I offer the new Prime Minister the same loyalty I showed to his two recent predecessors, and the same economic advice designed to see off inflation whilst avoiding a deep and prolonged recession. The first task Rishi needs to address is to bring together more of the MPs and members of the party behind the common endeavourĀ of greater prosperity and a better economic policy to avoid the inflationary money printing of the last year. The voluntary party that knocks on doors, delivers leaflets, finds Council candidates and helps pay the bills of party officials must be wooed and thanked. It is a pity they did not get a vote on another change of leader. It is a shame the very truncated timetable did not allow Rishi to set out in general terms how he plans to tackle the budget issues, balance necessary spending with affordable tax rates, and create a productivity revolution in industry and services. We need all these to go right if we are to see off recession, level up communities around the country, grow and produceĀ more of our own needs and bring the deficit down through the extra tax that comes from economic success.
Many members feel let down that their two choices for leader in recent leadership elections both fell prey to MP disagreements and to infighting within the Parliamentary party and government.Ā One of the main attractions of becoming a member is to play a role in selecting candidates for Councils, Police Commissioners, and MPs, with the best prize being a say in who should be leader and Prime Minister when we have a majority.Ā Each elected official is more accountable to party members because they have that say, requiring us all to listen to the grassroots as well as to our wider constituencies in our official capacities. I hope Rishi will reach out to the members and tell them how he plans to bring them into the big task of fulfilling our 2019 promises and seeing us through the inflation, energy crisis and the need to reverse the decline in many people’s spending power. He needs to speak to them to get their buy in to the project he now needs to set out.
The dilemma he faces is the same as his immediate predecessors in office. The problems to be overcome are the same. Whilst in some ways everything has changed because there is a new leader who will bring a new team to the tasks, in another way todayĀ nothing has changed. It is the same party to lead, the same inflation to finally quell, the same recession to see off. We saw from Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng proposals to make the UK more competitive with some modest tax rate reductions, and a huge spending programme of support to tackle surging fuel bills. It was a pity they didĀ not frame these with the rest of theĀ spending plans, and allow us forecasts of the short term and longer term borrowing that might result. Of course they needed to be affordable ,but they also needed to avoid plunging us into deep recession.Ā When adjusting and developing these plans for growth the new team needs to avoid lurching to too restrictive a policy which could deepen and lengthen the downturn. This would increase overall borrowing rather than reduce it, as borrowing is very sensitive to the rate of growth. The extra pound of income earned from growth is taxed more highly and helps save on benefit bills as more people get work to meet the increased demand for goods and services.
The new team needs to ask why the Bank is keen to sell bonds it bought at high prices at large losses today. If they do so the Treasury has to send them money to pay the losses. There is no need to sell these bondsĀ now, and making losses on bondsĀ is not a good priority for spending. It needs to build on past government work to find ways for more of the people onĀ benefits to take some of the many jobs still available. It must always be worthwhile working. Those in work paying taxes expect people who can workĀ to do soĀ where there are jobs available rather thanĀ being onĀ benefits.
The members responded wellĀ to Liz Truss this summer because she was upbeat, promising us growth with lower tax rates. Her aim was to generate more revenue from the growth to pay for the healthcare and education we want. In his first speech as Prime Minister elect Rishi said he too wanted growth and lower taxes. That will warm more of the members to him. That requires delivery. He will get more unity from a bruised party if he shares its members aspirations and then manages to implement them. He also needs to tell them more of this vision and win their confidence.
October 26, 2022
Exactly right.
āThose in work paying taxes expect people who can work to do so where there are jobs available rather than being on benefits.ā but the tax and benefit system that pertains encourages this! They are often behaving rationally given this system especially ofter commuting costs, child care, lack of time costs and the other cost of working. Even better if you can get a medical illness certification as being unable to work for say back pain or perceived mental issues.
October 27, 2022
It does not pay for average or low paid women to work more than 16 hours! We read yesterday how some dads had up to 22 children by multiple women. Why should we pay for this!!
Sunak cheery picking what parts of the manifesto he will honour. No tax rises ignored, mass immigration ignored, fracking stopped to make us energy independent! Despite chaotic vote last week! What did he say two days ago about serving with integrity? Is that like his law breaking claiming he had not in HoC, back stabbing Johnson?
JR, somehow thinks Sunak and remainiac Hunt will listen to sensible conservative economics where UK national interest put before EU. It is for the birds.
Where is the priority for nervy security, food security, border security? None whatsoever. Putin is at fault for everything yet when rationally looked at China failed to keep agreement on Hong Kong, covid around the world causing devastation, terrible human rights ie slavery organ harvesting and sterilising a group of people it does not like, Tawana?, road and belt policy to conquer the world. Hunt has Chinese family and appears to have blind loyalty like authoritarian lockdown. Ch8na encouraged by Tory party to part of our infrastructure!! Yet Putin this that and the other!
October 26, 2022
Parts of Sunakās speech with a few notes in brackets.
Good morning,
I have just been to Buckingham Palace and accepted His Majesty The Kingās invitation to form a government in his name.
It is only right to explain why I am standing here as your new Prime Minister.
Right now our country is facing a profound economic crisis.
(A crisis that I largely created as Chancellor with my tax, borrow, print and waste agenda)
The aftermath of Covid still lingers. Putinās war in Ukraine has destabilised energy markets and supply chains the world over.
(I blame it all on Putin and Covid actually it is far more due to tge net zero religion and governments misguided over reaction to Covid and over reaction to climate alarmism)
I want to pay tribute to my predecessor Liz Truss. But some mistakes were made.
(Mainly by myself as Chancellor before she took office)
And I have been elected as leader of my party, and your Prime Minister, in part, to fix them.
(Not really elected though were you Sunak?)
I will place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this governmentās agenda.
(The complete opposite of what I did as Chancellor)
But you saw me during Covid, doing everything I could, to protect people and businesses, with schemes like furlough.
(It was not āyouā protecting us Sunak but you borrowing off our backs for us to repay later in huge tax rises)
The government I lead will not leave the next generation, your children and grandchildren, with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves.
(So you taxpayers will have to pay for the vast and pointless lockdown now even if you worked through it and got no help)
I will unite our country, not with words, but with action.
(Actual action from the Conservative would be a big change)
I will work day in and day out to deliver for you.
This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.
(We shall see would be a large change)
And the heart of that mandate is our manifesto.
(Which I have ratted on already several time already – with the pension triple lock and the vast tax increases and control of the borders)
I will deliver on its promise. (when)
A stronger NHS.
(This is not going too well are we up to 10 million on the waiting list yet?)
Better schools.
Safer streets.
Control of our borders. (Really will Braverman be allowed to act?)
Protecting our environment. (No mention of net zero which of course has nothing to do with protecting the environment, but they do like to confuse the two.)
Supporting our armed forces.
Levelling up and building an economy that embraces the opportunities of Brexit, where businesses invest, innovate, and create jobs.
Why would they choose to invest in the hugely overtaxed UK with vast energy, property, wage and compliance costs?
I understand how difficult this moment is.
(You probably do not given your Ā£ millions but it must cost a bit to heat the swimming pools).
After the billions of pounds it cost us to combat Covid, after all the dislocation that caused in the midst of a terrible war that must be seen successfully to its conclusions I fully appreciate how hard things are.
(You did not remotely combat Covid it is now very clear that both the lockdown and the fairly ineffective and positively dangerous for many vaccines have made it far worse)
And I understand too that I have work to do to restore trust after all that has happened. (you sure do)
Thank you.
October 26, 2022
Sunak did not cause covid. Lockdown was the mistaken policy & the main cause of the current difficulties although the first one was understandable. In so far as there was opposition to lockdown from within the govt it came from Sunak it seems.
October 26, 2022
Well no sigh of any resistance from him to lockdown at the time with his hosing money down the drain for many months. Even using some peopleās taxes to pay for other people to eat out in restaurants. The incompetent vaccine regulators even failed to ensure the vastly expensive vaccines were effective and sufficiently save. Furthermore they took on the compensation bill for vaccine injuries. What is that going to cost over the new few years? I personally know of two heart issue cases directly, just in people I know.
October 28, 2022
Most of these actions were knee-jerk responses to huge public pressure for ‘something to be to be done’ to manage a complex almost unprecedented situation. As ever led by the then PM responding to whoever spoke last. Which makes it astonishing that Wokingham Conservatives, when consulted by their MP on a next but one replacement, offered the same ‘leader’ as their preference.
