The Treasury keeps changing the figures it shows and withholds. I feel when reading Budget and Financial Statement books now I am being pushed into a view or judgement they want Ministers to make and readers to accept.
Letās take the case of debt interest. They have decided to alarm everyone about the scale of debt interest. So they add to what all would agree is debt interest, the regular cash payments to lenders, the extra repayment amount on indexed debt which is not paid until the Ā loan is rolled over for another one on repayment. Ā With this yearās runaway inflation it more than doubles the apparent debt interest paid. So we are told on their definition debt interest has reached Ā£120 bn or 11% of revenue this year.
That gives them the problem that as inflation falls away so will debt interest. So they will not tell us by how much in pounds. We can see it comes down on a graph from over 11% of revenue to 6%, so by 2024-5 on their odd numbers there is a big saving. Why not show us the cash interest figures for every year which are high anyway and offer a balance sheet line to show the increased cash cost of repayment of linkers alongside the Ā real win of repaying the majority of the debt which is not inflation linked Ā in pounds devalued by inflation.
There is then the assertion around half the Ā adjustments to get the deficit down will come from spending reductions and half from tax rises. To make it difficult to check Ā this they do not this time show the path for total tax revenues. The 50/50 is based around previous budgets and forecasts which had built in substantial increases in spending.
What this revision reveals is total spending will go up Ā£133bn by 2024-5 compared to last year and by Ā£224 bn by 2027-8. No sign of cuts overall. Income, mainly tax, can be derived by subtractingĀ borrowing from spending. That goes up by Ā£200bn between this year and 2027-8.
So to us mere mortals these budget plans are for a substantial cash rise in both spending and taxes. It will also on these numbers be a real increase in both, as they forecast inflation tumbling and going negative in 2025.
November 20, 2022
Good morning,
No surprise the ‘budget cuts’ are invisible – we all told you that cuts would be fictional.
More important, we now see the first indications from the duo in Downing Street that they are taking us on the path back to the EU; well who’d have guessed it! (Hint, almost everybody contributing to this blog)
Sir, J. I hope you and the ERG manage to give the Downing St. set a clear message on this.
Given these issues, is it any wonder the PCP have lost all trust from the electorate.
November 20, 2022
+100
I saw that too!
Can they just reverse the Referendum (oh that joyous night now so sullied ) without another Referendum? Is Brexit actually protected in any way?
November 20, 2022
JR, we read the idiot waster Sunak has signed off at net stupid 27 for damage and repair reparations!! Who voted for this?
Can he not stop wasting our taxes ie Ā£11.8 billion fraud in school boy errors not investigated, Ā£11.6 billion give away for climate reparations, Ā£12 billion overseas aid, Ā£11 billion yearly EU subs for nothing, giving France and Holland Ā£2 billion fishing waters etc.
Hunt was a waster at NHS. Billions lost on defective PPE equipment and storage, procurement, his actions stopped recruitment of doctors and nurses, now he wants to tax and waste to continue with no spending cuts!
November 20, 2022
During the pandemic, Hunt was the Chairman of the health select committee.
The deeply unimpressive Hancock was responsible for PPE procurement alongside the Chancellor, Sunak, who signed off the expenditure.
November 20, 2022
Why would he stop wasting money, Hope. He is deliberately impoverishing the UK. Democracy doesn’t protect us from this traitorous government. We can change government in 2 years time, but the damage between now and then will be horrendous. The young will be the biggest losers when they experience the consequences of an undemocratic government, be it the UK government or the EU, and they will be powerless to change anything. Absolutely powerless and without hope.
November 20, 2022
Hope it is simple
As I have said many times before, as soon as our Prime Ministers (they have all been the same over the years) go abroad, they commit us to Ā£ millions and Billions of new spending.
The simple conclusion is that the taxpayers of this Country, and we all pay tax in some form or another, are gradually being screwed more and more, year by year, and this will continue until there is either a real push back by the population to a real policy change.
As usual the UK population will not act until it really gets out of control, and the then reaction and protests will be rapid, brutal, and quite frightening.
November 20, 2022
Bring Back Boris!
November 20, 2022
We donāt want that chancer Boris Johnson back. He was a big part of the problem.
November 20, 2022
Absolutely NO WAY! The only man in history to spend Ā£500 BILLION and get absolutely NOTHING for it!
November 20, 2022
@ Lynn:- he got worth than nothing the lock downs, vaccines for the young, the NHS shutdowns, the dumping of the infected into care homes and the huge waste like HS2 did huge negative harms to health and the economy.
November 20, 2022
Bill B
Boris turned out to be a total fake.
The Tories must be totally destroyed.
November 20, 2022
They will avoid another referendum by doing it in stages, first by impoverishing us and blaming Brexit. This has already started. Then, regardless of which party is in office, by “renegotiating the relationship”, again and again.
What a fool Farage was not to understand that “No Boris, No Brexit” meant what it said.
November 20, 2022
Get Boris, get Brino, applies equally. He gave us sod all, and gave the EU the fish and NI.
November 20, 2022
+1
November 20, 2022
Once Johnson got himself elected he had no interest at all in Brexit.
He rushed through a bad agreement and then boasted he had delivered Brexit while ignoring Northern Ireland and other unresolved issues.
November 20, 2022
Heās a lifelong Remainer!
Anyway, relax about the EU, it is in its death throes.
November 20, 2022
Lynn…..how do we turn Life Support off?
November 20, 2022
”Once Johnson got himself elected he had no interest at all in” the MANIFESTO
November 20, 2022
If there was one clause for getting out and we are now out, can we use the same legality to use clause 39 to gain re entry , Surely not if we are now not tied.!
November 20, 2022
So recent analysis suggests that 56% of the UK people who express a view believe that it was wrong to leave the European Union as against only 32% who think that it was right, and even then the ERG only represent the extremists amongst that minority.
You don’t give a flying one about representative government – not that you ever did – do you?
November 20, 2022
Some people don’t give a flying one about democracy. Whether they ever did is debatable. Maybe this element of their character only surfaced when they didn’t get their own way over Brexit and are now prepared to destroy democracy and the country out of spite and as a means of allowing the minority to dictate to the majority.
Be careful what you wish for. You may be in the majority one day, but if democracy no longer applies then the politicians will have been given free rein to do whatever they like, line their own pockets, take us to war, anything, even if the majority disagree. Democracy is already under threat, and it is our ONLY safeguard against power hungry politicians.
November 20, 2022
Hindsight’s a wonderful thing – we should have kept a lot of ‘uneconomic’ pits, not demolished the gasholders, not closed half of Beeching lines, not chosen Mayors for cities, not closed grammar schools….
November 20, 2022
But how often do the pollsters ask follow-up questions such as ‘Why exactly do you think Brexit was a bad idea?’ And what’s the percentage of those who have any idea how the EU works, I wonder?
You know very well, lad, that the EU parliament has nothing to do with representative government, usually just rubber-stamping proposals made by the Commission.
It’s only when I look at what passes for ‘democracy’ in the EU that I realise, grudgingly, that perhaps our MPs aren’t such a bad lot after all. And saying that doesn’t come easily.
November 20, 2022
Going on your post NLH then we should also reverse net zero and then next year go again and then the year after than reverse it again.
Policy can not be changed on the whims of a few focus groups (although it all too often is which is why we are governed so poorly). The decision has been made. Going back in will be on punitive terms (the Euro, Schengen) and must be avoided.
November 20, 2022
Polls find what pollsters, or their paymasters, want to find. They are there to try and lead opinion, not to reflect it.
November 20, 2022
I think you’re right Barbara. I noticed that this opinion poll was produced by Statista, which is a German-based subsidiary of Strƶer SE & Co. KGaA, an advertising and street furniture company headquartered in Cologne.
Now why would a company in Germany be interested in talking up opposition to Brexit in Britain? I really can’t imagine (!), can you?
November 20, 2022
Agreed !00%
November 20, 2022
Try and imagine that for six years we had been told all day long what a good thing it was for the country to have regained its former independence.
People are busy and working and worrying about other things. The deluge of remainiac propaganda registers and they haven’t got time to check it all. They never hear the other side.
November 20, 2022
One must assume you are in favour of PR and a Swiss type referendum system. I am.
November 20, 2022
Isnāt it amazing that the hour before the referendum it was asserted by Remainers that āthe majority wanted to remainā, and the hour after the referendum itās asserted by Remainers that āthe majority wanted to remainā but when they were asked to speak for themselves, the majority said BREXIT – and had they not be threatened from all sides for months to the point of coercion, many who voted to remain in their fear, would have also voted for Brexit.
So you are right – the PCP just canāt represent the people, though Sir John does speak for us, thank God!
November 20, 2022
1700 people.
