Esther McVey is taking up a new post in the Cabinet Office as Minister without portfolio. The press say she is the “Commonsense Czar”, the wokefinder general, the slayer of wrong headed wokery.
So where should she begin?
The kind of commonsense I would like from government includes putting the public first when designing public services. Car parks that are friendly where it is easy to use the machines, rather than tax and fine traps with complex rules and limited ways to pay. Roads designed and looked after with drivers in mind, rather than obstacle traps getting in the way of getting around. Council websites that are easy to access and allow you to see what service is on offer, find out things about your local area, and see an honest account of where all the tax money is going to. Appointments that can easily be arranged to access a public service and mean the times on the agreement. Trains that run on time and are not cancelled. More commonsense on net zero, better value for money from many public services, less intrusion into our lives by government. Fewer forms and compliance with ever more rules.
The government may have in mind altering views on cultural matters.
What would you want her to take up and achieve?
November 17, 2023
Good morning.
A lot of what you suggest, Sir John can be done by others.
Perhaps she can be persuaded to rearrange the Cabinet Office chairs whilst the brass band plays. Who knows ?
Nice work if you can get it.
November 17, 2023
She could put an end to this net zero lunacy. The government has just guaranteed £105 per mwh to developers building the next tranche if windmills. That equates to a further £8 billion subsidy a year for the consumer.
Yesterday wind provided 3% of demand and you want to double the installed capacity.
An end to this madness.
November 17, 2023
Yes please scientific and economic lunacy. But hardly anyone in government understands energy, engineering, physics, climate or indeed economics. Most have no science beyond GCSE level. We need cheap, reliable on demand energy to be able to compete and a bit more atmospheric CO2 is a net good. We also need far less government, less red tape and far lower taxes.
November 17, 2023
It is another non job. Cull it along with quangos, diversity and equality rot. We know it is rot because there was no selection procedure for Cameron who imposed a quota system on your party to stop male stale appointments!! What is he exactly? Is Esther going to get rid of him for not having a diverse equality selection procedure? Sunak could have chose May who is at least an MP!
Unfortunately Esther put her career first before thinking that she was given a non job. Her role is exactly what needs to be stamped out in the public sector. Imagine the billions saved in councils, quangos, police, fire brigade, prisons, security services and now, unfortunately the military!
November 17, 2023
I+W
Absolutely correct. As I write (10:00am) the 28 GW of installed wind capacity is providing just 0.86 GW!
And the Government wants to build more wind farms! They have just doubled the CfD price in order to get bids for the next renewable allocation round, having received no bids for the last one, and there are absolutely no plans for any backup storage.
At £105/MWhr (2023 price) fixed offshore wind is fast catching up Hinkley Point C (£128/MWhr 2023) even though Hinkley Point C was, according to Sir Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University, twice the price it should have been because EDF was required to use Chinese capital at 9% instead of UK Government funding at 2%.
The floating offshore wind at £176/MWhr (2012 prices) so £253/MWhr at 2023 prices is double that for Hinkley Point C and floating wind will be needed in order to move into deeper waters further offshore to expand wind energy further.
Since the building cost per unit of power of Hinkley Point C is 3 times that of the successfully built Korean nuclear plants for the UAE and double that for the RR SMRs it shows that nuclear should be the economic choice. Especially since nuclear provides reliable power, doesn’t require expensive backup or grid upgrades, lasts 3 to 4 times longer, and uses 1000 times less concrete and steel and 1000 times less area than offshore wind.
Nuclear is also more secure not relying upon China, a state described by our security services as “hostile”, for our infrastructure (turbines and solar panels).
November 18, 2023
No. Wind contributed to 26.8% of the UK’s total electricity generation.
In Demark, it is 44%
In Germany, it is 23%
In USA, it is 10%.
China, even India growing / catching up.
All the young, flexible, adventurous, entrepreneurial capitalists are supporting Net Zero. Not so much for ethical reasons but ’cause of the large amounts of money that can be made.
Only the boring, dinosaur, fat-cat, lazy, short-term capitalists are supporting the oil and gas industries – who need to get off their backsides and work harder for the sake of their shareholders … and for the sake of our country. PATRIOTISM. If we fail to make the most of Net Zero opportunities then we’re going to lag behind other countries in making the technology and energy of the future worth potentially billions and billions to the UK economy.
Reply. 80% of world energy used is fossil fuel. Still no solutions to mass storage of renewables.
November 18, 2023
Net zero is a surefire way to topple our economy to a thrid world standard of living. Why are you so keen on that?
November 17, 2023
@Mark B “A lot of what you suggest, Sir John can be done by others.” But they refuse, that would be doing what they are empowered and paid to do, instead they take their orders from people we don’t vote for, cant be held to account and have no responsibility to the People of the UK
November 17, 2023
‘ Trains that run on time and are not cancelled. ’
Wishful thinking. She does not have the powers of a second world war dictator, even though we may wish for the execution of many of heads of the rail franchises along with those in charge of HS2.
November 17, 2023
Where to begin is indeed the question. The breadth of scope where common sense is needed but lacking encompassses just about the entire realm of government. If that really is Esther McVey’s brief she should be Prime Minister.
November 17, 2023
Rees-Mogg wanted to cull civil service by 91,000 which had grown under covid. Govt. Now trying to get civil service back to work for at least three days!! JR, pl7,beds, electricians etc cannot work from home but your govt want to destroy them through i35 and tax them out of existence!!
What an example to have non jobs in cabinet? Why not a critical race theory minister, BLM minister, ExReb minister as well Climate Committee waste along with the equality minister etc. we now have a junior minister appointed who takes the knee for BLM!! Good god your party is so left wing it is blind to its membership and voters.
Guido has helped your party work out the extreme lefties in OBR, advisors in No.10 related to opposition front bench etc. and still…..nothing!
November 17, 2023
Off topic, although it would be costly we should set up a refugee camp on Ascension Island, as mooted by the government in August, and while I welcome the opportunity for our Parliament to demonstrate its sovereignty by expressly disapplying any obstructive provisions of international treaties, and any obstructive judgements of courts foreign or domestic, it would be wise to do that for Ascension Island anyway, just as for Rwanda:
https://theconversation.com/sending-uk-asylum-seekers-to-ascension-island-is-a-legal-non-starter-if-the-government-really-is-planning-to-do-it-211241
“Sending UK asylum seekers to Ascension Island is a legal non-starter – if the government really is planning to do it”
November 17, 2023
You can’t ‘dis apply’ parts of a Treaty. All you can do is scrap the whole Treaty – hence Brexit. See Harry Windsor – you can’t be a Prince with no Royal family in a Republic that does not recognise unearned Titles or Honours.
All or nothing.
November 17, 2023
If Parliament decides to disapply part of a treaty then it is disapplied. You may recall that there were parts of the EU treaties which did not apply to the UK, while the rest did apply. That was by agreement with the other EU member states, the difference here would be that disapplication would be unilateral. In the case of the ECHR the crucial parts to be disapplied would relate to the role of the Strasbourg court, and we do not need to withdraw from the whole Convention to say that we no longer consent to respect the judgements of that court.
November 17, 2023
That was BEFORE the Treaty was signed. If you sign a treaty you can’t rescind some of it. You are signed up. All you can do is recind the whole Treaty, because that’s the only power you have.
Sorry, but that’s the law!
November 18, 2023
What law?
Parliament, being the supreme legal authority for the UK, can make or unmake any law.
November 18, 2023
You have to examine each treaty for its terms to understand the consequences of not following any particular aspects of the treaty, and whether that is in fact potentially allowed by the treaty in certain circumstances. Many treaties contain provisions for tabling amendments as well. Resiling from a treaty in a formal manner will again depend on the provisions within the treaty for doing so, subject also to overrides from at least the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Ultimately you can look at many examples where nations have said that they will no longer adhere to certain aspects of a treaty, while giving a reassurance that other aspects would be maintained.
