Time was when the Daily Telegraph was a loyal supporter of the Prime Minister. It often reflected his views. It had been his generous and tolerant employer for many years.
Yesterday the paper was brilliant. It urged him to follow up on his decision not to lock England down for Christmas and the New Year, but to get everyone back to work. We need to live with the virus and curb it with vaccines, treatments and individual judgements of risk.
It ran the need to abate the cost of living crisis. It proposed cutting the tax burden. It highlighted the dangers of the Chancellorâs high tax policies. It backed removing the National Insurance rise and challenged the Treasury removing our investment advantage of having relatively low Corporation Tax.
It warned of the energy crisis and ran an article proposing producing more of our own U.K. oil and gas.
I urge the PM to read this and to reflect on it. It comes  from a friendly institution that wishes him well.
Let me add an appeal to the forces in government that are holding him back from these better policies. They usually want to keep us close to EU rules and thinking. So let us copy the EUâs latest policy of designating gas as a green fuel and procuring more of it. We have the added advantage we can produce our own.
They also like us to cosy up to Democrat Presidents in the USA. We should copy Joe Biden in licensing more exploration, development and production of gas.
January 9, 2022
Good morning
Since before Christmas I have been getting the feeling from our kind hosts daily posts of a man that can foresee the coming disaster, being powerless to advert the danger, with those in control unheeding his desperate cries. I have, not unfairly, labelled him a Cassandra figure, with other here also noting that, despite making many fine suggestions, he is ignored.
To me the first sentence is a thinly veiled but subtle threat. To me it is saying; “You really want to listen, because YOU are running out of time and friends !” The second sentence , I argue, is deceptive. It does not come from ‘a friendly institution’, nor does it come from those who ‘wish him well.’ It comes from those Tory backbenchers who will lose their seats, and those backers who will lose the Tory government’s ‘favour’.
I think it too soon to say that, Alexander Johnson MP is drinking in the last chance saloon, but he most certainly has been handed the directions on where to find it.
January 9, 2022
It is once again a case of âno change no chanceâ just as it was with the appalling John Major who buried the party for 3+ terms. But a change of policies not of leader. Any change of leader will almost certainly give us someone even worse tax to death Sunak, Truss, Hunt, Javid⊠Boris has on his side the fact that Labour/SNP is even worse than this government. Few English people want to see that.
The best recent article on this in the Telegraph was Allister Heath on Thursday.
âBorisâs abject conversion to Brownism on tax is a betrayal of Middle England
PMâs refusal to cut VAT on fuel because it would help âthe richâ is symbolic of a much deeper malaise.â
âInflation is out of control, taxes are being increased to their highest levels since Attlee, real wages are collapsing, migration and crime are not fixed, the schools are a mess, the NHS and social care are a bottomless, dysfunctional pit and yet Johnson seems the picture of insouciance, focusing on radical green policies that will make us even poorer.â
Then he lumps expensive intermittent energy, the net zero lunacy and the governments and idiotic and non solutions for it on top of all this.
January 9, 2022
+1
January 9, 2022
We need a strong, clear, honest manifesto with a ââguaranteeââ of adoption
January 9, 2022
Alas unlikely, but they will certainly promise to cut taxes (and to improve public services) just before any general election then then do the complete reverse – immediately post election. As the Tories have done at almost every single election in my lifetime.
Socialist PPE dope Sunak cut entreprenuersâ CGT tax relief by 90% as his very first act. Even before Covid – just to show how anti-business and anti-investment he was.
January 9, 2022
I would be prepared to give Liz Truss a chance .She certainly says the right things and seems to have some sort of coherent philosophy which is totally lacking in Johnson
January 10, 2022
Liz Truss would just take us back to square one – we need a ‘real’ leaver
January 9, 2022
âLet me add an appeal to the forces in government that are holding him back from these better policies. â
A strong Prime Minister would be calling the shots.
I am not convinced he is being held back. Boris Johnson is not a conviction politician but a man who acts on the basis of what is best for himself.
January 9, 2022
+1
January 9, 2022
Reading the comments today referring to Bunter’s character is, sadly, same a mine. The only way to achieve Sir J’s valid and necessary proposals is to get Bunter to believe they are good for him personally. Bunter is a hedonist, not interested in the world of others. If someone could put a paper containing the above points in front of him and tell him ‘instruct your ministers to do this and you’ll have 5 years of parties and fun’ then there’s a chance.
January 9, 2022
Or is he being blackmailed?
January 9, 2022
He certainly is in the last chance saloon. Todays Telegraph says green taxes to rise by 40% under Bozo.
My new combined gas/electric up from ÂŁ1400 to ÂŁ3,300. This is not the result of high gas prices but failure to be self sufficient in energy.
2022 will be a pivotal moment for the tories, if they renege on the NIP increase personal taxation rewild the countryside to the detriment of food production or get a grip on the channel invasion they will be history.
January 9, 2022
Ian
Ouch ! That is more than double the cost. I feel for you mate.
January 9, 2022
Quite right and today’s Telegraph has Liz Truss alos quite rightly threatening to invoke Article 16
January 9, 2022
Iâve yet to meet a Brexitist who actually understands what Article 16 is. Perhaps you should read it? A novel idea, I know. Prepare for disappointment.
January 9, 2022
Mmm I think I trust Sir JR to know it inside out. Brexit still needling eh Andy?
January 9, 2022
Perhaps you should read the Good Friday Agreement.
January 9, 2022
They seem all over the place on most things.
These free marketeers left stuff to the market. The energy suppliers found that they could import it more cheaply than the UK produces it.
The only-for-profit producers won’t extract it here unless they are bribed with us taxpayers’ money to do so.
Their dogma is exposed for the rot that it is.
January 9, 2022
Free market in energy?
You really believe that NHL?
January 9, 2022
Andy
More from one the resident comedians!
Please give it a rest, youâre swimming against the current, you must have a hide like a Rhinoceros, Iâll willingly contribute to a fund to ship you to your beloved EU, no one is forcing you to stayâŠ.
January 9, 2022
Frost did that every week. Got him absolutely nowhere. Because Article 16 does not do what you think it does. You should read it. It doesnât affect the existence of the Protocol at all. The Protocol is there forever. Boris agreed it, the voters approved it as the oven ready deal and Parliament approved it in January of 2020.
Reply If the EU keeps breaking it tge U.K. must impose our solution.
January 9, 2022
As no lawyer said, ever. Really Mr Redwood you just embarass yourself with silly remarks like this
January 9, 2022
Not just about the Law and what some Lawyers say – we can and should demand & enforce a sensible solution.
January 9, 2022
Sadly the critical faculties of the Tories’ now target voter group are not the highest.
That is for whom such comments are made, not for you, Len.
January 9, 2022
Good heavens, NLH, that’s the kind of sneering attitude towards the proletariat that fosters revolution and would hardly be out of place in Downton Abbey!
Presumably anyone who does not have a degree in Gramscian post-modern philosophy shouldn’t even have a vote?
January 9, 2022
Correct SM
Yet another example from NHL showing how loads of posh clever Labour lefties don’t like the very voters they need to get into power.
January 9, 2022
“The Protocol is there forever.”
Like the Treaty of Versailles, then.
In which regard, this is worth reading:
https://www.ejiltalk.org/brexit-the-irish-protocol-and-the-versailles-effect/
“Brexit, the Irish Protocol and the âVersailles Effectâ”
“What does the Treaty of Versailles have to do with Brexit, you may be asking yourself? Quite a lot I would like to suggest.”
“But cutting to the chase and taking one of the principal features of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which European Member State would have accepted that a customs border run through its sovereign home territory? France perhaps? Germany? Italy? If ever there were a Versaillesque term, as transparent a poison pill as ever there was, it is here (and there are a few others). How a Tory government could have accepted such is, perhaps, a matter for psychologists.”
As is this:
https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/columnists/Sam-mcbride/a-constitutional-crisis-without-precedent-may-be-just-weeks-away-41220031.html
“A constitutional crisis without precedent may be just weeks away”
“The DUP is preparing to order NI civil servants to stop Irish Sea border checks â but officials might just refuse to comply”
So would Liz Truss or Brandon Lewis tell the officials to carry on doing the checks, including those which the UK government has itself already suspended through indefinite extensions to grace periods?
What a bloody mess, and all for the sake of Boris Johnson’s vanity project, that âSuper Canadaâ free trade deal, worth somewhere between 0% to 2% of GDP, instead of Theresa May’s rubbish Chequers plan:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/08/a-test-for-the-foreign-secretary/#comment-1290010
January 9, 2022
To Reply +1
January 10, 2022
Actually …is not the whole TCA up for review after 5 years ?
