Governments of the centre right as of the left have come to accept and recommend a whole range of interventions in the marketplace which do harm for the best of reasons. Wanting to keep rents down at a time of rising housing costs, rent controls have been introduced and tax and regulatory attacks on landlords in several jurisdictions. These changes become a conspiracy against those needing a rented home. Stopping landlords getting a market rent, and placing too tough a regulatory burden on them, induces many landlords to withdraw their homes from the rental market. They may sell them to owner occupiers, or keep them empty awaiting better times, or use them themselves. Supply of property for rent contracts, the very opposite of what is needed to bring rents down. If governments respond by even tougher policies, the supply will fall further. Governments who try this end up with higher rents and less choice for tenants.
    Wanting to keep energy prices down many countries introduced price controls. These prevent the companies from charging the market price, and in some cases as in the UK electricity industry drive them straight into bankruptcy. They had to pay market prices to buy in the power, but could not charge market prices to re sell it. Those in the industry that produced their own power without a commensurate rise in their energy costs were charged a windfall tax. This puts companies off adding to capacity by making additional investment. The governments created a money go round charging higher taxes on a part of the industry to send subsidies to another part of the industry with a view to extending the period of lower prices for consumers before having to allow them up again. It is quite obvious looking at the energy crisis that the main cause of it is lack of supply. This was primarily brought on by the West’s need to take Russian oil and gas out of its supply for political reasons. It was also exacerbated by the wish to transition from fossil fuel based electricity to renewables, and to greatly increase demand for electricity by switching many more people to electric cars and heating systems. The last thing you want to do in such a circumstance is to tax energy producers more deterring new investment, or show them that if they are successful their prices will be curbed. Short term popularity with electors angry about high prices and profits leads to worse shortages.Â
    Governments in the West also wish to accelerate the reduction in carbon dioxide output. This has led them to impose carbon taxes on energy production and industrial energy usage, as a deterrent to more use of fossil fuels. This has turned out to be a good way to show how markets work. Faced with higher costs in the EU, UK and other places with high carbon taxes, energy using industries are transferring their activities to lower cost countries with no carbon taxes or low ones. The UK in its haste to close coal and gas power stations has got itself into a position where it needs to import electricity to keep the lights on at times of high demand and low renewable output. Cold days when the wind does not blow become problems to manage. These policies do not succeed in cutting total world output of Carbon dioxide. Instead of burning fuel at home with CO 2 produced there, the exporting country burns the fuel. In many cases switching from home production to imports increases the amount of CO 2 produced as the diesel driven ships needed to bring the product to the user adds to CO 2. The processes in the exporting countries may also be more fuel intensive.Â
February 6, 2023
Good Morning,
Well, that’s a long-winded way of saying: ‘our political leaders are not fit for purpose’.
Don’t worry Sir J, the incompetent PCP will all but disappear in a couple of years, or less. Shame the Civil Service Blob won’t be despatched at the same time.
February 6, 2023
Indeed Peter.
Could have stopped at “Government interventions.. in the marketplace.. do harm”.
By alll means Government can deliver national and internal security, which requires some small intervention in business practices. Beyond this why not see how capitalism can deliver? Worked pretty well in 19th century in terms of raising people’s incomes and living standards.
February 6, 2023
The extortionate rise in housing costs was caused mainly by the withdrawal of state intervention, that is, by deregulation in finance.
Lax credit – as introduced by Big Bang – is the prime driver of property inflation.
John stands reason on its head once again.
February 6, 2023
Negative. Rise in housing costs was due to the fall in interest rates. Lower rate = higher borrowing capacity for a given amount of available cash. If market had been left to set interest rates rather than BoE we wouldn’t have seen a near zero rate for 15 yrs and house prices wouldn’t have rocketed.
February 6, 2023
There has been too much state intervention, they need to cut all their spendthrift was and get their hand out of my pocket
February 6, 2023
Another article on political theory rather than events taking place at the moment.
The overall theme seems to be – let landlords and companies do what they want. Governments should not intervene.
Those halcyon days of Peter Rachman when I was just a lad !
February 7, 2023
Go back to the early 90âs no one was interested in renting a house. Was a dead duck trade. Maybe to students in inner city areas. What changed? Immigration. Destruction of the family. Gordon brown destroying the best private pension scheme in the world leading to buy to let investment. ( ironically at the same time as huge immigration, funny eh?). The rental price increase is encouraged by state policy but no one ever mentions that.
February 6, 2023
Consocialism in a word. Truss was right all along
The BoE lied to deliberately undermine her.
February 6, 2023
The Bank of England is tasked with a 2% inflation target. When the inflation rate exceeded 10% why was the Governor and his entire senior management team not sacked?
February 7, 2023
Indeed.
February 6, 2023
Seems so the Sunak supporting MPs never gave her a chance, Sunak who was the main cause of the inflation, the huge government debt problem, the energy prices and the many economic problems.
February 6, 2023
PW, ++ +, succinct and true. A ship of fools is our Parliament, scarce a dissenting cheep from all its benches, one might think that they agreed with Ed Milliband . . . . a worrying thought .. .
February 6, 2023
@Peter Wood +1
Yup, how to destroy democracy and even the point of the HoC, MP’s therefore voting.
February 6, 2023
Yes. We have had one huge tectonic shift in the last 24 hours. Now the people of the western Democracies, the true sovereigns, need another. The âdeep stateâ and the uncivil service and the sub-standard political class need to feel the earth quaking beneath their feet.
