No surprise that the inflation rate is up to 3.4%, 70% above target and above the rate Labour inherited in July 2024. No surprise the unemployment rate is up to 5.1%, 23% above the rate they inherited in 2024. This site has set out consistently how their two large tax rising budgets coupled to their wasteful and excessive spending was bound both to produce inflation and to slash jobs in an increasingly overtaxed private sector. Indeed, they made sure of that by making one of the biggest tax rises an actual tax on jobs through National Insurance.
The Official opposition and this site have pointed out the large climb in the number of people on benefits and said the benefit bill is out of control, along with good ideas on how to control it. Putting many more people on benefits for life with no work requirement, and cutting job opportunities so more are unemployed is a big part of the disaster of the public finances.
The latest figures also reveal another reasons why they have run out of money and are squeezing the private sector too hard. On the latest numbers public sector pay is up 7.9% compared to private sector pay up 3.6%. The Public sector pay growth rate is 120% more than the private sector pay growth rate. No wonder the cost of public services has gone up so much, and no wonder why the government needed to tax the losing private sector more in order to reward the public sector more.
I am all in favour of better paid public sector employees, but have always stressed this needs to come from measures to raise productivity and improve the quantity and quality of service they produce. This may need better training and investment to back them, but is fundamental to having an affordable public sector that is well paid. Instead we have seen larger increases in public sector pay than private, whilst the public sector has still not overall got back up to 2019 levels of productivity, let alone achieved another 7-14% productivity gain for the missing years. Meanwhile the private sector has boosted its productivity but been unable to afford better rises. More of this delivers low or no growth, means business flees to other countries and leaves the growing public sector imposing unacceptable strains on tax demands.
January 22, 2026
The doom loop lunacy continues, virtually everything this government does is anti-growth yet they say “Growth is the number one priority of this government”. But we know that with politicians we can only judge by their actions not their words.
For growth we need cheap reliable energy, far less (employment, planning and other) hugely damaging red tape, to ditch net zero, to cut the size of the state and stop them doing negative things, to stop the wars on private schools, Non Doms, landlords, the rich, the hard working, road users, the self employed, employers… then ditch DEI, then we want free and fair unrigged markets in energy, education, transport, healthcare, banking, investment, employment, farming…
So U turns all round please (and not just a touch on the brakes) which is all we have seen do far!
January 22, 2026
The comparisons between Labour and recent Tory management are irrelevant. Lord J, you need to accept that the last group of Tories were not up to the job, not even conservatives for the most part. Look at the turnover of PM’s! The last Tory front bench were lacking experience and ability (seriousness), despite Sunak’s potential (he should have been a ‘bag carrier’ for 5 years before getting the top job). We didn’t vote for them because there was no viable candidate for the post of PM And there still isn’t, not for at least another 5 years anyway.
As others have said, Labour are a bunch of crazy plans socialists, hopeless dreamers who will spend until they run out of money and removed. They cannot remain for much longer. We will then have to decide who has the best team: experience, common sense, and proven ability. Not promises.
January 22, 2026
Yep LL. It is so obvious what is needed that even Trump has spelt it out to Starmer.
Unfortunately, whilst the country may agree with you the shower in Government plough on in the wrong direction. They must notice their actions are causing problems so I conclude they simply don’t care. Ideology wins.
January 22, 2026
“Inflation, unemployment, taxation, borrowing all up. Jobs, growth and business success down“
Also low skilled (net cost) immigration up high skilled and wealthy emigration up, confidence in the UK down, UK investment down, energy cost up, taxes up, red tape up, government debt up, housebuilding down, available housing down, manufacturing down, unemployment up…
January 22, 2026
Meanwhile The Telegraph claims the Chagos deal is dead in the water, based on the claim that Lammy said some time ago it would not go ahead without Trump’s approval.
It is dangerous to rely on what Lammy says though.
Also no LL post that ” Ross Kempsell is surely correct in today’s Telegraph.”
January 22, 2026
My Lord,
I suppose it comes as no surprise to anyone who has lived through a Labour Government before. Labour governments always break the economy and leave everything in a worse state than when they took it over.
There are many more people on Universal Credit now and many of whom are also working. It got me thinking, although I know IDs was the architect of the UC policy but, do you think it is maybe the forerunner to a universal basic income policy? Has it been manipulated by the left to lay the foundations of the Marxist idea of a universal basic state income?
