There is much humbug about independence and diversity. The Bank of England we are told has to be independent. As a result it fails to see an obvious big inflation. Its hopeless groupthink follows the Fed and ECB to inflationary  disaster whilst Asian Central Banks keep inflation  down. It rejects all diversity of view or changes to its models.
There is then the famously independent BBC ,advocates of giving into the  EU and adopting international consensus thinking especially when it is wrong. No airtime to put the case against Quantitative easing or ultra low rates in 2021 or to put the case against excessive QT now as it delivered trouble for the pension funds last autumn. No wish to hear from Brexiteers about how  we could use our Brexit freedoms.
Key posts like Bank Governor and BBC chairman have always been made by the government of the day. Party political bias is not a problem with the BBC, and government telling the Bank what interest rate to set is not a problem. The fixed, limited, narrow and often wrong ways of thinking and forecasts of these bodies is a problem. They need more diversity of thought, and need to consider more independent challenges to their connsensual idiocies.
April 30, 2023
Good morning.
Independence from whom ? None can be said to be independent and none can truly be held accountable. Only the BBC can be held to account by people no longer watching live TV and cease paying the Telly Tax.
As for other government funded bodies, they are very much removed and independent of the people and nation they serve. ie I cannot withhold my money and my support in order to effect change like I would a private enterprise.
Lump it or loathe it, we’re stuck with these ineffective government bodies.
April 30, 2023
The âhopeless groupthinkâ is also much in evidence within parliament and government itself.
The Bank and the BBC donât seem to be troubling Sunak and Hunt.
April 30, 2023
Another question you may like to ask is why Hunt and fishy are dead set on bankrupting us with the increases in taxes and the continued VAT for tourists.
They are driving business and investment away in I suppose is to achieve net zero.
April 30, 2023
…perhaps, thats the reason government(s) invented quangos
April 30, 2023
Indeed Sunak had clearly now become a BBC think, climate alarmist, remoaner, tax borrow and waste & Consocialist. This after his period as Chancellor where he caused more of the current problems with his money printing and other incompetence.
I was rereading my Group Think book by Christopher Booker just now is it very good – not much has changed – alas.
Shadow Education Sec. says private school can pay 20% VAT on fees without raising fees. Sure dear the money will just materialise from thin air will it not!
Your mad policy to make people for four times over (rather than the current three) will cost far more than it raised and do huge harm to education levels in the UK.
So dearest Bridget – are you a liar or just a deluded fool?
April 30, 2023
Indeed. Net stupid, pro EU, mass immigration and highest taxes ever is ingrained within the legacies. We want shot of them.
April 30, 2023
Your opening rhetorical question nails it.
“Independence” in its purest sense is always an impossible ideal re these things.
We should be honest with ourselves and accept the political backgrounds – varied in a healthy society – of public appointees, and, like some other countries equally accept the political perspectives of public service broadcast personalities, indeed they may offer helpful insights when it comes to uniting a country.
Some might suggest that the unity is the very last thing that others want, however…
April 30, 2023
NLH. What the hell are you talking about?
April 30, 2023
‘Telly Tax’? – perhaps a better name would be ‘Champagne Socialist Viewing Tax’?
April 30, 2023
Yes, we are stuck with these undemocratic bodies because the “much humbug about independence and diversity” which Sir John mentions comes from his own party!! The Conservative government is the problem, NOT the solution. Only when the Conservative Party has been destroyed can we hope to see the rise of a truly patriotic party. It’s just such a shame that Sir John refuses to be part of this democratic and patriotic renewal.
April 30, 2023
Good Sunday morning.
Do I detect rebellion in the air….”their connsensual idiocies.” Goodness me!
You are of course correct with your irritation over bias and incompetent groupthink. I think it’s been brought about by 12 years of virtually free money, and no need to balance the books. Government has got fat and lazy!
Chickens coming home soon, methinks…
April 30, 2023
Time for clever investors to make a LOT of money!
April 30, 2023
Also time for stupid ones to lose a LOT of money.
First Rule of Investing “Don’t Lose Money” Second Rule of Investing “Don’t Lose Money” – you can probably guess the Third Rule.
April 30, 2023
Alas have not the normal meaning of those words have been distorted to serve the ends of the incompetent, stupid and dangerous? Independence now means avoiding being called to account for failings and diversity means celebrating selecting staff for characteristics irrelevant to the demands of the job. It must be doubted that the smugly complaisant public sector would welcome your wish to introduce change to improve performance, assuredly not at the Bank or the BBC.
April 30, 2023
complacent I meant, rather than complaiscant!
April 30, 2023
With independence should come freedom of thought, unbiased operational decisions and flexibility which should give these monolithic structures a leading edge when considering forward planning and settling down the financial markets that brings about a visible confidence and support of government. With this independence comes trust, responsibility and accountability.
To many the perception is that not a lot of the foregoing is happening in any real shape or form. So the question must be who is making and controlling their decisions and actions?
April 30, 2023
When Mr Redwood publicly calls for the removal of the scum BBC tax then I’ll take seriously what he writes. And while we wait for this he should expose the Marxist takeover scam of the diversity agenda that seeks domination and control rather than literal diversity
At some point Mr Redwood will become a victim of the diversity scam. I am already a victim of it as are many fathers, sons, brothers and uncles
April 30, 2023
Sir John has long been a victim of the diversity scam. Why else is he not Chancellor? The tragedy for the country is that it is not just Sir John who is the victim.
