The Chancellor will doubtless now blame the Iran war for the lamentable performance of the economy. So far she has blamed the inheritance, overlooking the facts that when she took over the Conservatives had restored growth to being the fastest growing G7 economy and had inflation back down to the 2% target after the wild swings of covid and too much Quantitative easing from the Bank. She took inflation up to nearly double with large rises in public sector costs and charges and she depressed output and pushed up unemployment with her taxes on jobs, farms, small business and business property.
Her current spin line is she has prepared the UK economy to withstand the shock of the Iran war, yet the OECD forecast says the UK will suffer the biggest downgrade in growth as it is very exposed. Of course it is. The government has a policy of getting us to import more energy,. more food, more high energy using manufactures through its mad self harming pursuit of UK net zero. It also happens to boost world CO 2 at the same time! Imported LNG in a damaged global market is bound to be scarcer and dearer than UK gas down a pipe from our own fields. Imported petrol is likely to be dearer than refined products from our own refiners, yet the government has allowed and created closures through penal taxation of 2 of our 6 refineries.
The government says it wants to tackle the big loss from the fall in public sector productivity but so far has not taken measures that will reverse that loss. It says it wants to control the benefits bill yet it keeps going up and the government invites in many more illegal migrants. It says it has an industrial policy, yet its carbon taxes and high energy prices policy undermines so many factories and plants. The government does not know what to do about the rash of closures in so many industries.
When the issues become too embarrassing it turns to open ended subsidies. It is paying £1.3m a day to keep the last two blast furnaces open, struggling as they do with age and sky high energy taxes and costs. It has had to offer a £100m short term grant to get the recently closed bioethanol plant re opened to produce enough CO 2 for UK needs.It has helped pubs with rip off business rates but not a lot of other High Street businesses under financial pressures to close.
So we still have a government rightly committed to faster growth following so many policies that produce the opposite. The Iran war will be used as an excuse, but many of us have been warning from before the war that the UK economy was not going to grow faster anyway.
If the Bank of England now keeps interest rates higher or even raises them that will increase the intensity of the downturn. A big external energy price rise is like imposing a big new tax on UK business and consumers. It is deflationary, after the obvious first round upwards impact on inflation. The last thing the Bank should do is make it worse on the downside in an orgy of over compensating for its past disaster of printing too much money.
March 29, 2026
Reeves does her growth, growth, growth rain dance and says that Growth (and keeping the cost of living down) are her top priorities. But almost every single policy she, Miliband, Starmer, Lammy, Mamood, Phillipson push destroys growth, increases the numbers on benefits, pushed tax payers overseas and pushes up the costs of living.
We have insane doom loop policies that will clearly end in economic, industrial and defensive suicide in very short order.
The only real questions are:- Is this deliberate, evil vandalism and destruction of the UK by these ministers or are they all really just all deluded ….. ?Are they already in a scorched earth agenda as they realise they will likely never see power again?
March 29, 2026
I’d go with the deliberate, evil vandalism option. No one could be this thick. One thing is for sure, most of these ministers will leave office much richer than when they entered.
March 29, 2026
@Christine – I to can’t see it at as anything but the ‘Plan’ a malicious plan of destruction, what else could it be?
March 29, 2026
Daniel Hannan
“Britain should slap sanctions on any country demanding slavery reparations.
If Ghana wants to lead a Third Worldist posse against us, we must not be cowed”
Indeed but we have Mastermind Lammy and this government who want UK taxpayers to be forces pay vast reparations.
Lenny Henry has called for £18 trillion in slavery reparations for Caribbean nations and Black Britons in his new book. This is about half a £ million per tax payer in the UK! Probably one of the few funny things he has ever said.
March 29, 2026
It is estimated that the African Barbary pirates took between 1 and 1.25 million white European Christians into slavery between 530 and 1780. Still, people like Lammy and Henry prefer not to discuss this. They have a single-track mind full of racism and hatred of white people, even though they themselves have benefited from the wealth the West created.
March 29, 2026
In 1200 years they have taken on average 1000 ‘white European Christians’ a year. Is it really such a big deal?
How many deaths happened because of white-on-white wars during the same period: Wikipedia: list of wars 1000-1499?
How many during the various instances of plague? (25 m) The Black Death took about 40% of the European population in eight years (1346-53).
