As I listen to people on doorsteps and read the views that come into my website there is no passion for Keir Starmer or for Labour policies. Indeed, the voters who say to the pollsters they do not want to vote Conservative who did vote for us in 2019 often want us to be more Conservative, not less. They are not clamouring for Labour’s higher taxes. They do not want intensified and speeded up bans on petrol and diesel cars, or mandatory heat pumps. They do not like Labour and Lib Dem Councils that make it more and more difficult for anyone to get to work by van or car, or get to the shops and park easily. They are not asking for an attack on private schools, driving more people to compete for places at the better state schools. They do not want a larger bureaucracy in the public sector. They are not preoccupied by the culture wars that consume the political left. They do dislike the highly regulated and in part nationalised energy, water and railway industries and want someone to sort them out to provide better and cheaper service. They want cleaner rivers, no water rationing, more reliable and affordable trains, and reliable electricity at sensible prices. They are more concerned about outcomes than how it is done.
There is an eerie disengagement, an ennui about all the main political parties. As the tax squeeze intensifies on working people Conservatives have fallen in the polls, but there is no enthusiastic rush to the parties of the left that want to make the tax squeeze worse. There is an understanding on the economy that covid, lockdowns, the Ukraine war and the energy price spikes were external events that hit all advanced economies. The disappointing economic results are not the same as the political impact of the exchange rate mechanism recession during the last period of Conservative government or the Great recession brought on by the banking crash at the end of the last Labour government. Those were avoidable errors of UK policy that marked the end for each of the two main parties in office in turn when they occurred. It means the present government has an opportunity to win people back, if it understands the sources of their current displeasure.
The main thing to get right is the economy. The Prime Minister recognises this with his twin aims of getting inflation down and getting growth up. The problem is he seems to accept the wrong Treasury advice that you have to get inflation down first by stopping growth, and then only after that can you try to warm the economy up again to produce some growth and start to make people better off. That is bad economics and even worse politics. There is not time enough to bring inflation right down with no growth or even a shallow recession, and then to pick things up again in ways that people will feel and appreciate.
Fortunately growth and lower inflation are not enemies. The secret to both is to put more UK capacity in, so more is made and grown at home. This creates more jobs and incomes at home, and provides more supply to lower price rises.
This is why the Treasury are so wrong. We need a lower business tax rate, not a 31% hike in Corporation Tax. We need to copy the Republic of Ireland with their 12.5% Corporation tax rate. As a result they have far more investment per head, higher GDP per head, and more business tax revenue per head than we do. We need to drive hard for energy self sufficiency to cut our dependence on unreliable and very expensive imported energy, the source of much of last year’s inflation. To bring that off we need to end the price controls, the subsidies and the windfall taxes. If we added substantially to our gas and oil output to replace imports we could get a big boost to tax revenues without windfall taxes stopping the investments. That could happen quickly. If we got on with producing small modular nuclear plants and with ways of storing renewable energy to smooth out its delivery again we would boost growth and provide some downward pressure on prices in due course when they started generating.
In order to grow the economy faster we need to be far more supportive of the self employed and small business. Instead of shrinking the army of the self employed as covid lockdowns and the new fiercer IR 35 tax arrangements have done, we need to expand the numbers again. Return the tax system to the rules of 2017 when self employment was growing well. Raise the VAT threshold for small business from £85,000 to £250,000. That would give an immediate boost to small business output across many sectors where entrepreneurs limit their turnover to avoid the need to register.
The water industry should be required to put in more clean water capacity. We cannot keep on adding so any additional people to our population without providing more basic services like water. People do not want to be lectured on using less, and told there is a hosepipe ban as soon as it gets warm and dry for a few weeks. The government is seeking an investment explosion to handle more dirty water to avoid sewage discharges into rivers. The pricing formula and tax regime has to make this feasible at a lively pace.
The railway industry is busy running near empty trains on much of the network at various times of day when it is not on strike. Railway investment is grossly inflated and distorted by the very expensive and much delayed HS2 project, which will not bring us any revenue or benefit for most of this decade. What is needed is a refocus and new timetable for this investment to make room for more worthwhile immediate projects to boost capacity on busy routes and to provide an attractive offer for the modern work commuter who may only wish to go the place of work two or three days a week. Digital signalling with on board train systems to allow safe closer running to other trains on existing tracks could boost capacity at a fraction of the cost of a new railway line. It should be possible to run a lot more trains at busy times on existing track more safely with the complete visibility of the tracks and other train locations to modern digital integrated systems.
We need to switch the system of farming subsidies away from wilding to supporting more domestic production of eggs and apples, tomatoes and meat. We lost a lot of market share during our years in the common agricultural policy and need to catch up. People would like more local food with fewer food miles.
The public would warm to a government that went for growth and showed how the UK is now free to make and grow so much more for ourselves. Our EU years were dogged by huge balance of trade deficits with the continent as we lost market share in everything from chemicals to fruit and from steel to energy. Reversing this would be good for jobs, would help lower inflation, would generate more tax revenue not less. It does need lower tax rates, less lecturing of the consumers and more working with business to deliver the capacity we need. It needs revision to regulations like the emissions trading scheme and carbon tax, which penalises domestic producers and favours imports. In the second world war the country was told to dig for victory, putting more land to work to grow food. Then we needed to make our own ships, tanks and planes to feed the war machine. It all worked very well and great feats were achieved. Today we need to make more of the cars, the household goods and the food we want for a decent life. That will make the country more prosperous and would shift the opinion polls.
April 20, 2023
Good morning.
To be fair, Sir John this was not entirely the fault of the Labour government, it was a global problem, mainly in the USA with the subprime mortgage market. Which makes it more worrying that your party whilst under, Alexander Johnson MP proposed much the same thing. I wonder if this is still the case ?
