Rebuilding a coalition for prosperity and success

Yesterday I talked about why US national income per head is double that of the EU and why the U.K. is only 20% above the EU. Since 2000 the U.K. has allowed itself to waste too much money in the public sector, allowed public sector productivity to plunge since Covid, allowed a disastrous Bank of England to twice put us through boom/ bust money policies and adopted far to many laws, rules and high taxes.

If Conservatives/ Reform are going to oust this Labour government and get us back on the road to prosperity and freedom a lot has to change. One or other of the parties needs to carry most support or they need to do a deal. The agenda to win is easier to define than how to resolve the splits over the vote.

We need policies that make it easier to be self employed, to start and grow a small business, to save and vest at home, to exploit our own natural resources, to restore national self sufficiency in energy, to strengthen our defence and base national security on greater industrial capability at home, to help more people to buy a home of their own, to drastically reduce migration levels of people into low paid jobs and of illegals.

58 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    October 1, 2024

    Indeed a deal is needed given FPTP voting. Sunak should have done one instead of throwing the towel in six months early. Instead of lying? about the vaccines being unequivocally safe and giving us the highest taxes for 70+ years and the lunacy of net zero.

    So Boris finally accepts that Covid came from Wuhan lab, after gain of function experiments, and that the lockdowns did far more harm than good as was very clear almost from the outset. Perhaps soon he will look at the abundant stats worldwide that show that the Covid “vaccines” did far more harm than good too. Ineffective, dangerous and for young people and people who had had covid totally unnecessary even had they been safe and effective.

    Reply
    1. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2024

      This the day after UK steel production was sacrificed on the alter of net zero. Use of coal worldwide is now higher than it has ever been. There is no climate emergency what so ever. Even a doubling of CO2 from the current low levels would be a net good. We are governed by moronic PPE loons like Miliband & Sunak and History loons like Lord Gummer, Classicists Boris & his barmy wife and Geography dopes like Now Baroness is it Theresa May. Are they on the make or do they actually believe in this lunacy?

      Reply
      1. Donna
        October 1, 2024

        They’re incentivised to “believe” the nonsense.

        Reply
      2. David
        October 1, 2024

        We badly need a mechanism to ensure scientific integrity among those who advise governments. It is seriously lacking in all fields.

        The physicist Dr Steven Koonin (who had a career in the private sector, academia and the US government) had a plea for this at the start of his 2022 book ‘Unsettled’. He discusses ‘climate science’ at length. Intelligent non-scientists (like JR) should be able to follow it too. The models on which UK present ‘climate change’ and indeed ‘net zero’ policy is based are very unreliable.

        I am slowly moving to the conclusion that many ‘experts’ in this field are being dishonest because it is the only way that they can keep their well-paid academic job, status and power. Success now depends more on obedience than integrity. The majority of the climate change dissenters are emeritus professors or other people who are not that far from retirement. So if they really have to, they can tell the university authorities to take a running jump.

        Before 1988, all UK university lecturers, senior lecturers and professors had tenure (a.k.a. academic freedom of speech.) Why was it abolished?

        Reply
  2. Brian Tomkinson
    October 1, 2024

    Trust in the Conservative Party has gone. We no longer have a proper functioning democracy we are governed by charlatans and rogues who work for others and themselves instead of those whom they purport to represent.

    Reply
    1. Ian wragg
      October 1, 2024

      We are ruled by politicians following UN/ WEF instructions.
      Destruction of the economy is the driving force behind net zero formally adopted by traitorous May and Millibrains CCA again enthusiastically followed by the tories.
      We all know the solution but that doesn’t chime with the politicians targets.

      Reply
      1. glen cullen
        October 1, 2024

        …and the UN employs senior Hamas & Hezbollah ….a broken world government

        Reply
    2. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2024

      Trust in almost all politicians. We only trust that most will do entirely the wrong things and if their lips are moving they are either lying or perhaps saying something so obviously true that it is not even worth saying.

