World supply is damaged. China has introduced electricity rationing and is producing less as a result. Some Chinese ports have been partially closed for periods this summer thanks to continuing covid outbreaks. World shipping has been disrupted by shortages of empty containers, by a Suez Canal blockage and by pandemic restrictions. There is a general shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers across Europe. China, the USA and the EU are turning to policies that rely more on home production and less on imports and global collaboration. There is a gas shortage worldwide, worsened by a period of little wind toĀ generate power that way and by Russian negotiations over the new pipeline to Germany . The regulator still has to grant a licence for the pipeline which is fully compliant with EU rules.Ā There are skill shortages on both sides of the Atlantic as economies recover from the anti pandemic closures.
The UK labour market despite the lockdowns has relatively low unemployment and a high level of vacancies. Some lower paid activities are in particularly short supply. There needs to be an adjustment, with people offered training and better pay and conditions to ensure we have enough HGV drivers, care workers, food processors, farm workers, chefsĀ and the rest. We also need to make sure there are enough people going through the longer training periods to be nurses, doctors, engineers and similarĀ so we do not have to rely on inviting them in from lower income countries that need their own people.
Whilst in the short term these stresses are worrying to people, they are also an opportunity to improve the lives of many. I have written and spoken before about truck drivers. There isĀ now greater agreement that they need better break and overnight facilities. They could also do with Highway departments that understand their needs to get to shops, hospitals and other customer places more easily. There does need to be better pay for those still on low pay and for those the industry needs to attract. It is primarily a task for employers to offer the better packages and to support people through training where necessary. Government needs to see through its promises to greatly expand training and testing capacity and should with Councils work on improving the conditions for drivers on the public highway and in parking and rest facilities.
Employers in aĀ number of areas need to do a similar exercise. In the care sector local government has a role to play as the buyer and user of many services. What combination of better training, more machine power and other support, and pay is needed to recruit the workforce needed?Ā On the farms what investment can there be in support equipment and labour saving machinery to get the crops in, the fruit picked and the vegetables packaged? There is still a long way to go with growing methods for fruit and vegetables to make them easier to pick and pack. Can the hotel and restaurant industry offer better career opportunities including training more chefs?
October 1, 2021
Correct.
Meanwhile Boris seems to think he is now not just PM but God of the world and the Sun too. He thinks COP26 is the beginning of the end of Climate Change. This seems rather unlikely as the
Earth’s climate (and solar activity) has been changing for well over 4.5 billion years.
Then we have Priti Patel:- I say this as Home Secretary and as a woman, women want to feel safe and be safe!
Well said Patel! I thought you might be saying it as a squirrel and that people really wanted to feel at great risk and be at great risk. Thanks goodness you put me right. What is needed is real action not waffle and worthless hot air pledges on immigration and other issues.
I even find myself for once agreeing with Harriet Harman. Credida Dick should surely go. She should never have been appointed nor reappointed. She is a diversity obsessed social worker who seems to be more interested in her diverse work force than in recruiting the best or serving the public.
October 1, 2021
Yet again zero reflection on the topic. Just another excuse to share your self important rants. Looking at the number you posted yesterday, you need to get a job.
What was once the āpub boreā has turned into the āblog boreā
Back on topic, agree totally. Having worked with umpteen businesses and the public sector, management and planning skills have always been questionable, with short termism and a reluctance to invest.
That is why for decades we relied on devaluing the pound to stay competitive. HMG has spent a lot of money to upskill UK plc, regular apprenticeship schemes are a prime example but typically they are the smallest amount of money for the most interventions measuring those rather than the economic benefit.
Poor management gets away with it in good (easy) times, when it gets tough they get found out. Now is just another example.
October 1, 2021
I rather enjoy LL’s contributions or “rants” as you put it Nig l. Perhaps it’s because I generally agree with his outlook .
October 1, 2021
@DUYFKEN
But whether you agree with him or not, you must admit he says the same thing over and over again. Heās like a nagging wife. I am sure he cuts and pastes his comments from the day before.
In the post above he has, admittedly, said something different. No doubt we will be treated to the usual daily diatribe about green crap, highest taxes in 70 years etc. later.
October 1, 2021
MW
I enjoy his comments too!
Right on the money!
October 1, 2021
Duyfken. Well said. Nig1 is the one who thinks he’s important. I also like LL’s comments. This site is for everyone not just those who think their posts are better. If Sir John had thought it not worth showing he would not have published it.
October 1, 2021
Me too, he saves me a lot of typing.
Boris looked ridiculous yesterday with his coal, cars and cash mantra.
Most delegates were yawning.
October 1, 2021
I reflected on the topic and felt JR had covered it rather well already. It is not compulsory to read my comments.
I do have a job, indeed I have rather to many currently.
October 1, 2021
I have lots of women in my family. THEY ALL FEEL SAFE, ALWAYS so Patel’s vile misandry and her portrayal of women as victims is utterly political. When is her report on Labour’s great, unspeakable, inhumane secret or is she more concerned about protecting her party from harm at the expense of justice for real victims?
Pathetic
October 1, 2021
One Tory MP on the radio wanted attacks on women to be “the” police’s highest priority. Surely all such appalling attacks should be a top priority. But there are approximately 2.5 times as many men murdered as women.
October 1, 2021
Lifelogic: “One Tory MP on the radio wanted attacks on women to be ātheā policeās highest priority.”
In light of the murder by a serving officer of the Met., of Sarah Everard. Surely, that’s a joke?
Apparently, the Police think Cousins may have committed more crimes. Quelle surprise!
October 1, 2021
LL, Indeed. Now what is the number of men killed by women vs. of women killed by men? And while you are at it of women killed by women, and of men killed by men.
October 1, 2021
Try answering your own questions heffy.
What is this blog for?
Your own personal quiz site?
October 1, 2021
A great question for Pub Quiz Night. I predict a deathly hush for many seconds before people start coughing or calling out ‘next question’.
October 4, 2021
P2, my original question was to the butcher, not to the sausage. Why do you always have to intervene on questions not directly to you, and in doing so showing off how limited you are.
October 2, 2021
P2, given that youāre very unlikely to see through the near-idiocies that LL produces at times, do you not feel happy when someone points out the weaknesses in his āthinkingā?
There are indeed 2.5 times more men killed than there are women.
If you want more statistics, 93% of killings in England and Wales are committed by men, with two thirds of them by white men.
So tell me P2, does that 2/3 say something about violent white men or something about the actual distribution of the population?
On the contrary, given the 51% women vs 49 % men distribution of the UK population, the 93% is significant, whereas the 2.5 factor is not. I would have expected a businessman confident with figures to be able to figure that by himself.
October 2, 2021
You keep demanding others answer your questions.
It has become a real habit with you.
Yet you already know the answers.
Seems a waste of your time to me.
October 1, 2021
Men are more often the victims of street violence than women are, so focusing on the safety of women is not only vile misandry, but neglects the bigger problem. The police should focus on improving street safety for EVERYONE, with at least as much emphasis on male safety as female safety.
October 1, 2021
Yes, our sons are far more at risk on the streets than our daughters; just as men were more affected by the Wuhan virus than women – but we were told otherwise by countless experts and witnesses at select committees. “Women were more greatly impacted” were the weaselly words they used.
Domestic violence is another thing, but even there a quarter is female violence against men.
We badly want chivalry back.
Boys used to have it dinned into them that men were physically stronger than women and children, and must therefore restrain themselves. Their superior strength was to protect women and children. Then along came Harriet Harman and co and later Jess Phillips and co and the entire male chivalric code was thrown out with the bathwater. It is galling listening to those two now that policewomen, women soldiers, school mistresses, women MPs, and even school girls at school are being attacked.
We also need to rein in the pornography and violence on tap all over the internet.
October 1, 2021
I found it disturbing that Ms Dick, an apparently experienced police officer and holder of one of the most senior positions within the Service, described Miss Everard’s killer as a ‘coward’, when it is apparent to most of us that he is a murderous psychopath.
October 1, 2021
Indeed. One who had even been given an armed position within the police.
October 1, 2021
LL,
Perhaps instead of putting 900 cops behind desks for alleged hate crime on computers they could be on the street! Moreover all those officers in desk jobs should be secondary to street patrol speaking to everyone making them feel bad be safe. Novel idea eh. It should be a priority for Useless Patel and HMIC to make it happen. Fewer nine to five departments more 24/7, including female officers. Cut back on term time working, part time working etc more 24/7 policing time.
Let Patel show us force by force uniform operational police officer proportion against woke desk jobs squads. Cut out diversity squads and have cops instead. Maggie told us civilianisation would put cops on the street! Army of civilians no more cops on street.
Change useless CPS. They could not make a charging decision or safely prosecute a shoplifter. Probably claim all criminals are victims of life!
October 1, 2021
Well said.
I have noticed that, following these high profile cases, it has become fashionable for senior police officers and senior cps officers to go onto the media and indulge in childish name calling of the newly convicted criminals. I cannot see what good it does.
October 1, 2021
Indeed he was clearly not safe to be on the streets, let alone as an armed police officer.
October 1, 2021
You are correct SM – The definition of a coward is – ‘a person who is contemptibly lacking in the courage to do or endure dangerous or unpleasant things.’ and that piece of dirt certainly wasn’t that.
This male officer has caused a problem for single arresting officers now – what woman will allow themselves to be handcuffed now by a lone police officer! I’m sorry but if the police want to handcuff people and put them in unmarked vehicles it’s a NO from now on. By not listening to warnings from his colleagues, doing his clearances and dealing with the reports about his conduct the senior Managers have let us and the service down.
October 1, 2021
We need to get back to ‘Bobbies on bicycles two by two.’
Or better still Bobbies on the beat two by two. Modern woke policing and zooming around town in cars needs to go.
October 1, 2021
The best thing would be to get government employees back to work.
DVLA and HMRC are months behind.
My neighbours spend more time out walking than actually doing anything productive.
There’s no wonder we’re un such a mess.
October 1, 2021
+1 first they over regulate & licence everything then they all “work” from home so no one can get the licences, medicals & papers they need.
October 1, 2021
Ian, yes and coffee breaks are high on the agenda too. Then there’s the bike and online shopping and sites like this.
October 1, 2021
You are confusing being retired – which most of you are – with working from home. All of the people I know who work from home work harder and are far more productive than they ever were in the office. Most blue chip employers are not expecting workers to go back full time – because these employers have reaped the benefits of home working too.
But then many of you havenāt been anywhere near an office this side of the millennium so itās not a surprise that you donāt get it.
October 1, 2021
Andy, your reply is contemptuous as per normal. In case you hadn’t noticed there are many ‘retired’ people working still, our host included. You spend as much time on here as others and yet you profess to be a professional person. That’s a laugh.
Reply I am not retired! Nor have I ever been busier
October 1, 2021
The Government seems afraid of the public sector unions – what would Mrs Thatcher have thought!
October 1, 2021
Elizabeth Spooner: “what would Mrs Thatcher have thought!”
Sadly, Mrs Thatcher decided she’d be better employed reorganising the Legal system. As a result we got ‘Public Interest Lawyers’ and Phil Shiner.
