Taxing times

Bizarre to hear the media and Opposition mobs out to pull down the PM by forcing her to tear up her pledge to keep the UK competitive on business tax rates.

As always the Opposition wants to do the EUā€™s dirty work to make us less competitive and get in the way of us attracting more business investment and more jobs.

The think tanks and forecasters who want taxes up tell us the deficit will otherwise be too big. If they have their way they will put us into a longer and deeper downturn which will mean a higher deficit, not a lower.

Over the last 2 years the OBR has massively over forecast the budget deficit and used these wrong forecasts to push a Chancellor into higher taxes. More accurate forecasting would conclude now that a lower business tax rate would be better for growth and for total tax revenue.

This year I disagreed again with the OBR deficit forecast. Unlike the two previous years when they massively overstated the deficit pushing the then Chancellor to tax rises, I thought this year they were too low. They will now need to increase forecast substantially. If we added tax rises to the big squeeze the Bankā€™s higher rates and the energy price surge is bringing we could well Ā end up with an even larger deficit. Making the downturn longer and deeper would cut tax revenues and increase benefit spending.

339 Comments

  1. Mark B
    October 14, 2022

    Good morning.

    It is not the media and the opposition that have forced the governments hand, it is a PM with an 80 seat majority and ‘Net Zero Spine’ (/sarc) that has.

    The PM Liz Truss models herself on Mrs.T yet, unlike Mrs. T, Liz is not so much for turning, more around and round the roundabout !

    1. PeteB
      October 14, 2022

      Agree Mark, media and opposition will always bleat on. Problem for Dizzy Lizzie is her own party sniping at her.

      As I noted yesterday though:
      900bn of QE between 2008-2020: no concern
      400bn of Covid spending in 2020/21: no concern
      60-120bn of energy subsidies in 2022: no concern
      43bn of uncollected tax: PANIC, PANIC, PANIC

      Why is that the picture?

    2. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Alas far more than 40 Tory MPs are against her. Indeed it could easily be 200 Tory MPs who want to remove her and replace with Sunak (one of the main causes of the current financial problems with his tax to death, currency debase, endless government waste, his absurdly extended lockdowns and his serial manifesto ratting.

      1. Rhoddas
        October 14, 2022

        I afraid all is lost re this Tory shenanigans and thus prepare for lolabour or coalition of the woke nationalists for the next Govt.

        For those with private pensions i reckon it’s time to shift to international funds and avoid uk imvho.

        A dreadful day indeed.

        1. Lifelogic
          October 15, 2022

          And those with let residential properties to evict the tenants and sell up before Labour robs them with rent controls etc.

    3. Cuibono
      October 14, 2022

      +1
      I was just (seriously) going to ask whether she has lost her (or rather Johnsonā€™s) majority.Or is all this just one big pantomime? As in she makes a big, bold announcement that pleases true conservatives and then back peddles furiously because the poor thingā€™s ā€œhands are tiedā€.
      Did we always see such almighty and frequent U turns?

      Apparently that very promising Home Sec. now been side lined re immigration!

    4. Nottingham Lad Himself
      October 14, 2022

      Well, I suppose that low tax is just about the only reason left, for which any mobile entity of means would want to stay in brexit UK, with its sewage-flooded waterways, and collapsing public services etc., thanks to twelve years of Tory abuse.

      There are an increasing number of nicer places, nice being a relative term.

      So perhaps Sir J is right to worry.

      1. Peter2
        October 14, 2022

        You have repeatedly said (correctly) that profits are what drives overseas investors NHL
        So the reasons you have presented would not put them off NHL.

        1. Lifelogic
          October 15, 2022

          Well profits after tax relative to risk of the investments and capital deployed. With Labour or Labour/SNP/LibDim almost certain then the risks are looking rather high.

    5. Hope
      October 14, 2022

      Yep, we are watching the slow destruction of the fake Tory party. No one would know they had a 80 seat majority. However, with a taste from the rogue parliament over Brexit, and changing two PMs in short succession Labour only have to watch!

      Come on Richard Tice, the time is yours to show sensible conservatism.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 15, 2022

        Show perhaps, but he will never be able to deliver. 0- 2 seats at the very outside.

    6. Mitchel
      October 14, 2022

      Like “Maureen” who achieved her five minutes of fame in the 1990s with the BBC’s “Driving School” show.

    7. Gary Megson
      October 14, 2022

      Let us be clear what has happened. Truss/Kwarteng have produced a budget cheered on with glee with the far right of the Conservative Party. In the space of a week every bit of that budget has gone down in flames, forcing Truss/ Kwartend into humiliating climbdown and leaving every Briton much poorer. As with Brexit, this is what happens when far right ideology meets reality. Reality wins

      1. Peter2
        October 14, 2022

        Who are these “far right” you speak of Gazza?

        1. NBill Brown
          October 15, 2022

          Peter 2

          Who are the lefties you keep talking about?

          1. Peter2
            October 16, 2022

            Do I EUbilly?
            Got any facts or data?

      2. a-tracy
        October 14, 2022

        Gosh Gary if that mini-budget was ā€˜far rightā€™ then a lot of people I know are a lot further right than they thought they were!

        What is far right about allowing people to keep more of their money and bailing everyone out with money to pay for their energy?

        No the fat controllers win for now.

      3. David Murphy
        October 14, 2022

        Anyone who uses the term ‘far right’; is not to be taken seriously.

        1. Lifelogic
          October 15, 2022

          Especially when referring to the tax to death Conservatives who are well to the left of Tony Blair!

    8. Mike Wilson
      October 14, 2022

      The difference is that Mrs. T was in charge. The vegetables were all terrified of her. There is open rebellion in the Tory Party. Time for the constituency chairman to take matters in hand. ā€˜One word from you against government policy and youā€™ll be deselected.ā€™

      1. David Murphy
        October 14, 2022

        She also had a clear set of principles guiding her which she openly communicated. She was pragmatic. But unlike Truss she had several years as party leader to build her own base and make her plans.

      2. glen cullen
        October 14, 2022

        +1

    9. Ed M
      October 14, 2022

      Mrs Thatcher didn’t even have to open her mouth to see that there was something special about her. She had a special kind of energy / focus / intelligence in her eyes and face that made you think that this was a special person.

      Ms Truss has none of that. You can’t fake something you’re not. Mrs Thatcher was born with something special – a talent or gift – that she used. But if you don’t have that talent / gift, then just accept it and move on and do what you’re best at (which in Ms Truss’ case is not to be PM). Way out of her depth.

    10. X-Tory
      October 14, 2022

      Hooray! The useless, ifiotic Kwarteng has gone! Can we now PLEASE have a sensible, tax-cutting budget? Here’s what I want:
      1. Increase the personal alowance (the threshold for paying tax) to Ā£20,000. Not the stupid 1p cut in the basic rate proposed by Kwarteng which, as the IFS pointed out, actually represents a tax INCREASE due to fiscal drag, with 1.4 million more people paying tax. ONLY an increase in the personal allowance is a genuine tax cut. And by taking everyone on minimum wage out of the tax system (which will be the effect of a Ā£20,000 persoanl allowance) this will reduce the workload at HMRC so that they can focus on the big taxpayers not those paying a trifling amount.
      2. Increase the 40% tax threshold to Ā£75,000
      3. Increase the 45% tax rate to 50% BUT also raise the threshold to Ā£250,000. At the same time, make the Ā£20,000 personal allowance available to everyone, with no taper.
      4. Change the VAT system so that instead of a single 20% rate there are different rates according to the value of the goods purchased, with the following scale: (i) NO VAT on anything under Ā£10; (ii) 10% VAT on items between Ā£10-25; (iii) 20% (the current VAT rate) on items from Ā£25-150; and (iv) 25% VAT on items over Ā£150. This would benefit everyone who is just buying their daily essentials, but would mean that those buying luxury items over Ā£150 would pay a little more to help balance the books. Essential services, like energy, would also be zero-rated.
      5. Business taxes: Keep corporation tax at 19%, BUT ALSO create a ‘super-deduction’ of 120% relief against tax on ANY and ALL investment in new buildings, plant and equipment, or R&D. This would mean that the more companies invest and grow the more they save, and corporate investment would surge to create a massive boost to our economy and increase GDP, thus paying for the tax cuts. Now THAT is how to balance the books while cutting taxes at the same time.

      Will Loony Liz or the new chancellor do these things? I doubt it. They are just too STUPID. Which is why they will lose the next election and DESERVE to do so. I cannot support a party that does not do the right things.

      1. hefner
        October 17, 2022

        X-Tory, +1.
        It would be good to have the ā€˜OBRā€™ put numbers on your proposed budget. Maybe Javelin could run the OBR program and give us the corresponding figures. I told him the other day where to find the code. For a trader like him it should be a small job to modify the Fortran code to include the parameters corresponding to your proposition.

    11. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      She alas seems to have little choice given the appalling number of socialist, green crap pushing, economically illiterate fools we have as fake ā€œConservativeā€ MPs. Jeremy Hunt is a dire choice doubtless he will resign quite soon to bring her down.

      1. Bill B.
        October 14, 2022

        ‘…..In order to bring her down’… and take her place, LL.

      2. Pauline
        October 14, 2022

        Hunt is a sound man. I am sure he has taken the job on the basis Truss has promised him the ERG will be sidelined. About time!

        1. Lifelogic
          October 14, 2022

          The man is a proven failure as Health Sec. & another idiotic PPE graduate, an EUphile and a socialist dope.

        2. a-tracy
          October 14, 2022

          Wiki says Ā«Ā European Research Group (ERG) is a secretive research support group of Eurosceptic Conservative Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom.Ā«Ā  well isnā€™t that representative of the people that gave Boris and this bunch of traitors an 80 seat majority, the eurosceptics.

      3. NBill Brown
        October 14, 2022

        Maybe she should resign does she need help to do that?

        1. Peter2
          October 14, 2022

          I feel sure you would like to help her EUbilly

    12. Merrie qubus
      October 14, 2022

      If I were her, I would seriously threaten to call an election and see how the Tory cowards liked that. I believe it is within her powers!

      1. rose
        October 14, 2022

        When Boris had that option, the MSM told us they had heard from the Palace that it would be refused. There is nothing the MSM won’t lie about.

    13. rose
      October 14, 2022

      That 80 seat majority which is now 71, is a chimaera. It is not hers. It is a disorderly and unruly rabble. A herd of gadarene swine. Nothing can be done with it by anyone. Boris came the nearest.

  2. Shirley M
    October 14, 2022

    “As always the Opposition wants to do the EUā€™s dirty work to make us less competitive and get in the way of us attracting more business investment and more jobs.”

    You fail to see the opposition within your own party. Also, why are incompetent people and organisation allowed to continue and get highly paid, a place in the undemocratic Lords and a gong for the privilege. It is almost as if the whole PTB want the UK to fail. If not by accident, then certainly by design!

    Politicians (with a non-UK agenda) have been the downfall of this country. We’d have been better off with a few patriots working together with specialist advice from more PROVEN patriots, The bunch in the Commons and Lords have very few patriots (or democrats) among them. I pity future generations (unless you are a ‘protected’ and spoiled minority).

    1. Peter
      October 14, 2022

      Shirley M,
      Agreed. Conservative party opposition boosts the attacks from outside. So the government has never recovered from the initial reaction to Karteng’s financial statement. It is now on the back foot and reactive.

      This does not augur well for the future.

    2. Cuibono
      October 14, 2022

      +1
      Politicians have worked very, very hard over decades to demonise and deplatform patriots.
      And they have succeeded ( one of the reasons, I reckon, why politics have moved so far to the Left) not only in defusing patriotic/right wing politics but in making it, in the public eye, shameful and unworthy.
      Not very democratic.
      There is no honour in politics anymore.

      1. rose
        October 14, 2022

        And they have the brazenness to call themselves “one nation conservatives”. They have been busily engaged in dissolving the nation. They do not believe in it.

    3. Original Richard
      October 14, 2022

      Shirley M :

      Agreed

    4. Hope
      October 14, 2022

      Ken Clarke doing his best to stop any change to N.Ireland protocol in the Lords like he tried to reverse Brexit in the commons. Johnson was stupid to give him a peerage he should have made him stateless and exiled him.

    5. Hope
      October 14, 2022

      Still 240,000 ā€œasylum seekers settled in UK last year!! How much to taxpayers! Tory party cultural destruction continues at pace if we add 1.2 million visas and 37,000 illegal criminal boat people! What cost of living crisis? Illegal Boat people get to see a GP twice a week of they wish!!

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 14, 2022

        What’s a GP?

    6. Peter
      October 14, 2022

      Sacking your chancellor after 40 days is not a good look. A scapegoat may not do the trick of restoring your own reputation.

      Government is all over the place. Reactive. No thought given to news management, whips not keeping Conservative MPs from shooting their mouths off.

      Tempus Fugit. The next general election will be carnage. Many MPs may have factored this in and are demob happy and thus prepared to say anything.