November 17, 2023
It’s a bit of a pain having to go over all this yet again, but this is from 2010:
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmselect/cmeuleg/723/723.pdf
On page 4:
“13. The Government does not think there is any uncertainty about what the UK Parliament could do. We agree that if the UK Parliament were to repeal or disapply the 1972 Act – i.e. to add a ‘notwithstanding’ clause into a piece of UK legislation to make clear the UK is explicitly legislating counter to EU law, the UK courts would respect that view.
14. We agree with Lord Denning on this. ‘If the time should come when our Parliament deliberately passes an Act with the intention of repudiating the Treaty or any provision in it, or intentionally of acting inconsistently with it and says so in express terms … it would be the duty of our courts to follow the statute of our Parliament … Unless there is such an intentional and express repudiation of the Treaty, it is our duty to give priority to the Treaty.’”
Note that he referred to “repudiating the Treaty or any provision in it”.
November 17, 2023
So the only explanations as to why the Government did not address these concerns on the risk of refoulement from Rwanda raised by the Court of Appeal before proceeding to the Supreme court are, stupidity, arrogance, incompetence or lack of will.
It seems that lack of will is the most likely. Sunak is only pretending in order to win votes but has no serious intention to stop the boats. Taking the case to the Supreme Court was intended to look good and to delay the need for action. As Suella Braverman says, it will be some time now before the treaty with Rwanda can be amended and revised legislation brought forward. No doubt Sunak hopes and intends that he can be re-elected before crunch time in court comes round again.
Of course, the most effective and immediate way to stop the boats is to turn them back in The Channel. Whilst the law is there for the UK to do so, Sunak’s government hasn’t the will to stand up to France or the EU.
Enter David Lord Cameron. His mission, tucked away from scrutiny in the Lords, is to sneak the UK back into the EU in all but name, agreement by agreement, salami slicing away the UK’s sovereignty. What is the betting that one of these deals will be for UK to accept a quota of unlawful immigrants from the EU in return for stopping the boats?
November 17, 2023
France did and several EU countries have put a stop on migrants.
November 17, 2023
Hi Gary, for instance, is in breach of their Treaty obligations, that’s why the EU has stopped sending them the money they are entitled to.
France did what? Unilaterally repeal part of treaty – in that case they would lose case of enforcement.
November 17, 2023
Wrong. In UK, its domestic law normally takes precedence in UK over treaties. Normally a treaty has effect in the UK only if given effect by domestic legislation. In some other countries domestic law is not required and that is their decision to make. There are exceptions, eg. EU law. There are several ways to do it. One is by having a codicil attached to the treaty, another is by domestic legislation.
In any case there is always potential for conflict between laws relevant to a particular case. So someone needs to decide priorities. It might be left to the court or, alternatively, Parliament may decide the priorities by legislating. This is becoming more of a problem with the increasingly complex web of rights given in law. Someone has to decide which rights take precedence over others. If that is not done then resolution of a conflicting rights by legal process is impossible.
November 17, 2023
Would not cost much as so few would want to go and people would stop arriving if they knew that or going home was the only choice they had.
November 17, 2023
Whether or not it is a legal non-starter I know not. As one who has lived and worked on Ascension many times over the years, I can say that it is not a solution. The island is largely barren, unusable craggy mounds and valleys of lava and ash.
There is no natural water supply and islanders rely on potable water obtained by expensive desalinisation and supplies are limited.
All energy supplies rely on on-site generation or imports (petrol, oil etc).
Vegetables and other food staples are extremely limited and rely on flown-in or shipped in supplies.
Accommodation is extremely limited, largely to relatively small settlements at Georgetown, Travellers’ hill, the USAF sites and Two Boats. To build more accommodation would be an extremely expensive and difficult undertaking.
There is no harbour and all vessels visiting the island have to anchor off Georgetown and people and freight has to be sent in by lighter and craned off the water.
In short, it is madness to consider Ascension Island as being a place on which to put thousands of migrants.
November 17, 2023
Yes I have been to AI, too. The proposal is a cloud cuckoo land idea, so typical of this government.
While the battles over the Rwanda scheme are maintained I suspect they are a diversionary tactic. Just to win votes without serious intenet by the government to actully stop the boats. Now that David Lord of Remain Cameron is Foreign Sec, UK will instead sneakily agree with the EU to accept a quota of the EU’s unlawful migrants in exchange for the EU preventing the boats setting out from France. That would be sold to the public as a scheme for returning illegals to France, rather like the EU’s deal with Turkey. And Cameron would also proceed to sneak UK back into the EU with many other backroom deals, too.
November 18, 2023
Nothing to do with cloud cuckoo land; it is in the South Atlantic, remote and inhospitable, and therefore just the sort of unattractive place we need for these people who turn up uninvited claiming the right to take a share in our country but who must be kept safe while it is decided what will be done with them.
November 17, 2023
Dennis Cooper:
Any distant British-owned island could be a suitable asylum-seeker holding and assessment point. Those seeking UK citizenship could sign in each week to maintain their application. Accommodation would be provided, and those wishing to work could be paid to build homes, schools and provide services to support the population there. The UK would have control over its own affairs without others interfering.
November 17, 2023
Try to get yourself informed, Denis. What fraction of the 800+ contractors on Ascension Island are UK MoD or US DoD personnel? And what has been the main use of the island since the turn of the 20th c? And what is it the end point of? What about the similarities between the two BOTs, AI and Diego Garcia?
November 17, 2023
Many questions, but little sense.
November 17, 2023
Little sense, indeed, as much as you supporting moving illegal migrants to AI without knowing what the island has been used for. And see Martyn G’s description of ‘the facilities’.
November 17, 2023
Still little sense. The Foreign Office did not rule out using Ascension Island because of what it has been used for, but because of what it lacks – which could be remedied.
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2023/09/17/the-five-targets-for-government/#comment-1410025
For years I have been saying that we should put a refugee holding camp – not a prison – on Ascension Island, which is our sovereign territory, and the pathetic excuses out forward by the Foreign Office confirm my belief that they do not want to solve this problem except by some kind of submission to their beloved EU:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/ascension-island-rwanda-population-map-b2388720.html
“The island was previously considered a location to process asylum seekers, with ministers believing its remote location would create a strong deterrent for migrants hoping to cross the Channel.
They were previously dropped after a feasibility study carried out by the Foreign Office declared Ascension Island unsuitable for various reasons, including inadequate power and water supplies and a lack of a hospital.”
November 17, 2023
All sensible suggestions but treating people and motorists as cash cows to be mugged and treating people wanting public services and people they want to deter as far as they can is inherent to the system and rife. To the NHS “patients customers” are an inconvenience as they do not pay and just an expense. They have their money already so they install systems to deter and inconvenience them. Things such as endless GP phone queuing systems, rationed social housing, long delays for treatment so they have to go private. Three hours plus waiting times at A&E and long waits for ambulances.
They would far rather spend people’s taxes on their state sector wages, pensions, general incompetence and posh offices than provide anything of value to the public.
Tax and trap systems are everywhere, the bus lanes, hatch junctions, residents parking, parking systems, endless red traffic light are all designed to mug and inconvenience people. HMRC has forms like ATED with tight deadlines and forms that have to be submitted every year even when no tax it due and often no forms or reminders are sent. They have an incentive not too to get the fines. Similarly at companies house. Often they insist on online filing that sometimes does not even work reliably. To query things you have to wait hours holding on the phone. It took me over 30 mins to get through to HMRC yesterday for something. All phone system should have to call you back is is absurd to have to hold for hours. Or just sent them an email and they call you back.
Absurd complexity also means people end up having to use agents to rent flats for example, or accountants to file tax forms again making thing more costly and less efficient for everyone.
November 17, 2023
Perhaps we should follow the Ukrainian Asylum Seekers who return home to use their medical services, which they claim is better than ours even in this existential war!
