There is discussion of a new law to limit the right to strike in key public services, just as armed  service personnel agree not to strike when they join up. If the government thinks such a law would be helpful they should have used some of the underused Parliamentary time this November and December to put one in. They  did not,  meaning such a law cannot now have an impact for current rounds of Christmas and New Year strikes.
My view is Ministers need to engage more with the Chief Executives and senior officials who are meant to manage these  matters. Ministers direct, managers manage. Ministers set policies. CEOs and senior officials implement them. Ministers have made clear they want to stop the flow of illegal migrants across the Channel. They have stated they want the health backlogs down. They want  faster turnaround of  asylum claims, of passport renewals, of probate filings and many more other admin processes connected to licences, taxes and benefits.
They have in many cases authorised large increases in spending and given approval to a major expansion of state employment since 2019. Now they must ask where is all the money going? Why isnt there more service from the extra people and cash? Â When will their aims be met?
It looks as if the independent body and quango model lets us down badly. It also is clear Ministers are having to involve themselves  much more in running departments if they want  to get things done. I will write more about the role of public sector well paid CEOs and why we do not  get better results. All too often Ministers agree an aim only to discover a quango is doing the opposite and makes it difficult for a Minister to get through a desired change of policy.
December 11, 2022
The equivalent ( a mild one) of what they did to us during the Plague Imprisonment would be 50 workmen down to Dover (and any other vulnerable shores) with many yards of barbed wire.
The govt. copied so many wartime tactics âŠ.why not that one?
Because they are frit of globalists and the Left.
An ex Tory MP recently said that backbenchers are cowards!
(Let them disprove that by actually making sure the poor Strep A kids get penicillin).
December 11, 2022
âThe buck stops here.â
A dozen years to get things sorted out and fulfill manifesto promises.
December 11, 2022
Hang on JR, we read in papers recently Cameron secretly watered down strike laws for unions to back remaining in EU!! This is how far left your party is, in stark contrast to Thatcher taking them on.
12 years of false empty promises. An80 seat majority and Still your party has not delivered Brexit. Much hype about helping corrupt Ukraine of no strategic interest to UK, but happy to give away N.Ireland to EU without a murmur. VDL this week liking UK with Ireland to Russia invasion of Ukraine! Has Sunak or Hunt condemned what she said or at least said anything? No! Yet, Sunak and Hunt has given EU control of our military! We voted leave!
Recently Heaton-Harris rapidly brought in law to cut pay of N.Ireland MPs to cave to EU demands over annexing N.Ireland! Tell us when Sien Fein MPs pay cut for not attending Westminster?
The lines are blurred whether your party and govt is totally useless, incompetent or dishonest.
Just get out.
December 11, 2022
Peter, the NHS is getting its more than ÂŁ350m per week its still not enough, May gave it to them before the pandemic. If NHS managers donât open up enough training places for front end clinicians, or replace the training model to have more apprentice type training with a longer degree six years part of the job on wards / part in the university from the age of 18 then more fool the managers in the NHS would you expect an MP to micromanage and do the actual Managers job? They appear to employ to many diversity officers and staff still arenât happy and content.
December 11, 2022
+1
They only know how to pass it !
âCovidâ, Russia âŠanything excuse but the truth.
The truth being that we are now sitting in the stinking ashes of one huge, present day bonfire of the vanities.
December 11, 2022
C,
Some of these blogs are a side show to distract and have no purpose to influence JRs party. It left him and a few others in 1990. Socialist Tories have little attachment to the public they serve or itâs own cash cow membership. In fact both get in the way of the socialist global Pro-EU utopia they pursue.
Cameron made clear by insulting his supporters as Turnip Taliban and Swivelled Eyed Loons because they were conservative and wanted conservatism. He was having none of it. He got in bed with LibDumbs to force his party left loading the Lords with pro EU Lib dumbs way beyond any proportion of support from the voting public. He placed as many obstacles to prevent UK leaving the EU. He did not honour his word to send a letter the day after the vote. When the country had the cheek to vote to leave he ran away. May betrayed her party, cabinet and nation to make UK a vassal state despite decisive the public with strap lines Brexit means Brexit, no deal better than a bad deal! What worse deal could they have agreed!
Now they are managing decline to prove Brexit was the fault of all our problems. Blame everything and anyone.
Tice on Talk TV letâs us see what he got to say.
December 11, 2022
Hope: nail on head. What happens once they manage to destroy democracy? If we wanted no voice or say over our future, we may as well have stayed in the EU, but we voted to Leave. We want control of our own country, ie. economy, trade and borders, and the CONS are giving us the exact opposite. They are NOT democratic. They are wannabe dictators.
December 11, 2022
Indeed. If nothing has been done to left wing recruitment policies set by Bliar 25 years ago in all our health, Councils, public services and quangos, what does Sir John expect? After 12.5 years there is no excuse other than the Tory’s agree with these woke/PC left wing lgtvxyz losers. We have to listen to them all daily on what they can’t do. They’re all working from home doing…..nothing.
December 11, 2022
Backbenchers telling Hunt to cut ÂŁ7 billion of woke spending. He says bringing down inflation is the priority.
What do inclusion and diversity staff have to do with bringing down inflation.
Windmills only contributing 1.4gw on this very cold Sunday.
National grid have pencilled in 8gw of imports to cover the shortfall. That will be from Europe which is chronically short of generation.
December 11, 2022
I suggest everyone read Arelene Fosters article in the papers on the despicable socialist Tory govt. Sunak and Hunt continue to betray our nation, N.Ireland is our country! Heaton-Harris needs to be sacked. Sin Fein did not attend Stormant for three years!
Time up, scrap N.Ireland protocol get N. Ireland back. We had the threats of article 16, legislation and all others lies like no border, no checks, etc. we voted leave, cut ties with EU now we waited long enough. Stop equivocating, prevaricating and lying. Brexit means leave ECHR, no rules, regs laws, no PESCO (we have NATO) or level playing fields.
December 11, 2022
It’s interesting, the zeal with which these so-called libertarians seek to remove the basic freedoms of so many classes of ordinary person, isn’t it?
Since the country has no constitution by modern standards it is only ever one Act Of Parliament away from tyranny at any given moment.
December 11, 2022
I read that a recent Tory PM gave the Trade Unions more power ( through legislation) in order to prevent Brexit.
If true, it makes one wonder exactly what IS going on now.
Because surely, by now, we are all painfully aware that the govt. does exactly as it pleases irrespective of the votersâ wishes!
Whatever the cost.
December 18, 2022
Anyone on this blog can write âI read thatâ without giving any reference but expecting any reader to believe what has been written.
Sorry cuibono given your history of half-truths not supported by any reference I do not believe this story.
December 11, 2022
Good morning.
Ahhh ! The law of unintended consequences. Anyhow, how is that ‘Bonfire of the QUANGO’s’ going ? What !?!?! You’ve not started ! How long have you been in power ?
The Public Sector can strike because they know that there is no one else that will happily, and easily, take their place. Not so those like me who work in the Private Sector. If say a hairdresser or the staff at a large supermarket chain goes on strike, the clientele just go down the road to the next supplier. This CHOICE the consumer has has a moderating factor.
The solution is not to create laws stopping people from striking, it is to create a market where striking is not a viable option.
Yesterday we talked about local radio and the BBC. Many touched upon the license fee and the need to pay it. Well you don’t if you do not watch live TV and source your entertainment via other means. The competition is there and will only grow when people finally ditch the ball and chain of the TV.
I have mentioned here time and time again the need for the government to create competition in the health market. Allow people to take up health insurance as a non-taxable benefit. With ever growing queues at GP’s and and A&E growing this market will not only help people access better healthcare but, will create competition with the NHS. We can then measure the difference between the two and see where improvements can be made.
Choice was once a Conservative principle. And, like the party it that once aspoused it, will soon be no more.
December 11, 2022
MB.
If I may offer a bit of gallows humour; you knew bonfire of EU regulations, Quangos and the rest was just put about by the PCP, for fun, when it was given to a Mr. J Rees-Mogg who clearly didn’t wish to spend any effort on it so he asked the Sun readers for suggestions. No doubt such ideas are carefully stored on a long forgotten notepad.
December 11, 2022
Strikes are a result of socialist Tories totally trashing our economy:
Printed over ÂŁ820 billion
Tripled debt to over two trillion
Highest deficit
Highest taxation since WWII
Increased civil service by 91,000 Sunak reversing decision to cut head count- big state
Failed to deliver Brexit to free uk of rules, regs and make it competitive. Hunt reversed divergence.
December 11, 2022
Even if, as Hope states, we have the highest taxation since 1945, we clearly do not have the best public services or state benefits. N.B. I am speaking of the period I have lived through as an adult, i.e. since 1971.
