Growth slows badly

The Treasury needs to concentrate on the recovery. Its wish to raise taxes and cut spending is damaging confidence and helping slow down what was a strong recovery.

There is now an urgent need to rescue the recovery. This needs a complete change of attitude and approach, and a new forecasting model to stop the crazily pessimistic forecasts of the OBR.
The Treasury should

1.Set out a new framework for policy based on the current 2% inflation target and debt interest as a percentage of revenue target, dropping the EU state debt targets. The government should add a growth target.

2. Cancel the National Insurance tax hike. We need more jobs not a further tax on jobs.

3. Cut Stamp duty on homes again to add stimulus to a slowing homes market.

4. Stop the further attack on self employment through IR 35

5. Buy more UK goods and services into the public sector instead of so many imports by tweaking procurement rules

6. Commission substantial extra  electricity  capacity to cut out imports and allow extra  power for the electric  revolution

7. Speed haulage drivers tests and training

8. Use farming subsidies and rules to promote more food growing – too much is being directed to wilding

 

9 Do more to make it easy for people to work for themselves, to set up and expand small businesses.

10 State sector to make contract opportunities available to smaller companies.

 

204 Comments

  1. J Bush
    September 11, 2021

    But Sir Redwood that is exactly the opposite of what ‘build back better’ and ‘global Britain’ slogans are all about. The World Economic Forum will confirm this.

    1. Everhopeful
      September 11, 2021

      +1
      Spot on.

    2. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      Certainly government policies of – very high and increasing taxes, large borrowing and printing of money, endless waste (combined with vast over regulation of almost everything), very poor virtual state monopoly healthcare & education services, the idiotic war on CO2 plant food, the expensive & unreliable energy agenda and rather poor other public services – is surely designed to kill growth of productive industry and real jobs while increasing largely parasitic ones hugely. Rendering the county less competitive and less able to defend itself too.

      Peter Hitchens largely had it (and the Tories) right on Any Questions just now the one voice or reason on it – but he is totally deluded in his belief in the efficiency of freight and other trains (especially nationalised and heavily subsidised ones). Mist have read too much John Betjeman or similar. Just look at the economic and practicality mate. How many factories and shops actually have any railway to them?

      1. Mitchel
        September 11, 2021

        The Russians,Chinese and Germans are working together to create a rail freight network that spans Eurasia east to west and north to south.AI,electronic waybills,blockchain,”contrainers” and other innovations,together with network extensiomns are rapidly coming together to make this possible – and a superior alternative to air(cheaper) and sea(faster).

        It will leave the UK out in the cold and damage certain traditional activities of the City.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 11, 2021

          Over longer distances it can sometimes make some sense but rarely does it in the rather small UK.

    3. MiC
      September 11, 2021

      11.) Make coughing and sneezing without some attempt to cover one’s mouth and nose in enclosed public spaces an offence, like spitting.

      The ill-mannered, the reckless, and the disgusting are killing pubs, restaurants, and clubs wholesale.

      Yes, some people like to flaunt the fact that they personally care nothing for health precautions.

      The result is that millions of more normal, sociable, and sensible people simply avoid any venue where they will be exposed to them – which sadly is almost everywhere, it seems.

      1. Peter2
        September 11, 2021

        MiC
        The central subject of this article is about how to generate and sustain economic growth in the UK
        Your input is about coughing and sneezing.
        How is that relevant?

        1. MiC
          September 12, 2021

          I am addressing probably the central reason why most people have not returned to the hospitality sector – and to public transport – which is a large part of the UK economy.

          People with dangerously appalling manners are now the main Pub Killers, far beyond anything wrongly attributed to the smoking ban.

          A massive wave of closures seems inescapable, thanks to them.

          1. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            But people have returned.
            Maybe it’s you stopping in all afraid.
            I’m out and about and places are busy.

          2. MiC
            September 12, 2021

            Nah, they’re nothing like they used to be.

          3. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            You are going to the wrong places MiC
            Here in a city near me pubs clubs and other areas are back to normal.

  2. Mark B
    September 11, 2021

    Good morning.

    The government has chosen its path – High tax. High spend. It is interventionist and reflects and increasing ‘s State megalomania which is the hallmark of Socialist Dogma. It’s the 70’s all over again. Only this time, the black outs will not be because the unions are striking, but because successive governments have failed us.

    1. DOM
      September 11, 2021

      It’s even worse than what your describe. I believe they are building a monitoring State to force compliance across all areas of life. Tory MPs sit in silence while this is happening. I believe the Tory party and Labour party have become sinister political vehicles of harm

      1. Lifelogic
        September 11, 2021

        +1

    2. turboterrier
      September 11, 2021

      Mark B
      Sadly you are correct. All rather embarrassing in all these decades the majority of politicians have learnt nothing.

    3. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      Indeed the “no wind” blackouts also helped by the insane net zero, renewables agenda and the £trillions needed for that lunacy.

      This reduction in growth even before the latest huge tax hikes and most of the Covid Loan repayments. They should also restore the CT/NI increases, cancel net zero, cancel HS2, cancel worthless degree and Sunak’s 90 % cut in entrepreneur’s tax relief and un-freeze all the allowances.

      Even someone on an average wage with employers NI included now have marginal tax rates now of over 50% if they have a student loan to repay can be nearly 60% these tax rates are absurd. Even when they get what little is left they have to pay council tax, 20% VAT and get to work so road and fuel taxes. This is almost enslavement. Where is the incentive to ever work for most people?

      All this taxation for what? A very poor healthcare system based on outcomes, poor roads, motorist mugging, a poor education system, not very good defence, police who have given up (even retaining the dire Cressida Dick) a energy system actually being designed to fail…

      1. Lifelogic
        September 11, 2021

        All these high taxes will mean less tax not more in the end as so little incentive to work for most low earners or to invest in the UK. The loop tax as I call it. If I pay someone £100 to do a job what will they get after VAT, NIx2, income tax, student loan, council tax , fuel tax to get to work and pension conts. perhaps too – this can now be as 30p or so. A huge incentive to do it yourself if you can and save that 70p. Or to leave the country.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 11, 2021

          Or work on the black market.

    4. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      Plus local authorities will need extra cash to pay the increased 2.5% NI bills for their staff wages and pensions and the social care workers. Experts think council tax will need to rise by an average of at least 5 or 6 per cent next year to help meet the shortfall.

      1. Wonky Moral Compass
        September 11, 2021

        Doesn’t it rise 5% a year anyway? I’ve not noticed any improvements though. Quite the reverse, in fact.

    5. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      Mark B, The government also relies on behavioural propaganda, and censorship. Witness the revelation in today’s DT that 26 out of the 27 signatories to the Lancet letter (which closed down the debate on the origins of covid19) were connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

      The BBC, Fakebook, Twitter, etc, all jumped on the bandwagon of demonising (rather than just reporting) supposed “conspiracy theorists” – who actually turned out to be right. That bandwagon of politicising controversy (“unscientific”, “you’re flat-earthers, nah, nah”, etc) played into the hands of the government’s behavioural propaganda merchants with their aim to instil fear – and hence obedience.

      Johnson has to go.

      1. Lifelogic
        September 11, 2021

        The evidence we have now suggests overwhelmingly it was (almost certainly) a lab leak after gain of function experiments.

      2. Nota#
        September 11, 2021

        @NickC +1

        I read the item, interesting investigative journalism. If The Lancet does its self retract the misleading letter they themselves will be devoid of credibility. Surprising how many supporters and financiers of the Wuhan Lab have roots in the UK. Even sage members are involved in the cover up.

        Johnsons Government are trying the same tactics on the people of the UK

        1. Lifelogic
          September 11, 2021

          +1

  3. dixie
    September 11, 2021

    Stop focusing on the needs of London and the City at the expense of the rest of the country
    Stop unfettered import of immigrants for low value jobs and dilution of key services and infrastructure.
    Stop building dormitories.
    Start developing more industrial, STEM & commercial areas offering lower cost access.
    Reverse the dependence on EU neighbours for energy and food.
    Invest in national, diverse energy generation.
    Reverse the degree of EU and foreign ownership in key services and industries.
    Invest in education resources for life.

    1. turboterrier
      September 11, 2021

      dixie
      +1 to do that requires change in the thinking process.

