Recent history shows it is very difficult for Prime Ministers and Ministers  to challenge the internationalist orthodoxy even in a relatively strong and well based democracy like the UK.
I do not buy into silly conspiracy theories that the world is run by a couple of billionaires who enforce their views on world governments. I do observe that there is a very powerful consensus pumped out by most western governments, by leading international bodies, and by many academics and professionals.This consensus can make dreadful mistakes, as it has in economics with the recession machine of the Exchange Rate mechanism ,then the boom/bust of the banking crash and now the rough ride from excessive money printing and inflation to  recession again.
Many experts, professionals and officials genuinely believe the consensus they help form. Others have to go along with it if they want to get a job or if they wish to be in the rooms where the conversations take place that shape these things. It is very difficult getting a university science post if you challenge aspects of the global warming story. It is difficult influencing economic policy if you point out Central banks often get it wrong. It is very difficult in the UK to become a government Minister if you consistently advocated leaving the EU. It is very difficult being Home Secretary if you want to stop illegal migration.
The elites interplay with conventional media to constantly reinforce their spin lines. Forecasts and opinions by international bodies and conforming governments are treated as facts. Alternative views and forecasts are ignored or traduced. It leads the populist majorities that form  to become more disillusioned with the media as well as with governments. It leads more  to then prefer bizarre conspiracy theories.
How many times were we told inflation would stay at 2% however much money they printed? How often were we told when inflation was setting in it would be temporary? Why were those of us who wanted to stop the money printing in 2021 not allowed airtime to put the alternative view?
Most governments pursued lockdown in response to covid, trying to prevent an alternative policy. Most governments claim to want to rush to net zero, though many miss targets or refuse to work to targets applying to them. They usually want to increase the power and revenues of the states they lead.
November 2, 2022
Good morning.
Whenever there was a Socialist / Marxist revolution one of the first group of people to get rid of after the supporters of the previous regime, were the intellectuals. The professors, the teachers etc. Why ? I believe this is because these are usually the smartest people who know how to feed peoples minds, but not their bellies. That makes them a threat to the new regime and worthless to the people. ie No loss to anyone that really matters.
Today we have intellectuals in places of power and global 24 / 7 media. They are able to stand on a stage and wield great influence through our rather simple elected representatives. They have gone through the same university system as the Civil Service and so represent what we called the, ‘Old School tie’. That still exists but it has been elevated to a new more global level.
To these people, just like to the Marxist revolutionaries, democracy, or rather the filthy, uneducated masses are a threat to their loft ideas and ambitions. I have seen all too often similar behaviour on a more local / personal level and the results are not nice as these people make mistakes and seek to blame others for it in order to both protect their reputations and maintain power. In my experience I see these people little more than parasites feeding off the good of others.
Solution ? A good delousing.
November 3, 2022
Why is this being held in moderation ?
No links.
No names.
And no longer than the next post below.
Hmm ! đ
November 2, 2022
The elite does not like debate or challenge is so very true.
In most cases they have the money to influence organisations especially those that educate the people of tomorrow.
The banks, investors, pension funds are totally driving the EV programme by their support and investment in setting up the new industries required for the process to succeed.
The NZ project fear reinforces all the claims of world the end of the world as we know it. The new woke order attempts to change thinking on problems that do not really exist in the majority of the peoples world.
The format of television advertising is now a classic example of the new wokeness religion.
International organisation exercise more and more control on the world countries and their leaders, it has been done by the drip feed process for years.
In reality our leaders control precious little in the grand scheme of things.
Political parties have not changed to accept the massive advances made in technology and the sciences in the type of candidates that are needed to bring about the real changes we so desperately need.
November 2, 2022
“The elite” = any of the 50 million people in the UK who did not vote Leave and who are articulate enough to explain clearly why they did not.
Yes, it’s an interesting definition.
November 2, 2022
Love the dodgy statistics NHL
How do you know how those that didn’t vote or who were not entitled to vote would have voted?
Hilarious nonsense.
November 3, 2022
Does the 50 million include the babies? I guess infantile is a good way to describe them.
November 2, 2022
Very well argued. The bit that I don’t follow in Sir J’s piece is termed ‘consensus’. Who makes these consensus’, and who manages their distribution to make them turn into policy? This is where we, the people, start to look at ‘alternative explanations’ to answer the question, ‘which idiot decided that was a good idea?’ Since so much of government activity seems to be devoid of common sense at best, and more often seeming to do deliberate harm.
The most glaring example being Quantitative Easing, or, more accurately, creating money to pacify the peasants and then suffer inflation. IT was KNOWN this would happen because it’s been done before; WHY did you do it?
The PCP – Not fit for purpose.
November 2, 2022
Indeed see the Christopher Booker book on âGroup Thinkâ. People go along with the consensus, either they are on the make directly or indirectly or they actually believe it or it suits them not to cause waves. Perhaps the stampede in that direction simply cannot be turned round.
Indeed the inflationary money printing by Suank and others was just another back door tax to diminish wages and peopleâs savings and the government debt in real terms. So they could waste even more of your money mainly on worthless dross.
November 2, 2022
Socialist Tory party is big state, high tax and spend.
Johnson gave the NHS over ÂŁ34 billion then asked what they were going to do with it! The NHS that had wasted ÂŁ34 billion previously on a failed computer system, that is some failing. It is our money! At the out break of covid the NHS wasted ÂŁ11 million on an app. No one had the tech skills but the lead had the qualification of being a mate of Osborneâs!
As for conspiracy theories, why was Hunt appointed chancellor? Did Sunak do a deal to become PM? Sunak has already broken his pledge to serve with integrity many times. Sunak claimed to be against lockdown, his current chosen No.2 is Hunt who wanted a stricter Chinese lockdown! As did Backstabber Gove. Oust him JR.
November 2, 2022
I agree with Sir John that there is no conspiracy. What we are up against is the herd of independent minds, pulling each other along in their collective fallacies. “When the herd moves…”
So we underwent a double coup d’etat, not because someone up in the mountains of Europe ordained it thus, but because enough people in powerful positions, both here and abroad, thought the same way and acted acccordingly.
It is possible to turn these damaging consensi around, as we are seeing too late over the handling of the pandemic. For example, it is now allowed to say the virus came out of a lab, not from a bat flying 3,000 miles without infecting anything and then infecting a pangolin which ended up in a Wuhan market. For another example, we are now allowed to say the vaccines did not prevent transmission. But it was hard going getting there.
Maybe one day we will be allowed to say that printing money and holding down interest rates creates inflation and transfers wealth from little savers to big borrowers, and from small business to big .
In the meantime we have our dear Sir John to put it all clearly and undeniably to the powers that be.
November 2, 2022
Reported Sunak sent message no cut to civil service head count but we can expect tax rises which shows his big state high tax socialist govt.
November 2, 2022
TT and Sir J,
You are both right that conspiracy theories are just that and that the powers (media, work forums, senior civil service & university staff, etc) push government in one direction.
It is group-think in action. Do they all believe the rhetoric or are they just unwilling to stand up and take an opposing view? There are very few independent thinkers who get the attention their different ideas merit.
Take the justification for C19 vaccines. Back in mid-2021 EVERYONE (those of ‘importance’) was adament vaccines would reduce transmission and save us all by stopping the spread. Now the same EVERYONE are saying with absolute conviction that they never claimed vaccines would cut transmission.
The truth was erased. The erasure was forgotten. The lie became the truth. 1984, Orwell.
November 2, 2022
Very well put, Turbo Terrier. I agree, where we are now has been drip fed for years and the power of group think has become a powerful controlling force.
There is however, a grassroots fight back. Parallel social media have appeared, organisations such as Together, Big Brother Watch, The Free Speech Union have formed and are growing. There are new political parties⊠but the power of whatâs in place is immense. Until and unless the changes are made at government level, the frustration will continue. If government wonât make these necessary changes, then they will need to be replaced. But thatâs down to the people who are waking up one at a time.
November 2, 2022
The most recent hugely damaging and appalling âgroup thinkâ mistakes were the extended Covid lockdowns, the coercion of ineffective and dangerous Covid âvaccinesâ, schools shutdowns, this even of the young & children who were never even at any real risk.
The number of deaths registered in the UK in the week ending 21 October 2022 (Week 42) was 13,463, 15.7% above the five-year average (1,822 excess deaths); of these deaths, 735 within 28 days of a positive COVID-19, test which was 110 more than in Week 41. So 260 excess death a day mainly nothing to do with Covid and no one in MSM is even discussing it much. What is the cause. I assume mainly vaccines and the many dire NHS failures.
