My Interview with Talk TV

Please find below my Interview with Talk TV’s Mike Graham where we discussed illegal immigration and my new paper on Inflation

You can find it between 1:13:34- 1:23:22

 

33 Comments

  1. Sakara Gold
    October 1, 2023

    An interesting interview. I must admit that your views on immigration are sound, if only the Home Secretary would listen

    I have not read your paper on inflation, but the cause is the massive increase in energy prices imposed by the fossil fuel cartel, high taxation and the interest that the bond vigilantes demand to finance a country with no exports and which spends more each year than it can afford.

    1. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2023

      No the causes of high inflation are Sunak & BoE currency debasement QE policies, the pointless lock downs, the vast government waste (HS2, the pointless degrees, the net harm vaccines, test and trace, eat out to help outā€¦) high energy prices are largely due to the net zero religion. Not actually much inflation when measured in the gold price or the oil price or Swiss Franks is there just when measured in debased sterling?

      It is Sunak/BoE currency debasement policies, the net zero lunacy and vast economic mismanagement and government waste Sakara. Inflation in Switzerland is under 2%.

      1. Lifelogic
        October 1, 2023

        High energy prices are caused by a lack of supply – more reliable fracking, mining, drilling, nuclear please to be followed by controlled nuclear fusion, hopefully arriving slightly before I shuffle off this mortal coil. But that might be a bit optimistic.

      2. Lifelogic
        October 1, 2023

        Gove just now blames higher taxes on Covid and the war. Well they went up hugely even before Covid or the War Gove. You, like Starmer, even absurdly wanted VAT on private school fees.

        The main reasons Gove are endless government waste, the net zero rip off energy insanity, pointless degrees, migration levels, tax levels making working not worth it, the appalling handling of Covid (net harm lockdowns, net harm vaccines, rest and trace, eat out to help outā€¦) HS2, economic growth suppressing policies, the inefficient public services healthcare, education, roads, transport ā€¦

        Surely even a Socialist English Grad. like Gove should be able to grasp this?

        1. Lifelogic
          October 1, 2023

          The government is far too large and delivers very little of any value and much of negative value.

          1. Mickey Taking
            October 1, 2023

            Most of the time Governments have a negative effect on almost everything, population well-being, employment above min. wage, health, local government spend, education performance, headcount in the Lords, staff in the NHS, staff numbers in Civil Service, Military staffing and appropriate equipment, international relations, Police and Judiciary efforts, media able to endlessly criticize, voters not bothering to vote, transport efficiency and staffing…..

        2. MFD
          October 1, 2023

          Gove must be (sacked? ed),
          He is not a Conservatives, his Uni Party opinions are parroting the orders of the WEF!

          1. MFD
            October 1, 2023

            I have just listened to Gove on the Camilla Tominy show on GBNews, and that confirms he is not fit to be in government! Hes a WEF soldier or slave, hes not for Britain.

      3. Ralph Corderoy
        October 1, 2023

        Yep, ā€˜Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenonā€™.ā€‚There are temporary supply shocks to prices, Ukraine war, OPEC cartel, but the market adjusts.ā€‚It’s robbing the public by money printing which is the key cause.ā€‚And it is theft.ā€‚Not just savers, who some think can afford it.ā€‚But the private-sector hand-to-mouth wage earner whose wage lags behind CPI and never makes as big a jump when the pay-rise comes.

        Here’s the Bank of England’s M4ex measure of money supply alongside CPI, courtesy of The Spectator. https://www.datawrapper.de/_/ncC2V/

        And to show the correlation isn’t peculiar to Britain, here’s Wikipedia’s chart for the 2014 figures for many countries showing how they tend to stretch along the diagonal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply#/media/File:Money_supply_growth_vs_inflation_rates.png

        How quickly CPI adjusts to the money supply depends on where that new money’s going; see the Cantillon effect.ā€‚If the new money is bank loans to those with collateral which is then used to buy assets with leverage then asset prices ride.ā€‚The strong correlation between money supply and house prices shows this and doesn’t affect CPI.ā€‚But put it directly into the public’s pocket by furlough and it gets spent on consumerism causing the recent CPI jumps.

