Conservative economic policy

Yesterday  we heard the Chancellor defend his tax cuts and explain the need for more supply side measures.
He is right to want  to boost the growth rate, and right to fight the recession the Bank is  forecasting. He needs to make numerous changes in a wide range of sectors to boost the growth rate to his target and keep it there.
During  our years in the single market we accepted a major decline in home grown food, home energy production, home produced energy intensive manufactures from steel and glass to building materials and aluminium. Reversing  these trends has to start with supplying more energy,more affordable domestic gas, oil and electricity. Grant  regimes for farming, fishing, green energy and much else need reviewing to see what works and what is necessary.

I would be interested in your views on the Chancellors speech and economic  plan.

222 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    October 4, 2022

    So the Tories move 100 yards to the left then take half a step back then 24 hours later a quarter step to the left again.

    All that is needed is cheap reliable energy, vast deregulation, far less government and far lower and simpler taxes.

    1. ignoramus
      October 4, 2022

      I agree with the first line, not so much with the second.

      The fundamental problem is that the government has lost credibility.

      It’s the ERM all over again.

      I don’t think the conservatives have any good choices. They can’t choose a new leader. The country has lost trust in them. Also they have turned very right wing. They will be punished severely at the next election and lose a lot of advantages at the next boundary commission review.

      I think the changes you propose are complicated. I think a simpler one would be the public funding of political parties. It would only cost about ÂŁ200 million to stop parties being in the pockets of the unions, businesses and rich donors. And the cost of allowing members to vote rather than MPs has brought us lunatics such as Corbyn and Truss. Cheap at the price. If only the political parties could stop squabbling over who gets what.

      The other would be a pilot programme which vastly increased funding to say 30 schools in the most disadvantaged areas. I think this single measure would offer more bang for your buck than any other.

      1. a-tracy
        October 5, 2022

        Ignoramus, how has this government turned very right-wing? There are people regularly, daily even on this board telling you they think this government isn’t right-wing enough, but then again, you were telling us last week you will be voting for Labour for the first time since Blair, and that even though you would be a beneficiary of the 45p down to 40p policy isn’t right as you felt it wouldn’t raise more money it would have to be borrowed and you also wanted to rejoin the EU in short to medium term to sort it out.
        In what way has Truss been a “lunatic”? To call someone mentally ill shows you up. I’m not a member I didn’t have a vote so you weren’t even insulting me in your comment.

        If Truss had gone ahead with the policy of reducing the upper rate in April, it would have just delayed taxes for this year and been a bonanza from April 2023 which they may have calculated would be too late, she needs a bonanza now; perhaps you could dip your hands in your pockets and pay even more tax this year which you seem happy to do, just to help out, maybe donate your fuel rebate back to HMRC to send to schools.

      2. Hope
        October 5, 2022

        Right wing my arse, do not be ridiculous.

    2. Hope
      October 4, 2022

      Fishing
! You are having a laugh JR, your party and govt sold out fishing to EU under its rotten EU sell out deal.

      How is that N.Ireland protocol coming along? Has Blaire made any head wind for your party and govt?

    3. hefner
      October 4, 2022

      And we will get the Lifelogic’s 10+% growth, won’t we?

    4. IanB
      October 4, 2022

      @Lifelogic. That’s what used to be the Tory way. It is now how left can you make the agenda and increase entitlement by ensuring only others will pay. The highest taxes in 70years and the need to squander more, while ensuring that those receive this wuderous bounty can never be held to account

    5. Hope
      October 4, 2022

      LL, In tandem with Labour. They only disagree on corporation tax. Exactly the same on the rest now Truss has fallen back in line!

  2. Lifelogic
    October 4, 2022

    Therese Coffey the Health Secretary needs to stop jabbing people with these fairly ineffective and very dangerous Covid Vaccines. If she wants to be on the right side of history she should act now as several other countries have dome already. The statistics are overwhelming especially for the young. It would also help the NHS to as it is causing many heart and other related referrals.

    Coffey may have dropped out of her chemistry degree at Somerville but one assume she has a decent maths A level – which is more than enough to read the stats and act.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      “too” rather

      If Coffey does not do this she will perhaps end up like the pathetic John Major in court (in many years time) with his ‘bad luck’ comments on the infected blood scandal which so rightly angered the circa 4,000 victims and their relatives. Doubtless Chris Whitty who insanely overturned the JCVI vaccinations for children will get star billing. He said it was a difficult decision – complete rubbish it was very, very clear cut and you got it totally wrong. You had to vaccinate something like 1 million children to save one Covid hospitalisation and the vaccines were seriously harming up to 1/800 per shot!

      It was gross negligence and incompetence not bad luck Major. It is surely the same now with the Covid Vaccines. Piers Corbyn is right on this as he is on Climate Alarmism even is he is a bit potty on some other things.

    2. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      Lifelogic, you keep saying this about vaccines but haven’t they dropped significantly? The last round of complete vaccination for all age groups was nearly a year ago (Nov 2021). Were you in the UK to take vaccination? When was your last vaccination? They are only offering it to the most vulnerable now.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 4, 2022

        I hope that is correct as they certainly seem to be a more harm than good vaccines.

      2. Hope
        October 4, 2022

        Denmark and Norway have now changed vaccine poison policy. No one under 50 and no young people with the other.

      3. hefner
        October 4, 2022

        Only partially true: I got my second booster two weeks ago.
        In the Reading area it is available to anybody (willing to get it, obviously) from 60 years of age onwards and vulnerable younger ones. It is the Moderna mRNA Spikevax two components to cover Omicron BA.1 and BA.4/BA.5. As for the previous injections the only symptoms I got were a sore upper arm for 48 hours.
        Also funnily enough 
 there was a queue of people willing to get it. Or could the incentive have been the possibility to get a coffee/tea afterwards?

        1. A-tracy
          October 4, 2022

          Hefner, my parents are over 70 and haven’t been offered theirs yet, but I did think the over 60s were the vulnerable group.

          1. graham1946
            October 5, 2022

            They did the previous ones in my local council offices (car parks still only about a quarter full during the day at the moment) but that does not seem to be happening now. I have had a letter from NHS saying I can book the next jab, but when I go on line as instructed, the nearest seems to be a hundred miles away. A joke surely? I am not minded to have it anyway, as I have not felt properly well since the last one (Moderna) and my arm still hurts after 6 months, makes me think they hit the bone or something as they go very deep. I’ll just stick to the flu one when the hospital says I can have it.

          2. Margaret brandreth-j
            October 6, 2022

            over 80’s initially and clinically at risk, then health workers, then down the ages.

          3. a-tracy
            October 9, 2022

            They’ve caught up with the 70 year olds now my parents had their jab at the end of the week. They trust the jab to save them from the worst rigours of covid. I hope they are right because my brother has just got covid and saw them the day before his symptoms.

      4. Richard II
        October 4, 2022

        I’m afraid that’s wrong, a-Tracy. Please read the NHS website, consulted today:
        https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccination-for-children/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-aged-5-to-15/

        I quote: ‘All children aged 5 (on or before 31 August 2022) and over can get a 1st and 2nd dose of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.’

        There may have been some confused media reporting of this. Throughout the Covid crisis, government and NHS websites were in my view far more reliable than media reports on what was happening.

        1. a-tracy
          October 6, 2022

          Thanks, Richard, they may be able to get the vaccine by choice of their parents, but of all the young children I know, none are being rounded up for the vaccine as they were previously over eight years of age.

    3. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      When you join the queue just ask for the fairly ineffective jab, not the dangerous one.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 4, 2022

        Alas they seem to be both.

      2. a-tracy
        October 5, 2022

        MT lol :), blue top (good), red top (bad). There are plenty of people that think that about the flu vaccine. This is going to set vaccination policy back years if the scientists don’t get out to reassure people.

    4. Richard II
      October 4, 2022

      Any health professional jabbing people with these now hardly necessary injections is one health professional fewer who could be addressing the massive NHS backlog. According to the media, 22,000 medical appointments are being cancelled per day across the country! THIS is the time when we need to see more spending on public health, never mind the useless test and trace, Nightingale hospitals, PPE scams and all the rest of the outrageously expensive overreaction farrago.

      I was deeply moved recently to hear of a local GP who sadly took her own life, as a result of the appalling pressure now on doctors. If I see any more reports of doctors on cushy three-day week lifestyles, I’ll get very angry.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 4, 2022

        Indeed in general it is not the front line medical workers who are at fault. Doctors have always had a high suicide rate as a profession. I suppose they have plenty of access to suitable methods too.

      2. hefner
        October 4, 2022

        Reading must be an exception: I asked the people who recently injected me at the ‘downtown’ temporary vaccination centre set up now two years ago within a shopping centre: the one running the database on the computer was a volunteer, the one doing the actual injection was a young trainee nurse. So I doubt that any of them could have been ‘addressing the massive NHS backlog’. Such a backlog is handled elsewhere, either within the NHS surgeries or at the Royal Berkshire Hospital.

        Maybe Reading is the exception to the rule 


        1. Richard II
          October 5, 2022

          Every vaccination centre is required to have a doctor available in attendance in case of sudden adverse effects. You just may not have seen that person, Hefner. Good to know that you didn’t need to.
          You seem to have the strange idea that trainee nurses don’t work on wards taking care of patients. In fact they can work 12-hour shifts, from what I’ve found online.

      3. a-tracy
        October 4, 2022

        Richard II,
        I wonder how many medical appointments they do each day if they cancel 22,000 per day. “Around 18,000 NHS appointments were axed every day before the pandemic” so there are 4,000 extra than normal. Why? We’re not told, shortage of staff? People not able to attend at inconvenient times, is it all over in equal numbers, google says there are 1,229 hospitals so that is an average of 18 appointments per hospital per day. I wonder if it is worse at certain poorly managed trusts. Certain departments?

        Also, at the time the Nightingale hospitals were being built mainly by our fabulous Royal engineers, a staggering military operation that garnered thousands of volunteers to work in them just in case. It was a completely unknown virus with unknown outcomes, I get angry when people look back with hindsight and I’m no admirer of Hancock. It was a phenomenal feat that will act as a pre-run on future emergency planning, which hopefully our national health service will learn from in the future. It is a shame they didn’t leave one operational to move bed-blockers into that require less direct nursing care but don’t have anywhere to go to, in order to get over a lot of the blocked beds we are told are holding up proceedures.

        1. Richard II
          October 5, 2022

          Don’t imagine that people have been critical of the government’s media-driven strategy only ‘with hindsight’, a-Tracy. Even at the time, not everyone was clapping for the National Covid Service! Your ‘completely unknown virus’ meme doesn’t work either, I’m afraid. Scientists were able to develop the PCR test for SARS 2 so quickly because they used the known and very similar genetic sequence of SARS 1.