      Reply
  3. K
    October 1, 2024

    “Small businesses”

    Once a nation of mighty industry.

    Labour would have had a far smaller majority (or even failed) had Tory MPs got out of the way of Reform.

    The Tory Party IS the problem. It is staffed by a small group of powerful men who are anarchists and in it for the thrill not giving one jot for the voter or the country.

    Reply
  4. Sharon
    October 1, 2024

    Frank Haviland writes about the English Channel being a natural moat for hundreds of years, and asks why in 2024 we are no longer able to keep out invaders.

    That logic applies to your blog…. why?

    A good question! Why have we outsourced our ability to heat ourselves and see in the dark?
    Why are we making it so difficult to have a business or invest in Britain?
    Why is everything so highly taxed?
    Why have farmers (throughout Europe) been partially ousted from doing their job, of supplying food?
    There’s a lot of unanswered ‘why’s’ to a lot of illogical but harmful actions of recent and present governments.

    The only positive is that even those who have pushed these ridiculous moves, are starting to look on and gasp, “oh, I didn’t expect….. that!” We need a few more to open their eyes and ‘see!’

    Preferably, before the damage is permanent!

    Reply
    1. Donna
      October 1, 2024

      Why? Because the UN/WEF demand it and the treacherous “deal” with the EU requires that we don’t compete.

      Reply
    2. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2024

      See in the dark is not such a problem In 1800, a candle providing one hour’s light cost six hours’ work. In the 1880s, the same light from a kerosene lamp took 15 minutes’ work to pay for. In 1950, it was eight seconds. Today, it’s half a second.

      Warmth, fertilisers, transport fuels etc. are however rather more expensive

      Reply
    3. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2024

      Gove the socialist, Greta disciple Engish Grad & now to be editor of The Spectator wanted to ban wood burning stoves too to make sure the poor freezed. Though it seems is is fine with him to burn wood (young coal) at Drax. A totally insane way to genereate electricity. He also wanted VAT on school fees, Perhaps he should joint Labour why what he ever a Tory MP?

      Reply
    4. Mickey Taking
      October 2, 2024

      Is this a first for me, quoting the Bible? ‘First cast out the beam from your eye, and then you will see clearly to cast out the splinter from the eye of your brother. Matthew 7:5.

      Reply
  5. Donna
    October 1, 2024

    Yesterday, J R-M suggested that the new Not-a-Conservative-Party-Leader (when selected) should do a deal which will allow Reform to challenge Labour unopposed in the 98 seats where it came second to Labour in July.

    I very much doubt that any of the 4 candidates will even consider it ….. and anyway, who on earth would want to do a deal with WEF-sponsored Badenoch or the Globalists Tugendhat or Cleverly.

    Jenrick appears to be the only Conservative on offer but he has stated “no deal” with Reform. He, like Badenoch, seems to think the NaCP is entitled to our votes. He, like Badenoch, will find out the hard way that he is wrong.

    Reply
    1. Peter
      October 1, 2024

      Jenrick is being promoted by the windbag David Starkey. Starkey claims Jenrick has seen the light and will be a good leader.

      I do not trust Jenrick and believe that, like others, he will say whatever suits to get ahead.

      Reply
      1. Donna
        October 1, 2024

        “The windbag” Starkey knows more about British history and Constitutional development than pretty much anyone else. He has at least explained in some detail his reason for supporting Jenrick – which is rather more than most people in the media have done about any of the candidates.

        Reply
      2. Lifelogic
        October 2, 2024

        I do not trust any of them they are all pro Net Zero. Has Jenrick seen the light or has he just seen the best way to win leadership as we say with Cameron when he pretended to be a Cast Iron, low tax at heart, EU sceptic then he appointed and elivated the dire Baroness Warsi as party Chairman.

        Reply
    2. Donna
      October 1, 2024

      Reported today: “He (Cleverly) told a fringe event last night: “Would I merge with Reform? No. No. No mergers, no deals, we don’t do that. We’re the Conservative Party.”

