The Autumn Statement put up spending and taxes. It should be amended by cutting out needless and wasteful spending.
We do not need a government ad campaign to tell us turning down the thermostat would cut our energy use. People are not stupid.
What we do need is a government sector that turns the lights and heating off when it is not using its buildings. We need them to cut the number  of buildings they use now there is so much Home working.
We do not need them to increase overseas aid by signing up to new COP 27 funds and pledges.
We do need them to control our borders to stop illegal migrants. The hotel bills are large and wrong
They should pause the expensive smart meter programme.
They should cut the massive costs of HS2
They should stop the planned ÂŁ11 bn of losses on bond sales the Bank should not be making
They should get on with improved policies to get people off benefits and into work. No need for another review.
They should accelerate the NHS manpower plan which should recruit more medical staff to replace Agency temps, and cut overheads
November 21, 2022
Good morning.
Sorry Sir John, but that boat has sailed.
In hindsight, it would have been cheaper to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.
It is all about who controls the purse strings. The State has grown so large that effectively it sees the UK and its people as chattel, to be used and abused, bought (with the peoples own money) and sold to appease higher authorities.
We are seeing an age of international gangsterism. A global cartel. It uses countries as mere cash cows. The money is syphoned off via pointless projects like HS2 or through scams such as Climate Change or reparations.
The solution is simple. We can only break our chains by breaking the grip our jailers have over us. We have to face the fact that, for one of our jailers, they have to be destroyed. Hard I know, but it is the only way. Destroy them one by one.
November 21, 2022
Well put Mark B!
Iâve always maintained that this globalism must be smashed at national level, but one by one, doesnât that allow for a re-grouping?
We probably need a GE, and to have both parties crushed out of the running.
November 21, 2022
no ‘probably’ it is essential. Another 2 years of this and the worst of slums run by gangs of criminals will shred UK.
November 21, 2022
We all know these things John but it’s not in keeping with the UN and Davos agenda. I think your peeing into the proverbial
Consocialist we now have and the only salvation is to vote Reform.
RIP tories.
November 22, 2022
I don’t think the UN and Davos agenda is the problem.
To me, the problem is simply the lack of positive stories for the government .
If we want to keep increasing spending on the NHS and pensions, we need to raise taxes.
Otherwise we need cut services, which are already struggling.
Optimistic forecasts won’t change the fundamentals. Nor will ‘efficiency drives’.
The lack of good news stories on Brexit remains a concern. The government keeps changing the subject and talking about ‘other factors’ and ‘wait and see’. But the polls in the mainstream media are not encouraging. And the will of the people can change … as it has done countless times before. Just as politicians will make capital out of it. I really don’t want to have to go through all this again, but we shall see…
November 21, 2022
Sharon
Agreed but there is always a but.
If you got your wish and the whole of the political structure was turned inside out. There would still be the problem all the advisors and Sir Humphry’s are still in place deeply embedded in the CS cultures.
November 21, 2022
+1
November 21, 2022
Mark,
“The State has grown so large…” Exactly right. In the middle ages the peasants tythed (paid tax) of 1/10th to the church and 1/10th to the landowner. A 20% average tax would be dreamland.
As I said a few days ago, go through Government spending and ask “Is Government the ONLY option for doing this task?”. If the answer is no then stop the task. Of course this will not happen in this parliament or this decade. At some point there will be a change though as the worker cash-machine will break. Read The Fourth Turning by Howe & Strauss.
November 21, 2022
Government spending is not far off 50% of GDP, if you then add in all the unpaid work that their red tape, tax returns, planning restrictions, OTT building regs, fossil fuel investment restriction, fracking bans and compliance forced on to every one the market rigging in energy, healthcare, refuse collection, net zero, education, transportâŠthe damage done to cars by the ethanol in the new petrol and the potholes it must be heading for 70% or so – in effect.
Just get these parasitic leaches off our blood vessels please.
November 21, 2022
@Mark B +1, The only difference between this Government and Corbyn, is at least with Corbyn he was open and you knew were you stood. The Political positions are identical
November 21, 2022
This is in the Wrong Place
November 21, 2022
@PeteB +1, I am beginning to think that ever nook and crannie were the Taxpayers money turns up needs a 100% outside audit to identify the flow of money and purpose. If you rely on the departments of Government to do it it will be fudged
November 21, 2022
Mark, I fear a new form of stealth tax has arrived through collaboration between the state and the providers: at present we have our energy bills going through the roof when they need not have done if we had not gone down the Miliband/Davey/May route of refusing to use our own cheap and reliable energy. In response, the state and the providers have arranged for “social levies” to be paid, which means that those in the favoured groups get their energy cheaper while the rest have to pay the very high price and subsidise the favoured ones.
I can see this model of redistribution by stealth being extended to all our household bills and much else besides. I know something of the sort was done in the past by doctors, schools, universities, and shopkeepers, but it was done at their individual discretion, not bureaucratically organized on a mass scale as an extra tax.
The worst example at present is the subsidy taken from old people in nursing homes who are paying their own fees, to top up the fees of those who are paid for by the council when the council falls short.
As the cost of everything soars, this redistributive taxation is only going to get more widespread and more tyrannical.
November 22, 2022
Good point.
I consider the proliferation of food banks to be part of this process. The Government has imported millions of low-wage immigrants in the past 12 years and in the same period food banks were introduced, initially in small numbers in areas of obvious deprivation, but are now found in every large supermarket across the country.
At the moment people doing their shopping are being “nudged” into providing “free food” for other “poor” people. I wonder how long it will be before the Government places a levy on your shopping bill to provide “free food” for “those in need”?
November 21, 2022
Largely correct I fear.
November 21, 2022
Hunt making UK less competitive than EU is not a coincidence or mistake it is deliberate.
We read Sunak and Hunt awarding Spain the ship building of UK war ships last week was not a mistake. Ship building is required here to retain skills and knowledge for national security. It would retain industry at a time of recession jobs should be at the forefront of govt. minds! You would be forgiven for Wallaceâs deceit to think N.Ireland won the contracts. N.Ireland, not forgetting it is under EU control, got assembly crumbs! I suppose news broke when budget was announced was a coincidence as well. JR, is this correct about the building of our war ships by a Spanish nationalised company by your govt.?
November 21, 2022
+many
BrilliantâŠone small amendmentâŠ
Not chattel but CATTLE!
November 21, 2022
@Mark B +1, The only difference between this Government and Corbyn, is at least with Corbyn he was open and you knew were you stood. The Political positions are identical
November 21, 2022
The UK had lots of excellent, ready-qualified medical and other clinical staff from the European Union.
You voted to have them thrown out.
Many have left voluntarily on realising what sort of a place brexit UK is anyway – thanks to you.
November 22, 2022
Really, NLH? 6 million EU citizens applied for permanent settlement AFTER Brexit. SIX MILLION preferred to start a new life in the UK, than stay in the EU. Sadly, the current government is impoverishing everyone in the UK, EU citizens included.
I would leave if I could, and it is nothing to do with Brexit, but because we haven’t got Brexit. A patriotic government may have saved the UK but successive governments have changed it out of all recognition. They have ruined the UK, its society, its justice, its democracy and its culture.
November 21, 2022
Mark B,
Sunak and Hunt are there to continue to weaken the country until a new government is installed. That government will then find a complete shambles and the country will be much closer to the Great Reset.
The pair rely on no violent responses. They will not be carted off to the guillotine.
Objections or criticism will simply be ignored. The Conservative Party itself will not topple them.
They have a free run until the next election.
November 21, 2022
What is the fusion of the executive and administrative state and big business on a global scale?
