More investment

The Chancellor needs to look to the investment figures. They are likely to decline this year. A hard pounding from windfall taxes and price controls to be followed by a 31% rise in business tax should push investment down and put big companies off investing here.

Yet  what we need is a surge in new investment to raise more capacity.

We need more domestic oil and gas. There is plenty to get out, saving imports and cutting CO 2 but high and erratic taxes and regulatory enthusiasm for imports over domestic is costing us dear.

We need more transport capacity. Crowded roads and poor junctions need alleviating with more bypasses and freer flowing main routes. Rail investment is dominated by an ill  judged HS2 which is cost and no benefit this decade. We need more local and de bottlenecking  improvements along with digital signals to raise capacity.

We need more steel capacity as we keep closing plants thanks to overtaxation

We need to grow more of our own sustainable timber

We need to put in more market garden all weather growing capacity. instead we offer wilding grants to stop farming.

We need more electricity generating capacity from reliable sources. Where are the contracts for Small Nuclear reactors? Where the new combined cycle gas stations to keep the lights on when there is no wind?

We need more reservoirs  to meet the demands of rising population

We need more grid capacity to convey wind power from Scotland to users

We need more ship and aircraft building capacity to meet defence and civilian needs

We need to rebuild our fishing fleet

Much of this can and should be done with private capital. To do it we need lower and stable tax rates. With it we will receive more revenue.

A few more complex corporation tax offsets will not fix this. It needs commitment to low and stable tax rates to grow the taxable capacity. On current policies businesses taxes will shrink.

 

136 Comments

  1. Wanderer
    March 4, 2023

    Is the government deliberately trying to make things worse because it knows it will lose the next election? If so, what’s the point? Labour will waste no time desrtoying whatever remains.

    1. Cuibono
      March 4, 2023

      +1
      If we take it that there is actually only one political party
liblabconkip (+ Reform) then it doesn’t really matter to the politicians.
      They are all actually marching to a totally different drumbeat..The Agenda.
      So we are diverted by the theatre of fake politics while the huge crushing machine of globalism rumbles on, more or less unnoticed by most until now.

    2. PeteB
      March 4, 2023

      Wander, I do wonder if Government intention is a scortched-earth plan giving Labour no chance. If so objective achieved and get on with a snap election now.

      As for Sir J’s list, in the past capitalism always worked pretty well to meet demand at the best price. Perhaps a bit LESS government meddling would help?

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 4, 2023

      Most large businesses – and many smaller ones – are international.

      You and your brexit have made this country highly unattractive to them, by denying them unfettered access to an enormous market right on our doorstep..

      Oh, except for – despite your best efforts – Northern Ireland, but even then they’d still far rather the Republic.

      1. Mike Wilson
        March 4, 2023

        You and your brexit have made this country highly unattractive to them, by denying them unfettered access to an enormous market right on our doorstep..

        I know you believe this but you’re wrong. Name a major manufacturer in the EU and I’ll tell you where their factory in China is. That is where the investment is going. In 10 years time most new cars will have been made in China. They are galloping ahead with electric cars.

        1. hefner
          March 4, 2023

          MW, ‘I’ll tell you where their factory in China is’: rather dumb comment as EU manufacturing companies being often multinationals usually have several factories, but go ahead: what about Peugeot, Renault, Michelin, Alstom, Vinci, Saint-Gobain, AirLiquide, Airbus, Safran 


      2. MFD
        March 4, 2023

        I think NLH you need to watch the news on Ulster very closely over the next period. It will prove your deluded idea that the loyalists approve of the Republic are wrong

    4. Ian wragg
      March 4, 2023

      It’s making things worse so it can take us back into the EU.
      It must be seen as a failure so as to put the agenda back on track
      The Windsor Agreement is the latest step on nullifying Brexit.
      The Sue Gray debacle should answer everything.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        March 4, 2023

        There’s literally no way that it can help being seen as a failure, and in many more respects than mere economics.

      2. Donna
        March 4, 2023

        Sunak could delay Gray’s appointment for up to 2 years. Will he? I doubt it. He seems to be working in lockstep with Starmer.

    5. Original Richard
      March 4, 2023

      Wanderer :

      Agreed.

      This is certainly the impression I get from reading Mission Zero – a review of the Net Zero Strategy.

    6. Ashley
      March 4, 2023

      This could be the plan. The foolish John Major threw his second election by failing to even apologise for his disastrous and predictable ERM fiasco and his EUphile stupidity) but he left a reasonable economy to Blair/Brown and the Tories. They did not get back into power for 3 terms and only then as Libdem a coalition.

      The problem for the Tories now is they have so much to apologise for. Sunak’s inflation caused by his mad money printing, vast government waste, huge tax and regulatory increases, botched Brexit, incompetence in dealing with Covid (the absurd lock down, test and trace, banning good treatments, NHS negligence, closing schools, the net harm vaccinations (certainly for people under about 60), eat out to help out… so what exactly have the Tories got right? But we all know Labour would have been and will be even worse. They will slowly waste and destroy Brexit (as Sunak is doing)

      1. Ashley
        March 4, 2023

        Also deliberately putting people who were having moderate breathing difficulties on end of life drugs like Midazolam & Morphine (as advised by NICE).

      2. Lynn Atkinson
        March 4, 2023

        Mrs Thatcher won the first ‘Major’ election. Major himself only ever lost.

    7. MFD
      March 4, 2023

      +1

  2. Javelin
    March 4, 2023

    Does Government actually worry about anything other than the public perception ?

    For example for me Matt Hancock’s What’s App messages cause me great concern that he isn’t seriously discussing the vaccine, medicines, the actual threshold of age, weight and comorbities that make the virus a risk etc.

    You could say that most of the text has not been published but seriously, the issues I just mentioned should form 90% of the text. These messages show Government ministers and the civil servants and spin doctors are just not focused on the public’s needs and the actualite of the situation.

