I look forward to seeing how the constitutional innovation of an MP becoming Head of the PM’s office instead of a career civil servant works out. It builds on the precedent set by the Nigel Adams appointment as a Cabinet Office Minister assisting the PM.  It should mean a political perspective is added on the PM’s role. It will need a strong Principal  Private secretary who is a career civil servant to ensure proper tie in to the official government machine, and will require Steve Barclay to work well with the Cabinet Secretary.
There is an immediate test of the new team. They have to move swiftly to change economic policy. They need to ease the squeeze on middle incomes that will hit in April. They need to require the Treasury to introduce a growth policy compatible with the levelling up agenda. They  need to stress you only get  levelling  up if you have strong private sector led growth. They need to insist on tax cuts to offset some of the Bank’s monetary crunch and the big hole created in real incomes by energy prices. They need to get the business department to reset energy policy, crucial to the survival of enough U.K. industry.
They should take the Bank’s gloomy forecasts for 2022-23 and 2023-4 seriously. The Chancellor should too. We need policies that head off those outcomes. It will take major policy change to rebuild prosperity and to avoid major unpopularity for both government and the Chancellor.
February 7, 2022
Good morning.
U-Turn if you want to. The buffoon is not for turning.
February 7, 2022
Just abolish their two idiotic flagship policies of expensive intermittent energy/net zero and their totally misguided socialist âlevelling upâ )Medici effect) agenda. Then undo all Sunakâs idiotic and totally counterproductive tax grabs – entrepreneurs relief, the many frozen allowances, the huge CT increases, the red diesel, the additional reporting requirement, the attacks on the self employed and landlords, the making tax digital, enveloped dwelling taxes, the absurd levels of SDLT taxes on moving homeâŠthen stop pissing money down the drain HS2, net zero subsidies, EV subsidies, test and trace, the vast bloated government the provides so little of any value and much of negative value, the crony capitalism, the ÂŁ500k private jets to Australia, the loans for largely worthless degrees. Then some real âlevel playing fieldâ choice in healthcare and education instead of essentially communist state monopolies.
February 7, 2022
LL
Phew! A long list, but yes! +1
February 7, 2022
I’m struggling to think of a single beneficial policy for conservative voters. Johnson will go down as the greatest libdem of all time.
February 7, 2022
In just a few short years I foresee the politics and economics A level paper including the question:- Compare B.Johnson PM to M.Thatcher PM regarding reset of working conditions and economic expectations post their respective time in office.
February 8, 2022
That question hasn’t been decolonised.
February 7, 2022
There have been no ÂŁ500k private jets to Australia. Truss travelled on a government jet, one they already owned, so the cost was very low.
February 7, 2022
Yes. Only the fuel, landing fees and crew. And business class to Oz is very expensive. Which is why Tony Abbott took economy.
February 8, 2022
Plus the capital costs, maintenance, depreciation, insurance and all the other costs of the aircraft. All the things the leasing cost would cover in fact.
February 7, 2022
The cost is roughly the same mate, just think it through – be it leased or owned much of it is fuel (perhaps 200 times more per person on a private jet). Also, given how inefficient government usually is I would not be surprised if the government owned jet costs were the higher cost option. Boris even took one to Blackpool rather than a train from Euston (~ three hours).
February 7, 2022
But the Daily Mail said…..
February 7, 2022
Roy Grainger – How do you know? We, the people pay in the end.
February 7, 2022
Guto Harri (the new No. 10 Director of Communications) read PPE Oxon and is ex BBC – hardly very encouraging. Given the BBC job as he speaks Welsh I assume? No science and almost certainly full of green crap and woke lefty lunacy as everyone is at the BBC. Even if they present skiing, nature, sport or farming programmes as we have seen yet again on climate change over the weekend. He even took the knee on air on GBnews – so rather like Starmer one assumes. It seems Cameron wanted to employ him too – another very bad sign – did Cameron ever bring in anyone who was not a dire, âmodernisingâ, woke, pro EU, green crap lefty?
Excellent piece by Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday. Pointing out just how appalling and left wing Starmer is and would be. Aided along by Sturgeon doubless.
I read that Sturgeon wants to chop off the bottoms of all Scottish school doors – but why not just open them a little and use a wedge rather cheaper and more effective dear? Or is it as Rod Liddle suggests just so she can walk in under the doors at any time to indoctrinate the children? Doubtless she will want children over about 2 to be able to vote very soon.
February 7, 2022
Surely just taking the knee to the appalling BLM agenda is more than sufficient reason for Boris not to employ this lefty dope?
February 7, 2022
Lifelogic
Yes I had a good laugh at the door solution she proposed to increase ventilation, yet another politicians strange idea as to a solution, for a problem that does not exist.
I wonder how many doors in her own home have been modified in that manner, or does she simply open them.
February 7, 2022
Sturgeons Scottish school doors are all fire doors so they must not be touched or even left open no matter how little they should be left open.
February 7, 2022
LL. Yes, Country File was full of anti farming and climate change bull. I have decided it’s not worth watching anymore. All the stringent requirements regarding so called climate change will cost farmers dearly. It will only be the big boys that survive
February 7, 2022
Likewise I truly dislike Country File these days. They still push the EU at every opportunity which is the biggest turn off of all.
February 7, 2022
Kindly re-read my submission. It was a bit tongue-in-cheek but it was also to the point. A point LL you seemed to have missed.
February 7, 2022
Yesterday I read several newspapers. At last they are wakening up to the fact that the energy crisis is entirely government policy.
