There are three main changes I am pressing for a better outcome on inflation and growth.
The first is change from the Bank of England, who have now accepted their models and forecasts have been wrong and are reviewing the way they should change.
The second is to tackle the productivity collapse in parts of the public sector, and to gain greater control over levels of spending.
The third is to get across that the UK has a supply problem. We make and grow too little, relying on imports too much. Lower tax rates and better regulation are central to rebuilding capacities in everything from water and electricity to food and industrial products.
One of the problems is in every area where taxes are too high, spending is unwise and regulation unhelpful the main Opposition parties usually support the current stance and or wish to intensify it, making things considerably worse.
In a series of blogs I will look again at how we could tackle the problems of too few producers, of wild swings in money and credit, and the collapse of public sector productivity.
Economies do not flourish if they suffer unduly from price controls, windfall taxes and subsidies. Governments are not good at backing winners and can deter investment and supply if they interfere too much.
July 1, 2023
One main change that can make better outcomes in many ways is to replace this Government with one that is sensible.
July 1, 2023
+++
Very hard to tell when they promise the earth just to get power.
And then you realise they were lying through their teeth.
And continue to do soâŠ.
July 1, 2023
Quite. The old saying of ‘once bitten twice shy’ has fallen flat on its face it seems in terms of the electorate.
I’m aghast that the majority can’t see the ‘Uniparty’ in all its glory now. Only difference being the colour of their rosette.
July 1, 2023
Well that was my analysis in 1995 which formed that basis of the BDI (British Declaration of Independence) strategy. So letâs hope most of you now take the point 28 years later.
July 1, 2023
Back in the day you could be confident that our politicians believed they were acting in the national interest, even if you disagreed with the methods they used. The current generation, or at least those holding the levers of power, believe their job is to manage us on behalf of a ‘greater’ global scheme, and to that end they will say anything to head off any opposition.
July 1, 2023
Agreed. Simple, capitalist principles from Parliament shouldn’t be too much to ask of a Tory government.
Sir J wishes to “tackle the productivity collapse in … the public sector”. In the private sector an unproductive company fails and a more efficient one takes it’s place. Perhaps this is the way to go?
July 1, 2023
Sunak need to do a U turn on almost every issue. But he is, as Farage put, it a Goldman Sacks Globalist. He is not really concerned about the real interest of the UK citizens & voters. More interested in taxing them to death, ripping them of with his net zero energy and his vast currency debasement & inflation. This while hitting they pay with huge immigration to undercut their wage levels.
His latest suggestion seems to be bonded labour arrangements for all newly UK trained dentists. Modern slavery of sorts.
He talks about his 15 year plan for recruiting NHS labour but Sunak surely has only circa 15 months left before the he and the party are rightly buried for many terms after 14 years of abject broken compass failures.
Alas to be replaced by the even worse Labour/SNP/Libdims.
July 1, 2023
Has Farage ever set up his own company, with lots of highly skilled workers, and exported a high value brand abroad? Something like that? NO!
He’s just another friggin arm-chair critic!
July 1, 2023
Let’s get rid of all the friggin arm-chair critics in politics, and the journalists and PR people and lawyers etc and get into Parliament people who have literally done a business plan for example! Who have set up a company, done really well in business and business leadership. Who know what they are friggin talking about based on PRACTICAL / PRAGMATIC business experience instead of all this friggin theory and ideology!
July 1, 2023
Good idea. Best not to pay them, then only those who have passed the test of living successfully in the real world will stand for Parliament.
July 2, 2023
‘Good idea. Best not to pay them, then only those who have passed the test of living successfully in the real world will stand for Parliament’
– The problem with Parliament is that the vast majority have no proper business experience. Both Remainers AND Brexiters.
If we’d had proper business people in Parliament, Brexit would have been a success. But Brexit is only one major issue in Parliament that’s gone wrong.
Even if the Tory could add 5 to 10 more people with proper business experience, the Tory Party would be hugely improved (so 5 to 10, covering the main offices of state .. including PM).
Sunk would have made it on to Cabinet – just. But as a junior minister or something. Johnson wouldn’t have made the Cabinet. And some other Tory – a Brexiter – would be leading our country properly, including Brexit.
So it’s all down to proper business experience – and how to attract such people. Not saying it’s easy – but it’s possible. But we first to have to have this argument which is NOT happening.
Reply Having business experience as I have from past senior roles in industry did not get me a Cabinet job this century.
July 2, 2023
‘Having business experience as I have from past senior roles in industry did not get me a Cabinet job this century’ – that’s regrettable. But perhaps that’s part of the problem that no-one seems to be really talking about how to attract more Tories with business experience into Parliament.
And that’s the most important thing the Conservative Party should be discussing at next Party Conference along with how to extend influence of Tory values into the churches, education, arts and media.
July 2, 2023
Well yes Farage did indeed have a successful business did he not? Also Farage unlike Sunak has not raised taxes to the highest level for 70+ years, wasted ÂŁbillions on duff Covid loans and lockdowns and debased the currency with his QE to cause the current hige inflation.
Sunak is also failing hugely on all his 5 pledges. The one good thing I hear about Sunak is that Lord Goldsmith thinks he is not serious on Net Zero. Perhaps the first thing Sunak has got right.
July 2, 2023
Sunak is another problem to the problem of Farage.
July 1, 2023
The Malaysian students who I went to university with were expected to spend several years teaching on their return home in order to repay their tuition fees. A similar arrangement for doctors and dentists doesn’t seem unreasonable.
July 1, 2023
Exactly. Mr Redwood’s “three point plan” is to blame the Bank of England, blame the public sector and blame foreigners for selling us things. The rest of us will simply blame the Conservatives Party which has been in power these last 13 years.
