The consultation of members of the Wokingham Conservative Association put Boris Johnson in first place, a little ahead of Rishi Sunak. Penny Mordaunt came a poor third. Boris has many strong supporters whilst more Rishi enthusiasts support their man because he is not Boris.
Amongst constituents there was also much more interest in Boris and Rishi than Penny. Both men attracted strong support and evoked strong antipathy from others. Amongst constituents a few  more favoured Rishi, but this seems to be particularly true of people who do not express Conservative values and outlooks and are unlikely to given the attitudes they do express.
Boris and Penny answered my questions about the economic issues but Rishi did not. I look forward to an early statement from him on how he will fight recession whilst continuing the work the Bank and Treasury have done to bring inflation down.
As you now know MPs did not get a vote between the candidates, nor will members. All now rests on Rishi making good judgements of how to pilot the economy and how to build support with the party and the public for what he wants to do.
October 25, 2022
Good morning.
And start to clearing up the mess HE created.
Nicely sidestepping a general election.
No matter how often they rearrange those deckchairs, the SS Conservative Party is going down.
October 25, 2022
Hopefully, the smaller patriotic (and democratic) parties will come to some agreement before the next GE so we all have a viable alternative to the pro-EU parties. We do not want this destruction of democracy, which started with Heath and has continued ever since.
I still can’t understand why Parliament passed the Benn Act. Surely it was treasonable to prioritise a foreign government over our own, or was it carefully worded to avoid that charge? Makes no odds, as Parliament KNEW it gave the EU a huge advantage over the UK (made the UK a vassal actually), but allowed it anyway. So much for working in the interests of the UK. All those voting in favour of that bill should be removed from UK politics, permanently!
October 25, 2022
+1 and exiled from the country.
October 25, 2022
Mark,
Everyone knows constitutionally the Tories can contunue in power for 2 years. We also know the opposition will always demand an early election.
As I noted a few days ago the opinion polls show a Tory defeat if an election were held now. Things will woresen over the coming months, with inflation staying high, interest rates going higher, house prices falling and unemploymnet rising. The wonderful NHS will continue to fail too.
Given all this the MPs should have put BoJo back in place to reduce the damage at an election – a portion of the masses would still vote for him whether that is sensible or not. Then call an election in early 2023 and watch Labour struggle in power.
October 25, 2022
PeteB
Don’t you think the public should ask more questions about the NHS and its constantly reported failures? We are told they are currently and will get more money than ever; a predicted extra ÂŁ1m per week by 2024. Is this government failure or NHS management failure? We pay NHS pilgrims (nurses doing union duties and not nursing to look after staff interests), and we pay for diversity officers and HR staff to make sure staff have correct routes for disputes, yet we are told by the papers yesterday that the Kent baby hospital failures were down to bullying and harassment of staff lowering morale? So were the staff reporting these accusations or just after the case to divert blame?
We accept the statement ‘nurses are having to use food banks’ without asking which nurses what grade, how many hours per week are they working, do they have children and a partner, and what benefits are they receiving on top of their salary? We accept blanket statements with no other facts. There was an unemployed woman and child in the Express yesterday saying she couldn’t buy her son a Christmas present, on investigation she did the same thing the year before and got lots of free gifts and fundraising. It’s just lazy reporting; we weren’t told what was her total benefits package, whether the child’s father was providing support and if not, why not? Her two older children were they living in the home? There are carer jobs a plenty so why can’t she work it didn’t say?
October 25, 2022
I think you mean another ÂŁ1bn each week – not a trifling ÂŁ1 million?
October 25, 2022
Yes I did thank you MT it should be ÂŁ1 billion per week!
October 25, 2022
Quite.
Too many starving people and think of the children decisions all taken at face value
October 25, 2022
I 100% agree with you.
Maybe they are banking on PM Sunak to turn things around and keep Johnson in reserve for hustings. Who knows ? I also think the aim is to save as much of the Parliamentary Tory Party as possible.
October 25, 2022
I truly hope the Tory party is destroyed for what it has dishonestly done to the country.
October 26, 2022
I still blame this government for NOT doing brexit with WTO
October 26, 2022
Hope, are you standing in the next election for Reform? You’re so passionate about it that you could divert your attention to campaigning. The SNP started from 6 out of 72 in 1997. Reform won’t get very far because they spread their attention too wide though.
October 25, 2022
Or, as is also predicted by analysts, inflation has peaked, wholesale gas prices are tumbling and guilt yields are already falling.
Economic recovery by Q3/23 – Sunak declares victory and Conservatives become the official opposition. (They are not going to win a GE whatever happens)
October 25, 2022
So many are side stepping the issue of the mess he created.
October 25, 2022
His green revolution, high taxation, high inflation mess
October 25, 2022
oh dear you still remember! Go with the flow like the rest.
October 25, 2022
@Mark B; “And start to clearing up the mess HE created.”
Well yes Sunak was first elected to parliament in 2015, helping to give David Cameron a majority, Sunak also supported Brexit, so yes in some ways “HE” did (help to) create this mess. “HE” also, as shown by research from the University of Warwick, chose to create HMT VAT policies in the summer of 2020 that directly caused a 8 to 17% rise in Covid infections, further helping to bring about the second lock-down (during the 2020-21 autumn/winter).
I don’t think I made any secrete that I disagreed with Sunak over his so called “Eat out to help out” scheme, but I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, that he has learnt from his mistakes, unlike you Mark, who just seem to grow ever more bitter at your own errors of judgment, as posted to this site each day before, during and after both Brexit and the pandemic. Sunak might have made one mistake, you made, and still make, them daily.
“the SS Conservative Party is going down”
As for a general election, indeed the sail training ship ‘HMS Johnson’ is listing, and like the Mary Rose, it was always eventually going to due to fundamental design flaws! But are you so bitter that the populist right appear to have lost control of the party (once again) that you want a general election, one that would not only totally finish off HMS Johnson but perhaps HMS Brexit too; whatever the perceived harm you feel done by Sunak it will be nothing to the real harm done by a Starmer lead govt, and likely far worse than what we saw back in 1997 with Blair after the Tory populist right had pulled the same stunt.
The ‘SS Conservative Party’ sails on, as it always will, being the Hospital Ship is it…
October 25, 2022
Given how Boris betrayed us all in relation to Brexit, taxes, energy, migration and everything else, I had no hopes that his second coming would be any better. But Sunak will be even worse if that’s possible!
Sunak is an idiot who knows NOTHING about economics and is the man responsible for the problems we face today. He will be a complete failure and the party will be destroyed at the next election.
Oh well, it’s what they deserve. Maybe we can then finally have a genuinely patriotic party!
October 25, 2022
He has no life experience and views our country from a foreign culture.
October 25, 2022
Even with a majority of 80, there is a possibility that enough Conservative malcontents may be prepared to abstain or vote with the opposition if there was a call for a general election.
Some MPs may be in safer seats. Some may not be too bothered by loss of their seat if they are able to make a point or bring down their rivals
It’s a long shot – but the pressure for a general election will not go away. Faction fighting will continue.
October 25, 2022
“All now rests on Rishi making good judgements of how to pilot the economy” – indeed to pilot it out of the mess that he largely created with his extended lockdowns, his vast tax increases, his vast government waste, the incompetently structured NHS, his serial manifesto ratting, his money printing, currency debasing and inflation. Also his support for the expensive and intermittent energy agenda and the war on plant and tree food.
Sunak supporters keep saying how Sunak really understands economics and finance. A man who taxes people to death in order to buy other people restaurant meals (Eat out to Help out) or to pay people to sit at home not working for many months does not even have a basic understanding of the economy.
He also seems to support the vast interventionist government market rigging we have healthcare, schools & universities, energy, housing, transport, banking…
The Telegraph leader today suggest Sunak has “long shown a commitment to core Tory principals” well not alas in any of his actions as Chancellor. He is also surely the man mainly responsible together with the BBC and the BoE for bringing down Boris and Truss and now Boris again.
October 25, 2022
Well said LL.
Sunak will reap what he sowed. It will be a bleak harvest. Labour/SNP dream team in power after next election and UK economy killed. Joy.
October 25, 2022
Depressing but probably right. Sunak supporters keep praising him for predicting the problem of the Truss agenda. But he was the person who created the mess that the final straw of the Kwasi budget finally brought down.
The real error of the Kwasi budget was not to make/announce all the expenditure cuts needed (like HS2, the lunacy of net zero and the endless other government waste) at the same time as the minor tax “cuts”. They were not even really even tax “cuts” just cancellations of Sunak’s idiotic proposed tax increases in the main. We still would have been hugely over taxed under Kwasi/Truss.
October 25, 2022
Sunak says he will implement 2019 manifesto! How can he when he is ratting on NO tax rises! He wants to serve with integrity! Does he understand the word?
October 26, 2022
+1 and ratted on net the triple lock.
October 25, 2022
Agreed.
‘He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword’ is a well known saying; indicating that ‘He who got to power by subverting the electoral process shall be overthrown in his own turn’. This was how the Western Roman Empire crumbled.
October 25, 2022
It’s already dead. See Tim Morgan’s Surplus Energy Economics blog. Because of limits to growth and declining oil production, we passed the all-time peak in prosperity in about 2018. Prosperity per capita peaked much earlier, i.e. in the late 20th.C. From now on, it’s at most a steady-state economy or more likely we face slow de-growth, i.e. the biggest political challenge in my lifetime. Tim Watkins on the Conscious of Sheep suggested a least worst approach in 2020 but has had no takers because politicians haven’t had the courage to tell the electorate the truth.