You talk about people not liking the tax burden and a Labour government. Well. All I can say is, the LibLabCON trick has worked out well. We can all see that no matter who we vote for we are going to get the same thing.
The fact that political parties are both independent and distinct is an illusion. Thankfully the mask is beginning to slip for more and more people to see.
April 20, 2023
Nobody “clamours” for a leg amputation, but when the alternative is terminal gangrene, then people do what need be done.
April 20, 2023
I assume the Tories are the leg amputation and Labour is the gangrene?
April 20, 2023
One and the same
April 20, 2023
The choice is do you prefer to be shot or poisoned?
April 20, 2023
Excellent advice Sir John. The trouble is that we know Sunak and his cabinet don’t believe in any of it. You are as a voice crying in the wilderness.
April 20, 2023
@Cynic +1
Oh so true. The UK political process just as the UK Government have been stolen from the electrorate
April 20, 2023
Cynic, agreed.
April 20, 2023
Got it on one Cynic+1
April 20, 2023
‘There is an eerie disengagement, an ennui about all the main political parties. ’
No. It’s far, far worse than that.
In the case of the Conservative Party there is an eagerness to completely smash them in the next election. To pay them back for all the lies and broken promises on all the major issues over all the years and under all the Prime Ministers. May, Johnson, Sunak are hated and despised by so many.
True, there is no great faith in the other parties either; but a day of reckoning will be uppermost in the minds of many voters.
April 20, 2023
Personally I blame the Conservatives for their hysteria about Covid, the obscene private sector lockdowns, and I’m certain that it is illegal to partake in a war to destroy Russia with declaring war and getting approval from Parliament.
The Tories have trashed our Constitution and the weak Monarchy is incapable of undertaking it’s one and only job – to defend the Constitution from ALL politicians.
In May we will see the people’s judgement on both the Tories and the Monarchy.
No street parties here, and no voting slips either.
April 20, 2023
@ Mark B – yes, let us give a free pass to the guilty and lay the blame on otherwise innocent if struggling subprime mortgagors.
Remember too Gordon Brown’s words “it all started in America” – with the collapse of Northern Rock!
As you may recall, the problem arose from the overnight repo market suddenly realizing mortgage portfolios rebundled as marketable securities carried much higher risks than were indicated and so those banks relying for liquidity on that market could no longer do so. Northern Rock was a classic case of mismanaged risk, lending long and borrowing imprudently short (overnight!). Well done the regulators acting under G. Brown’s badly flawed separation of oversight introduction of which caused then Bank Governor Eddie George to consider resigning.
April 20, 2023
The UK had its own subprime mortgage market. Remember that the run on Northern Rock preceded the crash and wax ahead of the US meltdown. Several other UK mortgage lenders were in difficulties. Brown’s financial regulatory fail was responsible for that. Darling was rightly horrified by the hospital pass he got on becoming Chancellor.
April 20, 2023
Correct. Sounds like we need Reform. We have more chance of reaching Sir John’s goals with them.
April 20, 2023
You could shift the opinion poles a little. But most people don’t trust the Party that’s been in power for so long, they want to boot it out, and the policy changes would anyway look like pre-election bait.
On the other hand, if a newcomer Party without a solid history of breaking its electoral pledges were to run with your suggestions, it would pick up a lot of votes.
If your Party cared for the country and wanted to limit the Labour victory then it could do a deal with Reform and others, so their candidates only run in seats where you have had WEF clones in place. So, don’t run in some 95% of current Tory seats and ask your remaining supporters to vote for the newcomer. A bit like the previous UKIP deal, but in reverse. Won’t happen, of course.
April 20, 2023
Hopefully not that would be a recipe for a massive Labour victory
April 20, 2023
No it won’t happen and about 75% of Tory MPs are fakes & clearly deluded Socialist or Libdems hence we had to suffer appalling tax to death climate alarmist PMs like Major, Cameron, May & now the dire print, borrow, tax and waste Sunak.
April 20, 2023
Wanderer
The idea of Reform UK trusting the Conservatives again with their recent track record is highly unlikely! One bitten, twice shy.
April 20, 2023
JR
You have captured the spirit of the people and what could be – so well!
The Treasury could do with being replaced with more experienced staff methinks!
April 20, 2023
No, he has captured what you believe! But, for some reason, you extrapolate this to thinking that everyone – the ‘people’ – thinks the same as you and a few others on this web site. I wonder how you will explain the forthcoming electoral wipeout the Tories will suffer.
April 20, 2023
I like the ‘Three strikes and you are out’ slogan.
April 20, 2023
The essence of what you describe may be effective. It is rather like the electorate do with ‘Tactical Voting’.
From the political party’s perspective it might be ‘Tactical Candidacy’.
April 20, 2023
I don’t think our current problems will be resolved by voting. Hopefully the solutions will be peaceful.
April 20, 2023
+1
April 20, 2023
@Wanderer
What’s the difference between this Conservative Government and a Starmer Government, Zilch. They both take their orders from anyone but those that have the chance to elect them and pay their wages. It is Parliament, the HoC that with just a handful of diligent exceptions has permitted itself to be corrupted and lost its very reason to be allowed to exist.
April 20, 2023
Good Morning,
Sir J, what a fabulous (I use the word in it’s whimsical way) list of activities. A government of independent mind, led by someone fearless and brave could do these things. Alas we live in the here and now, and such ideals and leaders are but flights of fancy.
April 20, 2023
That willbe growth of taxes no doubt.
Hunt and fishy are determined ti drive all industries out of the country in pursuit of net zero.
