Preparing an Autumn Statement

Time was when a Chancellor prepared an Autumn Statement or budget in secret. He would of course listen to many representations and show interest in the many ideas that come into the Treasury without giving any hint as to which if any he favoured. MPs would be offered chances to voice their favourite requests to an inscrutable Minister.  Indeed, Chancellors took seriously the need for confidentiality, knowing that were they to let slip a Budget secret they would be expected to resign.

In the run up to the Autumn Statement on 17th November we have been bombarded by a series of stories in papers and on the media claiming the Chancellor is considering a wide range of specific tax rises and spending reductions. We have heard of moves  against benefit recipients to increase benefits by less than inflation, tinkering with the triple lock to lower the pensions uprating, eliminating the Enterprise zones, raising CGT rates, reducing pension saving allowances, freezing income tax thresholds for longer, bringing more people into higher tax bands, taxing electric car use, taxing dividends more, worsening the terms for Non Doms, increasing windfall taxes on energy, cutting grant to Councils  and others I may have missed.

I assume none of these stories came from the Chancellor and I have  no idea if any of them are true. I have not seen or heard the Chancellor give any indication of what he might do beyond the very general public statements we have seen..  I do not however think they were made up, so it does look  as if someone inside government who claims to know what the Chancellor is working on is talking too much. They may simply be reporting an unappetising list of options drawn up by officials. Most of these ideas seem to me to be most unlikely to make it to the announcement, given the obvious political difficulties many of them pose. It would be helpful if whoever is putting all this out was told not to do so, as it does not make for good government and it is worrying to the successive groups of people who feel threatened by these proposals.

There is never any briefing that they might cut out needless or wasteful public spending. So far this government far from cutting spending has announced a very undesirable £11 bn extra for the Bank of England to allow it to take losses on bonds it owns which it need  not sell. Surely that should be a first target for the axe. It has announced extra support for emerging economies with the costs of net zero programmes. It is apparently negotiating to offer more cash to the French to assist with border control across the Channel. We would want more proof of value for money before committing any extra cash to help them police their border. Where are the plans to help more people into work and off benefits, so both the individual and the state will be better off? Why not drive for more revenue from oil and gas by switching more of our demand from imports to domestic production? Where are the plans to build more of our own ships, to make a series of small nuclear reactors using UK factories and technology, to grow more of our own food diverting subsidies from wilding schemes to investment in larger scale market gardening?  There have been many more such ideas to grow our revenues and control our costs on this blog.

168 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    November 11, 2022

    Exactly right. The options being discussed will almost certainly raise less tax not more. Restricting further the Non Dom rules (which Labour suggest will fund their mad plans to waste even more tax payers money) will certainly reduce & not increase the tax take.

    Much of government spending no only does no good it does huge harm. At least cut that out please – net zero and the very many worthless degrees that cost ÂŁ50k+7% interest and three+ years loss of earnings for good examples.

    1. Hope
      November 11, 2022

      JR,
      But how can this be? Osborne told us there would be a balanced structural deficit by 2015 and start to pay down the debt. He changed the narrative to percentage of deficit to GDP. We cannot forget the 80% cuts to 20% tax rise pledge, that you even admitted the reverse was true. Hammond followed similar claims deferring date until it was abandoned by Javid. Cameron signalled cutting back the state by a bonfire of quangos.

      So why is Hunt’s current doom laden statements not dismissed out of hand, after he got advice from those who previously lied to the nation? After all he was in govt at the time forcing the NHS into decline by failing junior doctors to reduce not increase number, getting rid of nurse bursary to reduce not increase number, encouraged not stopped health tourism, failed to make efficient use of procurement to make huge savings and overwhelmingly failed to prepare NHS for a pandemic despite Operation Cygnet. Who forced Hunt to be appointed who was rejected by MPs and party membership?

      1. Hope
        November 11, 2022

        JR,

        Has Hunt set vast sums aside from the invasion of illegal boat criminals being housed in hotels?

        Is the Dorset Yaught company case 1970 relevant for hotels becoming hostels where damage might be caused? Is planning permission and insurance cover appropriate for change of use from hotel to hostel? The former temporary the latter for years/unknown date. I think the HO lost the Dorset case and with Grenfall fresh in the mind should these people be housed in appropriate detention centres with properly trained staff?

        1. Bloke
          November 11, 2022

          Ho[e:
          A ship or an island may be a good location. Those with unclear validity seeking UK residency could be housed there in good basic accommodation and organise their own economy providing jobs and services, sustaining each other as a community in a safe haven with shared common needs. Anyone wishing to join the remainder of the UK territory could apply and be assessed on proven merit of being a good citizen.

          1. margaret
            November 12, 2022

            This is ideal ,but where? Building a new community from scratch with experience of what went wrong in their homeland is creative management. I would imagine there would be a lot of power balance issues and learnt behaviour issues. The abused often abuse . Resources would be needed to help develop this and where would this come from .. OUR aid, our responsibility ! Then we have the alpha male position or the self appointed leaders with their lynch gang followers. It would be an interesting project for anthropologists.

          2. Bloke
            November 12, 2022

            Margaret: Any manageable warm and calm place on the planet. Heavier resources are being wasted now with the criminally-tended issues you raise. An efficient quality plan would consume more than a couple of paragraphs, but adds worthlessness with a Govt that tolerates the status quo in preference to any solution.

    2. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Lifelogic +1 All tax and no economy, no economy then equals falling tax returns. So theories and management based on Tax just enhance failure. We need some adults in Parliament to get a grip.

      1. Hope
        November 11, 2022

        Treason used to be an offence, it is now Tory policy!

        1. Shirley M
          November 11, 2022

          Agreed, Hope.

        2. anon
          November 11, 2022

          Agree but to be fair it applies to the entire uni-party & establishment to differing degrees.

          I do not recognise the legitimacy of this government anymore.

      2. Hope
        November 11, 2022

        JR,
        Has Hunt set aside a vast sum for claims against hotels now becoming detention hostels?

        It appears the HO has illegally aided and abetted the use of hotels against planning permission to become hostels for which there is no planning permission- staying longer than 28 days. Also are the numbers correct for each hotel/hostel now there is a change of use? We know there is a change of use because the manager for the hotel in Cornwall that refused was asked to sack staff and HO would provide its own.

        I thought there was a stated case about wayward young children going on sailing craft, as some sort of rehabilitation, destroying it and it was therefore not insured for the purpose it was intended. I think of the terrible Grenfill and wonder if the hotels’ respective insurance covers the change of use?

        When HO applied to the hotels did they make the basic inquiry with local authority about infrastructure for doctors, dentists, hospital, police, etc which should form part of their infrastructure/development plan? After all the Tory party changed the planning legislation under Boles.

        The hotels should apply for change of use, in doing so it will be clear the hotels are not for temporary accommodation but pseudo luxurious detention centres because Javid was proud to get rid of those!

    3. Merrie Qubus
      November 11, 2022

      There is far too much leaking of information from this Government and the Civil Service. It is time that someone put a stop to it and ensured that the leakers were sacked. I suspect that the majority of culprits are Civil Servants with an axe to grind. They are there to help that Goverment, not to influence policy.

  2. Lifelogic
    November 11, 2022

    I am not convinced about the small nuclear agenda. They may have their place but better technologies exist and larger reactors make more sense in most cases. Or at least they would do if we had a sensible and rapid planning process.

    The University of Greenwich forecasts predict it will take 15 years to build Sizewell C, or 17 years under its gloomiest forecast, and cost ÂŁ43.8bn. There is of course no engineering or construction reasons why it should more than about 1/4 of this time or money but plenty of political, legal, regulatory obstructions and planning ones.

    1. Hope
      November 11, 2022

      LL,
      According to Angel Knight (former national grid) smaller nuclear reactors can be built cheaply and quickly on previous decommissioned sites. She seems very intelligent and competent to me. She also is very knowledgable and sensible about gas supply as well. Therefore I expect her to be ignored for more EU inter- connectors to tie UK to EU so the latter can grip the throat of the UK not to leave. It is the Sunak/Hunt remainer way.

      I am very surprised Tory Brexiteer MPs accepting all the predictable glow all remainer rubbish. Tories are now toast whatever they do so why not ensure. Re it as that was the main purpose of the 80 seat majority!

      1. Lifelogic
        November 11, 2022

        She does, I agree, sound quite sensible (She read chemistry at Bristol it seems) but then she was also Chair of the office of tax simplification and we got a tax system at least twice as complex over its existence. But then perhaps that was not her so much her fault but that of Osborne, Hammond, Sunak and now Hunt will doubtless make it even of a disaster. I still think the smaller ones are not the way to go in engineering or cost/safety terms perhaps they have do some specious political advantages.

