The Chancellor who told us he could not afford another financial package before the autumn produced Ā£15 bn of giveaways yesterday. He says Ā£6 bn of that will come from a new windfall tax on oil and gas, and the rest will be covered by existing taxes and borrowing.
Instead of taking down taxes on oil and gas heating and petrol which would have reduced inflation he went for the route of one off payments to people. Had he done more to cut inflation it would have cuts his costs more, many of which are boosted by higher inflation.
He did not quantify the large amount of extra Ā tax he must be collecting on energy profits and sales given the huge price rises. His taxes make the cost of living Ā crisis worse.
He did tell us the Bank of England is independent and will now start getting on top of inflation. So I reminded him that he authorised the printing of another Ā£150 bn of new money for strong recovery year. I asked him if he thought at the time that could be inflationary. He did not have an answer. I also pointed out he guaranteed the Bank against all losses on the bonds they bought, as his predecessors did. I asked him about the impact of the losses they must now be making. Again no answer.
Let me try again. What was it about the Ā£150 bn you ordered to be printed that made you think it would not be inflationary?
May 27, 2022
The Chancellor has done this to try and deflect media attention from the disgraceful behaviour of the Prime Minister. Tax policy in this country is determined by the latest scrape that Boris has got himself into. Do let us know, Mr Redwood, how strong your support for the PM is.
May 27, 2022
Gary. It’s a stupid decision firstly because it’s a Labour idea.
May 27, 2022
Again JR, your questions demonstrably show Whatley and Sunak do not understand economics to the same level of knowledge or expertise as yourself. They appear to be quota appointments according to your party policy! Johnson and cabinet do not realise civil service leading them by their nose to catastrophe!
More tax more tax is not the answer. Nor more printing more printing. Nor more borrowing more borrowing. Answer to your recent questions, get rid of Johnson. This is how his private life and finances are such a mess at his age.
This is the worse economic self harm in the history of our country. Normally created by Labour and balanced by Tory. Now we have Socialist outdoing Socialist!
Who in their right mind Carrieās on in the same way to get deeper in trouble. It is the same principle as EU failure, their answer not change but more EU!
Labour and the EU await your party and govt certain downfall.
May 27, 2022
Increase taxes hugely, freeze allowances, abolish red diesel for many, increase NI, increase energy costs hugely with the net zero insanity “renewables” and endless idiotic energy market rigging then waste Ā£billion on collection costs then give a small bit of it back – wasting even more in distribution costs. The economics of the mad house Sunak!
I read that for some subjects physics in particular schools cannot recruit teachers (with only 15% of vacancies getting filled). The obvious solution is to pay more to teachers in high demand subject and less to teachers in other subject but doubtless this will not happen due to the unions and government stupidity – so students will just get rather poor physics teachers who struggled with (or do not even have) Physics/F Maths/Maths A levels.
May 27, 2022
Sunak was also fined for partying.
May 27, 2022
Is the leadership so divorced from the backbenchesā¦or do they approve the chancellors actions
May 27, 2022
He has done it to try to deflect attention from disastrous net zero policies which remain unaltered. The problem is that he is just papering over the cracks with more inflationary money printing. Instead of setting the conditions to create a properly competitive energy market with increased supply that would result in lower prices he is propagating highly subsidised wind, attacking desperately needed gas (forcing prices higher with carbon taxes as well, and thus further subsidising wind), and embedding the need for increasing dollops of welfare far into the future.
May 27, 2022
Yes indeed.
Imagine Ā£15 billion spent on nuclear development and research
May 27, 2022
Imagine spending that on compensating all those within five miles of a fracking pad. In five years we’d have methane gas to power a new generation of power stations (ready in three years and, in spite of the EPR’s start, they’d be ready and generating quicker than Hinkley C), to use in cars, buses, HGVs, low carbon, cheap and powered from our own resources.
This government, our entire political class, are a load of STEM-illiterate know-nothings.
JF
May 28, 2022
Spot On
May 27, 2022
But we could give that to Africa instead
May 28, 2022
+10
May 27, 2022
The enormity of the evil being done in Ukraine creates a context which is Johnson’s saving.
May 27, 2022
ā¦.and yet Russia are still a permanent member of the UN security council with full powers of veto ā why are we in the same club as Russia
May 28, 2022
The UN was set up on the assumption that none of its members ever wanted anything like WWII again for the rest of time.
That appears naĆÆve now.
May 28, 2022
Correct – the UN is out of date
May 27, 2022
Good morning.
Cut spending. For example : If we stopped overseas we could save a fortune. And that is just one area.
If our kind host allows :
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2019/statistics-on-international-development-final-uk-aid-spend-2019
May 27, 2022
Why not stop energy winter allowance to the rich and divert to those low income households? No, everyone gets more tax, more debt and more inflation!
Total imbeciles in govt. oust Johnson now!
May 28, 2022
”Total imbeciles in government”? Not all, obviously. But why would getting rid of BJ result in getting rid of all other imbeciles?
June 1, 2022
LJ,
He chose them! People promote in their own image.
May 27, 2022
We must be a very rich or highly taxed country to be giving away so much money
May 27, 2022
Or, like the Wiemar Republic one hundred years ago, very efficient printing presses. Money to burn – literally.
