One of the most important things a PM does is choose people for senior Cabinet roles. These choices are best based on talent, energy and understanding of the jobs concerned. Whilst of course the overall balance of the Cabinet has to take into account wings of the party, geographical spread and loyalties these should be secondary issues to the more normal matters in selection that are related toĀ being able to doing the job well. Cabinet members do not get a phase in or training period when they first join. They are expected from Day1 to be able to make decisions, defend their department and show knowledge of their topics regardless of their background and experience.
The PM should have regular review meetings with the senior Cabinet members one to one. These meetings should be to give guidance to a Cabinet member over PM preferences and how the departmental policy and priorities can fit into the general strategy. They are also occasions when the Cabinet member can ask for support and assistance, and the PM can show understanding of a colleague’s plight and mentor where necessary. As there are too many Cabinet positions to report one to one to the PM senior Cabinet members should perform the role for more junior Cabinet members. The Chancellor should guide the Chief Secretary, the Foreign Secretary the Overseas Aid and Trade Ministers etc.
Cross departmental strategies like levelling up or greening government should come to Cabinet for determination. Conflicts between departments over issues should come to cabinet or committee for resolution. A Cabinet member should be held responsible for a policy entirely or mainly within their own department. So the Chancellor should be responsible for tax strategy and the Home Secretary responsible for migration policy. Given the importance of these to government as a whole the PM should keep them under review in the one to ones and they should report to Cabinet regularly as well.
July 23, 2022
Good morning
No mention of fulfilling government manifesto promises.
No mention of cutting back on State spending.
No mention in reduction in the size and scope of the State.
Whoever is PM and whoever gets those nice jobs that have been promised for their support we will have to wait.
You have less than two years to impress until we decide whether or not you got it right this time.
Reply More Memos coming
July 23, 2022
āYou have less than two years to impress until we decide whether or not you got it right this time.ā
The well has already been poisoned.
July 23, 2022
reply to reply…are you sending a copy of all your suggestions/guidance to the remaining two?
July 23, 2022
No need, MT.
If the remaining two are genuine Conservatives, they will both have been checking in to this Diary for a long time, for sensible suggestions and guidance drawn from Sir John’s knowledge and experience.
We can only hope that the next PM will beg our kind host to join the Cabinet, preferably as Chancellor, because Sir John from Day 1 would not need any training or phasing in for the role.
July 23, 2022
The paramount matter to Sir John and to most of the 200,000 largely eccentrics who compose the Tory membership is that the PM and cabinet members all be Brexit Believers.
It’s not a policy – it’s a state of mind, and evidently a rather deleterious one.
July 23, 2022
As usual, when you have nothing constructive to say you recourse to insults. Why not just keep your gob shut for once until you have something intelligent to say. I realise we may have a long wait.
July 23, 2022
Which is why I never, repeat NEVER, read his comments.
š
July 23, 2022
If they support Brexit it proves they are democrats and respect the wishes of the electorate. There are too few politicians who think that way.
July 23, 2022
+1
July 23, 2022
Another of your casual slurs against a huge group of people.
I thought all you modern left wing people were trained to be politically correct NHL.
July 25, 2022
Peter 2
Who says NHL is left wing except you?
July 27, 2022
Another ridiculous comment Billy.
Flying the face of evidence contained in every post he makes
July 23, 2022
Dear Lad, Brexit is perhaps like the NHS. The Conservatives opposed socialised medicine in 1947, when Mr Bevan created a National Health Service. But they accepted the fait accompli and by the time they came back into government in 1951, they had fully embraced it. Whatever you think of the way they have managed the NHS since, the principle remains common ground and no-one who wanted to abolish it or seriously undermine it would rise to senior office.
July 23, 2022
Only 200,000 eccentric Tory members, but quite a few million deluded dreamers hoodwinked into thinking the Evil Empire is a small step from paradise. Just goes to show few intelligent thinkers compared to masses of dumb idealistic sheep.
July 23, 2022
One of the main problems is that the skills needed to get selected as a candidate for a party and thus get in many seat almost certain to get elected as an MP have little at all to do with the skills needed to be a minister. Nearly all the cards are held by the top civil servants who know the system, have all the contacts and can run rings round most ministers. But often/usually the civil servants have little or no interest in spending money efficiently nor in delivering value, quite often they have completely the opposite agenda wanting a higher budget and more power to inconvenience and order about the public.
“Finally, I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get. And that’s government. And that’s close to 40% of our national income.” Milton Friedman
As we see with nearly all government departments (the NHS a prime example). Currently 6.5 million people awaiting procedures perhaps approaching 10 million by the next election yet we pay the highest taxes for 70 odd years. Huge increase in private medical and dental demand as the NHS is simply not delivering what we have already paid for. Are they Tories really going into the next election with circa 10 million awaiting procedures?
July 23, 2022
Charles Moore today āSunak may be the better economist, but he risks being overtaken by Trussās challengeā Well more training in economics perhaps but that is rarely the same thing. His performance as a tax, print, borrow, currency debase & piss down the drain, manifesto ratting chancellor does not suggest this at all. Eat out to Help Out for example was insane economics.
July 23, 2022
Yes, “too clever by half” was the phrase custom made for this chap. Actually perhaps half as clever but twice as fortunate as others with greater talents.
July 23, 2022
nicely put.
July 23, 2022
Not insane if you had friends in the Indian restaurants business.
July 23, 2022
No he claims he has no working class friends!
July 23, 2022
He studied the usual PPE at uni (the politician’s alphabet soup degree) and worked in “finance” (analyst at Goldman Sachs and also at hedge funds). Other than the E in PPE, that’s not really an economics background, but a finance one. And also fairly short.
There are a number of major figures in economics – Keynes, Smith, Marx for example, all in very different places with their theories, each of which would do very different things in any given situation. So economics is mostly about belief systems akin to religion rather than factual/scientific/”proveable”… except…
We can see what has actually worked and what hasn’t. Socialism hasn’t. Reducing tax rates and regulation (from a high level) has worked. The Weimar republic – rebuilt Germany after WW2 into an economic powerhouse by a deliberate policy of reducing tax/regs. JFK’s administration did it by accident, expecting that they would take less tax when they reduced rates (largely from moral conviction) but were suprised to find that the overall tax take went up.
