We need a better paid jobs, more investment, good news, growth type of budget. This one promotes more employment with useful measures to encourage more people to get into the workforce which is welcome. It also comes with higher taxes, higher state spending and an increased role for the state in the economy. This is not yet the march of the makers, the liberation of the growers, the freeing of the small businesses, the attraction of the big companies and investors that could boost our output, cut our imports and lift our spirits. This is a budget that rightly says the wholehearted socialism of the Opposition parties would be worse, but thinks a bit of state direction and interference is what is needed. It includes unfunded spending increases.
This budget prolongs energy subsidies, imposing windfall taxes and higher corporation taxes on energy suppliers and VAT on domestic energy consumers and motorists. Why the money go round? Why big taxes on energy when the price of energy is too high and has been so inflationary? It looks as if adopting the Opposition’s favoured higher energy taxes will cut investment in domestic oil and gas, making us more dependent on imported fossil fuels with their added property of increasing world CO2 in their production and transport. Without more domestic energy the tax revenues will fall from the sector, the balance of payments tilts further into the red and we lose the well paid highly productive jobs. Why are we continuing subsidies for higher income homes to cushion the costs of using luxury levels of energy at home?
Windfall taxes now on wind farms do not help much either, particularly on top of a big lack of grid capacity making it difficult to connect new investment to customers if a business does still want to try.
Just when Spain runs out of water for salads and Dutch food is hit by their Government wanting to stop some farming the UK opts to subsidise wilding, taking land out of food production altogether. The policy adds to the food miles and leaves us less to fall back on when the imports dry up. Instead of more tax revenue from growing and selling more this approach needs extra taxes to pay the subsidies to do nothing.
Much of industry needs large quantities of fossil fuel to produce iron, steel, ceramics, glass, chemicals, aluminium and much else. The UK imposes one of the highest carbon taxes in the world, hikes the corporation tax and then wonders why so much is closing. Subsidies are ploughed in to offset some of the taxes, but too little too late to save some at risk plants. We end up importing more, with more CO2 created by the transport to get the products here. The taxpayer has to pay to stave off more closures.
The motor industry had a great technical and market strength in cleaner more efficient diesel engines. These are now being closed down, with the Government proposing to ban all new diesel and petrol cars by 2030. No other main car producer country plans such an early phase out. The industry is rushing to end investment in the UK and to shut factories ahead of the deadline. The advice to the industry to make electric cars here has not resulted in a surge to do so as the UK struggles to attract enough battery capacity. The industry finds many more people are put off buying new diesels than want to buy new electrics.
We could expand small businesses rapidly if they would lift the VAT threshold. Small business innovates, offer flexible service and can move quickly. We could start more businesses if the tax regime was friendlier for self-employed people trying to build multi-client businesses. We need more small firms in areas ranging from building through maintenance to personal care and support.
We could keep and attract much more investment here if we set a competitive corporation tax rate. Why not match the Irish rate? The EU and the Protocol seems to want to align us in other respects with rules and laws in Ireland so why not do so with their most successful business policy? We know it works. Ireland raises so much more business tax than we do per person thanks to so many more companies setting up business there and expanding there. Investment allowances help a bit, but large companies also look at the longer-term profits and cash flow of an investment which are seriously hit by a 31% increase in the tax charge on yearly profits.
A lot of socialism as recommended by Opposition parties takes you on a walk along a path paved with good intentions through mediocrity to poverty. A windfall tax here, a subsidy there, a price control here, a nationalised or Government led business there and gradually you deter and lose private capital and competitive enterprise. Go the whole way like Venezuela and you end up with lots of permanently empty shelves, rationing and an absence of investment. Talented people rush for the exit. Doing a bit more of the tax and subsidy merry go round will not increase the supply of homes, energy or food to ease our shortages. We need a capacity revolution. Cut the tax rates and grow more. Cut the rates and cut the deficit. Every time Conservative Governments have cut business and income tax rates they have grown the revenues. The photo of Nigel Lawson in Number 11 should remind the Government that even a little bit of Conservatism can work wonders.
March 17, 2023
Good morning.
Yes, Sir John we could do that and more but, for that we need a Conservative government.
My main concern now is inflation and the folding of U.S. banks and investment funds. The U.S. Fed’ is not having as much success with curbing inflation and rates may have to increase. This has led to many firms (eg SVB) who are sensitive to such changes and the potential knock on effects. We here have seen the problem that sudden high interest rates cause (pension funds).
With inflation eating away at peoples spending power and the anticipated fall in the housing market, due either late this year or early next, has the government factored in the massive blackhole that the loss in Stamp Duty / Housing Tax will have ? I have long argued that the government should never have got its grubby fingers on the sale of homes. It does not between other private transaction, so why homes ?
Less is more.
March 17, 2023
Mark,
Your first line is the key. We have a Tory party in name only pursuing socialist policies and a labour party in thrall to the vocal wokey-cokey DEI brigade.
I fear for the UK and the rest of Western democracy. Who can point to a pro-capitalist, free enterprise, small government country? I’ll be drawing up my emmigration papers and heading there.
March 17, 2023
@PeteB I would suggest that as the Tory/Conservative party was excluded from the normal process of choosing their leader, a PM, hence a Government, it should not all be lumped in with showing any sign of approval of the Socialist, destruct the UK so as to return to the EU cabal we now have. Bring in the Dutch Farmers!
March 17, 2023
Oh taking permanent ownership of a big % of Britains homes was too much for the thieves to resist. They get their share when sold and keep the it asset! Itâs called âhaving your cake and eating itâ.
This is going to end badly.
March 17, 2023
What can you expect from a government and party whose main policy is the destruction of the UK economy through “net zero “. The ship of fools sails on.
