.
September 25, 2022
+1
September 25, 2022
Indeed and for people working it is often hard to get them to do overtime. You might pay them perhaps an extra £200 for a Saturday but they only get to keep perhaps £30 after tax, NI, pension, travel costs, loss of benefits… and so prefer to have the time. Cut taxes hugely as tax (of itself) kills productivity and sort out the benefit system.
“I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it’s possible. Milton Friedman. From the current hugely overtaxed UK position it is vital to cut taxes and halve the size of largely parasitic and hugely misdirect government.
I see halfwit Kier Starmer is launching a “green growth plan” – translation “an expensive and intermittent energy lets kill growth plan”. So rather a contradiction in terms Kier. With the government picking winners (picking the wrong ones as usual).
September 25, 2022
Rather more frightening he seems have serious plans for a no compete agenda with the LibDims. Who on earth of sound mind (especially in Engliand) want a Starmer/Sturgeon/LibDim/Plaid/Green Crap Government in May 2022?
The socialist, green crap pushing, tax, borrow, currency debase and endless waste Conservatives are quite appalling enough!
September 25, 2022
When will a journalist of interviewer even point out to these green zealots that we rarely use the full capacity of the renewables that we already have because it is not available much of the time
September 25, 2022
Indeed a new EV car does not save CO2 even if it uses “renewable energy” exclusively until it has done about 80,000 miles. Plus then it will need a new battery and we have now space low carbon electricity anyway.
September 25, 2022
Its quite a worry that a number of councils are trying to out ‘woke’ each other by trying to be first in changing their entire council transport fleet to electric
September 25, 2022
NS. Surely it doesn’t need pointing out? It’s obvious when we have a crisis with not enough supplies of gas. It’s also obvious that wind and solar just aren’t doing it for us.
September 25, 2022
It needs pointing out every time one of them cries out for more renewables FUS
September 25, 2022
100% and more. Well done! You pull no punches.
I think that our politicians are stuck in a Dickensian fantasy land.
But they spare not a kind thought for those who, under duress, struggle to fund the whole shebang.
September 25, 2022
Sir John obviously believes we have a completely different cohort of MPs, Civil Servants, Quangocrats and Lawyers to those we had only 10 weeks ago: we suddenly have a whole raft of new people who are not ideologically left-wing, authoritarian and anti-British.
The Government may have changed …. but apart from the senior Mandarin at the Treasury, no-one else has. We still have the same 357 CONservative MPs, most of whom supported Socialist Sunak, the green lunacy and remaining in the EU.
The idea that they will do a volte face on all the lefty policies they’ve been supporting for the past 12 years of “Conservative” Government is for the birds.
Reply Important to try to change things
September 25, 2022
reply to reply …Sir John you may honestly try to change things, but enormous numbers of people, voters by the way, don’t believe ‘a change is gonna come’ as Sam Cooke sang. We look at the benches in the House and conclude bums sit tight on seats, nobody rocks the boat – even the illegals know that!
September 25, 2022
Important to try to change things. JR aspiration or deluded? Your party left you years ago. Every day you make sensible suggestions and every day you are ignored, Cameron, May and Johnson. 12 years. Major thought you and your ilk were bas….s!
I am sorry it does not wash any longer. Truss is for mass immigration and wasteful spending. She appears to be a war monger as well.
September 25, 2022
Reply to reply
When you have the founder of the WEF openly talking about the number of world leaders and their ministers are all signed up to his teaching and ideals, change is not going to happen.
We the people haven’t got a snowball in hells chance to see real change.
Like CC&NZ it has become like a religious sect controlling the masses.
We need a Farage type figure to drag it out into the open and start a real sensible debate. Then you will get real change.
September 25, 2022
Indeed it is. But we have ample evidence that the CON Party won’t make the changes necessary. For example: Once again, after 12 years of meekly putting up with Blair’s previous bout of Constitutional destruction, the Party is going to leave it to Labour to abolish/reform the House of Frauds.
The CON Party just accepts the status quo ….. and what it hopes will be a quiet life of “steady as she goes, don’t rock the boat” governance. Which is why we’re in the appalling mess we’re in after 12 years of “Conservative” government.
September 25, 2022
Indeed they have run about 1KM to the big state, over taxed, endless waste left finally they have take about half a step in the other correct direction.
September 25, 2022
So who is going to have the cash to employ any of these tradesfolk, now that many have to choose between heating and eating, thanks to about the most expensive energy in Europe?
September 25, 2022
Themselves. People making new stuff employing people doing stuff employing people doing more stuff. It’s how it works.
September 27, 2022
A bit like in Enver Hoxha’s Albania?
September 25, 2022
Gas and electricity prices have been capped (at enormous cost to future taxpayers) so that business and the relative poor will suffer no further rises, and business will notice a cut.
Do keep up. The choice for the relative poor on benefits is as it always has been, Sky subscription in the home or a new mobile phone.
September 25, 2022
Never a truer comment made.
September 25, 2022
And don’t forget that trip to Benidorm. It will save money on the tanning salon.
September 26, 2022
it used to be take-aways and smoking. the poorly paid are always having a great old time, aren’t they!
I just shake my head in frustration reading these wild idiotic condemnations.
Try being in their shoes, will you?
September 25, 2022
NLH: I spoke yesterday to a cousin who lives in a county town north of London. He said that their High Streets are full of signs offering vacancies in shops, cafes and restaurants – plenty of opportunity for the unskilled or average-skilled unemployed, it seems.
September 26, 2022
which are all zero-hours contracts. You might get called to do a few hours when the business expects to be busy, or a member of the same group of ‘workers’ finds they cannot do the shift. I gather some people manage to find 2 or more of these non-jobs to try to balance it all for a 30+ hours a week.
September 25, 2022
No idea of economics but GDP based on incomers as units of what? Output? (Where? How?) Or maybe units of consumption, is surely notional?