July 23, 2022
True about different schools of economics however standard formula are used to calculate things like gdp. Within it there are various components representing the different sectors, elements within an economy. The Ons gather this data and publish the results every month.
But if you listen to politicians it is as if they never heard of such things.
I don’t say this to approve of experts but rather to show politicians are woefully ignorant.
July 24, 2022
But unlike the high priests you love am, politicians need to be responsive to what voters really desire.
Maybe economists should put themselves up for a vote too.
Perhaps the least successful should shut up for a year or two.
July 23, 2022
+1
July 23, 2022
Life Logic, Sunak has ably demonstrated he has not a clue about budgeting or getting value for money. He’s a spoilt child and not fit fore any office. This was demonstrated when he shrugged his shoulders and wrote off 3 billion fraud furlough money.
He’s had his try, now its time for Ms Truss to demonstrate her ability.
July 23, 2022
Truss has the opportunity to appoint people with a good understanding of economics to the Treasury, at Chancellor and lower ministerial levels. I’m sure we can all think of someone….
July 23, 2022
A good video by David Starkey – The tail of two Borises is just out. He shares my views on Lord Daniel Finkelstein and indeed most other things.
July 23, 2022
Suank warns of crises in the economy (created by him), the NHS and illegal immigration.
If Sunak actually understood any economics he would realise that the free at the point of use kills nearly all alternative provision of health care leading a a dire communist, take what your given and like it state monopoly. A rigged market that fails millions. The UK government also has rigged markets in many other areas schools, universities, energy, housing, transport, cars, carbon, employment, bank lending & depositsā¦ Freedom and choice in fair and un-rigged markets please.
July 23, 2022
The problems with the NHS requires not just the efforts of government, but also the cooperation of the British public, to stop stuffing hospitals with the consequences of lifestyle diseases. Paying tax should not be seen as a right to make yourself sick, just like having motor insurance doesn’t give you the right to deliberately crash your car.
July 23, 2022
If it is āfreeā at the point of use you can only reduce demand by rationing, delays, uncontactable GPs as gate keepers, duff phone queuing systems or refusing treatment (you are too old, too fat, have too many other conditions, on the three year waiting list if you do not die first, not worth itā¦). The ambulance will be 7+ hours can you not pick the fallen old man off the floor and bundle them in a taxi? Yes we have you taxes and NI already and spend it on diversity officers, massive compensation fees, lawyers and other such crap so tough mate!
July 23, 2022
If people had to pay something for their medical care or pay more for medical insurance when they smoked, drank too much or were obese then this might encourage healthier lifestyles. The āfreeā NHS helps make the issue far worse.
July 23, 2022
Pleased to see Patrick Minford on TV yesterday – if Truss is listening to him then perhaps we will see some sense returning to our economy, although we will get a few bumps in the road first I’m afraid. But we have to end this constant meddling with markets/rates that attempts to keep everything hunkydory forever – suppression of interest rates being a prime example. The problems just pile up and eventually things must correct (e.g. come crashing down) so better sooner than later. We need to let the air out of the numerous asset bubbles created, even if my house isn’t worth the small fortune I think it is. Time to get real but it will hurt and I can’t see it being popular in the near term.
July 24, 2022
+1
July 23, 2022
Ministers and Parliament hold the purse strings. All one needs to do is tighten them a little. The CS has been allowed by successive governments, as shown here by our kind host on this site, to grow beyond that which is needed.
July 23, 2022
First thing Osborne did was to increase tax inspectors by 2,000! Gave a clue about his true intention instead of those 80% cuts he promised. Then he made clear no one was serious about cutting immigration. Here we are 12 years on and JR actually expects those who reads his blogs that his party and govt would actually do something about immigration!
I think JR owes us an apology for insulting our intelligence that we can expect anything other than lies.
July 23, 2022
Lord Goldsmith the environment minister says that the methods used by climate protesters are effective and justified – in the Times today.
No they are idiotic, economically and environmentally damaging, dangerous and net zero is a duff misguided cause anyway.
Surely he should be fired immediately Boris or Truss in September!
July 23, 2022
+ many.
July 23, 2022
No, not every candidate for Parliament needs to be of immediately identifiable ministerial calibre, LL.
Some of a Party’s cohort of MPs need to be innovators, some need to be good managers, some need to be solid carers of their constituencies, some need to be reliable back-room operators, some need to be media-friendly. Encouraging every potential MP to want to be PM is a recipe for chaos.
July 23, 2022
Might be nice if say 10%+ were though.
July 23, 2022
A young person I know (only about 20) has had serious heart issues following a booster shot and has spend over Ā£2,000 already having tests and scans (as the NHS was totally failing to deal with it with any urgency at all). This a condition they had actually caused! A booster shot that she never needed as 1. she was young and never at any real Covid risk and 2. she had had Covid (without issue) in the first wave. She was coerced into taking it for travel restriction reasons.
July 23, 2022
L/L. This situation is really bad. I’m older but I still don’t want the inoculation but it’s the travel problem that dictates. Where is choice? A woman who lives opposite has this problem too. Her husband gets all the jabs but she’s not had one yet. He is free to travel but she can’t or at least not every here and then with restrictions. She’s not had Covid either.
July 23, 2022
You can choose which countries to go to, e.g. Italy, Portugal and Germany don’t impose Covid vaccine restrictions. I value my immune system more than a week in Spain.
July 23, 2022
R Grange. Yes, at the moment you can choose but there was a time when such choice wasn’t there. There were very strict rules for the unvaccinated. That situation could return at any time with the hysteria around over global pandemics. It’s not easy for those whose jobs involve the travel industry.
July 23, 2022
You did have to be for Italy & was checked at all the ski lifts but perhaps no longer?
July 23, 2022
FUS,
How about hypocritical Johnson and Trudeau (Senile Biden) claiming body autonomy for women! Did they forget or was it about left wing autocratic ideology for covid and for giving all states in America the choice to decide law on abortion? I seem to remember Fake Tories imposed Labourās view on women in N.Ireland!
July 23, 2022
If a receiving country requires you to have been vaccinated then there is little you can do about it. It is there country after all.
July 23, 2022
Mark. Yes I do realise that.
July 23, 2022
Mark B,
The countries could withdrawal from WHO and make up their own minds. Trump withdrew and from the Paris Agreement scam. Now globalists want WHO/China to rule world health policy! Johnson and the Tories all for it. Will Truss and Sunak withdraw from the WHO/China treaty?
