I voted against for a variety of reasons which I will set out in future blogs. It has been a busy few days trying to expose the spending issues over the NHS, the underlying Ā problems with social care and the true state of the national finances. The media once again did not want to talk about the actual numbers. I was the only MP to start by reminding people how large the current NHS budget is and how big recent increases have been relative to the proposed tax rise.
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September 9, 2021
Again and again I have been astonished at what an easy ride the Government gets from the media . They never make the crucial connection between Growth and the ability to borrow and for this reason lack a whole dimension on the Governments attitude to immigration .
They show no grasp of the economic levers the Government may pull and why they may pull them . For example it is crystal clear that the Construction boom is engineered for Growth , not ” Homes for poor young people about whom we never cared before”. No-one even sees the question which, once you ask it , has an easy answer. This is what you get when you have a media swamped by an organisation that can be threatened by Politicians . A cosy stitch up.
Well done to John Redwood on opposing this vicious cynical cash grab. Are you waiting for your transformed Health Service ….. ha ha ha …and to think they had all that spare cash from “Leaving the EU ” as well. What a joke and there are people who believe this rubbish still out there voting
September 9, 2021
So, Newmania, only you are in on the secret of the “whole dimension” “easy answer” to a “transformed Health Service” using “spare cash” from the side of a bus, resulting from “crystal clear” “pulled levers” by a new “attitude to immigration” which no one else can “grasp”. Or something. When you can come back with a rational coherent comment which develops an argument from known facts, please do so.
September 9, 2021
What County do you live in Newmania? Around our way house building including affordable housing has been progressing at a dizzy rate for several years now. Young people have been given ‘Help to Buy’ savings schemes with fantastic rewards, they can also get Help to Buy mortgage assistance.
The Health Service won’t reform whilst people working within the organisation are resistant to change. It has had lots of money given to it Theresa May gave the organisation the leave promise – ‘Spending increases announced for NHS Englandās budget mean that Ā£20.5 billion more will be spent on it in 2023/24 than in 2018/19. Thatās Ā£394 million more a week by 2023/24. This money doesnāt cover all health spending.’ I haven’t heard the media say this. https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-england-394-million-more/
September 9, 2021
Aren’t the media egging on the Government in this folly because they want it to fall?
September 9, 2021
Allister Heath today:- Real Tories will never forgive Boris for turning his party into Blue Labour
The Conservatives have trashed their intellectual traditions for the sake of short-term political gain.
Plus any tiny political gain will be very short term indeed. The NHS problems are not lack of money but gross incompetence. This combined with net zero will really trash the recovery.
Meanwhile the NHS is hiring an army of 42 new executives (no medical bureaucrats) on salaries of up to Ā£270,000 each as Boris Johnson faces mounting anger over his tax grab to fund healthcare. It will raise less tax not more in the end destroying any slight residual reputation for Tory economic competence – just as Major did with his ERM fiasco.
September 9, 2021
Well said
September 9, 2021
The Conservatives went Blue Labour under Cameron in many respects especially socially/culturally and on immigration(heir to Blair) It continued with May and now the blue rosette is becoming ever more tinged with red.
I don’t believe these characters have acted independently of one another, it is the trajectory of the whole party and Johnson is just the next in line to take it one step further.
September 9, 2021
+1
September 9, 2021
Living in the past, real Tories have been a minority since at least Blairās days and if there are any in Government they prefer their own careers over honesty.
Short term political gain is tosh, Labour has nowhere to go except left which will never win elections and no chance of a right wing strong man or woman emerging so where are the voters going to go?
Where they are now
September 9, 2021
+1Political refugees as I like millions of former Tory voters are looking for a conservative alternative.
September 9, 2021
@Nig l – you missed a bit, Boris would love to be in a coalition with Kier,
September 9, 2021
Thought he was
September 9, 2021
Look after yourself and we will look after you. Make the best of yourself, there are opportunities. Risk will be rewarded. We will be firm on law and order. Minorities will be respected but not preferred. Use resources already in the country to thrive (including the disabled who have a huge part to play). Buy British. Self sufficiency especially in energy . Robust defence of the team. Determine our own laws.
I could vote for a party like that. It was once the Conservatives.
September 9, 2021
The CCG’s are being disbanded to coincide with the new integrated care system (ICS).
September 9, 2021
@Lifelogic +1 the problem, no one is listening, it was only ever about the very expensive ‘grandstanding gesture’ . Tomorrow it will be forgotten, as taxpayer money doesn’t count, its not part of the economy and has no one responsible or accountable for it. They can always steal more of it next week to top up the system.
September 9, 2021
Indeed a good article. Heās probably right that Labour will promise to reduce the Ā£86,000 cap to zero and the care homes will all be nationalised (at least de facto like the rail industry).
It is certain that: we will hear very quickly from the doctors unions and āindependentā think tanks that the money isnāt nearly enough; the money will make no appreciable difference at all; the money will mostly disappear in pay increases and creating new positions, many of them for useless activities like promoting ādiversityā; the tax hikes will do real damage, perhaps more than anything because of the signalling effect.
September 9, 2021
Actually this might be unfair. It should at least make a difference to clearing the backlog, and will go to actual care work. But we will surely hear it’s not enough and Sir John is right to oppose a tax rise to meet a vague and un-quantified objective.
September 9, 2021
The Conservatives have trashed their intellectual traditions
The Conservative Party is in the happy position of having many contradictory intellectual traditions which has (prior to Brexit) often made it capable of rich and complex debate.
September 9, 2021
That’s rich, Newmania – before Brexit, any debate about how we were governed was superfluous because we were just a colony of the EU empire. The EU decided – we obeyed. Now we really can have a rich and complex – and meaningful – discussion about how good, or bad, the government is.
September 9, 2021
The NHS is the new national religion. It is used as a shield by socialists “If you don’t support this or that policy you are not Saving the NHS.” It ensures that the Labour establishment stays in power even when the Labour Party loses all the votes.
