I read that the Chancellor has been charged with chairing a Committee to take advantage of the freedoms we gain from leaving the EU. I wish him well, as there are many obvious easy wins which the government should have ready after four and half years delay in our exit. Why are we still waiting for them?
The Chancellor in particular should get on with a Brexit bonus budget. He should set out the large savings on our contributions to the EU and how they are being used. He should explain how the sums we will still be paying to farmers in lieu of the CAP payments will be better directed. I want to see more of that money promoting domestic food production. The EU often paid us grants to stop us producing things.
He should explain how he will police any residual bills from the EU under the Withdrawal Agreement and what action he will take to get our money back from the EIB and other joint assets we held with them.
I want him to overhaul VAT, an EU tax. He could begin by removing it from all green products, and from domestic fuel. That would promote higher standards of insulation, fuel efficiency and more modern controls, and reduce fuel poverty.
He should examine tax levels and grants for small business with a view to producing a better package. He needs to promote small business and self employment as we need them to power the recovery from the deep anti CV 19 recession we have been living through.
This is not the time time to be increasing tax on the self employed through IR35, nor to be putting VAT onto foreign visitors who used to come here for duty free shopping amongst other reasons. We need a UK open for business and welcoming to visitors with money to spend.
January 18, 2021
Sir John,
“The Chancellor in particular should get on with a Brexit bonus budget”
And it should include rectification of the long-standing and cruel injustice of the frozen state pensions suffered by āfully paid upā UK pensioners living in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and elsewhere. This blatant discrimination is indefensible.
Ā£half a billion puts things right once and for all. Start with Australia as part of the upcoming free trade deal.
January 18, 2021
I agree that the problem needs fixing but am opposed to trade deals expanding in scope beyond trade. Let’s keep things simple. We have just had a ghastly experience of trying to negotiate a ‘comprehensive’ agreement with the EU.
P.S. The first deal with Australia should be an unmistakeable act of friendship to a country that stood by its ‘mother country’ in two World Wars, and is now being bullied mercilessly by Ming the Merciless. Truss should offer an immediate one-way trade deal to aid those sectors of the Australian economy suffering from trade sanctions. It will earn us an immediate, ‘Good on yer mate, Mate.’ Reciprocity can be sorted out later.
January 18, 2021
+1 JR I would have just liked an uptick. Upticks will give you a good idea of what is positively received.
January 18, 2021
JR, …Brexit bonus.. that is a real rib tickler. What bonus? You accepted an unlimited “divorce settlement” the amount and timing decided by the EU. Any disagreement to be decided by ECJ! Johnson signed up to Horizon Europe to pay for EU army and allow EU to tender for U.K. Military contracts.
Cameron said he would not pay the extra EU bill of billions and quietly did. Johnson paid an additional billion quietly given on Brexit day last year after telling them to go whistle.
Please set out agreed accurate true payments to EU from U.K. It was thought by Martin Howe QC the true costs would run into over a hundred of billions. Is that Right? If so what Brexit bonus? The divorce monies more than makes up for yearly contributions.
January 18, 2021
JR, in relation to paragraph 3 I recall Davis’s reply to a Patel question saying the EIB assets were taken into account tomreach the agreed amount owed? Is that not the Case? Similarly we read that the U.K. had liabilities to the EIB but no assets, is this correct in the final document?
January 18, 2021
Pensions should be stripped entirely from Britons who move to Australia and the like. We find their pensions. We donāt want it going overseas.
I note, also, that pensioners are still getting 100% of their pensions when those forced out of work by this government are getting a maximum of 80% of their wages.
Itās almost like there is one rule for elderly Conservative voters and one rule for everybody else.
January 18, 2021
Do you ever think things through logically, Andy?
I’m a pensioner, I moved ‘abroad’ to be with family who look after me, thus relieving the UK of funding my health and social care needs, of my free or subsidised travel etc – but where appropriate I still pay taxes to HMRC.
And of course you assume that all pensioners vote Conservative – so perhaps you think that only those who can demonstrate that they vote otherwise deserve a State pension?
January 18, 2021
Funnily enough South Africa pays no pensions abroad. So if you leave you sacrifice your SA pension.
January 18, 2021
Andy would jeer about lorry queues if he could. But he can’t. So he’s regurgitating his ageist rants instead. It’s just his typical thoughtless Remain propaganda.
January 19, 2021
NIck C
you have been pretty good at spreading fake news in the past
January 18, 2021
Pensioners have paid for their pensions, it is only the governments pension business format that robs Peter to pay Paul.
You would sell half a car for the price of a new one given your perverted economic thinking, you sell lies like confetti, hence only elderly conservative voters get pensions. I would guess the only reason you get moderated is to emphasise that there are still idiots out there.
January 18, 2021
What a mean-spirited post. The people you wish to punish should receive exactly the same pension as a Brit, here, with the same NI contributions record. You seem to have no sense of ‘fair play’.
January 18, 2021
You really want to rob people of all their pensions saving (that they have saved for all their working lives) if they move overseas. This so as to imprison them in the UK? Surely even you cannot really think that can you?
January 18, 2021
@Lifelogic,
‘This so as to imprison them in the UK?’
– We have to create a great UK which people feel relaxed and comfortable in – so they don’t feel imprisoned here (I’ve lived abroad – had GREAT time but very happy to live in this great country too – except mainly for the fact that there is so much animosity and bad blood in this country – and others, not just the UK).
For starters, we need to create a Brexit based on good-natured, positive PATRIOTISM as opposed to narrow-minded, tribalistic populism.
Look at all the division in this country. Look at all the animosity even hatred. It’s so sad.
So first off as a sovereign nation, let’s try and get our politicians get to the country to unite. To stop all the bickering, fear and animosity towards others (not saying you – but there is a lot of animosity between some remainers and some Brexiters).
January 18, 2021
And, at same time, CREATE a great, positive, joyful vision for our country. How we’re going to improve the economy, improve family life, improve the arts, and so on. So that people feel enthusiastic and CHEERFUL about their country and its future.
Instead of all the doom and gloom and division and animosity – stressing people out and getting them down.
January 18, 2021
Andy, why are you so virulent to people who paid the National Insurance Contributions required by the state during their working lives and, in their old age, are receiving a state pension for which they contracted (albeit one that is less than that promised)? Do you really think that only elderly Conservatives get a state pension? No Labour supporters, etc.?
January 18, 2021
Are you seriously suggesting that no labour voters get pensions ?
January 18, 2021
Andy, I generally fully agree with your analysis of the problems caused by Tory brexit.
However, you do seem to have some kind of fixation with pensions and with pensioners – many of whom – especially those who actually remember WWII – voted Remain, even if most did not.
The UK has one of the poorest pension provisions amongst the larger economies of Europe as it is, with a late retirement age, and if you are fortunate, then you will be old too one day.
