There are many other areas where spending can be reduced or better targeted beyond the big ones mentioned yesterday.
As I have often urged the Bank should stop selling bonds at big losses for taxpayers to lay. Hold them to repayment to cut the losses.
There are still monies being sent as overseas aid to successful and or well armed countries with nuclear programmes. Why is still true? Why are we still paying money to the EU several years after leaving? There should be a push back on their calculations and interpretations of the Withdrawal  Agreement.
Who does the UK spend so much on highly speculative technologies for decarbonisation? These can be developed by the private sector or led by other states with more need to decarbonise than us where they are clearly not yet commercial.
Why does the UK have a high tax and subsidy model when it comes to energy? The UK ‘s very high carbon and energy taxes loses us industry here and with it costs us tax revenue. Industries like steel that cannot afford our high energy costs and taxes then need substantial subsidy payments to keep some of the industry .Cut the taxes and end spending on the subsidies.
December 31, 2023
All sensible suggestion but clearly zero political will to scrap the net zero insanity or to spend tax payers money wisely. Then I see in the Mail that:- âBenefits fraudster who faked the identities of 200 children to pocket public money is ordered to pay back ÂŁ2 million. Ali Bana Mohamed, 42, will face a nine-year sentence if he fails to return the cashâ.
Also in the Mail:- âFive-day work from home deals for pampered mandarins as civil servants make mockery of calls to return to the office: Taxpayer-funded quango staff get 10,000 days WFB (Working From the Beach)
Hundreds of civil servants only work from home, Freedom of Information shows
Government staff spent nearly 10,000 days working ‘from the beach’ since 2010â
Not their money so what do they care? If they can get away with it as Government and Ministers not even tying to control it.
December 31, 2023
ÂŁ2 million? Lifelogic, think how much money went into the pockets of Tory donors during the PPE scandal. Someone is trying to distract your attention
December 31, 2023
That is just one personâs claim. I do not suppose he will be able to pay it beck anyway. But what a dire system they run.
December 31, 2023
ÂŁ2 million for under 4 years in jail. I would take the soft jail time, crime and not working pays under the Tories. Hunt stop lying. It does not pay to work under your mass immigration welfare scam. Become a foreign student and bring your family!
Under Willetts govt could not collect student loan money from foreigners because govt did not have the capacity to chase up! We were told it only cost us ÂŁ80 million a year! Now students and their families can remain here for free!
December 31, 2023
Lemming â I doubt Lifelogic does not recognize the chief distraction agent is yourself. You are often correct of course that this government carries much blame, but Sir John does not exempt it (I view him as the real leader of the opposition) whilst offering cogent criticism of others whom you habitually seek to exonerate only because the government eventually may have some responsibility.
December 31, 2023
It’s endemic. That’s the issue. The reason is those pension debts.
We have looting at all sections of society.
December 31, 2023
Fire at least half the civil servants, the fewer we have the less damage they will do and money they will waste.
December 31, 2023
They will surely be happier doing real, useful and productive jobs anyway? So many civil servants do little of value many do net harm – blocking roads, over regulating everything, over restrictive planning, net zero, net harm lockdowns, motorist mugging, distorting markets, pushing net harm dangerous vaccines âŠ
December 31, 2023
@Lifelogic – then how do you justify these same people receiving what is termed ‘London Weighting’ that was brought into compensate travel to and from the City when they don’t travel?
December 31, 2023
Well rental and housing cost are much higher in central London but if you live outside, work from home and do not commute?
An excellent Dr John Campbell interview just out with Prof Dalgleish on his superb book the Death of Science the Prof. seems to me to be exactly right on Covid, The death of Science, Net Zero… (Book is Free on Kindle unlimited).
December 31, 2023
âCameronâs âhappiness unitâ to close as funding dries up.â I see. Good thousands more such lunacies need to go to.
They shut down Osborneâs tax simplification unit top. Taxation doubled in complexity over the 13 years or so.
December 31, 2023
Two wrongs do not make a right! Lemming, but thats hard for a leftie to understand
December 31, 2023
Quite.
December 31, 2023
+1
December 31, 2023
It sounds like a one sided protection racket. Someone somewhere in an obscure office is being lent on to retain payment to the EU.
The last thing we need is(as usually
happens) to appoint another branch of highly paid loafers to deal with waste.
My local workers at the highly organized tip could do better.
December 31, 2023
@Margaret the easiest way to cut waste is only pay for what is delivered – promises are not delivery
December 31, 2023
I spoke to my brother about tips. During covid they bought/leased a booking system. Now they need people to man the tips to enforce the bookings. Covid is over, so he asked the council when the system would revert? Of course it won’t. It’s just another money grab.
December 31, 2023
You highlight many issues that need to be addressed. It must be very frustrating to be on the governing benches and yet see so much that is going wrong. It’s frustrating for those of us outside Parliament, too.
I hope you can win over more colleagues, even in this last year of the administration. Best of luck with it, but it’s too late for me. I’m voting Reform to hopefully get my MP (a Minister) removed from the power she so disastrously wields.
December 31, 2023
Torylabour uni party are big state, high tax, mass immigration and wasteful spending. We have dire public services where immigrants are out to the front of the queu! JR is ignored as an extreme fringe from his former party.