Alas taxes upon taxes from now on. How else did anyone expect the last two years of lockdown was going to be paid for ?
You believed in Sunak’s Magic Money Tree ???
September 9, 2021
I know of someone who’s paid cash for a Ā£4m estuary mansion on the back of supplying the NHS during the Covid crisis and then there’s this:
https://order-order.com/2021/09/08/nhs-hiring-42-new-managers-on-salaries-up-to-270000/
42 new NHS managers on up to Ā£270k pa.
The animals outside looked at the pigs, then they looked at the humans, then they looked at the pigs… and couldn’t tell Boris from the other.
(Such tax rises will kill the business recovery and the NHS itself in the end.)
September 9, 2021
+1
September 9, 2021
SAVING THE NHS !
From what?
Sacking multiple layers of so-called Management?
or Failing to provide the services they have for many years?
or being recognised as possibly the worst health system in Europe?
or from gradual subject areas closures in favour of a private funded health insurance?
or from complete breakdown and disbandment?
September 9, 2021
Talking about saving the NHS with a NI tax hike is short money as the press arenāt talking about the Channel Boat People or the NI Protocol
September 9, 2021
It is the “lockdown tax”. Boris Johnson must pay for the damage caused by his untargeted national lockdowns somehow.
September 9, 2021
Well done, but so few MPs did so. They prefered to commit this manifesto (essentially blatant fraud) against the electorate. The resistance was tiny and rather pathetic.
September 9, 2021
It seems the appalling, woke, social worker and diversity obsessed Cressida Dick is to get two more years to continue to abjectly fail Londonās population. Why? Just how incompetent does one have to be?
September 9, 2021
You can be as incompetent as you like, just make sure you have the right ‘values’
Such as Dick are not though seen as incompetent by the powers that be and sadly many of the nodding public because she is a product of the shiny new ‘Cool Britannia’. Isn’t there even a little song now they want children to sing in school extolling new modern Britain’s ‘values’ and strength in diversity.
These people have been churned out of our education system now for a long time. Government departments now make sure their employees all have that certain training and re-education that gives them these certain values.
Actually doing the job that you are supposed to do in any sense that many of us may recognise is not a requirement, it is all about political correctness and the diversity buzz word so as long as you promote all that your actual competence in the job will never really be held up for scrutiny.
September 9, 2021
There are many well known reasons why she should have been sacked. It is incredible that she is given another contract.
September 9, 2021
She’s one of the nomenklatura-these glasshouse dwellers do not throw stones at each other,nor do they want to allow outsiders in.
September 9, 2021
As incompetent as her boss, the current mayor !
September 9, 2021
āTheyā like incompetent, especially when the agenda is to destabilise in order to rebuild (!).
Cloward-Piven.
Also it humiliates a population to be ruled by the less than fitted.
As I have always saidā¦it is why JR hasnāt been PM for decades.
A happy, ordered, prosperous land?
September 9, 2021
They are terrified of getting someone even worse. Perhaps they are right in that. The old RUC men are presumably too old to take it on now.
September 9, 2021
LL,
Yes well done. Many MPs can be bribed or frightened into agreeing to measures they don’t really believe in. Other MPs may not have any fixed principles and will do what suits them at the time.
The media can say what it wants and voters can be angry, but what can they do now?
We donāt have revolutions so we are stuck with this until there is an election. Boris will have moved on by then.
September 9, 2021
What makes you think you can remove an entrenched establishment which really rules the country through the means of the election process.Totalitarian states have elections too!
September 9, 2021
+1
September 9, 2021
Good Morning, Sir John,
Thank you very much for your efforts.
I urge anyone who is in despair to sign this petition:
Repeal the Coronavirus Act.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/592632
September 9, 2021
Done.
Turned into something more than flattening the sombrero, eh ?
September 9, 2021
+1
September 9, 2021
Well done Mr Redwood. At least on this issue you had the courage to confront the tosh about the gilded NHS.
I know something. If the public had to pay in cash/pcm (say Ā£100 per month) to finance the bottomless pit that is the NHS they’d never voter Tory and Labour again
Johnson’s a charlatan and so is most of his party MPs except the few honourable members who refuse to be cowed by those who will never be happy until the NHS is consuming all our wealth and controlling our lives using access to its services as a weapon to impose compliance across all areas of society
Can you sense it? It’s that sense you get when you see liberty under attack by an authoritarian State that is now out of control and sees no limits to its reach
Reply The NHS is much more than Ā£100 a month. All income tax is less than its budget.
September 9, 2021
The NHS has now become a religion. I believe there was even a large service held to commemorate its birth.
How long before we are all forced to wear the rainbow badge which seems to represent so much here now NHS included.
This deification of NHS and its staff is the force that will be used to try and rally a nation that is now so fractured/atomised and with its roots chopped from under its feet, that I fear it will never be allowed to be criticised or shaken up.
There is an excellent article in the print version of Salisbury Review by Peter Day Milne in essence how the NHS seems to have overtaken the once unifying factor of Cof E.
September 9, 2021
Reply to reply.
I estimate that I’m paying more like Ā£600 a month to the NHS. In many ways my Ā£300 pa pet insurance is better. The meds I have been prescribed I’ve ended up paying more than market value in prescription charges.
My friend who is a Sister at the local hospital says “Don’t get ill, don’t get injured. We can’t cope. This problem started before the Covid crisis. No extra resources were brought in to cope with the massive increase in housing in the area.”
September 9, 2021
We desperately need the cost of both the NHS and Social Care to be separated out and paid for by two, hypothecated, easily identifiable, separate taxes.
Only in that way will voters come to realise how much the NHS in particular is costing them and maybe, just maybe, they will start to question the budget and insist on greater efficiency. It will also bring an end to the religious-like cult that the NHS has become.
September 9, 2021
Pouring money into an unreformed NHS will achieve nothingā¦nothing 000000000000.
