Markets are economic democracy in action. Free  enterprise Is essential to democracy, the other side of the same coin. Free enterprise and democracy are the strawberries and cream of the styles of government. In a democracy people have a say in who governs them. Because they can vote an elected official out of office, they can individually and with others influence the debate or persuade the representative to take their views seriously and to help them with their problems. Living in a free market, the same individuals can choose to spend their money as they see fit, helping summons more supply from the market as they with others concert their buying. They are free to offer their labour where they wish and to take a job that suits them best from those on offer. They can set up in business for themselves, providing new products and services to the market. The more democratic and economic freedom people enjoy, the more overall freedom they experience. Freedom allows choices, brings opportunities and helps find solutions.Â
     Autocracy, Communism and fascism  cannot  allow democracy and have to control, direct and own enterprise. Communism in the USSR  killed the independent farmers of Russia, nationalised industries and stole private property. Communism in China  controls prices, takes over businesses, scythes the tall  poppies of the residual private sector. Autocrats do not like successful entrepreneurs. They  want to be seen to be the source of all people need in life, so they can demand loyalty and obedience. Citizens in communist systems may be told where they have to work. They may need travel permits to move from their home city or town. They may find goods and services are rationed or limited in supply. They have no say over who governs them and little say over how they are governed. They need to mind their words as well as their deeds. They are required to conform to state standards and mouth state views.
    Free enterprise means anyone  can join the market to buy a good or service they want, or to sell one to others. In a free market all have equal access subject to price. If something is wanted and scarce the price will rise and more supply will then become available. If something is in glut its price will fall and supply will contract. Price changes will also affect demand, increasing it at lower prices and rationing it at higher. For individuals the market is the way they can have access to many of the things that make life pleasant without having to produce them themselves. Individuals and society are much the richer for exchange of services and goods, allowing specialisation, the transfer of skills and innovations, the accumulation of capital to reap the economies of scale, and to focus the best answers.
The danger is that political parties in democracies can demand too many controls and rules, limiting the choices of others and reducing the very freedoms essential to successful democracy.
February 4, 2023
There’s nothing free market about the dire nhs or the fact government is stealing 50% of gdp.
There’s no free speech when idiot running the place can’t define a woman
We are very far from a free society in Britain and that’s come about on the tory watch.
February 4, 2023
No political party on offer in the UK is proposing the end of free enterprise, and nor would they.
However, the Tories very much are, in an infantile, absolutist, false binary way – to appeal to their voters who are incapable of more developed thinking – claiming that only the total eradication of any form of social enterprise protects free enterprise.
Your comment is a perfect example of their target voter’s approach.
February 4, 2023
Binary is often good, clarity is helpful
February 4, 2023
Just for once, lad, try making your points without insulting the other side’s intelligence. Just try relying on your arguments. You’re saying the NHS and Government spending at 50% of GDP (allegedly) is part of a social market state. Perhaps, but the real question is surely whether that money is being spent in an effective way on the needs of society. Neither with the NHS, nor with government spending as a whole, does that seem to me to be the case. Government spending rewards the channel crossing and a massive amount of NHS spending is on contracted out services and bloated managerial infrastructure. That’s what needs to change, but I see no prospect of Davos fanboy Starmer doing anything of the sort, and we can expect nothing either in the dying days of the present Conservative administration.
February 4, 2023
+100
February 4, 2023
Correction, sorry: ‘Government spending rewards the chumocracy’.
Curious that ‘channel crossing’ is offered by predictive text.
February 4, 2023
đđ» Hatman, it is the lefts way of making their points, they are intelligent, youâre sub intelligent as they are the only ones offering the right opinion and you are not just wrong but thick too. They show themselves up every day. Personally, I just find it amusing what they get het up about, it is often very revealing.
February 4, 2023
NLH âclaiming that only the total eradication of any form of social enterprise protects free enterprise.â Talk about pot calling the kettle black! Where exactly does the Tory party claim that only the total eradication of any form of social enterprise protects free enterprise! Where?
February 4, 2023
Indeed nor are schools, housing, transport, universities, energy or banking remotely free markets. Free at the point of use as with schools and the NHS kills nearly all competition not easy to compete with free.
As to free speech it seems this half witted government even want to have Online misogyny outlawed, clearly this would be a blatant act to misandry by the government unless both were banned. But how on earth would they define misogyny? Yet more foolishness from this government to try to ban it. Will truth of the statement be a defence.
February 4, 2023
Doubly difficult as the definition of “misogyny” depends on the definition of “women” …
February 4, 2023
Online misogyny will only be outlawed for white males. They wouldn’t dare apply it to certain “communities” where it is a major feature of both their faith and their culture.
February 4, 2023
So Guy Verhofstadt bizarrely claims Russia may not have invaded Ukraine had Brexit had not happened.
It might well not have happened however had we not had the insanity of net zero, Germany idiotically abandoning nuclear power following an Earthquake (in Japan), the EUs insane energy policy and lack of sufficient defence spending, Bidenâs botched Afghanistan withdrawalâŠ
February 4, 2023
The Crimea was taken in 2014 wasnât it?
February 4, 2023
I.W. +
Your comment on what we have contrasts powerfully with Sir Johnâs excellent summary of what we should have and aspire to.
