The Chancellor presented silly forecasts from the OBR that some of us said were out of date when published. How are they getting on with a forecast for oil prices staying around $65? What revisions would they now make to inflation and unemployment with energy costs so much higher?
Like the rest of the government the Chancellor does not seem to know there is a war on, or if she has now seen it does not think she needs to take action anytime soon to adjust our economy to new circumstances.
What should she do? She should get taxes on energy way down to offset the impact of the higher prices. 55% of the pump price for fuel is tax, so offset the rise in oil prices. Suspend VAT temporarily from domestic gas. Talk to the oil and gas companies about getting their taxes down to a level where they will maximise current output and put in more capacity with a big investment surge.
The Treasury will get a windfall increase in tax from higher energy prices. However, borrowing is still too high so the government needs to embark urgently on the spending reductions the Opposition has proposed to take the pressure off the bond markets and interest rates. It would help if the government cancelled all their proposed extra payments to foreign governments and the EU over Chagos re set, steel compensation, and the extra payments to illegal migrants the Home Secretary has announced..
March 10, 2026
Dear Sir John, Starmer has opted out of the war so it is effectively cancelled. It isn’t happening in Starmer’s World. The safety guard /watchman in Portsmouth dockyard has been told to let No 10 know when the paint has dried on HMS Dragon, union rules permitting and only during normal working hours.
Next!
March 10, 2026
Yes, it’s becoming too easy to make Starmer look a humiliated fool, even the impotent Macron feels emboldened to do so. Sending the French navy to ‘protect’ Cyprus and UK interests in the Med. is calculated to insult, does Starmer not see it?
If we kept producing most of our own oil and gas and buy it on long term fixed price contracts (cost plus?), wouldn’t that be the best way to protect the UK from ‘international shocks’?
March 10, 2026
Yesterday Sakara Gold made some ludicrous statements regarding imports of electricity. Having checked with NESO, last year we imported 16% of our electricity at a cost of £3,5 billion and to get the record straight, when prices go negative usually on windy summers days the renewable operators continue to be paid through CFD of constraints payments.
You say remove VAT temporarily from gas, you know this is not possible without EU permission which Starmer would never ask for. Why temporarily and not permanently in gas and electricity.
March 10, 2026
She does not know what to do.
If she does something it’s pot luck, might help, might sink us completely.
Honestly we can’t go on like this, we have to address the root cause of our unending problems.
Could you think about that please JR and give us your assessment of what can be done?
March 10, 2026
Your suggestions would help tremendously. She won’t do it because of politics, ideology and self interest.
We have a political system and class that more than ever does not prioritise the good of the people.
March 10, 2026
This is all ridiculous and highly damaging, not just short term damage but serious societal and economic long term damage. We have got to get rid of Starmer’s Gang. We can’t assume Starmer won’t cancel or postpone the General Election expected in 2029. Thee is no law preventing him. Would you please initiate something that will result in a general election? Difficult with the Gang having such a large majority. But there being so many lunatics in politics now the FPTP system could by some quirk result in a majority for any remotely sensible party, Left or Right. I have often thought that if we could extract all the true patriotic conservatives from their existing parties into a new one it would win hands down. The days of the broad church are gone because the electorate is too disparate and deeply divided. It is communal like India before partition but with many more incompatible identities than just Hindus and Muslims. Starmer’s gang, riddled as it is with Fabians and assorted communists, is not on the side of Britain. Fabians believe nation states should not even exist. Starmer’s Gang is the enemy within the gates. Oh! dear me, I forgot. We no longer have any gates. Starmer’s Gang is the doormat welcoming any and all cultural groups who hate Britain as much as the Gang does and come only to rob it.
Reply Conservatives suffered a heavy defeat so we have nothing like the votes needed to require a new election. There is no reason to think Labour will cancel the next election. They have just backed down over Council elections.
March 10, 2026
“Fabians believe nation states should not even exist” why would anyone fight to defend a state from invasion if it has open borders and in-effect does not even exist?
Labour and Two Tier Kier are now trying to further divide the nation by bringing in a mad definition of Islamophobia like most Labour policies it will do the complete reverse of what Labour suggests!
March 10, 2026
Reply to reply. The cancellation of Council Elections which backfired was just a test for suspending a GE. Perhaps Trump has double sixed him by invading Iran too early.
You can be sure Starmer and the unelected PM Hermer will find a way to cling to power.
