Bring on the new economic recovery

The UK economy is recovering from the big hit initial lockdown brought. The Chancellor did well with his generous furlough and business schemes which cushioned unemployment and limited bankruptcies. A combination of looser money policy and a large public deficit sustained activity somewhat at a time when public policy to curb the virus led to a sharp decline in output in all sectors needing social contact between customers.

Today the Bank of England thinks the sharp rise in  wage and price inflation that we are witnessing will be short lived. They nonetheless aim to end their Quantitative Easing programme of new purchases of bonds by the end of this year, before the USA and the ECB. They have pencilled in the need for some modest further tightening in the following two years, which could take the form both of small increases in interest rates and an ending of purchases of government bonds when old ones are repaid. They may be optimistic in thinking we will have restored all lost output by the end of this year, and need to be careful not to dampen confidence too much too soon before recovery is well embedded.

The central task of keeping inflation down to around 2% remains a crucial target for policy. The Bank thinks inflation will be back a little below 2% in two years time, after first hitting 4%. That is possible, and I have no quibbles with them running at current settings whilst monitoring carefully wage and other cost pressures. I think the USA which has administered around twice as much monetary stimulus as the UK relative to its size and is planning to continue with a large bond buying and money creation programme has a more serious inflation threat. The USA should be doing at least as much as the Bank of England to move back to a more prudent policy given its much larger injection of cash.

Meanwhile we await the government’s decision on what targets if any the Treasury needs to impose on itself. I wish to see the end to the state debt as a percentage of GDP targets continued from the Maastricht Treaty. The relevant issue is net  debt interest as a percentage of GDP or of public spending. The state debt figure they use appears very high because they look at the gross figure which includes all the debt the state now owns. What matters is the debt they owe to others and the cost of servicing that debt. Despite the big increase in gross debt the position has improved since the pandemic hit, both because they have been able to buy up large quantities of the debt, and because they have forced interest rates down lowering the additional cost of new debt or of refinancing old debt.

Japan has been doing this on a colossal scale for years and has got away with it because it is a low inflation economy with a high propensity to save. The UK has a lower average age with more private sector  propensity to spend and borrow so we should not assume we can continue doing this without awakening  the inflationary dragon. A sensible target for debt interest and  a well paced monetary tightening sensitive to growth rates is what is needed. The UK already has a debt interest target which is fine. We do not need an austerity policy brought on  by a wish to get gross debt down as a percentage of GDP. That would slow growth and make it more difficult to remove the deficit. The new policy must be growth oriented.The Bank needs to watch carefully possible inflationary transmission into wages and or excessive credit creation by commercial banks which would warrant earlier corrective action.

156 Comments

  1. Mark B
    August 8, 2021

    Good morning.

    Meanwhile we await the government’s decision on what targets if any the Treasury needs to impose on itself.

    The reason the previous Chancellor, now Health Secretary, lost his job was because he would not do as the First Lord of the Treasury wanted. ie Spend, spend, spend !

    Japan has been doing this on a colossal scale for years . . .

    Which begs the question -” Why ?”

    Most ordinary people keep their money in cash. Those who can afford to move their money around and invest in property, stocks and shares have done so and, it is they who have benefited from QE. Once again, the poor and Middle Classes are being used the subsidise the rich.

    Typical Tories.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      August 8, 2021

      I’ve not trusted cash for a long while.

      I’ve put my money into property (but not too much), education (you can never have too much), the stock market (guided by the best advisers I could find), nutritional food, fitness and experiences for the whole family – bucket list experiences such as paragliding and rock climbing and not cruises or the like… but cash ? It’s the very WORST thing you can ‘spend’ your money on – you’re opening yourself up to being shafted by your own government if you keep it. I have a works pension but expect to be raped by the Tories on that.

      I do not trust them one bit.

      1. steve
        August 8, 2021

        NLA

        “I’ve put my money into property”

        Same here. But lately have wondered about gold or a few sparklies.

        The good thing about gold is you can buy as little as ÂŁ100 worth, so it suits anyone with even just a few bob kicking around. You can even buy it online and have it delivered these days.

  2. Julian Flood
    August 8, 2021

    Sir John, you will have seen the Information Commissioner has demanded that the Climate Change Committee publishes its calculations on the costs of Net Zero. Reports suggest (see GWPF website and notalotofpeopleknowthat) that the CCC is claiming, in effect, that a dog ate their homework.
    With the immense and unquantified cost of Net Zero being the largest single item in our budgetary future, how can any realistic planning be carried out?

    JF

    1. GilesB
      August 8, 2021

      Very good point.

      The cost of net zero is clearly an order of magnitude greater than the charlatans on the Climate Change bandwagon claim

      1. Andy
        August 8, 2021

        And yet the cost of not doing is even greater.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          August 8, 2021

          Andy

          I was sharing a bottle of wine with an army officer now City adviser last night. He is big into hydrogen. He told me of all the research and big money that is going into it to make it safe. I said that it’s a highly explosive substance (based on what MiC told us) and his reply was “Electricity was once highly dangerous and a lot of people got fried before we consumers could use it without much thought to safety – it is merely a matter of problem solving and it will be done.”

          We have to be careful about how we think of each other.

          Do the Thunbergists want solutions or do they just hate humans ?

          My issue isn’t about ‘not doing’ but that what you’re proposing seems a lot more about punishment than it does problem solving.

          Thunbergists have a simplistic approach to electricity. Just because it is clean and solid state at the point of use doesn’t mean that it is clean at all. And then when you consider that we’ve outsourced all our dirty work to China (at risk of the importation of viruses) nothing environmentally beneficial is gained and a lot of our own self-determination is lost.

          We in the West need to stop hating each other in order to survive. And BLM, Trans and Green is all about self-hate is what these things are all about and not equality or the environment. After all, it’s not us eating tiger penises nor shark fins with the delusion that it will increase our virility.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            August 8, 2021

            PS, My friend puts together teams on corporate takeovers and business purchases. He says that London’s position as a centre for global deals is unassailable for this reason – that teams of experts can be brought together quickly and London is considered the safest place to do it in terms of legal probity.

          2. Andy
            August 8, 2021

            Eh? Punishment? What on Earth are you talking about?

            All you are being asked to do now is to properly insulate your home, to eat a bit less meat, to recycle a bit more, to perhaps wear a jumper rather than turning the thermostat up two degrees and to turn your lights off when you are not in the room.

