If all goes as planned Parliament will end the current session this week and prepare for a King’s speech and a State Opening.
Given the state of the polls and recent by elections I assume this Parliament has at least a year to run before the next election to give the PM more time to demonstrate the competence he talks about and to deliver his five pledges.
The main opportunities he has to show the change he says the public wants rest on the year’s legislative agenda to be set out in the King’s speech, and changes made in the November and April budgets to come. I will be presenting detailed proposals for the budget shortly. Today I am interested in your ideas for legislation.
My own priorities are unlikely to appear. I would like to see
1 A small boats Bill to make clear to UK courts that Parliament does not want Human Rights Law to impede decisions and removals of illegal migrants from the UK
2. The completion of the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill to remove the problems with the Windsor Framework,restoring UK government of NI.
3. Restoration of the full EU Retained Law Bill with more EU law repeals and amendments.
4 Tax Reduction and Simplification Bill
5. A Wider Ownership Bill setting out more ways to promote ownership of homes, shares and businesses
6. A public sector productivity Bill creating opportunities for state employees to buy out their managerial and administrative tasks in government through an employee buy out.
7 A privatisation Bill to facilitate the sale of all remaining shares in Nat West and to sell Channel 4. Bill to be fast tracked to complete sales next year.
8. A People’s BBC Bill as discussed here before
October 24, 2023
Good morning.
I would much rather the remaining time this government has in clearing up the part of the mess it has created over the last 14 years. But I have Nut Zero hope of that.
It is not more laws, rules and regulations we need, but less.
October 24, 2023
The eight suggested priorities are unlikely to appear.
It will be all ‘jam tomorrow’.
October 24, 2023
JR,
We are way past false rhetoric.
Who in their right mind would believe a word the back-stabbing Sunak says after betraying his party leader who plucked him from obscurity to be chancellor, Sunak who sold out our country to EU and gave away N.Ireland to EU, made us act in lock step with EU, gives €2.4 billion to EU project to Horizon to promote EU growth and competition where UK might, might, be given some of our taxes back, unelected Sunak who said he would implement the 2019 manifesto then abandoned it, that he would serve with integrity! No one voted for his five failed pledges. Cameron did not put gay marriage in a Queens Speech or manifesto and yet claimed it was his greatest achievement! Prepare for destruction. Oh, Brady said no one would be allowed to pull out of leadership race…. Sunak lost to Truss. All economic factors used to get rid of her are worse under Hunt and Sunak. Both say they are following the plan! A plan to wreck the economy?
October 24, 2023
Very laudable but not inclined with WEF policy.
Fishy is just marking time to hand over the baton to sir kneelalot.
80 seat majority wasted. Never again.
October 24, 2023
Ian,
Lord Agnew had the honour to resign because of Sunak’s schoolboy errors allowing multiple billions of our taxes to wasted in fraud and Sunak stopped the investigation into recovering our taxes! Perhaps he would be better advised not to harp on about improving others maths skills when his lack of judgment is so immature and woeful.
Sunak and Hint’s answer: raise more taxes we are wasting too much!!
October 24, 2023
Was this on Johnson’s Orders? Who was the First Lord of the Treasury?
October 24, 2023
Hope: “Sunak and Hint’s answer: raise more taxes we are wasting too much!!”
Don’t forget that idiot of a Health Minister, Hancock.
Between them, billions £ wasted, enforcing measures almost no body wanted, shutting down viable businesses, and giving up the trade to the conglomerates like Amazon, and Redwood want’s us to forget it.
No, it’s worse, he and the administration he supports, want’s us to pay for their disaster through higher taxes.
They ruined the economy, by their insane measures, but we’ve to pay for the damage.
Thanks! But as a deal, I can say no thank you, for that!!
October 24, 2023
Seems so.
October 24, 2023
@Mark B +1
My Government has failed to do as promised so we will resign
October 24, 2023
I would go back to the manifesto and start implementing it with vigour and speed.
October 24, 2023
@Iain gill – 14 years of Socilaist ego, personal self gratification then with each manifesto my version of a Conservative Government has lied to the British People just toi gain power
October 24, 2023
1. Get brexit done, it’s only half done – NI is tied in.
2. Investing in our public services and infrastructure, how much has been invested since 2019?
3. Supporting workers and families, families with one earner at the higher limit (which hasn’t increased with inflation has their child benefit removed! A petty spiteful removal every child matters).
4. Strengthening the Union (Northern Ireland, you’ve allowed Wales to start anti-English positions from visitors levies to second home hatred, Welsh only competitions when the Welsh can enter all English competitions, there was even a Plaid councillor posing with a rifle saying he wanted to make sure there wasn’t any English people trying to cross the Bristol Channel. Was he charged, I doubt it! The Scottish grads don’t pay graduate tax for student tuition fee loans at high-interest rates (more than mortgage rates 7.5% but you don’t hear anyone complaining about that when they’re complaining about 5% mortgage rates), the Welsh grads met the extra costs of tuition fees so their grads pay less in the so called ‘Union’ with no extra taxes on their people to pay for it.
5. We need to hear what since 2019 have you done to unleash Britains Potential there are gains, you need to list them.
There were more promises!
October 25, 2023
Tories did not even try to implement Brexit. Border down Irish Sea, all UK tied to EU rules, laws and fines by foreign court! UK fined £34 million a few weeks ago by ECJ and EU court!! EU laws and rules still on statute book!! ECHR still very much alive. Corporation tax hiked to prevent UK being competitive against Neighbours as Sunak claimed. UK now 30 out of 38! No British PM would put border down Irish Sea we were repeatedly told, they did just that! Gave away our territorial waters and fishing grounds to EU! Increased energy dependence on EU even though EU was hostile towards UK over vaccines, electric to Channel Islands, PPE equipment! Uni party are doing everything they can to tie UK in lockstep to EU.
Starmer, the half of Uni party loaded his cabinet full of Cooper, Benn types who acted against democracy, national mandate to leave EU. Starmer stated he will not diverge from EU! Starmer wants to give our foreign policy and military to EU control.
There is no Brexit not even half. It appears to me there are Traitors to the national mandate to leave the EU on both sides of the Uni party.
October 26, 2023
Hope, I hadn’t realised that all of the UK was still tied into ALL EU rules, laws and fines by foreign courts. I thought the fine you spoke about was from when we were members. When they closed down the JRMogg unit after he did all that work, I guess the writing was on the wall.
The EU needs us conjoined paying in; they’ve just repurchased Poland with money they don’t have. Tusk promised a ‘€35.4 billion of COVID-19 recovery funds that Poland has been trying to unlock for more than a year’ plus ‘76.5 billion euros of EU cohesion funds’ after the EU commission borrowed (from where) 900 billion euros for the COVID recovery plan, does that even show up in the member countries debts, or is that the fudge they use to make the UK borrowing look higher than theirs for the rejoiners to ignore.
October 24, 2023
1. Tick extra funding for the NHS, lots extra but it appears no rules on the spending
2. 50,000 more nurses? how far along is that?
3. 50 million more GP appointments per year, hows that going?
4. 20,000 more police and tougher sentences for criminals, hasn’t it just been announced that custodial sentences are being removed?
5. An Australian style point system to control immigration, whilst allowing illegal dinghy crossings and putting them in our hotels, sort of makes a nonsence of that.
6. Millions more invested every week in science, schools, apprenticeships and infrastructure while controlling debt, hows that going?