March 17, 2023
Correct
March 17, 2023
The housing market won’t fall that much, too many people chasing too few properties.
US inflation was down to 6% this week so no immediate interest increases
March 17, 2023
and immigrants have expectations…
March 17, 2023
As ever good sense says that you couldn’t be more wrong.
As for getting people to join the workforce, if – as these Tories always will – you remove the protections which go some way to prevent work per se from being grinding, demeaning, precarious, poorly-paid, dangerous, unhealthy and the rest, then anyone who is not forced to do it does not.
However, whatever the economic arguments, preserving that position is essential to many Tories for no other reason than to teach the ordinary employed person to know their place, and which would appear to remain paramount.
March 18, 2023
What an absolute nonsense, we have more guaranteed paid days holidays 28 than the minimum in the EU, including for zero hours contract workers 1 days holiday every 9 days they work! Wasnât it the Labour government who were expecting unpaid internships? The Tories have just given 30 hours free childcare, now they need to sort out the training and development side of that equation and stop training nursery nurses just in college alone and put them on the job with a one day release to sit their examinations to obtain their NVQ level II then the best of the them NVQ level III and onwards.
What protections have the Tories removed in the last thirteen years to back up your accusations?
March 17, 2023
Mark B,
Your first sentence says it all. We only have about 100 real Conservatives in the Commons. If Reform take to the stage they could achieve what the Brexit Party achieved in our last Euros. Theg currently reflect Conservative thinking.
March 17, 2023
I agree entirely. Yes, they absolutely do reflect current Conservative thinking, as the ERG demonstrate repeatedly.
March 17, 2023
The Farmers Party won in Denmark, perhaps the Reform Party could win a few here ….the people aren’t happy with net-zero
March 18, 2023
To win theyâd need to concentrate on tighter winnable areas they are too arrogant for that.
March 17, 2023
Much later, Conservatives might be a better party when they change back to maintaining the qualities that Thatcher achieved.
Until then, joining the Reform Party and donating to their efforts toward power will help tug Conservative MPs away from making us poorer.
March 17, 2023
Look at the last few by-elections, the Reform (Richard Tice Appreciation) Party polled dismally. All they will do is influence a few marginal seats.
There are plenty of true conservatives in the Conservative Party, the trouble is they are lumped with career politician, socialist PPE dopes parachuted in from Conservative Campaign Headquarters. The local party needs to take charge of their candidate selection and choose someone who truly reflects their outlook.
March 18, 2023
Are reform running in John Redwoods constituency and other ERG members constituencies?
March 17, 2023
More directly however, we will never get useful change as long as Sir John, and others like him refuse to depart from total and absolutely loyalty to the present Tory party, no matter how far it departs from true conservative beliefs. We just have to put up with hypocrites to represent us.
Whilst however good Sir John is to listen to, and how he makes sense, and how I would like his ideas adopted in full, he will reach desperately for examples to salve his conscience that his leaders have heard him, but it is quite clear we have Socialist practitioners in government. His piece today is a horrendous criticism of his people. Awfully Hunt loved to mention the OBR in every other sentence as if it was in charge.
March 17, 2023
Yes Sir John, that is a good article and there is little there to disagree with – unless you are Sunak or Hunt, in which case they disagree with everything you say and are determined to do the complete opposite!
That’s why so many of us have given up on your party. And it is partly your fault, and that of your backbench colleagues. You could vote against the budget, telling Hunt that he is NOT a dictator and cannot just impose his wishes on you without prior consultation and agreement. You could impose yourselves and say that you want policy to be dtermined in a collegiate manner, not by dictatorial fiat. But of course you won’t do that. You’ll roll over and accept what is probably the worst Budget of the last 10 years (at least!).
For what it’s worth, my longer response to the budget can be found here (if you would like to read it to see what traditional conservatives think): https://britishpatriot.substack.com/p/high-tax-hunt-betrays-britain
Reply I did vote against the budget that put up National Insurance and we did get that reversed in the end
March 17, 2023
In that case well done Sir John and I owe you an apology.
I hope you will do the same on this occasion and reverse the suicidal increase in corporation tax, which is now DOUBLE that of our main competitor!
March 19, 2023
John you must must get a briefing from the GWPF on global warming before the idiotic and self interested Lord Gummer crashes us. There is no climate change worth a damn.
Reply I do not think I need a briefing
March 17, 2023
Good Morning,
If you take out increased government spending from this years GDP forecast, we’d be deep in recession. This is the nonsense of government GDP reporting. As I’ve said before, you need to look at GDP, EX government borrowing. You’d then see a very different picture, sadly.
Sorry Sir J, this is just Tory PCP economic mismanagement, and the PCP are not fit for office.
March 17, 2023
More investment in self would make a start. That way more of us would be able to look after ourselves and the children we create, without having to pay what the Govt charges to do such jobs on our behalf; plus funding all those who act carelessly about themselves, and the children they create, but prefer others to support for life.
March 17, 2023
My wife and I have paid enough tax in the last year in direct and indirect taxation to keep half a dozen boat people in accommodation for a year. However I don’t want to be paying for this. Please change the law so that there is a tick box section for taxation where all left wing Westminster Parties and their supporters can agree double taxation to pay for all their socialism and mass immigration and associated costs. Whilst people like us can opt out of the system and pay no tax and we’ll pay for our own health care etc. Happy to pay for Defence and other National Security and Justice systems. I’m sick to death of paying for all this left wing Westminster largess socialism. We shouldn’t be wasting time having to protect our lifetime wealth generation from greedy and stupid Government.
March 17, 2023
This is a job destroying budget which kills off the private sector in favour of the public sector.
I object to subsidising childcare at enormous cost when the recipient only pays a fraction back in taxes. It doesn’t make sense.