If only more people, young and old could have a quiet and contemplative and reasoned read of Sir Johnâs submission we could return to that productive and world-changing time of the eighties. And yes, it was world changing.
February 4, 2023
Young people are not usually taught to reason, Whitehead. They’re taught to conform to the Current Thing.
February 4, 2023
Agree Ian, everyday I feel less free under this Tory government
February 4, 2023
Good morning.
A very good piece.
We also have to consider the concept of the ‘Squeaky Wheel’. Said wheels, if they make enough noise, will, as the saying goes, receive the most oil (money). Today we have too many squeaky wheels, many of them on the government teat. Whether they be directly employed, subsidized or contractually engaged in some manner to carry out a task / project.
Squeaky Wheels are not usually an issue so long as they are effective, well administrated / scrutinized and cost effective. This and the fact that the economy is in good shape and the ratio between the amounts the Squeaky Wheel consume (money) to those who do are not Squeaky Wheels but work in the real world can supply (money).
Governments are seen as a nice client / sugar -daddy. They cannot go broke having access to endless amounts of money and, through a combination of a sympathetic media and political pressure can extort, yes extort, money from the government. And they are usually recession proof.
Nice little earner if you can get it đ
February 4, 2023
Sorry Sir John but this is slightly off topic but worth, I think, mentioning.
The first is an article from Times of India, and the second from a government website
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/explained-how-pakistan-has-plunged-into-economic-mess/articleshow/97307175.cms
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1021405/Statistics-on-International-Development-Final-UK-Aid-Spend_2020.pdf#page=5
Given the above items I link to, is it not right to ask where has ALL the money has gone ?
February 4, 2023
Mark B
Add to that List Charities, why does government give money to some so called charities, surely if their need is recognised, the public will support their cause.
February 4, 2023
@Berkshire Alan
Sorry Alan, the Government does not have ‘money’, they just rifle it from your pocket(taxes) and âgive it a wayâ then the plead poverty and take more. Its Tax payers money
February 4, 2023
Yes Ian B, it is taxpayers money but Berkshire Alan is right that it should not be given to so called charities.
February 4, 2023
To buy their political support or to show they are doing something about X or Y problem without actually have to do it.
February 4, 2023
Absolutely. The government confuses public opinion with the opinion of the minority who have time and resources to exploit the media.
That is why they are always shocked when the public get to vote.
The BBC was righlty conmdemned when is stated that JK Rowling held unpopular opinions regarding gender identity. They were only unpopular opinions in the minority space that the BBC occupies.
The government would do well to stop heeding this minority and start thinking about the majority.
February 4, 2023
JK Rowling surely holds the opinions of about 90% of the population on this issue. The people voted for Brexit despite being told not to & yet watching the BBC you might thing only 10% supported it. The vast majority were surely against HS2, the Millennium Dome, Net Zero & expensive unreliable energy, open door immigration, putting rapists in womenâs prisons⊠too.
But not if you watch the BBC or listen to most politicians.
February 4, 2023
JK Rowling surely holds the opinions of about 90% of the population on this issue. The people voted for Brexit despite being told not to & yet watching the BBC you might thing only 10% supported it. The vast majority were surely against HS2, the Millennium Dome, Net Zero & expensive unreliable energy, open door immigration, putting rapists in womenâs prisons⊠too.
But you would not think so if you watch the BBC or listen to most politicians or political parties.
February 4, 2023
A welcome article from one of the few politicians who may understand who close this nation is from a brand of authoritarianism built upon the vicious ideology of identity politics that seeks to disempower and neutralise those deemed unsuitable.
The holy trinity of race, gender and sexuality that the poisonous left now enact to infect education, workplace, new laws, control speech, take control of organisations and generally assert domination over what is said, shown and printed both in paper and net form.
Woke is a cancer designed to destroy democracy and freedom. I believe it will succeed
February 4, 2023
Ah ! The blessed ‘few’.
Not so much Battle of Britain, but Battle for Britain.
February 4, 2023
@DOM +1
February 4, 2023
DOM +1
February 4, 2023
It will Dom! If people do not throw it out. Fight the left, they are cowards at heart
February 4, 2023
Fine words. Two years ago, my daughter and a cousin of mine saw just how important private enterprise was to your party in government. They both had to close their businesses permanently thanks to Tory ministers’ ridiculous overreaction to Covid. Meanwhile the big online and home delivery companies had a field day. You hold up China as a model not to follow, but by locking down the population, whose model did your government follow? China.
It’s what your party has done in power that I care about, not fine-sounding economic theory.
February 4, 2023
HammerâŠnailâŠhead
Zorro
February 4, 2023
@R.Grange +1
And whos Industry does the UK Government support – China. Boris Johnsonâs Government was to green the planet, how, remove UK Industry and import from China.
BJâs Cabinet like all Cabinetâs was a collective, the Man may be skulking in the background but it his still his people, his Cabinet that is the Government – nothing changed
February 4, 2023
Well said.
Not only the online companies but, many a fraudster. Something that could have and should have been dealt with but, the current Chancellor of the Exchequer failed to do.
As price we are all now paying thanks to inflation.
