The Queen’s speech debate

 

Today the government has a chance to set out its aims for the next couple of years freed of the special measures for covid which preoccupied people and Parliament from March 2020. I want them to set out not just a plan for 2022-4 but also a wider vision for an independent, innovative, flexible, democratic,  freedom loving UK engaged with the wider world but governed by ourselves.

Prime Ministers need to recognise the factions and groups within the Conservative party and craft a programme which carries most of the MPs with them for most of the time. Fortunately there is today considerable agreement between One Nation , the  European Research group, the Free enterprise groups and the social Conservatives about the main needs. We are all agreed we need a strong programme geared to economic growth, more jobs and better pay. We all want lower taxes, and wish to see opportunity to own, to get a good education and training and the chance of a good job to be spread as widely as possible.

The Bank of England has just laid bare the way current economic policy may worsen conditions for many with no growth ahead, higher unemployment and difficulty in affording the private and public investment needed to transform more lives. The Bank does at least think inflation will soon be on the wane after a bad summer this year. They may this time  be right. That gives the government a bit more scope to do what needs doing.

I want the government to adopt a 2% growth target, and to take joint responsibility with the Bank for the 2% inflation target. The Bank has failed to keep inflation anywhere near that level this year. Government needs to do much more to clear the way for the UK to invest more in the private sector, to produce more goods at home and grow  more food at home. It needs to redouble its recent efforts to produce more domestic oil and gas.

The methods to bring about this growth require lower tax rates, less prescriptive regulation whilst preserving high standards of employment, safety and animal welfare laws, sensible use of government ordering and more encouragement of self employment and entrepreneurship. The Treasury needs to be transformed from its negative approach. It should stop using IR 35 to prevent people working for themselves. It should cut Corporation tax to the 15% world minimum. It should cut the National Insurance tax on jobs. It should sponsor new rules to allow landowners and local communities to participate in profits from ventures needing planning permission.

There does not have to be a recession in the next two years to get on top of inflation. The best way to get the deficit down is to go for growth. Growth will come if more people think it worthwhile to work for themselves or to expand small businesses. The demand is there, as we import too much. It needs positive reform to allow more people to go on the journey to home ownership, to self employment and to participating in a growing business.

 

105 Comments

  1. David Peddy
    May 10, 2022

    Sensible proposals which the government seems only reluctantly to be coming around to at glacial slowness

    1. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      Indeed too much common sense for BoJo, especially since he will want to secure approval from his globalist mates (controllers?).

  2. Mark B
    May 10, 2022

    Good morning.

    Apologies – Off topic.

    First of all I would like to address one of our contributors to this site. JoolsB I read you post from the other day and made a comment of support. Please be so kind as to read it and, if others would like to go back and read both hers and mine I would be very grateful.

    Our kind host has, through both his purse and his efforts, created an online community which we all belong, and I am truly grateful as I am sure many are. But despite all his efforts it would not be the place it is without each and everyone of us whether we agree or like each other or not, and I would be very saddened to see some hear leave this site because they are not being heard. For the record, I still miss Uanimie5 who I had the pleasure of debating with much like I do with PvR. And don’t start me on the panic I had when Lifelogic went AWOL.

    We are ALL FAMILY HERE.

    So please keep posting JoolsB and others.

    Thanks

    The Bank has failed to keep inflation anywhere near that level this year.

    I think that is a little unfair, Sir John. Not when you have a London Mayor putting up his prices at a whopping 8%. Then you have the oil companies and bad government policies. And what is OFGEN doing about the blatant profiteering of the energy companies ?

    The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street can only do so much and it is up to other organs of the State, both big and small, to do theirs.

    1. alan jutson
      May 10, 2022

      Mark B

      Agreed, all the various opinions make for interesting reading, and certainly provoke thought, but we could do without the continuous personal attacks and rants that some have used in the past, because that then destroys any argument that is being made.

    2. Everhopeful
      May 10, 2022

      +many
      Hi Bro…😎
      Nice post!

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      May 10, 2022

      Mark. I’ve just looked back at your comments to Jools B and have to concur wiyh you. I always enjoy her posts as she and I often think alike on the subject of devolved nations. I also missed L/L when he was absent for a while. As you say, we aLL have our opinions. Some are better at putting their thoughts on paper than others. I know I’m not great at that and don’t always understand the intricacies of finance etc but I try to put down what I feel and like to read what others have to say. It’s great when people like Thicko come on here and ask questions about various things. This is a great site and I hope Sir John continues with it for there is always something for everyone to learn.

    4. JoolsB
      May 10, 2022

      Thank you so much Mark B, you are very kind. Habits die hard and I find myself reading this website this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see you mention me. I don’t think I’m the only contributor on here who have frustratingly found their over critical views held in moderation until no one will read them but I agree Johns reply to you was disingenuous. My comments have never had a link attached, for a start I wouldn’t even know how to nor have they been particularly long knowing our host has a lot to get through in a day. Thanks Again Mark, I appreciate it.