The funding method of NHS has not been adopted by any other comparable country and our health outcomes are worseā¦than even the old Eastern European commie countries who spent a lot less.
The NHS has made very few advances in the last 50 years ā¦they just move goalposts.
I would imagine that our āgovernmentā is being directed to destroy ( they are at least very good at destruction) the NHS and plough a lot of dosh into Precision Medicine which allegedly is accurate, speedy and CHEAPER. Gene therapy ā¦quelle coincidence!
Scientism red in tooth and claw?
September 9, 2021
The National Health Soviet is not just a health service,it’s a “front” organization.
September 9, 2021
Yesā¦and always a vector for communism/fascism.
It was one huge power grab and it was hated by the established medics.
NHS very similar to EU.
September 9, 2021
Reply to reply – – The NHS – – All income tax is less than its budget.
And thousands from anywhere on the planet arriving AND USING it – for NO contribution whatsoever. The Time and Cash for treating THOSE is WAY above the cost for us ( you know – the people who’ve paid for it for 50 years ). WE – the English – are being thrown on the compost heap – thank Bojo for us.
September 9, 2021
So disgusting how those who were young at the inception of the NHS (and were forced to give up their private health insurances) were so poorly served by it in their last days.
September 9, 2021
So there we are. Just another tax and spend government with no ambition, or, purpose other than to stay in office. Very disappointing.
September 9, 2021
Cynic, Vote Boris – get BINO and more wheezes and more taxes. We were meant to Leave the EU, not copy its top-down ethos. I used to regard the government as frequently wrong or misguided but, essentially, well intentioned. Now I view government as simply a burden to bear. And ignore if possible.
September 9, 2021
Cynic – stop praising them.
September 9, 2021
We’re living the “Socialist Dream”. Send the bill, then tell us what crumbs we’ll get for our money as costs rise to meet the income. Who can live a life like this? It’s a depressing and dire existence.
September 9, 2021
Express today. Only 100 councils have come forward to offer housing to Afghan refugees so far. Perhaps the others are inundated with asylum seekers from France? Bookings for weddings at 4 star hotels are being cancelled with no notice given. Estimated cost Ā£2.5b. Why did Boris invite so many here without the means to house these people? Your government has lost the plot John. Whenever members of the cabinet are interviewed they look and sound like students without a clue.
September 9, 2021
Johnson has not lost the plot, this is the plot for want of a better word.
You don’t sign up to such as the UN Migration Compact if you are serious about immigration. I know May signed it but Johnson would too and there have been no calls to cancel it, from any in the party.
You don’t openly boast as many in the party have been doing that we are taking in more people than other nations.
You don’t allow illegal immigration in the numbers we’ve seen and with such blatancy if there isn’t some sort of willingness to do so.
As I never tire of reminding people this recent set of landings isn’t really anything new it is just higher in numbers and much more blatant. People have been coming in regularly on inflatables (not as much as now as a means of transport) in the back of lorries, and through the tunnel for a very long time.
The politicians know it is so, and can’t claim they’ve been caught off guard.
I believe it was Sir John Hayes ( I may have the name wrong) who noted in Parliament that such things as the Refugee Convention are being misinterpreted so that they can override sovereign law. He also mentioned maritime law, which is it seems not being put to use as it could be to tackle the problem.
They have had years to sort the issue out of how people are entering illegally , who is helping them and don’t forget many charities and left wing open borders bands have a hand in this and seemingly, have far more sway with Government than the electorate do.
Still, what is the point of a few politicians stating facts when they continue to support the system that doesn’t want to know, let alone act on their duty to the people of this Country first.
I repeat Johnson has not lost the plot, he knows exactly what he is doing.
September 9, 2021
Good.
The more people start to feel it the better.
It’s the only way to cause the scales to fall from their eyes about Cheeky Chappy Boris.
September 9, 2021
FUS – – Why invite so many people ?? now the LARGE families are going to have houses built for them – NEW ones. And once the dinghy lot – mainly African – see that, THEY, wih MANY MANY, uncheckable children – will be demanding the same – or its off to a taxpayer funded lawyer to SUE us – racial discrimination -pile of cash – AND they’re in England already. This is blatantly the end of the UK. NO migrants sent back.
September 9, 2021
Fedup, Good points, thank you.
September 9, 2021
Si John
Throwing money at the NHS is a solution and does not address the problem.
For decades now this country has allowed the youngsters to run it and as countless companies stand testament to the fact that youth and new ways are not always the way to continual improvement and prosperity as time and time again it is the older, street and market wise members of the board that steady and steer the company through stormy waters.
There is no substitute for experience and knowledge learnt through education from the real life university.
It is the old story about the old and young ball and the farmers gate.
Business and commerce is littered with once famous companies all but destroyed when passed down to the founders children. Running this country I respectively suggest is no different in many ways. It needs to be placed back into the hands of politicians who have all the skills, knowledge and ability finely honed in the schools and universities of hard knocks. This applies to all our so called political classes.ā·
September 9, 2021
+1
September 9, 2021
Good points raised Turbo. There is a lot of talent on the back benches going to waste. Our host being a good example.
September 9, 2021
Well done for exposing this situation. There is no way that this behomoth should be sucking in more cash reagrdless of any output change. One day perhaps people will wake up and realise how much better off they will be when the NHS is shuttered and turned private apart from dire emergency services. Until then we get closer and closer to Soviet Union type provision.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for doing the decent thing in yesterday’s vote, Sir John.
Unless there is a forthcoming miracle, the Conservative Party has now lost my vote.
September 9, 2021
Better late than never I suppose, it’s just a shame so many carried on for so long supporting a Labour/Conservative coalition party.
September 9, 2021
This is the problem though, you can hardly vote Labour because the Conservative Party are too left wing . Who do I vote for , I am a fiscal Conservative, Internationalist, Moderately liberal pro business advocate of a small smart State.