February 4, 2023
The problem with our present government, which few people comment on, is the growing Civil Service which seems to me to be completely out of control Dominic Raab will probably agree with me. Boris’ fatal party had all the faces – except his – redacted. As their numbers grow, there is a lot of wastage and wfh. Can nothing be done? They are the real people who obstruct reform and prevent freedom to develop at the sharp end.
February 4, 2023
@Anselm +1
It is the refusal to do what they are paid for – Manage. It is the refusal to run a balances budget while expeccting everyone who pays taxes to do so.
February 4, 2023
Price is an exquisite balancing mechanism.
It maintains high value in supply and demand for commerce.
In exchange, this Conservative govt is wonky.
There is a surfeit of idiotic MPs with worthless values. Their only public demand is from those of us who care about the UK: We want them and their nuisance expelled from office with same-day delivery free of charge!
February 4, 2023
We’ve come a long way down the road in the past 30 years to the conditions outlined in your second paragraph.
February 4, 2023
Sir John you paint such a matter of faith picture of the free market and democracy which may have been true in the past in comparision to the USSR China, Middle Eastern Countries and some aspects of the British Empire.
But Western Domocorcy is now not as free as your view suggests nor does the free market operate now as you would like for the benefit of all.
Any current comparisons must be made to modern day China, Russia, Middle East , South America, and Africa.
The free market is now working to the benefit of China and Russia and the US and the West can’t compete so let’s have the excuse they are not Democratic and start WWIII. Also if some countries don’t domocraticly want a war with China or Russia they will be forced by sanctions to fall in line to support it. What’s Democratic about that.
It’s OK for Kosova to be split off from Serbia, but not Donbas to be split off from Ukraine. What’s the difference between ethnic Albanians and ethnic Russians and their Democratic choice ?
February 4, 2023
Or Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK without a democratic vote.
February 4, 2023
Quite Mark B. But no-one in the Con Party has the courage to repeal the protocol.
February 4, 2023
John McDonald. You are correct in what you say about Donbas being split off from Ukraine. Russia is right to do that. Also Russia should remain in power in the Crimean Peninsular.
February 5, 2023
Pauline
You are once again covering subjects I believe you know little about
So why should Russia keep Donbas?
February 4, 2023
JM, I sometimes feel like asking Sir John just to confront reality. But that would be too cruel.
I like his posts for what they remind me of. Conservative values as they used to be. That’ll do: where else can you find them these days?
February 4, 2023
What use is democracy when we have to choose from fictional manifestos, and candidates who lie (in order to gain votes)? Seats (and government) obtained through dishonesty are retained, are they not?
The only manifesto promise kept by the CONS is the drive to net zero, and I believe few would have voted for that if it hadn’t been rolled in with a promise to enact Brexit. Net zero was the least popular among the manifesto promises. What happened to Brexit and reduction of immigration, and the other broken manifesto promises?
February 4, 2023
An excellent description of how democracy and free enterprise should work.
In the UK in practice, we are controlled and throttled by over regulation and far too much legislation much of it bad and damaging. e.g. Climate Change Act, NZ to ruin the energy market for the fraudulent claim of anthropogenic climate change. EV’s, 15 minute cities, 20mph speed limits, suppression of free speech (now waiting for the over reach of the online harms bill).
The Corona Virus Act turned UK into a virtual police state and we can expect the govt to sign up to WHO pandemic treaty to effectively put that vile organisation in control.
Sorry Sir John, it is not working as intended. I have but scratched the surface.
February 4, 2023
Excessive taxes build paywalls, blocking places where freedom needs to reach.
Over-regulation of free speech prevents even the description of what lies behind.
February 4, 2023
@Bloke +1
How much further can this crowd sink the Country and still pretend their version of democracy is a democracy
February 4, 2023
@BOF +1
February 4, 2023
BOF +1
February 4, 2023
Read Sir John’s two descriptions of Free Enterprise/Democracy v Autocracy/Communism/Fascism and their controlled economies and then apply it to the UK.
We are supposed to have Oppositional parties so the electorate is offered a choice of policies. That is the justification for the FPTP voting system so that the most popular agenda will be followed. But instead of Oppositional Parties we effectively have a Westminster Uni-Party which operates a de facto consensus on all the major issues (whilst arguing noisily about trivia to pretend they are different) and therefore deprives the demos of a choice.
The Westminster Uni-Party has and is acting like an Autocrat on a wide range of issues. We have been dictated to on the Covid-related policies – there wasn’t even the pretence of democracy over the suspension of our Civil Liberties and Human Rights; the spying-on and silencing of dissenters; empowering the police to act like Stasi over minor transgressions; the jabby coercion and mandates.
And we are being dictated to over Net Zero and all the related “green” measures we are being told WILL be imposed, with no debate permitted and no democratic mandate. They intend banning petrol/diesel cars; banning gas boilers; imposing 15 minute cities and all the rest of the CONTROL measures which Ministers, Mayors and Councils are imposing with no democratic mandate whatsoever. Choice will be forbidden. Our lives are deliberately being made less affluent, less comfortable, more expensive, restricted and controlled. And we will be spied on 24/7 to ensure we comply.