October 26, 2022
Very well put LL, one of your best. Sunak says he wants a Cabinet of talent and stability, but there are no experienced older members, such as our host, why not?
I do fear further cock-ups between Treasury and BoE, again mainly because they’ve never had to face these issues before in their personal careers.
October 26, 2022
Great post LL.
October 26, 2022
Indeed so Lifelogic. I wonder who wrote the script for Sunak?
October 26, 2022
Two horrid little digs at Boris and Miss Truss, and no contrite honesy at all about his disastrous years at the Treasury. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt in assuming he was the prisoner of Gordon Brown’s Treasury and Bank, not their leader.
October 26, 2022
@rose, yup… The Government as in the Cabinet we are told time and time again is a collective, wit collective decisions and responsibilities – shuffling the pack changes nothing
October 26, 2022
It is a breath of fresh air [NOT} after all the mistakes these consecutive Governments have made…
A novelty would be sorting out any of them — don’t hold your breath.
October 26, 2022
So are we at war and with whom? That was a very tangential way of declaring war, quite careless.
October 26, 2022
Priceless. Very well done.
On Braverman, not long to go now before the left wing press, Labour and SNP have her out.
I’ve been reading around, it’s relentless. You’d think she’d given away national security secrets, or gone to Dover beach armed with a machine gun the way they are carrying on.
It’s his only ace, she is popular with the long suffering people on immigration and the ‘tofu wokerati’. The left wing fear her, and I fear they’ll win……they always do.
October 26, 2022
Indeed will she get a second pay off when she goes a second time because they will not let her get out of the ECHR and other legal restrictions.
October 26, 2022
Notice they never tell you what was in the email even though they don’t give a damn about security. They are protecting the absurdly bigged up OBR who don’t come out of this affair well.
October 27, 2022
Michelle, I agree. It’s being made to look like Sunak has no choice but to dismiss her.
However, she was only Home Secretary for six weeks. When a new Minister takes command, who sits them down and explains all the security rules of the post? Who did her briefing? Was she given a works phone or iPad what do Ministers use to create their e-mails? Was she told you can’t e-mail fellow MPs other than on this particular e-mail address to these particular authorised e-mail addresses etc. Moving forward, any new minister should perhaps have their e-mail contact box for security clearance messages restricted, so it pops up ‘this person is not authorised. In her previous Ministerial position would she be allowed to send e-mails? Is every MP in government ministerial roles security vetted? I read that the e-mail was a speech she was about to give and she was after a second opinion so it would be suitable for public consumption. But I hate how some people get hung drawn and quartered without the right of a fair disciplinary route. Just look at Ed Balls sacking Shoesmith without following procedure it cost the State a lot of money, all ministers need good assistants, I thought that is what Spads were for?
Yesterday a man got away with just 100 hours of community service for killing a young woman after he failed to notice a steel outrigger stabiliser of his lorry was insecure and had fully extended before it struck her. He had denied driving dangerously and admitted he had dropped stabilising legs the following day because of gales on October 25, although he was not trained to do so, before setting off on his return journey. But he insisted he did not extend the outrigger beams.
October 27, 2022
According to what I’m seeing reported, Braverman leaks like a sieve (her nickname is apparently “Leaky Sue”) so it probably won’t be long before she does for herself.
October 28, 2022
Or perhaps Peter, she has learnt her lesson most embarrassingly public way and won’t make the mistake again. If, as you suggest, she regularly commits gross misconduct in office, has a proper and legal disciplinary route been followed on each occasion?
There have been a lot of leaks from Downing Street, photos taken of colleagues at work, and briefings to the media. Have all these people been identified yet and disciplined?
October 26, 2022
LL,
you forgot the Lord resigning over Sunakās āschool boy errorsā which saw Ā£11.8 billion lost to fraud which he initially he did not want investigated! Integrity my arse! Add to back stabbing, ready to go campaign before Johnson resigned, ratting on manifesto, now wanting parts of the manifesto for his left wing credentials- to cancel fracking.
October 26, 2022
+1
October 27, 2022
Lord Agnew. Look up the evidence against the Treasury he gave to the Select Committee. Not fit for purpose, he said.
October 28, 2022
Quite, people in glass houses should take care when lobbing stones around that they don’t rebound.
October 27, 2022
and preparing the media, website and campaign apparatus ahead of the day he would back-stab his boss.
Integrity my arse.
October 26, 2022
You say “All now rests on Rishi making good judgements of how to pilot the economy and how to build support with the party and the public for what he wants to do.”
Indeed let us hope he does this his record so far is very poor but perhaps he is finally realising the very many serious errors he made as Chancellor.
October 26, 2022
Excellent post. It’s now been announced he is banning fracking. No mention of an import ban on fracked gas from Qatar or elsewhere. So is he opening new coal power stations so we wont be held ransoms by world prices? Net zero is bankrupting the Nation. People will have to choose between eating and heating this winter. People will die as a result of the non energy strategy by all legacies.The lunatics have taken over. Still Caroline Lucas is thrilled. No one will vote for this at the next election and you’ll all be out on your ear.
October 26, 2022
LL, +++++++++
October 26, 2022
Good morning.
Let us hope that, unlike his predecessors, the new PM’s abilities equal or exceed his ambition. For all our sakes.
October 26, 2022
You could be forgiven for forgetting that he was chancellor for the last two and half years.
Everyone’s fault but his.
Now he’s delayed his budget statement but the markets are cool with that.
Says ir all really.
October 26, 2022
@Ian Wragg – this is a repeat, but worth saying again. The Government as in the Cabinet we are told time and time again is a collective, with collective decisions and responsibilities – shuffling the pack changes nothing
October 26, 2022
Let us hope he has learned from the very many mistake the Tories and indeed Sunak himself have made over the last 12 years of tax, borrow, print, currency debase, lockdown, vaccinate even the young for no sensible reason and then p*** the proceeds down the drain.
Just listened to PM’s Questions. Totally pathetic politics of envy questions from Labour and the SNP – these people really are truly pathetic. Sunak was not quite as bad as I expected. He was though asked by Starmer about Non Dom status. Starmer quite wrongly claimed this lost the Treasury Ā£3.2 billion. In reality Non Dom status actually increases the tax take as rich people simply would not come to the UK for more than typically 90 days without it.
Why would you come to work in the UK on a job that pays say Ā£200K (perhaps Ā£120K net) if you ended up with a tax bill Ā£2 million PA higher on your investments and then also 40% of your assets stolen off you when you die too. The reason it was not abolished by Labour or the Tories is that the Treasury knows full well it is a net benefit to overall tax revenue and the economy.
Unfortunately Sunkak totally flunked this question and just muttered about “difficult decisions” to make. He also muttered about the enemy of “inflation”. Has no one told him who created this and how. Money printing by Sunak at al, government spending and taxes far too large and the net zero insanity. I though he had studied economics!
Labour seem to be planning to pay for their plans with this Ā£3.2 billion it is a total mirage.
October 26, 2022
Liz Truss was ousted by the establishment-wing of the Conservative Party her over attempts to introduce supply-side market reforms and some small tax cuts. So Sunak won’t be doing any of that. He will do as he is told.
October 27, 2022
Yep. He always does.
October 26, 2022
Interesting to hear about Rishi’s digital currency agenda on GBnews Mark Stein yesterday towards the end.
So you will pay vast amounts of tax on your salary then you will have some digital currency left that the government can control exactly how you can spend this.
Surely this really is Modern Slavery. It is often stated that the most expensive think you buy in you life is you house or flat. Not so in general it is the government in taxation a shame you get so little back by way of services of any quality & value for this “purchase”
October 26, 2022
+1
The Globalists got their man. He is there to deliver their objectives, not ours.
October 26, 2022
@Donna +1
October 26, 2022
It’s all rather a chilling prospect. The vast majority of the population are totally unaware of what is coming down the track.
October 26, 2022
We’ll have to get back to bartering. Cut out the government.
Parallel currencies will appear or people will start using the US Dollar as collateral.
October 26, 2022
Truss’s leaving speech was far better than Sunak’s arrival one. Not very impressed by some of the Sunak choices as ministers. Particularly:-
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt the circa 6 years failed health secretary, remainer and China style lockdown enthusiast. See his book Zero for his rather bonkers views on how best to run UK health care (essentially a state run communist agenda).
