Conservative principles

The government needs to reconsider its policies as we move away from emergency measures to handle the pandemic.

We need a growth policy based on cutting tax rates and backing individuals and small businesses as they innovate, serve customers and expand.

We need a levelling up policy based on making it easier for people to follow their personal journeys through better education and  training, scope to work for yourself or build a business, the opportunity and freedom to turn your interests and hobbies into ways of sustaining your life

We need an ownership policy encouraging and helping more people to own their own home, to build their own business, to  become shareholders in the company they work for, to accumulate savings for a rainy day and for their retirement.

We need a public sector policy to deliver great education, health and social care, with choice for the users, free at the point of need.

We need a strong policy for the UK as an important influence for the good in the world, protecting our borders, helping our allies and being proud of our country.

We need to defend everyone’s right to democratic debate and challenge to government, preventing those who would stifle our national conversation by self serving wokery.

198 Comments

  1. Mark B
    December 14, 2021

    Good morning.

    Sorry, Sir John but whilst I do not disagree with anything you propose, I have to confess that it looks more like a list of pledges from a Conservative Manifesto from the 1980’s. Not a bad thing, but you know what I mean.

    The Wets (liberals / soft socialists) have taken over. They are the continuation of New Labour. A bunch of Marxists on the make.

    1. Timaction
      December 14, 2021

      The green wet consocialists are definitely in charge.

      ………”We need a public sector policy to deliver great education, health and social care, with choice for the users, free at the point of need.”…………

      Not without vast reform you won’t. 11.5 years in office and your party has not reformed the left wing/woke brigade that were recruited under Bliar when recruitment and selection processes were changed to make a self fulfilling prophesy and nu Labour legacy. All senior leading Health, Police, Fire, Councils, BBC, quangos and all Government Departments are crammed to the gunnels with these people. Why do you think we can’t move away from Pc/Woke, inefficient left wing standards from all these departments and organisations? Because radical reform is required to address the problem and I don’t think your Government has the heart, desire, will, or ability to rise to the challenge. Your leader can’t even ……….comb his hair properly and looks like a bag of……..

      1. glen cullen
        December 14, 2021

        Agree

      2. alan jutson
        December 14, 2021

        Time action

        Agree, long beyond time for a clear out.

      3. Nottingham Lad Himself
        December 14, 2021

        No, the elderly nostalgics and ukip entryists are in charge. It was they who selected our PM.

        It’s hardly surprising that we have the government that we do and the corresponding dishonourable shambles of a country.

        1. Micky Taking
          December 14, 2021

          So other parties played no part in the agonising process taking years to result in that shambles?

    2. Ian Wragg
      December 14, 2021

      No mention of controlling our borders or protecting our fishing.
      Build back better means destroying conservative principles in favour of authoritarianism.
      No thanks.

      1. Peter2
        December 14, 2021

        If only.
        What a contrary post NHL
        Where is your proof of what you claim?
        Come on eh?

    3. Nota#
      December 14, 2021

      @Mark B +1 to much sucking up to their ‘gang leader’ who after all is the only one that permitted them to stand in the election. Lack of principle, honesty and credibility. They get to play their self interest games while the Country suffers and pays for the consequences.

    4. lifelogic
      December 14, 2021

      All but about 80 Tory MPs are clearly not real Conservatives they are dire LibDims at best! The new (infectious but not very dangerous) variant will probably (in effect) vaccinate people for free and Covid will no longer be a significant cause of deaths.

      Boris is surely ramping up extra jabs so as to be able (wrongly) to claim credit for this shortly. Or to use up the jabs he has bought. I cannot see any other sensible explanation. Once can rarely be too cynical about politics I find.

      The vaccination of younger people (and men/boys particularly) is it seems certainly doing far more harm through adverse reactions than good – so why are they doing it? Driven by corruption, vested interests and money I assume.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        a fair conclusion.

      2. Mitchel
        December 14, 2021

        There is a famous quote from a 13th century Pope (Innocent III) lambasting the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade for attacking Christian cities for plunder whilst claiming to be carrying out God’s will:

        “he who continues to do what he repents having done is not a penitent but a trickster and a penitant returning to his sin is regarded as a dog returning to it’s vomit.”

        I think it has a certain resonance!

    5. jerry
      December 14, 2021

      @Mark B; “A bunch of Marxists on the make.”

      Such hyperbole.If you think the current Tory party has been taken over by a group of “Marxists” it likely tells us far more about how far to the right your own politicos are than anything about the current Tory party.

      1. agricola
        December 14, 2021

        Conclusions that do not stand scrutiny Jerry.

        1. jerry
          December 14, 2021

          @agricola; Thanks for showing just how far to the right you must also be, the current Tory party is in no way “Marxist”. Champaign socialist perhaps, Marxist no!

        2. Peter2
          December 14, 2021

          I agree with you Agricola, but he will soon be responding calling us both trolls.

          1. hefner
            December 14, 2021

            Mark_B, (agricola? P2?): what measuring device do you use to quantify how right, far-right, left, far-left a party is, how ‘marxist’ it has become, etc. As you are the one(s) using this adjective I guess you must have a very quantifiable way of proving your point. Could you please let us all know how you come to that conclusion. Thanks in advance.

            PS: (possibly for LL) re. the rate of tax, what rate would be acceptable to free up the all-encompassing energetic market while keeping decent (essential) public services (defence, police, education? health?)

          2. Peter2
            December 14, 2021

            Why don’t you tell us heffy.
            You are always a pot of questions.
            And a person who is embarrassed to be described as left wing.
            Why?

      2. lifelogic
        December 14, 2021

        Not at all, we have the highest tax system for 70+ years and all Sunak does is put taxes up even further and hugely while claiming he want to cut them. Then we have very complex taxation rules (another tax on top of tax), endless misguided red tape strangling people, insane employment rules, backdoor taxes everywhere and the net zero, expensive intermittent energy lunacy on top.

        Yet despite all this tax we have very poor and declining levels of public services and a very second rate health service. Sunak is just a socialist pretending he is not. He even taxes people to subsidise others restaurant meals – economic insanity from the PPE dope. Osborne, Hammond, Darling and Brown all appalling too.

      3. acorn
        December 14, 2021

        I would advise a reading of Palgraves “Key Concepts in Politics” for most on this site who don’t know their laissez-faire market capitalism, from their social market capitalism. Everything that is not far right conservative, is not by default automatically Marxist.

    6. Ed M
      December 14, 2021

      Lastly, Dickens’ Scrooge thought that most people were ‘wets’. Until he sees a vision of Hell, in the ghost of Marley, and his own sin (takes real moral courage to look into one’s soul). Then he becomes a different person. He still remains a banker (for money in itself is NOT a sin but the worship of – to think so is HERESY). But he is no longer the greedy, grasping, cold-hearted man that he was at the beginning. It’s a question of getting balance. And so no-one can judge another for being ‘wet’ or not.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        Dickens own father was ‘ banged-up’ over debts and struggled to find friends to pay them off to free him. ‘Young’ Dickens suffered hardship and distress over it.
        A moral story and better ending than he experienced.