November 2, 2022
Groupthink is a phenomenon that occurs when the desire for group consensus overrides people’s common sense desire to present alternatives, critique a position, or express an unpopular opinion. Here, the desire for group cohesion effectively drives out good decision-making and problem solving. Also often driven by vested interests and propaganda from vested interests. Often as will the “renewables” and net zero about 95% of civil servants and politicians simply do not have the understanding or skills to question the group think.
The government “experts” still claim on web sites (totally wrongly) that travelling by walking or pedal bikes produces no CO2 direct or indirect. So totally ignorant of science are they or are they just lying for their cause?
November 2, 2022
Indeed, which is reason enough to revere and rejoice at Brexit for Cameron’s dreadful misstep at allowing both debate and challenge resulted of course in the elites receiving a tremendous knock.
The danger now is support for extremists, whose rough edges and repulsive core in normal times we would revile, looks to be appropriate since otherwise prospects for change are, typically, too weak to give hope.
November 2, 2022
Arenât the imprecise terms like âeliteâ yet another way of viewing reality in terms of âusâ and âthemâ?
November 2, 2022
How is your WEF elite PM doing Peter now that, after he tried to buy farms for the Agenda 30 city, the farmers party is doing better in the polls than his own?
November 2, 2022
Everyone else is ‘them’ Peter. They overlap in every size & shape of Venn diagram with or without you. ‘Elite’ is merely one.
November 2, 2022
Elite, Establishment ⊠then I got this 1989 film title coming to my head âLook whoâs talkingâ. I wonder why?
November 2, 2022
@ Bloke :
and “them” is always to get the blame. This way of thinking leads to looking for enemies and prevents good introspection. Has there ever been anything for which the politician who writes this daily blog took the blame?
November 3, 2022
They who cause fault would be responsible Peter. Blame remains at its source whether or not the person causing âtakesâ it. The blog author offers solutions with supporting rationale. If fault exists, an instance with reasoning might be credible. The notion of âThem alwaysâ being blamed is extreme and beyond belief.
November 2, 2022
Yes, PVL, but it does feel as though it is us (majority views not asked) and them (you will take what we in our minority decide) what would you call these people that decide to pump out instructions and controls on what Corporation Tax we should have, what VAT rates we should have, and how many immigrants we must take and fund?
John, it would be better if the Government just came clean and said we are instructed we have to take x amount, we have no choice about it on International Agreement, where should we house, employ and look after them. Instead of lying and saying you have the power to do anything. Priti Patel was hounded at every turn, and the Home Office wouldn’t do as she asked and process faster and better. The public need to start asking more questions about who we employ to do this job for us, how many, what is their remuneration, how many applicants are they processing per day, week, month? We need them to answer why some are three years old when throughout Covid we were told they were working from home and were working flat out and immigration levels fell for over a year, so why didn’t they catch up?
November 2, 2022
Not really, such blanket terms avoid slanging matches and libel cases.
November 2, 2022
Lots of us not many of them yet they wield power disproportionately and look down on the populist âswivel eyed loonsâ
If you want an example of their contempt, Cameron coming back with frankly nothing, from negotiating with Mrs Merkel and thinking he could spin it to us as a big success.
November 2, 2022
Are you suggesting there isnât an âus and themâ? That there isnât a group of rich, well connected, powerful people that comprise âthemâ and the rest of us – lowly souls that toil for a living who are âusâ. âThemâ are comprised of the monarchy, the aristocracy, the leaders of the Church of England, politicians, media moguls and the leaders of organisations like the UN and the EU etc.
To abbreviate – the ****s who attend Davos and the rest of us.
November 2, 2022
Agreed F57. People are angry, VERY angry and also frustrated with the governments failures, and continued failures (or deliberate sabotage of the country). When you continually kick people in the teeth and make their lives so much worse, and never listen to what THEY want (or don’t want), then what are they to do? Anger, extremism and violence is the expected result. Democracy will not survive the current government agenda! We, the people, will have to take it back. We hope to do it democratically, but if that option is removed … then politicians invite the alternatives!
November 2, 2022
Shirley,
Cultural destruction of our society, highest taxation with more to come and imposing third world standards on our public services! Currently planning for blackouts after banning fracking but import fracked gas from Qatar and US! Buy goods worth billions of pounds from China coal fired power stations and transport across the world while blowing up perfectly good coal fired power stations here while the dope Alok Sharmer looked on for a phot op! Integrity Sunak, my arse!
November 2, 2022
Lobbies have always wielded power in politics. It is not recent but public perception of their influence is definitely on the increase.
For a current MP it is obviously very difficult to go into detail on realpolitik behind the scenes. The same applies if you are doing business in The City. Others do not have such constraints.
I don’t think these people are in the grip of ‘silly conspiracy theories’ either. So they can make their own minds up from what they see and hear.
November 2, 2022
Agree Peter. We know lobbying has always been around but I think the media and social media have brought it to our attention more. A prime example started with ‘taking the knee’. What has followed are endless adverts on the TV with black and ethnic actors and many programmes with mainly black or ethic presenters and actors. Add to that the Web sites for ordering clothing. The BBC continually promote climate change in so many of their programmes too and they are not the only channel guilty of this. Much of the thinking of today has come ftom the WHO and WEF but also groups of people controlled and financed by those with vested interest. Science doesn’t get a look in. Not real science anyway. The question is why do governments get swayed by minority think tanks when it all does so much damage to the lives of ordinary folk and to our economy?
November 2, 2022
Agree Peter. We know lobbying has always been around but I think the media and social media have brought it to our attention more. Another prime example started with ‘taking the knee’. What has followed are endless adverts on the TV with black and ethnic actors and many programmes with mainly black or ethic presenters and actors. Add to that the Web sites for ordering clothing. The BBC continually promote climate change in so many of their programmes too and they are not the only channel guilty of this. Much of the thinking of today has come ftom the WHO and WEF but also groups of people controlled and financed by those with vested interest. Science doesn’t get a look in. Not real science anyway. The question is why do governments get swayed by minority think tanks when it all does so much damage to the lives of ordinary folk and to our economy?
November 2, 2022
@Peter, +1 Always bemused any lobby group usually of foreign origin gets the ear of our MPâs with out even a vote in the UK. They also have their own Countries Embassies working for them in the ear of Government.
The Guy on the street, is one lonely voice that at times of real concern can get to speak to their constituency MP.
It seems to confirm if you have money and power you can buy the UK Parliament
The system needs rebalancing
November 2, 2022
Its just fear, MPs are scared of the lobbyists, the media and academia âŠthey fear having the finger pointed at them, they fear not being seen as supporting the left wing green agenda, they fear not supporting the world UN consensus on behaviour, society, environment & economics – but above all they fear losing their position, power & money
November 2, 2022
Why is it when the people in very large numbers over concerns about the dingy invaders enquire, demand even, when are the treaties like the ECHR are preventing us from actually have full control of our borders going to be discarded? The present situation is a ticking time bomb and it has to be sorted before the next election or it will destroy the Tories if not parliament itself.
Who and what is preventing the country from taking back control of its borders? Is it those with vested interest in having a cheap labour base?
The more people allowed in to work for low wages impacts on more of the existing people not getting off of benefits. In some areas of the country there are now 3rd and 4th generations of people who have never worked legally.
What group of people shackle our politicians that we have never had a Prime Minister to stop this madness?
Is it the charity groups and the legal teams influence as they stay on the rich gravy train milking the public purse or the fear of politicians not wanting to compromise their position?
November 2, 2022
As your title says the elite do not like to be challenged or debated.
So they don’t like ‘diversity’ of opinion, but push ‘diversity’ of all manner of other things onto us mere mortals that may not and often is not to our liking.
One of the perks of the elites I suppose.
November 2, 2022
You don’t need a degree in political science to see that’s there evil at play. All that we have seen since the delivery of Covid has been a planned war against the nation State and the freedom of the person.
John may not like conspiracy theories but I and no doubt others can now name at least 5 ‘conspiracy theories’ that have become FACTS in recent times
The Great Reset is happening, it isn’t finished yet and it’s taking no prisoners.
I take hope in the fact that this movement will overplay their hand (imposition of programmable cash) and will trigger a populist (the SILENT majority) response of an epoch changing kind
November 2, 2022
The timescale between a conspiracy theory and evidence that it is largely correct seems to have reduced to about 6 months. It’s getting hard to keep up.
The Global Walkout is worth checking out: this is an organised attempt to fight back against the Globalists by taking small actions which will make it very much harder for them to implement their plans ie using cash.
November 2, 2022
@Dom +1 – If there is no conspiracy how come over 1000 international Companies have signed up and practice the WEF doctrine of âThe Great Resetâ . Then lobby(Blackmail) Governments to fall into line
November 2, 2022
Thankfully Elon Musk is trying to change this. However I expect he will be challenged by Government lawfare and MSM propaganda.