Loads of graphs on where we import energy from with a greater Carbon footprint than using home supplies.
At last the scam is coming out. This will be the end of the liblabcon when the full extent is evident.
February 7, 2022
Only huge CT increases if you’re a UK business. Multi-nationals not included in the levelling up agenda, who will continue to contribute nothing.
February 7, 2022
@Lifelogic
I agree with much of what you say, but Iâve got to the point where I skim read your comments because you repeat the same stuff, every day, several times a day. Do you never tire of it? Never wake up, see a beautiful sunny morning and think âIâm going to have a day off from posting the same old stuff on John Redwoodâs diary.â I picture you as waking up every morning and spending the first hours of your day hyping yourself up, battering a keyboard to say exactly the same thing as you said yesterday and the day before and the day before that. Why not have a break? Nothing you write changes a single molecule in the universe. It canât be good for your mood. Have a day off and enjoy life. Right, it is a beautiful morning here. Iâm off to the beach with my dog.
February 7, 2022
LL, +1, and keep telling ’em
February 7, 2022
I am sure Lifelogic spends a large amount of time cataloguing the educational achievements of people in the public eye with particular reference to university attended, subject studied and level attained.
February 7, 2022
+1 LL. And a new simplified tax code to replace the many thousands of expensive time wasting pages we now have!
February 7, 2022
Some dope a Tory MP – Richard something and others – saying attacking Carrie is âcowardlyâ – misogynist why ? We are not attacking her physically mate just pointing out the obvious stupidity of her leftie, green loon, animal rescue agenda and her foolish rip off wallpaper and birthday cake party choices! Yes Boris is mainly to blame for listening to these daft âtheatre studiesâ views but âcowardlyâ or misogynist? Can one only criticise menâs daft views now?
February 7, 2022
The aid budget should not be a sacred cow. Taxing and borrowing to give the money raised away, often to rather dubious recipients must stop.
JF
‘Must is not a word for princes, but it should be a word for servants of the electorate,
February 7, 2022
Especially crony capitalism.
February 7, 2022
I’d like to agree with all you say, LL, but you speak as though things are still ‘normal’, or will be soon. Will they? I never used to be a pessimist, and although I do like to hear optimistic people speaking, I’m now filled with gloom. The sword of Damocles is quite obviously hanging over us.
February 7, 2022
+1(
February 7, 2022
SorryâŠ.+1
February 7, 2022
Indeed. Itâs a transparent ponzi scheme to keep him in power and no one except politicians desperate to hold onto their jobs are buying it. One of them, my MP says he trusts him.
Didnt Steve Barclay jump into Raabâs job when he resigned supporting the useless Theresa May indeed more specifically her Brexit deal?
We know that was a sell out so expect that to happen again. He is a political opportunist and I donât trust him.
February 7, 2022
+1
February 7, 2022
Steve Barclay was the first Cabinet Minister I remember visibly voting against Mrs May’s EU policy without resigning first. He went straight from the Despatch Box into the opposing lobby.
February 7, 2022
âCan the new Downing Street deliver?â
No.
Johnson is finished. It is just a matter of how long he lingers on.
The bigger question is what becomes of the Conservative Party afterwards. Conservative values are not in great evidence amongst the present cabinet or the more publicised MPs.
All the fretting about the organisational structure and worrying about individual policies is something of a distraction from the key issue of malaise within the party itself.
February 7, 2022
I note there is no mention of Northern Ireland in Sir Johnâs article.
There is a key issue there around the protocol. Johnson is refusing to take action.
To me, that exemplifies his leadership and there is no sign of change – just âgood newsâ stories and desperate promises for the media.
Reply Covered it with a full plan a few days ago
February 7, 2022
I’ll always remember Boris while in NI telling them that there would never be a border in the Irish Sea and to throw any paperwork in the bin …just before he was elected
February 7, 2022
Good Morning Sir J.
You’re not asking much are you!! IF all these items were to be condensed into individual, single page instructions and then Bunter could be bothered to sign them, you’d have a chance; PROVIDED you could also turn around the overweight mass of the civil service that wants to stay aligned with the EU. So, get it all done by Friday then?
Seriously, we do need somebody in No. 10 who has the energy and vision to do these things, but all we see are career politicians and selfish layabouts.
February 7, 2022
+1 – and many in power have huge links with crony capitalism especially in net zero and the misguided OTT covid responseâŠ
February 7, 2022
Yes and the likes of our host will sit on their hands whilst pretending that things have changed occasionally clucking from the sidelines.
They have acquiesced to breaking manifesto promises, massive tax increases, a green policy whose costs are unravelling daily etc supporting someone and friends who have demonstrated that they are above the rules.
Borisâs tactic is to come up with a punchy headline to assuage our fears. Return to Tory values. As meaningless as previous ones.
reply I opposed the tax rise, voted against and am still pressing for its reversal.
February 7, 2022
PS,
Will somebody PLEASE tell Bunter that every time he goes to a hospital for a gratuitous photo op. he causes upset and prevents real people from being attended to. He’s been visiting hospitals for many of the last week or so; it’s stupid, self-centered and must stop.
February 7, 2022
You clearly set out the changes needed. Johnson is trying to give the impression he is changing so he can cling to power. But why should anyone believe him? The appointments so far have not convinced the sceptical, notably Barclay wearing three hats at the same time. Perhaps he doesn’t either. He joins a sinking ship so he won’t be tested for very long. That is why Johnson will have difficulty in persuading capable people to work for him. I see your list as the agenda Johnson’s successor must commit to in order to get your support and that of others who share your views. It looks the right agenda to me.