May 27, 2022
Mark B.
Considering how poor we are now, I agree we should stop overseas aid.
Also, considering how OUR defence sector can not defend US, from channel crossing dingies. It seems strange that we are helping Zelensky’s illegal regime ‘defend’ itself against Russia’s understandable concern about ‘the west’s’ advance eastwards.
May 27, 2022
What a truly reprehensible comment.
May 28, 2022
What a measured and considered comment. Nothing ”reprehensible” about it at all.
May 28, 2022
No, if you don’t care about homes, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, theatres, stations, airports, factories, shelters and everything else being blown to pieces, along with the people in them, then it isn’t.
Anyone with a trace of humanity does, however.
May 27, 2022
Cancel Sizewell C. Cancel Hinkley C. Cancel HS2.
JF
May 27, 2022
A Chancellor who is fickle, incompetent and borrows more problems instead of solving them is worth less than useless.
Replace him to repair the damage he causes.
May 27, 2022
Correct. Never reduce taxes. He’s no tory, just a libdumb pretending.
He can’t reduce taxes because he needs Brussels approval.
May 27, 2022
Very True
May 27, 2022
Your right BLOKE heās acting like a four year old boy! One must live within ones means. I am glad he cancelled the unasked for loan for us to pay back late as that was totally against my principals.
My own rule which I also taught my children is SAVE FOR WHAT YOU WANT! Do not pay extra on interest when you do not need to! Live within your means!
May 27, 2022
He made the mistake of giving every household Ā£400 pound which is unnecessary and a waste. Those who can afford the increases in energy’s will get it also.
It would have been better to target those you needed help though personal tax allowances.
More waste of the tax payers money which will inevitable have to be paid back by the tax payer.
May 27, 2022
However allowances also apply to the richer. It needs to be balanced – increase allowances to take millions out of income tax, but increase upper bands if other savings (Foreign Aid, HS2, membership of UN, WHO, Eurovision song contest) are not applied.
May 27, 2022
No. Why should only the poor pay less tax.
We should all be paying less tax
May 27, 2022
we should not be giving it away or spending on ‘me too’ waste projects’.
May 27, 2022
More than that, people with two homes will get double bubble. That’s sensible isn’t it?
Does that mean ministers with grace and favour homes will get it as well?
Featherbedding the wealthy has always been Tory policy.
May 27, 2022
More incentives not to work from Sunak. Why bother if you end up only a tiny bit better off after working hard for 40 hours (if at all), commuting for say five plus you have to buy lunch, pay for commuting costs, child care, work clothes and the costs of having less time to shop efficiently, cook and do DIY like fixing the car, decorating, home maintenance …
May 27, 2022
As it is government incompetence which has caused the massive rise in energy prices, I am quite happy to receive the Ā£400 and the Ā£300 (being a pensioner). I should just about come out square – for the next year, at least.
May 27, 2022
Agree increase PA’s, simple, efficient v complicated Sunak schemes, being admin intensive and fraud magnets. One must remember , Schoolboy errors etc.
Also increase interest rates and incentivise small companies to retain some untaxed profits to a sensible limit (of % Turnover/Net margin) or reduce debt. Reduce and or remove % vat on fuel etc.
Encourage UK production to reduce imports of similar fuel & food. Nationalize if you must, it hardly matters.
May 27, 2022
Unfortunately we have not got the brightest in charge. The 15 Billion idea is a smokescreen and came straight from the Boris camp to shut the people up – it has nothing to do with economy or cutting inflation – so I am not surprised the chancellor has nothing to say – we are bordering on dictat now –
May 27, 2022
My suspicions are similar.
This will appease and quieten the masses for a short while who will look and think no further than the here and now.
Rather like paying people to stay at home in case they catch a virus (which will do no more than put them out of action for a few days) and paying people to eat out.
That’s the extent of his popularity with the masses and this will be an encore.
May 27, 2022
Good morning
You are of course correct in your assertion that this spending is inflationary but it doesn’t stop there. What we saw yesterday was an act of shameless and cowardly oneupmanship politics by a government once more bending to the propaganda and lies of Marxist Labour and their allies that now traverse and trascend all areas of the body politic. The fact that this act of party politics is financed by the private sector taxpayer makes it even more reprehensible.
I can’t see anyway out of this spiral into evil Socialism and ideological capture. I am certain that the aim of the left is to destroy the UK both from within and without AND THEY ARE WINNING because the Tory party refuse to confront it
May 27, 2022
Indeed. Does Oxford PPE actually teach duff leftwing, magic money tree economics or was/is socialist Sunak just too damn thick to follow the lectures?
Windfall taxes are immoral and hugely damaging. As is having taxes at such the absurdly high levels we now have to suffer. Just stop spending Sunak, most of your spending is pure waste or even worse does net harm anyway.
May 27, 2022
Above all scrap the hugely expensive, highly damaging and patently pointless net zero and all the renewable subsidies.