If you had a melon and two people …you’d each get half. Invite more to share and the portion for each rapidly decreases with the number partaking.
September 25, 2022
Cuibono. Correct. I’d like to know what’s happening to all these illegals once they’ve gone from the free hotels? Are they then housed with us footing the bill for ever because I can’t see that all of them are getting jobs so how much is it adding to the welfare bill while at the same time their places in the hotels are being filled with more illegals for us to fund. We are on a hiding to nothing. Does anyone know the TRUE cost when they are in a position to invite granny etc over? It is an illegal invasion and I wonder how much better it would all be monitored if they were all carrying kalashnicovs?
September 25, 2022
+many
Those lefties in Martha’s Vineyard understood the cost!
They actually said…”We don’t have room for all these people”!!
And they took IMMEDIATE action using ( I think) the National Guard.
September 25, 2022
Serco is offering eye-watering terms to landlords who will take these migrants, guaranteed payment of the rents, rebuild, repair of any damage paid for by Serco, period five years. I’m afraid I have lost the link to Serco’s advert. Many landlords will be tempted. So it seems this is government policy for the five years to come and we, of course, will be paying for this through taxation and the loss of our country – coming via a landlord near you.
September 25, 2022
I ago. So no hotels left for holidays here and no travel abroad for a holiday soon because of net zero. Not much to look forward to then.
September 25, 2022
they’re all too good to stay in a safe and secure military barracks
September 25, 2022
This is what’s happening and is the reason why the Government is making life so difficult for private landlords. The following is taken from the Serco website. This policy is leading to an acute shortage of rental properties for British people and pushing up rents:
Serco provides asylum accommodation and support services in the North West of England, Midlands, and East of England. Our purpose is the provision of accommodation, transportation, and subsistence payments for asylum seekers whilst their claims are being processed.
We are responsible for over 30,000 asylum seekers in an ever-growing portfolio of more than 6000 properties. Our operating model is based on leasing properties from a wide network of landlords, investors, and agents with Serco acting as a Tenant.
September 25, 2022
+1. I suspect that the ‘escapes’ from migrant hotels into the black economy are with the connivance of the PTB. A chance for Mr Redwood to ask a question in the Commons: ‘What are the longterm plans for the illegal migrants in hotels, given that there is an infinite supply of migrants, a finite supply of hotels, and no significant deportation is taking place’?
September 25, 2022
I’ve always thought that economic freedom = cutting sandwiches in your kitchen and selling them in the street.
No regs…no inspections…just sandwiches exchanged for cash!
September 25, 2022
Correct – this and other governments even stopped scout doing ‘bob-a-job’
September 25, 2022
I thought the Chancellor’s package was a good start. The Conservatives have left it very late in the day to implement Conservative polices. But without measures such as these Brexit makes no sense. We will need a fair wind and a bit of luck for conditions to be right to show clear benefits by the next election, but it’s absolutely fight to try.
But what was missing was cutting waste. We wouldn’t be seeing such a crash in £ if the govt had shown some direction over costs. Why is hs2 still going ahead? it’s clearly only there now because it’s there, it’s supposed business case has been comprehensively debunked not least by post pandemic working practices. We have 100,000 more civil servants than we had in 2016. Why? Were people crying out for more civil servants in 2016, i don’t remember that? It’s good the chancellor closed a quango, the office for tax simplification. It doesn’t seem to have worked and all treasury officials should be working to simplify taxes. There are loads of other quangos which should simply be closed. The more people employed in quangos the more rules and regs there will be, as the bureaucrats whose salaries they pay will think of more and more justifications for their existence. The FCA is a good example of this. A lot of de-regulation can be achieved simply by cutting the number of regulators.
September 25, 2022
Suelle Braverman made a start on the waste by telling the police to concentrate on catching criminals not diversity. So much time, money and effort goes into unnecessary diversity initiatives to look good. Most people treat others fairly, why do we have to have initiatives for those that don’t, just call them out.
September 25, 2022
It’s the correct thing to say but will the police take the slightest bit of notice? Discipline is needed but it will be absent. As others have said the bureaucrats will not change unless there is a determination to ensure there is change.
September 26, 2022
It will be interesting to see if she can persuade the police and judiciary to take a tough line with the coming campaign of obstruction from the XR types reported at the weekend by a journalist who managed to do the job MI5 should have even doing by infiltrating the group. Robust and prompt arrest, up before a magistrate who will remand them in custody within hours, and serious charges like sedition might be a place to start.
September 25, 2022
A huge reduction of benefits might get more into work and make the Channel hop less appealing.
September 25, 2022
Not necessarily a reduction in benefits but definitely a reduction in the longevity of the awards. It should be a reasonable safety net to get those who lose their jobs or become unwell through the transition until they are able to re-enter work.
It should also be the same for all, why should the prudent spend their savings during the transition while the reckless don’t.
September 25, 2022
+1
Sorry. Actually I meant a reduction of the huge range of benefits available.
Illness, destitution obviously needs to be covered. Although destitution ISN’T.
But then at one time employers covered housing, sometimes fuel, sick pay and also medical treatment and convalescence.
What happened to all that?
September 25, 2022
We also need Corporation tax reductions to encourage larger companies here. US companies should be lining up to set up here, given the dollar strength and attitude to business on home territory. Perhaps a plan to reduce to the Irish level of 12.5% over 3-4 years would help this happen?
September 25, 2022
@Sir Joe Soap. Foreign Companies as a generalisation do not pay UK corporation tax. That is left to the indigenous enterprises. They (the foreign companies) do however enjoy they do benefit by the wealth created by others, the UK enterprises. You could say they use this unfair advantage to undermine the otherwise competitive UK companies.