    1. R.Grange
      March 4, 2023

      The Hancock files show that a senior government minister was pursuing policies that ran counter to good sense and counter to mounting evidence that the policies were harmful. The exchange between him and Gavin Williamson was particularly revealing. They confirm that with Johnson’s government the wreckers were in charge. It is no surprise to see Sir John today imploring Sunak and co. to favour investment growth, as a Conservative government should surely do, and not need to be told to do. But this government clearly has other plans for us. As before, the plan is to wreck, not to build. To weaken the country’s energy infrastructure that uses reliable energy sources and to subsidise the sources that can’t be relied on. To weaken our agricultural production by turning fields over to weeds and scrub (‘wilding’). To weaken our borders and divert resources into surveillance of the population rather than strengthening our military and the defence of the realm. Wherever you look, you see evidence that the government is taking a wrecking ball to the nation we grew up in. To accuse them of incompetence would be to place a favourable interpretation on the harm they are doing.

      1. PeteB
        March 4, 2023

        Agreed R. Hancock pursued policies that MIGHT reduce pressure on his departhment (Health), knowing they would be very damadging to the education of millions. No grasp of the bigger picture.

        That said, the media at the time backed him up and demanded more and more restrictions. How about a bit more admission of fault from the press?

        1. Bill B.
          March 4, 2023

          Well, Pete, let’s be fair – the press were doing the job they were paid to do. Paid millions of our money to keep us in line.

          If you hire people to do a job, you would expect the same, wouldn’t you?

          Of course, that meant the end of the legacy media as sources of reliable information, but do our rulers want us to enjoy objective sources of information?

      2. Wanderer
        March 4, 2023

        RG well said. Sadly for us there are very few “old fashioned” politicians left. Most of our host’s colleagues clearly don’t care about our country and its people, and many seem to loathe and despise us.

        I find it puzzling that no new grassroots party emerges to effectively raise standards .

        1. Clough
          March 4, 2023

          I would have thought Reform UK is grassroots, Wanderer, and I think it would raise standards if it could get into office. If you listen to Richard Tice’s recent interview with Julia Hartley-Brewer on the disgraceful goings-on revealed by the ‘lockdown files’, you’ll hear him trying to get back to the sort of principles that we want politicians to adhere to. Of course, the first-past-the-post system makes it difficult in an election, but Reform UK will be working within that system to influence politics as best it can. I will vote for them, and do my bit to help the campaign, unless and until I see a Conservative party reconnecting with its proper ethos, and ditching globalism, wokery, and climatist magical thinking.

      3. Original Richard
        March 4, 2023

        R. Grange.

        Agreed.

    2. Cuibono
      March 4, 2023

      The whole “scandal” is probably a distraction.
      You rightly say that it is the things NOT mentioned that are important.
      They don’t seem to be talking much about Midazolam do they?
      Our crass politicians actually think they would make good magicians.
      Also makes me wonder about Reform!!

    3. Ashley
      March 4, 2023

      Indeed they even had people on the government’s payroll Neil O’Brian types with PPE degree (trying to trash the sensible Barrington Declaration people and others who pointed out the total insanity of the Government’s absurd and incompetent COVID over reaction.

      Poor Boris being attacked by the committee for perhaps being a little economical with l’actualitĂ©. Has this committee investigated Sunak and his claims for his appalling Windsor Knot agreement. That was certainly a huge distortion of the actualitĂ©. Sunak surely must know this too.

  3. turboterrier
    March 4, 2023

    We need more real determination to address the horrendous waste by government and within the civil and public services.
    If investors perceive us as efficient and effective as a nation they might be prepared to put their money into the country.

  4. Mary Walker
    March 4, 2023

    We know what we need and many people are saying this but what is the government doing about it.?Anyone can say what we need (as labour regularly do) but action is needed to ensure that things are put in place.
    Many people are sick and tired of all the background ‘goings on’ which are detracting from the important work of government.
    All ministers should be fully dedicated to working for the wellbeing of their constituents and country. Life is very difficult for many people at the moment. This will, in turn, affect elections in the future.

    1. turboterrier
      March 4, 2023

      Mary Walker
      What we really, really need is a new breed of politicians that are experienced, qualified, business oriented with real life experiences and common sense. Not career only politicians like a lot seem to be now.

      1. Chickpea
        March 4, 2023

        If only 


  5. Mark B
    March 4, 2023

    Good morning.

    Everything you list, Sir John the government is working hard to destroy.

    When ULEZ comes into force, people will be driven off the roads. It will also drive up costs of home deliveries and put further downward pressure on the economy as people reign in their spending. Much better to keep it in savings and get some interest on it to offset the rising costs of everything.

    My phone bill has risen be nearly 20%. Still quite affordable and necessary in this highly connected world where we need the damned things for an ever increasing amount of business. All for the sake of convenience, but at a rising cost.

    I am not looking forward to my Council Tax Bill and the inevitable inflation busting Mayor Khan’s *Precept. It was 12% rise last year, so God knows how much this 21st Century ‘Robber Baron’ is going to demand.

    I often say less is more, but in the context of the above I guess it means, less for me and more for the State.

    * Meaning – A direction or order issued by an authority; a writ, command, or process.

  6. turboterrier
    March 4, 2023

    We need to stop the tens of thousands ilegal immigrants entering this country costing the taxpayers millions. We do not need more low skilled Shirkers working short hours, low paid claiming top up benefits.
    We need to stop all this Net Zero rubbish and concentrate on saving this country and not pontificating on the world stages lecturing others on what is and is not best for them.

    1. Cheshire Girl
      March 4, 2023

      Turbo Terrier:

      I agree 1000%.
      I could say more, but its all been said before, on this site, and by the general public. I despair.

    2. Dave Andrews
      March 4, 2023

      You say that and then you’re branded a racist. Yet that really needs to be the agenda. The water companies can’t cope with the human waste already going down the drains, the country doesn’t grow enough food to feed the population. I’m not sure about the CO2 crisis, but pollution in its wider sense is a real issue that can be addressed in this country by reducing numbers.
      I understand there’s a demographic problem, with rising numbers in retirement needing care and to support the National Debt interest burden, but this is a problem the country needs to solve with the people already here.

      1. a-tracy
        March 4, 2023

        The numbers in retirement have dropped. There are peak birth years so there will be peak death years, they are easily mapped out if you look at the stats and average age of death. Previous spikes in deaths before covid were just covered up quietly and put down to seasonal flu with an ineffective flu jab that year.

    3. Original Richard
      March 4, 2023

      turboterrier ;

      Agreed.

  7. Peter
    March 4, 2023

    Unfortunately globalists like Hunt do not think in terms of a well-run, independent nation state.

