Rishi will need some populism

To become a President or the leader of a majority party modern democrats need to assimilate enough populism to win. The elite establishment view is based around the iron discipline of accelerated progress to net zero, whilstĀ  including political correctness and Ā the boom/bust lurches of their economic advice. The elite currently favour recession to tame the inflation their damaging over extended experiment in money printing brought us. This is not a winning ticket.

Populists of the so called right have been adopting some socialist policy features, favouring price controls on basics, subsidies and even Ā windfall taxes. Their more unique and positive remedy of lower taxes is a good selling point, as isĀ  their opposition to government lecturing and regulating so many aspects of our lives. They see use of a car as part of our freedoms, and resent culture war thought controls.

Populists of the left want to tax the rich more. Their selling point is the offer of more free money to more people, as they work away at proposals to shorten working weeks, offer minimum incomes and promise ever more ā€œfreeā€ public services on a universal basis. They are happy with taxing and regulating cars off the road and with making it more and more difficult to run a free enterprise business.They recruit plenty of thought police.

An incoming leader like Rishi Sunak has difficult judgements to make. He sits at the top of an establishment official and quango ridden government which will wish to expunge populist traits from his policy mix. If he lets them do this he will not rescue the opinion polls. If he insists on too much populism the elite will seek its revenge.

230 Comments

  1. Peter
    November 4, 2022

    Maybe we are beyond the old pattern of needing to win elections.
    If one candidate or party does not suit then elites can turn to another and shoehorn a different placeman in as an unlikely prime minister.
    Maybe decline suits elites as a preliminary to a great reset.
    It is difficult for radical new parties to establish themselves in British politics even with millions of votes and the population are too phlegmatic to resort to violence against the governing regime.

    1. PeteB
      November 4, 2022

      Peter,
      Does feel like Tory and Labour are both offering the same dish, just different flavours. Tax > redistribute > bankrupt UK Plc.
      Radical new parties cannot win in a first past post electoral model. We saw how the PR model for MEP elections allowed Farage to win seats. That’s how European countries have seen ‘fringe’ parties shoot into the limelight. Our poltical establishment will never agree to such a change though – turkeys and Christmas.

      Solution in UK is to get Labour into power soon, accelerate the tax and bust process, bear the pain. May then see a proper conservative/capitalist/low regulation/low tax based party challenge for power. Predict around 2030.

      1. Peter
        November 4, 2022

        PeteB,
        Agree it will have to get worse before it will get better. All parties broken before something better can emerge.

        The danger is it might be so late we will have already been robbed blind.

        1. Original Richard
          November 4, 2022

          Peter : “The danger is it might be so late we will have already been robbed blind.”

          Yes the elites want to dstroy the middle class as they are the group who uphold democracy.

          When they cannot increase taxes any further they will start a wealth tax to finish the job.

      2. ignoramus
        November 4, 2022

        I think the days of low taxes are long gone.

        The demographics are not looking good and without some major immigration, we simply need to tax people more heavily to maintain public services, unless we cut them.

        It’s not a palatable choice, but without raising the number of workers, we need to raise more taxes or cut public services. I think people will accept higher taxes more than immigration or deep cuts to the NHS or pensions.

        Gaining access to the single market or a free trade deal with America would also help, but that’s never going to happen.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      November 4, 2022

      Sir John apparently wants this country to slide into the same abyss which threatens the US, where it is in danger of being taken over by a primitive, obscurantist, dark-hearted cult.

      Fortunately this country’s greatest export market and closest ties are with the Enlightenment-based European Union.

      1. Michelle
        November 4, 2022

        Ah all is well in the EU.
        Well yes according to the elitist mainstream media, but it isn’t and there are many ordinary folk who are disgruntled with its ‘enlightenment’.
        The EU is an elitists project, which is why the elite establishment here have done everything they can to upend the proles voting to leave.
        There is plenty of money in it for the elite and their foot soldiers.

        1. Hope
          November 4, 2022

          I see it that the public did nothing to deserve austerity and tax rises for bankers and private business in 2008/9. That was the govt fault in failing to regulate properly.

          The public now faces another hammering in taxes and inflation because of govt, namely Chancellor Sunak and BOE Bailey. Both should have known better. Johnson led by the terrible duo imposed an unnecessary extended lockdown that had no medical benefit. The plans by Hunt as Health Secretary not fit for purpose!

          Sunak, Bailey and Hunt blaming Truss or anyone else for their self induced stupidity. Sunakā€™s lack of integrity seen by backstabbing Johnson in return for PM then lying at every turn to deflect blame, act in contrast to what he actually did and pledged! Serve with integrity is beyond Sunak.

          Sunak and Bailey in cahoots at net stupid reception hosted by King stupid at our expense!

      2. Hope
        November 4, 2022

        Sunak is toast. He has now U-Turned on everything he claimed, his last attempt to beat Truss he wanted tax cuts, fracking etc.

        He claimed to serve with integrity! That lasted two days! Therefore proven liar at start does not bode well to gain public trust.

        To have Hunt as chancellor is catastrophic bad judgement- the party and nation does not want because he is a loathsome, arrogant EU remainer who wanted a Chinese lockdown and has no regard for his own voters let alone nation. He failed the nation as head of NHS, wasted billions while providing a failed service.

        They do not care because the aim is return to EU or act in lockstep. Therefore labour and Tory are as one. To date no benefit of Brexit, no control of borders, France controls our fishing waters, EU has control over N.Ireland, EU laws remains, ECJ applies, ECHR applies. No energy security, no food security, EU military pact UK a junior partner, EU control environment and level playing field ie EU control. Finances- tax, debt and deficit all EU aligned. This is a remain coup.

        1. glen cullen
          November 4, 2022

          Sunaks government has just cancelled the reopening of a coal mine and is about to cancel the next nuclear power station

          1. Sea_Warrior
            November 5, 2022

            There is adequate private capital available to fund Sizewell – if that reactor is necessary because the timeframe for rolling out the SMRs. NS&I should construct a product, called ‘Atomic Bonds’, and start pushing them at its legion of customers, with the same vigour as it pushed its Green Bonds. The things will sell like hot cakes. I’ll buy some!

      3. Peter2
        November 4, 2022

        That’s an odd rant NHL
        I thought Sir John was talking about the difficulties in getting the Conservatives re elected at the next general election and the different policies which might be popular with the voters.

      4. Sir Joe Soap
        November 4, 2022

        So enlightened that folk risk their lives to cross the channel to the UK? The offer of a rib to sail back when they arrive here realising that they just left paradise seems to have been ignored.

      5. Ed M
        November 4, 2022

        Europe can and should have close ties in terms of the economy, culture and security but you don’t have to create a single market to do that / lose sovereignty / lose legal power.

        I was against leaving the EU as I didn’t think we had the leadership or money to extricate us from the EU (that does NOT mean I’m pro EU – overall, I’m 100% pro complete sovereignty long-term). I still think that. But I support Brexit now (since the election result) because of the democrat result. Plus, you just can’t go on arguing about something forever either.

        Just have to crack on (plus a nation should be able to do well whether in single market or not).

        1. Ed M
          November 5, 2022

          Also, for me sovereignty isn’t just about FREEDOM but also PERSONALITY!

          The brilliant Oscar Wilde said, ‘Be yourself, everyone else is taken,’ meaning be the unique, wonderful personality you were created to be. Countries are also a bit like personalities. The English personality is different to the French to the German to the Spanish to the Irish to the Dutch. And that’s great! How boring it would be if we all became over-homogenised.

      6. Cuibono
        November 4, 2022

        Knowledge, freedom and happiness?
        I donā€™t think so!
        Really!!

      7. IanT
        November 4, 2022

        I like your posts NLH, they always provide a source of amusement in the morning.

        Germany (part of the enlightenment-based EU) is about to launch a $198B energy package for its population and industry within the Eurozone. This will effectively subsidise German industry to the detriment of other euro zone countries who have to compete with them. It will also deliver more buying power to the German population at a time of stressed suplly lines, giving them preferential access to some goods. If I were living in Greece or Italy I wouldn’t be too amused, especially as it was German energy policy (or lack of it) that got them into this mess.

        Meanwhile the ECB is sat at 2% when the Fed has gone to 3.75% and the BoE to 3%. Inflation is running at over 10% across the EU but with a very wide spread across different countries. I think your “enlightened” EU is in for some very rude awakenings….

      8. Mickey Taking
        November 4, 2022

        Our closest ties? – where have you been these last 6 + years? The EU is considered, and by many within it, to be anything but enlightened. Vicious, inactive, protectionist, confused, drowning in regulation, contrary, bureaucratic, at times bitterly divided, incredibly ignorant of what the member countries’ people actually want.
        At least their intention to reduce imports from UK is working well, so we can look forward to less inefficient trading as the years go by.

        1. Ed M
          November 5, 2022

          I think you’ll find countries beyond Europe are just as chaotic (let’s not over-idealise life outside Europe – I mean in the Americas, Asia etc)!

          I agree though Sovereignty is great – and we are now out of the EU (which I didn’t support at time only ’cause I didn’t think we had the leadership or money to extricate ourselves properly from Europe – still think the same – but at same time, we have to MOVE ON! And accept Brexit and make it work. And we can. Our economy can be equally as strong outside the single market as inside it. That is down to sheer effort as opposed to which system we’re in. But it will take time and effort to get there.

          Plus we have to move on from moaning about Europe. That was then. That’s just making excuses. We have to make things work now through sheer effort.

      9. mancunius
        November 4, 2022

        Nonsense. The UK’s trade with the EU has steadily dwindled to ca. 40%.
        in August 2022: Ā£3.5 billion (13.3%) rise in imports from non-EU countries: imports from EU countries decreased by Ā£0.5 billion (1.9%). Ā£0.7 billion (4.1%) increase in exports to non-EU countries, while exports to EU countries decreased by Ā£0.3 billion (1.5%).
        And btw, the EU has nothing to do with the 18th century Enlightenment – rather more a 1943-conceived copy of the Prussian-imposed Zollverein (Tax Union), which was just an attempt to remove sovereignty from the individual German states and create a single Germany controlled from Berlin by the Prussian monarchy.