      1. Mark B
        May 11, 2022

        +1

  3. DOM
    May 10, 2022

    Recessions are a normal and fundamentally important part of the economic cycle. Those wielding political power who try and avoid that inevitability by embracing Keynesian deceit to reduce the damaging political and electoral effect of such necessary economic contractions are damaging to the long term interests of a nation.

    Further, I am not interested in the internecine squabbling of the useless Tory party who have slyly and deceitfully sold our rights, our culture and our identity to the fascist left to protect themselves and their party from political harm

    1. Everhopeful
      May 10, 2022

      AND there seems to be no “levelling up” in any attempt to mitigate disaster.
      More a suffering of each according to his means.
      The better organised, industrious and prepared you are… the more you will suffer.
      @ grantsforenergybills!!

      1. glen cullen
        May 10, 2022

        “levelling up” is a great political term because no one knows what it means, what’s its success or failure criteria, what’s its timescale and what’s it budget…in old money it was called ‘’growth’’

    2. Everhopeful
      May 10, 2022

      +many
      AND sold our country.

    3. Mitchel
      May 10, 2022

      Tweet of the year from the ever-incisive Sirius Report yesterday:

      “UK is to launch its first national campaign in three years for owners to anonymously surrender illegal guns they are holding.

      Timing is everything.”

      1. DavidJ
        May 11, 2022

        Perhaps if we had our version of the US Second Amendment then government would be more supportive of native Brits and less supportive of those who want to take over the world.

    4. Mark B
      May 10, 2022

      Dom

      Playing Devils Advocate politicians and the government are on a bit of a hiding for nothing when it comes to the economy. No government wants an IMF, ERM or Boom and Bust moment whilst on their watch runining their reputation for economic governance, as such a failure usually leads to them being ousted from office. To that end that cannot help but meddle. The question is though, to what extent ? I think Mrs.T got it about right but she has the advantage of being placed in the middle of some pretty poor competition.

  4. turboterrier
    May 10, 2022

    Most important of all is for the civil, public services to address the horrendous waste that inflicts the country. Everything they do has to be properly costed and accountable.
    It could be made easier if all the laws holding back positive change and allow cabinet ministers to properly oversee and motivate their people were repealed or changed to meèt modern practices.. Stopping waste is the easiest way to addressing the balance sheet. Every expenditure has to be revised on a weekly, monthly and annual basis to ensure that those in control do have proper control, that gives them responsibility and accountability.

    1. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      +1

  5. Lifelogic
    May 10, 2022

    All that is needed is the following:- My mum’s government will have an immediate bonfire of red tape, will halve the size of government, will get fracking, cut taxes hugely to 25% of GDP, kill HS2, abandon net zero and encourage use of reliable on demand energy gas, coal, oil, nuclear… We will cull soft loans for worthless degrees as about ~ 75% are. We will relax planning and go for growth. We will redirect the police and courts to deal with real crimes and to have real deterrents for crime. We will also sort out the mess we have created in Northern Ireland and we will start to control out borders properly with suitable deterrents. We will introduce fair competition between the second rate NHS and private sector healthcare and do similarly in education using top up education vouchers. We will never again lock down the economy. We will never again inject people with vaccines unless we are certain the benefits outweigh the risks as the Covid vaccines surely did not for the young and children.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 10, 2022

      Two good podcasts out yesterday from “So what you’re saying is… The New Culture Forum” on the truly dire Blair legacy after 25 years and one from David Starkey – Can patriotism save us.

    2. Lifelogic
      May 10, 2022

      Of course Prince Charles might have difficulty delivering such a speech with a straight face as he has not, like his sensible mother, stayed out of politics as he should have done. He has, totally hypocritically, attached himself to the deluded climate alarmist agenda and this while spending £millions on his annual personal transport bills on private jets, helicopters, Aston Martins and the likes.

      As have some of his rather deluded & foolish children.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      May 10, 2022

      L/L. That’s one speech I would love to hear.

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      May 10, 2022

      Indeed. Green policy = “Some of you will be able to afford to drive a car and heat your homes and others won’t.”

      How the hell is anyone on normal wages supposed to afford to convert to a Tesla or a heat pump now ???

      This is going to be the biggest class division since the era of Downton Abbey.

    5. Donna
      May 10, 2022

      OK, you’ve got my vote.

    6. Sharon
      May 10, 2022

      Hear, hear, Lifelogic! Very well put… now we just need it to actually be said and happen.

    7. Lifelogic
      May 10, 2022

      NHS leaders are (expensively) being taught that microaggressions can be worse than “overt acts of hate”.
      Courses on the NHS Leadership Academy’s website include a lecture by a campaigner who has said that being prejudiced is unavoidable for people born in Britain because it is a “country that legalised oppression”.

      Is this a plan to get sensible people to resign from the NHS?

      Just as forcing physics teachers at schools to teach totally B/S definitions for GCSE and other exams as to what say “renewable” and “non renewable” energy is – a way to make sensible science teachers leave teaching perhaps rather than agree to teach such propaganda & drivel to often gullible children.

      1. Lifelogic
        May 10, 2022

        With over 6 million (about 10% of the population) on the waiting lists for treatments and procedures one might of thought they had other rather more important matters to address. But it seems not.