Furthermore everyone who has paid NI or tax has notionally built up an entitlement anyway. This is no different from, say, the armed forces pensions which have no actual fund either.
Your energies would be far better devoted to arguing for occupational pensions here which attain par with those on the near Continent, in order to benefit the young when they eventually retire, I think.
January 18, 2021
It’s certainly interesting to hear your views, Andy, but sadly unqualified comments are tending to come across as the unattractive trait of envy to the recipient. A more reasoned approach might help to explain how/why you’ve reached your conclusions.
With regards to your comments, I think that with a little research you’ll find the difference in someone’s standard of living in retirement comes from their occupational pension, not the provisions of the State.
Another key element has been the home ownership promoted by the Thatcher government, which contributed to longer-term planning for retirement. Mortgages have now been repaid and there isn’t the cost of ongoing rent to find, releasing money for independent living/less reliance on the State “safety net”. I appreciate that it’s an alien concept nowadays, but home ownership often required (still requires) personal sacrifices to make it an achievable goal, i.e. there wasn’t an expectation to “have it all”.
Can it not be argued that without the long-term planning of pensioners, the demand for State intervention would be far greater?
January 18, 2021
You appear to be deluded in your thinking. Maybe you are one of the almost 50% of the working population whose income has been unaffected by Covid measures i.e. those on the public payroll, salaried whether or not they work at home on, or are on a self-declared isolation period, not to mention having a gold-plated pension at the end their work life.
Or has that escaped your attention?
January 18, 2021
Grow up. You will get a pension when you are old.
January 18, 2021
Working full time even on minimum wage would give people more than the state pension. Try living on 80% of a pension. There are many out there living solely on a state pension and those whose private pensions were robbed from them. Just as we paid for our parents pensions when we were working so the younger generation pays ours. It’s the way it is.
January 18, 2021
Elderly Labour voters will also be getting 100% of their pensions, and public workers will be getting 100% of their salaries. Did you forget to mention this ?
Yet another hate message from you. Yawn.
January 18, 2021
Not everyone who is elderly votes Conservative. I don’t. Never have. (Well, almost never, voted Tory in 1979 in despair at Labour’s carry on.)
Many pensioners are on the breadline. And, of course, getting 80% of the wages you normally get for WORKING, whilst doing nothing, is not too bad really.
Whereas I have been paying older people’s state pensions for 48 years. Now it is my turn to receive a pension it would be outrageous to find I am suddenly cheated out of what I am due.
I note no suggestion that the public sector should make any sacrifices.
January 18, 2021
How ridiculous. RP is a contributory benefit and anyone who has paid into the system is entitled to receive a payment. Where cuts should be made are to the families receiving social security benefits living in EU countries, many of which have never set foot in this country. Itās a scandal that an NI stamp is paid to benefit recipients living abroad allowing them to receive higher payments of RP than millions of contracted-out workers here in the UK.
January 18, 2021
Quite agree. I would add that the government under the Withdrawal Agreements/Treaties has agreed to continue making these payments.
January 18, 2021
A bit more of your usual nonesense.
Forgive me, but I was under the impression that pensioners had contributed to their pensions during their working lives. And how exactly can pensioners be forced out of work?
Perhaps you should begin by being aware that it is only people who are empoyed in the private sector who have had their incomes reduced. The public sector employees have been fully protected against the ravages of the virus. So why should you single-out people on state pensions. I understand that, in any case, these are some of the worst in Europe.
January 18, 2021
Sir John,
by publishing this post, which serves no purpose other than to elicit the predictable response, you have created more work for yourself. It’s difficult to tally with your post yesterday. To be clear, it is entirely up to you what is published. Maybe you are attempting to emulate the BBC model of allowing every voice to be heard. Very democratic, and some might say laudable. But what you, or anyone else (other than Andy, who can delight in the pressing of buttons that deliver the desired effect) gains is far from clear.
January 18, 2021
Andy, In your continuing unhinged rage against pensioners and the elderly, you still haven’t grasped the fact that young people are subsidised for 18 years, but pensioners only for 15 years (66 to 81). And at least pensioners have been paying taxes for 48 years.
January 18, 2021
“We find their pensions.” Just as this current batch of pensioners, when they were young, ‘found’ the pensions of their grandparents.
The state pension is an insurance scheme to which workers contribute during their working lives. The fact that governments don’t put aside the premiums paid is not the fault of the pensioner.
You do not ‘find’ their pensions. Pensioners did that while they were working.
January 18, 2021
“Pensions should be stripped entirely from Britons who move to Australia and the like. We find their pensions. We donāt want it going overseas.”
Just Britons?
What about Australians who move back home to Australia after working their whole lives in the UK?
January 18, 2021
On the other hand, UK pensioners continuing to live in this country are paying their taxes here and supporting the community, and are due preferential treatment.
January 18, 2021
Dave,
And many of those who live in Australia are still paying their taxes in the UK, but are having also to pay for private medical treatment in Oz as they are not entitled to State healthcare.
I shall not respond to the banal comments of Andy.
January 18, 2021
we should all follow your suggestion.
January 18, 2021
And, bear in mind, we are not a burden on the NHS, despite our lifetime of tax contributions!
January 18, 2021
Here’s a stat that made me sit up this morning, and for all sorts of reasons.
England alone has suffered as many covid19 deaths as has the entire continent of Africa.
In what way does its “freedoms” from the European Union help it to make reparation for that?
January 18, 2021
According to today’s official figures, the UK has suffered just over 89000 deaths in total.
According to today’s official figures, the Western Cape Province (just a part of South Africa, which is just a part of the whole of the African continent) has suffered just over 9000 in total.
January 19, 2021
Terry
You believe the African figures do you ?
You believe the Chinese figures ?
You believe the Russian Figures ?
I will stop there.!
January 19, 2021
Africa could not afford Ventilators. The SA total is now 35,000 deaths with Coved.
The rest off Africa has less medical care – seems to be doing better per head than SA.
January 18, 2021
Abolishing VAT on fuel would be great, but let’s not forget it was brought in by a Conservative Chancellor, another tried to double it but was foiled by a rebellion while a Labour Chancellor reduced it to 5% (EU rules stopped him bringing it to zero). Let’s not forget, either, that subsidies to uneconomic renewables are costing households and businesses far more than the VAT via inflated fuel bills.
If cutting VAT on ‘green products’, what is ‘green’? – for sure many carrying that label are anything but green, such as electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels – their manufacture involves truly ‘dirty’ practices.
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
I am in favour of all tax cuts as people and businesses spend or invest the money so much more efficiently than governments do. The UK is hugely over taxed. But to cut taxes you also have to cut out government waste, the war on CO2 plant food (which pushed up energy costs more than 5% vat does), the HS2 lunacy, stop the lockdown and cut the size of the state. UK Electricity and energy costs are nearly double those in USA.