Thank you Margaret. But you’d have been better employed destroying the NUT. As it is, the country has lurched dramitically to the left, and we’re much poorer as a result.
October 1, 2021
Ian,
Same with MOD. Even police with desk job work from home! Does anyone go to work in the public sector like at MOD anymore?
October 1, 2021
+1
October 1, 2021
Apparently the government minister responsible for keeping the lights on, has reassured us there is no chance of any power cuts this winter.
As Otto von Bismark is reputed to have said, ‘Never believe anything until it’s been officially denied’.
October 1, 2021
Prepare for a rush on candles, torches, generators (and the fuel for them).
October 1, 2021
At least HMRC has come to an agreement with Stanlow refinery, which was the only real threat to fuel supplies. Ignored by the national press, despite their reports of the original crisis over VAT payments.
October 1, 2021
I’m pleased to say our local petrol station was in full flow this morning with no large queues.
October 1, 2021
I filled up when quarter full as usual. No queue.
October 1, 2021
Correct. I have stocked up on candles, matches and bio-ethanol for my fire. The incompetents in Government can’t be trusted to keep the lights on ….. or a great deal else.
October 1, 2021
Correction. The incompetents in government – who most of you voted for.
October 1, 2021
Andy: “Correction. The incompetents in government ā who most of you voted for.”
Actually Andy, while you are not wrong. This latest panic was kicked off, like the last COVID-19 panic by the BBC, which I said at the time, and I’ve not seen anything since to make me change my opinion, is nothing less than a domestic terrorist organisation.
But the Tories, after eleven years in government, they’ve dont nothing about the BBC.
October 1, 2021
Only a few days ago you claimed most did not vote for this government Andy.
Make your mind up.
October 1, 2021
Here’s a thing :
“Thousands of Germans who live in the UK have been written to by the government asking them to drive lorries in an attempt to ease the UK fuel crisis, even though the majority have never been at the wheel of an HGV.
They were included in a 1m-letter mass mailing that also tried to recruit ambulance drivers to get behind the wheel of lorries.”
(Germans are allowed to drive heavier trucks on their non-HGV licences than are ordinary UK drivers, you see)
October 2, 2021
That won’t work as they need a class 1 licence and a certificate of professional competence in the UK to be employed by a UK company.
Don’t believe everything you read in the Guardian.
They can work for a German company and drive over into the UK on an international licence.
October 1, 2021
I see there is now a plan to provide backup in case Hinkley Point never gets off the ground. It entails thousands of miles of 3.6GW of interconnectors from near Barnstaple, presumably to feed power lines across Exmoor to the ones from Hinkley Point that go via Bridgewater. The other end is to be in Morocco, which is I suppose marginally more stable that Algeria or Libya. There the plan is for some 20GWh of batteries (cost about Ā£8bn every 10 years) and 10.5GW of solar and wind across 1,500 sq km of desert. With Ā£16bn for the cables the cost will be similar to Hinkley Point. Perhaps 500MW of undersea heating from the transmission losses too.
October 1, 2021
+1
October 1, 2021
I thought describing yourself as a woman was now effectively verboten. The Thought Police …. the only kind of effective Police we now seem to have … will be after Priti Patel for her “exclusive” language.
October 1, 2021
A few dozen self-centred, precious fools, on social media, do not a Thought Police make, Donna.
October 1, 2021
Bit harsh on the leader of the opposition NLH
October 1, 2021
LL
If reports in the media are even remotely true it would seem that a lot of serving officers where in the know about what was going on.
It would seem that upward communication was lapse or even ignored. How many others will jump or get pushed?
October 1, 2021
People are concerned about the basics of life – food to eat, affordable energy to heat their home, means to travel for work and leisure. All of these are under threat from the inability or unwillingness of this government to ensure these basic needs are met. In reality this Johnson government is making matters much, much worse by its ill-informed policies and reliance on pseudo science. There will be a reckoning this winter; the Conservative party needs to be ready with a new leader willing to take the measures necessary to meet these basic needs and reverse those that inhibit them.
October 1, 2021
Alas dear Greta was correct on one point, he is most definitely Boris blah blah blahā¦.
zorro
October 1, 2021
and Greta snear, snarl, whine, shouted tantrums…..after all a very ill-mannered teen.
October 1, 2021
LL, quite agree that PC Dick is totally unsuitable for her job. Maybe she was appointed because she is a woman, in order to fulfill some so called diversity target.
There is, rightfully, a public outcry about this tragic mrder by a policeman, but a strange reluctance in the media to comment on the (death ed) of a little 7 year old girl in Bolton last year.
Reply I have truncated this. I did spend time checking it out. The facts were different to those you set out and I cannot publish items about clearly identified individuals that are wrong. The account I read said someone was found guilty of a charge other than murder.
October 1, 2021
Good morning, Sir John: all you say is correct, but much of it was predictable and should have been carried out years ago. As a just slightly divergent example, I have read this morning that the NHS is going to increase the number of ‘diagnostic clinics in easily accessible places’ to relieve the pressure on hospitals and reduce waiting lists.
At least 30 years ago in my own experience, the concept of local drop-in clinics /minor injury units (as opposed to GP surgeries and Accident&Emergency units) was begun and then appeared to have come to a halt. Yet these sites so obviously helped both patients and NHS bottlenecks. Just what is it about government/bureaucracy that the most basic and sensible actions take so long to happen, if at all, while idiocies like NetZero penetrate with the speed of, well – of pandemics!
October 1, 2021
Agreed. There is a minor injuries unit at High Wycombe which, although it was necessary to travel some 15 miles to get to it (by car), provided excellent treatment for a 5.5 inch gash to my head several weeks ago.
October 1, 2021
Thats why this government is building so many cycle lanes….for your convenience and the planet
Oh…that doesn’t really help you when you’ve been in a bad accident and have to travel 15 miles fast
October 1, 2021
These emergency Care units and clinical treatment clinics were a very good idea . They were mainly staffed by Nurses , however this was disliked by other professions. !
October 1, 2021
GPs don’t like the competition
October 1, 2021
GC – FOLLOW the MONEY.
October 1, 2021
@oldtimer
You measured the length of your cut to an accuracy of half an inch? Seems a bit of an odd thing to do.
October 1, 2021
@Mike Wilson Tell us how you know please that he only measured it but not any other person looked at the cut to tell oldtimer its length.
October 1, 2021
SM. It’s alright having these extra testing sites but no good if you need treatment and have to wait years. A friend of mine has stage 2 breast cancer and she is having to wait 6 weeks for her operation.
October 1, 2021
Sm
We have an NHS minor injuries Clinic near to us in Bracknell, used to be just a walk in, but now needs a telephone call first, over the years from personal experience and those of others we know, it has an excellent reputation for quick and reliable diagnosis and treatment, management is by a private practice company I am informed, so the usual NHS management and incompetence is avoided.
October 1, 2021
The trouble is that many people who go to A&E are neither accidents nor emergencies. They should be going to their local GP. Unfortunately, to get even a telephone appointment, they have to phone in and wait for the GP to phone back. OR they aren’t registered with a GP or they daren’t register because their status as a resident is uncertain or non-existent.
October 1, 2021
MB -100% spot on. plus when ringing your local Health Centre one has to negotiate one’s way past the obnoxious, left-wing, over-weight female “receptionist” who likes to inform you that “she knows best”.
October 1, 2021
who needs ZOOM when you capture precisely our rare visits and calls to our Surgery.
You didn’t mention the accusing glare through the metal grilles, the ‘what to you want’ snappy phrasing. The impatient look as you explain I might be dying but could I pretty please see a GP, any would do, else I might expire here outside your reception. Otherwise you got it really well.
October 1, 2021
It widget sabotaged. Luckily it’s private money so we’re not on the hook if it goes wrong.
The government has learned nothing still wanting to supply power from foreign countries who can black us out on a whim
October 1, 2021
Good morning.
The Spanish Flu and the Plague / Black Death had dramatic health, social, and economic consequences. The Plague especially so, as this resulted in the end of Serfdom and accelerated a much needed power change in society. I do not believe that CV19 in anyway will have as dramatic effect as the previous pandemics but there will be changes as to the way things are done, especially after the blocking of the Suez Canal which, I think, has done more harm in relation to its effect than CV19 has. The blocking of the Canal was a major international problem whereas, CV19 was a problem simply blown out of all proportion for political and economic gain.
The governments knee jerk reaction to an interruption to fuel supplies is to simply import more people rather than tell the haulage companies to pay more and offer better working conditions, and get government departments working properly. Rather than examine the problem has seek better solutions it just either throws money at it or does whatever the loudest voice tells it. No wonder so many things are in such a mess.
I think the best thing that government can do right now, is nothing ! Let the haulage and other business ‘s sort themselves out. Those that can make quicker and better decisions will be the ones that will clear the bottlenecks and make good profit from the opportunities offered. Just get out of the way !
Reply The government has rightly told the industry to improve pay and conditions and to get on with recruiting more home based talent
October 1, 2021
Right to Reply
Truckers pay huge parking fees to sleep in their cabs
Truckers pay inflated motor service food charges
Truckers pay huge fines targeted on UK drivers not foreign drivers
Many none motorway parking areas donāt have toilet or washing facilities
Truckers often have to wait long periods to unload without reward
Most truckers are self-employed and rely upon contracted work
No trucker as yet to be offered Ā£75k thatās just media hype
The government needs to do more than just tell the industry to get on with it
October 1, 2021
glen, how much do you think truck parks with CCTV, toilet and shower facilities charge for overnight parking?
Employed truckers get overnight allowances and subbies charge for their overnight stays in their rates.
October 1, 2021
IR 35 put paid to much of that, hence many left the industry.
October 1, 2021
I agree but some of the facilities vary tremendously
October 1, 2021
The best and quickest solution to the current fuel supply crisis would be for the government to get their thumbs out of their backsides and process the 50,000+ outstanding applications at DVLA for an HGV licence.
This could be done in a week if the government weren’t so utterly useless. Together with a genuine extension to truckers’ hours this would solve the problem completely. The government should then address the poor wages and conditions truckers face, in order to ensure that this problem does not occur again.
Reply I am told many of the held up applications are renewals where people can carry on driving
October 1, 2021
Thank you Sir John for that reply. You wouldn’t know, would you, the proportion/number of new and renewal applications? Or whether the DVLA is prioritising the new applications, on the basis that – as you say – those applying to renew can continue driving in the interim? It would be very stupid if such prioritisation was not taking place!
October 2, 2021
+1
October 1, 2021
Mark B – the blocking of the suez canal was a necessary event in the fight against the tyranny of the satanic globalist governments of the world which include the UK.
October 2, 2021
I’ll have whatever you’re taking.
October 1, 2021
Iain Duncan Smith today in the Telegraph is surely right:-
The time has come for us to now trigger Article 16
Unilateral action is needed against an intransigent EU to rectify the Northern Ireland Protocol impasse
Also – Britain is already taxed enough, we canāt take any more, says Jacob Rees-Mogg – no Jacob we are taxed far, far too much, regulated too much, forced to use expensive energy and have a bloated government wasting money all net zero and over the place and delivering mainly dire and failing public services too. Taxed at rates that will decrease tax take and destroy the wealth creating sector.