July 23, 2022
They certainly need to withdraw and from all the globalist organisations who would rule over us.
July 23, 2022
+1
July 23, 2022
F U S
It’s only going to get worse with the WHO starting to really push ahead with their ” control the world” scheme about it being legally binding to obey their recommendations in times of pandemic risks. The first thing the new PM should tell them politely of course is no thanks.
This is just the start for the UN starting to pull in all the controls to their central organisation. Better raise Bond from the dead as they are becoming like a respectable SPECTRE.
July 23, 2022
Recent new headline in the Daily Telegraph:
‘Monkeypox declared global emergency by World Health Organisation’. [Five deaths worldwide.]
Comments section closed after about 20 minutes.
Re. the scare-mongering, no one gave a monkey’s.
July 23, 2022
I suggest that message would be better understood in the vernacular rather than being polite. We need rid of all the globalist organisations influence before they realise their dream.
July 23, 2022
+many
That poor unfortunate along with many others.
July 23, 2022
Indeed see the latest dire figure from Germany on adverse reactions. Reported on thedailysceptic.org.
July 23, 2022
+1
Mistake made and a painful lesson learned – ie Never trust the government /State
July 23, 2022
Terrible. Surely she is entitled to compensation, now the government is starting to recognise the problem?
Or is the argument that it was her ‘free’ choice to be injected, so she isn’t entitled to compensation?
July 23, 2022
The vaccine compensation scheme seems to be limited to Ā£120,000 max and you only get anything at all if you are very severely vaccine injured indeed it seems.
1 in 5,000 COVID Shots Caused āSerious Side Effects,ā German Health Officials Admit and this is per shot not per patient. So if you had 3 shots 1 in 1600) a lot of people if you have administered circa 140 million jabs in the UK.
July 23, 2022
Lifelogic,
Thirteen posts out of 106 made by yourself so far. Over 12%
Congratulations.
July 23, 2022
shouldn’t we ask – which jab was being used?
July 24, 2022
All the Covid vaccines seem to have serious issues, also clear form the states that certain batches caused many more issues than other batches.
July 24, 2022
They all have issues but it was directly after the Moderna booster (which followed two Pfizer) in this case that the heart problem arose.
July 23, 2022
Travel restriction reasons!!!! Refuse their coercion and stay in the best European country, GB.
July 23, 2022
And this has not been happening of late? Hmmm!
July 23, 2022
As Sir JR avers, the Cabinet of 30 is too big for the PM to have 1-2-1 s with every Cabinet Minister . That ought to telll you something ?
The Cabinet at 30 is too big and needs culling . Does Culture , Media & Sport warrant a seat at the Table ? Should the Brexit Minister sit there every time ?
July 23, 2022
This winter there is a high likelihood that the lights will go out. People will die. Businesses will be damaged. Energy rationing is not a solution, it will be an admission of failure.
The meaning of the word ‘priority’ has been forgotten, but it means what it says. You can only have one priority. The priority for the incoming PM should be to avert the energy crisis. The rest of the burger’s muddle can be dealt with when that is put in motion.
Frack or fail.
JF
July 23, 2022
Setting up a large-scale fracking programme that would have a serious impact on our energy needs will take a lot longer than from here to next winter. There is only thing that will make a difference quickly, and that is to end the Ukraine war and sanctions which have sent world energy markets crazy. All the rest is empty talk and Green gobbledygook.
July 23, 2022
Indeed: a few days ago we had sky high prices and Electricity Margin Notices while tryig to keep France supplied. As the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee recently learned there is no UK-EU agreement for emergency situations affecting and electricity trade been Great Britain and the EU. The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which sets out the UK-EU relationship, includes a provision which states that in the event of a crisis, the EU and UK should only activate non-market-based measures as a last resort. Furthermore, plans to address risks to the security of electricity or natural gas supply should not distort trade between the parties and should not endanger the security of supply of electricity or natural gas of the other party.
That will of course not be possible when we are both short in a period of Continent wide Dunkelflaute during a gas shortage. At best it implies interconnectors are shut down. Last December we had a period of shortage which saw us importing on all interconnectors including from Ireland – a total of 5.6GW that we would be short in similar conditions. With the return of the full capacity of IFA 1 and the startup of ElecLink we could face demand from interconnectors on the full capacity, which would leave us short 5.6×2 +2 or 13.2GW. Interconnectors are double edged swords, that import the problems on the other end of the line.
July 23, 2022
You can reduce the cabinet to the Prime Minister and just thirteen ministers. Six other people should attend as advisors.
Cabinet Office
Treasury x 2
Foreign Office
Home Office
Defence
Industry (including DEFRA and Culture)
Devolution & Leveling Up
Health & Social Care
Work and Pensions
Transport
Education
Trade
Attending as advisors:
Cabinet Secretary
Attorney General
Advocate General for Scotland
Leader of Commons
Leader of Lords
Minister for measurement, safety and standards
The last Minister would be a new post. They would oversee the independent bodies and quangos responsible for providing statistics, and regulating the government and private sector. The purpose of the role would be to sharpen, streamline and simplify all these activities across the UK. Departments would no longer be able to mark their own homework or set their own standards.
July 23, 2022
Appendix A: List of Cabinet Ministers, 1945-51
Prime Minister and Minister of Defence – C. R. Attlee
Lord President and Leader of the Commons
Foreign Secretary
Lord Privy Seal
Chancellor of the Exchequer
President of the Board of Trade
Lord Chancellor
First Lord of the Admiralty
Home Secretary
Dominions Secretary and Leader of the Lords
Secretary for India and Burma
Colonial Secretary
Secretary for War
Secretary for Air
Secretary for Scotland
Minister of Labour and National Service
Minister of Fuel and Power
Minister of Education
Minister of Health
Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries
ā¦and thatās with an empire
July 23, 2022
It used to be said that nobody should ‘manage’ directly more than 7 individuals.
What does this 1-2-1 really consist of?
July 23, 2022
Disraeli and his cabinet of 14 managed to administer the affairs of a quarter of the world.
July 23, 2022
+1
July 23, 2022
they were more than a bit subservient.
July 23, 2022
‘levelling up or greening government’. Jesus wept, incessantly.