      10. Original Richard
        November 4, 2022

        NLH : “Fortunately this countryā€™s greatest export market and closest ties are with the Enlightenment-based European Union.”

        You mean the Ā£100bn/YEAR trading deficit we had with the EU, an organisation run by elites we certainly did not elect and cannot remove.

      11. No Longer Anonymous
        November 4, 2022

        What ? The liberal Left Biden/Harris cult ?

    3. Peter Wood
      November 4, 2022

      I thought like this when Macron won, he appeared from almost nowhere to replace the old parties, with very little prior experience, how?
      Farage wants PR, it would at least mean less powerful old establishment parties, and see him in Parliament.
      For sure our present system is not producing the management our nation needs. Highest taxes in 70 years and STILL a budget deficit… That’s just not sustainable nor acceptable.

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 4, 2022

        I never previously was interested in PR. However, I feel brave and enlightened (thanks for the word Martin) in considering normal democratic FPTP voting for residents per constituency has progressively got worse as each GE takes place, and the resultant PM has failed ever more catastrophically until recent months when it resembles a tv show called ‘ Would I lie to you?’ Except that can be funny.

    4. Lentona
      November 4, 2022

      The ā€œeliteā€ live in John Redwoodā€™s head, they do not exist in the real world. The Conservatives have run this country for 12 years, very badly, and no one is to blame but the Conservatives

      1. Mark B
        November 4, 2022

        +1

      2. IanT
        November 4, 2022

        I have a feeling that our bloated public service may have a played a more significant part in our troubles since the last war LenT. They are the single unifying thread that runs through all of this recent history. I used to very much enjoy ‘Yes Minister’ but looking back on it only causes me deep concern these days.
        It is (as they say) – No laughing matter!

      3. Peter2
        November 4, 2022

        Yet just a few days ago Lentona you posted talking about how the government had been forced to comply with the requirements of the EU/UN/USA FED/and Bankers various

      4. Peter
        November 4, 2022

        Lentona the Conservative party is to blame for following the wishes of powerful lobbies that go against manifesto promises to voters.

        However, there definitely are powerful lobbies, whatever you choose to call them.

        It has come to a pass when ‘Elites’ are now mentioned on this blog though.

        Civil servants, the BBC and ‘the blob’ have been mentioned but elites were previously ‘silly conspiracy theories’. I suppose if sufficient numbers mention them they cannot be ignored.

        In the past naming elites guaranteed posts were deleted, even if the mention was not unduly critical. You will have to guess who they might be. Same applies to the financial system in the USA, as opposed to the Bank of England.

      5. Original Richard
        November 4, 2022

        Lentona :

        The elites infest the majority of the Conservatice Party as well as the majority of Parliament, Civil Serrvice, judiciary and the heads of our institutions including sadly now our police and even our armed forces.

        Decline is inevitable so long as these elites continue with their CAGW/Net Zero scam.

      6. Shirley M
        November 5, 2022

        I am of the impression the ‘elite’ could be ignored (if the government wished) but it is beneficial for the members of the PARTY to give them priority over the electorate. The electorate need to fight back! The electorate provide the funds to run this country. The elite maybe fund the party, or individual MP’s.

    5. Wanderer
      November 4, 2022

      +1 Peter. Good summary. It’s a sad position that we are in. I’m hoping for some breakthrough in the US midterms that may lead the West out of the globalists’ clutch.

      1. IanT
        November 4, 2022

        I wasn’t a great fan of Donald Trump but he certainly isn’t the complete idiot the media like to paint him.
        However, I will be very happy to see the Democrats grasp on power weakened, as whoever is actually running the US these days, I’m fairly certain it isn’t Mr Biden.

        1. Lifelogic
          November 5, 2022

          Indeed, See the video of him explaining to Germany the severe dangers of relying to much on Russian energy.

    6. Peter
      November 4, 2022

      The assumption that most politicians are in it for the long term is also questionable now. For some it is just another role which they may quit after a time. Not every MP looks to stay in parliament unless they lose an election. Rory Stewart is one example and there were a host of MPs like Louise Mensch who were prominent for a while, appearing on Question Time etc, and then moved on to other things.

      Maybe they are not that worried about losing an election. ‘Them’s the breaks!’ as one recently stated.

  2. turboterrier
    November 4, 2022

    It very much helps to be popular with the electorate if you adopt the policy of:-
    I say what I do and do what I say.
    RS has not got off to a very good start his off/on trip to COP27 and his reported decision to ignore his sales pitch to the members of his leadership contest.
    His apparent fixation on higher taxes, Net Zero and not taking the bull by the horns and removing us from all those laws and treaties that stop the invasion of this country, are going to result in a disjointed party, lack of confidence from the electorate and he will be a dead man walking in the new year.
    He lacks the charisma to lead from the front with a don’t look now but follow me spirit.
    It will be hard for him to change and he has the added burden that the members are not totally committed to him and there are factions within his ranks that undermine his tenure as leader and PM.

    1. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      Well to be popular you want to deliver cheap reliable energy, low and decreasing taxes that do not kill the economy, light and sensible only regulation, be someone who keep manifesto promises, does not debase the currency by money printing (thus causing inflation), does not waste money hand over fist and delivers public services that are at least competent and fair value, ensure the economy provides sufficient housing.

      Controlling the borders properly helps too.

      Sunak scores 0/10 on the above. He is even going to the sick joke beanfest in Egypt on a private jet one assumes.

      1. Lifelogic
        November 4, 2022

        As does having police who actually police and deter crime. We hardly have any of these things.

    2. Hope
      November 4, 2022

      Oh and the Tory looney tunes think closing down industry here be cause of expensive energy and passing the jobs to China so we can import hundreds of billions of goods and transport around the world is good for the planet! Sunak happy to buy imported fracked gas from Qatar and US but will not produce gas here to be energy independent!

      Tories want welfare claimants to have mortgages! Illegal criminals in four star hotels while there still homeless on the streets and elderly cannot keep warm. It is so wonderful to shovel Ā£14 billion to overseas aid and Ā£11 billion to EU! Well done Sunak good election plan.

      Tory party are full of nutters.

      1. Mark B
        November 4, 2022

        Well that what happens when you let in Liberals.

        No proper vetting.

        1. Hope
          November 4, 2022

          Mark,
          Strongly Disagree. Tory Centralised selection introduced by Cameron where associations get a choice of the two offered them! A lid dumb or a lib dumb. They are vetted.

          1. Lifelogic
            November 4, 2022

            +1

          2. Mark B
            November 5, 2022

            Point taken šŸ™‚

          3. Shirley M
            November 5, 2022

            + 1

    3. Sir Joe Soap
      November 4, 2022

      Tough to raise taxes when your spouse recently benefitted from non-dom advantages. Presumably a PM and his spouse intend to remain resident in the UK (although a PM working from home in California would be different), so why can’t we all benefit from non-dom rules of a flat tax?

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 5, 2022

        Not tough at all – he’ll just do it with support from similar minded parasites.
        Just ensure you don’t kill the host.

    4. X-Tory
      November 4, 2022

      Sunak is too STUPID to be a successful populist. Take taxes: most people do not begrudge the rich their wealth, and taxing the rich more only attracts support when the poor feel they are taxed too much and thus think that the rich need to share their pain. Cut taxes on the lower-paid and they will not support higher taxes on the wealthy. Better still, cut taxes for EVERYONE in an equal fashion, as this will be seen as equal and fair and be universally popular. And this is why I keep repeating that the solution is to RAISE THE PERSONAL ALLOWANCE to Ā£20,000. By increasing the threshold before you start paying tax (and making the personal allowance available to everyone, including those on higher tax bands) you will make everyone better off without discrimination or favoritism. This is the right and ‘populist’ policy, but Stupid Sunak refuses to do it.r.

    5. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      Is the definition of ā€œpopulismā€ policies that are popular with voters but hugely disliked by the establishment who often live off the backs of the voters/taxpayers?

      Things like real meaningful democracy, freedom, low simple taxes, referendums, MP recalls, public services that work, freedom of choice in education, broadcasting, healthcare, transport, freedom to spend you own money and not be coerced lockdowns or into taking dangerous and ineffective vaccines, Brexit, small government, cheap on demand energyā€¦

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        November 4, 2022

        +1 LL

        “populism” is a word that is spat out by the intelligentsia.

        It reeks of oik-o-phobia.

        1. Lifelogic
          November 5, 2022

          +1

    6. glen cullen
      November 4, 2022

      More Populism
      A decision on whether to re-open the nation’s first deep coal mine for decades has been delayed. One local said ā€œOur own energy is beneath our feet. You produce power from what you’ve got, not from somebody else transporting it there.ā€ https://news.sky.com/story/government-weeks-away-from-deciding-whether-to-open-first-deep-coal-mine-in-decades-12735744?fbclid=IwAR36xvWg8ZmTpkkNOsVcX2NTfs8ot77pY9x6AdFxfU3sGz0JUNH0b5zkpSs

      1. Lifelogic
        November 4, 2022

        +1

      2. Shirley M
        November 5, 2022

        +1 – anyone would think this government do NOT want self sufficiency, jobs or taxes, to help the UK and prefer to give our money to other countries, increase our trading deficit (which is darn good excuse to increase taxes again) and pay extra for transport half way round the world. Traitors! Deliberately harming the UK. HOW CAN WE GET RID OF THEM, or get them to work in the interests of the UK??????

  3. Mark B
    November 4, 2022

    Good morning.

    It is all dependant on both election cycles and majorities. In coming governments are also hostages to what previous governments have left them and to what agreements have been made.

    A new government with a workable majority has both time and power. A coalition government has time, but is compromised on power. ie what it wants to do regarding election manifesto promises.

    New governments are also constrained by the economic legacy of the previous administration. They are also constrained when it comes to agreements. This was very much evident during our time in the EU.

    The problem for the Conservative Party is they have been in power for 12 years, have had power for most of that time and, from my perspective at least, done very little except create a rather big mess.

    Our kind host has gone to great lengths to try and offset the blame. Its the EU, the BoE, the Treasury, the last Labour government, the international markets, the coalition, Liz Truss MP, and now, the mythical Elites. No mention of the fact that, whilst the country has slowly been going down the pan under your watch, you have been having a major internal battle / turf war. Trouble is, you have finally stopped looked around and realised just how bad the mess is and, worst of all, you are at the wrong end of the election cycle.