If this will get people back to work the proof will be if my 47 year ild perfectly fit stepson is forced to get a job. He,s spent 20 of the past 27 years unemployed and there’s no sanctions to force him into work.
March 17, 2023
I agree, There was nothing in this budget for me. Just more spending in the hope that something might happen.
March 17, 2023
I totally agree. Benefits should be time limited like in other sensible non socialist countries. Why should the unheard 46% have to pay for the feckless idle? No sanctions at all. Lets have babies, we’ll get a free house, rent paid, energy and all other benefits at inflation rates provided by the 46% of suckers who have no voice or would be imprisoned if we didn’t allow Government larceny to pay for it. All this Government does is think up new ways to rob us, never to spend our taxes wisely. We all see examples to enrage us every day. We need Reform.
March 17, 2023
The aim is simple. It is to destroy the United Kingdom as a fully functioning sovereign entity
Brexit revenge has been almost achieved with Labour in government the final victory
Voting Labour and Tory is destroying this nation
March 17, 2023
++++
It should be as plain as the nose on one’s face, alas it seems not to be to many.
The old ‘my party right or wrong’ line, which is just plain wrong.
March 17, 2023
@DOM +1
That is why they have a deaf ear to those that empower and pay them
March 17, 2023
Very true Dom, very true
March 17, 2023
Government are missing a few tricks and are not thinking outside the box.
Yesterday I was working in a secondary school as a Teaching Assistant with a mixed class of 12-13 year old sadly the hard-core activists with their mobile phones, drinking bottles of Cola, eating sweets constantly talking and disrupting the teacher knowing just how far to push before stopping were wasting so much time and the teachers still battled on trying to present an interesting lesson for those wanting to learn.
I explained to my group that they have 3 years if they are lucky to get their acts together if they wanted a worthwhile job as at the moment they were bordering on being unemployable. I got them interested in what was being attempted to be taught was essential in the real world of commerce and industry from my experiences.
We are starting too late, in that children need to be taught pro actively within the curriculum to identify what they are being taught has a important position in the work place. More lessons should be clearly identified as work place linked.
Start to set clear goals of the paths ahead other than a paper qualification.
March 17, 2023
I helped out voluntarily at a local school with a project aimed at the same age group, to prepare them for future employment. How to present themselves, sell themselves etc.
One of those volunteering with me gave a fantastic speech explaining to these children that stardom/fame etc. only comes knocking to the very few. He went on to highlight the merits of engineering/medicine/architecture etc etc as opposed to the froth of fame. A couple of the teachers walked out, clearly not impressed.
As for behaviour, well sadly I see this lack of basic manners in many much older people at certain classes I attend. These children will be learning this trait from their parents and even grandparents.
March 17, 2023
You’re doing good work, Turboterrier, but you and your colleagues are being undermined by a headteacher who will not set, or uphold, rules on mobile phones, food and drink in classrooms.
March 17, 2023
TT, well done. Agreed.
March 17, 2023
I worked many years ago for a company that, as a proportion, employed a lot of teenagers either straight out of school or, on college / university courses. The one thing I told them from the beginning of their employment was;
“This is NOT school, we do NOT have to keep you here or put up with any of your nonsense !”
The realisation that, in the adult world of which they were entering, no one was prepared to put up with their **** !
March 18, 2023
They arrive now with a book of excuses for being late, needing longer break times, leaving early, taking extra days off, that they got away with at school. They know all the trigger buttons and conditions, I actually feel sorry for the children with no work ethic, ambition or desire to learn and develop. Some of my older apprentices have developed and grown in and out of the business, some have developed their own companies and employ over 50 people themselves.
One young boy whose parents said he had such severe adhd that he required a blue badge, and one parent as a full time carer managed to extract himself from that label aged 19 and now is a HGV driver with a very important and rewarding job, earning a lot of money. His father eventually had to go back to work and lost that job because he lost his licence.
March 17, 2023
Nail on the head. Discipline is sadly lacking. Left wing orthodoxy wins supreme in state schools.
March 17, 2023
The police don’t control the streets and the teachers don’t control our schools
March 17, 2023
Very good piece.
“The photo of Nigel Lawson in Number 11 should remind the government that even a little bit of Conservatism can work wonders.”
That you need to be saying that to a government that is ostensibly Conservative, says it all.
Our ruling class (outside Westminster too) is the biggest danger we face. If there is not radical change they will destroy our freedom, our economy our health and our culture. What a ghastly legacy for our children.
March 17, 2023
What has happened to the old philosophy that Less is More?
Less or no waste = more profit
Less unskilled labour = more high skilled profitable workforce.
Less unprofitable customer call backs = more efficiency and profit
Less more costly reworks and customer complaints = more repeat business and recommendations.
March 17, 2023
TT,
We already have the philosophy from Professor Deming of MIT. This transposed to ISO9000 and QS9000, which is why most japanese cars do not break down and have good residual values.
March 17, 2023
@Wanderer +1
Then ego got in the way, tried and proven ISO is sidelined to silly CE markings and now UKCA
March 17, 2023
impact started with the motorbikes, but the greasy leather brigade liked the big troublesome monsters of yesteryear. Why not have a starter, windscreens and aerodynamic fairings etc.
‘Mine’s bigger than yours’ sort of died for most owners.
March 17, 2023
Profit today labels you as a fossil fuel loving capitalist who hates immigrants and wants to kill the planet âŠ.labels used by communists during the Russian revolution âŠthe winning magic business model today is subsidy and socialism
March 17, 2023
Indeed.
The photo of Nigel Lawson should also remind us of the need to ditch the bonkers climate alarmism & the man net zero religion. His book:- An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming is excellent.
Cheap reliable energy, a bonfire of red tape and far less government is what is needed.