7. Reaching Net Zero by 2050 (NOTE 2050). Investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure (how much has been invested since 2019 people need to be told)
8. Will not raise the rate of income tax, VAT or NI. [freezing thresholds was sneaky I hope you can persuade them to raise the VAT threshold, John]. Compulsory children’s car seats have 5% VAT applied!
October 24, 2023
well said, I think you and I would get on…
October 25, 2023
Johnson stated quite clearly boat people would be sent straight back. How come Belgium can get rid of 90% of its boat invaders? Cut immigration to tens of thousands, 1.2 million visas issued last year by Tories. That was a choice to act totally against repeated manifesto promises over 14 years. Straight forward act of dishonesty. Especially as Osborne claimed no one serious in private. Who could believe anything they say?
October 26, 2023
How do Belgium do it Hope?
October 24, 2023
To triple the size of our police force and triple the size of our armed forces with a view to ensuring the UK is adequately protected.
October 24, 2023
I see little point in a tripled police force unless we go back to basics in policing. Otherwise it’s just a tripling of the payroll and tripling the amount of people being hauled up for ‘hate speech’ a.k.a daring to have a different opinion/defending your own beliefs.
October 24, 2023
@Michelle
Of course you are right.
Maybe tripling the size and cost of our police would reduce or eliminate the ability to make excuses for not doing their jobs properly ?
October 24, 2023
It wouldn’t. When Brown DOUBLED the NHS funding it stopped them squealing ‘underfunded’ for a week.
October 24, 2023
But even more police who are not tackling real crime and doing totally the wrong woke things as they do now will not help. They need sensible direction. Over 40 years I have had to report about 20 crimes at my businesses, house, cars… never have they done anything useful on any of them beyond the crime number for the insurance claim and their victim of crime letters.
Do nothing whenever possible, even avoid taking a crime report if you possibly can seems to be their orders from above. Unless it is a hate crime or someone silently praying near an abortion clinic or Lawrence Fox perhaps.
October 25, 2023
Why triple police force of Tories have an open border policy allowing anyone and everyone in? May was in charge when Manchester bomber allowed to come and go as he pleased from France!! Did she ever say sorry? She nearly lost the election to Corbyn a few weeks later when the incident was fresh in minds of the public and she cut police numbers by 20,000. May did not believe police numbers have any impact on crime!! Get rid of them all and let us see how her view impacts on the nation.
October 24, 2023
Oldwulf
We now need protection from within!
October 24, 2023
+1
October 24, 2023
@Oldwulf As far as the Police go, a 100 times what is there now is still nothing – sack all the Police Commissioners, remove the WOKE discrimination departments then it might start to serve the people that pay their wages
October 24, 2023
I agree. The Police Commissioners are an extra, heavy cost burden and they bring nothing which improves the service. There was nothing wrong with the previous system in which the Chief Constable reported to the local Police Authority.
Mrs May introduced them when she was Home Secretary. Another great decision.
October 25, 2023
But it is the EU Balkanisation model for our country that the Uni Party wants to follow. HS2was also an EU (Tens) infrastructure project. It had nothing to do with levels up or cut one rail journey by 30 minutes. It was about connecting all major EU cities. I wish Uni Party would come clean. How much have they wrecked our environment for HS2! How about their green fanaticism how does HS2 equate with tht and all the concrete and materials it used to build it along with all the diesel plant used to transport and build it?
The scheme shows the Uni party for what they really are. EU fanatics who put EU dream above all people of this country and above our national interest.
October 24, 2023
That will never happen Oldwulf, we are quietly being stripped of all means of defending our homes.
Our wealth is being scattered across the world by Sunack , hes so generous more millions scattered yesterday.
No reply to WHO to remove us from their plans ( surprise, surprise), We are going down the drain fast.
Seems to me the UN plan for us is on track.
October 24, 2023
With our host’s permission:
BBC News – At least 30 West Midlands Police stations to shut
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-67196470
October 24, 2023
Abolish Net Zero, the wars on motorists, landlords (thus tenants), the self employed, small businesses.
Cut taxes to no more that 25% of GDP and cut the vast government waste to pay for this.
Abolish the deluded & bonkers Climate Change Committee.
Move to free and fair competition between state and private for healthcare, schools, universities, transport, energy, the BBC… and stop rigging markets in these areas.
Kill soft student loans for all the duff degrees – circa 75% of them are.
Get fracking, mining, drilling…
Have a huge bonfire or red tape and relax planning.
Reduce immigration to sensible levels and for skilled people only.
Abolish the BBC (funding of pro-Hamas, left wing and climate alarmists…) propaganda tax.
Abolish IHT tax, all stamp duty, increase the VAT threshold to £200K.
Abolish all the woke, diversity and the ESG agendas.
Cut the inflation caused by Sunak and BoE’s QE
Enough for now as they only have 12 months left.
October 24, 2023
LL
Agreed. But that would be the undoing 12 years of non conservative work in just a year.
October 25, 2023
LL, they might say it to get elected and dump it the next day. It is the Tory way.
October 24, 2023
I’d vote for that Lifelogic! Sounds like a really good positive plan for a successful country!
October 24, 2023
Good start. Not a chance. The Tory’s created this mess so they aren’t going to repeal it or become conservative overnight. They need radical internal reform to select candidates who are …………….CONSERVATIVE and then the idea’s and policies come naturally. I saw Andrew Mitchel sat next to Soonout during an ITV soundbite yesterday re Israel. There’s a prime example of the Lib Dems inhabiting the fake conservative Tory’s. So they aren’t introducing policies we want or expect anytime soon. No it’ll be ban smoking or change the name of A Levels or something like that. Things that would really make a difference like vastly reduce all forms of immigration and quickly deport those who shouldn’t be here causing us harm and danger. Nope. Reduce taxes by cutting and time limiting welfare. Nope. Stopping health tourism. Nope. and on and on. So Brexit Facts for you reveal over 7.4 MILLION people have registered to stay from the EU. How many are straight on the welfare band wagon Sir John? Can you ask as I intend to find out. Perhaps you could ask your useless Ministers?
October 24, 2023
i would add repeal the Climate Change Act.
October 24, 2023
Indeed.
So the Labour donor Dale Vince compares climate change sceptics to Holocaust deniers and suggests Rishi Sunak’s government is killing people with its stance on fossil fuels. Mr Vince, the founder of green energy firm Ecotricity, suggested that climate change denial should be outlawed. ‘It shouldn’t be allowed,’ In the Mail.
Well who denies that the climate changes Dale? It always has and always will. But is there a manmade CO2 driven climate emergency almost certainly there is not. We have had far higher levels of CO2 than the current % and millions of things affect the climate, not just CO2, it is not even the main greenhouse gas mate! Talk to some sensible independent physicists and perhaps grow up a bit.
Sunak’s government will kill far more people (freezing grannies to death for example) with their mad adherence to Net Zero and rip off energy costs that he is very foolishly with.
What free speech would the left want to ban next? Pointing out that the Covid Vaccine Statistics show they did net harm & most certainly did so for younger people, that over high taxes and excessive red tape makes everyone poorer, that there is no such thing as “renewable” energy, talking about the levels of immigration legal and illegal showing the boat arriving and showing related crime statistics, that the lockdown cost billions and did net harm, that the reform party should be banned from saying anything or just banned?
Just ban people from telling the truth – things like “EV cars cause more CO2 not less” and so called “renewable” energy is mainly tax payer grant farming and the climate emergency is a hugely exaggerated con trick.
October 24, 2023
To set a sensible limit on the cost of taxpayer support towards so called renewable energy.
To stop the stupidity of paying for the importation of fossil fuels when we have vast amounts of our own fossil fuels which we can use for the benefit of the people of the UK.
