The government says it brings change. It wants national renewal without describing what this looks like or how it happens.
They promised to stop the small boats by appointing a new Border Commander. Conservatives had already done that. The Labour one will be the boss of the Conservative one, but as yet there is no legislation to give them any new powers.Meanwhile numbers arriving have gone up
They said they will set up Great British Energy and a National Wealth Fund to boost investment in renewable power. The Conservatives had set up U.K. Infrastructure Ltd and the British Business bank to do that. Ironically as they have a corporate structure and powers they have to implement the same Labour policy until the government manages to set up the renamed bodies.
They think regulating landlords more will help the housing problems. They have decided to take over the bad Conservative bill and make it worse. Their Bill will cut the supply of homes by more.
They say they are ending austerity. Instead they do the opposite, cutting pensioner benefits and threatening many with tax rises. They claim Conservatives starved public service of money when Conservatives put through huge money and real increases in NHS spending. The issue is how do you boost productivity and quality and manage the money better.
They say they inherited Ā£22 bn of unfunded spending but refuse to itemise the bill or provide any evidence. They have increased public sector wages by Ā£10 bn which is unfunded.
They carry on with creeping full rail nationalisation with no plan to boost fare revenue and cut the huge losses. They grant a big pay award to well paid drivers without negotiating any productivity gain.
They sound like an Opposition with a majority. They criticise what government is doing and blame past Ministers. They criticise the economy and then seem surprised when confidence falls. They criticise the public for our behaviours.
When will they show how they will stop illegal migration, slash NHS waiting lists and get the economy Ā back to being the fastest growing of the G 7 as it was in the first half of 2024 after a slow patch.
September 25, 2024
Good morning.
I think this government is more about using the soundbites generated here in the media to cover what is really going on. The slow dismatling of this country. And by that, I mean England. Expect a lot of stories to fill the pages and the airwaves while they busy themselves creating alternative forms of government, all under the radar.
Blair acheived his revolution of the UK Consitution and the dismatling of the UK by slowly introducing his ‘Reforms’ such as the Supreme Court and laws such as the Human Rights Act and the Equalities Act. All designed to undermine government.
This lot will be no different. We see the ‘reforms’ to the HoL with the removal of the Life Peers, the last vestages of decent.
Banana Republic here we come.
September 25, 2024
They’ve stated quite clearly that Labour want to take over more control of our lives!
Communism!
September 25, 2024
The idea of a āpeerageā is absurd. The idea of a ālife peerā is beyond absurd. I prefer democracy. I wish we had one.
September 25, 2024
None of the above is something like the answer. This is a huge majority Government in office less than 3 months that has no confidence in itself whatsoever – rightly so.
The Liverpool coverage confirms this – an utterly tone deaf collection of in thrall zealots who are shackled to the incessant fallout from the Winter Fuel Allowance howler, from even Unite..
Pull up a chair and watch the show.
September 25, 2024
Labour are a party of activists and that is why they will never sound like a government. Their priorities are enforcing social change (the way they see it) and enjoying power (and all the perks and gifts). It is Animal Farm in action.
If they were behaving like a government, Kier Starmer would commission every one of his ministers to perform a root and branch review of their departments for efficiency gains. He would transmit those gains to income, VAT and corporation tax cuts and stimulate the economy. From the enlarged tax pool which the economic growth creates, he would pay down the current 100% debt to GDP ratio (so we are financially able to handle the next unforeseeable crisis without going bankrupt there and then or thereafter).
But that is all Conservative thinking and we will never see that from a party of activists. As long as Labour are in power Britain will carry on getting hurt.
September 25, 2024
Well said. Except for the last line which should say …. “as long as any branch of the Westminster Uni-Party (in hock to the WEF) is in power, Britain will carry on getting hurt.”
September 25, 2024
Be grateful that Johnson is not in power. He want USD 1 TRILLION for Ukraine and immediate NATO membership so that Article 5 is triggered. (The Spectator article – what ex PM of the U.K. writes in the Spectatorš³?)
Makes Starmer look like a statesman with a plan!
September 25, 2024
100% Agree. It is a bit worse than just neo-socialism, because they have the ‘Net Zero’ 2030 dogma to support all their loony actions, you can hear the bleating already. Second, they have soooo much less financial headroom to play stupid with. So, the decline into financial and social dystopia will take only a year or two, rather than a generation.
September 25, 2024
The Conservatives had 14 years to carry out root and branch reforms and didn’t. It is not just Labour that is unfit to govern.
September 25, 2024
Reform thinking!
