One of the most frustrating features of an MP’s life is when you know something is wrong, you highlight it, and you cannot get the necessary changes. When I first discovered years ago that my knowledge of a local post office damaged by allegations of shortfalls was not alone but other MPs had similar cases I thought that it was very unlikely there had been mass outbreak of fraud around the same time as the introduction of new computer system. My concerns were strengthened as those affected had often alerted the Post Office to the accounting troubles which no fraudster would have done, and they did not themselves appear to have the money they were said to have embezzled. I supported James Arbuthnot who led the originally small group of MPs who wanted to help sort this out.
In the end the good work of some of the sub postmasters themselves and important reversals for the Post Office in court led to government instituting a proper review and compensation. Today there may be faster progress as the tv programme has pricked the conscience of the nation and revealed the big scope of the disaster.
The truth is that whilst this is a very bad and current example of poor work and worse treatment of people by a nationalised industry or branch of government, it is not unique. There are too any cases of wrong decisions, bad outcomes, poor treatment of users, businesses and taxpayers. One of the reasons there is a feeling of frustration in large sections of the electorate with many saying they do not like what is on offer from the main parties is this feeling of helplessness exemplified by the sub postmasters against the mighty power of a state determined to get it wrong.
I have been battling against a Bank of England determined to give us high inflation whilst blaming something else.It is now determined to lose taxpayers a fortune by selling bonds at big losses and to drive us into recession. Why?
I have been arguing with an OBR that cannot get its deficit forecasts right and refuses to accept cutting some tax rates can boost growth and revenues. They have this mad idea that we tax cuts are unaffordable but lots of spending increases are unavoidable.
I have been explaining to the vast empire of net zero officials and Ministers that importing LNG gives us more CO 2 than drilling for our own gas, that switching people to electric vehicles before there is sufficient renewable electricity does not help and that heat pumps are far too dear and unsatisfactory to be something most people will want to buy. I have been saying you cannot have a green revolution until consumers think the products that make us greener do genuinely do that, are affordable and are popular.
There are many other examples of wrong theory doing damage to people’s lives and livelihoods. Too many policies lead to more burdens on the small businesses and self employed on whom we rely for so any services. Many of these people now see the state as the enemy, fearing unreasonable conduct by those in authority as they are made to pay more tax, comply with more regulations and sometimes falsely accused of misconduct.
January 13, 2024
Good morning.
We share your frustrations, Sir John. But the difference between you and us is, you have direct access to the ears of those who wield power and we do not. Our only means, excluding our MP’s, is via the ballot box. The mistake of too many in government is that come near the next GE a few tax cuts or scare stories about the opposition being worse will simply be enough to make the electorate vote for a bad government instead. History has shown this rarely works.
Whilst the issue regarding the mistreatment of Postmasters is important, I think it does not quite deserve the level of press it is receiving. So too it seems the attacks on Yemen and the terrorists there. It is almost as if those seeking re-election next year are trying to paint a certain positive image of themselves as strong and decisive ‘leaders’ when in truth, they are nothing of the kind.
Oh and how quickly the news of the various illegals arrive both here and elsewhere have dropped from our newsfeeds. Most convenient đ
January 13, 2024
What Sir John needs is an ITV docu-drama.
January 13, 2024
And until all these things are addressed the voters have no choice but to ditch you.
It’s no good Fishy saying liebour would be worse, we gave you an 80 seat majority and the limp dump faction of the party squandered it.
Fool me once……
January 13, 2024
I don’t think Labour could be worse. The Tories have trashed the country.
January 13, 2024
Mark B,
For me what epitomises why the Tory half of the Uni Party is loathed by the country is when useless Shapps comes out to say how important it is the military is diverse!! Left wing socialist rot.
No, what is important is that it is fit for purpose for its primary role with devastating effect with the best staff to fulfil that role! It is clear women are not capable of being the best in some military roles because they do have the physical attributes. Skin colour has no bearing. Nor religion. But allegiance to our country above any other matters!! Nor should public service pay or be involved in trans costs or any such rot. This is why civil service, military and police were exempt from employment legislation to stop such nonsense. This needs to be reverted back ASAP and get rid of Blaireâs harmful divisive equality rot, which it is not.
JR, if your u elected PM and chancellor cannot or will not remove Bailey then it is clear they are perfectly content with his self harm to our country. As they were when he lost billions to get rid of Truss. What is wrong with your party and what are you going to do about it? Up until now you have failed to persuade your successive cabinets to do anything. Weak, wet left wing socialists intent on copying Blaire for 14 years. Exactly opposite to what the public wants.
January 13, 2024
In Sweden, the world’s most egalitarian country, the country has the highest amount of female versus male nurses in the world and the highest amount of male versus female engineers in the world. Something like that. Point being, when women are 100% free to choose what they want to (instead of pressure from various sectors in society), they choose feminine roles. No sh-t Sherlock: women were born different – but equal – to men.
(And scientific studies now demonstrate that by the age of 27, most women are bored and / or hate their ‘careers’. They’d rather be happily married, creating a nest, and having children).
I’m not gay but there is something really attractive about a proper masculine man in his masculine energy and a proper feminine woman in her feminine energy. Both equal but different. And if men aren’t in their masculine energy and women in their feminine energy, all kinds of deep psychological problems occur that leads to depression, low productivity (cost private companies billions), bad health (body, mind and soul) – costing NHS billions, and so on. Also, it’s just boring to see women in masculine energy and men in feminine energy.
January 14, 2024
Military is about delivering lethal force to the maxim amount of devastating consequences or threat to do so to keep peace. Shapps totally undermined that notion where Iran, Russia and China will be laughing and helping Shapps and co carry on implementing his left wing social engineering nonsense to weaken and render our defences useless. At present no borders, no sovereignty= no nation. A complete idiot unfit for any public office.
January 14, 2024
“(And scientific studies now demonstrate that by the age of 27, most women are bored and / or hate their âcareersâ. Theyâd rather be happily married, creating a nest, and having children). ”
Don’t many men by 27 also hate their ‘career’? Read David Graeber’s 2018 book ‘Bullshit Jobs’. A lot of people went into higher education and ended up in dead-end office jobs. Maybe it wasn’t very sensible to expand university attendance from ~5% to 50% … ??
January 15, 2024
Indeed just look at A level and university choices Physics, Further Maths, Computer Studies circa 80% male. Languages circa 80% female. Interestingly medicine is more than 50% female so they like âengineeringâ on people less so on aircraft, bridges, cars, tanks, computersâŠ
January 15, 2024
@Neil,
‘Donât many men by 27 also hate their âcareerâ?’ Yes and no. I think a lot of great jobs are denied to men because women are doing these jobs (these particular women are better but don’t want to be doing the job but have to for various reasons). However, when it comes to work and in particular jobs to do with engineering, maths, accountancy etc, men are far more resilient than women. It’s to do with the hunter instinct in us. Plus it means a lot to men, psychologically, to be the provider. Essentially, modern scientific insights are just demonstrating that the age-old, traditional model works best!
Men can be relatively happy in boring jobs as long as they focus on strong interests outside work and really focus on their family’s happiness etc. But women can’t. Women are dreaming of creating a homely nest, bringing up children etc.
However, all men must be challenged to work hard, yes, but to try and also do something they enjoy (all the greatest entrepreneurs became the entrepreneurs they became LOVED doing what they were doing!). But if they don’t particularly enjoy their job, it’s not the end of the world either.
‘A lot of people went into higher education and ended up in dead-end office jobs. Maybe it wasnât very sensible to expand university attendance from ~5% to 50% ⊠??’ – I agree completely with you (and Lifelogic who writes about this a lot. This is a SERIOUS issue. Can really affect people profoundly in lots of ways including getting into unnecessary debt).
January 15, 2024
@Lifelogic
‘Indeed just look at A level and university choices Physics, Further Maths, Computer Studies circa 80% male. Languages circa 80% female. Interestingly medicine is more than 50% female so they like âengineeringâ on people less so on aircraft, bridges, cars, tanks, computers⊒
– Hopefully the stupid, daft ‘feminist’ experiment will be called out for what it really is before too long (although my niece at Exeter University, who was challenging me yesterday in a WOKE way, and her posh friends are more WOKE than Labour – even though they all come from posh, Tory families).
January 14, 2024
the Americans are furious that our politicians leaked the air strikes while they were still in the air…
we really do have crap politicians
January 14, 2024
@Hope
I completely agreed / agree with you. I was just adding to your point by making a point about Sweden etc!