    8. BOF
      May 10, 2022

      I’m with you LL. In fact the ‘vaccines’ should never have been given to anyone in reasonable health below the age of fifty!

    9. Lifelogic
      May 10, 2022

      So the Treasury has rejected a request from MPs to come up with a “clear funding plan” for the cost of government Net Zero targets and detailed reporting on the impact of policies on costs for consumers and businesses.

      Well done Sunak! You continue pissing our money down the drain then and impoverishing people & freezing pensioners to death then. Let’s see how that goes down with voters in two years then.

    10. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      If only LL…

  6. wanderer
    May 10, 2022

    I hope our host gets what he has suggested. However, I fear the people in charge are addicted to power, have massive egos and think their pet ideas are unquestionably the right ones to implement. A Downing Street Central Committee shapes and orders its perfect State; sadly for us who are out in the real world, the idea of freeing people to get rich by their own industry is anathema to our rulers. We need to get rid of them before things can change for the better.

  7. formula57
    May 10, 2022

    Once again you show what we could have and ought to have.

  8. alan jutson
    May 10, 2022

    I cannot help but feel that for too many years we have had a “Prime Ministers only” show in Government, with not enough Cabinet input, which may have broadened the polices a little.

    For too long Prime Ministers and Ministers have relied upon an army of unelected Spads and advisors to form a policy, these people do not communicate or receive communication from constituents like elected Mp’s, who should surely have more of a feel on Public’s needs and opinion, than a so called backroom expert.
    Until polices are rather more inclusive of opinion and feedback from our elected representatives, rather than the out of touch so called specialists, the Government will continue to struggle.

    1. Hat man
      May 10, 2022

      Excellent point,Alan, which deserves a lot more notice. When and why did these ‘spads’ and advisors become so influential, I wonder?

    2. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      +1

  9. Nigl
    May 10, 2022

    Boris setting out a vision is an oxymoron. As Nick Timothy said in the DT He is incapable of taking the big decisions, we know he says yes to everyone then runs away, so unless he goes you will continue to be rudderless and all your wise words effectively ignored.

    1. No Longer Anonymous
      May 10, 2022

      But he did is ‘finest hour’ speech to the nation a few days ago didn’t he ? That’s a vision. Unfortunately he said it to someone else’s nation – not OUR nation. Committing billions to their war effort and making the UK the #2 target in this war against a nuclear power with a mentally ill leader who must be itching to carpet bomb us with nukes.

      So that Ukraine may join the EU, which we are unable to leave because of a few terrorists with IEDs.

      1. DavidJ
        May 11, 2022

        +1

  10. Shirley M
    May 10, 2022

    Will we have to filter the lies from the truth in the Queens Speech or will it all be castles in the sky? This government operates on deceit and pretends it works for the UK while doing the exact opposite.

    I would like to be more optimistic, but trust was pretty low after the 2017-19 Parliament, and this government has destroyed all remaining trust. There could be good news if the government started putting the UK and it’s citizens first instead of every other country and the citizens of the world. I would love the government to prove me wrong, but Boris is more interested in ‘saving the world’ and to hell with the UK. We are just the cash cows for Boris’s glory seeking.

    1. Hope
      May 10, 2022

      Shirley, not just the world but JRs party has long forgot the Lothian Question, EVEL and most of all forgotten England is part of the UK and the largest contributor towards tax with no voice or no say whatsoever. Perhaps we should call it vassalage to other home nations and EU?

      The Queen’s speech is pointless exercise for any strategic planning of the government. It has become another ceremonial sham of no meaning or bearing on what might happen. Tories have a proven record to demonstrate key policies not included if it is likely to be disliked by the public, like gay marriage, or to include things which they never intend to implement but to raise hope they are going to fulfil promises which will be left to wither on the vine.

      A useless 7 trustworthy govt and party. It only gets votes based on historical reputation or scaring the public with lies.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      May 10, 2022

      +1 Shirley

  11. Nigl
    May 10, 2022

    DT this morning. Boris great at the grand announcement but devoid of detail. His nuclear strategy unravels after a few weeks. A metaphor for the whole administration.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 10, 2022

      Lots of small nuclear plants is almost certainly far less efficient, more expensive, harder to connect up to the grid and to safely staff and harder to keep safe and secure than are one or two large nuclear generators.

      But then politically it does enable Boris to witter on about building one nuclear plant every year! This seems to be what matters to Boris!

      1. Original Richard
        May 11, 2022

        Lifelogic :

        I normally agree with your posts, but not this one, where you have confused manufacture with deployment.

        I think it makes perfect economic sense to build small nuclear reactors on a factory production line rather than large expensive on-offs requiring the building of small towns to house the workers, jetties to bring in raw materials and a cement works on site.

        Just because SMRs are small and modular does not mean they need to be sited singly around the country in people’s back gardens.

        For a start multiple SMRs can be placed in the 7 nuclear sites that are being closed between now and 2028 where there exists already a willing workforce, security and the power transmission lines. Plus at another 6 or more retired nuclear sites around the country.