The net zero renewables agenda is mad for three reasons – all of which are true but any one alone is sufficient.
1. CO2 is not a serious threat to climate – see the excellent recent Happer Lindzen report. On balance bit more CO2 is a net good. We live in a relative dearth historically of this harmless plant, crop and tree food.
2. The solutions pushed – wind, solar, biofuels, EVs, walking, heat pumps, public transport, walking⊠make no significant difference even just to UK CO2 production (when properly and full accounted for). They just export it and the jobs.
3. Russia, India, China, America⊠will (v. sensibly) just keep burning cheap coal regardless.
March 17, 2023
+1
But wasnât Nigel Lawson the one who said we did not need manufacturing?
Our bright, shiny future was in the CityâŠâŠ.doing unspeakable tricks with moneyâŠ.
March 17, 2023
Not as far as I know. When do you think he said this? Mind you, if the nutters persist with Net Zero and the expensive & intermittent energy lunacy and ever higher taxes we will not have any manufacturing anyway.
March 19, 2023
Lawsonâs budget on 13 March 1984 did not have such a thing (margaretthatcher.org âEconomy: 1984 Budget (Lawson 1)â). Neither Lawson 2 (19 March 1985) nor 3 (18 March 1986), also available from the same source.
What might be interesting is to compare the various taxation rates and thresholds in those days with what they presently are. Does the âLaffer curveâ argument valid in 1984 when rates were much higher still apply as such when the rates are on average 20% lower. Is there not some intellectual laziness in the thinking of the pundits still repeating arguments from another age?
Reply The 45% and 60% income tax rates are higher than Lawson 40%
March 19, 2023
For the basic tax rate it took two years of Conservative Government in the â80s to move from 33% to 30% and more to go successively to 29, 27 and 25% only achieved with the 1988 Budget and four more to get to 20% with 1992 Budget. A total of 12 years worth of Budgets to decrease the basic rate from 33 to 20% and affecting primarily the lower middle classes.
Now, really, why should one bother about people paying the 45% or those between ÂŁ100 and ÂŁ125k who thanks to a Treasury oversight will see their tax go to 60% on anything above ÂŁ100k?
Are they so much more important than the hoi polloi?
And practically what has the series of Conservative governments done since May 2010?
And specifically what has Sir John done on those topics of interest to most people?
Then with Sir John there is never a discussion on the âdeferral effectsâ of cutting tax.
Fullfacts.org 30/08/2012 âDid higher taxes lead to reduce revenue from the rich?â
Fullfacts.org 04/03/2016 âDid cutting the 50p rate of tax raise 8bn?â
March 17, 2023
Lifelogic,
CO2 is the Devil in the flawed religion of Nett Zero. The adherents are as fanatical as the witch hunters of the Middle Ages.
That man, figuratively, craps on his own doorstep and has been doing for as long as I can remember, is fact. Rather than dealing with the practice of fouling his own doorstep, man chooses to blame the dog from down the lane called CO2. Appart from the polluted sea that surrounds us we can clean up our own country, even turning the process into profitable business projects/ opportunities.
Given the leadership without the distraction of having to attend this new church, we could convert our industrial, personal, and transport needs to fuels which do not pollute to the degree of fossil fuels. Elecrical needs could be covered by relatively clean atomic sources in about ten years. Transport needs could go for hydrogen in direct burn ICEs or via elecricity producing cells for heavy vehicles, both of which are pollution free and lacking the downsides and impracticallity of pure EVs. It is the way the Japanese are heading so take note. Industrial and domestic gas needs could go part hydrogen part fossil until we can judge whether 100% hydrogen is practical. Meanwhile ie the next ten years at least, we should be using our own gas, oil, and coal to the maximum, which would strategically shelter the UK from World events, but we do need to drastically alter the pricing and tax structure between extraction and end user. Is that to difficult for the majority in the HoC, yes it is, so they need changing.
March 17, 2023
@LL; “just keep burning cheap coal regardless.”
If only the UK could, no other country sealed off, more or less put beyond (safe) access, 500+ years of cheap coal…
March 17, 2023
Gas even better and plenty beneath out feet.
March 17, 2023
I am sure they could be unsealed but gas and fracking are perhaps the better options.
March 18, 2023
@Ashley; What do you not understand about the word “Cheap”?! Oil and gas is not the answer (and that includes fracking), unless the UK price is de-linked from the international market price, unlikely and probably unwise.
More hope using the now flooded deep coal mines as heat sources for industrial scale heat pumps, linked to electricity generation.
March 17, 2023
But the Tories just canât do it, theyâve had 13 years to fix the country and every year they become more labour, more socialist, more EU WEF UN
The Tory government(s) just canât bring about Tory principles of business & economics, principles of sovereignty & democracy, principles of market forces & freedom of choice âŠthey just canât do it
March 17, 2023
Seems so.
March 17, 2023
The Social Marxists have infiltrated universities and their protege have infiltrated Government.
When Blair said âeducation, education, educationâ.
What he meant was âinfiltration, infiltration, infiltrationâ.
March 17, 2023
Honestly thoughâŠis it the opposition or the INFILTRATION?
Plus when it looked as if the tories ( with an 80 seat majority) could actually be an effective Conservative PartyâŠ.they blew it totally.
March 17, 2023
That should be Bunter Boris’ epitaph, ‘He had the wherewithal to do great deeds, but he blew it on partying and indulgence.
March 17, 2023
+1
LolâŠBirthday Cake!
And BB was always waiting on a postal order from his uncle.
March 17, 2023
True Cuibono. If we had a conservative Party (not the Conservative Party) on the ballot next time around they could do well. We certainly need an electoral revolution on the scale of the Brexit vote or bigger.
I am heartened by the amazing result of the Dutch Farmers in their Senate election – from zero to being the joint largest Party. Under a PR system of course, but one lives in hope.
