The Chancellor should abandon Labour’s idea of various windfall taxes. In the end consumers have to pay higher taxes levied on business. These extra taxes put inflation up, not down. The Chancellor should also abandon his proposal to hike corporation tax next year. All these extra taxes on business may poll well, but the slow growthĀ or no growth, cancelled investment and lost jobs they will likelyĀ bring will not look so good to voters in the next election if he insists on damaging the economy Labour’s way.
I read that he is pressing on with trying to construct a windfall levy on electricity companies. The ones that are closest to the consumer have already had their finances demolished by badly chosen price controls, with one of the biggest now a problem for the Treasury as it demands subsidies and sits there nationalised. He is finding that if we want to tax windfall profits by the power generators the ones that make the most are the renewable owners when the wind does blow and the sun does shine. Their generating costs haveĀ not shot up but their power prices have. The ones we rely on much of the time using gas to keep the lights on are not making much windfall profit as the cost of their gas is one of the main inflationary problems.
The Chancellor thinks if he offers businesses tax breaks when they make a new investment they will carry on happily under his high and unpredictable business tax regime.Ā Why? An investor looks at the lifetimeĀ cashflows and tax burden, not just at the first couple of years when you are putting in the buildings and equipment. They all look a lot worse with the higher taxes the Chancellor has in mind.
June 6, 2022
Good morning.
Nigel Farage once made a comment about David Cameron and Gideon Osborne with regards to the economy that it was; “Like watching pair of posh boys mucking about.”
Not much has changed has it ?
June 6, 2022
Exactly Mark B. And I feel no optimism for the future should there be a change of leadership unless a miracle happens and a genuine conservative takes charge.
June 6, 2022
That’s the Nigel Farage who’s father was a City of London stockbroker and was educated at Dulwich College, one of the leading and most expensive public schools in the country ?
June 6, 2022
Play the wicket and not the man.
June 6, 2022
Well, the ex-Dulwich College boy must have seen plenty of that at school, eh?
He prefers fine Burgundies at his private club, we read, not pints.
June 6, 2022
I’m not a fan of pints either… just saying.
June 6, 2022
No, but neither do you arrange photo shoots to suggest to the public that you are, I take it?
June 6, 2022
Since when has Nigel ever hidden the fact that he likes “a proper lunch” with wine?
June 6, 2022
P. G. Wodehouse and Sir Ernest Shackleton both went to Dulwich College. How amazing to have two old boys like that. Inspiring.
June 6, 2022
I prefer not to partake in Alcohol, its not a healthy habit!
June 6, 2022
Rushi is following his WEF masters. Removing everything from the plebs and giving them spending money.
It won’t be long now before we’re all given a basic allowance and that will be the pinnacle of socialism.
Meanwhile the NIP continues unammended and we continue to pay massive subsidies to wind scammers on top of the Ā£185 per mwh they are coining.
Ever felt like your being had.
June 6, 2022
Ian
If they can take away a billionaires football club they can take away anything of yours, mine and everybody else’s.
June 6, 2022
WEF might very well be the masters, but the Bilderberg are the policy makers and the EU its testing ground and enforcer
June 6, 2022
A theme of some of the recent articles on this site is the restating of what many readers would understand to be basic Conservative principles.
These same principles are often at odds with current government policy.
June 6, 2022
Osborne was appalling vast unsustainable and idiotic tax increases to CGT, Stamp Duty, his inheritance ratting still Ā£325k not the million threshold he promised, retaining 50/45% income tax, the over 100% tax on rental āprofitsā for landlords thus hitting tenants and totally idiotic economic policies with it too.
June 6, 2022
And yet, despite all of this, you would still vote for them.
Why ?
June 7, 2022
In preference to Labour/SNP yes if there is a better alternative perhaps not but there is not and will not be given the voting system.
June 6, 2022
I’m no far of Mr Cameron or Mr Osborne but in fairness, Mr Cameron’s father was a successful stockbroker and Mr Osborn’s father is a successful entrepreneur so I think the charge, ‘mucking about’ is a bit unfair.
Also The Tory Party doesn’t care if you’re Upper Class, Middle Class or Working Class as long as you work hard etc.
Lastly, it’s not their fault that there weren’t better Tories in the party to lead the country. We need to get more highly qualified people into the Tory Party and Parliament. How you do that, I don’t know. But worth looking at a lot more for the sake of Tory Party, Parliament and Country (although Labour Party in far worse position).
June 6, 2022
And Mr. Cameron’s Father-in-Law is a very successful ‘wind farmer’.
š
One could describe our kind host as a Conservative. Which is why he is not in government and goes mostly ignored.
June 7, 2022
Ed M: “Mr Cameronās father was a successful stockbroker ”
I wonder how difficult it is to be a successful stockbroker during an inflationary expansion? When the government, all governments in the West have wildly inflating their economies?
There is already talk of ‘the Fed’ tightening, and indeed, they’ve incrementally increased the Fed funds rate over the last couple of months. The general consensus is that this will adversely impact the stock market.
June 6, 2022
Farage was right and Sunak and Bunter do not and never will understand business or the economy. He’s not just messing with these companies he threatens, he’s also messing with peoples lives and investments. Doesn’t he realise that a lot of private pensions rely on oil, gas, power companies dividends? So if he hammers them with more tax stealing then he hammers those pensioners and their dividends whilst struggling with his money printing inflation!. What business or people would want to invest in the UK with such reckless people in charge? What other companies are under scrutiny to have another windfall Tax?