April 30, 2023
100% agree.
The drivers of all this and their supporters donât seem to realise how small the mills of revolution grind. They WILL in the end be personally affected. Like the rest of us.
Or do they have a plan?
April 30, 2023
Yes, I see that the diversity mob is now attacking the line of succession to the throne as being too white and too male even though the previous monarch was a woman and we now have ethnic minorities holding the highest positions of power in the land. Some people make a living out of hatred and our politicians need to stop kowtowing to them. Whatever diversity measures are introduced they will never be enough for the blob and innocent white males will pay the price with lost opportunities in education and the workplace.
April 30, 2023
Good post Christine.
April 30, 2023
Youâre either the solution or the problem
April 30, 2023
Many men are are hugely discriminated against in many ways. They pay more into pensions but get less pension by dying earlier, in divorce settlements (almost always when there are children), in prison sentencing terms, they repay far more of their student loans than women do too.
Also how on earth can you have a Minister of Women (and equalities)? A direct contradiction are they for women or equality?
The Rt Hon Kemi Badenoch the current Womenâs and Equality Minister. One of the more sensible MPs but even she is failing to deliver very much of value in either of her roles.
Talking of sensible MPs an excellent interview by Dr John Campbell of the excellent Andrew Bridgeford. Kicked out by appalling people at the top of this current Consocialist Party. It is not as if they have loads of excellent PMs to spare not even many competent ones.
April 30, 2023
Women only attained equal pay with men in the 1970s. Women only got equal rights to vote in 1928. Women are still on average paid less than men, this gives them lower pensions. Women lose out on promotion and job prospects because they are normally the main childcare providers. Less women are in prison than men, maybe they are better criminals and don’t get caught, who knows. Men repay more of their student loans because they tend to earn more. You can always identify as a woman and take away her right to win in sporting events if you so wish, women don’t have this option. Remember women have been downtrodden for years and it is a constant fight to be treated as equal to men and they are now losing the ground they managed to gain.
I do agree with you about Andrew Bridgen he is a beacon of hope in our dire HoCs. The way he has been treated by the Conservative party is appalling and even worse is the silence from his peers. History will prove him right and voters can see how anti democracy and cancel culture is at the heart of politics.
April 30, 2023
Christine. Re Andrew Bridgen. I totally agree with you. His interview on GB News was brilliant. Nobody in the party as far as I am aware offered him support over such an important matter.
April 30, 2023
LL, “Also how on earth can you have a Minister of Women (and equalities)? A direct contradiction are they for women or equality?” You would think women were a minority, not the majority.
April 30, 2023
If you don’t approve of the BBC tax then there’s a very simple solution: don’t pay it! I’m sick of people who whinge about this but do nothing. The answer is in your own hands. You have the power. Use it!
April 30, 2023
BP If you watch or record TV on any channel via any TV service (e.g. Sky, Virgin, Freeview, Freesat), you need to be covered by a TV Licence. If you watch live on streaming services (e.g. ITVX, Channel 4, YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Now, Sky Go), or use BBC iPlayer*, you need to be covered by a TV Licence.
April 30, 2023
I’ve been sacrificed on the alter of mediocre diversity targets which result in piss poor performance. That’s why we are all witnessing the demise of this shoddy Government and its institutions. Still diversity won, the rest of us….. didn’t.
April 30, 2023
Dom. You’re not wrong.
April 30, 2023
Somebody pointed out to me that people are NATURALLY inclined to be interested in and talk about three things:-
1) People
2) Events and objects
3) Ideas
Generally speaking peopleâs IQ goes up from 1 to 3, but their emotional quotient goes down.
I was always naturally inclined to ideas and found talking about other peoples emotional states an intellectual exercise or it would seem like superficial, tittle-tattle and gossip.
So what happens when you try to change a society by sending people who naturally think about people to think about events and people who think about events to think about ideas. Visa versa people who think about ideas to think about emotions.
Simply put, itâs a disaster.
People who naturally think about events but are told by academics they can idealism them at university then levitate events to be ideas. Look at climate change or the pandemic. Climate change supporters seems to have a cult like IDEALISM for future events. Events that can ONLY be predicted by theoretically complex, volatile and chaotic computers. Upswings in natural cycles are levitated in these peoples minds to endless linear progression. Same with the pandemic and ECONOMICS. The cults are born.
Contrary, look at what happens when people who naturally think about events and objects are told by emotional thinkers they can understand emotions as well as them. When intellectuals are unable to do so they are then told they are âon the spectrumâ if they donât have fully empathy minds and the ability to recognise subtle facial expressions and intonations in voices.
So when people who understand people are told they can understand ideas then you are left with a large group of people who think that people are all born equal apart from their emotional states. Some people call these people woke or cultural-marxists. These people tend to use emotions to control other people or bring laws in against hurt feelings as if emotions are events or objects.
This is why todayâs society looks like it does.
April 30, 2023
And it looks like a horde of babbling, spitting monkeys chasing each other up and down swaying trees.
April 30, 2023
+many
All political.
The creation of âuseful idiotsâ who will implement the agenda.
Without questioning the madness and who bask in the lies they have been told about their capabilities.
Meanwhile at the topâŠthe manipulators know exactly what they are doing!
April 30, 2023
But who is at the top, Cuibono? Because clearly it is not Sunak or Hunt.