May 27, 2022
The Ox website says: Economics. Microeconomics: the functioning of the market economy. https://www.economics.ox.ac.uk/b.a.-hons.-in-philosophy-politics-economics
Here you go, not a very good example of the course qualities is our chancellor. He announced a Ā£200 loan that had to be paid back to help pay for the energy bills, now he’s scrapped it, no one liked it anyway! Daft idea. He should set up a ‘just giving page’ for moral rich people that we are told don’t want their discount to donate their Ā£400 discount so that it can be distributed to people in energy poverty to help improve their insulation.
May 27, 2022
Is it all you have been able to find, a-t?
On the site whose reference you gave, I found lists of advised books to read and websites to look at, the year handbooks including the various topics to be addressed, and they are much more encompassing than āmicroeconomics: the functioning of the market economyā.
May 28, 2022
I was responding to Lifelogic Hef not you with a link to the degree, fill your boots.
May 28, 2022
a-tracy: did you have a wry laugh at the following:
“Reading a good quality daily newspaper is crucial to a successful application, along with watching and listening to news and current affairs programmes.”
I think we can guess which newspapers, which programmes.
May 30, 2022
LL. I am not sure why you think that a few years in any university subject is the sum total of their life’s ability to reason and be effective in their job. Surely you must have come across those who have science degrees plus and simply cannot express themselves . They become verbally abusive, will not listen to any one else’s opinion, haven’t got the flexibility to try another approach and basically display stubbornness and antagonism towards all others. I am not saying that they shouldn’t have an opinion , but university degrees do not say you must think the way I do.
May 27, 2022
Destroy the UK and 6uild 6back 6etter
š
May 27, 2022
A codex we should note and fear
May 27, 2022
I agree with you Dom. The evidence is staring at us now. They (?) are trying to destroy us and seem to be winning.
When a conservative chancellor is in competition with and boasting about trying to outLabour the Labour Party on spending – we are seriously in trouble.
Whatās to be done though?
May 27, 2022
We’ve been seriously in trouble since the Tories took over in 2010, increasing the national debt in the first 10 years more than even Labour did in their 13 years even including the big bust of 2008 and now increasing immigration as well.
May 27, 2022
Commit suicide?
May 27, 2022
What indeed? No one sensible wants Labour/SNP but that is the only realistic alternative on offer. Even more deluded green crap & socialism than Sunak/Boris/Carrie.
May 27, 2022
It will not be Labour / SNP. More like Labour or Labour / LibDems.
The price of SNP support will be inde’ ref’ 2.0 and Stamer will not risk it.
May 27, 2022
Stop making money for them to spend Sharon.
May 27, 2022
ask forgiveness and apply to live in France?
May 27, 2022
Perhaps they refuse to confront it because as it seems most of them are all for it.
It’s as plain as day to me that they all intend to finish off England for good in every way possible.
Managed decline has been the order of the day since the end of WW2.
Destruction of everything from industry, education, culture and everything else in between.
May 27, 2022
Agreed DOM, what is the way out of this? Are we really so reliant on Mr Farage to shake things up. I fear we don’t have a strong enough conservative party to see any radical change and all parties but one (freedomalliance.co.UK) are also socialist nutcases. This past conservative rule has sent us spiraling downwards and at a current rate which is frightening.
May 27, 2022
+1
Nothing more to add.
May 27, 2022
“because the Tory party refuse to confront it”
DOM, perhaps the Tory party are part of it. There is this great big, dark, globalist cloud hanging over us. It is clear Boris will do nothing without the approval of his minders.
May 27, 2022
I’m not sure a windfall tax is necessarily a left-wing response. Orban in Hungary is doing the same, and he isn’t usually called left-wing. In the crisis situation we’re in, much of it caused by globalist eco-fascist ideology, I’d call it more of a populist move. Whether Sunak printing shedloads more money in 2022 to deal with a crisis partly created by Sunak printing shedloads of money in 2020 is economically sound, I don’t know. Our host is far better placed than me to discuss economics, but I do wonder how much of the Ā£400 will be left after the inflation all that extra money in the economy will have caused.
May 27, 2022
Totally agree Hat Man – anyone who just does a brief read of the origins and history of the Wiemar Republic inflation a hundred years ago will see that simply printing money to pay people to stay at home and not go to work, then printing more money to give people because of the subsequent increase in prices does not end well.
Anyone who understands inflation knows that the word itself refers to the inflation of the money supply. Otherwise it would be called something like increaseation or pricerisation.
The IMF are currently holding off a loan to Pakistan because of their attempt at price controls with their exchequer running out of money. They too are a net importer of fuel and food.
Sir John has, rightly, been banging on about more energy and food independence long before these recent world crises. But our political class remind me of the those of the swinging 60s which led to the ruin of the 70s with a Labour chancellor going cap in hand to the IMF. And it took years with Thatcher having to make tough decisions to get us out of the mess.
May 27, 2022
Another day of shame. A u turn on windfall tax, trying to spin it isnāt following Labours policy when quite obviously it us and panicky and ill thought out, both inflationary and recessionary and obviously trying to detract from the slippery PM plus migration hit a million.
Do the Tories believe in anything?
May 27, 2022
Well, they make false claims, sit on hands, throw borrowed money about seeking praise, support lame ducks in high office, party like it’s 1999.
extracts from Prince’s song.
Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you
I only want you to have some fun
I was dreamin’ when I wrote this
Forgive me if it goes astray
But when I woke up this mornin’
Could’ve sworn it was judgment day
—
Life is just a party
And parties weren’t meant to last
War is all around us
My mind says prepare to fight
So if I gotta die
I’m gonna listen to my body tonight, yeah
—
Let me tell ya something
If you didn’t come to party
Don’t bother knockin’ on my door
—
They say, 2000-00, party over
Oops, out of time
We’re runnin’ outta time
So tonight we gonna party like it’s 1999.
May 27, 2022
Yes. They believe in being in power and, once there, doing whatever they feel is necessary to stay there.
May 27, 2022
Asking the question is answering it: being in power and helping themselves and their friends fill their pockets?
May 27, 2022
We either pay our energy bills in full with our own money or with a combination of our own money and taxpayers money which is our moneyā¦.the energy companies get their high prices paid any which way
We need to increase the supply of energy (gas oil & shale gas) to drive down the price
May 27, 2022
A few decent ones do but mainly they like power and paid consultancies for vested interests especially the con trick climate, alarmist āindustriesā.
May 27, 2022
Fraser Nelson today āBoris and Rishiās tax grabs have put Britain on a path towards recession.
Inflation will pass, but the Toriesā Brownite embrace of big spending will weigh the UK down for yearsā
May 27, 2022
I was disappointed to see you offer support for the ‘windfall tax’ when you spoke yesterday in the chamber. May I ask that you now keep a close eye on investments being made by the affected companies, in the UK.
reply I gave no such support. I oppose the windfall tax
May 27, 2022
May I suggest that you look at the Youtube clip of yourself speaking, over at Guido Fawkes. Then you’ll understand my confusion.
May 27, 2022
I went to Guido and watched the YT clip of, Sir John’s speech. I reproduce part of it below.
He goes on to talk about inflation.
I got the impression that, Sir John was pointing out, as others here have said, that the government are already making large profits itself and that the money they are giving back is over and above what they would normally receive.
That was my take.
May 27, 2022
The whips will canvas the Tory backbenchesā¦Iād like to know just who is in support of these labour interventionist āKing-Johnā taxes
May 27, 2022
Sir John was arguing that the government already has a large windfall in the form of higher tax revenues on all forms of energy, including even a bit more CT from windfarms, as well as the much higher taxes on North Sea production, and that this bonus should be returned to bill payers.
May 27, 2022
Agreed.
May 27, 2022
This is a short term solution to a long term problem. What happens next year? We know the irresponsible people will just spend this lump sum on a jolly away weekend with their mates. When are you MPs going to realise that we need sensible people running the country?
May 27, 2022
In the meantime industry will find their bills so large they won’t be competetive and the recession that follows will wipe out tax revenue and so those lucky enough to have any money will be taxed more. All because of 2 governments policies who are obsessed with net zero. It’s shameful. I’m sure Boris will find money for foreign aid, 4 star hotels and pet projects though. Has anyone told him you are more likely to die in a cold house than a hot day? Still, not his problem is it?
May 27, 2022
+1 fus.
Does Boris know he is supposed to help the UK, not destroy it, in his eagerness to help everyone but the Brits? Boris is a glory seeker and Rishi is just totally incompetent, or they both have another agenda which does not involve working in the UK’s interests.
May 27, 2022
I agree with you that many will just flush the money away.
The question of sensible people running the country isn’t one to be asking an MP, it is one to be asking the people who dutifully trot off to the polling booth to place their X where they’ve always placed it or family tradition dictates they do, or the other pitiful excuse of the lesser evil.
The establishment is rotten to the core and the establishment parties being given a second/third/fourth and so on chance is the fault of the people. They are literally burying themselves alive.
May 27, 2022
A minister in the lords the other day answered to Dan Hannan that QE is a BoE issue on which it is independent from the govt. perhaps these ministers donāt even know that they agreed it?
May 27, 2022
They know, they just want us to believe the Bank is quango-like, so no comebacks on them ever.
May 27, 2022
The spiral descent into marxism continues and there seems a determination not to cut taxes and put people in charge of their own finances. Conservatism, remember?
So how much extra has the Treasury collected from the sky high fuel prices? Is it enough to fund this blatant distraction ploy from partygate? Is high inflation welcomed by Sunak because it reduces government debt? I suspect this is the case.
May 27, 2022
+many
May 27, 2022
The tax on petrol is 300% of the refinery price (not 75% oft quoted.) E10 is watered down fuel meaning that we are getting taxed at a rate per mile even higher than that on the sly – and I suspect the longevity of our engines (deliberately) reduced.
May 27, 2022
And don’t forget that they have removed a whole swath of industry from using Red Diesel. They will be getting a few penny’ more from that as well.
May 27, 2022
Agree
May 27, 2022
If I may John? I see Shropshire and the West Midlands ambulance service is predicted to fail by the middle of August. There are too many well people taking up beds while teenagers are dying on the streets apparently. It doesn’t inspire me with confidence. A friend fell and broke his hip at 6.30 Saturday evening and the ambulance picked him up at 7.30 Sunday morning. This was in Sussex. The country is falling apart.
May 27, 2022
+1000
Oh thatās ok then.