        For instance seven 470MW RR SMRs could have been located at Hinkley Point C at a far cheaper cost than the existing EDF/Chinese 2 x 1.6GW currently being built.

        1. Lifelogic
          May 12, 2022

          Hinkley C is a daft project too.

  12. Everhopeful
    May 10, 2022

    She is apparently going to announce Johnson’s lockstep policy of eroding property rights.
    No more tenant evictions.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 10, 2022

      Hopefully not as that would be insane and hugely damaging but Gove and the housing minister are indeed clearly deluded socialists.

      He (Prince Charles) not She it seems?

    2. Hope
      May 10, 2022

      E,
      More nanny state stupidity.

      Get people working off benefits- unless genuinely disabled- off free expensive mobility cars, criminals out of four star hotels and stop mass immigration so our people can afford houses by reducing demand.

      1. DavidJ
        May 11, 2022

        + many.

  13. Richard II
    May 10, 2022

    Dear Sir John, I cannot find any public statement from you as MP for Wokingham that you specifically oppose turning farmland into housing estates, here or elsewhere in the country.
    Your claim in your post today that we should ‘grow more food at home’ needs to be more than a pious wish.

    Reply I have often campaigned against such conversions

    1. Everhopeful
      May 10, 2022

      +1
      And I bet that any so-called “animal welfare” will be used to decrease meat production.
      This food production = brick on elastic.
      Coupled with the container issue it will suddenly ricochet back to flatten us all.

      Well…maybe not ALL!
      But underground supplies do deteriorate eventually.

  14. Narrow Shoulders
    May 10, 2022

    I would like to see a Queen’s speech setting out how in the medium to long term the UK will have fewer, better off people (Japan has managed it), realistically self sufficient in energy and food and able to discerningly import quality, needed products from abroad,

    I want to see rules that prevent our lives being disrupted by “protesters” and those who are perpetually offended on others’ behalf (spare us from the worthy) , let them visibly protest but on the margins.

    I yearn for a police force who maintain law and order for the masses and values property over feelings, with an ability to defend this magnificent country against all comers , a defensive force rather than an expeditionary one.

    I will not get it, I will see more, intrusive laws that serve little purpose and ever more taxation and minority rights.

    1. outsider
      May 10, 2022

      Could not agree more. Your agenda is copletely realistic and would be immensely popular. |s you see from the Queen’s Speech, it is of zero interest to our Government.

  15. Everhopeful
    May 10, 2022

    Animal welfare = a joke!
    Charities give cats ( and maybe dogs) to unsuitable people.
    Get the animals chipped and vaccinated etc. Plus cheap vet rates.
    When the cat turns up ill and horribly neglected because pets are no good in chaotic lives….no one can help. ( Chaotic lives created by politicians).
    Because of the legalities of the chip!!

    And how about ritual slaughter??

    1. turboterrier
      May 10, 2022

      Everhopeful
      Got more than a few in our street.
      Phone up the RSPCA who gave them the animal and they can do nothing. Some of them never leave the house just locked in or isolated in the garden. Never cleaned up after them. But the authorities play pass the parcel in the hope it goes away.

    2. Hope
      May 10, 2022

      Alien culture of cruel practice to cut throats of animals should be banned not accepted and promoted among university kitchens and schools!

      No more gender neutral toilets, changing rooms etc. Women fought hard to get rights which are now be crushed by a small loud weird minority. Again not in universities, schools, public paid for buildings and banned from public sector.

      Stop all public sector questionnaires about minority crap. I was recently asked for my gender and nationality to rejoin the library! Why? What is the council thinking? Why is there ten or more different languages on the back of hospital letters? Where is the integration to speak and read English?

      This is from govt and its diversity schemes and inspectorate bodies of the same ( promoting labour Marxist ideology). This is not conservatism or providing an understanding of those who wish to lead a different life. It is about forcing us to accept an alien way of life as normal. I will oppose it wherever and whenever I can.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      May 10, 2022

      Moreover not letting the vast majority of people know that meat has been ritually slaughtered.

      Can you tell from a label when you’re buying it ?

      That is a big favour being done by government for minorities. Huge.

    4. Diane
      May 10, 2022

      Ritual slaughter: I don’t think we’ll see any further changes on this issue though people continue to demand further debate through petition to government both past & present. UK Gov gave a detailed response on its position for example to petition no 300257 ‘Ban non-stun slaughter in the UK’ on the 14th July 2020 which is available to read. A more recent one which runs to 19 Oct 2022, petition no 614742 is only gathering slow support it seems.

      1. Shirley M
        May 11, 2022

        It doesn’t explain why the government refuses to label religious slaughter. Why are those two religions given their wishes, when people of ALL other religions are denied a choice through being unable to identify religious slaughter produce?

    5. BOF
      May 10, 2022

      E. h.
      How about ritual slaughter! Sadly, outlawing that cruel practice may face much opposition from within the cabinet and Parliament.

    6. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 10, 2022

      Re your last point, yes it’s a pity that the UK opted out of the European Union – wide ban on that, isn’t it?