January 18, 2021
I think you will find EU has a lot to say about taxation changes. UK withdrew its protective clauses for taxation bill on 17/12/2020!
Perhaps JR could tell us why the clauses dropped to the taxation bill and now what does that mean between U.K. And EU relations.
I think today’s blog is to disguise how terrible the association agreement is and provide false hope. Goods is now a lost cause u less U.K. terminates it. Services are now being negotiated and should be the focus as it effects are economy more.
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Totally off the mark, lifelogic.
German government subsidies for solar have succeeded in lowering the energy cost of solar massively. To the point where solar is now cheaper than fossil fuels in many places around the world.
Subsidies can work (not always), but they have supercharged renewables, made them more competitive than fossil fuels – which has to be good for energy consumers.
Fossil fuels are on the way out. Live with it.
January 18, 2021
Nonsense. Total % of energy used by mankind worldwide coming from Solar and Wind is currently only about 1.5%. Subsidies to roll out uneconomic technology before it is ready is foolish. Funding for R & D perhaps sensible but subsidies for premature technology is stupid!
If they are so cheap why do they need large subsidies and market rigging?
January 20, 2021
I didn’t say we were there yet on solar and off-shore, but the trajectory is clear.
January 19, 2021
Is that why Germany is building new coal power stations to run on lignite, the filthiest fossil fuel fuel known to man?
January 18, 2021
What is actually green? As you say many things are not really green at all just fake green. Certainly nothing very green about HS2, intermittent wind or Electric cars (that have to do 100,000 miles before they save any CO2 at all) and only then if all the electricity comes from low carbon sources – which will not indeed cannot happen.
January 18, 2021
Building 100,000’s of houses is hardly green to keep up with the Fake Tory Party mass immigration policy. More heating, more water, more waste, more cars, more transport, more food etc. The basics and contradiction in policies appear to be lost in most people- including MPs.
January 18, 2021
Yes and what about dentists, doctors and hospital beds. Not enough now.
January 18, 2021
Surely allowing 650000 into our Country helps our CO2 footprint and helps the provision of health and public services as they are all Drs, nurses and scientists who walk and cycle everywhere and house share.
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Good morning
Well one of my posts was deleted yesterday. So much for not censoring posts. Yes it had two links. One to the Guardian reporting the restrictions on those entering the country and one to a comment I made last February staring that we should be doing that, and more, of which this government is now doing. Clearly embarrassing stuff.
When a average, lowly pleb like me can see and state the obvious it must be rather gauling to those expensively educated self styled elite.
Oh, sorry, off topic
January 18, 2021
If you donāt like it blog elsewhere or even better start your own Blog for Plebs. I am sure there are lots out there.
January 18, 2021
Not the point.
Clearly Travelodges etc could and should have been taken over and used for this purpose last February. Nobody would have complained except those celebrities and elites who would have been “stuck” in a small room for 2 weeks, poor things. They would publicise theor support for Labour even more fervently than at present.
Which is the reason it didn’t happen.
In Australia and NZ, the government don’t give a damn about the feelings of these people, and that is the way we should be.
January 18, 2021
It would have been practical and affordable last February with the small number of cases involved, and if combined with proper testing and tracing could have prevented huge loss of life.
However, with the hundreds of thousands now thought to be infected amongst the general population here it is an impossible task to do so for them now.
So the latest proposal just looks like an emblematic move against a few foreigners for political reasons rather than anything which will make a significant difference to the general picture.
January 18, 2021
SJR
Many of those hotels you suggest are already full with the 8,000 boat people who came here illegally, seems the Government think more of them, than for the homeless who have been here for years, some who even fought in wars for this Country.
January 18, 2021
@Alan Jutson; I think you’ll find the hotels SJS talks about are -or at least were during the first lock-down- being used to get the (mostly) homeless UK born nationals off the streets. The people you talk of are either unknown to the authorities or are being held in immigration detention centres!
January 18, 2021
It’s ok, Priti Useless is getting rid of their legal aid and them expeditiously…..oh wait…she isn’t.
January 18, 2021
There are no large savings because our contributions are tiny compared to the money we have lost because of the new barriers and red tape to our export trade which are the result of leaving the EU’s single market. Brexit has just got real, and it is obvious that it is an exercise in economic self-harm
January 18, 2021
The ‘barriers’ should be no more than those experienced when exporting to non-EU countries, which comprises the bulk of our exports. Any additional barriers are down to the EU, and only the EU.
January 18, 2021
Rubbish, clearly some adjustments are needed. but these can happen fairly quickly. Companies will adapt just fine to the new, advantageous conditions. If governments just get out of their way – as far as possible.
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Dear Grey–Baloney–In any event our economic relationship with the EU is a lot smaller than you think and it is just plain silly to keep squawking about barriers and red tape bercause any such will wither away soon enough. Ever spent time thinking of the border between Canada and the US? No–Quelle surorise. I spent years there and don’t remember barriers and red tape being a subject for discussion never mind any kind of onging problem.
January 18, 2021
It’s just political at the mo. Our trade will reduce with them over time as we’ll buy hassle free elsewhere.
January 18, 2021
How much money have we “lost” due to new barriers ? That guy who can’t export his live eels you mean ? Just making thinks up that you’d like to be true doesn’t make them true.
January 18, 2021
Are you unaware, that the Scottish fishermen are now landing their catches in Denmark – rather than in Britain – to ensure that they reach their customers within the time and at the freshness for which those buyers are willing to pay premium rates?
They do not want frozen seafood, but fresh, so there is no other feasible market for that.
January 18, 2021
And just WHY are they HAVING to do that?
So, SEVERAL EU countries rejected UK exports but Denmark, an EU country did not reject UK exports. And …
Hmmm. I thought your beloved EU insisted on a level playing field. On fairness. Seems not.
The quotes above are from the Reuters site.
https://www.reuters.com/article/britain-eu-scotland-fishing/scottish-fishermen-land-fish-in-denmark-to-avoid-post-brexit-red-tape-idUSL4N2JQ3F9
January 18, 2021
I read a comment on Guido Fawkes blog that says the Scottish hauliers that have been protesting in London are big SNP supporters and donors, (named company not checked out ed) Interesting link to an article in the Berwickshire News āOver the years their smoked fish, crab products, lobsters and langoustines has been in demand at top restaurants in Spain, Italy, France and the USAā
Arenāt most of those restaurants in the EU shut at the moment? I think someone should check out who had ordered these products they say they had to ditch and investigate why precisely they couldnāt be shipped? If they are used to exporting to the USA then they will be experts in customs documents and would have registered their vans.
John your government need to learn quickly what exactly is causing these people problems and sort it out quick and make sure its not political posturing.
January 18, 2021
Martin, We’re not yet 3 weeks in to the new soft Brexit arrangements. Aren’t you rather premature?
January 18, 2021
Roy, because you appear to be rather poorly informed does not make the problems presently suffered by the fishing industry less real.
