I read that the triple lock is not affordable, and see people supporting the idea of cutting Personal Independence payments. Of all the things the government spends money on these should not be on the list for removal or reduction.
This government is discovering to its cost that cutting pensioner fuel grant was not the change people wanted. They could have saved much more by keeping their promise to smash the gangs and stop the illegal migrants needing free hotels.
It did decide to cut overseas aid. That was fine for the conservative half of the country as long as they eliminate all those politically correct grants. The remaining spend needs to be concentrated on the poorest countries and on disaster relief.
The issue to concentrate on in welfare reform is not the level of benefits those who have qualified get. They are not too high. It is how easy it is to get a sick note for life, and why the government does not put in place help to people in need to get into a job, or good healthcare to get them better.
The state pension is not generous for all that National insurance people have paid. A pensioner needs a private pension or benefit top up to meet the bills.
So how can that be paid for? By tackling easier targets and more wasteful spending. I come back to my big four. There are the nationalised losses led by the Bank of England where we could easily save £10 bn a year. There is the £10 bn a year on the self defeating net zero policies. There is a chunk of the £40 bn of lost public sector productivity to reclaim.There are the billions on subsidised homes and extra public service provision for low income and no income migrants.
No need to cut pensions and benefits. Every need to run a less wasteful public sector.
April 3, 2025
I’m delighted to learn “how easy it is to get a sick note for life”. Could you share with us how to do that?
April 3, 2025
Go to see your GP (that’s the hard part). Claim that you’re depressed and anxious; leave clutching a prescription for anti-depressants and a sick note signing you off.
April 3, 2025
No, too many people know how to get long-term sick notes already. One guy I know uses mental health after getting over testicular cancer in his late 40s. He spends about five months a year abroad in a villa.
April 3, 2025
Scallion,
Allegedly one quarter of the UK is disabled. If you want a long term sick note perhaps consider a move to an area where sick notes are commonplace.
April 3, 2025
They could also look at the legal aid that is milked by unscrupulous lawyers. Put a limit on each case. Also the over bloated House of Lords and cut that in half, as well as the Commons with far to many MP’s, none of them can justify their pay of £91000. Get rid of devolution, another expensive and failed experiment.
Let’s also look at legislation to kerb what local councils can spend on themselves. Especially executive pay.
Then there is the biggest waste of money (apart from net Zero) which is DEI departments that seem to have a grip on all walks of life and being paid a silly amount of money for dreaming up madness. Trump has seen through it, but we have nobody that will take it on. Even dear old Wokingham hit the national news with this madness. What was it, you are not allowed to say, “ hard working families” as it might offend the unemployed. How much is the Head of that ridiculous department paid. The waste in this country is astronomical, and we take the winter fuel allowance away. What a farce.
April 3, 2025
You didn’t mention that Wokingham Council pays 6 salaried staff over £100,000 pa. Bracknell has one over £200,000 pa. Think about that when paying your tax for reducing services.
April 3, 2025
You make a key point about salaried staff.
Also describing the amounts as ‘Council pays’ rather than ‘salaried staff earn’ also reveals that those people are likely to be worth less than they receive.
April 3, 2025
Good morning.
My Council Tax has gone up by 4.99%. Two thirds of that is spent on, ‘Adult Social Care.’ TWO THIRDS !!!!
The other third is spent on bins, lighting streets, parks and library etc. I cannot for the life of me understand how people can go through life and not prepare for the time when they can no longer care for themselves ? And to place the burden of responsibility on others, such as myself who, is trying to put a little by each month so I DO NOT become a burden to others.
We have far too much government and local government intervention and others in said governments wanting to be nice with other peoples money. This must STOP !!
April 3, 2025
Mark
I think you’ll find a large portion of your council tax goes to their pension fund. We in the private sector can only dream of such largesse.
April 3, 2025
I think you’re probably right, Ian, but you try and find out from the breakdown of expenditure issued by the county council just how much of each pound goes to their pension pots. The Oxfordshire County Council breakdown indicates that 60p of every pound is spent on social services but nowhere is there any indication of the cost of their pensions.
April 3, 2025
Why, you ask, do people not prepare for their old age. This is one of the pillars of the Labour/socialist state; ‘from cradle to grave we will take care of you’. The obvious outcome is the society we are becoming – live off the state, it will always provide. Well, we are in the waning years of yet another socialist experiment. Can our nation reorganise?
April 3, 2025
They’ve been importing current and future social care dependants as fast as they possibly can.
April 3, 2025
Raw Trump-type option:
The Government shall hold all the money it distributes on health, unemployment, care and other such benefit services in one giant pot, for sharing equally between every citizen each decade.
Citizens submit verified accounts charging whatever they incur in the period.
Each person receives 40% of what they underspend to use as they wish. The other 60% is donated to the best qualifying charities helping all others.
People tend not to waste money at their own expense.
April 3, 2025
We need to look at adult social care and how much it costs. With the lowest wage for a 40-hour-per-week no-skills worker now £24,000 pa and a skilled nurse starting on nearly £30,000 pa, how many adults does each worker in this sector care for each day?
The nursing homes charge from £1000 to £2000 per week.
A private carer home visit is £35 minimum per hour + £5 travel allowance, so visits twice per day are £600 per week if weekends are included at a higher rate.
Supported care in retirement living development near me are charging £9000 pa in addition to council tax. £9000! for an emergency call system. I don’t know if the ancillary services like hairdressing is charged extra or in that charge, but this service charge is high, its a mixed social/private development so I wonder if all the costs are falling on the private owners alone to support the others because I can’t see the council paying £9000 on top of the rent (perhaps they do and this is just another cost soaked up with adult social care).
The value of their flats when they pass on have halved; nearby complexes charge £5000 pa for now, but will they meet the same fate, who is keeping an eye on this? Who is ensuring people aren’t being ripped off? Their children can’t sell now, and they still have to pay the annual charge on the empty property, I wonder if they have to pay the council tax too?
April 3, 2025
When clever and good people refuse to partake in politics, they are punished by being governed by the stupid. I’m afraid I have given I all hope of expecting rational, ethical programmes from the stupid who dominate Westminster, run Councils and police forces etc. Their incompetence shines through and yet they are no longer ashamed of that.