The Rt Hon Grant Shapps was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on 25 October 2022. The man has not got a clue about energy (or indeed transport) but he does have an HND in business and finance from Manchester Poly.
Then we have the snakelike Mr (let kill good private schools with VAT on school fees and make them pay four times over) one Michael Gove as Levelling Up Secretary whatever that is?
October 26, 2022
Lifelogic, Hunt being kept on just confirms the Treasury position seems to be out of any Prime Ministers’ hands. Hunt perhaps was selected because he will do what he is told, there is no way he was Truss’s choice. If Sunak isn’t Chancellor, then it has to be another of the chosen ones.
I thought, thank goodness Shapps wasn’t returned to transport. He failed. He put this Country at significant risk by allowing planes full of infected people into all the airports in the UK in the first month of lockdown. Many got off planes into hospitals. His smart motorway rollout is another killer. Someone breaks down now the motorway closes two lanes for several hours, and everyone is stuck doing 40 mph!
Then he was put in Business – OMG! I’d rather have had Hunt in Business.
Being a snake is obviously rewarded in Politics: it seems the upper echelons think it is an admirable quality to turn on people – Bercow, Major, Gove, Sunak, (Truss should never have turned on Kwarsi she should have held her nerve or moved him sideways and brought Zahawi back into the role).
October 26, 2022
Levelling up means preventing fracking and the opening of the Cumbrian coal mine.
Gove is net zero on steroids.
October 26, 2022
Most embarrassing choice is surely Andrew Mitchell. If Mr Sunak had a sense of humour, which he might well in private, one might fancy he has a plan to make pompous, virtuous, out of touch Mitchell announce a cut in Foreign Aid.
October 26, 2022
levelling up means front-stabbing.
October 26, 2022
Quite simply the man’s a fool having Hunt as chancellor when a better choice would have been yourself John. You have been busy explaining how finances work to many of your fellow mps. Anyone with good judgement would have you in the cabinet.
October 26, 2022
Indeed let us home Hunt does do the types of sensible things that JR suggests. So much fat that could so easily be cut out if he wants to. Probably about 50% of what government spends could usefully be cut out and further benefits from a vast bonfire of red tape.
October 26, 2022
Did Truss really exchange a friend for Hunt willingly? I smell ‘men in grey suits’.
October 26, 2022
Indeed Hunt was surely chosen by Sunak and his friends and forced onto Truss.
October 26, 2022
Agreed, but ain’t no-one listening, I’m afraid.
October 26, 2022
The entire Cabinet is a disaster, as is the government’s direction of travel! It is a globalist takeover and there is not a decent nationalist among them. Hunt as chancellor means more declinist, high-tax, low-growth orthodoxy. Shapps at BEIS means net-zero and NO FRACKING (as has already now been officially confirmed). Suella Braverman has now been forced to backtrack and has said that resolving the immigration crisis needs EU cooperation (rather than just sorting this out unilaterally by deporting the invading masses). Northern Ireland will be betrayed, with no prospect whatsoever of Article 16 being activated or the Protocol being amended or scrapped.
The Conservative Party has betrayed its membership, but more importantly the whole country. It is sickening to think that in 2019 we were promised so much, and it has all turned to ashes. Well, the only consolation is that the party will be crushed at the next election and hopefully a phoenix will arise which will be the patriotic standardbearer. I know most people think this may be the Reform UK party. We shall see!
October 26, 2022
John is not an Establishment lackey. Never happen.
October 26, 2022
Indeed. Sunak had the gall to blame Truss for the poor economy. She had 45 days and he ballsed it up for 3.5 years. Like we wouldn’t notice. Integrity, my ass.
October 28, 2022
FuS, the problem with Hunt is he only wants to listen to, EU loving, yes people like himself, Osborne and Hammond, for goodness’ sake!
Indeed if he felt so inexperienced and inadequate that he needed to bring back to old chancellors, he should have brought into the team two others with opposing thoughts to get a balanced view. This signals that we’re about to get tied back in. They don’t care about the advances in the red wall areas the pay going up, the jobs coming back onshore, they’re just interested in the money men.
October 26, 2022
We don’t believe anything your party says, Sir John. We have been lied to far too often, and I do not refer solely to Boris. This has been the situation since Heath was in office! Your party has contributed to the destruction of democracy, through stealth and manipulation. You have learned well from the EU! So have the other main parties, which is why we now need to clear the Augean stables, completely! Get rid of the undemocratic MP’s, before we get rid of you! I don’t mean the abstainers. I mean the ones that go directly against the electorate and who vote for bills such as the Benn Act therefore damaging the UK’s prospects.
You may get some forgiveness if you fulfil the two big promises, ie. a ‘proper’ Brexit and REDUCE immigration to tens of thousands. How many years have you promised both, and we are still waiting!
October 26, 2022
I’ve always looked at the tweets on the side bar to this blog, not being on twitter myself they’ve been quite informative.
Perhaps I got the wrong impression but you seemed to be very at odds with party policy in general and very critical of Sunak, rightly so.
Now you offer loyalty. This is part and parcel of the problem in politics, people putting ‘their party’ first before the Country.
When a party, its policies, and many of those on the inside driving policy seem to be working more for the opposition and stray so far from basic principles, I just wonder how someone can bend and stretch their beliefs to remain loyal.
I was pleased to see Mogg resign as he has not been a fan of Sunak, yet he also offers to support from the back bench.
I think this is where the country has gone so terribly wrong, too much loyalty for party and personal career (I mean no offence) and the country way down the list, even when it’s clear the party is doing immense damage.
One ray of sunshine with Braverman back. It will remain to be seen if she is allowed to tackle illegal and very importantly the massive legal immigration. I know the ‘tofu wokeratti’ (her perfect description) will be outraged. The media will be erecting her gallows as we speak and as we know, the left wing media and institutions seem to run things around here and the Conservative party have no good track record on sending them packing.
October 26, 2022
Michelle
I have nothing useful to add to your comments other than to say you’re not missing out on twitter!
October 26, 2022
So having shown zero respect for the Party Membership by imposing a Party Leader they had previously rejected, Rishi and LibCON MPs who are desperate to save their jobs at the next General Election now need to get them onside.
Charles Moore in the DT suggested this could be done by throwing a bone their way and ALLOWING THEM MORE SAY on who becomes “their” Parliamentary Candidate. I doubt if that will be permitted since the Party Members can’t be trusted to vote for Pretendy-Conservatives who would be better suited to the Labour, LibDem or Green Parties.
Yesterday it was being reported that the Conservative Party website couldn’t cope with the volume of furious emails from members who were trying to cancel their membership. I suggest to Rishi and the LibCONs that respecting your membership is a pre-requisite for “getting them onside” so they’ve fallen at first base.
October 26, 2022
Donna, one of my Tory councillors, has already resigned from the Conservatives, I hope he stands Independent because he is a good man, and I’d vote for him irrespective of the party badge he wears because he is better than a lot of the rest. Maybe because our MP just immediately put his nomination behind Sunak without considering everyone else in the area.
I had to hold my nose and vote for another local champion who stood on a Lib Dem ticket, eww. It wasn’t a tick for lib dem policies nationally, and I didn’t want it to be seen as such but what can you do when good people get ignored by the Tories.
October 26, 2022
@Donna
Given a choice between Sunak and AN Other, the members were always likely to choose AN Other (provided AN Other is not Hunt ?).
The MPs felt they needed to fix the final result and this is what they did.
October 26, 2022
The Tories are not governable with too many pet ideas and no guiding principles. This has all the signs of a government having been in for too long – no ideas, a screwed economy, strikes galore ad infinitum. I give it 2 weeks until the fighting like rats in a sack starts again. A GE by next summer must be a near certainty and what the hell we are going to get in Hunt’s budget heaven knows. We ain’t got any more to give, Rishi, the country is screwed after 12 years of Tory mi- management and experimentation. This comes from an ex Tory. Never again.
October 26, 2022
Wait till they try to get their Autumn statement accepted and passed though the House.
October 26, 2022
Shirley,
Who could trust any of them? He broke the law after claiming in HoC he never attended any party, liar or misled? He was in Govt when it ratted on manifesto! He did not resign for either of these two incidents. What business would trust them, a week or so fracking was allowed and corporation tax was being kept the same. Today fracking cancelled and corporation tax rising! What business would invest here with any confidence!! His party did not allow its members to vote for him because they rejected him first time around!