    So those are not his needs.

    He will act along WEF lines.

    1. a-tracy
      March 4, 2023

      Have you noticed how Hunt and Sunak are given an easy ride by the UK press. Just as Biden was granted after Trump. Boris was in the papers every day with his private life, his children, ex-partners trawled over in the most unedifying fashion, yet Hunt and Sunak (schtum) a free pass because they’re doing as they’re told.

  8. Cuibono
    March 4, 2023

    We need to “take back control”.
    And there’s us about to submit again to the will of the WHO!
    Apparently this latest power grab isn’t a new thing
it is what was irrevocably signed up to in 2005.
    A new clause, to which we must agree, tacked onto the agreement.

    1. Cuibono
      March 4, 2023

      Actually, it seems we have been signing up to these international health things since 1948!
      They appear to just keep adding new clauses.

  9. Cuibono
    March 4, 2023

    In the past traffic has always expanded to fill new by-passes ( which destroy habitat and greenery).
    What town centres will be left to by-pass?
    How many cars will actually survive this reset?

    1. a-tracy
      March 4, 2023

      They want us union workforce dependent to control us and keep us in our 15 minute bubble areas, buses that can just be cut for a month and are now being removed. The government paid for new eco buses for new routes in my town, the company swiftly moved them to their city routes and we got their old stinky double deckers and on their last leg buses, now they are withdrawing all services without a by your leave yet the council are still allowing THEM to cherry pick what they’ll do, its a joke and we’re going to be forced into dependence on these power houses.

      A return basic ticket to London mid-week off peak was ÂŁ116 per person plus ÂŁ24 parking at the station for 30 hours (no buses off peak), plus ÂŁ7 each for tube tickets ÂŁ147 for a day trip to London from Crewe. This is supposed to be our future to look forward to and the train was late. On the way back the train before ours was just cancelled out right with a minimum hours wait if they could get on! The service is rubbish. Bring back virgin.

      1. Cuibono
        March 4, 2023

        +many
        100% sympathise and agree!

    2. Mickey Taking
      March 4, 2023

      Local Councils are doing a first rate job killing off town centres. Who wants to drive anywhere near them?

  10. turboterrier
    March 4, 2023

    We need to get the low risk prisoners languishing in jail organised into a massive workforce to pick up the tons of litter covering every verge in and around our villages towns and cities. Painting the road markings anything else that gives the impression of a clean caring environment instead of a vast rubbish tip. Something that will set an impression on investors driving to their hotels and meetings. Like it or not it is all part of a sales presentation, unless your trying to present an atmosphere of being in a third world country.

    1. a-tracy
      March 4, 2023

      4 days ago — Prisoners may have to be released early, Dominic Raab has been warned as jails are set to hit capacity. Telegraph.

      30 May 2019 — Some offenders have been released far too early from jails, potentially to save money, says a former Met Police Commissioner.

      Free to cause mayhem, we should keep them busy picking fruit for a spell, empty usual accommodation, paying for their own keep, it is felt they are safe enough to be amongst us so they should pay for their crime instead of just getting a free pass.

    2. Original Richard
      March 4, 2023

      turboterrier ;

      A good idea but not using prisoners who should be kept locked up.

      We should bring back conscription, this time for all young people. Not military conscription, although this can be included for those who wish, but primarily civil conscription. This would provide the workforce you seek for the benefit of our country and society but far more importantly it would be of enormous benefit to the conscripts themselves. Firstly they would be out of the clutches of the Marxist educational system and could be earning money whilst learning useful skills for future regular employment. Furthermore it would enhance social cohesion by bringing together different communities in pursuit of improving the environment and the lives of the inhabitants of our country.

  11. turboterrier
    March 4, 2023

    We need to urgently get rid of all this Woke Crap and its associated parts that is doing so much damage to people’s lives. It is costing millions and for what?

    1. John Waugh
      March 4, 2023

      This quote popped up –
      “Tolerance will reach such a level that intelligent people will be banned from thinking so as not to offend the
      imbeciles “
      FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY .

  12. Anselm
    March 4, 2023

    The eight most dangerous words:
    “I’m from the government, I’m here to help.”
    Fair go, though, the government has stood up to the Unions with their middle class members and inflation is being kept under control. Also we are paying off the massive debt. Labour will do none of this, in fact quite the opposite.
    Why is population growing, by the way? White British birth rate (including 1/4 million abortions per annum) is well below par. The White British population is in fact shrinking.

    1. Mike Wilson
      March 4, 2023

      Why is the population growing? That’s an easy one to answer. Because the people that run this country admit 300,000 people (on average) every year. No-one asked them to do this. We have a housing ‘crisis’ but, apparently, more people is the answer to every problem.

  13. DOM
    March 4, 2023

    I’m more interested in what Sir John deliberately ignores for political convenience rather than what it chooses to focus upon

    1. Timaction
      March 4, 2023

      Indeed. No mention of mass immigration policy, therefore 7 million on NHS waiting lists, no school places, dentists, Doctors appointments. However plenty of congestion, potholes, minimum wage workers paid top up benefits by the 46%. A truly awful Government. We need radical Reform.

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      March 4, 2023

      Sir John is not an “it”.

  14. Richard1
    March 4, 2023

    All sensible suggestions but pretty much all run into the net zero wall. We need more roads and we don’t need hs2 but green orthodoxy says cars are bad and rail is good. Steel plants are closing because net zero policy makes energy in the UK far more expensive than elsewhere. Imports of energy are favoured over domestic production as imports don’t count towards net zero targets. On this mendacious obfuscation Greta Thunberg is exactly right.

    But let’s keep in mind our possible winning slogan for the next election: ‘watch out, Labour would be slightly worse!’

    1. Richard1
      March 4, 2023

      Actually to be fair Labour would be much worse

      1. Mickey Taking
        March 4, 2023

        well, we are going to find out for sure.

    2. a-tracy
      March 4, 2023

      Slightly worse, have you been listening to them.

      Dropping inheritance tax thresholds from ÂŁ325k to ÂŁ150k per person renamed a lifetime gift tax some say ÂŁ125k.

      Raise income tax for people earning £80,000 or more, with a new “super-rich rate” for people earning £125,000 (These people already pay a super tax of 62% so they should listen out.)