We don’t need efficient Cabinet government nor efficient government, we need less government across the board and less State intervention across the board, massively so to prevent this nation from descending into authoritarianism in a style similar to America
I am convinced that the Tory party is a Socialist party that believes in State control of all things, even life. They have become part of Labour’s Socialist State infrastructure when they once stood apart from it. Now they seek to protect it to promote party interest
July 23, 2022
DOM, +1, and every new quango or extension of government influence becomes perfect seeding and breeding ground for the infiltrating diversity, socialist and wokist activists, and they never miss a chance.
July 23, 2022
Indeed. I used ConHome this morning to remind its readership of Enoch Powell’s 1960s criticism of “the ratchet effect of socialism” and his call for the ratchet to be dismantled and reversed. There is no prospect of aspirant PM Rishi “Trust In Me” Sunak doing so, but at least some prospect of his opponent doing so. Her choice of Chancellor would be of particular significance here…..now, can we think of anyone who would be highly qualified for that role, even if (excuse me, especially as) it would involve thinking the unthinkable?
July 23, 2022
Dom,
Why is there any doubt in your mind. Do not be deceived by JR aspirational hopes his party will return to being conservative. Tory party implement Labour policy, appoint former Labour ministers to quango and other policy roles.
I am surprised people vote for Tory and expect different from Labour! Utter fools. LL, keeps thinking Labour would be worse on economy when a matter of record and fact they are not. Why vote for the least worse based on Tory scare propaganda.
July 23, 2022
Good stuff from our host as usual. However isnāt it both frightening and telling that he needs to advise/inform on how to run a large organisation when CEOs of large diverse multi nationals have been doing it for umpteen years and that Boris who quite obviously hadnāt a clue how to run a whelk stall let alone HMG, is already being missed by MPs and party members.
He deliberately leaves out the key part, namely SMART objectives because he knows he is wasting his time so even assuming there is this collegiate approach, there wonāt be because ambitious cabinet ministers are only interested in themselves/their own careers defending/advancing, we will end up with a talking shop.
July 23, 2022
I see Willamson and Howard are using threats to the party that if Sunak isn’t supported and elected they will undermine PM Truss going forward. That’s how low some Tory MPs will fall
July 23, 2022
They’re forward planning for demolition at the next election then. They should be expelled from the party if this is proven.
July 23, 2022
No surprise there. Many UK politicians don’t even support democracy, or the interests of the UK. They prefer to side with a foreign government. This used to be called treason, now it’s called ‘business as usual’ and perfectly acceptable to Parliamentarians.
July 23, 2022
Didn’t Alok Sharma MP last week say he’d resign if the new government didn’t comply with net-zero targets and cop26…..he should be sacked and have the whip removed
July 23, 2022
DOM
If that is the case withdraw the whip from W&H and any others wanting to play silly buggers. For crying out loud if we don’t present a united front now going forward we will be going nowhere. No more wishy washy operations pandering to the minorities.
July 23, 2022
They should appoint you as chancellor John. That would be a big weight off their minds knowing someone competent was around.
July 23, 2022
Certainly be a big weight off my mind
July 23, 2022
@ Fedupsoutherner – Consider that Sir John has been too right, too often, on too many issues, including many fundamental ones, to be easily forgiven by so many of the inadequate who would fear the unwelcome contrast to themselves brought on by “having someone competent around”.
Should Liz have any interest in saving herself and her premiership she could do no better than make such appointment as you propose. My fear is she will feel obligated to give the big jobs to the losing candidates: step forward Chancellor Mordaunt so we can all go hand in hand to doom!
July 23, 2022
Plus one to that !
But will they ?
Probably not !
July 23, 2022
Plus one to that.
But will they ?
Probably not !
July 23, 2022
F U S
+100%
July 23, 2022
They should, but they won’t. To be honest (and I apologise in advance, Sir John), he is from an older generation. As we are currently witnessing, those occupying the senior Cabinet positions are being given the experience which may, eventually, take them to the top job. And due to his seniority, Sir John will not be a future candidate for that.
So the position will go to someone younger.
I would be satisfied if Sir John was officially appointed to act as an adviser to the PM / Chancellor – as he is clearly doing to the Truss campaign in an unofficial capacity.
July 23, 2022
Agreed Fedupsoutherner.
Sir John is the best Chancellor we never had.
July 23, 2022
Certainly far better than the appalling ones we did have have to suffer. 98% income tax Healey, ERM fiasco Major, Ken Clarke, Boom & Bust Brown, Darling, Osborne, Hammond, Javid, Manifesto ratter tax to death Sunakā¦
July 23, 2022
You’ve left out shadowing the D Mark Lawson.
July 23, 2022
Wellā¦whatever theyāve been doing ā¦it hasnāt worked.
Or at least not for the people for whom it is supposed to work!
Look at us after all the mailings since TB trashed the U.K.
Exhausted, scared to death, unconfident, miserable, aggressive.
Victims of government mind games!
And poorer with it.
July 23, 2022
*mailings = FAILINGS
July 23, 2022
The Cabinet has become too large and unwieldy. 5 persons reporting direct to 1 is nearer right for proper control.
The Army has to be efficient with so much at stake and has a very tall management structure. The Catholic Church went the other way, so wide with perhaps only 4 tiers spanning the lowest level and the Pope sitting on top.
One person overseeing so many more fitted when everyone below was doing the same job. Then there were enormous rows of clerks sat holding quill pens, writing, heads down, afraid to look up. The bod in charge just sat on a raised bench facing them, and banged a hammer every time someone raised their head: to keep their attention on their work.
Penny Mordaunt was inclined to create a strong-arm team in Govt to serve the nation. Liz Truss is likely to select Generals like Montgomery for efficient results. The alternative points like Kitchener to an army of tax collectors.
July 23, 2022
Montgomery? No, he always insisted on heavy superiority of manpower and equipment over any force he was facing.
Auchinleck was much more efficient in both planning and the use of inferior fire power.
July 23, 2022
If you are going to hit someone, hit them quick and hard and make sure they don’t get up again. That’s the way to win.
July 23, 2022
They need a much smaller cabinet. The current format is far too big and unwieldy.