October 1, 2021
Plus on top of these absurdly high tax rates Sunak is still borrowing Ā£billions that is nearly all wasted too. Wasted on mad things like āeat out to help outā, HS2, expensive unreliable energy, EV, wind and solar subsidies & the pointless war on CO2 plant & tree food.
October 1, 2021
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is also considering lowering the salary threshold for when repayments are triggered from the current Ā£27,295 to Ā£23,000. This would mean marginal rates of tax on income foabout 50%
October 1, 2021
I am very grateful for the grant that I received to go to uni, so it would be hypocritical of me to now advocate loans for today’s students, BUT one good thing about the loans system is that it allows the government to see which courses lead to what salaries. So what I do not understand is why the government continues to give loans for students to attend courses that do not lead to a high enough salary to repay the loans. These are obviously garbage courses, mickey mouse drivel that is completely unnecessary. Indeed, a study a few years ago revealed that the MAJORITY of university graduates were doing a job that does NOT require a degree!! The government’s stupidity in allowing this farce to continue reveals all we need to know about their grotesque incompetence.
October 1, 2021
Didn’t you know? Companies sit on immense piles of cash, which in their meanness they withhold from their oppressed employees. Increasing taxes reduces the cash pile of the company owners a little and they can just put up with it, the greedy so-and-sos.
And you thought companies operated in a cut-throat global market, where high taxes severely damages their competitiveness. If only you had a degree in PPE you surely would know better.
October 1, 2021
would you prefer the companies to sit on huge debts to finance their operations and then have jobs threaten as interest rates rise? If you want to see what a debt mountain does to a company, go look at Evergrande in China or WeWork before it failed. The prudent business has working capital to stop this from happening.
October 1, 2021
Funnily enough, I was just thinking:
“It’s October, another month has gone by, Lord Frost is still hanging back from doing what he keeps saying he would do if the EU left him with no choice but to do it, but maybe in reality Boris Johnson would never allow him to do it anyway, and in any case it would not necessarily be the right thing to do without having first put in place an alternative control system to protect the EU Single Market and so deflect some of the international condemnation when we unilaterally dump the protocol, an alternative system foreshadowed in paragraphs 43 and 62 of the July Command Paper.”
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1008451/CCS207_CCS0721914902-005_Northern_Ireland_Protocol_Web_Accessible__1_.pdf
“We also stand ready to bring in new legislation to deter anyone in Northern Ireland looking to export to Ireland goods which do not meet EU standards or to evade these enforcement processes.”
“Once again we are also ready to put in place legislation to provide for penalties for UK traders seeking to place non-compliant goods on the EU market.”
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/09/29/the-eu-mr-biden-and-northern-ireland/#comment-1263794
“First the UK government needs to get Parliament to pass the laws needed to underpin an alternative system of protection for the EU Single Market … ”
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/09/10/what-does-healthcare-and-social-care-cost/#comment-1258651
“So why is the government not just going ahead and drafting the legislation?”
I would point out that there is nothing in the protocol to prevent the UK passing laws setting up an export control system to run in parallel to the irrational import control system created by the protocol, until in the end the superior UK system can simply displace the defective protocol system.
October 1, 2021
But if the NIP were fully implemented, and the facilities and staff to operate it were provided, then the material problems in NI would disappear.
So there are no grounds to claim that action under Article 16 is warranted.
The problem has hitherto been the DUP and the other teeth-grinders in NI.
October 1, 2021
Would they NLH?
You think just a few thousand more EU staff stopping and inspecting every vehicle and shipping container arriving into NI would sort ut and reduce delays.
Every box opened.
Every bit of accompanying paperwork examined for every single tick and the correct colour ink?
Despite knowing those goods were being delivered to businesses in NI only.
October 1, 2021
Is this the same Iain Duncan Smith who loudly told MPs that they didnāt need more time to scrutinise withdrawal agreement and protocol because he knew what was in it?
PS: all of the Brexitists, including Mr Smith, voted for it.
October 2, 2021
Indeed, Andy.
The time to decide that things are silly and that there’s a better solution – such as the whole UK staying in the CU and SM – is before you sign an international treaty to say that you will do those very things.
But Johnson wanted to satisfy John and the ERG, not the nation.
He should have faced them down, the fuss would have died down, and then the Farages etc. banging on about BRINO could have been taken apart on a proper, detailed analysis of the material effects of the single issue of leaving those arrangements, rather than on the emotional vagaries of “Leave means Leave” etc.
October 2, 2021
What a red herring that is Aandy.
But at least you dodged actually answering.
I expect your new mate NLH will be along soon to post in solidarity with you comrade Andy.
October 1, 2021
Yes both are correct. I think Mogg will have to resign if the budget is also full of tax and spend statism.
October 1, 2021
October 1, 2021
Your suggestions all make sense, which is why it will never happen. Boris seems determined to destroy the UK economy in his desire for virtue signalling and appeasement of all the vocal minorities.
Free movement played a big part in the labour problem. Why would employers go the expense of training up workers when they can employ experienced immigrants, thereby depriving UK workers of training and opportunities to improve their lot in life. Why then, is Boris still allowing mass immigration, and the current immigrants are probably inexperienced non-English speaking that will need the expensive training that is denied to UK residents. I truly fear for the future of the UK with Boris in charge.
October 1, 2021
I agree Shirley – if Employers followed John’s suggestion ‘It is primarily a task for employers to offer the better packages and to support people through training where necessary.’ they can’t compete now that Boris has opened the gates to low-cost foreign labour undercutting British rates.
John when you charge more customers won’t use you. When you employ drivers instead of using self-employed subbies the government comes after you for more and more 3% nest contribution, 13.8% employer’s NI going up by 1.25% – see it’s easier to hit us rather than deal with the real problems and high costs such as 16-hour work contracts that provide free housing!
These tanker companies aren’t short-staffed because of pay, benefits or training.
Reply The government has not opened the gates far. A possible 5000 for a very short period whilst the Uk trains more people. It is obviously pay and conditions that has created the shortage.
October 1, 2021
Do you believe tanker drivers are short because of pay and conditions? Look at Hoyer’s pay rates.
October 2, 2021
They are rather good, as can be expected from ā¦ a German company based in the UK.
October 2, 2021
There are two petrol stations close to me one has been open throughout this period of shortages.
The other supplied by a company you mention has had cones blocking entrance most days.
October 3, 2021
Hefner perhaps that explains the whole crisis if they are German owned.
October 1, 2021
So, nothing whatsoever to do with you shutting down the public sector due to a ludicrous overreaction to a virus causing a lack of testing and health checks.
October 1, 2021
@Mike Wilson; There were fewer shortages during lockdown!
If anything this govts ludicrous refusal to retain at least some social distancing and workplace restrictions has caused problems, coupled to the recommended use of an under-developed app whose development was an attempt to keep people at work but just ended up with ever more people having to self isolate.
Of course for those who still refuse to accept that CV19 is a very serious, often life threatening, illness…
October 1, 2021
Reply to Reply.
I take this to mean Sir John, you approve of the government’s back down on earlier insistence that it would not be done. I expect more weakness and more importation of foreign workers. Nothing ‘Boris’ says and thus government policies can be relied upon. We would be wise to put our own personal interests first and act accordingly.
October 1, 2021
@The Prangwizard; Oh come off it, give our host, our govt a break. The govt has announced a three month relaxation of the rules for the temporary foreign workers schemes. If there is any criticism it is the govt have hardly made it worth anyone upping sticks to come to the UK to do the work. Quite frankly the govts announcement seems likely to have more impact on PR that HR.
“We would be wise to put our own personal interests first and act accordingly.”
Indeed, but we need skilled people now, the training for many of these jobs is going to take months at best, even without having to also cope with problems brought by the pandemic.
October 1, 2021
@Shirley M; “Why would employers go the expense of training up workers when they can employ experienced immigrants, thereby depriving UK workers of training and opportunities to improve their lot in life.”
Shirley, you cut to the heart of the problem, the reason why employers recruit (sometimes, sometimes not) experienced migrants is because such people are prepared to do the work needed as it needs to be done, for the accepted rate for the job.
I have told this story here many times before, I know someone who used to run chilled food processing factories, he found it very difficult to recruit and keep UK nationals for positions on the chilled production lines, some would be gone by lunchtime on their first day (“to cold” was the most common reason), others would not obey statutory food hygiene/dress codes, others gave up on the necessary early starts because they restricted social life etc. When full ‘Free Movement’ of EU nationals came for the eastern block member states 99% of this chaps recruitment problems vanished almost over night, as did absenteeism. Draw your own conclusions…
As for the haulage industry, old-time lorry drivers, or the more enlighten new recruits to the profession, accept that nights away in the cab are both the norm and to be expected for certain types of work, European lorry drivers also accept it as part of the job, as do lorry drivers in many other parts of the world, that sometimes that means a night on the side of the road or in a lonely lay-by, only UK nationals seem to think they deserve/need different.
October 1, 2021
Because there are plenty of jobs Britons wonāt do – whatever the salary.
October 1, 2021
That is a very odd economic logic young Andy.
…whatever the salary…
Come off it.
Most of the jobs that we see shortages of takers have either rubbish wages or rubbish conditions or both.
October 1, 2021
and then compare to life on benefits…
October 2, 2021
@Peter2; “Most of the jobs that we see shortages of takers have either rubbish wages or rubbish conditions or both.”
Perhaps but someone has to do them, or somewhere, if not done here in the UK…
So why won’t unemployed or under-employed unskilled or low-skilled UK workers do such work, when others do (often as a first rung on the ladder to gaining/bettering a skill), not just migrants who came to the UK but people in their own countries. Those who come to work in the UK have to live on the pay offered, just as a UK national would, and/or perhaps live in supplied accommodation too.
Take a look at British supermarket products, many will have labels containing this or similar wording; “Made with UK [meat], processed and packed in the [none UK country]”. Look at children’s toys or collectable models, “Made in the PRC”, when they could be made here in the UK, used to be made here in the UK, but to many people now expect well paid employment, expect to own their own home, expect to own a car, the latter often as a status symbol, not because they actually need such a car, and perhaps the real job killers, they expect clean, non physically demanding jobs whilst speculators expect maximum returns for minimal investment. The UK was once called the ‘Sick man of Europe’, we seem to have become the Sick man of the World…
October 2, 2021
Depends if the job offeeted net wage compared to being on benefits is better Jerry.
Pretty obvious really.
October 3, 2021
@Peter2; No it is not “pretty obvious really”, other than perhaps those for who listening to UB40 has been the closest they have come to claiming a taxpayer funded State benefit (other than tax relief, that is…), never mind try and live on such a minimal subsistence payment – ‘do I spend the meter money to heat some water to have a bath or do I put the oven on to have a hot meal’ sort of decisions. Very few will choose it as their “lifestyle”, even in the enlightened 1970s those who did more often chose to be the perpetual grant assisted student, one course after another, hence why Mrs Thatcher’s govt closed off that option pretty quickly upon coming to govt.
October 3, 2021
Well its obvious to me.
Still referencing the 1970s I see.