        1. Peter from Leeds
          November 11, 2022

          LL

          Small is beautiful. The advantage of small and many is that you can make them on a production line reliably and then churn them out. Cost will then fall for new ones over time. Also RR have extensive experience of producing very safe small nuclear reactors for nuclear submarines.

          They are possibly not as efficient as the massive ones – but undoubtedly much easier and cheaper to locate. I have not checked exactly but they must produce more power than equivalent windmills or solar panels of comparable size.

          PS – In the highly unlikely event of a problem small ones are much easier to contain than Chernobyl sized ones!

          1. LIFELOGIC
            November 11, 2022

            PS – In the highly unlikely event of a problem small ones are much easier to contain than Chernobyl sized ones!

            Perhaps but 10 small ones may have 10X the chance of a problem or even100+ times of a problem even if it is a smaller problem.

          2. Margaret Brandreth Jones
            November 12, 2022

            The answer to that one is the same as usual ,, moderation . ;A theoretical n number of 10 as opposed to one is extreme but again are safety issues likely to be enhanced with a smaller reactor and waste to manage.? I am sure the UK atomic energy know the answer to this .In the long term uranium and plutonium availability would be a problem and an ever increasing expense.

    2. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Sizewell C Sizewell C will happen only with the will and envolvement of President Macron, not exactly a safe bet. Then again the RR SNR are primarily also funded by the French. Nothing against the French as why shouldn’t they, but for the UK to become self reliant and resilaint and not controlled by external political wills either route seems to be a contridiction. The Taxpayer being condemend to pay twice for the same thing, once to build the second time to enjoy the output – but never own.

    3. Original Richard
      November 11, 2022

      LL :

      I normally agree with your posts but not in the case of the correct fission nuclear technology. Production line built SMRs must be far cheaper and quicker to build than special one-offs. If the University of Greenwich is correct then the cost for Sizewell C (3.2GW) works out at ÂŁ13.7bn/MW. The cost of RR SMRs is ÂŁ3.8bn/MW.

      Furthermore the CEO of RR SMRs quoted the HoL Industry & Regulators Committee 16/11/2021 prices of ÂŁ40/MWhr for RAB funding and ÂŁ60/MWhr for CfD.

      These prices are half those of the cost of wind power (the real cost gleaned from company reports not CfD prices where renewable companies are looking for ESG points and double selling their electricity by selling restraint paid electricity again to off-grid users).

      At this evidence session the RR SMR CEO said they could start delivering in the early 2030s.

      Since we have at least 16 (ex)nuclear sites we therefore have at least 16 existing sites where we have the workforce, the security, the infrastructure and a willing local community to be able to place multiple SMRs.

      The National Grid is planning to spend ÂŁ54bn just to bring the North Sea wind power onshore.

      The fact that the CAGW/Net Zero advocates are ignoring nuclear, the only low carbon power which is affordable and reliable (weather independent) is evidence itself that the aim is to cripple the West by transitioning to expensive intermittent energy rather than curbing CO2 emissions

      1. Original Richard
        November 11, 2022

        Sorry I should have written :

        If the University of Greenwich is correct then the cost for Sizewell C (3.2GW) works out at ÂŁ13.7bn/GW. The cost of RR SMRs is ÂŁ3.8bn/GW.

    4. Stred
      November 11, 2022

      According to World Nuclear News, the average time to build the various new approved nukes is 7 years. The UK could chose from Korean, Japanese, Chinese or even Russian designs as the Finns have done, incorporate RR controls get quotes for ten of them on new sites and be ready by 2030. Sizewell B is a success and is still supplying economic electricity. Why not update this tried and tested design and build a protective frame over it? It’s the regulator that holds things up.

    5. Merrie Qubus
      November 11, 2022

      I have it on good authority that, even when the Government finally makes a decision about SMRs it will be a further decade before they are up and running. I really find this difficult to understand. In the case of Rolls-Royce the units are simply modified versions of the units successfully installed in submarines. If the units are safe to use in such a hostile environment, how can it possibly take to so long to have them up and running on the mainland?
      It will be a tragedy for the British nation if Roll-Royce are not selected as the company to build these reactors. If Rolls-Royce are not selected, it will be the end of another excellent British firm. Has everyone forgotten that we led the world with commercial reactors some 80 years ago.
      Just another instance of Goverment incompetence.

  3. Mark B
    November 11, 2022

    Good morning.

    It is an old government tactic a head of what may be a controversial report or enquiry to rather leak supposid very details. This sets the public mood to accept very bad news. Of course when said report or enquiry is eventually released the news is nowhere near as bad and people wonder what all the fuss was about.

    An old trick but one that works time and time again.

    What will be clear is that nothing that has been proposed here for cuts will ever happen. Anything politicians and their backers want ever does suffer.

    There will be few surprises, that is for sure.

  4. Lifelogic
    November 11, 2022

    Lord Frost today:-

    “Tory managerialism is wrecking conservatism
    The outcome of socialist policies remain the same, even if a Conservative is implementing them”

    It certainly does and they certainly have been for the last 12 years. The dire Chancellor Philip Hammond popping his head up the other day on GBnews still largely talking complete drivel as one would expect. PPE Oxon. yet again.

    1. Ian Wragg
      November 11, 2022

      What’s the betting that Hunt proposes we join the single market and customs union to resolve the NI protocol problem.
      Seeing we have largely remainers in Westminster I’m sure this would get approval.
      No bonfire of EU regulations, just sitting waiting to be re enacted.

      1. Ian B
        November 11, 2022

        @Ian Wragg

        As a staunch remainer along with his Civil Service chums it is pretty clear from all the external briefings that a catastrophe has to be ‘created’ (and boy Jeremy & Rishi are doing that) so as contrive a defeat position were the only option in their minds is to pass UK Control to the unelected EU Commission. The Civil Service and WEF who at this moment in time appear to be controlling this Government are by their very instincts and media briefings are anti any sort of Democratic franchise in the UK.

        Collectively none of this has anything to do with calming or creating market certainty, the market are only responding to the media leaks and briefings(that how they make money) by those external entities trying to gain political control by egotistical will – not the ballot box

      2. glen cullen
        November 11, 2022

        Why did you have to say that Ian; I’ve just been listening to R4 and it was hinted that Sunak & Hunt are considering the ‘single market’ as an option
someone please tell this is just rumour

    2. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Lifelogic +1 the coruption by media, Baron Hammond of Runnymede has not been elected to represent anyone, while he has a voice as an individual he should have no political voice as a member of any unelected club.. Also above his station the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip, he is a constituency MP that is all.

    3. Lynn Atkinson
      November 11, 2022

      
 the last 32 years!

    4. Merrie Qubus
      November 11, 2022

      It would be good for the UK if the PPE course in Oxford were shut down. I have heard it said by people in the know that it is the easiest course at the university.

  5. Lifelogic
    November 11, 2022

    Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph today:- “With millions on benefits, we don’t need mass migration to boost GDP
    Westminster hasn’t begun to grasp the scale of this scandal – five million Brits are on out-of-work welfare”

    The government and civil service clearly have no desire or will to address this, it’s not their money so why would they care?

    1. Cheshire Girl
      November 11, 2022

      I have it on good authority, that some people on benefits deliberately make multiple claims, to gum up the system. Its easy to always blame the civil service department, but there are a lot of dishonest claimants out there, who make the life of the people who are trying to process the claims, a nightmare.
      These people are defrauding the system, and holding things up for the honest claimant. You rarely hear that side of the story.

      1. Hope
        November 11, 2022

        The best scam is go on a training course and deliberately fail it!

        Get rid of the 16 hr ceiling so it pays to work!

        UK pays child benefit for EU children who never set foot here while setting a cap for UK citizens not to get anything! The Tories promoting global socialism with our taxes!

        1. LIFELOGIC
          November 12, 2022

          +1

    2. Cuibono
      November 11, 2022

      +many
      Are they still stuck on that hoary old chestnut about English people not being prepared to work?
      Remember Corby? What are folk meant to do? And then CHEAP labour is purposely brought in!!

      1. Michelle
        November 11, 2022

        Some in the cabinet, not least one who had her hand on the visa book for a while, even put it in print that we are lazy.
        It appeared under Blair to have been made very easy to cut your local work force to hire cheap foreign labour.
        All this modern slavery hand wringing left me speechless when in effect it was being almost encouraged.
        Cheap E.European labour, and people crammed into housing like battery hens.
        What options were left to the local workforce except the dole in many cases and not willingly either, despite what many say.
        Then the socialist media made money with their trashy shows about those on benefits. Of course choosing only the worst excesses who are not representative of many forced onto benefits. This gave rise to some revolting attitude to all those on benefits and the ‘lazy English’ tag. It helped the Guardian/Labour types to show the need for mass immigration.
        Then the benefits trap was set for many. A very cruel policy I think, but then that’s socialists for you.
        Woe betide anyone who tries to free people from that trap, because those that put them there will then claim the moral high ground. Yesterday’s benefit scrounger fronting trash tv, becomes all of a sudden a poster boy for the socialists to show Jacob Rees Mog’s evil Victorian values!!! (I don’t know it’s something they are always frothing at the mouth about)

      2. a-tracy
        November 11, 2022

        I wonder what the figures are Cuibono for that claim that it is mainly English people not being prepared to work. What % of people out of work benefits were born in the UK, had both parents born in the UK?
        What % did 13 years in English schools 5-18 years of age?
        What % of those on out of work benefits took a degree program?
        What is the breakdown per British region?
        What is the available job breakdown per British region?

