Striving to save money

It was not just the big productivity loss that boosted the deficit and lay behind higher taxes in the last Parliament. I spent time throughout giving Prime Ministers, Chancellors and Chief Secretaries who came and went many ideas of how to save money in bloated state budgets.

There were the large sums being spent on energy subsidies as they intervened heavily to switch from coal and gas generated electricity to solar and wind. There were the over the top domestic energy subsidies for the better off as well as for those on low incomes. The Truss plan gave double subsidy to most MPs, as  anyone with two homes qualified for two subsidies. There were the large loans to Councils to let them buy up property investment empires. There were the grants to Councils to take road capacity out. There was overseas aid for bad schemes and for some developing economies with their own budget capacity. There was the large expenditure on housing for illegal migrants, and the big cost of housing and public service provision for low income and no income legal migrants. There was the wasteful HS 2 project and the escalating losses of the nationalised railway.

By the last year I was hammering my big 3. The annual  £20 bn plus of lost public sector productivity. The £20 bn of avoidable annual bond losses  incurred by bad policies at the Bank of England. The £10 bn to £20 bn of overall cost and lost tax revenue from high levels of economic inactivity amongst people of working age after the pandemic. The government tried to do something about the first and third of these, but the benefits were neatly put forward into years after the election in the main by officials who did not see the urgency of implementing the necessary changes. . They would not budge on the easiest cut of all, to stop selling the bonds at a loss.

88 Comments

  1. Lynn Atkinson
    August 13, 2024

    They deserved to lose.
    Starmer needs to comprehend that he did not ‘win’.
    The two major parties are making Farage look like a statesman by comparison.

    1. Ian wragg
      August 13, 2024

      Every move Reeves has made is anti growth. Covering the country with useless windmills will only increase costs for industry and domestically. Constraint payments will balloon as operators are forced off line during times of low demand and high winds but no fines for the periods when we need power but there is no wind or sun
      National Grid forecast for the next 12 years expect to import on average 20% of our electricity daily when there is a shortage of production in Europe and Scandinavia.
      As Lynn says Farage looks like an elder statesman in comparison to what the liblabcon have to offer.

      1. Lifelogic
        August 13, 2024

        Every single move Labour, tow Tier Kier, Stasi Starmer, Reeves, Raynor, Lammy
 make are hugely anti-growth with the sole exception of relaxing planning, assuming that is done sensibly (unlikely). Net zero, renewable energy, road blocking, more employment red tape, higher state sector pay with no efficiencies, more state sector, more nationalisation, evermore state sector, VAT on school fees, tax increases, making many Non Doms leave, the war on motorists & landlords, open door immigration with zero deterrents


        Essentially just the same as the Tories under Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak
 but even worse still and the VAT on school fees too.

    2. Lifelogic
      August 13, 2024

      Indeed just 20% of the electorate and most of them only voted Labour so as to get rid of the unequivocal Covid vaccine liar and incompetent Rishi Sunak. As this in many places was the only realistic way to do so.

      1. Hope
        August 13, 2024

        LL,

        You need to watch Senate Committees hold chiefs of administration to account in US. It is clear the govt departments including DoJ, FBI etc. coerced- their words- social platforms not to allow information contrary to partisan views ie covid, Hunter Biden’s laptop, messages from Biden including his father to prove link between the two. Apparently this is against their first amendment as well.

        We experienced similar in UK during covid, we experienced similar previously and now with racial issues to close debate, force silence and create a narrative only white people commit racism. Employment Tribunal just found 3 white police officers were discriminated against for promotion from Thames Valley who promoted ethnic minority because boss told junior to make it happen. Is the matter referred to IPOC for chief officer(s) to investigated or sacked for racism against white officers? Why does it matter? Proving Two-Tier standards runs internally and outside policing events.

        Musk correct, if we get rid of fossil fuels too quickly we will starve and economies collapse. Does Two-Tier Keir and Marxist Red Ed understand this? Previous Lawyer for Extinction Rebellion now in Red Ed’s team. What could go wrong? Is there a conflict of interest in the appointment or prove two-tier standards exist?

