The conventional media, the Labour opposition and a handful of Conservative MPs are out to topple the Prime Minister. The method is well known, as it was used extensively against Mrs May and took a long time to get rid of her. That was animated by a major battle over policy, where those who wished to see her replaced were shocked by her close working with the civil service establishment and opposition parties to dilute or thwart Brexit. We felt this was against the clear wish of the public in the referendum and against the spirit of the Conservative Manifesto. The way the civil service negotiated, surrendering our position with the approval of the PM,was in conflict with the strategy the Brexit Secretary was trying to pursue and was unacceptable.
The current rebels do not seem to be united in fundamental criticism of policy or in defence of the Manifesto. They are trying to get to 54 Conservative MPs who want a vote of No Confidence based on the strong feeling shared by many that senior officials in Downing Street who devised elaborate rules for the rest of should have led by example. The PM has apologised and claims most of this happened without his presence or initiation . The facts and gloss placed on this by Sue Gray who is investigating will shape how many more Conservative MPs seek a change at the top as a result.
It is difficult to buy into the idea that whips could credibly threaten to remove grants from constituencies of MPs who were disloyal. Money is distributed on the decision of Ministers, not whips. Ministers are guided and supervised by officials when allocating money to ensure the law and budget rules are followed. A Minister cannot make a decision based on favouritism or spite.
The rebels need to recall that they need 180 Conservative MPs to get rid of the PM. They have to win the confidence vote as well as securing it. They may be holding back some letters pending the Gray Report or because they judge they are a long way off having a majority. They may simply have failed to persuade more than a handful that now is a good time to change Prime Ministers.
For me what matters most is how the PM now develops a post lockdown agenda. There needs to be an early move to take control of GB/ NI trade. There needs to be a change of energy policy. We need tax cuts. If the PM can complete Brexit and tackle the cost of living crisis he can ride out party gate. If he does not use the majority to help people be better off then partygate and the poor organisation of Downing Street will weigh ever more heavily on the minds of MPs already cross about recent news coverage.
January 21, 2022
Good Morning,
Sir J. as you have made clear on many posts, the PM has failed to get a grip of post-Brexit policy and action. Sure the pandemic needed attention, but he has a lot of ministers who could have developed and published action plans by now; where are they?
Boris is not a manager, we can see this all too clearly. He is not the man for the jobs now needing urgent attention. Is it not better to be rid of an impediment sooner, rather than wait and hope that he’ll make amends? Look what damage the delay had in not getting rid of the Maidenhead assistant-librarian when you had the chance. The risk of keeping him is that come the election in 2 years we’re no further on and you’re facing defeat at the pools.
January 21, 2022
As I keep telling my partner – don’t pull up a plant you have grown tired of until you have a ready replacement otherwise all sorts of undesirables will take over from weeds to cat-shit. And, is it the highest priority as there are some plants over there in a very sorry state.
So who is the ready replacement?
January 21, 2022
‘For me what matters most is how the PM now develops a post lockdown agenda.’
There are two problems. The Prime Minister himself whose personal weaknesses have now become an embarrassment and the Conservative Party itself whose values and direction are being called into question.
I think it is wishful thinking to believe that Boris Johnson will have a radical change of policy and work to complete Brexit and address cost of living issues. More likely with a stay of execution it would be business as usual with globalist NetZero and Build Back Better as priorities.
Unfortunately none of the alternative candidates will complete Brexit or address cost of living issues either. We are back to yesterday’s Conservative values problem.
January 21, 2022
Good advice.
January 21, 2022
@dixie; Fine, when they you are dealing with just old plants past their best, but when dealing with an already weed infested flower boarder it is pointless investing in new plants whose growth and health will just be compromised by weeds, you either clear the boarder out totally, down to the roots (perhaps only keeping what plants are both healthy and valuable), otherwise expect the weed infestation to grow and become worse. This is what both Wilson and Callaghan failed to do in the Labour party during the 1960s and ’70s with regards Militant, by the 1980s the party was un-electable, I fear the Conservative party is about to head down a similar road.
January 21, 2022
Well if the person that we elected as PM would stop taking orders from his wife we might make some progress, although I remain sceptical until the Coronavirus Act 2020 is fully repealed.
January 22, 2022
…from his wife and his globalist mates intent on destroying life as we knew it.
January 21, 2022
In order to get Brexit to be success next person better be some sort of a magician.
Jesus Christ might do as well.
January 21, 2022
Brexit has been a towering success at what it was always going to be – turning the country into a hopelessly divided shambles, and a global object of contempt and ridicule in equal measure.
And believe me, people are laughing almost everywhere.
January 21, 2022
In your bubble maybe NHL.
January 21, 2022
NLH. What? You and Andy laughing. We’d expect no more from either of you.
January 21, 2022
@FUS (and @P2); Stop taking such a parochial view view!
January 22, 2022
Yes straight away Jerry.
Any other orders?
January 21, 2022
I do not think the job of PM is mainly one of being a manager. They mainly need to have a working compass, know the mood of the nation, deliver speeches well, have a bit of star quality and be able to win elections. Alas the last one we had with a working compass was Mrs Thatcher and even she made many huge errors – Appointing the dope John Major at Chancellor being the largest one.
The mood of the nation currently is to get back to normal, have cheap, reliable on demand energy, ditch net zero, have much lower, simpler taxes and far less government and government regulation of everything.
January 22, 2022
Indeed LL, particularly your last paragraph.
January 21, 2022
Like you, I don’t buy the stupid argument that the whole of government had to close down because of Covid and no other policy issues could be addressed. Take Northern Ireland, for instance. All Boris had to do was say to Lord Frost “I want all restrictions on the movement of goods between GB and NI to be gone by the end of the month – do whatever is required”. Then it would have been for Lord Frost – who was not involved in dealing with Covid – to deliver, by whatever means necessary (which would most likely have meant invoking article 16 or revoking the Protocol entirely). But obviously Boris did not want this done.
The same applies to other issues. A good leader assembles a team that he can trust, tells them what he wants done and then leaves them to get on with it. All the problems that we face have been caused by Boris Johnson and his determination to follow the wrong policies, ignoring the common sense of the likes of Sir John.
January 21, 2022
Good morning.
Woe, woe, woe ! Back up there !
Let us not forget the role that Parliament and some Labour and Conservative MP’s, not to forget the LibDems, SNP and others played. They created a law effectively stopping the government from walking away. And if you cannot walk away the other party is under no obligation to give you a deal let a lone a good one.
I am no fan of Theresa May MP and the Civil Service, but I will not standby and leave them to carry all the blame. Parliament was a disgrace !
True. They should govern for the good of all. But who gave the Ministers’ their jobs in the first place ? I mean. Whilst and MP owes his or her position to their constituents, a Minister owes his or her job to the PM. Robert Walpole knew this and acted accordingly, and to great effect.
May I say a very wise and sensible decision / position, Sir John. I wish more would follow your example.
Good advice. But alas your Leader either cannot, or chooses not to listen.
The problem for the Conservative Party, and I said this many times over a long period of time, is that in Alexander Johnson MP they have a man that is, for them, an enigma – “A person or thing that is mysterious or difficult to understand”
On the one hand, he is an individual that is totally unfit for ANY public office yet, for some strange reason, seem to have the gift of winning elections that get him into public office. They need him to remain in power as there is no one else that can do it yet, by his very unsuitable ness, he is condemning them all to opposition in 2024.
So now they find themselves in a position of, damned if they do, or damned if they don’t. Only our kind host has seen that there is another way and that is to get back on track. Trouble is, they do not have an awful lot of time left.
January 21, 2022
“I am no fan of Theresa May MP and the Civil Service, but I will not standby and leave them to carry all the blame. Parliament was a disgrace !”
A similar fairminded argument and indeed wording to that used in my letter in our local paper yesterday!
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/16/the-prime-minister-and-brexit/#comment-1292355
“I am no fan of Boris Johnson, far from it, but how can it be right for a politician to say one thing but do another, and then stay silent while her successor is pilloried for the dire situation she bequeathed to him?”
January 21, 2022
Parliament is, by definition, never a disgrace.
It is supreme.
Anyone who tries to overthrow it by unlawful or undemocratic means is the epitome of a traitor under UK traditions therefore.
January 22, 2022
As if you care.
January 22, 2022
Well, Gina Millar fought for it.
I take it that you opposed her, however?
January 22, 2022
So Boris is a traitor for submitting to the various policies of the globalists!
January 21, 2022
1 million percent spot on Mark. Very well said. Johnson will not change track and the longer he and his sycophants stay in power with their destructive policies the more we can look forward to an even more destructive Labour/SNP Government in 2/3 years time. The majority of the current Conservative parliamentary party are fake Tories so not sure what the answer is but I fear for the future of this country unless the rest of them grow a backbone and do something about it before it is too late if it isn’t already. Time is running out.
January 21, 2022
You have pointed out the paradox of our political system, namely that the skills required to get elected – in many cases a form of theatre – have nothing whatever to do with the ability to run a department, let alone a government. We end up with people in positions of great power who have absolutely no experience in, or inherent understanding of, the matters they are responsible for. Inevitably they will be guided by civil servants who claim that knowledge, or by specialists with vested interests.
The worst example I can think of is the dreadful Climate Change Act promoted by yet another Oxford PPE, Ed Miliband. Not to mention the huge waste of millions of taxpayers’ money thanks to Ed Davey paying Drax to burn wood pellets instead of coal. Private industry would never allow this pathetically amateurish decision making but in government it seems to be an everyday event. What can be done about it I can’t say, except that a few qualified engineers around the cabinet table would not go amiss in this high tech world.
January 22, 2022
Thank you for this, you have said many things I have been trying to say but only better and more succinct.
My belief is, that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Not necessarily in a financial sense but, as we have seen recently, in a moral sense as well. I therefore believe that a possible solution is for the UK to become a Direct Democracy where we the people make the really important decisions. If we want for example HS2 and are prepared to pay for it, then we should have a say whether or not we want it. If there is a real need then a good case can be made and decided upon.
January 22, 2022
+10
January 21, 2022
+10
January 21, 2022
Whoa?
January 21, 2022
Thanks, John. It was early and i only had just one coffee and not a good nights sleep when I wrote it. Whoa ! Indeed. 🙂
January 21, 2022
Another day, another feeble attempt by J Redwood to blame the unfolding national catastrophe that is Brexit on anyone but himself and his fellow Brexiters
Reply Just trying to deliver Brexit against all the efforts to tie us back into the damaging EU
January 21, 2022
I do not agree with this . It is precisely because the backbench are trying to get back to true Conservative values and policies ; get the maximum benefit from the opportunities which Brexit offers that they are trying to displace this LibDem PM
Methinks that Sir John speak with toungue in cheek ?
January 21, 2022
To reply – exactly and deliver it to Norther Ireland too.
January 21, 2022
Brexit has been delivered and it is the pile of muck that anyone half awake said that it would be.
It was promoted on utter baloney, and anyone willing to sail on this rotten Tory ship is just as bad as whatever captain they might choose.
January 21, 2022
Your success criteria is that of a ‘remainer’ and not that of a ‘leaver’….you do understand the difference don’t you
January 21, 2022
Err – could you just outline what you see as the unfolding national catastrophe due to brexit and why things are so much worse in your view than in EU countries like Belgium and Italy?
January 21, 2022
Thanks to your Brexit our people have fewer opportunities. Unlike nearly all other Europeans who can work and live where they choose we are now stuck on Tory Brexit pensioner Plague Island.
Our businesses face a mountain of pointless Brexit bureaucracy just to buy and sell from places they used to be able to buy and sell from bureaucracy free. There are massive delays at borders – with consumers paying the price. It is terrible for a wide range of sectors from music to haulage to chemicals to fishing – all of which now face huge trade barriers.
You stuck a border down the middle of our own country, you made us all permanently poorer than we would have been – and you made it harder to remove brown people seeking asylum. And, let’s be honest, this is why most of you voted leave anyway.
January 21, 2022
Andy
NI border arrangements are unsatisfactory I agree. Our host voted against this bad deal. A better solution will be found in time.
As for all your other points, it is simply too early to tell. Too much bitterness for now. Adaptation comes slowly….
