The big rise in energy prices is like a big tax rise. It Ā takes a lot of money out of peoples purses and wallets. It reduces discretionary spending as many people cut back to meet the higher bills for the basics. It ushers in stagflation as the economy slows and inflation stays high.
The last thing we need when energy- and now food – prices soar are tax rises as well. That compounds the squeeze and slows the economy more. Last month the U.K. economy after a year of fast growth slowed to just 0.1%whilst Ā inflation rose again.Today we should expect Ā a further rise in prices.
The Chancellor should announce now that he will remove the NI rise and take VAT off fuel. Of course he also needs to bring the deficit down. That requires growing revenues. Producing Ā more of our own oil and gas will give revenue a big boost as there is a double corporation tax rate on that activity. Easing the squeeze will mean more VAT on non energy purchases as there will be more of them, and more Income tax.
It also requires better control over public spending. Maybe we could start by cancelling overseas aid to countries supporting Russia, and charge all the Ukraine spending to the overseas aid budget as a better substitute.
April 13, 2022
Good Morning,
If Mr Sunak is an honourable man, he will resign. The dis-honourable member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip has already said he will not.
This is now a test of the decency and morality of the PCP. If, as I expect, you will all continue to behave as a self-entitled pack of charlatans then we will continue to suffer under the incompetence of the dis-honourable Member. I await your decision.
April 13, 2022
If Conservative MPs continue to support Johnson, after yesterday’s revelations, then they and their party are beyond redemption. They will lose my vote; they will deserve ejection from office.
April 13, 2022
Jacob Rees-Mogg was wheeled out to defend Johnson on the J H-B show on Talk Radio this morning. According to him the CONs can’t offer the country any better option for PM than the hypocrite Johnson who is, to put it politely, economic with the actualite.
Shame ….. I used to respect Jacob.
April 14, 2022
Who do you suggest (who has any chance of Conservative Party support) should replace Boris and Sunak?
April 13, 2022
oldtimer
Grant Schapps in defence of the PM said that he ‘walked into the room’ where they were having the party! So quite obviously an innocent mistake?
April 13, 2022
Thats okay then
April 13, 2022
@oldtimer; Indeed, but far to many within the parliamentary party, unthinking party supporters and right wing MSM have also lost their moral compass, as they grasp for any reason to excuse “partygate”, be it the totally despicable war waged by Russia against an innocent Ukraine or the economic fight against the emerging cost of living crisis here in the UK. Are these morally rudderless politicos etc seriously suggesting Chamberlain should not have been ousted in 1940; or in early 1979, Mrs Thatcher was wrong to table a motion of No Confidence in the then PM/govt, for that is their logic for why Boris Johnson (and others) should not have to resign. No one is ever irreplaceable, nor should anyone be.
April 13, 2022
The people at the Downing Street parties knew that the social distancing and masking rules had nothing to do with disease control but were about obedience training for the general public in preparation for the Great Reset.
“it’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled”
April 13, 2022
So, of the likely candidates, who do you want as Prime Minister instead, Old timer? I imagine you’ve thought of that.
April 13, 2022
Morality?
I noted during the expenses scandal that many had no idea of such a concept.
‘We’ve done nothing wrong’ many said citing various reasons for their actions being all above board in their positions as MP.
While technically it may have been above board in whatever rule book they were consulting, but no one seemed to consider whether or not it was moral.
We had people claiming for all sorts, at a time rather akin to the here and now when ordinary folk were struggling.
Claims for things and small amounts that they could afford out of their own pockets and would have gladly done so in solidarity with those they claim to represent had they a conscience to be pricked.
April 13, 2022
Over 300 MPs over paid or fiddled their expenses. It was widely known and widespread.
Doubling the Standing charge is another stealth tax from the govt. Nothing to do with energy cost rises. This is another tax rising Tory policy to make up for a previous failed Tory policy of forcing small companies to take the hit from their lock down. Another hidden tax under energy price rises. JR please clarify if I am incorrect why the standing charge has risen so much.
Why is the govt still profiteering from petrol and diesel prices, please clarify JR. The govt. could reduce its 66% take from our pockets. Or is it to piss away on Ukraine which is rated as one of the most corrupt govt in the world to try to save Johnsonās neck.