      3. Hope
        November 11, 2022

        5.6 million on benefits some ought to be forced to work. Especially from the 370,000 families where no one in three generations have worked!

    3. Dave Andrews
      November 11, 2022

      Even more workforce available for the vacancies if they cut the non-jobs from government.
      A hotel cleaner might not command the same salary as a diversity manager, but the level of qualifications needed is comparable (no disparaging either).

      1. Michelle
        November 11, 2022

        ++ Very true.

    4. Shirley M
      November 11, 2022

      Easier to sit on their backsides, do nothing, and tax more to fund it all!

      1. Hope
        November 11, 2022

        Sunak not cutting the civil service head count, big state high tax is the way for him.

  6. David Peddy
    November 11, 2022

    Sir Joh

    You correctly identify the problems with this government and Johnson’s before it: just a lot of talk and no action
    Waffle , waffle ,waffle
    Where is the progress on the boat people?
    Where is the resolution to the NI problem?
    There is no plan for growth , for energy security, for reducing our dire balance of trade deficit
    When are the police going to get control of ER and JSO disruption ?
    When are we going to see some meaningful reform of the Health Service ?
    Nothing is happening anywhere

    1. Cuibono
      November 11, 2022

      +1
      I imagine that it felt much like this on the Titanic as it approached the iceberg.
      Strange silence, a sort of floaty feeling and as you say, NO ACTION in areas where one might have expected prompt action!
      Our politicians
.
      “We see no iceberg”
      I wonder if they have already read “The Camp of the Saints”?

      1. Peter
        November 11, 2022

        Cuibono,
        Surprised ‘The Camp of the Saints’ reference did not get censored.

        1. Cuibono
          November 11, 2022

          +many!
          I know!!!

      2. glen cullen
        November 11, 2022

        Our politicians
.“We see no iceberg”
        More like – ‘’I’ve self identified as a women and/or child so I’m first in the life raft’’ but the woke respond with ‘’using the term women or child is wrong’’ and the net-zero’ers respond with ‘’What would the UN say if I got into a petrol engine life raft – the horror’’ and the remainers respond with ‘’How’s brexit working out now’’ and the Tory MPs ‘’I told you we needed more wind-turbines’’

        1. Cuibono
          November 11, 2022

          +many
          Very good!!😂

    2. Hope
      November 11, 2022

      Imagine the Tory narrative. Deliberate to show the EU is the country’s salvation as we saw no benefit to leaving!

    3. Donna
      November 11, 2022

      Oh there’s a lot happening. Just not what we want.
      1. Stoking inflation and destabilising the economy as a precursor to rolling out Central Bank Digital Currencies
      2. The Net Zero lunacy; progressing the intention to monitor everyone’s carbon footprint and control their behaviour
      3. Making the WHO responsible for “Global Health” and giving it the power to dictate to supposedly democratic governments
      4. Flooding western democracies with “asylum seekers” to destabilise them. Then propose Digital ID using illegal immigration as the justification
      5. Ignore the adverse effects data on the jabs and keep pushing them as “safe and effective.” They can’t have their platform gene therapy discredited since they intend using it more widely.
      Etc
      The Globalists are actually very busy.

    4. glen cullen
      November 11, 2022

      Spot on David – we have a government of ‘do nothing’ – the only person who wanted to do something was Liz and they got rid of her

      1. Mickey Taking
        November 11, 2022

        and Brave man (or woman).

  7. Robert Miller
    November 11, 2022

    Why not take the axe to market distorting subsidies generally?

    1. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Cynic +1 In History that was tried before, by another self important King that commanded the tide to retreat.

      1. Ian B
        November 11, 2022

        In the wrong place

    2. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Robert Miller +1 All subsidies and handouts are corrupting and they always require a further layer of corruption to rebalance the distortion they create.

      Far better Government invested Taxpayer in the ownership of entities that require support – then at least there may be a tangible reinvestment return for further investment. For clarity while I believe for infrastructure there should be State ownership, the last people on Earth that should run these should be Governments.

      1. glen cullen
        November 11, 2022

        Government subsidy was once a very small and limited tool to protect UK jobs and goods 
.now it’s a massive tool used constantly to social engineer society and shape our economic landscape – what ever happen to free market forces

    3. Lynn Atkinson
      November 11, 2022

      Too simple and effective. It would be impossible to confuse the electorate to the point that they vote for their own destruction.

  8. Cynic
    November 11, 2022

    Not much use expecting anything sensible from a government led by a man who believes he can control the world’s climate.

    1. Michelle
      November 11, 2022

      Lovely bit of humour.
      Yet, when you really think about it, it is that ridiculous isn’t it.
      I get that very uneasy feeling you get when you are left alone with someone you know isn’t quite playing with a full deck and you’re unsure of their next move.

    2. MFD
      November 11, 2022

      +1 x100%

    3. Timaction
      November 11, 2022

      Indeed. CO2 =0.04% of the atmosphere. Man made CO2 is 3% of that figure. You’d have thought the climate clowns would have chosen a different gas to pick on. Not one that is essential to plant life and therefore ALL life on Earth. What happens when we get our next ice age? Temperatures always rise in between or we’d still be in an……..ice age.

  9. Sea_Warrior
    November 11, 2022

    Axing at least half of the Spads filling ‘Press’ or ‘Communications’ roles is one saving I would certainly support. If ‘spin’ is wanted then that should be done by CCHQ – not by people on the public payroll.

    1. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Sea_Warrior +1

      To many finish up stroking egos to create self importance and consolidate their Taxpayer funded Empire.

      The reality is they are no more than friends of friends that cant get a real job. Jobs for the Boys awarded by the corrupters involved in Government

      1. Sea_Warrior
        November 11, 2022

        The average Spad salary is ÂŁ100K – about what a minister gets, and much more than an MP is paid. I wonder how many of them were earning that before they were recruited into Whitehall.

        1. Stred
          November 11, 2022

          Getting rid of the hated Nudge Unit would be a popular saving. There’s an office full of these weasels.

  10. Shirley M
    November 11, 2022

    This government cannot learn from history, has the inability to see the consequences of its never ending destructive policies, or has an agenda that does NOT involve working in the interests of the UK.

    Whichever is the cause, they have to go. Imagine two more years of this! We’ll all be on the poverty line, but we know that politicians, civil servants, public employees, benefit recipients, illegals and criminals will get priority and their needs and comfort will be ensured. The private sector can somehow survive higher taxes, higher cost of living, and NO RISE! Do we work just to keep everyone else in comfort. There is little to gain from working under this government. Is a general strike on the way? It could well happen. People KNOW who is at fault, and it isn’t the ones that are ‘paying the price’.

  11. turboterrier
    November 11, 2022

    If true then yesterday’s reports mentioning giving money to China and even more to Ftance does not bode well for the taxpayer.
    Just start with driving down the waste that this government, civil and public services hemorrhages in vast daily quantities. Real hard ball action instead of more talk.

  12. Michelle
    November 11, 2022

    The media are virtually running the country as it is or so it seems and are all of a ‘type’ with a certain view.
    The fact that so many in the country now are incapable of broad thinking, or calculating probabilities of what they are being told by the media in line with their actual experiences, is disturbing indeed.
    When the phrase ‘dumbing down’ first started to be used I didn’t really know what they were driving at, now I do.

    The stories have started circulating now, using the old tried and tested NHS nurses penury to rile up the masses.
    An article I read a few days back regarding an Angel of the NHS was given all the Dickensian trimmings.
    Yet real life experience and inside knowledge doesn’t seem to match this horrific scenario that was being painted.
    So I wonder why and how the story came about.
    I have a nurse in my family, she’s doing fine thank you very much, and raised her two sons alone on one wage. No food bank trips!!! I know many of her colleagues, all live comfortably, so I wonder if the nurse in the article living in modern day Dickens novel just couldn’t manage her money, or a good deal of embroidering the truth for a certain effect is going on via the media.
    Something should have been done about them a long time ago.

    1. SM
      November 11, 2022

      In 1973, many NHS nurses went on a ‘go-slow’ because they alleged they were underpaid (I experienced it as a new mum in the local maternity hospital) – yet one nurse whispered to me that “actually we’re quite well-paid”.