On public services, in 1973/74 my local library would buy almost any reference book I requested within a month or so and add it to the shelves. Today, or for the past 30 years, this never happens. In fact, if I buy a 2nd. hand book, all too often it is a library ‘discard’.
As for benefits, as far as I can see an unemployed single person got around one-third of the average UK income in 1975. They now get one-sixth. Universal Credit is some ÂŁ5,000/annum and the average income is ÂŁ30,000. I do not think the state pension, which I get, has fared much better.
As for ‘printed over ÂŁ820 bn’, over ÂŁ400 bn of that is due to ‘COVID-19’. We face not so much a ‘cost of living crisis’ as a ‘cost of lockdown crisis’. People who want more COVID truths should watch talks by independent bodies like Doctors for COVID Ethics, the World Council for Health or HART. The past three years have seen incredible mismanagement of a respiratory disease with the same basic fatality risk as flu. * But I suspect that a lot of this conduct was deliberate, i.e. ‘follow the money’.
* 18 months ago, the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 was 0.096%. Source: DHSC answer to Steve Baker MP, Jul. 2021. COVID-19, in 2020 and -21 at least, had a lower IFR than flu for younger people and the IFR was higher than flu for ‘oldies’.
December 11, 2022
A lot of EU regulations come from other non-EU sources and not all EU regulations are bonkers. But one that is is the proposal to have MoT’s once every two years – ie Follow the Germans. Here is where we can start to diverge from the EU.
December 11, 2022
the bonfire will keep the lighter warm for half a second, mostly from the match used.
December 11, 2022
There is no real choice in our so-called Democracy. We can have Red Socialism; Yellow Socialism; Green Socialism or Blue Socialism ….. and they’re all delivering the objectives of Globalists Institutions
That is where the problem starts and ends.
December 11, 2022
Vote Reform Party. That is the only solution. Follow your conviction not Tory scare stories.
December 11, 2022
There is CHOICE on the ballot paper. The local council elections gave me a choice of only the red, yellow and blue variety of socialism you mentioned. So I wrote; “None of the above !” below them.
ie There is ALWAYS a CHOICE !!!!
December 11, 2022
Mark, how can you have A&Eâs competing? What they only get paid by the NHS management if a patient is taken to them by the ambulance service. How long would it be before theyâd want to charge extra for out of 9am to 5pm, weekends, bank holidays and oh the NHS insured has to pay the top up?
I notice a lot of public sector workers and ex-public sector organisations, get private GP phone consultations and counselling as part of their package, just one of those other not discussed perks and benefits on top of earnings.
December 11, 2022
If an A&E in say London got a reputation for have no waiting everyone would head to that one instead of the others or the GP. So A&Es are actually are incentivised to have long waiting times and the GPs to have absurd wait for hours on the phone booking system. Patients are not customers they are a nuisance. So they compete to deter patients! This is the direct result of free at the point of use and dire system & management.
December 11, 2022
I agree with some of this, but most workers are reluctant to go on strike and do so because it is the only way to get management to negotiate with their representatives. In the real world it is the job of management to try to whittle away the pay and conditions of their employees as this is the easiest way to increase profit margins. The rail workers are not asking for ‘more’ money, they are asking for a smaller pay cut in real terms.
What should be done is to remove the monopoly position of some unions so they strike against their employers rather than against the public. I would certainly consider introducing a minimum period between strike days to negate the wheeze whereby you strike on alternate days knowing that while you must be paid for the days inbetween your employer cannot get the business up and running.
December 11, 2022
+10
December 11, 2022
@Mark B, @Peter Wood, @Donna +1
As Boris Johnson identified to us all when he made laws controlling our lives, he didnât intend those to me him as well. Welcome to a new version of democracy
December 11, 2022
Indeed under the Conservatives over the last 12 years they have have delivered higher and higher taxes and yet we get poorer and poorer public services. But then the civil service have little or no interest in delivering any value to the public it is run for them. Only the politicians can force them to deliver anything much. They have totally failed in this respect. The NHS has more medical staff and more money now and yet is performing fewer operation and procedures. Waiting lists are at record highs, ambulance and casualty waiting times appalling, killing people and are still increasing.
The Government then also undercut wages with vast low skilled immigration levels and create extra demand for housing, benefits, police, social services, roads, schools, medical care, universities…
Price is what you pay value is what you get. In the case of the UK state you pay a fortune and get virtually nothing of value.
Sunak and the NHS often make the point that “it is not their fault as they cannot discharge patient who should be discharged due to social care failing”. Well dearest NHS open new wards (nightingale style perhaps that just provides this social care similar to what they would get at home) or is even this beyond “our” dire NHS. This would surely be cheaper than leaving them in full hospital beds or paying for the social care at home. Also deal with the problems that leave people in ambulances for hours at that end too causing people to wait dying on pavements for 8 hours+.
Get your act together NHS (and the state sector in general) and stop pissing about with diversity officers, excessive management, passing the buck and all that net zero green crap lunacy.
December 11, 2022
Stop flogging the dead horse. The NHS has demonstrated in every possible way that it cannot survive. Hurrah!
December 11, 2022
How many operations Monday to Friday do you think the NHS do? This year the generous government closed down for an extra two working days, what would the number of cancelled operations be for these days adding to the backlog, because even if some operations continued on the actual days, days off in lieu would be taken!
When they just stopped bringing people in for operations for three months, closed down all private hospitals and paid their staff for closing (it was never about doing NHS work) just what do people expect. Perhaps a labour force backlog is just what was needed for a change of government and the Tories were complicit.
December 11, 2022
LL,
Under net stupid It is going to get worse. JR deliberately forgot his party and govt responsible for the 12.5 years of failed energy policy creating current mess at the moment where people in this century forced to choose to heat or eat!!
Coal is underneath us to warm us and keep the lights on. It also is a form of cheap energy for industry! Our forbears worked that out yet Sunak now wants to pay and give away tens of billions to say sorry, for improving the world poverty, instead of helping people here.
Sunak and Hunt are pro EU globalist nutters deliberately taxing us to death and deliberately making us poor, hungry and cold. It is not a price worth paying.
On line safety bill to stop us speaking out and forced to accept their narrative.
Get them out!
December 11, 2022
12 Years ago you would have been saying that we should not vote for Labour or the LibDems because they are a tax, borrow and pi** down the drain parties.
So what’s changed ?
đ
December 11, 2022
The Tories became even more socialist!
December 11, 2022
Concept:
Allow MPs a seat for up to 10 years based on the % of votes they receive.
An MP gaining 50% would be secure for 5 years. Parliament would change gradually, keeping in tune with those who are best, without the upheaval of General Elections. Even âproportional representationâ zealots can support that.
December 11, 2022
or even a case for after 2 successive wins they have to fight a different constituency next time?
No prospective candidates allowed under 30 at time of Election day? on the basis of likely insufficient experience!
December 11, 2022
LL. +1
And was it not Javid that made care home staff get jabs? Result, a loss of 40,000 workers in that sector.
December 11, 2022
Indeed. A Good piece by Richard Tice on Talk Radio this morning at 10.05 on the absurd benefit system we have. Why work at all very many people are concluding (or why work more than 16 hours) given the moronic tax a benefit system that pertains. I knew it was idiotic, but it is it seems even more idiotic than I thought it was.
December 11, 2022
LL,
Tice show very informative how welfare pays low paid employment does not!! I am astounded at the amounts given on welfare plus the recent 10% rise! What are these nutters thinking!
December 11, 2022
+1
December 11, 2022
but consider how many had died in Care Homes, death certificate labelled ‘Covid’ , so how many lives were saved net as LL would say, by those determined to risk bringing it in leaving their ‘dedicated’ job?
December 11, 2022
âFirst, Gordon Brown broke the constitution. Now he wants to see it burn
His latest plan would mean less democracy, which is precisely how New Labour wrecked our system to begin with.â
Daniel Hannan In the Sunday Telegraph Today
âGordon Brown is as constant and unchanging as a slab of Grampian granite. Whatever the problem, his solution is always the same: more regulators, more politicians, more money.â
So he is rather like the Tories for 12 years & Sunak and Hunt now then! But they add more net zero, more tax, more currency debasement, more inflation, ever more expensive energy and more benefits (so as to deter working and encourage people to live off others).
December 11, 2022
+1
December 11, 2022
Before agreeing funding there should very clear rules of understanding.
Why is it necessary?
Where is it being spent?
What will it Achieve?
How will it be distributed?
Who will be monitoring budgets?
When will the first results be seen?
Unless there is real focus, responsibility and accountability of the funding agreed then it will be wasted with nothing to show in increase in performance and efficiency.
December 11, 2022
But the politician can claim ‘we are spending more every year on the service’ – as if that in itself is good!