Moreover all over Africa, African Liberation Movements have failed in Government when they succeeded in ‘freeing’ the country – from it’s Constitution and the Rule of Law. Constitutions require the support of living people who actively defend and assert the power the Constitution gives them.
I’m starting to believe that the British people, like those in Zimbabwe, are a defeated, cowed people no longer capable of asserting themselves. We like Zimbabweans are terrified of being arrested for ‘non-crimes’. We cannot defend our children or our old people. We can’t defend ourselves.
Now take a close look at Zimbabwe. Because that is where we are going.
Stop believing in your own exceptionalism. Britain was exceptional because we made it so. Expect no future for our young and no pensions for ‘useless eaters’ unless we SELECT the best people and return them to Parliament.
April 3, 2025
Select the best people? No more elections then. At least you are honest about your contempt for the democracy our ancestors fought and died for, Lynn
April 3, 2025
The selection takes place within the narrow circles of the political parties, before the general public are asked to choose between the selected candidates. There may or may not be some element of democracy in the selection process, but if so it is only with that restricted party electorate. Of course independents can offer themselves for election but they are very unlikely to succeed, mostly it is just a case of choosing a preferred wing of the uniparty. As I have said in the past there are decent patriotic members in all the parties but generally speaking they are not the ones who run the party or get elected to public office.
April 3, 2025
Well said Denis, exactly why Conservative policies failed us in each of the several Governments in recent times. You reap what you sow.
April 3, 2025
So join so you can help SELECT! It’s CRITICAL.
April 3, 2025
Did you not read the ‘and return them to Parliament’ part? Have you no political experience at all – never volunteered to canvass for someone you wanted in Parliament because they would argue your politics better than you can?
April 3, 2025
Except for reducing overseas aid the rest of the cuts make no sense
I see David Milibrain was quoted as saying it was immoral for the UK to cut aid after the USAID was stopped.on a salary of 1.17million quid he must be worried whose hoing to pay him
The only way to increase productivity in the public sector is to sack th superfluous 40% who make absolutely no contribution to society.
£28 BILLION on carbon capture and £14 on overseas climate mitigation should be cancelled immediately together with a whole swathe of Quangos many of which are counter productive. My whole meagre rise in my works pension has been wiped out by taxing my state pension which is one of the lowest in Europe.
Vote liebour for poverty.
April 3, 2025
Here is the list of ‘reciprocal’ USA tarriffs. Please note that Trump is giving the U.K. a big break. He is trying to secure our right to free speech so that we can save ourselves. Thank God we are no longer in the EU. Well done the ordinary British voter – people like me.
China — 34%
European Union — 20%
Vietnam — 46%
Taiwan — 32%
Japan — 24%
South Korea — 25%
Thailand — 36%
Switzerland — 31%
Indonesia — 32%
Malaysia — 24%
Cambodia — 49%
Great Britain — 10%
South Africa — 30%
Brazil — 10%
Bangladesh —34%
Singapore — 10%
Israel — 17%
Philippines – 17%
Chile — 10%
Pakistan – 29%
Sri Lanka – 44%
April 3, 2025
Lynn. Trump is very clever. He’s put a rocket up the globalists cabal and they don’t like it. The EU has been exposed as the protectionist racket it really is. Only good can come from this.
April 3, 2025
So true – you can’t be a ‘unilateral free trade country’ – opening your market to all while being denied access to their markets, any more than you can ‘unilaterally disarm’.
that would establish ‘a level playing field’ something the EU are so attached to.
Trump has imposed less than half the rate of tariffs charges to USA traders – yet they are still crying and screaming.
Van der Leyen is going to take reprisal action. Does that mean dropping tariffs on the USA and the rest of the world by 19%
April 3, 2025
“Trump has imposed less than half the rate of tariffs charges to USA traders”
Have you read in to how the US administration came up with these figures?
I’ll help you out by pointing out that it has nothing whatsoever to do with any tariffs charged on US exports.
I’ve also read that all the calculations were actually done by a Chat-GPT equivalent and not sanity checked, hence why the US is now applying tariffs to a territory whose entire population is penguins and seals. I’m not sure exactly what their largest export is.
April 3, 2025
You are probably half right to say “Great Britain” rather than “United Kingdom”.
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/national/fears-as-to-how-northern-ireland-will-be-hit-after-president-trump-announces-10-tariffs-on-uk-imports-into-america-and-20-on-eu-5064622
“While goods from Northern Ireland to America will pay the lower 10% tariffs, because they are considered UK goods, it is unclear what will happen on reverse, goods coming into NI from the US, particularly if the EU imposes retaliatory tariffs and the UK does not.”
“Jim Allister, the TUV MP for North Antrim, had hours before the US tariff announcement, said that Northern Ireland’s “colonial status will be obvious” after the imposition of tariffs, as we fall within the EU orbit.”
This what happens when the self-proclaimed “Conservative and Unionist” wing of the uniparty selects people like David Cameron, heresa May and Boris Johnson to be Prime Minister and make agreements with the EU.
April 3, 2025
DC :
It will be interesting to see what transpires as a result of the UK being one Kingdom, two systems.
I’m not convinced that goods from N.I. will be treated as UK goods for these tariffs as N.I. is within the EU.
April 3, 2025
As NI remains under swathes of EU laws for the production of goods it would indeed be logical for the US to treat the goods produced in NI as EU goods and therefore attracting the same tariff as if they had been produced in the EU proper rather than in the NI condominium. And there is also the question of the open land border, with the Irish Republic definitely facing the higher tariff on its goods exported to the US – serves them right, in my view – which could slip across into NI to evade the correct tariff.
April 3, 2025
Why don’t we offer zero tariffs on cars and whisky? How many gas guzzlers are we going to buy and we already drink American whiskey.
And stop threatening American websites with enormous fines for not censoring stuff which wokeys find upsetting.
April 3, 2025
Why don’t we beg for a fully free trade deal with the USA. Allow consumers to decide whether they want to eat American chickens and beef etc etc etc.
And assert the fact that NI is part of the U.K. and therefore can no longer be constrained by the EU in any way. If Ireland wants a hard border – let them build a wall! Who cares what they do?