One politician, Macmillan, told the truth in 1959: ‘You’ve never had it so good’. But that was easy because it was electorally popular. This time it’s much more difficult but at least try to stop any mention of a return to 2% per year growth because that’s fiction. Backbenchers can explore this at all levels even if it’s trickier for a government to admit it.
The banking system needs changing. The current one creates money by issuing loans and these are later repaid with interest.
Mmm, maybe this problem explains the development of CBDCs, now advocated by the IMF. But those will give us a tyranny like China. So adopt a different system.
October 25, 2022
Commitment to Tory principals perhaps, but not necessarily to Tory principles.
October 25, 2022
NICE ONE – it does ring true.
October 25, 2022
Ll
Boris and Liz brought themselves down they needed no help
October 25, 2022
What a heartless comment billy.
They are decent people who give their time to give political service.
October 27, 2022
Peter 2,
I know it is a big ask for you to look something up. But is yu look at who are the biggest trading partners of the US and respectivly it is Canada and Mexico. But having you giving an inforemed opinion I know is a bit steep. But it is always worth aspiring even for you .
October 26, 2022
It seems that a lot of no 11s advisors during the party-time period are going back in to work for Sunak; let’s hope he cracks down on them drinking alcohol on the job and taking the p***.
October 25, 2022
Actually Sunak only went along with Destructive Boris.
However a weak person never makes a good PM.
See Liz Truss, who had a Lot of the right ideas and policies.
October 25, 2022
or the more self-interested will keep powder dry for the day opportunity presents – and it did !
October 25, 2022
It’s a WEF government.
Makes China look democratic.
October 25, 2022
PM on Radio 4 yesterday had Lord (Gus) O’Donnell supporting the idea that we could not have European levels of public services and US tax levels. Well we have tax rates massively higher than the US one (the US ones are also far too high) and they are still increasing by the day. Plus we have public services that are generally fairly dire, misdirected and still declining. Needless to say he also, like the BBC wants to get back into at least the EU single market.
Just vaguely half competent public services would be nice Gus but this seems to be beyond our Civil Services. Emergency ambulances that do not leave the elderly on a floor for 12+ hours for example or coerce young people into taking ineffective and dangerous vaccines when they had no need at all to do so, or police that tackled & deterred real crime for a change, or a border force that stopped and deterred illegal immigration.
The presenter of The Papers on the BBC Sunday has, it seems, been suspended for showing her uncontained delight & glee at the fact that Boris had withdrawn from the contest to be PM. Thus showing the typical BBC bias yet again. The program is not now available on Iplayer. Too biased even for the BBC it seems.
October 25, 2022
I’ve just seen that clip and yes while no fan of Boris it is outrageous. However, as I’ve said many times before we’ve had 12 years of alleged Conservatives and they could have and should have done more to stop this runaway train of trial by media and political agenda as set by the media.
I think they’ll give Sunak an easy ride though.
October 25, 2022
The suspended one has form. In a recent by election she was filmed in the constituency berating (on camera) one of the candidates for “letting the Tories in”. She wouldnt let go of this emotional censure and went on and on. It dominated the report.
October 25, 2022
The rest of the beeb do it rather more subtly – she has a lot to learn.
October 25, 2022
LL,
I am convinced the Tory party are trying to make us take a massive drop in our living standards and are determined to achieve our cultural destruction.
BOE Bailey wants us to accept a drop in living standards and the Tory MP nutters still saying we should accept hardship for Ukraine! No we should not accept anything for the corrupt Ukraine or back handers for Bidenâs US help.
Guido has pointed out the left wing socialists in OBR etc. Get rid of of ONS, OBR and the other useless quangos.
I have got to the point I will actively drop leaflets for any party in my area that will oust a Tory.
October 25, 2022
@LL; “Well we have [INCOME] tax rates massively higher than the US”
I’ve corrected that for you @Lifelogic, and indeed you are correct, the US does have far lower INCOME tax rates but families and employers have very much higher fixed costs elsewhere or as a result of not socializing some services. Indeed those fixed costs have lead to some massive corporate failures in the past, either outright bankruptcies or filling for Cheaper 11 protection.
“just vaguely half competent public services would be nice”
But who is to judge, surely not those who can’t make even vaguely half competent public comments in the bloggarph?! đ
You complain about the failings of ambulances, the police and the boarder force but what do you expect when YOU and others demand yet ever more tax cuts?!
“Thus showing the typical BBC bias yet again ..//.. Too biased even for the BBC it seems”
Make your mind up! First you claim the BBC condones bias then you claim, almost in your next breath, the exact opposite -and if no other UK broadcaster ever shows political bias, accidentally or by design…
If anything the incident and its aftermath you cite proves the BBC is not bias, or at least management will not stand for presenters showing -perceivable- bias, otherwise the person in question would still be on-air and most likely inline for promotion (as happened with at least one more recent TV news channel).
October 25, 2022
You miss the point, I have no choice but to pay for the appalling BBC to indoctrinate the nation. Taxes have risen hugely public service are dire and still declining.
October 26, 2022
@LL; No, it is you LL who misses the point, as usual.
“I have no choice but to pay [for the BBC]”
Nonsense, there is no law that says you have to watch TV, just as no one is forced to drive a motor car on the public highways and thus pay VED. Both are totally discretionary ‘taxes’.
No one is saying the BBC doesn’t have issues, it does, but then so do ITN/Ch4 and GBN, as does Sky & Ch5, some displaying far more blatant bias than the BBC ever does accidentally. I’ve asked this before, but received no answers from their dotting audience, when was the last time GBN invited (for example) either Jeremy Corbyn or Arthur Scargill on to give a fair and balanced interview, or have a bar-side chat with Mr Farage?
October 25, 2022
Jerry it is possible to cut money given to services and see them improve.
Not easy but possible
October 26, 2022
@NS; That has been the wisdom, and govt policy, for much of the last 43 years, so were are these improved public services?
October 26, 2022
Not just income tax Inheritance tax and the over all tax demands. So correction not needed.
October 26, 2022
@LL; I agree that Inheritance tax is unjust, the accumulated wealth has already been taxed.
October 26, 2022
In the States I read “1 Aug 2022 â Foreign corporations and non-resident alien individuals are subject to a yearly 4% tax on their US-source gross transportation income (USSGTI)” Does the UK have that?
In 2021, President Biden proposed that Congress raise the corporate rate from 21% to 28%. Corporations, like other businesses, may be eligible for various tax credits which reduce federal, state or local income tax. The largest of these by dollar volume is the federal foreign tax credit. A tax deduction is allowed at the federal, state and local levels for interest expense incurred by a corporation in carrying out its business activities.
I believe the USA has a local payroll tax too.
October 26, 2022
+1 Jerry!
October 25, 2022
Tories were going to sort out the BBC 12 years ago and false promises to do so ever after. All talk no action
October 25, 2022
+1
October 25, 2022
I’ve just got 2 reminders to renew the shocking rip-off TV licence. ÂŁ159 to fund Strictly does gay – Lineker the wisdom and Left makes sense you know it does.
October 26, 2022
I do not watch the BBC for its cultural destructive rubbish and bias unscientific climate change rot that has now ruined so many programmes from Attenborough to Countryfile.
The last boss said he was going to sort it out! Still has not done anything of substance.
October 26, 2022
The BBC should be concentrating on energy efficiency programs in the home. How long to have your water boiler on for a day to keep hot water as you need it, lagging, and lag your loft yourself with small funds? Most housing associations and council housing were funded by the government to be lagged. I recently read about a man who died in a falling down house worth ÂŁ250,000 so sad that you can’t trust equity release funders, it is a shame that social housing trusts can’t help with this and then take their cut out of the property when it sells.
The BBC should be promoting cooking programs for the home with women chefs who cook with a budget of ÂŁ70 per week for a family of 4; try that without your fancy cupboard stock ingredients, Oliver! A crock pot show with five slow pots on the go with different healthy meals, one week with a chicken, one week with no meat, and one week with minced beef. Batch cooking in the oven with food that will keep several days in the fridge and a couple that will also freeze. My Nan and Mum could have done it with less money and did and we had vegetables every evening meal.
October 25, 2022
JPMorgan president says a recession may be price to pay to beat inflation, market bottom not in yet. – Recent CNBC interview.
Better make it short, but severe, than a long drawn out painful episode. If you go into the next GE with a limp economy and large deficits,Tories will be toast. Strengthen sterling, by putting up interests rates quickly, and take the pain.
PS. DO please get a Brexit Benefits cabinet secretary, there must be many advantages we can find before the next GE, and then shout about them!
October 25, 2022
+1
But asJR refers to in his Telegraph article tories have upset sooo many grassrooters. The ones who organise locally etc. Cameron started it. Difficult to campaign without them.
And now with not getting to vote on this recent placement. Well!
Tice is publicly thanking tories for all his new members.
HonestlyâŠwhen our former Tory MP was here..it was utterly wonderful.
The votes that man earned and kept. He brought us prosperity and joy.
Very different now!
October 25, 2022
prosperity and joy! My memory has gone, I really don’t recall anything like it apart from ‘ You’ve never had it so good’. And downhill from then on.
October 25, 2022
Peter Wood
Dispite all the assurances at the last General Election that candidates would be pro Brexit, it would appear that a high percentage of the Tory members are the exact opposite. Funny that?
The selection process is a joke as is their immigration policies.
October 25, 2022
Well said, turbo. When will they stop deliberately deceiving us, just to get votes. They must realise we would NOT vote for their real agenda.