      Jenrick said “no merger.” He didn’t say “no deal.” 🙂

      Reply
      1. John Hatfield
        October 1, 2024

        “We’re the Conservative Party.”
        But you’re not.

        Reply
    3. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2024

      All four potential leaders support the lunacy of net zero. Perhaps the best outcome is the dire lefty EU enthusiast Tugenhat and then the sensible Tory MPs (circa 20 at best) leaving the party for Reform.

      They say pathetic things like “the Conservative Party lost the trust of voters”. No they lied to their voters in four manifestos and deliberately kicked then the teeth. They did not even try to keep their promises, they only one they tried to keep what the insanity of Net Xero. They deliberately betrayed their voters and got everything wrong with Covid too. Even now Sunak lies (or is very ignorant) about the safely of the Covid Vaccines.

      Reply
    4. Lifelogic
      October 1, 2024

      Jenerick reminds me of Cast Iron Dave Cameron when he pretended to be a low tax at heart EU sceptic in order to become the Tory leader.

      He was nothing of the sort and disaster ensued.

      Reply
      1. Everhopeful
        October 1, 2024

        I remember feeling so happy when Cameron got in.
        I had no idea at all that politicians were not always terribly truthful.

        Reply
        1. Mickey Taking
          October 1, 2024

          You sweet trusting soul, has the naivety now long gone?

          Reply
    5. Sharon
      October 1, 2024

      Jenrick is now saying he wants Farage and Reform – gone! (Bit infantile, I thought!)

      Reply
  6. Ian B
    October 1, 2024

    The Conservative Party is not going to get us back on track (neither is Reform) as they no longer understand the UK People or Conservatism. The Conservative Party disenfranchised the Conservative voter.
    The leadership contenders are at best more of the same continuity or divisive on religious or nationality background. Your nationality and religion can’t be there when it is at odds with the mainstream you wish to represent – it will haunt you and be used as a stick to beat you with. There has to be neutrality, just as the with UK people – the Conservative mainstream all of whom have been disenfranchised. They (the candidates) don’t look like (in deed and speech, that is) let represent the mainstream of the UK which is Conservative to its core – the candidates are a pretense, not real at best. They are a continuation of the wreaking ball of Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak all intending to flow with more of the same failure. Why
, they don’t believe and can’t find it in themselves to acknowledge their part of the collective failure of the recent administration.

    Reply
  7. Original Richard
    October 1, 2024

    Prosperity and success is not feasible whilst we pursue the Marxist UN/WEF false climate crisis/emergency agenda and its “solution” Net Zero. Net Zero is designed to impoverish the democratic West by transitioning from cheap, reliable hydrocarbon energy to expensive chaotically intermittent renewables which forces upon the populations “customer engagement” and “behavioural change” aka the rationing of energy, food and transport.

    The ignoring of nuclear energy, the only low CO2 emitting energy which is affordable and reliable and the lack of activists’ protest against CO2 emissions from China, India, Indonesia et al is proof that increasing levels of CO2 are not a danger to our existence.

    I cannot see any deal between Reform and the Conservative Party whilst the Conservative Party continues to follow the UN/WEF Uniparty line of CAGW/Net Zero, and mass immigration.

    At last with the formation of the Reform Party the electorate finally have a choice.

    Reply
    1. Sharon
      October 1, 2024

      @Original Richard

      +1

      Reply
  8. Abigail
    October 1, 2024

    The “Conservative” Party is not conservative. No true conservative is likely to vote for this socialist shower. In my view it is finished. The number of true conservatives in it could be counted on the fingers of one hand. If it joined up with Reform I doubt if anybody would vote Reform, either. We need to start again, with people of integrity and insight.

    A big problem is that very few of the younger generation can think for themselves. The vast majority follow the herd, the zeitgeist, and can’t even parse a sentence. That matters, because without the linguistic facility it is profoundly difficult to formulate a new thought, a new idea. Because they can’t tell the time, rather than teaching them such a basic skill they are removing clocks from classrooms. How soon will they be replacing text books with picture books?