We already have large swathes of the UK where the grid can’t cope. Never mind we can import everything
April 20, 2023
@Ian wragg +1
Recently in a speech and in the Media everyone’s friend Rishi, announced along with his maths proposition. That tax cuts cause inflation. Meaning higher taxes reduce inflation. Or in other words if you are hit with extra taxes and seek to earn more to cover the increase by asking for more money, that reduces inflation. His maths not mine
April 20, 2023
Orsted has told us they need higher prices for electricity to pay for the new taxes on wind farms.
April 20, 2023
What is needed is all the politicians regardless of beliefs to stop this constant pissing down our necks and telling us it’s raining.
Labour never actually tell us what they would do when belittling everything the government is trying to achieve.
The other parties are all so entwined with destructive economic green policies that are not properly thought out let alone costed.
The present government is still talking too much and not being seen putting their words into action in the many area’s you have highlighted in today’s excellent entry. Time to play with all the cards face up on the table and actually deliver what is talked about. If they say they are going to do it JFDI. Enough is enough if we have to leave or repeal laws and treaties JDI. The days of only talk has us dead in the water. What an indictment against parliament there are only 100 politicians can see it.
April 20, 2023
Probably even fewer than 100.
April 20, 2023
Ashley
You are right it is less than 100 if you really apply hard nose logic to the proceeding. It’s about 52 which is 8% and that could be debatable.
What an embarrassing situation for the country to find itself in. No wonder nothing in reality really gets done.
April 20, 2023
turbo, all the green zealots we see on GB News all the time are students, I wonder why they haven’t spent their energies and time in engineering, design, and stem degrees actually working on bringing their ideals to life instead of just screeching about it.
April 20, 2023
Why would opposition parties say what they would do outside of an election campaign? As the history of the energy support package show, it will only result in the government of the day taking and implementing any good idea an opposition has.
April 20, 2023
I agree with what you have said, but when it comes to what most people want, you have missed one.
I believe what most people want, is an end to illegal, and unlimited immigration, costing the hard working taxpayer, many millions. Patience is running out on this, and it could easily result in a change of Government. Soothing words will no longer cut it, and people want to see something actually being done.
April 20, 2023
Indeed nowt but hot air and lies – all we get from Sunak and indeed from Labour. He will surely not keep his five “promises”. He will be lucky to keep just one. Perhaps the one to just to “pass more laws” in relation to the migrants not that this will remotely stop them.
April 20, 2023
University of Oxford 20 Jan 2020 — Figure 1 shows that those who favoured reducing the number of immigrants coming to Britain in 2019 was 44%.
“Stopping the boats” — Rishi Sunak’s bid to sharply reduce irregular migration routes — is now the second-biggest concern among 2019 Conservative voters, according to a new poll.” politico
Other parties don’t see this as as big a problem we are told.
April 20, 2023
+1. The British are projected to become an ethnic minority in this country in 2050 and that date could come forward when the amnesty for illegals is announced after the election and the Channel becomes so full of boats that they can walk across. If another faction becomes a majority then they will assume control and we will be a conquered people. And then none of us will care about the economy.
April 20, 2023
Indeed. I agree with most of the sentiments in Sir John’s piece, unfortunately it is 13 years too late. Who could now believe a thing the Tory’s say by way of policy? A Government who thinks it can raise taxes to the highest ever to achieve to growth, reduce our carbon footprint by importing 1.21 million minimum wage people last year alone to house them on our greenbelt subsidised by tax payers. That’s besides the illegals who they house and treat with luxury’s whilst leaving our veterans homeless. They deported 251 in a year out of over 45,000. How many years will that take whilst they increase by 1000 a day? Importing our electricity from their beloved EU, whilst exporting our manufacturing on the alter of net stupid, denying fracking and windfall taxing our energy producers, NOT. How are we going to pay our bills when we have nothing to sell as the Chinese/Indians laugh at us and our politicians stupidity, crying over their their nasty bogey gas CO2, plant feeding trace gas. The 48% have had enough of the Tory’s with their in and out of work 16 hours a week so we can pay their housing, 6 children, energy and other bills. Just go. I don’t care for any of the legacies as they are ALL THE SAME. Useless non job lefty’s who couldn’t make a penny in the real world, just rely on milking the 48% until we now say…….NO MORE.
April 20, 2023
Love your post Timeaction. YES, we are all fed up with those that do the least getting the most out of the system and those that have contributed NOTHING getting the same. No more votes from me for this or any of the 3 main parties.
April 20, 2023
C G
The knock on effect of taking all these people in will and is having a disastrous impact on the population.
April 20, 2023
CG: Patience, and time running out too. Threats & criticism today – headline, ‘Ministers will trash UK rule of law if they ignore European Court’. PM Sunak is warned about caving in to the “right wing” and the mooted changes to the legislation face a Lords backlash plus the fresh divisions now within the party. The powers are considered too broad & if there are issues with the Strasbourg court it’s suggested they would be best discussed with the Council of Europe. And just as today the EU member states face demands from their powers that be for an obligatory acceptance of refugees and migrants entering the bloc “at times of high arrivals” Two refusals mentioned and two stating that they cannot do it alone.
April 20, 2023
If doorstep opinion has no concern for the culture war being waged it is because they do not understand its implications. Indeed, its success over the decades has produced a bovine reaction from many. I note Kent Fire Brigade boasting of their gold star approval from Stonewall!! Oh well, our public services must get their priorities straight.
The hit the economy took from the covid/lock down debacle was entirely unnecessary and I think a fair few are coming to realise this now as that knot unravels.
The water industry should provide more clean water capacity and have their feet held to the fire as to what they are doing with the money paid to them. Ditto that for all services. However, the increased population they have to provide for is not of their doing is it?. That is down to Labour and Conservatives who seem totally unwilling to put an end to it.
The magic bean counters seem to think more people equals higher GDP and that is all that matters. It isn’t.
April 20, 2023
+1 more GDP very slightly (perhaps not even that is certain) but far less GDP per cap.