July 23, 2022
The Prime Minister should appoint a reliable ally as a full time Deputy Prime Minister (i.e. not also running a separate Ministry) to do the routine and most of the supervisory work as well as standing in for the Prime Minister as necessary – especially as the Prime Minister needs to concentrate on major issues, public relations, international summits and is going to get distracted by sudden emergencies.
July 23, 2022
G B
Well said a good idea even better if they chose a more older street wise, experienced politician respected and trusted by their peers, it would dovetail the old and new thinking within the party. It is they that could do the Team Brief weekly sessions ensuring that their department plans are on time and within budget.
July 23, 2022
Geoffrey Berg.
One BIG deficiency of Boris Johnson’s premiership is that he has spent far too much time attending ‘international summits’ particularly about the ridiculous ‘Carbon Neutral’ policies.
As for ‘public relations’, isn’t that another way of saying ‘posing on the international stage’?
There is nothing wrong with the United Kingdom’s past. We do not need to either change it or keep banging on about where we are in some international league table.
July 23, 2022
You write using the word ‘should’ many times. This implies ethics and ethics determine legality, for new laws are made or updated with the primary , sometimes intuitive ‘should.’
The list of should’s I presume are not being done at present .Is there any peripheral management to ensure that the knowledge is cascaded in a way which will ensure both the practice and theory of their various roles is competent.
July 23, 2022
Must / must not. Should / should not. Do / do not. In the Highway Code for instance, only Must / must not carry legislated force from some statute or other.
Anyway, imagine if this UK shamocracy / chumocracy was dragged out of the Victorian Era and the Executive was separate from the Legislature. The PM was elected by popular vote and he appointed his Cabinet from the great and the good, who had proven in the private sector that they could actually run things; and, will stay in the job for a whole parliament.
July 23, 2022
So a largely unelected technocracy in charge of us with a President acorn.
Seen this before in political history.
July 23, 2022
Quite a few leaps from one thing to another.
July 23, 2022
Margaret
We were always taught that should was a nice thing but a maybe, advisory
Shall, no arguments or compromise it will be done.
July 23, 2022
There are too many Cabinet Ministers and Ministers allowed to attend Cabinet. And that’s because the Government has grown like Topsy since 1997 and thinks it should micro-manage every aspect of our lives.
A Prime Minister would find it easier to ensure Cabinet Government works better if he/she first carried out an exercise to seriously reduce the number public bodies, agencies and non-ministerial departments – and then reviewed the number of Ministries and Ministers attending/allowed to attend Cabinet.
“There are currently 23 ministerial departments, 20 non-ministerial departments and 413 agencies and other public bodies.”
I simply don’t believe there isn’t scope for efficiency savings!
July 23, 2022
Donna
Spot on the second paragraph is priceless.
Very well said.
July 23, 2022
+1
July 23, 2022
I see our ex Chancellor is now suggesting we are in real time dire straights in a number of areas, indeed he says we now need crisis management on the economy, NHS, Immigration to name but just three.
Good grief many of us have been saying this out here for years, so why as part of senior Government did he do nothing, given he had the power to do so at the time.
Instead of trying to encourage those who were doing their best to survive or move forward, he just loaded more taxes on those still willing to work or set up businesses with ever more tax increase, with still more in the pipeline.
He advanced the NHS Ā£Billions without a clue as to how it was going to be spent, and sent the French Ā£Millions thinking it would help control illegal entry to our Country, when comon-sense suggests they just encourage those who want to leave to go, and when they are collected/ferried across, he pays the hotel bills.
Looks like he has now at last woken up, but his solution is what, more of the same.!!!!
Sofa Government and the so called redistribution of wealth polices of the last 20 years has failed, and failed big time, we are in desperate need of a leader who can give some hard nosed management.
July 23, 2022
Yes, the best thing Sunak can do is fess up to his mistakes as Chancellor and retreat to some mythical or handed down job investing hopefully other folks’ money in the US. Throwing taxpayers’ cash away on business grant schemes, eating out and furlough then recouping it from different sectors with tax hikes, partly offset by subsidies was a stupid mixed recipe. Same time as students are hounded for 30 years to repay loans, folk who could have easily afforded to eat out, pay back furlough etc were handed cash on a plate.
As an example of inequity, many of those students are both now both repaying their debt AND higher taxes on the back of Sunak’s daft hand-outs, having suffered inadequate teaching at University.
July 23, 2022
But would you have wanted lockdowns WITHOUT the furlough scheme, Sir Joe? It’s no good saying you wouldn’t have wanted lockdowns. Sure, you and I can say that now. But if he had opposed them at the time in spring 2020, Sunak would have been on his own in the priority-setting C-19 daily meetings on Covid chaired by Johnson, with Covid panic merchants Hancock, Raab, and Gove. He’d only been in the job for a month and had no standing as Chancellor yet. If he’d objected to the Covid over-reaction, Johnson would have probably found someone else to fill his place.
July 23, 2022
We will never know what Boris would have done about Brexit after the last election because of Covid and the chaos that ensued. However after Covid just about every aspect of Brexit went on ‘slow-time’ and in many departments anti Brexit decisions were taken.
This morning it would appear Sunak is reintroducing ”Project Fear” which indicates little or no Brexit benefits being taken. We have had 6 years of this so I hope he ends up on the back benches.
Every minister appointed should be under no illusion that if there is the slightest hint that they are going slow or creating difficulties they will out on their ear. Blaming the civil servants in their department will not be a valid excuse.
They should submit a report on progress every 2 weeks and the PM follow Mrs T’s example and read every one of them and take action to correct any mistakes or back-sliding.
July 23, 2022
I would suggest that the next PM issues, to each Secretary of State, a two-page directive, in draft, on Day One. This will direct what the PM wants to be achieved before next general election. In deciding ‘what’, the PM should take a look at what was promised in the last manifesto, what was promised in the leadership campaign, and what the prevailing situation demands. The ‘mission command’ bit is to leave the ‘how’, broadly, to determination by the directive’s recipient.
July 23, 2022
If responsibility for Northern Ireland is left with the Foreign Secretary they should be given a separate directive ordering that the province be fully reintegrated into the UK with no EU checks at all on any goods coming in from the rest of the UK. Not even EU checks with some of the incoming goods spared because they are not deemed at risk of going on across the land border, as is being proposed at present, but with no EU checks at all, just as between other parts of the UK. And with the EU court having no role in the supervision of businesses in the province, but with a UK system of export controls to reassure the EU and the Irish government that goods flowing in across the open land border into EU territory will comply with EU requirements to a sufficient degree and so will not create any significant risk to the integrity of the EU Single Market. And if the eurocrats say that is not good enough then tell them that is what they are getting and they can like it or lump it.
