Glad to see the government now start to cut taxes and set out their intent to bring them down more. I am also pleased that they wish to assist the self employed, the small businesses and the larger companies that can make major investments. As I have long argued you need tax cuts for growth and you need more capacity to make things and provide services at home. The balance of trade deficit remains too large and supply shortages help fuel the inflation Bank policy unleashed.
I raised the questions again with the Chancellor about the need to change IR 35 and raise the VAT threshold for small business. He responded more favourably to a question about reinstating VAT free shopping for foreign visitors now we are losing business to Milan and Paris from our imposition of it.
I am writing today in the Telegraph about the wildly swinging forecasts of the OBR. They have changed the forecast for GDP by 3% between March and October portraying now an economy that had grown and was above pre pandemic levels instead of an economy that was performing badly and had fallen in output. The OBR had to make major revisions to its March forecasts of migration numbers, interest rates, inflation and the deficit.It had been too pessimistic about the deficit by ÂŁ20bn so far this year. It had expected lower interest rates and lower inflation than we experienced.
These wrong and fluctuating forecasts make economic policy making difficult.The idea of headroom for tax cuts is based on wrong numbers. They never discuss headroom for spending rises where there have been many.
November 23, 2023
Good morning.
Too little to late. Bribing people with their own money especially now both inflation and higher interest rates (for borrowers) has eaten away a lot of their wealth. This can be seen by the near empty shops.
People are tired of this government and want change. They also want to take revenge due to the SCAMDEMIC. Many business went under and the harm caused in both health and the social fabric of this nation cannot be glossed over with a pathetic had back of what was once their own cash etc.
But I suppose it might just save your party from a near wipeout in 2024.
November 23, 2023
Fully agree, Mark! A government which claims to have bright new policies THIRTEEN years after they took office invites one respsonse and one response only – you’ve had your chance, we don’t believe a single thing you say
November 23, 2023
It is still very much a tax hiking budget not tax cutting. The PM when chancellor made sure that low paid people paying tax would be dragged in to tax until 2028 and the middle earners dragged into the higher band until 2028!! This was not changed? Therefore cumulatively taxes still rising. A lot of snake and mirrors I agree to give a false impression but nothing more. Taxes still at 70 year high under Tories.
Tories forced business to give a pay rise to poor workers! Why did Hunt not change welfare rules for immigrants? In the EU all immigrants given the same rate. This does not have to apply anymore and could help stop the invasion of immigrants. Other countries do not allow same entitlements as people who paid into the pot all their lives ie Australia. Why not make them pay for services like health for the first five years? Or bring enough money in in case they become unemployed in the first five years? Could that help our overwhelmed public services?
Hunt claims on small state, low tax and make work pay were risible against fact and public record over 14 years. As former Tories ministers made clear previously good socialist budgets. Similar why Portillo and others would not vote Tory!! Clarke and Soubry giving Labour their support!!
November 23, 2023
The Conservative government kept inflation below 2% from 2010 to 2021 until covid affected the World. In October 2023, the UK’s annual inflation rate of 4.6% (I’m amazed it lowered after giving a near 10% increase to minimum wages last April with another 10% due next April with the age reduced to 21.)
What ‘bright new policies’ are you talking about Lemming?
November 23, 2023
In short everything the public cared about and reason for voting Tory have been totally ignored. Economy, Brexit, immigration and law and order! All gone under the socialist uni party formerly known as Tory party.
Failed to deliver Brexit and gain control of money borders and laws. Sunak sold out nation to EU in His Windsor sell out giving away N.Ireland, fishing grounds, tied UK to EU, increased energy dependency on EU, kept all EU laws, last straw brought back project fear architect Cameron who deliberately did everything to prevent UK leaving- now in charge of EU policy!
Wrecked economy, highest taxation for 70 years but still happy to shower the world with our taxes and put illegal criminals in 4 star hotels at our expense. Welfare claimants and pensioners helped yesterday. It does not pay to work, contrary to Hunts false claims.
Immigration, legal and illegal highest in history against all they promised. Including increased large numbers from Pakistan where nationwide grooming gangs, prominently from this ancestry, systematically attacked and abused young vulnerable white girls. No border controls, no means of getting rid of them, forced alien cultures on us and oppressively created laws to silence the nation! Now we witness recent lawless racist protest events around the country being allowed by the police.
November 23, 2023
Quite, so the government is cutting taxes is it…. Why not calculate the amount of tax paid in 2022/23 and the expected in 2023/34? I’ll wager it will be MORE tax in 2023/24.
Sir J, don’t follow your governments deceptive style of public communication; it’s a large part of the reason we, the conservative voter, are going to get rid of your government.
PS Nominal national total debt is RISING not reducing…… again, where’s the honesty?
November 23, 2023
Agreed. To put it more concisely, sheer electioneering.
November 23, 2023
You say âtoo little too lateâ but this was a tax increasing budget overall not a tax cutting one at all. Fiscal drag grabs more tax in than the tiny bit he gave back. No increases to any of the allowances for Income, IHT, CGT, the 40% and 45% bands. Still ratting on the Osborne promise of ÂŁ1M IHT thresholds 15 years back. Plus higher minimum wages are also a tax grab from businesses (also hugely inflationary) and many of which cannot afford the circa 10% increase in wages for all. Circa 45% goes back in tax and NI some of the rest in loss of benefits.
Yet another foolish anti-growth tax borrow and piss down the drain âbudgetâ from Socialist remainer Hunt. He was a disaster as Health Sec. for 5 years too.
Still some pro-growth things they could do even now that cost nothing, save money (by firing civil servants), lower inflation and even raise more revenue in taxes – Ditch net zero go for cheap reliable & on demand energy, relax planning, go for easy hire and fire, have a bonfire of red tape, stop telling people how they must heat their houses amd which cars they must but⊠but they wonât even do this it seems.
November 23, 2023
Mark, how can they take revenge without harming themselves and their families, Labour are already promising changes in employment legislation, and increased sick pay in the first 100 days, are business owners actually listening? The left-wing is constantly talking up a old -v- young narrative so they can whack older people with more tax from increased council tax bands (trialled in socialist Wales soon).
November 23, 2023
@Mark B
A sleight of hand deflection of the day, a closer look at the data reveals that the tax burden on the British public is still due to rise higher than at any point since the Second World War.
It is going up all round, so for every pound the soundbite suggest of your money you are to stop giving him, he is to take even more to pay for his increased debts, ineptitude, inexperience and refusal to manage
November 23, 2023
Will not save them from a wipe out even if Labour will be even worse.
