How to get comments published here

General guidance

This site seeks to provide incisive and original analysis of public policy. I forecast current trends in UK and global economies and examine major themes like net zero, welfare and work, running the public sector, and the digital revolution. Anyone with good ideas or sensible criticisms is welcome.

I highlight big issues that the BBC and traditional media ignore. I have exposed the planned Ā£240 bn losses by the Bank of England, the Ā£20 bn plus productivity back hole in the UK budget, the disastrous impact of extreme net zero policies on UK industry, growth and tax revenue, and the way mass migration creates strains on housing, public services and the national budget.

This is not a political party site. It is not a site to pursue individual UK politicians or influencers for their alleged misdeeds. It is not a site for over the top partisan rhetoric for any political party

I do not usually publish anything which seeks to compare todayā€™s elected governments with Hitler, the Nazis or fascism.Generalised abuse of parties and institutions is discouraged. Ā I allow Ā contributors to advance factually incorrect or bizarre or self serving arguments for their causes and parties , but pall of letting them repeat these on too many occasions. I am not their fact checker and often disagree with the points submitted. I do not have the time to correct or counter argue in most cases.

 

The two I never publish

As they break my rules, why not find a site that is more to their liking. They are wasting more of their own time than mine.

44 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    January 12, 2025

    Rachel Reeves will launch a war on waste to stabilise public finances amid growing disquiet from her MPs over her handling of the economy. In an attempt to get back on the front foot after a week of turmoil in financial markets, the Chancellor will lead a major new drive to tackle ā€œwaste and inefficiencyā€ across the public sector which will leave ā€œno stone unturnedā€. No need to look under stones the vast waste is in plane view everywhere you care to look.

    Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the Telegraph today.

    So ditch net zero, drill, frack and mine, deregulate, fire the half the state sector that does net harm or nothing positive, cut immigration and all the immigration incentives, cut and simplify taxes, encourage more use of private schools and private medicine, encourage the rich and hard working to stay and invest rather than to leave, unblock the roadsā€¦ in short 180 degree turns on nearly on all of this governments insane policies.

    1. NigL
      January 12, 2025

      So ignoring the guidance on constant repetition then. Didnā€™t take long.

    2. Bryan Harris
      January 12, 2025

      @Lifelogic +1

      We should be so lucky – Rogue governments rarely change course.

    3. ChrisS
      January 12, 2025

      Exactly Right !
      Ditching Miliband’s insane Ā£28bn carbon capture and storage plan would allow the NI increase to be cancelled and release funds for other things. Then go on to cancel almost everything else Miliband intends to saddle us with.

      Most of all, cancel final salary schemes right across the public sector, particularly Starmer’s personal platinum plated individual scheme and that of MPs, which is also over-generous inthe extreme.
      Then reduce the Pubic sector headcount to below the level it was before the Pandemic. No exceptions, all the extra bodies have to go. Then we can start on reducing that lower number to manageable proportions.

    4. Narrow Shoulders
      January 12, 2025

      On topic (:

    5. Know-Dice
      January 12, 2025

      Come on LL next thing you will say is that spaghetti grows on trees… šŸ™„

    6. Peter
      January 12, 2025

      ‘I allow contributors to advance factually incorrect or bizarre or self serving arguments for their causes and parties , but pall of letting them repeat these on too many occasions.”

      That does not seem to apply to all posters.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        January 12, 2025

        Maybe what LL says is factually correct do you think?

  2. agricola
    January 12, 2025

    Yes you highlight problems like someone putting up targets in the butts, but you rarely offer solutions. Some glaring problems or glaring elephants you respond to by never entering the room.

    When we offer solutions to problems, to some of the more sensitive problems, you suffer a tendency to throw your toys out of the pram. You blame us who do offer solutions, because they offend your sensibilities. Put simply, you prefer to sweep offending solutions under the carpet.

    Equally you run from offending politicians who earn it via their idiocy and zealotry because they are members of the same club. They earn our contempt.