Seems policies are deliberately imploding the western world economies and transferring wealth to AsiaPacific. To what end? Which world power or global cabal seeks to win power. Will a global cabal win or will one play the long game and squeeze the rest of the cabal out?
We do live in interesting times?
Have we formally surrendered to some other power or lost another war , just asking?
November 21, 2022
Good Morning,
Well said, these ARE Conservative principles.
Here’s an idea, why not write a blog with three columns, first headed Conservative Principles, and then write underneath 10 major Principles. Second column headed – Rishi Sunak, third column headed – Jeremy Hunt. Under the second and third columns, place a ‘tick’ against each of the Conservative Principles if you think Mr Sunak and/or Mr Hunt has, in fact, acted in accordance with.
November 21, 2022
From Huntâs âbudgetâ speech:-
The furlough scheme, the vaccine rollout, and the response of the NHS did our country proud – but they all have to be paid for. (no they were all huge mistake on balance if you look at the stats and vast social, health and economic damage).
The lasting impact on supply chains has made goods more expensive and fueled inflation. (Perhaps, but the main cause was Sunakâs idiotic money printing, borrowing, paying people to do nothing and his intentional currency debasement).
This has been worsened by a Made in Russia energy crisis.
(Well coal is cheapest source of electricity and easily stored too and bulk prices have hardly risen at all. The Net Zero religion is the real and main cause.)
Putinâs war in Ukraine has caused wholesale gas and electricity prices to rise to eight times their historic average. It has not helped on gas prices by Net Zero (and vast government market rigging) is the main cause. They were rising significantly already.
Sunakâs old interview with Andrew Neil on Channel 4 showed that Sunak is rather smooth at arguing black is white and white is black. But surely very few will be fooled. His voice, delivery and duff message reminded me me of Tony Blair. Hunt too was rather smooth at apologising for his and other various scandals & disasters at the NHS. His budget is a complete disaster and will not work.
November 21, 2022
‘will not work’ – all depends on what you see is the objective.
November 21, 2022
LL,
All is well, Hunt has hired former Labour minister Patricia Hewitt to sort it out, Barclay by implication not up to the job! Hunt forgets Hewittâs links to PIE! She apologised but I think she knew what she was doing. Brown had the sense to sack her. Johnson sacked for his minister appointment, so does this mean Hunt must go? Sir Michael Barber, Blaire advisor for 8 years also drafted in by Hunt to sort out education!
November 21, 2022
@ LifeLogic – recall Blair was given huge majorities by the British people, at the time they lapped up his offerings and only turned against him later.
We must brace for Sunak one day telling us his top three priorities are education, education and education!
November 21, 2022
I seem to recall you challenging Piers Morgan as an out and out âvaxxedâ LL. The price of these disasters has not yet got into gear. The cost of âmost successful PM in a generation (Nadine Dorries)â is incalculable – 2 in my family now desperately ill, one a banker in his prime with a family. All âfully vaxxedâ of course.
In addition the birth rates falling like a stone, Germany reporting and 11% fall this morning and Taiwan 27.8% fall!
We will pay for Boris with blood, sweat and tears.
November 21, 2022
The Ukrainian government is encouraging it’s citizens(presumably the old and the sick(as everyone else has been called up)to move abroad this winter to reduce demand on the country’s collapsing electricity grid.
November 21, 2022
+many
I happen to know that extreme, far left anarchists are VERY happy with Sunak.
They think and hope he will win the next election!
They loved Corbyn, hate Starmer and are pleasantly surprised to see that Sunak is leaning towards socialism, is ethnic and offers hope of a return to the EU.
November 21, 2022
Why not abolish the devolved governments. It has been a spectacular failure causing nothing but division in the U.K. and the cost to the tax payer of the extra layer of government, advisors, expenses, pension must be enormous.
November 21, 2022
+1 Blair was a disaster in almost every single thing he did over his ten was it(?) years continued by disaster sell the gold, no boom and bust Brown.
November 21, 2022
I never thought Iâd say this but ⊠Blair and Brown were a hundred times better than the clowns weâve had since 2010.
November 21, 2022
Well the counterproductive wars one on a lie, the incorporation of the ECHR into UK laws, the dire one sided US extradition treaty, the botched devolution, the supreme court and other legal disasters, the open door immigration policy, the climate change act, selling the gold, the banking crash incompetence (dealt with incompetently too)⊠but I take your point.
November 21, 2022
Iâm not sure I agree with the statement about Blair and Brown – they laid the foundations of what we see today, unchanged policies aplenty, that are harmful to our country. Though tracking things back, the rot goes further, to Edward Heath (and possibly beyond.)
November 22, 2022
I agree. I believe Heath was the one who started the deliberate deceit and willingness (nay eagerness) to hand the UK over to a foreign power. Our politicians in Parliament allowed him to do it. We lost our country at that point in time! That’s when democracy started to crumble and the majority of politicians became untrustworthy, putting self before country.
November 21, 2022
Hunt is introducing Prescottâs policy of regionalisation from 2004 that the public rejected. Regional assemblies are coming back even though they were voted against! He is forcing Devon and Cornwall to have mayors for good measure as well. Hunt is breaking up England as the EU wanted into about 14 regions. Divide and conquer is the plan.
What I am finding interesting is that all Brexit benefits to get rid of EU connections were delayed over three years, slowed, kicked down the road, yet in a matter of weeks Hunt is implementing all the pro EU ties and stopping everything Brexit giving EU our military, war ship building contracts, EU energy inter connectors- to Germany in particular, political declaration, now harm economy in lock step not to be competitor on EU door!
JR and chums cannot have not noticed. However, no action because Sunak and Hunt must remain in office for sake of party.
November 21, 2022
Yes, reality becomes ever harder to ignore.
However, the Tory lapdog BBC frames the CBI’s recent comments with an illustration that e.g. hospitality have found it hard to find staff since covid.
What the blazes has covid to do with European staff not wanting to or being able to come here?
November 21, 2022
LL, we just heard of yet another alleged Blair disaster this am: Harriet Harman was reported to have alerted him in 1998 to the defective postal software and he insisted on it being rolled out, resulting in the huge and enduring injustice to many postmasters and postmistresses. Reported, I say. More to come out on that no doubt.
November 21, 2022
Well said! They certainly are no benefit but then what do you expect, its a Blair scheme helping to destroy Great Britain
November 21, 2022
BW. Hear hear.
November 21, 2022
BW
Totally agree.
The cost of their parliamentary buildings for all three regions and their inhabitants is unjustified against what they actually produce.
November 21, 2022
Yes, BW, if only we could, but they seem hellbent on extending the madness to other parts of the country.
November 21, 2022
Totally agree with everything you write. How many staff does DVLA employ? I reckon that A maximum of 10 would be enough.
November 21, 2022
6000 it seems. Most one assumes are needed to deal with millions of people complaining over the delays and their sloppy negligence or are trying to justify why they need to keep all these people and really need even more money to employ rather more and new better offices.
November 21, 2022
If ‘road tax’ had been dropped in favour of adding the required tax, minus the hundreds of people and cost of admin, onto the gallon of petrol/diesel, the user would pay via miles driven.
Similar to taxing incomes under say ÂŁ15-20k.
November 21, 2022
Indeed the endless waste and expenditure (and red tape) that actually does so much actual net harm. Net zero, HS2, the lockdowns (to late now) the soft loans for pointless degrees, the absurd fiscal complexity, the over regulation or almost everything, the over restrictive planningâŠ
We have more doctors and nurses in the NHS but they are doing fewer operations and procedures so why is this exactly?
November 21, 2022
LL,
HS2 is an EU infrastructure project to connect EU cities. It is not just London to Birmingham, it is main EU cities connected by high speed train.