      1. Duyfken
        September 11, 2021

        And of those doing the thinking – nobody Nuts.

        1. Margaretbj.
          September 11, 2021

          I believe in exploring ideas and some of the great scientists were nobody nuts
          , however ideas should be tested thoroughly before being implemented.

    2. MFD
      September 11, 2021

      +1 Dixie, i have started by not buying anything EU or China if I really and cannot find an alternative.. Come on everybody lets all attempt to destroy globalism, keep Britain FIRST

  4. Everhopeful
    September 11, 2021

    Honestly, after what they have done how can they really expect to “recover”….whatever that may be. Has any government ever actually “recovered? We never did from 2008..and certainly not from two WWs.
    How can a country recover when its government has flattened it with a wrecking ball?
    Moreover, unless I am totally mistaken wasn’t our “government” following global (WHO etc) orders over the plague response and since then followed the IMF’s instructions to spend and then tax?
    Why on earth would spend and then tax be the advice?
    Both measures specifically designed to impoverish?
    We did not vote Tory for this and Johnson knows it.

    1. JoolsB
      September 11, 2021

      +1

      1. JoolsB
        September 11, 2021

        We voted Tory and got Labour/Green

        1. Lifelogic
          September 11, 2021

          Indeed and the voters were clearly right and Labour/Green policies wrong. They will never work & will wreak huge economic and other harm.

        2. glen cullen
          September 11, 2021

          Very accurate

    2. bigneil - newer comp
      September 11, 2021

      EverH – – Both measures specifically designed to impoverish? – – Do you ever see the lower classes happy – not now. Ever see the middle class the same? not now. – Ever see the top lot ?? – ??? – – WE ( NOT the wealthy ) are paying for millions of uneducated, unemployable, newly arrived replacements, who, for getting here, will get a MUCH better life than they had back in their country- – for free. They are NOT going to be sent back – EVER.
      WE are going to be paying for their lives – the wealthy are NOT. Nor will they live near them – EVER.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 11, 2021

        Fear not, Neil.

        The boat crisis is a good thing. Everyone can see it and the likes of Andy hasn’t replaced my subscriptions.

        It is a highly visible sign of the Tories failing.

        Well. They can stick their party. They can now rely on the blokes in boats and the Islington set they’ve so tried to impress to vote for them in the next election.

      2. Everhopeful
        September 11, 2021

        Yes. I am in total agreement with you.
        I thought I said that. 😇

    3. David Williams
      September 11, 2021

      11. Raise the pensions Lifetime Allowance. Stop pushing skilled people into early retirement.

      1. Lifelogic
        September 11, 2021

        +1 make state sector pension similar to those in the private sector with a windfall tax or cut to them. Most are not remotely deserved or earned. They are paid for by taxes on the private sector often people with little or no private pensions.

        1. MiC
          September 11, 2021

          They were part of employment contracts.

          Yes, I know that you don’t believe in honouring any contract, treaty, agreement or whatever.

          The Tories are just the party for you.

          1. Peter2
            September 11, 2021

            Are they affordable any more?
            Inflation proofed final salary schemes don’t exist in the real world.
            Only in the taxpayer funded public sector land.

          2. Lifelogic
            September 11, 2021

            Nothing to stop them being “taxed”. Governments have moved the goal posts all the time on private pensions all the time with the tax cap, contribution limits, the 55% tax, Brown’s theft of dividend taxes… Government Osborne also mugged landlords (and thus tenants) by taxing then on profits they have not even made. The double taxation of interest costs. Once on the landlord and then on the bank for the same interest.

          3. MiC
            September 12, 2021

            Under UK statute contracts can be “varied” – i.e. shredded – subject to a few box tickings on “consultation” that is, telling the victims that it’s coming.

            However, a pension entitlement already accrued is – quite rightly – the property of its owner, and under Human Rights law a person may not be deprived of it. (If you want to change that, then be ready to lose your home or anything else if it suits the authorities.)

            So the changes can only be forward looking.

            I think that you will find that in many cases such changes have already been imposed.

          4. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            Companies can close due to pension burdens.
            Staff have to decide if they want a job carrying on with a realistic and affordable pension or see their company go bust.

          5. MiC
            September 13, 2021

            Companies can close due to their failure to cover whatever costs, including pension commitments.

            However, accrued funds in any managed scheme are the property of the members, not of the companies, as was once the case in the Bad Old Days.

          6. Peter2
            September 14, 2021

            Another response from you missing the point.

    4. J Bush
      September 11, 2021

      +1
      Johnson knows exactly what he is doing and he knows (he is not that stupid or naively myopic, i.e. it is intentional) that it is definitely not in the best interests of this country, its economy or its the native population.

      1. DavidJ
        September 11, 2021

        Indeed; he is truly the enemy within.

        1. J Bush
          September 11, 2021

          +1
          Aye.
          – Destroy the country – continuous mass uncontrolled legal and illegal immigration, destroying farmland for ‘wilding’ or to build houses, HS2, net zero carbon, NHS (lots of money but little or no service) along with the cost and shortfalls of other service provision etc.
          – Bankrupt the economy – excessive bureaucracy, red tape, ‘where are all the bodies from this deadly disease’ lockdowns and medical passports, to destroy more and more jobs.
          – The populace – excessive personal taxes and no doubt when national bankruptcy is declared, a chunk of the national debt will be added in yet more tax.

          But don’t panic. Help is at hand. Out of the destruction will come order with the great reset. Those who cannot pay the taxes, no problem, your assets will be accepted in payment.

          They will ‘build back better’ and ‘you will own nothing and be happy’…

          I do not believe for one moment the Johnson regime do not know what they are doing.

          And if I am wrong then they need to be certified clinically insane.

      2. Lifelogic
        September 11, 2021

        He (perhaps rightly) assumes that if the Tories are slightly less appalling than Labour/SNP/Plaid/Green voters will have no alternative than a Tory vote in the FPTP voting system.

      3. Original Richard
        September 11, 2021

        J Bush : “Johnson knows exactly what he is doing and he knows (he is not that stupid or naively myopic, i.e. it is intentional) that it is definitely not in the best interests of this country, its economy or its the native population.”

        And to think they knew that growth was slowing when they increased the N.I. taxes.

    5. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      +1

  5. Everhopeful
    September 11, 2021

    To think that, in the face of actual human suffering caused by this “government’s” response to the plague the tories would use the population as pawns to secure its position vis à vis Labour might have been unbelievable pre Cameron.
    Sadly no fate seems bad enough for us poor saps.
    Might as well have sent us to the trenches…or worse.

  6. Sea_Warrior
    September 11, 2021

    There are too many Conservatives – and you, Sir John, seem to one of them – who want to keep pumping up the ‘housing market’. You all need to remind yourselves of the average age of the first-time buyer; it shames your housing and immigration policies. Please, think again.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      Indeed. Help to Move (for widows in big houses) Not Help to Buy (which only pumps up prices.)

      House price inflation is the only game in town. A way of printing money via the commercial banks and generating tax – zero qualified estate agents working on a percentage regardless of how big this gets, a spiv economy.

      PS Liked your comment about your pension being deferred pay. You also forgot to mention to Andy that you (as Commander of a RN ship) put your life on the line and spent time away from family in unpleasant conditions in order to protect the country in which Andy was able to make his wealth.

    2. alan jutson
      September 11, 2021

      Sea -Warrior

      If house prices continue to rise, as they will so long as demand exceeds supply, then the government rakes in more and more cash via taxation.
      Thus it is in its interest for house prices to increase.

      Stamp duty, Vat on all fees, vat on all improvements, and eventually inheritance tax.

  7. Peter R
    September 11, 2021

    Some excellent proposals, however, they are diametrically opposed to current government policy.

  8. Peter Wood
    September 11, 2021

    Good Morning,

    May I suggest you look at Reform UK, I think your ideas are, mostly, already up and about! Time for real Conservatives to make a stand and move in time for the next election.

    PS According to the man at MI5, a substantial number of terrorist attacks on the UK have been foiled over the last 4 years. This confirms the lie that we need to be fighting in Afghanistan to prevent attrocities at home.