Iâm afraid that the more Liz Truss indicates that she would not cut spending, the more she confirms that she has no idea of what is required to produce âhonest moneyâ. The BOE should be stripped of its power to set interest rates and the Market should set said rates.
Nobody can trump The Market which will fine tune on a minute by minute basis.
We need stamp duty suspended if the Government donât want a housing crisis on top of everything else.
February 6, 2023
It’s an admission by Sir John that it is his Government that has created these foolish policies that have driven private landlords out of business and their net stupid that has exported our manufacturing. Risking our national security by outsourcing our power generation to rely on our hostile neighbours and be subject to blackmail. Then importing a million people a year whilst making the rest of us cut down on CO2, a harmless trace gas that is essential for all plant life on the planet. A 7.2 million and rising treatment wait in the English (World) NHS, congestion and housing crisis. Added to the highest taxes ever to keep 54% reliant on Government subsidy expecting us the 46% to pay for these. Then have Hunt telling the over 50’s to return to the workplace to pay for the 54% on benefits, illegals Hotels and pocket money, foreign aid and HS2, whilst doing everything possible to cow tow to the EU over the NI protocol and giving away our fish ….. for nothing. Got a feeling your Party will be out on it’s ear for a generation, if not forever, as we’ll vote for a conservative alternative like Reform, even if it lets in Labour for one election.
February 7, 2023
It wouldn’t be for one election. It wasn’t in 1997. The damage has never been undone either.
February 6, 2023
Apologies to the Bard. Even he would not have dreamed this could happen?
1st Witch
Oh when will we be warm again?
This chillâs enough to freeze the brain.
2.nd Witch
When the wind blows from the North
And windmill power surges forth
3rd Witch
Wait until the moon turns blue
Then the wind will work for you.
1st Witch
Where is the windmill?
2nd Witch
On the hill.
3rd Witch
There is no windâŠthe sails are still.
All 3 Witches
Good is bad and bad is good
Perish mortals as ye should.
February 6, 2023
Good one, Cuibono. I think the Bard knew from what happened to others at the time just how dangerous those in power could be. But they were dangerous to individuals such as Walter Raleigh and Mary Queen of Scots. What he couldn’t have imagined, I don ‘t suppose, is that the power elite of his day might be actively planning the ruin of the whole country, for the sake of a deluded ideology.
February 6, 2023
+many
YesâŠutterly extraordinary.
There must be a word for it? Sort of self immolation.
February 6, 2023
The tragedie is that the Cabinet acts like the full cast.
One wonders who is playing Lady Macbeth in drag.
The damned spot needs outing.
February 6, 2023
+many
Maybe THATâs why they were so hung up on hand washing?
February 6, 2023
All this talk of net zero and global warming, talk of ineffective and expensive heat pumps, EV cars that donât work so well in cold weather⊠The following link describes how the extra CO2 is causing cooling of parts of the earth. This resonates with other articles Iâve read that show how CO2 is absorbed into the sea during warm spells (which weâve just seen) and rises up again into the atmosphere (which is what we are seeing now) and this then cools the earth⊠natures own thermostat?
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/05/scientists-discover-that-higher-carbon-dioxide-levels-are-cooling-many-parts-of-the-planet/
February 6, 2023
Still on the subject of intervention, in other news, Transport Secretary Mark Harper is expected to announce the abolition of return rail tickets.
Allegedly it will be simpler and better.
So not just a daft idea to make it look as though there is improvement, under cover for stealth price increases.
February 6, 2023
currently single fares are about 5p cheaper than returns! Now IF the new single is 50% of the return thats good, but why stop the return?
February 6, 2023
Very Good! đ
February 6, 2023
Thanks đž
February 6, 2023
It seems our esteemed host can sense the move towards authoritarian control. I saw it in 1997 when a cancer walked into No.10 but the naivety and ignorance of the British voter is so easily exploited by those with intent to deceive
February 6, 2023
People who are trustworthy and decent are the easiest to deceive, as they expect everyone in high positions and in power to be trustworthy too. We now know our government is not at all trustworthy.
February 6, 2023
@DOM +1
Although back then, the voter had a choice. Free market Conservatives, or Socialist labour. Now as the media points out we have an illegitimate Government, in that was not voted into office by the Conservative Party and it has planted its self somewhere left of Labour. It wont say boo to its masters in the WEF Left leaning Civil Service and the rest of the State, that all just demand and get, more and more State Control and taxpayer money.
We have the situation that come the next GE, unless of course they cancel it, voting Labour or Liberal Democrat cant do more harm.
February 6, 2023
The disease goes out much further than Downing St. which is the focal point for the masses, oftentimes ‘a useful idiot’ to keep the criticism and concerns very limited while softly, softly catchee monkey prevails.
February 6, 2023
It was 1990.
February 6, 2023
Yes Dom, I can also feel the winds of change
February 6, 2023
The public have been gaslit by the msm to the point they can’t tell a man from a woman.
February 6, 2023
Huge intervention by Labour govt.s in the 1970s meant a terrible shortage of rental accommodation in London. Queues of 20 or 30 people being interviewed for possible tenancy were not unusual even in less salubrious areas. Then once in the place you could get the rent lowered at a tribunal! Poor landlords.