April 30, 2023
Much truth in this and there is also a very clear gender difference. For example people training to be medical doctors (engineering on humans) are now well over 50% female whereas engineering on aircraft, electric power generation, engines, buildings, electronics, computers… is overwhelmingly male. Best not to say these (clearly & obviously true thing) if you work for a company like Google as you might well get fired for it like Damore. But this is true seem to be no defence.
Sensible stuff in the Sunday Telegraph today from Lord’s Hannan, Ridley, I F Imsn, Robert Tombs and even Janet Daley.
April 30, 2023
Wittgenstein would say that a display of an emotion is an event.
April 30, 2023
I have just been reading Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. He says that the major contribution of Darwin to modern thought is diversity. He says that God (the Rabbi is religious) provides a very wide diversity. 10,000+ different sorts of beetles! So he welcomes diversity himself. He drinks deeply from atheism, Islam (not so much), Christianity, even pagan thought.
This matters. It is why I listen to LBC instead of BBC. I get a wide diversity of views there. GB News is even better. I welcome reading the Qur’an every night and they too, in the days of their greatness, welcomed Christian stories and even monks too.
The opposition often tells truths which we do not want to hear – but ought to. that is why people ought to pay more attention to you, Sir John.
April 30, 2023
I listened to the beginning of Question Time on Radio 4 yesterday. Robert Jenrick had to hold the floor against 3 socialists arguing for open door immigration from Sudan. Where’s the balanced view? Where was the panellist to ask how many refugees these socialists would taken into their own home and support them in their medical and living expenses?
I expect a number of refugees will flee Sudan to come into this country. Only it won’t be the impoverished women and children, whose image we’ll see in charity pleas, nor the elderly with complex medical needs. It will be the fit young men with money to pay people-traffickers, but because they come from Sudan they must be treated with sympathy. None will be asked why they ran away from their country in its time of need, and who they suppose was going to fix the problems.
I switched over after the first question to Classic FM.
April 30, 2023
I wonder were the climate change religion fits into that diversity think
April 30, 2023
+1
The proponents of said âreligionâ constantly claim that so many hundreds/thousands of species are being wiped out by global warming/climate change.
Conversely it is also said that decline of species is a purely natural process.
Also, come to think, the green and the good are always,most inappropriately, restoring black bears to the Pyrenees and wild cats to Scotland etc. (to destroy farming?).
Dinosaurs to Trafalgar Square!
April 30, 2023
Not sure I can bear to listen to the ignorant, dim work, remailer lefty James O’Brian types on LBC better views are on GBnews or Talk Radio and even then they are often lefty, woke and rather irrational. Or just podcasts with Dr John Campbell, Douglas Murray, David Starkey…
“The Bank of England we are told has to be independent. As a result it fails to see an obvious big inflation.” Not just they they and Sunak as Chancellor caused it all with their money printing, tax, borrow over regulate and piss down the drain agenda, lockdowns and their moronic net zero agenda.
April 30, 2023
Colin Brazier, who mysteriously disappeared from GB News, has popped up unexpectedly on LBC. Late at night.
April 30, 2023
Not much truth from Labour, Libdems, the Green, SNP, Plaid almost the same drivel as we get from Sunak but even worse.
April 30, 2023
There is no diversity of thought permitted in today’s Western World. This is the result of Globalism. Both Political and Business. In the shorter term those in power are sheltered from the impact of their mistakes and ideology. Only the lowly citizen suffers. If someone of standing speaks out about it they are cancelled. An MP, a show host, a Doctor a professor are recent examples. Even a deputy Priminister and ex-US president can’t escape cancellation. This thinking or lack of it, is really behind the War with Russia and almost war with China. It is not really any concern for how the citizens in these Country’s are treated. It’s because they won’t join the Global Club headed up by the US and EU liberal left Governments supported (funded)by big business in the background. Even the UN is now no longer independent of Globalist ideology. No longer a collection a independent country’s working together. It has gone the way of the EU. We now have the WHO wanting to in force rules for the next pandemic. Like the Bank of England they do such a good job.
April 30, 2023
+1 SW
April 30, 2023
+1
Really Darwin destroyed The Garden of Eden.
Great big diggers and much concrete.
Now Transhumanism attempts to finish the job.
April 30, 2023
In the United Nations utopia world of equality and diversity arenât we all âtranshumanâ
April 30, 2023
The WHO proposals are truly appalling why one earth would ministers, the government or MPs want agree to this – unless perhaps they are being bribed or it is at gun point?
Dr John Campbell has excellent videos on this and many other topics
April 30, 2023
+1
From the H o C Library
âThe WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty
In March 2021, a group of world leaders, including UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, announced an initiative for a new treaty on pandemic preparedness and response. This initiative was taken to the World Health Organization (WHO) and will be negotiated, drafted, and debated by a newly-established Intergovernmental Negotiation Bodyâ
Desperate to hand over the burden of government?
April 30, 2023
+1
April 30, 2023
Stop being silly.
Your thoughts are very different from mine, but nothing prevents us from thinking them, nor, so far, from expressing them – as John kindly allows here among many other places.
April 30, 2023
I see that interest rate rises – to counter inflation unleashed by federal government – is doing a bang-up job of destroying a number of American banks, like First Republic. What were the boards thinking? And why did the regulators make such a hash of their prime function?
