The Treasury and Bank advice used to bring down governments

I am told grown ups follow Treasury orthodoxy and admire the Bank of England with its independence. The governments that have followed these luminaries have usually put the economy through a boom/bust cycle and have invariably lost if they own the bust.

Edward Heath accepted advice to introduce competition and credit control in the early 1970s when the dollar went off the gold standard. A big inflation was created, to be followed by a sharp collapse just in time for the 1974 elections which Heath lost. There was a secondary banking crisis and property slump. The Labour government which followed i chose an inflation prone high borrowing high tax strategy of its own which ended in a further bust when it collided with financial reality.

John Major adopted Treasury and Bank advice by joining the European Exchange Rate Mechanism. Some of us warned this would be damaging and destabilising but the grown ups knew best. They brought on an inflation by printing too much money to keep the pound down, then a savage recession by slashing money to try to rescue a tumbling sterling. The Conservatives went down to a huge defeat even though Labour , the CBI and TUC had all backed the failed policy.

Gordon Brown and Tony Blair in the period 2005-9 accepted Treasury and Bank advice that they could allow a major expansion of banking credit and debt because there had been a new model of global banks that would magically smooth away the risks of excessive leverage. Indeed Gordon Brown didn’t just accept this woeful official advice but was part of the world foolishness that generated the idea. The Parliamentary opposition warned against so much state debt and private borrowing. The official advice shifted to demanding a deep recession to wipe out the inflation and some of the debts. Gordon Brown as PM agreed and was thrown out of office as a result.

Today it is possible to avoid the bust. The official advice has already given us the big inflation. According to government and Opposition the Bank is independent and is responsible for enforcing the 2% inflation target. It has lamentably failed, allowing inflation to hit 11%. It blames external events beyond its control, yet it did not warn us of the big inflation coming and fails to explain how Japanese, Swiss and Chinese inflation stayed down if it was just a matter of high international energy prices.

As constitutionally the government is responsible for the huge balance sheet the Bank of England has created by borrowing to buy up a load of bonds, the government should tell the Bank to stop selling these bonds back into the market at large losses as they are currently doing. taxpayers should not have to take the hit. Money and credit are tight. To avoid the recession action is needed now. The Bank has done too much too late to conquer inflation. Its inflation forecasts yo yo around  undermining the credibility of its actions.  How can anyone admire a Bank which deliberately bought too many bonds at crazily high prices and then wants to sell them at much lower prices to make the taxpayers pay for the losses?

93 Comments

  1. Javelin
    May 12, 2023

    Hmmm. Now let’s see mass migration is one million. Double what was promised after a referendum that clearly told the Government not to do it. A couple of thousand of EU laws have not been taken off the books as promised. The NetZero agenda that nobody wants and lockdowns that followed Chinese authoritarianism have led to inflation, high interest rates and a cost of living crisis.

    So basically the Conservative Party under the leadership of two men with no real cultural links to the UK are filling their boots and must completely understand they have gorged themselves on the public’s trust and are about as Democratic as the Chinese Communist Party.

    This is the least democratic Government in British political history.

    1. Michelle
      May 12, 2023

      Correct.
      The problem is, waiting in the wings are those that will continue with this recipe for disaster of a nation, with bells on.
      As has been blatantly obvious for years the BBC and a sizeable chunk of mainstream media who have the Lions share of propaganda outlet and the public bovine ear, are Labour cheerleaders. Well so it seems are the Conservatives.
      On and on it goes.

    2. BOF
      May 12, 2023

      Javelin
      Agreed. Right on target today.

      1. Lifelogic
        May 12, 2023

        Seems so. Well Cameron did promise to bring immigration down to the “tens of thousands” he just forgot to mention it would be one hundred of them! Also he claimed to be a “low tax at heart” Eurosceptic and promised to deliver Brexit if that was what the people voted for. In practice he did not prepare for a leave vote and abandoned ship like a spoiled child leaving us with the even worse net zero Libdim Theresa May.

        Generals have been shot for far less dishonesty & negligence than this.

    3. Lynn+Atkinson
      May 12, 2023

      
quite right. It is also the worst British Government in political history. No other government has cause such devastation across the board.
      In fact in the history of the western world, only old Joe, who wears dipers, can compete for the Disaster Award.

    4. glen cullen
      May 12, 2023

      Can’t fault a single word – well said

  2. Mark B
    May 12, 2023

    Good morning.

    I listened to, Liam Halligan (sp) on GBNews yesterday and he pointed out that, whilst the war in Ukraine has not helped, the inflation we are experiencing was rising BEFORE the war and is mainly down to the BoE not raising interest rates early like the US Fed’ did.

    The truth is out there and I think it is time for someone to fall on their sword.