      In 2014, in a Central London NHS specialist hospital (where my husband was a patient), a senior male nurse said to me “this is such a terrific job, I’d do it for nothing – but I actually get paid really well”.

      Someone (?SoS Barclay?) should instigate an investigation into the long-standing issue of ‘agency’ nursing.

      1. Michelle
        November 11, 2022

        I think similar with teachers.
        I was a child in the 1970’s and my Mum was quite friendly with a couple of teachers at the local school.
        There was some issue about pay at the time I believe, and one of the teacher’s told my mum that her wages would keep her husband and two children and pay the mortgage, and had no idea what they were moaning about.

        Fast forward to not so long back and teacher’s striking over pensions.
        I have a niece who is a teacher, not long qualified at the time and she didn’t strike.
        Her point of view was that she knows what her final pension entitlements are and what she has to pay to get that.
        Her friends in the private sector could never hope to have all the pension benefits she will get without paying in the majority of their salaries.
        She thought it would be immoral to strike for more.

        1. a-tracy
          November 11, 2022

          Michelle, we could pay teachers assistants more if some of them worked at school premises from 8am to 4pm and some 10am to 6pm (that shift wouldn’t be so popular so would have to be paid more per hour from 4pm to 6pm) with one half hour lunch break and two 15 minute breaks staggered so they covered the children’s break supervision. It would be 7 hours per day, 35 hours per week. If they had 30 days holiday including bank holidays and worked the schools holidays staggered, they could earn extra facilitating children’s fun clubs doing sports, arts, music, plays, reading.

          25 years ago there weren’t many teacher’s assistants in Primary schools, some parents and grandparents used to volunteer time freely to provide reading support and teachers help but the teacher was mainly responsible for the whole class. We should facilitate speedy dbs checks to allow volunteers back in to support classes. Now teachers have half a day out of the school per week or one full day per fortnight out of school to mark work/lesson plan. So more teachers are required than they used to need. Instead of using teachers assistants, fully qualified teachers should cover one day each teacher (not all on Friday or Monday) and stagger the rota of the day out of school each teacher can take.

          The way unions talk there have been no improvements in conditions. There have and it is time the government openly talks about the extra spending since 1995 on all of these nice to have extra costs. The two years extra compulsory schooling for all children. The extra spending on free nursery hours. All of the extra one to one assistant teachers. The extra costs we have now on just taking a high number of children to school. We should look at social housing around special needs schools and facilitate parents of children that need all this extra care to move to where the schools are, or increase the numbers picked up in each tax often it is just one per taxi (half a million per week a council nearby spends on taxis this could be redirected to Head Teachers budgets they need to get a grip).

    2. Bloke
      November 11, 2022

      Media have no influence if people disregard the nonsense they attempt to spout. Untruthful media are beyond belief. Subscribing to them or discussing their nonsense is equivalent to supporting an incredible sham.

      1. Michelle
        November 11, 2022

        I agree but the issue is people do believe them and unfortunately they seem to have a free hand in lying by omission and never seem to be challenged on their statements.
        They don’t have to give context either which is vital.

  13. Cuibono
    November 11, 2022

    Well
nobody seems to follow the rules any more.
    They all want to “think outside the box” or “act beyond authority” or whatever stupid expression they use.
    And that, mes amis, is why nothing, NOTHING works!

    Yesterday, a letter I had posted in what now passes as a post office was delivered to my house. Maybe postal workers now follow the tiny “sender” label on the back rather than reading the HUGE, felt tip address on the front?
    Rule = send letter to address on front of envelope where stamp is!

    1. Walt
      November 11, 2022

      Well said, Cuibono. The Post Office and Royal Mail once were respected symbols of the State and, in our towns and cities, occupied buildings of civic pride. Now those buildings are shops, some selling clothes (Bath), some tat (Totnes) and often, especially in small towns and villages, the Post Office is now a counter in a grocery shop, with savings products of a foreign bank.

      1. Cuibono
        November 11, 2022

        +many
        Our lovely Post Office and sorting office is now demolished and a block of luxury flats built on the site.

      2. Peter
        November 11, 2022

        Walt,
        Or a Post Office behind the ladies underwear section in BHS, as was my late father’s experience.

        Reminded me of an episode of ‘Father Ted’.

    2. Bloke
      November 11, 2022

      Cuibono:
      ‘Thinking outside the box’ is a helpful way to solve problems by avoiding self-imposed restrictions. However, the Post Office way is stupidily opposite. They cause an error and then box themselves in with no way out.

      With parcels, they focus on the first address they see and enter the postcode, even if it is tiny, in a corner on the back and headed ‘FROM’. Once that is entered the adhesive label they affix becomes the destination. The postie becomes forced to deliver there wrongly, even with the proper destination being as prominently as yours on the top and headed ‘TO’.

      In response, the Post Office claim that it is not their error but the customer’s, as the customer should have watched to see if an error was being made. They add that the customer should include the sender’s address in case the item is lost but cross it out as well to avoid being misrouted!

      1. Cuibono
        November 11, 2022

        +many
        Oh OK
I thought there was an element of not regarding rules and traditions in thinking outside of the box?
        But anyway
the rule book has been generally torn up.
        And much chaos reigns!
        For which, as you say, we will probably get the blame.😳

        1. Bloke
          November 11, 2022

          Cuibono:
          Chaos does prevail in many services nowadays, particularly recently.

          If it helps: ‘Think outside the box’ was probably coined with a 9-dot puzzle equally spaced in 3 columns and rows. The task was to connect all 9 dots using only 4 straight lines. Many wrongly assumed that the straight lines had to fit within the square shape of the dots. On seeing the solution they regarded it as cheating: until they realised that the task did not specify a rule confining the lines inside the box.

          Such methods do not break the rules but they do use creative free-thinking, disregarding false obstacles to reach simple solutions. MPs and civil servants should seek sensible solutions, yet they add needless complications. It’s as if they believe that chaos creates new business and more jobs! It does in its worthless way.

  14. Sakara Gold
    November 11, 2022

    Whatever is in the autumn statement, primarily it will be designed to reasure the markets and prevent another run on sterling or a financial meltdown. Thanks to decades of twin deficits leading to a national debt equal to GDP, the UK only manages thanks to the goodwill of foreigners who are prepared to lend to us. At a high rate of interest, hence the need for spending cuts

    1. Cuibono
      November 11, 2022

      Money lenders are never motivated by goodwill.
      I do hope you aren’t fooled in that direction?

      1. IanT
        November 11, 2022

        Sakara used the expression “goodwill of foreigners” but a more common expression is “kindness of strangers”. Either way, be they foreigners or strangers, we are dependent upon them to buy our bonds (e.g. debt) and with higher risk comes a higher price.

        1. Cuibono
          November 11, 2022

          Yup.
          Exactly how professional money lenders operate.

      2. Lifelogic
        November 11, 2022

        Well I have lent money motivated by goodwill and not really ever expecting to get it back but eventually they did indeed repay and even gave a little interest. Had I not I knew they would have gone to a dodgy rip off money lender. Of course thanks to the FCA the main banks are too with their 39% overdraft rates for all.

        Of course strictly now you cannot easily lend without all sorts of licences and red tape. Just as I can no long do my own electrics despite having Physics and Electronics degrees and having worked on military jets I am clearly not up to the job of changing a light bulb nor a fuse or fan on the gas boiler. Red tape everywhere costing us ÂŁbillions.

        But in general you are surely right.

        1. Cuibono
          November 11, 2022

          +++
          Yes..but nice people do give/lend/help spontaneously
not for control or personal gain.
          This country is bought and sold a million times over.
          In hock and under the thumb.

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      November 11, 2022

      UK investment, including gilts, are viewed by foreigners as a very safe investment. Look at their options. The ÂŁ Sterling and the U.K. economy are backed by the British people, the most inventive, resourceful and competent the world has ever seen. Of course those people are now a small minority in our country as the government presses on relentlessly replacing those who leave with the sick, lame and lazy or worse!

      1. NBill Brown
        November 11, 2022

        Lynn

        More rubbish than usual and no source for why

  15. Sharon
    November 11, 2022

    The leaks may be deliberate, they may not. But if deliberate, the plans sound dreadful! So if there is a tactic to put out dreadful sounding leaks, anything less will be received with a sigh of relief; even if those costs are still quite bad! Softens us up for bad news really – but not as bad as it could have been! We’ll see.

    1. Wanderer
      November 11, 2022

      Yes, it’s a tried and tested tactic. The Media willingly spout what they have been fed, and possibly embellish it, rather than digging deeper and trying to find out what is really going on.
      We really do have a corrupt establishment.

      At least there are still a few politicians who lament what’s happened.

    2. MFD
      November 11, 2022

      Sharon,
      With the news today of Kwartain or what ever you call Im! Trying to skip his responsibility and blame Ms Truss it is obvious there are few Honourable left in Westminster and his behavior shows they are split so they can be defeated when we need to!
      The numbers who scorned their alarm they tried to instill in the population must now make them realise the size of the defeat they will get.