Multi-National companies through the vehicle of inflated cross border management fees do remove funds to the countries with the lowest tax another advantage gained at the expense of others
Reply Companies pay UK taxes on activity and investments in the UK
September 25, 2022
Good morning and thank-you for your efforts
Our generous host chooses to focus exclusively on economy and finance and generally avoids contentious equally important social and cultural developments but understandably he is nobbled by his status as a party politician which I believe most of us take into consideration. Such issues need airing
Reply I write and intervene about things I research and study, or in response to constituents views and complaints. I cannot intervene on all the things you think are wrong. I know about the economy but I do not have special knowledge of cultural and identity issues.
September 25, 2022
Reply to reply
You just crack on doing what you do the way you do it. That will be fine with the vast majority of us. It is amazing you manage to do everything that you get involved with. Really appreciated.
September 25, 2022
+1
Please do all you can to save us from Labour/SNP/LibDim and the net zero lunacy in 2022.
September 25, 2022
Reply to reply. John you state you don’t know much about culture and identity issues. Fair enough but with the amount of immigration going on it won’t take you long. Can I suggest a good starting point would be the latest rubbish called Strictly Come Dancing. It’s was so woke and inclusive it was a joke. Entertainment? I’d rather have a cup of horlics and go to bed early. It’s all gone too far.
September 25, 2022
I see that the government is going to release more work visas to Indian nationals to come in and undercut locals in the IT business. The political class showing once again how little it understands about what is really going on.
Shame as I would like to have a political party I could support.
September 25, 2022
+1 they respond to big business “lobbying” (or often worse bribes) to undercut wages.
September 25, 2022
It is clear from so many of the laws & actions pushed by government in the UK that they must be driven mainly by vested interests, lobbying, party donations and even outright corruption. It cannot possibly just be pure stupidity after all.
“PM’s chief of staff paid by his lobbying company” says the Sunday Times today. Surely this not remotely sensible even if he has done nothing wrong or is not saving tax – just from an appearance point of view it is idiotic.
September 25, 2022
Lifelogic
All of it is pure stupidity and it hasn’t just happened. Only 50 odd politicians are worthy of the title MP. As for the rest all one can feel is despair.
September 25, 2022
Don’t you belong to the One Million Pound Club?
September 25, 2022
Why are you interested heffy?
September 25, 2022
Correct the amount of airtime the Indian outsourcers get with senior politicians is ridiculous. About time the politicians listened to people with a clue who actually have the UK’s best interests at heart.
September 25, 2022
Unbelieveable
September 25, 2022
yes I really do despair that so few people with the beginnings of a clue are listened to
September 25, 2022
Apprenticeships! That might deincentivise 16 yo lads from puffing on very fragrant baccy in their gardens at 3pm. No proper jobs for them. No proper life. No culture of their own. Utterly shameful and all bestowed upon them by lunatic lefty government.
September 25, 2022
** disincentivise
September 25, 2022
A very good wish list Sir John.
Regarding number four…. It will be difficult to attract oversea’s investment whilst you have politicians and the media pushing for windfall taxes if a business does well or has some good fortune. The same applies to all of these so called record fines so many regulators seem to like to issue. These fines are little more than an extra tax and by using the justice system as an extension to the tax system bring both into disrepute.
Having had a relative of mine enter the social security system due to the covid pandemic, I can honestly say working age people can’t languish on handouts because they are hounded by the job centre staff to get work, unless it’s different in less well off areas.
September 25, 2022
Cliff. It’s not difficult for many to evade the job seeking criteria in many cases. We have 3 families in our street alone who have lived for years off the state and our street is a mixture of self employed, well paid employed and retired so not poor at all. The long term unemployed learn from each other how to use the system to their advantage.
September 25, 2022
FUS
Interesting observation… Perhaps they just hound first timers so they don’t get used to handouts and learn how to manipulate the system to their own advantage.
September 25, 2022
There’s something in your reply Cliff. While I do believe in benefits for anyone who really needs them to get through a difficult period in their lives (we all may need help sometimes) I have a problem with those that use benefits to fund a lifetime of doing nothing but having more kids and lazing around while expecting more handouts.
September 25, 2022
FUS
I agree with you. It was set up as a safety net and was never intended to be a way of life.
It is true that some people took advantage of it and sadly, it became almost a family trade where the kids learnt from their parents how to play the system.
I suspect those unfortunate enough to have come into contact with the Labour exchange/social security system for the first time due to being laid off because of covid, were surprised how difficult it was to survive compared to how they believed it to be.
It seems to me that, dispite policy after policy to reduce numbers of people on benefits, there remains a stubborn hard core minority that find ways around those policies to remain on high levels of handouts and thus remain idle.
September 25, 2022
F U S
Well said, not just your street it is in every street.
September 25, 2022
+1 and they learn very quickly. But the blame lies mainly with the benefit/tax system that pertains. Make people turn up each morning at the job centre and allocate street cleaning or similar jobs to them if they want any benefits. Most would disappear very quickly.
September 25, 2022
Why does this Tory government and its party approve of Maoist indoctrination (remoulding and thought reform using propaganda, rituals and humiliation) using product advertising and cultural output ie diversity training in the workplace
Has the Tory government endorsed this filthy ideology to appease a certain section of the international community?
This isn’t Tory party politics but it is Labour politics and if these reprobates do come to power the majority pop. will be exposed to the barbarity of this unremitting propaganda
September 25, 2022
I wonder whether the great brains in the world have considered how much power they would lose if everyone became self sufficient?
How would taxation be implemented?
Sheriff of Nottingham-style officials on horseback demanding a chicken?
September 25, 2022
That why they seized the commons.
September 25, 2022
How would the State Pension be implemented, in Chickens? Taxation is what gives our fiat currency value, you have to get some of it to pay your taxes. No taxes, who needs the government’s fiat currency, we just barter amongst ourselves? I am not sure if the Norwegians would trade UK chickens for for thirty billion cubic meters of natural gas.
BTW. It was inevitable. I am advised from across the channel that a UK based distributor of some European branded goods into English language markets, has been advised by his suppliers, that they will accept payments in US Dollars or Euro if the UK distributer considers it will protect his income in the current Sterling circumstances.