And now the tories have made it even worse. Who would even dare to rent out a property now? I think you can be imprisoned for mould in the property or suchlike.
February 6, 2023
Some 1970s men blamed single working women sharing rooms for raising rent prices. Then they started sharing with the same women. Perhaps that was the thin edge of the wedge that rendered marriage unimportant to so many.
February 6, 2023
Well it may have been about control and decontrol of rents since about 1915. A sort of ever changing balance between rights of landlord and tenant. Rachman played a part and now the scales weigh heavily against the landlord.
Scotland and U.K. govts in a race to destroy the rental market for ideological left wing reasons or to hand rental properties cheaply over to corporations.
I expect that, all in all the permissive society DOES bear some blame for the state of the housing market!
February 6, 2023
The UK hasn’t had a centre-right government for decades.
February 6, 2023
@mickc +1
It would be nice just to have a UK Government that served the people and not one that was someone elses puppet
February 6, 2023
dream on!
February 6, 2023
Sir John, good morning.
The shortage of gas supply is as much or more a result of government policy as the Ukraine war. The UK has deliberately hobbled gas supplies from our own resources, as has the USA, before putting in place affordable replacements – – in a sane world they would already be paying the price at the ballot box. One can speculate about a scenario where Mr Putin knew the UK could supply Germany with clean, low CO2 methane via pipeline – would he have risked invading Ukraine?
When liquified natural gas, LNG, is brought to the UK from Qatar it is cooled by the evaporation of some of its cargo. Perhaps someone needs to ask a question about that.
Our fuel bill this winter would be much higher without the wood burner , but I see that is under threat. Let me suggest a way of reducing exhaust particulates in our cities. A vehicle powered by LNG produces almost zero particulate pollution and NOX, and is ‘low carbon’. The conversion is cheap and quick, and would reduce the need to strangle London. But perhaps this is not about making life better, maybe it’s just self-flagellation.
JF
February 6, 2023
What is comical is the city of Southampton contemplating an emission tax on motor vehicles, when just one of the cargo ships going into its port belches out more pollution than all the cars in the south of England.
February 6, 2023
Dave A,
â…. just one of the cargo ships going into its port belches out more pollution than all the cars in the south of England.â
Really? Source for this claim?
To simply say I donât believe a word of it would be an understatement.
February 6, 2023
Julian,
It is about control and taxation. Achieved by idiots as opposed to being technology and market driven.
February 6, 2023
@Julian Flood +1
Exactly the UKâs energy situation is 100% created by inept, maliciously dangerous Government.
We have the resources, we have the talent, but our Government prefers to subsidies Foreign Government with UK Taxpayer money. We subsidies our foreign competitors so that they can charge the UK Consumer(which means twice, to first Crete and the consume) while running back to their own domains with the profit and only pay taxes there.
Even if there is a long term aim to move to a different way of creating energy, you first create the alternative. You donât deliberately set about destroying your own economy so you cant move on.
February 6, 2023
+100
Same here re wood burner.
Is the latest alarm story a rehash though? I remember similar some time ago.
The actual barmy rules seem to centre around new âapprovedâ stoves..though you can still use old ones and âapprovedâsmokeless fuel ( some made from olive stones).
Our stove fitter ( our stove is about 12 yrs old) came to do a repair.
According to him govt. would get sued by ( not sure who) if they tried to snatch stoves.
BUT WE CAN BUY WASHING MACHINES, TVs etc FROM CHINA!!
EVERYTHING IS MADE IN CHINA.
February 6, 2023
âŠand what do we get, a government TV Ad instructing us to spend 30 seconds turning everything off (1) very patronising (2) only effects poor people (3) will not reduce costs (4) doesnât say itâs a public information film and (5) suggests its better to reduce heat in winter and be cold than pay a bigger energy bill âŠ.and be forced to install a prepaid meter
February 6, 2023
I don’t need a government tv ad to get me to turn it off, when ever I detect government I turn it off already!
February 6, 2023
Also..possibly another of their magical mystery toursâŠhearths historically associated with voting. Take away your hearth and pot and you donât get a vote. We know how much into symbolism they are!
But what are they going to do? Employ a fleet of men on bikes to look at chimneys and then burst into offending houses..like the much promised âCovid Marshallâsâ.
Really does govt. need to make itself even more ridiculous?
February 6, 2023
It would be acceptable if those men on bikes came along with ladders to check the emission at top of chimney, if they were contracted free to replace loose/missing tiles.
February 6, 2023
I think you may have invented a perpetual motion machine, but it’s late and A levels were a long time ago.
JF
February 6, 2023
Good morning.
Someone once told me that, if you wish to demoralize someone (or nation) , just prevent them from doing anything that they want to do. And a demoralized person (or nation) is far easier to deal with than one that is united and determined.
Just saying đ
February 6, 2023
That’s right, Mark. I believe psychologists call this ‘learned helplessness’. It was put into effect during the Covid crisis and worked fairly well. If you can’t go out, can’t meet other people, and don’t know how long restrictions will go on for, you can easily become resigned to others taking control of your life.The danger from the rulers’ point if view is: What happens when people discover they’ve been lied to? What happens when people see online a video of a doctor standing up to a minister trying to impose medical tyranny? Or when they discover that restrictions imposed on them don’t apply to politicians and civil servants ruling over us? Then for a lot of people the narrative collapses and they regain their morale and self-belief. At least in Johnson’s time there was enough freedom left for public to be able to discover the disgraceful things that were going on. Next time, it might be different.