    3. Lifelogic
      August 13, 2024

      How is Starmer’s smash the trafficking gangs coming on? Not at all it seems. But if you are against this you are all far right racists!

      Highest number of migrants since Starmer became PM cross Channel in a day
      Total of 703 people detected making crossing in 11 boats, according to provisional Home Office figures.

      1. Hope
        August 13, 2024

        LL,
        If the French cannot spot or stop 50 foot dinghy’s on roads getting to beaches in France they stand no chance of catching alleged trafficking gangs. The scam continues and our taxes given away to France with gay abandon knowing our taxes will not effect in any way criminals crossing the channel. Again, US senate points out to Biden’s administration Home Land Security chief there is nothing in law not to allow anyone to claim asylum if they come from safe countries. Senators state a policy should be if people come from safe third countries no application should be entertained. They claim it is a policy decision for the host nation. Does that international law claim apply here?

        1. Lifelogic
          August 13, 2024

          Yet they can spot cars going 3km per hour too fast or putting a tyre in a bus lane instantly with no problem at all.

      2. Donna
        August 13, 2024

        Apparently Two-Tier-Keir is going to be talking to the Faaah Rite Italian Prime Minister, Meloni about “smashing the gangs”. I wonder if he’ll disinfect himself down afterwards.

        1. Lifelogic
          August 13, 2024

          Was this not the same Starmer who was photographed taking the knee to the black lives matter rioters? Have they charged anyone public or police in the Manchester airport incident? Labour and Lammy types were always blaming “two tier” policing when it was stop and search of black people.

          Starmer keeps saying there is no “two tier” policing – but two tier justice is even written into law with the vile “hate” crime laws”. Also in employment – as RAF pilots, working for the BBC, getting places at Oxbridge
 even the obnoxious Theresa May said police forces are ‘too white’ in Oct 2015.

          1. Hope
            August 14, 2024

            Treacherous May should be accountable for the decimation police leading to the current decimation of upholding law and order through Tom Windsor the railway worker put in charge of Police.

    4. Mickey Taking
      August 13, 2024

      Good Lord. You are now showing a level of respect. Never thought you would.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        August 13, 2024

        Think of it as a level of disrespect for the current and previous governments.

        1. Mickey Taking
          August 13, 2024

          Can’t it be both? You’d get a lot of support!

          1. Lynn Atkinson
            August 13, 2024

            You may not believe me, but with all my heart I wish Farage was what you all think he is. Unfortunately I know you will be disappointed.

    5. Hope
      August 13, 2024

      JR,
      When head civil servants are given huge bonuses for failure, Rycroft Home Office ÂŁ30,000 on top of ÂŁ180,000, work from their holiday homes in France when evacuation of Afghanistan taking place head of Foreign Office and staff working from home could not access crucial information to save lives, what do you expect?

      It crosses both productivity and competence. It also sets culture for their respective departments. Tory party could have changed civil service employment status back to what it was pre Blaire and got rid of politicisation. It chose not to. Same for police and military. It could have reversed Brown’s changes to BoE. Tory party chose not to. What could go wrong!

      Tory party claimed it would change civil service under Maude and then Cummings. Changes did not even get off the ground. The latter not given a proper chance and I thought he was the right character to being about that radical change required. Unfortunately Johnson’s girlfriend did not like him so he was sacked!!

    6. Peter
      August 13, 2024

      The Labour government is even less likely to be striving to save money than the previous one.

      Anarcho-tyranny is the order of the day. Little girls get stabbed on the street in broad daylight, while the police hunt people who say things the government does not like on social media.

      Meanwhile the faction fighting in Downing Street has already begun, while Starmer is posturing to the world about Iran.

      We all knew it was going to get worse


    7. K
      August 13, 2024

      The Tories failed to listen to their voters so we’re having to go the long way around.