December 11, 2022
Itâs a big can of worms, root and branch review would be required to find the savings from none clinical operating costs. The general public canât afford the extra taxes required to pay for it either (I donât think they see that because they are in guaranteed jobs with work every day that not everyone else is, when people arenât spending in shops and restaurants they close, when people stop buying everything starts to seize up) and what is given in one hand would be taxed right out of the other. Theyâre being played by political game makers. The real people who benefit are the government because the only thing that truly goes up is taxes. Interest rates on old existing bonds stay fixed and they have more of our cash to pay them down.
December 11, 2022
TT
And who will take RESPONSIBILITY for that spending.
December 11, 2022
Then again one cannot really blame the unions too much. Sunak has debased the pound so much with his money printing, extended lock downs, eat out to help out… and his net zero rip off energy lunacy and vast tax increases to, in effect, cut the pay of staff by circa 20%+. This even more for lower paid workers who spend a higher percentage on food, rents, energy, interest, cars… Is it any wonder they want/need/expect a bit more pay Sunak?
You caused the problem not Putin or Covid as you all dishonestly claim – but net zero and your absurd over reaction to Covid. You and Boris got all the big things wrong:- The lock downs, the NI protocol, the open door immigration, the net harm vaccines for the young, the vast tax increases, the endless growth in red tape, the wars on motorists and the self employed, the road blocking agenda, the money printing debasing, the vast corruption and crony capitalism, net zero, HS2, blowing up coal fired power stations, test and trace, the dire organisation of the NHS, PPE procurement, all those pointless degrees and ÂŁ50K of debt plus interest and three years loss of earning for them…
December 11, 2022
Not a very good ‘report card’ is it? No wonder the people will cast out the ruling party into the wilderness.
December 11, 2022
Have you heard of the CBDC plan? We’re all going to be ‘persuaded’ to hand back our valueless BoE promissory notes and accept CBDC, which will come with restricted purchase conditions to prevent you from spending too much and on things the ‘State’ doesn’t think you need. We’re all going to be much happier…
December 11, 2022
Many people no longer use cash Peter. Stand in any queue and watch them ‘non-contact’ with their cards, phones and even watches. All very techy but also highly controllable. I still carry cash and use it for for small purchases, which means my bank sees me withdrawing it (a service is used) and that shops need to keep accepting it (which some do not). I was amused whilst on the Isle of Wight to see some shops going back to ‘cash only’- presumably because the Merchants fees are an extra cost they cannot afford. More Shoppers and Shops should start using cash (even if it is just a FIAT “promissory” note) or they might find that they don’t like the alternative.
December 11, 2022
Here, hear! Well put, Lifelogic!
December 11, 2022
They were, and are, delivering Agenda 2030 and The Great Reset.
You can’t “Build Back Better” unless first you destroy everything.
December 11, 2022
Well it looks and feels like they’re on target
December 11, 2022
âNet harm vaccines for the youngâ – so you donât mind the working age and pensioners being killed off?
December 11, 2022
What a silly comment, of course I do not want any people to die where it can be prevented. But the young were never at any real risk from Covid & it was idiotic to vaccinate them as no benefit and many risks & negatives. The old were at higher risk so perhaps justified. But it seems from the statistics that the vaccines have probably done net harm even in the older age groups. But in terms of quality years lost then someone aged 20 who dies from vaccine harms has perhaps lost 30+ times more quality years of life than an 80 year old who died slightly early from Covid.
December 11, 2022
You are funny! âThe old were at higher riskâ – who said so?
December 12, 2022
The statistics show that Covid death were hugely weighted to older people.
December 11, 2022
Mr smart logic, define how you identified ‘net harm’ for me, please?
Does it consist of just deaths? On the other side vaccines prevented a factor of perhaps x20 x50? of the jabbed catching it – no deaths if taken before infected, almost no time off work, or study, almost no passing it on. Those that would claim caught it anyway typically had minor issues, sore throat, cold, headache, flu-like -only a couple of days out. All that pretty typical of virus in the wild anyway. If you were in England you might be aware some virus are going around now – a vomit virus, a both ends out virus, a flu-like virus – Covid tests come back negative.
So, what is ‘net harm’?
December 11, 2022
They weren’t killed off. Some older people passed away, with Covid on the death certificate. The vast majority of the time, they already had other life-threatening conditions, so in many cases would sadly not have been long for this world anyway, it must be said. The average age of deaths with Covid on the death certificate in this country was nearly 82, slightly above what average life expectancy is anyway. The data are in now, and those of us who’ve taken the trouble to learn about them are not affected by emotional language about ‘killing pensioners’ any more, Lynn.
December 11, 2022
Hang onto that of it allows to to keep going. Jabbed are you? Read Ed Dowds new book – it will be an eye opener.
December 11, 2022
I will, Lynn, and from reports of it, I think you and I agree, despite my first impression.
December 11, 2022
+many
Johnson seemed to âget it rightâ at the very start ( and according to now revealed messages he inwardly continued to âget it rightâ) BUT some entity or other obliged him to act contrary to his gut instincts. Then began the utter, utter charade and the laying waste of what once was our country.
Who/what could make him do that? Must have had more clout than his backbenchers?
December 11, 2022
Im sorry Lifelogic but you were one of the biggest over-reactors on this site. Panning the government daily for not having enough PPE even though there was a worldwide shortage and France Germany stopped our supplies. You daily blasted a lack of ventillators, then you moved on to wanting men getting vaccinated at faster rate than women. To back and read your comments from April to June 2020!
December 11, 2022
+1
December 11, 2022
Yes, he did but that was because he believed the lies and propaganda being spewed out by our government and the media. Now he understands that he was duped and is quite within his rights to change his opinion. With the release of the Twitter files we will all be able to see how the biggest con in history was instigated. We need to make sure this isn’t repeated with the net zero con. The global elites are pushing an agenda that few will be happy about.
December 11, 2022
Yes, Christine I understand that, but he was listening to the same medical and NHS experts that the government were, donât you agree? A minister can only react to what the experts around them are saying.
December 11, 2022
Ministers with access to intelligence services?
Those other views and data seem to have been censored.
Who knew what and when? Both inside government and its organs. Were ministers and senior mandarins actually misled? If so….?
We can see JR does not get straight answers to straight questions in parliament.
December 11, 2022
If Ministers use the anti-terrorism Department to silence all counter opinions then they know what they do NOT want to hear or allow us to hear.
Minister crime is that they removed choice and used psychological warfare tactics against the population.
In our family we now have 2 family men with young children dying. High earners in their prime. Bleeding on the brain. The result of the jab.
December 11, 2022
It is the Government who appointed these so called experts, I never classed Sage as experts in anything. It is the same Government who ignored the real experts who delivered the Great Barrington Declaration with nearly a million signatures. A minister with his fingers in his ears only listening to a selected group of people like Neil Ferguson, who had a history of getting figures wrong, needs to answer to the British people for the damage caused.
December 11, 2022
I thought they were Chris Whitty, Jenny Harris, Van Tam and their teams. Werenât there two sages with one saying the Tory Sage hadnât gone far enough with lockdowns and wanted extensions after December 2020, Starmer was right behind keeping lockdown on.
December 11, 2022
He hasnât changed his opinion, only moderated it slightly. There are many more shocks as it will have to be faced that there is no Logic in this Life or Death enterprise.
December 11, 2022
Yes A Tracey but that was all very sensible stuff. Of course the NHS should have prepared as best they could to treat Covid patients and protect those treating them. The vaccination of men slightly younger than women would logically have saved hundreds lives in the roll out. Or rather it would have done so had the vaccines actually been 80-90% effective and v. safe as they claimed (or rather lied) that the trials showed they were. I was perhaps a bit too trusting of the 90% effective and very safe lies the government, the government âexpertsâ and vaccine companies pushed I agree on that.
December 11, 2022
Yes Lifelogic, the government were listening to the same âexpertsâ do you think Hancock and Boris were making up the need for so much PPE and ventilators? Or do you think they were listening to all the NHS Managers, NHS union leaders, NHS senior clinicians?
There was a lot of hysteria and anyone that said, hold on a minute, is all this continued lockdown for everyone after the three week circuit breaker, were granny killers, trying to kill NHS staff, we had nurses crying on tik tok videos saying people sitting on grass outside were irresponsible and putting them at risk.
I think the biggest failure was not stopping all flights and boats and quarantining people arriving for the first two months of the outbreak.
December 11, 2022
Not really changing my mind I was always a Barrington Declaration suporter. Yes I did not want people to die for lack of hospital facilities so wanted them to get ready having seen the position in Italy a few weeks ahead of the UK. True I trusted the government and trial claims as to the effectiveness and safety of the vaccines too much. I assumed the regulators were doing their jobs. It is clear these were untrue & often pure and blatant lies.
