The Conservative government is adopting too many Labour policies when it comes to business and the economy. They will undermine growth, make combatting inflation more difficult and are driving Labour more to the left. Labour cannot believe their luck that Conservatives make them look more moderate and allow them to be even more socialist as they enjoy pushing the government further.
The government thinks the answer to the problem of the railways is more state control and nationalisation. It thinks the energy industries need to be placed under strategic control and guidance by the state, with a complex mesh of price controls, windfall taxes, requirements to do things that are not economic, with subsidies to stop bankruptcies. It thinks the digital and communications sectors need more regulation and a Ministry of Science and technology to direct and subsidise our way through the next five year state plan. It thinks energy using industries from ceramics to steel and from petrochemicals to fertilisers should be taxed to speed closure so we can import instead and claim a win on our carbon dioxide accounts. It wants literally to ban all our current motor car production industry from 2030 whilst hoping that miraculously an electric car industry will appear to replace it. No wonder investment is drying up and going abroad where you will still be allowed to make petrol and diesel vehicles.
Conservatives should know better and can do better. The years of privatisation revealed three great truths. Introducing competition and therefore giving consumers more choice gave a great boost to output and value for money. Opening up nationalised areas for private capital greatly expanded the total investment we could afford to put in. Allowing many decision makers instead of imposing an answer led to much greater innovation. The electricity generating industry freed of central control and state budgets put in a large increase in combined cycle gas generating capacity to supplement and then to replace expensive and dirty coal. Why hadn’t the nationalised industry understood how much more fuel efficient and cleaner gas was? Power prices went down, we generated all we needed at home and had spare capacity just in case. The state telephone monopoly had backed a switching technology that no other country wished to buy and was well behind the breakthroughs with electronic switching made in the USA. The privatised industry dumped Strowger switching and leapt into the electronic age pulling the UK supply industry with it. Where rail competition was allowed in a less satisfactory privatisation it produced better and cheaper services, but was stifled in most places by continuing with top down controls.
Today we have to rediscover the old truths about nationalisation. The businesses will regard the government as the main customer, not the people who use the trains or need the energy and communications links. Managers will court and bully Ministers for more subsidy to cover over bad management. The Unions will enjoy striking against the government, knowing that the taxpayer can end up paying their wages where customers do not. Major mistakes will be made about investment priorities, about technologies, about levels and type of service to be provided, as they will decided centrally following political rows and will often not be customer responsive. I have no idea why some of my MP colleagues think a nationalised railway will work better. There is no sign of Unions readily accepting pay deals from the nationalised parts of the railway, and certainly no signs of them wanting to collaborate more with Minister led parts of the industry over improved work practices.
It is customers that keep businesses honest. It is the need to serve customers better and to provide better value and enhanced service that drives innovation, productivity growth and the higher wages that can result. The railway Unions are striking against themselves. They have helped dissuade people from returning to the offices five days a week, undermining their most reliable source of revenue of the pre covid railway. Now they are also out to wreck the alternative strand, people taking trains for leisure and pleasure. If you target strikes on days covering the Liverpool music contest and the cup final you will undermine your best chance of a growth business. The truth is none of us have to use the railways. We can drive. We can take a commercial flight. We can stay at home and use an on line link for a virtual meeting or entertainment download. If the rail Unions do not co-operate in adopting new technology, improving service reliability and quality, and ensuring affordable tickets then their industry will continue to decline. One day taxpayers will say no more and demand an end to excessive subsidies to pay for trains few are using and none can rely on.
The energy situation is more alarming. Ministers encouraged by officials seem to want to make us ever more reliant on imports though pipes and cables to European coasts, despite the shortages of energy on the continent and the clear dangers of relying on the goodwill of neighbours. Some want to introduce electricity rationing by price and to get people to only use power at certain times and days through sending price signals. Business will be rationed anyway through actual cut offs when there is not enough power. Aware of this danger many people in the UK refuse to accept a smart meter even though it is supplied to each free of charge, paid for out of general taxation. Many want us to keep our oil and gas under the sea, only to import far more liquified natural gas which not only adds to our colossal import bill but adds to world CO2 at the same time!