      We probably won’t survive as a free people and by the time 5 years is up there won’t be any point in voting Tory anyway.

      1. Hope
        August 14, 2024

        The only people interested in the Tory leadership race are the six contenders. No one will believe whoever becomes leader. Even Snake is in California as predicted.

  2. Mark B
    August 13, 2024

    Good morning.

    They would not budge on the easiest cut of all, to stop selling the bonds at a loss.

    Maybe because they had one eye on who their future (or past) employers would be ? 😉

    I bet he wished he kept his Green Card now ?

    1. Mickey Taking
      August 13, 2024

      Depends whether the networking is still in place.

    2. a-tracy
      August 13, 2024

      That green card can be sorted with his family’s wealth lickety-split before labour’s tax grab on wealth starts.

      I know a few people wondering how much you need to get to the States. People keep talking about the UAE, etc., online, but that’s a major move, and doctors, dentists and nurses are talking about moving to New Zealand or Australia; this country will be stripped of useful taxpayers.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        August 13, 2024

        Oz and NZ in serious recession. I understand even level 1 applicants being refused.

  3. Lifelogic
    August 13, 2024

    “Striving to save money” who in government is “striving to save money”. So much fat that could be cut – net zero, worthless degrees, HS2, net harm Covid vaccines, net harm lockdowns, bloated government everywhere, road blocking, renewable subsidies, rail subsidies…

    The BBC’s PM very excited yesterday about forest fires in Greece. Someone tell the BBC that forest fires in hot countries are hardly new. In fact insects and plants have even evolved over millions of years to survive through them and even take advantage of the aftermath of fires.

    To the BBC the best way to stop fires in Greece is more wind turbines in Brighton. It is hard to think of a more moronic way to reduce fires in Greece. If you have dry wood lying around in hot places sooner or later it will catch fire and especially if it is windy will spread as it had done for millions of years.

    1. Ed M
      August 13, 2024

      What annoys me more is Huw Edwards or anyone is paid ÂŁ450K to read the news autocue and two gays paid to dance with each other On Strictly Come Whatever it is called – WOKE at its worst and which we have to pay for.

      1. Mickey Taking
        August 13, 2024

        How did the dancers decide who leads? Did they toss for it?

      2. Lifelogic
        August 13, 2024

        Indeed perhaps 40,000 mainly poor people’s licence fees just for this one newsreader’s pension.

        But the misinformation on lockdowns, the economy, Covid, climate fear, Covid vaccine propaganda – from the BBC is even more evil and damaging.

        The Daily Mail today on about the three deaths and other injuries caused by the appalling way the public sector dealt with one person with know. clearly dangerous mental health injuries. Yet the harms done by the Covid Vaccines by appalling public sector incompetence is at least 10,000 times this level and that just in the UK. Where is this on the front of the Mail, Telegraph, Times, Sky, BBC
?

      3. Lynn Atkinson
        August 13, 2024

        Yet you Lord a very 2nd rate ‘actor’ who famously played the piano with his member, as one of the greatest wartime leaders!
        Time you woke.

  4. David Andrews
    August 13, 2024

    They were unfit for office so were booted out. Labour will be worse and, in due course, will be booted out too. It remains to be seen if Reform can do to Labour what it has done to the Conservatives. Public spending discipline will, most likely, be enforced by external influences because all the evidence shows most politicians are utterly incapable of exercising it.

    1. Ed M
      August 13, 2024

      I think Tice is way better than Farage. Farage is a pub windbag. Tice talks / approaches things in a more business-like way.

      1. Hope
        August 13, 2024

        Rupert Lowe is intelligent and articulate. Under the current system of which is the least worse, Reform wins hands down on every count.

        Tory party still does not accept why it got trounced! Papers highlight today how Badenoch wanted more legal immigration! She is deluded to think people will vote for the trecherous party with her in charge.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          August 13, 2024

          Habib outshines them all. He is head and shoulders above.

      2. John Hatfield
        August 13, 2024

        A pub windbag who got us out of the EU. But then perhaps you are a Remainer and don’t appreciate that.