February 6, 2023
Mark B,
I am from time to time a visitor to my local hospital. You can smell the demolerisation as you walk through the door. It is not the fault of patients or medics. It is vocation put in prison.
February 6, 2023
Thatâs what one gets from a toothless government.
February 6, 2023
is that the patients, the nurses or the consultants?
February 6, 2023
@Mark B; Good point! Indeed excessively high energy prices are demoralizing people (if not the nation), households having to choose between heating and eating, excessively high energy costs forcing companies to the brink of failure. As for your last point, indeed, but just who is making the political hay, Sunak or Starmer?
Just saying đ
February 6, 2023
net-zero folks ….for your benefit
February 6, 2023
I have long puzzled over the potty insistence on masks.
We know where the term âLockdownâ comes from.
Then I happened upon an article about the Victorian prison protocol called âThe Separate Systemâ.
Masked, âlocked downâ, silent, alone unable to communicate.
Forced to reflect upon oneâs sins.
Apparently many went mad and committed suicide.
February 6, 2023
A policy that has worked.
February 6, 2023
In terms of madness and suicide?
Yes!
February 6, 2023
Cuibono.
During a stay in hospital of extreme length, starting Sept. 2020, I refused to wear a mask, saying to Doctors and nurses that it was their symbol of state control. Not always well received! I had learned in March that they did not work.
February 6, 2023
+many
Sympathy and well done!
Just say âNoâ!
February 6, 2023
An ideal punishment for our treacherous (the ‘pandemic’, the ‘vaccines’, net zero, the invasion…) politicians, senior civil servants etc, to which I would merely add confiscation of all wealth, which used to be part of the penalty for treason.
February 6, 2023
+many
Absolutely!
February 6, 2023
Western autocratic Governments did not âneedâ to create any of these self-defeating situations.
Sanctioning Russia more than any country in history is a good lesson in how capitalist countries and markets work and how autocratic sanctions donât. Russia is forecast to enjoy 2% growth this year. Itâs economy is going to be bigger and stronger than before it intervened to stop the 4 year long war. It has replaced a petulant and demanding customer – the west – with many eager customers.
Closing entire wealth creating sects of their economy because of a corporatist/state-identifying disease for the first time in history was irrational and self-destructive.
The irrational fear of plant food, a gas that consists of .034% of the atmosphere, and unquestioningly convincing nations that they have to abandon heating and food production as a result is self-defeating idiocy.
None of this is rational, scientific or moral.
We in the collective west need to change the political class or die.
Capitalism will deliver wealth, health and happiness to the former self-defeating USSR, they saw what we had and that our system was unbeatable, and wanted it, they have it and we are on a mission to best capitalism.
Stand against the Market and you perish!
February 6, 2023
I think QE is the worst thing to happen to Government. It allows the debt can to be kicked down the road by using tax to suppress interest rates.
Eventually the QE bubble will burst and low levels of Government spending and record tax rises will last a decade.
February 6, 2023
Just to add QE on a 5 year bond basically means Government has paid money to push the interest rate down on that bind, effectively it means it has turned a 5 year bond into a 10 year bond. Interest rates are then reduced in exchange for higher taxes.
February 6, 2023
Life and government is all about a sensible balance.
When the scales are too heavily loaded in one direction, too much tax, legislation, regulation, etc, then opposition will automatically rise by the same amount.
Thus the more the downside is loaded, the more the fight grows against it.
Many times on here I have spoken about the Governments lack of understanding of human nature, the wood burning stove is a prime example.
If clean heat and power is unavailable or too costly, then people will turn to less expensive alternatives, just look at the space in many or the larger DIY stores, where a large area is now reserved for wood burning fuel of all types, then of course there is the scavenging factor, where non regulated timber/fuel etc is used.
Tax too high, then the alternative economy and bartering grows.
February 6, 2023
Are you Sir John, trying to tell us that your party has no clue of what it is doing? Failure of policy all round in property/rental market and energy policy.
Perhaps in coming days you could do a piece on the pandemic. The failure of lockdowns, social distancing, bubbles, masking, T&T, PCR tests, the campaign of fear, the shutting down of dissent, the denial of normal freedoms and most important of all, the harm done by untested jabs. I know this is not your usual focus but you will be fully aware of the massive financial harm.
To me a gigantic policy failure, unequalled in my lifetime and together with your topics this morning, a total disaster.
February 6, 2023
BOF, +++++ I couldn’t agree more
February 6, 2023
Nothing to disagree with there!
The depressing thing is how many âConservativesâ seem to struggle to understand these basic concepts in economics and business.
February 6, 2023
Dear Sir John I find it funny, perhaps not the right word here, that your first two points, are actually caused by a Conservative Government selling off Council Housing and introducing free enterprise and market forces to the energy supply industry.
The CO2 story in the UK is just Politicians( most but not all) looking good on the world stage with not practical thought and concern about the global generation of CO2 cause by their crusade for a net-zero UK. It’s like saying we don”t have child labour in the UK but import cloths and other goods produced by child labour in other countries.
February 6, 2023
I think you just beat Martin to make that point.
February 6, 2023
Governments interfering with the natural dynamics of markets distort commerce into muddle and waste.
Leaders of such Govts tend to be daft or have different intentions with sinister motives.