April 3, 2025
We should be deciding whether we want to eat american reared chickens anyway! Tariff or no tariff.
April 3, 2025
And how will consumers be able to decide without imposing lots of red tape throughout the entire supply chain for food? To give consumers choice, every food item will need tracking and labelling, not just in the supermarket, but in every restaurant, sandwich shop, convenience store etc. How much will that cost?
Surely a single standard applicable to all is both simpler and much cheaper.
April 3, 2025
@Lynn Atkinson
Puts the UK Media back in their box for now. Trump has just rewarded the UK with the same tariffs we(the UK Government) have been hitting the US with. So retaliation? on a war the UK Government started
He(Trump) now needs to take a leaf out of the EU Books, it is not just the exporting Nation, it is about the components supplies of the assembly plants. The EU realised how can you call a car assembled in the EU European when 60% of its manufacture is elsewhere and only assembly takes place in the EU.
As the UK has deindustrialised anything we do assemble is made up from imported components – so would that in-turn being sent to the US be a UK product? In reality that is tariff avoidance by the back door pure subterfuge
April 3, 2025
If we partake in subterfuge that will not go down well in the USA. And Musk has a few of their computers actually working now, so I would not try to pull the wool.
I understand cars are on a separate 25% import – so Trump has forestalled any further idiocy by the U.K. Govt.
Incidentally, South Africa always imposed 100% tariffs on U.K. cars. We still bought them – they were worth it!
April 3, 2025
Apart from the old Land Rovers – before Tata got their hands on the Discovery – what UK cars were worth buying, especially at twice the price. As far back as the 1970s I was buying Audis – a million times better than anything from BMC, then British Leyland, Ford, Vauxhall etc.
April 3, 2025
What you might want to consider is how DJT came to a 10% tariff for the UK. Can anyone show/prove that such 10% was applied to US goods coming to this country?
April 3, 2025
Here you are hefner.
From UK Government website
Import taxes from the USA to the UK, including VAT and potential customs duties, are calculated on the value of the goods, including shipping and insurance, and can vary depending on the type and value of the goods.
Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know:
1. VAT (Value Added Tax):
The standard VAT rate in the UK is 20%.
VAT is charged on the total value of the goods, including the cost of packaging, transport, insurance, and any duty charged.
Some goods and services have reduced VAT rates (e.g., 5% for children’s car seats and home energy), while others, like food and children’s clothing, may have a 0% VAT rate.
2. Customs Duty:
Customs duty is assessed on the fair market value of imported goods at the time they are landed in the UK and worth more than £135.
Duty rates vary depending on the type of goods and their classification under the UK Trade Tariff.
You can find the correct commodity code and duty rates on the HMRC’s Trade Tariff page.
For gifts valued between £135 and £630, a 2.5% duty may apply.
For goods worth less than £135, there is no duty.
3. How to Calculate:
Find the Commodity Code:
Use the UK Trade Tariff to find the correct commodity code for your goods.
Determine the Duty Rate:
Once you have the commodity code, find the corresponding duty rate on the UK Trade Tariff.
Calculate the Duty:
Multiply the value of the goods (including shipping and insurance) by the duty rate.
Calculate VAT:
Add the duty amount to the value of the goods and then multiply by the VAT rate (20%).
Total Cost:
Add the value of the goods, duty, and VAT to find the total cost of the import.
April 4, 2025
MiB, how is your pensum translating into a 10% tariff on UK products?
April 4, 2025
That’s already been explained on here by Peter Parsons and others hefner.
April 3, 2025
How much is UK import duty from the USA to the UK? The main rate of import duty is variable, depending on the nature and value of the items being imported and can run up to 12%. However, there are two fixed rates that are applicable: 0% on any goods worth less than £135, and 2.5% on gifts worth between £135 and £630.27 Nov 2024.
Importing goods from the US to the UK. US taxes are not charged, but the importer pays UK VAT on arrival and then reclaims the amount on their VAT return if VAT registered.
The other way goods from the UK into the USA, https://wise.com/us/import-duty/from-uk
3 Sept 2023 — Do I have to pay duty on items shipped to the US? Yes. Any goods valued over $800 USD (de minimis value) are subject to import duty tax. DHL
Import tariffs generally range between 0% and 37.5%, with an average of 5.63%.
April 3, 2025
My understanding is that he arrived at the tariff for each country on the basis of the balance of trade deficit the USA has with each country. He is trying to do something very weird – trying to make sure that the value of imports into the States from a country match the value of exports from the States to that country. Radical! Eh?
It’s a bloody pity we don’t do that. Maybe we’d still have a manufacturing sector. Maybe we’d still produce our own steel, aluminium and chemicals etc. Maybe we’d still have some decently paid jobs for more people.
April 4, 2025
Well you could start with the consumers who prefer buying foreign tat rather than UK produced goods, eg Audi rather than Ford etc…
April 3, 2025
Lynn in the face of what has just happened to the world order it’s people like you that amaze me that you can express such indifference dismissal to your fellow man especiallg to the people of the poorer countries – for the little englander it’ll always be ‘Me Me Me’ – Incidentally you missed out Russia and Belaruis
April 3, 2025
Here is what Russia thinks – more informative than what I think Russia thinks:
‘Trump has severely bent the global trading system, introducing tariffs against almost the entire world. The consequences will be global. Counter tariffs will be imposed on US goods. Old trade chains will be broken, but new ones will emerge.
And what about us?
Russia already hardly trades with America, as well as with the EU: almost all turnover is sanctioned. But we are still developing – and at a fairly decent pace: in the first quarter of 2025, growth was about 3%. Therefore, there is no need to fuss. Following the immortal advice of Lao Tzu, it is worth sitting on the shore and waiting for the corpse of the enemy to float past us. The decomposing corpse of the EU economy.’
April 3, 2025
Trump hasn’t given UK a break and Starmer can take no credit for the lower 10% tariff imposed on UK. The tariff applied is from a very simple calculation. They got the “Tariffs charged to the USA number” by taking the USA trade deficit in goods with a country and divided it by the country’s export in goods to USA. They then imposed about 50% of that number as a new tariff. For any country where that calculation gave a number of less than 10% they imposed 10%. So the UK value is 10% because our existing trade in goods with USA is approximately balanced. The only credit for this low number is Brexit otherwise as members of the Customs Union we would have been hit with 20% based on the overall EU trade with USA. Big Brexit win.