        1. Lynn Atkinson
          August 13, 2024

          News! Stupidly I thought it was a 65 year campaign which included most of the most brilliant public figures from all sides of politics, and then of course the heroic Spartans who stood their ground under serious duress, helped by the heroic lifelong ‘Brexiteer’ Corbyn who delivered the Remain Labour Party for Brexit time and time again.
          These people have been supported by thousands of wonderful British people who gave their all. Fundraising – some mortgaged their homes to distribute leaflets etc. Organised meetings, rallies, demonstrations (in the days when we were allowed to demonstrate).
          Farage was a late comer, earned £250k pa in the EU ‘parliament’ and still ended up announcing on the front pages of the MSM that he was ‘skint’. He had no vote in the House. He commissioned ‘NO Campaign’ merch which had to be dumped when JR and others managed to get a ‘fair referendum’ I.e no yes/no answer and more.

      3. MFD
        August 13, 2024

        it is all a team , we each has position just like any sport. We will persist, we will win in the end!

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      August 13, 2024

      +1 and any outlier politician with ability is sent to Coventry in Westminster.
      The sheer ineptitude of these people beggars belief.

  5. agricola
    August 13, 2024

    Prime Ministers, Chancellors, and Chief Secretaries were obviously not minded to take your advice as they prefered their own consocialist agenda. Which neatly explains why the electorate ditched them.

    The current government, while talking the virtues of going for growth, are not genetically equiped to know what that means or to effect policies and tax regimes that would achieve it. How can they while empowering such as the millipede.

    We are looking at twenty years of collective disaster. The only hope is that Reform evolves into an extensive and professional party that hits the ground runing in 2029. Your advice would be better directed at Reform, to any other party it is wasted.

    Reply My advice was directed to the last government. It is now available for anyone interested.

    1. Mickey Taking
      August 13, 2024

      reply to reply…that is exactly the problem. Who is interested? It has been increasing clear that British politics is riddled through and through with deaf ears, partial sight, lapsed concentration, belief in unspoken oath of omertĂ , and worst of all sheep led by wicked shepherding.
      Not expect rapturous attention from the latest bunch of fools.

      1. agricola
        August 13, 2024

        Well Mickey, there are potentially five in the House of Commons who may well be welcoming of an ex banking professional with real insight into the workings of our current financial machine. It would be valuable to open the conversation with Reform who I believe are organising themselves in anticipation of a 2029 election, which could of course come earlier.

    2. IanT
      August 14, 2024

      Depressingly true!

  6. Peter Gardner
    August 13, 2024

    Is it ideology, incompetence, lack of knowledge or a combination of these? It is hard to believe that with agreement on the national interest within the government and the relevant parts of the civil service that such a mess could result from 13 or 14 years of unbroken goverment by one party. My view is that the Conservative Party’s broad church is so broad that it could not agree within itself on ideology (what constitutes conservatism?) or on the national interest. The consequence of that, obviously, is that, leaving aside the Civil Service, it could not be competent. Likewise, because it did not agree sufficiently on anything of significance it could not take charge of the civil service.

    1. Ed M
      August 13, 2024

      Tory broad church is fine as long as it is led by people with actual proper business experience including in high tech and product research, branding and high skills and exports in general underlined by an entrepreuneuial approach and someone who has actually done a business plan! I think some perhaps lot of them are just enticed by the power and the image – posers.

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      August 13, 2024

      Well Badenock was tasked with repealing unwanted EU law. She was presented with the list that could easily be repealed. Her Bill passed its first reading with a big majority. Then she came to the house and pulled her own Bill which they supported ‘because the civil service said it was the only thing to do’.
      And the Tories think she is a potential leader.
      We need a TOTAL clearout. We need to SELECT our own candidates. We need people with gumption.

      Reply I and my MP associate worked with Jacob Rees Mogg as Minister on the repeal bill. It passed all Commons stages with no Conservative rebellion. Badenoch when she took over from Jacob pulled it instead of battling it through the Lords,which was possible given the large Commons majority we still had.