How many men were press ganged on Royal Navy ships in the 1700s and early 1800s (historytools.org 26/05/2024 ‘The dark history of press ganging: How Britain built its Navy on the backs of kidnapped sailors’).
It is all relative
March 29, 2026
Yes it’s a big deal.
March 29, 2026
@Christine – the way of life on the African continent for thousands of years. Whole comunities in Cornwall were destroyed and abandoned by their actions
March 29, 2026
@Lifelogic – here is a thought how about those we donated their land and countries too, paying the market value for what was handed to them. Or how about those that captured their ancestors and enslaved them before selling them on also paying. For most it was be sold or killed because of crimes against their own people. How about all those descendants of the Norman Lords that stole land and enslaved a nation having to pay. What Lenny Henry and his ilk miss while his ancestors may have been slaves, saved from the gallows etc. those that they are asking for money from were slaves themselves at the time – changing the word slave to surf changed nothing, they were indentured workers both in the Caribbean and here in the UK.
March 29, 2026
The UK did not even vote against the UN resolution confirming that the ‘Atlantic Slave trade is the worst crime in human history’.
We accepted that.
How can we sanction any country now demanding reparations?
Why does Hannon not roast the lamentable Lammas who claims to be descended from slaves – like Johnson.
March 29, 2026
Starmer seems set to roll back his proposed lengthening of indefinite leave to remain from 5 to 10 years – under pressure from Tory scum, scum, scum Rayner.
Also an EU plot to seize Chagos fishing rights after Starmer’s surrender. One of world’s largest protected marine areas at risk of ‘catastrophic’ exploitation by French and Spanish vessels.
I expected a Starmer government to be truly dire – but he has been even more appalling than even I expected.
March 29, 2026
French and Spanish vessels around Chagos Islands: where do you get your news from? Oh yes, that’s from a demented Telegraph writer. So LL, are you now siding with Greenpeace and the RSPB?
Any other information channel makes clear that fishing rights to the Chagos Islands MPA will be given to Chagossian small scale fishing business.
But what is the best way for the Telegraph to make their (dumb?) readers boil with angered excitement against the dreaded EU fisherpeople than such a ‘fake news’?
maritime-executive.com 09/03/2023 ‘The disputed Chagos Islands have an illegal fishing problem’ … so that has been going on for years and has nothing to do with EU fishermen.
Reply Chagossians are not allowed to live on their islands. There is no domestic fishing industry.
March 29, 2026
Not quite. Chagosians obviously not living on the Chagos Islands will possibly be authorised to subsistence fishing (natureseychelles.org 17/02/2026 ‘People or biodiversity? Opening the Chagos Marine Park to subsistence fishing’.)
March 29, 2026
But you are not focussing on the Chargosians hefner.
We are talking about the EU…and its ambitions.
March 29, 2026
The EU already has a fishing agreement with Mauritius.
If Mauritius gains control over the Chagos Islands then it isn’t illogical to consider the EU could in the future, gain fishing rights there.
But hefner, you feel pointing out that possibility is dumb and the journalist demented.
Very odd.
March 29, 2026
Fishing access: Vessels from Spain, France, Portugal, and Italy can fish in Mauritanian waters
https://oceans-and-fisheries.ec.europa.eu/fisheries/international-agreements/sustainable-fisheries-partnership-agreements-sfpas/mauritius_en
March 29, 2026
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is taking “immediate” action to fix the foundations of our economy.
In her first speech as Chancellor, Rachel Reeves laid out plans to rebuild Britain and make every part of the country better off.
HM Treasury and The Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP
8 July 2024
How this going then Doom-Loop Rachael?
March 29, 2026
Is this true – as is being widely reported?
A key ally of Keir Starmer was last night accused of being ‘rewarded’ with more than £1 million from the taxpayer for his ‘secretive firm’ after ( the sovereignty has not yet been legally surrendered and these timings may be wrong ed)surrendering British sovereignty in the Chagos Islands, sparking a bitter conflict of interests row. An organisation founded by Jonathan Powell, the Prime Minister’s national security adviser (NSA), received the money ( including some? ed)following his appointment as the Government’s Chagos envoy after Labour’s 2024 election win.
Reply It is true allegations have been made in the Mail newspaper which need to be read carefully. It is also true Inter Mediate, a company Powell has been involved with, has received ODA money for conflict resolution work. A Parliamentary question about why and how much received a blocking answer refusing to give details. I have not seen any evidence that Powell received money for promoting the Chagos surrender, other than his salary as National Security Adviser.