Out of 65 million
November 20, 2022
17 million out of 65 million is still a small minority.
November 21, 2022
The poll you quoted was of 1700 people.
The referendum was the biggest voter turnout in our history
Usual rules applied
You had to be a citizen aged over 18
And voting was not compulsory.
November 21, 2022
16m out of 65 million is an even smaller minority.
November 20, 2022
Think also, how many friends and family living in an EU country said how envious they were when we voted to leave!
November 20, 2022
Also, more and more MEPās of member countries are attacking the EU leaders.
November 20, 2022
Recent analysis is only advisory
November 20, 2022
Yes, just like referendums are.
November 20, 2022
NLH
Yet you ignore the 80 seat majority in a GENERAL ELECTION that voted to get Brexit done. You ignore the REFERENDUM to have Brexit and you ignore the utter rejection of Change UK (to take us back in the EU) in a GENERAL ELECTION.
Yet polls are what count as far as you’re concerned.
That is a referendum and a general election, long after, in support of Brexit. Yet a few polls and we should ignore those results.
November 20, 2022
@Peter Wood +1 There was no other reason to create chaos, destroy the UK economy, take orders from outsiders than to cause a crippling capitulation and accept the rule by the unelected unaccountable EU. Everyone sees the similarity between Hunt & Sunak and the EU ā the unelected, unaccountable get to dictate how your lives are running. That’s why there has never been a BREXIT
November 20, 2022
A couple of ādodgy figuresā in government too – Sunak and Hunt.
November 20, 2022
Indeed and yet there is so much bloated waste in the state sector, so much of government spending delivers no value much does positive net harm. Active damage to strangle the productive sector that it parasitically feeds off. Neil Oliver has it about right on GB news yesterday.
November 20, 2022
Thursdays budget is on a par with Millipedes Clumate Change Act for the amount of damage it will do.
Consocialist is the new party name.
November 20, 2022
Indeed, or the long pointless Ā£trillion lockdown, May’s net zero lunacy, the fairly ineffective and rather dangerous net harm vaccines, Sunaks inflationary QE money debasing, ever joining the EU, having a state monopoly healthcare system…
November 20, 2022
Absolutely he does!!
November 20, 2022
LL, +++++, And for Neil Oliver +++++++++++++++!!!!!
November 20, 2022
+1
November 20, 2022
So, what does JR know about the reports that senior figures in Rishi Sunakās government are considering moving Britain towards a Swiss Style relationship with the EU? As reported by the Independent?
Reply It has been denied
November 20, 2022
It has been denied for electoral reasons. The sgnals have gone out, the media and blob have calmed down, and remainacs have stopped being nasty to their friends and relations.
November 20, 2022
Denied, eh? So that’s obviously the plan.
November 20, 2022
Well, since Farage trumpeted how well Switzerland and Norway were doing outside on the European Union as a reason to vote Leave, his credulous thralls ought to be delighted at the idea, what?
So why the long faces?
November 21, 2022
When nations like China Japan South Korea and America who trade very successfully in Europe decide to join, feeling it is beneficial, then I would change my mind.
But until then, remaining out of the EU is my preference.
November 20, 2022
@Lifelogic +1 and Hunt announced the expansion of the State and more mony to be thrown at it. With not an once(may be gram) of accountability or the need to demonstrate a return for the Taxpayers money
November 20, 2022
All MPs should listen to Oliver – he speaks for million and millions of Britons at that!
November 20, 2022
Good morning.
Here is a tern I came across recently – Price Gouging – A term used to describe the situation when a seller increases the prices of goods, services, or commodities to a level much higher than is considered reasonable or fair.
Do people think that the UK Tax Payer is being treated in a similar way ? I think so.
I am of the opinion that the current crop of people know that they will be out on their ear at the next election and so, are making hay while he sun shines, so to speak. They are mugging the taxpayer for every penny to line the pockets of their donors, all the while rubbing the Left (Supporters) noses in diversity by sending immigrants north to live in the constituencies. I say this because they have a history of the above. look at what happened regarding fuel prices ? The government were making a fortune on the back of the increased fuel duty and, they intend to raise it still further with no regard to the affect it will have on business, the consumer and inflation. Then we see many of the sensible suggestions by many here and that of our kind host ? Reductions or removal of VAT on energy and green products. And it goes on.
The Private Sector and the humble Taxpayer does not exist to furnish the Public Sector and its hangers on with champagne and caviar, while we are expected to make do with bread and water.
November 20, 2022
Businesses will indeed charge what they can get away with, not to do so would often be bad business you go bust or get taken over. So long as markets have fair competition they will not be able to charge too much for very long. They have to do this really in order to survive for long. Often they end up operating at a loss so they often need good times to offset the bad. But of course many markets are government rigged and do not have fair competition. Banking, electricity, gas, petrol, diesel, transport, education, water, housingā¦a few examples.
The government too has no competition so can charge very high taxes while delivering little of any real quality or value for most people.
November 20, 2022
LL do you mean subsidised Public transport? Logistical transport is one of the most competitive industries in the UK.
The lack of competition element in the health sector is what is strangling us.
November 20, 2022
Yes, there is clearly hugely unfair competition between over-taxed road transport and over subsidised (and largely uk taxed) rail, buses, trams…
November 20, 2022
largely un-taxed not uk.
Also hugely unfair competition in housing social housing to private provision, heath-care where you have to pay even if you do not use the NHS, same with the BBC, schoolsā¦
November 20, 2022
Competition in the health sector is rife within its structures and this is what is destroying it. Everyone , every profession , every culture, every discipline trying to out do one another, every patient looking for a complaint to keep unnecessary pressure on the overworked staff, staff looking at ways to oust their colleagues out and prove they are right ( even when they are wrong) . Back biting and newly qualified egocentrics displaying their bucking antlers and not interested in learning from their colleagues as they got better school marks than another, then making a mess of it for everyone else to correct,,It is hell out there!
November 23, 2022
Oh dear Margaret, I am sorry to read that, and the NHS pay so much for inclusion, quality and diversity managers (perhaps they should just be called be nice to each other Managers) why aren’t they working?
Or the Union pilgrims that the TPA ten years ago said was costing Ā£6m have they been disbanded?
November 20, 2022
This government is hell bent on the destruction of the UK, and they are succeeding. Attempts to change it from the inside will be as successful as we were changing the EU from the inside. Pure fantasy and wishful thinking. This government needs to to be put down, as we would a dangerous dog.
For whose benefit is this government destroying the UK?
November 20, 2022
EU and globalists. World govt. Hunt telephoned French pro EU Le Gard at IMF so he could say IMF says budget taxes fair and balanced! Another little helper.
Budget, EU regs and laws still in place with mass immigration continuing, according to Hunt, to demonstrate no benefits of Brexit.
UK could be low tax, low reg and red tape to provide a competitor in the world. Hunt does not want that threat to the EU.
JR and chums better oppose the budget. Far worse than Trusses suggestion. Who ousted her and who appointed pro China anti Brexit Hunt?
November 20, 2022
+100
Great reset includes banishing the Liblabcon.
November 20, 2022
The right question, Shirley. But Sunak helpfully made it easy for you to answer it last week, in one of the press photos where you see him with his G20 chums in those fetching red Balinese shirts. Look at the bald gentleman on Sunak’s left.
November 20, 2022
price gouging – rip-off pricing.
November 20, 2022
Almost right: they are clobbering taxpayers and worsening the recession now in the hope things pick up fairly quickly and they can make some token tax cuts before the next GE to bribe voters with their own money.
They genuinely don’t realise how loathed they are and think it’s all about a giving a few quid in tax cuts which won’t make a scrap of difference to the vast majority.
November 20, 2022
Indeed it won’t. Even the former Tory faithful have turned against them. It’s all over the blogs and MSM comments. Good. About time after all the betrayals.
November 20, 2022
@Mark B +1. Thats why competition in the Energy market is not permitted. Ofgem, doesn’t protect the consumer they protect the supplier.
November 20, 2022
Civil Servants are talking about going on Strike – How will we know they are striking?
November 20, 2022
17% pay increase or people are going to die. Thats the threat.
November 20, 2022
āJeremy Hunt has taken a wrecking ball to the British economy.
His Autumn Statement will end up worsening the recession and damaging the public finances.ā
Patrick Minford is surely correct today in the Sunday Telegraph as is Simon Heffer:-
āDefund woke universities to defeat the new totalitarians
Something must be done to protect rigour and freedom in higher educationā
About 75% of UK degrees are largely pointless and certainly worth far less than the Ā£50k and three years loss of income they cost anyway.
November 20, 2022
+1
but they create brainwashing from 4-21 yrs on climate scam, cultural Marxism, critical race theory etc. hence dopey Cambridge student crying on M25 over pass! It breaks the public resistance at their expense!