February 7, 2022
+1 Oldtimer. It took the threat of losing his job to get Boris to even THINK about these changes. He lives in a tunnel if he didn’t see any of these problems earlier and I have no trust that anything will get any better with this PM and this government in charge. Boris does not care about anything bar himself. He doesn’t care about the country, or it’s people. He likes taking money for his pet projects though, including mass immigration. It is getting nigh on impossible to see a GP these days, and the mass immigration won’t help Boris’s net zero either so it’s a case of cake and eat it where net zero is concerned, ie. Boris will freely add to pollution (when it suits) and everyone else will get the blame and suffer the consequences.
February 7, 2022
Immigration is set to get much worse as Ireland is giving an amnesty to their illegals. As soon as this happens they will use the common travel area to legitimately move to the UK. We need to bring in additional requirements where by only people who’s grandparents were Irish citizens have the right to use the common travel area otherwise this route will become a legal way to enter and stay in the UK.
February 7, 2022
I was unaware of that danger. Yes, the government needs to ensure that the common travel area does not become a pathway for EU immigration, but I suspect Boris will welcome them, regardless of ID and/or criminal history.
February 7, 2022
John, if this is true what is your government doing about changing the fom rules on the common travel area?
February 7, 2022
+1 Agreed. I’ve posted a couple of times to highlight this. Will it be given any consideration in terms of what it could mean for our country, a third country to the EU ? Any discussion taken place ? – or another thing to be back burnered… ‘ unimportant, it can be sorted out later’ like so much else lacking attention to detail.
February 7, 2022
+1 Christine. Good point.
February 7, 2022
You do know that English law’s absolute foundation is that all are equal before the law?
Apparently not.
February 7, 2022
You keep telling us Parliament is supreme NHL
So presumably they can change the law.
Here you seem to be saying some things are absolutes.
Can it be both?
February 8, 2022
Yes Parliament can always change the law.
If it made different laws for people according their racial ancestry then it would break a very well-established principle of modern English law, and that of all civilised nations.
Commenters here don’t seem to care about that though.
February 8, 2022
Again you resort to waving your race card NHL.
Here labelling all who comment on here.
But as long as you feel all warm and virtuous.
February 8, 2022
Couldn’t we simply make a rule that you have to live 16 or 18 years in Ireland before you could transfer?
February 8, 2022
NLH re the different laws for different people then the common travel area would have to be removed for all, rather than be a free for all portal into the UK.
February 8, 2022
yet there is regular evidence that, Magistrates, Judges and smart-arse QCs determine what Law applies, or not.
February 8, 2022
and I forgot ‘An injunction, often known as a gagging order’. -if you can afford to seek it.
February 7, 2022
Absolutely Shirley.
Anything now will seem to be a slight moving of deck chairs just to cling on to power and the PM isn’t the only one.
Without someone at the helm who really does care about this Country, its long history, rich culture and much more besides, then nothing will change, just more smoke and mirrors.
No one ever voted for multi-culture or mass immigration and it is something else ladled on as part of a seemingly wider agenda.
February 7, 2022
Shirley. Not only difficulties in trying to see GPS but dentists too. My dentist has just cancelled my check up. I had no choice but to leave my chevk up fir a year and now had this rearranged. I’m hoping they won’t use it as an excuse to strike me off their NHS list because they haven’t seen me for more than a year. It’s happening to some people.
February 7, 2022
That’s my take on it as well. The shop window might change but it is still the same useless management and staff behind the counter.
February 7, 2022
Given that this appointment is supposed to address the disorder that surrounds Johnson..
Isnât it a bit daft to choose someone who has other responsibilities?
February 7, 2022
Everhopeful, he needs someone with great trustworthiness, someone on the same page re the manifesto in 2019 and the promises therein. Then I learnt today from Oldtimer above, when Sunak resigned from May’s government because he didn’t agree with Brino this guy Boris has chosen stepped in.
There would have been no problem getting someone with great experience to step in – someone that wants to see Boris keep to his commitments.
February 7, 2022
+1
February 7, 2022
Yourself and your party have become Len McCluskey’s bestest buddie in the whole wide world. Public sector Trade union leaders are now cheering your every article. Each and every one of your policy recommendations do nothing to solve the problem we face simply because you refuse to reference them as implementing them would damage Tory party interests.
Again, the interests of John’s party are IRRELEVANT. The Tories have shown quite openly that they are willing to line up alongside their once sworn enemy to protect each other from harm. The people have become the enemy of the Tory-Labour duopoly. They can stick their Socialist agenda were the sun don’t shine
It cannot now be denied that John’s party has sold our freedoms and liberties down the swanny trying to appease the now all powerful Left
Thatcher would weep to see her party climbing into bed with the enemy that is Labour, the unions and their client state
February 7, 2022
I’ve lost track of the ‘OD’ in No 10. Just what is the job of the Cabinet Secretary now? And what is the job of the ‘Head of the PM’s Office’? Perhaps you could pressure the PM to post, on the No 10 website, the TORs of all key personnel and every last Spad.
Business schools around the world will welcome the arrival of a new case-study. And they can set this as an exam question: Is there any organisational structure that can mitigate the damage done by a scruffy, disorganised oaf who sets the wrong direction, U-turns on a sixpence and insists on being in charge of everything while being too lazy to do the red-box stuff?
P.S. Steve Barclay? A competent minister and good at the Dispatch Box.
