Time to reverse EU damage to our industries and economy

It is necessary for government to offer some cash help to business to stave off more closures forced by sky high energy bills. I do not welcome more public spending on subsidies, but  it is the price of failure of the EU energy policy we have been following.

I want the Business Secretary tomorrow to set out a much better U.K. energy strategy that puts domestic self sufficiency and security of supply back as the prime aim, replacing the 2019 EU legal framework based on more imports from EU countries via interconnectors, interdependence and ultimate reliance on EU imports of Russian gas. Relying on more imports from an energy short Union of states was always a dangerous risk to run. The EU claimed to put decarbonisation as the main aim, only to need more coal and gas when the wind refused to blow.

In a necessary drive to cut the costs of energy he should confirm the removal of the green levies, suspend the carbon tax and carbon emissions trading , with the Chancellor removing VAT on domestic fuel .We need a new regulatory framework for power generation with more back up for intermittent renewables.

There are so many industries damaged by EU laws still in place in our law codes. The Business Secretary could abolish the droit du suite and VAT impositions the EU used to divert part of the global art market from London to New York.Maybe they thought it would help Paris but it just made the whole EU less competitive.

He could lower costs of buying a home by removing anti money laundering checks from any U.K. citizen  buying and selling their main home and using a U.K. regulated bank. He could make energy certificates for homes a matter of choice for buyers and sellers.

He could work with Defra to use farm grants to promote growing more food here and to foster investment in more glasshouses and new farming techniques instead of subsidising wilding policies, and relying on more imports from the EU.

He could simplify the expensive bureaucracy  created by the EU data protection legislation.

He could repeal the EU Ports Regulation which was widely opposed by our ports when it was introduced. It gets in the way of port investment and expansion.

He could repeal the railway rules which require the separation of track ownership from train ownership.Integrated ownership of routes by private companies should be an option.

He with the Treasury should allow more people self employed tax status, removing the penal elements of IR 35.

He should repeal the on line digital tax.

212 Comments

  1. Peter Wood
    September 20, 2022

    Good Morning,
    Thank heaven we are almost out of the EU. The German plan for domination of Europe is now exposed. Having achieved financial and political control of the EU, Germany intended to achieve dominance in energy supply for the EU from cheap imported gas via Nordstream 1 & 2. Had they activated N2, then the rest of the EU would have been hamstrung.
    Having had that leg of the plan removed, a new security opportunity ha arisen. We now hear from the German Chancellor that they intend to become ‘the best equipped military force in Europe. Germany is ready to take on leadership responsibility for the security of our continent’.
    Is nobody paying attention in the UK and European Nations?

    1. Hat man
      September 20, 2022

      But EU energy supplies are hamstrung, Peter, because Germany hasn’t activated Nordstream 2, following US pressure. Germany’s imminent de-industrialisation as a result of impossible energy costs will leave them without the means to support a large military force. I don’t think you need to worry on that score. The only way Scholz’s bombastic statement would ever become reality would be by importing vast amounts of US military hardware, which it would not really be able to pay for. Dependence on the US for the hardware would mean it could not act alone. Though it would have the manpower to put on the front line, in other words, become like Ukraine.

      1. Ian Wragg
        September 20, 2022

        It will be interesting to see which, if any of the above are implemented.
        We know Bozo signed up to a level playing field so all eyes are on you.
        You have very little time to convince the voters that you are not hamstrung by Brussels.
        Action this day as one great man said.

        1. Ian Wragg
          September 20, 2022

          After a few days of reasonable wind generation we are back today at 1.46gw.
          The Climate advisors are telling Truss to forget fracking and build more windmills.
          You can’t legislate for stupidity.

          1. None of the Above
            September 20, 2022

            +1

          2. Guy Liardet
            September 20, 2022

            Come on, John, recognise the absurdity of the Climate Change Committee and repeal the absurd Climate Change Act before it wrecks us. There is not a chance that anything we do will affect the steady and beneficial rise of atmospheric CO2 at about 2ppm/year for the foreseeable future. This will not affect the weather more than a teensy weensy bit. (O.6degsC for a doubling. Read it up, John.
            Years.

          3. glen cullen
            September 20, 2022

            London, 20 September – A new paper reduces the estimate of climate sensitivity – the amount of warming expected for a doubling of carbon dioxide concentrations – by one third. The results therefore suggest that future global warming will be much less than expected.
            The paper, by independent scientist Nic Lewis, has just appeared in the journal Climate Dynamics. https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/

          4. James Stevens
            September 20, 2022

            One suspects the key contributors here are well past their prime, have no real understanding of green technologies, and live a long way from any proposed fracking sites. They also appear so entrenched in their positions as climate change deniers that they cannot see the (very large) writing on the wall. Perhaps they should get down to Spec*****s before it’s too late.

            On the subject of post Brexit opportunities the idea of a trade deal with the US is deader than the Dodo.
            The deals that have been negotiated to date are largely insignificant and are in stark contrast to what JR and his cronies claimed would be achieved soon after withdrawal from the EU. Make no mistake – British businesses have been badly let down. The only thing oven ready here should be the resignation letters of all those who sold the electorate the Brexit lies.

            Reply I made no promises of trade deals and recommended leaving the EU on WTO terms. Why lie?

        2. glen cullen
          September 20, 2022

          Good Words – Fully Agree

        3. Hope
          September 20, 2022

          I just read all the comments here and it is beyond doubt the problem is the govt, the Tory govt.

          The past few blogs again highlight that JR is correct in his views but his party and govt go off on a 180 degree tangent after lying to the public to get elected.

          We saw the dross of precious PMs, there was not one that stood out from Major to Truss. But what was obvious the majority were Useless Tories.

          The govt currently has an 80 seat majority, what have your party done with it, what is their direction, where have they been headed for 12 years. Moreover what have they achieved? Nothing. Only made matters far worse on every regard. Our country is in a very sad state from economy to public services to culture. All the fault of the Tories.

          Woke appointments to cabinet show me Truss, the product of woke quota system herself, is continuity useless.

          We voted out of the EU 6 years ago! Your party and govt failed to deliver. Stop blaming the EU.

          No more blame games, election please.

          1. John Hatfield
            September 20, 2022

            Pay attention Hope. We have a new prime minister who I’m sure will deal with your grievances.
            By the way, the a very sad state of the public services is the fault of the money for nothing, chicks for free, public services. It is unreasonable to blame public service mismanagement on the government. On the other hand you are right in that the government needs to send in the hard men do a hatchet job on NHS top management.

      2. Hope
        September 20, 2022

        JR, how about level playing field on state aide? How about level playing field on environment? How about boat invasion across the channel from illegal criminals? How about dire public services as we approach winter with difficulty getting go appointments?

        Secondly, we read and hear today our idiotic PM Truss to give away ÂŁ2.3 billion on corrupt Ukraine! No,no,no. A total waste of borrowing and spending again by a useless innumerate wasteful Tory PM. We do not have the money! Your lot make Gordon Brown look brilliant.

        How about the money problems at home? How about the annexing of N.Ireland for the EU?

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 20, 2022

          Hope

          By 2024 there won’t be any pubs and restaurants. That is far more important to voters than Ukraine.

      3. Mitchel
        September 20, 2022

        Germany is a US vassal-many there might wish otherwise.

        Two articles from earlier this year by the great Dr Michael Hudson (michael-hudson.com) explain what’s going on:-

        28 Feb :”America Defeats Germany for the Third Time in a Century.”
        7 Apr : “The Dollar Devours the Euro.”

    2. Peter
      September 20, 2022

      It is all very well to state that :-

      ‘There are so many industries damaged by EU laws still in place in our law codes. ’

      However that is to overlook the huge damage done to this country by Johnson and Sunak under the cover of covid lockdown and Net Zero.

      Voters are not stupid and any attempt to shift all the blame onto EU laws simply will not work.

      1. Shirley M
        September 20, 2022

        Why do our politicians think it better to kowtow to damaging EU rules, no matter the cost? Politicians should have been working for the benefits of OUR country all along, especially since 2016. They haven’t. WHY haven’t they?

    3. Sharon
      September 20, 2022

      “Germany is ready to take on leadership responsibility for the security of our continent’.”-

      Well, Germany anyway!

    4. ignoramus
      September 20, 2022

      ‘The German plan for domination of Europe is exposed.’

      Really? The Second World War ended 70 years ago, mate. You might as well be talking about Waterloo.

      What concerns me rather more is the lack of movement on a trade deal with the U.S. The whole idea of Brexit was to move from the smaller E.U market to the bigger U.S market.

      I now hear nothing will happen for the short to medium term, and we will continue to remain in this wretched halfway house. Perhaps we should rejoin the E.U for the short to medium term until this is sorted out?

      I feel that I have been lied to. Very disappointing.

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 20, 2022

        Ignoramus

        The time to do this was under Trump. Establishment Remainers have stopped this trade deal.

        1. anon
          September 21, 2022

          US deal fine if we get one.
          Bozo & May both missed that opportunity Seem deliberate. I reckon priority was given to isolating Trump and avoiding Brexit opportunities.

          Forget it wasting time with EU/Pelosi/Biden. They will be changes soon enough.

          We should use this time to extricate ourselves from EU control, especially within.
          The lack of action is just screaming ‘Brexit in name Only’.