Yesterday Johnson admitted breaking the law, which he created and lied about it in parliament!
Reply A few MPs fiddled expenses and were prosecuted. Others claimed under the then lax rules for costs incurred, and had the expenses accepted. retrospectively the expenses administrators decided to narrow the eligibility rules.
April 13, 2022
I imagine John Lewis suffered as a result. No new kitchens, coffee machines, curtains, beds for MPs put on expenses?
April 13, 2022
Talking about expensers, I wonder how Boris is going to pay his fine
April 14, 2022
JR, not a few a great many. It is not possible that so few did not commit the offence of false accounting when asked to pay back and they did so. I suggest a policy decision was made that few were made as token charges to appease the public.
April 13, 2022
There will be a revolt at the May council elections first. Hubris and hypocrisy are two good descriptions.. party central whilst the rest of us in lockdown, during which roughly half the bailout monies are now viewed as potentially fraudulent or highly fraudulent .. missing were basic NI and Company House checks.. Ā£200bn was printed and looks like too hard or embarrassing to recover. Even more incompetence. Go chase the stolen money!!
The basics of sensible governance and government are AWOL. Train trips to Kyiv are a distraction.
I do agree with Sir J last para about the alterations recommended re Foreign Aid, excellent š
April 13, 2022
No he Sunak should not resign – he and Boris should however stop pissing money down the drain, reduce the size of government massively, cull the mad net zero expensive energy religion, undo all his vast tax increases, deregulate hugely, simplify the tax code, scrap all the attacks on the self employed, reform the dire NHS, cut the loans for mainly pointless degrees…
I do not think he does remotely understands the cost of living, energy & tax increases crisis many people (and businesses) face. He should do some research – it has not even hit them fully as yet. Net zero just exports jobs, industries and the CO2 they produce – economic and political insanity Sunak.
April 13, 2022
LL,
Do check your logic: First line, ‘No Sunak should not resign’.
First line second para. ‘I don’t think he remotely understands……etc’
Seems like you want a man who doesn’t remolely understand the cost of living running the country’s finances? Would you appoint a finance manager to if you thought he didn’t understand his job?
April 14, 2022
The alternatives are alas even worse than Sunak. The same and only reason I would elect to retain Boris. Boris and Sunak need to do large U turns on the absurd tax levels, OTT red tape and on net zero.
April 13, 2022
It is the equivalent of a speeding fine – will you leave your job next time a camera catches you over the limit?
The Prime Minister and Chancellor should resign for raising tax, being in thrall to net zero and annexing Northern Island to the EU not for having some drinks with people they were already working in a building with.
Anyone conflating not being able to contact people with whom they did not see daily in the course of work such as care home visits, hospital visits or funerals, and a few drinks with colleagues whose air you had been inhaling all day is deluded and has an agenda.
April 13, 2022
The whole government should consider resignation for being unable to secure our borders to the flotilla of dinghies that arrive daily.
April 13, 2022
Why would they resign? The government obviously prefers the uninvited guests to UK citizens. Why else would they treat them better than legal UK citizens? It isn’t as if it earns them any brownie points with anyone, except maybe the ‘guests’ themselves, who I am sure will tell all their pals about the free benefits and luxury accommodation, much better than the damp ridden hovels that some UK homeless have to put up with … if lucky enough to be given a house instead of a single room bedsit for a whole family.
April 13, 2022
I didn’t break my own laws and lie to Parliament.
Apart from that I agree with you, Bunter is incompetent and unqualified to hold the job of PM. Now the entire PCP knows that, but will they do anything about it now or wait for further inevitable embarrassment and too late to recover our confidence.
April 13, 2022
If I was the one responsible for creating and implementing the law on speeding in question, yes, I would. If I can’t follow the rules I create myself, how could I possibly expect others to?
One only has to think back to those pictures of the Queen at the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral. Oh to be a fly on the wall at the next meeting between the monarch and the PM.
April 13, 2022
The UK is in trouble from all the media drivel and pre-occupation with stories about fluff and party gate. Don’t they have any proper news stories to concentrate on.
