I find it odd to read that Rishi is attracting the vote of careerist MPs who think he is the establishment figure who will win and give them jobs. That cannot be right, as the polls all show he will lose if he is one of any two candidates in the final round with the members. We must conclude that there is a significant body of Conservative MPs who agree with him that we need higher taxes and especially higher business taxes and who think as he does that you can get faster growth from here whilst hiking taxes. That is not a winning strategy either for the country or for the candidate.
I do not know if they all appreciate that Rishi in government did not want us to move away from EU single market regulations for fear of retaliation over trade by the EU. They may not know he was against legislating on the Northern Ireland Protocol as he also feared the EU response. He did not want to legislate to make clear we can fix VAT rates in Northern Ireland as well as the rest of the UK. He did not want to cut VAT on energy, accepting continuing EU constraints on our freedom of tax action. He did not roll out the Freeports he argued so eloquently for on the backbenches for the first day of our exit, and did not want to give them decent tax breaks to make them really attractive. He had to be persuaded to help people with a package of financial support this year to deal with surging energy prices.
Most people think today will be about MPs deciding or getting closer to deciding which of the remaining four candidates should stand against Rishi, though Rishi himself still needs a few more MP votes to ensure a place in the final two. I urge Rishi supporters to think again. I expect Tom Tugendhat to come last this time and drop out. He has performed well and attracted support from people who want a fresh start led by someone who has never held Ministerial office . I think it is asking too much of someone to think they come in mid Parliament to the complexities of Ministerial life without the thorough preparation most people have by being in a senior government position before becoming PM. In the case of a Leader of the Opposition winning a General election who has not been a past Minister they come in after years of planning how to run a government advised by people in their party who have done it in the past. Tom has offered us a ten year Plan to be worked out later. We need a plan for the first ten days from September 6th as we need urgent action to tackle the cost of living crisis.
July 18, 2022
Good morning.
And why wouldn’t they when they are pretty much carved from the same rock – Liberal’s.
It is time to face up to it Sir Joh, that he Left of the Conservative Party has all but taken over. They only use the memory of Mrs. T, whether to it be false claims of being low tax or, riding around on a tank, to make the electorate think they are Right of the party. Yet as has so often been pointed out here, few really are.
I am afraid it is a case of making the best out of a bad bunch.
July 18, 2022
Indeed all the candidates cannot even take a sensible policy on energy and the net zero con trick. This will kill people, freeze people to death, export jobs and destroy the economy and with zero benefit to the climate.
July 18, 2022
You think it will. You are as alarmist as the people you are criticising with as much certainty. None. At least people like Alok Sharma are actually getting involved. Easier I guess to spout this guff from the comfort of your armchair.
I remember the acronym for people like you from my business days. G.O.Y.A. You have to earn the right to be listened to.
July 18, 2022
But the âsolutionsâ Alok and the Gov. push – wind, solar, burning imported wood at Drax, public transport, EVs, cycling, walking, hydrogen do not even save any or any sig. CO2 even Alok must surely know this. Changing your old car to an new EVs increase CO2.
July 19, 2022
‘Solar’
– The UK isn’t Morocco, Algeria or Egypt with the Sahara / lots of sun. Whose seriously making the argument for more solar in the UK?
(Wind is another matter: we have lots of that, in particular off-shore)
July 19, 2022
Also, I think you’ll find (although might me wrong) a lot more Tories are now shifting over to the argument of Renewal Energy (as long as the technology is there) as it’s too chaotic long-term to rely on countries for fossil fuels who have dodgy regimes and / or price fluctuations with fossil fuels. That we now have to be 100% self-sufficient in energy. This is now becoming a serious, long-term economic argument not just an environmental one. And as Conservatives take more interest in Renewables, Tech Companies will have more confidence to invest more and more in R&D Renewables.
July 18, 2022
Alok Sharma is involved in a false paradigm. There is plenty of evidence that CO2 does not drive climate and no evidence that it does, only climate models which do not agree with the real world. Net Zero is a fantasy world built on spreadsheets. Our “strategy” for controlling the weather is heavily dependent on increased wind and solar projections. With the hottest and sunniest day of the year today, solar managed 20.5% of supply for a couple of hours at its peak, wind managed 25% for a couple of hours overnight. The solution to the energy crisis? Build more wind and solar farms…if something doesn’t work, do more of it. Carbon capture and storage is unnecessary, hugely expensive and ineffectual, Hydrogen uses more energy in its production than it delivers, again hugely expensive.
Meanwhile Asia is responsible for 58% of global anthropogenic emissions. Even if the CO2 theory was true, cutting the UK’s 1% emissions to net zero is totally meaningless, as the new coal stations being built in China will operate for some 50 years. There will be no reduction in global anthropogenic CO2 emissions, but the UK faces financial suicide if we are pushed any further towards the Net Zero cliff.
July 19, 2022
There is plenty of evidence that CO2 does not drive climate change?
You are wrong. Fact. It genuinely shocks me that people can still say this. You must have to search pretty hard to find this ‘evidence’ while ignoring a lot of pretty basic graphs.
The only real question is how quickly we need to deal with climate change? And, right now as we swelter in this heatwave, I get the sense that most of the population thinks it needs to be dealt with pretty darn soon, though I accept the baseload problem remains an issue.
July 19, 2022
But Renewables is no longer just an environmental argument it’s also also an economic one as well!
Economic: it’s too unpredictable to rely on foreign powers for our energy (foreign powers with dodgy regimes / foreign powers spiking prices).
I think more and more Conservatives see the need for the UK to become 100% self sufficient in fuel. For the sake of the economy but also for household consumers.
AND also, Renewables ties in with The Electric Car that is just growing and growing (as tech improves year on year). And the electric car makes sense when you think how it reduces noise and air pollution in cities (the pollution of cars in London doesn’t just affect the air of China or Chile but more directly Londoners).
And the UK has plenty of free wind (out at sea)! Sure, the tech isn’t quite there yet (bu it’s improving quickly – and will do so even more when people in business in general support it more and more). And so it’s a BALANCING act. We have to make a move into all this more and more without damaging our economy – leading to substantial economic gains further down the line.
And it’s going to happen (the gas-guzzling American drivers of the 1980’s wanted to keep their gas guzzling cars but the efficient European and Japanese car and American copies of it have flooded the US car market). Just a question of how well the transition to 100% Renewable Energy is managed.
July 20, 2022
I agree with a lot of what you say.
Renewables are not the only answer.
My only point is that I am simply fed up with people saying CO2 is not causing climate change. It’s a lost argument. At least can we talk about how we deal with it. I think nuclear has to be part of the mix. Renewables are so cheap we can’t ignore them. There’s also an important place for hydrogen, as well as dealing with the methane coming from cows, and concrete of course. I believe some progress is being made in these areas.
July 18, 2022
Badenoch was quite pragmatic on Net Zero – don’t do anything that would create hardship, and her comment about Net Zero fanaticism being “unilateral economic disarmament” was good. In practice any PM of any party will have to relax the Net Zero schedule when the time comes, only Badenoch is brave enough to say that now though.
July 18, 2022
âBadenoch was quite pragmatic on Net Zero â donât do anything that would create hardshipâ – well all the net zero agenda creates hardship for very many people and is economic and environmental insanity – saves no or trivial CO2 either and the earth has not heated since 1998 anyway.