    7. Peter
      October 14, 2022

      Jeremy Hunt is the new chancellor.

      Oh dear! Same old, same old.

      Will be voting Monster Raving Looney Party in the absence of an independent at the next general election.

      1. Peter
        October 14, 2022

        As Farage points out. “This lot have betrayed us”.
        “We need a new realignment of British politics”.

        Trouble is a completely new political party will find it extremely difficult to gain traction.

        Destruction of the Conservative Party will deny some opportunities for careerists though.

        We are still a laughing stock though, no signs of the trains of a respectable major economy

        1. David Murphy
          October 14, 2022

          We were supposed to get that realignment and a cleanse of the filth at westmonster. Instead, corruption got worse, competence worse, and everything worse. The Tory party is the Augean stable that needs cleansing,

      2. miami.mode
        October 14, 2022

        Well it will give all those obnoxious left-wing broadcasters the opportunity to deliberately mispronounce his name and score their puerile brownie points.

      3. Lifelogic
        October 14, 2022

        Indeed the man very much responsible for the dire NHS structures that he failed to reform and the appalling pandemic planning they had put in place. He was Health Sec. for nearly 6 years ending July 2018 and yet left the NHS with an idiotic funding and admin structure that fails millions and kills thousands. More concerned with diversity and green crap than saving lives and servicing their (enforced) paying “customers”. A pathetic and rationed healthcare system that fails patients, tax payers and NHS workers too.

        He was quite good at saying sorry for things elegantly but then he had at lot of practice. Google NHS failures there is no shortage of them at all from maternity failures, to deadly hospital acquired infections, gross negligence to the various actually murders, to misdiagnosis, the discharges of the vulnerable without any home cover, the blood contamination scandal, failure to feed and give water to patients to the current dangerous net harm Covid Vaccines, the discharge of Covid patient into care homes…

      4. Hope
        October 14, 2022

        So remainers get their way so the UK is not more competitive than the EU!! Two remainers in key positions with Truss already signing up to closer alignment with EU! UK stopped from deporting illegals to Rwanda, EU in charge of immigration policy, Fishing licenses so EU continue to dominate UK territory, N.Ireland annexed and under the control of EU thereby controlling large parts of UK!!

        It is truly unbelievable a failed Health secretary which led the nation to being unprepared for covid is now chancellor. The same person who wanted a harsher and longer lock down, a true remainer!

        An 80 seat majority!!

        That should undoubtedly seal the fate of the Tory party to history.

        1. Humblepie
          October 14, 2022

          Trouble is she is so rattled now that she will be unable to assert herself when it comes to the EU business or the Unions or anything else she may have to contend with. She is a seriously wounded dare I say traumatised PM – she’s even starting to track the ‘markets’ now for heaven’s sake in an effort to save her skin- someone please get her out before she thrashes the whole place.

      5. Shirley M
        October 14, 2022

        It appears the CONS political suicide pact has moved up another gear. Jeremy Hunt, the most useless Minister and also a remainer. Democracy takes another blow! If the CONS think these actions will be supported by the electorate then they should all move to the Monster Raving Looney Party. They would actually stand a better chance of getting elected!

  3. turboterrier
    October 14, 2022

    With all these people Ć ll baying with the same negative thinking it does beg the question are the really suitable and experienced in the offices they hold or one day hope to on hold?
    We have too many quangos all fighting to keep their existance and not totally focused on their client, our country.
    Surely there has got to be a better way than all this disjointed approach to the problems we face? It highlights the woeful standard, principles of many of our politicians who would seem to be struggling well outside their limit of their competence, neither use or ornament.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      +1

    2. glen cullen
      October 14, 2022

      Good words, which I support

  4. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
    October 14, 2022

    Youā€™re looking for ā€œenemiesā€ but itā€™s not the EU. We suffer as much or more from high inflation.
    The EU are not ā€œthe financial marketsā€.
    If only you had chosen to become like Switzerland and Norway (outside the EU but part of the Single Market) your situation might have been better.

    1. Donna
      October 14, 2022

      If you’re in the Single Market, your economy is governed by Brussels and therefore virtually everything else is also governed by Brussels.

      We voted to govern ourselves.

      1. hefner
        October 14, 2022

        Utterly strange and ignorant comment, Donna.
        Countries in the Single Market are not prevented from trading outside it. According to Reuters 13/06/2022 and oec.world, trade between China and Germany was hardly affected by Covid, trade between France and China actually increased in 2021. Same happened for Italy.
        Similar pictures can be drawn for trade of these countries with the USA (see oec.world).

        How is the ā€˜sovereigntyā€™ delusion going, now that the beloved ā€˜market forcesā€™ have ā€˜taken back controlā€™?

        1. a-tracy
          October 16, 2022

          Hefner, thats interesting. What was the trade difference between China and the UK? In 2020 and 2021?

      2. NBill Brown
        October 14, 2022

        Donna

        Do you actually know what you are talking about in terms of the level of EU involvement?

        1. a-tracy
          October 16, 2022

          NBill, please explain what we are paying the EU over 40 billion per year for since we left. Do you have a breakdown as you know so much about it?

          1. Peter van LEEUWEN
            October 16, 2022

            @ a-tracy:
            You are mistaken here Tracy, there is no yearly payment of “over 40 billion”.
            If you are still convinced that this is the case, please shaer your source with us.

          2. a-tracy
            October 16, 2022

            https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/about_the_european_commission/eu_budget/2021_eu_accounts_adopted_web.pdf
            Here is the source Peter, perhaps you can explain it to me. NBill told me the other day the UK is making no saving after leaving the EU at all. So I found these files.

          3. hefner
            October 18, 2022

            I went (quickly) through the 210+ pages of that document, concentrating on figures and tables. The only mention of the money owed by the UK is on page 27. It refers to the money that the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement had defined previously that is supposed to be paid in the coming years according to some schedule I could not find a reference for.
            As far as I understand it is not new EU claims on the UK but the results of the discussions that ended up in December 2020.

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      October 14, 2022

      There I have to agree, at least as a stepping stone to complete independence, with others leaving, doing the same until the non-EU had more power than the EU itself.
      However we had party factions and disorganised stupidity. Cameron faction ran away crying, May faction completely screwed up and didn’t really know what she was trying to do, Johnson was led by the cojones rather than using them for the benefit of the country. Then we have this inexperienced Truss/Kerting last-chance-saloon material alongside a 30 something City Boy knowing what they want but not really knowing how to do stuff. If they think the Sunak snake will save them, there really is no hope.

    3. rose
      October 14, 2022

      In the SM is not outside the EU. Not even outside Schengen for Switzerland and Norway.

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        October 16, 2022

        @rose:
        Please remember that the brexiteers (like Nigel Farage, Dan Hannan and others) was of a comparison with Switizerland and Norway, which obviously did so well econommically. These sources and campaigns have been perserved on youtube.been

        1. rose
          October 17, 2022

          You EU enthusiasts can only ever find one example of a Single Market enthusiast amongst the Brexiteers: Lord Hannan. But is he now?

    4. Richard1
      October 14, 2022

      The Switzerland option would certainly have been a sensible choice. But Iā€™m not sure it was ever on offer.

      1. a-tracy
        October 16, 2022

        No Richard1 it wouldnā€™t and that is what all this is about, BRINO.

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          October 16, 2022

          Both Richard1 and Tracy: Wrong again!
          In Barnier’s wellknown graph with a staircase and flags on it, Norway is 1 step domn from the top and Switzerland 2 steps. (to find the graph google for: Hard Brexit Explained In One ‘Killer Graphic’)
          It was clearly all on offer, but the UK didn’t want these options.

          1. a-tracy
            October 16, 2022

            We donā€™t know what was negotiated Peter, we donā€™t know what was on offer, the people werenā€™t asked, Theresa May set it up, in my opinion Olly Robbins set us up and got rewarded with a Knighthood, bonus and some gong from the EU. It was said that he organised a soft Brexit whatever that means but he was instrumental in shitting on us and what goes around comes around.

          2. hefner
            October 18, 2022

            Did you read Barnierā€™s book or ā€˜Brexit negotiations after Article 50: Assessing Process, Progress and Impactā€™ (A.de Ruyter, ed.) or all the documents available on parliament.uk ā€˜Brexit: negotiationsā€™ (Extension period, Withdrawal agreement (13 documents), Brexit negotiations (9 documents), Reaching an agreement (14 documents))?

            To say that ā€˜we donā€™t know what was negotiatedā€™ is a bit rich. Better say ā€˜I donā€™t know what was negotiatedā€™.

            ā€˜The people werenā€™t askedā€™. Funny statement, as if ā€˜the all-powerful peopleā€™ would have been able to disentangle the UK from the EU after 43 years of participation in that project involving practically all the departments and ministries of the UK.

            As far as I understand you gave the reference of the EU accounts for 2021, you are one who usually ask a lot of interesting and often pertinent questions but were not, it seems, able to figure out whether these Ā£40+ bn were newly defined or previously agreed debt.

            Given the pooh-pooh that thanks to 81,326 Conservative members the UK recently found itself in, I doubt very much that even if they had been asked the ā€˜peopleā€™ would have done much better.

            You sound to me like the Germans who after the Treaty of Versailles suddenly realised the conditions imposed on them were bad but had been too {choose the adjective here} to properly follow the discussions at the time.

    5. Ian B
      October 14, 2022

      @Peter VAN LEEUWEN One of the enemies is the EU followed by those that fear competition. The EU was always about protectionism, protecting themselves from competing with the rest of the world.

    6. IanT
      October 14, 2022

      No I agree that it’s not the EU Peter.
      Brussels suffers from the exactly the same stupidity that grips the rest of Western Governments, namely a belief in Modern Monetary Theory. They all think that you can print money forever, that interest rates will not rise, the Governments cannot go bust and that FIAT currencies cannot fail.
      Liz & Kwsai have been attacked because they wanted to challenge this orthodoxy. It was no secret that there was going to be an energy cap or that the NI & Corp taxes would be reversed – if I knew that then so did everyone else who was paying attention. Their communication and timing left much to be desired but their real sin was to try to break ranks with the snakeoil salesmen pushing so much of this monetary and eco nonsense (who also infest the EU and ECB). They are clearly not being helped by a blundering Governor of the BoE.

    7. IanT
      October 14, 2022

      I’m not sure I’d use Switzerland as a great example of financial stability at the moment either. There are some unusual things happening there too.

    8. formula57
      October 14, 2022

      @ Peter VAN LEEUWEN – surely you are wrong to say Sir John identified the EU as the enemy: rather he said its approach, applied to itself and mimicked by UK persons, serves “to make us less competitive and get in the way of us attracting more business investment and more jobs”. Your farmers may be amongst those who would agree, no?

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 14, 2022

        Granted that it was no direct identification
        but “the EU’s dirty work” qualifies as an indirect way of equating the EU with an enemy.

    9. Mark B
      October 14, 2022

      Being part of the Single Market would have only benefited the EU as they sell more to us then we sell to you.

      BTW Why is your government stealing farmers land ?

      1. Mickey Taking
        October 14, 2022

        To house their growing numbers of immigrants…

      2. Peter van LEEUWEN
        October 14, 2022

        1) Your services exports were much larger than your services imports. That is diminishing now.
        2) Farmers can keep their land, but they cannot continue producing these huge quantities of nitrogen (waste from importing huge quanities of high grade cattle fodder), which is destroying nature.

    10. a-tracy
      October 14, 2022

      Peter ‘In exchange for preferential access to the EUā€™s single market, some non-EU countries contribute grants to poorer EU Member States. Mrs May has said that the UK will leave the EUā€™s single market, so it seems unlikely that the UK will contribute similar grants.’

      When our access to the EU’s single market stopped, how much did the UK save do you know? I saw our contribution from 2020 to 2021 dropped Ā£6bn whilst we were still paying in the divorce agreement.

      The UK share of outstanding EU spending commitments and liabilities drops, we were told it was just for the period 2016 to 2020? source http://urbis.europarl.europa.eu/

      We should no longer have to pay Ā£1.7bn in taxation on prostitution and drugs that the UK doesn’t tax? Or do we still have to pay?

      We should no longer have to pay Ā£2bn to Erasmus nor fork out for all the UK student loans those EU Erasmus students received upfront.

      How much did the UK save not remitting 0.3% of UK vat?

      How much did the UK save not remitting 80% of ROW import vat? Or are we still paying?

      Why aren’t the markets totting up all these savings? Is it because we haven’t stopped paying? As you say, we aren’t in the Single Market and haven’t been since January 2021.

      The EU sells us more than we sell to the EU I thought that is what the free trade agreement and the divorce agreement were paid for to smooth that transition.

      Please correct me if we aren’t making any savings and can you tell me how much we are still expected to pay?