Does that sound even remotely like Democracy and Free Enterprise?
It sounds more like Honecker’s East Germany to me. That was called The German Democratic Republic ….. and there was nothing democratic about it whatsoever.
Calling something a democracy doesn’t make it one.
It sounds
February 4, 2023
Yes, the East German Stasi would be overjoyed to know how its support of the Greens in West Germany in the 1980/90s has borne fruit in the creation of a Marxist Net Zero movement which nearly all Western politicians have signed up to.
February 4, 2023
@Donna +1
Well said as always. A Government in fear of the People
February 4, 2023
Donna, +++ +++ comprehensive, accurate, and trenchant. Another excellent analysis of the misguided lost in a wilderness of foolishness which the Conservative party/government/parliament has forced us into.
February 4, 2023
Brilliant Donna. Just brilliant.
February 4, 2023
FPTP offers a choice in the same way as a supermarket selling two competing brands of fizzy drink which look the same taste the same and cost the same. FPTP is designed to prevent democratic choice. Democratic choice pertains where every vote cast counts not where two thirds of votes have no bearing on the electoral outcome.
Tories should stop talking approvingly of a type of governance which they deliberately withhold from the electorate claiming that their choice of FPTP over the alternative vote demonstrated the electorate’s love of their preferred system which has kept them in power for 12 years despite their appalling record. Things are going very badly wrong for our country and the people are desperate to boot out the Tories without electing Labour as an alternative.
February 4, 2023
Unfortunately for years we have been indulging the desires of authoritarian powers to trade freely with us. Thus we have lost all our low paid jobs/industries.( And probably highly paid ones too).
In as much as that is NOT what the median voter would want we have now definitely joined the ranks of those authoritarian powers.
Our âdemocracyâ is an infinite string of broken promises.
February 4, 2023
@Cuibono +1
Its the same freedoms and democracy that the people of this Country enjoyed in the fictional times of Robin Hood. The people pay the taxes, the Lords protect their domain.
February 4, 2023
Intervention, regulation and public service provision are not part of the free market. Anywhere there is a footprint or financial contribution from government prices are artificially high (child care, BSL interpreting, benefits and housing) and over regulation prevents small entrants into markets.
ESG is the latest compliance scam to kill off competition from SMEs following hard on the heels of GDPR and IR35.
The problem with government reacting to “something must be done” is that something is usually a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
Leave us alone.
February 4, 2023
@Narrow Shoulders +1
1 edit, ‘financial contribution from government’ – more correctly ‘Taxpayers’ money grabbed by Government. Governments to often and like to give the People the idea they have money. All they have is a direct access to your wallet that the then refuse to be held accountable for what they do with it,
âsomething must be doneâ to often one incedent in isolation that then gets a one size fits all sledgehammer applied.
February 4, 2023
N.S. +++++
February 4, 2023
Good points NS.
February 4, 2023
Sir John,
How is it that a democratic government permits its citizens to be harrassed for so-called non-crime hate incidents, a woman to be arrested in the street because she may be silently praying, three cars of officers sent to intercept two young women walking in an open area with cups of coffee in case that contravenes lockdown confinement rules? Why is such zeal expended upon troubling our own people, when the promises made by that party when seeking election to government are still unfulfilled?
February 4, 2023
@Walt Because it is an authoritarian and not a democratic Government. The People have to be controlled or they will wander of and succeed and make this a better place for everyone. The Government will protect their own at all costs, the People just pay taxes.
February 4, 2023
Walt, ++++ and the wholly unacceptable iniquity of 77th Brigade
February 4, 2023
Walt, ++++ and the wholly unacceptable treacherous iniquity of 77th Brigade
February 4, 2023
Walt,
Agreed. Anarcho-Tyranny at play, while real crime goes unpunished.
February 4, 2023
I like the words ‘free enterprise’ much more than ‘capitalism’. Let us go for their usage!!!
February 4, 2023
Free speech would be nice too. But we have the 77th Brigade, Neil OâBrian types, the âministry of truthâ and soon the dire online censorship bill too.
February 4, 2023
For real democracy to happen we need proportional reprepresation for our voting system. We need to close down the house of lords in favour of a smaller elected upper chamber. The Royal family needs to take a back seat – we have to shske off the medieval trappings of the past. Legislation should be brought in so that any media outlets or politicians found to be telling blatant untruths to the public for whatever reason will be brought before the courts to answer and if convicted jailed.
February 4, 2023
@Jacob – I disagree, proportional reprepresation means the minority(the marginal activists) dictates to the majority.
All that is needed is for constituants and not parties to select then choose who should represent them. In the same way all funding for electoral campaigns should only come from the constitaunacy. After all an MP is there to represent their Constituants first. It is possible to reason Political Parties are the real enemy as it is the Leader of a Party that for the most part choses candidates â the only criteria being do you âlove meâ and will you defend me against all comers.
February 4, 2023
Ian B. You have made some valid points there.
I wondered whether we would be better served if Parties did not have Central Offices.
Bit topical at the moment.
I also wondered way back, if the Whip System in Parliament could be abolished.
Probably both ‘pipe dreams’.
February 4, 2023
I’d propose a different system. PR just rearranges who gets to the trough.