    This has happened within the last 25 years, and it’s a disgrace.

    Reply
    1. Mickey Taking
      October 1, 2024

      ‘very few of the younger generation can think for themselves.’
      That has been true since I was a lad, with some recollection from 1950s….
      Everyone I knew in the 60s grudgingly voted like their parents.

      Reply
  9. Bloke
    October 1, 2024

    The way Reform are heading, they’ll attract more and more Conservative and Labour voters. Doing a deal with the rump of the Conservative MPs would be going backward when voters are destined to dump them anyway. They want popular support from enlightened voters, not just acquiring recycled Tory MPs promising to change their errant ways.

    Reply
  10. Bryan Harris
    October 1, 2024

    If Conservatives/ Reform are going to oust this Labour government and get us back on the road to prosperity and freedom a lot has to change.

    Indeed a great deal. Conservatives:

    – have to stop thinking like labour – they have to be very different from those that filled the Tory benches these last few decades;
    must recognize that Popular Capitalism was their finest hour, and be determined to recreate it;
    – must be true to their principles and their voters;
    – have to be able to think for themselves and never follow the party line blindly – they must always question briefing papers for bias;
    – should never ever cancel members who expose the truth – Tories as a whole must have complete integrity;
    – must see how globalism was almost the death of democracy;
    – must take powers back from quangos, make decisions themselves and be fully responsible for their action.

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      October 1, 2024

      @Bryan Harris – So what you are saying is the political group in Parliament calling themselves Conservatives should move aside at let real Conservatives in the HoC. They wont because they are not listening, fighting the Countries Conservative majority is the only thing they understand

      Reply
      1. Bryan Harris
        October 2, 2024

        If that’s what it takes then those that cannot operate as true Conservatives should get out of the way!

        Reply
  11. ChrisS
    October 1, 2024

    Listening to delegates at the conference this morning on the Today programe, there was no appetite for a joint Conservative/Reform agenda. One delegate said that there was no chance whatsoever of Nigel Farage becoming Prime Minister. She repeated it – twice. I’m not so convinced she is right, although I could see Richard Tice as a more likely candidate. He is certainly a better prospect than any of the current four Conservative hopefuls.

    There appears to be no sense of realism at all at the conference. The 4.1m that voted for Reform in July are not coming back and millions more like me aren’t going to vote for the Conservatives again, either.

    The party has got to come to terms with this new reality and be prepared to do a deal. Not a merger, but an electoral pact that would benefit both parties at the next election. JR-M has seen the sense in this, why is the rest or the party so far behind the curve ?

    Reply
    1. Ian B
      October 1, 2024

      @ChrisS – and how many millions saw through the charades being played out and recognised they had been disenfranchised in their own Country?

      Reply
  12. agricola
    October 1, 2024

    For the first time you link Conservatives with Reform. You say they need to do a deal. Only from the the result of the 2029 election will that possibility arise.

    Before that, the current conservative party in Parliament must change its spots. Whoever takes control of the party must ensure that whoever is offered as a candidate is in fact a Conservative. Too few in Parliament in fact are. George Galloway got it right when he described conservative/labour as two cheeks of the same backside.

    Then every Reformer will remember that, Nigel having facilitated Boris’s landslide in 2019, was badly let down when Brexit was not achieved in a meaningful form. Were I in fact reform in coalition I would insist that it was my party controlling the key offices of PM , Home Office, Treasury , Defence. On your own admission conservatives have failed in these roles, they just need to accept it with grace. I think Reform, once bitten, are far too cautious to contemplate coalition and are intent on an outright win in 2029. Coalition would mean dillution were it with current consocialists.

    Having begun thinking in the way expressed, why not bite the bullet and talk to Nigel and Richard. They could benefit from your thinking.