December 31, 2023
Youâre describing our current government
December 31, 2023
GC,
Correct. You would not know which half of the uni party was in power for 14 years u less you were told. Tories are now far worse with the economy and taxation than any Labour govt in recent history- ie 70-80 years! What JR is advocating has no resemblance to his party or govt over any of the 14 year period in office!! Despite historic debts, debt interest, money printing, taxation etc they still want to give away more to the world!! Not happy with that they are on a mission for mass immigration welfare claimants at 3.5 million in two years!! The govt does not get to choose who leaves the country, but they are in control over who comes here. They decided 3.5 million! They are using net figures to make their mass immigration policy (against manifesto promises) sound less. That is dishonesty.
December 31, 2023
Full page article in the Times yesterday with a reporter going for a ride with King Charles in his cheese wine (only partially/slightly derived) âpetrolâ fuelled Aston Martin.
If our King of private jet & helicopter hypocrisy really thinks this does anything for the environment or climate he is even more dim than I already think he is. How much was spent on this conversion and the energy wasted in making this doubless absurdly inefficient âpetrolâ? It will almost certainly be far worse than just using normal petrol.
Or perhaps he could try using a car with a 600cc engine rather than four Litre Aston Martin with an ejector seat button in seems.. PR drivel over substance every time form our deluded ever so silly, do as I say not as I do, King.
December 31, 2023
@Lifelogic – whose ‘King’? What was the UK Monarchy has moved on so should we. Then again Republicanism is also a poor idea
December 31, 2023
@ Lifelogic – but worse would be the alternative, of the King eschewing experimental technologies. He was ahead of his time on architecture and care of the environment. His interests and attentions have helped, typically.
December 31, 2023
Well âcare for the environmentâ is one thing but Charlesâs hypocritical war on harmless CO2 (plant, tree and crop food food) is a totally different agenda. As to Architecture it is a matter of taste, but also of money. If you are homeless you are perhaps less concerned about Architectural Merit just as if you are starving you are perhaps not so very concerned about whether the food is âorganicâ or not.
December 31, 2023
The King’s Aston, being 40 years old, is at least sustainable, compared with anything new.
He would be better off converting it back to standard and running it on one of the new plant-based fuels developed by British firms like Coryton ( https://coryton.com ).
These require no modification to the car and, while they are currently expensive, the price will fall as production increases.
If I live long enough, I expect to still be running my three classic cars on them ( combined age 157 years) and I certainly won’t be buying an EV !
December 31, 2023
I agree on the bonds issue. The EU – we should have left with no deal and took it from there with no repayments. I read somewhere that we will be paying them until 2050 and we have just rejoined the space programme for money but will have no voting rights? I would like to see some compensation for the years my parents gave in the 2nd World War to keeping the EU lot free from the German occupation but that is wishful thinking. On net zero and all that rubbish. Ed Milliband has been a disaster to this country and his other half scarpered to the US for big money when he had hurt feelings. The Father was a Marxist so he was no benefit to what we want for the country so what was the point in giving him sanctuary in the 2nd World War as he has produced two people who we could have done without. Sorry but when you have people who bite the hand that feeds them like this family I am very angry.
December 31, 2023
Just remember when you hear the BS machine in 2024 – – “we should have left with no deal” was the promise by our now Foreign Secretary.
December 31, 2023
LB,
UK are still being fined by the ECJ after we left left!! We voted leave and our govt is paying a foreign court to impose its foreign laws across our country!! This is the Sunak EU Windsor sell out for you. Cameron heralds we are under EU law from EU courts in the Lords a few weeks ago!! Cameron is an EU fanatic, now in charge of EU foreign policy! What could go wrong after he rigged the referendum, coerced the country and lied about the threat of war happening if we left the EU!
JR and chums not ousting socialist pro EU Sunak and Hunt anytime soon.
December 31, 2023
It doesn’t sound like we’ve left
December 31, 2023
Hope,
You are getting the better of you with a lot of wrong facts but it does not seem to bother you either
December 31, 2023
BS,
ÂŁ34 million fine for red diesel imposed across UK to make the fine persuasive.
December 31, 2023
@Linda Brown – we should have left, created our own Elected Sovereign Government, become a fully functioning Democracy just as the People voted for – then these question wouldn’t have arisen.
The Conservative Government is against the very concept of an Independent UK, without it they have others to blame for their own personal failures – so they fight the very idea.
December 31, 2023
The biggest waste of money is the drive to Net Zero.
Deindustrialising the country has led to skilled high paid jobs going abroad. We are Importing far too much of what we could produce ourselves.
As for payments to the EU, your government agreed to continue payments according to their calculations without demur.
It’s entirely in your remit to stop these things.
As for the energy markets you couldn’t make a bigger mess even if that was the idea.
December 31, 2023
Indeed but all Sunak has done is a tiny touch on the green crap brakes, he is still heading directly for the cliff. Economic and Environmental insanity but doubtless he dropped physics at age 16.