It is 2021 now Jerry
October 1, 2021
Stop subsiding employers with universal credit, no one in employment should also have to receive benefitā¦benefits should be reserved for the unemployed or disabled
Our minimum wage should be set at a level where people can live on their wages without state benefit. This governments intervention has effectively reduced wages (and kept them low), decreased individual opportunities, restricted growth and relies upon cheap migration
October 1, 2021
+1
Well said!
October 1, 2021
@glen cullen; Whilst I agree with the thrust of your comment I think you are being harsh on the current govt. working tax credits/benefits existed long before the changes brought in since 2010, and of course many were reduced when the NMW became law. The only thing that changed, with the introduction of UC, is the ease of making a claim, not the need to claim.
October 1, 2021
If everyone earned enough to not need universal credit, prices of everything would increase. As it is, some of the tax paid by some taxpayers subsidises the wages of lower paid people – keeping prices down for everyone.
October 1, 2021
So by subsiding profitable companies and helping with their wage bill we are affectively reducing the costs to the general publicā¦thatās quite a leap
October 3, 2021
Glen, which wages are topped up now with UC? Do you know?
How much is it per year for a full time 35 to 40 hour week worker to earn that stops you getting UC? Does someone have to work full time to get it topped up or can they choose to only work 16 hours even though children are in school 25 hours (perhaps that should be stretched upwards to give us the carer hours and childcare hours we are short staffed for). Shouldnāt we expect 25 hours work for maximum benefits paid by the rest of the full time workforce?
Taking the average of those two typical full time job requirements 37.5 hours x Ā£8.91 nlw over 23 = Ā£17,374.50 how much would their wage be topped up to? What would two full time earners in the same household on minimum wage of Ā£34,749 get, just how much would they be topped up to if they had no children? I wonder how much – if they had one child, and if they had two children?
October 1, 2021
It does serve up a wonderful opportunity, if indeed there are crippling shortages which I doubt, for those with a political grievance (pathology diseased Remainers who will pounce on any issue to blame Brexit and those who voted for what has now morphed into perceived ‘independence’) or indeed for those with a political agenda such as this PM who with his politics of psychological warfare no doubt dreamt up by his collectivist advisers
All is political, all is deliberate and we’ll pick up the cost imposed by the now vicious British State across all areas of life
Key workers have always been private sector workers who are far more ever present in our daily lives than public sector workers and the juicy, union extracted privileges
Tory government since 2010. Look around you and what we see are the direct consequences of Tory appeasement
When can we expect rationing? Like rationing of speech, rationing of movement, rationing of essentials to keep us compliant
This is what Socialism feels like Tory style when reality becomes merged with narrative and people become confused as to what is real and what is politically invented. This is what Marxists do, play with your mind, soul and emotions
October 1, 2021
+10
The biggest problem is that too many people for these marxists/communists are spewing out
October 1, 2021
+1
I would really ( not tongue in cheek) like to know WHY they are doing it?
I understand a power grab..but ultimately what do they hope to gain from creating a poor, resentful, reduced populace?
Are they really that psychopathic?
All of them?
We must not let this be normalised. Never forget that we have been denied our paid-for healthcare and had our freedoms removed!!
And they have delayed the vote ( or so I understand) re reinstating Covid Act because of their conference!! Great!
October 1, 2021
In which circle of The Inferno did Dante place souls such as Dom to be tormented as he so evidently is?
What did he do wrong in his life in our realm?
October 3, 2021
Who are you Nottingham Lad Himself? Ken Clarke?
Dom has as much freedom to express himself as you do.
October 1, 2021
Yet another āitās not Brexitās faultā feint. Sunny uplands? Not a glimpse
October 1, 2021
@Len Peel
I admit the sunlit uplands are rather dim at the moment. However, it is nothing to do with Brexit and everything to do with the most useless government in living memory.
I filled up my (almost empty) car yesterday. No queues at all in this part of West Dorset. Sanity has returned – everyone has a full tank.
October 1, 2021
Not where I live, went onto our local small market town in Oxfordshire and passed three filling stations. Each one had a queue, one of them blocking a narrow road and passing traffic had to join the queue.
October 1, 2021
A neighbour returned from holidaying in Kent today. Quite anxious that she would run out of petrol on the drive back to Wokingham, all places massive queueing – finally joined one, and it took well over an hour.
October 1, 2021
There is too much bureaucratic red tape and ridiculous levels of ‘jumping through hoops’ box ticking exercises everywhere. This is what is strangling everything, from the economy as a whole down to what an individual is allowed/supposed to think.
It is time 90% of this garbage was binned, then the country, its economy and its people would be freed and entrepreneurial innovation could once again fly. Imagine going to a job interview and being taken on because you are the best candidate able to do the job effectively and efficiently, not because you are the most ‘woke’ and green ‘behind the ears’.
October 1, 2021
I am in full agreement, all employers must improve by their own efforts, their product, their methods and employee conditions and prospects. Employees must co-operate and seek to improve their knowledge of how the business they work in operates and offer improvements.
Farm support machinery were ‘implements’ back in my day but maybe not now.
October 1, 2021
T P W
Even when people get the job that’s all they want to do is what they feel they are getting paid for. To this end the vast majority come to work , leave their brain on the gate or office entrance and switch on auto pilot until they pick their brain up on the way out to home. This stifles any hope of continual improvements being designed or implemented by the staff that actually are doing the work. Companies have got to some how get the WOW factor through to its staff for coming to work and feeling part of the organisation or business.
October 2, 2021
@urboterrier; “the vast majority come to work , leave their brain on the gate or office entrance and switch on auto pilot [..//..] Companies have got to some how get the WOW factor through to its staff”
As someone who I used to work with would often say “I get paid to work, not think”, he wasn’t lazy, far from it, he was a very skilled trades person who became robotic, it was either that, metaphorically enjoy hitting ones own head against the wall all the time with all the mental illness it brings, or get out – I chose the latter. Basically whatever those on the workshop floor did, thought or said was always taken as a direct unwarranted criticisms of management, if not the company owner.
There doesn’t need to be a WOW factor, just a need for senior management to treat fellow humans as humans, not robots…
October 1, 2021
This is Tim Martin (CEO of Wetherspoon’s) in today’s results for FY 2021 – A staunch Brexit supporter and a man who will not pander to the nasty Tory government and the slime in opposition who appear to support the draconian politics we now have to endure –
“The biggest threat to the pub industry, and also, inter alia, to restaurants, theatres, cinemas, airlines and travel companies, relates to the precedent set by the government for the use of lockdowns and draconian restrictions, imposed under emergency powers. This threat, which is also a threat to civil society and democracy, has been regularly articulated by many commentators, including the former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption.”
When will moral, freedom loving Tory MPs who recognise the sinister nature of what is happening to how this nation is governed speak out before they totally rip apart the unity of our country
Is this a Brexit revenge or is it something far more evil? Karl Marx never really went away, his ideology festers like a cancer. His monument still remains and that alone is a scandal
Reply Some of us spoke, wrote and voted against lockdown measures
October 1, 2021
‘Some’.
October 1, 2021
Reply to reply. This is true but what is always missing are demonstrations of certain belief and commitment. Those supporting controls know they can continue because opponents do not show anything like the determination required to make them pay attention that they may be in trouble if they continue. It’s well past the time of using the ‘wouldn’t it be nice if’ method.
October 1, 2021
Reply to reply, but sadly not enough to drag the Johnson regime back to reality.
Can a vote of No confidence ever be considered? Unlikely it would appear, when there are too many like my self-serving greedy constituent MP who votes for every, insane proposal Johnson (and previously May) want. But heyho, she has been promoted.
Reply Mr Johnson has the confidence of the Parliamentary party. MPs who lack confidence in a leader can write in to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee to require a vote,as some of us did over Mrs May.
October 1, 2021
Reply
So, ultimately on their heads beit, because they obviously endorse breaking multiple manifesto promises and support the destruction of the economy, peoples livelihoods and health. And they had better pray, hard, for a very clement winter.
RIP what was once a conservative party.
October 1, 2021
Lots of training needed yes, but this isn’t how industry has been operating over the last few decades. The approach has been to exploit the skills and not replace them. This is very evident in the lorry driver shortage, but I’m told it’s the same in the construction industry and I know it to be the case in engineering as well.
When I graduated in the 80s, there were plenty of thin sandwich courses where students got industrial experience in between studying. All those courses have gone now. Today any company is a mug if it engages in training, because it just provides a supply to other companies that don’t bother.
We need government to recognise the value of training and make the cost deductible from the tax bill. It would help too if schools instilled a work ethic into education. I’m pretty sure this isn’t happening.
October 1, 2021
Dave Andrew’s
Work ethic into education
Should Not the work ethic come from the parents? Is it not a situation where the parents abdicate their responsibilities to the education system.
There’s a raft of things that schĆ²ols could do, but at times they are too constrained by regulations based upon one size fits Ć ll syllabus and result performance charts.
October 1, 2021
Correct – I was a subby of a subby for the BBC media city in Salford and 50% of the construction workers where from northern europe and the security guards couldn’t speak english, I also know of many engineering companies that boasted about getting engineers/fabricators/welders at half the wages from those northern & easten european countries…everyone knew what was going on
October 1, 2021
+1
Yes Pay as you earn and learn apprenticeships, with Day release, Sandwich courses, and Night school with Polytechnics, were the backbone of skills training for the Nation for decades from the 1950’s – 2000, then came along Tony B and changed it all for Social Media Study degrees and the like, all that industry and skills experience of teachers and lecturers killed off in a few years.
Quite shameful really, a clueless academic producing more clueless academics.
October 1, 2021
+1 we should exmine our recent history to see what worked and what didn’t
October 1, 2021
Ps. I find it incredible that HMG did not model the changes in the labour market brought about by Brexit and planned accordingly.
Sums up both the political leadership or lack of and their Mandarins.
October 1, 2021
The did model Brexit because they knew the models would show it was highly damaging. And that would have made people like you scream project fear.
Enjoy your fuel queues – and hope you donāt need care for the next few years.
October 1, 2021
You said you were in one, did you feel silly pouring petrol/diesel into your Tesla?
October 1, 2021
Perhaps the title should have been “Let Capitalism do it’s job”?
October 1, 2021
Capitalism’s “job” is to make the maximum for those who have the capital, whilst giving the very least in return, irrespective of its consequences for people, for the environment, or for anything else.
October 1, 2021
When was the last time we had ‘capitalism’….I can’t remember
October 1, 2021
glen – – -it was when the Government asked its mates if they would like to hand fantastic COVID contracts out to their mates without lifting a finger. I hear people saying ‘thats not capitalism’ – I suppose there is another word for it, but Sir John wouldn’t publish it.
October 1, 2021
I agree with much of what you say John, but unfortunately the Government seems to want to drive change through ever increasing and changing regulation, taxation, and subsidies, it is doing exactly the opposite of allowing opportunity through the usual research and development of products and services by market forces to change matters in a progressive manner, with industry taking the rewards or losses.
It is trying to impose/force its will, and its timescale on business and people, and all governments for decades have been notorious in making wrong decisions, due to not understanding human nature, or actual need.