    5. hefner
      October 4, 2022

      T.Coffey got her PhD in chemistry in 1998 from UCL with a thesis called ‘Structural and reactivity studies of bis(imido) complexes of molybdenum (VI)’. (discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10104446).

      LL, where did you get yours from?

      1. Lifelogic
        October 5, 2022

        I have no PHD but went to Cambridge and then Manchester then I had to earn some money, but she did drop out of Oxford first, too much rowing perhaps.

    6. Peter
      October 4, 2022

      “Coffey may have dropped out of her chemistry degree at Somerville but one assume she has a decent maths A level – which is more than enough to read the stats and act.”

      Oh dear! I am reminded of the maths teacher at my grammar school. A very clever chap – a maths PhD. He got us all through exams a year early. We also did maths on other boards to facilitate resits for the weaker pupils not in his stream. A wartime RAF officer and prisoner of war. Very strong sense of morality too.

      The trouble was that he was a crank.

      So in between the teaching we had to listen to his views on life in general and his particular hobby horses. I have found many mathematicians with similar traits.

      As for Ms Coffey, she has had a very successful career in private industry as finance director of one of the most successful firms in the country. She seems a straightforward sort. Her interview with Katy Balls of The Spectator certainly impressed me.

      It was lovely to see early versions of this article.

      The ones free of Lifelogic screed.

  3. Lifelogic
    October 4, 2022

    The times reports a study that shows that:- “Girls are twice as likely to say they want to do a job they enjoy than to be rich; they are nearly three times as likely to prioritise being healthy and safe than be a leader and also twice as likely to prioritise being respected than being a leader.

    While 42 per cent of girls want to take on leadership roles, when asked to rank their career ambitions “being a leader” was the lowest priority in a list of 17 attributes. Only 33 per cent wanted to be their own boss”.

    In short on average they choose lower paid jobs and are less likely to commute, work on building sites or oil rigs, collect refuse, work down sewers, work very long hours, work in shipping they also choose very different A levels and degrees… So perhaps Theresa May, Harriet Harman types, the BBC & Woman’s Hours will finally shut up about the gender pay gap it is not due to discrimination but the very choices different male and females on average take.

    In March 2020 Ms Truss temporarily relaxed the legislation that forces businesses to report the gender difference in salaries between their employees, and allows the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate and impose fines on companies that do not record statistics on the pay gap.

    Why only temporarily? Yet another pointless burden on businesses that harms productivity and damages their ability to compete Ms Truss. Also augments grievance politics and industries with ever more jobs for unproductive parasitic workers.

    1. Shirley M
      October 5, 2022

      I always thought equality was more about same pay for the same job, whether male or female, not about comparing a shelf filler to an HGV driver. Was I wrong?

      Being a female and before the equality act came along, women were always paid far less for the same job than men, regardless of merit and ability. Before that time, women were chattels of men, and many men liked it that way!

  4. David Peddy
    October 4, 2022

    I agree with the Chancellor’s plans. I was surprised ( and I would not have touched Income Tax right now ) by the 45p cancellation and I understand why he did it to restore the competitive position of the U.K Financial Services sector ( which is very important ). However , it proved ‘politically’ unsustainable .
    I agree that we need to cancel IR35; become more energy self sufficient ( which will also help growth) ;produce more food ourselves and most importantly , encourage start ups; investment by exisiting businesses and for overseas companies to place their tax and manufacturing domiciles here . Support nuclear expansion and the tech sector
    We need more, and improvements to ,infrastructure such as the east -west rail link in the north and better roads.
    However we must rein in Public Spending . I would axe HS2 as its justification seems even less credible as working practices have changed, probably irrevocably. I see another controversy rising over welfare expenditure. Benefit uprating by wage inflation is contradictory against the Triple Lock but we need to encourage those people not contributing back to work and not to be paid a greater increase than those working ..It is a conundrum I do not think the Triple Lock should be increased by inflation for people like me.It is unfair when workers are taking a real wages hit .

    1. MWB
      October 5, 2022

      When I see how much money is wasted on foreign aid and on usless criminal rubber boat immigrants, I have absolutely no qualms about taking a triple lock increase on the derisory British state pension.
      Would you be in favour of a means test on the state pension, and where would the line be set ?

  5. DOM
    October 4, 2022

    What all know what needs to happen but the party leadership and its MPs to put it simply doesn’t possess the moral courage, energy or emotional conviction to enact it.

    The Tory party is a party of authoritarian Socialism as they ape Labour’s poisonous ideology, I believe Cameron labelled it ‘going with the narrative’. Sold out to the globlists and Left and their destructive agenda

    Gove and Boris Johnson publicly endorsed woke and Critical Theory. That’s all I need to know about the Tories who will pander to the Left until the Left get their hands on the taxpayer chequebook and a Parl majority and at that point you will see the remaining freedoms we still have left disappear right in front of your very eyes

    1. glen cullen
      October 4, 2022

      We’ve had this past 12 years, under the Tories, policy by the EU & UN 
now it appears we have policy by media & ex-cabinet ministers – please grow a backbone

    2. ignoramus
      October 5, 2022

      Holy cow.

      Did you just call the tory party socialist?

      I say this as a good one nation conservative myself. The Conservative party has gone full snarling right-wing. As many of my kind say, it is no longer recognisable in its current form.

      Desperately sad actually. As I said before, I put it down to grassroots members voting in ideologies because of the lack of public funding for political parties.

  6. turboterrier
    October 4, 2022

    The numerous changes that need to be made across all areas of government, civil and public services is to really address the unsustainable areas of waste. If this was done with some purpose he just might be mortified how much money is available to address the areas of concern.
    You can throw as much money as you like at any given areas and it produces or improves three fifths of nothing. All government’s for too many years have never seemed to address this phenomenon that inflicts our lives so much. He needs to listen much more to the concerns of the people then take the best course of action.

    1. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      turboterrier, I agree, but the public could also address their personal home waste. Some of the worst waste I see is from households that plead abject poverty on my local estates, just looking at their gardens as I walk around with excessive rubbish bins overflowing in them every week; even when all three of my children were home, we didn’t fill the one bin with a fortnight’s waste.

      The number of people now that say the government has to do this, the government has to do that. The government has to provide more childcare, the government has to provide more food, the government has to pay for school uniforms and school breakfasts; what are we paying these breeders to do if not primarily care for their children? We don’t pay all mums the same allowance? We encourage none working claimants to have three and more children, with no man providing and then allow them to budget for their own bills, which frankly, many of them we are told regularly by the Guardian can’t do. The housing provided needs looking at in some detail, and more communal area living where some single mums could train to look after other’s children whilst the ones that want to go out to work then can, that is how the working class used to do things for themselves, but new rules meant informal childcare wasn’t allowed.

      1. Al
        October 5, 2022

        “We encourage none working claimants to have three and more children, with no man providing and then allow them to budget for their own bills” – a-tracy

        It goes further than that: families are penalised if the father is present. Assistance is provided to families with one adult present before those with two. If a family falls on hard times due to a work injury, illness, or unemployment, men can be left the choice of divorcing and moving away from their families so their wives and children qualify for help, or seeing them all homeless. How about we start helping families who need a brief hand up, instead of creating more that need constant hand outs?

        A benefits system should not create lifelong dependency.

        1. a-tracy
          October 5, 2022

          I agree Al, I know two couples that split, single parents find their points increase to get housing and higher benefits than the original partner could give her and plus a bonus he has to pay her 30% of his wages after she kicked him out, oh and she left him with thousands of pounds of credit card debt buying her a car and lots of things for the kids, and she has a new part-time man friend on the three days per week he looks after his kids at his parents home. These women are smart, she left school at 17 no decent qualifications, and several years not working, the state has payed her access to higher education in the last couple of years her eldest is now in high school, whilst covering her childcare for her younger child, she’s training to be a teacher now, she runs a car, goes on holidays abroad, has a three bedroom private semi.

          Benefits encourage uncoupling. Shorter working hours for solo parents and more state dependency.

  7. Lifelogic
    October 4, 2022

    As to Kwasi’s speech:- Well he starts by going on about the industrial revolution in Birmingham. What drove that Kwasi? Might it perhaps have been coal, cheap reliable energy and government spending at more like 10% of GDP than the nearly 50% that is largely wasted now? Cheap reliable energy and lower taxes are exactly what would drive growth now. But the Tories have an expensive unreliable energy and a very high tax/big government policy as we know.

    He says:- “We were faced with taxes at a 70 year high” no Kwasi not just “faced with” the Tories under Cameron/Osborne, May/Hammond & Boris/Sunak (with Kwasi as a minister) deliberately increase taxes and over regulation to these absurdly high levels.

    Kwasi still witters on about climate change (it has always changed Kwasi and always will) there is no climate emergency grow up.

    The high price on energy is caused mainly by net zero not by Putin’s war as you claim. You should know you were the energy secretary Kwasi pushing this expensive and intermittent energy.

    IR35 reversal is good at least . But hot air is cheap the 45% reversal and retention of Net Zero, the ECHR and the illegal immigration shows they do not have the guts to really deliver.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      Nor there the time to deliver. Boris/Sunak have spent three years wasting his large majority with Sunak’s vast thiand serial manifesto promise breaking, vast tax increases, idiotic lockdowns and endless government misdirection and waste.

      The result now is you can get 4/1 odds on a Tory overall majority indicating nearly an 80% chance of Labour or a dire Labour/SNP/Libdim government.

      I think it is more like 50/50 myself so perhaps a good wager if Truss/Kwasi can actually get their act together?

  8. margaret
    October 4, 2022

    Home grown food .. definitely . more productive fields , more products grown in eden type structures for variety. Less waste. On waste, the news this am talks about the out of date products and products which have not been sold and were previously going to food banks are now becoming less. I deplore waste but it is very difficult for a single person to buy food for one . The odd large potato for baking doesn’t amount to 3 meals a day for 7 days a week. I will always buy wonky fruit and veg ( my garden always has imperfect veg) but should the poor need to rely on food banks whilst we are considering illegal immigrants ? There is something wrong in the state.

    1. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      margaret, have you been to the Eden project, it wasn’t that impressive.
      I saw a similar smaller project at Epcot in Disney and that was much more impressive in a smaller space but with lots of technology, hydroponics, aquaponics etc.

      1. margaret
        October 6, 2022

        No I havent ,my family have , but really I was referring to the large glass shaped structure where alternative produce could be grown which could not be grown in a typical English climate.

  9. Narrow Shoulders
    October 4, 2022

    A conservative economic plan should have as little intervention included as possible. That includes approach to the weather and to benefits. It should also focus on organic growth rather than imported.