So importing energy is his way forward when there is an abundance at home!!
October 27, 2022
Agreed, Hope. Sunak is already displaying ‘different recollections’ to the membership and the country. I have trust in Sunak .. that he will continue to destroy the UK economy. He has made a darn good start since Bojo made him chancellor and now he has even more opportunity as PM!
October 26, 2022
As usual I have reviewed the comment sections across the online newspapers to gather public opinion. Itās is very bad for Rishi and the Conservatives.
The Daily Mail has restricted comments in the comment section on their headline article to 4 comments. Articles on Rishiās wealth have been restricted to a few dozen articles. Thousands and thousands of people are down voting the cherry picked comments.
The editor of the online Daily Mail will be breaking some extremely bad news to GCHQ over the next few days.
October 26, 2022
I think I agree that this will quickly go to pot for the Tories.
A privately educated puppet married into the family of a billionaire who was voted down by party members versus the son of a toolmaker who actually started out passing the 11+ and attending a state grammar school? Then we’ll no doubt have Nigel pulling away at the real Conservatives.
October 26, 2022
+many
Thatās the plan!
Starmer next.
Heās the one ātheyā really want.
Or so it is said!
October 26, 2022
Maybe – but I suspect that Labour will be polling 45% within the week and lower afterwards.
October 26, 2022
The wealth itself isn’t the problem, Javelin; Starmer has built himself up into quite a position of wealth. It is legitimate tax avoidance whilst wanting to tax us all more, those of us stuck in the system of his design.
I immensely admire families like the Sunaks, his parents trained up into good positions and came to the UK to serve the public as a GP in the NHS and a Pharmacist, so obviously, the NHS pay isn’t all bad, is it? To put your children through private school is a considerable feat. Is Africa as restrictive in who they pick to train as GPs and Pharmacists?
That going to specialist selective schools and private school is the best pathway to the cream of the positions in certain professions isn’t genuinely meritocratic. It’s why they hate on people like Mike Ashley personally, if I were Grant Shapps, he’d be one of my first appointments if he’d see me.
October 26, 2022
DAY 1 of the globalist banker regime just as one in the US ebbs away.
– Reported to have re-imposed ban on fracking.
– Globalits insanity & tyranical when in an energy crisis which is de-industrializing the West and exporting wealth and jobs out of the UK.
– CDDC for you plebs , but offshore avoidance rules and strategies for us!
– He should pre-announce his resignation and call the GE.
October 26, 2022
“leader who will bring a new team to the tasks,”
It is much easier for a journalist to talk about the scandal in Westminster than to talk about the bond market or to visit the darker side of Ukraine. So there is far too much about the scandal and far too little news. We also hear a lot about the “coronation” of Rishi Sunak.
Ronald Reagan we are told, said he was the least intelligent of all the people he found in the room. Prime Ministers need to listen and be surrounded by people who are going in the same direction.
Dictatorships as President Xi has forgotten, are terribly dangerous because when they go wrong (as they often do) the mistakes are enormous. (lock down at the moment, perhaps Taiwan next).
October 26, 2022
Mike:
Appointed āleadersā have access to deep levels of advice from specialists and other paid sources. We need someone simply to make the best choices from the few filtered options & press the GO button. Anyone sensible could do that.
People follow when they see quality outcomes from someoneās well-reasoned decisions. They would then have a LEADER.
October 26, 2022
This is a sorry read indeed
October 26, 2022
+1
(It would not be so much a sorry read if there was the slightest prospect of Sunak and his pals following Sir John’s advice.)
October 26, 2022
+1
And we are now in a VERY sorry state.
I even read that (no doubt Tory nurtured) leftists are trying to scupper Christmas.
Talk about vipers in bosoms!
Nice little leftists encouraged and sustained by the not nasty party.
Indeed!!
October 26, 2022
My prediction is as follows for the new king. This prediction is entirely the consequence of voting for a PM of Indian heritage. This is purely based on a probability tree.
The majority of English people who voted to take back control of their border will massively reduce their votes for the Conservatives.
Labour will then win the next election. The SNP will win a referendum and break away from the UK. The NI, which is new a catholic majority, will then also hold a referendum and leave the UK.
England will now contain a huge right wing majority and elect a non-Conservative right wing nationalist party just like Scotland and NI.
Wales will realise Labour will never get into power and vote to leave the UK.
The laws of unintended consequences.
October 27, 2022
All sounds good to me, and JoolsB I hope š
October 26, 2022
It is the Uk the conservative party should be serving and not the party. This morning’s article says more about this. We watched the D Cameron/ Boris personal competition from University . We know they have, in the mode of old fashioned out dated class systems : upper class connections. Life for the UK is not all about Universities , We have moved on from the early 20th century. A measure of a person’s aptitude is not whether someone had their head in a book or these days a computer , Real life past there is what makes a country tick . Paradoxically: Appearance and reality ( Bradley A.H).
We recognise for growth there is a continuum of expand and contract ; even TS Elliot spoke of this in a few of his poems . We know that the wasteland was spoken from a Universal point of view, but we are seeing wasteland as drought , ruins after war , natural disasters. There is room for expansion in these places due to the radical contraction , but how the rest of the world operates and deals with situations affects us in the UK.
We need more doers and less chit chat.
October 26, 2022
As a child I grew up next door but one to a conservative MP who had a fish stall in Manchester, The Lynch’s were all for progress and their children became a medical rep and a dentist , but no fish any more !
October 26, 2022
Must? Or else what?
How many times have commenters made that hollow demand?
October 26, 2022
“Must” do it to get members on side as JR clearly states. Also for his agenda to actually get some growth and stop the state sector and government debt from strangling the economy. Alas only ~ two year to make this happen now. It should have been started by the Tories 12 years back by Osborne, Hammond and Sunak who have been appalling tax, borrow and waste Chancellors. Let us hope Sunak now at last realises this!
October 26, 2022
Must – or else – they won’t carry everyone with them to their new dawn. If he wants to succeed he can’t be self-centric, one of Boris’ biggest accusations.
As a leader, his success isn’t judged only on his output and results, but on the productivity and performance of the entire party, that he now manages. Dealing with all of the different types of people and their own personalities, goals, behaviours, and motivations means good communication and motivation. Ignoring certain people or groups within your team doesn’t motivate them to help you to succeed.
October 26, 2022
Rishi and low-tax in the same sentence ! Rishi’s single policy is raise more tax.
October 26, 2022
Not quite.
His other policy is to impose a Digital Currency on us (just like India, the EU and the USA are currently working on) as the ultimate means of control of their populations. Programmable currency can be switched off by the Masters of the Universe if you “don’t behave” ….. in the same way Smart Meters can be switched off by the energy supplier if you dare use what they consider to be too much energy.
It’s called a Social Credit system and is currently operating in China where the population is controlled by the Government through a system of reward and punishment depending on how compliant you are.
October 26, 2022
No really his single policy he also borrowed billions, prints money, currency debases & then wastes most of it on things like HS2, net zero, duff degree “loans”, renewable subsidies, eat out to help out, posh hotels, bikes & pizzas for economic migrants lockdowns, dangerous and rather ineffective vaccines for the young who never needed them, the dire NHS…
Perhaps he will now change or be forced to change.
October 26, 2022
Raise tax on UK individuals and businesses only. Mega-rich and multinationals will continue to enjoy their creative accounting benefits. Stifle UK business in favour of imports.
October 26, 2022
@Old Albion
Having “Rishi” and “low tax” in the same sentence is an oxymoron ?
š
October 26, 2022
I doubt this will happen. We’re now in for government by “market” diktat. If GS says it’s ok, then it’s ok, regardless of what party members, you or I say. Battle of HMG versus market was won by market, aka our creditors. We’re far smaller than HMG and will be financially crushed as the little people. They now have their man (puppet) and their policies will follow. When you’re mortgaged up to the hilt, you better do what the creditor wants. The only other option is a Corbyn type in power, default and start again. An equally unappealing prospect. Perhaps $unak even intended this as the result when he went full tilt in the so-called pandemic.
October 26, 2022
An article that begins with a statement about loyalty. Others may not feel a need to sugar the pill.