I get a choice between dim mendacious Brexit anti business incompetent big government or or equally
dim Labour big government .
You have been triangulated in Blairite terms , they don` care what you think
September 9, 2021
You could accept that were wrong about Brexit, Newmania. After all, the rest of the world thinks being outside the EU is sensible. Then you’d have more choice.
September 9, 2021
+1. Same. There is no Conservative party to vote for. The only miracle that could happen is for a genuine Conservative party to come forward and oust the current bunch of fake Conservatives.
September 9, 2021
If I were in JR’s constituency, I would vote Conservative, but I’m not and will not. Betrayed by May and now by her successor.
September 9, 2021
Agree – also of the same opinion
September 9, 2021
Thank you for voting against
September 9, 2021
Agreed. Well done, Sir John. A man of principle.
September 9, 2021
Short of money?
Cancel HS2.
Introduce a dividend withholding tax on foreign payments.
Introduce an interest withholding tax on foreign payments.
Introduce an income withholding tax on foreign rental payments.
All without breaking any election guarantees.
The mask has fallen from the fake Tories, revealing them as a tax, borrow, spend and waste socialist party. How can anyone trust anything they say any more?
Thank you for sticking to your principles Sir John. If only we had a Tory MP where we are, not the blue rosette fake we have.
September 9, 2021
+1
September 9, 2021
I remember how you tried to suppress non-Tory voted through the poll tax. Didnt end well. Nor will this blatant gerrymandering
September 9, 2021
The poll tax was a reasonable reform of the local taxation, some Labour councils are now struggling to cope with the problem of multiple occupancy homes , when their demand comes from people and their revenue is set on property, and now wistfully look back to the Poll tax.
September 9, 2021
The poll tax was actually beginning to settle down, though it would have been better to have set it at the level of the BBC licence fee so the BBC couldn’t so easily sabotage it; but there were other reasons for pretending it was a very great problem which demanded a change of PM and administration. Maastricht was coming down the tracks and they wanted to be sure it would be signed. Not something they wanted to discuss in public.
September 9, 2021
By saying the new funding for the NHS is only temporary until the backlog is cleared and then it will go to Social Care is laughable. Are they really going to “cut” NHS funding by diverting the money elsewhere ? No. They wouldn’t dare. They’ll have to find some other way to fund Social Care.
Maybe the Covid inquiry will criticise the gross inefficiency of the NHS in many areas because we certainly can’t rely on Parliament to do it.
September 9, 2021
Has the NHS backlog ever been cleared? Chicken and egg…………it PAYS them to keep the backlog going.
September 9, 2021
And the Annual Voice shouts out ‘We must have more money to save the NHS’.
September 9, 2021
More ‘awaydays’ needed
September 9, 2021
All Johnson has done is shovelled Ā£billions more into an inefficient, appallingly-managed, over-bureaucratised NHS in a desperate attempt to get the 13 million waiting list down he and his Government created down to “a respectable level” before the next General Election. None of this money will go to Social Care.
A vast majority of the cowardly, pretendy-Conservatives in Parliament just nodded it through and destroyed any claim they may once have been able to make that the Conservative Party supports low taxes and responsible Government spending. They’ve wrecked the Party’s brand just as surely as Major did over the ERM debacle.
But that could have been foreseen when they foolishly gave Johnson the ability to govern as a dictator.
September 9, 2021
@Donna – even weirder Social Care is primarily in private hands under the ownership of private companies. Even if taxpayer money finishes up there the Government has no say in who gets it – the bosses pay before patients comes to mind.
September 9, 2021
Nota#. It was highlighted on GB News recently about private foreign companies owning nursing homes and how much their profits are. Apparently they are very large..
September 9, 2021
Sorting out the NHS needs someone with sharp business sense, who can see where the money is mis-spent, recognise the time-wasters and hangers-on and bring in initiatives for improvement. Unfortunately this is well beyond the wit of the PPE types we have in office.
September 9, 2021
The first his “Cabinet” learned about the new NHS/Care policy was yesterday. Dictatorship is indeed the word.
September 9, 2021
…and yet they still supported and voted with him ?
September 9, 2021
The elective dictatorship continues and things will only get worse until the tyrants in charge are removed from office.
September 9, 2021
Well done Sir JR for voting against .I note that many Tory MPs abstained rather than vote against ? I wonder why ?
I resigned from the Conservative Party when Corporation Tax was increased and the planning proposals were mooted. I am dismayed that in times like this, when we have to cut spending, that HS2 is allowed to continue .I am further dismayed by the government’s cowardice over the Cumbrian coal mine which would bring much needed jobs ;cut imports and increase exports
Now they have lost my vote as well
September 9, 2021
Respect Sir – good words and I admire your stance
September 9, 2021
Good for you, Sir John. But the big picture here is the total tax-take in the UK. The government has a nasty habit of thinking that any problem requires five billion here or ten billion there. Like Blair, Johnson sees vast expenditure – ‘Putting’ the money in!’ – as a virtue. A political reckoning is needed – and it must be the ousting of the PM by his own MPs.
September 9, 2021
Thanks John for doing your best to highlight the real problems with the proposed solution, which so few others just do not seem to want to understand, and for your vote against it.
Just wait, the NHS and Social Care will be back for even more money in a couple of years, by which time the new 42 NHS managers on Ā£250,000 per year each will all be firmly in place.
September 9, 2021
Thank heavens for TalkRADIO and GB News, two platforms for some some honest and open debate. Not as widely listened to as the BBC was, but growing!
September 9, 2021
Sharon. We have GB News on nearly all the time now in the background. You are right in saying they have some interesing debates about very important subjects.
September 9, 2021
The thing I like most about them is that they don’t interrupt people and they aren’t aggressive. Also that they have on people the BBC et al would only have on to maul.
September 9, 2021
I get the feeling this could be Johnson’s ERM moment. People like us would vote Reform Party or whatever, because an unknown outcome couldn’t be worse than this shower of overgrown teenagers.