First we need the right of explicit informed consent as a basic human right. That protects minorities against the tyrany of the majority.
Second lets have referenda by proxy. You get to nominate an MP as your proxy – any MP. It’s then proxy votes that are needed to get any bill passed.
If you are labour voter in a tory seat, you get your vote the same as every one else.
You don’t have to compromise on a manifesto.
You can say no to anything not in a manifesto.
If they implement something that harms you, you invoke that right of consent and say no.
You can change your mind at any time.
That gives the control back to you.
February 4, 2023
Jacob :
Sounds just like a very authoritarian Communist manifesto to me, particularly your last sentence.
February 4, 2023
An elected upper chamber risks gridlock. We can learn from our history: a revising chamber, advisory only, but in future with a tightly restricted number of appointees selected from such as former senior politicians (e.g., those who have held one of the three great offices of state or have a record of long and constructive service in the Commons), successful business people, retired judges, hereditary landowners resident in the UK (they tend to have a longer view and an interest in stability). No place for virtue-signalling appointments.
February 4, 2023
Proportional representation puts the emphasis on the party not the person. I would rather vote for the person.
The problem we have is those most suitable for running the country are already too committed to running their successful businesses, and can’t tear themselves away for a career as an MP.
February 4, 2023
There needs to be some constraint on the purely free market. A person who is genuinely unfortunate may need the compassion of others. It is my belief though that compassion should come from the neighbour not the state.
Otherwise I agree. Why do I have to contribute like everyone else ÂŁ500 a year to the railways whether I use them or not. Can I not at least have ÂŁ500 worth of rail tickets?
February 4, 2023
Yes Dave, Iâve always thought that, if each household has to contribute x amount per year then every household that contributes rather than lives off benefits should get ÂŁx worth of rail travel to take outside of peak times to fill up trains that would otherwise be running near empty.
February 4, 2023
You say that democracy and free enterprise are opposite sides of the same coin. If all entities within democracy are of equal influence you are possibly correct. In the UK we run an illusion of democracy in which the people have a say every five years but in between the collectives of influence run things to suit their specific interests. In effect subverting democracy, ignoring the expressed will of the people. Failing to implement Brexit is a classic example over the past five years. Allowing those mostly same collectives of interest to subvert democracy and oust a democratically elected prime Minister all too recently is another. A General Election is the meerest gesture towards democracy. After the great event, Parliament, the CBI, the TUC and individual unions, and the Civil Service act as they wish, bulldozing government in whatever direction suits their interest. Cohercion, blackmail, and black ops all being in the tool box.
Free enterprise being one side of the coin, yes, but only if the people are allowed the means to exercise it by retaining the means to do so. Here in the sham democracy of the UK they are not because government prevents it by confiscating the means under a raft of guises all simply explained under one word Taxation. Taxation is used to severely limit free enterprise and replace it with a whole gamut of we know best schemes, guaranteed to expensive failure through government lack of thought through vision or the competence to complete it on budget. Just like their Communist counterparts.
The answer is more electoral direct involvement via the government hated referendum, and a more concensus range of representation in Parliament via proportional representation. The latter I am a late convert to, believing that if everyone has a say on the colour of the curtains in the golf club you end up with a compromise eyesore. However so beit. Better the eyesore from which nobody escapes responsibility.
February 5, 2023
Whether you choose to moderate my piece or not you should have heard Neil Oliver on the subject of democracy and the usurping of it by government last night.
February 4, 2023
I agree that democracy and free enterprise go well together but I would also say that free enterprise is part of the human condition.
We are natural traders, from kids in the playground to big business.
That is why the Left always fails in government, as the current government/civil service is doing.
February 4, 2023
But does economic democracy the only democracy worth having? Assuming a bijection between democracy and free entreprise outside other dimensions of society is ridiculously reductionist.
Is that the only dimension that Sir John has to offer?
Does free entreprise guarantee freedom in other aspects of oneâs life?
February 4, 2023
âDemocracy and free enterprise reinforce each otherâ However this is not permitted in the UK. Â
Autocracy, Communism and fascism  cannot  allow democracy and have to control, direct and own enterprise â it is also the way this UK Government operates. It seeks controls on people first for no reason other than is is in fear of them. Our so-called democratic Government isolates itself, from management responsibility then hides behind the very same. It refuses to do what we pay them to do. If the taxpayer is paying, then the taxpayer should be represented by what should be considered the democratic process. However, the Civil Service, the BoE, the OBR and so on and so on dump there cost on the taxpayer and the Government refuses to hold them to account â that is not a democracy. That is Autocracy, Communism and fascism.
Governments, this Government in particular thinks that free enterprise is when they manipulate the outcome and not the Consumer. Simple example the energy market is not in any way shape and form offering consumer choice. The sale price is fixed so as to exclude competition the price sold has no relationship to cost.
You can go on and on with these illustrations, free enterprise is just that – competing without the interference of Government, authorities etc. You rise or fail from responding to the Customer.
February 4, 2023
Thank you for making this important defence of free enterprise, the ultimate liberalism and respect for others, allowing us all the freedom to make our own choices. Democracy and freedom of expression are under increasing attack and it is a breath of fresh air to see you stand up to these authoritarian vested interests.