Makes you think really, especially as the NHS has a income greater than the whole of Ukraine-in-good-times.
November 17, 2023
Indeed.
November 17, 2023
Lynne,
Tories under Hunt never stopped or even tried to stop health tourism. A news to divert attention and then dropped.
November 17, 2023
Soon they will not be able to give it away because the NHS is gaining a horrible reputation world-wide! Perhaps we should make it compulsory for all Asylum applicants to be medically vetted and treated, and definitely receive all the Covid shots, before their application is considered.
They would be rowing over that channel towards France like a boat-race team!
November 17, 2023
Yes I know Polish people that go back to Poland for what they felt was superior healthcare. I wonder how much Poland bills back to the UK for this.
November 17, 2023
Wall Street Journal 16/11:”It’s time to end magical thinking about Russia’s defeat.”
Has anyone told (Lord,if you insist) David of Arabia?
November 17, 2023
If something is “free” or even just heavily subsidised at the point of use demand will usually exceed supply and you will have to ration it by other means than price. Things like delays, queuing, make it inconvenient to access, delivering very poor quality, 8 million on waiting lists, three years to wait…
Be this healthcare, social housing or anything else.
If you use the price mechanism you do at least get money in to expand the service to match demand. With the other methods you get nothing in, usually provided an abysmal, delayed and inconvenient service, damages the economy that gets no customer money in and thus cannot expand to meet the demand.
November 17, 2023
happened at Asda, they offered free meals to children in their cafe’s over the summer holiday. of course they were swamped and the poor overworked staff basically went on “go slow” because they were completely understaffed for the volume of families who wanted free meals for their kids. so the cleaning in the cafe’s got behind, the meals took an age to deliver… and just like the NHS the “free service” was constrained not by money but by speed of service, lack of clean environment, worn out staff who could not cope with the demand.
November 17, 2023
A Tweet/X from the excellent Dr Clair Craig today:-
What would have happened without vaccines?
The Amish data tells us the answer – deaths would have been no worse than 2020.
Infant mortality and stillbirths same as in previous years.
15% above 2015-2019 average.
Where’s the benefit of the vaccines? See the Tweet for the figures.
November 17, 2023
Sorry Dr Clare Craig.
November 17, 2023
Perhaps Esther could help Claire Coutinho her with her sums on wind power, do not forget all the costs and indeed wasted energy caused by the need for gas backup and grid stabilisation.
Claire Coutinho p claims that handing windfarms a 70% increase in prices will reduce consumer bills. Is she bonkers or just a liar? Follow the money perhaps.
Claire has some sort of maths philosophy degree – albeit only from Oxford so might have been expected not to have needed such help but she clearly does.
November 17, 2023
It seems nearly 100,000 illegal migrants have been given the right to work on top of their hotels, food, bikes, phones, allowances, free doctors and dentists… this I assume to encourage even more to get on the boats.
A relative of mine is a first year junior doctor after tax, NI, interest on his student loans, commuting costs, council tax and rent has zero disposable income to live on for food, heat, light, fun (after 40+ hours stressful work and often at inconvenient hours). A hotel accommodated migrant arrival doing say three days at a minimum wage job is about £1,000 a month better off. But of course they are not underpaid according to this government. The taxes of the poorer junior doctor going to pay for the migrants hotel bills etc.
Is it any wonder so many give up or leave the country?
November 17, 2023
Once you have let them in it makes sense that they should support themselves.
We should not let them land.
November 17, 2023
indeed, but if given free hotels, food, phones, bikes, heat, light, allowances and then allowed to work on top the. the UK become even more of a magnet for ever more to arrive. Even on the minimum wage they will have more disposable income than most workers in the country have.
November 17, 2023
but that is the same for most benefits claimants. a family on benefits with kids will get 1 free school meals 2 free bus pass to school 3 free school holidays abroad 4 often free music lessons 5 free access to swimming pools. which all added together is completely out of the reach of many working families on average pay and above.
November 17, 2023
I feel for your relative but if he/she hangs in there the rewards will come later.
However, this Government is only interested in spin, hence the Esther appointment. A bit like “Diversity”/Race/Gender officers etc. It’s a generic title but made important by singling out a specific role that should encompass all managers in their every day jobs. Of course everyone should be treated equally but the Uni-party singles out minorities/issues and double standards, confirming it’s intentions through non Equality laws i.e. White heterosexual English men need not apply.
Fishy has no intention of delivering anything for the illegals or legals as he actually supports them. No doubt some dirty deal when he’s been off with our cheque book giving our taxes away for some foreign/corrupt deal. The ONLY solution is to start again as FPTP is dead with the Uni-party. Patriots want and need REFORM even if we have to have a dose of Starmer in between to prove the point.
November 17, 2023
What would I like to see her do? If she could start by getting all her colleagues sacked, including the PM, that would be a useful first step.
November 17, 2023
@Bill B. +1 That would be the only useful thing for not only her but the Conservative Party to do. If its not done soon there will be no Conservatives left to create a Government in the future – we all will have to endure the WEF’s Socialist doctrine for eternity.
November 17, 2023
She could have a bit of self-respect and resign. It’s an example of tokenism; it’s patronising and she shouldn’t demean herself by playing along with it.
Creation of this “job” is just a desperate attempt by Sunak to demonstrate that the Government doesn’t consist of a bunch of privately educated Posh Boys without an ounce of commonsense between them …. when that is precisely what it is.
November 17, 2023
Yes exactly, pure Tokenism. What’s her authority, what’s her budget/resource? How long did Sunak spend of government time to make this tin-eared appointment?
We have a government-lite with experience-lite suffering from common-sense lite!
Was it just to get her off the TV to silence one critical voice?
November 17, 2023
+1
November 17, 2023
@Donna +1 A weak PM playing with people to hide his Socialist WEF doctrine until total destruction is done – she should resign
November 17, 2023
Precisely.
It’s all about appearance and has nothing to do with content.
Expect nothing.
November 17, 2023
Having the power to sort out examples of the nonsense we live with seems great, but in reality how long before she finds a brick wall? Best of luck….she’ll need it.
November 17, 2023
Precisely.
November 17, 2023
On the one hand ‘Donna’ I’m inclined to agree. But if there is one thing she could do. I would like her to explain to the population of the UK. We contribute a mere 1% of global CO2. (0.00045%)
Therefore destroying our industry/forcing us into electric vehicles/banning gas boilers and (next) wood burners/ making electricity so expensive people will freeze because they can’t afford to pay for it, etc. Will make no difference to global CO2. Because China and India will take up our tiny amount in weeks or possibly days.
November 17, 2023
@ Donna – alas, you have a point. Promises ex Mr. Sunak to Ms. McVey she would be advantaged to have in writing, clearly.
November 17, 2023
Plus many. It shows she is dull and actually demeans women in cabinet. A token job to boost female numbers.
November 17, 2023
Tokenism +1.
November 17, 2023
I feel she’s been set up for a fall.
McVey must concentrate on tasks for a quick, visible return in a matter of weeks and months, not long-term plans that never start. Sadly, we have tonnes of anti-social, selfish, lazy people in the UK. I saw a guy throw his empty plastic Coke bottle to the side of the road as he walked along. I wound my window down and shouted pick that up, you * litterbug I got the finger, but I still felt better for not ignoring him.
i.e.
a. Ensure ‘Delay Repay’ on cancelled and delayed trains is working as it should be.
b. Get people with buckets and brushes to clean signs full of mould and dirt at the side of the roads and cut back the overgrowing bushes covering the signs with shears, picking up discarded cones and highways A-frames they seem to leave everywhere, then fine the Highways department to take their property back for collection.
c. Picking up fly-tipping.
d. Fines for littering in Canada start at $15,000; install cameras that should pay for the litter-picking supervisor on our worst sections.