      New increased higher rate tax of 50%.

      A change to proportional property tax is that it would hit the asset rich and cash poor, who live in valuable homes but don’t have much income. Yet in reality this would not have to be the case. For anyone unable to pay this increased cost there would be a deferral mechanism until point of sale, on a low interest rate.

      Women in their 50s are the fastest growing group in the workforce, but they face significant pressures, and many are managing their menopause symptoms while holding down a job, caring for elderly parents and supporting their own children. A menopause plan for employers to allow paid time off work whenever they feel low or need time off.

      Labour claim to want to inspire and for people to do well, but if you do, they want to take it all off you to give away to their selected chosen groups.

  15. BOF
    March 4, 2023

    We need all that, quite right. But we will not get it with the usurper WHO trained globalists in charge. The agenda it seems is to run the UK into the ground before we once again join the Single Market.

    This government is preparing the way for Labour.

    1. Chickpea
      March 4, 2023

      I think you are right because there’s no other explanation for the ridiculous decisions but we can’t let them get away with it. I keep reminding myself that all of the EU europhiles lost their seats in the last General Election.

  16. JayGee
    March 4, 2023

    We need? We need? We need? We all know what we need. We need 650 Members of Parliament able and willing to stop fannying about, able and willing to listen to the constituents they are supposed to represent, rather than persuing their own vested interests and obsessions. We need a government that knows how to govern rather than posturing, lying and trying to convince us they are fit for purpose when they demonstrate on a daily basis that they are not fit for purpose. That’s what we need.

    1. IanT
      March 4, 2023

      Very true JayGee. I read Sir John’s words and strongly agree with him but I was also deeply depressed by the sure knowledge that most of it will never happen. It often seems that all common sense and self-belief has disappeared from public life, to be replaced by a grim deterimination to bury ourselves. “Managed Decline” I’ve heard it called, I prefer to think of it as a diease. An infection of the national soul that has gripped our political and business classes. It eats away at confidence and vision. We can all see what needs to be done but our Leaders seem hell bent on doing the complete opposite. They obsess over Climate Change, Gender, Equality, Race, whilst ignoring the simple essentials of peoples of well being. Physical security, food, warmth and shelter are real needs that “Being Kind” just doesn’t do. They’ve devalued our currency, created a housing crisis and saddled us with huge public debt. They’ve grown unaccountable, unmanagable and unaffordable public services that will eventually collapse under their own weight. Could they fix these things is the wrong question. Will they fix these things is a better one – and the answer unfortunately is No, they will not.

  17. Donna
    March 4, 2023

    We are not going to be allowed to develop energy or food security.
    We are not going to be allowed to encourage investment with low taxes.
    We are not going to be allowed to deviate from the Net Zero lunacy (which is why we have almost no steel-making capacity and many energy-intensive industries are being exported).
    We are not going to be allowed to compete with the EU by having lower taxes, and we are being forced to remain aligned with, and become increasingly inter-dependent, with our “friends” over the channel, because that’s what the Globalists want.

    That’s the whole point of Sunak’s NI “deal” which will be enshrined in International Law, with no get-out clause. It’s to permanently hobble the UK.

    Hunt, arch Remainer, is going to do nothing to stop it. Which is what Sir John is calling for in today’s Diary Entry.

    And neither will most of the MPs in the Not-a-Conservative-Party.

    1. Original Richard
      March 4, 2023

      Donna :

      Agreed

    2. BOF
      March 4, 2023

      Yes Donna, and our MP is one of those. Tragic.

    3. glen cullen
      March 4, 2023

      We are not …under this government

  18. Sharon
    March 4, 2023

    Rather a lot of reader comments think this destruction is deliberate!
    It would seem that some of past treaties etc signed up to years ago are beginning to bite us now. So it is deliberate!

    1. Mike Wilson
      March 4, 2023

      You need to remember that when reading the comments on this site you are reading the comments of about 20 people who all think pretty much the same things. Nottingham matey excepted. It isn’t ‘the voice of the nation’.

  19. Cuibono
    March 4, 2023

    Oh well, we don’t really need to bother about anything.
    They intend to keep us cold without medical or dental care.
    They intend to ( and are so doing) obliterate farming.
    They want to get rid of co2, which we need.
    And they are now trying to deflect the heat of the sun again. (A long term plan).
    Never mind jabbing us.
    We don’t have much time left.

  20. Sea_Warrior
    March 4, 2023

    If ‘We need more reservoirs to meet the demands of rising population’ then we need to stop increasing the population – not submerge scarce land. Immigration-fuelled population growth has to end, now,.
    P.S. I listened to Thames Water’s CEO on R5L this weekend. She spoke proudly of how her company – much of it owned by China – was ‘investing’ in ‘social tariffs’. Let me translate: many of her customers can’t afford the modest water charges, so she’ll have other customers subsidise them.

    1. Timaction
      March 4, 2023

      Social charges= socialism. The 46% subsidising the 54% and I’m frankly sick of it from the Consocialists.

      1. glen cullen
        March 5, 2023

        The Tories just love social engineering ….ULEZ…..Subsidy…..Green

    2. Mike Wilson
      March 4, 2023

      Scarce land? Not where I live. Acres of countryside doing nothing but growing grass to feed sheep and cattle. Terrible unproductive use of land – but there is plenty of land about. Only about 5% of the UK is built on – including housing, industry, roads, railways etc.

  21. Berkshire Alan
    March 4, 2023

    All been said many times before JR, but afraid those who are in charge either do not want to listen, or do not understand that private enterprise pays for all government spending with their tax payments.
    Less private enterprise less tax to spend, less employment etc etc etc.

    1. a-tracy
      March 4, 2023

      They want failure Alan, this February shoots of recovery won’t do. Come April the brakes will be sharply applied.

  22. John McDonald
    March 4, 2023

    Sir John, no one would disagree what needs to be done, but how. The first obvious thing preventing what you propose is it does not fit the Globalist agenda. It is Nationalist thinking, that is a self sustaining country.
    PREVENT may even class this as a right wing tendency to be monitored😊
    Secondly who are the likely investors, how many would be UK based ?
    Thirdly who is likely to invest in a country at war with Russia ?
    Not sure if we are selling all our defence capability or giving it away.
    Perhaps we could do a reverse Mrs T and sell the State. We could buy UK investment shares to raise some cash.