January 21, 2022
Andy:
“Plague Island” – love that btw
Sounds like something out of The Famous Five…
January 21, 2022
Andy and the Nottingham something:
I have also been delivering lots of rock into the Diamond Light Source electron microscope building at Harwell. Expansion. That is an amazing piece of engineering.
We have a long and proud history of science, engineering and manufacturing.
Have a bit more faith in your own people….
January 21, 2022
Andy and the Nottingham one:
My Polish neighbours have been extending their house – single storey rear and double storey side. Looks great.
Really nice people. I like them and they like me.
A lot of noses out of joint. I get that. But as soon as everybody calms down and gets over the hysteria the better…
January 21, 2022
If there is any “national catastrophe” then it is not Brexit , it is the “Brexit In Name Only”, “vassalage”, “Chequers for Northern Ireland”, EU condominium or protectorate or buffer zone, status that Boris Johnson has inflicted on one part of our nation for the sake of getting his vanity project trade deal with the EU.
I have asked before, how would the constituents of the Tory MP who chairs the Northern Ireland committee:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/03/11/the-uk-single-market/#comment-1215238
feel if it was not Northern Ireland, but their county of Dorset, which had been singled out to be left behind under swathes of EU laws supervised by the EU court, so that they were separated from adjacent counties by various barriers, making intercourse with France easier than that with the rest of England?
Meanwhile, here is a “despite Brexit” story for you:
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0121/1274984-dublin-port-volumes/
“Dublin Port volumes dip just 5.2% despite Brexit hit”
“There was none of the catastrophic congestion that had been projected and what disruptions there were in the early days of 2021 were quickly resolved as supply chains adapted to the new realities”
Plus:
“Over the course of the year, the average number of trailers called for some physical inspection on services from GB was just 2.5 per ferry”
3%, by another source:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/09/the-telegraph-offers-some-strong-advice/#comment-1290217
January 21, 2022
Following on the above I thought it would be interesting to check how many trailers are carried on a typical ferry to Dublin – 2.5 trailers being inspected for the average ferry is in fact compatible with the 3% figure from the other source – and that led me through to a report about the christening of the world’s largest MV Celine with its capacity of around 580 trailers in Dublin in April 2018, which in turn led me through to:
https://www.thejournal.ie/uk-eu-border-3967833-Apr2018/
“UK’s Irish border plans subject to ‘systematic and forensic annihilation’ by EU, report says”
which was an interesting reminder of how we have ended up in our current predicament, through both Theresa May and Boris Johnson allowing the Irish government and the EU to have a veto over anything that the UK proposed.
January 21, 2022
Quite. No catastrophe. Brexit just beginning…
January 21, 2022
What catastrophe ? You don’t work at Imperial College do you ? I can’t see any downsides to Brexit at all so far, and the 10,000 people saved by our fast vaccine rollout would surely agree.
January 21, 2022
The UK’s decision on a vaccine rollout had nothing to do with Brexit as the UK was still in the transition period at the time and subject to the same rules and opportunities as the member states of the EU. Indeed, Hungary also went their own way on vaccines.
As for downsides, I am personally experiencing increased costs and an unwillingness of some businesses I used to deal with to now ship to the UK (Northern Ireland excepted in a couple of cases) at all. Only downsides, I’m yet to come across a single upside from Brexit that benefits me personally.
January 21, 2022
Bitter, angry, spiteful people are gratified that folks such as you – and me – dislike it, Peter.
So for them it is a success.
They’re not going to achieve much else in their lives either.
January 21, 2022
Nottingham lad or whatever:
It is too early to tell.
The only one who sounds bitter, angry and spiteful is you….
January 21, 2022
That’s 17.2 million bitter angry spiteful people you claim NHL
For daring to vote the way the want to vote.
You old democrat you.
PS
The only ones I see on here who are bitter angry and spiteful are all you remain supporters.
January 21, 2022
If you are finding it more difficult to import from the EU then that’s a GOOD THING! Those of us who are patriots and who support Brexit want to reduce our balance of trade deficit with countries in the EU that HATE us and want to harm us. Would you have imported goods from Nazi Germany during the war?
January 21, 2022
Yes, but as is so often mentioned here, the Brexit upsides have not yet begun to be consolidated….
January 21, 2022
And those upsides are? I seem to be waiting a long time to hear them…
January 21, 2022
Peter Parsons
We are a kingdom divided against itself.
One side is bitterly resisting the other clearly.
That is why the upsides have not yet emerged.
Pandemic didn’t help though. Two year delay…
January 22, 2022
The brexitories have a majority of eighty.
They can pass any law that they like therefore, within reason.
What such law stemming from brexit do you expect pro-European Union people to break?
They haven’t broken any so far have they?
Your claim is completely groundless.
There are no materially significant benefits, quite the reverse, but you cannot blame Remain voters for that. We have been utterly ignored by the Tories and their pandering to scared, niggardly, old people instead.
January 21, 2022
Another day, another TROLL.
January 21, 2022
take your pick, there are several.
January 21, 2022
No Mark. Another boring troll.
January 22, 2022
I stand corrected.
+1
January 21, 2022
Odd claims of catastrophe from you Len
The OECD is forecasting 4.9% growth for the UK next year, the fastest in the G7 group of nations
Foreign investment is out performing our continental rivals, the Pound is higher than it was prior to the referendum and our rate of unemployment is half that of the Eurozone.
#despite brexit
January 21, 2022
Oh a few facts there for you hef and Billy.
January 21, 2022
Is this change of heart by Johnson ‘following the science’ or merely an exercise in political survival? If it’s the latter and I believe it is then the British people have been exposed not to public policy driven by ‘public health considerations’ but to policy driven by sinister considerations relating to collectivist political ideology and State vested interest.
Pro-EU Tory MPs see an opportunity to topple a Eurosceptic. Good. Let them do their best. Johnson’s sold NI down the river anyway. The UK is finished. Scotland’s a totalitarian outpost. England’s a Socialist horror show in which freedom’s have been trashed by both parties on the altar of vicious, poisonous feminism, divisive identity politics and the purging of history by Cultural Marxist ideology
January 21, 2022
+1
Key point surely and now being skated over….
If the bottle party hundred were not afraid, not wearing hazmat gear…..
THEN THERE WAS NOTHING TO FEAR!
(We know who ratted on him and who maybe has more up their sleeve).
This new blonde-tousled-we-hope-appealing is a cover-up panto.
But if he doesn’t get rid of the Corona Act he can do a swift U turn…AGAIN!😷
January 21, 2022
many fair points.
January 21, 2022
+1 I’m afraid.
This may seem like an unwinnable situation but if masks can be ditched for political expedience then it rather proves my complaint that we didn’t need them in the first place. They are useless. Downing Street knows this (Partygate) and I know this having used a surgical mask when pulling down a kitchen ceiling. My face was literally covered in dust. If surgical masks are anti viral then they should have been over kill for pulling down a kitchen ceiling.
The Covid response (both here and in the wider West) has been political rather than scientific or even based on common sense.
If a Tory politician can slot into the Labour party with such ease then it shows what sort of candidates have been selected by Tory HQ… and also gives us a clue as to why this is the most left wing government we have ever seen with a bent towards nannying.
January 21, 2022
NLA. Masks? Bloody ridiculous. Get on a plane and you’re all sitting close together. Masks on. Food comes around. Masks off – still sitting close to one another. Food finished. Masks on for your own safety (laugh out loud). Still sitting close to each other. Get off plane but must be socially distanced. You couldn’t make it up.
January 21, 2022
Clown world.
January 21, 2022
The MP’s complaing that the WHIPS are using unfair tactics need to grow a pair.
BJ has started to clear his desk of COVID restrictions.
I now need him to concentrate on Sir John’s list of priorities.
January 21, 2022
+1
And get rid of the Corona Virus Act!
January 21, 2022
+1
January 21, 2022
+1
January 21, 2022
+1 but the problem is he’ll now concentrate on his ‘green revolution’
January 21, 2022
Bob
Agree, I cannot imagine anyone even thinking they would get away with trying to blackmail JR without a very firm response.
Trouble is we appear to have some very weak people in Parliament who may buckle under some pressure, if such pressure was used, and was even true.
January 21, 2022
One cannot hope to bribe or twist,
Thank God, the British journalist,
But seeing what he unbribed will do,
There isn’t an occasion to.
Perhaps that also applies to some MPs?
January 22, 2022
NLH
I have absolutely no problem with proper investigative Journalism.
January 21, 2022
‘weak people’ YES – there are 200 newbie, probably weak Tory MPs, who are sitting watching the shambles unfold, almost daily. If they are not wondering what possessed them to enrol on this temp job, I’ll be amazed. But at least they are half way through the misery, and it appears relief from the job is becoming clear.
January 21, 2022
But will he. The NIP needs addressing as does the channel invasion. We are desperately short of generation but all we hear is speeding up the building of useless windmills.
If he doesn’t get rid of this net zero nonsense I would expect him to go but who to succeed.
January 21, 2022
Unfortunately, about a hundred Conservative MPs have appeared in Parliament with no experience. Not only do they not know how to stand up to the whips, but they don’t know how to cope with media manipulated inboxes. Someone needs to explain to them that if hundreds of angry people who have been whipped up by false reporting have written to them, that still leaves tens of thousands who haven’t. They let themselves be manipulated by the media in this way over billionaire Rashford’s moral blackmail, over the Paterson case, and now, over the two year old civil servants leak. How are they going to cope with heavy matters of state?
January 21, 2022
Correct on the appalling, election throwing, deceitful, Brexit means sweet FA Theresa May.
The main reason to keep Boris is that the alternatives are so clearly even worse and less electorally appealing too. Boris needs to abandon his flagship net zero and expensive intermittent energy policy (it is political and economic insanity) reverse the huge Sunak tax increases (he started even before Covid) and deal with the inflation and cost of living crisis he has caused.
January 21, 2022
+1 Agree.
And since it now appears de rigueur to just NOT keep election promises what if a new shiny one started banging out more draconian imprisonment and abuse?
At least Boris appears a shamed and busted flush in that direction. ( I hope!).
January 21, 2022
Frazor Nelson today:- “If the ball were to come loose from the scrum and end up in the hands of Rishi Sunak, I suspect he’d play it quite well. Mayhem would stop, tax would start going down not up – and he is, according to a recent poll, easily the most popular Conservative in Red Wall seats. But he could only take the job after a brutal leadership contest that would risk exposing Tories at their clannish, self-obsessed and regicidal worst.”
But why does he think taxes would go down under Sunak? Sunak’s first act, even before Covid, was a 90% reduction in Entrepreneurs CGT relief and since then he has made vast further tax (and tax complexity) increases and then wasted £billions on HS2, net zero, test and trace, eat out to help out, pointless Covid lockdowns, vast over testing and many other total insanities. The man is a tax to death, net zero economic menace.
January 21, 2022
The media are touting two particular candidates who can’t speak, only read, and a third, Mr Tugendhat, who is a remainaic. Mr Sunak is obviously not a free agent in the Treasury so what would he be like in No 10? He appears to be the Blob’s candidate. What a pity, I really liked him before he became Chancellor, before the spin doctors turned him into a Miliband. As for Fraser Nelson, he is a clever flibbertigibbet.
January 21, 2022
How trustworthy are people who instigate and authorise a change in the formulae of the Retail Prices Index (from arithmetic to geometric mean) so that it will rise at a lower rate and thereby effectively defraud existing purchasers of lifetime annuities from the increases for which they paid? Call out Chancellors Javid and Sunak.
January 21, 2022
+1
+1
Agree.
His policies are very alarming.
Never before have I felt that the govt. could literally have us out on the street.
January 21, 2022
Lifelogic. Thanks I had forgotten just how bad an alternative leader Sunak would be!
January 22, 2022
You should read more about how the Entrepreneurs Relief had evolved over the last twelve years, figure out exactly under which conditions one could and who could benefit before and following the various changes to ER, the corresponding rate of taxation, how long one had to be an ‘entrepreneur’ and what qualifies one as an ‘entrepreneur’ … before being so grateful to LL.