February 6, 2023
It’s nice to have the consequences of the Net Zero lunacy spelled out so clearly. The Government and Eco Nutters in the Establishment persist with the “it’s Putin wot dun it” line, but very few ordinary people are fooled. Just in case we forget, there’s always the film of various COP boondoggles and Sharma blowing up perfectly viable coal-fired power stations to remind us that the Westminster Uni-Party DELIBERATELY created insecure, expensive and insufficient energy. Even though it is now obvious to that “renewables” will not provide cheap, plentiful and reliable energy, they are pursuing with the idiocy.
I wonder when Sunak will stand before a podium and tell us how many people have died of the cold this winter?
I have a buy-to-let house in a west country town. I’ve been a good landlord but my tenants moved out last week and I put it on the market. It’s now standing empty until it’s sold. I’m sick to death of being treated like a pariah by this Government and I am not going to pay to rip out a modern, electric radiator heating system (no gas) installed only 5 years ago, put in underfloor heating and completely redecorate the place (again) because Gove says I should in order to get a Tick on an EPC which no-one takes any notice of. It didn’t generate a huge income and it would take 10 years minimum to recoup the costs this Government is determined to foist on me. So that’s one less affordable rental property available for a young family, in a nice location, close to schools and shops.
February 6, 2023
I am coming around to believing that there is little point in commenting on how our country is currently being run because there is so little to choose between the policies of government and opposition.
That is no criticism of Labour – Starmer is now trying to project a Blairite image – it is simply that the Conservative party is, in many respects, now well to the left of Tony Blair and Peter Mandleson. The problem has been the selection of candidates for winnable seats under David Cameron in particular, which is now reflected across the parliamentary party. Our host and the few traditionally Thatcherite MPs left must feel like outcasts in many policy areas.
The current consensus is not going to give us the dynamic, growing economy that we need to pay for the grossly expanded public services that government and most voters seem to want. This is not just a UK problem, across the West, most countries are now living well beyond their long-term means.
February 6, 2023
PS One cannot imagine a Conservative Party spokesman today repeating Peter Mandelson’s comment that the party is intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich !
February 7, 2023
I remember a spad trying to get clegg to go on âtop gearâ (pre scandal) to boost his image and connect with voters. He was appalled by Jeremy
Clarksons right wing rhetoric though and didnât go through with it. Just get on with your job and you might get a better image no one actually cared about you or your presentation. Itâs utterly banal and depressing.
February 6, 2023
When I think of government I include the scribes, the quangos, the basic service industries that only operate under government directive, the institutions like the BoE, OBR, police etc that have a pretence to indpendence, but are not. They are all to a greater or lesser degree failures at the expense of the population. Having spent a working lifetime being overseas and the first 15 years of retiremenf living overseas the failures hit you in the face as soon as you step off the plane.
Government needs to step back and let the market run things, and providing it is not monopolistic the market will do better than government who should only be there to curb the excesses. Private dentistry is infinitely superior to government controlled dentistry. Education can only aspire to being as good as the best of private education. From Greenwoods declared intent to F..k all grammar schools to Starmers intent to tax them into oblivion, politicians prove that they are not fit to be allowed anywhere near education.
The first need is to get infinitely more democracy into our democratic system. The greatest confirmation of the need for this has been to watch the vested interests across the establishment/blob fight tooth and nail to deny the referendum decision of 2016. To witness it was to confirm the correctness of that vote. We need more of that level of democracy to fight the dark forces within said blob. Democracy like atomic power has its good side and bad side. In recent years and times we have witnessed the bad side of a democracy stolen, and the thieves are largely those who we have put in place to police it.
February 6, 2023
On topic for once, some of the media claim that the Government are about to ban return tickets on the railway and phase out ‘paper ticketing’. What business of the Government is how ‘private’ TOCs collect their fares? Fears have been expressed, probably correctly, that this is a means of a stealth fare increase, since two singles are usually more expensive than a return (or you wouldn’t buy the return). And how are those of us who don’t own and carry the latest smartphone supposed to travel without a ticket? This seems to be part of the drive I have mentioned before to force everyone to carry a smartphone and charger everywhere you go so the Establishment can monitor and meddle in your everyday transactions.
Our delusional leaders may be thinking of the Tube, where you can tap in and out with a credit card, but this won’t work on the national network as previous ‘economies’ have left many unmanned stations, so you can’t have barriers. I trust you will oppose this assault on the civil liberties of the travelling public.
February 6, 2023
Put simply then Sir John, Government meddling, interference, and so on in a said to be Free Market causes more problems that no matter âhow well meaningâ actually exasperates the systems and peoples lives â fails at every level.
Every subsidy, every version of price control in reality has a knock on affect to the detriment of all.
It is easy to create a massive list of were it doesnât make sense, but we need to get real we have had a succession of extreme left leaning Governments (to days being the worst to date) all preoccupied with getting a headline so as they can continue to refuse to manage. If Government was able to take charge and manage the Socialist Empire, that is the State, Civil Service i.e. those that take the taxpayer money but are not held responsible or accountable for expenditure, we might live in a better place and have a more coherent direction. All that is needed is a UK Government.
February 6, 2023
It’s a Policy response to problems, but the issue why are they considering State controls, and not the tried and tested market responses? Is it because they have far too many Nimbis to deal with, and they want/need action now !?