  16. Denis Cooper
    May 10, 2022

    To be honest I think the most fundamental issue is the Northern Ireland protocol.

    Agreeing with Lord Frost last October, that “the unity of the country is paramount”:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/10/inflation-3/#comment-1266882

    And also agreeing with him last July, that “you can in fact manage these legal differences, things that change when you move from one territory to another, without having processes at a border”:

    https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/07/13/the-northern-ireland-protocol/#comment-1243376

    However if like Theresa May and Boris Johnson you accept this absurd Irish government proposition:

    “any checks or controls anywhere on the island would constitute a hard border”

    as revealed by the former senior Irish diplomat Rory Montgomery in this article last November:

    https://drb.ie/articles/the-professional/

    then there cannot be processes away from the border because the whole island is regarded as a border.

    So I expect to be disappointed, and I expect enemies of the United Kingdom to be jubilant.

    1. Denis Cooper
      May 10, 2022

      Apparently the government also agrees with Lord Frost, now that he is no longer part of it:

      “The continued success and integrity of the whole of the United Kingdom is of paramount importance to Her Majesty’s government, including the internal economic bonds between all of its parts.”

      But that is just words, and we have heard plenty of words that turn out to mean nothing, such as:

      https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/brexit/irish-sea-trade-border-over-my-dead-body-says-johnson-39447768.html

      “Boris Johnson has said there will be a trade border down the Irish Sea “over my dead body” following Brexit.”

      However if there is a sincere intention to solve this problem then I would repeat my advice that the first step should be to set up alternative arrangements to protect the EU Single Market against non-compliant goods being carried across the land border into the Irish Republic, in parallel to whatever level of operation of the protocol there may be, and then once it has been demonstrated that those alternative arrangements are workable, and are not overburdensome, and do not lead to a resurgence of terrorism, legally disapply the unacceptable parts of the protocol. Which parts, to repeat, are not just those about EU checks and controls on incoming goods but also about the swathes of EU Single Market rules still being applied to individuals and businesses in the province with the oversight of the EU Court of Justice.

      1. Gary Megson
        May 11, 2022

        Denis, the UK cannot legally disapply unacceptable parts of the protocol. This is because it has already accepted them. The EU Single Market rules applied in Northern Ireland under the oversight of the EU Court exist because Boris agreed to them in his oven ready deal, and because Parliament voted for them in January 2020, after the General Election. Rotten deal? Sure, but its a deal freely accepted by this Conservative government, and it is the Brexit you voted for “to get it done” at the election in December 2019

        1. Denis Cooper
          May 11, 2022

          You need to learn about the sovereignty of Parliament.

          “Parliamentary sovereignty is a principle of the UK constitution. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK which can create or end any law. Generally, the courts cannot overrule its legislation and no Parliament can pass laws that future Parliaments cannot change. Parliamentary sovereignty is the most important part of the UK constitution.”

          The protocol has no legal force within the UK other than that granted by an Act of Parliament, and it is open to Parliament to amend that Act as with any other of its Acts.

          We have had your kind of nonsense in the past; at one time people like you maintained that having joined the EEC through an international treaty we could never leave.

    2. acorn
      May 10, 2022

      Alas Denis for you and the DUP, the answers are always in the book of Genesis. Frankly, I don’t see “Young Earth Creationism” as a viable model for managing a modern science based economy.

      1. Denis Cooper
        May 11, 2022

        What a silly, irrelevant, comment.

    3. James
      May 10, 2022

      Instead of a United Kingdom we are slowly working towards a disunited kingdom with the three main political independent countries or maybe even four regions or more.. use your imagination and consider what could be so bad

  17. Donna
    May 10, 2022

    Whilst the various “Conservative” factions may agree on the outcomes they want, they disagree on the means by which they will, hopefully, be achieved.

    We all know that the immigration scam leads to higher GDP ….. growth generated by increasing the size of the population. That is the positive outcome for a Government/Treasury which wishes to demonstrate it has met a growth target.

    The negative outcome, which affects the British people/settled population, is a fractured society; overstretched public services; insufficient housing and inadequate infrastructure. GDP growth does not lead to increased GDP per capita or a better quality of life.

    For the past 12 years, various Conservative PMs have promised to deliver what the voters demanded: reduced immigration. And for the past 12 years, every single one of them has failed to do it. The current one reduced the definition of “qualifying skills” to the equivalent of A levels so that he could continue the influx, which is currently running at around 500,000 a year. (Plus the illegals.)

    So forgive me if I take his Queen’s Speech ambitions with a shovel of salt. We may all support the objectives but we won’t all support the methods by which they aim to achieve them.

    Personally, I want to see a bill proposing fundamental reform of the House of Frauds. I notice Sir John doesn’t mention that, so I guess the Conservatives do want to conserve at least one thing: the privileges and ability of an unelected, unaccountable, unrepresentative and out-of-touch Elite to participate in our legislature.