November 21, 2022
LL, +1,
Hospitals, Doctors, dentists, all are hugely impeded and bullied by the overarching CQC.
Ask your doctor, dentist, nurse, receptionist, porter, etc. and youâll find that the fear of criticism by the CQC is a major reason for time absorbing extra tasks of recording minute, inconsequential and trivial details, evidence of âcareâ, âsafe practiceâ, âleadershipâ, and nothing to do with actual clinical skills or performance.
The water in the sink when cleaning instruments has to be at a certain temperature, and that temperature recorded (45 C), and heavy duty gloves, aprons, eye protection and masks worn by the nurse carrying out the task, even in the smallest practice or clinic.
Many many more of such nonsenses can be cited (genuine first hand experience, not hearsay or gossip)
Gridlock? Guaranteed. Early retirements? Guaranteed, etc., etc., etc.,
The Quango, Care Quality Commission will cure your ailment with a flick of a pen on a checklist.
If only . . . .
November 21, 2022
Given the waste and unnecessarily crippling the country with more huge debts I wonder if this is a terrible and deliberate policy to ensure we must return to the EU in the same way as did PM Heath pressed us into its predecessor, the ECC, around 50 years ago, when the Nation was in similarly dire straits.
November 22, 2022
That is my fear too. I am 100% certain this is a deliberate strategy to damage the UK and its people. Why the majority of our politicians allow it is a mystery! Are there so few honest politicians who put the UK first who are also brave enough to deny the demolition crew in government?
November 22, 2022
Bill Mayes, Prime Minister Sunak told the CBI yesterday âBrexit is already delivering enormous benefits and opportunities for the countryâ when the CBI was telling him that labour shortage is the chief impediment to growth, that the idea that leaving the EU would release the UK from âvassalageâ is rubbish (only a plonker like the MP from the 18th c. could come up with such a brilliant turn of phrase), that the Brexit âopportunitiesâ have proved a rhetorical fantasy,
So who is right now? Will the situation improve in the next two years? One has to be a sect-type believer to think it will given the present state of the Conservative Parliamentary Party.
âOh rage, oh despair, oh age my enemy
Have I then only lived to see this infamy?â
November 21, 2022
Sir, John:
Your suggestions are all good, but I note that Rishi Sunak pledged another 50 million, when he visited Ukraine.
Was that really necessary, after we have already given so much help.
On the subject of closing buildings:
My Son works for the Dept. of Work & Pensions. They are closing their office at Stratford, London, and the one at Hackney, and moving them all to another office (an old building) at Ilford(Gants Hill) on December 2nd. Apparently the Government owns this building, whereas the one at Stratford, and possibly the one at Hackney, were leased .
November 21, 2022
a small sensible step – assuming they can’t work from home most of the time and desk share on different days of the week!
November 21, 2022
So, what was the office at Gants Hill used for?
November 22, 2022
I lived in and around that area for decades – the building referred to has been a DWP office since it was first constructed in the 1960s..
November 21, 2022
Cheshire Girl, the Govt best have a plan for allowing the redesigning of all these empty offices into homes, the bathroom requirements and extra plumbing will be the big problem, access and egress, but soon all these insurance/pension companies with commercial property holdings are going to suffer.
November 21, 2022
Stop wasting money
Stop oversea aid
Stop giving illegals migrants and human rights lawyers money
âSimplesâ it not rocket science
November 21, 2022
Stop immigration. All immigration, until our country has the means to house and support them. Our country is overpopulated and essential services have become a postcode lottery as they are overwhelmed. We know the government dare not deprive immigrants in any way whatsoever, else HR lawyers are there like a shot, so it’s always the Brits that get deprived, neglected and turned away.
November 21, 2022
I see today the CBI solution to worker shortages is higher immigration! We tried that for years. How about investing in productivity for a change?
As an example in the last 20 years the number of car wash machines fell massively, whilst there are thousands more hand car wash sites. Go back to machines and the hand car washers can become nurses in our wonderful NHS. Simple!
November 21, 2022
recently the citizens of UK are getting hosed rather than their cars.
November 21, 2022
The CBI Chairman today on R4 was saying the Government needed to incentivise productivity, which encapsulates everything that is wrong with the thinking in British industry, where it is the Government’s job to deliver cheap labour via mass immigration, but if not that then they want the Government to bribe them to making productivity improvements. Well here is a revolutionary idea, why don’t they invest in and run their companies as efficiently as possible, rather than being just another part of the client state!
November 21, 2022
Have no doubt mass immigration is an EU and UN plan. The rhetoric changes but the plan remained for 12 and half years. The figures are clear. The figures are based on estimates not actual head count, deliberate to deceive public. Four Tory govt.s so no accident or coincidence just lies to appease public. May signed up to UN migration pact, May passed through trillion pound net stupid without costing from Hammond and co. in her last weeks in office. She continued to betray the nation until she left. Johnson could have reversed all she did and importantly leaving EU without a deal rather than sign her traitorous sell out deal.
November 21, 2022
PeteB, how about taking some apprentices?
November 21, 2022
They’d have to pay tax an NI.
Hand car washes are an immigration scam the same as Tuekish barbers.
How come our small High St can give permission for 3 Turkish barbers 2 next to each other.
November 21, 2022
And the hand car washes are all cash businesses so the tax avoidance must be massive.
Each one probably has five to ten immigrants paying no tax whatsoever, while taking up precious housing and receiving free NHS care.
Machines have electronic counters that can be made tamperproof.
November 21, 2022
Check out the senior management
November 21, 2022
Reverse the âimmigrationâ – expel all those who should not be here I donât care whether they are âworking and paying taxâ or not. British people needs those jobs and they will realize this fact when the Govt has to default on all the âbenefitsâ it pays in competition with wages.
Stop paying people NOT TO WORK!
November 21, 2022
Mick
+ 10000s
November 21, 2022
Sir John, you see the damage being incurred by this government, and their vast waste of taxpayers money which does nothing to help the UK, or its people.
Please tell us why they do this! We have our suspicions but, as an MP within their party, you must KNOW, rather than speculate as we do! If you do not know, then are you really part of the party or do they fob you off with deceit and garbage, as they do with the abused electorate?
November 21, 2022
Totally agree and you should add stop funding the war in Ukraine to your list.
November 21, 2022
Lesley: “and you should add stop funding the war in Ukraine to your list.”
Agree.
Then it looks like Sunak is now running errands to Ukraine for …. who? The WEF, the USA ?
A month or so after British government finances nearly collapsed, directly as a result of Sunak’s negligent handling of the economy during lock-down, the British Prime minister is now trotting across to Ukraine yet again.
I thought we’d seen the last of that sort of nonsense, when Boris was canned.
November 21, 2022
We are going to get the exact opposite of all those if we vote Conservative.
November 21, 2022
Which is precisely why Conservative support has plummeted and many, like me, will not vote Tory next time. The latest poll shows that:
1. 51% OPPOSE Hunt’s budget (35% in favour);
2. 52% believe the government has FAILED to take advantage of Brexit (32% in favour);
3. 62% believe the government will NOT stop the Channel invasion (28% in favour).
Sunak and Hunt were both REJECTED by the Tory membership but were IMPOSED on them by the MPs. Those MPs will now lose their seats. GOOD! It serves them right. I have no sympathy at all for the Tory TRAITORS that are now destroying our country.
November 22, 2022
And if voters do not use the basic right to differ and refuse to vote yet again for an unworthy set of MPs from which the best(worst?) is chosen to be PM, then they deserve all they get/ are getting.
Whatever set of lies you may be offered by alternatives, you KNOW for certain that Tories find it impossible to do what they say they will!