January 9, 2022
Threatening – will Liz Truss become another hot air but zero action minister like Priti Patel? I assume Frost left as he was not given the tools or support needed for meaningful action?
January 9, 2022
I’m afraid that Liz Truss does not have a good record for candour, in particular about the minimal benefits of the trade deals that she has already negotiated or that she hopes may be negotiated in the future.
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/03/12/continuity-in-us-policy/#comment-1215624
But this has been a characteristic of the Tory party in general for decades; when David Cameron talked up the prospects for a trade deal between the EU and the US it was going to be an overflowing cornucopia of goodies, and of course Boris Johnson was happy to go on TV and claim that his trade deal with the EU was worth 30% of GDP:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/04/14/my-contribution-to-the-finance-no-2-bill-debate-13-april-2021/#comment-1222413
And Liz Truss was complicit:
“Liz Truss has refused to publish any economic assessment of this fantastic trade deal which is so valuable that it is worth risking the integrity of the UK and triggering riots in Northern Ireland.”
We pay for over 1400 parliamentarians, both chambers, but apparently there is not a single one who will insist on the government coming clean on how little economic benefit we will get from this deal.
January 9, 2022
You assume wrong. Frost left because the tools or support needed for meaningful action do not exist and never will. Brexit has so weakened the UK that its days of taking meaningful action anywhere, anytime are over. Frost did a runner rather than admit his failures
January 9, 2022
Assume wrongly? Well perhaps but in practice I think they exist.
January 9, 2022
To which nothing shall ever happen.
January 9, 2022
David Peddy
In the words of the Bee Gees song:
It’s only words and words is only what I have.
January 9, 2022
Which will lead to the other Bee Gees song – Tragedy
January 9, 2022
I cannot understand this government, or what drives them. It is not working in the best interests of the country.
It is allowing undocumented illegal immigrants freedom to roam and possibly commit criminal or terrorist acts. It is providing illegal immigrants with better care than legal citizens who live and work here. It is crippling the finances of many, who will now have to survive without the essentials of life (unlike the illegals) . Medical treatment and care for our health can no longer be taken for granted. We are threatened with loss of our freedom via removal of our personal transport, which can be an absolute essential if you do not live in London and have vast public transport available, or are infirm in some way. We are being taxed out of existence, but no doubt we will be throwing more money at countries that are wealthier than ourselves.
Why is Boris doing this? It isn’t for popularity. It isn’t for the electorate. It isn’t for the benefit of the worlds climate. Is it for the benefit of the EU, and the UN, and any other organisation that will appreciate Boris’s best efforts to destroy the UK and drive its citizens into poverty?
January 9, 2022
Johnson’s terrified of his party labelled xenophobic and racist by the usual parasites the BBC and the progressive media. Add into the mix the international obligations May sign us up to and the pro-EU British State’s desire to import demographic reconstruction and you have a recipe for doing nothing which in effect translates into a problem becoming progressively worse
January 9, 2022
Mrs may didnât sign us up to any internatiobal obligations, Parliament blocked her. Everything we now have has been agreed by Boris, and supported by over 300 Tory MPs. Think itâs rubbish? You know who to blame
January 9, 2022
Theresa May MP did sign the Global Compact on Migration. It is well documented.
January 9, 2022
Correct. She was also the flag waver for the NIP together with her advisors.
January 9, 2022
Mrs. May signed the UK up to the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and REGULAR Migration (CGM) without ANY Parliamentary vote let alone a referendum.
A very clear example of Dom’s ” demographic reconstruction”.
January 9, 2022
On the subject of the migration compact sign by Theresa May:
Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of Migration Watch UK, remarked on the UN deal itself, saying: âThe Compact appears to have been drafted by diplomats whose aim seems to be to ânormaliseâ mass immigration from the developing world to the West at a time when the public are very clear that they find the scale and pace of such flows to be unsustainable and unacceptable.â
January 9, 2022
I would add the naive belief that we can be first and best in all the carbon reducing paraphernalia by being first and putting ourselves at risk. Rather like the blind fool who puts his house and family on the line to start a business which is doomed to fail, because it’s way ahead of when it’s appropriate. Like somebody putting their life on hold to start a car factory in the 1700s, when there was no oil. It ain’t gonna work pal.
January 9, 2022
Shirley, I agree with much of what you write, but cannot see that destroying one of its biggest markets is to the benefit of the EU.
But then I could never understand why or how Brussels did not bend over backwards to ensure the UK would remain a member, since it was one of the very few benefactors of the modern Holy Roman Empire, sorry … EU.
January 9, 2022
SM. Agreed, in parts. I could never understand why the EU alienates the UK and drives it away, as the UK is one of it’s best customers. Most sensible businesses and organisations would make sure their best customers were cared for and appreciated, unlike the EU. The EU is determined to ‘punish’ the UK in order to prevent more leavers which would be an existential threat to the EU and that is far more important to the EU elite than anyone or anything else, including trade. It is, of course, self defeating.
January 9, 2022
“I could never understand why the EU alienates the UK and drives it away….”
Shirley, the EU is not driving the UK away. The UK has driven itself away. The Uk left the EU, not the other way round. If you are upset that the UK no longer has good access to the EU market – well, hello, that is exactly what Brexit is, and that is exactly what you voted for
January 9, 2022
I am not upset. We left the EU for political reasons and to restore democracy in the UK, but if they don’t want or appreciate our trade, then that is their choice and their right, but equally it is our right to trade where we wish. I would prefer the UK to trade with friendlier countries who do not demand huge annual fees, control of our laws, worldwide trade, or our fishing grounds.
I am delighted with Brexit and the opportunities it brings. I blame Boris for not taking advantage of our new found freedoms and his huge 80 seat majority.
January 9, 2022
The common market, trade, or any economic activity is not the key factor for the EU, it is merely camouflage, a fig leaf.
January 9, 2022
Quite simply the EU leaders couldn’t understand that Brits think for themselves, and would have the courage to leave the little club. A major misjudgement like so much they have done for years.
January 9, 2022
You have to understand that the whole EU Project was sold to the British people on the basis of a lie – That being it was all about trade. It never was, and never will be. It is a project to unite all the European governments under one central authority. It started off small with nations very similar in history, law, economics and politics. But more importantly it joined at the hip the two major rivals on the continent. These two rivals would, in future, work together to promote their vision on the New Europe and the EU Project. The UK, for its own reasons, joined much later on and at a bad time economically. We therefore got a bad deal as we were practically begging to join. That bad deal only got worse over time and resulted in 2016 the people of the UK voting to LEAVE the ‘Stupid Club’.
January 9, 2022
+1 Mark B
January 10, 2022
+ Many
January 9, 2022
Illegal immigrants do not get anything because they are illegal. They even put the clue in the name to help you!
It isnât illegal to arrive by dinghy if you are claiming asylum. Claiming asylum is not illegal. And although the outcome of 2021 arrivals is not known in previous years the majority of those arriving by dinghy had their asylum claims accepted.
Incidentally, prior to 2016 – when you voted for Brexit and to reclaim control of our borders – nobody arrived by dinghy. None. Nada. Zero. Last year nearly 30,000 came that way. Your Brexit is clearly going well.
Reply They used to come by lorry until the construction and improvement of the Calais fences stopped that.
January 9, 2022
Ouch again Andy. Not doing well this morning?
Off to France. Whoops sorry, even Macron doesnât want you.
January 9, 2022
YES they did but some still do, the French changed all that and made those stupid people take the more dangerous sea route.
January 9, 2022
It is illegal to arrive by dinghy without permission, according to the Immigration Act.
Once on British soil, the arrivals can claim asylum, as can anyone coming here by legal means.
The Home Office studiously discourages asylum claims, as it’s omitted on the visa form as a reason for travel.
January 9, 2022
Why is Boris doing this? Well he has morphed from being a free marked, small government, freedom loving, libertarian and climate realist into a mad socialist, tax borrow and piss down the drain, lockdown enthusiast, top down government, expensive unreliable energy enthusiast and net zero loon.
I blame Carrie, long Covid or just insanity.
January 9, 2022
Or does Boris really believe in the net zero bogus climate science and his EV, wind power, solar, heat-pumps and hydrogen non solutions? He read classics so perhaps insanely he actually does? It will be a political disaster as well as an economic one too. It will do nothing for world CO2 levels let alone the climate. But it will freeze lots of poor people and prevent people being able to afford to get to work.
January 9, 2022
LL
He’s got the ‘Top-Job’ on his CV and now has eyes post Premiership. That is why he does not really care. He can’t wait to sign his book deals.
