This site normally sets out government policy and provides proposals to change or improve it. I run just two articles explaining aspects of Labour policy and some of you complain. Yet at the same time some write in to tell me they will not vote Conservative even if that means a Labour government .They should at least be willing to think about and discuss Labour policy as current polls say Labour can win the election. It is also worth thinking about  how the official opposition would like the government to change things as they can try to get rebel Conservatives to help them.
There is now a substantial and I urge growing gap between Labour and Conservative over the road to net zero. Conservatives now recognise the  need for more gas generated electricity for the time being to keep the lights on. Labour wants to close all those stations by 2030 and depend on renewables. How would they keep the lights on when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine? Conservatives want to get more of our own oil and gas out of the North Sea. Labour want to ban all new oil and gas development at home and import instead. More home energy means more well paid jobs and more tax revenue at home.
The government has said it sees it needs to be realistic about net zero. That means letting people buy petrol cars and gas boilers  for longer. It means waiting until much more nuclear power is available, still a decade away at best.It means taking synthetic fuels and hydrogen more seriously as possible runners. Believing you can get to net zero on power generation by 2030 and rely on more windfarms cannot work.
The government need to amend their lecturing taxing and subsidising in favour of various car and heating systems that are not  as green or as good as some Ministers seem to think.
March 26, 2024
See todayâs Guardian: â floating offshore wind to be a game changer, says Starmerâ. Not so different from the sentiments of one Boris Johnson not so long ago. But you wish for us to reward the Conservatives with another term in office.
March 27, 2024
There is a difference between liebour and the Conservatives in reaching net zero….
There you have it, just a micron of difference as to how you bankrupt the country.
Explain to us about banning cattle farming, shutting down regional airports, rationing flights for the little people.
Come on John give us a detailed plan on the next three stages of penury. Your very quiet on this although the information is widely available on line. And it’s written into law.
Reform is the only sensible answer.
March 27, 2024
Spot on Ian, May built on labours Marxist policy, EU determine environment so the copy cat uni party does not diverge from EU because Sunak has increased inter dependence on a hostile organisation 5ish we voted to depart from by JRs party refuses the public mandate!
JR is being specious, there is cosmetic differences at best ie colour of rosettes.
March 27, 2024
+1 but reform will do well to get more than a handful of MPs and will have zero power.
March 27, 2024
Though a new poll suggests Reform are the second party in the red wall seats and Suankâs Tories are third. To prevent a disastrous Labour landslide Sunak must go now and a Reform seat deal is needed.
March 27, 2024
LL,
You wonât get change unless you vote for it. Totally unscientific to keep banging your against a wall thinking it will not hurt next time!
If you believed both Tory and Labour the public would not have ever voted leave the EU. They lied, coerced and rigged the referendum. They failed so then they wanted a second vote and conspired with each other and EU to overturn vote. Now they conspire not to diverge and act in lock step thinking we will not notice we are getting closer and cannot diverge at all.
LL,
You vote for these treacherous dishonest liars all you want. I will vote Reform.
March 27, 2024
LL :
Any vote for any of the existing Parliamentary parties will be seen by these parties as a vote to continue with mass immigration and net Zero.
And as Einstein said : âDoing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.â
The Conservative Party promised to reduce immigration to the âtens of thousandsâ and then issued 1.2m visas in one single year. So do you believe they will cancel their Net Zero plans?
The voter potential for a new party which wishes to repeal the CCA is enormous. Remember that at the 2019 European Parliament Elections the Brexit Party took 30% of the vote with the second party trailing at 20%.
The election of anti Net Zero MPs is not even required, just the obtaining of a referendum would see the end of Net Zero. Parliament/Ofcom would have to insist that the BBC are no longer allowed to spout their CAGW propaganda without allowing any alternative views such as those of the Nobel prize winning physicist Dr. John Clauser.
That the BBC are allowed to do this anyway, in a country that believes itself to be a democracy, is a national disgrace.
March 27, 2024
To avoid getting to where we are now, action was probably needed in response to Lord Hailsham’s ‘elected dictatorship’ speech of 1976 and many developments since then. Just two were the hung parliament 1974 and calls at the time for PR, also the 2011 referendum on a voting system which was *not* PR.
But I don’t want PR and deals in private rooms. I want choice and competition, not a near-duopoly; and some safeguards to ensure that the discussion on forming a government is in public or else the minutes are released promptly (within days). I feel there are MPs in both the main parties who are opposed to the obvious takeover by global organisations (MPs who are decentralists rather than centralisers).
Even the last but one Bank of England Governor stated in his book that democracy seems to be impossible at a level above that of a nation-state. He also opposes CBDCs.
March 27, 2024
We know LL but one must start somewhere. We have to convince the population we will work to establish all our policies. That will only come from honesty.
March 27, 2024
Come on John ! Havenât you realised that Net Zero is both futile and impossible? UKâs one per cent means futility. Why twitter on about the impossible Decarbonisation of electricity generation when you canât even begin to address road haulage, aviation, shipping, agriculture, construction.? Forget hydrogen DO THE SUMS, Forget batteries. DO THE SUMS. Pitch for an untrammeled Norrh Sea ( the new idea that they should use only âcleanâ electricity makes me angry) and get fracking underway, How many molecules of methane per ten thousand of atmosphere? Come on John, look it up
Reply Do try reading what I write! I have not been urging us on the current road to Net Zero for lots of good reasons
March 27, 2024
JR,
But you previously blogged it was the accepted view! Sensible people with a degree of understanding would not support it or the fools in govt. who promote and enact such utterly stupid policies. Yet you keep putting party before nation. Over the last few weeks trying to fool us Labour is somehow different!
You know it was Miliband, the one Cameron Labelled Red ED, that introduced the Climate Act rot, Cameron labelled it Marxist. Treacherous May stated in parliament she would build on it. Why are you trying to say there is a difference? Using the words from your leaders, Your party implemented and built on a Marxist energy policy!
What next we should all get behind huskies like Cameron promoted?
March 26, 2024
Net Zero has been comprehensively shown up for what it is, to control us and impoverish us and here you are actively promoting it âŠâŠ.
We donât stand a chance of succeeding as a country and will be condemned to importing everything from China and the Far East
March 27, 2024
Agreed!
March 27, 2024
Indeed the mad Starmer on about vast âinvestmentâ in floating wind farms today. Where will all the steel etc. come from? And the vast subsidies they need back up needed come from. Just ditch net zero drill, frack & mine please short term and put the money saved into R&D for better nuclear and fusion for the long term. Fine to have so called ârenewablesâ (they are not renewable) when they work without subsidies or market rigging but they so rarely ever do.
March 26, 2024
Fair enough Sir John but can you promise the Conservative will not revert to the full net zero mantra post election?
You party has swallowed the cool aid and the verbal stance that it is taking now is not consistent with its long term actions.
March 27, 2024
They are still on full net zero mantra other than a tiny touch on the brakes. If they get back in power (circa 1% chance) they will accelerate with their foot to the floor just like the mad Starmer will.