    1. glen cullen
      September 11, 2021

      The man at MI5 didn’t even mention the fighting in Afghanistan, terrorists from Afghanistan nor the channel boat people……maybe he thinks thats a job for James Bond

  9. Sharon
    September 11, 2021

    The Treasury would appear to be another department, no longer fit for purpose…

    Or as J Bush says, “ But Sir Redwood that is exactly the opposite of what ‘build back better’ and ‘global Britain’ slogans are all about. The World Economic Forum will confirm this.”

    The steam roller that is trying to flatten the economy is stuck in ‘drive’. Your points make perfect sense, JR, but the runaway steam roller is set to achieve the opposite.

    We can’t all be conspiracy theorists, can we? But the government certainly seem to be set on a course of destruction while saying they are doing the opposite.

  10. Old Albion
    September 11, 2021

    The Gov. now has the power to cut or remove VAT. Why hasn’t it done so?

    1. glen cullen
      September 11, 2021

      Removing VAT should been the first act of this government after brexit

  11. BW
    September 11, 2021

    As for HGV drivers. There must be thousands of ex military drivers who like me let their HGV lapse. The expense of continued medical, the over regulation, the CPC exams, the over policing, the spy, in the cab, it goes on and on. As you did for retired NHS staff, ask them to return, give them a temporary permit for the licence they held.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      Yes. I disagree with speeding up the driver training though. It is a skilled job and lethal in the wrong hands.

      1. glen cullen
        September 11, 2021

        It can’t be that skilled, we let anybody from europe drive a truck and anybody from the rest of the world drive taxi and delivery scooters without incorrect insurance and bogas licences

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 12, 2021

          And that bothers me too. The 50k a year lorry driver will lead to a lot of brothers using their brother’s driving licences as they so obviously do taxis.

  12. Ian Wragg
    September 11, 2021

    Si to help the UK, the MoD invites foreign consortia to build the 3 support ships.
    Never mind, the growth will recover because we’re Importing 2000 extra bodies daily into the country.

    1. glen cullen
      September 11, 2021

      Also uniforms from China, ration packs from Thialand, boots from Italy and missiles & aircraft from USA…….all products that we used to manufacture in the UK

  13. DOM
    September 11, 2021

    State spending is not economic growth, that’s Keynesian tosh. Political leaders, parasitic bureaucrats and the ‘State hyena’ feeding off the private sector is not economic growth. That’s parasitism, nothing more.

    It is the private sector that drives real economic growth. Even the despotic Chinese State recognised this decades ago so why Tory MPs don’t see it I have no idea.

    We know what needs to be done (massive State reform, depoliticisation of the public sector, lower taxes on private income and profits, State intervention withdrawal from the private sector) but there’s a problem and that problem, that major barrier to a better world are these things called POLITICAL LEADERS. They’re becoming despotic, evil and psychotic in the manic enthusiasm to assert total control over all areas of economic, social and private life. We’ve been here before, many times over the centuries and decades

    Politics is a cancer and this cancer is eating away at our lives, our souls and our minds. It will eventually destroy the beauty and humanity of our world

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      The 80 seat Tory majority was a mandate to take on political correctness and get Brexit done.

      Boris saw *Red* Wall and went RED !

      Whichever way we vote the country veers Left.

      1. glen cullen
        September 11, 2021

        +1

    2. Jim Whitehead
      September 11, 2021

      DOM, +1 !!!!

  14. SM
    September 11, 2021

    “The Treasury should …”, but does the Chancellor agree with the current policy, or is he in conflict with the PM and being overridden?

    1. DB
      September 11, 2021

      He and the whole government are being overridden. Policy is being made by the prime minister’s girlfriend. The prime minister does whatever will keep her sweet, and the country pays the price.

      1. Mark
        September 11, 2021

        Sometimes I wish he had a girlfriend. Unfortunately for now he has a wife.

  15. Oldtimer
    September 11, 2021

    These are sensible proposals. But I do not expect them to be adopted by a government which appears not to understand the measures which will help make a business tick, only those that help stop the clock.

  16. Andy
    September 11, 2021

    Congratulations to Italy which now has a higher percentage of its population fully vaccinated than we do. It follows Malta, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, France and Ireland in surpassing the UK. Finland has a higher % having had their first jab.

    The Brexitists told us vaccines proved their project was right – and then swathes of EU countries beat us anyway.

    Still the Brexitists do top one COVID table in Europe: the most deaths.

    Reply Always run down our country with falsehoods and half truths. The UK is well down the list of deaths per million, where several Balkan countries, Poland, Belgium etc are higher.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      Reply to reply

      Boris blew the vaccine advantage and now he’s blowing the economy.

      And Geronimo the Llama has been well and truly memory holed by the BBC. They wouldn’t have done this for a Conservative government.

      So did this innocent creature have TB or not ?

      He will be avenged !

      See the Llamageddon trailer on YouTube

      RIP, Geronimo.

      Just how does Boris get away with it ? Oh. Forgot. He’s a *cheeky chappy* so everything he does is OK.

    2. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      Also the UK is recording Covid deaths as deaths within 28 days & not deaths caused by Covid. How many die within 28 days of a urinary infection, a cold, flu, athletes foot or a sore throat? Best to look at total overall deaths. After the nasty excess death bulge in March to July 2020 these figures are essentially in the normal range. This despite the many NHS failures in provision of other treatments.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 11, 2021

        And that applied even when death rates were so low that we could have had individual autopsies to establish exact cause of death.

        I have now lost six friends during this pandemic, none to covid and only one over 60 years of age. I put their deaths down to NHS neglect. And why shouldn’t I if the vague “28 days…” applies ? I have never known a death rate like it and these were people who were the most unlikely candidates for it.

        These are people I recently shared cups of tea/beers with – not some “I know a friend of a friend who died of CV-19” These are people whose funerals I went to and/or sent cards and flowers to their partners.

        And let’s do some maths. The average age of a CV-19 fatality is 82. Those must have been very popular 82-year-olds for everyone in the country to have known someone who died of CV-19.

    3. alan jutson
      September 11, 2021

      Andy

      Unfortunately it is the youngsters who are letting us down and failing to turn up for jabs ANDY, you know the ones that you suggest care about others so much, all those over 50 age groups are up in the 90 percent and above.

      Highest rates of infection is in the under 25 age group.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 11, 2021

        And leave litter and discarded tents everywhere.

    4. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      Andy said: “The Brexitists told us vaccines proved their project was right – and then swathes of EU countries beat us anyway.”

      Remains predicted the UK would fail by not being part of the EU’s centralised vaccine procurement scheme. That prediction proved absurd (like almost all Remain predictions) and false. That’s what Leaves highlighted, it was not about “beating” anybody.

    5. MiC
      September 11, 2021

      It does, if you use excess mortality as a guide for international comparison, rather than the official tally of questionable methodology, Andy.

      That gives a figure of over 200,000.

    6. Margaretbj.
      September 11, 2021

      Reply I am sorry John .I know you believe in free speech and different points of view but this guy is ageist pugnacious and an agent provocateur.You should not publish this disrespect.

    7. Original Richard
      September 11, 2021

      Andy, I suggest you read the Politico.eu article :

      https://www.politico.eu/article/has-the-eu-really-vaccinated-70-percent-of-adults-against-coronavirus/

      Where they write :

      “Has the EU really vaccinated 70 percent of adults against coronavirus?

      The EU’s official data source for vaccination statistics doesn’t back up the much-hyped target.”

  17. MPC
    September 11, 2021

    11. Review the proposed increases in Corporation Tax

    1. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      Drop CT to 0% where the profits are reinvested. The companies will invest it far, far better than the Gov. who will piss it down the drain in general.

      1. glen cullen
        September 11, 2021

        All money is spent, its whether we spend our earned money on the things we like or we allow governments to take a precentage of our money and spend it on things they like

  18. Sir Joe Soap
    September 11, 2021

    You might find that they keep on rolling out the QE, but confidence and morale is lost. When people haven’t worked for a year, the last they they need to stimulate them is a slap in the face with more tax. Regardless of the pluses and minuses of the pandemic, this is the moment the worm turns on this rubbish government. Somehow a Reform movement will soon fill the vacuum left by a kneel-a-lot and Nut-nuts’ man.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      People have yet to see that the *cheeky chappy* is a *sneaky chappy* – once this happens his brand and his party will be trash.

      Masks and lockdown this winter ?

      Bring it on. The worse this government looks the faster it will fall.