      4. Mickey Taking
        October 1, 2023

        and if employers had been encouraged to take on more workers, and the sat on hands benefits were so comfortable, then maybe we as a nation would not be in such a mess.

        1. jerry
          October 1, 2023

          @MT; If only the UK govt had such a policy during the recessions of the 1980/90s, rather than using North Sea oil and gas revenue to pay benefits so people sat on their hand at home; maybe then we as a nation would not be in such a mess now, over reliant on Globalization, catching economic pleurisy whenever China, OPEC, the EU or the USA catches the economic sniffles!

          No country can be economically strong unless it has a strong Military, it has energy self-security, and it is self sufficient in food and the manufacture of essentials.

          1. MFD
            October 1, 2023

            Well said Jerry, I second those suggestions bring back our old Britain!
            Build up our armed forces and stand on the neck of woke traitors!

      5. jerry
        October 1, 2023

        @LL; Nonsense, are you really trying to suggest there is no link between the sudden rise in of energy prices since Feb 2022?

        UK Inflation;
        2020 1.0%;
        2021 2.5%
        2022 9.9%

        World average;
        2020 1.9%
        2021 3.4%
        2022 8.0%

        So unless Sunak and the BoE are now running the the IMF, the World Bank, perhaps even OPEC…
        Nice rant though!

        1. Lifelogic
          October 1, 2023

          The war has not helped, I agree, but the net zero anti oil, gas, coal religion made the UK far more vulnerable to the loss of Russian supplies. Inflation is largely caused by currency devaluations. Countries that did not debase their currencies (as Sunak and Bailey did hugely) have not had very much of an inflation problem.

    2. Ian+wragg
      October 1, 2023

      We have plenty of exports but people like you who hate Britain can only run us down.

  2. Lifelogic
    October 1, 2023

    Sensible stuff as usual JR but this Con-socialist government is not remotely listening.

    Simon Heffer today – Labour wants to abolish private schools, but darenā€™t admit it
    Its recent flip-flopping reveals its true colours ā€“ once in power, it would be a destructive government

    Indeed people using private schools all ready pay three times over to do so, if you put VAT on school fees it will be four times over. With healthcare under the Tories it already is four times over with the 12% insurance tax on all insurance. It will kill many schools and raise no net money as many parents will be forces back to state provision.

    Why not do this for vital to life food & loo rolls etc. have a free at the point of use state supermarket, funded by additional taxes. Then all the other private sectors shops must pay rates, rent and buy all their supplies and then charge 20% vat on top too. You end up with dire, hugely inefficient state monopolies.

    We have government rigged markets in healthcare, schools, education, housing, energy, banking, transports (subsidised trains and buses, cars and vans hounded and taxes to death)ā€¦ It is all hugely damaging to the economy. We need freedom or choice and fair competiton.

    So a Ā£1 billion Future High Streets Fund. Well the state sector largelyvdestroyed the high streets with rip off rate bills, rip off parking, motorist mugging, restrictive planning, red routes and vast over regulation. Doubtless this Ā£billion will be wasted by councils in blocking even more roads or introducing even more parking restrictions. Will be virtually nothing per shop in the UK anyway about 2% of what they take of them in rates PA I estimate.

    1. a-tracy
      October 2, 2023

      On a per-pupil basis the total funding allocated to schools for 5-16 year old pupils, in cash terms, in 2023-24 was Ā£7,460, a 44% increase compared to Ā£5,180 allocated per pupil in 2010-11. When adjusted for inflation, funding per pupil was broadly flat between 2010-11 and 2015-16 at about Ā£6,700 in 2022-23 prices.26 Jan 2023. Gov.uk

      We all pay to fund schools whether we have children or not for the social good and to give us the workforce and economic growth we all require. If someone chooses to take a private school choice, I have no problem with it at all. BUT they don’t pay for it three times over?