  10. Nigl
    October 4, 2022

    There was nothing in it apart from aspirational cliches. Continuing nonsense about low tax.

    Let’s not forget your weak crumbling to the Gove wasn’t to stop a fax cut, it was reversing where it had been for all except one month of Brown’s government.

    We see truss is now having to fight to get expenditure down, grovelling to Europe, Coffey looking to import foreign nurses, ex ministers who should be keeping their mouths shut, whingeing because their feelings have been hurt, not being given a job.

    And finally the ludicrous Nadine still hypnotised by Boris, please reminder her he was the reason you lost two massive majorities in by elections, calling for an election where you will get shredded. Acute political antennae she has not.

    You should be running the country not a cess pit.

    1. hefner
      October 4, 2022

      ‘Ex-ministers who should be keeping their mouths shut, whingeing because their feelings have been hurt, not being given a job’. Does that description not apply to Sir John?

      As for N.Dorries she’s looking forward to a seat in the Lords in the Resignation Honours List.
      I would think it pretty safe for her to call for an election. Her antennae might be more finely tuned to the present situation, mightn’t they?

      1. margaret
        October 5, 2022

        If I remember, John has other interests and may have even been offered a job. We don’t know. The question you put forward carries a strong implication Hefner and as Rose said last week, please show a little respect to the host. I become annoyed sometimes but standards of conversations are slipping and the younger generation are learning from this sort of Tik Tok and think it is the correct way of conversing or stating a view.
        I could not believe the sort of language coming from youngsters to their parents recently and not in a fun way We have lots of folk learning the English language and other cultures pick up and use this language and intrude in more private questions in an un professional dialogue.
        I have picked this out today but notice that many other contributors use offensive personally directed language. Public and private conversations differ greatly.

  11. Leslie Singleton
    October 4, 2022

    Obviously we should forthwith re-instate Boris whose faults were trivial and who can be relied upon to get the big calls correct. Prospects are admittedly grim now but with Boris there would be at least some chance of turning it round before the GE not to mention minimising a defeat. Truss is one great ipse dixit. Bring bring back the smoke-filled room.

    1. Mitchel
      October 4, 2022

      If you are expecting a “Daddy,my daddy!” moment for Boris (as in the Railway Children),Jenny Agutter will be washing her hair and so will I!

      Sauve qui peut!

    2. IanT
      October 4, 2022

      Too late for Boris – whether Tory MPs should have gotten rid of him is a mute question now.

      In my opinion, whilst he was a crowd pleaser he didn’t seem able to make tough decisions until far too late. Nor did I see any long term strategies that made any common sense. His eco beliefs are one of the reasons we still have no energy policy that makes any practical sense. When you turn down your thermostat this winter (as I have already done) just remember who was still preaching ‘more windmills’ right up to the bitter end.

    3. MFD
      October 4, 2022

      Boris !!! he who did nothing ? he was not productive, his style was to swan around, all talk and no action. I would never want to see him again

  12. Roy Grainger
    October 4, 2022

    What tax cuts ? The only new tax cut he proposed has been cancelled rather than “defended”. Reversing future planned tax increases and bringing forward to next year future planned tax cuts to not constitute “cuts” at all, merely holding the status quo.

    Now I see he is being pressured by his own MPs to uprate Universal Credit in line with inflation instead of in line with average wage increases – they seem to think de-incentivising work in that way is a good idea. We might as well vote Labour hadn’t we ?

    Up next will be a failure to reform planning laws due to NIMBY MP pressure and an open-door immigration policy in the name of “growth”. Again, Labour/LibDem core policies.

    1. Bill B.
      October 4, 2022

      Nimby MPs, eh? We could do with one of those here in Wokingham.

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 4, 2022

        The elected Councillors are the problem.

        1. Berkshire Alan
          October 5, 2022

          +1

    2. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      Roy, what tax cuts you ask. The biggest tax cut for workers is the keeping of the higher personal allowance before any National Insurance is paid from ÂŁ9570 to ÂŁ12570 @ 12%. Promising ÂŁ10 to ÂŁ20bn of tax cuts is a major commitment.

      The IFS prefers directed tax cuts in the form of charging everyone more but giving back to selected groups such as those on universal credit. Universal credit claimants have been given ÂŁ150 here, ÂŁ400 there, ÂŁ650 here, ÂŁ1200 there. This is a tax cut. If they want UC to go up by 10% then they have to deduct all these give aways that have already given them the money otherwise they double dip while the workers that get no UC get hit twice.

  13. forthurst
    October 4, 2022

    The Chancellor’s tax changes were in order to create more demand; without supply side reforms this will create inflation not prosperity. Too much of the economy is rentier activity when widespread prosperity can only be created by increasing GDP per capita. Buy-to-let and banksterism and paying landowners for not using their land productively need to be replaced by growing food, catching fish and making stuff. Substantial legal changes are required to achieve these objectives as the economy has been driven in the wrong direction for a very long time.

    1. Mitchel
      October 4, 2022

      Correct.People need to understand the difference between Industrial/Real Capitalism and Financial/Parasitic Capitalism.I understand there was a time when the latter(which effectively creates claims on the former) was not included in GDP figures-for a good reason!

      Economists like Dr Tim Morgan,Dr Michael Hudson and Professor Richard Werner have been stressing the difference for years and predicting the inevitability of what is now happening.

    2. Hat man
      October 4, 2022

      Exactly so.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 4, 2022

      I agree – it’s called financialisation, and John McDonnell intended to address your very complaint.

      I think that he would have done rather more in that regard than the Tories ever would in a thousand years.

  14. margaret
    October 4, 2022

    Are you doing any side talks this year in the north John?

  15. hefner
    October 4, 2022

    The usual pap: What growth? Of GDP, of GDP per capita, of productivity, of exports? In the sectors pointed out above, but by which means? Who will benefit? To be used for what? Needing which investment? Who will provide it? Who will pay for it?
    The usual reliance on a ‘big word’ so undefined that any reader will think that the half-brained politician proffering it might show a spark of intelligence 
 but then 


    1. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      hefner – What growth? The chancellor suggested:
      “This starts with Investment Zones.
      We will empower local areas to do things differently, just as here in Birmingham.
      We will liberalise planning rules, releasing land and accelerating development.
      We will cut taxes for business in these zones.
      We will accelerate tax reliefs for new structures and buildings.
      We will provide relief on investments on plant and machinery.
      We will lower taxes which stop businesses hiring and skilling up their workforce.
      That is an unprecedented set of incentives for business to invest, to build, and to create jobs right across the country.
      And it will start right now.”

  16. Shirley M
    October 4, 2022

    Growth is double edged sword. If it means cramming more immigrants into the UK, with the resulting overwhelming of doctors, dentists and NHS services, plus even less availability of housing (immigrants always go to the top of the queue), and worst of all, changing the whole identity and ethics of the UK, then I would rather NOT go for growth. I don’t want the UK to end up like Sweden or any other multi-culti country with all the associated conflicts and fighting for dominance.

    You give with one hand (more growth) and take away with the other (the cost of accommodating immigrants, their families and all their needs and the dilution of essential services for citizens already here). The only people who benefit are the migrants. Politicians NEVER consider the ordinary Brit and what they want. Democracy is a facade. Brits will now have to FORCE their views onto politicians (as the very vocal minorities do, it seems to work for them) else they will be ignored altogether.

    I do hope the next GE is another UKIP moment and millions vote against the main parties. The main parties who are so very disrespectful of the electorate and harmful to the country as a whole.

  17. Peter
    October 4, 2022

    The chancellor needs to be more proactive and smarter. He has already made one U turn and seems to be on the back foot.

    It’s no good knocking the OBR after the damage has already been done or pretending that ordinary people can see the sense of particular economic policies. More transparency and preparation is required.

    Confidence in the new government is ebbing away.

    We are already being softened up for no action on Northern Ireland too.

    Same old, same old.

    1. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      Peter, where did the Chancellor knock the OBR in the speech? I was surprised to read him say, “Our entire approach will be underpinned by a strong institutional framework, which enhances growth in our country
including our independent Bank of England and Office for Budget Responsibility.” Surprised because I don’t consider the OBR strong.

      https://www.ukpol.co.uk/kwasi-kwarteng-2022-speech-to-the-conservative-party-conference/

      1. Peter
        October 4, 2022

        a-tracy,
        The chancellor himself did not knock OBR. That was belatedly left to Guido Fawkes and similar commentators.

        Truss and the chancellor have been OK in interviews. The likes of Nick Robinson was blowing his own trumpet by congratulating interviewees for turning up to face his questions.

        The problem is that this is all reactive and opponents now sense that they can change policy if they make enough noise.

        Leadership requires a more resolute approach and a united party. Neither of those are in evidence.

        1. a-tracy
          October 5, 2022

          I found Guido Fawkes post interesting. e.g. The OBR organisation didn’t exist until 2010 when the Tories took power yet it is headed by Left of Centre friends of the Miliband’s, former colleagues or proteges of Torsten Bell the helpful government bashing Resolution Foundation liked so much by the Guardian. It must be great to have an effective opposition feeding information to the government; lots of it is subsequently proven wrong. Why would Cameron, Osborne, and subsequently Boris kowtow to this organisation unchallenged? Are the OBR the opponents you are referring to?

  18. BOF
    October 4, 2022

    All of that Sir John. Fracking cannot come soon enough as well as oil and gas expansion from the N Sea. We buy coal from abroad when there is an abundant supply right here. Support UK fishermen and remove licences from foreign interests.

    The abandoned tax cuts were proper conservative policy, to encourage the wealth creators and keep them in the country. Just shows how deeply embedded socialism is in the parliamentary party. We now have just the Uniparty, all leaning obediently to socialism. Green and Gove have much to answer for.

  19. Nigl
    October 4, 2022

    Ps I read Nadine is hoping to go to the Lords as a reward for her sycophancy. With the pantomime season almost upon us, I think she is auditioning for a Dame of a different type.

    Oh yes she is.

    1. Will in Hampshire
      October 4, 2022

      Haha very good!

    2. IanT
      October 4, 2022

      “She’s behind you!”

    3. IanB
      October 4, 2022

      @Nigl. Another reason HoL is untenable – in any civilized democratic country the upper house would be elected. MP’s won’t get rid of it as it offers them another freeloader opportunity

    4. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      Oh no she’s not – look behind you!

  20. Richard1
    October 4, 2022

    It won’t be sustainable to have significantly lower taxes unless spending is controlled. HS2 has to go. It would save at least ÂŁ10bn pa for 10 years and send a very strong signal. Public sector pay in many sectors is now too high, especially when you consider other benefits such as pensions. All these equality and diversity departments need to go. They add nothing to the quality of public services and institutionalise leftist wokery throughout the public sector. These are the tough decisions. Along with the major deregulation proposed – we need to see the benefits by the next election to have a chance. 1p off the basic rate on its own wont cut it.