      1. Lifelogic
        August 14, 2024

        I assume she was told to, either to do this or resign?

        I think Robert Jenrick will win but the party is hopelessly LibDim in terms of MPs anyway. No one quite rightly trusts a word they say or anything they will promise next time.

      2. R.Grange
        August 14, 2024

        Reply to reply: So who told Badenoch to pull the bill? I think Lynn A. is right, and it was the people you continue to call ‘officials’.

      3. Donna
        August 14, 2024

        I believe she pulled the Bill after her trip to Davos. I would imagine it was explained to her that if it went ahead, her Prime Ministerial career prospects would be severely damaged.

  7. agricola
    August 13, 2024

    Your last paragraph suggests that the CS has not adjusted to life out of the EU, where they were all powerful, and do not accept that they are the servants of a sovereign government. Any UK government wishing to govern the UK cannot tolerate a parallel government of civil servants. Not for the first time I contend that the CS needs a new contract of employment, with hire and fire built in, and an emphasis that they are subject to the Official Secrets Act. Gongs and baubles should disappeare as the end of career gold watch. Honours belong to outstanding service to the nation. Your thoughts on this would be enlightening.

    1. Peter Gardner
      August 13, 2024

      Both MPs and civil servants revelled in the EU’s collegiate atmosphere, luxurious travel, offices and expenses, all paid for by the taxpayer on whom they looked down. It was a fantastic career choice with no accountability, very little responsibility and what accountability remained at home in Parliament and in constituencies could be shrugged off by passing the buck to the EU in which no policy or decision has a person’s name attached to it. And at the end, a gold plated pension. No wonder they love it and want to get back into it, which they will do by the back door and this time they will not repeat the mistake of allowing the public a voice of any kind.

      1. Original Richard
        August 13, 2024

        PG :

        Correct.

        And don’t forget that their extravagant pensions are reliant upon never criticising the EU. Also the deliberate appointment of failed politicians ejected by their electorates meant it was easier to get these politicians to sign the agreement that their loyalty was always to the EU rather than to their home country.

  8. Narrow Shoulders
    August 13, 2024

    Someone else’s money with the narrative of “doing good”. Can’t beat that working life.

  9. MPC
    August 13, 2024

    We all appreciated your endeavours in these areas during recent parliaments. Perhaps Labour will now listen to some extent – the dispersal of economic migrants into local communities may well reduce that particular ‘bloated state budget’. My prediction that we will soon see additions to Council Tax to cover at least part of the cost of housing our new Cross channel visitors will surely soon come true. There should be some interesting descriptors in Council Tax budgeting and billing, such as ‘Global Majority Precept’, ‘Asylum & Refugee Support Services’ and, from reluctant Tory Councils, ‘Central Government Migrant Dispersal Costs’.

    Perhaps we could have a competition on this site for the best descriptor and send it to Angela Raynor for it to be mandated centrally? She would appreciate that no doubt.

  10. Donna
    August 13, 2024

    Why did Sunak and Hunt ignore 2 (stop the BoE from offloading bonds at a loss, transferring ÂŁbillions of losses to taxpayers)?

    Because that’s what their Masters at the WEF and IMF required.

    I’m really not surprised you stood down Sir John. It must have become very clear to you that this wasn’t a Conservative Government which was working in the interests of the British people. It had certainly became clear to half of its former voters.

    1. glen cullen
      August 13, 2024

      Spot On Donna

      1. Hope
        August 13, 2024

        If we believe the covid inquiry Hunt help cause the loss of life and Govt. spending hundreds of billions of taxpayers money for his incompetence not to prepare the NHS for a pandemic! So they made him chancellor!!! A bit of a clue, Hunt was repeatedly rejected to be leader!

        There should be a mechanism for politicians like Hunt who have shown gross incompetence to be banned from public office. In what business would it be allowed for a person to cause loss of life and wreck the finances, not to face sanctions or sack from that company, but to be put Chief Financial Officer!!