March 17, 2023
@Wanderer +1
Yes, the Dutch Farmers have shown the way.
March 17, 2023
I’d like to think they have shown the way, Ian, but who’s paying attention? British farmers are content to sell up, so they won’t be dumping manure on the steps of Whitehall. The public don’t care as long as their supermarket bill doesn’t go up more than they are resigned to seeing it go up. What resistance there has been to lockdowns, the bio-security state etc., is carefully kept out of the media, so most people don’t even notice that they are being shown the way, even when central London is full of demonstrators.
The way forward that has usually worked well in this country is to organise and infiltrate centres of power. As per Common Purpose and the various ‘liberation’ movements.
March 17, 2023
+1
March 17, 2023
Fantastic news about the Dutch Farmers party winning the election …..take note
March 20, 2023
+1
March 17, 2023
@Cuibono; Yes, but that is what happens a with one-trick pony, “Get Brexit Done”, then what? Don’t blame the policy malaise on Covid, other countries had as tight or far more stringent working restrictions on their politicians but still legislated effectively. As for “Infiltration”, I assume you mean within the Conservative party (?), perhaps, but such infiltration has not been from Socialists, after all the modern Conservative party has long accepted a roll for the State and a mixed economy, even Mrs Thatcher accepted it to a point.
When a steam engine runs out of steam, when the IC engine has no fuel, both are just useless lumps of iron…
March 17, 2023
Actually I blame it on Cameron ( and whoever else did similar) and his unjust war on â The Turnip Talibanâ.
EVs are pretty useless without electricity arenât they âŠand we are pretty poor at producing it!
March 17, 2023
Cuibono. Makes you think the Tories and Labour are already a coalition
March 17, 2023
+1
I reckon they are in all but name anyway.
What an utter swizz!
March 17, 2023
@Cuibono, then again are these actually Conservatives. I believe the Conservative Party as a whole is Conservative, I could even stretch that to a good chunk of those that call themselves Conservative MPâs are. What we mustn’t loose site of is that the Conservative Party was denied the option to choose their leader, therefore PM so this is what we end up with.
As the Conservative party membership was denied a vote, will the membership get out and campaign in the up and coming General Election. If they do they will be acting as numpties who enjoy being kicked in the teeth.
March 17, 2023
+1
I know.
But I just donât understand how the few sane MPs can bear it all.
A coupâŠ.FGS!
March 17, 2023
A very depressing read Sir John. Do Sunak and Hunt really want to destroy our economy? I really think they do. Why?
March 17, 2023
They’re doing as they’re told, Magelec. It doesn’t matter what they want.
March 17, 2023
Seems so.
March 17, 2023
If this had been the budget speech, we would all be walking on air.
March 17, 2023
YES
March 17, 2023
Our debt stands at ÂŁ2.4 trillion, or 97% of GDP. This is equivalent to around ÂŁ35,000 per person in the UK. Apart from anything else, it doesn’t come cheap.
Liz Truss’s budget did not help. It made low tax look very dangerous.
And BBC, ITV and even LBC spend their entire day griping that this or that group desperately needs government money urgently or it will collapse.
And then there is the suicide note called Net Zero… (They seem to have gone a bit quiet over the cold snap).
March 17, 2023
But weâve got loads of money, we must have âŠÂŁ2,000 cash bonus to the 321,624 nurses and ÂŁ2.9 million to investigate nuclear power on the moon âŠ.we donât even have a spaceship
March 17, 2023
Plus ÂŁ2.3 bn annually for Ukraine to defend its borders, when we can’t even defend our own.
March 17, 2023
OBR reporting ÂŁ18bn per year every year for subsidy for renewables sector
https://obr.uk/efo/economic-and-fiscal-outlook-march-2023/
We’ve got so much money we don’t know what to do with it !
March 17, 2023
In your list of high energy industries you missed out cement – you know, the vital ingredient for building on our green, wooded land and potential for farming.
March 17, 2023
âDutch food is hit by their government wanting to stop the farmingâ
That is tabloid writing and far from the truth:
Dutch food was hit by high energy cost, forcing greenhouses to run at lower capacity.
March 17, 2023
The Dutch government is planning to buy up and shut down almost 3,000 farms in a bid to meet tough EU greenhouse gas emissions targets
https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/environment/dutch-announce-forced-buyout-of-farms-to-cut-emissions
March 17, 2023
@ glen cullen
The quote comment remains a tabloid-like comment that has nothing to do with Dutch food being hit. Hardly hit actually, as our peppers and tomatoes are more expensive but available in quite sufficient quantities. No shortages over here.
I’m afraid you LINK is old news: Our democracy just had provicial elections and in EACH of the 12 provinces the BBB (= farmers & citizens movement) has become the largest party!
Quite sensational!
Even though most votes were much wider protest votes against the government, some 40% of the votes for BBB could be considered real “farmers support” votes. The BBB now has to form (usually multi party) coalitions in all the provinces. Some very interesting times ahead! At provicial level the BBB will face similar dilemmas as the government has at a national level. Being regional and thus closer to these dilemmas maybe the BBB will do a better job than the government at national level, but it is still early days.
March 17, 2023
The people have spoken
March 18, 2023
Peter the shortages in the UK were over egged, by the papers if you know that expression, there may have been a few short shelves in London on a Sunday afternoon, or late afternoon on a Saturday (anyone can cherry pick photo opportunities) but even my local petrol stations were stocked with tomatoes and salad every day throughout the so-called British salad problem!
I bet if you check with the supermarkets and theyâre being honest they would report the following week how much waste left over salad stock they had! We had it on yellow ticket (reduced).
March 17, 2023
So nothing to do with the Dutch government trying force farmers off their land ?