          We need a schedule F law in the UK which allows Senior un-elected policy pushers to be replaced by a new administration.

      2. Denis Cooper
        September 20, 2022

        Yes, you have been lied to, but I did try to warn a very long time ago that a special trade deal with the US would be of little value to us, or indeed to them. As I circulated earlier today:

        “This started in 2013 with David Cameron promising us a TTIP cornucopia, provided of course that we stayed in the EU to be part of it:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2016/02/13/lets-get-rid-of-eu-austerity/#comment-801195

        And now today Liz Truss admits that any special trade deal with the US could be many years away, as if that matters:

        https://tinyurl.com/2r2ctvbd

        Why didn’t she very openly say:

        “But it doesn’t matter, because when I was in charge of our trade department our analysis showed that our trade with the US is already so free that neither of us really need any special trade deal”?”

        The Irish Times was told ten days ago but it makes no difference, they still report this today as a major blow which will disappoint Brexiteers blah blah blah and as usual nobody in the UK government will correct them.

        Attached to my letter to the editor of the Irish Times:

        “For the projected economic benefit to the UK of a special trade deal with the US I take the numbers on page 33 here:

        https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/869592/UK_US_FTA_negotiations.pdf

        “A trade agreement with the US could increase UK GDP in the long run by around 0.07% (within a range of between 0.02% and 0.15%) or 0.16% (between 0.05% and 0.36%) under scenario 1 and scenario 2 respectively.”

        I take the average of those two midpoints, 0.07 and 0.16, to get the rounded average projected benefit of 0.1% of GDP cited in the text of the letter.”

    5. Peter Wood
      September 20, 2022

      More evidence…
      It seems the EU/Germany understands to ‘never let a crisis go to waste’, a power grab to take powers for control of European nations is on the way:

      The executive body of the European Union (EU) laid out a new emergency tool to secure supply chains in times of crisis that would give it sweeping new powers to block member countries from adopting restrictions to the free movement of crisis-relevant goods or force businesses to break contracts and stockpile key products.

      Details of the plan—called the Single Market Emergency Instrument (SMEI)—were unveiled on Sept. 19 by the European Commission (EC), which would be granted the power to declare an emergency and trigger a range of market interventions.

      Guess who’s needs/wants will be met first….

    6. Gary3
      September 20, 2022

      Peter Wood – please note it is not our continent – nothing to do with us since we have opted out for the slow lane. So now to build a merchant navy again upgrade the ports and get back to the 1970’s

  2. Mark B
    September 20, 2022

    Good morning.

    First. I would like to thank our kind host for his many excellent articles over the last few days. They have, for me, been some of his best.

    Our wounds have been largely self inflicted. Parliament has been to sheep like and willing to follow trends without proper debate and examination. We here have debated and examined many issues in far greater detail and depth and, as a result, come to conclusions that are at odds with both the government and our MP’s. No wonder they got matters like BREXIT so wrong.

    But perhaps the realisation of a forthcoming General Election and a wounded electort may have at last jolted some into action. That and the removal of a Hen-pecked PM 😉

    Only in politics can you witness subsidies to energy producers to provide expensive & unreliable energy (renewables) and, at the same time, subsidies to consumers to buy said energy. All with consumers own money.

    Alas the The Mad Hatter did not throw in his hat to be the next PM. Maybe even he thought such a job to bonkers even for him ?

    PS We gave a Her Majesty a great send off yesterday. No less than what she deserved. Well done all.

    1. Hope
      September 20, 2022

      +1
      However, Plural ‘our’ not correct. More specific to single entity called Tory party. Self inflicted mess caused by the Tory party over 12 years.

    2. Denis Cooper
      September 20, 2022

      It was an impressive and memorable spectacle and the public rose to the occasion.

  3. Lifelogic
    September 20, 2022

    All that and more the endless attack on landlords, the selfemployed and small business have been huge amd incessant. The two bank holidays and the net zero rip off energy and making tax digital will take about £90k of one off one of my companies profits. The huge reduction in entrepreneur’s relief by tax borrow amd piss down the drain Sunak to deter investment too.

    1. Richard1
      September 20, 2022

      The London rental market has become impossible for young people. Young people sharing a property need to reckon on at least ÂŁ1,000 pcm + bills. Any rental property attracts dozens of bidders and requires viewing in work hours. 3 bed properties are now being let as 2 beds due to the new, Johnson- era regs for 3+ bed rentals. Many properties are being taken off the rental market due to the change of risk-reward with new tenants’ rights and change in tax rules.

      And all this under a Conservative govt! Liz Truss needs to drive radical change – just reversing many of the bad policies introduced in recent years will be a good start.

      Young people whose parents can bung them a few ÂŁ100ks to buy are OK but otherwise not – are we surprised there is a problem getting young people to vote Conservative?

      1. Mickey Taking
        September 20, 2022

        It is not just young people that are a problem.

      2. Lifelogic
        September 20, 2022

        The many fiscal and the very many regulatory attacks on landlords have made many leave the industry thus restricting supply (The fools Osborne, Hammond and Sunak largely to blame). Then we have open door and open channel immigration for people who get their rents paid by government or Cerco or similar so other tax payers. My daughter has a temporary university work placement full time job paying about ÂŁ20k her rent for a shared flat is about ÂŁ12k, tax and NI ÂŁ3K council tax ÂŁ1K, commuting ÂŁ1k leaves her about ÂŁ8.50 a day for work lunch, food, light, heating, fun, holidays, repairs, washing powder? So she gets about 50p an hour to spend on herself. So needless to say I have to subsidise. Even junior doctors only start on ÂŁ29k and they have student debt interest of circa ÂŁ10k PA too.

        More houses or fewer people it is very simple.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          September 20, 2022

          +1

          The doctor gets a room in a shared house – his single-mum layabout cousin a two-bed house with mod cons to herself.

          He is still childless at 25 – she’s having kids like a rabbit, to males anon.

          Reverse Darwinism.

          1. Lifelogic
            September 21, 2022

            Much truth in this alas!

      3. Christine
        September 20, 2022

        Although it’s bad in London we see a similar pattern across the country with rising rental prices and a reduced supply of properties. This constant attack on landlords by the government and local authorities has made many question the point of remaining in the sector. Things are set to get much worse with the fast-approaching new rule that from 2025, all newly rented properties will be required to have an EPC rating of C or above. Then it becomes much worse when existing tenancies have to comply with the new regulations from 2028. It’s just not financially viable to upgrade much of the UK’s old housing stock. Once the new regulations are in place in 2025, landlords who don’t have a valid EPC could be fined ÂŁ30,000. Commercial properties must have an EPC rating of B by 1st April 2030. This will be virtually impossible for the majority of businesses located in older premises.

        The Government would rather see people living on the streets than in a D-rated home. We continue on the slow march to the WEF goal of “you will own nothing and be happy”. People need to wake up and see what is happening with this Net Zero nonsense.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 20, 2022

          “The Government would rather see people living on the streets than in a D-rated homes” seems so total insanity. Best bet for the homeless is pretend to have just arrived on a rib in Dover and get a pizza put in a free hotel.

        2. Lifelogic
          September 20, 2022

          “It’s just not financially viable to upgrade much of the UK’s old housing stock. Once the new regulations are in place in 2025, landlords who don’t have a valid EPC could be fined” more total insanity from the green crap religion and government.

        3. Lifelogic
          September 20, 2022

          Insanity – huge conflict between freeholders, long leaseholders & tenants. Problems in conservation areas & planning issue with changes to windows or exterior insulation too. A vast job creating scheme for largely parasitic workers like lawyers, EPC inspectors, agents, management companies…

          So small flats in London were the occupants work and often go home to the county at weekend use trivial amount of energy anyway just on four evening but with few outside walls anyway. Further insulation of these little of no sense at all.

      4. a-tracy
        September 20, 2022

        What do you want the government to do about it Richard?
        Make the other regions in the UK more attractive to young graduates? Even up entertainment and stop just having Wembley as the national stadium, share it around more? Make other Cities prime movers and shakers?

        Or do you want them to build cheap flats with public money? Who is getting all the London social housing? Poor kids from the North – I doubt it! Mine all rented with others one, five to a house, the dining room was made into a bedroom. Is there any way the government could facilitate student apartment-type living for fresh graduates in their first jobs in London from the other regions who can’t stay with family?

    2. Lifelogic
      September 20, 2022

      A picture of all the past PMs at the funeral shows so many of the people responsible for the current economic, energy, public “services”
 mess we suffer. Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May and Boris. Had they had their dire chancellors rather than their wives with then (Clarke, Brown, Darling, Osborne, Hammond, Sunak) even more economic and other gross incompetence would have been on display. Though Carrie earns her place directly by converting a relatively sensible Boris into a climate alarmist, net zero, lockdown enthusiast, tax to death, deluded socialist.

      So what about the religious wars going on in Leicester almost unreported by the BBC needless to say? Will King Charles be protector of all these faiths? As well as his deluded net zero one? Will truss tackle postal vote corruption before the next election and the constituency boundaries levelling out.

      1. miami.mode
        September 20, 2022

        LL we have had race riots in the past and now we have religious riots plus we are importing thousands via dinghies that are probably of the same disposition as those rioting in Leicester.

        1. rose
          September 21, 2022

          Birmingham too, now, where that speech was made in 1968.