    Reply This is not a new thought of mine. It is obvious former Conservative voters went Reform or stayed at home as I warned Ministers they would. It is obvious for either Conservatives or Reform to win the next election they need to reach a pact or one of them needs to knock the other out of the running early. I publish my advice so any political leader is free to take it up.

    Reply
    1. agricola
      October 1, 2024

      Reply to Reply,
      Reform are largely of Conservative inclination as are the Conservatives at large in the UK. The so called conservative party elected to the Commons is largely not Conservative as George Galloway so accurrately pointed out. Logically, until the conservative party of the Commons reverts to its roots it will be a real danger to Conservatism in the country. In such a situation it would be politically fatal for Reform to be associated in any meaningful way with them. The 4+ million who voted for Reform would not forgive such action. Perhaps that is the cunning plan. It is to the conservatives in the Commons to prove they are Conservative.

      Reply
    2. ChrisS
      October 1, 2024

      There is nothng on the horizon that will allow either Reform or the Conservatives to knock out the other.
      I suspect that if there are some byelections in the next year or two of this Parliament, the Conservatives will take a real hammering and Reform will take the lion’s share of the centre-right vote.

      Even if that were to happen, I think that the degree of arrogance on display in Birmingham will prevent the Conservative party from seeing the writing on the wall. Maybe they will have to lose even more spectacularly to Labour in 2029 before they will see sense. They could end up with fewer seats that the LibDim and Reform.

      Reply
    3. Ian B
      October 1, 2024

      @Reply – how can there be a pact when one group wants the continuity that caused their failure. What as perceived as the centre, Reform( their rhetoric doesn’t support that image) has no common ground with the UniParty without the ideology

      Reply
    4. Ian B
      October 1, 2024

      @agricola – ‘the current conservative party in Parliament must change its spots’ they as yet don’t recognise it is they that failed, they keep spinning their ownership of continuity first

      Reply
  13. dixie
    October 1, 2024

    We need policies as you describe but must also to encourage medium to large businesses to establish, grow and remain here.
    We also need consumers to be realistic – there is a harsh price to pay when you buy cheap imported goods.
    Government, businesses and consumers need to buy British goods and services.
    We need to re-shore industries and commerce, what is the point of investing in steel production if there are no baseline customers and business in this country.

    Reply
  14. The Prangwizard
    October 1, 2024

    Off topic,

    but will someone ask the leadership candidates why they each believe England and the English should, and are, being denied the same identity rights, protection and promotion currently enjoyed by Scotland and the Scottish.

    Reply
    1. Donna
      October 1, 2024

      Because the British Establishment wants to federalise the UK.

      The problem is that England is “too big” with 80% of the population. So they are steadily imposing regional devolution on England, to break it up into chunks more “appropriate” for a federalised state.

      The latest to be proposed was announced a few days ago and will be called Heart of Wessex, covering Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. Of course the residents of those three counties haven’t been consulted and given their approval, but in our pretendy-democracy that’s irrelevant.

      Reply
    2. Derek
      October 1, 2024

      A good question. Why in Great Britain, can you be Scottish, Welsh and Irish but not English?
      Government forms do not have a box for the English but applications for the Olympic games do.

      Reply
  15. Hugh
    October 1, 2024

    “What is done in the dark will be brought to the light”. The spiders web that is the EU was stealthily wrapped around us over the decades, dressed as a trade arrangement. The global bureaucrats in the UN, WHO, WEF and others I have never even heard of, are up to the same anti-democratic tricks. Then there is the corrupted/biased main stream media and attempts to gag the free media for allowing “hate speech”, the health industry, the Davos-loving politicians, the Nudge Unit, techno-cons such as net zero, malign foreign states undermining democracy via social media, and the settled “Science”. There’s more I’m sure that goes on in the dark.
    So it matters little whether or not we vote and for whom. That’s just a temporary distraction whilst the globalists quietly work on creating the kind of world they want. Democracy, as we understand it, is not compatible with their central control.