September 25, 2022
Will these changes take place immediately or need parliamentary approval. If the latter, it needs a finance bill that you will struggle to get through.
Overall once again politicians asking for our support on putting right the problems that themselves have caused over the last 12 years by supporting policies diametrically opposed to the ones now being suggested. Risible.
And in other news Rachel Reeves showing far more leadership on the need for fundamental reform of the NHS than ever said by this risk averse weak conservative administration.
The best Coffey can come up with us a doctors appointment in 2 weeks. Wow. Perhaps she might speak to families with young children or those where both have to work. Totally out of touch.
September 25, 2022
2.5% a year would be nothing special, it would just be following the average growth pattern since the war.
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/07/16/the-debate-last-night/#comment-1329606
“Background noise apart, UK GNP since 1949 has grown at about 2.5 per cent per annum, irrespective of the party in office, regardless of geopolitical events.”
Don’t ask me why, it is just an empirical fact.
September 25, 2022
Could someone please explain why Ms Truss wants to fling wide the immigration doors even further, when we already have a tsunami of undesirables coming across the waters every day from France? these parasites are filling hotels and other accommodation blocks costing us enormous sums of money; and still they come, seemingly unstoppable, courtesy of the RNLI; but hey let’s have even more to “boost” the economy. Where exactly does she think these people are going to be put? No-one I know wants this invasion to continue. Most of them go straight on benefits, someone has to pay for that and once again it’s the taxpayer. Stop the immigration. Stop it now. Sort out what messes we already have, for God’s sake, deport the useless; put the British first. But I know the government won’t because they don’t care.
September 25, 2022
Chris Dark
She will be signing up for Macrons new European political experiment you can lay money on it. They never learn to think about the consequences of their actions and decisions. That is why we are in the mess we are.
September 25, 2022
I fully support your comments Chris. I don’t know anyone who is not angry about this.
September 25, 2022
Chris Dark, well said. I was going to make the same points, but it’s just a waste of time on this forum.
Immigration could have been stopped, but the reason that it hasn’t been stopped is that the government actually wants more immigration.
September 25, 2022
Oh they DO care. They care about pleasing the Globalists. What the Globalists want, the Globalists get.
What the British people want is irrelevant.
September 25, 2022
@Donna +1. Spot on as always
September 25, 2022
Truss is just pandering to big business / donors. They need a constant supply of cheap, pre-trained labour. No consideration as to where all these people are going to live. The pressures on services etc. Totally out of touch and soon to be out of office at this rate.
September 25, 2022
CD :
PM Truss is simply following the same ideology as all of the parties currently represented in our Parliament and indeed throughout most of the West.
Remember Mrs Merkel, who unilaterally invited one million immigrants into the EU, said at a speech in 2018 in Berlin :
“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty and that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty.”
Those UK voters who want a change of direction will need to stop voting for Con/Lab/LD/SNP as really there is little difference between all of them today. They all believe in mass immigration and CAGW/Net Zero. Fortunately, because we are out of the EU we do have the ability to make this change
September 25, 2022
Chris Dark
Also to compound the problem the proposed increase in “legal” immigrants means they may take the jobs to drive the economy, ensuring those on benefits will stay as there are with no qualms at all about sitting at home waiting for their payments. With all these job vacancies the choice should be simple. Work or benefits decrease 10% a month till you find employment or become self employed.
September 25, 2022
@Chris – aiding and abetting people traffickers is supposed to be illegal. ( paraphrase – why is RNLI helping them? )
September 25, 2022
I grew up not being able to rely on my parents and realised very quickly that you had to rely on yourself instead. Every one has a brain, in fact 2 but never use them fully. The Japanese noted everyone has this “Gold” as they noted that inspired their post war miracle training all employees around that and other business principles.
Margaret Thatcher was the only PM – IMHO who recognised the importance of SME and self employed with her economic strategy. I was lucky to become self employed after working for poor managers for many years in 1988.
Fortunately we have JRM as Business Secretary after years of New Labour’s IR35 disastrous legacy and Sir John keeping up the good fight for this too. Thank you very much indeed SJR.
September 25, 2022
6.8 million on the waiting lists for NHS elective procedures & probably more like 10 million if you include those on waiting lists for the waiting list. Numbers waiting more than 4 hours at A&E rises from 10% to 30%.
The envy of the world as the BBC lefties and similar endlessly like to say.
We need to charge everyone who can afford to pay and lower taxes to compensate. Get some real and fair competition going. I never have to wait to get my dog seen, x-rayed or even MRI scanned by a vet.
September 25, 2022
Lifelogic
Fair play, how can anyone argue with your comment.
A fellow dog walker is paying £12k for his wife to have a replacement hip as she is in too much pain to wait the three years for the system to work. Both have worked all their days and it comes to this, no wonder he has lost faith in politicians.
September 25, 2022
Indeed how many of these 6.8 million plus the rest are on the waiting list and not working/on benefits until they get their procedures!
September 25, 2022
Yes and I know of a lady who has severe pain in both knees. She’s a widow so doesn’t get help around the house. She’s in immence pain but has not even been put forward by her GP to see a specialist yet. When she does she can look forward to a wait of 3-4 years. I can’t see her managing that long. It’s truly disgusting and how they think that an average of 800 illegals a day is helping is beyond me.
September 25, 2022
+1
September 25, 2022
88 year old woman in Shrewsbury fell and had to wait 20 hours for an ambulance.
September 25, 2022
You’ve mentioned reducing CO2 twice…sounds like a convert to the net-zero programme
September 25, 2022
There is of course no need at all to reduce human made CO2 plant/tree/crop food. We live in a relative dearth of CO2 in an historical context. Anyway the agenda pushed by government such as EV cars, wind, solar, walking, public transport, heat pumps save trivial C02 anyway. Much of it increases CO2. Plus we will never get World cooperation anyway – Russia, India, China…
The over reaction to Climate Chance and the war on CO2 is the real problem.