Or if the Prime Minister prefers the task of fully reinstating the province as a part of the UK could be taken back from the Foreign Office and given to the Cabinet Office under direct Prime Ministerial control.
July 23, 2022
They say that “sufficient degree” is not good enough – degree has to be absolute – but we should know that since we were there when they wrote the rules.
July 24, 2022
They can like it or lump it., and if they’re still genuinely worried they can sort out checks on their side.
July 25, 2022
Denis
We signed a deal and we should stick to it as signed
July 23, 2022
Strange that the words “Civil” and “Servant” don’t appear here. One has the impression that the skills gap is more usually filled by civil servants in return for influence.
July 23, 2022
DT today, systematic state failures, wider rot, bureaucratic incompetence etc. defence spending a hot topic at present. A well informed piece from the DT recently identified how 12 Mandarins dissembled/lied to pull the wool over Ministers eyes, not difficult, re catapults on our latest carriers thus reducing their capability considerably and forcing us to buy the more expensive VTOL F35s. Any comment from the MOD/leadership from the MOS. Of course not.
This has been obvious for years. Jāaccuse Tory MPs, all of them.
Any one think Sunak or Truss can/will do anything apart from spin/.BS. No me neither.
An as an example Borisās hubristic farewell speech talked about the migrant problem.
We were told umpteen thousand would go to Rwanda, another untruth, they currently have places for about 200, allegedly we have paid Ā£125 million and apparently there is nothing stopping them coming back to the U.K. again.
A distinguished politician and successful businessman before that. Sir JR now wasting your time. Move on and do something where you can make things change.
July 23, 2022
Wow! What a super-person the PM must be. How would you select someone to make the big decisions about every aspect of government? Someone with proven experience of running a very large organisation would surely be the first requirement. Someone with a wide experience of life. With a vision, too, of how the country should run. Someone who understands finance, government finance, the banking system, the role of central banks, international finance and lots more. Someone with the focus to set targets for every department of state and ensure the reporting systems work. And how does a PM get selected? The mind boggles. Just look who the system throws up. Itās terrifying.
July 23, 2022
Lifelogic raises a very good point about the civil servants. They are in charge, and as nearly all institutions move to the left over time, so have they. Unfortunately our starting position is not centre right, it is a long way left – socialism.
So dealing with these entrenched institutions, including the civil servants is a nettle that has to be grasped. Otherwise each government will just be “filibustered” by them.
What advice do you give Sir John to deal with this?
July 23, 2022
I would like to see the new cabinet consider their policies from all aspects rather than announce them in a ‘fanfare’ only to find that they are unworkable.
Like the Rwanda scheme which was supposed to help solve the illegal migrant crisis but has now hit the buffers. It looks like we have given Ā£millions to Rwanda for a scheme that may never get off the ground.
Could no senior politician/official see this one coming after having the deportations of so many criminals. including rapists and murderers stopped on legal/human rights grounds.
Then there is the PPE scandal which cost the taxpayer Ā£millions but made many politicians and their friends much richer.
If such incompetence occurred in any other job, there would be serious repercussions.
July 23, 2022
The CEO has six executives reporting to him.
PMās take note.
July 23, 2022
I think the media should also remember that we have a cabinet system of government and the pm is not the president!
The media often reports as if we have a U.S. or French system. We do not.
July 23, 2022
Might also be wise for the new PM to appoint a Chancellor who wants to follow the same economic policy the PM does. Several past PMs have failed to follow this advice.
Sunak has some second-rate MP backers who will be given jobs irrespective of ability – for example Sir Gavin Williamson shouldn’t ever be given even a minor ministerial role again.
July 23, 2022
Most readers of this blog will be familiar with Facts4eu, but here’s a link to more common sense from Sir John: https://facts4eu.org/news/2022_jul_flawed_expert_forecasts
July 23, 2022
National Grid has asked for emergency permission to pump more gas to Europe as it races to fill up storage facilities ahead of a winter crunch. Operators are ramping up the capacity of pipelines between Britain and the Netherlands to help boost stocks. National Grid has applied to the Joint Office of Gas Transporters for permission to increase the pressure on the 235km pipeline between Bacton, Norfolk, and Balgzand, Netherlands, so the pipeline can export 34pc more than normal.
It follows a request from BBL, the Netherlands-based operator of the pipeline, to maximise gas exports to āaddress existing gas supply shortages which are being experienced in continental Europeā, National Grid said.
āEnhanced resilience of supplies across Europe heading into the forthcoming winter can benefit the GB market by reducing likely demand for exports to Europe over the expected period of high demand from October 2022 as we move into the winter,ā the Grid added.
Europe is racing to fill up gas storage sites ahead of winter amid concerns about further cuts in supplies from Russia. Moscow typically supplied about 40pc of Europeās gas before the war but volumes have fallen since the invasion of Ukraine as the Kremlin retaliates against sanctions by āweaponisingā fuel supplies.
—
I’m sure the Dutch (and others) are very grateful for our help. NOT.
July 23, 2022
MT:
Youāre forgetting we have the CS, quangos and CBI corporates all desperate for the UK to run short of fuel this winter to blame Brexit and bring down the government.
July 23, 2022
I’m not forgetting, just puzzled as to why we are keen on helping ‘almost enemies’.
Let them find out we are not pushovers anymore.
July 24, 2022
The normal maximum export flow on BBL is 7.6GW (it can import at 20GW). I discovered that the request is to increase gas pressure at a compressor station in Kings Lynn that feeds Bacton, and was submitted back in January along with agreement amendments to handle operations and associated costs. The main compressors for the line are at the Dutch end, so they suck gas through when we export, which is less efficient.
The chief issue is whether the additional 2.5GW of export would reduce the price differential we are enjoying that gives us cheaper gas and power than on the Continent at the moment.
July 23, 2022
Sir John,
The next Prime Minister would be well advised to rely on a few competent and loyal people for the day-to-day running of government.
Meanwhile I look forward to watching Rishi Sunak follow the path of George Osborne to the back benches, before resigning his seat in ignominy. If Mr Sunak has such a belief in his own abilities, he could offer his services to the Biden administration. With his track record of tax and spend he would be a welcome addition.