      They save the State Ā£7460 pa, which also allows schools in their posh home areas to take on more children who can’t afford the private high fees and shop around for the best nearby schools if the one in their catchment area is poor quality, so all the middle-class parents who think ‘don’t care this won’t bother me’ but aren’t in their schools direct catchment area should take care.

      It won’t affect a high % of people who are already in the Private system most will just make the sacrifices on other purchases. However, there are plenty of private schools that will suffer outside of London and High-earning areas, as these people decide to take up their places at their local, usually top-of-the-league high schools nearby instead.

  3. Lifelogic
    October 1, 2023

    Red tape costs Britain Ā£143bn a year ā€“ urgent action must be taken for growth
    New reports reveal the growing morass of anti-competitive regulation skewing the market, with dire results

    Says Shanker Singham in the Telegraph.

    It must be way more than this surely, just over-restrictive planning rules and cost of application and daft vastly over complex tax rules, making tax digital, IR35 must have cost at least 10 times this sum. Coercing dangerous Covid vaccines into people with no need of them must have cost well over 200 billion in the net harm done.

    Well said Neil Oliver on GBnews yesterday.

    1. Philip Haynes
      October 1, 2023

      Also the cost of red tape builds up. If you waste Ā£20k on red tape this year you have far less to invest in your business for next year leading to less growth. Red tape can delay or even kill many sensible (but for red tape) investments. Employments laws and tribunal risks, tax uncertainty, windfall taxes, planning uncertaintyā€¦ it all wastes billions. How much money and time delay is wasted getting approval for a single nuclear power plant or that small Cumbrian coal mine.

  4. David Bunney
    October 1, 2023

    John, you said all the right things and indeed chime with all the comments on this blogpost site. I think that putting the British economy, well-being of British people etc first and ahead of pseudo-scientific climate claims and destructive anti-fossil-fuel policies, making our borders non-porous with strict return procedure requires us to pull out of many international treaties. Of course we donā€™t want acrimonious disputes with other countries around the world and if we had more domestic nuclear and fossil fuel energy, manufacturing capacity and food production it would mean we could take a more relaxed position on whether putting Britain and the British people first would upset the EU, ECHR, UN or whatever other oppressive and undemocratic entity wants to indenture us. Letā€™s go our own way, a conservative way and have a roaring economy, powered by British and friendly statesā€™ fossil fuels our own low-tech and high-tech industry jobs making products firstly for the home market and then other countries and agencies canā€™t twist our arm so much.

  5. formula57
    October 1, 2023

    Urgent measures are needed to cope with the 780 million for we know the Home Secretary cannot stop them, if they opt to come.

    1. Ian+wragg
      October 1, 2023

      I think it’s time to let them in and we’ll all emigrate to their sunlit uplands.

  6. Everhopeful
    October 1, 2023

    If a govt. demonstrates that attending work ( or school) is an unimportant option ( or if I recollect actually against the law) then of course it will take a lot to get people back into the routine again.
    And how will anyone ever feel confident about starting up a new business?
    Apparently many kids opted to never return to school again after the lamentable plandemic. And really what with one nonsense and another who can blame them?

  7. glen cullen
    October 1, 2023

    537 yesterday

  8. glen cullen
    October 1, 2023

    Someone needs to tell Sunak that halving inflation ISN’T A TAX CUT

    1. Bloke
      October 2, 2023

      He knows it is not a tax cut but tries to hoodwink the electorate by pretending that it is. His ā€˜halving inflationā€™ actually causes a further price increase. Even reducing inflation to zero would still keep prices at their present high level.

  9. Sakara Gold
    October 1, 2023

    Very quietly, Grant Shapps has anounced this morning (confirmed on BBC R4 at 0800 hrs) that British Army military advisors will be sent to Ukraine. Apparently to train Ukraine troops. This is the thin end of the wedge and we can expect a major NATO deployment this winter

    In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Shapps also disclosed that he talked to Zelenskiy about how the navy could help to defend commercial vessels from Russian attacks in the Black Sea.