I don’t know much about Mr Shapps but he seems to have no real experience outside Parliament to recommend him as a Tory MP – let alone in a senior position of power.
January 14, 2024
I appreciated that. We are in agreement.
January 13, 2024
Mark B,
There is a simple answer to your last paragraph, Weather. Await the armada as soon as the wind drops.
January 13, 2024
++++
Quite. Let us hope enough of the electorate have learned their lesson.
January 13, 2024
But there is nothing the electorate can do. You will get Con-Socialists tax & regulate to death, open door to immigration net zero globalist lunacy or even worse exactly the same agenda but even stronger from Starmer’s Labour.
January 14, 2024
correct, sdp, ukip, and reform should merge and form some kind of alternative, anything but the uniparty
January 13, 2024
+1.
I see that even with the sub postmasters, many of the dodgy convictions (on Horizon evidence) have not been overturned yet. MPs Kevan Jones and Anthony Bridgen, alongside Lord Arbuthnott (all members of the original MP review group into the scandal) are calling on colleagues to support proper compensation to those affected. It’s not over yet.
January 13, 2024
A stitch in time would have saved nine. The nine that followed were also wrong, as were the 81 and more that followed those over 20 years. Post Office employees and users remain stitched up like frozen kippers.
January 13, 2024
Who is the âestablishmentâ, if not the Conservative Party which has governed this country for 35 of the last 53 years?
January 13, 2024
As you say ‘Mark B’ “Our only means, excluding our MPâs, is via the ballot box”
Unfortunately the ballot box only comes around every five years. As for contacting our MP. I’ve tried that via ‘write to them’ He ignores my contact. And he is supposed to be one of the rising stars of Conservatism. Even mentioned as a future leader!
January 13, 2024
Old Albion
Clearly your Mp does not deserve a vote.
I always vote for the prospective MP and their views rather than the Party, but I am fortunate in that JR is my MP, but even so I have to hold my nose occasionally, due to his Party’s seemingly total incompetence.
January 13, 2024
the weather in the Channel is a pretty efficient deterent!
I beg to differ on the effect of the sweeteners handed out like tempting sweets at the playground gates.
Governments have always wanted to look like kind uncles running up to a GE. Why?
It works, clearly hundreds of thousands, if not millions are persuaded to forget years of bad governing, faced with a short-term gift which is usually balanced out by stealth taxing anyway.
January 13, 2024
We have direct access to the ears of power – they are all MPs and people in Richmond, for instance need to form a queue to see Sunak.
January 13, 2024
A new form of street protest!
January 13, 2024
Sir John, why do you imagine the delivery of our Health and Public services are now so, appalling? THEY HAVE ALL BEEN POLITICISED.
Since 1997, Blair, Meddlesome, Campbell, Brown etc all set about doing this by their minority/equality drive, what later became political correctness and then woke everything left wing. Mass immigration and all selection processes within health, public emergency quangos etc adapted to ensure ONLY their lefty candidates could succeed to the top. A self fulfilling prophesy. ALL of the Uni Parties have driven the EDI (Equality, Diversity, Inclusion) and then the ESG (Environment, Social, Governance) agenda’s. They added Sexual legislation (and non Equality laws) to ensure the mandating of LGBT XYZ into the propaganda taught to our children, ensuring parents can’t exclude them from this appalling dogma at very young ages. Big Brother 1984 in action, plus deliberately include mass immigration policy to dilute feelings of nationalism. Everyone who works within or with these organisations KNOWs what’s happening/happened but a climate of fear has deliberately been created to ensure punishment of those who whistle blow or shout the “emperor has no clothes” or don’t apply again (RAF/Police etc other wise known as positive action or actually discrimination against white men).
Britain’s meritocracy disappeared a long time ago from all these organisations who’s focus is not on their services primary function but to ensure that the RIGHT mindset is applied everywhere with an abundance of diversity officers to ensure lefty compliance.
Does that mean that we don’t have good people of all persuasions? Of course not. But there are too many examples over many years where people have been selected on their minority/protected characteristics status than their ability to perform the role or possess the requisite leadership qualities.
Aviva, Post office, Nat West Bank, Met Police are just some recent examples of poor leaders selected to perform roles beyond their ability because they had the “CORRECT” woke mindset, demanded by the Uni Party. This will not change until we elect a party that will support the wishes of the English people. You’ve boiled this and many millions of frogs like me for too long. REFORM!
January 14, 2024
I think the ‘meritocracy’ concept – meaning *equal chances in life, rather than necessarily equal outcomes* – originally came from Lord Young of Dartington (a.k.a. Toby Young’s father). Lord Young also wrote (or co-wrote) the 1945 Labour manifesto.
One might just say it’s a funny old world but I find a lot of it sinister. It’s as if an outside agenda is being pushed, which wasn’t so much the case in 1945, 55 or 65.
January 13, 2024
Not quite …. The crossings recommenced today 13 Jan with an early landing at Dover, the boat having been spotted during the night by French authorities. Possibly another landing by now. GB News were reporting this earlier this morning.
January 13, 2024
Yes, after a weeks of poor conditions it is ‘benign’ out there again.
January 13, 2024
So the question. Where does leaving the state pension debts off the books rank? ÂŁ16 trillion of liabilities Bernie Madoffed away
Reply The state retirement scheme is an annual charge on the accounts just as the cost of running the benefits system is. If you were to capitalise the long term costs of either or both as a liability then you should also capitalise Income Tax and National Insurance as an asset.
January 14, 2024
state pension should be backed by a state wealth fund, real available funds in a real pension fund
January 13, 2024
I am reminded of the comment attributed to Ronald Regan – the most frightening words anyone can hear are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help you. All of Sir John’s examples, and many more, demand that the scope and power of the state be drastically cut back to basics, and the citizenry allowed to live their lives free form the nanny state micromanaging.
January 13, 2024
Indeed.
Things our governments have got wrong recently:- HS2, Blairâs counterproductive wars, one on a blatant lie, the climate change act, net zero, open door low skilled immigration legal and illegal, housing policy, transport policy, lack of fair competition between state and private in health care, education, broadcasting, transport⊠over restrictive planning, the QE currency debasement, Cameronâs Libya bombing, all the EU treaty agreements from Heath onwards, the bloated size of the state, the Millennium Dome, the net harm Covid Lockdowns, the net harm vaccines (about 10,000 times the size of the Post Office scandal), the blood contamination, Hillsborough Post Office and many other coverups, the social security policy that deters people from bothering to work, the failure to frack, drill and mine sufficiently, the failure to build more nuclear, very poor defence procurement, a very poor, slow, second rate and absurdly expensive legal system, the soft loans for largely worthless degrees at least 75% are, the Windsor Accord and betrayal of NI, the US extradition treaty, almost everything Blair did – botched devolution, the supreme court, human rights act, hate laws, the US extradition act, his warsâŠthe woke agenda, recruitment on diversity grounds rather than abilityâŠ
Has Ed Davey resigned yet?
January 13, 2024
Missed off Majorâs ERM fiasco & his moronic letâs join the EURO lunacy, thank goodness that appalling agenda failed.
January 14, 2024
Wasn’t Cameron & Davey the dream team …..maybe
January 13, 2024
We saw the failure of the media, the judiciary, parliament and the Human Rights Act to preserve our freedoms during the Covid hysteria. We experienced living in a police state.
January 13, 2024
Add Article Zero to the Human Rights Act.
Everyone has the right of explicit informed consent.
Solves the problem
January 13, 2024
Sir John,
Your views expressed over time are clearly small ‘c’ conservative. I like to think that you are a closet Reformer, and I pray that you will one day come out, and join the Reform Party. Your expertise, wisdom and experience would be such an asset, not just to that party, but to our country.
Living in hope.
Mary M.
January 13, 2024
No, John should stay with the Conservative Party, as will my vote.
For a start the fact that the Reform Party stands next to no chance of getting anywhere must be a factor at a General Election, albeit not an overriding factor. I generally vote Conservative at local elections even though in my ward the contest is between Labour and the Liberal Democrats with Conservatives now getting a small vote because most local Conservatives unlike me have embraced the Liberal Democrat call to vote for them to stop Labour winning.