  11. Sir Joe Soap
    August 13, 2024

    At some stage, playing for a team making huge errors, or working for an employer making huge mistakes, most people quit.
    Carrying on and on whipping a dead horse benefits neither the horse nor the person whipping it. That energy, that intellectual creativity, completely wasted. You can argue, and possibly will, that loyalty trumps all. But this loyalty is blind, because your loyalty is to a de facto dead entity. Or is tribalism at the root of this? You build a network of like-minded folk who equally refuse to stop that whipping of the horse? In which case we’re talking Groupthink. A refusal to accept the bleedin’ obvious and move on to pastures new.

    Reply I did not fight the last election !

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      August 13, 2024

      I know but I’m talking about a/ others also and b/ the period from 2010 on!

    2. Mickey Taking
      August 13, 2024

      reply to reply…if you wanted to make a difference there was a very simple step to take, but you didn’t.

  12. Lifelogic
    August 13, 2024

    “Striving to save money“ hardly? Striving to find new ways to grab ever more tax payers money that they can waste is what they do, be they under the Con-Socialist or now even worse under Labour’s real socialist.

  13. Clough
    August 13, 2024

    This post reads like highlights from a forthcoming book on how the Conservative party in government lost the right to govern. I’m looking forward to seeing it in print. I hope it does. Whether I’ll learn more on exactly who was responsible for this disastrous policy management, however, I’m not sure. Our good host tells us here that ‘there was’ large expenditure on this and large expenditure on that, and he says ‘officials’ frustrated certain government attempts to restrain over-spending. But we’re not told just who wanted all that state expenditure and who stopped ministers from putting the brakes on it. I wonder if we’ll ever know who the agents of the Tory government’s decline actually were.

    Reply Treasury and Cabinet office officials did not want to get productivity up to 2019 levels quickly. DWP did not allow swift progress on good Ministerial ideas to help more of the economically inactive into work.

    1. M.A.N.
      August 13, 2024

      Can you give us any indication as to why?

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      August 13, 2024

      R2R so at the root of this is that elected. MPs don’t necessarily have the power to direct unelected civil servants

    3. Donna
      August 13, 2024

      Reply to reply.

      So the lesson for an incoming Reformed-Conservative Government is that the first thing they have to do is implement a law which allows them to clear out the obstructive Officials in the Civil Service and the second thing they need to do is pass a Great Repeal Bill (which they will have already prepared).

      1. Hope
        August 13, 2024

        It is a good case to demonstrate why the likes of Sue Grey should not be allowed to be employed by a political party after holding office in civil service and why there should be better vetting/selection procedures to prevent people with strong political views and/or affiliations from holding civil servant positions. Again, change everything Blaire did including quangos.

        1. Original Richard
          August 13, 2024

          Hope :

          I don’t think a Director of the CPS should ever be able to become a member of a politica party let alone lead it and become PM. Persons in such positions should never have political ambitions.

    4. Colin
      August 13, 2024

      Reply to reply: Sir John, your blog today and your reply above are really frustrating. First, there must be a reasonable economist’s argument for why the Bank of England persists with its bond sales. What is it? Secondly, why would Treasury and Cabinet Office officials resist actions to improve productivity? Unless, they were acting politically? Thirdly, why would DWP resist fast action to encourage the economically inactive back into work? Again, unless they were acting politically?

      1. agricola
        August 13, 2024

        Colin,

        Precisely why I pointed to the absolute need for a reset of the contract in law between elected government and the Civil Service. For too long the CS have operated as a we know best, parallel political force with it’s own agenda. This must end before any government can govern.

    5. dixie
      August 13, 2024

      Your reply raises a key issue which is If our elected representatives are unwilling or incapable of progressing policies they promised to address/were elected on because of obdurate civil servants who have their own agenda then what is the point of voting.
      There is no democracy because the only people who have any influence on things are unelected civil servants and lawyers.
      This has and will become even more the case now the political wing of the civil service has taken power through default.
      PS Did the Conservative party simply give up government because they couldn’t win against the civil service?