March 27, 2024
Why would anyone trust a âfutureâ promise from âfive pledgesâ stop the boats Sunak. He even lies that he has already cut taxes (they are still rising) and the Covid Vaccines were âunequivocallyâ safe, things in the past that we all know and can prove are totally untrue. This just by looking at the facts and the stats. He obviously either has not looked or is blatantly lying?
March 26, 2024
We have see nothing from Sunak’s Government on the insane Net Zero lunacy other than a pathetic tiny touch on the brakes. He is still heading over the cliff. The whole agenda is insane, impractical, vastly expensive, gives zero benefits… indeed it is totally impossible to actually realise. If you really want renewables then you must have gas and coal as backup.
The laws of physics will not change for our idiotic MPs with their law and PPE degrees. Yes Labour are slightly worse but only slightly.
March 27, 2024
Welcome to Starmerâs Britain, where class hatred will ruin our private schools
Thereâs no suggestion of adding VAT to university fees as well, but then that wouldnât give Labour the satisfaction of smiting the rich
ALLISON PEARSON in the Telegraph today.
A policy supported by Gove too. It will raise no net funds either.
Labour portrays it as an unfair tax break. Actually private school users will then pay four times over. Taxes for other childrenâs state schools, more taxes on what then need to earn to pay the fees, the fees then 20% VAT on top. Nearly all schools should be private with vouchers givens to children to use and top up as they wish.
March 27, 2024
The fair competition authorities never look at unfair competition from the state sector – this in healthcare, schools, transport, housing, the BBCâŠ
March 27, 2024
But the Tories keep copying their policies and shift ever left.
March 27, 2024
LL,
Cameron called his own supporters and members Turnip Taliban and swivelled eyed loons! Who would vote for a person like him?
A posh boy who does not know the price of milk, wrong in every decision he takes ie Marxist energy policy, rigged EU referendum lying to the public he would send letter on our wishes, that he got a good deal from EU when he did not, allowed EU children to have child benefit who never set foot here but stops his own citizens here!! Claimed he was the heir to Blaire, invaded Libya for regime change, now giving Libya ÂŁ1 million of our taxes to stop Immigration that he started by making it a failed state! Made overseas aide a percentage of GDP! Allowed Trecherous May to destroy the police service. His self declared greatest achievement Gay marriage which he did not have a public mandate or queens speech. Stopped party membership from selecting conservatives having a choice of three left wing socialist pro EU lemmings.
Cameron makes Starmer look decent.
March 27, 2024
LL,
You do realise that Tory policy was to allow free university tuition to EU students at some of our best universities while giving English students a life time of debt. That is also taking places our own British students could have taken? Willetts fully aware.
March 26, 2024
“The government has said it sees it needs to be realistic about net zero” well little sign of this realistic mean scrap the net zero lunacy completely!
March 27, 2024
Agreed!
March 26, 2024
Sir John, while you contyto advance Net Zero all be it while suggesting a five year delay to when ICE vehicles will be banned.
The whole Climate Alarm movement that brought the Net Z policy into being Is a complete nons Ed nose and an example of mass hysteria.
The only way the Tory party can regain any cred is to state clearly the Net Zero policy is abandoned and realism will once again be adopted by the Conservatives.
March 27, 2024
Cameron called Labour energy policy Marxist, he called Miliband Red Ed. May stated she would not only implement but build on it!!
Treacherous May did not put her uncosted treacherous nut stupid to a vote, you all allowed it!!
Sunak stated he would frack if elected leader! He stopped it, added more wind fall taxes and then extended the wind fall taxes!
Australia sales ÂŁ30 billion of coal each year, China buys most of it and has mining companies in Australia.
Australia sales enormous amounts of iron ore, guess who to? UK buys goods from hostile,China who buys its goods from Coal fired power stations!
UK has 300 years of coal under our feet. Ofgem now wants to cost vary cost of electric during different times of the day ie rationing by another name!
Your party has wrecked our economy, manufacturing, way of life, culture. It has no regard for national security in Food, farming, borders, manufacturing, energy, steel, ship building, etc etc.
JR what are doing even mentioning Labour? Your party has shifted left to copy them not the other way around! Cameron betrayed the country over Brexit, he ran away. His biggest achievement gay marriage which he never had any mandate from the public or raised in Queens speech. Treacherous May betrayed the country over Brexit, her biggest achievement she wrecked future economy over net stupid, destroyed the police and lost over 250,000 illegal migrants to her system! Johnson got 85 seat majority to get Brexit done, he resoundingly failed and was dumped in case he changed his mind. Sunak was rejected by Tory members as was Hint. Their job to betray Brexit by preventing diverging, acting in lockstep so it could not be reversed like energy dependence on EU and linked fishing to energy so we cannot get back our fishing waters, border down Irish Sea and checks on goods from one part of our country to another, instead of scrapping 4,000 EU laws he just implemented more into do service legislation! His greatest achievements, wrecked the economy, betraying the nation over Brexit and banned smoking!
March 27, 2024
+1
Wrecked the country ….. and now they’ve wrecked their own Party.
March 27, 2024
nons Ed nose I think spell check improved your prose there Rod
March 27, 2024
âThe only way the Tory party can regain any credibility is to state clearly the Net Zero policy is abandoned and realism will once again be adopted by the Conservatives.â
Indeed it is bogus science and economic lunacy. But even then who would trust them when all but a tiny handful supported Mayâs moronic net zero and Milibandâs evil Climate Change Act (not JR).
March 26, 2024
The reality of government energy policy in a realisable form is that it does not exist.
For sure it allows users of energy to pay some of the highest prices in the World and it is quite deliberate and I suspect it is as it is to appease the EU.
The scribes are out to destroy Rolls Royce’s SMRs. By putting the whole idea out to tender.
Beyond that there is nothjng positive you can say about government energy policy. It is too little to late.
March 27, 2024
Under the Brexit Betrayal, we’re not allowed to compete with the EU. The Net Zero Tyranny will only stop if the Germans say it must in order to save their heavy manufacturing.
March 26, 2024
Allowing Labour in would be a major decision full of risks, but each voter has to assess all issues to reach nearest to the outcomes they seek. Voting Conservative would be tantamount to demonstrating support for all that has gone so badly wrong, mainly with the current PM leading into ways they intensely dislike.
Some previously-lifelong Conservative voters claim, after the way they have been treated, theyâll never vote Conservative again. Perhaps they overstate, but a quality leader will be an essential to clinging on to their loyalty.
Dump the current one, or everyone loses. Doing it now is better than waiting for the verdict of millions of stubby black pencils crossing him out in disgust.
March 27, 2024
Agreed. Keeping as leader someone who couldn’t even win a contest against Liz Truss is pretty much a death-wish for the next election.
March 27, 2024
As soon as Ms Von Der Leyen said “…dear Rishi…” I knew we were being shafted, and Mr Sunak is not working for this Nation.
Nothing he’s done since has changed my mind, rather confirmed my first impression.