        1. Ed M
          December 15, 2021

          Dickens was brilliant (kind of grown out of him now – but he taught me to love reading and writing and expand my imagination). He also put the fear of God into me when I was young with Christmas Carol but at same time without crushing me – the book is full of personalty / humour / hope / joy (and believable – the spirit of) and, yes, ends happily.

        2. Ed M
          December 15, 2021

          David Copperfield (which I’ve read 4 times ..) is the most biographical of Dickens.
          A great British GEM was / is Dickens.

      2. Ed M
        December 15, 2021

        Lastly, I don’t like to bring up ‘Hell’. It’s a scary topic. But it has sure done me no harm (nor millions of British before me – keeping them out of trouble and obeying the law etc). When Traditional Christianity is ultimately about LOVE (soft and tough love), peace, joy, beauty etc .. And we have an amazingly merciful God. That’s part of what Dickens is talking about in Christmas Carol. Carol is inspired by Christ’s The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan. But that we have to respond to that divine calling as Scrooge does and amazing things happen (as happened to me):

        ‘“I don’t know what to do!” cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Laocoön of himself with his stockings. “I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a schoolboy. I am as giddy as a drunken man.’

        That’s exactly how I felt after experiencing a beautiful miracle in a snowy, country field in Somerset, years ago, looking at a church spire from afar, whilst smoking a cigarette and sketching. That snowy, country field in Somerset was like a stairway to Heaven.

  2. Oldtimer
    December 14, 2021

    If you want these policies then you also need a leader who shares your belief in the principles that underpin them. My impression of the UK today is of a rotting carcass that is being consumed by layer upon layer of unproductive bureaucracy – the product of decades of misguided legislation nodded through by successive generations of MPs. Unless there are changes it can and will only end badly.

    1. DaveM
      December 14, 2021

      100% OT.

    2. Donna
      December 14, 2021

      Correct. The State has been allowed to grow too big and is now seeking to control our every move AND THOUGHT.

      There is no hope that the Not-a-Conservative Party in Westminster will do anything about it and every reason to believe they will just make it a whole lot worse.

    3. Jim Whitehead
      December 14, 2021

      OT, +1

    4. Cynic
      December 14, 2021

      @ OLDTIMER. Agreed, too many members of Blair’s client state who rely on state funding for their livelihoods.

    5. Nota#
      December 14, 2021

      @Oldtimer +1 to many who stood on a Conservative ticket either have no backbone or are like the PM out and out Socialists

    6. lifelogic
      December 14, 2021

      Indeed.

      Bus sadly any Boris replacement will be even worse, given the dire make up of Tory MPs. A remainer, tax borrow and piss down the drain, climate alarmist & socialist probably – like Sunak or Truss or even worse still. Gove, Javid, Hunt


    7. agricola
      December 14, 2021

      Spot on OT. I would add to it the reluctance to carry out that which the electorate voted for, and even worse, failing to take advantage of Brexit.

  3. Iain gill
    December 14, 2021

    Well said John

    That is exactly what the government should be saying

    1. Iain gill
      December 14, 2021

      Indeed if you added equality for the working class, leveling up for white boys in school who get the worst education outside the M25, meritocracy, making discrimination against working class and regional accents outlawed then the conservatives would stomp allover labour.

      1. a-tracy
        December 14, 2021

        People should look around at their Labour towns, run into the ground, wasteful spending on unused projects. Just look at the shop fronts and the state of the concrete centres. They take in all the no-hopers, the hangers-on, the lone parents whose children have no incentive to work hard at school dragging down all the true working-class people’s children down to the bottom with them. Look at the bottom 50 schools in the UK and check the spending per pupil at each one to the subsidised schools in London. Then they train teachers up from classroom assistants that failed at those same schools themselves! Perhaps they could set online timed tests for the teachers in their subjects and compare results between the best and worst schools.

      2. Nota#
        December 14, 2021

        @Iain gill , slightly disagree with you there – what is a working class?

        It is also Government policy to discriminate by the simple act of suggesting such a thing as the need for equality. The permitting the taxpayer to fund those engaged in the cancel culture, the WOKE brigade, Diversity and so on – if we are all equal and no one is singled out for focused attention, then that’s it. Why is the taxpayer funding Political points of view.

        Our Parliament as a whole is creating a ‘class’ system to pigeon whole sectors of society, after all the majority of those in the HoC don’t consider they themselves have the calling to serve, but the reverse we serve them as overlords.

        In simple terms we need a Government that defends the majority, stands up for freedoms and simply ‘butts’ out of our daily life.

    2. agricola
      December 14, 2021

      Sadly it is not their Blairite socialist policy.

  4. DOM
    December 14, 2021

    It’s all getting out of hand, spiralling out of control. Forever boosting. Forever testing. Further lockdowns. Scaremongering about an endless number of variants. All emanating from the British State, now under the control of zealots and psychopaths.

    I don’t believe democracy and freedom can survive if they represent a barrier to the construction of a system whose purpose is the very antithesis of freedom from the State

    I have always wondered why an ideology like Marxism that has led to the deaths of 85m has never been demonised by western governments. Now I know why,. It’s become very useful to them

    This is never going to end

    1. Everhopeful
      December 14, 2021

      +1
      Quite agree.

    2. Jim Whitehead
      December 14, 2021

      DOM, +1

    3. Christine
      December 14, 2021

      I don’t fear the virus but I do fear our Government and the direction it is taking us.

      1. lifelogic
        December 14, 2021

        Indeed the governments huge 0ver reaction to Covid (and the net zero agenda too) are far, far worse than the threats from Covid or Climate.

    4. Norman
      December 14, 2021

      A text just received from our GP reads: “Due to the National Emergency announced last night we have been told to prioritise COVID vaccines over all routine work. Unless your health problem is acutely urgent we may not be able to see you until January or your existing appointment may be rearranged. Please respect our staff in this matter. Ring…for [Covid vaccinations]…etc.
      Slightly alarmist???

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        But focus on Covid is made to look heroic, avoiding focus on cancer distress and premature deaths is political.

      2. alan jutson
        December 14, 2021

        They get paid extra for covid vaccinations, they get paid because you are simply on their books, seen or not. Double bubble.
        Always follow the money.

      3. lifelogic
        December 14, 2021

        Insanity to waste GPs talents injecting people when almost anyone could do it. Especially when Doctors are so needed elsewhere for treating and spotting other urgent but treatable conditions. But this is typical of the idiotic management of the NHS. ÂŁbillions wasted on agency staff too due to poor planning too.

    5. rose
      December 14, 2021

      The problem, Dom, is surely our “free press”. They and the broadcasters have got it established that the PM is personally responsible for 20,000 deaths. They are looking forward to having this made official at the inquiry. He is sensitive to this and doesn’t want to add to the tally. Every time they come to him and tell him we are facing the collapse of the NHS and hundreds of thousands of extra deaths, he keels over. That is a problem of democracy, not dictatorship.

    6. Mitchel
      December 14, 2021

      As I have pointed out a number of times before,the Cold War was not a war of ideology,much as it was couched in those terms,it was a western attempt,led by financiers, to impose a monopolistic economic/financial system on the globe.