September 25, 2024
Everything they are doing is exactly the wrong direction of travel. Net zero, more taxes, more immigration, more state, more red tape, more market rigging in education, landlord/tenant, energy, schools, transport, universities, bankingā¦ even scrapping the universities free speech bill.
I have never felt any great desire to riot, but the more we heard from the dreadful Two Tier Kier lying about the blatant Two Tier policing and justice and how we are all far right – then more I felt I should consider protesting.
Starsi Starmer, Two Tier Kier needs to go and needs take his sausages with him. The blame however lies with the Consocialists Cameron – Sunak.
September 25, 2024
Meanwhile scooter phone grabbing thefts in London are totally out of control. I know of so many victims just in the last few months. Even more than the number of Covid vaccines heart issue victims I know personally which is four.
Last time I was at London Bridge station I also saw two professional shoplifters sweeping goods from small shops into huge plastic bag and running off. This in the space of ten minutes. Totally out of control. Taxes the highest for 70 years public services virtually non existent. Often the public services that are delivered are entirely negative too – net zero, the road blocks, the vast market riggings listed aboveā¦
Taxation is theft, this can sometimes be justified when the government deliver some needed services of any value that are better delivered by the state like law and order, protection of property. Alas the UK state sector so rarely does this or even tries to.
September 25, 2024
Dear Sir John,
Can’t argue with any of that. The comment of an “opposition with a majority” is succinctly put.
Completely off topic – will you be on J R-M’s show tonight?
Reply. Yes
September 25, 2024
Reply to reply
Thank goodness for that!
Something to look forward to. Some sense and sanity!
September 25, 2024
I shall look forward to it – thank you
September 25, 2024
I saw Cooper on stage yesterday, I wish I hadn’t. She criminally slandered my parents, my friends, family and tens of millions of British citizens. Her and Labour’s racially infused politics is without question the most disturbing and sinister development in British politics for centuries. It has the capacity to fracture this nation,. to subjugate certain identities, to destroy their history and to silence them into invisibility. In effect to neutralise their very identity and sense of place.
Indigenous people deserve legal protection from Labour’s racism and extremism.
The Tories had the chance to criminalise Critical Race Theory, they bottled it. That decision will haunt this country for generations.
September 25, 2024
Indeed Cooper Balls is truly dire. What an appalling selection of Ministers Two Tier Kier, Stasi Starmer, very dim Lammy, Ed mad zealot Miliband and Cooper-Balls two lawyers two PPE. Plus we have another PPE chap at health who seems to think we should retain Lucy Letbyās clearly unsafe conviction so as not to upset the alleged victims relatives.
The truly revolting Angela Eagle was even worse than Cooper-Balls effectively calling nearly everyone racist.
The recent David Starkey videos are pretty much spot on – on this.
September 25, 2024
Not just the capacity, Dom, the intent and the actual programme being implemented.
Those who voted Reform in the election are not responsible for the dire position we’re now in: Reform UK called out the woke-progressive agenda for what it was. Now it’s being totally honest with the voters and saying if you want any improvement, it will come with us in power in 2029, not before. And certainly not with the Tories who shared so much of Labour’s woke-progressive ethos.
September 25, 2024
What on earth did she say?
September 25, 2024
Small boats, lack of investment, housing problems, austerity, unfunded spending, huge losses. Yes, terrible. And all of it the result of 14 years of Conservative mis-management. Labour has been in power for ten weeks
September 25, 2024
Stock in the UK shop stays rotting.
Labour change the labels, presenting worsening items as fresh-grown, expecting people to buy them at higher prices.
September 25, 2024
I’m not sure which good policies Two-Tier-Free-Gear-No-Idea-Keir and his cohorts are making worse. They didn’t inherit any good ones from the previous branch of the Westminster Uni-Party.
They do, however, have a special talent for identifying additional ways to criticise, nanny, coerce and control us …. the latest apparently being an attempt to restrict pub opening times (since denied) so that “the peasants” have less time to down an additional pint and will go home and to bed when Nanny thinks they should …… to “save the NHS, natch.”
It obviously doesn’t occur to the Puritans that (a) this will drive even more pubs out of business and hammer more nails into the Hospitality Industry and (b) anyone who wants to sink another pint in limited time, will just drink the previous ones a bit quicker.
I predict the next Command and Control Policy from the Puritans will be legislation to restrict the Units of Alcohol which Licensed Premises can permit any individual to drink in one visit ….. thus encouraging a pub crawl š
September 25, 2024
Agreed JR, what sad state of affairs we have with this lot in charge for perhaps the next 5 years.