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        August 13, 2024

        They had no right to be beaten by the Civil Service. Their job is to control it. If they can’t do the job they must stand down.

  14. Berkshire Alan
    August 13, 2024

    No wonder you decided to leave Parliament John, the endless frustration of no one acting, or worse still, not even listening properly to your (and I guess others) many sensible ideas, must have been so disheartening.
    I have recently had to deal with a couple of Government Departments, the Energy Ombudsman and Companies House.
    The Energy Ombudsman seems unable to recognise simple mathematics, and Companies House admit that their computer system has bugs which does not allow on line filing at the moment.
    Many other Departments over the years have also proved useless, including HMRC and the Probate Service where months can go by without any action, or even communication.
    Is the failure due to constant Government changes to policies causing total confusion, or is it a simple matter that staff and management do not care less any more.

  15. Rod Evans
    August 13, 2024

    Sir John, the areas you highlight are all sensible and all in need of reform. The conclusion we draw from your ongoing highlight of your own past parliamentary activities is, when the blob becomes too big to move it simply will not move no matter what sensible and necessary efforts are made by advocates such as you.
    The scale of self interest now displayed by the public sector is such that no amount of economic argument will change their ability to feather their own nests. The blob simply sees taxation as its right to extract. These department heads, within the public sector, see their ongoing existence as their prime objective. They do not see the effective use of tax payer’s money being anything to focus their attention on.

  16. Roy Grainger
    August 13, 2024

    Why do you think the BoE continue to sell bonds at a loss ? Is it simply a hidden way of manipukating interest rates to control inflation because they don’t like the bad publicity associated with base rate rises ?

    As the BoE have made huge losses from selling bonds somebody somewhere has made huge gains. Do we have a breakdown of who these people or organisations are ? They have had a huge subsidy from the taxpayer.

  17. Nigl
    August 13, 2024

    Yesterday an interesting answer from Sir JR that Ministers were talked out of making savings or they didn’t happen.

    Can anything be more ridiculous and demonstrates weak, not fit for purpose politicians succumbing to civil service hegemony.

    This blog often asks who runs this country. It is obvious the last government didn’t and we now see those ‘failures’ believing their own BS that they can do differently next time as party leader.

    And re yesterday good to see the ‘experts’ pile in when I suggested managing the Covid issue was easier from an armchair than actually having the responsibility of 60 million people on their shoulders.

    Apologies to any of those who were actually in the decision making process and whose advice was ignored. If you weren’t, your standing on the subject is the same as me

  18. a-tracy
    August 13, 2024

    Errors, omissions and misjudgements affect all of us, not just the public sector workforce making those significant mistakes.

    Is there a reward in the public sector for department efficiencies resulting in savings in their pay packets, not more time off and extra holidays, but more money? If the reward is only there by managing bigger teams, to get a bigger budget to spend and thus an increase in pay grade for the extra responsibility of pushing paper around then why is anyone surprised that’s what you get?

    Time and time again, people who move from private industry into public say how frustrating it is, the snail pace of decisions, the overstaffing, the absence leave and the ostracisation of anyone who wants to speed up work, show initiative, or make faster changes.

  19. Original Richard
    August 13, 2024

    Make no mistake, there is no striving to save money, in fact quite the reverse. High spending, necessitating wasteful spending to achieve it, by national and local governments is intentional. It is to increase public employment and population control whilst sabotaging the private sector and the wealth of the nation.

    The perfect vehicle for high wasteful spending is of course, Net Zero, The cost of this unilateral “solution” to the CAGW lie, will be far greater than all of the “big 3” combined. Even ignoring the costs of renewables, energy rationing and de-industrialisation the National Grid is requesting £200bn by 2035 for the decarbonisation of our electricity and in addition upgrades to all our local grids will be necessary for evs, heat pumps and the ToUTs (Time of Use Tariffs) which are claimed to give us cheap energy when the wind is blowing.