April 3, 2025
Yes indeed thank God we left well done Brexit the EU may well make the mistake of retaliating
& their tarriffs may go up further
April 3, 2025
It will be interesting to see how this affects Northern Ireland ….. nominally still British but effectively signed over to the EU by Sunak with his Windsor Treachery.
Will they get British tariffs, or be hit by the EU ones which are going to affect Eire particularly badly?
Time to scrap the Windsor Treachery and ask the good people of NI in a Referendum whether they’d rather rejoin the UK.
April 3, 2025
NI is formally still part of UK, but with sovereignty shared between UK and EU, a condominium. I blame Sunak less than I blame Cameron and May and above all Johnson. It disgusts me that the first two are now in the Lords.
April 3, 2025
Donna, we had a referendum in 2016, and the people of Northern Ireland voted to remain in the EU, because we understood this was the only way to prevent a hard border between NI and GB and NI and Ire. I wish you had listened to us then, it’s a bit late now
April 3, 2025
Oh you can explain that to Trump and have 20% tariffs imposed. That’s no problem at all.
April 3, 2025
Where there is a will there is usually a way. however in this case there was a lack of will to find another way, not only on the part of the Irish government but also the UK government under Theresa May. The former built a mountain out of a molehill. the latter could have kicked it aside but preferred not to do so.
April 3, 2025
The logical conclusion must be that NI prefers being one with Eire than with the UK. That’s their democratic option.
April 4, 2025
No, YOU didn’t have a Referendum. The UK had a Referendum and as a constituent part of the UK, the Northern Irish people had a vote but, as with every Referendum, the majority opinion prevailed (or should have).
You could now have a Northern Ireland-only Referendum under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement to see if the NI people would rather leave the UK and join Eire. But until such a Referendum is held, NI remains part of the UK and SHOULD be treated exactly the same as the rest of the UK when it comes to trade.
April 3, 2025
+1
April 3, 2025
@Lynn Atkinson – i would guess if the UK was a proper free Sovereign Democracy it would not have even made the list
April 3, 2025
The Graun is reporting that a 10% tariff is being imposed on Heard Island and McDonald Islands which are apparently only occupied by penguins, but their chief penguins will probably take a more intelligent approach than our lot who go waddling into number 10.
Donald Trump looked like a bookie at Sandown when he was holding up his board of odds/tariffs.
April 3, 2025
Was he not giving great odds though? Still bailing the world out.
April 3, 2025
If Trump manages to restore free speech in the UK Lynn, many of us would be happy to accept the value of that and pay his tariff.
April 4, 2025
Absolutely. I think Two-Tier’s most blatant lie, one of many, was when he told JD Vance that the UK has Free Speech. (I think he’s on the spectrum; it would explain a lot.)
April 3, 2025
There is every need to cut sickness benefits. The level of payments has grown substantially since COVID-19. I know from people who work on the disability benefits that they were instructed to award child claims with no medical checks. I agree with payments for severely disabled people, but many claimants have no greater living costs than those who are fit and healthy. We have had the absurd situation for years where so-called disabled children are provided with a taxi to take them to school by the council whilst at the same time the DWP give the family a car. This country is bankrupt, and savings must be made everywhere. Other countries don’t pay this level of benefits. Why is the UK such a soft touch? Governments provide sweeteners to get elected, but the hardworking taxpayer has to fund them in perpetuity. The whole system needs root and branch reform.
April 3, 2025
Good points but as ever on this blog people ignore the politics (plus operational difficulties turning a tanker around) indeed as our host does.
The question is how? We need solutions not wish lists.
April 3, 2025
Indeed, look at Elon Musk: he has received death threats, his companies have been affected, and his Tesla vehicles have been burnt and vandalised for trying to identify savings to State payments so that they can complete their mission to reduce debt and deficits. I don’t think the UK has an equivalent to him and his team of tech specialists who are identifying duplicated departments, loans to babies and social payments to people over 120 years of age.
5 Dec 2024 — What has Doge done so far? … Its mission, says Musk, is to save taxpayers’ money and reduce US national debt, which stands at $36tn (£28.9tn).
April 3, 2025
Musk owns only 13% of Tesla.
Don’t Democrats hate ‘riots’? Violence? Hate?
April 4, 2025
He’s identifying high levels of excess spending that they were enjoying.
https://doge.gov/
The findings of more credit cards than staff, I wonder how many UK departments are like that. More software licences than they use. One contract in the Dept of Vet Affairs was paying $380,000/month a month for minor website modifications. The same work is now being executed by one internal va software engineer spending 10 hours per week! There other website development services is eye-watering. What a difference private-sector software engineers make when looking over contracts!
Does our GP register and social services register clear down all of our residents aged over 110? There are millions in the States that required cleaning up to stop fraud.
The interview with Musk and the @DOGE team on 28 Mar was very watchable.
Have you read it?
April 3, 2025
The “how” is entirely down to the “will”. It seems that we need to “reform” HOW our establishment WILL DO.
April 3, 2025
The impending multi billion pounds per year cost of the Chagos Islands ground rent could also be avoided!
April 3, 2025
I suspect that the cut in overseas aid was to pay for this. The gift to Mauritius amounts to overseas aid.
April 3, 2025
The Chemring Group subsidiary Roke Manor Research has been awarded a £251 million contract by the Ministry of Defence, for a multi-year missile defence research effort to be known as the “Science & Technology Oriented Research & Development in Missile Defence”
Spending huge sums like this on consultants – with no hardware at the end of it – is a waste of taxpayers money.