September 25, 2022
Google A Dearth of Carbon excellent videos by both the sensible Dr. Patrick Moore and William Happer.
September 25, 2022
The CLIMATE COMPATIBILITY CHECKPOINT aims to ensure that before a new oil and gas licensing round is offered, the compatibility of future licensing with the UK’s climate objectives is evaluated https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/climate-compatibility-checkpoint-design
This isn’t a new growth – it’s a new restriction
September 25, 2022
This gov does not wish oil and gas extraction on land in England to go ahead even though it has said it does. There are many restrictions, again the opposite of claims they intend to reduce controls on activities.
More deceit from them.
September 25, 2022
+1
September 25, 2022
These views are to be supported and it is more than vital government acts accordingly, and urgently.
We should however step back from the priority given to overseas investment. This has over recent decades destroyed many of our home owned businesses and strategic interests, and unless action is taken to prevent it continuing the views in 3. will be undermined.
We must protect all our industries and businesses from foreign takeover without a very pressing case.
In the question of minerals for example I have mentioned more than once the case of Sirius Minerals in Yorkshire. A home grown business began to build a mining operation to extract a very efficient and rare fertiliser, but this government refused them the limited help they sought and they were taken over by a big international company.
Thus we have lost control of a strategic and valuable asset. This must not be allowed to happen again. A change of attitude is urgently needed.
September 25, 2022
What about :
– Reducing Government spending to show the gravity of our predicament? Cancelling vanity projects such as HS2 and cutting back on waste, Civil Servants and quangos?
– Reducing our massive legal immigration before it destroys our social harmony and we experience more troubles as we have recently seen in Leicester?
– Dealing with the illegal immigration by leaving the ECHR? No action taken yet on the Albanian’s crossing the Channel. Will Russians be next?
– Cancelling the CCA and Net Zero before it destroys our economy?
None of these are likely from this Parliament whether the Conservatives or Labour are governing.
In fact the Labour leader has said he would “double the amount of onshore wind, triple solar and more than quadruple offshore wind power, “re-industrialising” the country to create a zero carbon, self-sufficient electricity system, by the end of this decade”. This is truly breath-taking delusion.
It is becoming increasingly more likely that a new party will arise even with the MSM and FPTP system against them.
September 25, 2022
The Reform Party is gearing up in readiness.
The high proportion of dissatisfied comments on this site demonstrates preference for a better choice.
When that choice is available, large numbers of voters are likely to take it.
The unexpected happens unexpectedly.
Nigel Farage might be our next PM.
September 26, 2022
I’m glad to hear it. The Reform party will get my vote if at all possible. I cannot vote for any of the 3 main parties again. They simply don’t represent my views. Richard Tice took over from Farage but with luck he’ll return to politics.
September 26, 2022
Politics involves skills like chess. If Farage planned his moves carefully that far ahead to succeed he might already have draft scripts prepared to deal with facing Rachel Reeves as Labour leader across the despatch box!
September 25, 2022
glen cullen
Totally correct. It’s all a play with words.
To them it is just a game and not even a professional one.
September 25, 2022
The “fiscal drag” caused by Kwasi not changing Sunak Income Tax thresholds till 2025/26, is working out to be much larger than originally calculated. It was originally estimated to increase the tax take by £8 billion. CEBR is saying it will likely take an extra £46 billion out of taxpayers pockets.
It also predicts that nearly five million lower-paid workers who currently pay no income tax, will be dragged into the net over the next four years. Another 3.8 million taxpayers, will be pulled into the 40 per cent band as wages rise, which is about £10 billion more than the Kwasi tax cuts!
BTW. The CEBR are the number crunchers for the excellent “Asda Income Tracker”
https://corporate.asda.com/newsroom
September 25, 2022
Acorn, the fiscal drag was abated this year by increasing the personal allowance before NI kicks in up from £9500 to £12,570 – £3070 did your CEBR take that into account?
The personal tax allowance for 10 years of Labour 1997 to 2007 £4045 to £5225 only rose £1800. In ten year of Tories 2010 to 2020 it rose from £6475 – £12500 = £6000.
September 26, 2022
It’s employee compensation for the lack of growth in the economy since 2010 and the stagnation of real incomes; particularly since the referendum and actually leaving the EU.
https://www.ibisworld.com/uk/bed/real-household-disposable-income/33/
September 26, 2022
What was the net income? Or are you talking about income after bills?
Labour opened the flood gates of European labour transfers on low pay and they orchestrated the move of a lot of industries out of the UK into the EU, we lost Cadburys, Heinz, Ford Transits assembly, higher paying jobs – the jobs that required skills. Lots of jobs lost in many towns in the North. They’re coming back now, thank goodness. We will see growth in the economy once the full recovery from covid lockdown takes effect. you can’t honestly be comparing including 2020/2021 can you? The Country has never closed down before.
September 26, 2022
but it rose due to pressure from the Libs.
September 25, 2022
Please John make item 4 small and item 5 big.
The people of this country can do far more than overseas investors when it comes to developing industry. Overseas investors have the ambition of pulling profit back out to overseas, whereas the UK population want to expand their business and generate wealth in this country.
Why is foreign investment so preferred with “creative accounting” loopholes, whilst companies in this country have to be hammered with taxes?
Take corporation tax right down, and put it on dividends, including those that get paid abroad. Let companies keep the profits they make for investment, rather than have them eroded away.
September 25, 2022
To get things started JR you should pass this list to the business secretary – if he acts on it well and good – if he doesn’t then please don’t bother us further with lists. I hear Kwasi on BBC this morning saying that it is up to the British people themselves to drive economic growth? whatever that means
September 25, 2022
Jason. Oh yeah. That won’t be easy when we’ve got power cuts to deal with and whose fault is that? We’d stand more chance of getting the economy started if government got out of the way.