March 29, 2026
The whole Chagos deal stinks and needs urgent investigation by the authorities.
March 29, 2026
“The Authorities” are probably up to their necks in the deal so any investigation will find “nothing to see here.”
Just like the Police investigation into Family Voting in Gorton and Denton.
March 29, 2026
+1
March 29, 2026
Why aren’t polling stations fitted with CCTV cameras?
March 29, 2026
@Christine – the only problem whose ‘authoraties’? Friday it was reported that investigations into the ‘rape gangs’ had stalled due to all the missing paperwork. The CPS at the time?
March 29, 2026
Rupert Lowe asked the Home Office if the Department ‘will publish all information it holds on child sexual exploitation committed by illegal migrants.
The minister, Jess Phillips, ‘the information you have requested is not available from published statistics and there is no immediate intention to publish them.’
A shocking admission, really – the analysis does exist and they are refusing to share it with the British people.
March 29, 2026
Good Morning,
I read every day about businesses closing and going broke. I met a local, mid-career entrepreneur yesterday who runs a specialist fabrication business, employing 200 or so people, from next month he will not employ any new staff owing to the new employment rights laws, despite growth opportunites. This is socialist ideology in action, we cannot live with this for long.
March 29, 2026
Indeed happening all over the place.
March 29, 2026
Sir John you know that if we produce more UK gas we don’t get it any cheaper, it goes on the market price. Right wingers like to push this falsehood, just like we need to drill for more gas and oil, there’s nothing left in the sea bed .
Reply Why peddle government lies? There is no world price for gas. Gas in the UK is 4 times the price of gas in the US. Imported LNG will usually be dearer than home produced gas down a pipe given all the extra costs of liquefying, transporting and converting back to gas. There is plenty more gas in the UK if only we were allowed to produce it.
March 29, 2026
“More cheaply” and yes we would save. Gas is very expensive to liquidise, transport and store and wasteful of energy too. Natural gas prices in the USA are far lower than here. Anyway even if it did not reduce the cost we would still get the jobs and the taxes!
March 29, 2026
Stormy:
Lord John & LL are both correct. There is no world price for gas and it is far cheaper in the USA. Probably because shipping gas is expensive and far more expensive than shipping crude oil, which does consequently have a world price. All the gas extracted from the UK North Sea Continental Shelf is piped to the UK as it is far too expensive to ship it elsewhere. The government could even use their renewables CfD scheme when allocating gas drilling licences to fix the price we are paying in return for granting a licence to drill. There’s obviously plenty of gas and oil left in the North Sea or otherwise companies would not still be wanting to invest in explorations.
Reply UK has no capacity to convert piped gas into LNG for export, so can only sell domestic production down a pipe
March 29, 2026
Reply to Reply : Noted that the UK has no capacity to convert piped gas into LNG but the UK does export gas to Belgium, Netherlands and Ireland through pipes.
March 29, 2026
I believe that we confuse ourselves with the word ‘growth’, as though the choice is between ‘growth’ and ‘no growth’. This choice is impacted by:
A) the UK running a trade deficit – this weakens the UK’s ability to control its destiny.
B) capitalism being an ongoing process of creative destruction (eg impact of AI).
Because of the above, I would argue that i) ‘regeneration’ should replace ‘growth’, ii) the choice is between ‘regeneration’ and ‘becoming poorer’ (standing still is not an option because of the trade deficit), and iii) the future can look very bright because of amazing emerging technologies which can contribute to solving the world’s problems.
The UK has incredibly inventive engineers but both the Government and the City are doing their best to prevent their skills being harnessed for the benefit of the UK – this is not a difficult problem to solve if there is a will to do so,
March 29, 2026
Growth is what politicians aspire to, to make it easier to continue their policies of spending and waste. British people could have the same benefits of growth if the government reduced spending, made the public sector more efficient and can the wasteful activities. Growth would be a bonus on top, but it needs a relaxation of legislation to achieve it.
March 29, 2026
Unless inventive engineers have the benefit of Capitalism (reward for rush and effort) they take their inventiveness to the USA.
Do you think that that is why the USA has Capitalist Musk employing all the best and producing TWO TRILLION $ companies in disparate sectors?