July 1, 2023
@Lemming +1
Yes, it would appear even Sir John has succumb to the idea that a Democratically elected Conservative Government that is empowered to run the UK, is in charge of the UK and manages of all the UK entities that are failing, some how can distance its self from the problems they are creating.
The Bank of England, the public sector, the import only policy are all managed and run by this Conservative Government â no one else. So the blame is 100% with this Conservative Government and no one else.
The buck stops with them and they refuse.
Reply You are putting words into my mouth. I tell it as I see it and try to get change
July 1, 2023
He does all he can and has been consistently right on almost everything from Thatcher onwards. Given the quality of most âCon-socialistâ MPs and the FPTP voting system much more that he can do. We are stuck with Con Socialists & crooks or Real Socialists & crooks.
July 1, 2023
+++
So true.
July 1, 2023
@ Bloke +1
That is something that is in the gift of the Conservative Party, but are refusing. I would guess just as the pundits imply they are not Conservatives and the are out to destroy the concept of conservatism
July 1, 2023
Merely one 10% sensible would be a vast improvement.
July 1, 2023
Bloke – yes indeed, the aim must be to replace this government with one that is sensible, but LibLabCon are not remotely sensible. All are woke and cowardly, preferring to pander to the globalists acting against the English People, and censoring contrary views.
There are no Conservative MPs who deserve to keep their seat at the forthcoming general election.
July 2, 2023
Futile , John. Net Zero fantasy will crash your economy to no purpose. One per cent is us, 31% id China and CO2 doesnât affect the weather
July 1, 2023
POSITIVE: Fantastic post Sir J, I look forward to reading your ideas on these critical issues.
NEGATIVE: âWhen plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral (legal) code that glorifies it.â
â FrĂ©dĂ©ric Bastiat
I wish you good luck…..
July 1, 2023
Peter Wood
+++
July 1, 2023
Makes me wonder if we are morphing into a kleptocracy.
July 2, 2023
One that is not as different from Putin’s Russia as they like to pretend when it comes to invading other countries, participating in shock and awe bombing which kills civilians ….. and controlled by, and in the interests of, mega-wealthy ÂŁbillionaires and Corporations.
July 2, 2023
Arguably worse given the proximity of a potentially non neutral Ukraine to reasonable Russian security interests.
Putins Russia sounds preferable to where we are heading. Read anywhere except the controlled media. Look at France.
July 1, 2023
+1
July 1, 2023
Cut red tape for businesses (as ever pleaded and never done).
Protect them from cancel culture.
Make laws to stop banks from political meddling.
Oh donât forget the boats! Latest estimate 30 odd Million ÂŁ per day ( allegedly).
July 1, 2023
Good morning.
Two points.
1) Too little, too late.
2) Our kind host states that this government should implement policies that many would agree are broadly Conservative. So he admits that we have not had a Conservative Government despite voting for one for the last 13 years.
Unbelievable.
July 1, 2023
Mark.
Not so unbelievable, it is the reality we have lived with since 2016.
July 1, 2023
1990!
July 1, 2023
@Mark B
It would appear even Sir John has bought into the idea that the problem is someone else and not his Government. You have to ask why are we paying MP’s, paying for a Parliament and Paying for this Conservative Government when they refuse the empowerment the election gave them.
July 1, 2023
Youâll struggle to gain any consensus in Westminster to âmake and growâ more of what we need while we have the Iâll-conceived Net Zero policy.
The UN decreed that a nationâs CO2 emissions should be only those produced within the nation, not the vast bulk required to produce all the imports we buy. Not surprisingly, our apparent success in reducing emissions has been at the expense of a collapse in energy-intensive industry and in farming where we reward re-wilding and solar farms.
July 1, 2023
IAN B
They are using the empowerment that the election gave them but not for the benefit of the electorate!
Weâre not a democracy anymore and nothing seems set to change
July 1, 2023
Indeed Governments are appalling at picking winners. What do they care it is not their money and things are chosen for political reasons and and subsidised & located for political reasons.
âThe second is to tackle the productivity collapse in parts of the public sector, and to gain greater control over levels of spending.â Well much of what the public sector does in entirely negative (over regulation of everything, road blocking, net zero, bans on petrol diesel cars, energy market riggingâŠ) So just firing all these people vandalising the economy would improve productivity.
We just need far, far less parasitic government, no net zero religion, cheap reliable energy, a bonfire or red tape, a state sector that reduces in size from spending/wasting nearly 50% of GDP to one that spends 20-25%. Real and fair competition in energy, education, healthcare, bankingâŠ
July 1, 2023
LL, +++++++++
July 1, 2023
Good luck Sir John. But I’m afraid, on the basis of the last 13 wasted years of Blue-Green-Socialist Policies, you’re going to be expending a great deal of time and energy for very little reward. The Remainer LibCONs who now control the Not-a-Conservative-Party aren’t in listening mode and haven’t got the guts to do any genuinely conservative policies, let alone any radical ones.
The first set of Regulations which need to be ditched are those appertaining to Net Zero and the Eco Lunacy. You cannot run a 21st century economy on Middle Ages technology. If Norway can demonstrate some basic commonsense and exploit oil and gas reserves in the north sea, so can we. Or at least we could, if we had MPs and Ministers with some basic commonsense.
There was a glimmer of sanity yesterday when Zac Goldsmith flounced out of Government because, he said, the UK wasn’t flying delegates (including him) around the world to pontificate at Eco Boondoggle Conferences. But until the Net Zero lunacy is ditched, our economy will be completely hamstrung.
July 1, 2023
Donna
A voice of reason and common sense as usual!
You’re right, it’s impossible to run a 21st century economy on Middle Ages technology!
Everywhere the public is allowed a say, I see ‘ditch the net zero lunacy’.