Getting cheap BTL mortgages with interests deductible from income tax , with the possibility of just keeping properties for a minimum of 12 months to be eligible to ER, selling and pocketing the property price increase every, say, thirteen months does not, in my book, qualify anybody as an ‘entrepreneur’, but as a ‘profiteer’ more likely.
The ER threshold moving in quick succession from £1 m to £2 m to £5 m to £10 m was encouraging this type of profiteering.
Sunak moving it back to £1m and the progressive reduction (by Hammond and Javid) to 20% of how much BTL loan interests could be deducted from income tax looks to me as very sensible tax measures.
January 21, 2022
Lifelogic
Boris does not even need to abandon his net zero policy if he does not want to, he just needs to slow it down until Industry, science, research and development can start to produce the results he wants, with reliable cost effective systems and products, which simply means adopting a sensible timescale.
I thought the election manifesto and international goals were all about 2050 not 2030.
January 21, 2022
+1, which is why I sent this text to my MP the other day:
“It will be an unmitigated disaster for the nation and the Conservative party if Boris is forced into resigning. Yes, he has blundered on occasion. Yes, he has been careless with the truth on occasion. Yes, he has made tactical errors on occasion. Yes, the tax and other increases projected he has not apparently acted to remove – they are unwelcome and anti-consertvative party promises.
I could go on but looking at at what he has achieved from the start of the virus disaster, I can think of no other UK politician who could or would have strategically managed us to get to where we are today. I repeat, it will be an unmitigated disaster for the nation and the Conservative party if he is forced into resigning. He needs your support”.
January 21, 2022
+1 because the next general election is going to be fought against a backdrop of hopeless poverty the likes of which no-one under 55 has experienced.
I have photographs of our homes with worn out carpets, icicles on the insides of windows, worn out clothes and egg mixed with bread in a cup for dinner.
We’re going back to all that and largely because of energy policy.
January 21, 2022
My childhood was perhaps not as severe as yours, but when chatting with one of my brothers we both admitted writing our names in the ice on the inside of the bedroom window and we had lino in the bedrooms with a mat where you got out of bed.
January 21, 2022
No Longer Anonymous and J Bush
Ah yes that reminds me of feeding and milking the cows by hand with the aid of tilley lamps as no electricity while the stream fed water supply outside was partially frozen, lovely watercress, making hay etc with horse drawn implements – no tractor, making bread in the bread oven, the nearest tarmac road a mile or so away. Those were the days making our own entertainment with neighbours miles away – all before and during the war.
January 21, 2022
NLA. Same here. No carpets upstairs and no heating. Frost on the windows. Bread and jam for tea. Brawn on toast. A small chicken for Sunday lunch for six. My mum had to dry her clothes by the coke boiler overnight. All clothes passed down to siblings and most second hand to start with. People today don’t know what poor is. No food banks then.
January 21, 2022
Lifelogic :
You’re quite right to point out that the PM needs to get rid of unilateral net zero, the BBC/Marxist scam that we can get all our energy from “the breezes that blow around these islands” (Conservative Party conference speech October 2020) and is designed to destroy our economy.
But you have omitted the other great BBC/Marxist scam promoted by our PM that is massive, uncontrolled immigration will enrich us.
January 21, 2022
One would expect its government to provide a vaccine in a timely fashion….therefore not considered outstanding when delievered
Try as I might I just can’t recall a Boris win or Government win since the general election….every so called win has been, in fact, a bit of a disaster with a heavy amount of spin
January 21, 2022
but think about the speech circuit, the daily column, the weekend article, the memoirs, the £millions will roll in. The most spectacular ‘pension’ scheme, for who would employ him in a government role?
He may even like the outdated uniform possible in another place. Are circuses still shortstaffed?
January 21, 2022
LL
Have you or others (eg Richard1) ever considered the possibility that you are being ‘played’?
January 21, 2022
Lifelogic – What on earth is the point of you saying ‘Boris needs to do this’ or ‘Boris needs to do that’? HE ISN’T GOING TO!! Don’t you understand? Boris is the enemy. He is a traitor who is deliberately going in the OPPOSITE direction to the one that you and I want. HE IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE. He has betrayed Northern Ireland, deliberately. He has betrayed our fishermen, deliberately. He is increasing taxes, deliberately. He is accelerating net zero, with all the costs and the suffering that will cause, deliberately. He is failing to tackle the illegal immigrant crisis, deliberately. He will not change direction because this is what he believes in and he thinks he can get away with it. And unless Tory MPs grow a pair and kick him out as quickly as possible then he WILL get away with it, and we will all be the losers.
January 21, 2022
Much truth in what you say I suspect but any realistic replacement will surely ne even worse leading to the dire Labour/SNP perhaps.
January 21, 2022
Your post lockdown agenda is necessary but probably insufficient to save the Conservative party at the next election. I have no confidence in the capacity of the PM to deliver it. I think he will revert to type once he has done the current contrition mode, emboldened by survival in office.
January 21, 2022
One problem Boris has is that his (or Carrie’s?) flagship policy – the Net Zero lunacy, expensive intermittent energy, heat pumps, EV subsidies, Hydrogen, Wind power, solar… is the main one that needs to be ditched (or rather all the subsidies and market rigging for this need to be ditched). Plus get fracking, drilling and stop scrapping coal fired power stations until sensible replacements are in place.
This and a reversal of Sunak’s vast tax increases (and those of dreadful Brown, Darling, Osborne and Hammond before him) economic vandalism from all of them, hugely damaging to the economy. Taxes now the highest (and most complex) since the end of the war with most of it being misdirected and wasted too.
January 21, 2022
The lunacy of ‘Net. Zero’ is already casting a heavier shadow on the economy and way of life than Covid.
The electorate will not vote for a party that offers a return to the dark ages.
Nearly everyone now agrees that the doomsayer predictions of SAGE were wrong. The climate change fanatics’ models are wrong too.
We need to live with Covid. ‘Zero Covid’ is an impossible dream. Aiming for it had a huge lasting impact on social freedoms and welfare.
We need to live with climate change. ‘Net zero’ is an impossible dream. Aiming for it is having a huge lasting impact on livelihoods and way of life.
January 21, 2022
Exactly and the net zero “solutions” wind, wave, solar, heat pumps, EVs do not even work, not even in CO2 terms if you crunch the numbers properly.
January 21, 2022
@LL; Indeed, and the irony of ironies, the govt is set to announce ‘taxpayer’ (partial) funding for a massive new factory making ‘magic’ [1] EV batteries, this being on the site of the old Blyth Power Station, built to take advantage of the once plentiful supply of mostly local coal, reserves that was closed long before exhaustion…
[1] I say magic because these batteries will seemingly recharge themselves, given there is likely not going to be enough capacity from the national grid, given all the other and increasing demands, from railway electrification to increased use of electricity to heat homes and cook by
January 21, 2022
Indeed total insanity requiring huge subsidy!
January 21, 2022
L/L. Agree totally on your comments about energy and net zero. By opening up more gas fields and fracking he would provide many jobs in the levelling up areas and it could be a win, win.
January 21, 2022
Indeed but he and Carrie seem to have swallowed this mad religion.
January 21, 2022
Spot On
January 21, 2022
Lielogic and Fedupsoutherner
I would like to offer my strong objection to Fracking following my reading the following website ‘frackfocus.org’ – ‘what chemicals are used?’
I would be concerned at the security of the water systems underground on our relatively small densely populated island and rapidly becoming more so.
Poisoning the ground for ever and a day for the relatively short life of the wells. Accidents can and do happen. Bad enough recovering from an above ground accident as in Chernoble and Japan and numerous smaller ones. How long before the country is covered with them for the short time gain for company profits, is just not on.
Why have so many less densely populated countries banned it?
Once contaminated what then? Import clean drinking water and or expensive desalination?
A Japanese company built such a desalination plant on Malta / Gozo? back in the 70’s.
Any such company responsible would probably go AWOL as clean-up would be nigh impossible.
This needs to be reserved possibly to be used as a last resort.
January 21, 2022
Lifelogic apologies – pesky PC
Lielogic and Fedupsoutherner
January 21, 2022
I suspect the Tories will win the next election as the Starmer/Labour/SNP/Plaid/Greens alternative is not remotely likely to appeal to veru many English voters. It is even worse than the Socialist Tories. We just need sensible real Conservative policies, cheap on demand energy, lower taxes, law and order and far, far less government pissing money down the drain at every turn.
January 21, 2022
Weirdly, a large number of people continue to vote Labour, SNP, Libdem and Green, as well as socialist Conservative.
I can’t understand it either.
It’s as if the population has bought into the idea that private sector businesses and their owners do nothing but exploit their staff, stuff inordinate amounts of money into their own pockets, and have virtually unlimited funds the state can tax for their social agenda.
January 21, 2022
+1. Totally agree Oldtimer. Johnson cannot be trusted to keep his word. He will say anything for the time being to keep his job. After all this is the PM that has already ratted on his manifesto promises proving that he can never be trusted or believed ever again.
January 21, 2022
I agree.
January 21, 2022
So we have significant excess deaths currently in males aged 15-19 and the ONS have agreed it is statistically significant and at a time when this group is being vaccinated. So surely at the very least we need to do is suspend vaccinations (at least in this group) until this is fully investigated? See Dr Claire Craig and the Hartgroup organisation open letter.
January 21, 2022
+many
I don’t really understand why we take an ancient practice so seriously.
And treat it with solemn religiosity. And administer it with arrogance and cruelty.
Open a vein and insert some pus from a smallpox lesion. Cover with a walnut shell and Bob’s your uncle. Never mind improved sanitation, clean water, better food,smaller families etc.
Ker…ching!
January 21, 2022
I didn’t much like Meatloaf’s music but he was right about the bats.
January 21, 2022
Especially with the help of some Lab. gain of function experiments!
January 21, 2022
LL
+spot on!
January 21, 2022
and Hell has become a most unlikely ‘studio’ in Downing St.
January 21, 2022
+1
Poor bloke.
He was.
January 21, 2022
Mind you. He was not a well man. Collapsed on stage a couple of times long before batty doings. Very asthmatic apparently.
RIP
January 22, 2022
No, he got covid19.
RIP
January 21, 2022
Oh. I really liked Meatloaf’s ‘music’. I’m rather sad he has gone.
He expressed some of my feelings of FRUSTRATION I suppose.
‘Two out of three aint bad’ he said.
The present Government haven’t even managed 2 out of 3 have they.
But unfortunately the other main Parties would be worse.
As for bats, it’s not those out of hell, we need to worry about. It’s those green ones in Carrie’s belfry.
January 21, 2022
I’m giving you a ”+1” because your post cheered me up
January 21, 2022
I always thought that the enemies of Brexit (?) would push Boris down a very thorny path.
And then really pull the plug on him.
His first correct (apparent) instinct was to treat whatever lurgi as flu.
And then he was got at?
What I think is remarkable is that he just could not keep up the necessary charade.
Knowing surely that all resentful locked down eyes would be on him??
January 21, 2022
@EH; It’s a free country still (just), you can hold as many converging, and indeed sometimes conflicting, conspiracy theories as you like, non of them proves your case though.
January 21, 2022
That’s right, Jerry. In the world of politics and big business no-one ever conspires, do they?
I’m not sure about EH’s mixed metaphors (pulling the plug, down a thorny path?), but clearly Johnson was got at, by the media onslaught baying for lockdowns in mid-March 2020. Not that they will want to be reminded of that, now that the narrative is unravelling.
January 21, 2022
Too kind!
The word is none.
January 21, 2022
surely a conspiracy theory, is as yet unproven?
January 21, 2022
+1
Yes!
Hadn’t thought of that.
January 21, 2022
Perhaps ‘critical tory theory’….proven to be left-wing & green
January 21, 2022
I don’t doubt the remainers have jumped on the bandwagon and are hoping they can reverse Brexit, but Boris has played into their hands and given them plenty of ammunition. Boris has alienated many Brexiters with his failure to secure a real Brexit and failure to manage the UK and secure it’s future. When manifestos are so blatantly disregarded, and the country placed into such a dire position of relying on hostile countries for energy and food, then trust flies out of the window.
January 21, 2022
Everhopeful: “And then he was got at?”