      1. Peter van LEEUWEN
        October 16, 2022

        @Tracy: I don’t any “over 40 billion per year” in the above!
        What the EU paid in subsidies inside the UK, the UK would now have to pay itself, unless it decides differently on national payments towards farmers and other landowners. I don’t think that the UK now pays for its access to the SIngle Market, not being part of it.

        1. a-tracy
          October 18, 2022

          Page 24 Consolidated revenue ā€“ main developments in 2021 In 2021, the consolidated revenue, comprising all revenue categories, amounted to EUR 178.9 billion, compared to EUR 224.0 billion the previous year. The main reason for the decrease of EUR 45.1 billion or 20.1% was the decreasing impact of the UKā€™s withdrawal from the European Union, which had increased the 2020 revenues by EUR 47.5 billion, but contributed only EUR 1.1 billion to the 2021 revenues.

          I provided the full link above.

    11. Mark
      October 14, 2022

      I suspect that such thinking is why Michel Barnier removed such an option from negotiations. The desire of the EU has been to punish the UK for voting to leave, a decision provoked by its lack of flexibility when it negotiated with Cameron.

    12. forthurst
      October 14, 2022

      How are the farmers’ protests against their land being confiscated to provide housing for foreign invaders?
      It’s difficult to keep up with events because our government tries to prevent us knowing what is actually important going on here or abroad which is contrary to their multi-cultural agenda.

      It was very clever of the EU to threaten to blockade Switzerland unless they allowed foreigners to invade their country under the guise of the Single Market. I understand that Switzerland is now one third foreign.
      Norway is pretty safe from the Single Market experts in Brussels who might find it difficult to define a compliant Cod, a compliant cubic metre of natural gas or a compliant fir tree but I’m sure they have had a go.

    13. Hope
      October 14, 2022

      Please Peter, Holland stealing farmers land! Everything associated with the vile toxic EU needs to be destroyed and binned to history. Nation states with friendship and cooperation is all that is required.

      1. Peter VAN LEEUWEN
        October 15, 2022

        You may tell yourself whatever fable you desire to believe in, there is no such stealing over here.

        1. a-tracy
          October 16, 2022

          PVL are they trying to force them to sell up their livelihoods or not?

    14. Gary Megson
      October 14, 2022

      Exactly right, the Conservative governments which have run this country for the last 12 years have made a series of catastrophic decisions but – of course! – John Redwood will always tell you someone else is to blame, never the Brexiters who have pushed the UK’s reputation off a cliff

      1. Peter2
        October 14, 2022

        It was the voters who voted to leave the EU gazza

    15. Peter Wood
      October 14, 2022

      PVL,
      nice to see you. Trade is not our problem, we are a huge net importer. Our problems are mostly home created by inadequate planning, to produce essential goods at home, failing to raise interest rates gradually over the last 12 years, and lastly, the incredible cash profligacy by the Johnson government during covid.
      In short, government not up to the job.

      1. anon
        October 15, 2022

        Also a rejoiner 5th column.

    16. David Murphy
      October 14, 2022

      Remoaner lies, Brexit is a non issue in all of this. And Norway and Switzerland have massively impaired sovereignty oversaes where we demanded our own control.

  5. Javelin
    October 14, 2022

    ā€œBenefits of Brexit MUST be stopped.ā€

    Once the UK becomes competitive the unity of the project is threatened.

    According to the Globalists, Truss is literally doing Putinā€™s work for him.

    1. Ian Wragg
      October 14, 2022

      Truss is trying to break away from this continuous spiral of tax rises and waste.
      Labour don’t want tax cuts because they would have to campaign on tax increases at the next election.
      Of course it’s the anti Brexit mob trying to bring down the government as we try and diverge.
      Stick with it Liz.

      1. Ian Wragg
        October 14, 2022

        I never thought the day would come when so caked tory MPs would try and oust a PM for cutting taxes.
        It just shows how infected the party has become with Limp dumb.
        You deserve to be obliterated. I hope she calls an election.

        1. Ian Wragg
          October 14, 2022

          And to think a couple of weeks ago I was going to renew my membership.
          Good job I didn’t. Back to the same failed, tax to prosperity policies as before.
          Shysters the majority of you..

        2. glen cullen
          October 14, 2022

          Correct – its like watching a weird episode of the ā€˜outer limitsā€™ ā€¦.the Tory Party & MPs not wanting tax cuts

    2. Mitchel
      October 14, 2022

      The Economist,5/3/22:
      “Vladimir Putin’s Fortress Russia is crumbling-the chaos in Russian markets shows the impossibility of economic self-sufficiency.”
      The Economist,11/10/22:
      “As Europe falls into recession,Russia climbs out.Real time data shows a subdued but strengthening economy.”

      You can always trust The Economist!

      (I think it has been predicting the demise of Russia since it was first published in the mid 19th century,whilst it’s the “pink bits” on the world map that have largely vanished)

    3. Hope
      October 14, 2022

      +1

      Failing remainer Hunt now chancellor!!

      1. glen cullen
        October 14, 2022

        Rubbish In Rubbish Out ….maybe the selection of Tory MPs needs a rethink

        1. Mickey Taking
          October 14, 2022

          maybe? You have to wonder how selection works.
          Let me guess…Your middle names are? Father does what? Prep school? When did you join the YCs?
          Public school, was it? You studied …?

      2. Lifelogic
        October 14, 2022

        An appalling prospect an appalling failure as Health Sec. another idiotic left wing PPE graduate too.

  6. rose
    October 14, 2022

    “Bizarre to hear the media and Opposition mobs out to pull down the PM by forcing her to tear up her pledge to keep the UK competitive on business tax rates.”

    Bizarre, surreal even. But a continuation of reptile policy. Who is actually spooking tthe markets?

    The BBC have spent six years leading the pack in trying to undo the democratic result of the referendum; they spent three years singlemindedly undoing the democratic result of the 2019 general election; now they are trying to overthrow the democratic result of the leadership election they engineered. The EU has nothing to teach these people.

    1. rose
      October 14, 2022

      PS has anyone heard a name mentioned for these media “sources”?

      1. a-tracy
        October 14, 2022

        Ha ha, that’s what I want to know, too, rose. If it’s my MP, I should know about it, these whisperers should speak up when they want to be in print.

      2. a-tracy
        October 14, 2022

        The Guardian have today revealed that one source is Mel Stride, they say he is a senior Tory but I’ve not heard of him before, elected 2010 in Devon, he says ‘the u-turn must be significant. I wasn’t surprised to read ‘Mel Stride campaigned to remain in the European Union’.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Seems so aided alas by rather too many Sunak supporting Tory MPs in the Michael Gove/Grant Shapps mode.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      October 14, 2022

      The BBC was in full anti Kwarteng mode today.

      1. glen cullen
        October 14, 2022

        Theyā€™re also interviewing every Labour MP on the countries finances ā€¦as though Labour are the only ones that can fix the economy

    4. Bloke
      October 14, 2022

      Fickle investors gamble, following misleading forecasters like the OBR. Others follow with their own money, hoping to avert loss or share in perceived gain. Still more join what burgeons into a galloping majority attraction corralled by the mirage of myopic outriders. Then suddenly they see the edge of a cliff fast approaching. The errant initiating forecasters view the chaos they predicted without responsibility. Then the Govt pays them to perform their next forecast. The cycle of chaos prevails.

    5. Berkshire Alan
      October 14, 2022

      Rose

      “Who is spooking the markets”

      Probably the “money makers” (I could use another name, but it may not get past moderation) in the City, who stand to make money (out of everyone else’s money) win, draw, or lose, especially now the cap on bonuses has been released, aided of course by the useless Bank of England, who are advising everyone of their bail out policy in advance, after printing funny money for years.
      We have had years of unfunded expenditure with Covid with little problems in the financial markets, now we have a simple no tax rises policy, at little relative cost, and all of a sudden it seems to be a massive problem.
      I agree the Government have not helped themselves with little preparation.

      1. rose
        October 14, 2022

        I agree Alan. The shorting of the pound was going on here and in the Far East because they scented blood, because of what the media and opposition within and without the Conservative Party were getting up to. Nothing to do with bonuses. And because they could see that the Bank was messing things up. People could also see the Pension Funds had overborrowed to invest. But that was the fault of Gordon Brown’s Bank for keeping interest rates at rock bottom at the same time as printing money while the Government borrowed and spent to a reckless degree.

    6. hefner
      October 14, 2022

      ā€˜reptileā€™: interesting to read that from someone with the head so up their a**e they still think that Trump won the elections.

      1. Peter2
        October 14, 2022

        Another of your “decent debate” comments eh heffy?

        1. a-tracy
          October 14, 2022

          Heā€™s being more rude and insulting to John Redwood than usual today Peter2, obviously he feels his side are winning over the British publics wishes. They only have to control just over 600 people, they did for Boris, theyā€™ll do for Truss unless she capitulates on everything they want from tying the UK into the EEA and the Single Market and the Brino they wanted all along and it appears that she will.

          He didnā€™t see the reaction of people today that I saw to Trussā€™ decisions!

          Just how much are we saving after the divorce payments have reduced? Why arenā€™t we being told. Have they just kept all the bills to the UK going on? All 40 billion + per year of them.

        2. NBill Brown
          October 14, 2022

          Unnecessary

          1. Peter2
            October 15, 2022

            I agree with you eubilly
            Hefners post was unnecessary

        3. hefner
          October 15, 2022

          Thanks for your deeply thought contribution, P2avlovā€™s doggy.

          1. Peter2
            October 15, 2022

            Continuing your thabit of never a post from you heffy which isn’t either sarcastic or rude or both.
            And you are getting worse.

      2. anon
        October 15, 2022

        Probably did win.
        If you discount the widespread unconstitutional changes, media suppression, and other activities. Just a matter of time. It seems that a court has actually decided someone or something has “standing”. Amazing the courts will now have to look at evidence with discovery.

  7. Michelle
    October 14, 2022

    Reference the media and Labour (isn’t it common knowledge BBC takes its line from Guardian?) this is a point I believe I have made several times.
    It is perfectly clear that the BBC as just one example, has a political and social agenda.
    There seems little attempt to reign in its power to force upon the public an extremely biased view on just about everything.
    People are literally paying a licence to be brainwashed.

    It’s high time this was stopped.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Forced to pay for their own BBC brainwashing, this especially on climate alarmism, the EU, taxations levels and the size of the state sector.

    2. Cheshire Girl
      October 14, 2022

      Channel 4 News are every bit as bad. Their endless criticism helped to get Boris out. Now they have started on Truss. They were always on about Rishi Sunak, calling him all kinds of names, and jeering about his Green Card from the USA.

      With ā€˜friendsā€™ like the Media, one doesnā€™t need any enemies!

    3. Hope
      October 14, 2022

      +1

    4. Your comment is awaiting moderation
      October 14, 2022

      I already stopped, when the BBC asserted that the “science is settled”.

      1. glen cullen
        October 14, 2022

        Itā€™s the most conceited phase used in science ā€˜science is settleā€™ ā€¦no true scientist would ever claim such a thing

  8. Donna
    October 14, 2022

    The Opposition are opposing the Government which is what they’re supposed to do.

    The mainstream media is institutionally left-wing and hates the Conservatives. You could have started to deal with the blatant bias by scrapping the BBC Poll Tax and selling off C4, but you’ve ducked both issues. Just like your Party ducks anything else which is even slightly difficult/contentious.

    However, it’s Sunak-supporting LibCON and GreenCON MPs in your own party who are refusing to support the Party Leader/Prime Minister who is basically trying to implement the Manifesto they were elected on. It was Sunak who broke it with his disgraceful tax increases.

    A broad church, so-called Conservative Party, is incapable of governing because the Remainer, left-wing BluLabour element will only support left-wing/Globalist policies …. and throw their toys out of the pram when they don’t get their own way.

    We need PR.

    1. rose
      October 14, 2022

      Agreed, but PR would make it worse, and permanent.

      1. a-tracy
        October 14, 2022

        PR is just about indecision, nobody gets what they want at all, no manifestos have to be honoured. No-one is in control.

        So many parties emerge that coalitions can prevaricate and just put top down control of global governance. Blaming each other for not honouring their pledges. Those to the Corbyn left and Brexit right can be completely ignored.

    2. Shirley M
      October 14, 2022

      The CONS (as a whole) are neither patriotic or democratic (just like the other main parties). The CONS is full of wannabe dictators because they disagree with the results of democracy, and they are winning! Time to get rid of ALL the main parties.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      October 14, 2022

      +1

    4. Ian B
      October 14, 2022

      @Donna +1

    5. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Would PR with endless coalitions be any better? A real conservative party that provided lower taxes, far less government, actually controlled our borders, got the police to police and deter real crimes, ran competent public services, deregulated and ditched the net zero lunacy for cheap, reliable & on demand energy would would surely win an overall majority.

    6. IanT
      October 14, 2022

      I prefer to call the Net Zero advocates GREEN Conservatives, it seems to fit them much better.