CO2 is not a world thermostat anyway!
July 19, 2022
I agree. A clever Tory will get the balance right between the inevitable change towards Renewables without damaging our economy on the way.
July 18, 2022
Perhaps once the electorate switches from net zero deluded MPs to the party members and then to the country in 2024 the candidates will finally switch and abandon net zero (or at least fully postpone it for say 100+years).
July 18, 2022
possibly but the MPs seem to be casting their vote on the basis of spin the botttle.
God knows the outcome.
July 18, 2022
Lifelogic, we can just hope that the members choose someone who is not STEM-illiterate. Anyone with the minimum of training in physics can see that a dash for renewable electricity while upping demand by mandating EVs, heat pumps etc will destroy industry and, come the power cuts, kill people.
Reform. Reclaim. Rebuild
JF
July 18, 2022
Regarding the second paragraph, perhaps many Conservative MPs still look favourably on the EU and still hope for closer ties.
July 18, 2022
The majority ate remainers including the MP for Davos Soinack.
July 18, 2022
Addendum
I learn that the next round of the debate for the post of PM has been cancelled.
Thank God !!
I never understood why those who wish to be leader of the Conservative Party and our next PM would submit themselves to this ridiculous charade. They would have all have better served themselves, their party and the nation had they just worked their way around the Tearooms of the Palace of Westminster. So much more dignified and productive methinks.
July 18, 2022
Thank you John
Another excellent Article
I am Amazed by the fact that Rishi has so much support for his tax policies that the same MPs blamed Boris for
I find it actually frightening that Badenoch dismisses Cabinet experience suggesting her role as Junior minister gave her adequate preparation for the job of PM
The less said of Mordaunt the better
Charles Moore summed it up very well
âAnd yet, in the middle of the most serious difficulties Britain and the whole Western world have faced since the 1970s, it seems perverse not to value experience. Voters might think the Conservatives insanely rash to prefer a novice over a front-rank minister for one of the most difficult jobs this country has ever offered anybody.
In short, neither an outsider nor an insider feels satisfactory. This is one of the reasons why it was not such a brilliant idea to force out Boris Johnson without first being in a position to answer the question âWhat next?â The more one thinks about it, the worse the quandary becomes.â
Thank you for all you go and I do wish you had run for PM
July 18, 2022
Perhaps you should look at Sunak he shouldnt be anywhere near a cabinet for the near future . He created his domain and its alias on the 23 december 2021 registered in Tempe Arizona , to promulgate himself to PM. He then stayed in cabinet for 7 months. A couple months would be fine for forward planning but for 7 months he made conflicted decisions , were they on behalf of the country or could he ,even subconsciously have made them to help his own goal of being PM. The situation should be checked .
There should be no question of Starmer be able to ask him at his first PM question time “you were fined on the same terms as boris for breaking the law . When are you going to resign.?”
A multi multi millionaire making conflicted decisions in the treasury , that would put big question in the mind of any person of the public, Nevermind an MP.
He should be removed from the list while his conflict and decisions are investigated
July 18, 2022
I don’t see a crisis, I see a political class inventing a crisis for political ends. It is deeply troubling to see this type of politics creep into party and State politics
We need a PM who confronts the crisis in freedom, liberty and democracy. I care not one jot about the economy. That issue will take of itself. It is not for politicians, parties, unions, activists and bureauacrats to try and exploit our lives for political gain in the way they are doing.
July 18, 2022
I’m with you on the economy.
While economies are important, it is not the be all and end all of the health of a nation and its people.
By health I don’t just mean the literal physical health either.
I detest the view of many who view people as economic units.
Mass immigration we are told is good for GDP, which it isn’t but even if it were it has cancelled out and destroyed so much more that is worth living and fighting for.
July 18, 2022
Agree – It see five woke, EU/UN Green loving candidates
July 18, 2022
The cost of living crisis is mainly caused by the cost of its major component – that of residential property, and accordingly, of rents and of debt repayments.
The bubble has been relentlessly pumped by the Tories for the benefit of their rentier class, and they are to blame.
July 19, 2022
Odd how property prices and rents are also high in major cities in Europe and across the world like in for example, Canada Australia and USA.
July 18, 2022
If we had a new leader who chose in effect to depoliticise the economy by appointing a Chancellor who (a) had no further political ambitions of his own and (b) was prepared to take a figurative bludgeon to Treasury orthodoxy, there may be scope for that leader to wave the banner for freedom, liberty and democracy in a high profile manner. None of the four “not Sunak” candidates are perfect, but any of them could make headway by following this approach. I hardly need spell out who should be given the keys to No 11 for this purpose.
July 18, 2022
A letter sent to our local newspaper, the Maidenhead Advertiser:
“Once again we have Theresa May holding forth about the failures and wrong doings of others without admitting her own culpability.
(Advertiser, July 14, page 8, “MP says trust must be earned”.)
As I pointed out in a previous letter, we only got lumbered with Boris Johnson as Prime Minister because she fell down on the job of Brexit.
(Viewpoint, June 30, “Mrs May was at fault for nominal Brexit”.)
Not least by losing her majority through an unnecessary general election allegedly held at the urging of the President of the EU Commission.
(The Observer, June 11 2017, “‘Drop hard Brexit plans’, leading Tory and Labour MPs tell May”.)
As for the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, these are just parts of what another Tory MP, Sir William Cash, had to say during a recent debate:
“… the Northern Ireland protocol had its origins in her Administration … The pass was sold during the previous Administration … ”
“I have heard the condemnations from the former Prime Minister, which I find to be completely unjustified in the circumstances.”
The Irish government and the EU professed concern about what goods might enter the EU Single Market across the Irish land border.
The obvious answer was for the UK to introduce export controls, as repeatedly suggested via these pages and directly over four years.
(Viewpoint, February 27 2018, “Easy solution to EU border conundrum”.)
Instead Mrs May agreed to the displacement activity of checking imports into the UK, rather than exports to the Irish Republic.
And it was upon that foundation laid by his predecessor that Boris Johnson created his own disastrous version of her protocol.”
July 18, 2022
Denis there’s no point in blaming Mrs May the EU or everyone else for the mess Lord Frost negotiated passed and Boris & Co signed off on. It’s there in black and white and am afraid that it doesn’t matter who becomes PM they are going to have to settle the matter, not by unilateral action, but at the table –
July 18, 2022
Firstly if she had done her job properly it would never have been down to Boris Johnson to finish it off.
Secondly what she left behind for him to finish off was already a mess, that was also in black and white.
July 18, 2022
Oh indeed it was May who made the job far more difficult for Johnson, but a really good organised Johnson would have rolled May’s disastrous actions back. The question here is – did Sunak stop Johnson completing the job?
July 18, 2022
@Sir Joe Soap +99
May was the real disaster in most of this.
July 18, 2022
As far as Johnson was concerned “completing the job” meant getting that fantastic trade deal he told us about.
From 1 minute in here, on Christmas Eve 2020:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9TyveDbMZc
âWe have completed the biggest trade deal yet, worth ÂŁ660 billion a year, a comprehensive Canada style free trade deal between the UK and the EU.â
In 2019 UK GDP was ÂŁ2169 billion, therefore ÂŁ660 billion = 30.4% of GDP.
In reality, his deal will be worth somewhere between 0% and 2% of GDP, and that was the price he was prepared to accept for reducing Northern Ireland to a sort of condominium with the EU.