  18. alan jutson
    May 10, 2022

    Should Sir Kier Starmer really be putting the Police under pressure, and in such a difficult place, before a full investigation is completed, with his “I will Quit if I am fined pledge”.
    I wonder if this is the way he conducted himself, or indeed allowed others to do so when Director of Public Prosecutions.
    I feel the Police should not be put under pressure in this way, not from him, or indeed anyone else, surely any investigation should be allowed to be completed without any outside pressure at all.

  19. Dave Andrews
    May 10, 2022

    Lower taxes please, especially eliminate employer’s NI contribution – a disincentive to employment.
    On the other hand, could we have a withholding tax on dividends paid overseas and global multinationals subjected to the same taxes the rest of us are saddled with.
    In Victorian times, wealthy people in the UK invested in the infrastructure of the railways. Today we have to look to overseas investment, with tax incentives, because the UK resource is all taxed away.

  20. Bloke
    May 10, 2022

    Most of the aims expressed are central what any sensible Conservative Govt should have.

    Factions or individuals within who oppose such values and quality standards probably do not belong in the Conservative Party.

    1. Bloke
      May 10, 2022

      Apols: ‘central to what’

  21. Brian Tomkinson
    May 10, 2022

    The WHO is currently preparing an international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and I understand that the government is prepared to sign up to this proposed WHO Pandemic Treaty in the last week of this month.
    What will this treaty entail?
    What consultation has their been about this and its ramifications?
    Have you discussed/debated it in the House of Commons?
    Will any such treaty have precedence over our own Parliament?

    The public must be furnished with the full ramifications of what and how any pandemic treaty could affect them and be given a public vote on whether the UK should sign up, before the UK Government signs up to this.

    During the last two years our liberty and freedom were severely curtailed by the Government and supported by MPs, even though in certain prominent cases those restrictions, rules and laws were ignored by those who set them.
    Presumably that was because they knew that they weren’t actually necessary to control a virus but convenient for controlling people’s activities and behaviour?

    Are we in future to be told what we can and cannot do by the WHO?
    Our democracy is reeling after recent events, is this another step towards its elimination and passing power to a global elite?
    We expect those who purport to represent us to protect our rights, not undermine them.

    1. Donna
      May 11, 2022

      There is a Parliament Petition calling on the Government not to sign a Pandemic Treaty unless it is first approved in a Referendum. 31,700 signatures and counting. Please sign it. We must get this debated in Parliament and into the wider media.

      https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/614335

  22. glen cullen
    May 10, 2022

    The Queens Speech – note the number of times ‘wind-turbine’ or ‘wind-farm’ is mentioned

  23. Mickey Taking
    May 10, 2022

    Although I have attended one, a pleasant experience, calling it the Queen’s speech is wrong.
    A catalogue of things they will not do….

    1. Mickey Taking
      May 10, 2022

      you obviously disagree.

  24. ChrisS
    May 10, 2022

    The present round of inflation in the UK is clearly a temporary phenomenon, brought about by the oil price shock and the Ukrainian war. There was no need for the Bank to put up interest rates because by the Autumn, the rate of inflation will be falling. The price increases will all have fallen out of the figures within 12 months anyway. All they have done is made the cost of living even more expensive by putting up mortgage and other interest rates.

    As for the future, the extent of internet shopping in the UK provides a real brake on pricing, ensuring extreme competition in prices in every sector and that will ensure that inflation will only be a temporary problem.

    In the US, inflation it is a far worse problem caused by Biden’s idiotic and wastful spending programme as the country is self sufficient in energy.

  25. Everhopeful
    May 10, 2022

    Will the Queen address this?
    Allegedly since 2010…. 7 million newcomers have registered with GPS.
    Can this really be true?
    And we wonder why no appointments are available.

    Temp cheap workers here with promises of “cradle to grave” and by that very act turn our PAID FOR welfare system into ….well….a wrecked one…not fit for purpose!

  26. Donna
    May 10, 2022

    Off topic, but it is interesting that Macron has called for an alternative European Political Community which could include Ukraine and the UK.

    This proposal sounds suspiciously like the proposal made under Cameron which would result in a Core EU of Eurozone countries, and an outer tier of non-Eurozone members, with France-Germany leading the Eurozone bloc and the UK leading the outer tier.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/05/09/emmanuel-macron-calls-new-european-political-community-britain/

    It would explain why Johnson is keeping us as closely aligned to the EU as he possibly can, whilst claiming to have delivered Brexit. And also why Labour carefully states that we need to negotiate a new relationship with the EU.

  27. William Long
    May 10, 2022

    I wish I could agree with your statement: ‘We all want lower taxes’. That might well apply to all Conservatives outside Parliament, but it is almost the reverse of the situation within. In the January debate on the removal of VAT from heating bills, something you have often recommended as a benefit of leaving the EU, only one Conservative voted in favour of removal, and she had the whip withdrawn. That does not seem like a Party in favour 0f tax reduction to me. I am proud to be represented by Anne Marie Morris, who, unlike most on the Government benches, is a Conservative, and will certainly vote for her if she stands as an Independent in the next General Election.