      I reserve the term (true) BLUE Conservative for Sir John and anyone who else who is actually conservative (small c) and rational in their views. It really seems that some in his Party are suffering from bouts of insanity at the moment.

    7. Original Richard
      October 14, 2022

      Donna :

      Agreed

    8. Mark
      October 14, 2022

      I gather that ITV has followed the BBC path in its news and current affairs output, so it seems that commercial pressures get us no sense either where there are dominant legacy behemoths.

      Talking of which, PR helps to preserve political parties that FPTP can extinguish ruthlessly when an insurgent party captures the public imagination, and the coalitions that form under PR tend to exclude any party with fresh ideas that might actually help. The problem with our political system is the degree of party control by narrow cliques who decide on new identikit PPCs who will mindlessly follow their dogma. The SNP is probably the most extreme monoclonal version of this because the appointing clique has been captured by different factions over time in the Labour and Conservative parties. It is why both are heavily split internally.

    9. MFD
      October 14, 2022

      No, Donna, we do not need PR! As someone who has experience of PR in Northern Ireland ( enforced on us by Blair as he thought he could manoeuvre us into a United Ireland). It is wide open to fraud and the true Brit will suffer.
      We had to overcome the twisted “transfer vote ” by only voting for one candidate which stopped them from transferring our vote to a republican!
      PR is for dishonest politicians!

    10. dixie
      October 14, 2022

      The Loyal Opposition is supposed to be loyal to the country and hold the government to account, that does not mean it must oppose everything.
      I agree the CUP is too broad a church such that voters do not know what they are getting and this is compounded by MPs being disloyal and disrupting of government to the detriment of the country.

    11. Timaction
      October 14, 2022

      Indeed we do. All legacy Party’s have failed us. It’s time for a true conservative, right of centre party to lead us.

    12. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Well they are not opposing in general at all. They were like the Tories pro lockdown, pro tax borrow and piss down the drain, pro Net Zero, pro the tax to death policies, pro the dire NHS, pro ever more regulation…

  9. DOM
    October 14, 2022

    John never calls for the privatisation of what is now a Socialist propaganda machine that is the BBC that spends most of our funding pumping out Neo-Marxist and racially infused ideological pulp

    John and his colleagues belong to a party that is no longer THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY. They have ‘become something of the night’

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      October 14, 2022

      This time it will surely just take one spark from a Reform party for the picture to change completely. The cat’s last life has now expired.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Well to a degree they always were in my lifetime from Heath right through to Boris they have been soft socialists (but a tiny bit less dire than Blair and Brown’s Labour). A partial exception for the Thatcher years but even she buried us further in the anti-democratic EU, closed many grammar schools, failed to address the state monopolies in healthcare and education by giving freedom of choice, fell for climate alarmism, failed to cut taxes and the state back sufficiently and even appointed foolish John Major and even let him join the ERM and bury the party for three+ disastrous terms under Blair and Brown and then Cameron/Clegg.

    3. Dave Andrews
      October 14, 2022

      Thank goodness for GB News.
      How can the BBC claim to be impartial when it completely ignores points of view that GB News brings out?
      Where’s the view “Increasing corporation tax stifles British business in favour of foreign imports”?

      1. Lifelogic
        October 14, 2022

        +1

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      October 14, 2022

      +1 Dom. Alas Conservatism is banned on both this and the other side of the Atlantic. Both countries are made ungovernable if we dare to elect anything of the like. We are going to end up with Labour and (if we survive it) our own Trump.

    5. Cuibono
      October 14, 2022

      +1
      Too horribly true.
      Where can we turn?

    6. Bloke
      October 14, 2022

      Too many have over-reacted to what Liz Truss has done in so few days. Such rapid knee-jerk responses spooked others. Without allowing a few months for the normal effects of her changes to be absorbed, irrational panicking in advance has risked damage that calmer assessment would have avoided. She may become a highest quality PM. Too many are impatient to care about finding out, based on solid evidence that can last.

      1. a-tracy
        October 14, 2022

        Bloke, I wonder who theyā€™ll make Truss choose as Deputy PM next because Coffey wonā€™t do holding two positions, the media are already on the case, will she knife another friend in the back. Or can her so called friend Kwasi make a comeback into that role so he can be insulted a bit more by newspapers commenting on his smile. Then again he voted leave so heā€™ll never do. It will probably be a proEU Tory MP so Coffey does tick that box.
        This tells u what theyā€™re up to they want pro EU Tories on board https://www.london4europe.co.uk/the_importance_of_pro_european_tories_to_rejoining_the_eu

    7. outsider
      October 14, 2022

      Perhaps DOM you meant “something of the knight”. Sir John exposes his views in broad daylight on a daily basis and puts them up for debate and criticism. Whatever one make think of his views, there is nothing of the night about him.

    8. Your comment is awaiting moderation
      October 14, 2022

      This has been evident for some time now.

    9. Mickey Taking
      October 14, 2022

      yes ….clearly gone to the dark side….but the question needs asking ‘ were their views and promises on policies honest to the local electorate and party members? I think not!

    10. anon
      October 15, 2022

      Easy Ā£4billion tax cut, spent straight back into the economy, individuals making choices perhaps supporting other media outlets. They might expand creating more useful output.

  10. Mike Stallard
    October 14, 2022

    Now it all comes back like the proverbial fan.
    The Conservatives who voted for the new PM were presented with a choice. Either a billionaire, married to an Indian with one of the best educations in the world and a superb future in a major international bank, a practising Hindu who did not touch alcohol, – or else a very good local MP for West Norfolk who does the work, turns up and copes. A woman we could identify with.
    We got it totally wrong!

  11. Roy Grainger
    October 14, 2022

    Truss has an 80 seat majority. As such it shouldnā€™t matter what Labour or the BBC think. But it is a substantial number of Conservative MPs who want to massively increase business taxes going into a recession. Thatā€™s the problem.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      No she does not in reality there are way more than 40 ā€œConservativeā€ traitors – 200+ of them.

  12. Richard Oliver
    October 14, 2022

    John – I do hope you are managing to get time with the PM to make sure she sticks to her original plan.
    She also needs someone who can get a grip of the Anti-growth Coalition among Tory MPs.
    She needs a Lee Anderson type to go round and kick a few people into line.

  13. Jazz
    October 14, 2022

    With some notable exceptions the Conservative MPs are in favour of Big Government, Massive Taxes, Huge projects (Track and trace as well as the other that can’t be named) that waste massive amounts of money, huge Gov’t interference into everyone’s lives, anti small businesses – the list goes on. The Conservative party is not their home. Truss has tried to move to traditional conservative values but her own MPs are going to devour her, because they are not conservatives. They belong to Davros “You will own nothing, but you will be happy”.

    Appalling.

    1. Jazz
      October 14, 2022

      To add, Lord Frost in the Telegraph has just said something similar.

      1. Jazz
        October 14, 2022

        Kwarteng sacked. What can you say.

        1. Jazz
          October 14, 2022

          That’s it, Hunt as Chancellor. This new Govt has been strangled at birth. As Matthew Lynn says this was the last chance of a conservative govt. Spinning Liz gave it up so quick.

          Sir John, what to do? Emigrate?

    2. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      +1

  14. Norman
    October 14, 2022

    I’m so glad you’ve expressed this view Sir John. Also, to see a number of responders here correctly condemning the BBC for its destructive bias. It’s now so extreme, it no longer fulfils the role of a public service broadcaster, and should be defunded. Though technically highly skilled, and very good at things like the Queen’s funeral, their agenda on other issues is now so toxic, it is undermining this country’s freedom. I am also very disappointed in many of your colleagues, who seem to be infected with the same pernicious ideology. They are making the job of bold government impossible. I hope that Liz and Kwasi and their allies will prevail – may they receive wisdom and encouragement at this pivotal time for our beloved country, and indeed the world.

    1. anon
      October 15, 2022

      Tell me how could you watch the Queens Funeral Live without a TV tax?

      Catchup or replay is the answer. Not very good really.

  15. Nigl
    October 14, 2022

    A little more honesty please. With your majority you could push it through. it is your party, centrists, Sunak supporters, self servers, that are providing the meaningful opposition and your PM more interested in keeping her job rather than her word has crumbled. No doubt we will be fed some meaningless spin.

    Itā€™s pathetic. I have no idea how you can stay attached to a party that is diametrically opposed to what you believe in.

  16. MPC
    October 14, 2022

    We are living through a truly historic period of societal change enabled and promoted by Conservative governments, which have made the UK ungovernable in the interests of its indigenous citizens. Our very way of life is under serious threat and we must all hunker down and protect our assets as best we can as things are only going to get worse.

  17. Lifelogic
    October 14, 2022

    “As always the Opposition wants to do the EUā€™s dirty work to make us less competitive and get in the way of us attracting more business investment and more jobs.”

    True but we have had much of this agenda from Cameron/Osborne, May Hammond, Boris/Sunak. Vast increases in taxation, the expensive unreliable energy agenda, dismal publics service, the pointless lockdown, the coerced (ineffective, often dangerous, net harm and expensive) vaccine programmes, the deluded net zero religion, vast & damaging increases in regulation, slow and incompetent planning, open door low skilled immigration, huge currency debasement (deliberate) from Sunak especially and endless government waste and misdirection.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Sadik Javid health Sec. 26 June 2021 ā€“ 5 July 2022 – “Would I have done anything differently no absolutely not”.
      Really Javid? You really have you gone even more mad then? Significant net harm & even coerced vaccines, fired care home workers for not taking them, threatened NHS workers, the idiotic lockdown, enforced pointless masks… nothing. 12% of the population on the NHS waiting list. The blatant lie that the Pfizer vaccine protected granny with zero evidence too!

  18. Magelec
    October 14, 2022

    Each conservative constituency should be tasked with reselecting their candidate for the next GE. If the constituency members do not agree with their existing candidate they will have the opportunity to deselect him/her. I am truly amazed that some MPs are not supporting the manifesto they were elected on and are obviously happy fo the opposition to win the next GE.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 15, 2022

      YEP – a fundamental step to review the activities and policies the chosen one states belief.

  19. Nigl
    October 14, 2022

    And with the increase in corporation tax, so the stock market valuations go down as do dividends so values of pensions and incomes reduce so with your tax increases (allowances frozen) we all suffer.

    The thing I find the most annoying is that no one could give a damn about the voters, the worst than can happen to MPs is that they lose their seats, yes a blow to their massive egos but financially they can look forward to umpteen other cushy numbers in the public sector, elevation to the Lords or Directorships or advisory roles all looking after each other.

    Ps I do not hear you trumpeting opposition or organising other MPs who think like you. I guess there are few or none, worse than I thought.

    Goodness I wished I lived in another era when people rise up on the streets.

  20. Jason
    October 14, 2022

    Here we go again JR lashing out blaming others for our woes – buf remember -the bad workman always blames his tools.

    Also get another thing straight – it’s not the fault of the EU or the opposition – the Tories took back control – for twelve long years now they have been at the helm lording it over the rest of us and now still with a hefty 80 seat majority they still cannot get it right – not Truss ‘- not Kwasi – what a dunce – in fact the duo Kwasi and Truss team – what a team?. Jeez!

    We have long sonce left the EU and by this time according to earlier IDS and Gove Boris etc we should be in the sunny uplands by now rolling in clover but it hasn’t quite worked out like that and now we have the recriminations and blame the think tanks – Perhaps think tank is the new code for bunker. Jeez

  21. Berkshire Alan
    October 14, 2022

    Afraid we now seem to have the media running the Country, they got rid of Boris, now it looks like Truss, neither have helped themselves I would agree, but many Conservative Mp’s are also to blame for having no backbone or common sense.
    We have now morphed into a Country of Government dependency, where more and more people are reliant and expect Government spending to forever increase, in the expectation that life will get better, when in truth the fact is it will actually get worse, because the Government has no money, it can only spend what it takes from the people, or borrows in their name.
    The Socialist dream will end in tears, as have all socialist dreams, do we learn nothing from history !.

  22. Narrow Shoulders
    October 14, 2022

    Your party needs to get control of the media cycle – it is a simple as that Sir John

  23. Leslie Singleton
    October 14, 2022

    Dear Sir John–God Bless economists–As to yourself I suggest you try and sound a bit less confident–Few believe you.

  24. Dave Andrews
    October 14, 2022

    If the government does row back on cancelling the corporation tax increase, they are totally busted.
    Vote Truss, get Sunak.
    Why are the Conservative MPs so far removed from their membership? Do the local associations have no say in MP candidate selection?

  25. acorn
    October 14, 2022

    The UK has the third lowest Corporate Tax rate in the G20 at 19%. The G20 average is about 24%.
    Germany 30%; France 26.5; Austria 25; Belgium 25; Netherlands 25; Spain 25; Luxembourg 25; Greece 24; Italy 24; Euro area 23%. In the last two years, France has had three times the FDI, the UK has had!

