One of the joys of tax cutting which even gloomy Treasury advisers should like is the way cutting taxes can allow you to end or cut subsidies. The present government has been dragged into an expensive and poor model of taxing too much then offering subsidies as offsets, or vice versa. We read how they offered subsidies to Astra Zeneca to put their investment into the UK only to find Astra preferred a lower tax rate and rightly so.
We are currently offering substantial subsidies to users of domestic gas fuel, whilst charging VAT on the fuel as well. Why? If the government suspended the VAT whilst fuel prices are high there would be two big benefits. Inflation would come down a bit quicker, cutting other public sector costs. Energy subsidies could be reduced saving more public spending. Cut out the middleman and woman employed to get the tax right and get the subsidy payment right, and save on admin.
We currently impose the highest carbon taxes on our high energy using industries like steel and ceramics. They then are not competitive, and end up needing large subsidies from taxpayers if they are to have any chance of limping on in a very competitive world. Why do the round trip and end up with a bad answer? Suspend the taxes whilst times are tough.
The government has got to get away from the idea that it is wise enough to fix prices, settle subsidies, offer tax incentives and dictate a new pattern of economic output unrelated to people’s wishes and preferences. There is too much nudging and not enough allowing. If government sets out too may rules and interventions big business and rich people decide to go elsewhere. The interventionist model ends up with too heavy a reliance of imports. Too much borrowing and money printing ends in poor outcomes. That is why we need to cut tax rates to raise investment and tax revenues. That is why it is foolish to tax to raise money to subsidise the activities you are overtaxing.
February 14, 2023
Good morning.
I agree with our kind host but, many now see that this government and his party are doomed and many rats are jumping ship. It also seems that there are those who, whilst they can, will use the opportunity to ‘fill their boots’ at the taxpayers expense via subsidies and nice government contracts, together with favourable legislation which benefits them and not others.
If you look at the state of our roads you can see how badly they are maintained. Paint on many has faded into nothing. As sure sign of neglect and decay.
February 14, 2023
Indeed but the government, LEAs and Khan are investing millions in cash cow cameras, signs and deceptive systems to trick & mug motorists. A hugely inefficient and unfair way to raise taxes.
Also rigging the energy market so it is absurdly expensive also taxing it and then giving subsidies back to make it affordable is clearly idiotic and hugely inefficient. But it creates load of parasitic well paid and pensioned jobs in the state sector so they rather like the plan. They are in the letâs over regulate and fine people âindustryâ.
We have an advertising standards organisation and yet EVs are allowed to advertise as being âzero emissionsâ the truth is they are far more net emissions but mainly elsewhere cars. This in manufacture, mining materials and at the power stations for charging.
February 14, 2023
+1 many
February 14, 2023
I thnk you’ve nailed it, Ashley. Tax and subsidy creates lots of jobs in the state sector for otherwise unemployables.
February 14, 2023
Yes, those Leave-voting farmers and rural types should get exactly what they voted for and stop bleating.
February 14, 2023
Perhaps if Brexiteers did get what they voted for (local legislation and accountability) then things may improve.
Interesting to note that the extra annual spend on the NHS since Brexit now exceeds the battle bus dividend claim that remainers derided.
February 14, 2023
@NLH
Those farmers and rural types who voted “leave” …. ended up with “Brexit”.
“Brexit” wasn’t on the ballot paper.
February 14, 2023
Mark,
Agree Tories are doomed at next general election – would be better to call a vote now whilst the economy is tanking so we can watch the LAB/SNP shambles of a solution.
As Sir J say taxes + subsidies are a classic government mis-think. If taxes are not working then scrap them rather than tinkering with offsets. UK Tax regulation is the longest in the world – by some margin. Perhaps a bonfire of regulation would allow the economy to repair.
Wont happen – too many self-interest groups as Mark says.
February 14, 2023
A pattern is developing here.
A topic is raised. There are some who raise objections to the principles outlined. Some agree with the principles.
Many others prefer to comment on the motivation of the Prime Minister and Chancellor. They then move on to the pairâs unsuitability for high office and the consequences for the Conservative Party and the country.
February 14, 2023
We drive on a number of roads in Berkshire and Oxfordshire quite regularly, and find our eyes drawn to the obvious potholes, cracked joins roughly in the middle, and endless ‘temporary’ surfaces. I say temporary because the work lasts no time at all, usually within 1or 2years, it breaks down and has to be resurfaced again. This cheap fix resurfacing is false economy, who inspects the contractors for quality and appropriate measures to stop the work breaking up once again?
February 14, 2023
What I want to know, is are we being betrayed over Brexit?
Reply We need to take back control of Northern Ireland by completing the legislation. We need urgently to legislate to stop illegal migration. We need to complete the EU Retained law Bill.
February 14, 2023
Reply to reply
What is stopping them Sir John they have the majority? Something is radically wrong. They should be bold, brave and JFDI. Show some guts and backbone for once in their lives.