No access to the service we are made to pay for.
All competition wiped out.
No alternative.
May 27, 2022
FUS
That closely mirrors the experience that my 85 year old friend who lives in Ferndown had
He broke his hip and sat on the kitchen floor for 14 hours waiting for the ambulance, he was taken to Poole hospital, had his hip replaced and was discharged without any follow up X-rays or advice.
His right leg had rotated to the right, instead of his knees being at 12 oāclock his right knee was at 5 past and he great mobility issues, he eventually got a follow up appointment, not only was his leg misaligned but it was shorter, but the NHS deny that anything is wrong, heās now crippled and unable to drive.
I contacted the Christchurch MP on his behalf, thinking that he would take up the case, how wrong I was, he washed his hands of it and suggested that he contacted his GP
Plus I see the MSM desperately trying to deflect criticism away from Bunter, Mark Steyn on GBNews is one of the few who investigates the covid clot shot debacle, relatives of perfectly healthy people who have died are still waiting for compensation
Donāt get me started on Klaus Schwab and the other WEF members, be afraid, very afraidā¦.
May 27, 2022
No one can tell me that the million plus immigrants to our country over a decade havenāt affected the NHS
May 27, 2022
Indeed Lester. I also had problems with a knee replacement. Mine wasn’t straight afterwards.. I told the surgeon as much but he curtly dismissed me and told me to get on with life. That decision called for me to have hip surgery on the opposite side which was also a disaster with infection and blood clot on the lung because they didn’t stop my medication soon enough and a second operation on my knee leading to a seizure and blood transfusion with a 6 month ban on driving. Horrendous time. The surgeon was later given the sack but my problems weren’t investigated until it was too late to claim.
May 27, 2022
But Boris would tell us that things are great; employment at all time high, interest rates higher for savers, inflation ie growth is higher, more immigrant more GDP, foreign aid up again, HS2 on trackā¦.thereās nothing wrong
AND THATāS THE PROBLEMā¦HE DOESNāT SEE OUR PROBLEMS
May 27, 2022
Whenever there’s a choice between a Conservative Policy (reducing “Green levies and VAT) and a Socialist one, this Government chooses the Socialist one. Tax, print, borrow, squander and redistribute to those they consider “deserving.”
Focus Groups found that a windfall tax was very popular. And Johnson’s popularity has tanked after the omni-shambles of the past 2 years and his disgraceful behaviour/stewardship of No.10,
The reason for Sunak’s U-turn? I believe it’s called buying votes.
May 27, 2022
Absolutely. Ukraine and covid will be the ‘go to’ excuse for years of mismanagement.
I think many in politics now have their eye on being global big wigs, dictating world policy and being seen on the world stage.
Their job here is but a stepping stone and they’ve no care or love for the nation at all and as many have no deep root here (there I’ve said it) it means little to them.
May 28, 2022
+1000 Michelle
May 27, 2022
+1
Agree.
Someone said yesterday that this is the most disastrous govt they can remember ā¦.cherry picking the very worst policies from both extreme far Left and extreme far Right.
War hawks on benefits!
May 27, 2022
He looks ultra dishevelled. As though he’s let it all go.
May 27, 2022
Well attempting to buy votes – but using the money he is taking off voters. Like Gordon Brown with his baby bond con trick.
May 27, 2022
I presume the chancellor is hoping that inflation will magically cause the national debt to vanish.
He is stoking an inflationary spiral, a bit like 1970s inflation under Mr Heath. In the late 70s, the debate about controlling inflation was between Labour’s (Mrs Williams) Prices and Incomes Board and Mrs Thatcher’s money supply controls. To date, we have not even started that debate.
May 27, 2022
Martin, almost half the national debt that the gov/BoE doesn’t own is subject to RPI inflation which the ONS says was 11.1% on 18 May. With his humble mumble apology over Partygate Boris Johnson is morphing from Winston Churchill into Ted Heath with rampant inflation and threatened strikes by key state workers. His leadership will be in jeopardy and there will be a cloud over him every morning.
May 27, 2022
Boris and Rishi have totally and convincingly destroyed any attempts to paint the CONS of being the party of fiscal competence. Absolutely and totally useless and probably worse to come, as they NEVER learn, and seem to double down on their stupidity and incompetence.
Will the back benchers PLEASE spare us from more waste and more poverty, and get rid of Boris.
May 27, 2022
Given that the average household will face 10% inflation on food and general spending, higher petrol inflation and an Ā£1800 increase in gas and electricity bills, the handouts are not going to solve the problem of poverty and a collapse in non essential spending.
As confirmed in his speech at the COP conference, Sunak is into the policy of denying investment to fossil fuels up to his neck, having worked in the area before politics. These are the major reason for the the sharp increase in fuel costs and Biden has even praised the policy. Perhaps this is why Sunak has not included the huge excessive profits in electricity sales by the foreign wind companies in his windfall tax. Renewables are to become a bigger proportion in our Saudi of windmills and solar and they must not be discouraged. It’s a pity these politicians didn’t study engineering or physics.
May 27, 2022
All he has done is create Ā£15 billion of additional welfare expectation. Next April’s headlines will all be about taking for from poor children’s mouths unless the Ā£1,600 giveaways are repeated.