November 21, 2022
Sir John, We all know that so why do the morons in Westminster run around the world giving our money to equally rich countries just because they choose to neglect their population. Its not our responsibility to pay for their neglect.
There is an old saying â charity begins at homeâ we need to stick to that in these difficult times.
November 21, 2022
Good Morning, Sir John,
Much of what you write today reflects what Reform UK believes and plans. Since the disastrous budget of Thursday, Reform UK has updated their ‘Reform is Essential’ document. Worth looking at.
Sir John, with your knowledge, experience and wisdom, you would be such an asset to Reform UK.
November 21, 2022
But they have zero chance under first past the post system do they? Too many always have and always will vote X or Y without these voters you simply cannot win. If Reform get a single seat they will be doing very well indeed.
November 21, 2022
The same applied to UKIP, and they got millions of votes, but would we have had a referendum if it hadn’t been for the success of Farage and UKIP? I don’t believe we would. Those millions of votes were enough to frighten the main parties. If the CONS hadn’t stepped up in support of a referendum then I suspect (and hope) that UKIP would have taken the majority in the following GE. Democracy cannot be ignored forever and democracy is our only protection again wannabe dictatorial, power hungry, politicians The electorate will ensure that undemocratic parties will be annihilated, like the LibDems. The only way the non democrats can defeat us is by rigging the elections, fraudulent voting, etc., and I suspect that has happened too often already in the UK.
November 21, 2022
LL,
Stop your negativity and take your own advice as a maths science degree person. Look at the Tory record and compare to Labour and you will find as a matter of fact and record Economy far worse u under Tories. Start with ÂŁ824 billion debt in 2010 when no money was left and now tripled under Tories with funny magic money tree which has caused inflation. Not Russia or the way the wind blows but Sunakâs money printing. I accept the socialist tory narrative and lies are different. Tories are implementing Labourâs main policies on immigration, economy, energy, UN, WHO etc.
LL, tell us and show us by fact that this is not the case. If not you want to vote for exactly against what you repeat each day- tax and piss down the drain, but worse than Labour!
November 21, 2022
And under PR they would not be able to form a government either. It is just a publicity stunt this push for PR. They know, and Farage knows, what the reality of PR is on the Continent and in Ireland.
November 21, 2022
You are correct. Let’s hope that Starmer has to agree to bring in PR in order to form a coalition with the LibDems – remember the last time there was a national election using PR ? Euro elections 2019. Conservatives 5th on 9% of the vote, Brexit Party first on 32%. It’s the only way proper right-of-centre party can replace them but it would probably take a couple of elections to do so.
November 22, 2022
That, Roy, was a special case, because most people in the country didn’t vote in that EU Parliament election, only those who wanted to get rid of the Mayhem.
November 21, 2022
Yes, but nobody will vote for the Tories – all Conservatives need to vote for the Reform Party instead and then they win. Simples! No FPTP problem. Where there is a will, there is most definitely a way. Donât worry, itâs a secret ballot – nobody needs to know that you didnât vote for the useless Tories đ
Zorro
November 21, 2022
Itâs an open goal for anyone half decent in communications – LbLabCon are useless, donât vote for them ever again!
Zorro
November 21, 2022
Defeatest attitudes don’t help either Life Logic!
November 21, 2022
In an email this morning, Reform UK, state that this weekend, they have gained hundreds of new members that are former Conservative Party members.
November 21, 2022
Mary. Reform is not only worth looking at but voting for too. The new Conservative party. Just full of common sense.
November 21, 2022
You think you can change things via the ballot box?
How quaint!
November 21, 2022
Sir John believes in what he writes, but why then has he not left the Tory party. He has said many times he stays because he can change minds in it but given the massive list of things he points out are wrong, and which see repeatedly, clearly it doesn’t work. So why does he stay?
He could write the same outside the party and he would be listened to more clearly and convincingly because he could be seen as honest, but at present his personal interest, staying in the party, is more important, Tories come ahead of anything else.
What will you do, Sir John, if your leaders and thus the party signs up to clear attachment to the EU and dependent on it? Will you resign then, or will you find a excuse not to? You did write some time ago that re-joining would be too much for you. Perhaps the word re-joining would be redefined.
November 22, 2022
If he had left the party in the 1990s or 2010s we would not have got the referendum. If he had left the party in 2017 we would not have got the incipient exit we did. Farage was impotent to do any of that. If he were to leave the party now, the remainiacs would have it all their own way for two years.
November 22, 2022
Instead of trying to change implacable minds, why not join minds that are in unison?
November 22, 2022
Why don’t you people leave this man alone ?
November 21, 2022
Patrick Minford
Jeremy Hunt has taken a wrecking ball to the British economy.
His Autumn Statement will end up worsening the recession and damaging the public finances.
and Matthew Lynn
Get ready for an exodus from zero-growth Britain
Businesses will struggle to thrive in Britain’s new high-tax, low-growth economy. Both are surely right in the Telegraph this weekend. Not just an exodus but more people, no working or working less and claiming more benefits with a bit of working cash in hand, diy or bartering to make ends meet.
So why?
Richard Wellings suggests on Twitter:- It’s now crystal clear that the Remainer-globalist establishment – including fake-conservative ministers – is deliberately sabotaging the economy. They’re imposing the failed EU model of high taxes and red tape to make it easier to push the UK to rejoin. (also the mad net zero expensive unreliable energy agenda and drilling, mining & fracking bans)
November 21, 2022
Correct. And they can’t possibly have a deregulated, low-tax, successful economy on the periphery of the EU – demonstrating to les autres that leaving the EU leads to economic growth.
Watch out for the declaration that there will be a two-tier EU: the Eurozone and the outer tier, which will include the likes of the UK, Turkey and the Ukraine …. subject to single market rules but not within all the political structures.
November 21, 2022
Richard Wellings is not alone in that thought! Many people believe what we are seeing is a remainer/globalist establishment coup.
November 21, 2022
Hunt regards his wrecking ball as Swinging only because he is Dodgy.
November 22, 2022
That wrecking ball will detach sooner or later , and I wouldn’t want to be the one who was swinging it.
November 21, 2022
Thanks for that LL. An excellent post.
November 21, 2022
LL,
Yes, but you want to vote for it so do not moan and point out sensible cogent articles which are I. Stark contrast to the socialist Tories being in office for 12 years!.
November 21, 2022
I agree. Brexit is in danger, and we need the Spartans to save it again.
November 21, 2022
LL
Deliberate sabotage. I agree 100%. Patrick Minford and Matthew Lynn have got it right.
November 21, 2022
That was always the intention as some of us have said all along – to create a disaster in which the glorious EU comes to our rescueâŠ..
Zorro
November 21, 2022
‘They should accelerate the NHS manpower plan’?
They could get many of the 5 million working age people back to work by cutting benefits. No one should ever be better off unemployed. But, the preferred policy is to import more people. Exactly what we do not need.
Excellent suggestions Sir John. Waste is everywhere. It is so ubiquitous it must surely be government policy.
November 21, 2022
A solution to the worker shortage is to provide reasonable adjustments to disabled workers.
The ONS released figures last week that economically inactive working age people have increased by 250,000 in a year. Those that want to work has only increased by 3,000 in the year. Provide the adjustments get your workers.
November 21, 2022
Indeed and you need to be quite a bit better off as you have all the cost of getting to work, childcare and a lack of time to shop efficiently, cook efficiently, do DIY, pick the kids up from school… But the budget made this position even worse.
November 21, 2022
The usual finding small change avoiding the real issue. Overall spending in the public sector is inefficient and wasteful.
If you were serious you would be looking for real cuts especially the out of control payroll and appalling productivity.