December 11, 2022
The jab achieves 90% of its intended targets. We are seeing that daily in the ever climbing excess deaths charts. You were NEVER a supporter of the Barrington Declaration and by you statements today, still refuse to listen.
December 11, 2022
Great list there LL. Makes you realise what a complete and utter mess the Con party have made of everything and waiting in the wings, another party to finish the job.
December 11, 2022
Yes this is spot on. In the seventies it was easy to be anti-Union and most of us were. Unions were blocking progress to competition on many fronts, there were Wilson’s devaluations, oil price increases and so on. Union closed shops where I swept hospital floors as a student. Porters with shifts earning more than junior doctors. Completely daft.
Now it’s different. This Government has caused these issues 100%. Whether it’s Cameron’s baby-like running away, May’s EU stupidity, Boris partying or Sunak money-chucking, the whole thing stinks and needs to be thrown against the wall. If the Unions or Labour help, so much the better.
Sink under sunk Sunak to rise again later.
December 11, 2022
On PPE procurement – âwe were all talking about lack of PPE and complaining that people weren’t able to get hold of it. Can you appreciate that perhaps there wasnât time at that point for the government to put all the checks in place?”
The Labour MP revealed that made her even more frustrated as companies which already had a track record of delivering PPE we were talking about lack of PPE and complaining that people weren’t able to get hold of it.
âCan you appreciate that perhaps there wasnât time at that point for the government to put all the checks in place?”
Although the Labour MP Angela Rayner revealed âthat made her even more frustrated as companies which already had a track record of delivering PPE were not able to deliver and get through to the government.â
Is this true, she was not asked to clarify or give us a list. Who were they companies that had contracts with the NHS supplying PPE over the previous years that had stock but were blocked from providing it or evening get through the NHS Purchasing? (This isnât government – this is the NHS supplies – why couldnât they get through? They were telling Hancock they couldnât find the stock) Come on someone please ask her to back this up.
December 11, 2022
Professor Lucy Easthope has written an excellent book When The Dust Settles and tweets @LucyGoBag – you may find answers to your questions there
December 11, 2022
Well said
December 11, 2022
Acorn who did Kerry say it to? Was he challenged as you have done?
December 11, 2022
Maybe he investigate using his private jet
December 11, 2022
I impressed you are calling out this ridiculous nonsense acorn.
December 12, 2022
You are rather pompous acorn.
More decent debate and less cynicism would be appreciated.
December 11, 2022
This will suit Gove who I’m sure is looking for any excuse to delay it’s start, and preferably its cancellation. He is a deceitful minister and cannot be trusted in any matter.
December 11, 2022
perhaps he has an ‘interest’ in the export business to UK?
December 11, 2022
Perhaps more or even a smidgeon of accountability might help. At the moment it doesn’t seem to matter how useless you are or how much you rever against a certain policy you don’t get sacked. Too often failure is rewarded sometimes with a nice fat pension and another well paid position. It’s seems like the norm. They need to get in the real world.
December 11, 2022
Ah..the revolving door for chums and docile friends of the establishment.
December 11, 2022
A classic case is the Post Office debacle where those responsible, including Fujitsu, got off Scott free. Add to that the blood transfusion scandle.
December 11, 2022
F U S
You forgot to add their final move is to the House of zzzzz Lords
December 11, 2022
A shame England failed to beat France. It seemed to me they looked the better of the two teams. But for a few, clearly wrong, decisions by the officials and a fluffed penalty (put way over the bar for some reason) they would have won.
They would then have had an excellent chance of winning given the remaining weakish opposition. Perhaps if they had spent rather less time kneeling and virtue signaling it might have helped. But they did well anyway.
December 11, 2022
If England had Ivan Toney to take penalties it might have been different.
Not that this has anything to do with the topic under discussion.
December 11, 2022
all the Tory MPs, with an obvious exception, should take penalties for non-performance of duty to the country.
December 11, 2022
+1
Never mind.
Others are having riotous celebrations in London re their football success.
You know, LondonâŠ.was once our capital city.
December 11, 2022
Not so much of the ‘weakish opposition’. England saw off the combined might of Iran, Senegal and Wales while Morocco beat Belgium, Portugal and Spain. Whenever one of these tournaments comes around a wave of unjustified optimism sweeps the country based on the notion that we should win it just because we’re wearing England shirts.
December 11, 2022
In my opinion, public sector workers should not be allowed to strike at all. They have the ability to bring the whole country to a standstill, which is far too much power for any union or body of people. On the whole, they have excellent job security, but if they are unhappy with their pay, work and benefits, they should leave for work in the private sector. If the government found it could not recruit sufficient suitable people then that would indicate that pay needed to rise or conditions needed to improve.
December 11, 2022
Indeed they do not do very much but they can bring things to stand sill just by (for example) no issuing driving license renewals or car tax or with drawing from security or border control or at airports or fire service so planes cannot fly.
Governments (the EU are particularly good that this) do little of any value and yet can still cause vast harm and costs to others though endless misguided regulation. You can only do this if you have a piece of paper and only we issue this (and we will not issue it unless you do this, that and the the others and wait 12+ months!) Even then the process is complex so we will probably just return it and ask you to resubmit. Oh and if you call you will be about an hour on the phone to get through!
December 11, 2022
Welfare claimants given over 10% pay rise!! When low paid people working are chasing welfare payment hand outs what do the Tory nutters think will happen!!
December 11, 2022
Indeed. If nothing has been done to left wing recruitment policies set by Bliar 25 years ago in all our health, Councils, public services and quangos, what does Sir John expect? After 12.5 years there is no excuse other than the Tory’s agree with these woke/PC left wing lgtvxyz losers. We have to listen to them all daily on what they can’t do. They’re all working from home doing…..nothing.
December 11, 2022
That is sooo.. sensible, Shirley. Why has no-one in government thought of that ?
December 11, 2022
Excellent idea! And that must include MPs as they have become public sector workers too. No âenabling actâ and couple of years off from holding the Dictator accountable.
December 11, 2022
I agree with you on principle but . . . ! Unlike the armed forces, the police and fire services there are alternatives to stare funded teachers and the NHS. I would like to see the alternatives given some prominence in the market place.
Can MP’s go on strike ?
December 11, 2022
MPs are self-employed …they don’t need to produce any ‘work’ for their pay and attendence is limited, I’m not sure they’re even under the IR35 rules
Reply MPs have to attend to keep the party whip and are on the H of C payroll as employees
December 11, 2022
reply to reply ….what are the terms of ‘attend’, we see a mere handful in the house often sleeping, sorry listening intently with eyes closed, very rarely more than 30 on the benches.?
reply There are many meetings going on in the dozens of meeting rooms whilst the Commons is in session. 30 is a good number to have a worthwhile debate on an issue in the chamber. Much of the work is done in Committee, in one off meetings, exchanges with Ministers etc.
December 11, 2022
I had an MP who got his 25 year Knighthood and had spoken in the House ⊠ONCE! And that was a non-political maiden speech. Central Office went ape when we deselected him. So attending is really irrelevant because itâs the contribution that counts. You canât force people who donât have the wherewithal to contribute to do so.
The Members must be free in each Constituency to propose and select whomsoever they like as the prospective Candidate. There will be more able people in Parliament as a result.
December 11, 2022
reply to reply again…If 30 is a good number, stop most of the one-off meetings, reduce Commmittee, and halve the House of Commons!
December 11, 2022
ââ Members of Parliament (MPs) are not employed in any legal sense of the word.ââ http://www.parliament.uk
December 11, 2022
Donât let them bamboozled you. They are selected by the party machine, they owe their career to that institution. They are paid by the State. Small wonder that many believe their job is to represent the Government or Party in the Constituency.
December 11, 2022
Wouldn’t we live in a better world if MP’s had been on strike for the last 50 years? I can’t think of one positive thing they have achieved.
December 11, 2022
Shirley M
Nobody is holding guns to their heads towork anywhere.
Turn up on the first day of action to add a bit of style with a silver tray with all their P 45s. Then they can go home and face the realities of the real world
December 11, 2022
Agreed, take the King’s shilling and you give up the right to strike, at least for the reason of pay. If you don’t like your salary, resign and get another job.
The government has shot itself in the foot when it awards 4% for public sector pay rises, yet can find 10% for pensions and benefits.
December 11, 2022
Re pensions. A slight difference you may not be aware of. Ten percent of a pension of sub nine grand is considerably less than 4 percent of average national wage of 30 grand. Don’t keep quoting trash press ideas. We still have the lowest pensions in the civilised world and the triple lock needs to stay in place for at least another 20 years to get it up up a reasonable level, but of course over paid MP’s will junk it ASAP.