April 30, 2023
The interest rate rises will do a bang-up job of destroying an enormous number of happy families and young couples setting out on life’s dreams. Household budgets stretched to breaking, homes put up for sale, mortgage rates unaffordable, carpenters busy putting up boards across shop windows, long gone grown-ups returning to the homes of their elderly parents, more fuel on the fire of social misery. Yet another Government facing the scorn of frustrated voters.
April 30, 2023
The next government may inflict billeting on us as a consequence of all this cross party mismanagement – of the money supply and interest rates, and of the borders.
April 30, 2023
Fear and Greed SW – two things that drive Markets. You can see them in so many of the problems affecting us at the moment. Boards blinded by reward beyond thier dreams of avarice and Depositors suddenly made aware that they could lose everything. Chuck in a fair measure of incompetance and it’s an explosive mix.
I watched ‘Margin Call’ (again) a few nights ago. A work of fictiion but based on true events. Features a lot of fear
& greed. I don’t think LDIs would make a good movie (a bit dry) but I’m sure something will come along that will… đ
May 1, 2023
Funny, I found myself watching a clip from ‘Margin Call’ last night as well. Must try and catch the complete film at some point. I do enjoy a good financial disaster story. My favourite: the book ‘All That Glitters’, describing the wholly avoidable collapse of Barings. The average Wardroom Wine Fund audit team could have prevented the failure.
April 30, 2023
Ghastly thought.
Oh dear the banks have failed!
Weâll have to impose digital with immediate effect!
Thatâll dovetail nicely with WHO passports?
April 30, 2023
Youâre making my bank holiday weekend
April 30, 2023
The people running and working in these organisations in a senior capacity all come from the same backgrounds. Some of them may have a different skin colour these days and they may be female, so the “diversity” box can be ticked, but their backgrounds are the same. They are virtual clones.
Their parents were from the Upper Class/Upper Middle Class and either wealthy or affluent. They went to a private school; then onto Oxbridge. They took full advantage of the Old Boys’ Network when they started their careers and as they climbed the greasy pole. They married their friends’ siblings. Throughout their spoilt, privileged lives they were, and are, surrounded by people just like them, who think just like them.
Remember “that” photograph of Cameron and Johnson in the Bullingdon Club in their Oxford Days. That’s the arrogance of the Establishment on full display. And it’s why the country is in the mess it’s in: no matter how badly they fail, they still believe they’re fight and they have a divine right to rule.
April 30, 2023
Sounds like you are a civil servant. All diversity welcome except for social class and opinions.
April 30, 2023
You should stand for Parliament – you’d get my support.,
April 30, 2023
The photo you describe depicts neatly-dressed young men. Having education and money are what many others seek and achieve. The choices they make every day build, leading to what they become. Some might become rogues; most donât. Politicians lack power unless you and others vote for it. You have the right and the choices.
April 30, 2023
You have been manipulated, Donna! The people in that long faded and out of date photograph are not the establishment, not born to rule, though you are meant to think they are. Where are Blair, Brown, Campbell, and Mandelson who decided how the country was going to be dismantled and did it? Who inflicted the constitutional vandalism, who opened the borders, who debauched the Bank and the Treasury? Who politicised the civil service and the law? Who waged four unjustified wars, who capitulated to the IRA after they had been beaten and given in, who resuscitated the IRA to the position they are in today, while shunning and betraying the unionists? The Sunak regime is continuing their agenda and Cameron and Boris failed to undo it in the very short time they both had – a year for Cameron and three for Boris dominated by the pandemic and the war – but they are all outsiders compared to the Blairites and their remade institutions. Class hatred isn’t the prism through which you should be looking.
May 1, 2023
I used the photograph as an example of a small section of society which, from birth, is groomed to become the governing class and which infests Westminster, Whitehall and our governmental institutions – including the BofE and BBC.
No matter how badly those institutions fail nothing changes because, even if one clone “moves on” another replaces him/her.
April 30, 2023
Donna, Iâd love to see if that is true. A list of the top people at the BBC/BoE (all people earning over ÂŁ100,000 and which school they went to and its league table position whilst they were there, what their postcode socio demographic was that they spent most of their childhood in. Their partners and their university ranking in their specialist area.
The working class around me have always said it is not âwhat you knowâ but âwho you knowâ that helps you up the greasy pole. I always thought hard-work, merit and ability would rise you to the top like cream on milk but now, thirty years on Iâm beginning to feel that you are right and that I am wrong.
April 30, 2023
Donnna,
On the face of it I can understand where you are coming from but please don’t condemn some of the best educational establishments in the country just because the behaviour of a few irritate you considerably. After WW2 we had Grammar and Direct Grant schools in the educational mix. They processed bright pupils, irrespective of financial background into our best universities. My year of 100 boys produced 40 Oxbridge entrants, 24 with State Scholarships. The rest bar about three who entered the military went to other major universities. That same 100 won the Eton Fives championship and never lost a rugby or cricket match.
When Labour and some Conservatives started aboloshing such schools they effectively destroyed the ladder to an excellent education for thousands of children whose parents lacked the means to send them to Eton. It was the ultimate act of educational vandalism. That which you complain of is what you got and continue to get as a result.
April 30, 2023
Quite so, Agricola, and Boris was a double scholarship boy.
April 30, 2023
100% correct. Even the the average private school dullard has a better life chance than the best state school academics. Our legacies have wrecked the life chances of the non rich people of this Country with their dumbed down, useless education. All worried woke and PC diversity, not the three “r”s. Shame on you all.