    1. PeteB
      May 12, 2023

      Mark,

      Sir J has repeatedly made the same point and noted other countries (Japan, the Swiss) avoide high inflation. The ECB, BoE and Fed have a lot to explain – which of course they are not doing so. If they did then falling on a sword would be the least the masses would expect.

      I note all of Sir J’s examples above are from the 1970’s on. The boom/bust cycle has been running for centuries. Not just the fault of the (relatively recent) “independent” central banks. Also a recession is the economic equivalent of a natural disaster: Wipes out the weaker businesses and leaves the remainder leaner and more agile.

      1. Lynn+Atkinson
        May 12, 2023

        When it is an ‘unnatural disaster’ but one brought by a mad gunman, the good businesses go too. They are waving now.

    2. Lifelogic
      May 12, 2023

      Indeed the infation was caused by the BoE and Sunak’s money printing making the pound worth circa 70p in three years (and still declning). Further exacerbated by the mad net zero rip off energy agenda. Why is group thing in government nearly always completely wrong or is it vested interest driven? All in Gov. Seem to want ever higher taxes and ever more regulation and evermore government for example. Leading to negative or low growth.

      So we get a Fraser Myers and Andrew Bridgen debate on GBNews. Is Myers the best they can find? He made not one sensible point. What does Myers think is causing the 300+ excess UK deaths each day? Bridgen is surely pretty much right on everything he said.

    3. BOF
      May 12, 2023

      Mark B
      Yes, and somehow BoE and Treasury want us to believe that the half a trillion pounds and shutting down the economy under Sunak has nothing to do with inflation. More than one need to fall on their swords.

    4. MFD
      May 12, 2023

      Well I have had enough of lies from the incompetent PM ( this is a mild description of my opinion) I am finished with Conservatives and have now joined Reform UK! But still think its the best of a bad job!
      Its is what I believe best as do not agree with spoiled voting!

    5. James1
      May 12, 2023

      The Bank of England’s is tasked with adhering to 2% inflation. They have conspicuously failed. The management and Monetary Policy Committee needs to be replaced. Without delay.

  3. Robert+Miller
    May 12, 2023

    ‘
too much too late
’ is an excellent phrase accurately describing the incompetence of the BoE

    1. Ian+wragg
      May 12, 2023

      Yesterday the BBC was lauding the fact that wind had surpassed gas for generation last year.
      Then they show a graph that despite adding 350 windmills generation had dropped the last 2 years.
      There was no mention of the real reason gas usage was reduced. Increased imports.
      They must really believe we’re thick.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 12, 2023

        ‘They must really believe we’re thick.’
        The electorate show that to be true regularly.

        1. Fedupsouthener
          May 12, 2023

          Mickey. Yes, by voting for the same thing.

      2. glen cullen
        May 12, 2023

        Propaganda works magic on the plebs, so combined with whats being taught in schools and universities 
quite a lot of people believe the BBC message 
which is the government message as they concluded that climate change was settled
        The BBC has been pushing this propaganda for decades now, unchecked by government

    2. NottinghamLadHimself
      May 12, 2023

      It’s now generally accepted that Denis Healey was fed wrong figures by politicised Civil Servants causing the IMF to be invoived unnecessarily, and that certainly did bring down a Labour government.

      Do we have any specific examples of misrepresentation of fact being used against a Tory administration?

      I think that we might just hear about it if we did, don’t you?

      1. mickc
        May 12, 2023

        1. Yes you’re right..the IMF intervention was not necessary and was caused by Treasury (incorrect) figures
        2. Yes…the Bank of England’s incompetent operations brought down Truss not her Chancellor’s proposals…
        And yes we have heard about it…but not in the MSM…rather similar to the IMF debacle in fact…

        1. mickc
          May 13, 2023

          Further reply…
          Possibly we need another economic ministry to act alongside the Treasury, it being answerable directly to Parliament rather than “independent” like the useless OBR (never knowingly right…ever)…it could be called the Department of Economic Affairs..and no, that isn’t a sarcastic dig at the original, it’s a serious proposal. The current system is utterly useless for any governing Party.

  4. Bloke
    May 12, 2023

    Actions in response to bad decisions can destroy virtually anything.

  5. Wanderer
    May 12, 2023

    “The Conservatives went down to a huge defeat even though Labour…backed the failed policy.”

    Therein lies a great problem. We see this process repeatedly at elections. The economy tanks, our liberties are eroded, the country is changed beyond recognition…and people vote for “the opposition” , even though the latter would have done the same things (and probably worse).

    We really are in a mess. The Uniparty combined with a FPTP voting system is proving fatal. I shudder to say it, but at least in the EU, real opposition Parties get some representation. I’m thinking of Dutch Farmers, the AfD, the FPÖ etc. Whether they can effect change is another debate.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 12, 2023

      The huge problem is the Tories deserve to be destroyed having got almost everything wrong but the only realistic alternatives given FPTP voting are even worse still.