We suffer from weak politicians in total denial hammering a supine public because it is easier.
November 21, 2022
We do not need to keep iilegal immigrants in hotels, for an example France doesn’t. Tag them and let them build jungles.
November 21, 2022
As soon as they claim asylum we are legally obliged to provide them with shelter and support under the human rights convention. The British homeless do not have equal rights. France do not have to provide them with anything as these people haven’t claimed asylum there.
The whole system needs amending but there are too many do-gooders on the UN gravy train to ever change things. All we can do is turn back the boats or quickly process the claims of those who get through to weed out the bogus.
November 21, 2022
But, Stephen, our government wants to attract them to come here, whereas the French want to get rid of them and make them go to England. That’s the difference.
November 22, 2022
We even pay France for the privilege of taking their very expensive illegals which they allowed into France via Schengen.
November 21, 2022
I am also fuming at the double standards of justice being rolled out by judges, which appears to depend upon your nationality and immigration status! It sends out all the wrong messages to the immigrants, and makes Brits feel like we, and our children, are just cannon fodder for the immigrants, which we probably are!
November 21, 2022
What exactly do NHS diversity managers do? The NHS has always been diverse. I’m curious what their purpose is. I’d rather see money go towards more hospital beds
November 21, 2022
@Christine +1 – Diversity and Inclusion are required so as to pursue full act discrimination of the People of the UK. The UK taxpayer doesnât want to fund the best-of-the-best in services they prefer managerial empire building rather than the delivery of medical services.
November 21, 2022
Christine. I’ve always said this. Mixed races have worked together in the NHS and other workplaces for decades. We do not need telling how to do this. Get rid of these unecessary managers and time wasting courses.
November 21, 2022
âNHS diversity managersâ do nothing above nor beyond that of a line supervisor / manager âŠapart from creating extra paperwork and meetings
November 21, 2022
Christine
Diversity managers are purely to corrupt and disrupt the purpose of the NHS. Nothing to do with efficient working of the organisation. Oh, and brainwash staff with socialism.
November 21, 2022
I think that it says in their job description – âTo make you disappearâ unless Iâve misread it.
Zorro
November 22, 2022
They are a form of Political Commissar.
November 21, 2022
Sir John you have not mentioned the cost of supporting the war in Ukraine. Promoting it even , if we are to believe the “fake news” that Boris Johnson discouraged the Kiev Government from coming to a peace arrangement with Russia. Sometimes our “friends” are not as honest as our “enemy”
We can save lives, money, even our carbon footprint if we make an effort to support peace. The truth is beginning to come out what the Kiev Government is really like. Bit of a problem for a Democratic West as it prefers to have Russia as the enemy to blame for everything that goes wrong.
Still it let’s Brexit off the hook đ
November 21, 2022
Why do you want to believe fake news like that? A moment’s rational thought should disabuse you.
November 21, 2022
This is a Socialist Government. They are doing what all Socialist Governments do: overtaxing, wasting money and destroying the living standards of the ordinary working people.
As for the campaign telling us how to suck eggs and generally run our lives, THAT’s what the PsyOps Unit is for. They think “nudging us” is a good strategy ….. and they’ll carry on thinking that until they get the mother of all kicks up the backside from a furious electorate which is sick to death of being patronised and bullied by them.
November 21, 2022
@Donna +1 this sums it up @Mark B ‘ In hindsight, it would have been cheaper to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.’
November 21, 2022
Donna : âTHATâs what the PsyOps Unit is for.â
Thatâs also what the BBC is for and hence why the Conservative Government has no intention of reforming or privatising the BBC (or C4).
It is the BBCâs job to so frighten the nation into believing the world is about to crash and burn with false stories of extreme weather caused by our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions that the Government are able to continue with its economy destroying Net Zero Strategy designed to bring impoverishment and restrictions on our freedoms.
November 21, 2022
Advertising through MSM is also a device to cover bribes to the corporate owners and ensure that they follow the government line on the economy and the response to covid, amongst other propaganda. The Nudge Unit has an office full of these manipulating behavioural psychos and it would save millions if they were abolished.
November 21, 2022
Social engineering is the mainstay of any decent communist state, they usually start with a carrot (subsidy), than a threat (climate-change), than the ban (tax) âŠand than the stick of the law (enforcement) âŠ.all for your safety & security
November 21, 2022
Is there no control over the money Sunak can give away to foreign countries? None of this was in the manifesto voted for by the British oeople. Where is the accountability? I feel like I live in a third world dictatorship.
November 21, 2022
There should be a change to our constitutional settlement , a Prime Minister on taking office should surrender his passport as all they do is take trips abroad giving our money away or signing us up to burdensome obligations.
November 21, 2022
@Christine Welcome to the New Rishi Conservatives, crap from high on Democracy you know it doesn’t count – as you say a third World Dictatorship.
November 21, 2022
Christine
In very many ways you are and have been for years.
November 21, 2022
The party manifesto is the only contract between the voters and politicians âŠand that contract is the first thing to go in the bin
November 21, 2022
All part of the WEF levelling-down agenda, along with turning Western democracies into poor Third World countries. At the conclusion the only places with the living standards we used to know will be the heavily fortified retreats of the elite.
November 21, 2022
Spoiler alert – you do!! Zimbabwe with a suit on!
Zorro
November 21, 2022
I see Labour have announced their intention to reform the House of Frauds when they “win” the next General Election. They’ll make a complete pig’s ear of it, just as they did with devolution but this is what happens when the CON Party refuses to carry out badly needed reforms to reduce the size of Government and the taxpayer-funded largesse handed out to their donors, cronies, bag-carriers and arse-lickers.
November 21, 2022
@Donna As you say nothing will happen its just more deflection. This Government is in serious neglect of its duties to the People of the UK, it was mentioned elswhere they will serve their Departaments(shore them up, expand them, lavish taxpayer money of them, with out anyone being held to account), but never their constituants, or the taxpayer that pays their wages. It is a truly rotten state of affairs and Parliment they do and say nothing
November 21, 2022
Donna
They have only got themselves to blame they have done diddly squat with their 80+ majority.
Central Offices of a all three major parties have a lot to answer for on how the candidates are selected. The standards of our politicians is dire too many totally outside their limits of competencies and easy meat for the string pullers and button pushers. The 50 that are worthy of their position are all banished to the back benches.
November 21, 2022
Donna,
Agree, but What have Tories done in 12 years of moaning and false hope? Johnson just,put Carrieâs mates there at a yearly cost of ÂŁ562,000!
November 21, 2022
The Labour party have got wise; they now know how to win the next general election they just have to adopt some of the old traditional conservative policies âŠand its working (an elected house of lords is a vote winner)
November 21, 2022
If Labour where to cancel HS2 ..the election would be in the bag
November 21, 2022
They’ll reform it in the traditional way, by ennobling more of their own cronies. The power to create peers needs to be stripped from the Prime Minister.
November 21, 2022
Labour make a pig’s ear of everything they touch – it’s the way the socialist mindset works – incapable of real logic.
November 21, 2022
Well at least in Scotland excellent progress – wealthy people are being considered for having to pay privately instead of use the NHS. I presume they will get a tax refund, else this is straightforward robbery.
November 21, 2022
I know!
âLetâs SPEND our way out of trouble..
Thatâll workââŠ.said no normal person ever.
PSâŠI see from my milk carton that there is now a govt/NHS scheme to offer FREE MILK.