Sunak will not pursue a low tax policy any more than he did as chancellor. He will pursue policies that suit globalists and his core support among MPs. Most of the media will offer him favourable coverage.
Voters don’t count. They may have to wait up to two years to turf him out.
October 26, 2022
There aren’t going to be any tax cuts under Sunak. The political naivety of Truss and the antics of the Parliamentary party have rendered the subject totally toxic and Sunak won’t dare to implement such a newly-unpopular policy. As he also won’t implement any spending cuts, which are also politically toxic. One wonders what exactly he WILL do. I suppose “the markets”, our new overlords, will also prevent him from implementing the eminently sensible policy of firing Andrew Bailey at the BoE.
Sunak’s views on a range of policy areas are unknown. My guess is he’s deliberately set up Braverman to fail at immigration at the Home Office. Let’s see.
October 26, 2022
My Conservative Home Article: Sunak represents a failed establishment orthodoxy. His record means he deserves to lose this contest. AUGUST 23, 2022 208 COMMENTS
Hypocrisy Rules OK!
Reply My article did help Liz win. Many members agreed with me. I now accept Rishi is the new PM as no-one qualified under revised rules to challenge him. I therefore wish him well. I continue to hold the same views on the economy as I put to Liz in the hope he might accept them.
October 26, 2022
Sunak set out his policy of high tax high borrowing high spend many moons ago. The removal of Liz wasnāt due to the economy, it was political
The left of the party didnāt like the decision of the members and managed a policy of disinformation against ālow taxesā and engineered a coup to establish their choose of PM ā¦and it worked
October 26, 2022
A vote of Conservative party members – really? We had what is in retrospect an absurd contest in the summer for the leadership, given itās length, and the result was the selection of a leader who didnāt have majority support of MPs and who turned out to be hopeless. I imagine Rishi would have won amongst the members this time even if Boris had stood. But imagine the ludicrous position we would now be in had Conservative Party members voted back Boris, him having had the boot because 2/3 of the govt resigned or even more preposterously, penny mourdant!
I joined the Conservative Party some decades ago, when we had about 2-3m members, and I was welcomed as a young member. All these years later we have about 150k members – and I believe Iām still one of the younger ones. We need a leader who is competent, articulate and likely to win the next election. Amongst the mooted candidates Rishi Sunak was the only one to meet all three criteria.
October 26, 2022
How can a man of such immeasurable means raise austerity taxes on those who struggle to pay food and heating bills?
To even retain a little of the Red Wall he would need the Common Touch like Boris.
The Boris who delivered the 80ā¦EIGHTYā¦seat majority!
Ancient Roman shenanigans had nothing on Wefminster politics.
October 26, 2022
I may be in the minority here, in welcoming the news that Rishi Sunak is our new Prime Minister.
I deplore the remarks by the Media about his familyās wealth. Whatever he does, the Media have their knives out, as they want a Labour government.
I believe that Rishi should be given a chance ,before all the dire predictions are made ,as we don’t know what he is going to do yet.
I wish him well. He has a mountain to climb, and whatever he does , he wonāt be able to please all the people, all the time.
October 26, 2022
(I will in turn offer the same comment as I posted under Sir John’s DT version.) Well done, Sir John, for damning Sunak’s coronation with faint praise, for pointing out a number of high priority actions and reforms that he and his Chancellor are most unlikely to set in hand, and for doing so in your time honoured manner of a professor leading a keen undergraduate to an answer and leaving him to work it out for himself – if he can – rather than spoonfeeding it to him. You have sadly effectively lost your last chance of shedding the accolade “the best Chancellor we never had”, and we can only hope that your message will be heard just as clearly from the Lords in due course.
October 26, 2022
Forget it John, just join the reform party, everyone else is.
October 26, 2022
Ian:
The Reform Party is developing a neat fit to suit more accurately what many Conservative and other voters want most.
Some claim that Reform has no chance of winning an election. However, it is only when so many people donāt expect such a thing to happen: The Unexpected Occurs.
October 26, 2022
+1
October 27, 2022
We are currently in John’s constituency but our area will be in a brand new constituency at the next GE.
A once in a blue moon opportunity for a proper conservative to come in a sweep up the votes.
Yet we have received zero material from both the Conservative Party and Reform/Reclaim/Restart whatever.
But we are being inundated by LibDem bullshit.
Guess what will happen.
October 26, 2022
I see that Lifelogic ( whoever he or she really is ) has been given priority here with three very long posts, all approved before 09:30.
While I agree with a lot that LL posts, I have to ask why preferential treatment is frequently given ?
October 26, 2022
Male – very few women have maths, physics, engineering degrees (perhaps about 1 in 10 in the UK though it is now up to 1 in 5 for the current intake at universities which is good.
October 26, 2022
ChrisS,
I am not sure how long you have been visiting the site.
Lifelogic is the Energizer Bunny on here. If long posts are discouraged he simply splits his posts up into multiple smaller ones.
There is no ‘ignore’ function on this site but you could try skimming his posts.
He seems to have several posters who agree with him and like his posts. Only a few call him out. In my opinion his posts are usually repetitive rawmaish but then I mostly skim his posts.
October 27, 2022
Well the truth stays the same so if one tells the truth consistently it you will tend to repeat yourself rather.
Rawmaish, I had to look this up – from the Norman romance/Gaelic /rĆ”imĆ©is, pipe dream – foolish or exaggerated talk; nonsense.
I am not much of a “pipe dream” person this is more for socialists, climate alarmists and other religions.
October 26, 2022
I profess not to know exactly how the relationship between Chancellor and the Bank Of England governor works but, surely, if the Chancellor has to give money to the bank to fund the losses on bond sales, can the Chancellor not tell Bailey in advance that he is not going to fund the sale at this point ?
As I posted yesterday, I am deeply suspicious of Bailey’s motives, particulary his public statement that he was to end bond support having not spent that much of the money he allocated for the purpose. He did this at probably the most damaging point for Liz Truss and one could say that it contributed to her downfall.
Not everyone in the markets was against the Truss Growth Plan :
Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, was very supportive, saying ” I totally applaud the focus on growth. Growth comes from proper tax policies, proper investment policies, consistency of law…that people can rely on it being attractive to foreign investment, being attractive to companies.”
October 26, 2022
For goodness sake give Sunak some time before pre-judging him . Support and unity in the CP is now vital .
October 26, 2022
Furlough: Eat out to Help Out etc etc
School boy errors was mentioned.
Fracking ban reported as re-imposed.
Give us one good policy decision made that has been executed well.
October 27, 2022
Eat out to help out went a long way to restoring confidence of leaving the house.
It served a purpose
October 27, 2022
Reducing VAT would have achieved same with less losses.
October 26, 2022
Well good luck to him perhaps he will change, but he was a dire chancellor for over two years. I see he is reinstating the fracking ban and continuing the attacks on the self employed – surely positive proof he is a deluded dope with zero understanding of how to grow an economy.
October 26, 2022
He’s had three plus years at the Treasury to show what he is about. It was Miss Truss who should have been given time and loyalty; but instead, an irrational, hysterical case was confected against her and there was lightning regime change before anyone could spot the flaws in the black propaganda..
October 26, 2022
Off topic, I have had to send another short letter to the Times:
“If Tony Whitakker thinks that Clare Foges was “spot on” with her Brexit critique (“Realities of Brexit”, today), perhaps he could explain how the UK economy has shrunk dramatically compared to the German economy despite having grown faster.”
The factually inaccurate claim from Clare Foges was:
“in 2016 the British economy was 90 per cent the size of Germanyās, and now it is less than 70 per cent”
While this is the factual comparison of GDP growth since 2016, according to the OECD: the UK economy grew by slightly more than the German economy between 2016 Q2 and 2022 Q2, 6.8 percent versus 5.5 percent.
Chart 1 here: https://www.briefingsforbritain.co.uk/what-impact-is-brexit-having-on-the-uk-economy/?mc_cid=65680733ab&mc_eid=ee84cb59c6
As a “newspaper of record” the Times should publish a correction; even better, if this government believes in Brexit it should actively correct such grossly misleading propaganda on a routine day to day basis.
October 26, 2022
Denis, did you watch the shameful Northern Irish debate today? Baker has become another Walker, using the BBC excuse of saying we are annoying both sides so we must be getting it right. That argument doesn’t work for the BBC and it doesn’t work for the NIO which has long seemed a nest of Sinners. Needless to say, the Unionists were eloquent and sincere, and compelling in their arguments, while the other side were just smugly complicit, but what the Unionists said fell on stony ground. There is a clear bias against them.