Instead of a windfall tax he could have made UK gas, electric and oil producing companies pay a subsidy/rebate to energy resellers to reduce the price cap for a time limited period while prices are high.
Instead there is a whole other layer of bureaucracy created with an expectation of future payments.
May 27, 2022
And why is VAT still on fuel? And why is VAT still at 20%. Is it the level playing field?
May 27, 2022
I fear that we can’t change it without approval from EU…or have two different taxation regions in the UK
May 27, 2022
Ā£1,050 to Ā£1,600 to Universal Benefit recipients – Sky, Vodafone, O2 and other subscription services will be rubbing their hands this morning. Have their shares gone up? What about Weatherspoons, Greggs or Deliveroo?
May 27, 2022
Don’t forget Imperial Tobacco.
May 27, 2022
Do they honestly believe that after all these years of lefty cr*p there is still such a thing as the ādeserving poorā?
Tax payersā money wasted when said supporters of the system are actually GOING WITHOUT in order to make ends meet.
Or as someone who uses food banks said to meā¦
āTofu!! What a bloody nerve!ā
May 27, 2022
My local ‘Action Group’ who collect food for those who are said to be struggling, put out a list of items that they / people wanted. One of the items on that list was biscuits.
I am sorry, but maybe it is me, but I see things such as biscuits, crisps, chocolate, alcohol and fizzy drinks as a luxury and not an important food item.
May 27, 2022
Sir John, the current situation is deplorable. The leadership shown by the PN and chancellor is intolerable.
I am beginning to think, having voted conservative, and getting a tax and spend chancellor, a PM that doesnāt know what goes on in his own living Accomodation, and seems incapable of action on many issues, that a labour government will at least be authentic in their mis-management of the country. The Tory government seem to be following the labour playbook, so why not just vote a labour government in?
What is the point of voting conservative right now?
I think the conservative MPs can spend the next 2 years defending the PMās behaviour for partygate, and the chancellors many, many tax rises, and inevitably lose the next general election. Or they can take change course and start acting like conservatives who understand economics, free markets, fiscal prudence and low tax economies.
I would like to think, in 2 years time when the chancellor starts reducing tax and giving tax breaks in the run up to the election, people will remember the cost of living crisis and inflation cases by money printing, and vote accordingly.
The evidence of good government, and demonstration of ability needs to happen throughout the election cycle, not just in the 6 months prior to an election. Based on current performance, the Tory party have displayed limited ability to govern, so why should I give you my valuable, precious vote for the next 5 years?
Aaron
May 27, 2022
They don’t have two years. They need to act between now and the next budget. After that it is too late to change and new policies to take effect.
May 27, 2022
Chancellor just started on R4 with
” thank you very much for having me ”
Jesus Wept
May 27, 2022
he might have said ‘is my cheque ready?’
May 27, 2022
What has happened to Conservative principles? The price of energy is too high – well let the market fix that through competition. That’s the Conservative way isn’t it? But no, the Conservatives have become socialists and seek to postpone financial problems through tax, borrow and spend, onto the next generation.
Let me ask this. If the choice is between millions freezing in the Winter through fuel poverty, and opening up coal mines, what will the electorate vote for?
May 27, 2022
This is where Johnson/Sunak’s Socialism leads:
I just listened to a discussion on GB News about “period poverty.” According to the activists appearing, there are thousands of girls/women in the UK who can’t afford to buy sanitary products. They want the Government (ie taxpayers) to fund “free” sanitary products, initially for these poverty-stricken girls/women and eventually for all girls/women in the UK ….. presumably even the trans ones since we have to pretend they really ARE women.
A box of 24 tampons costs around Ā£3 …… that’s roughly the cost of one cup of coffee in one of the High Street coffee shops which proliferate and seem to always be full of young women.
Yet we’re supposed to believe that thousands can’t afford Ā£3 A MONTH. Unfortunately for these left-wing activists, Marcus Rashford isn’t female or Johnson/Sunak would already be preparing to submit to the latest emotive left-wing blackmail.
May 27, 2022
Save Expensive Boris is adolescent fudging not solving inflation just inflating egos in Drowning St.
Unbelievable making basic economic errors and then compounding them leaving the mess to be cleared up by others.
So sad that they pretend they don’t know or even hear your warnings and wise advice Sir John. I fear for this country, I really do.b
May 27, 2022
Do you think Steve Baker’s long-running argument for sound money will gain ground in this high inflationary environment and, as in the 70s, there will be a revival of his favoured Austrian School of Economics as more realise Keynesianism is only dogma because it allows politicians to over-promise ahead of elections?
May 27, 2022
A couple of years ago, when oil companies were suffering from a collapse in demand caused by government-imposed worldwide lockdowns, I donāt remember anybody calling for them to receive a one-off subsidy.
May 27, 2022
I hope you will be voting against this Socialist package?
May 28, 2022
Conservatism is another branch of social democracy, as Peter Hitchens often reminds us.
If you want right wing, authoritarian dictatorship, then at least have the decency to ask for it explicitly instead of trying to sneak it in under first cover of democracy.
May 27, 2022
Sir John.