    The final bit of bad news is, there is no Falklands War that will save you. That’s because over the last 12 years you have decimated the armed service.

    You are soon to get your just rewards

    1. Donna
      November 4, 2022

      Well said. 12 years and the only non-Blairite policy they’ve delivered is a weak version of Brexit and they had to be threatened with political extinction in order to do even that.

      There’s no point whatsoever in voting CONservative.

      1. Bryan Harris
        November 4, 2022

        Donna +1
        There is no point in voting for any of the big parties – they are all tarred with the same brush.

        Let’s see how many true conservative MPs defect.

        1. glen cullen
          November 4, 2022

          Tory MPs havenā€™t left the party ā€“ itā€™s the party thatā€™s left the Tory MPs (theyā€™re all either green or new labour)

      2. Lifelogic
        November 4, 2022

        Sunak even sounds rather like Blair at the despatch box.

      3. Hope
        November 4, 2022

        Donna,
        None. That boat sailed when Major was in office, businesses closed by the thousand and people lost their homes by the million for his fanatic dream to be in the ERM, there was hope when Cameron came along, but he took the party to the far left and slated his own voters as turnip Taliban and swivelled eyed loons. Sunak now attacking self employed for big business, as they did for covid, and wants to tax people out of existence to house foreigners, spray the world with our taxes, and import people from around the world as he can.

        Tories have imported 4.2 million, plus historic illegal immigration while repeatedly lying to the public to say it wanted to reduce to tens of thousands. Their immigration head count is by estimates not actual head count so the position is far worse! Therefore Donna worse than Blaire.

        1. Mickey Taking
          November 4, 2022

          We now have 10m people living in England and Wales that were not born in those countries. Nearly 1 in 6, Scotland and N.Ireland were not included. With the birth rates and the illegals we help to a hotel, and the other illegals nobody tried to control, we will be below 1 in 6 before too long. I can imagine before I die authorities will be asking me ‘which country did you come from?’.

      4. Bloke
        November 4, 2022

        John Major’s acceptance of the Maastricht Treaty probably triggered the UK’s nose-dive that exists today.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          November 4, 2022

          Bloke. It certainly triggered my nose dive. We lost our house and my husband was made redundant at the same time. When you’ve got a 3 year old it’s not great.

          1. Mickey Taking
            November 5, 2022

            An awful experience. Now I fear a similar tragedy is on the cards for hundreds of thousands in the UK. If not mass redundancies there are likely to be even more families trying to survive on zero hours and benefits. Depressing for the economic outlook and a disaster for all concerned.
            All this after a Johnson ‘triumph and 80 seat majority’ – now looking like becoming the worse government post-war.

      5. X-Tory
        November 4, 2022

        Quite right. I just don’t see any policy area where the Conservatives are the OPPOSITE of Labour. They are both just minor variations on a theme, with almost no perceptible difference between them. They both support high taxes (just slight tweaks between them), high spending, granting asylum to refugees, net zero, restrictions on free speech, the Human Rights Act, the Equalities Act, etc. Labour and the Tories are effectively THE SAME. I’ve no interest in voting for a Blue Labour party.

        1. glen cullen
          November 4, 2022

          Very True

    2. Peter van LEEUWEN
      November 4, 2022

      @ Mark B:
      ” offset the blame: Its the EU, the BoE, the Treasury, the last Labour government, the international markets, the coalition, Liz Truss MP, and now, the mythical Elites. ”
      Well said. I like your list.

      1. Mark B
        November 4, 2022

        PvL

        I voted to LEAVE the EU for this precise reason. Our politicians were using the EU as cover for their own incompetence. There were other reason, and no, not immigration, but it was about taking control. not just of this country but the decision process.

        Whilst everything is very painful right now its not going to be half as painful the for the party that is currently in charge.

      2. IanT
        November 4, 2022

        That’s actually a pretty good list Peter and you are right, we’ve not been doing very well over here.

        The BoE printed for far too long and raised rates too late – just as the global recession gets into full swing.
        The Treasury seems to think taxing anything that moves makes good sense at this time, especially with many SMEs already on life support. The last Labour Government caused long lasting damage to our economy and union through its economic illiteracy, devolution and immigration policies. The International Markets have used ‘free’ money and ultra low interest rates to blow huge asset bubbles (across all classes) everywhere. And Liz Truss? Just as the Conservatives finally seemed to discover some conservative instincts, Liz promptly fell over her own feet, allowing ‘Lockemdown’ Hunt to take over. So you are right, a complete omni-shambles

        But what abou the EU? Brussels has deliberately set out to make life very difficult for the UK and frankly I will never forgive them for that. But Brussels has it’s own problems. The fact is that the EU has been a deeply flawed construct from day one. The European ‘Elites’ knew this of course but believed that they could ‘resolve’ these fundamental problems as they arose, if only because there would be no easy way back for it’s members once on the slippery slope of European integration. However, EU unity has never been tested in the way that it’s about to be.

        Warren Buffet says that when the tide goes out, we’ll see who has been swimming naked. I’m afraid that the tide is going out a very long way and the ECB isn’t going to have “whatever it takes” to cover its backside this time.

        1. Peter van LEEUWEN
          November 4, 2022

          @ IanT : “The fact is that the EU has been a deeply flawed construct from day one.”
          Not a fact, just an opinion.
          (often held in Britain, where people aren’t very well informed about the working of the EU)

          1. IanT
            November 5, 2022

            Until all EU countries are willing to accept a full Federal structure that includes fiscal and political union (which seems unlikely) then the EU is deeply flawed. Germany is currently demonstrating this with it’s $198B energy support programme, which will diasadvantage other EU members unable to afford such a measure. The ECB cannot apply effective monetary policy across so many diverse economies without favouring some at the expense of others. You can patch this up in ‘good’ times as nothing is being highly stressed. Unfortunately, we are about to have the mother of all corrections and with a $9T balance sheet, something is going to have to give.

          2. Mickey Taking
            November 5, 2022

            It is steadily moving towards becoming a Politburo, you know controlling the peasants on subsistance living, while enjoying ZiL lanes type lifestyle for the ‘executive members’.

  4. turboterrier
    November 4, 2022

    The PM for many of his critics has not managed to shake off the illusion that he is setting out his dance routine to someone else’s choreography.
    The whole mess of the leading up to his final coronation has left a very bad taste, and not exactly highlighted all that is good in Westminster, rather the opposite.
    But for the elite string and button pushers they care not as long as he stays on their designated route.

    1. Hope
      November 4, 2022

      Very worrying that Bailey BOE and Hunt out yesterday giving apocalyptic blame on Truss for their current manipulation of countryā€™s imposed recession caused by Bailey and Sunak as chancellor!

      Why would Bailey be so indiscreet?

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        November 4, 2022

        +1

    2. Mark B
      November 4, 2022

      It took no time at all for them, the Tory MP’s, to install their favourite as PM compared to the process that eventually ended up with Liz Truss MP.

  5. James1
    November 4, 2022

    The elite? You mean the self-righteous, patronising, hypocrites?

    1. Ian Wragg
      November 4, 2022

      He doesn’t have difficult choices to make, he’ll do as instructed by the WEF and his father in law. He’s already continued with the damaging IR35 giving large corporations an advantage and He’s gone to COP out 27. Says it all.

    2. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      you forgot wealthy, privately educated, well connected!

    3. margaret
      November 4, 2022

      plus one

  6. Roy Grainger
    November 4, 2022

    Based on your description Sunak is a populist of the left.

    1. Cuibono
      November 4, 2022

      He is.
      And his coronation has been long planned.
      Whether the Truss incident was to show him in a supposed good light or not ā€¦who knows? But she was gotten rid of by a global ploy. IMO.
      Davos Man! One of their own.
      And they have many! Including Trussā€¦it is said.

      1. glen cullen
        November 4, 2022

        The economy is still tanking, the pound/dollar was 1,11p yesterday, interest rate up, inflation up, energy costs up, does anyone remember that Sunak was the chancellor for almost three years and is now PM continuing with the same high tax policies ā€¦why is the media not criticising him like they did Liz

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          November 4, 2022

          +1

    2. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      Correct. Indeed, he pushes unpopular polices for anyone not wanting to live of the taxes of others and not wanting to carry so many other people with vast over taxation and over regulation. Much of the state sector and most benefit claimants live off the backs of other taxpayers.

  7. margaret
    November 4, 2022

    Rishi is not popular on twitter ( Not sure if that holds weight) and he certainly has a lot of tough decisions to make. Why is it that most seem to down any decision that is made and are not able to give an alternative ? The few alternatives which escape through ,mostly talk of inaction and keeping things the way they are with open doors and spending without any realisation of the consequences in the near future.
    The most important thing for the country is to find workable solutions where the rich don’t get extra benefit from that decision ( emotive word being extra) and the poor do not suffer any more.

    1. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      Not popular at all, not as bad as Starmer/Sturgeon is the best one can say of him.

      1. Lifelogic
        November 4, 2022

        Whitty: ā€œitā€™s time to kill off cigarette industry
        Chief medical officer makes demand to protect public health while waiting for Government to act.
        THE cigarette industry should be destroyed for the benefit of public health, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, the Governmentā€™s chief medical adviser, has said.ā€

        Well they will just smuggle them in like other drugs if you do this. As they do already to a large degree. Has Whitty looked at the deaths caused by his pushing of the ineffective and often dangerous vaccines, this even to children who were at no risk, the lockdown and the dire state of NHS and ambulance service?

        1. Lifelogic
          November 4, 2022

          Reported in the Telegraph yesterday for Whitty and the Health Ministerā€™s attention:-

          Delayed heart disease treatment ā€˜causes 230 extra deaths a weekā€™
          MORE than 30,000 extra people have died from heart attacks and strokes since the pandemic amid ā€œunacceptableā€ delays in diagnosis and treatment, a charity has warned.
          Analysis shows an extra 124,000 excess deaths in England since the first lockdown, with much of the rise attributed to difficulties accessing NHS care.
          The British Heart Foundation said severe waiting times for ambulances and long waiting times to diagnose heart disease were now causing an extra 230 deaths a week ā€“ a 14 per cent rise.