July 23, 2022
Should be pretty basic considerations, but if a new PM doesn’t have the life experience to do such things we cannot expect much else from them.
Perhaps we really do need an idiot’s guide on how to be a PM – It wouldn’t hurt considering the flaws in so many past PMs.
The real problem is that a PM is given far too much power, and being new they do not understand how to use that power. The big failing of democracy, it seems. Some grow into the job, some abuse that authority, while others just do not have a clue about life.
July 23, 2022
The suprise in this is… that it doesn’t happen already.
This is in the “normal stuff” category these days. Sending an inexperienced politician off to bat in a role they don’t understand asks for trouble – look at Kwarteng in BEIS (why is energy policy mixed in with business policy anyway?). He has no knowledge or experience to make him suited for the role – and it shows.
What’s likely to happen is that he roots around for info, civil servants provide it (which will be “proof” supporting net zero – i.e. half-baked science) and he’s effectively been captured by his own department.
Surely CCHQ has a role in providing candidates with the life experience necessary to fill the ministry of State roles? Instead of working on providing future ministerial quality people, we see the opposite – we saw them recently putting up a remainer into a leave constituencies for the by-elections just gone. That’s an utter shambles.
If you can’t get the experience, try grooming a number of MPs for each role. Expect them to study the brief for one or more ministries if they want to get on – and be able to demonstrate their abilities atthe despatch box.
What seems to happen as well is that the main roles are horse-traded in the leadership race so that political types end up in roles in which they have no command. It’s ludicrous for the people in the leadership race to be promised a role such as Chancellor if they have no prior knowledge – but it happens time and again. Surely the leadership process can be designed to prevent that?
July 23, 2022
Dear Sir John,
If you have to send your note to the PM perhaps that person should not be PM?
July 23, 2022
Rather than having PM policies, Cabinet policies or Government policesā¦. couldnāt we have Conservative Party polices, a set a published policies that all MPs adhere too
Its occurred to me that the race to win the leadership should be about personality and NOT policy (eg tax policy) as every MP should have the same conservative views on every policy
July 23, 2022
Truss and the children was so refreshing, so funny. She appeared natural for once.
The boy ” This is so awkward “. The girl “when are you booting Boris out ? ”
I’m sure Truss didn’t come up with the idea of sitting in a tank and wearing pussy cat bows. The ideas people in the background are the ones out of touch.
July 23, 2022
One Boris plus is his loyalty to colleagues.
His major minus is not acknowledging which” type ” of colleague really
make voters ( young and old ) skin crawl.
July 23, 2022
Ouch! BBC website 13:56, āWhen Brexit voters thought they were ātaking back controlā, the French actually took back control of their own bordersā, says Lucy Moreton, officer of ISU union for borders, immigration and customs staff.
Even now that all French āPolice aux FrontiĆØresā officers are in their booths in Dover, the queue is as long as yesterday, āsimplyā because now post-Brexit British people need a stamp in their passport as a proof that they will not stay more than 90 days in the Schengen area, things required from everybody entering the area from a third country.
According to Simon Calder, the travel expert, what was a swipe in the PAF computer pre-Brexit taking on average 20 seconds, now takes at least three times as long as it includes the swipe, a stamp in the passport, and checking that people in the car have a return ticket within 90 days, money and can justify a potential accommodation in the Schengen area.
10,000 cars scheduled for today, 10 booths, 1000 cars per booth, minimum of one minute per car, thatās a minimum of 16 h 40 m of sustained work for the day.
Better have sandwiches, some bottles of water ā¦ and some empty bottles ā¦just in case.
July 23, 2022
Come on heffy you know the French officials are doing their best to take their time and cause delays.
Hilariously most of the lorries are EU ones returning to Europe.
July 23, 2022
What is even more hilarious is that you talk about lorries whereas the problem of these last two days was with individual cars. But keep on the good work P2, youāre irreplaceable.
July 23, 2022
You dont want to understand how queues are created heffy.
The French are doing their best to create problems.
I think even you really know this.
Sadly you rather enjoy it.
July 25, 2022
Denis
We signed a deal and we should stick to it as signed
July 27, 2022
IIt is all about interpretation of the deal bill
It is going to change whether you like it or not.
July 23, 2022
Peter2 everything has changed now, utterly changed, and we are not welcome there anymore – so we shouldn’t be going – much better to holiday at home in say the Isle of man or Blackpool and spend our money here also there are dozens of other beauty spots around the country without clogging up the roads around Kent.
July 23, 2022
Sadly decent French people will suffer as hefner and his likes create discord and dislike where there is no need.
July 25, 2022
Peter 2
You really have no idea but you keep presenting your own ignorance again and again
July 28, 2022
Why would ādecent French peopleā suffer from the ādiscord and dislikeā I am creating. Could you please be a bit more explicit than Pythia of Delphi.
Are we British treated with disdain? Unfortunately we are treated by the EU as people from other third countries as announced by the EU from end of 2016-beginning of 2017 and as per the agreement discussed by Lord Frost, presented by the PM at Christmas 2020 as oven ready and agreed by the majority in Parliament beginning of 2021. Donāt you know that P2?
It simply shows that all the declarations pre- and post-referendum about āthe EU agreement easiest in human historyā by D.Davis, L.Fox and others were not particularly well calibrated or based on a wrong diagnostic of the actual strengths and weaknesses of the two sides. But isnāt feeding the populus with ideas of sunlit uplands the only thing a common quixotic politician is good at?
Look at the two contenders for PM.
July 24, 2022
What a sad view you have of people Peter2.
The rules being applied are the EU third country rules, rules the UK helped to define (so we can hardly claim we didn’t know what was in them). Rules which mean you will no longer get credit for the unexpired time on your passport when you renew it. Rules which mean a valid, in date passport may no longer be valid for travel to France (or Germany or Spain) the way it was a couple of years ago.
The UK government chose this path. Johnson and his government are ultimately responsible as it was their Brexit decisions which led to the current situation.
July 24, 2022
No I disagree Peter.
I am saddened when the EU seem to want to play us up and create unnecessary problems.
An ally a long term friend and NATO member and yet we are treated with disdain.