Surely the PM’s fine is no more than a speeding fine. You are not expected to resign over a speeding fine otherwise most of us would be out of a job. And with the more powerful modern cars it’s so easy to slip over the speed limit. A few on this site need to ask themselves how many times they have exceeded the speed limit and not got caught. Give Boris a break. There is no difference between speeding and getting caught and speeding and not getting caught.
The Opposition must be tearing their hair out because Boris is repeatedly being attacked on a personal level. He must be doing something right in the day job. We need to look at the bigger picture and give some praise..
So saying that we do need to get a few things sorted such as lower income tax, lower corporation tax and very importantly the NI protocol .( it’s an issue for the ROI and the EU to sort out but the UK has again stepped in to take responsibility and adopt a complicated work around. Unfortunately, complicated compromises never work. We need to but heads with the EU ). We also need to reduce Govt spending on the civil service ( save billions – UK 55% govt expenditure vs Germany at 8 – 12 %, I hope these figures are approx correct but that’s the overall picture ), cancel the useless HS2 ( save a one off Ā£100 bn ) and reduce the tax relief on pension contributions to higher rate tax payers ( save Ā£10-30 bn annually) so that they don’t obtain a greater tax relief contribution than standard rate tax payers ( a very unfair system ). Reducing costs is better than increasing taxes.
Another thing, we are still giving planning permission for companies to build large solar panel complexes on farm land. A French govt report suggests that better use could be made of motorways and railway tracks for the installation of solar panels as well as roof tops. The potential increase in gigawatts is gigantic.
April 15, 2022
@ColinB; The issue has become one of trust, both in the press room at No.10 and more importantly at the Dispatch box…
If we can not trust a govt, its Ministers, the PM, to tell the truth when it comes to something insignificant, such as (in your opinion) the equivalent of a ‘speeding fine’ how can we, in fact why should we, trust that the govt is choosing the right/best solutions when it comes to all those other issues?
April 13, 2022
@NS; If a Chief Constable, for example and to use your analogy, was to be found guilty of a serious speeding offence there would be pressure for the said person to resign, quite possible from the Home Office (if not Downing Street its-self), even more so if it emerged during investigation that it was the said Chief Constable who had asked for the speed limit to be imposed (for public safety) but then tried to plead ignorance of any knowledge of the speed limit as their defense…
April 13, 2022
It would be the equivalent of a speeding fine only if the prime minister had personally set the speed limit, gone on TV every day for two years to tell everyone to obey it, broken it himself, and then lied to Parliament about it!
April 14, 2022
@DB & @ Jerry
Said Police Constable, getting caught on an empty stretch of motorway wouldn’t faze me in the slightest.
No danger to anyone else.
April 15, 2022
@NS; Stop judging events with the aid of 20/20 hindsight, an empty motorway, no one in Downing Street at the time being a asymptomatic carrier/spreader of Covid 19.
I to would have no problem if the said Chief Constable or anyone else was observed driving at an otherwise excess speed on a know and planned for closed-off motorway [1], or for that matter had Mrs Johnson presented Boris with a cake and sung happy birthday to him in the Downing Street flat (or as a family bubble outside in the communal gardens) – neither scenario would have broken the law.
[1] no different to what happens when roads are closed off for motor sport events
April 13, 2022
Thatās just it though Peter, if only any of them were honourable. Whether itās frauding the taxpayer by fiddling their expenses or breaking their own lockdown rules, their response is always the same. āWe were acting within the rules, we will learn from this for the future.ā Pathetic, especially when they make those rules which they think applies to everyone else but themselves. So in their deluded minds why should they resign?
April 13, 2022
But the central aim of Conservatism is not moral.
That is, the creation of an in-group that the law protects but does not bind – and we see them now – and an out-group that the law binds but does not protect, that is, the ordinary person and also the Conservatives’ political opponents.
April 13, 2022
You cannot run with the fox and the hounds. Just as you cannot be all things to all people. The Chancellor is getting more taxes in with higher fuel costs and improving employment figures and still the critical mass of the country are getting hammered and if by “taking control of public spending” you mean addressing the horrendous waste within every sector and department of both national and public services then bring it on.