  4. turboterrier
    September 20, 2022

    What a detailed in depth list of possible actions you have suggested Sir John proof yet again your knowledge, understanding and passion for this country’s financial security has been well thought out.
    I wish I could have the same confidence in the people who have been put in charge of trying to get us moving again.
    Are we ever going to see real meaningful action where their actions are going to be positive and not waste more of the taxpayers money and increase the national debt? I do not hold my breath.
    We are for all intents and purposes in a war situation, we require emergency legislation to force through the changes needed. No more talking, plenty of action.

    1. Narrow Shoulders
      September 20, 2022

      It is indeed a detailed list. It will be interesting to see what kind of influence you have over our new Prime Minister and her ministers Sir John. After not being part of her cabinet despite being tipped for the Treasury were you part of her policy team or just Conservative window dressing for her campaign?

      I am hoping that you and similar minded people to you have created her policy agenda and we see much of what you list above.

      To curtail gas and electricity costs it will be cheaper to subsidise the wholesale price to suppliers than to subsidise the retail price to business and consumers. It is also vital to decouple renewables from the cost of gas. By making it cheaper in the market you will achieve twin goals of making it more attractive and reduce the price of electricity.

      1. miami.mode
        September 20, 2022

        NS, I thought that the reduction in energy costs is via a subsidy to the retail suppliers so that if the generators’ prices reduce the subsidy to the retailers will reduce accordingly. A similar system for businesses would work but it does mean that government (Ofgem?) would have to carefully monitor the prices the retailers are paying, but to say that these subsidies are not loans which will eventually have to be repaid by increased taxes is disingenuous in the extreme. Basically we are paying the full price irrespective of what the government says and it has been created deliberately by Conservatives over the past 12 years with their various actions in parliament.

        1. Narrow Shoulders
          September 20, 2022

          nothing is free @mm but with the prices at their present level the economy will not function without some form of intervention. Even nationalising a producer would not save us from the bills coming later as France and EDF have demonstrated.

      2. Mark
        September 20, 2022

        If you subsidise the wholesale price are you not also subsidising exports?

        A better scheme would be to provide subsidised volumes for a portion of demand, but leave most consumers and businesses facing something closer to market prices at the margin.

        1. Narrow Shoulders
          September 20, 2022

          I would not advocate subsidising exports Mark – the mechanism would subsidise the purchases for domestic use.

          I do agree with you that the optimum approach would be to subsidise (the wholesale price) for a portion of use equal to bare minimum and then charge full price for anything else.

      3. dixie
        September 21, 2022

        As I understand it there is a single wholesale market and the price is set by the last generation method to be switched off – gas. Even nuclear and coal track the gas price, not just renewables.
        Perhaps there needs to be a radical change to the way that market operates.

  5. Richard1
    September 20, 2022

    Very little time to start a major reverse of the high tax, high reg policy drift of the last 25 years. Essential at least to demonstrate a clear direction of policy by the time of the next election. Every one of the suggestions Sir John makes today will be the subject of shrill, even hysterical opposition, often from producer vested interests. It will take very strong and firm leadership to get any of it through.

  6. James1
    September 20, 2022

    “The Business Secretary could



.” He most certainly should. But will he?

    1. Hope
      September 20, 2022

      +1

    2. Lifelogic
      September 20, 2022

      Since Ted Heath with a gap for Thatcher and even more damage from Blair and Brown – can Liz perform we shall soon see. ONLY ABOUT 20 MONTHS left to do so.

  7. BOF
    September 20, 2022

    Surely, now is the time to repeal the Climate Change Act, the insane legislation that drives much of the madness. Recognise that Net Zero is unachievable and unaffordable and Climate Change together with the war on essential CO2 is fraudulent. In fact a political agenda to give foreign interests control over UK affairs.

    1. Lifelogic
      September 20, 2022

      “Net Zero is unachievable and unaffordable and Climate Change together with the war on essential CO2 is fraudulent.”

      It is indeed but Truss, Kwasi and circa 90% of our deluded and invariably art grad. MPs seem to love it! Wind, solar, EVs, burning wood at Drax save no sig. CO2 anyway. Even if it did CO2 is not an issue and World Cooperation will not happen anyway.

      1. BOF
        September 20, 2022

        LL Perhaps the tide will turn. I believe it is turning on the Covid jabs as I note that Denmark first stopped them for the under 17’s and then for the under 50’s. Other countries will have to follow.

      2. miami.mode
        September 20, 2022

        LL the last I heard is that Greta now says burning wood is not renewable. Guardian 5.9.22.

        1. Lifelogic
          September 20, 2022

          As renewable as coal is – as Coal is old wood.

        2. Mickey Taking
          September 20, 2022

          so every time you put a log on the fire – go outside and plant a sapling.

    2. glen cullen
      September 20, 2022

      Gets my vote

    3. Lifelogic
      September 20, 2022

      Well past time!

    4. Lifelogic
      September 20, 2022

      The war on CO2 plant food is not just misguided, it is evil, bad for life on earth, economic insanity, renders the nation vulnerable to attack, bad for the environment, dangerous and is against humanity. Alas King Charles, David Attenborough, 90% of MPs, Truss, Kwasi, the BBC and millions of others simply seem unable to grasp this?

  8. Leslie Singleton
    September 20, 2022

    Dear Sir John–Absolutely right that the Energy Certificates should be voluntary or better still abolished. Personally, especially with an old house (my old house might have had features going back to the Conquest) it makes sense to me to buy a house with the lowest score in hopes of minimising the amount that it had been buggered about with. I shudder at any question of the walls with their drying airflows being filled with that expanding foam gunk.

    Apart from Post hoc ergo non propter hoc is there any actual real proof on Climate Change? If so it has escaped me. Let’s hear it for Correlation is not Causation.

    1. Cuibono
      September 20, 2022

      +many
      Let’s just say that if one rubs a black cat’s tail on a stye, (Parson Woodforde ) the fact that the stye vanishes after so many days may or may not be down to the treatment
      The rest is just weather! ⛈

    2. glen cullen
      September 20, 2022

      ”Energy certification of buildings is an important element of Europe’s energy and climate policy. The Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) were introduced in 2002 by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD, Directive 2001/91/EC) as a mandatory requirement for the EU Member States” https://www.eceee.org

      1. Lifelogic
        September 20, 2022

        Ditch them they cost far more than they benefit people. Unless you are an EPC inspector that is.

      2. Mark
        September 20, 2022

        They are in practice quite useless anyway, since the assumptions on which they are based turn out frequently to be wrong. If we are to make any kind of sense of trying to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings it is imperative that it should be based on real evidence of what works (without causing costly side effects e.g. from damp etc.), and what makes economic sense. Fancy schemes with paybacks measured in decades or more should be halted. Consequential repair, such as a need to redecorate, needs to be taken into account.

        1. glen cullen
          September 20, 2022

          I wish our government would just stop telling us how to life our lives, stop telling us what too insulate, what energy to use, when to use energy etc etc etc next they’ll be telling us what colour to paint our front doors

          1. miami.mode
            September 20, 2022

            glen, from the Guardian 26.1.16 “The doors of houses accommodating asylum seekers in Middlesbrough and Stockton have begun to be repainted after complaints that having all of them coloured red left occupants vulnerable to abuse”.

            A company owned nearly 300 houses in Middlesbrough and about 160 in Stockton rented to house asylum seekers. Officials from the company contracted as a go-between would confirm exactly how many had red doors when they appeared before the Commons home affairs committee later, he added, insisting that only a “proportion” had red doors.

  9. Michelle
    September 20, 2022

    Some good suggestions, sound common sens especially in a very unpredictable world.
    Why then I wonder when I have suggested over the years that we should always ensure we can be as self-sufficient as possible for our benefit and security has it set some frothing at the mouth.

    No one knows what or who is around the corner and being left without the means to even feed the population, one that has been over inflated against the wishes of the majority, is something more than just naivety surely.
    I’m sure there must be plenty of agricultural students who’d love a start up with a piece of land, wouldn’t that serve us better and pay better dividends long term, rather than watching huge swathes of farming land turn to housing estates?

    1. Hope
      September 20, 2022

      Where is the money promised from Brexit to farmers to get them growing? Ukraine no, farmers yes. No rewilding rubbish.

      1. Mitchel
        September 20, 2022

        There was a large demonstration in Italy a few weeks ago;the chant of the protestors was: “we need farmers,we don’t need politicians!”

        Hard to disagree!

        1. glen cullen
          September 20, 2022

          Just look at what the politicians have done to the farmers in the Netherlands !! Coming to a town near you….very soon

  10. graham1946
    September 20, 2022

    Not just EU rules to be cancelled. How about some original thinking of our own? For instance, why not put into building regs. that all new houses should have solar panels fitted where the orientation etc. is appropriate? Much cheaper and more effective than retro-fitting. Of course this would reduce the rip off profits made by energy companies somewhat so would not be popular with this government which seems to want to see the populace pauperised to featherbed powerful interests by encouraging the rip offs with our own money.

    1. majorfrustration
      September 20, 2022

      All the time we were in the EU MPs sub contracted out of the thinking process and were no more than a rubber stamp. Hence the current lack of talent.

      1. Shirley M
        September 20, 2022

        +1

      2. Cynic
        September 20, 2022

        Membership of the EU has indeed hollowed out our institutions and politicised our judiciary.