November 21, 2022
100% taxpayer subsidy, not free
November 21, 2022
Before Enoch Powell decided not to stand in 1974, and described Ted Heath’s decision to go to the country as “fraudulent…unworthy of British politics…”, he had observed that he could scarcely believe that the Conservatives would wish to go to the country under a banner that read “Dear Food, and Government from Brussels”. If Mr Sunak sought to do so in 2 years’ time under a banner that read “Fleece the Taxpayers and Squander the Proceeds”, would he deserve support from (a) the public at large and (b) current sitting MPs?
November 21, 2022
“Stop wasting moneyâ Yes Government is continuing the Boris Johnson theme of spend spend spend with no requirement to have disciplined accountability, no requirement to define purpose just throw money at the BLOB (The Establishment, the Civil Service etc.), and we will be assured they wont brief against us.
If we are not printing money we can steal it from the productive side of the UK, they will always find ways to economies or earn more so we The Government donât have to.
We donât serve the People we attack them and protect the establishment
November 21, 2022
Yesterday elsewhere it was noted about the behind the scenes briefings that go on by those that think they rule this land without ever being elected and held accountable.
Yes, you could say conspiracy theories. But given how time and time again when the real problems of the UK are addressed that at the same time call on the Establishment to get its house in order, there is suddenly briefing and leaks to deflect and create problems.
Why did Boris get rid of Dominic Cummins? As he was being tasked to refine and improve the workings of the State the World was turned against him â and Boris the ever obedient puppet got rid. When Liz tried to get the Country motivated and earning again there was an attack on the idea that an elected member of a Democracy was working for the Country.
It keeps coming back to why have an elected chamber/MPâs when the Establishment instead of doing the bidding of the elected members go about briefing and undermining Democracy.
November 21, 2022
It is noted the Government despises Democracy. At the COP meeting it has committed the UK taxpayer to give other Countries money without consulting, that is pure personal ego at work.
The Government doesnât have a mandate to do that, they havenât consulted Parliament which means they have consulted the People that will be forced under duress to pay.
What about human rights for the TaxPayer.
November 21, 2022
Only one saving worth making.
Scrap guaranteed final salary index linked gold-plated pension schemes linked to almost every civil servant, NHS employee and the like. That is what we cannot afford.
November 21, 2022
Just put a cap on public pensions , say a maximum of ÂŁ35k pa (approx ÂŁ1m pot). 100% tax the rest. Otherwise its just a control scam.
November 21, 2022
A pithy and timely statement. JR. Doubly so because it is exactly what I was thinking. For example, no sooner had the increased spending on the NHS (3.3. billion per annum for the next two years) been announced, than Sky was saying it would not be enough.
Massive savings could be made on the NHS if the government would only get to grips with the problem. The waste is criminal. But it is easier to ignore the issue and to muddle along. Better this expenditure was given to Ukraine.
November 21, 2022
Precisely!
November 21, 2022
10.1% increase in benefits and pensions!
Average wage increase at 5%.
Stop wasting money.
November 21, 2022
To add a little perspective on pensions, I worked for 49 years and I guess (hard to estimate with accuracy) that, over time, taking all taxes and VAT I paid the exchequer well north of ÂŁ1.4m.
In return, the State pays me a munificent pension of ÂŁ142 p.w.
Could you live on that sum because I shore as heck could not.
November 22, 2022
Not disputing that Martyn but I see no reason why benefits recipients and pensioners should be protected from inflation when average wage rises are well below inflation. Why should there be different treatment?
Giving away increases, that are double what workers are getting is wasting money and being politically generous with other people’s money.
November 22, 2022
But put in context 10% of 185 (ish) per week = 18.5
5% of 617 aver weekly wage – 31.
November 21, 2022
Yes, Sir John. So why does Government not do it?
November 21, 2022
I agree with all you say here, and hope that you will express these views equally forcefully in the House of Commons, and persuade the few others of like mind to do the same.
November 21, 2022
This Government pledged not to Raise NHI, then it did. This Government Pledged not to raise Corporation Tax then it did. This Government assured it was a Government of low taxes, then it raised them. This Government supports enterprise then punishes it. This Government then promised Brexit and the return to a full sovereign Democracy â and it didnât.
Yesterday a Government Minister hit our air waves for no apparent reason saying(not promising), that the Government wont be doing a deal with the EU to come fully under its control once more.
Today from No10 says in a qualified statement âwe will never again have to accept a relationship with Europe that would see a return to freedom of movement, unnecessary payments to the European Unionâ
That is from recent experiences a Government about to do a U Turn, they ruled nothing out and through the usual sleight of hand is opening the door,
What the Government hasnât done and wont do is get Brexit Done and assume the responsibilities of a full Sovereign State – the establishment is still fighting the people.
November 21, 2022
I can add a few money saving measures too.
Stop sending billions to Ukraine.
Stop sending British special forces to fight in Ukraine.
Stop funding Big Pharma to inject millions with poisonous gene therapy treatment.
Stop trying to rejoin the EU.
Stop implementing the ludicrous and impossible net zero agenda.
Stop building the infrastructure for CBDCs and health passports.
November 21, 2022
‘People are not stupid’: Except those in Govt who waste taxpayers’ money.
November 22, 2022
It’s a mistake to think they’re stupid; they’re not. They are carrying out a very carefully planned strategy to wreck our economy and then tell us the only solution is to link permanently to the EU (not rejoin because that would give us too much power ….. we are to become a satrapy, controlled by them).
And then the carefully planned strategy to impose a “rules-based” One-World-Government via the UN will proceed, unhindered by anything as quaint as democracy.
They are weakening Russia in order to preserve/extend the “rules-based” order in Europe.
November 21, 2022
Completely agree. This is not a Conservative Government, it is left learning probably in an attempt to head off an inevitable Labour (god help us).
November 21, 2022
To that list you might add:
1) Eliminate counterproductive development aid – per Professor Lord Bauer and Nobel Prize winning Professor Angus Deaton.
2) Reduce industrial, environmental and agricultural subsidies.
November 21, 2022
When, as they will, they ignore all your good suggestions, what will you do? Time for a real centre right party prepared to stand up for this country and not be puppets of the globalists.
November 21, 2022
I have never, ever considered voting Labour (or Lib Dem or Green) because I always believed that they saw impoverishing the country as electorally beneficial to them when they promote themselves as âthe party for the poorâ.
Hence when Labour gained power in 1997 they deliberately opened the borders to allow mass immigration, brought about devolution to divide the nations and waste money, put in place henchman throughout the civil service, quangos and institutions to massively expand and destroy these institutions, wasting as much money as possible in the process, initiated the unnecessary and expensive vanity project known as HS2, and, most damaging of all, enacted the Climate Change Act specifically designed to destroy our economy through the transition from cheap, reliable fossil fuel/nuclear energy to expensive, intermittent renewable energy.
It is unbelievable to me that an 80 seat majority Conservative Government has taken up and continues to run with all these Labour initiated, nation destroying policies.
November 21, 2022
Some more cost savings:
* Publish net zero budget to give the market’s confidence that it is affordable.
* Proper root and branch civil service reform, with a real bonfire of the quangos (removing many of the unnecessary EU laws the quangos are there to enforce in the process).
* Send commissioners to NHS trusts that treat fewer people in the first half of 2023 than in 2019. We must get people back to work, not off sick.
* Reduce rail subsidies to the same level as in 2019 (plus inflation).
* Replace the pensions triple lock after the next general election with increases based on wage increases. We are all in it together.
* Forbid councils to make investments in property and wind farms.
* Put into law no more bailing out bankrupt companies like Bulb (cost ÂŁ6 billion).