    His broad message was good, but the devil is in the detail. Somehow the govt needs to reverse the 25-year trend started by Blair- Brown for the state to get ever bigger and ever bosser. Otherwise it’s a lost cause.

  21. Javelin
    October 4, 2022

    The timing of debt payments to the fixed income markets because of QE means there is no longer a simple link between Government spending and taxation. You can’t “just” reduce both at the same time.

    Very low interest is almost the same as money printing except people who borrow it need to justification to tell the bank manager for why they need it. But all it really does is push debt payment one year ahead because you are buying back last years debt. It means the Government COULD create money to make the country more competitive.

    However for most people low interest rates have been spend on houses, university or cars. For the silent millions it’s credit cards, designer labels or food. For companies it’s a business model where they buy cheap stuff from China and flog it off, or hire cheap labour on zero hour contracts.

    For the Government it means borrowing money to keep expanding with no real analysis of the costs. Continuation of final salary Government pensions, diversity hires, virtue signalling pet projects such as green energy, lazy response to crises such as lock downs but most of all paying low paid workers “Government” benefits to boost their incomes.

    This creates a situation which requires future tax payers to commit to high taxes in order to pay this ever expanding debt. Tax is now at its limits so QE has reached its limits. QE cannot afford another lock down or gas cap. When the fixed income markets think the Government want to back out of the QE model they will require scaling back of Government to pre QE levels, which will take years, or the markets will push interest rates up because they will see a high risk of Government defaults.

    1. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      Javelin, not everyone on zero hours contracts are exploited, they are still PAYE workers on the company payroll so are traceable by the tax office, they have their employer’s NI paid on their behalf, they still get a day’s holiday pay after nine days worked to the same ratio as full-time staff, I had retired people who asked me for zero hours contracts so that they could work only when they wanted to, they do it just to cover people’s holidays, if zero hours contracts didn’t exist then I wouldn’t employ them on guaranteed hours terms. Other companies just use subbies, and as another blog contributor pointed out to me recently these self-employed people don’t, if you believe him, charge for their 8% nest, their holiday pay, their own SSP cover as business owners have to, often he claimed they don’t even earn the NLW for their labour.

  22. Nottingham Lad Himself
    October 4, 2022

    Sir John, your party seem to have forgotten that they are only in power because of a degree of success – thanks to their media – in their preposterous culture war. However, when people cannot pay their bills nor afford to eat, and are worried about their pension savings being lost, they soon stop bothering about cycle lanes, about pride processions, and about NT plaques.

    Perhaps if it helps some people finally get their priorities right, then this utter débùcle is not without its benefits.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      well Martin, you say ‘a degree of success’ when previously you have gone about an 80 seat majority as if we should go down on our knees in salutation.

  23. Ed M
    October 4, 2022

    Don’t blame the economy on the EU.
    Getting out of the EU was about sovereignty not the economy (we can have a successful economy both IN or OUT of the EU).

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      but we didn’t while in it !

      1. Ed M
        October 5, 2022

        That’s the point I’m making!
        The strength of our economy shouldn’t depend on whether we’re in the EU or not. Blaming being the EU is a cop out.

  24. MPC
    October 4, 2022

    You continue your behind the scenes efforts to influence the government and give it some backbone, for which we are all grateful. But the Conservative party in government is now in a death spiral more serious even than its decline in 1997. There seems little point in us making comments / suggestions about this week’s proposals from Mr Kwarteng when they’ll be amended and worsen next week. Nothing is set to change radically enough to arrest the accelerating decline of our country. Even Steve Baker has gone weak on the EU.

    1. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      MPC just give Steve Baker a chance MPC. Let’s see what his new approach can garner. People are writing people off before they’re even out of the stall.

  25. Donna
    October 4, 2022

    David Starkey spelled it out on the Mark Steyn show on GB News yesterday, we haven’t really had a change in Government since 1997. The Not-a-Conservative-Party under Cameron, May and Johnson hasn’t changed any of NuLabour’s policies, including economic, cultural and constitutional – it accepted and then “progressed” them.

    The only different policy it VERY reluctantly eventually carried out was the one forced on it by Farage and UKIP, and it deliberately fudged that so that we got BRINO and remain closely aligned with the EU, with Northern Ireland held hostage to ensure “we behave.”

    I didn’t listen to the Chancellor’s speech. What’s the point? It would be a complete waste of time. The LibCONs and Green-CONs aren’t going to allow Truss and Kwartang to implement Conservative policies so whatever he says today, Truss has already demonstrated they will change tomorrow.

  26. Ian Wragg
    October 4, 2022

    It was a needless home goal cutting the 45p tax rate.
    He could have saved that for the next budget. I’m sorry to say although I agree 100% with what he’s doing, the remainiacs led by the unsavoury Gove will try and derail him.
    He’s not following the WEF playbook so they will try and get Soonack announced to continue the destruction of this once lovely country.
    It’s 2 minutes to midnight for the tory party.
    Will real tories make themselves known.

  27. Cuibono
    October 4, 2022

    But why did he apparently defy the IMF and then recant?
    It reminds me of Boris’s initial plague response followed by abject obedience.
    Does not bode well.
    Or is it all done ( like Brexit maybe?) to fool us into thinking that they are truly trying to fight globalism but oh dear 
it is just too difficult?

  28. Dave Andrews
    October 4, 2022

    What do I care about the 45% tax band, I have no intention of getting anywhere near that and keep myself just inside the 20% band?
    Yet the socialists think that anyone on that kind of salary must be some kind of evil individual who has got wealth by evil means, and must have that wealth taxed away. It just doesn’t register that many people grow wealth by their own initiative and business acumen, and all the higher tax bands do is to deter them from doing more.
    So the government have decided to abandon the removal of the 45% tax rate, yet still retaining the also high 40% rate, because of the socialists in their own party sitting on green benches won’t wear it.
    What a wishy-washy waste of space PM we discover we have, more interested in doing what she can to keep her office than do anything useful.

    1. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      Dave, I read recently that GPs were stopping work because they couldn’t pop more of their earnings tax free into their pensions to withdraw after retirement at the slightly lower rate of tax because of the current frozen cap on pensions that the public sector don’t have because they get defined benefit that not many capped pensions could even dream of.
      So perhaps it was a bid to keep GPs happy and working.

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 5, 2022

        GPs working …..an oxymoron.

        1. a-tracy
          October 5, 2022

          Actually MT my GP is super. He has early clinics, late clinics, to see him in person, granted he is very busy but I’m happy to see his associates if it was urgent. I quite like telephone consultations and a doctor always calls me back, I can get a blood test by a fabulous HCA before work from 7am one of the best phlebotomists I have ever known. I can go to a woman’s clinic in the gp practice with a nursing sister after work up to 9pm. Credit where it is due.

          1. margaret
            October 6, 2022

            Collaboration (often ) is an improvement on negative competition.

  29. Cuibono
    October 4, 2022

    All this terror over funding tax cuts with borrowed money!
    Funding everything else with borrowed and non existent money for years.
    Who is playing Principal Boy in this new charade?

    1. Mitchel
      October 4, 2022

      And who is the pantomime dame?

      1. Cuibono
        October 4, 2022

        +1
        Lol. I didn’t like to ask that one!

    2. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      and yet this speech said..”Because of successive Conservative governments, the UK now has the second lowest debt to GDP ratio in the G7..We will have a strong fiscal anchor with debt falling as a proportion of GDP over the medium term..”

      1. hefner
        October 4, 2022

        First sentence is a fact, the second is an expectation.
        Do you know how many years the medium term encompasses? By what percentage and over which time scale must the debt drop for you to conclude that this second sentence is now verified? Same related questions about growth: 2.5% growth per year, but when? in 2023, from 2024, 
 later?
        As you certainly know politicians (whatever their party) contrary to (most) businesspeople are very reluctant to give this type of necessary and sufficient figures so that they can be readily called upon if the magnitude and timeline of progress is not satisfied.

        1. a-tracy
          October 4, 2022

          hefner, and yet if you are trying to borrow money to advance your business you are expected to give detailed growth predictions in business plans.

          The thing that I want the Chancellor to tell us is how much are we saving from this month in our subs to the EU, how much is the UK expected to save not having to pay 80% tax to the EU on VAT on imports, how much have we saved and are we expected to save by no longer paying VAT on prostitution and drugs that we don’t tax so the rest of us have to pay. How much is the UK expecting to save from not having to pay for EU degree student, how much is the UK expecting to save from not having to send child benefit to EU families not living in the UK? Or are we carrying on as always?

          1. NBill Brown
            October 9, 2022

            How much have we lost in trade because of Brexit?

      2. Cuibono
        October 4, 2022

        +1
        Do they make it up as they go along?

    3. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      but always in drag.

  30. ferd
    October 4, 2022

    The plan – including the five percent tax reduction on high earners = all makes sense if it is backed up by spending cuts. There must be an urgent assessment of where money can be saved especially where social concepts have driven spending upwards. One has to question HS2 but I do not know enough about the data to support either way, Cutting spending must be the Treasury aim.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      In a nutshell it is taking 10 years+ to dig miles and miles of tunnels between a single station in London to another single station near Birmingham, costing way over ÂŁ100BN and increasing every delayed year. Purpose? Oh I nearly forgot – it is to move a few thousand business people 15 minutes faster than before.

      1. a-tracy
        October 4, 2022

        MT, isn’t the purpose so that EU trains can run on the lines? I thought this was to bypass UK train companies, and people might be relieved of it with all the British rail-workers strikes.

      2. Peter Parsons
        October 4, 2022

        HS2 is actually about freeing up capacity and moving away from a situation where fast, inter-city trains have to share tracks with local, stopping services, which is the case on much of the rail network.

        The small town I grew up in has had 1 train an hour in each direction for decades and can’t have an increased frequency until the long distance trains that currently share the lines are taken off by transferring to HS2 (because having both limits the capacity of the tracks).

        At that point, the town could get a similar sort of frequency of train service that people living in London and the South East have been able to enjoy for decades. Without HS2, it will remain the same as it’s been for 50 years.

        1. glen cullen
          October 4, 2022

          Its going to cost ÂŁ150bn ….1 5 0 billion

          1. Peter Parsons
            October 4, 2022

            Over 25 years. 10 days ago this Conservative government was more than prepared to borrow about half that to give it all away in one fell swoop.

        2. a-tracy
          October 4, 2022

          Peter my family frequently get trains from London that now only stop in Crewe, or one other stop such as Milton Keynes and that train only takes 1hr 45 mins. The station where I live only has one train per hour, I have never heard any plans to put more trains on this line when HS2 frees up this line, it doesn’t go to our two nearest Cities anyway.