November 2, 2022
@javelin +1. Whatever your point of view the World needs more Elonâs, he challenges the famous orthodoxy that is killing us all. And his Brother has the best restaurant in the World, that another story.
November 2, 2022
Musk has tarnished his image with his ill-judged, self-serving and cowardly advice to Taiwan.
November 2, 2022
The result of this is that extremist populist parties of left or right gain hold, as in Italy and Brazil for example. If the next Labour government need to buy LibDem support and introduce PR it will happen here too – for example a Corbynite party would get big support, as would a Faragist party. PR would actually mean the squeezing out of the LiBDems as there is no need for protest votes with PR, and the splitting of both Labour and Conservative parties. Iâm coming round to the idea.
November 2, 2022
Why Roy, then the middle, still keep control by banding together? Plus, they can all abandon their promised manifestos and do what they wish with the public told they had to compromise. Do you forget what happened with the con-dems? We got student loans for English kids only, tripling in cost. We were told the money would be spent on early years education and staying on at school an extra two years; where has that got us with the most depressed set of children (actually, it goes further than that we are told more are struggling with severe mental health issues), with many still not achieving decent maths and English ever? The two quarter-heels of the horseshoe could never agree on anything to form any resistance or achieve anything, so we’d get meh.
November 2, 2022
Roy, as someone who has experienced the evil of PR in Northern Ireland. I can assure you, its not the answer, The true results are manipulated just like America, one does not get a democratic result.
November 2, 2022
I don’t think it’s a couple of billionaires running the world, although a relatively small number of them do seem to have massive “influence” on some Globalist Organisations which then mysteriously adopt the policies being advocated. And then in other circumstances the Globalist Elite seem to have massive influence on various private companies (particularly Tech ones) which then adopt policies of silencing or cancelling anyone who isn’t conforming.
So, we know that the Elite most certainly do not like debate and challenge; but that doesn’t stop it from happening.
What we have now in the UK is a situation where the authoritarian Elite are talking to themselves, but there is a completely separate debate going on in the country and if the authoritarian Elite think they can suppress it they’re going to get a very nasty shock.
As they discovered with the EU Referendum, eventually the worm turns.
November 2, 2022
Not quite, because that makes it sound like the ‘academics and professionals’ are honest decent people when in fact they are destroying our world.
If all of these ‘academics and professionals’ are so clever, why do they want to impose dogma and socialist garbage on the world. THEY are not clever, just devious and they have their own goals in mind.
There are certainly guiding hands in all of this, but yes, it is the ‘academics and professionals’ and corrupted international bodies that push the new world order on the rest of us through national governments that are now so weak they cannot fight back or help their own people.
None of this coming ‘Great Reset’ happened by accident, and yes, it may have dragged a lot of weak minds with it, but the overall intention was originated by those with power and money who wanted to change the world for their benefit.
November 2, 2022
Well said. The WEF hierarchy may not be actually running the world by enforcing their views on governments, but we could be forgiven for thinking that they aspire to do so, especially when their boasting about “penetrating the cabinets” is out there in plain sight and when WEF affiliates are seen to be holding high political office. We may ask separately what motivates an ordinary decent billionaire tycoon, with no concerns about bills and a personal quality of life without equal, to transgress all boundaries of decency in the hope of becoming a megalomaniac, but that’s a different issue.
November 2, 2022
@Bryan Harris +1 , When the Taxpayer funds academia is it expecting indoctrinated clones or the âbest of the bestâ
âthe Great Resetâ Democracy must not hinder the 1000 international companies lust for protectionism and ultimate power. Its not even a myth their website proclaims it and the UK sends 270 delegates to its WEF meetings.
November 2, 2022
The issue I have with many academics is that they never leave education. They never work in the cut-and-thrust world where if you don’t satisfy your customer’s needs, you go under with no bailouts from anywhere, they don’t have to consider sales, marketing, or customer services, and they don’t have to ever worry about job security if they make a terrible decision, or lost pay if they strike because it’s made up. They never get called out on their mistakes, even though we are told to believe everything they write.
Their customers are students and their parents who work (because if you have working parents you can’t get sufficient grants to live), and you can’t even quickly discover how many of their students are getting jobs paying more than the student loan allowance within two years of graduating in the field they trained in. Even then, they excuse themselves and say that education is worth more than just gaining decent employment because it’s something they don’t have to worry about. How many sports science degrees led to sports science jobs, and wouldn’t those teenagers have been better studying physiotherapy and other medical-related degrees with sports as an add-on module, not the main module?
November 2, 2022
And most governments play-down just how little of the CO2 in our air has been put there by man. Anyways, OT, I’m beginning to think that Sunak is going to be soft on Communist China. He lacks bravery.
November 2, 2022
He doesnât just lack bravery. He lacks integrity & honour âŠhe talks about upholding the 2019 manifesto but ignores the pledges not to increase national insurance, he said he working for energy security but cancels âfrackingâ for shale gas, he’s pro free movement âŠheâs a man of the UN & the EU
November 2, 2022
Sunak is now attending UN COP27 âŠadd coward to that list !
November 2, 2022
Does that mean he will abandon the HS to order too?
November 2, 2022
The man IS for u-turning !
November 2, 2022
The problem with most conservatives, and Sunak is a perfect example, is that they are cowards. They can often see the problem but are afraid of spelling it out and challenging it. They are frightened of stupid, meaningless words like racist, or transphobe, or fascist, or any of the other insults used by the Left to intimidate and silence their opponents.
Sunak will always choose the path of least resistance and will surrender to Britain’s enemies just like Boris did. The Conservatives are a complete waste of time.
November 3, 2022
Surrender to our enemies? The CONS do a very believable impression of being our enemies!
November 2, 2022
Is anyone listening to this excellent appraisal?
It goes right down to the bottom too. Climate change activists do not listen. My grandchildren, in their early twenties, do not listen: they KNOW.
On the other hand, it has always been so. I can remember my Dad being very sure that divorce was completely beyond the pale.
November 2, 2022
It is a religious belief system, they have been indoctrinated as children by the BBC, schools, governments, charities, endless videos of bad weather porn⊠this is largely how all religions persist. Most climate alarmist believers do not have the skills to question this indoctrination. They have not been taught how to think and do not have the skills to do so. It is surely just a form of child abuse by schools, government, the BBC and sometimes parents do these children have much chance?
November 2, 2022
It is sect in design, but committed to by masses. Frightening.
November 2, 2022
The WEF, the Billionaires, the … it’s all an excuse by MPs to scapegoat someone else to avoid the finger being pointed at them. Brexit is a good example, where when finally allowed a direct say, the public removed one of MP’s excuses. Every hear any MP say, we can’t do that because of the EU? Exactly
On the Mistakes? Well its not. It’s deliberate policy. It’s also why John you refuse to say how much off books pension debts you have run up.
Publish the pension debts are you legally must under IFRS, which is what the WGA state they use.
1. People can see the change year on year
2. People can work out their share
3. People can see the before and after when you cut pensions, and see the losses
4. People can see their losses
and above all
People can point the finger at the people responsible.
Of course this later one, is the reason why the debts are hidden
November 2, 2022
Aden, I’d also like to see the Pension breakdown, but in more detail:
Debts for:
1) Contributed State pension amounts (with 40-year NI contributions)
2) State Second pensions (with separate funded accounts we were told)
3) Pension credits
4) State employee pensions
November 2, 2022
The state pension is a pay as you go benefit, there is no fund backing it. NI payments have no direct fiscal connection to it. It is just another income tax that goes into the Consolidated Fund with all the other taxes. A bit of NI does go directly to the NHS.
The four major public sector pension funds also have no fund backing them. The government’s current liability, the “net present value”, is circa ÂŁ2,400 billion with a “discounted rate” of minus 0.95%,(corporate bond yield minus CPI). As the rate goes down the net present value goes up. So you can imagine what the discount rate will be this year. But, calculating the government’s liability in WGA IFRS terms is meaningless.
November 3, 2022
There is an NI fund acorn. I understand how it is being reworded so that they can introduce means testing, and if people don’t wake up to this, they will soon be shocked, just as the waspi women were.
The government may use the fund for their energy investments, their HS2 but that money goes in, in good faith that we will get what we were promised from it. It is disgusting that, the Great Britain National Insurance Fund only had a balance of ÂŁ37bn on 1 April 2020, equivalent to about 4.2 months of expenditure in the 2019/20 financial year. 10 Feb 2022. When the government invests in things like offshore wind farms, social housing in all our Borough’s this year swapping land for the builders to build a % of government-owned properties this should remain in the NI Fund asset register.
It’s not meaningless to me, I want to know our exposure in each of those four areas, don’t forget public sector workers get double dips in 1 and 4.