Other vast (probable criminal?) waste of public money – the clearly net harm Covid vaccines, Baroness Mone, Greensill, the Bombing of Libya, test and trace, masks, the net harm lockdowns, the QE lunacy, the vast expansion of government, furlough, covid loans, road blocking, much of recycling, pushing heat pumps and EVs, with subsidies, open door low skilled migration, the loans for worthless degrees circa 75% of them.
December 31, 2023
This sick joke misdirected Covid Inquiry costing millions a week.
December 31, 2023
Now that really is fraud.
December 31, 2023
+++
Agree.
It ALL is.
We are caught up in a huge mafia-style network of fraud and treachery.
Is ârinsedâ the right word?
âTheyâ want all we haveâŠand more!
December 31, 2023
…and no MP will call it out in fear of ridicure
December 31, 2023
everhopeful..
Taxman lyrics – Beatles 1966.
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman
Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman
I’ll tax the street
(If you try to sit, sit) I’ll tax your seat
(If you get too cold, cold) I’ll tax the heat
(If you take a walk, walk) I’ll tax your feet
(Taxman)
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman
Don’t ask me what I want it for
(Ah, ah, Mr. Wilson)
If you don’t want to pay some more
(Ah, ah, Mr. Heath)
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman
Now my advice for those who die (taxman)
Declare the pennies on your eyes (taxman)
‘Cause I’m the taxman
Yeah, I’m the taxman (Hunt, Sunak)
And you’re working for no one but me (taxman)
December 31, 2023
@Ian Wraggg – but by trashing our economy and increasing World Carbon emissions exponentially, has the given this Conservative Government the opportunity to say they have reduce them by 50%. The uneducated numpties that call themselves Government Ministers are incapable of listening to what they are saying. Its a soundbite someone will buy it.
December 31, 2023
What are you on about Ian B, âworld carbon emissions â- are you taken in by their nonsense talk.
The plant food is good , not wrong!
December 31, 2023
When it comes to energy the business model is designed to benefit everyone other than the consumer. Government taxes the whole process to such a high level that the consumer, who picks up the end tab, has in many cases to be subsidised.
Meanwhile a misbegotten government at the altar of nett zero has turned its back on the wealth of gas oil and coal we have beneath our feet and seas. If you must buy gas and oil from afar, get it from the Falkland Islands for the benefit of the islanders and the security of the source. No more the victim of Middle East politics and OPEC. Look at who actually benefits from the currenf model to see where the corruption and sheer idiocy lies.
The only acceptable technologies for decarbonisation are the ones industry will freely invest in and the market end user is keen to buy. Most current offers are government and action fanatic inspired. When analysed they are bogus and thrive on taxing the public.
Overseas Aid is all too often a slush fund of dubious merit. Leave dealing with the Worlds disadvantaged to the charities on individual subscription only. Even the larger examples merit investigation on how much they pay themselves. Our government intervention should be direct following disaster. Ukraine and Tsunamis for example. Leave donkeys and water supply to charities.
Sadly as we are governed by muddled thinking consocialists it will never happen. To sort all the above out you need clear thinking action, as in the vaccine programme, not 650 UK politicians on the Titanic.
December 31, 2023
UK is giving away over ÂŁ3 billion to Africa without knowing how the money will be spent! That is left for others to decide! It is not even contingent on UK interests, business or jobs! Plebgate wants to feed Africa thinking it will stop mass immigration!
This govt. is full of extreme nutters who are out of touch with the voting public and do not even try to fulfil their promises that got them elected. We have periodic pledges that have no bearing on the las manifesto which Sunak pledged to implement!! All prominent leaver ministers removed from office and full steam pro EU lock step ahead. Follow Cameron!
December 31, 2023
Hope, your first sentence sums up
EVERY THING I hate about Westminster in the present time
December 31, 2023
@agricola – the energy you get punished for using is supplied for the most part by Foreign Government owned Industries. This allows those same Governments to charge their own consumers less while at the same time competing with the UK
December 31, 2023
Look in the mirror and you’ll see the problem staring back. A party and its MPs so fearful of their own beliefs that they endorse Labour and its ideology to appease the Left. Until this changes there can be no opposition to an ideology whose aim is simple, to destroy this nation and replace it with poison
The Tories can be saved by declaring belief in truth, reality, nature and freedom. They won’t. They’ll fight the next election within the parameters set out by the Neo-Marxist regressive Left
December 31, 2023
Precisely. Any government comment on the policing “success” that was the fight between Eritrean factions in London yesterday? Perhaps some comment on why our indigenous population has to put up with this and then find the police dancing around with rainbow flags and taking the knee to people who shouldn’t even be here? And under surveillance in their 8 year old cars when those dictating this are flying around the world emitting skip loads of carbon?
Hardly law and order is it? Those words seem to have been forgotten in the Sunak lexicon. Too frit of the left to even mention it.
December 31, 2023
+++
Yes I believe they could still win âŠif only they could âman upâ.
Fancy being more scared of the commies than of political oblivion.
December 31, 2023
Dom, you are quite wrong. Tory part of the Uni party will say anything to be elected the last 3 elections prove this. I accept that have fully embraced the neo-Marxist regressive left. We saw that with energy that Cameron labelled it as Marxist and May promised to build on it. We have net stupid. We also see this through the Sex and Relation Act where this govt choose to brainwash children of tender years that boys can be girls or a cat. Oh, and they do not have to tell parents! Drag queens reading to very young children.