September 9, 2021
Sir Joe
I feel you are right. What is the point of voting for more of this crap? I can’t vote Labour and now Boris has made sure I can’t vote Conservative either. Mind you, I’m pretty sure we’ll end up with one or the other and a right mess it will be. Goodbye UK, hello hell.
September 9, 2021
If more people only voted for the moster raving loony party
September 10, 2021
I have – – it used to be in competition with the Conservative Party, now IT IS the Conservative Party.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for voting against this ill-conceived measure and the new taxes it will impose. It is evident that this PM is totally and utterly out of control. His words are meaningless as, evidently, is the Conservative party manifesto. The BBC news reported him to have said at the meeting of the 1922 Committee that the Conservatives were the pro business, low tax party. What a sick joke. The Conservative party is no longer this. It is simply the vehicle captured by Johnson for personal self-aggrandisement and projection of his personal prejudices on national life.
September 9, 2021
Yet Boris was not like that before he got covid19. Strange?
September 9, 2021
Armies of bureaucrats at 200k. The first headline I saw this morning. So some of the money instantly squandered. And so it goes on.
September 9, 2021
And it’s not as though NHS management is renowned for competence. Or efficiency.
September 9, 2021
Sad to see that so many Tory MPs just held their nose and voted in favour. That stinks.
September 9, 2021
It was misleading for the PM to say in his statement “Too often people were in hospital beds because they or their relatives were worried about the cost of care in a residential home.
And that same fear kept many others at home without any care at all.”
According to the Government’s own statistical service- The main reason for NHS delays in February 2020 was āPatients Awaiting further Non-Acute NHS Careā. The main reason for Social Care delays in February 2020 was āPatients Awaiting Care Package in their Own Homeā.
But not one MP challenged him about that part of his statement.
September 9, 2021
Good points, JayGee.
September 9, 2021
Are there any policies this government is pursuing that you support Sir John or are you holding your nose and staying in the Conservative party as it is the least worst? At what point does it become “worst” enough to abandon?
If so you are a focus group that your party would do well to study as you reflect many of the electorate. I am spoiling my paper next election. None of the parties deserve my vote but I refuse to stay away, I am going to register my displeasure and hope the groundswell of others doing similar matches the rise of UKIP which forced politicians’ hands last decade. I will live with the consequences of whoever that lets in as this is a long game.
September 9, 2021
Interesting that today we hear of the intention to turn boats around. It won’t happen and is just spin to distract the dissatisfied over the latest manifesto breaking imposition.
Your party has earned even more of my contempt.
September 9, 2021
It could be to explore in public the various ideas and then when they are all generally agreed to be bad ideas, the HO can return to the offshore processing idea which was roundly rebuffed originally.
September 9, 2021
Telegraph exposes the plan to hire 42 Executives on Ā£200k at the NHS- to do more tinkering?
Maybe just another level of managing -err what?
September 9, 2021
….and they’re already factored in their budgets, what are they going to do with the extra billions
September 9, 2021
Off topic
Further to recent proposals to allow the military to purchase weaponry off-the-shelf in response to perceived need – saving large amounts of taxpayers money in MoD cock-up costs – it seems that the civil servants at the Admiralty cannot even organise this
Jeremy Quin, Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence, said last year in regard to buying an antiship guided missile for the RN:-
āThe Royal Navy has set the requirements for a Surface-to-Surface Guided Weapon (SSGW) to ensure they maintain the ability to deter and defeat enemy warships. A competition is now taking place and on current plans, subject to funding, we expect bids to provide a solution to SSGW, by mid-2021. The interim surface-to-surface guided weapon will replace the Royal Navyās existing, but obsolete, Harpoon missile capability”.
Indeed, this has not happened. Earlier this week Quin replied in response to a written question:-
āA timescale for an initial operating capability would be determined during a future Surface to Surface Guided Weapon (SSGW) system procurement process. An Invitation to Negotiate has not been released and it would be inappropriate to comment further on future programme timelines.ā
Apparently, as four of the six Type 45 destroyers are currently laid up with serious propulsion and intercooler issues, their Lordships at the Admiralty have decided that they will not need a capability to defend themseves. They could easily have an off-the-shelf antiship missile fitted when they are being repaired.
Realy. You couldnt make this up!
September 10, 2021
Defence Budget to spend. What do we buy? Ah. Some Type 45 Destroyers will meet any criticism. Agreed.
September 9, 2021
Tax being stolen to pour into Black Holes that have no responsibility to the payee. Along with a Government that hasn’t the slightest idea about fiscal control and accountability.
A Conservative Government out to trash bigtime the UK economy. You have to then question the actual meaning and aim of this philosophy.
September 9, 2021
A very good article titled ‘How the NHS went off its trolley’ on the TCW website today. Well worth a read.
September 9, 2021
Sir John – Thankyou. It must be hard being a lonely Conservative in a Socialist Parliment
September 9, 2021
Off topic, this kind of rubbish continues to circulate widely without any official challenge:
https://www.irishnews.com/opinion/columnists/2021/09/09/news/tom-collins-dumb-and-dumber-putting-north-s-economy-at-risk-2439818/
“The simple truth is that Frost’s decision this week on the protocol is a tacit admission that the junking the single market was wrong.
All the available evidence points to that simple fact.
Rather than complain about the protocol, unionism needs to persuade Johnson that remaining within the single market (alongside other non-EU nations like Norway), while staying outside the European Union is the best way of neutralising the so-called Irish question, while allowing him to say he got Brexit done.”
The Ulster Unionist Party is calling for the UK to legislate on what would in effect be export controls:
https://uup.org/assets/images/uup%20protocol%20alternatives%20paper.pdf
“Create a new criminal offence to knowingly export goods designed for the UK Internal Market into the EU Single Market. This was previously proposed by the Ulster Unionist Party in 2019 and now forms part of the UK Command Paper. It creates legislation to protect the EU single market and prohibits, by law, anyone using Northern Ireland to undermine trade between the UK and EU.”