      1. Chris S
        May 12, 2023

        An exact and concise explanation of how we stand.

        The responsibility lies with a civil service that has been wedded to failed policies for decades and ministers that have failed to get a grip of their departments and demand changes.
        As a direct result, policies voted for by the people are being ignored : Brexit has not been implemented, we are heading for impoverishment via the new religion of Net Zero, and immigration is now totally out of control.

        Normally the opposition would bring forward policies that the people support and would win a general election.
        But in this case any combination of the opposition parties would be even worse.

      2. David
        May 12, 2023

        Spot on, these non-conservatives need to go. This will bring in Labour who will inflict more misery on the UK with their “mandate from the people” to do so. The current UK political system is a busted flush.

      3. Lifelogic
        May 12, 2023

        Everything wrong – they have not even delivered a real Brexit, wrong on lockdowns & Covid, vast tax increases, open door immigration, huge currency debasement, net harm & coerced vaccines even for the young (for no reason at all) a captures vaccine regulation system funded by big pharma, vast numbers of excess all cause deaths surely the result, a generally dire NHS, no growth in GDP per cap, falling in living standards, the net zero, rip off intermittent energy religion, jobs exported, huge lack of houses, doctors, dentists, hospital beds, schools, road space
police that do little or nothing about most crimes, strikes everywhere, industries and jobs leaving


        Any positives from the Tories in 13 years? Removing the pension lifetime limit perhaps, but to be reversed by Labour next year yet anyway? Not quite as appalling as Labour is about all you can say that is positive.

        1. Fedupsouthener
          May 12, 2023

          The Telegraph are reporting that white pupils will be the minority in schools in 40 years time. Really? That long?

          1. Peter Gardner
            May 14, 2023

            National averages don’t tell the whole story. There are already many areas where white children are not merely a minority but a small minority. The national story is that white children do not do well in results league tables. White privilege is a myth. Being white is a distinct and definite disadvantage in education. Even more so if your white child is a boy.

      4. Peter Parsons
        May 12, 2023

        Then you should support getting rid of FPTP.

        1. ChrisS
          May 12, 2023

          That would be even worse. We would have the LibDims in government permanently.
          That or the SNP. There would NEVER by ANY chance of a proper Conservative Government.

  6. DOM
    May 12, 2023

    As ever John, like most Tory MPs, avoids what needs to be said. He should demand the head of Bailey.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 12, 2023

      Indeed but Sunak was the Chancellor!

      1. Donna
        May 12, 2023

        The similarities between the ex Banker, Treasury-orthodox Major and ex Banker, Treasury-orthodox Sunak are striking.

        And so will the consequences be for the Not-a-Conservative-Party. The only thing stopping a 1997-style landslide is the wooden plank that is the Labour Leader.

    2. Mark B
      May 12, 2023

      +1

    3. Nigl
      May 12, 2023

      Spot on. A thread running through HMG, a total failure, cowardice/weakness? To deal with/get rid of incompetents.

  7. Sakara Gold
    May 12, 2023

    In one of the worst investment decisions of all time, 1999-2002 Gordon Brown famously sold 400 tons of our gold. This decision, timed at precisely the bottom of a long bear market in the yellow metal, was anounced in advance (!!) and the market absorbed the gold at an average price of $250/ounce. It generated about $3.5billions for the treasury after costs, which they used to buy US$ Treasuries.

    Last night spot gold was trading at $2010/ounce, or $64,607 a kilo. Our 400 tons would have been worth about $25.8billions. The US$ Treasuries would still have been worth $3.5billion, though we did get some interest.

    1. Mark B
      May 12, 2023

      Fun fact !

      Did you know the pop group, ‘Jilted John’ wrote a song about our former, Iron Chancellor. Admittedly it was before he, Gordon, became a household name but . . . !

  8. Richard II
    May 12, 2023

    Let me see if I’ve understood the situation right. What do voters usually care about most? ‘It’s the economy’ (Bill Clinton). In today’s economic situation, the British government presides over a cost-of-living crisis thanks to high inflation. The voters have shown how they feel about that at the recent elections, and they’re likely to do so again at the general election. But as SJR shows the British economy is and has been steered by Bank of England policy, and those running it are a bunch of people we can’t vote for, or vote out. Because they’re ‘independent’, the government normally lets them do what they like. If the government announces a policy for growth that goes against what that financial clique want, they just remove the Prime Minister. So that’s where we are. Perhaps we need a Prime Minister who was never part of the global banking establishment. And I don’t mean Keir Starmer.