    Predictably, Medvedev has immediately responded by declaring that British NATO troops in Ukraine will be legitimate targets. Plus, he threatened German munitions companies with missile strikes,, which would be an Article 5 issue.

    Like it or not, we are now deeply involved with WW3.The overiding issue is now rearmament – and defence of the UK homeland. Time is short.

    1. Sharon
      October 1, 2023

      It might have been Martin Daubney on GB News( or Michael Portillo?) this afternoon, but anyway, he was talking to a Russian journalist…in answer to how was the Conservative conference going…. the journalist said that the idiots are walking into WWW 111 – so you’re not the only one thinking that!

  10. Denis+Cooper
    October 1, 2023

    Off topic, the government says that imposing fuller checks on imports from the EU will cost Ā£330 billion a year:

    https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-admits-extra-330m-charges-155944267.html

    “UK admits extra Ā£330m a year in charges for post-Brexit animal and plant imports”

    They also say the impact on headline inflation would amount to ā€œless than 0.2% across three yearsā€.

    That may be in the right ballpark, because while Ā£330 million is of course a large sum it is only a small fraction of the value of our imports from the EU, which were worth Ā£431.9 billion in 2022:

    https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7851/CBP-7851.pdf

    Ā£0.33 billion divided by Ā£431.9 billion = 0.076%.

    “She said implementing new border controls is essential to protect against the international transmission of diseases such as salmonella and African swine fever which are prevalent in parts of the EU.”

    So what about goods coming into Northern Ireland from the Irish Republic, without any border controls?

    1. a-tracy
      October 2, 2023

      Do the goods come into the rest of the UK from Ireland without checks, too?

      I thought the UK wasn’t applying any checks on EU imports. If things go up by the 1% extra it will cost, perhaps it will deter Brits from the imports and help the balance of payments.

      1. Denis+Cooper
        October 3, 2023

        Goods coming into Great Britain direct from the Irish Republic will be checked, notionally from next year.

        It’s 0.1%, not 1%, additional cost.

        In my first line above I mistakenly put billion but it will be Ā£330 million, according to the government.

        Also as it will just affect goods that should be divided by Ā£311 billion not Ā£432 billion, page 22 here:

        https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-7851/CBP-7851.pdf

        Ā£330 million divided by Ā£311 billion = 0.106%

        This is so small that it could be considered trivial if not negligible – the sterling euro exchange rate can change by more than that in a day – and thinking about it the other way round that would also be all we would gain from removing the checks if we rejoined the EU Single Market.

        So I would argue that It gives one measure of the “friction” we experience on our trade now that we have left the EU Single Market and therefore no longer have “frictionless” trade with the EU countries, and there is a world of difference between that reality of trivial or negligible friction and the deceitful fantasy promoted by people like Hilary Benn, who has claimed that his constituents can longer sell anything to the EU:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/07/22/my-contribution-in-the-northern-ireland-protocol-committee-day-2-debate/#comment-1330678

        ā€œNorthern Ireland is in a unique and favourable position compared with my constituents, precisely because it has access to both the market of the United Kingdom and the market of the European Unionā€

        I accept that these will not be the only costs resulting from our departure from the EU Single Market but they are ones which are often mentioned and as we can now see they have been grossly exaggerated.

        I have said in the past that after decades of letting stuff in from the EU member states with minimal checks we need not rush to impose checks, but now that it is being done it is providing a useful insight.

  11. Norman Henwood
    October 1, 2023

    Much is being made of the Tory polling upturn in the tabloids but don’t believe it. You’ve really hurt the people who voted for you.

    Make all the election promises you like but the feeling here is that you will just revert to type for another term in office.

    I don’t think you can survive this.

    1. Mickey Taking
      October 2, 2023

      It is simply a question of ‘will the voters bother to go to the booths, and will they remember what has taken place during the years of Tory governments?’
      My view is that those over 50 will either not bother, or will not vote Tory, those under might have short memories and could well take the view that ‘all political parties are the same’.
      Result on a knife edge? It shouldn’t be.

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