January 9, 2022
Martin tells us to rule out insanity, he knows his stuff?
January 9, 2022
All three given the policies that he thinks work.
January 9, 2022
Anita Anand (BBC, touchy feely, lefty dope) on Any Answers yesterday thinks âanyone who needed ICU care got an ICU best) not at all Anita. The two people I know who died of Covid were both given Covid in NHS hospitals (they both went on for other conditions), they received no ICU car at all deemed too old. A very high proportion of those who have died of Covid received no NHS or medical care at all or no ICU care before they died.
The NHS cannot now even provide prompt ambulances for heart attack or other victims it seems. Just get them in the car it seems then they can wait hours at A&E. The NHS is often very poor indeed despite employing some excellent dedicated people. Javid ordering us to âJust Respect the NHSâ will not change that. We need to charge all who can afford to pay and get some real and fare competition in health care. A dire, free at the point of use, virtual state monopoly rationing system is a disaster.
January 9, 2022
âICU bedâthat is.
January 9, 2022
Shirley.
I Agree, the policies seem like utter madness, I cannot understand why many more MP”S do not get it either.
Seems so obvious to many of us out here.
January 9, 2022
Shirley, I see Lord Frost is making very similar points to you in the Mail on Sunday, suggesting the reason being that Boris has surrounded himself with the wrong people, and should trust his instincts more.
I wonder where his instincts were when he appointed those who surround and advise him ?
Difficult to make sense of anything any more.
Hope you can get many more MP’s with your thoughts to support you JR.
January 9, 2022
Why, Shirley? Why do you think nearly every government in 2020 tore up their existing pandemic preparedness plan and followed the WHO (affiliated to the UN )? You surely don’t suppose all those governments just happened to take that decision individually. Why do you think so many governments are following the UN climate agenda when it threatens their citizens’ livelihoods and liberty, plus governments’ own re-election prospects. You surely don’t suppose they just happened to take that decision individually. The answer to your question has been staring us in the face for a couple of years at least, and it’s not very nice, I’m afraid.
January 9, 2022
Shirley M
Great post, but like our our host nobody listens, nobody sees or even wants to.
The new generation of so called politicians are neither use or ornament.
January 9, 2022
And Labour calls for a windfall tax on our North Sea oil and gas producers, the very people working to reduce our Energy crisis and dependence on sources in malevolent countries. Start applying windfall taxes on our producers and their future investment appraisals will result in more potential projects being shelved.
A week into the New Year, Johnson shows no signs of making the big changes in government policies necessary to save his party from defeat at the next general election. All we have is a poor haircut and slightly increased use of a pocket-comb. He must be pushed from office now. As he might say, no dilly-dallying or shilly-shallying!
January 9, 2022
Johnson behaves as if he was still a journalist, going from one story one day to another story another day, with no need to follow any principles as long as he grabs the headlines and gets public attention. Fancy wording, no substance, that’s the hallmark of the man.
January 9, 2022
Well put. My views exactly. He must be removed urgently as he will not change. He does not deserve support, nor respect.
Government can get no-where with sensible or determined policies to protect or enhance our security or sovereignty, as he has no courage to fight because has no understanding of principles.
January 9, 2022
You do surprise me. I subscribe to the digital edition of the Telegraph, and, in my opinion, it is no friend of this Government. It seems to only allow the reader to comment on things that are critical of the Government, and is more like the Daily Mail every day, with its misleading headlines.
Once, it was my go to newspaper for hard news, and balanced reporting. Now it seems more of a friend of the Labour Party. I go back a long way, and in my view the Telegraph has changed totally – and not for the better!
January 9, 2022
The Telegraph is friendly towards conservatives. If you do see it as being friendly towards this Conservative government that might be because the present Conservative government is not conservative.
January 9, 2022
No one need take advice from the DT. The tax burden is high because your party when in government refused and still refuse to dismantle all that Labour’s been building since 1997. The unionised Socialist State demands massive resources financed by higher levels of tax and debt. It isn’t difficult to understand.
The fundamental problem is that the valueless Tory party is a ‘cake and eat it’ party who will sacrifice anything and everything to protect itself from a more powerful enemy. This unholy alliance of the Tory party climbing into bed with Labour’s client State, their unions and other assorted progressive lobbyists will eventually bankrupt this country and destroy our freedoms and all to protect the careers of Tory MPs
I note that John and his colleagues never criticise the growing political power and grip of the NHS, the unions and the Socialist BBC over the actions of the Tory party.
The problems we face are existential and the tosh about cutting tax rates a few pence is meaningless tosh. We need total reform of the political and public sector infrastructure but that isn’t going to happen for it would destroy your party in the process now you’ve chosen Labour’s horse to ride on
Reply You clearly do not understand what I am trying to do.
January 9, 2022
I maybe a clueless idiot but I know what I SEE and what I recognise the importance of silence on certain issues and I see a party and its MPs who have sold their soul to the embedded left. That assertion cannot be denied
I have lot of respect for Mr Redwood but find it somewhat disingenuous when the Tory party tries to portray itself as the antithesis of Labour when in fact you’re a variant of the same political vehicle, authoritarian Socialism.
When Johnson is downed and your party elects a moral human being who opposes the progressive Marxist cancer then we’ll applaud you and your party for doing the right thing
January 9, 2022
Dom
I do not stand behind what you say, I stand shoulder to shoulder. Your words reflect many of my thoughts.
The problem is, too many politicians have been mesmerised by the Blair Creature whilst he was in office. It is alleged that both David Cameron and Michael Gove MP referred to him as, “The Master.” Quite what context I am unsure. When politicians on both sides of the HoC are in such awe of that man, they cannot see that he has in fact poisoned the well (UK) he was once in charge of.
January 9, 2022
Reply to reply
A lot of us do understand you Sir John and appreciate your efforts, but for whatever reasons those supposed to be listening always seem to cop a deafen.
The only way it is going to happen is you as leader with fifty of your like minded colleagues form into a force all speaking with one voice and start throwing your hats into the ring as a genuine no thrills and spills conservatives to replace kipper Boris and his fillets. There is a unseen, virus infecting the whole of this nation and it has been alto multiply through apathy and wokeism. It infects all the major organisations and like the dreaded green slime is everywhere in our society. Dingy invaders, net zero, secret remainers, NHS direction, civil and public services all coated and people use it to achieve their own personal aspirations.
reply We got to 99 against vaccine passports and that has forced a change of approach to lockdowns, just as getting over 100 got us an EU referendum from Cameron. numbers matter.
January 9, 2022
They need a figure to nail their colours to the mast. In not too longer time I think your numbers and supporters will grow just as it did with Brexit.
For heavens sake the country cannot carry on as it has and is.
January 9, 2022
Reply to reply: Yes, of course numbers matter (by the way, I thought it was 101 against vaccine passports, after a ‘recount’) , but it would be more accurate to say ‘the number of REBELS matters’. If you don’t rebel, but just mutter unhappily, then nothing will change.
reply 99 voting against and 2 tellers
January 9, 2022
We do Sir John, but the question is, how much influence your common sense ideas or policy suggestions have any influence on the Clown in No 10. He is the opposite of what he claimed to be. He is not “conservative” in any way. His policies are 180 degrees out from what he should be doing. His eco-lunacy on importing coal, oil and gas etc, pretending it makes us greener is for the insane!
January 9, 2022
The writing is on the wall for Johnson. The question is who will eject him from office first? Will it be Tory MPs or will it be the electorate at large? My guess is it will Tory MPs worried about their own electoral prospects. He is unfit for the office of PM.
January 9, 2022
He was unfit to be PM when a few thousand Tory members selected him to be Tory party leader. He was unfit to be PM when the majority of his Uxbridge constituents voted against him. He was unfit to be PM when the majority of the electorate rejected him and his party at the 2019 general election.
It is to our countryâs eternal misfortune that the Tories have imposed on us the most useless, incompetent and dishonest leader at a time when we needed someone decent in charge.
January 9, 2022
Andy normally it is 3 strikes and you are out. That rule after the last 3 PMs will be tested by the Electorate.
Bring it on.
January 9, 2022
@Andy; ” He was unfit to be PM when the majority of the electorate rejected him and his party at the 2019 general election.”
Hmm, are you talking about Boris in 2019 or Tony in 1997?
I do not recall many on the left complaining about loosing the popular vote in 1997…
January 9, 2022
As usual you are being very silly andy.
He was duly and legally elected as an MP under rules that apply to all constituencies.
He was duly and legally elected as Head of the Conservative Party.