4 year old children being brainwashed to accept trans, gender swapping, homosexuality! Parents Not allowed to withdraw children. Extreme Horror show in Wales at the moment. Totally not age appropriate. Disgusting Marxist Tories for you. Teachers suspended or sacked if they disagree. Still Hunt has Michael Barber, 8 year Blaire advisor, back in education!
November 20, 2022
Indeed, this is the modus operandi of most/all religions. Indoctrinate the children while they are still too young to resist and to think for themselves. Evolution makes children trust parents (if they ignore instructions like do no swim in that dangerous river… some die out). Most never get to the point of thinking for themselves about 100% of the BBC it seems. I assume the Cambridge Grad was reading English and Drama – no tears though?
November 20, 2022
A lot of these useless degrees get people to think as all the modules are not taught modules.Scientific so- called facts are not always what they seem and collated by the few and added to the canons in the presence of influence. Philosophy modules give examples of the Rousseau child who grows up without being taught anything and only learning from observation and experience. Perception and reality are shared ; persuasion gives attention to different aspects in differing degrees of importance and detail. Connections between events and facts can obviously be misconstrued . This occurs in my job where many give their own conclusions to the addition of drugs seemingly wrongly when symptoms can be attributed to many things , but steadfastly they believe and the belief overrides the fact ( but is belief in itself factual thereby causing symptoms either positively or negatively) It is better to stand back a little and not be so certain about these facts unless there is imminent danger.
November 20, 2022
the madness of teachers being sacked for refusing little Jimmy being called Jasmine instead, or Stephanie being called Steve.
November 20, 2022
LL your university pointless degree point could be quickly clarified by our universities. Each course should have a graduate review of salaries and job types five years after graduation, ten years, twenty years and thirty years. What number of the graduates on each course have paid down their student loan on targeted measures. Also taking into account masters degrees and retaking other degrees because the first one was pointless.
The cost of taking the degree was loss on National Minimum Wage at least for three years, the extra costs taken on by university accommodation, so how much extra are these people earning to make that worthwhile. All those people who say degrees are more than just financial, tell that to the graduates that canāt buy their own homes now and regret wasting their time. They should have been better informed before going into that subject so that they could make an informed choice. Some of the jobs in the public sector donāt actually need a degree either, they do it to push up salary levels and are often not in the administration/accounting subjects they should have taken.
November 20, 2022
Indeed you have alot to make up about Ā£50K of debt plus interest at circa 3.5K PA plus loss of three+ years earnings. We have nearly 1.5 women for every man at university this is logical as women are far less likely to have to ever repay their student loans as they choose lower earning jobs on average to fit in with work life balance, take more career breaks, earn less and do more part time working. Many men have realised it is often rater better to learn on the job.
Six year to qualify as a Doctor perhaps Ā£150K of debt Ā£10K of interest PA and you start on Ā£25K net pay (less commuting cost and this 10K of interest) which is simply not enough to live on in London unless you sleep at the hospital perhaps. So you will be poor at the end of the year than you started. And this is for a worthwhile degree.
November 20, 2022
Lifelogic, Iāve worked full time 8am to 6pm from the age of 16, I took a full 6 weeks off work after each child and caught up with key work in the evenings and at weekends when my husband returned from work to watch the children for the following 6 weeks. So donāt give me āwomenā do less! I donāt get sick leave unless Iām in hospital, thats what life is like when you work for yourself. This government then wants to kick SMEs in the teeth to give money away to every waster and chancer.
People on benefits after six months should work a minimum number of hours for the State, helping out in hospitals, care homes, cleaning roads, pulling up grass from road/pavement cracks, cutting back grass that is growing over paths, sweeping up leaves in the winter off pavements, keeping parks and public spaces spic and span, no-one should get money for nothing unless they are incapable of any work at all, there are samaritain phones that could be manned once trained, other call handlers where one could work from home. Cleaning empty shop windows and public toilets lots to do and if they donāt like those jobs they have a choice to find a better one they prefer. But minimum wage jobs are plenty weāre told regularly on here and canāt be filled. If people donāt pass the grade then benefits stop and they fend for themselves.
November 20, 2022
LL,
You forget the most disgraceful action of the Tories in this. EU students did not pay tuition at some of our best universities. Tory govt happy to allow English students a life time of debt while EU competitor had free tuition! I remember a Lib dumb vice chancellor at one!!
Willetts was u over site, he knew full well and did nothing. Again, devolution was unfair towards English students.
Hunt plans on embedding regionalisation of England through mayors and regional assemblies! Prescott introduced in 2004 and the public voted against. Irrespective of what the public wants Tory still rammed through unwanted police commissioners for EU and Mayors for EU. HS2 EU infrastructure project will continue under Tories despite insanity of cost to the taxpayer and itās redundant use.
Last week we saw PESCO sign up, surrendering our military to EU. Despite recession and awful pro EU socialist budget etc building of Warships given to a nationalised company in Spain with a few crumbs to N.Ireland! Add the EU laws and regs remaining on the books, Shapps scrapping changes to UK confirmation of goods this year to make sure EU confirmation on goods remain. I say the direction is pretty clear by this treacherous bunch.
November 20, 2022
Yup
My lad (an F2) has Ā£100k student debt. As soon as he gets anything like a mortgageable wage he is on an effective tax rate designed for multi millionaires.
November 21, 2022
PS, That’s with six years loss of pay too. There should at least be tax relief for that part of a doctor’s training – or for any essential STEM professional who has been unable to get themselves on the housing ladder.
November 21, 2022
It’s not what it seems . The six years are spent mainly in hospitals learning from colleagues,The whole degree programme should be changed where all health workers start at the same level and spring board off at different stages . The medical degree is past its sell by date, It elitist and out of date . There is no secret knowledge which a medical degree gives.!
November 21, 2022
Margaret – all the academic study takes place in the evening in the student’s own time. Very little is actually learned while at work.
November 20, 2022
@ Lifelogic Using taxpayers money to fund WOKE, Diversity, so-called Inclusion etc. i.e. Personal Political causes instead of it intended purpose producing the best-the-best should stop immediately.
The Taxpayer is paying for education not indoctrination.
November 20, 2022
LL, you need to be a bit careful here – the government has effectively defunded university arts courses. They receive income from fees and from research money, whatever they can get of that. Plenty of government money still goes into subsidising STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine), but those aren’t the ones you’re targeting. This happened several years ago, under Cameron, I believe.
November 20, 2022
But at least it gets them to think about what they are saying, even if it is a lot of tripe.
November 20, 2022
All this tells us is that everything about this government is dishonest. From the fake manifesto, to their claims of reducing immigration, to their imposition of a rejected PM. Undemocratic too. Please don’t try to tell me that civil servants are running the show. If they are, it is because your government allows it!
Your party and government are frauds and fail in their duty to work in the interests of the UK and its people. They fail very badly. So badly, it can hardly be anything but deliberate destruction of our economy, our society and our culture.
November 20, 2022
The extent of this lying government would be admired by communist dictatorships.
November 20, 2022
Sunak wants to serve with integrity. He was giving away more hundreds of millions of our taxes to corrupt Ukraine yesterday! He thinks the public will support it!
Tories are striving to make every working person poor, hungry and cold. Not Russia Sunak and Huntās taxing wasteful spending economics.
Pay for,everything with cash or they will do a Trudeau and seize our bank accounts next!
November 20, 2022
And this after the clown puppet in Kiev had brought us close to World War III on Wednesday, by his demand for NATO to punish Russia for a missile strike that turned out to have been by… a Ukrainian missile. Zelensky must feel he can say and do absolutely whatever he likes, and he will still get the money, our money.
November 20, 2022
On what basis can Richy give Ukraine Ā£50m? Where is the mandate? Was this cleared in advance with his Cabinet?
November 20, 2022
Why is the FTX scandal not being talked about? This looks like blatant fraud and money laundering. We shouldn’t be sending any money to the Ukrainian until the finances of all involved are investigated.
November 20, 2022
‘Why is the FTX scandal not being talked about?’ Christine, it is being talked about, just not in the media you may be reading and hearing. Biden is now facing a congressional inquiry into his business dealings, again something not likely to have been highlighted by your usual mainstream media influencers.
Like Covid, a war is a chance for cynical profiteers to get their snouts in the trough. But I dare say you would expect the BBC and their ilk to pass over white-collar crime in silence.
November 20, 2022
@Mickey Taking It is a communist Dictatorship
November 20, 2022
true colours might show eventually.