  23. Old Albion
    March 4, 2023

    Sir John, every issue you have highlighted today has it’s roots in either. Green lunacy, 40 years of EU membership or mass uncontrolled immigration.
    Do something about them.

    1. Bloke
      March 4, 2023

      Avoiding the immense increase in population that has occurred during the last 20 years alone would have prevented virtually all the needs listed from occurring. Reducing business taxes is important to include.

      1. Timaction
        March 4, 2023

        Mostly under the Consocialists.

  24. Des
    March 4, 2023

    Absolutely none of those things will happen because it doesn’t fit the lunatic net zero agenda.

  25. Mickey Taking
    March 4, 2023

    Most observers with half a brain know we continue to go through a period of sustained carpet bombing of logic and commonsense regarding everything fiscal or economic. This attack on the prosperity and living standards of the people is designed to reduce our nation to what is termed ‘third world’. For many we believe that objective has been achived and often surpassed. What hope for turnaround is there?

  26. agricola
    March 4, 2023

    Yes to all those things, but first you must put out all the decoys before the birds fly in. For decoys read a sensible none punative tax regime. A tax regime that does not drive the enterprising away. Were I a 30 year old in the UK I would already have bought my ticket.

  27. Bloke
    March 4, 2023

    If the Reform Party would make a better Government, many of the needs listed would be in their current manifesto.

  28. MPC
    March 4, 2023

    Your long list of what the country needs and will not get is the fault entirely of the Conservative Party in government which is no longer a bulwark against damaging collectivism. Jeremy Hunt has already said there’ll be no tax cuts forthcoming so I am not sure why you keep calling for them. The Tories have adopted windfall taxation, to be firmly entrenched under the Labour government to come. Labour has already made explicit that windfall taxes on ‘excess profits’ are for them a planned instrument of policy. Excess profit is a matter of opinion and we can expect it to be applied to more sectors than fossil fuelled energy. We must never forget that our current woes are entirely the fault of Conservative governments, as we try to protect our own interests as best we can and hope that the destruction in train and to come does not mimic Venezuela in all aspects.

  29. David
    March 4, 2023

    Sir J, you need to form a Conservative party.

    The governments well planned decline of the UK continues, Labour will accelerate the process. Our membership of the eu has left us with a State that cannot run the country without getting edicts from above. At the next general election I will probably spoil my vote. If Labour get in, so be it, one lot of socialists will follow another.

    1. Hugh C
      March 4, 2023

      Thank you for cutting to the chase. We need a new party with more chance of success than Reform. And we need it now!

  30. Kenneth
    March 4, 2023

    I agree with everything Sir John says.

    The problem is that the civil service is running a Labour government in preparation for the Starmer regime.

  31. Ian B
    March 4, 2023

    This anti-UK Conservative Government, doesn’t invest. Investing implies spending money to create a future, preferably with a reinvestable return.

    This anti-UK Conservative Government, give the taxpayers money away, doesn’t ask for a return or attack accountability to the money handed out.

    This anti-UK Conservative Government, also piles a lot of taxpayer money into handouts, grants and subsidies to address the situations they have created that distort and punish with their corrupt failing tax system.

    This anti-UK Conservative Government, in simply terms refuses to manage, refuses to do the job we empower them and pay them to do.

  32. Alan Paul Joyce
    March 4, 2023

    Dear Mr. Redwood,

    I have said before that it seems there is hardly any aspect of your government’s policy you now agree with. Some readers of your blog say you should leave the Conservative Party for another home, perhaps the Reform Party. This is, of course, entirely up to you and I doubt you would ever even consider it. Indeed, you have urged your readers and voters to get behind the Conservatives and push for change from within and that is commendable. However, one thing is sure; you may not leave your party but it has certainly left you.

    1. David Brown
      March 4, 2023

      +1

    2. SM
      March 4, 2023

      +10

    3. Atlas
      March 4, 2023

      Well put Alan !

    4. Timaction
      March 4, 2023

      +1

  33. Ian B
    March 4, 2023

    The anti-UK Conservative Government, under Boris Johnson decided it would create a race to the bottom – they called it NET Zero.

    In essence it was a policy to destroy the UK on a non-existent premise and because he was the leader of the Conservative he could. The idea being was if you remove manufacturing from a Country you remove the Worlds CO2 output. Everyone knew that wasn’t true, it increases it exponentially CO2 output via imports. But, it was a great sound-bite to appeal to the entitled generation ‘Zee’

    Part of this destruction was to ban the internal combustion engine(ICE) by 2030. This is was without finding a viable replacement or creating the means to power the alternatives. This week in Euroland, the unelected unaccountable ‘bureaucrats’ decided they wanted some of the Socialist Boris Johnson magic dust, also made the a similar announcement but chose 2035. This the land of Greta Thunberg also wanted to cosy up to the uneducated gen ‘Zee’. Then the problem, 2 of Euroland’s major States Germany & Italy said take a hike we are not ‘trashing’ our economies for the sake of others vanity and ego.

  34. Ian B
    March 4, 2023

    “We need more ship and aircraft building capacity to meet defence and civilian needs” The anti-UK Conservative Government, lets pay the Spainish Government with UK taxpayer money to manufacture ships, brin them into the UK for final assembly – job done

    1. MFD
      March 4, 2023

      Yes Ian, disgusting isn’t it ! My suggestion is start obstructing all government plans, do your own thing. There are too many of us for the government to fight, we can defeat their plans!

  35. William Long
    March 4, 2023

    Our only hope of getting any of this is with a different Government, and to have any chance of getting one that agrees with you, we will have to go through the pain of a Labour one first. That however, will be little different from the horror we are enduring at the moment. The most constructive thing I think MPs of your mind can do, is to set the ball of progress rolling, by voting this Government out of office as quickly as you can.

  36. RDM
    March 4, 2023

    Well said!

    I wish 15th March Budget has many of them, as well as reform of IR35.

    I would say 15 March Budget is either the last chance, or close to it, for the Conservative Party too shape this country’s future prospects, going into and past, the next GE. But sadly, there is far to much focus on Net-Zero, Green Subsidies, and Imports (from the EU especially).