You are too clever by half against this very poor excuse of a government. How you can put up trying to support for gross incompetence this terrible parliament? At a guess about 50 are worth their place the rest are not worth a rub. The slow methodical planned destruction of this country is taking place before our very eyes.
The apathetic behaviour of both Houses of Westminster begs belief as they just sit there and watch it happening, apart from a small cell of politicians who are worthy of their position.
There are none so blind as those that will not see.
May 27, 2022
Sir John,
Mr Sunak is “playing to the crowd” who wouldn’t want Ā£400+ as a free gift?
And of course at the same time saving Boris’ backside…
He is treating the symptoms not the disease with a grand gesture. To reduce inflation as you rightly said in the debate [caused by Mt Sunak himself] will take time and to a certain extent would go unnoticed.
Is this REALLY a low tax Government – I don’t think so…
May 27, 2022
āplaying to the crowdā was successful for Tony Blaireā¦.and we do have a Labour government
May 27, 2022
Sir John, do you have any hair left from these recent years of conservative bad decision making?
May 27, 2022
The government are engaged in lazy lefty politics.
No real encouragement of wealth creation, no encouraging people to do “the right thing”, just more “big state”, more tax on one hand give it back on another taking out a big admin charge in the middle.
The whole political and ruling classes are letting this country down massively.
I only hope a new political movement emerges before its too late.
We cannot stand this level of immigration, and destruction of society much more.
If we dont get change in peaceful political ways, then change will come in less peaceful ways.
I am not optimistic.
May 27, 2022
Panem et circenses…… as Boris would say.
May 27, 2022
well he bloody well shouldn’t say it.
May 27, 2022
Sir John
I may as well vote Labour and get the real thing.
Roger
May 27, 2022
you might get to think you wasted all these last years?
May 27, 2022
The change of mind that is needed is the halting of the unnecessary, pointless, unworkable, and hence prohibitively expensive, communist driven Net Zero lunacy whereby we close down our reliable sources of energy ā fossil fuels and nuclear ā and replace them with intermittent renewables built in China.
The Civil Service led Government may be able at the moment to keep the populace happy by throwing them free money to help them pay for their expensive energy but this will not be sufficient when the consequences of Net Zero really begin to bite and we have not only very expensive energy but rolling blackouts, unemployment, a massive balance of payment deficit, restrictions on travel and shortages of food.
May 27, 2022
China plans 169 new & expanded coal projects with an additional 6 million tons of methane emissions a year, in a move to energy security away from unreliable and expensive renewablesā¦no rising energy prises or net-zero induced ācost of livingā crisis in China
May 27, 2022
The NHS has alarm-tweaked its page on monkeypox.
Goes the war badly then?
@anydiversionwilldo
May 28, 2022
It goes very badly – for Johnson. Expect more tweaking.
May 27, 2022
I feel your disappointment and anger about the course of action Rishi Sunak has taken. He has damaged business and our future growth just to placate the public over partygate. This is a sticking plaster on a much bigger problem and will soon be forgotten, or is he going to do this every year? He really needs to be replaced with someone who understands economics. Itās as if this Government wants to destroy our country. Iām fed up with their constant interference in my life.
May 27, 2022
Sir John,
I hope you get an answer to your last question about the Ā£ 150bn QE authorisation.
I am having great trouble thinking of this Government as being Conservative at all. Its actions on Net Zero, the online harms Bill and sundry other Statist actions are straight from the Labour Party’s playbook. The Labour party is looking forward to deciding what is ‘Legal but harmful’ (in the online harms Bill) when they take over in 2024 – it is a pity the Secretary of State has not thought that one through.
May 27, 2022
It is fair to question the inflationary aspects of this bad idea, but the more significant question is why he doesn’t go the whole hog, and just re-nationalise. That would at least be more honest. And it it would be quite fun to see him struggle for a term other than re-nationalisation to describe it.
Over the last few years conservative policies have caused the decimation of the UK energy supply industry. What is left has weathered the storms created by government only to see it casting the death net wider. And the people this affects is all of us with private pension arrangements, who see the value of those funds drop. Not to mention the likely impact on investment, which itself is problematic in these times of the zero-carbon madness.
May 27, 2022
The industry is in a net zero regulatory straitjacket that is tantamount to renationalisation. Parts of it already are formally nationalised – like Bulb. Do you really think that nationalisation would help in any way at all? It would rack up debt and fail to solve the underlying problems that require solution by creating a competitive low cost energy system by heading in completely the other direction.
May 27, 2022
Boris has run his course.
He won an election with a big majority.
He got us out of the EU.
He got us through the Covid pandemic.
He should now resign and leave the scene.
We need a new govenment with ministers who will govern.
We need to weed out those civil servants who have not bought into Brexit.
Over the next 10 to 20 years we should then have a country running more smoothly.
May 27, 2022
Concur
May 27, 2022
These are desperate times.
I do hope you and your (more sensible) colleagues have got a plan to remove Rishi now.
It’s just not good enough this. Boris has serious questions to answer about all this socialism too.
I’m not totally au fair with Parliamentary procedure but will you get to vote on Sunak’s plans? And if so how many Tories will realistically vote against them?