December 11, 2022
PS Last year the pensioners were welched on by Sunak who abandoned the triple lock which made things even worse even as inflation was already embedded. Caring Tories! What a sick joke. More like I’m alright Jack.
December 11, 2022
Quite right Graham
December 11, 2022
Spot on, and a stain on the British record. Mean, uncaring, ungrateful.
December 11, 2022
I’ve heard about coach holidays planned to save the firms going bust like dead flies. ‘Turkey and tinsel’ they say, aimed at pensioners I think. It might be ‘unsold Turkey Twizzlers, or tough chicken and tinned veg’ for those who face heat or eat for the foreseable future. Some celebrations eh?
Using my ‘smart’ meter, (ahem!), we’ve used almost all the lovely gift of cash to keep warm for the winter.
What to do in January, pray for climate change ?
December 11, 2022
‘If you don’t like it go elsewhere’
You already have your wish in the NHS. Training in the first place (bursaries cancelled by genius Osborne who managed to ruin all public services and still double the national debt) and then retention because they ‘go elsewhere’ maybe abroad or just to other jobs, some in private health care. I know a nurse in a private hospital who says she loved the hospital she trained and worked in for years, but the management demands and constant shortage of staff made it impossible for her to have a normal family life. She also is paid much more now and the staffing is not an issue in her private hospital. Go figure. They are woefully underpaid, put upon, a ten percent permanent staff shortage which will never change in present circumstances. The Tories cocked up the NHS in 2012 and made it more expensive as well as less efficient with their crazy ideas. All part of a plan in my view. Osborne finished the job with cuts, which despite Tory claims has never been made up, especially considering our population has increased by 10 million in 20 years.
December 11, 2022
Graham, the nurses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland donât have tuition fees yet still demand the same pay and the same increases, first ones to all vote out.
When they go abroad the government needs to introduce a mechanism that transfers their student loan to a private loan collection company with an annual charge unless they person can prove they earn less than ÂŁ27,000 or whatever the current rate is.
A newly qualified graduate nurse, usually aged 21 on their first day on the job is hired on more than ÂŁ27,000 take a look at the pay and benefits here grade 5 they start on. In addition to annual % increases to the basic pay bands they also move up grades in each band on a regular basis, this doesnât seem to be included as a âpay riseâ which it is.
https://www.nurses.co.uk/careers-hub/nursing-pay-guide/#wider-benefits-of-being-an-nhs-nurse
https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/working-health/working-nhs/nhs-pay-and-benefits/agenda-change-pay-rates/agenda-change-pay-rates
Plus enhancements for lates and weekends, plus a brilliant pension, full sick pay, ten more days paid holidays that the statutory 28 plus any extra bank holidays that are given by our public servants in government.
December 11, 2022
Thatâs a good idea about the student loans being still paid back.
My son-in-law lived in England for ten years before returning to Australia where his student loan repayments kicked in again!
Iâve heard a number of retired nurses describing how nursing was and that having to get a degree was what caused a lot of the rot to set in. Many women didnât bother to even train, or werenât university material. Those who did go and get a degree had too much debt and so many left because of this and the working environment.
December 11, 2022
Sharon I know nurses that trained up from the age of 16 and trained throughout their careers all funded by the NHS, they stayed loyal to the organisation and moved up through all the pay bands, retired on tidy sums now at 60.
December 12, 2022
a-tracy.
Firstly, if they are treated right, they will stay. Secondly the nurses in Scotland have not been awarded 19 percent but offered 7.5 percent and they are going to ask their nurses to vote on it. Our useless pair won’t even get round the table to stop this week’s strikes. Conclusion – the Tories want all the strikes so they can show how tough they are. This will end like Heath ‘who governs Britain’ when he was shown the door. Tories probably think they have nothing to lose as they are going out anyway soon, but of course they don’t care about the damage to the country in the meantime. If you reckon the pay and conditions are so great, please explain the permanent staff shortages and turnover.
December 13, 2022
The cost of living is a lot lower in Scotland, graham, the qualified nurses there are in the higher pay bands.
There isn’t a good mix of men and women graham, you can only get onto the grade 5 + where the money is to be earned with a degree nowerdays at the age of 21 do you think ÂŁ27,000 + 20-25% contribution to your pension, full sick pay, 30% – 60% enhancements for working evening, nights and weekends or bank holidays + the other perks that you can read are bad wages to start on, then there are banding reviews each year as well as a % increase to the basic terms, more money can be earned by taking on agency work and at weekends those rates are really high with no ni, pension contribution to make you end up keeping more of that pay.
Women leave when they have children, or reduce days, or no longer want to work weekends. I would train more medical recruits through the Army, Navy and Airforce route from the age of 16 so they are earning whilst training, take six years to get an equivalent degree, so they still graduate at 22. I would train more men in equal % and they are more willing to do the evenings and weekends to bump up their pay.
December 11, 2022
The march of the local council dictators
ROD LIDDLE (in the Spectator)
“Remarkable, isnât it? Confining residents to one area of a city and punishing them if they stray”
An excellent piece by Neil Oliver on the same topic on his GBnews programme yesterday. This agenda is a total outrage it seem you now elect local councils to imprison you. You buy a car but can only use it on 100 days (probably falling to 80 then 50 then 5). But doubtless with exemption special ZIL lanes passes for some council workers and local politicians.
December 11, 2022
How on earth can local councils have and use that much power – the Police can’t do that without national outrage by the media.
December 11, 2022
+1
It suits the govt. Climate Alarm agenda.
Oxford chosen because of student/ lecturer/liberal wokery no doubt.
And if Oxford complies then other cities will be made to follow.
Canterbury next?
December 11, 2022
+1
December 11, 2022
You have to decide ultimately whether you respect democracy even if somebody who calls for slaughter of the first-born wins.
December 11, 2022
Though it is only democracy when a group of peers vote in the common interest. This is why balkanisation of the country by mass immigration is so dangerous. If a group of your enemies vote for you to jump off a cliff, you are not morally obliged to comply just because there are more of them than you.
December 11, 2022
How is it democratic when we don’t get a say and even when Khan held a referendum and the public voted no to his nonsense he went ahead with his nutty ideas anyway?
December 11, 2022
Anybody proposing the slaughter of the first born will not win. Thatâs the point.
December 11, 2022
Exactly.
December 11, 2022
At least the residents can vote these lunatics out at the next elections. Can you imagine if this had been imposed by the EU. The unfortunate thing is that students who are temporary to an area have the right to influence politics for residents who live there permanently. This should never be allowed. Students should vote in the same way ex-pats have to. It’s a disgrace that governments haven’t sorted this out.
December 11, 2022
Those same local council are also placing regional 20mph limits, ULEZs, travel restriction, mayors and constructing miles of cycle lanes, all without the consent of the local people but at the behest of the governments national agenda âŠwith the enticement of additional funding
Thats not democracy
December 11, 2022
It looks like the wrong people were appointed as CEOs of these organisations. We need to know who appointed them, and then whether those who appointed them are minded to fire CEOs not doing their job satisfactorily.
December 11, 2022
“Now they must ask where is all the money going?”
At last, some common sense. Is anyone listening?
December 11, 2022
No ! Do they ever ?
December 11, 2022
Even Wes Streeting has now noticed what a dire service the NHS provides and the damage the unions do. It seems he had to use it recently.
What next? Will he even perhaps come to realise that net zero is economic, quality of living and environmental insanity? Then again he read History (Selwyn) so perhaps he will not be able to grasp this.
Is he trying to replace Starmer or perhaps even Sunak?
December 11, 2022
Iâve heard Wes Streeting speak on radio numerous times. In my opinion heâs one of the older style labour men, a decent man, thinks things through in a rational way, for the betterment of his constituents, a higher calibre of labour MP. Much as John Redwood is to the Conservative Party and his constituents. There for all the right reasons.
December 11, 2022
Unless he gets treatment he will be pushing up daisies. Thatâs what has concentrated his mind!
December 11, 2022
1) I thought all MP’s had BUPA ?
2) Wes Streeting MP needs to be reminded that all those unionised Public Service (sic) bodies like the NHS pay for the running of his party.
3) There is a reason why the NHS and other FREE AT THE POINT OF SERVICE bodies are doing so badly ? It has something to do with importing half a million people in a year and not catering for them.
You would think that someone somewhere would have cottoned on to that ?
December 11, 2022
To be fair he seems like a nice bloke in the wrong company.
December 11, 2022
All our current disasters are due to the policy of ânet-zeroâ
December 11, 2022
Common sense advice of course, Sir John, but I have this odd feeling that if Ministers were indeed to start seriously questioning both CEOs and senior officials, they would very rapidly be accused of bullying and harassment, as appears to be the fashion today.
December 11, 2022
Quangos appear to be unnecessary, expensive and largely ineffective intermediaries. Perhaps that was the intent. If not, get rid of them.