    My advice is that you start offering solutions, which we may well argue about in a constructive way. We are all too aware that UK politics are largely a fuckfest of incompetence and inaction. We want a vision beyond this. It will not be achieved by shooting at the messengers.

    Reply I offer solutions all the time. I have set out plans to grow the economy, go for cheaper energy, control migration, reform monetary policy etc. I publish other peopleā€™s solutions if they accept my rules for publication.

    1. Clough
      January 12, 2025

      Yes, you do offer solutions, Sir John, but let me put Agricola’s point a different way. Your solutions can’t be implemented, because as A. and many others commenting on this site have pointed out, the system now in place prohibits that. This was also spelt out very clearly in Liz Truss’s recent interview with Peter McCormack.

      You say you do not publish comments that seek to compare our elected government with fascism etc. But suppose our political system is, in historical terms at least, xxxx i.e. a concordat between corporate business and authoritarian politicians. Suppose we are where we are now politically, because global corporate interests (big tick, big Pharma, Eco-oligarchs) take precedence over what you are still nostalgically calling ‘elected government’. Then you would be missing something important.

      It’s understandable that a long-term MP would still uphold the virtues of Parliamentary democracy, and that’s good. But let’s not blind ourselves to the fact that the electorate can be completely conned, as was the case last July with Labour’s deceptive ‘change’ agenda. The result of that election that I see as most significant is that the majority of the electorate didn’t vote at all, or didn’t cast their vote for one of the three mainstream parties.

      1. Clough
        January 12, 2025

        Sorry, ‘Big Tech’, not tick!

      2. jerry
        January 12, 2025

        @Clough; “the system now in place prohibits [ones favored solutions]. “

        Nonsense, unless what you mean by “system” is Parliamentary democracy and/or capitalist Markets.

        If the investors and speculators, come 9am Monday, destroy the political career of Ms Reeves as Chancellor, in the same way as they did Kwarteng and then Truss, will you be crying foul of the “system”; If by some miracle there is a parliamentary majority this year that upholds a vote of censure against the democratically elected Starmer govt will you cry foul, complain about the “system”?…

        “This was also spelt out very clearly in Liz Trussā€™s recent interview with Peter McCormack. “

        Of course it was, as any personal OPINION would, even more so when defending one own political valor!

        1. Original Richard
          January 12, 2025

          jerry :

          It would be very unfair for “the investors and speculators” to “destroy the political career of Ms Reeves” as she is not in charge of our monetary pilicy and economy as Liz Truss found.

        2. Donna
          January 13, 2025

          The IMF and Bank of England destroyed Liz Truss’ political career.

    2. jerry
      January 12, 2025

      @JR reply; Except your solutions ‘today’ are almost always a variation on the solutions of ‘yesterday’ that have got us into the mess in the first place! Why was Mr Corbyn (or more specifically, Momentum) so popular, especially among the young, why is the same age group now (allegedly) gravitating towards Reform UK, because both promise to throw the status quo out the window – we need solutions fit for today, not the social, economic and world problems of the 1980s – in the same way as the 1940s consensus was out of date by 1980.

      Reply There is nothing out of date with my solutions as you will see in the USA

      1. jerry
        January 12, 2025

        @JR reply; The USA appears to be harking back to the 1930s, not 1980s Monetarism!

    3. Bloke
      January 12, 2025

      Site owners set their own standards. This site does so excellently. Moderation might on occasions seem oversensitive, to something which is simply true, or which in extreme circumstances, someone somewhere might misinterpret in a way that they could deem offensive. Even so, moderate language and good intent are better anyway for all.

  3. iain gill
    January 12, 2025

    one of my favourite radio talk show DJ’s has cut off people a few times for raising an immigration issue that I know first hand to be factually correct, which the DJ thinks is so fantastical that it must be extremist nonsense to raise it.

    that is the challenge you have with moderating a site like this John. what may look like fantastical extremist nonsense may indeed be true.