November 2, 2022
I do not buy into silly conspiracy theories that the world is run by a couple of billionaires who enforce their views on world governments. I do observe that there is a very powerful consensus pumped out by most western governments, by leading international bodies, and by many academics and professionals.
I am hopeful that the conspiracy theorists are not correct Sir John but how do you suppose the powerful consensus develops if not espoused by those with influence who would benefit.
November 2, 2022
I don’t buy into these conspiracy theories either. What I do think is going on is a kind of man worship. Having abandoned God and religion, people need something else to fill the void, so they put in a form of humanism. Individuals of such ambition gravitate to positions of influence, where they find others of like desire.
Why does the SNP have an ambition for Scottish independence, only to then surrender themselves to Brussels?
It’s because there are among them those who crave for the EU as their Shangri-La.
Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi has many disciples.
November 2, 2022
Narrow Shoulders…
A very good question. I too want to believe that the popular conspiracy theories are false, but when I dig deeper into many of these high profile protest groups, it surprises me to see who funds them. Extremely rich individuals must feel they will get some return from their so called investments.
I can’t understand why we tolerate these organisations. They fund training courses to teach people how to cause maximum disruption to ordinary people’s lives. Why do we allow it? Many have foreign nationals for board members…. Why do we allow them air time in order to spread their message? Why aren’t they deported?
Sir John
Many of your recent pieces have a more anti establishment tone to them compared to many of your previous posts. Do you intend to stand for election at the next election when it is called?
November 2, 2022
You are not looking at history. Look at the Galileo issue. A single person shouting into the wind of accepted opinion, yet in the end he was proven to be right. It happens all the time.
November 2, 2022
âEveryone else is to blame for the UKâs woes but not us Brexitersâ – the same old story from J Redwood
November 2, 2022
Go to Tripadviser and rustle up some reviews of KLM, which is ham-strung by being a major user of Schipol. All those woes – despite being in the EU! BA out of Heathrow? A model of effciency, by comparison.
November 2, 2022
Eh? BA owned by the Anglo-Spanish IAG, Heathrow airport by a Spanish-Qatari-Canadian-US-Chinese conglomerate. Could that be the reason for their efficiency?
November 2, 2022
Pauline Yes, we are in a mess, but so are all the anglosphere countries and also Europe.
November 2, 2022
You don’t consider China, Russia, N.Korea, Columbia, Brazil, Pakistan, Iran, Syria you could even argue USA is also in a mess.?
November 2, 2022
If Brexit were complete, if it had not been fouled up by the remainiac antidemocrats, we would be better placed to deal with what the rest of the world is also facing.
November 2, 2022
Media magnates, space exporers, vastly wealthy billionaires, kleptocrat dictators, military juntas and the like have always wished to mould global government policy to favour their interests. You cannot deny that the Bilderberg conferences, financial gatherings such as that at Davos, 5 year communist party conferences, G20 meetings etc offer opportunities for these people to infuence the course of global events.
Ever since the JFK assasination, large sections of the pubic have not believed what they are being told by the global establishment. Cover-ups, government denials of obvious facts and outright lies are the origin of many conspiracy theories.
November 2, 2022
Indeed the government/BBC/MSM “group think” is very damaging indeed and nearly always very wrong and often driven by vested intererst. Other examples the EURO, Net Zero, the climate change act, HS2, the soft loan for millions of expensive & largely pointless degrees, the free at the point of use communist NHS (that fails millions), the abolition of seletrive schools, the lack of fair competition in schools (between state and private). So if you want to go to a private school (rather than a “free” state one) you have to pay three times over. Thus good school are chosen payment but by catchment areas and house prices.
November 2, 2022
I wish we were in France. A few burning tyre road blocks might help concentrate the minds. And in other news our ruling masters contempt for us continues with the spin that extra money for the NHS will be dependent on reform.
We know itâs rubbish yet they continue to churn it out. We were told this last time and nothing happened.
On the size of their budget, efficient change management would have saved the sum they are seeking. Obviously it has to go in now yet any changes will take so long they will be forgotten about.
This government is lying or stupid or both.
November 2, 2022
Nig1, even with all the extra education, education, the education we still aren’t training decent Managers. We make clinical nurses with years of experience ward managers to work out rotas and update computer records! They should be clinical matrons in charge of training the next generation of vocational nurses this should never have stopped; it has failed us, and they should also be the overseers of the clinical needs of the ward and liaising with the consultants. We allow clinical nurses to become union reps at our expense instead of nursing patients. The tail is wagging the dog.
November 2, 2022
I am grateful every day that I am NOT in France.
November 2, 2022
The answer has to be a greater level of democracy coupled with airtime for a broader range of viewpoints. It’s usually gut feelings by the population which drive sensible decisions. So on the face of it, not relying on Russian gas 15 years ago would have been economically daft for Germany, but in the end a gut feeling would have told most people not to rely on that, had they been given the facts and choice. Same for us and over reliance on Chinese goods, same for the immediate economic effects of Brexit, same for money printing going back to 2008, same for the whole gender-woke thing, same for immigration, same for stupid lockdown policy. A gut feeling of the risk reward of each of these would normally drive sensible decisions in a direct democracy before the bad stuff hits the fan. Perhaps that’s why the Swiss model would be preferable.
November 2, 2022
The cost of net zero is now becoming clear. The Telegraph leader today. It was always clear to any honest scientist or engineer that the pointless war on CO2 would cost billion and achieve nothing. Indeed it has done huge net harm. The climate change act that nearly every single MP voted for with no sensible cost benefit analysis (not JR) was in 2009. I was obviously mad even years before this date.
John Pettigrew, the CEO of the National Grid, spelt them out in an interview with the BBC. For the UK to hit government renewable targets by 2030, there will need to be a 400 per cent increase in offshore wind power.
Plus a vast investment in additional cabling and pylons be-spoiling the countryside, plus huge investment in back up systems is needed to transfer the electricity to where it is needed at the right times.
November 2, 2022
Plus the energy storage systems to maintain supplies when the wind isn’t blowing. How’s that plan going? That’s right, nowhere.
November 2, 2022
The quadrupling of offshore wind is in the Climate Change Committee report and is adopted by the government. With nuclear reducing to 5% or maybe 10% if Hinkley works, we will need Drax burning wood st 5% and gas at 85-90% as backup for 2 weeks mid winter or vast amounts of hydrogen instead. Do MPs understand the figures or anything else?
November 2, 2022
There is a real problem with ‘renewables’ in a world where capital is no longer effectively ‘free’
The economics of renewables involve a very high up-front cost but then relatively low cost energy production. Conventional power sources have very much lower up-front costs but have ongoing fuel costs. Investment in the former was possible when interest rates were so low that funding was simple to obtain – especially when government was supine in the ‘price’ assurances they were willing to give. This situation no longer pertains, as interest rates will not return to their abnormally low levels and government cannot print any more money (or would be extremely unwise to do so) and is in no postion to underwrite anything quite frankly.
The truth is that renewalbles are expensive and we (unfortunately) are broke.
November 2, 2022
CO2 created by man is about 4%!
November 2, 2022
‘ It is very difficult in the UK to become a government Minister if you consistently advocated leaving the EU. It is very difficult being Home Secretary if you want to stop illegal migration.’
So why should this be the case? Your Conservative MPs held 80 seat majority and chose Johnson who proclaimed he would get Leave done! Getting it done was like daily visits to a dentist for a single extraction without pain killing injections. Such was the resistance to carrying out the Vote decided in June 2016 that any step to reduce the chance of it happening or delaying was taken by all manner of parts of the Establishment and Conservative MPs.
How can consecutive manifestos claim to control immigration, yet do almost nothing to make it harder or exert new controls.? The observer is convinced all the time your party has ruled it has welcomed the small invasion of immigrants – legal or otherwise!
Government achieved by deception and fraud.
November 2, 2022
Agreed, Mickey T. We have been lied to and deliberately deceived in order to manipulate democracy. They know we would NEVER vote for their agenda, if they were truthful, but the electorate has no protection against deliberate deceit (fraud) by political parties and politicians. No protection at all!
November 2, 2022
Small invasion M T? 40,000 in boats so far this year equals half our defence force!
November 2, 2022
Off subject, the increase in natural gas pruces to customers varies access Europe with Hollanf, having closed its own field, at 117%, UK, importing LNG and Norwegian, 96%, Italy, importing LNG instead of Siberisn, 85% , Germany, importing some Siberian until recent sabotage, 52%, and France, importing from where?, 8%!.
Re Daily Express 4 days ago.
Any ideas about what’s going on. Isn’t the UK sending it’s gas over to Europe to fill their storage for the winter?
November 2, 2022
Good morning Sir John
I too donât as a rule go for conspiracy theories. However, every twist and turn this Government takes tends to confirm something outside of UK Democracy is manipulating them.