February 14, 2023
They donât have a majority. Canât get legislation through the Lords and the parliamentary party split, the so called âone nationâ (Brino) group more than outweighing the ERG. Plus Labour. Donât also forget the 100 plus on âthe booksâ so more interested in their own careers than representing our views.
Sir John knows that the forthcoming agreement on the Protocol will be a sell out re ECJ and the recent cross party âsecretâ meeting with the EU is even more alignment (another sell out) with a Rejoin referendum downstream when we have been softened up.
Member of the BOE just happened to come out yesterday with a statement of how much Brexit cost us per family. Zero pushback from HMG.
Looks like even the ERG have given up. Sir JR a stranger in his own party.
Reply The ERG has not given up. We have been assured that the government knows there can be no deal without ending ECJ powers in Ni and stopping the flood of EU laws in NI.
February 14, 2023
It seems the fudge is to be along the lines of the ECJ remaining the ultimate court in NI but that fact being presented differently in the EU and the U.K. Labour, if they get in, will cave in on this and every other area of dispute with the EU. We will de facto be back in both the SM and the CU by the end of a Labour govt. then we may as well vote rejoin. All that would be needed to cement that continuity remain triumph would be a sustained period of sterling weakness, so people donât object to joining the euro, as will be required.
February 14, 2023
Richard1
If we are stupid enough to go back in it will be payback time, big time. There will be quarter asked but non given.
Let’s wait and see what happens to those all involved in the big bung scandal that’s been uncovered. Its not that have done it as usual on a grand scale, this time they have been caught red handed with no hiding place. The house of cards will come crashing down. How many will sing about past escapades to reduce their sentence?
The end could well and truly be nigh.
February 14, 2023
Briefly, JR, because something like half of the goods leaving Northern Ireland and crossing the open land border into the Irish Republic have been produced in the province, they have not been brought in from outside and so have not been checked on entry, it will not be possible to end ECJ powers or stop the flood of EU laws while protection of the EU Single Market is still sought through EU controls on the goods imported into NI, plus EU Single Market rules for all the goods produced in NI. Freeing Northern Ireland from EU control requires a change from EU import controls to UK export controls applied to the goods destined for carriage across the border, locally produced goods as well as imported goods.
Reply Not so. Uk can require exporters to comply with EU specs on just the exports.
February 14, 2023
Could do, but hasn’t and isn’t and won’t.
February 14, 2023
UK exporters always have had to produce goods that comply with the regulations of the recipient. Goods that don’t are always smuggled. Goods that are taxed differently are bought and moved between EU countries daily. The Commission said that the UK would pay by the loss of NI and this is what their game is about.
February 14, 2023
Stred, show me where present UK law requires that.
Why did Lord Frost moot that the UK could pass new laws for that purpose?
Paragraphs 43 and 62 of the July 2021 Command Paper:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/northern-ireland-protocol-next-steps
âWe also stand ready to bring in new legislation to deter anyone in Northern Ireland looking to export to Ireland goods which do not meet EU standards or to evade these enforcement processes.â
âOnce again we are also ready to put in place legislation to provide for penalties for UK traders seeking to place non-compliant goods on the EU market.â
February 14, 2023
My other comment which has not been published explained in detail why the obvious solution of export controls would be easy to implement but would not suit Dublin and Brussels.
February 15, 2023
I am going to try again, because it is crucially important that this is understood.
Here is Lord Peter Lilley writing about “mutual enforcement” a year ago:
https://conservativehome.com/2022/02/12/peter-lilley-the-protocol-mutual-enforcement-of-the-law-can-ensure-goods-are-eu-uk-compliant-without-border-checks/
In the hope that it may be published I will highlight one sentence:
“The obvious solution is to make it an offence in UK law to export goods from Northern Ireland to the Republic which do not conform to EU rules, regulations and standards.”
With the words “in the UK law” emphasised, italicised, in the original article.
It may come as a surprise that it is not already an offence in UK law to send goods across the border into the EU Single Market which do not conform to EU requirements, but that is why all goods production in Northern Ireland has to remain under EU control.
February 15, 2023
And here is Lord Peter Lilley speaking in the Lords last week:
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-02-09/debates/B16924AD-B048-4650-98DE-98B47D0E6766/ProtocolOnIrelandNorthernIrelandSupremeCourtJudgment#contribution-A5CF79BE-191C-4924-972B-BEF81DEE10FA
“My Lords, up to half of all goods and produce exported across the border from Northern Ireland to the Republic are produced in Northern Ireland, and therefore cannot be validated as to whether they meet EU conditions at the border between GB and Northern Ireland. Should we not remove the border between GB and Northern Ireland and rely on export controls and the SPIRE system, which I used to exercise as the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, to ensure that goods exported to the European Union meet European standards? That would solve the problem.”
February 14, 2023
I would also like to know what is stopping them. Is it themselves who are stopping it, because they care nothing for the democratic wishes of the electorate and the main reason they were put into power.
February 14, 2023
Shirley. Me too. A bit like illegal immigration. We keep hearing the words but don’t see action. Is it any wonder people in the north west are protesting? They will soon be inundated with males who care nothing for females. Its storing up big time problems. Notice the fancy rich areas of the south are unaffected.