          As you know more about it than me, will European trains run on the new tracks, that currently can’t run on our old lines or not?

          1. Peter Parsons
            October 5, 2022

            My understanding is that there won’t be a connection to HS2 from HS1 (Eurostar), so it doesn’t look as if there will be a way for European spec trains to access HS2. HS2 is also being designed with a significantly higher platform height (c. 40cm difference) compared to the European standard (due to using larger wheels), so getting on and off such trains would also be a challenge.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      So much fat could so easily be cut but Ministers clearly like to waste other people’s money hand over fist. There there are is the bonkers red tape & daft employment regulations not much effort here either.

  31. Fedupsoutherner
    October 4, 2022

    Sorry John. I didn’t listen to it. Your party is disappointing as it is. The Conservative party is fractured and unless you all get together and start making some radical but sensible choices to reverse the damage that woke policy, immigration and net zero have done so far then you are definitely toast leaving us with a bigger disaster called the Labour party.

    1. Iago
      October 4, 2022

      This is the latest sanctuary supplied by the government for invaders, Stoke Rochford Hall Hotel, near Grantham (nowhere is inviolate).
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoke_Rochford_Hall#/media/File:Stoke_Rochford_Hall_(geograph_3025555).jpg

    2. Peter
      October 4, 2022

      FUS,
      “Fractured” indeed.

      No strong leadership to deliver what many posters here and many voters in the country look for.

      I believe the Conservative party had a long run and it’s time it went the way of the Whigs, the Liberals and the Labour party. We will have to see what emerges in the aftermath.

    3. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      Sir Keir Starmer says achieving zero carbon energy by 2030 will be a key priority if he wins the next election.

      Has this man got net zero brain cells? Has he ever spoken to any sensible energy engineers or physicists? What planet is this deluded idiot on? Currently only about 2% of human energy comes from wind or solar. Let us hope the deluded Starmer and Sturgeon never get near to any positions of power in England anyway. The Tories including net zero deluded Truss is quite mad enough on this topic.

    4. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      Fractured? I think you mean fracking?
      The fracking process, cracks in and below the surface are opened and widened by injecting doubtful policies and budgets resulting in hot water initially but rapidly pouring cold water under high pressure.

    5. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      A disaster a Labour/SNP/Libdim/Plaid/Green crap disaster.

  32. Cuibono
    October 4, 2022

    “This government will always be on the side of those who need help the most.”
    For goodness sake!
    Enough! Don’t we already have an out of control welfare state?
    He’s the CHANCELLOR not a charity awash with OTHER PEOPLE’S money!!

    And HOW DARE all the so called conservatives allow the police to bloody well LOCK DOWN the conference. Is that REALLY the way they want things to go. They really need to get a grip and quickly!

  33. villaking
    October 4, 2022

    Sir John, the views on this subject of those reading your blog are probably irrelevant. It seems very much that your party has decided to continue along the same path in terms of economic policy. If you can’t push unpopular choices through with a majority of nearly 80, it won’t happen at all. I note one of your leading members has already noted that major spending cuts would seem “very difficult”. Kwasi made two U turns yesterday under pressure from his own MPs. Truss must already know that any idea of not uprating benefits in line with inflation rather than wages is dead. Apart from the NI decrease, further tax cuts are unlikely. I don’t agree with much of the proposed new economic policy but remain a bit disillusioned that your party has decided to stick with the old one

    1. Dave Andrews
      October 4, 2022

      IDS quite rightly referred to Labour as the “Welfare Party”. It seems the Conservative Party has ended up the same.
      I quite agree with the concept of supporting the weak and unfortunate, but not handouts to the feckless and fraudsters. Unfortunately the authorities can’t tell the difference.
      Say you’re going to uprate benefits, but that from now on the money will come from the charities instead. Everyone will have a reduction in their taxes so as to enable them to lend them support. No doubt the compassionate society everyone talks about will step up.

    2. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      villaking, well if she puts it up in line with the national living wage, it would be going up 6.6%.

      If a 37.5 hour working week brings in ÂŁ18525 pa or ÂŁ1543.75 for a 23-year-old.

      Having a baby alone at 23 brings in the same with no external work.

  34. Fedupsoutherner
    October 4, 2022

    Did anyone watch Panorama on BBC last night? ÂŁ6b in subsidies!!!? It’s ludicrous and disgusting that our money is funding the destruction of our natural world in such a blatant fashion only to produce more emissions than coal. Only the brain dead would think this is a good way to run an economy. No surprises there then.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      +1 not just the insanity of burning wood (young coal) at Drax & then pretending it is “low carbon/renewable” when it is actually higher in CO2 than coal per KWH (this even before you consider the diesel ships & trucks that transport it) but he whole energy agenda and “renewables” is clearly a complete scam and con trick.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      Surprising the BBC is actually telling the truth for a change on this topic.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        October 4, 2022

        LL. Yes. I couldn’t quite believe it either and yet in the next breath they go on running the idea of fracking down. Where the hell do people think their reliable energy is going to come from or are they happy to keep importing?

      2. Original Richard
        October 4, 2022

        LL : “Surprising the BBC is actually telling the truth for a change on this topic.”

        That is true but it is only because they want to see Drax redefined as a coal-fired power station so that it can be explosively demolished by the COP 26 President, Alok Sharma, MP, as seen in this official SSE video of the decommissioning of SSE Ferrybridge coal-fired power plant last year :

        https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1429456184902393858/pu/vid/720×720/JwPnpycxEiyBmqVJ.mp4?tag=12

    3. Dave Andrews
      October 4, 2022

      Not me. I don’t have a blood pressure problem, and I don’t want to acquire one either.

    4. glen cullen
      October 4, 2022

      It just shows that the UN net-zero exercise is just a ‘tick-in-box’ with huge government subsidy …SCAM

  35. ChrisS
    October 4, 2022

    The energy subsidy plan is reportedly going to reduce inflation by around 5% and before the plan was announced, inflation was already predicted to fall to 5% next year.

    So why are the government not making more of this ? Today’s row over benefit “cuts” because they are not going to be increased by 10% could be substantially mitigated by telling voters what the real inflation rate is likely to be over the next 12 months.

    Or could it be that the Bank of England and the OBR have no idea what is really going to happen and won’t make predictions at all ?

    1. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      ChrisS the energy cap is, in effect, a “benefit” for everyone. The ÂŁ150 they gave most people house bands A-D from April 2022, the ÂŁ400 they gave everyone off their bills from October 2023.
      These never seem to be totalled up in the real inflationary benefits increase figure. People on UC can get up to an extra ÂŁ650!

  36. Mark B
    October 4, 2022

    Good morning.

    The row over tax cuts for wealthier tax payers is overblown and designed to test the metal of this government. What worries me most though, is the rumours of Tory Backbenchers rebelling against this. Where were they when the then Chancellor, Rishi Sunak MP was breaking a manifesto pledge and raising taxes ? We have the highest taxes in 70 years. It is time that some so called Tories to face up to the fact that they joined a Conservative Party and not the LIbDems.

    It’s time to clear out the fake Tories in your party, Sir John.

  37. turboterrier
    October 4, 2022

    One thing he could address is the situation at the Drax power station.
    The Panorama programme just highlighted how disorganised our energy policy is. The amazing thing is that the company even broadcast it in light of their devotion to Saving the World sect.
    But as usual the taxpayer foots the bill.
    How many years of coal have we under our feet?
    You cannot make this crap up.
    There maybe a small light at the end of a long tunnel in that it is being reported the government is backing nuclear fusion at West Burton A plant.
    Now that is what you can call good news.

  38. Clough
    October 4, 2022

    SJR’s post highlights what the mini-budget has NOT done, and needed to do: get rid of the tax-and-subsidy regime supporting the Green agenda. If the top rate tax cut was supposed to incentivise new business initiatives, e.g. in home-produced materals, energy and food, fine. But then why didn’t Kwarteng and his colleagues make a public case for it? And if it was geared to creating more growth, should they have cancelled it? The whole thing looks like a policy shambles driven by media pressure.

  39. Nigl
    October 4, 2022

    Nightmare interviews for Truss this morning, she’s like a ‘puppet on a string’ controlled by your cloth eared self important centre. A Party eating itself, not a pretty sight.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      self flagellation is not a pretty sight. Some of your party seem to relish it.

    2. Mitchel
      October 4, 2022

      Correct. Truss is as much a puppet as Zelensky.Both Tik-Tok creations.

  40. Matthu
    October 4, 2022

    If your party does not have any strong, inalienable principles, you end up with a “broad church” of MPs. That’s what you’ve got now.

    A broad church incapable of uniting behind any leader. As exemplified by the likes of Gove.

    A broad church, without a creed, undeserving of electoral support.

    1. Donna
      October 4, 2022

      This problem is caused by First Past the Post. People can’t vote for what they want, only against what they perceive as a marginally worse offering.
      It’s why we get CONsensus politics, policy statis and a “Conservative” Government which for the past 12 years has implemented virtually the same policies as a “Labour” one would have ….. at least until Corbyn came along to rock the boat a bit.
      To effect change in others, you first have to change your own behaviour. Unfortunately, despite ample evidence that voting CON achieves nothing, they continue to do it.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        October 4, 2022

        Donna. Correct. It’s all very frustrating knowing we are lumbered with the same rubbish policies no matter what we do.

      2. Mark
        October 4, 2022

        FPTP is not the culprit here. It is centralised party selection of candidates. The Cameron A list dominated selections for more than a decade. You could have any candidate you wanted from the A list. Those that were not chosen got shortlisted for the next selection. Labour has a similar problem.

        1. Mickey Taking
          October 5, 2022

          Arty yes men who are idealist fools and follow without thought.

    2. Peter
      October 4, 2022

      Matthu,
      “Heir to Blair” seems to be the new creed of some of the chancers in the Conservative party. Virtue signalling while looking after number one.

      We have principles and if you don’t like them we have others.

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 4, 2022

        you should credit Groucho Marx with the original version,.

    3. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      Gove, Grant Shapps and some others are behaving appallingly.

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 4, 2022

        ineffective and dangerous?

      2. glen cullen
        October 4, 2022

        Agree …they’re showing their true colours

  41. Bloke
    October 4, 2022

    His words attempted to inspire by using references to the past. Making hollow claims of desperate intent lacks substance. Can he show any version of his so-called 23 Nov plan in evidence today?

    “Yes we have challenges to face.” 
 Walter Mitty could be our Chancellor.

  42. majorfrustration
    October 4, 2022

    All good stuff but will it happen

    1. Lifelogic
      October 4, 2022

      Of course it won’t look at the Conservatives promises and their record under Major, Cameron, May, Boris…

  43. Cynic
    October 4, 2022

    The government have shown that they are easily pressured into surrendering. They will now be lucky to get any radical changes through.