November 20, 2022
@Shirley M +1, their refusal to serve, is their refusal to let the UK become a Democracy. Its looking very much like we need a revolution, to install for the People a working sovereign Democracy. The doctrines practice d by the parties now in Parliament daily fight the very nature of serving the people and defending democracy.
In the Msm it was pointed out that Ministers have taken on the role of serving their departments but never the People that elected them.
November 20, 2022
Somebody somewhere is extracting the urine. How are these people who I am sure are not paid peanuts supposed to instill confidence and steady markets when operating like this.
Is it incompetence or fear that is behind these figures Ć nd predictions?
November 20, 2022
Turbo
Worry not, Sir Kier has now realised he may just have a sniff of power in a couple of years time.
It has taken him a long time, but is he at last starting to get his ducks in line with the latest promise of reorganising the Lords, an institution that has been so politically manipulated over the years by all Parties, that it has become an expensive and useless talking shop for protest.
He also now has a shadow Chancellor who seems to be getting a grasp on what is going on.
He still has no real policies of course, or indeed answers to may of the problems we have, but the Conservatives now have someone half sensible they will have to beat at the next election, who is not Corbyn.
Labour will not win it, the Conservatives will simply lose it, but unfortunately I do not think that will do us any good either !
November 20, 2022
We canāt afford Labour and them giving the public sector everything their unions demand as they always do, 17% pay increases, done ā . They canāt possibly want more holidays, oh yes they do theyāre pushing for an extra 2 bank holidays, done ā . They want a four day week ā . Nurses on three days week moaning about 12 hour shifts (they chose it over working 5 days per week with less hours – switch them back!), oh no theyāll want to do 3 10 hour days for the same pay, done ā . The private sector will be impoverished further than it is now although the Tories preference for large companies and large foreign companies in particular is just as concerning.
November 20, 2022
A-Tracy – a 17% pay rise against a backdrop of years of pay freezes and of over 10% inflation !!!! Please get some perspective.
The Tories have just gifted layabouts a 10% ‘pay’ rise TAX FREE !!!
They also legalised cannabis behind our backs whilst importing drug dealers en masse.
On what level could Labour possibly be worse ???
November 21, 2022
It’s not me without perspective; the nursing unions have threatened just that, they are demanding 17% or they’ll strike and people will die, operations will be cancelled, check ups will be cancelled, and diagnosis will be cancelled, from what I’ve seen Labour councils have rolled over for the bus drivers who are carrying less and less passengers and took the whole service down for a MONTH.
If nurses get it, doctors, then teachers will demand it, fire brigade will demand it, it will be a rolling wrecking ball. The Labour party is the union party. The agitation is political.
They only ever talk about the lowest unqualified pay grade 1 auxiliary position that are now called nurses. They never discuss the grade increases within each year within each grade to bulk up pay increases.
November 20, 2022
@turboterrier +1 And how many times do they have to be wrong by every metric before it is realised they are having a laugh
November 20, 2022
Sir John, you are right to call out these dodgy figures and need to make your voice heard. I expect there is an ulterior motive behind all this and my guess is it’s about rejoining the EU and following the WEF plan of levelling down/building back better. You have exposed the traitors within, what are you going to do about it?
November 20, 2022
Christine
The reality is SJR can do nothing from the position he is in. He has very little real support because he is a PITA to many as he with his experience and knowledge is on another level.
The only people that can change this broken system we have to endure is us the people. Either through the ballot box or on the streets. It is what it is.
November 20, 2022
Yes he can. He make sure all Tory MPs do not vote it through and start a process to get rid of Hunt and Sunak.
I said previously Hunt, May and all other remain cohorts should have been banished from the party for treachery. In years gone by they would have hung for their traitorous behaviour. The view was get rid of Johnson get rid of Brexit. Heseltine quite clear.
November 20, 2022
Im beginning to think you are right Hope, then if Hunt needs all the Labour MPs votes to get it through it confirms for the Country it is a socialist budget.
November 20, 2022
She IS RIGHT!
100% totally.
We are in such deep sh*t!
The country has been stolen.
November 20, 2022
AT,
Everyone saw what happened in parliament and who voted to destroy Brexit when May was PM. Tories worked hard with Labour, some preferred to cross the floor. It was not the odd one or two in the Tory party. I am not talking about those who had a different point of view or voted remain, I mean the ones who actively worked to overturn the will of the people on Brexit, even changing rules of the HoC to get their way!
Many wanted another vote until we voted for what they wanted!! They have no place in parliament when not accepting democracy.
May made it clear a Brexit minister would lead EU negotiations. She did this to instil trust. She did not have an aberration to undermine and bypass Davis and his team to get the civil service to act against their code in doing the same (Davis reminded us on Sky news last week). This is the reversal to the sentiment of JRs recent blogs about ministers and civil servants. What action was taken by the Tory party against May? If what Davis says is true she conspired with civil service to bypass him and his team.
November 20, 2022
Labour will not vote for it!
November 20, 2022
Agreed. All the anti-democratic Remainers should have been excised from the Parliamentary Party.
November 20, 2022
+ many Donna. The Benn Act should never have been allowed either and neither should many other acts and treaties that May and others signed. All this proves that the majority of our politicians are dishonest undemocratic traitors to the country, but because the traitors outnumber the patriots in Parliament they are allowed to destroy our country from within.
November 20, 2022
He will and can do nothing, he will spout hot air, which is mostly good advice to ministers that is not heeded and hasnāt for a long time now. He should join Reform like most of his ex followers and voters will or already have. The Tories are finished. Never thought I would say that. I have voted Tory all my life. There is now no alternative than something completely new.
November 20, 2022
I second that BW. There is no point at all in voting for any of the 3 main parties.
November 20, 2022
Sadly, I have to agree, BW. Some of us are already on to the next step, which will be campaigning and canvassing for Reform. While agreeing with you, I do however feel our host deserves some sympathy, as that step would be far more difficult for him than it was for me. Then again, by doing so he could make much more of an impact than I ever could.
November 20, 2022
Where is the powerful band of pro Brexit tories to fight our corner?
What have they been doing all this time?
(Except for JR who has really pulled his weight with TV interviews etc)
Where are they now?
Too busy virtue signalling with āmenopause suitsā and the like?
I suppose thoughā¦they are up against a terrifying enemyā¦as we have maybe seen?
November 20, 2022
Brexit is a disaster. Billions of pounds wasted on new barriers to trade. No sensible politician even tries to defend it
November 20, 2022
How do you know, Pauline? Brexit hasn’t yet happened. We have Brino. The politicians are doing all they can to avoid implementing Brexit.
November 20, 2022
Brexit has never happened. What is the disaster is the remainders/rejoiners who have thwarted the democratic vote of the British people.
November 20, 2022
Pauline :
At least Brexit means we still still have the possibility to remove those that decide our laws, taxes and policies and replace them.
Members of the EU are unable to do this.
November 20, 2022
Yes we see the EU thriving! Almost all nations spending their weekends on the streets. Macron slapped for the second time in public today. The deindustrialization of Germany proceeding at pace. No money, no energy, very angry people.
āGosh, I wish we were part of that happy crewā š¤Æ
November 20, 2022
The Conservative Party, all the other political parties and the senior civil servants have taken a left turn and marched off to la-la land.
They are destabilising the country because the entire voting population knows it and are looking around for alternatives.
November 20, 2022
Dodgy is as dodgy does!
Manipulation and obfuscation are plain to see.
I wish theyād go and play their transparent, wearisome games elsewhere.
Like Mars, for example.
November 20, 2022
If the BoE does its job then inflation shouldn’t go negative in 2025 . Their target is 2%.
November 20, 2022
Bailey should be sacked, he failed over and over again and in his previous role for pension oversight at FCA. Bring BOE back under govt control. Get rid of socialist OBR and ONS. Change crown servants back to their previous employment status.
November 20, 2022
Hope where did you read that Hunt had hired Hewitt?
November 20, 2022
Not sure if Hope read this but it was hereā¦ TOTALLY beggaring belief. Oh JR ā¦surely not! WE HAVE A LABOUR GOVT. WITHOUT AN ELECTION!!
The Telegraph
āTories turn to Blair’s Labour in hope of reforming NHS and education
Jeremy Hunt hires two senior Labour figures, including former health secretary Patricia Hewitt, to advise the government on fiscal mattersā
By
Laura Donnelly,
HEALTH EDITOR and
Louisa Clarence-Smith,
EDUCATION EDITOR
17 November 2022 ā¢ 9:00pm
November 20, 2022
I found it here, I missed it on the day it was in the paper. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/nov/17/hunt-brings-in-blairite-heavyweights-to-aid-public-sector-reform
Coffey was the one Truss appointment into Health that I was pleased with, Hunt wasnāt up to the NHS job when he did it, and since when did the Chancellor get to appoint NHS advisors? I didnāt know who was even heading up the NHS now? I checked its Barclay (so Hunt gets to appoint Barclays advisors).