October 24, 2023
“To set a sensible limit on the cost of taxpayer support towards so called renewable energy.”
How about zero, tax them the same as other energy, kill all the market rigging and make then pay fully for the fossil fuel back up they need.
October 24, 2023
Sir
I am not sure how your Number 6 would work.
Would a state employee really be prepared to give up their benefits of being a state employee in order to become more entrepreneurial ?
They chose to become state employees for a reason.
October 24, 2023
Move to easy fire and hire )for state and private sector) and give them little choice but to get other productive jobs for a change.
October 24, 2023
+1
October 24, 2023
Repeal all of the Climate Change acts and subsequent instruments.
Actually implement Cameron’s Bonfire of the Quangos.
Halve the size of the Civil Service.
Drastically cut the size of the tax codes through simplification a la Lawson.
October 24, 2023
Tinkering, meaningless nonsense.
The Left are more powerful today than they have ever been thanks to Tory party appeasement. When they do finally get back into power the full force of their vicious, destructive, revengeful ideology will be unleashed upon those they truly hate, white, hetero men.
For all the respect I have for our esteemed host he still appears to believe contemporary politics is about taxes, spending and investment. That’s la la land thinking. We live in an age of barbarism, destruction and revenge and the Left intend to unleash all three
October 24, 2023
Sadly I have to agree with you. Those who paint themselves as the caring, cuddly progressive left, are indeed nothing of a sort.
October 24, 2023
Your warning is well noted. It took the 3 day week, power cuts and a trip to the IMF to bring us the best brain in politics for a generation into office. So your disaster scenario could arrive again. Certainly the present PCP are not going to do what’s necessary; an impotent, selfish band of misfits. However, if Starmer does take over, do you think he has the destructive agenda that the left had of old? Starmer seems to be devoid of imagination, conviction and policies, and I don’t think he can be accused of political bravery. With Starmer we’ll see a continuation of pathetic self-delusion and continuing decline. We’ll see the £ fall so he won’t be able to borrow much. Stagnation.
October 24, 2023
Yep. The £ is going to have to go some to out-fall the USD and the Euro, so it might actually be the wests best bet – just to put the scale of the mess into perspective.
October 24, 2023
Beijing-Dai,21/10:Dedollarisation in Russia-China trade now almost complete.Ruble and yuan make up 95% of total.SWIFT no longer monitoring Russia-China trade.
October 24, 2023
Admirable optimism….
October 24, 2023
If you think the Fall of the West is optimistic …
October 24, 2023
The destruction is well underway via Tory policies which facilitate further destruction under a Labour led government shortly: Net Zero, the current Energy Bill and its enforcement provisions, hate laws and online harm legislation, restrictions on private landlords. We’ll soon have thousands of Gazans here too, under this or the next government.
I used to naively think the threat to our democracy and safety was from the EU when in fact it’s been from the Conservative Party in government.
October 24, 2023
A bit more than that MPC, I would say the whole of Westminster including the Lords cabal!
October 24, 2023
No foreigner ever did anything to us. They did not force us into the EU. It was our own home-grown political class across the divide that did for us. Always will be, that’s why they need to be upgraded. We could use JR as a yardstick.
October 25, 2023
The Americans were VERY keen on European union.”Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe?”
October 24, 2023
Only voters turning away from the main political parties can save this country. Until the people have had enough we won’t see any improvement. Unfortunately each year we see a decline in the indigenous population, so I doubt there will be enough of us to make the changes required when people do wake up. All the unelected global organisations like the UN, WEF, and the WHO know there is a financial collapse coming soon to the West. The onward march to our eventual downfall is continuing. There is no point in trying to influence this government or the next because their plans will not be for our benefit. Their aim is to take away everything you have ever worked for.
October 24, 2023
Quite frankly you, Sir John should suggest to your colleagues that they make you Prime Minister to enact the alternative legislative programme you suggest – after all they have no electoral prospects with Sunak’s leadership and so they have nothing to lose and might as well do so. Furthermore, unlike Sunak, you might well be able to beat Starmer at a general election based on your more optimistic and populist outlook. I say go for it!
October 24, 2023
My thoughts exactly. I was going to put at the top of my list that Sunak announces he will resign, but thought that might not be in keeping with the spirit of the exercise.
Several others need to do likewise.
October 24, 2023
and Hunt.
October 24, 2023
+1
October 24, 2023
Most of these proposals are just tinkering round the edges, leaving untouched the central problems the country has. There should be legislation to:-
– set the qualifications for legal migration much higher.
– withdraw planning permission for a building development not proceeded with after a year.
– scrap deadlines for implementing Net Zero policies
– end subsidies for wind energy
– make ESG criteria on investment illegal
– make debanking illegal
– require local councils to hold referendums on road closures and other anti-motorist schemes
October 24, 2023
R.Grange
It does not matter what they put in the Kings speech, because they will ignore it just like all of the others.
So many broken promises by all Parties in Politics, I have given up believing any of them, so depressing !!
October 24, 2023
Your eight point suggestions are entirely reasonable Sir John but the PM needs to do more. 1. Reduce Corporation Tax to 19%. 2. Remove the brake on Tax Thresholds. 3. Improve or completely remove Inheritance Tax thresholds. 4. Abolish the Climate Change Committee. 5. Remove the unachievable 2050 target for Net Zero. 6. Issue contracts to Rolls Royce to manufacture Small Modular Reactors. 7. Restart hydraulic fracturing. 8. Abolish further Onshore and Offshore Wind Turbine development.
October 24, 2023
I do hope the PM agrees with you. Nothing on the NHS, nothing on education, nothing on the cost of living. A perfect way to prove the Tories have no interest in ordinary people and should be consigned to opposition for a generation
October 24, 2023
😂🤣lemming the socialist. The State, Lemming, is NOT the people. Anything the STATE gets is taken from the people. So if you have any interest in the people, you want a whole lot less of that!
October 24, 2023
Your list is commendable Sir John but how about repeal of bad law.
The Equalities Act, Climate Change Act, Online Harms Bill, Net Zero for starters.
Pull the UK out of UN and WHO. They are a danger to the word.
Cancel the BBC licence fee.
October 24, 2023
World, not word!
October 24, 2023
Rescind all International Compacts and Treaties and suchlike.
Every single last one.
Build one or several of those Saxon Fort things along the South Coast.
Stop making the U.K. the nanny of the world.
We do not need other countries’ problems or wars!
October 24, 2023
I propose Everhopeful for PM, common sense and speed is what we need!
October 24, 2023
Sounds like Lenin and Trotsky in 1917/8!
You’ll have to overthrow the government/establishment first though-play the third movement of Shostakovich’s 8th symphony to get you in the mood while you formulate your plan!
October 24, 2023
Yes E h. I agree.
October 24, 2023
1. Repeal the 2008 Environmental act and Net Zero a bill introduced by Labour and endorsed by Theresa May
2. Repeal the Equalities act a bill introduced by Labour and used to destroy free speech.
3. Repeal the Devolution act a bill introduced by Labour designed to destroy the Nation.
4. Mandate reliable domestic energy production from all forms of available energy.
5.Mandate a limit to the size of the HoL to 500. on a one out one in basis.
That will do for the next twelve months.
October 24, 2023
+++
Brilliant!
October 24, 2023
Just restore the House of Lords to the real Lords. Remove the power of politicians to ‘create Lords, create British citizens, create jobs’ all are fakes!
October 24, 2023
Gets my vote ….and no foreign trips, and they only debate proposed law
October 24, 2023
+1 R E
Are we not STILL waiting for the H o C to be cut to 600?