October 25, 2022
So long as the Northern Ireland Protocol and the EU/UK Trade & Cooperation Agreement exists, Iâd question if there are in fact any real brexit Tory MPs
October 26, 2022
âWhen it becomes serious, you have to lie.â said someone of importance in the EU.
âIn a time of deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.â G. Orwell
Fair elections?
October 25, 2022
@ Peter Wood : Or alternatively realise that a hard Brexit was a really bad idea.
October 25, 2022
“Hard Brexit”, Peter, was manipulative language like “cliff edge”, which was devised to pull the wool over people’s eyes. There is only Brexit or no Brexit. These two coups we have recently undergone are attempts at no Brexit.
October 25, 2022
Rose
Please explain we are living with it
October 25, 2022
PvL – The destination of the EU is much too “United States of Europe” for me, their are those that it would be best to reform the EU from the inside, but there is no indication that would/could happen.
Did Cameron actually manage to get ANY movement from the EU when he did his tour prior to the 2016 referendum?
October 25, 2022
No he didn’t, the stupid EU people wouldn’t budge, so Leavers stuck firmly with OUT !
October 25, 2022
@Know-Dice : I’m not suggesting you ( as UK) re-enter the EU, you don’t belong there. I’m suggesting a less hard Brexit. Countries which are in the EEA or EFTA are also outside the EU.
Even rightwing papers like the Times and the Telegraph recently started recognising the economic damage of the current hard Brexit, while at some other places the “B-word” is still taboo. You’ll hear national politicians talk about the economic damage by Ukraine, pandemic etc. but ignoring the damage that most foreign authoritive sources point at: economic damage by Brexit. Sooner or later your whole country will realise.
October 25, 2022
Or accept too many traitors in HoC that should be exiled from the country or forced to live in the EU. Time for article 16 or clean break.
October 26, 2022
Hope
Why, don’t you argue your case instead of using silly words like traitors
October 25, 2022
PVL,
We made the classic, rookie careless error; our naive politicians didn’t follow the old adage ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’. We got a VERY bad deal. Why so? Our political leaders didn’t prepare, they tried to negotiate from a position of known weakness, and were, politely, duplicitous.
It’s harming both parties now, so foolish.
October 26, 2022
The EU imposed its handcuffs and “Treaty of Versaille” on us with a lot of helpers.
The public were not allowed to vote on it. The UK was betrayed by its so called “friends” in the EU and its own citizens in positions of power who were determined to thwart a clean break.
Deal with the tyranny in the EU first, we have enough here.
October 25, 2022
Peter v L
We have not had a âhard Brexitâ. Some would argue we have not had âa Brexitâ at all. In any case, we voted to Leave, not for âa Brexitâ.
October 25, 2022
The bad idea is to elect career politicians with only a degree in political theory. In or out of the EU is trivial compared to that.
October 25, 2022
Peter , The EU is a defunct bureaucracy and we were right to withdraw from it . How long it will survive is the big question . I closed my businesses in Paris , Brussels , Amsterdam and Frankfurt due to its idiotic interference and concentrated on the USA and Japan instead ; the result was incredibly different and profitable .
October 25, 2022
Jacob Rees-Mogg already had that job and he ended up having to ask the readers of a national newspaper for help, presumably because he couldn’t find any himself.
Yesterday’s interview with former Conservative donor Guy Hands is informative on this subject.
October 25, 2022
Also worth watching “The Brexit effect: how leaving the EU hit the UK” on the FT YouTube channel.
October 26, 2022
Peter, Rees Mogg, listened, acted and attempted to follow through on Boris’ and the Conservative Party’s promises to take back control. Make the UK sovereign again by helping to remove rules and regulations that put British businesses under pressure. Laws that have not been actively saved by a government minister will automatically be switched off on 31 December 2023 under Rees-Moggâs bill. What is wrong with that? Our parliament then decides for ourselves which ones need rewriting to specifically suit the UK and our business needs for growth and development without being strangled or swaddled too much at birth.
October 26, 2022
If only Rees Mogg was competent and had a clue it might have worked?
October 26, 2022
Which can be translated to… I don’t agree with Jacob Reec Mogg
You old democrat billy.
October 25, 2022
Peter, I wonder if Boris would take on a levelling up, brexit benefits role after all he does have something to prove. We’ve only been out officially since Jan 2021 and we’ve only recently dropped our payments to the EU. He is well-liked in the red-wall areas, he personally made them promises to level up and get the Brexit benefits, we are seeing some with jobs coming back factories re-shoring in the UK, the Midlands is booming, with pay in the private sector there rising. He needs to communicate what levelling up he achieved, what jobs did he move North so that the South isn’t sinking with too many people and business wanting to go there as that’s where its all happening, the best subsidised public transport, the better paid jobs, the big companies HQs, the political base etc.
October 25, 2022
Peter Wood
Please outline the Brexit advantages you would like to see?
October 25, 2022
No technical research sharing, No GPS sharing, No Interconnects, No military cooperation ( not that the EU ever does anything that might upset somebody), No fishing access at all, no meat exports (we should pay what our farmers need to feed us). No student visas.
October 26, 2022
Mickey
We already have all the military collaboration in NATO, leaving the research has proven to be a mistake
October 25, 2022
The economic answer is easiest: NET cash payment to EU budget was about ÂŁ10 Billion, Trade DEFICIT with EU in 2019 ÂŁ 77 Billioon. Since 2019 its been dropping. Rest of world we have a trade surplus.
Why would we PAY for a trade deficit with a neighbouring economy?
October 26, 2022
Because world trade works usually mostly between neighbours
October 26, 2022
Like China and America
Hilarious
October 27, 2022
Figures from Trading Economics
Netherlands $37.02B UK exports 2021 $41.62B 2021 UK imports
Germany $40.96B export 2021 $75.51B 2021 import
France $26.36B export 2021 $30.65B 2021 import
Italy $12.17B export 2021 $25.91B 2021 import
China $20.89B export 2021 $91.16B 2021 import
USA $59.89B export 2021 $59.69B 2021 import
Switzerland $39.65B export 2021 $10.93B import
Growing markets for exports.
Singapore $7.17B UK export 2021 $1.91B UK import
Indonesia $943.17M export 2021 $2.05B import
Thailand $1.81B export 2021 $3.56B import
October 27, 2022
Peter 2
The two largest trading partners with the US are Canada and Mexico.
Like the EU is our largest trading partners.
Can’t you comment without being rude?
October 28, 2022
Bill and we are one of the EU’s most significant export opportunities, and they should treat us more like the excellent customers we are than disrespect our tiny little Country.
October 25, 2022
I donât know.
It all seems jolly strange to me.
And such timing!
October 25, 2022
Very strange. We should be back in the single market and customs union before the election.
It will be open season foe sub continent visas and turning a blind eye to the channel invasion.
The remainers have brought off a very crafty coup and now we can continue our decline.
Parliament has been sidelined and so has the electorate. Oblivion looms soon.
Good.
October 25, 2022
It,
No MPs have helped. Who would trust May or Hunt?
October 25, 2022
I doubt that Sunak has any intention of taking us back into any EU institutions as he was a Brexiteer.
In any event, doing so would end any chance he would have of retaining the Red Wall seats and would irrevocably split the party asunder.
At present both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to maintaining Brexit.
Any change would be a very big deal for either party and would cause a huge political upheaval.
October 25, 2022
Except Sunak supported Brexit. And is on record as being anti-lockdowns
October 25, 2022
Very good JR article in the.Telegraph.
Best comment mentions tories needing a âforest of Redwoodsâ
As most of us on here constantly point out!
October 25, 2022
Curborough
Well that is down to the powers to be in the party that design and manage the selection process for potential candidates. Obviously the background research is not very thorough and wrong questions are being asked.
This last few months has highlighted the weaknesses in the whole operational procedures of the party. That is of course if they have any in place.
October 25, 2022
Cuibono
Thank god that will not happen
October 25, 2022
Well, only God knows what WILL happen.
Not mere mortals.
Anyway..it was a recommendation for Tory success..not a random prediction!
October 25, 2022
Quite God forbid someone who lets you air your opinions gets any power.
Save us from those free speech zealots eh.
October 25, 2022
The average unit energy price caps will be 34.0p/kWh for electricity and 10.3p/kWh for gas it seems.
Yet bulk natural gas prices in the UK (before taxes and all the energy market rigging) are now down to 180p per Therm which is 6.14p per KWH. You can generate electricity from this gas for about 12p per KWH. Coal or wood is even cheaper. So where is all the difference of 22p for electricity and 4p for gas going? The high energy prices have little to do with Putin and far more to do with rigged markets, the mad net zero religion and taxes. Putin’s vile war is just a convenience excuse for many years of a grossly incompetent energy policy driven by a mad religion.
So Is Sunak going to address this?
October 25, 2022
you mean how will he direct the profit where he likes it to go?
October 25, 2022
Rishi is the person who caused all the economic damage. You canât now hope he fixes it.
The current consensus in central Government has fallen apart (1) the vaccine is needed but given the evidence very few people want it (2) net zero carbon is good for us but has caused an energy crisis and the highest inflation for 40 years (in fact the real calculation means the highest ever) (3) QE is good for the economy but has resulted in the rises in asset prices that has alienated the entire economic class under the age of 30 (4) that Government spending on benefits and smoothing over crises has led to the highest taxes ever (5) a large body of politicians and civil servants overriding the Brexit referendum multiple times and will scupper the withdrawal bill (6) Final salary Government pensions are a priority yet the public pensions have led to pensioner poverty.