    BTW. Just back from Dubai where the Corporate Tax rate is zero%. My brand new post Brexit Passport does not work in any e-gate I tried it in. Heathrow Immigration Officer told me there are thousands of the new passports that don’t work. They have been telling the Passport Office for some while apparently.

    1. Peter2
      October 14, 2022

      Many different allowances to set against your simple percentage headlines acorn
      I’m surprised you dont realise.

      1. NBill Brown
        October 16, 2022

        Peter 2

        If you know so much why don’t you share it with us

        1. Peter2
          October 16, 2022

          Where is your contrary proof EUbilly?
          Hilarious.

          1. NBill Brown
            October 17, 2022

            Avrov

            You raised it not me

          2. Peter2
            October 19, 2022

            You still can’t spell eubilly.
            Hilarious.

    2. Mark B
      October 15, 2022

      That’s because the passports are made in France.

      1. a-tracy
        October 16, 2022

        Yes, Mark that is one import they could bring straight back to the UK and start to rebalance of trade deficit.

    3. a-tracy
      October 16, 2022

      France Jan 2022 25% source: iclg
      CoĆÆncidence – non.

  26. Fedupsoutherner
    October 14, 2022

    It’s obvious to a blind and stupid man that the biggest threat to your party John comes from within. We saw the treacherous behaviour from some in your party over Brexit. They couldn’t get their way in a democratic vote so they tried to intervene using everything in their power to thwart Brexit abd look what a bloody mess they’ve made of that. Now we see it happening all over again. The party members had a democratic vote and they chose Truss……not exactly a great choice between her and Sunak….but that’s what we’ve got. But your rabble yet again want to overturn that result. Your party needs to stop and think. This country is in the biggest mess I can remember and it’s not going to get better and it’s about time they put the country first instead of behaving like schoolboys. What kind of message is their behaviour sending out to the electorate when all they can do is rubbish the policies set out by Truss? The party and the country needs unity and that is what the public are finding attractive about the Labour party. God help us all but the actions of a few idiots are going to bring this country to its knees. We deserve better!!

    1. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      +1

  27. Richard M
    October 14, 2022

    The people have seen through the “Tufton Street” neoliberalist idea of “growth”, and realises this just means trashing the environment and being plunged into abject poverty whilst the rich just get even richer. You had your chance to sensibly tax oil companies to avoid mass poverty and blew it.
    Blaming the EU for the mess we are now in, and even more comically blaming the Tory planted DG run BBC and almost wholly non-domicile billionaire-owned press is beyond pathetic.
    This is wholly on this government and your neoliberalist agenda.

  28. Peter Parsons
    October 14, 2022

    You can’t buck the (unsentimental) markets.

    If the markets liked the fiscal event/mini-budget/whatever it’s being called for the current hour, they wouldn’t have reacted the way they did. The markets wouldn’t have seen a spike in bond yields at 2-3x the previous record rate of change (the pension funds had modelled for sudden spikes in bond yields well over and above the previous record spike, just not this much higher than the previous record spike).

    The UK’s corporation tax rate is the lowest in the G7. Despite that, the UK also has the lowest level of business investment in the G7. Higher rates of corporation tax, therefore, are clearly not deterring higher levels of business investment in the other G7 countries. That suggests that the problem isn’t the rate of corporation tax, but lies elsewhere. Maybe it’s simply a lack of trust and confidence in recent and current UK governments.

    Stop blaming the EU, the BBC, the opposition and take some responsibility. Watching this Conservative government is like watching a 4-year old child draw all over the walls with a permanent marker, get the ink all over themselves and their clothes and then stand there in the middle of it all telling you “it wasn’t me, I didn’t do anything”.

    1. Peter Parsons
      October 14, 2022

      For information, the current Corporation Tax rates in the other G7 countries are:

      Germany 29.8%
      Japan 29.7%
      Italy 27.8%
      Canada 26.2%
      USA 25.8%
      France 25.8%

      1. oldwulf
        October 14, 2022

        @Peter Parsons

        Do all of those countries use the same method of calculating taxable profits ?

        1. oldwulf
          October 14, 2022

          The same method as in the UK …

        2. hefner
          October 15, 2022

          There are indeed differences in a way that profits can be decreased by (re-)investments in the original or new companies before taxable profits are calculated.
          In the USA, whether a company is a C-corp, S-corp, partnership or a LCC makes a difference. Similar variations exist in other countries.
          But the UK regime is among the most favourable. (See europa.eu ā€˜Company tax in the EUā€™ then choose the country. Also tradingeconomics.com ā€˜List of countries by corporate tax rateā€™).

      2. Peter2
        October 14, 2022

        Many different allowances available against those simple comparative percentage rates PP
        Surely you know that?

        1. hefner
          October 15, 2022

          Very insightful comment P2.
          I am sure you are keeping warm your detailed explanations about the various German, French, ā€¦, UK allowances in order to submerge us with your knowledge in a subsequent post, arenā€™t you P2avlovā€™s dog?

          1. Peter2
            October 16, 2022

            Yet above you post in agreement with me heffy
            How very odd.
            Maybe your pal eubilly will come to your rescue.

        2. hefner
          October 17, 2022

          Indeed I agree with you, but I note that as usual you forgot to give any reference or source that could help the reader to get to the quintessential marrow of your wisdom.

          1. Peter2
            October 19, 2022

            There is a difference between giving an opinion and writing a long academic essay heffy.
            However I am right.
            There are many differences between nations on allowances in the way Corporate taxes are levied on companies.
            Enjoy your marrow.

      3. a-tracy
        October 16, 2022

        8 Oct 2021 ā€” G7 leaders agreed on Saturday to back a global corporate tax rate of at least 15 percent. NYT

        So why was this set so low Peter, if your figures are true, I suspect there are other exemptions and starting points you are not talking about, I will have to investigate.

      4. a-tracy
        October 16, 2022

        Peter, but the UK is so quick to follow the G7s other suggested changes like raising our pension ages, werenā€™t we the first to jump in and stuff our pensioners with that one, Canada resisted, France resisted did they get their knuckles rapped?
        How do all the G7 charge business rates are they all in step as you seem to think we have to have be?
        How do all the G7 charge national insurance contributions?
        How do all the G7 charge nest workplace pensions?
        How do all the G7 pass the costs of sick pay on to the companies? Is it covered with insurance or do their businesses have to stand the cost?
        How do the G7 compare on business insurance; what statutory business insurance is required – public liability, employerā€™s liability
        How do the G7 compare on minimum wage?
        How do the G7 compare on minimum holidays (the WTD only allows for 20, the UK 28)?
        Let us know whatā€™s coming for us if we all have to march in step? When are we going to insist the Americans pay 28 days holiday, when are we going to demand the Americans give free healthcare?

        1. hefner
          October 17, 2022

          The G7 does not impose common pension age, business rate, sick pay, minimum wage, minimum holidays, health care, ā€¦ to its members.

          I think you really should do a bit of background readings on what the Gn are. There was a G8, did Russia at the time got into agreement on these things? No. There is a G20. Same question. Same answer.
          These Gn are talk shops, not decision fora.

          Even within the EU27 countries, in all the topics you mention different solutions are used in various countries.

          1. a-tracy
            October 18, 2022

            hefner, I was replying to Peter Parsons.
            He compared that our corporation tax was lower than the rest of the G7 (he didnā€™t give all the correct information about the corporation tax and their different offsets starting points etc. and Franceā€™s is now 25% not 25.8%.

            What does Peter or you for that matter care what our comparative rate is if there is no agreement on taxation and other costs on business?

            Yes, each country has different ways to tax business so ONE element of that taxation cannot be compared by Peter alone, thank you for confirming that.

          2. hefner
            October 19, 2022

            Sorry to go on, a-tracy, but your original post repetitively asking ā€˜How do all the G7 ā€¦ā€™ could let the reader think you are taking the G7 for one of the ā€˜globalistā€™ organisations that some on this blog, not knowing the first thing about them, seem to think are bound to destroy the UK by forcing on it some common rates on a multitude of economic aspects.

            My point is that there are no compulsory rates imposed by the G7.

            Even the EU when it has been trying has had difficulties to get some kind of an agreement on those.

    2. Peter2
      October 14, 2022

      Relax PP
      You will soon have your preferred government.
      Then everything will be just perfect.

      1. NBill Brown
        October 16, 2022

        Peter 2

        Just try and behave you are not giving any arguments or sources

        1. a-tracy
          October 16, 2022

          NBill I have been asking for your sources and facts for three days. Please tell me what we are paying the EU over 40 billion pounds per year in 2020, 2021 for, the breakdown please.

          1. NBill Brown
            October 16, 2022

            You can look it up in Europstatistics

          2. Peter2
            October 16, 2022

            Isn’t that a classic.
            Tracy asks for facts and eu billy runs away
            Hilarious

          3. a-tracy
            October 16, 2022

            I donā€™t want to Bill, you were the one telling me weā€™ve not saved any money, I went to check out the Euro sites and sure enough we were still paying them nearly 50 billion a year, you keep saying weā€™re not still run by the EU what are we paying them 47 billion euros for? Or give me a link to the source because I canā€™t find the breakdown for that.

          4. a-tracy
            October 16, 2022

            One other point NBill, whenever our payments to the EU are discussed it is in the region of the UK paying Ā£14 billion per year down to Ā£9bn per year 2021 then down to Ā£5bn per year for 2022. So imagine my surprise when I saw that in 2021 the UK paid the EU 47.5bn – 2020 49bn what was that for? I didnā€™t know that until you sent me down that rabbit hole saying we hadnā€™t made any savings since we left the single market and customs union and Iā€™ve tried searching for what the breakdown is so please just give me the link because ā€˜eurostatisticsā€™ isnā€™t a site and now youā€™ve piqued my curiosity because no-one Iā€™ve spoken to knows about this massive payment.

        2. Peter2
          October 16, 2022

          My troll speaks.
          Keep it up eubilly.
          Heffy loves you.

  29. Mickey Taking
    October 14, 2022

    The truth is the Tory MPs are a divisive bunch of socialists, remoaners, elitists, bullshitters and old grey Grandees!
    They should split up into about 4 parties and fight the next GE to reveal what support they have,.

    In reality the last 4 PMs have been backs to wall desperation to avoid the rabid Socialists, yet they have stepped into that role.
    The next GE will be laying the Party to waste – 200 current MPs rejected.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 14, 2022

      Interesting Sir John that you didn’t publish, still thinking about it?

  30. Ian B
    October 14, 2022

    Good morning Sir John

    Yes, Taxing Times. I have never known so many in the pay of the taxpayer MPā€™s, Civil Servants so against the idea of a forward looking UK with growth and prosperity as its direction.

    These bottom feeders with-in are doing the work of the UKā€™s competitors, and trying to cohere the UK to fall into line with the unaccountable IMF and EU Commission idea of world dominance.

    The highest tax in 70 years is suppressing activity, the 100% reliance on foreign government whims for our power and lights. So on and so on, the UK needs to rest control of our Country from these predators domestic and foreign who’s sole aim is to ensure the UK will never be competitive and so that decline becomes assured.

  31. Ian B
    October 14, 2022

    It is time the UK Government sold the prosperity concept, put the UK first and stopped kowtowing the die hard left wing destruction brigade, they or course will never vote Conservative.

  32. glen cullen
    October 14, 2022

    Is this new government now pro higher taxes, pro green & net-zero, pro higher immigration legal & illegal, pro foreign aid and pro HS2 ā€¦have we been sold another pup…have we just replace Boris with Boris policies

  33. Cuibono
    October 14, 2022

    Why have U turns suddenly become acceptable?
    Why are they not viewed as a sign of incompetence and failure?

  34. formula57
    October 14, 2022

    Objecting to Government fiscal policy produces changes so the calls come louder and faster. Why would they not?

    Kwarteng should now resign, but, like Major with Lamont, Truss cannot see that happen without making a compelling case for her own exit so no doubt this fatally wounded Government will struggle on a while yet.

    The next leadership contest cannot last three months, that is understood right?

    1. Donna
      October 15, 2022

      There won’t be a contest. The Party Membership (what’s left of it) can’t be trusted to “vote for the right person.”

      The LibCONs will anoint who THEY want.

      Representative Democracy is dead in the UK.

      1. a-tracy
        October 16, 2022

        Donna, when Leadsom was up against May they bullied her to stand aside and May was anointed to do the UK over.

        Truss will stand aside and weā€™ll be told Sunak has automatically won because he was second in the race.

        Truth is if it was put to a vote Boris would be back in the job. That is who the public actually overwhelmingly chose. No one chose Starmer for that matter.

  35. Richard1
    October 14, 2022

    Not sure we can really blame the EU for this. There was no need to rush out the tax measures ahead of the normal budget timetable, they should have announced them in Nov in the normal way with the spending measures and the OBR forecast. It was obvious the blob would be out to get Truss from the start – why offer an open goal? the problem now of course is its going to be more difficult to get these and other free market measures through, and indeed to argue for them at the election.