Did you notice that Musk is not short of talent to employ? That’s because etch talent never goes to China!
ONLY capitalism will restore Britain.
March 29, 2026
During the 14 years between 2010 and 2024, the Conservative government issued hundreds of new drilling licences for N Sea oil and gas. Seven licensing rounds over 14 years led to 20 new and re-licensed fields. So far, collectively, they have produced only about 36 winter days worth of gas – about enough to last until May Day.
Source; End Fuel Poverty Coalition
Many industry figures have conceded that new drilling in the N Sea will not lower UK energy bills, as oil/gas is priced on international markets by a global cartel
Following the Donald’s recent orders for the UK to re-start exploration in the N Sea, Badenoch, Farage, Tice etc have been loudly agitating for yet more drilling. Apparently, they believe Trump’s dangerous fantasy that the N Sea contains endless fossil fuel reserves
Many economists, climate experts and large swathes of the electorate hold that the future for our country lies in homegrown renewable energy, better home insulation and EV’s. The fact is, our economy is still very vulnerable to oil/gas price shocks – such as now. Again.
Reply Why do you never engage with the critique of the government’s deeply damaging and ill informed spin? Gas by pipe is usually cheaper than LNG. Home gas pays lots of tax to the UK Treasury, imported to foreign governments. There is plenty of untapped gas offshore and onshore.
March 29, 2026
Norway manages to extract gas from the North Sea, some of which they export to us, comprising 10% of UK gas needs.
March 29, 2026
Don’t you just love Norway?
Population of less than 6 million, almost all electric with nearly 90% from hydro, and praised for it, and yet they make £billions from selling oil and gas!
March 29, 2026
Hydro is free and they have the natural geography for it, they still pump more oil and gas than anyone else from the North Sea, that’s why they have a Sovereign Wealth fund.
Have you noticed that Norway has no windmills and no solar panels? Why is this do you think?
March 29, 2026
When the sun disappears beneath the horizon for several months in a year, solar panels are even more useless in winter than they are here.
March 29, 2026
Don’t forget the tax income from the hundreds of thousands of well-paid workers who work directly and indirectly for the gas and oil industry. This is a huge benefit to the UK economy.
March 29, 2026
Our government should receive payment for the drilling/production licence in product not cash. This confirmed supply can then be used and sold at prices to mitigate supply shocks from elsewhere, and sold to the UK market only.
March 29, 2026
They would demand a premium. The Government is in charge of making the rule#, so it should NEVER compete in the market.
March 29, 2026
Government supply to the market would INCREASE the amount of gas available, therefore prices would be lower. Economics 1.01. It’s why oil prices are lower in the US owing to release of product from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
March 29, 2026
The US government releases strategic stored supplies to stabilise prices. So Trump 45 stocked up and Biden 46 covered his economic disaster by selling the store snow Trump 47 is having to store again.
So Trump bailed the USA out even when he was out of office.
March 29, 2026
SG:
Nonsense. I would suggest you find alternative sources for your information than the “End Fuel Poverty Coalition”. There is no world price for gas and it is far cheaper in the USA. Probably because shipping gas is expensive and far more expensive than shipping crude oil, which does consequently have a world price. All the gas extracted from the UK North Sea Continental Shelf is piped to the UK as it is far too expensive to ship it elsewhere. BTW, the ERoEI (Energy Return on Energy Invested) for renewables is too low for them to be able to reproduce themselves. We can only use them because we are buying them cheaply from China who use fossil fuels, slave labour and ignore environmental damage to manufacture them. Even the concrete for fixed offshore wind turbines is shipped from China. In no way can renewables be called “sustainable” and to reply upon China, whom our security services describe as “hostile”, is clearly suicidal.
March 29, 2026
To be fair, the Iran War will make the economic situation here far worse than it otherwise would have been, but it was already dire and getting worse.
I wonder if Sir John agrees with me that they are deliberately trashing the economy and making us even more reliant on imported food, energy and manufactured goods as a means to justify taking us back into the EU?
Combined with their other divisive policies, not least the refusal to stop the influx of criminal migrants, it seems to me that they are deliberately creating the conditions which will lead to civil unrest in order to justify a form of martial law.
March 29, 2026
Why is it worse here , as a ‘Green energy super power’ surely we should be the least affected?