      It might be Marxism,it might be fascism;it is not easy to tell the difference in practice.However,given the involvement of (over)powerful corporations and banking institutions in what is going on,I’m rather inclined to the latter.

  5. javelin
    December 14, 2021

    I prefer to report on comments sections across the internet rather than voice my own opinion because the last 10 years have proven when 95% of comments say one thing then the next democratic Government will be one that agrees with them 
 and 95% of comments say the Conservative (and Labour) Party have become irrational, contradictory, power hungry, anti-freedom and authoritarian. 95% of the comments are also saying that ministers need resign, they are saying they will not get jabbed, they will not obey the contradictory rules and the Government will cause mass civil disobedience and eventually a violent confrontation.

    Not my opinion but 95% of the internets. Thought you should know it.

    1. javelin
      December 14, 2021

      My opinion for what it’s worth (one vote) is that the evidence is that the omnicron variant has not killed anybody on the planet yet lock downs are known to kill people.

      My legal interpretation is that if somebody decides a course of action that will kill people against a course of action that will not kill people then it is manslaughter and it is a sin.

      You may laugh and call it absurd, but legally it is manslaughter and morally it is a sin and I request those people to sit quietly and contemplate for a moment actual people in the actual situation and the actual decision.

      1. javelin
        December 14, 2021

        Sorry to make an additional comment but I did sit down and contemplate the decision ministers are making today.

        MPs decision about public health is effectively a broader decision of a decision made by doctors everyday.

        Does the doctor treat a patient with a cold who will not die in favour of not scanning for or treating a patient with cancer who will die. As I understand it hundreds of cancer patients will be missed as a result of this decision. That is hundreds of people who will die a horrible and painful death that will cause suffering to both them and their family and loved ones.

        If a doctor after contemplation of the evidence decided to treat a cold rather than a cancer they would quite rightly be struck off and charged with criminal manslaughter.

      2. Everhopeful
        December 14, 2021

        +1
        Total agreement.

      3. matthu
        December 14, 2021

        + well said!

        I wonder what reward the hospital got for identifying the first patient to die “with omicron”. Which the PM deliberately conflated with dying from omicron.

        This obfuscation is simply deceitful. It goes against every conservative principle. As if they know that fact, but don’t know what the patient was admitted for, whether they were on ventilation, how old they were, whether they had any comorbidities.

        It stinks.

        1. Everhopeful
          December 14, 2021

          +1
          To High Heaven!
          And Heaven, I hope, is watching all this.

        2. a-tracy
          December 14, 2021

          mattu, I don’t believe that Boris did say anyone died ‘from’ the Daily Express had a headline yesterday that said ‘from’ not with.

        3. Micky Taking
          December 14, 2021

          One will report 4 deaths – – headline ‘Deaths from Omicron quadruple!’

      4. Denis Cooper
        December 14, 2021

        My opinion is that omicron will certainly contribute to the deaths of some people who are frail or vulnerable by reason of other disease or maybe injury, but the national health expert to whom we all naturally turn for guidance about this – indeed, about everything really, how we love to see him on TV explaining things to us – may have been premature with his announcement yesterday:

        https://www.goodto.com/wellbeing/health/symptoms-omicron-variant-anyone-died-639120

        “According to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, there has been one confirmed death as a result of the Omicron variant.”

        “This is yet to be confirmed by both the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and World Health Organisation (WHO). They previously shared that no Omicron-related deaths were recorded as of December 12, 2021.”

        This article 4 hours ago:

        https://www.ft.com/content/3c27c135-fdbc-4db7-8c7c-6e1f6c386235

        is mainly about infection rates but does say:

        “Denmark has recorded 3,437 Omicron cases, authorities said on Monday, close to a doubling in the past two days. About 9 per cent of those infected with Omicron had received three doses of a Covid-19 vaccine, 75 per cent two doses, while 14 per cent were unvaccinated.

        Thirty-seven people have been admitted to hospital with the variant in Denmark, with 28 of those testing positive before hospital admission or immediately afterwards and eight who were admitted for other reasons and then tested positive some days later. This is in stark contrast to admissions with other variants, where the vast majority of patients tested positive before admission, suggesting that a significant number of patients in the Omicron wave may test positive for Covid even if they are not being treated for it.”

        So up to now in Denmark hospital admissions amount to about 1% of cases where the variant is omicron, compared to about 6% in the UK overall during the whole pandemic with successive variants:

        https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare – 609,164 patients admitted
        https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/cases – 10,873, 468 recorded cases.

        But it is still early days.

        1. Mockbeggar
          December 14, 2021

          Very interesting data, Denis. Thank you. I have always been puzzled by the expression ‘Deaths within 28 days of testing positive for Covid’ [of any type] . It doesn’t mean that they died OF Covid. I’m sure that many of them would have died anyway – of something else. The same goes for this new strain I bet. I await more firm data with interest.

          1. glen cullen
            December 14, 2021

            There must be some advantage to recording deaths within 28 days but I fail to see any apart from artificially increasing the numbers
but why

        2. glen cullen
          December 14, 2021

          The government has said today that all 11 countries will be removed from the UK’s travel red list – Covid-Omicron can’t be all that serious as pronounced

          1. Micky Taking
            December 14, 2021

            do Africans get colds?

    2. Andy
      December 14, 2021

      95% of people on the internet are idiots. Coincidence?

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        people who think electric cars are going to save the world are idiots, coincidence?

        1. glen cullen
          December 14, 2021

          Coincidence – more like a direct correlation between ‘idiot’ and ‘electric-car’

          1. Micky Taking
            December 14, 2021

            Foreign jetting holidays – save the planet.
            Electric car – keep mining for rare earth elements.
            Stop coal mining – ship in from somewhere else.
            Ban fracking – import LPG
            Self sufficiency – build houses on farmland.

  6. Sea_Warrior
    December 14, 2021

    We need a new prime minister!

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 14, 2021

      I’d prefer to vote on that.

      You?

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        But you don’t accept majority voting, do you!

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 14, 2021

          I do.

          I have broken no law stemming from the 2016 referendum, nor the GEs subsequently, nor have I urged anyone else to do so.

      2. Sea_Warrior
        December 14, 2021

        Are you saying you want a general election? I don’t. The Conservatives have a big majority in the Commons and people tend to vote more for a party than a PM. But if the Conservatives don’t get rid of Johnson now they will lose a great many seats at the next GE. The electorate has lost faith in Fred Scuttle.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 14, 2021

          So you don’t want an election because the Right might lose. It was a different matter when you were braying for the FTPA to be scrapped when they would win, wasn’t it?

          How utterly predictable.

          1. dixie
            December 15, 2021

            Please cite an exact comment where S_W made such a demand, or perhaps you are simply confused and making things up.

        2. glen cullen
          December 14, 2021

          Agree

      3. Peter2
        December 14, 2021

        Then you want an elected President NHL
        That’s not what a PM is.
        They are elected as an MP by voters in their constituency.
        Then they are elected as the leader of their party.
        Then that party gets a majority in a general election.
        Surely you know this.

    2. alan jutson
      December 14, 2021

      SW
      You will need a lot of new Mp’s as well, as they vote for a leader and sit in cabinet helping to promote policies, or else are forced to resign, for failing to tow the so called Party line

    3. Micky Taking
      December 14, 2021

      I’ve felt like a voice in the wilderness……someone IS out there !