    1. Lynn+Atkinson
      May 12, 2023

      Actually you have got it wrong. The BOE is not independent but is the unsackable skirt behind which the First Lord of the Treasury and his appointed political servant, the Chancellor and the Treasury civil service hide. The BOE does their bidding but none of us are supposed to notice that, and continue to vote for the vicious, incompetents in Nrs. 10 and 11. The Governor of course is sackable – by the PM. If he is not sacked it is because he is doing as he is told.
      The people can sack the PM. And we do
. Regularly.

      1. Richard II
        May 13, 2023

        Not recently, Lynn. Teresa May – not sacked by the people. Nor Boris Johnson, nor Liz Truss.You could go back further in history: Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson, Harold Macmillan – none of them sacked by a GE defeat. It seems to be the second string characters who get kicked out in that way: Brown, Callaghan, Douglas-Home, Eden.

        About the First Lord of the Treasury – he’s the Prime Minister. So you’re saying Sunak is actually running the show as regards the economy?

    2. a-tracy
      May 12, 2023

      The UK suffered the highest number of working days lost to strikes in 2022 for over 30 years. I think the problem is closer to home, isn’t most of the economic losses in those striking areas? The ONS said 2.5 million working days were lost.

      In April 2022, the government put the NLW up by 6.6% + closed down most companies for an extra two bank holidays and a lost week in September when a once-in-a-lifetime 70-year reigning Monarch died the Country went into mourning.

      In April 2023, the government put the NLW up by 10% people want their DIFFERENTIALS maintained, so the union sector strikes (it also helps their Labour Party to gain popularity by being destructive); I think it’s as simple as that. Expecting people to accept the unqualified new entrant gets 10%, while the qualified mid-grade worker only gets offered 2%-3%, which is a recipe for disaster. Remember this when Labour is promising a ÂŁ15 ph NLW, what will the nurse want then, parity!

      Three extra compulsory close-down holidays in a year when the number waiting on the NHS was already sky-high, just what do you expect? Why doesn’t a journalist determine how many procedures are carried out in an NHS day to see how many lost procedures there were in those three days? That’s actually more interesting than Megan Markle.

  9. Donna
    May 12, 2023

    When Johnson and the rest of the Quad – Gove, Handcock and Sunak – closed down the economy over a nasty cold-type bug and instructed the Bank of England to print (and squander) ÂŁbillions to pay for it, you didn’t even need A Level economics to work out that the consequence was going to be massive inflation.

    It was then exacerbated by the Ukraine war and the Government’s deliberate policy of ramping up the price of energy.

    I very much doubt that inflation will be halved by the autumn, so Sunak will fail to meet that “pledge.” He and Bailey have killed the housing market and at the same time Gove has wrecked the rental market with his attacks on landlords.

    And they’re supposed to be “grown-ups.”

    Why hasn’t Bailey been sacked? Because he knows too much (and the WEF doesn’t want him sacked).

    1. rose
      May 12, 2023

      I have long thought Bailey got rid of Miss Truss because so many intelligent people were urging her to get rid of him. After all, she had just got rid of the Treasury’s Permanent Secretary who chose him – and others – for the Bank. Of course a lot of other powerful people wanted her gone too.

  10. Nigl
    May 12, 2023

    No comment from Sir JR on a recent announcement that it has been ‘discovered’ that the State is twice as big as previously thought. Up to 1 in 3 people employed by it nor the link to the deliberate loss of control on inward migration, we need them to fill the gap left by the unproductive public sector.

    Stop complaining about the BOE and be honest about your Ministers allowing egregious waste and inefficiency with zero idea or even a will to do something about it.

    The ST highlighted how large organisations are now realising WFH is contrary to what their business needs and are actively demanding employees spend much more time in the office.

    In the meantime this useless government does b all.

    1. Lynn+Atkinson
      May 12, 2023

      Yes all those ‘paid’ by the State – salary or benefits, should be considered as being part of the state to be supported by the rest. They are all dependent on the State extracting plenty from ‘the golden goose’ to sustain them, and vote accordingly. It’s a bit like the captured vote in the commons, so many Government ‘created’ jobs, carrying a red box because they are committed to voting for the Govt or resigning. Thus Parliament is undermined.

      1. rose
        May 12, 2023

        Yes, it is referred to in Parliament as the Payroll Vote.

  11. formula57
    May 12, 2023

    Surely the Sunak government has done plenty to ensure its own demise so though bad Treasury and Bank advice will play their part in its going, this time it is not all down to the folly of those institutions.

  12. Richard1
    May 12, 2023

    Excellent summary. Do you ever get a direct answer from Treasury ministers on these questions you raise on the QE / bond sale merry-go-round?

    I heard your name mentioned on the Today programme a moment ago as a BoE critic, in a piece in which the BBC announced that the “right wing papers” were becoming critical of the BoE. I should stick at it, the message is percolating through now.