The other more significant reason is despite what people on this site claim the Reform Party is not more ‘Conservative’ than the Conservative Party. The Reform Party are very aware they need to win votes from Labour and ex-Labour supporters. They tailor their appeal to stand a chance of getting those votes. When one listens to Reform Party organisers they openly say this. I acknowledge the Reform Party is a right of centre Party and some of their leadership have Conservative instincts but many in the Reform Party are not Conservative minded and their strategy is not Conservative. I admit only a minority of the present parliamentary Conservative Party are properly Conservative (which contrasts badly with the Republican Party in America which is genuinely economically Conservative pretty well right through) but the Conservative Party is where most of the core of activist Conservative believers still are and where the chance of Conservative change still lies.
January 13, 2024
No Geoffrey, Reform is not âconservativeâ thank goodness! The lib lab cons have been corrupted by money being waved under their nose and we must start some time to rid our country of these traitors. We do not want to go in the direction we are being push by our enemies and their lackies in the WEF.
We might ,as you say, fail at the start bur we must start some time and that is know!
We have been given a demonstration of how they would work a corrupt digital currency by their work in the post office. Do you really think the uniparty gang are trustworthy I donât!
We are starting now and will not stop until we win, its a British way, it may take quite some time but we are in it for the duration
January 13, 2024
I agree Reform will be lucky to win a seat and cannot gain any real power. But they do have broadly the right policies. The current Government have and got everything wrong. Tax levels, QE inflation, vast government waste, the net zero insanity, lockdowns, the size of government, immigration levels, borrowing, their hugely anti-growth policiesâŠLabour the same but worse.
January 14, 2024
regardless of who wins elections the vast majority of those making decisions on behalf of the state will remain in place, the unelected officials of the public sector who decide fashions of decisions with no democratic mandate and who will continue doing 99% of what they want regardless of who wins elections.
January 14, 2024
There’s a gulf between the Conservative Party (ie the membership) and the Not-a-Conservative-Parliamentary-Party/Government.
The membership (what’s left of it) is mostly Conservative. MPs and Ministers are mostly Corporatist … like the WEF they serve. What Big Business wants, it gets. The little people pay.
January 13, 2024
Oh no! Redwood is a big âCâ Conservative – itâs the party that has left him as it left Powell. The big C electorate remain staunchly with Redwood, thatâs why the party is up the Swanee.
January 13, 2024
True – the recent decade of new Tory MPs has added to the EU fifth column that was already there. Now proper Conservatives it seems can be counted on a few hands.
January 13, 2024
Sir John – You need to add to your list of Governmental failure over Covid:
1. the authoritarian response to the Scamdemic. They removed our Civil Liberties and Human Rights over a virus they had already downgraded from a High Consequence Infectious Disease because they had more data and knew it had low mortality rates.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19
2. the Government’s blinkered refusal to acknowledge the dreadful level of excess deaths in the UK, which correlate with the roll-out of the experimental gene therapies, and ALL the heavily-jabbed nations are experiencing.
I am certainly one that now believes the State is my enemy.
January 13, 2024
The scandemic was the first big waste of human life and money; the second, seems to be the chase to Net Zero. Both main parties seem to be on this insane trajectory. It is interesting, and disturbing, that both had/have dissenting voices, but those are shouted down by people who have little education in the sciences but see a fast buck when the opportunity arises. If we don’t elect people who are prepared to look, we’re going to be broke in a too short time.
Here is one poacher turned gamekeeper: Dr. Judith Curry, real climate scientists he’s got a fascinating YT video with John Stossel.
PS, Sir J, when the Treasury remits the money for the losses on Gilt sales, what do you think the BoE does with it?
January 13, 2024
@Donna. I absolutely agree.
January 13, 2024
What dreadful level of excess deaths? Any figures? What is your source?
EuroMOMO shows XS deaths in England, Scotland and Wales to be at or below normal levels since mid 2021 up to and including the first week of January 2024 except for a blip in winter 22/23.
The ONS reports that in 2022, there were 577,160 deaths registered in England and Wales, which was a decrease of 1.6% compared with 2021 (586,334 deaths). Age-standardised mortality rates (ASMRs) in England and Wales decreased significantly compared with 2021, by 3.9% for males and 3.0% for females; ASMRs account for the population size and age structure.
Statistica reports: For the week ending December 29, 2023, weekly deaths in England and Wales were below the five-year average, at negative 781 excess deaths. In late 2022, and early 2023, excess deaths were elevated for a number of weeks, with the excess deaths figure for the week ending January 13, 2023 the highest since February 2021. In the middle of April 2020, at the height of the Coronavirus pandemic there were almost 12,000 excess deaths a week recorded in England and Wales. It was not until two months later, in the week ending June 19, 2020, that the number of deaths began to be lower than the five year average for the corresponding week.
There were more deaths in 2020 in more than a century.
In 2020, there were 689,629 deaths in the United Kingdom, making that year the deadliest since 1918, at the height of the Spanish influenza pandemic.
January 13, 2024
The source is the Government and currently there are some 158 deaths more than is normal in the U.K., per day. There are âexcuses as John Redwood states, the Government is trying to blame the shutting down of the NHS – anything other than the Covid Jabs.
But I want to point out that everyone I know; attending âyet another funeralâ or who is desperately ill are all jabbed!
Sir John the definition of unjabbed is somebody who has not had a single Covid jab. The jabbed have had one or more jabs.
If you ask the Govt whether the excess deaths are all jabbed, they will say âthey donât keep that statâ which means they know the answer and absolutely refuse to acknowledge what they have done to decimate the British people.
January 14, 2024
I presume you’ll trust the Office of National Statistics.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending8december2023
“The number of deaths was above the five-year average in private homes (10.5% above, 304 excess deaths) and other settings (9.7% above, 79 excess deaths), and below the five-year average in care homes (2.6% below, 63 fewer deaths) and hospitals (2.1% below, 104 fewer deaths).”
Excess deaths have been registered almost every month since the roll-out of the jabs.
January 13, 2024
+1 the state need to keep law and order and to deter wars – not much more than that. 15% of GDP in taxes is sufficient. Beyond that it becomes an money grabbing, oppressor and tyrant as we can see everywhere.
January 13, 2024
Donna,
Worse JRâs party are perfectly content to give away our sovereignty to the unelected WHO after it showed to be completely incompetent and malevolent towards our country. Exactly the same for EU. JRs party is doing everything it can to thwart Brexit and stop divergence. Perfectly happy to give away N.Ireland to the EU while giving Ukraine another ÂŁ2.5 billion! Of course perhaps they give away our money on behalf of the EU wishes. Also happy to give away our military and foreign policy to EU under the security and defence pact! It is nothing of the sort! Cameron is back to help.
January 13, 2024
Joined forces of H of C, H of L, Judiciary, Police, Mayors, BBC and even ignorant persuasion through social media are the people’s enemy.
January 13, 2024
Yes Donna, you are quite right. I personally know of three people killed by the jab and possibly another. And several injured to varying degrees.
January 13, 2024
I currently know 4 friends in their 70s,jabbed up to their eyeballs, who were very fit and are with strokes or cancer and are about to die. One is French. The others are British.
January 13, 2024
Well said Donna
January 13, 2024
Donna, ++++++
January 13, 2024
There is nothing wrong with the conscience of the nation. I have been appalled throughout by the actions of a bullying, corrupt and unjust establishment. Even now things are taking far too long.
January 14, 2024
but there are many similar cases in other parts of the public sector which have not had the TV exposure or legal funds to take on the infinite resources of the public sector.
January 13, 2024
I believe the main cause of the poor performance of the government and establishment is our first past the post voting system. Labour or Tory – you are as bad as each other. While you crave power – for the status and lifestyle that go with it – the regular spells on the opposition benches are not too bad either. You still get the perks – without having to do the work.
Reply As Horizon shows Lib Dems are worse. 3 Postal Ministers in 5 years allowed many prosecutions of the innocent.
January 13, 2024
Indeed the current Green Crap Con-socialists are dire have been since Thatcher was ditched and even she made huge errors. Libdems, SNP, Plaid and Labour and all even worse. But first past the post means the only way to ditch these appalling inept Con-socialist is to have Labour with even more of the same tax, borrow and waste socialism, net zero lunacy, abysmal government & open door immigration & woke/diversity. A rigged system of voting you cannot vote for who you want to without wasting you vote! Most votes are worthless as X party will in anyway in that area.
January 13, 2024
Most votes are worthless as X party will nearly always win anyway in many areas. We saw this with PR in the EU voting where Farage’s parties came top in two national elections yet cannot win a singe seat at Westminster.