April 20, 2023
GDP per capita reduces when all you import is minimum wage crop pullers and car washers. Tax payers pick up their bills for in work tax credits, housing, health and education etc. I wonder why we have a waiting list of 7 million and rising on the English health service? Are English pushed to the front of the queue? Of course not, they are only taxpayers. The games up, they have had long enough to do conservative policies and have refused.
April 20, 2023
But Sunak has promised to reduce the NHS waiting lists surely he it not lying! I assume this be done having one two or more waiting lists for the main waiting list or by not putting you one the waiting list until you have had all you pre-op bloods, obesity tests and any other tests done or some similar slight of hand.
April 20, 2023
‘They are not preoccupied by the culture wars that consume the political left.’
Yes, you’re right the public despise the Left and their attack on reality, language and truth but YOUR PARTY Mr Redwood has appeased the Left and sneakily participated in the Left’s strategy to demonise and partition our world using race, gender and sexuality as their triumvirate weapons of social and cultural war against normality
I look around and see no kick back from the Tories so John’s attempt to try and distance himself and his party from the Neo-Marxist regressive poison
I despise the Tories for their duplicity regarding the culture wars.
Mr Redwood and his party are the Left for they endorse their strategy. We can see it all around us and John’s party has been in power since 2010
It is my belief that the Tories will betray this nation and its people and throw them to the dogs unlike Thatcher who stood for what was right, true and proper
We all despise the Left except the Tories
April 20, 2023
I find it very hard to describe the ruling government as Tories. A squable over power, priorities, personal wealth, ill-informed doctrine and domination seems much more like a dictatorship!
April 20, 2023
@DOM +1
Its this Conservative Government that has morphed into Labour. I don’t suspect the Conservative Party has joined them. But seeing that the Conservative Party is allowing it to happen you get the feeling that not only are they agreeing with the lurch to the ‘left’ they are encouraging it. They are causing their voters to be disenfranchised.
April 20, 2023
Indeed the current fake Consocialists have appalling socialist & climate alarmist policies and Starmer’s Labour have even worse ones. Starmer intends to fund his insane agenda by putting VAT on private school fees and abolishing Non Dom Status. Both will cost more than they raise and so can fund nothing. So is Starmer so thick he does not realise this? Or is he lying.
So how are Sunak five pledges coming on?
We will halve inflation this year to ease the cost of living and give people financial security.
We will grow the economy, creating better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country.
We will make sure our national debt is falling so that we can secure the future of public services.
NHS waiting lists will fall and people will get the care they need more quickly.
We will pass new laws to stop small boats, making sure that if you come to this country illegally, you are detained and swiftly removed.
No real progress on any of these so far. Inflation still very high (caused by Sunak’s QE and general incompetence and Chancellor. Grow the economy (with taxes and red tape as high as it they are and still increasing it seems unlikely). Public sector net borrowing, excluding public sector banks (£18 billion in Feb 2023). The NHS a sick joke and still getting worse. As to the last one we need actually action not hot air & new laws. Why would they obey these new laws any more than the old laws Sunak?
April 20, 2023
Excellent Sir John,
Can you presume the government??
April 20, 2023
Tony
If only.
Your comment reads like a breath of fresh air JR, but your lot in power are not listening, let alone doing !
April 20, 2023
About 15 years ago I set up the worlds first patient led registry for genetic disease where the parents used the data protection act to lift their medical records out of the NHS red tape and made it available to clinicians and researchers worldwide under the governance of a committee of senior medical staff. This involved legal, IT and genetic work. I was privileged to be involved with leading geneticists around the world to use my 30+ years experience writing algorithmic trading software to write genetic algorithms that are still used today.
Anyway … when the covid spike protein vax came out I was concerned it would form a retro-virus, whereby it retro-fitted itself into our DNA and kept producing itself overtime. I posted a general concern on this site about who would sue who if so many people were harmed.
Well according to reputable research on Dr John Campbell’s Youtube website. This is exactly what has happened. The research shows in a number of people the body is still producing the vax protein from the lining of the veins and arteries and the body is attacking the lining of these blood vessels causing cholesterol and plaques to be released and cause symptoms such as myocarditis and long term worries about dementia.
The Government in the UH HAS very quietly responded to this research by withdrawing the use of the vax to those over the age of 75 or who are immune compromised.
The sh*t has not hit the fan yet but science has definitely switched the fan on and there in a large pile and shovel next it it.
April 20, 2023
Ironically it’s people in the older age group who I understand have some benefit from taking the Covid injection, compared to the risk. Whereas young people do not significantly benefit, but are exposed to the risk. Since when has this government done anything right?
April 20, 2023
This Govt plans a Shovel to Fork Exchange Subsidy as their way of reducing the impact on those stuck with the hits.
April 20, 2023
Thanks, Jav’
April 20, 2023
As ever, a very good article Sir John. But how many times can you repeat yourself yet have absolutely no impact on the parliamentary wrecking ball busily destroying the UK economy.
Now I see the EU is bringing in far more stringent carbon taxes which are bound to be adopted here. Prices of just about everything will be driven upwards, many more SME’s will be driven out of business and travel will become the reserve of the very wealthy.
The political cabal moves inexorably on to impoverishment and control of ordinary people.
April 20, 2023
BOF. It’s up to the public to vote out all this crap and start again. If some of them could tear themselves away from the latest soap opera they might be able to see what’s happening and realise that voting for Con/Lab/Lib will deliver more of what we have now.
April 20, 2023
SJR sets out intelligent well-reasoned remedies. The current Conservative leadership wanders with ignorance into bad places. Too many MPs continue following the crazy path. Most would prefer a much better PM, Chancellor and Cabinet members. However the dodgy MPs drag behind. They do not want to rock the boat. They hesitate in fear of being seen as fickle in changing leader again and risking loss of votes; before election forces them out.