October 24, 2023
The lords is a revising chamber for proposed HoCs laws, so why are they spending all day debating the Israeli/Hamas conflict ….I’ve seen this many times in local government were they’re busy doing what they want & like rather than doing their paid job
How about making a law that the Lords can only be employed ‘revising proposed law’
October 24, 2023
+1
Plus sort out the blatantly lop-sided devolution settlement and cancel the Barnet Formula.
October 24, 2023
The head of the Met has made it clear the anti-terror laws are not sufficient to arrest people marching and chanting slogans that depict ethic cleansing. So laws need to be introduced to prevent this.
Political legal advisers on terror worry about “letting the gene out of the bottle”. The slur being that politicians have put a powerful middle eastern body with bad intent into a small place where it doesn’t belong.
The broadcast media are constantly warned that we are living in a tinder box and to choose their words carefully.
I would extend terror laws much further to prevent a civil war by millions of people who have migrated to this country with links to the middle east and a different religion. I would enable secret laws to incarcerate on a massive scale and deport on a massive scale.
In Britain we have the reformations, civil war and pre WW2 to think about. In each situation each side thought they were right based on religion, democracy and philosophy. My grandfather physically fought against the fascists in Hyde Park and my father flew bombers for 5 years during ww2. So I don’t see civil war as a remote possibility but an inevitability if a wider war breaks out across the middle east.
October 24, 2023
The best way to promote home-ownership is to drastically reduce inward legal migration. You will not be able to build your way out of a population-growth crisis.
P.S. I see that there’s some reporting that Hunt will not contest his seat at the general election. If that’s the case, he should not be retained as Chancellor for another day. He has too little interest in seeing his party win.
October 24, 2023
I wonder which interfearing international body he will re-emerge in?
October 24, 2023
Indeed. With a majority of just 8,000 and largely despised especially by real Conservative as both an appalling Heath Secretary for 5 years and a tax to death anti-growth Chancellor, then what chance has he got of winning his seat back? Not very much at all I would have thought.
So what next job is he working towards?
October 24, 2023
I wonder what chinese company he’s going to work for next ?
October 24, 2023
I would like to see net zero targets removed from all legislation
I would like companies to have much less ESG compliance requirements.
I would like legislation that makes it more difficult for anyone to claim they are not the sex they were born with and I would like an age of consent of 18 before such claims will be entertained
I would like to see much simpler tax system
I would like government’s ability to borrow massively curtailed
I would like the landlord regulations reversed to encourage more small landlords back into the market and reverse the massive recent increase in rent.
I would like us to be able to diverge from the EU and to reverse the NI protocol
I would like an instruction to the RNLI and the Navy that anyone picked up in the channel should be returned to France.
October 24, 2023
Your priorities, ‘Conservative’ are unlikely to appear. Sums it up.
Hence no point asking us. This isn’t has been a ‘Labour’ administration for years.
So ask Starmer.
A few months ago with a big fanfare you announced repealing EU rules on land use would enable a blizzard of house building. No mention of why it had taken umpteen years. Last week. A quiet announcement that Sunak had cancelled it citing lack of parliamentary time. So yet another ‘get Brexit supporters off my back’ with nothing to follow. If he cant get that Bill through what’s the purpose of the Kings speech.
We have a PM who lacks leadership/charisma and is collegiate to the point of being spineless. His five pledges are just more examples. Time for a tumbril.
October 24, 2023
The King’s speech should avoid any mention of a new legislative programme because this government will not have the time to implement one and wouldn’t do so even if it could. Some references to “communities” and the danger to the planet would cover it.
October 24, 2023
“…to give the PM more time to demonstrate the competence he talks about…” Those last three words are sadly telling.
What legislation would we like? The repeal of the Climate Change Act. The abolition of the Trojan Horse legislation that allows quasi-groomers to spread filth in schools. The repeal of the legislation requiring illegal immigrants to be accommodated in hotels ad given a generous benefits package, evidently a leftover from days when it was only ever anticipated that Manston might have an occasional overspill. Tougher penalties for geography teachers – excuse the Blackadder touch, I meant for leaders of devolved governments and city authorities – we know why. The common theme for all of this is one of present day affront for the ordinary hard pressed taxpaying voter.
October 24, 2023
@David Cooper +1
October 24, 2023
Commit to reducing national debt by £100bn per annum. Pay for this by eliminating NHS responsibility to treat lifestyle diseases, then ration pensions and benefits to make up the rest.
Nobody will vote for it however, because everyone wants spending on them, never mind the burden of debt falling on the next generation.
October 24, 2023
A child born today lives in a country with water delivered to the taps, an electricity grid, a gas grid, a National Health Service, roads, bridges, railways etc. When I die in the next few years I will get no use from things my tax has been used to pay for. Of course massive infrastructure needs borrowing.
What should happen is:
1) it should be made illegal to borrow for current expenditure
2) public sector pensions should be changed to defined contribution
3) borrowing for infrastructure should be at long term fixed interest rates and debt interest must never exceed some fixed percentage of national income
At the moment debt is out of control. I thought the Tories were supposed to be fiscally responsible.
October 26, 2023
Mike, by far the biggest expenses paid by taxes are the NHS and it is there for you should you need it as you age, social services a much heavier claim on that is from the aged population, and the State pension for all including pension credits for all those that didn’t pay in. That is the welfare state that a super majority in the uk wants to keep.
October 24, 2023
Some excellent suggestions from our host – I’d also like to see these in the Kings speech:
Renounce The WHO treaties;
Set a date in 2024 to leave the ECHR;
A law to stop civils servants from striking;
Get control of civil service by bringing in private companies to do some of the work in certain areas, on a gradient;
Climate change review – A thorough honest review should take take account of alternative scientists.
Climate Change Committee in Parliament – Close it down, it has too much power and leads MPs by the nose without providing adequate data or discussion;
HMG to work to a budget and stop wasting so much of our taxes;
Change requirements for new MPs – they must have worked in business for at least 2 years;
Make it illegal to cancel, fire or discriminate against anyone for views expressed;
Electric cars – Reduce imports and home produced by 50% until they are made completely safe;
Bring in a bill to make all MPs declare their interests in WEF. They should swear allegiance to the UK people, while stating that they may work with international organisation but not be owned by them in any or pursue their aims where it goes against the best interests of the UK.
October 24, 2023
@Bryan Harris +1
UK Laws, Rules and Regulation are only to be created, amended and repealed by the UK’s Democratic Elected representatives – its MP’s, its Legislators, its MP’s, its Parliament, its Government. The very essence of a free sovereign democracy any deviation or permitted deviation. Any one suggesting a different path is a traitor to the UK, the people they serve, those that empower and pay them
October 24, 2023
I do not wish SERCO to get any more Government contracts. They already ( charge Ed)the taxpayer for enough already, whilst providing poor value for money and services.
I do agree the Civil Service needs bringing into line. Also great to see ‘The Civil Service Club’ at Great Scotland Yard in Central London, is able to charge lower prices than Wetherspoons on many food and drink items. Is this something else – we the taxpayer – are subsidising through the back door?
October 24, 2023
+1 Bryan Harris
In full agreement, especially re WEF.
October 24, 2023
His resignation.
October 24, 2023
@Des +1
October 24, 2023
Sir John,
I would love to see him use and facilitate all of your Priorities, they are practical and make sense. sadly the fake conservatives have no common sense.
October 24, 2023
+ 1
October 24, 2023
A Bill to adjust ECHR.