October 1, 2021
+1
October 1, 2021
alan jutson
+1
October 1, 2021
Businesses/tech companies that have become global have become too big and too powerful, and are trying to run the world. Too much global industry/working as one is destroying the world.
Our country is stronger than the government knows, and I see a bottom up revolution taking place. There are many campaign groups putting pressure on the government to do the right thing for the country. GB News is giving some of these groups a voice. Some of the back benchers who are true conservatives such as yourself Mr Redwood are being heard through GB News and Talk Radio. The Reform Party is building in number too, which hopefully, be a good opposition to the Conservativesā¦.
Itās all going to take time but I believe the country is slowly beginning to take back some control over the government who have become its enemy.
October 1, 2021
With the plethora of jobs available, why are there so many, many people still on the dole? The factors you mention, or are there perhaps other reasons, such as an unwillingness to work (other than for cash in hand at odd jobs for others?)
October 1, 2021
I’ve had a look at Der Spiegel, Le Monde, and Corriere Della Sera.
Apart from a French piece on high energy prices, there is no mention of any of the problems which John lists on their main pages, notably there is nothing on either fuel shortages at filling stations nor on empty shelves in shops.
The parlous state of matters in this country would therefore appear to be a local problem, attributable to local people.
Reply There is a global gas shortage, energy prices and inflation is surging in the EU, there are interruptions in supply from China all round the world, China is experiencing blackouts, HGV lorry drivers are scarce in the EU etc
October 1, 2021
Thank you Sir John, yes, there may be chronic problems as you describe in those particular places, however our near neighbours especially are not experiencing the acute disruption to day-to-day life as is the UK.
Either that or their main serious media are completely ignoring them – which I doubt rather.
Neither do problems with the UK internal market concern them.
Reply Germany is struggling to make cars owing to shortages of parts. She is engaged in big rows about importing more expensive gas from Russia and continuing to mine coal to keep the lights on as wind is unreliable. All across the continent there is an inflationary surge in energy prices. It is true that so far only the UK has faced a dash to the pumps by people who suddenly want to fill their tanks, bottles and cans at the same time . There would be the same queues on the continent if their petrol demand rose so steeply as the UK in the last few days.
October 1, 2021
None of the so-called ‘panic’ would have happened if the media had not trumpeted the ‘running on empty’ headlines.
October 1, 2021
Well, you thoroughly welcomed the groundless panic, caused by a large section of the UK media’s wrongly parroting that “76 million Turks were about to gain the right to come to the UK, owing to their imminent membership of the EU”, didn’t you?
So it would appear that your exhortations for a more responsible press are rather selective.
October 1, 2021
NLH
So predictable once your original argument is destroyed you go off and find a very old red herring.
October 1, 2021
Why have a pop at me, I’ve never made any such exhortations.
October 2, 2021
Sorry, MT.
I referred to “you” plural, meaning Leave supporters generally.
October 1, 2021
Reply to reply
Well said
October 1, 2021
NLH – do the French have as many supermarkets as us I don’t think so, they value their small business owners and protect their boulangeries and bouchers they don’t let the hypermarkets take over everything and cut down the product lines once they have wiped out their family butcher and baker competition with lowest cost to buy meat and bread.
I haven’t seen many empty shelves in the stores I use and the local farm shops and family butchers that I buy goods from. Can you tell me what shelves that you have seen that are empty? Are they goods that we import or local supplies?
To answer your question about UK fuel perhaps GB News can ask the Petrol Association how much more Diesel and Petrol has been purchased in the last week in comparison to usual weeks at this time of the year.
Reply Yes, a useful figure. Some stations have said they are pumping multiples of normal, 3 to 5 times!
October 1, 2021
Some may well be, Sir John.
However, that tells us little, if other stations in the vicinity have run dry completely, does it?
October 1, 2021
It tells us the ‘lucky’ station manager ordered first !
October 1, 2021
NLH – it has been very interesting to see which stations have repeatedly run out throughout the UK (Kent and some areas of London seem to be worst which was surprising as they have the best public transport) and which stations managed to stay open throughout this week, we were expecting a lot more problems that we had.
Some fuel stations had clever management of resources and refuel limits. Perhaps some managers are just better than others and managed their clients to ensure as many people were processed as quickly as possible and they managed to refuel lots more individual purchases rather than letting gluttons with big tanks to take all the fuel in one hit.
Some put minimum purchases on and some put maximum purchases on but both worked in different ways the latter to stop repeat users filling up unnecessarily and outside their normal purchase practice and kept the queues down because minimum orders stopped the Ā£5 to Ā£10 top up people who have time on their hands to sit in queues.
October 3, 2021
supermarches.grandesenseignes.com will give you the answer.
The āFrenchā word Hypermarche was coined in 1968 in France/Belgium with the first Auchan, Carrefour, HyperU superstores.
October 1, 2021
Business New Europe is reporting that,on Wednesday,China approached Russian electricity giant RAO Energy to supply her with electricity :”While no details have yet been given,it is understood the firm(RAO),which has a monopoly on electricity exports,is looking at turning the voltage up significantly.”
The Russian Energy ministry is also denying that it has received a request from the EU for more coal exports as has been reported this week.
October 1, 2021
The whole green revolution is just making real energy more scarce and more expensiveā¦.and it would appear, making us more reliant upon despot countries
October 1, 2021
UK electric tomorrow is at 18.2 pence per kWh, at the Norwegian end of the wires it is 8.15 pence. Gas futures are sniffing 8.6 pence per kWh. They were 1.7 pence back in April.
October 1, 2021
I see Boris is now keen to get back into the EU Internal Energy Market. As far as I can gather, the BEIS Department, having suffered several reorganisations and name changes; needed help in understanding the difference between a free trade area; a single market and a customs union.
I say, why limit the request to just one element of the EU internal Market, why not go for all of it. Naturally, there would be no Thatcher discount on a new full EU membership fee. š
October 1, 2021
We have a world of increasing demand for gas acorn.
Shows how poorly renewables are filling the energy demand.
Also shows how expensive it is going to be in our electricity only future heating our homes and fuelling our vehicles.
October 1, 2021
Is your ‘Boris’ going to allow fracking which could help our gas situation very quickly and would you urge (preferably demand)? Answer No.
October 1, 2021
Quite a wish list. Unfortunately, since the millenium we have built our entire economy around the availability of cheap imported labour. And where we have skills shortages, we import the skilled labour that we need – as we no longer train apprentices. It will take time to adjust.
I don’t like the look of the world economy just now. The equity markets operate on forward earnings growth estimates and with supply chain disruption, rapidy rising inflation, stonking rises in the price of fossil fuel energy and labour shortages, profits will suffer.
With global debt at unprecedented multiples of GDP, talk of the USA defaulting and all these factors combining to affect the bottom line, the bull market that began in 2008 may be drawing to a close. October is crash season. Caution is warranted. A 20% “correction” could be the start of a nasty bear market
Reply This site does not provide investment advice
October 1, 2021
No but he/she may be right…
October 1, 2021
SG your post made me wonder about apprentices – From the Commons Library – ‘Skills and training are devolved policy areas. In 2019/20, there were 719,000 people participating in an apprenticeship in England, with 322,500 apprenticeship starts and 146,900 apprenticeship achievements.
The number of starts fell in 2019/20 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic from March 2020. The pandemic and lockdown period saw a disproportionate negative impact on apprenticeship starts for those aged under 19, and those starting an intermediate level apprenticeships.
23,400 fewer people were participating in an apprenticeship in 2019/20 than in 2018/19. Apprenticeship starts were more likely to be at a higher level in 2019/20.
44% of apprenticeships started in 2019/20 were at advanced level, with 26% started at higher level. In 2018/19, 44% of apprenticeship starts were at advanced level and 19% were at higher level. ‘
In the UK nearly 50% of those over 18’s are encouraged to attend a university now instead of going into apprenticeships.
October 1, 2021
I think the whole [increased tax/increase regulation/no cash payments] move over the past year is dissuading businesses to invest here and workers to work. Combine this with the crazy furlough scheme which ended yesterday- how many people woke up only this morning to come out of their Covid shell?-close to zero I suspect. Also folk sense that they have money in pocket from not spending for a year, and the bracketed things will only get worse.
We’re on a one-way trip to Socialism.
October 1, 2021
Those are the bottlenecks and the opportunities feel like being crushed by them.
October 1, 2021
In a nutshell, a reader comment on City Journal.
ā None of this nonsense is going to abate until enough people in power wake up and admit that accepting the alarmism of the Climate Cult is akin to believing in witchcraft, that CO2 is not a pollutant and burning hydrocarbons is not causing the Earth to heat up dangerously, and in fact is helping with forest and food production, because the tiny quantities of CO2 in our atmosphere are essential for plants and all life, and more is better!ā
October 1, 2021
Amen to that.
But can they REALLY believe all this nonsense?
And if notā¦WHY are they going along with it?
I understand that politicians need to be ānodding dogsā
But destroy the world that has treated them so well??
Why?
October 1, 2021
Just calling things that you are not adult enough to face “nonsense” does not make them so. No matter how big a crowd you get together to chant it.
October 1, 2021
I referred to what Sharon quoted.
What would you wish us to call it?
October 1, 2021
I have a real concern when someone questions the language of anotherās opinion rather than the content of that opinionā¦.I call your comment nonsense
October 1, 2021
Are you related to Andy or Martin?
October 1, 2021
Seems we have a new lefty troll on here MT
October 1, 2021
+1 Sharon
October 1, 2021
Sharon
Thank you, totally agree
October 1, 2021
Sharon you’re Spot On
October 1, 2021
The Brexit related shortages and price hikes we are experiencing were not only predictable- they were very much predicted.
Support for Brexit has plummeted – hardly anyone thinks it is going well. And, amusingly, it only goes downhill for the Brexitists from here.
October 1, 2021
You need some new material based on facts rather than your opinion.
October 1, 2021
A poll on Wednesday recorded just 4% of respondents who thought Brexit is going “very well” compared to 36% who thought it was going “very badly”.
Meanwhile the UK government has apparently written to Germans who are resident in the UK asking them to consider driving a lorry even though they have zero experience. Supposedly they’ve also sent the same letters to paramedics and ambulance drivers.
October 1, 2021
Usually his opinion is better than most standup comedy.
October 1, 2021
You said all your aged neighbours whom you smile and nod to in such a condecending manner were keen on leaving the EU. Do a straw poll for us? No leading questions – just ‘if you could go back to the Ref – how would you vote?’
October 1, 2021
oops – I missed an S in condescending there, never was much of a typist.
October 1, 2021
Bullshit and fantasy.
October 1, 2021
Andy – Mwahahaha….
Wages going up, new businesses opening up, new jobs being created in new industries in the UK (e.g. 3D printing, robotics, British designed 7.5 tonne electric trucks to be made in the UK), businesses returning to the UK. Check out the Great British Manufacturing Podcast.
Aldi and Lidl seem to think the UK is a good place to invest we seem to be allowing these German companies to take over our supermarket sector.
October 1, 2021
All very sensible – so why does it seem that the government is sitting on it’s hands, doing very little.
It seems the focus is on ideology rather than where it should be.