As I remember, Johnsons position changed virtually overnight. From, ‘this may be difficult and many people may die, but were going to get through this’. to ‘we gonna turn the UK into a totalitarian state, and confine healthy people to their homes, shut down as much economic activity as we can, and put as many COVID infected people as possible into care homes that are ill equiped to deal with it’.
As we saw very similar policies implemented around the world, my guess, he was got at.
Still, it’s unforgivable, since he just won the General election and had a substantial majority. He could have weathered one winter of excess death due to COVID and we’d likely have forgotten about it by now.
By the way, how can an MP who was elected as a Tory, cross the floor to Labour, he has other options, no? Could become, independent Conservative, for example.
Says much about Conservative Central office selection criteria, if you ask me.
January 21, 2022
He was not got at @EH. He saw that he and his government would not survive an overwhelmed NHS and acted accordingly.
The NHS is toxic politically and that provides the man reason for taking it out of politicians’ hands into some form of privatisation where performance counts. The funds can still come from taxpayers, supplemented by a usage charge but the administration MUST be independent.
January 21, 2022
@NS; “taking [the NHS] out of politicians’ hands into some form of privatisation where performance counts” [my emphasis]
The most successful model of the type you suggest is probably the German health care system, yet both the statutory health insurance and supplementary private insurance is highly politicised. Nor is the US excuse of a health system any less politicised.
“The funds can still come from taxpayers, supplemented by a usage charge but the administration MUST be independent.”
Are we still talking about the NHS, or perhaps the BBC…
But why the “usage charge”, all it does is deign health care to some, just as has happened with dental & ophthalmic health care (even some GP and orthopedic care etc) since charges were reintroduced from 1951. If a means tested system is put in place then the back office of the health service will become even more bureaucratic, and costly, just as it is in France with their system of reimbursements, perhaps even open to fraud.
The NHS might well have some built-in design faults but it is not broken, as the old adage goes, don’t try to fix what isn’t broken.
January 22, 2022
Morning Jerry – what is perceived to be free is not valued. A usage charge reminds the user it is not free, cuts down missed appointments (deposit) and reminds the administrators it is not free while getting them used to collecting fees for those who don’t qualify for (would be) subsidised at the point of delivery.
However politicised the German or other nations health systems, they would not bring a government down in the way the NHS could.
January 22, 2022
@NS; “A usage charge reminds the user it is not free”
Almost everyone, legitimately, economically active in the UK is reminded that the NHS is not free each time they look at their wage slip or tax demand, almost every person in receipt of the State Pension was similarly remained though out their working life.
What is not free is not available to all those who otherwise are entitled, more so if those who should apply for means tested exemptions do not do so. By the the time such people turn up at A&E for an aliment that could have been previously treated by a GP and/or a over the counter perscri0ption it now costs the NHS far more due to later progression or complications.
Any UK govt is in far more danger of being brought down trying to change the NHS than fessing up to the fact that those who can should pay slightly more tax, even more so if it is perceived the govt is targeting the weakest in society. The up-coming NI increase is the least of this govts problems in my opinion because even if the electorate do not like the increase they do understand the whys and wherefores of it.
Also, your idea would create yet another NHS or DHSC back-office, one quite possibly costing more to operate than money collected. I agree that the NHS needs to do better at charging for, or recouping, costs from those without UK entitlement to NHS care (non UK and some Commonwealth citizens), but that just need better governance from the DHSC.
One thing, is it not the task of front-line NHS staff to act as ‘ticket inspectors’ on the ward or at the GP’s reception desk. Wasn’t at least some of the the ideas behind the last Labour govts wish to introduce a national ID card 1/. to act as a NHS entitlement card, 2/. Voter ID; makes one wonder why some on the right wanted the idea scrapped when Cameron became PM…
January 22, 2022
@jerry; Sorry, that last paragraph should have started;
One other thing, it is not the task of front-line NHS staff…
January 21, 2022
+1
Agree. Independent admin would be a must!
I hate the way the govt. is so involved in healthcare.
January 21, 2022
I love the way that fanatics conceive of their sacred brexit as having a persona, capable of having enemies.
January 21, 2022
‘It is difficult to buy into the idea that whips could credibly threaten to remove grants from constituencies of MPs who were disloyal.’ Well, you’ve been a minister, and are a respected, long-serving MP, and I’ve been neither – but this VOTER can believe that threats were made, and this VOTER can believe that No 10 is spiteful enough to carry them out. Johnson has to go, for reasons of personality, character, policy and competence. There is no way back out of the hole he has diligently dug for himself over the past two years. If he stays, your party will lose the next general election.
P.S. With more of our troops being sent eastwards, you might like to reflect on the contents on last year’s conventional capabilies-savaging Defence review.
Reply Whips cannot make departmental decisions. No Ministers who wanted to obey the law would do as suggested.
January 21, 2022
Of course this government would NEVER break the law. Prorogue Parliament? “Work” parties?
January 21, 2022
The “No Proroguing of Parliament when Supreme Court Justices do not like it law” was only invented by the Supreme Court after the proroguing had been done. Invented by a political & clearly pro EU/remoaner Justices. Yet another structural mess created by “war on a lie” Tony Blair like his devolution disasters.
January 21, 2022
+1
January 22, 2022
Tripe.
It was plainly and self-evidently against the UK’s minimalist constitution.
There’s not much of it to search.
January 21, 2022
‘It is difficult to buy into the idea that whips could credibly … blablablah’
Funny therefore than in the last budget’s allocation of regeneration funds 40 out of 45 went to Conservative held constituencies and this just before the 2021 local elections. Not surprisingly the majority of them went to the ‘Red Wall’ newly gained constituencies.
And we are now told that there has never ever been any pressure on these new Northern MPs to walk the whips’ line. And Sir John expects us to believe him.
Yes Sir, sure Sir, And as we all know school yard bullies never existed …
When will you stop taking your readers for more stupid than they are.
January 21, 2022
Another unproven conspiracy theory hef.
Where is bill when you need him demanding proof.
January 21, 2022
Sir John has rebelled against the whips again and again but he doesn’t sound as if he discusses public expenditure with them. He seems to discuss it, and other matters, with the relevant ministers. We hear him doing it often enough in the Chamber, and he must do a lot more behind the scenes.
Reply Exactly
January 21, 2022
The urgent think now, which I am sure Sir John will be doing, is to buttonhole Mr Kwarteng on the need for a renaissance in energy self sufficiency, now he has had to cancel that cable. He can’t run away from the point any more.
January 21, 2022
You’ll wish to read ‘Revenge of the Pork-pie Plotters’, over at the Daily Mail.
January 21, 2022
very good Sailor!
January 21, 2022
Sending 2,000 anti-tank missiles to the Ukraine with 30 trainers, and ‘hundreds’ of military personnel to Romania and Poland is hardly the way to calm the situation in the Ukraine.
Why does the UK think it is a military power and still has an empire?
The best way forward is for independent observers to monitor the defensive missiles in Romania and Poland and guarantee they are not converted to offensive missiles.
Apparently, Sue Gray has found the smoking email from a senior official to the Principal Private Secretary advising against the wisdom of holding the ‘BYOB work event’ under Covid rules.
Was the BYOB later claimed on expenses? Who paid for all the booze and cheese at the Friday after work gatherings?
January 21, 2022
Romania and Poland – like any other NATO countries – have discretion as to which military capabilities they possess or host.
I do have some sympathy with the view that the EU’s early-stage empire-building into Ukraine was idiotic. I wonder if Ukraine’s best course of action now is to declare neutrality. But if Russia invades, sending its tanks on a Spring-tour, then heavy sanctions by the West must follow. These would have the added benefit of causing the CCP to think twice about doing the same as soon as the Winter Olympics are over.
January 22, 2022
Sea Warrior
Problem is the West is now reliant upon Russian Gas and other raw materials that they need and do not have.
Thus Russia could easily retaliate with sanctions of its own.
The West have painted themselves into a corner through lack of vision I am afraid.
January 21, 2022
We lost the empire but didn’t lose the people who thought they should be running an empire(they loved the EU because they thought they could probably do a reverse take-over!).
There is a great quote from Thucydides regarding an observation of what happened to ancient Athens after it’s crushing defeat by the combined forces of Sparta and Persia.I can’t remember the verbatim but it is to the effect that,shorn of an empire to control,it’s elite,rather than accept their redundancy, turned their oppressive tendencies on their own people.
January 21, 2022
Many a true word almost spoken in jest.
January 21, 2022
Russia,China and Iran have just announced they will soon be conducting joint naval manoeuvres.I also caught a few minutes of RT’s exclusive interview with Ebrahim Raisi,the new hardline Iranian President last night.They are negotiating a 20 year strategic partnership which will see the Iranian economy deeply integrated with that of Russia’s.Krushchev predicted that Iran would eventually drop into Russia’s hands like a “ripe apple”!
Elsewhere an interesting photo of the Iranian President on his prayer mat in the Kremlin before addressing the Duma.
January 21, 2022
Mitchel. All very concerning.
January 21, 2022
I thought it was rotten apples that fall to ground, ripe stay put until status changes.
January 22, 2022
Not if you give the tree a good shake.
January 21, 2022
That (extending Russian influence down to the Gulf) is a long standing Russian ambition. The USA is in retreat in the Middle East.
January 21, 2022
I suspect that the truth is that the whips DID make threats, but that these were just to intimidate ignorant naive or newbie MPs, because -as Sir John points out – they could not in reality have affected decision-making on funding. In other words, it was a bluff. Obviously Sir John himself has never experienced such threats as no whip would be stupid enough to try it on with him!!
January 21, 2022
You expect gloss from Sue Gray but you gloss over the anger felt by very many people at Mr Johnson’s accountability for the flagrant disregard for his own approved lockdown rules. This, combined with the patronising fast tracked so called red meat policies, serve to show that he knows he is failing to deliver anything Conservative. Yes he’ll probably survive but he presides over a Government that is social democratic rather than Conservative. At least the Tory rebels are concerned about that.
Reply The gloss may not be pro the PM
January 21, 2022
+100000 MPC. Besides the fact he has lied and broken the very draconian rules he and his Government imposed on the rest of us, Johnson and his whole sorry excuse for a Cabinet don’t have a Conservative bone in their bodies between them and for that reason they must go and go now. Hopefully there are enough actual Tories on the back benches to replace them.
January 21, 2022
Oh the irony, our host complaining of a campaign against a sitting PM…
and a handful of Conservative MPs
No problem then, Boris just needs to do what John Major did in 1995 (I’m sure our host recalls the event…), after all if there really is only a handful of MP’s wanting him gone Boris will have no problem winning a “Back me or Sack me” leadership election, just as John Major did.
reply I did not complain!
January 21, 2022
As we see regularly, it is, literally, impossible to shame the brexiters.
January 21, 2022
Frankly, no reason to feel anything but deep frustation that we are not takng more advantage of our new found independance from the EU. Of course, I understand that the facts don’t mean too much to you NLH.
UK got the vaccines right – whereas Macron disgraced himself with his anti-AstraZ comments, (whilst privately backing a French vaccine that failed to perform completely). Our economy is doing much better than Germanys (the main EU paymaster) and unemployment is low here – contary to many predictions of mass unemployment pre-Brexit. Nor has the City has suffered as many predicted in the RemaIn Camp. Last time I looked, the balance of payments between UK and the EU was starting to correct itself – from the previous huge imbalance (in the EU’s favour) before.
Now the EU finds itself tearing itself apart over the Russian/Ukraine crisis, as different national priorities naturally come to the fore. The EU ‘Dream’ has always been fundamentally flawed and those flaws can only cause more and more damage to EU unity as their fiscal and political divisions continue to grow.
It’s always better to leave a ‘Titanic’ when still in port, rather than wait for an iceburg hit out at sea.
January 21, 2022
@Ian T; Without a sudden sea change in how the UK does business, that few Brexiteers want (at least on the right, hence no WTO exit and much talk of that ‘easiest trade deal in history’ with the EU), there is little or no chance of “taking more advantage of our new found independence from the EU” any time soon, having spent the last 40 years integrating our supply-side, manufacturing etc. and much of the City with that of the EU27.