    4. jerry
      December 14, 2021

      @S-W; Indeed, were is the ghost of Macmillan (heck even Attlee) when needed, someone who understood a govt has to govern for all, from the two room terraced houses of the industrial north to the mansions of the Surrey stockbroker belt and all those between…

    5. Peter
      December 14, 2021

      Sea_Warrior,

      Despite all the talk, I don’t think a new leader is much of a possibility. Look how long it took to get rid of Mrs. May.

      In any case I don’t believe a new leader would be enough to address the malaise.

  7. Duyfken
    December 14, 2021

    The Conservative Party, not just the government, has rejected Conservatism. The Conservative Party should come out of the cupboard and admit its leftward leanings. Not even politically liberal, it seems more like the Illiberal and Authoritarian Party. I blame not only the present execrable Johnson government but all those who have allowed it: (most) Tory MPs, CCHQ, the local associations and even the grass-roots membership.

    1. Everhopeful
      December 14, 2021

      +1
      Their stupid virtue signalling and bending over backwards to facilitate left wing wokery has landed us here.
      Why couldn’t they see what has been happening?
      Can’t be thought of as an old fuddy duddy.
      Well, actually
it might just have been better!

    2. Nota#
      December 14, 2021

      @Duyfken +1

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 14, 2021

      Right wing radicalism is about as much an opposite of Conservatism as is left wing radicalism.

      You don’t want Conservatism, you want a tyrannical, fanatical, single-party dystopia.

      1. Duyfken
        December 14, 2021

        Thank you for reading my comment; I shan’t be reading any more of yours.

      2. Peter2
        December 14, 2021

        Give us examples of your claims NHL
        Otherwise it is just a cheap unsubstantiated slur.

  8. Roy Grainger
    December 14, 2021

    Are the government trying to move away from imposing restrictions ? I mean in general, for Covid and climate change ? Doesn’t look like it.

    Also, why are Scottish MPs getting a vote today on whether to impose Covid passports in England ? My NP didn’t get a vote on whether to impose them in Scotland.

    1. Old Albion
      December 14, 2021

      Why do Scottish constituency MP’s (along with Welsh and N.Irish) vote on any legislation affecting only England?
      Answer; The (dis)UK parliament refuses to recognise England as a distinct nation.
      Sir JR used to care about this issue, but seems to have forgotten about it now.

      1. Sidney
        December 14, 2021

        it has long been the case that when a proposal for England may have consequences for other members then their Westminster MPs are entitled to vote.Relaxation of Sunday opening being an early example

        1. Old Albion
          December 14, 2021

          Then England clearly needs it’s own devolved parliament to deal with devolved issues. Or Independence would be better.

    2. Donna
      December 14, 2021

      Because Gove thinks the Scottish tail should be able to wag the English dog.

    3. Everhopeful
      December 14, 2021

      +1
      Because they happily voted away that “English votes for English laws” thing.
      Blotting out England.
      Now England needs to devolve if you ask me!

    4. JoolsB
      December 14, 2021

      Totally agree Roy. Not just Scottish but Welsh & NI too. 117 MPs who have no say on Covid restrictions and many other things for their own constituents but have 100% say on what happens in England. Stephen Crabb, Conservative Welsh MP was deliberating on Daily Politics yesterday which way he would vote and not once was he questioned on his right to do so. We have an anti English media supporting an anti English Conservative Government, bizarrely there by the grace of England, who thought even the toothless sop that was EVEL was too good for England so they scrapped it and 552 supine MPs (John not included) squatting in English seats uttered not one word of protest. They couldn’t give a damn about the unfair and I democratic way in which England and their constituents are governed except when they want our votes that is.

    5. Fedupsoutherner
      December 14, 2021

      Roy. The Scottish/English votes issue makes my blood boil. Why can’t MP’S see the unfairness of it all?

      1. JoolsB
        December 14, 2021

        Because they don’t care one bit FupS about unfairness to England. They are however worried they might upset the Scots, Welsh & NI MPs if they took away their rights to continue to meddle and vote on stuff that has nothing to do with them or their constituents. Not one of them is fit to represent an English seat. We deserve better and the sooner England dumps the Fake Tories the better. The biggest mystery is why the media don’t make more of it.

  9. MPC
    December 14, 2021

    Your list of needs shows how vital it is for an organisation and a government to have a clear vision and strategy and to stick with them in times of adversity. But now we have government where even key manifesto pledges are ditched with impunity. So much so that I’m sure Mr Johnson will do something even worse in the dying days of his premiership than did his predecessors – Brown with his vindictive marginal tax increase, and May with the net zero insanity.

  10. GilesB
    December 14, 2021

    We need politicians to distinguish between facts and opinions.

    We need politicians with principles, not just following focus groups.

    We need politicians that keep to their manifestos (or resign).

    We don’t need deliberate misuse of data

    We don’t need politicians to hide behind the science

    We don’t need politicians who will never, ever admit that their judgment was wrong, even with the benefit and perspective of hindsight.

    1. Andy
      December 14, 2021

      But you lot don’t like facts when presented with them.

      Let me give you some facts:

      FACT: It is not illegal to cross the Channel in a dinghy if you are claiming asylum.

      FACT: Brexit has significantly damaged trade and has resulted in masses more bureaucracy for British companies and fewer opportunities for British people.

      FACT: The world is warming up and man is largely responsible for the unprecedented speed of the changing climate.

      FACT: Electric cars work and are far cheaper to run than petrol cars.

      FACT: Lockdowns work in limiting the spread of Covid.

      These are facts. Most of you are uncomfortable with facts like these.

      1. Dave Andrews
        December 14, 2021

        Entering the UK without leave to do so is an offence under the Immigration Act 1971, so the dinghy people are illegal.
        Despite what they say, the UK government is hostile towards asylum seekers, as it’s not an acceptable reason to apply for a visa.

      2. Beecee
        December 14, 2021

        Absolutely correct – the method of arrival is irrelevant when claiming asylum, however you are not classified as an asylum seeker if arriving from a ‘safe haven’.

        Hope you are fully recovered from your recent illness.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          December 14, 2021

          You keep repeating this fallacy.

          Please state the UN Resolution or other international law which states that, and good luck with that.

          English precedent does not state any such thing either.

      3. No Longer Anonymous
        December 14, 2021

        My ICE car cost me 5k up front has zero road tax and uses ÂŁ800 of petrol a year.

        ÂŁ80 a year servicing.

        Lockdown kills and I was at Amersham crem seeing a relative murdered by the NHS yesterday.

      4. Roy Grainger
        December 14, 2021

        Lockdowns slow down the spread of COVID and shift the deaths into subsequent waves of more transmissible variants which can’t be so well controlled. That’s why hard-lockdown Poland had very few deaths in the first wave but now have more deaths than U.K. per head of population. That’s why people opposing the lifting of all restrictions in July were hopelessly wrong.

        1. Bill B.
          December 14, 2021

          You’re surely right on the last part, though I don’t think any virus variants can really be ‘controlled’. They generally just do their thing, getting milder as time goes on, it seems.