BoE bond buying will cost taxpayers ÂŁ126 billion it seems. Quite a chunk of the ÂŁ800 bn the government extort in total taxes PA. Then we have the interest on the money they borrowed and largely wasted too.
November 23, 2023
Income tax on inflation levelling pay rises will be greater than tax reductions on NI.
As most people wonât be getting these pay rises they will feel worse off at the next election.
So the budget is a massive fail politically.
November 23, 2023
No abolition of VAT on domestic fuel bills because this would expose the lie that we have left the EU. Northern Ireland in the single market so we can’t abolish VAT without Brussels permission.
November 23, 2023
No Ian, we HAVE left the EU, we did so in 2020. The terms on which we left, including those pertaining to Northern Ireland, are dreadful, but that is something you need to take up with Mr Frost and Mr Johnson, who negotiated those terms, as well as the Conservative MPs (all of them) who voted for those terms. You were warned back in 2016 that the EU is a lot more powerful than the UK and therefore the terms of Brexit would be dreadful, but you chose to ignore the warnings of experts
November 23, 2023
Yes, why do we need to get EU permission to stop a tax they introduced? This tax should have gone the minute we voted to leave that institution. Why hasn’t it. Mind asking Messrs Sunak and Hunt that for me.
November 23, 2023
@Ian+wrag +1
So true this ‘remain’ Conservative Government is still fighting old wars now by deception. Todayâs objective is to destroy the economy and the people, it is punsihment first Government
November 23, 2023
ONS revised its estimated immigration figures up for end of 2022 to 745,000! With estimated 677,000 this year!
JR, please explain why ONS and OBR are not scrapped? These were deliberate acts by your party to act in stark contrast to repeated promises made. Please explain why any right minded person would trust your party?
November 23, 2023
EU Continuity Clause 101 – Level Playing Field (the level set by the EU)
November 23, 2023
Why leave tiny start-ups with 20% VAT on fuel – they canât reclaim it like the âbig boysâ who pay 0% VAT on fuel.
November 23, 2023
and now 5% increase in energy bills in January!
A post-Christmas kick in the teeth for millions of low-paid who didn’t pay much in NI anyway…2% off almost nothing is almost nothing!
As usual with these ‘budgets’ I’m underwhelmed. This isn’t going to turn any heads away from the ballot form box to cross.
November 23, 2023
to painful to print eh? Sir John.
November 23, 2023
The message is don’t do so well or you will be punished for your social mobility. There will be little side bar agreements for public sector workers to redirect their earnings over thresholds into extra holidays, extra childcare cost cover, free doctors on call for them and other free counselling etc. So they can work from home, only have to do 3 days per week, take 10 weeks holiday plus any fully paid duvet days they feel like.
November 23, 2023
Yet the Resolution Foundation are saying the wealthiest 20% of earners are 5x better off than the poorest, who are only ÂŁ200 pa better off from the 2% cut in NI.
‘Earnings are growing faster than previously estimated by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR)’. They talk of a 20-year stagnation, but inflation averaged less than 2% – from 1997 to 2020.
They say “The analysis said this parliament was on track to be the first in which real household disposable incomes fall â by 3.1% from December 2019 to January 2025. Households will on average be ÂŁ1,900 poorer at the end of this parliament than at its start.”. I wonder how much that household is earning to be ÂŁ1900 worse off.
November 23, 2023
Indeed a dismal economic performance from 2019. Indeed from Brown and the banking regulators caused banking crash even earlier 2007 to date.
The reasons why are simple and obvious – far too much government, taxes far too high and too complex, government waste far too high, too much low skilled immigration depressing wages and putting pressure on housing, schools, hospitals, policeâŠ), loads of worthless degrees and student debt, the net zero expensive energy lunacys, too much and still increasing red tape, restrictive planning and employment lawsâŠ
Then we have the net harm Covid lockdowns, the poorly run NHS, the very serious net harm Covid Vaccines⊠but it seems the sick joke Covid inquiry is more interested in Prof. Van Tamâs cat and name calling. Who exactly is this dire KC acting on behalf of? It is certainly not the public or the many victims of this gross incompetence.
November 23, 2023
Smoke and mirrors. Tax burdens remain at an historic high.
Whether it reduces the number of seats lost at the next election remains to be seen. I doubt it though.
November 23, 2023
An historic high and it is still increasing further with this tax grabbing âbudgetâ with fiscal drag.
Much talk for âfull expensingâ for businesses. But renting property is a business and a vital one, yet they cannot even deduct yearly interest fully – in effect taxing it twice once at the bank and once on the landlord. So often at over 100% rates. Result a huge lack of landlords, lack of properties to rent, properties not extended or new one built high inflation in rents and so poor job mobility⊠Another moronic move by Osborne but one not corrected by Hammond, Javid, Sunak, Hunt none were remotely conservatives. Why stay in a business where you are taxed, often at over 100% on rentsl income and also on capital gains that are not even measures after inflation. Hence a huge dearth of properties and lack of job mobility.
November 23, 2023
Tax burdens… you haven’t seen anything yet!
When the Tories increased the NI threshold by ÂŁ2690 pa (saving ÂŁ322.80 pa) nobody noticed, nobody appreciated it or even discussed it, so what incentive was there to increase the personal allowance to ÂŁ15,000 when the increase from ÂŁ9880 to ÂŁ12,570 for workers wasn’t discussed. OK, I understand retired people didn’t see the benefit of that (most of them have children and grandchildren who did) pensioners don’t pay any NI and this has been discussed merging tax with NI so be careful what you all wish for.
November 23, 2023
Indeed, and what will be promised by the fake Tories in the spring budget is irrelevant too. This as they surely have less than a 10% chance of being in government at the end of 2024 – and so Labour will deciding. Even if they did win, then, on past performance, (for the last four elections) they would rat on all their âpromisesâ anyway, Just as they have with IHT, Brexit, âto the tens of thousandsâ and much else.
Just as Sunak is ratting on his pledges on growth, public debt, NHS waiting lists and stopping the boats. But he (well not really he) did half the inflation that he and the BoE caused with QE and his gross economic incompetence as Chancellor.
November 23, 2023
Last year this tory government put up @10 taxes and this year reduced @5 taxes ….then proclaimed that they’re a government of tax cutting !!!!! …..they think we’re mugs
November 23, 2023
and the electorate keeps telling them they are correct.
November 23, 2023
I find it incomprehensible that Jeremy Hunt repeatedly referred to, and implicitly deferred to, the views of the OBR when his statement was entirely predicated on the OBR having got their forecasts badly wrong in March. And now despite their appalling track record we are supposed to believe their new forecasts.