It seems to me that we will end up having such a law anyway – unless the UK government intends to show its goodwill to our EU neighbours by smiling on people who deliberately take non-compliant goods into their EU Single Market – and I see no reason why the government should not just go straight ahead now and draft a suitable Bill for Parliament to approve, without waiting on any future developments.
September 9, 2021
Denis, It is always amazing that Remains – or in this case Irish republicans – continue to peddle the view that remaining in the EU’s single market is Leave. Do they find understanding the English word “leave” so difficult, or is it that their cynicism and duplicity have no boundaries?
September 9, 2021
It all goes back to the days when “hard” and “soft” Brexit were coined by them in the wake of their defeat. these dishonest terms were quickly taken up by innocent people all over the place.
We need to shuffle Lewis and Walker out of the NI Office. They are both far too EU/IRA compliant. I should like them replaced with David Jones and Owen Paterson. Fat chance.
September 9, 2021
PS The BBC are dishonestly spinning the DUP stand against the Protocol as a stand against Brexit. Typical.
September 9, 2021
Donaldson’s historic speech is on-line in The Critic and well worth reading. The only bit which worries me is:
“We recognise the importance of the Single Market to the EU and because of this we are prepared to allow our facilities to be used to check goods that are going on into the EU.”
Perhaps he thought he had to say something conciliatory but why the h*** should we allow them on to our soil and use our facilities to extend their protection racket? They would not dream of allowing us anything like that, and have on the contrary done everything in their power to destroy our single market. Surely they can do their checks on their side of the border?
September 9, 2021
Well done Sir John. I think Conservative MPs need to consider ditching Boris Johnson if, say, we donāt get a sensible free market budget. We can blame all this leftism on covid but if it continues into 2022 and beyond thereās simply no point having a Conservative govt.
Starmer has a great opportunity. He is probably too useless to do it so we don’t need to worry but hereās what I would do if I was him:-
– do a tacit electoral pact with the LibDems and the SNP – why not theyāve all got more or less the same policies except for Scottish separatism?
– stand on the basis of joining the EEA and taking a Norway-like relationship with the EU. The argument would be itās still Brexit so no referendum is needed. It would sort out more or less all the points of friction with the EU. Ok itās only 1/2 Brexit at most but what is the point of Brexit – what have the Tories done that they couldnāt have done in the EEA?
– change the electoral system without a referendum to PR.
If the Tories have the same economic policy as the others at the next election and we havenāt seen clear attempts to make use of the freedoms of Brexit I think this could be a compelling offer for many voters.
Wake up Conservative MPs. The clock is ticking.
September 9, 2021
Since I was a boy I have been hearing about the financial pressure on the NHS. It will never end. With 300,000 net immigration how can it end. As we continue to take in all from the world we have become the world health service which is being financed “for the many by the few.) it needs complete reform not just slinging money at it. That never works.
Start with the excessive managers, the diversity managers. Then move on to anyone in the NHS that publishes doctrine that tells me I should feel uncomfortable because I am white. That should save a bit.
September 9, 2021
The Conservative manifesto well and truly trashed.
We never left the EU Control
The pension guarantee thrown in the bin
No tax rises gone
No NHI rises gone
So on and so on
Surely if the Government has reneged on the purposes for which it was voted and if they had any conscience they should return to the Ballot box to have this new manifesto approved. It would appear that the individual MP’s lied just to get voted in and are now going against their constituents. They need to stand aside.
Of course this wont happen we are ruled by one mans ego. A man that only those in his party voted for. This is surely a reflection of the corruption in the HoC and our Democracy – all shattered and ditched to appease a left wing dictator.
September 9, 2021
As usual “… we must accommodate the people who didn’t vote for us and those who lent us their votes.”
All except those who were Tory voters or those who were UKIP (like me) and were forced to vote Tory.
I will vote Labour if it gets my Tory MP out of office. The Tory Party has been the problem all along.
September 9, 2021
The NHS is a white elephant – Throwing money at it will cure nothing.
The NHS should be stripped to the bones, bureaucracy removed, reinvigorated and RE-directed at the core purposes of physical health.
What was the justification for taking 5,000 hospital beds out of the system, to be replaced by some 500 ICU bed?
Why are we still seeing GP shortages years after PHE knew about the problem?
This tax rise was a slap in the face for all of us, unjustified, and will likely go to waste! How do we get the government to prove it is used as it is allegedly supposed to be?
September 9, 2021
At times it may seem I am against the main event. I am not, in so far that if the rest of the house was in order and properly accountable and where taxpayer money was concerned under direct democratic control it could be possible to go along with the ideas.
However, this Government doesn’t have control of our money it throws it at any one that takes their fancy no matter how scatterbrained and irresponsible the cause. As long as it tunes into MsM manipulation and creates a ‘virtue signal’ it a go.
September 9, 2021
From the Daily Telegraph –
“The NHS is hiring an army of 42 new executives on salaries of up to Ā£270,000 each as Boris Johnson faces mounting anger over his tax rise to fund healthcare.
More than Ā£9 million will be spent employing dozens of chief executives of new integrated care boards, each of whom will earn more than the Prime Minister.”
It would appear the Government 10% rise in NHI take is not going to clear the back log. Its found a new Black Hole
September 9, 2021
All this money for the NHS but no talk of the deficit for 21/22. It could perhaps be Ā£10B
September 9, 2021
I was very glad, though not surprised, to see your name among the ‘Noes’. But why did only five Conservatives have the courage of what should have been their convictions? More abstained, but that was just a cop-out.
September 9, 2021
Well done John, we expect nothing less from you, an honourable politician of integrity and conviction, a dying breed indeed. Your constituents are lucky to have you. Sadly one of only a handful of true Tory MPs. What a pity all those other so called Tory MPs who were supposedly against this tax rise decided in the end to roll over and vote with the Government or abstain putting party as always before their constituents. No doubt they will regret their betrayal come the next election.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for your efforts.