All of this forced through under successive quality acts (nothing equal or fair whatsoever about the legislation) to impose silence and oppressively impose on the nation ensuring no Christian beliefs, on which our society is built, is allowed or entertained. After 14 years Their greatest achievement heralded as gay marriage!
December 31, 2023
John, Mark Mills is one industry systems and materials expert who explains why the energy transition is not possible and we will destroy ourselves if we continue down this road to oblivion.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=q7Gi0vObVSo&si=Ga4S_vs3MA_kB-SE
December 31, 2023
A most interesting video with much fascinating information. Thank you.
December 31, 2023
@DOM – The Conservative Party, its Conservative Campaign HQ Group and this Conservative Government is refusing just as they do with everything else to fight at the next election, most have declared they are leaving so what be standing and most have got other jobs and countries to go to. The suckers are the electorate, the taxpayer they are left with the bill for this ineptitude.
Previously they gained power by saying others would be ‘worse’, but now we have never seen anyone calling themselves a Government prove beyond all doubt no on could be that deliberately and malicious ‘Bad’
December 31, 2023
Personal I believe a Conservative could win the next election as the opposition is in the same league as this crowd. All the real Conservatives have to do is ditch these WEF Socialist, bring in the ‘least experienced’ MP that is a Conservative and they would win hands down.
That’s not going to happen, vanity has got hold of the leadership, so they will fight it instead of admitting it. Anothe5 5 years of purgatory and dept payment is all that is lined up for the UK Taxpayer
December 31, 2023
The only possible way the Tories can get re-elected is by ‘blowing the bloody doors off’ what has been done, and not done over these 13 years.
Mission Impossible in spades!
December 31, 2023
…and thats the problem …..they don’t see the problem
Today on GB News at 13:30hrs Sunak delivering his New Year message saying that ‘Everything is great’
December 31, 2023
But what is the point?
This Government and, although unlikely, a future Sunak/Hunt Conservative Government is not going to adopt any of your fundamentals.
We are governed by a left of centre hegemony that transcends party lines and includes the Civil Service, Quangos, NGOs, Charities and Broadcast media.
Reply Not so. I have made some progress in these 2 lists of spending reductions
December 31, 2023
Reply to reply: Please detail these spending reduction successes and the areas where the deficit is larger than 2019 (so as not to be just moving deficit from one pile to another).
We’re all ears.
December 31, 2023
@Reply But we still have this weak spend, spend doctrine at the helm, pushing the whole Conservative ethos to one side while they comply with thier Masters elsewhere – they are not serving those that voted for them, they are not working for the UK
December 31, 2023
All those valid points but no Government interest! All those faux Tories preparing the new careers.
Bring it on!
Reply The government is working on the issues of low civil service productivity/large numbers and in returns to work
December 31, 2023
Reply to reply; You mean the Government is PRETENDING to work on this. Rather like the boats, nothing will change.
December 31, 2023
They’re working from home, pretending to increase productivity
December 31, 2023
Reply to Reply: Don’t you mean rewarding people for those issues?
This from The Telegraph “The Passport Office boss who was criticised for working from home while she presided over a backlog of 700,000 applications has been given one of the highest awards in the New Year Honours.
Abi Tierney, who partly worked from Leicestershire while the Passport Officeâs headquarters in London struggled to cope, has been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath, the next-highest honour to a damehood.The former director general for passports, visas and immigration at the Home Office was recognised âfor public serviceâ despite thousands of peopleâs holiday plans being ruined by the delays in issuing new passports last year.
Ms Tierney was also responsible for processing asylum applications at a time when the backlog of claims topped 100,000.”
December 31, 2023
Reply to Reply.
Working on it is too slow. It needs Churchillian Action Today.
Too many, cut the numbers by removing all the none jobs.
The rest back in the office or a P45.
A new contract that emphasises that they are servants of the government in power and of the people at large. Put simply they have no political agenda and they answer phone calls from the public, third ring. The former at risk of instant dismisal.
Pension benefits the same as the employed.
No Ks and other baubles
If they do not like it they can always find employment in the private sector.
Problem over, whats next on the list.
December 31, 2023
The Government is working on the issues Sir John? How many years before your Government has the leadership in, directions given, contracts changed, discipline taken, sackings? Same as welfare reform, time limits, sanctions by abusers of the system, boat people deportations?
When is the French Ambassador being taken in and given time limited warning to secure their borders or expect a same day return policy plus civil action to recover our costs from them via the ECHR?
Totally useless Government that needs decades to reflect on their woke failings. English men now second class citizens under non Equality laws. Those enacting them rewarded with gongs. Aviva the Reform revolution.
December 31, 2023
Reply to JR. My stepson is still unemployed 1 year on. Perfectly fit, no interviews, no sanctions just another year sucking on the taxpayer teat. The job centre has no incentive to find people jobs.