The money go round is now absurd. Generators of power facing high carbon taxes and price controls can then attract subsidies. Renewable energy suppliers now face windfall taxes though they are still preferred. Labour clearly signal they love this system and would increase the taxes further, removing the remaining incentives to invest and making us even more dependent on imports.
Basic industry is suffering from the arrival of dear energy. Industries like steel and ceramics have to pay large carbon taxes on the gas they need to use to fire their furnaces. As the Uk imposes higher carbon taxes and charges than any other advanced country the government has to give some of the tax back as a subsidy. Why on earth do they do this? Why not cut the tax and be done with it if they want some of our industry to survive?
So here is an easy way to win back lost votes and assist growth. Cut the high taxes, and allow competition and private capital to do the rest in these crucial industries.
May 18, 2023
Yes, conservatives can, and should do better. But the Conservative party is not conservative, so won’t.
Happily the current form of the Conservative party will be wiped out next year, although Starmer will no doubt cause much damage during his tenure.
May 18, 2023
Not remotely Conservative (look at Gove’s moronic attacks on Landlords and Tenants. Great new for lawyers does nothing for Landlords or Tenants. We need more houses for fewer people not this lunacy. A huge tax grab too in CGT and Stamp duty by forcing sales.
Labour, SNP, SNP will also rig the voting system to ensure they remain in power and in effect largely align or re-join the EU. Will I ever see a sensible government in power again in my life time? After Major it took four terms to get a Conservative Majority and even that was only under Cast Iron, remainer, green crap pusher & tax to death call me Dave Cameron.
May 18, 2023
Labour policies are tax, borrow, over regulate, debase the currency, rob the rich and hard working, encourage people to live off the backs of others, destroy the economy, waste money hand over fist, the same idiotic Covid agenda but worse, dire public services, high crime, push rip off net zero intermittent energy, block the roads with trees and bollards, align with or rejoin the EU…
So the same as the appalling Conservatives have for the last 13 years but Labour even slightly worse as they will stitch up the electoral system with voting a 12 or similar and for non nationals and to suit the SNP perhaps. What a waste of an 80 seat majority!
Plus Labour will put 20% vat on private school fees to make people pay 4 times over and abolish non dom status. Both will raise no net tax, kill competition and do huge economic harms.
May 18, 2023
Lifelogic
We do not have a Housing problem, we have a population problem, which is now causing a housing problem
The solution is so simple, but the politicians are deliberately blind to it all, because so many of the Government policies are based on Ponzi type schemes, that require more and more people to fund these growing never-ending disasters.
May 18, 2023
Well we need fewer people or more houses!
May 18, 2023
But Cameron promised an In-Out Referendum on the EU. That was the ONLY thing that mattered at the time, that’s why we gave him an outright victory.
May 18, 2023
Indeed he could have had an outright majority first time but he ditched his Cast Iron Promise, pushed green crap lunacy and failed to even promise (let alone deliver) any sensible tax cuts. We still do not have the £1M IHT threshold promised by Osborne still £325k now worth more like £200k.
May 18, 2023
‘ The years of privatisation revealed three great truths.’
The biggest truth is that privatisation may look fine in theory but so often it failed in practice.
The theory is that private ownership will be more efficient and strikes will be less of a problem. That did not work out in the rail industry.
Cost cutting will boost profits but may go too far and remove necessary investment. Leakage problems in the water industry is one example. There is great money to be made by flipping ownership after a few years. So many industries are now owned by wide boys and spivs, often based overseas.
When things get too bad and there is public outcry the government is forced to intervene even though it may not wish to.
Railway maintenance could not be entrusted to private sector after Hatfield. Franchises are found to be failing.