  16. Roy Grainger
    November 11, 2022

    “I assume none of these stories came from the Chancellor”

    Why do you assume that ? I suppose technically you are right and they come from his SPADs or some other unelected hanger-on he has appointed to his press office or whatever. Do you also assume these leaks weren’t known in advance and approved by the Chancellor ?

    In the confected row over Suella Braverman accidentally sending a mundane document about growth visas (or some such now cancelled policy) to a member of the public the Labour Party worked themselves into a frenzy of outrage on the basis that this leak was “market sensitive” as it would affect OBR predictions. This was arguable but very tenuous, but what is clear here is that these apparently deliberate leaks from the Government absolutely ARE market sensitive (whether they are true or not) and whoever is making and authorising them should be fired. But they won’t be of course – has there ever been a leak enquiry that came to a proper conclusion ?

    1. a-tracy
      November 11, 2022

      Good points Roy.
      Hunt has a weak, leaky department, he is responsible.

  17. Brian Tomkinson
    November 11, 2022

    We are told there is a huge black hole in the country’s finances and yet we have a Prime Minister who is promising massive overseas expenditure, including the ludicrous proposition of paying reparations all around the world for our country’s role in the Industrial Revolution, and doing nothing to stop daily illegal migration but paying out large amounts to put those people in hotel accommodation with little or no consultation with local people or their councils. We are threatened with tax increases to be announced later this month. This is unacceptable. Why should taxpayers pay for this largesse? Why should anyone ever trust the Conservatives to be guardians of sound economic management and law and order? They have become the party of profligate tax and spend just like Labour, the LibDems and the SNP.

    1. Atlas
      November 11, 2022

      It is certainly seeming that way. If only our good host were the Chancellor…

  18. Donna
    November 11, 2022

    In other words, the left-wing Blob is in control and this isn’t a Conservative Government.

    I’m afraid I don’t share Sir John’s confidence that it isn’t Hunt doing the leaking. Neither he nor Sunak have done or said anything to dissociate themselves from the steady drip of information so it’s safe to conclude that the policy leaking is just “rolling the pitch” so that when the Autumn Statement is marginally better than anticipated, they think the peasants will be grateful.

    That’s how arrogant – and divorced from reality – they are.

  19. Bryan Harris
    November 11, 2022

    Where are the plans to build more of our own ships, to make a series of small nuclear reactors using UK factories and technology, to grow more of our own food diverting subsidies from wilding schemes to investment in larger scale market gardening?

    I would refer us all to the video from 2014, which showed exactly what the blueprint is for us, as regards innovation and population control.
    (Investigative journalist Harry Vox on a Rockefeller Foundation report: Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development)

  20. Narrow Shoulders
    November 11, 2022

    Anything that comes out of the budget should be fair. By fair I do not mean that these with the broadest shoulders should bear the most load, I mean that the consequences of living in this country at this time should be spread among all equally.

    Workers are not protected from the theft of earnings from inflation so there is no reason why pensioners or benefit recipients should be. Increases to benefits and pensions should be limited to average wage rises. Public sector ay rises feed into their pensions so these must also be as low as possible, mirroring only average rises in the private sector.

    Costs for refugee and asylum claimants MUST come out of foreign aid but swift repatriation MUST be addressed by the finance bill. Then it might actually be enacted.

    Decouple renewable electricity prices from electricity produced by fossil fuels.

    1. IanT
      November 11, 2022

      I agree NS. We can immediately start by cancelling the RPI index linked pension hikes enjoyed by many Civil Servants and MPs. What’s good for the Goose should be quite good enough for the Gander (especially when the Goose is paying for it)

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        November 11, 2022

        The golden goose is dead.

    2. turboterrier
      November 11, 2022

      Narrow Shoulders
      Very good post.
      Totally agree with you.
      Will they read, listen and act on your comments and observations?

    3. Lynn Atkinson
      November 11, 2022

      Why should pensioners, who put in good £’s for a lifetime have less than inflation for a second year running. Pensions in the U.K. are the poorest in the developed world. They have no chance to bolster their income being OLD! Of course when they die of hyperthermia etc the state will just shrug – old people die.

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        November 11, 2022

        Because workers got less than inflation Lynn.

        Treating people fairly is treating them equally.

  21. Cuibono
    November 11, 2022

    Giles used to do wonderful Budget cartoons about beer and baccy going up by 1d or so.
    This lot however are more Gillray
”Taxes! Taxes!Taxes!”
    If it moves tax it! Windows, hats, iron, malt, stamps, tobacco, salt
.to pay for the government’s war!
    And how about the one where Pitt and Napoleon are sitting at a table carving up the Plumb Pudding Planet (!!!)?
    Plus ça change eh?

  22. Ian B
    November 11, 2022

    “Time was when a Chancellor prepared an Autumn Statement or budget in secret “

    There lays the flaw in what is increasingly looking like a corrupt third World Parliament. Some undoubtedly very good constituency MP’s that entered politics to serve are being destroyed by the flaws that have developed over many years. They get sucked in and are forced seemingly aggressively to toe the line.

    It Would appear that the ego of some see their function as to brief almost daily against almost anything, not because they know anything but just to stroke their own self importance. Then just to flex their own muscles the Civil Service, Treasury and BofE see that they are a voice then proceed to grab the ear of the media and attempt to wield political influence usually in a biased way without ever having any accountability. Are the members of the so-called Establishment paid by the Taxpayer to have a Political opinion when they do it not as an individual but in their bloated view of their position?

  23. agricola
    November 11, 2022

    The only items that count come on 17th November. They will dileniate the path through inflation and that to the country’s financial recovery or not. It will as an after thought define the future of the conservative party. The omens are not good.

    1. IanT
      November 11, 2022

      Yes, I’m afraid it looks like “or not”

  24. Ray Hamer
    November 11, 2022

    I’m 72 and have always voted conservative. I am a retired businessman and I voted for brexit of which I cannot see they have followed through on or taken advantage of.
    I will be voting reform party in future.

    1. Ian B
      November 11, 2022

      @Ray Hamer – Like most true Conservatives you have been ‘screwed’ what used to be a Conservative Party is now led by those of the Left in the Media and the Word Economic Forum. Brexit by these Groupings was never going to happen as it would be the enemy of the those that now control Government, is Democracy.

      What you have to feel sorry for is those MP’s that thought they were in the Conservative party that now find themselves bullied into accepting World Government a powerful few. None of its common sense in a UK context, but the end result is the UK wont be permitted to compete or thrive outside the new bounds being dictated by outsiders.

      1. outsider
        November 11, 2022

        Dear IanB,
        Not sure if your reference to the “Word Economic Forum” was a typo or an insightful comment. It certainly recalls the mysterious English opening of St John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God”. If intentional, I guess your reference meant the opposite.

        1. glen cullen
          November 11, 2022

          “In the beginning was the WEF 
 and the WEF was God”

        2. IanB
          November 11, 2022

          @outsider,. Trusting predictive text to keep up I’m afraid

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      November 11, 2022

      Join the club Ray. Richard Tice was very impressive when I listened to him last Sunday morning on Talk TV. I think he has a regular slot.

    3. Michelle
      November 11, 2022

      I am working my way through the various Reform You Tube/Reform TV presentations of their recent conference.
      I am impressed I have to say with who and what I’ve seen so far, give or take a few areas I’m unsure of or unclear about, but overall I’d say they are talking a good many people’s language.
      Of course the ‘controlled opposition’ Psy Ops is already in play, along with the not voting Cons. will let in Labour (well to me an millions of others on very important issues there’s little difference except colour of rosette)

      I just hope they are ready and well armed to the teeth for what will be coming their way from the media.

  25. Ian B
    November 11, 2022

    @johnredwood

    “Treasury briefings say they need to clobber us with more taxes to cut demand. Meanwhile in the real world we worry about the approaching recession. Why does the Treasury drive by looking in the rear view mirror instead of seeing they are steering us into a downturn?”

    Who Elected the Treasury to brief anyone other than just the Government. They are Public Servants paid for by the Taxpayer, they have not been elected as such are not accountable to the People of the Country. The view in that briefing is 100% Political, even Parliament can’t challenge it.

    The Treasury was seen failing in its function, that’s why the OBR was created. The OBR in conjunction with Treasury has been seen by the Chancellor as failing the Country so he has employed new advisors. The Taxpayer now has to pay 3 times over for the same end result – no wonder these bodies make outspoken politically biased demands for more tax, they are protecting their incomes and building Empires, not looking for efficiencies within their selves.

  26. Shirley M
    November 11, 2022

    +1 Ray. I also am 72 and a retired company founder but have no allegiance to any party, but that may change if a new party appears that works in the interests of the UK. I hope Reform will fit that bill and that millions of voters will follow suit. Is it too much to expect a UK government to work FOR the UK, and not against it?