    I wish you come out on top, but I look at the Windsor Agreement, and unless there is some major amendments, it looks as if they have tried the UK (through NI) to EU levels of Excise Duty and VAT, and customs regulation?

    Could we, as a country, drop VAT, Fuel Duty, and de-regulate, with supply side reforms, the whole UK (including NI) market?

    Not too sure we can now, Sunak/Hunt are keeping alignment, as best they can (Do they have strings attached? Or, what do they know or believe, of the future of the UK. There comes a time when you will need to ask these questions?).

    I might be wrong, but we’ll see 15th March!

    BR

    RDM

  37. Donna
    March 4, 2023

    I’m not sure we actually need more reservoirs. There are plenty of inland lochs in Scotland plus lakes in the Lake District and Wales.

    What we DO need is a national water transfer system to bring water from areas where it is plentiful, to the drier and more heavily populated south.

    Still, it’s far more important to build a vanity trainset at huge cost which very few will ever use.

  38. Mickey Taking
    March 4, 2023

    OFF TOPIC
    So much for ethics, Consultants taking advantage of covering Junior Doctors reasonably wanting to be paid much higher.
    They are ‘all right Jack’.
    Consultants in England want at least three times their basic pay to provide emergency cover for junior doctors during this month’s three-day walkout. The demands have been described as unreasonable by NHS bosses as they try to plug the gaps in emergency care.
    The British Medical Association (BMA) is recommending its members ask for ÂŁ158 an hour to work during the day, rising to ÂŁ262 for night shifts. It said it was right to be paid more for work outside the normal contact.(sic)
    Consultants earn between ÂŁ88,000 and ÂŁ119,000 a year in basic pay – that works out at the equivalent of about ÂŁ42 to ÂŁ57 an hour in a 40-hour week. Although average pay is ÂŁ20,000 higher once extra payments for performance, night shifts and being on call is included.

  39. Ian B
    March 4, 2023

    There is much huffing and puffing in the media about the UK’s high tech industry being in talks to abandon the UK. In essence the US Government has create the ‘Chips and Science Act’ to provide $53 billion of taxpayer resources so the US can up its game and create a viable alternative to imports.

    This of course the opposite of this Conservative UK Government, were taxpayer money is given to foreign entities without and ‘ask’ or condition attached, just to keep the lights on in hope.

    The major caveat of the US Government offer is that to receive US Taxpayer money you must be as US Company based in the US. So changing domains warranted to stay in the race.

    The UK Conservative Government can’t even use UK taxpayer money to provide our own safety, security and resilience in basic energy needs. It uses UK Taxpayer money to fund the treasuries in foreign domains whilst denying the UK the use of its own resources. This is after 13 years of neglect by the Conservative Party, refusal to mange, refusal to do what the people it empowered and paid it to do. In 13 years it has refused to invest UK taxpayer money in UK Company energy projects.

    Don’t get me wrong I am an out and out Conservative, free market, encourage enterprise type, encourage and facilitate personal responsibility Conservative. I keep voting Conservative(our host my MP, being one of the pushed aside Conservatives there must be others) and I keep getting an out and out Socialist Government all ego and vanity somewhere left of the Labour Party

  40. Herebefore
    March 4, 2023

    We are not going to get the investment you speak of because there are too many loose ends, too many unknowns, too much uncertainty and waste, too much political infighting and not enough decency with honesty af the top – just look at Boris for example going round trying to wreck everything to his advantage – he cannot even look after his own personal appearance for heaven’s sake – so what chance then for looking after the country – even if he had half a chance.

    Investors are going to invest where there is stability with no surprises like in most of the EU countries, or like in Switzerland and Norway, places where you never see these countries names as headlines in newspapers. Places where people and business just get on with it in a quiet way instead of there always being intolerable non-stop quarrelling between themselves and then with the unions.

    More investment like FDI is not going to happen unless there are some big changes to attitudes here – changes that will have to start at the top – I believe Sunak is a good decent honourable man and has made a good start only problem he is surrounded by so many charlatans self serving chancers? and now how to sort that out.

  41. Keith Jones
    March 4, 2023

    Dear Sir John, the voting electorate I mix with would agree with you 100% and more. I am getting used to hearing “the UK is becoming a banana republic”. Our Consocialist MP has an over 20,000 majority. What would you suggest the electorate do at the next election?

  42. Cuibono
    March 4, 2023

    An ex-health minister has said that during the Great Period of Imprisonment the govt. was considering making us put down all our pets because “ for a moment there was a little bit of evidence” that cats could transmit the much-fabled covid. ( Remember the despicable cow cull?)
    Oh so that makes all the parties and fornication ok then does it?
    At least we spared your pets!
    The same mindset means we won’t get investment for growth. As with “money printing doesn’t lead to inflation” the magik idea is that growth ( at least for the west) is BAD and must be avoided.
    And the ninnies do as they are told!

    1. Mickey Taking
      March 5, 2023

      imprisoned unless you could walk a dog…suddenly all these people I didn’t know, hadn’t ever seen were walking past us.

  43. Stred
    March 4, 2023

    If the UK needs more investment, the first move would be to match the Corporation Tax of Eire. Start with NI and when the EU complains that we’re not playing fair, we say that we’re only evening up the island. Then reduce the rate in the rest of the UK to play fair over the rest of the islands.

    1. turboterrier
      March 4, 2023

      Stred
      Reduce all the taxes on British products to British people. This will build up demand and the British companies will have to expand more labour required, possible expansion of production areas, built by British Companies and increase in turnover for the Treasury to tax.

  44. David Cooper
    March 4, 2023

    At last, a politician correctly using the word “investment” to refer to the application of capital with a view to profit. All too often, those who purport to speak for the capitalist right use the term to mean spending, subsidising or squandering. The left, of course, do not use the word at all and merely refer to spending when they mean the other two s-words.

  45. Bert Young
    March 4, 2023

    Starving is no way to survive ; the body needs regular exercise to keep in good shape and to prepare for healthy living . Sadly , as things stand , the Government doesn’t seem to understand this , it is almost like pushing the body into an early paralysis . Stimulus is an important factor in life ; the economy must be moved out of its present stalemate .