  28. agricola
    May 10, 2022

    I agree with the general direction of you submission today. My judgement will be based on what the government actually does in the next few months not on the content of the Queens Speech or on anything Boris says subsequent to it.

    The NIP removal, the cost of fuel and impoverishment of the people, the tax against enterprise, and the removal of illegal economic migrants to Rwanda are all key to Union and conservative survival.

  29. BOF
    May 10, 2022

    Excellant, and very positive aims. But with net zero legally binding, it is bound to drag all progress and growth down, and impoverish us all.

    I doubt the Queen’s Speech will set out any aim to scrap the Climate Change Act or Net Zero. Or even water them down so they can be kicked into the long grass as e.g. Germany does with environmental commitments!

  30. agricola
    May 10, 2022

    I would appreciate a thoughtful analysis of exactly what Macron is proposing with his european association outside the environs of the EU. An organisation to which he would like us to belong. My instinct is to beware of greeks baring gifts.

  31. Ralph Corderoy
    May 10, 2022

    The second paragraph didn’t list Conservative Way Forward amongst the groups. I see they’re relaunching this year under the new chairmanship of Steve Baker MP FRSA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Way_Forward

  32. Barbara
    May 10, 2022

    “Competition is merely the absence of oppression”.

    Frédéric Bastiat

  33. Sea_Warrior
    May 10, 2022

    The Queen’s Speech is a nice tradition and I want to see it continue. But Lord, how boring the speeches are. Those drafting them should be ashamed of their putting such magnolia emulsion in front of Her Majesty. I want to see fewer repetitions of ‘Her Majesty’s government’, more detail and fewer incongruent political slogans.

    1. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      It would be nice to see her standing up for her native people rather than just spouting government propaganda.

  34. Nottingham Lad Himself
    May 10, 2022

    Nah – you don’t really believe that Denis. You’re just pretending aren’t you?

  35. Original Richard
    May 10, 2022

    I dreamt last night of the Queen’s speech which started :

    “My Government will henceforth work for the people of the UK who elected us.

    Having looked at the evidence we no longer believe there is a climate crisis and therefore see no need to continue with our unilateral Net Zero Strategy designed to bring us third world intermittent and expensive energy using wind turbines and solar panels and poorly performing electric replacements for heating and transport, all supplied by a hostile power, China.

    Nor do we see how becoming dependent upon China for all our goods and the rest of the world for our food, can lead to the security of our nation.

    We therefore intend to reverse the Net Zero Strategy and bring back manufacturing to the UK using the same sources of energy as China uses and at the same time increase our food production. We will ensure we have our own secure supplies of energy, both hydrocarbon based and our own nuclear.

    To reduce the pressure on our housing, schools, healthcare, all our institutions and infrastructure we will replace the Net Zero CO2 Strategy with a Net Zero Immigration Strategy…..”

    1. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      Excellent Richard.

  36. peter
    May 10, 2022

    Rather than the government taking joint responsibility be honest and just take over. The BoE only has interest rates to control inflation which as I have repeatedly said on here are at best a very blunt instrument. The Government appoints the BoE governor and generally sets economic policy, so the only use of an “independent” BoE is to attach blame to!

  37. Bryan Harris
    May 10, 2022

    There does not have to be a recession in the next two years…

    BUT it seems HMG is determined to make sure there is one.

    No government could be this incompetent — For it is clear that we are deliberately being driven down a road of destructive economic insanity!

  38. Rhoddas
    May 10, 2022

    Read the announced of proposed new laws, bit of a curate’s egg, lack of focus on the economy, but glad to see the repeal of EU red tape.. though one wonders if we are not making more up laws as we diverge…. and energy security therein but kicked down the road… nothing extra for the armed forces, bit of a surprise, as ever proof is in the eating thereof… no hard evidence as yet despite 2 years at it…

  39. John Hatfield
    May 10, 2022

    They won’t listen John.

  40. Wokingham Jim
    May 10, 2022

    We never used to be a “papers please” country but you are forcing voter ID on us. You are clamping down on peaceful protest too, and interfering with our world-leading Universities. Tax rises all round, we are taxed more heavily under this government than we have been for decades. The Conservative Party used to believe in personal freedom, but not any more, and you have lost my vote

  41. BeebTax
    May 10, 2022

    Off topic but I see The Conservative Woman website is being censored, even before the Online Harms Bill gets completed. If they are being blocked it might not be long before this site is, too. I sincerely hope not – I really enjoy reading our host’s posts and the ensuing comments – but the views expressed here are often not that dissimilar to those on TCW.

    1. Sea_Warrior
      May 11, 2022

      As a man, I almost hesitate to say this, but I think that TCW’s output is reliably good. (I’m sometimes seduced into going there by the right-hand margin of Guido Fawkes’s site.) That it is now being censored – by the intolerant left? – alarms me.