This green Liberal socialist party has to go. I cannot think of any policy area that has improved under the Tory’s.
1. Immigration 1000,000 a year and rising. Plus 3 million Hong Kong Nationals, Unlimited Ukrainian’s, Afghans, Syrian’s, Libyans, Somalians and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all.
2. Illegal immigration costing Ā£5 million a day and rising. Anyone deported at all? Rwanda, my ass! Yuman Rights Farce Innit.
3. Doctors and hospital appointments, can’t get any with 6 million back log. Refer to 1 and 2 above.
4. Dentists. No NHS system is any longer available. Refer to 1 and 2 above.
5. Housing crisis. Refer to 1 and 2 above.
6. Highest taxation since WW2. Refer to HS2 EU payments, foreign aid to stop 2 above, yeah right! Also needed to pay at Ā£3000 a head for 1 and 2 above.
7. Education. Biggest classroom sizes and poorest returns on investment ever. Refer to 1 and 2 above.
8. Roads congestion. Refer to increasing population of 10 million since 1997. 1 and 2 above.
9. Net zero policies when you deliberately encourage 1 and 2 above. Liars.
10. Woke and Pc policies/legislation deliberately implemented to stop free speech and complaints regarding our heritage and culture being overwhelmed because of 1 and 2 above.
11. All health and public service/emergency woke/bend the knee leader appointments only allow woke/pc senior managers to progress. After 12 years your Government has no excuses.
And you expect us to believe net zero with your polices when you deliberately engineer 1 and 2 above.
Disgraceful. End of voting for the Tory’s ever again.
June 6, 2022
+1
Well didnāt one of those two say āItās all a game.ā?
It may be to themā¦but to usā¦.
And it really does look as if their only aim is to follow Agenda 21/30.
It really does.
June 6, 2022
I agree! I think a lot more people are beginning to realise that too. The steam roller, rolls on – unrelenting. Covid Passes, digital currency, an impoverished middle classā¦ the plans are in place (all seems to be on the government website) and despite some delays caused by the proles, continues.
June 6, 2022
Like, you somehow think that it’s not, to all arch-Tories?
June 6, 2022
Increasingly I am convinced that there is virtually no one to rely on.
June 6, 2022
Agenda 21//30 isnāt science fiction ā its real
June 6, 2022
+100%
And remember all the times they tried to convince us otherwise.
June 6, 2022
Sir John, if you were looking at a business opportunity and found that a competitor had mandatory access to its sole market, was excused a major tax that you would have to pay, and when there was too much of your shared product was paid to not produce anything, would you bother?
Successive administrations have been playing Russian roulette with the Grid for too long. The revolver now is loaded with at least three bullets.
When the first major power cut happens the government will tremble. The second and it will fall.
JF
June 6, 2022
JF,
Very well made warning. Sadly there does not appear to be any strategic energy policy, or much else, thinking in No. 10. As far as Bunter is concerned it’s only about the next 24 hours, how to cling=on to office by some bamboozle and bluster.
Who in the PCP has the brain and character for the hard work to be done?
June 6, 2022
I’m starting to look forward to the first power cut.
Maggie prepared for the ones she expected were going to be in the offing. These loonies are actively planning them.
June 6, 2022
You’ll get a power cut sooner than you think….the 200+ offshore windturbines along my coast are ‘still’ today
June 6, 2022
+1
Ruinous and ugly and producing b*gger all!
June 6, 2022
and yet the energy strategy of this government
June 6, 2022
The government and Prince Charles wonāt tremble but will justify the power cuts to come as a necessary price to pay for arresting the climate crisis and to set an example to the rest of the world.
June 6, 2022
Correct. Rolling back-outs and brown-outs are a feature of the Californian power supply which is a few years ahead of us in the switch to renewable energy. Many wealthy households there have installed their own backup diesel generators as a result.
June 6, 2022
And so it should. They’ve been in power 13 years and have no-one to blame.
June 6, 2022
That won’t make any difference. The power cuts will continue under Labour. Probably with the excuse that it’s all due to Russia and therefore everyone will have to reduce their consumption of electricity.
June 6, 2022
Julian Flood
After years of avoiding blackouts by the skin of their teeth, when the first round of cuts happen consumers will take to the streets. It is the only action that will stop the madness being forced upon us.
They can never say we weren’t aware or never told.
June 6, 2022
Your post today is further proof that politicians are not fit for purpose in the rolls they are selected for. But it also brings into question the abilities of those people who are supposed to be advising and directing them. Is it the loss of position and gold plated pension that prevents the heads of departments actually standing up and exposing the frailty of the decisions? Why are not all the business leaders beating a path to his door? The country cannot continue on this road, the new generation of politicians are completely and totally out of their depth.
June 6, 2022
The advisers are doing their job just nicely, ensuring loopholes remain in the tax system for their overseas investments.
Corporation tax goes up – why should they care? With clever accounting they don’t pay it anyway.
The tax burden is for British people and British businesses. Let them fail and let the British rely on imports for everything.
June 6, 2022
‘Your post today is further proof that politicians are not fit for purpose in the rolls they are selected for’
– Don’t want to be complacent but I think Boris and co are significantly better than the vast majority of political leaders in the West (and outside the West).
There is a crisis in the West about how to attract high quality politicians.
How do we address that, at least here in the UK? I don’t know. But let’s try more to figure out some sort of solution instead of just pointing out what we all already know.
June 6, 2022
Ed M: “How do we address that, at least here in the UK? I donāt know.”