March 29, 2026
@Donna. I agree. I think the ruling class wants to provoke civil unrest in order to impose ever more controls over the population. The EU fits into this trajectory: it’s an undemocratic, authoritarian, corrupt vehicle that serves to further the aim of creating a corporatist (i.e. fascist) system across western Europe and beyond. They have been undermining EU nation states for decades, and see internal and even external (eg. Russian) nationalism as a threat.
March 29, 2026
I think at some point they will impose Covid-style restrictions. Perhaps the coming energy crisis, which they’ve been implementing on a “slow and steady basis” but will now be turbo-charged by the Iran War, will be used as the excuse.
Blackouts will result in rioting and looting in our oh-so-enriched cities. That would give them the excuse they need.
March 29, 2026
Did you notice that the EU Parliament voted through serious Deportation legislation?
The European people are no so afraid of what is obviously happening that even Blair has spoken out and said ‘the unholy alliance between the Left and Islam must stop’ and that ‘net zero is moronic’.
Perhaps it is dawning on the leaders of the west that they will not survive the economic collapse or the pogram?
March 29, 2026
The government has no interest in growth of the economy only growth if the public sector.
Yesterday there was a demo by estimated 50k idiots against fascists and the far right aka Reform.
These are probably funded by the state via proxies as they all carry expensive placards similar in nature.
The real idiots in Westminster know their time is up and are mounting a concerted effort to discredit true patriots.
Net Stupid is a cancer at the heart of government together with mass immigration which is designed to destroy us.
March 29, 2026
Farage states repeatedly and openly that ‘nobody has done more to stop the far right than him’ and to prove it he welcome Zaharia and an ex Labour councillor who is NOT a British citizen but a citizen of India and a DIA specialist to his party amid a glitter and smoke extravaganza.
He said categorically that he is IN FAVOUR OF IMMIGRATION, and that if we oppose Islam ‘we will lose, we will lose, we will lose’.
Did you miss that?
March 30, 2026
Not quite accurate reporting there Lynn.
Farage has said he is in favour of limited and controlled immigration by people who will make a positive fiscal contribution to the economy. He is opposed to low-wage, low-skill, welfare-claiming immigration.
When it comes to Islam, he said that we must not alienate British Muslims who have integrated and have accepted British values. He is opposed to Islamists/Muslim extremism.
March 29, 2026
My understanding is that government now get majority of business rates councils get to keep only a small percentage. No wonder they hiked them
March 29, 2026
Local councils should keep all the business rates, then they can attract more business with competitive rates.
March 29, 2026
I wonder whether the majority of business rates are paid by the owners of the empty properties?
There is a huge increase in applications to demolish.
March 29, 2026
The wholesale price of UK electricity shot up last week to £113.75/MWh. with the April 2026 futures contract at a humungous £139.45/MWh, thanks to the Ayatollah regime closing the Strait of Hormuz
Recently, Miliband secured an offshore wind AR7 strike price average of £91.20/MWh in England and Wales and £89.49/MWh in Scotland. Which means that almost as soon as the new capacity starts generating, large sums will be earned by the Treasury under the CfD scheme
Labour have already announced that (targetted) support will be available – yet again – for energy bill payers. Straight from British taxpayers to Big Oil’s bottom line – to be paid out as special dividends to shareholders
Net stupid Richard Tice and his Reform ‘Leader’, the dreadful Nigel Farage, have been ranting on again about how it’s net zero that is going to bankrupt us. And definitely not the oil & gas companies’ blatant price gouging at the pumps. Yeah, right!
Reply The latest renewables offer electricity much dearer than electricity from gas when you adjust for the carbon tax levied on gas based electricity with no such tax on renewables. Taxpayers also have to subsidise the renewables.
March 29, 2026
Nuclear power also gets subsidies. Would it be economically viable without them?
March 29, 2026
What are these subsidies. Nuclear power has given us clean, reliable base load for over 60 years. People keep saying the oil and gas industry are subsidised but u can’t see it. Apart from normal business expenses they are massive contributors to the Treasury. Renewables on the other hand are massive subsidy tuckers.
March 29, 2026
@SG. The Straight of Hormuz is open. It just depends whonyou are. As AI says “according to Iran’s current policy amid the 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis, the strait is selectively open to vessels from neutral or pro-Iran (“non-hostile”) states, but closed or highly restricted for those linked to the US, Israel, and their allies.”