November 18, 2023
I just read a report about an 18 year old boy/man getting two years for murdering an 82 year old vet. The old man remonstrated with him for misbehaving on an escalator, so he went hunting for him with his Gang of Four, found him and punched him in the head and killed him. TWO YEARS. This is British Justice now. Perhaps I should stop remonstrating with litter bugs and people who fool around on public transport and escalators.
One more thing, what is the point of the people who check your tickets on the DLR and tube when people who haven’t paid are let off and knuckle pumped (I’ll get off at the next station mate)? Im sure I wouldn’t have got that treatment had I not paid.
November 17, 2023
I’m inclined to agree. I can just see some ‘Yes Minister’ character saying this is needed as a sop to the ‘Redwall’ etc., etc.
I’m waiting to see the Cameroons move against Sunak…
November 17, 2023
She should never have accepted the appointment. She can achieve nothing but frivolous stuff which is irrelevant in this crisis.
November 17, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson +1 So very true
November 17, 2023
Exactly.
November 17, 2023
I think she should have had a bit of common sense and said “ no thanks” and stayed at GB News! We would have respected her much more. But she could not resist the sparkles- 👎🏻
November 17, 2023
Agreed. It actually confirms its all spin and no substance.
November 17, 2023
its about getting profile, for a lot in politics its like a showbiz career where status and time slots in the media matter far more than delivering anything.
November 17, 2023
@Lynn Atkinson: I have to agree, a silly appointment, to the point of having to ask what the real job is, after all “Commonsense Czar – Minister without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office” is a pretty wide job description.
Also how might the appointment affect McVey’s presenting job at GBNews, Ofcom clearly have their cross-hairs on the channel, might the management play safe, even if they do opt to keep her on-air, might that be a trap she has to readily stepped into? Only time will tell.
November 17, 2023
Jerry, she immediately resigned from GB News 3 days ago.
November 18, 2023
@a-tracy; Yes, daft of me not to have checked! But it would appear the programme has also been de-listed, and as I said Ofcom have GBN in their sights, I do wonder what the timeline of events were on all this. Is Philip Davies still going to be a presenter, if not that suggests there is more to all this, unless the rules prevent spouses of Cabinet members presenting such programmes?
Perhaps Esther McVey’s first job as Woke Czar should be to tackle the meddling woke within the DCMS and Ofcom!
November 17, 2023
She needs to create a department that hunts down and brings criminal charges against civil servants who ignore Government policy and spends tax payers money on their own personal political pet projects.
November 17, 2023
Replicating Jimmy Carter’s inspectors general idea might be appropriate. In essence it is a permanent internal audit of government departments, operationally as well as financially.
November 17, 2023
She’ll spend most of her time trying to find them, working from home at the gym, walking the dog, ironing and washing clothes, food shopping and thinking about their next foreign holiday whilst supporting some other lefty cause. I read yesterday they’re now called TWAT’s. That is, working on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday’s. I’ll just continue to think of them as …………..useless TWATS who run rings around their Ministers!
November 17, 2023
@Timaction; If such people are logged-in and working (accessing and making changes to documents) what difference does it make were someone works, and if they are not working, or not logged-in, when they should be, that is very obvious to anyone with even a small amount of networking knowledge. I can only assume you are a commercial Landlord, getting very worried, the way you keep banging on about people daring to WFH and not being in the office…
“they’re now called TWAT’s. That is, working on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday’s”
That’s no way to talk about company directors who have long only worked three days per week, some even less, the rest of the time supposedly spent entertaining ‘clients’ at their Golf Club, or where ever! 😛
November 17, 2023
If they are private sector Directors I don’t care its their money/profits. I do object to paying taxes for the TWATS to be NOT working from home. I have a near neighbour who fits the bill and the whole Street knows it and sees it. It also demonstrates their appalling supervision at my, the 46%, expense. Game, set and match! I rest my case and the 1 hour 10 minute wait for a phone query I had last week at the HMRC.
November 18, 2023
@Timeaction; Let me try again… Working from home could save the taxpayers money, and as I said, very easy for any (network) manager to check-up on the work ethics of those working remotely.
“I have a near neighbour who fits the bill and the whole Street knows it and sees it.”
Nonsense, unless you are privy to this persons contract of employment, which I very much doubt you or anyone in your street is.
In note you did not deign being a Commercial Landlord…
November 17, 2023
@Javelin; Just because someone doesn’t like the actions of others, that are not against the current law, does not make those actions woke nor illegal – of course future actions can be made illegal but remember, what is good for the Goose is also good the the Gander! At this time, within the election cycle, it is always best to treat others how you would wish to be treated yourself…
November 17, 2023
All good suggestions but I would put “dealing with the BBC” at, or close to, the top of agenda.
November 17, 2023
Do you seriously think Sunak wants (or, even if he did, has the necessary cojones) to deal with the blatantly biased BBC?
November 17, 2023
endless scope to sort things out there!
November 17, 2023
The BBC really is dire and deluded with their lefty lunacy, pro Hamas agenda, net zero and pro open door immigration propaganda.
Inside Science Radio 4 yesterday even had someone on who thought the lab-leak (after gain of function) theory for Covid 19 origins was “very, very unlikely”. No one added any balance to the discussion.
What planet is this dope on? The evidence now is overwhelming despite all the government’s and WHO etc. attempts to hide it. Listen to sensible people like Prof. Dalgleish, Matt Ridley… for example.
November 17, 2023
Nadine Dorries tried that. There isn’t time, it would just be empty threats.
November 17, 2023
@a-tracy; I suspect Dorris (like all SoS at DCMS & the HO before her) quickly realized that a government can not deal *asymmetrically* with media bias, they either have to tackle all bias within the mass media or leave things as they are, otherwise the government is seen as wanting to control the message, such censorship is only ever acceptable in a time of war and even then there are problems, such as those faced by Herbert Morrison after he had placed a ban on the Daily Worker newspaper in 1941.
November 17, 2023
….and the Met Weather Office, which we fund but the BBC doesn’t use …thats why they’ve re-roled as climate change championes
November 17, 2023
You might want to read the wikipedia entry for ‘Met Office’ (or the various entries on the metoffice website) to see how much you are ‘off track’.
November 18, 2023
”On 6 February 2018, BBC Weather changed supplier from the government Met Office to MeteoGroup after an open competition.[1] ”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Weather
November 18, 2023
@glen cullen; None so blind as those who choose not to see… The BBC were told by this government (2010-23) that they had to invite tenders for the supply of the weather forecasting service, they had to make a choice along commercial lines, to ensure best value to TVL fee payers, Meteo Group offered the best price, so they got the contract. The Met Office do still provide some services to the BBC, shipping & farming forecasts along with Storm/flood warnings etc.
November 19, 2023
Plus weather forecasts, some very specific ones including dust and other ‘pollutants’ to the Forces, wherever those might be.
November 18, 2023
I see the Dutch are now all busy attacking their public sector broadcasting. What have they done to become unpopular?
November 17, 2023
On my lord. Appoint a brusque, northern sounding, non-Oxbridge female and give her a cuddly, twee moniker. That’s really gonna terrify the woke racist and woke fascists running for cover. The Tories are a bunch of hopeless jokers with zero intention of destroying woke. Even the royals are captured by this racial and gender based poison in their quest to appear diverse and without stain from the past. If this family;s been infected then it really is game over for Western civilisation
Woke seeks one thing, the total destruction of our world to be rebuilt along racial, gender and sexuality lines. It is Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler and Marx in plain sight with a soul of hate and revenge masquerading as kindness.
ESG is woke,. CRT is woke poison. Gender theory and feminism is woke. Language must be changed to suit woke ideology. Reality destroyed to suit woke. Those who refuse to conform will be destroyed and cancelled.
Germany, 1933 is woke. Russia, 1917 is woke. China Mao is woke
Wake up Tories cos woke will destroy your party
November 17, 2023
Is Esther’s job intended to be a proper job, or was it intended to take her away from speaking out on GB News? Perhaps I’m just being cynical?