February 14, 2023
Under Sunak they keep coming everyday âŠmaybe thatâs the plan
13th Feb (immigrants 105 â boats 2)
February 14, 2023
Reply to Denis.
They have to comply because it would be illegal to sell them in the recipient country. Goods made in China have to comply with EU and US standards. UK standards still comply with EU and so the EU connected worries are only to attack Brexit and warn any others off.
February 14, 2023
How can imports from China pass EU & US standards? Time and time again, I and friends find Chinese products supposedly passing quality examination, but don’t deliver on expectations and need replacing well within a reasonable view of product lifetime. We are so deluged by the stuff it is very hard to find similar made elsewhere.
February 15, 2023
Once again, I;m not allowed to reply.
We are not talking about the law of the recipient country, we are talking about UK law.
See: https://www.ft.com/content/6923b4b7-6e4a-41f0-a22f-70459db3cd7f
February 14, 2023
Circulated this morning under the heading:
“Why London also did not like UK export controls, and may still not like them”
“Because although Theresa May pretends to be a Conservative and Unionist she is in fact a Conservative and European Unionist, like most other Tory MPs and almost all Tory peers. As a Conservative she would inevitably seek to give the CBI and other business lobby groups what they wanted, and as a European Unionist she would have no problem if that meant giving them continuing EU economic control over the whole of the UK. The question now is whether Rishi Sunak is also at heart just another Conservative and European Unionist, and I would say that the jury is still out on that.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/28/smoothing-trade/#comment-1295900
Yesterday Bill brown asked for proof that Theresa May’s “Brexit In Name Only” plan was designed to please the CBI, and other business pressure groups, and that she used the largely fabricated problem of the Irish land border as a pretext to give those groups most of what they wanted. If he had followed events over the years he might have seen this happening for himself, but in any case I offered a reply, which however was not published. I think it is important to understand as much as possible about how we have been led, or rather misled, into the current mess and therefore I have picked out three of the many relevant references on this blog, all from March 2019 but with internal references reaching back to August 2018.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/03/10/tuesdays-vote/#comment-1001836
“The Chequers deal is proof that the government has listened â it is as close to what we asked for as we were ever likely to get â and the Prime Minister has shown considerable fortitude in squaring the circles needed to deliver it. The rest of the government and all of Parliament now need to get behind it.â
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/03/17/i-see-no-reason-for-a-delay-in-brexit/#comment-1004134
“Is it not significant that the CBI and other business lobby groups support her deal, not as an ideal outcome but as the best that they could hope for short of the UK staying in the EU? And is it not significant that the Irish government pretty much agrees with the CBI, and so is very willing to provide her with a pretext for doing what the CBI wanted her to do? For the Irish Prime Minister the issue of the open Irish land border is a ruse, while for our Prime Minister it is a pretext, and both are happy to collude on that.”
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/03/17/i-see-no-reason-for-a-delay-in-brexit/#comment-1004361
“As I have said before until I myself am sick of saying it, Theresa May has been doing what what first Tory and then also Labour governments have been doing for more than half a century: giving priority to the interests and convenience of the 6% or thereabouts of UK businesses which export about 12% of GDP to the rest of the EU, and especially to the larger and more vocal businesses. It was noticeable and significant that she even went to talk to the CBI about her deal before she told the House of Commons:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-to-cbi-19-november-2018
âPM speech to CBI: 19 November 2018â
âLast week the Cabinet agreed the terms of the UKâs withdrawal from the European Union ⊠We now have an intense week of negotiations ahead of us in the run-up to the special European Council on Sunday. During that time I expect us to hammer out the full and final details of the framework that will underpin our future relationship and I am confident that we can strike a deal at the council that I can take back to the House of Commons.â””
February 14, 2023
Turbo
Indeed if they cannot get it through Parliament or the House of Lords, then Broadcast it loud and clear so that everyone knows what is going on behind the scenes to thwart the democratic will of the people.
Once again the Conservatives are failing on communication skills and publicity of the correct sort.
I actually wonder if they are getting anything right at all.
February 14, 2023
I think that the Northern Irish would very much like to take back control – from Tory, brexit-obsessed Westminster.
February 14, 2023
You think! Perhaps there are other opinions available! If anyone is Brexit obsessed it is you.
February 14, 2023
NLH – Don’t think so they are onto a good thing 15 billion block grant fro the treasury each year into a country with a population of 2 million. They won’t even take seats in their own parliament – tyey’re on on full time hols it seems.
February 14, 2023
You’re not following the script John.
Once a tax is levied, it can’t be repealed. Giving subsidies out is job creation for the civil Serpents.
How are they going to manage if all taxes are simplified. You just don’t get it.
Vat on energy needs EU approval to remove so ir will never happen because it would expose you to ridicule.
February 14, 2023
Reply to reply:
So what’s stopping the Government? They’ve got a 70 seat majority; they claim they have the mandate yet they actually DO the square root of SFA.