October 27, 2022
I didn’t see that, but I see it now in Hansard. As an Englishman living in England I take care to keep out of the communal politics, but I don’t like people being cheated in the way that the unionists have been cheated.
October 26, 2022
The way the Guardian is constantly pounding away at Theresa Coffey is shameful. I subscribe to that paper because it isn’t generally so objectifying of women. I don’t have to read about Holden’s nipples and Vordermans hourglass figure. I was pretty excited to have such a hard-working, obviously dedicated public servant in the NHS role and thought she was Truss’s best pick. The NHS is predominantly staffed by women; 77% and 50% are over 45 years of age. I’d like to know how many of them are obese or smoke the Guardian concentrated on those issues with Coffey perhaps they can tell us? Today they’re already on the attack because she once said she used weedkiller for heaven’s sake!
October 26, 2022
Am sure there is nothing wrong with a short sharp recession if it brings us to our senses – we have to get away from this idea that we can always borrow to pay our way and that growth will see us through – because what if there is no growth – what if there is no growth for decades? – and it could happen just like Japan in the past decades? – are we going to leave big debt and a big mess to our grandchildren? – well – ‘not in my name’
October 27, 2022
The German’s have never forgotten the years post WWI. The hyper-inflation and poverty has been burned deeply into their collective conscience.
October 27, 2022
It was 1922-3 which did that. Rampant inflation. They were thought to have been permnently inoculated against it, unlike other countries. So why have they allowed the ECB to let it get out of hand? Perhaps for the same reason they have let everything get out of hand: Frau Merkel and PR.
November 1, 2022
Germany has essentially had the same voting system since 1948, just a tiny bit tweaked in 1953. So saying that PR is the reason for present German problems is boeotian. Then the ECB was essentially modelled on the Bundesbank, and it has ensured a reasonable stability in the ESCB given the different pressures brought by the various 19 countries of the Eurozone.
Have the BoE, Treasury and UK various chancellors always been so successful?
So be clear do not try to look clever, say it, you hate(d) Die Kanzlerin for the same obscure reasons you seem to hate so many people.
Reply We did not have a Euro crisis. We have not had to take money from bank accounts in the Uk as The ECB did in Cyprus
October 27, 2022
Japan’s population is stable so GDP per head rises slightly.
We import growth and dependency while making ourselves poorer as we do.
October 26, 2022
Although Penny Mordaunt was first to stand for the leadership, some MPs opined that she was a fine candidate but would not gain enough votes. Their irrational premature action caused that outcome. Had only a few not rushed into claims of support before others declared any candidature Penny would have been one of the two on which the wider membership could have voted for, AND MOST LIKELY WON. Small errors of judgement result in unintended outcomes.
October 26, 2022
Well we are where we are, and the Conservative MP’s surely cannot now complain about the leader they have Chosen (Twice now)
I certainly hope the infighting will now stop, as it is a poison that will be self destructive not only for the Party but the Country.
At least we will now know the truth about Rishi’s thoughts, actions, and policies, as he will be forming them in his own name this time around, thus he can blame no one else.
Given his background he should know how the financial markets work, and should be able to communicate sensibly with the Governor of the Bank of England, so that should be two positives.
Will he undo some of what were always thought to be his polices and tax rises, will he get more efficient Government spending, will he encourage growth per capita, will he put controls on immigration and take action against those who have gamed the system at the taxpayers expense, and whilst I am sure he understands the chaos and financial damage that inflation brings to millions, does he really have the will to do something about it to ease some of that suffering.
We wait and see.
October 26, 2022
It’s strange that in this debate everyone ignores the obvious way to get taxes down. End the ludicrously expensive pensions triple lock, end DB pensions for public sector workers, limit ballooning healthcare spending on the elderly, and probably start charging everyone, on a means-tested basis, for GP appointments. I agree the aim should be to keep taxes as low as possible. But with an ageing population, and productivity growth that will be hard to stop trending lower, let alone boosting, I’m afraid the objective of getting taxes down is nothing more than a pipedream if you want to keep debt down too. Why can’t you Tories be honest with the electorate. Oh hang on, I get it, this would hurt pensioners who vote for you.
October 27, 2022
Why just concentrate on pensioners?
Surely benefits should be limited to the lower of inflation or average wage rises?
Why should benefit recipients be protected in a way the rest of us aren’t?
October 26, 2022
The PMās first task is to cancel Net Zero, a project which is so expensive that the Treasury refused to give the HoC Public Accounts Committee any costing. It is totally reckless to blow up fossil fuel power plants, defund fossil fuel exploration/production and force the country to depend upon Chinese supplied renewables with no non-fossil fuel replacement system in place for grid stability and long-term back-up. We are not going to be a prosperous country when our energy is insecure, expensive and intermittent and the electrical replacements impractical.
All to save our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions.
In fact we need to emit more CO2 into the atmosphere to promote food growth to prevent famines and to counter the sequestration of CO2 by shelled marine animals that has brought the CO2 down over the last 150 million years from many times its current level to just 180 ppm at the last ice age, just 30 ppm above the minimum for plants to survive.
October 26, 2022
Thank you, Richard. This needs repeating, often.
October 26, 2022
Great leap towards Net Zero.
Yesterday Ford ceased production of their Fiestaā¦
In future they will concentrate on expensive electric models!
No more affordable motoring.
No more motoring.
October 26, 2022
Si John That is all but a dream, the reality is a nightmare
Comments in the Telegraph
‘Without cutting waste and spend in the public sector, how do we get tax cuts?? ‘
‘reforming the inefficient and costly civil service and quangocracy to reduce numbers and increase accountability ‘
Everyone but the Empire builders can see the real problem. The Quasi rulers are forced to follow the bidding of their masters elsewhere and keep increasing the State, how else can this foreign competition hold a whole nation back. The Question for the whole of the HoC is whom do they serve and who pays their wages?
October 26, 2022
In the August MPC report they said…..
//In the minutes of its May 2022 meeting, the Committee asked Bank staff to work on a strategy for selling UK government bonds (gilts) held in the Asset Purchase Facility and committed to providing an update at its August meeting. Based on this analysis, the Committee is provisionally minded to commence gilt sales shortly after its September meeting, subject to economic and market conditions being judged appropriate and to a confirmatory vote at that meeting.//
In the 22nd September report….
//The Committee also voted unanimously to reduce the stock of purchased UK government bonds, financed by the issuance of central bank reserves, by Ā£80 billion over the next twelve months, to a total of Ā£758 billion, in line with the strategy set out in the minutes of the August MPC meeting.//
This was a day before the Mini Budget where a chunky energy cap policy was going to be announced , as well as the halt to tax increases in order to generate growth, a counter measure to the recessionary headwinds the economy was facing. Where was the ….// subject to economic and market conditions being judged appropriate// … as laid out in their August MPC report? A question needs to be asked as to what put the skids under the Gilt markets? The budget or the Bank of England’s proposed quantitative tightening?
A week later the BoE was having to pivot from their proposed selling of Gilts, to buying Ā£64bn of them to ‘save ‘ pensions.
October 26, 2022
The world bank says that governments spent too much on covid and it should have been more targeted. They said that governments are going down the same route with energy support. They also said it will take many decades to pay this off,so many of your children and children’s, children WILL be paying it off so let’s stop this nonsense. Cut what can be cut first without effecting the people first. Stop foreign aid, stop Support to Ukraine and stop HS2, people today are more important than those who aren’t born yet.
October 26, 2022
I see all the shadow cabinet can go on about is the appointment of Suella Baverman. Pathetic. She’s made a mistake and acknowledged that. If left to do her job properly she is looking like a good choice. With the social unrest brewing in Kent because of the numbers and a woman in Kent finding an illegal immigrant inside her home it’s imperative this problem is got to grips with. It was made clear today that after being put up in hotels many are being rehoused by councle. The waiting lists for homes are getting longer. Worthing in Sussex is unrecognisable in some areas. There are new housing estates going up everywhere and they are SO SMALL. No space around them and hardly any parking. There is no extra infrastructure for thousands of new homes. No new schools and no extra GPs or hospital beds. When government goes on about levelling up they need to understand not everyone in the South is finding it easy. Our youngsters have a tougher time trying to leave home with average rents for a one bedroom flat at Ā£1k per month and house prices at Ā£250k for a new studio flat. The national minimum wage is the same north and south. Wages are the same for public servants and for big nationwide employers. Houses, council taxes, services and water rates are more expensive in the south. Many of my friends children simply cannot afford to leave home. Not everyone can have a highly paid job but I don’t remember at 16 when I left home rents being unaffordable even though I was on a very low wage at that time. We simply must start looking after our own before illegal invaders.