We live in a world where free enterprise is routinely vilified by the overwhelming majority of media and by virtually all political parties and civic institutions.
May I suggest that tackling the BBC, with its overwhelming bias and coercive funding is a good place to start in defending freedom of speech.
February 4, 2023
Off topic, congratulations on adding your name to Early Day Motion 828:
https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/60552
“That this House calls upon the Government to withdraw the Official Controls (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2023 (S.I., 2023, No. 17) because they are injurious to the integrity of the UK Internal Market in circumstances where the Northern Ireland Protocol has not been replaced by new arrangements that respect and protect Northern Irelandâs place in the UK and that they thereby violate the New Decade New Approach Agreement; notes that the Regulations give effect to a customs border that divides the United Kingdom, treating Northern Ireland like a foreign country … ”
I emailed Sir Jeffrey Donaldson recalling when the EU forced us to apply export controls on PPE and asking:
“For clarification, would replacement of EU import controls by UK export controls come within the scope of new arrangements that you could support?”
February 4, 2023
@Denis Cooper +1
Sir John one of the few MP’s that understand their purpose. We are only in this wretched hole because the HoC, the Government are still in refusal of what it means to be a Democratic Sovereign State, and not as the EU says and EU Colony
February 4, 2023
I’ve emailed my MP and asked her to add her name, given what she said three years ago:
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/theresa-may-no-uk-pm-could-agree-to-brexit-withdrawal-text-on-northern-ireland
“She said: “The draft legal text the Commission have published would, if implemented, undermine the UK common market and threaten the constitutional integrity of the UK by creating a customs and regulatory border down the Irish Sea.â
And dramatically, she added: âNo UK Prime Minister could ever agree to it. I will be making it crystal clear to President Juncker and others we will never do so.â”
February 4, 2023
I most certainly hope that your cabinet colleagues are reading this article today âŠI sometimes fear that the parliamentary party have forgotten what democracy, freedom of choice and capitalism actually mean
February 4, 2023
First junior minister: “Good article by Sir John Redwood today. Reminds us of how lucky we are to live in a Western democracy where free enterprise is respected. Look at all these examples of how horrible dictatorships all around the world stamp out quality of life, because they don’t believe in free enterprise.”
Second junior minister (reading the article): “I’m confused. All these crackdowns on freedom here in the UK. Lockdowns, 77 Brigade snooping on online discussions, banning ICE cars, demonising gas boilers, ULEZ zones, travel restrictions in the cities, trying to tell us what we mustn’t eat and drink. That’s not exactly consistent with free enterprise, is it?”
First junior minister: “You’re right. If any of these products were bad for us and had better alternatives, or if any of these lifestyle choices were obviously harmful, people would be quick to make their own minds up. Let’s tell our boss…” (Enter Cabinet minister.)
Cabinet minister: “What’s all this wicked talk about freedom? People need to be controlled and told what to do, even if they don’t realise that? How else would it be possible for me and my cronies in the globalist elite to enjoy our lives? Now, get my bags backed for the WEF blowout and finish writing my speech for the COP bash! And get yourselves booked on that Common Purpose course…”
February 4, 2023
David Cooper. Thanks for that. We have to laugh sometimes or we would cry.
February 4, 2023
+1 …..its not funny when true
February 4, 2023
@David Cooper
That’s why they keep up the pretence of saying democracy when they are manipulating the opposite.
The starting base for democracy would be for constituents to select those that should even stand in elections. Then it should be the constituents that choose who actually represents them. However, this were the Party System distorts they lock all those that haven’t sworn allegiance to the gang leader out.
February 4, 2023
Free enterprise?
The Lords have spent ÂŁ7 million on a door. That’s 7,000 min wage peasants entire tax for a year, spent by the elite.
There’s no free enterprise there. The Lords spend it and then the state extracts the cash, with threats of violence if you don’t pay.
February 4, 2023
Just wait till you see the bill for revamping parliament
February 4, 2023
@LB +1 exactly
Under what pretext does anyone in the Lords think they have a right or a say above that of anyone else, they have no support, moral or otherwise. They offend Democracy
February 4, 2023
Why do so many choose to ignore the lessons of history – Quite clearly communism/ hard socialism are destructive forces that rely on dogma and force, with nothing worthwhile ever coming out of them. And yet so many weak minds are in love with the idea that everything and everybody are equal to everything else.
That excludes the ones demanding the destruction of democracy for their own benefits, and there are too many in this world that pursue this course to wreck anything decent and make themselves top dog.
There has never been a need for heavy government – for some reason our belief in government overtook reason, for there is no need of a big nanny state that we have now, no need of so many petty regulations, but that is what parliaments do , it seems.
What we do need is real education, self respect and the ability to think for ourselves – to live our lives as we see fit, with responsibility and common sense. It’s only the weak minds who cannot do these things who insist that we need rules for everything. We have morals FGS – let’s use them!
February 4, 2023
Exactly! The âmarketâ is where people âvoteâ with their money every day. If you donât âwin enough votesâ you are out of business. âThe Marketâ, which many politicians wish to control, is âThe Peopleâ.