We don’t have elected Presidents
January 9, 2022
Johnson, like old Etonians, can’t envisage the mere ordinary serfs rising up and ejecting him. Just like Dave couldn’t understand the Ref going against him. So after the EU not prepared to help him, he threw his toys out of the pram.
January 9, 2022
It cannot be the electorate, we don’t get a chance unit 2024. But seasoned political players like our kind host can see the danger on the horizon. They don’t have until 2024, they have on 6-12 months. Think about what happened to the Tories after the ERM debacle ? Come 1997 the economy was well on the mend, but that did not stop the electorate exacting its revenge on a party that had lost its way. The window of opportunity to change is therefore much narrower than many here think.
If there is a poor showing at the May Council elections then I can see something happening. But the problem for the Tories is, who do we have to replace him ? Johnson, for his part, is busy spiking the careers (eg Liz Truss) on anyone that will challenge him. And come 2024, if he finally booted out, what does he care ? He got, I am sure, advancements on his memoirs to fall back on.
January 9, 2022
@Oldtimer; Indeed and that pressure/ejection will come from those MPs in marginal or Red Wall seats, not from those in safe seats so often held by the traditional ‘awkward squad’.
January 9, 2022
Spot on today John as L/L has been a too. I have only subscribed to the Telegraph for a short while but I too have been impressed with their comments which seem to refleck much of what is said on this blog. Boris really should take note and select his reverse gear quickly. Failing that, get out of the way before he does irreversible damage to our country.
January 9, 2022
F U S
A bit late for reverse gear I fear.
January 9, 2022
The PM doesnât seem to have time to deal with any of these crucial issues because he is always visiting hospitals talking mumbo jumbo about vaccines and boosters.
January 9, 2022
He would do better to pay attention to what his own MPs are telling him, when they say he got it right. Well said William Wragg MP, of the Covid Recovery Group: âOnce again, it appears that certain scientists and experts so quick to spread gloom and panic at the arrival of Omicron are having to come to terms with a reality that is far from the catastrophe they were predicting… It all shows that Boris Johnson and his Cabinet were right to avoid condemning us to another lockdown with the dismal effects on peopleâs livelihoods and liberties.â Let’s see more of this, especially from younger MPs such as William Wragg, with the confidence to take a stand in favour of getting the country back on track again, not cringe before the media opinion-formers. Johnson needs more declarations of support from his own MPs when he takes the right decisions.
January 9, 2022
The logic salad that is served up every day by covid, woke, eco, EU, socialist grifters shows me every day that humans cannot create a non-contradictory narrative or economy.
January 9, 2022
Forces in government holding him back apart from his own weakness. Time to name and shame. Canât believe there isnât an Editor who would refuse something âinterestingâ quoting âan informed sourceâ!
January 9, 2022
I can quite easily believe that, Nig 1, when I see which billionaire foundations have been funding the media all over the world in recent years. You might find it worthwhile to do some research into that. They’ll name and shame people who don’t fit in with the agenda that the foundations are paying for – Covid hysteria, Green hysteria, wokery etc. Look at the scientists who are, and those who aren’t, allowed on Big Tech platforms on the first two issues.
January 9, 2022
We do not have a party that I can vote for. BJ won a big majority and has won the vote to leave. We now need to leave and stand on our own two feet. BJ has no idea so must now leave the scene. Who have we got to who can lead this country forward?
January 9, 2022
@ Bob Dixon “Who have we got to who can lead this country forward?” – no-one from the present Cabinet, obviously. Perhaps an outsider – maybe Everhopeful’s cat who seems at least to possess common sense (see Everhopeful’s Comment below).
January 9, 2022
Tell me about it – a voters nightmare.
‘Who will save me from this troublesome political cartel?’
At least in Wokingham we can rest knowing Sir John’s opinions, even if many would encourage him going Independent.
January 9, 2022
I am a little breathless at the pace of all this conversion but it is nice the Daily Telegraph follows Mr. Rees-Mogg and Ms. Rayner in at last joining us Redwoodistas and I welcome them all.
On what grounds does Blue Boris suppose we the electorate are going to be as generous and tolerant towards him as has been the Daily Telegraph?
January 9, 2022
News headline ‘ DT has an Epiphany’
January 9, 2022
And in other news Camilla Tominey spot on about Javed being captured by the NHS and totally ignoring problems in Care homes.
Recently a 91 year old sprightly relative of a friend of mine was given 72 hours to find alternative accommodation because her Care home had been forced to sack many of their workers so they couldnât continue.
Obviously no contingency from the Local Authority. She was shoe horned into her sons house many miles away.
She died 48 hours later. What will it take for you, especially being so well principled, and other MPs to stand up, be counted and say, enough is enough?
January 9, 2022
A terribly sad story.
January 9, 2022
I agree a very sad story, but why on earth did the Care Home only give 72 hours notice, that does not show any sort of care or consideration at all for their residents.
I can only assume they had to sack staff due to Vaccine refusal, but that policy known months ago, or was there really another reason ?
Before going into or transferring to nursing home, it is usual for the prospective home to complete a thorough social and medical assessment of a residents needs, so that sort of 72 hours timescale given is completely ridiculous.
Not surprised at all about Local Authority response, had many similar experiences when my Mother was in need of Care.
From my own experiences we simply do not have any sort of joined up thinking, or even joined up rules and Regulations for Social Care at all, quite honestly it’s a very expensive fiasco !
January 9, 2022
And in even more news we read that the National Statistics regulator has criticised dodgy data put out by the NHS and used by Javed. You would think he would question them but as they served his purpose, obviously not.
The chair of a commons committee said that if statistics were not accurate the public would lose trust.
Out of touch as ever. We lost trust almost from the day Covid started and experts took over.
January 9, 2022
+many.
Spot on!
January 9, 2022
@Nig l; Indeed, I suspect very few people actually believe only 150,000 people have died (to date) from CV19, having testing positive, they understand full well that death can be caused by the long term effects of the disease, months, even years later. After all no one in their right minds would, say, only count cancer deaths by the methodology being used by the govt to collate CV19 deaths…
January 9, 2022
Jerry, they would use that methodology if for some devious reason they wanted to inflate the number of cancer deaths. But as we are now they probably wouldn’t need to anyway, as lockdowns have sadly done that for them.
January 9, 2022
@Bill B. Nice anti Lock-down rant! How would limiting who is counted, due to an arbitrary number of recorded days, “inflate the number of cancer deaths”, such a methodology can do only one thing, reduce the deaths counted.
Nor do I read many complaining how non cancer deaths are being signed off by doctors listing Cancer as the prime cause of death, when often late stage treatments are actually the direct cause of death; I knew someone who actually died of heart/lung failure, due to the morphine he was having to take due to inoperable brain cancer.
January 9, 2022
Jerry, are you aware that non-Covid deaths in England have since July been above the 5-year average for 2015-19, by around 2,000 a month? And if you are, have you thought about what’s causing those deaths, if not delayed treatment for cancer in many cases, during lockdowns? You surely don’t think it’s the Covid vaccines, I trust.
January 9, 2022
I was referring to the fact that the Covid death counting methodology is unreliable because it overstates the case. CV 19 is put on many death certificates, following the Coronavirus Act 2020, even when other factors were the underlying cause of the fatality. This doesn’t reduce the deaths counted, quite the opposite. But yes, I do understand that for doctors to identify ‘the cause’ of death isn’t straightforward. Sorry, that should be ‘for a doctor to identify’: two doctors are no longer required to sign the death certificate, again thanks to the Coronavirus Act 2020.
January 9, 2022
@Richard II; Your point was what, that the lock-down(s) should have been earlier, tighter, meaning less CV19 infections and less hospitalizations, thus allowing many more non CV19 patients to access the treatments they needed – wasn’t that the message behind the ‘Save the NHS’ message…
@Bill B; Nonsense, you have no evidence, and what do you not understand about the phrase that has always been used to explain the deaths recorded on the official stats; “within 28 days of testing positive for Covid 19″.
The problem with the official methodology is not over reporting but under reporting, no one is being included on the official CV19 stats if they die 29 days or later, even for those who have spent the last 29+ days in ICU, some or all on a ventilator in an induced coma, having tested positive on day one of their admission.
January 9, 2022
There is no way 150,000 died FROM Covid. It hastened an earlier death from any number of prior causes, including DRs and Care Homes choosing to blame it rather than allow speculation that care was negligent, by surgeries/DRs, Care Homes, and the NHS.
Rubbish stats and everyone knows it, cover up all you like but the truth is transparent.
January 9, 2022
Even if 150K people did die of it, and not with it, statistically that is still a small number. I mean, 1 in 4 people died from the Black Death.