    2. Dave Andrews
      September 20, 2022

      If they abolished VAT on solar panel installations, that would help a lot.
      But of course, as much as the government believes in green policies, they believe in tax even more.

      1. glen cullen
        September 20, 2022

        If they abolished VAT, that would help a lot

    3. a-tracy
      September 20, 2022

      graham, the builders would lobby strongly against it, especially for the affordable homes they are forced to build on each building project. Solar Panels cost around ÂŁ20,000 and would take at least 6, they say 10 just to pay back the initial investment, then they’d need servicing and upgrading; I was told you have no control, i.e. you don’t get to keep/store the energy they produce it gets put in the grid.

    4. Ian B
      September 20, 2022

      @graham1946 UK Building Regs are not and have not been fit for purpose for sometime. How it operates is dictated by suppliers outside of the UK primarily from the EU that have joined and now dominate UK trade Organisation/Associations – they are all about protecting themselves not advancing society.
      There is no sensible reason why UK House Building hasn’t followed the necessity to build housing that meets ‘Passive House’ standards or at the very least the framework of upgradability to it. Its simple proven standard that has been around since the early 70’s. But, as with air sourced heat pumps it cant be retro fitted to work withou ripping everything apart and starting from scratch. Here we are some 50years on and are still building a housing stock not fit for purpose

    5. Mark
      September 20, 2022

      New homes tend to be built in estates, clustered together. If you fit whole estates with solar panels you create a concentration of surplus power in the middle of the day in summer that has to be replaced by grid power every evening and through the short days of winter when there is little solar output. That creates ever bigger problems for grid supply as it spreads more widely. Intermittent supply sources are generally not a good idea, especially if you try to make it mainstream.

      1. CvM
        September 20, 2022

        Some people I know who have recently installed solar panels have also installed batteries in order to mitigate this effect. Even with energy prices of 12 months ago they were expecting a 10 – 15 year payback which doesn’t seem so bad. From what I understand they now rarely buy grid electricity

        1. a-tracy
          September 20, 2022

          CvM do you know how much the panels + the batteries cost them?

          1. No Longer Anonymous
            September 20, 2022

            Or when the batteries and panels will need replacement ?

        2. Mark
          September 20, 2022

          Ask them again in January.

        3. Original Richard
          September 20, 2022

          CvM :

          I hope your friends have sited their battery away from their house as recommended by Paul Christensen, Professor of Pure and Applied Electrochemistry at Newcastle University, UK, who is an expert on Li-ion battery safety.

          Professor Christensen says that Li-ion fires are possible, not just because of misuse or accidents, but even through a combination of high humidity and electrical noise, or even overcharging, and that there are currently no UK regulations for domestic use and this is particularly dangerous for second life (second hand ex ev batteries) batteries stored in people’s homes.

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9B5M8qHQQ0
          Start at 1 : 01 : 00

          Professor Christensen believes there should be regulations to control the domestic use of Li-ion batteries.

          This would include batteries used in solar panel installations, ev charging installations, and particularly second-life ev batteries used domestically to provide power for when the wind doesn’t blow….

      2. graham1946
        September 21, 2022

        This is why we need discussion. Obviously I’m not an expert, just an idea, but my point is that we have for too many years relied on the EU for original and very often disastrous thinking and need to think for ourselves. Presumably, best do nothing at all then and let the blackouts begin if the grid can’t cope with shortages or excess. Intermittent supply is the very definition of wind mills, yet still they go up.

  11. bill brown
    September 20, 2022

    “We have been folllowing the failed EU energy policy”
    Each country in the EU has been abe to follow its own energy policy for many years and a number of countries do not not follow the EU policy today wither, like Spain and Portugal, so the satement is simply wrong.

    A number of countries have got a failed energy policy including the UK, because we have not built enough of our own energy capacity for years to be self-sustained, which we should have done. To blame the EU for our own misakes seemsto be part of the Brexiters policy, for a failed Brexit, where we have not used the advantages we should have used for being out of the EU,

    Reply You clearly do not understand the legal requirements which forced us into closing fossil fuel capacity we needed to avoid imports

    1. turboterrier
      September 20, 2022

      Reply to reply
      If these so called “legal requirements” are the problem then is it not beyond the realms of possibility with a majority of 80 to get rid of them. One emergency debate in light of our situation and they can all be gone. NZ, CCC ECHR etc.

      1. glen cullen
        September 20, 2022

        Best post today

      2. rose
        September 21, 2022

        There is theory and then there is practice. The 80 seat majority is now nearer 70 and presumably just as recalcitrant, to say nothing of the House of Lords and Supreme Court.

        As for EU directives, there was no dodging them for the British.

    2. acorn
      September 20, 2022

      If by fossil fuel you mean coal, Steam coal for power generation (2.7 million tonnes) is mainly imported. Russia was the largest provider of UK’s steam coal (46 per cent), followed by the USA (16 per cent) and Venezuela (13 percent). Coal stocks (1.7 million tonnes), continue to be run down with the close down of all coal fired generation by October 2024.

      1. Lifelogic
        September 20, 2022

        It would be idiotic to close down coal until economic, on demand and reliable alternative are available.

      2. Mark
        September 20, 2022

        Coal is internationally traded. The EU has increased its imports from Colombia, South Africa and Australia principally to meet its increased use of coal. With a bit of effort the US could easily become a significant coal exporter as it was in the past. Russia is increasingly exporting coal to China, with a new rail line opened for that purpose. That actually allowed China to cut its imports from Australia.

        Had we had foresight we would have stocked up more than a year ago, and kept power stations available rather than blowing them up. I was calling for maximum coal burn and provision back then.

    3. hefner
      September 20, 2022

      Reply to reply: ‘the legal requirements which forced us into closing fossil fuel capacity’: don’t be shy Sir John, tell us exactly which EU texts did that, and what fossil fuel capacity were closed, and by which private companies. As a MP of 35 years you have all the information and could make the list as you obviously ‘clearly understand’ all these things.
      Tell us everything about which governments led on the closing of coal powered stations, the development of gas powered stations, the near-abandon of nuclear power energy, the implementation of renewables, and the interactions between the governments, the public and the private sectors.
      Do not be afraid to be detailed, people on this site can understand more than your usual few sentences thrown to send them away. Be positively didactic, after all you taught for years at Middlesex Uni.

      In the absence of a detailed list of laws and their consequences I will have to conclude that as so often you are economical with the truth.

      Reply EU policy and law was to shut fossil fuel stations, with complex rules and taxes on carbon output.

      1. Lifelogic
        September 20, 2022

        It was driven by the EU but 90+% of MPs voted for Ed Milliband’s insane climate charge act and nodded through May’s net zero insanity.

        JR one of the very few who did not.

      2. Mark
        September 20, 2022

        Start with the Large Combustion Plant Directive which limited our remaining coal plants to a maximum of 20,000 hours of use before closure.

      3. Know-Dice
        September 20, 2022

        Sir John,

        Doesn’t this show once again that the British Civil Service was much too quick to implement EU Edicts without fully understanding the implication to the UK of doing this?

        Why is Germany still burning brown coal – maybe because they only do what is best for Germany!!!

      4. Bill Brown
        September 20, 2022

        We should have built nuclear capacity much earlier and did not.
        So, I am afraid your reply doesn’t stand up for further scrutiny again

      5. acorn
        September 20, 2022

        Strangely, Germany must have been working to a different EU rule. It still has 30 coal/lignite fired plants, generating 28% of its electric, which it doesn’t intend to shutdown till 2038. They are still building a much delayed new 1,100 MW coaler and intend to “turn it up to eleven” and shut it down in 2038 and bank the profits. On the other side of the street, Germany got the Fukushima frights when it had 26,000 MW of Nukes, it only has 4,000 MW still operating. Who knew what was around the corner?

        1. glen cullen
          September 20, 2022

          +1

    4. Matthu
      September 20, 2022

      Could someone please expand on the point Sir John is referring to re. legal requirements? Thanks

      1. hefner
        September 20, 2022

        EU directives are legal acts of the European Union that requires member states to achieve a particular result without dictating the means of achieving that result. See ‘ec.europa.eu > info > law > law-making-process > types-eu-law_en’ or ukandeu.ac.uk ‘What are EU directives?’

        So for example as we have seen this summer the EU Water Directives have been applied very differently over the European Union, certain countries having gone full privatisation (the UK) while others kept a mixed approach (private, state, regional, municipal) when dealing with water provision and distribution. The same applies to provision of energy.

        The point is that when Sir John goes ‘the EU this, the EU that’ he wilfully forgets to give the whole story ie that the particular solutions adopted by the UK have not been imposed by the EU but are essentially decisions taken by the UK Government, its public and/or its private sectors, quangos and other various offices influenced by think tanks.

        Obviously this sells a bitty less well than ‘the EU this, the EU that’ to a particular type of ‘customers’.

        Reply The energy laws include directly acting Regulations from the EU

        1. hefner
          September 20, 2022

          As far as I understand the commanding text is the 2012 Energy Efficiency DIRECTIVE amended in 2018 (Directive on Energy Efficiency 2018/2002) that defined OBLIGATIONS for achieving efficiency TARGETS. It did not define what and how exactly the UK had to reach these targets. That’s the reason why different approaches have been followed in different EU countries.
          If you know differently please provide the reference.