Ukraine have done really well defeating numerous Russian air defence systems. Their much vaunted S-400 – the Russian equivalent of Patriot – has repeatedly failed and at least 7 have been destroyed (at $1 billion+ each) by Ukraine drones, HIMARS, GLB etc. Oryx has recorded 310 surface to air missile systems destroyed as of 01April2025. Also 96 radars, 88 ECM jammers and ECCM systems and 27 self-propelled anti-aircraft guns
We need to be buying air defence systems on the open market for the UK now, not spending this sort of money with no hardware to show at the end of it. The Ukraine military knows what works against Russian kit. Lets buy that
April 3, 2025
Let’s buy them from Ukraine as they are such experts. Why don’t we ask for missile systems that can down hypersonics in exchange for our multi billion regular gifts?
April 3, 2025
The state pension is not generous for all that National insurance people have paid. A pensioner needs a private pension or benefit top up to meet the bills.
Why not pay pensioners the U.K. living wage or is that just for the sponging workshy I’m no financial wizard but a few tweaks hear and there and I’m sure it could be done if the will was there by governments
April 3, 2025
All that National Insurance people have paid was spent in the year it was collected, by successive governments. Nothing was put by for the pensions of those who paid it. In fact, in just about every year of those pensioners’ working life, the government of the day couldn’t make ends meet and borrowed more.
Rather than getting a state pension, all those pensioners who participated in voting for borrow and waste governments should be paying something back, to relieve the next generation of the cost of supporting the colossal national debt.
The next generation has been sold into debt slavery, all because the current generation refuses to live within its means.
April 3, 2025
First step should be to raise the Personal Allowance on income tax rather than push more low incomes into paying tax. Although raising it to £20,000 is a laudable request, but meeting it perhaps halfway would be a start.
Rachel from accounts prefers to continue with low earners having a wretched existence.
April 3, 2025
Mick
The State Pension is even less generous for those that have paid NI all their working lives, but chose to retire, not to the Government favoured EU or USA, but to Australia, Canada, New Zealand and certain other countries, where it is frozen at the level it is first paid. Totally indefensible! But the current government “I see no ships” approach is simply a continuation of the policy which has been adopted by both Conservative and Labour Governments for decades. I do hope that Reform, if they are ever able to form Government, can view this debacle differently.
April 3, 2025
@Pominoz – if you never pay, not a single penny, the pension credit system brings you up-to the same as those that did
April 3, 2025
I know that South Africa, an ex-Dominion does not pay any pension abroad. Does Australia?
April 3, 2025
Lynn,
Nothing paid to me or my wife as we are only ‘temporary’ residents despite being here over 20 years
April 4, 2025
If you have been in Australia for 20 years you should by now have straightened your finances as most people would have. I would have expected that when you took the decision to emigrate you might have considered the financial implications in all its pluses and minuses. So in two words ‘Stop moaning’.
April 4, 2025
What a charmer you are hefner
Empathy is your middle name.
April 3, 2025
Pom – you may be aware thet the level of State pension now brings us into paying Income Tax! For those who guessed correctly that additional income would be required – the extra is taxed at 20%. If your total income exceeds about £60k the tax on any above that rises to 40%.
So, how does that compare to you retirees down under taxed by the Aussies?
April 3, 2025
Michael,
I pay UK Income Tax, not Australian Tax.
April 3, 2025
I read an article yesterday on teach.kids.money that if the government put $250 every birthday in an investment account for a child from the age of 1 to 19 and $250 every Christmas. At 65, the adult would have $2,000,000.
People didn’t choose to go into national insurance for their State pension, there was no choice at 16, 18 or 21 but to pay NI, and your employer pays NI based on your earnings towards your pension and medical. If they go back on this deal by means testing and calling it a benefit then all social contracts are broken and it will cause unrest.
April 3, 2025
Labour’s spending priorities can be summarised as: # Be kind, and shower money on:
* any minority group prioritised by the DIE hierarchy
* criminal (economic) migrants, no matter how blatant their lies are
* anyone working in the Public Sector ….. particularly train drivers since they are so “deserving”
And make people who will never vote Labour (pensioners, small business owners, farmers, anyone else working in the private sector) pay for it.
In the latest opinion poll, Labour was down to 21% (basically those employed in the Public and “Charity” Sectors). So it seems the maths which underpins their electoral strategy is as defective as the rest of their policies.
Donald Trump and DOGE are giving a masterclass in cutting wasteful spending. But of course, Two-Tier prefers the EU model of debt-generation.
April 3, 2025
Today you make the points that too many politicians are not prepared to countenance. Sickness benefits should be worth having but should be very difficult to get. Society if prepared to support those who genuinely need it but not those recently arrived nor those who see it as an easier life.
Ramp up the checks and lift the qualifying conditions to those that genuinely prevent activity.
The triple lock should be reviewed. I think pensions should be tied to average earnings which treats pensioners the same as the rest of the working population who are not insured against inflation.
it surprises me that the Treasury has not taken your advice on Bank of England bond losses, that is low hanging fruit and accepted practice.
Immigrants should have zero recourse to public funds other than soup kitchens and tented villages (however overcrowded they become). Deportations should be the major cost.
April 3, 2025
Afraid we have got into the present financial state, because MP’s past and present think they know how to run our lives better than ourselves, hence the State is simply doing far too much.
Families used to organise themselves to take Social Care of their own family members.
When I was a child we had my Granny living with us at home when she could no longer look after herself.
Like many Parents then, my Mother did not go out to work until I went to school, then only worked Part time until I went into Secondary education, and only then did she go to work full time.
Perhaps one of the real reasons we are now in the mess we are, is credit for the last 50 years has become easier, and easier, and has become a way of life for many.
In years gone by if you wanted something, you saved up for it before you purchased it, a lesson I have practiced all my own life (other than having a mortgage), our own children have also grown up with that in mind.
If you lack money then I was taught, work harder, longer, or smarter to get what you want, it’s what my parents did, It’s what I did, and it’s what my (now grown up) children do.
Government should get out of our lives, and stop thinking it knows best !.
Fully aware some people cannot work due to reasons out of their control (health etc), but very strict qualifying criteria should be in place before they get State/taxpayer help.
The Government are funding a work does not pay culture at the moment, with such high tax rates, and a huge State/taxpayer help structure.
April 3, 2025
Well we cannot go on the way we are Alan, so things will have to change
We have many deluded people in this country that think that we are still rich, when the fact is we have simply run up the National credit card to the max. This cannot continue. Whatever you think of Trump, he certainly seems to have recognosed that the US is in the same situation and is trying to stop US debt incerasing. Whether tarifs are the righr way to do this remains to be seen.