January 10, 2022
Well, excess deaths are rather above 200,000, so they died of something.
There was no significant increase in the other major causes either.
January 10, 2022
The normal deaths were marked as ‘with Covid or worse- from Covid’.
A big part of the 150,000 are quite simply early deaths that would have been natural or major terminal health issue. As time goes by many more deaths will be due to non detection, non treatment, lack of facilities and staffing.
January 9, 2022
He’s like a rabbit in the headlights, frozen and just waiting to be flattened by the coming electoral juggernaut.
Does he really not understand that Conservative/conservative voters are not going to vote for a Party which is deliberately making them poorer and colder; which is planning to make them pay ÂŁtens of thousands most people haven’t got, to replace boilers and cars which don’t need replacing?
Does he really not understand that the slo-mo invasion he is doing nothing to stop is infuriating millions of voters who are sick to death of being the cash-cow for thousands of chancers who force their way in?
Does he, like Cameron, think we have no alternative but to vote for his green-socialist-CON in order to “keep Labour out?” Why would we, when there is no difference between them?
Sir John, he doesn’t need a piece of friendly advice, he needs to be given the heave-ho. Without Cummings, he has no backbone, no common-sense and no ability to govern this country. It’s got to the stage that I can’t bear to look at him or hear his plummy voice waffling-on when he is deliberately destroying millions of lives with his lunatic policies.
January 9, 2022
+ many, Donna. I could expand upon my dissatisfaction, but it’s a waste of time. The conservative party (on the whole) does not care about the UK. Parliament, on the whole, does not care about the UK. There can be no other explanation for what is happening.
January 9, 2022
Donna
+ hundreds!
The sound of him waffling on induces feelings of nausea.
Iâm an ex-Tory, never again will I put a X next to the Tory candidate, my Tory MP never replies to my emails
Reform UK,
January 9, 2022
@Donna; “Why would we, when there is no difference between them?”
But does the electorate actually want a policy ocean between the main parties, the vast majority of the electorate are moderate in thought, it is also why (by and large) our system of criminal trial by Jury works.
In modern times not one party has been elected to government due to their “own” voters (be they Conservative, Labour or LibDem), elections are won and lost on were the swing votes go, thus it is no use offering ever more “true” policies, the last thing the current Conservative party needs to do is dive down the same rabbit hole as they did between 1997 and 2010, or the Labour party did in the early 1980s. Offering ever more pure fundamental policies will not draw in voters, only drive them away.
Does Boris, like Thatcher, think we have no alternative but to vote Conservative in order to âkeep Labour out”, quite possibly, but it is not the same Labour party now as was in the 1980s, nor for that matter the same Labour party as it was in 2019…
January 9, 2022
I don’t disagree that the CON Party has to attract voters who are not CONservatives. That’s what Mrs Thatcher did in 1979 and Johnson did in 2019. She, and he, attracted working class, aspirational, conservative voters. The difference is, Mrs Thatcher held onto them ….. and got 3 terms in Downing St.
Johnson has set out to alienate them and will be able to write a book when he’s removed “How I Threw Away An 80 seat Majority in 24 months.”
January 9, 2022
@Donna; Mrs Thatcher did not hold on to swing votes between 1979 and 1987, Labour lost or gave up on them, some went to the SDP, most went to the Conservative party, as you pointed out, Mrs Thatcher won because there was no (real) alternative, and I suspect Boris won in 2019 because there was also no (real) alternative, the Blairites having sacrificed their parties electoral chances as the only way to oust Corbyn.
I agree Boris has indeed alienated voters, most of them the swing voters who gave him the majority, doing so by pandering to his right wing, not the centre or the left from were he won that majority, but I accept he is also compounding the problem by alienating many traditional Conservative voters too, the title of the book you suggest might need to read âHow I Decimated the Party, from Landslide to wipe out, in 24 monthsâ…
January 9, 2022
+1
January 9, 2022
Donna :
Agreed.
January 9, 2022
Unfortunately, both the Government and the opposition parties have the same UK destroying policies and the electorate seems incapable of voting for the smaller alternative parties. I still believe the multitude of smaller parties are being set up and funded just to split their voting base. Until these smaller parties work together we have no hope. I despair!
January 9, 2022
Agreed. He is well past his sale by date. Beyond redemption.
January 9, 2022
I don’t think he cares about elections, Donna.
January 9, 2022
DONNA. +1. Add Shirley M and LC.
January 9, 2022
Oh very much lol đ
If this goes through it wonât be long before coal and petrol are âgreenâ too!
âFill your tank and save the planetâ
âKeep calm and burn coal.â
All this fuss and handwringing and huge waste of lives and money to come to the inevitable conclusion that âsustainableâ just isnât!
My cat could have told them that.
January 9, 2022
@EH; If only the UK had some coal to burn, if only the Tory party by the 1980s had not been so filled with spite over their 1974 grubbing…
January 9, 2022
+1
Plus ça change etc.
Weâve got another one in the thrall of the unions.
And who also regards truth as a moveable feast!
January 9, 2022
Those in power think coal is a dirty fuel.
January 9, 2022
@Peter2; Well they do now, after Mrs Thatcher used environmental concerns (acid rain) to demonize coal in the 1980s, yet even then coal could have been made almost totally sulfur free.
January 9, 2022
Demonise is the wrong word Jerry.
You must recall how demand for coal greatly reduced a big switch to central heating in homes (and other buildings) usually by gas but sometimes electricity.
Something that happened in many other countries at the same time.
January 9, 2022
All lefties hate coal because it fuelled the industrial revolution = capitalism, which must be destroyed apparently.
It was steam fuelled by coal v. water power.
Steam won because coal takes the energy to wherever you want the workforce to beâŠnot (as with water) the other way round.
Gives the capitalist great power.
January 10, 2022
they didn’t hate coal when it was ‘everybody out’ trying to keep almost spent coalfields working.
January 10, 2022
+1
January 12, 2022
@EH; “All lefties hate coal because it fuelled the industrial revolution = capitalism, which must be destroyed apparently.”
The political Left did not hate coal nor the industry, just the capitalist owners! Hence why many called for nationalization (especially after the events of May 1926), the further to the left someones political ideals lent the greater they wanted ‘the people’ to own and control the means of production (the old Labour party Clause IV).
January 9, 2022
@Peter2; The vast majority of electricity was still being generated from coal fired power station well into the 1980s, whilst coke (made from coal) was still needed in what remained of our steel industry.
January 9, 2022
I accept that Jerry.
We still use coal today in power stations to generate electricity and coal/ coke is still needed in steel production.
My point was about the great reduction in the use of coal as the source of heating in homes and commercial premises due to gas central heating.
January 10, 2022
@Peter2; I am fully aware we are still importing coal, which rather makes my point! Then of course the debate here wasn’t about which fuel is/was best but the cost of fuel, whether used for domestic, commercial or industrial purpose.
Also, perhaps you can help me, how does a modern efficient gas fired central heating system (domestic or commercial) function without electricity? Even back in the 1970s most needed an a constant supply of mains electricity to operate timers and pumps etc, even if the the then common pilot-light remained lit, when electrical power was lost the heating went off. So, as far as I understand it, your ‘point’ is irrelevant, moot at best…
January 10, 2022
We import coal because it is cheaper.
That started decades ago.
Which is part of the reason UK mines closed down because power stations bought cheap coal from the rest of the world.
January 11, 2022
@Peter2; Nonsense, we have to import coal because the UK does not now even have cheap to operate open cast coal mines, or at least not enough for our needs [1], QED! It is far cheaper to transport coal from, say, a Nottinghamshire coal field to a Nottinghamshire power station than import coal from abroad, or even if train loads have to be moved across the UK from pit to end user, no different to moving imported coal from docks to end user.
It costs a lot of (extra) money to transport coal across the seas, that the end user pays (be that higher steel prices or higher energy tariffs, nor I suspect have you included the costs (some ongoing) of redeveloping coal mining areas once mining ended that the wider economy had to fund. Yours are the economics scribbled on the back of a fag packet, Peter2 (or it is really Edward2, very similar posting styles…), calculated to suit your political ideology, and before you ask/accuse me, no I did not support the ‘illegal’ 1984/5 NUM strike, but nor did I support the Govt/NCB plans to close pits on utterly shoddy economics, many such pits were both economical to operate and still had workable reserves of many hundreds of years.
[1] hence why there is currently plans to open a new seam in the NW, to meet our need for coking fuel, assuming govt/planning officials approve
January 9, 2022
‘Fill your tank to keep the lights on’
January 9, 2022
+1
Exactly!