    I suggest salvaging this by announcing that the gas price cap will also be a floor so the money can be re-couped through a charge when the wholesale prices comes down, as it will. I suggested this when Sir John called for ideas pre-mini budget and I see Charlie Bean the former BoE deputy governor suggests it. I also suggest cancelling HS2, a project now obviously useless and obsolete, which would be a strong signal of cost control. By Nov the govt should also come up with plans to pare back the bloated (and generally left-leaning) quangocracy which does so much damage, along with other sensible cost-cutting.

  36. Stred
    October 14, 2022

    Truss threw away her opportunity to cut taxation while steadying the markets when she promised not to cut public spending. Conservatives can see plenty of ways to cut spending when every day’s we hear blatant news of waste incompetence and shirking in local and central government and the many political quangos and pressure groups funded by taxes. Start by axing the green zealots and equity merchants in BEIS other ministries and the NHS.

  37. agricola
    October 14, 2022

    Sir John, you are right to point out the hypochracy of those currently ganging up on our PM. However you make one ommission. By report half your own party, the social democrat faction, have joined the clamour to block the very sensible moves she and KK have tried to make. They do not have any solutions of their own, just more of the same that has failed in the past. They are joined by such as the BOE, OBR, IMF and our globalist civil service. Continuation in this vein ensures you become unelectable, joining a similarly handicapped Labour party. In effect you are vacating the governance of our country. I personally hope that the Reform Party are awake to the situation because their agenda is more in line with the conservative party on the ground, the ERG, and the red wall constituencies. All of whom want a government that articulates what is good for the UK not what is wanted by some Davos globelist elite whose last consideration is the people.

  38. James Freeman
    October 14, 2022

    The tax take did not go down when you cut the corporation tax rate. Why do they think it will go up if they increase it?

  39. William Long
    October 14, 2022

    You blame the ‘Media and Opposition Mobs’, but the main obstacles to success for Mrs Truss are her supposed supporters on her side of the House. I concede she could have done more to prepare them but the Conservative Opposition MPs are the real culprits here; the rest are just doing what you would expect of them.

  40. Bryan Harris
    October 14, 2022

    Talk about suffering the enemy within.

    We should rightly see such people as working against our interests and label them traitors.

    Time we stopped elevating traitors and giving them the time of day. Let’s harass them as they have attacked common sense.

  41. Original Richard
    October 14, 2022

    Our Parliament, MSM, Civil Service and institutions and even our Government, are completely infested with fifth column communists who want to see the UK fail.

    This is why the Government takes no action :

    Over the blatant communist propaganda broadcast by the BBC.

    To reduce legal immigration, in fact increases it to 1.3 million visas in a single year.

    To reduce illegal immigration and in fact funds the organisations who are taking it to court over its Rwanda plan whilst inviting fighting age men to come over with free accommodation, Ā£40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets. Even Albanian criminals are not returned to Albania.

    To cancel Net Zero which is destroying our economy by forcing through a crazy unilateral strategy to replace affordable and reliable fossil fuel energy with expensive and intermittent renewables based upon a completely false religious belief that rising CO2 levels will cause the planet to self-destruct.

    To reduce profligate spending, such as on HS2 and International aid.

  42. a-tracy
    October 14, 2022

    Does the IMF project that the UK will have the highest growth in the G7 for 2025 and 2026 or not?

    Did the UK have the highest growth in the G7 in 2022, and is it projected to have the third highest overall between now and 2027 or not?

    The UK, according to the Eu accounts, showed receipts from the UK:
    were Ā£49.579 billion 2020 and net Ā£47.456 billion.
    In 2021 our total net contribution Ā£41.753 billion.
    Have we got the figure for 2022 has it come down another Ā£6bn or more?

    1. glen cullen
      October 14, 2022

      What are we paying the EU…I always like to see an itemised invoice

      1. a-tracy
        October 15, 2022

        If you find the itemised invoice to the UK from the EU Glen please put it in a reply to me, because I canā€™t find it! The newspapers BBC keep lying to us by telling us weā€™re only paying 7-9 bn euros – so 41.753 billion pounds in the EU accounts as received from the UK is a BIG difference, with no explanation. 89 billion in two years is a lot more than the 35 bn we were told by the UK news stations that the divorce payment is.

        Why isnā€™t the chancellor telling us how much weā€™ve saved from leaving, not paying the vat across, not paying the Ā£2bn for Erasmus, another Ā£2 bn in student loans up front to EU students, not paying the Ā£2 bn in fines for prostitution and drugs or did they just rename that one fines for Chinese imports, who were these Chinese importers who didnā€™t pay the right taxes to the EU? Have they been found and prosecuted, probably not because it seems like fake news.

        This Conservative party is betraying the people that elected them. Enjoy your moment in the sun Liz and Jez for it will only be a moment as you keep stitching us up.

      2. Mickey Taking
        October 15, 2022

        not a chance….

    2. hefner
      October 16, 2022

      a-tracy, imf.org ā€˜World Economic Outlook: Countering the Cost-of-living Crisisā€™, octā€™22, 186 pp.
      You might want to look at Tables 1.1.1 and 1.1.6 pages 42 and 47.
      The report present projections for 2022 and 2023. I did not find anything for 2025 or 2026.
      And given the present travails in the UK I would be very suspicious of anything forecasted after 2024.

  43. Original Richard
    October 14, 2022

    ā€œBizarre to hear the media and Opposition mobs out to pull down the PM by forcing her to tear up her pledge to keep the UK competitive on business tax rates.ā€

    The BBC are blatantly politically biased which should not be the case as they are funded by people with views from all sides of the political spectrum.

    If the Government are not going to change the way the BBC are funded, perhaps they could introduce legislation to require the BBC to separate their ā€œnewsā€ from their ā€œanalysis and commentā€.

    I would be perfectly happy to hear a news on the BBC with the ā€œmedia and Opposition mobs out to pull down the PMā€¦ā€ moved to a separate programme.

    An added advantage would be that at the same time we would get either more ā€œnewsā€ or a shorter news programme.

    Also, the BBC should be made to change the title of their news programme from ā€œBBC NEWSā€ to BBCā€™s NEWSā€.

  44. Mark Thomas
    October 14, 2022

    Sir John,
    The UK must not succeed. Outside the EU the UK must be seen to fail. For if the UK were to succeed and forge ahead, what does that say about the EU?

  45. agricola
    October 14, 2022

    It is announced today that Labour is anti fracking of largely on shore gas in cahoots wifh the lib/dems , the greens, and any other disparate unwashed.

    Put more clearly:-
    They do not want the UK to have its own independant reliable source of inexpensive energy pending the arrival of new nuclear and ultimately fusion energy. They prefer us to be dependant on such as Putin and a volatile Middle East.
    Equally they are against the large number of well paid jobs this would create largely in the North of England. They see it as putting their traditional vote in danger.
    They are obviously in favour of very high energy costs for individuals and business.

    The earthquake arguement is very spurious to say the least. The North West of England was an earthquake area before fracking was invented. Even Elgar’s Malvern Hills have an earthquake history. None of this activity lays dormant awaiting the arrival of a drilling rig.

    This I would suggest SJR is an open opportunity to lay the hypochracy of Labour and their fellow travellers bare. Raw meat to bite into with every energy bill payer cheering you on.

  46. Mark J
    October 14, 2022

    Sir John,

    Despite your wise words on Talk TV this morning, it appears some of your “right honourable colleagues” still don’t get it. Acting like children by throwing their toys out of the pram because they didn’t get their own way in the Leadership campaign – is doing immense damage to the credibility of your party.

    Get rid of Liz Truss and install Rishi Sunak and Penny Mordaunt, will lead to unprecedented demands for a General Election, for which the Conservatives will lose big time.

    I really can’t understand why some of your Conservative colleagues really don’t grasp this fact.

    Start delivering on the promises made to resolve the problems of the NHS, the economy and illegal immigration – and stop the bickering and infighting,

    The Conservative Government was elected to serve the country, not the career interests of those within it.

  47. Simon R
    October 14, 2022

    Dear Sir John,

    I don’t know how much day to day communication you have with HMG, but I have had a thought on the ‘budget u-turn’ that you may think has some merit, and if you agree, perhaps you can pass it on.

    I would say that some revision of the emergency budget sadly now looks inevitable, but any u-turn, apart from damagingly reversing some of the positive proposals, will be very costly politically for the Government. At the same time, the Bank seems determined to continue with its reckless bond sell off, and given that the energy price cap is the biggest item on the agenda, and that doesnā€™t seem to be under threat, there will be no great fiscal advantage anyway.

    I propose the following. The energy price cap is ‘refined’, to work with units of energy in the same way as income tax – there is a low usage band (below a certain level) where the price is capped low, then a higher band, where the price is capped moderately, and so on. Poorer households, and anyone who cuts their energy use, will be rewarded.

    But in return for what would be a massive saving on the budget, the Government works with the Bank to implement a serious moderation of their bond sell off, I would say halving the amount and/or spreading it over multiple years.

    This combination will reassure markets, and not be entirely a Government climb down. I think it will get a good review in the press too. Some other aspects of the budget may be unsaveable, but I would say that the Corporation tax rise must stay cancelled, or what is the point of the Truss Government?

    Best regards,

    SR

  48. ChrisS
    October 14, 2022

    SIr John, can you please tell us what is going on within the Conservative Party ?
    It is obvious that another leadership contest cannot be considered – the clamour for a general election would be irresistable, yet, that’s exactly what some of your colleagues seem to want, according to the BBC and others.

    The reaction in the markets to the mini budget seemed right over the top to me, when one considers the furor over the 45% tax rate which was just a minor part of the package. Sunak’s proposed increase in Corporation tax could well have made no difference to the tax take as the largest companies would have taken action to transfer their tax liabilities elsewhere. It might even be that maintaining the current rates would actually see an increase in corporation tax receipts, given that other countries are putting up rates.

    The Bank of England’s support for pension funds, suggested as likely to cost Ā£65bn, has only resulted in expenditure of Ā£5-6bn, so why has the Governor further spooked the markets by publically withdrawing support at this very difficult point for the government ? One has to ask why he has done this.

  49. hefner
    October 14, 2022

    Arenā€™t we approaching the level zero of argument when with such a brilliant Cabinet one has to say that the Opposition is doing the EUā€™s job?

    Ever thought youā€™re becoming even more redundant than in the last, John? Still believing your pals at the IEA? Or are the woody Little and Red as deluded as each other? Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum?

    1. hefner
      October 14, 2022

      Sorry ā€¦ In the past ā€¦

    2. Peter2
      October 14, 2022

      Why do you always have to be so rude and sarky towards others, heffy?
      Are you like this away from this site?

      1. NBill Brown
        October 17, 2022

        Avrov

        I actually think Hef is much more polite than you. Your lack of proper knowledge really bothers me

        1. Peter2
          October 17, 2022

          Do you reckon eubilly?
          I think looking back, if you can be bothered, you will find all the rude sarcastic and aggressive posts come from your pal heffy

      2. hefner
        October 17, 2022

        Oh Peter2, have you found a thesaurus and learned a new word? Better late than never.

        1. Peter2
          October 19, 2022

          What is they say about sarcasm heffy?
          PS
          I love having you and eubilly as my personal trolls.
          It keeps you two busy.
          Hilarious the both of you.

  50. Ian B
    October 14, 2022

    Taxing Times, Yes

    Isnā€™t the problem lack of Government Communication i.e. no one that should have, actually believes or has a grip on the message.

    The Government itself is so wound up in trying to micro manage things that are in reality beyond their reasonable abilities. Local issues are best handled locally. The 2 big mistakes are the Government is still acting like a local council taking orders from elsewhere ā€“ a EU provincial state. Then pretending that the one size fits all approach is best ā€“ Metro Left leaning London is not the UK.

    Give the people back the responsibility, their own money and achievements will come quicker.

    The Government should do what they promise time and time again, have a bonfire of the QUANGOā€™s. They are not reducing they are increasing. Entities without accountability funded by the taxpayer have no place in a Democracy.

    Taxpayer money is not confetti it is only sustainable when there is real proper growth ā€“ high taxation has killed that in all societies.

  51. Leslie Singleton
    October 14, 2022

    Dear Sir John–Now I have just read, in the Telegraoh, that Truss should be given a chance. Baloney–she has had her chance and fluffed it comprehensively. No mercy. And never mind what passes for economics, the (lack of) public relations has been beyond belief. Bring back Boris and be quick about it. That way, Boris will tell a few jokes,ll resume some sort of momentum and the Tory party will with absolute certainty IMO at least continue to subsist.