      5. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        seems to me it is YOU who is uncomfortable with those ‘FACTS’.

    2. Everhopeful
      December 14, 2021

      +1
      Oh well said!
      We only know what the truth is by assuming the absolute opposite of what they say.
      “No more lockdowns” etc etc.

    3. majorfrustration
      December 14, 2021

      1+

    4. Nota#
      December 14, 2021

      @GilesB +1

      We need politicians that wish to serve, honour and respect the power we(the People) have lent them

  11. Peter
    December 14, 2021

    Mr. Johnson had a different set of principles in his back pocket. COP26 guff, Build Back Better, Spend, Spend, Spend.

    Voters may not like it but globalists do.

    1. Timaction
      December 14, 2021

      Indeed. I heard a consocialists Minister reported as saying our cars are so…….20th Century. Try getting around outside of London and the availability of public transport and in directions we want to go and the time of travel. Out of touch Greenies.

    2. Everhopeful
      December 14, 2021

      +1
      They speak the same language.
      Reading from the same playbook!
      Globally.

    3. Nota#
      December 14, 2021

      @Peter In retrospect I doubt if anyone including the PM understood the catchy media grabbing headlines

    4. Christine
      December 14, 2021

      Exactly. Western governments around the world are bringing in the same warped policies at the same time. Is it a coincidence, I doubt it, or are they following a global plan?

      Forcing an untested vaccine on adults and children by threatening that they will be excluded from society is just plain evil.

  12. Nig l
    December 14, 2021

    Totally agree and the lack of them is why we are in this mess. One big problem.

    Principles and Boris Johnson. An oxymoron.

  13. The Prangwizard
    December 14, 2021

    Clearly, the wording here means the present Tory party doesn’t believe in or practise these principles.

    Sir John stays loyal though and were there an general election tomorrow he would stand as a Tory.

  14. Donna
    December 14, 2021

    Sir John

    Those are recognisable Conservative/conservative principles.

    They are completely alien to most of the LibCONs who now infest the Parliamentary Party, let alone the CONsocialists/Eco Loons who are in charge.

    To get what you want …. what WE want ….. you have to look outside the corrupted CON Party now.

    I’m afraid the out-of-control lunatic in Downing Street has gifted the next election to Starmer; not because people are enthusiastic about the wooden plank or the rabble he is leading. But because a lot of Conservatives and most conservatives who simply lent Johnson our votes “to get Brexit done” will refuse to vote for his brand of CONsocialism and Eco lunacy.

    Oppositions don’t win General Elections; Governments lose them.

    1. matthu
      December 14, 2021

      ‘fraid so.

      The Conservative Party have no recognisable principles left any more. None.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        not so sure about that. They have always looked after their mates.

  15. Everhopeful
    December 14, 2021

    Given that no lunatic measure has beaten the plague aren’t MPs getting a little nervous as they view the carnage around them?
    And yet
on they plunge.
    75 (if they don’t buckle) won’t save the day will they?
    Or us!

    1. glen cullen
      December 14, 2021

      If a third of my senior staff where concerned about a policy – I’d revisit that policy

  16. Old Albion
    December 14, 2021

    A new Prime Minister would be a positive step.

    1. glen cullen
      December 14, 2021

      We need a leader that can see us though the next election, and that isn’t Boris
last weeks by-election was a disaster and next Thursday’s by-election looks to be another disaster

  17. DOM
    December 14, 2021

    State authoritarianism requires huge amounts of funding and financing. Socialism doesn’t come cheap. Who’s financing this sustained assault on our freedoms and where will future funding come from to sustain the State’s war against the free individual?

    We’re on a journey, as our progressive friends call it. A journey into darkness

    1. glen cullen
      December 14, 2021

      ”Al Gore”

  18. BOF
    December 14, 2021

    No conservative would disagree. But there has not been a single Conservative leader since Mrs T (with exception of Sir IDS) who would have implemented these policies.

    Without the prospect of a real conservative party I can only see the rapid decline of this once great country. Decades of socialist policy and the takeover of the institutions by Marxists has destroyed all chance of getting back to a country that you describe in your diary today Sir John.

  19. Nig l
    December 14, 2021

    And in other news we see the chaos caused by the NHS’s total lack of contingency planning/delivery ability etc with its head continuing to be invisible and zero holding to account by Javed.

    Not to mention hundreds of thousands of people who will not be treated for other problems. Why do we have to continue to put up with this and why do the ‘Bs’ responsible not sort it.

    In the meantime Amazon has ramped up fulfilment function seamlessly to cope with the Christmas rush.I suspect its website gets more hits but hasn’t crashed and its pick and delivery service is getting stuff to me mostly within 24 hours.

  20. Dave Andrews
    December 14, 2021

    Very very sensible John, but to get the policies you describe needs a different government. There is no indication the individuals in power have the wit to appreciate what you advocate.
    Sadly, the people of this country can’t either, and they keep electing the same muppets.

  21. Richard1
    December 14, 2021

    Let’s give it until the middle of 2022. If there’s no sign of a change of direction by then it’s probably time for a change at the top.

  22. JoolsB
    December 14, 2021

    Totally agree John but to deliver Conservative principles we first need a Conservative Prime Minister and a Conservative Government. Sadly the current incumbents are anything but as their actions have clearly proved. They obviously haven’t got a single Conservative bone in their bodies between them.
    They need to be replaced ASAP but by whom? True Conservatives like yourself seems to be a rarity nowadays. It’s a depressing thought that the Socialists have taken over your party and the only choice ahead of us is either
    Blue Labour or Red Labour. You and like minded MPs need to form a new party. You could call it the Real Conservative Party. I’m sure many desperate for a true Conservative party with true Conservative principles to vote for would vote for you. So many Conservative voters will not vote for Johnson and the current fake Conservatives again that’s for sure.

    1. MWB
      December 14, 2021

      How about calling a new right of centre party, the English National Party ?

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        December 15, 2021

        Yes, abandon all pretence at Conservatism and Unionism and at least be honest as to what you are.

  23. Nig l
    December 14, 2021

    A senior spokesman claimed the NHS is being set up fail. Mmm. Think you are doing a pretty good job yourself without outside help.

  24. Brian Tomkinson
    December 14, 2021

    JR: “The government needs to reconsider its policies as we move away from emergency measures to handle the pandemic.”
    Just when will that be? In his statement on Sunday Johnson used the word ’emergency’ four times – that after almost 2 years of ’emergency measures’. When Johnson and others proclaimed the vaccine was the way out of this they didn’t mean vaccines would prevent infection and transmission of a virus but that they would be the vehicle by which they could impose vaccine passports and institute a form of totalitarian state control few would have envisaged feasible in any country outside China and Russia. Why have MPs not uttered a word of condemnation at the appalling actions already taken by other countries such as Austria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Australia and New Zealand? As I have written before we are currently living under an elective dictatorship. Let us hope that today marks the beginning of the end of that period with MPs voting against this dreadful government.

    1. matthu
      December 14, 2021

      Why have MPs not uttered a word of condemnation at the appalling actions already taken by other countries such as Austria, Germany, Italy, Greece, Australia and New Zealand?