However, after privatisation there is often no public expertise left. Franchises are threatened with termination of their contract, but often there is no alternative available to take their place. South West Railway was the latest example. Their contract should have been terminated in March of this year.
So it all looks good on paper, but not in practice.
May 18, 2023
You claim it did not work out in rail. At least to begin with we saw investment in new rolling stock following a hiatus going back to the 1960s when steam trains were replaced – the government never found money to do that. Moreover, fare setting techniques adopted from the air travel industry saw a large increase in patronage and rising overall revenues which helped pay for the new rolling stock. These have since been undermined by ORR controls.
The real failure was Railtrack, which was inadequately regulated, leading to inadequate maintenance and investment and serious crashes. Renationalisation of Railtrack hasn’t fundamentally improved it (that was a way of sparing the blushes of ORR): I suspect it would have fared much better under a scheme of joint ownership by rail franchisees, who would have been able to represent their needs for functioning infrastructure that provided the best service to their customers much more clearly and directly than via ORR consultations.
May 18, 2023
Mark,
Rail franchisees are not in it for the long term. For example Arriva bailed out in Wales when there were major changes in Cardiff. So a joint venture involving franchisees is unlikely.
Service to customers never seemed that important to franchisees either.
May 18, 2023
Happily!!! Mickc the Labour and Liberals will trash Britain. I would not want to see that in my lifetime. Starmer is a liar who cannot even remember what he lied about last.
The I would say is unhappily!
I believe the railways are out dated and should be sold off totally ( track and trains) if anybody would have them, a great Victorian idea of the time but modern roads have developed faster.
The CO2 scam must be outed and the car industry allowed to develope normally- if there is a market for electric it will happen but in the meantime efficient diesel and petrol are the answer.
As you say Sir John, the market will progress if people want the product.
However it is time for Conservatives ( with a big C) to return to principals and lead the world past the WEF era!
May 18, 2023
+1
May 18, 2023
Before re-building, demolition is necessary. It is necessary that the current Cameron-esque iteration of the Conservative party be demolished…then properly re-built.
May 18, 2023
You can’t get a feeler gauge between the faux conservative and liebour policies.
Your slowly destroying this once great nation and it’s being spearheaded by foreigners in Scotland, London and Whitehall.
If we say anything we’re labelled Waycists.
May 18, 2023
+1 – happy to be a Waycist, what is wrong with putting your own extended family (our nation) first? It’s unnatural not to do so! It’s ‘not authentic or organic’ either 😂
May 18, 2023
Good morning.
We also have a nationalised health service. And I bet those who can afford private or have private medical care provided for them, like our MP’s, never have to wait to see a doctor or get treatment.
There is only one industry that I can think of that needs either to be nationalised or, set up where the UK Government own the infrastructure and land but, the administration is run privately under license. And that is the water industry.
Our State is already far too big for private industry to support and we need to start to cut it back.
May 18, 2023
@Mark B – “Our State is already far too big for private industry to support and we need to start to cut it back.”
Indeed but instead they are killing growth and strangling the private sector golden goose that pays for it all.
May 18, 2023
@Lifelogic +1
May 18, 2023
According to the NHS, a typical day includes:
● Over 835,000 people visiting their GP practice or practice nurse
● 94,000 hospital emergency admissions
● Almost 50,000 people visiting A&E departments
● 49,000 outpatient consultations
● 36,000 patients for planned treatments in hospital
That’s over a million peope per day
If a small charge of say £5 or £10 were made for initial appointments not only would it bring in some useful income but it would cut back on time wasters. As it stands it seems to be almost impossible to get an appointment with my GP, although their waiting room is always empty and when I try to make an appoinmtment they just give the recurring response “we’re full, try again tomorrow”.
When my daughter tried to get an appointment she was eventually told to go to A&E if she was in pain.
What is the point of GP practices that refuse to see patients?