  27. acorn
    November 11, 2022

    It’s my guess that “public sector current receipts” could be up ÂŁ110 billion for fiscal 2022/23 at ÂŁ1,023 billion over 21/22 at ÂŁ914 billion and ÂŁ794 billion in Covid 20/21. That; at a guess, would be 45.8% of CVM GDP at ÂŁ2,232 billion, equivalent to 41.7% of current price (CP) GDP at ÂŁ2,451 billion.

    The chained volume measure CVM (removes inflation) of GDP has flatlined for the last five quarters at its 2019 level. Chancellors’ fiscal targets are all different and rarely last to the next budget. It would be good to know what the current ones are and have the HoC a lot more proactive on defining what they should be.

    1. a-tracy
      November 11, 2022

      I hate an acronym, At the time of writing, the latest weights are for 2018, meaning that growth in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022 are all based on 2018 weights. When this technique is used, the resulting GDP statistics are referred to as a chainlinked volume measure (cvm), or more simply GDP in volume or real terms.

      The ‘real’ terms love of statisticians that want to fudge things in their favour but don’t calculate the opposite side of the outflows in the same ‘real’ term calculations.

      We need to build more here in the UK acorn, stop importing Italian Pasta, buy more British cheese, milk and other dairy, meat and vegetables.

      We had an extra two days bank holiday this year cutting our GDP by an extra 2 days at least as often it takes another day per bank holiday to gear back up again. We also had a week at least mourning by a lot of the civil sector and military what was the loss in GDP around that period in particular in ‘real’ terms compared to the previous September 2021.

      1. acorn
        November 11, 2022

        Restating data to a reference year is not the same as the chained volume measure. Both are used for different purposes.

    2. Denis Cooper
      November 11, 2022

      Here is a chart of quarterly GDP, displayed in real terms, seasonally adjusted chained volume measure with 2019 as the reference year, from 1st quarter 1955 to 3rd quarter 2022:

      https://www.statista.com/statistics/785546/gross-domestic-product-per-quarter-united-kingdom/

      I don’t see any “flatlining” anywhere on that chart, which overall has a trend growth rate of 2.2% a year.

      If you meant that by Q3 2022 it had recovered to where it had been in Q4 2019 then that would be correct, but it had hardly flatlined in between, not when had it dropped by 23% in Q2 2020. That could have been something to do with Covid-19 and lockdowns and shutting down large parts of the UK economy, I suppose.

      1. acorn
        November 11, 2022
        1. Denis Cooper
          November 12, 2022

          That shows the same thing, after a big fall during the pandemic we are about back to where we were.

  28. James Freeman
    November 11, 2022

    Where is the costed programme for net zero? The rumoured estimated cost is ÂŁ50 billion annually for the next 30 years. If we invested a fraction of this on R&D, inventing alternative solutions costing less than fossil fuels, we would remove carbon emissions for the whole world, not just the tiny 1.3% UK contribution. The government prefers to hide the costs and instigate austerity to pay for its flawed strategy instead.

    They have also made other costly decisions:

    1. Semi-nationalised railways. These cost the government ÂŁ25 billion last year, while a fully privatised system would cost the taxpayer nothing. We are told the public favours nationalised rail, but would they be so keen if they knew it cost the equivalent of 4% on VAT?

    2. The fracking ban would have boosted the economy and raised billions in tax revenue.

    3. They have abandoned Jacob Rees-Mogg’s plans to reduce the Civil Service’s size. If the government interfered less, this would boost the economy and save billions for the taxpayer.

    4. Removing EU red tape would enable the economy to create more efficient ways of solving the same problems, boosting growth. But there has yet to be much progress with this.

    They seem more interested in spending money on expensive solutions and imposing unnecessary austerity.

  29. Denis Cooper
    November 11, 2022

    Time was when a Chancellor would first get his Autumn Statement or budget checked out by the EU:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/11/09/the-true-history-of-the-bond-market/#comment-1354029

    But although we are stumbling under the unfamiliar burden of self-government I would still vote for it.

    (Not applicable to Northern Ireland, which has been left behind under the economic thumb of the EU.)

    1. a-tracy
      November 11, 2022

      Denis, do you know what the actual ‘real’ value in £ of what they now called ‘exports’ from the UK to Northern Ireland is for 2022, compared to 2021 and 2019 before the covid lockdown of 2020?

      Which goods or services have stopped flowing or dropped significantly?

      The Common Travel Area needs restricting to people to and from Ireland. Unless they have lived in either the UK or Ireland for at least sixteen years (unless accompanied by parents who have lived in the UK or Ireland for at least sixteen years.)

      1. Denis Cooper
        November 11, 2022

        I use data from NISRA, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency:

        https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics

        But they don’t seem to have trade data up to 2022.

  30. Original Richard
    November 11, 2022

    “It has announced extra support for emerging economies with the costs of net zero programmes.”

    Will the Government inform us how much Net Zero has cost so far and how much exra spending is already planned?

    Or will these huge costs be kept secret from us?

    Perhaps the huge costs of Net Zero are the reason why high taxes are deemed necessary even when they don’t appear to make economic sense?

    It musn’t be forgotten that the current high energy prices are caused by the Government, banks and investment groups, restricting and de-funding fossil fuels which is driven by the CAGW/Net Zero aim to transition to the far more expensive and unreliable renewables. At the same time making ourselves dependent upon China for our wind turbines (95%), solar panels (100%) and raw materials (60% or more) for our batteries, motors and generators. So not only will our economy be destroyed by CAGW/Net Zero but also our energy security.

    If this policy continues the day will come when we will be with almost no power and struggling to put together a payment to China for the next delivery of wind turbine parts.

    1. Stred
      November 11, 2022

      Blowing up the Russian gas pipelines while depending on a North Sea pipeline a thousand miles long and no defence doesn’t seem too bright either.

  31. Donna
    November 11, 2022

    On a related topic, the Government is planning to waste ÂŁmillions more on a Covid Commemoration (check out The Daily Sceptic for further details).

    You can respond in two ways; by completing their questionnaire (which has heavily loaded questions). Or by emailing your response.

    I completed the questionnaire, ignoring all the loaded questions and proceeded directly to the last box where you can, in 500 words, suggest another way of commemorating it.

    https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/covid-commemoration-consultation

    I suggested they beam a “Cost of Covid Tracker, plus Compound Interest” onto Parliament, updated every minute, so we can see just how much their lunatic response to a Low Consequence Infectious Disease with a fatality rate of 0.02% has cost us.

    1. Michelle
      November 11, 2022

      What the !!!
      One of my very favourite comedy pieces ever happens to be the little interruption there would be on Monty Python where Cleese would appear in the middle of a sketch and say
      ‘right stop that it’s too silly’

      If ever there was a time for such an interruption.

  32. William Long
    November 11, 2022

    I was under the impression, no doubt erroneous, that the leakage was deliberate, in order to guage public reaction to different prosals.

    1. a-tracy
      November 11, 2022

      It shows a pathetic weakness in the Treasury. A bunch of traitors we have in the heart of government.

    2. Mickey Taking
      November 11, 2022

      Well our window cleaner says his partner knows someone who claims they were sitting on an Underground train when a couple of ‘gents’ boarded and started talking about the latest ideas coming out of the Treasury….
      So I think most of the speculation is well founded.

  33. Bert Young
    November 11, 2022

    I , like the rest of us , become frustrated and worried about all the press and media scary releases about the budget . The Treasury is the Government’s most important Department and it has always contained a number of highly qualified and experienced Civil Servants ; whether the same is true of the Minister who is appointed to lead the Treasury team is another matter . It is also a vast mistake to have the BofE operating independently from the Government and this Treasury Body ; it only adds to the public feeling of helplessness .

  34. The Prangwizard
    November 11, 2022

    The idea of a CC is yet another illustration of the insanity of people in government. They will naturally expect their subjects to demonsrate their subservience in some way, maybe they will come up with merging this with Remembrance Dsy.

  35. G
    November 11, 2022

    “There have been many more such ideas….on this blog.”

    I sense your frustration and share it.

    There are plenty on this forum (@Lifelogic) who have seen the fallacy of CO2-driven climate change. How is it that so many have so meekly accepted this flawed scientific ‘concensus’? Why have so many more not spoken up to question such erroneous logic? Either they genuinely believe it, or have been silenced by coercion, control, propaganda and media hysteria.

    If we are so easily fooled then we’ve got no hope.

    If we are so dominated by coercion and control, then so much for Brexit freedoms and ‘taking back control’.

    1. Michelle
      November 11, 2022

      It’s on the telly and David Attenborough says XYZ, so it must be true and there’s footage of an iceberg collapsing and ‘everyfink’ so it’s true.
      Greta and Bono say its’ true and Ed Milliband so that must account for something surely.