No stretching electricity supply to breaking point!đ€
January 10, 2022
I do wonder if people are buying lots of (low consumption!) replacement LED lighting – anticipating cutting back on horrendous electricity bills.
January 9, 2022
As usual, this site fails to understand the logic of designating gas and nuclear as green transitioning energy sources. New Gas generators have to be licensed before 2031 and nuclear life extension before 2040. Limits on emissions apply across the EU.
Compare that with the UK that has no energy policy, transitional or otherwise. It has no economic policy either, other than the one carried over from the 19th Century, by a parliamentary system carried over from the 18th Century.
January 9, 2022
Big change in policy there acorn.
Suddenly gas and nuclear are good green transition fuels.
Who knew.
January 9, 2022
You certainly did not as this sites natural born loser.
January 9, 2022
Descending to abuse isn’t a clever response acorn.
The EU have done a 180 and defined nuclear and gas as green transition fuels.
Are you a bit red faced?
January 9, 2022
BTW. Have you noticed the new German government is backing the French Presidency of the EU Council; to increase the EU 27 bloc’s “strategic sovereignty”, as rivalries between world powers such as the United States, China and Russia adversely affect the EU 27.
Additionally, the French and Italians are looking to dump the fiscal 3% deficit / 60% debt limit nonsense (currently suspended), to enable greater structural investment, to boost productivity and encourage households to spend and not keep worrying about saving for a future unknown. (I think they have been reading the MMT manual on how to use a fiat currency to maximise the use of resources.)
Data crunchers are telling me that Brussels is secretly very pleased to have got rid of the UK; which it always considered was the square peg in the EU’s round hole; just like General de Gaulle said. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to Lizzy implementing sanctions on Russia over Ukraine. Stop laughing in the back rows there, she has got a PM election to win.
January 9, 2022
Lol, “structural investment”…it means even more magic money printing and debt.
What top figure of inflation will you MMT theorists say is too high?
January 10, 2022
Excuse me, P2, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund to be launched in April 2022 has for objective âto level up and create opportunity across the UKâ by
â- supporting local skills and vocational training tailored to local needs;
– investing in transport improvements, digital connectivity, neighbour and housing improvements, and civic, cultural and sporting facilities;
– investment for local business, including support innovation, adoption of new technologies, and a low carbon transitionâ.
Now can you tell me how this UKSPF actually differs from the three-part EU Structural and Investment funding, namely the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, and the European Cohesion Fund, whose objectives are âinvesting in innovation and research, information technology, small- and middle-sized enterprises and promotion of a low-carbon economy, employment-related projects and vocational skills trainingâ.
So please tell me the differences between the two initiatives, and above all give details how the UKSPF is going to be financed, as I have no doubt you must know how it will not be from âmagic money tree and debtâ.
I am always keen on listening to learned people.
January 9, 2022
There is little doubt that the Tory Brexit pensioner imposed cost of living crisis is going to cause huge harm to our country and its people.
Itâll probably end up bringing down the Johnson government too.
It is impossible to go shopping without noticing the Brexit related shortages and price rises. Your gas bill is much higher – partly because of Brexit. Fuel, ditto. If you are lucky enough to be able to afford to go on holiday thatâll cost you much more – and thatâs before you pay for the Brexit bureaucracy.
Iâm fortune because I can afford these Brexit price hikes. I donât want to pay more for stuff but I can if I have to. Sadly many people who voted for Brexit did so because they were told it would make thins less expensive. Oops. I wish them luck deciding on whether to eat or heat their homes. They wonât all be able to afford to do both.
reply German inflation is higher than U.K. Is that Brexit too?
January 9, 2022
Why is inflation higher than the UK in America young andy?
January 9, 2022
I do notice the shelf that says British Grown Oranges is always empty….damn that Brexit.
January 9, 2022
I read the article in the Telegraph and was surprised that at last it seems to understand the stupidity of NetZero and the harm it is doing, and will do, to the economy of this country. I do hope your pieces are read by the Cabinet as their action so far on this issue has been largely non existent
January 9, 2022
The pressure is mounting on the PM to do the decent things, but will he? – Some say his strings are being pulled by international interests.
Does he have the strength of character to revolt against the tide of hysteria telling him to lock us down and punish us with heavy taxes for not being green enough?
January 9, 2022
“We should copy Joe Biden in licensing more exploration, development and production of gas.”
I had to read our hosts final paragraph twice, no he was talking about Joe Biden, not a former POTUS…
Didn’t Biden revoke some exploration licenses, notably in the arctic (due to appeasing eco-worriers [1]), along with the licence to build the Keystone XL pipeline, at the same time rejoining the very damaging Paris Climate Agreement, all within hours, days or at least in his first 100 days of his inauguration? I hardly call that a sensible energy policy to copy!
I read the Treasury here in the UK are reluctant to abolish VAT on domestic (household) fuels because every price hike brings a VAT windfall. The govts call for the already eligible and elderly to claim their charitable (benefits) payments from the state will not stop ever more people sliding into energy poverty, having to choose between eating or heating, what is more many most affected will be in those “Red Wall” seats in the north, no wonder the govt are apparently watchful for defections from their 2019 Red Wall intake of MPs…
[1] just as some eco-worriers want further exploration in the North Sea stopped, and onshore fracking etc.
Reply Biden began by stopping pipelines and drilling but then changed course and licenced 3091 new wells.
January 9, 2022
JR: “I urge the PM to read this and to reflect on it. It comes from a friendly institution that wishes him well.”
You must know this will not happen. Johnson is a puppet carrying out the orders of his masters who have no regard whatsoever for the welfare of people but only for their own nefarious desires. The number of completely illogical measures taken during the past 2o months or more cannot be explained as incompetence but compelling proof that they were taken as part of a process to remove individual liberty & freedom aimed at the imposition of a digital id and credit control system. MPs have by and large been complicit in most cases probably because they are incompetent self-servers rather than defenders of their constituents and country.
You must know this. What are you going to do about it?
January 9, 2022
Entirely agree and echo the question. Do something, we are going down.
January 9, 2022
I do not suppose his wife allows Boris in the same room as a copy of the Daily Telegraph..
January 9, 2022
I responded to this yesterday without prompting by the DT. So put another way, get behind it, activate it down to the last comma, or optionally start looking for alternative employment. The electorate who might consider themselves connservative incline, daily witness the growing weight of government inaction , and look forward to 2024 when they can express their disgust at all the lost opportunities afforded by Brexit.
January 9, 2022
Lord Frost has added his weight to your arguments on changing direction of travel immediately to Boris and listen to wise advice such as yours Sir John.
January 9, 2022
Just to mention that Irish Revenue recently published some statistics:
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0106/1272179-revenues-2021-provisional-figures/
and this particularly struck my eye, about checks on trucks coming into Ireland from Great Britain:
“It notes that 86% of freight vehicles arriving from Great Britain were “green route”‘ which means they travelled freely from port. 11% were subject to documentary checks and 3% were inspected or underwent a physical examination.”
Two lines of thought on this.
1. Only a small minority of the trucks entering Northern Ireland from Great Britain have loads which are destined to go on to the Republic, and there is no obvious objective reason why they should be scrutinised more intensively than trucks arriving in the Republic direct from Great Britain, and so maybe 3% of that small minority could be pulled aside for physical examination; so how did we end up with such intensive checks at the points of entry into Northern Ireland?
2. If only 3% of those loads destined for the Republic require physical examination to check conformity with EU Single Market rules, would it really be such a huge hassle, and a renewed invitation to terrorism, to have those particular trucks stop by for checks at various sites in the Republic well away from the border?
Do we really have to go along with the Irish government nonsense that âany checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard borderâ and could provoke violence?
January 9, 2022
I wonder if anybody on the UK side is ever going to ridicule this kind of nonsense from Maros Sefcovic:
âThe Northern Ireland Protocol was the most complicated part of the Brexit negotiations, and it is the foundation of the entire deal. Without the protocol, the whole system will collapse.”
So apparently our entire relationship with the whole EU revolves around how to manage a trickle of goods crossing the Irish land border into the Irish Republic.
https://facts4eu.org/news/2021_jul_eu_laughing_stock
“EU makes itself world laughing stock over claims N.I. goods threaten âintegrity of Single Marketâ”
“N.I.âs exports over the border are only 1/500th of total entering EU Single Market”
So why aren’t we laughing at them, and pointing out that if those trucks came direct to Ireland from Great Britain only 3% of them would be inspected, and helpfully offering that we will do those checks at sites in Northern Ireland if they are too scared to do them at sites in the Republic?