But until businesses and organisations etc are not constantly threatened with bankruptcy or cancellation and are frankly bullied into considering net zero before ANY decision is made…
Who is doing the threatening? Who are these bullies? Stop them and maybe net zero could be dropped and common sense can prevail.
July 1, 2023
Donna
++++
As always bang on the money
July 1, 2023
The majority in Parliament, HoL, Government, and the Whitehall civil service are not fit for purpose, an unmarketable commodity. Insidiously they are presiding over the cancel culture being operated by our banking cabal. 1984 is with us.
July 1, 2023
@Donna +1 – on the money as always
How about a party coming to Parliament that defends and supports Democracy.
July 1, 2023
+many
July 1, 2023
Covid pandemic linked to surge in children and teen type one diabetes (up to 27% up in the second year) reports BBC new. Some discussion of the causes but they studiously avoid mentioning the vaccines. Very easy to determine if it is Covid or the Vaccines by the timing and how many of those developing the condition were vaccinated.
Why on earth were government and “experts” coercing duff vaccines (even into young people who were at virtually no Covid risk). It was known in Jan 2001 that the vaccines did not prevent people spreading Covid and they had some very serious adverse reactions including blood clots, cardio vascular issues, allergic reactions, deaths…
When does the criminal negligence investigation start. When will the victims be properly compensated?
July 1, 2023
Other examples of the government spending tax payers money but doing far more harm than good – the lockdowns, the vaccines, the woke lunacy, net zero, the unused Nightingale tent hospitals, this sick joke Covid inquiry, the soft loans for largely (circa 75% of them) worthless degrees…
July 1, 2023
The taxpayer is being billed to provide defibrillators in every school in the country, starting with secondary schools and then primary because “when you’re older, a sudden heart attack is more likely.”
Since when did secondary school-age children (11 – 18) start having “sudden heart attacks?”
I think it was around 2021 ….. now what happened in 2021 and thereafter which might affect so many children’s hearts?
Have ANY of “our” MPs (apart from Andrew Bridgen) asked even one question about this? Move along ….. nothing to see.
July 1, 2023
Seems a strange thing to do, although defibrilators should be more widely available. Even our local pub has one, but with the price of beer these days perhaps that’s understandable. Could this be a sign that they acknowledge that children have been damaged by the vaccines, or maybe that someone somewhere is going to make a lot of money out of it?
July 1, 2023
How many lives have these defibrillators in the community actually saves I wonder? I suspect rather few.
July 2, 2023
I don’t know. Can you tell us how many lives have been lost because one was not available? The British Heart Foundation supports them, so I’ll take their opinion.
July 1, 2023
I doubt if they will ever acknowledge that children have been damaged by the mass medical experiment they coerced on the nation (those who were gullible enough to participate anyway, which doesn’t include me).
July 1, 2023
Who knows how to use a âdefibrillatorâ? There is one at the end of our road, when my mother-in-law died of a heart attack, none of us would have considered dragging her out into the snow and half a mile down the road and up a steep pavement so that we could stand there and work out how to open the box and work the machine.
How often have these defibrillators been used and how many of them are there – dare I ask – what has it cost?
July 2, 2023
If you would take a look you may well find that they are automatic or have simple voice commands and can be taken to the patient. I am sorry for your loss.
July 1, 2023
They are trying to ânormaliseâ heart attacks.
July 1, 2023
Good Lord if that’s true then surely it’s a round about way of admitting children’s health has been seriously compromised.
I’ve never in all my years witnessed an adult needing heart resuscitation in public, let alone a child.
I thought it shocking enough that a new school in my local area (only opened 2 yrs) has just ripped out its toilet facilities to make them gender neutral, but defibrillators in school I think might top even that.
July 1, 2023
Yes Donna and LL.
Discuss anything other than what is staring us in the face. Obfuscate, cover up, distract and lie, for at least 20 years.
July 1, 2023
Our defibrilators at school was called the ‘cross-country run’ in the cold rain …..I believe its option nowadays in schools
July 2, 2023
Seeing the state of children these days waddling about, I’d say a cross country run would induce a heart attack. I was in my General Hospital last week outside a well known supermarket shop when, after school dozens of kids came in and were loading up with pop, cakes, sweets and lord knows what else at 3.30 in the afternoon, clearly a regular thing for them. Presumably they don’t get a proper meal at home.
July 1, 2023
LL. Regarding a Covid reckoning, it will never happen. The inquiry is at the best an expensive whitewashing exercise, at the worst a stalking horse for WHO globalist authoritarianism.
July 1, 2023
Seems so.
July 1, 2023
It will not be any inquiry which takes revenge. Have you seen pictures of France recently? Douglas McGregor is warning of the same in the USA âbecause they donât trust the election machine.
July 1, 2023
We came very close to the abyss during the plandemic, with celebrities on TV urging that people should be dragged from their homes to be given these dubious injections and refuseniks losing their jobs. But the globalists were not able to keep a constant pace across countries and the Internet enabled a rising resistance movement. They will not make the same mistakes next time, governments across the Anglosphere are preparing legislation to punish free speech (perhaps even this forum) whilst the threat of debanking can be applied to doctors, politicians or scientists who oppose the narrative. The next virus is being prepared.
July 2, 2023
Use cash. If enough of us do it regularly they will find it harder to implement a Digital Currency and the Social Credit System they are actively planning.
July 1, 2023
Not sure, but if our supply chain problems stemmed from Chinaâs announcement of a virus for which the WHO proceeded to shut the world downâŠ
(Except the boats of courseâŠ)
Then surely our supply chain is at constant risk since now all health orders are ( I have read) taken from the WHO.
To produce more we need to be entirely self sufficient in everything possible. And constant immigration and house building will not help. Fields will be needed.