May 18, 2023
Doctors’ surgeries are no longer allowed to say, “we’re full, try again tomorrow” They have to offer an alternative. If yours continues with the ‘try again tomorrow’ report them.
May 18, 2023
Report them? Do you think that will change anything? How about reporting them and the appalling regulators for the excess deaths of circa 200 a day almost certainly caused mainly by their net harm Covid vaccines given even to children!
May 18, 2023
Yes it does, they have patient panels and each surgery is monitored for complaints. Problem is most people just moan to themselves and don’t take action.
May 18, 2023
Sir John, I keep seeing statements like above which says “ your comment is awaiting moderation.
It is not from me! Is someond using my name!!
May 19, 2023
Are you sure that it was a refusal or simply that the clinician has to go home at some stage and there were no more appointments due to population explosion.To provide a safety net for these situations there needs to be a backup that is A&E.
May 18, 2023
I do think that the privatised companies got a bit over-mighty though.
Is there any choice at all now with energy providers? And see how draconian they have become.
AND they litter up our streets with their huge vans (which became noisy roadside offices) rather than pay for premises.
And aren’t all corporations dancing for the same piper as Labour and our dear govt.?
May 18, 2023
The UK used to be dubbed ‘Treasure Island’ by overseas companies that could charge inflated prices for their goods which were available elsewhere at much lower prices. The rail industry continues that tradition, since much of it is now owned by foreign rail companies (usually publicly owned in their home country).
Harold MacMillan warned about selling off the family silver. We were told much of it would be bought by ‘Sid’. However, Sid no longer owns very much. Instead vast swathes of the country’s assets are owned by Chinese, Arabs, Russian oligarchs etc. That situation means our politicians have even less power and often have to kow tow to overseas business interests on many occasions. Unless they are actively courting overseas business interests to further their own interests when they leave politics.
May 18, 2023
That explains a lot. Thanks.
I do remember those “ Tell Sid” posters.
So there! We have been right royally shafted.
May 18, 2023
“Sid” and his pension funds did indeed buy much of the privatisation assets. The sales to foreign interests occurred later, after our balance of payments started to deteriorate – chronic large balance of payments deficits emerged under Blair, and have never been eliminated since. The sales have helped pay for our trade deficit, as has overseas borrowing secured against mortgages. “SId” now relies on inflated property values and rents in place of dividends from productive businesses for his pension. His grandchildren may find that property values and rents are not sustained in real terms, and that unless the economy returns to a productive basis, eliminating its trade deficits, they will face penury as they grow older under Net Zero policies. However, under the right government they would have the opportunity to invest in and create by their own work a much better future.
May 18, 2023
Just remember his affected speech was a snobbish attack on Mrs T, not privatisation. Macmillan started inflation and mass immigration. He also shut much of the railways. He gave the colonies premature independence to make himself popular at home and didn’t care that their economies had not yet recovered from the war.
May 18, 2023
It doesn’t have to be this way. I’m visiting Austria, which has railways that run on time, roads without potholes and a fantastic health service. I don’t know the ins and outs of why such things are far better here, but they are. Tangibly so.
Friends here tell me income taxes (including health insurance) are high but not extortionate. They expect their politicians to be corrupt and waste a certain amount of money, just like anywhere else. However many think the government is now wasting a lot more money than it did, pre-Covid. Their main worry by far about the future is immigration, due to the costs and the cultural dilution. Support for the FPÖ (traditional, nationalist, conservative party) has been rising fast. Cost of living is a big issue too, and many do link it to Net Zero amongst other things.
Things aren’t perfect here by a long stretch, but they appear a lot better than the UK. With the FPÖ as an opposition the press actually gives some voice to alternative viewpoints, too.
The Tories have set the UK on a path to ruin. They are not going to change. Sadly MPs of our host’s calibre have all but disappeared. The Party needs annihilation to leave room for a real conservative party.
May 18, 2023
@ Wanderer “The Tories have set the UK on a path to ruin. They are not going to change.” – it does look that way, certainly.
