Anyone sensible given the task of growing the UK economy and helping more people to prosperity would start by saying current levels of public spending and borrowing are too high. The government is in a doomloop. hiking tax rates only to get an adverse impact on growth and the deficit. It comes back for further tax rises. Its critics get this, and say it should look at the spending side, but many of them too are terrified by the establishment view. That says all current government spending is necessary, current government spending is too low, not too high, and no government that wants to get elected can afford to cut spending. Suggest spending cuts and the government and public sector immediately retaliate by wrongly asserting you want to sack nurses or remove payments from the disabled.
Looking for cuts even this government has fallen for this absurd way of managing the public sector and running the debate. They tried cutting pensioner benefits but decided the outcry was too great. They fingered disability benefits and backed off, granting many more people access to them instead. At a recent meeting I attended of conservative policy specialists (Conservative/Reform/no party) and thinkers some of them too were mired in the idea that the necessary cuts a new government will need to make have to come from making painful and unpopular choices. They were agonising over the triple lock for pensioners, the exemption of pensioners from NI and other ways of reducing the spending power of the elderly who they thought had had the better deal this century. Those policies were part of a successful strategy to reduce pensioner poverty. Why aim to make them worse off?
I find it odd that so few people concentrate on vast areas of public mismanagement and over reach where large savings can be made. Why does no-one else see that the huge Bank of England losses on selling bonds in the market and sending taxpayers the bill is a needless self harm that no other Central Bank inflicts on its sponsoring taxpayers? Why do we put up with a military procurement system that spends £6bn on developing a very conventional small tank vehicle only to find it causes harm to its users? Why do we let a nationalised railway spend £30bn a year so it can fail to complete new track from Birmingham to Leeds and Manchester and fail to put in a new line from Manchester to Leeds?
Why do we spend a fortune on trying to force people to buy heat pumps and battery cars they do not want? Why heavily subsidise wind power when it is so dear and leads to deindustrialisation and loss of jobs on a large scale? Why when looking at benefit reform do too many think the level of benefits needs cutting when the issue is why do so many people have to be on benefits. How can we make work more worthwhile and help more people into work? Core benefits are not so generous that they need cutting.
The UK public sector is brilliant at defending every last penny it wastes, and good at demanding more. Too many politicians, commentators and lobbyists miss the main point. Far too much of the money going to the public sector is wasted, leaving us with very poor value for the large sums we pay in tax. The productivity collapse is costing us another £20bn to do the same thing.
January 18, 2026
A disastrous anti-growth doom loop indeed and so much that is spend is actually doing no good and huge positive harms – net zero, the Covid “vaccines” still being pushed to some, the lockdowns, the new workers rights bills, the war on motorists, landlords, small business, the self employed, employers, private school users, non doms… total insanity even worse than the 14 years of con-socialism.
January 18, 2026
Growth is our number one priority says Starmer and Reeves. But almost everything they announce is anti-growth. Unless they mean growth in damaging red tape, growth in benefits claimants, growth in low skilled immigration, growth in crime levels, mad employments laws, market rigging, parasitic jobs, net zero lunacy, growth in energy bills, growth in taxes, growth in the rich and hard working leaving the country, growth in private schools being shut down…
January 18, 2026
John Redwood you ask why all this? The answer is (as a fringe politician, Ann Marie Waters whom I knew personally, originally from secularism used to say) because ‘we are living in insanity’.
January 18, 2026
Redwood for PM 😉
This is what I like to see
January 18, 2026
Far too rational and sensible Sir John. You have to understand that socialists and communists don’t think that way. For them is it very simple. They want money to give to X because X is one of them. Where can they get it. Aha! you’ve got money. They’ll take yours. Problem solved.
My wife once worked in London for a very intelligent but socialist woman. She worked in a government organisation. One day, in all seriousness she said to me her current project was identifying things that hadn’t been taxed before but could be taxed. This is their mindset. Their aim is not to make you wealthy but to steal your wealth if you have any.
January 18, 2026
The money tree will give for ever? That’s the belief.