Along with just about everything else our self sufficiency was stolen from us and given away by politicians. With the usual soft words and promises.
July 1, 2023
When Labour get in, with Milliband in charge of Net Zero, the fields will disappear under wind mills and solar panels. This man has cost the country more than anyone I can think of, including the Liz Truss interlude and he is only just getting started, with Starmer being in thrall to him for some reason. We face a very bleak future.
July 1, 2023
A shame he was not shut away in a junk yard with his Ed/tomb Stone of idiotic election promises.
July 1, 2023
The IMF will control him, so donât worry.
July 1, 2023
Milliband wants 1984 on steroids
July 1, 2023
Graham 1946
It’s is amazing your predictions both about others actions and what might happen in the future.
Some more modesty might be more appropriate
July 2, 2023
You only need to listen to Ed to know Graham is right bill.
July 2, 2023
EU fan
I was actually thinking a bit wider than that
July 2, 2023
How exciting Bill
Perhaps you might enthrall us with your wider thoughts.
July 2, 2023
So you think we should always wait for a disaster to happen rather than speak up to try to prevent one? A useful intervention from you would be a novelty, instead of carping about others ideas when you clearly have none of your own.
July 1, 2023
Selling England for a pound, by people with absolutely no right to do so.
July 1, 2023
Re JR tweet
Housing of illegal immigrants.
This govt. is always transparently and feverishly scrabbling in the past for answers.
In WW1 big houses were given over as hospitals and convalescent homes.
Why not adopt that little blast from the past?
And most of them have acres of previously ( or still?) EU subsidised land for Nissan huts!
Shame that the windmills will have to goâŠbut Human Rights and all thatâŠ.
July 1, 2023
It’s all welcome debate but palpably meaningless if you refuse for party political and career reasons to expose the real dangers that this country now faces from racial and gender obsessed Labour, the vicious unions, the fascist Left, the woke despots and those that now control the main levers of power in Britain
John knows full well that his party and its MPs are completely and totally captured by the Left who now control all areas of the State. John should admit this truth so that we know whether his articles actually contain meaning
July 1, 2023
++++
And isnât it really funny, bizarre, ironic, sad that they have latterly ( since Powell?) run screaming from the right. To the point of cancellation ( Nigel F bank trick played on BNP 20 years ago).
Things could have been so different. A united front against the evil.
There is NOTHING wrong with a right wing view.
It encompasses all the values that were hammered into us growing up.
For goodness sakeâŠhere, within living memory, the schools celebrated Empire Day!
July 1, 2023
DOM
Good post but like all struggling organisations they totally ignore the grass root levels and in house expertise within as it is pushed back into their shadows if they are not inline with the new policies and group thinking.
July 1, 2023
”totally captured by the Left”
I disagree, they’re not captured by the left, they are the left
July 1, 2023
Want actual improvements in economic policy and economic outcomes?
Abolish the Bank of England, make fractional reserve banking illegal, reduce taxation across the board by 20% in the first year with additional 10% cuts for the following 5 years.
July 1, 2023
King Charles activates climate countdown clock with Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.
Now 2018 – Prince Charles: ‘Me, meddle (in politics) as a king? I’m not that stupid’
It seem you are extremely stupid firstly to fall for climate alarmism, secondly to damage the monarchy hugely by not keeping out of politics (on Climate, Migration, Quack Medicine. GM, organics…) and thirdly this issue shows you to be a grade one private jet flying hypocrite.
July 1, 2023
I attended the Queen’s funeral, watching the proceedings down The Mall on that fateful day. The death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth was a true loss to the country.
However, I had no interest in doing the same when Charles was crowned King. His actions have proved why I have had no desire in doing so. A meddling King with Woke values, I have no interest in him whatsoever. If he carries on, i’ll be another who will join calls for a Republic – something I thought I would never do!
July 1, 2023
My position too. The dope is helping to destroy the monarchy.
July 1, 2023
Sunak should be reminding Charles that under our Constitutional settlement, our Monarch is required to stay out of contentious political issues.
He’s going to be as bad a King as Charles I. I have zero respect for him.
July 1, 2023
+1
July 1, 2023
He has to stay above politics BECAUSE HIS JOB AS CONSTITUTIONAL MONARCH, IS TO CONTROL ALL POLITICIANS BY ASSERTING OUR CONSTITUTION!.
He does not know he has a job! He thinks heâs here to maintain a high profile by being seen to get other people to give to âcharityâ.
July 1, 2023
But that’s the trick, Donna. It reinforces the idea that man-made climate change is ‘settled’, and therefore not a contentious political issue. A rather neat way of shaping public perception. What you’re suggesting is outside the Overton window.
July 1, 2023
This is especially important when King Charles’s view are nearly all wrong.
July 1, 2023
@Ashley King of What! – What was accepted as a Monarchy, a Royal Family, has moved themselves to be nothing more than a tourist side show. Its a weird one, these people are not even descendants of the original owners of the title in these lands.
To be absolutely clear I am not a Republican, that is just as corrupting.
July 1, 2023
“‘I am firmly of the view that the next 18 months will decide our ability to keep climate change to survivable levels and to restore nature to the equilibrium we need for our survival,’ said Prince Charles, speaking at a reception for Commonwealth foreign ministers recently” January 24, 2021
He got that wrong
July 1, 2023
‘Train, retain, reform’: Rishi Sunak hails NHS plan for 300,000 extra workers.
“Retain” current pay levels and appalling working condition for junior doctors in the NHS mean that over 50% drop out within two years. What an appalling waste of expensive training Sunak. Many go overseas Australia, New Zealand… to circa double their pay. Other just leave medicine completely as they can earn circa three times as much elsewhere in the city or law with rather less hassle and stress.