November 21, 2022
”We do not need a government ‘TV’ ad campaign to tell us” to install a SMART METER
Nor the endless telecom calls telling me you are in my area to install one
November 21, 2022
Is there not one issue around which a very large number of backbench Tory MPs could agree and that then used to apply pressure to the Government to change?âWhether that is private pressure or perhaps with it moving into the public domain to amplify the weight of argument.âThe old allegiances should be avoided in organising this so as to not limit the number of MPs in agreement.
The selling of bonds at a loss by the Bank of England seems like a good candidate, e.g. Brexit agnostic, even if many MPs wouldn’t already be alert to the issue or have the background to understand it.âIt is a simple enough case once explained.âThe public would know it is a daft policy too.
Getting just one of these savings made would show backbenchers they have some clout and the next issue with broad support could then be picked.
November 21, 2022
By far the biggest waste of money is the Net Zero Strategy designed to impoverish our nation by transitioning from cheap, abundant, reliable fossil fuel/nuclear energy to expensive, meagre, intermittent renewable energy simply to reduce to zero our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions.
A project so expensive the Treasury refused to give the HoC Public Accounts Committee any figures for the costs.
There is no catastrophic/climate emergency/breakdown caused by the 400 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere and the IPCC have absolutely no empirical or experimental proof of this assertion.
November 21, 2022
It is quite clear.
The powers that definitely should not be ( since they are traitors) are trying to turn us into what was once termed the third world. For reasons of âLevelling Upâđ€
To do so they have to strip us of all our inherent gifts and stifle our natural talent for innovation.
In horse racing itâs called ânobblingâ I believe.
November 21, 2022
Mind you..looking at YouTube videos it will be very hard to stifle all the incredibly clever people who make rocket stoves and earth/salt water batteries and water heaters and all sorts of marvels.
They do it so they can get out of this vile, disgusting system.
November 22, 2022
I mentioned sometime ago what ‘Leveling Up’ really meant.
If you want to destroy the Middle Classes, you do it between the millstones of high inflation and high taxes – Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. Better know as Lenin.
November 21, 2022
As I have said before I am not in favour of funding the war in Ukraine.
Now it emerges that, billions have gone to fund Ukraine, Ukraine ‘invested’ billions in FTX, FTX donated large sums to the Dems election fund!
Is this money laundering? Has the UK taxpayer been unknowingly been funding the Dems election effort in the US?
November 22, 2022
Just swap FTX with you favourite ‘White elephant’ sate funded project. It happens everywhere you look.
November 21, 2022
Delighted to see the government reconsidering Brexit.
I now think it is a matter of time before we rejoin the EU in some capacity.
It was simply a bad idea and the British people will not stand for it, as every poll is starting to show.
The real problem is there will reach a point when one of the parties bolts from the current ‘respect the referendum’ position. I think the Brexiteers will go one way, and the vastly larger number of Rejoiners will go the other and that will be that.
Votes be votes. Numbers be numbers. Maybe I’m wrong. Can’t see it though.
Guess it’s good we tried.
November 22, 2022
Nobody has tried to implement Brexit. Parliament has tried very hard to avoid it. You are wrong, no doubt about it. Polls can say what you want them to say (German owned polling companies, perhaps?) and your vote is pretty worthless already if you vote for any of the dishonest main parties. Still, we know how remainers love to be ruled by an unelected foreign government and having no say in the direction the EU is taking.
November 22, 2022
Written by ‘ignoramus’.
November 22, 2022
The Prime Minister has debunked the Sunday Times story. The government is not going to abandon Brexit, it is at last going to accelerate its proper implementation after the Remainer Civil Service has done everything it could to keep us fully aligned with Europe.
It was always going to take five to ten years to see real progress after such a major change but that was without a Pandemic and the recession caused by Putin’s war. The surprise is that the numbers are still holding up reasonably well. Despite the best efforts of the BBC to suppress the facts, our inflation rate is no higher that the EU average and our borrowing is lower than many of the G7 nations.
November 21, 2022
“They should pause the expensive smart meter programme.”
A relatively small matter but … is anyone else sick and tired of being bombarded with advertising ?
November 21, 2022
The Government has lost its way and with it the confidence of the people . In times of emergency – and there is one now , a coalition has always been resorted to . I would definitely support one .
November 22, 2022
Is that a coalition within the Conservative Party MPs, or one that invities other Party MPs?
November 21, 2022
Totally spot on…
Such common sense does not fit in with the global strategy to ruin the world economies – After all, they can NOT rebuild if everything is still working and in place.
A slow, deliberate, destruction is what we are seeing.
November 21, 2022
Agreed Sir John.
What were notably absent from Hunt’s ‘Statement’ were any moves to grow our economy – how Unconservative can you get??
November 22, 2022
Yes there were …. more immigration to boost GDP but which imposes an even bigger burden on the taxpayer and even harder access to essential services such as GP’s, dentists and the NHS.
November 21, 2022
Sir John, you are a conservative in ever instinct and fibre. You have to grasp that the party has left you. Itâs time for people of substance to go on the front foot and establish a high quality, overtly conservative party. None of these 406 registered parties are viable with or without Farage.
The Tory party MUST split in order to give us a chance of electing at least a party that can hold the balance of power, maybe uniting with the DUP in a nationwide movement.
Democracy itself is at stake.
November 21, 2022
Good luck selling government offices; many ex-business people I know can’t sell their premises after covid closed them down. They are just sucking the life out of them personally.
November 22, 2022
Homes for immigrants, legal or otherwise?
November 21, 2022
A large cull of civil servants is overdue and we should start with the neo Marxists high mandarins
November 21, 2022
All excellent suggestions.
The NHS could save money by cutting the advertising budget. It seems every TV and radio channel is running regular NHS adverts. If an organisation is completely overwhelmed by demand it is surely pointless to keep advertising for customers.
November 21, 2022
The autumn statement does no more or less than consign the tories to the back benches at the next general election. And to be brutally honest, deservedly so. I would imagine many of the members and most of the country are still wondering how a loser can be a winner! Sunak lost the membership contest, just as Corbyn lost the general election, so why is policy a wholesale implementation of Corbynomics?
November 21, 2022
BBC reporting at the start of Englandâs world cup match that the team are âtaking the kneeâ in solidarity with inclusivity, well I thought they took the knee in solidarity with BLM âŠ.next it will be taking the knee with âjust stop oilâ, orâ illegal immigrationâ
The BBC is a massive waste of money âŠsell off C4 asap than sell off the BBC
November 22, 2022
glen
They should not only ‘take the knee’ to fight poverty but, give away their vast wealth as well. Do that and I might have a bit more respect.
November 23, 2022
What’s mine is staying mine!
November 21, 2022
What is required is a new defence policy based on a realistic assessment of the place of the UK in the modern world. That means acceptance of the fact that we are too small a nation to be a superpower and that putting vast resources into furthering the ambitions of another superpower when the vehicle for that, NATO, has been transmuted from a purported defence pact into an outright aggression pact to assist the US government attempting to exercise world hegemony, is not in ours or our neighbours interests. Our defence policy should be based upon defending our nation from invasion and attack: providing a taxi service for foreign invaders and committing acts of terrorism against civilian infrastructure belonging to a far more powerful nation indicate that the Tory Party is actually interested in neither. Furthermore the Tory Party appears ignorant of the fact that they are sending largesse to a government in Kiev which has abolished and incarcerated legitimate opposition so it is not possible to know what is the political will of the Ukrainian people: do they want to continue to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian or not?
November 21, 2022
All the world leaders at the COP 27 and no-one has suggested a world wide ban on deforestation. These are the lungs of the world and do a natural and efficient job of filtering out CO2. yet we see no movement in that direction, instead we see environmental destruction in several areas globally to produce materials for battery production.
November 22, 2022
What about serious restrictions on childbirth rates? Free contraception?