July 18, 2022
The problem that he was presented with, was that he was running up against a deadline (of May’s making) of the next EU budget year which would have exposed the UK to significant additional membership costs and a deteriorating negotiating position.
July 18, 2022
Near the end of the ITV debate last night we found out for sure that two of the remaining candidates may be Conservatives but they are not Unionists. First Kemi Badenoch said that Brexit is done and it is time to move on, and the public are sick and tired of the Tories banging on about it, then Tom Tugendhat agreed with her.
I am not sure about Penny Mordaunt because of a report that she would keep the Irish Sea border.
I have sent her an email headed “Irish Sea border only solves half of the EU’s problem”, pointing out that:
“… goods produced within Northern Ireland, behind those formidable EU defences erected along its coast, would be free to cross the border into the Irish Republic and the rest of the EU Single Market. I estimate that in 2019 those locally produced goods made up nearly half of the goods that crossed the land border, and none of them will have been checked at the sea border. Therefore half of the problem must remain unsolved, unless it is also agreed that the province will be kept under swathes of EU laws in perpetuity, with automatic dynamic alignment with EU regulations and with oversight by the EU court and without any democratic input from anybody in the UK.”
July 18, 2022
It’s not in perpetuity – NI can ditch the entire protocol in 2024 if they want to.
July 18, 2022
You, and I, and also Boris Johnson, know that there is very little chance of that happening.
July 18, 2022
No Kemi. What we are fed up with is knowing we can do better outside the EU but because of lack of enthusiasm from our ministers we are stuck with a rubbish deal. We are fed up with the length of time it’s taking to sort things out and the threat in the background of being taken back in.
July 18, 2022
If Mr. Sunak is a candidate in the final round, will that not ensure the other wins? That might be the strategy of some of his present backers, setting him up to fail if they expect him to be against one or other they could accept? Perhaps too byzantine.
As for your remarks about Mr. Tugendhat, you do know he has been in the army, right?
People comment that the people’s blue Kemi is too young, failing to recognize that if you are good enough you are old enough. As for experience, the prime ministership offers on-the-job training – MacMillan’s “events” – so that will soon come.
Mrs. Truss looks tired and sad, she depresses me, and sounds unconvincing (liek when challening Mr. Sunak on tax) although there is perhaps more to her than meets the eye. Ms Mordaunt does not exactly have “something of the night” about her as A. Widdicombe might say but there is something off about her.
Vote for England, Sir John!
July 18, 2022
Tugenhadt hasn’t been in the Army, he’s been in the Territorials, not the same thing at all.
July 18, 2022
His reserve service has been quite short – but I’ll give the man credit for having been on operational tours.
July 19, 2022
Yes, agreed – but I’ve served with some exceptional officers – as well as some complete plonkers. We judged the man, not the rank.
July 18, 2022
I’ve been in the Army – doesn’t qualify me for high government (nor being a reservist in the Navy either)
July 18, 2022
@ Roy Grainger and IanT – so Mr. Tugendhat does not have all that much to offer then! Thank you both for your illuminating comments. I am in shock.
July 18, 2022
The EU’s grounds for retaliation will be much reduced if we pass new UK laws to protect their Single Market.
July 18, 2022
Denis, we must NOT make any laws in Britain to protect our enemies on continental Europe.
Taking a leaf out of their books, we must look out for No One! Britain First!
July 18, 2022
So do you want Northern Ireland fully restored to its proper position as part of the UK, or not?
Because if so you will want legislation to get through the Lords, which is packed with the EU’s friends.
And if we act unilaterally do you want to avoid disproportionate economic retaliation by the EU, or not?
Because if so you will want to avoid giving the EU any unnecessary excuse for economic retaliation.
July 18, 2022
MFD. Thumbs up to that!
July 18, 2022
Indeed Rishi is hugely unpopular with party members and voters. He has the wrong policies, a tax, borrow, print, inflate, piss down the drain socialist and a pusher of the insane net zero expensive energy lunacy too.
What an idiotic question on climate – after the first ever red warning the severe effects of Climate Change are clearly becoming apparent⊠the desire to induce irrational fears using the weather forecasts is certainly apparent!
Complete drivel and a biased, idiotic leading question from the questioner. All five candidates are wrong headed on expensive intermittent energy net zero. We should suspend it now ang get some sensible scientist to expose the climate con trick/religion.
The climate changes always has always will. The solutions pushed wind, solar, EVs, walking, cycling, hydrogen, walking, cycling, public transport⊠save little or no CO2 in world terms (it just exports it and many jobs with it) and CO2 is no a world thermostat anyway. Save the money and adapt as needed is the sensible way to go. China, India, Russia⊠will not (quite rightly) reduce CO2 anyway.
July 18, 2022
Lifelogic :
Agreed. Net Zero is :
â Pointless. There is no long-term correlation between CO2 levels and temperature and our contribution is just 1% of the global total. Chinaâs CO2 emissions per capita are 30% higher than the UKâs.
â Unnecessary. CO2 is plant food and at historically low levels and during the last ice age came very close to being too low for plants to survive.
â Unaffordable as technically impossible using renewables and electrification and hence the reason why this method has been chosen.
The Net Zero Strategy will eventually crash.
July 18, 2022
+1 – so obviously it is just a con trick bogus justification for every higher taxes and every more government.
Let’s all enjoy the lovely sunny July day today. At least we will not need to use much gas or electricity.
Prince William to give a speech on net zero in his attempt to out hypocrite his father I hear. So will he arrive by helicopter, private jet, a Range Rover or just by bicycle I wonder?
July 18, 2022
L/L. Yes who would have thought it? Hot in July! ! God, what a load of hyped up bull. Closing schools and working from home etc. What ever next? I am fed up hearing all the tosh. Are we going to stay at home if the temperature drops in the winter?
July 20, 2022
Prince William intervenes in politics almost as much as his brother, the only difference being that Prince Harry intervenes in US politics as well: he has called the American Constitution “bonkers” on US TV and just this week he has complained about decisions on abortion being made democratically by states instead of undemocratically by the US Supreme Court. As a monarchist, I am just hoping that (a) the Queen’s reign will go on for a long time yet and that (b), once it is over, there is a quick turnover and the Crown passes expeditiously to Prince George, whose political neutrality has so far been exemplary.
July 18, 2022
I doubt it. Net Zero isn’t really about the climate; it’s a political project. As the WEF makes clear here in its latest instructions to the western “democracies” it appears to control …… it’s about saving their definition of democracy (where the WEF acts as the Fat Controller).
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/07/green-energy-transition-democracy-economy/
July 18, 2022
So the greener the country, the freer that country is? Huh? What nonsense!
Reads like one of those cult messagesâŠâgive me all your money and you will be free!â
July 18, 2022
Thanks for the link Donna. The sheer gall of the WEF to say they want to defend democracy! And the completely spurious link to climate change.
July 18, 2022
Spot On
July 19, 2022
There is no long term correlation between temperature rise and CO2 levels? Really?
As stated before this is plain wrong. I suggest you look at average global temperatures versus CO2 levels from the 1850 onwards (the Mauna Loa observatory stats are most commonly used). I think you will find they are a remarkably clear match over the long term.
The reason I say around 1850 is that before then we cannot be entirely sure about global average temperature levels because records are not reliable enough, and using something like an ice core only tells you the temperature at a particular place. It’s obviously still scientifically useful, but the most solid data is from the last 170 years. The correlation is rock solid.