January 13, 2024
Mike, 2000 to 2005 was a coalition government, the sort created by PR, the small parties donât want to take the responsibility for the departments they led either youâve only got to read Davey and Swinson to see that.
If you think about it governments could change every five years, if the people select the same lead government over 15 years then people will change and with more smaller factions fighting it out it would be even worse. The Tories have several factions within it, I think that is doing enough damage, Labour seems to have more control of quietening their factions down in order to get power, it wonât be the same once elected as the unions want their reward.
January 13, 2024
To reply:- true but a total failure of the legal system too. A lack of equality of arms, threats of prison if the innocent did not plead guilty to lessor offences. A system where you can claim ÂŁ30k in a civil case against someone who perhaps has to act for himself without lawyers and then be awarded ÂŁ30k plus legal cost of ÂŁ300k.
The logic of this is that even if his case is good with a 90% chance of winning in a fair court case the defendent is better advised to pay up before any costs are accrued. This is not justice it is surely pure fraud against poorer defendants! What an abysmal legal system we run. Even worse as the wealthy claimant might double up and appeal. Needless to say tax payers will end up with the ÂŁbillions bill.
January 13, 2024
Faulty government cannot reach good merely by being slightly better than Lib Dems being even worse.
January 13, 2024
reply to reply…..Lib Dems in Government actually achieved improved Personal Allowance increase not wanted by the Tory Government! But you and plenty more want it now! What did Lib Dems do/not do that makes them worse? I rarely think you Sir John have made such unfounded remarks. And I am no apologist for that Party.
Reply Do not mislead. Conservatives wanted tax cuts, Lib Dems would only allow increased allowances.
January 13, 2024
You too should not mislead. But the tax RATE cuts would have hardly any effect on the poor, but would be welcomed by the higher earners paying the lower rate on tens of thousands.
January 13, 2024
David Cameron dishing out unimportant portfolios to the Lib Dems so that the Tories could hold on to the important stuff like bombing people who can’t bomb back and creating failed states to flood us with unassimilable aliens. Postmaster General, a job for non-high flyers to ensure continual underperformance.
January 13, 2024
The BBC showed a historic clip of “Bomber” Cameron after the Syria parliamentary vote had produced the wrong result-the look on his face!- and the peevishness that his sense of entitlement(which he has never been able to hide) had been thwarted.
January 13, 2024
What do we do about it? If the combined weight of you and James Arbuthnot, together with MPs such as Andrew Bridgen, take 20+ years to get a manifest injustice corrected (but only in part: too many lives have been totally wrecked), what hope is there for our nation?
January 13, 2024
Indeed and Sunakâs Con-Socialists has even kicked Andrew Bridgen out for telling the truth on the post office and vaccines – a capital crime in politics it seems. They only have about 50 decent MPs amd he kicks this one out. So is Mr Bones girlfriend who was selected to be allowed to stand in the by-election?
January 13, 2024
The main convictions seems to have stopped around 2015, so they did make a difference. Iâm curious if James Arbuthnot involved the CPS to review the cases brought by the Post Office independently. If you think about it, they had MPs discussing it, the heavy toll on court room hours must have triggered queries amongst the judiciary, no-one wants to discuss how it slowed and stopped and they want to pay people off to shut them up and make it all go away.
January 13, 2024
ÂŁ75,000 compensation for some. Meanwhile the postoffice were awarded legal cost in one case over a disputed sum of circa ÂŁ30k of circa four times this sum. So Sunakâs government judges that the damages the people suffered were about the same as 25% of the remuneration for lawyers of bringing a single civil case (over a disputed ÂŁ30k) to the County Court!
Have they got these remotely in proportion?
January 13, 2024
I thought Post Office costs in that particular case was ÂŁ300,000 so 10x the disputed amount. That’s really shows that the English legal system is not fit for purpose. And I heard an ex-Supreme Court judge said the Horizon issue was “unfortunate” no… It’s a disaster for those caught up in it….
January 13, 2024
+1. Unfortunate is rather an understatement. Legal costs should be limited to a small % of the claim amd should be awarded both ways even if you represent yourself. Anything else is clearly not a fair system as anyone who understands basic probability can see almost instantly. But the system is mainly run for lawyers and not users of the system.
January 13, 2024
There is none unless we vote for Reform and revert to a meritocracy of honest people.
January 13, 2024
SJR: If you are saying that MPs can do little or nothing, whereas one TV programme can overturn a huge miscarriage of justice/establishment cover-up/criminal malfeasance (however you wish to describe it), what does that imply for our democracy? Should the media have such power, I wonder. It is good that the programme was made, but alarming that getting justice for postmasters should depend on the decision to broadcast or not made by a TV editor. I also wonder who the people were who for years ignored what you and James Arbuthnot were saying. Ministers? Civil servants? The public money currently being wasted on the useless Covid ‘inquiry’ would be better spent on a full inquiry into what went wrong, and who should have acted sooner, with the PO/Fujitsu scandal.
January 13, 2024
Richard ll, ++++++
January 13, 2024
I would list the NHS, SFO, FCA, FOS, ICO, customs & excise, education authorities as an off the top of my head list of public bodies that I KNOW FOR A FACT are routinely breaking the law and abusing ordinary citizens. Many of them I have had personal run ins with, but they throw overwhelming money into legal teams which any ordinary citizen cannot hope to take on with ordinary resources. Their complaints systems are completely ineffectual and corrupt. The judges believe them at face value.
It all needs to change.
January 13, 2024
I don’t know why you bother SJR. Half the fellow MPs are greencrap supporters who voted against the oil and gas licensing. Sunak rewards the biggest failures of foreign policy by bringing Dave the remainer back. WEF rules the agendas. Extreme leftist wokeys run the schools and universities but nothing is done. And you will be kicked out for opposing all this and more. While you are still able to do something, why not join Reform?
I gather that next year anyone with an income taxed annually will have to buy a computer program like Horizon and make monthly returns. How much more can your party do to annoy voters?
January 13, 2024
The Post Office scandal is symbolic of a serious problem that is killing democracy.
The unelected sector is now so powerful that it takes one of their own â the BBC â to get this issue (hopefully) sorted out.
Power no longer resides in those elected to represent us. Governments can put what they like in a manifesto but the unelected sector will have the final say on what is implemented.
This is a coup.
There needs to be a mass pruning of the civil service and the legal sector and no more public money should be given to charities, Channel 4 and the BBC (yes it did well this time but it has done us tremendous damage over many years).
We also need to pull out of most foreign agreements that override our own democracy.
The only way to do this is (imho) is for the Conservative Party to use itâs time in opposition over the coming years to rid itself of socialists and build a force for true democracy.
If there is any country left after years of Labour rule we can then perhaps start to turn the country back into a democracy.
January 14, 2024
well said, it wont happen though
the only change will be forced by ordinary people being pushed too far and rebelling
January 14, 2024
It was ITV which broadcast the Post Office/Horizon Docu-Drama.
The BBC did nothing.
January 13, 2024
Yes the Post Office got away with their appalling behaviour because someone at some stage in their creation gave them quasi judicial powers that enabled them to act outside the english legal system. So one thing you could usefully do is to establish how many other quango type organisations in the UK can similarly act outside our legal system. There is a question mark against the BBC in this respect, but how many others are there.
The quango is itself a bad concept in which to invest power outside Parliament, ministries and democracy itself. Rather than the proverbial buck stopping in an accountable place, it flies off to obscurity and events arise as a dramatised surprise where all involved shun responsibility.
Though the initial question might be to ask what went wrong in the Post Office, ultimately we should be asking what has gone wrong with our democracy and judicial system.
I would contend that whatever the situation before 1975 and joining the EEC our control of our democracy and judicial system of english law, ie., our sovereignty, has gradually been leached away until the present day. We emerged from Brexit with a rampant civil service, a creative judiciary and an emasculated and largely ineffective Parliament as our ultimate legal authority. Put colourfully we were up the proverbial creek and the EU had stolen the paddle. One thing emerges since 2016, Parliament does not know and largely does not want to know what to do about it, whereas the people increasingly do.
January 13, 2024
Very good points Sir John.
When the state is finally forced to confess to the harms done by lockdown, all the pointless and useless measures that went with it and the thousands of deaths plus hundreds of thousands harmed by dangerous untested gene therapy, it will make the Post Office scandal look like a storm in a tea cup.
We will remember the mantra, “safe and effective”.