March 27, 2024
Agreed
March 27, 2024
It sure is, a stuffed teddybear with a T shirt saying just saying:-
âScrap Net Zero,
Cut taxes,
Immigration less than 50k PAâ
Teddy would win hands down over the serial liar (we have cut taxes and the Vaccines unequivocally safe, we will create green jobs) deluded out of touch head boy Sunak.
March 26, 2024
You have the same energy & net-zero policy, but a couple of your headline policies are delayed ….still the same outcome
March 26, 2024
“There is now a substantial and I urge growing gap between Labour and Conservative over the road to net zero”
Indeed, the gap is as wide as the distance between Labour at 44% and the Conservatives at 27% in the recent opinium polls. Is this a coincidence?
March 27, 2024
Nice pivot SG but the gap has narrowed since Conservatives started paying lip service tot he folly of net zero
March 27, 2024
One thing for sure is that the insane net zero policies for both Tories and Labour are hugely unpopular. Labour are popular mainly as the Tories have held power for 13 years and have got everything wrong largely cheered on by Starmer and Labour. A botched hugely delayed Brexit, the pointless net harm lockdowns, the net harm vaccines (even for children), tax levels, vast government waste, a dire NHS, mad energy policies, open door uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration, Sunakâsbroken pledges, Sunak and BoE QE currency debasement/inflationâŠ
March 27, 2024
If you think the general population supports Net Zero and that is why Labour are ahead in the polls, then I think you are very wide of the mark SG. It seems inevitable now that Labour will form the next government but I suspect that the honeymoon period will be extremely short.
March 27, 2024
They might be in favour of it in abstract, but when they are told of the vast costs however! Just as they might be in favour of a brand new EV car but when told it will cost them ÂŁ50k and only last about 8years before it needs a new ÂŁ20k battery or is written of they are not so keen!
March 27, 2024
With an EV, a 2 hour journey in a petrol car would take 4 hours because of all the re-charging stops.
March 27, 2024
+1
March 26, 2024
My goodness crowing about your energy policy when output is at its lowest through a refusal to authorise more production and then stifling through taxation, nuclear is in tatters, even so called green Drax is a lie, bills with a green subsidy tax etc. 40% odd of our needs met from abroad. so much for national security.
Pushing on us expensive technology, cars/heat pumps that hardly work.
The latest result. Surge pricing because capacity limited, your fault. Letâs talk about how your failures will cost families with kids who all need to do the cooking and bathing at the same time.
You seem to be claiming some sort of political advantage when we all know it has been forced on you because you are so weak. Does anyone believe that in the unlikely event you win, you would keep your word?
Your hubristic approach on this topic merely reminds us of your failures.
March 27, 2024
+1
March 27, 2024
Vote Conservative, nearly all out policies are 180 degrees wrong and have failed for 13 years but Labour had and has the same mad policies but with bells on. Plus they will destroy many good private schools out of spite and their evil politics of envy.
Not a great way to win support for the next election is it?
March 26, 2024
“There is now a substantial and I urge growing gap between Labour and Conservative over the road to net zero.”
It’s the road which is wrong; the speed is irrelevant (rather like the speed when we were in the EU because it leads to the same place). The Not-a Conservative-Party needs to get off the Net Zero road, not slow down the speed it is travelling along it.
Iâm not voting for any Party which intends to reduce my standard of living; to take away my right to buy whatever kind of vehicle or heating system I want; to make me poorer, colder, less mobile with a restricted diet. And I certainly don’t want to pay for their Net Zero Fantasy via increased standing charges on my already ramped-up energy bills.
It’s a scam.
March 27, 2024
+1
March 27, 2024
+1
Absolutely right Donna. Reform UK only party to ditch nut zero rubbish.
March 27, 2024
@ Donna
Very well said!
We are being pushed back to pre-industrial times! It’s been stated quite clearly by the various organisations implementing it, that is the destination!
March 27, 2024
Donna, you’re reflecting the views of the many ….this tory government hasn’t just lost the plot; its lost the tory voter
March 27, 2024
Well said Donna, a lot of people agree with you, me being one!
March 26, 2024
“Yet at the same time some write in to tell me they will not vote Conservative even if that means a Labour government”
I think of this as a fight for the country’s future. Creative destruction. We need to get rid of the present Conservative party at practically any short term cost. Cameron and Sunak should no more be anywhere near power than Starmer and Lammy. They no more speak for me than does Labour. So why should I support either? Safe to say if red wall voters choose Labour in this GE, they’ll be back in 2030 or sooner when the choice is no longer just between two socialist parties.
March 27, 2024
I’m prepared to beleive that Rishi Sunak is a decent enough guy and also competant – whereas Boris was an amusing but completely incompetant as PM. But what Rishi really believes (or wants) doesn’t really matter because he’s battling the legacy of Boris, May and Cameron (who now has his fingers back in the pie) – not to mention the men “in Grey Suits” (who pay the bills presumably) and of course the ‘Blob’.
I do feel so sorry for those conservative MPs (like Sir John) who are sensible and decent people that want to remain loyal to their Party but have been so badly let down by these closet Liberals. People would vote for the Conservative Party if they had seen conservative policies enacted – but they haven’t and they feel betrayed.
Rishi can’t change that now…
March 27, 2024
‘decent enough guy and also competant’ – – but like Johnson completely out of his depth to run a Cabinet and the Country. We knew Johnson was brainwashed under Covid, but Sunak is in thrall, or severely arm twisted by the ‘forces’ of WEF.
March 27, 2024
It won’t be a ‘short-term cost’ though, will it?
March 27, 2024
Spot on !
And believe it or not, this was just the conversation that was had on Dr. Richard North’s site back in 2012 / 13. He knew the Tories could not deliver a true BREXIT and that both they and Labour would immolate themselves eventually.
March 26, 2024
The Problem Sir John is that the Government and the uncontrollable Civil Service, all NGO’s and local Government do not follow any of your advice. Your Political views no longer represent the Conservative Party. I think most People feel that the majority view is not reflected in any current political organisation in power, and indeed in those organisations and associations behind Parliament that actually pull the strings.
The California cross roads project is the prime example of broken Britain were the wishes of the people count for nothing and spending millions to look Green, never mind the cost impact on local travel, and business, and more CO2 as a result, not to mention a bigger traffic jam when finished. We are spending Billions on supporting wars, illegal immigrants, etc. etc. just so that Politicians can look big. How much concern do they really have for the ordinary citizen and what’s best for them. Just all talk no action apart from supplying weapons to keep wars going resulting in thousands and thousands of deaths and untold destruction. We supply rockets to bomb Moscow. But have no Army, Navy or Air force to speak of to defend us if Putin decides to send one back to the IOW as an example. Politicians of all Parties now appear to have no common sense whatsoever. Rubbish that they say we are not at war with Russia, and for what? Dearer Gas ? No problem we can spend four times as much buying it from our “friends”
They most certainly do not consider the impact on the ordinary citizens of their loud talk and spending our money on everything but the tax Payer. All just a big talking shop wasting our money and putting us ever closer to WW3 or the collapse of our society/infrastructure due to overpopulation, what ever comes first. Most likely before we achieve Net Zero though- Net nothing – just madness and fake news on all sides just to get our hard earned tax money.