February 7, 2022
The Cabinet Secretary is Head of the Civil Service and takes the notes at Cabinet Meetings. In Sedwill’s case he was also Head of National Security. That last has been hived off. Mrs May should never have combined them.
Barclay is the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, the post held by very busy behind the scenes Letwin under Cameron, and Gove in this administration. It was held by the powerful remainer David Lidington under Mrs May. It is an influential position because it is at the heart of government yet not bowed down by a big department like Health or Social Security. The holder has the time to interfere right across government. It makes sense for the PM to have combined this office with his own department, rather as he did the Foreign Office with Foreign Aid. As it will mean getting on top of the remainiac Treasury much of the time, it also makes sense to have a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, which Barclay is. As an MP, he is fully answerable to Parliament as he ought to be. There will be a junior minister to answer in the Lords, perhaps Lord True? As Sir John says, the senior civil servant he will be working with must really know his job and really be up to it.
February 7, 2022
PS Barclay’s army, legal, and business background will bring some much needed discipline to no 10, while his historical training should give him a long view and enable him to get through a lot of written matter.
February 7, 2022
Why do we expect anything different, any new direction from a govt that has slavishly ( sweating with fear) followed the edicts of the WEF and all similar?
They destroyed this country for that trumped-up agenda.
And at some point in the destruction Johnson remarked that after such a plague we would not want to return to ânormalâ!
Oh no, Mr J? Well I want to!!
To copy Mark Bâs referenceâŠ.
THIS lady IS for turningâŠ.BACK!!
Stick your rotten reset!!
February 7, 2022
The WEF? I would welcome the government announcing that no ministers or civil servants will be attending. Or has the Treasury team already secured 5* accommodation on a non-refundable basis?
February 7, 2022
+1
Own personal âguest suitesâ I imagine!
Sheets nicely turned back, high end chocolates on the pillowâŠâŠ
February 7, 2022
+1
February 7, 2022
Exactly, why do we have to continue to complete the locator form when testing and quarantine has ended? If I have my travel vaccination certificate what is the purpose of the locator form now? This Government has become as bad as a communist state.
February 7, 2022
+1
I reckon that is exactly what it is!
February 7, 2022
The purpose is to get people to comply with regulations that don’t make sense, as it has been all along. That is indeed how communist states have worked, Christine. Compliance with senseless diktats shows that a person is malleable, whatever the instructions given, and will not make trouble. Communism collapsed because they ran out of money to keep the show going. Sunak has tried to ensure with his magic money tree that that doesn’t happen this time, but we’ll see. Let’s hope he and his colleagues will eventually give up the mad and ruinously expensive race to net zero, just as the Soviet Union had to give up the arms race it could no longer afford, even with all its propaganda.
February 7, 2022
+ spot on!
February 7, 2022
+1. And to get into my local tip, I have to drive the few hundred yards – no walk-ins allowed – after having first registered my car, online, and then booked an appointment, online. Heard of mass COVID outbreaks being traced to council tips? No, me neither. MPs need to start pressuring the government to sweep away the restrictions that we didn’t need before COVID.
February 7, 2022
+1
What a palaver!
All a load of utter garbage and trash.
Where is the tip for idiot governments?
February 7, 2022
What about: someone comes back to the UK from a foreign land, everything was fine before departure from there, but within a couple of days being in the UK it is found that a number of people on that particular flight show symptoms âof somethingâ likely to be infectious.
Would you not be happy that such people could be traced wherever they are in the UK, given that airline tickets can be bought without giving oneâs address (not easy but possible)?
And if I may, you must never have travelled to communist countries. I had a number of times before 1989, and as far as I know here in the UK you are not (yet?) required to provide the names and addresses of your parents, spouse, children and siblings, nor the schools you have attended, nor how much money you are taking in and out the country, nor enter a system of exit/entrance visas.
Is it really something you are missing to give credibility to your comment?
February 8, 2022
What about: the majority of those people don’t show symptoms, and those that do have a cold.
Covid’s done, Hefner. We all need to get over it and move on.
February 7, 2022
Well we cannot say that we were not warned about the concerns of having Boris as our PM in that their was a number of colleagues with doubts about his suitability to carry the roll of PM off in light of past performances.
But he has that something that very politicians have got is the charm and charisma to win elections. But over the last 12 months he is operating far outside of his level of competence. Some if not all of the blame can be directed at this cabinet who are also lacking in ability to tackle the job in hand. Too much has been decided on the nod and whilst the pandemic caused problems, the country had to been seen to being properly managed and they have failed. Whoever is parachuted in to try and stop the retreat and possibly massive defeat in the May elections has got to be “NO” man or woman who will advise against anything and everything unless it can be proved to add value to UK plc. No more talking, throwing money about at every media interview and not acting on it.
The general perception that everything Carrie wants Carrie gets has got to be addressed. Who is right or wrong doesn’t matter, in the eyes and minds of the people perception is all there is.
February 7, 2022
+1
February 7, 2022
The âcharm and charisma to win elections.â is gone.
The London Mayor was an easier task than many. A comedy toff image, straight from the pages of PG Wodehouse, helped diffuse any Class War attacks. To some extent, he was good at glad handing and building an image for himself. âBoris bikesâ are an example; though bigger vanity projects like a new bridge or airport were expensive flops.
Nationally, he had the great advantage of not being Theresa May – although that had a limited shelf life. However, TV revealed he was useless in debates or any speeches that required more than repetition of a mantra. His speaking ability does not match his writing skills.