April 30, 2023
They also rarely read anything scientific or numerate. Sunak goes on about Maths but his maths was not even up to working out that lockdowns, HS2, money printing, net zero… were all hugely inflationary disaster and taxing & regulating people to death kills growth and the tax base – and loses elections too.
April 30, 2023
Well said, LL. This is one of the mysteries about the Usurper. How come he doesn’t appear to understand basic accounting? Or incentives?
April 30, 2023
I take it that your first paragraph refers to The Cabinet?
April 30, 2023
Consensus, worldwide, is the order of the day and none of these institutions are independent. The governments that appoint them are not independent. They all act and speak with one voice, one groupthink, consensus.
Soon, Ofcom will become our official censor through the Online Harms Bill. Already independent voices have been removed from broadcasting (and the Con party) for being truthful and honest.
Perhaps Sir John, you need to be exposing just where this groupthink and consensus is coming from, and exposing it in Parliament!
April 30, 2023
What the BBC definately does not need are more senior political appointments from the Tory far-right in their endess attempts to infuence what they see as “bias” – but which in reality is impartial reporting of the issues of the day.
The BBC has been starved of funding for 14 years and as a result we have lost the BBC World Service, much local radio, childrens programming, any wildlife programe which supports re-wilding and now some star newsreading talent. Time for the politicians to butt out
April 30, 2023
Sir
Historically, there seems to have been a degree of financial incompetence in the B of E, HM Treasury and the OBR.
Is it time to utilise the independent opinions and forecasts of financial experts outside of the public sector ?
April 30, 2023
And in other news talking about idiocies, Liam Halligan shreds Sunakâs windfall tax on North Sea oil production now undoubtedly losing jobs and investment with the knock on of less tax in the future.
All in the name of net zero or not zero, as it happens, because vast amounts of our energy needs are shipped from places like Qatar producing vastly more CO2 and compromising our energy independence.
Environmentally and financially illiterate.
April 30, 2023
I don’t know how many times we have all said this. The Tory Government are deliberately sabotaging our economy. Corporation tax rises are also nonsensical. They have other agendas like lying about the Windsor Agrrement, mass immigration figures are about to be released, just before latest NHS waiting lists and housing crisis and planning changes. The boat people a disgrace but useful distraction. Nothing to see there.
April 30, 2023
Sir Redwood, I agree with your analysis, my question is: Why are these people (BoE, MPC), who have a lot of experience and presumably are guided by the interest of the UK citizens, are making those obviously disastrous decisions, not once but many times?
Are they lacking in economic knowledge? Unlikely.
My personal opinion is that they are consciously working on a non UK agenda, some are EU fanatics who want us to fail and âproveâ their Remain predictions of doom, others may even be close to China (Hunt?).
Just like the woke blob which has taken over universities, closed down free speech, this âeliteâ of economists running (ruining) our economy are deliberately working against the UK.
April 30, 2023
Our problem across society is that we are failing to appoint to positions of power people who are naturally capable problem solvers. In my view, one of the key features of capable problem solvers is being a fact based decision maker. Work by Daniel Kahneman suggests that 6% of people make decisions logically whilst 94% make decisions emotionally and subsequently rationalise them. I fear that too many people in positions of power are in the 94% category.
April 30, 2023
The Bank of England and the BBC have degraded and remain so. They do not now stand for England or the British. They act as if they represent some foreign power falling down with an illness, bent on causing the UK malady and great expense wasted on their upkeep.
April 30, 2023
Iâm afraid it was the truss debacle which allowed the blob to take back control. Rishi Sunak rightly judges that he should now fight only those battles which he needs to win. So raab had to be let go and now sharp, because these are minor issues in the scheme of things. We can be confident sharpâs replacement will be a blobby figure. A retired civil servant perhaps, or ex-editor of a left-leaning newspaper. Obviously outstanding candidates such as Paul Dacre who got blocked from Ofcom (i think) would be regarded as beyond the pale.
One idea would be a formal requirement for a red team-blue team exercise, televised if possible. This should be required for any field where unelected persons or bodies determine important public policy. Monetary policy is an obvious example. The BBCâs political guidelines could be another, and net zero, the climate change committee and the policies which flow from it should clearly also be subject to such a process. That way the BoE could have an MPC made up of identikit group thinkers, but once a month they be subject to (preferably public) questioning from the likes of Patrick Minford, Liam Halligan and perhaps Sir John. The discipline of it would lead to better policy.
April 30, 2023
Like old age it has crept upon us, and lack of independence of thinking is but one symptom. We have become a grotesquely risk averse society. Way back in 1957 I was taking part in a national championship, the launching of which was in the hands of our much loved Duke of Edinburgh. He congratulated us on not suffering from “Spectatoris” . The disease of the majority who merely watch. It is the rules of the mere watchers that have crept into society to its detriment. Two years later I was an instructor in survival, convincing youth that it had capabilities beyond its wildest imagination. The philosophy was to take the self realisation forward into life. On a later visit to my alma mater I discoverd a plethora of box ticking prevailed before anything considered risky, which was everything we did. Today there are councils demanding eight page risk assessments before permitting coronation street parties. This arachnoiditis of thinking has crept into all walks of life such that risk aversity is the norm. It is therefore little wonder that original thinking does not exist in the Bank of England, Treasury, Number 10 or 11 , Police Force and our civil service in general. You get blamed for decision making so group think is the norm. For those who do think and act outside the box there is HMRC to punish them for their temerity. Result they increasingly look to do it overseas. RIP UK.