            Then, when your car or boiler need replacing – not before they need replacing but when, to replace them with electric cars and heat pumps instead of dirty old tech.

            Incidentally – the electric car will be the best vehicle you have ever driven and you won’t notice the difference between a boiler and a heat pump, except that your bills will be significantly lower.

            Forcing you to drive the best vehicle you have ever driven and to significantly lower your energy bills is hardly punishment.

          3. Peter2
            August 8, 2021

            Great post NLA
            Once you look at these people as revolutionaries then you can expose their true agenda.
            Their con trick is to say…just eat a bit less meat and insulate your house.

        2. DavidJ
          August 8, 2021

          Rubbish. Obviously you have swallowed the propaganda hook, line and sinker…

      2. Lifelogic
        August 8, 2021

        +1 and there is no real benefit in CO2 terms, environmental terms or economic terms. It is economic, job and CO2 exporting, vastly expensive and inflationary insanity.

        1. DavidJ
          August 8, 2021

          +1

      3. Nig l
        August 8, 2021

        No doubt and we are seeing push back from the Treasury. I am certain in the last month I have seen analysis that these figures have been dramatically understated, hence I guess the refusal to publish them.

        We now learn that many wind farms will make a loss when subsidy phased out. Sir JRs piece is as ever thoughtful but it is the nitty gritty I am interested in. This government has committed to a climate change target with no idea how to get there, no idea if the science will be available and certainly no idea the cost and who is to pay.

        The classic way to control inflation is to take demand out by putting up taxes, that combined with Johnson treating the nations finances like his own, ‘open cheque book/no idea who will pay’ means that tax rises are inevitable and we are already seeing the Treasury floating ideas to see which ones they can get away with or the public don’t spot. Electricity and gas price rises are a portent of much worse to come.

        This is a Labour government disguised as a Tory one. The country needs that to change.

        1. Lifelogic
          August 9, 2021

          +1

    2. Everhopeful
      August 8, 2021

      Oh my word!
      Yes!
      Johnson is in deep trouble with the Chancellor!
      Trying to explain how he will pay for all this green nonsense!
      And apparently they have SUDDENLY ( the shared brain cell shudders into life) realised that greenery will impact badly on their new working class voters!!
      Maybe..just maybe I am beginning to think that all of this has been stupidity rather than pure evil.

      1. steve
        August 8, 2021

        Everhopeful

        Not stupidity. More the fact they thought they’d get away with it, they and their globalist foreign masters were wrong.

        The choice they face now is get rid of Johnson and net zero, or never be elected again.

        1. J Bush
          August 8, 2021

          +1
          It’s time the entire Johnson regime was removed.

          1. Everhopeful
            August 8, 2021

            Oh yes please!

        2. hefner
          August 8, 2021

          You make me laugh, steve. The globalists, WEF, IMF, 
 bla bla bla
          but funnily enough your tribe never mentions (because I guess you have never read anything about it in your chosen newspaper or websites) about the MPS (the Mont Pelerin Society) not in Davos, CH, but in Vevey, CH.
          Hayek, Popper, von Mises, Friedman and numerous others are likely to have had more impact on life in the ‘West’ these last 40 years than the socialo-communo-marxists you talk about almost every day.

          1. steve
            August 8, 2021

            Hefner

            “You make me laugh, steve.”

            Enjoy, for now. 😉

        3. Everhopeful
          August 8, 2021

          Yes..I hope you are right!
          You’ve cheered me up a lot anyway.
          Thanks 🌾

        4. Fedupsoutherner
          August 8, 2021

          Yes to getting rid of Johnson. The party has got to think very carefully who will replace him. For me Gove had to be bottom of the list for the simple reason he has shown us he can’t be trusted along with May.

        5. DavidJ
          August 8, 2021

          +1

      2. Iago
        August 8, 2021

        No, no, Everhopeful, it is cupidity (for money), they have sold us to whoever will pay the most – and they are pure evil. A few years in government, the introduction of the electronic slave pass, the destruction of our freedom, health, money, economy and borders and then, or maybe before then, the payoff from their globalist, communist, megalomaniac masters. Occasionally they will see the smoke far below their private jets as they speed to their far distant destinations.

        1. hefner
          August 8, 2021

          
 to their multi-million dollars hide-aways in New Zealand? Will Jacob want to follow in his father William’s tracks (The Sovereign Individual, 1997, J.D. Davidson & W. Rees-Mogg, & ‘Why Silicon Valley billionaires are prepping for the apocalypse in New Zealand’, 15/02/2018, theguardian.com).

        2. Everhopeful
          August 8, 2021

          Yes..happy to sell us and everything we ever had!

      3. Lifelogic
        August 9, 2021

        +1

    3. Ian Wragg
      August 8, 2021

      Every serious newspaper this week has featured an article in net zero and all are pretty much in agreement that it is unachievable without bankrupting the country.
      GB news pointed out the folly of creating thousands of green jobs whatever that means at a cost of ÂŁ75k per job.
      They also pointed out for every job created 3 will be lost.
      The whole thing is a tribute to WEF, Build Back Better by confiscating all our assets to pay for this nonesense.
      This is going to come back to bite the government in a big way.

      1. The PrangWizard of England
        August 8, 2021

        The country is already bankrupt. ‘Boris’ and many others, who will be loyal to him and the party through thick and thin whatever insanity he comes up with next, try to get us to think otherwise – it will all be ok if we forget the mountain of debt, and increasing inflation is nothing to worry about. These people are a danger to the rest of us who need work to survive.

      2. MiC
        August 8, 2021

        The economy is not a zero sum.

      3. J Bush
        August 8, 2021

        +1
        My constituent MP has voted for every one of Johnson’s insane policies

        1. Micky Taking
          August 9, 2021

          Most Tory MPs have too.

      4. Lifelogic
        August 9, 2021

        +1

    4. Alan Jutson
      August 8, 2021

      Julian

      Any figures they produce will be a massive under calculation, as they try to prove a case to force all green policies through.

      Good grief they cannot even get the price right of a train set called HS2.
      All Warships and planes double in cost or more, just like nuclear power stations, etc etc etc.

      1. steve
        August 8, 2021

        Alan

        “Any figures they produce will be a massive under calculation, as they try to prove a case to force all green policies through.”

        You mean pack of lies, surely?

        1. DavidJ
          August 8, 2021

          Indeed Steve.