December 11, 2022
Ministers have the power, so sack any malcontents who do not carry out their lawful orders!
December 11, 2022
Sir John, your Party wasted months this summer and autumn on a pointless Leadership election since it had been pre-determined by the Globalists that the winner would not be acceptable unless it was Sunak.
Cameron apparently struck a deal with the Unions that if they supported Remain, he would not progress legislation intended to restrict the ability of the public sector unions to hold the country to ransom.
And once again you blame the Quangos for the Government’s failings, so why hasn’t the match been put to the bonfire we were promised?
The Pretendy-Conservatives have had 12 years to rectify at least some of the damage done by Blair/Brown and they’ve done SFA, except make it worse.
December 11, 2022
+1
December 11, 2022
Exactly SFA, except importing 500,000 minimum wage workers every year at English tax payers expense, plus the boat people. More tax, 7.2 million in England on NHS waiting lists. What is the point of the prtendy conservative Tory’s?
December 11, 2022
It would seem at last that some of the conservative MPs are realising (waking up) they need to act decisively to achieve things. I was pleased to read about The Conservative Way Forward group, but itâs been around since August. Questioning the billions of pounds wasted on diversity stuff and whether emergency services should be allowed to strike is a bit late in the day to have any impact this Christmas! Billions more pounds will be lost. But itâs a start in the right direction.
December 11, 2022
The Conservative Way Forward was established when Mrs T was deposed. I was a Founding Member. So was Nick Gibb. Who would have believed then that when he had the chance to vote for Brexit he would decline to do so âbecause Cameron had enacted same sex marriageâ was that also âif they supported Remainâ (see trade Union legislation for Remain support).
Is this âtrading legislation for votesâ not PURE corruption?
December 11, 2022
Sharon, ultimately it is us the national health insurance payers that will have to pay and pay more again. What is paid in health insurance isnât enough to cover what we have now anyway. We treat all the world on a nod, hospitals and doctors feel that they shouldnât have to ask for the credit card like Brits are asked when we go anywhere else in the world, demanding insurance policies off us.
We accept all the un-costed perks and benefits so that the true full wage packet is never discussed. Letâs start costing it all up the 35 days + holidays (7+ more than the statutory), the full sick pay, the counselling services and online private GP consultancy this is all a massive cost above and beyond what the private sector can offer, including a pension the private sector can not buy. Iâm not saying we have to level down, Iâm not saying the staff donât deserve it Iâm saying cost it properly so they know the value of their full package when they are comparing themselves to supermarket jobs.
December 11, 2022
Indeed. There needs to be much more accountability in the public sector, and we need to see officials who have failed being removed. Not shuffled to another sinecure but fired. The governor of the Bank of England would be a good place to start, but he seems to be immune from accountability. Obviously the people running the home office should be subject to a wholesale clearout. Whoever was hired or perhaps in-sourced couldnât possibly do a worse job.
More generally I think a very strong message would be sent if quangos could simply be closed, and all the staff made redundant, when it is clear they are either ineffective or – which is often the case – actively damaging and working in direct contradiction to the intentions of the elected government. Apart from anything else we need to save money. I think I saw there has been a 20% / 100k person expansion in the civil service since 2016. Was anyone crying out in 2016 that we need more civil servants?
December 11, 2022
R,
Tories increased tax inspectors by 2,000 under Osborne. 91,000 under current nutters. JRM was going to cut head count by 91,000 Sunak reversed it. He wanted tax rises not cut big state. I do not understand JRs blog when his party and govt deliberately made decisions that brought this about. What did he expect?
December 11, 2022
JRM talks a good game but was for 3 years a senior minister in Boris Johnsonâs govt, which he still praises highly, but which presided over a highly statist, social Democrat expansion of welfarism and of the state. Covid and then Ukraine provides some excuse but is not adequate. They should have started to move on all these issues immediately after the 2019 election. They missed the boat.
December 11, 2022
This poor performance by the department managers is entirely due to the juniority in years and lack of business experience of many ministers. They arrive after election all fresh and green to be greeted by a bored, yearning for retirement 50 + year old who spins a story of overwork and staff shortages. The minister won’t rattle his cage as he can’t afford to lose his MP’s salary with a young growing family hence we slide further down the scale.
Unless the standard of selection of candidates is raised we will slide even further down hill, wasting taxpayers money and leaving the Civil Service to run the country.
December 11, 2022
“Ministers need to engage more with the Chief Executives and senior officials who are meant to manage these matters”
To which I would add…and the power and readiness to sack them if they don’t deliver.
December 11, 2022
It’s 8.30 on a very cold, frosty winter morning. There’s no sun and very little wind.
This is what is producing our electricity in Gigawatts:
Gas: 20.8
Coal: 1.3
Nuclear: 5.6
Solar: 0
Wind: 1.5
It’s obvious, we need to blow up the remaining coal-fired power stations; close down the gas ones; carpet farmland with solar panels and triple the number of bird and bat destroying windmills.
December 11, 2022
Off topic.
The EU have only hinted that they might be able to improve the NI Protocol. What do our stupid ministers do? Announce to the world that the bill currently going through will be put on ICE!!!!!! How bloody stupid.
We have had SIX years of the EU leading us to believe they might amend an agreement only to waste months and years in fruitless negotiations. Rishi and Co must be out of their minds
December 11, 2022
Wind contributing 4% to the national grid this morning,gas 65%.
In a just world all supporters of NetZero would have their power cut off to keep the elderly warm unfortunately we are not able to be that selective.
December 11, 2022
Sir John, I think most of us know that the UK is no longer a democratic self governing country and the Conservative Government has allowed this to happen. Who set up the various organisations you refer to and devolved power to them ?
But to be fair, if that’s the word, both major parties no longer have the skills and people to actually run a country for the benefit of the ordinary citizen.
As they can’t run the Country for us they run it for themselves and what they can get out of it. Not all MPs but there are not enough of them now to do anything about the terrible situation the country is in.
One could also say this about the Unions. Run for Political aims first members second. Setting strikes for Christmas is not getting at the Management in normal working hours. Can’t they strike after the New Year?
December 11, 2022
What accounts for the lack of talk about following the decisive example of the supposedly beloved of Lefties “adult in the room” Joe Biden? He was willing to stab his own rail workers in the front, even outrageously denying them paid sick leave (whilst their health is often hazarded through their work).
December 11, 2022
Np matter what the aim there is no law to force anybody fro removing their labour. This is a very sticky wicket and one which can snowball. The party machine needs to bear in mind that the PM was not chosen by the electorate and would probably never be. Looks like a strong case for reform.
December 11, 2022
Indeed John, clearly the current system is not working at all is it !
I really do think it is now time for a complete shake up and rethink of the whole political system, and the idea of State provision/involvement of so many services.
You have listed a number of failing services yourself, but then we have the Police, the Justice system, Social Services, the whole complication and plethora of a so called Benefits system, and of course the NHS, etc etc.
We are now in a place where virtually anything and everything the Government touches, or is responsible for, is failing, and it’s always a very expensive failure.
Quite how we can resolve this mess when all Political parties seem to want yet more control and more Government influence over us out here who pay for it all is beyond me, unless we have some sort of a peaceful revolution.
December 11, 2022
If people aren’t doing what they are told by ministers then they should be fired. Whitehall needs a shake up.
December 11, 2022
You in this instance are YOUR government. Not someone elseâs yours;
Youâll end up caving in to them.
Youâre just making it look like we had no option. Pay up or weâll die over Christmas what sort of power is that?
Youâre making us feel helpless.
Then the taxes will go up.
But the public canât cry about it because âeveryone supports the strikersâ weâre told.
Sorry everyone else can have food, but if you work for the emergency services and strike you canât buy food in the supermarkets. How would they like that threat.
Iâve had enough.
December 11, 2022
John and other Tory MPs are very careful not to slag off the Marxist goons and thugs running these hard left union agitators. These are people who are behaving politically. These strikes are not about pay and conditions but about coordinated political action to undermine this admittedly shite government. That tells its own story
Job for life State workers holding us all to ransom should be made a criminal offence
December 11, 2022
Why does this government have to prove constantly that they are now left wing?
They’ve given up on diplomacy and real discussion – they just want to have everyone obey them by creating ever more laws to allow their will to be enforced.
When are ministers going to do something about quangos if they end up taking the stick and not seeing their directions carried out? Surprising that they haven’t come up with a new law to manage quangos better – but no, that might be useful!
Our country worked so much better some years back when there were far less laws – the longer we go on the more life becomes complicated by unnecessary regulations… perhaps that is the intention?
December 11, 2022
I think all strikes should be banned by law but public opinion would not agree. However most public opinion would agree that strikes by health or emergency workers that endangers lives should be banned. Therefore government if it had any guts would rush through Parliament a simple bill with strong penalties to stop people who work within the ambulance or fire services or for the National Health Service from going on strike.