  13. Narrow Shoulders
    May 12, 2023

    Awarding above inflationary rises to benefit recipients and pensioners is only going to increase the need to print money and increase inflation further.

    While the rest of us have to cope with lower living standards benefits recipients receive inflationary rises and cost of living handouts all the while we import more relative poverty.

    When you give printed money to the masses, you create inflation.

    1. MWB
      May 12, 2023

      Pensioners haven’t been given “above inflationary rises”.

      1. Lynn Atkinson
        May 12, 2023

        Indeed the official inflation rate is understated because the true rate, paid in benefits and pensions would bankrupt the Govt. So these ‘kind, woke, caring’ people rob the poorest without a qualm, by lying.

      2. Mickey Taking
        May 12, 2023

        I would guess from the massive increases I have to bear this year in the previous areas of expenditure, I would require something in the order of ÂŁ3,000 plus the 20% Income Tax to be deducted from the rise on my State pension. Now ÂŁ3,600 added to ÂŁ10,600 = ÂŁ14,200.
        That calculates to a fraction under 34%. Just a bit inflationary?

        So, I find ways to reduce spending – not a lot available. Avoiding recreation expenses, indulgences, gifts to grandchildren, perhaps no BBC licence, SKY cancelled, Lidl/Aldi no more Waitrose/Marks, then finally spending savings. Not much growth for the economy in there.

  14. Nigl
    May 12, 2023

    And in other news the Government desperate to cover up its failure to get GP services back to or even heavens forbid , better than pre Covid levels has announced its latest wheeze, get pharmacies to take up the lower level interventions.

    Have they actually looked at the size of an average pharmacy? In my area a two person counter would be a luxury with regular queues out of the door.

    As ever like the appalling 111 it would be underfunded, under staffed with terrible service levels and is just an attempt by the government to kick the can down the road.

    Getting through the levels of gate keeping to get an appointment is a disgrace. All we want is for the MOH is to demand we get a quality service for our money not something ‘on the cheap’

  15. Mike Wilson
    May 12, 2023

    The official advice shifted to demanding a deep recession to wipe out the inflation and some of the debts.

    Who provided ‘official advice’ demanding a deep recession?

    How does a ‘deep recession’ wipe out some of the debts? You are always calling for ‘growth’ to reduce debt. During a recession government debt goes up to pay for the high levels of unemployment.

    Strikes me the biggest problems are massive, out-of-control immigration and a state that is taking in record amounts of tax but is producing very poor public services.

  16. Mickey Taking
    May 12, 2023

    Basically several governments following one another all fell into the trap of using advice, possibly at the behest of the international ‘levelling down’ horror, to wreak various damage on the country. Immigration, nationalisation, globalisation, mutual reliance on power even from a declared enemy, selection on MPs, Ministers and other ‘authorities’ who have no qualifications for jobs in the disciplines they are put in charge of!
    Who needs destruction from the streets when it can be done better from the ruling elites?

    1. glen cullen
      May 12, 2023

      Build-Back-Better anyone !

  17. Peter Gardner
    May 12, 2023

    GThed adults got rid of Liz Truss, who, it seemed to me had the right idea even if she didn’t expect such a reaction as she received and had she expected it she could have managed it better. People say she destroyed the economy. Stikes me it would be more accurate to say she spooked the adults who panicked. Then the Remainer coup followed with Hunt becoming Chancellor and de facto PM and he reversed almost everything she attempted, so she couldn’t possibly have destroyed the economy. Yet she is still blamed for the situation today – when Brexit isn’t being blamed. There is neither fairness nor logic in politics! So the adults are giving us short term stability on a longer trend to low productivity, high taxes and big state spending and attitudes, ie long term decline slow enough for the frogs not to notice. When will Rishi Sunak make the spending cuts he promised? When will he cut taxes? When will he start being more realistic about green energy and start fracking as he said he would.
    The other big issue is excessive legal immigration instead of investing in training Brits with useful skills. It isn’t difficult and, as in many things, Australia has shown how do it.
    There is a fuss over REUL at present and it may be unpopular to say so but I’m beginning to think Kemi Badenoch is right that the doing is not the same as clamouring. Surely it is not difficult to draw up a list of the top ten regulatory impediments to doing business in the UK and set about refoms of both REUL and domestic UK law coherently to achieve a more liberated vibrant business environment. Has anyone even tried yet to prioritise the requirements? I am a former management consultant and have conducted several similar exercises for overseas governments. It can be done with a team of 3 or 4 people consulting widely in industry over no more than two months, probably only 6 wks, then just wield the axe because at that stage you will know what you’re doing. Such an approach would achieve greater effect more quickly than the current approach which treats all REUL as of equal importance (pre-Kemi Badenoch, although her new ‘compromise’ approach, as she calls it, still appears to lack clear priorities).