July 18, 2022
âWeâll learn the wrong lessons from Covid
There is a danger that the narrow inquiry will tell us little about what we should have done differentlyâ
Sunetra Gupta today in the Telegraph exactly right as usual. Though perhaps rather too polite for my tastes – also as usual.
July 18, 2022
+1
The countries left with power to manufacture and grow will be the ones who will supply the âgreenâ world.
What incredible power that will give them!
July 18, 2022
Agreed Lifelogic 100%
July 18, 2022
Lifelogic. I donât think Kemi believes all the climate change crap. She was being cautious not to upset the zealots by stating that there is no point in crashing our economy to achieve the impossible.
July 18, 2022
Russia’s resources are so enormous she can supply both China and India with many of their needs.Supply infrastructure to reorient trade away from Europe and towards Asia is being developed all the time.Goods are now starting to move along the International North South Trade Corridor(INSTC)which connects India and Russia via Iran and the Caspian Sea;goods are also moving east-west across the Caspian from China through Turkmenistan/Kazakhstan to Iran to Turkey and the Balkans.Construction also continues on the support infrastructure in the Russian Arctic for the Northern Sea route which China is very keen to start using.
These new trade corridors will not use the dollar(let alone sterling) or require the services of Wall St or the City or make much use of the English language.The Russian and Chinese proprietary payment systems are now linked up-who needs SWIFT?!The new New World Order is coming into being.Russia and Iran are absolutely crucial to this process,hence the warmongering by the decaying west against these two.
It looks like one of the west’s main tools for this ,the Ukrainian puppet regime, is falling apart,judging by the news over the past two days.The Russian,Iranian and Turkish presidents are meeting in Tehran this week.
July 18, 2022
That debate last evening, which I just about managed to endure, was more like a game show than a serious political event.
And not a very good one at that!
July 18, 2022
Agreed, that’s pretty much as I saw it.
And of course we the general public actually have no say in who will be our next Prime Minster.
July 18, 2022
The electorate at large has no say in who will be the Leader of any political Party [who may then go on to become Prime Minister] – it uses its power at General Elections.
July 18, 2022
As we’ve just seen with May & Boris Government is a team game and, in fact, the team is just as important, if not more so, than the occupant of No.10.
The question I would like to ask each contestant is “who would you choose to be the main ministers”.
July 18, 2022
Interesting that a judge gave a cyclist who caused death by dangerous cycling at speed on a pavement a one year jail sentence whereas a motorist might have got seven years for a similar offence. Rod Liddle suggests the judge thought he should get a 1/7 reduction as the judge thought the cyclist was at least trying to save the world.
But cycling fuelled as it is by energy inefficient human food does no such thing. Also it up to about 25 times more dangerous for the cyclist per mile in cities so not very good for âprotectingâ the NHS or riders either.
July 18, 2022
Current cyclists in the Tour de France need between 5000 and 8000 calories per day.
July 18, 2022
So up to 10KWH food that is probably taking at least 3 times that in energy to produce, delivery, package and cooks this food. So 30kwh – enough for an efficient electric car to go ~ 150 miles with five people in at similar speeds. Though perhaps not up all those hills!
July 20, 2022
Thats a lot of lettuce
July 18, 2022
We know why he gets support. The MPs are as frit as he is about EU muscle because they are weak, easier to accept the status quo than strike out into uncharted waters.
It demonstrates once again how out of touch they are from their core vote.
As a group of people claiming to be able to lead the country, desperate.
July 18, 2022
I could not have said that any better Nigl . They are frit, unlike my fathers generation!
July 18, 2022
Nigl
Well said. Surely by now you would think that the penny should have finally dropped.
But alas it has not and the so called minimum standards, and experience for selection to represent the party and its constituents seems to have disappeared.
There is about 50 tory members you can safely say are Conservative. As for the rest they are just making up the numbers as they seem to have no understanding of what we the electorate expectations are.
Whether it is the standard of the degrees they hold or just plain ignorance on democracy or life who knows.
Central Office had better have a clear out and get people who understand what being a real Conservative is all about and get the to write a new job specification and requirements for consideration for selection. These two TV debates were embarrassing bordering on pitiful on the calibre of so called tory politicians. If they were the best of the best, God help us.
July 18, 2022
I’m sorry to say I didn’t watch the debate after last time. As it’s summer and it was a hot day I thought that walking my dog at 7.30 was more important. From what I am reading here I didnt miss much and the country is on a hiding to nothing. It is despairing stuff.
July 18, 2022
I haven’t watched either of the debates, and wonât. I am old enough to have heard it all before, many times,in previous elections. Not to mention that the Media has a plan to catch out any of the candidates they don’t think are suitable.
I have noticed that there were not many complaints about Rishi, when he was doling out furlough etc. but now the bill has to be paid, it is a different matter.
July 18, 2022
Cheshire Girl. Yes. I agree. I also noticed that however much money for furlough was promised, Labour always said it should be more. They are shouting the loudest when it comes to the country’s debt.
July 18, 2022
+1 you missed very little Truss is very, very wooden, Smarmy Sunak would be an electoral disaster as he caused the tax, energy and inflation problem through gross incompetence and has serious green card, manifesto ratting and tax avoidance issues.
Kemi the best of a bad lot but it looks unlikely that she will get though. Whoever get through with Sunak will surely beat him if they do not crack up and give in like last time. All five wrong on net zero but perhaps this will change once the electorate are the party members.
July 18, 2022
It is ridiculous that the candidates are doing this when it is MP’s and then the ‘party’ that will decide!
None of them are doing their reputations much good and Rishi is confirming that he is a CGI robot controlled by WIFI (although some suggest Boris was similarly controlled).
The media, of course, will haunt a new Leader in years to come if they then differ from what has been said today – as they did on Sunday regarding something Ms Mordaunt said in 2016!
July 18, 2022
I happened to see Mordaunt on TV yesterday morning and she basically got called out for saying something that simply wasn’t true back in 2016 and attempted to waffle her way out of it by basically attempting to say blue is red.
Claiming that the UK having a veto over something and making a conscious choice (in Westminster) not to use it is exactly the same as not having a veto at all defies credibility.
July 18, 2022
Perhaps it was a walk on the Mynd where I also perambulated rather than watch that fake show.
If as Farage has speculated, the two finalists are Sunak and Truss, I hope Party members would resign rather than vote for that given choice.
July 18, 2022
Why did the Tories have to do these ridiculous televised public debates. Only those in the Westminster bubble get to vote until the last two. To see our prospective leaders tearing into each other has done nothing but harm, filled the opposition with joy and the media with a feeding frenzy. None of the other parties offered to put themselves on a display to tear into each other. Only when down to the last two should it be public and then only to tell members what they as an individual will do, not what the other one wonât do. (The Starmer Principle).
Rishi is leading because most in the bubble think he will win and are securing their future positions in the next government. If he does win it will be a disaster for the party and the country.
Trouble is I donât see a natural leader in any of them.
I voted for Boris as the leader of the party and I voted for the party in the general election. Only to have my vote overturned by a successful media campaign to bring him down and a spineless team, including Dishi Rishi behind him. They were behind him so he couldnât see the knives. I wonât get to vote on the next leader. Not only is it a waste of time, as the media will rule. but I have let my worthless membership lapse.