This may help supply chains, but the cost of the raw material will reflect global prices.
Another factor affecting the availability of hydrocarbons (and to a certain extent the price we pay) was someone blowing up the Nordstream 2 pipeline and deciding we would not buy from Russia.
The world is awash with oil and gas, but we’ve decided to limit who we buy from, and extract less of our own product.
March 29, 2026
We seem to be reading different papers SG…
“Fixed-bottom offshore wind has been set a £113 per megawatt-hour administrative strike price (ASP), while the floating wind ASP is set at £271/MWh for AR7.
These ASPs are based on 2024 prices, so they are significantly higher than those offered in the previous CfD allocation round (AR6), under which the Government worked off of 2012 prices. Under this round, the ASP was £73 for fixed-bottom offshore wind and £176 for floating.
It bears noting that the 2023 CfD round, AR5, attracted no successful bids from offshore wind developers”
March 29, 2026
SG: “Recently, Miliband secured an offshore wind AR7 strike price average of £91.20/MWh in England and Wales and £89.49/MWh in Scotland. Which means that almost as soon as the new capacity starts generating, large sums will be earned by the Treasury under the CfD scheme.”
This is all in the distant future, if these projects ever get built. The current average (weighted by installation capacity) operational CfD price for fixed offshore wind is £149/MWhr. We can only use renewables because we are buying them cheaply from China who use fossil fuels, slave labour and ignore environmental damage to manufacture them. Even the concrete for fixed offshore wind turbines is shipped from China. In no way can renewables be called “sustainable” and to rely upon China, whom our security services describe as “hostile”, is clearly suicidal. Furthermore, because wind renewable energy is intermittent, as well as being distant from where the power is consumed means that there are enormous additional costs of grid upgrades, grid stability and grid-scale storage which are not taken into account by the simple CfD price. Professor Sir Dieter Helm in his “Cost of Energy Review” for the government said that renewables should pay for their own intermittency. At the moment these additional costs are called “policy costs” and are added to our bills via standing charges and are now starting to be paid by the tax-payer they are becoming so large – £26bn/year according to Professor Gordon Hughes.
March 29, 2026
Capitalism in action – growth goes to where it is made welcome.
The average Briton is worth no more than the average Indian or Chinese person – subject to investment in national infrastructure and education. We got away with ignoring these facts in the days of slow ships and slower government – now all the world can move at warp speed – except our Parliament.
No good expecting Reeves or Badenoch to help, they can’t, they are stuck with the old ways. We will have to wait until we have become sufficiently poor to allow skyscrapers to be built in the Cotswolds and giga factories paying small wages cover the land. Most people housed in cheaply built slums.
March 29, 2026
That is because we don’t have capitalism.
Have you noticed noticed?
If we did the average Briton would be worth at least as much as the average American.
March 29, 2026
Good morning.
Has anyone had their 2026/27 Council Tax Bill in yet ? I would imagine it will be raised to something like 4.99% from last year. Thousands of pounds just to have my bins emptied once every two weeks.
March 29, 2026
It’s all those old people who spent all the money they ever had, leaving themselves nothing for their old age to pay for their care home, so the council picks up the tab.
Make that expense discretionary and perhaps council tax bills can be lowered.
March 29, 2026
Don’t worry, pretty soon they will be offered euthanasia – Canada now advertises euthanasia on the TV, looks lovely, like a holiday in the sun.
March 29, 2026
@Mark B. Yes, I have. And yes, that’s what they’ve done.
March 29, 2026
9% for me yes nine percent. and more pot holes that there are traffic cones to mark them.
We must ensure the high salaries and pensios of our council permanent staff are fully funded of course, oh and the increase in pay given to councillors which the LibDem controlled council voted for themselves.
March 29, 2026
@Mark B – here in Wokingham the Local council has in recent days started to badly fill in the masses of pot-holes – there must be a local election in the air.
In recent days I stopped to speak to a council operative charged with clear last autumns detritus from our footways. He was struggling as by now it was a congealed baked on mess. He said yes it was harder work than it used to be, he said Wokingham used to have 12 teams keeping the streets and footways clear, it is now just him.
What the lunatics somewhere miss, is that dumps of detritus and vegetation getting baked on to our roads and footways hold moisture that then freezes that then causes and aggravates cracking leading to cost that are exponentially greater than good ongoing management.