    Reply Yes of course we have drawn up priority lists for EU law reform. Plenty on this site. Iain DuncannSmith produced an official report for Boris which is still not implemented.

  18. agricola
    May 12, 2023

    The numbers speak for themselves.

    China 0.1% pa
    Switzerland 2.6
    Japan 3.2
    USA 4.9
    Singapore 5.5
    UK 10.1
    The only countries I could find performing worse than the UK were Turkey at 43.6% and Argentina at 104.0% .
    While I can accept that some countries claims are questionable because they never tell the truth, and not all countries economies have the same inputs, the USA has oil and gas, but Japan does not.
    What is clear to me is that the BoE, OBR, Treasury, and the UK government are all incompetent and unfit for purpose. The factors on which they have made appallingly bad decisions are:-
    Nett Zero
    One can have very good reasons for wishing to clean up the UK, but dictating when it will happen and how it will happen from a position of scientific and engineering ignorance is politically and financially vacuous. UK government achieve this in spades.
    Energy.
    A country that sits on its own resources , refusing further access to them is insane. What little of its own gas and oil it allows to be used is subject to a price and tax regime worthy of Al Capone, resulting in UK users of energy being made to pay way over a proper market price for whatever if uses. I checked yesterday on diesel prices in Spain because I used to live there. It is approx ÂŁ1.21 per litre. Spain largely imports it from Algeria. Why are we In the UK paying an average of ÂŁ1.57.7 when we are sitting on our own resourses. As energy is the lifeblood of the economy, why are UK government sticking a knife in the UK aorta.
    Oppotunism.
    Food prices are currently suffering circa 20% inflation because, I maintain for lobbying reason, they are not prepared to lean on the supermarkets heavily.

    I maintain our high inflation is down to institutional incompetence, a government that no longer works in the interests of its people, and greed by those allowed to get away with it. And as of yesterday they are denying us the fullfillment of Brexit.

  19. Ian B
    May 12, 2023

    Good morning Sir John

    Given recent and long term history of these events, what will your Government this Conservative Government do? As with everything else they will refuse the job they (the Conservatives) were voted in to do and get paid to do. But, instead continue to take their orders from the ‘Blob’, the EU in fact anyone that hasn’t a democratically elected mandate.

    The real truth is they refuse to ‘manage’, as they have shown anything they have been empowered to do, seemingly in the belief that all the costly mistakes they make can be dumped without a care in the World on the Tax payer.

  20. Lynn+Atkinson
    May 12, 2023

    Make the Bank pay for the losses. That’s the only solution.

  21. William Long
    May 12, 2023

    The Prime Minister and Chancellor clearly admire the Bank, or they would tell it to behave differently.

  22. XY
    May 12, 2023

    Political appointments are an underlying factor in this incompetence. The latest appointee to the MPC by Hunt is a rabid remainer. They seem determined to keep this country pegged back to EU levels of performance, presumably to improve the case for rejoining / aligning.

    Andrew Bridgen was right about the parliamentary parties – they have all abandoned the British people. Your party is doomed at the next election under Sunak/Hunt. Your biggest challenge is how to turf out over 200 remainer MPs, or perhaps relying on the electorate to do it for you is the plan?

    However, that wouldn’t stop the rot – your selection processes would still need to be vastly improved to prevent it happening again.

  23. glen cullen
    May 12, 2023

    Will we ever know the real reason and how the BoE brought down Lizz’s government and premiership

  24. Matt
    May 12, 2023

    We have taken back control, yes, but with all the grown ups in the room we also still have politicos popping up like for instance Truss and Kwarteng prepared to take outlandish gambles with our country that full borrowing for very low taxes will bring about economic success through trickle down – amazing stuff – and all because of advice received from present day well known ‘experts’ still around – mind boggling – and now the same discredited Truss as a private individual is off by herself with a tilt at windmills trying to renew herself by making geopolitical speeches in Taiwan as if anyone cares – she thinks this is the road back to No10 – but the poor dear is more to be pitied than blamed and you can see that in her gaze – so how do these people get these important jobs as PM in the first place – and who is responsible? Not the Bank or the Treasury

    1. rose
      May 12, 2023

      The tax cuts were negligible, so all that propaganda about borrowing for tax cuts should be seen for what it was, class hatred and envy, and politically motivated lies to bring down a government. You don’t mention, and nor did the propagandists, the borrowing required for the open ended commitment for two years on gas bills. Perhaps you and others like you neglect to mention this greatest part of the Growth Statement by far, because it was being clamoured for, across the board, even before the Government had been formed and had come to Parliament. Not just clamoured for but bullied and blackmailed for, despite the Queen’s death It was the wrong thing to do, but it would have taken a Sir John Redwood to have withstood the pressure.

