I have had a complaint that I failed to post a couple of contributions from a frequent visitor to the site. I refused to do so as they repeated general and tired condemnation of past Conservative government in the same way as before. This site debated the failings of the past government extensively when it was in office. I myself set out proposals on the economy, migration, taxation , relations with the EU and other matters where the government could have done differently. The electorate made clear its view in the election. I do not intend to spend more time and space on historic errors.
There are two people who want to contribute the same thing when ever they write in. I stopped posting their work.
One wants to go on about alleged undue influence of a couple of billionaires as if they ran world governments and were the sole cause of bad policy. They have never contacted me to complain of the views I hold or to persuade me to change.I have never been at a UK government meeting where they have been present or mentioned in discussion. Others repeat these claims and are free to do so, subject to libel law. This site concentrates on governments and public institutions which we can influence and change.
One wishes to abuse both Labour and Conservative in inaccurate and unpleasant ways, which will not contribute to the debates and analysis here.
September 12, 2025
I understand your difficulties and the position you have taken Sir J. I think that your approach is quite correct, as it avoids your invaluable contributions to sensible discussion from descending into just another Facebook or YouTube channel rant.
September 12, 2025
Well put Martyn G and thank you Sir J. There have been several posts in the “bin” category.
September 12, 2025
I am probably guilty of repetition but if I am repetitive it is because the same issues keep coming up again and again. Woke Left Socialists never learn and nobody seems able to correct the many failures that recur for the same reasons time and time again in Britain. We keep repeating the lesson and critique in the hope, probably vain, that somebody will listen and do something about it. It may seem an odd way to express our support for what you do and for your opinions, but that is what I, at least, am doing. Perhaps all I need post is, “Agreed”.
September 12, 2025
@Peter Gardner – I am probably with your train of thought on this, this Century has seen repeats of repeats of the same mistakes all achieving the same result. Aren’t you supposed to learn from mistakes? Each time while those when wanting change just to get elected, go on to ‘repeat’ not repeal the past once elected. The refusal to do the hard work is rife in Parliament, the soft oppositions every-time leading to the compounding of the same issues – the destruction of society and the economy.
So yes repeating the same old, same old, is tiresome, but all today’s issues are rooted by the those that refuse their job. Even today’s major discussion(the BoE) is rooted in the failures and refusal of Parliament to manage, they keep forgetting those that pay the bills also call the tune.
September 12, 2025
If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to make the same mistakes.
September 12, 2025
@Christine
Exactly, good point
Putin has ordered yet another large scale military exercise (“Zapad”) near the Polish/Belarus border close to the Kaliningrad Suwałki Gap. This commenced on Thursday and will be a second practice run for seizing the Gap and cutting NATO land lines of communication with the Baltic states (the previous one was in the spring after the thaw) Deploying large numbers of drones against Poland is Putin testing the response.
The war criminal Putin has already issued his customary declaration that he has “no intention” of invading any more countries in Eastern Europe. Exactly what he said just before the “Special Military Operation” invasion of Ukraine in 2022 – which also started with a large-scale military exercise in Belarus
Meanwhile Trump is busy destroying the global economy with his stupid tariffs, while deploying the National Guard against his own citizens in Democrat cities such as Washington DC and Chicago. The recent drone attack on Poland – a NATO country – has been dismissed by Trump as “an accident”. When it should clearly trigger an Article 5 response.
Expect Trump to say after the forthcoming UN Security Council debate that it’s a European problem.
September 12, 2025
Oh dear, where do you get this stuff from, SG? ‘Zapad’ is a joint Belarus-Russia military exercise. It takes place in Belarus, so Putin himself cannot ‘order’ it to happen. Also, it’s a regular event that has happened every 4 years since 2005. For its part, NATO held no fewer than five military exercises in 2021. I don’t recall anybody suggesting that they heralded a NATO invasion of another country, or cutting its lines of communication. Maybe calm down?
September 12, 2025
Yes, but history does not repeat in quite the same way it rhymes as they like to say. But it is hugely influences by new changing technology which has raced away over the last 200+ years and is racing away even more quickly by the day.
The problem with the Tory “mistakes” under Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak – is they were not genuine “mistakes” they were deliberate choices made to do the reverse of what was promised! Why should we ever trust them again? Why did these people choose to do such idiotic and damaging things!
Reply They would disagree, but you do not have to trust them again. 3 are out of the Commons and Rishi is not in the Shadow Cabinet or wanting to lead again.
September 12, 2025
Rishi still has not even corrected his “misleading” of the house over his “Covid Vaccines are unequivocaly safe” nonsense and Kemi is still essentially pro-net zero, pro ECHR, pro large scale low skilled immigration and has not even demanded honest health statistics from the ONS and health departments. Kemi even (I assume) nodded through Theresa May in the Lords – why would any real Tory do that?
The full horor of the Covid Vaccine statistics is all coming out and it will continue to do so yet they are still jabbing older people. Nor has Rishi even explained why he threw the towel in six months early.
September 12, 2025
I am ever aware it is a privilege to be able to make comments here at all and the moderation enhances the site, being demonstrably sensible and reasonable. It is too easy to forget all the constraints you must be under from law etc..
I do feel acute secondhand embarrassment when commenters complain about moderation: few miss sounding pompous and silly. I never complain about moderation if ever a comment of mine is spurned, rather demand a crash meeting with my therapist who manages to set my mind at rest, usually after no more than half a dozen bottles.
September 12, 2025
(:
September 12, 2025
Tell them to start their own blogs.
September 12, 2025
Perfectly clear thank you.
September 12, 2025
Sometimes I wonder whether some fixated on a problem are so angry with life that they cannot move on.This is an outlet for their type of psychological behaviour.
Sometimes if something is getting under my skin I speak aloud in the car and may do the same thing again and again until I get some inner peace.No one should be able to hear you on the roads ,yet people pass in cars.In effect you are venting to many who can’t hear you and don’t want to.
September 12, 2025
Earlier this week I had two posts blocked. Both were querying the wisdom of the new appointment for Home secretary.
I felt I made a valid point. Sir JR obviously didn’t agree. Like it or not, this is his blog and he makes the final decisions on what gets posted.
Reply Yes I was protecting her and perhaps you. It would be difficult to prove what you were saying.
September 12, 2025
I don’t myself have any problems with moderation, SJR, but I do wonder about your claim to be focusing your diary on “government and public institutions we can influence and change”. You often mention the Bank of England and the OBR. Surely neither you nor anybody else imagines you can “influence or change” the Bank of England and the OBR. As for influencing and changing the government, after a year plus of the present lot in Westminster – bring it on, but I fear we’ll have to wait another three or four years to have the chance. Even then, will policies change just because a government changes?
I’m sure we all remember the Liz Truss saga. Surely what that showed is that it was the public institutions like the Bank of England and the OBR who “influenced and changed” government, not the electorate. I think it’s legitimate to ask who the BoE and the OBR are working for. Is it possible that what you moderate out partly reflects frustration with what some might find too narrow a perspective on political events?
Reply I am critical of a range of quangos and nationalised concerns well beyond the Bank and OBR. The Post Office, HS2, nationalised parts of the railways, government steel policy, Ofwat, North Sea Transition Agency, Environment Agency etc. Yes Bank has been allowed to make far too many mistakes, I think we may be about to see a policy shift there.