          They seem not to mention the vaccine here for some reason?

          1. Lifelogic
            November 4, 2022

            Excess deaths running at over 1,800 per week much more than when the government started the Covid lockdowns yet this is hardly even being discussed by the BBC, government or MSM. Mainly unrelated to covid too.

            Worse still this is in nearly all ages & not just the very elderly and this is also after a high death period so lower would be expected. So Sir Chris Whitty what is going on? NHS negligence, duff vaccines, late ambulances, delayey or non treatment or what? Why the silence?

            Excellent videos by Dr John Campbell on Youtube with much analysis.

          2. Mickey Taking
            November 4, 2022

            back in the early days programming I would call your reply to your own reply in reply to your own reply….interrupts. Except yours are after-thoughts where we don’t get a chance to interrupt.

          3. Fedupsoutherner
            November 4, 2022

            Indeed. Jerry Vine was discussing the fact that many people had to wait for a very long time to even be able to speak to the emergency services let alone get an ambulance. Look at the results of the Manchester bombing enquiry. It’s a bloody disgrace and apologies are not enough. People in charge should be sacked but looking remorseful it would seem is enough.

          4. margaret
            November 4, 2022

            I think we only need to look at the Manchester bombings to realise it is about poor control from the top.

        2. No Longer Anonymous
          November 4, 2022

          When is Whitty going to say “Save the NHS. Lose weight.” because obesity is now the #1 killer in our population.

  8. MPC
    November 4, 2022

    I am an interim consultant and now have told my manager at work that I am conducting a review of all the the things I promised to complete when I took on the job on recently, and will inform him of any that are now undeliverable. He is fine with it, has undertaken that I will continue to be fully paid as per my contract should all my initial promises be undeliverable, and greatly appreciates my adoption of continuous improvement based on Rishi Sunakā€™s good practice principles.

    1. Bloke
      November 4, 2022

      A good practice would be to state intent. Promises involve assurance.

    2. glen cullen
      November 4, 2022

      …and they’ve changed the KPIs since they outed Liz, they’re now anti-growth and pro high tax

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 5, 2022

        setting KPIs for Ministers and the Cabinet/PM? Whatever next, you are expecting performance appraisals?
        No chance – the P45 gets handed out at the next GE.

    3. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      love it – well done.

  9. Berkshire Alan.
    November 4, 2022

    Depressing statements from the Bank of England, depressing statements from the Chancellor, depressing statements from the Prime Minister, depressing statements about the emergency Services, depressing statements about Illegal immigration.
    Yet the media seem to be delighted that our Country appears to be failing, you can almost see the smile on their faces as they trash the Country time and time again with headline statements.
    No we are not in a good shape, but for goodness sake let us please have some positive views on the solution.
    Is Sunak the answer, we wait and see, but most of his previous polices have bought us to where we are now, which is why Truss beat him in the first place with the members vote.
    Shame she lacked the communication skills, foresight and charisma to set out her polices properly, and in detail, before taking action. Thus her Party, opposition, and the media sought revenge.

    1. Mark B
      November 4, 2022

      It was PM Sunak and his idiot boss whilst he was Chancellor, along with a VERY compliant Parliament, that has put us in this mess.

  10. Donna
    November 4, 2022

    Populism is just the Elite’s chosen word intended to signal that the policies being demanded are beyond the pale and must not be implemented.

    If Sunak wants to stand any chance of winning the next General Election, he is going to have to ditch the Elitist/Globalist policies which have and are wrecking this country, and start implementing the policies of the Common Ground in the UK.

    Oh – and he needs to start governing like a conservative: not a Green Socialist, following Caroline Lucas’ environmental policies, Brown’s economic policies and Blair’s overall policy agenda.

    1. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      +1

    2. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      Caroline Lucas a deluded english graduate who show almost zero understanding of climate, energy, engineering, economics or logicā€¦ but seems to appeal to the people who live in the Brighton Pavillion constituency.

      1. glen cullen
        November 4, 2022

        But you know what she and the green party stands for ā€¦.I havenā€™t a clue what this conservation party stands for

      2. jerry
        November 4, 2022

        @LL; “[the Green Party MP in the House of Commons is] a deluded english graduate”

        Much the same can be aimed at you Mr Lifelogic, after all if you actually had any real “understanding of climate, energy, engineering, economics or logic” you would have become a James Dyson,, not a Rupert Rigsby…! šŸ˜›

        1. Peter2
          November 4, 2022

          More nonsense from you Jerry
          As eubilly would say where is your contrary evidence?

          1. hefner
            November 5, 2022

            Think a bit about it P2: If after four degrees the only thing youā€™re able to do twenty or thirty years after your degrees is to be a multi-BTL owner, youā€™re a failure, a rich failure, but a failure all the same.

          2. Peter2
            November 5, 2022

            He’s doing what he wants to do heffy.
            He seems a happy enough person.
            Unlike you all angry and bitter.

          3. jerry
            November 6, 2022

            @P2; The issue LL raised was not about “happiness” but success, and ability to do a job…

            I’m sure both Lifelogic and Caroline Lucas are both “happy enough” people!

        2. Lifelogic
          November 4, 2022

          I agree I am not quite as successful financially as the admirable & good egg James Dyson with his rather expensive yellow vacuum cleaners and rather noisy jet engine hand driers. But I did read maths, physics and electronics (Cambridge then Manchester) and have worked in engineering and my own businesses (for most of my career so I do know rather more than most people on these topics. Which is not very difficult alas most MPs do not have a clue ror do our energy and other ministers.

          1. Fedupsoutherner
            November 4, 2022

            Great reply LL.

          2. jerry
            November 4, 2022

            @LL; “not quite as successful”

            Lose the middle two words and we might be closer to the truth. šŸ™‚
            Anyone even half as “successful” as Mr Dyson would surely not have given up such a career and (possible) fortune?

            “so I do know rather more than most people on these topics”

            That very much depends on who “most” are…

            “most MPs do not have a clue”

            As don’t some ‘experts’!
            How many times have we been told by one group of experts that X simply can not be achieved, only for another group to then prove X can be done, often with bells and whistles on. Back at the birth of passenger railways there was a group of ‘experts’ who insisted that no human could possible survive traveling faster than a horse could gallop…

          3. rick hamilton
            November 4, 2022

            Since you are so well qualified, believe you have the correct answers to every problem and have plenty of spare time to repeat them endlessly, why don’t you stand for parliament yourself ?

          4. hefner
            November 5, 2022

            Great reply for you, I donā€™t have any doubt about it FuS.

  11. R.Grange
    November 4, 2022

    The idea of millionaire ex-banker Sunak as a populist is laughable, sorry. Have you listened to him? He gives me the impression his voice is computer-generated. Your party had the chance to pick an election winner again with Boris, but flunked it. Unfortunately your colleagues have made Starmer look electable by comparison. Sunak may be presiding over an eight-quarter recession the way things are going, just in time for the next GE. With at least a couple of years of austerity in prospect, I don’t see what he can do to earn your populist label, SJR.

    1. Michelle
      November 4, 2022

      Johnson had become extremely unpopular with many.
      It gave me no great pleasure (well not strictly true, it did a little) to say to many who verbally thrashed me for warning that Johnson would be more at home in the Labour party on many policies than anywhere else – I told you so.

      1. Richard II
        November 4, 2022

        I know what you mean, Michelle, but he puts on a good performance, and he knows how to wrongfoot an opponent or rival – see the smart way he upstaged Sunak on COP 27. He will be back, like it or not.

    2. Donna
      November 4, 2022

      Farage was on fire in his Stoke on Trent broadcast yesterday.

      And what did Sunak do?

      A PR stunt, holding a box of poppies on Westminster Tube Station for a few minutes (so didn’t have to go too far from his Westminster comfort zone) and having his photograph taken. So he hasn’t learned anything from the critique of his Kia car-fuelling hypocrisy.

      Hilarious.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        November 4, 2022

        Donna. I agree. Farage was brilliant last night. The media give him no credit but he is above and beyond our current politicians. There are so many people that dislike him bit once they start listening to him they start to understand where he’s at. I wish he were PM or at least come back into politics.

    3. Lifelogic
      November 4, 2022

      +1

    4. Cuibono
      November 4, 2022

      Populist doesnā€™t mean popularā€¦it means more like ā€¦.commie!
      A certain environmental young lady has just virtually declared herself as one.
      It was NEVER about saving the world ā€¦just about rerunning 1789 and 1917.

      1. glen cullen
        November 4, 2022

        But that young lady has the backing of the entire United Nations and the fear of many politicians ā€¦.weā€™ll all be commie’s soon (or maybe troglodytes)

    5. Mitchel
      November 4, 2022

      For someone apparently so clever he comes across as remarkably intellectually incurious.His main ability and career experience seem to be all about manipulating figures on a spread sheet.That type of ability has substantially got us into the mess we are currently in-and is unlikely to get us out of it.

      Besides,the age of finance capitalism and it’s enabler ,globalism,is over-it’s now all about control of real assets-resources,technologies,trade corridors,etc.See Ukraine.

    6. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      populist always hints at being popular …hardly accurate for a would be President of a political party.
      In fact the only figure I would suggest was popular got booted out for being rather casual about laws, finances, ex-wives, partners, children, decorating unowned accomodation, lack of concern re-paying of debts, party free-for-alls etc.

  12. Bryan Harris
    November 4, 2022

    Sunak may sit at the top of a quango ridden establishment government, but he has little support from the country in general nor that much support from within his own fractured party. So, he will be a walkover for those elites plotting our downfall – the signs suggest that he is already going in the same direction as they want.

    With a PM running a globalist agenda, working with globalist elites and fully supported by the establishment, how can he fail to carry out his intentions, even as the Tories become ever more unpopular.

    The question that needs to be answered is

    “Just what future does this government have in mind for us”?

    1. Mark B
      November 4, 2022

      I suggest you look to the CCP for an answer to your question.

      šŸ˜‰

  13. Dave Andrews
    November 4, 2022

    The Telegraph reports an increase in CGT and dividend taxes. Well CGT rises doesn’t affect me – if only there were a capital losses tax relief I’d be straight there. On the other hand, dividend taxes seems to be a scheme to stifle UK business even more, in favour of imports that are unaffected by the rise. Plus UK businesses in the global market become less competitive.
    No mention about closing loopholes for foreign mega-rich and multi-nationals, door left firmly wedged open.