A Bill to reduce BBC licence fee within 2 years to £100 which would stay fixed thereafter, for over 70s to be free.
A Bill to withdraw from WHO.
Reduction of NHS managers by 10% staffing, restructuring admin roles by numbers of patients involved, with reduction by 20%.
IHT to start at £1m with tax rate 10% to £2m.
VAT registration to be required at £150k, application to deregister under £150k revenue.
Universities to reduce new Foreign places by 10% reducing balance every year.
Ban Local Authorities implementing cycle lanes, 20mph zones at discretion of Local Authorities.
Ensure all hospital MRI / CT scanners are used full daytime shift at weekends.
Reduce Foreign Aid to £5bn annually, remove all aid to countries with nuclear arms, space exploration.
Bill to further merge English constituencies from 533 to 300, increase MP salary to £100k.
Reintroduce Personal Allowance increase by £2000 annually for next 3 years.
October 24, 2023
and plenty more besides!
October 24, 2023
why not published? I simply don’t get it.
October 24, 2023
“We shall return to looking after our country and peoples as we were elected to do instead of acting like turkeys voting for Christmas :
1) CAGW, has been described by the 2022 Nobel Physics prize winner, Dr. John Clauser, as “a dangerous corruption of science that threatens the world’s economy and the well-being of billions of people”. So we will abolish Net Zero completely and start fracking immediately to ensure energy independence and security.
2) We will cut net immigration to zero and all Channel crossing illegal migrants attempting to enter the country without ID will be towed back to the Continent.
3) We will reduce the size of our Universities with the closure of all courses where 10% or more of students fail to re-pay their tuition fees and remove the 120,000 Chinese spies promoting Chinese ideology and stealing our research work and IP.”
October 24, 2023
Make no mistake, the whole credibility of the government rests on stopping the small boats.
It is being widely speculated in the press that the government is likely to lose the case before the Supreme Court.
If government is truly sovereign, it should be easy to introduce a bill and push it through using the Parliament Act making it clear that the Rwanda Policy is the settled will of a majority in Parliament and will proceed, without interference from the European Court, and if it does attempt to interfere, we will leave that organisation immediately.
Yer you suggest we are unlikely to see such a bill in the King’s Speech. Is this because there is not a majority on the Conservative benches in the Commons to vote it through ? Or is the PM’s heart not really in it ?
October 24, 2023
I agree with Lifelogic’s list plus:
1. Reform the devolution settlement. Create English legislative autonomy – free from interference by Scottish, Welsh and NI MPs (or an English Parliament). Scrap the Barnet Formula. If Scotland wants higher public spending, Scottish taxes should pay for it.
2. Reform the Equality Act. Make it absolutely clear that sex-at-birth trumps gender-delusion and women’s rights and safety take priority over the fantasies of men-in-frocks.
3. A “Cut the Quangos” law: 20% to be abolished by the end of the Parliament, starting with Ofcom.
4. Tax simplification: start by combining Income Tax and National Insurance into one payment.
October 24, 2023
The speech could open with the statement, ” My government intends to spend its final year being Conservative.” When the laughter in the gallery and off piste settles he could say por exjemplo.
1. The BBC news and current affaires division will be privatised and the subscription/ tax for what remains halved.
2. The senior police college called Bramshill will be re-staffed. Only thief takers need apply.
3. A local police force to be created to deal with entry level crime and to act as an intelligence gathering base through liason with its customers the general public. Elements of the existing police force to concentrate on more serious crime, civil dissorder, and terrorist security threats.
4. There will be a bill to make illegal all forms of woke behaviour in industry and all levels of government.
5. My government, while not banning existing legal consensual sexual behaviour, wishes to confirm that while worms are hermaphrodite, humans will remain as male or female whatever medical interventions they choose to endure. As such this will define their entry into competetive sport.
6. My government , within the next six months will completely rewrite the tax book, the aim being fairness , simplification and changing the emphasis from penalising success to positively encouraging it. The ultimate aim being to make people self determining and self sufficient through their accumulated wealth.
7. My government will evaluate the worth of the BOE, OBR, and FCA. With a view to replacing them with a more professional less pathological/ obituary trained staff.
8. My government will rewrite the contractual status of the civil service, making them directly manageable by government and bringing their salaries and pensions into line with that of the self employed where performance governs all.
9. My government will immediatly ramp up exploitation of our own gas, oil and coal resources while changing entirely the business plan to ensure that the UK population is no longer subjecf to the cartels of the World market.
10. My government will absent itself from those parts of the ECHR that carrion lawyers use to prevent my kingdom controlling its own borders.
That is I think sufficient for the coming year, but I will return along with my subjects to mark my government’s homework in due course.
.
October 24, 2023
Moderation in this diary is fundamentally flawed. Censorship by ommission or by tardy moderation is an affront to free speech. What are you fearful of. Electoral moderation is imminent, sit back and enjoy.
October 24, 2023
“What should the Prime Minister put in the King’s speech”
I resign.
October 24, 2023
Can the King Resign?
October 24, 2023
There are some totemic issues. The government should stop Alison Rose getting an £11 million quid payoff from NatWest this week. She failed spectacularly. NatWest would not exist if not for repeated public bail outs. That it harbours anti-democratic staff at multiple levels should be tackled head on. The useless FCA are not doing the basics of their role, and should be tackled too.
We are still the largest shareholder in NatWest, use it! Call an extraordinary shareholder meeting and stop the £11 million pound payment.
There is little point in being in power if the government is not going to do good.
October 24, 2023
The UK Government will move forward, first by doing what was promised in numerous manifestos. It will cease being at War with the Citizens of the UK, it will cease the punishment of the UK People by the State.
The UK Government will return to English Law. The UK Government will recognise who it is that empowers them and pays them. The UK Government and will no longer priorities compliance and be subordinate to wishes of unelected, unaccountable entities. The UK is to become a democracy, to be a defender of freedom and free speech. The UK Legislators will be responsible and the sole creators of all UK Laws, they will be the ones that amend and repeal such Laws, Rules and Regulations according to the ill of the UK People.
Going forward all UK Legislators/ its MP’s/ its Parliament/ its Government will ensure all those elected are their to serve the People, their constituents, their County.
October 24, 2023
You will edit this out of the blog, but please read it and remember it.
The Ukraine is almost totally forgotten by the West.
It is being subjected to a mass attack by endless troops of Russian conscripts who at the moment are almost being contained at Andrivka.
Russia, China, most of Africa, even India, Iran are all in league now and watching to see if the West really is that soft. We live in a very tough area here in Europe.
We need to send a lot of armaments (drones, ammunition, not necessarily heavy stuff) fast to Ukraine.
October 24, 2023
Ukraine is finished!The west is finished!Look at France’s ignominious exit from the Sahel;their troops left Niger last week-to add to the humiliation they were escorted off the premises,as it were,by the Nigerien army.What happened to the “ready-to-go” ECOWAS force that France and the UK were urging should restore the ousted Nigerien president?
To make matters worse,on the day France left,Russia announced it would be building a nuclear power plant in Niger’s neighbour,Burkina Faso;this will transform the Burkinese economy(in addition to the employment potential,only around one fifth of the Burkinese have access to electricity at the moment);no doubt the uranium will come from Niger(and electricity exported in return)-uranium that was previously extracted by France at a submarket transfer price.
October 24, 2023
This Conservative Government after 14 years will no longer tell lies to get elected, and will ensure it serves the whole of the UK
October 24, 2023
In item 1, what does ‘does not want’ mean? It seems to leave open Human Rights Law to be used as it is now and a choice left open. I suppose ‘must not’ is too firm for Sir John to use.