Although according to Dr David Bull on TalkTV this morning, Sunak will be announcing his latest back-down on NI in the next two weeks. Still, I’m not surprised. Marionettes don’t have spines, do they. They’re jerked around by the person/people pulling the strings.
February 14, 2023
Sunk may back down on the ECJ, NI protocol, fracking, unified high Corporation Tax, UN Migration Pact, WEF car ghettos, electrification of everything, ultra pollution rules, EU high speed rail plan, digital currency, digital health passports, WHO world control, mRNA vaccination, Internet censorship etc..
But he has pledged to protect the UK from high flying Chinese balloons.
February 14, 2023
@Stred How, they fly at an altitude that is at least 25,000 feet higher than anything we have that could do the job.
Recently Boris said the UK could give Ukraine a 100 of our jets. The RAF then noted it has just 101 serviceable mainstream jets and shares 34 of the limited range (STOVL) version of F35Bâs with the Navy.
February 15, 2023
The latest shot down at 40,000 – often civil aircraft fly at that level.
February 14, 2023
Three cheers for Sunak …..when he leaves for america
February 14, 2023
Yes, we are STILL being betrayed over Brexit and the intended next stage is to reverse it, de facto if not de jure.
This started, or at least it became more obvious, on March 2 2018 with Theresa May’s Mansion House speech:
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/pm-speech-on-our-future-economic-partnership-with-the-european-union
when she gratuitously accepted responsibility for finding a solution to the largely fabricated problem of the Irish land border to the satisfaction of Dublin and Brussels.
As stated on here before, for example:
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/07/22/my-contribution-in-the-northern-ireland-protocol-committee-day-2-debate/#comment-1330725
Just listen to this jubilant Rejoiner ranting away:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXAoNkOLdwE
“Secret Brexit Conference Signals Death of Hard Brexit”
However … I am not against having closer relations with the EU and its member states, my opposition is to our subjugation by the EU to the exclusion of independent closer relations with countries in the rest of the world.
February 14, 2023
@Reply if the MsM is to be believed Sunak is surrendering the UK to the rule of the EU political courts.
If our Government doesnât get to make, amend and repeal laws that affect the UK then it is not the UK Government and the UK is not a Democracy. This Government is in denial of its responsibilities – political speak cant twist that.
Or is he now saying the UK no longer exsists it is just GB. A bit disingenuous donât you thinks
February 14, 2023
Yes we need to…but won’t.
February 14, 2023
But when Sir John? We’ve had years of talk and no action on the Northern Ireland protocol, mass legal and illegal immigration. No one ever deported but kept at mine and others expense. We don’t want them and you and your civil serpents are refusing action. Any protests against these criminals are called right wing. The Tory’s are all talk and tax with no effective action, ever. Totally woke and useless.
February 14, 2023
Has not the subsidy train for all renewable energy power generation projects finally run out of steam and track?
The same can be said for all the constraint payments that allow windfarm sites both on and off shore show massive profits to satisfy their share holders dispite producing very little energy.
Time to guillotine the wholesale hammering of all energy users for the benefit of a few power generators and their shareholders by paying them such vast sums of money.
February 14, 2023
Too right Turbo. Money for nothing and most of it ends up abroad.
February 14, 2023
It’s not about tax or economic growth or subsidies. It’s about POLITICAL CONTROL over all things and of course ensuring EU equalisation.
For all of John’s writings which we all appreciate he knows that the future is not as an independent nation but a future in which the UK is carved up and turned into nothing more than a landing jetty. It is the result of treacherous politicians and snivelling, parasitic bureaucrats
February 14, 2023
An interesting use of adjectives.
February 14, 2023
Yes, and this piece of creative writing I quite approve of!
February 14, 2023
The very flawed NZ project and its obsession to the vast majority of our so called politicians will be the Achilles heel that will end up being the beginning of the end for millions of people across the country of life as they know it. All planned and directed by people off stage.
February 14, 2023
If the government and all its linked services actually committed themselves to stopping the waste of taxpayers money and being efficient and actually cost effective then in all probability the tax demands on the country would be far less.
Too many politicians lacking business, commercial and industrial experience. Career politicians with nothing to show but years of schooling, examinations and political researching, and not a grain of real common sense between them. With a majority of 80 + to start with, what have they achieved other than tear the country and party to pieces?
February 14, 2023
Great post Turbo.
February 14, 2023
JR Couldnât agree more with this post. The self harming has to end and common sense and logic must return!
February 14, 2023
Ps protocol will be agreed after HMG watered down hardline resistance to the ECJ. Means sold out/gave in
Yet again and that must include our host, sad to say.
February 14, 2023
Nothing to disagree with today Sir John. Complicated taxation and then re distribution by controlling government. Socialism.
All the hall marks of policy point to deliberate damage to the economy to assist the agenda of some to re join the EU. Energy policy based on fraudulent scientism of anthropogenic global warming/climate change. Surely the majority of Mp’s cannot believe such obvious nonsense, so why do they act as a herd?