January 22, 2026
Nobel laureate Milton Friedman advocated for a form of Universal Basic Income (UBI) called the Negative Income Tax (NIT) in his 1962 book Capitalism and Freedom, aiming to replace complex welfare programs with a simple, market-friendly system that guaranteed a minimum income floor, treating poor and rich alike and enhancing individual freedom by giving people cash to spend as they choose, reducing bureaucracy and coercion.
January 22, 2026
But the existing hundreds of thousands of State employed people would be plunged into the unemployed numbers…Ha Ha
January 22, 2026
Perhaps some could find a real and productive jobs somewhere?
January 22, 2026
I very much doubt it.
January 22, 2026
Does a Universal Basic Income or Minimum Wage work?
In purchasing, Price provides a beautiful balance of value reflecting supply and demand. If a price is too expensive the seller is left with unsold products or services. If that which is being sold is of higher value than its price, the seller gains from increased demand.
The same principle applies to employment. If a job is not worth the pay, it’s not worth doing. If the employer’s output is highly sought after, it attracts top prices and more workers. Then paying employees generously is not a strain.
Pubs being forced to pay a minimum wage adds to the strictures they are presently facing.
January 22, 2026
Well, it’s been said that digital ID, along with Universal Credit are part of the same set up of socialism. Then will come digital currency to really control us, with the UC being paid in and being time limited with limits on what it can be spent on.
As has been said, digital ID is coming, albeit ‘voluntary’. But it must be ‘better advertised’ to attract interest.
January 22, 2026
Paying benefits to people working distorts markets into muddles.
January 22, 2026
Bloke…
Absolutely! It also means tax payers are in effect, subsidising companies, which then keep pay low or their business inefficient.
January 22, 2026
I am in favour of decently paid public sector employees but only when they are doing positive things in efficient and positive ways. Alas this so rarely happens so much of what they do is almost entirely negative perhaps about 10% do positive things efficiently at best. Furthermore it often forces the private sector to be less efficient too wasting large sums on expensive energy, employment and compliance with other very damaging red tape, DEI lunacy and the likes.
Less in favour of them when they are mugging motorists, forcing people to employ the wrong people (for DEI reasons), fining people for pouring left over coffee down a street grain, licencing landlords, forcing people to jump through expensive and damaging planning loops, encouraging lives on benefits, enforcing mad energy, car buying, transport and home heating agendas!
January 22, 2026
Trump yesterday on the Britain:- “Things have to change on energy and immigration or bad things will happen” alas many bad things have already happened and still no sign of any sensible change from Starmer, Reeves, Miliband, Lammy, Mamood, Bridget Phillipson – it is still full steam ahead with their mad doom loop agenda!
January 22, 2026
Their strategy and project is working well.
January 22, 2026
Good morning.
Benefits disguised as the, Universal Basic Income ?
January 22, 2026
Who’s going to fund this UBI when there is less and less people contributing.
Everything our host says is exactly what this Marxist crowd want. It is a government dedicated to feather bedding the public sector and union paymasters until as usual they go broke.
Wr can’t afford 3 more years of these slash and burn policies and Milibrains ruinous net stupid policies.
January 22, 2026
Presumably the much vaunted A.I. will take care of it all. This reminds me when I was a lad in the 1950’s ‘automation’ was going to be the thing, no-one would have a hard heavy job, there would be endless leisure hours and plenty of money to give to every one. Like nuclear power, where electricity was going to be too cheap to meter and free to every one. I worked for a firm in the 1960’s and 70’swho decided that their 6 man accounts dept would be better served by a computer system. They got rid of 3 employees, had a whole air conditioned suite built, a computer manager and umpteen expensive people to run it. It was going to be a paperless society, but truck loads of paper came out on sack barrows and went straight to the dump. Don’t believe in too much technology, and certainly don’t believe any politician like Milliband. Things just get harder, worked hours longer and home/work ratio worse, just to see a few at the top cream everything away. They like it like that.
January 22, 2026
The way for a six man accounts team to become three is through reduced regulation, not automation which once the adding up is done automatically has reached peak efficiency.
January 23, 2026
Reduced regulation – we know that doesn’t happen. Management, like government get sold these latest whiz bang ideas and away they go. No-one gets the sack for it. Remember the NHS spending 10 billion on a computer system that didn’t work? House of Lords the next stop for the boss.