January 13, 2024
It seems that the only way to galvanise the government to action is a docudrama on MSM. How do we persuade ITV to do the same for the vax-injured, for the vax-killed, for the colateral damage of ventilators etc, lack of vitamin D3 or NAC and so on? MSM knew about the Post Office nightmares 20 years ago, when you did, but did nothing for 20 years, during which time hundreds more innocent postmasters and postmistresses were wrongly prosecuted. In 20 yearsâ time these mRNA jabs – or the next lot – will have killed or crippled thousands more people unless they are stopped.
January 13, 2024
Your frustrations Sir John, could have been alleviated a little by leaving the party.
No political party should be given undying support either by the electorate, or those within its machinery once it shows itself to be pulling in the opposite direction to its core principles.
When it gains power on promises relating to those principles only to behave as if they are deaf, dumb and blind to them then no one owes them a thing.
January 13, 2024
I agree.
January 13, 2024
John, you mentioned the PO scandal, but did not mention the constant efforts put in by Andrew Bridgen who was one of the key supporters of the Sub-postmasters and was a founding member of the committee in Parliament investigating the wrongdoing of the Post Office management. The MSM ignored him and the ITV drama series starring Toby Jones, erased his work that ultimately yielded the judicial outcome we now see.
Let us put those who did hard work over more than a decade into the public awareness, rather than ignore them because they are tellers of truth to power.
Reply I do not recall him at James’s meetings I went to.
January 13, 2024
Sir John, the ITV follow-up documentary shows clips of the real Arbuthnot standing up, talking to the room.âI was not surprised to see you sitting nearby as I had recently seen your writing here on the topic.âAlso nearby was someone who I thought looked like a younger Andrew Bridgen.âNow I’ve read his recent ConservativeWoman write-up of the Post Office Scandal, I think it’s very likely to be him.
January 14, 2024
Reply to Reply.
Was he ever invited?
January 13, 2024
But why does government seem incapable ?
That is the question that needs an answer, Parliament is stuffed full with genuinely reasonably intelligent people who consistently fail to deliver, are they really clueless in the art of management, can they not add up simple sums, do they have no sense of human nature, do they really think they work efficiently in the best interests of the Nation, are they really proud of what they do for our Nation and its people.
Why is it every policy appears to take forever to get going, and when it does, it appears to be done in the most complicated and expensive manner, that requires a huge amount of complex paperwork and regulation, which few then understand.
Why does government consume such vast sums of money, why is our tax system so complicated that ordinary people, to feel safe from potential prosecution, hire accounts to fill in pages and pages of tax returns.
Government should be a relatively simple task, why do we use and need so many civil servants and other expensive staff, and then allow many of them to work from home, but still pay them a London weighting allowance.
Why do many get gold plated pensions which are worth many times the State pension, which they also receive, when the ordinary people get one of the lowest pensions in Europe, which is now going attract income tax.
Why, why, why ?
January 13, 2024
The Establishment and the elites who dominate our society are riddled with corruption, moral and criminal. It is widespread and that is why it takes years to make any dent in it – many of those who try to get justice are far to ‘gentlemanly’. They dare not stir up serious opposition.
We need immediate change; those who are in it need removal and punishment if we are to get our nation and society back and protect it from other subversives.
Get some guts and show us.
January 13, 2024
The Prangwizard, +++ Well put, too much sneering vilification and deliberate and obvious refusal to mention the name of Andrew Bridgen by the MSM is noted.
The streets are unsafe and voices of reason are cancelled and honesty is punished.
January 13, 2024
Ed Davey refusing to apologise 10 times sums it up. The elites despise us, populism a derogatory word, as much as we despise them. Just go back to Brexit. Cameron called us swivel eyed loons, thought we were so stupid as to believe we would listen to Obama and he got concessions from Merkel.
read the Sunday Times of the day (same arrogant approach now different topic) Lee Anderson âhow dare a working class âyobâ lecture us.
Entitled, know alls. The country genuinely now âhatesâ all of them. A failed Cameron returning, a metaphor for the complete s**t show.
And in other news could your government do any more to make us a laughing stock. Virtue signalling aircraft carriers keep breaking down and cannot afford the sailors or aircraft to make them effective.
How much has the MOD wasted over decades. Cosy revolving door relationships with manufacturers, appalling purchasing and project management. No one ever held accountable, bonuses paid, gongs given out.
Tell us Sir JR how that is allowed to continue.
January 13, 2024
Sounds like you’re in the wrong political party Sir JR.
January 13, 2024
No JR is in the right party, there are hundreds who are in the wrong party though who go about with blue rosettes
January 13, 2024
well if the wrong ones leave who will be left? Central Office seems to have a talent for pushing or agreeing to lame ducks, although I prefer to call them sheep.
January 13, 2024
What we are seeing and have seen are not mistakes, they are deliberate choices of public policy without any regard for function, utility and cost. In short those who control this nation and our affairs COULDN’T GIVE A RAT’S POSTERIOR because they know we cannot remove them nor impose accountability or personal cost upon them. Failure is rewarded because failure has zero consequences except for the end user and they’re powerless anyway
Anyway, that’s my rant of the day and thanks to Mr Redwood for doing his little bit to try and rectify the damage deliberately imposed by those who live in a world without consequence
January 13, 2024
Too many of the institutions of the state and civil servants who control them are, it appears, the enemy of the people. They are determined to frustrate the will of the people as well as protect their own backsides. The opposition to Brexit is a prime example with baleful consequences. They are set on imposing their view of the world on us all and their will in forcing us all to obey. As often as not these views are based on dodgy data which do not stand the test of the serious scrutiny as your examples above demonstrate.
January 13, 2024
Your comment that we see the state now as the enemy is very true. This has been exacerbated due to the speed & breadth of Devolution. As with any project the outcome does not actually match the agreed proposal & implementation. Devolution has not given the decision making process back to the people. It has in theory but not in practice. Because replacing centralised governance with local governance on many levels.
Means huge duplication of process, people & more cost, across the country.
Politicians make decisions then cascade the implementation & costs downwards. Along with accountability of outcomes.
The theory may be very noble but the practice is more totalitarian. As the people delivering the outcomes will range from brilliant through to very poor. Hence why taxpayers money is being haemorrhaged & wasted at every level. So accountability is diluted.
The people are worse off, more confused about who does, what, when & how. Hence trust less & fear more.
Devolution is the problem, it does not work!
January 13, 2024
The government has introduced a law to require 80% of new cars are electric by 2030. Currently the proportion of sales is about 16% and that figure seems to have flat-lined over the past few years.
How much more nudge does the government think is needed to strongarm the population to buy EVs they don’t want?
January 13, 2024
They could totally ban ICE engines in new cars !! watch this space?
January 13, 2024
…and the rich & famous could still import and continue to use a brand new Jaguar, Bentley or RR ….thats the rich loophole
January 14, 2024
why just rich? Couldn’t we import finished ‘second hand’ from Japan, as we’d get cars compatible for UK.
January 14, 2024
No, only the rich elite, as they’re the only ones that have a team of lawyers and accountants to by-pass any paperwork or taxes
Us plebs will have to, ney forced to, buy the cheapest chinese EV available ….and be happy
January 13, 2024
It’s for the very reason that a “mass outbreak of fraud” was incredible that all the excuses by the high-ups will not wash. Yes, they may have been misled by some officials and lied to by others but that does not excuse what is at best extreme indolence or at worst a wilful suspension of their critical faculties in the face of a huge statistical improbability. A tumbril of heads should roll.
January 13, 2024
John, perhaps GB News should look to do an investigatory program like Panorama on the Bond issue acted by coronation street type people who talk the same language that most people do, or would that be too costly? They would need to show the program earlier than 9pm as that seems to miss the audience, a couple of Panorama programs about the Post Office didnât even prick the conscience of the public. They also fed information to the public about the retirement ages rising but people feel they were uniformed so something is going wrong with public broadcasting, because I remember being told pension age equalisation was an EU compliance and would be coming in along with insurance equalisation no more reductions for women who had fewer accidents than men.
January 13, 2024
Knowing full well that “I told you so” will not serve to recoup all the money, time and quality of life taken away from the wronged when the Establishment grudgingly concedes that it wronged them, this is another opportune moment to look at the Draconian sections 74-77 Environment Act 2021, which address âprovision to require the recall of motor vehicles on environmental groundsâ. Cars deemed not to meet relevant standards by reference to noise, heat, vibrations âor any other kind of release of energy or emissionsâ are at risk of forfeiture; the legislation says “recall” rather than “confiscation” even though the state never owned such cars in the first place.