      Either
      a) they are ignorant of them
      b) they are too timid to raise the issue
      c) they secretly admire these policies

      Which is it?

  25. Philip P.
    December 14, 2021

    All perfectly true, SJR, but what we actually have is a government committed to none of those things, even though the public are generally in favour of them, I believe. Worse, the public is increasingly being nudged into thinking those desirable goals are now out of reach, thanks to the fear instilled in them by the government’s Covid propaganda machine. We mustn’t feel entitled to our kids going to school as normal, or to proper face-to-face higher education, or to small businesses able to open without fear of closure by government, or to free speech online about pseudo-scientific fraud, because of the all-dominant public health emergency we’re told threatens us all.

  26. Maylor
    December 14, 2021

    I have to feel pity for traditional Conservatives like Sir John as the Party seems to be moving in a very different direction. All supporters that I know feel alienated from the Party at the moment and are looking for a viable alternative.

    Hopefully the rebellion will grow and invigorate the Party along with support from the new MPs from the ‘red wall’.

    Otherwise, IMO, democracy in this country will continue to disappear.

  27. Jiminyjim
    December 14, 2021

    I feel for you, Sir John, as almost daily you underline on this site the extent to which your ideas are a gulf apart from the government’s. It’s surely not going to change as long as the Blairists are in charge and enthusiastically supported by Labour. You and the pitifully small number who think like you do, have been successfully neutered. How long do you go on with this?

    1. DB
      December 14, 2021

      Johnson is considerably to the left of Blair.

      1. Mitchel
        December 14, 2021

        Johnson doesn’t believe in anything apart from his own careerism.

  28. a-tracy
    December 14, 2021

    John, recent events have demonstrated clearly to us there are only around 70-75 conservative MPs who think like you. They are telling us their message loud and clear and it’s not following your wishes for your party.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 14, 2021

      They threw out the wrong 75.

  29. agricola
    December 14, 2021

    All very worthy principals, but little sign of them being part of this governments intentions. Conservatives may ask why, I would submitt that the current party is not very conservative. It is only pretending to be conservative to gather the support of those who are Conservative. Once the two currently minor parties who sound Conservative get together, real Conservatives will have something to vote for.

  30. Bryan Harris
    December 14, 2021

    Some very good points raised by our host, but it seems like we are all blowing in the wind to expect any notice to be taken. Our path has already been decided.

  31. Dunedin
    December 14, 2021

    Vaccine passports will make our liberty dependent on taking whatever medical interventions the government of the day demands. This is a profound change taking place in the relationship between the individual and the state, but most of the media are more interested in Downing Street parties and wallpaper.

    As for a conversation about mandatory vaccination, this is immoral, unethical and something no British Prime Minister should even be thinking about. The Covid vaccines cannot be compared to vaccines which have a tried and tested safety record.

    I have many questions for Boris’s national conversation on mandatory vaccines, but for now I would like to ask the PM:

    Covid kills approx 0.2% – mainly the elderly and those with co-morbidities, so why would you want to inject everyone with vaccines which are:

    still in clinical trials and authorised for emergency use only,
    have no long-term safety data,
    have increasing adverse effects and deaths on the Yellow Card reporting scheme,
    do not prevent infection and transmission,
    and now appear to have rapidly declining effectiveness necessitating boosters?

    Thank you Sir John for taking a stand against this and I hope many more MP’s will join you. One other thought – this vote is for vax passports in England, so will the Scottish, Welsh and NI MPs be voting?

  32. turboterrier
    December 14, 2021

    The government needs to reconsider…..

    A new leader, cabinet and a massive sort out of the civil service departments

    That is their starter for 10 no conferring

  33. Nota#
    December 14, 2021

    Sir John – To repeat what is the consensus throughout the UK – we need a Conservative Government. No one voted for a Socialist Dictator. To many pretend Conservatives sitting on their hands and soaking up the feeling of being in Parliament is more important than doing what was promised and working for the People of the UK – self interest rules!

  34. majorfrustration
    December 14, 2021

    We need to get rid of Boris

  35. Sea_Warrior
    December 14, 2021

    Today, Sir John, someone in the Commons needs to demand some clarity on the difference between ‘with’ and ‘from’, in relation to the first Omicron death in the UK – and this needs doing before the division-bell rings.

  36. Original Richard
    December 14, 2021

    “We need to defend everyone’s right to democratic debate and challenge to government, preventing those who would stifle our national conversation by self serving wokery.”

    We need an elected government (majority of MPs) prepared to take on the Chinese Marxist fifth column which has infiltrated our civil service, quangos, charities, educational and judicial establishments, institutions and MSM.

    Because we are a democratic country, unlike China, this will need to be done through a series of referendums.

    We also need to enact a law to prevent UK citizens in influential positions from working for the Chinese state.

  37. Denis Cooper
    December 14, 2021

    Off topic, I have a short letter in the Belfast News Letter today:

    https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/opinion/letters/boris-johnson-will-not-sort-brexit-border-issue-unless-tory-mps-step-in-3493406

    “Boris Johnson will not sort Brexit border issue unless Tory MPs step in”

    “For opponents of Brexit the Irish land border is a gift that keeps on giving.

    It is four years since Phil Hogan, then Ireland’s EU Commissioner, publicly warned that Ireland would “continue to play tough to the end” over the border.

    While Helen McEntee, then Europe Minister in the Irish government, told Sky News that “there cannot be a physical border and that means ruling out cameras, that means ruling out technology, that means ruling out anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland”.

    The UK government is still struggling to sort out how to deal with the carriage of goods across that border, and now there is a fresh uproar designed to build up another mountain out of a small molehill, the minor technical problem of the movement of people across the border.

    Is anybody in the Cabinet Office going to reassure Poland’s honorary consul in the north than the police will not be arresting Polish farm workers as they cross the border to get from one field to another? I don’t suppose so, it will be more unanswered anti-Brexit propaganda.

    Do I believe that the blundering Boris Johnson will be any more capable of solving this minor problem than the last minor problem? Of course not, unless the Tory MPs who put this charlatan into Downing Street step in and prevent him from creating another protocol-style mess.”

    Background:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/12/11/advisers-advise-ministers-decide/#comment-1282803

    1. rose
      December 14, 2021

      The problem is Gove who doesn’t appear to be a unionist but has a lot of power and influence. Otherwise, surely, we would not have a border problem as it would have been sorted using the technical solutions proposed by both sides back in 2016. He doesn’t appear to be a full Brexiteer either, and wanted us in the SM originally. Maybe he still does and NI is the means by which to do it.

      1. Denis Cooper
        December 14, 2021

        Gove is totally untrustworthy and should not be allowed to hold any public office.

        https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2019/05/23/the-last-days-of-mrs-may/#comment-1022743

  38. Christine
    December 14, 2021

    I see already that the death of one patient WITH Omicron has morphed into the headline “first death FROM Omicron”.

    1. Mike Wilson
      December 14, 2021

      I see already that the death of one patient WITH Omicron has morphed into the headline “first death FROM Omicron”.

      Gird your loins for the next death.

      Deaths from Omicron DOUBLE! At this rate every organism in the known universe will be infected within four days.