No state institution can stand against âThe Marketâ – when the People move the power they exert is formidable. We saw them move in 2016 and demand the power to sack their lawmakers.
Politicians who wish to use state power for their own aggrandisement and enrichment are afraid of the Market.
So they self-identify as the sort of people to whom we do not want to lend our sovereignty.
We, the people, must âshopâ for our politicians on an individual basis as we do a cabbage in the market. If the cabbages donât look good, substitute with a different top quality vegetable.
February 4, 2023
I think the key statement in this excellent post is: ‘Autocrats do not like successful entrepreneurs’. It explains so much about why we are in our current mess. All Civil Servants, and the huge majority of the leading figures on both sides are basically now autocrats: they consider they are there to rule and regulate, not to serve and facilitate. This seems to apply to Sunak and Hunt, just as much as it does to Starmer and his cronies. The real divide between Labour and Conservative is to narrow to call and it now makes little practical difference which is in power.
When someone of a different view briefly obtained office, she was immediately trashed by the status quo, and while I concede that support has to be earned, what happened exposed to full view the Conservatives’ true colours, which are far from Blue, though historically we must not forget that Blue was the Whigs’ colour, so perhaps we have gone full circle!
We can only hope that someone with similar views to yours emerges to lead the Conservatives, after Sunak loses the coming election, as I hope he will, because with him and Hunt standing in the way Democracy and Free Enterprise seem a lost cause.
February 4, 2023
Freedom , opportunity and choice are missing , inspiration is in the doldrums ; who is to blame ?. Rigid constraints limit severely a – so called democracy ; talent moves abroad . I returned to the UK in 1961 after spending 10 years in the Colonial Education Service in Bermuda ; the inspiration at the time was ” We’ve never had it so good “, that was the cry from the then Prime Minister. I trusted this stimulation , changed careers and in 2 years established my own business . What is the set up today ?. I despair .
February 4, 2023
Such sensible words John, keep up the good work, thanks.
February 4, 2023
Yes, I agree with what you say about markets and democracy, but we also have to recognise that the state has a part to play in preventing exploitation and monopolies and handling market failure and externalities. Parks and natural spaces are important but is it practicable to charge for them?
February 4, 2023
Lightbulb momentâŠ
The reason the govt is so wedded to HS2 is because it plans to shut all airports except Heathrow, Glasgow and Belfast.
By 2029.
February 4, 2023
Precisely.
February 4, 2023
It is clear to everyone, including even the communists, that it is prosperity which brings a population which is both numerically and socially stable and one which wishes to look after the environment/planet.
As evidenced by the West, prosperity is brought about by freedom of speech and action, meritocracy and the access to cheap, abundant and reliable energy.
The fifth column communists in the West are attacking freedom and meritocracy with wokery and diversity and intend to destroy Westâs economies by destroying its access to cheap, abundant and reliable fossil fuel and nuclear energy by replacing with expensive and unreliable renewables.
The CAGW/CO2 scam was initiated by the communists. There is no climate crisis as evidenced by the existence of only very weak trends in weather. We have some beneficial warming at 0.13 degrees C per decade after the Little Ice Age and the warming after the Pleistocene Ice Age just 11,000 years earlier has absolutely no anthropological explanation. Furthermore recent work by Wijngaarden & Happer even shows that doubling CO2 has a negligible GHG warming effect.
February 4, 2023
A good article. Sadly your second para (description of Autocracy, Communism) sounds increasingly like the society we actually live in.
The direction of travel needs to change. Unfortunately none of the main political parties are willing to do a U-turn on this one.
February 4, 2023
Well Said!
February 4, 2023
Well yes Sir John. You start by painting a rather idealised picture of how our country is, or should be, run.
Your final sentence is true. However it is obviously intended to be taken as only true of Lab/Lib/Green.
Now that is definitely the pot calling the kettle black!
Which Party curtailed all our freedom and ruled by dictate due to Covid19 scaremongering?
Which Party is still interfering in free enterprise because of the scaremongering over non existent global warming?
Just two examples. There are many more and others have made similar points today as myself.
Personally I believe much of the problem of why democracy and free enterprise are not reinforcing each other here today is because the elected representatives are not running the country.
Civil Servants are ruling us – and quangos – and the like.
Your Party contains no one courageous enough to rectify that. The other Parties don’t want to.
The mainstream media obediently repeat all scaremongering in the hope they will be rewarded by future ‘perks’, as they were during Covid19.
February 4, 2023
The Tory party quite obviously doesn’t believe in democracy. The elected leader was turfed out when she actually tried to “go for growth”, to be replaced by a “leader” who clearly believes that high taxes are the way to encourage enterprise.
The scared witless turkeys who enabled it are deluded if they think that will save their seats; it’ll be a fantastic Christmas for Labour.
The Tories haven’t had a decent leader since Thatcher, and “Runaway Dave” Cameron would have been the worst…if it wasn’t for May, Johnson and Sunak.
February 4, 2023
@ Jacob âPoliticians telling blatant untruths for whatever reasonâ. So that will be all the election manifestos and about half the time (for most of them) they a speaking. The reason will be to try to get into power.