February 14, 2023
Lionel Shriver in this week’s Spectator suggests the answer. She says that women in charge are not the same as men. She admits she is generalising, but generally speaking women like consensus, they like happiness and peace. So they are averse to risks. They like to show their compassion too by helping the poor and pathetic. They do not like courage. Hence the subsidies.
This she knows is sweeping and that there are some women who do not fit the mould.
I think there is an awful lot in what she says. We are a very long way away from Major Attlee and Dennis Healey who organised the British on D Day.
February 14, 2023
Anyone who reads main news stories over the last several years is likely to recall a number of women who certainly don’t ‘ generally speaking women like consensus, they like happiness and peace.’
February 14, 2023
Women don’t just seem to want ever more subsidies, but ever more laws too.
February 14, 2023
Why doesn’t the Government/Treasury cut VAT on energy? Why doesn’t it row back on the economy wrecking Net Zero lunacy?
Because the EU says NO. We are being kept aligned with the EU’s Rules so that the incoming Labour Government can snuggle up even closer to the EU and make us members in all but name, pending the ending of the Ukraine War and the creation of a two-tier structure …… the EUrozone and the Associated Nations.
I fully expect that was the subject of Gove’s discussions with Mandelson and the other treacherous anti-democrats last week.
February 14, 2023
Who would trust Gove.
February 14, 2023
Admirably put. But subsidies create vested interests which create irresistible employment opportunities for Conservative ministers and MPs voted out after the next general election.
February 15, 2023
Ka-Ching ! đ
February 14, 2023
A stable Government would look after its horses, not flog them to death.
February 14, 2023
If there was a married manâs tax allowance for mothers who chose to stay home and raise the under 5s then child care subsidies would reduce and the family unit would strengthen as Princess Kate wants
February 14, 2023
Or just even out taxes by giving income taxes already paid gradually back to stay at home mothers. Also tax relief on childcare costs where 2 people are employed instead of none, one working mother and one childminder. Also free up childminder rules. Trust parents to regulate minder themselves not the government. A good case study in avoiding subsidy world.
February 14, 2023
It used to be that way.
Taxing people individually reduced marriage to everyone for themselves.
February 14, 2023
Absolutely critical. But the problem is there are some couples who are now two âmarried menâ – do they get a double allowance?
This is a Sturgeon moment. Once you leave reason and rationality behind, there are no solutions.
February 14, 2023
There is a married allowance for you, you can stay home and transfer your allowance to your husbands. Itâs ÂŁ1200.
February 14, 2023
Only for basic rate taxpayers
February 14, 2023
Thereâs a great episode of Dilbert where the manger figures out if you cut costs to zero you can increase profits.
The treasury has the same thinking. If you can raise tax to 100% then you donât need the private sector.
February 14, 2023
‘… substantial subsidies to users of domestic gas fuel, whilst charging VAT.’ Yep – once that ÂŁ67/month hits my bank account I am paying LESS for my electricity and gas than I was before Putin invaded Ukraine.
P.S. There, I didn’t mention gaskets!
February 15, 2023
What size caravan do you live in?
February 14, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
‘Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive’
February 14, 2023
There is a fundamental truth in what you say. Subsidies and compensation payments create a dependency culture, control, or at best they are virtue signalling by the government, at worst they are attempts to buy votes.
I accept that there is a small element in our society that needs financial and other practical support. We need in many cases to do this a lot better than we do.
Were the tax starting point moved to ÂŁ25,000 and were pensioners to get ÂŁ25,000 pa, many of the subsidies could be eliminated. The tax system could cater for those that already had substantial income and there would be a large administrative saving, scribes could be returned to the private sector. There might be an increase in commercial activity.
The whole basis of our fuel industry is a scam. We pay commercial companies to extract fuel from our own sources and then sell it back to us at whatever the World market happens to be. So much so that said companies are free to buy fuel anywhere. Government double up on the scam by claiming virtue in not using our own fuel. They in effect move the downside of fossil fuel to literally anywhere in the World but the UK. With it goes all heavy fossil fuel using industry, yet more virtue for government.
We could produce almost all the fuel we need from UK sources at extraction cost plus a reasonable profit. Then industry and the population would have all the power they need at a sensible price pending the arrival of atomic power in ten years and fusion power in thirty. Erratic wind and solar minus customer subsidy could be used to produce hydrogen for propulsion and domestic/industrial gas needs.
Not doing this convinces me that government are intellectually handicapped or their pockets are being filled by vested interests.
February 14, 2023
You should ask your leaders, PM and Chancellor, why they prefer and are implimenting the Socialist economic model? Why do they believe in such a political ideology in preference to true Conservativism and capitalist freedoms?
Dare you? Or might this seem disloyal to the party?
February 14, 2023
At what point in time do you define your âConservativismâ?
03/11/2019 Andrew Gamble âAdapt or die: How the Conservative Party keeps powerâ.
February 14, 2023
Your post is simple and to the point JR.
It costs ÂŁ millions to collect tax, it costs ÂŁ millions to redistribute it.
All that money wasted, and you kill any ambition of people trying to be self sufficient in the process.
The State is not the answer to many of our problems, but the State is often the cause.