November 23, 2023
âNot me Gov – Iâm doing what the experts tell me to doâ. đ€š
November 23, 2023
Question… Why did Liz Truss’ budget cause the economy crash whereas, this budget has not caused the economy to crash? I ask because both budgets look very similar to me.
Reply The gilt market fell under Truss owing to the Bank deciding to sell ÂŁ80 bn of bonds and put up rates. See my blogs which set it all out.
November 23, 2023
To reply correct. It was surely a planned attempt to remove Truss by Sunak supporters. Of course had Sunak not left the economy in such an appalling mess (with his lockdowns, tax, borrow, currency debase, QE, piss down the drain, economic incompetence (and that of the BoE) and his net zero lunacy then the tiny straw that was Kwasi &Truss could not have broken the camelâs back.
Truss was never given any chance from the outset the knives were out for her.
November 23, 2023
The Truss/Kwarteng fiscal event was unfunded. Yesterday’s was funded by measures such as the maintenance of fiscal drag.
“I’m going to cut the headline rate of a tax you pay, but I’m not going to remind you that I’m going to continue to apply that tax to an ever increasing percentage of your income. Politically, I’m hoping you only notice the first part.”
November 23, 2023
Is Labour promising to increase personal allowances by inflation, Peter?
November 23, 2023
I’ve no idea.
You’ll need to either ask them or wait for them to publish a manifesto.
November 25, 2023
I canât wait, Iâll be keeping notes đ
November 23, 2023
@Cliff..Wokingham. Liz Truss was looking at the bigger picture the whole of the UK, we need an economy, we need to get expenditure under control. The collective ‘Blob’ saw what was coming, thier jobs, their empires and them being asked to work – so the briefed against her.
We stlll have the same problems only greater, and this Government is refusing to look at expenditure, and is still using our money to build the ‘Blobs’ empires while not requiring any sort of return for OUR momey.
November 23, 2023
Which is why I maintain that the establishment, (The Bank, Treasury and key figures in the financial markets) carried out a deliberate and calculated coup to get rid of Liz Truss in order to shoehorn their preferred candidate into No 10.
November 23, 2023
They were supported by a majority of Conservative MPs too. And having tried so hard to get their preferred candidate into the job look how pathetically poor he is doing. So it turns out all those people who were sure they knew best in fact knew nothing. We only need to look to the Netherlands to see what the outcome will eventually be here.
November 23, 2023
@ChrisS +1
It couldn’t be anything else. Then the wider Conservative Party? – they could sort it but refuse. They have consigned themselves to the destruction the Party for a Generation. Conservative voters? – they can take a hike
November 23, 2023
Kwarteng should have issued instructions to his servants at the BOE to desist! Iâm afraid the Truss effort was a very weak one, though it had some conservative principles.
November 23, 2023
A terrible budget for SMEs. Nothing to help them on the low VAT rate or high corporation tax, just an added cost of the minimum wage going up. It seems the tory party is officially the party of large corporations and not the engine of the economy, the SMEs.
November 23, 2023
quelle surprise?
November 23, 2023
Yes, so many good ideas here to help SME’s and low paid, such as VAT and personal allowance thresholds, left unchanged. Didn’t hear much about how government plans to CUT the cost of governing either.
A ‘not a budget’ aimed at donors and retired voters for an early GE, before the recession hits.
November 23, 2023
Exactly right.
November 23, 2023
@ Simon Ramery – agreed. Why no VAT threshold increase like Sir John has proposed if the Chancellor is as committed as he professed to aiding small businesses and the self-employed? (Perhaps the E.U. did not consent?)
November 23, 2023
I thank God that i’m no longer running my own business. As far as I can see a SME can expect no support from this government and even 20 years ago the banks had already stopped pretending they had any interest in helping you to grow. I watched the ‘Statement’ yesterday and thought it very well delivered but a few moments thought revealed nothing of substance, a masterpiece of illusion. My tax bill will go up in April, not down.
November 23, 2023
Hunt is a corporatist fiddler. Of course there is no impact, if he had halved taxes it would all have been for the wrong sector.
Could not repeal inheritance tax because the âwealthyâ with over ÂŁ1 million donât need help, but the âbig boysâ in the multi-billion Corporations which pay derisory taxes in the U.K. anyway, need all the help they can get.
Now take the names and see which ex-MPs get âseats on boardsâ after the election. Contingent corruption – their reward for services rendered is deferred.
November 23, 2023
whose overall tax is going down?
November 23, 2023
Those with offshore accounts and a fleet of accountants …..and mates of politicians
November 23, 2023
Who gives a rat’s backside about a budget whose only purpose is political propaganda before a GE rather than a budget whose purpose is moral and economic.
Try slashing State spending on Labour’s client State and its woke public sector and use those savings to repay debt and finance income tax cuts or would that be politically inconvenient?
Pathetic, spineless tosh
I hope we do get a woke, racist Labour government who unleashes their bigotry and bile. Only when voters truly suffer will they stop voting Labour, Tory and SNP
November 23, 2023
Hi sir John
To little to late
Labour will change all that next year if we think things are bad now wait untill they stop us producing our own oil and gas look at labour Birmingham it going to cost rate payers hundred of pounds more next year. Next year is going to be a dilemma for some voters can’t trust conservatives and they are leaving us in as bad way as labour did 13 years ago even with a 80 majority
Thank you
November 23, 2023
Interesting that the OBR has only been in existence for the last 13 years under coalition and Conservative governments. How could we have possibly manged previously without their wretched forecasts? Have the economic outcomes for the country been improved with their oversight? I think not. When will this government stop taking us all for fools?
November 23, 2023
Think it’s time the OBR was shut down. As totally incompetent & out of touch. How much money would that save a year?
November 23, 2023
This is a comment that I made almost exactly a year ago:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/11/17/my-speech-at-the-opposition-day-motion-on-britains-industrial-future/#comment-1355835
“Here is todayâs letter from Jeremy Hunt to the Governor of the Bank of England, with an unchanged remit for the Monetary Policy Committee:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1118261/MPC_Remit_Autumn_Statement_2022.pdf
It makes no sense to me for the government to say that most of the inflation is down to external factors but the committee should continue to aim for the 2% target and mechanistically put up UK interest rates to suppress it.”
And I still think it is crazy that the Bank of England was told to slow the economy down when clearly we needed it to grow, as Jeremy Hunt is now emphasising.
Similarly here are the opening sentences of an article about inflation in Germany, where the same irrational policy has been operating courtesy of the ECB:
https://euobserver.com/green-economy/157719
Fifty percent of all inflation in 2022 was caused by higher fossil-fuel costs driving up the price of energy, according to a report by the German think-tank Dezernat Zukunft, which shows that energy inflation then pushed up other prices â especially that of food.