  46. a-tracy
    March 4, 2023

    Most people work for their own security and their families prosperity. When building businesses you carry lots of people with you not just employees but all stakeholders. Years of wanting to improve and raise your game, years of only taking three weeks holiday including bank holidays, incremental gains over decades in education and ambition will all be for nowt if the plans to steal it at the end come to pass. Doctors stopping now in their 50’s will be nothing compared to the fallout and anger.

    Brexit will get the blame but when it can’t be blamed any longer where will the pointer come to rest. They’re very quick to point the finger and shout bigot, racist, discriminator but they do it all the time. Brexiteer, ultras, far-right to anyone that isn’t left. Why are we tolerating it. More to the point John what are you going to do about your colleagues that are letting all this freely pass.

  47. Bob Dixon
    March 4, 2023

    I am raising my prices as Corporation tax is going from 19% to 25%.
    I will not be looking to expand my business for the time being.

    1. a-tracy
      March 5, 2023

      You’ve got more than that to worry about Bob if you hire anyone, the NMW, NLW is going up 10%, pay differentials are already been requested by employees who already had an increase in September 2022. Dividend tax allowances dropped. You’ve got to make some profit first and thats getting harder and harder.

  48. MWB
    March 4, 2023

    You missed out:
    We need to stop immigration and get rid of many of those already here, especially those convicted of crimes.

  49. derek
    March 4, 2023

    POTUS Biden effectively told our then PM Truss that her policies were wrong. Ironically, the USA is now following them with great success leaving this country way behind.
    Is it now the time to copy the Americans who copied our rejected PM? If not things for the UK look very bleak indeed. Why is Downing Street so averse to innovation?

    1. rose
      March 4, 2023

      The Biden regime has been pursuing an aggressive policy of damage to other countries’ economies, hence the swift rise in interest rates. Trashing Miss Truss was very much part of that policy.

  50. rose
    March 4, 2023

    Has the Parliamentary Kangaroo Court rushed out its mid term report (Scott played the same trick and never apologised at the end) to distract our attention and prevent scrutiny on what the Usurper said about his capitulation and what the EU says about it? To prevent the NIP Bill from being salvaged?

    Who is actually misleading Parliament?

  51. , George Brooks.
    March 4, 2023

    This present bunch of ministers in the cabinet are bringing this country down to it’s knees and as you have so aptly pointed out, Sir John, they are doing a very good job of ruining the UK for many years to come.

    The globalists don’t want a successful country next door to the EU, they just want to control us, and their local rep’ Rishi is doing a pretty good job for them, ably assisted by Hunt. BTW, I wish someone would knock that smirk off his face every time a new or increased tax is announced.

  52. Keith from Leeds
    March 4, 2023

    Empty vessels make the most sound. That sums up Sunak’s Windsor deal with the EU. While the EU can control & make laws for Northern Ireland, with disputes settled by the ECJ, we are not a sovereign nation. We have not taken back control.
    To be blunt, Sir John, what you suggest is plain common sense, so why are you a lone voice crying in the wilderness? If you overtax people & companies, the economy stagnates! The evidence is there in the economy today, so why do the PM & Hunt not see it? The UK economy succeeds in spite of the government, not because of it, but it is becoming close to being ground down so much the only future is slow growth & contraction.

  53. glen cullen
    March 4, 2023

    ‘’ A shopping centre formerly known as one of the largest in Europe is now deserted with just a few shops open. Shopping City in Runcorn’’ Express 26th Feb 23

    1. glen cullen
      March 4, 2023

      ”Morton bakery, which employs around 250 people, wrote to staff saying people would be “laid off with immediate effect”. BBC reporting today
      You can’t invest in an environment of Net-Zero
      You can’t invest in an environment of High Taxation
      You can’t invest in an environment of High Energy Cost

      1. Mickey Taking
        March 5, 2023

        let them eat cake just became impossible in Glasgow.

    2. glen cullen
      March 4, 2023

      ‘’ Jaguar Land Rover is demanding half a billion pounds in Government subsidy aid to build a new battery plant in Britain’’ The Telegraphy
      If it’s a good idea get private investment
      If it’s a bad idea get government subsidy

  54. Ian B
    March 4, 2023

    Reading the MsM this morning a twist of the fresh food shortages came up. Some of the blame is placed directly on the big Supermarket chains creating unrealistic price demands on their supply chain producers. This is leading the producers to quite reasonable say what the point, and move in a different direction. They the Supermarkets with the acquiescence of Government have removed the supply and demand equation from the market place.

    I am reminded of when I used to live in an area that in those days was a fishing port (the days before the Conservative Government gave UK fish away – I have to keep reminding everyone how bad this Government is for the UK Economy), as a fishing port all fish landed had to be sold on the jetty, the market, it couldn’t be diverted elsewhere. Meaning all buyers had to bid for their supply, a free market in action. Back in present day, if all food produce had to be sold at Market the producers would then get paid the going rate for effort. Then we wouldn’t get the artificial shortages now experienced.

  55. forthurst
    March 4, 2023

    ARM Holdings which the Tories allowed to be purchased by a Japanese Hedge Fund is now going to list
    on the Nasdaq. Sunak invited the company to maintain a dual listing on the LSE which is now denuded of industrial and technology stocks as most have been sold off to foreign buyers already. The now American Chief Executive of ARM said no.
    A delegation of British chip-makers is in Washington to discuss moving their operations to the US.
    According to the telegraph, “The companies involved included IQE, Paragraf and Pragmatic Semiconductor, all vocal critics of Britain’s failure to develop a credible chip strategy.”
    Unlike other countries, the UK under the Tories does not have any credible strategy to ensure that technologies developed in this country stay in this country to grow and prosper and create the seed corn for future ventures.
    The Tories are simply unfit to govern our country with their ridiculous PPE degrees and the like. They have zero appreciation of the importance of science and technology to a modern economy. Their only .scientific. concern is
    saving the planet from CO2 by wreaking havoc on agriculture and industry and motorists. Idiots.