January 18, 2021
Look on the bright side: save Ā£12bn pa net, rising for ever, out of the CAP and CFP, points based immigration system with no discrimination against non-EU people, independent trade policy, no liability for euro bailouts.
Should be enough to outweigh the undoubted costs you refer to by a sizeable multiple, but letās see.
January 18, 2021
That so called seamless trade in the single market was paid for by UK taxpayers to the tune of around Ā£12 Billion per year.
If you want to do business with the EU, just get on with it but don’t expect to be subsidised by the Taxpayer.
Please stop whining.
January 18, 2021
This new trade friction at the borders only works one way, apparently, impeding our exports to the EU but not in any way interfering with the much greater volume of imports from the EU. If it did work both ways then some UK businesses might find that they had new market opportunities in the UK. I am a bit puzzled that Scottish fishermen cannot find any buyers for their shellfish in England.
January 18, 2021
Very true Dennis. So much imported seafood in the supermarkets at present.
January 18, 2021
Grey, You seem to forget that nearly 90% of UK GDP is derived from non-EU trade. That makes it much more important than our exports to the EU. And that near 90% GDP gains by no longer being subject to ever increasing EU red tape.
January 19, 2021
If you couldn’t care less about a whole ten percent of GDP which comes from trade with the European Union, then why do you get into such a froth about a mere 0.7% of it, spent on educating children and on providing them with clean water and so on in the Commonwealth?
January 18, 2021
If that is an argument, you will certainly win the Referendum that is coming up in 2016.
January 18, 2021
Exactly.
He should also examine why the banks are so totally uncompetitive now (partly forced onto them by the FCA on personal overdrafts it seems but EU rules too I think). With a premier account (over ten years back) I had a personal Ā£20K overdraft facility that used to be at 2.5% over base and a savings account that paid about base rate. The same bank now charge an absurd 39.9% for this overdraft and they pay just 0.2% on deposits. The margin between them used to be 2.5% now it is 39.7%! They charge you nearly 200 times the rate they pay to you. Even on business overdraft they want base +7% or something absurd.
What are the FCA and competition authorities doing about this rip off and lack of fair competition? The banks are also very slow and restrictive on mortgage lending (especially for the self employed or people with several properties) mainly due to misguided red tape and slotting rules it seems.
January 18, 2021
Ps. At a 2% margin it needs 5 million of successful lending to break even on a 100k debt.
With that multiplier your assertion about excessive business lending rates lacks understanding.
January 18, 2021
Well they did it at that 2.5% margin back then. Often the customers are rather better risk than the banks too. So logically the banks should be paying me a higher % to borrow my money than the reverse.
Especially as they often want security but give none back. What has changed to increase 2.5% margin of 15 years back to a 40% margin now? Why the same rate for good credit risk customers as for bad ones it is insane?
January 18, 2021
It sounds like we use the same bank which is part owned by the UK Taxpayer.
How much of this behaviour is down to pressure from the Treasury?
January 18, 2021
Nearly all the main banks are as very similar rates. Surely some fair competition investigation is needed.
January 18, 2021
It might be worthwhile to have a look at documents from the Office of Fair Trading about personal overdrafts. There has been an on-going saga related to those started as early as 2007 about those.
The paper SN03941 on the House of Commons Library published on 17 November 2017 gives an overview of it.
From a (very) quick look at it, it does not seem that EU rules had much to do with the UK situation but the Financial Conduct Authority and Competition Markets Authority certainly have.
January 18, 2021
Spot on but never let the facts get in the way of having a go at the Banks.
January 18, 2021
Thanks will do.
January 18, 2021
The Chancellor’s budget will be set according to the rules dictated by politics and political advantage not by fiscal rules that assert themselves in the world of the living. This is the result of politicians whose decision making is influence not by beliefs, values and morality but what is politically advantageous irrespective of and separate from what is the right and proper thing to do
Being an ex-Thatcherite now converted to Socialism Mr Sunak will hit those he knows can’t fight back (self employed) and affords him a virtue signalling Marxist brownie point for hitting those nasty profiteering self-employed types while pouring more cash into those State sectors that assert the greatest levels of political pressure upon him. More money or strike action and non-cooperation is their mantra
The self-employed can’t initiate strike action, unfortunately. Sunak knows this.
The private sector will be hit, again because they can and the unionised public sector will be praised because Tory MPs now knows its easier to say such things in their usual disingenuous manner for an easy political life irrespective of the cost to the nation
There are those who used to vote Tory and now don’t because they realise what a despicable entity they have become and there are those who continue to afford this zombie party their vote simply because they don’t give a toss what policies they implement
January 18, 2021
Boris seems to be of the same mind as the ābuild back betterā brigade.
Mr. Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum are quite open about this – āThe Great Resetā and all that.
The big problem is how can the people stop this happening. The danger is increased when politicians are primarily interested in their own welfare and are biddable. Much of the U.K. is already owned by foreigners and they have considerable influence.
So I donāt expect anything from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, unfortunately. He will be preoccupied with increasing taxes and taking money away from people.
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Dom,
There are people on this site, including JR, who forget the Fake Tory party actively worked with Cobyn’s Labour in May 2019 to agree a Brexit. Rees-Mogg thought it a step too far. They forget Fake Tories ridiculed Labour to get in office , once there admitted they would implement their policy and build on it. They even helped Miliband get elected after warning about him being “Red Ed” ridiculing him! They forget how Cameron took the party further left by going into coalition with Lib Dems.
January 18, 2021
Dave guessed correctly that the Lib-Dems ‘leader’ whatsisname, would grab the status of ‘Deputy’ and be a pushover in Government.
The only memorable step they encouraged was raising the Personal Allowance.
January 18, 2021
Dom, Vote Boris; get authoritarianism, MMT, the great “green” reset, and a “soft” Brexit. All we need now is for Biden to visit us and rope Boris into a pointless foreign war, and our goose will be well and truly cooked. JR, please help to stop Boris riding on Biden’s coat tails. We did not put in all this work to escape the EU empire, only to supinely ape the USA empire. We are big enough to be neutral.
January 18, 2021
So you propose removing all US bases from UK soil?
January 19, 2021
Is this your ‘Letter from Cardiff’ ?
January 19, 2021
Yes, Martin, if they are used by Biden to start a war we do not want to be involved in. For NATO defence they are fine.
January 19, 2021
One only has to look how the late Sir Roger Scruton was treated by the Tory party and certain Tory MP’s to see what is wrong with this lot.
January 18, 2021
Sir
Times Radio recently commented on the effects of Brexit on UK financial services, particularly on the City of London. The suggestion was the exodus of “talent” to the UK will have the effect of transferring tax receipts from the UK to the EU. Will this cancel out the UK saving in not having to pay EU contributions ?
Also, it might be said that IR35 is not a tax on those who are genuinely self employed and is merely an anti-avoidance mechanism ?