January 18, 2026
Peter
Exactly!
What is it they say – a man has 2 cows
Communists – take the cows and gives you a ration of milk
Capitalist – you swap one cow for a bull, breed more cows and sell the milk
Labour – takes the cows, and charges you for them!
There are other variations but you get the idea!
January 18, 2026
“You have to understand that socialists and communists don’t think that way.“
They do not really “think” rationally at all they work by evil exploitation of emotive, irrational feeling of envy and entitlement against the rich, hardworking, landlords, the rational, Jews…
January 18, 2026
Good morning.
We were promised by the incoming Conservative Government of 2010, a “Bonfire of the QUANGO’s”. I mention this as the figure for their combined expenditure for 2023 – 2024 (the last conservative government) was £391bn (Taxpayers Alliance), representing some 32% of the UK economy. I am now given to understand that under this Labour Government this figure is now closer to £500bn, although I do not have quotable sources.
It is the failure of the last Conservative Governments over a 14 year period and the expected bad behaviour of the current one that has led to the situation we find ourselves in. This and spending on Hinckley Point which I am led to believe is in both serious delay and, 3 times over budget. We also have HS2 which is also in delay, despite being shortened, and of course over budget.
You would think looking at the UK Accounts, the money wasted on illegal’s and legal’s alike, which is also in the tends of billions, overseas aid there is enormous scope for savings.
All it takes is one little thing. Just one. The will power to do what needs to be done and say; “No more !”
January 18, 2026
Let the voters decide! Oh dear – look what they have let us in for! Until sufficient wake up and abandon previous apathy we are stuck with the existing cabal pulling the levers.
January 18, 2026
@Mark B. +1. I don’t see the Kemi-led Tories as significantly different from the Cameron/May/Boris/Sunac-led ones. The Party threw out its only leader who was different, after a month’s trial as PM.
I mostly agree with our kind host, but he is a Party loyalist. Out in the electorate many of us want to vote for policies, not Parties. The Truss episode suggests that only a continuity candidate is permitted to be nominal leader of the Conservative Party. Kemi won’t change it.
January 18, 2026
So true.
I just hope the Conservatives and Reform will respond properly.
So far the Tories have identified £47billion of savings when in fact there is at least 5 times that much that could be saved
January 18, 2026
My Lord,
Agree with your article.
The government needs to trust the people more and stop trying to interfere in their lives. We don’t need to be constantly watched and monitored. We need to trust The British to make the right choices.
We need to train more of our own people to do specialist jobs, rather than import more and more people.
We need to stop throwing borrowed money at other countries and stop funding single issue groups.
It is time for us as a country to decide just what we want the government to do for us.
January 18, 2026
Yesterday I read that the 78% tax on North Sea production was budgeted to bring in £26 billion when in fact it only brought in £9 billion. This demonstrates that the government is following ideology rather than sensible policies.
The latest round of licences for windmills has been snatched up by Siemens who are taking 78% because of the subsidies agreed.
Remember it was the tories who thought it a goid idea to double the national debt by paying people to stay at home now a large number have made staying home a lifestyle on benefits.
Socialists cannot reduce spending as it’s in their DNA to micro damage the economy. Their aim is to destroy the private sector just like Stalin.
January 18, 2026
Perhaps current Government could look at the structures of Government in the 1800’s and consider why they could not return to that model:
Home Office, Foreign Office (+ oversight of empire) , Defence (War) Department and Treasury + Revenue Department.
4 key departments that fulfil the key roles of Government. Everything beyond this was a choice which also added cost.
January 18, 2026
A very good point, PeterB.
The canals railways where built using private companies. Originally a need would be identified and a possible solution sought – eg Getting wool to Liverpool and Manchester docks for export. This was initially done by canals and they rail as that could carry more and faster.
The governments involvement around that time was simply to pass legislation. Someone would partition government for a project and get government approval, including compulsory purchasing of land and, with such a license from government to build ‘x’ those involved would go to the Markets for capital. If the Markets could see a profit they got investment.