For years the electorate have been told low taxes, bonfire of quangos, properly costed projects, all just words to win our votes. If the Chancellor has the backbone for a long hard fight which might make him unpopular with his peers but very popular with the electorate and just concentrate on clawing back all the waste he would go a long way to redirecting the faith in him, the country and rebuild his perceived damaged reputation. His boss next door cannot be allowed to just keep talking the words and throwing money here there and everywhere. Talking tough and then capitulation, this government is famous for it. For the Chancellor push has gone to shove. JFDI
April 13, 2022
The Chancellor may be too upset by the bad press he is receiving over Non Dom status etc to care.
The cost of living crisis will not affect him personally but his political ambitions are currently in tatters. Maybe he will sling his hook?
April 13, 2022
I see Gove is to have the final say on whether the Cumbrian coal mine goes ahead. How come the decision is left to someone who openly opposes it.
This would help our balance of payments and provide well paid jobs.
Feacking would also help reduce fuel costs.
Bozo and Sunshine have now been outed as liars and cheats so let us get some tories on the levers to help Joe public.
April 13, 2022
Some Tories such as? I’m all for what you propose, but can you suggest any names, Ian? I’m honestly struggling.
April 13, 2022
Unbelieveable
April 13, 2022
The depressing thing is the four betting favourites to replace Boris are Truss, Tugenhat, Javid and Sunak. Of these the dire manifesto ratting, tax borrow and piss down the drain Sunak is probably the least bad!
JR says āThe last thing we need when energy- and now food ā prices soar are tax rises as well.ā correct. The other thinks we do not need are absurd over regulation and endless and vast government waste – HS2, net zero expensive energy lunacy, pointless degreesā¦
April 13, 2022
Missed out Hunt, Wallace, Mordant – what a truly dire choice of largely socialist remainers – Sunak still the best of this dire choice – all Sunak has to do is reverse all his policies so far and become the small government, low tax, regulation scrapping real Conservative he so often claims to be. This and to ditch all the market rigging and subsidies for the net zero rip off energy religion.
April 13, 2022
Interesting to see on GB News this morning, Richard Tice recommending John Redwood for Chancellor. Not a chance of that in the ConSocialist party. You are in the wrong party John.
April 14, 2022
Given FPTP voting and the Conservative brands and loyalty to it the only way to get a sensible small state party is a reformed Conservative Party. The chance of getting a Chancellor who is not either Labour or Conservative for say 30 years or less is virtually zero. By which time JR will be getting on a bit!
April 13, 2022
Big Business and Big Finance love “socialism”.Read “Wall Street & the Bolsheviks:The remarkable story of the American capitalists who financed the Russian communists.”Anthony Sutton 1974
April 13, 2022
Interesting story of a further rift between Sunak and Johnson with talk of Sunak resignation which could bring down Johnson as well.
Meanwhile, spokesmen pursue a line that Partygate is small beer and Johnson has far more important issues to concentrate on.
April 13, 2022
He does – ditching net zero, having the size of government and reversing all Sunakās vast tax grabs for a start.
April 13, 2022
We don’t need ‘better control over State spending’, we need a hefty reduction in State spending which is in effect the political abuse of scarce resources, inevitably wasted which could have been used in the private sector (in tax cuts) to encourage capital investment for future economic growth
John’s party are now in a corner in the sense that they’ve reluctantly embraced Labour’s big state politics, as an act of appeasement and self-protection, and all the waste and abuses that go with that. They can never now call for reform of the Socialist hellhole or reductions in funding for the aforementioned Socialist hellhole without harming themselves. It explains why John never calls for reduced State spending even though all the evidence suggests that this spending is utterly unproductive. It is pathetic to see the Tories on their knees praying at the altar of Marx
The Tories need to regain some self-respect and stand on a platform of individualism, freedom, State limitations and cuts in Labour’s client State funding before it consumes us all, and believe me it will if it can as we can now see with the NHS and their demands for more lockdowns and mask mandates
Someone tell NHS leaders to shut up, do their real job, get back in their boxes rather than playing at petty fascism.