  44. Lester_Cynic
    October 4, 2022

    Yet more pie in the sky

    Until the immensely damaging Net Zero lunacy is reversed we’re on track back to the Stone Age.

    king charles having to be restrained from attending the the WEF Cop 27 meeting by another WEF member truss
    His pledge to keep out of politics didn’t last long!

    In the meantime I’m trying to work out how I’m going to stretch my £12.000 pa pension to cope with the huge increases in costs

    Affordable energy was responsible for a massive increase in our living standards and I don’t know how much longer people will fall for the story about the war in Ukraine?

    1. Lester_Cynic
      October 4, 2022

      Great heavens, that’s scarcely credible, my comment is still awaiting moderation 😂😂😂

      Who would have guessed, we can’t have anyone stepping out of line can we?

      And no further comments permitted

    2. Mickey Taking
      October 5, 2022

      No way to stretch it, all the taxation is fixed, however I imagine you eat and heat – put layers on,turn the thermostat off and eat the cheapest possible.

  45. Anthony
    October 4, 2022

    I have read Kwarteng’s speech. It is remarkably light on detail. As far as I can make out, it says:
    1. We’ll create investment zones
    2. We’ll reduce red tape
    3. We’ll review and do something about EU law
    4. We’ll clamp down on strike action
    5. We’ll cut corporation tax

    Point 5 returns to the situation a few months ago. Super. Point 4 is troubling to me but hardly likely to spur the trend growth rate. Points 1 to 3 we’ve heard many times before and nothing’s happened.

    As someone once said of David Cameron’s negotiation with the EU: “Is that it?”

    There isn’t time before the election to achieve lots of things. There might not be time to achieve anything. Instead, the Tory party needs a small number of things it can trumpet endlessly. I read on the Civitas website a brilliant set of plans for the ship building industry and pharmaceuticals. I know you don’t like links so I haven’t linked to it but I’m you can find it if you’re interested.

    Commercial shipbuilding is a plainly levelling up enterprise, can be focused on Larne, the Clyde and Portsmouth, and can be tied to Britain’s desire to build lots of naval vessels too. The key issue in this plan was to bring in Japanese and Korean expertise much as Thatcher did with Nissan back in the day. The industry won’t be built before 2024, but a deal with the world leading Korean shipbuilders can be struck and can be advertised till we’re all bored with it.

    The pharmaceutical industry has obvious public cache following the pandemic and it’s mostly about tax rates which is easy to implement.

    And bang on about energy. Build the flipping Severn barrage. It’s another levelling up issue. Just pass the law including as many notwithstanding clauses as required. ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING.

    And for pity’s sake spend money building up high streets and buses. Pick a few places and make a big difference there rather than small differences everywhere. It’s not an economic thing but can actually be achieved, affects people’s lives quickly and signals intention on levelling up.

    So do all the stuff that Kwarteng mentioned, it’s all good stuff. But it will lose the election. And then everything Kwarteng said will be undone.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 5, 2022

      Doomed, we’re all doomed!

  46. rose
    October 4, 2022

    A good speech, misreported and misrepresented as usual. The Labour Party activists at the BBC are only able to defend an unfair and unproductive tax system by paying themselves ten times more than they otherwise would, in compensation. Compensation others don’t necessarily get, though the big, woke, corporate boys do. Overcompensating BBC salaries should be on your list of economies.

  47. Old Albion
    October 4, 2022

    “I would be interested in your views on the Chancellors speech and economic plan”

    Muddled.

  48. Paul Edwards
    October 4, 2022

    The speech was full of generalities and a wish list that almost anyone could sign up to. Surely common sense says you put out the bad news first and then the good news on tax cuts if the policy is seen to working. Would a company chief executive announce a pay increase for directors and staff and then redundancies 6 weeks later? When the Conservative Party chose Liz Truss they handed the next election to Labour.

  49. IanT
    October 4, 2022

    A mistake to pull the 45% cut out of the bag so early but also a mistake to reverse it. The pound (and Gilts) had recovered and provided you are ready for the Hedges too come for a second bite mid-October (which they will) then Markets are going to be driven by the Fed (and what the BoE does) going forward.

    Gove & Co have had a win and now they will want another one. Ms Truss had better stick to her benefits rising with average wage (not inflation) mantra or she really will be in trouble.

    Someone also needs to have the courage to explain to people what a serious mess we are in. Mortgages are going up because interest rates have been kept so low for so long and will now revert to norm. That’s over now and whist rates may well come down, we will not go back to free money again. Hopefully we (the West) will not be that stupid. But if not careful, all this will be blamed on this government. Nonsense of course, it’s been brewing for many years but Labour are already playing the blame game.

  50. Denis Cooper
    October 4, 2022

    Economic policy is important, and environmental policy is important, and the war in Ukraine is important, and many other things are important, but the territorial integrity of the country is of paramount importance and once again we find a so-called “Conservative and Unionist” Prime Minister only pretending to be a unionist.

    When the EU was offered a well-developed collaborative scheme for the protection of its Single Market it rejected that proposal out of hand:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49488844

    “Brexit: Backstop plan by Sir Jonathan Faull dismissed by EU”

    Yet Steve Baker feels the need to apologise for his obstinacy?

  51. Lifelogic
    October 4, 2022

    William Hague in the Times – “Attack on nature is a mistake Tories can avoid” – this a man used to be quite sensible when he were a simple Yorkshire lad of 16. But perhaps PPE at Magdalen knocked the sense out of him?

    Perhaps he is talking of all the bats, raptors and birds kill by the expensive, intermittent and rather pointless and vastly subsidised wind farms? But no he is taking about the plans to abolish some largely daft EU regulations.

    Hague assures us “the commitment of new ministers to achieving net zero and to global climate co-operation is not in doubt”. Well unless they change the laws of physics, find some new “solutions” and change international politics hugely it will certainly not be attained mate. Time to grow up or perhaps just to remember your 16 year old self. Go and study some physics and energy engineering perhaps too.

    Littlejohn today reminds me today that it was 15 years go that George Osborne promised to give us ÂŁ1 million IHT threshold each and other tax cuts and was cheered to the rood at the Blackpool party conference. Still not delivered after 12 years of Conservative government. Why would anyone trust the next one!

    To win the next election they have to deal with illegal immigration and at the very least postpone the insane Net Zero lunacy.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 5, 2022

      and ÂŁ1m back then was worth rather more than it is now.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 6, 2022

        Indeed nearly double.

  52. John Miller
    October 4, 2022

    I was pleased with the Budget because I read your blog every day and I could see what you were trying to do.
    But the communication was appalling. The Labour Party and the BBC were handed a golden gift. The tax cuts were good and the Socialist reaction predictable. Now the papers are full of rumours of benefits cuts. Disaster!
    Mrs May’s clueless christening of her party as The Nasty Party is now sealed in everyone’s mind. U turning on the top rate tax cut makes you look weak and confused
    A belated single syllable lecture of your aims and methods is required. A quick fix to make a show of firming up the borders and cutting illegal immigration would be a good, simple thing that would resonate in conservative minds. Other, necessary, fixes to the BBC and NHS are no longer possible as a mandate provided by a General
    Election is unfeasible.

  53. Mickey Taking
    October 4, 2022

    ‘ in the single market we accepted a major decline in home grown food, home energy production, home produced energy intensive manufactures from steel and glass to building materials and aluminium. ‘
    Remind me – was all that willingly or forced on us?

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      October 4, 2022

      Mickey. Our orchards were trashed and our glass houses demolished. All with consent from tge British government. It’s unbelievable really or us it?

    2. glen cullen
      October 4, 2022

      The EU plan that our MPs supported

  54. Kenneth
    October 4, 2022

    The Chancellor has a big task. He is trying to reverse years of socialism and the damage that has done.

    He has the mainstream media against him.

    I suspect most Conservative MPs know he is doing the right thing but they are aware that the main power lies in the BBC and like-minded media and while they are campaigning against the government, MPs know their seats are danger, hence the resistance by some of them.

  55. formula57
    October 4, 2022

    Until now, I ignored Mr. Kwarteng’s speech, expecting him to have resigned by now.

    I just read it to respond to you and say:

    – Investment Zones – so these will be “…an unprecedented set of incentives for business to invest, to build, and to create jobs right across the country”. Perhaps, though the record of such schemes is weak. Where are the free ports though?

    – regulation/red tape – So ” …we will review, replace or repeal retained EU law holding our country back”. May the Quisling neglected to do this pre-Brexit and only now, five years on, is this to be done! What is the betting that much is left in place for want of time to revise it?

    – infrastructure and house building – so “We will also speed up the delivery of infrastructure and promote house building to create a true home owning, shareholding democracy”. Yeah, good luck with that pal, it has never happened but it might of course. Nothing suggests yet that it will. And how does any of that create a “shareholding democracy” – what is that anyway?

    – activity – ” we will forge ahead and break down the barriers that have held our country back for too long. On childcare, agriculture, immigration, planning, energy, broadband, business, financial services”. Nice. Why did he not commit to leaping over tall buildings in a single bound, going faster than a speeding bullet, being more powerful than a locomotive?

    The rest is platitudinous waffle or just recites his surviving budget tax cuts. Maybe he means what he says and knows how to deliver it. The ambition might truly be there but there is much left out. (For example, should not restoring middle class fortunes be central to any strategic evaluation?) Whether the capability accompanies the ambition remains to be seen but the record thus far is a cause for worry.

    1. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      formula I believe Warrington is a thriving economic zone.

      The March 2021 Budget announced eight freeports in England: East Midlands Airport, Felixstowe & Harwich, Humber, Liverpool City Region, Plymouth & South Devon, Solent, Teesside and Thames. The Teesside freeport began operations in November 2021 and the Thames freeport in December 2021.14 Feb 2022 (like you I wonder how they’re doing?)

  56. RichardP
    October 4, 2022

    You are absolutely correct, our financial recovery requires an affordable and reliable energy supply. A good place to start would be to make sure the people in charge of our electricity network have an engineering background and an understanding of what constitutes a reliable energy supply.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 4, 2022

      I imagine they do (National Grid at Wokingham) , its the politicians elsewhere that don’t.

      1. Mark
        October 4, 2022

        I have my doubts, seeing the plans for winter they’ve just announced. Having agreed to make sure we are going to have coal capacity available, and knowing that gas supply could well turn out to be tight they are only going to use it in the most inefficient manner possible as a last resort, which requires the boilers to be lit well in advance to provide peak demand. Instead they are prepared to pay huge sums for diesel STOR and to try and bid for interconnector supplies so the boiler lighting might not produce any power at all.
        What they should have done is run the coal stations at their most efficient as baseload, thus saving large amounts of gas to allow peak demand to be net.