  14. Shirley M
    November 4, 2022

    Your party got the PM it wanted (not what the members or the electorate wanted) so stop blaming everyone else. Your party is to blame, The government is to blame. The electorate gave you ALL the ammunition you needed (an 80 seat majority) and your government squandered it on all the wrong things. You have driven us into poverty. You have (almost) destroyed democracy.

    12 years and the damage to the country is accelerating, not receding. I hope your party NEVER rules again, and that applies to Labour and LibDems too. The majority in Parliament got too comfortable in the EU, having someone else do the work THEY are paid to do, and having a permanent scapegoat. It appears that ALL the main parties are willing to totally destroy democracy and ruin the UK (both financially and socially) in order to go back to your comfy lives. None of you care enough to work in the UK’s interest, that is why I hope the main parties wither and die. None of you deserve to be in Parliament, and that goes for the majority of the Lords too, but democracy evades us there too. The parties can all work together when it suits, ie. a great hatchet job on the electorate to preserve their collective dictatorship.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      November 4, 2022

      Shirley. A breathtaking summation there. Brought tears to my eyes.

  15. Sea_Warrior
    November 4, 2022

    ‘… boom/bust lurches.’ The Bank is still applying typical anti-inflation measures in an atypical situation. The middle-class, hammered by high energy bills, are now going to be hammered on their mortgage repayments. They had already reduced their ‘consumer demand’ but Bailey now wants them made homeless too.
    Anyways, the US mid-terms are upon us. Care to speculate as to what a GOP flipping of Congress will mean for us here? I think that US inflation will quickly fall.

    1. Mark B
      November 4, 2022

      The messages coming from the Biden administration is that there will be delays in counting votes, especially postal votes, and they the GOP are already complaining of another stolen election and should be ignored.

      I will leave you to draw your own conclusions šŸ˜‰

    2. anon
      November 4, 2022

      Assuming GOP wins & control of the Senate. Reasonable assumption excluding bad actors. Then It seems they will have endless debt ceiling Mexican standoffs at the Federal level. Given the downward trend evident, it is a worry what a lame duck Democrat regime may do in the interim. Messy wars & strife to distract seem to be the preferred outcome of the elite.

  16. majorfrustration
    November 4, 2022

    When I see RS I am reminded of Norman Wisdom

    1. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      You could send him an old fashioned cap (not a baseball type) to complete the look. By the way the connection I made was that dear Norman became Albania’s favourite movie star. Perhaps Rishi covets that acclaim?

  17. Richard1
    November 4, 2022

    Todays rumours including cutting back on high speed rail development in the north and increasing CGT. To the extent any money should be spent on rail (the current strikes remind us just how unreliable and expensive rail really is), it needs to be spent where itā€™s needed, on commuter services and connections between northern cities. The rail to cut is obviously hs2. It will be a real test of hunt and Sunak whether they grasp this nettle.

    Increasing CGT so we also have uncompetitive capital taxes to go with our new uncompetitive corporate taxes is very foolish. Tax more of something get less of it. Thatā€™s why we tax booze cigarettes and fossil fuels. Investment and entrepreneurship is something we want more of. So we should tax them less, or at least not tax them more. Itā€™s not that complicated really.

    1. glen cullen
      November 4, 2022

      Sheriff Rishi of Richmond strikes again

    2. Original Richard
      November 4, 2022

      Richard1 : “Tax more of something get less of it. Thatā€™s why we tax booze cigarettes and fossil fuels”

      Is that why the Government taxes employment?

  18. Sir Joe Soap
    November 4, 2022

    A rather eccentric post compared to sensible ones in recent days. The guy is already on a loser at the next election and he knows it. His own acquiescence in the failure and stupidity of money chucking 2020-2021 has now rightly landed at his door. All he’ll be worrying about is gearing up his CV for some wonderful financial role somewhere in the world in a couple of years time. His CV will basically say “saved the UK in 2020-21 and tried to sweep up in 2022-23 only to be usurped by the populist left in 2024. Did the job I was supposed to do and I award myself 5 stars for that”.

    1. Mark B
      November 4, 2022

      Until recently he held a U.S. Green Card.

      I wonder why ?

      šŸ˜‰

      1. glen cullen
        November 4, 2022

        He only rescinded it because he was found out, otherwise heā€™d still have it

        1. Donna
          November 5, 2022

          The same applies to his wife’s anti-UK tax arrangements.

  19. Michelle
    November 4, 2022

    Sir John Redwood seems to be tacitly admitting to what many have been saying for donkey’s years, that is the government is just a puppet for some outside entity. Call them elites for ease.

    It was forecast by many that Sunak was being groomed to take over.
    Out of the same stable as Macron and like Macron appears from nowhere really in a short space of time.
    I put all this to one side as possible conspiracy, but let’s wait and see.

    Well looks like it may be another case of conspiracy and truth colliding.
    The way he has been elevated to steer the ship is quite telling.
    He was rejected before and it looks like certain people were afraid he may be rejected again.
    Many raised their eyebrows at the re-election of Macron given his huge unpopularity (trouble out there now I believe, won’t be on mainstream elitist media though)

    The policies of the elite trundle on crushing all who would dare object.

  20. Iain Moore
    November 4, 2022

    He is trying to be populists, unfortunately for the Tory party he is trying to be populist to people who will never vote for them.

    A ban on fracking , populist for the Net Zero zealots , but not grounded in the practicalities of energy security.
    No I won’t /yes I will go to the COP , again playing to the zealots , BBC , WEF , but for the ordinary people a waste of time and money.
    Then there is the slash and burn economic policy they are following , any hint of growth being systematically crushed, populist with the Treasury orthodoxy, but poison to the country. What the heck did Baily think he was up to yesterday? …. ‘Ypeee we are in a recession for two years’ … was his agenda to spread despair and despondency through the country?

    On a slightly different issue, What is Cleverly up to agreeing to get into negotiations with Mauritius regarding the hand over of the Chagos islands? You do realise it will be the same as handing them over to the CCP. There is no justification for it , the Chagos Islands were never part of Mauritius , they separated by several thousand miles of ocean. It seems we are kowtowing to the ‘international order’ , but we were never going to get a fair hearing at the UN , these international bodies see their role to put the boot into our country . we have seen it with the IMF , the WHO, and the UN , yet it seems Rishi’s regime wants to curry favour with the globalists , this fits his fracking ban, net zero and other stuff.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      November 4, 2022

      +1 Iain and it’s going to cost an awful lot of Tory MPs their jobs including ones we never imagined would lose them.

  21. Narrow Shoulders
    November 4, 2022

    The elite establishment view is based around the iron discipline of accelerated progress to net zero, whilst including political correctness and the boom/bust lurches of their economic advice. The elite currently favour recession to tame the inflation their damaging over extended experiment in money printing brought us.

    I disagree that this is the elite view. This is actually populism based on feedback from Twitter. What politicians need to do is to stop taking the “public’s” temperature based on the manic and activist few who use Twitter.

    1. margaret
      November 4, 2022

      You obviously don’t go on Twitter , but where have you heard that there are manic activists there? Please reference.

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        November 5, 2022

        My feed Margaret, I follow all manner of people so that I hear from all sides. One side is most noisy (and occasionally illuminating). I don’t use it as an echo chamber.

    2. Sea_Warrior
      November 5, 2022

      I gather that Musk has fired all of those employees who had been tasked with ‘protecting’ the mid-term elections. Good!

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 5, 2022

        It would be tragic if Twitter folded, wouldn’t it ?

  22. Ian B
    November 4, 2022

    Good morning Sir John

    You have basically stated the situation in a nutshell. The Conservative Party has been high-jacked by the Socialist Elite in the not so Civil Service who still haven’t come to terms with the UK trying to be an independent Sovereign Democracy, they are trying to fabricate a full return by the back door. So they have installed a Socialist Leader and Government that will do their bidding for fear being briefed against in the Media.

    Its typical EU Politics, you wear the opposition down by stalling, playing games and keep them voting until the get the ā€˜right answerā€™. Its those that have appointed themselves as the Elite that rule, not the People via Democratic means.

    1. Ian B
      November 4, 2022

      No matter how you dress a Dictatorship up it is still a Dictatorship, remember Gaddafi, Xi and Putin were all elected by Democratic means. The UK Establishment aided by a compliant Government wants to cement that in as a way of running the UK. The UKā€™s democracy is now all but tokenism to keep the masses in line and quite

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 4, 2022

        I think you are stretching democratic to breaking point – but I did laugh.

      2. Mark B
        November 4, 2022

        Even Joe Stalin was elected !

        He got 99.5% of the populist vote.

        Pretty poor when you consider he was the ONLY candidate !

    2. Shirley M
      November 4, 2022

      We cannot trust any manifesto.Saying they will respect Brexit means nothing, as we have learned they are willing to lie and cheat in order to get votes via fraud, and Parliament has ensured the electorate is impotent to kick them out! They look after their own (even the undemocratic traitors) and the electorate gets kicked in the teeth time and time again!

  23. BOF
    November 4, 2022

    Many of us read George Orwell and recognised the warning. Others, the so called elite, thought they were reading a template for government, for control of the unruly and freedom loving masses. A template for the destruction of populism and democracy.

    Hence we have leaders that are quite obviously following orders from the alleged elite.

    Man made Climate Change, the war on essential CO2 and the new religion Net Zero are fairy tales doomed to failure, but we the people must bare the ruinous consequences of stupidity and government failure.

    1. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      The situation based in Wigan (Road to Wigan Pier) is becoming recognizable all over the country.

      1. Cuibono
        November 4, 2022

        +many
        Absolutely, they are taking us back to where they took us in Industrial Revolution number one!
        I think that Orwell posed a question in ā€œRoad to WPā€.
        And the answer to that is now very clear. People do not want socialism because it seeks to control the mind through political correctness and the imposition of ideologies. It demands a terrible obedience.