Current junior doctors pay is simply not enough to survive on after tax, NI, student loan interest, commuting, prof. body fees and rent for a grotty bet sit in London if you want to heat and eat too. Just do the sum’s Barclay and Sunak – you claim to be keen on Maths.
July 1, 2023
They know what the pay-scales are before they start to train. To claim they are not aware of this is simply preposterous
My solution is simple. All NHS must be forced to sign a contract of employment for 25 years minimum and if they decide to leave the service before then then they must repay the FULL COST OF THEIR TAXPAYER FUNDED TRAINING and a penalty for inconveniencing the patient.
The poor me, poor me moaning from protected, unionised public sector workers is becoming a bore, We don’t hear this whining from FRONT LINE SOLDIERS
All strike action should be illegal in essential services and union activity curtailed to mere advisory
July 1, 2023
They already pay for their own training often having ÂŁ150K of student debt plus ÂŁ10k of interest PA on it!
What you are suggesting is bonded labour or, in effect, a form of slavery as Sunak is planning for dentists. It would not work.
July 1, 2023
” the FULL COST OF THEIR TAXPAYER FUNDED TRAINING and a penalty for inconveniencing the patient. ”
Fortunately the ÂŁ230,000 figure banded around frequently is not the cost to the taxpayer. It includes ÂŁ64K student loans etc. which the student repays. It also includes the funding supplied to healthcare providers to support clinical placements to students. That funding is spent on medical staff, facilities, supplies, and patient care, supporting the NHS, and the students work and do not receive funds.
Now if doctors and medical staff received a degree of student loan forgiveness for each year they worked for the NHS as a tax-free benefit, that I would agree with. (There are also further training courses provided free by the NHS to existing practictioners – if a person does one of those and then promptly leaves, they should be forced to pay for it at a premium to cover training a new staff member. )
July 1, 2023
“They know what the pay-scales are before they start to train. To claim they are not aware of this is simply preposterous”
Well no one claimed this did they certainly not me? But then they started to train circa 6 years back the pay was about 20% better in real terms. If it is not enough to life on they will leave and earn double or three times as much elsewhere wasting all those training costs. One medical consultant I now converted to law in one year and is now paid double for half the hassle doing medical negligence litigation.
July 1, 2023
I doubt that doctors leaving the NHS for more salary will find any high paying job to be free of hassle and stress. I know nurses who went into private health care and all the companies cared about was money and profits. No freeloaders allowed.
July 2, 2023
No free of hassle but far less stress and better working conditions.
July 1, 2023
@Ashley
Careful, every one living in this Country is burden with the same tax, NI, student loan interest, commuting, prof. body fees(possibly not) and rent for a grotty bed sit. Not all the medical profession lives in London. Suggesting to a certain extent that one section of society is more privileged is misplaced. Elsewhere others are paying the bulk of junior doctors education fees, they are paying for their pensions while at the same time have to contribute to their own and all the while their potential earnings are less. Yet after all the massive increasing spend on the NHS people cant get the attention they need. But of course the NHS now has the invented political ideology of Diversity and Inclusion management and staff.
Maths in schools has been replaced by relationships, sex and health education on the curriculum
What you should be suggesting is that the burden on everyone, the creation of an economy to support the aspirations everyone has been thrown away by a Conservative Government that is in the state of refusal.
July 2, 2023
Doctors have five or six years at university & so often twice the student debt of other graduates plus no earning for 5 or 6 years fees with living costs perhaps ÂŁ150k and ÂŁ10k of interest on this.
July 2, 2023
@Ashley – I dont disagree, but everyone is in a similar boat because we have a Conservative Government that seeks to punish rather than produce. If my memory serves me right Sir John did highlight the Doctors plight some time back, my words – not his, the NHS management and the Doctors direct bosses were treating trainee Doctors as fodder. My words again, it would appear the NHS Managers are more interested in building there Discrimination Departments, than create an endeavourment for efficient clinic departments.
July 1, 2023
Ashley, at what year of training do they start working on wards and are they earning during those years? People are being asked to support doctors over their decision to cut our services for more pay but most people donât understand their training.
A nurse starts work at typically 21 after 3 years degree training on ÂŁ27k + with shift and weekend allowances, London enhancements etc.
At what age and stage does the doctor start earning the ÂŁ29k +?
How much do they have to loan from student loans for tuition fees after the first four years undergrad?
How much does it cost the State to provide a doctors training per annum?
July 1, 2023
âTackle the productivity collapse in parts of the public sectorâ
My civil servant nephew on his six figure salary and his civil servant wife have taken their small children to their caravan for a few weeks and intend to âworkâ from there. He has already been told not to bother coming into the office again, something he hasnât done anyway since before the Governmentâs ludicrous lockdown of the country. Nice work if you can get it.
Yet another thing gutless, clueless Sunak has failed to tackle. Public Sector workers need a huge cull. What better way than to give them an ultimatum, get back to work or collect their P45s.
July 1, 2023
In the Private sector, people working from home know they have to produce results, unless they want to be forced back to the office or their jobs gone through replacement staff or outsourcing.
As the public sector workers are very hard to fire, that suggests that the remaining option is forcing them back to the office – unless productivity plans and metrics can be put in place to get rid of the offenders.
July 1, 2023
We are back to ‘the opposition is worse’. That argument is not a vote winner. If that’s all your party has to offer then you deserve obliteration. Why do you think we have to choose between bad and worse? We won’t. We will look elsewhere.
July 1, 2023
I don’t think so, the sheeple will continue to vote for the same numpty parties. Five by-elections coming up and I expect alternative candidates to get nowhere.
July 1, 2023
+++
July 1, 2023
thats the end of my tutorial now for a glass of sherry.