      1. Everhopeful
        September 11, 2021

        Apparently it already slipped below Labour in a YouGov poll. Labour 35%…Tories 33%…lowest since 2019.
        Reform Party now on 10%.
        I expect it will continue to mop up ex Tories.

        No more masks ever. No more imprisonment.
        “Irreversible” said Johnson.
        That had better not be a lie!

    2. Mitchel
      September 11, 2021

      QE to infiniteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee it was always going to be….or at least until we suffer total monetary collapse.

      1. Everhopeful
        September 11, 2021

        +1

    3. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      Joe, Yes. And I think this is the point from which we can say ‘Carrie on Boris’ is finished.

  19. Bryan Harris
    September 11, 2021

    Nobody who can do anything is listening.

    The charade of normality continues while everything is being done to make it possible for the great reset to happen, after people are made poor by ever more excessive taxes.

    With apartheid passports we will be entering a time where tyranny rules, even though government and others go through the daily motions to make it seem that nothing is changing.

    I read that the IMF has offered to wipe out the debts of people in Scotland who agree to give up all ownership, present and future.

  20. GilesB
    September 11, 2021

    11. Drop net zero targets. Climate change forecasts have been consistently wrong for the last thirty years. The public knows that they are wrong now too. Just produced by a self-serving, socialist academic/industry complex that wants to control all aspects of our everyday lives.

    1. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      +1

    2. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      +1

    3. SM
      September 11, 2021

      +1

  21. alan jutson
    September 11, 2021

    Whilst I agree we need positive action with lower taxes and less regulation, to free up those with positive ideas, I am afraid the Government is doing exactly the opposite of what is required to get the people and business up and running again John.

    Your sensible comments appear to be falling on deaf ears within your Party.
    It now appears to be a race as to which department can spend the most on public services, which now appears to be out of sensible control, and the Treasury seem fixated on which taxes can be raised to try and increase ever more income to fund ever more waste and inefficientcy.

    1. SM
      September 11, 2021

      +1

  22. Christine
    September 11, 2021

    Looking at the policies of this government they are doing everything in their power to destroy this country and its people.

    1. Shirley M
      September 11, 2021

      +1 Christine. It isn’t only the EU that wishes to punish the UK. This government appears determined to make the UK fail.

  23. turboterrier
    September 11, 2021

    Change of attitude?
    It will only come with a new leader and a team with a different Vision Statement to what we have got now.
    If we carry on as we are, we may as well pee into the wind. What we have,have tried and run it’s course and it’s not working. Stop flogging a dead horse.

  24. Mike Wilson
    September 11, 2021

    We did not vote Tory for this and Johnson knows it.

    Why do you say ‘we did not vote Tory …’. How can you know why other people voted Tory. I didn’t vote Tory. I’d like to add ‘never have, never will’ – but I did vote Tory once – in 1979. I would vote for any party, even the Tory Party, that guaranteed council tax rises in line with inflation. Current Tory policy is to allow councils to put up council tax by 5% every year. As if income tax, national insurance and VAT were not enough!

    Council Tax is now like having an eternal mortgage that goes up by 5% each year.

    But, I digress. You’ve had David ‘bonfire of the QUANGOs’ Cameron and then Theresa ‘my Chequers plan to stay in the EU’ May as Prime Ministers – and then possibly the biggest clown to ever hold the office – and you still vote Tory! Surely, by now, you must realise what you are voting for!

    1. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      To be fair, Mike, we got BINO when the other parties were offering Remain. It’s not right, it’s not what we were offered at the Referendum, but it is better than it could have been. And also to be fair Boris’s character seems to have changed. How much that is due to his covid experience, how much to his new wife, and how much due to establishment pressure, I do not know.

    2. Everhopeful
      September 11, 2021

      I think you are “having a go” in the wrong place 😎

      I hate all governments and vote for what seems the least worst at the time. NOT a dedicated Tory.
      Corbyn was a nightmare, UKIP ludicrously gave in to Johnson and Johnson made promises.
      Johnson lied and whilst I don’t make a habit of trusting politicians I didn’t think he’d be THIS bad!
      There can be no doubt that those who voted for him did so because of his promises?
      And he is now blatantly and rapidly breaking them all.
      (The Reform Party is on 10% and the Tories have just slipped behind Labour in a YouGov poll).

    3. glen cullen
      September 11, 2021

      Correct – the direction of travel has been clear to see this past decade

  25. formula57
    September 11, 2021

    Concerning “3. Cut Stamp duty on homes again to add stimulus to a slowing homes market.”, Savills estate agency reports that although there was some speculation that the market would cool down, it has had its busiest August on record.

    There is evidence that the stamp duty cuts encouraged sellers to re-price upward, with buyers logically indifferent as to whether their money went to the seller or in SDLT (as happened in c. 1985). The volume of activity may well have been driven more by Covid considerations (more space, away from cities) than the tax. In any event, it is likely harmful to encourage asset price inflation even if it is fashionable for the Federal Reserve to do so.

    Otherwise, your list ought to be implemented so we await a Government that has not lost its way as this one has.

  26. Dave Andrews
    September 11, 2021

    Controlling our borders should be an objective as well. I haven’t noticed land going to wilding where we are, rather that it’s going to house-building.
    Let’s have a population target for the UK the land can actually support.

  27. Bill B.
    September 11, 2021

    Thanks, Sir John, for the very sensible list of things that Johnson and his mates are, however, not going to do.

    The thing is, the game being played by those in power doesn’t involve recovery. It involves disruption. An economy comprising lots of small independent businesses isn’t wanted. Bigger market share for big corporations is wanted. The disruption caused by lockdowns has helped that agenda. If the end of furlough doesn’t produce the ‘right’ results, more lockdowns will.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      And a withdrawal of cash so that those with the wrong opinions can be literally ‘cancelled’ by corporations.

      “We can turn off your money”

    2. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      Indeed JR’s list is an excellent one, but it does leave out the immense (and pointless) costs of “net zero” CO2 (and the government’s failure to achieve net zero immigration), Bill B.

  28. ChrisS
    September 11, 2021

    It’s certainly true that we need a change of direction !

    Growth Target : The surprise is that we don’t already have one.
    Forget increasing NI contributions but we do need to pay for social care somehow.
    Also NHS finances need to be separated out from other expenditure and shown as a separate tax.
    Reducing stamp duty, yes.
    IR35 was always a nasty little and unnecessary measure
    Buying more goods and services in the UK should be a no-brainer now we are out of the EU. Passports ?
    The others on your list are clearly beneficial but will this government listen ???

    I am a retired residential landlord with 20 units, carefully acquired over the last 20 years. All are let on long term assured shorthold tenancies with about 50% mortgages. During the pandemic all my tenants have paid their rents and all have stayed in their properties. In return, I have not increased rents in the last three years and do not plan to do so this year or next.
    However, I am getting increasingly worried. Already, if I sold some of my properties, Osborne’s higher rates of CGT and Brown’s withdrawn taper allowances would leave me with almost nothing, in one case less than nothing ! I know that many landlords are in a far worse position than me.

    However, landlords are faced with the enormous expense of replacing all their gas boilers and improving already reasonable levels of insulation. They will have no means of escape : They won’t be able to sell because increased CGT will push them into negative equity and they won’t be able to afford or borrow the amount required to replace the boilers. We are not looking for sympathy, but Government action over the last decade and what is currently proposed, will bankrupt many retired people whose income in retirement were otherwise sound.

  29. rose
    September 11, 2021

    Thank you. Again. This is all so blindingly obvious that it is a national tragedy you have to set it out.

    1. glen cullen
      September 11, 2021

      Agree

  30. William Long
    September 11, 2021

    All you are suggesting is highly desireable and, one would have thought, no more than common sense, but we will only get it when we have a Chancellor who is capable of standing up to his officials and insisting that they do things differently, and also, is not just a toady to the Prime Minister.
    I am afraid that we are going to have to go through the hell of a Labour Government. I mean a real one, not just the Wannabee lookalike, that we have at the moment, before there is any chance of that, and we hoped for it this time, but look what we got!

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      +1

      And I WILL vote Labour to destroy the Tory Party as needs to be done.

      An 80 seat majority and the useless (dangerous) Cressida Dick gets two more years in office.