And the BBC’s racism is now becoming a serious issue. I know of many people who are becoming increasingly concerned as its extremism. It is your party’s job to expose the BBC’s hatred and contempt for the UK and its majority population
April 13, 2022
Good morning.
I particually agree with your last paragraph, Sir John.
Sorry off topic.
It now emerges that the law regarding social gatherings suring lockdown has been broken by the PM and the Chancellor. I also believe that those two individuals, when asked if they attended such gatherings, denied they had to the House. It is my understanding that, should such a thing occur it would be considered a resignation matter. I am not asking for or expecting them to, but I feel that, if they do not then it must come down to we the electorate to.
April 13, 2022
The gatherings/parties in Downing Street happened because the individuals knew full well the risks to them were miniscule.
Sunak & Johnson should resign. Not for breaking the laws but for introducing the laws in the first place. Lockdowns have caused untold economic, mental health, educational (could go on) damage. It is questionable whether they saved any C19 deaths.
April 13, 2022
+100
April 13, 2022
A fixed penalty notice is the equivalent of a speeding fine.
The Prime Minister should have originally stood up in the house and asked “So?”
I wold rather he resigned for being rather poor as a Prime Minister. I would prefer even more if he was not replaced. “Government governs best that does least.”
April 13, 2022
Why expect the PM to resign? He was just Boris being Boris. It would be like blaming the fox for raiding the hen house. I blame Uxbridge and the PCP.
April 13, 2022
Re-read what I wrote. I never asked them to resign, I just pointed out that, if you deliberatly mislead parliament it has historically been seen as a resignation offence irrespective of the individual and their reputation.
April 13, 2022
Many realised he was just a clown, playing the fool…Take the paint off and we see the real man.
Some let down eh?
April 13, 2022
We didn’t expect much from this government after brexit but they’ve failed at every level
April 13, 2022
No it should be for JR and the honourable colleagues to oust him. If not they condone his lies/dishonesty.
April 13, 2022
This Hope is the sad conclution that I have come to. We, despite what we all think should happen are powerless. And as others have pointed out, any of his replacements are no better and in some cases even worse.
April 13, 2022
Johnson refuses to go anywhere because he has a mandate to carry out. Wonder which mandate that would be then. Getting Brexit done, controlling immigration or not raising taxes? Every manifesto pledge has already been broken. This deluded idiot is taking us all for fools.
April 13, 2022
(1) ‘… and charge all the Ukraine spending to the overseas aid budget as a better substitute.’ Thank you. Every last penny!
(2) There’s probably a need for orders of man-portable missiles to top-up our stocks of Starstreak, Javelin and NLAW. Who pays for that? The MoD? The Contingency Fund? The foreign aid budget?
(3) I see that Pakistan, generously-subsidised by the UK, struck a deal with Putin, in the final days of the Khan premiership, to buy Russian wheat and oil. That makes me think that the UK tax-payer would have been indirectly supporting the Russian economy. Questions needed in the Commons, Sir John? Pakistan is no friend of the West; we shouldn’t be subsidising that failed-state.
April 13, 2022
Sir J, “Charge all spending in Ukraine to the overseas aid budget”. What else would it be? This is money/goods provided to another country with no expectation or repayment. 100% foreign aid. S_W is correct.
It is also moronic that we provide aid money to countries that act acting in conflict with UK aims. It has to stop.
April 13, 2022
People in Pakistan need energy and food. Their government had no business playing NATO’s war games. Washington’s regime change operation in Islamabad may have worked for now, but Imran Khan will soon be back playing another innings, I fancy.
April 13, 2022
That’s my view,too.
April 13, 2022
I agree. Khan was acting in his own nations best interests. Something I cannot blame any head of State for irrespective whether I like them or not. All I wish for is that those who purport to have OUR best interests at heart show that they do rather than others.
April 13, 2022
We should concentrate on the current government.
The Prime Minister has been caught out by his lockdown rules along with The Chancellor of the Exchequer.Still to be published is the report of the enquiry into lockdown rule breaking ,by all in No 10 that he set up.
I believe that Boris Johnson has lost sight of his Brexit triumph.If he cannot get back on track he must go.