  42. outsider
    May 10, 2022

    Dear Sir John, You suggest that the correct reponse to inflation is to increase the aleady huge public sector deficit in the short term to go for growth and to keep wholesale interest rates at levels that are nugatory in money terms and currently minus 9 per cent in real terms. This is indeed an intellectual novelty, though not one I had expected from you.
    Japan has low interest rates and a high budget deficit, but has low growth and low inflation because savings are high and the exchange rate strong. Under Reaganomics, the US ran high budget and trade deficits in a dash for growth, but kept inflation down thanks to tough monetary policy.
    You write that the Bank may be correct in predicting that inflation will naturally subside, unlike the externally triggered inflations after 1973 and 1979. That can only happen if the infationary circle is not competed because pay rates do not rise significantly. If so, the result will be that living standards for most ordinary people fall sharply over the 2-3 year period: 10 per cent would be a modest estimate.
    In policy terms, at a time of low unemployment, there is as choice to be made: sacrifice living standards to maintain asset prices or protect real incomes at the expencs of assets. Do you really think you are making the right choice.?

    Reply We now have tight money with sensible M3 figures so inflation will come down. Recession would increase the budget deficit

  43. Philip P.
    May 10, 2022

    This whole ‘hard border’ thing is a farrago of nonsense. In the 1998 Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement, the only specific reference to the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland appears in a section on security: “The British Government will make progress towards the objective of as early a return as possible to normal security arrangements in Northern Ireland, consistent with the level of threat … dealing with the reduction of the numbers and role of the Armed Forces deployed in Northern Ireland to levels compatible with a normal peaceful society, the removal of security installationsm, the removal of emergency powers in Northern Ireland; andother measures appropriate to and compatible with a normal peaceful society.” This has nothing to do with trade. Everything else we’ve been told about it is a matter of gratuitous interpretation, as dishonest politicians and useless journalists attempt to con the public into believing that checks on trade would be against the Good Friday agreement.

    Johnson would be perfectly able to have checks on trade carried out at the Northern Ireland border, without violating the actual terms of the Good Friday agreement, if he could only be bothered to read it. I suspect much of the problem comes from the man’s utter inability to study his brief.

    1. Gary Megson
      May 11, 2022

      Strange post, Philip. Boris agreed no checks at the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland in his oven ready deal. It’s law now, has been for a couple of years

    2. Denis Cooper
      May 11, 2022

      Good post, Philip. The “farrago of nonsense” started in late 2017 and was noted as such then.

      From December 1 207:

      http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/12/01/uk-housebuilding-and-property-is-doing-fine/#comment-904450

      “Off-topic, I wish to complain about the multiple hard borders which have been installed throughout my local area. It’s hardly possible to go anywhere around here now without encountering the infrastructure associated with these hard borders, specifically cameras here there and everywhere, in fact millions across the UK as a whole.

      So I can fully understand why the government in Dublin is absolutely opposed to the installation of cameras or any other electronic equipment within miles or kilometers of that fictitious line arbitrarily drawn across the map of the island of Ireland which some wrongly describe as a border. As made clear last week, they will not tolerate “anything that would imply a border on the island of Ireland”:

      http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2017/11/24/new-garden-towns-and-the-oxford-to-cambridge-corridor/#comment-902811

      It’s fine to have cameras in Dublin, and even increase their number:

      https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/dublins-party-streets-set-to-get-extra-cctv-after-horror-rape-35671480.html

      but it would totally unacceptable to have them blocking roads and holding up traffic and interfering with trade and everyday life anywhere near that line on the map.

      In fact politicians in Dublin feel so strongly about this that they are prepared to see the Irish economy significantly damaged when the UK leaves the EU, in fact damaged more than the economy of the UK or of any other country.”

  44. Denis Cooper
    May 10, 2022

    Surely this makes it clear that in the end the UK will almost certainly have to act unilaterally?

    https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-rejects-uk-queens-speech-demand-to-change-northern-ireland-protocol/

    “Boris Johnson’s government also urged the EU to negotiate changes to the Northern Ireland Protocol, as the section of the Brexit deal is known.

    The EU swiftly rejected that demand on Tuesday afternoon, arguing that the ball was in the U.K.’s court.

    “From the very beginning, the EU has worked tirelessly to propose creative and durable solutions, showing flexibility on how the Protocol should be implemented,” Šefčovič said in a statement. “It has shown that solutions can be found without changing the Protocol.””

    But first get the alternative arrangements up and running to minimise the EU’s excuse for retaliation; Liz Truss should tell her officials to stop any work on legislation to disapply the protocol and instead put their minds to how its unacceptable features can be rendered redundant by an alternative, superior, scheme.

    1. DavidJ
      May 11, 2022

      Negotiating changes to our benefit is a dream; it has to be binned.

  45. Lindsay McDougall
    May 10, 2022

    I like most of what you say but there is insufficient recognition that we need to improve our fiscal position, and that includes reducing public expenditure. We need to review services that are either subsidised or free at the point of use and reduce the overall level of subsidy. And we need to ensure that our railways do not run at a loss. Only by reducing the scope of the State will the private sector be able to make the investments needed to make a success of Brexit. A propos of which, I am delighted to hear that the Government intends to abolish much of the red tape and regulation imposed by EC laws and regulations (gold plated by our wretched Civil Service). Better late than never.

    Reply I have made various proposals for lower public spending

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