How long is this 80 majority Tory government going to put up with this?
November 20, 2022
‘Hunt wasnāt up to the NHS job when he did it, and since when did the Chancellor get to appoint NHS advisors? I didnāt know who was even heading up the NHS now? I checked its Barclay (so Hunt gets to appoint Barclays advisors).’
Yep, a-tracy – a Barclay Hunt. I’ve always said so.
November 20, 2022
āā¦.. I am being pushed into a view or judgement they want Ministers to make and readers to accept.ā
Thatās exactly what was done with the Covid data! Once it was clear that the vaccine didnāt stop us catching Covid, they stopped publishing the relevant data that would highlight it.
This is really disgusting behaviour! Itās utterly dishonest and deceitful. If ever there was any doubt that there is an agenda going onā¦.?
November 20, 2022
The so called ‘liberal left’ (OBR is Socialist) have been in government and have been the continuous government since 1997. That means the State is elevated above all else and its power can never be challenged without consequences. That spells danger for individual freedom, speech and democracy and the private realm
We desperately need a libertarian POTUS to undermine the West’s move towards digital totalitarian, surveillance culture
November 20, 2022
+many
I can smell the leather of the jackboots!
Actually, I have feared this since childhood ( reading Orwell etc I expect) and was told I had an overactive imaginationā¦
And now itās happening!
November 20, 2022
“We desperately need a libertarian POTUS…”
Step forward Ron DeSantis!
November 20, 2022
Delighted to read this morning the government plans a Swiss style deal with the EU. At last the hard line Brexiters are being sidelined!
November 20, 2022
So is democracy being sidelined. If you think democracy will be restored if we rejoin the EU then you are living in la-la land. Do you like being dictated to, and having no voice as to the future of your country? If the EU said we are going to take half of your savings you would be at their mercy (and they have form on this). If so, I pity you. I certainly do not admire you, or any of the undemocratic traitors in Parliament.
November 20, 2022
You hate the EU, but even now you have no clue what it is or how it operates. The EU dictates nothing. It decides according to the wishes of its member states, and with approval by elected politicians in the European Parliament. It is a place for useful co-operation. We had a great deeal, but now we are on our own and can’t solve problems that never used to exist before Brexit – look at the dinghies
November 20, 2022
Believe that if you will. Why do you think the EU pays it MEP’s so well, and it is so generous with the expenses. They BUY people, they BUY loyalty, the way they BUY countries with other peoples money. We never had a great deal. The disadvantages always outweighed the advantages. We could solve every single problem we experience in the UK if they took advantage of our new found freedoms, but our undemocratic politicians prefer to destroy it.
That is all water under the bridge. We voted LEAVE. They will have to destroy democracy to get us back into the EU, and there is no hope of any meaningful democracy in the EU. You are only allowed to vote for the box tickers, who are eager to retain their highly lucrative employment. Farage was a rare beast. He put country before self.
November 20, 2022
The DEMOS in the member states have no say over EU policy. In their national elections they (like the UK) are given a choice between approved pro-EU Governments. If they dare rebel (Greece, Italy) their democratic choice is over-ridden.
There is nothing democratic about the EU. It is Governance by the Elite, for the Elite.
November 20, 2022
I wonder how all the hard-right parties that have sprung out in practically all countries of continental Europe, FPĆ, DPP, Fratelli dāItalia, Liga, VB, AfD, Vox, Rassemblement National, Fidesz, Sweden Democrats, ā¦ have ever been able to have representatives elected in their national parliaments these last fifteen-twenty years if the EU were as powerful as you think.
It is true that these countries do not have FPTP so all ideas can potentially get a representation nationally, not like in the UK.
November 20, 2022
@hefner: “I wonder how all the hard-right parties that have sprung out in practically all countries of continental Europe”
Hard right? I doubt it, but haven’t you ever wondered why they are rebelling? Maybe its because they get so little say over the governing and future of their own country?
November 21, 2022
Obviously those people are very unhappy with what they see done to them. But at least they have the possibility to show their discontent and be represented in their own Parliament. Do you have such an option here in the UK?
November 20, 2022
The EU was set up to be expressly not only undemocratic, but actively anti-democratic. In their view, democracy leads to Hitler-type leaders, so they are determined to squash it in favour of sonething they deem ābetterā. You appear to agree with them.
November 20, 2022
*something
November 20, 2022
Gary Megson
It was never going to be a sprint always a marathon and being that a hell of a lot of people who lived there as I did have all returned here. They had all had enough and like me walked away from businesses and careers as the cracks are appearing all over the place. The wheels haven’t quite come of yet but they are wobbling. If it is so great is it safe to assume you actually live in Europe? From my experiences it read a lot better than it lived. I run my business paid taxes had residencia but it is so corrupt.
November 20, 2022
You really are deluded if you believe the EU is democratic. MEPs can’t propose, amend or repeal legislation. All decisions come from the unelected commission. With regards the invaders they used to flood into the UK on the back of lorries before the dinghy Royal Navy assisted mode of transport was introduced. With regards the Dublin agreement we took in far more migrants than we returned due to the agreement to reunite families.
November 20, 2022
Gary Megson : āThe EU dictates nothing. It decides according to the wishes of its member states, and with approval by elected politicians in the European Parliament.ā
Didnāt the EU in an overnight, unannounced raid rob the personal bank accounts of Cyprus citizens to pay for its bailout of the country?
November 20, 2022
Yes. I alluded to that in my reply to Gary Megson. The EU certainly ‘have form’.
November 20, 2022
ever heard of Italexit?
November 20, 2022
Ah, for 800 years on our own we could not solve any problems. The only āasylum seekersā that got past us was the boatload in 1066.
Anyway, pretty soon nobody will be in the EU because the EU is being run straight into the ground by its admirable women . Iām cheering them on!
November 20, 2022
It would be better put as the final betrayal of a majority 17 million plus of the electorate who voted for just the opposite. An electorate who have been drip fed a multi faceted series of excuses and delaying tactics to deny our clean departure from the EU for the past six years. The current Commons is pro EU, the Reform Party is the only home for those 17 million plus votes.
November 20, 2022
+ many, Agricola. I hope all the main parties get a bloody nose for having betrayed us and democracy.
November 20, 2022
We need not fear!
Apparently our leaders are āconsideringā a Swiss style set up with the EU ā¦to boost trade.
They are just itching to undermine our greatest democratic decision and them democratically elected leaders tooā¦.
Oh, waitā¦.
November 20, 2022
The Swiss hate it but the EU reject any proposals from the Swiss. I guess we would hate it too.
November 20, 2022
+1
We certainly would!
November 20, 2022
Well the Swiss are not EU members. They voted against joining just like we voted out. They have their own trade deals with third party countries.
Our present deal is so awful that a Swiss type deal would likely be better. May and her cohort is to blame in perpetuity for screwing up our hand of cards. Somebody sometime has to sort out her mess.
Q. Why can EU citizens roll up here, go through our passport control and stay for 6 months and we need stamps and can only stay 3 months there?
Q. Why didn’t we allow the EU to control their own border in Ireland?
Q. Why all the stupid paperwork even on goods coming and going to Switzerland, inside a FTA?
A. All down to UK lousy negotiating by May and team. They of course were only in place because Cameron, having promised to leave the EU the day after the referendum result, cried off. Having provided the referendum it was Cameron who kicked the ball into his own net in the first minute and lost the game.
November 20, 2022
Four years of Remainer insurrection , two years of Covid, one year of Ukraine war , and they claim Brexit isn’t working and needs to be undone . It has been clear for a while the deep state/Remainer blob, what ever you call it, has been at work preparing to undo Brexit , you see it in how the Brussel Broadcasting Corp presents the arguments. First they claim we are all Brexiteers now, so negating the need to include a Brexiteer voice, then with all Remainer panels, including Brexit deranged ones like Simon Sharma on them, they blame all the ills of Covid and the war on Brexit, without interruption or correction coming the BBC presenter, and certainly no putting our problems in context of what is happening on the Continent. No the problems we face are presented as unique to us and that is all down to Brexit.
The establishment’s defeatism and decadence took us into the EEC 50 years ago, they had no ambition for our country then, and Brexit hasn’t changed that . We see it in the way they squander the opportunities Brexit has given us , and how they work to get us back to what they are familiar with and content with….. i.e managing our decline. Sucess is a scary thing for the Civil Service Blob, it means you have gone out and done something different to the consensus.