  4. jerry
    January 12, 2025

    Except Sir John your moderation, nay censorship, goes much further than you claim above. When that happens repeatedly, often when the criticism is directed at your own less thoughtful comments/replies, as happened yesterday.

    Of course you are free to delete whatever hits that nerve, but your critics might well then take your advice, go find a (social) media site that will publish their comments and then simply link back here via a URL for the context. The ball is, as always, in your court, allow strong debate and criticisms here or have it happen elsewhere, most likely beyond your knowledge, given your time constraints.

    Reply I do not delete things for criticising my views.

    1. Mickey Taking
      January 12, 2025

      reply to reply ..but you delete for stating the country of birth of somebody!

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        January 12, 2025

        The country of birth is irrelevant. Especially for the British who had a huge Empire and many Dominions. Being born in. Stan]ble does not make you a horse – as the Duke of Wellington, born in Ireland, used to point out.

        1. Donna
          January 13, 2025

          I don’t consider it irrelevant, particularly if the person’s formative years were all spent living in another country where the culture is very different to our own.

          It may not be the most important thing one should consider about the person, but it is definitely not irrelevant when considering their suitability for Senior Public Office.

        2. Mickey Taking
          January 13, 2025

          Lynn, it was making a point about ‘foreign intervention in our affairs’ – nobody was allowed to see the point made. When will Sir John refuse to publish comments made by people who were born British but comment on other countries’ affairs? Well, he doesn’t.

  5. Bob Dixon
    January 12, 2025

    Until Ministers gain control over their Ministries the Electors are wasting their time in votng.

    1. MFD
      January 12, 2025

      well said, I support that!

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      January 12, 2025

      We need to return better quality people who can become very good Ministers. We need to choose them.

  6. Cynic
    January 12, 2025

    It amazes me how often you have to tell people something for it to sink in!!

  7. Bryan Harris
    January 12, 2025

    I’ve got no problems with the guidelines although I probably do include a bit of a rant too often against anything connected to socialism in my comments.

    I appreciate the expert data we get from our host and would like to see him cover a wider area of politics, but specifically there are certain things happening now that would really welcome his honest insightful touch.

    Criticism of our host is counter productive – we need to support him in keeping this site alive. There is plenty to discuss without being personally critical.

  8. ChrisS
    January 12, 2025

    Once again, Sir John

    I would like to express my thanks provifing an opportunity to hear your views and for providing a mouthpiece to vent our own take on current events.

    Can there be any doubt that the regular contributors here would make a far better cabinet that the current lot we are saddled with ? Except for Lemming, of course !

  9. Rod Evans
    January 12, 2025

    Sir John, we commend you for providing the window through which we can comment.
    Many of us are regular participants, some multiple times on the same thread.
    What I am puzzled about when it comes to commenting is the time delay between making a comment and the publishing of it. This may be a personal issue and not common among those who express their views, but why when I comment at say 7.00 am my thoughts are in moderation most of the day then eventually being uploaded at the end of play, unedited and as written?
    What causes the delay, if the end is the same as the beginning?

    Reply I have work to do so I normally moderate early and late in the day

  10. Peter Gardner
    January 12, 2025

    “The two I never publish”?
    Something missing.

    1. Bill B.
      January 12, 2025

      Their names were edited out.

    2. Donna
      January 13, 2025

      I guess they know who they are. We don’t need to.

  11. agricola
    January 12, 2025

    Yes I concede on the economy you have been positive. The econony is the key to everything else as Bill Clinton once pointed out in language that everyone understood and remembers.
    On energy you limit your solution to using our own. Yes agreed, but not a word about the dreadful business plan that receives it from the ground at much the same cost as in the USA and then delivers it to the UK end user at three times the cost.
    On immigration very little on the incentives that encourage it, the lawyers who feed on it, a deterent that really deters or the ECHR that abets it.
    On monetary policy, how would you deal with the Ā£2.3 trillion of National Debt, possibly the largest interest/tax burdon on every tax payer in the country. Out of control because interest rates are not in government control, they are in market control.
    It is not very open minded to say that other peoples solutions only get published if they comply with your rules of engagement. Slander and libel I accept, but ridicule where earned I do not. Oh for Spitting Image and TWTWTW.