September 25, 2022
Jason, the only ways that I can think that British people can drive economic growth by buying more British produce and goods. Asking for more British products in the shop, I live in Cheshire and two major local supermarkets don’t stock Cheshire Cheese, yet we have local producers with the capability! The more they spend within our own economy from products manufactured in the UK the better.
Labour say growth can be driven by energy efficiency (they just want the taxpayer to pay) well maybe incentives should be made to take VAT off energy audits and suggestions of what householders need to do to use less energy, where to get local tradespeople that can do loft insulations for anyone in homes built before the regulations came in or didn’t get a grant to do the cavity insulations.
People can improve growth by taking on a few more hours work, I know people who have taken on second jobs when their hours got cut in their primary job. Go to night schools and increase skill levels if the only jobs they see that they like the look of need higher skills, or write to that employer and say they’d be willing to undertake the training and take a lower salary until they achieve them in order to make the leap.
The government could buy up space in local newspapers so that local small employers with part-time jobs could put free job links with a link back to their website for the full details. It’s a shame they ever did away with job centre advertisement boards.
September 25, 2022
From item 2: “…exemption from more regulations, break out of public sector contracts to manageable sizes for smaller firms to bid…”
One particularly obnoxious feature of the public sector tendering process, frequently enough to put small businesses off from the outset, is the diversity questionnaire. Which small businessman with a niche service to offer, hoping to win out on cost against his large rivals, is going to win through when faced with a 20 page demand to demonstrate the extent to which he imposes worship of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion deity within his workplace, and the measures he will take to punish heretics? Can these requirements on the part of public sector bodies not simply be abolished?
September 25, 2022
@David Cooper,. In practice Diversity as in regulations etc besides being patronising is more diversive. It is about selecting one section of society to be ‘special’ and ‘entitled’. Then when the taxpayer is funding the service it stops value for money by precluding the best of the best. In other words it is a WOKE dream that by default archives the opposite of its claims at every level
September 25, 2022
At this moment time the UK’s over complex inequitable tax system is it fighting and holding back UK based industry and commerce
In over simplified terms a foreign company escapes completely the need to contribute to the UK’s infrastructure, its economy, its education, therefore sustainability and security. The UK indigenous industries pay the full wack, they cant escape. Yet these foreign based entities enjoy ‘free-of-charge’ the benefits and ride on the back of what others have funded – this is free loading.
The problem of corporation tax it is inequitable, as it stands foreign that includes some of what might be considered UK but international companies. Once their turnover looks like it is ‘in profit’ there fore liable to corperation tax ALL further revenues are used to pay pseudo management fees in low tax regimes.
Corporation tax in its current form needs scraping or a proper rethink. Either remove it for everyone, that would help UK Industry get on the same level as the those they have to compete with in their home market. Or replace it with a simple but low sales/turnover tax.
Taxes get paid when everyone is on the same footing
September 25, 2022
At this moment time the UK’s over complex inequitable tax system, it fights and holds back UK based industry and commerce
In over simplified terms a foreign company escapes completely the need to contribute to the UK’s infrastructure, its economy, its education, therefore sustainability and security. The UK indigenous industries pay the full wack, they cant escape. Yet these foreign based entities enjoy ‘free-of-charge’ the benefits the and ride on the back of what others have funded this free loading.
This is the problem of corporation tax it is inequitable, as it stands foreign that includes some of what might be considered UK but international companies. Once their turnover looks like it is ‘in profit’ ALL further revenues are used to pay pseudo management fees in low tax regimes.
Corporation tax in its current form needs scraping. Either remove it for everyone, that would help UK Industry get on the same level as the those they have to compete with in their home market. Or replace it with a simple but low sales/turnover tax.
Taxes get paid when everyone is on the same footing
September 25, 2022
Duplicate – my apologies
September 25, 2022
Will Hutton says the” government is using trickle down economics”, Sir John says they aren’t . Maybe they should speak to each other, and arrange an interview.
September 25, 2022
Decapitate the zombie companies by raising the price of money, i.e. interest rates, so they can’t stumble on, undead, tying up resources which could be more productive.
Force companies to seek productivity gains by hiking interest rates.
Low rates cause low productivity. Central planning fails with the price of money.
Disappointing to see Kwarteng say the Bank of England’s independence is ‘sacrosanct’ when it was only promised by Gordon Brown to make Labour more electable and all governments who palm off interest-rate policy to central banks then ignore inflation and overspend because inflation is ‘someone else’s problem’.
September 25, 2022
Relief from regulations should precede more training courses. We have a situation where in order to do many jobs nowadays you need certificate or qualification, which in the past would never have been necessary. This has become a drag on self employment.
A training industry emerged to service demand for courses, but it also lobbied hard and highly effectively to make ever more certificates mandatory to do ever more jobs.
For example, Spray Certificates for gardeners. You now need one to buy many agrochemicals for backpack application. By the 1980s, after it became known these products were not as benign as manufactures had claimed, sensible gardeners didn’t poison themselves or their customers. The reckless may have done so, but will continue to do so even when they have paid for a spray certificate. Is it really necessary to force this “training” on everyone?
September 25, 2022
I am rather concerned that the end product of prioritising growth is only supposed to be two and a half per cent annual growth which isn’t really that much and may not pay for the debt being accumulated.
However if there is to be growth the emphasis needs to be on more private sector employment rather on more self employment.
Very few people want or have the skills to become self employed immediately upon leaving school, college or University. That comes later in life after experiencing and learning from a period of employment. Furthermore an entrepreneurial or even plain business attitude is something people either have naturally or don’t have and it cannot really be learned via formal education or training. Furthermore most self employed people make less money than most employed people and most business ventures fail.