          Moreover this 2018 Directive had to be translated into national law in individual EU countries by June 2020, so clearly after 31/01/2020. How do you explain that the UK out of the EU should still be wanting to follow these targets? Did PM Johnson talk a lot of rubbish to his MPs and they all accepted it?

          Reply The Regulation and Directives of the electricity market 2019, the EU emissions trading scheme etc

          1. hefner
            September 20, 2022

            Reply-to-reply: That’s what I thought: Energy has been under the TCA since 01/01/2021
            energy.ec.europa.eu/topics/international-cooperation/key-partner-countries-and-regions/united-kingdom
            So since 1st January 2021, the UK could have had a different approach to energy if its Government had wanted. As you say, the various EU directives are still being applied but only because the UK government(s) has(ve) decided to let these run as before.

            So last point, your jeremiads about ‘the EU this, the EU that’ should have been written ‘The CUP Government this, the CUP Government that’.

        2. Mark
          September 20, 2022

          Many EU countries fail to apply EU laws by translating and enforcing them in their own countries. In a good number of cases the EU turns a blind eye to this practice. The UK has rarely been tardy in implementing EU law, even now we are supposed to have left.

          1. hefner
            September 21, 2022

            Wrong, read the relevant directives and you might (might, if you were to take off your blinkers) realise that the UK has applied those in the most ‘neoliberal’ way possible almost always favouring private provision to any other form of public, para-public or mixed provision. The other EU countries applied those directives as originally written (see for example the original directives, and the draft, EU Commission’s comments and resultant NECPs, National Energy and Climate Plans, produced by the individual countries at energy.ec.europa.eu).

            To say as you do that ‘many EU countries fail to apply EU laws by translating and enforcing them in their own countries’ and that ‘the EU turns a blind eye to this practice’ is a Boeotian comment.
            Strange as usually your comments are rather much more informed than what you display in your above comment.

    5. The Prangwizard
      September 20, 2022

      Reply to reply.
      This may be so but our country has suffered and continues to suffer because leaders here have been cowardly and gutless in dealing with the EU. It has been allowed direct power over us which must be ended.

      Until there is a change in attitude here and the obsession held by most MPs that we must obey laws in all detail and be ‘nice’ our opponents like the EU will always take advantage of such weakness.

      1. Bill Brown
        September 20, 2022

        We just didn’t built enough surplus capacity for years and this has nothing to do with the EU. We could have planned as we wanted

        1. Mark
          September 20, 2022

          We have closed and demolished capacity that would be perfectly serviceable so we now have a shortage when the wind doesn’t blow. It is not just a lack of building. It is a fond belief in wind and interconnectors and the implied assumption that someone else would build for us.

    6. Bill Brown
      September 20, 2022

      We should have built nuclear capacity much earlier and did not.
      So, I am afraid your reply doesn’t stand up for further scrutiny again

      1. anon
        September 21, 2022

        Perhaps we should not have allowed recent nuclear capacity to close for non-safety reasons.

  12. The Prangwizard
    September 20, 2022

    I am much in favour of this strategy, I mentioned the other day a removal of a costly but minor detail of H&S regulations.

    A great deal can be achieved by paring down of laws and regulations in this way and often more compared to attempting massive changes; certainly more quickly. If nothing along these lines are put forward quickly the change of leader will have meant nothing.

  13. Pete
    September 20, 2022

    What do you suggest the government does to reverse the massive damage done to Britain by the lockdown scam?
    How about the uncontrolled invasion by illegals happening daily?
    Plus the catastrophic sanctions against Russia when it finally reacted to NATO breaking every promise it ever made.
    How about tackling the takeover of government bu WEF members whose interests are opposite to the interests of the British people?

    1. Bill Brown
      September 20, 2022

      Pete

      When a sovereign nation like Sweden and Finland wish to join NATO, should they just say no?

  14. Roy Grainger
    September 20, 2022

    I suppose as the Business Secretary is Jacob Rees-Mogg there’s some chance a couple of these may be implemented, or at least he may try before they are watered down by the Treasury, or at least he may commission an enquiry into implementing a couple at some indeterminate date in the distant future. Let’s see.

  15. a-tracy
    September 20, 2022

    To reduce costs of home buyers in England, he could look at Scotland’s ‘home report’ sale packs, the seller produces them so that all interested parties get the information before they make an offer. You are to put in the last time the boiler was checked, how old it is, if your heating system is under insurance cover or not, when it was last serviced, the land survey, the home survey, and the energy certificate.

    1. Mark
      September 20, 2022

      The whole Scottish legal system for property transactions operates on a different basis from that in England and Wales, which also have minor differences with Northern Ireland. It’s not just a matter of housing packs. There are advantages to the Scottish system, where a bid is a binding contract. But there are equally disadvantages.

      1. a-tracy
        September 21, 2022

        I know I have a child that lives in Scotland. I thought the house seller putting the ‘home report’ pack together for every potential buyer was a much better idea. It stops the cost on potential purchasers if the seller pulls out or the purchaser gets gazumped for a cash bid.
        The sealed bids with homes marketed at the lowest price they would accept took a bit of getting used to but really it is no different than being bid down on the highest price people hope for in England.
        I also think buyers that ask you to take your house off the market and commit to buying should have to pay a 10% deposit as they do with new houses. Too many buyers in England pull out after three months.

  16. Cuibono
    September 20, 2022

    Yesterday was magnificent. No other country could have done it as well.
    Surely the actual government didn’t organise it? Surely, certainly, definitely not!
    It must have been based on what the Marxist constantly try to hide.
    Old rules and procedures.
    I reckon we could overcome any problem.
    Were it not for the government!

    1. Mickey Taking
      September 20, 2022

      sometimes a military dictatorship offers some attraction !

      1. Cuibono
        September 20, 2022

        +1
        I AM utterly sick of all this limp-wristedl socialism

        1. glen cullen
          September 20, 2022

          I take it, you’re taking about the current government

    2. miami.mode
      September 20, 2022

      When Donald Trump met the Queen at Windsor in July 2018 and he inspected the Guards with their band, allegedly he asked his aides “Why can’t I have a parade like this?”.

      1. rose
        September 21, 2022

        I think that was in France on Bastille Day.

    3. Mark
      September 20, 2022

      It is a job that is hereditary: the Earl Marshall is the 18th Duke of Norfolk. The 16th Duke organised the coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the funeral of Winston Churchill, and the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales.

      1. rose
        September 21, 2022

        And the glory of it is they are and were all RCs telling the C of E what to do.

  17. Cuibono
    September 20, 2022

    Is it nosey, impertinent to ask if JR accepted any advisory role in Treasury/Govt.?
    I’d feel a lot safer if the answer were “yes”.

    Reply No. Any role offered and accepted would be public. I was offered no advisory role.

    1. glen cullen
      September 20, 2022

      A loss to the government & nation

      1. Cuibono
        September 20, 2022

        +many

    2. Cuibono
      September 20, 2022

      Well!! Honestly!!!
      Utter idiots.

  18. a-tracy
    September 20, 2022

    If you want to stop IR35 then stop Employers NI at the same time. Otherwise, it is only there to recapture the Employer’s NI from businesses using dedicated long-contract self-employment to get around the social costs of employment (their basic State Pension and Healthcare), isn’t it?

    The Gross income ÂŁ20,000 pa employee, is actually earning gross ÂŁ21531.02, the tax office takes ÂŁ1531.02 extra from their employer, we were told for their state pension and healthcare and up to six months JSA.

    In addition to the employer’s NI tax, the employer also takes on the risk of SSP exposure (28 weeks = ÂŁ2781.80) + SSP Holiday (for just the 28 weeks on ÂŁ20k = ÂŁ1159.70) ÂŁ3941.50.

    Can you explain to me why its fair that Employers pay Employers NI but long-term engaged subbies don’t have a contribution to their State pension and healthcare by their employer?

    1. Dave Andrews
      September 20, 2022

      Companies exporting to the UK also don’t pay UK employers NI, so it’s a tax to stifle British industry in favour of imports. At least with VAT, it doesn’t matter whether the stuff was made in the UK or abroad.

      1. Sir Joe Soap
        September 20, 2022

        Also they’re not paying business rates, higher energy costs, higher rents or purchased property prices.

  19. Original Richard
    September 20, 2022

    The economy destroying CCA/Net Zero needs to be repealed immediately. As I write wind is supplying 1.17 GW from an installed capacity of 27 GW.

    CAGW is a scam initiated by a neo Malthusian humanity-hating religion, perpetuated by communists who desire to bring down the West and wealthy western elites who desire a return to feudalism and to own everything by first destroying the economy – hence “build back better, you will own nothing” etc.

    There is no climate emergency and CO2 does not drive temperature. Everyone should check for themselves the state of the climate – lack of catastrophic temperature rise, lack of catastrophic loss of ice at the poles, decreasing deaths from extreme weather events etc..

    CO2 is at a historically low level and at the last ice age, which ended just 11,000 years ago, dropped to 180 ppm just 30 ppm above the level below which plants cannot survive. We need more CO2 in the atmosphere not less.

    The CO2 sequestered from the atmosphere over millions of years by trees forming coal seams and by shelled creatures to form carbonaceous rocks holding oil and gas needs to be released back into the atmosphere from whence it came to sustain plant life and hence all life on Earth.