April 20, 2023
I don’t agree that they wander, all evidence points to a clear path being taken – and many of us are appalled.
April 20, 2023
Agree – they have a clear desire for Net-Zero
April 20, 2023
Have you seen the loonie left recently? Or the Trades Unions who bankroll the Labour Party? Or the mad green agendas? The Lib Dems are (rightly) unpopular: in my own experience neither liberal nor democrat.
April 20, 2023
So you want us to vote for your party because it is destroying our country slower than the opposition would? No thanks. Be gone all the main political parties and introduce new ones who would put the British people first. We have had enough of your promises and lies.
April 20, 2023
Quite. Putting British people first would be astonishing when they have deliberately imported 10 million in 20 years, against our wishes, mostly under the Tory’s.
April 20, 2023
+1
April 20, 2023
+1
April 20, 2023
Yes, Sir John. How will you get the Government to do these things? The changes that matter, that is (IR35 is a relative side-show). What is your plan? Who in Parliament is with you?
April 20, 2023
A lone voice in the (becoming) wilderness. It is likely to feel quite lonely on the other benches, with similar survivors of the purge coming up, while being present as the new Government does even more damage.
April 20, 2023
The doctors for covid ethics website latest article describes this. The traitor class, who now rule everywhere in the West, are only interested in shovelling this under the carpet; they are unvaccinated anyway.
April 20, 2023
“They are not clamouring for Labour’s higher taxes”
Could they get any higher given we currently have the highest tax burden in over 70 years. Sorry John but with the exception of yourself and a handful of others in your party, the rest may as well sit on the opposition benches. There is nothing to pick between your party and Labour. Both hell bent on net zero, both high tax big state, both soft on crime and high on immigration, both nanny state, both anti English.
People are now realising that there is another choice other than Labour Blue and Labour Red. As someone who has never voted anything but Tory since my first vote in the 1970s, I will now be voting Reform. And not one Tory voter I know will be voting Tory again in the foreseeable future.
April 20, 2023
Me too Jools. I have also always voted Tory but not now.
April 21, 2023
There is a growing consensus about that decision.
April 20, 2023
A beautifully crafted rant Sir John. I define it as such because it collates to all the rants most of us offer you. It is a battle plan for Conservatives, but there are few boots on the ground in the parliamentry party. Plenty of support among the territorials and home guard out in the country, but they are astute enough to realise that voting Conservative is not going to result in the implementation of all that you detail above. The very sight of our Chancellor and his uninspired message is like a death sentence. Someone should buy him a judicial black skull cap.
Be honest with yourself, the only offer of your policies come from Reform. In the unlikely event of their outright win in 2024, they still have an enormous battle with the blob who have been kicking against democracy since 2016. The only way for a Conservative Party to become electable is for every constituency chairman to think like you and to control 100% the selection of candidates. When they are cut out of the equation by the parliamentary party, the party is seen to be detatched from democracy, witness the Liz Truss coupe. You have to decide whether your ideas and the future of the country come before a party that calls itself conservative but in name only.
April 20, 2023
Brilliant post, agricola. Brilliant !
April 20, 2023
144 seat majority.
It would be a doddle.
Just do what people want.
And even the PM must really understand what that is!
Surely?
April 20, 2023
Took the exact words right out of my mouth – ask elderly people who used to sit in the warm by a coal fire if today they have heat (or eat) in their homes. Their previous employers are struggling with huge energy bills. Energy is the lifeblood of industry and an absolute necessity in homes. China with 25 times more emissions than us uses coal. We should be using English fracted gas, not fracked gas from USA. 15% in interconnectors from Europe – simply daft. It will get worse as the stupid rush to EV overloads the grid. Yesterday I took delivery of a Ford Puma, less polluting than my old Toyota Yaris, and with a tiny 999 cc engine and battery boost from braking it is a sensible way forward for the next ten years. £70,000 for fast chargers at motorway service stations – crazy.
April 20, 2023
MD , with the Germans having shut down their last nuclear plant yesterday, and now asking for sanctions on Russian nuclear-produced electricity, we can’t expect much energy from the European interconnectors in the future.
April 20, 2023
NLH,
In electoral terms that means voting Reform. They are a very heavy dose of antibiotics.
April 21, 2023
But they have to last a course… will enough candidates take advantage of the malaise to win seats?
April 20, 2023
“If we got on with producing small modular nuclear plants and with ways of storing renewable energy to smooth out its delivery again we would boost growth and provide some downward pressure on prices in due course when they started generating.”
Nuclear energy is the only low carbon technology which can provide us with secure, affordable, reliable energy and mass produced SMRs are the way forward instead of expensive Hinkley Point C one-offs.
There is no affordable way to “store renewable energy to smooth out its delivery” and hence why no energy storage plans exist in the energy flow diagrams of the National Grid ESO Future Energy Scenarios for 2035 and 2050. Note that the recent NAO report said that DESNZ don’t have a plan for the decarbonisation of our power supply by 2035…
Renewable energy is expensive, variable and intermittent and cannot be called secure as we are replying on China, a state described by our security services as “hostile” for our infrastructure (turbines and solar panels) and also for the necessary metals and minerals required for our electrification.
A disaster looms.
April 20, 2023
Good morning Sir John
Best of luck with that.
All, or at at least those that have high-jacked the leaderships of what used to be defined political parties have morphed into one grey background of noise. The impression is that the ‘Blob’, the international wannabee’s with the extreme Socialist WEF agenda have stolen the UK’s Political Process.
We have a Conservative Government that throws our money at any one, without purpose or accountability attached.
We have a Parliament that should be our prime legislator, that says ‘we are not capable’ we must take instructions from the Foreign unaccountable bigger ‘Blob.’