There was the case of one law in one law out, as they have got to record levels of taxation, time for one new spending policy made another one removed. If they can’t fund their policies with record taxation and borrowing then there is a serious problem.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for voting in line with your covictions.
My gripe with this NI tax hike is that it could have been more equiable had it been placed on income tax. Second there is no indication of how it will solve NHS waiting lists in three years, can Social Care wait that long. Third there is no plan to reform NHS administration and consequent gross overspend. Once more diversity managers on a make work spree were announced I realised it was a dead duck.
September 9, 2021
Other MPs have come out and said what I posted here yesterday : The fudge around the huge rise in NI may well mean that all of it goes into the bottomless pit that is the NHS. The way the matter has been set up, the government in two-three years time is going to have to announce that it is cutting the NHS budget and diverting the money to Social care. In the run up to an election that will give Labour an open goal to kick at.
Will it happen ? I doubt it. We will have seen the bloated and inefficient NHS given a massive budget increase with no accountability and Social care will not get the money it needs.
September 9, 2021
Well done, and thank you.
September 9, 2021
Thank you, Sir John. Good to see there are still some MPs that ask the right questions.
It hasn’t taken long for the truth to emerge as to where some of that ‘social care’ money is going: 42 new NHS executives on salaries of up to Ā£270,000 each, according to the Telegraph this morning. But what a pity the Telegraph didn’t manage to discover that recruitment plan a day or two earlier. It might have influenced the vote.
September 9, 2021
We were shocked by the NHS and social funding figures you revealed. Contrary to what Steve Baker said, itās time for the NHS budget and associated taxes to be ringfenced so that ever individual knows what they are paying for the NHS.
Time also for the NHS to be subject to ājabs or jobsā – that will cut the service in half and there will be many healthcare workers available to the private sector as a result.
If you canāt stop āem, push āem to the end result of their madness.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for voting against this pointless and damaging tax increase.
The benefit for the care industry will be minimal and there will be absolutely no difference to the hopeless state of the NHS.
September 9, 2021
As the title of your book says āwe donāt believe youā, which was proven accurate yesterday with the breaking of your manifesto guarantee
Could SirJ and his party please highlight which other guarantees are in fact optional and can be reneged upon
September 9, 2021
With the whole world now able to turn up illegally, get housed, cash, NHS, etc etc. not work, use everything WE have had to pay for, not contribute, get translators etc. This is telling US – – The govt has NO concern for US. Just TAX us to pay for anyone who arrives. THERE IS NO END TO THE MIGRANTS – THEY WILL KEEP COMING – AND THERE IS NO INTENTION TO STOP THEM.
September 9, 2021
Yes. How is that going ? Replacing an ageing population with a zero tax and largely unemployed one !!!
Many people would have wrecked the country for half the salary that Tory MPs were charging.
September 9, 2021
I see the figures for Afghans is going up and up. One is up from 3k to 1ok. Just for one area. I have NO doubt that the 20k, original figure will be very soon heading towards a 7 figure sum. The 2ok over the next 4 yrs, is ALREADY ON TOP, of the ones already here. Others are determined to get here – or die. No doubt MANY non-Afghans will pretend to be Afghans, just to get here and start collecting their benefits, in their housing, see their NHS etc etc. This island and theTRUE English people who live here is being blatantly destroyed
September 9, 2021
Good morning.
Along with many others above I also would like to thank our kind host on his stance.
The NHS has been weaponised by Labour preventing much need reforms. The NHS is a large state bureaucracy with powerful unions attached. Those unions pay into the Labour Party so the relationship is one that is clearly mutually beneficial to the detriment of patient care.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for voting against this travesty.
It does not even succeed in its core aim, which was to put a lid on social care costs for individuals. The Ā£86k cap only applies to the care, not the board and lodgings. So you can still end up paying more than Ā£86k !
When people realise how they’ve been conned they will be so angry they’ll vote Labour to get Andy Burnham’s much better idea of 10% tax on estates.
September 9, 2021
From Conservative Woman – https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/how-the-nhs-went-off-its-trolley/
There were 460,000 available beds in the NHS in 1948. Shockingly, barely credibly, today there are only 129,000.
The number of senior managers has increased from about 500 in the 1970s to 43,000 today.
Between 2003 and 2013 the number of hospital beds in England fell by 30 per cent from 3.7 per thousand of population to 2.6. In comparison, France has 6 beds per thousand of population and Germany has 8.
āA part-time Assistant Director of Equality and Diversity at the Central Manchester University Hospitals. Salary Ā£46,625-Ā£57,640′.
Our PM believes the problem is just MONEY
September 9, 2021
Exactly – those figures lay bare that lie.
Zorro
September 9, 2021
Germany and France both spend more as a percentage of GDP on healthcare than the UK does.
Looking at available beds is an over-simplistic measure which fails to take into acccount the advances in modern surgical techniques. For example, I’ve had several knee arthroscopies and a shoulder reconstruction. In and out in a day, no need for an overnight stay, let alone the best part of a week’s recuperation on a ward, which would have been the case back in the 1940s.
September 9, 2021
PP – as far as straightforward orthopaedic surgery is concerned, you are correct. However, other conditions can require weeks of hospitalisation, and these have become more frequent as medical advances prolong life. I can give the example of a patient (6 years ago) who was due to be transferred from a specialist hospital to his local DGH, but which had no beds available. The patient contracted an infectious disease which meant his intended 1 week stay lasted for 5 weeks before the transfer; it also contributed to his death 3 months later.
September 9, 2021
I agree it’s not straightforward, which is why it is not a valid comparison to make.