The report suggests that the effects of energy on inflation have been underestimated.”
The Bank of England remit could and should have been temporarily adjusted a year ago.
November 23, 2023
Wrong and fluctuating forecasts result from the Chancellor staring gormlessly in the rear view mirror at the OBR tailgating him, and only glancing ahead when everyone yells DANGER!
November 23, 2023
50 minutes of guff.
Benefits recipients who will never vote for you ÂŁ2,500 a year better off. Workers, who might worse off after fiscal drag.
A whole load of unnecessary tinkering, quite meaningless in the grand scheme. Sums up your government really.
November 23, 2023
They’re not cutting taxes. The tax increases they previously pushed through are still going ahead with tens of thousands dragged into the higher tax band through fiscal drag, paying 40% tax on an income which isn’t significantly over the average.
Corporation Tax remains the same, as does IR35 – whilst those on benefits will get a deliberately inflated rise by using the September inflation rate rather than October’s. That’ll encourage those gaming the welfare system to get a job (not).
As expected, nothing Conservative about it.
Meanwhile, we’re expecting today’s legal immigration figure to be even worse than last year’s.
November 23, 2023
The item that would have helped pensioners and those who have worked and saved all their lives would have been a cut in income tax. NI cuts will not help the core Tory voters, ie the pensioners. The 10% tax that Gordon Brown levied was one of the smartest things any Chancellor has done and he was a fool to rescind it, thereby losing support from those who would not have normally given their vote to him. The national debt is too high. We all know that but it has been increased by the previous Chancellor giving unearned money away to people to stop them going out to work which was stupid.
November 23, 2023
All very well, but the growth destroying overarching Net Zero policy of course remains in place: the end of Scottish oil refining, and an increase in the energy price cap following the further increases in wind energy costs via the upcoming auctions. Sadly, unlike in other European countries, there is no viable alternative political party to vote for that would bring actual growth and material change.
November 23, 2023
Not only has my wife been robbed of at least ÂŁ50000 in pension payments. Now that she has just got her pension she has been dragged into paying tax. Sir John you try living off 15000 a year with all the inflation affected bills still coming it. You soon resent giving anything to the taxman who we all know will squander it away. I wonât even bore you with the obvious examples. Thoroughly fed up with it all.
The refusal to increase the tax allowance year on year will eventually drive it to its monetary worth before the Lib Dems forced the Conservatives to raise it to gain their cooperation.
I am voting Reform next year. It will be the first time I have not voted conservative. Yes I know it will probably let the Lib Dem win in Wokingham. But I simply cannot vote for any of the current parties. I am fed up of voting for someone just because I donât want the other one in.
November 23, 2023
Sometimes ‘the other one’ is necessary to teach the loser that performance was finally so bad that they were thrown out.
November 23, 2023
The “tax cuts” trumpeted by Hunt yesterday are all smoke and mirrors, designed to assuage the Conservative right and attract positive headlines in the Tory press
Much more impressive would have been to raise the income tax thresholds. The fact that Hunt did not do so means that his tax cuts and reduction in NI will be 100% offset in two years.
While the commitment to the triple lock is welcome, as is the 8.5% uplift next April, the pensioners will have to pay tax on the rise – so for many it will only be 6.8%
Once again, there was no mention of support for manufacturing, nor exports. The national debt will continue to rise, we will be forced to sell off more of the national assets, MP’s, civil service and QUANGO non-contributory, index-linked pensions will continue to absorb an increasing proportion of taxpayers contributions. Smoke and mirrors.
November 23, 2023
I believe the deckchairs on the Titanic were moved about a bit yesterday… we still have the highest taxation in 70 years!
My retired husband’s tax will now rise! He will be paying higher rate tax on his pension for goodness sake!
November 23, 2023
It is a bizarre world we live in where although there is a deficit of c. ÂŁ100bn, up from ÂŁ80bn or so last year, because that deficit is about ÂŁ20bn lower than had been forecast by the OBR, there is thought to be âheadroomâ for tax cuts! The size of the state has mushroomed, and taxes have gone up with it. At some point the govt needs to get to grip with the amount the state spends, especially in view of the terrible service it then provides in so many areas. This is surely what Thatcher would be doing.
November 23, 2023
Letâs hope however that these tax cuts, such as they are, do have the effect of stimulating growth, which is the biggest problem we face.
November 23, 2023
No chance!
November 23, 2023
Tax cuts which will result in the overall tax burden rising for many years to come. Quite an achievement.
November 23, 2023
If he wants to reduce tax, let him take down the rates the Tory government has put up back to the levels they were before.
The real challenge for the government is to get a grip on spending, which they show no ambition for. Shrink the bloated state.
November 23, 2023
It was all a bit meh!
November 23, 2023
I listened with interest, but was left with a “so how will it affect me” situation.
Now retired and on a State Pension, pleased he honoured the triple lock, but now it is taxed due to the freezing of personal allowances, so he has taken back 20% of what he has given me !
I think all his speech did was to outline exactly how much we really are taxed in this Country, so nothing really changes, he is still collecting in more money than he gave away due to the way the tax system works, inflation just increases the tax take, and the frozen allowances helps him in that process.
In short inflation was 11% during the last 12 months he gave me a pension increase of 8.5% but taxed it at 20% and I am supposed to be grateful for being worse off. ?
He also said the Uk National Debt was going down, this is just a lie !
Trust the Tories, Really!
November 23, 2023
Tax burdens still rising to 37. 7% by 2028 it seems and government spending (largely waste) still about 46% with public services dismal and still declining. Well done the Tories, you had 13 years and even an 80 seat majority. But you got almost everything wrong on Brexit delivery, the economy, taxes, housing, migration, NHS queues, lack of real incentives to work, net zero, road blocking and on Covid.
Labour was and will be even worse on all this, but largely the same socialist, net zero lunacy. Even inflation is nearly 2.5 times target.
November 23, 2023
@Lifelogic +1 Yup. the choice which Socialist remain Party do you want in power? Labour will be just as bad(not worse) but at least this Conservative Government will be gone.
November 23, 2023
The 2% NI cut is a bit of an oxymoron. National insurance was designed to fund the NHS and state pension so are they saying that the NHS can work with 2% less contributions from the general working public?
November 23, 2023
@David Pelling +1
Bizarre, something that has a defined contribution to create a service, a function and a payout is having its wings clipped
November 23, 2023
As usual we’re behind the curve on every front – so much for taking back control
November 23, 2023
Sack âem! Thatâs the power we have recovered! Keep sacking âem until you get somebody with whom you are content.