    Since the latest NG ESO FES (2024) calls for considerable “customer engagement” and “behavioural change” (impoverishment and freedom restrictions) to achieve Net Zero it is time we had a referendum on the issue.

  20. a-tracy
    August 13, 2024

    By the way, care in the community to ‘save money’ isn’t worth the risk to the rest of us.

    How many people do the CQC have on their books where psychiatrists have noted this past two years that “no insight or remorse and the danger is that this will happen again and perhaps x will end up killing someone”?

  21. Keith from Leeds
    August 13, 2024

    If Civil Servants blocked ideas to save money, why were they not sacked? Equally, Andrew Bailey should have been sacked for failing to act early to contain inflation. The Conservatives deserved to lose because they ignored their own supporters and did everything to waste an 80-seat majority. It seems to me that no one in government, either ministers or civil servants, has the slightest interest in saving or getting value for money!

    Off Topic – Why are Western leaders not calling for 10 or 12 Arab nations to take 50,000 refugees each from Gaza,
    especially families with children? That would take 500,000 to 600,000 people out of the horror of Gaza and give them a chance of a better life.

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      August 13, 2024

      +1. On Gaza.

  22. glen cullen
    August 13, 2024

    While reading today’s diary two things strung to mind, social-engineering and government-intervention 
..Traits of the Labour party and most communist states 
It shows just how much the Tory parliamentary party moved to the left

    1. The Prangwizard
      August 13, 2024

      I have tried to state my thoughts on Starmer’s domestic political philosophies and control of personal expressions, and actions that do not suit him. He has kept his aims hidden so far but much can be seen, especially his own status.

      I think he is an admirer of the old Soviet Union. But I have not been allowed to mention one of the names over there.

  23. majorfrustration
    August 13, 2024

    Its time to leave the country.

  24. Keith from Leeds
    August 13, 2024

    While I entirely agree with your comments and know you have been making these points for a long time, can I add another one? Surely, the cost of Immigration should be on your list. Our Government, both Labour and Conservative, has allowed in about 7,000,000 immigrants in the last 23 years and appears to be doing nothing about it.
    What is the cost of that?

    Reply Yes a point I often make

    1. glen cullen
      August 13, 2024

      125 illegal economic /criminals arrived in the UK yesterday from the safe country of France 
.At what cost indeed

  25. villaking
    August 13, 2024

    Whilst I know you would not agree with the BoE, what is their supposed reason for selling off bonds at a loss?

    Reply They have never made a convincing case

    1. glen cullen
      August 13, 2024

      Thought it was to break the government and to get rid of Liz

  26. paul
    August 13, 2024

    This is a GDP economy so waste is needed to keep GDP high to the mount you borrow at the moment they like to keep it below 100% and number 5 at the G7 where as a GPC economy you might be G7 and below 90% debt and saving money with people getting a bigger cut. No doubt debt and waste will have rise to keep the number 5 place on GDP basis, thats all you need to do to turn the economy around is go to a GPC basis and the people do the wasting instead of the Gov so how you stop people from wasting to much, Education could be a lot better and will need to be going forward. At the moment Education is substanded the three Rs are alright but short on life skills.

  27. The Prangwizard
    August 13, 2024

    In terms of performance, whatever the practice and behaviours in past years has been, it must be abandoned.

    Civil Service leaders now have enormous power and independence and have often departed from being independent.

    They need to to be named and questioned relentlessly over their actions. They must no longer be allowed to hide behind Ministers who should not be blamed by the media. Ministers have little control over them who they often defy or ignore.

    I wonder how they will behave now with a party they like.

    1. glen cullen
      August 13, 2024

      Ex heads of the civil service now head up a great many of the quangos; that control our government policy …..we’ve witnessed a coup without seeing it

  28. The Prangwizard
    August 13, 2024

    Apologise for the words ‘and have often departed from being independent’ for not removing.

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