January 22, 2026
@Mark B – that is also the doctrine/teaching of Torsten Bell (Under-Secretary of State for Pensions, also served as Ed Miliband’s Director of policy). Only the State and those that run it have wealth, the rest of you get a bit of universal state pocket money and should be thankful.
January 22, 2026
Ian B
Agree that is the direction of how Policy, or their aim for the future, looks at the moment.
It will of course fail because there will not be enough money to pay everyone who will be reliant on the State.
January 22, 2026
It’s deliberate. Labour’s mission to completely destroy the UK is going to plan.
January 22, 2026
Labour appear to have been forced to raise the extra money to invest in our defence
More than £500m has been committed by the government this week to upgrading the RAF’s Typhoon fighter fleet with 40 units of the advanced ECRS Mk2 radar, a move they say will secure over 1500 skilled jobs across the United Kingdom and reinforce the aircraft’s role as the backbone of British air defence
The investment includes a £453m contract awarded to UK industry for the manufacture of the advanced radar systems by Leonardo in Edinburgh.
The radar contract follows a £205 million five-year agreement announced earlier this week with QinetiQ to provide long-term engineering support for the Typhoon fleet, sustaining “up to” 250 jobs
Combined, the two announcements represent more than £650 million in defence investment in a single week
Source:- ukdefencejournal.org.uk
January 22, 2026
They can find 15 billion to bribe people to have solar panels and heat pumps, it is said 1 billion to get Blair on the middle east committee, yet cannot find enough to defend this country. How many people would 15 billion employ in our economy rather than export it to China for millions of solar panels made with slave labour? Anyone seen any demos in London against Chinese slave labour every week?
January 22, 2026
Spot on Graham
January 22, 2026
Announced in one week yes, but a paltry amount over the contract time line, but agree better than nothing.
I hope it is delivered on time and on budget, but why do I have doubts ?.
January 22, 2026
@SK – Yes – £650 million of Taxpayers Money thrown away in a week. Leonardo effectively owned by the Italian Government and paying tax in Italy. QinetiQ, although the defence minister Lewis Moonie tried to justify its sale at the timesaid it would remain a British business, no longer true it is now primarily foreign owned paying taxes elsewhere. UK industry? it can’t get out the starting blocks as parliament keeps using taxpayer money to fund foreign enterprise while punishing home grown enterprises just for existing.
The point I am making is that exporting taxpayer money so that it doesn’t get to circulate and feed the UK economy gets us know where.
We have an anti-UK Parliament, with an anti-UK Government that fights the UK daily.
A handful of jobs is just a shadow of the funding created to sustain foreign states who would never reciprocate to the same degree.
January 22, 2026
Every Labour government destroys the economy, it’s what they do.
January 22, 2026
Yes and inflation 11% under Tories following their Covid splurge so frankly both can be equally blamed for wrecking the joint.
Reply Yes Conservative Ministers ignored my advice to intervene with a Bank fo England determined on more inflation by printing too much money. Conservatives paid the price for that mistake in 2024.
January 22, 2026
Going back further inflation was much higher in the 1970’s if I remember well and my mortgage went up to about 15 percent I think. People were owing more than their houses were worth. None of them know what to do. Economics is a religion, not a science and mostly proves its adherents theories wrong in the long term. The causes of boom and bust are much more prosaic. If economists were right we’d have had constant good times, but we don’t, we get boom and bust even in the Brown era when he said he had found the golden thread. Rubbish, it comes and goes and always makes rich people richer and the poor poorer regardless.
January 22, 2026
My house was worth more than I owed in the 90s. It was my house so it didn’t really matter so long as I could make the payments on the mortgage and the mortgage was less than rent on a similar property in a similar location.
January 22, 2026
Well rent included insurance, maintenance and you can quit quote easily not always so easy to sell!
January 22, 2026
Graham
I think interest rates went up 3 times in one day way back then, I remember it well !
January 22, 2026
Then came down smartly with the £ free. Major having a melt down indoors.
January 22, 2026
What is not usually discussed or valued in the wage comparison between public and private employment are the other benefits public sector employees get, which are all fully funded by the taxpayers as well as100% of their wages and salaries.
Employer Pension contributions which can be up to 25% of a salary.
Full Sickness pay which can be up to a year in length
Holiday entitlement which can be up to 6-8 weeks per year.
Travel allowances.
Job security
Early retirement, in some areas at 55 years of age or after 30 years of service.