    5. IanT
      August 8, 2021

      I can understand if a dog has indeed eaten their homework – but the answer is very simple, ask them to do it again! Shouldn’t take them too long, second time around…

    6. Original Richard
      August 8, 2021

      Julian Flood : “With the immense and unquantified cost of Net Zero being the largest single item in our budgetary future, how can any realistic planning be carried out?”

      You’re right and the CCC will not be publishing their calculations or the total cost ahead of COP 26.

      But I think it will get worse.

      In order to save face at the forthcoming COP 26 meeting, for which many countries including the largest emitters such as China and India have refused to submit updated climate plans and with the South African Environment Minister suggesting that the richer countries should be paying $750bn/YEAR to the poorer countries to combat climate change, expect our PM to magnanimously declare that not only will the UK spend the money necessary to implement net zero in the UK by 2050 but we will provide large scale funding for all the poor countries of the World to do the same.

  3. Alan Jutson
    August 8, 2021

    We surely will not know the true state of the economy until furlough has been stopped for a period, and company debts and loans taken on during the last few years have to start being repaid.
    I certainly think some businesses will be getting a rather big surprise on trying to recruit new personnel to jobs where unpleasant working conditions, unsocial hours and extensive travelling times have previously been the norm, as many people during the last 18 months will have reassessed their lives.

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      August 8, 2021

      Reassessed their lives? Don’t you mean decided they can live on benefits rather than getting up early and commuting to work? I’ve heard so many saying they are better off on benefits and doing a few jobs here and there under the radar.

      1. Everhopeful
        August 8, 2021

        Yes..and no pinging!

      2. Lifelogic
        August 8, 2021

        Indeed they are. The benefit and tax systems combine to mean many people are very little better off by working (esp. after commuting and travel care costs etc.) so they do not and just help a mate fix his home or car for cash or just do DIY for themselves or shop/cook more efficiently with the extra time. The government once again damaging the economy hugely by paying people not to work and thus discouraging it.

        1. oldwulf
          August 8, 2021

          @Lifelogic
          Yep .. “The benefit and tax systems combine to mean many people are very little better off by working.”

          Part of a solution might be to ensure all benefits are taxable. Those on low incomes who are genuinely in need, would not reach the tax threshold. Those at the margins may be encouraged to reconsider their position ?

      3. Narrow Shoulders
        August 8, 2021

        A family of three can live in London doing a local minimum wage job and take home ÂŁ36K per year once Universal Credit has kicked.

        Why travel to a job with responsibilities and be considered rich to earn the same take home pay as a shelf stacker or fruit picker?

        The shame is to get on that merry go round you can have no savings, if you have savings and lose you job, guess who picks up the tab – not the tax payer. he prudent, as with social care, get to pay for themselves.

      4. IanT
        August 8, 2021

        Sadly, the anecdotal evidence seems to support this view.

        The owner of my favourite local restaurant was telling me that (luckily) he was staffed by family and a few close friends – but that other business owners he knows have been unable to recruit sufficient staff to stay open normal hours. His view is that many young people have an expectation of the sort of work (and pay) that they are “entitled to” and simply won’t do things such as ‘waiting on’ – they don’t see “menial” tasks as being suitable employment.

        It seems we have large numbers of young folk highly qualified in subject areas where there is little or no demand from employers – and lots of work in areas that they are unwilling to accept. A large mismatch between ambition and reality.

      5. Know-Dice
        August 8, 2021

        Why do you think so many come from safe France via rubber dinghies to the UK, it’s certainly not for the weather…?

    2. Everhopeful
      August 8, 2021

      And apparently Johnson is busy laying plans ( having consulted the Tarot, crystal ball, goats’ entrails and stars ) for Autumn/Winter “firebreak”lockdowns. ( I thought that greenies were against firebreaks?)
      How the HELL can we recover economically? Back I trudge to the Great Reset theory!
      And does our jailer have to keep insulting our intelligence with his stupid soundbites?

    3. Mark B
      August 8, 2021

      +1

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      August 8, 2021

      Alan Jutson

      People should be careful what they wish for.

      WFH has shown who is essential and who isn’t.

      Many a Smug-@-Home is about to lose his job.

  4. Oldtimer
    August 8, 2021

    The UK economy will not escape and cannot avoid the impact that the continuing disruption of international supply chains will cause. It is too dependent on them to do so. It means that forecasts are and will be even more unreliable than usual. I also read that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is rightly taking issue with the cost of Johnson’s extravagant spending plans to implement his ill-conceived fool’s errand of achieving a net zero economy. If the country is to recover the Tory party should first sack Johnson, drop the net zero idea and focus on more practical green issues like avoiding and cutting down on waste.

    1. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2021

      Indeed just abolish Lord Debden’s evil and surely dishonest organisation now and repeal the climate change and net zero lunacy. Even if the dog has eaten their homework (rather unlikely) it can easily be reconstructed by the potty people who did it. Net zero is an insane project, economic suicide and does nothing climate or the environment.

      1. J Bush
        August 8, 2021

        Ah yes, I remember Gummer and the beef burger fiasco well! His reward, promoted to the Lords in 2010. He became a climate change expert from reading history at Selwyn College, Cambridge, qualification achieved unknown. Though he was awarded an Honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc) from the University of East Anglia in July 2018.

      2. DavidJ
        August 8, 2021

        +1

    2. Andy
      August 8, 2021

      Net zero was a manifesto commitment which all those of you who voted Tory in 2019 voted for.

      Reply By 2050 with no laid out detailed plan for the next five years

      1. Lifelogic
        August 8, 2021

        Well the only alternative to the Tories was a dire even more green crap Labour Party wagged by an SNP tail you could not pick and choose – no real choice.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          August 8, 2021

          Exactly right. All main parties are thinking along the same lines. Who do we vote for? The only party that doesn’t agree with much that’s going on is The Reform party.

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        August 8, 2021

        Reply to reply

        +1

        Andy ignores the fact that our people have already got on board with recycling and energy saving lightbulbs etc. The reduction in energy usage has not needed to have been enforced.

        I have told this thicko time and again that most of us are worried about the climate but that we did NOT vote for an abrupt cut-off in 2030 that Boris ambushed us with. And it will be an abrupt cut off – the punitive charges and restrictions have already started without any evidence at all of a push for charging points.

        It is clear to me that Andy is not a parent and doesn’t run his own business.

      3. steve
        August 8, 2021

        Andy

        “Net zero was a manifesto commitment which all those of you who voted Tory in 2019 voted for.”