HOW do you think Rishi who has been at the centre of this political, economic and social disaster is going to help, apart from supporting more propaganda and spin to try to hide it from the voters.
Do you still honestly think that the public are not aware of all of this?
Are MPs from all parties whispering in Parliament âDo you think they noticed?â
October 25, 2022
Well perhaps he will realise what an appalling mess he has made and realise the error of his ways?
October 25, 2022
Are you saying MPâs had no idea how he is going to pilot the economy before declaring their support. His warning shot has already been sounded. âWe. (The royal we) are in unprecedented economic timesâ. We all know where the cuts will fall. Very few cuts will fall where the electorate wish. None will fall on the cost of government and the wasted billions. None will fall on MPâs expenses and the gravy train, or the 5 million plus a day on legal aid. Lawyers will get richer defending those that wish our country harm whilst we seem paralysed by the EHCR and the Human Rights Act. Devolved parliaments along with their staff and gold plated pensions all round will grow and thrive, no cuts there. Today after one second as PM ,Fishi, an incredibly rich man will be entitled to his ÂŁ114,000 a year pension, beats my ÂŁ6,000. But we are all in it together. The House of Lords will expand to look after failed has beens and continue to frustrate the government and endeavour to get us back with the EU. Expenses will increase and immigration will continue. We will still pay the EU despite Brexit. Still give away foreign aid from borrowed money. The cuts will all go to the governed. None to those that govern. Expect the triple lock to be the first casualty whilst Liz runs off with her ÂŁ114,000. This is including local government digging their sticky fingers deeper and deeper in your pockets and frittering it away. All whilst telling you âwe are in unprecedented economic timesâ. Remember the words of Clint Eastwood, âDonât pee down my back and tell me itâs raining.â I hope I am proved wrong, but I very much doubt it.
October 25, 2022
So what severance and pension will the Truss appointments yield to brighten their brief spell in the sun.?
October 25, 2022
I thought I read that Sunak said he would do whatever it takes to stop the boats and bring down net migration. It now seems widely reported that nothing will change!
Well, Westminster has now been renamed Wefminster in some quarters, so probably he is an open borders supporter?
October 25, 2022
Sunak first day in office –
The data below is for the 24-hour period 00:00 to 23:59 23 October 2022.
Number of migrants detected in small boats: 528
Number of boats detected: 10
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/migrants-detected-crossing-the-english-channel-in-small-boats
October 25, 2022
+1
Thanks for link!
October 25, 2022
They donât record the numbers that abscond when landed or those that travel by lorry or those that overstay âŠ
October 25, 2022
WETminster would also do nicely.
North South East West minster – who knows? The MPs haven’t a clue what the occupant will do, what the latest Poll vs Starmer, EU or LEAVE – stick or twist, SNP, N.Ireland. What a mess.
October 25, 2022
+1
Utter, utter horrible mess!
October 25, 2022
Most comments I’ve noted reading around are not in favour, with WEF get their man in place as wished at last quite a common quote.
A lot of anger also.
All about the money I see. How will this one tackle immigration, more of it I suppose.
October 25, 2022
Michelle: “How will this one tackle immigration,”
Rishi Sunak was planning on travelling to the USA to live.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61044847
He clearly has no emotional attachment to this country, it’s just a convienient stepping stone to ‘something better’.
October 25, 2022
Sunak and the Treasury he led, in collaboration with the Bank of England, are responsible for the economic mess we’re in. And now he intends digging the hole even deeper to slow the inflation HE caused by increasing taxes and punishing the private sector even more.
He can’t even command the support of most MPs (102 for Johnson and 90 for Mordaunt); the Party Membership rejected him 6 weeks ago and I expect would have done so again. So how on earth the LibCONs and Red Wall Tory MPs think he’s going to save their jobs in 2 years time is beyond me.
The Globalists have got their man. But there is nothing democratic about this.
October 25, 2022
Boris answered your questions about the economic issues, did he? Do tell us what he said. Given that he has never in the past uttered one word which suggests he knows or cares anything about the economy.
October 25, 2022
Gary. We’ve heard little of any use from Starmer either.
October 25, 2022
If he has any sense he will keep his trap shut, and stick the foul-mouthed shut — sometimes silence is golden if you want electing.
October 25, 2022
Yes, please tell us which questions you asked and what the answers were. Given how Boris had behaved at PMQ these last few months I have a lot of difficulties imagining him answering anything âsensicalâ about the economy.
Or is it just a vacuous statement from Sir John to show he disapproves of Mr Sunak.
Reply I asked about responses to recession and deficits.
October 25, 2022
I look forward to participating in the ‘backstab a backstabber’ election.
October 25, 2022
The last three years have been deliberately designed to destroy this nation and subjugate its people. I expected it from scum Labour and the Marxist unions but not from the Tories who have truly shown their true colours
October 25, 2022
This country is in meltdown like the rest of the Western World (you think things are better in Canada or France or Italy or Germany or wherever – huh). We need to bring back our Judaeo-Christian past / the best values of our Greco-Roman past that gave us our parliaments, great universities, judicial systems, work ethic, sense of personal responsibility, being family-minded, patriotism, great cathedrals and beautiful little churches and wonderful cities such as Oxford and Venice and Salzburg and so on and great composers such as Bach and Mozart and great writers such as Shakespeare and the Renaissance and so on. This is the underlying problem.
October 25, 2022
Politics has to rest on strong, underlying cultural values / a strong civilisation otherwise it’s like building a house on sand (and out of sand ..).
October 25, 2022
Ed M,
“We need to bring back our Judaeo-Christian past…”
How exactly would you go about doing that?
October 25, 2022
‘How exactly would you go about doing that?’
– By TRYING to inspire people via Education, Arts, Media and the churches how our Judaeo-Christian (mixed with best of Greco-Roman) past was directly / indirectly responsible for … here goes …: Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the medieval Merchants who played big role in financing these great religious buildings and who patronised the arts, Knights, charming medieval churches all over the country with snow-covered belfries at Christmas, Christmas, Chivalry, Work Ethic, Being family-minded (and relying on family instead of state), the values of Jane Austen and Edmund Burke, Judiciary, Handel, Shakespeare, Oxford, Cambridge, Patriotism, Windsor Castle, Chaucer, Just War, Sir Isaac Newton (Biblical scholar), Maxwell, Faraday, the Renaissance, and so on.
October 25, 2022
Even our beer was made by the monks (and high quality, delicious beer) and honey too … And then you had the Franciscan friars who were renowned for being jolly / merry from historical accounts (not just from pub names) and who were troubadours and looked after the poor type thing and doing so asking for very little money in return.
And as a Monarchist, I love all this order in the country. From King down to humble Friar and Merchants and Knights and Farmers and Shopkeepers and Mum and Dad and family and Priests for spiritual matters———-and filled with a lot of great culture and arts and social values and so on (before the era of Communism / Marxism / Socialism / Wokism etc). I don’t mean to idealise but certainly a lot of things we’ve profoundly lost.
October 25, 2022
As I said some time ago, before you can Build Back Better, you first have to destroy that which currently exists.
đ
October 25, 2022
Tory MPs will be loyal the Tory party and to any leader no matter how it is installed, even a two headed alien from Mars would get their support if it claimed to be a Tory and was going to be good for them; but even if for example it went ahead and put the country back in the EU as a colony, and ordered that every street in England ( England only of course ) with names beginning with chosen letters was to be used to house all illegal immigrants and all others encouraged, the party would get away with it – its country and its true people are of no consequence, the MPs will stay in the party no matter what happens.
October 25, 2022
Nobody does it better?
October 25, 2022
If he can get us out of a mess , that’s good , but a man who is as privileged to send his children to Winchester , has a large smile on his face at all times and what is more, in the face of adversity, sends out a wrong message.
October 25, 2022
I don’t actually care how much money he has. It is a Labour supporters whine, and they seem to forget many Labour MP’s and leaders are not exactly off the council estate or factory floor, many privately educated….Corbyn!!!
What I care about is someone’s commitment to and love of this nation. Its people, its history, its culture which is daily under attack and getting worse. Sick and tired of it being all about the economy, ignoring everything else that makes a nation. An unstable nation forced into unnatural ‘communities’ is one built on sand and will never be at peace an ingredient needed for prosperity.
Sunak is not the one, I don’t think there is one in the Conservative party or at least not one who dare raise their head.
October 25, 2022
I care about how he got to stardom and what influences got him into the position he is in. I am unhappy that he stated his love for the conservative party , it is the country he should love. The so called labour whine is the democratic votable so called whine which may put labour in control. it is an observable fact.
October 25, 2022
@margaret; Did you (and others) make such comments on here about the privileged upbringing of Mr Johnson?…
I suspect Rishi Sunak has not forgotten his families, nor communities, roots and paths to success here in the UK, he knows that in the face of adversity, only hard work brings success, wealth and indeed perhaps ‘privilege’. Time will tell if he is brave enough, even allowed, politically to tell the majority here in the UK some hard home truths about work and success. Sunak would have grown up, before starting school and during holidays, within the Asian community, many of who had perhaps arrived in the UK quite literally with not much more than what they stood up in…
October 25, 2022
it is who influences him presently I am more focused on and his super rise to stardom and yes i think this will cause a greater labour vote/
October 26, 2022
@margaret; So why did you bring up his childhood?