January 18, 2021
Apologies – exodus of “talent” from the UK”
January 18, 2021
IR35 is more tax, more red tape and more hassle for everyone. It will reduce the future tax base and damage the economy hugely. More parasitic jobs, fewer real jobs and far less productivity.
January 18, 2021
I can āfeelā the black economy expanding. Mr Sunakās problem is that like all Socialists, he is running out of people from whom he can extract money, to misquote Thatcher.
Only those employed by the State and the Corporations have money now.
January 18, 2021
+1. What a terrible plight for millions. Johnson and Hancock still not committing to open back up or let children have an education.
Good articles in Con Woman, one about Dennis Pager. Good read.
January 19, 2021
Taxing State employee’s is basically robbing Peter to pay Paul. Taxing Corporation is just pure fantasy much like those letter boxes in Luxembourg and Switzerland.
January 19, 2021
Then the Govt will have to cut its cloth. Bikini time.
January 18, 2021
I agree with you on IR35 oldwulf, there are several large companies [some German so their profits aren’t taxed here either] who don’t have employees and use self-employed to avoid holiday pay; SSP; SSP holiday pay, SMP, WTD, Emp’rs NI, SPL, SPL holiday pay, rules on keeping jobs open for a year. The workers work only for them.
January 18, 2021
I feel that the Chancellor is the wrong man to chair the committee. Michael Gove would be a better choice. Sunak has a lot on his plate and, I think, lacks imagination. Also, his broad responsibility for the ‘economy’ tends to diminish the role of the Business Secretary, who often – whoever if filling the job – seems to be shrinking in the corner, afraid to speak.
P.S. I’ve been pushing the need for ‘benefits realisation’ for a while, both here and on Guido Fawkes. I’ll deduce that Boris spends some time each day on one or other, or both, of the sites.
January 18, 2021
Kwasi Kwarteng might be a better choice. Move him from energy (he is sound but clearly knows almost nothing about energy). Replace him at energy with Lord Peter Lilley and or Lord Matt Ridley who do.
January 18, 2021
It needs someone who has been an achiever honed sharp in the real world too.
January 18, 2021
Sir John,
Come on down……
January 18, 2021
It is the time to charge work visa holders at least as much national insurance as locals pay, a nice simple tax rise that would have mass support.
January 18, 2021
Foreign nationals must be charged NI by employers. Fake news.
January 18, 2021
wrong, foreign nationals on work visas dont pay employers or employees national insurance for their first 12 months in this country. and often get paired so they swap every 12 months, one here and the other abroad, so that between them they perpetually deprive a local of a job.
have a quick look at hmrc website and educate yourself.
January 19, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
PAYE people really need to start asking “exactly what are we taxed 13.8 + 12% Emp’er and Emp’ee NI over Ā£9500 pa for?”
If it is half for our healthcare [the NHS] do work visa holders have free access to doctors, subsidised NHS dentistry, A&E, hospital cover, and all other national health services whilst working in the UK or not?
January 18, 2021
The other point on National Insurance is that we are told the contributions don’t just get used for your personal State Pension they are used to pay for the State Pensioners who get Pension credits that didn’t pay enough in so need top-up benefits, so shouldn’t the ‘work visa holder’ have to pay a contribution to that if they take the job of a person who would normally pay that top-up contribution for the common good?
January 19, 2021
a-tracy
As confirmed sometime ago by our kind host, because I asked him, NI contributions go into the same tax pot. ie it is not ring fenced for pensions, NHS or anything else, it is just another tax.
January 19, 2021
But there is a National Insurance Fund see http://www.gov.uk
If it goes into the general tax pot and not into the workers state pension and healthcare cover then why are PAYE workers paying a lot more in than the self-employed? Their employer now also pays all their SSP and SSP holiday pay. Their employer contributes 13.8% over Ā£9500 which is what IR35 is supposed to address for those employers that hire workers that only work for them but self-bill for their labour as self-employed contractors.
fullfact says “the UK government invests the NICs that donāt go towards paying pensions and benefits on reducing the national debt āthe money thatās going towards the national debt is whatās left over in NIC payments after this yearās benefits and pensions have been paid. Thereās also no question of future pensions being unavailable as a result of this.Unlike most taxes in the UK, NICs are paid into a specific pot called the National Insurance Fund, rather than being put with the rest of the tax money collected for the Treasury. “
January 18, 2021
Another one might be a tax on junk mail – perhaps the most popular tax a Chancellor could ever levy (and eco-friendly to boot!).
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Yes to all that, plus tax incentives to encourage home grown and none EU foreign investment in new businesses in the UK. Incentives for business based on the creativity of British science and engineering to remain and grow in the UK. We need an outbreak of Singapore syndrome, and an understanding that only through the creation of wealth can some of it be spent on the welfare of that psrt of the population that needs it, those truely disadvantaged through no fault of their own.
January 18, 2021
The government seems paralysed by Covid with no other substantial policies being developed and implemented. As Covid policy simply seems to be letting the (very good) vaccination scheme play out and blindly following whatever SAGE says about keeping the lockdown for another year or so they actually should have plenty of time for new policy developement.
January 18, 2021
Agreed. Rather than admit their failed track an trace programme, they are removing support workers away from supporting vulnerable people to track and trace. Local authorities across England are doing this, no doubt for the financial sweetener of more tax funded monies.
To the government. Stop wasting taxes on failed programmes and actually do what you claim you want to do, that you want to protect and support vulnerable people. Otherwise people will start wondering why you wanted to vaccinate the oldest first and also make the younger vulnerable peoples lives so intolerable, they think what is the point of carrying on, thus reducing the population relying on State benefits?
January 18, 2021
You have to remember that the majority of the Civil Serpents didn’t want to leave the EU, consequently they will do everything to keep us aligned and possibly following EU dictate.
I’m waiting to hear someone in office say, we can’t do that it’s against the WA or similar
January 18, 2021
Ian,
The govt accepted a clause added to say U.K. would abide by WA and NIP not add clauses etc. It was quoted in this site a day or two ago. Hence why JRs blog about “improvements” are for the birds.
January 18, 2021
The WA and NIP have been UK law for a couple of years. There is no new “clause”.
January 18, 2021
Reading a comment that amending Employment Law would trigger a dispute with the EU as it would upset the level playing field how are ever going to diverge?
What did the agreement say about reclaiming our assets, vague to zero I bet.
As soon as we flex our laws to make us more competitive they will threaten tariff increases.
As we have seen with fishing, NI and āzero tariffā trade the reality has shown up the spin.
January 18, 2021
The 27 can only charge tariffs if the independent arbitration panel accepts that there has been a tangible effect on competition and then any tariffs have to be limited to the sectors affected and be proportionate to the damage done.
This would all be very hard to prove.