March 17, 2023
see above
March 17, 2023
there does appear to be a degree of popular dissatisfaction in the Netherlands with the mandatory closure of agricultural land?
March 17, 2023
True, but there is also dissatisfacion about many house building and infra projects being forbidden by courts because of the same nitrogen problem. And nature is being damaged by it.
March 17, 2023
Fortunately Peter, we do not have to rely on you or the msm to keep us informed of what is really happening in your country.
March 17, 2023
PvL the Guardian said in Nov and Jul 2022 that “21 Jul 2022 â Farmers express fury at government drive to tackle nitrogen pollution through a major reduction in numbers of pigs, cattle and chickens in …”
“0 Nov 2022 â The Dutch government is offering to buy out up to 3,000 âpeak polluterâ farms and major industrial polluters in an attempt to reduce ammonia ”
“4 Jul 2022 â Dutch farmers say plans by the government to reduce nitrogen emissions will harm their livelihoods.” Aljazeera, they are saying it is to meet targets and reduce animals, not greenhouses.
March 17, 2023
All true but now old news after the 15 March provicial elections.
March 17, 2023
JR: “We need a better paid jobs, more investment, good news, growth type of budget . ”
This from a supporter of the current government. The same government that has been in power for a decade. The same administration that gratuitously curtailed individual liberty and human rights. Played a cruel confidence trick on the population at large ( we know it now, thanks to the bovine Matt Hancock ), and force medicated the gullible. In contravention of the Nuremberg convention. People who were so medicated, certainly didn’t have all the facts at their disposal, and thus, could not by definition have made an informed choice.
But all Redwood can come out with is the same old tat he’s been writing about for years.
What a waste of electrons.
March 17, 2023
Itâs 3 maybe 4 out of 10 for this budget and government. Very disappointing, a wasted opportunity and almost certainly means a Labour govt at the election. But Labour would be even worse. Listen to the likes of reeves Starmer and cooper. They have absolutely nothing to propose. in so far as itâs possible to discern any policies itâs yet more borrowing and taxes, make the public sector even more bloated, ever more govt intervention in markets, and presumably – though they wonât say it, cave into the EU on any and every point of dispute. With that choice no wonder weâve got an investment and productivity problem!
I have to remind people that had we had a smooth transition from Boris to Rishi last summer we would not now have hunt as chancellor and the blob would not have taken the control it did after the abysmal mess created by Liz Truss, who was wholly inadequate for the role of PM. Much as I agree with Sir John on most issues, I fear when the history books are written that choice of Truss will be seen as the pivotal political error by the free market right of the Conservative Party.
March 17, 2023
The moves to get some disabled candidates into jobs and keep those who become disabled in jobs when they are working are positive. However the money being spaffed on childcare would be better spent on Access to Work, more people to administer and more money for adjustments.
Most adjustments are one off costs after which the worker is productive. Childcare is a four year ongoing commitment.
Being a parent is a choice, disability isn’t.
March 17, 2023
It confirms that the conservative party in government has nothing to offer a post Brexit UK. Labour has nothing to the power of ten. The British people have a lot to offer with the help of visionary leadership, so the big question is who can offer it. There are about 100 real Conservatives in the Commons and a Reform Party with a manifesto of, dare I say it, Conservative ideas. They need linking up to put a stop to this drive to mediocrity without a map.
March 17, 2023
I have just received my year end payslip.
Total tax deducted from my potential earnings (including ERS as they could be paid to me instead of the government was 46%. Add 8% for workplace pension which could also have been paid direct to me or not paid by me and I have been taxed @ 54% of my earnings.
Frozen thresholds won’t improve that next year but if I was on benefits I would be guaranteed an inflationary increase. Trebles all round
March 17, 2023
NS
You have to factor in Council Tax as well. Plus all the other little taxes you have to pay on things you either have to have (eg energy bills) or need to have such as house insurance. It’s what you have left is what matters, as that is what you use to spend on the economy to keep it moving. Cut that some more and things begin to slow down or stop. So no matter how much child care the government promises, if it isn’t getting any tax income in, to pay for it it must borrow and / or print.
March 17, 2023
Two points if I may;
1/. Diesel engines, they were never clearer, nor necessarily more efficient, just zero CO2 emissions, and at one time taxed less!
2/. As for salads, strange how our northern European near neighbors still had plenty of southern European grown salads on their shop shelves, in fact some had an excess of supply. That said, I agree with the Secretary of State from DEFRA, even if she did put her point in a rafter indirect way (and thus baffling to the tabloid media), we should learn to eat seasonally again.
March 17, 2023
2./ living in the North West, I and my family didn’t experience a lack of salad, in fact, even petrol stations had a good stock of tomatoes and salad. Eutice (useless) said it would take 4 weeks to sort it; by the end of one week most other places were sorted out too after the initial panic buying abated.
March 17, 2023
The article makes sense and surely many people can relate it to their own day to day economic business.
Why would you not be self-sufficient and keep your money in house but instead splash out needlessly at high cost.
Why would you claim something to be a danger, yet do everything to increase that danger by denying it a foothold in your own home and importing it at high cost from elsewhere.
A merry go round indeed, one of utter madness it seems.
I can only conclude that this climate emergency death by CO2 fable isn’t quite the big bad wolf we are told and something else is at play.
Like the covid nonsense where people were not dropping down dead in the streets, people only need to open their eyes and the contradictions are lit up like a Christmas tree for all to see.
There are none so blind as the saying goes.
March 17, 2023
This woeful government hanging on for the sake of it enacting labour policies. For goodness sake put you and us out of our misery, call an election and put Starmer into power. At least he will be honest about his politics unlike you. We are getting the policies, we might as well get the government,
You can then reflect in opposition, and hopefully the centrists selling out conservatism will have been voted out/moved to the Lib Dims and the Right can reset under the likes of Patel. Braverman, Badenoch.