December 31, 2023
Ian, is he an only child? Who is also supporting him? I know several men in their 30âs like this, they canât hold jobs down, failed relationships, a child or children they donât support, health issues to up their claims. All the while little top ups from Nana and Mum, odd cash in hand job. Excuses made for them. They think their inheritance will provide for them eventually.
December 31, 2023
Spend it, before Hunt/Sunak or the next wasters grab it!
December 31, 2023
This government has no intension of helping the UK 1.5 million unemployed into work, not while they can import cheap immigrant workers. I hope he finds employment in the new year
Its doesnât compute, this government keeps saying we need more immigrants due to the high vacancy rate âŠbut unemployment is 1.5 million
December 31, 2023
reply to reply ….’working on returning to work, and increasing productivity’? Let it be known that staffing cuts will follow in every department. Sounds like the usual peper tiger threats to me.
December 31, 2023
paper tiger .
December 31, 2023
although I imagine hundreds of thousands look more like Tigger from Winnie the Pooh.
December 31, 2023
@Reply – working on the issue by employing more of the problem, the State is growing, the Quangos are growing, the debt to the taxpayer keeps growing
December 31, 2023
âWorking onâ. So no actual measurable results ?
December 31, 2023
“There are still monies being sent as overseas aid to successful and or well armed countries with nuclear programmes. Why is still true? Why are we still paying money to the EU several years after leaving?”
Look at who’s just been promoted to Foreign Secretary and that might be a clue. Rebuffed by the EU but he still sucks up to them.
Now Sunak wants to pretend that Labour will take on more debt than him. Like a drunk leaving the pub at 7pm calling for last orders. Pathetic.
December 31, 2023
We need a Right of centre Government.
December 31, 2023
A more sensible Conservative leadership would solve those things. The present one is cracked beyond worthwhile repair, overdue for replacement.
December 31, 2023
âIndustries like steel that cannot afford our high energy costs and taxes then need substantial subsidy payments to keep some of the industry.â
The electrification of our steel making has absolutely nothing to do with Net Zero and CO2 emissions. It is the fifth column communists ensuring that we cannot make new steel, as this requires a hydrocarbon fuelled blast furnace, and consequently making us reliant upon coal-fired China for any new steel. The electrified steel furnaces can only re-use existing steel.
The whole CAGW narrative is a scam. There is no global warming caused by increasing levels of CO2 (natural or anthropogenic) because of IR saturation as shown by the work of Professors Happer & Wijngaarden whose calculations on the real atmosphere, including water vapour (omitted in the IPCC models), fit so well with the measured data that they even show correctly that CO2 COOLS rather than warms above Antarctica. Go to the CO2 Coalition website ->Publications->Climate Issues in Depth->Infrared Forcing By Greenhouse Gases to download their paper which has never been refuted by the IPCC simply ignored. The important graph to study is figure 10 on P26.
December 31, 2023
Isnât it interesting that Chapter 8 of the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (ipcc.ch) is called âWater Cycle Changesâ if, as said by OR, âwater vapour is omitted in IPCC modelsâ?
Or is it a case of cognitive dissonance?
Happy New Year, all the same.
December 31, 2023
I agree with every word of your diary today ….maybe starting in the new year, the election year, with the disbandment of net-zero, less intervention and less social-engineering
December 31, 2023
Looking back on the 13 years –
Higher Spending – Higher Taxation – Higher Immigration
Thats your legacy …a pitiful 13 years
December 31, 2023
Further to the post, how about stopping allowing tenders for critical industries to go overseas? Hiring British companies who have workers in Britain and pay taxes to the British government might plug a few leaks…
While the initial costs may be slightly higher, the amount recouped by having income tax paid back to the government instead of benefits going out, corporation tax payments, and the multiplier effect of money being retained within the country etc. more than covers it, not to mention the non-financial benefits of retained skills and security. It seems they didn’t learn the lesson from passports.
December 31, 2023
Why are we still sending UK Taxpayer money to Foreign Governments, to bolster their exchequers, leaving us exposed to the whims of Foreign Politianâs and then calling it energy security?
The UK has the capability and the resources to be energy resilient and secure, yet this Conservative Government fights that. We have the one of the highest if not the highest energy cost compered to all our competitor nations for energy. Everything this Government dictates requires more and more energy, so they take more and more money from the Taxpayer to subsidies its supply at a great cost, and subject to the political whims of people that are looking after themselves, their own electorates, Country and disadvantage to the UK.
I have never know a Political cabal such as this Conservative Government that have found themselves in power and hate the electorate, the UK and its people so much that is will do what ever it can to disadvantage us.
This is not just a spend, spend Conservative party itâs a destroy Conservative party. They have the Corbin aim of first you must destroy to build something in their Socialist image
December 31, 2023
If I am around for much longer I would wish for more Redwood economic approach ; tackling inflation has merit but shrinking the production element has been an enormous mistake . We are very short of good hope and the New Year should herald the sort of change Sir John has been advocating for a long long time . I wish him well in all his efforts .
December 31, 2023
Order your tombstone now ‘I got tired of waiting for the promised tax cuts’.
December 31, 2023
Sir John,
There is of course savings to be made and you have identified some of them and this should of course be pursued.
Working on exports from SMEs in the UK I know we could be selling much more to the Eu, if we did not have the restrictions after Brexit and it is our interest to improve our relations with our friends in the EU.