Surely, instead of Rent Controls, they should (years ago) built many more houses, including social housing?
Surely, instead of Energy bale outs and price controls, they should have built a lot more Gas Power stations, and sources of Supply, of which Fracking could be a contribution?
Or is it because they already know, but are not willing to make the investment and build, do they now that Net-Zero cannot be met by building, so this is the world they want us to go down?
Well, it can’t work, and was never likely to be able to work ?
So many people connect Lock-down with this move to an Authoritarian (Net Zero) State, one has to wonder why?
February 6, 2023
Sir John
âGovernments in the West also wish to accelerate the reduction in carbon dioxide outputâ
Only the UK under Boris Johnson(it his still his Government- the Cabinet Collective) see it as some sort of race. Other Countries are much more pragmatic as they said at the time âit is an aim, but it wont be at the expense of our economiesâ
Now the UK is floundering, lacking in direction, no money to fund change or even move on. With policies that keep the UK in hock and subservient to everyone but its own people.
February 6, 2023
I’ve just watched a TV program where Neil Oliver took part. He claims the ceding of sovereignty to the EU was wholly unlawful, as I have suspected all along. In particular, the Benn Act was so obviously traitorous. Why did Parliament allow this to happen instead of protecting the electorate, and democracy? Is Parliament now the enemy of the people? It does appear that way. I pity future generations.
February 6, 2023
What programme was that?
If you’re interested in discussion about freedom from tyranny and resisting the Command and Control state being built Richard Voles on YouTube is very erudite and very interesting.
February 6, 2023
Well your Summary makes perfect sense to me Sir John but apparently not with the majority od your colleagues, which makes one wonder what on earth thy are thinking. I think it must be just another example of Bulls**t beating Brains.
I read through Liz Trusses Telegraph article yesterday and have some sympathy with her views. What I would really like to hear however, is how Mr Hunt became Chancellor? Who were the men in grey suits who pushed him forward?
February 6, 2023
Well said.
The more of a mess that legislators make with ill thought out laws, the more we see the problem — Is parliament really looking after our interests, or are they so feeble minded they cannot see the damage being done for the Bills they support?
HMG is being led by the nose regarding legislation, by the globalists who now rule what is acceptable. But why do the vast majority of MPs just wag their tail and vote in more irrational big government Bills.
One brave MP stood up to expose some truth and he is currently being cancelled. One assumes that the rest of the Commons is more interested in keeping their roles rather than doing their job, scrutinizing legislation properly.
Democracy continues to fail us.
February 6, 2023
“These prevent the companies from charging the market price”
Currently a market price the industry sets for its self!
Customers, be they domestic or commercial/industry, do not want nor need ‘competition’ they just want, no NEED, the lowest possible KWh price, and that can only comes from not having to fund share dividends and bonuses.
The market price only needs to be cost+R&D+M&R, nothing more…
February 6, 2023
It is obviously all a conspiracy. Contrived pandemics, contrived climate emergency and contrived war. Itâs all about money and power. The Right have gone so far right now that they have joined the far Left coming the other way.
Democracy is hanging by a thread, we have nobody to vote for. We need new politics and new government that doesnât use George Orwellâs 1984 as a guide for running the country.
February 7, 2023
I was very pleased to see Liz Truss speaking out against the coup that brought her down. Very interesting that the Bank of England suddenly informed her of the risky financial instruments that the pension funds had built up, which could be used to destabilise government policies that had implications for them. A pity that she did not apparently have Ministers or advisors to inform her of this problem in advance and perhaps how to deal with it. Maybe she should have spent a bit less time on a failed state in Eastern Europe.
February 6, 2023
Well at Least Liz Truss was featured on the BBC yesterday. This is a good sign as the BBC will usually deny mainstream Conservatives any platform (Norman Tebbit and Sir John Redwood – and many others – will attest to that).
February 6, 2023
@Kenneth; Still obsessed with the BBC and their (alleged) bias I note, still ignorant to what Ofcom rules actually state… Tell me, has Mr A. Scargill, Mr J. Corbyn or any other “mainstream Socialist” been invited on to GBNews yet for an ‘unbiased’ open-mic interview, never mind offered the chance to host their own programme? A broadcasters funding model is irrelevant with regards Ofcom/DCMS regulations and laws.
February 6, 2023
Most of our energy problems have been brought about by the ”kamikaze” approach to Net Zero by this useless government of ours.
Instead of planning the change-over in stages, it has added significantly to inflation and our national debt. It will also cripple all forms of both international and domestic transport and now coupled with throwing money around ‘like a man with no arms’ drive this country into the same hole as Venezuela.
We have a parliament largely made up of too many second rate lawyers and far too many political students who haven’t a clue how to run anything, led by a weak PM and a totally mis-guided chancellor.
February 6, 2023
Nothing to disagree with there, except the use of the word “need” (in “the Westâs need to take Russian oil and gas out of its supply for political reasons). “Decision” would be more apt.
The attack on landlords is one that resonates with me. I was going to rent out my home while I reside long term overseas. Looking at the rule changes under the Tories, and a Labour government coming down the line, I’d rather leave it empty. It’s clear that by renting I could be stuck with a tenant that doesn’t pay and can’t be evicted, not even when I need my home back to live in.
I suppose government’s next move will be to slap a super tax on empty properties, forcing me to sell or to move back to Blighty for a large portion of each year (neither of which will mean the house goes onto the rental market).