  25. Margaret Campbell-White
    May 12, 2023

    It would appear to me that the Bank of England is trying to bring the government down

    1. glen cullen
      May 12, 2023

      Its got form

  26. Ralph Corderoy
    May 12, 2023

    The Bank of England’s actions seem wrong when framed with a 2% inflation target.
    But re-frame their actions with inflating away debt. Do they then seem more correct?

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      May 12, 2023

      Yes, but they overplay their hand and can bring down banks as well as debt. All of the U.K. is in debited because you are punished for not being in debt. But an eccentric Bank can bring about mass bankruptcies which will cause contagion in the banking sector – which will bring down the Govt.

      1. Ralph Corderoy
        May 14, 2023

        Hi Lynn, I agree the Bank of England could cause a UK bank failure just as the Fed’s actions have done in the USA. It is a tightrope, but they think it worth doing as a bank failure or two helps constrain supply by changing sentiment to lend in addition to higher rates. Their aim is to keep high inflation simmering without it or the voter boiling over. It’s unlikely they’ll succeed: central planning with lagging indicators and generally poor signal over the noise. Do they have another option? Is inflate from here on down the only choice? A huge technological breakthrough, like dirt-cheap energy accepted by the Greens, would be needed to increase productivity and the tax take sufficiently to pay off record debt.

  27. Bryan Harris
    May 12, 2023

    How can anyone admire a Bank which deliberately bought too many bonds at crazily high prices and then wants to sell them at much lower prices to make the taxpayers pay for the losses?

    There really is nothing to admire about a bank that deliberately does all it can to consume us with bad economics.

    Where is the parliamentary scrutiny of the bank and Treasury – WHY haven’t heads rolled!

  28. Bert+Young
    May 12, 2023

    Records show that it is and has been a terrible mistake to allow the BofE its independence . BofE decision makers earn huge sums of money and are devoid of the impact their decisions have on living costs and the overall effect on the economy . Equally Sunak and the incompetent Hunt have foolishly allowed outside bodies to govern our affairs; voters have become powerless to intervene in our – so called democracy . What is happening in the USA seems to have more influence in how we make decisions in spite of the evidence that their President ” hates us “. We must cut ourselves loose from anything that disturbs our wealth and energy and focus on immediate and longer term priorities .

  29. G
    May 12, 2023

    All of the ‘advice’ described here seems to coincide with our membership of the EU.

    Why am I not surprised?…

  30. glen cullen
    May 12, 2023

    Who’s in charge, the UN, the EU or the BoE or perhaps the Civil Service; because its not government ministers.
    My neighbour, who’s a civil servant, has informed me that the ministers push to get everyone back in the office is ‘NEVER’ going to happen – apparently all contracts where amended to 3 days at home 18 months ago 
that’s the new gold standard
    Why did our government agree to this ?

    1. Lynn Atkinson
      May 12, 2023

      The Labour Party (đŸ˜‚đŸ€Ł) are going to make WFH a ‘legal right’.

  31. Christine
    May 12, 2023

    Sir John, what are your thoughts on the HM Treasury report published this week entitled The Digital Pound: A New Form of Currency for Households and Businesses?

    It professes to be a consultation paper but it is actually a declaration. It states it has a four-month consultation period yet this period stealthily started in February without the general public being made aware of it.

    It even talks about the new digital pound being linked to climate change and Net Zero. Why! Is this heading toward a Social Credit System? It explains our data will not be private and all our spending will be monitored.

    All the pieces are finally coming together, something we so-called conspiracy theorists have been warning about for years. The You Will Own Nothing statement is coming to fruition.

    All this is heading our way by 2025 whether we agree with it or not.

    1. glen cullen
      May 12, 2023

      They’re only doing what they’ve been instructed by the UN WEF & IMF

  32. Derek
    May 12, 2023

    Who tells you these strange ideas about grown ups, SJ? I have no reason to agree with them.
    At the risk of repeating myself, we have different PMs and different Chancellors acting in the same way. Which has proven the wrong way.
    Just who or what are the common denominators in each case and who are they accountable to?

  33. Ian B
    May 12, 2023

    Tory party had to stop defining itself by the values of Thatcherism, saying they were “not really Conservative”. Also the Chancellor, had been “absolutely wrong” to pay billions of pounds for childcare support in the Budget two months ago, rather than tax breaks for stay-at-home mothers.’ Says a Conservative MP in today’s Telegraph

    In the same paper ‘Go back to work and we can cut income tax by 2p,’ says Mel Stride’ Yet work form home Civil Servants still receive ‘London weighting’ without going near the place. Although blaming other and not getting his own house in order is par for a Government Minister.