Talking about interpretations in the withdrawal agreement at this late stage would just be a fundamental mistake and does not help our long term interests
December 31, 2023
Bill, which restrictions by the EU do you specifically want removing? I thought weâd negotiated a free trade agreement and paid through the nose for it, we allow the EU to freely import into the UK without restriction as far as I know or do you know otherwise?
I wonder how much English student loan company is saving not giving all EU students tuition fee loans and maintenance per annum? How much would this be costing us in 2023 on top of all the other grand expenditure weâre making in foreign aid, Ukraine, NHS, propping up overspending and bad investment councils?
I wonder what % of previous EU students are paying back their loans in comparison to their English grad colleagues is there a league table?
December 31, 2023
Who does the UK spend so much on highly speculative technologies for decarbonisation? These can be developed by the private sector or led by other states with more need to decarbonise than us where they are clearly not yet commercial.
And if we are spending this money, who will own the patent and right to earn royalties on the outcome?
December 31, 2023
“Why does the UK have a high tax and subsidy model when it comes to energy? The UK ‘s very high carbon and energy taxes loses us industry here and with it costs us tax revenue.” – John, I totally agree. The Net Zero legislation doesn’t help the environment and is a milstone around our necks, destroying our economy, burdening businesses and families. We should scrap all mandates, subsidies and taxes that don’t create real long term effective & cheap energy in forms that can be obtained and practically used by businesses and families.
We don’t need ULEZ schemes. 20mph nonsense, don’t need heat pump or EV mandates and should be using nuclear, coal, gas and oil to the betterment of people’s lives and the environment.
December 31, 2023
All too often the Government is working on and have plans for but nothing gets done regarding the obvious problems
December 31, 2023
YEP, every few months the plans as they are, get shuffled to the bottom of the intray, in hundreds of offices throughout the land.
December 31, 2023
Decarbonisation.
I sat through another of Nana Akuaâs Climate Change debates on GB News this evening. Sooth Sayer Jim Palmer was on top form and Professor Burgess was his professorial self with facts and graphs.
It struck me that our recent PMs and Starmer are also Sooth Sayers. I cannot remember any of them presenting a factual justification for the pain, which they are putting us through. They all seem to go on their jollies to COP whatever number it is, which is all managed by the left wing UN. There is some form of agreed statement on the next phase of controlling carbon emissions, reached at the end of the conference. The more I think about this, the more I realise it is another way of destroying the economy of the West. China, India, and Indonesia can go on their merry ways building coal powered, power stations. This guarantees that manufacturing will move from the West to these countries.
We are also committed by our politicians at these conferences to pay the poorer countries reparation, because they didnât have the intelligence and engineering know how to start their own Industrial Revolution.
The powers that be return home and say that this is what we will need to do, in order to achieve zero carbon by 2050, without any explanation of why. We need to have Sunak and Hunt stand in front of us on television in order to explain the science behind their decisions.
May I suggest that GB News is the only broadcaster, which is capable of performing the forensic interrogation to unearth the truth. Ideally GB News needs to be supported by
experts in Climatology, such as Professor Burgess, in order fully understand the difference between climatology and meteorology. Whoever is pulling the levers on Climate Change is successfully using meteorology to scare the population. This needs to be stopped immediately.
December 31, 2023
I don’t recall the tory manifesto saying it would cost us trillions for their policy of net-zero at the expense of industry/economy
December 31, 2023
âThe UK âs very high carbon and energy taxes loses us industry here and with it costs us tax revenue.â
Make no mistake, this is a deliberate policy by the fifth column in control of our energy and Net Zero policies to destroy our industry and standard of living â from the CCC to Parliament to DESNZ to Ofgem and even the National Grid.
At the next renewable auction round No. 6 (AR6) fixed offshore wind will be twice the price of CCGT gas without the carbon taxes and floating offshore wind, needed for expansion into deeper waters, five time the price. In addition note that wind cannot exist at all without the less efficient OCGT gas running to cope with the chaotic intermittency of wind whilst being penalised with carbon taxes for providing the electricity as and when necessary to prevent the inevitable rolling blackouts!
The AR4 auction bids were so low that the projects will never be built and the wind industry refused to bid at all at AR5.
December 31, 2023
From the Media
âThe Conservatives are planning to use the Budget to wrongfoot Sir Keir Starmer on borrowing in an attempt to show that, under Labour, Britain would go further into debt.â
That sums up the Conservatives after 13 years, it not how bad the Conservatives are. Itâs not about the Conservative Governments having the highest peace time tax and debt. Its not about actual things the Conservative Government has achieved. Its not about the Conservative Government prolific uncontrolled expenditure and refusal to manage or ensure a return. Is all about whether they can suggest without proof others would be worse than them.
It is a rudderless Government and judging by the Conservative Party Chairmans out pourings rudderless Party of late it is the Conservative Party as a whole that is the problem.
In some ways this Conservative Government is summed up by it taking to Social Media to crow that no one arrived over Christmas due to their actions only to be pulled up by the very same outlet for making false claims. The weather in the channel was that bad it was to dangerous â so not this Conservative Government then but âgodâ
December 31, 2023
booby -trap the economy? Thats about all they are worth.