I think we can discount the idea that Politicians are underpaid, or that paying a politician more, guarentees higher quality of candidate.
We should also consider that political life, and the lust for power, attracts totally the wrong type of personality.
June 6, 2022
Two wrongs don’t make a right. We should expect, and vote for better.
Complacent indeed!
June 6, 2022
Turbo, sadly I have to agree with your comment, with the exclusion of our host and one or two others, the rest of them do not seem to have a clue about commerce, business or even human nature.
June 6, 2022
My daughter runs a Facebook group for other mothers, like her, with school-age kids, living in a pleasant middle-class community near London that used to be a Conservative safe seat. She tells me that members are already fearing a ‘heat or eat’ situation regarding their personal budgets, and some are already talking of re-possessions.
June 6, 2022
Petrol Ā£1.94.9 a litre at one of my local garages. 78% of that is tax: fuel duty+VAT.
Rishi “gave us” 5p off …… and we were supposed to tug our forelocks and be really grateful.
June 6, 2022
Your sums are wrong.
Fuel duty is a flat rate of 52.95 pence per litre and there is 20% VAT. On a petrol price of 195p per litre, the tax rate is 43.8%
June 6, 2022
Financial Times
Feb 22 2022
āThe IMF said on Tuesday that Rishi Sunak should bring forward planned tax increases to limit the risk of persistently high inflation, even though it would tighten the financial squeeze on Britainās households.
In its annual assessment of the UK economy, the fund said the chancellor should spare poorer households and impose higher income and wealth taxes on richer people.ā
We donāt actually even have a government!
And in reality the tax ā¦.EVERYTHINGā¦is about āLevelling Upā aka THEFT.
June 6, 2022
Well spotted, EH. Far too much of the posting on this site seems to assume that Westminster and British government ministers decide our policies going forward. I can remember when Jim Callaghan was blamed for having to go cap in hand to the IMF, and giving away our financial independence. Now we have the IMF telling the chancellor to increase taxes, and he does, plus the UN telling the government to impose net zero, and it does, plus the WHO inviting the government to support a pandemic treaty, and it does. So much for ‘taking back control’.
June 6, 2022
Attempting to control inflation by raising taxes is a key tenet of Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), the latest left-wing magic money tree theory which says governments can print as much money as they want. Quite why a Conservative government is following this plan is unknown.
June 8, 2022
MMT is simply an economic theory. It is not per se political at all.
June 6, 2022
Indeed it is theft by any other name. Capital Gains Theft and Inheritance Theft should be abolished as both have already been taxed once and are Government opportunist theft. VAT on fuel tax another theft. A tax on a tax!
June 6, 2022
āāLevelling Upāā I see our Secretary of State for Levelling Up Michael Gove MP, was attending the 68th Bilderberg Meeting in Washington, D.C. this past week with other politicians ā I wonder what they discussed and who funded their trip ?
June 6, 2022
The ‘Levelling up, like much else, is a scam. Governments cannot suddenly make poorer people suddenly richer and more equal, and neither can they maintain an equal society. It is all nonsense !
The simplest solution is to drag everybody down and thereby create a society that is equally poor.
You will own nothing and be happy.
June 6, 2022
Such measures aren’t designed to raise revenues. Their primary purpose is party political. If people cannot see this truth then we are condemned to bankruptcy.
All of the main political parties have set out on a path with one aim, to insulate themselves from democracy. If they achieve that then you can wave goodbye to all that we have known
June 6, 2022
+1
I think their purpose is mainly to obey the IMF and to ālevel upā ( according to what I have read).
Take from the rich to give to the poorā¦one of the plandemic aims.
So yes, political and very, very commie.
June 6, 2022
Not from the rich. From the middle classes.
June 7, 2022
+1
June 6, 2022
If we do not assist Ukraine to victory then we can wave goodbye to all that we have known – and taken for granted for too long.
June 6, 2022
Correct and rapidly move to eliminate China’s hold on material goods production.
June 8, 2022
Now that we see what the game all along has been with the authoritarian world, yes.
June 6, 2022
What’s changed? We still have idiots running the country!
I have never disliked a PM as much as I do Boris. He has wandered into the Blair level of dislike as he is making changes that can never be reversed with his MASSIVE immigration. I still wonder if he is deliberately destroying the UK, for some unknown reason. Boris may be fickle and untrustworthy, but surely he cannot be so thick that he is unable to see the consequences of his damaging policies and rampant immigration. I wonder if he has plans to emigrate and get his family away from the mess he is making of the UK? I am sure Macron (and many others in the EU) would welcome Boris after all the appeasement sent his way.
June 6, 2022
+many
Hear! Hear!
Whenever I moan about the PM my family says āWell you surely donāt want Starmer do you?ā.
Noā¦I just want a CONSERVATIVE!
Not a liberal globalist with totalitarian overtones.
Anywayā¦we are not aloneā¦he was booed coming out of St Paulās.
How very SHAMING!
June 6, 2022
And we didn’t want, Jeremy Corbyn MP. But we got him. Or at least his policies.
June 6, 2022
Well Shirley up to now there have been 48 letters of no confidence in Boris . We will see as the day progresses how that is going to pan out. No doubt the problems were going to be postponed until after the jubilee celebrations. Personally in some matters I think Boris has done rather well , yet I don’t think that him and Sunak can deliberate on advice and make their own decisions … if they have well .. .. no more to be said.