November 20, 2022
The Swiss and Norwegian politicians did the dirty on their citizens and subjects too – put them in the Schengen Area and SM without a vote. A quarter of the Swiss population is now foreign – even higher than here. The Swiss financial services suffer from the usual EU discrimination and most of their banks are now here. The mighty Swiss banks, driven out of Switzerland!
November 20, 2022
āThe mighty Swiss banks, driven out of Switzerlandā. Ever heard of subsidiary companies? Do you think that Deutsche Bank, Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas, all present in the City, have left Germany and France? Have you ever considered decreasing the intake of whatever youāre taking?
Paradeplatz in Zurich does not have any building with boarded front door or window as far as I could see last month on my way to ***Z.
November 20, 2022
I would politely point out that our current government have no mandate to alter the clean break 2016 referendum result, either from their own party members or the electorate as a whole. They barely have a mandate to be the government. Having engineered a Coup d’ Etat first against Boris, and then not liking the result, the same against Liz Truss, by changing the election rules to avoid any democratic slip up. They now find themselves in power, driven by whatever globalist powers they pay homage to, but in direct conflict with the aspirational element of the population. The only element that can get the country out of the proverbial creek government would wish us to paddle up.
Those who can will walk off the pitch to play elsewhere. Many who cannot will expand the black economy. Once cash is taken from a bank, store cards left in a draw, it can go anywhere free of VAT, CT, and any other little wheeze these charlatans may dream up. And it will all happen because this government have destroyed a contract of trust with it’s people.
November 20, 2022
They can do what they want, just like they did in 1972 when they took us in WITHOUT a referendum.
November 20, 2022
In essence taxation is what the government spends. The government spends far too much. The government spends far too much because it is far too big and bloated. It needs to be radically cut down to size. What is needed is an immediate block on recruitment and a continuing across the board percentage reduction in the annual budgets of every public sector department.
November 20, 2022
Wanted Urgently: A political party NOT committed to tax, spend and Waste.
November 20, 2022
Better still, a patriotic party that puts the UK and its people first. Wouldn’t that be a novel experience?
November 20, 2022
I can hear a restless Churchill turning over in his grave.
November 20, 2022
We have such a party. It is called REFORM UK so vote accordingly.
November 20, 2022
Hear hear Glenn. You are so right
November 20, 2022
The Treasury/BoE are deliberately catastrophising just like they did before the EU Referendum and for the same reason. They want us back in the EU.
Lo and behold Remainer Hunt, who no-one has voted to run the country, has announced that we must have a closer trading relationship with the EU and they are pushing for a Swiss-style “deal” where all our trade is controlled by the EU and a great deal else, but technically they’re not in the EU and no doubt they will claim that this “solves” the NI Protocol.
So we are witnessing the ultimate betrayal by the Establishment and the Treacherous CON Party.
Sir John, if you and your Brexit-supporting colleagues don’t resign the Tory whip and switch to the Reform Party you will be helping to facilitate the treachery.
November 20, 2022
Donna. If they don’t resign and call this out for what it is then they don’t deserve any respect from their constituents or any Brexit supporter.
November 20, 2022
Donna & F U S
If there are a 100 real conservative politicians who will defy the whip and vote against the statement the PM is not in for a long stay in No10 indeed it will be very short.
Problem, are there 100 true blue, die hard conservative members who will put the country and its people first to stop this takeover by the globalist fifth column we have attracted.
Come on guys make our day, you know it makes sense.
November 20, 2022
+ many, turbo.
November 20, 2022
Yet Chancellor Hunt relies totally on these OBR forecasts as if they are gospel? There is no reflection whatsoever from the Prime Minister or the Chancellor on the true causes of our debt? This is astonishing as well as deceptive. This dreadful budget is far from a Conservative budget, this administration has a rude awakening come election day.
November 20, 2022
Michael, have we passively got to wait two years? Really, what are all these 80 seat majority tories going to do just sit and take their money, line up another job ready for 2024 and ignore the platform they were hired on.
You never hear of the OBR talking about the money we are saving not being in the EU since Jan 2021. The millions not transferred for tax on prostitution and drugs that the UK doesnāt tax alone, over the past two years, the 80% vat transfer on ROW imports we used to sent to the EU, the % of UK vat we now get to keep, the Ā£40bn black hole the EU has admitted to in their accounts (I have provided links in the past). If the trade and co-operation agreement Boris struck with the EU isnāt to the UKs benefit at all as Remain people claim, then what is the point of it over WTO trading? Weāve only just stopped paying in from September 2022 and now there is the big rush to get us back paying in. The only benefit from this Recession that Sunak and Hunt brought on since October is it will help the balance of payments as people canāt afford to buy imports. Theyāve put the chokehold on too much.
November 20, 2022
Apparently, the Telegraph has a chart of OBR forecasts and the actual results. Assuming the chart is correct, why are the OBR allowed to continue when they get everything wrong? Not just wrong, but MILES wrong! Why do we tolerate such incompetence? Are they the ‘useful idiots’ who assist our traitorous government?
November 20, 2022
I read your blog John because I trust you. I donāt always agree with you, but I appreciate your consistency and the information you give to us, freely and openly. I wish I had a better understanding of economics at this level and I try to get to grips with the information that you give us. Some of it starts to seep through. I certainly feel better informed now than I was four years ago and Iām learning more as I go along and sadly it scares me and I wish I was more like my Mother who doesnāt even watch the news and couldnāt tell you to save her life who the current Prime Minister is or Chancellor! Her only concern is can she pay her bills each month.
As Hefner pointed out to me yesterday, sometimes me having extra knowledge and not being able to do anything about it is pointless. But at least Iām not walking blindfold into the future. I hope my little raft will float. Hunt is killing off small enterprise, not next year, not in two years right now. Hopefully some decent journalist who can understand high level economics will start to explain these OBR āexpertsā figures so we donāt end up with another set of āFerguson Statsā (which were so scary to him he carried on seeing his squeeze during lockdown).
November 20, 2022
Ignore Hefner Tracy. At least you are taking an interest in what is happening to your country which is more than can be said for many people. I am the same as you in that I freely admit I don’t understand the complexity of the economics but I can see what is happening and it’s not right. How I wish the electorate in the UK could be as brave as those in Europe and vote for something different. Never have we needed change more.
November 20, 2022
We are so quiet at work since half term, everyone seems to have put a cap on growth and sales.
Hefners job here is to shut down debates and queries and anyone with an alternative point of view, they wonāt stop me but it is a good point I feel like no-one is listening, writing us off as hard-right (a weak insult and if Iām hard-right then Iād hate to know what lots of people I know are, that I think are lefties). My hope is that journalists actually start to do their job and start to investigate some of the questions many of us have. I quit my Telegraph subscription, I took a Times subscription and cancelled that. I voluntarily pay subs to The Guardian, read the FT and get news from the Internet free access sites. Problem is those papers are so left theyāre unwilling to check out the OBR and others that say what the bulk of their journalists want them to say, true or not.
November 21, 2022
and people complain about Wikipedia for accuracy ! The tabloids bring a whole new meaning to deceit. At leaset we know politicians are usually clever in how things are phrased to mean a choice of things when challenged later.
November 20, 2022
Same here. I do not know all the details and look to others to explain or, just use the internet to do a bit of research. But to me a lot of it is not very difficult and, one thing I really cannot understand is, why oh why does the government have such trouble balancing the books ? I manage to do so and I am sure you and many here also, so why not government ?
November 20, 2022
Same is true of the climate figures, the crime figures etc
We live in a world of fantasy where nothing works anymore
November 20, 2022
Oh look, now COP27 has reached agreement to send billions to “poorer countries” due to alleged climate change.
That’s what it was always about. International socialism. There is no proven man made climate change, it’s all a big scam riding on the back of huge climate research grants, bribery and corruption.
November 20, 2022
Those who deceive do so to conceal bad intent, whether in use of figures or other actions.
In response, very many former Conservative voters who see bad leadership claim they will āneverā vote for the party again.
āNeverā might exaggerate, but enough will oppose to remove power from the bad to restore better.
November 20, 2022
The proposed Swiss style deal if it ever happened would account for very little as the people in Brussels are determined that cherry picking will not be allowed, and as I suspect that is what we are after? Furthermore if we are honest with ourselves the real reason we want a Swiss style deal is to allow for UK financials and banking to operate in the EU just like it used to? But that’s not going to happen either- so then time to call a halt to this speculation and kite flying – a much better idea would be to just rejoin the SM and CU, for our economy’s sake, and be done with it.
November 20, 2022
In which case, we may as well let the UK slide into oblivion. If our politicians do not succeed in impoverishing us, then the EU will. No other country with which we have any sort of trust or trade deal would ever trust us again. It would be suicidal for our country, but we are being pushed into suicidal oblivion by our own traitorous government anyway.