When a hard working but cash strapped family is faced with a state command to hand over the keys to its old but reliable car, some faceless bureaucrat having decided that it falls within a condemned category within the context of meeting The Targets, how is this arbitrary flexing of state muscles ever going to be put right when it is eventually conceded that the confiscation brought no tangible environmental benefits whatsoever?
January 13, 2024
Well said!
But, there is more!
What HMRC are doing, and have done, to contractors is a travesty of justice, if not natural justice alone, it should be a criminal offence what they are allowed to do!
They use spy’s within the company’s (Accountants) to undermine the very foundation of the company, and then claim all sorts of fraud! And, they don’t stop (they don’t need too) until you are moneyless and Homeless, as in my case!
Keep up the good work!
January 13, 2024
Justice seems hard to come by these days, especially when it involves British courts.
January 13, 2024
British justice and fair play eh? Stop laughing you lot!
January 13, 2024
Why? Simple – incompetence and the wrong people in the wrong jobs for the wrong reasons (jobs for the boys, jobs for favours etc. regardless of competence, no ability to sack those in government responsible for poor service, Ministers having no power over their own Civil Servants. The whole lot stinks and needs a radical overhaul.
January 13, 2024
Iâve posted on here that my definition of being right wing is about trusting individuals as a quorum to enable society to evolve. Societal Evolution consists of changing the processes that allows individuals to make small choices. These small choices are based on FIVE systems.
Life – DNA
Markets – Money
Information – Facts
Justice – Behaviour
Politics – Votes
Each of these 5 systems have consumers and suppliers. For example voters and politicians. These 5 systems are kept in control by watchdogs who protect the individuals and regulators who restrict the suppliers.
We can look at history as the evolution of these 5 systems. These 5 systems evolve together. We can shape the future by changing the processes and the watchdogs and regulators. Yet society does not focus on these aspects of society.
My definition of left wing is a top down society where control is centralised and managed. It is easy to design a left wing society but only the decision makers will be happy the rest are either controlled or persuaded to experience dysfunction. From this perspective we can see German national socialists and soviets as left wing because they top down control these 5 aspects of society.
A right wing society can be created by dictate but it is the evolution by individuals that makes it accepted. A right wing society can be destroyed by corrupting processes and regulators.
January 13, 2024
With respect to Johnâs posts. Failures of the post office and OBR are process, regulatory and watchdog failures.
First the systems above were set up so that failure has no feedback. The whole point of right wing systems is they evolve through positive and negative feedback. No such feedback exists. These are both top-down, left-wing set ups that are failing.
The post office were allowed to take legal action independently of the justice system by a commercial organisation. The justice system should either take this action or if they believe they do not have the resources or it is not in the public interest they need to allow a supervised investigation paid for privately but a jury needs to ask if it is in the public interest. Also no watchdog had the power to push back and bring the post office under investigation.
The OBR simply needs to be open to change based on negative feedback. Whether itâs individuals or departments it needs to be able to evolve publicly.
There are many failures in Government but this model can fix them.
January 13, 2024
Any individual or corporation can take legal action. The thing is the courts should be able to divine the truth, which in the case of the Post Office scandal they failed miserably in doing so.
January 13, 2024
Thinking on the absolute disgrace of the Horizon scandal, the comment by Harold Wilson about the “Unacceptable face of Capitalism” summarises the Post Office’s actions.
January 13, 2024
It was Harold Wilson’s government which created ICL by adopting the ICT range of computers as the national champion. ICT computers had 24-bit words divided into four six bit bytes; they were therefore unable to encode
either of the two industry standard eight character coding systems, EBSDIC (IBM) or ASCII (BUNCH). All other computer system word lengths are derived from 2**x for sound hardware and software reasons. I don’t know anything about the Horizon system except that it was designed by ICL before Fujitsu became its major shareholder.
The world of science is a foreign land to the typical Arts graduate politician or civil servant.
January 13, 2024
and I did my share of programming (in binary) using those 6-bit words with an interesting instruction set. Prior to it being named ICT 1101, and frequently grown with upgraded models. The core store for execution was 4k …..imagine that you modern day coders!
January 13, 2024
What puzzles me is that we’ve only heard about Sub Post Offices losing money but were Main Post Offices running on the same system and if so were they subject to similar shortfalls in their accounts?
January 13, 2024
The minister responsible for the Post Office says he wants to see people jailed over the Horizon IT scandal.
Kevin Hollinrake said that people found to be responsible for the scandal “must be held to account” after the official inquiry reaches a verdict. He added that he didn’t think there was a “hope in hell” of the Post Office bringing private prosecutions.
The government has pledged to bring in a new law to “swiftly exonerate and compensate victims” of the scandal.
Speaking on the BBC’s Any Questions show, Mr Hollinrake said: “If it’s individuals, those people can be criminally prosecuted, potentially, and potentially can go to jail.
“I think we’d all like to see that kind of route taken. People must be held to account.” Asked if he wants to see those responsible from the Post Office jailed, he replied: “I absolutely do”, adding that it would be the “ultimate deterrent”.
January 13, 2024
At times it seems similar to WW2 in that the government and establishment figures are masterminding their own war i.e. the fight against the evil enemy (CO2) which entails drastic controls of the population to ensure they comply with what is deemed to be safe conduct. As in WW2, when our country was almost bankrupted whilst the suppliers of military arms became richer, the current “arms” suppliers are countries such as China.
If the BBC is considered part of the establishment then they have a programme on weekday afternoons named Verified Live, but who does the verifying?
January 13, 2024
âEstablishmentâ is a euphemism for communism and your post today, Sir John, is a description of the communist state we have become. The Post Office scandal amply demonstrates how the Establishment , namely the IT and Post Office management, Post Office accountants and auditors, the Ministers of State, senior civil servants and the whole judicial system club together to cover up miscarriages of justice perpetrated on the ordinary people.
Of course we havenât reached the severe excesses of communism witnessed in the last century but weâre on the path. We already have âcancel cultureâ and the Online Harms Bill to curb free speech and the state broadcaster can make the unilateral decision to not allow any discussion on climate change and Net Zero.
Omitted is the deliberate destruction of our culture, social cohesion and nationhood through massive, uncontrolled immigration. Also our wealth through the pursuit of a totally unnecessary transition from cheap, abundant, reliable hydrocarbon fuels to expensive, resource intensive, low energy density, unreliable, chaotically intermittent and insecure renewables. Low CO2 emitting nuclear energy (fission) was not selected despite it being not only half the price of wind energy but also reliable, energy dense and secure.
January 13, 2024
O R, very good comment, thank you
January 13, 2024
John, Very pleased to see you refer to the high-priced help in Government and the public service as the “Establishment” rather than the usual term “Elite”. I would term Elite as the best of the best and I would certainly not include many in the Government and the public service in that category. Please keep up your good work!
January 13, 2024
perhaps it could be termed Cosa Nostra, a more honest explanation.
January 13, 2024
But who is the capo di tutti capi?
January 13, 2024
I was thinking more of ‘establishment’ being ‘our thing’ a collective of friends of friends with favours exchanged. An old boys network.
January 13, 2024
In addition to much big injustice which we know about, every one of us wrestles with the incompetence of the state every day. Computer systems donât work – you follow the instructions closely and donât get to where they claim you will get to. Then you spend days on the phone in a queue to speak to the people employed to fill the holes in the computerised system. Every little thing is a burden – even parking as car as you so clearly described a little while ago.
We are all depressed, we can see no end to this. We donât know how to resolve this peacefully. The Courts and police are a joke – threaten wrongdoers with justice and they laugh at you. Trespassers filmed on one of my roofs, smashing it in broad daylight – gave their names when threatened with the police! When the policewoman turned up she said I should pay for heat another new roof because the parents of these (6 â) children probably could not afford it.
I have a new tenant, she has bought a commercial kitchen and will produce baked goods. Last week she was a Headmistress. One of the âchildrenâ knocked her front teeth out!
(words left out re worries over criminal migrants ed)
It is the elected representatives job to stop the civil service (who run the country) from using the power of the state against the citizen. But MPs canât do that anymore because Governments have trashed our constitution and our justice system and control who can sit in Parliament – at the trough – so that it cannot be repaired.