After a few years in power, many realised that Johnsonâs critics did actually make some telling observations.
February 8, 2022
For some of his new voters his advantage was that he was the one politician whom they could actually name.
With FPTP these things make a big difference.
February 8, 2022
how many of ‘his new voters’ found ‘Boris’ on their voting slip?
February 8, 2022
Ask them the name of their own Tory MP, eh?
They went for Conservative because, “Boris, like.”
February 8, 2022
Or perhaps because they think Starmer is useless.
February 7, 2022
Conservative members were only given the choice of arch-remainer Hunt or dopey Boris so hardly no choice at all. Without Boris’s promise to get Brexit done they wouldn’t have had a landslide election result. Itâs time members had a choice of any MP that puts themselves forward. Clearly, the Conservative MP sheep are incapable of selecting someone who can put this country back on its feet. Via the MP selection process the woke left have taken over the party.
February 7, 2022
+1 Christine. This is the sole reason why there are so many remainers in Parliament. The candidates were selected on that basis, and as the other parties do the same they manage to manipulate democracy in true EU fashion, and many lie about their voting intentions anyway, just to get elected.
I suppose we should be grateful that there is more one name on the voting slip!
February 7, 2022
The majority of the country wasnât given a choice at all. We were lumbered with whichever useless moron the Tory minority chose. As we will be next time too.
I for one am sick of this permanent Tory psychodrama. Most of us donât vote Tory and we are permanent treated with contempt by the minority who do. I increasingly think we should just remove you by force – introduce a fair electoral system in which everybody is properly represented – and then we are done with this Tory minority mess forever.
February 7, 2022
Maybe you would favour a referendum on the topic young andy?
February 7, 2022
You got a referendum on changing the voting system. You lost. Badly.
February 8, 2022
It would get rid of some lefty Pretendy Conservatives, but you’d get a very large number of genuine conservatives in the form of Farage, Tice and other former Brexit Party candidates. As well as some from Reform.
February 7, 2022
That and the fact that Farage stood down all his candidates.
February 7, 2022
The only way to get Carrie out of No.10 is to get Boris out.
February 7, 2022
“They need to insist on tax cuts”. No 10 don’t *want* tax cuts, if they wanted them they could have implemented them by now. Spinning it that someone other than Boris is preventing the Chancellor implementing tax cuts is simply not credible – ultimately Boris can set whatever policy he wants – for example do you think it’s the the Chancellor who is insisting on Net Zero ?
February 7, 2022
It’s all part of the plan. They will want tax cuts just before the next election and think the nation will be grateful. That’s the level of contempt they have for the British public.
February 7, 2022
but getting a vote CAN be at the cost of a few throw away crumbs just before a GE…voters have shown they CAN be bought that cheaply.
February 7, 2022
I don’t think the Chancellor is insisting on net zero. Mrs May had already legislated for it. Miliband under New Labour had laid the groundwork. Cameron had continued it. But I do think the Chancellor is unable to stand up to the Treasury who are keeping us under Maastricht austerity rules in preparation for taking us back into the EU under Starmer. The policy of keeping tax and regulation high will ensure that happens.
February 7, 2022
An excellent post from Sir John. Upon reading sound economic proposals such as these, many must wonder why he is not our Chancellor.
The mendacious and blustering Johnson will not survive the May local elections. Hopefully Sir John has decided to throw his hat in the ring and has appointed a campaign manager.
February 7, 2022
I fear all this is window dressing to keep himself (Boris) in the top job, and nothing much will change at all.
If things do not change, if the present 2030 deadline does not get lengthened, taxes are not reduced, personal tax allowances increased in the next budget (or before) I fear it will all be too late, we are asking business to become more efficient, to produce more, to export more, when they are shackled with handcuffs and have increasing costs and overheads.
The cost of borrowing is now going up, and will continue to go up for both the Government and the population, debt will become more expensive, so it is even more important now to get value for money on any spending. The waste and vanity projects have to be curtailed, although I fear it is too late now to stop HS2 as the penalties would probably outweigh any potential savings.
February 7, 2022
Great hardship by the next General Election with no hope in sight.
A party and its leader can navigate around many things but never that.
February 7, 2022
We certainly need a great reset – all people who live and work in Downing St. should be shown out, never to return.
February 7, 2022
The question I would ask is ‘Do they understand what they have been doing wrong – do they really understand the impact of the problems caused by government policies?’
No point in proceeding if we are just going to get more of the same.
I’m not that interested in how efficient number 10 will be run – I want to know how they will fix the problems we have!
February 7, 2022
Johnson won an 80 seat majority with significant help from Nigel Farage and the Brexit Party in order to get something approaching a real Brexit delivered and for real reform of the governmental institutions which had so disgracefully attempted to overturn the largest vote the country had ever held. Absolutely NOTHING has been done about any of them. It appears that organising “a Revolution” and attempting to overturn Democracy in the UK is OK …. as long as it’s “the Elite” doing it.
Johnson had a mandate for reform but nothing happened. He revived the Metropolitan Establishment’s left-wing agenda and rammed down our throats. It isn’t just the economy. It’s the failure to stop the channel invasion. The war on the motorist. The “woke” Agenda and Cultural Marxism. And Net Zero – a deliberate strategy to make the British people colder, poorer and with a lower standard of living.
Appointing Barclay and the BLM supporting, Remainer Guto Harri, will make no difference.
The problem is the Parliamentary Conservative Party is no longer even remotely conservative.