July 18, 2022
TV debates can give MPs the opportunity to reflect on each candidate’s relative popularity with the wider public (always assuming they can find a poll that they can trust!).
July 18, 2022
With the greatest of respect, that is nonsense. The MPâs never gave a dam about the public view when they demolished the elected leader. Why bother to consider them now.
July 18, 2022
It is so they can appear with it ansd like those TV programmes where someone is ‘Booted off’ by the Great British Public – could it be Love island or I’m a Celebrity – Get me out of here?
July 18, 2022
Mr Sunak has presided over the highest tax burden for seventy years. He could be honest and admit he got it wrong and reduce taxes.
Or he could continue the policy of taking too much tax then handing a little back in an expensive to run exercise of sending lump sum payments to some of the worst hit (but not all)
Frankly it’s an economic policy from the madhouse. Sunak should be nowhere near Government let alone Prime Minister.
July 18, 2022
And also over the biggest economic downturn for a century.
Compare the chart here:
https://www.cityam.com/economic-green-shoots-to-coax-bank-of-england-into-steepest-rate-rise-since-independence/
with a 25% drop in the first half of 2020, and the chart here:
https://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/spending_chart_1800_1950UKb_17c1li011mcn__UK_Gross_Domestic_Product_GDP_History
with a slightly greatly percentage drop in the years after 1920.
But I do not blame Rishi Sunak for the emergence of Covid-19.
July 18, 2022
I am afraid I already despair of the next administration. More of the same it seems.
Tax cuts are all very well (and welcome) but there has been no inspiration in what is being said, each candidate is too scared to truly rock the boat and set a different direction where we expect the individual to take responsibility.
No General Election as we are following the same manifesto – help me lord. More outsourced net zero – more overspending on public projects – more identity politics – more money thrown at an unreformed NHS paid for being not doing – no reduction in the number of MPs and Lords – more Mayors and devolution without the proportionate reduction in costs at the centre – no divergence from the EU – no food and energy security by increased home production – Barnett continues.
July 18, 2022
Illegal immigration pulls to be continued – legal immigration continues to be encouraged – housing prices continue to rise.
July 18, 2022
Sunak. A classic case of style over substance. Dishy Rishi.
July 18, 2022
So reading between the lines, you rule out your vote for Rishi (rightly), Tugendhat and presumbaly Badenoch (since her role was not a “senior” ministerial position).
That leaves Truss and Mordaunt.
Please, please do NOT vote for Mordaunt.
I’d prefer Badenoch to Truss – the risk of a remainer… and Truss just doesn’t chime well with voters, as we can see from the debate polling. With the right team around her Badenoch can formulate a plan over the summer. I hope she’s talking to people like about being part of that team.
July 18, 2022
Yes Sir John I had forgotten Freeports promises from Rishi who is risk averse because of his own wealth and can never have empathy for Red Wall voters, Blue collar and blue rinse voters and White van man and normal ordinary working people – even his colleagues.
You can spot career climbers by how long they stay before they are found wanting and a sad state of affairs when MPs have little or no conviction for who they represent.
Rishi has made a hash of his Brexit promises and whilst Covid torpedoed plans he has zero empathy with basic risk – reward economic growth and an affinity with his next career expectations just like BLair.
July 18, 2022
By the way, the other reason they may be voting for Rishi is for exactly the reasons you mentioned – his reluctance to do anything about the EU means ongoing alignment which paves the way back. Many of them are remainers after all. The (warped) logic being: if you can’t have a Remainer, have a scared Leaver.
He is the establishment figure in more ways than one.
July 18, 2022
+1
July 18, 2022
So we are not for Rishi. Me too, I find him too BOE Treasury think to be pro an entrepreneurial UK with low tax incentives for wealth creation. Far too more of the same. Based on last nights hustings I will go for Liz Truss. She has a good track record on trade and foreign affairs. She comes across as being what it says on the tin.
July 18, 2022
The tin usually says ‘open carefully, avoiding cutting hands’.
July 19, 2022
I dread to think what her controllers have put in THAT tin for her to read verbatim!
July 18, 2022
Your second paragraph tells us that Mr Sunak intends to implement the deal Boris struck with the EU, rather than try to change it unilaterally. I sincerely hope Mr Sunak wins, and he would do well to rid the Conservative party of those who want to break international Treaties
July 18, 2022
This may interest you:
https://committees.parliament.uk/oralevidence/10515/pdf/
“I had never been asked to consider the consistency of the Bill with the protocol until you put the question to me, but I have spent the past few days considering it. The short answer is that, no, it does not violate international law. It does not violate the protocol. I have heard people who should know better saying that it does, but I am afraid that they are wrong. They are obviously not international lawyers.”
Personally I care less about international law than about our national unity and I would prefer for us to endure a short period of disgrace than to see the country broken up through the operation of the protocol.
But I’ve said this before, at a time when it still seemed possible that Boris Johnson would act:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/10/18/time-for-a-better-national-debate/#comment-1268966
“But while I care about our international reputation … I would prefer that temporary national disgrace to the present perpetual national humiliation.”
July 18, 2022
Our nation has entrusted magistrates to decide what is right throughout much of our history. They weigh up and choose the best outcome with qualified advisers to guide them where needed.
Our PM needs principally to be a good decision taker.
The selection process is entangled in arguments about charisma, popularity, toughness, experience, body language, clothing appearance, odd words spoken and much else that doesnât matter.
The best decision taker chooses the team to deliver brighter solutions.
July 18, 2022
And in other news, on the same day as it is reported more business back up loans are in default than admitted, the Treasury is to announce another âsmall business loan schemeâ.
Yet again an uninformed Treasury succumbing to political pressure that will result in more money being wasted.
There is no supply side problem with plenty of liquidity indeed with large reserves and deposit bases loan providers are keen to do business. However the price has to reflect the risk. And despite armchair critics you can only judge that when you see how your own Book is working.
We regularly read from uninformed politicians about the need for more providers to disrupt established players with fintech the answer. Guess what one by one they are falling by the wayside as they find managing risk is not as easy as they thought.
HMG doesnât have to worry. Itâs only tax payers money and that never runs out.
July 18, 2022
Isn’t the point that most Conservative party MPs aren’t Conservatives. Westminster is comprised of varying shades of socialism. The whole apparatus is unrepresentative of the British people. Perhaps it is all part of the WEF’s plan to eliminate the nation state and replace with a single world government?
July 18, 2022
[…] finally, Sir John Redwood has weighed in on the side of the Sunak critics in this morningâs diary entry. Itâs quite acerbic and more to the point than the Truss accusations. I wonder if his colleagues […]
July 18, 2022
Liz Truss. Maybot 2
July 18, 2022
Also the candidate most likely to start WWIII,given the Foreign Office’s Russian fantasies.The same fantasies they have been harbouring for at least a hundred years.I started reading Peter Fleming’s 1963 “The Fate of Admiral Kolchak” over the weekend which covers the British government’s involvement in trying to promote hopeless candidates as would-be Russian leaders after the bolshevik coup.The same bungled subterfuge and cluelessness they showed more recently with Navalny.
(Kolchak declared himself Supreme Ruler of Russia from a base in Siberia-he was captured and executed by the Red Army).
July 18, 2022
HE (Sunak) didn’t want to do the things listed in Sir John’s second paragraph. Or those controlling him didn’t want him to? I strongly suspect it’s the latter.