        Total BS.

        I (stupidly) voted tory and was never once informed beforehand about net zero, it was sprung on me.

      4. Mark
        August 8, 2021

        Net zero was voted through without even a division with no electoral mandate whatsoever by the previous Parliament.

    3. Dave Andrews
      August 8, 2021

      Sack Johnson and replace him with who? Someone with intelligence and integrity one would hope. Except envy will prevent anyone with those credentials from getting anywhere near a position of responsibility.

      1. Enrico
        August 8, 2021

        You never mentioned common sense but that would rule out at least 95% of the mp’s and even more of the HOL.

        1. MiC
          August 8, 2021

          Some people’s idea of “common sense” appears to be jumping out of an airliner at 40,000 feet with no parachute because they did not like the in-flight entertainment, or demolishing their house because they were bored with the wallpaper.

          It’s why we have left the European Union.

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            August 8, 2021

            I wouldn’t want to live in a house where an outsider chose the wallpaper for me. I wouldn’t even get on an airliner where the destination was determent by the cabin crew and not the passengers.

            Stop belittling people.

          2. Micky Taking
            August 8, 2021

            some people’s idea of being a decent citizen and patriot is to deprecate their country at every possibility. Others would treat such behaviour as treason.

        2. DavidJ
          August 8, 2021

          Haha indeed.

  5. Peter
    August 8, 2021

    Whatever the numbers say I see no signs of recovery just empty commercial premises and quiet rail stations at the height of the rush hour.

    There is also paper talk of a rift between the PM and the Chancellor.

    And there is The Great Reset, of course.

    1. Everhopeful
      August 8, 2021

      +1
      My mental dilemmas exactly!

    2. bigneil - newer comp
      August 8, 2021

      Peter – the Great Reset is being welcomed at Dover, with hotels and knowledge their families will be here shortly, all for a life on whitey’s taxes – until there is no more whitey.

      1. MWB
        August 8, 2021

        Bigneil – +1.

  6. Fedupsoutherner
    August 8, 2021

    I see the cost of quarantine for citizens returning from hot spots has gone up to over ÂŁ2k. Is this how much it costs to put illegals up in hotels? Are those in quarantine paying for the illegals when they isolate on return?

    1. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2021

      The CPS have decided they are breaking no laws it seems – in order to augment the flow one assumes. “Unless individuals who have played a significant role in people-smuggling, including those who organise and pilot dangerous boat crossings across the English Channel – who can expect to face prosecution where this is supported by the evidence.”

      But is not paying for the passage, procuring the boat, climbing into the the boat, steering the boat, fuelling it not a significant role? They are not forced on board are they? France is not some war torn hell hole.

  7. Grey Friar
    August 8, 2021

    Not a word about Brexit. You might have thought the Brexiters would trumpet the gains, aren’t they full of joy at their victory? Of course not, they just want to pretend Brexit never happened because we now we can all see so very clearly how Brexit has brought us trade barriers, reduced growth and shortages of goods and workers. Exactly as Remain forecast. You won’t be able to hide behind COVID for ever Mr Redwood, how very nervous you and your fellow Brexiters are that one day you will be held to account for this fiasco!

    Reply I am delighted we are now free to make our own decisions and develop our relations with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India anD the TPP. Also pleased to see the wish of many to buy more UK food and goods and import less from EU.

    1. Gorman
      August 8, 2021

      Wow. So brexiters like Redwood want to trade less with our nearest neighbours and more with countries on the other side of the world. In defiance of every expert on international trade and on good environmental practice. Ideology comes first, realism comes nowhere. What a miserable thing this Brexit is

      Reply I want to trade anywhere where it makes sense to do so. Mass imports from a rigged market was not a great model, driving us into massive deficit.

      1. MiC
        August 8, 2021

        Unsurprisingly, those faraway countries value arrangements with the European Union of 450 million more than they do with the UK of 67 million too.

        1. Peter2
          August 8, 2021

          They don’t trade with the EU MiC
          They trade with individual European countries.

          1. MiC
            August 9, 2021

            They actually trade with companies, with people, and with other entities.

            Under agreements – if any – with the European Union, not with individual countries there.

            Don’t mention it.

          2. Peter2
            August 9, 2021

            I agree.
            As hard as the EU tries to be protectionist and make life difficult for Europeans wanting to trade with the UK, millions individuals in the UK and in European nations will decide what to buy and from whom.
            PS
            The nations who do the most trade with the EU have no formal trade agreements.

          3. MiC
            August 9, 2021

            No Peter, many don’t.

            The problem for brexiters is, that moving from full membership of the European Union to that status after forty years of developed relations is bound to be catastrophic.

            Those countries have never had to do that.

            But maybe getting divorced is just like never having been married in the first place eh?

          4. Peter2
            August 9, 2021

            Wrong
            USA China South Korea sell billions into the EU every year without paying billions for membership.
            Just imagine any of them allowing the EU to force laws onto them.
            And Japan was one of the biggest traders in the EU for decades until a very recent trade deal.

      2. steve
        August 8, 2021

        Gorman

        “Wow. So brexiters like Redwood want to trade less with our nearest neighbours and more with countries on the other side of the world. ”

        Because we know who our friends are.

        PS
        It’s ‘Mr’ Redwood or ‘Sir’ John Redwood, or ‘our host’, or…..if you don’t mind. Omission of titles and christian names is normally reserved for those we do not like very much, i.e. Johnson, May, Blair etc.

        1. Micky Taking
          August 8, 2021

          It is not so much that we came to dislike, it is that we came to realise they f***ed us up.

    2. steve
      August 8, 2021

      JR

      “Reply I am delighted we are now free to make our own decisions and develop our relations with Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India anD the TPP”

      But, Sir John, NI is still under EU jurisdiction for it’s food supplies from the mainland, and the French still fish in our waters……and keep dumping immigrants on our shores. Not good enough Sir.

      Reply I agree we need to take control of NI trade and fish as promised

      1. J Bush
        August 8, 2021

        Reply to reply. Then may I suggest Johnson is removed, sharpish, and replaced with someone who understands, respects and upholds democracy,

        1. MiC
          August 8, 2021

          What you are in fact demanding is someone who has mastered time travel, and who can transport the whole of Europe back to 1972 at the latest.

          Ain’t gonna ‘appen, me ol’ son.

          Get over it.

          1. steve
            August 8, 2021

            MiC
            “What you are in fact demanding is someone who has mastered time travel, and who can transport the whole of Europe back to 1972 at the latest.”