Like with the BBC, we will doubtless miss them when they are gone but not by so much as to lament their passing.
May 18, 2023
I agree. The Tory’s have moved so far left they are now like a Corbin administration. Annialisation is needed to get a new right of centre Government. Unfortunately this will be via Starmer first and the IMF. Lock away and hide assets people.
May 18, 2023
Wanderer, very well put, and I agree 100%.
May 18, 2023
“The money go round is now absurd.”
Agreed.
And so is this Not-a-Conservative-Government and the LibCON MPs and Frauds who have destroyed an 80-seat majority.
Matthew Goodwin told the National Conservative Conference some very pointed home truths the other day. His speech, The Failures of British Conservatism, can be seen on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRasyYVYyjI
He was, of course, talking to the wrong people since most of them already know that the Party has failed to deliver anything remotely Conservative, refused to deliver a real Brexit which a majority for and has thrown away an 80-seat majority.
May 18, 2023
He makes sensible points but is not exactly box office. The Tories under Cameron, May, Sunak have got almost everything wrong:-
Open door immigration heading for 1 million PA with little or no quality control.
The insanity of Net Zero & rip off intermittent energy.
The forcing of heat pumps and EVs
The pointless/counter productive Covid Lockdowns
The coerced net harm vaccines – the net harm done is alas huge hence they had to kick out Andrew Budgen for pointing this truth out.
Vastly increased and very high tax levels plus massive waste everywhere you look
Lack of houses due to restrictive planning and over the top green crap building controls and over taxation and open door immigration levels
The wars on landlords, motorists, small business and the self employed.
Dire public services
Vast inflationary currency debasement and money printing.
The failure to frack and drill.
Over regulation of everything.
The total waste of and a failure to deliver a real Brexit.
Plenty more failures too.
May 18, 2023
The road blocking agenda.
The lack of much real incentive to bother to work at all. After tax, NI, commuting and childcare costs and lack of time to do things more cheaply and efficiently why bother? Why bother with overtime work if you only end up keeping 10% of the extra wage – but then have extra travel and lack of free time costs too!
Many far better off on benefits with just some bartering or cash in hand, rent a room or Ebay dealings. Many migrants doing this too as they are banned from legal work.
May 18, 2023
The Douglas Murray speech that follows is surely rather better.
May 18, 2023
Douglas, as usual, gave a very good speech. But his speech was more about the future direction; Goodwin’s was a very pointed critique of the past 13 years of Conservative-voter betrayal (particularly post Referendum) and why they deserve to lose badly at the next election.
May 18, 2023
Some good points but not really pointed enough in my view. I have complete contempt for almost everything the Tories have done in their 13 years, the best you can say is Labour are slightly worse still.
May 18, 2023
Great article and one worth applauding though as ever with the new progressive party in government it sidesteps how the State now intervenes directly in what we say, how we think, how we define ourselves and how we try to live our lives without the State lurking in the background checking on what we are doing
Most on here appreciate the blog and John’s efforts but I am not the only one who finds it intensely frustrating to see how Neo-Marxist and progressive ideological poison has now infected this country. From race, gender and sexuality through to freedom to speak, write and behave is simply ignored. Well, this sinister ideology now infects advertising, education, life itself. It is all encompassing, deliberate and comes straight from the State and the Tory party endorse it because they can no longer be arsed confronting it.
Well, De Santis is fighting back against the racists and the Stonewalls of this world. Against the ‘terribly white’ bigots who think they can spout their demonising poison and indeed are allowed to say what they like to demonise my parents and my friends who all work hard, adhere to the law and are condemned for the crime of being born with a certain hue
When will see a Tory MP stand up and condemn this overt poisoning of our culture using race, history and gender? This oppressor-oppressed narrative designed to incite tension.