November 17, 2023
I would expect the commonsense czar to ask the Home Secretary if the powers granted by the much-vaunted Small Boats legislation in the summer are actually being used.
And I would expect her to be pushing for immediate legislation to protect our war memorials. (If I were to get onto the roof of a mosque and start waving an Israeli flag, I suspect that I would be arrested within minutes by our partial police.)
And I would want her asking why schoolchildren were playing truant yesterday, to engage in political demonstrations.
No government should ever need a ‘commonsense czar’ – but I suspect that Esther will be good in the role, and so would you have been.
November 17, 2023
“What should Esther McVey Do?” I am perplexed that she should have joined this ‘Left Wing’ cabal, I always thought of her as a Conservative. So advice would be to get out while people believe you have integrity and purpose
November 17, 2023
Common sense – we could start with asking the civil service to apply government policy without claiming to be bullied.
We could review ALL the ways government incurs cost.
End any form of self-identification around medical matters.
November 17, 2023
Sir John
“The kind of commonsense I would like from government includes putting the public first”
In 14 years and even more so under this weak PM, the one thing this UK Conservative Party has refused (really Refused) to do is serve the people of the UK before their foreign Master. It is not a Government that supports the UK but uses, and abuses it for personal self-gratification.
Look at everything around you, everything they are refusing is because they want to stay aligned with the thinking’s of the Foreign Masters at the expense of serving the UK and enabling it to thrive and have a future.
14 years of talk, soundbites, miss-direction that all add up to 100% refusal to serve and govern for the UK and its people
November 17, 2023
Plenty of good suggestions in the comments and also from Sir John himself.
I have to ask though, is there a point to all this at the eleventh hour?
It seems it’s going to take a lot longer than the short time available to McVey to dig out the deeply entrenched woke guard.
Someone mentioned the BBC as a starting point, which at first I thought would not really be the lightning impact we need, given the immense job and its short time to achieve anything.
Thinking on it a little more, perhaps it is a good place to start, the media in general.
How often have I found myself so frustrated at the fact that anyone with an opposite view is not given the same platform as those who sing from BBC/Guardian hymn sheet, thus distorting public perception.
How often have I felt utter contempt for there being literally no fight back against the blatant bias and unfair handling of issues and people the BBC ilk do not like. It is not for journalists paid by the public purse to decide which side of an argument we must be swayed on. Our right is to hear all sides fully, and then add it to our own day to day experience to form our own opinion.
Perhaps it is a good place to start after all, however it will have little effect if the Conservative party in general are happy with the status quo.
She can stop our schools and universities being used as political training camps.
Ditto that for the NHS and let it be publicly known exactly where a lot of the money goes.
On the latter I’ve recently been told some shocking stories by a very good source, who heard these stories directly from his friend who is a surgeon.
November 17, 2023
Sorry Sir John I see this as a big political joke played on the Tax payer by the Government.
It is the Scapegoat Ministry which can be blamed for future Government failures.
It reflects what the Government really thinks about us and is an insult.
November 17, 2023
She should not have accepted the appointment, she was more influential on GBNews. She will soon become invisible. She has no doubt been given no power. The appointment is more of your leaders trickery.
To get something done each Minister should have been instructed to order department heads and all others to do what she has been asked to achieve. No chance.
But Mr Redwood has supported the plan helping to fool us all into thinking it will work.
November 17, 2023
Perhaps McVey could stop this Eco lunacy, which demonstrates a complete lack of commonsense on the part of the Blue-Green Socialists.
“The price paid to generate electricity by offshore wind farms has been raised by more than 50% as the government tries to entice energy firms to invest.
It comes after an auction for offshore wind projects failed to attract any bids, with firms arguing the price set for electricity generated was too low.
The government has lifted the amount it pays from £44 per MWh to a price up to £73.”
And you can add to that the cost of providing RELIABLE energy from “fossil fuels” or nuclear.
I thought so-called renewable energy was going to be cheap?
November 17, 2023
She could make a start by insisting that the nonsensical LGBTQWERTY stuff being pushed onto children in schools, often concealed from parents and compulsory, is immediately stopped and the teachers responsible disciplined. She would find that this comes from the top, with all ministries having taken the advice from Stonewall and other charities pushing this agenda that even founding homosexuals have rejected as nonsense. The rot must go to the head. Just see how far she gets and if the answer is nowhere, resign and expose the rot.
November 17, 2023
reform all equality legislation so that class, class based accents, and British regional accents, are protected characteristics under equality laws.
so that open discrimination against people from a working class or under class heritage starts to be tackled.
and the current open bias against white working class hetro males, and their highly educated children, gets tackled.
without this I think the country is going to get ever more divided.
November 17, 2023
I would first like her to slay the dragons of diversity and inclusion in the NHS, universities and schools. At the same time abolish that act, can’t remember its acronym, that encourages banks and many of our box ticking large corporations to treat their customers with contempt. We are by and large a welcoming generous minded people not in need of such mind bending legislation. I would like her to put an end to cancel culture and bring back British Humour to our broadcasting and theater outlets. I want to see our citizens robustly laughing again.
She could redirect our police, from whatever they are doing on the internet, to low level crime, the apprentiship for serious level crime. Our security services are there to trawl the internet for those who would harm us.
She could look at our freedom to protest laws because, as they stand, they are heavily interfering with the majorities freedom to conduct their lives.
Lastly she should legally force all companies who have contact with the public to have fast access via phone and internet with their customers and put an end to forcing us to talk to computers. We want to speak to people who can converse in clear english because they use it as an everyday language in England.
Thatl should keep her out of trouble for a while.
November 17, 2023
Rather than do any damage I’d like for her to merely share an office with Steve Baker and, like him, do nothing.
November 17, 2023
There are a number of initiatives she could do that could have a pretty fast impact, help try and stop the erosion of of public bodies, and free up cash. What she should do as soon as possible is:
– Stop with immediate effect any tax payers money going into any public sector or quango that is being spent on EDI, LBGTQ and BLM areas and make it law that they are not allowed to have any political affiliations unless expressly approved by the Home Office.
– Emancipate / sack any people working in these areas across all public sector / quangos so the capital can be recycled into the areas that need them. This therefore removes the spread of these damaging ideologies and saves money.
– Work with the DofE to remove with immediate effect any teaching of LGBTQ and BLM in primary schools and limit severely anything taught in secondary schools.
– Create a new work contract for civil servants to sign that re-states that a key part of their role is to work objectively for the government of the day and that they are not allowed to show their political affiliations at work. Moreover the contract should state that if there is any reasonable evidence that they are not working to an agreed standard or they have demonstrated political leanings that could prevent them from doing their job properly, they could be sacked with immediate effect and would have limited benefits on leaving, especially on extreme cases, as they would be seen as a bad leaver and shouldnt benefit from all the extra benefits the tax payer has to pay for their highly enhanced pension.
There are obviously alot more things but the above could be done very quickly if wanted. We really need some firm action and not words.
November 17, 2023
This might seem un-related, but it is a classic example of the UK’s situation
I have just been trying to watch F1 in Las Vegas on the TV, the practice sessions have been delayed due to mistakes by the organizers and the management of Formular 1 racing, they(the managers/organisers) have manage to wreak one of the cars. The management is a fault big time they caused the problem, but it is the players (the teams) that are punished. The organizers neglect has meant 2 cars are wreaked, one beyond use. The team now needs to build a new car if it is to race at all, then if it does that the rules say it will have to take a penalty, it(the team) has to pay for the cost of a new car out of its organizers allocated limited yearly spend or pay a fine. If it achieves getting a car to the race start it would not have had the practice sessions enjoyed by the other teams.