October 24, 2023
What should the Prime Minister put in the King’s speech?:
My government will do the sensible bits of my mummy’s speech of 10 May 2022, reverse all the stupid bits, and comply with whatever Sir John Redwood proposes for a safer, happier more efficient nation.
October 24, 2023
Sir John
Reading your well reasoned Diary Entry and the following comments from your contributors the Conclusion is the Sunak/Hunt Government (it is not a Conservative Government). It is right to say that for all the manifesto and election promises we have still not got a Conservative Government, a Government prepared to serve the UK. What we have is the worst kind of egotist, running around the media and the globe on crusades of personal self gratification. What they are not prepared to do is get their own house in order, live with in the means of the country, create the economy to power the UK forward.
If this shower don’t resign on mass in the coming months, if the Conservative Party does not allow the UK a Conservative Government in the next couple of months. That means the don’t care, every last one of them has contributed the destruction of the UK and Conservationism.
It is looking more and more like ‘remainers’ revenge Government, ‘you didn’t vote as we commanded so we will destroy everything around you.’
October 24, 2023
John,
Over the last 14 years, so much has been left behind, so many opportunities, missed!
I’m no longer sure there is any Point, People aren’t going give this ‘Conservative Party’ any hope, not as it is!
Change it, now, and with the right vision, you never know!
You seem to have the right idea’s, but your Party doesn’t!
Regards,
RDM.
PS: For me, it should be obvious too you; Support the Self Employed, Contractors, Owner Drivers, and Family SME’s, with Reforms. To IR35, Simpler Tax structure (Fixed Rate or Flat), simply Accountancy structure/rules, Transport regulations (Make it easier to become a single truck Owner driver, Market entry!).
Increase Business Activity Rate;
Balanced Cuts;
Cut Corp, VAT, VAT Thresholds, Fuel Duty, Council Tax/Rates, NI,….
Cut Spending; Green Subsidies, Costs of Net Zero, Council services, International/Military Aid, Horizon,…
I wouldn’t argue with any of your priority’s!
Some are more important, as in the British Interest, and some include a lot of mine, so are covered!
If you want to save the Union, fixing the WA, needs action now, but this is also true for Devolution!
The Labour Party, and a lot of the left, want a federated UK, and to rejoin!
If you want to stop the Boats, get rid of the ECHR, ASAP, this will tell People you have learnt your lessons, and then, Stop the Boats!
And, more generally, we are still aligned, so you can’t claim we have a Free Market, a Price Mechanism, or that we are better off outside the EU (Currently, I think we would lose the argument)!
October 24, 2023
I agreed to 1, 2 and 3.
4. I read recently that 43% of the country doesn’t pay income tax (IFA), that’s 43% living on less than £12,570 pa. That means 43% aren’t paying for the NHS at all either.
300,000 people pay 27% of the income tax total, 83% of them are men. The top 1% (those earning over £700,000 pa in London 35% of the 1%, or the top 1% with an annual income of £162,000) those 300,000 pay almost 1/3 of the UK entire income tax. One of the biggest complainer about money spent on the NHS i know has never paid a 1p in NI because she is part-time she wants more for nothing on her part.
High tax = reduced investment, less economic growth unless it is state growth from borrowing money, and less innovation.
The % of people since 2007-08 not paying tax and NI has gone up, tax by 10% I’m not sure the calculation for NI has been worked out yet but it will be more as people used to pay NI from a lower base.
October 24, 2023
If all goes as planned Parliament will end the current session this week and prepare for a King’s speech and a State Opening.”
Blooming ‘eck, another ‘holiday’, you lot have only just come back from your conference season jollies, and before that the whopping summer recess. Yes I understand the realities, but many do not!
If Sunak holds-out 12 months it will look like clinging to power, that never looks good, even for new PMs such as ADH in 1964. It work out well for Major in 1997, nor did Brown in 2010 either.
1. But any “Small Boats Bill” would have to be compatible with our membership of the ECHR, thus any Bill on this issue would need to remove the UK from the ECHR first or as part of the said Bill. 😮
2. Hasn’t the EU said there will be no more renegotiation? So the only option would be for the UK Govt to trigger the unilateral break clause within the wider WA agreement, catapulting the UK into a WTO exit, with unknown consequences for NI – or indeed perhaps the ROI should the EU not wish to impose a hard boarder on the island of Ireland. This suggestion looks more like an attempt to keep the DUP on-side, 2017 style…
As for Tax measures, if the nations debt mountain is important then pay that down first, otherwise cut indirect taxes, whatever HMT does they must not artificially boost our debt culture, nor appear to be giving pre-election bribes.
October 24, 2023
7. The political consensus was that Channel4 should not be privatized. Despite being a publicly owned Corporation it is a mostly commercially funded entity, that the wider industry is happy with, Ch4 now only has a limited number of subsidized PSB programmes. And such a sell off before the GE will be seen as a attempt to raise money for HMT to have a give away splurge, which it probably the intent…
8. Any TVL funded BBC needs root and branch reform, returning them to their post 1955 core purpose of mostly providing what commercial TV (and now Radio) broadcasters can not. Broadcast wise the BBC should be more like it was prior to 1967 than what it has become since DSO in my opinion. Their internet services/platform also need further reform.
But the entire UK broadcast sector needs reform, and Ofcom is out of control too, growing like Topsy, regulation is outdated, non PSB funded broadcasters should not have to adhere to a ‘fairness’ doctrine, we all know GBN (of example) has right wing leanings, we all know Sky News now leans to the centre-left, let them fly their true colours; works in the USA!
October 25, 2023
I agree with Jerry on 7 and 8.
Doesn’t the government earn ‘dividends’ from C4 for its investment? Does owning that government ‘c4 asset’ allow the government to get into the debt it is in as far as the IMF, etc, are concerned, or don’t books have to be balanced? The Treasury funded Channel 4 to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds. This is an interesting read: https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/channel-4/c4-is-there-value-in-privatisation/5161193.article…”C4 advantages are worth tens of millions of pounds a year. Cumulatively, Channel 4 has enjoyed at least half a billion pounds’ worth of indirect government investment: possibly double that amount.”
“Its more than 900 staff currently cost the channel an average of £100,000 a year each: the envy of all other media employees.” Hmmmm. What do taxpayers (not only the 900 staff and 10% of indie companies that produce for C4) get from tying our money up in this organisation?..”However, once the sector was established, ministers required the BBC and ITV to commission new programmes from the ‘indies’; these days, Netflix and Amazon are more significant customers than Channel 4, which accounts for barely 10% of the sector’s turnover.”
Or would you ringfence the sale money of C4 to build x? Affordable houses?
October 26, 2023
@a-tracy; “Or would you ringfence the sale money of C4 to build x? Affordable houses?”
Was that a question to me or one for our host. I’m not proposing Ch4 be sold off, there are far better ways of funding an increase in UK Council House stocks should we choose!
I’m also skeptical of the claim that “the Treasury funded Channel 4 to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds”, at least any more than HMT ‘funds’ many UK based creative industries via tax breaks etc. Indeed ITV made use of such funding in the early 1970s, their highly regarded ‘World at War’ series was only possible due to tax breaks, the fact that it has since became a commercial success is irrelevant, at the time it would not have been made without help from HMT.
Also a trade magazine that by nature is read predominantly by the private sector, rather than the PSB side of the industry (simply due to comparative sizes), is probably not the best source of unbiased comment. Their comment about Netflix does nothing more than show how troubled the UK broadcast industry has become; rather than the question being should Ch4 be sold, perhaps we should be asking why Netflix and Amazon, even Google, are more popular? One also has to remember such Streaming services, unlike DVB-T & DVB-S, are not universally accessible.