        Incidentally I see that German grid company Ampion has said that they expect they will not be able to meet export demand to neighbouring countries including France. The Grid still seem to think they will be able to bid for supply despite shortages across Europe. Delusional.

  57. The other Christine
    October 4, 2022

    What a disappointment the PM and Chancellor are and so early into their tenure. By caving in to backbench pressure they have shown weakness at the very time that they should have stood firm and called their bluff. It’s going to be very hard for them now to do anything bold, which is precisely what is needed now to tackle the three major problems – energy supply, immigration and net zero.
    Of course savings need to be made. We can’t keep borrowing and printing money. Overseas aid should be dialled right back, there are myriad savings to be made in the management of the NHS which has become a bloated dysfunctional organisation and needs root and branch reform, support for Ukraine should be stopped and peace talks encouraged, ridiculous subsidies for wind farms should be discontinued.. the list is long. If you think of the government as a household, when your back is against the wall you have to do an audit of your assets and liabilities and then draw up a budget to manage your finances. I have no sense that this ‘household’ does anything of the sort and I’m certainly not holding out any hope of that happening. Dysfunctional is the only word to describe it. And let’s not even mention infighting. Pathetic!

  58. Jamie
    October 4, 2022

    This chancellor has the know how and he has the education but he lacks the depth, the gravitas, that is required by being over confident feet not on the ground and then surrounded by light weights he will fail – it was her choice but now how to get rid of him?

  59. Stred
    October 4, 2022

    Kweazi and Liz made an unforced error in changing tax for the wealthy when the voters are being stuffed by the energy policy of Carney, Johnson, WEF, the banks etc and handing the Labour Party a gift.
    There is no hint of ESG being reversed or the zero carbon policy. Your party is heading for the rocks as the economic disaster unfolds. Liz must know the score and is keeping Charlie Green and herself away from Herr Schwab and his leaders for the latest COP fest. She needs to listen to the people on the GWPPF and act fast. If she listens to Skidmore’s dopes we’ll be scraping the ice off windows again this winter.

  60. Barbara
    October 4, 2022

    Average increase for those in work: 5%.
    Average increase for those sitting on the sofa on benefits, to be paid for by the above: 10%.

    Not good

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      October 4, 2022

      Barbara. You’re damn right it’s not. A neighbour of mine is on UC and is working on the side. Bearing in mind they’ve recently had a lot of financial help ftom the government he hasn’t even bothered to tax or mot his car. Nice if you can get it.

    2. a-tracy
      October 4, 2022

      Barbara, little reported but people on benefits are going to be getting their second half of the ÂŁ650 cost of living payment from 8th November. You will get a share of this extra money if you are on UC, income support, JSA, ESA, Pension credit first: child tax credit, working tax credit, last. Disability benefit claimants get this + an extra ÂŁ150

    3. glen cullen
      October 4, 2022

      We need to stop ‘in-work benefits’ and get employers to pay their way
      Its just wrong that the taxpayer subsidies the ’employer’ to employ someone

      1. a-tracy
        October 5, 2022

        glen, aren’t most in-work benefits going to single parents doing 12 hours per week? Or parents where only one parent is working? Isn’t it just disguised unemployment benefits and unemployment numbers kept down by only asking for a couple of short work days per week? At least getting 12 hours work out of these people is better than nothing at all and paying them even more! It’s not all employers not paying a decent rate per hour. If they worked too much, or earned too much, who would make up their housing benefit, free school meals, free school uniform allowance, furniture allowance, pay for the school trips.

  61. Catherine M.
    October 4, 2022

    Education and training of UK children and people must be highest priority. So apprenticeships, and also a move to get people to recognize and value non-university qualifications (as they are valued for example in Germany and Switzerland).
    THere needs to be proper education in schools, so pupils leave school able to read, write and do basic arithmetic, as a minimum, and pupils must WANT to do well at school – so there needs to be subtle campaigning to get the message through. People from deprived countries know the value of a good education, and sacrifice massively to make sure their children have a good education – in many ways, pure self-interest – wealthy children can look after their parents better than poor children. At the moment the UK is languishing down the league tables, and employers and university lecturers find that young people can’t spell, can’t put together logical arguments, can’t add, subtract or multiply. The UK will never be competitive, let alone world-leading in research and innovation, until it sorts this out.

  62. Bill Mayes
    October 4, 2022

    There is no doubt with the policy to promote growth must also be a determined effort to ensure the country becomes self-sufficient in both energy and in farm foods, at the very least. The dubious zero-carbon target must be put on hold until such time the country can actually afford it but never before we know fully what it actually entails. Certainly we can no longer afford to pay nor rely upon other Nations to supply our energy, for it makes no sense at all.
    The condemning of petrol and diesel fuelled transport is an uncosted dream that must be put back to bed for a future generation to contemplate, when they will have sufficient significant data to establish its true credibility.

  63. am
    October 4, 2022

    Meanwhile it is all reaction to the media pressure points. There is no strategic thinking or thinkers. Basically it is chaos.
    Why did it happen?
    The focus should have been on the cost of living crisis and the general election. Instead of that it was all systems go for the Austrians. The result is the right of the party are finished. All because they couldn’t wait and couldn’t think strategically.

  64. am
    October 4, 2022

    https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/government-bond-yield
    Here is the 10 year bond rate.
    It is worth noting by running the cursor over the graph that the coupon was already spiking on 21/9 which was the two days before the mini budget. Were the pension funds already in trouble then and the mini budget just made it worse.

  65. Original Richard
    October 4, 2022

    “Reversing these trends has to start with supplying more energy, more affordable domestic gas, oil and electricity”

    The Conservative Party have just detonated Gordon Brown’s tax time bomb and it appears they are preparing to detonate a far bigger Labour time bomb, the CCA/Net Zero Strategy.

    This Strategy is unnecessary because there is no climate emergency and pointless because we emit just 1% of global CO2 emissions.

    But far worse is that this un-costed, unreal, unscientific Strategy, as fanciful as perpetual motion, will sabotage the economy with expensive and intermittent energy and impractical devices and consequently will destroy our security and sovereignty by making us dependent upon China for our energy and strategic materials.

  66. The Prangwizard
    October 4, 2022

    I would like to see the PM and Chancellor much less prepared to allow themselves to be harrassed and insulted by the MSM. All three main news broadcasters seem to think they have the right to demand and get comments on any manner of criticisms levelled, often invented by themselves.

    Could the two please put out statements on matters first thought through and then stay away from all the hysteria which is mostly politically motivated. They should not feel obliged to answer every provocative question thought up. They will clearly be aware of this but they need more support and their spin hangers on must be told and told again.

    And as for the odious sabotaging critics in the Tory party, they should resist and ignore them principally. They can do nothing and neither can the media. Perhaps they could be illustrated as narcissists and called such which is what many are.

    I am hoping for strong leadership; changes must be made and the subversive establishment destroying.

  67. Richard M
    October 4, 2022

    This is what the country thinks of the Truss/Kwarteng economic ‘plan’. (Or rather what the secret donors who fund the Institute of Economic affairs have got them doing)
    Westminster voting intention:
    LAB: 52% (+6)
    CON: 24% (-5)

  68. acorn
    October 4, 2022

    The UK is suffering from terminal Thatcherism. All the resilience it once had has been sold off to foreigners to fund tax cuts. The life support system it depended on, the EU, was foolishly switched off. Let a united Ireland and an independent Scotland go their own way. What is left, sadly, is a nation with a population of ” boiling frogs”.

    1. Peter2
      October 4, 2022

      Other countries thrive outside the EU acorn.
      27 in
      over 100 outside.
      PS
      England has 85% of the population and the gdp.

    2. Mark B
      October 5, 2022

      We never use to own everything. After 1945 and the Labour government of Clement Attlee, the UK went on a Nationalising spree. This is where the myth of State ownership was made. eg The railways, including the London Underground, where privately owned.

  69. No Longer Anonymous
    October 4, 2022

    There need to be cuts in Big State to fund the tax cuts.

    We are perilously close to a situation where those in work earn wages that are chasing those on untaxed, index linked benefits.

    If not now then when ?

    Does the BBC run this country or does the Government ?

    1. glen cullen
      October 4, 2022

      Thats an easy one – The BBC

    2. Mark B
      October 5, 2022

      I am so glad that more and more people are starting to echo what I have been saying for the last few weeks regarding cuts. And I am not talking cuts to public services, but cuts to nonessential items such as overseas aid.

      1. glen cullen
        October 5, 2022

        and the BBC world service

  70. Ian
    October 4, 2022

    It is encouraging to at least have a Chancellor acknowledging that economic growth needs to be top priority- this is an improvement on what we’ve had up to now, but an aspiration for growth is not the same as concrete proposals to deliver it. So far we’ve seen tax cuts with no corresponding growth plan- in fact the only tax cut in the mini-budget that was demonstrably pro-growth was the one that’s been subject to a U-turn, so where does that leave us? It is fairly obvious to me that a holistic approach to policy is essential to deliver growth- but a holistic approach can’t work if aspects of it have to be dropped to appease rebels who are afraid of an occasional bad headline. I am also concerned that the focus seems to be on ‘growth’ in general rather than per capita. I am therefore fairly sympathetic to Kemi Badenoch’s recent intervention on the subject.

  71. Possibilities
    October 4, 2022

    In order to maximise government funds from growth policies, certain conditions need to be in place to ‘lay the groundwork’ for investment to be successful.
    Resources, home harvested (so it provides revenue), including energy sources provides the fuel for business. Rewards for communities providing resources to UK, provides communities with incentives to provide resources.
    Infrastructure should be in place, including but not limited to housing, commercial spaces, enterprises, IT, data centres, banking and financial services, civil engineered arteries etc. All of this in place will drive employment needs in those areas and provide tax revenue. The government can review scrutinised investments from the private sector to drive these initiatives, but not big businesses whose aim is to play unfair and put small enterprises out of business.
    In essence, provide conditions attractive for investment in our country. Sending the right message to businesses who want to invest here will if successful drive the much needed growth and at the same time increase tax revenue to reduce government debt. This I believe is what the Chancellor was trying to do last Friday but he is backtracking and the population now is suspicious about that, quite rightly so! By dropping the highest rate of tax, you essentially attract bigger salary workers into the UK, thereby gaining more tax revenue in the process.
    I can appreciate, in a cost of living crises where people are not able to make ends meet, the true Conservative should take personal responsibility and it is their civic duty to assist those in need in times of crisis. By not supporting them the budget sends the wrong message. I am not talking about those who want to abuse the benefits system, but those who work on low income or have no income or are employed as volunteers. The award of benefits need not be permanent but can be temporary to mitigate the situation until the status quo is achieved. This could be reviewed once the aims of growth, gained employment, reduction in energy and food prices are positive once again. It is the antithesis of austerity politics (no quantitative easing to drive inflation back up please).
    As I am a fire scientist/engineer by profession and I liken the conditions for fire as an analogy for growth in business.
    The fire needs fuel and to keep the the flames going the fire needs fuel connections to continue. Connected fuel sources is the necessary infrastructure(s) for business. The fuel provides pathways for fire spread and so businesses must remain connected to the supporting infrastructure to survive.
    The fire needs oxygen. Without oxygen you get incomplete combustion (smoulder). This is the analogy for resources such as electricity/gas/nuclear/alternates and without resources the business is not able to continue.
    The fire needs heat energy to break bonds in order to make new bonds. This is the cycle of business with people making it work and people being gainfully employed. The business makes a profit and the government takes revenue. People retire (breaking bonds) and new blood takes their place (making new bonds). The cycle continues providing the necessary heat (the energy needed to keep the company going).
    In order to complete the quadrangle of the fire cycle (chain reaction), all of the above processes need to be functional, supported by government incentives and initiatives so that it is attractive to keep investing and keep growing and to keep rewarding communities who provide the resources.