This is a worrying time. Labour setting the agenda. Policies formulated to keep the BBC and MSM happy…
We are heading for a Lab/Lib coalition government that will rejoin the EU at the first moment.
May 27, 2022
This Labour government can change its mind as many times as it like, I’m praying for a Tory government at the next general election
May 27, 2022
Mr. Sunak is no good as Chancellor is he!
Can someone help him renew his Green Card please?
May 27, 2022
He’s been playing it! Driving up energy bills is a key part of the green plans for our future.
May 27, 2022
The Chancellor has a ready pile of cash to.raid. Foreign Aid. Already majicked up, already borrowed and available year after year for citizens of THIS country instead of mainly corrupt regimes abroad.
Cancel the NI rise and that could provide a war chest of about Ā£25B without compromising the ability of energy companies to invest in N Sea oil & gas and fracking.
May 27, 2022
English magic, not US majic!! Sorry.
May 27, 2022
Presumably second home owners will get two bungs of Ā£400?
MP’s, of course, often own multiple dwellings.
Nice.
May 27, 2022
Sunak has gone full socialist and had a blind eye to tax evasion for his wife until caught out. He’s given the rest of us the socialist money roundabout in full swing. Tax, print, debt and squander.
I just wish we had you as Chancellor.
May 27, 2022
Sir John,
This government loves taxation. The opposition parties love taxation even more. Rachel Reeves now crowing about Labour’s tax policies being adopted. This is not a good look. I can’t help but be reminded of the Morrison government in Australia, trying to appeal to everyone. That did not end well.
May 27, 2022
From Migration Watch..
ā Newly-released Home Office statistics reveal thatāÆ around a million people āÆwere granted long term UK visas in the year to March 2022.ā
Will they all get the Help to Heat?
And the Council Tax rebate?
May 27, 2022
CRAZY….its just crazy
May 28, 2022
Patsy Cline:
Crazy, I’m crazy for feeling so lonely
I’m crazy, crazy for feeling so blue
I knew you’d love me as long as you wanted
And then someday you’d leave me for somebody new.
Should Johnson & Sunak be singing this?
May 27, 2022
I assume BP and the energy companies will cut back on development spending, in the North Sea for example, to fund the new taxes, thus reducing energy availability even more and fuelling further inflation. The Net Zero strategy continues.
May 27, 2022
Well I see your mate Boris has changed the ministerial code. Hmmm, who would have thought the bumbling TV personality we saw a few years ago would turn out to be the biggest enemy of democracy I have seen.
I see that, at last, one Tory MP has got enough integrity to resign over the ‘toxic culture’ at No. 10.
May 27, 2022
I am an investor in a uk company which has substantial interests in the North Sea. It has struggled to make a decent return in recents years but I was hopeful that this year it would make a decent profit. I knew that over the years it had accumulated Ā£3 billion of taxes losses which reflected the difficult conditions in which it had operated and its consistent capital investment programme. Sunak has decided to put a line through those tax losses and said they do not count as far as his new tax is concerned. As a result my investment fell 20 per cent in value. Why does it feel like we now have the worst sort of labour government in office.
May 27, 2022
Barry
For what little it is worth I feel sorry for you. Because it is people like you willing to risk their money to fund business which make profit (if they can) which the government then comes along and taxes. I like you accept that taxes have to be raised to pay for things but, like you I object to that money being wasted in a multitude of ways just so our PM can look good.
May 28, 2022
Some people were running successful businesses exporting English cheese, or British-landed seafoods – for just two examples – to the European Union.
Your brexit has ruined them.
You couldn’t care less about them though, could you?
Why should you care about people gambling then?
May 27, 2022
Whatever else our country is run by, it certainly isn’t brainpower.
For a start the relief payments are premature as heating costs are overwhelmingly incurred in winter, not summer and paid for after being incurred. So the real hardship will come from next January and so that is when relief if it were appropriate should come (money given before then will mainly be directed at other spending, delaying a big economic crash to early next year).
Furtermore as inflation is the key problem money should have gone to subsidising fuel prices which would reduce inflation rather than devoting money to paying inflated bills. It is no use directing governmental relief mainly to the most needy because the biggest problems will come from workers who have the power to strike and disrupt so as to get their relief from their employers. It is inflation that will create the widespread grievances and incentive for them to strike and disrupt the general public.
So yet again Sunak and the Treasury who advise him have come up with policy that is poorly thought out, that is poorly timed and will be poorly executed.
May 27, 2022
It was a political not economic or practical decision. I agree, if money was to be given it should have been given just before Christmas where it would offer the greatest relief. People will just take this money and spend it and worry about the bills next year.
May 27, 2022
I am now taking bets on the unemployment rate next year.
May 27, 2022
I read that Sunak may now be planning to extend his windfall tax to electricity generators. That will if anything force electricity prices higher still, and lock him into a cycle of tax and welfare and do nothing to solve the underlying problems.
What he needs to do along with Kwarteng is to promote competitive energy markets by removing the subsidies and taxes and interfering regulations, encouraging increased supply, ensuring that we have adequate capacity for the winter by keeping coal and getting the Calon CCGT plants back in action, and giving confidence for the future by cancelling net zero.