March 26, 2024
I suggest the easiest way to judge the difference on policy between government and opposition is to listen to the words of Miliband. His fervent belief that their green policies will come to fruition by 2030 is sheer folly. Lack of manpower, of material, planning, et al will thwart his ideology.
March 27, 2024
The laws of Physics will thwart the ideology. But only after they have wasted ÂŁtrillions on this mad religion. Mayâs moronic Net Zero lunacy is largely to blame.
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
Richard P. Feynman
March 26, 2024
I for one am hoping that the whole Net Zero bubble will burst soon. Those who say they are convinced that the “Science Is Settled” need to enter into a proper debate about climate science and respond to this version of “The Science” and note that these people say science can never be settled. I have zero knowledge of climate science but something is very wrong when eminent scientists are cancelled for holding views which oppose climate alarmism.
Search for “Climate The Movie”.
All is not as it seems.
March 27, 2024
Hugh C +1
March 27, 2024
Indeed they said the Covid Vaccine were safe and even pushed them into children and people who had had Covid already with disastrous results. See also the death of science book Prof. Angus Dalgleish et al.
March 27, 2024
The EV car market is already slowly unraveling.
March 26, 2024
Gap? What gap?
The gap could disappear, after the GE!
How about some real Conservative policy’s?
Reform of Self Employment, if not IR35?
Offering reform the Supply-side and Deregulation? We are British, after all!
Does Wales get access to Recovery Loans, or any support for the Self Employed? We are better off Paying Taxes, after all! Better then sleeping Rough!
Or, Reform of Devolution, make a real difference to Peoples life’s!
What about acting in the British Interest! Support for British made Primary Steel making, keeping the high paid jobs, instead of State dependency? Paying Taxes! Reducing the dependency on Imported Energy, Steel, or even, Labour?
Or, any hope, and Opportunity, for all the British People!
Savings? Deposits and Mortgages? Incomes above the Cost to Live? Self Determination?
Waiting is not going to be an option! There is a question of Trust!
We know you believe! But, do Sunak, Hunt, and the other One Nation Tory’s?
It’s long been time for a change!
March 27, 2024
What reform to self-employment do you think Labour are planning? They say they are going to be radical, what do you think that means? A single status of worker, no rehiring fired people, no flexible zero hours contracts, ending bogus self-employment (I think that means where people are only working for one or two linked providers of work), an end to the ‘gig’ economy and no more insecure work from the first term.
Starmer has said he will ‘level up workers’rights in a way that has not been attempted for decades. Level them up with whom? The public sector and their defined contribution pensions and 35 days minimum holidays, don’t you think we should know what is planned in that first term? They say they want to be radical in ways that don’t cost the taxpayer. Does that mean SMEs are going to be paying all their bills? What will this mean more umbrella companies employing three people to keep their self-employed status but protect their large company provider from charges of ‘worker status’?
March 26, 2024
This is not much of a choice is it? One party doing the Cresta Run to socioeconomic oblivion at full speed on a skeleton sled, whilst the
other prefers to offer the ride on a pony and trap.
March 26, 2024
You are unhappy that voters, previous supporters, have told you they accept Labour as the next Government.
Well thats a bit rich, your Tories have been disastrous for most of their 14 year rule. More than enough years to demonstrate what you kept saying you stood for. We have had enough and know that more of the same will continue without destruction of how your MPs are selected and the ruling ones put into positions of power to dictate policy – by actions not weak lies or pretence. Nobody to blame but yourselves. Tough.
March 27, 2024
Two Ministers have resigned with immediate effect and are standing down at the next election. Since that’s only 6 months away, why resign now? It’s probably so that the ticking clock between them leaving the Government and being able to accept a highly lucrative position in an organisation related to their Ministerial experience starts immediately.
And then there are the other 60 or so Not-Conservative MPs who are chucking in the towel. They too appear to have accepted Labour will be the next Government …. mainly thanks to their own treachery or utter uselessness.
March 27, 2024
I disagree, Mickey; even with a weak leader (May), if they were so disastrous, they still had enough voters to form a coalition with the DUP, even after she laid out her disastrous policies in a ‘calamitous campaign’ revealed by Ashcroft polling she won, even though she declined interviews. Her biggest single mistake was seen as ‘the social care fiasco’. The Tories knew in 2017 that the biggest reason they got those seats was Brexit, and she flunked it, but just two years later, Boris won with a massive majority and blew it. There is no appetite for Labour; someone is pulling a blinder. Willetts has said the Tories can only afford the triple lock by putting the retirement up to 68 sooner than planned by Blair and Osborne. This generational warfare is working, but the lousy feeling being created will be irreversible and damaging.
Our council changed from years of Tory rule to Labour; the most significant changes are the contractors they changed and the reduced local services for regular people, the street care team seems to have been disbanded altogether, curb cleaning gone, grass cutting intermittent, wilding everywhere which means just an unsightly mess most of the summer, builders allowed to leave new build estates in a mess, unfinished roads, lack of street lights, dirt just left at the entrances, our nice walking space is now filled with rubbish, and they sent up a large oversized tractor that dug up the lane and left craters, more potholes left everything blamed on not getting enough extra money from central government. It’s going to be very interesting.
March 26, 2024
Sir John
I mean this with the utmost respect, there is no Conservative Government and given the party appears to have been hijacked by a crowd that have a pure Socialist doctrine of high uncontrolled spending and high taxation at its core – what are Conservatives to do. Then add in the 14 years of manifestos and promises just broken and renaged on, there is nothing to fear just hope that a real government that puts the UK first. A government that finds duty and service more appealing than personal self-gratification.
CCHQ and now the Conservative Party themselves have desserted the UK’s middle ground, the UK’s Conservatives, so removing the frauds by the nuclear option has been forced on us
March 26, 2024
Sir John – you say the Government sees the need, the basic need for electricity security and resilience was know those 14 years ago – nothing has been done, it was all talk then and it has been proven to be once more. It was common knowledge that the experimental French State owned Nuclear power was just that an experimental costly dream that has yet to work anywhere in the world. There was never any flaw with introducing known technologies, Westinghouse a Company previously owned by the UK Government gets things to work at less cost.
The Windfarm dream that means pumping UK Taxpayer money into Chinese production, then paying foreign State owned enterprises falls well short of UK self-reliance and security. It relies on the political whims of foreign powers. The UK has its own technology base and expertise that is not showered with the same amount of taxpayer money, that now struggles as this Government prefers to shower uncontrollably our Taxpayer money on others.
March 27, 2024
I didn’t detect any opposition to the main thrust of the recent Energy Act that makes OFGEM the Net Zero delivery body, expected to deliver by 2050. All the green bureaucrats and all the net zero politicians in all the mainstream parties seemed to be in agreement on that.
It seems that those elements of the public who begin to understand the implications are starting to get angry. Whether it be the farmers and their tractors in Westminster, or the overwhelming tone of response to these blogs, it is clear that whitewash will no longer work.