    On Thursday, the Bank made the largest revision to its forecasts for UK GDP in its history. Governor Andrew Bailey has been forced to admit that there will be no recession at all.

    Duncan Simpson, executive director at the Adam Smith Institute, a think tank, has slammed the Bank for poor judgement on inflation.
    “The failing Bank of England has exceeded itself once again,” he says. “Years of low rates and printing money has led to sky-high inflation. Britons are now reaping what the Bank has sown.”

    Draw your on conclusions. Without meaning any disrespect to the ‘blind’, the phrase blind leading the blind under this Rishi/Hunt cabal. Patting themselves on the back, making speeches, blaming others is all tied together with their complete failure to manage.

    1. Ian B
      May 12, 2023

      Government Adverts today:
      Equality Diversity and Inclusion managers: / discrimination managers are required
      Brighton & Hove city council, ÂŁ45k per annum.
      Cornwall council, ÂŁ61k
      Dept Agriculture and rural affairs (Newcastle) ÂŁ36k.

  34. Roy Grainger
    May 12, 2023

    The head of the BoE Andrew Bailey was appointed by the government (Sajid Javid and Boris) despite his lamentable record running the FCA so in blaming him Conservative MPs who supported Boris are simply blaming themselves.

    1. rose
      May 12, 2023

      He was chosen by Sir Tom Scholar, the Permanent Secretary Miss Truss sacked. He also chose four others for the Bank.

      1. hefner
        May 13, 2023

        How do you know? You keep coming on this blog with assertions on how No.10 and Westminster are working giving the impression you know all the nitty gritty happening within the government.
        And then reading books from historians and journalists about the recent past (‘Out of the Blue’ (about Truss), ‘Johnson at 10’, ‘How Westminster Works’, ‘Follow the Money’) it is clear you do not know much more (possibly even less) than most readers of this blog.

  35. oldwulf
    May 12, 2023

    “The Treasury and Bank advice used to bring down governments.”

    Some of us may remember the mid 1970s when the UK went cap in hand to the IMF for a loan. I think the loan was only partly drawn down and was repaid ahead of schedule. Denis Healey (the then Chancellor) went on record to say that the main reason the loan had to be requested was that public sector borrowing requirement figures provided by the Treasury were grossly overstated. Mrs Thatcher came to power in 1979 so I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.

    This sort of error by HM Treasury seems to be either incompetence or intentional. I hope that it is intentional as incompetence on such a scale would be frightening.

  36. glen cullen
    May 12, 2023

    ‘The Civil Service just ‘found under the Whitehall carpets’ another 1,000 EU laws governing us’
    https://facts4eu.org/news/2023_may_eu_laws_5

  37. glen cullen
    May 12, 2023

    Home Office – 11 May 2023
    Illegal Immigrants – 111
    Boats – 2

  38. mancunius
    May 12, 2023

    ‘To bring down governments’. But surely Mr Sunak and Mr Hunt can easily form a part of the next (Labour) government. They’ll just need to sit on a different side of the House.

  39. Original Richard
    May 12, 2023

    We have a ruling elite – Government, a uni Parliament, the Civil Service, quangos, the judiciary, the educational establishment and the state broadcaster all trying to “bring down” the country.

    A lack of intelligence, with all their arts, history and PPE degrees, cannot explain why they are destroying our culture, social cohesion and democracy through massive immigration and our institutions and economy through Net Zero. It must be deliberate and they are gas-lighting us with the excuse that we must unilaterally “save the planet”.

    If anyone wants to know what our ruling elites are planning for us with Net Zero, search for :
    Telegraph How rolling power cuts have brought Cape Town – and South Africa – to its knees

    1. rose
      May 12, 2023

      Listen to the House of Lords discussing almost anything, but at the moment illegal immigration, and you will see it is not a lack of higher education but rather a plentiful supply of out of touch stupidity and ignorance, laced with a strong desire to appear morally superior to the public and the government they elected. There is an overwhelming lack in there of properly trained minds, of intellectual rigour, of a sense of responsibility for the country and its welfare, and an ability to see the wood for the trees.

      1. glen cullen
        May 13, 2023

        The Lords have never been about intellect but rather elite opinion

    2. Lynn Atkinson
      May 12, 2023

      The Cape might cede and produce its own power privately. The rest are destined for a ‘dark age’.

    3. ukretired123
      May 12, 2023

      The ruling “elites” are incompetent , treacherous and behave like oligarch robots having no sense of awareness or shame. They seem to thrive on displaying dumbness and emboldened to go completely against all previous norms of democratic expectations and common sense.
      It seems the bigger the betrayal the better and rosier for their future promotion prospects.
      We are regarded as intelligent sheep with poor memories who need occasional scraps of hopeful news and lucky to be alive after Covid.

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