      1. Original Richard
        September 20, 2022

        acorn,

        You are correct, but only if you go back, as your graph does, by 800, 000 years, which is not a long time in planetary history.

        570 million years ago, at the start of the Cambrian explosion, the CO2 level was much higher at around 6000 ppm. Over time the CO2 level has declined as trees and then shelled creatures used up the CO2 in the atmosphere and when dying formed coal deposits and carbonaceous rocks containing oil and gas.

        So the current 420 ppm is historically very low (as is the current average global temperature having just exited from an ice age) and you will see from your graph that CO2 dropped several times to 180 ppm which is only 30 ppm above the 150 ppm level below which plants cannot survive. If plants don’t survive then all life on the planet will die. Hence why burning coal, gas and oil to release back into the atmosphere sequestered CO2 would be beneficial.

  20. Bloke
    September 20, 2022

    Consumers decide what is worth buying and at what price it sells. Govt bites off a chunk to feed itself.

    Fit Govts survive by scavenging the bad things. Crazy Govts try to graze on virtually everything good consumers need with insatiable frenzied nibbles. Their recipes are lengthy tax codes complicated beyond human understanding, adding only waste.

    Careless Govts lack etiquette. They should excrete in a proper place; not on the consumer.

  21. a-tracy
    September 20, 2022

    How is the energy certificate grade calculated? Do they look at the energy used in 2021 -v- the size of the home alone? What if there is someone that lives in a large house alone and only heats one room, so their energy bill is low because they are economical with their use, but if a family with three children bought the home and heated more rooms it would triple the bill for them?

    1. Mark
      September 20, 2022

      This article from Kathryn Porter at Watt-Logic provides an excellent explainer of the methodology and shortcomings of the EPC system.

      https://watt-logic.com/2021/01/27/building-energy-performance-epc/

      1. a-tracy
        September 20, 2022

        Thank you.

  22. Ian B
    September 20, 2022

    Good morning Sir John

    Reading you comments today my mind is saying ‘if only’. Your conclusions are all valid, but this left wing Government is still seeing everything EU good, common sense bad.

    Elswhere in the media there are items relating to the CMA (Competitions & Marketing Authority) . It comes over as it is essentialy it is an unaccountable QUANGO dictating to the UK business environment with EU thinking – Big Companies good, challenger start ups bad. The CMA is making up its own policies and is not following a framework dictated by Government. No ministrial oversite or responsibility – a flaw in all our taxpayer funded entities. The bonfire of the QUANGO’s ? – when or was it as usual just talk

    The UK needs to stand on its own 2 feet, take responsibility for its own prosperity and resilience. For that to happen we need a fully functioning Sovereign Democratic Government and Parliament. None of us voted for our MP’s to be subservient inside our own Country to foreign rulers or to have our working frameworks/infrastructure being controlled by the un-elected unaccountables

    1. Mickey Taking
      September 20, 2022

      It would be good to rise up from being on our kness to stand up on 2 feet. I can’t wait.

  23. glen cullen
    September 20, 2022

    I now know what it feels like to be living in a country like Russia or China where the state controls the TV & Radio, albeit for a couple of hours yesterday morning
the country didn’t mourn by consent, we mourned by propaganda and state media control
    I’m not arguing against the monarchy I’m arguing for less state intervention, social engineering and woke media

    1. Clough
      September 20, 2022

      I agree with you, Glen, but I’m surprised it took you till yesterday to realise that. I was aware of Ofcom’s grip on the media two-and-a-half years ago when the Covid saga began and BBC bias was there for all to see. The country was told to fear. That was government policy following the advice it took from a SAGE sub-committee.

      Speaking for myself, I was very saddened by the Queen’s death immediately the announcement was made, and before the media coverage took over. I didn’t need propaganda and I’m sure that was true of many others.

    2. Mark
      September 20, 2022

      There was no compulsion to watch or listen, unlike so many of the state’s propaganda efforts delivered to our schoolchildren and to many of its employees. It is said that 4 billion people around the world chose to do so. That is way beyond the normal reach of the BBC World Service, and not the result of propaganda, but of the global impact the Queen had. There was a choice of coverage in terms of accompanying commentary and analysis.

      1. glen cullen
        September 20, 2022

        Is that like the same choice in 2030 – a new EV or a new Bicycle

  24. No Longer Anonymous
    September 20, 2022

    EU rules.

    Well yes but…

    There is the problem of ‘markets’ where they don’t really exist. For example: one wire comes into your house yet there can be multiple suppliers of electricity (not) – one gas pipe comes into your house but there can be multiple suppliers of gas (not) – one railway track but there can be multiple suppliers of train seats (not really, not in any useful sense.)

    These are all natural monopolies and when they become private none has the incentive to plan for the future or provide excess capacity without government intervention.

    Privatisation has its place in the concourse sandwich bar, a selection of telephone models or internet hubs, repairs to gas or electricity mains… but NOT in the provision of strategically vital resources and infrastructure. They cannot be left to the whims of private cartels. Privatisation of the railways backfired on the Tories badly – the unions more empowered under it than out of it.

    The fetish for private brings with it complete blind spots.

    The State is capable of producing the very best there is. The SAS. The SBS and the greatest show on Earth that we saw yesterday.

    Reply One wire or pipe into my house but I can switch supplier. A new supplier might want to put in a new cable or pipe where demand warrants it.

    1. forthurst
      September 20, 2022

      Replay to Reply: Why is the facilitation of intermediaries a means of ensuring the best price between producer and consumer and the long term security of supply?

    2. Mark
      September 20, 2022

      I suspect that people would choose to pay for properly planned capacity if the markets for it were made available to the public. It would not take long if power supplies were cut every day renewables supply is inadequate for those who signed up to 100% renewables before they were demanding other alternatives for instance, and prepared to pay for them rather than endure the power cuts.
      Problems arise where the state interferes in capacity provision, such as constricting traffic, blowing up coal power stations, and refusing drilling permits for new gas fields.

    3. Ian B
      September 20, 2022

      @No Longer Anonymous, It would make more sense if the ‘State’ (read taxpayer) owned the infrastructure that affects the Countries wealth creation, sustainability and security . However the State should never take on emplying directly those that maintain and deliver(they have always been rubbish at it), this should always be awarded by open competative contract, time limited or rolling. Then overseen by an accountable elected individual/panel.

      Taxpayer money should never be used for anything other than providing for the best of the best of product or service and should always include political oversight and accountability. So called WOKE, diversity, cancell culture are political statements, as such taxpayer funding should be excluded from those that engage in it.

      The overiding impression given by our Political Class(what ever that is) is that QUANGO’s are where uncontrolled, unaccoutable, ‘jobs for the boys’ are created. And no one ever is responsible for not ensuring that the taxpayer gets the ‘best of the best ‘

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        September 20, 2022

        If the State is Leftist then the outcome will be Leftist. Until now, unfortunately, the military has remained out of the Leftism. Unfortunately the clergy (which most definitely IS Leftist) was the cause of the one and only cock up all day long during the Queen’s funeral.

        So what I am saying is that energy production being owned by the State need not be Leftist. And also that the State IS capable of producing excellence as we saw yesterday.

        1. glen cullen
          September 20, 2022

          Nope – over the last ten years the only why to be promoted into a senior position in the military, is to follow the woke government doctrine
one or two rebel like the RAF Officer, who recently resigned as she couldn’t follow the new doctrine on recruitment
if you want to be promoted and save your pension ‘toe-the-line’

        2. No Longer Anonymous
          September 20, 2022

          Meant to say that *fortunately* the military has stayed out of Leftism (on the whole.)

    4. No Longer Anonymous
      September 20, 2022

      Reply to reply.

      My house can only connect to one substation and yet I had the choice of six suppliers.

      1. Mark
        September 21, 2022

        Unfortunately your suppliers don’t have free choice. They are obligated to buy almost half your supply from renewables generators or pay a penalty fee.

  25. Christine
    September 20, 2022

    He could do a lot of things to improve the cost of living for many people living here but probably won’t do anything. Not including you Sir John and many like-minded MPs in her cabinet tells me exactly where this government is headed. The money-wasting continues and so does the net zero religious nonsense.

  26. agricola
    September 20, 2022

    This is a disagreement with a wife who is reluctant to divorce while expecting to retain her lover. The Business Secretary needs to rule for the husband, the UK, effect the divorce with no recourse to assets by the guilty party. We do not want to be discussing it next week or beyond.

  27. Denis Cooper
    September 20, 2022

    Not entirely off topic, on August 20 I put in a Freedom of Information request about the origins and composition of goods crossing the open land border from Northern Ireland into the Irish Republic, and thus the EU Single Market, and today was to be the deadline for their response:

    http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/09/11/the-kings-speech-and-parliament/#comment-1340459

    As we have had an unexpected extra bank holiday I won’t rush to remind them of their promise, but I look forward to discovering what fraction of the goods that crossed the border north to south in 2019 would have been completely free of EU checks if Northern Ireland had not been part of the EU Single Market at that time.

    1. acorn
      September 20, 2022

      Several large-scale smuggling incidents show that EU concerns over the operation of the Northern Ireland Protocol are not theoretical, Brussels has said. Seizure of counterfeit high-value electrical products last year, fitted with the European Union-type plugs, show the need for robust processes at Northern Ireland ports, an EU official said. The official said there was evidence criminals were trying to use the Irish Sea crossing to get prohibited products into the EU single market.