That would as a bonus put the Labour Party in a mess because they would then have the choice of alienating their left wing and trade unions or else alienating many voters if they opposed or even worse promised to reverse measures that would prevent deaths.
Why have any health and safety laws at all if the government won’t act to prevent deaths from striking workers?
December 11, 2022
âindependent body and quango modelâ as these accept taxpayer money they are accountable and responsible to Government therefore the taxpayer of every penny spent. The words independent etc. should not be a Governments âget-outâ of their responsibility to the money that take from others â the money Governments spend is not theirs, its ours. They were elected to act for us, not against us.
December 11, 2022
âMinisters direct, managers manage. Ministers set policies.â Within that and there can be no let out, Ministers, the Government are the de facto CEOâs of all entities that receive taxpayer funding. As such they are responsible for how these entities act and how they consume and use âourâ money.
If Ministers/The Government donât think they are in charge, donât think they are responsible for how taxpayers money is spent, they should resign. There should be a clear open transparent audit trail of every penny of taxpayer spending.
Come at it the other way, Governments take in tax, there is never any excuse for non-payment, bad reporting or late payment. Failure to do as obliged means large fines, jail even â so why should our elected members that grab this money be any different.
December 11, 2022
A massive plume of sulfur dioxide.20,000ft high as Lascar volcano in Chile erupts today âŠ.nothing to see here, nothing to do with climate change, no harm to anyone, and forget the other two last month â some suggest that it doesnât effect the troposphere nor contributes to global warning
Whatâs the Climate Change Minister Graham Stuart MP going to do !
December 11, 2022
pour a mountain of sand down the hole?
December 11, 2022
Yes, glen, âsomeâ says that sulphur dioxide getting to the middle troposphere is likely to create more condensation nuclei for water vapour to condensate around, meaning that for the same amount of water vapour the droplets will be smaller, therefore better at reflecting solar radiation with little impact on the emission of long-wave radiation, meaning a potential cooling effect.
Then as has been consistently seen in measurements by lidar and other types of measurements since the â90s the plume originally produced by a volcano goes around the earth several times but with its particle density becoming more and tenuous with a persistence being on average 18-24 months, thus making these volcanic plumes short cooling events on a climatological (30 years) timescale.
It is a rather a basic phenomenon, and you can find plenty of references about it on the web:
One of the easiest papers on the subject is:
O.Boucher, U. Lohmann, 1995: The sulphate-CCN-cloud albedo effect, Tellus B, 47, 281-300, doi:10.3402/tellusb.v47i3.16048. (available to anybody able to download something from the TellusB site, which I accept might be asking a lot from a number of people on this blog).
And the reference list includes plenty of previous studies including in-situ and laboratory measurements of this relationship, its test in stand-alone parameterisations, and inclusion into climate models.
December 11, 2022
Sir John
To sum up, everyone but everyone identifies that after 12 years this Government is still in denial of its function and purpose â to Manage the UK on our behalf.
Every thing suggest to many thiefdomâs have been created just to keep the âboys-in-a-jobâ, no accountability, no responsibility just our money down the drain. The extreme, the HoL stuffed full of people that cant get elected or proper jobs endless list of Government patronage at the taxpayers expense.
Is it any wonder that those sponsors of the Labour Party(the Unions) now want some of these frivolous âgiveawaysâ
December 11, 2022
Essential workers clearly should not have a right to strike but one essential prerequisite is that the government and employees have to accept the recommendation of pay review bodies.
Unfortunately, while the government has accepted the award for the nurses in full, the unions have not.
In the middle of a dispute is not the time to impose a no strike requirement, but when things return to normal, one will have to be introduced.
There is no way the government will be able to afford, on our behalf, a 19% increase in pay for nurses, given how inefficiently organised the NHS is.
Sturgeon has given her nurses a better deal, and that will, as with everything in Scotland, have to be paid for by English taxpayers.
It is time to think the unthinkable and transform the funding of health in England along French, or more particularly, on German lines. It has been interesting to observe that even the BBC has recently been giving airtime to this almost unthinkable heresy. It can’t come too soon.
It will have to wait until after the next election, but will Labour be able to persuade taxpayers to throw even more money at an unreconstructed NHS ? I somehow doubt it
December 11, 2022
Chris, why will the Scottish settlement have to be paid by the English. She will have to put Scottish taxes up to pay the extra.
December 11, 2022
The Barnett formula has given Sturgeon an extra ÂŁ2bn to spend but it is up to Sturgeon how she uses it.
As far as general taxatiion is concerned, taxes raised in Scotland come nowhere near covering the amount Sturgeon spend. Her spending deficit is some ÂŁ23.7bn or 12.3% of GDP. More than four times the deficit permitted for Eurozone members.
In 2020-21, It was even worse, Scotland (including a geographical share of North Sea revenue), raised ÂŁ62.8 billion in taxes, compared to ÂŁ99.2 billion of public spending. In other words, almost 40% of the money spent in Scotland was paid for by English Taxpayers. I say English, because Wales and NI also have large deficits, all of which have to be paid for by UK borrowing and English taxpayers.
December 11, 2022
Wow, thanks for the info.
December 11, 2022
Chris S
âIt is time to think the unthinkable and transform the funding of health in England along French, or more particularly, on German lines.â
According to a couple of doctors on GB News last week and two others on a video chat from about five years ago⊠it is in the pipeline to privatise the NHS, but itâs to be based on the US model. Apparently, legislation went through Parliament in July.
Reply No such plans or laws
December 11, 2022
Reply – Reply
Thank you for your answer John, because following the US model is the very worst way to go !
December 12, 2022
Why would the UK follow the USA model? There are other models to look at. France, Germany, Spain, and Italy, are there any other countries with insurance-backed free at use healthcare? There was only Romania in a league table in the EU that performed worse than the UK in outcomes.
December 11, 2022
As ordained by the UN and enforced by our civil servants, its International Mountain Day 11th December 22
Could we please just rescind our membership of the UN
They all invent work
December 11, 2022
âIt looks as if the independent body and quango model lets us down badlyâŠ.. All too often Ministers agree an aim only to discover a quango is doing the opposite and makes it difficult for a Minister to get through a desired change of policy.â
On the contrary, quangos and the civil service are working just as our current Parliament intends. The whole purpose of appointing far left âindependentâ quangos and continuing with the ânot fit for purposeâ civil service is to enable Parliament to enact their real policies whilst using the intransigence and/or incompetence of quangos and the civil service to provide Parliament with an excuse for not carrying out their election manifesto promises or the wishes of the majority of the country.
Hence we have Net Zero to destroy our economy and security with meagre, expensive and intermittent supplies of energy from Chinese supplied renewables and mass immigration to destroy our nationhood/social cohesion by turning us into a world majority country composed of many different tribes each wanting their own laws and culture.
This is promoted by Parliamentâs agitprop organisation, aka the BBC, who are tasked with frightening the population with false stories that unless we net zero our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions the world will self-destruct and that we should be blamed for âstarting the industrial revolution in Britain [as] we were the first to send the great puffs of acrid smoke to the heavens on a scale to derange the natural order.â (PM Johnson UN speech 22/09/2021) and consequently we must in future accept a lower standard of living and restrictions on travel, heating and food.
December 11, 2022
Strikes should be illegal – full stop . The country should not be held to ransom by Unions or minorities of any sort . We seem to have developed a soft soap approach to so many things and it must not happen . Government must manage ; the mayhem which now exists promises an ever declining existence .
December 11, 2022
Ministers do direct, but directors exist simply to manage managers:
Gather Facts! Weigh up and Decide! Take Action! Check Results!
Some are called Managing Directors. Many are unable to direct or too feeble-minded to manage even just one of the four essential stages.
So far as the directors aka MPs are concerned, we private individuals who pay their salaries gather facts and weigh up and decide daily. We need action to fire the bad performers without a 5-year delay. Accepting the status quo is equivalent to building an extension in premises burning down.
December 11, 2022
The government needs to get a grip of productivity in the public sector. The level of sick leave is dire and nobody does anything about it. Working from home, based on the people I know doing it, has allowed a new level of laziness and entitlement to creep in. We also have the decades long problem of workers only doing 16 hours a week and getting their income topped up by the benefits system. It’s got to the stage where financially it’s hardly worth working full time and in some cases not at all. Sunak just seems to be throwing money at the feckless whilst overtaxing the strivers.
December 11, 2022
Christine, how many hours are children at school? 6 per day in term time. Once someone has all her children in school or nursery couldnât that single parent be expected to do school hours assisting on the NLW in that school, an attached sure-start nursery which then goes on to provide child-minding in the school holidays, a nearby hospital or hospice or caring for elderly people nearby in their homes in school hours in order to get their top up benefits to improve the staffing issues? Too many people are spending all their lives on benefits.