    Reply
  16. Berkshire Alan
    October 1, 2024

    The problem is John most of the present Conservative Mp’s do not support traditional Conservative policies/values any more, thus the brand is now tainted, so why on earth would Reform want a link up with them.
    Perhaps those few present Conservative members who do think in the traditional manner should think about joining Reform as a candidate, or cross the floor after perhaps giving the new leader a try first.

    Only viewed a little of the Party conferences as i was abroad, but the atmosphere and energy of the Reform conference, from the little I viewed, really showed enthusiasm, all the other Parties were simply boreing dead ducks by comparison.

    Reply
  17. Mike Wilson
    October 1, 2024

    Mr. Redwood, of the remaining Tory MPs, could you hazard a guess as to how many are ‘with you’ – in terms of what needs to be done?

    Reply
  18. forthurst
    October 1, 2024

    The Tory Party’s foreign policy is fundamentally wrong insofar as it simply follows that of the US State department which is run by folk who are not atypical Americans and do not represent them but instead their own clique. As a result we are supporting toxic regimes which are entirely undemocratic. The billions we have spent on arming Ukraine in a failing war intended but manifestly failing to weaken Russia at a cost of huge losses by Ukrainian men would much better have been spent on our country and protecting it from foreign invasion which at the moment is achieved by sailing halfway across the Channel or flying in for some ostensible purpose then overstaying and claiming asylum.

    Reply
  19. David Andrews
    October 1, 2024

    Have the would be leaders of the Conservative party come to terms with the rise of Reform? At least one of them seems to regard Reform voters as “their” voters and that Reform is an empty vessel. That is extremely presumptuous. Time will tell if Reform can get it’s ground operation up and running in time for next year’s local government elections. It is unwise of Conservative MPs to underestimate the challenge posed by Reform. Even Sir John Curtice thinks that the 2024 GE could be the last dominated by the Labour and Conservative parties.

    Reply
  20. glen cullen
    October 1, 2024

    Iran bombing Israel, Russia bombing Ukraine, an invasion of illegal immigrants crossing the channel …..and all the tories and labour are bothered about is net-zero

    Reply
    1. Mickey Taking
      October 1, 2024

      We’ve closed coal-mines, stopped importing it for power stations, given up steelworks, we depend on oil and interconnectors…frown on log burners. We will rue the day we don’t get 20% of electricity from the undersea cables.
      Prepare to go back a century.

      Reply
      1. Donna
        October 2, 2024

        +1
        The deliberate deconstruction of the nation.

        Reply
  21. Derek
    October 1, 2024

    It’s so obvious that the Conservatives MUST return to true conservatism with true conservative policies and true blue ideals. Without those, OUR country is doomed. But will the party members and the prospective MPs they select, be up to the job?

    Reply
    1. glen cullen
      October 1, 2024

      Not a pledge, not a manifesto, not a priority ….I want to see a conservative book of principles

      Reply
  22. Geoffrey Berg
    October 1, 2024

    There needs to be a Conservative-Reform coalition at the next General election- otherwise they will each get sufficient votes to prevent each other from winning. Yet it will be painful for many in each party and would need to be very delicately done because many Conservative voters would be loath to vote for a Reform candidate and many Reform voters would be loath to vote for a Conservative candidate. Perhaps the best approach could be in 2027 to form an emergency National Coalition to save the nation from the economic (and maybe social) emergency that Labour’s follies will have brought upon us. Such a coalition could gain great momentum and win some previous Labour and Liberal Democrat voters and win easily if it was well formulated – otherwise the prospects for the Conservative Party are dire indeed even if voters turn against Labour.

    Reply
    1. Berkshire Alan
      October 2, 2024

      GB
      The Conservatives are still in denial and in decline !

      Reform has the right policies and momentum !

      Reply
  23. Narrow Shoulders
    October 2, 2024

    Reforming the benefits system is notable by its absence as it removing any form of self id from identity politics from your list Sir John but otherwise an attractive summation of what needs to be done.

    Reply

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