Redundancy or movement packages in the unlikely event of a closure or relocation.
These are huge benefits when compared to the private sector, but rarely ever get a mention.
Include flexible working, and a London weighting allowance (even if you work from home) and the gap gets even wider.
No wonder the State System costs the taxpayer a fortune.
January 22, 2026
Yep, and remember that at least 25 percent of every pound you pay in Council Tax goes to their pension fund, making people who work hard but cannot afford to put money by for retirement, fund a featherbed scheme for public employees. It is the most regressive tax going, and the Tories were wrong to scrap the poll tax after a bit of bother by some lefties who thought they should have a free ride. Some things never change.
January 22, 2026
Graham
Agree about the poll tax, a much fairer system.
The present system is simply a form of wealth tax on the value of your property, nothing to do with services.
January 23, 2026
House values nothing to do with wealth really, (although agree they do tax it as such), if you have to live in it. It becomes wealth when you can liquidate it and still have somewhere to live. It is totally wrong to tax us the thick end of £300 per month just to get the bins emptied once a fortnight. Not much else provided here in the sticks – no street lighting (don’t want that though they turn it off in town at midnight), police racing through the village but cannot come out to a burglary, roads in appalling state, buses as as when they feel like it, the list goes on and the price just keeps going up.
January 22, 2026
The cost of the Public Sector current costs and the legacy pension costs plus the future pensions projections makes it unsustainable.
There is a simple fix. We have to cut the cost of the Public Sector.
The debate is how do we do that and more importantly who is going to do it because the Public Sector and the establishment won’t do it to themselves.
January 22, 2026
Must have missed that – don’t recall anyone trying to cut the public sector, it just grows bigger whatever party rules. Trying to cut welfare, possibly, but not public sector costs.
January 22, 2026
just words…..talk is cheap but say it often enough and fools believe it.
January 23, 2026
Those empires don’t build themselves
January 22, 2026
+1
January 22, 2026
Of course this Parliament its Government all being PPE economics graduates know maths doesn’t lie. 1.4% adrift is nothing its peanuts/pennies well within tolerance. A couple of percentage points higher on unemployment can also be dismissed as just the extra asylum seekers. The hard done by Public sector workers also get their rise sans full pension contribution that the private sector has to pay from actual income.
The real deal, the real figures are the missing billions, the real percentage gap doesn’t figure in the presentations. The UK’s safety and security will be sacrificed once more the extra needed can be covered, with tax rises on the unprotected sector, removal of money from the already pathetic defence budget (oops… sorry my mistake that’s gone to Mauritius)
You can have anything every one desires, if you have the means to earn and create wealth – but that has been expelled from the UK not by just this shower but the previous incumbents. Parliament has become a home of Walter Mitty characters so wound up in ego and personal self-esteem they can no longer perceive reality Or the alternatively they have embraced the WEF doctrine of ‘destroy’ to create a World in their own personal image.
‘What ever’ – what Parliament is doing to the People and the Nation has no logic, just malicious punishment and tyrannical personal ideology that is just about them.
Reply 1% more inflation is £30 billion. 4.3% more on pay compared to the private sector is £21.5 bn on say £500 bn of public sector pay.
January 22, 2026
@Reply – exactly, but that is how these economics graduates equate it and not the 73% being adrift as you rightly suggest. So with 1%(1.4%) you get to believe you have a small miss-step were as the true 73% would ensure sacking in the real world
January 22, 2026
If anyone read or heard Carney’s speech about World order, you will get the point. Deluded wanna-be World rulers all about them. Not one of them want the job they were empowered and paid to do, it was never on their mind they want the Norman Conquest, serfs and serfdom and slaves returned to give them personal order and reward.
January 22, 2026
Mark Carney is dire – appointed by the IHT ratter and Landlord Robber Osborne and Cameron!
January 22, 2026
Carney acknowledged the end of the Globalist World Order and accepted the New, multipolar Worlds Order.
He threw in his lot with China rather than with the USA, which funds Canada rather as England funds Scotland.
With the multipolar World Order reinstated (hurrah) we need New Leaders in the West.
January 22, 2026
At PMQs the PM told us his Government effectively were the bees knees. All the above facts therefore are incorrect or fabrications.LOL.
This pseudo-Labour government has been in power for over 18 months and can only defend their dire decision-making by blaming past Tory Governments that ended in June 2024.