“UK got the vaccines right”
Well yes the AZ vaccine, that the UK govt now seems to have largely dropped from the mix, was a shot in the arm (sorry…) but something we could have done even without Brexit. As for the UK doing better than Germany, really, the UK currently has 2,247 deaths per million, Germany has 1,388 [1]. As for economic performance, yes the UK has a remarkably low unemployment figures, as we should have, given the number of unfilled jobs we would likely still have even with 100% employment! Nor is GDP the only measure. As for that balance of trade correction, you mean the UK is buying less from the EU, rather suggest we might be starting to stagnate, or the cause is the worldwide shipping problems caused by CV19.
“Now the EU finds itself tearing itself apart over the Russian/Ukraine crisis”
So when did the POTUS Biden sign the USA up to join the EU?!
“It’s always better to leave a ‘Titanic’ when still in port, rather than wait for an iceburg hit out at sea.”
Well yes, just so long as don’t then board the first attempt at ‘transatlantic flight’ – it failed, exploding and killing all on board (yes I know that attempt was actually easterly from the USA). Be careful with your analogies!
[1] source; Johns Hopkins University
January 22, 2022
Agree that nothing will happen in the short term Jerry – 40 years of EU membership will not be shrugged off overnight (never expected that to happen) especially if the ‘Establisment’ continues to resist movement away from EU ‘friendly’ policies. Opportunities may (or may not) be seized but that does not mean they do not exist.
I remain of the opinion that increasing economic and political pressures can only deepen the faultlines that have always been part of the European Project. The early promoters of the Euro Project knew that these structural problems existed from the very get-go and worked on the assumption that members would have no choice (e.g. would be forced) but to move towards closer economic and political union in response to the underlying problems caused. An early example of a “too big to fail” defect deliberately built into a policy plan.
I have also been interested to note recently how little the EU has had to say (or been able to do) with regards the Ukraine. Macron has been very loud in his views but is that very much comfort in reality to Eastern European countries sitting nearer to the action? The US certainly has it’s own problems at the moment, not least with it’s current “POTUS” – but I know who I’d want on my side in any armed conflict and the US outguns France any day of the week – and France is the only miltary force of any note within the Union.
Trump was much mocked for some of his views (including the lack of funding by most NATO members) but I’m sure his critics can hardly be happy with Bidens performance of late. Very hard to see where this will end up but other European countries must be looking at the energy black-hole Germany has driven itself into with real concern. As SJR has pointed out, UK still has the ability to avoid some of the worst of these pitfalls. Whether we will do so, I’m don’t know but ECO concerns may not withstand the heat going off too often and we certainly should not rely on Euro sources of energy – they are going to have their own shortages to worry about.
January 22, 2022
Odd you think the “right” didn’t want a WTO exit.
January 23, 2022
@P2; Odd, if a majority on the right did want a WTO exit then why did we not get one, after all it would have been “the easiest trade agreement in history” – walk in, tell the EU their collective fortunes, walk out again! Brexit done by 31 October 2019, no WA, no NIP.
January 23, 2022
Because the right in Parliament are not a majority.
Fairly obvious Jerry.
January 21, 2022
OMG – literally makes a comeback.
January 21, 2022
Where used properly of course it does.
January 21, 2022
Literally properly of course.
January 21, 2022
+many.
Lol
🤗
January 21, 2022
What our host lists as “post lockdown agenda” has nothing what so ever to do with the public health issues that lead to the lockdowns, the post locdown agenda I want to see from the PM, supported by all Conservative MP’s, are measures that allow us all to live with CV19 whilst being as safe as possible, just as with any other infection that is either highly communicable or has little or no effective treatment. The suggestion that the govt is thinking about ending mandatory self isolation were CV19 is confirmed or suspected is utterly stupid – we also need to put an stop to the workplace “Flu Martyr” too, given that one persons “Flu” can actually turn out to be another’s very real CV19 infection.
“If the PM can complete Brexit and tackle the cost of living crisis he can ride out party gate.”
Well perhaps, but then John Major’s govt wasn’t saved just because he got a few manifesto pledges done, “burger-gate” and “sleaze-gate” just added to a feeling the party was out of touch by 1997, the same was true of the Labour party by 2010.
I expect the Tory party to end up doing what they have always been very good at, cutting free the driftwood that is in danger of capsizing the good ship, they did it with Chamberlain in 1940, Eden in the 1950s, Douglas-Home in the 1960s, Heath in the 1970s, Thacher in the 1980s, & more recently May. An utterly ruthless party when it comes to self preservation!
January 21, 2022
The public see that the PM cannot be trusted. The Irish protocol was advertised him as a splendid solution with no change to the UK market. The easiest negotiation ever has not been, and Brexit is not done. The free money on the bus was a lie and the sunny uplands have turned out to be shortages inflation costs and irrelevance internationally . Sucking up to Trump was a disaster a blind man could have skipped past.
Socially conservative older people to whom Brexit appealed do not lie, do not break the rules, and do not think it appropriate to swill Chablis like a when others are unable to see their dying relatives.
We are at the end of the Covid period .People will look back at the dreadful death toll inflicted on us by braying Public school Libertarians , when sensible countries locked down and stayed safe . The vaccine saved them and us ..experts turned out to be useful after all .
The Conservative Party has irredeemably alienated Liberal and moderate England and now its red wall voters have turned away in disgust . The only thing that can save it now is the left wing of the Labour Party
January 23, 2022
What a very odd post from you Jerry
Part rant part waffle.
January 21, 2022
In some ways the problem is parliament itself. I am sure in all parties there are people having too much control in the requirements and experience of candidates for selection.
Building departments within a business structure, people tend to be drawn by like minded people who are favourable to their visions and beliefs.
A lot of MPs are trying to operate outside their true comfort zones and well above the maximum levels of their competence. The whole selection process needs to be overhauled. The same could be addressed at the civil service.
January 21, 2022
+1
January 21, 2022
Apparently, the civil service has grown so much in the last two years, the can’t physically fit into the buildings?!
Listening to Tobias Elwood talking on Talk Radio just now, it seems we’re naval gazing and bickering under the duvet while outside, the enemies of democracy are circling….he used the analogy of the 1930’s, which a lot of us having been saying for ages…
January 21, 2022
It’s more like the period before WWI;the past-it’s-sell-by-date oppressive empire collapsing now though is the US and it’s imperium in imperio,the EU.
January 21, 2022
“it seems we’re naval gazing”. If only the government would spend more time “naval gazing” – then they might realise we need a much bigger Royal Navy to face both our present and future threats, from illegal immigrants to abusive foreign fishing vessels to China. Unfortunately they spend too much time navel-gazing while our military shrinks, together with our ability to deal with our nation’s enemies.
January 21, 2022
The enemies of democracy are already inside, and have been running the show for nearly two years, Sharon. The technocrats are cynical enough to admit they might have got it a bit wrong on Covid, but they still expect to stay in place with a hold over the levers of power, for the foreseeable future.
January 21, 2022
Sorry Sir John, but I don’t think we can just write off the events of the past 22 months; and I’m not just talking about parties in No.10. I’m talking about the removal of our civil liberties; destruction of thousands of businesses; ruination of millions of lives and the most disgraceful, evil, PsyOps campaign carried out against the British people by their own Government EVER ….. over a Low Consequence Infectious Disease which 99.7% would survive, IF they were unfortunate enough to get it.
And the chickens are now coming home to roost with Johnson’s other obsession: Net Zero and the Eco Lunacy he and Carrie Antoinette are determined to foist on us, regardless of the cost.
The only possible reason I can see for keeping the shambolic, integrity-free, Socialist Eco-loon in No.10 is because he is now so scared of his rebel backbenchers, he might actually be forced to deal with the disgraceful position he’s left Northern Ireland in and implement some Conservative policies before the next General Election, when the voters will pass judgement on him and his Government.
But I doubt he will do either.
The Conservative Party has now served up three Prime Ministers in a row who were arrogant, incompetent, untrustworthy and without a principled bone in their bodies. And by attempting to save Johnson, you seem to be indicating that the Party can’t do any better than that.
January 21, 2022
During the last 22 months the government directed by behavioural scientists has instilled a climate of fear amongst the population, in order to impose restrictions on our liberty and freedom. In the meantime, those who knew what was really behind all this were having parties and breaking all the rules that they imposed on the rest of us. Boris Johnson should resign forthwith – not because he allowed his friends and colleagues to break the rules he imposed on all of us, but because he imposed those rules and took away our liberty and freedom. Furthermore he caused a catalogue of other deleterious effects which far outweigh the direct consequences of this virus: diagnoses and treatment of other illnesses were delayed resulting in premature deaths and a massive backlog in treatment in the NHS; children’s education was and remains severely disrupted; many businesses were and still are badly affected except those (some of which allegedly had close connections with your party) who received enormous government contracts; the economy was trashed; the tax burden for future generations has spiralled to a frightening degree and the mental health of many people has been severely harmed – a trend which will continue.
I have no confidence in this Prime Minister, this government or this parliament.
January 21, 2022
When MPs are found to be wanting for whatever reasons it should be part of the conditions of employment that they resign their seat and fight a by election.
My MP uncovered for iffy negotiations with a middle east country, found guilty of bullying ends up with a slap on the wrist and one day suspension. Everyman and woman who takes on the role of MP must accept that any misdemeanours, results in resigning and fighting a by election. Quotes like ” I did not know, understand , have not broken any rules” doesn’t given voters any confidence in the person, their party and Parliament itself.
Sadly, as it is , it will always be. Do as we say, not as we do.
January 21, 2022
So Mark Francois comments in his book on Brexit about the threats, bribes etc and the tapes, e mails mentioned in the Times today are illusions?
I don’t believe you. Disappointedly you and your party seem to have become as amoral as your leader.
It is not our fault that alternatives are an insipid bunch electorally unattractive hence your desperation to hold onto a person whose relationship with the truth is fleeting.
No vote for you from me, until he goes, ever.
January 21, 2022
A Leopard is being asked to change its spots me thinks in Johnson and now the party at large.
As already mentioned survival will only embolden him (and all) to ride rough shod over us in the future, in whatever that brings in the way of shiny baubles being dangled in front.
However, who would step in and would there be drastic change. I think the chosen one for the new post would likely be a party exercise in showing their ‘progressive’ credentials. The changes to policy would be net zero regarding the progressive credentials of the party. This is the party that signed us up to UN Migration Pact, despite a huge petition from the public and indeed a more recent immigration pact also!
It has set its course on that particular policy and little will change in the way the public wishes. There will just be more lies and fudge and then the public will have their noses rubbed in it.
Incredible the amount of people who say they voted Conservative last time out of desperation so as not to have a Corbyn government and yet feel in many ways especially on the issue of immigration and culture, they’ve got exactly that (well I did warn them).
It’s time for not just Johnson to go but the whole party.
January 21, 2022
I suggest leaving it until mid-year which also allows us to see how the local elections go. But if it’s still a programme of tax and spend, big government statism by then then you should make a change. Because then it will be right to say again ‘no change no chance’.
January 21, 2022
local elections will be a ‘disaster darling’ as a certain panellist apparently says.
January 21, 2022
I don’t understand this argument for waiting for the local election results before getting rid of Boris. Firstly, many people vote differently in local and national elections, so the results will not be especially informative. I, for instance, would not vote Conservative again in the Westminster elections while Boris is leader (I will vote Reform UK) but would be willing to vote for local council candidates who will keep my Council Tax down and improve my local services. But inasmuch as people *do* vote the same way, you are sacrificing good local candidates on the altar of a traitor who has betrayed Britain and the British people. Why would you want to do that?
January 21, 2022
Is it the case that previous attempts to replace the leadership of the Conservative Party have come from within the party, whereas this one, bar a handful of disunited people, is coming from outside? The previous attempts were clear in their objects and these were explained. Anonymous leaks about Number Ten’s civil servants going in the garden two years ago aren’t convincing enough. Mr Bridgen more or less admitted this, despite dutifully repeating the petty accusation. He said it is a battle for the party’s soul. It seems he will be battling with his co conspirators. Some want to go back into the EU; others want a proper Brexit. Some want a bigger state; others want to return to a smaller one; some will be members of the CO2 cult; others not. For this very reason, they will not have a common candidate, and without one, this disruption is futile.