Why else would a supposed right of centre MP who loudly claimed to be a Brexit-supporting, small State, low-tax Thatcherite suddenly morph into a Blair/Brown tribute act who is making decisions which will ensure we don’t benefit greatly from Brexit.
It looks as though the Truss-bot will get to the run-off, since (sadly) CON MPs simply haven’t got the guts to promote the only one of the candidates who talks human, understands that massive reform is needed and they haven’t got 10 years in which to do it incrementally: Kemi Badenoch.
July 18, 2022
Careerist politicians looking to keep their snouts in the trough and networking globally for the next step in their career. Likely as not in some supranational organisation.
I hear some of the big charity concerns pay well for ex-politicians!!
I doubt many are considering the nation at all, it’s not the interest of globalists so Sunak’s approach is fine by them.
I take the point Sir John makes about a candidate coming into the PM position without first having had a senior ministerial role. However, I have to ask what good has it done having such experience given those that have been in Number 10.
We need someone with a deep rooted passion for this country and its people. All we ever seem to get is those who put others first and instead of standing up to those who are hell bent on destroying everything, bend the knee to them.
There isn’t such a candidate.
Certainly not ‘diversity built Britain’ Sunak
July 18, 2022
I thought Rishi left an open goal when he talked about his policies leading to more investment. How can companies invest when the means to do so are being taxed away? Perhaps he was talking about international investment, by companies with a competitive advantage in that they escape corporation tax by creative accounting. Maybe UK businesses don’t exist in his world, except as entities he can mug.
I did watch the debate, as although the final decision will be by conservative members and I don’t qualify, I wanted to get a flavour of the candidates who might end up as PM. It sounds like it was better than the C4 debate which I didn’t watch.
July 18, 2022
What we are seeing is the begining of the end of the conservative party and if the events of the last few months are anything to go by, it will split and that can’t happen fast enough. Lack luster does’nt describe it.
July 19, 2022
The best post of them all.
+1
July 18, 2022
Train companies urging customers not to travel, schools urging pupils not to turn up, GP surgeries closed for the sick… we’re really in a state.
Then we have Sunak, who printed money and threw it stupidly away in 2020-21 trying to tell us we’re living in a fairy tale world by merely trying to avoid a recession by correcting his failures. He’s a man of deep contradictions-supposedly anti-EU but wants to follow and cow-tow to them, supposedly low tax but has tax at its highest level in 70 years. Supposedly man of the people but with a green card and non-dom low tax wife. He make Starmer seem consistent and forthright. This guy will sink the Conservatives for good.
July 18, 2022
It is staggering how much emphasis MPs put on the next election when considering the qualities of their next leader, when the country is in a right mess (not all of our own making) and who ever wins will have to hit the ground running on Sept’ 6th.
Sunak is completely under the spell of the Treasury as you have described so well Sir John. Penny is no more effective than a reed in the wind and talks with a forked tongue. Only Truss has anything like the right experience to tackle a mammoth task from day one as the other two would fall under the influence of our EU loving Civil Service due to their lack of front line experience.
These young careerist MPs are only thinking of their next meal ticket
July 18, 2022
My worry is that he is also under the influence of the globalists. Was his recent visit to the WEF to get his instructions?
July 18, 2022
I completely agree with your analysis of Sunak.
He was overtaxing the country and I would like to know just how much extra is being brought into the Treasury this year by everything that has happened.
For example, we have seen a very large increase in energy and fuel costs but almost nothing has been done to alleviate this. Per month, how much extra revenue is this bringing into the Treasury ? Duty is fixed at ÂŁ0.5295 a litre, after the 5p reduction, but I would also have capped road fuel VAT at the level it was when petrol and diesel were around the ÂŁ1.30 mark as the extra VAT revenue is effectively a windfall tax.
Similarly the 5% rate of VAT on home energy costs must be bringing in a further windfall which households can ill afford. Then, of course, we have the extra VAT brought in via the current very high rate of inflation and the unnecessary hike in National Insurance.
Nobody wants an irresponsible round of tax cuts but some tax adjustments could certainly be made to help households in the current difficult situation which will become much worse from October..
July 18, 2022
Rishi is the problem and not the solution for the Conservatives and he will drive them and us into choppy waters and onto the rocks blissfully smiling.
PS is the moderator on the nightshift Sir John?
July 18, 2022
Rishi was quite correct to anticipate EU retaliation on the measures you describe. He probably realised that as soon as that happened his colleagues would want to cave in. He also faced an environment in which even free market Conservative MPs never argued for lower spending. As distinguished economist roger Bootle points out, talking about tax cuts + more money for defence + more money for the NHS without spending cuts (as all the candidates except Rishi are doing) is magical thinking. I think Rishi will have the most credibility with the public and therefore be best placed to stop the Lanour-snp leftist nightmare.
July 18, 2022
That is assuming Kemi is knocked out. She is certainly saying some sensible things.
July 18, 2022
We are in the minority, but I agree with you about Rishi.
July 18, 2022
Never mind about Roger Bootle, look at what John Redwood says. Reducing taxes stimulates the economy, more products are made in this country, reducing our imports and strengthening our exports. As a result you get more tax revenue from lower rates.
I might add, more people working more profitably gives them purpose, makes them happier and reduces the load on the NHS.
I usually regard growth as a politician’s aspiration to avoid sorting out government waste. In the case of the UK however, there is ample scope given the amount we import (Can we end our dependency on China please?).
Sunak has no credibility with me, and seems to have joined the left-wing cause rather than acting to stop it.
July 18, 2022
Sunak. Man of the people with ÂŁ35 coffee mug/Leaver cow-towing to the EU/low tax at heart and at home but high tax for everyone else/25% CT to encourage corporate investment!/inflated fuel prices pulling higher taxes in to lower inflation.
He’s an innumerate contradictory mess.
July 18, 2022
The Conservative Party needs the next PM to be the most populist out of this bunch, to get re-elected. Populism is the name of the game for western right wing political parties now. Which candidate scores highest on the Trump scale?
“The actual policies that populists present to address crisis are typically simplistic and gloss over the many complexities of policymaking. The solutions are less about having a convincing answer to a real challenge than about convincing supporters that, unlike the establishment elite, populists see and acknowledge the crisis and that their strong leadership alone can fix it. Once populists have defined a national crisis, these intermediary institutions become obstacles that stand in the way of solving the crisis, things to be bulldozed over in the name of getting things done.” https://institute.global/policy/populists-power-around-world
A populist front man/woman may convince the electorate; but, how do we know that the establishment elite; in the shadows, funded by foreign dark money, are not actually running the show for their own world domination purposes?
July 19, 2022
And to think that the EU scorned such ‘populist’ politicians.
July 18, 2022
The economic literacy of the leadership candidates is so low that it doesn’t look good for the future of the country
July 18, 2022
Do you think Labour have lots of shadow ministers with superior economic literacy bill?
July 18, 2022
indeed the economic literacy of the MPs. How many read and want to take notice of Sir John – an experienced and safe pair of hands?
July 18, 2022
…..He did not want to cut VAT on energy……
Perhaps this is a good idea as it is better to have low unavoidable taxes than high taxes that can be avoided by legal or illegal means. The Laffer curve is surely based on this idea because it becomes profitable if high taxes can be dodged in any way (in other words “having a laff at the government”.