June 6, 2022
These plans for 2030 have been in place for decades, but we can only now see them evolving more obviously, Covid allowed an acceleration. I suspect that each PM who arrived in the position was told what he is to do. As with all the other leaders such as Arden, Trudeau – a weak leader is easily manipulated.
June 6, 2022
+1 Shirley M.
I am sure there are plenty of blue states in the US that would welcome him!
June 6, 2022
They regularly elect idiots who have or can raise fortunes to bombard the gullible to vote for them..
June 6, 2022
Of course they realise what they’re doing. It’s all part of the great reset.
Plan in track. Spiffing.
June 6, 2022
I am no fan of the what is now the post Carrie Boris a socialist, anti-libertarian, green crap pushing, net zero pushing, expensive energy pushing, tax and regulate to death Boris. But he is surely better than the appalling Heath, Callaghan, Blair, Brown, Major, Cameron, Mayā¦?
June 6, 2022
No No No, they all stab you in the front…Boris stabs you in the back
June 6, 2022
Why worry about where you would place one amongst horrors?
June 6, 2022
To say the least I was already not a fan of Boris Johnson by the time he became Prime Minister, and I have come to detest him; however I had felt much the same way about Margaret Thatcher but later came to regret her assassination at the hands of Tory eurofederalists.
In an email headed “Absurd Irish protocol based on absurd Irish premise” that I sent to Tory MPs back in January I wrote:
“So what are you going to do if you have to choose a new leader? Give us another Prime Minister who thinks that we must have a “deep and special relationship” with the EU, and who is prepared to sell all of us out in order to get it and give it to her friends in the CBI, or another Prime Minister with his own vanity project of a near worthless “Canada style” free trade deal with the EU, for which he is prepared to sell some of us out and potentially break up the country? ”
Maybe we will find out quite soon.
June 6, 2022
Boris Johnson was pretty good as Mayor of London but he seems to have dramatically changed from early 2020.
Maybe he met someone at that time who influenced him?
Perhaps Sir John can explain?
June 6, 2022
Johnson had three superb assistants who did the hard slog, Sarah, while he was the figurehead – I have no problem with that. Unfortunately, he did not pick anyone of the same calibre to support him once he became PM, and he appears to have become distracted by personal domestic matters (I’m treading delicately here….).
June 6, 2022
Shirley, Moron Macron has already welcomed his dad! You could be right.
June 8, 2022
If Johnson snr. met the requirements for French residency, then by what bizarre reasoning should Macron do otherwise?
June 6, 2022
I’m afraid I’ve never been a huge fan of Boris but you do have to be careful what you wish for.
My wife has just firmly stated that if the CP ditch Boris, they won’t get her vote next time around – which is not good news for Sir JR I’m afraid. For my part, I can forgive Boris Partygate, if only he was getting energy & the economy right. As for possible alternatives, I wouldn’t be keen on Jeremy Hunt (or his co-conspirators) either. As is so often the case these days, the electorate is presented with a very poor choice (always the lesser of two evils) and that’s before I even think about the dreadful woke/eco/socialist opposition parties.
Come to think of it, they are all the same when you get down to it….
June 6, 2022
If he were to join the Labour Party, perhaps Mr. Sunak would feel happier as his policies and his political philosophy would be more in harmony?
Meanwhile, we need not fear what Rachel Reeves would do as Chancellor.
June 6, 2022
The first rule of a tax break/grant is that they never make a poor investment case better. They may close a financing gap or more often are a nice freebie.
Sunak and the Treasury are just demonstrating they know sweet f a about the real business world. Projects large enough to make an economic difference take years to put together and will probably be achieved through acquisition rather than organic growth.
Corporate treasurers need certainty, not being subject to short terms political whims increasing their fixed costs and broken promises as at the moment plus ālowā regulation.
This would attract businesses from elsewhere instantly increasing the tax take. Laffer rules.
Nick Timothy in the DT this morning, spot on, Bojo has put us in an economic vacuum and 8 ex 10 voters think he is a liar.
My MP, Leo Docherty, a polite, courteous, prompt responder to my letters is a loyal Bojo supporter unable or not prepared to see past the hubris and the almost total failure to use his majority to achieve the changes promised when he was elected. Timothy outlines them.
Leo and the other supporters need to get out of their bubbie and take the action that would have happened to a leader in the private sector, months ago.
June 6, 2022
As per Mark B’s, and Shirley M’s comments above, all the more reason to vote Reform Party whenever possible. Reform is recruiting from the real world future candidates with business experience.
June 6, 2022
Johnson is by trade a journalist, pretending to be a politician, Shirley. His background makes him look no further than the next day’s headlines. Journalists don’t think in terms of long-term consequences of anything.
June 6, 2022
and so much of what they trade in is fabrication and bullshit.
June 6, 2022
This Chancellor, who wastes most energy changing his recurring sequence of errors, chases his own spiralling tail of mistakes at othersā expense.
The UK needs an efficient Chancellor, not some Labourer who just looks busy retro-fixing his own dodgy repairs and reading out more lengthy rules to follow behind.
June 6, 2022
All very well except it’s not the Chancellor calling the shots.. everything now is about digging Boris out of a hole
June 6, 2022
Do you really think they don’t know what they’re doing Sir John?
I think they know exactly what they’re doing. It’s called creative destruction and is “necessary” in order to justify the plans which have been prepared by the Globalists. You can only Build Back Better when first you have destroyed everything.
Neil Oliver’s monologue on Saturday was excellent and, in my opinion, right on the button.
June 6, 2022
And they voted at 6pm on the 6th day of the 6th month.