April 30, 2023
Independence of thought and action… Lets not forget the Tory election manifesto.. miss/miss/fail/fail/inaction…
UK Energy… North Sea Oil/Gas is in managed decline, frozen investment by punitive Rishi/Hunt taxes.
Can’t blame anyone else now Sir J.. I still want the Brexit freedoms, scary for some, but they haven’t materialised except in mainly adverse ways..
Where is the Singapore on Thames, big bang 2.0? Rollback of unnecessary EU laws is all but shelved; draconian rules/taxes around self employment/IR35 plus landlords penalised, energy prices sky-high, sticky 10% inflation. On every front it is a bonfire or a cesspit.
Reminds me of a 70s/80s combo of Harold Wilson and Heath.
Where is Margaret 2.0 when we really need her/him/they…. meantime it’s everyone for themselves.
April 30, 2023
Sir John, it may be too expensive and take too long to turn around the tankers of the BoE and BBC. Why don’t we simply disband both oranisations?
We can re-invent both with proper management.
The brands – BoE and BBC are world-known so we should keep them. The BBC – despite it being politically out of tune with the English – still produces some good shows. The BoE can build on its 20th century reputation to try to re-invent itself for the 21st century.
There is no point in keeping the failed managements, though. Lets start afresh.
April 30, 2023
Institutions, however ancient or seemingly august they may seem, can never be any better than the people currently running them.
April 30, 2023
There are different types of independence. The self-employed contractor, for example, who thrives or fails according to his actions. Then there are the bureaucracts in the independent BoE and BBC, who get paid for by the rest of us however much they mess things up.
Why on earth isn’t there any personal accountability for failure imposed on these people? 2% inflation target. Oh, it’s north of 10%, so fire the top brass at the Bank! With the BBC you have to scrap the licence fee and let them sink or swim.
Politicians have let these monsters grow into the untouchable self-serving bureaucracies that we now have. You might have also included the NHS on the list, too.
Some very interesting posts here today. It was a good topic.
April 30, 2023
They do, but the powers that be have already determined the narrow aspect of such institutions. They are not alone in following a path that is lined with inequality, injustice, perverted diversity and ruin.
They are working to a plan – that must surely be clear by now!
April 30, 2023
Independent? But then not held accountable or responsible for what’s delivered. Then add in it is the Taxpayers money they get to squander and then this Conservative Government just gives them more â no questions asked. So maybe Democracy, the Vote all accounts for nothing.
Apply the take the money and run principle to all the independent businesses up and down the country. The Government, Parliament would be in uproar and baying for blood. Our Political Class is confirming it is a them and us society as far as they are concerned.
April 30, 2023
Diversity, which ever soft touch words you use to describe it, it is still Discrimination. When it comes to our money, taxpayer money all I want to see is the best performing people in post.
If private enterprise has a thing for diversity, that is their privileged we donât have to give them our money. When Government peruses discrimination we have no choice but cough up.
April 30, 2023
The reason, Sir John, that you are describing the policies of the BoE, the BBC and indeed, the Government and its various departments, civil service and quangos, as âconsensual idiocyâ is because you fail to understand they are all following the path to Net Zero by 2050 as laid down by law.
Net Zero can only be achieved by making us immeasurably poorer with the rationing of energy, food, shelter, goods and transport. By 2050 flying, shipping and meat eating must cease and construction materials will need to change from bricks, steel and glass to wood, stone and compacted earth with the rationed use of re-used steel and glass.
Net Zero is another Marxist ideology, and the history of the last century informs us of how their ideologies eventually become totally authoritarian and draconian to achieve the desired âendsâ resulting in the deaths of millions through starvation.
April 30, 2023
Isnât the biggest fraud of independence the current Conservative government, all elected with a massive majority to get Brexit done to the UKs advantage. Now they are using the House of Lords as an excuse, who are in cahoots with the EU to conjoin us and stifle us when weâve only just truly started to get out, after being tied in unable to organise agreements until 2020, then covid gave them all a good excuse for 18 months.
In order to make waves following the referendum mid-2016 just what plans were there from July 2016 to March 2020 to take of the tentacles of control 4000 laws, more than 6000 sinews into all areas of our lives. What have you actually done, why donât you give us a positive article on things you have got right, is every single one of our MPs truly unable to get anything done, or donât they want to.
A patronising piece in the Guardian today says â Jones has an especially good analysis of the Brexit referendum and its aftermath. He notes: âThe problem for both policymakers and businesses in July 2016 was that although leave had won, there was limited understanding of what exiting the EU meant in practice. Well, the understanding is less limited now. âThe only sympathy I have with most Brexiters is that, as (Sir JH) Jones implies, they simply had no idea of what they were in for. Plainly, now, most people do, and rightly donât like it.â
We thought and we were told we in the UK would take back control, yet all those MPs who stood on this ticket donât want the control, that is plainly what is becoming clear. Every product the UK makes that the EU makes difficult to import into the EU should immediately have exactly the same paperwork requirements to export into the UK to protect our market from these market protectors.
We have the extra doctors and nurses and what do they do, they donât appreciate the extra 3 days holiday theyâve had for the past year for a start! 3 days of less operations for us, more cost, theyâre still not happy, nothing is a free lunch yet our public sector seems to think holidays are free. And as for everywhere else in the world has more bank holidays they never say in the same sentence not all are paid holidays and a lot of them are on the weekends. When they compare next to it they should compare what is the minimum paid holidays per year everyone gets in that country comparison.