  24. Cuibono
    November 4, 2022

    Why does he keep changing his mind?
    This seems to be a new tactic.
    Boris and Truss did it too.
    To confuse and dismay probably.
    Or to convince us that they are doing everything on the hoof? Pretending not to have a clue?
    Or maybe to allow them to do whatever they want and demoralise us in the process so we just do not care any longer.

    1. Mark B
      November 4, 2022

      It goes back to CMD. Pretend you are a Conservative to the masses and, when in power, do exactly what you wanted to do as a Social Democrate.

      Simple really.

      1. Cuibono
        November 4, 2022

        + many
        Yes!!
        Brilliant interpretation. Get into the fold wearing a sheep skin and thenā€¦WHAM!
        It is EXACTLY what they do!

  25. agricola
    November 4, 2022

    Any popularity he acquires will derive from dealing effectively with his in tray. We are all fully aware of what it contains and Nigel reminds him monday to thusday every evening, so ignarance is not a plea. The electorate await action.

  26. The Prangwizard
    November 4, 2022

    The actions and the talk by ‘the elite’ are much in line with extreme socialism and communism with its former international plans. This is within the Tory party too. It may be economics or the environment but whatever the subject their intent is control, of business and people, and punishment for failure to comply.

    They want control of the country and its destruction, and are getting it, and we must further awaken and expose their threats. We cannot pretend they are reasonable democrats. Their successes at creating failure all around us.

    We now hear of more determination to punish capital and any gain from it be it business or private. The dangers are becoming ever more clear and open and individuals must be identified and named.

  27. Bloke
    November 4, 2022

    The Conservative Govt gazes in the naughty mirror worried about how others view it, doing the inverse of what it should. Disillusioned leaders turn the UK into a curiouser and curiouser land unfit for habitation.

  28. rose
    November 4, 2022

    The die is cast: Brown’s Bank and Treasury, the IFS, OBR, Resolution Foundation, et al have decided Starmer is to be PM.

  29. turboterrier
    November 4, 2022

    You cannot generate populism when you are paying Ā£150 per person for accomodation for dingy invaders to hoteliers who charge normally by room not guests. To be totally PC one must assume that is one person per room as they cannot be expected to sleep together and they are fed but complain about the food.
    You cannot make it up.
    Charities supporting all this nonsense must lose their charitable status. If things don’t change they will still keep coming and where do they get sent to then? When the word gets back there is no money, accomodation, no benefits laws changed to prevent legal aid and interfering by the ambulance chasing mentality lawyers things will change.
    But what they do with those already here is an even bigger problem.

    1. Shirley M
      November 5, 2022

      I gather they have run out of the Ā£150 night hotels. Now they are using Ā£400 per night hotels. Maybe they’ll throw Charles out of Buck Palace next as that place should hold a few hundred in the comfort they demand. How much more will they spend to keep the invaders in comfort while Brits go cold and hungry, instead of actually dealing with the problem?

  30. Original Richard
    November 4, 2022

    ā€œRishi will need some populismā€

    Only if the elites continue to allow elections, which after the EU referendum they wish to end.

    The coming deep economic depression is being deliberately engineered by following far left policies as evidenced by lockdowns, Net Zero, the fracking ban, increasing taxes, stifling the private sector etc. and the resulting perpetual energy crisis will give the elites an excuse for authoritarian and draconian measures to curb our freedoms.

    And even if a Potemkin election is called, it is now become quite normal for election manifesto promises to be completely ignored.

  31. Original Richard
    November 4, 2022

    ā€œThe elite establishment view is based around the iron discipline of accelerated progress to net zero, whilst including political correctness and the boom/bust lurches of their economic advice.ā€

    The CAGW scare and the resulting dash to Net Zero is a far left scam to cause economic ruin and curb our freedoms. There is no climate crisis/emergency/breakdown.

    Everyone, apart from the BBC that is, knows that we exited from an ice age just 11,000 years ago and even in that short space of time we have had warm periods up to 3 degrees C higher than today and a Little Ice Age 1 degree C lower than today. So climate is constantly changing without any anthropogenic CO2 emissions and we should be grateful that the climate is warming slightly (0.13 degree C/decade) and not heading for another ice age which really would bring deaths to millions if not billions of people.

    The Antarctic Vostok Ice Core Data over the last 450, 000 years shows that at low concentrations of CO2 (as we have at present compared to the last 500 million years since the start of the Cambrian explosion) and low temperatures, CO2 follows temperature and not vice versa.

    So CO2 does not determine temperature and in fact we need more in the atmosphere to promote plant growth and reduce the likelihood of famines.

  32. glen cullen
    November 4, 2022

    You’re describing the current government ….Labour in all but name

    1. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      However, even Dianne Abbott might do a better job with the country’s finances.

      1. glen cullen
        November 4, 2022

        That made me laugh until I thought about it

        1. Mickey Taking
          November 5, 2022

          I wrote ‘might’ !!! ha ha.

  33. formula57
    November 4, 2022

    “The elite currently favour recession to tame the inflation ….. “ – undoubtedly true of the Federal Reserve and where it leads Chancellor Hunt and Governor Bailey follow and even pre-announce the outcome lest we are misled whilst disguising that it is their policy measures that are doing so much to achieve it.

    As for “This is not a winning ticket”, in normal times, assuredly not but people generally are being guided into blaming Covid, Putin, supply shocks, and the fact the whole world is following suit so no-one at home is really to blame. The tragedy is that it does not have to be this way, as we Redwoodistas know.

  34. agricola
    November 4, 2022

    Let his actions define his thoughts.
    1. Remove any aspects of the NIP that bring into question the position of NI as part of a sovereign UK. If opposed by the EU, Invoke Art 16. The NIP is already preventing democratic government in NI, and as such is in conflict with the GFA.

    2. Except where a good case can be made for retention , remove all EU law from our statute book.

    3. Return on arrival all Albanians claiming asylum, they have no case. Block them from legal aid. If Albania will not accept their return, set up the West Falkland detention centre where they can work on infrastructure for their keep.
    Then repeal those aspects of ECHR law that UK lawers are using as an income stream to prevent the deportation of criminals and bogus asylum seekers. Document less immigrants should be assumed to be bogus unless they can prove otherwise.

    4. Give hire and fire power to ministers whose policy implementation is opposed to the political agenda of the civil service.

    5. Take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that fuel independence for the UK is an absolute priority before any UK fuel is exported. This means using coal, gas, and oil until reliable SMRs can be brought on stream in the medium term and fusion power in the long term. Scrap Nett Zero.

    6.invest money and intellectual energy into the production of Hydrogen gas in bulk to fuel vehicles, domestic heating and cooking, plus industrial gas requirements.

    7. Rapidly move to a 200 mile or median line border for fishing and fish stock conservation. Give the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force the means to police it.

    8. Overhaul and reduce the tax book to produce a tax regime that supports enterprise and wealth creation.

    9. Create an Office of Budget Scrutiny to look at government capital schemes to assess their profitability, and or desirability. Aim to strip out vanity projects. Do not allow civil servants anywhere near it.
    Additionally mandate them to audit all government run organisations on the basis of numbers employed, money spent, outcomes, and overall structure.

    Put the above in place and you might have a history to put before the electorate in 2024.

  35. Keith from Leeds
    November 4, 2022

    With his stupid ban on fracking & decision to go to COP27 our new PM has already shown he is a weak leader. As Chancellor, he followed the treasury line & working now with Jeremy Hunt he will do exactly the same. Liz Truss, even with the right ideas about growth, was exposed very quickly by her own MPs & the Media as incompetent. Mr Sunak will also be exposed as a lightweight but with less pressure from conservative MPs & the Media, it will take a few months. What a sad state the majority of Conservative party MPs are. They don’t believe in conservative values, they don’t believe in the UK & would rather be in the EU, & they don’t believe in democracy or trust the people. Party members were not wrong when they voted against Sunak in the leadership contest.

  36. Bert Young
    November 4, 2022

    Politics of the day involve many egocentric individuals ; integrity and sound judgement are often lacking . The system of selection is probably at fault exercised by people who may not be experienced enough to work at a high level . The result can be the mayhem that has recently happened .

  37. Denis Cooper
    November 4, 2022

    Off topic, yesterday MPs spent an hour interrogating international trade ministers, here:

    https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-11-03/debates/15FA4CFF-D008-4816-A1AC-E377524A41F9/InternationalTrade

    but among their many questions I cannot see a single one seeking to establish the net value to the UK economy of any further liberalisation of trade, including through accession to the famous CPTPP, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

    This is what Boris Johnson did over his “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU, and even now we have to turn to the EU Commission to get a published official estimate that for us it is worth only 0.75% of GDP.

    1. margaret
      November 4, 2022

      interestingly enough at the side of green research in East Anglia ,off the East coast, go ahead has been given to search for the anticlines where we will find oil. It may have started already.
      .

    2. Denis Cooper
      November 7, 2022

      I’ve just listened to a related question being posed in the House of Lords, again with no satisfactory answer.

      Starting at 15:21:40 in here:

      https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/939f337f-4ce5-42dc-9d1c-57fe28ca413c

  38. Aden
    November 4, 2022

    Itā€™s simple. There is no fix. The ā€˜solutionā€™ is a full audit and the proles get a letter from HMRC informing them that they have an 800,0000 pound debt that was hidden off the books.

    The left have no counter to that. The elite will be running for the hills. Itā€™s game over

  39. Lester_Cynic
    November 4, 2022

    Iā€™ve managed to access RT on Rumble, nowhere in the MSM was it reported that the British ambassador in Moscow was called in to explain our part in the destruction of the gas pipeline.

    I was very suspicious when RT was banned from the airwaves earlier this year and now I can see whyā€¦. Will this make it past moderation?

    Nigel Farage at 7pm on GBNews last night was interesting, conservative councillors talking about defecting to ReformUK was popular with the audience!

    1. Cuibono
      November 4, 2022

      Well done! You got past!!
      It needs to be discussed/revealed.
      Certain e mails etc.
      After allā€¦we are apparently freezing for all this.

  40. Atlas
    November 4, 2022

    I can’t see how doom-laden talk from Hunt and Sunak is going to be an election winner.