So in a nutshell so-called Democracy is not permitted, elections have no point. Our parliamentarians (at least 80% of them) of all persuasions refuse to serve the electorate but bow down to what they have been convinced is a higher power than the people of the UK.
We now no longer need elections of a UK Parliament, its a waste of space and money.
April 20, 2023
Sir John, you understand how people where I live are thinking! unbelievable! Well done you!
Allow me to add in the absentee police force. People who have just paid half a million for an “escape to the country” do not expect yobbos with balloons and bikes swearing and yelling outside their laurel hedges.
Allow me to add in the appalling roads which are wearing out very fast as we struggle down country lanes built as droves for sheep in the middle ages.
April 20, 2023
Anslem
Agreed, the roads are now actually disintegrating faster than any replacement of repair programme, and we can all see that for ourselves, car repairs due to pothole damage are rising, Councils are spending a fortune on compensation instead of rectifying the problem.
Anyone who now willingly purchases a car with large wheels and low profile tyres is in for huge ongoing replacement costs.
When is someone going to get a grip on road maintenance, let alone improvement, it is not as if the motorist is not coughing up enough money in taxes, be it, ULEZ areas, fuel duty, car parking, vehicle duty, new car tax (VAT and LUXURY Value Tax) and the like is it !
Our Road system is in a disgraceful state and getting worse by the day !
April 20, 2023
Berkshire Alan. And with more electric cars which are heavier the problem will get worse, quicker.
April 20, 2023
I agree with all the sensible things that you say SJR. One thing I would add is the reversal of the attacking of landlords…allow mortgage interest tax relief and section 21.
April 20, 2023
I’ll just echo the sentiments already expressed by so many here already.
We all agree with you Sir John, the problem is that this Government appears hell-bent on doing the complete opposite of what you propose. None of the main parties represent my views and frankly, none deserve my vote.
April 20, 2023
I am in my late seventies and I have voted Conservative all my adult life. I voted for Cameron but only because Farage did not have a candidate in my area. The Party has been consumed by the liberal lefties within the Party. I shall end my life not ever wishing to vote conservative again. The Party has destroyed the country in which I have enjoyed a wonderful life of opportunity and safety. I fear for my children and grandchildren because of what has been allowed to happen by my trusted politicians.
Common sense appears to be absent within the political class and has been replaced by virtue signalling at our expense. We, the electorate, have been ignored for the sake of every minority which puts it hand out. Our MPs prefer to give our taxes to foreigners than ourselves.
The plan which you have laid out is what most of us are crying out for. Unfortunately you appear to be in a minority. The majority of the Conservative MPs follow like sheep down the road of socialist mediocrity.
There are two Tory MPs, whom I listen to and believe in, along with yourself. They are Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lee Anderson.It is wonderful to listen to Jacob now that the shackles of Cabinet loyalty have been removed. Lee Anderson has been a breath of fresh air, with his open honesty in the chamber. The Dennis Skinner of the Conservative Party.
Finally, I will be giving my vote to the Reform Party because it is the Party closest to the principles of a Thatcher government. It is seriously interested in a truly independent nation and all that means. Strong and courageous leaders, a clear vision of the future for the nation and a genuine belief in their responsibilities towards the electorate and the society in which we live.
April 20, 2023
Well said Anthony. This government has truly lost the plot.
April 20, 2023
Reading everyone’s comments and take on the UK’s Political disarray, the common thread is we have had 13 years of talk, but other than taxes increase to cover uncontrolled spending little or nothing else. That is not to suggest that things were better under Blair & Brown, but the Tories have destroyed more of the fabric of the UK
Sir John, your premise is the alternatives would be worse, prompts the question how? Parliament is destroying itself by refusing to serve the people they pretend they represent.
Voters wishing for self betterment for themselves, families and communities, only receive talk, promises, punishment, and taxes as no Party is prepared to serve and govern for the UK electorate.
April 20, 2023
Dear Mr. Redwood,
But at least the government is providing us with an emergency alert facility on our mobile phones and there is potential for government to make more use of this system.
The Prime Minister could send us his maths questions over the airwaves. For example: “A railway line costs £100 billion pounds (£100,000,000,000) and runs for 150 miles; how much per mile does it cost?” Or “In a single year 65,000 migrants are expected to cross the English Channel in small boats and a boat can hold 40 people; how many boats will be needed?”
The possibilities are endless.
April 20, 2023
………..indeed. And how much per capita will be needed by taxpayers to fund these gimmegrants? What percentage of 45,000 is the 215 who were deported last year whilst the rest picked up the English taxpayers prize of keeping them, never to be removed?
April 20, 2023
+1
I think you’ve got something there!
But to be fair to the dear govt. I suppose there just MIGHT be an emergency at some point?
I mean our shores might be invaded by THOUSANDS or there might be gangs of people tearing down statues and stopping the traffic. Stopping ambulances even. Or shops might get shut down…doctors and dentists too. They really would be terrible emergencies.
But then …I guess we could always call the police?
Or the army………? 🤔
April 20, 2023
The vast majority of the electorate would vote for the party that put forward the manifesto you have just put outlined. What is required is a large turn out at the next general election and this manifesto would ensure that the party putting it forward would sweep into office. Sadly the Conservatives in Government seem unable to deliver the changes needed in The Treasury, The Bank of England, the OBR and the Civil Service to deliver such a manifesto.
April 20, 2023
As always an excellent piece Sir John
How I wish the government would listen and act on your advice and save us from the coming Labour administration.
April 20, 2023
Meanwhile, the so-out-of-touch-it’s-laughable Prime Minister thinks the solution to all our problems is to make reluctant 16-18 yr olds study maths for a further two years ….. as if that’s going to make a scrap of difference to the abilities of young people who have already studied it for 12 years and have no affinity for it.