When the public sector want to compare their wage with the private sector well lets truly do that with workplace pensions (they can have the same workplace pension and more money today), full sick pay (work out the insurance cost of that), the number of holidays over 28 work out the cost of that, paid study leave days, paid volunteer days, paid sabbaticals come on lets have the FULL package. Our government is taking us for fools but it isnât only Brexit, the BBC and the BoE.
April 30, 2023
The only reason I turn to the BBC is to check the weather forecast ; it is no longer the centre of unbiassed views ,it has also lost public respect in the way it allows male news presenters to appear without a proper shirt and tie !. As for the BofE – well , they seem to be completely out of touch with public sentiment and need . Their key individuals earn enormous sums of money – well beyond their levels of skill and experience ; they are dominated by affairs in the USA . I blame Downing Street for allowing this mess to continue . We must restore our place in world affairs by steering a course suited to us .
April 30, 2023
Off topic, this morning Keir Starmer told Sophie Ridge:
“The economy has had no effective growth for thirteen years”
This is the same kind of lie as that spread by Labour MP Chris Bryant a couple of weeks ago:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/04/17/voters-are-suspicious-of-international-agreements/#comment-1383453
Following the same ONS reference as then I find that GDP increased by 18.8% between 2010 and 2022, with an average growth rate of 1.4% a year over a period which included the pandemic, without which the growth rate would have been around 1.9% a year, so much closer to the long term average growth rate of 2.3% a year.
May 1, 2023
Did Sophie Ridge query his lie, does she ask him what the figures are?
May 1, 2023
No, journalists will rarely do that, so really it’s down to the Tories to defend their record.
April 30, 2023
Getting past the protocol thing, it is suggested that Rishi Sunak has snubbed Ron DeSantis on his visit to the UK. The best comment on that so far seen is that the PM is to ‘frightened to meet a real Conservative’.
April 30, 2023
A Very interesting read in the Telegraph today – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/04/29/ron-desantis-interview-kemi-badenoch-war-on-wokery/
âWoke ideology undermines merit and achievement. It is really a war on the truth. When institutions get infected by woke ideology, it really corrupts the institutions.âÂ
âI donât think there is a need to have higher taxes. Government hasnât shown the ability to restrain itself from spending too much.â …. All sounds familiar
April 30, 2023
An unfortunate result of this lack of diversity among the official classes, is the composition of the modern, largely appointed, House of Lords. Because the pool from which it is now, almost entirely, recruited, is made up of retired, or failed, members, of the governing elite, it has become much less intellectually diverse than the hereditary institution it replaced.
April 30, 2023
And, William, the hereditaries represented all corners of the Kingdom, not just a few London postcodes. All ages too as they could inherit very young.
April 30, 2023
Itâs as though the government wants inflation, as does the Bank of England, otherwise they would stop it, itâs so it can be blamed on Brexit. The BBC is biased and Ofcom do nothing about it. So why is Ofcom being paid? People are paid huge salaries in these establishments, yet they donât do what theyâre supposed to do, no one is accountable.
The Conservative government will pay the price at the next election. I have to ask why they want to lose power?
April 30, 2023
The Uniparty never loses power, wake up.
May 1, 2023
Correct. The rosettes change; the major policies will be unchanged.
April 30, 2023
I have to wonder if the resignation of the BBC chief was the result of a witch hunt, as with Boris, Dominic Raab, Liz Truss and now Steve Barclay? It suits the remain camp to get rid of Brexiteers. Liz Truss wasnât a Brexiteer but she was going to do the job.
April 30, 2023
Chickpea, of course that is what it was. To smear Boris again. And they all admitted sotto voce that Sharp was a good Chairman who had brought home an increased licence fee for them when they feared losing it altogether. Also the only senior BBC man to have heard of and heard the BBC Singers. It was to him the Singers wrote to save them.
The charge was trumped up, only because it was a Boris nomination. I heard the kangaroo court of BBC friendly MPs thuggishly grilling him. It was a disgusting sight, Parliament at its most bullying and ugly, in full cry against an innocent prey, a conscientious public servant who wasn’t in it for the money. He was impeccably courteous to them. There was no reason not to accept what he said, other than the usual naked bigotry.
Now they are demanding HMG have nothing to do with the appointment. They would never have said that in the wake of Dyke and Davies, or if the government were Labour. It is a trumped up method of once again deciding who inhabits and controls the institutions.
April 30, 2023
You won’t get rid of groupthink until there is a penalty to be paid for getting out wrong. Why has Andrew Bailey not been sacked for gross misconduct when inflation is over 10% against a target of 2%? Why do we have a PM allowing the Civil Service to decide who should be a Minister? Why would any Minister be loyal to Sunak when he has no loyalty to them?
The Conservatives have had 13 years to sort out the BBC, to make the license fee non-payment a civil offence, not a criminal one. But the BBC consistently undermines the government, even with, briefly, a conservative as Chairman of the board of governors. How many permanent Secretaries have been sacked for allowing their staff to work from home? The answer none! Until people who constantly fail to do their jobs properly are sacked nothing will change.
April 30, 2023
Independence is indeed an elusive concept. Remainers believe a member state of the EU is independent and sovereign. An entity can be independent but very much constrained by its environment. It is still independent but both its actions and those ot other actors affect the environment which in turn constrains the scope of the entity’s decisions. The key test is who makes the decisions. If the entitity makes its own decisions it is independent even if the scope of its decisions is constrained by external factors, some or all of which are beyond its control.
