Why didnāt the PM and Chancellor see that telling us Things will get worse was bound to put people off spending and investing? Why didnāt they think forward to their October 14 th Investment summit when they want to tell the world investing in the U.K. is a great idea?
Why did they think making up a large number for a deficit which they could not back up with credible numbers was going to help? In their rush to trash everything about the finances and government to blame the Conservatives why didnāt they see that would alarm everyone with prospects of more taxes and spending cuts to come? Ā When will they take responsibility for what is happening, as they can change anything they want to as quickly as they wish?
The Chancellorās speech failed because it was still looking both ways. It both said there are plenty of opportunities ahead whilst continuing to argue the government will need benefit cuts and tax rises to battle the alleged budget black hole.
If she really wants faster growth she needs to cut taxes and boost benefits to those in need. She needs to get more people into work and off benefits. She needs to tackle the disgraceful waste and bad spending in the public sector. She could start by slashing losses at the Bank of England, the nationalised Post Office and the nationalised railway and HS 2.
It is her choice to lose billions on bonds. Her choice to continue with public sector management of rail that needed. Ā£ 33 bn of taxpayer cash last year. Her choice to allow the public sector to charge taxpayers Ā£20 bn more for inefficiencies on top of the inflation if wages and costs.
September 24, 2024
Good morning.
Why should they ? Will take resposibility for all the bad things done in the last 14 years ? Probably not, and why should you ?
As I keep saying, Sir John, they don’t care !!! It is their turn now and, they can just blame the other lot whilst doing and not doing what the other lot have and have not done – Simple !
As the money drains away they will have the excuse to bring in measures that they feel would combat it. Measures of more State control. More Tsars, more QUANGO’s etc. Less accountablity.
We’ve got 4-5 years of this, so better get use to it.
September 24, 2024
So the prison officers association is giving Ā£10,000 to Cuba in solidarity with their counterparts. Makes you weep doesn’t it.
September 24, 2024
Yes, this incumbent crowd are even more arrogant than the last lot; refusing their own supporters request for a vote on the winter fuel allowance until the end of conference. Nothing must be allowed to disturb the presentation of the ‘Plan for Renewal’ from Top Comrade. We will see low level apparatchiks exceeding their authority with impunity, as the police recently did for a nasty media post.
I’m beginning to think my own country will soon become unrecognisable, and unliveable as the power gets turned off.
September 24, 2024
ā When will they take responsibility for what is happening, as they can change anything they want to as quickly as they wish?ā
I think the plan is to blame the previous government for as long as possible. They probably think it is early days for taking responsibility. They will get the unpleasant stuff done as quickly as time permits, while downplaying big pay rises for favoured groups within the public sector.
September 24, 2024
Labour believe in the same policies and direction of travel as the previous government. Their problem is that the election has shown them how unpopular these policies are. They now have nowhere to go, and are floundering.
September 24, 2024
+1
September 24, 2024
As I said yesterday, the speach was full of rhetoric, but contained little of substance appart from the usual veneer of nastiness and envy to keep the audience happy.
With a mere minority share of the electorate she has nothing to say to the electorate at large or specifically those she would wish to invest in GB Ltd. I reserve my final judgement to her budget at the end of October, but it does not look good.
September 24, 2024
Reeves and her party have a political and ideological plan whose purpose is to change the fundamental nature of our nation and its wider culture forever, the cost to the taxpayer and the economy is of zero consequence. You would think that most seasoned political commentators would have noted and highlighted this simple fact.
Why our kind host continues to focus on cost and spending is beyond me. You would think a more nuanced analysis focusing on the ideas behind such a revolutionary change would be far more enlightening.
Labour is an existential threat, why any prominent Tory cannot say so on a public platform is beyond me. The evidence to support such a claim exists, in the past and the here and now. The Tories don’t want to take this step, far easier to endorse the extremist status quo in which repugnant woke ideologies are unleashed to target certain identities. Who will now defend us? It isn’t the Tory party who endorse the existence of Labour irrespective of their crimes
Reply This is not a Conservative site. I provide analysis of the U.K. economy to highlight why it underperforms and how the UK state is a nasty monopolist overcharging, delivering poor service, running up huge losses and dragging U.K. productivity and real incomes down. Go elsewhere if this is not what you want, otherwise temper your rants.
September 24, 2024
Reply to reply: SJR, by asking about the party in government ‘Why don’t they see, why don’t they understand… etc.’ you are raising questions about the Labour mindset. I think these are valid questions, which go beyond economic issues, and invite answers which inevitably have to do with progressive socialist ideology. I would like to see you suggest some answers.
September 24, 2024
DOM, Dear prophet of Doom, are you going to serve us the same piece of c**p everyday these next five years. If you look at other European countries, there have been times when a more or less left-wing government had or has been in power there, whether in Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Portugal, ā¦ and even if in the heated mind of yours you think that all of the āTen Plaguesā had fallen upon their populations all these countries survived/recovered /are surviving/recovering.