February 14, 2023
never a truer word…
February 14, 2023
His children and grandchildren will get “the best” ….. that California can supply. I predict he’ll be out of here days after he’s required to vacate Downing St.
February 14, 2023
+1
February 14, 2023
+1
February 14, 2023
What you so sensibly suggest has the added advantage of far greater simplicity and transparency about what is being done, anathema to the mandarins who much prefer people to be unable to understand what is happening to them. It seems that Sunak and Hunt are happy with this, so I see no prospect of change under the current regime.
February 14, 2023
âtaxing too much then offering subsidies as offsetsâ then add in the subsidies and grants to offset the already in place concessions that have caused the problem in the first place, you get an ever increasing out of control structure that further corrupts an already corrupted system.
Then again if we had a Conservative Government, a Government that could step up and manage, manage its own spend. Repeat manage its own spend. This spend, spend, spend philosophy is creating the dire straits we find ourselves in with our 70 year high on tax take. All the taxpayer money and efforts are going down the drain of a Government in denial and refusing to do what it is paid for.
February 14, 2023
A better PM would want the best future for the country as a whole, not just his own descendants.
February 15, 2023
That was probably the only time he was being honest. Albeit inadvertently,
February 14, 2023
âsubstantial subsidies to users of domestic gas fuel, whilst charging VAT on the fuel as well.â – the Boris Johnson punishment and contradiction
Remove money so there is no economy and no resources to pay for a change of direction down the line.
As other Countries have already stated they will not abandon their economy to create net zero. Their logic is lets create a strong resilient economy to be able to afford Net Zero.
Only this Socialist Government is kicking the trend, all under the BJ guidance of spend, spend, spend â someone else will pick up the bill
February 15, 2023
Got it in one mate !
February 14, 2023
Excellent article, absolutely spot on! But why are you a lone voice? Why isn’t every conservative MP hammering home the message to the PM & Chancellor? Are Sunak & Hunt thick, too intelligent to have any common sense, or just plain stupid? Do neither of them have the balls to challenge the consensus from the so-called experts who forecast gloom & doom for the UK economy?
What is the matter with them & the other conservative MPs, who all seem to be asleep on the job?
Why do they not cut the cost of government, so tax cuts are affordable? I do mean 1p of the basic rate, but real cuts that benefit everybody, 5p of the basic rate, allowances that go up with inflation & restoring them to what they would have been if they had not been frozen. Unlock the potential of the people of the UK & the economy will fly!
February 14, 2023
K f L
Hammering home the Message?
Not in their DNA. They are not true conservatives never were never will be.
February 14, 2023
I’ve never understood the logic behind taxing fossil fuels that are necessary to keep the lights on. Utter buffoonery. But then much of what this government is doing is bonkers. You have to ask are they in awe of Labour because that’s how it looks? Utter madness.
February 14, 2023
F U S
+ many
February 14, 2023
Due to a direct result of net-zero and subsidy to the renewable industry Ford has announced this morning that they are cutting 1,300 uk jobs to restructure to EV âŠthanks to the Tory government
February 14, 2023
That’s 1300 voters who should be wondering who to vote for.
February 14, 2023
Due to a direct result of implementing net-zero, building cycle lanes, employing diversity managers, and staff working from home, local councils have announced this morning that many of them are increasing council tax by the 5% max âŠonce again thanks to the Tory government
February 14, 2023
Glen
Yep, Astrazenica, now Ford, who will be next and when, meanwhile the Chancellor puts up more tax rates.
Council tax is next for everyone, then another increase in energy costs.
What fools we have as Ministers.
February 14, 2023
but we will be pleased to learn that savings on blue domestic waste bags and fewer collections will ease the shortfall on Local Council Tax. NOT!
February 15, 2023
M T
Indeed, those meagre savings will be outweighed by ever more spending on unused cycle lanes, coloured resin sprayed onto our roads to warn us of bends, junctions and traffic lights. etc etc etc.
Meanwhile the steady wrecking of our road infrastructure with ever less maintenance, causes damage to vehicles and tyres of all types, and makes the roads far more dangerous for cyclists and motorcyclists.
February 14, 2023
People work for three reasons:
Money: inflation and a very heavy tax burden.
Power: it is very nice to wear a suit to work, to have an expensive car and to be welcome at the golf course/diving school. But today we are all equal.
Autonomy: Freedom to learn, to make mistakes, to get it right, to feel you are valued and appreciated for the risks you have taken. Today the bureaucracy demands that you give account for everything and then protects itself when things go wrong. (Boris’ picture appeared at Partygate – all the other faces were redacted. Lots of anonymity and rumour mongering. Dominic Raab please note).
The government and, specifically the vast bureaucracy, militate against all three.
At the moment, corruption is still fairly controlled. When – if – that goes, we are a third world country like Turkey where the buildings all fall down on top of people.
February 14, 2023
‘Corruption is still fairly controlled.’
Really? You should get out more, or read thought provoking news that is careful to lead the horse to water without actually naming the beast with head in lake, trough, gravy train (take your pick)….