November 23, 2023
”control” what, I (after 13 years) still don’t see a workable plan or indeed a real tory policy
November 23, 2023
I don’t want to go on but Brexit leaders have to take proper leadership now and take ownership of Brexit (proper leaders take responsibility for big failures – not the minions).
Nigel Farage – essential behind Brexit – has claimed Brexit has been a ‘failure.’
He is now off in ‘Celebrity, Get me out of Here’ … This is an example of Mediocre UK at its worst. A strong leader would have made his money years ago in business as an entrepreneur or something before trying to take a leading role in Brexit. Nigel Farage nothing like.
And lots of Brexit ‘leaders’ like him (but in different ways – wind-bag-lawyer-about-Brexit Bill Cash, bossy-Brexit, school-mistress Anne Widdecombe etc).
Again, Brexit is a GREAT thing in theory. But you have to have a proper leader, proper plan, and the proper finances in place to make Brexit work. Otherwise, it’s just a self-indulgence actually making Britain worse overall – then better. And greatly diminishing the possibility of making Brexit work in the future (Brexit should only have happened when we were ready for it).
I don’t want to go on but this is HUGE. And our country continues to drift on in limbo land. A Brexiter needs to take a lead, grab the bull by the horns, and say we made a mistake (everyone makes mistakes – I do all the time!) and we need to do something about it.
November 23, 2023
A much better autumn statement was available, as we know because you have set out your ideas. Mr. Hunt has squandered his chance.
Alarmingly, the IFS tells us that contrary to the Chancellor’s view âItâs not accurate to say that debt is fallingâ (so reports Guido Fawkes who remiinds us falling debt was one of Mr. Sunak’s five pledges). So Mr. Hunt misreads his own numbers!
November 23, 2023
Indeed failing on all the other four and on inflation it was Sunakâs QE that caused the inflation anyway.
November 23, 2023
It seems that anti-immigration parties have been given a majority in the Netherlands election by exasperated voters. Could never happen in this country with the iron grip of the Establishment and their ‘Is it Bill or is it Ben?’ electoral system.
November 23, 2023
It would happen if people stopped listening to Tory lies and voted for Reform.
November 23, 2023
Which do you want liars or dreamers?
November 23, 2023
A wasted opportunity and a pathetic budget, with just one headline reduction that leaves out pensioners.
The government is giving a little with one hand while still taking too much with the other.
Tax thresholds frozen to 2028 mean we will all pay extra tax.
The other headlines include: “Alcohol duty frozen until August 2024” – Oh boy, thanks, that will really help the economy grow.
Hunt has lived up to his reputation, with this autumn statement defining him: Miserably inadequate
November 23, 2023
Allowing houses to be turned into flats without planning permission will rapidly change the country and make a lot of landlords rich. I am not sure this is good for the country. Lots of old terraced streets are going to become stacks of small flats. Accommodation for families is going to reduce. Even less on street parking will be available per accommodation unit. Social engineering by the political class of the worst kind.
November 23, 2023
Hear hear!
November 23, 2023
Not much choice though if youâre letting in 700,000 immigrants a year.
November 23, 2023
Of course, Iain, how else can the 700,000 migrants a year be accommodated?
November 23, 2023
1,172,000 migrants a year.
November 23, 2023
I believe that fiscal creap or workers gradually transfering to higher taxbands due to wage increases will increase government’s tax take. The government tax take will be greater despite a veneer of reductions and freezes. The great minus in this autumn statement was any indication that government spending would be reduce, never mind the drastic reduction required.
So on balance I give this smoke and mirrors exercise a resounding raspberry. I am surprised that your comments only play around the periphery. You fail to point out that the minimum wage increases are not government largesse, industry will pick up the bill and pass it on to the consumer so boosting inflation. Your consocialist party is using the people.
November 23, 2023
To quote Liam Halligan, freezing tax thresholds till 28/29 equals slow boiling a frog over 6 years and is not detectable by the frog (taxpayers) so the Chancellor believes. Despite the smokescreen of apparent reductions, threshold freezing amounts to a ÂŁ0.06 increase in the basic rate of tax. We are not fooled, whatever spin you put upon it.
November 23, 2023
âGlad to see the government now start to cut taxesâ
This is just a big lie. Millions of taxpayers are being dragged into paying higher levels of tax, as their wages increase. What a ruse. Cause inflation and freeze the allowances and what do you get â a much bigger tax take. The Treasuryâs income from the stealth tax will now amount to a whopping ÂŁ44.6billion by the end of the OBRâs forecast in 2028-29.
Do you think we are stupid to believe your statement?
November 23, 2023
workers on national average pay will hardly note the difference with NI, but will note the stealth Income Tax as their pay increases trying to meet the cost of living.
November 23, 2023
@Christine – you were not supposed to notice taht
November 23, 2023
IR35 unchanged, so freelance market destroyed, and no freelancers will vote conservative. I really do wonder who their target voter is, I don’t know any.
November 23, 2023
The autumn Statement was simply the re-arranging of the deckchairs on the Titanic that is our dash to the economy crippling Net Zero.
The OBRâs âwildly swingingâ and hence incorrect forecasts are because they are political much like DESNZâs prediction that offshore wind energy will cost ÂŁ44/MWhr (2021 prices) in 2025 despite the Government increasing the CfD for fixed offshore wind to ÂŁ73/MWhr (2012 prices so around ÂŁ105/MWhr today) and floating offshore wind to ÂŁ176/MWhr (2012 prices so around ÂŁ253/MWhr today).
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6556027d046ed400148b99fe/electricity-generation-costs-2023.pdf
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/boost-for-offshore-wind-as-government-raises-maximum-prices-in-renewable-energy-auction
November 23, 2023
The sensible analysis showed that the tax burden is still going up and wil be for years.
The stealth taxes via frozen personal allowances are a major factor. Pensioners will be paying tax on their State pension soon, possibly next year.
Also, the self-employed help covers only the Schedule D people, by reducing only NI (Employees NI and Schedule D NI) the cunning plan is to offer no help for those who are forced into a Ltd Co route by agencies and consultancies.
To avoid the double-hit of Employers + Employees NI, they have to pay a large proportion in dividends which has a hefty additional dividend tax on top of the usual income tax bands (even if it’s assessed after the fact, when their SA tax return is filed, they still pay the tax – and they do so in advance).
Sadly, it seems that IR35 is alive and well, living in Downing Street and the Treasury.
November 23, 2023
Hello, Sir John. You have access to the PM and Chancellor; we don’t. Obviously, they do not know there is a General Election coming in the next 12 months, so would you please tell them?