July 1, 2023
I look forward to specifics. I would add that though lowering taxes might be a positive move, it falls short of a complete re-think of our whole grotesque tax system.
Whatever your thinking might be, it will have no effect on government. Even governments realisation that they have blown it with the electorate is too late. From 2016 onwards you have betrayed the electorate, an act of unforgivable treachery.
July 1, 2023
From 1972âŠ..
July 1, 2023
Until government accepts that until they have thrown out the two biggest problems that are holding this country back in the form of NZ & ECHR compliance we on the trip to nowhere.
Change that and then real meaningful decisions can be made, on the side that will impact on wokeness, diversification madness.
Germany led by their auto industry are changing and France will have to, as it totters on civil way bought about largely by uncontrolled immigration.
July 1, 2023
The Swedes and it seems the Italians too, may also just save something of themselves.
July 1, 2023
Volkswagen has given up manufacturing EVs. Demand is apparently 30% less than current (low) production.
The German Economics Institute (IW) have published a dramatic new report: âWe are witnessing the beginning of German [and thus European] deindustrialisationâ.
So Iâm guessing thatâs half a mission accomplished for the US in Ukraine. Just the balkanisation of Russia left to achieve now.
July 1, 2023
The three changes make complete sense to me. However, I believe that the desired outcome(s) needs to be defined so that there is widespread understanding (and buy in) of what the changes are intended to deliver – the UK has lacked for decades vocalisation by governments of meaningful and deliverable strategic objectives for the country.
As an illustration of what I have in mind, in my view, the UK is brilliant at producing the equivalent of IP intensive wheelbarrows at a goldrush – such companies create wealth for the UK by being net exporters and creating new high quality jobs (which in turn contributes to Levelling Up). Examples of such companies are AB Dynamics, Gooch & Housego and SRT Marine – the UK needs (and is well capable of producing) many more companies of this profile.
July 1, 2023
The three main objectives of any government are: food autarky, energy autarky, and a strong defence.
July 1, 2023
Of any national government, yes. But not of the people running this country.
July 1, 2023
Good morning Sir John
It is simple we have had a Conservative Government for 13 years that have focused on destroying democracy, removing the UKâs ability to be self-reliant and resilient. Thier only focus has been removal of UK capabilities, increasing imports, removal of UK jobs. Refuse the need for an economy in case that turned the Country around. Now they have moved to the next level a Conservative Government ârefusingâ to manage everything they are paid and empowered to do.
To counter the abject failure of this Conservative Government we have them running here there and everywhere inventing non events so as to make sound-bite proclamations so as to avoid doing their job.
July 1, 2023
Great points that you put across John, my hope is that the BoE are capable of change and that they have the skill sets to think outside of their indoctrination.
Being more self sufficient has always made sense whether it be crops, meat, fish and utilities.
I see you third point being a little more difficult and requires the removal of the current chancellor.
A question for you â why are the Conservative Partyâ currently behaving as a Labour Party would do?
July 1, 2023
The most important way to improve economic policy is to cancel Net Zero.
The CCC/DES&NZ announced last month, via Sir Keir Starmer, the intention to make the UK a âa clean energy superpowerâ by decarbonising the electricity supply by 2030 with the quadrupling of offshore wind, doubling onshore wind and trebling solar power.
This will cost, at pre inflation prices, ÂŁ500bn. The National Grid are requesting ÂŁ200bn to upgrade the grid for electrification.
In addition, simply increasing installed renewable capacity will not bring security of supply as when the wind doesnât blow and the sun doesnât shine (every night) there will still be many periods when there is insufficient supply to match demand. So a parallel energy system will still be needed, such as the existing gas generators (unabated or abated using twice as much gas) or a very, very expensive storage system which will entail another doubling of the installed renewable capacity as well as the cost of the storage system itself.
July 1, 2023
Indeed we are governed by scientifically ignorant morons zealots the new totally deluded net zero religion.
July 1, 2023
Be warned, our lefty parasitic lawyers can now assert that Channel illegals can claim they are fleeing France, an unsafe country, confirmed by our governmenf in their warnings to tourists.
July 1, 2023
They donât need to claim that because they all get hotel rooms anyway.
July 1, 2023
Will saving 20mins on a journey from London to Leeds (midlandâish) and spending estimated ÂŁ100bn improve growth & productivity âŠplease scrap HS2
July 1, 2023
Sir john
Thing will always be the same I’m 76 never known in my life when the tax payers haven’t had to pay for someone else’s mistake ,
people being made redundant because government cut backs ,
tightening our belts ,se
us tax payers who keep this country going have had their belt tight all our lives
In England
“Those that do nothing get everything
Those that everything get nothing”
I see every day people that don’t work going on holiday abroad once or twice a year, I see people getting new cars every three years, and so on
Thank you John
July 1, 2023
Improvements in Economic Policy
The growing swell of evidence that Banks, Payment Houses, and Building Societies are behaving in a cavalier fashion in closing individual and organisation accounts because they disagree with customers opinions needs immediate attention from Sunak and his business secretary. I assume these high street providers need licences to operate. What are the FCA( Financial Conduct Authority) doing in allowing this behaviour to exist.
SJR, you must have an opinion, tell us what you believe is going on. To me it looks like the financial arm of the Blob hitting back at those who disagree with it and have the courage to say it as they see if. It is insidious.
July 1, 2023
Excessive interference by government also results in many people “gaming” the system rather than doing what is right for the economy.
That is why Socialism always fails and always ends up with perverse and unintended outcomes.
The Conservatives need to purge themselves of the socialists in government. They are wrecking the party and the country.
July 1, 2023
OMG the BoE have taken up the ‘Sir Humphrey’ ways of dodging awkward questions. His classic “We shall hold a review..” lives on – and on and on. All it really does is – delay, delay, delay and shift the can down the road.