October 25, 2022
Aye, yon Sunak had it real tough when he were growing up, Jerry! You know, his folks couldn’t hardly scrape the money together, to pay the fees for their little lad to go to Stroud prep school, then to fee-paying Winchester College. Life were reet grim for the Sunaks. No ‘privilege’ for that lad, no…
October 26, 2022
@Hat man; Nonsense, Rishi Sunak’s mother and father had ‘ordinary jobs’, his grandfather [1] had an ‘ordinary job’, unless people are now going to get reverse-snobbish about what ordinary jobs are, the wealth that paid those school fees came from hard work and choices made here in the UK…
[1] I read that Rishi’s grandmother pawned her wedding jewelry to fund their emigration flight to the UK
October 25, 2022
For me, Rishi Sunak ticks all the boxes. For a start he is religious – a Hindu who means it. I do not think he is going to try to bring back Suttee! There is a sort of international religion which is very moderate and very like Christianity. As a paid up Catholic I like that.
Second – Winchester, Oxbridge, Princeton, Goldman Sachs! Come on! That ticks all the right boxes. In addition he knows his way round parliament.
Third he is married to a billionairess with lots of lovely children. He lives like a rich man and must think in millions of quid. Which means he is well placed to deal with the covid and Cop 26fall-out. Some other politicians thought in terms of milk prices. We need an expert now.
His weakness as I see it is that he not very good at schmoozing people.
October 25, 2022
“There is a sort of international religion which is very moderate and very like Christianity. As a paid up Catholic I like that.”
As a ‘paid up’ Catholic,whatever that is, you don’t seem to be aware of indifferentism.
Next you will be telling us what a wonderful organisation the freemasons are.
October 25, 2022
Don’t forget he will also bring in the Asian and probably Chinese votes…
October 25, 2022
His other weakness is that he was a dire tax to death, borrow, print and currency debase Chancellor a serial manifesto ratter, a lock down enthusiast and someone totally incapable of cutting the vast government waste. He created the current mess by building further on the dire ever bigger state mess left by Brown, Osborne & Hammond. Just stop wasting money Sunak and deregulate hugely.
October 25, 2022
@ Mike Stallard ” Winchester, Oxbridge, Princeton, Goldman Sachs! Come on! That ticks all the right boxes” – It was to Stanford that Sunak went, never Princeton, but for some of us, each of those is tick strongly against.
Worse than all though is the smug, complacent, condescending assertion of being a “grown-up”, whatever that means exactly. Fortunately, we can know in some measure since apparently the grown-ups took over post Trump in the USA where things have been going very well!
October 25, 2022
Mike S
Iâm in a complete quandary as to what to make of Sunak. I agree with your thoughts and feel heartened, and then I hear of his wifeâs family connections to the WEF and feel nervous. Sunak has already put in place arrangements for Britcoin digital currency, which concerns me⊠so, I donât know what to think.
Thereâs something decidedly undemocratic about his coronation with no vote from ministers or public. Clearly, many people think the same. Watch and wait, I suppose. His choice of cabinet will be telling. If the likes of Gove and Elwood are chosenâŠwellâŠweâll see.
October 25, 2022
You are right Mike, Rishi does tick a lot of boxes, but he has got the tiger by the tail, and it is going turn round and bite him. Schmoozing is not one of his skills which makes him an excellent No2 and the reason we are in this mess is because Boris lost Dominic Cummings who was brilliant at all the nasty tasks to ensure discipline.
Every leader needs a Dominic who can ”sniff out” troublemakers before they can create any damage.
October 25, 2022
Forgiven the small matter of trying with a Green card to schmalstz the Yanks and gave up?
Old schools in UK are much better understood – the entry card …..not Ivy League territory.
October 25, 2022
These are truly the reasons why he shouldn’t be in the position he is . Not associating with the lower paid end of society and the positive discrimination against the lower salaries cuts off the majority of the population and takes him into richthink. I bet there will be a labour government next time due to this misplacing of conservative ideals. ( The clue is in the title conservative)
October 25, 2022
I love my party he said . I would have liked to hear him say i love my country.
October 25, 2022
He DID say UK is a great country (under his breath added ‘ for the well heeled).
October 25, 2022
I wish I could respond by telling you what my local association thought but it doesn’t give a damn about its members. I’m looking forward to the AGM.
Sunak should now be given a year to establish a clear polling lead over Starmer. If he doesn’t, he’ll need toppling. I’m sure he will understand.
Labour’s pleas for an early general election should be ignored. They weren’t so keen on the idea when Brown was given the premiership by Blair.
October 25, 2022
This is from our own wokingham residents round up.
ÂŁ5,000 awarded in Community Diversity Grants
Almost ÂŁ5,000 has been awarded to community organisations working with diverse communities in Wokingham Borough.
We’ve worked closely with the areaâs Residents Equality Forum (REF) to award these Community Diversity Grants.
All awarded grants went to groups which provide innovative and imaginative approaches to promoting inclusion, and to tackling inequality and discrimination locally.
Grants were awarded to Project Salama, Wokingham Windrush Generations, The Black Boy Joy Club, Ciannasmile, Jeff Hinds, Kaleidoscopic, Berkshire Again Racism, Lalita Mondkar and Bracknell Islamic Cultural Society.
See what I mean about frittering away money. All these groups should be self funding. Always money we donât have to give away to projects that nobody dare object to. Well I do. When they send me my council tax bill. I will read the words, âwe live in economically challenging timesâ as they shaft me for more money from a pension that has probably already be shafted by Fishi. This was probably dreamt up by a totally irrelevant, but expensive diversity and inclusivity manager that I am also paying for. Donât ask me for more next year. Get it from central government, which will probably reduce the amounts. Or get from cuts in the running of the council.
Yes I am a little bit miffed.
October 25, 2022
Sorry I just don’t see $unak as a supporter of small business, individual rights and responsibilities, or anybody less wealthy than ÂŁ1 billion. He’s transient and a schemer. He’ll wrap us in big government and corporatism. The perfect aperitif to Starmer who will oversee the big confiscation.
October 25, 2022
The Prime Minister has promised to have a ‘Cabinet of all the talents’. That would be a very small Cabinet. Sunak would have to recuse himself (I suppose he could write the Minutes) and the only people around of outstanding talent are Boris Johnson and John Redwood. Perhaps he could allow in those with a modicum of talent – welcome in Suella Braverman, Dr. Liam Fox, Nadhim Zahawi, Jacob Rees-Mogg, and possibly Christopher Chope. So far as I can see that is it. Even allowing in M.P.s from the Opposition would not expand it – the nearest an Opposition M.P. comes to talent is probably Liz Kendall who ran a good, principled campaign for Leader in 2015 against Jeremy Corbyn and got nowhere!
October 25, 2022
That made me laugh. Sometimes you read comments and think âI donât agree with that.â Sometimes you read comments and think âThey must be jokingâ. You must be joking.
October 25, 2022
Sunak and Johnson, both got us into this swamp and Mordaunt, ego bigger than talent. What an awful choice, When you have zero expectations the only way is up so we will see. I read one MP said he had been offered a job in return for supporting Sunak. So no regard for ability then. And so the circus moves on.
And Johnson letâs people down again, loyal supporters actually canvassing support when he made his statement.
Chope, Nadine and others are frankly stupid, if they cannot see through the total selfishness and cloud of BS that follows this man. I guess it was made clear he couldnât get a cabinet together so, once again rather than fight, he ran away.
Allegedly some MPs think getting wiped out in an election is a price worth paying to get their own back over his treatment. They should keep their motormouths shut.
Sunak may have been the assassin but he was only the messenger. The voters in two massive by election defeats reflecting much of the mood in the country had made it clear what needed to happen.
Chope, Dorris etc need to get out of Westminster and take their rainbow coloured glasses off.
October 25, 2022
Barak Obama – the US’ young and first non-white President oversaw 60 months of continuous growth because he had no majority in the American Houses of government and he could not enact any meaningful legislation.
Let us hope for a similar fate for our young and first non-white Prime Minister achieves the same. After all government which governs least, governs best.
October 25, 2022
@NS; By your rational both Mrs May and Jim Callaghan before should have been good Prime Ministers, whilst both Mrs Thatcher (certainly post 1983) and Mr Johnson should have been very poor … oh hang on, I see your point!
October 25, 2022
Can’t recall Callaghan Jerry but fairly sure living standards rose under Teresa May.
Her issue was that she called an election to try and neutralise the wing of the party I most agree with and failed.
October 25, 2022
We berate recent Ministers for holidaying while in small crisis – Callaghan had his time in the sun while the country downed tools. He never got to hear ‘Get a grip ‘ levelled at himself.
October 26, 2022
@MT; Callaghan was not on holiday, he was at a pre-arranged intergovernmental meeting with many other western leaders, disusing the many looming world economic and/or political crisis, hence his (miss-reported) comments on his return. It would have been more remiss of Callaghan not to have attended.
But my point, to NS, was about his comment regarding working majorities, sometimes when the majority is slim govt is far better. Indeed that is why Trump found it so hard to dismantle Obama’s health care reforms, because they owed as much to the Obama era GOP majorities on Capitol Hill as they did Obama in the White House.
October 25, 2022
The London Times, supposedly a “newspaper of record” has chosen not to publish my letter pointing out that a fantastic claim about the UK economy by journalist Clare Foges was more or less the opposite of the truth:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/10/24/ways-to-cut-spending/#comment-1350168
Likewise the Irish Times, also supposedly a “newspaper of record” has chosen not to publish my letter pointing out that Brexit has not wrecked the UK economy, as they claim, in fact so far it has had little economic impact:
https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/what-impact-is-brexit-having-on-the-uk-economy/?mc_cid=65680733ab&mc_eid=ee84cb59c6
The lies about the economic benefits of the EEC/EC/EU project were started in the 1960’s and are still going strong, but now that we have left might it not be a good idea for our government to tell the truth about it?