The Chancellor should go as he has relied on The Treasury who have been singing from the wrong sing sheet constructed with George Osborn.
April 13, 2022
The rap-sheet against Johnson is a long one. This government is a mess. As soon as the May elections are done, he has to go. His replacement has just enough time to sort out the mess – by making use of a comfortable majority – before the next general election. If Johnson stays, the Conservatives will lose.
P.S. Luxon, in New Zealand, is showing how a change in leadership can change a party’s fortunes, quickly.
April 13, 2022
SW,
Perhaps the party are hedging their bets to see the outcome of the May elections.
Much of the media are pushing a āworld statesmanā line about Johnson now.
Only a few like Alex Massie in The Spectator consistently call for his removal.
April 13, 2022
Another contribution that doesn’t put forward a suitable alternative to Johnson, saying why he/she would be better.
We need a Prime Minister who can work in the interests of the country on the major issues now confronting us, not merely one who can save the Conservative Party’s bacon in the next election. If that party still has senior figures within it who can make a clean break with the wrong-headed policies it has been following, good. It is time for them to take a stand.
April 14, 2022
There is no suitable alternative.
The Tories atm depend on the votes of people for whom Johnson is the only politician that they can name.
It’s quite funny in its way.
April 14, 2022
More unsubstantiated nonsense NHL
Where is your data for that ridiculous claim?
April 13, 2022
Sunak has indeed got it wrong. A complete U turn is needed.
The Chancellor should show he understands the cost of living crisis – he clearly does not and needs to get real on it most of it is still to hit like the huge NI increases on April wage packets.
He also does not understand economics (as we have learned to expect of socialist PPE Oxon. graduates). Tax cuts, regulation cuts, far less government waste, cheap on demand energy and abolition of net zero is what is needed Sunak. He is still the best choice of the dire alternatives.
Sunak claims to be a low tax, small government Conservative so why not actually deliver this mate! Inflation now 7% and in fact much higher still for poorer families who tend to spend most on rents, mortgages, council tax, heat light, taxes/NI, transport, food…
April 13, 2022
‘Johnson has lost sight of his Brexit triumph’
Triumph? By what measure?
April 13, 2022
I don’t expect politicians to be purer than the driven snow. None of them are. I expect them to be competent in what they are doing in their job, which is to serve the interests of the country. Not some other country, not some international cabal, not some bunch of lobbyists, but the interests of people trying to live decently in this country. I don’t give a damn for Sunak or his wife’s tax status, I want to see what he is doing about managing the national finances. So far this year the picture isn’t good, but would another Chancellor pursue different policies, I wonder? Would he be allowed to, when the government is wedded to an insane foreign policy that helps to provoke high food and energy prices and shortages? Not to mention a net zero policy that is even more disastrous. Compared with these catastrophic errors of political judgment, anything the media can dredge up about Mr and Mrs Sunak looks quite trivial.
April 13, 2022
We are back at the same old question. Is it sheer incompetence, or deliberate damage. Either way, this government needs to go and be replaced with a competent government that helps, not hinders, our country. I hope we can find one, but it will mean another miracle in the form of a new party. The existing parties all appear to be anti-UK and mostly undemocratic too. Who pays them, and who are they working for?
April 13, 2022
The Government will do nothing meaningful about the cost of living crisis, or the energy crisis which is largely causing it.
Scarcity of a product drives the price up and that reduces demand. The Government has deliberately ramped up the cost of energy with its ludicrous Net Zero policies and refusal to use our own fossil fuel resources. It is forcing people to consume less energy by pricing them out of the market.
There is nothing Conservative about this Government. We are being governed by Socialist-Green obsessives delivering the WEF’s Agenda.
It’s funny how there are Ā£billions to shovel at the Ukraine war ….. but there’s no money to remove VAT from energy.
April 13, 2022
+1
April 13, 2022
+100
April 13, 2022
What exactly was Rishi Sunak’s popularity based on anyway with the public.
Oh yes he paid lots of people to stay at home, and paid them to eat out so that they didn’t catch a virus.
There are other reasons for the whipping up a nice image for him, but I won’t go into that which is more in line with the Great Reset.