October 1, 2021
I think that Build Back Better involves TOTAL destruction of everything.
They have a little way to go yet..to grind us down completely.
Before they impose the NWO.
October 1, 2021
+1
That’s exactly how so many people now see things
October 1, 2021
Why, Bryan? Because from the government ideologists’ point of view things are going rather well – the public is again being alarmed and panicked into another psychological state of fear and dependance, as with Covid.
The focus is indeed on ideology. The ideology of governing post-democratically.
October 1, 2021
+1
October 1, 2021
John Redwood, are you going to write a post about the increased (+25% ) incidence of Heart attacks in Scotland – but probably the UK.
Reply
No I am not. I am not a qualified medical doctor and have not reviewed all the evidence. If you wish to debate clinical matters relating to medical conditions, treatments and vaccines please go onto a site which can handle medical advice and review medical evidence.
October 1, 2021
Reply to reply:- Yet on 17th June Sir John Redwood wrote, “We are supplying one of the best vaccines to the world” meaning the Astra Zenica vaccine, I believe. This looks to me like a quality judgment on a medical product.
Perhaps the intervening few months have suggested more caution is in order.
October 1, 2021
APL. They could start by cutting down on alcohol, not deep frying pies and Mars bars, getting off their butts and walking, giving up 6 teaspoons of sugar in drinks, stop drinking gallons of Irn Bru, and stop smoking. That’s a start.
October 1, 2021
Fedupsoutherner: “They could start by cutting down on alcohol, not deep frying pies and Mars bars, getting off their butts and walking, giving up 6 teaspoons of sugar in drinks, stop drinking gallons of Irn Bru, and stop smoking. ”
Much of that is possibly correct.
And I alluded to as much, in my original comment that Redwood saw fit to delete.
But if that were the only cause, then why a sudden upsurge this year, their behavior was the same last year , and the year before. No ?
October 1, 2021
APL. Possiblu more sitting around due to Covid so more smoking , drinking and eating?? Is it just Scotland and could it be due to lack of care due to hospitals not having referrals?
October 1, 2021
F U S
What about the constant independence rantings of their leader and governing parties? Its enough to stress anyone out.
October 1, 2021
I had to google it but ‘deep fried pies’ in scotland is a thing….yeah learn something new every day
October 1, 2021
mind you – I envy the ‘fish suppers’ but would probably find I couldn’t sleep a bit later.
October 1, 2021
Retired. Dudnt you realise that Andy thinks of himself as the perfect human being? LMAO
October 1, 2021
“If you wish to debate clinical matters relating to medical conditions, treatments and vaccines please go onto a site which can handle medical advice and review medical evidence.”
It’s not a clinical matter, it’s a statistical matter. Why this year, is there a sudden upsurge in Heart attacks in the population ? 25% is not a statistical anomoly, it’s a raging, in your face red flashing warning!
If is is an accurate indicator, isn’t that a matter of legitimate concern to you as an MP?
October 1, 2021
Perhaps if we turned the focus around a bit to talk about how many people are dying from non-covid related issues, including heart problems, statistics might be something that could be discussed here.
October 1, 2021
Yes indeed, Bryan. We have seen non-Covid related excess mortality (compared with the 5-year average) in this country for ten weeks now, for most of the summer, which at this time of year is rather unusual. This is according to the ONS ‘Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales’ reports. Yet in the same reports most of the usual causes of death are said to be *below* the five-year average. So one would expect those in charge of the situation to be finding out what these causes of death are, that are having such an impact on excess mortality. I wonder if they are.
October 1, 2021
The Met suffers from institutional incompetence, possibly deliberate.
Short term visas for pork butchers to save Xmas and more domestic fuel tax- can this government get anything right?
October 1, 2021
+many
Precisely!
October 1, 2021
I repeat that the original 6 countries allowed themselves 12 years to set up their common market:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/05/17/the-business-of-england/#comment-935511
and we should have allowed longer to make the necessary transitions after we had left the EU.
October 1, 2021
Good morning Sir John
Yes, there is a lot of imbalance in the World at the moment making every activity needed to carry on extremely volatile.
Which ever way you tried to shake it out, it all comes down to run away ego from those that have highjacked leadership. Not just here in the UK but for most of the World. They are all trying to get away with promises that they in a million years they couldn’t fulfil. I would liken it to the UK energy companies that have gone bust, not a single one of them were in a position to follow through on the promise of ‘cheap’ prices come what may and they knew it at the outset. Every single one of those that created the situation get to walk away on scathed and financially better off. – It also reminds us of the legendry ‘snake oil’ salesman – and now world leadership.
All that was really needed was people able to serve their people, not media servants
October 2, 2021
Well said.
All leaders nowadays appear to be self serving, supported by self-serving elites. With the msm now firmly on side, the future looks bleak for your average Joe or Jane.
October 1, 2021
This reads more like the Sermon on the Mount – great themes but its still all talk and very little action from the Government who still seem to think that talking about initiatives makes them happen – subcontracting training does not mean its effective; usually money down the drain.
October 1, 2021
Let’s be honest ALL governments are largely talking shops.
October 1, 2021
No no its not a disaster its an “opportunity” ! ……I think that sort of thing goes down well in America.
Get your story# straight John
Is this as Kwasi Kwarteng claims – a Jolly good thing transitioning to a Post Brexit High Wage economy
Yes Brexit did cause this chaos of shortages and its great that we will now have to pay the same highway robbery rates we pay Tube Drivers ! Woo hoo ….
Is it , as Grant SHapps ( hilariously ) claimed nothing to do with Brexit ..no no… there is a European and global problem ..which we can solve by dishing out visas to all the EU drivers we just got rid of . ( eh ?)
Better still lower standards for drivers ..thanks to Brexit ( he really did say this …)
We simultaneously have a “jobs miracle” of close to full employment /……and a glut of labour on the market forcing down wages .
The RHA are clear the loss of European drivers is a Key problem ..but what would they know Personally I believe we are transitioning to a post Brexit high wage economy until 12PM then I switch to believing it has nothing to do with Brexit until I go to bed.
Problem solved – someone called it double think long ago, now its “My truth”
October 1, 2021
Sir John
How will Net Zero improve peopleās lives?
Will we have Electric Lorries?
Talk about making a problem a million times worse, does Johnson have a clue about the damage heās doing?
October 1, 2021
+1
If he understand the grief he is causing, he doesn’t care about it.
October 1, 2021
With net zero swathes of the planet will become uninhabitable in the lifetimes of your grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Stop moaning about it and start fixing it. You lost the debate on man made climate change 30 years ago. Your whining helps nobody.
And, yes, of course we will have electric lorries.
How does your Brexit improve peopleās lives?
October 1, 2021
andy
You think there will be an end of the world soon due to a 1.3 degrees increase in global average temperature since 1850.
And you assume mankind will not or cannot adapt.
They have adapted since the dawn of time.
Mankind currently lives and survives in places where temperatures are below zero and where temperatures are over 40 degrees.
October 2, 2021
Quite.
When I was born the age of the horse and cart was something most people had been brought up with. Technological change in the last century and a half has been phenomenal.
If climate change is a problem then we’ll figure a sensible way to get around it, without reverting to a Neanderthal lifestyle.
October 1, 2021
did you mean ‘without reaching net zero?’ or even ‘below net zero ….will still mean
October 1, 2021
You are saying that net-zero will cause huge problems – Can only agree with that
October 1, 2021
Sir John – as you say low unemployment and low take up of jobs.
Getting past the deliberate and un-necessary handicap of ir35. There is then the massive hinderance from deliberate Government attitude to hinder those that want to start out on a new enterprise.
As for employers shouting about staff shortages, I work in an industry that could be said to be suffering from that syndrome. There is an however, those that train and promote from within are ‘flying’, those that look for already experienced staff from others are struggling.
For every great company pushing, promoting paying the going rate, there is another that is fretting trying to undercut on price before service that is failing.
It is said that there are more than enough qualified HVG tanker drivers in the UK. Remember they were there when everything was just flowing only a month ago. They were never foreign. A few things the happened BP leaked their meeting with Government about their need for more money from the taxpayer otherwise there would be shortages. The Government pushed ahead with ir35. The drivers thought do we need this aggravation.
October 1, 2021
Near us the local truck stop (600 spaces) charges ‘First 2 hours free for all vehicles, after which cars must pay Ā£16 and HGVs, caravans and motorhomes Ā£20.50. HGVs can pay Ā£22.50 to include a Ā£10 food voucher. Trailer changeovers have a charge of Ā£3 for 24 hours.’
But some truck drivers would prefer to keep that Ā£22.50 and park up in business parks with no facilities, you need to ask them why, why park where this is no toilet or a meal and other truckers and park on a business park?
October 1, 2021
”You’re either the man or you work for the man”
One is a self-employed subcontractor who saves every penny and the other is an employee using company expensers
October 1, 2021
Glen, the owner driver gets to offset their legitimate truck stop costs against tax to a maximum allowance of around Ā£26. Most truck stops charge less than that figure because they know that is the HMRC allowable expense for a sleeper cab overnight. This is why I donāt understand it, why park where there are no cctvs, facilities, showers and toilets when 10 minutes down the road you can park in a nice area with all those facilities for Ā£12.50 and a meal voucher for a Ā£10. Google truck stops in the UK.
October 1, 2021
The world isnāt really doing very well in combating this deadly plague is it?
How many years now? How many jaberoonies ?
No measures appear to have worked since allegedly the whole weary cycle is starting again.
Nothing to do with Chinaās coal shortage and over-manufacturing.
If the rest of the world has succumbed who has been consuming?
Still, as most globalists would say.
What a WONDERFUL opportunity to BBB!!
Shame thereās no one capable of doing it, since everything has been destroyed.
October 1, 2021
Whilst agree with your ideas about track drivers, your government needs to go much further.
You need to simplify the requirements for qualifying as a truck driver. The current gold plated EU regulations create a high barrier to entry for new recruits. The same goes for other industries like the need for nursing degrees.
In the longer term you need into completion for driver accreditation. Having the DVLA as a monopoly supplier has contributed to the Covid backlog.
You also need to find a solution to the supply of contingent labour to meet demand peaks. The IR35 changes have effectively banned self employed drivers from the road transport industry. This is a leading cause of the current problems. Agency terms and conditions do not cut it as an alternative.
The government runs the strategic road network. So it could do more to encourage the creation of quality truck stops. This also would tick the diversity box, as it would attract more women drivers.
October 1, 2021
The current supply disruption is a good thing if it results in us individually and nationally cutting our consumption of Chinese tat. The same applies to food products: buy local.
Reducing my purchases of consumer goods; Chinese tat; cheap foreign clothing and food which has significant air miles to reach the shelves is my main contribution to improving the global environment.
And it will be a significant improvement if British people can be diverted from tedious jobs which provide no long-term career benefits, job satisfaction or the means to have a decent standard of living, into more useful occupations/professions. This will require fewer going to university to study pointless degrees and the sooner the Government stops subsidising these and provides incentives to encourage the alternatives, the better.