      Drugs and weapons have also been seized, the official said. “There is smuggling going on, for sure,” they added. The EU official said the ongoing failure by the UK to provide real-time data on trade movements in a useable format meant the EU was unclear “how big the problem is” in relation to smuggling. However, the official said seizures made by UK Border Force, with the involvement of EU personnel on the ground, have indicated it was a significant issue.

      “In March 2021, there was a seizure of undervalued and counterfeit high-value electronic products such as smartphones sent in parcels, plugs were EU type,” said the official. “Between April and May 2021 and in October 2021 there were seizures of smartphones including counterfeit ones, tobacco, cigarettes, weapons, drugs and medicines hidden in parcels. “In December 2021, in the context of control on postal deposits, there were seizures of heroin, cocaine, cannabis, 177,000 prescription medicine tablets, 24 kilos of tobacco, nearly 17,000 cigarettes. “So, this is not theory.” (multiple sources.)

      1. Peter2
        September 20, 2022

        Does that plainly illegal smuggling by a few criminals really create a need for well known supermarket lorries delivering replenishments to its own stores to be stopped and searched and inspected?

        1. acorn
          September 20, 2022

          Can you think of a better mechanism than that for smuggling? Who loaded those wagons?

          1. Peter2
            September 20, 2022

            Criminals acorn.

          2. a-tracy
            September 20, 2022

            Acorn, you tell us, who did load those wagons in the UK, which company, individual, how do you know they didn’t just travel through the UK from the EU. Who created the customs documents? Have they been prosecuted and found guilty?

            Did the ‘official’ say who was shipping drugs and weapons? Which company in the UK created the customs documents, who has been prosecuted?

          3. Mark
            September 21, 2022

            None of the contraband was found in regular commercial supplies according to your sources. It was all in postal packages, like those which enter the EU from around the world. In reality the quantities intercepted are tiny. 17,000 cigarettes would not keep the residents of Dundalk puffing away for very long, let alone the EU single market..

      2. IanT
        September 20, 2022

        Smuggling has always been rife along that border and quite likely still is. When we were still within the EU, there were differences between VAT and other taxes that made cross border ‘movements’ lucrative. Even during the troubles this continued as the Army found it virtually impossible to guard all the small country crossings that exist.
        If someone wants to smuggle they will do so if the reward is sufficiently worthwhile – border posts or not. However, illegal activities are no justification for imposing unneccessary burdens on perfectly legitimate commercial operations within the UK. There are very simple ways to manage cross border trade with the Republic and both the EU and the Irish know it.
        On a related note, the media has been busy waffling on about lack of a US trade deal this morning. Well, I suppose it stops them complaining about chlorinated chicken instead. Frankly, we already have good trade balances with the US. If (by not pressing trade) it gives Biden less immeadiate leverage over Liz as she comes to sort out the NIP with Brussels (hopefully soon) then all the better.

      3. Denis Cooper
        September 20, 2022

        Yes, “Brussels has said”.

      4. miami.mode
        September 20, 2022

        acorn, the EU official said a lot, but did he provide any proof?

  28. turboterrier
    September 20, 2022

    Another very true-to-life publication found today on the net.
    Supported by a Dr Peiser Net Zero Watch small video

    The Great Wind Power Swindle: Households & Businesses Being Crushed By Record Power Bills

    The great wind farm rip off: greedy energy giants sell us wind electricity at wholesale gas price
    Scottish Daily Express
    Ben Borland
    7 September 2022

    http://stopthesethings.com/2022/09/19/the-great-wind-power-swindle-households-businesses-being-crushed-by-record-power-bills/

    1. acorn
      September 20, 2022

      Which bit of the “free market capitalism” do you not understand? The price of the last MWh bought by the “market” sets the price, just like any Bric-Ă -brac auction in your local village hall.

      1. Peter2
        September 20, 2022

        It’s not a free market acorn it is filled with restrictions, subsidies and complex payments.

  29. Ian B
    September 20, 2022

    From the ONS “The Office for National Statistics revealed that 48% of adults said they were finding it “very or somewhat difficult” to afford their energy costs in a survey between August 31 and September 11.”

    Another unelected unaccoutable taxpayer funded QUANGO. Energy prices don’t go up properly until 1st October 2022(summer months are slow and low) – are the ONS saying that before the unelected unaccountable QUANGO of OFGEM decided it was its job was to support its foreign supply chain at the expence of those it was intended to protect, by saying that 48% of the country was broke! Or is it just that the QUANGO’s like to outbid themselves to show their own self importance. Taxpayer money wasted on ego’s

  30. forthurst
    September 20, 2022

    A land value tax would be an appropriate way of discouraging farmers from selling or leasing their land for housing or using it for rewilding, or wind or solar. Farmland used as farmland would be free of tax but as soon as it is misused, the landlord should be clobbered.

    A long term solution would be to close down university Arts courses so that only intelligent people can become graduates; this is quite normal in progressive countries rather than those like ours which is stuck in the past and failing to meet the challenges which confront us.

  31. Christine
    September 20, 2022

    One of the problems your party has is that it has been infiltrated by non-conservatives for years and these MPs together with the opposition will block changes that Liz Truss tries to make. It’s time party members put pressure on their MPs to stop this traitorous behaviour.

  32. Iago
    September 20, 2022

    At TCW today there is an article entitled ‘Parents’ horror over boy, three, sexually groomed by his school’.
    The current first best comment sums up this detestable abuse, which I believe is happening across the country –
    ‘The plan is to deconstruct traditional values, to tear down anything built on Judeo/Christian principles. Then, after clearing the rubble away, a new edifice can be constructed based on a contrary ideology; a reset can take place from the erasure of the old.
    There’s a wrecking-ball strategy against western society, and this s ex ualisation is another blow in that demolition.
    Unless the crane can be nobbled soon, there won’t be a wall left standing.’

  33. Mike Wilson
    September 20, 2022

    but it is the price of failure of the EU energy policy we have been following.

    Well, we voted to leave the EU in 2016. Yet you are still blaming ‘EU energy policy’. And you’re still encouraging wind turbines with no way of storing the energy.

    About time you took responsibility and stopped blaming the EU.

    1. Al
      September 20, 2022

      “Well, we voted to leave the EU in 2016. Yet you are still blaming ‘EU energy policy’. And you’re still encouraging wind turbines with no way of storing the energy.” – Mike Wilson

      Or even get it onshore from existing offshore generators like the Orkneys. The link was due to be built this year, but Ofgem objected to “building a link that is bigger than needed”. Heaven forbid they think about future-proofing. It is just as well Bazalgette did not take that approach with his sewers!

    2. Shirley M
      September 20, 2022

      Sir John Isn’t blaming the EU. He is asking why the Business Secretary is NOT working to better the UK’s interests, which he most definitely should be! There are still too many undemocratic EU sycophants/eco-loons/socialists in Parliament. We want politicians who work on behalf of the UK not some pie in the sky religion or their mates in the EU and elsewhere.

  34. glen cullen
    September 20, 2022

    I see that the world autocrats are meeting today, in New York, disguised as the UN general assembly delegates

    And our Tory government is about to join the European Political Community (EPC) without any consent of the people via a referendum, nor debate & vote in the house
thought we’d voted to leave the EU and ALL its institutions https://www.epc.eu/en/

    1. Denis Cooper
      September 20, 2022

      https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/israel-to-join-european-political-community-meeting/

      I was trying to remember that famous quote about Trojan Horses, in the end I had to fall back on google:

      https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/a5e5045d-c7ad-42c8-b843-22e4019c9589/

      “In 1950 it was proposed that Britain join the European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor to the European Union. The then Labour Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, said “If you open that Pandora’s Box, you never know what Trojan horses will jump out.” And so it has proved!”

      I am also concerned about this:

      https://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/offices/delegations/uk-eu-parliamentary-partnership-assembly-delegation/

      “The Parliamentary Partnership Assembly (PPA) is composed of a Delegation of UK Members of Parliament meeting together with a Delegation of Members of the European Parliament. It was established under the terms of the 2021 Trade and Co-operation Agreement and acts as a forum for parliamentarians to exchange views on the implementation and operation of the Agreement. The Agreement established a Partnership Council as a joint UK-EU body which will inform the PPA of its decisions and recommendations. The PPA may make recommendations to the Partnership Council.

      The Rt Hon Sir Oliver Heald QC MP was appointed Leader of the Delegation and Co-Chair of the Assembly and The Earl of Kinnoull and Hilary Benn MP were appointed Vice Chairs of the Delegation.”

      Hilary Benn should not even be in Parliament, let alone using his position to connive with EU politicians:

      http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/09/20/treasury-orthodoxy-and-black-wednesday/#comment-1342175

      1. glen cullen
        September 20, 2022

        +1

      2. Philip P.
        September 20, 2022

        Well spotted, Denis. That leads to some questions which our good host may perhaps be able to answer. I wonder what function this body has within the framework of our political arrangements in this country. What authority do its ‘decisions and recommendations’ have? If none, it’s just a talking shop, so why are we contributing to paying for it?
        Do its EU parliamentarians officially represent the European Parliament as such? Since in that legislature they are not able to initiate legislation, what are they telling us that we aren’t already getting via higher-level channels from the European Commission? I’d like to know more, but as usual with the EU, I suspect it will be dense smoke and mirrors when we try to get answers.