October 25, 2022
@Denis Cooper; Neither the London nor Irish Times are, or have ever been, ‘newspapers of record’ [1], both have always been filled with opinions, which makes me agree, why have they not chosen to print your OPINION?! đ
You were however factually incorrect, those lies about the economic benefits of a united Europe started in the 1950s during the days of the ECSC, if not before, Jean Monnet was suggesting such benefits post WW1 and during the interwar years.
[1] other than paid for announcements and Court circulars. The London “newspaper of record” actually being The Gazette.
October 25, 2022
You should check what is meant by a “newspaper of record”.
October 26, 2022
Take your own advise Mr Cooper!
October 26, 2022
Tell us your own definition then Jerry.
October 27, 2022
@P2; I have already done so, in my original reply to Denis, try reading it!
October 25, 2022
Difficult to know what people are complaining about. Boris governed as a geenish social democrat and Truss proposed to govern, after a couple of weeksâ attempt at low taxes, on policies the exact opposite of those she spent the summer campaigning for! It is perfectly true that if there is no appetite in parliament for any constraint on public spending then it wonât be possible to bring taxes down. Sir John made some good proposals for spending cuts yesterday which would be popular in the country. Letâs see what happens – but anyone whoâs interested in avoiding a Starmer / Sturgeon nightmare would do well to give all the support they can to Rishi Sunak.
October 25, 2022
Richard1 +1 I would however have put Boris and his team(Its a collective after all with shared responsibility) somewhere left of Labour while still contriving a return to the rule of unelected EU Commission. A sovereign democracy hurts the majority in Parliament because they are being asked to think and own our future
October 25, 2022
not at any cost – lessons have to be learned – or we stay in meltdown and a once proud nation sinks and is lost.
October 25, 2022
I didn’t want Boris back, I’m sorry but get past the cheery exterior and there didn’t seem to be any attention to detail or deep thought in his strategies. He might have been a good cheerleader/chairman with the right ‘team’ around him (to actually make longer term decisions) but clearly that didn’t happen the first time around and wasn’t going to happen this time either.
Penny Mordant had little experience, a pumped up CV that didn’t really stand close examination and her only plus point seemed to be that she wasn’t Boris or Rishi. She was a complete non-starter in reality and one can only wonder at the people who thought she was a viable candidate.
Which leaves Rishi Sunak. I will admit that his Investment Banker background doesn’t enamour him to me and nor do some of the things he’s done as Chancellor. What is hard to tell is how much of this was in reaction to decisions that Boris and those around him were taking. For instnce, the NI and Corp tax hikes seemed to be in reaction to the meaningless decision to throw another ÂŁ12-13B on the NHS bonfire for the next two years, which grew out of Boris’s commitment to ‘solve’ the care issue.
I’d very much like to believe that Rishi is what he say’s he is, which is certainly a bit to the right of Boris. As always, actions speak louder than words. He may not have a completely free hand in choosing his cabinet but let’s see what his general direction is before casting too many judgements. We’ve managed a test-run of shipping 12 illegal entry Albanians back home, so a quick win would be to get that number up into the hundreds and make it routine. Till then Juries out.
October 25, 2022
I am going to stay off posting on here for a while. It is true I am angry at what I perceive to be a coop. With even Tory MPâs not accepting the vote of the people anymore. We need positive thoughts and positive posts from those who still believe in the system. I am not one.
October 25, 2022
@BW I get that and empathise. Look deeper and it is the whole HoC that needs a deep clean. The noisy part of the swamp is corrupting Democracy
October 25, 2022
BW,
Positive posts won’t make it all go away.
October 25, 2022
a Coup of the first order…..say Stitch up – people understand that.
October 25, 2022
So now our latest PM is to be Rishi Sunak. A millionaire married to a woman who is also a millionaire (some say billionaire) in her own right.
Rishi has one policy, squeeze more tax out of the plebs. Why should he worry?
To use a quaint old expression ‘He has more money than you could shake a stick at’
He’ll continue to heat the swimming pool at his brand new muti-million pound house. The cost to him is peanuts.
Meanwhile he’ll seek out more ways to relieve you and me of our income and leave the less wealthy to struggle along.
October 25, 2022
Sunak of Richmond = Sheriff of Nottingham
October 25, 2022
rob the poor to reward the Rishi?
October 25, 2022
There’s a narrative that Sunak is, in some way, a successful businessman, and that so is his wife. But looking at their Wiki profiles I can’t see much evidence of their displaying any brilliance in businessman. (Mrs Sunak’s father, however, has been a wealth-creator.) Why is this important? Because Sunak will have to take up that ‘growth’ torch dropped by Liz Truss and sort this country’s under-performing economy out. And that means putting some talent into the Treasury and BEIS when he re-shuffles over the next few days. Sunak won’t have all the answers himself.
October 25, 2022
Well he now has control, something it is clear he has wanted for a couple of years, so we have no option than to let him get on with it, and with all of those MP supporters behind him, let us hope all the plotting and backstabbing has now ended, and we can look forward and have some sensible and stable policies.
I will await the outcome with interest.
One thing is for sure if he fails to get to grips with the problems ahead, and continues to raise taxes, the Conservatives are dead at the next election, and deserve to be.
October 25, 2022
A choice of three unsuitable candidates was no choice at all. We had the lazy, liar Boris. Why was he abroad on holiday when MPs get the whole summer off? Then we had Rishi, the tax middle income Britainâs to death whilst his family had non-dom status. And, Penny, I had no idea what she stood for.
Now we can expect the fast and unstoppable path to a digital currency where we lose the ability to choose what we spend our money on. More alignment with the EU. Ceding more of our sovereignty to foreign unelected organisations like the UN, WHO, and WEF. More and faster adherence to the net zero scam in line with Blackrock.
The future is bleak, the future is a consocialist dictatorship.
October 25, 2022
Someone âreallyâ interested in the UK economy first would go a long way to restore faith. If the UK earns problems are solved.
Reduce the size of the over bloated state, no more jobs for the boys just focused delivery.
Tax is contentious, because over the years it has become so distorted it is corrupting by its very existence. As Rishi well know whether it be personal or company the UK tax system is levied disproportionately, those that cant afford the convoluted get outs pay disproportionately more than those that can. Yet every one feeding off the UK economy gets to be rewarded with the same level of service. Its the system that is not fit for a grown up World.
October 25, 2022
“As you now know MPs did not get a vote between the candidate”
Our host tells half-truths, or perhaps he wants all MPs to have a vote on who should PM!
A majority of Tory MPs clearly did vote in favor of Mr Sunak, their votes being by way of nominations.
Reply Silly response. Conservative MPs did not get to vote on the 3 wannabe candidates as only one reached the nomination threshold
October 25, 2022
oh John ,oh John do you really think that we believe that there wasn’t behind the scenes discussions on why the candidates pulled out . One could call it paperless or Ahands up voting.
I rarely get into arguments re financial matters as I am not good enough , but having read your diary for a number of years and the comments from the bloggers it can be seen that ( with the help of my philosophy degree) when an argument is broken down ,rather than admit the lack of substance of an argument some will simply turn to abuse or give totally absurd side arguments which have no bearing on the essence or context of the argument.
October 25, 2022
reply to reply …..which was the intended outcome of the 1922….
October 26, 2022
@MT; Are you suggesting the 1922 Committee told Tory MPs who to nominate; if so perhaps you or our host could post the evidence?
October 25, 2022
Votes or declarations of willingness to serve for pay Jerry?
October 26, 2022
@NS; Funny how no one suggested anything like that when Tory MPs offered “Votes or declarations of willingness to serve for pay” when Mr Johnson was nominated to became leader. đ
Yours and others are just sour grapes, you lost, get over it, unless you want Starmer walking up Downing Street. But then perhaps you lot are so bitter you really are prepared to throw the the country under a bus, just as was done in the mid 1990s…
October 25, 2022
@JR reply; What the hell are nominations from sitting Tory MP’s if not votes of support/confidence in a candidate, unless you’re suggesting some of those Tory MPs who put their names down to nominate (for example) Rishi Sunak would then have gone on to vote for another candidate in the parliamentary MPs round of the leadership contest, if so, what an utterly unedifying and pointless charade!
October 25, 2022
So Tory MP’s didn’t get the result they wanted….just like Brexit, so they did everything in their power to overturn the result…..just like Brexit.
This time they got what they wanted.
The Tory Party…Where Democracy goes to Die.
I imagine that your membership is not hugely impressed.
October 25, 2022
Let’s give Sunak a chance to steady the ship a bit.
Boris needs some time off on pasture for a few years just to reflect and fine-tune things. Then he can come back, fit and refreshed.
October 25, 2022
@Ed M; If Boris wants to remain in politics the best place for him now, given the uncertain times ahead, would be to accept an elevation to the House or Lords, otherwise he might be taking his post election defeat pension, given the majority he will be defending, a 5,000 majority on less than 50% turnout in 2019 is not a good staring point given the circumstances…
October 25, 2022
You think things are that bad?
October 26, 2022
@Ed M; At the moment, yes; and that (by-)election in Uxbridge and South Ruislip might well come sooner rather than later.
October 25, 2022
As someone off travelling through India soon, Happy Diwali to Mr Sunak.