January 9, 2022
+1
January 9, 2022
Boreas Johnsonâs 80 seat majority in 2019 wasnât simply because he promised to âget Brexit doneâ but also because the electorate believed that for the first time since Mrs. Thatcher the UK had the possibility of electing a PM who supported the UK and wanted us to prosper.
Unfortunately he has thrown all this goodwill away by failing miserably to deal with illegal immigration and N.I. (and not looking like he wants to deal with these issues) and falling for the BEIS Marxist Britphobeâs science denying, economy destroying Net Zero Strategy which reads like a Russian 5 year Gosplan with BEIS determining by legislation (viz force) what cars we can drive and how we are to heat our homes and much else. Indeed our whole way of life.
Whilst China, India and Germany (until 2038 they say) are using coal to produce their electricity and the POTUS has increased gas and oil production immediately upon return from COP26 and the EU has decreed that gas is âgreenâ our PM intends that our whole countryâs power will come from the âbreezes that blow around these islandsâ (Conservative Party conference speech October 2020).
Insanity and unlikely to be a vote winner.
January 9, 2022
It was more because for a significant proportion of the electorate, the leader of a political party was actually someone whom they could name.
They are a minority, but with FPTP, these who can name no other politician make all the difference.
January 9, 2022
Sir John
Boris has gone from hero to net zero.
Roger
January 9, 2022
I fear they and you are talking to a brick wall John. Itâs obvious Johnson is a typical high tax big state socialist. He has shown his true colours this week with his contemptible decision not to scrap VAT on fuel, the reason being it will help the wealthy as well. Spoken like a true socialist. He is resisting all calls to scrap the intended NI rise when we are already paying the highest taxes in 70 years because he and his useless cabinet are totally out of touch with the economic misery coming down the line for millions of people in this country. Council tax hikes due (only England of course) on what are already exorbitant bills, fuel prices about to rise by 50% and the idiots in charge stand by and do nothing to alleviate the worries of ordinary hard working folk. No doubt like all good socialists, they will make sure those on benefits donât suffer and the heating is turned up for all the illegals in their 4 star hotels but the rest of us can go hang. We will not forget this. To add insult to injury we hear yesterday that MPs are to be awarded a ÂŁ2,000 pay rise in April. How convenient that MPs salaries were awarded to an independent body so they can say Nothing to do with us Gov. Unbelievable.
January 9, 2022
Well said with conviction and truth Jools.
January 9, 2022
Boris has set out ”road maps” for us to follow and today Sir John, you and the Telegraph have set a ‘road map’ for both him and his fellow ministers to follow, and if they don’t both the government and the Conservative party will disintegrate.
Trends and fashions from the US regularly cross the Atlantic and take root here and the media, since the late 90s, has been gradually putting our PM into a similar role as that of the President of the United States. It is now trying to align parliament into a similar position as that of the US Congress and taking every opportunity to highlight any perceived differences in direction or policy.
The PM’s job is to manage his ministers and government not spend his time in front of the camera. Instead of spending a lot of the day fending off ”gotch ya” questions he needs to get the whole administration back on course and in line with true Tory values and harvest the benefits Brexit and our freedom
January 9, 2022
I used to to subscribe to the DT online, then the subscription lapsed while I was being trundled in and out of ICU and hallucinating wildly! Once back in my sound and sober senses I wanted to renew but discovered that Mr Gates had put considerable funding into the Telegrah. I did not subscribe but simply read the occasional article as I no longer trust their impartiality or conservatism.
The cost of living crisis is solvable by abandoning net zero and scrapping all legislation that still aligns us to the EU with regard to restriction of trade. There seems no effort is being made in this direction.
Is Alexander the Cautious between a rock and a hard place? If he ditches the ‘green’ policies he may be in deep poo on the home front also remembering that his fimily, parents and siblings, are EUrophile to the core, so most likely all heavily into greencr#p, so risks alienating them as well.
January 9, 2022
BOF : I expect Boreas Johnson is working on getting a job similar to that of the renowned socialist, David Miliband, who earns ÂŁ800K/year as the head of the International Rescue Committee and charges up to ÂŁ76K for after-dinner speaking engagements.
January 9, 2022
Ka- ching !
+1
January 9, 2022
I stopped taking the DT a couple of years ago. Most people I know are sitting looking in shaking our heads wondering where Borisâ head is at, overturning manifesto pledges one after the other. His actions are Labour Party actions – raising National Insurance because he thinks people wonât complain about national insurance whilst his party tells us out of the other side of your mouths that NI isnât for our own pensions or healthcare anyway its a hypothecated tax for you to blow at one new global ordered project or another, that we havenât even voted for. Then they erode the promised social care in England only.
Your party votes in a prescription charge for over 60âs in England when Wales and Scotland are exempt for life with no extra cost in national insurance for their taxpayers to pay for this. We are supposed to just turn the cheek, where is our English SNP to bang our drum? There are big regions in England NE, SW that are doing far better with covid than Wales or Scotland even though the distances between their people are more vast, yet is Sturgeon or Drakeford ever challenged on that? Who is going to pay for their covid extensions – we can guess who because they wonât be putting up their own income taxes to pay for it will they? Who pays for their prescriptions and free student tuition, what do they have to give up to pay for it – nothing. Iâm just sick of it. Stop fanning around lying to us.
Just how many more years do we have to continue to pay the full equivalent annual fee to the EU before it runs out (is it 1 or 4 years) and then we know just how long weâve got before weâre dragged back in under BRINO by the party that the papers, the media, and the people pulling the real strings champion to overturn it.
What I donât understand is your conservative MP majority, the majority that stood on the 2019 manifesto why can you only get less than 100 of them to push for real change? There is not one political party that wants to do Brexit – they are all disingenuous.
January 10, 2022
The latest social wheeze, get employers to pay all the costs of statutory sick leave including holiday pay during statutory sick leave, then quietly, unannounced by all the business membership organisations you allow employees to self-certificate for 28 days. How long for, forever now that businesses are picking up the tab? We have basically elected Boris’ Blair party.
January 9, 2022
I don’t know what the PM thinks the state of the UK will be in in six months time if the present policies are continued. Also, what are the two hundred or so Tory MPs who are not bag carriers or in any ministerial position thinking? What do those MPs really believe in; their own future as an MP or their constituents welfare? There should be many of them who are becoming increasingly alarmed as to the present direction of the Tory Party. When are they going to wake up as say enough is enough? Lord Frost did!
January 9, 2022
“Let me add an appeal to the forces in government that are holding him back from these better policies.”
But surely it’s him that is holding back the government from these policies. For example I doubt Sunak is holding him back from cutting taxes – quite the reverse.
January 9, 2022
There is a lack of real patriotism, from one degree to another, in our country, right across the board, excluding the armed forces and a few other areas. I’m afraid to say I see this lack of patriotism in politics too, from one degree to another, where some / many politicians, are serving, from one degree to another, their own careers instead of the long-term future of our great country.
We need to return to our Judaeo-Christian / best of Greco-Roman past – together that gave us our great civilisation and Conservatism tThe Conservatism of Edmund Burke for example). Wander from this, and our country (like countries of the West in general) just become overly-individualistic, looking for the next short-term buck, purely consumers instead of also great creators, and overly focused on what one’s country can do for oneself instead of what one can do for one’s country.
For God, Family, Queen & Country
January 10, 2022
The under-the-thumb Cabinet happily has lots of ‘For Chums’.
January 9, 2022
The Telegraph is a broad church, offering a fairly wide variety of views and opinions, but its leaders, whilst being generally supportive of government policy have been fairly consistent in their criticism, over both zero carbon and zero covid. They also temper their views with actualy economic thinking. Something Boris would do well to embrace!
But ultimately it should surely be a conservative government that offers a lead on conservative policy. Something that has been sadly lacking since Mrs Thatcher was stood down.
January 9, 2022
And I say this in remembrance of my grandfather who served in The British Army for 30 years – shot out at by Communists in Spain whilst serving in British military intelligence there – and then shot at by Nazis on the Normandy Beaches. He and millions like him were true patriots. Sadly, we’ve definitely lost the sense of honour and patriotism that these men and women had. We need to get it back – and not just through politics, but also through Education, Media, the Arts, Church etc ..
January 9, 2022
The attack on patriotism and its demise should be no surprise due to our membership of the EU. I am not blaming the EU, I am blaming those here that are incharge. Patriotism is an anathema to pro-EU types. It gets in the way of their desire to see us absorbed in the Project.
January 10, 2022
you say Project, I say Dictatorship.