We used to take our Balance of Trade seriously but these days the Treasury seems to be driven by GDP, regardless of where that comes from – be that immigration or increased Government spending. We buy a lot more from the EU than they buy from us and that is just our wealth bleeding away.
April 3, 2025
Tariffs are to repatriate jobs and vital industries. The Taiwanese chip maker is spending hundreds of Billions setting up a chip factory in the USA. That – no war with China over Taiwan (which it owns).
Repaying debt is always the best investment. Every housewife knows that.
April 3, 2025
Even better, avoid debt in the first place.
April 3, 2025
B Alan
Similar up bringing to my own. Work for what you want, take responsibility for your own actions….
Quite agree with your points! Well put! +1
April 3, 2025
We have got into this state because for six decades after the war our economic growth rate bumped up and down with various events but always tended to average out at about 2.7% a year, and although Gordon Brown thought that maybe his wise husbandry had lifted that trend growth rate in fact since 2008 it has averaged out at only 1.1% a year, so GDP and therefore the tax base is now 22% smaller than it would have been if the previous trend growth rate had been maintained over the past 16 years, so the government can no longer afford things that it might otherwise have been able to afford. I keep saying this; back in June “Driving with the handbrake on for 16 years”:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2024/07/26/37906/#comment-1466677
April 3, 2025
Alan, many of us here coincidentally had a similar childhood. My Nan never required an hour of social care; the family and her neighbour and best friend pulled together after her stroke and a broken hip. She worked hard all her life and set an example for her children; she worked from 6 am to 2 pm and came to care for one of my cousins and us so our Mums could work after school and Saturday morning. It is more difficult now because families often have many miles between them.
I have one acquaintance, though, who hasn’t worked since she was about 18. She had big gaps between her children births but no dads to contribute. Nice big council house with gardens front and back, of her four daughters, three have had children on the social, the fourth won’t be long. If a family get a taste of benefits and learn how to get all the add ons ie ADHD, I won’t go into how here, but she had a people carrier, holidays abroad, garden pool, and time with her family, to be frank, she’d be mad to work because she couldn’t have earned more than near minimum wage with her educational abilities and skills.
April 4, 2025
The Establishment/Government don’t seem to understand that many of the people they sneer at and despise for being uneducated may not be academically clever, but they are smart. When presented with an extremely exploitable system devised by the arrogant educated, they apply “their smarts” and make it work to their advantage.
The criminal migrants are doing the same thing.
April 4, 2025
I agree Donna, they aren’t ‘working’ class, it is an insult to workers to call them that. But on reflection, she definitely had the smarts. She bought her council house now, too, with a full discount after years of having it paid by benefits, so she now lives rent-free, retired at 60. She hadn’t banked on her youngest not taking her to retirement age, which moved to 67, so she ‘found’ a fella and got married. And she will get a pension! All those child-rearing years count.
April 3, 2025
Sir John
A good summation of our (the UK’s) woes, poorly Governed, poorly advised. Thank you
April 3, 2025
you missed the chagos deal
April 3, 2025
That would save £18bn and democracy
April 3, 2025
depends on what you think democracy means! I have yet to see it in the UK and doubt I will in any further years I might have.
April 3, 2025
We have endless bad decisions made, over many, many years, some of which should be removed from being political footballs subject to ideological terrorism.
NI, for one. If National Insurance was just that a compulsory insurance/pension plan and not just general tax dumped in the pool for sharing out for and by whoever. It has been run by the State our Politicians; their Mandarin’s as their personal yet illegal ‘Ponzi’ scheme. A future beyond their 4/5-year term has never been on our governments radar, yet the rest of us need to have security for future health and pension provisions. If we choose to take care of ourselves, we get penalized. Gordon Brown (Labour) decided personally to tax personal pension pots and successive governments have maintained that concept. So on and so on, the government doesn’t work for their electorate or the Country they work against the people, they fight them.
National Insurance is a good plan, it could work but to have meaning it has needs 25-40 years of preping and framing to be the fund it needs to be. The National Insurance Act 1911 over a hundred years on and is still pregnant.
While today’s problems can seem horrendous to those worried about their ‘free-loading’ employment at the next GE, the stuff they keep kicking into the long grass is damaging the UK, its people and the next generation. The in ability to ‘think’ from our 650 MPs, Legislators has become mind boggling
April 3, 2025
Inflation is running way ahead of the official figure, so the increases in state pension rates are already not enough.
For most of my life I’ve done heavy manual work (and still do). I’ve lived very frugally and saved, since I never trusted the government pension; even so I don’t have nearly enough private pension pot to survive if I stop work. I reach state pension age next summer. I can see my wishful hopes for a gradual and comfortable (financial and physical) reduction in work will be dashed. It’s really annoying to see my tax money wasted on illegal immigrants, net zero , and other nations.
April 3, 2025
A common conclusion I’m afraid Wanderer. And that conclusion has been true for all colours of Government we have had. Sadly MPs and those who have decided which individuals will contest elections always aim to do what they think the electorate should have, laws, incomes, aid, taxes, industries, international political friendships, even moral decisions, media, state advertising, education……I’ll stop there I’ll get mad with so-called democracy.
April 3, 2025
Overseas aid should be scrapped entirely. Just keep a fund for disasters such as the recent events in Myanmar.
Scrap the ‘net zero’ nonsense. Sacking Milliband along the way.
End the ludicrous Chagos deal.
There’s billions in savings in just three issues.
April 3, 2025
musk has said ‘All NGOs are money laundering operations.’ Our ‘overseas Aid is spent by NGOs. Maybe that’s why the poor never get anything as a result of our belt tightening?
April 3, 2025
The triple lock was introduced to bring the state pension up to an acceptable level. It is now there. Given that it is paid by today’s taxpayers, there is a case for removing the triple lock and committing to indexation in line with average earnings increases.