I’m delighted to see that the Government has finally woken up to the appalling conditions HGV drivers have been forced to put up with for years. Anyone who worked in the transport or highway maintenance sector (as I used to) has known about this for a very long time. But all the time it was possible to rely on cheap foreign drivers who would put up with the conditions, nothing was going to change. Now it will ….. and that is undoubtedly a good thing.
October 1, 2021
Wow – – power just cost a lot more – so millions of decent people who have been born and worked here. spoke the language and been reasonably happy get to adjust their lives to cope with the extra bills. At the same time, in the same country, there are an increasing number of new arrivals, who just turn up, say the magic word – – and get a roof over their head, fed, bed, heat, tv to watch etc. NO WORK. THEY MIGHT BE MURDERERS – WE DON’T KNOW – – Are THEY concerned about the cost of power going up ????? NOPE – – Our govt just welcomes them, fetches them in and gives them what WE have to pay for.
Millions more want a free life – wonder how many more our govt will welcome for THEIR free lives ?????
October 1, 2021
Slamming our economies into a Covid shut down was always going to result in supply problems, especially our just in time economies dependent on Far Eastern suppliers. Unfortunately rather than having a Prime Minister making it his mission to put the nuts and bolts of our economy back together again, we have one obsessed with his Greenery and further seeking to destabilise our economy . Worse we have a PM who goes abroad and insults out country and its heritage , he went to NY and said we were to blame for climate change with our industrial revolution , and he did it again yesterday at the children’s climate change indoctrination . Perhaps one of his MPs would like to take him aside and point out some truths, like if it wasn’t for our industrial revolution much of the modern world wouldn’t exist, and neither would many of the people currently alive. It would seem that just as he isn’t prepared to defend our culture, neither is he prepared to defend our historical achievements, stuff that most of us are proud of he apologises for.
Covid aside, we have the additional problem of our country being run beyond capacity , something I have previously expressed my concerns about, with little reliance built into the system any hiccups in supply creates immediate shortages. We also see the lack of planning for our future , for again I have previously pleaded for the Government to promote the further mechanisation/ robotics of our agriculture, hoping that this would feed into other areas of manufacturing etc, and remove our reliance on cheap labour , unfortunately our political class has only two interests, greenery and the race and culture war they have visited upon us.
October 1, 2021
reliance …sorry please read resilience
October 1, 2021
Every single problem we currently face is due to government actions. It is government that is the problem. Get ridof the idea that we need a gang of pseudo competent, sociopaths running our lives and all these problems would disappear.
October 1, 2021
Wise Words – We need less government intervention
October 1, 2021
It is a real shame Labour and the Liberals are unfit to sit in the House, let alone govern. The Tories need an effective opposition – from outside their own party for a change.
Perhaps we ought to invite the SNP down to see if they can help us get back in to the EU! (I am hanging the the Joke Sign out…)
October 1, 2021
The PM, Cabinet & the Green Party are government while the Tory Backbenches are the opposition
October 1, 2021
From the MsM – Diversity test to get into St Andrews
Question – ‘Does equality mean treating everyone the same?’ if you answer yes, you fail the correct answer is equality may mean treating people differently and in a way that is appropriate to their needs
Question – ‘Acknowledging your personal guilt is a useful start point in overcoming unconscious bias.’
So on and So on – These are not facts derived at by education but opinions of politicaly motivated individuals. Why is the taxpayer being asked to fund such political brainwashing – that is not teching that is dictating.
The taxpayer is being forced into paying for closed minds, indoctrination and created a generation of the unemployable. Clearly a bottlenecks and removal of opportunity. The Government just wont stand up for the people they serve!
Then today after all the huffing and puffing about action the M4 still gets blocked over a situation the Government already solves with millions of taxpayer funding. The Government wont stand up for the people of the UK so the terrorists get to run rings around them – were is the leadership and what are we paying for – oh yes the outbidding in the new green world takes priority.
October 1, 2021
Diversity,
Diversity,
EXCEPT in energy!
Electricity.
Flick the āOFFā switch. Pull out the plug.
Total control.
Of everything!
October 1, 2021
Smart meters ā the answer to all our energy needs
October 1, 2021
There are, post Brexit, some fundamental problems that need to be addressed.
The first is a NI Protocol that is not fit for purpose. Contrived by the EU to cause the maximum difficulty for the UK, and agreed by a myopic UK negotiating team. Lesson number one is that the EU are not our friends in Europe, they are the enemy, treat them as such whenever we engage with them.
Our government treat our territorial waters with naive disdain, allowing them to be ravaged by any EU super trawler that turns up. They need to get a grip of the situation.
Our government needs to negate all the EU blackmailing opportunities. First of these is the 20% of imported power via interconnectors. Our own fracked gas would stop this. Add to it the gas/ oil field to the west of the Shetlands and we are power self sufficient. Plough ahead with modular nuclear electric power, it is green. Then lay a cable UK to Guernsey/Jersey or offer them interim diesel generating power to end the despicable French threats.
Follow up problems of professional labour problems in health, engineering, and science can be reduced long term by ending tuition fees. Today we have a one million increase to the unemployed. There must be some potential HGV drivers among them. Fast track training and as you say vastly improve their pay and working conditions.
Finally sort the obscenity off illegal immigration.
I await possitivity from your CPC. If it is the usual clapperama, it is a dead duck.
October 1, 2021
I am beginning to believe that the UK has been highjacked by Corbinisters. We may have rejected his version of the World at the election but we are suffering his politics today. Hence the made up and contrived bottlenecks and removal of opportunity.
To embrace the doctrine of ‘Build back better’, ‘levelling Up’ first you have to trash and destroy the very fabric of society. Then you retrain, brainwash, indoctrinate the next generation in your own image the Socialist doctrine of Labour and the EU. That’s the policy of the New Socialist Conservatives – you have to feel sorry for the real Conservatives, those outside the daily humdrum of the metro socialist left that have stolen the party from us all. Those Conservatives that still get the calling, wish to serve and understand their purpose – you have been cheated!
October 1, 2021
Our biggest opportunity is the 1.4 million unemployed and the bottleneck is the bureaucratic benefits system, which doesnāt allow them to move easily between temporary, part-time or low paid employment and periods of unemployment
We must allow the unemployed to test the water without drowning or having to wait a month because theyāve had a days employment
Our unemployed are like shale gasā¦just waiting for our government to dig up the riches
Opportunities ā let the UK be the world leader in R&D and manufacture of Clean Coal, Fossil Fuel, Nuclear, Graphene and ICE Motorcars (reduce the funding of green bottlenecks)
October 1, 2021
The main reason we are in trouble on a number of fronts is the unbelievably slow response by government departments and bodies such as the Road Haulage Association.
Three examples from the radio this week :
The UK was known to be 20,000 HGV drivers short in 2016 and the RHA commissioned an enquiry which advised that for recruitment and retention, pay had to increase and working conditions improved. Nothing has been done and the shortfall is now 100,000 drivers. The DVLA has been a non-performing blockage to issuing driving licences for many months due to industrial action and that hasn’t been sorted either. Take the work away from Swansea and relocate English driving and vehicle administration to the North of England where workers will appreciate the jobs.
Pig farmers are at the point of having to kill thousands of young pigs that have been unable to be properly slaughtered and put into the food chain. This has been a growing problem know about for the last nine weeks, yet DEFRA has done nothing to resolve the situation.
Military drivers for fuel tankers only started three days of training this week when the problem emerged two weeks ago. Had the government acted immediately, they would have been out delivering to forecourts for more than a week.
October 1, 2021
The old trick of when you’re delivering bad news like about bottlenecks and shortages is to dress it up with something more positive like ‘opportunities’
Truth is govermment should have seen most of this this coming – there are enough ‘think tanks’ in the country for goodness sakes.
The idea of bringing foreign labour in here now only to turf them all out again by Christmas Eve is the height of lunacy if anyone thinks foreigners are going to buy into this
October 1, 2021
I am retiring next year and would actually like a driving job. Perhaps this may be possible for others retiring and in good health .
October 1, 2021
How many people would love to work on a fruit farm .. I bet there are more than some think .
October 1, 2021
According to the BBC a farmer in the Brexit voting county of Yorkshire has had to kill hundreds of piglets because of Brexit related shortages of workers in abattoirs. So we need to cull healthy animals.
Come on Brexitists! Where is your Dunkirk spirit you promised? You said youād pick for Britain. You didnāt. You said youād dig for Britain. You didnāt. You said youād wipe the bottoms of old people. You didnāt. So nowās your chance to go and murder some animals for Britain instead.
PS: Iām a vegetarian.
October 1, 2021
Vegetarian Andy? Compassion for animals but not humans – doesn’t stack up.
October 1, 2021
go and offer a farmer a home for some of his ill-fated piglets. Fun pets – oh go on.
October 1, 2021
We must bear two things in mind: (1) Britain has lots of labour shortages, but no shortage of labour. There are over 2 million people in Britain either out of work or in zombie employment – such as the furlough scheme which should have ended back in June. And (2) All the labour shortages were not only predictable, but widely predicted, YEARS ago, when Brexit was being planned. So why has the government done nothing to solve these problems – or ‘grasp these opportunities’ if you prefer?! Because the government is STUPID and COMPLACENT. Even today, over a week after the start of the petrol crisis, no order has been given to activate the army drivers!
The government has a list of occupations where there is a shortage of staff, which it uses for immigration purposes, so why does it not provide FREE TRAINING for those jobs? Of course employers have a role to play providing specific training for their companies, but the economy should be regarded as a ‘shared endeavour’ between private business and the government. It should be a partnership. Leaving it all to the free market is not just laissez-faire government, but couldn’t-care-less government, and I despise this. Those out of work should be directed to specific jobs in a much more hands-on and forceful approach by the DWP.
And there is a further dimension: automation. Take crop harvesting, for instance, which everybody knew was dependent on cheap Eastern European labour which would fall away after Brexit. There are a number of companies, start-ups and university spin-offs in the UK which are developing robotic harvesters. But their progress is slow, because of LACK OF FUNDING. Why the hell isn’t the government pumping MILLIONS of pounds into these companies as an emergency priority??? Because of government stupidity and complacency, as always. I despair! No wonder I no longer fear a Labour government – they could not possibly be more incompetent than the lot in office today.
October 1, 2021
Yes I have said something similar, our industrial revolution was in part driven by the mechanisation which took place in agriculture , why not the new industrial revolution that has to take place? The model of cheap labour immigration never worked, in fact it made problems even worse, and now we are told that the demographic changes taking place to populations means it is a busted model. China is desperately trying to boost its population by removing the one child policy and now advocating three children families , better for us would be to go down the mechanisation/robotics route , after all it is said we are supposed to be good at AI and that is a crucial element to it . As you say the government should be throwing money at the future industrial necessity, yet instead we are investing fortunes in diversity officers.
Roy Chadwick saw the specification for a four engined nuclear bomber in 1947, by 1952 he had the first prototype of the Vulcan bomber flying, by 1956 they had the first RAF squadron. Then we used to make stuff, now we are tied up with a culture war and accusations of racism.