November 20, 2022
Why do you want to rejoin the CU ? Switzerland isnāt in it.
November 20, 2022
if we went the whole hog and returned to the EU Single Market and Customs Union the long term gross benefit to the UK economy would amount to less than 2% of GDP, and that would be before the high costs.
Which would not be worth the trouble for the country as a whole, although a small minority of businesses, maybe 6%, might do well by reaping most of the benefits, sometimes at the expense of the rest of us.
I get tired of these lies put about by some politicians and the CBI and other unpatriotic vested interests:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/05/23/some-questions-for-the-bbc/#comment-1231050
Gross benefit of EU Single Market to UK about 1% of GDP, plus Customs Union less than 1%.
November 20, 2022
Jamie : āā¦.a much better idea would be to just rejoin the SM and CU, for our economyās sake, and be done with it.ā
And consequently return to a Ā£100bn/YEAR trading deficit that we can do nothing about?
And to accept EU trade deals which benefit German cars and French food but never our service industries?
November 20, 2022
The big problem is that the markets slavishly believe these forecasts and a UK government of any complexion has no choice other than to make policy based on them, as Liz Truss found out to her cost.
As I said here yesterday, we are no longer able to set policy we believe is in the best interest of the country.
All Sunak and Hunt can do is play along and hope that the black hole is found to be a gross over-exaggeration as our host and many of us believe it is.
Cosying up to the EU is going to achieve nothing. European politicians will see it as weakness and, as Switzerland has found out, Brussels is only interested in total capitulation. Even if, as with Britain, the balance of trade is overwhelmingly in favour of the EU. A Cameron-style humiliation awaits any Prime Minister who tries.
November 20, 2022
@Chris S,
It is about time our elected representatives stood up to those the rest of us didnāt vote for and cant hold to account. The Government just as easy as Osborne created the OBR can get rid. The Government as quick as Brown created the BofE can get rid. Everything was working with the interest of the Country until these 2 individuals were allowed to let their egos get the better of them.
Hunt is construting by manipulation the return to EU total rule, hense the reason for not permitting Democracy and an Elected Parliment to be the UK’s Governing body.
November 20, 2022
Sunak made unfunded spending commitments at COP27 and the markets looked the other way. The market reaction to Truss was only a problem because various DB pension schemes had been allowed to use risky derivatives by the FCA under Andrew Bailey necessitating a bail out. The markets even liked Huntās Budget which contained no spending cuts at all.
November 20, 2022
If even you do not understand the figures, Sir John, this is a good enough reason to vote down the budget.
November 20, 2022
Mr Hunt has now exposed himself as the anti-capitalist Socialist he clearly is: he describes interest and dividends as ‘Un-earned income’. He therefor cannot view the capital that is at risk to earn both, as the property of its owner, but that of the State. Presumably Sunak shares this view or why does he allow Hunt to remain in office?
November 20, 2022
I do not think he is anti-capitalist. More like he does not like SME’s and any competition to large corporates.
November 20, 2022
And now for some good news – – Labour will remove the House of Lords.
A small first step for the next Government.
November 20, 2022
Plus, it sounds like Hunt and Sunak want to get back into the EU via the Swiss gambit. The Swiss voted against EU membership, but settled for multiple bilateral mini trade agreements, such that they are 90% in the EU’s four freedoms. The EU have said previously that it would never do a Swiss style deal again.
November 20, 2022
Fingers crossed you are right in your last sentence acorn.
November 20, 2022
Didnāt Labour say they would remove the House of Lords before the 1997 election?
November 20, 2022
Would it be possible to rework these figures excluding intra-government debt (ie debt held by the Bank of England)?
November 20, 2022
This lesson is for those that don’t believe in the magic money tree. Have a look at two versions of the Consolidated Fund account that cover four years.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consolidated-fund-account-2019-to-2020 And
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1112369/E02795572_HC_667_Web_Accessible.pdf
Notice on page 3 of both document “Less Deficit funding from the NLF”. The NLF (National Loans Fund) doesn’t get paid back in any of the four years. That’s why its called the magic money tree. It will never run out of fiat Pounds Stirling.
Now look at document page 19 in both document. Notice “Deficit met from the National Loans Fund” and “Payments to the National Loans Fund for net interest payments”.
There is no mention in either document of the DMO issued Gilt securities, the “national debt”, financing this government primary consolidating Current Account.
November 20, 2022
Yet when Truss went a tiny bit further world markets moved against her.
Carry on printing until the markets say stop.
November 20, 2022
Explain “a tiny bit further”; or, just admit that you haven’t got a clue what I am talking about. Some of us have been there, done it and got the T-Shirt.
November 20, 2022
You think endless limitless magic money creation can work acorn
Economic history shows you are totally wrong.
Print me a million
Make me rich
Hilarious.
November 21, 2022
Did I say anything about “endless limitless magic money creation”. Another strawman reply.
November 21, 2022
Still not answering the points I raised.
Well dodged acorn.
You believe in the magic money creation idea.
You can already see some of the results in America and Europe and here in the UK
Inflation, rising debt levels, low growth, higher taxes, looming recession and unemployment
November 21, 2022
What is hilarious is that you appear to be agreeing that Truss/Kwartengās budget could improve the economy by creating Ā£60 bn more debt, and that you as a staunch defender of the āfree marketā you seem to have jumped as a flea so keen on condemning the reaction of the markets following this budget.
In fact the same comment applies to Sir Johnās as his explanation via the āmistakesā of the BoE only deals with a part of what happened (even more hilarious when considering that the CUP has been involved in governing the country for 12.5 years and that he is supposed to be a CUP MP). Is that a case of a little doggy pissing in the tent?
November 22, 2022
I wondered if you would add your bit of trolling heffy.
Starting and ending your post with a strawman.
And your usual rudeness.
November 20, 2022
Everyone that isnāt in this Government knows they(Sunak & Hunt) have just recked the UK economy for a generation. They have sacrificed the UK People as a result of taking instructions from the unelected unaccountable. They give the appearance of working for an alternative power to those they were elected to serve.
Between them they have a myriad of excuses but no understanding of what they are saying or doing.
November 20, 2022
Ian B
Correct.
The lunatics have taken over the asylum
November 20, 2022
They are not lunatics, they are executing the Plan. First – knock down all the objections. Second Destroy everything standing.
November 20, 2022
“[we are being] pushed into a view or judgement they want Ministers to make and readers to accept.”
Hasn’t that always the case?! No Chancellor or Treasury since WW2 (and probably before) has ever told us the truth, if they had their party would have been finished, and the smoke and mirrors were far worse before the OBR was created – hence why some politicos hate it.
November 20, 2022
There are lots of ways to promote growth: low corporation tax and business rates, Freeports, enterprise zones, trade deals, planning reform etc. but which is the only one Hunt has briefed the papers that he is aiming for ? āCloser ties with the EUā via bespoke single market membership. No surprise.
November 20, 2022
Try to take on board the scenario that established UK financial institutions are less than committed to the interests of UK people or their finances. These institutions sing from their own hymn sheets written by socialist globalist interests. As I said earlier they need putting firmly back in their box.
My judgement will be based on what you, the ERG and any of your colleagues with half a brain are prepared to do to end this nonsense. When you have spoken to your constituency chairman and members, read the published coherent opinion, heard your retired doyens on GBNews, come back to us in print with plan A. Decide where your loyalty lies, people, country, or party.
November 20, 2022
What would be nice to see, is the Autumn Budget Statement being put before Parliament for approval. As it is the ways theses things are done are reckless in the extreme in trashing democracy. You could reason there is no point in Parliament or MPās
Democracy may not be perfect(that’s why this Government chooses to ignore it), but it is a damn site safer than all the alternatives.
November 20, 2022
@Ian B, One of the attributes of Democracy is transparency.
The Autumn Budget Statement is a change of direction that has cost applied on the taxpayer, we need to know who of our elected representatives are in support of the new attrition
November 20, 2022
During Covid there was a Ā£300 bn black hole in the finances which was plugged by printing money.
Why was that OK but a Ā£55 bn black hole caused market carnage?
The Conservative Party MPs who would not support their leader did this.
Hunt has in reality deferred a load of tax rises and supposed cost savings, the budget changed little until the election. The difference is that the large majority support this leader and not the last one.
The OBR / Treasury smoke and mirrors changes little in the markets, confidence drives markets.
November 20, 2022
Smoke and Mirrors
November 20, 2022
glen cullen
Or ?
Bullshit followed by more of the same
Their incompetence and ignorance knows no bounds.
November 20, 2022
Politicians generally stand or fall on on the success or failure of their policies.
Civil servants generally carry on regardless, irrespective of this success or failure.
Is this a good thing ?