April 13, 2022
Michelle. Your last sentence could also apply to how the cabinet was chosen.
April 13, 2022
I agree with all of your proposals and the reasons you make them. Quite why the Johnson government fails to recognise or seek to ameliorate the unfolding economic disaster is hard to fathom. Perhaps it is its misplaced addiction to net zero policies regardless of the consequences; or perhaps it is too preoccupied with acute personal issues that currently grip public attention. Either way, if they are not up to the job, they should both go.
April 13, 2022
Agreed. If the Executive cannot be held to account in Parliament then we have a very serious constitutional problem.
April 13, 2022
As each day passes, this Government and House of Commons confirm that they are the worst of my lifetime.
April 13, 2022
and thats a hard measure to beat! It gets exceeded every new government.
April 13, 2022
Cost of living crisis?
Mobile phone contracts, pre-prepared meal boxes delivered to the door, overpriced coffee, takeaways now delivered to your door, monthly hire purchase payments for a new (not second hand) car – massively reduced commuting costs for those now sitting at home regularly. Minimum wage up by 6.6%.
Ditch net zero, remove VAT on energy and we will not be so badly off with a few simple economies.
April 13, 2022
JR ref your post today.
You can see it, we can see it, but the Government are blind and deaf to it.
The opposition Party’s are also aware but do not have a solution either, other than so called windfall taxes, which they think will pay for everything !
Never in my lifetime have ALL of the political party’s been as clueless as at present !
Things not much better in many Countries abroad either
April 13, 2022
+1
April 13, 2022
Alan. Yes what are Labours plans to address our long term energy requirements? Everything they want to do only addresses the problems we have now temporarily. What about addressing the real problems? Their policies will be the same in that they want net zero but they have always pushed for it sooner. They want to throw more of our taxes at everything especially under performing public services. Our future as a country looks dismal. Inflation at 7%.
April 13, 2022
That inflation rate does not cover the extra cost of energy. People will really struggle.
April 13, 2022
They will I do not think Sunak and Boris realise just how much it will hit poorer people and some pensioners.
April 13, 2022
Not sure how putting money back in peoples pockets equates with high levels of inflation. Tax rises taking money out of the economy is a standard solution. Complaining about an economic slowdown when that is what is needed is strange and I think dishonest.
The problem for me is that spending cuts should go hand in hand but that would bring accusations of austerity (albeit I would call it cutting ones cloth) plus contrary to the levelling up agenda. Critics should address the politics.
You didnāt mention using the foreign aid budget yesterday, maybe picking up on what a number of us said and to me that is an indication how cloth eared the government has become to concerns of the public.
Your news management is constantly behind the public or dismissive of its concerns. NHS inefficiency, vast swathes of waste, push to green costing us billions etc. For me your news grid should have had only one message post Covid. How much was spent and how that is feeding through in higher inflation and borrowing costs. Unfortunately for other reasons you have lost control of that agenda.
Plus the flakiness of Johnson (NI, Fishing, Brexit opportunities further examples) and his āchildrenā running No 10, ignored on the premise he will do better next time and the reality that his contenders are of dubious quality.
A perfect political and economic storm unlucky with Covid but too much poor judgement and performance.
April 13, 2022
That would have to assume he understood the basics of what Conservatism is all about, and he is certainly challenged on that point.
The Tories have now taken the title away from labour for inventing new taxes and ruining the economy – Even Gordon Brown couldn’t have done so well as this Chancellor in the last 2 years, and he worked hard for that title.
April 13, 2022
How can the Chancellor show that he ‘Understands’ something, when he quite clearly does not?
April 13, 2022
Heās take an oath of allegiance to the Crown when becoming an MP
Heās signed the official secrets act
Heās take an oath of office as a minister
Heās agreed to abide to the ministerial code
And yet, under the USA green card scheme, heās recorded his tax affairs and declared his intension to change his citizenship status to another country
We holding back because itās the USA, but whats if it was France or Russia
April 13, 2022
The PPI numbers are pretty terrifying …..