The next thing will be Reform etc prescribed as terrorists but not the Muslim Brotherhood or the IRG.
March 10, 2026
Good morning.
Anyone seen the price of petrol these days ?
What gets me is the variance between forecourts, with prices differing between 2 and 10p per litre for the same stuff. And as usual, the go up quickly but take time to come down. So there is a bit of price gouging going on. Any cut in taxes will just be pocketed by the sellers.
Pity we demolished all those coal fired stations and not built nuclear ones to replace them. We could have has a rival (electric) to petrol, certainly for small journeys.
March 10, 2026
how comes the new supreme leader of Iran, already injured, dead within days I assume, owns several large houses in the UK? which he has presumably visited? why is the UK so welcoming to such people? why was he given a visa? why has he not had his property confiscated?
March 10, 2026
The purpose of the Reeves statement was simply to say that when inflation goes up now it is entirely due to the war. This is in addition to her previous statements that whenever inflation went up during the previous Tory government it was entirely their fault.
March 10, 2026
Why?
Because it’s all going to their destructive plan; just rather more quickly than anticipated. The war will give them cover to claim that we must join an EU Defence Pact and “it wasn’t us who wrecked the economy” …. it was Big Bad Orange Man.
At the moment, they are doing a great impression of fiddling whilst Rome burns.
March 10, 2026
She won’t do anything because the PM and the entire Cabinet including herself believe they are on the right track: that intermittent renewables will provide us with long term energy security and free us from dependence on fossil fuels. That’s the level of thinking, and every single Labour MP interviewed in the media parrots the same line.
March 10, 2026
Yet another humiliation for the dreadful Nigel Farage. After announcing last Thursday evening at a Westminster event that he would be dining with Trump at the Mar-E-Lago resort on the Friday, apparently Trump failed to show up
Farage flew around 4,500 miles – and never actually met Mr Trump during his visit. Trump ended up staying in Doral, leaving Farage more than an hour’s drive away in Mar-a-Lago and at a loose end.
One of Farage’s flunkeys then said he had never planned on meeting Mr Trump during his visit and had never said he was planning to and even if he was, he certainly would not be discussing the Chagos Islands deal. Yeah, pull the other one
March 10, 2026
That will soon disappear down some black hole like even more useless windmills, but it appears that it’s not the job of the Chancellor to stimulate the economy with tax cuts, judging by what she has done so far.
Devoted as it is net-0, this government is unwilling to even trade back a little on the goals and insanities of reducing energy usage, in fact the oil crisis following the attacks on Iran will help make sure we do actually use less energy. If they can they will impose that as the norm for us all.
This socialist government is not one for turning, unless of course the backbenchers see their seats in trouble, but even they would face a brick wall to get red Ed to scale down his destruction.
March 10, 2026
We were in big trouble before the Gulf war. All the oil & gas crisis is really going to do, is rapidly bring forward the problems we were already facing. Net Zero was having exactly the same effect and this will now be amplified and accelerated.
However, all that now follows will be blamed by this useless mob on Trump and the Iranian conflict. It is the perfect alibi foR them. Even the May elections may be slightly better for Labour, as they will claim to have resisted an “illegal war” and many gullible, well meaning people will see dithering and indecision as some sort of moral stand.
March 10, 2026
The thirsty man in the desert will drink the sand.
We have tried Conservative socialism and now Labour socialism and both have proved that if you keep giving money away to your mates and to your constituency then prices rise and taxes need to be high to collect the giveaways.
At the next general election the contributors will start to look for more extreme solutions and the takers (who will feel they are not getting enough) will also look for more extreme solutions.
We need a government that spends judiciously on education, law and order and defence – reigns in spending on health and foreign interventions and massively curbs the welfare budget.
In this situation reducing spending would allow the government to reduce VAT and duty on gas and electricity thus cushioning the blow. As they spend so much they can’t afford to reduce their percentage take.
We have no army because the money has been spent on welfare recipients the infirm and housing immigrants. These are the choices the last two governments (at least) have taken.
March 10, 2026
It would indeed help if the government cancelled all their proposed extra payments to foreign governments and the EU over Chagos re set, steel compensation, and the extra payments to illegal migrants the Home Secretary has proposed… and to scrap net zero, fire all the state sector workers who do no good and often do huge net harm (release them for real jobs), restrict benefits payments to those genuinely unable to work… a bonfire of red tape and to reverse all Labour & Reeves’s doom loop lunacy.