Strange!
Or maybe not?
June 7, 2022
Of 2+0+2+2 another 6. Gee, it is diabolic, isnāt it?
June 6, 2022
Strange. Sunak has a good brain and an excellent training. I assume he is too callow to challenge the dreary and false orthodoxies which seem to prevail at the treasury. another reason to make a change at the top I fear.
June 6, 2022
āHigher taxes do not bring down deficits or boost investmentā – indeed not, quite the reverse in fact. This especially when the UK is so hugely overtaxed already and when this government generally just piss the money down the drain anyway on extended lockdowns, vaccinating the young doing net damage, test and trace, loans for generally worthless degrees, the net zero lunacy, road blocking, expensive intermittent energyā¦ waste everywhere you care to look.
The vast over regulation of ever thing makes it even worse. As does the unfair state competition & virtual monopolies in healthcare and education plus the idiotic market rigging in energy, housing, transport, education, healthcareā¦
June 6, 2022
A vote of no confidence. The Tories always destroy themselves from within. No need for an opposition. Mind you Boris has done himself no favours.
June 6, 2022
Very much agreed.
All he had to do was to fulfill his manifesto pledges, and to obey his own laws.
Simple.
June 6, 2022
Off topic, the first three paragraphs of this interesting retrospective:
https://euobserver.com/opinion/155109
“The Treaty of Amsterdam ā 25 years on”
reminded me of why I voted to leave the EU six years ago, and would do the same again tomorrow regardless of any marginal effects on the UK economy one way or the other. But clearly across both chambers we still have a large majority of parliamentarians who are more or less eurofederalists and who would vote us back into the EU tomorrow if they could, and equally regardless of those same economic effects, and they are just waiting to replace Boris Johnson with one of their own before pushing ahead with that.
June 6, 2022
Well you have a chance this evening to do something to change things for the better.
June 6, 2022
I am no fan of the, WHO but one of their songs lyrics goes, Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss
See my post above
š
June 6, 2022
So there is going to be a vote of NO confidence in Mr Johnson this evening…
There will be some that say that “this is the wrong time to change leader”… to them I say that there is never a “right time” and Boris is such a poor Prime Minster that it MUST be done now.
Then the biggest question – who is the best replacement?
June 6, 2022
At least you ask that question, Know-Dice, unlike so many others who call for Johnson’s removal. Even if you don’t suggest an answer.
For a clue as to who wants the job, and may be favoured to get it, look at who attended Bilderberg this year: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/this-sinister-secret-woke-jamboree/
Prospects look good: Blair, Merkel and Macron came to power a short while after participating at Bilderberg.
June 6, 2022
What I would like to see is him holed below the water line. For sometime he has had the attitude of a man he felt he could not be touched. He needs to be brought down to earth a little bit and not treat his fellow MP’s, the House and the country in such a disrespectful way.
June 6, 2022
Let’s make that “Prime Minister” š
June 6, 2022
– Highest taxes ever
Caused by
– Millions of of low tax paying migrants who the voters never voted for diluting taxes.
– Crippling energy costs for Green policy based of 4th rate academic software modellers and Carrie Johnson that was never voted for.
If you do not recognise these as the reasons then you have lost touch.
If you ignore the voters wishes and implement WEF and large corporates policies the voters will vote the out of touch politicians out.
June 6, 2022
Spot On
June 6, 2022
So later tonight we will discover whether Tory MPs cannot tolerate the leadership of Johnson any more.
Will they vote with their main concern being surviving the next GE, or an instant verdict on the general behaviour of him and close supporters including those employed in Downing St.?
Is the Party and directly their re-election resting on confidence of the electorate, constituency by constituency, sticking with the achievements since 2010 and a coalition?
The nation holds its breath? Or is it thoroughly bored with the shambles regularly portrayed about Downing St?
June 6, 2022
why not publish Sir John – shy away from the truth?
Will you tell us afterwards which way you voted?
June 6, 2022
Sir John, today’s your opportunity to change government policy – which you clearly, and rightly – disapprove of: by voting AGAINST Boris Johnson in the vote of confidence. Government policy is HIS policy. He is not going to change. The only way to get change is to VOTE for change.
Boris Johnson is a weak, stupid, cowardly and traitorous prime minister. He has NOT delivered Brexit, only BRINO. He has betrayed Northern Ireland and our fishing industry and watewrs. He continues to pay billions to the EU and has stuck with most of their rules, but British exporters to the EU do not face a level playing field with EU exporters to Britain. His obsession with wind power and net zero has led to sky-high energy prices for both consumers and industry. He increases taxes, both personal and corporate, instead of cutting them. He broke the manifesto pledge to pensioners. His farming policy makes us more dependent on imports, not less. Britain is being invaded by tens of thousands of illegal migrants.
Halfway through this parliament, with a huge parliamentary majority, BORIS HAS DONE NOTHING. He has pissed his opportunity away. The man is a total failure. You once said: “No change, no chance”. You were right then and the same applies now. You need to VOTE AGAINST Boris Johnson AND make it clear WHY you have done so, so that whoever is PM next understands what they need to do to gain your support.
Oh, and can we please have some democratic accountability and know how you voted? Thank you.
June 6, 2022
+100 x-Tory – I wholeheartedly agree with your comments about Boris. He has been a HUGE disappointment and we want rid of him before he does even more damage.
Boris could have just idly sat back and delegated all his promises, but he couldn’t even be bothered to do that! He is a charlatan, and a liability.