December 31, 2023
We just don’t have people with the skills to run the country. We give away billions for no return.
December 31, 2023
All depends on whether you want to tackle the more deep rooted causes of over bloated spending; spending on health and social care being a prime example.
All roads lead back to mental health and the anxiety problem (in the Freudian sense). Good mental health directly begets good physical health, and effortlessly produces healthy lifestyle habits and increased productivity. The reverse is also true.
The state of the mental health of the nation is as woeful as the state of mental healthcare services. Woeful! Clueless!
It should be possible to crack the anxiety problem by the development of some technology, but way behind the curve here…
December 31, 2023
As all the comments point out in one way or another, the State is incapable of doing what every housewife does I.e lives within her means.
How will they handle the massive economic shock pending? Namely the end of Bretton Woods II which was built on “inside money” (U.S. dollars) dominating “outside money” (hard money, gold, uranium, oil, etc.).
Seizing Russia’s FX reserve balances in February 2022 marked the beginning of the end of Bretton Woods II.
The internationally illegal precedent of Victoria Nuland and Samantha Power’s actual confiscation of said FX reserves to Ukraine will be the end of the end of Bretton Woods II. âInward investmentâ will vanish and there will be a tsunami of withdrawals and FX dumping of western currencies.
A house in the Cape of Good Hope recently sold for ÂŁ38 million (R750,000,000) – so the wealthy are seeding assets elsewhere already.
December 31, 2023
The Tory party wastes 0.5% of our hard earned cash on foreign aid, mostly as direct subventions. Sending this money to third world countries only enriches its rulers otherwise they wouldn’t be third world countries. Meanwhile, we are still sending aid to China which Sunak has declared the biggest threat to global security, he himself being very concerned about the skirmishes on India’s border with China. Presumably, either the aid to China is protection money or more positively is for investment in factories to produce the windmills and solar panels we need in order to save the planet as we don’t have any manufacturing industries ourselves apart from those for making war materiels to support the Tory party’s inveterate warmongering.
December 31, 2023
We do have manufacturing factories, we are now the 8th largest manufacturer in the World? Perhaps Kemi needs to be explaining to people in the UK how much re-onshoring is going on. We need a lot more, especially of products we find hard to source or that we spend a lot of money importing.
Surging to a remarkable ÂŁ224 billion in output, the UK has advanced from 9th to 8th place in the global manufacturing rankings, solidifying its position as a key player in global manufacturing. Make UK
December 31, 2023
I imagine we make the world’s most:
Road signs.
Traffic cones.
Tarmac paint.
Judges’s wigs.
Cyclist cameras.
Skips.
Portable traffic lights.
January 1, 2024
We import that lot from china
January 1, 2024
31st in the world rankings of manufacturing industry by GDP per capita (US$).
January 2, 2024
Interesting forhurst so we import thousands and thousands to work in the service industries. We donât train people in the jobs we are told weâre short of recruits for.
December 31, 2023
Btw, thanks to John Redwood, I am a bit less of a soft Tory and a bit firmer on that front (or more right-wing if you like!). And I also really enjoy reading him on Transport and Energy and more.
However, I still refuse to go towards the level of right-wingism of people such as Nigel Farage and Donald Trump. For many reasons including how politics is limited in its scope / power (and if you over-focus on politics then you can end up making things worse). The real reason for the ailments in our country are not political but cultural (lack of cultural values – lack of work ethic – lack of self-reliance – depending too much on state instead of family in hard times – lack of masculine and feminine polarity – lack of patriotism etc – and so 80% to 90% of the problems of our country can only be resolved by those in the church, education, the arts and media – promoting Conservative values etc. Then our taxes would plummet and people would become far, far more productive etc and healthier in general sense).
Best to John Redwood for ’24
December 31, 2023
So explain some specifics of what you don’t like about Farage. Forget about vague blame – tell me detail.
January 2, 2024
‘So explain some specifics of what you donât like about Farage. Forget about vague blame â tell me detail’
– OK. So I don’t like, for example:
1) He didn’t suggest a strong leader to lead the UK out of the single market
2) He didn’t suggest a detailed plan for how we should leave the single market
3) He didn’t provide a plan for how we should exit the single market long-term
Farage was all about how evil the EU was and we have to get out. But no detailed plans about how to do that. A bit like someone who comes up with a great business idea but no plan about how to implement that, how to pay for it, and a leader with the ability to implement it.
I’m all for sovereignty and great business ideas – but all of these ideas / emotions have to be governed by logic, practical skills and proper leadership!
Farage has no real proper business experience (he worked in the City, sure – but so what, I know lots of people who work in the City – but they’re not entrepreneurs or real leaders). Farage basically represents all those couch-potatoe critics berating the EU but with no practical advice about how we actually extricate ourselves from the EU as quickly and easily as possible. It’s all talk – no action.
Lastly, I’m as much pro Sovereignty as Farage. But I want to deal with that in a realistic and practical and organised way. Cutting out all the newspaper-headline-grabbing emotional cliches and being more business-like about things.