  52. BW
    October 14, 2022

    ā€œBizarre to hear the media and Opposition mobs out to pull down the PM by forcing her to tear up her pledge to keep the UK competitive on business tax ratesā€
    Not itā€™s not. Anything whatsoever that makes us more competitive will bring the wrath of the everlasting remainers and the pro remaining quangos and organisations and the media. They simply cannot allow us to step out of line and be more competitive as it would show the EU and those very quangos how unnecessary they are. That cannot be allowed.
    This new tactic of voting for a PM and the backstabbing until there is a resignation is and will be the downfall of the Tories. An 80 seat majority and the PM is on the ropes. This is what happens when backstabbing people like Gove and Fishi do not get their own way. We need some expulsions before Liz goes.
    These people need to realise it was the country that put the Tories in and it was the membership who put Liz in. The other minions can always leave the party. If the Tories are going to implode letā€™s do it with a bang.

  53. Ian B
    October 14, 2022

    From the MsM

    ā€œKwasi Kwarteng has been forced to cut short a trip to Washington for crisis talks over the Governmentā€™s mini-Budget amid speculation that key parts of it will be scrapped.ā€

    If true the Conservative Government should walk a way now. It can never get worse whom ever is in power. Its an admission that for all the rhetoric we are no longer a democracy just a pawn in the search for domination by others – we donā€™t even need elections any more the UK Government has passed our declining country into the hands that seek domination.

    Going forward it is not even a question of Politics but Rule

    Get a Grip people who pays your wages?

    1. Ian B
      October 14, 2022

      šŸšØExclusive: Corporation Tax will **rise** to 25% from 19% this April, Liz Truss will announce at 2pm press conference today.

      All those foreign companies in the UK that by default use management fees elsewhere in the World to avoid UK tax now can competitively slaughter UK indigenous companies unless they move out of the UK as well. That’s not competition that’s destruction

  54. XY
    October 14, 2022

    The OBR and other models are unable to include the possibility that lower tax rates change behaviour so that overall tax receipts go up. This is alien to their socialist mindset so they refuse to incoprporate any such concept in their models.

    Despite evidence that they are consistently wrong in their forecasts, it seems that they continue to use the same model, unadjusted.

    Perhaps the Conservative Party needs to show more interest in the detail of the modelling they use? Even develop its own models wich inputs and assumptions uner its own control?

    P.S. Guido reports an influx of left-wing think tank recruits into the OBR. Perhaps that’s another area to take more interest in? The long march through the institutions (aka infiltration by lefties) is a real thing. “If you can’t get elected, get appointed” (media, think tanks, government bodies, quangos etc).

    And let’s not forget CCHQ consistently parachuting in Lib Dems in as Conservative candidates. More infiltration.

  55. Robert Evans
    October 14, 2022

    If I were equally pessimistic about my own personal economic prospects as the OBR has been over recent times with the UK economy then I might have cancelled this year’s summer holiday, used the money to further pay down the mortgage and delayed the purchase of a new car.
    One or two years down the line I may then find that my pessimism was unfounded and, instead, household income has increased. My reined in expenditure may not have done much for the wider economy but would I not enter the years 2023 and/or 2024 on a stronger footing? Are there not parallels here with the present UK position? I’m reminded of the saying ‘prepare for the worst and hope for the best’.

  56. NBill Brown
    October 14, 2022

    Sir JR

    “Opposition wants to do EU’s dirty work”
    An interesting remark, which actually says more about you, than about the Opposition and the EU. All rather sad as the Europeans in the EU are our allies and friends.

    1. Peter2
      October 14, 2022

      Why no facts nor data nor statistics to back up your comments eh EUbilly?

      1. NBill Brown
        October 14, 2022

        I am saying significantly more than you ever do

        1. Peter2
          October 15, 2022

          Your rudeness is getting worse with every post heffy.
          Still at least your pal EUbilly likes you.

      2. hefner
        October 15, 2022

        As usual brilliant analysis from P2avlovā€™s puppy.

        1. Peter2
          October 15, 2022

          Another comment from heffy of childish rudeness.
          Do you talk like this to people face to face?
          I bet you don’t

          1. NBill Brown
            October 16, 2022

            Thank you Avlov

          2. Peter2
            October 16, 2022

            You can’t even spell correctly eubilly.
            Hilarious.

          3. hefner
            October 17, 2022

            Iā€™m afraid youā€™ve lost your bet. I tend to be that rude with rude people. And Peter you are one with NHL, acorn, bill, ā€¦ unable to accept that people might have a different opinion/view from what Sir John, other contributors or you might have.
            When/if you ever become able to comment sensibly with proper arguments, Iā€™ll let you rest in peace. As you might have noticed, trolling can work both ways.

          4. Peter2
            October 20, 2022

            Carry on heffy
            You are the rude one on here.
            Never a post without a personal comment.
            But pleased you admit you are a troll.

  57. Kenneth
    October 14, 2022

    If the OBR’s political philosophy doesn’t work, it’s not surprising their forecasts don’t work.

  58. The PrangWizard
    October 14, 2022

    The broadcast media have been all the same in their sensationalist attitude to the present economic position. They are all entirely negative and threatening, even the most recent which was meant to be different, although some of their commentators have varied.

    It is vital the PM and Chancellor do not do any U-turns which they are being intensively pressured on. If they do there is no doubt the Left establishment, including significant parts of the Tory party who have similar thoughts and in line with global elites and controllers will destroy our country; we will have surrendered what remains of our independence and sovereignty, and individual freedom will continue to be lost too. We can see what is happening in this respect.

  59. Narrow Shoulders
    October 14, 2022

    The Chancellor must be backed unequivocally by the Prime Minister today. If his mini-budget was not sanctioned by her then she should go. If it was then they both should stay and front it out.

  60. IanT
    October 14, 2022

    There is a very good article by Nouriel Roubinion in ‘Time’ (and avaialbe online)
    ‘We’re Heading for a Stagflationary Crisis Unlike Anything We’ve Ever Seen’

    It is very well argued and well worth reading for those who are trying to understand what is actually happening globally at the moment. It is a good deal more intelligent than much of what our media is capable (or willing) to explain to us. It is in fairly plain language and not too technical. Not happy reading but realistic I think.

    It is also an extremely interesting comment on the choices facing central banks (and governments) going forward, given the rumours circulating at the moment (12.20pm)

  61. IanT
    October 14, 2022

    Kwasi has gone. Goodbye Conservative Party.

  62. Margaretbj.
    October 14, 2022

    Do you want chancellor ?

  63. hefner
    October 14, 2022

    And Sir John, as is usual, is playing
    ā€˜incisive and topicalā€˜ violin while N.11 is burning.

  64. Excalibur
    October 14, 2022

    JR. Please put your hat in the ring to be Chancellor. Lobby Liz Truss if necessary. This is not the time for faint hearts. Good luck.

  65. oldwulf
    October 14, 2022

    If we are heading into recession, then the tax take will reduce if the tax rates remain the same.

    We need to maintain the tax take.
    Do we do this by increasing tax rates or by reducing tax rates ?
    My money is on the latter.
    What does the mainstream media think ?

  66. Ian B
    October 14, 2022

    Stand up for decent hard working people of the UK and you get the sack ā€“ its outside the dictate of the WEF

    An election is needed, let the People see just how bad the alternatives of the left will push us.

  67. Fedupsoutherner
    October 14, 2022

    There’s a job going John. I hope she offers the job of chancellor to you.

  68. ChrisS
    October 14, 2022

    As I write this we have heard that the Chancellor has been sacked. Sadly, I think Liz Truss has left it too late for this to secure her premiership with any certainty, given the rebellious nature of many in the party.

    Her only chance of survival now will be to pursuade a well respected, credible character to take the job as Chancellor in the hope that whoever it is might just be able to quieten those back benchers who never wanted Liz Truss to win the leadership election, and calm the markets.

    1. Timaction
      October 14, 2022

      Respected and credible. Jeremy Hunt. Ha ha ha ha. Utter failure lefty.

    2. Donna
      October 14, 2022

      She’s appointed Hunt ….. the man who was Sec of State for Health for 6 years and left the NHS completely unprepared to deal with a bad Cold Virus, despite having received a Report on Operation Cygus in 2016 (a “war gaming” event) which said it wouldn’t cope with a bad ‘flu year.

      He also enthusiastically supported the Lockdowns, which wrecked the economy, and said they should be harder.

      Just what we need. No, I mean just what the WEF needs.

  69. MickN
    October 14, 2022

    The opposition to these policies is coming in no small part from so called conservative MPs.

  70. DOM
    October 14, 2022

    I don’t know who now runs this country but it ain’t the British cabinet. The UK is dying before our very eyes

    If Labour get back in they will destroy what’s left

  71. Iain gill
    October 14, 2022

    Who are the conservative party expecting to vote for them at the next election?

    Making the incompetent labour party look electable is really something.

    1. Peter
      October 14, 2022

      IG,
      Agreed.

  72. Ed M
    October 14, 2022

    Why do people keep going on about Ms Mordaunt as next PM or holder of high office. To me, she doesn’t come across as having the intelligence / gravitas – at all – to be PM (she’s a better communicator than Ms Truss but that’s just about it – being a good communicator isn’t enough. And anyway Boris is a much better communicator than Ms Mordaunt. And he’s a lot more intelligent).

    1. Peter
      October 14, 2022

      Boris is no communicator. He is a hail fellow, well met gladhander.

      He is OK as a journalist – but useless in interviews which is why he avoided them.

      He is boosted on the lie that he is a winner. He was never a winner. London Mayor was not a role that bothered people before Sad Dick started make Ng mischief. The 80 seat majority was a vote for a genuine Brexit (which was never delivered) and a raspberry to Theresa May.

    2. Iain Gill
      October 14, 2022

      sadly the rubbish way political candidates are selected by all the main parties had led to few, if any, people in parliament who are really capable of doing high office well

  73. Ian B
    October 14, 2022

    Sir John
    As always on the money, so to speak.
    “One fact remains: Britain cannot afford tax rises ”
    “They will likely intensify the economic downturn and lengthen a possible recession. Nobody who wishes our country well should advocate that ”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/14/one-fact-remains-britain-cannot-afford-tax-rises/

    Taxes increases further speed up decline, no real earnings/growth equals a diminishing pot , a diminishing pot equals higher costs, less to go around

    There doesnā€™t seem to be a brain between the naysayers other than personal self promotion

  74. Berkshire Alan
    October 14, 2022

    I see it is being reported on the BBC website that Jeremy Hunt is to be the new Chancellor.

    I wonder, is this politics over real financial competence ?

    1. Stred
      October 14, 2022

      Hunt was a failure as minister for health and would have introduced compulsory experimental vaccination. He is therefore unfit for any kind of public office.

      What next?

      1. Lifelogic
        October 14, 2022

        +1

  75. Maylor
    October 14, 2022

    It is painful to watch the Party tearing itself to pieces from the inside, too busy settling old scores to deal with the real issues of the day.

    Don’t they ever stop to consider how the electorate will react to these antics and resultant lack of action ?

  76. glen cullen
    October 14, 2022

    So now we have a remainer as head of government and another remainer as head of the governments finances ā€¦are there any true leavers in this party

    1. Headtotoe
      October 14, 2022

      Yes Glen.. Sir John is a true leaver in the party probably about the only one by now

    2. Mickey Taking
      October 14, 2022

      Even Johnson had to change tack in order to get THE JOB.

    3. Shirley M
      October 14, 2022

      Have we any democrats? Better still, some patriotic democrats. It appears they are so scarce in the CONS that they are 100% ineffective. Likewise for Labour and LibDems.

    4. Zorro
      October 14, 2022

      Itā€™s disgraceful – my prediction is slowly coming true. These individuals are working undercover for the EU and deliberately destroying the UK so that we are forced to go cap in hand to the EU. There is a word fro them.

      Zorro

      1. Lifelogic
        October 14, 2022

        +1

  77. glen cullen
    October 14, 2022

    Low Tax High Growth = Thatcherism
    High Tax Low Growth = Marxism-Leninism
    ā€¦.and which one has Liz and this Tory government just adopted

    1. Jacob
      October 14, 2022

      We are fast going down hill so growth doesn’t come into it – to get there we first have to steady the ship of state then set a course with speed appropiate while avoiding bad weather so that we can arrive at a destination as per ETA. To do this we need experienced people on the bridge who know what they are about – not the chancers and fools we have now.

    2. Mitchel
      October 15, 2022

      I don’t think you know what Marxism-Leninism is-ever read any works of either man?The USSR had huge growth/output spurts and there was no tax-the government didn’t need to tax;it owned everything.

      The problem was there no market mechanism to set realistic prices and no sound money.

      1. glen cullen
        October 16, 2022

        ”assumption the mother of all screw ups”

  78. a-tracy
    October 14, 2022

    You know 60% of the UK workforce is employed by Small businesses. 99% of small employer firms are small businesses.

    I’m thinking perhaps it’s time we went on strike. It has taken 40 years to build from the Thatcher free markets and privatisation big boom; created by standing her ground, making tough decisions and standing firm with tenacity, she really did set the groundwork for entrepreneurialism and business in Britain.