March 27, 2024
Good morning.
Sir John,
It does not matter about the pace or the route taken, the destination is the same – ie Off an edge of an economic and social cliff. Changing the driver from Tory to Socialist does not change the destination, and that is the point.
The political parties of this nation seem to think that they are there to save the planet. They are not ! And even if they are, it is a global problem requiring a global solution so, destroying our economy whilst India and China build literally thousands of coal fired power stations is not going to help save the planet. All we ask is that this is recognised and abandon completely this ‘Nut Zero’ nonsense. Concentrate on the real environment and stop building loads of houses on green and pleasant land.
March 27, 2024
Steve Rosenberg (BBC) complained in Russia that there was âno serious challengerâ for the post of President in the recent election.
Wish we had a serious candidate for British PM! Just one would do!
PS documents published today show Tony Blair in 1999 personally calling for the overthrow of Milsovic, the replacement of NATO with âa coalition of the willingâ and writing off the killing of civilians as âworth it. Now Serbia is under threat again. They say they will fight!
The peace and prosperity under the Globalist Rules is just never ending,
March 27, 2024
“Steve Rosenberg (BBC) complained in Russia that there was âno serious challengerâ for the post of President in the recent election.”
It’s not been proved, but it has been claimed that the only viable opponent to Putin was ‘removed’!
“The peace and prosperity under the Globalist Rules is just never ending,”
A couple of authors, writing on the Brownstone Institution are very concerned that this WHO pandemic preparedness treaty amendments are deeply disturbing. They both think, ( including our government in response to a petition) that despite the protestations, reading through the details, this treaty could be the one that ushers in the single world government!
If in doubt, don’t – should be considered by our government!
March 27, 2024
The USA is in such debt now (nearly $35 trillion – 124% of GDP) that the only way out for them is to create a catastrophic event to bring in the great reset and digital currencies. They are bringing the National Guard out and closing schools for the 8th April because of a Solar Eclipse – why?
March 27, 2024
I loved Margarita Simonyan’s parting remark to Rosenberg in that brief interview:
“…….because we are not you and we don’t like you much really.”
Wonderful!
March 27, 2024
An endorsement of Net Zero is an endorsement of progressive ideology and progressive ideology ain’t progressive but a set of political ideals that in essence elevates state power above all things and views civil freedoms with aggressive contempt. We see this Tory hypocrisy regarding free-speech, passing fascist speech laws through Parliament while in public calling for the defence of free speech. It’s ‘cake and eat it’ politics and it is unsustainable
I believe the state should be our servant. Since 1997 that’s not been the case and the Tories feel it convenient to expand filth Labour’s authoritarian grip
March 27, 2024
Having read most of the submissions I conclude you as a party are last nights chip paper. Essentially you have achieved this position by not being what it says on your tin and the blatant dishonesty of insisting you are what it says on the tin.
There is little point in you trying to make a case for segments of what you would like us to believe you stand for because we don’t buy into it. Neither in part nor in whole do you have anything to offer. You have led the UK into a cul de sac marked failure and it is failure in everything you have touched.
You saw yesterday the tragedy in Baltimore, cymbolically the miss labelled conservative party is that ship, out of control, heading for certain disaster, and we the electorate are crowding that vulnerable bridge. Thank you for deliberate engineered failure.
You personally have tried and we have generally offered support and advice. The party has left you, left us, and abandoned the country to the lunatic fringe. May its rotting carcass never return.
March 27, 2024
+many
March 27, 2024
Labour’s policies need serious challenge and government ministers and CCHQ really aren’t doing enough. So, Sir John, please do go on the attack here.
March 27, 2024
All is not entirely lost. Read all 30 pages of Reform UK , our contract with you. It is essentially Conservative and offers a path to recovery. The negative arguement that they lack experience in government does not hold water, specifically when you see what so called experience has given us. Read, decide and vote.
March 27, 2024
I have already made my mind up on that and joined Reform UK to help their funding !
March 27, 2024
So many people don’t believe in the need for Net Zero any more. The main Parties are like dinosaurs in their pursuit of this and I hope they will also end up becoming extinct, as soon as possible.
March 27, 2024
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March 27, 2024
It IS too late Sir John.
It is all now on the statute books and unless MP’s recognise that man made climate change is a complete fraud (as is regularly pointed out by many reputable scientists) and all the laws, starting with the Climate Change Act and Net Zero, are repealed then nothing can be done to change course.
Policy made on the basis of computer models is insane. Fraudulent Climate Change and fraudulent pandemic.
March 27, 2024
You make some good points, Sir John, but after 14 years in power your party in government is being judged on what it’s done, not on what it says it wants. What it’s done is to preside over a huge policy shift towards carrying out Net Zero. Seeing some voters reacting against that, Sunak got worried (a bit) and reduced speed (a bit) along that policy route. That suggests what must be done at the council elections – vote Reform wherever possible and ensure the Tories get another big shock. Then perhaps Sunak will get worried a bit more and reduce speed along the Net Zero road a bit more. It looks like the only thing we can do that will make a difference. Voting Tory will just encourage them.
March 27, 2024
Sir JR. The energy/net zero madness is not the only policy on which people will vote.
How about immigration. Total Conservative failure.
How about Crime. Running amok and the Governments answer, less prison sentences or shorter sentences.
How about Islamic extremists running areas of the UK by fear.
How about the failure to use the hard won Brexit freedoms.
How about the highest tax burden since WW2.
How about spending ÂŁ8m/day housing illegals in hotels.
How about failing to deal with the democratic deficit of no devolved English Parliament.
How about the state of our roads.
How about allowing confused groups of people to create policies around the non-existent ability to change sex
How about the failure to educate our children in the history of this island. Instead filling them with hate for Whitey, because of things that happened hundreds of years ago.
I could go on.
Of course most of us out here in the real world know when Labour are elected they will carry on exactly the same as you have four fourteen years. Because you are are all in the Uniparty.
We need a radical change. We won’t get it this time around. But the Uniparty won’t get my vote either.
March 27, 2024
My view is very simple John, I will vote on the basis of what my prospective MP stands for, and as you are my current MP, I will be voting for you, if you are still to be a candidate, simply because many of your views are close to my own, simples.
I do not like the way the proposed LibDem Candidate is promoting himself, or for what he says he stands for.
I will certainly not be thinking of voting for Labour, although I know nothing about any proposed candidate yet.
Unfortunately in voting for you, your leader will think I am voting for him, and his polices, and nothing could be further from the truth, your Party has steadily moved the left and away from my own thoughts and opinions, I have not moved or changed my ideas on how the Country should be run.
So there it is, I will vote for the CANDIDATE NOT the PARTY in the vain hope that they can influence the Party policy.
Will I continue to moan, yes, if the current polices do not change, and if another candidate offers an alternative which is more in tune with my views.