The get together of those that consider themselves the Great and the Good without Democratic oversight and the resulting pronouncements followed by Governments falling into line even when it is not in the best interest for their Countries, does suggest otherwise.
The UK has for various and sound reasons at the time has dug its self into a hole. Every logic in the World says we can get out of it with enterprise and trade that rebuilds the economy. The however, the Government follows a path of destruction because forces elsewhere they donât like the idea of competition and will do everything to stymie it â its called protection. The result the Government punishes us that live in the UK with higher and even higher taxes at it relieves the pressure for international business.
November 2, 2022
Why has not Matt Hancock been told to resign or sacked? Not a good advertisement for parliament.
For some it highlights all that is wrong with a lot of our political classes.
November 3, 2022
What it highlights is what THEY have reduced themselves to – Two bit actors and clowns.
November 2, 2022
“The elite does not like debate or challenge” it would appear even internaly they know they can manipulate
Today in the MsM
‘NHS seeks ÂŁ7bn extra as Rishi Sunak says health service spending will be prioritised’
At the same time – From the MsM 01/11/22 â âCash-strapped NHS bosses advertised hundreds of thousands of poundsâ worth of diversity roles in just one month, it was revealed today.
Sixteen vacancies for diversity, equality, inclusion and wellbeing officers were put online by trusts in England and Wales in October.
The roles have a combined annual salary of more than ÂŁ700,000. For comparison, the same cash could pay for six GPs, 19 nurses or 20 paramedics.â
That is not focusing on service or the âbest of the bestâ or getting value for the taxpayer
November 2, 2022
Well, I have a letter in the Belfast News Letter today under the heading:
“Replace EU import controls with UK export controls”
which is the essence of what I have been arguing for nearly five years.
But I am nobody, compared to Theresa May and that woman who headed up the CBI, and then Boris Johnson.
November 2, 2022
“The elite does not like debate or challengeâ
From the BBC
âPrime Minister Rishi Sunak has scrapped a target of 91,000 civil service job cuts and ordered departments to find efficiency savings instead.
There were 384,000 civil servants employed in 2016 – numbers steadily rose until they reached 475,000 at the end of last year. â
The Establishment grows its Empire going for all out protection because it can, and the PM will help
Where does the money come from? Just raising taxes!
November 2, 2022
Surprisingly, another pointless letter that I mentioned here:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/10/30/populists-against-globalists/#comment-1351536
has appeared in the Irish Times today:
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/11/02/protocol-solution/
under the heading:
“Protocol solution”
“âAn Offer the EU and UK Cannot Refuseâ”
But as I said before it seems the UK government doesn’t want that sensible solution, betraying and bullying the unionists in Northern Ireland is more in its line.
November 2, 2022
Bang on as usual John, but there are emerging tv channels such as GB and TalkTV that do honest debate about unspeakable sensative issues by respectable journalists like Andrew Neil, Nick Farrari and Andrew Marr and politicians such as long time Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage.
November 2, 2022
Farage talks a good talk, but he doesn’t come up with the solutions; he doesn’t know how many people the Home Office are processing, and he doesn’t know the International agreements on people movement the UK would be forced to follow to stay in the worldwide clubs we need to belong to in order to trade. It seems it is more about Boris being able to sit at the top table with his arms around his chums.
November 2, 2022
LBC was once a forum for free and open discussion. No longer. It has been colonised by the far left, and the few remaining “centrists” trim all the time in terror of being sacked as Farage was.
GB News is shifting left. All institutions seem to be taken over in this way, not least the Conservative and Unionist Party. The audience should write in and protest at the way the news on GB News is almost indistinguishable from Sky and BBC. GB News makes no attempt to question the mainstream lies, just reads them out in the same order.The Breakfast Programme is the same, though not malicious. And the Political Editor is clearly not a Conservative or a Unionist.
The shining light of GB news reporting is Mark White who investigates incidents thoroughly himself and gets to the bottom of them with a sober and intelligent assessment.
November 3, 2022
I agree, Rose; conform, or we’ll take you to court so often you can’t broadcast. So now we have the most patronising lefties unchallenged on panels, talking over people; there is one anthropologist I can’t watch when she is on and switch over.
November 2, 2022
+1 J P. And don’t forget Mark Steyn, one of the best. If OFCOM are investigating him, he must be getting it right.
November 3, 2022
Agreed, BOF, but Steyn is there for opinion, not news reading or reporting. Another very good presenter of opinon was Colin Brazier, now mysteriously gone.
November 2, 2022
A Government, a Parliament that serves the People of the UK before themselves and their Empire Building would be a good starting point to remove the conspiracies.
Bowing down to the Establishment, Lobbyists and the doctrines of the World Economic Forum sort of blows any thoughts that Government is doing what the taxpayer is funding – a better UK
November 2, 2022
I’m not sure there are vast global conspiracies, although sometimes I do wonder.
What is very clear is that the Left has deeply penetrated our Universities and has been using it’s access to our ‘best & brightest’ young minds to spread it’s ideology for many decades. It’s influence is clearly visible in all of our major institutions in both their policies and actions. As Sir John states, it no longer possible to progress in a career unless you support certain ‘acceptable’ views. The King may have no clothes but it is very dangerous to even think that, let alone say it.
I have no idea how effective Suella Braverman will be but I do admire her courage in stating the blindingly obvious.
November 2, 2022
Challenge was probably less likely when most info went only one way: via newspapers and few TV channels. âLetters to Editorâ at magazines and newspapers were feeble in response and strictly vetted.
Now, so many wide communication channels are available personally to all to broadcast facts and harsh opinion instantly. Data, high resolution images and other visual aids + tools are free at hand to assist.
With that capability, Social Media should have made a major improvement, yet strangely lacks piercing effect, owing to being diluted with trivia and junk.
November 2, 2022
Sir John wrote: â[governments] want to increase the power and revenues of the states they leadâ.
Governmentâs power comes from passing a law on legal tender which limits it to a money they control and can inflate.âPoliticians, by and large, go along with this as it allows them to compete with unaffordable over-promises come election time knowing money printing and debt will help them through the Cantillon effect.âThe plebs, us, fall for this as we havenât been educated in the nature of money.âWeâve probably deliberately *not* been educated about money and its history; how there was a time before the current fiat system which was very prosperous for all, and how all fiat systems end in failure.
Keynesianism is taken as fact: that a central bank is needed to manipulate the price of money in times of boom and bust.âWhereas the Austrian school of economics, deliberately not taught to students, explains this is an inversion: it is the existence of a central bank setting the price of money, by central planning, which corrupts the signal of the price of money to the market and leads to the boom and bust cycle.âHow can a central bank possibly accumulate all the information required and correctly judge it to centrally plan the correct price?âWe know thatâs what markets do best.
Meanwhile, inflation robs the poorest; those who start with nothing to sell but their labour.âAny savings they accumulate are eroded by compounding inflation.âThey should instead be able to save in an environment of mild deflation caused by all the technological advancements steadily making goods cheaper.âThis would encourage saving, knowing they can pass this on in time if it werenât for the final ignominy of inheritance tax.
It all rests with a government controlling the money.âBoth Lord Rees-Mogg and Murray Rothbard separately argued that a new technology-based money, free from any central control, including government, unable to be debased, would allow people to move away from the corrupt legal tender which in turn would erode the power and size of government.âThe Internet and modern cryptography provide the means for this to come to be.
November 2, 2022
I dislike the term ‘elite’, especially when it refers to the activities of an international crime syndicate whose objective is to destroy Western civilisation. When things happen which are quite clearly contrary to what the majority would ever want and they are promoted as ‘a good thing’, there can be no other conclusion than they are the results of conspiracies against the people especially when the perpetrators are protected by an armour plate of criminal law. Is this criminal gang trying to get us into a war with Russia because they have lost power and influence there?
November 2, 2022
+1. Forthurst.
November 2, 2022
Possibly if they are faced with losing the control position they have. The consequences of war can be harder to control. Maybe they will bleat on about human rights as they refuse to answer question openly and transparently.
The conspiracy is within the establishment against the people. The control structure in place is a mockery of democracy.
November 2, 2022
Not that long ago the notion of countries not being in control of their own government was regarded as a silly conspiracy theory. Deletable even.
Yet we now see the folly of that.
We are probably in this dire situation because all warnings were dismissed as winterâs tales.
After all, someone or some group ( and most groups have leaders) somewhere wants our borders/economy/society trashed.
Of that there can be no doubt.
And if our proven-to-be authoritarian government wanted to stop itâŠthey would!
The strange, strange sitting on hands of MPs during the Plague, as they watched our freedoms being eroded was bone-chillingly terrifying.
November 2, 2022
Agreed, Sir John.