January 12, 2022
I have to eat humble pie and admit I got quite a bit wrong about Brexit. I say this not so much to talk about my self but to salute Brexiters such as Sir John Redwood. Although I do say the following to show the positive effect that Brexit has had on Tories such as me (a Tory very much focused on the Conservatism of Edmund Burke although flawed, like all of us, was still great).
Although I am a Patriot and believe in Sovereignty and although I argued that only the Ends Justify the Means, part of me was also tarnished by Liberal Culture that make me more sympathetic to Europhiles than I should have been, at least during the debate before Brexit.
Brexit has certainly challenged me to explore more into what Patriotism / Sovereignty means and I now see the importance of this even more. For Patriotism is literally a virtue and something serious (one could end up having to die defending one’s country) but also something playful / creative / light-hearted too.
January 9, 2022
In other news.
It was deeply satisfying to watch as Sajid Jabbit was faced with a tall resolute and well qualified health professional telling him the truth about natural immunity on Sky. The same matural immunity I have,and the reason I will not need a vaccination.
Either Mr Javid has no idea what he is talking about, or he has been misinformed, or he is being deliberately misleading, and if so what could be the motive. Surely not to keep the idea of Covid Passports firmly on the table? The ultimate control weapon to wield against the people.
January 9, 2022
I suspect the Grauniad is the newspaper of choice at No 10 nowadays…
January 9, 2022
Talking of the Telegraph, and following on from yesterday’s debate about Liz Truss, I was utterly disgusted by three appalling statements she made in her article about the Protocol.
1. She says that when negotiating on this issue the UK and the EU should work together as sovereign “equals”. NO! Northern Ireland is part of the UK, so the EU is NOT “equal” to us in these discussions. WE are in control, and WE will decide, and the EU is nothing more than an interested third party whom we talk to out of goodwill.
2. She says she wants to replace the ECJ with “independent arbitration”. Again, NO! She really does not understand the concept of national sovereignty, or national independence in decision-making. The UK government must be the final arbiter, NOT a FOREIGN arbitration panel. How many times do I have to repeat the simple FACT that Northern Ireland is part of the UK – so the UK, and ONLY the UK, must make all the decisions. How can this not be obvious to her?
3. She says: “We are happy to continue checking goods going on to the Republic of Ireland to protect the EU Single Market and to ensure there is no need for a hard border.” NO! Why should WE care about the EU’s single market? That is THEIR problem, NOT OURS. Is the EU going to pay us for conducting these checks? Why are we being so considerate about their concerns when they don’t give a damn about ours? The EU have behaved as our ENEMIES, and have shown us nothing but HATRED. So why is Truss being so weak and pathetic as to try to help them out of problems that THEY have created, through their refusal to give us what we asked for (recognition of equivalence and thus no customs controls)? Her justification (“to ensure there is no need for a hard border”) is pathetic, as we can avoid a hard border by simply NOT BUILDING ONE. Easy as that.
I’m afraid that Liz Truss has already proved to be weak, stupid and a complete failure in terms of promoting the British national interest.
January 9, 2022
She is a Remainer.
January 10, 2022
On the contrary I’m glad to see that she seems to be following my advice, even if she has not actually had a sight of the letter I sent in her direction on December 27, laying out this plan:
“Therefore I propose unilateral stepwise action to create alternative arrangements and help resolve this problem in a calm and orderly manner:
“Pass the UK laws to protect the EU Single Market which were adumbrated in paragraphs 43 and 62 of the July Command Paper, see below.
Set up a simple and flexible system of export licences for those actors who propose to carry goods across the border into the Republic, so ensuring that they become familiar with the UK legal requirements for protection of the EU Single Market and can seek advice on any related uncertainties.
Ignore the nonsensical official position of the Irish government that âany checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard borderâ and designate a variety of sites well away from the actual border for any necessary paper or physical customs checks on the goods being exported.
My thinking is that once the UK had unilaterally established superior alternative arrangements in parallel with the irrational arrangements demanded by the protocol, and the alternative had proved effective, then there would no longer be any strong grounds for objection when the protocol arrangements were set aside.”
I would agree that the EU and the Irish government do not actually deserve such consideration on our part -I said so back at the end of 2017 – and it would be a generous act to try to address their greatly exaggerated, in fact largely fabricated, concerns and restore something like harmonious relations both with them and within Northern Ireland.
January 9, 2022
The Telegraph may be offering good advice at the moment Sir John. Certainly the advice you have given today is spot on.
But surely the Telegraph in general is one of those ‘news’ outlets that would prefer us not to have left the EU.
As for cosying up to Biden and his Democrats. Do we have to?
Surely the whole reason for being a Sovereign Democratic Nation is that we run our own country in the way that suits us!
January 9, 2022
It has always been the case in the UK that when a new government takes office, the people wh actually develop policy, the civil servants, don’t change. New ministers even find it difficult to change their permanent secretary when they believe this is necessary to get their policies adopted.
This is undoubtedly why the sensible suggestiond being made here repeatedly are always ignored.
They simply don’t fit in with the opinions of the civil service.
Ministers need to get a grip over their departments and force through proper conservative policies such as low taxes and light regulation. All the proposals made here about the Green Crap agenda and future energy planning need to be followed. We know that the PM is fully signed up to his Green agenda but almost everyone in the party and all realists elsewhere know only too well that it is completely unaffordable.
We cannot allow our citizens to be impoverished and our economy trashed, just so that Boris can have a quiet life at home !
January 9, 2022
Why are Tory Ministers doing the bidding of the Marxist public sector unions especially in education and the NHS?
It is disturbing to say the least that democratically elected politicians continue to roll out the authoritarian public sector union agenda
I’d like to know what degree of influence do the major unions over the policies applied by this Tory government or can we now assume that it governs for the benefit of the Socialist public sector to appease them knowing it can abuse the private sector who can never fight back?
January 9, 2022
Boris seems more of a follower than a leader so if we follow the EU on gas, why not follow the US on oil and China on coal?
January 9, 2022
May be you should have words with Jeremy Hunt ……
//The former Conservative leadership contender, Jeremy Hunt, said today it was âextraordinaryâ that the UK, with its net zero target, was even thinking about plans to drill for gas at Dunsfold in Surrey.//
January 10, 2022
former says it all…
January 9, 2022
It would seem that the DT has a better handle on what’s really happening than kipper and his fillets.
Can we start to draw a line under all this nonsense. Do away with all the subsidies and handouts for EVs and all the other restrictions being applied to a Net Zero existance. EVs are cheap as they pay very little or no road tax but are heavier and still cause wear and tear on our roads. Everything that uses our roads and its infrastructure should be paying for the use of the road not what propulsion they are using. The way the government are performing is lamentable, unethical and totally irresponsible, with no concerns of the fallout of their decisions and lack of real action on the critical mass of the population who will be paying for it.
January 9, 2022
As well as the Telegraph, I too offer some supportive advice to this Government, Boris and the NHS.
For whatever the crazy reasons about 10% of NHS employees won’t vaccinate whatever is said or done and hence they will cease to be paid from April 2021, funded by taxpayers. The NHS have to deal with this.
I posit this is a actually a good thing, as it will reduce the pay bill by 10% and we can repurpose this money to pay for additional private sector completed tests and operations etc. This contract work NEEDS dilligent contract negotiations NOW to obtain best value for NHS & taxpayers, to help reduce the backlog made worse by Covid.
Secondly the myriad of NHS IT systems, manual processes and different ways of working (within Trusts) need standardisation, optimising and automation, to increase efficiency and negate the staff losses. I hear some moves are happening at the Trust level, but not clearly controlled or supported at a central level, where lead Trusts improvements could be rapidly pushed out to all trusts and across borders to all UK nations, with a clear IT Enterprise wide architecture and methodical approach.
The expected step drop change in staffing April/May will require the onboarding/training of newly qualified UK staff together with temporary contract staff and appropriately qualified and trained foreign staff with flexed visas as we are now able to do. Clearly this is a situation than represents a major NHS recruitment project/programme for a few months and Trusts will need central support to get ahead of the situation to ensure service levels and key performance indicators are met/exceeded.
January 11, 2022
Patriotism is a beautiful thing. Just as individual human beings are meant to be works of art, body, mind and soul – masterpieces – so are families meant to be – and countries. Works of art like a beautiful Faberge Egg.
At least that’s the sort of thing people believed when they built Florence and Venice and Rome and Salzburg and Oxford and Cambridge – and all the beautiful medieval Cathedrals and churches and the arts in general and civilisation in general from the Monarchy to Parliament and the Judiciary and Guilds and grammar schools and so on. A beautiful mixture of order and mystery. Flawed of course. No-one is perfect. But they certainly had a go our forebearers did. We should try and do the same. At least have more of a go.