My guess is they are not fools, and their true aim is to destroy the private rented sector so the population is ever more dependent on government.
February 6, 2023
Gove probably thinks you will all be forced to sell your houses to councils et voila! there are instant council houses everywhere.
February 6, 2023
I have little confidence in Government control / intervention due to its real lack of knowledge and skill . The consequences of decision making is and has been disastrous to public morale ; drastic change is needed to swing voters back . Time is running out and dissent in the ranks is bound to happen .
February 6, 2023
You mention the West a lot implying the UK shares policy with the West, was that because the UK was in the EU or because being a member of the G7 we went along with what other G7 members were doing? Now the UK is out of the EU are we still “coordinating” with the G7? Would the “we” mean the UK Treasury and their mates at The Financial Times? I ask because you say a lot of mistakes have been made but no mention of who is to blame?
I also wonder if George Osborne and his excellent “inward investment” that allowed foreign ownership of pretty much all of the industry you mention in your piece has any negative role to play? Not just of course what were once called “utilities” but also Heathrow Airport, Abbey National, Boots The Chemist, the list goes on. Gordon Brown selling off UK gold so Sterling is no longer a “reserve currency” probably has a role to play in the long term ills of the UK? Of course the UK either sold off its “utilities” to get improved value for money or brought in management because the Government is not good at management. However the current rash of strikes demonstrates the Government cannot manage the management it brought in to do the job. Don’t mention the NHS or the railways. Did the Government forget the UK has “common law”? I ask because much of the Government fiddling seems more like “Napoleonic Law” where everything is entangled in so many laws that “allow” only limited freedoms or choice.
Mr Richard Tice yesterday circulated his thoughts on the topic and make an alternative read.
February 6, 2023
I fully agree with your assessment SirJ ….but what is to be done with a left facing Tory government, who had all the opportunities of brexit, the backing of the people, a huge majority, and yet you’ve messed it up by intervening when you should’ve been focused on freedoms ‘freedom from state and taxation’
February 6, 2023
Why are you not leading a large group of conservative MPs demanding an end to all this nonsense?
If our MPs are too thick to see the importance of home-produced energy & the need to be energy self-sufficient, then what is the point of them?
It seems to me you are fighting a losing battle if neither the PM nor Chancellor have no common sense.
Please do some research, Sir John, because, with great respect, CO2 is not a problem, now, in the past or in the future. How can we have a government so out of touch with the voters, spending too much, taxing too much, regulating too much & choking the UK’s growth? Why are not a majority of Conservative MPs angry enough to stop all the nonsense?
February 6, 2023
Well said Keith
February 6, 2023
Keith, +++++, I too am in near despair at the total lack of common sense in those who clearly feel that they are our ‘betters’ yet continue to fly us in to a mountain. Can no one in the conservative party wrest control from these hi-jackers?
February 6, 2023
Poor old landlords eh? Itâs so unfair when people donât pay their buy to let mortgages for them. And fancy having to maintain the property so there is no mould. The very idea. Youâre only renting to plebs. Who cares?
February 7, 2023
Mike
To a large extent I agree.
I went to view a property many, many years back. It was being rented out and the condition was appalling. But it was not all the fault of the landlord, who was selling due to divorce but, the Estate Agent who also was managing (sic) the property for the vendor. Neither cared about the poor tenant who I met before the viewing. We spoke about the property and the list of faults. Poor woman.
But at the same time I feel sorry for some who have seen their pensions destroyed by rapacious Chancellors and, trying to build something for their retirement seen an opportunity in the rental market.
So once again government involvement in a market is destroying it. If nobody pays in, then nobody will invest and properties will defiantly begin to fall into disrepair. And if councils are involved the costs off loss of rental income and repair will fall on council tax payers, many of whom are private owners.
All worth thinking about.
February 6, 2023
John, your governments absurd fixation with net zero is the main problem in the energy debacle. I’ve just received a leaflet through my door with advice from Scottish Power about what to do if we get power cuts
They will apparently ONLY be for 3 hours (whoopee). We have a shortage of power….who would have thought it? I presume that as we have very cold weather at the moment and it’s not very windy they are getting nervous in case the reliable gas runs out. Honestly, who in their right minds thinks this is a satisfactory way to run a modern country? Still it will please Greta so that’s ok.
February 6, 2023
“This was primarily brought on by the Westâs need to take Russian oil and gas out of its supply for political reasons.”
Only if you believe that those who drive US foreign policy from the State department represent the American people never mind the ‘West’. Does the Tory party believe that engaging in terrorism to please the current denizens of the US State dept and agreeing to pay three times as much for imported gas will ensure their re-election? People will be considering how much they are paying for fuel because of the Tory party’s insane foreign policy and insane belief in ‘Net Zero’ and then act accordingly.
February 6, 2023
âGovernments of the centre right as of the left have come to accept and recommend a whole range of interventions in the marketplace which do harm for the best of reasons.â
I think not. They know full well that CAGW/Net Zero are false and are deliberately used to reduce the Westâs prosperity, sow dissent, and gain control.
Even worse is the BBC led Trusted News Initiativeâs intervention in journalism which is nothing else but the beginning of George Orwellâs Ministry of Truth.