  39. Mary M.
    December 14, 2021

    Good Morning, Sir John.

    These conservative principles are the very principles of Reform Uk, and of the Reclaim Party. It is hoped by people who believe in democracy that these two parties will one day merge.

    As it looks as though the Government is heading further and further away from its conservative beliefs, can we not persuade you to jump ship before it’s too late?

    You would be such an asset to ‘Reclaim and Reform’.

    (I’m not joking.)

    Mary M.

    1. Enough Already
      December 14, 2021

      +1

    2. Hat man
      December 14, 2021

      I think good people like Steve Baker, Charles Walker, Esther McVey and Sir John will soon have a key decision to make. Will they have any effect on government policy by staying within the Conservative party and saying what they have to say as ‘rebel’ Tory MPs? Or will they make more impact on public opinion if they join or form another party? Unfortunately, it may depend on what stance the bought-and-paid-for mainstream media would take. If they stay as Tory MPs, their efforts will still be newsworthy because they make problems for Johnson, whereas if they went to e.g. Reform UK (the political party the media won’t talk about), their views would probably be silenced. It’s a difficult one, but I predict they will stay.

  40. William Long
    December 14, 2021

    All this should go without saying, and it is deeply depressing that it needs to be said to a so-called Conservative Government.
    But what you say also poses a question: is this Government actually showing any signs of moving on from an ‘Emergency’ mindset? It seems wedded totally to the panick outpourings of its ‘Sage’ advisers, which makes it all the more reprehensible that the NHS appears to have done so little to prepare for the current Variant crisis, that it has warned us so often was certain to happen.
    Meanwhile, there are already reports coming out of South Africa that the rate of increase of new cases of Omicron (long ‘i’ please!) is already beginning to level off.

  41. rose
    December 14, 2021

    A very strong case should be made today from the back benches for cancelling the recent tax rises. It could be made by emphasising that the Plan B measures need to be tempered in some way economically, or we will not recover.

  42. Kenneth
    December 14, 2021

    John, if you want those things (as I do), we need a new government. A Conservative government.

  43. Original Richard
    December 14, 2021

    I’m pleased to see, Sir John, that you have not included the current Government’s Net Zero (CO2) Strategy in your list of policies.

    This strategy, denying the science of thermodynamics, which attempts to use low density, high entropy (intermittent and unreliable/unpredictable) energy through inefficient 8th century windmill technology to produce the low entropy electrical energy that we need to power us will be so expensive and unreliable that when combined with forced conversion to be all electric will eventually destroy our economy and democracy.

    The Chinese and their Marxist UK supporters/employees are laughing their heads off at this strategic mistake whilst they continue to use fossil fuels until science and engineering produces a viable non-CO2 producing power supply cheaper than using fossil fuels.

    For instance, tucked away on P51 of the Government’s 2020 Energy White Paper “Powering our Net Zero Future” is the heading :

    “We aim to build a commercially viable fusion power plant by 2040.”

    If this is the case, I have no idea of the feasibility, it would then make spending ÂŁbillions, if not ÂŁtrillions, to decarbonise all our electricity by 2035 (planned date) using expensive and unreliable windmills a complete waste of money.

    1. Old Salt
      December 14, 2021

      OR
      “We aim to build a commercially viable fusion power plant by 2040.”
      I wouldn’t count on it.

    2. Micky Taking
      December 15, 2021

      an ‘aim’ by 2040. Great – no transport, no heating, no industry for years and years while we hope that will work? Sounds like a serious strategy.

  44. Everhopeful
    December 14, 2021

    From the Telegraph today.

    “The Government should be preparing to give Britons fourth, fifth and sixth Covid vaccinations to prepare for future waves of the virus, a senior Conservative has said”.

    Um
so this senior conservative is talking about what? More covid? More variants? How can anyone possibly be prepared? How can anyone KNOW??

    Which jab to choose? Like a box of assorted chocolates.

    Unless of course you happen to be King Canute commanding these “ future waves” that is.

    1. glen cullen
      December 14, 2021

      But we seem to have cured the common cold and the killer flu

      1. Micky Taking
        December 15, 2021

        Less stuffy offices, fewer passengers in trains, mask wearing in most shops, less social mixing…hence reduction in transmission – – – who’d have thought it?

  45. Mike Wilson
    December 14, 2021

    Any mention of immigration?

    Any mention of a 30 year plan for ensuring energy supplies?

    Any mention of how the inevitable transition to renewable sources of energy will be managed?

    And, still, the

    We need a strong policy for the UK as an important influence for the good in the world

    The best way to be an ‘important influence for good in the world’ is to run a self-reliant, fair country with a decent society and without reliance on imports to function’. I do wish people would forget this ‘global Britain’ nonsense and focus on this country. At the moment we are a beacon of despair to the world. A small, overpopulated island, over-governed, over-regulated with an autocratic government elected with a sham democracy, in massive debt to be handed to future generations with a banking system allowed to enslave people in debt for their whole lives due to excessive lending into the housing market.

    Well, after reading what I’ve just written, I must encourage my kids to emigrate.

    1. Iago
      December 14, 2021

      To where? almost the entire western world is governed by globalist socialists, surrendering us to our mortal enemies. But I suppose one must take the rough with the smooth and not be impertinent, we are after all soon to be vaccine passport slaves.

  46. Mike Wilson
    December 14, 2021

    It is no wonder the Labour Party just sit around doing nothing and looking pretty (useless). Why would they want to be in power with all the responsibility and media examination that goes with it – when they can sit happy and carefree in opposition while the Tory Party enacts everything they would like to do.

    Leader of the Opposition! What a lovely gig.

  47. Alan Holmes
    December 14, 2021

    There are no conservatives in this government and there are no principles in this parliament. What there is is a cabal of thinly veiled totalitarians working entirely for the interests of Big Pharma and it’s owners.
    This system of “democracy and freedom” is an utter sham and now people are finally realising it.

    1. Micky Taking
      December 15, 2021

      – no Conservatives in Parliament but also no serious scientists (JVT an exception?) in the sycophants put up alongside The Clown.

  48. Sea_Warrior
    December 14, 2021

    The plan that the PM put together on the back of a fag-packet on Sunday now appears to be unravelling in the face of logistics reality. We are now at the point where a pin-striped retired general needs to be appointed into No 10, as a Spad, with the purpose of imposing some order on the operation in general and the PM in particular. This is the worst ‘government’ I can remember.

    1. Iago
      December 14, 2021

      Can’t be, Blair fixed this country for the next one thousand years.

  49. glen cullen
    December 14, 2021

    What are your principles when you have to rely upon the support votes from the Labour Party and disregard a third of your own MPs

  50. Roy Grainger
    December 14, 2021

    I see Whitty has been wheeled out to terrify MPs by saying hospitals will have to close in mid-January due to staff shortages due to self-isolation. Still, let’s just go ahead and fire the staff who decline the vaccine eh ? Good joined-up thinking.

    I bet Whitty hasn’t presented any evidence vaccine passports work.

    1. what tiler
      December 14, 2021

      How could he? They demonstrably don’t. Unless of course “slowing the spread” is a smokescreen for rather less palatable objectives.