October 24, 2023
I can no longer see any way forward on Northern Ireland.
Back in February 2021 when the chairman of the Commons Northern Ireland Committee proclaimed that there was no alternative to the protocol:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yntjci_9BQ&t=720s
there was the hope that the unionists might press for the obvious alternative of export controls, but that has never happened. The DUP claims that its alternative would be “mutual enforcement” but that would require the agreement of the Irish government and the EU, which they have already refused. The UK could do its half of that “mutual enforcement” scheme unilaterally, and then tell the EU that this was adequate protection of its Single Market, but the DUP is not arguing for that and the UK government is not going to risk a trade war over it.
Looking forward I speculate that whoever is Prime Minister will keep the whole of the UK closely aligned to the EU and so there will only be a slow emergence of additional legal and constitutional differences between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. I envisage that almost all of the UK citizens in the province will accept that it has condominium status – it should be recognised that a majority voted to stay in the EU anyway, so probably they will not be too unhappy that they will effectively still be within the EU for many purposes:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/10/21/by-election-messages/#comment-1415326
I anticipate that state of affairs could endure for some decades, with or without limited outbreaks of violence.
October 24, 2023
Sir Redwood,
What should he put?
But you said it all in your book “We don’t believe you” (I mean Rishi)
October 24, 2023
+ 1
October 24, 2023
It’s got to be done BEFORE the election, so the Kings Speech is critical. Promises in a manifesto are not acceptable or credible.
October 24, 2023
Who are the Government trying to kid with the announcement of the reduction in the use of Luxury Hotels for illegal migrants.
All that will likely happen is Travelodge, Premier Inn and other ‘budget’ Hotels will be blocked booked instead. Or shunting the vast numbers onto already under pressure local councils to deal with, for social housing,
The solutions that the majority of the public want – stopping the arrivals in the first place, turning boats around, swift decisions and deportations – doesn’t even feature in this announcement.
Therefore it will just be even more ‘seen to be doing something’ by the Government,
October 24, 2023
Yes Mark J
Turn the boats around and same day deportations.
October 25, 2023
Turn the boats around with what guns, shoot at them?
Deport them to where? We don’t even know where they come from and it would be interesting to see if France would actually shoot them if we sent the dinghies back to them.
October 24, 2023
If only the suggestions were adopted it would change the whole political scenario and restore faith in the Conservatives . Of course it would also lead to the end of the present leadership and that would be a good thing .
October 24, 2023
I’d like him to do the things that were in the manifesto at the last election. No chance of that of course.
October 24, 2023
A cabinet minister quoted in the Times said Sunak shouldn’t move to the right because then he’d lose even more of the centre votes than he has already. Odd idea – keep implementing policies which appeal only to people who won’t be voting for you.
October 25, 2023
Did the ‘cabinet minister’ put their name in the Times?
October 24, 2023
Thomas Sowell said something like ‘Today’s interventions are tomorrow’s problems’. So I’d like fewer interventions but there is no hope of that when the Government’s growth is not constrained by a sound money.
October 24, 2023
I hope the Prime Minster does not put anything in the King’s speech. The last manifesto has not been honoured and even his so-called pledges have failed.
We need to plan for the Conservative government that will hopefully be voted in after the next Labour government have been voted out.
Next time, we need proper Conservatives. Socialist MPs pretending to be Conservatives need to be booted out of the party right now.
October 25, 2023
Kenneth, votes from 16, indoctrinated kids at school on left-wing politics, unfair devolution settlements, do you genuinely believe anything will get back to a ‘next time’.
October 24, 2023
King’s Speech
My government will comply with every regulation of the UN WEF, WHO & IMF
My government will comply with every regulation of the EU Withdrawal Agreement and agree to every new law
My government will comply with every policy of the Green Party
My government will be 100% net-zero by 2035 leading the world
My government will build more homes and hotels to satisfy the immigrant need
My government will more transit away from capitalism to an command economy
My government will regulate via 15min cities by 2035 following the UN (C40 Cities)
My government will rename the English channel the French channel with all rights
My government will impose a mayor on every region & city
I’m only being honest …mark my words this will happen on the next parliament under ‘this’ tory government
October 24, 2023
My government will continue to fund the BBC channels, the BBC world service, Channel 4, and the devolved Scottish and Welsh language channels
October 24, 2023
If the king had to read out all the wrong things that need changing to put right he would end up with a hoarse voice and need a Fisherman’s Friend.
October 25, 2023
GREENS: I’d like to see the well-insulated homes the greens will force builders to build because “they need little to no heating”.
We will all be paying £250 billion, yes, BILLION for 10 years of insulation for 10 million homes out of around 27 million. Would the green party members and founders give us our money back if we don’t ALL recoup the costs of this idea? Oh, but there’s the thing, you don’t need to worry about cost, it’s only the 300,000 1% of the wealthiest people will stay in the UK and pay for it.
Rent Freezes and a ban on no-fault evictions. So if landlords have held off putting rents up, being kind following covid more fool you. I don’t BTL like the 2.75m people that do 68% of them are over 55 probably banking on this giving them a pension if they don’t work in the public sector.
Free school meals for all primary and secondary school children, parents no need to make sandwiches or pay the £2.70 per day for school dinners anymore. I wonder if UC benefits paid to feed children will be reduced in term time by £13.50 per week per child. Will richer folk, those that don’t get free school dinners, now lose their child benefit to pay for it? It doesn’t quite say who is paying for that, 1p extra on tax perhaps, 1% more VAT? How would we stop them from feeding our children and grandchildren GM-modified food, only vegetarian, or vegan menus, and substitute food made in a lab or created from insects to save the planet?
35 hours of free childcare for all children from 9 months sounds great, doesn’t it. How much will that cost per year? All those single parents won’t have any excuse for not working. Heck they might even become properly trained child carers.
All the free things go on and on, from buses paid for by cancelling road schemes £27 Billion.
Water back into public hands, like Welsh and Scottish water are doing so great!! How much will that cost to buy them out?
October 24, 2023
Oh boy, this drives me nuts! Where are you going to remove illegal migrants to? Everyone arriving in a boat is illegal – you could take them from Dover straight up to Manston to a waiting plane – where are you going to take them. They have no papers – where are going to land the plane. This stuff about ‘removal’ is utter nonsense. You need to stop the boats and tell them they are NOT landing here. You’d only have to do it once.
October 24, 2023
Not once, but every day for a fortnight….the French, the traffickers, the illegals… the message would soon be learnt amid much angst.
October 24, 2023
Of course we all have to recognise that our proposals will be tossed aside but at least as genuine Conservatives we have offered them for consideration.
Firstly the Climate Change Committee should be disbanded.
Secondly the Electricity surcharge should be removed.
Thirdly the date for moving to EVs should be removed completely allowing the market to decide the rate at which EVs will bought and the infrastructure to be installed’
Fourthly that the fishing agreement with the EU be drastically reduced to allow our fishing industry to grow and fish stocks to recover.
October 24, 2023
Simple – appoint you Sir John as Chancellor. You would be the best we’ve never had.
October 24, 2023
Agree
October 24, 2023
Maggie’s fault!
October 24, 2023
Off topic, I’ve just watched the first episode of this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001rkmp/britains-housing-crisis-what-went-wrong-series-1-episode-1
“Britain’s housing crisis: what went wrong?”