October 27, 2022
Fed Up
Yup,
Too many people not enough houses.
Too many cars not enough parking spaces.
Too many patients not enough Gp’s
Too many price rises not enough income.
The list goes on and on and on !
October 27, 2022
Civil service national pay scales are insidious.
The money printing of the last 14 years has left youngsters (North and South but predominantly South) unable to get on the property ladder without a bequest (which of course is taxed unless your are wealthy enough to put it in trust).
October 28, 2022
FuS, that is what levelling up is supposed to be about, moving good jobs around the country to take some of the requirements for so many new homes from the South.
I wonder about GPs how does one become a Partner, has that got more difficult? The bma says the number of Partner GPs has dropped from 24,000 in 2015 to 19,500 in 2022, salaried GPs have risen from 11,000 (2015) to 15,500 (2022).
Hours have also dropped, so does the amount they get per patient drop if their hours available have dropped? 32% did >37.5 hours per week in 2017 now, it is only 23%. How many GPs are we training each year?
Perhaps it is because lots of old GP appointments are now not handled by GPs, everything from maternity visits, I didn’t see a GP throughout my 3rd child’s gestation even though I had a problem history, didn’t see a consultant in the hospital either you used to have two visits with a consultant 30 years ago and about three with your GP. It would be interesting to see if there has been a big intake of nurse practitioners most older people who go in for MOTs see them rather than GPs. Have the number of nurse practitioners and women’s clinic staff risen as the number of GPs has fallen?
You can still get a home under Ā£100,000 in Liverpool, yet the dockers on an average of Ā£45k per year aren’t happy with their pay.
October 26, 2022
The Parliamentary Party have written a blank cheque. They canāt afford yet another sacked PM so they are stuck with whatever Sunak chooses to deliver.
The Membership can choose only from a unattractive shortlist of candidates. Thatās why the Parliamentary Party is so pedestrian.
Whatever happens now will be solely on the grown-ups head. They started it and they will finish it, with a short interlude of conservatism fromTruss quickly extinguished.
October 26, 2022
I still think his premiership contravenes the Act of Settlement 1700. For MPs to consider the economy more important than the spiritual health of the nation speaks volumes about why we are in the current mess.
October 26, 2022
The same tired old, discredited, Hayek-Freedman economics that history has shown works only for the most well-off at the expense of the poorest.
October 27, 2022
As opposed to policies that screw everybody?
October 26, 2022
I was hoping and praying someone would shut Yvette Cooper up today after PMQs. She was going on and on about Braverman saying what a risk to national security she was. No dear. Your party is the biggest risk not wanting to address the problem of illegal immigration. Bless Bernard Jenkins for pointing but that Tony Blair reappointed a minister after they broke the ministerial code. Have Labour nothing better to talk about? They obviously don’t have a clue.
October 27, 2022
Braverman admitted her mistake and resigned. That alone makes her a rare specimen in Parliament and well worth hanging onto. There are too few honest and unselfish people in Parliament.
October 26, 2022
Sunak has set out a stall of failure to tackle our energy supply crisis through his announcement that he is instituting a ban on fracking (following a shockingly poor debate on the topic dictated by the Labour Party, whose policy he is now espousing). Add in the appointment to of Mr Shapps, a.k.a. Michael Green, to the position of Business Eradication and Industrial Suppression minister, who was responsible when Transport Minister for policies designed to gum up our transport system, and the intention is clear.
We will be poor, cold and hungry. Jobs and cars will go, and many stand to lose their homes. He will be propped up by the opposition benches until they can see the problems have hit a nadir allowing them to claim that they couldn’t do worse.
October 26, 2022
Sir John, do you mean ‘low’ tax, or a reasonable ‘mean/average ‘ tax? Rembering the UK is now at a 70year high for tax take.
The tax system also needs an overhaul it isn’t proportional to everyone, yet everyone demands an entitlement to the facilities it provides
October 26, 2022
A new chill wind is blowing through Downing St. The moratorium on fracking in England has been restored by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Downing Street confirmed Mr Sunak was committed to the ban on fracking in England set out in his party’s 2019 manifesto. His predecessor Liz Truss lifted the ban, saying fracking could take place where there was local consent.
But this provoked a backlash from many Conservative MPs because of concerns about earth tremors linked to fracking. There will be earth tremors far and wide as people faint and collapse from hypothermia.
What are the signs and symptoms of hypothermia?
Shivering. Exhaustion or feeling very tired. Confusion. Fumbling hands.
Memory loss. Slurred speech. Drowsiness.
Seems to be a lot of that in the corridors of power.
October 26, 2022
I don’t get a warm fuzzy feeling about the new PM, do you Sir John, unless that is one peeing down a trouser leg?
October 26, 2022
Meanwhile Germany is pulling down a Windfarm in order to extend an opencast Lignite Coal mine to feed their three lignite power stations they had taken off line, but no longer .
And our brilliant lot are banning fracking.
October 26, 2022
So in addition to no spending cuts no supply side reforms at all – no fracking, no onshore wind, no planning reform. All heās got left are tax rises- I bet thereāll be some of those. How do Sunakās policies differ from Labour ?
October 26, 2022
I saw on Guido that the fracking ban is back. If true, to think we’re sitting on all that gas (figuratively speaking) and can’t use any of it is very disappointing.
October 26, 2022
Boris would have been a bad joke with his green zealotry, but you have to worry about Rishi when the Green MP applauds the answer to her question. Don’t these people understand that all of modern life is based around energy supply?
October 26, 2022
Too bad that only 3 MPs attended the parliamentary debate on COVID-19 vaccines safety on Monday Sir Christopher Chope, Danny Kruger and Andrew Bridgen, later joined by Natalie Elphicke and Sir John Hayes. Too bad that Elliot Colburn insulted the victims. No one from Labour. When will this unfolding disaster be taken seriously?
October 26, 2022
It will when it actually happens, unfolding is not very specific, is it?
October 26, 2022
I see Tory ministers and MPs are already complaining about the prospect of spending cuts. (One wonders if some Tory MPs get themselves elected by matching the promises of their Labour oppos to increase benefits and local subsidies.)
In any case, the economic problem with government spending cuts is that, without supply-side tax-cutting growth, they usually just prolong a recession. And of course the empire-preserving sabotage of the civil service means that they are rarely effective.
The entire role of the cs needs to be cut back in general. They are not there (for example) to tell governments who should be a minister and who should not.
October 26, 2022
Shame about fracking
Enough gas to transition towards a fossil free net zero future to last us years.
Saves importing other nations gas, helps our balance of payments and creates thousands of jobs.
With sensible license controls the price could affect our home market just like America where gas prices are far lower than here and in Europe.
We won’t use more gas just our own gas.
Best of luck keeping the lights on.
October 27, 2022
Importing Russian gas from Turkey! Turkey will soon be too rich and expensive for British tourists.
October 26, 2022
It didn’t take long for Sunak to ban fracking again. That should help the economy and the energy crisis. Reform is the home for anyone who understands earthquakes energy resources and security. How can sensible MPs stay in the party when as soon as any PM sees sense, they are ousted and a globalist conformist is put in with vote?
October 26, 2022
Sunak has appointed numerous people to the the wrong posts, posts they are too emotionally attached to which is likely to result in their disillusionment and destabilising resignations before too long when they cannot get much of what they want. Truss avoided this mistake by going to the opposite extreme of only appointing her personal supporters (with the exception of the apparently negotiated appointment of Suella Braverman). Strife and trouble ahead for the government on this as well as other things.
October 26, 2022
These Tories have completely lost the plot. The mealy-mouthed Foreign Secretary now says that any gay people going to the World Cup in Qatar should respect the hosts even though the Qataris will not respect them. At least Keir Starmer says he will visit the place.
October 26, 2022
Sorry, Kier will not visit the place, of course.