So there needs to be an emphasis on the development of existing businesses. Some measures, notably debureaucratisation can help. Probably the most important thing is reforming V.A.T. so as to end the cliff edge at £85,000 turnover whereby no V.A.T. is paid below £85,000 turnover but at £85,001 turnover 20% V.A.T. is payable on all transactions. That prevents most businesses from exceeding or admitting to exceeding £85,000 turnover. I suggest that businesses with a turnover of over £60,000 in vatable items should be made registrable for V.A.T. but a relief of £10,000 a year should be granted towards any V.A.T. that is actually payable which would end this economically extremely damaging cliff edge.
September 25, 2022
Green growth. I see Labour has now fully embraced Marxism but using the veneer of climate protection as a cover to conceal their totalitarian plans
The Tories should oppose Starmer and Rayner’s Socalist scam, expose their sinister objectives and tie their mast to the pole of freedom and a smaller State
September 25, 2022
Fully agree Dom, and Labours new stance on zero fossil fuel energy by 2030 might just return another tory government….rock & hard place
September 26, 2022
either are filling me with dread and foreboding.
September 25, 2022
Are you saying that the country has been in a depression and it getting worse, does anybody know the meaning of a depression, well its when growth keeps going down year on year with a quarter up and then carry on down, it does not mean you have to have negative growth, it just means you can not obtain the growth you had 10 or 15 years ago but of it can go negative 2 or 3 quarter like 2008 and then goes up for quarter as you come out and then carry on down, by count it started in the year 1997 to 2000 and is still on going.
September 25, 2022
“Rolling back” IR35 is a good first step, but only that. The legislation is fundamentally flawed and needs to go.
Or… to be neutered via other changes that also help.
The main one is Employers NI (ER NI). Getting rid of that helps Brits compete in the global marketplace (less incentive to create a call centre in India if you don’t have to pay ER NI if you instead set it up in Britain).
That may need to be done gradually though, so in the meantime increase the Employment Allowance ()the threshold at which firms start to pay NI) to about £250k so that only fairly successful firms pay it (many of which will be able to shift profits overseas, avoiding corporation tax).
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to limit relief on taxation of profits – for example, we could decide that a company only pays ER NI if its accounts show that it has shifted (otherwise taxable) profits overseas.
The whole picture around Employers NI needs a fresh look – realising how it impacts upon taxation of the various employment statuses and how advantageous it wouold be to cring all of those to the same level of taxation as Schedule D (which is the one that doesn’t currently pay ER NI).
Note: the big fight in IR35 cases is actually over ER NI, which applies throughout one’s income at a very high rate. The dividend tax covers employees NI (EE NI) and income tax differences are also covered by the annual tax return (the media don;t seem to realise that HMRC raise a demand for the difference between tax paid and tax that would have been due on a “notional salary” which is extrapolated based on overall income from various sources, including dividends). That leaves ER NI as the big issue (other than, of course, the excessive penalties and interest that HMRC levy on those contracts deemed retrospectively to be inside IR35).
September 25, 2022
Is that real Growth of 2.5%. How can that be when inflation is 12%?
That’s not GDP per capita either. I suppose spending 40k per head for hotel stays etc might push up GDP per capita. What a wheeze.
Success being defined as spending money!
September 25, 2022
That comment is utterly economically illiterate.
Growth is increase in GDP. It doesn’t matter if inflation is 1% or 10%, a 2.5% increase in GDP is growth of 2.5%.
September 25, 2022
It matters if gdp/ capita falls. It REALLY matters.
September 26, 2022
How much gas does your £ buy this year? Has this increased ? Have you used any more for the same level of activity?
So are you measuring this years £ with last years £ . Its not the same £, its shrunk. Currency markets seem not to share confidence in value of the £ , 2.5% growth with inflation at 12%. I suppose the fx markets have answered my question.
September 25, 2022
50 years ago. Barber budget loosening policy, inflation, people employed by the state striking, house prices at highest ever level with a virtual halt to building at the end of 1973, bank rate 6% in June 1972 and 12% in April 1974, power cuts, and would you believe it – the Tories lost the February 1974 election. Then Labour worsened the situation.
September 25, 2022
The Barber Boom was a property boom.
September 26, 2022
@rose; Yes, that might be what he intended (assuming you mean a building boom, not a inflationary price boom…) back in early 1972 but how does one have a “property boom” in the middle of a national building workers strike caused by the same govts rather crass industrial relations policies, the fact that later, after the Feb ’74 election, in negotiations with the TUC membership, Labour retained many of the same clauses in their own policy just went to show how inept the Heath govt was.
September 25, 2022
@miami.mode; “the Tories lost the February 1974 election. Then Labour worsened the situation.”
A bit like 1980 and the Tories in then. Labour lost in 1979 and the Tories then made things even worse, with interest rates even higher, unemployment and insolvencies on a scale not seen since the 1930s…
Or was it just the usual delay, like a low-lands flood that happens perhaps weeks after the storm, as the water comes down from the hills. Indeed many argue that our plight post ’74 and into ’80s were the delayed problems caused by that Barber budget, compounded by further economic shocks from the oil crisis and our entry into the EEC.
September 25, 2022
Ah. Simplified planning consent based on “local community compatibility”. That’s code for “not in Wokingham” isn’t it. NO local community will support major new housing developments, fracking, new reservoirs, new rail, new factories, small nuclear plants or any sort of new infrastructure in their area. What are you going to do about that ?
September 25, 2022
“4. Attracting more overseas investment. The new top rate of income tax of 40% helps as it is more internationally competitive.”
If we are seeking to attract higher earners to the UK then they need to expect a degree of longevity to the new tax regime. The next election is not very far away. Starmer has gone on record to say that he would reverse the cut to the top rate of Income Tax. By making this statement, Starmer is chosing to undermine the chances of the Government succeeding in this aspect of its tax policy. I believe the Government needs to do a better job of getting its message across in the media so as to show a swing in the polls which might then persuade incoming high earners that a Labour victory at the next election is not a foregone conclusion.