September 9, 2021
Interesting take on the news at 1pm
BBC ā UK wrong to turn channel boats back
SKY ā UK wrong to turn channel boats back
GBnews ā Small businesses in difficulty due increase in National Insurance Employer Contribution
Following covid-19; small businesses have been hurting, many with huge debts and now this government has just increased the NI employer contributionsā¦.doesnāt help the recovery
September 9, 2021
It is a Brexit tax. Pure and simple.
Tax the young and give it to the leave voting pensioners.
Coffers are short because of the huge hole the Brexitists have left in them. They were supposed to give the NHS Ā£350m a week but that turned out to be a lie.
Governing is hard. It is even harder when you elect corrupt, incompetent, idiots.
September 9, 2021
Andy. Yesterday you told me I should start mixing with nicer people. It’s a good job I don’t mix with you then.
September 9, 2021
Any evidence for your assertions, Andy? of course not. As usual.
Actually, it is a lockdown tax. Easy to show – the UK’s GDP slumped every time there was a untargeted national lockdown – and that has to be paid for.
And you were the one demanding ever harsher and longer lockdowns. Not me. Why should I pay for your lockdown damage? Take ownership of all your failures, do.
September 9, 2021
We all eagerly await Chapter 44 of Andy’s new book, headed “How Old Anti-EU Tories Secretly Created The Corona Virus”.
September 9, 2021
The tax is based on income not age.
The more you earn the more you pay.
Isn’t that something you like?
And retired old people will pay too.
You should be thrilled andy
September 9, 2021
Oh do eff orf !!!
Two years of lockdown !!!
Two years of the National Covid Service !!!
September 9, 2021
Well said and well done Sir Redwood.
Voting against this tax while HS2 spending is now projected to hit 150 billion is a travesty of conservativism.
September 9, 2021
Where is the corollary of taxation – cuts in spending. Why is it that Governments appear to be able to ignore the other side of the equation We have recently been burdened with the most devastating extra spending on Electric cars, Windfarms, solar power, and energy subsidies. Every one a scientifically unnecessary expense. We should not be raising taxes till these expenditures have been cancelled. Don’t hold your breath.
September 9, 2021
I was shocked that so few Conservatives voted against this bill & thanks must go to those who recognise what many outside Parliament seem to be able to plainly see. I think there are many who would accept a deviation from the manifesto if the proposal was viewed as largely & ultimately a solution to the problems and was well thought through. I fear it is though, once again, short termism, a rushed job, can kicking to an extent & not really fit for purpose. NHS reform badly needed. Not to mention the announced new mega salaried positions in the media today and the Dear White Person letter. It also creates more societal division, not least the younger / older, wealthier / poorer issues rather than fostering the opposite. Iām sure there are many, not all, retired people who will not balk too much at the temporary one year reduction on the State Pension triple lock too but that brings up the question of trust thereafter, and that is dwindling rapidly.
September 9, 2021
Yup
So vote Labour next time.
Destroy the Tory Party because Labour can’t possibly be any worse. We may then get a true opposition.
September 9, 2021
I remember a post by Paul Goodman a while ago on Conservative Home in which he declared that “the Prime Minister has parked his posterior squarely on the political centre ground and has no intention of moving” (or words to that effect). He was right: Mr Johnson is happy to adopt whatever policies it takes to secure his own re-election in 2024. In his view, the end justifies the means. Johnsonism can be summed-up very simply: “remaining in No. 10 Downing St.”
September 9, 2021
Iāve been asking the question and no one appears to have the answer
āāwhat NHS equipment, resources or wages is NI tax increase going to pay for ?āā
September 10, 2021
or ‘How many more middle and senior managers will the NI tax increase pay for?’
September 9, 2021
I see the House of Commons today are debating spending even more taxpayers money on an second emergency services cenotaph in addition to the fallen in war cenotaph
āāIt will only cost just over Ā£3 million ā¦who cares what it costsāā Sir Mike Penning MP (conservative)
They could be talking about cutting taxes ā¦oh no, let spend spend spend
September 9, 2021
Well done to JR for making many pertinent points against the NI rise and voting against it. It is worrying that so few in the HoC are persuaded by JRs arguments. And today we learn that there will be numerous new Ā£200000 jobs in the NHS. Says it all.
September 9, 2021
I was pleased to see Sir John’s vote against, but astonished at the small number of those who joined him in the No lobby. The entire principle of conservative economics has been sacrificed to the NHS behemoth, the PM shown up as a fraud, and Conservatives rendered un-reelectable – and most Tory back-benchers appear not to have noticed.
September 9, 2021
Most Conservative MPs supported lockdowns, so it’s unsurprising that most Conservative MPs have voted for the first of the measures to pay for them. There will have to be more, and I suspect Tory MPs will mostly vote for them too.
September 9, 2021
Stop all the F I T s and R O Cs paid to wind and solar farms it runs into billions if you take the whole renewable industry into account. Net Zero my backside its unaffordable.
September 9, 2021
Thank you for voting against. Always principled. Always recognising when Conservative values not being valued – and indeed being trashed. Excellent article by Alistair Heath in DT today.
September 10, 2021
The NHS is already spending its anticipated budget increase – on 42 ‘top managers’ at Ā£200,000 a pop.
You couldn’t make it up. When are we all – especially the Government – going to realise that the gross waste of money in institutions of government, in large corporations and in international organisations is AT THE TOP?
The NHS would work a lot better if care was available LOCALLY without having to travel miles and paying extortionate parking fees. It would cost more but give better service and many of us would be willing to pay charges (not too big but enough to provide demand management) to end the waiting lists and the nasty Stalinist monopoly.
The current NHS is awful and it is high time that politicians on the Right said so and proposed reforms. Supplementary, non-taxation, revenue is the key. Nigel Farage has proposed one solution (means tested insurance premiums) and I have proposed another (low but universal charges). What, Sir John, are your reform proposals?
Have you all noticed that the NHS places a high value of time on its staff but thinks that the time of its customers (‘patients’) is of no value at all?