      An 80 seat majority during a pandemic which has had us all under house arrest while we get the biggest seaborne invasion of this nation since 1066 (50 boats a day)

      The 80 seat majority Tories are more respectful of the migrant industry than they are of protecting our people from terrorism and imported variants of covid.

      The 80 seat majority Tories have shown their true face despite being given a mandate to ignore the EU and political correctness.

      Boris’s *cheeky chappy* act is about to wear very very thin with the public.

      1. Wonky Moral Compass
        September 11, 2021

        Agreed, NLA. I’ve now got to the ABB (Anyone But Boris) stage. I don’t care if it allows labour in. Things must change.

  31. glen cullen
    September 11, 2021

    11. Stop the ‘green revolution’ that will have a direct effect upon 4 million automotive jobs

    12. Get the 1.4 million unemployed back into work

    1. DavidJ
      September 11, 2021

      +10

  32. a-tracy
    September 11, 2021

    Just look at the job adverts in the Midlands. There are lots but the companies are advertising for self-employed, the company will provide vans, kit, uniform – the government will get less national insurance not more and your government will kill the companies that are employing people and paying up right now. Your crew never think through the consequences.

    1. Bill B.
      September 11, 2021

      A- Tracy: Oh yes they do. It’s the consequences that they want.

      1. a-tracy
        September 11, 2021

        For what purpose Bill to remove private enterprise? Then turn on the self-employed individuals by making them cough up the same 28.5% national insurance instead of 10%?

    2. alan jutson
      September 11, 2021

      a-tracy

      The consequences will be to toughen up even more IR35 and to make self employment and flexibility even more difficult.
      The Government does not like self employed people, its that simple, otherwise they would do more to try to encourage it.

      1. a-tracy
        September 12, 2021

        I’m not sure what’s going on Alan, they get a lot less tax/insurance from self-employed workers compared to PAYE workers. Companies that employ workers have to cover 100% statutory sick pay for 28 weeks, statutory sick holiday pay for that period, you also have to keep jobs open so can’t engage a replacement, having to turn down specialist work or cover some work with temporary staff plus temporary staff holidays without knowing when they will need laying off. Plus Employer’s NI currently 13.8% paid after retirement age (plus the 1.5% increase next year) plus nest pensions 3% and make provisions for legal costs in relation to employment, plus employment insurance. But those that use the contractor model get away with all this plus they don’t follow other rules such as driving hours regulations as the contractor only claims they are work driving from pick up to delivery not home again or from home to first pick up, I’m not sure IR35 even applies. The true self-employed who engage with several different providers of work and don’t know know where one weeks income is coming in from another weeks and have to cover their own downtime whilst searching for new contracts are a different kettle of fish from big businesses using self-employed sub-contract ‘workers’ exclusively on a virtual full-time basis.

  33. Lynn Atkinson
    September 11, 2021

    All of these measures are absolutely critical! In addition the spending in the NHS must be reigned in dramatically, the CV19 crisis is over. Those who wanted to be vaccinated have had the time and opportunity, those who believe themselves immune, like me, because I had Covid and recovered, and don’t wish to be vaccinated, must be left to take our chances.
    I have a video clip of Dr Fauci being interviewed yesterday on CNN admitting that natural immunity is stronger than the vaccination. I don’t know how to post it but I’m sure it’s searchable.
    His caveat is that the Israeli study, which found the natural immunity to be superior (and free), did not ‘prove how long natural immunity lasts’, because the proof can’t go faster than time. But it is accepted that the SARS immunity has lasted 17 years to date and Israel is looking at a 4th CV19 booster shot. So can we agree that natural immunity lasts longer than the vaccine?
    Please remove the threat of a new lockdown, threats to vaccinate children against their parents wishes, and more destruction of the confidence of the nation. Surely the opinion polls carry some weight in the House of Commons?

    1. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      Spot on, Lynn, on every point.

  34. Newmania
    September 11, 2021

    Basing Policy on “..the current 2% inflation target and debt interest “, is like wandering blindfold towards a cliff edge on the basis of ones current firm footing. Yes a the tax hike is a damaging mistake but a sign that interest rates were about to leap would be different order of bad news.
    There are no good options for us now .The UK has horrifying debts, only sustainable at rock bottom interest rates; an increasing skill shortage, mountains of Brexit bureaucracy ,onerous taxes and the worst and most bloated Government since Callaghan, if not Wilson
    The best we can do is to avoid complete catastrophe. We must accept the low growth trajectory to which Brexit has condemned us, make real structural cuts to spending (I would start with defence ) and keep our fingers crossed .If inflation gets a grip , interest rates will rise and we will see negatives growth at a time when there is no more borrowing available. Not just recession but outright depression will follow .
    We are in dangerous waters, care caution and , sadly , slow progress are now the only options

    A big chunk of the state debt has been bought up by the state.

    1. NickC
      September 11, 2021

      Well, at least we no longer have mountains of EU bureaucracy, Newmania. That’s a good option – and gives us a head start. And if you are horrified by UK (sovereign) debt (as I am), then you should be even more horrified by EU (sovereign and bank) debts.

      1. Newmania
        September 12, 2021

        If the West slides into another toxic debt crisis it will do us absolutely no good whatsoever to be formally separate from its largest block.
        I am yet to see a single example of Brexit ‘reducing’ trade friction , the increase are endless .In my business ( Insurance ) it has stopped the import of security entirely and created a whole new cost sink for fronting to and fro between the UK and onshore clients.
        Perhaps its good for fishing or hairdressers or something really vital like that.

        1. NickC
          September 13, 2021

          Still can’t bring yourself to admit even one bad thing about the EU (horrifying debt, in this case), eh, Newmania?

  35. a-tracy
    September 11, 2021

    You are in a minority of five true conservatives John. The rest could just pin on a red or yellow rosette who would know the difference anymore. This is why the EU like their collective governments of minority coalitions so that no party manifesto get’s followed as deals are cut and we get what the elites want whether the public like it or not. I wonder in Europe how some of the countries would cope if the two largest parties elected had to share the power and positions not the biggest and often the smallest. No system is fair they can isolate a party like UKIP very easily even if they were the second biggest party elected.

    People talk about the remain/leave vote somehow forgetting that at the next election people could have changed their mind and voted Lib Dem and Labour who were offering another vote on remaining in. They are still banging on it was only advisory, well if it was the people voted in Theresa May’s early election and again for Boris’ election to continue on the path that was chosen in 2016. Your party keeps breaking it’s promises though and letting people down, you promised no border in the Irish Sea Boris delivered one, remember it was supposed to be a good deal or no deal yet Boris and your party concedes everything.

    1. Andy
      September 11, 2021

      Funny isn’t it? I love that Brexitists hate Brexit.

      1. a-tracy
        September 12, 2021

        No Andy, Brexitist hate the way that the politicians have turned and twisted on what they promised they’d do. They may have a trade agreement but it favours the EU and Ireland and the customs agreements are as severe as if there was no deal. But to be honest all the people I know that voted Leave are happy because their pay is going up and up and up, there are more jobs available. House prices remained firm and in many places have rose. Even during covid Britain was able to pay a very generous furlough and social benefits, increased universal credit and kept food on people’s tables.

        Tax rises for the NHS we are told are because of covid but the NHS already got the £350m promised on the bus allocated by Theresa May, it will never have enough money, people will wake up to this from next April and as a consequence of the extra NHS taxes people will start to demand answers.

    2. Newmania
      September 11, 2021

      That is quite ridiculous. The alternatives were a nominally Conservative administration which was in fact UKIP in drag, or Jeremy Corbyn, and his Palaeozoic Marxism .
      Can you not conceive that a great many people who stuck with the Conservative Party might have done so despite Brexit? My family are based in two area of the South East both of which are Liberal facing Conservative Seats . One has been lost and the other ( my own) will probably also be lost at the next opportunity .The South East is full of people who work in the City or Services or media who have had no deal Brexit dumped on them .It is not appreciated . ( We ) will now have to pay for the privilege, again , no thanks .
      Many of these people are ( omg) middle class, and as such , apparently, worthless traitors whose modest achievements are ( we are told ) due to some unfair advantage over Hull and Stockport. Our ambitions to send our children to University are also worthless and any expertise or civilised values we may admire just a sickness brought on by insufficient study of the Daily Express.