December 31, 2023
Can you define “Right wingism”? It’s such an ambiguous statement deliberately introduced by the left wing. LOL.
January 3, 2024
But stop focsusing on ‘left-wing!’
True leadership is aware of enemies but doesn’t over-focus on them. Rather a true leader has his own objective vision and tries to achieve that (which is much greater than just defeating the enemy).
Mrs Thatcher big strength was in defeating the enemy: socialism. And good on her. Great on her. But she didn’t have a creative vision beyond this. She was NOT creative. She was not entrepreneurial.
Nigel Farage is like Thatcher in that he is good at identifying a problem. But Farage’s weakness – unlike Thatcher – is that he doesn’t have a practical overview of how to defeat the enemy. He just spots the problem but not how to deal with it in detail. Also, Farrage, like Thatcher, is completely reactionary only. He’s only able to react to a problem rather than having a big, creative, positive overview about how to make Britain great again. It’s all about / essentially about bashing the enemy. It’s like his whole energy derives from anger. Anger is important. But you need far more. You need energy that is positive, creative, world-building etc. Something like that.
December 31, 2023
More than thirteen years of Conservative administrations has resulted in a Nation in decline. Overwhelmed by immigration, porous borders, a broken NHS, serious problems with policing, a bloated rebellious Civil Service, roads peppered with potholes, Local Authorities either in bankruptcy or facing bankruptcy and Blairâs devolution experience a total failure. Brexit is still not done. The BoE has signally failed to control inflation whilst recklessly selling bonds at a loss in the certain knowledge the tax payer will pick up the tab. Net Zero now divides the nation; Milibandâs 2008 CCA virtually unanimously voted through by a Group Thinking Parliament without adequate debate, public consultation or indeed costing. To your eternal credit Sir John you and Peter Lilly voted against. The hopelessly biased CCC feeds Ministers and Parliament policy initiatives with little scrutiny or pushback. Members of the CCC all believe there is a Climate Emergency but many other experienced scientists and engineers do not accept this mantra. Indeed IPCC scientists do not believe there is a climate emergency. The CCCâs principle media cheerleader, the BBC, spews out climate alarmism on a daily even hourly basis. Every weather event, every storm, every transport crisis is blamed on Climate Change. Frankly itâs complete nonsense and millions of working people and their families know this. Flawed energy policy decisions are the fundamental reason why we are caught in a trap of our own making. Betting on wind and solar, failing to fully invest in nuclear and RR SMRâs and failing to use our own natural resources eg gas, oil and coal, with consequential benefits in security and storage is the reason. Wind and solar rely on massive tax payer subsidies, a good gig for big investors but a disaster for those paying high energy bills. In short itâs a mess and without doubt Starmer and Miliband will only make a bad situation worse. Has this administration got the guts and determination to sort these issues out? Iâm not hopeful Sir John. Happy New Year.
December 31, 2023
Public services have gone worse, from dentists to doctors, to getting a replacement passport, to dealing with probate. We are told the immigration service is failing they arenât productive and have got worse since Patel this suggests a department working to bring your policies down. Then we discover quite a number of civil servants are now standing to become Labour MPs.
The only thing you seem to have improved is tax collection! Weâre getting less for more and Labour are planning more wealth taxes, more council taxes, more restrictions on employment contracts, more charges on Business all unremarked upon.
Your government is spending more than ever on the NHS, so to spin that to a negative, the opposition are saying it was all spent on Tory VIP lanes completely unchallenged, it is rubbish these people were all pushing sticks up their noses for 18 months and expecting the free use of those covid tests to be kept (anyone remember the outcry when they were cut, I do).
National Insurance contributions have reduced but that wasnât the tax cuts people expected. They want their personal tax allowance to rise in line with inflation.
They donât want the ridiculous claw back of child benefits if you want middle class working women and professional, intelligent men to have children then give it back to them, otherwise weâll just end up with the claimant class being able to afford children and when they figure out they can claim more benefits with kids with ADHD and Autism we get a lot more of those claims too!
I hear Lifelogic whinging about inheritance tax a couple can pass on ÂŁ1m, Iâd rather you sorted out the personal allowances and claw backs on success. Give your children money today Lifelogic and enjoy watching them advance with it whilst youâre around.
December 31, 2023
All of your questions, SJ, are, I suspect, too valid to be addressed by the current administration in Downing Street. Can you, and your fellow real Conservatives on the back benches, not throw them at the PM/Minister during Question times? Your constituency seats, no doubt, will depend upon them being addressed and resolved satisfactorily.
I believe the country do want to elect a true Conservative Government, but the incumbents are such a poor imitation of one, they are seen as pseudo-socialists and as punishment, the electorate will probably elect the real socialists. Aghhhhh. To make Britain safe and stronger, let’s have a true blue Conservative government again.
December 31, 2023
âWhy does the UK have a high tax and subsidy model when it comes to energy?â
Because the CCA puts achieving Net Zero above all other considerations including the health, prosperity and security of the nation.
The CCA is completely undemocratic putting the control of the country in the hands of the unelected CCC and unelected court judges many of whom have little understanding of the science and engineering necessary to make those judgements.
The CCA needs to be repealed before it destroys us.