February 6, 2023
”BBC led Trusted News Initiative” I expect this in Russia or China not the UK ….why are our MPs not fighting against this, we fund them for gods sake
February 6, 2023
Off topic, I wonder if anybody can make sense of this:
https://www.irishtimes.com/world/europe/2023/02/06/eu-and-uk-making-progress-in-ni-protocol-talks-says-commission/
âWeâve been proposing so-called express lanes for the goods which are to stay in Northern Ireland which have no risk at making it to the EU single marketâ
in view of this:
https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/eu-exit-and-northern-ireland-protocol
“As a result of the protocol, NI has in effect remained in the EU’s single market for goods”
February 6, 2023
Dennis.
Must not upset the EU when we were in it, must not upset the EU, when in theory we are out.
In short our Government have given up on being patriotic and putting the UK first, on almost anything other than Net Zero.
We are being led by absolute fools, for goodness sake they cannot now even agree on the status/description of a woman, let alone understand economics and the cost of regulation.
We even had a Chancellor who could not fill in one of his own tax forms correctly !.
February 6, 2023
Denis.. As far as I can make out the green channel will be for consumable type goods like food stuffs and meducine for the supermarkets etc that will come from GB to NI and will be in amounts sufficient for NI needs only.
It is probably planned that there will be little enough left over after the NI retailers finish selling to be of any threat to the EU single market. A simple enough solution only thing is it took them so long to work this out.
February 6, 2023
As usual – totally concur.
But why in earth can’t the majority of Westminster understand this?
February 7, 2023
It is much like this and other places – A bubble. The trick is, to know when you are in it đ
ie MP’s need to step outside the bubble.
February 6, 2023
And now the Mrs Sturgeon and her cohorts are reported to be planning to ban the advertising of alcohol. The word âdementedâ doesnât adequately describe this proposal, given that whisky is one of Scotlands main products and supports the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people. Having substantially damaged the public education and health sectors they appear to be looking for additional opportunities to create chaos. They really do appear to have a fundamental ignorance of basic economic principles, i.e. good economics, as opposed to bad economics.
February 7, 2023
That is banning adverts in Scotland. Not England and the RoTW.
When it comes to the SNP, I find the best policy is to leave them to it and let them hang themselves.
February 6, 2023
âThese policies do not succeed in cutting total world output of Carbon dioxideâ
I donât think theyâre intended to. Net Zero is about bringing down the developed economies. âLevelling upâ the rest of the world, you might say.
February 6, 2023
What a bleak picture you paint. Why do politicians treat their voters with such contempt? It didn’t have to be this way, they should be ashamed about what they have done to our beautiful country.
February 6, 2023
As a landlord of many years I’ve always provided good housing at a fair price. It is now becoming financially unviable to remain in the sector. The risk is too great and the stupid legislation coming in in a few year whereby properties have to meet high EPC ratings will kill off the private landlords, reduce supply and leave many people on the street. All to satisfy politicians desire to reach their impossible net zero targets. This isn’t going to end well and politicians need to look at history to see where this will go.
February 7, 2023
Your properties will be gobbled up by the likes of Serco to house ‘others’ who we all know should not be here, having their rents paid by the tax payer just like their hotel bills are.
Sorry, Christine but I think that is the plan.
February 6, 2023
âGovernments of the centre right as of the left have come to accept and recommend a whole range of interventions in the marketplace which do harm for the best of reasons.â
The problem is that those who govern us (whoever they may be as I no longer know who it is) all believe they are King Cnut when it comes to climate change and Net Zero since they clearly believe they can defy the laws of physics.
February 6, 2023
Net zero’ is the new definition of insanity alongside the fanatical and religious following of those dire economic models which continually fail to predict the true course and the final results. Yet they still are relied upon to dictate future policy? Definitely a Double Duh!
So, is the country now run by the unelected self-centred Mandarins of Whitehall or by those we actually vote in to do the job they are all well paid for? Precisely who is responsible?
Our elected representatives MUST get a real solid grip now before those back room self-servers bring us all down.
Something definitely is rotten in the state of OUR country and the problem lies with those people, whoever they are.
February 6, 2023
What does the Ethics Adviser think about a Governor of the Bank of England not telling a Chancellor of the Exchequer about LDI just before a Growth Statement?
February 6, 2023
Wait a minute, shouldnât we expect a Chancellor to know about Liability-Driven Investments and their role in defined benefit pensions? Shouldnât we expect a PPEconomics graduate and a PhD in economic history to have some inklings about those thingies? Shouldnât we have expected the PM and Chancellor to keep the Treasury Permanent Secretary and have around them economists trying to do politics instead of political aides trying to do economics? Shouldnât we have expected the âsummitiesâ at the IEA, TPA and ASI to have told the PM and Chancellor about LDIs? Shouldnât we have expected the PM and Chancellor to require an independent assessment of their tax-cutting plans?
February 7, 2023
No, the Pensions Regulator’s responsibility is to regulate work-based pension schemes. The Bank of England’s job is the stability of financial markets, and the Chancellor has little power over these arms-length bodies. It is both his and Parliament’s responsibility to scrutinise their work. Even after the event, little of this has happened, with Sir John being the notable exception.
February 7, 2023
Perhaps this article may answer your questions:
https://capx.co/did-liz-truss-really-cause-the-bond-market-rout/
February 7, 2023
Your opening sentence Sir John. Your Party is no longer ‘Centre Right’. It is almost as far Left as Starmer’s lot.
Of course State Intervention does more harm than good.