  12. Alan Paul Joyce
    January 12, 2025

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    I am afraid many of your reader’s contributions, including my own, are borne out of sheer frustration. The solutions to the problems you bring to our attention are stark-staringly obvious but like so many things, from extreme net zero policies, to stimulating growth and cutting mass migration, our leaders are hopelessly out of touch. Steeped in ideology and with little or no background, for example, in business or science, they are incapable of independent thought and analysis let alone providing workable solutions to complex issues. Thus, they rely on focus groups and spads and other so-called experts with axes to grind.

    You, yourself, have raised on many occasions the futility of closing down our oil and gas fields. Instead, we import supplies, leading to the loss of jobs and increases in CO2, yet it continues unabated.

    You should not be too harsh on contributors! Most of us care deeply about our country. Many people are beginning to understand that the mechanisms of state are not fit for purpose and the way we are doing things is wrong. We are desperately in need of the solutions you and your readers advance but they will never be implemented whilst ever politics is conducted in the way it is.

    In future, I will try to moderate my criticism of individuals, parties and institutions!

  13. Tony Willis
    January 12, 2025

    Dear Mr. Redwood,
    I enjoy reading your informative posts.
    My major concern is the current government’s resolve to “reset” with the EU.
    I agree with your post of 13/11/2020.
    Our negotiators always seem to be giving way to demands that are not, in my opinion, why we voted to leave, e.g. fishing rights.
    Do you have a view on this?
    I wish you a happy New Year
    Yours sincerely,
    Tony Willis

    1. Donna
      January 13, 2025

      Which part of “give us your fish or we cut your electricity supply” … which is what “our friend and ally” Macron told the British Government in relation to the Channel Islands?

      Because of the Net Zero nonsense and unreliable, intermittent energy we are now dependant on “our friends in the EU” for something resembling energy security.

  14. ferd
    January 12, 2025

    There have been varied and in most cases sensible comments regarding NetZero but they continue t avoid the ultimate source of this nonsense, the apparent absence of knowledge about the almost impossibility of rising CO2 having any real effect on global temperature. Yes, the whole issue is based on false science. Until that is acknowledged by all, the parties will continue to think NetZero is just a goal too far, and not that the whole plan is plain nonsense,

  15. Mike Wilson
    January 12, 2025

    Off topic. Mr. Redwood – I just listened to a short video on YouTube by a Richard J Murphy. It is 2 days old. In it he explains very clearly the points you make about the Bank of England and their c one sales. Itā€™s worth a listen and maybe a link.

    1. Mike Wilson
      January 12, 2025

      That should say ā€˜bond salesā€™. He is Professor of Accounting Practice at Sheffield University Management School.

  16. Mike Wilson
    January 12, 2025

    On topic – regarding getting comments posted – could you not at least try to ask for people to avoid endless repetition? I find it really detracts from the site.

  17. Wanderer
    January 12, 2025

    Your site, your rules.
    You are prepared to publish a lot of critical comments, and reply when appropriate. That’s more than most politicians in power would countenance. So, good on you.

    I’m still bewildered occasionally on my posts disappearing into a limbo, where they don’t appear go to you for moderation. It happened recently when I mentioned a German opposition party and it’s leader’s name; when I removed those two elements the comment went to moderation. Is there a pre-moderation filter which might account for that?

    Reply I am the filter

  18. glen cullen
    January 12, 2025

    67 criminals arrived in the UK yesterday; from the safe country of France ā€¦you didn’t hear about that on the news media

    1. Original Richard
      January 12, 2025

      GC:

      They simply don’t care.

Comments are closed.