They already know the system is useless so why do they not get on with fixing it now by direct replacement? Preferably with new software and new man/lady power too.
July 1, 2023
Sir John has been speaking common sense for months. Do ministers and officials read what he advises? If not why not, and if they disagree with him, why do they not put logical arguments as to why he is wrong (if there are any !).
Prime Minister, Chancellor and civil servants (including B of E) seem to be determined to drag Britan down, destroy the Conservative party, and end up with a Labour Government.
Reply I send views to Ministers and talk to them about what I have published here
July 1, 2023
Sir John’s suggestions are so sensible and simple as to be almost child like. Here is where I want to bang my head against the wall. Why is he having to ‘press’ any of these points to those in his party with their hands on the tiller?
Why is he having to ‘get across’ that we have a supply problem when it is blatantly obvious to ordinary Joe Public.
A supply problem in food alone that can only worsen as the population grows and farm land is either ear marked to re-wild or to build more houses on.
Why, oh why has Sir John stayed in a party that represents very little of what he truly seems to believe in.
Reply I have stayed in the Conservative Party for 2 main reasons. 1 I promised my electors to serve as a Conservative MP for this Parliament 2 I have more chance of influencing government if I am in the governing party than if I set up a one man party in Parliament.
July 1, 2023
Nigel Farage has highlighted a problem which has been practised for some time. Banks are taking it upon themselves to âdeny discriminatory customersâ an account.
Imagine what they will be able to do when they can deny âdiscriminatory customersâ their money – it being digital i.e fictitious.
What is sinking the U.K. is the fact that anyone with half a wit is looking at the burning of European civilization and culture and taking what they can elsewhere.
Soon the tax rate, interest rate etc will be irrelevant because nobody in Britain will have any money – all those with the âwhite heat of growthâ in their hand will have gone.
July 1, 2023
Gone where though Lynn, it seems its going global.
July 1, 2023
No, only the âempire of Sodomâ (the west) is rotten.
July 1, 2023
Thought I would reply to myself LL style. I see French police seized sniper rifles manufactured by Accuracy International (USA) from protesters, which were handed over to Ukraine last year.
Do you think we could save ourselves some money and trouble by withdrawing from the fracas is Ukraine? It will not change the outcome – but it might take the U.K. off the target list.
July 2, 2023
This is going to happen, Lynn, so we might as well get used to the idea. The upcoming NATO summit will be the opportunity to find an exit strategy. The failure of Ukraine’s counter-offensive to even reach Russia’s main defensive lines, after a month of suffering disastrous losses, is giving Western policy-makers pause for thought. They wanted more return on their investment than what they’ve got.
We should let Ukraine negotiate while it still can.
July 1, 2023
Sir John – absolutely spot on with your view on the approach and changes necessary . Whether such recommendations will occur is another matter . Direction and control is in the wrong hands with Sunak/Hunt and time has probably run out for a new Conservative leadership to achieve such objectives . The public – and those I am in touch with , are fed up and feel completely disregarded .
July 1, 2023
Price controls include the utilities “markets”, which are not really markets at all.
When the government set prices, caps etc, the artificial nature of this market destroys competition. The companies who claim to have bought expensive energy “futures” all seem to fail, only those large enough to have cash (or credit) reserves seem to have survived. Why did none of these companies see the need to buy when cheap and store gas or an electricity-generating fuel? They are simply operating as middle-men with no business creativity, whose pricing is largely determined by producers’ prices (which applies across all of the suppliers, there is no real competition).
What is really galling is that they pick up customers of bust companies but they are not obliged to honour the contracts, which is ridiculous. They put people on their own variable tariff which is vastly more expensive than the contract they were on.
Similarly, if a bank or mortgage company goes bust then the creditors often go unpaid while the company is sold for ÂŁ1, meaning that someone buys the debt of the banks customers. If the creditors don’t get paid then why should those in debt to the company have to pay someone else? If I borrow ÂŁ1 from the chap next door, and he dies… does someone else get to buy up the debt? No, it dies with him.
Business as a whole needs a root and branch review. We live by rules of a stock market that was a Dutch innovation a few hundred years ago and has never adapted since. Economics has been stuck in the doldrums of being a half-baked discipline at best, which is still unable to satisfactorily run a country’s finances – the three major gurus (Keynes, Smith and Marx) unable to prove their views or disprove the others’ (except by conducting large-scale social experiments on entire national populations, which usually prove that their theories do NOT work).
If the government wishes to fund basic science research, perhaps it should start there. When they manage to develop an economic model which takes all the historical inputs that were ever given to the BoE models and it retrospectively produces “predictions” that would have been correct (since we now know the outcomes of anything based on historic data) then the model can be considered to have been sufficiently “trained”. How is that not obvious?
July 1, 2023
What a strange world we live in! Three common sense suggestions with no chance of the government acting on them. Until Hunt is sacked, the UK has no possibility of lower taxes paid for by ruthlessly cutting government spending. But who is the conservative who is tough enough to do it? Sunak was a useless Chancellor & shows every sign of being a useless PM. It would be interesting to know Civil Service numbers in 1997, compared to 2023, & Quango spending in 1997 compared to 2023. I suspect that will tell you about the productivity problem in the CS.
July 1, 2023
Before we investigate productivity in today’s public sector, we should first stop the state and local powers from meddling in so many area of our lives and simplify things such as tax, benefits, etc; and while we are at it clip the wings of local government by prescribing and proscribing the activities they carry out. Then look at the efficiency and productivity of what remains.
July 1, 2023
I suppose we will be offered the same narrative content that has been published before; lots of general desires and wishes and no names of course. The mindset is immoveable.
Sadly I suspect there will be little admission that globalists and their members in his party and government hold the power over us and are not interested in local national issues. And challenging them is if course not allowed.