Marxism is on the rise in another form. Labour will accelerate its destruction
May 18, 2023
What commentators and our Host are complaining of is Corporatism – when the left moves right (Blair) and the right moves left (Major, Cameron, May, etc) you end up in this Corporatist, enterprise-crushing mess. Time and again. Funnily enough when pressed, we always choose Communism over this Fascist/Corporatist mess.
Think the Spanish War when many Conservatives went to fight the fascists. Almost the whole of Britain is opposed to the WEF/EU/NATO/Biden fascist mess – they don’t all appreciate that that means they support the forces crushing that fascist mess – Russia/Trump/the British people who demanded Brexit – but they do.
I applaud the constituents of Jeremy Corbyn – sticking to him rather than The Labour Party. We all need to assess the INDIVIDUALS we vote for and choose the best regardless of PARTY.
In politics you have to vote in the present to achieve what needs to be done now. Corbyn would have delivered a No Deal Brexit and he would not have gone to war with Russia!
I don’t think there is a single member of the CPP who can equal that.
Consequently I would have to vote for Corbyn even over our host, whose I have admired all my life, I appreciate Corbyn is rubbish on immigration and economics, but we have to SURVIVE so that we can address immigration and economics! He represents survival.
May 18, 2023
Corbyn, McDonnell, Stringer, Kate Hoey, Claire Fox, Coyne and co might well have wanted a No Deal Brexit but how would they have got the civil service to deliver it? Corbyn couldn’t even stand up to Momentum, Starmer, and co who insisted he drop the undertaking to honour the referendum in 2019. When he upheld it, in 2017, he almost won and would have done, given two more weeks.
Wasn’t he got rid of because he was so popular and couldn’t be trusted to rejoin? Like Boris, really.
May 18, 2023
No. Corbyn was ousted because it dawned on the LPP that they had been fooled into voting ‘for’ Brexit.
Corbyn is the inverse of Boris, Corbyn a lifelong Brexiteer pretended to have voted Remain to keep his position of power and deliver the critical votes against May. Johnson is a lifelong Remainer who pretended to be a Brexiteer to gain a job and power to undermine Brexit.
That are the facts – judge them by their actions.
May 18, 2023
As the nation froze last winter because they could not afford to heat their homes, as we suffer endless sewage dumping on the beaches and in our trout rivers, as the railways collapse thanks to lack of investment, the public can see the results of privatisation.
Where once we had highly profitable state industries contributing to the Exchequer, we now have foreign companies loading them with debt and paying out £billions in dividends. Even today the sewage industry announced a £10billion investment in Victorian sewer replacement – to be paid for with yet more debt – and bigger bills for their customers.
Entire industries collapsed after being sold off – on the cheap – resulting in more imports and less output. Steelmaking, shipbuilding, ports, mining, aerospace, council housing, airports, railways, the Royal Mail etc. Attlee would turn in his grave.
Reply The nationalised industries overall were loss making and increased public spending substantially
May 18, 2023
Sakara Gold,
If you sell off a monopoly industry don’t be surprised if there is price gouging. Private enterprise’ main priority is shareholder profit.
Maybe government was under the illusion that they would operate in a different manner.
May 18, 2023
@ Peter – no doubt, but profit is just the financial measure of commercial success and that latter does not typically arise, at least not in any sustained manner, without giving value to paying customers through meeting their demands at a price they find attractive. It therefore is a very powerful driver that along with competition (consumer choice) usually delivers good outcomes, ones that too easily escape enterprises that are not guided by a profit motive.
May 18, 2023
formula57,
Yes, that is the theory.
What makes utilities so valuable to investors is that people have no choice but to use them. We have no choice but to pay the prices the privatised companies charge. Competition is simply not there for water supply.
People may have a choice not to use rail services – but in London it is now increasingly difficult to use a car and with NetZero we may be forced back to public transport whether we like it or not.
May 18, 2023
In the past 10 years I think I have only been to London twice, both times to attend commemoration services at St Paul’s. I used to live there, was born there, worked there, enjoyed entertainment there, but now I have no desire to visit unless for a very good reason.