And could it even be that a number of those countries might be better places to live in than in the UK?
September 24, 2024
reply to reply….’Reeves and her party have a political and ideological plan whose purpose is to change the fundamental nature of our nation and its wider culture forever,’
Dom makes perhaps the most disturbing and possibly the hardest aspect of this new regime to reverse (I struggle to call it a Government).
Will you address it in future articles?
September 24, 2024
āThings will get worseā is a self-fulfilling Labour prophesy.
September 24, 2024
Bloke, liebour will make sure things will get worse, particularly for the non client state. The number of dinghy dwellers will rise now mainland Europe is cracking down. All those arriving will be funnelled to Calais where our so called taxpayer funded charities will aid the crossing.
Public sector threats will continue as they all strive for parity in wage rises, energy taxes will rise to freeze us out.
The current 5 year road to net zero plan enshrined in law will see us hounded off the road and unable to afford heating.
Be prepared for an almighty kick back from Joe Public when it dawns on them how they’re being shafted. Southport will be little more than a warm up act.
September 24, 2024
” āThings will get worseā is a self-fulfilling Labour prophesy.”
Then they can promise to Build back Better.
Where have I heard that before?
September 24, 2024
They are laying down a marker for failure, the Prime Minister has already said he needs 10 years, so at the next election he can double down on that, by saying things were so bad it has taken them this long to start to correct matters, which are now working through the system to better times for all ahead.
Thus vote to let us continue.
Frankly I do not see a credible Conservative leader waiting in the wings, the true opposition will be Reform (if they do not internally combust)
Voting conservative will get you Labour again sadly as indeed it did this time around.
September 24, 2024
Think we’ll have to allow for a post budget time to see how things go – it’s early days yet but the government needs to knuckle down now and get on with the job instead of allowing themselves to fall into these waste of time distractions – accepting perks etc
September 24, 2024
I was watching Rachel Reeves’ face during her speech and listening to her tone of voice. She’s a hard nosed person, delivering a message that if you don’t like it, tough! And when anyone crosses her she’s furious! That was my take anyway!
She really doesn’t care about the impact her deliverance will have on people’s lives!
September 24, 2024
“If she really wants faster growth she needs to cut taxes and boost benefits to those in need”
Exactly. Maybe if the last Conservative government had done so, the Tories would still be in power.
I note that sterling vs the $US has risen from 1.26 in July to 1.33 last night; so far the markets appear to like Labour’s fiscal proposals. This increase has made imported hydrocarbons much cheaper for UK consumers. So why has the price cap just increased by 10%?
Reply The pound has gone up because markets expect interest rates in The Euro area and US to fall further and faster than the U.K. where wage and service sector inflation is getting new impetus from public sector wage settlements. The pound has been rising all year.
September 24, 2024
The only strategy they have is “Blame the Tories”. The Education Secretary was tweeting only yesterday that absolute academic achievement in schools had fallen over the past few years all due to the Tories apparently – rather than the global pandemic and lockdowns (which she was very keen on) which caused a fall in all other Western countries too. The relative ranking of the UK against those other countries actually increased under the Tories. Blaming the Tories doesn’t constitute a plan for education – it is just pointless electioneering when there is no election and will be thrown back at her when things get worse rather than better.
I think one very major misstep they made was caving in immediately to the train drivers with a 15% increase and the doctors with a 22% increase. Who now can blame the nurses for rejecting the independent pay review board 5% increase – why shouldn’t they strike to get 15% or 22% ? Why shouldn’t they get the same as someone whose job is to sit in a chair all day and press a few buttons (and who earns double what National Express coach drivers earn) ?
September 24, 2024
Hi sir John
I’m 78 years old all my life I have seen my parents struggle to bring us up they both worked
in my life every government have made life hard I have worked lucky not to have been out of a job my wife worked hard so we could buy our own house and give our children a good up bringing
Although I’m know a pensioner the government is going to make my life harder just because I am a pensioner and still paying my taxes
I lie, awake at night worried for my grandchildren and their children
I have seen vast areas change to different cultures where the rules don’t apply
we the working class have not stood up for ourselves because of being call racist
I’m happy to see that there some people are know standing up BUT the damage to the uk is done and un repairable
Well I feel I have had enough and only see one way out I’m finding it harder to carry on
Thank you
September 24, 2024
In answer to your first question – because the man is totally unfit for the office of PM.
I will be pleasantly surprised to learn about anything he does is sensible, but I won’t hold my breath. What he needs to do is appreciate his limits and resign.
September 24, 2024
The Daily Mail claims that Mike Lynch, boss of the RMT, wants the trades unions to take control of the UK economy. With the pay rises already won, they must be pleased with their start. The direction of travel is clear. The TUs demand, the government caves in.