PMQs has again sunken to the levels of a ping pong match and mud slinging, and has become an embarrassment for us, the British citizens, when viewed by internationals, especially those in the USA.
PM Starmer and his third rate band of cabinet members have put us in dire straits, and it is a great pity they cannot perform as well as the world-famous eponymous group of the 70’s to 90’s.
January 22, 2026
One of biggest hits was ‘Money for Nothing’ – hilarious.
January 22, 2026
Mt.
Was another Sultans of Swing or was it Sultans of Spin?
January 22, 2026
the former, but the latter is more accurate.
January 22, 2026
C.W
It was Dire Straits, appropriately.
January 22, 2026
It’s not question time any more, as no one gives an answer.
Likewise there are more prompted aren’t we great promotional pseudo question’s, than real ones.
“Does the Prime Minister agree with me” type if nonsense.
Why do the governing party get to ask more “questions:” than the combined opposition.?
Surely the idea of question time is to actually question the Governments polices and competence, and to expect to get a sensible and grown up answer.
January 22, 2026
I definitely appreciate we can improve public sector labour productivity with capital investment (eg investment in better software, robotics and tools per employee) and using the advancement in technology (eg AI) but we also need to ask is it overstaffed?
Even with the above investment and tech upgrades, if output is > demand then the excess output will not be needed and so we would need to cut back on staff. A big question for me is has the public sector become overstaffed? I think the collapse in productivity since 2019 evidences that it has. Before we consider and capital deepening and better tech usage, I think we need to ask why is there an excess labour supply? what is the excess currently doing? why were they employed? and rectify it.
January 22, 2026
Labour Governments always spend excessively, allow wasteful spending to just go on, increase the UK’s debt and grow the public sector. Usually, a Conservative Government then clears up the mess, pays down some debt, and encourages the private sector to grow. But that did not happen with the last Conservative Government, so Labour did not have its normal golden inheritance. As a result, they have the UK on course for a financial disaster.
That, combined with the low calibre of Government Ministers, from the PM down, means life will get tougher and tougher for private sector workers. The public sector cart will become too heavy for the private sector horse.
When the day of reckoning comes, it will be painful for everyone in the UK.
January 22, 2026
Exactly!
January 22, 2026
Labour have done nothing but reward their own supporters since they took power, while punishing everyone else. That alone shows their priorities – to get voted back in next time, if General elections have not been cancelled by then.
With so many politicians swanning off to Davos, it’s not the big speeches we should be concerned with so much as those held in private for a limited invited crowd. Time we stopped these jollies when we are so broke because they will only come back with more inane ways to hurt us.
Following WEF inspired policies is what got us to a large part of the mess we are in – all it required was weak minded governments, which we’ve had enough of in the last few decades.
January 22, 2026
+1
January 22, 2026
We are experiencing a far left, Fabian, socialist government as a result of the last GE, even though only 20% of the electorate actually voted for this. So we are now fully exposed to their ideology that open borders are good, diversity beats unity and the green hoax that burning fossil fuels will lead to the extermination of the planet, although it should be noted that unfortunately these ideas were also those of the previous administration. Socialism has never reduced prices or improved affordability. Never. Interventionism is the root of all inflationary and scarcity problems. Only competition, open markets and technology can reduce prices and ease the bottlenecks created by governments through asphyxiating regulations and taxes. The socialists know all of this of course and hence devise policies to impoverish for they know that socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor. When socialists say they want “growth”, they mean the growth of population size/density, state employment, prices, taxes, regulations, restrictions, poverty, disorder and disharmony.
January 22, 2026
Slightly off topic – The Board of Peace
The founding membership all have two things in common, (1) they don’t do net-zero and (2) they don’t allow illegal migration ….it will be interesting to compare their economic development with the rest of europe
January 22, 2026
We are going to have to be quick, because as Trump says, Europe as we knew it may not be around much longer.
Lowe has ascertained that there are 91 million mobile phones registered in the U.K. I for one don’t have one. How many people live here? Who are they? Has HMRC seen an explosion of taxpayers?
January 22, 2026
It is common for people to have more than one. I had an employer-provided phone for over 20 years which I ran alongside a personal phone, so carried 2 phones much of the time.
This had multiple benefits. 1, The work one could be turned off evenings and weekends. 2, When I changed jobs, I didn’t have the hassle of changing phone numbers. 3, I could get the personal phone and network contract that best suited me rather than being stuck with a corporate standard issue.