This continues to be a greedy government & nothing in yesterday’s statement encourages, uplifts and enthuses ordinary taxpayers. The 2% reduction in N.I. will be swallowed up by the frozen thresholds so hardly a reason to cheer. Until tax thresholds are unfrozen & even adjusted upwards as well the Conservatives will be wiped out in the GE. The Chancellor didn’t even do anything about the tourist VAT reclaim. When the blind ( Hunt ) lead the blind ( Sunak ) they both fall into a ditch!
November 23, 2023
there will be mass rebellion by ordinary people against the ruling class, simply due to immigration, and the obvious stuff around it, work visas being printed like confetti, etc.
most obviously the Conservative party cannot win another election having been proven liars on these issues since Cameron got in the first time. Labour are also going to find mass non compliance from ordinary voters. If people think ordinary people destroying ULEZ cameras is a fringe activity (I am sure the scale of it is being suppressed, to try and stop encouraging more), similar “taking the law into their own hands” is going to break out everywhere.
the peaceful democratic process has got to start reflecting the will of the people, the alternate is unpredictable, chaotic, and different small anti ruling class reactions will break out allover the place. when the decent stable majority start doing it the ruling class are going to get a shock.
its not looking good.
after the next election there has got to be a new party, or a complete reinvention of the Conservative party.
ignoring your own manifesto has got to stop.
November 23, 2023
and Dublin now has the army on the streets.
the ruling class there are as useless and out of control as they are here.
November 23, 2023
Lets face it our politicians are out of touch with the people and its own voters
November 23, 2023
So now we have it. Nett migration 672000 but as over 500000 left the Gross figure is over 1,172,000. Consocialist insanity, the population of a fairly large city every year. Does anyone in your parliamentary cabal have any idea of the impact this has on the infrastructure and culture of our country. Are you insanely intent on destroying everything we hold dear, everything that is still left I should emphasise.
November 23, 2023
Thatâs right, itâs the gross figure that is important.
November 23, 2023
agricola
Afraid the Nations DNA, culture, thinking, work ethic, outlook and patriotism changed years ago, and will continue to change even further with mass immigration and the lefty WOKE education/work agenda, look at the major Cities to see what the Country will eventually become.
November 23, 2023
BA : “….look at the major Cities to see what the Country will eventually become.”
No, look at the ME and Africa.
November 23, 2023
Yes, tax cutting, albeit belated tax cutting is good but in political terms (economically NI or Income Tax makes little difference) they cut the wrong tax. They should have cut Income Tax instead. While the headline rate of Income Tax matters enormously and is what people remember, few people even remember or are that concerned with the rate of National Insurance. They tend to discount National Insurance politically due to the mistaken widespread belief that it is just a tax to pay for pensions, social security benefits and the National Health Service. Sunak and Hunt evidently just don’t understand how most people think and consequently are politically just useless and should not hold senior, let alone top, political positions. Replace them now.
November 23, 2023
I donât see how this budget helps small businesses? Many donât have the capital to make the investments the Chancellor wants? And theyâve also been hit with an increase to the minimum wage! I would have preferred to have seen Corporation Tax reduced back to 19%. Furthermore, those on low and medium incomes will be adversely impacted by Mr Sunakâs freezing of personal allowances until 2028. This is the most damaging failure of yesterdayâs budget – fiscal drag. I do hope the Chancellor addresses this issue in 2024?
November 23, 2023
And the next day, (today) out come the new energy prices – up of course, to start January, to add to the jollity of it all, 3 months of the coldest weather before the new pension and benefits come in which of course in the case of pensioners will be taxed. The worst time of year to do it. He is going to bring in the NIC cuts for earners in January, so that’s that gone, no benefit there and presumably the energy companies will continue with their sky high profits. Tone deaf? No, they just don’t care. They are not affected and no doubt MP’s wages will rise shortly, so they’ll all be all right Jack and probably their severance pay will be boosted in time for them to get the sack. The nasty party back again.
November 23, 2023
âreinstating VAT free shopping for foreign visitorsâ How does giving visitors the Tax Back on purchases of Foreign sourced/produced products help the UK. Logic says it is biased to funding the Chinese State at the expense of the UK Taxpayer.
In any sane Country tax is collected to fund its services and infrastructure, to let one section of paying means the other sections have to pay more, i.e. the policy keeps UK VAT artificially high. So, who would VAT free Shopping help?
If there had to be any concession far better it was focused on UK only produced goods. At least then the money stays in the UK and gets to go around the system.
November 23, 2023
Cutting a penny here, dropping a percentage point there ….isn’t an tory economic policy/plan when you’re still spending billions, billions, on net-zero subsidy, foreign aid, payments to the EU & UN, expanding the civil service, funding immigrants etc
November 23, 2023
@glen cullen +1
Its called refusal to manage
November 23, 2023
âGlad to see the government now start to cut taxesâ Tax is a universal pre pay pot there to provide the facilities and functions for us all to thrive.
Shuffling the pot, while increasing the tax take is not a tax cut! Everyone is paying a massive amount more from the freezing of allowances, energy taxes so on and so. Yesterdays speech was to make our 2 Chancellors feel good about themselves, while knowing they are punishing the UK People and the UK economy.
November 23, 2023
It is a great worry that the Shadow Chancellor wants to legislate to make the OBR even more powerful. You would think Brown’s creation of his rogue Bank would have taught them something about giving away ever more power to unelected, unaccountable bodies who then don’t take responsibility for the mess they make. It is the taxpayer who always does that.
November 23, 2023
The OBR was formally created in May 2010 once the Conservatives came back to power, following discussions by the then opposition had had from December 2019. So if there is a culprit it is a Mr Osborne.
November 23, 2023
Just Brown by a different name.
November 23, 2023
Yes
November 24, 2023
What’s that got to do with it? Rose was talking about the BoE independence as I read it, not the OBR.
November 23, 2023
Breaking BBC News –
‘The net migration figure 2022 was revised upwards to 745,000 – an increase of 139,000 on the previous estimate, given in May.”
745,000 needing homes, doctors, dentists, school ….utter madness
November 23, 2023
what about needing jobs, transport etc?
November 23, 2023
Well what a surprise !
November 23, 2023
Jeremy Pokery. Hubristic nonsense. Tax cuts when fiscal drag means they are going up.
As someone famously said about something else âis that it?â
And in the meantime migrant figures gives a lie to HMG statements and actions.
Finally a report states what we all know. Amateur risk averse civil servants with associated politicians are costing this country up to 50 billion.
Why the surprise? They join precisely because the job for life plus linked benefits is risk averse.