February 7, 2022
âThe problem is the Parliamentary Conservative Party is no longer even remotely conservative.â
There are many huge overlaps between the parties now, which is why Cameron was delighted to have the Lib Dems sharing power. He could also blame a lot of things on them.
Whigs, Liberals and Labour have all (more or less) gone to the wall. It is probably time for the same thing to happen to the Conservative Party. It will mean a lot of short term chaos but you cannot delay the inevitable.
February 7, 2022
Yes, but only if they wish to.
February 7, 2022
The government knows it really has a free hand to do what it wants. The only opposition comes from within their own party and not from the outside.
I think many MPs and voters alike suspect that the opposition parties are no real threat to the Tories. The Conservative Party may be bad but the opposition is even worse.
February 7, 2022
ErrrrâŠ.how come France is capping energy price rises at 4%?
Nuclear energy security.
And OUR government has left us in this âheat or eatâ situation.
Criminal mismanagement of our energy supplies.
What the Hell did they think was going to happen?
Windmills grind cornâŠsometimes..and only if the wind blows!!đŹ
February 7, 2022
“Point de bonheur sans liberte” – Arthur Schopenhauer (his family motto)
“No happiness without freedom”
February 8, 2022
But we are in “Brave New World” land now where the choice is freedom or happiness.
February 8, 2022
I think you’ll find the majority will swear we have neither…
February 7, 2022
What you are asking for is no more than common sense, but the obstacle to it is the man at the top. What chance is there of anything changing while he is there? The job of the office manager is not to instigate policy, but to implement it.
February 7, 2022
Sir John, didnât you once propose that the huge debt, that weâve racked up over the pandemic, should be treated as âwar debtâ and repaid over decades, rather than busting the UKâs (and UK taxpayersâ) short-term finances?
As for Net Zero, if we aspire to export more energy, wind and solar are not differentiating technologies, every country gets sun and wind, but there arenât many countries with 7000 miles of coastline for wave power, why have we not cracked that technology yet?
February 7, 2022
Appointing a guide dog for the PM seems a little strange. Instead, appoint a PM with clear vision who does not need a watchdog, oops sorry, guide dog.
February 7, 2022
I am not entirely enthused. Steve Barclay was in the May cabinet which does not enhance his cv!
How about a new cabinet of Spartans chosen from the back benches. Now that may well give us all some hope. My favourite for Chancellor would be our host.
February 7, 2022
The vote blue get green cabal of the wife, Lord Greencrap and his Etonian zealot friends seem to be in place still. The farmland being rewilded or flooded, the only coal station left doomed, older houses needing ÂŁ30k spent to save ÂŁ30 pa, free electricity for ÂŁ60k cars while the rest of us pay double, gas boilers out- ÂŁ20k reverse fridges in, road charging, spies in the car, insect protein instead of Aberdeen Angus, 500 foot towers of Chinese steel in the deep sea with German turbines and propellers that last 20 years….. What’s not to like?
February 7, 2022
A succinct summary
February 7, 2022
A PM will traditionally change staff due a change in policy or because the appointed staff are incompetent and need replacingâŠ.however Boris is changing staff to disguise his own poor leadership and to plicate a faction of the party
This isnât rearranging the deckchairs, this farce is repainting the deckchairs hoping no one will notice the ship is sinking
February 7, 2022
+1 Christine. Good point.
February 7, 2022
It may be too late.
The civil service is doing its own thing and appears to have taken control leaving a big gap between what MPs want and what is actually delivered.
I would suggest a widespread culling of the civil service.
February 7, 2022
If there really is going to be a volte-face on net zero, energy and taxation, it begs the question, who the hell was in charge of policy before Partygate ? It certainly can’t have been Boris, onless of course, there either isn’t going to be a change or it’s one he doesn’t believe in and is being forced on him.
I would like to know the answer !
I would really like to know.
February 7, 2022
You say of the PM’s office “They have to move swiftly to change economic policy”, but this makes no sense to me. It is not the officials who make policy, but the prime minister and the ministers. So economic policy is decided by Johnson and Sunak. It is not the sherpas who are responsible for climbing a moutain, is it? It is the mountaineers – the sherpas merely follow them.
The PM’s officials have been criticised for breaking the law during lockdown, but it wasn’t them who decided to increase corporation tax, or who refused to cut VAT on fuel, or refused to revoke the NI Protocol, or decided to bring forward the date of net zero. These are all political decisions and the responsibility lies with the politicians.
Changing the officials is merely to show that if you break the law you will be punished. It will make no difference whatsoever to policy and I am confused why you think it might. The appointment of the appallingly left-wing Guto Harri does, however, reveal that Boris Johnson is not in any way a conservative.
February 7, 2022
Mrs May’s officials demonstrate the opposite of what you are saying. The two she had before her disastrous election were Brexiteers. Under their influence she delivered the Lancaster House speech. After she hubristically lost Cameron’s majority, those two advisers were dispensed with, remainiacs were brought in, and the policy became BRINO through and through. This was reflected in her Mansion House and Florence speeches. Under the new advice, she pursued a parallel negotiation with the EU behind the backs of her Brexit Secretaries and her Foreign Secretary, and ambushed the Cabinet with the end result.
February 8, 2022
You are suggesting that prime ministers (and other ministers) do not know their own mind and are easily led by the nose by officials. I doubt that our own kind host here would ever be influenced by a member of his staff!