October 27, 2022
The Foreign Secretary rightly said that Starmer has the luxury of opposition and can say what he likes, but he, Cleverly, has serious work to do.
The FS cannot just break off relations with countries at will. Besides, all these jamborees are international summits.
October 27, 2022
If you are not prepared to respect the laws and customs of a country you should not go there.
If you do go and do disrespect them take then your lumps and don’t expect any help.
October 27, 2022
There is a choice wherever you travel. It is not compulsory to attend the World Cup.
Storm in a teacup.
October 28, 2022
Miami, does the foreign secretary get any choice in where the World Cup is? I doubt it. British Clubs could show the match and invite British people in to watch collectively on lower-cost tickets and fill the place.
October 26, 2022
Ah! No fracking. No energy even in the mid-term. I suggest that all the Greens and those who vote for these policies have their energy disconnected permanently. That includes Sunak.
October 26, 2022
I see from the latest Government figures that we have so far this year had more than 38,000 illegals who have crossed the Channel in rubber boats so far.
How many have proof of identity
How many can prove they are genuine refugees.
How many have criminal records
How long will they be put up at the taxpayers expense.
Where are they being housed.
How much do we spend each week.
What is the end game plan/policy, and how long will it take to implement.
October 28, 2022
Berkshire Alan:
There is little that has been publicly announced in terms of plan or end game, although the PM is now looking to an enhanced agreement with France. We know the Rwanda project is still on the cards with an initial Ā£ 120m paid and more recently a further Ā£20m payment either paid or due.
The number of people awaiting decisions on their asylum claims in the UK surged by 300% plus in 4 years ( The Guardian ) 118.000 is the latest figure Iāve read. My understanding is a large percentage of claims are eventually granted. Migration Watch is a good & reputable website for info.
Hotel accomm costs months back being reported as Ā£ 5m a day. More recent estimates last few days is well above that – Ā£ 6 or 7m a day. Hotels only.
Other facts & figures, excluding provision of medical / dental care, reported & to be found easily ā for example:
Ā£ millions are spent on coaching, transport, interpreters, mobile phones, extra staffing, set up of new centres, Border Force fuel and catering. Immediate food provision for migrants on arrival just for 2021/22 for example well in excess of Ā£ 2m.
Billion pound contracts to UK Gov appointed provider companies ongoing
Private boat charter / crew costs for UK Gov appointed provider to pick up & deliver to UK shores. Reported in Guardian 29/8/22
Hundreds of hotels filled and being commandeered on an ongoing basis. ( Recent reporting suggests in excess of 200 but may be more ) the length & breadth of the country.
Thousands reportedly basically queuing up in northern France waiting to cross. 308 / 9 boats yesterday (MoD figures)
3000 presently in the Kent reception centre at Manston, opened this year with a capacity nearer to 1500 so overcrowding & tense situations and unrest emerging there. Reported this week that 7 incidents had to be attended by police on Monday. In past reports there have been violent incidents reported against the staff. Amongst other centres, Napier Barracks in Folkestone still being used.
There are apparently no statistics available for any illegal entry taking place via lorries / Eurotunnel for example.
There does not appear to be much attention or published statistics either to the impact of any illegal entry to the UK via the Ireland route.
There have recently been health issues reported in Manston ā cases of Diptheria and Tuberculosis. As reported in various media outlets & GB News also.
ID & criminal records ā We know that many destroy papers & phones, that has been witnessed. Announced widely in August, Albanian police were to be stationed in Dover to check incoming Albanian migrants, e.g. fingerprints / biometric data. With the H O changes, not sure where things are on that one.
A proposed scheme reported recently requests landlords to consider providing any spare room, generously funded by the Government on 5 year contract, i.e. the Taxpayer, with major expense of rent & council tax provided and no doubt other expenses. I assume provision of gas & electricity would be a major expense also. Possibly funded Home Stays for illegals also suggested.
This is the stuff of desperation.
October 26, 2022
It is becoming obvious that the Sunak/Hunt combo, doesn’t know its fiscal arse from its monetary elbow. They understand so little such that the “markets”, can run circles around them.
Fact. The BoE can set its policy interest rate at any level it wants, regardless of what the secondary bond casino thinks it should be. The BoE should try setting it to zero % and watch what happens.
Fact. The government Bond casino can only operate in the space that the Treasury/BoE allows it to operate in. The UK government allows this casino to totally dictate the UK economy for the profit of the 1% elite, via the MPs it funds to lobby for it.
October 26, 2022
If the HMG offered only zero coupons bonds who would buy its paper? unless legally obliged.
Gov would have to spend the money into existence. Instant inflation given the track record.
The 2nd hand market would sell its bonds to the gov presumably or the private sector.
Surely we would end up with a 2 tier market.
Explain more please.
October 27, 2022
Issuing Gilts to match the government’s deficit is purely a political choice, there is no requirement for it in a fiat currency economy; Gilts do not fund government spending. The Treasury does not “borrow” its own monopoly currency from anyone. There is no level of Sterling so called “national debt”, that the Treasury can’t sustain. It will never default in its own currency. There is no good or service it can’t afford to buy that is for sale in its own monopoly currency.
The BoE raising interest rates increases the nominal spending in the economy and adds to inflation, putting bond yields to zero eliminates that problem. Better still, the government should stop issuing the Gilts and eliminate this corporate benefit payments system and the Gilt casino players whose winnings the government pays for.
Counter wise, the plan to reduce risk-free interest paying government bonds in the “national debt”, reduces the net financial assets held by the non-government sector as private wealth.
October 26, 2022
Forgetting every action has a reaction acorn.
October 26, 2022
Off topic, the Evening Standard reports that the Irish Prime Minister is:
“in no doubt that Europe stands ready to be flexible in terms of all matters pertaining to the protocol”.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/rishi-sunak-europe-micheal-martin-liz-truss-prime-minister-b1035439.html
But he forgot to add:
“although nothing in the protocol itself can be changed, not even a comma”.
October 26, 2022
Tories against fracking for shale gas, and reinforces their commitment to a ban while people are freezing to death and companies go bust ā¦.never fear we can import as much as we like ā SirJ āāwe donāt believe youāā
October 26, 2022
Sunak justifies putting up tax – against the provisions of the 2019 Manifesto – on what he claims are the reasonable grounds that covid, lockdown spending, the Ukraine war and the energy crisis could not be foreseen in December 2019.
Yet fracking will not even be explored for a cost/benefit analysis, to see if the caveat of the manifesto can be tested – even though the same argument applies, that it is direly necessitated by precisely the same unforeseen energy crisis/Ukraine war.
The manifesto stated: “We will not support fracking unless the science shows categorically that it can be done safely.” (The abuse of that weasel word ‘safely’ and the extreme, EU-sponsored ‘precautionary principle’ is the bane of modern life. It seems not to occur to the ninny-nannies that driving a car or crossing the road should also be banned, as neither can be guaranteed to be done 100% ‘safely’.)
As for ‘the science’ – where is it?? It has not reported more than surmise, and as we can all now see, ‘the scientists’ so often turn out to have a political axe to grind. As long as the sheeple are given ‘free money’ to ease the real cost of their energy use, and as long as that free money is raised in taxes that hurt somebody else, there will never be a majority that demands fracking be implemented.
Unless everyone wants to be impoverished, hungry and freezing, There Is No Alternative.
October 26, 2022
I’m pleased Mr Sunak got the job and am curious to see what he does with it. I [unlike others] do not profess to know exactly what the correct political course is, but the guy has a good feel as a leader and statesman.
As for any election, regardless of when that may be, my vote will continue to go to whomever appears to care about Wokingham, which JR does, particularly on Schools. I’d like to see you press Mr Sunak on more local regards as well as national policy.
October 27, 2022
With extraordinary precision the new PM targets, in his first speech, the only realistic route out of the bind the UK is in. Onshore fracking would have delivered hope within two years, a positive achievement to point to as the next election looms. He targets it and shoots it down.
If we get a cold winter before the next election then the Conservative Party will pay for this error.
JF
October 27, 2022
I’m very sorry to say that Rishi is intellectually opposed to growth and is wed to Treasury orthodoxy. I just wish you were our leader or Chancellor. Because you are not, I will not be voting Tory in the next election. It seems to me that Reform is now the real conservative party and needs MPs like you. I will be voting for them.