PPI Output prices YOY to March 11.9%
PPI Input prices MOM to March 5.2%
PPI Input prices YOY to March 19.2%
…. with that level of inflation in the pipeline the Government should be putting in emergency measures to get control of spending, no longer can we afford to have spending that is nice to have but not critical, there is going to be a lot of stuff we can no longer afford , and top of the list has to be Aid, Asylum seeker spending , the Green garbage, and much else. It is batten down the hatches time and bare down on costs.
April 13, 2022
Time for the government to tell us when they are going to raise the state pension to the rate of inflation, to compensate for the theft of this year’s rise.
April 13, 2022
In my view Boris Johnson is unfit to hold any public office, even at the level of a parish council. However others have disagreed and he is Prime Minister while I am not. And rather than see him depart from that high office over a minor infraction I would prefer him to stay and remedy the unjust and potentially very dangerous situation in Northern Ireland which he and those MPs who voted through the Irish protocol have created. That is orders of magnitude more important than some questionable gatherings during lockdown two years ago, which did not pose the threat of a return to communal violence in Northern Ireland and possibly on the British mainland as well, horrific events which we do not want to see ever again. So to that end while somebody of immeasurably greater importance than myself has been telling Nick Ferrari that the protocol must be renegotiated or the government must act unilaterally:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/more-done-take-advantage-brexit-and-ni-situation-isnt-working-lord-frost/
I have been sending a letter in the direction of Boris Johnson, copied to Tory MPs, as follows:
“The headline “EU allows British medicines to go to Northern Ireland” on the RTE news website [1] could provoke a first thought “How kind of the EU to allow us to move medicines around in our own country, and a “third country” at that”, and then perhaps a second thought that living in a “vassal province” may not be so bad when the suzerain is so considerate of the welfare of the subject population.
But you will have to take measures – legal, administrative and practical – to ensure that non-compliant medicines are not taken across the land border into the Irish Republic, and may I suggest, firstly, that instead of restricting those measures to this narrow class of goods you have them drafted to cover all goods, and, secondly, that you make this a firm commitment in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech.
After all, to recall your words during the debate on last year’s Queen’s Speech [2]:
“Everything we do will be done as one United Kingdom, combining the genius of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – joined together by blood and family tradition and history in the most successful political, economic and social union the world has ever known.”
Clearly you forgot that when you decided to leave Northern Ireland behind under swathes of EU laws while the rest of us escaped.”
April 13, 2022
According to Public Sector Current Receipts for the eleven months of this fiscal year, Rushi is up Ā£104.7 billion compared to the previous year. Ā£826 against Ā£721.3 billion. He should let the deficit take the strain for a few years; and, stop issuing Gilts to match his spending. Just issue Gilts when he actually needs to take spending power out of the economy. The Treasury doesn’t have to “borrow” its own unique monopoly money from anyone; it’s the sole manufacturer of Pounds Sterling.
April 13, 2022
Hopefully the new Chancellor will do better.
April 13, 2022
Iāve just watched a clip of Jacob Rees-Mogg trying to defend Bunter and Sunak and the others against Julia Hartley-Brewer on TalkRadio, what a cringeworthy performance, I once had enormous respect for JR-M but not anymore, how is he able to tell blatant untruths on a National radio station?
Will this post see the light of day?
April 13, 2022
Jacob Rees-Mogg knows that if Johnson goes, that will be the end of his own political career too. So he is backing Johnson to the hilt. I used to be an admirer of his, but I lost my respect for him when he called Douglas Ross “a lightweight” on TV.
I hope that Sir John submits a letter to call for a leadership election, but I think he is right not to discuss this publicly.
April 13, 2022
I lost my respect for Rees Mogg when he was complicit in scrapping EVEL along with Scotsman Gove. It seems to Tory MPs, there by the grace of English votes, even the toothless EVEL was too good for us English. Mustnāt upset the Scots and all that.
April 13, 2022
The Sunak Slump cometh and although it will be re-branded the Putin Recession we will know the truth.
Why did he not use his Green Card when he had the chance?
April 13, 2022
The USA goes after all income for taxation wherever it is made…The UK doesn’t.
April 13, 2022
400+ illegals crossed the channel today and welcomed by border force