Despite the obvious and inevitable effects of population increase on housing demand:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/10/10/labours-conference/#comment-1413538
the word “immigration” occurred just once in that episode, when Nick Clegg said that housing was one of the two issues that people raised with him, “along with immigration”, as if the two were entirely disconnected.
The second episode is on BBC-2 at 21.00 tonight, or on iplayer as above.
October 24, 2023
Could you in your kindness to us Sir John please list which views you now hold have been created, that is changed from before, by what has been written on here – in whichever period you care to choose.
October 24, 2023
I’d like a referendum on Net Zero. It is the most consequential policy any government has ever adopted, it will change our country forever, and ruin it economically in my opinion, yet it never even had a proper debate in parliament, much less a popular vote.
Net Zero is a thousand times more important than EU membership. We must have a vote.
October 24, 2023
Some things of concern to me although the list seems endless:
UK’s WHO Treaty amendments sign-up. Caution ! UK’s commitment appears to be a given so let’s hope it’s not a case of ‘Don’t worry about it, it’ll be alright on the night’ We need appropriate protections.
Reduction of Corporation Tax
A serious review & reduction of quangos
A rethink on the tax thresholds – 2028, really !?
Education: Parents to be officially & fully informed & be given the ability to accept or reject Relationships / Gender content issues forming part of any curriculum. Nothing should be kept hidden from the parent of any child.
Reviewing of legal immigration eligibility thresholds & other considerations to reduce numbers.
Illegal migration / British citizenship approval ( a privilege ! ): It’s all been said before.
Take action to proscribe any ‘organisation’ known to be in the UK which may not be operating in the interest of British Citizens’ security
Removal from the Energy Bill of any coercion, threat, fines or risk of criminality arising from non-compliance. Choice not compulsion.
Other commenters will have mentioned other things which concern may people & require attention / action: N. Ireland, Net Zero & what is it seems a legally bound nightmare, CC Committee reach / responsibility etc., freedom of speech, NHS, Police ‘force’, prison places, housing….. so will leave it at that.
And finally, an excerpt from a Neil Oliver article which caught my eye recently – Our democratic societies are being replaced by global totalitarianism run by a technocratic elite, based on propaganda that they control …..
October 24, 2023
Animal Reform Bills to be reintroduced and put through. The 2019 manifesto promised banning live exports, imports of animal parts and much more. Some has been enacted but not much so it is a priority. A nation will be judged by how it treats its animals and wildlife. The answer given to us of private members bills is not on. We want full reform.
The triple lock put into force until 2028 when personal allowances will be looked at again.
Tax reductions for small pension people like Brown did with the 10% tax take.
Deal with immigration of all types so that people come here and take up our culture and ways and we do not have to adopt their ways and culture. We have had enough and have been gagged.
Deal with crime properly by police. Shame shoplifters (the stocks again but it will never happen with woke) and thieves and such like. Put their faces all over the place so we know who they are and never mind their human rights. Ours should overrule them.
No more dealings with the EU an stop keep giving them our money. We are rid of them or should be and that is that. Until they behave in their attitude to us, we just ignore them and their demands.
If southern Ireland wants to go with the EU let them. They were with the German/Nazis during the 2nd World War so let them go once and for all. If NI wants to be with us change their name and let them stay with us.
Get rid of BBC.
October 24, 2023
lest we forget:
The government has announced plans to end the use of 50 hotels housing asylum seekers by the end of January.
In an announcement to MPs, Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick said the first hotel contracts would end in the coming days, with further “exits” to be announced “shortly”.
The use of hotels has increased in recent years, as the number of people entering the UK illegally or claiming asylum has hit record levels.
According to the latest available data, 50,546 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels in the UK at the end of June. This is around 10% more than the 45,775 living in hotels at the end of last year.
According to a Freedom of Information request by BBC East Investigations, 380 hotels were being used to house asylum seekers across the UK at the end of June.
October 25, 2023
‘asylum seekers’ don’t make me laugh. Prefer British hospitality than French it should read.
October 24, 2023
How about repealing the disastrous Modern Slavery Act? Once a boat freeloader utters the magic word ‘asylum’ and must therefore become enmeshed in endless legal wrangles, the next step is for lawyers to claim that their client was ‘trafficked’. You would think that anyone genuinely brought to this country against their will would welcome a free flight home. Now Shamima Begum’s lawyers are trying to claim that she was ‘trafficked’ to ISIS and therefore has a case against the British authorities for ‘allowing it to happen’.
October 24, 2023
To your excellent list I would add repeal of the HRA, the Equality Act, and our membership of the ECHR. I used to think this last not necessary, but am now so alarmed by the speed with which it is taking extra powers that in the context of the threat of world government, I thinnk we should get out while we still can.
What do you thinkk of Raab’s bill of Rights? Should it be revived or not?
I would abolish VAT and the EU’s external tariffs.
We also need to do something about the Geneva Convention on Refugees.
October 24, 2023
1) Rishi’s resignation letter…
failing that…
2) Visa and entry bill, if you enter the country without a valid travel document and visa you will be deported immediately to the country of origin and/or the country that it is believed you originated from.
3) Foreign Asylum applications bill where you can apply for a asylum visa at any UK consulate (behind a massive waiting list with 78 year old Doris processing them on a 23 keyed typewriter, sort of joking here).
4) Tax simplification bill where corp tax is 10% for 1st mil and 15% for everything else, failure to pay or dodge and it doubles, you have to pay tax on all revenues at a min rate of 10% regardless or realignments to other jurisdictions. Income tax is 20% on everything to 100k after 25k allowance, 30% after, take out all loopholes and complications, dodge and it doubles. No vat on b2b transactions, it’s a waste of oxygen paying and claiming back!
5) Civil servant justification of existence bill, if you dont do anything that benefits the country or makes people’s lives easier get a job at Amazon or sweeping the streets. Reduce to 1990 numbers, you have computers and spend billions on systems, if you cant meet efficiencies of pre-computerisation times then bye, automate or recreate.
6) Waste and pay bill, if you waste tax payers money you pay it back out of your pension and/or salary.
7) Reduce the numbers of NHS Managers & cancel all the woke posts. Adopt a mix of national and GLOBAL best medical/hospital practice, we have to learn to do everything better and faster by leveraging on advances and more efficient ways of working, not relying on individual Trusts all trying to improve in silos. A national transformation programme.
8) National language bill, like most foreign countries, you dont speak English, Welsh etc, you pay for the translation.
9) BBC sold within 2 years, they have one of biggest catalogues of valuable content paid for by license fee payers over many many years, if you can’t make money on that then go bust and downsize until you can.
10) Government employee pensions –> move to fixed contribution pension schemes like everyone else. If there’s a cat in hell’s chance of starting a Sovereign Wealth Fund, then it’s getting rid of unfunded liabilities.
11) Self sufficiency in food, promote seasonal veg… more UK greenhouses. Increase taxes on unnecessary imported food (CO2 miles) until we are.
October 25, 2023
Sunak should resign and let someone else do it. Badenoch is just about the only hpe the Conservatives have (to turn fortunes around in the next year prior to a GE).
The polling re Sunak is dire on every measure. Deservedly so. Defenestration is necessary.
October 25, 2023
Oh and… all those announcements re rolling back net zero…
Don’t they need legislation? To scrap the sales targets on EV vs ICE cars and stop the fines if they sell too many ICE cars.
Let’s see him put that in the speech.
I wonder if tree-hugging Charlie could bring himself to make a speech detailing legislation to roll back net zero. He’s not really made of the same stuff as his mother by a long chalk.