Then again our local council was able to splash out £5.5 million painting ‘maple leaves’ on a busy roundabout to confuse and attempt to cause accidents to the unweary.
Who do these people (councillors) work for?
March 29, 2026
When Labour criticise the last Conservative Government’s record they never mention the effect Covid or the Ukraine war had on the economy , it is all rolled up into a denouncement of ’14 years’. As such Labour have made clear the rules of the game, the war in the Gulf should be ignored and it made all their fault.
March 29, 2026
@Iain Moore – if it wasn’t one thing it would be another. We pay and empower our elected representatives to keep us and the country safe, secure, self-reliant and resilient. Outside interference/events always happen, that why we have a Parliament to ensure we progress above the noise.
We have 650 elected members all in neglect of their duty, we have 650 elected members that shy away from seeking confirmation of their direction at the ballot box. We have 650 elected members that fight democracy.
But I get your point…
March 29, 2026
Government policy from the Tories and Labour is killing off the buy-to-let market. It is no longer viable to rent out mortgaged properties. This Government don’t seem to realise or care that small landlords are selling properties to corporate companies. These corporations pay little tax on their revenue as they have their headquarters abroad. Instead of raising tax revenue, the greed and envy of politicians are causing a reduction. Many tenants are being issued Section 21 notices before the May changes. I expect the corporations will replace them with the asylum seekers, the Government is moving out of hotels. Having just rented out one of my properties and seen first-hand the desperation of people looking for a home, it makes me sad to see how politicians have let down the British people.
March 29, 2026
“This Government don’t seem to realise or care that small landlords are selling properties to corporate companies.”
It isn’t a question of not realising or not caring – that was the plan. The Gov is working in the interests of the WEF and global Corporations. They want small, individual landlords to be driven out of the market.
https://pe-insights.com/record-1-5bn-invested-in-uk-rental-market-by-private-equity-firms/
March 29, 2026
All true, Lord Redwood but you seem to underestimate the drivers of this seeming incompetence. It is hatred of everything the British people have stood for over centuries. Their aims are entirely destructive. They support every anti-British cause. They do not believe sovereign nation states should exist. They want Britain sewn up like Gulliver unable to do anything without the approval of the Socialist International, a cabal run by communists such as Starmer, Hermer and Reeves. They see the EU as a short cut, a necessary suppression of sovereignty and democracy, that can lead to global socialism.
To this end Starmer’s Gang has allied with Islamist to such a degree, Islam is the only religion protected by law and Muslims are privileged in policing, justice, social policy and immigration. This is the real and unholy alliance driving every action of the Gang both domestically and abroad. It doesn’t do God so it sees no downside to this alliance with barbarism. So long as they share their hatred of Britain’s history and Judeo-Christian foundations They will continue to destroy Britain.
March 29, 2026
There needs to be balance, and not defending anyone. The Chancellors speeches, correction excuses, are first agreed by the Cabinet and her leader 2TK, finally held to account by Parliament. From there we find she is lorded with more than 50% of those we empower and pay to protect our interests – our MPs. She wouldn’t be their without this 50+% support.
Then as the media rumour mill suggests her speeches are written for her by her replacement Torsten Bell. It doesn’t stop there as we learnt from the media (yet again) that 2TK has admitted it is Ed Miliband that is the UK’s de-facto PM and it is he that does all the dictating.
Without a General Election and a complete clear out nothing is going to change. One mouth piece is identical with any other the core has gone rotten – new fresh growth is required
March 29, 2026
Sir JR you forgot to include the old chesnut favoured by Reeves and Labour.
‘It’s all the fault of Brexit’
March 29, 2026
Sadly when growth declines we never see any reduction in Government spending just more borrowing to bridge the lack of growth
March 29, 2026
If only we had followed the Scouts Motto “Be Prepared” especially in the ten years since the vote? I mean it’s so very obvious that as an island nation with 70 million how vulnerable we are and in so many respects – no need for me to spell it out. Growth is important but in the overall of what’s happening in the world today it is only one part – for instance recently we see where even the armed forces have been allowed to run down? This is all happening on various Government ministers watches and makes me wonder if we are lacking in the quality and experience of politicos we project to high office however my stronger instinct is that as a nation we have been too busily rewarding failure while pandering to populism.
March 29, 2026
What popularism have we been pandering to?