January 21, 2022
If Boris is to be dethroned his replacement should not be a showman. A quiet forward thinking, determined and focused person is needed. The big advantage of getting rid of Boris is that it would be two for the price of one. Whilst he is in place the net zero lunacy will continue. To my mind there is only one person who could replace him without any baggage. It will be interesting to see what happens following the May council elections.
January 21, 2022
“If the PM can complete Brexit”
But we were told that Brexit was done…
January 21, 2022
Brexit will only be done for the Brexiters when Britannia once again rules the waves. Brexit is the most backward looking project in history, and the most undeliverable
January 21, 2022
I think only when the near Continent has been carpet-bombed to a smoking wasteland, perhaps for some.
January 21, 2022
You need to keep calm NHL
I realise you have to post 30 times a day but go for quality rather than quantity.
This post is a new low from you.
January 21, 2022
and yet the will of the voting majority in the UK
January 21, 2022
Confidence in the PM’s leadership and in his government depends upon more than having good policies. It has to be built on trust and a belief that the government is honest and acting in the best interests of the country.
The current government has eroded our trust, bot just by ignoring their own rules but by lying and hiding the true facts from the public.
Even with new dynamic policies, I do not believe that most voters would trust the government to deliver.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me .”
January 21, 2022
Good news for the UK car industry has been announced this morning. Britishvolt will build a battery “gigafactory” on the site of the old Blyth coal-fired power station in Northumberland. The British property developer Tritax and Abrdn (the rump of Standard Life) will provide £1.7bn in private finance and BEIS will also provide support from the Automotive Transformation Fund.
The factory will produce enough battery cells for more than 300,000 electric vehicle battery packs per year. The electricity to charge them will come from the Dogger Bank Array windfarm
January 21, 2022
and from where will the raw materials come?
January 21, 2022
And what is the battery design? Is it a soon to be an obsolete, flammable gel-based lithium-ion design? Or a solid state design? If the latter, which one? There appear to be competing versions. Is this one the likely technological winner?
January 21, 2022
Taxpayer subsidy to manufacture, taxpayer subsidy to buy and remove/ban any competition….sounds more like a labour policy
January 21, 2022
“There needs to be an early move to take control of GB/ NI trade. ”
Before that there should be a move to take control of NI/IR trade.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/01/2022-message/#comment-1288047
“I’ve sent a letter in the direction of Liz Truss which includes a proposal for unilateral stepwise action to create alternative arrangements and help resolve the problem in a calm and orderly manner … ”
It would have to be unilateral action because the EU would automatically reject any proposal which would diminish its continuing power over Northern Ireland, see for example here on August 27 2019:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-49488844
“Brexit: Backstop plan by Sir Jonathan Faull dismissed by EU”
“EU officials have poured cold water on alternative proposals for the Brexit backstop by a former British European Commission official.
Sir Jonathan Faull had suggested the EU and UK could maintain their own customs and regulatory regimes while using their laws to protect each others’ markets.
He also proposed creating “trade centres” away from the Irish border.
This would mean goods would not have to be checked at the frontier.
One senior EU source told BBC News NI the proposals were “inadequate and not anywhere near the landing zone”.”
January 21, 2022
I commented a few days back about getting tired of the ‘parties’ issues, and additionally now covid. I don’t know who advises ‘Boris’ or if he decides for himself, but it is time he stopped turning up for the media at some hospital or other looking sloppy and uncomfortable in shirt sleeves and a worn out mask.
I agree with your views in the final paragraph. It is overdue for the PM to concentrate on sovereignty and our country’s development and settlement. His failure to address his Brexit failures for example are not acceptable.
He ought to find a decent suit get proper haircuts, and sound serious and knowledgeable on these matters. The trouble is I fear he has no understanding nor willingness to get involved much as he cannot organise himself as a leader should. I have only heard him speak of his green fanaticism and how every problem is going to be solved that way. Perhaps we should look more to Liz Truss.
He must change and become a reliable and steady leader but I fear he cannot. His character seems completely opposed to those essentials.
January 21, 2022
Boris Johnson is a very strange man who presides over a very strange collection of ministers who are busily pursuing some very strange policies. Under Mrs May there was at least clarity; she represented the heart of the Tory party in parliament which is Europhile whilst pretending to be Eurosceptic in order to appease the
majority in the party and the country who were Eurosceptic. As such she had no difficulty in putting together a cabinet that appeared credible even if all its decisions were not always sensible. Is it even possible to put together a credible cabinet from Tory MPs who are committed to making Brexit work?
There are important issues concerning energy , foreign policy and health and the environment in which this government is moving in the wrong direction with potentially very serious consequence for the future. A successful economy cannot exist without reliable and competitively priced energy. We do not grow nearly enough food for our burgeoning population, yet the government is determined to treat farmland as a vehicle for capturing CO2 and our fishing grounds as Danegeld. There are emerging questions on the efficacy and safety of the Covid-19 vaccines which have some caused medically qualified personnel to be averse to receiving them despite the rhetoric from unqualified ministers. Meanwhile the government, as if it didn’t have enough on its plate, is interfering militarily in a dispute between Russia and Ukraine which is none of our business.
January 21, 2022
We must hope the people’s Blue Boris makes a reappearance. It was one thing to have a weak Cabinet of nobodies controlled by Boris, it will be quite another to have a weak Boris controlled by the same Cabinet.
January 21, 2022
And we need action to tackle illegal immigration. There is a limitless supply of people in the Third World and if left unchecked they will come here in increasing numbers ‘for a better life’ until no better life is available because they have destroyed it. The more time is wasted, the harder it will be to stop as the number of people already here who want their extended families and friends to join them grows.
January 21, 2022
‘’ And we need action to tackle illegal immigration’’
We have a new plan – we get the Royal Navy to sail around and around the coast of the UK avoiding the French Republican Navy and stop counting the number of illegal’s, hoping that no-one will notice….job done !
January 21, 2022
There are always media, groups and political parties calling for the resignation of the Prime Minister or the rogue du jour within the government. It is part of political life.
Our current Prime Minister has demonstrated competence levels of such a low level plus fostering a culture of one rule for them and another for us that the usual background noise has pervaded to the foreground.
His own party now have doubts whether his “charisma” can get them re-elected and are prepared to depose him so the media, groups and other political parties smell blood in the water and have raised the intensity of their campaigning.
This government is rotting from the head down, cost of living is rising and our taxes our going up, energy policy is plain wrong and the approach to leave withdrawal agreement is still too pro-EU.
I do not need the Prime Minister to resign but I do need him, and your party Sir John, to change tack and represent core voters and not minority interests. Failing that he should go and let someone try who will.
January 21, 2022
Boris did look guilty in Parliament. And good – he needs to be made to suffer to turn him into a better leader. But I don’t think what he did was bad enough for him to go (and I don’t think the country overall does either). Tory Party and country tired of drama. People jut want to get on with their lives now (after Covid / last leadership election / Brexit / Recession etc). And there’s clearly no-one much better than him to take over and win elections like he can.
January 21, 2022
Sunak could be good replacement. But not yet. Too early by a few years.
January 21, 2022
RS turned 41 in May. J A Redwood had tried at 44.
Do you really think that wisdom comes with age?
January 21, 2022
how old are YOU?
January 21, 2022
‘With age comes wisdom. But sometimes age comes alone,’ – Oscar Wilde.
I’d generally go with that.
January 21, 2022
Even if Boris could still win elections (which is highly debatable!) what on earth is the point of that if you don’t actually do anything worthwhile with your parliamentary majority? I have said before that one the most amazing things I have witnessed is the fact that Boris has done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING despite having a majority of 80 in the Commons for the last two years. It is almost unbelievable that any leader would throw away the opportunities which that offered. Any other PM would have sold his soul for such a chance to introduce a raft of new legislation, but Boris ‘spaffed it up the wall’. He has been a failure and a traitor, and that is why he has to go.
January 21, 2022
The prime minister has already failed to live up to his Conservative manifesto in many respects. IR35 remains, despite now hitting another industry: haulage. VAT on fuel remains despite price rises that cripple the lower income. The loan charge remains.The fishing agreements are a mess. No action was taken against those responsible for the post office debacle and the deaths it caused. And finally, when the country was in lockdown, Mr Johnson was reported on to be repeatedly taking holidays around the UK. If even the Queen can go into lockdown to lead by example, surely the Prime Minister should follow that example.
A new Prime Minister would have a period to restore faith by delivering on his promises. Mr Johnson has proved he will not. Unfortunately there seems to be a sheer lack of talent on the front benches when it comes to available alternatives.
January 21, 2022
You can bet your bottom dollar that if there was a sound electoral alternative the Tories would have have defenestrated Boris already. Their spinning of which this is a part is a sign of their desperation.
January 21, 2022
Yes, that seems fair.
January 21, 2022
Yep !
January 21, 2022
If Alexander the Cautious does want to survive in office, he will need to do an awful lot of backtracking very quickly, in pretty well every sphere of government.
The Corona virus Act – REPEAL NOW.
Energy policy. Drop Zero Carbon. Repeal Climate Change Act. Abandon all new wind & solar
Illegal and unregulated immigration
Remove all financial help to above migrants
Get NI back into UK
Take full control of UK territorial waters
Drop economy killing new taxes
The trouble is, there seems to be no one to replace him that will do those things so it may be better to allow the PM’s troubles to force him into finally ‘getting Brexit done. Or is that a forlorn hope?
January 21, 2022
I very much agree.
I also think the Tories are relying, or at least hoping, that Labour turn out to be as unelectable as before. They seem to be setting themselves up for a fall.
January 21, 2022
Spot On
January 21, 2022
I favour keeping Boris Johnson as Prime Minister largely because none of the likely alternatives would seemingly be any better as Prme Minister and they certainly would not be any better at getting votes at the next general election. I would also point out that as the email inviting 100 people to the ‘event’ at the Downing Street garden was sent to 100 people it could not have been clearly illegal if it took nearly 2 years for any of those and the media to take it up as an issue.
However I would say the Conservative Party is suffering damage from the media concentration on a search to find problems that might tip Conservative MPs over the edge in getting rid of Boris Johnson. So it might be as well tyo hold a vote of confidence now to resolve the issue for at least a year one way or the other. Perhaps the 1922 Committee might with that in mind amend its criteria to allow letters that do not express no confidence in the Leader but merely request a vote of confidence to be held to count in triggering a vote of confidence.
January 22, 2022
You mean let Cummings and the media manipulate them?
January 21, 2022
While it seems that a good number of Tories want Boris gone, the party should be careful of what it wishes for.
Many of the disillusioned MPs are more concerned about their seats rather than any moral issues. Those with moral issues realise that it is better to get Boris to put things right rather than switch to some unknown.
I see no worthy candidate for PM, within the cabinet. Replacing Boris with someone worse, and there is nobody in the cabinet that has the credentials for being PM, just won’t help at all, and we should certainly ensure the backstabbers do not benefit or get their way.
The advice then, to the current PM, apart from ditching his current advisors, is to follow the Chinese in ignoring the myth of climate change; follow his own nose when it comes to the pandemic; and start rolling back all the nasty things he has set in motion against the British people.
January 21, 2022
And in other news we read womens pensions have been underpaid for many years with the computer system their details dating back to 1988. Meg Hiller calls it a disgraceful shambles.
An we learn that up to 5 billion has been written off through fraud. A spokesperson justified it by saying they had to act quickly when Covid struck. So poor systems, useless process.
Any peep of outrage or sanctions from MPs looking after our money. I think we all know the answer. They can’t even get their employees back in their offices.
January 21, 2022
John, as if we need proof that Johnson is an out of touch bungler, not only did he think he was exempt from the draconian rules he imposed on the rest of us but when people were not allowed to even say goodbye to their loved ones and sons were being screamed at for comforting their mothers at their father’s funerals, it turns out he offered to exempt Prince Philip’s funeral from the rules as well. Thankfully HM had the good sense to decline his offer. So not only can Labour accuse him of breaking manifesto promises come the next election but they will also be able to remind all those red wall voters, many ex Labour, how it is one rule for those Tory toffs and another for us plebs Joe Public. For that reason alone he must go.