13 years Sir JR. As they say, people âfind godâ when they are about to die.
November 23, 2023
From the MsM
‘Families face paying ÂŁ4,300 more tax despite Jeremy Huntâs cuts to National Insurance and other budget giveaways, the Resolution Foundation has said.
In its Autumn Statement analysis, the think tank said taxes were set to rise by the equivalent of ÂŁ4,300 per household by the end of the decade compared to 2019.
The tax burden is expected to keep climbing every year for the next five years to a new record of almost 38pc of GDP by 2029, well above pre-pandemic levels of 33.1pc’
What does the UK Taxpayer get in return, a bigger civil service – withou delivery, poor infrastructure, and a NHS that consumes money for discrimination but wont treat or see those that are criticaly ill
November 23, 2023
Apart from the Pension increase in April the budget was a misnomer for me . I cannot see anything in it that is likely to save the Sunak/Hunt Government and the sooner this occurs the better off we should all be . Sir John is right to criticise the numbers from the unelected OBR but , he made no mention of the equally unreliable BoE . Public anger is rife as things stand with little hope on the horizon from others on the Conservative front bench or anything that Labour has indicated . This country is truly in the doldrums .
November 23, 2023
Too late
November 23, 2023
Scatter Gun Economics of someone aimless, no focus, won’t achieve anything!
It say’s a lot about where he see’s us now, and where he thinks we will get too, over the next few years!
He must hate the Self Employed, Contractors, Owner Drivers, or Family SME’s, anyone with any self determination!
It’s not that I don’t appricate the cut in NI, it just not a priority! Reforming IR35 is! Agency’s cannot give out contracts to non-Limited Company’s, with the expense of Accountancy’s! Being a Sole Trader, with simple Cash Book accounting would be easier, cheaper, and quicker!
?
Regards,
RDM
November 23, 2023
I see that the “leaks” about inheritance tax were so much smoke and mirrors. IHT is hated, yet Hunt cannot bring himself even to the bring in the ÂŁ1 million threshold Osborne promised in 2007, and failed to deliver. This is utterly pathetic.
November 23, 2023
Leaks designed to make fools think he might be generous.
November 23, 2023
So sorry Sir John but we spotted his slight of hand, he would not succeed at a children’s party.
Give and take here and there adds up to giving NOTHING!
November 23, 2023
Nothing about equalising the two state pensions, or increasing the miserable level of these pensions to something nearer to the much better European ones. The 5th biggest economy, so called !!
Glad that the state pension is a minor part of my annual income.
Glad to see that Geert Wilders has had some success in The Netherlands. I wonder if I could move there.
The useless English electorate wont follow suite though, when the time comes.
November 23, 2023
@MWB – people waste their time in contributing to their pension, if they donât make their full payments, they are then given tax credits to bring pensions up to the higher amounts of the 2. The majority of pensioners who are on the pre 2016 pension(which is stll the majority), are dismissed and only those that get the future amount are recognized and quoted. According to the 2 Chancellors ÂŁ156.20 per week is enough to pay for fuel food and rent.
Bizarrely if they get into rubber boats then arrive in the UK without papers, they will get warm accommodation, food, pocket money even a free mobile phone and its use, free health and much more â all paid by the taxpayer.
November 23, 2023
This budget does not help enough people to change the minds of the electorate. Maintaining those old tax allowance levels, the fiscal drag is punishing hard work and still puts the 2023 levels of Tax v GDP back to the ultra high levels of post war Britain. This is not the way of true Conservatism. Until they listen to the ‘Street’ and act upon their aspirations, this Government will not survive. Do it now!
November 23, 2023
@Derek – They are not Conservatives, they are self-indulgent, virtually self-appointed attention seekers that have other places to be once the General Election is out of the way
November 23, 2023
A damp squid of an Autumn Statement with no movement to reduce the fiscal drag on income tax rates.
Also, no mention whatsoever by any politician in Westminster of the appallingly high net migration figures.
A net 745,000 new arrivals is completely unacceptable to almost all voters who know that these kind of numbers are the real cause of our “housing crisis.” They also contribute a lot towards the deteriorating quality of public services available to our own people and will accelerate both traffic congestion and our emissions.
We have just seen the outcome of elections in the Netherlands. The only reason that the Reform Party is not making similar progress here is our FPTP electoral system. If the Conservative party loses the next General Election as badly as some pundits are predicting, I can see it collapsing to a rump behind the Lib DIms as so many natural Conservative voters will move to Reform.
Perhaps another coup is necessary to install a leader actually prepared to carry out the wishes of a majority of voters and reduce net inward migration to David Cameron’s “tens of thousands” ?
November 23, 2023
I want to congratulate Peter de Leewen on his country backing that hero Wilders! Well done!
November 23, 2023
+1
November 23, 2023
I’m just about to rummage through the old-coin box to see if there are any Dutch guilders that need dusting off.
November 23, 2023
I think Wilders will be resuscitating the Guilder đ€đ» just such a shame they donât operate FPTP, he would have been able to form a proper Government instead they have this voter-defeating âproportionalâ system! đąđą
November 23, 2023
Just read the laughable and artificial ‘net immigration’ figure. ‘We should not discriminate’, a short reply of JR some months ago. Recent events in Israel and at Crepol in France at the weekend show this to be a nation’s death sentence.
November 23, 2023
Yes. And itâs later than you think.
November 23, 2023
âPowell was rightâ about more than one issue. Indeed, he was right about everything apart from forecasting that âwe will fight those from the sub-continent for control of Britainâ. It will be those from the Islamic world – and letâs hope to God we fight and donât just roll over!
We are watching that great series âThe World at Warâ. It should be on every curriculum. The most striking thing is that every Parliamentarian is educated, informed and articulate.
November 24, 2023
It was indeed a high point of British TV;we have watched the complete series numerous times.
November 23, 2023
The government has cut very little tax for ordinary taxpayers. Tinkering with NI is not the way forward. Most financial experts agree that moving the tax thresholds to account for the rampant inflation would be a better option and bring some of the people dragged into the higher bands out of them. But no.
Hunt tells us that benefits will rise 6.7%, but for the people paying those benefits, we get nothing. Can Hunt and the party not see the optics here and how this looks for the ‘party of low taxation’.
Conservatism is dead and with the likes of Sunak, Cameron and Hunt we are going back to the liberal Blue left. The Conservative party has a death wish.
November 23, 2023
In the last General Election Manifesto, the Not-a-Conservative-Party promised to CONTROL and REDUCE immigration from the (already dreadful) 250,000 a year.