January 18, 2021
The measures taken, or not taken, will probably define the fortunes of this government. Based on the evidence of the way the government is performing, my hopes and expectations are low that it can or will deliver compelling Brexit enabled reforms. It seems more likely we shall be swallowed up in green mire.
January 18, 2021
Definitely more green/yellow than blue.
January 18, 2021
As a consequence of erecting barriers to trading with our largest suppliers and customers we will be worse off . That is why there will be no bonus budget.
Most of us watch America trapped in the coils of a vast serpentine lie with dismay but Brexit is also built on the repeated assertion that things which cannot be true , are true . It is not surprise that Brexit truth deniers are also Trump apologists and lock down sceptics.
January 19, 2021
False, Newmania. Our biggest trading partner is ourselves, not the EU. By far. It is much more important to control our own domestic trade, than allow the EU to control it, just because the EU is the destination of only just over 10% of UK GDP. You would have the tail wagging the dog.
January 18, 2021
Day 18 and no news yet on how we will realise benefits from Brexit. All the news so far – this is no surprise of course – has been about exporters running into problems, no deal on financial services, the EU confiscating ham sandwiches etc. Indeed the govt having argued for Brexit and having got a reasonable outcome (given the dreadful starting point of mrs mayās Brino) need to come forward quickly with measures to show the point of Brexit.
The next election is less than 4 years away
The clock is ticking.
January 18, 2021
If the big news is that the economy has not taken off like a rocket in two weeks, and someone confiscated a ham sandwich, that is very good news indeed.
January 19, 2021
Yes I agree the cliff edge – so far – has turned out to be 6 ins high. The point is the govt will have to be proactive, imaginative and radical to put in place measures to take advantage of Brexit. Otherwise at the next election people will turn round and ask what the point of it was. There will always be a large minority who are loudly opposed to it, and there will be businesses which are losers from it. We will continue to hear from them.
January 18, 2021
If Sunak was that capable he would take most of your recent suggestions onboard.
Yes, he has a lot to sift through but some measures could be instant.
January 18, 2021
If Sunak was capable, Sir John wouldnt need to post to this effect. But the reason for the post is that Sir John can flaunt his sound credentials. Meanwhile, he continues to enable and support a party that pursues lousy policies.
January 18, 2021
@ Simeon – an alternative interpretation to the rude one you offer is that Sir John can show by the Comments the feelings of a cross-section of the electorate, thereby often be better able to persuade the Government to take notice of his view.
January 19, 2021
And how has that worked out so far?
January 18, 2021
Do you want him to resign his seat? I’d urge him to go Independent.
January 19, 2021
That has been my view for quite some time.
January 18, 2021
Defunding the BBC removes the single biggest roadblock to free speech in the UK.
It unleashes the huge potential of our currently hamstrung media sector.
All this for ditching the archaic licence fee in favour of subscription, which can earn revenue on a much larger scale worldwide.
January 18, 2021
Alas new BBC chairman Sharp has said the licence fee is the best funding model. So we await his replacement to be free to watch others’ broadcasts live without paying the BBC its immoral take.
January 19, 2021
Providing a platform for those who convey the truth, which exposes the nonsense that you might happen to believe, is not an attack on “free speech”.
It is the very opposite.
January 18, 2021
“the Chancellor has been charged with chairing a Committee to take advantage of the freedoms we gain from leaving the EU.”
Poor choice surely… Doesn’t he have an economy to manage?
Is this just a way to make sure that all important issues remain within cabinet control?
There are plenty of decent experienced BREXIT-believing MPs that could have devoted more time and energy to such a role, to make sure this important action was done thoroughly and effectively
January 18, 2021
No. Chancellors do not “manage” the economy.
January 18, 2021
IR35 is a justified response to attempts to avoid tax and National Insurance due by normal employment.
January 18, 2021
Sir John, there is a corona virus thing going on at the moment so I fear that your vitally important ideas will simply be brushed aside. Please don’t let that happen: you are right. A sloppy Chancellor might (I did not say, “will”) lazily increase all the taxes and start to restrict things with rationing. I hope we are better than that.
January 18, 2021
VAT off domestic fuel would be welcome
I also look forward to the Chancellor announcing the education programme for those who can not make healthy, nutritious food for their children using the already generous benefits that they paid.
Child benefit and universal credit should be paying for lunches when the child is at home, not the taxpayer. A bowl of soup and bread does not cost Ā£2.50, Cheese on toast with salad does not cost Ā£2.50, a baked potato with half a tin of baked beans does not cost Ā£2.50. So why does a box need to be contain Ā£30 worth of food.
As for the Brexit bonus, that will be used pay interest to banks for the large sums borrowed to pay for the Covid response. If we printed it all instead of borrowing it and paying the frankly silly amounts borrowed back,
January 18, 2021
Some reports suggest that the Chancellor is planning to abolish Council Tax and replace it with a property charge based on the ludicrously inflated value today instead of the value years ago. In other words, house owners in the south of England will have their council tax greatly increased but called something else. Sometime those of us who used to vote Conservative have to wonder whether we have to leave the country to get away from rich socialist incompetents.
January 18, 2021
Well that would balance the north south divide a bit. The business rerating was delayed and the implemented in stages, leaving the north subsidising the south, because the south was in shock at the increase.
The taxes of northerners pay the āincentivesā for solar panels which are only financially viable in the south. The north in fact, is by reality, barred from solar panels to offset costs and by virtue of dark and cold, requires more energy.
And before anyone says the north gets subsidies from the south, Ā£9 out of every Ā£10 it gets comes from the north in the first place. The South simply moves that money from the pockets of northern people to the institutions, which deliver very bad value for money.
January 18, 2021
There would be a danger that hundreds of thousands of older couples or widow(ers) might be forced into selling their home of tens of years due to being asset ‘rich’ but income poor. In a single robbing move the Chancellor would have hundreds of thousands of votes snatched away from possible Conservatives in the South and S.East, even from many constituencies farther afield. A bigger water-line torpedo than Corbyn would ever have managed.
January 18, 2021
Stred
That is why the POLL TAX WAS AN ALTOGETHER BETTER AND FAIRER TAX than Council tax.
With the former everyone paid the same tax for all of the services we all collectively use, not just a house owner.
January 18, 2021
Great to see your beacon of hope materialised formally by govt albeit late. I cannot see the BBC cheerleading this positivity but hey what the heck let’s get on with it.
Whilst there are many obstacles to self employment the govt should do everything possible still out the red carpet for them as they as you say are absolutely critical to any recovery.
I can see from comments who would survive the harsh discipline of self employment and who would not just on attitude alone. You have to be tough on yourself to go through brick walls, forever positive unflinching. Never forget the small guys who bail the big ones out.
January 18, 2021
Why doesn’t he just get on with it? As we all know, appointing committees is a classic way to push decisions as far into the future as possible, and avoid getting anything done.