            If it was possible and down to me I’d have it speaking Russian or German, and not shed one drop of British blood for the ungrateful buggers.

          2. acorn
            August 8, 2021

            The number of my posts that fail moderation on this site, tell everything any remainer, needs to know. The UK’s fiat currency based economy, is somewhat more complex than JR’s redundant Neoliberal Gold Standard thinking ,”Sweet Shop economics”. Surely by now, even leavers have discovered during the pandemic, that the UK Treasury has the ability to spend its own currency without restriction, any time it wants. It never depends on taxation income; or, selling debt instruments, to fund its spending. And, it hasn’t since 1971.

          3. Micky Taking
            August 8, 2021

            in reply to Steve – below:
            ‘I’d have it speaking Russian or German’,
            Give it time, for it will surely come to pass.

  8. Lifelogic
    August 8, 2021

    Indeed. Some things to help. But Alas Boris is not a real Conservative so it will not happen. Only about 100 at best Tory MPs are.

    Cheap on demand energy & abandon the net zero and the renewable subsidies lunacy.
    A huge bonfire of red tape.
    Easy hire and fire.
    Cancel HS2 and all the many other piss down the drain Gov. projects
    Simpler lower taxes – not the highest for 70 years and still increasing.
    Relax planning
    Sound money
    Cull all the soft loans for duff university courses about 75% of them are.
    Freedom of choice and fair competition in education and healthcare – not state dire monopolies.
    Abolish the BBC propaganda outfit – endless lefty drivel and climate alarmism & nothing on the Wuhan leak.
    Stop blocking the roads to cars and vans we have jobs to do and get to.
    Do not lock down and open up the travel sector now.
    Do not vaccinate the young when it does rather more harm than good.
    Sort out the huge and appalling NHS backlog.
    Cut CT tax to zero.
    Demand reparations for the Covid Wuhan lab leak now almost 100% certain and tell Rabb to come clean on this and stop pretending or lying that it was the wet markets.

    1. Cynic
      August 8, 2021

      @LL. Your policy recommendations are far too sensible for this, or any alternative, government to adopt. I’m afraid we are stuck with the clowns run ing the circus.

    2. Lifelogic
      August 8, 2021

      Plus cut out all the pointless and expensive things the state does that deliver little or no value or negative value – at least 50% of the state does this. Release them for productive work and real tax paying jobs.

  9. Bryan Harris
    August 8, 2021

    If this ‘economic recovery’ is to work then it cannot be with any kind of apartheid – we have to move on as one.
    The government via ministerial quotes and adverts suggest that those without CV vaccinations should be denied their rightful place in society, as do some alleged 10 minute celebrities – This is astounding and must be stopped along with any form of segregation and passports.
    The upsurge needs us all pulling together to make it work.

    Apartheid didn’t work in South Africa nor America, and it will drag us down if it is allowed in by the back door. The best that the Treasury can do is to put a stop to the enormous waste of taxpayers money, in all forms, but especially ill thought out schemes to fight a virus we would have been all but finished with without lockdown.
    They should make sure all new projects are estimated correctly, not under-costed to get them accepted.

    The Information Tribunal has ordered the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) to publish the calculations behind its claim that the UK economy can be decarbonised at modest cost. This was after the CCC could not substantiate their guesses on the cost because they had destroyed the spreadsheet — Truly amazing that Parliament could let things like this through without a real examination!

    1. MiC
      August 8, 2021

      But you demanded that brexit – of all things – proceed without parliamentary scrutiny, didn’t you?

      1. Peter2
        August 8, 2021

        “This your decision.
        We will implement what you decide”
        That was what we were promised.

      2. Bryan Harris
        August 8, 2021

        Don’t be so dumb – Brexit was discussed many many times in Parliament – It had plenty of scrutiny and plenty of misleading comments made about it.

        1. MiC
          August 9, 2021

          Yes, but you were furious about that, weren’t you?

  10. Everhopeful
    August 8, 2021

    “
the new economic recovery.”

    “I never was so immensely tickled by anything I had ever said before. I actually woke up twice during the night, and laughed till the bed shook.”

    George Grossmith

  11. agricola
    August 8, 2021

    When you take a look at the major outstanding problems that have run and run seemingly on the basis of something will turn up, I do not have much faith in HMGs ability to set up a post Brexit economy. I begin to think we would benefit from HMG taking a long vacation and leaving those of enterprise to get on with it.
    The outstanding problems are.
    NI Protocol
    NHS 5+ million waiting list
    The cross Channel immigrant bus service.
    The iniquities of IHT and CGT.
    The whole ill conceived Green Agenda, a trip to hell in a handcart.
    Dare I mention an unwanted HS2.
    The imminent destruction of the whole travel and airline industries.

    All of which indicate with flashing red lights that this HMG is a product unfit for market.

  12. Lifelogic
    August 8, 2021

    Last month, Mr Johnson admitted that heat pumps, seen as an alternative to gas boilers, “cost about ten grand a pop”. Much more than that mate in a reasonable sized retrofit house needing new radiators amd other adjustments perhaps even up to £50,000. It saves nothing in fuel as gas is so much cheaper than electricity and with electricty heat is wasted at the power station. We certainly will not have sufficient wind electricity.

    “Abolish HS2 to bankroll going green” says an idiotic piece in the Sunday Telegraph. No – abolish both neither make any sense the latter is even worse than HS2 and by miles.

    1. Nig l
      August 8, 2021

      Yes. We see the unworldly uninformed tosh that Johnson spouts. He must not be allowed to get away with these numbers albeit even on their own eye watering. New boiler, new pipe work complete re dec etc and how long would it take to do one property, where are all trades people coming from to do a whole country.

      His figures must be challenged at every turn until we get something realistic.

  13. Andy
    August 8, 2021

    We don’t need austerity – that’s true. Austerity kills people and, frankly, this government has done enough of that already.

    We need tax rises and we need the richest demographic – pensioners – to finally pay their share. We need a wealth tax on billionaires -nobody needs a billion pounds. We need to make Amazon, Facebook etc pay their share – and we need to close them down if they don’t.

    As we see from the daily headlines about how easy it is to buy influence in the Tory party we need a government on the side of normal people rather than this Eton elite we have.