The illustration being first the rules do not permit or allow ‘common-sense’, they are cast in stone and can’t be changed. The end result those that created the problems get off ‘Scot free’ and the players get punished more than twice over. 14 years of Conservative Government and ist miss-management and the only ones punished are those that believed them and voted them, this Conservative Government will get to retire comfortably and know they can get shoved out the door and a whole nation that can’t escape will be paying for their neglect and mistakes for generation.
So we now have a weak PM in a weak, we are weaker together Conservative Government, rather than just do their job have invented another deflection “Commonsense Czar” ” But this Government hit the media yesterday saying it cant change the Laws and Rules dictated to them by the unelected unaccountable in Foreign Lands, confirming they don’t see it a function of their to allow Parliament to be the UK’s Legislators, so the a “Commonsense Czar” in a Country that is not allowed, refused, Commonsense and democracy?
November 17, 2023
Resign
November 17, 2023
The appointment serves two purposes. It is for show to those still gullible enough to believe it means anything. It shuts McVey up as a backbench critic. It is disappointing that she accepted it.
November 17, 2023
If government was sensible and appointed sensible people to run each ministry, a Commonsense Czar would not be needed. Too many in government are inept, naïve, careless and daft.
November 17, 2023
Dream on John, dream on.
November 17, 2023
As for cultural change, Ms. McVey might tackle: –
1. the smug complacency pervading the public sector that finds it hard to admit wrong and allows whole sectors to be run for the convenience of the people working in them rather than the users;
2. the “transparent, open and honest” councils who nevertheless do not publish information, including timely and complete financial accounts and names of officers with clarity as to their responsibilites;
3. Government departments, including the private offices of cabinet ministers, that fail to respond at all to inquiries. (This would pleasingly extend to answers to parliamentary questions of course, where obfustication and evasion is all too common in replies.)
Any progress at all on any of those points and she will be doing well, especially in the short timeframe available to her.
November 17, 2023
Lord Frost wrote yesterday in The Telegraph that Conservative voters would not be fooled again…and again. If Esther McVey has even a whiff of us being fooled again, she should expose it and resign on principle.
November 17, 2023
I think she should just enjoy the salary while she has the chance.
November 17, 2023
It’s a non job using her ego to accept, thus cabinet responsibility and removing a potential nuisance from the back benches.
Braverman was too close to the truth for Sunak so fired.
McVey will continue what he does, say what he knows we want to hear but no/little intention/ability to follow it through.
November 17, 2023
“So where should she begin?”
Restore freedom of speech.
There should be no “safe spaces”, no blasphemy laws, offensiveness should not be illegal and the restoration of the culture “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me”.
Restore meritocracy instead of diversity.
Restore the age of enlightenment where facts overrule feelings with the restoration of the scientific method.
November 17, 2023
+1
November 17, 2023
She should start with the woke Treasury who are always coming up with a new idiocy to make our lives more difficult and far more expensive …
Their latest contribution to ruining us all is to allow councils to raise council tax by a massive 5%
There is no justification for such a big rise, but that would never concern the Treasury.
The next target should be the Chancellor who was personally responsible for allowing ULEZ to go ahead, telling Kahn when his budget was broke as usual, to implement ULEZ to raise the money required to keep London solvent.
The Chancellor doesn’t understand what a budget is, nor does he understand how painful his unnecessary policies are.
Next target would be the Climate Change Committee, who are intent on destroying our industrial base for a myth.
If she achieves success in any of those areas she will become a heroine.
November 17, 2023
This government is just a rubber stamp for the Biden administration. Getting rid of Braverman, who criticised Hamas, was probably a part of this. It should be backing Israel in its existential war and not the U.S. policy of forcing its surrender. This is also a war against the entire West. Perhaps you would direct your mind in this direction.
November 18, 2023
Iago, the US has been shipping large amounts of weapons and ammunition to Israel, and blocking votes by the UN that would condemn Israel for its actions in Gaza. Yet you think the Biden administration’s policy is to ‘force its surrender’. I really don’t know where you get that idea from.
November 18, 2023
Israel’s propaganda machine has control of UK media.Al Jazeera has provided by far the best coverage -they have many reporters and correspondents on the ground and the Qatari government ,which owns A-J, is at the centre of the diplomatic to-ing and fro-ing.
November 17, 2023
1. Make sure community punishment orders are working. Achieve more free labour for our local areas because the Councils are letting us all down with litter collection, dirty pavements and cycleways, and dirty parks and shopping centres with dirty windows; could each council operative be assigned an assistant or two? If the Council workers won’t supervise them, then allocate them to our churches. (do we pay probation officers to do this already if so, what are these people doing because I see no evidence of anything being done?) 100 hours minimum wage labour is only equal to £1045, so if someone steals £200,000 how is that a punishment?
Just what are community punishment workers doing? Are they allocated to hospitals? Asylum centres to teach English?
Just get something sorted that helps everyone who suffers from local criminals to see a big difference in their town.
We’ve got teenagers assaulting pensioners, what punishment do they get? Working in an elderly care home on a weekend for months on end, would we dare?
November 17, 2023
‘Minister without Portfolio’ – the very definition of a non job. How much extra is she getting for joining the bandwagon, whilst the people paying her wages worry about heating and eating? Can’t believe the size of the Cabinet round that table. No-one can have that many people report to them and be efficient – probably why we are in such a mess.
November 17, 2023
I fear Esther will end up the same way as another ‘proper’ Tory with much common sense. She too will become an outcast because she did not toe the “company” line.
The current Government is not a Political Party government. It is more a boardroom room of elitist Directors who listen to no one but have just recently become embarrassed since their Board has become overly male dominated. And that is frowned upon in too many quarters.
I expect Esther wants to do us Brits good but that’s exactly what Suella agreed with the PM but saw that agreement thrown away by Number 10.
So, Esther, I believe you should “do” a wisely William Haigh and refuse the position especially because of the past performance of Number 10 so-called promises.
November 17, 2023
I believe she should take a reliable view of the real needs of the people by a detailed study from all geographic sectors . The results would then be put to the Cabinet and force their decisions into actions that would then make sense . As it stands we suffer from a Sunak / Hunt approach that simply creates dissent of a massive scale . She would be wise to then consult Sir John who certainly knows his way around .
November 17, 2023
She should insist that we get rid of the Supreme Court.
Parliament is supposed to be the highest court, and the Crown is sovereign in Parliament. We cannot have this delinquent teenage institution of Blair’s revolution striking down Parliament’s legislation. These jumped up judicial activsts are making the country ungovernable. What is the point of even having a government? The political activists on the SC – for that is what they are – cannot govern the country instead of the elected government, because they have tunnel vision, as did the Imperial College scientists in the pandemic, and as do the Bank of England and Treasury.
As the SC is not the elected government, it does not have to consider the whole picture, only the little tiny bit it is interested in and usually gets wrong. It does not have to take responsibility for all the ramifications of its decisions – as for example when it bankrupted Birmingham, and when it decided to keep the illegal immmigrants coming and filling up hotels for many months while it drew out its deliberations. Flagrantly, when it was concerned with its own project, stopping Brexit, the two Miller casess were rushed through with indecent haste. Illegal immigration is a national emergency; the Miller cases were not. Therefore, Their Supremeships shold not have supreme power.
November 17, 2023
‘The government may have in mind altering [her fellow ministers’] views on cultural matters.’
I expect McVey will lobby ministers with the commonsense view on various policies. It is a shame this is required but too many ministers are social democrats: keen to extend the state, causing liberty to lessen, whilst deepening our mine of debt. She will be successful in some cases but ministers will then have to take the fight to the Civil Service.
A couple of days ago, The Telegraph published an account by a Home Office civil servant explaining his colleagues’ attitude and actions. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/11/15/home-office-rwanda-ruling-braverman-civil-service/
November 17, 2023
I would have expected that all members of the Cabinet had commonsense, or at least that they thought they had.