January 18, 2026
Yes , added cost and NO benefit.
January 18, 2026
Why?
Because those who are making the decisions which are impoverishing “the peasants” are making a very comfortable living from the status quo.
They thought it would be easy to mouth a few platitudes about “we’re all in this together” and then taking even more money off the little people to shower on the public sector; various foreign organisations/adventures; criminal migrants and the thousands of people making a very pretty penny from providing them with “free everything.”
The status quo will not change until the people who are calling the shots, and have been for a very long time, are removed.
January 18, 2026
Off Topic.
So Trump and hence USA is doing playground bullying blocking the sweetie shop. Unless you kneel infront of the boss you are cast adrift.
No wonder nations, former allies ( for their own good) are reassessing ‘friendship’ with America.
We need to resist and agree to buy from others in the world, making it clear dependence is not for ever. In the example of 6th Gen stealth jets, countries are joining together without much contribution from USA, clearly not trusting the basis of friendship, which like water ( in some parts of UK) can be turned on and off at will.
January 18, 2026
Agree John, why can politicians not see that the problem is, them spending too much for our money for too little gain anywhere.
Simple, they do not want to trust the people, even with their own money !
Whilst Politicians always think they know best, our problems will remain, or get worse.
When you kill ambition, self determination, personal responsibility, and a work and savings/investment ethic, with ever more taxation, rules and regulations, you encourage stagnation and reliance on the State, until its eventual demise.
January 18, 2026
You have explained in this post why any politician who seriously intends to do what is necessary to get this country back on the path to lasting prosperity is going to have to be an extraordinarily determined person: another Thatcher if you like. They will have to be a great communicator and capable of uniting their Parliamentary party behind them. Do we have such a person?
January 18, 2026
You really have to ask why that is so…
It is said that those who could work and live off benefits are being deceitful, expecting ever more of taxpayer’s money to support them.
Properly enforced budgets should avoid so much of the waste in the public sector, so where are they – why are ministers allowing spending that does not produce more value?
Unfortunately we have been sleepwalking into a communist style laissez-faire attitude in our public services and nobody in authority has had the gall to change it.
January 18, 2026
Non so blind and I dont expect things to change
January 18, 2026
“Why do we spend a fortune on trying to force people to buy heat pumps and battery cars they do not want? Why heavily subsidise wind power when it is so dear and leads to deindustrialisation and loss of jobs on a large scale?”
Correct. In fact “forcing people to buy heat pumps and battery cars” is through legislation AND subsidies which are sabotaging our economy through market rigging, increasing taxation and destroying our manufacturing. According to Professor Gordon Hughes of the Renewable Energy Foundation the UK taxpayer has already funded £220bn in renewable subsidies (£8000/household) since 2002 (2024 prices) and is currently funding £26bn/year. NESO say their Clean Power 2030 project will cost “over £40bn annually”. For those who believe that renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels, even when ignoring all the extra system costs such as grid expansion, grid stability and back-up (gas or battery) should explain why renewables are still subsidised and see this chart of CfD payments from the government’s Low Carbon Contracts Company (LCCC) which shows that renewables have not been subsidised for only 3 quarterly periods since 2016. This was when the Ukraine war started temporarily disrupting gas supplies:
https://www.lowcarboncontracts.uk/resources/scheme-dashboards/cfd-historical-data-dashboard/
Net Zero is the perfect socialist vehicle to make and keep people poor.
January 18, 2026
Spending projects costing £bns should need Commons voting, so MPs of all parties can make opinion known.
Pensioner ‘poverty’ exists even when income tax is paid by them (now at max state pension level)…and low income families on say < £20k should not pay income tax. This cost would be offset by aspects of benefits saved.
The public, indeed more educated people, do not understand the BofE losses, surely MP politicians should be drawing attention to it via media?
The hand wringing fraternity should be made clear that benefits should not exceed the living standards of low income families. And that is without the legal/illegal immigrants benefits available.
All this ought to be commonsense – why isn't it?