(And let’s please bring back our Judaeo-Christian and best of our Greco-Roman values – as happy individuals / families / neighbourhoods / and a country with a long-term thriving economy and culture require this)
October 25, 2022
After my morning trawl through some of the MsM, I see there is a common theme evolving âRishi needs to balance the booksâ. Most of us call that good house keeping and when times are tough you watch every penny to ensure you get good value in return.
Government should also practice what it preaches, they donât have money of their own just access to our wallets. In tough times we donât expect them to dig deeper into our pockets we expect them to ensure every single penny of our money that they spend produces positive value. By all accounts the State and the Establishment is over bloated and over extended on its account, hard-times housekeeping requires it to cut back, like the rest of us. Then you get to the unaccountable to the taxpayer Quangoâs, the âifyâ Charities all getting taxpayer handouts by default. How can any entity getting taxpayer funding not be accountable to the taxpayer?
The Government needs a serious look at its own end long before they takes the lazy person option of digging into the taxpayers wallet. The most startling one on the ignorance of fiscal responsibility in the last couple of weeks, has been Jeremy Hunt he doesnât think the Treasury, the Office of Budget Responsibility and the Bank of England is up to standards so he has hired himself some outside advisors at the taxpayers expense to advise him. Maybe he is right, but he should have first cut back or dispelled with those already paid for the job. More âhiresâ for something we have already paid for is not being fiscally responsible.
We are either all in this together or we are carrying on with the territorial them and us and punish the voter. Latest buzz words âUnite or Dieâ is not the same as do as I say not as I do.
October 25, 2022
Change gift aid so the donation must come out of gross salary as a sacrifice.
October 25, 2022
âBoris and Penny answered my questions about the economic issues but Rishi did not.â
At his COP26 speech Mr. Sunak said :
âSo our third action is to rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero.â
If you do get a chance to question Mr.Sunak, Sir John, I would like to know who please is âourâ, what actions will be taken that affects the UK and when, and how much will this cost the UK taxpayers?
Mr. Sunak started his speech with :
âItâs easy to feel daunted by the scale of the challenge that we face.
By sea levels rising; droughts and wildfires spreading; people forced out of their homes.â
Sea levels have risen and fallen by 400m over the last 500 million years since the start of the Cambrian explosion with no anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Sea levels rose rapidly after the last ice age which ended just 11,000 years ago, again with no anthropogenic CO2 emissions, and has now levelled out to just 1.6mm/year. In fact in some parts of Northern Europe the sea level is falling because the land is still rising from the release of pressure of ice from the last ice age.
There is no evidence that droughts are becoming worse or more frequent. Tree ring data has shown North America suffered mega droughts, far greater than anything in the modern era, between 900 and 1300 AD. In Europe tree ring data has shown droughts from 1400 to 1480 and from 1770 to 1840 were much longer and more severe than those of the 21st century.
Wildfires are not âclimateâ or âweatherâ but more to do with population and fire control. However, even here NASAâs âglobal burned areaâ data shows global wildfires decreasing between 2003 and 2015 and US Forest Service data shows a massive decline since the first half of the 2oth century.
October 25, 2022
China imported record quantities of Russian liquefied natural gas and steelmaking coal in September, as total purchases of energy products topped $50 billion. China is in no rush to follow Europe to Net Zero hell.
October 25, 2022
many wildfires are thought to be started by arson.
October 25, 2022
The key question is will a very disparate conservative party in the Commons accept the outcome and deliver. My final judgement will be whether our new PM clears up the outstanding unresolved problems of which we are all too well aware.
October 25, 2022
I have only voted Conservative in all the years I have been able to . I have always expected our PMs to be an example in their leadership , sadly Boris – with all his communicative skills , did not measure up in other respects ; he is to face further investigation with the threat of being excluded from Parliament and such a condition – were this to happen if he was PM , would prove to be yet another disastrous blow to the Party ; it was right for him to withdraw from the contest . As a verbal ” communicator ” Sunak must be explicit and effective – his intelligence and relevant background is first class and his integrity is not in doubt . The unity of the CP is now vital and he must be given this form of support .
October 25, 2022
@ Bert Young “The unity of the CP is now vital and he must be given this form of support” – although his supporters did not accord Liz the same courtesy. Moreover, it is very much less than clear that Sunak is leading in the right direction so support might be appropriately muted perhaps.
October 25, 2022
1974 again. Are we looking at 1975 and 1976 under Sunak?
First, time round the Tories pulled themselves together in 6 years.
This time the country has no âcushionâ – we have all used our savings and working capital to get through the disastrous Boris years. There is no six year recovery period available.
October 25, 2022
Sunak’s promotion is a violation of the Peter Principle. He achieved incompetence in his last job and has been promoted to the ultimate top job. Raising taxes on SMEs and capital gains tax rises without the previous indexation will make investment pointless. We now have incompetents in no 10 and 11. Expect more blunders.
October 25, 2022
I hope Sunak doesn’t bring those who served and failed on previous cabinets through the revolving door.
Savid Javid,please, please, no.
Raab.
Shapps,good grief.
Gove ,consign him to history.
October 25, 2022
Coffee (plus lots of cake) was Health (excuse me I’m still laughing) – now Environment?
in favour of long walks in the countryside?
October 25, 2022
âI look forward to an early statement from him [Mr. Sunak] on how he will fight recession whilst continuing the work the Bank and Treasury have done to bring inflation down.â
History and current examples show us that socialist policies never work. So it is shocking that it should be a Conservative Government that has got us into this economic mess and amply demonstrates Robert Conquestâs second and third laws of politics.
October 26, 2022
Robert Conquest is much overated.With the benefit of the passage of time we can see that he was a cold war hysteric.
October 25, 2022
The new Prime Minister’s room for manoeuver is strictly limited so whatever he really would like to do, he has to stick to the line that the markets want otherwise he will face the same fate as Liz Truss.
Despite what the markets have done to the UK recently, in reality, our fiscal situation is not that bad :
Borrowing is lower than in many Western Countries including the US, and roughly in the middle of the G7.
UK growth is predicted to be higher than the EU in 2023 and both inflation and unemployment are lower that at least 26 other European countries. Even our currency has maintained its value against the Euro since 2016.
The black hole in our finances has been significantly reduced by the recent change in long term bond rates and may be less than ÂŁ30bn.
I expect Hunt to remain Chancellor and if his budget goes ahead next Monday, I would hope that will contain enough measures for Bailey to limit any rise in interests rates next Thursday. However, Bailey has recently proved that he is no friend of the Conservative government and may well cause the forthcoming recession to be even deeper than expected by foolishly increasing rates more than the situation could justify.
October 25, 2022
In deciding our tax policy, it seems to me that Sunak, HM Treasury and the OBR are particularly weak on behavioural economics. They do not understand what makes us plebs tick, when we make decisions in the real world. Perhaps they do not understand “the real world”, who knows ?
Many, many years ago, Louis XIVâS finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, said that âthe art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.â
I suspect that there will be much hissing during Sunak’s reign
American economist, Arthur Laffer, tried to put a number on the effect of human behaviour on the tax take, with the use of his curve. Maybe a reasonably accurate calculation of this effect is too difficult for the Establishment ?
October 25, 2022
Given that there was a clear majority in the comments on the leadership candidates supporting NOTA, I wonder if that was not also the case in the Wokingham Constituency Association.
October 25, 2022
Rishi says ” he doesn’t want the next generation or even the generation after that to pay for today’s debt. Many of those who leave comments on this site will have contributed to the debt of the second World War, the Falklands conflict and so on. If Sunak wants today’s generation to pay he and the Conservatives should not have created the debt in the first place. His warm words will not pass muster with the public until he says he was part of the problem and stop blaming truss.
October 25, 2022
‘A millionaire married to a woman who is also a millionaire (some say billionaire) in her own right’
– What’s wrong with being a millionaire?
It’s how you earned that money and how you save / spend it that counts. Who are we to judge?
October 25, 2022
I sometimes think there’s a fine line between makes people tick in socialism / capitalism. Where socialists are jealous of people with money and power. But capitalists can be just as jealous of others with money and power. And capitalists who earn money just to keep up with the Joneses. Instead of doing a job you love that happens to make money along the way (the biggest joy in being an entrepreneur is NOT the money. It’s the thrill of the chase / game. Setting up the business. The cut and thrust of making things work. And hopefully then being able to provide high quality / skilled jobs to others. Export abroad. Contribute to the country’s economy in a real way. The money is just a bonus (although an enjoyable one). And you’ll find that some / a lot of entrepreneurs give away lots of their money to the poor and vulnerable. It’s not really about the money – but the game / the challenge / the adrenalin / doing something positive towards one’s country’s economy etc ..
October 25, 2022
Who said ‘ you can’t make multi-millions or billions honestly?’
October 25, 2022
“Boris and Penny answered my questions about the economic issues, but Rishi did not.”
Perhaps because he knows what he has planned will not go down well with you. It is quite ironic that he said: “he would not leave the next generation with debt.” Wasn’t he one of the treasury people who took on the debt up from ÂŁ1.754.6bn 2018/19 to ÂŁ2,134.4bn in 2020/21? Labour left us facing horrendous debt after the crash 2008, with all the unchecked mortgage borrowing (a lot of which was reneged on), an idea copied from America’s Clintons; it should not be up to the Tories to fix the massive problems of covid in two years. Too many workers in the UK were behind Sunak and his extended covid lockdown payments; too many were quite happy to sit on 80% of pay, and lots of the big companies on full pay doing nothing. Truss was right about encouraging growth from sales and the British economy growing. We should look at our significant unbalance of imports-v-exports and see what we are importing to see if we can make it for ourselves.