January 18, 2021
All weekend we’ve been reading what PE Biden is going to do within weeks of taking office. What is taking your government so long, was there no plan even though you knew this was happening in 2016?
If PE Biden does manage to make hundreds of changes within his first month for the whole of America then what will it say about Boris? Best get on with it.
Have you actually listened to the song lyrics ‘why are we waiting’? It’s popular right now on Amazon.
January 18, 2021
Thank you, Sir John, for your ongoing attention to IR 35, which is arguably the most ill-conceived, ill-defined and toxic killer of small enterprises ever produced by the apparatchiks in the Revenue.
January 18, 2021
Should abolish VAT for local sales tax to replace business rates, council tax and Barnet subsidies.
Sadly the whole cabinet is devoid of imagination and innovation.
January 18, 2021
A local sales tax to replace VAT and Council Tax, is certainly worth investigating.
January 18, 2021
Giving it another name does not make it less of a tax. The only way to avoid it would be to stop buying things.
January 18, 2021
Unfortunately a local tax would be an open invitation to local government corruption.
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
“He should explain how he will police any residual bills from the EU under the Withdrawal Agreement and what action he will take to get our money back from the EIB and other joint assets we held with them”.
The Chancellor should simply say that all bills from Brussels must be deducted from the money to be returned from the EIB – and our entire contribution to the Galileo project.
January 18, 2021
Total UK contributions to the Galileo project, likely never to be reimbursed: Ā£1.2bn, which when considered to other contributions to Yorkshire or North West of England (see other contributor below) and given that the UK is still able to access all the Galileo Open Services (10-m positioning, timing, navigation message authentification) is rather like peanuts. Donāt you think so?
Only its more āmilitaryā- related services (positioning to 1-m precision) will not be accessible to the UK.
January 18, 2021
Is there any reason, Sir John, why any residual bills from the EU cannot be netted off against what we are owed by the EIB and from other joint assets? Trusting, of course, the bills are genuine in the first place!
January 18, 2021
In Teresa May’s time, a certain young civil servant gave Barnier and Co a very hard time by going through their exit bill, line by line, repudiating most of the items.
Unless May and Robbins had the person dismissed, the Chancellor needs to wheel him or her out again and do a repeat performance. We may end up making a net profit.
January 18, 2021
George, Since we overpaid the EU for 47 out of the 48 years we were in, it is the EU which should be paying us back.
January 18, 2021
Yes.
And it looks like we’ll be among the first nations fully inoculated against the virus and that we have developed the most viable vaccination. Way ahead of the EU by the looks of it.
I’m sure Andy and Martin will join me in saying how proud we should be.
January 18, 2021
Well I am. It’s a great effort.
January 19, 2021
Yes, it’s a credit to the NHS, but not to government.
January 18, 2021
There is no huge Brexit bonus. In 2019, UK taxpayers spent more money subsidising Yorkshire (Ā£11.45 billion according to official ONS figures) than the net contribution to the EU (Ā£8.9 billion). If it was all about money, we’d have been bettter off getting rid of Yorkshire, or maybe the North West of England (subsidised to the tune of Ā£20.3 billion in 2019) than leaving the EU.
Meanwhile money is now also being promised to the Scottish fishing industry to compensate for the disaster that leaving has wrought on them.
January 18, 2021
Yorkshire has been part of England for more than 1,000 years.
Scotland and NI, by contrast, have not and cost English Taxpayers a lot more than Yorkshire, and, in the case of Scotland, at least, appear to want to leave and take their huge deficit with them.
We should oblige.
January 18, 2021
According the House of Commons Library the figues for the UK’s contribution to the EU budget for 2019 were tax Ā£19bn, rebate Ā£4.5bn, gross Ā£14.5bn, receipt/loss of control Ā£5bn and net contribution Ā£9.5bn.
However, the past is not a guide to the future particularly when we lose any control over the budget as the EU expands further eastwards, expands its authority, jurisdiction and regulation and enforces QMV over all matters including the budget.
We were also expected to lose our rebate in the near future as there are already now more net recipent QM votes than net contributor votes.
January 18, 2021
Peter P, So you’d rather give taxpayers’ money to a foreign empire than to British people? No wonder you voted Remain!
January 19, 2021
I’m pointing out that if what you care about is money, far more taxpayers money is spent subsidising parts of the UK than ended up going to the EU.
There are plenty of commentors on this page and others who voted leave and also complain regularly about things like the Barnett formula.
January 19, 2021
Peter, Thank you for confirming you would rather give UK taxpayers money to a foreign empire than to British people.
January 19, 2021
It’s a sorry state of affairs that the regions are said by you as requiring multi-billion pound subsidies, why do you think that is Peter if everything was working hunky-dory in the EU?
Lynn above claimed – “And before anyone says the north gets subsidies from the south, Ā£9 out of every Ā£10 it gets comes from the north in the first place. The South simply moves that money from the pockets of northern people to the institutions, which deliver very bad value for money.”
January 19, 2021
How much of the money āgiven as a subsidy to Yorkshireā is from taken from Yorkshire in the first place? In the North East itās 90%. In addition our pension wealth sits in London, a plaything for the city gamblers.
January 19, 2021
NickC
there is no so-called empire your keep writing about
January 18, 2021
Mr. Redwood – I suppose it would be too much to hope that you could provide a simple explanation of our contributions to the EU?
How much did we contribute in 2020?
How much will we contribute in 2021?
I bet this sort of simple display of numbers is not something anyone in the establishment – government, opposition or civil service – will allow to be shown to ‘the people’ Am I right?
January 18, 2021
Further, if one wanted to find this out for oneself, where could one look? (Sorry, lot of ‘ones’ in that sentence.
January 18, 2021
From January 2021, there is about Ā£25bn left to pay by 2057, out of the orginal Ā£39 bn 2018 estimate, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Ā£18bn of which will be paid in by 2026.
There will be a rebate to the UK from the European Investment Bank and the European Central Bank etc of about Ā£4.2 bn.
January 19, 2021
Acorn, Since we over paid for most of the time we were trapped in the EU, it is the EU which should be reimbursing us.
January 18, 2021
Sir John, you appear to be saying we should embrace how a free, enterprising, self reliant Country should operate, and not stay tied to the Socialist Dogma of the state will provide(and tax you into poverty).
The problem at the moment appears to be that the UK Government has been so well trained in the teachings of the EU, your master knows best, Socialism and the politburo style of dictatorship they live in fear of take a different turn. That they are unable to acknowledge it is the People of this Country once free of the manipulations of the controlling left and its ideology that will take this Country forward.
January 18, 2021
That’s a pretty strong conclusion after two weeks, don’t you think?
January 18, 2021
This famous TV sketch doing the rounds on twitter just about sums up any of the situation we now face –
Some people, all they do is take, take, take out of life. Well that’s not my way of living, never has been. Never has been! You’re only entitled to take out of life what you are prepared to out into it. ……………………
Do you get a badge for doing this?