January 21, 2022
I think all those people who were arrested and fined for breaking basically the same rules as Number 10 staff should have their criminal records cleared.
January 21, 2022
How parliamentary parties operate within Parliament is down to their members, the Speaker and ultimately the law. If parties wish to perpetuate an archaic public school system then they should be told to grow up.
I cannot see an obvious alternative to Boris, warts and all, in Conservative party ranks. That said he should pay heed to your last paragraph. The ERG, the Spartans, and true Conservatives within the parliamentary party should hold his feet to the fire every time he goes off on a tangent.
Those in Parliament should not make judgements based on what we have learnt in the past two years, save them for the next pandemic. Based on the reality of knowing very little two years ago I think Boris did a good job. Mistakes with hindsight yes, but on balance a good job, and I do not recognise anyone who could have done better. Ultimately the electorate will judge on the real issues in less than three years.
January 21, 2022
For those looking for the Achilles heel of our PM can look no further than todays blog Not a Lot of People Know That. It is all about Grid Balancing costs and where all the millions are going dutifully paid for through everybody’s bills. The price we pay for someone’s dreams because that is what they are.
January 21, 2022
The back benches were just waiting for him to trip up . They then try and make a fool of him in public. Some may say , that this is justified as these things should be made public , however there are ways of following ethics , procedures and protocols. How things are televised and seen on TV affects public confidence in the parties.
The MP for Bury south staged a cross over in public ( having previously it was reported talking to Keith Starmer ) We saw this show and it simply underlines the tactics used to stir up trouble and create a media spectacle.
Many are talking of covid deaths and infection rates in numbers of thousands..dismissing the importance of the individual yet ironically speak about the evil of communism and people as numbers.
Boris and his colleagues wronged the public , but as for a new PM in place, untested and untried; perhaps it is not a good time to create this havoc.
January 22, 2022
(talked to Kieth Starmer) Grammar!
January 21, 2022
The attraction of Boris is that he is rarely boring. Someone from outside the usual political mould. That was his Red Wall triumph. He has some of the attraction of Trump and Berlesconi, providing our democracy remains strong enough to keep him in check and on course. Encourage him to delegate power to many more of entrepreneurial talent. The power of taxation and law is in the hands of politicians as linesmen and referees, use it to incentivise the best players, and all those coming up in the game.
January 21, 2022
I have no problem with having a Showman fronting the government – Boris is more amusing than many so-called Comedians these days – but I also expect to see sensible long-term policies coming from the more grown up members of his Goverment. At the moment, that just isn’t happening.
So I’m not particularly bothered by his shenagigans (they shouldn’t suprise anyone) but I do expect a few grown-ups to kick him (and his wife/friends) into touch when it comes to the big-boy stuff. If Boris isn’t amenable to good political/economic advice, then he should go.
So Boris, get yourself a good consigliere and start listening to him/her.
January 21, 2022
He’s become a ‘turn that off for God’s sake!’
January 22, 2022
His triumph was that he attracted the votes of those who could only name one politician – him.
There are enough to make the difference with FPTP.
January 21, 2022
Johnson is in a fix because he lied. He continues to dig deeper by treating us as idiots. He is resorting to the usual Labour excuses of “I’m not bent, guv, just incredibly stupid.”
There are certain circumstances in which an apology will not result in forgiveness.
The alleged proposal to kill the license fee is another error. The BBC, which already hates the Tories, will worsen their output and blame the Tories. When the deed doesn’t happen Conservative voters will again feel let down, which is why its demise is schedule to be after the next election. Unless Johnson goes, Labour will win and restore the BBC to its glorious woke self and it will shower praises on the Socialist government of the day.
January 21, 2022
+1
January 21, 2022
How come Starmer is getting away in the media with his partaking of food and a beer with work colleagues in some Labour office? How is this different from the downing street garden parties, also involving people gathering after work?
January 21, 2022
When was that picture taken? During the Hartlepool byelection campaign that was held on 06/05/2021. Restrictions had been lifted on 12/04 and indoors activities within one’s support bubble were permitted.
So the real questions are:
1/ when was that picture taken? 30/04 in Durham.
2/ Can one prove that people around Starmer were not from his support bubble? At the time there were exceptions for ‘work purpose gatherings’ as part of the ‘political campaigning exemption’. Which by the way the PM had also kind of used when visiting the constituency on … 1 April even before the retrictions had been lifted.
I guess R1 has collected his ‘info’ from the Sun or the Daily Express whose articles do not mention the date nor the names of the people around Starmer.
So could R1 try doing a bit of detective work and bring us the details that prove that KS did worse than ABvPJ. Thanks in advance. .
January 21, 2022
Because it did not break any rule.
It was demonstrably a work meeting, with none of the trappings or conduct of a party.
January 21, 2022
Aare you referring to Boris?
January 21, 2022
Well done Sirj on being in the Top ten MPs with the lowest levels of spending, 2020-21 (actually second lowest of all MPs) ‘‘lead by Example’’
Your expenses John Redwood, Wokingham – £106,682
Highest expenses Darren Henry, Broxtowe – £280,936
https://order-order.com/2022/01/21/revealed-uks-most-expensive-pandemic-mps/
January 21, 2022
You would expect MPs in the Home Counties to have lower expenses though, wouldn’t you?
Incidentally, how did Henry’s compare with his predecessor’s – remember her?
January 21, 2022
Is that due to the cost of a pint being more in the city than in the home counties
January 22, 2022
No, because they may not need overnight accommodation.
January 21, 2022
+1
January 21, 2022
On the one hand I am impatient for the day when the Great Charlatan will get off my TV screen.
On the other hand I want him to sort out his Irish protocol mess before he goes.
However, on another hand, his successor might find it easier to sort out that mess, as they would not be so personally attached to the “fantastic” low value trade deal he secured by selling out Northern Ireland.
But then again if it was Liz Truss she likes low value trade deals … it’s difficult.
Of course the minority of Conservative and Unionist MPs who are truly committed to the union could make support for an alternative Prime Minister conditional on an unequivocal public pledge that they would be prepared to unilaterally abrogate the protocol if that was necessary to fully restore the previous position of the province within the United Kingdom, irrespective of the loss of Boris Johnson’s trade deal.
January 21, 2022
Hilarious irony in seeing the instruments they built against us now being used against them…
£1 says the Met wont be giving a tinker’s cuss, nor about alleged Whips’ coercion tactics.
Nasty message on twitter, full swat squad and 2 vans full at your front and back doors…
PS I agree with your “list of things to do” Sir J, I would add stopping dinghies, transformation of NHS so they can deliver more with less, by standardising tools, processes and automation. A quick peek to check how the best overseas health services do delivery, get some adoption of best practice. Purging Civil Service/Quangoes/Beeb is still on my list.
January 21, 2022
An excellent analysis and very much in line with my own thinking. In the first instance, much depends on how Boris comes through the Gray report. Assuming he survives that, the next issue, and arguably far more important, is tackling the cost of living problem which in the medium/long term is very dependent on energy policy.
It is obvious to everyone who takes a pragmatic view that the whole Green Crap agenda is simply unaffordable as presently structured. Somebody needs to grasp this and change it : More domestic gas and oil production, the new coking coal plant authorised to proceed and a slow down in net zero to at least 2060. This should also include extending the availability of IC combustion engined cars by five or ten years, by which time range anxiety could be solved and battery costs reduced. This would have to be linked with further reductions in emissions to make it palatable.
Will that happen ? Who knows, but it would certainly ease concerns amongst those who have to pay for it all – tax payers – and will put clear blue water ahead of the next election between the Conservative party and the Labour/Green/Libdem/SNP alliance who all want to accelerate the programme.
January 21, 2022
ChrisS. You are quite right in all you say about the ‘green crap’ agenda and what should replace it.
January 21, 2022
If there was any sign that Mr Johnson shared any of the priorities listed in your final paragraph, it might be worth waiting because, if nothing else, he is a great campaigner, but I am afraid if he has the self discipline to have any agenda at all, nothing has happened in the last two years to make one think it is this one.
January 21, 2022
campaigner for some, bullshitter for others?
January 21, 2022
Not a bad strategy John, put the PM on warning that if he doesn’t start to implement a proper Conservative agenda you’ll vote him out.
January 21, 2022
“There needs to be a change of energy policy.”
Sir John, there’s a neatly set out* way of escaping the forthcoming energy crunch. In August last year there was a post entitled “The sensible speech on climate the PM will never make” at The Conservative Woman. It’s still valid.
Unless we sack Lord Deben and his committee (which includes, for some reason. a senior member of the Behavioural Insights Team), repeal the Climate Change Act (crafted by Lady Worthington whose qualifications for the role, if her Wikipedia entry is anything to judge by, are not impressive) and announce that huge renewable energy subsidies will be examined to see if a windfall tax is appropriate, we are heading for a very unpleasant time.
First action: suspend all EPR planning and payments.
Like Phil Connors in Groundhog Day we can forecast our future if this is not done: ‘It’s gonna be cold, it’s gonna be dark, and it will last the rest of our lives.”
JF
*Though i say so myself.
January 21, 2022
Great post.
+1
January 21, 2022
The biggest stumbling block to his re-election and the biggest concern for traditional
Tory voters is the uncontrolled immigration in the channel. This invasion of illegals MUST be stopped.
Brexit was the issue that won the red wall last election – immigration will be the issue that determines the result of the next one.
January 21, 2022
Immigrant votes will determine the result of the next election (possibly the government’s calculation).
January 21, 2022
Even if having legally arrived, immigrants not having the British citizenship cannot vote in a GE.
January 21, 2022
hefner :
Of course they can if there continues to be no voter ID or proper checks or uncontrolled postal voting etc. etc.
January 23, 2022
OR, Do you really think that an illegal immigrant is going to take the risk of being found as such by going to vote in person when his/her name is obviously not on the voting register?
And not being on the register, they will not get the possibility of requiring postal voting.
Voting fraud might be possible with people being on the register and voting instead of family members and/or acquaintances (proxy voting). I doubt very much it is the case with illegal immigrants.
And in the past elections, it has been shown again and again that in the UK it is a very marginal feature. The ‘perception of electoral integrity’ is another can of worms thanks to the efforts of … self-proclaimed electoralintegrityindex groups. I’ll let you ‘do your own research’ on who these nice people are.
gov.uk, 14/05/2021 ‘Voter fraud measures announced in the Queen’s speech’.
electoralcommission.org.uk, 31/03/2021 ‘2019 electoral fraud data’.
January 21, 2022
There are only two ways of ending the illegal channel crossings : the first is a deal with the French to take all of them back and the second is to process them somewhere offshore in Africa or The Middle East after which 99% will be declared inadmissible.
I believe every sensible person knows that there is only one of those two options that the Home Secretary has any chance of implementing.
January 21, 2022
The numbers crossing the Channel in boats is small compared with those landing normally at airports on visas and then simply melting into the crowd.
The pictures of that aren’t as striking in the gutter press, however.
But you didn’t want to know the facts anyway.
January 21, 2022
So now you agree with Migration Watch who have been saying there are millions of illegal immigrants in the UK
Progress of sorts.
January 22, 2022
I have never studied nor challenged MW figures on that point.
January 21, 2022
+1 uncontrolled immigration has been an unresolved topic for the voter for over a decade
January 22, 2022
Michael Howard offered the electorate a choice on that and the media did him in because of it.
January 21, 2022
The basic problem is that never again should a PM be enabled to act like a dictator. Parliament *must* be allowed its full powers of scrutiny and debate, even when parliamentarians themselves seem to wish to abolish their own powers- as recently happened. Parliament, bubble-like though it is (apart from stalwarts like our host), is the people’s only protection against tyranny.
Here is another potential problem looming:
“The UK is able to join European Union biometric surveillance schemes such as a pan-European network of police facial recognition databases without having to go through Parliamentary debate or specific scrutiny in Westminster, reports monitoring organization Statewatch.
Less than two years after it initially left the European Union, it emerges that the UK can join policing and security projects via the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA). This was approved by British MPs in December and then Members of the European Parliament in April 2021.”