  51. Vernon Wright
    December 14, 2021

    Very much agree with Mark B, Sir John; let’s get through Tuesday’s votes before trying to revive Conservative campaigns from years or even decades past.

    I assume, despite the recent hullabaloo, that few Conservative M.P.s will vote against the government’s socialist policies; after all, the other socialist party will vote them through anyway.

    One can quite understand. Most members of the H.o.C. have no other career; why would they – especially the P.P.S.s – want to incur the wrath of Downing-street, risking the one they’re hoping to build across the road?

    ΠΞ

  52. Micky Taking
    December 14, 2021

    just reflecting for a few moments:
    NHS – SHAMBLES.
    ECONOMY -SHAMBLES
    EU/BREXIT – SHAMBLES
    DEFENCE – SHAMBLES
    IMMIGRATION – SHAMBLES
    USA RELATIONS – SHAMBLES
    CHINA – SHAMBLES
    ELECTRICITY SUPPLY – SHAMBLES
    TRANSPORT – SHAMBLES

    not a good report card, is it?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 14, 2021

      You were warned but voted for it all.

      1. Micky Taking
        December 14, 2021

        please explain how I voted for it all?
        You seem to be under the misapprehension that I voted for Brexit, Conservative and Mr Johnson.
        I would like to know how you allege that?

    2. glen cullen
      December 14, 2021

      We don’t need a ‘back to basics’ we need a reformation and celebration of conservative principles to trim the ship

      1. Micky Taking
        December 15, 2021

        and a root-and-branch prune of the pretence-Conservatives.
        The wood needs serious comprehensive management, before all the trees collapse.

  53. Sea_Warrior
    December 14, 2021

    What is the goverment trying to achieve by keeping in-place the onerous testing requirements for people returning to the the UK from Austria – a country safer than our own? This lunacy will stop me booking my winter break – again.

    1. R.Grange
      December 14, 2021

      I’m not sure, Sea Warrior, why you think Austria is safer than our country in terms of Covid. According to the most recent Johns Hopkins University Covid figures, Austria’s weekly average Covid death rate (o.0067 per million) is nearly four times ours (0.0018 per million).

      Did you mean Australia?

      1. Sea_Warrior
        December 14, 2021

        No, Austria. And I was looking at the ‘COVID cases/million/over 7 days’ measure, which is now less than ours, and falling quickly, while ours is rising. My source is Worldometers.

        1. R.Grange
          December 14, 2021

          You still don’t realise, then, that so-called ‘Covid cases’ are pretty meaningless as an indication of disease, Sea Warrior? You don’t need to be ill to get a positive PCR lab test result, and you don’t have to be infectious either. This is why the WHO said back in January that a positive PCR result should be accompanied by a clinical examination before a proper diagnosis of Covid is given. But this is ignored, and the fear-mongering goes on. Maybe you also don’t realise that Britain has been testing for Covid almost as much as the EU put together for much 0f 2021, so of course we get lots more ‘cases’.
          Our supposedly free press has failed us big time in how the Covid crisis has been reported, and we have to do our own research to find out what’s happening. Fortunately, there are more reliable sources available than Johnson and his ministers, and the bent media.

  54. Pauline Baxter
    December 14, 2021

    Yes Sir John. The United Kingdom certainly DOES need a Party that follows Conservative principles. Most of which you have listed.
    But YOUR Party NOW, DOES NOT! Does it?
    Nor unfortunately, any other of the main parties.
    Please do something about this SOON, because the present government seems hell bent on wreaking my country.

  55. StephenS
    December 14, 2021

    A manifesto for change then. Sadly we have a set of members such as my MP Mary Robinson who appear to be more interested in not being outflanked by the left than driving reform from the right. Frit careerists sadly.

  56. glen cullen
    December 14, 2021

    Sad to report 150 covid related deaths within 28 days of positive test today– but its not a national emergency

    1. Diane
      December 15, 2021

      Example: ( simple stats / Worldometer ) The last 8 daily reported deaths figures total for the UK & others – rounded down/up, show UK 980, France 1105, Germany 2830, Poland 3340, Italy 740. For the UK, daily critical figures reported since, for example, the beginning of October ( & in fact well before that ) show a steady figure of between around 800-900 with few significant fluctuations and with the last 8 reports showing a daily average of 896.

  57. formula57
    December 14, 2021

    The present Sunak Slowdown (October GDP growth at 0.1 per cent. ) shows “We need a growth policy based on cutting tax rates…” and urgently, before the onset of the Sunak Slump or perhaps the Sunak Stagflation.

    You have shown us what we could have instead from the Chancellor and it is much more appealing. Being lumbered with what Mr. Sunak gives us is a great disappointment.

  58. X-Tory
    December 14, 2021

    Sir John, in relation to today’s Covid debate I think it is very important to challenge the NHS on its procedures. The official NHS website states that there are three approved treatments (this is now out of date, by the way, as a fourth – Sotromivab – was approved recently, but this is not central to my concern) which will be given from this Thursday (16/12). You can see for yourself that I am telling the truth here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/treatments-for-coronavirus/

    My complaint relates to the limitations applied to those who will receive treatment. The NHS website states that the treatments will be limited to those: “who are at highest risk of becoming seriously ill”. Examples are those with cancer, HIV, cirrhosis, sickle cell, etc. But surely this is NOT the best approach. If treatment was offered to EVERYONE who tests positive, by their GPs, then serious illness would be avoided in the first place for almost everyone. As a result far fewer people would need to go to hospital, the NHS would not be overwhelmed and more lives would be saved. So why are these treatments not offered ROUTINELY to EVERYONE with Covid?

    I appreciate that you are currently busy in the Chamber and will not see this until after the debate, but it is a question worth bearing in mind, I believe.

  59. Narrow Shoulders
    December 14, 2021

    Conservative principles.

    Let me spend more of my own money and choose if this is on good causes.

    Leave me to live my own life around a framework of law and order.

    Enforce that law and order.

    Defend our country.

    Remove legislation where possible.

  60. DOM
    December 14, 2021

    After tonight’s Parliamentary treachery the British State now has its hands around our collective throats and that grip will over time become stronger

    The principle of digital identity has now been established. There roll out will now accelerate now Johnson’s got the backing of Marxist Labour whose Socialist dreams of total State monitoring are close to realisation

    The Tory party IS DEAD. Labour’s client state controls our world

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      December 15, 2021

      It’s easy enough for any reader to see exactly what controls you and some other posters here, Dom.

  61. beresford
    December 14, 2021

    Thank you for again voting in the interests of the British people for freedom and democracy. Reluctant as you are to admit it, I think you must recognise that Parliament, as is the case for most Western countries, is now a rubber stamp for the evil globalist cabal.

  62. glen cullen
    December 14, 2021

    So under this government someone in uniform or in a position of authority could ask me ‘’show me your papers’’ I am sure I’ve heard that phrase used in central Europe in the 1930s

  63. DOM
    December 14, 2021

    Plenty of Parliamentary heroes tonight including Mr Redwood. You have our eternal gratitude.

  64. Andrew S
    December 15, 2021

    John Redwood voting against sensible proportionate temporary measures to protect our public health: from what I see of the motions, on face value it was wrong to oppose them.

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