The fact that a minister has been appointed at public expense to instil commonsense measures which any minister could have implemented on their own at any time shows that I was wrong.
November 17, 2023
😂by appointing someone to implement ‘common sense’ they expose themselves as being devoid of common sense. These hopeless cases – promising to repeal inheritance tax and then saying they will ‘cut it’ – don’t they know what every barrowboy knows – that you do that the other way around to effect a ’sale’?
One huge heap of ego and hubris. No substance – no common sense.
I wonder whether they will hold Tatton? They lost it before to ego and hubris.
November 17, 2023
What should Esther McVey do?
Are you inviting some interesting comments Sir John?
She should feel quite at home as none of them seem to have any idea of what they are doing.
November 17, 2023
Regarding roads, I find that pleasure cyclists slow down traffic and can cause danger.
Road are functional in that they are supposed to get us from point A to point B.
Cyclists who want to use roads for sport/leisure should hire a velodrome or something similar so they are not causing a nuisance.
November 17, 2023
+100!
November 17, 2023
I do like Esther’s pluck but sadly her chances of getting anything meaningful done are not high when even the (now totally disloyal) Home Secretary was ignored on the agenda she tried to implement and was fired for her determination to make it happen. So the Minister without portfolio but for Common Sense rather than Common Purpose looks like just another gimmick from this can-kicking team (who do have some very notable worthy exceptions in their ranks) masquerading as Conservatives. They just don’t seem able to grip things or to see that holistic systems thinking needs to be applied to root causes, rather than endless fire fighting to address inevitable symptoms. Meantime wokery runs wild ( a real pandemic), and despite huge taxes and national debt we suffer lousy services, a political gilt edged civil service (so called), and no one to vote for who would get any of it sorted. Never mind old boy Knighthoods and Peerages on the way no matter what. Apart from that Mrs Lincoln, how do you enjoy living here?
November 17, 2023
Maybe she’s going to return to France the 356 illegals in 7 boats that landed yesterday ….thats common sense
November 17, 2023
She is about the only member of the cabinet with common sense. I trust her with whatever she chooses to take up, but I do hope that “they” are right in saying that she will deal with “wokeness”. I hope, too, that she will allow us to hold views at variance from the zeitgeist. I would like her to tackle the phoney “fact-checkers” who would doubtless be among those who would have hounded Galileo out of town had he been around in our day.
November 17, 2023
The Civil Service will be totally against Esther having any involvement anywhere in government, so she will not be given any room to manoever. Whenever she treads on a minister’s toes by trying to get some common sense into their policies, they will be turned against her as well, especially if they have “gone native” as so many seem to do.
However, if she is allowed free reign she should concentrate on projects that are favoured by voters and opposed by the civil service and other busy bodies :
Put a stop to installing any more expensive and traffic-restricting cycle lanes that are never used anyway.
Ban 20mph limits except within the direct surroundings of a school, including in Wales.
Allow traffic to turn left at red traffic lights.
Introduce a huge policy shift in favour of road transport, now that it is going to be fully electric and therefore fully green by the time any new road scheme is bult and in use. There is now no excuse for trying to restrict voter’s preference for cars and other forms of road transport on Climate Change grounds.
Cancel almost all new railway projects as they are up to ten times more expensive than roads.
Start a process of laying new motorways and dual carriageways with electric charging cables under the tarmac so that all kinds of vehicles can be charged as they travel. They can be charged from SMRs built close to the road.
Introduce a policy of “British First” : Start by ending the ridiculous tender process for SMRs and give a contract to Rolls-Royce to build and commission at least five, if not ten stations as soon as possible.
Start a programme to replace our small and aging fleet of fishing vessels with new boats built in Britain and launch a training programme to ensure that the boats are skippered and crewed by British citizens, particularly young unemployed men. I suggested this in 2016 when we left the EU but it has not even been considered. The review of the EU fishing treaty is rapidly approaching and we need to be in a position to be able to take back a lot more fishing quota. It’s very clear that the Remainer- Civil Servants at DEFRA doesn’t have the best interests of our own fishing industry, or farmers, for that matter.
End the policy of unrestricted inward migration and set a firm maximum target of “tens of thousands”
(where have I heard that before ?).
As part of the above, review and restrict Universities foreign student placements as that is nothing more than a licence for universities to make money which seems not to benefit our own students and doesn’t encourage them to be the slightest bit efficient.
Cancel the reduction in the size of the army and increase it. Ditto ships and aircraft.
Take an external look at the Ajax contract and terminate it if necessary and demand a return of funds from General Dynamics.
I could think of dozens more !
November 17, 2023
Easter McVey has been appointed Minister of Propaganda. You people who own TV sets will be seeing a lot of her in the run up to the next election. Will she be biting a cyanide capsule when the almost inevitable electoral defeat occurs despite her best endeavours? Probably not.
November 17, 2023
+1. That’s the job – front all this rubbish as a ‘Brexiteer’ so the oafs swallow it whole.
November 17, 2023
She will survive THAT long? Really?
November 17, 2023
Oh – is she expected to actually do something?
I dare say Esther was just thinking that she’s the token right-wing mascot type of thing, given no powers and no clear responsibilities for a reason (so that she can’t do anything, even if she feels the urge).
November 17, 2023
Reports that you’re going to lose 303 seats (I think it’ll be worse than that !) at the next general election. Esther had better think of something !
I don’t think that the Conservatives will ever recover.
November 17, 2023
Afraid she will not last long John, she is being used as window dressing pure and simple, as soon as she starts to interfere in any meaningful way, she will be gone just like Suella.
Afraid that is how cynical I have become with this Government.
November 17, 2023
Token woman and token right-winger. She’ll achieve nothing just as Rushi intends. Surprised she took the job.
November 17, 2023
Interesting that this government had to appoint a ‘token white woman’. That’s how far we are from competence and merit.
November 17, 2023
Who whispered in Sunak’s ear ‘diversity!’ ?
November 17, 2023
Another deflection form a weak PM in an equally weak Government. While in the real World the part he is paid to manage yet neglects we get the punishment on punishment – “Hunt’s room for tax cuts squeezed by £15bn-a-year losses on Bank of England bond sales
The Bank of England’s decision to sell off government bonds is costing taxpayers £15bn a year and squeezing Jeremy Hunt’s room to cut taxes, a top investment bank has warned.
Deutsche Bank said Threadneedle Street’s decision to reduce the size of its balance sheet by actively selling gilts bought during the pandemic, rather than letting them mature, meant taxpayers faced much heavier losses in the short term. ”
This man is hitting us all in our pockets while playing with semantics on this World stage of deflection
November 17, 2023
“Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg has claimed it is “perfectly proper” for Parliament to override Supreme Court judgments despite criticism from senior judges.
He said it was “routine” in the UK’s constitution for the “high court” of Parliament, which was responsible for legislation, to change laws that judges had developed.”
We need a real self Governing Democratic Parliament that stands up and is counted by its own actions. That stands up for Democracy. To that end the HoL has to be abolished, just as with ECHR and the OHCHR they should have no standing in a Democracy. The upper revising chamber should be just that and elected.
November 17, 2023
It would be common sense to investigate why the excess deaths are so high.
November 17, 2023
How about getting the new Minister without Portfolio to gather and publish a list of all the Quangos, with a summary of their duties, the name of the chair/chief executive and pay scale. Prepare proposals to reduce the number of quangos. I suggest a target of half within 3 years. Prepare proposals to reduce the powers of remaining Quangos to make decisions that affect public services and costs. Prepare proposals to require those Quangos remaining to seek Ministerial approval for all policies that restrict freedom of legal action of the public and/or impose charges or costs on the public. Require Ministers to seek approval in the House for any Quango proposal which would increase the public or business tax burden either directly or indirectly.
November 17, 2023
Funny you should raise this question today, Sir John. This morning the company I work for received a demand from its principle customer (a huge government agency) that we submit our Green House Gases Carbon Reduction Plan. I realise that this nonsense has been demanded of companies before, but only for projects over £5m.