January 22, 2026
I have 3 or 4 old ones you could have – BUT they only allow phone calls – so not much use in the modern ‘smart’ world… doh. They don’t count your daily steps, not give your heart rate, let you buy almost anything, let you read/write emails, play a whole world of Youtube stuff, alert you to an imminent nuclear attack, do a weather forecast, take amazing photos, play your recorded or live music, watch live sports( some), access train/bus timetables…..
so of very limited use.
January 23, 2026
But then to balance those with two phones, you have very young people and very old people and very poor people who dont even have one mobile phone.
So over 90 million mobiles registered , ie on contract or pay as you go, seems a high figure compared to our official population.
January 22, 2026
It was not Lowe but statistics by USwitch.com 14/08/2025 ‘UK mobile phone statistics’ following a 2013 study by the ONS (ons.gov.uk ‘Mobile Phone Usage Survey’).
January 23, 2026
Can’t get a mobile phone signal here. My sister gave me her old smart phone when she upgraded, but the thing is useless until I go 5 miles away. People in business cannot understand that we can’t get a signal and make everything to do with mobile phone numbers and texts which we can’t get. Next stop they intend taking our landline away, that’ll be fun, especially when we get regular power cuts if the weather doesn’t suit.
January 22, 2026
Glen
I think I would be very careful about joining the organisation you mention, looks more like a commercial business set up to me, with the present named boss always being in charge of everything, from the little I have read so far.
But perhaps that’s just me being scepticle.
January 22, 2026
Agree, I’m against the UK joining the ‘The Board of Peace’ and would welcome the UK leaving the UN
January 22, 2026
Trump’s board of peace is an attempt by Trump to replace the UN with an entity that he controls and which is “pay to play”. (Where will the billions end up? Trump’s bank account?)
Any organisation which has Putin as part of it can’t claim to be an organisation focussed on peace.
January 22, 2026
Oh, like the UN?
January 22, 2026
Agree
January 22, 2026
I like what trump has done, anyone building a datacentre is automatically given permission to build generating capacity for their own electricity. that’s the kind of thing we need.
January 22, 2026
They need to make more of ESG instead of slamming it down.
January 22, 2026
Dear Sir John,
I’ve genuinely learned a lot from you and respect you lots. Because of you, I’ve moved more to the right on issues to do with Brexit, Immigration and Energy (and I also really like your articles on Transport).
But I do challenge on you, sir, on Trump. Yes, he’s done some good things for sure. But he is also weakening the UK, economically, causing Brexiters to become more Euro-friendly and also, unintentionally, breeding socialism in this country and so giving breathing space to Labour. As well as causing harm to Western security and the economy overall.
Greenland was a clear Red Flag. And world leaders, overall, have called his bluff. And he’s backed down. But this kind of behaviour is aggressive and does the UK no good at all. He is NOT a friend of the UK. And it’s not a case of giving him respect due to an American President but about standing strong against him as this is the only language he understands.
(Reference to Nazis removed!ed)
Best to you, sir, for 2026 – both in work and leisure.
Reply I did not support his approach to Greenland. He is right to warn the UK off the Chagos give away. The more the UK aligns with EU the slower the growth and the further we fall behind the US.
January 22, 2026
I agree with you and and him on Chagos.
And apologies for misunderstanding / misrepresenting your position on him and Greenland.
Best to you sir
January 22, 2026
@Ed M – ‘right’ or mainstream ‘centre ground’ in-tune with the majority of those free thinkers that use logic not emotional political ideology? There is no left or right, just right or wrong, the main premiss is were does the money come from to achieve things, that means how can it be ‘earned’ and then how is it spent to cause a return. Its not a just a fresh pool of money that is needed for each project it is also making sure what is spent adds to the pool – and it not is not just to replenish the a leaky pool
On Trump, the bit missed is last time he was in office, everything was ever so politically correct and polite outwardly trusting of those other leaders he was in conversation with, in trying to re-balance things with their relationship with the USA. Nothing happened then, there were talks about talks, kicking things in the long grass until his term was up – so he got to achieve next to nothing as nothing happened. This time around, he hit the ground running action first to elicit a proper formal response. Guess what he is getting everything he was deceived about last time.