      The Conservative Party has made its contempt very clear and the penny is dropping

      1. a-tracy
        September 12, 2021

        You are forgetting the Liberal Democrat’s, the Greens, it is not ridiculous at all. Didn’t you even have a special party run by Soubrey and the others.

    3. MiC
      September 11, 2021

      It’s simply a fact, Tracy, that since Parliament is supreme in the UK, referendums can never be anything other than advisory.

      The irony is, that if it had been legally binding, then it would likely have been declared void for the electoral abuses by the Leave campaigns.

      Yes, Cameron’s particular government said that it would be bound by the result, but Parliament could always have changed its mind, and Cameron resigned anyway.

      1. Original Richard
        September 11, 2021

        MiC :

        “The irony is, that if it had been legally binding, then it would likely have been declared void for the electoral abuses by the Leave campaigns.”

        The electoral abuses were by the Remain campaign.

        It is just that the Electoral Commission were so biased towards the Remain campaign that they ended up losing two High Court cases against two prominent Leave campaigners and in 2018 a High Court judgement described the Electoral Commission as “unconstructive”, “arbitrary” and lacking “any rational basis” for its actions and ruling that the Electoral Commission itself does not understand electoral law.

        1. MiC
          September 12, 2021

          The investigations into the major Leave abuses were shut down, remember?

          1. MiC
            September 12, 2021

            But we digress – yes, of course the vote was only advisory, as all UK referendums only ever can be and as it stands always will be.

          2. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            You lefties love conspiracy theories.
            Hilarious

      2. a-tracy
        September 12, 2021

        You are still missing the point Martin, there were two general elections, one gave Boris a resounding victory. He has turned out to be a let down on what he promised and his MPs who all stood on that ticket other John a few other worthies should be ashamed of what they signed up to after saying one thing to get elected and now betraying that manifesto several times over.

        1. MiC
          September 12, 2021

          Maybe every one of his voters wanted Net Zero, then?

          1. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            By that logic every voter wanted net zero because every political party had it in their manifesto.

          2. a-tracy
            September 12, 2021

            MiC Search domain conservatives.comhttps://www.conservatives.com/our-plan
            Reaching Net Zero by 2050 with investment in clean energy solutions and green infrastructure to reduce carbon emissions and pollution. This is what was in the manifesto not 2030!!!

          3. MiC
            September 13, 2021

            But commenters here – presumably mass psychics – claim that virtually all Tory voters wanted a no deal brexit but none of them wanted any “green crap”.

            How do you know this, since only the second was actually in the manifesto?

            Well, the Tories have certainly ditched any attempt to preserve “blue flag” standards for our beaches, so surely you’re at least skipping about over that anti “green crap” move?

            No?

            Why ever not?

            Yes, as Andy says, it is funny.

          4. a-tracy
            September 16, 2021

            You claim all sorts of things Martin, as a regular commenter here, referring to ‘commenters here’ does not make us all a majority group often contributors comments are as individual as yours. There is only one commenter that regularly refers to ‘green crap’.

            Most people I know want to save money on bills; when they can afford they replace their boilers, have insulation, live in the new more eco-efficient housing with smaller double glazed windows, are on water meters and are more concious of their water use because of it, recycle (although my generation always recycled more not buying plastic water bottles, our milk used to come in recycled bottles until the EU got involved, making our own lunches without all the packaging). People change appliances to energy-efficient models when available. We want lower-cost car manufacturers to enter our market with better value hybrid and electric cars such as Kia, we are sick of expensive German marks taking their sweet time and cornering the executive market. A guy I know e-mailed seven garages about their electric offerings this week only one garage responded, John, you’ll be disappointed to know two Jaguar dealerships ignored his e-mail. Even when people want to go green they are stalled by availability (it has taken Germany too long to get on board with the greening global promises) and these businesses responsiveness.

            You should get out of your clique all the time it is far too negative. Can I ask what mileage do you do each year between South Wales and Yorkshire and elsewhere? What are your flight miles in normal years, are you a saint when it comes to energy use? How green is HS2? The government wants all us to invest in more green but it doesn’t force through changes on bus fleets, bus sizes, their large public sector car park lights are on all night with no cars in the car park, buildings have lights on late into the night, they control a lot of fleet market with mobility cars. There are changes they can make first that will help the second-hand market.

        2. Peter2
          September 14, 2021

          All manifestos included a committment to net zero.
          The Conservatives stated target in their manifesto was 2050
          Now it has been brought forward to 2030 which is unrealistic and uncosted.
          The manifesto also committed to leaving the EU
          Other parties spoke about various half in half out plans.
          That is why the Conservatives got a huge 80 seat majority and Labour got its worst result since 1935.

  36. No Longer Anonymous
    September 11, 2021

    The sooner this government fails the better.

    I believe it to be the worst in our history.

    1. ChrisS
      September 11, 2021

      Be careful what you wish for :
      We might not like the policies Boris is pursuing but there is no alternative government out there !

      The Libdems are no better than Labour and the SNP, all three of which would bankrupt the country in a single term, especially as an unholy coalition of the three is the only way that they could possibly put together a government that had more seats than Boris. It certainly would not have a mandate to govern England.
      Change has to come from within the Conservative party. I’m not sure whether Sunak would really be a lot better than Boris but there is at least a chance that he would moderate the extravagant spending we are currently seeing. What we really need is an end to the green crap agenda which we certainly can’t afford.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 11, 2021

        11 years of Tory misrule and the country has never seemed so communist.

        The Tories have an 80 seat mandate to sort out Brexit and destroy political correctness.

        Allegra Stratton has far more power than John Redwood. Asylum seekers have far more power than retired Naval Commanders. Andy is the true voice of the Tory Party and not me.

        So. From the Boris Hope (and me fretting about his illness) I relish every misstep he makes so that The People might see what he really is.

        The boat invasion is exquisite.

        11 years. 11 YEARS !

        The Tories were ‘H’ all along !!! (Allusion to Between the Lines.)

    2. Andy
      September 11, 2021

      It is the worst in our history.

      58% of the electorate were smart enough to notice this before the 2019 election.

      It is the 42% minority which has imposed this useless government on us.

      1. Peter2
        September 11, 2021

        If you have more than 2 parties then the total number of votes for all the other parties when added together will nearly always add up to more than the winning party.
        We vote people into individual constituencies.

        1. MiC
          September 12, 2021

          Which is why FPTP is preposterous.

          1. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            Labour don’t want PR

  37. MWB
    September 11, 2021

    No policy will be of any use at all unless this government curbs immigration. Immigration trumps all other problems.

    1. Original Richard
      September 11, 2021

      MWB :

      Agreed.

      Immigration will eventually destroy our social cohesion and then our economy and institutions.

  38. Lester_Cynic
    September 11, 2021

    Once again Sir John you make all the right noises but surely even you must realise that you’re fighting for a lost cause?

    The conservative party is in its death throes and beyond resuscitation surely the kindest thing is to put it out of its misery?

    The posts here are becoming ever more critical and the mood of the country is changing judging by the comments I hear from the people I speak with

    Boris coming out today with an insincere broadcast about 9/11, something about erecting a piece of steel from the building in a park, why wait 20 years?

    And I bet this isn’t moderated swiftly or ever!

  39. Lester_Cynic
    September 11, 2021

    There were only 4 comments at the time that I left mine, so let’s see what happens?

  40. bigneil - newer comp
    September 11, 2021

    As it is now VERY clear that to get a free life in the UK all anyone has to do is ARRIVE on a dinghy. Tell someone completely false details – and NEVER tell anyone which country you are from. Result – – you will be housed, fed, NHS, benefits, kids educated etc etc – – ALL FREE. Don’t work. Don’t contribute. JUST BE A BURDEN.
    SO – – how are you going to house all of Africa?? and Asia? And make US pay for them?

    1. DavidJ
      September 11, 2021

      +1

    2. Original Richard
      September 11, 2021

      BIGNEIL :

      Agreed.

  41. dixie
    September 11, 2021

    5 & 10 are particularly important, when the government procures goods and services it must give priority to UK owned businesses and should be encouraging smaller concerns rather than the “big 4”.

  42. RichardP
    September 11, 2021

    If only we had a Conservative Government! I agree with all your suggestions and would add the following.