February 14, 2023
They know all of this, Sir John, the fifth column communists in Parliament, the civil service, the quangos, NGOs, âcharitiesâ, judiciary, educational establishment and all our institutions.
To gain complete control they intend to impoverish the country with high taxes and high levels of wasteful spending on Net Zero, HS2 etc. whilst ensuring people and businesses become dependent upon the state through taxpayer funded subsidies.
February 14, 2023
I watched a video of Richard Vobes talking to Richard Kyte who is an expert on the constitution. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot. The people of this country are sovereign, not Parliament, not the King as some people would have us believe. The people have spoken on the EU, so why are we still having this discussion?
February 14, 2023
We can pick at individual policies being followed by our government, which are all wrong – but they are wrong because they all follow socialist ideology and they have affected every area of society for the worse.
The questions we should be putting to HMG are
– “WHY are you imposing failed socialist methods on us when it is clear to everybody that they don’t work?”
– “WHAT happened to common sense decisions devoid of ideology?”
– “EXACTLY where are you taking this country, and under what sort of authority?”
February 14, 2023
+1
February 14, 2023
Not unlike our so-called Conservative government breaking legs and giving people crutches, and then expecting to be thanked for the crutches. We voted them in, and we will vote them out. The crying shame is that the situation is retrievable but there is no chance of it being retrieved by the present incumbents.
February 15, 2023
+1
Good analogy.
February 14, 2023
What you’re saying about cutting taxes is the way to go,
you know that so why are are
MP’S not telling the government VAT is one of the most beneficial taxes to cut .
Now we are supposed to be a independent country there is no reason to do so .
Just look at Ireland a low tax country they are attracting business from all over the world thank you john for you articles
February 14, 2023
As a means to raise tax revenue, I like VAT. It affects imports equally to UK manufactured goods, unlike business taxes like corporation tax and employer’s NI which stifle just UK business in favour of imports.
February 14, 2023
I’d like Value Added Tax to be renamed ‘Government Spending Tax’.
February 15, 2023
Dave
I agree. Some sort of purchase tax is a good one because it is directly linked to consumption. It also means that people get to keep more of their money and save for a rainy day.
February 14, 2023
“End the tax and subsidy machine”
Unfortunately, in order to justify its existence, the Establishment needs to interfere with our lives.
February 14, 2023
You speak of “the Government”, do you mean the elected Government or the un-elected Government?
I thought we had all accepted the UK is run by “The Establishment” and that does not include those elected?
I also thought we had accepted that “The Establishment” has not got over leaving the EU and is still essentially carrying on as before?
I suppose you are asking why the elected Government allows the un-elected Government to run things and why they do not over-rule “The Establishment”?
The ordinary tax payer is fully aware of how weak our democracy is and that electing MPs is a ploy by “”The Establishment” to continue the charade that “the voter has a choice”. After 5 Conservative Prime Minsters and having left the EU you have to continue, quite rightly, to question “the Government” but at best you will only have a marginal impact on change for the better because “The Establishment “rules.
February 14, 2023
+1 after a decade of Tory governments I canât think of success stories, but Iâve witness a reduction in democracy
February 15, 2023
democracy? never mentioned any more, just socialism.
February 14, 2023
This tax and subsidy merry-go-round also creates thousands of non-jobs where people can keep shifting our money around for no purpose
What a waste. Socialism does not work.
February 14, 2023
It seems very clear to me that the Conservatives in Government have completely lost direction but equally depressing is that the Back Benchers, many of whom apparently have Conservative (and Brexit) ideals, are not holding the “Government” to account. The Government is nothing without the Back Benchers but most of these seem happy to sit on their hands and follow the misguided party line. The news/press is daily reporting erroneous statements from dubious “sources” regarding the failure of Brexit and these comments are treated as fact but are invariably from biased individuals or organisations who have a clear agenda to return the UK to the “haven” of the EU. When are those individuals who support Brexit going to unite and get this failing project back on course.
February 14, 2023
Sunak and Hunt seem intent on wrecking the economy, then they will say it was Brexit and we need to align with the EU. They will even allow Labour to win at the next election to obey their masters.
February 14, 2023
The wrong motifs are running the Government ; strangling initiative will get us nowhere . Ask any child whether restraint ever won over encouragement ; the answer is ” no”.
February 14, 2023
Did not Sunak’s last budget extend various clawbacks to those earning in excess of ÂŁ50,000? Tax and subsidy is in the warp and weft of this rotten government. It just emphasizes how unnecessarily complex and distorting is its approach, all done absent any strategy or common sense. Is it any wonder that not much works as it ought in this country now?
February 14, 2023
For me to think that Hunt is a Conservative he will have to axe some of those ‘more than forty’ schemes to help with the ‘cost of living crisis’ and put the money into the pockets of the productive working and middle classes, through tax cuts. But he won’t – and that makes him New Labour, intent on carrying out Brown’s work of making the majority thinking that they are dependants of the state.