In the case of Theresa May you make some good points, but she was a Remainer who instinctively did not want confrontation with the EU, and who had no understanding of what Brexit was supposed to be like or to achieve. So yes, in her case, when she started to get pushback from the EU and civil servants (such as Ollie Robbins) she did shift her position. Are you suggesting that Boris is an equally empty vessel whose mind is open to being filled by others? Possibly, but I’m not convinced. He seems to be very wedded to his pro-Protocol and pro-Net Zero positions, and was not influenced by Lord Frost (for instance). So that’s why I think there is no hope of him reversing his policies and thus the only solution is to defenestrate him by any means possible.
February 7, 2022
What “new” Downing Street?
February 7, 2022
When is Mr Bottle Party 2020 going to do away with this ludicrous mask nonsense?
In the dentistâs âŠin the vetâsâŠ.
Officially making us still locked down I suppose?
Do the MPs (those with any sense) really want us to be a commie country?
Why is Chinese now the default language for FB?
February 7, 2022
People can make whatever requirements they like of others to enter their private property.
Would you rather that its owners lost that right?
February 7, 2022
A shop keeper risks being done for discrimination if he imposes a blanket ban on unmasked people.
February 8, 2022
Has that been tested?
February 7, 2022
There are many people and organisations that have right to enter your property.
I’m surprised you don’t know that NHL
February 7, 2022
Can we be delivered from the new Downing Street?
February 7, 2022
Off topic, JR, I note that you have an article on the conservativehome website:
https://www.conservativehome.com/thecolumnists/2022/02/john-redwood-the-government-is-not-getting-the-best-out-of-the-civil-service-ministers-are-key-to-changing-that.html
“The Government is not getting the best out of the Civil Service. Ministers are key to changing that.”
But it was the following article by Peter Lilley that came up on my newsfeed:
https://www.conservativehome.com/platform/2022/02/peter-lilley-the-northern-ireland-protocol-1-it-is-instrinsically-temporary.html
“The Northern Ireland Protocol. 1) It is intrinsically temporary”
His argument is not going down very well with commenters, but the point which comes up several times is that even if it was intended to be temporary it would still need to be replaced.
As one person claims:
“However, noting that doesn’t get us much further as we still have to address the Brexit trilemma of where you put the permanent border required by WTO rules: between Ireland and Northern Ireland on the land, in the Irish Sea or by the UK rejoining the customs area. Any permanent solution has to find a solution to this, and the fact that after five years the best brains on both sides have singularly failed to do so shows this is no easy task.”
So after those five years we still have an EU supporter invoking unspecified “WTO rules”, and we are still stymied because both Theresa May and Boris Johnson accepted that the Irish government could veto any proposed alternative arrangement. I reckon that between the three of them a former Director General on the EU Commission and a couple of professors of European law should have more than enough brains to come up with a workable solution, but that counts for nothing when it is not the solution preferred by the Irish government, and the EU, the one that keeps Northern Ireland under the economic thumb of the EU:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/28/smoothing-trade/#comment-1295582
Which is why the UK government needs to act unilaterally.
February 7, 2022
Alas. Your Brexit Northern Ireland border is permanent. And no amount of complaining to the Maidenhead Advertiser will change that.
As for 78-year-old Brexitist Peter Lilley – I believe he has a home in France. Thanks to his Brexit he now can not visit his property as he chooses. He cannot spend as long there as he likes. His time is limited not just in France but in the whole EU. Unless he applies for a visa – which he is unlikely to qualify for – he has 90 days max in the Schengen zone. He also cannot take what he likes there – or back. He cannot even take a sandwich for the car journey. His insurance will be much more expensive because he no longer has an EHIC.
I have no qualms about Lilley making his own life more hasslesome and expensive. But he has imposed his Brexit nonsense on me too.
February 7, 2022
Tell us why he would be unlikely to be granted residential status young andy.
February 7, 2022
Specially for the incredible P2 who thinks that such things only happened in left-wing dictatures: a list of 14 books that US schools are trying to have or have succeeded being censored and taken out of public libraries:
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
The Handmaidâs Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The Bluest Eye, by Toni Morrison
Fallen Angels, by Walter Dean Myers
Heather Has Two Mommies, by Leslea Newman
Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman
Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Hate You Give, by Angie Thomas
Gender Queer, by Maia Kobabe
In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado
All Boys Arenât Blue, by George M. Johnson.
February 7, 2022
I’m puzzled heffy.
I think you have mixed me up with another person because I’ve not said anything about censorship or cancel culture.
But thanks for saying you think I’m incredible.
February 7, 2022
Peter2, you are incredible, it says so in the scriptures
âJesus pronounced a blessing upon Peter and proclaimed Peter’s answer as having been derived by divine inspirationâ (Matt. 16:18)
February 7, 2022
Thank you Glen
A lovely quotation.
I am blessed !
February 7, 2022
Having gone back many days I’m even more puzzled.
Perhaps you might be able to explain heffy.
Or even a humble apology would be nice.
February 8, 2022
I am Humbly Apologising, P2.
I obviously mixed you up with another contributor commenting on books censored in âleft-wing dictaturesâ a couple of weeks ago.
February 8, 2022
Thank you Hef.
I actually agree with your point that censorship and banning of books has been seen in both extremes of the political spectrum.
February 7, 2022
all US schools? or just a group of narrow minded, small world main street Americans brought up on motherhood and apple pie?
February 8, 2022
MT, Second part of your sentence.
February 7, 2022
So the civil service have re-arranged the deck chairs in the captainâs cabin which includes destroying the career of another Brexit MP and installing a communications director who even took the knee on air.