January 21, 2022
Sir John, I’m a bit confused. You say: “There needs to be an early move to take control of GB/ NI trade. There needs to be a change of energy policy. We need tax cuts. If the PM can complete Brexit and tackle the cost of living crisis he can ride out party gate.” I agree that we need these policies, but you and I both know that Boris Johnson is determined to pursue precisely the OPPOSITE policies. He refuses to revoke the Protocol (or even activate Article 16), he has brought forward net zero for energy from 2050 (as agreed in the manifesto) to 2035 (and refuses to extract more gas, or keep coal-fired power stations open, or accelerate the RR SMRs), and he has imposed tax INCREASES.
So given that the PM is doing the very opposite of what you (and I) want, and given that we both know he is NOT going to reverse these policies (one would need to live in a deluded fantasy world to believe he will), then are you therefore saying that you now want him out? That’s good news! I expect therefore that you and your like-minded colleagues are already negotiating with the potential successors to see which one of them promises to adopt the policies that are needed. The sooner this is sorted out the better!
January 21, 2022
The possible real purpose of the Northern Ireland Protocol.
Irish ambitions behind the NIP to strangle UK-NI trade flows, thus increasing Eire-NI trade flows and gradually integrate NI to Eire economically thereby cutting Northern Ireland off from trade with Great Britain. Divide and conquer.
So the NIP is all about keeping the UK under the regulatory control of the EU via their control of trading and customs between NI and the UK, that is to say between our country and our country.
Unless Article 16 is triggered, the ECJ remains and NI is lost, and that is why the EU is so desperate for a compromise deal. L Truss speaks of a deal. So there you have it. Bye bye N.I. Hello E.U. as we will not have left.
Previously Martin Selmayr is reported to have said “The price the UK would have to pay would be the loss of Northern Ireland”.
Stating the obvious – no treaty is worth the paper it is written upon unless agreed to on both sides. So, someone needs to grow some and stand up to the oppressors as they are only trying it on to see how far they can push us weaklings as we seem to be up against the US/EU.
January 22, 2022
And why do you think artificial turbulence has been created out of nothing, just when HMG might have been contemplating some necessary turbulence? The government is fighting for its life so it isn’t going to take back NI as it might have done after Christmas.
January 21, 2022
Perhaps if the Prime Minister took greater care to align with Conservative values generally, he would not be facing such a position in the first place…be it Partygate; a rush to socialise rail and energy companies as they all collapse; Northern Ireland and Article 16. He is a figurehead not a manager and has no real Conservative conviction to implement Conservative policy. There are umpteen more suitable leaders of experience, however the choice will simply be the usual fresh face/new start candidate. Better the devil you know, if only people the level below the Prime Minister could choose sound conservatism. I’d start by putting interest rate setting back in the hands of the Chancellor; and an immediate delay in the NI increase; an immediate cut in VAT on fuel and green products to zero; and a temporary cut in VAT to 17.5% for 12 months and a veteran deputy prime minister installed to work with the Prime Minister : someone of pedigree and experience and sound values who generally speaks for England.
January 21, 2022
Boris needs to stay. He needs to knuckle down and get the job done and deliver promises.If he’s forced out he’ll have the excuse that he could have finished the job but wasn’t allowed to.
Boris needs to communicate his plan to the population of Great Britain .
To date I haven’t seen or felt any benefits of leaving the EU,was Boris’s promises false? I hope not if he doesn’t deliver by the next election the Conservatives will be out.
January 21, 2022
Another thousand or so welcomed invaders this month, as of yesterday, and apparently the government is to stop or has stopped publishing the numbers. The government wants to destroy this country or could not care less.
January 21, 2022
What we don’t know can’t hurt us
January 22, 2022
correction…..what we don’t know IS hurting us, bigtime.
January 21, 2022
If Johnson stays, the Conservatives will lose the next election. A pledge to ban petrol cars will be in the Conservative manifesto and that alone will guarantee defeat. Labour will get into power and even if they don’t try to reverse Brexit they will certainly decline to capitalise on it (just as Johnson is doing, according to Lord Frost). Keeping Johnson in place is the very worst thing that can happen to the Conservatives and to Brexit. If he was going to do any of the things that Sir John would like him to do, he would have done them by now. And there is also the matter of lying to Parliament, which some of us take seriously.
January 21, 2022
Even the USA aren’t stupid enough to ‘ban’ the petrol car…..their democratic party is more conservative than this tory government
January 21, 2022
Boris has invested a lot of himself, and squandered much political capital, in the following initiatives unpopular with Conservatives:
1. Damaging lockdowns and restrictions – It’s worth noting that the view of Omicron from South African specialists had been ignored by SAGE. The government showed no indication of pushing back against SAGE until rebellion was in the air!
2. Net Zero/More war against the motorist/Making Conservative voters poorer – As far as we know this still is on the cards.
3. Printing money.
4. Wasting public money in a variety ways.
Boris has ignored or paid token lip service to the following priorities embraced by the majority of Conservatives:
1. Civil Service Reform – With particular focus on the upper echelons!
2. Scrapping the BBC licence fee – We still have to live with it till 2027! The measures announced by Nadine Dorries do not go far enough and could well be undone before that time.
3. Promoting Growth
4. Lowering Taxes
5. Reducing the size of the state
6. Making Britain competitive
7. Low inflation
I don’t see how he can turn things around. His downfall seems to be almost inevitable.
January 21, 2022
Gordon Riby :
You’ve omitted stopping the massive legal and illegal immigration.
January 22, 2022
I omitted a few other things too. I could have gone on and on… I wanted to keep my comment short.
January 22, 2022
But apart from the above it is really going well !
January 21, 2022
I am sure many people sympathise with your plight trying to support the Prime Minister, because many struggle to find anything worthy of supporting in the person you chose to become our Prime Minister. It’s hard enough to find anything worth supporting in the whole of the government at present. The clear wish of the public rarely gets a look-in. If it did, we wouldn’t have been through the last two years of such a miserable dictatorship.
January 21, 2022
Bojo has not a shred of integrity remaining. He attended parties during lockdown (he didn’t know it was a party, what a childish response)
He then claims he didn’t know the rules. He wrote the chuffin’ rules. How could he not know them.
He’s a charlatan, a liar, and a classic example of do as I tell you, not as I do. He’s finished, get him out before he damages your Gov/party/the country further.
January 21, 2022
Exactly. How can the UK have a proven liar and cheat as its Prime Minister?
January 21, 2022
Because 14 million voted for his party, despite the evidence of his failings having stared them in the face for years.
January 21, 2022
Those were lies and cheating on a personal level. These are lie on an administrative level.
Also he has new Green allies in no 10 who are a threat to the UK economy and living standards.
January 22, 2022
No, he lied about the European Union as a journalist relentlessly.
January 21, 2022
Sir JR
“Early move to take control of GB/NI trade”
The foreign secretary is negotiating with the EU and has said she wants a decision by March.
So, why don’t you just wait it out and leave your EU impatience where it belongs
January 21, 2022
Well yes Sir John. Partygate is really not very important.
Dan Wootton, in the Daily Mail, has written a very good article about how Boris Johnson can save himself, his Party and his Country. He also suggests that if Boris is toppled at this moment there is a real danger of Starmer’s Labour getting in at the next G.E. Personally I find that very alarming.
May be I’m changing my mind now. Perhaps, I don’t want Boris toppled just yet. Perhaps he can be knocked back into shape!
One point you have not mentioned that many voters feel strongly about – Illegal Immigration. It is Illegal so surely there must be some legal way to stop it.
January 22, 2022
Above Pauline Baxter: … point not mentioned. There’ll be even les mention over the next few weeks & months no doubt as we are not to be allowed to see the daily facts & figures it seems. A new petition to government is on the cards in respect of this point – Number 606811. Further, Daily Mail: ” Activists spark fury over ‘sea safety’ posters ” Governments’ little helpers issuing multi language leaflets at French camp to help them on their way with a nice Q Code linking to this specific group’s website. And this is just one outfit of many that one reads about. Why not give them a lunch box – as one commenter stated. Cruel perhaps, but levels of compassion are maybe not what they were. As some here will be keen to point out they are not illegal, however, they attempt to invade by illegal means. Even a French candidate for President stated that something must be done about illegal immigration / asylum stating “it is not a supermarket” Who knew.
January 21, 2022
The laughably named UKHSA has announced the highly disturbing news that more than 400 cases of a new Omicron sub-variant (Omicron BA.2) of the Chinese plague virus have been identified in England. Grant Schwraps relaxed the requirement for travellers to have PCR tests before flying in to the UK last week. Brilliant! Hey Presto!! We get a new variant established.
Schwraps and his DoT have now allowed every single new variant detected in the world to get established here in short order, since the begining of the pandemic two years ago. Why is he still in Johnsons’ cabinet?
The government persists in trying to cover-up it’s incompetence by promulgating the myth that “we must learn to live with the virus”. About 300 people each day are still dying of this pernicious disease, which has now learned to evade the vaccines. But it’s OK, the CRG says the pandemic is over…..
January 22, 2022
with not of
January 21, 2022
Destroy woke bigotry, woke infection and progressive fascism before it destroys our country, our freedoms and our very being
That is the only purpose of the Tory party now. To save this nation from the poisonous Marxists that is turning our world upside down for the most sinister and pernicious reasons
The fact that this party in government has been in govt since 2010 is evidence that the left are now all powerful and even the Tories have been subsumed
Woke will be purged eventually when it steps beyond the pale
January 22, 2022
Woke will be purged eventually when it steps beyond the pale
…
and that’s the plan, keep swinging the pendulum
January 21, 2022
Off topic.
I stopped listening to R4 some years ago.
We turn it on for the dog when we go out. He likes the soothing voices (and the intellect.)
On the first time I’ve listened to it (returning home) it’s a woke lecture on British statues (what are the chances ?) It really is like listening to something piped into flats in the film 1984 with John Hurt.
Relentless anti Englishness from the BBC.
January 22, 2022
You admitted Mps were puppets when you said they were cross with news reports. And who are these ‘official’s you speak of? How do we scrutinize them? Are they the puppetmasters?
January 22, 2022
Happy for Boris to be replaced if we can find who would do a better Job at the present moment, and the swap would not create more problems than it is supposed to solve.
What exactly is the PM’s crime ? He went to an office party when he should not have done so. Agreed bad judgment on his part, but his advisors should not have set the party up in the first place. Not everyone has their Office under their flat a bit difficult to avoid it. So just fine him and all the party goers like anyone else having done the same thing.
Should we not be focused on Covid, avoiding a third world war with Russia, energy shortage, etc. etc. even climate change and how to live with it, trying to stop all the conflicts in the world.
If we look around the world changing the Leader at short notice does not solve the problem and appears to make matters worse for the ordinary person.
Also how can a political party remove a Prime Minister mid-term? If the UK is democratic he should only be removed by a general election one would have thought.
I guess no difference with elections in Ukraine really. Or if you did not like what the people voted for with Brexit, like the Remain elite, you do your best to stop it happening.
January 22, 2022
Nothing can stop what is coming, NOTHING.
January 22, 2022
Eat a few hard boiled eggs, Paul.
January 23, 2022
NLH – a typical reply.
January 23, 2022
I they do not want free Bible lessons then can I recommend an original hardback copy of Emmanuel Swedenborgs Apocolype Revealed 1886. At the back of this work is a long list explaining Bible symbolism or the study of correspondences. Bible literalist Zionists types we always get as Conservatives, this is why Bible lessons ate so important because at first glance Zionist prophetic Bible literalism does look convincing.
January 23, 2022
Why should local Tory councillors be sacrificed at the coming May elections because Tory MPs lack a spine?
January 23, 2022
Strange question.
Not sure who you are addressing.
Well, when a national party are unpopular the local council elections tend to mirror that.
Especially mid term where voters can send a wake up do better or else message.
Hope that helps.
January 28, 2022
Well, it could be to all the CUP MPs uselessly standing, waiting for Sue Gray’s report (and now the Met report) and seeing what they should be doing to maintain their chances of keeping their seat at the next GE together with their second job on the side.
You know the belly-lying prone ‘moral’ position.