  41. Stred
    November 4, 2022

    King Charles is fulfilling his promise to stay out of politics by inviting all the politicians and Green mob to Buckingham Palace for a knees up. They will be warming up for a war on fossil fuels and a windmill worship jamboree. This will make him very popular when the bills come in and the high streets are boarded up. The Reform Party has now overtaken the Greens in the polls.

    1. Mickey Taking
      November 4, 2022

      Is King Charles going to pay for heating and lighting Buck Palace?

    2. glen cullen
      November 4, 2022

      I just canā€™t imagine Queen Elizabeth doing the same thing, our monarchy is suppose to represent all of our nation and not just the climate crusaders ā€¦thereā€™s a line and its been crossed

  42. XY
    November 4, 2022

    “Populists of the left want to tax the rich more”

    Sadly, you fall into the socialist terminology trap. They never tax “the rich”, they always bring that discussion around to high EARNERS, not those with high net worth (a.k.a. wealth). High earners are assigned the tag of being “the rich” and then they are taxed to death via income tax and NI. Nobody in the Conservative party ever seems to notice the sleight of hand.

    It’s the same when we hear politicos talk about “reducing taxes” – they never say reducing tax RATES and tehy never go on to make the argument that reducing rates changes people’s behaviour so that they earn more and often pay more tax in total, albeit at lower rates.

    Suppose you’re a mature, experienced accountant or engineer working for themself on contratcs of 3 or 6 months. You just finished a contract and there’s 6 months of the tax year left. You’ve already used your 20% and 40% allowances, pension allowance and now see that for the next 6 months you’ll be paying 45% income tax, 14% employer NI throughout your income and 2% employees NI. 61% tax right there. You get to keep just over 1/3 of your income… you may already have earned enough money… so many can’t be bothered.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      November 4, 2022

      +1

      BTW. Junior doctors after 7 years of training work out at being on Ā£14 per hour before deductions including Ā£200 per month student debt (because they are made to work enough hours to qualify to repay them.)

      They get to live in cold single rooms smaller than a superheated Travel Lodge in Kent and have to share a toilet situated in the corridor with colleagues.

      Wages are now chasing benefits under the totally wank, 80 seat majority, 12 year rule Tories.

      This bunch of fakers ARE the problem.

    2. Original Richard
      November 5, 2022

      XY : “Sadly, you fall into the socialist terminology trap. They never tax ā€œthe richā€, they always bring that discussion around to high EARNERS, not those with high net worth (a.k.a. wealth). High earners are assigned the tag of being ā€œthe richā€ and then they are taxed to death via income tax and NI. Nobody in the Conservative party ever seems to notice the sleight of hand.”

      A wealth tax is inevitably coming as taxing earnings will eventually decline according to the Laffer curve.

  43. XY
    November 4, 2022

    By the way have you seen how the IR35 changes panned out?

    Since 2017 when the changes rolled out nto the public sector, agencies started including “indemnity clauses” into any outside IR35 contracts. These say something like:

    “The Company shall indemnify and keep indemnified both the Employment Business and the Client in full against any Losses incurred in respect of or arising in connection with:

    (a) any PAYE, income tax, National Insurance or similar contributions and any VAT (including any penalties, interest or gross up) which may be found due by reason of any payment made under or in connection with the Agreement;”

    Basically, the “payer” (normally the agency or consultancy that pays the contractor’s company) are passing their legal risks and liabilities onto the worker via such clauses. Pure banditry. Prior to the changes when the Treasury was asled how it would react if such clauses were included, their spoklesman said they would be very concerned and take action. After it had been implemented, an HMRC spokesman was asked about the fact that they were now the norm and said that it was not for them to get involved in commercial aspects of contracts. Ugh.

    There is basically no such thing as an outside IR35 contract any more. Not for anyone who wants to sleep at night.

    1. Shirley M
      November 5, 2022

      I remember the start of IR35. It was originally to be imposed on the hirer, ie. the ones who wanted to avoid NI, training, holiday pay, sick pay, etc. They didn’t want employees and they certainly didn’t want any liabilities, including IR35, so they used their influence to get the liabilities passed onto to people they forced into personal service companies. I lost count of the number of people approaching me who just wanted to work but didn’t want the hassle (and cost) of a PSC so they had to work via rip off umbrella companies or go without work. As usual, the government and HMRC go after the easy targets. The big companies are untouchable, no matter what they do.

  44. am
    November 4, 2022

    Can our host volunteer some explanations on why the UK has made far more extreme net zero targets than our international competitors? Other countries have not made our commitments.
    Other countries think of their country first whereas British politicians think of what?

    1. Shirley M
      November 5, 2022

      Virtue signalling. The UK taxpayers are just cash cows for polishing their halos.

  45. Elizabeth Spooner
    November 4, 2022

    Populist is a word originating from the “elite” left to discredit popular opinion and justifying ignoring what the general public want. To a large extent this has been a very successful ploy and all the major news programmes parrot their opinions and ignore or rubbish “populist” ones. Democracy never has been in such peril in the West.

  46. ChrisS
    November 4, 2022

    We need a new name for the establishment that seeks to impose its very traditional rule over politics in the UK and elsewhere. It fought back against Donald Trump by mobilising almost the entire US media to relentlessly criticise everything he tried to do. It worked because, together with his own obvious faults, he lost the disputed election.

    The fate of the Truss government has lots of similarities and, even though there were strategic mistakes made, the entire weight of the establishment was ranged against her. Her biggest mistake was thinking that could bypass the combined forces of traditional economists and go for growth.

    We saw that on display again this morning when the BBC wheeled out Carney who blamed so much of our economic difficulties on Brexit. Never mind that we have lower debt than the EU, far less unemployment and our currency has maintained its level against the Euro since 2016, It’s all the fault of Brexit !

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      November 4, 2022

      Chris – The tragedy wasn’t that Trump was ousted but that shock-jock Trump was resorted to in the first place because Reaganism was excluded by the US elite.

  47. Mark Thomas
    November 4, 2022

    Sir John,
    So far Rishi seems to be incapable of being a populist. His decision to attend Cop 27 shows that he is only too willing to bend to the demands of the msm, left wing activists and the environmentalist agenda.

    At least with the continuing ban on shale oil extraction he’s made himself popular with Caroline Lucas.

    He needs to start upsetting the right people, and I don’t see that happening anytime soon.

  48. glen cullen
    November 4, 2022

    King Charles the Third isnā€™t attending the UN COP27 because its could be descried as a political event and our Monarchy is suppose to be politically neutral and nonaligned ā€¦.so how come its okay for the King to give a speech to the UN COP27 remotely and host a pre reception for selected delegates prior to Egyptā€™s UN COP27
    Climate Change is only poplar to the elites, the media and greens and not to the average plebs

  49. Cliff. Wokingham.
    November 4, 2022

    Is it just me or has there been a massive increase in the amount of climate change propaganda we are being bombarded with by the main TV channels, during the last week or so?

    1. Bill B.
      November 4, 2022

      Sorry Cliff, couldn’t tell you. I never watch them. Try doing likewise, and give your brain a treat.

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        November 4, 2022

        Bill. Yes. I don’t watch Attenborough or Country File or the One Show or indeed anything on BBC or Channel 4. Brainwashing

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        November 4, 2022

        Bill B – But the Tories listen to 24 hr BBC and respond to it.

        They are all going to lose their jobs because of this !!!

    2. glen cullen
      November 4, 2022

      ā€¦and yet the people have only returned one single green MP ā€¦but all the people that voted for her just happen to be employed by the BBC & media

      1. Original Richard
        November 5, 2022

        glen cullen : It’s not necessary to vote Green when all the parties in Parliament are fully committed to CAGW/Net Zero, uncontrolled immigration and almost all Green Party policies.

        In fact the reason the Conservative Party take no action on the bias shown by the BBC is because they actually agree with the BBC’s views.

        Since the Government (Cabinet Office and Home Office) fund the organisations taking it to court over its Rwanda plans I would not be surprised to learn that the Government funds anti-fracking organisations and perhaps even XR/IB/JSO.

    3. Cuibono
      November 4, 2022

      +1
      I think you are right.
      It is the ā€œcurrent thingā€.
      We probably need to watch out for climate lockdowns and the like!

  50. a-tracy
    November 4, 2022

    How do the left get away with sparking people to ‘revolt’? It would be popular to deal with some of this.

    “Brexit promised to end the overfishing of UK waters. It hasnā€™t, and now itā€™s time to revolt. Charles Clover” Guardian
    Can you imagine if the right said:
    “Brexit promised to end excessive immigration. It hasn’t, and now it’s time to xxxxx.”
    I won’t even type it because people get cancelled for saying such things.

    “Is there a better way to get climate change on the front page of the worldā€™s newspapers than soup on Van Gogh?!” – First Dog on the

    Can you imagine if such a threat was issued to throw soup on national gallery artwork by anyone other than a righteous climate zealot?

    It’s time to reign this in before people think they can get away with vandalism and general disorder. We need to see these spray painters getting their proper punishment, cleaning off the buildings themselves for a start at night so they don’t disrupt the pavements in the daytime. I hope they don’t slip with the paint next to a memorial; that’s two weeks in prison for a protestor.

  51. Lindsay McDougall
    November 4, 2022

    There is a lot of breast beating going on, with the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Governor of the BoE competing with each other to see who can be the most fiscally and monetarily orthodox and inflict the most pain. I would ask you, Sir John, to recognise that your advice has been totally ignored and to transfer your rebellion from this site to parliament. The current Conservative leadership do not deserve loyalty. More importantly, if the Sunak/Hunt axis ploughs on regardless, the Conservatives will lose the next election. I’m not going to vote for a Tory Big State any more than I am going to vote for a Labour Big State.

    As I have said, I have e-mailed to you a 7 page note entitled “Shrinking the State – public expenditure cuts & deregulation”. I am not a constituent of yours but I do urge you to read it. The Truss/Kwarteng tax cuts were affordable.

  52. Mickey Taking
    November 4, 2022

    It is reported that King Charles III –
    King Charles has hosted a reception to discuss tackling climate change as global leaders prepare for the UN climate summit COP27. About 200 politicians and campaigners met at Buckingham Palace, including UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and US climate envoy John Kerry.
    The King is internationally known for his climate work but it was agreed he would not go to COP27.
    The UN conference begins on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
    Mr Sunak told the meeting that the UK’s global leadership on climate change will continue after its COP presidency ends this week. The UK hosted COP26 in Glasgow last year.