November 2, 2022
Another (non-political) example is that anyone who challenges the neo-Darwinian orthodoxy about evolution cannot expect to get or keep research job. I know of two cases one in the U.K. and the other in Germany who people lost their jobs because of such heresy.
November 2, 2022
Please tell us what explanation(s) for evolution those people were promoting, as your comment is unfortunately rather light in content without such details.
November 2, 2022
Everyday in the so-called democratic countries , each individual is subject to the votes and will of the majority . The system does not always suit me yet the outcome can continue for a long time . The Politico – Economic controls of significance are dominated by relatively few individuals and their skills are often out of kilter with the conditions in front of them . Thoughtful intelligent individuals become frustrated and today’s post from Sir John highlights this . One has to put one’s trust in how the media and certain individuals react , it is for this reason I support Sir John Redwood and his daily blog .
November 2, 2022
Climate Change has taken on all the characteristics of a religion. It involves ignoring fact as did the Christain Church when it came to accepting which orbited which, Sun or Earth. Additionally when the message is spread, anyone questioning the authodoxy is labelled a heretic and burnt at the stake. Metaphorically in terms of Climate Change, but only just short of it. The Apostles would cancel debate.
Ironically climate is changing, it always has done and will continue to so do. The bizaare fact is that it is all put down to CO2 levels in the atmosphere currently at 0.04%, of which the UK is supposedly responsible for 3% of the World total, ie- 0.0012% of that 0.04%. From ice core information we know that CO2 levels have varied over the centuries with no great ill effect. If it was eliminated completely, as some would seem to wish, has anyone considered the effect on the Earths flora which is dependant on it. As the totally inexcusable amoral behaviour of established religion was ignored so are the many solutions to an improved quality of life ignored because they are peripheral Tto satanising CO2.
Whether it be banking, politics, thought control or nett zero, they have all acquired a group think, deviation from which leads to isolation. A tendency which should be fought tooth and nail by all who value freedom of thought and speech. If you need a roadmap read George Orwell who anticipated the situation the UK finds itself in.
November 2, 2022
An excellent post Sir John.
Of course it is not simply âa couple of billionairesâ alone who are forcing us into poverty and feudal compliance through their deliberate âdreadful mistakesâ but with the help of all the international agencies such as the UN and the WEF etc. plus even our own elected (!) governments.
The meetings such as G7, Davos, COPs etc are all designed to re-inforce the âconcensusâ with all the Western leaders and this is why I will be very surprised if our PM does not in the end succumb to their pressure to attend COP27.
The UNâs Compact for Unlimited Migration, signed by Mrs. May without a vote in Parliament, is designed to damage the Westâs social cohesion and nationhood, and the UNâs CAGW/Net Zero the Westâs economies.
There simply is no CAGW. Climate alarmism is a cult using shame, fear and guilt to coerce, control, manipulate and intimidate, particularly aimed at children. There is no science behind it at all as evidenced by the lack of temperature rise (0.13 degrees C/decade), lack of sea-level rise (1.6 mm/year) and no empirical evidence of worsening weather events. Deaths/year from natural events have dropped dramatically despite massive increases in population.
The war on CO2, a trace gas necessary for life on earth, is designed to decrease plant growth and hence increase the chance of famines.
This alarmism is all based upon modelling, the modern equivalent to an evil witchâs crystal ball, where you can obtain any result you want it to be and is promulgated by the MSM witch doctors.
The UN and the BBC are the climate deniers as theyâre denying there was any climate change before the Industrial Revolution. Complete and utter nonsense.
November 2, 2022
I see that our PM is going to COP 27 after all, well he does need to keep drinking the Kool Aid and he needs to receive his next set of instructions.
At COP26 he said he was going to ârewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero.â
I expect he is needed at COP27 to commit the UK to spend ÂŁbillions more on Net Zero, further destroying our economy, and giving away ÂŁbillions to other countries.
The banks in Switzerland must be rubbing their hands.
November 2, 2022
Excellent post O R. And our government will almost without doubt, sign up to the WHO global health treaty. (If they have not already done so.)
November 3, 2022
BOF: A Petition to Parliament No 614335 stands at 155600 signatures ( Do not sign any WHO Treaty unless it is approved via public referendum ) UKG issued its statement in May and at the end says there’ll not be / no need for a referendum. Although the ‘signing up’ comes later I believe, it’s no doubt as good as done.
November 2, 2022
Isnât interesting that todayâs WMO-C3S (Copernicus Climate Change Service) European State of the Climate report shows (not modelling but measurements in meteorological stations) a 0.5C increase per decade between 1991 and 2021 (climate.copernicus.eu 31/10/2022 âFirst edition of the joint WMO-C3S State of the Climate in Europe report unveils impacts of climate changeâ).
ORâs often quoted 0.13C/decade is correct but is a global mean therefore including the 70% of the Earth surface covered by oceans. Over lands that usually become drier in summer the temperature increase can be much larger as the cooling effect of evaporation from the surface decreases, and I guess thatâs what the report shows.
As for ORâs repeated moaning that BBC this or BBC that, it is a rather funny claim given that they just quote what is in reports produced outside the BBC. So maybe he could try in the future to direct his critical comments to the proper people.
Finally his repeated 180 ppm CO2 concentration â30 ppm above the 150 ppm one where plants dieâ is something he quotes without having actually digested the science. I guess he swallowed that, hook line and sinker from Patrick Moore.
There are two types of photosynthesis, linked to so-called C3 and C4 plants (there are also CAM plants), and J.E. Lovelock and M. Whitfield, 1982, Nature, 296, 561-564 were the first to discuss, and K. Caldeira and J.F. Kasting, 1992, Nature, 360, 721-723 confirmed that C4 plants continue to photosynthesise at CO2 concentrations as low as 10 ppm. So much for Mooreâs 150 ppm plant-free world.
PS: [ And yes, Peter2, thatâs a bit of research, a bit of reading, and some rearrangement (the ill-defined Cutting & Pasting you so often accuse me of doing) but I am quite happy to provide the references for anybody to check my sources.
And BTW, thatâs much more than what you have ever produced on this blog].
November 2, 2022
Why is the war in Ukraine represented as having started in Feb 2022, when these events in recent times began in 2014 with the violent overthrow of the elected government orchestrated by the US State dept and the subsequent
killing of 14,000 Russians by the Ukrainian Azov battalion and its accolytes? Why even is Ukraine accorded legitimacy as a state when it was created out of one state, Russia, by the Bolshevik crime syndicate that seized power in 2017 with assistance from Wall Street? This fake state was always a ticking time bomb combining a minority of Russian bourgeoisie who lived in the south east and ran the industrial sector with a majority of Ukrainian proletariat who worked on the land elsewhere.
November 2, 2022
Somewhat linked, many influential elites and other elements of government and society are bringing about its destruction too, deliberately, in order to introduce their bizarre and subversive dangerous political control philosophies.
They tell us that all strange behaviours must be tolerated and not excluded. They say we must have total diversity; meaning of course acceptance of perversity and moral decadence, where it ought rather to be totally excluded and punished.
We must reintroduce choice, good over bad. Everyone knows that bad people will always exploit weakness in others; they think nothing of lying.
As long as present changes are forced on our decent way of life, and on us as individuals, built up over centuries, we will continue to be ruined. It must be challenged more directly by senior people. That they do not defend decent people who are being thrown out of work and society is a disgrace.
November 2, 2022
Rishi giving in and going to the COP summit rather proves your point John.
November 2, 2022
So very disappointing. I dared to hope he might not bow to pressure. Can we now hear from him the reasons for his decision to U-turn, in the interests of keeping us fully informed. Still, this and all the rest has enabled me to finalise my own decision; straws, camels & all that …. Also, please, let there be no tears this time.
November 2, 2022
âRishi Sunak will attend Cop27 climate summit after U-turnâ Why, you have to ask no one has followed up on the earlier version the Paris Accord. A talking shop for the non-existent World Elite.
The PM keeps digging that Hole that confirms he feels he must align with the World Economic Forum(WEF) before the people that pay his wages. How many wrong steps can he and the Conservative Party keep making?
Confirming the UK electorate is on hold until the election to remove all his acolytes
November 2, 2022
+many
But maybe the explanation is less sinister than I thought.
Could he just have heard that Boris is going?
đ§
November 2, 2022
If only he would publicly state ‘ The UK is about 1% responsible for any change in the world CO2 level, and since the key offenders, if you care to believe it, are China & USA about 16% each, Brazil, India, Russia, Indonesia with Japan & Germany not far behind. On that basis I have more important issues to deal with than travelling to Eygpt to meet with climate alarmists.’
November 2, 2022
John, you are, and have been for decades, a member of the elite. Please don’t pretend otherwise.
November 2, 2022
Oh my!