    2. Ian B
      September 20, 2022

      @glen cullen

      The UK Parliament was inherently subordinate to the EU Commission and is continuing to emphasize that position. It is the reason the so-called ‘Brexit’ was never achieved. EU laws, rules and regulation in the UK have no legitimacy as such don’t need revising or repealing – they don’t exist in a free sovereign democracy.

      Our Parliament is used to doing what its overlords in the EU Commission dictates, so much so they can’t comprehend a free sovereign democracy. That is why our laws, rules and regulations since joining the EU have become back to front. In the UK before joining the EU as with elsewhere in the world nothing was illegal unless Parliament made it so, in the EU everything is illegal unless the bureaucrats make it legal. The subtle difference between a Democracy and a Dictatorship.

      1. Bill Brown
        September 21, 2022

        Ian B

        You are obviously getting carried away

    3. miami.mode
      September 20, 2022

      Had a look at that glen and one article quotes “Unlike fossil fuel prices, it is extremely difficult to determine the price for renewable energy”. They should have a word with Boris Johnson because he, plus you must assume the rest of his then cabinet, knows that renewables are precisely one ninth the price of fossil fuels.

      1. Mark
        September 21, 2022

        However the previous evidence seems clear that the cost of fossil fuels is much lower than that of almost all renewables which have had to be subsudised to compete. Nor is the cost getting any lower. The capital cost of all the recent offshore windfarms has at best stabilised at a level above the price if recent CFD bids. It is clear that investors have proceeded on the basis that prices would be adjusted as necessary to ensure profitability, and the CFD bid could be regarded as an option to ignore while providing propaganda numbers for the green lobby.

  35. Original Richard
    September 20, 2022

    What about the Government ceasing the EU policy for abolishing borders, allowing uncontrolled immigration and even inviting into the country tens of thousands of young men of fighting age with no ID with the offer free accommodation, ÂŁ40/week pocket money and the freedom to roam our streets? It unbelievably even continues with Albanian criminals.

    Mrs Merkel, who unilaterally invited one million immigrants into the EU, said at a speech in 2018 in Berlin :

    “Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty and that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty.”

  36. Ian B
    September 20, 2022

    Above all, we could do with knowing what those in power, government, has done for the Country. We keep getting bombarded with aspirations, never achievments.

  37. Original Richard
    September 20, 2022

    What sort of country does our Government want us to become?

    It is clearly all in favour of massive immigration from all over the world, both legal and illegal, even funding the organisations taking it to court over its Rwanda plan.

    Unfortunately economic migrants are not necessarily cultural migrants wishing to integrate and accept local customs and laws and when differing “communities” reach a certain size we will see further instances of the troubles Leicester has been experiencing this week.

    1. miami.mode
      September 20, 2022

      A couple of documentaries recently on the partition of India when anything up to 2 million were killed.

      Not many years ago I was in Austria and the waitress was from east Germany and was not treated well by guests from west Germany. We know there were problems associated with the reunification and after 30 years or so I enquired why this attitude persisted. Her reply “their grandfathers tell them”.

  38. Freeborn John
    September 20, 2022

    The BBC is reporting that Liz Truss may be about to sign the U.K. to the European Political Community. Truss clearly was saying one thing before becoming PM and
    is doing the opposite after. She always looks to be caving in to the EU on the Northern Ireland Protocol with no sign the EU would appoint a negotiator on its side with any mandate to negotiate changes to the NIP. She is going to lose the next election if she carries on with this.

    1. rose
      September 20, 2022

      Telling the world the US/UK trade deal is off for the next few years, sounds to me like pulling the rug from under the EU and Southern Ireland over their annexation of NI.

    2. Mickey Taking
      September 21, 2022

      That may prove to be the last straw for this Tory government’s chances of hanging on to power in the next GE.

  39. believe me
    September 20, 2022

    All of these could’s and should’s directed at the business secretary – well we’ll see? – certainly i’ll be reminded of your points again next time I see him stretch out in the House.

  40. XY
    September 20, 2022

    What does “removing the penal elements of IR 35” mean? Why not simply abolish it?

    Taken at face value, if you merely remove the penal elements then the legislation would have no teeth, so it may as well not exist since it would be largely ignored.

  41. Mike
    September 20, 2022

    The business secretary could do a lot of things but will he be allowed?

    Then six years on from the referendum and with a majority of 80 in the House – I have to ask what have we achieved – anything? we have taken back control now but how much better off are we?

    And now Truss has gone over to the States to see if she can smooch up to them for some kind of a new deal to save face. We are only getting away from the European EU rules and now she wants to tie us to the American ones – as if the Americans had no rules.- whatever comes out of this we can be sure the NI Protocol will remain and we will still be the rule takers. Stupid

    1. a-tracy
      September 20, 2022

      Mike, why do you think Truss is asking for ‘some kind of new deal’? Who does Biden think he is to dictate terms to the UK, would we accept it from the President of China or India.
      There have already been some sounds of movement on the NI protocol that the tests can be done during transit over seas with just the odd shipment checked. If not its take to play hard ball with Southern Ireland and restrict their exports to the UK.

      1. Jason
        September 20, 2022

        a-tracy- We can forget about Ireland it has been swallowed up by the EU.. might as well be talking about Belgium or Luxemburg or some other similar.. and it’s not that Biden want’s to dictate terms – thing is we are seeking to join his club so presumably we will have complay by his rules. Of course as our host JR often says we can always go solo and continue by WTO.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          September 21, 2022

          We already do a lot of trade with America so it’s no big deal to have an actual trade deal.

  42. glen cullen
    September 20, 2022

    The data below is for the 24-hour period 00:00 to 23:59 19 September 2022.
    Number of migrants detected in small boats: 0
    Number of boats detected: 0
    Number of boats known by the MOD to be involved in uncontrolled landings: 0

    Zero (0) for the past 5 days ?

    1. Mickey Taking
      September 20, 2022

      They heard the RNLI free ferry was not at sea- all staff at home watching the funeral lead-up and the final day.

  43. turboterrier
    September 20, 2022

    Unlike our brilliant military personnel yesterday, it would seem the world governments are all out of step.
    GWPF has made the following release. Nothing much seems to change as the majority cop a deaf ear.

    Press Release: Important new paper challenges IPCC’s claims about climate sensitivity.

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/20/press-release-important-new-paper-challenges-ipccs-claims-about-climate-sensitivity/

    1. glen cullen
      September 20, 2022

      +1

  44. turboterrier
    September 20, 2022

    A publication by the Geographical Journal has identified potential problems that could turn all this green crap on its head.

    Sulfur: A potential resource crisis that could stifle green technology and threaten food security as the world decarbonises

    The importance of sulphuric acid is being ignored and basically, it comes from fossil fuels.

    Another case of ignoring the consequences of your actions/ The law of unintended consequences?
    A must-read for your followers

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2022/09/20/sulfur-a-potential-resource-crisis-that-could-stifle-green-technology-and-threaten-food-security-as-the-world-decarbonises/

  45. NotA#
    September 20, 2022

    From the BBC “UK considers joining new European nations club”. One way to get around the NIP, accept that the EU Commission are our masters once more.

    Let’s get out of the EU protectionism racket first. The EU has to start accepting the UK is free sovereign democracy and then we can talk of mutual cooperation. On the EU’s record to date, they are the least trustworthy nation on this planet

    1. glen cullen
      September 20, 2022

      This is retaining our EU membership via the backdoor without asking the people who voted to leave

  46. Am
    September 20, 2022

    Yea some British focussed policy is badly needed.

  47. Geoffrey Berg
    September 20, 2022

    The list of debureaucratisation is a good one to start with but there is a lot, lot more unnecessary bureaucracy, much of it home grown (i.e. civil service grown) in addition to what is attributable to the E.U.
    The anti-money laundering checks may originate with the E.U. but they are duplicated and sometimes triplicated here to make matters worse. The anti-money laundering check must be done by the estate agent selling the property and also by the solicitor acting for one as well. In the case of somebody doing their own conveyancing (as I do) not only must the estate agent and the solicitor acting for the other party each do an anti-money laundering check but so also does the Land Registry!
    In private renting our government since leaving the E.U. has introduced in the private sector compulsory periodic Electrical Installation Condition Reports which are gold plated by electricians finding hypothetical ‘faults’ rather than realistic dangers for their own personal economic benefit. These E.I.C.R. checks are not legally required either for social housing or owner occupiers. The average number of deaths from electrical installation faults is about 5 a year (about 1 in private rental properties) matching the average 5 people a year in the U.K.killed by sheep. Ridiculous, as is the extension of the requirement for carbon monoxide detectors to be fitted near gas boilers in the rental sector starting later this year.

    1. Mickey Taking
      September 21, 2022

      well said.

    2. glen cullen
      September 21, 2022

      Excellent post…maybe the EU learnt their bureaucracy doctrine from the UK civil service of the 50s and 60s

    3. rose
      September 21, 2022

      If we had not become entangled in the Protection Racket in the first place, there would have been no gold plating.

  48. rose
    September 21, 2022

    What, no Tweets?

Comments are closed.