In the past year, 672,000 (net) immigrants were allowed into the UK….. plus the 35,000 criminal migrants shipped in for a life of “free everything.” (And that’s on top of the 606,000 legal and 40,000 illegals last year.)
As far as I’m concerned that’s 700,000 reasons NOT to vote for the Treacherous Tories ever again. They are DESTROYING this country.
November 23, 2023
Do you think that we can believe their next manifesto ?
November 23, 2023
A period of high inflation in recent times has led to many workers securing pay rises to ease the rising cost of living. But they are also paying more tax because a bigger portion of their income is taxed or they have been dragged into a higher tax band than before.
Some 2.2 million more workers now pay the basic rate income tax of 20% compared with three years ago, according to official figures, while 1.6 million more people have found themselves in the 40% tax bracket in the same period.
Critics describe freezing tax bands – the level at which a person starts paying different rates of tax on their earnings – as a “stealth tax” because the process happens gradually as a person starts earning a bit more.
Low tax Party ?
November 23, 2023
Not sure why Hunt takes credit for increasing the minimum wage – itâs not him who has to pay it.
November 23, 2023
+on stilts! That will destroy many many businesses! Some of my small shop tenants with turnovers of circa ÂŁ350k pa now canât keep going.
I predict a lot of growth in the Liquidations Sector!
November 23, 2023
From Guido Fawkes, a round up that says what everyone knows to be the truth – https://order-order.com/page/2/
According to the IFS âItâs not accurate to say that debt is falling. Public sector debt is currently rising in cash terms, real terms, and (most importantly) as a per centage of national income.â Yet today both Sunak and Hunt have claimed the debt is falling as per one of Rishiâs original five pledges. âThis is simply not trueâ.
To keep debt from rising above 100% of GDP over the long-term would require a cut in annual spending of 4.4% of GDP according to the OBR. After today real-terms spending is scheduled to rise even if the Tories win the next election. âThe simple truth is the national debt will keep on rising unless the economy grows faster or spending is cut.â
The Growth Commission points out that âwhile the cut in National Insurance Contributions by 2 percentage points will add 0.6% to GDP per capita after 20 years, it needs to be borne in mind that the freezing of tax allowances had already cost 1.3% of GDPâ. Co-chairman Douglas McWilliams says the measures âare falling short of getting us out of economic stagnationâ.
Everyone knows the problem accept out 2 Chancellors and their ConSocialist Cabinet
November 23, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
There are some who contribute to your blog who say that whilst the Conservative government is useless, things would be even worse under Labour. However, the Conservatives have set such a high bar for incompetence that even the Labour party would be hard pushed to vault over it.
After the latest ONS migration figures, just what does this government think it is doing? A net three-quarters of a million people allowed to enter the country in just a single year. Is there any wonder we cannot see a doctor or a dentist, the roads are paralysed and nothing works properly anymore? And what do we get from No.10 in response to these shocking figures? Downing Street says “net migration is too high and promised to leave âno stone unturnedâ in tackling abuse of the visa system. Does anyone believe these lies anymore?
This government has failed – utterly. It has made a mockery of Conservative values. It is a disgrace and an embarrassment. Call a general election now. Nothing could be worse than another year of Sunak, his faux-conservative government and the cohorts of backbench MPs masquerading as conservatives.
November 23, 2023
Obfuscation of the Nth degree but people will still buy into it. Similar with the election, there is no point in voting for any party until our whole system of government is changed.
November 23, 2023
SJR, I put this to you as a thought, the Nett and Gross immigration figures for the past two years are so far off the scale of what is credible or acceptable that I feel justiffied in accusing government of deliberate deception. They want such figures because their paymaster dictate that that is what they should be. The illegal boat people are just a convenient distraction to keep the public’s mind away from reality. As Mr Meldrew would say ” You cannot believe it”.
November 23, 2023
IMMIGRATION – UK – 2023: ‘745,000 new arrivals’
What’s going on here?
Most people supported Brexit (and the main reason I support it – in theory – after just being sovereign is general) is at 745,000 immigrants.
What’s going on here?
November 23, 2023
A relative works in Dublin and tells me that the protests tonight, following the stabbing, are a message directed towards their government to stop immigration âŠ.pure & simple, they’ve had enough
November 23, 2023
I’m totally against all this immigration (overall – you need some but it has to be really strict for skills we really need). But Brexit was meant to be bring immigration down.
And after listening to Churchill’s and Thatcher’s speeches recently, I’m just angry that Nigel Farage, who was the main voice behind Brexit, said Brexit had failed and now off to Celebrity, Get me Out of Here … You couldn’t write this as the cliche goes.
November 23, 2023
(And on a lighter note, whilst listening to Churchill’s speeches, also listening to the war music from this time. Some really excellent music too like: ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy’ – no way do they make music like that anymore).
November 23, 2023
They are all going to have to go – one way or another. Iâm warning immigrants that in their own interest, they should go before the fighting begins.
November 24, 2023
That was the net figure, with 500k leaving immigration was 1.1.m.
November 23, 2023
The purpose of the Autumn Statement was simply an attempt at a dead cat strategy to reduce the impact of the utterly dreadful immigration figures.
Lord Cameron promised us that immigration would be reduced to the âtens of thousandsâ.
I wonât be fooled again at the next GE.
November 23, 2023
With Lizz I knew exactly what her policy & vision was, however after the autumn statement Iâm still clueless to the Sunak/Hunt plan âŠ.if I had to describe it Iâd say it was âcontinuity cameronâ
November 24, 2023
178,000 new homes were built in England in 2022. Far fewer than the number of new immigrants. Capitalism would suggest that in cases like this where demand far outstrips supply that the private sector will increase supply. But of course housing in UK is under Socialist state control using obstructive planning laws and NIMBY MPs of all parties. Sunak has been happy to enable mass immigration but would oppose building 10,000 new homes in his own constituency. It is a fundamentally dishonest position. At least Truss’ position which was to continue with mass immigration but to introduce planning reforms was coherent.
November 24, 2023
One wonders why the OBR is useful. There is a need for disinterested, ie objective and impartial, assessments of government and bank budgets, statements and actions. But the OBR seems not to do this very well. It can establish authority only by being right most of the time. Having a mandate is not the same as authority.
The OBR should rapidly improve its performance and if it will not or cannot it should be abolished.
November 24, 2023
It was pleasing to hear that there may be a public offer of Natwest shares. Actually, I don’t fancy Natwest, but the prospect of Sid investing again was good news and perhaps there will be tastier morsels later. It’s about time the government encouraged wider share ownership again, and I hope this new attitude will shortly dispel the present public image of investors as pariahs.
November 26, 2023
Another failing Quango? Oncom, Ofgen, etc, etc.