October 1, 2021
Further to my comment on robotic harvesters, hjere’s an interesting comment from Simon Pearson, professor of agri-food technology at Lincoln university, (in the FT report “UK farmers turn to robots to plug labour shortages” dated 19/12/20): “Prof Pearson has called for much more significant support to enable harvesting robots to start operating commercially in 2022. Otherwise he forecast it would be at least 2023 or 2024. āThese are very advanced technologies with significant export potential,ā he added.” And here’s another quote from the same article: “Ali Capper, who chairs the National Farmersā Unionās horticulture and potatoes board, said robots āwill be critical in the future, but the future canāt come fast enoughā…. predicting that widespread commercial use was seven to 10 years away, unless the government stepped up intervention.”
The point is that more, much more government financing is needed NOW if we are to solve this problem quickly. But the government just doesn’t care. Stupidity and compacency. They just never show any sense of urgency. We are in a CRISIS, but the government just yawn, shrug and respond ‘crisis, what crisis?’ This couldn’t-care-less attitude is simply unacceptable.
October 1, 2021
SirJs Tweet today ā āChinaās emission targets are not working. China will now buy up more fossil fuel to put the lights back on.ā
Maybe just maybe they have the right approach, if the UK wishes to be competitive against China we should fish around our coast, mine for our abundant coal, drill for shale gas and drill for offshore oil
Let use the opportunity of all the god given resources abundant on and around our island
October 1, 2021
@glen Cullen – that’s OK Boris will ensure the UK makes up their shortfall on targets
October 1, 2021
International carbon trading ā the Chinese way āwe do all the damage do all the repairsāā¦.weāre communists we donāt allow the green religion in china
October 1, 2021
From the comments, everyone is unhappy, but everyone is unhappy about different things. Boris must go, but Boris must go for different reasons. The sky is falling, but different bits of the sky are falling for different posters. The Tories are rubbish, but rubbish in different ways for different people.
So I guess things are getting back to normal.
October 1, 2021
Jon, just to reassure you weāre not all unhappy. Iām happy, I donāt believe the sky is falling in at all. I quite like Boris, I think he needs to get his head back in the game and delegate and choose the best experienced people around him to take some of the pressure off. He should use lots more experienced backbenchers to deal with specific issues. He needs to share some success stories and progress that people are making.
October 1, 2021
With particular regard to the shortage of doctors, I think that the present recuitment process of medical students needs to be changed. It is foolish to select future doctors merely by their academic performance at A level. We do not need a cohort of brilliant minds to study medicine. Three Bs at A level is adequate to train to be a GP. If we insist on the very highest grades, we get doctors who do not wish to become GPs, they want to specialise to become consultants and many will wish to work in academic medicine; the present grade inflation exacerbates the problem. I also think that newly-qualified medices should be obliged to stay in the NHS for say five years before they go abroad. Otherwise, if they decide to leave the country after qualifying, they should pay back some proportion of the cost of their medical education. Being forced to import doctors from abroad is a disgrace for a rich counrt such as Britain. The Government should lift the limit this impose on the number of students who can study at university. It is a false economy. And I might add this is aided and abetted by the BMA, that trade union masquerading as a learned sociey, despite their disingenous screams of denial.
Also, it may not be very popular to express this opinion, but is it really necessary for nurses to study for three years at university for a degree? And what is all this rubbish I hear about policemen requiring a degree? I feel that all this is being pushed by their respective unions in an attempt to somehow boost the standing of these admittedly essential workers.
Was it Gilbert and Sullivan who said:”when everybody is someone, nobody is anybody”?
October 1, 2021
Sir John
Why is my comment agreeing with MW still awaiting moderation?
October 1, 2021
Lester. Stop feeling so full of self importance.
October 1, 2021
Absolutely Brilliant,
A simply stunning analysis by John.
Many of the reasons why we voted for brexit.
No such thing as tax and spend we do not use the Euro. It is incredible In 2021 so many Conservative voters think we have to tax and spend like Eurozone countries.
In the UK it is spend and then tax. The money is created then taxed out of the system via transactions between each other.
The UK government’s money is created by virtue of Section 15 of the Exchequer and Audit Department’s Act 1866. “issues shall be made to principal accountants from time to time on orders given to the Bank by the Treasury.”
That’s how all government payments are made and has been for at least 150 years.
Money is very much owned by the government. If you want to test that try counterfeiting Sterling, then you’ll discover whose money it is – and you’ll have time at Her Majesty’s Pleasure to reassess your beliefs. The maximum sentence for tendering counterfeit money is ten years imprisonment.
Taxpayers may have money of their own (in terms of IOU a number of labour hours), but the Exchequer won’t accept it in payment of taxes because it is not in the correct denomination. You need to provide the correct denomination to the Exchequer. A denomination you can only get from the Exchequer in the first place, or, transitively, from somebody who has transacted with the Exchequer.
It’s all still tally sticks which you have to return to be dedtroyed.
If you give somebody Ā£100, they spend it which is taxed at 20%, leaving the next person with Ā£80 as income. They then spend that Ā£80 which is taxed at 20%, leaving the next person with Ā£64 as income. And so on until the entire Ā£100 disappears and creates Ā£100 of extra tax
All without changing the tax rate one single percent
The result is lots of extra sales and income for people down the chain they wouldn’t otherwise have received.
It’s a straightforward geometric progression.
So there is no burden on taxpayers. There is no reason to raise taxes. And there never is if there is significant unemployment. In fact if there is unemployment then by definition we are overtaxed for the size of government we have and we should be looking at cutting rates, not raising them.
It is a ludicrous belief that like The countries in the Eurozone we have to collect The Ā£ first that The treasury gives us to them give back to The Treasury to spend. No such accounting takes place.
The great beauty of the Belfast Agreement is that it is non-justiciable and non-enforceable. Therefore what it means is always in the eye of the beholder and everybody can pray it in aid.
The only bit that is law is the Irish constitutional changes and the Northern Ireland Act. Everything else is warm words.
Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom as article 1(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 confirms
It is hereby declared that Northern Ireland in its entirety remains part of the United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so without the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.
And the worse the WTO can do, because it has no enforcement powers at all, is what?
The worse the complainant can do is not sell us anything. So what. The UK is a massive market, we’ll just go elsewhere.
And nobody at the WTO is going to be wading into the political minefield of the Irish border any time soon. Because they all have careers to look after and rocking that boat isn’t going to be one that happens.
This is where realpolitik cripples the technocrats belief system. You have no tanks, no means to enforce anything, and nothing the UK need recognise – because the UK will simply say it is managing its sovereign territory as it sees fit in a manner it considers reasonable given the situation in Ireland.
October 1, 2021
@Derek Henry +1
We should also through in the French fishing threat against the UK. The Channel Islands are not in the UK, they have never been in the EU, so have never had to negotiate leaving, but the French wants to blame the UK because they can no longer keep stealing someone else’s fish
October 1, 2021
Hi Nota,
Exactly that is why we voted to leave. The French can huff and puff as much as they want. If they put tariffs on our fish. Then they are just causing inflation within their own borders as Trump found out. It won’t stop the French from buying our Langoustines. They’ll just become more expensive for the French consumer.
Which means we get more Euros than we would have done. That can then be used to buy this be sold In Euros that we can’t produce ourselves.
In a world with diminishing fish stocks they can’t go anywhere else. They can’t get them from mars or venus.
We used to understand this is was called the real terms of trade. So easy to understand when you forget about The numbers and concentrate on what real resources you have.
The real wealth of the UK is your pile of stuff. Thatās your real wealth. Goods and services. So your real wealth is everything you can produce when everybodyās working. Thatās how you get the most real wealth.
Plus whatever you import adds to your pile of stuff. Whatever you export subtracts from your pile of real stuff.
Now I did not say that exports donāt help the exporters. Yeah, it helps those people. But it is a subtraction of real wealth from the entire economy. The exports are your cost of imports.
Back in the old days we called that āreal terms of tradeā. So to optimise your prosperity, you make everything you can with everybody working, and then you add to that with imports, what people export to you. Then whatever you must export, you try and get as many imports as you can.
If you can export one fish and get 20 tomatoes, thatās good. If you can export one fish and get 30 tomatoes, thatās better. Real terms of trade, thatās the important thing.
If they decide to deliberately give us more Euros for one fish because they were stupid enough to put a tarrif on that fish. We can buy more tomatoes.
October 2, 2021
Derek Henry:
āNorthern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom as article 1(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 confirms
It is hereby declared that Northern Ireland in its entirety remains part of the United Kingdom and shall not cease to be so without the consent of a majority of the people of Northern Ireland.ā
The majority would now increasingly seem to favour reunification possibly in view of ongoing events imposed by the NIP.
Does not the NIP override the Act of Union?
The recent court challenge of the NI protocol, it was stated by the UK QC that the Protocol actually overrides the Act of Unionā¦ so NI is apparently now not part of the UK. He also stated it had been done illegally as there has been no vote on it.
The EU has succeeded in the break up of what was the UK. Being the price of Brexit according to Martin Selmayr, Former Secretary-General of the European Commission. So much for the change of number plates from GB to UK!
October 1, 2021
More Brexit woes – Driver shortages
250 Militarily personnel seconded to drive school buses in Boston Mass
In Pennsylvania parents are paid $300 per month not to use buses to get children to school – driver shortage
New York is short 500 drivers for the school bus run
Amazon pays its drivers more than Bus Drivers
Something to cheer the remoaners for the weekend
October 1, 2021
Sir JR
A high number of Europeans have left including better qualified ones as/
well.
We have a major qualification gap, which we need to fill and this is going to take years to improve by a close collaboration btween public and privare sector or teh problem will remain.
October 1, 2021
But year on year weāre educating more people with Degrees, Masters and PhDs
October 1, 2021
Well bill there are 70 million people in this small island.
We should have enough people to fill the various vacancies.
Perhaps employers might offer better pay , perks pensions and conditions to attract people.
Good thing perhaps ?
October 2, 2021
Peter 2
You are absolutely right, but our work-force is not as well trained as is the case of the rest of northern Europe and we need more apprenterships to better qualify the working population
October 2, 2021
They tended not to train people because they had a plentiful number willing to take the jobs offered who came here from outside the UK
October 3, 2021
So are you squarely putting the present situation at the door of ābusinessā? Could it be that ābusinessā is more interested in its bottom line than in anything else?
October 3, 2021
Could be heffy.
Is this another of your quizzes?
It should be fairly obvious to you that if a business get loads of applicants for an advertised vacancy then it won’t bother to spend loads on training up people.
Huge numbers of cheap imported labour has been great for big business.
October 2, 2021
These latest newspaper headlines of shortages at pharmacies because of HGV shortages can you ask the organisation with the whistle to tell us collection from where and delivering to where? Put the delivery contracts out to open tender. Who is the supplier company that canāt get transport? Are they based in the UK? Which region are the pharmacy goods warehoused? How many deliveries have they missed in September?
September is a big holiday month for drivers, delivery companies only allow minimal holidays in October to December but this year people have saved their holidays up for after Covid lockdowns if some companies havenāt been organised.
Perhaps the DVLA workers need spreading around the regions instead of all being in one place, competing with each other and able to take over other regions sections if they are more efficient. Now weāve learnt during Covid they donāt need to be in a central office due to working from home, replace leaving or failing employees elsewhere. These staff want to take care because I can see more processes being automated.