    1. Nig l
      August 8, 2021

      One of your better ideas. Close Amazon, unachievable nonsense of course, but let’s suppose. At a stroke putting hundreds of thousands of people out of work in the logistics industry so no taxes from them, all the infrastructure, vans/lorries so no fleet sales, v.a.t, fuel,duty. Thousands of firms with no market place and I could go on.

      Was that you i saw in a colourful suit, big red nose, outsize shoes and a revolving bow tie at a circus I went to recently?

    2. Dave Andrews
      August 8, 2021

      The government hasn’t done any austerity. Looking over the past decade or so, national debt has increased year on year – nothing paid back. When austerity comes, there will be no choice about it. Unlike Greece, we don’t have the choice of leaving the EU to avoid it, we’ve already left.
      The rich as well as super rich are very good at spending money on goods that keep people in employment. Just think about all those boatyards on the south coast that would be out of work, were it not for the rich. Rich people are far more sensible with what they do with their own money, than governments with other people’s.

    3. DOM
      August 8, 2021

      That’s not very clever is it. More tax payments to the political State who then take those taxes and use them to finance an expansion of further State power. Don’t you understand that the State is a vested interest in its own right and whose primary aim is to protect itself from all harm. You, the taxpayer and a citizen are the enemy.

      The Socialist State now embraced by both Tory and Labour views you with contempt and wants nothing except your compliance, your silence and your taxes

      The more you are taxed the less free you become. You are in effect financing your own subjugation and you don’t even know it

      Marxist capture is now all the rage. From ‘taking the knee’ to ‘wearing a mask’. The message is simple – ‘You will comply or else you will be demonised and criminalised’ Pariah status is Johnson’s politics

      Mr Redwood’s party is demonising the very people who vote for Mr Redwood’s party. It’s beyond comical to a degree

    4. MiC
      August 8, 2021

      There’s an excellent article by Richard Beard in today’s Guardian, as to what is wrong with a country’s being led by English ex-public schoolboys – he was one himself btw.

      It’s the sort of thing that we don’t often get to read.

      Reply Like Priti Patel and Sajid Javed?

      1. Richard1
        August 8, 2021

        He would have been moaning when it was led by Margaret Thatcher who didn’t go to a public school, but not when it was led by Blair who did. What he and you mean is you would rather have a left wing govt. well all you need to do is win an election. Bad luck.

        1. MiC
          August 8, 2021

          I recommend reading the article.

        2. steve
          August 8, 2021

          Richard 1

          “well all you [lefties] need to do is win an election. Bad luck.”

          ……Don’t be too confident Richard, we might just yet vote Labour in, just for the pleasure of sticking it to the current bunch of traitors.

          If both have the same policies, we might as well at least get revenge out of it.

          1. Richard1
            August 8, 2021

            Happily Labour have a habit of selecting completely useless leaders. That should do it, although I agree so far there is much left to be desired from the Boris govt. charitably I put it down to covid and hope for some proper Conservative and free market athletics next year.

      2. MiC
        August 8, 2021

        No, like Alexander Johnson, John.

      3. Lifelogic
        August 8, 2021

        The problem is mainly a lack of MPs with any real understanding of science, logic, numbers, energy, being competitive or sensible economics. Loads or PPE graduates, lawyers, english, classics & even geography graduates (T May) who all seem to want an ever larger state sector. One that intervenes and regulates almost every single thing in people’s lives. Combined with the highest taxes for over seventy years and still increasing.

        1. steve
          August 8, 2021

          LL

          “The problem is mainly a lack of MPs with any real understanding of science, logic, numbers, energy, being competitive or sensible economics.”

          To some extent yes, but the problem is mainly the fact that they’re either foreign serving quislings, or just plain old bent.

          1. Micky Taking
            August 8, 2021

            It would appear that the majority of MPs are unable to grasp their duty of assisting in forming and legislating in the interests of the people. The do grasp what is in their interests however. Under orders from the shepherd they take their lead and rush to comply in running through the gate that leads to …..where?

      4. Micky Taking
        August 9, 2021

        A Grauniad reader – I should have guessed.

        1. MiC
          August 9, 2021

          I read a wide range of news sources.

          1. Micky Taking
            August 9, 2021

            Was that ‘news’ or lefty ‘opinion’ – I reserve the right to laugh at those who think we have a new bible / Koran on newspaper.

    5. IanT
      August 8, 2021

      Andy, I just love it when the Left shout “Tax the Rich” – because like it or not – the really rich are multinational and you can’t get near them. Good old Richard Branson doesn’t pay any more to the taxman than he decides he wants to. He already lives on his own private island and (together with Bezos and Musk) will probably be living off-Earth once he can figure out a way to get the peasants to pay for it.

      No, what you really mean is tax the poor suckers who have a half decent job and can’t afford to live in Monte Carlo or Jersey. They aren’t “rich” – they have just worked harder and saved a bit more than the average guy and were hoping to get some small benefit from that effort & prudence.

      1. MiC
        August 8, 2021

        Your Counsel Of Despair is not shared by the European Union nor by the US etc., and if the UK had played its part then tax-dodging by global corporations could easily have been a thing of the past.

        However, it appear that you would rather support those who would make the UK a tax haven and a playground for dodgy money.

        People who do that should watch out. Nasty people tend to have unpleasant ways of protecting their interests once they have established them.

        1. steve
          August 8, 2021

          MiC

          “However, it appear that you would rather support those who would make the UK a tax haven and a playground for dodgy money.”

          And why not ?…….it works for Lichtenstein and Luxenbourg.

          1. IanT
            August 8, 2021

            And Ireland – why do you think all the big US companies bill you from there….?

      2. J Bush
        August 8, 2021

        +10. Young Andy is annoyed he can’t have what other people, after a lifetime of working and paying taxes, have achieved and saved.

      3. Lifelogic
        August 8, 2021

        Well almost anyone from the UK can live and work in the IoM or the Channel Islands should they want to.

        1. Narrow Shoulders
          August 8, 2021

          It is very difficult to live and work on the Isle of Man and I speak as a direct descendant.

          To live there you need to be self sufficient as they allow very few foreigners to work there at the cost of islanders’ jobs.

          1. Micky Taking
            August 9, 2021

            paying attention, Andy?

    6. Original Richard
      August 8, 2021

      Andy :

      “We need tax rises and we need the richest demographic – pensioners – to finally pay their share.”

      Since pensioners have been paying tax all through their working lives, what do you mean by “to finally pay their share”?