A shortage of maths teachers is just a minor problem with the back-of-a-ciggie-packet plan.
April 20, 2023
@ Donna – any shortage of maths teachers is irrelevant for outcomes for printers will still be able to churn out pass certificates. If those are delivered by post, no maths teacher hindrance need affect Rishi’s scheme at all.
Reading John Allen Paulos’s “Innumeracy” ought to be on the curriculum for all.
April 20, 2023
Perhaps they could calculate the costs of British industry this Government has exported to China and elsewhere and how much that is worth to the exchequer whilst they pray at the alter of net stupid? Or, how many coal powered electricity stations have been added to the German electricity grid recently whilst they closed their last three nuclear stations? Did this add to the overall bogey gas CO2 in Europe or did they have a separate environment pass as they have a different atmosphere and run the EU? Does this compromise the level playing field environment agreements under the Withdrawal Agreement or are our Government so weak as to ignore it? Seems the rules in that agreement only works one way. Therefore no agreement, more rule taking British Tory’s.
April 20, 2023
Absolutely spot on today . If Sir John was in charge we would overcome the economic mess and restore the confidence that is so badly needed . Labour has nothing to attract my vote but equally the same is true of our present leadership . Finally it looks as if we will be able to start the Rwanda flights – the only glimmer of sunshine .
April 20, 2023
Sir
Sadly, your comments are far too sensible for Paliament and for the Civil Service establishment.
I am sure there are many people who, like me, are currently seeking an alternative to Conservative/Labour/LibDem/Green.
Historically, Conservatives have had the better reputation for financial competence. It is not yet too late to restore this advantage.
What are the chances of getting all of this article into the MSM so that everything can get out into the open for general discussion in the whole of the UK ?
April 20, 2023
Sir J,
All the main political parties are cut from the same cloth and will continue to run the UK down. I will probably spoil my vote in the local and general elections.
April 20, 2023
Vote for whosoever can beat the incumbent. They hate being sacked!
April 20, 2023
We have the technology to have a driverless light railway, yet it is only invested in London. Why wasn’t it put in Manchester when the tram system was restored? Why isn’t it put in other Cities and places where without a DLR it is impossible to get to your local hospital without a car to visit or at the weekend? Most people I know aren’t concerned about the railway at all. Ours is nearly nonexistent, and you can’t even get to the nearest big Cities, and they’re only 20 miles away that we want to go to from our town of 35,500 people. London’s priorities are infecting the whole country as usual.
April 20, 2023
There is also no passion for this Tory government either – What people crave is a truly honest party with conservative values.
Indeed, for they are all joined at the hip in helping to destroy everything of value in this country.
We would warm to decisions which showed HMG standing up for the people of the UK, not surrendering our rights and stop Paying France £Billions for nothing!
We would relish a party that was truly open and honest that didn’t hide behind quangos and alleged experts.
We simply can’t vote for a party that dispenses our hard earned taxes in every direction except at the people of the UK. None of us appreciate vast sums sent to China and international quangos that don’t work. We want a government that serves us, not another master!
April 20, 2023
In total agreement with you John, just a pity this useless chancellor and PM will never agree to it.
April 20, 2023
Lower corporation tax
Increase individual tax threshold
Scrape VAT and replace with sales tax
Repeal ICE car and gas boiler ban
Return illegals back to France same day
Repeal devolution and re-instate the Union or scrape the Union
Stop all foreign vessels fishing in our territory
Repeal net-zero
Government to only buy British products
All illegal & asylum seekers held in secure accommodation
House of Lords to be elected
You’ve only got about 6 months ….please do something
April 20, 2023
@glen cullen According to the PM’s math, lower tax increase inflation and has to be avoided.
April 20, 2023
Didn’t the Khmer Rouge have a maths re-education programme
April 20, 2023
glen cullen
Well said Glen.
A list worth fighting for and the hammer to smash the apathetic behaviour of too many of the population.
April 20, 2023
+1 – better still – do it all! All migrants must be returned to France which is a safe country. I suggest loading them on big Ships and beaching them on the French coast.
April 20, 2023
Reported in the Daily Telegraph
“Back my Brexit deal or face a united Ireland, Rishi Sunak tells DUP”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/04/19/back-brexit-deal-or-face-united-ireland-rishi-sunak-dup/
If true it is the PM that needs replacing as the leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party – he just doesn’t get it. It is the Sunak deal that refuse the right to those living in Northern Ireland to have democratic rights, the same democratic rights of any civilised Nation. It is Rishi Sunak that is kicking Northern Ireland out of the UK with a massive big boot with his refusal to recognise the Belfast Agreement.
April 20, 2023
@Ian B
add, the above along with all the other refusals of this Government to work for all the citizens of the UK. The continuous giving other sway ahead of our, the UK’s Citizens Democracy – this Conservative Government as about as traitorous as it can get. They have to go.
April 20, 2023
Hi john
Lots of people will agree with you, so why are we not doing these measures, why are we always obstacles in the way of growth we can help other countries but can’t help ourselves
April 20, 2023
Because ”growth” is (seriously) seen as a nasty capitalist/industrialist thing. Probably tied up with imperialism. Lefty-cult-think.
The type of nonsense that is destroying the West.
April 20, 2023
Endless growth is insanity. There is no other word for it.
April 20, 2023
Excellent article, but why do we have a PM & Chancellor who are not listening? Don’t they go out on the doorstep & listen to people as well? If you can see it & understand it, & the majority of responses on this site can also see it & understand it, why do the PM & Chancellor stubbornly cling to the wrong approach? I agree there is no enthusiasm for Starmer & Labour, but there is little enthusiasm for Sunak & conservatives. We have all been waiting for a proper conservative government for years, but to get one, the first thing that needs to happen is to sack Jeremy Hunt. He has never seen a silver lining he can’t change into a black cloud!