However, on the ground, which of the top five regulators here, by name, would you get rid of, to free up the market.
I dare you to risk saying something like this! Somehow I think I am wasting my time though.
July 1, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
And there we have it in a nutshell – governments are not good at backing winners. Might this be because they do not believe in anything? The present administration seems to have no set ideas about how best things should be done. Some ministers have spent a lifetime in politics with little or no experience of life outside Westminster. They are not conviction politicians. Instead, they rely on focus groups and are overly-influenced by pressure groups, international opinion and, of course, the Blob.
It is said that civil servants advise and ministers decide but the boot is on the other foot. Clearly, officials are frustrating government policy and attempting (rather successfully) to influence and determine government policy. What officials need is direction from their ministers and the government and instructed in no uncertain terms that a failure to comply is a breach of the Civil Service Code. I guess Ministers are too terrified of what reaction they would get – they dare not even ask them to return to their desks.
Self-sufficiency in energy, food production and industrial products in a very uncertain world is so obviously a desirable thing it is suprising that one even needs to say it let alone have to berate our political class to provide it. But it is equally obvious that this government and ministers (who I repeat have no firm beliefs of their own) has been so captured by outside concerns that it is incapable of doing it.
July 1, 2023
Can’t read your tweets again. Can you publish them each day at the side of your blog as used to happen?
Reply I have not asked for any changes. I want people to see them.
July 1, 2023
Can you see them now Rose, I can.
John, you say you want to cut taxes which ones in particular and to what level? I think Iâd have preferred if your government increased the income before child benefit is withdrawn to a household income, it is very unfair that two people can earn 98,000 and still get child benefit, but one person who is perhaps supporting their wife to stay at home whilst the children are young and doing lots of overtime to do that is losing her child benefit.
I canât believe some of the income multiples people have been encouraged to loan on mortgage, coupled with 9% graduate taxes, high childcare costs, the covid lockdown stalling careers for a couple of years and withdrawal of child benefits, you all need to listen to our strivers before you snuff out their drive.
July 1, 2023
I think there has been a change at Twitter – access only for members now.
July 1, 2023
It depends on what platform one uses. I see them on my iPhone running the default iOS but not on my iPad that has some VPN âprotectionâ.
July 2, 2023
ft.com, Opinion, Dieter Helm, 02/07/2023 , âLessons from the Thames Water debacleâ.
Privatised utilities face a day of reckoning caused by spectacular regulatory failure.
guardian.con, 01/07/2023, âUK water giants recruit top staff from regulator Ofwatâ.
So, âAll is for the best in the best of all possible worldsâ and âWork then without disputing, itâs the only way to render life supportableâ (Candide, Voltaire, 1759).
July 2, 2023
Net zero policy is having a disastrous effect on all areas of economic policy.
I know you will say “In order to talk to ministers, I have to be saying the same as they are about climate change” – but is that really true?
People are starting to listen to the real situation. For example, this was published today:
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/02/15/why-global-warming-is-good-for-us/?utm_source=spiked+long-reads&utm_campaign=b7f898b6d3-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_07_02_12_57&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-b7f898b6d3-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D
Perhaps, if you can’t reach the brainless people who are in government, you can help get the good news to the people, who will then create pressure for change at the polling booth.
July 2, 2023
Just shrink the State. Many State interventions are not only unnecessary but positively harmful. And there is a lot of unnecessary labour in the public sector. Do the regulators regulate monopolies like domestic water supply in the right way – cap boardroom and overhead payroll costs, agree profit levels, force investment and let prices find their level within that framework? No, they do not. Let regulators regulate what needs to be regulated and nothing else. As for Thames Water, forbid the payment of dividends until it has payed off its debts. And ensure that not one single penny of Thames Water bailout costs are incurred by taxpayers.
And look at our NHS, with its highly ambitious manpower plan – where are the compensating savings? For example reducing the ratio of Senior Managers to Managers, currently over 50%; dispensing with all of the Equality and Diversity Officers; reducing the proportion of non-clinical staff; eliminating expensive bad value for money drugs aimed at extending the fag end of life; delegating some doctor tasks to nurses and pharmacists; making everyone pay prescription charges; extending the range of medicines that pharmacists may sell over the counter without prescription.
The public sector just can’t stop spending money it doesn’t have.
IF YOU’RE SPENDING TOO MUCH, SPEND LESS.
July 2, 2023
I agree with all of your comments. I just hope the public are not getting too frightened by what is going on in this country and other countries, to take anything seriously. We could end up with panic the way things are going. Productivity will be the last thing on minds if we do not bring some kind of normality to the country.
July 5, 2023
John, we are told every day real spending on everything from the NHS to Schools is down. Today the government has got the Kingâs Fund, the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation ‘The NHS has endured a decade of under-investment compared to the historic average, and capital spending has been well below comparable countries. As a result, the health service has insufficient resources to do its job: fewer hospital beds than almost all similar countries, outdated equipment, dilapidated buildings and failing IT.’
2 Aug 2022 â Schools in England are facing a looming funding crisis, with spending per pupil in 2024-25 expected to be 3% lower than in 2010. Guardian
12 Dec 2022 â College spending per student in 2024 will still be about 5% lower than in 2010, while school sixth-form spending per student will be 22%.
theguardian.com
https://www.theguardian.com âș education âș oct âș excl…
22 Oct 2022 â Nine out of 10 schools in England will have run out of money by the next school year as the enormous burden of increased energy and salary bills
So just what spending has gone up in real terms to account for all the extra taxes the extra 5% from fiscal drag? Why don’t your ministers defend ANY of these accusations.
18 Sept 2019 â The report found that adult education, further education and skills spending on young people have been hardest hit by austerity since 2010,