June 6, 2022
They have no ideas or strategy of their own, which is why Johnson and Sunak follow the Labour line. The only hope for the Conservatives, is to get rid of them fast and find a new leader. It is rubbish that there is noone else capable: almost anyone would be better.
The question is, will your colleagues have the sense to see that before it is too late?
June 6, 2022
Not in my opinion, William. Surely the real question is, would a change of PM bring any change of policy, on anything? It seems better to me to support a party with genuine alternative policies, such as Reform UK, which might bring that about. As happened with UKIP, fear of losing votes to another party on the right is the thing that can make a sitting Conservative government change course. On the Covid nanny state policy and high taxes, Richard Tice has given a clear alternative to Johnson’s Tories.
June 6, 2022
A very informative Nigel Farage video on YouTube this morning stating that the necessary number of letters have been submitted to Sir Graham Brady but that conservative MPās wonāt have the guts to act, the visceral loathing felt for Fataturk is going to destroy the party and more importantly our Country š¬š§
June 6, 2022
Sir John,
Sir Graham Brady has announced a vote of confidence in Boris this morning.
Lets hope the party vote to get rid of the spendthrift who is throwing our money to all and sundry despite causing damage to our budget.
Lease help Great Britain to survive.
June 6, 2022
That last sentence should read
Please help Great Britain too survive.
Sorry!
June 6, 2022
āTheir [renewables] generating costs have not shot up but their power prices have.ā
BEIS/Ofgem/OGA etc. wanted to make electric heat pumps economically more attractive compared to gas boilers so the Net Zero Strategy included making gas relatively more expensive than electricity. This was to be achieved through additional taxation on gas if necessary and by increasing gas prices by restricting gas supplies – such as by cutting back on North Sea production and banning fracking – and eventually cutting gas supplies to householders completely.
Unfortunately BEIS/Ofgem/OGA forgot that because renewables are so unreliable and gas is needed for backup the price of electricity goes up when the price of gas goes up.
Furthermore they had forgotten a clause in the CfD contracts that enables renewables suppliers to postpone their CfD prices for up to 3 years and hence instead of electricity consumers benefiting from the low CfD prices they are instead paying these renewable suppliers the much higher market (gas) price for electricity.
As well, of course, as paying for renewable subsidies including constraint payments.
June 6, 2022
Sir John,
Rather than echoing Labour policy and increasing taxes, why doesn’t the Chancellor try reducing overall taxation. He could also reduce government expenditure and waste. Not only would this prove to be popular with the general public, but the Conservatives might actually win the next election.
June 6, 2022
Of course we need lower corporation tax, both to lure foreign investors to move production to the UK, and to help existing manufacturers be more profitable and therefore able to invest more.
BUT have you seen the very interesting article in today’s Telegraph proposing a witholding tax on dividends paid to overseas investors? This seems eminently logical to me. We are the ONLY major economy that does not do so. The US applies a 30% tax, while most of our main EU rivals have a 25% tax rate (Germany, France and Ireland, and 26% in Italy). As the article explains, given our ‘double taxation’ treaties, foreign investors would not, in fact suffer, so this would not be a disincentive to them. The only difference would be that our government would earn billions instead of gifting this to our foreign enemies. I think the government is – once again – missing out on a great opportunity here, both economic and political. We are truly governed by cretins!
Do you support this proposal? Will you lobby the PM and Treasury?
June 6, 2022
If Boris wins the vote of confidence tonight thatās a green light for āhisā policy of net-zero ā markets will continue to fall, investment in gas & oil will decline further and the cost of living will worsen
June 6, 2022
The thousands spent on wallpaper now appears wasted
June 6, 2022
How will you be voting in the no confidence vote Sir John ?
Let me guess š¤
You will be supporting Fataturk!
June 6, 2022
Hello Sir John,
Another statement of the obvious! We have a PM & Chancellor who simply do not understand how to run the UK economy, do not understand how high taxes discourage growth, do not understand how inflation is caused & are addicted to spending. No conservative government should be giving cost of living support to people, it should be cutting taxes so people can manage their own finances with extra money in their pockets. The utter stupidity of the net-zero approach is a perfect example of their total lack of understanding of the Earth’s climate over thousands of years & their refusal to research properly. I voted for a conservative government in 2019, when will I get one?
June 6, 2022
The letter from Jesse Norman MP to the PM is worth reading.
June 6, 2022
So is Nadine Dorries’ attack on Jeremy Hunt š
Completely scuppered his chances, methinks.
June 7, 2022
so you think the MPs will take notice of Johnson’s puppy dog?
June 6, 2022
Thanks for the tip – it is obviously written from both the head and the heart.
June 6, 2022
An interesting comment reply in today’s DT article on Boris quote:
“any of the genuine conservatives in the party – e.g. Steve Baker, John Redwood (whose little finger knows far more about finance and economics than the front benches put together), or Peter Bone – becoming a candidate in a leadership election.”
June 6, 2022
Sir John,
I was amazed when the energy price cap was introduced. This conservative government appears to get all its policies from Labour – first by saying what a bad idea they are – for obvious economic reasons – and then a while later spectacularly embracing them.
Introducing a price cap just means that the state has decided on an arbitrary price – just like with student loans.
One very obvious way to reduce the price of electricity is to remove some of the green levies. It really annoys me that I have to listen to and watch stupid adverts by “Einstein” to try to pursuade me to install a smart meter – that won’t work in my house. These adverts are being payed for by me as part of my bill! Sack the advertising agency, stop the adverts and sack the call centres. Then cut the money from my bill.