Gordon Brown used this tactic a lot by introducing numerous “stealth” taxes so maybe his adviser Ed Balls was not as daft as he sometimes looked on television.
Also, on energy, it might have been better for the government to have absorbed the daily gas and electricity charges which amount to almost ÂŁ300 per year partly in place of the electricity discount of ÂŁ400 which would additionally have had the effect of reducing the price cap and the consequent rate of inflation.
July 18, 2022
I find it very hard to believe that the candidates are totally devoid of what the people of this country expect.
Boris maybe for all the wrong reasons had a bit of a WOW factor about him. But his decisions, actions never matched the talk.
In some ways these debate “quiz shows” highlight just how divided the party is and has given the media so many open goals to score damaging points, not only showing the damage but also the broken areas for them to feed upon. In the mind of the electorate perception is all there is and for us at the moment it does not look good at all now or in the future.
July 18, 2022
Something I’ve mentioned here several times.
It surely cannot come as a surprize, given the quantity and style of federalist legislation passed by Tory MPs.
We still know very little about the candidates, and even most MPs – why aren’t we told of their allegiances and political outlook. Belonging to the Tories or labour often does not show their true political leanings or potential.
If the candidates have no plan for the first 10 days of their government, then they are indeed failing us — They know what the issues are. If they currently have no idea on how to manage them then they are failing us and expect to get voted in on image and PR alone.
Time for a new system.
July 18, 2022
Although I think that Truss would make a fair MP, and be an improvement on the dreadful Johnson, I’m underwhelmed by her presentational skills. She is, I gather, another MP whose political career owes much to the A-list. CCHQ really does need to improve its selection and training processes.
July 18, 2022
If in doubt check it out so search wiki Truss achiever meritocracy not media presenter. No debate tonight as they have listened to the public’s view for a change who are now just sick of politics in TV.
July 18, 2022
Typo in first sentence; I meant ‘PM’
July 18, 2022
That just leaves Liz Truss to win the contest then! I think she will do well, economically sound. Plenty of courage and tenacity for the job. A first class administrator, with a good team supporting her, will have the energy to get sensible initiatives up and running, and will not be easily swayed by Treasury and Civil Service.
July 18, 2022
She could actually be the female Trump.
July 19, 2022
I hope so – but she needs an extensive training programme of presentation training before the general election. Starmer isn’t that good on his feet – but he’s better than her.
July 18, 2022
Yes we need a government plan to save us from a cost of living crisis entirely, 100% caused by appalling government policies on the covid scam, absurd and destructive green agenda and gross provocation of Russia.
Mr Redwood the cost of living crisis is a deliberate attempt to create enough chaos and misery that the people will accept the Great Reset slavery. If anyone doesn’t realise that by now they must be so propagandised or brain dead there is no hope for them.
July 18, 2022
Who would I want as PM? None of them.
July 18, 2022
Indeed Alan.
July 18, 2022
Sir
Mr Sunak was the boss of HM Treasury …. but it is perhaps more likely HM Treasury was the boss of him.
https://www.hmtreasurycareers.co.uk/about-us/role-of-hm-treasury/
“At HM Treasury, we influence policy across all government departments. Our work touches every aspect of everyday life. And you donât need to be an economist to help us do it. ”
So ….. you don’t need to be an economist. That explains alot.
“HM Treasury is the governmentâs economic and finance ministry. We maintain control over public spending, decide how money is raised from taxpayers, set the direction of the UKâs economic policy and work to achieve strong and sustainable economic growth.”
“We maintain control ….” …. and all along I was under the impression Parliament maintained control.
“Our specific priorities are:
* reducing the deficit and rebalancing the economy
* spending taxpayersâ money responsibly and ensuring value for money
* creating a simpler, fairer tax system â alongside a well-functioning welfare system
* creating stronger and safer banks
* making corporate taxes more competitive
* making it easier for people to access and use financial services
* improving regulation of the financial sector to protect customers and the economy”
Yeah right.
July 18, 2022
Most Tory MPs (you, Sir John are obviously an exception) are sheep. And they are easily impressed by authority. So Sunak being the former Chancellor means that they believe he is an economic genius and that the membership will come round to supporting him in the end. So they follow him like lapdogs hoping for some ministerial crumbs from his table once he is PM. They are wrong and you are right: Sunak will not win the members’ vote.
I am glad you are finally criticising Sunak directly, as I have been urging you to do for the last few years, rather than elliptically by castigating the Treasury. Maybe you should have done so sooner…? But better late than never, and your comments are all absolutely spot on.
My suggestion to you is this: given that I suspect most Tory MPs do not proactively visit your website on a daily basis, you should create an email (or WhatsApp) list of them all and send them your most important opinion pieces – such as this one today!!
I do wish one of the candidates would declare that you will be their Chancellor. You are the only Tory MP I trust for the job!
July 18, 2022
A glorious day in Summer and people have been told to be afraid!!
Shut in their pens the silly sheep are cowering from the heat.
The shepherdâs grin is wolffish when he hears them bleat,
âShepherd, shepherd save us. Weâll do what you say
Just keep us in the dark and make the terror go awayâ!
July 18, 2022
Sir John,
From the way you describe Mr Sunak he sounds like an EU plant. I find it hard to believe he was ever a leaver. There can be no doubt that he embodies the triumph of style over substance.
This entire leadership circus could have been avoided if the PM had just stuck to the manifesto, stood up to the EU, and not fallen for the climate nonsense. It would also have helped if he had remembered that he was Prime Minister of the UK and not the UK(raine).
Now it is up to the conservatives to choose the least worst option.
July 18, 2022
Thank you Sir John, for again speaking COMMON SENSE!
I hope your fellow MPs, and then your party members, follow your advice.
(Interesting that Lord Frost is backing Liz Truss. He is also worth listening to.)
July 18, 2022
The irony of having the government telling the voters that it’s budget accounts are the same as a household; spending equals taxes plus borrowing, and the deficit must be reduced; is that they believe it. Trying to tell them that the government creates and issues ( spends) new money every day, regardless of tax or borrowing income, is a big waste of time.
Rishi is the only PM candidate who is spinning this line (known as the noble lie in mmt terms) he may actually believe it. It looks like the voters believe him according to Oddschecker 11 to 10.
July 18, 2022
I don’t think any of them are good enough. I could ring round my mates and have half a dozen better candidates in an afternoon. Kemi closest to being decent, but still a long way off. Rishi should be laughed out of politics he is so crap. So I am not optimistic. Presumably a new party will have to emerge. Having a blue labour party and a red labour party is not democracy.
July 18, 2022
So Alok Sharma thinks the next PM has to deal with net zero. Why doesn’t he preach to his native country, India, where he was born? They are the third largest emitters of CO2. Leave us alone.
July 18, 2022
The usual Redwood lie: âthe polls all show he will loseâ, apart from the Opinium poll of Tory CUP members. In that respect the ConservativeHome survey of 850-900 CH website readers might not even be as good as the 17/07 JL Partners poll of 4,400 Conservative voters.
Isnât it incredible that Sir John does not appear to know the difference between a poll and a survey?
Reply Seems I got it right as he did lose
July 19, 2022
Oops, I had not realised that Rishi Sunak had been eliminated from the race đ€Ș
July 18, 2022
Here’s a letter that I’ve sent to various newspapers, perhaps one of them will print it:
“On July 21 2021 the government issued a Command Paper on Northern Ireland, which included proposals for new UK laws to protect the EU Single Market.