November 20, 2022
Section 8. UK & UN Law of Armed Conflict JSP 381
You MUST NOT attack:
ā¢Civilians (unless they are taking a direct part in hostilities).
ā¢Civilian buildings or property, including cultural property,
ā¢Medical personnel and chaplains, hospitals, medical
centres or medical transport.
ā¢Civil defence facilities, dykes, dams and NUCLEAR POWER
stations
Why are we even in the same building as the Russians ā¦either kick them out of the UN or leave
November 20, 2022
Agreed, glen, but our politicians are in thrall to the UN, and every other world organisation. Brits count for nothing, we are just the cash cows to be used and abused.
November 20, 2022
GC
Sad to see that youāre fallen for the MSM narrative about Russia
A deeply Christian country which has rejected the Woke message which is destroying the West
November 21, 2022
a better laugh than I’ve been getting from Martin lately.
November 20, 2022
The Government even in saying that their direction of travel comes from anyone but themselves ā is no longer the Government of the UK. Not at any stage are those we elect empowered by us to take orders from any unelected unaccountable body. It is 100% their own and in this case seemingly personal choice.
The mistakes of the Treasury, the OBR and the BofE are owned by Government, we know they fail time and time again so it is those in Government that own the mistakes. The Government is condoning the miss management of the economy.
Governments donāt get bad advice they choose to accept it.
This Government alone, that is all members of the Cabinet, are 100% responsible for the state of the economy, 100% responsible for the highest taxes since WW11, 100% responsible for the cost of living, inflation etc., the waster, the fraud ā āNo One Elseā they have chosen things to be that way.
The responsibility may have been lessened if Parliament was able to have also scrutinised their imposition on the Country.
November 20, 2022
I agree the Autumn Statement figures are dodgy and intended to deceive. However I think the most consequential error which will give different results to what both John Redwood and Jeremy Hunt are saying is an underestimate of future inflation which is now becoming embedded.
Wage rises are now approaching 10% and are certainly more than 5% which is going to embed inflation. While I see the strong argument for uprating pensions by inflation, uprating benefits and most certainly supplementary benefits by inflation has moral peril as it is saying if you work, take a cut in your standard of living but if you don’t work you are protected. Increasing the minimum wage, the living wage by 9.7% is encouraging everybody else to demand and strike for a similar increase within a shrunken market (of people’s disposable incomes), spelling the end for many businesses and less tax generation and more welfare payments for government.
Furthermore if public sector costs rise by say 9% (say 8% pay increases and general inflation for other costs)there will be public spending cuts this year and next year, let alone the other side of the general election. Local government would have to make 4% or so cuts as their budget is capped and central government would either have to increase its own budgets and public debt or cut its spending or a combination of both.
So with inflation going out of control, largely through government setting the level of many pay rises at 9.7% and giving that steer to every other employee, the economic outlook is much worse than both than both John Redwood (here) and Jeremy Hunt are proclaiming.
November 20, 2022
Nevertheless, interest paid on State debt is money flushed straight down the toilet and the trend is upward. I understand that this interest is double the defence budget per annum.
What the UK economy desperately needs to make a success of Brexit is a private sector to invest in export opportunities and import substitution. The private sector needs profit and capital to do this, which it won’t have in a Big State economy with wasteful expenditure and high taxation.
The State is spending loads-a-money on the retired elderly, on unprofitable railways, on an overgenerous Universal Credit benefits cap, on wasteful bits of the NHS (including the translation of documents into 28 languages and expensive drugs), on illegal immigration, on the Civil Service, on Quangos, on rolling out 5G not just to most of the country but to the 15% that is difficult to reach, on HS2, on the monarchy, on the machinery of government at home and abroad, and on complying with unnecessary regulation. This has quite simply GOT TO STOP.
I have sent to Sir John by e-mail a note entitled ‘Shrinking the State – public expenditure cuts & deregulation’ I am not a constituent of Sir John but I do urge him to read it. I have sent the same note to my MP Ranil Jayawardena. Now that Ranil has lost high office, he will have time to read it. I urge Sir John and Ranil to come up with their own list and to vote down all tax increases (including fiscal drag) until the Chancellor responds.
Reply I did read it and often submit ideas to govt to spend less.
November 21, 2022
You don’t want money spent on the retired elderly? No GP time, no referrals, no operations, no Care, but accept the inevitable lonely death in their homes?
November 20, 2022
Couldn’t agree more on the dodgy data there. My conclusions: they think we are stupid (and have very short memories), and they are being just a wee bit dishonest. I resent both. What makes me livid is that they are running the country on fiction.
The Sunday Times article assumes we Brits are ignorant. Funny it mentioned a Swiss referendum vote in favour of FoM (not sure the vote would still go that way), but not the fact that (a) the EU did its darndest to force an umbrella agreement on Switzerland which would put CH firmly under the EU and destroy Switzerland’s federal structures, and (b) that the Swiss rejected the umbrella agreement. So many flaws and omissions in a short article from respected journalists. Depressing.
November 20, 2022
If that is the case it will show up in the 30 year bond by rates going back up above 4.25 and may go over the last high. you can not push the market around, the market is always over 90% correct which is better than the OBR and treasury record.
November 20, 2022
That right boys and girls the market will smell them out and crush them. Budget March.
November 20, 2022
Sir John
Michael Heaver on YouTube specifically mentioned you as being an excellent candidate for Reform, an honest politician who would be an asset to the party and encourage more to sign up
November 20, 2022
āThe Treasury keeps changing the figures it shows and withholds. I feel when reading Budget and Financial Statement books now I am being pushed into a view or judgement they want Ministers to make and readers to accept.ā
Sounds to me like gas lighting.
November 20, 2022
Dodgy figures & dodgy government
Pakistan has 38 coal power stations (3 under construction) vs. UK has 3 coal power stations (to be closed by 2023/4)
We will be paying Pakistan millions under the UN COP27 deal “loss and damage fund”
This isnāt democracy; the people werenāt asked if we wanted to spend our taxpayer money on international treaties
November 20, 2022
Yes shameful , and Rishi Sunak is cheering it on, and saying he wants even more on climate change. When did we agree to climate change reparations? When are they going to pay us for the industrial revolution, for billions of these people wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for us? How are we going to trust them about calculating the loss and damage from climate change? Recently they claimed 1/3rd of Pakistan was under water, this was a lie, the BBC and co were repeating what a Pakistani politician was claiming. Studies have shown it was 8% , and anyway how much of the problems they face are due to climate change rather than their population going from 40 million to 240 million since 1950, and them stripping out the 30% of tree cover they had down to 5% now?
November 20, 2022
The billions Pakistan has spent on nuclear weapons, thier military, swiss bank accounts and space exploration ā¦Pakistan could have spent all that money on planning for flood relief but chose not
November 21, 2022
and the disturbing level of flooding happens regularly, always has. If you live in large river deltas, monsoon areas, near coastal erosion – then at some stage over generations you need to move away. The planet weather will not be stopped – how will money solve it, by buying millions of dinghies for them?
November 20, 2022
It seems the figures coming from the Treasury have been presented as though they are from “Team Putin” rather than a proper Conservative government. What has happened there?
They’re just further indications that this country is moving ever closer to a common socialist agenda where government always knows best and the citizens must accept their rulings without complaint. This is now in common with the other two mainstream Parties plus the SNP.
Until we are moved back onto a true Conservative plan for lower taxes and higher growth, as presented by Liz Truss, this country is permanently crippled and will remain so for a generation or more. With the current PM and Cabinet I look at our future with foreboding.
November 20, 2022
…….a common socialist agenda. I, perhaps foolishly, think that it’s worse than that.
The extreme socialist (Marxist?) view has long been that it is not necessary to subdue a nation by means of an armed invasion.
It can be more easily be done over time by degrading the nations education system (tick – 25% of 11 year olds leave primary school functionally illiterate and innumerate), by undermining the morale and motivation of its armed forces (under way) and, crucially, by causing citizens to lose their faith and trust in the police forces and, ultimately, their government (tick). Welcome, then, in 2022 to Marxist Britain.
November 21, 2022
By “common” in this context, I refer to similarity with the other mainstream Parties.
November 21, 2022
By “common” in this context I refer to the similarities with the other main parties.
November 20, 2022
It’s obvious that the Mail comments ( and this site, Going Postal, TCW are run to gauge public opinion.)
Where this strategy fails is that the analysts are not of the public mindset.
I am the public mindset.
November 20, 2022
The Media knows. The public knows.
The public are not judgemental.
Just disappear. We’re not interested..
Bog off
Beauty is truth. Truth beauty.
November 21, 2022
Hume
November 21, 2022
There’s also the possibility that Treasury officials don’t understand the difference between a balance sheet item and a revenue item.