On benefits, you are right. It is far too easy to get them. This is a legacy of the previous government, of which you were a member, saving costs by removing the need for face to face assessment. As always, saving one cost causes an unintended increase in another. A person with mental health issues does not need a car. That should be reserved for people with real mobility issues. Mobility scooters are a rare phenomenon in most European countries. Here they can been seen on every high street at any time of the day. I can’t help but think that they compound the problem. People with low level mobility problems, often due to excess weight, should be encouraged to walk. Putting them on a mobility scooter simply compounds their problem. Perhaps they would be less attractive if they were speed limited to 2 mph.
April 3, 2025
Once again labour target pensioners, to reduce their level of life below subsistence in too many cases. They are an easy target
No doubt they will keeping on squeezing easy targets like this because getting a grip on the real waste in our society would take too much effort for them to be bothered.
The whole subject of the economy is just full of misinformation — There is absolutely no need to keep on taxing people more or squeezing vulnerable groups. If labour were to pursue realistic tax policies, rather than pledging huge amounts to Ukraine just to keep a pitiful war going, and too many other wasteful actions, then there would be plenty of money for the Treasury.
Let’s be very clear – Labour are not just ruining the economy, they are doing it in a deliberate and spiteful manner to punish certain types of taxpayers. They have already done enough such that our high streets are closing and basic costs are escalating, and worse — There is every chance that HMG will pursue their destructive policies until there is nothing left to save!
April 3, 2025
Out of patriotism and to try and boost the Brexit economy, we all need to make a greater effort now to buy British instead of American. Starting off with Amazon – buying off the British High Street instead of Amazon. But that’s just a start. Consumer goods in general – and services and so on. Travelling around UK instead of going on holiday to New York etc.
April 3, 2025
But you are happy to pay much higher tariffs to the EU?
or are you going to give up Benedorm and olives?
April 3, 2025
Forget the word ‘EU’. if you mean Europe I’m happy to pay extra for French fine wine and cheese and champagne, Portuguese port, German salami, Spanish olives and jamon iberico and chorizo and black pudding and peach liqueur and fino—-just a start .. over Chlorinated Chicken from Idaho ..
April 3, 2025
Cut net-zero, baby, cut net-zero
April 3, 2025
“There is the £10 bn a year on the self defeating net zero policies.”
This figure is simply the current renewable subsidies. According to NESO the Civil Service’s Clean Power 2030 plan will cost “over £40bn annually” to 2030 and beyond as the renewables built for 2030 will require replacement by 2050. This is not including the £30bn by 2030 for CC(U)S and hydrogen.
BTW, the NESO plan requires a total of 228 GW of installed power and load shedding availability for an average demand of 33 GW to ensure there is not a complete shutdown of the national grid.
April 3, 2025
There is also the £28bn that idiot Minibrain intends to spend on carbon capture and storage – unproven technology which should rightly be carried out by the private sector.
Putting an end, or at least a decade’s delay on Net Zero would release enough money to bring our military expenditure up to 5% of GDP and do much else besides.
April 3, 2025
PS : The goal is not to net zero CO2 emissions (they know CO2 does not control temperature or cause extreme weather) but to electrify and then obtain the ability to individually control people through smart meters.
April 3, 2025
Low income and no income migrants are a major cause of anxiety in people which qualifies for PIP in areas which are popular with these invaders. People who work but in a low income role find themselves on Council house waiting list, considerably diminished in size by the Thatcherite sell-off, in which over time they move up the list only to be suddenly pushed back by the sudden arrival of more homeless invaders, all the while living in substandard accommodation provided by an avaricious landlord. Those who live in areas controlled by Pakistani rape gangs are bound also to suffer from anxiety and worse. Many young people who live in areas popular with second home owners find themselves unable to get on the housing ladder because the house prices in their areas have been inflated by second home owner demand. Many of the causes of people’s anxiety are the result of political failure to tackle abuses. Instead of doling out PIP for anxiety, why not deal with the underlying causes?
April 3, 2025
The only way to respond to Trump is to be strong but respectful to him.
He hates people who are aggressive and rude to him (which I do not recommend).
But he also hates people who are weak and people-pleasing (which I do not recommend either)
A lot of the comments here are weak and people-pleasing when it comes to Trump. This weakens the UK’s prospects with Trump. Especially as this is only the beginning.
So we need to retaliate (calmly and in as effective manner as possible) and then invite him on a state visit (and make a joke why he would try and impose any tariffs on us). But not – not retaliate and then invite him on a state visit.
We’ve got to show backbone AND charm to Donald Trump.
April 3, 2025
You think you should explain to Trump why we can charge him 10% Tariffs but he can’t charge us the same first?
He will not come to the U.K. why would he?
April 3, 2025
Trump has just made up the figures – and you’re being a sucker for believing him.
Also, if he wants a fair deal then discuss it.
Lastly, the real damage isn’t the tariffs but the uncertainly of his policy overall.
(How’s the Russian vodka over there in Moscow .. I love Russian vodka).
April 3, 2025
Most people in the UK are quite happy lunatics don’t come to the UK. Fortunately most lunatics do not want to visit and have little impact on the world. Others, East and West have an amazing power given to them by the so-called sane.
April 3, 2025
It would be great to see a British consortium of investors to set up a company to rival Amazon, Etsy and eBay. With a sort of British name but that can trade abroad without sounding too British. Something like CHELSEA. This would help British economy and Brexit in general including British manufacturers and shopkeepers etc. And you could have a branch of the store on the High Street.
April 3, 2025
Only the British in Jersey can do this sort of thing because they keep some of their money.
Do you not understand that almost everything is not financially viable in the U.K.? That’s why we don’t have or do anything and have to sell everything to people who will be able to legally avoid the taxes we have to pay?
April 3, 2025
?
There’s lots of successful British companies in the UK. What are you talking about.
Anyway, there’s already a British rival to Amazon, eBay and Etsy but I think a much better job could be done (just starting off from the branding – looks pretty amateurish).
April 3, 2025
Ebay is mostly owned by American investors.
April 3, 2025
Last year Amazon made 27 billion pounds in the UK. We need to try to begin to start clawing that back for our economy and Brexit.
April 3, 2025
Not sure you are quite accurate there, Ed. It’s reported that for 2024 Amazon’s UK turnover amounted to around £30bn but as most of the UK sales seem to be routed through their office registered at 38 avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 (in the, beloved by some, EU country of) Luxembourg it may be doubtful that they pay their full whack of tax on their UK profits actually in the UK.