Generally politicians say two types of things:-
1. Thing so obviously true they are not worth saying such as:-
âWe want to have an excellent, efficient, well staffed healthcare system with minimal waiting list or delays in treatment or we want an integrated, efficient, safe, clean, reliable, coordinated and cost effective transport system.
2. Or just pure lies.
The NHS is the envy of the World, the current inflation was caused by Covid (no not money printing, net zero and lockdown), expensive unreliable energy was caused by Putin (not net zero and energy market rigging), we must reduce our ~ 1% CO2 to save ourselves from a fiery hell in earth, the covid vaccines were safe and effective and has saved millions of lives (not they did very sig. net damage to people)
February 4, 2023
I admit to being confused. I suppose like most things there is no black and white definition of democracy and free markets and definitions may vary. To provide me with a ranging shot how do you describe creating the Act for “Net Zero 2050” was that market forces and/or democracy at work? In creating an Act for “Net Zero 2050” that was a fulfilment of a manifesto pledge, would that make it democratic and/or as a result of market forces?
If there were a referendum on “Net Zero 2050” would that be democratic and/or as a result of market forces?
It seems to me that those to be treated “democratically” need all to be asked the same question and would need to be in a large population that includes a balance of those who might benefit and those it might cost. Whereas if such a large population were not asked the question and a smaller population were asked on the same topic a different question the answer to the question might be quite different. In which case whether democratic and/or market force doesn’t it depend on the question, who asks it and of whom it is asked?
February 4, 2023
Elsewhere and in a similar vein. The Government is trying to introduce an all encompassing âOnline Safety Billâ. We know where that goes, the salami slice of freedoms, the jobsworth stretching the intention and the meaning. Even more the removal of Democracy, they want to control democracy to suit and reinforce their own personal egos view of it.
Any one using the internet, as we are here and posting an opinion is doing just that posting an opinion. It would be a strange bizarre society where a Government creates Laws banning anyone disagreeing with someone else’s opinion â that’s exactly what is happening. Why are we getting Government laws to ban free speech, when they should be passing laws to reinforce free speech.
The under age are safe they have responsible parents and only allow browser surfing to areas they approve. If that not happening it is the parent or responsible adult that is in neglect. How many would permit a child to walk along a motorway, why does anyone think the internet is different.
Others that hit the internet, the so-called social sites, they are their solely for self promotion they are not forced into voicing an opinion, they are not even forced to be there, they just want to influence others. Social media sites let you define who views your opinion and even allows you to be block people outside your approved circle, it is the contributor that decides. However, once they do voice an opinion and when they donât get the âwe love youâ response from everyone â they cry hate, it should be a crime. Why?. Not at any stage did they block any one, neither did they take the option of moving elsewhere or even contemplate not voicing an opinion.
This is Government deflection, to be seen to be doing something anything other than get their own house in order, start managing, start creating a balanced budget.
February 4, 2023
We need to reset democracy and the peoples freedoms by leaving the EU in its entirety, leaving the UN in its entirety, restrict MPs and Lords to the UK ie no more all party groups to Mauritius; and install a fully elected second chamber, remove all mayors and police commissioners and return power to elected councils
Surprisingly GBNews Neil Oliver at 6pm is discussing this same topic ie Institutional Democracy
February 4, 2023
Find the list of All Party Parliament Groups (APPG) (lollies) here
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmallparty/230111/contents.htm
February 4, 2023
I think this blog is seriously inaccurate and I disagree with this former Oxford University History Fellow on this.
For a start free markets long pre-dated Democracy, let alone real democracy (where every adult can vote). Even in ancient societies merchant shipping was generally a capitalist enterprise.
It is also significant that the free market in Capitalism depends on people having some merchandisable commodity (usually one’s labour or one’s money)to participate in it. Nowadays governments transfer some taxpayers’ money to the otherwise excluded (pensioners, disabled, unemployed people) to enable all adults to be part of the ‘market’.
Nor are undemocratic regimes necessarily hostile to free markets. Many military dictatorships were not. Pinochet in Chile was supportive of Capitalism, as was Spain’s dictator Franco. It is unfair and unrepresentative just to highlight those dictatorships whose pretext for getting power was to supersede Capitalism.
Nor are democratically elected governments necessarily good for free market Capitalism. India’s Congress Party was hostile to the notion of big private business and Sweden’s Socialist governments for a long time caused successful businessmen to locate abroad. There are tensions within democracies. Democracies tend to favour free enterprise in that electorates are usually intolerant of economic failure and curbing Capitalism soon causes failure. Anti-capitalists also rely on people to run their alternative system who are generally prosperous themselves – I don,t hear of Labour M.P.s, even left wing ones, volunteering to go onto an egalitarian average pay and take a 60% pay cut. Counteracting that in democracies most of the electors are relatively poor and would like to get more money by curbing the wealth of the rich as they see it.
So the relationship between democracy and free enterprise is much more mixed and nuanced than John Redwood presents here.
February 4, 2023
In subsequent diary entries, I would like to know Sir Johnâs take on Liz Trussâs article in DT this evening In particular reference to LDIs, OBR. Also why she brought in Jeremy Hunt. Thank you
February 5, 2023
Recent Bill Gates interview with the BBC highlights your reasoning as opposed to the more recent Putin stance.