Don’t print more money to help me pay for increased bills. This went very badly for the Weimar Republic exactly one hundred years ago.
Any chance yourself or a like-minded MP can take the reins?
Someone who knows “you can’t buck the market”.
Welcome back to the 70s.
June 6, 2022
Spot on with your post today Sir John. As you have explained in so many ways for so long high taxation is not the answer to anything, but it does seem to fit with the great scheme of things that your party and our government stand for.
The highest taxation for 70 years.
The no brainer would have been to stop HS2 in its tracks.
The folly of lock down, masks, untested gene therapy, business closures and school closures leading to massive borrowing and money printing, business closures too.
The export of manufacturing and CO2 emissions to achieve net zero (pun intended).
The completely out of control legal immigration and passive acceptance (or even encouragment) of illegal immigration.
Which of these clearly un-conservative actions were in any election manifesto? Now with the prospect of a new PM I am utterly without hope that the next one will be better.
It is almost as if there was a deliberate pattern to all this. Almost as if decisions are made elsewhere.
June 6, 2022
BOF :
Agreed.
June 6, 2022
āLeaving the European Union as one United Kingdom, taking back control of our laws, borders, money, our trade, immigration system, delivering on the democratic mandate of the people.āā Boris election speech outside No10
Nothing of his speech has came to past
June 6, 2022
As was pointed out at the time, you cannot shut the economy down for two years and then expect everything to work again at a future time of your choosing. All MPs voted to shut the economy down. All are responsible. Tinkering round the edges now will not cut it.
Just one example – seen elsewhere:
āMARCH 2020 – Following governmental restrictions, management plan implemented to sack some 80% of UK Airport ground staff
DECEMBER 2021 – Following governmental “glidepath to normality guidance”, management plan implemented to commence advertising scheduled flights for sale in 2022
MARCH 2022 – Management announce sales of scheduled flights for 2022 “within 95% of 2019 figures”
APRIL 2022 – Management finally realise that having sold flights for summer 2022, they have less than 20% of ground staff requirement, with no backup in place to replace missing staff.
MAY 2022 – Management go missing as airports in UK descend into chaos…..ā
June 6, 2022
Ukraine is more important to the gov & parliament than the UK. That is the realization.
June 6, 2022
JR, if you attend the meeting with Boris Johnson this afternoon please could you ask him:
1. Why during the ten months since last July’s Command Paper he has done nothing at all towards passing the envisaged new UK laws to make it a punishable offence to take goods which do not comply with EU standards over the Irish land border into the EU Single Market, UK laws which would not in any way infringe the existing agreed Irish protocol and which should be welcomed by the EU and its supporters including those in the UK, and has done nothing else to establish alternative arrangements to those laid down in the protocol.
2. Whether he would actually do anything about in the next ten months if he stayed on as Prime Minister, or would current promises of action to remedy the situation turn out to be just as false as past promises.
June 6, 2022
One despairs that they go for Labour tax policies because they ā poll wellā. Donāt they realise that given a choice of identical policies delivered by Boris or Starmer, theyāll chose Starmer. Heās considered boring, but unlike Boris he isnāt booed when he goes out in public.
Better to act responsibly on tax, and hope you can make a good case at the next election, under a different leader.
Labour policies + Boris = Starmer in power come the next election
June 6, 2022
Boris is no longer an asset, heās lost the fisheries community, heās lost the gas & oil sector, heās lost the Northern Ireland people, heās lost the red wall Labour voter, heās lost the Tory voter that wanted tighter immigration controls, heās lost the brexit voter for bino, heās lost the floating voter for Party-gate, Owen-gate, Carrie-gate and JenniferArcuri-gate for lack of integrity & honesty
June 6, 2022
…and he’s lost me due to net-zero
June 6, 2022
”India’s Union Coal Minister stressed the importance of coal in energy security, saying demand would double by 2040 and India will need to increase coal supplies to 1,500 million tonnes”
June 6, 2022
ā¦and HS2-gate which I predict will be Ā£100bn over budget and 10 years late in completion
June 6, 2022
And out of date, Glen!
June 6, 2022
He’s lost the libertarian Covid sceptics. And anyone who objected to the coercion/mandates to participate in a medical experiment.
June 6, 2022
So now ….. with a Confidence Vote imminent, Johnson announces that he and Sunak will be planning tax cuts based on Conservative principles.
You almost have to laugh. They’ve ramped taxes up to their highest level since WW2 and now declare they’ll produce tax cuts.
Let me know if you believe him ……. I have a bridge for sale.
June 6, 2022
Its no good just changing the skipper sometime you have to change the whole quarterdeck and steer a new course
Come on SirJ dust off your old bicorn hat and make us proud
June 6, 2022
I think Boris will hold on, I think there will be about 80-90 dissenters, many whom are close to him which must be very frustrating for Boris and he will feel very betrayed especially those he promoted or saved, goodbye and good riddance Penrose. He has traitors all around him, setting him up. Very convenient that Gove is off to the Bildenberger meeting, Iād cut him out immediately, Iād bring you in to watch my back John and give you Whitelaw role.
If he does win then he needs to act and overrule his Chancellor. Iād cut the UK VAT on domestic fuel to 0%, cut Northern Irelandās corporation tax. Tell business he is not going ahead with the corporation tax rise. Basically MPs obviously feel that people did vote for the leader and now these MPs say heās not wanted without asking us! As for people booing him outside the jubilee how silly is this, in the future Tories should organise themselves and go collectively to boo Labour figures at every event and start playing them at their own games.