A year later and those new laws still do not exist, indeed they are no more than a gleam in the eye of Liz Truss as she pushes her Bill through the Commons.
And even if that measure, the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, gets through the new Tory Prime Minister may chicken out in the same way as Boris Johnson.
It should be emphasised that the Irish sea border is not only an inefficient, but more importantly an ineffective, method of protecting the EU Single Market.
Ineffective, because about half of the goods crossing the land border have not been imported into Northern Ireland, they are produced within the province.
It was always a stupid idea, a displacement activity, to focus checks on our imports when any potential problems for the EU would arise from our exports.
If the EU is genuinely concerned about the integrity of their Single Market they should positively welcome a shift to a sensible system of export controls.”
July 18, 2022
It seems that Kemi agrees with Rishi except for a ? fraud but she is a battler.Penny is impressive and can hold herself well.I seem to remember you congratulating her on a good HC speech a couple of years ago.
July 18, 2022
Pursuing the Net Zero Strategy will eventually crash the economy and social harmony with expensive and intermittent energy leading to fuel, food and travel rationing.
So it will be reversed unless we continue to be ruled by the climate activists who as communists will always believe that the ends justifies the means no matter how many deaths along the way as history has shown.
July 18, 2022
Rishi said he wants to get a grip on inflation as its causing the higher cost of living,eroding pensions and savings. The Conservatives haven’t been bothered about savings and pensions beening eroded since 2009.
Why is Rishi bothered now, he could have done something when it got the chancellors job to stop the erosion of savings and pensions. Well what did he do?Nothing.
July 18, 2022
Oh look, we already have a system for export controls:
https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2022/07/18/millions-more-spent-on-export-paperwork-this-year
“Brexit export certificates cost over ÂŁ26m this year”
But they are for exports from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, not from Northern Ireland to the Irish Republic.
Obviously I made a mistake all those years ago when I joined UKIP, I should have consulted Boris Johnson and he would have advised me to join GBIP instead. And at least two of these PM candidates could not care less.
July 18, 2022
All the candidates say that they are now brexiteers and support the ideals of sovereignty and self determinationâŠ.but they all want to keep us shackled to the EU institutions, the Council of Europe ECHRs, the world economics of the UN World Economic Forum WEP and the policies of the UN IPCC Net-Zero
The king is dead; long live the kingâŠ.weâve replace one overlord with another
The conservative party is no more, its MPs are completely sold on the lunacy beliefs of globalisation, immigration and the green revolutionâŠwe need a new party
July 19, 2022
The last para says it all.
July 18, 2022
“The Tory leadership race: a 40C fever dream where 0.2% of the UK decide our next leader”
Hannah Jane Parkinson (google it). Can you imagine any other liberal democracy accepting such a situation, its citizens would be out on the streets protesting. Not only can 100% of us not elect our Head of State, 99.8% of us can’t even elect our Head of Government.
July 18, 2022
Sir John you must at last realise, or confess on here, that you are becoming last man or woman standing as a Conservative. The Party is probably doomed to wither away at next GE. I think you will need to stand as Ind and build a fresh Party. I see you very lonely on the opposite benches, with a few old characters and some ‘lucky’ careerists who got through the meltdown. Determining who says what and will carry it out will be a minefield of hoax and lies. UK politics becoming a banana republic and just as dodgy.
July 18, 2022
The CP MPs will want to leave the CP members with 2 WEF candidates from which they must make their final selection.
The only possible way to prevent this happening is for each local CP Association to hold their own vote and inform their MP of the result in the hope they are democrats and take notice of the result.
July 18, 2022
The fact that the CP selected C4 for their leadership debate demonstrates clearly the party they have become.
July 18, 2022
“In the case of a Leader of the Opposition winning a General election who has not been a past Minister they come in after years of planning how to run a government advised by people in their party who have done it in the past.”
But that is not personal experience.
If it can be done using the experience of others by Opposition politicians, then a member of the party in power is better placed to do the same, since they have a larger pool of people available to them with such experience.
And you don’t formulate that over ten years! Any aspect of a plan that’s 10 years old is almost certainly redundant – either superseded by events or simply adopted by the government of the day.
In the end, it comes down to what the plan is – and the recent problem has been that the plan has been poor (and the execution worse).
Badenoch has ministerial experience, although not a SoS role – and so many who are up for leadership don’t exactly cover themselves in glory in such roles, but they are rewarded for failure due to “experience”. The point, for me, is that she has the right plan.
July 18, 2022
+ 1
And the job on offer is not a president, but a primus inter pares prime minister. Boris picked a team weaker than he was and it showed: the new leader should not make a like mistake.
July 18, 2022
Well said. I agree with everything.
July 18, 2022
I see all the candidates have now endorsed the nutty green stuff encouraged by Carrie.
Shutting UK businesses, forcing production to other countries which are far less clean than here, and importing their output, does nothing but pushing up net world pollution. It is absolute madness.
Why has Kemi backtracked? who has been putting pressure on her?
This is not democracy, nobody out in the real world agrees with this nonsense, its a complete creation of the chattering classes.
July 19, 2022
As our kind host stated a while back, some 500 MP support the ruinous, Climate Change Act. Many of them Tories.
July 18, 2022
They are not listening to us, are they, Tory members and voters wanted Boris, he wasnât perfect but who is? They thought they knew better and ditched the man who gave the party an 80 seat majority.
We members say anyone but Sunak, although Iâm not keen on Mordaunt either. Any MP hoping to ride on Sunakâs coat tails into the cabinet is going to come smack up against reality pretty soon.
The party needs to have a serious look at its candidate selection process. Currently there are too many liberals masquerading as Tories, and they are all swayed by the Labour/EU loving media. No other explanation as to why they gave into a fit of hysterics and committed regicide.
All that was required was to support the PM and the media would have run out of steam. Pathetic fools, Iâm done with them.
July 19, 2022
+1
July 19, 2022
In 1997 two men who had never had any experience whatever of holding high office became elected as Prime Minister and Chancellor. Did their inexperience materially hinder Tony Blair and Gordon Brown? I think not.
To govern is to choose. It doesn’t matter IMHO about the experience of holding high office. The learning and experience from the school of life and hard knocks is far more important, as is intelligence, determination, and belief in Conservative principles. I am a Kemi supporter therefore.
July 19, 2022
There is only one candidate that seems to believe in fundamental principles and who is willing to state inconvenient truths, even if they upset some people.
That is Kemi Badenoch. Vote for her please, John.
July 19, 2022
The real problem is the majority of MP’s ( all parties) who end up governing the country have no real understanding of how the majority of voters think and have never had a real job outside the political sphere.
There are three unaddressed issues
The war in Ukraine which the UK is spending billions on and leading us to WW3.
The the drive to Net zero and the con this is as we will just import the CO2 generating products from other countries with not CO2 generating restrictions.
The immigration problem ( legal and illegal) and how to reduce.
( UK residents kicked out of hotels to accommodate illegal immigrants an example)
The above pushing up the cost of living for the average worker with no green card and no non-DOM wife. wil be made much worse by a tax increase. A rise for some will not be noticed even not seen at all.
It use to be Estate Agents with a bad name for trust. They have now fallen behind Politicians(not all) and the Media (again not all)