March 27, 2024
My wife absolutely loathes Mr Jones (the ex-Wokingham LibDem Councilor) who is your opponent Sir John (“Should you decide to accept this Mission”) She cannot really give me a good (objective) reason why, although she may be forgiven for not knowing local Lib Dem policies, which mainly seem to centre on giving us many more cycleways and detering anyone from going into the Town Centre (Oh! and the Solar Farm of course).
According to my good lady, he’s a “Puffed up, self aggrandising Bureaucrat” who also keeps committing the cardinal sin of pushing bright yellow, glossy “rubbish” through her letter box, which gets immediately fed to our re-cycling bin! Maybe this extra tonnage helps to justify the increase in our Council Tax this year? đ
March 27, 2024
One presumes the Reform Candidate will be.
I’ve thought about this but frankly, voting for somebody who just goes in to firefight their own party’s policies for 5 years is futile. It’s down to that candidate to join a party which is more representative of your views if they wish to get your vote. Or at least mine, anyway.
March 27, 2024
So we need gas powered generators for a while longer. Let’s say I’m a manufacturer of such equipment, and the customer comes along to say they want my product. And oh by the way they hate me because I’m contributing to global pollution, and when I attempt to install my product I’m to be treated as a pariah by the mob, whilst the customer stands by and approves of the abuse I’m being subjected to.
Be assured the price will be very high, even if I do want to take the business. Perhaps I would rather go elsewhere where my work will be appreciated.
March 27, 2024
I will not vote for any fruit cakes or swivel eyed politicians who have a âroad to netzeroâ on their manifesto.
I have seen zero evidence of CO2 causing any problems. I only see benefits of more plants.
March 27, 2024
Correction – in response to the petition calling for the government to not sign up to the WHO pandemic preparedness amendments – the government said they will sign, and it won’t remove sovereignty!
Whilst people clearly have doubts, this should be debatable, but seems it isn’t going to be debated!
Some of the net zero type restrictions are akin to those during lockdown, which many believe will happen again, and most likely for ‘climate change.’ They seem interwoven into being our future. The people can see it, why can’t government?
March 27, 2024
You regularly write about net zero as though it is immutable when most of your respondents don’t want it and many, like me, regard it as a complete scam designed to control and impoverish the majority for the benefit of a globalist cabal. When are MPs going to represent those whom they purport to serve instead of this globalist cabal? Are they bribed, blackmailed or both to slavishly obey their globalist masters?
Reply I am very critical of net zero policies. Net zero is followed by all governments as it is baked into global treaties and UK law. I did not vote for that.
March 27, 2024
If it’s baked into global treaties why is only the UK and to a lesser extent EU striving for it.
March 27, 2024
+1
March 27, 2024
@Ian wragg – and why is it only the UK an 5 other Countries have it written into Law? The other 189 Countries some 95% of the Worlds population are instead earning money, creating wealth and looking after their populations. Keeping their people safe, secure and fostering resilience
March 27, 2024
reply to reply …Then I call on the people of the World to ignore ‘global treaties’ and do their damnest to work in the opposite direction to stop the insane rush to economic and therefore standard of living collapse.
March 27, 2024
No problem MT – most of them are ignoring it already
March 27, 2024
Reply to Reply ….Of course it is said to be followed by all governments because they all work on behalf of the globalist cabal. What we need are politicians prepared to expose this scam not give credence to it. CO2 is 0.04% of the earth’s atmosphere of which 3% is man-made i.e. 0.0012% and of which the UK contributes 1% i.e. 0.000012%. I have asked you before if you reaally think that reducing that will do anything to alter the earth’s climate? If you do, I have a bridge you might be interested in buying!
March 27, 2024
No-one gave the Westminster Uni-Party a mandate to “make it into global treaties.” It has no democratic legitimacy.
March 27, 2024
Well said Donna, we need to blow that and many other treaties signed by the dishonest political class in power out of the water!
March 27, 2024
Reply to reply – Well if your party signed up to that then more fool it – it’s got what’s coming for it – and should hand over to one which will un-sign it.
March 27, 2024
Sir John
âshould at least be willing to think about and discuss Labour policyâ
I certainly understand the thrust of your suggestion however, the normal policy of frighten the voter because the other crowd may be, could be, worse, no longer has substance. We have 14 years of proof as to how the Conservative Government acts, primarily say one thing to get elected and then do a 360 degree turn once in office.
Un-controlled expenditure, total disregard for the economy, ever growing Quangos, out of control BoE OBR etc, a failed NHS, a criminal invasion of our beachâs, a failure to keep the UK safe, secure and self-reliant, no UK energy plan (just buy in from other Countries is not a UK plan) destruction of the Armed forces, taxes at a 70-year high and set to grow even more. Thatâs just for starters. All in all, a failure to âmanageâ everything the electors empowered and paid them to do.
It has got worse in the last couple of years completely rudderless, with incompetence and inexperience writ large.
Should we not discuss why there is no Conservative in Government? Should we discuss how we are let down time and time again by people that are pretend Conservatives (in name only)? With respect neither you or I know what the other crowd will bring when faced with reality, what we do have is proof of being forced to vote for Sunak and Hunt as opposed to a good Conservative MP will bring â more years of personal self-gratification all paid by the voter and the taxpayer through punishment and control, with the UK forced into further decline. So to get rid of one problem the best we can do is invite in another so as to re-balance.
March 27, 2024
Today according to the TelegraphâSavanta tracker poll Just 24 per cent of respondents say they plan to vote Tory, compared to 44 per cent saying they back Labour,
That is not the Voter changing their religion(Politics is a religion, Socialism vs Good management) that is this Conservative Government deserting the middle ground â deserting the UKsâ Conservatives, saying up yours to the voter
March 27, 2024
But the gap is not big enough! The by-election in Boris Johnson’s old seat sent a clear message that the PM, Government, and Backbench Conservative MPs seem to have missed. Everyone is fine with Net Zero until they realise the cost to them personally.
Blind adherence to the Net Zero cult is the cause of all the effects on the UK economy and the people.
To win the next GE the Conservatives need to drop Net Zero completely, stop all immigration, legal and illegal for at least three years, and if that is in the manifesto and wins the blob can’t stop it.
March 27, 2024
Well certainly stop all immigration by non-European people. I’m sick and tired of seeing non-Europeans around and in TV programmes and advertising.
March 27, 2024
Sorry Kieth, but your wrong in using the phrase â every one was fineâ many realised it was lies and were looking to find the reason
March 27, 2024
âThere is now a substantial and I urge growing gap between Labour and Conservative over the road to net zero.â
This is not possible unless the Conservative Party decides to repeal the CCA and Net Zero by 2050 enacted by PM May with just 88 minutes of debate, no vote (statutory instrument?) and no costing.
As Net Zero is a legal requirement the path and speed to Net Zero is now decided by the CCC, government funded activists such as ClientEarth and judges. As has already happened.
It is out of the hands of our elected representatives unless the electorate votes into power a Parliament willing to repeal the CCA and Net Zero by 2050.
So any pre-election promises made by any Net Zero supporting party mean absolutely nothing and specifically, why should the electorate trust the Conservative Party when âwe will reduce immigration to tens of thousandsâ becomes the issuing of 1.2m visas in a single year?