    Scrap HS2 and concentrate on improving conventional railways, especially in the North.
    Cancel COP26 and Net-Zero Carbon dogma. Concentrate on providing RELIABLE and CHEAP energy supplies that aren’t subject to fluctuations in the weather.
    Scrap Test & Trace and Vaccine Passports, spend the money on reducing hospital waiting lists.
    Don’t buy any more covid vaccine. If two doses hasn’t worked, constant repetition won’t improve the outcome.
    Rebalance employment in the Health Service to increase the ratio of health to administrative staff.

    1. Nota#
      September 11, 2021

      @RichardP +1

    2. DB
      September 11, 2021

      The NHS and vaccination are both articles of faith. That is why children are being vaccinated, even though they are in no danger from Covid but might be in danger from the vaccines.

    3. glen cullen
      September 11, 2021

      ”If only we had a Conservative Government! ”
      Totally agree….if only we had a conservative government, and I’d suggest conservative MPs
      Where are they in this hour of need, who’s manning the wall

  43. DOM
    September 11, 2021

    Rather predictably and unsurprisingly the perpetrators of political poison are once again apologising for the terrorists and their supporters who carried out one of the most heinous attacks against humanity on the 11 September, 2001.

    The coordination between the racist BBC, the snivelling woke media and various political operators and those they protect are out in force trying to deflect attention away from this event that has become another identity weapon to silence and manage public debate.

    Thank god there’s the TCF Conservative Woman to examine in full detail all the issues that our political class would rather sweep away

    What exactly can we now openly discuss without fear of prosecution or the fascist accusation or the Stalinist denunciation of ‘far right extremism’ to destroy those who are freedom loving civilians who pay their taxes, adhere to the law and are the BACKBONE OF THIS DYING NATION

  44. Pieter C
    September 11, 2021

    It used to be Labour party ministers who forgot that before wealth can be re-distributed, it must first be created. All failures, either in government or business, arise from flawed and inadequate intellect. Sir John, your action points are absolutely what the government should be doing, however we have a Prime Minister who cannot “do the math” and believes that he can talk his way out of any difficult situation. The increased tax revenues announced will simply disappear into the ever-gaping maw of the NHS without any noticeable improvements to social care.

  45. Nota#
    September 11, 2021

    To repeat the drum everyone but Government is aware of. No economy, equals no money, therefore reduced taxes being paid.

    This Socialist concept of creating pressure and sucking the life out of an already volatile economy, is the agenda of the self destruct to rebuild in the Socialist image. A Corbyn philosophy put in practice by another extreme left wing Government. Boris keeps confirming the conspiracy theory of the ‘Great Reset’ is real and happening in the UK

  46. GeorgeP
    September 11, 2021

    I’ve voted Tory all my life apart from the 2019 Euro elections when I voted for the Brexit Party for obvious reasons. I don’t vote for the Tories because of any sort of love or loyalty towards the Conservative Party, but because I believe that low taxation and a small state provides better outcomes than high tax/big state. At the next election I will take a hard look at other right of centre parties offers to the electorate and if my vote goes elsewhere and that lets Labour in, then so be it. How much worse could they be?

    1. Lifelogic
      September 11, 2021

      Labour will be even worse as we saw with Milliband’s appalling Tomb Stone agenda, then Corbyn’s and now Starmer’s agenda. And do not forget it will a Labour with the dire SNP, greens, the lefty welsh parties and similar.

      Before the May 2004 (?) General Election the Tories will doubtless once again promise to reduce taxes, limit immigration, improve the NHS & public service and have a bonfire of red tape – perhaps even cut the green crap – but who will ever trust them now? The current government’s policies are clearly designed to kill growth and deter investment.

      1. glen cullen
        September 11, 2021

        ‘immigrations back to the thousands’……..that boat has sailed – we just don’t believe a tory

    2. DB
      September 11, 2021

      It’s perfectly possible that Corbyn, if he had been elected, would have wasted less money than Johnson has.

    3. Mike Wilson
      September 11, 2021

      Yet another person acknowledging that they vote to keep someone out, not get someone in.

      Yet I’d bet you’d be the first to oppose a change away from first past the post.

      1. Original Richard
        September 11, 2021

        Mike Wilson :

        “Yet another person acknowledging that they vote to keep someone out, not get someone in. ”

        Unfortunately we did not vote for AV when we had the chance in the 2011 referendum.

        It enables a single MP to be directly elected for a particular constituency as for FPTP but only when they have received 50% or more of the votes from the first and, if necessary, second preferences.

        So it enables the voters to vote for new parties without the danger of a split vote resulting in the unintended election of an MP who definitely does not represent the constituency’s views.

  47. L Jones
    September 11, 2021

    Stop this obsessive ”testing” for what is now known to be a mild (for most) endemic viral disease – the result of which is causing havoc in the working population, as well as in people’s lives generally. And stop the continual threats to set up a two-tier society which gives no-one any confidence for the future, economically or socially.

  48. Nota#
    September 11, 2021

    Sir John – the majority of the UK with a clear head agrees with you 100%. The problem is that Boris has confirmed he is 100% Socialist, believes in that sort of command and control of the Worlds far left. It would appear that he thinks 1984 is his rule book, and bible for a future world. He has highjacked the Conservative Party to play out his own personal dystopian dream – the UK will, as in his asperation remember him in history. Not as a Great leader but as a man that single handedly brought 70million people to their knees.

    As most people commenting on here to day are pointing out in their own way, the Conservative Party has gone AWOL.

    The members of the Conservative Party now need to take control and bring the UK back from this one mans dream of the countries oblivion

  49. The Prangwizard
    September 11, 2021

    It is pointless to hope for change. ‘Boris’ and his acolytes are not interested in views which differ from their grand plans to save the world by sacrificing the people. They if course do not live among the people who will have their lifestyles and comforts stolen from them. They have their own planet. And please note Sir John in 6. declares his loyalty to green fanaticism.

  50. DavidJ
    September 11, 2021

    Excellent suggestions Sir John but good luck persuading Boris (and worse still his wife) to drop his allegiance to the globalists and do as you suggest.

  51. paul
    September 11, 2021

    You will have nothing and you will be happy, more for less with another 10 million cameras along with your car nobbled, John you must be going to the wrong meeting’s.
    The west has gone east and left behind a shell of it selve, John when you said 2015 you were retiring but cancelled it to get Brexit done and all so to change the party from within, this week in parliament only saw 4 other MPs in your party vote with you, do you see any thing changing by carryon as a MP.

  52. forthurst
    September 11, 2021

    “8. Use farming subsidies and rules to promote more food growing – too much is being directed to wilding”
    Does that mean subsidies for food production, JR? Farmers need to be weaned off subsidies not related to food production whilst we were flooded with CAP-subsidised French etc produce.
    Is Defra up to it? They lost out badly on fishing. Generations of civil servants working with Brussels to steal our fish, stop our farmers producing, and ‘rewilding’ the countryside to a pre-Neolithic state by ceasing to dredge rivers etc. A major clear-out is required.

  53. Denis Cooper
    September 11, 2021

    Off topic, I have just sent this rather tart response to a letter in our local newspaper:

    “Dear Sir

    Phil Jones of the European Movement has performed a valuable public service by directly quoting the EU website and exposing the absurdity of the presumption contained in the Irish protocol, namely that all goods entering Northern Ireland are at risk of subsequently moving on to the EU.

    (Viewpoint September 9, “UK agreement on ‘goods not at risk'”)

    In a typical year before the pandemic goods worth around £17 billion a year would be brought into Northern Ireland, while goods worth a mere £3 billion would be exported from there to the Irish Republic, so we see straight off that the EU’s presumption must be at least 80 percent incorrect.

    But it is worse than that, because some of the goods being carried across the land border into the Republic are being produced in Northern Ireland rather than being imported from elsewhere and then sent on to the south, so probably the EU is more than 90 percent wrong with its presumption.

    Indeed I would say that in a competition for the archetypal EU scheme the Irish protocol would score highly: based on false premises, over complex, time and energy wasting, and not even effective for its stated purpose. So the question must arise: why on earth did our politicians agree to it?

    As I have repeatedly argued here since February 2018 the need is for legal controls on the small volume of goods exported from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic, not on the much greater volume of goods imported into the province of which 90 percent plus will never go near the border.

    Yours etc”

    1. MiC
      September 12, 2021

      So the claim that “some” UK public sector spending is lost to fraud and to corruption is at least “90% wrong”, then, Dennis.