April 30, 2023
The chief economist for the Bank of England tells British people to âaccept that theyâre worse offâ. He is not wrong as this chart shows https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/timeseries/crxx/ukea
M2 Money velocity of circulation is picking up in the US at 1.25, the UK is at 0.81 with a similar a profile to the US. This simply tells that the money injected into both economies, is being saved or used to pay down debt. The Japanese M2V is down at 0.42; hence no demand side spending forcing up inflation there. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M2V .
The BoE doesn’t even bother to calculate M2V. It still believes that M2V is a constant. The old money multiplier theory. The BoE Governor has dismissed suggestions that it should stop paying interest on commercial Banks’ “reserves”. I will let JR explain that one đ
April 30, 2023
The idea behind Brexit was to remove the control from Brussels. To control immigration from the EU which at one time was 1,000 EU immigrants a day. I for one did not relish my future controlled by Ursula von Layen for whom I did not vote. Sadly the UK Civil Service was in 2016 second generation and had never had to do more than rubber stamp directives from Brussels (or more usually gold plate them before passing them into UK law). These ate the Civil Servants who were given Brexit to assimilate into UK law. To obtain the smoothest deals with a Brussels who would do anything to ensure that Brexit failed. “The UK has left without the re-votes to Remain which were the EU norms in the past” “This departure cannot be seen to be a success – ever” Thus we have the problems of so called and impossible to define “Bullying”. If you are UK ministers and realise (even if you voted Remain) that Brexit had to be made to be an advantage to the UK you need the Civil Service to make it happen. But they are – still – all Remainers. And their working routines with the rubber stamp have been wrecked by the need to accept and apply the benefits of Brexit. I feel sorry for Raab, Patel and all the other Brexit ministers who now have to make Brexit work, and for the whole of the Union to benefit. Four totally wasted years with Theresa May trying to impose BRINO with the Civil Services’ help. Remember Olly Robbins? The Uk benefitted from the Single Market (EEC) prior to 1992 and the Maastrict launch of the EU. Johm Major should have given us a Referendum then. Insteead we got “the opt outs -euro, Schengen- to legitamise our Remaining. Thank God for Cameron in 2015. It was the last Remaining chance to get out. We left -eventually – but thanks to the negative Civil Service it has been an uphill fight all the way – after 7 years – from the date we left. The benefits which are enormous are going to take a bit longer thanks to the opposition – but we will get there in the end. We may have to fire Civil Servants en route!
April 30, 2023
The management of the economy has been catastrophic; the output of the BBC is dire. All the result of either political ineptitude or the inability to select people of quality for the most important jobs. Same with NHS management. The BBC, the NHS contain talented people but so what if those but over them are of the same low calibre as their political appointers. It is not clear that the Bank contains people of calibre at all because it always seems get things wrong. These organisations usually have diverse boards of gurning nitwits.
April 30, 2023
All of them notable for their lack of working class accents in senior roles. You would think nobody with a working class accent ever went to uni looking at their talent pool. Lots of posh ethnic minorities is not diversity.
April 30, 2023
A person who is not capable of modifying their speech to assist their progress is not capable of much else, I’d say.
Whether they should have to do that is a completely separate question.
May 1, 2023
Do you still have a welsh accent NLH or did you modify it when you moved to England. You donât see many Scots or Irish having or trying to modify their accents? Why are Northern English people felt theyâre not capable of changing their preferred voice if they donât modify their speech (to suit whom?)
April 30, 2023
We have been betrayed by those in power and responsible for ensuring our independence,
* borders out of control, STILL!
* taxes highest in 70 years
* no growth, high inflation; then we’ve Huw Pill saying poor getting poorer (and be glad FGS) however the rich are getting richer..
* no reform of civil service nor cost reduction
* no reform of NHS, 7m waiting list
You have a thumping majority, but not delivered on any tangible deliverables as promised in the Tory Manifesto.
HMG can only blame Covid for so long… and Brexit is more BRINO imho. Many on this site provide sound strategies, methods and procedures for fixing all of the above, but there is no leadership to pull it all together and make it work, which is what INDEPENDENCE is supposed to give us.
April 30, 2023
Rhoddas,
Correct, well said.
We have a lame London centric metro elite running the country regardless of what happens at the ballot box. All the main parties are still selecting completely the wrong kinds of people to stand as political candidates. The public sector is taking the mickey with the joke of a political layer. The ordinary decent voters are being let down massively.
There will be a massive reset at some point, I just hope it comes peacefully.
Cheers
April 30, 2023
They certainly don’t like change, risk or complying with the voting mayorities wishes
April 30, 2023
None of us are independent but there are varying degrees of the state.Collective independence is another story.
May 1, 2023
What goes on at the BoE is way above our heads – if you SJ in parliament cannot do anything about how it conducts itself then what chance for the rest of us?
May 1, 2023
Trust in politics must be rock bottom from Scotland taken for fools by SNP, Northern Ireland stitched up by the EU, Biden and our own government stitched up with BRINO not Brexit independence.
We need above all to have a civil service that fully supports both the letter and spirit of overdue Brexit expectations, otherwise Westminster is just theatre pandering to the egos of MP s with the nonsense illusion of power to be a truly independent and self reliant Britain..