If you personally and similar thinking colleagues have any conscience whatsoever, you will vote against this appalling budget.
March 17, 2023
Maybe though, our problem has been that all govt.s always refuse to understand the concept of dividing a cake into too many pieces.
Did this country over-invest in education and healthcare to the detriment of industry? Probably well before Thatcherism.
Where did that get usâŠwe now have NO health service and as Turboterrier can attest âŠeducationâŠwell!
Over investment in the wrong things in the wrong way?
March 17, 2023
I understand that the Lifetime Allowance on Pensions (LTA) for this current tax year is ÂŁ1.073 million and will be abolished from April 2023. Consequently is the rumour true that those who have spent years as refuse collectors or working at supermarket check-outs for example, cannot wait to come out of retirement and resume their previous careers thus boosting their pensions?
Incidentally the reason that a photograph of Nigel Lawson hangs in 11 Downing Street is because the occupants of that address have no idea who he is and are waiting for someone to tell them.
March 17, 2023
Well, Sir John, you donât sound at all happy with the direction our government is taking the country. Join the club. Maybe now you will realise we have been infiltrated by WEF traitorous stooges whose only aim is to sacrifice our country for the benefit of the super-rich.
We see the same pattern of bad political decisions in all western countries. This period will go down in history as the self-inflicted suicide of a great nation.
All I can suggest is people stock up with food and essentials, spread their money around, and plant a garden. We havenât seen anything yet. Once they control the money with their digital currency and the food with their food hubs there will be riots.
So sad as it didnât have to be this way.
March 17, 2023
This budget was the chance to try and turn around the dire prospects for the so called Conservatives come the next general election. Instead we got a socialist budget from a ConSocialist party.
Its becoming increasingly obvious that Sunak and Hunt want Labour to win the next election so they can take us back into the EU and the nonTories can say it was nothing to do with us Guv.
March 17, 2023
Sir John, You with your connections, if you cannot get your ideas for improvement of the economy across to Sunak and Jeremy Hunt before the budget is finalised and before it is passed in the House then what is the point in writing articles in the Telegraph post everything and afterwards. Worse still if you did manage to get your advice and suggestions across but nobody is paying attention – well then as I say – what is the point?
March 17, 2023
When you look at the situations faced in the UK, be it business growth, the economy as a whole, inflation, cost of living, even the NHS, and so on and so on, it all comes down to 13 years of miss-management by pseudo Conservative Governments.
Every situation in the UK today has been worsened by the members of this particular so-called Conservative Government. It is compounded by their refusal to manage, refusal to work to a balanced budget. The obvious answer is the are taking their orders from their master in the âBlobâ (Civil Servants, Treasury, OBR, BoE etc even the EU Commission) who them selves are concerned to create empires to shield themselves from the âplebsâ. What the Conservative Government is certainly not doing is working for the greater good, serving those that empowered them or feeling obliged to carry out the duties of a proper Conservative Government.
March 17, 2023
I agree, Ian. Everything appears to be well on the path of State control, not just ‘somethings’ but everything! And then we will be told that that is what people voted for!
March 17, 2023
@Ian B
You find yourself asking, was it the seemingly orchestrated attack on the Conservative Party by the âBlobâ the reason we now have a Socialist Party in Government? As in the âBlobâ has chosen those that dance to their tune and protect their endless list of failure on failure and relentless Empire Building. Accountability and responsibility has been removed from all those concerned.
If there is ever going to be another Conservative Government, the Conservative Party needs to get a grip, enforce UK Democracy, stand up for One Nation Conservatism. Put in place a Government that is working for those that empower and pay for it.
March 17, 2023
Excellent article today, just a shame youâre in opposition with your own government. Your article would make a great basis for a new manifesto
March 17, 2023
Yes. A new manifesto for the Reform party. A party that thinks the same as Sir John. Its who I’m voting for.
March 17, 2023
âWhy big taxes on energy when the price of energy is too high and has been so inflationary ?â
Make no mistake, the high price of energy is a result of our energy policies and the rigging of the wholesale electricity market.
March 17, 2023
+1
Those wind-turbines are not going to pay for themselves when the wind isn’t blowing. Best get the taxpayer to do it instead đ
/sarc
March 17, 2023
A good description, Sir John, of how our economy is being destroyed, apart from leaving out the biggest destroyer of all – our unilateral Net Zero Strategy, based upon a totally false CAGW narrative, which will leave us with expensive and intermittent energy where demand destruction will be the only method available to keep the grid from total collapse and where we will have zero energy security as a result of all our energy infrastructure (wind turbines, solar panels, batteries etc) all supplied by (coal-fired) China, a country described by our security services as âhostileâ.
Plus a policy of massive uncontrolled immigration (legal and illegal) designed to destroy our social cohesion and law and order. Current net migration increases our population by the size of Birmingham every 4 years.
Who is pushing this agenda and why and how can we stop it?
March 17, 2023
Germanyâs last-minute block of the EUâs combustion engine ban has triggered other states to protect their own interests and rebel against laws that threaten industries. The EUâs climate agenda is beginning to unravel. Net-Zero-Watch
March 17, 2023
An excellent truism.
Socialism is another term for destructive, run by the insane, to ruin any good society,
March 17, 2023
Dogs have to be micro-chipped, and from today cats also have to be micro-chipped âŠ.next year the UK people may have to be micro-chipped (illegal immigrants exempt as its against their human rights)
Watch Out, Watch Out Thereâs a Tory About
March 17, 2023
Nice to be told about cats. This site does have value after all.
March 17, 2023
They have to be micro chipped by the 10th June 2024. The law comes into force at the end of March 2023.