      So that’s more wrong than right, which you appear to claim equates to “no money is lost”.

      What an interesting approach.

      1. Denis Cooper
        September 12, 2021

        The interesting approach is to presume that all goods arriving in Northern Ireland are at risk of being moved on to the Republic when we know that the outwards flow across the land border to the south is a small fraction of the inwards flow at the points of entry to the north. So let us see a proper number for the proportion of goods that just use Northern Ireland as a route to the Republic, and then it may be clearer even to types like you whether it would make more sense to apply legal controls to the inwards flow or to the outwards flow.

        1. Peter2
          September 12, 2021

          But the control of imports into the South of Ireland is for the Republic of Ireland to manage.

          1. MiC
            September 12, 2021

            Have you read what the international treaty agreed between the UK and the European Union says about that, Peter?

            I think that you will find that it has more bearing than does your opinion.

          2. Peter2
            September 12, 2021

            Wrong as usual MiC

          3. Denis Cooper
            September 13, 2021

            It would be best if it was a collaborative arrangement, as most recently suggested here:

            https://centreforbrexitpolicy.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Mutual-Enforcement-Antidote-to-the-NI-Protocol.pdf

            “Mutual Enforcement respects both the integrity of the EU Single Market and the independent sovereignty of the UK voted for by the British people in the referendum in 2016. It involves both the EU and the UK mutually enforcing each other’s rules, regulations, and taxes for companies exporting into each other’s territory. Any company operating out of NI would be required to declare that it had met all the obligations
            contained in EU law when selling goods to the Republic of Ireland. Any breach of that obligation would be followed up by the authorities in the UK and breaches would carry severe penalties as an effective disincentive to break that obligation. The EU authorities would do the same for goods being exported from the RoI to NI. This avoids the needs for border checks while at the same time safeguarding the integrity of the EU internal market.”

            And also the integrity of the UK internal market, if the EU decides to reciprocate to our generous proposal; but in any case we should go ahead now and pass the necessary UK laws as adumbrated in the Command Paper, paragraphs 43 and 62:

            https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1008451/CCS207_CCS0721914902-005_Northern_Ireland_Protocol_Web_Accessible__1_.pdf

            As DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson acknowledged in his recent speech:

            https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/in-full-sir-jeffrey-sets-out-battleplan-against-protocol-in-long-awaited-speech-3377934

            “If the solutions suggested in the Government’s Command paper were delivered in full then that would go some way to satisfying our tests and restoring the economic integrity of the United Kingdom.

            Likewise, the Mutual Enforcement proposals from the Centre for Brexit policy offer a sensible and pragmatic way of approaching the issue.”

  54. Nota#
    September 11, 2021

    From todays Telegraph – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/09/10/taxes-forecast-rise-plug-5bn-black-hole-nhs/
    10:38AM
    Taxes forecast to rise again to plug £5bn black hole in the NHS
    Boris Johnson’s £36bn tax raid will not be enough to plug holes in the NHS and further large increases are likely within just three years to make up the shortfall, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned.

    The extra increase of 38% /£64billion will not be enough – the ‘black hole’ is growing. The 38% increase is no followed with a 38% improvement in services – unless Diversity Officers are counted – ‘maybe’. The Joke on us being played out by this PM shows no sign of waning. He will destroy the Country just as he has destroyed the Conservative Party. Yet people who call themselves Conservatives, stand back and let it happen.

    Never forget the People of the UK might have voted Conservative, but they didn’t choose their leader or PM. That is totally the responsibility of the ‘Conservative Party’

  55. Narrow Shoulders
    September 11, 2021

    Much to agree with in your list Sir John.

    I can’t agree with you about stamp duty though. We need policies to hold house prices at what they are for a few years, growth based on increased property prices is an illusion and requires ever more confected money. Raise interest rates provide a return on savings and increase the price of a mortgage.

    Reduce taxes to offset the increased cost and watch confidence return.

  56. Sayagain
    September 11, 2021

    The Population of England is far too much – we could do with half the number

    With less people and more wilding we’d manage better and have better quality of life

    Scotland Wales and Ireland have the most desirable population sizes

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      September 11, 2021

      Which is what English people decided with their choice to have smaller families but the politicians decided otherwise !

    2. Zorro
      September 11, 2021

      How do you propose to reduce it by 50%, need I ask?

      zorro

  57. acorn
    September 11, 2021

    There is nothing magic about a 2% inflation target. Start monitoring economic sectors for wage and materials inflation. If there isn’t any in a particular sector, the Treasury isn’t spending enough into that sector. Taxes may well be taking too much spending out of that sector.

    The EU dropped its debt and deficit targets a year back. Debt interest is about 3.7% of revenue, after APF correction. The easiest way to reduce that is to stop issuing Gilts to match Treasury spending; the “full funding rule” is a purely political invention, there is no operational requirement for it.

    The Housing market is short of imported materials not funding. IR35 is a “levelling-up” tax for PAYE employees.

    Your 5,6,7 and 8 will hit technical barriers and limits that will take 5 – 10 years to overcome.

    Your 9 and 10. There is enough evidence world wide that says countries with lots of small businesses have low productivity and slow growth. And, “Unicorns” are as rare as Hens teeth. Many, as the Chinaman said, “what go up like rocket come down like brick”.

    The bottom line is you do have to spend your way out of a recession. As the sovereign currency issuer, the Treasury can do that with a keyboard; there is nothing it can’t afford that is available for sale in its own currency. It will get all its spending back via taxes eventually. And; it can wait till the end of time for that to happen.

  58. Pauline Baxter
    September 11, 2021

    YES Sir John. Right today in all you have said.
    PLUS if I may add a suggestion:- Couldn’t we introduce domestic legislation that prevents Foreign or Global companies/organisations getting control of our home grown businesses.
    I read somewhere that other countries do that. America I believe it was.
    You have said in the past that the EU had bought up much of our manufacturing capacity and moved it into their ‘domain’.
    But recently the U.S. has bought Morrisons I believe. ‘Our’ retail food chain.

  59. RGrange
    September 11, 2021

    Dear Sir John, on October 3rd the Reform UK conference will be not far away from you in Manchester. Do please pop down if you have time. You would be among friends who value what you have contributed to politics recently, and what you still could contribute in future.

    I know it would be a hard step for you to take, but once you were there, who knows, you might decide not to go back to the other place!

  60. Lindsay McDougall
    September 12, 2021

    You shouldn’t ask for these ten measures without specifying the main reductions in public expenditure that will be necessary. A huge change in mentality by the entire body politic is needed. We live not only a in Nanny State but a Ninny State, where every special interest group holds out its begging bowl, playing sentimental violins in the background. The Government gives way more often than it should.

    The Government needs to set out a strategy for recovering fiscal rectitude. It also needs to take back control of interest rates from the Bank of England and to specify a time frame over which base rate should slowly rise to inflation plus 0.5%. State borrowing is 100% of GDP and needs managing downwards.

    There has to be a recession of some sort within the (up to) four years till the next General Election. If you have any sense of self preservation, it is better to have it small and sooner rather than large and later. Allowing inflation to build and slamming on the brakes two years before election day would not be a good idea.

  61. The PrangWizard of England
    September 12, 2021

    With regard to 8 and the need to grow more food here, how will this be achieved if there are more trees planted on perfectly good land, which you favour? Claiming there is enough land is not a legitimate response.

    1. MiC
      September 12, 2021

      Conifers are largely planted on acidic moorland and hillside soils which are not of much use for farming.

      1. Peter2
        September 12, 2021

        Conifers are just one of hundreds of different varieties of trees.
        Most trees will not thrive on acidic moorlands nor on hillside soils.
        Did you not know MiC?

  62. XY
    September 16, 2021

    Re IR35, it would be interesting to see our host’s views on getting rid of Employers NI as a route to pulling the teeth of IR35.

    Perhaps a gradual reduction, or an increase in the threshold at which it becomes payable (there’s a relatively new company allowance for Cos with 2 or more employees, but it’s only about £2k).

    This could be increased (and could also allow for companies of one person). This would leave only the largest companies paying ER NI – which would send the lobbying fraternity into a tailspin of course.

    Or it could simply be gradually reduced to zero across the board.

    A tax on emnploying UK-based workers is a really bad idea in the modern world, for so many reasons.

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