Iâm afraid itâs clear out time – and not just an election which is now a fraud because we vote but canât change anything.
Dark days ahead.
January 13, 2024
Sir
Whilst I believe much of our Establishment needs to be removed, the difficulty is that Governments are temporary whereas an Establishment is permanent.
Ideally, a strong Government would be able to make swift changes to the Establishment …. and prevent the Establishment going into self-preservation mode. I believe that ideally a strong Government would not involve a coalition and would not involve proportional representation.
… but how do we get a strong but trustworthy Government ?
Maybe we could start by having a leader chosen by the people ?
Second best might be a leader chosen by the Conservative Party members ?
Third best might be something else.
January 13, 2024
The people?The problem is,as Will Schryver,one of the best American geo-political analysts,put it last year:
“The inhabitants of the so-called ‘western democracies’ are the most easily deceived and thoroughly propagandized people in human history.”
Quite!
January 13, 2024
I just want to add that I have never known so many families in existential crisis. So many desperately sick people – dying. I wonder whether others who comment on this blog are experiencing the same crisis? We have the prospect in our immediate circle of 4 children being without a parent in short order. My husband and I are probably going to have to move to Surrey (a sacrifice!) to keep one little boy going in some sort of normality, heâs 8! There are not just the usual stresses of losing people, but these are young people being snatched away, so there are housing and education funding crisis to deal with too. The fact that Boomers are having to rake all their last life energy together to help raise the tiny children who will never be confident fully rounded people because of the trauma experienced in their childhood. So the knock on effects of this jab are massive and we are all carrying burdens we had not dreamed would be demanded of us.
But there is âheadroomâ to bomb a nation 4,000 miles from Britain âin self-defenceâ and this foolish PM states that âPutin will come for us the minute Ukraine is defeatedâ. If that is true he needs to down tools and put the U.K. on a full war footing because Ukraine will implode is if it had had the CV19 jabs!
Why is the PM trying to âscare the pants off usâ? Does he want to kill us all with stress and fear and poverty? Or is he just the fool I believe him to be, with no judgement, no capacity, no intellect? HE SHOULD BE NOWHERE NEAR DOWNING STREET.
January 13, 2024
The only solution is for MPs such as Sir John is revolt . If the top team have not the skills or the knowledge to succeed it will show in their decisions ; this has been happening under Sunak . There is a process for this to happen and the Back Bench determination and will could force change . As it stands the Conservative Party is in a real mess and the country has suffered enormous damage . No one in their right senses wants a Labour Government – their statements and priorities will simply create more dilemma . I urge for action and change now .
January 13, 2024
revolt shouldn’t be restricted to those with an eye on Downing St.
Ultimately thats where it goes.
January 13, 2024
A man called Andrew Bridgen showed that the Government’s own statistics proved in the case of COVID that the cure was worse than the disease and got expelled from the party. This, speaking as a former ward committee chairman for the party, tells me all l need to know about the Conservative Government.
January 13, 2024
R G, ++++ The unworthy expulsion of Andrew Bridgen from the party and the pathetic attempts to airbrush his existence show the stale spent uselessness of the party.
January 13, 2024
Hi sir John
So were where all those MP’S knowing things were right , with podtmasters
Were have they been for the last twenty years, when the MP’S should have been supporting them . No the podtmasters were left to defend themselves
January 13, 2024
What you are describing John is the decades long descent of this country into corporatism, as the left moved right and the Tory party moved left, meeting in that unholy anti democratic alliance which rigs markets to disempower the consumer and political choice to disempower the voter. I warned how the Tory Party was abandonning individuals, communities and enterprise capitalism for State socialist corporatism in the 1991 Bow Group paper Conservatism in Danger. Infected by years within the corporatist EU things have only got worse and the fascist characteristics which always emanate from Corporatism are encapsulated so well in the PO scandal
January 13, 2024
Correct-and an antidote to those who keep wittering on about marxism
January 14, 2024
This is how I see it. State Socialism + Corporatism = Fascism. An unholy alliance and the fools don’t even know it.
January 13, 2024
Perhaps the question should be, “When does the Establishment get it right”? All they do it mess it up for us poor citizens and usually get away with it each time.
Will they suffer on this occasion? I certainly hope so, if nothing else but to stop their rotten and nigh criminal behaviour in a supposed free and democratic society.
January 13, 2024
“When the establishment gets it wrong?”
Perhaps a better question is “Why do the establishment, almost invariably, get nearly everything wrong”. The answer is the interests of the establishment are very different from those of the public. These establishment/state sector/often global interests invariably win out most of the time – paid for by the taxpayers who also suffer the consequences. The establishment want every higher taxes, not to have to do anything much, give powers away to global bodies and to keep wages under cut using open door immigration.
They also seem to want to push net zero hypocrisy. You plebs cannot fly or drive so as to save the fuel for their private jets, helicopters and Aston Martins in the King Charles, Sunak mode.
The only control through voting every five years for the least bad of usually two dire and similar options is so weak as to be virtually meaningless.
January 13, 2024
You can change the Ministers faces but never their deluded socialist policies!
January 13, 2024
Sir John
As much as so many in political life in the UK, like to shrug their shoulders in a ânot meâ attitude towards their management style, they are all complicit. Conservative, Labour and even the Liberal Democrats (why are the allowed to use the word Democrat?) are all complicit in the what has now become the destruction of our Post Office.
They are also complicit in contriving the excuses for why once one conviction was found to be bogus all convictions based on similar evidence should have then been quashed immediately. The evidence doesnât need to be reviewed it was just false and fraudulent. The Courts and the CPS should have done their duty and released and exonerated each and every one of them â the Politicians appear to be blocking the Judiciary on the fly.
We traditionally had a principle that separated the Law Makers, the Legislators from the Judiciary. The new interpretation by Parliament and this Conservative Government, just as they have seen with the EU is that now the Legislators will now seek to reinterpret active case to contrive the answer the Politicians want â that is the slippery slope to purgatory
January 13, 2024
@Ian B
Even the starting base of compensation should be with the Judiciary and should have been paid without question. The only Government involvement should be who they the Government as owners of the Post Office on our behalf gets to help fund the compensate and contribute to the compensation paid out. It should have been paid without question from the get go, reasonable law doesn’t cause the innocent to live in Purgatory while the right political message is contrived.
January 13, 2024
And to compound the difficulties strewn in our way the low calibre councillors of county and district get four years in office to chuck their weight about with bloody ‘wellness’ programmes, ‘greening’ projects and inappropriate rezoning of housing developments all the while encouraging the councils employees to promote such activities.
I do not need or want to be told what is best for me to eat or to take exercise. I need a local authority that maintains public land and parks rather than allow them to become scuffy and unattractive because they are being ‘rewilded’ for the benefit of wildlife. Grass and hedges look and thrive better if cut periodically.
Rant over.
January 13, 2024
Sir John
There is to much time spent by our governments in trying to pass the buck and spinning a story. As with your observations yesterday with regards the OBR. Letâs not lose sight of why it was created by the Conservative Government, the Chancellor of the day was unable or unwilling to manage his department, the Treasury. So invented something to get him of the hook, the glorified sounding Office of Budget Responsibility (the OBR) it failed from the get go – he failed to manage it so it kept failing. Then coming up to date we have the Sunak/Hunt coup with that they acquired the failing OBR among many other things the Conservative refused to manage. Rather than get rid of the OBR or start managing it, Jeremy Hunt decided he would grow his empire and bring in an additional set of economic advisors inform him.
The question is often asked about the increases of the Conservative Government Empire, especially the massive influx of Quango that do nothing other than help Ministers give their redundant friends UK taxpayer money.
Start with the basics if the Treasury wasnât up to scratch, why doesnât the management, the Government do something about it? Rather than keep spending our money on covering their own personal backs?
That thread needs to be asked through the whole of the Government Empire. The Post Office has failed because Government has ârefused to manageâ. The NHS has failed because the Government has ârefused to manageâ The economy is failing because the Government ârefuses to manageâ, expenditure, spending while the Government ârefuses to manageâ has lead to the highest taxes and borrowing seen in 70 year.
January 13, 2024
We are about to see the 80-seat majority the Conservative had vanish, the Conservative Party decimated, for no other reason other than we have a Conservative Government that ârefuses to manageâ. Along with their clueless CCHQ, that thinks manipulating is ‘managing’ How can one group of people be permitted to keep trashing the UK just so they can stroke their person esteem.