March 18, 2023
Everythings in the small print
March 17, 2023
An excellent article – one that I can fully support . Why can’t the Government follow the priorities Sir John has focused on ?. The approach the article outlines is exactly what a Conservative direction should be – one that would attract the votes of the entire community . Our leadership needs him now !.
March 17, 2023
Yes well, Sir John, You are right in what you say. But the fact is no one is listening to you.
That is because the Party you are in is NOT a conservative party. It is almost as socialist as Labour. Almost as carbon neutral as Greens. Almost as immigration encouraging as LibDems.
Face it. The House of Commons is full of a UNIPARTY.
The Civil Service is full of those who want everything to continue as it was when we were part of the EU.
The Media looks for ‘click bait’.
Banks want to rob us of our money.
One thing that is obvious to me is that we should CUT Corporation Tax to 15%. If Eire can do it while in the EU what possible objection can anyone have to us doing it?
As I said your other remarks are also correct. Those ‘terrible far right’ ‘alternative’ parties have also been saying those things for years.
March 17, 2023
O/T: I read that the NHS has created the âFaster Data Flowsâ database that collects daily information about hospital patients (DoB, postcode, detailed medical history) using the US Palantir Technologiesâ Foundry software despite a 2021 Government pledge (from DHSC) to consult the public before passing the data to that company. The consultation did not happen.
As anybody using the NHS knows, postcode and DoB are more than enough information to make the âpseudonymisationâ a sad joke.
Even more interestingly Palantir is likely to win a ÂŁ480 m contract to âprocessâ the data for the NHS.
March 17, 2023
Remember this in 2013
ââAbandoned NHS IT system has cost ÂŁ10bn so farââ
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/sep/18/nhs-records-system-10bn
March 17, 2023
In the Spring Budget the Chancellor announced ÂŁ20bn of government support for CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage) âto capture 20-30m tons of CO2 each year by 2030â.
So weâre going to spend ÂŁ20bn (plus at least a doubling of energy costs as a result of the inefficiency of the process) – ÂŁ700/income taxpayer â to effectively reduce world global CO2 emissions by less than 0.1% (IEA 2021 figure 36bn tons – which will be much higher by 2030 as China, India et al continue to increase their annual consumption of coal).
Another of the many examples of why Net Zero is going to destroy our economy for no planet saving benefit whatsoever.
BTW âClimate actionâ is only number 13 in the UNâs list of âSustainable Development Goalsâ. They know that increasing CO2 increases food production whilst because of IR saturation (see the work of Wijngaarden & Happer) increasing levels of CO2 have almost zero increasing warming effect.
March 17, 2023
What a dismal budget, a budget for business reduction.
More childcare for younger children to get people back to work I see as more opportunity for the state to indoctrinate children.
March 17, 2023
Another excellent article, but it seems that we are all on a different planet. The budget does the exact opposite of what you suggest. It seems our Chancellor has had an operation to remove any common sense, clarity about the problems, and vision for the UK from his brain. I am reminded of the song, He’s a real nowhere man, living in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody!
It is very sad, but we may have to lose the next GE, so a real conservative emerges as a leader while in opposition. But how much damage Labour will do will make the recovery task almost impossible. What a waste of 12 years.
March 17, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
You continue to question the direction of government policy, for example, why are we importing gas and oil when we have our own? Why are we rewilding land when we could be growing much of the food we import? And why are we decimating our car industry before we need to? It is quite bizarre.
I think your readers would very much like to know the reasoning behind these quite incomprehensible policy choices. “A windfall tax here, a subsidy there, a price control here, a nationalised or government led business there and gradually you deter and lose private capital and competitive enterprise” Not to mention people who vote conservative.
Have you asked the Prime Minister, the Treasury or the department concerned why they choose to act in this way? We are all dying to know!
March 17, 2023
From the MsM
‘Donald Trump has said that Americaâs greatest threat is not Russia, but its own âUSA-hatingâ congressmen and politicians.’
That sort of view can easily be said also to be true of the UK
March 17, 2023
+1
March 18, 2023
“Why continuing subsidies for higher income homes to cushion the costs of using luxury levels of energy at home?”
That’s possibly the most socialist thing I’ve heard you say.
1. The cost of assessing eligiobility is greater than the cost of universal benefit.
2. It also reduces the need for yet more civil servants.
3. Why assume that people on higher incomes don’t also struggle?…
Many people are on variable rate mortgages. They were assured by the BoE that rates would rise slowly to the new norm of 3%. They planned accordingly. Many are now too old to re-mortgage over a sensible loan term. They found that the BoE did not do what it said it would do. And in the meantime taxes have gone up, inflation has driven costs up.
These people need help as much as anyone else. Why do socialists assume that it’s ok to drain the savings of those who work to achieve more in life, while constantly taking from them to provide handouts to those who live hand-to-mouth?
Sadly, it seems that socialism and woolly thinking are now embedded in all walks of UK society. Even the so-called “right” of the so-called “Conservative” Party.
March 18, 2023
“We could start more businesses if the tax regime was friendlier for self employed people trying to build multi client businesses”
Why only those building “multi client” businesses?
Why the obsession with defining what a business must do and who its clients must be in order to pay a very, very different level of tax than otehr businesses operating a different model?
These “definitions” are pure artificiality, trying to make teh real world fit the tax system rather than the other way round (teh sensible way round).
Get rid of Employers NI. Other countries don’t tax employing their own people and incentgivide the use of foreign-based worker (think: call centre in India, offshore coding teams in Poland). Stop taxing employment so much higher than other ways of working. All these definitions disappear if yo simplify the tax system such that they are no longer needed/relevant.
A business can have one client and be a business. Only a poorly-constructed tax system says otherwise.