December 11, 2022
What a frustrating shambles Sir John. Iâve long suspected the Civil Service of applying the âhand brakeâ slowing down essential policy changes post Brexit. But this also speaks volumes of weakness, inexperience and absence of determination by Ministers. This highlights the perception across the country of malaise and absence of purpose in getting manifesto commitments enacted. The patience of conservatives is now wearing seriously thin Sir John!
December 11, 2022
The thought to make the type of striking we are experiencing now is quite wrong. It indicates your leaders have no beliefs to counter them.
Where are the speeches we ought hear setting out a way of behaviour acceptable in the circumstances the country is in and a proper moral and economic solution of the problems. In the vacuum the militants with their political agenda are allowed a free rein in the weakness. All we seem to get are a few words printed on social media.
Such a superficial and false-based life your leaders live.
December 11, 2022
Lord Cruddas of ShoreditchâŠa Boris supporterâŠ
New movement to take back control of the Conservative Party.
A teeny glitter of tinsel on the frost-
bitten Christmas tree?
I did think that someone, somewhere would have to at least TRY.
December 11, 2022
I see the army have had Christmas leave cancelled to stand in for those who are going to languish at home on far higher pay. The armed forces are always there for us and the unions shoukd be ashamed. I remember at the end of the Falklands conflict the rail workers were going to strike making life difficult for those wanting to get to their loved ones. The media stopped the strike by shaming them. As some on here have said, let’s not forget all the perks they get on top of excellent wages.
December 11, 2022
Off topic, are you planning a pantomime this year? Like this four years ago:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/12/13/coming-soon-union-jack-and-the-beanstalk-a-topical-retake-on-an-old-tale/
“Coming soon â Union Jack and the Beanstalk a topical retake on an old tale”
Could I suggest “Protocol Bill on Ice”?
December 11, 2022
In old money its called appeasement
December 11, 2022
As I start to write at 14:30hrs wind is providing 1.16GW and solar 0.64W from an installed capacity of 14GW onshore turbines, 11 GW offshore turbines and 14GW of solar. Demand is 39.7GW.
The Labour Party recently announced they would âslash energy bills for good, create thousands of good jobs, and make the UK energy secureâ and âmake Britain a clean power by 2030 by harnessing the power of marine and tidal energy, quadrupling offshore wind, doubling onshore wind, tripling solar power and ensuring the long-term security of nuclear power.â
Well, the extra capacity in wind and solar will bring us a total of 5.25GW rapidly decreasing to 3.3GW as the sun goes down, assuming no change to the gods of wind.
Since there is absolutely no plan at all for any storage, is the labour Party expecting marine or tidal or nuclear within the next 7 years to make up the missing 34GW on days like today?
Or will it be just be a case of our accepting âdemand managementâ and in which case, who will be deciding as to who gets power and who doesn’t?
December 11, 2022
Well Wokingham council offices are turning off light and heat on the upper floor of their bespoke building.
Perhaps House of Commons and Lords could follow suit – but for the whole building?
December 11, 2022
Don’t restrict the right of public workers to strike, make it illegal for all of them with no exceptions. They have job security and a superior pension to anyone in private industry, so there should be no right to strike at all.
December 11, 2022
The data below is for the 24-hour period 00:00 to 23:59 10 December 2022.
Number of migrants detected in small boats: 315
Number of boats detected: 9
SirJ could you please ask every cabinet minister why this is continuing
December 11, 2022
I don’t think the penny has dropped yet, Glen. This fiasco could be retitled ‘ Who pays the Ferryman?’
The coin under the tongue of the corpse is not enough …. our modern day ferryman from Greek legend is us the taxpayer and citizen of the former Anglo-Saxon country, rapidly becoming a melting pot of avarice, idleness, corruption and intolerance.
The price to pay is simmering away gently for now, but likely to boil and burst out in all directions.
Dystopia on its way..
December 11, 2022
+many
Yes JR âŠplease do!
WHY? WHY? WHY?
AnywayâŠI thought that Border Farce was on strike. So who is escorting? French bringing them the whole way?
December 11, 2022
Without Border Force how are they going to find the UK âŠ.theyâve got the RNLI as back-up, maybe even the Royal Navy
Border Force on strike December 13, 14, 16 and 17 ….and maybe christmas eve so they get a nice long holiday
December 11, 2022
Glen. Not the army though who have to do their jobs.
December 11, 2022
Sir John. Do you remember the Sir Humprey-ism in ‘Yes Minister’. It was a good TV program?
That is exactly what is going on now.
December 11, 2022
The structure of the services paid for by taxpayers therefore the responsibility of MPs is far too complex
for Ministers to manage. Take Defra for example, which is responsible for farming and fishing and Saving the Planet. Why does it need a management board of people who know nothing about either farming or fishing with advice only from someone whose expertise is in Saving the Plant? No wonder our farmers are being paid for rewilding their farms and covering them with windmills and our fishing grounds sold off to the EU and also obstructed with windmills. Get rid of the management board and break up defra into a farming ministry, a fishing ministry and close down the Environment department to pass its functions to local management boards. How about the elephants and the porpoises? We are not located in Africa and we do not have a Pacific seaboard so our civil servants should not be wasting our money on such issues.
December 11, 2022
Does it need A Saving the Planet department? No. There is already one in the Energy department.
December 11, 2022
It would seem that even Labour can no longer avoid criticising the NHS for its very obvious failings through and since the pandemic. Root and branch reform is needed along the funding lines used in Germany. Even the BBC is allowing discussions about it on their programmes !
The sacrifices people made to “protect our NHS” now seem laughable, faced with the collapse in services despite billions of extra money being spent. In a recent article I read, the NHS was the very worse health system in Europe for the drop-off in procedures performed during the pandemic.
It makes you wonder what the staff were all doing during that period, while Nightingale Hospitals, set up at a cost of hundreds of millions, went completely unused, and routine operations almost ground to a halt.
Pay demands of 19% are simply laughable in current circumstances and cannot be conceded.
I am pleased to see that at last the God-like status accorded to the NHS is being seen for the joke that it is. Given the pay demands, the collapse of services and billions more spent, how many of us would go out in the street and clap the NHS now ?
December 11, 2022
That’s scary stuff …I’d bet 99% of MPs have never seen that – they’d all want a pay rise
December 13, 2022
You are quite right. Government’s role should be in making policy, rather than in executing it. But taking health as an example, the obsession with a public sector delivered service is ideological and wedded to the past. Those who can afford it are fortunate to be able to access a well run health service that thrives under competition.
Private healthcare paid for through insurance works well. Perhaps it should rankle that some of this offers additional and lucritive second incomes to NHS consultants, although actually this makes an important point well – these are consultants who are able to deliver well in the private sector, whilst struggling with long waiting lists and poor equipment and service in the public sector. Not perhaps difficult to work out where the problem lies.
I hear some say that we should accept more tax to get a better service, but what we see is we are paying more tax and getting a worse service. Remind me how long waiting lists are in “our NHS”! And now they think they should be entitled to strike for more pay. Personally I am in favour of choice. I would happily pay health insurance and be able to choose what it covers and who I buy it from, and how it is delivered.
Of course this is really just an example of too much government. Ministers seem to forget that not all problems require political solutions!
December 13, 2022
Health.
Have a lot of hospitals been demolished?From 1987/88 and 2019/20, the total number of NHS hospital beds fell by 53 per cent â from 299,400 to 141,000 Kingsfund. If this is true then why are we being told there are ‘Crammed wards’? Guardian, Can we put a couple of beds back in each ward? Until the winter crisis expires.
Where are these crammed wards? I’ve been to the hospital visiting several times recently and there were a lot fewer beds per ward area than usual with empty bays. Is this a London thing, have the numbers of people in London gone up by a large number without extra hospital capacity? Kings College Hospital 724-bed hospital has it always been that size? “No room at the inn” we are told. Lots of reporting is very London-centric now. Where are the nursing crisis hospitals, are they spread evenly through England? Are there the same number of vacancies around per hospital everywhere? Which grades are short? the Degree qualified grades over 5?
Increased patients with strokes and heart attacks, is this being checked that it wasn’t the covid jabs?
Your government will find London hotels for foreigners arriving here illegally, why didn’t you requisition a local Travelodge for patients that are well but just can’t go home and put care staff (as they don’t need nursing degrees) just to help to eat, drink, get to the shower, into them? Could ex-vets be used to help with the care crisis and give them rooms in these hotels, so people are always living in them? Can’t you get the volunteers list that volunteered for the Nightingale Wards? Or alternatively, put the covid patients in a hotel in individual rooms with the specialist staff.