On Greenland I think he has won, the whole of the EU have upped their defence spending by another magnitude. Think about it they were happy for him to fund and protect them, even though he has adversaries on his other flack he needed to protect the USA from. The USA will no longer be clearly the biggest funder of the EU’s defence budget. He also gets his protection for his people and country with bases in Greenland, after-all a US treaty even before this situation had the US as it protector as they had nothing to do with NATO.
He will next get the rights to extract Greenlands rich resources and he will pay the Greenlanders handsomely for it – the EU hasn’t the wherewithal to even know where to start. Not forgetting in all this Greenlanders want nothing to do with the EU, they even want a vote to separate themselves from Denmark .
Trumps media sound-bites are never ever to be taking at face value he is just cajoling those that tried to play him once before – fool him once.. as the saying goes
January 22, 2026
I am no expert on Trump, I am not even sure I like the man. To date he has turned the tables around and relation ships between the USA and others are on more of a mutually reciprocal basis. Something the UK Parliament doesn’t want for the UK. Clearly he is doing his job to protect and keep his people safe, secure resilient and self-reliant, again something you could never offer up as something coming out of the UK Parliament
January 23, 2026
Also, your argument is all anti EU.
I agree with you, the EU is a threat to our political / cultural way of life. But so is the USA (more to our cultural life, and to a degree our economic life – i.e. globalism out of control – than our political life).
I want the UK to be independent of both the EU and the USA – in every sense. I see American culture (and to a degree, American globalisation) as being like a grey squirrel destroying our wonderful British red-squirrel culture.
So essentially we both agree about the EU. The difference between you and me is essentially that I am also opposed to the way the USA is destroying, to a degree, our British way of life in terms of culture and out-of-control globalisation. And Trump very much represents this threat of the USA to our great nation: the UK!
So overall I think you’re right about the threat of the EU but wrong about Trump (not completely wrong – you’re right on some important things – but ignoring other important things where he is a threat to us).
January 23, 2026
I’m NOT attacking globalisation. I’m a capitalist. But out-of-control globalisation and the type of damage this does to our `UK economy and culture. And I’m also challenging the other ways the USA diminishes / destroys our British culture / way of life. You seem completely quiet / indifferent to this. This is ultimately about PROTECTING our great nation – in every sense! PATRIOTISM. Not about attacking Trump or the USA just for the sake of.
January 23, 2026
@Ian,
‘There is no left or right, just right or wrong’- well said. I agree!
‘sure what is spent adds to the pool’ – agree with all this. Well said.
‘in trying to re-balance things with their relationship with the USA’ – but you’re falling into his narrative, here. How exactly are things stacked in the UK’s favour against the USA?
‘On Greenland I think he has won, the whole of the EU have upped their defence spending by another magnitude’ – How exactly has Greenland upped the EU’s spending?
Like I said before, Trump has had successes. Immigration and, yes, upping the EU’s defences (before Greenland).
‘Not forgetting in all this Greenlanders want nothing to do with the EU’ – their resilience to the EU is as strong as it is to the USA. I think you’re exaggerating here. And Greenland is still a Danish colony and has been for centuries.
January 22, 2026
Trumps job is not to protect and take action to allow the U.K. to thrive, it is to protect and take action for the USA to thrive.
For decades the USA paid tariffs to sell into the EU, including Britain and did NOT make any charge for selling into the USA.
He is deporting effectively all Somalis, depriving those who obtained US citizenship by fraud of their citizenship and taking much opposed action to ensure fair elections in the USA.
He is increasing production of rare earths (chinas production done from 90% to 65% of world production) and energy.
As for Greenland, the USA secured Greenland ALONE during WWII, these is a Treaty signed in 1951 with Denmark which guarantees USA unfettered access to Greenland.
You do know that Denmark, in occupation of Greenland for 700 years, secretly administered medication which massively reduced the fecundity of the native Eskimos? Similar to the action Gates took in Africa?
Why do you defend Denmark’s Imperialism?
January 22, 2026
The idea of standing strong against the USA when we are petrified of the illegal immigrants that occupy so much of the U.K. is laughable.
British people need to ‘stand strong’ against our own feral political class which has destroyed and broken Britain.
January 22, 2026
Yep, immigration is a problem. I agree. So is the political system here – agreed. But Trump is also another problem for the UK. If you have three illnesses, you don’t just treat two and ignore the other (hoping it will just go away or something).
January 22, 2026
This is very worrying – I agree with you AGAIN.