Running around the Planet in a âLook-at-Meâ while the Country foes down the pan is not âmanagingâ
January 14, 2024
+1
Brilliant, Ian. Simply brilliant.
January 13, 2024
The establishment has got it wrong over the ‘small-boats’, its started again, 50 economic foreign criminals landed at Dover this morning
January 13, 2024
Revised to 150
January 13, 2024
the rough sea crossing for 27 days has now ended.
January 13, 2024
Oh no …it was Sunak that stopped them ……not the bad winter seas
January 13, 2024
When the Establishment gets it wrong it lies our of fear.
January 13, 2024
O/T : Iâm just finishing a beautiful book that should be compulsory reading for any (concerned) voter whatever their preferred party: âHow Westminster works ⊠and why it doesnâtâ, I.Dunt, April 2023, W&N.
January 13, 2024
In the USA “The EV fiasco has descended into farce. Just ask Hertz
Whether it’s heat pumps or electric cars, the Government’s ambitions are running well ahead of public appetite” reported DT yesterday with $245 million written off. A fleet of 20,000 $40k EVs just 2 years old now worth only $14k because of lack of demand they bet the farm on.
Here Khan’s fleet of EV busses are catching fire mysteriously.
The truth is coming out extremely expensively all too late and a common factor is big government not listening to the common sense of us “common people” Sir John.
January 13, 2024
Forgot to add Hertz are replacing the EVs with ………
20,000 petrol vehicles.
No surprises – what goes up (especially $$$s) must come down as markets decide not government.
January 14, 2024
The Governmentâs ambitions are running well ahead of reality, the laws of physics and economics.
January 13, 2024
It goes far wider and deeper than the issues you have pointed out.
In fact, everyissue you look at, our government system is failing badly. This is not the fault of the government itself, it is the complacency of the civil service.
Why, for example, are our military services so well managed and led, whereas the MOD, staffed by huge numbers of civil servants, is an utter disaster ?
I would say that the state of our military is the most worrying issue of all. We no longer have enough ships to mount a proper defence screen around even one of our carriers, and to send one, or at most two, destroyers to the Red Sea is inherently very dangerous because they cannot defend themselves properly.
For example, HMS Diamond carries only 48 of its principal Sea Viper missiles, so could easily be overwhelmed by the Houthis firing off just a small portion of their inventory of missiles supplied by Iran. The armament of the Type 45 is due to be upgraded from 2024 but HMS DIamond is not yet so equipped. HMS Lancaster, also on its way, has only 32 missiles in its launcher battery.
January 13, 2024
PLEASE please FORGET the CO2 crap and wake up.
January 13, 2024
+many
January 13, 2024
“The truth is that whilst this is a very bad and current example …… it is not unique” – as I discovered yesterday!
A new source of interest income unrecognized by me had been added to my tax record, not added through a financial institution reporting same, nor manually by an HMRC operative, but rather automatically by HMRC’s Fujitsu systems. As the impressively knowledgeable and helpful tax officer with whom I spoke said, “that should not have been possible” for the system, so he explained, can normally only do that when bringing forward a record from a previous year but there was none to bring forward. As I said to the tax officer, this is like the with the sub-postmasters, only strangely adding new amounts rather than making them disappear.
January 13, 2024
‘[The Bank of England] is now determined to lose taxpayers a fortune…âWhy?’
âWhen you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.â â Sherlock Holmes, The Adventure of the Blanched Soldier.
It would be nice to hear you speculating on some possible reasons and their likelihood.
January 13, 2024
‘Many of these people now see the state as the enemy’
But it is the enemy.âEvery time the Government of the day gives something for ‘free’ it has a cost which isn’t publicised and is ignored by the media.âThat is nearly always financial, growing the Government’s debt.âBut it often removes my freedom to chose too, either through regulation or by hitting me in the pocket with tax.âIf I’ve already paid for the Government’s choice then I can’t afford to also pay for mine, or chose not to pay for it at all by going without.
And Governments have had unlimited ‘free’ things to give away as the fiat money tree has grown.âLeaving the gold standard with WWI, Bretton Woods in ’44, and Nixon Shock in ’71.âQE continues the wheeze.âIt has strengthened the enemy in number.âThey’re a blob of Government, Civil Service, quangos, subsidy-farming lobbyists, …âTheir defeat comes in fixing the money.âThe public will seek a better money as they do in other countries where they defy the law to use US dollars at the street’s exchange rate.âBut with all fiat money failing, they’ll seek hard money of limited supply.
January 13, 2024
You make excellent points Sir John, yes there is huge frustration and exasperation from those of us who watch in dismay as our country heads for the buffers. We are badly led and swamped by inefficient expensive officialdom and establishment quangos. That said Iâm very concerned with your paragraph regarding net zero and especially your comment âswitching people to electric vehicles before there is sufficient renewable energyâ? Do you really believe that we need more renewable energy Sir John? Itâs crystal clear that renewable energy eg wind and solar will never provide a stable base load. They are too intermittent and thus unreliable. Just look at the last seven or eight days of UK weather with high pressure dominating and wind barely supplying anywhere near enough energy and solar completely useless. Essentially the âlights of the nationâ have been kept on by CCGTâs and Nuclear. Adding more renewables would make zero difference. Iâd appreciate your clarification on this point please because if this really is your mindset then we are truly sunk? Itâs the âGroupthinkâ in parliament across all parties thatâs got us into this dreadful mess beginning back in 2008 when Milibandâs atrocious Climate Change Act was passed without adequate scrutiny, coatings or public consultation. Professor Gwythian Prins recent article âArchimedes Fulcrumâ explains our energy dilemma and provides solutions. I sent you the article.
Reply I did not say install lots more windfarms!
January 13, 2024
An excellent article which sums up how so many of us feel. We have never had a Government, MPs, Civil Service and House of Lords so out of touch with public opinion in so many areas.
We need the ability to recall MPs who ignore us, at least twice in every 5 year Government. We need the Swiss system of referendums on major decisions like Net Zero.
January 14, 2024
+1
January 13, 2024
Sir Jonathan Michael Thompson, top civil servant who served as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence from September 2012 until April 2016, when he succeeded Dame Lin Homer as Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs âŠ.is now Executive Chair of HS2 Ltd
Thatâs your establishment in a nutshell
January 13, 2024
Just watching him on selection committee parliament channel ……asked why we’re still buying home on routes that will nolonger be used for HS2 ”’its still the law till 2016”
January 13, 2024
SirJ shouldnât you be on one of the financial select committees, or is the establishment holding you back
Reply I set out my views clearly in Parliament and send relevant ones to the Select Committee chair. They do not agree with me, usually taking the establishment OBR/Treasury line
January 13, 2024
Its the country’s loss ….keep doing what you’re doing
January 14, 2024
You should therefore be the Chairman, but the despicable “One Nation” Conservatives would conspire with Labour to keep you out.
It seems impossible for us to escape from the current high tax, high spending, left-of-centre-policy concensus with Labour while the Conservative party is dominated by the “One Nation” group. The only route out would be for Nigel Farage, and all those supporting Reform, to join your party and carry out a Momentum-style revolution to displace them. We would then get back to something like the Thatcherite party you used to be part of.
I used to canvass for your party, but unless I lived in Wokingham, I wouldn’t do so today.
January 13, 2024
Ministers and babies’ nappies should be disposed of regularly and for the same reason.
January 13, 2024
Follow the arguement where it leads. If the State and its quangos get so many things wrong, then shrink the size and role of the State. And why should the State decide what are good causes and tax me to finance them, rather than letting me select my own good causes? When Bill Gates turned philanthropist, he didn’t hand more money to the State. He selected his own good causes.
And why hasn’t the OBR been abolished?
And why hasn’t Andrew Bailey been sacked and Base Rate been reduced to 4%?
Any why is the NHS allowed to employ too many Senior Managers?
And why is the NHS allowed to employ any Equality and Diversity Officers?
And why has the number of Civil Servants increased by 25%?
And why has the number of London Civil Servants increased by 33%?
And why do we still contribute to the IMF?
And why do we give legal aid to unwanted illegal immigrants?
Waste is everywhere. Call yourselves Conservatives? Tosh.
January 13, 2024
The Bank of England seems to be working against this country instead of for it.
Neither the bank nor the Government are taking advantage of our Brexit freedoms and the Government seems to be doing everything it can to lose the next general election.
One would think that they want Labour to win to align us closer to the EU?
January 14, 2024
+ 1 !