March 27, 2024
Labour are just saying that to get the Greens vote on side, they need those green votes in several close run seats, when elected they’ll say “oh things are much worse than we thought so we can’t do x y z”. So your government needs to set up a full disclosure on why you can’t do the net zero things they say they can.
Can Tory MPs with a bit of gumption get on some news shows? People call out GB News, but you rarely see politicians like you, John, on the lefty news shows. It’s not because you turn them down, as left-wing MPs do to GB News to try to make out they’re balanced. GB News should put the names of all opposition MPs who have refused to come onto GB News on their website.
March 27, 2024
There is no CAGW. The IPCC calculates that doubling CO2, which would take 200 years at the current rate of CO2 increase, would cause just a 1 degree C rise in atmospheric temperature (Happer & Wijngaarden say 0.7 degrees C). Any additional warming is just politics and guesswork on the possible feedback amplification from water vapour, the biggest greenhouse gas by far and which does not appear to be happening because there is no evidence of increasing humidity in the troposphere, particularly at the higher altitudes which matter for the greenhouse warming effect.
Neither is there any historical evidence for ârunaway warmingâ caused by CO2 or any GHG and if anything the Le Chatelier Principle applies to produce a negative feedback mechanism. In fact the historical evidence shows CO2 following temperature in the Antarctic Vostok and Greenland ice core data and higher temperatures than today in the Roman warm period when vines were grown up by Hadrianâs Wall and in the Middle Ages when barley was grown in Greenland.
The IPCCâs WG1 (âthe scienceâ) Table 12 in Chapter 12 shows that the IPCC has concluded that a signal of climate change has not yet emerged beyond natural variability for the following phenomena : River floods, heavy precipitation and pluvial floods, landslides drought (all types), severe wind storms, tropical cyclones (includes hurricanes), sand and dust storms, heavy snowfall and, ice storms, hail, snow avalanche and coastal flooding. The IPCC can only find some slight warming leading some melting of ice and snow.
CAGW and the Net Zero âsolutionâ is a Marxist device to impoverish the West. The activists have no issue with Chinaâs CO2 emissions because China already has an authoritarian Communist government. If CO2 really was a problem then the activists would be advocating cheap, abundant, reliable nuclear power and not expensive, unreliable, calorically intermittent renewables with no feasible way to store electricity at grid scale.
March 27, 2024
You claim there are differences between Conservative and Labour on the road to Net Zero but that’s only in what they say their policies are now – in practice when the various targets and milestones have to be abandoned one by one there will be no difference in outcome. Labour will have to abandon their 2030 target just as the Conservatives would have to abandon their 2035 targets. So – no difference. Add to that the fact that whatever the Conservatives put in their election manifesto will be entirely worthless because as we saw with the last manifesto they’ll do the exact opposite. Going into the election with a Project Fear strategy about Labour simply won’t work.
March 27, 2024
A Conservative Government would let people buy petrol cars and gas boilers for longer, how generous of them!
I donât want a party that is slightly less authoritarian than Labour. I want a government with the courage to scrap the Net Zero scam and sets us free.
March 27, 2024
An argument for not voting Conservative but, say, Reform, despite increasing the odds of a Labour-led government, is that sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.âIf the Conservatives were to get enough votes to limp on with their current outlook and policies, even if not governing, then it’s a slow death with no effective opposition to Labour’s policy as they’re too alike.âBetter a pyre and an emergent phoenix, goes the argument.
This is despite many of today’s problems having Blair/Brown origins.âThe labour market’s high dependence on cheap immigrants, a subsidy to businesses from both the tax payer and the country’s identity, was Brown’s wheeze and now sees 600,000 arriving in a year.âAnother 600,000 students arrive paying high fees to universities which subsidise the many native students.âBlair’s target was 50% to be indoctrinated by higher education, a large increase.âWe’ve now too many local students attending too many universities to get low quality, soft-subject degrees.âFewer local students would need less subsidy from foreign students and less Government debt paid by tax-payers who never went themselves.
March 27, 2024
RC : “Another 600,000 students arrive paying high fees to universities which subsidise the many native students.”
Our universities have been captured by the 120,000 Chinese “students” the government has allowed into the UK and who heavily influence/corrupt our university culture and politics whilst stealing our research work and intellectual property wherever possible.
March 27, 2024
It has long been the elephant, or rather the Chinese dragon, in the university room!
Is it only the well paid (average ÂŁ325k + housing/pension/benefits) Chancellors who value this trend to take over the training available in the British Universities?
March 27, 2024
Poor JR!
Itâs isnât his fault.
He was in Mrs Tâs govts
And then the idiots ( including me) voted Labour. ( I only did it once and regretted after 3 days)
And weâve been ruled by LibDems going on Labour ever since.
But JR IS a conservative stranded in a sea of total ( the worst word possible).
March 27, 2024
I was struck by Sir John’s last words ‘as some Ministers seem to think’ – but this is just the problem, they do not think at all: that skill – if they ever learnt it – has been replaced by parroting beliefs they hear at international conferences.
March 27, 2024
Very few commentators properly disect Labour’s plans, almost certainly because they want Starmer to win and don’t want to draw attention away from the woes of the Conservatives.
Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg did an excellent job on both party’s Net Zero fantasy world on his Tuesday evening GB News programme. He said, Starmer’s 100% renewable plan by 2030 will cost ÂŁ116bn we don’t have. Sunak’s 2035 target will cost ÂŁ16bn less, but that’s still ÂŁ11bn a year more expenditure to find/tax/borrow over 11 years rather than Starmer’s ÂŁ23.5bn a year over 5 years ! Never mind where all the skilled labour and materials are going to come from!
Both Party’s plans are impossible to achieve over their respective timescales, but Labour’s is so over the top that surely even the hopeless Miliband can’t believe in it ? Why is it not being heavily criticised by every commentator ?
March 27, 2024
Sir John, it didnât need to be like this. Voters gave your party an 80-plus majority to get Brexit done and reduce immigration. You could have stayed in power for decades but you kowtowed to the globalist agenda. This Government has betrayed these voters and abused its power. Are you suggesting voters give them another chance after 14 years of failure? I agree Labour will be much worse but their end destination is the same. I donât understand why anyone would vote for them and still hope voters see sense and switch to Reform. I also donât understand why you stay with this party that has left your great mind languishing on the back benches for decades. This act of abuse confirms to me that all Prime Ministers since Thatcher care more about their own esteem than the well-being of my country. You would have made a great chancellor or PM.
March 27, 2024
Christine, you are right in everything you say.
The behaviour of governments since Boris secured his record-breaking 80 seat majority has been woeful.
The only saving grace has been Boris’ Vaccine programme and the support for Ukraine. Everything else has been pitiful. Sunak has been at the heart of the problem, having been far too generous with his 80% furlough scheme. In reality, 60% would have been enough to compensate workers after taking their cost savings into account.