      1. Dave Andrews
        August 8, 2021

        It’s a shame all those taxes the pensioners have paid all their lives wasn’t put by for their retirement, rather it was spent by the government of the day.
        Perhaps you did the right thing and went to work, paid your taxes and even voted for financially sensible parliamentary candidates, but your contemporaries voted for borrow and spend governments that squandered the lot. Not your fault, but shouldn’t you bear corporate responsibility?

    7. Original Richard
      August 8, 2021

      Andy :

      “We need a wealth tax on billionaires -nobody needs a billion pounds.”

      For each ÂŁ1 billion that you could extract from the billionaires would only enable you to hand out just ÂŁ14 to each person in the country.

  14. Iain gill
    August 8, 2021

    Why would we save when the government has a track record of raiding our savings, devaluing them, and making sure only people heavily leaveraged into property do well.
    We are exactly the way the political class have socially manipulated us.

  15. Roy Grainger
    August 8, 2021

    You didn’t mention that in addition to an inflation target the BoE has a new “net zero” mandate. Any idea what policies and levers they will have to meet that target ? It seems so vague that they could probably use it to justfiy just about any policy they choose.

    1. hefner
      August 8, 2021

      RG, it is for the BoE’s day-to-day physical operations, ie, production of coins and bank notes, the carbon footprint of its buildings, and the business travels linked to its activities. It wants a 63% reduction of its emissions by 2030 relative to 2016.

  16. miami.mode
    August 8, 2021

    You feel the USA has a more serious inflation threat, but remember that when the USA sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold. At least Gordon Brown was correct when he said the financial crisis of 2008/09 started in America.

    The debacle of the ERM put the Tories out of power and high inflation will do the same.

  17. steve
    August 8, 2021

    JR

    Thank you for yet another excellent piece Mr Redwood.

    Unfortunately I cannot share your optimism. You see, I and tens of millions like me live in the real world, and there isn’t much for us to be optimistic about.

    And it’s all down to Boris Johnson.

    Now where does one start? The list is very long, but here’s a summary –

    Threats to make petrol too expensive / obsolete, he’s already stealing 10% of petrol and replacing it with ethanol in the hope no one will notice. He will be fully aware that engines do not run on ethanol, and so the ethanol content will keep rising until all ICE cars are off the road, we aint stupid we know what the crack is.

    Humiliated this country infront of France, the EU, and RoI.

    NOT delivered brexit like he promised, but BRINO as per May’s original intention.

    NOT decriminalised TV licence fee non-payment…LIKE HE SAID HE WOULD !

    Now as for the real world economy i.e the one WE have to survive in; you talk of wage and price increases and inflation. Perhaps your government should make it illegal for businesses, particularly supermarkets and energy companies, to pass cost increases on to consumers. Sometimes in business you don’t make quite so much profit……clearly most businesses upon which people’s daily lives and wellbeing depend need to be forced to accept the fact. Price hiking should be classified as racketeering and carry harsh punishment for the perpetrators.

    The more the state expects us to fight ‘inflation’……the less we will buy and the more food we grow ourselves. People are starting to wise – up and are less inclined to buy anything they cannot make or grow themselves, moreover they are shying away from chinese muck and sticking with perpetuated-service goods built in Britain, the US and Japan.

    Before long there will be a parallel economy of the savvy, and we sure as hell won’t ever be voting for a party that thought it could get away with giving us a foreign serving quisling – half Belgian – republican sympathising – anti English – anti motorist – responsibility dodging – petrol thief.

    Of course Sir John none of this reflects on your good work and I am fully aware that you speak for us, however I think back benchers should be discussing amongst themselves that actually Boris Johnson will see the conservatives out of power for the rest of time. The message is clear : ‘we ain’t havin it’ .

    1. J Bush
      August 8, 2021

      +1

      The problem appears to be that Johnson is dancing to another pipers tune. Which has nothing to do with those who voted and expected him to respect democracy and uphold Conservative principles.

      1. steve
        August 8, 2021

        J Bush

        “The problem appears to be that Johnson is dancing to another pipers tune.”

        ……not ‘appears’……he IS !

        Johnson answers to those who wish to destroy this nation, but then he would do, he’s half-Belgian so is pro-EU, and is a catholic so favours the idea of NI being surrendered to the Republic.

        He cannot be trusted, as neither can the rest of the party who put him there, and are turning a blind eye to his destruction of this country.

        I honestly don’t see this lot winning another general election.

    2. Everhopeful
      August 8, 2021

      +1

  18. Narrow Shoulders
    August 8, 2021

    If all areas of the economy that were forced to close are now open it must surely follow that interest rates can go back to the already low rate they were in March ’20. That immediate threat has passed.

    Then at year end the rate can rise another 50 basis points.

    Interest rates and money creation at this level is only suiting those with spare cash to by assets. Please create a monetary policy for the many, not for the few.

    1. hefner
      August 8, 2021

      The FTSE100 was around 5200 by the end of 2012. It went to around 7000 by Spring 2016, fell to 6000 after you-know-what, went back up and was fluctuating between 7100 and 7500 till March 2020, fell to 5500 by end of March 2020, then went back again to 7123 by end of Friday 6/08/2020. An awful lot of ‘opportunities’, yes, but for both losses and gains.

      UK GDP is projected to grow by 7.25% in 2021 and 6% in 2022. But by end of 03/2021, the GDP was still 8.8% lower than at the end of 2019.
      As of 01/08/2021 the BoE UK interest rate is still 0.1%, the recent inflation rate is 2.5% and expected by the BoE to reach 4% by end of 2021.

      All those figures from tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/ (UK stock market index, GDP growth rate, interest-rate) and bankofengland.co.uk/monetarypolicy/ (interest-rate)

      1. Narrow Shoulders
        August 8, 2021

        The relative positions are less relevant than the trends @hef. The economy is doing OK, inflation is rampant an there is much saved middle class money from working at home for 18 months and not going on holiday waiting to accelerate inflation. Raising rates might keep some of that money as savings.

        As property in this country is so expensive and stocks and shares are so volatile if you might need to take the cash at some point we have looked abroad to purchase property so as not to keep cash and to keep our savings below the threshold at which you don’t qualify for Universal credit.

        Cash is a depreciating asset as you highlight above.

  19. DOM
    August 8, 2021

    What exactly does John and his party believe in? I’d like to know. Is it now simply securing power for power’s sake? They’re in government and yet are captured by the American left and the British hard left and do their bidding at every turn by abusing the current and future taxpayer.