But the civil serviceâs policies havenât changed and the Titanic that is the UK is still heading for the iceberg as a result of the economy destroying Net Zero and social cohesion destroying mass immigration, whilst expanding the civil service, increasing taxation and never cutting any worthless expenditure.
February 7, 2022
These social communists just hit the woke attack button:-
Sajid Javid brands criticism of Carrie Johnson ‘sexist, undignified and wrong’- DT
February 7, 2022
I thought he looked nervous just saying her nameâŠ.maybe heâs in fear of attending her debrief session upon pain of death for not appearing genuine enough
February 7, 2022
She got him back in the Cabinet.
February 7, 2022
They all piss into the same woke pot cos that’s what pays their wages. These woke bigots will destroy our nation’s freedoms and liberties to defend their careers, salaries and pensions
Look at what that animal in Canada is doing to small children and their families. Every woke denunciation in the woke textbook of Stalinist destruction rolled out to criminalise and demonise families and workers…
And this is what we are now up against…hatred, bigotry, poison and woke fascism…they won’t be happy until we are all on our knees
February 7, 2022
Oh absolutely beautiful: French far-right presidential hopeful (Eric Zemmour) likens himself to Boris Johnson. Asked this Monday morning on France Inter to choose between D.J.Trump, J. Bolsonaro and M. Salvini as potential models of populist leaders, EZ said he feels closest to the British PM.
Is such a love declaration something good for EZ? And for BJ?
February 7, 2022
071615Z
Nothing wrong with Sir John’s article per se but he missed the ‘elephant in the room’.
The parliamentary party â reflecting the electorate at large â is scientifically illiterate. Its members, knowing no better, are happy to be told what to believe by the U.N.O. and its intergovernmental panel (I.P.C.C.): viz. that climate change is anthropogenic and they ought to worship Greta Thunberg.
There aren’t therefore enough M.P.s to ditch the policy that has holed the Conservative ship below the water line and will undoubtedly sink her not just at the next general election but this Spring at the local elections!
Î Î
February 7, 2022
Can they ‘deliver’? That depends on what the subject of the ‘delivery’ is?
As far as the electorate go, no, they cannot deliver. They are ALL tainted.
We need another kind of ‘reset’ now.
February 7, 2022
off topic.
Can the EU represented by Macron and Scholz persuade Putin to withdraw 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine?
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has flown to Washington for talks with US President Joe Biden.
It comes after public criticism at home and abroad of Germany for not doing enough to support Ukraine. While Mr Scholz has said Russia would pay a “high price” for an invasion, his country has refused to send lethal weaponry to Ukraine.
On Monday, however, Germany’s defence minister announced the country would send a further 350 troops to Lithuania, to add to Nato’s presence there. There are already 500 German troops stationed in the country.
(So Lithuania is under immediate threat of invasion like Ukraine, is it?).
The US and German leaders are likely to discuss Nord Stream 2, a key gas pipeline running from Russia to Germany. The US has threatened to stop the pipeline from opening, while Germany has only said it will not rule out imposing sanctions on the project.
February 7, 2022
Too many NON jobs for the boys. We already have the deputy Prime Minister position which was only created for Prescott. Then we have the so called “Supreme Court”, a further body of useless individuals. We survived many decades without these created positions.
February 7, 2022
071843Z
In re the Supreme Court
The way the court has acted might have often seemed perverse but its equivalent has existed almost since the Conquest.
The term Supreme Court of Judicature used to mean the High Court and the Court of Appeal but strangely enough, didn’t include that equivalent, the Judicial Cttee. of the House of Lords (J.C.H.L.).
The head of the J.C.H.L. was the Lord Chancellor, equivalent to speaker in the House of Lords and traditionally a senior lawyer (nominally the head of the judiciary).
The term Lord Chancellor now applies to a member of the House of Commons and refers to the Sec. of State for Justice, a post currently filled by the Rt. Hon. Dominic Raab.
The head of what is to-day termed the Supreme Court â now detached from Parliament â is simply the country’s senior (senissimus?) judge.
Î Î
February 7, 2022
Brenda Hale was the country’s senior judge. She barely qualified as a judge at all.
February 7, 2022
Sorry, “wasn’t the country’s senior judge…”
February 8, 2022
080950Z
But what a nice brooch!
Î Î
February 7, 2022
‘Fool me once (Cameron), shame on you
Fool me twice (May), shame on me
Fool me three times (Boris), shame on both of us.’
February 8, 2022
What fool (will get the job) next time?
February 7, 2022
Harri arrives at No.10. Woke. Europhile. Pro-BLM. Took the knee. Mass immigration. Mr Redwood belongs to a party that is now little more than a Socialist woke pressure group whose behaviour strengthens the hand of Labour’s woke mob
February 7, 2022
DOM, +1
February 8, 2022
No, they cannot deliver the focus you outline, and which the country needs. Johnson absolutely must go, Sir John. This latest set of dire appointments only entrenches his destructive direction and shows he is simply incapable of doing anything that is positive for the British people – he only wants to destroy us and the UK; that is my opinion.
The Conservative Party must find a leader, and quickly, who will deliver the strategy and policies you have so clearly outlined. We are now in a dire state of emergency, and the evidence of that is all around us in our everyday lives, from the cost of our shopping and bills, to the work related stress of family members, to the illness, depression and unhappiness one sees everywhere as people creep about in their useless cloth masks spouting the mumbo jumbo nonsense on health and environment that they are fed by the BBC indoctrination department.