BBC News – Keir Starmer: Labour would reverse cut to top income tax rate
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63025443
September 25, 2022
oldwulf – don’t kid yourself – there is no chance at all that high earners are going to rush here for the very reason that you say, also if the Kwasi gamble collapses they won’t want to be caught out. Very likely if they have business here they will do it with safety from the outside.
September 25, 2022
I do miss the tweets. The present arrangement wants one to sign up as a member of Twitter but I don’t want to do that.
September 25, 2022
“1. More self employed. Rolling back IR 35”
But IR35 is not about the (truly) self-employed… The last thing anyone legitimately self employed, and any company playing by the rules, needs is unfair completion via fake self-employment.
“2. More small businesses”
So how come the Chancellor all but totally ignored SMEs on Friday; where were the policies for abolishing VAT on all B2B sales to those correctly registered with HMRC, not just those registered for VAT, why was there no real help with UBR for those who (for whatever reason) are not or will not be renting/buying new build premises.
“3. National resilience policies to support self sufficiency in energy ..//.. more support for domestic fishing and farming”
That’s rich coming from someone who was on the Tory benches when the UK coal industry was effectively destroyed. As for farming, indeed, and did I hear correctly, Liz Truss understands the need to allow more migrant labour, given the unwillingness of so many of our own able bodied born and breed to do farm and similar work.
“4. Attracting more overseas investment.”
Well yes, assuming it means investment in UK companies were the majority profits will remain here in the UK, so either funding the (so called) trickle-down economy or further inward investment. We also need a wider base to our economy, being far less reliant on services, warehousing and hospitality than has been.
“7. Cut the traffic jams to allow easier and safer deliveries and work journeys.”
Indeed, and nice to see our host has lost his obsession with roundabouts, many of which simply end up having to have traffic lights added!
“9. Encouraging more people into the workforce. The government has announced some plans to do this.”
Fridays policy announcement seemed more intent on cutting the cost of UC, not getting more able people into the workplace. Yet getting more people into the workforce is simple, if now politically difficult, remove access to Student Loans for the vast majority of non STEM subjects, increase the NMW for all age groups, thus making it actually worth our youth working full time between age 16/18 and their early 20s. It will be interesting to see the detail from both DWP and DfT.
That said, and to be fair, the Chancellor has made it quite clear that his mini budget on Friday was just the start, so lets hope for some meaningful, and full, announcements at conference…
September 25, 2022
Do you ever agree with anything Jerry?
Is there something you are positive about.
Even a bit enthusiastic about maybe?
I read your posts and they all seem so desperately negative
September 26, 2022
@P2; Yes, all those bullet points, perhaps even entire blogs, I do not reply to! 😛
Silence means agreement or no interest, unlike some I see no general reason to post “me too” or “+1” replies, in my opinion they really are wasting our hosts time, they are akin to all the incessant cheering or booing in parliament that wastes so much debating time. Nor are all my comments negative, as you so often insinuate, sometimes I’m in general agreement but want our host/govt to go further, or suggest a different route to the same end point.
September 25, 2022
From the BBC today :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63023277
“Labour has set out plans to make the UK the first major economy in the world to generate all of its electricity without using fossil fuels [by 2030].
Labour says it will work with business to more than quadruple offshore wind power, triple solar, and double onshore wind by the end of this decade, while backing nuclear, hydrogen, and tidal power.
“Our plan for clean power by 2030 will save the British people £93bn off their energy bills and break the UK’s vulnerability to Putin and his cronies,” said Sir Keir.”
Under these plans the UK may well be the “first major economy in the world to generate all of its electricity without using fossil fuels” (perhaps the COP 26 President will assist by explosively demolishing all remaining fossil fuel plants) but we will be left with “volatile pricing” and intermittent power which will no doubt force the British people into using so much less electricity they may well be saving £93bn on their electricity bills.
September 25, 2022
The reason our politicians make such foolish promises is because our short-sighted, or wilfully destructive, Civil Servants/quangos have designed an energy system where the renewables are not paying for their intermittency leading to the completely false impression that renewables provide “cheap, abundant, reliable energy always there at the flick of a switch” (Net Zero Strategy P19).
Why does our Chief Scientific Adviser not speak out to counteract this nonsense?
September 26, 2022
He is a climate scientist, not a chemical engineer.
https://www.gov.uk/government/people/paul-monks
September 26, 2022
@OR; Our politicos make short sighted, often short term, foolish promises because the average voter now has the attention span approaching that of a newt, 126 charters long for many, 2015 might as well be 1915, 2030/40 is a lifetime away – just so long as they can buy their favored designer coffee ‘to go’ they are happy…
As for Labour’s announcement, a totally needless policy but, if the majority vote for it (as they will given recent opinion polling & I doubt last Friday changed anything), in reality it will be no different than FDR’s “New Deal” of public/private works. I also doubt, come the manifesto, Labour will be foolish enough to commit to anything more than a target of 2030, after all six to eight years in not very long!
September 25, 2022
I’m not happy at all about Truss and Kwarteng’s proposal to increase caps on immigration. This is an election loser. It will alienate the general public. Voters have been lied to on immigration policy by Cameron, May and Johnson. An excellent mini budget by Kwarteng and Truss last Friday, but this is a bad misstep on immigration.
September 27, 2022
There is also a lack of clarity in terms of students & immigration. We know the last PM made a changes of what was to be allowed following their studies but now: Daily T 26/9 headline ” Foreign students are bringing relatives in record numbers ” – so called ‘dependants’ If that is correct, why & under what criteria ?
September 26, 2022
Quite right Ralph Corderoy.
September 26, 2022
The EU won’t want to see more Italy next year.
September 26, 2022
With the pound having cratered to below $1.05 and €1.10 I think I can smell a big emergency interest rate rise. It smells of an orchestrated exit of assets. It would be interesting to identify the conductor and the players. CDs are being replaced by streaming for the exit.