July 25, 2022
The UK is not acting like a friend. Perhaps when the UK government starts doing so rather than playing to a narrow home audience, others might respond in kind.
July 25, 2022
You talk like a spokesperson for the EU
What a sad view you have of this country Peter P
July 23, 2022
Hef,
How sad that this is the best the dullards in France can do is stamp a passport. Very high tech. Let us hope this is not the sum of their advanced thinking and planning. Bitterness runs through their whole being.
I can think of far better places than France to visit.
July 23, 2022
Hope, The USA border officers still stamp passports of anybody entering the country even for people coming from a country accepted in their ESTA program (Electronic System for Travel Authorization). That person will be allowed a stay of 90 days maximum, will have to show a return ticket, and will be asked why they come to the US and where they will stay or travel. So not so different from what the EU requires.
The situation should improve next year for British people wanting to enter the EU area: the EU equivalent of the ESTA program is called ETIAS. UK should be part of it when it becomes operational, supposedly in May 2023. As in the US ESTA, the ETIAS program will require pre-registration.
July 23, 2022
It’s about speed heffy.
Having entered America dozens of times they welcome you.
This current Calais problem could be solved if there was a real determination to do so.
July 24, 2022
Really? My experience of US immigration is it’s the worst in the world for making people wait.
July 24, 2022
Oh dear Oeter
Bad luck
July 25, 2022
Peter 2
Hefner is generally right and so is Peter P and you are not only wrong but you are so biased with your own lies that you are unable to see when you are fundamentally wrong
July 27, 2022
Hefner and Peter Parsons are plainly wrong.
USA immigration requires an address (for the first night of your stay)
If you can provide this simple thing your entry is generally swift.
Hefner could not do this so it took him longer.
There are also electronic entry machines which speed up entry if you can answer a few simple questions
Calais haos is caused by a shortage of French officials which has been widely reported.
July 23, 2022
I entered the Schengen area by air two weeks ago from Britain. The immigration authorities did not check whether I had a return ticket, money or accommodation booked.
What makes it necessary for the French police to do that for car drivers and passengers leaving Britain for France? Do you know, Hefner?
July 23, 2022
Richard, That was also my experience in February this year in Montpellier airport. I was just asked how long I was planning to stay. And my answer (two weeks) satisfied the border officer.
And no, I do not know why controls in Dover appear to be much stricter.
July 23, 2022
It is deliberate.
July 25, 2022
Absolutely rubbish and you have no idea on what you are saying, you are just guessing with no real data
July 27, 2022
It is widely reported that despite a prior agreement between Dover and Calais management the number of French customs staff that turned up was inadequate.
Tell me why there are no similar chaotic delays at other EU nations ports?
July 24, 2022
well the 20,000 cars and passengers are likely to stay in France for good! Illegal immigrants using an obviously British car and reg’n plate. They obviously know it is almost all tourists spending money mostly in France.
What a way to treat guests adding much to your economy.
So don’t go! SIMPLE.
July 24, 2022
Peter P, I can only concur. When I arrived with an H1-B visa and a letter that my future employer had sent me with the official USCIS reference number I had thought that entering the country would be easy, but no, the officer started asking me questions about where I was going to live, something impossible to answer properly as long as I had not arrived at my final destination in the town where I was supposed to work and found a place to live. The US border officers seem to be rather good at creating Catch-22 situations.
Another unpleasant thing in the USA, even being already resident there with proper visa, proper address, proper employer, having a US salary and paying to a US retirement plan, having a child born there, when I left the USA with the family for a month for visiting the extended family, and then returned, the same rigmarole was on again.
In forty years of working life with scores of trips to the USA, even residing there for an extended period, I can only say the US border officers are not very pleasant and certainly not welcoming.
A previous extended stay in Canada had been so much nicer, at least wrt entering the country.
July 25, 2022
Being asked for an address by a USA immigration officer is standard procedure hef and has been for decades.
I’m amazed you didn’t know that, nor bothered to arrange a pre organised place to stay.
Had you done that your irritation and delay would have been avoided.
July 25, 2022
Peter 2
Hefner is generally right and so is Peter P and you are not only wrong but you are so biased with your own lies that you are unable to see when you are fundamentally wrong
July 27, 2022
No proof of what you claim, just pathetic trolling from you bill.
July 24, 2022
I’ve been to various EU member countries in the last couple of months, all by air, and these things were checked on each visit.
July 23, 2022
well if you must avail yourself of French hospitality get used to it.
July 23, 2022
Indeed.
One of the problems that should have been obvious to any half competent UK transport Minister is that the port of Dover and the access to it are much more cramped than the equivalent in Calais and Dunkirk (just have a look at google map, making sure you keep looking at the relevant maps using the same scale). It is rather obvious that the ferry terminals in both Calais and even more so in Dunkirk have much more space and are not so close to their town centres.
Independently of what the French border officers have done or not done, 20,000+ individual vehicles going through the port of Dover over the weekend was bound to be difficult.
And the situation would not be much improved if more traffic were to go through Ramsgate.
Sad to say but this type of infrastructure has not been at the top of the priorities of the successive Governments. And when it had been mentioned in the past Chris Grayling was certainly not on top of his brief ā¦
July 23, 2022
‘defend their department’, Sir John?
Isn’t it more important that the Minister in charge of a department actually IS IN CHARGE?
It has been my impression lately, particularly since Brexit, that Civil Servants in general just want to continue doing things the way they are used to.
July 23, 2022
The PMās first priority is to reform the CS and quangos to remove the anti British pro EU/UN fifth column who demonstrate all the characteristics of Robert Conquestās second and third laws of politics starting with the (āborders are a painā) Border Force and the (āletās destroy the economy with Net Zeroā) BEIS.
July 24, 2022
‘… understanding of the job concerned…’
Sir John, all Cabinet members will have an input to the most urgent matter facing the new administration, namely the coming energy crisis. To that end they should all be faced with the following pons asinorum:
‘Is reducing the power of domestic kettles from 3 kilowatts to 2 kilowatts a good way of saving energy?’
I have dealt with a Minister for Energy who did not know that electricity once generated has to be used at once or stored immediately, so my expectations would not be high.
JF
July 25, 2022
Absolutely rubbish and you have no idea on what you are saying, you are just guessing with no real data
July 27, 2022
Our resident pro EU troll bill goes again.
Are you paid by the post?