      I like watching Christopher Monckton’s take on it all.
      He’s quite good at debunking it all in terms that ordinary Joe public can get to grips with.

    2. acorn
      November 11, 2022

      “Increased Levels of CO2 Are Proving to Be Too Much of a Good Thing For Plants”. (Google ” “) Our CO2 habit is gradually making it harder for plants to absorb the vital nutrients they need to grow, the same nutrients that we rely on them to obtain.

      “What is clear is that the nutrient composition of the main crops used worldwide, such as rice and wheat, is negatively impacted by the elevation of CO2,” explains molecular biologist Antoine Martin from the French National Centre for Scientific Research. “This will have a strong impact on food quality and global food security.” While the use of CO2 in photosynthesis supplies plants with their sugars, most plants use their roots to collect other nutrients – including nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron – in the soil.

      “There are many reports in the literature showing that the CO2 levels expected at the end of the 21st century will lead to a lower concentration of nitrogen in most plants, mainly affecting the protein content in plant products,” says biologist Alain Gojon of France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment.

      Apparently, plants thicken there leaves to reduce there exposure to higher CO2 concentrations and higher average leaf temperatures.

      1. Peter2
        November 11, 2022

        Then the plants react.
        Always forgetting nature reacts.

      2. G
        November 11, 2022

        @acorn

        “From a quarter to half of Earth’s vegetated lands has shown significant greening over the last 35 years largely due to rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change on April 25.

        An international team of 32 authors from 24 institutions in eight countries led the effort, which involved using satellite data from NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer instruments to help determine the leaf area index, or amount of leaf cover, over the planet’s vegetated regions. The greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent in area to two times the continental United States.”

        Source: NASA

        In the real world, plants seem to be doing rather well. Nitrogen is a key component of chlorophyll, and that’s wot makes them green guv’nor!…

        1. acorn
          November 12, 2022

          As plants thicken their leaves they appear greener. More global evidence of nature reacting to what it sees as a step change in CO2 levels from 280 to 422 ppm on a chart with an 800,000 year long time axis. https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

          1. G
            November 12, 2022

            @acorn

            The NASA map shows the ‘leaf area index’ – the amount of leaf cover relative to ground area, not how green the leaves appear to be.

            Many argue that the ice core data clearly demonstrates evidence of climate change periodicity over hundreds of thousands of years.

  36. The Prangwizard
    November 11, 2022

    The ‘why’ questions cannot be answered because your party members as PM, Chancellor etc., ( excluding Suella Braverman ) are not part of the real and practical side of the world we are all in. They do not understand what making things and making them here means. There are things available to them in their separate world but probably don’t even know where anything is made, other than in their world place.

  37. a-tracy
    November 11, 2022

    Is there a vote in the House of Commons on the budget or does what Hunt proposes just go straight into action?

    1. Donna
      November 11, 2022

      There’ll be a “debate” …… in which SocialistCON and SocialistLABOUR pretend to have very different solutions to the problems they have jointly created.

      And the SocialistSNP, SocialistPlaidCymru and the one SocialistGreen who seems to decide Government Policy will demand more money and more Net Zero lunacy.

      The few genuine Conservatives, like Sir John, will be ignored.

  38. Original Richard
    November 11, 2022

    “It would be helpful if whoever is putting all this out was told not to do so, as it does not make for good government and it is worrying to the successive groups of people who feel threatened by these proposals.”

    These leaks are deliberate.

    Firstly to gain the advice/approval/reaction from the far left activists, think tanks and MSM. And if necessary to give these organisations the time to build up their arguments and finances to organise demonstrations/judicial actions against the Government’s proposals so that they can use these actions to reverse any policy which may be implementing a manifesto pledge or does not fit with their economy destroying Net Zero Strategy.

    Secondly, it also helps the City to know which shares to buy and sell.

  39. formula57
    November 11, 2022

    Supposedly (and correctly) an emergency budget was needed with some urgency around the time Johnson announced he had resigned.

    Four months on rather than leaks can’t we have some actual measures or has the urgency exhausted itself somehow or has this Government decided it no longer matters what it does?

  40. Denis Cooper
    November 11, 2022

    Off topic:

    https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/news/eu-imposes-meeting-ban-on-uk-officials/

    “EU imposes meeting ban on UK officials”

    “EU officials have been told not to hold meetings with UK counterparts unless they are strictly related to the war in Ukraine or are ‘legally mandatory’, in the latest indication of frosty relations between Brussels and London.

    In a note circulated to senior European Commission officials, which was seen by EURACTIV, the Secretary-General of the Commission Ilze Juhansone requested that “all Directorates-General and Services inform the Secretariat-General of any requests for bilateral meetings with United Kingdom officials or United Kingdom stakeholders to be made or that have been received, irrespective of the level of seniority.”

    Meetings should only take place if they are “legally mandatory”, relate to the implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement, or relate strictly to the war in Ukraine.

    “Declining a meeting request should be explained on the basis of the recent developments in the EU-United Kingdom relations,” the Commission’s top civil servant added.”

    How childish, and these are the people that Rejoiners want to rule our lives.

    1. Diane
      November 12, 2022

      Denis C : Frosty relations, ( your euractiv.com link / meeting ban ) surely not ! Although if there’s any expertise in frosty relations the EU has it, but snow-like conditions it seems between the EU President & Council President if we are to believe the Politico.eu article 10 Nov ‘ The dysfunctional relationship at the heart of the EU ‘ Interesting.

  41. Iain Moore
    November 11, 2022

    The negative messages coming out of the Treasury and Bank of England can only be designed to extinguish any growth , crush any ambition and make everything hopeless. The Government will rob you of your assets, tax your pension pot, bleed the entrepreneurs dry to make our country an economic wasteland. You will own nothing and you WILL be happy.

    1. Bill B.
      November 11, 2022

      Yep, this is our future as decided by WEFtminster. The international financial cabal is looking forward to rich pickings in its capaign of looting European economies.

  42. formula57
    November 11, 2022

    O/T – but further to yesterday’s topic, I see reports the ship denied port by Italy is disembarking 230 persons in France today, giving our Ministers a helpful week’s notice. What a time to own a four star hotel in the UK: profits surging from occupancy at capacity every day!

  43. Original Richard
    November 11, 2022

    Since we know from the TPA that the Government (Cabinet Office and Home Office) are funding the organisations taking it to court over their Rwanda plans I would not be surprised to learn that the Government is also funding the JSO (and XR/IB) eco extremists.

    This would also explain the weak response from the MSM, the police and the judiciary to these eco extremists’ illegal demonstrations.

    The Government does not counter the extremists’ claims that the planet is about to burst into flames and billions will die as they are using their actions to soften us up into accepting falling living standards caused by the transition from affordable, reliable fossil and nuclear energy to expensive and intermittent renewable energy.

    The Net Zero Strategy energy transition is akin to Stalin’s Transformation of Nature Plan.

  44. rose
    November 11, 2022

    A very welcome corrective.

    This government by leak is, I’m afraid, all part of giving up government to quangos and think tanks, which seems to be all the rage since Blair and Brown. Giving up leadership and initiative to the Media. The taste for ethics tsars is part of this unwelcome development, whereby Ministers would no longer be chosen by the PM but by faceless, unelected, permanent officials. A good thing about the Truss administration was that it wasn’t going to be ruled like that, which is I suppose why it was toppled, but this usurping administration rather looks as if it wants to be.

  45. Ian B
    November 11, 2022

    @johnredwood ‘Last quarter the economy fell. How many more such quarters before the Treasury listens to us who want them to fight recession?’

    In combination with the political briefings to the media from departments that are paid by the Taxpayer to be neutral there appears to a malicious attempt to fabricate problems that don’t and shouldn’t exist. Keep building a crisis to fabricate the need to run to cover. We now have a Political State controlled by the unelected, not a Democratic one.

  46. Ian B
    November 11, 2022

    From MsM today, “triggered by Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous mini-budget at the end of September, combined with rising energy costs, the cost-of-living crisis and plummeting consumer confidence.”

    Lets be honest it was nothing of the sort, things were triggered by the background briefings.

    Rising energy prices, the Johnson Government, the cost-of-living crisis the Johnson Government. The consumer crisis is as a result of the first 2.

    All the problems of today and back then should be laid fairly and squarely at the feet of the prolific wasted, unaccountable spending by Boris and Rishi. Even now they don’t know were it all went

    I was no fan of Liz or Kwasi and thought on the face of it they were a poor choice, you cant be part of a team that has collective responsibility, the Cabinet, then be part of the need to move forward. That’s the poor choice that is the Conservative Party. However, we have moved on and it is clear that those also engaged in the Johnson Cabinet are still 100% of the problem even now.

    Someone needs firing for the continual briefings that have not been first presented in Parliament – how many Governments do we have at the same time. When do we get a UK Government?