  72. MFD
    October 4, 2022

    On another tack! Just as I rejoiced to see Steve Baker as Minister for Northern Ireland, he loses his brain and goes all soft on the EU/Ireland!

    As I see it, there is no difference between the EU and Ireland, to Russia, both parties are pushing for Illegal possession of an Innocent State.

    Please have a word in his ear, before he goes over the cliff edge.

  73. James Freeman
    October 4, 2022

    I am particularly disappointed with the Chancellor’s U-turn on the top tax rate, as, in my opinion, it would not have cost anything and boosted the economy.

    There are several areas where the tax rate is above the optimum point in the Laffer curve. Increased income tax rates in Scotland have reduced revenue due to fewer taxpayers and less economic growth compared to the rest of the UK. It suggests the optimum point is below 40% plus National Insurance.

    The government needs to commission independent research into this urgently. It could help justify tax reductions to a sceptical public, raise revenue for public services and boost the economy.

    1. a-tracy
      October 5, 2022

      If the government does commission independent research it would be interesting to see the results on English graduates paying a 9% graduate tax for 30 years compared to Scottish, Welsh and Irish graduates who didn’t have to borrow for their tuition and still got maintenance grants!
      20% tax, 12% ni, 5% nest, 9% grad tax. 46%: then upper earnings 40%, 2%, 5% + 9% = 56% – do you think that is any incentive for them to do better? I know a worker that would prefer to take extra holidays than extra money! Now they’ve paid their grad loan off in full, they will perhaps take the earnings instead. Are Scottish grads paying more tax into the economy than English grads laffer curve and all that?

  74. Jacob
    October 4, 2022

    He’s a dunce out of touch with the feelings of the general population – he might had an Etonian education but by itself it counts for very little – as we will see better as we move along

    Then I read about J R-M in todays papers – Truss said about him that “his ideas were either half formed or unacceptable” and this about the Business Secretary otherwise half-baked

    She has indeed gathered around her a motley crew it seems – just wondering or how long more this pantomime in high office can go on?

  75. Ed M
    October 4, 2022

    Liz Truss / Kwasi come across as politically naive (considering the times we’re living in with energy crisis etc) as well as politically dogmatic in their whole policy (we need to focus more on the small to medium-size companies / wealth creators, above all in high tech, instead of the super rich not forgetting how we had to bail out the bankers).

    Problem: doing well in academic subjects at Oxford or Cambridge isn’t enough to run an economy. You have to have some good, practical business sense and at a leadership / entrepreneurial level instead of putting on a fake act of toughness.

    They are at least doing the most pragmatic thing in this mess they’ve created by doing a u-turn.

  76. Mike Wilson
    October 4, 2022

    I guess as long as the state pension goes up by inflation, benefits should too.

    That said, where I live now in West Dorset it is a much smaller town that where I used to live (Wokingham/Crowthorne). As such you get to know a lot more people. And, I have to say (I don’t like judging other people) but there do seem to be a lot of people around here who don’t work. Fibromyalgia seems to be very common. I cast no aspersions – but I do wonder …

  77. Mike Wilson
    October 4, 2022

    I find it interesting to observe the oscillations in British politics. In the mid to late 1970s the economy was falling apart – and the Tories won in 1979. For a while they looked unassailable and Labour looked like a basket case. By the mid 90s the economy was going to down the pan and Labour got in in 1997. Throughout most of Labour’s reign, the Tory Party looked like a basket case. One party politics seemed almost a reality. But in 2008 the banking crisis caused by Labour saw them out of power and the Tories back in in 2010. During the Corbyn years Labour looked like a basket case again. But, now, boy how the pendulum has swung. The Tory Party look worse than a basket case – they look like a bunch of nutters and are completely unelectable. I don’t think anything is more certain than a Labour victory in 2024.

    Followed by everything getting even worse. What a political system we have. One useless bunch after another.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 5, 2022

      Both of the larger 2 parties are guilty of a litany of erors in policy and communication of it.
      A pack of attack dogs fighting over a bone.

  78. Mike Wilson
    October 4, 2022

    If you are only PM for a few months, are you still on for the truly massive pension?

    1. hefner
      October 5, 2022

      No, the amount is proportional to the number of years one spent on the job 
 like in most other jobs (parliament.uk MP’s pension: Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund)

  79. glen cullen
    October 4, 2022

    Two things from todays conference
    The Transport Secretary confirmed its full steam ahead for HS2
    The Home Secretary confirmed she isn’t going to repeal either the ECHR and the UN Global Compact for Migration however

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 5, 2022

      Glen – ‘confirmed its full steam ahead for HS2’
      an unfortunate remark when the Preservation Railways are struggling to acquire quality coal, and Governments prevent opening locations which would help. The remark also suggests rapid progress on HS2!
      Oh. Dear!

  80. Guy Liardet
    October 4, 2022

    John, please take a good look at the carbon dioxide scam. Talk to some sceptical scientists. You’ll find that CO2 has a very slight effect on global temperature. We only produce one per cent of global; China 31%. Really ask yourself and anyone else “Whst is Net Zero”. It’s not just electricity generation, but American airliners and Spanish diesel lorries. Talk to Lord Lawson and the GWPF. You’ve been brainwashed, haven’t you.

    Reply No I am not brainwashed but need to persuade people pursuing net zero of the folly of some of their proposals

  81. Lynn Atkinson
    October 4, 2022

    Rodney and I are strongly in support of the Chancellor’s objectives as well as his plan. We rather wish he had altered thresholds because they don’t give the left them same opportunity to scream about ‘the rich’.
    We hope the Tory MPs will grasp that every taxpayer votes fr lower taxes even if they profess otherwise when questioned on the street.
    We hope the Chancellor takes much more tax cutting action urgently.
    It is important that the Government stop competing with the wealth-creating sector for employees. ‘Benefits’ must wither in the vine so that British people fill the jobs that re crying out for applicants. I am upset at the 40 special tax-free areas, because it’s hard for British people to move to jobs with a stagnant housing market bound in much tax, but easy for imported labour to go to the work.
    Thankfully an unbelievably good start, if a little inexperienced. Pity Truss did not co-opt a few old hand used to explaining their policy calmly and without wobbling.

  82. Clough
    October 4, 2022

    SJR’s post highlights what the mini-budget has NOT done, and needed to do: get rid of the tax-and-subsidy regime supporting the Green agenda. If the top rate tax cut was supposed to incentivise new business initiatives, e.g. in home-produced materals, energy and food, fine. But then why didn’t Kwarteng and his colleagues make a public case for it? And if it was geared to creating more growth, should they have cancelled it? The whole thing looks like a policy shambles driven by media pressure.

    1. glen cullen
      October 4, 2022

      Agree

  83. Chris S
    October 4, 2022

    Sir John : it appears that some of your colleagues are determined to undermine their own government at every turn.
    They obviously have no idea how bad this looks from outside the party.

    The only purpose I can see is to oust The Prime Minister and replace her with a more socialist-inclined MP.

  84. believe me
    October 4, 2022

    I see Sir John in his tweet 03 oct still taking the DUP side hook line and sinker over the NI protocol. He say’s it’s time to push ahead with a UK solution irrespective of EU concerns – such bad advice and out of step again or should I say well behind the curve.

  85. Mark
    October 5, 2022

    I find it difficult to have any confidence in the Chancellor given his role in Business Eradication and Industrial Suppression. and particularly his utter failure to grasp the need for a proper energy policy that has been screaming out for a change of course ever since he became a minister. To claim to espouse a diametrically opposite policy is unconvincing, which is why he has been so easily shredded politically.

  86. Al
    October 5, 2022

    So many things that could have saved money and increased popularity. So very many missed opportunities and more of the same lack of courage, economic literacy, and political savvy that has characterised the last decade of Tory rule.

    Extremely disappointing and very much what I expected.

  87. Lindsay McDougall
    October 6, 2022

    No doubt Kwasi’s plan, in so far as we know it, is fine. But on Budget Day he simply must specify substantial public spending cuts – and not just popular ones. The justification must be to underpin the tax cuts that everybody likes.

    There are a lot of fainthearts in the country. Reducing the top rate of income tax from 45% to 40% would take it the level that existed between 1988 and 2009, hardly a revolutionary move. We should remember that during the 1980s Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson reduced the top rate of income tax from 80% (98% on unearned income) to 60% then to 40%. The yield went UP. So how do all of our ‘economic experts’ know that the cancellation of the cut from 45% to 40% will yield ÂŁ2 billion of extra revenue? It probably won’t.

    And shouldn’t the cap on benefits (currently ÂŁ20,000 or ÂŁ23,000 in London) not exceed the income from working 2,000 hours at the minimum wage, currently ÂŁ19,000? There is a better case for raising the minimum wage to ÂŁ10 per hour than for raising the benefit cap, although some individual benefits could be inflation proofed.

    We have missed an opportunity with income tax because we have become obsessed with rates. Were we to have raised the lower threshold from ÂŁ12,570 to ÂŁ20,000 and the upper threshold from ÂŁ50,270 to ÂŁ65,000, we could have set the standard rate at 24.9% and the upper rate at 45% without anyone paying more income tax than previously. Personal NI would also start at ÂŁ20,000 pa. There would be two advantages (a) people on ÂŁ20,000 would save more than ÂŁ2,000 on tax + NI and (b) people on a mere two times the median salary would no longer pay the 40% rate. There would have been the additional bonus of employing fewer tax collectors.

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