  56. agricola
    March 4, 2023

    From all the comment to date there is great disappointment in a conservative government that is no way Conservative. Whether there is sufficient realisation of this among the electorate is debatable. I can see no signs from among the Conservative’s roots in the country that they understand what has happened or have any inclination to do anything but calmly await their demise in 2024. The apparent indifference to the Windsor variant of the NIP suggests to me that they see the assault on the sovereignty of the UK as of no consequence. This is a mindset that carries a con/socialist majority in Parliament, and in my judgement is a first step to a reintegration with the EU. As of this moment the only option I can see is a much higher profile Reform party. By this I mean a party with much stronger financial backing, that through policy, can appeal to all those of enterprise who would prefer to see their future in fhe UK. Well they have the policies and no names no pack drill, they have one solid voice in the media. It would be good to see, at strategic points in time, that they are joined by high profile real Conservatives, who their own party see as irritants, or melanomas on their con/socialism. The next eighteen months is a critical time for the UK.

    1. Paul Cuthbertson
      March 4, 2023

      The majority of the UK populace are STILL asleep and that is what the Globalist WEF UK Establishment government rely on.

      1. glen cullen
        March 5, 2023

        And full compliance of the UK politicians, media and academia

  57. Mike Wilson
    March 4, 2023

    Mr. Redwood – I think you will lose your seat at the next election. Why not go out with a bang and really take YOUR government to task over mass immigration, illegal immigration and the economy. This web site and the occasional interview on GB News has no affect. Standing up in Parliament and telling YOUR leaders that ‘the people of this country want the boat crossings stopped and the millions spent on hotels spent on something for THEIR benefit. After all, THEY pay the taxes you are spending like a drunken sailor.
    Reply I have often made the case to stop the small boats and am pressing the govt for action

    1. hefner
      March 4, 2023

      I don’t think Sir John will lose his seat. The changes that the Boundary Commission has made to the Wokingham constituency are such that some of the wards where LibDems have been dominant in local elections are moving to a new constituency. If anything Sir John might even increase his percentage majority.
      windsorobserver.co.uk, 12/06/2021, ‘MP area boundary changes 2021: what they mean for Berkshire’.

    2. Mickey Taking
      March 4, 2023

      I don’t want the Tories re-elected as they have been a disaster for 3 Governments in succession.
      However, we in Wokingham, if sense prevails, will know that we cannot find anyone better to serve the constituency.
      With luck Sir John will come to know the nature of the people he has loyally supported and when seats arise after a shambles continuing with Labour he just might announce Independent or then fight somewhere for Reform.

  58. Lindsay McDougall
    March 4, 2023

    Seriously, how much would it cost the exchequer if we slashed the corporation tax rate to match match that of the Republic of Ireland? That alone would favour business and investment in UK. I think that the Chancellor needs to make a realistic assessment of the effects of fiscal drag (high in times of inflation while the tax thresholds are frozen) and Laffer curve effects. The OBR are meant to include these effects in their forecasts; if they don’t, sack them.

  59. Mickey Taking
    March 4, 2023

    We should all ‘bookmark’ today 4th March 2023 ‘More Investment’.
    Possibly Copy/Paste to somewhere you can refer to? I just did.
    Then as we approach GE voting we can ask questions about it, produce a score card and vote accordingly.

  60. PETER BOYES
    March 4, 2023

    Good God SIR JOHN

    What we really need is for you to be Chancellor

    Peter

    1. glen cullen
      March 5, 2023

      He could be the parliamentary leader of the Reform Party 
and the next PM /Chancellor, there’s still time for change. think big!

  61. Blazes
    March 4, 2023

    Sir John spells it all out with what “we need” but if he cannot get enough support for action now while sitting with the government on the front benches then what chance when he is sitting in opposition on the back back benches in two years time? None.

    Then somebody please tell me it’s not true that Donaldson of the DUP is planning to vote against the the new windsor framework agreement – apparently the DUP people based in London namely Wilson Dodds etc and some ERG have calculated it will be better for Unionists to have direct rule for NI from London instead of by asembly in Belfast? as if that is going to change anything in the overall context. It seems they are determined to keep NI on the boil rather than share power – little chance then for more investment – mad stuff

  62. APL
    March 4, 2023

    JR: “The Chancellor needs to look to the investment figures. ”

    Yes he should. But as an MP you are not excluded from opprobrium and accusations of incompetence. You have after all, had a hand in running the country, and have supported this execrable government as they driven the British economy into the guttter.

    You have sat on your hands while the big investment houses have tried to strangle investment in the oil and gas exploration industry.

    What industry is ever going to invest billions in its product, if that product is set to be made illegal to use inside two decades ?

    I’m reminded of the phrase, ‘Lions led by donkeys’. But that would be to insult donkeys.

  63. ChrisS
    March 5, 2023

    Everything you suggest is necessary but it will never happen : The Woke, liberally-inclined civil servant really runs the show and they will just not let ministers deliver the policies they know we need.
    There are endless examples : currently the small boat crossings are a case in point. Why is the Rwanda project tied up in the courts for more than a year ? I thought that Parliament was supreme. Why did the legislation simply not remove the ability of Woke, Left Wing Lawyers to challenge the policy using legal aid ? Because their chums running the Home Office wouldn’t allow it. The Department needs to be cleared out and staff replaced with a politically balanced crew.

    Then we have the Green Crap agenda which has taken control over the whole of Whitehall.
    DEFRA and it’s even more left-wing politics is responsible for the re-wilding nonsense when we need to produce more food including meat ! I for one don’t want to be told I can no longer eat steak because cows fart methane into the atmosphere. They have been doing it for more than 1,000 years so to stop it now by killing off the animals is stupid. Humans are not herbivores.
    The drive to net zero is just going to impoverish us and has not been thought through. It’s blindingly obvious that we cannot afford to do away with gas heating and IC-engined cars. The alternatives are far too expensive and just don’t work well enough. Anyway, we can’t possibly produce enough electricity to power everything for at least the next three decades.

    Our politicians have allowed Political correctness and the green agenda to rule our country and we will all suffer from the consequences.

    1. margaret
      March 6, 2023

      Humans have been omnivores so far, however they can survive as vegetarians and be healthy , but as total carnivores, most would become ill. No one is telling you not to eat steak ,in actual fact Aldi do a very nice sirloin for only ÂŁ3.49 . People have their own opinions, but an opinion does not mean that they try to enforce their will on others , unless a law is passed. Just watching an old film about the suffragettes. It is not even 100 years since the stubborn, blockheaded narcissistic men disallowed all women from a vote .I hope we progress from this know all ,blast others style of communication in the future. Perhaps everything in moderation would help society at present . The despotic hype of Putin is where it goes.

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