April 20, 2023
The first job is to take back control of the energy infrastructure from the climate cultists. The economy will fail without a reliable affordable power supply.
April 20, 2023
I mostly agree with this article. It can only be a call for a new direction in policy. It is a call for ‘populist Conservativism’ instead of ‘a civil service directed version of Conservativism’.
It correctly argues the new direction cannot, given the proximity of the General Election be delayed. It is incompatible with Rishi Sunak, a captive of the Civil Service if ever there was one, remaining in office much beyond the May local elections. The Conservative Parliamentary Party must soon decide whether they go properly in this new populist direction or whether they go down to massive defeat with Rishi Sunak who is neither politically nor personally suited to lead the Conservative Party. It is again ‘no change, no chance’.
So please get as many M.P.s as possible to endorse this program after the local elections and then put it forward as an alternative program for a secret vote at a full meeting of the 1922 Committee. If voted through the next question is whether Boris Johnson should lead on such a program. I think he should as he is by far the most dynamic and best vote winner there is in British politics, but if not it does need to be a determined, true believer in this which (Liz Truss being personally impossible) really leaves just John Redwood, Jacob Rees-Mogg or Suella Braverman (of which I think John Redwood would be the best) to implement it and put it part-done before the country in 2024. However decisions must be made next month.
April 20, 2023
There is no intention to “go for growth”, quite the reverse in fact. Our unilateral Net Zero Strategy, Mission Zero, is designed to restrict growth. Fewer cars, fewer journeys, restricted travel outside of designated areas, fewer flights and holidays, fewer food producing farms, less protein, water, fuel (even green electricity) and household goods to be consumed. Continued de-industrialisation caused by expensive and intermittent energy.
April 20, 2023
You are certainly correct Sir John, in saying that the Conservative Party is no longer conservative. The ‘Main Parties’ are different wings of a ‘Uniparty’ now. That is why the electorate is totally disgruntled.
April 20, 2023
Just sat through a whirlwind of 5 Richy promises followed by a series of nice-to-haves that should have been in the last manifesto and any that were have not been achieved. A smiling Richy cuts no mustard I’m afraid- ‘We don’t believe you’ is what the conclusion becomes.
April 20, 2023
Their new policy is to have a raft of policies acceptable to the media
April 20, 2023
The Globalist UK Establishment government do not give a dam and this is regardless of which party is in “office”. They follow and implement the NWO doctrine as instructed but change is coming and Nothing can stop what is coming, NOTHING.
April 20, 2023
The Ukraine war is an external event; however, the Tory Party’s response to is not. Ukraine is not in NATO therefore we have no obligations whatsoever to support US warmongering there. When the US sticks its oar in it invariably makes a bad situation worse which it then abandons at some point when the US public becomes bored with it.
April 21, 2023
We do not have a foreign policy of our own. The government is caught between pressure from the Americans to do what they want, and the pro-war Left to intervene against countries, such as Serbia and Russia, that have opposed their global control agenda.
April 21, 2023
Sir Redwood, there are many ways to lose an election, the conservatives majority in parliament is assiduously working on unpopular and damaging policies in every aspect of our lives.
My guess is that many people will, mistakenly, bury their heads in the sand and just disengage.
Why are you not in the government? Because your conservatism and moral compass are an anathema to the neo-conservatives now in control.
April 23, 2023
Sir John Redwood’s article paints a picture of a Westminster government that seems to live in a world of its own that is not the UK. It is reminiscent of 2016 when it was perceived the Government – and Parliament – looked to the EU for guidance, rather than the British electorate. ‘Drain the Westminster swamp’, was the cry of the more passionate Brexiteers. Even before that, during the referendum on Scotland’s independence, I’m sure many English, like me, would have voted for independence from Westminster were it remotely possible.
When Rishi Sunak was appiinted Leader of the Conservative Party and PM, an Australian friend asked me what I thought of, saying she thought he spoke very well (content not style). Yes, I replied, but the sight of this fabulously wealthy man trying to understand the lives of people on average incomes will be tragi-comic. And so it has proved but worse than that, his slick salesmanship of his Framework on the NIP is so detached from the reality as to be insulting.
He could stop the boats. But we and every would-be illegal immigrant across the planet know perfectly well he won’t. He’ll talk about it a great deal and fiddle with legislation but he won’t actually do anything in The Channel, the only place that matters. Why because he and the Tory Party as a whole don’t really care about the Channel Crossing. What they do care about is talking a good talk and putting on a display in order to win the next general election and that is all. Winning is the only thing that matters They could win for a good reason in the national interest rather than party self interest if, for example, in the mext month just one boat was turned back or one boat driver was arrested and charged with endangering human life at sea and then continuing with that policy. But we all know that will never happen. Because there is no political will in Government or in Westminster to stand up for the UK. None. UK is a soft touch. Politically it is a limp rag. Biden knows it. Ireland knows it. France knows it. The EU knows it. Every illegal immigrant knows it. The only people who can’t see it are thriving in the Westminster swamp.
April 25, 2023
Hear Hear! Dear Sir, how does one bring reality to Conservative Ministers, and break the opposition and inertia of the “Civil Service” to doing what they are told? Bring in unfashionable but knowledgeable people from science, medical, climate, agricultural, fields. Who see things as they are, not as they might be. Work on the British People to heal them of their climate of fear, and cattle -like subservience to the opinion of their “betters”.
Sweep away Marxist woke ideas and concept with a barrage of Truth, and re-awaken mythical spirit of UNITED KINGDOM, working together in healthy self interest.
A country on its knees spiritually, economically, neglecting natural resources, and good policies, is no good to i itself, and no help to any other country in need of aid.
Trust in GOD!