February 14, 2023
Petrol still at around ÂŁ1.45 per litre and energy bills are still sky high ……I don’t see any plan to reduce these costs, in fact I see the complete opposite – the Tory green revolution is alive and well …and costly
February 14, 2023
Sir John
âNo Parliament this weekâ just like No Government what difference does it make? Oh, yes the Country is sinkingâŠ.
âThe Councils making the cost of living squeeze worse with maximum tax rises say they are short of money.â – Councils are said to be raising local taxes to the maximum permissible
Isnât that the same as the maximum energy firms can charge â not related to the product or its cost etc. Government says you can chargeâŠ
University Fees, maximum now charged regardless of the quality of course or service provided.
The lists are endless
Also as you say Sir John – âTreasury advisers tell the government they can have any rules they like to run the economy as long as they come down to the two EU rules that deficits must be below 3% of GDP, and debt must be falling.â so the Treasury is working for the EU with agreement from Government, the purpose to neglect the UK.
All this disarray enhances the throw away culture from Government with our money. Then to make themselves feel better they then hand out grants, subsidies that then requires more tinkering, more fudges, more taxes. All they had to do was their job â Manage the UK for the UK
February 14, 2023
Hi John
What is the monetary balance .. Money from increased taxes or paying out in subsidies?
February 14, 2023
The private sector has modernised and our parliament is stuck in the 19th century, our public sector stuck in the 1970s and our civil service believe that theyâre still employed by the East India Company
February 15, 2023
You are not far wrong there.
February 14, 2023
Sir John, it seems to me that the present Government and it’s back room officials always adopt the most clumsy and the most difficult route to take in anything they lay their hands upon.
Do they for instance have an economic model that demonstrates their way is the best way forward for every conceivable project?
What does their model tell them about the returns of higher taxes v the returns from lower taxes? Does it prove or disprove the Laffer Curve? What does it tell them about the profitable returns from the investment in HS2, et al?
Do you MPs have access to these models and can you actually question their conclusions with the Minister? More importantly, will they ever listen to you and act upon the recommendations of any committee set up for that purpose? Even more importantly, can they be forced to attend to and act upon those recommendations by Act of Parliament? That would be the democratic way wouldn’t it? However……
February 14, 2023
Quite so.
February 14, 2023
Ever more worrying reports are being leaked about the NIP. As if we are being softened up for a give away of part of our country. Not a sell out, because we get nothing in return and nor does the affected part of the country.
Can you widen the alliance against this thoroughly shameful possibility? It would be unprecedented. I can’t think of another country which would do this. And the people being betrayed, if that is what is happening, are the most loyal and patriotic in the Kingdom.
February 14, 2023
ââThe Welsh government said all future roads must pass strict criteria which means they must not increase carbon emissions, they must not increase the number of cars on the road, they must not lead to higher speeds and higher emissions, and they must not negatively impact the environmentââ BBC
Madness âŠand this madness will continue under this green tory party
February 14, 2023
Is Olly Robbins back as chief NIP negotiator âŠ.It would appear weâre about to send NI down the river again as the ECJ reigns supreme
February 15, 2023
I’ve just sent a letter in the direction of Boris Johnson, headed:
“Boris Johnson, you should have listened to Peter Lilley a year ago”
“It is a great pity that you did not pay proper attention to the points made by Lord Peter Lilley in this conservativehome article last February:
https://conservativehome.com/2022/02/12/peter-lilley-the-protocol-mutual-enforcement-of-the-law-can-ensure-goods-are-eu-uk-compliant-without-border-checks/
“Peter Lilley: The Protocol. Mutual enforcement of the law can ensure goods are EU/UK compliant without border checks.”
We know that Dublin and Brussels rejected this very reasonable collaborative proposal out of hand when it was put forward by former EU Commission Director-General Sir Jonathan Faull, and also by the UUP; but that was not because it would not work to protect the EU Single Market but the exact opposite, that it would work too well and would remove the need for continuing EU control over all goods production in the province.
However in that article Lord Lilley not only wrote:
“The obvious solution is to make it an offence in UK law to export goods from Northern Ireland to the Republic which do not conform to EU rules, regulations and standards.”
he also wrote:
“In the event of the UK taking action under Article 16 or resiling from the Protocol, it would be sensible, and show good will, unilaterally to make it an offence to export non-compliant goods to the Republic/EU even if the EU chose not to reciprocate. That would reduce any excuse for ârebalancing measures”â.
Putting that another way, if the UK first put in place effective UK export controls to protect the EU Single Market from unsuitable goods being carried across the open land border into the Irish Republic, and then discontinued the EU import controls and EU Single Market rules on all goods production required by the protocol, that would still be a technical breach of the treaty but it would no longer be a material breach justifying EU retaliation.
I suggest that there is still time for you to redeem yourself by coming out in favour of this sensible proposal.”
February 14, 2023
Yes indeed. What makes it worse is that each regulatory, tax and subsidy scheme requires more civil servants to administer it. The useless overhead increases. This Government puts out a TV ad BOASTING that there are 40 schemes to ‘help families’. Pure madness.
February 15, 2023
and they never sack the civil servants at the end of the schemes …they invent new positions