    Why would freedom loving, civil Voters ‘vote’ for this current level of State control and enforced State compliance? Are they blinded by the bribes dished out once every 5 years by political charlatans brandishing unfunded cheques and choose simply to sacrifice their freedoms, their privacy and embrace political capture in return for such free-lunch Keynesian barbarity?

    I watched GBNews last night. Your party’s embrace of vile Marxist politics was exposed. If that’s the type of politics you and your colleagues approve of John then it is an extreme sad conclusion to all that you have fought against

    The interests of the Tory party working with Marxist, rancid Labour to protect the 2 party status quo from harm is splintering our nation. Embracing the politics of Keynes to justify this stance is an act of unprincipled barbarity

    1. Peter
      August 8, 2021

      Dom,

      The tone of your posts (‘rancid’, ‘barbarity’ twice) usually suggests you might have an issue with high blood pressure.

      I hope you are in good health and that your daily posts are merely a cathartic release after which you are untroubled for the rest of the day.

      Enjoy Sunday.

    2. Everhopeful
      August 8, 2021

      +1

  20. Nota#
    August 8, 2021

    Some commentators in the wider World are starting to point out, the PM’s ‘I will raise you bidding’ with equally dumb leaders in other nations, will cost money, lots and lots of money.

    The Conservative way is get your house(books in order) in order, create the basis for prosperity and wealth and then, only then are you in a position to fund additional asperations. The Socialist way of doing things is spend, spend, spend and the look around of who to punish to pay for things. As always the punishment route means those that cant escape, the bedrock of society, those that cause an economy to exist get clobbered the greatest.

    It doesn’t take much imagination to see the political leanings of those that are now ruining the Country. It doesn’t take much imagination to see who will be paying for the PM’s and his Left Leaning Metro Cohort teams vivid fantasy imagination. It wont be the ones that have been honoured with the jobs for the ‘Guys’ it will be the ones that voted him into office. But ‘hey ho’ inline with the new world of entitlement there is always the ‘magic money’ tree.

    1. Nota#
      August 8, 2021

      @Nota# – just as the Liberal Party died out, followed by the Liberal Democrat’s, then it was the Labour Party that chose obscurity – the Conservatives have chosen destruction, big time destruction in pursuit of one mans dream of notoriety. The UK deserves better, what is called the Political Class needs a big refurbishment, to move on from ego’s and start remembering who pays the wages and who they serve.

      1. Micky Taking
        August 9, 2021

        As in George Harrison’s song lyrics ‘ All things must pass’.

      2. MiC
        August 9, 2021

        Some people in the UK certainly deserve better.

        I expect that we would disagree over who they might be.

  21. Original Richard
    August 8, 2021

    How can the Government make any realistic plans when because of our open borders policy for both legal and illegal immigration it has no idea of future population size or composition?

    1. hefner
      August 8, 2021

      OR, what are you saying, because of 10,000 illegal migrants (0.015%) or even 300,000 legal migrants (0.45%) annually added to the 66 m population, the Government cannot make any realistic plans for the future. Are you another one with white face, big shoes, a spinning bow tie and a red nose?

      1. Peter2
        August 8, 2021

        The problem is heffy that we cannot properly plan for the future when we do not know what our population actually is going to be.
        A net immigration of 300,000 as published on top of our existing population is not a sustainable level and if you add the unknown numbers of unknown immigrants then the total is even larger.
        The biggest increase in our population since 2000 in our history.
        In a nation that already had one of the planet’s highest population densities.

      2. IanT
        August 8, 2021

        Well Hefner, Migration Watch estimate that the net increase just in the “illegal” population of UK is at least 70,000 per annum – so every three years you will need a town the size of Swindon just to house them.

        Another cost I’ve seen mentioned is that every person arriving by boat will cost about ÂŁ48,000 in their first year – so one of these large inflatables (with say 50 bodies on board) is costing a cool ÂŁ2.4M just in the first year – not really a laughing matter when you look at the numbers arriving daily – because the magic money tree can’t go on giving forever…

      3. Peter2
        August 9, 2021

        We need a new city the size of Oxford and Cambridge combined, to be built every year to accommodate the published guesstimate of new arrivals.
        Or one city the size of Cardiff.
        How is that feasible?

  22. glen cullen
    August 8, 2021

    While I applaud your debate today, alas its all meaningless as this government and Alok Sharma are focused on cop26 and climate change with Alok saying today ‘’we can’t afford to wait two years, five years, ten years, this is the moment’’
    With this biased statement I must conclude that the politics and the direction of travel towards a ‘green’ economy is settled

    1. Everhopeful
      August 8, 2021

      +1
      It was all over the news too.
      In response to the fires in Greece.
      And what a ghastly globalist slant those interminable Games have got!

  23. Original Richard
    August 8, 2021

    There will be no economic recovery unless the Government changes direction to make us more independent and better able to pay our way in the World.

    This means, for instance, putting in place an energy program which makes us energy independent, whether this be through nuclear energy or through new technologies which are proven to work.

    It means reducing the number of people working for the state either directly or indirectly and instead increasing the numbers in real jobs paying tax and exporting.

    It means reducing our bloated educational sector and ensuring that they teach the subjects which are needed to keep our country running without the importation of immigrants.

  24. glen cullen
    August 8, 2021

    BBC Olympics Off Topic moan
    Today I saw the BBC congratulating themselves for showing the Olympics
    30% interviews with athletes parents
    30% interviewers interviewing other interviewers
    30% athletes telling back-stories
    10% re-runs to the actual games with added rap music

  25. John Brown
    August 8, 2021

    To bring on the new economic recovery we need to bring back conscription for 2 years for all 18/19 to 20/21 year olds.

    Not to go into the armed forces but to work on public projects wherever they are needed. For instance, helping to repair/build social housing/schools/hospitals etc., helping to clear land and plant trees, helping the social services etc. etc.

    At the same time they can be taught useful occupational skills which will be useful throughout their lives.

  26. Lindsay McDougall
    August 9, 2021

    What’s the timescale for your policy? Sooner or later the Bank of England will need to increase base rate gradually to half a percent above anticipated inflation, after which time the interest on State debt will steadily rise.

    And how do you justify a policy of survival of the fattest, not survival of the fittest? Low interest rates and QE have led to asset price inflation, including house prices. Do you really believe that the middle classes and the working population will tolerate forever being robbed blind by the ultra-rich and the wealthier pensioners?

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