Now, with no notice at all, our company (along, doubless with many hundreds of others) has to come up with a plan in order even to be allowed to quote.
I’m not placing any bet that this weapons-grade bowlix is going to be withdrawn, but there, surely, is a subject Ms McVey could address?
November 19, 2023
Perhaps your company could suggest that they have ideas for reducing carbon emissions in government that far exceed anything they generate?
November 17, 2023
A direct threat to illegal immigrants that “we will find you and make sure you are sent back to the country you came from”, says the then PM David Cameron in 2014. Guess what as always the Conservative Government did and does nothing other than hitting the media with speeches and deflection form their failure to do their job and serve the people of the UK. Will anything Change? Will a “Commonsense Czar” make a difference when it is a refusual to do ones job is at the heart of the problem
November 18, 2023
The claim was bullshit then, and still is…
November 17, 2023
Have always liked this MP & I hope she can make a difference although I think it’s a mad move from a desperate leader. The things we are all thinking of are throughout the departments so won’t she need to get up close with ministers & CSs risking being thought a nuisance, an interloper and interfering …. Maybe she could take a closer look at so called charities & question if their actions & funding represent common sense & in the UKG’s & country’s interest, particularly if there is what may be considered interference – e.g. on illegal immigration management to name but one. Perhaps she can assist ‘Education’ in keeping tabs on any actions by schools encouraging children to be out on the street on inappropriate marches on school attendance days as we’ve seen only this week. Also, I consider her a straight talking northern lass so her ability to keep an ear on the often tortuous responses we hear in the HOC a lot of the time and offer a translation service would be novel. We’re told she will likely have good exposure in the media. Let’s wait to hear what she has to say.
November 17, 2023
Did you listen to the Corrupted on R4 ?
Head of Security bad lot
Lord labour bad lot.
Very good “old” series.
Before it was the internet it was all secret.
It’s not economy/boats
Its Bad Lots .
November 17, 2023
didn’t the last health secretary tell the NHS firmly to stop wasting money on more diversity officers, anti racism officers (who are often racist against white people), and so on ?
doesn’t seem they have been listening with the new list of job vacancies they are advertising.
why work as a nurse when you can get paid a lot more talking BS about diversity, equality and inclusion?
just another example of the gap between political rhetoric and what the public sector actually does in practise.
November 18, 2023
The Blob had the last Health Secretary demoted last week so they can carry on as usual while the new one finds her way around the building.
November 17, 2023
OFF TOPIC.
About 40 men demonstrated outside MDP Wethersfield in Essex, complaining they didn’t have access to doctors, were freezing due to poor clothing and bedding and were unable to contact their families.
Sounds a fairly common issue?
A couple of million pensioners might say the same thing.
Well this was asylum seekers billeted at a former military base in new Home Secretary James Cleverly’s constituency holding a protest yesterday over the ‘prison-like’ conditions.
Did we offer to fly them back to Paris?
November 17, 2023
What does it say to the people when the so called government of thIs country has to install a COMMON SENSE CZAR. She has obviously been offered some good incentives otherwise she would have refused, suerly??????????
The people have common sense, the politicians have zero, they are just globalist puppets.
November 18, 2023
I see Elon Musk has tweeted…
“As I said earlier this week, “decolonization”, “from the river to the sea” and similar euphemisms necessarily imply genocide. Clear calls for extreme violence are against our terms of service and will result in suspension.”
Which is the blooming obvious. Could someone please tell the various British police forces, James Cleverly, and the PM ? Thanks
November 18, 2023
‘A crisis of masculinity imperils the foundations of the West’ – The Telegraph
This is a HUGE problem affecting our country, it’s economy, marriage, family life, procreation – everything.
One of the ways to address this problem is for the Tory government to do more to promote junior-like army / navy / air-force-like training (and enjoyment of) at school to TOUGHEN boys up – make them more masculine. From the beginning of time, young men have always done some kind of Rite of Passage / military training to toughen them up.
But socialism, WOKE and overly-individualist American culture infiltrating the modern world has diminished / destroyed all this – turning our men into women, and our women into men.
November 18, 2023
Even all the asset management companies and financial companies are supporting Net Zero ’cause they know there is a tonne of money to be made out of it. It’s essentially just the oil and gas companies and their affiliates opposing Net Zero.
And so it’s not just a case of PATRIOTISM to support making money out of Net Zero / helping our country to prepare properly for it economically out but also good financially for private investors.
Opposing the tidal wave of Net Zero is madness – at every level.
Although happy to be challenged!
For King and Country!
Reply It is everyone who drives a petrol car, runs a gas boiler, buys metal objects, buys farm produce, flies on holiday etc who stand against net zero. Are you following your belief and leading a net zero life?
November 18, 2023
As I said I am into Net Zero for BUSINESS / ENTREPRENEURIAL reasons and the sake of our ECONOMY – NOT ethical reasons (at least no more or less than most people).
Mckinsey said Net Zero transition could be worth £1 trillion to the UK economy over next few years.
‘Supplying the goods and services to enable the global net-zero transition could be worth £1 trillion to UK businesses by 2030’ – MCKINSEY
I don’t know how true or not this is but certainly some truth in it (and should be debated in Parliament)!
Best
Wall Street Journal said Net Zero could be worth a trillion pounds to the UK economy!
November 19, 2023
If we waste a trillion here and a trillion there on net zero, that is what we will have – no economy at all. It is the greatest waste of money at the behest of government yet devised – far worse than war, the Millennium Dome of HS2.
November 19, 2023
No the argument is that Net Zero is worth 1 trillion to the UK high tech PRIVATE sector – NOT government spending 1 trillion …
Anyway, if you want to change the world on this, then you’re going to have to roll your sleeves up and start engaging with millions of young people (including young Tory voters!) through social media, TV, advertising and marketing etc … and spending millions on that. Good luck to that.
Reply This is wrong. People do not want to buy EV s and heat pumps and business does not want to put in carbon capture without massive state subsidies
November 20, 2023
Mckinsey said Net Zero transition could be worth £1 trillion to the UK economy over next few years.
‘ People do not want to buy EV s and heat pumps and business does not want to put in carbon capture without massive state subsidies’
– I think the Net Zero energy / economy is much bigger than this. Again, I am just quoting from McKinsey. MPs have to respond to companies such as McKinsey with detail and careful analysis. This simply appears not to be happening at all.
So for people out there who don’t know who McKinsey are:
1) They’re an American / worldwide management consultant firm.
2) They’re recent revenue was $15+ billion
3) They employ 38,000 people.
Again, let me repeat what they said, ‘‘Supplying the goods and services to enable the global net-zero transition could be worth £1 trillion to UK businesses by 2030’ – MCKINSEY
November 20, 2023
(And I’m not saying McKinsey are 100% right. But to what degree is there truth to what they say? Parliament should be debating all this – otherwise Parliament is being government by ideology and NOT by practical, entrepreneurial and opportunistic business sense!).
November 18, 2023
Lastly, not here to give Net Zero supporters a hard time. Just want to stir things up / shake things up / rock the boat a bit – to try and get people in Parliament thinking about Net Zero – a bit differently – from the POV of opportunities to our economy (instead of just seeing Net Zero as something negative to our economy). And NOT here to talk about it from a Greeny perspective but business perspective.
Best
November 18, 2023
‘Lastly, not here to give Net Zero supporters a hard time’
– apologies, I meant I am NOT here to give opponents of Net Zero a hard time – just to ask them to look at things a bit differently
Best
November 19, 2023
This Government is getting dafter by the day. A common sense czar! Can’t we have common sense taught in the home and school like it way it was in my day? I have never heard anything so stupid. The Emperor’s New Clothes comes to mind. Does anyone know what I am referring to? Only those of a certain age.