March 29, 2026
How about “be prepared” meant to take the UK economy away from dependence for oil on an unstable region of the world? The 1970s oil crisis should have been a warning, but not heeded in the 50 years since.
March 29, 2026
“It [the government] says it has an industrial policy, yet its carbon taxes and high energy prices policy undermines so many factories and plants. The government does not know what to do about the rash of closures in so many industries.”
This is not a bug in their program or an unfortunate unintended consequence it is a deliberate feature for socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor. We have had socialism ever since Margaret Thatcher was deposed and in addition to the imposition of Net Zero, which was put into law by Mrs. May without a proper debate, without a vote or any costing, we have suffered mass, uncontrolled immigration from alien cultures de-stabilising our homogeneity and hance national security. Per capita growth is not part of the program.
March 29, 2026
From the Telegraph
‘Labour is planning an overhaul of equality laws that will inflict “socialism” on Britain, the Tories have claimed.
Under the plans, public sector bodies will have a new “socio-economic duty” imposed on them, meaning that all decisions they make must strive to reduce inequality in society.
All, that is each and every version of equalities in the very first instance seeks discrimination before anything else, its the prime mover of Socialism if someone works hard and achieves that gain has to be pooled for the benefit of those that cant be bothered
March 29, 2026
“At one point, I thought being on the left was a mental problem. The empirical evidence is so overwhelming that it never worked anywhere, and they refused to accept it. Therefore, I thought it was a mental problem.
I mean, some kind of block that doesn’t even let them see the numbers. They are enemies of numbers. They hate numbers. But what I discovered is that being on the left is a disease of the soul.
The left is built on envy, hatred, resentment, and unequal treatment under the law. They are very violent, and since they have no way or arguments to answer, they go for physical violence. Lefties always, let’s say, resort to physical violence and all kinds of violent manifestations because they are unable to refute the arguments.”
This is a quote from Javier Milei president of Argentina
Reply Fortunately most left wing people are not violent. Being left wing is not a mental problem. It is an optimistic view that more socialist intervention will increase prosperity when experience shows higher taxes and more government intervention usually does the opposite.
March 30, 2026
“Fortunately most left wing people are not violent.”
Far too many are. And they also go in for mob-based intimidation, often wearing masks/balaclavas so they can’t be identified.
March 29, 2026
“The government has a policy of getting us to import more energy, more food, more high energy using manufactures through its mad self harming pursuit of UK net zero. It also happens to boost world CO 2 at the same time!”
This is proof that the goal is not to reduce world CO2 but simply to sabotage our energy, economy and national security. They know full well that adding CO2 to the atmosphere makes little, if any additional greenhouse gas warming effect. Using the IPCC’s own greenhouse gas warming model, Happer & Wijngaarden have demonstrated that because there is already sufficient CO2 in the atmosphere to absorb all the planet’s IR radiation that it can all the possible greenhouse gas warming effect has already taken place. It is akin to adding unnecessary additional layers of kitchen paper to mop up a spill once the first few sheets have already done the job.
March 29, 2026
A recent report from the Public Accounts Committee stated that fraud is costing taxpayers the equivalent of Britain’s entire defence budget with error and fraud costing between £55bn and £81bn a year. Old and new systems, use of technology and ministers lack of ambition to use new technology all came into question and with recommendation that new government schemes are designed with fraud prevention in mind. We saw what happened with Covid and soon we’ll be seeing fuel support from the government. ” In a fast-moving situation like fuel at the moment, it could be ripe pickings for fraudsters” (DT 27/3)
The government did say though, that at the last spending review £14bn of efficiencies were secured, but what astonishing figures and waste.
March 29, 2026
“The government has a policy of getting us to import more energy,. more food, more high energy using manufactures through its mad self harming pursuit of UK net zero.”
Correct. This is of course their de-industrialisation policy to make people poorer as socialism depends upon making and keeping people poor. This is clear and obvious. However, the real mystery is how the unions who represent workers in industry appear to be still supporting and funding the Labour Party whilst their jobs are decimated implementing Net Zero. In fact just as calling Ed Miliband’s energy department “Department for Energy Security and Net Zero” is an oxymoron so is calling the party of Sir Keir Starmer and Ed Miliband the Labour Party for quite clearly this party is working against the interests of working people. Which explains why they could not define “working people”.
March 29, 2026
Net-Zero = No-Growth …..its not rocket science