    A small point – where is the mandate for hosting such a politically held view within the State owned Palace?
    Who is funding this press-the -flesh event? UK Government directly, The King’s income (indirectly UK Government), or are the invited paying for tickets? We should be told.

    1. glen cullen
      November 4, 2022

      Just imagine the outcry if King Charles hosted an event for the ā€˜oil & gasā€™ sector ā€¦.hypocritical

    2. Iain Moore
      November 4, 2022

      //Mr Sunak told the meeting that the UKā€™s global leadership on climate change will continue after its COP presidency ends//

      The agenda they are pushing in this COP is to get the West to fork out many many billions to compensate the ‘developing’ countries , so if Sunak is boasting about leadership on the Climate Change this is what he is going to burry us with, something that will make Aid look like small change.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      November 4, 2022

      This is way beyond ‘let them eat cake’.

  53. mancunius
    November 4, 2022

    So if the government is a helpless pawn in the hands of the cs, the left-leaning judiciary, supranational busybodies and globalist think-tanks – the only remedy would be an uprising or a military coup.

  54. John McDonald
    November 4, 2022

    The country needs a new political party that actually represents what the silent majority think.
    The current Labour party and Conservative party only do what they think is best and never stick to what they said would do before elected. The Conservative Party only came to power on the back of UKIP.
    There is also the need to sort out the Civil Service and the legal establishment two unelected political parties working against the elected, for better or worse, Government.
    I

  55. acorn
    November 4, 2022

    Who knew the patient, UK plc, was so sick? Who knew the Austerity virus compounded by the Covid virus, had done so much damage in the last twelve years?

    What now exactly is the proposed target metric? The monetary target has the BoE acting classically, raising base rates to try and increase unemployment, to quell a non-existent wage price spiral. Neglecting the fact that the price spiral bit, is imported via a global commodity “free market”, nobody can do much about. All the UK’s natural resources having been sold off to foreign corporations and foreign governments’ wealth funds. Plus, it now wants to take even more spending power out of the economy by refilling all those empty QE Gilts in the APF.

    What is the fiscal target? Are we back to an Osborne balanced budget or even a surplus to start paying off the, so called, national debt; and, by when? If so, will the non-government sector be expected to pay, from its savings, for all the imports (current account deficit)? How long are those savings expected to last?

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      November 4, 2022

      Acorn – yes. And because of this wage-price spiral myth wages are chasing index linked benefits and this situation is costing the Tories dear.

      Junior doctors are living in cold rooms a fraction of the size of superheated hotel rooms in Kent and they are paying an effective high tax rate (including student loans) to subsidise them.

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 5, 2022

        Junior doctors and plenty of other workers must be thinking the country cares more about economic illegals having a fine old time in the hotels, while they think about their enormous training debt and now hardly surviving on the cost of living nightmare.

  56. Denis Cooper
    November 4, 2022

    Mark Carney has repeated his specious claim that most of our present woes stem from Brexit:

    https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/1104/1333235-carney-on-brexit/

    “Carney insists that Brexit has taken toll on UK economy”

    “Mr Carney said he had forecast the exchange rate would stay down after the EU exit, adding to inflationary pressures, and that the economy would shrink.

    He argued that this has now come to pass, with the Bank of England forced to raise interest rates in a bid to stem spiralling inflation “despite the fact that the economy is going into recession”.

    Mr Carney told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the pound still “hasn’t recovered” after moving “sharply” against “all major currencies” following the result of the EU referendum.”

    Of course he is absolutely right, as this chart shows sterling peaked at the time of the 2015 EU referendum:

    https://tinyurl.com/3jvy3eab

    Oh no, sorry, the referendum was actually in June 2016, not summer 2015 when sterling started its decline.

    In fact looking at this chart going back to 2002 the really big drop was after the 2008 euro crisis, and since the EU referendum the pound has only been bouncing around the same kind of levels as 2009 – 2012:

    https://tinyurl.com/536apjxd

    Even some Remainers have dismissed Carney’s claim:

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/brexit-isnt-to-blame-for-todays-economic-collapse/

    “As Portes explained, the pound has strengthened against the dollar in recent weeks to the tune of 10 per cent ā€“ but that doesnā€™t mean the UK economy has suddenly grown by 10 per cent more than the US economy in just a few weeks. Carney didnā€™t really have an answer to this other than to say he thought the pound had been weak over the past few years as a result of Brexit.”

    Which is wrong, as shown by the Bank of England charts linked above.

    “He also tried to blame high inflation on Brexit when Eurozone inflation is actually a little higher than that in Britain (10.7 per cent against 10.1 per cent).”

    These people have no scruples, they will push any lie that they think they can get away with.

    1. Shirley M
      November 4, 2022

      Fraud and deceit has become the ‘go to’ weapon to drag the UK into poverty, and the gutter! Carney isn’t the sole perpetrator of these tactics, the main political parties excel at it, unfortunately.

    2. acorn
      November 5, 2022

      A Conservative Party manifesto pledge was to legislate for an EU referendum, this was established through the European Union Referendum Act 2015 in May 2015; that is when Sterling started its decline. This pledge being forced on Cameron by a failed Conservative Private Members Bill to do similar in 2014. Which is when Sterling actually started its initial decline from Ā£1.71 in June 2014

      1. Denis Cooper
        November 7, 2022

        The general election was in May 2015. At that point there was no certainty that the Tories would actually hold a referendum as promised, or when, and even if they intended to keep that manifesto promise it was unknown what concessions Cameron might seek or obtain from the EU, but it was known that in 1975 when we had a referendum on this matter the government told a pack of lies and misused taxpayers’ money to add its weight to the pro-EEC campaign, and it was clear that it would be an uphill struggle for the Leave side to win any referendum, and even after the referendum Act had received Royal Assent on December 17 2015 many people still thought that the vote would not be until 2017, and in any case the Act did not say what would actually happen if we voted to leave, and also in any case it was known from the EU’s own analyses that the economic effects of EU membership were marginal, grossly overstated by the UK government but still marginal in reality, and yet with remarkable prescience in the middle of 2015 the foreign exchange markets started factoring in the allegedly catastrophic consequences of a narrow Leave vote which did not occur until the middle of 2016 …

        But anyway that is not what Carney is claiming, is it? He claims that it was the actual referendum vote to leave the EU that led to the fall of sterling, not the uncertain prospect of a referendum some time in the future.

    3. Lindsay McDougall
      November 5, 2022

      Never forget that Carney was appointed by George Osborne, so his anti-Brexit stance is no surprise. Remainers should be asked whether they believe we would have been unmolested by the Franco-German axis had we remained. I think not. Some people believe that the Germans want revenge on us because of WW2. I think that motive lies more with the French, who can’t get over the fact that we fought on alone (until Russia entered the war) while France behaved disgracefully in setting up the Vichy regime,

  57. John Hatfield
    November 4, 2022

    So what you are saying John, is that the prime minister must do as he is told, the Elite are in control. Evidence the downfall of Liz Truss.

    1. John C.
      November 4, 2022

      I think this is pretty evident. In fact, it’s blatant.

  58. Kenneth
    November 4, 2022

    The problem is that governments since the 1990’s have been radicalised by socialist/Marxist dogma from institutions (especially educational and media).

    So, we end up with the sensible majority ignored in favour of weirdo policies.

    If the People continue to be ignored there will increasing unrest.

  59. No Longer Anonymous
    November 4, 2022

    Too late.

    There is nothing but pain ahead with no reason to be optimistic. Christmas lights being cancelled across the land, central heating off and house repossessions looming.

    The Tories prioritise boat-blokes and dole cheats over everyone else and there is nothing you can do to shake this image as the BBC control your every action.

  60. glen cullen
    November 4, 2022

    Sunak said today that ā€˜ā€™there canā€™t be any energy security without investing in renewablesā€™ā€™ ā€¦hasnā€™t anyone told him that we live on an island made of coal & gas, surrounded by a sea of oil & gas ā€“ I truly fear for our health & wealth under this new dear leader

  61. Cuibono
    November 4, 2022

    ā€œTo understand this, it is important to consider the second condition that facilitates the activation of populist sentiments among the population: elite unresponsiveness. In many western European countries the established parties have prioritized responsibility over representation and have countered the consequent loss of public support by forming political cartels, often with the explicit argument to keep populist parties out of power.ā€

    Cas Mudde, Populism: A Very Short Introduction.

  62. glen cullen
    November 4, 2022

    As from 28th November Bristol are charging older vehicles Ā£9.00 a day for the pleasure of driving into the town to spend their money, this clean air tax is just another hit on ICE vehicles and just in time for Christmas, I’m not so sure that net-zero is popular

  63. Geoffrey Berg
    November 4, 2022

    I must dispute the notion that a reduced working week (really a 4 day working week) ought just to be a populist left policy. In America (where some Town Halls and schools have adopted a 4 day week) it was pioneered mainly by Republicans, notably by Jon Huntsman, a former Governor of Utah. More important, I think it ought to be of the very essence of ‘libertarian Conservativism’ because for most people there is hardly a more important freedom to spend more (as much as practicable) of one’s limited time alive as one chooses or wants rather as someone else (be it employer or government) wants.
    I have just written to all English and Welsh Council Leaders now that Liberal Democrat controlled South Cambridgeshire Council is going to be the first British Council to introduce a 4 day working week starting from January 2023.
    I am critical of the way Labour advocates are presenting a 4 day working week – which is with a wave of a legislative wand all employers can viably pay employees as much for a 4 day week as for a 5 day week (and cover the gaps in time-related jobs such as social care or security jobs). However it can be more sensibly introduced in a phased way (say initially 4 nine hour days instead of 5 seven and a half hour days), with work savings mainly by doing away with inessential elements of jobs, especially in the massive bureaucracy that has built up over many years.

  64. Hally
    November 4, 2022

    We are in a terrible mess and here we have this leading light of the conservatives JR worried about his own skin – considering populism populists the elite and all of the other old cliches – all only to see if he can somehow see a chink to get himself elected next time – and then pretending to the readers that it’s all only about Rishi – delusional to the end

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