#TheBloodDonor
January 18, 2021
Air corridors closed – -bet dinghy corridors aren’t.
January 18, 2021
Are you on the committee? Can you wangle yourself an invitation?
January 18, 2021
There is a petition for parliament to review the revised VAT arrangements for duty free sales at airports. They need more signatures.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/555140
January 18, 2021
Just think about the boost to the economy if tomorrow there wasn’t any VAT nor sales tax ?
January 19, 2021
+1 or Stamp Duty.
January 19, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Why are we waiting?
Un-cooperative civil service, quangos, and institutions.
January 18, 2021
I also wonder why we persist with VAT when we could replace it with a Sales Tax? When VAT was first introduced, small businesses saw it as a monstrous imposition. Sales tax must be much simpler for businesses to manage and the state to collect. The USA seems to manage fine with Sales Tax, why not the UK?
January 18, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
John I might ask why is it on this site there is a collection of people who could do better than anyone else at everything. Perhaps we should let them run things !!!
January 18, 2021
Safer to let them waste their time commenting here. They can do less damage that way.
January 18, 2021
seconded.
January 19, 2021
Oh you think the best British people are in Parliament and in the Government? šššš¤¦
January 18, 2021
We shouldn’t concentrate too much on finance, we need to get our identity back, aim to recreate an independence of mind both personally and at national level, seek and find solutions to problems here instead of rushing to outside sources for help and ideas.
Laws should be drawn to achieve that and regain self reliance and self confidence, and we must stop selling our successful businesses.
January 18, 2021
How do you draft legislation to increase self-reliance? How do you draft legislation to prevent investors from selling the investments that they, not we, own?
January 18, 2021
30% of taxes go on Government debts.
Only solution, default on the debts.
How can Mr Average fund a Ā£550,000 state debt [1] that’s increasing at over 10% per year?
So send everyone an annual bill with their share. Be honest and tell people.
[1] Just for pensions, ONS numbers. Other debts not included.
January 18, 2021
The government takes too long to get improvements done to the economy. The government announced an extension to free ports in November last year . The ports that wish to become free ports have to bid for them, why? Just get them rolled out and up and running , why should ports have to bid for them? Surely the government knows which ports are ideally suited to be so. Free ports should be only offered to new companies to get a benefit to the local region in terms of employment rather than giving free port status the existing local companies.
January 18, 2021
I agree with all that you write here and I would add that I am very concerned to read in the press that Sunak is contemplating a RISE in Corporation Tax which I strongly oppose .
On the contrary he should be reducing it to 12.5% so that in combination with the immense financial powers and skill of the City we can encourage start ups;re-shoring ; capital investment and the domicile of large companies’ tax and manufacturing in the U.K
I hope that you will be opposing such a move and making these views known.
I might add that should he go ahead with such an impost I will not renew my membership of the Conservative Party
January 18, 2021
Replace corporation profit tax with corporation turnover tax
January 19, 2021
+1 itās blindingly obvious!
January 18, 2021
… The EU often paid us grants to stop us producing things….
What an absolute disgrace! And the majority of people would not have realised this! A double disgrace! The majority of people trust the Government and that is the real problem!
January 19, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
I would like to see part of the EU savings go to scrapping Student loans. Education inc higher education is a basic right not a privilege financed by tax payers. I want to see a future Gov agree with the EU to be part of the Erasmus and pay into the programe.
I would like to see debt repayments by way of increasing the very top rate of income tax to 60% and a top rate of annual asset wealth tax (inc property) at 2% per annul. This is only affect 1% of the population and not affect investment at all because the top 1% don’t use their wealth to invest in this country.
I want to see a future Gov agree with the EU to lock in all EU regulations inc future ones as part of a revision to the current trade agreement and lock this into an international agreement that legally cannot be changed.
January 18, 2021
A lot of personal “bright” ideas being proposed and hobby-horses being ridden in the comments, but I think that the thing commenters often forget is that the Government does not actually “run” the economy. There is no fast/slow lever in Downing St.
Growth in the economy is mainly due to the efforts of existing companies and new entrepreneurs, not to civil servants. If you want them to succeed, the two things you have to do are these:
1) Build the infrastructure they need. 2) Remove barriers, and get out of the way.
Any clever stunts aimed at manipulating the economy via the tax system are doomed to failure because people who can run companies are also capable of gaming the system. So *ask* companies, including start-ups, what barriers to business they would like to see removed, and what infrastructure they could use. Then ignore ideas that are illegal or exploitive, and do what they ask.
Labour will still chunter along with the “social justice” ideas, since that is the delusion they live in, and a Government can always adopt the least damaging Labour ideas to scare up some cheap popularity from time to time, but don’t over-do it.
January 18, 2021
Is a committee chaired by Sunak and assisted by civil servants the way forward?
The Treasury is an overmighty department which could well be reduced in size and then be focussed on fiscal matters and taxation whilst leaving some of the heavy lifting to others, otherwise there is a danger that there will be a too narrow focus to achieve all the potential opportunities derived from leaving the EU which has been structured economically to benefit Continental producers as well as saving the planet.
Each government department which has been subject to EU regulation should have its own committee and take evidence from representatives of producers and other stakeholders. Civil servants should not be providing input at all. Legislation could then be enacted with the assurarance that all bases have been covered, not just the bases of some MPs’ hobby horses or from an old list that civil servants produce whwnever politicians request assistance.
January 18, 2021
I agree that the agricultural subsidies that will replace CAP payments should be aimed at food production. Listening to George Eustice the other day outlining the new farm payment system, I got the impression that farmers will be paid to be glorified park keepers.
If there are lorry loads of seafood rotting on the quayside and empty supermarket shelves in Northern Ireland when we HAVE a deal, then it shows we should have left on 29th March 2019 without a deal, saved Ā£39 billion and been totally free to run our country as we see fit!
January 18, 2021
The obscenity of today is suffering the flatulent TV adverts of two major banks that give nothing in terms of interest for money they borrow from their customers, while a third bank offer same money to borrowers at 99.9% APR. Our banking system disgusts me.
January 18, 2021
JR: “I read that the Chancellor has been charged with chairing a Committee to take advantage of the freedoms we gain from leaving the EU. ”
Without any sense of self awareness.
Your useless Parliament has sat by and let the government ride roughshod over our Freedoms. Yet here you are talking about the ‘freedoms’ we recovered.
By the way, it was a Tory government that gave those freedoms away in the first place.
January 19, 2021
+1
January 18, 2021
Am waiting to see the rollout of the new merchant shipbuilding programme to build ships suitable for trading with our new partners in far distant lands.
January 19, 2021
The reason we are waiting is because this government is soooo slow, incompetent and cowardly, and Boris doesn’t know his own mind. The government should already know what it wants to do – as you do – and should get on with it. I have ZERO confidence in this government.