January 22, 2026
Lastly, the way Trump treats UK (not just us) also feels EMASCULATING (not just me personally but our great nation in general).
That’s why a true gentleman always looks for a WIN-WIN in every situation. You can be a gentleman and do well in life. If you’re the Artful Dodger and starving to death, then you have more reason for drastic action. But Trump is not starving to death. No excuse.
January 22, 2026
“Labour will delay elections for 4.5m people in a bid to “repair the broken foundations of local government”, the Government has announced.
Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, told the Commons on Thursday that 29 areas would have their elections postponed”
‘He said he had “listened to what councils have told me” – he has listened to those that were to loose their jobs because of incompetence
Democracy and a free country?
They know its not right it is as invented as the reasons for giving away the Chagos Islands
January 22, 2026
Here’s the madness in a nutshell
”Britain’s wind farm turbines wasted enough energy to power all of London’s homes last year, new figures show.
A record 10 terawatt hours (TWh) of wind power went to waste in 2025, according to a report from energy analyst Montel – costing billpayers a total of £1.4bn in “curtailment costs”.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/constraint-payments-soar-to-new-record/#more-90446
January 22, 2026
Another massive Trump victory:
“Russia is discussing with the U.S. the use of Russia’s frozen assets to restore territories affected by the fighting after a peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine is concluded.” President Putin.
January 22, 2026
At weekend, I had an ambulance answer a999 call from myself.I was very SOB for many hours.The ambulance arrived within 10 mins,the staff were excellent ,kind and professional.I had slight ischia…ECG changes which although worrying can be treated.On the Monday in conversation with my peers they said that I should have allowed the crew to take me to A&E.Aftet work I went up to A&E and told them the story.I have specialised in coronary care and cardiology and was aware that it was only a marginal problem.
I went a little earlier to my GP where the receptionist said that I couldn’t even be seen for 2weeks.I explained the problem to a receptionist and the manager ,asked them to take a copy of the ECG which I had to argue was important.At first they refused.There excuse was that they don’t know how to prioritise as they are not medical.
The quick treatment and attention I recivy by the team was amazing and they referred me to rapid access, something which should have been done by the GP.
This GP service has good write ups.They won’t accept that they do anything wrong .They don’t realise that clinical priority is what everyone needs.
Excellent service by ambulance and A&E.
January 22, 2026
A very common issue, great care by NHS – shame about GPs and surgery ‘bouncers’.
We need to revisit why have them …. most of us could use a decent Q&A via computer to decide on treatment/referral. Think of the saving – and efficiency.
January 23, 2026
I notice again that spell check has changed ischaemia to ischia and their to there.This is embarrassing for myself.I do find it difficult to write on my phone, but this makes it worse.
The point is that the front line NHS/GPs should be managed by staff who understand clinical priority and management who change and employ staff accordingly.A manager who doesn’t understand what she is managing is set for disaster.
To top it all surveys are set with answers which indicate that certain surgeries are outstanding.The box answers do not reflect the true situation.
January 22, 2026
The only point on which i would disagree with Sir John R is that he regards Labour’s demolition of the economy, increase in unemployment and increase in state employees and universal credit-for-lifers as accidental errors.I believe they are deliberate acts, all calculated to a) increase the Labour vote and b) tank the economy in a classic marxist pre-reset strategy. The rise in taxes forces net taxpayers to pay for the unemployed and army of NHS/teaching/state and LA admin bods. But Labour’s researchers know that only insane UK taxpayers vote Labour, so the fewer the better. As long as taxes rise ever higher, the IMF will not come calling as the UK is far too big to dig out of a hole until its economy shrinks to zero.
January 22, 2026
I.e.ischaemia.
January 23, 2026
On the economy it is the usual bog standard story of socialism. Socialism has never worked anywhere it has been tried and socialists always blame its failures on other people, who simply won’t agree to the socialist ways. In the case of Starmer’s Gang it is only half the story. It is no longer the politics of envy of Wilson’s era, it is deep visceral hatred of Britain and its cultural foundations in Christianity. To assist it in destroying this, it has allied with Islamism. They have nothing in common other than their deeply shared hatred. The aims of Starmer’s Gang are entirely destructive. It looks to the EU in order to remove Britain’s sovereignty and to bypass its democracy, because Fabians see the anti-democratic EU as a stepping stone towards the global socialist order they want.