November 21, 2022
Under the banner of wasting money we should also consider the Qataris who spent 200 billion on structures that will surely crumble before another generation is out – for after fossil fuels have long Äșost their gloss – who would go there to Qatar – anyone? – not in a million years
November 21, 2022
Sir John,
You could add to your list the abolition of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.
London already has a Lord Mayor.
Having just caught up with Neil Oliver’s latest scathing monologue on GB News, it would be fair to say that people are not happy with the current state of affairs.
It seems that elections count for nothing as we now have a Prime Minister and a Chancellor by appointment. If the Sunak/Hunt duo had been in place three years ago before the last election, I doubt there would have been an eighty seat majority. I doubt there would have been a majority at all.
November 21, 2022
All good ‘old school’ Tory ideas and observations and that’s is where our problem lies.
Over the past decades no Tory party leader nor indeed many of their respective Cabinet members have followed the ‘old-school’ Tory agendas and policies.
Today we have only to look at the state of our country to see where it has taken us. Down.
I trust the forthcoming global financial earthquake will make the current batch finally wake up and resurrect those polices which made the country the wonder of the world at the time, 30+ years ago.
November 21, 2022
Yes to all you say today Sir John, plus a bit more !!
November 21, 2022
Stop Wasting Money!
Taxpayers Money is going to enhance racial discrimintation and divison in Society
My InBox Today
Education v Indoctrination/a generation betrayed?
We should like to call to your attention that the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has issued advice to Universities to âdecoloniseâ courses and to teach Critical Race Theory. I quote below the report from The Times on Wednesday 16th November 2022.
âUniversities have been encouraged to âdecoloniseâ courses including maths, computing and classics in order to teach students how colonialism and its legacy have shaped the subjects.
November 21, 2022
All good ‘old-school’ Tory ideals and observations. And that is the problem with today’s batch of pseudo-conservatives running this once great country – They have turned their backs on such true-blue notions.
We’ve not had an old-school Tory PM for decades, as each one has followed the same path leading to an even further swing to the left.
Nowhere in the world do socialist policies work for the people so it is bewildering that Downing Street believes this time it will be different. This is the definition of insanity.
To see the difference between socialism and capitalism compare North and South Korea but never assume North K is “doing” socialism the ‘wrong way’ for it is the same Marxist-style methodology across the globe practised now and ever since it began in the USSR. This means bigger and bigger government to control their masses and thus to stifle economic growth and innovation and entrepreneurism.
We must return to the old-school, 1980s Conservatism, to prepare for a solid and sustainable economic future here, for to maintain the existing socialist patterns and policies will condemn the people of this country to a bleak future for themselves and for their off-spring.
November 22, 2022
Socialist can NEVER admit that socialism does not work. So they just say the latest failure had nothing to do with socialism.
November 21, 2022
Concerning the advice from the government to turn down central heating thermostats, may I add my two-pennyworth.
There is much discussion generally about what is a suitable temperature reduction, but I am not sure this very helpful on its own, because it doesn’t explain the essential purpose of central heating which is to prevent a home from becoming too cold, and not, as some believe, to act as a primary source of heating.
Let me explain that, as far as it relates to a traditional built home with good loft insulation and double glazing, the bricks from which it is built can act like a âstorage radiatorâ albeit one with a low temperature but a huge surface area. This âstorage radiatorâ should never be allowed to fall below a certain temperature, such that all walls, even external ones, never feel âstone coldâ to the touch.
In our house for example, the minimum temperature at any time (mainly overnight) is set at 10 degrees, and the daytime temperature at about 13 degrees.
Believe it or not, the house never feels cold, and thereâs a good reason for this. By preventing the humidity in the house from becoming too high (by ensuring especially that bathroom and kitchen are well ventilated during and immediately after use) the minimum temperature of 10 degrees is perfectly warm enough to prevent the air from feeling damp, and the walls are warm enough to prevent the moisture from condensing. In other words, the lower the total moisture content in the space, the lower the temperature required (and energy used) to hold the given moisture.
By how much and by what method a living room should be heated beyond the general ambient temperature is down to personal preference!
November 21, 2022
You know that and most of us know and agree with what you say, but for some reason which I still can’t figure out this Conservative cabinet prefers to facilitate our national decline.
November 21, 2022
Watched Rishi Sunak at the CBI earlier today. Mostly, it left me feeling strangely indifferent. He started with the mandatory “we must be compassionate and kind to everyone” and then followed on with much nonsense about innovation and growth. Oh, and BTW, we are not going to join the Swiss version of the EU.
Clearly written for him by some SPAD using a ‘fill in the blanks & tick all the boxes’ speech generator. Towards the end, I felt tempted to quote Greta Thunburg back at the TV – it was certainly just more “Blah, Blah, Blah!”
November 21, 2022
In 1995, John Redwood stood for the Conservative Party leadership with the slogan “No change, no chance”. Perhaps that slogan deserves another run.
November 21, 2022
If smart meters are the answer then just roll them out and stop wasting money on “nudge politics” advertising. But of course they are not the answer so they try to persuade people to get them so that when they don’t work they can claim “you asked for one”.
And why are the NHS advertising that if you feel a bit sick you may have C. so see your GP just in case.
The level of stupidly beggars belief.
November 21, 2022
You know, I know (because I live in one of the world’s most crime-ridden nations), and probably most of the UK government and civil servants know that any aid given to 3rd world countries is going to go straight into the bank accounts of those nations’ most senior politicians and ‘advisers’. South Africa, for one, will grab the ‘apology for the Industrial Revolution’ pay-out, but will not give up on coal, because of the Mining Union’s power and influence.
As a former Conservative Party volunteer (and a very active and hard-working one), I am ashamed of almost all the Party’s actions in Government over the past 10yrs or so, and sickened at the utter uselessness of so many involved behind the scenes.
November 21, 2022
I don’t think you understand that the more medical staff, in primary care in particular who are recruited the more work needs farming out to those who simply do not sit behind a desk and prescribe around a choice of 40 drugs. Changes in perception have glorified the young registered medics and they pretend they are consultants alone and don’t do the job they are paid to do which is practice generally. They send forms for all procedures to different depts and personnel and the queues are getting longer and longer. I am lucky enough to work with a well qualified GP and we do all our own blood sampling and physiological tests we can, but get a locum and they don’t and wont do anything which requires anything except writing a script. We are left with their work and our own . We need to change the whole system of training health workers to fit the needs of the population .
November 21, 2022
The biggest waste of money was/is the whole brexit thing – absolutely no doubt about it and now we are left scratching around wondering what happened and where are all of these new trade deals we were promised are- then if we have taken back control so why are we in so much difficulty now – even allowing for the Ukraine war things should never have been so bad and downturns should have been planned for – even in my own house I have always saved for a rainy day – so what are governments at that they cannot do the same for the country – we cannot blame others now.
November 22, 2022
I have been inside one of the big public sector subcontractors. They are currently doing everything they can to spend their cash pile, as they have made a fortune from COVID and immigration, they are running bids that they know they cannot win, spending on nonsense r & d, etc. All because they know if the true extent of their cash pile from crazy events of last few years became public it would be a scandal.
November 22, 2022
Now that you (John Redwood) are finding the government ways of saving money you should be matching that with equivalent tax cuts, especially cutting Corporation Tax, to promote business growth (and attracting international business investment into Britain) as the overriding priority. Jeremy Hunt himself used to advocate this on the two occasions he stood to be Conservative Party Leader and like minded M.P.s should put this forward as an amendment to his Autumn Statement. Another amendment should be to curtail the increase in benefits and the increase in the minimum wage to just 4% to curb inflation, especially inflation generated by high wage increases.