After all the agonising.
What a surpriseâŠthe PM is trotting off to COP 27!! Pour sauver la planĂšte?
Cop out or what?
Is he flying or hitching or rowing round various coastlines?
November 2, 2022
It seems to me that “conspiracy theory” is just a term thrown at any valid questioning of what is really going on in the corridors of power. There may not be a couple of billionaires in control but there are powerful, global vested interests who are working together. That is no secret although some of the rich families in the background don’t want their names out front.
The World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab, the author of the Great Reset, the United Nations, led by Antonio Gutierrez, and a phalanx of others such as xxxxxx the World Health Organisation, in concert with the Chinese Communist Party, are all working in unison to globalise, Marxist-style, the free-world.
Central bankers got together in August 2019 to plan the money printing that has led to inflation. Covid 19 was a convenient opportunity and provided cover for the increase in money supply.
Some of the worldâs wealthiest and most influential corporate leaders are working to centralise control over food production and crush independent farmers and destroy the middle classes. The World Economic Forum, a network of major multinational businesses that collaborates closely with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is a strategic partner in the United Nations on Agenda 2030 when they will own everything, and ‘you will own nothing’. Could they say it any clearer?
Reply Many involved with the WEF would deny it is Marxist and large corporations are not proposing they be nationalised. The consensus for net zero, for QE and now QT, for the covid regulations infuses all the international bodies and most governments and universities. They do not rely on a few billionaires to make them do and say these things.
November 2, 2022
I also don’t go for conspiracy theories.
However, you do wonder…I mean, why are they acting like this?
The only sensible policies we have had came from the Liz Truss premiership …and she was shut down extremely quickly. Very odd.
November 2, 2022
Inflation isn’t coming down sharply. Although energy prices will gradually come down next year, energy analysts have said that prices will be higher than normal, they expect prices to remain high until 2030.
If corporate greed and the supply side issues aren’t addressed then Inflation may be with us for sometime.
As we all know analysts, scientists and politicians often get it wrong, best to play the wait a see game.
November 2, 2022
When I read of how civilisations of the distant past worshipped the weather gods I always thought how lucky I was to be living today.
But our elites have deliberately returned us to worshipping the weather gods, mainly the wind gods.
Our energy policy is based upon having a mild winter with just the right amount of wind and our immigration policy is based upon the amount of wind in the Channel.
November 2, 2022
Why is the Home Office so against controlling inward migration, both legal and illegal ?
It is clearly acting against the desire of the population and its ministers.
Priti Patel could get nowhere, although I’m certain she tried her best, and Braverman is already in trouble for making even more effort.
Now we have the results of the 2021 census which are truly shocking :
Over the last decade, the population of the UK increased by 3.5m. Of this, 54% was due to net inward migration.
That is, 1,9m extra people over the decade, or 190,000 a year.
The result is that we now have a situation where more than 40% of the population of London were born outside the UK.
But figures for recent years are even worse : Net arrivals in 2021 were 240,000
The Census tells us that the average UK household consists of 2.4 people. Therefore, new arrivals will require
100,000 extra dwellings. Add in 40,000 illegal migrants arriving by boat and the number goes up to 116,700 homes.
The Left and even our government are very keen on reducing emissions but the average CO2 produced per household is 8.1 tonnes. So new migrants account for almost a million extra tons of CO2 a year, and that does not include the carbon footprint to build the 116,700 homes they need or the cars they will drive.
The carbon footprint of a new UK home is 50 tonnes. So that alone adds another 5.8m tonnes of CO2 and does not include the extra infrastructure required for a new town the size of Wolverhampton every year !
We simply cannot go on like this. Draconian measures are needed to get the numbers of both legal and illegal migration under control. I would want to see a return to Cameron’s figure of less than 100,000 arrivals a year.
November 2, 2022
Who influences the influencers? Who plants the ridiculous ideas into allegedly intelligent minds?
I agree that it is not a couple of billionairs. But billionairs alligned with international bodies, like WHO, UN, IMF, World Bank etc. Coming together at gatherings such as WEF at Davos and COP 27 in Egypt conspiring to impose their solutions to what they see as problems. Usually along Marxist lines taking power away from the demos and giving it to themselves at our expense. One in particular has massively funded almost every media group! He who pays the piper?
What do you think Sir John when you see the conspiracy theories become fact? Such as Covid 19 that originated in a wet market but now accepted as ‘escaped’ from the laboratory. And how about digital currencies that are now being worked on by every Central Bank?
It is pretty shocking that we have Prime Ministers and Ministers who are seemingly incapable of independent thought, following the obviously wrong orthodoxy of lockdowns, mask wearing, dangerous ‘vaccines’ and money printing.
November 2, 2022
Mmmm . . . . well Sir John. You are getting there!
Your opening sentence is very promising. The ‘internationalists orthodoxy’ is one way of putting it I suppose. It avoids the accusation that there may be a conspiracy.
However, I personally do not believe, that ‘many of these experts, professionals and officials genuinely believe the consensus they help to form’.
It is much nearer the truth, that they have to go along with it, to keep their usually very well paid jobs. Also, they are looking at their future prospects. Just consider how many of past ‘Elites’ have moved up into what might be called ‘International Bodies’.
I didn’t strongly criticise Boris Johnson for his initial rush into Covid lock downs because most other western governments did the same panic move. He did then stubbornly continue after it became clear the policy was doing far more harm than good. He also grabbed the opportunity to become a Dictator, churning out ‘laws’ which must be obeyed, with no mandate from parliament, let alone the people.
It is understandable that B.J. grabbed the opportunity to be the first in Europe to have a vaccine. Though as it has turned out the vaccines are also doing much harm. Except, of course, to the pharmaceutical companies making huge profits from them.
But:-
The rush to net zero is a different matter. Isn’t it blindingly obvious that there he was ‘sucking up’ to a Global Elite? And was that in the Manifesto that won such a large majority?
Then there is the matter of Immigration.
There are at least two past decisions of our ‘strong and well based democracy’ that your party must reverse.
1). Get out of the E.C.H.R.
2). Get out of the Global Compact on Migration, which Theresa May signed up to at Marrakesh.
Good luck to Suella Braverman. By golly, she needs it.
Like you, I am not impressed by Rishi Sunak’s past performance on the economy.
November 2, 2022
P.S. Your final sentence – in what way will rushing to net zero ‘increase our power and revenue ?’. Quite the reverse surely.
November 2, 2022
âVoters donât forget governments being forced to make U-turns by financial markets. So itâs going to be very, very difficult.â Polling guru Curtiss.
So, in other words, the markets dictate when it’s time to change a government. The strings can be pulled, and we follow their lead like obedient puppets.
November 2, 2022
Our PM at PMQs today :
âThere is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change and there is no long-term security without investment in renewablesâ
Another elite who is either completely deluded or wants to see the destruction of the UK economy and its long-term security. Take your pick.
There is no climate emergency. Average global temperature is rising by 0.13 degrees C per decade, global sea-level is rising by 1.6 mm/year, Arctic sea ice and the Antarctic ice sheet is unchanged, the coral on the Great Barrier Reef is the highest itâs been for 35 years since records began, the weather is no more extreme now than in the past.
How can Chinese supplied renewables provide long-term energy security? Even in the short-term they do not provide energy security as intermittency will bring volatile pricing and rolling blackouts, euphemistically known as âdemand managementâ.
Praying for warm, windy weather does not constitute an appropriate energy policy for âlong-term prosperityâ and neither does relying on the Chinese for our renewables, raw materials and energy-intensive goods constitute an appropriate policy for the countryâs long-term economic and military security.
November 2, 2022
All of your points SJ, all valid ones, prove that democracy is failing in OUR country.
The only time we, from the back streets, are consulted, is at each and every General Election. After the result we are ignored until the five years are up. Keeping to manifestos should be made mandatory as in recent years they seem to have become just “liar sheets” to gain power.
Conservative MPs including their Ministers must heed their electorate NOW or again suffer an humiliating defeat in 2024 to keep them out of office for a decade or more.
Sadly, as there are so many divisions now within the Party, I suspect it may suffer a break up into different factions.
November 2, 2022
I assume the 750 million pounds of government bonds sold by the Bank of England yesterday were at a loss, JR?
November 2, 2022
Our real government, not the entity in Parliament that won an 80 seat majority on the basis of a document called âConservative Party Manifesto 2019â, together with the BBC have managed to completely reverse the narrative on those crossing the Channel in small boats.
Instead of being criminals with no ID, mainly Albanian of late, who have paid other criminals to smuggle them into the UK, we are now informed they are victims having received terrible treatment in the UK holding centres. This poor treatment is worse than living in the dunes and forests of northern France with disease and fights breaking out and it is disgraceful that our Home Secretary has not organised the nice, warm comfortable hotel rooms to which they were promised and expect.