June 7, 2022
Wow, 148 from 359 voted against Boris leaving 211 supporting him, there are 199 Labour MPs so that narrows the pros greatly.
Is there any one policy all 359 agree on that hasn’t been implemented yet that was in the manifesto? Overrule Gove and give us EVEN, he must hold the ministers he has picked to account; what levelling up has Gove achieved? Make them all write their own report card of successes and put them up on the website. If there are insufficient successes – no more excuses, Boris needs to march now and stop sauntering.
June 7, 2022
Another even more interesting way to look at the results: we could expect (not guaranteed but for the sake of the argument) that the 173 MPs on āthe payrollā would vote for the PM. In that case only 38 non-payroll MPs voted for Johnson (211-173). And 148, more than four time as many, voted against him.
To hear this Tuesday all the Dorries, Truss, Zahawi, Cleverly, Bone, Rees-Moog, ā¦ commenting on the āmassive victory for the PMā makes one wonder whether a condition for a MP to access the nirvana of Government is for any candidate to let any self-esteem in front of 10 Downing Street.
June 8, 2022
PI – it was a secret ballot, I’m not sure I agree with you that 173 MPs on ‘the payroll’ stood by the boss, he has people in his inner circle that aren’t fans of his. Boris is too liberal for my liking and one of the problems with libertarians who manage people is they are too lassez faire hence the problems in the culture at Downing St.
Boris was roundly criticised after Christmas about being too liberal coming out of covid, if it was up to people like Will Hutton we’d still be masked and coming slowly out of lockdown with testing still going ahead. They were wrong but won’t admit Boris got it right.
June 6, 2022
Whoever is PM of GB the governed of this nation are staring down the barrel of an authoritarian twelve bore
June 7, 2022
I note the use of GB and not UK
June 6, 2022
Today is June 6, mentioned last month as a date when legislation overriding the Northern Ireland Protocol would be introduced. Yet we see nothing again from this do-nothing government.
June 7, 2022
Do nothing government – have you not seen how many wind-turbines they’ve produced
June 6, 2022
Chancellors reap what they sow, it’s just that the harvest takes some time to be brought in.
Osborne continued Brown’s war on private landlords and both May and the current government have continued the attack. Now they are all seeing the results : a halving of the number of properties available and, inevitably, market forces are driving up rents. Precisely the opposite of what any sensible government, even a soft-left Labour one, would want to see.
I suspect they will not learn and either they or the next Labour-led rag-tag coalition government with the Lib Dims and SNP, will impose some kind of rent controls. That will simply drive more small landlords out of the market, making the problem even worse.
We have carried on with our modest portfolio of properties and have not put up rents for the last three years. Tenants have appreciated our looking after them as during that time we have had no change of tenants and everyone has paid in full, every month.
Now we are reaching the point that we will simply have to put up rents. Maintenance costs have increased dramatically and government legislation introducing stricter controls over electrical installations has cost us thousands in the last two years, even though we have never had a problem in over 25 years.
All our properties meet the current energy performance standards, but I fully expect these to be tightened in the next couple of years. We have 19 gas boilers which we will be under pressure to replace. None of our properties could ever have a heat pump fitted and, even if we fit “Hydrogen ready” replacement boilers, the cost will be at least Ā£75,000 and nobody will benefit from that.
We are no longer making any real return on capital employed, let alone a profit, and mortgage interest payments are bound to increase again during the year. Rents will inevitably have to rise.
June 6, 2022
Obviously Boris will win, there are 173 MPs on the āpayrollā as ministers, secretaries of states, envoys for this or that, and assorted bag carriers, so to get to the 180 threshold (359/2+1) does not require so much effort. What is really interesting will be the fraction of the non-payroll MPs whoāll vote against the PM? 15%, 30%, more?
June 6, 2022
148 dissenters, 41.5% ā¦
June 6, 2022
Full Wind-Turbine Ahead
June 6, 2022
Thereās going to be 211 Tory MPs kicking themselves when the conservative party lose the next 2 by-elections
June 7, 2022
A number of them are reflecting that had they the willingness and courage to face the music last night instead of hiding behind the poshboy egotist daring the people to have the audacity to challenge him, we might be looking at him finally on the way out. The Party could already be preparing for a fresh start, instead of dreading the Wakefield result in a few short weeks.
June 6, 2022
What, in the mind of the Government, is the objection to profits? Some profits are distributed in the form of dividends, which are usually spent or reinvested elsewhere. Other profits are retained and invested in the business that earned the profits. It’s orthodox capitalism and I see no reason for the Government to interfere in the process. Much more open to criticism are subsidised or free at the point of use services run by Government institutions. Expanding these does not generate extra revenue, rather the reverse,
June 7, 2022
āTheir [renewables] generating costs have not shot up but their power prices have.ā
Gas prices have increased because the Net Zero Strategy required the cutting back of North Sea production and the banning of fracking.
Unfortunately because renewables are unreliable and gas is needed for backup the price of electricity goes up when the price of gas goes up.
Furthermore the CfD contracts enable renewables suppliers to postpone their CfD prices for up to 3 years and instead sell at higher market prices.
June 9, 2022
High taxes are not helpful to anyone , but taxes which should be paid , should not be avoided . Whilst many enjoy the riches derived from banking in the Cayman Islands , Bermuda and so on , the small business man is heaped with tax to be controlled by others offshore.