I wish the CBI weren’t called ‘Britainâs largest business lobby group’ just how many contributing SME members do they have? To me, they are Britain’s Large business’ lobby group, looking out for the interests of the big and often foreign-owned businesses! They never speak up for SMEs.
October 25, 2022
a-tracy :
The CBI do not pubish a membership list or how they are funded.
So there’s no way we can even tell if the “B” stands for “British”.
October 25, 2022
It was clear days ago that the 1922 Committee had deliberately framed new rules and set the 100 barrier themselves so as to elect Sunak party leader without subjecting him to the embarrassment of being voted on by the party membership that had once rejected him. The 1922 already had assurances that Sunak would be backed by more than 100 MPs, and knew that no other contender (including Boris Johnson) would achieve that many Tory MP supporters in the very brief time-limit they had set (yet another new rule!).
One reason why the 1922 knew this is that the new post-July 1922 is stuffed full of pro-Sunak MPs. Though only just over half of Tory MPs (54.06%) supported Sunak’s nomination, a comparison of the membership of the 1922 Committee and the list of MPs who nominated Sunak shows that of the twelve executive members of the 1922, eleven out of twelve committee members put down their names as pro-active supporters of Rishi Sunak, as did one of the 1922 vice-chairmen.
As Ghandi once said when asked what he thought about western democracy, ‘I think it would be a very good idea!’
October 25, 2022
Henry Ford ‘ Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants, as long as it is black.’.
October 25, 2022
I was pleased to see Liz Truss defend her policy of going for growth this morning.
It was essentially correct, but there were implementation errors, greatly exaggerated by traditional economists like Andrew Bailey and fellow conspirators in the financial markets.
It will be interesting to see if Hunt can produce a budget that can appease Bailey and the markets without deepening the forthcoming recession and ending any chance of growth before the next election.
October 25, 2022
Liz Truss in quoting the Roman philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca made a seminal and imaginative point. “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it’s because we do not dare that they are difficult’. The persistently negative MSM picked up on her stumble over the name rather than the point she was making. It was forcefully pertinent. Liz failed because we did not have the bottle to follow her and make the hard choices. The tragedy is that it could be a generation before her vision can be resurrected. By then it will probably be too late.
October 25, 2022
Would it be correct to blame one of Dr. Roy Spendlove’s staff for the fact “Boris and Penny answered my questions about the economic issues but Rishi did not”?
Surely if seen by Rishi this Spendlove aide’s purported draft reply would be rejected out of hand as too frank: –
“Look John, I don’t mind a deeper, longer recession, with a direct tax on jobs and extra tax burden on companies and individuals. It will please my mates in the City and elsewhere and Putin and Johnson can take the blame, whom failing Hunt, instead of me So I have no need of your sensible, more effective, less onerous in outcome ideas. Please keep quiet for now at least. Yours affectionately”.
October 25, 2022
Here we go; it’s not been one day:
“You have power, Rishi Sunak. Use it. Rejoin the single market and customs union” JĂŒrgen Maier; is vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership
“Rishi Sunak has used his first speech as prime minister to warn that the UK is in the grip of an economic crisis as he vowed to fix âmistakesâ made by Liz Truss and win back votersâ trust.” for goodness sakes she was in position less than 50 days. “Amid speculation he will be forced to cut public spending to plug a roughly ÂŁ30bn fiscal black hole, the new prime minister said there were âdifficult decisions to comeâ but highlighted the furlough scheme he devised during the pandemic and insisted: âI will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today.â Guardian.
October 25, 2022
First thing the new government should do Is to enact law to proscribe the ERG group both membership and meetings as we can no longer entertain the idea of government within the government – we can have only one government and debate by it has to be carried out in the House ie. No more parliamentry business carried out behind closed doors
Reply Parliament is full of special interest groups. None of them are governments.
October 25, 2022
The 100 MP threshold was clearly designed to produce a coronation. Excluding the membership was the only way Sunak was ever going to get there, so this has all the hallmarks of the proverbial stitch-up.
I’m not sure if the Conservative Party believes it can get away with this constant rewriting of leadership rules forever – May and Sunak were both an utter disgrace.
The current polling levels are about what they deserve. I suspect – and now hope – that Reform UK takes over their polling. The country needs a genuinely conservative party and the Tories are n o long that – and haven’t been for quite some time.
The right of the party will not be allowed to take power and use it according to their own beliefs, so you may as well get out now. Or… find a way to eject the Lib Dem element who have infiltrated and are now completing their takeover.
RIP Conservative Party.
October 25, 2022
So the architect of our dire economic situation is now presenting himself as its saviour. This is getting farcical.
October 25, 2022
We too, may get to love Big Brother.
October 25, 2022
People have a rose tinted vision of Rishi’s time as Chanchellor of the Exchequer. In fact, he oversaw two years of huge State borrowing, which is why the markets were so spooked at the prospect of Liz Truss adding a third. The furloughing scheme attracted much praise at the time but my understanding is that it cost twice as much per capita as equivalent schemes in continental Europe. Nor was furloughing applied in an even handed manner. Many highly paid people in the public sector suffered no loss of salary at all. Even judges who refused to sit without a jury and were therefore idle suffered no loss of salary. Maybe we should reduce the salary of such judges to ÂŁ25,000 pa, backdated. That would help the public finances. Employees of large businesses got the full 80% of salary, with few questions asked. Employees of small businesses theoretically did as well but proof of long term employment was sometimes difficult to establish. And the self employed got b____r all.
Rishi has it all to do to convince me that he will bring about a small State and that’s all I’m really interested in economically. If the choice presented is Kier Starmer’s Big State policies from Labour and Kier Starmer’s policies with a Conservative label, I’m voting for the Reform Party.
October 25, 2022
Many self employed carried on working while receiving furlough. A nice cruise is on the cards for some courtesy of the taxpayer. Thanks Rishi.
October 25, 2022
And another thing. Since the Maastricht Treaty was incorporated into UK law on 1st January 1993, we have had nearly 30 years of interfering with the Single Market through EU laws and European Commission directives, incorporated into UK law (sometimes gold plated) by our Governments and Civil Service. These favoured German technology, French style bureaucracy, big businesses and incumbent businesses. Jacob Rees-Mogg was on the point of repealing some of this but now he’s gone. Will Rishi appoint someone as enthusiastic? The Single Market when we left the EU was not free trade.
October 25, 2022
The consultation the Association carried out in Wokingham reflects what I have found (less scientifically) from talking to my acquaintances in North West England.
Conservative M.P.s made the easy but wrong and out of touch decision. The pretext of the Enquiry before The Privileges Committee is also ridiculous as with one whipped vote they could and should kill off this absurd mountain out of a molehill enquiry (which would rightly never have started had it been a Labour M.P).
Rishi Sunak’s emphasis on curing through hardship an economy that got damaged during the government’s time in office never works electorally, not in 1970 after the 1968 devaluation, not in 1979 after the IMF application in 1976, not in 1997 after the ERM exit in 1992. They need another electoral strategy and that strategy needs to be spearheaded by Boris Johnson.
I know as a commercial landlord it is far better to have a difficult tenant who knows how to run a business than a pleasant tenant who is no good at running a business. So too for Prime Minister one needs a winner rather than a pleasant person.
October 25, 2022
So Suella Braverman has been re-appointed as Home Secretary. The law of averages says the news cannot all be bad. We can trust her to get a grip of illegal immigration.
October 25, 2022
If she can’t rescind our membership of ECHRs is going to resign again
October 25, 2022
Sometimes belief comes across as expecting to roll 3 sixes dice in a row.
Good luck.
October 25, 2022
Sunak cabinet reshuffle the best vs. worst
Worst â Didnât appoint SirJ to Treasury
Worst â Appointed Sharma as Cop26 president for life
Best â Appointed Braverman as Home Secretary
Best â Didnât appoint Gove to any government post
Why is the BBC referring to the PM as âAsian-Britishâ rather than just âBritishâ
October 25, 2022
How the hell did Gove slip in
October 25, 2022
Cannot believe they brought Gove back as levelling up minister. What has he achieved so far. He’ll have to give up his radio job if its a 9 to 5 job ,as a mp’s job is full time,isn’t it?
October 25, 2022
When something goes wrong at a circus they send in the clowns to distract the audience; something has gone very wrong with this circus and the clowns are everywhere
October 26, 2022
Judy Collins 1975.
Isn’t it rich?
Are we a pair? [of self interesteds]
Me here at last on the ground,
You in mid-air, [back to holiday Boris?]
Where are the clowns? [No 10]
Isn’t it bliss?
Don’t you approve?
One who keeps tearing around,
One who can’t move,
Where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns?
Just when I’d stopped opening doors, [I never will]
Finally knowing the one that I wanted was yours [ha ha]
Making my entrance again with my usual flair
Sure of my lines
No one is there
Don’t you love farce? [oh boy YOU said it]
My fault, I fear [true]
I thought that you’d want what I want
Sorry, my dear!
But where are the clowns
Send in the clowns
Don’t bother, they’re here [we’ve noticed]
Isn’t it rich? [who?us?]
Isn’t it queer? [we’ve done that already]
Losing my timing this late in my career
But where are the clowns?
There ought to be clowns
Well, maybe next year [probably in a few weeks?]
October 26, 2022
Wow, I’ve not read the blog for quite a few years, comments seem to have become twitter-lite.
Thanks for the update JR!