We are still paying the price of Sunak’s generosity and Bailey’s utter incompetence at the B of E.
March 27, 2024
@Christine +1 – they refused their job, set out to punish and impoverish the Nation, they cant honestly believe anyone should vote for them.
March 27, 2024
“Believing you can get to net zero on power generation by 2030 and rely on more windfarms cannot work” – we all know this but you will not deprive us surely of the pleasure of witnessing future Labour ministers’ panic, confusion and dread when it at last becomes clear to them?
March 27, 2024
There may be subtle differences opening up between Tories and labour but TBH most sentient voters are sick to death of both parties. The Thatcher government was the last one to do anything good for British people, since then it has been a long slide left into wasteful and oppressive regimes that imagine socialist style globalist policies will see them revered.
Since government is formed from Parliament, it is Parliament that needs to be realistic about netzero – Why can’t MPs educate themselves on the issues rather than following the BBC line that only shows one aspect of issues, and even then it is highly indoctrinating and false.
Why is the CCC still allowed to exist when it has done nothing useful and only provides deceitful costings?
How did we get into this situation where HMG is afraid to do something sensible, like using some of the reserves in the ground, because they will get hounded by the green globalist lobbyists, and others.
IS THIS ANY WAY TO RUN A COUNTRY?
March 27, 2024
@Bryan Harris +1 – well put, at this rate is there any point to having the majority of these MP’s that we empower and pay to do a job?
March 27, 2024
well said Ian.
This brings up back to the ‘debate’ we have from time to time on numbers of Commons MPs, and what is worse, the function of the H of L staffed by up to 1000 privileged political animals.
650 MPs is at least 200 too many, is not representative of the political opinion of the countries, and manages to ignore the vast majority of the promises made prior to the electorate.
The duties of the Lords: The Lords has three main roles: Making laws, In-depth consideration of public policy and Holding government to account.
Members consider bills (draft laws). During several stages, members examine each bill, line-by-line, before it becomes an Act of Parliament. Many of these bills affect our everyday lives, covering areas such as welfare, health and education. Members use their (theretical) extensive individual experience to investigate public policy. Much of this work is done in select committees – small groups appointed to consider specific policy areas. Members raised concerns, pressed government for action and questioned decisions with debates. In 2022, the House of Lords considered 5,244 changes to 100 bills.
So why do we allow PMs to hand pick people, often for political support not individual experience. It is clear certain members got a seat, in reality a title is what was wanted, for large donations to Party coffers.
It could be argued there must be a better way to staff the Lords. Service for maximum 10 years, identify candidates from excellence shown in various roles in technology, clinical management, defence, education, law, and social services etc. Surely 100 to 200 members would be enough?.
March 27, 2024
@Mickey Taking – it was previously put forward by I think a parliamentary committee that the maximum numbers in parliament should be 450. Rationally even that is a push, 450 to serve 70million – the US 453 to serve 330 million. the UK is just about a quarter to a third of the size of the US. We still are stuck with the EU mentality that this little bunch of islands are still just served by MPs playing at being an EU local council . We don’t need these 650 MP’s playing local councilors and also local councilors, they are clearly neglecting their job.
The HoL has no place in a democracy it certainly doesn’t have any legitimacy other than MPs see it as somewhere to go when they get dismissed. The upper revising House/Chamber should be elected the only reason as I understand it that it is not is MPs don’t like the idea someone else is elected – they forget the word revising. Using my previous analogy the US 100 in the upper chamber representing 330 million, in the UK 1000 and they don’t represent of reflect anyone.
March 27, 2024
A Tory One Nation think tank called Bright Blue put out an oped in the Telegraph recently in which it claimed that Multiculturalism has ‘failed’.
“I remain steadfast in my belief in the value of immigration. Growing up with a mother who moved to the UK in search of a better life, I have seen firsthand the resilience, determination and cultural richness that immigrants can bring to their communities. Embracing people from different countries and cultures has become an integral part of Britainâs identity and history.”
“The nationâs silent majority have watched in horror as protests descended into platforms for hate speech. As posters were vandalised with swastikas and mobs chanted anti-Semitic slogans, often without any understanding of their true meaning. Not all movements for justice, we know now, are inherently just.”
In other words, deliberately importing millions of unassimilable aliens does not lead to a harmonious melting pot when one minority turns on another even if the English themselves never asked to be turned from a country with a stable centuries’ old population into a melting pot which had never existed throughout its previous history.
March 27, 2024
“There is now a substantial and I urge growing gap between Labour and Conservative over the road to net zero.”
I’m sorry but the gap is too small. Too little too late.
Decarbonising the grid is just as impossible to achieve by 2035 as it is by 2030.
Let alone replacing the 80% of energy that is NOT electricity.
There is still no recognition of these facts by your government. It remains entirely captured.
March 27, 2024
And who do we vote for if we donât want Net Zero?
March 27, 2024
Reform UK Barbara.
March 27, 2024
Reform.
What they DO want is Net Zero immigration (one in, one out).
March 27, 2024
A record of 4,644 criminals have crossed the Channel in small boats in the first three months of this year. Up on all previous years. Rishi Sunak, in this election year bangs the drum to say that because of him the criminals descending on our shores has gone down?
Who do we believe? the Border force counting them in or this the worst PM ever, beating the previous records of the worst ever PMs, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson the downward spiral of integrity and incompetence.
So is it wrong that we question this Conservative Government when the basics of honesty is missing?
March 27, 2024
If NetZero is a thing the first thing anyone with an intellect would do is focus on how you create the funds, therefore the economy, the wealth to pay for the dreams and aspirations of the direction to cope needed.
To Impoverishing a Nation, to punishing population on what looks simply like an ego trip to nourish a oneâs personal self-esteem, because you can – will only end in tears.
The problem in the UK we know those that are creating the damage will be off as soon as the game is over. Then everyone left wonât have âlightsâ they can turn off as the last person leaves, but they will have to fund the massive, massive debt that is being accrued. Someone forgot to manage expenditure and create wealth.
Some woolly left-wing numpties bang on about un-funded tax cuts, but they donât seem to care about there being no money created to pay for someone elseâs âegoâ trip and the prolific dispersal of everyoneâs hard earned cash or the ever-increasing impoverishment of a whole nation.
March 27, 2024
Sir John
It should be mandated that each and every ballot paper has a ‘Box’ for ‘None of the Above’. As it stands a very low turnout will have some patting themselves on their own backs saying what a wonderful job they have done. That said all abstentions should be counted as votes against those standing
March 29, 2024
Agreed, then at least we may get to know better and more accurate voting figures, would also be hugely embarrassing to all Parties if NOTA won !
March 29, 2024
Very apt Sir John but ask yourself, why are we bankrupting our once Great Britain to reduce our miniscule Co2 output <1% at the same time read that China increased her output of around 30% by a further 5.2% last year? You will not forget that the Conservative Party has been Governing (mismanaging) the UK for the last decade+. I have been a supporter all my life and I for 1 will not vote Tory again! The only winners appear to be the producers of windmills, heavily subsidised by my taxes.