These hotel rooms, we are now told, are being organised urgently, whatever the expense, and the victims are expected to be taking the UK to court for inhuman treatment.
If anyone thinks we have a Government, Parliament, Civil Service, or judiciary working for the benefit of the indigenous people of the UK they are completely deluded.
November 2, 2022
I just heard on the radio that Mr Sunak is now dropping all the pledges he made when he was campaigning to be PM. Can politics be any more mendacious than that? We really cannot have people installing themselves and going against everything they promised they would do. He should resign for lack of integrity.
November 2, 2022
Off topic, there are some real hypocrites among the unelected legislators-for-life in the House of Lords.
They were not in the least worried when we had a stream of regulations handed down from Brussels, which could not be amended in Parliament and which were implemented by secondary legislation, if they actually needed any action in Parliament to take effect, with national vetoes swept away by successive treaties and with no guarantee that a minister would even cast our national vote as Parliament would wish, and yet now it is like the end of the world that the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill – an “illegal” Bill according to some of them, who clearly do not believe in the sovereignty of the Parliament of which they are members, and nor in the freedom of Parliament to conduct its proceedings without external interference under Article IX of the Bill of Rights 1689 – would give the same kind of power to UK ministers. And as for the situation in Northern Ireland, under the protocol they will have that stream of regulations handed down from the EU without any say at all, not even a small fraction of the votes within the EU institutions, and yet they think that is fine and should not be opposed.
November 2, 2022
I’ve just seen one of them, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, saying that those who vote for the DUP constitute about 0.4% of the UK electorate and that very small tail should not be allowed to wag the dog. Somebody should remind him that goods crossing the Irish land border into the EU Single Market constitute about 0.1% of UK GDP yet Theresa May was perfectly content to allow that even smaller tail to wag the dog of the whole UK economy.
November 3, 2022
This was from the DUP peer Lord Dobbs:
https://hansard.parliament.uk//lords/2022-11-02/debates/A69AB9A2-1715-4215-94BE-A880415FBA00/NorthernIrelandProtocolBill#contribution-24C5382A-57E5-4B33-AB82-9D7BA2A8D31E
“I understand also the very strong opinions, many of which I share, on the idea of giving the Executive more and more power at the expense of the legislature. However, I ask noble Lords to bear in mind the situation we are faced with in Northern Ireland as a result of the protocol. Powers have been taken away in 300 areas of law affecting the economy in Northern Ireland. Powers have been taken away from this House, this Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly in Stormont, and handed over to the European Commission in Brussels, which initiates law in all those areas.
Noble Lords have expressed great dissatisfaction with the idea, which is regrettable in many cases, that one of His Majestyâs Ministers may be able to sit down with a pen and paper or an iPad and write what comes to mind; but we have a situation where somebody in the European Commission building in BrusselsâI do not know who or where they will be, or their name; they are certainly not accountable to anyone here or in Northern Irelandâwill write laws for Northern Ireland. It will not be a question of putting them down in statutory instruments, which this House may rejectâalthough we have heard that it hardly ever rejects them. There will be no system of approval or disapproval at all. There will be dynamic alignment of the laws of the European Union with Northern Ireland. Legislators and the people of Northern Ireland will be handed those laws by the European Commission and told: âThatâs the law youâre now operating.â Those laws are not necessarily going to be made in the interests of Northern Ireland. They are made by people who have their own interests.
I understand why noble Lords may rail against the delegated powers in this Bill, but why is not the much greater problem of the powers that have been given to Brussels to impose laws directly on part of the United Kingdom in the 21st century a subject for even more outrage? People may say that the Government signed up to this. I agreeâthey did, against our advice. We voted against it, as did other noble Lords in this House and Members of the other place. But we have this problem and we need to fix it. If it cannot be fixed, we are in serious trouble. I hope that negotiations and the negotiating mandate of the European Union will change to allow these things to be negotiated, but there is no sign of that thus far. If they do not change, this sovereign Parliament must take action to protect the people of Northern Ireland against laws imposed on them. Surely that should have the support of all true democrats in this mother of Parliaments.”
November 3, 2022
Denis, he should also be reminded that not a single Unionist in the Stormont Assembly supports the NIP. They all want it gone, not just the DUP whom too many people lazily demonise. And the Unionists are the majority group. HMG is forcing the DUP to take up a position which they, HMG, should be taking up; but as ever in this part of our country, HMG thinks it must be “neutral”. The Southern Irish government doesn’t think it should be neutral between republicans and unionists, or between the EU and the UK, and nor does the EU. Can there be another country in the world which connives at the annexation of part of its territory?
By the way, which do you think the most loathsome group in the House of Lords, the ex civil servants or the lawyers? [Not counting the Unionist lawyers who are of a higher calibre altogether.]
November 2, 2022
Somewhat Off topic…but rather important.
From BBC website.
Right now, we have a don’t know yet government.
When Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or his team are asked about their plans, their views, their policies, the answer to almost any enquiry amounts to them saying they are not sure yet. Those promises made on that sunny hurtle around the town halls and exhibition centres of the UK in August, as he fought a losing leadership campaign against Liz Truss, now have a rather looser status.
Not necessarily vanished forever, but they are not being committed to, either.
Downing Street is seeking to make the case its outlook now is a pragmatic one.
They have unexpectedly inherited high office in the blink of an eye and the teeth of economic calamity and they’re pausing to work out what on earth to do next.
After Liz Truss’s “shock and awe” blitz of policy announcements rapidly became the awe and shock for her of them imploding, the new PM and cabinet are seeking to make a virtue of stepping rather tentatively, rather gingerly.
But that means, right now at least, we know very little in concrete, specific terms about what the government wants to do, let alone will do. Anything with the merest hint of economics, or budgets (ie almost everything) is stonewalled with a plea to wait for the Autumn Statement.
That is a fortnight away.
[Government by err ….we don’t know what to do]
November 2, 2022
I hope people are watching Farage tonight. It’s an absolute eye opener. He’s talking about illegal immigrants or invaders. Apparently the head of Kent CC has written to the government saying they are at breaking point. They have 20000 families on the housing waiting list and they have no school places in year 7 and 9. Their social services are broken. RNLI crew members attending a course were thrown out of their hotel and replaced by migrants. The very people they go out to ‘rescue’. Albanians aren’t being checked but put on bail and just dumped at various Kent railway stations and left to their own devices. I just can’t see how this can go on. Your party has to act John and back Braverman to the hilt . We are done for otherwise. I really cannot bring myself to vote for the Conservatives again.
November 2, 2022
With news across the media coming out tonight if the PM and his cabinet don’t declare emergency legislation to combat this invasion and the collateral damage to the southern counties, then it is time to throw their resignations into Central Office. Someone is pulling the strings and these people are not fit for purpose. The PM is reported to be back tracking on his pre leadership promises.
Where is the credibility? The Tories have lost the plot totally in virtually everything they do.
November 3, 2022
Of the many problems the voting public would like to see sorted, immigration is top of the list, yet the Home Office and other officials in government are determined to stop successive Home Secretaries dealing with it.
Net inward migration running at 240,000 plus 40-50,000 illegal arrivals in 2022, is completely unsustainable.
It’s not as if it’s a new phenomenum, net arrivals over the last decade have been running at 190,000 a year.
A new town the size of Wolverhampton is needed every year to accommodate these numbers. Economists go on about how necessary it is for growth, but we are unable to afford or construct the infrastructure necessary to support population growth of this kind of order on our crowded island,
The net result, as we have seen, is that services for the existing population deteriorate significantly.
How much of the deterioration in the performance of the NHS is due to us having an extra 2m people coming to live here over the last decade, I wonder ?
The average GP now has 2,248 patients on their list, so net migration over the last decade has required at least an extra 890 GPs. In fact, the position is worse than this : population pressure has meant that the GP workload has increased by 16% (310 extra patients per GP) and that’s just since 2015, despite the number of GPs increasing over the period.
For the service standards of GP practices to have been maintained over the last decade, well over 1,000 extra GPs would have been required just to cover the influx due to net migration.
Yet none of the opposition parties want to deal with this problem, they seem happy with any level of inward migration, despite the fact that their voters are very much against it.
November 3, 2022
If or rather when there are disputes over controversial political policies, people (generally the social democrat leaning elite) rush to get an overriding ruling from unelected social democrat (they are not so keen on socialists who would genuinely seriously interfere with their own wealth) leaning virtue-signalling judges both national and international.
What should be happening is that controversial issues should instead be put to binding referendums of the people, as happens in Switzerland and in some American states. In a democracy it should be the people alone either via Parliament or via referendums who decide political policies, not unrepresentative elites or unelected judges.