  47. Denis Cooper
    November 11, 2022

    Also off topic, I don’t have to read any further than this to start worrying about yet another sell out:

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/micheal-martin-michael-gove-irish-cameron-smith-rishi-sunak-b2223214.html

    “Ireland’s premier has praised Rishi Sunak’s “pragmatic” approach to resolving the stand-off over Brexit’s Northern Ireland Protocol.”

    1. Denis Cooper
      November 11, 2022

      Oh no, the Slithery Gove is involved:

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11417771/Irish-PM-hails-window-opportunity-deal-Northern-Ireland.html

      “The comments came as the Taoiseach attended the second day of the British-Irish council in Blackpool, holding talks with Cabinet minister Michael Gove – who said he was also ‘optimistic’.”

      As I have got on to this off topic, I have sent a letter to said Taoiseach, as follows:

      “Dear Mr Martin

      I read that you want “meat on the bone” to resolve the protocol issues:

      https://www.irishnews.com/news/republicofirelandnews/2022/11/11/news/micheal_martin_meat_on_bone_needed_to_resolve_northern_ireland_protocol-2902059/

      I wonder whether you could be so kind as to tell people in the UK exactly what “bone” you have in mind, given that our own government insists on keeping it under wraps, with “no running commentary”.

      I would just mention that if the “bone” still involves EU checks and controls on goods moving between two parts of the UK then that would still be unconstitutional and unacceptable.

      The Republic and the EU have a perfectly legitimate interest in what goods may be included in the trickle crossing the land border into their territory, but no comparable interest in goods entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain, and whether EU mandated checks and controls were applied to all such imports, or to only some fraction of them, and whether they were heavy handed or light touch, it would still be unconstitutional and unacceptable.

      Your colleague Helen McEntee made it clear five years ago that your government would never accept “anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland”, 3 minutes and 3 seconds in here:

      https://news.sky.com/video/is-the-norway-sweden-border-a-solution-for-ireland-11141058

      No helpful technology of any kind allowed – no real time monitoring of goods heading your way – and not even a single camera anywhere near the land border, even though there are already such cameras:

      https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1pZtbQyUOWIkUUn9-5uM6tWlYA0w&msa=0&ll=52.605219597384355%2C-0.8391410000000459&z=6

      https://order-order.com/2018/05/16/irish-border-camera-problem-solved/

      And yet you seriously expect unionists in the north to happily accept what amounts to a hard border separating Northern Ireland from the rest of the United Kingdom?

      Despite the repeated false claims that “there is no alternative” to the present protocol a much better alternative was proposed in August 2019, but instantly rejected by the EU because it didn’t keep any part of UK territory under its economic control. My recent reminder of that excellent proposal is reproduced below, and you may notice that the word “friends” cropped up in it.

      Yours etc”

      https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/11/02/protocol-solution/

      “Protocol solution”

      “‘An Offer the EU and UK Cannot Refuse’”

      “Sir, – For a “far-thinking solution to the conundrum of keeping trade flowing freely after Britain’s exit from the European Union” (“An economic opportunity for Northern Ireland slips past”, Opinion, October 29th) Cliff Taylor need look no further than the well-developed collaborative proposal “An Offer the EU and UK Cannot Refuse” published in August 2019 by former EU commission director general Sir Jonathan Faull and two professors of European law.

      It is very unfortunate that the EU did refuse it, instantly, because if its basic principle of “dual autonomy” or “mutual enforcement” had been accepted at that time then nobody would be fretting about the Northern Ireland protocol now. Considering that we are supposed to be friends as well as neighbours it beggars belief how the regulation of a small volume of cross-border trade has become such a source of difficulty between us.

      – Yours, etc,
      Dr D R COOPER,”

      1. Nevin
        November 11, 2022

        Denis Cooper, I believe that substantive talks are already underway between the government and the EU but I don’t think the Irish politicians Martin or Macentee have anything to do with them. In fact it could be said that Sir Jeffrey Donaldson will have a much bigger say on the outcome since the talks are really about trying to coax him and his party back into government.

        Think you will agree that government has lot on its plate now with the economy tanking and thousands of illegals crossing the channel etc as Gove and Sunak know only too well and so think we can expect that good cooperation from our European neighbours will be foremost on their minds as the talks continue – there’s really nothing more to say now except wait for the outcome.

        1. Denis Cooper
          November 12, 2022

          Those “substantive” talks will not be “substantive” unless the EU agrees to amend the protocol itself.

          I suspect the discussions are still just about palliative measures, not about the necessary radical cure.

        2. Denis Cooper
          November 12, 2022

          https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/columnists/2022/11/12/news/newton_emerson_brave_victims_deserves_better_police_support-2901973/

          “Before every round of protocol negotiations, the EU trots out the same line to tilt the pitch: ‘we are flexible and ready to do a deal’. Only in the small print is it explained a deal requires the UK to agree with the EU’s unchanged position. This week has been no exception and while that does not mean there will not be a deal or the EU will not move a little, it must be asked why so much of the media keeps taking this spin at face value. It is hardly difficult to spot.

          The latest tired pitch-tilting, from European Commission vice president Maros Sefcovic, is that sea border inspections can be reduced to almost zero. Businesses say inspections are not the problem – it is the cost of filling in paperwork that would make a fully-implemented protocol disastrous. Perhaps the solution, unexpectedly, is more inspections for less paperwork. But that would require more flexibility than Mr Sefcovic is mandated to discuss.”

  48. Original Richard
    November 11, 2022

    If the Government intends to keep Government spending plans unchanged whilst implementing their Net Zero Strategy to reduce personal activity (food, travel, heating, electricity usage, holidays and just the purchase of “stuff”) and all commercial, and particularly industrial activities, to eliminate UK CO2 emissions and thus reducing GDP it will inevitably mean increases in personal taxation.

  49. Mickey Taking
    November 11, 2022

    off topic (for some).
    Two English councils have failed in attempts to block asylum seekers from being relocated to large hotels in their areas. In a judgment published on Friday, the High Court said that neither had shown there was an urgent legal case to prevent the Home Office’s contractors from using hotel accommodation.
    Ipswich Borough Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council had both argued that hotels were being converted to hostels, in breach of their local planning controls.
    They wanted judges to block the hotels from receiving asylum seekers ahead of a potential full examination of complex planning law questions. The councils’ failure to win their injunctions is likely to influence other local authorities, who have complained about the Home Office’s relocation policies.
    Earlier this week, the High Court heard that the Ipswich Novotel, the town’s largest hotel, and the Humber View Hotel, in North Ferriby, near Hull, had been contracted in recent weeks to provide accommodation under the Home Office’s scheme to distribute asylum seekers around the country. The contracts meant the two large hotels would be closed to normal business for up to 12 months, depending on how long they would be needed for. The two councils told the court that this amounted to a “material change of use” without either having given planning permission – and they asked the High Court to impose injunctions, ahead of a full trial later this year.

    1. Diane
      November 13, 2022

      On topic for many and growing by the looks & sounds of things – with a new petition to parliament ( Number 621744 ) looking for support. ( “Take action to prevent illegal attempts to enter UK across the Channel “) Yesterday Sat 12 Nov a further 972 in 22 boats were brought in. At least there has been a 10 day lull so would have given the authorities a bit of time to secure more hotel beds. Looking at the H O minister’s piece in the DT today 13/11, it’s not being received very well & people are having none of it judging by readers’ comments. Protests & noisy gesticulation & a demand for rights yesterday in London & the draping of the Albanian flag on Churchill’s memorial statue, inspires little compassion or support.

  50. Denis Cooper
    November 12, 2022

    I don’t agree with everything in this letter, but it shows that we are not alone in suffering with these problems:

    https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2022/11/12/facing-up-to-the-reality-of-inflation/

    “Facing up to the reality of inflation”

    “A decade-long binge of printing money”

    “Sir, – You reported last month (Business, October 13th) that the Central Bank expected “inflation to peak at 8 per cent for this year as a whole, before easing to 6.3 per cent next year”. This week you report (Business, November 10th) that inflation has hit 9.2 per cent, but don’t worry – nameless Government sources predict it will peak at 10.4 per cent by Christmas.

    These are 40-year highs.

    We cannot slay this beast without facing facts.

    Cozy euphemisms like “the cost of living crisis” are not only unhelpful but pernicious.

    Quite simply, the bill for lockdown has arrived. Whatever the medical arguments for preventing a population from working for a year, it was a radical economic experiment that cost trillions globally, and it came, lest we forget, at the end of a decade-long binge of printing money.

    It was a wild party. Enjoy the hangover. – Yours, etc,

    AIDAN HARTE,

    Donnybrook,

    Dublin 4.”

    1. rose
      November 12, 2022

      The Southern Irish are also having trouble with their sewage flowing into rivers and seas.

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