    Unemployment is now disguised through 2/5 jobs; people only work two-fifths of the week but get their pay and benefits to make up more than they could in a whole working week! Cheers Brown. The government controls small businesses now with wage controls, and the highest taxes in 70 years, Truss has just betrayed everyone that selected her; good luck with that.

  79. Bob Dixon
    October 14, 2022

    So 25% Corporation tax 2023
    So what next?
    Letā€™s have a go at dividend tax. Get rid of the tax free Ā£2,000. Raise the 8% tax to 20%.

    And this is The Conservative Party.

    I would have voted Truss but not now.

    If I vote I will do what I have done for many years and pick the most unlikely candidate.
    Lucky Bastard.

  80. Fedupsoutherner
    October 14, 2022

    Jeremy Hunt???? My God she does know how to pick them. I presume the NHS will get a shed load of money then.

    1. Mark B
      October 15, 2022

      I doubt she did

      šŸ˜‰

  81. Richard Lark
    October 14, 2022

    I WAS a keen supporter of Truss. I will not put my trust in her again. She has backed down too often on what were good policies.
    Her credibility is shattered and there is no point in her continuing in office.

    1. IanT
      October 14, 2022

      I consulted my personal ‘Focus Group’ earlier this afternoon.

      To say my wife is not happy with today’s events, would be a huge understatement.
      She says that she’s probably not going to vote for anyone at the next Elextion.
      Sorry Sir John, it’s not you personally. I’m afraid it’s “that bl**** useless Conservative Party”.

    2. Lifelogic
      October 14, 2022

      Well I preferred Trust to Sunak and I prefer the Tories to Labour/SNP but all are truly appalling.

      1. a-tracy
        October 15, 2022

        Itā€™s like being offered a choice of sprouts or sour green cabbage for Sunday lunch,
        but I donā€™t like either, why canā€™t we have carrots instead!

      2. Mickey Taking
        October 15, 2022

        It comes down to how to die, cyanide or a bullet to the brain?

  82. MikeP
    October 14, 2022

    Iā€™m afraid most Tory MPs need to be kicked out, they conspired to remove Boris with no succession plans, an appallingly drawn out faux leadership selection process, and no backbone to stand up to a Remainer and media onslaught. Itā€™s over Sir John, you backed Liz Truss and I went along with that, sheā€™s been given no chance.
    If I were now in her shoes Iā€™d circumvent the party and go straight to the King to resign, none of you deserve to survive having squandered an 80-seat majority.

  83. Denis Cooper
    October 14, 2022

    Liz Truss persists with her misconception about UK economic growth, which caused me concern back in July:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/07/16/the-debate-last-night/#comment-1329606

    And which having led her into this debacle will likely lead her into others if she is not brought to her senses.

    Meanwhile, because she will not see that we need an alternative means of protecting the EU Single Market from non-compliant goods crossing the Irish land border the EU is preparing to get its retaliation in first:

    https://www.eureporter.co/world/uk/brexit/2022/10/14/brexit-sanctions-mechanism-needed/

    “Brexit sanctions mechanism needed”

    It would not be difficult:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/10/13/onshore-gas/#comment-1347270

    “… that could be set in train immediately, and unilaterally, by trade secretary Kemi Badenoch laying an order under Section 12 of the Export Control Act 2002 to extend the scope of the existing export control system.

    The export control joint unit already operates within her department, and it could simply be given the task of controlling a new class of exports, ā€œAll goods carried across the land border into the Irish Republicā€.ā€

  84. mancunius
    October 14, 2022

    Hunt was democratically voted against in 2019 by the Tory Party. Johnson was democratically elected.
    Truss was democratically elected Tory leader in 2022 by the Tory Party.
    And now because of stubborn, subversive remainer MPs with an eye to their personal Brussels gravy-train, Hunt the arch remainer is pitched into a position from which he can – and will – stymie every attempt at UK independence and supply-side reform.
    This cannot and must not stand.

  85. JayGee
    October 14, 2022

    It is so very sad to watch what is happening now in our country. The saddest part of it all is that there is nothing we (mere mortals?) can do to stop it. Who is in charge of the asylum that we once knew as the UK?

  86. mancunius
    October 14, 2022

    Speaking of tax – what is this mad idea Truss has of imposing a ā€˜cost-plus revenue limitā€™ for low-carbon energy companies’? The new rule will “(allow) generators to cover their costs, plus receive an appropriate revenue”.
    An appropriate revenue? Appropriate according to whom? Have you all turned into marxists?
    Hayek must be turning in his grave.

  87. Lynn Atkinson
    October 14, 2022

    We could do with the scrapping of Business rates, the lifting of thresholds and much more. Truss needed experienced old hands and appointed badly. She is herself broadbrush and does not have the intellectual argument.
    And now HUNT! What did we do to deserve that?šŸ˜©

    1. glen cullen
      October 14, 2022

      The way this party is going, you’d find they’re more likely put up business rates

      1. a-tracy
        October 15, 2022

        This government is now just helping all the foreign businesses that have been quietly taking over their UK competitions, we British will even sell out English owned supermarkets for a slightly cheaper German owned store that wonā€™t remit any corporation tax here! Theyā€™ll stiff us when theyā€™ve got the market share they need and polished off their competitors.

  88. Al
    October 14, 2022

    “Bizarre to hear the media and Opposition mobs out to pull down the PM by forcing her to tear up her pledge to keep the UK competitive on business tax rates.” – JR

    And tear up her Chancellor with them, I hear. Jeremy Hunt as Chancellor? Oh dear.
    Since it is a time for intelligence, planning, and change, I suspect we will see none of the above.

  89. Ed
    October 14, 2022

    O/T
    The ban on ICE cars.
    The range, scale and depth of incompetence of our current cohort of politicians is truly a sight to behold.
    The Transport Secretary has doubled down on the woke green ecomentalist policy of banning petrol and diesel cars.
    Are you insane?
    Here’s a radical idea introduce policies that actually benefit people.

    1. glen cullen
      October 14, 2022

      +1

  90. Mickey Taking
    October 14, 2022

    I feel sure we are millions who witness life in the UK (possibly worse in several places) becoming worse day after day. It is rare when a day appears to solve some dismal aspect of our situation.

    Much of the dread is Government inflicted, by action, inaction, not ‘getting it ‘- yes that dreadful throw away line.
    Sometimes World events add to our woes, but simple issues easily resolved by a Party in power for years with an 80 majority go unaltered.
    The last hope of this Party and Government sedated in its dragged out death throes is to grab some issues and get it done! Previously proclaimed but certainly NOT done.

  91. Donna
    October 14, 2022

    Do the CONs representing the Red Wall seats really think their Constituencies might be saved by a Remainer Prime Minister and Remainer Chancellor?

    Or are the LibCONs now so desperate that they think it’s the only way they’ll cling on to some in the Blue Wall?

    Those people who voted Conservative “to get Brexit done” won’t be voting for two Remainers. And I suspect many Brexit-supporting Conservative voters won’t either after the Party dumped Johnson.

  92. Ed M
    October 14, 2022

    Tories need to bring back Boris and Sunak – just to get back economic and political stability in general and to stop Labour getting into power in the next election.
    We can no longer focus on a soft or hard economic policy. We are now in survival mode. Cause if Labour get in, they will truly screw up everything.
    Once we get out of survival mode, one – two – three years from now, then we can re-focus on whether we want a soft or hard economic policy etc

    1. IanT
      October 14, 2022

      I think Boris is very happy (putting hay in his Barn) and good luck to him. Entertaining people after dinner is an excellent use of his undoubted talents. As for Mr ‘Fiscal Drag’ Sunak, let’s just vote Labour and be done with it.

    2. miami.mode
      October 14, 2022

      You’ve no chance with Boris. He earned almost a year’s PM salary for one speech in Colorado.

      1. Berkshire Alan
        October 14, 2022

        m.m
        Got a standing ovation as well !

  93. acorn
    October 14, 2022

    Once again the Treasury, via its Central Bank, has had to bail-out the greedy Banksters, that were using derivatives and debt funding (leverage) to maximise their profits. This is the price that UK citizens have to pay for the Conservative Party de-regulating the UK finance industry into a Casino economy.

    We now have pension funds that have become “speculator funds” rather than “fully hedged funds” in Minsky terms. The next step down from speculator funds is Ponzi funds, these have insufficient cash income to cover their repayments on principal debt and income account liabilities. Only the magic money tree can bail us out of this neoliberal ideological mess domestically; but, how many imports the Pound could afford to buy, is another question.

    1. IanT
      October 14, 2022

      I could have sworn that the problems with private sector DB pensions was caused by Gordon Brown and his sneaky little change to dividend rules? Not much remarked at the time but it took about Ā£100B out of the DB game over the years. Then of course, there has been the wonder of QE and zero interest rates, effectively forcing funds to take risks to get the required returns. Public sector DB pensions don’t have the same problem of course, they just get paid straight from the Government’s ‘petty cash’ account.

    2. miami.mode
      October 14, 2022

      Warren Buffett in 2002 “Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction, carrying dangers that, while now latent, are potentially lethal.ā€ Long-Term Capital Management in 1998, US mortgages in 2008/9 and now UK pension funds. What more do regulators need to learn?

    3. Peter2
      October 14, 2022

      Keep on printing advises acorn.

  94. turboterrier
    October 14, 2022

    With today’s news there is no hope.
    When the nutters get their person into No 10 then those aggrieved will pay them back with interest. What a motley collection of children we have representing us.
    As for the appointment of Hunt , words fail me…All the promises made and never delivered all with a 80+ majority.
    We have become the laughing stock of the civilised world.
    These people are guilty of gross dereliction of duty and honour.

  95. Stephen Reay
    October 14, 2022

    The biggest mistake made by Truss was not communicating her plans to the cabinet and then not sharing the information with Mp’s.
    The next problem was not getting the plan reviewed by the OBR.
    She and Kawangtang were like bulls in a china shop , she should have taken her time to set the plan out , but she blew it. Would her trickle down economics have worked? We will never know. What we do know is that top economist’s said her plan would fail as tickle down economics historically have always failed.

    1. glen cullen
      October 14, 2022

      I liked her approach and that she was eager to get things done ā€¦.I think the real issue is with half of the Tory MPs ā€“ The party needs to realise that the parliamentary party is divided into two schools

    2. rose
      October 14, 2022

      There is no such economic theory as “trickle down economics”. Name us one economist who has advanced it. It is a left wing straw man.

      Chancellors do not share their budgets with the Cabinet because we have very strict rules on insider dealing and quite right too. Have you ever complained about any other Chancellor revealing his budget/statement on the day, in the House, having gone there with the secret document concealed within its historic red box?

      As for the forecasts of the OBR, look up Sir John’s assessment of them in the beginning of July. He described them as dangeous, and so they would be if they seriously mislead a Chancellor.

      The PM’s fatal mistake was to give in to the first demand, to drop the 5p cut in the top rate. It was neither here nor there in money terms, but an important simplification of the tax system, and a fairer rate. A clear direction of travel and 12 years overdue. After her concession, it was chip, chip, chip until we now have no Chancellor and soon no PM. Then no Conservative Party and no hope of prosperity. A very black time, reflected in the PM’s dress.

    3. graham1946
      October 15, 2022

      Trickle down has never worked anywhere. The main aim of the rich is to keep their money and privileges and they always do this. Greed is the watchword. The poorest always give the biggest amount to charity in relation to their income and do the most free work. The widow’s mite story is still true today.

  96. StephenS
    October 14, 2022

    I find it incredible how often the BBC allowed pundits and contributors alike to pedal the line that trickle down economics are a discredited bound to fail proposition, without adding that the current orthodoxy has given us such a long period of low growth and under performance and high tax burdens. Hardly an unmitigated success so why are we seemingly prohibited from trying something different?

    I suppose even the best products can fail when your salespeople are poor performers. Kwarteng and Truss have been very poor advocates it has to be said.

    I fail to see why a plan to hike corporation tax couldnt have been mitigated graduallyā€¦.allow and increase to say 23% and then taper it down every year if you had to do a turbulence led u-turn. It appears that Trusss couldnā€™t even dig her heels in and fight for that and impose it. Itā€™s a total roll over and a total debacle in terms of her authority and credibility.

  97. Stred
    October 14, 2022

    Time to give up with this lot SJR. Resign and become the first Reform MP.

  98. Mickey Taking
    October 14, 2022

    Returning to the percentage margin that won seats in 2019.
    70+ seats won with up to 5% margin.
    143 seats won with up to 10% margin.
    217 seats won with up to 15% margin.
    275 seats won with up to 20% margin.

    Sir John – be afraid, be very afraid. I suggest you remind your colleagues, unless they mostly want to leave politics.

  99. glen cullen
    October 14, 2022

    A good day to bury bad news ā€“ This government has today elevated 26 new Peers to the House of Lordsā€¦.like we havenā€™t got enough

Comments are closed.