Heavily taxed items such as tobacco/cigarettes and petrol/diesel are very cheap in Luxembourg compared to the UK!!
April 3, 2025
Thanks for this. I’m not an expert on Amazon or online shopping or e-commerce. But just looking more at the big picture and what possible.
April 3, 2025
Ah…we are back on the dodgy Corporation tax laws, and the countries who benefit from attracting the larger ones by having a very low tax level yet hardly any sales.
April 3, 2025
The assisted suicide Bill has now passed through Committee stage — key safeguards have been removed.
The last thing we need now is an easy way for the state to kill people.
April 3, 2025
You mean ‘another easy way’ surely – after covid and the shot?
April 3, 2025
Starmer has already suggested he is willing by putting our boots on the ground in Ukraine.
April 3, 2025
And now is a perfect time to launch a British version of Amazon / Etsy etc with the patriotism people feel now towards buying British instead of American and to support Brexit. But the company would still have to offer a great service. And if successful move into Europe, Asia – and then the USA – ha!
Got to think big and a bit bold but in a positive way.
April 3, 2025
Totally agree with your comments. This Government has gone for the easy targets and there will be more in the autumn you can be sure. They want to start looking at themselves for starters and take a pay cut to lead by example. The pay they get is enhanced by free council tax/electricity costs etc., on second homes which people who work long distances from home do not access. Then they should look at those on benefits who should not be eg youngsters who have never worked and don’t intend to. Maybe national conscription should be looked at to get them trained to get up in the mornings for starters. Keep on coming up with your thoughts as they are bang on.
April 3, 2025
Someone asked for solutions. There are plenty but here are a few suggestions.
1. Make 400,000 Civil Servants redundant which saves £17 billion a year in salaries, expenses and pension payments.
2. Stop funding the WHO – saves £500 million a year
3. Stop funding the UN – saves £1.5 billion a year
4 Make all DEI employees redundant in NHS and Government – about £100 million a year
5. Stop the BOE selling bonds at a loss – saves £10 billion in a year.
That is just under £30 billion saved, and that could easily be doubled or trebled or quadrupled.
April 3, 2025
Stop funding the EU, stop funding the Commonwealth, stop funding ‘Overseas Aid’, stop funding other people’s wars!
April 3, 2025
Off topic, listening to a Policy Exchange talk I have learned a new word: “OIKOPHOBIA”.
This explains what it means:
https://quillette.com/2019/10/07/oikophobia-our-western-self-hatred/
“‘Oikophobia’: Our Western Self-Hatred”
“The simplest way of defining oikophobia is as the opposite extreme of xenophobia.”
April 3, 2025
We are worried and concerned in the UK but in Afghanistan today, females are blocked from accessing healthcare and it’s leading to soaring mortality rates and maternity deaths because the woman has to be accompanied by a man in public. Western women need to step up and say no. No to female segregation in the UK, no to antiquated rules holding women down, no to males in female sports taking trophies from female champions.
April 3, 2025
We are two steps behind Afganistan.
April 4, 2025
I don’t think women realise what a dangerous phase we are in, with our political men willing to compromise British female’s rights in this country. Such as a right not to have to cover up our heads in public. A right to an education. A right to choose our own husband/partner. We already seem to have lost the right to female only safe spaces to change or recuperate, female only sports.
April 3, 2025
From the DT “disappointing” “deeply troubling”. Are the words from the ‘talking-heads’
Mr Reynolds said: “Nobody wants a trade war and our intention remains to secure a deal. But nothing is off the table and the Government will do everything necessary to defend the UK’s national interest.”
Also, in the Telegraph – a bar chart showing the taxes/tariffs other countries where already charging the US, and now what the US will charge them
The UK started a war with the US with trade barriers and charges that have finished up at 10%, so the US will charge the UK 10%. The EU also sort to fight the US by starting a trade-war with charges of 39% and the US is to charge them a new rate of just 20% still advantage EU.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2025/04/02/trump-tariffs-liberation-day-ftse-100-markets-latest-news/
Where is the reciprocity from those that started the War?
If you start a Trade War with others it must come back to haunt you. It was the UK, the EU and others that started the trade War with the US. Even now all the US has suggested it is just mutual respect and reciprocity – and yet they (the others) all what to fight and retaliate (against what no one knows)
April 3, 2025
They also started a trade war with Russia, the best priced supplier of energy!
April 3, 2025
When I criticise Brexiteers I am not criticising Sir John (who has proper business and political experience and ability overall and has worked hard towards what he believes in even though I might not agree 100% with his approach to Brexit overall but overall I 100% support 100% Full Sovereignty from Europe and so support him to a strong degree) or all but some leaders in particular those with the ambition but not the ability or those who don’t really believe in Brexit (Boris Johnson) and, those, like Jacob Rees-Mogg who is like the guy at school with the scarf around his neck who supports the first XV rugby team from the sidelines instead of putting on his rugby shorts, rolling up his sleeves and actually taking part in the game – mud and all!
April 3, 2025
@Ed M – Boris believed in Brexit? Isn’t that the discussion if he did, we would have left the EU. He and even his family plus chums are dedicated to the EU and wouldn’t dream of life outside. Boris attitude to an independent sovereign UK, was equalled by the thought of him getting rid of NetZero – he refused the evidence
April 3, 2025
Johnson is not, never was and never will be a Brexiteer.
April 3, 2025
@Lynn Atkinson +1 – he blocked the UK leaving. Then to kick everyone in the teeth with enhanced deindustrialisation and more malicious punitive punishment with the NetZero, even though like the rest of us could see the damage it would do for the Country and it’s People. He also knew that none of the UK’s competition would not be that stupid
April 3, 2025
Borealis Johnson’s “electricity at the flick of a switch from abundant, cheap British renewables….” is now, according to NESO’s Clean Power 2030, “consumer engagement is a vital part of efficient and low-cost use of clean power and, in the first instance, regular demand side flexibility responsive to TOUTs would typically be used to reduce peak demand.”
Demand side flexibility is of course rolling blackouts.