Can only hope they self combust, but who would take their place.
Reform have the policies and drive, but not the manpower, and will not have for at least a few years.
Conservatives and LibDems are both hopeless and rudderless.
September 25, 2024
They have made the mistake of making a few of their promises measurable: fastest growth in G7, cut NHS waiting lists, stopping the boats, Ā£300 off my fuel bill. Let’s see, I expect it will turn out these weren’t promises at all but merely ambitions. As to when the inevitable crisis comes I am not sure but they are rather relying on it not being a very cold winter.
September 25, 2024
Labour is better at comms – they have been knocked off their perch by the revelations of how grasping their shadow ministers are and how willing they are to overlook the motivations for donations – but the work of “doing good” and “doing something” in an authoritarian manner reassures the electorate.
Conservatives and Reform need to shift the Overton window away from cradle tot he grave support towards personal responsibility. Starving children to misquote Jesus will always be with us, maybe it is better to discourage procreation than to try and solve it.
September 25, 2024
John McDonnell, Corby’s shadow chancellor is quoted as saying:
“I was elated, absolutely elated when Labour was elected, and you know in those first weeks Iāve been encouraged. If you look at the stuff and Keir mentioned some of it today: rail renationalisation, the bus regulation, the restoration of trade union rights ā all drawn actually from manifestos in 2017 and 2019. But we mustnāt say that.ā
Perhaps that is why there wasn’t much said, or needed to be added, in the 2024 manifesto. It had already been said before If you possess skills in demand, or possess the “wealth” that is about to be removed from you, then it is time to vote with your feet and wallet and move to more tax friendly climes.
September 25, 2024
Strangely enough I rather admire Labour for wasting no time in implementing their version of modern socialism, in sharp contrast to the absence of commitment from the Tory government post EU Referendum. Theyāre enjoying it too – winding up people like Messrs Redwood and Lifelogic by saying the state is ātaking back controlā!
September 25, 2024
In reponse to Sir John’s request concerning info on renewable electricity pricing, here is a brief on why renewable electricity is cheaper than fossil fuel electricity. Unfortunately, this is a complex subject which requires a longer post.
Under the current āmarginal cost pricing systemā, the wholesale price of electricity is set by the most expensive method needed to meet demand (usually burning gas). However, the costs of renewable generation have significantly decreased over the past decade and the proportion of electricity generated from the different sources has changed over time in favour of renewables. Renewable electricity generation has become increasingly cheap, with prices declining as capacity and wind turbine efficiency increased.
The UK is part of the European electricity grid. Marginal cost pricing is the mechanism by which electricity is priced, usually over half hour periods, and is mainly dependent on electricity demand.
Between 2010 and 2021, the global average cost of electricity generation for a renewable generator over its lifetime (including building and operating costs) declined by 88% for solar photovoltaic (solar panels), 68% for onshore wind and 60% for offshore wind (source; https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/why-is-cheap-renewable-electricity-so-expensive/)
The last government said it will investigate how to separate electricity prices from gas prices with it’s “Review of Electricity Market Arrangements” – creating separate markets for renewable and fossil-fuel generated electricity, so renewable energy prices can be set independently from gas. It also wanted reform of the capacity market to increase low-carbon flexibility technologies that are more responsive to changes in demand and supply, such as electricity storage.
The cheapest and most efficient electricity storage system by far will be the projected large number of EVs (5 million is spoken of) connected to the grid.
Reply Once again you fail to deal with the full and true costs. we can only use wind and solar because we have a whole fleet of gas power stations on stand by. It is obviously dearer to only use your gas power stations when wind and sun let you down. You also need more grid capacity for interruptible wind power produced out at sea or far from the main centres of use. Gas prices per unit of power used are far cheaper than electricity which is one of the reasons why people keep the gas boiler. The cost of stand by power is a cost of renewables. The renewables have also been given subsidies, with high taxes on fossil fuels.
September 25, 2024
So far, our shiny new government look as incompetent as the rusty old last one. Who’d a thought it ……..
September 25, 2024
Hi sir John
There seemed a lot of people hand clapping and cheering for the labour party , why are there no protests out side the labour conference? Every government it seems has to repair the damage done by the previous government BUT it’s the hard working people of this country that have to pay and suffer for it.
Seems like the one putting nothing in but doing all the taking are better off
There are never any good times it been the same all my life and at 78 years old like thousands of others we are getting a bit weary of it
God help our grandchildren and their children thank you