May 18, 2023
Mark
Same here, no need other than with our local Theatre Club, which organises the trip by coach so no hassle drop off and collection from outside the theatre.
London now a depressing place to go sadly.
May 18, 2023
Steel was losing £1.4 billion a year as a nationalised ‘asset’ , it is a lot of money now, a shed load back then.
In 1980 the steel unions went on strike for 14 weeks, claiming a 20% pay rise. Clearly the future of their industry was not a high priority for them.
In 1979 there were 150,000 people working in British steel producing producing 100tones of steel per employee. 15million tones per year
In 1997 there were 30,000 people working in British steel producing 500tones of steel per employee . 15million tones per year and it was profitable.
May 18, 2023
Where, and when ?
I remember rubbish on the streets teaming with flies and rats, and a nation that could not even bury its dead. We had empty shelves and I had to do my school homework by candlelight.
As someone elsewhere pointed out, only those in the State sector go on strike. Those in the Private Sector, especially the self employed, just carry on because there is always someone ready to take their place.
May 18, 2023
I also remember dingy, dirty railways, with surly staff, plenty of delays and strikes, and rather a lot of crashes. I did however like the Victorian feel of it all, even though the real Victorian splendour had long gone.
May 18, 2023
I think the railway sandwiches were genuinely Victorian!
May 19, 2023
SG :
It wasn’t privatisation which caused energy prices to rocket upwards but Government actions with Net Zero and the war in n Ukraine.
May 18, 2023
Understand what you say and why you say it John, but unfortunately the majority in your Party seem to want more and more control over everything, and wish to micro manage our lives for us with our own money.
Given the rate of income tax on earnings and investments, the level and extent of VAT, and financial levies on a whole range of services, we do not have a lot of our own money left to spend on what we want and need.
Good grief the State even wants a slice of what is left when you die, such is the money grabbing attitude of politicians, who all seem to think they know what is best for us.
The record of Governments of all colours over the past 50 years with regards to living within OUR means, and keeping to a sensible and balanced financial budget, which is within OUR affordability is simply pathetic, that such politicians want even more tax take, more expenditure, and more control, shows that they are completely and utterly out of Control.
The golden egg of work ethic, risk and reward is being killed by the very politicians who want, and demand more and more of our money.
What is the point of working and striving, if you not going to get most of the benefit for yourself and your family.
Appreciate your thoughts and efforts John, but is is now very clear you are in a very small minority within Parliament, who do not seem to be able to hold those who think very differently to account.
The future looks very bleak indeed, not only here ,but for many other so called developed Western Countries as well.
The pandemic of ever more control, government tax take, spending, and printing of ever more money is spreading fast.
We need an injection of common sense and financial accountability, and we need it rapidly if we are to survive.
May 18, 2023
@Berkshire Alan +1
May 18, 2023
B A
The golden egg of work ethic….?
It is dead and the last rites said.
The million plus on long term sick leave, the same who get far more on benefits than people trying to hold down their job and keep house and home together.
What and who on earth has allowed this party to morph into what it has become? It has to lie at the feet of the vast majority of those selected and elected that are totally not fit for purpose.
No wonder the WEF are infiltrating our parliament so quickly, they have got a guard of honour and red carpet waiting for them.
Damage Control has been completely by-passed and anything now will be too little too late. As with all disasters it is proven that the people who had the vision were completely ignored.
May 18, 2023
Turbo
Agreed I would not advise anyone to go self employed now, or even start a small business, too much risk, too little potential reward.
Government does not trust you, HMRC does not trust you, no sick pay , no unemployment benefit when no work, no holiday pay, pay all of your own pension contributions, pay your own Public Liability insurance, often delayed payment for work done or goods supplied, pay for your own vehicle, service,Tax and insure it, employ a very part-time accountant, to make sure your records and returns are correct, pay for office/shop, and office equipment, or take up a room at home (if you have the space) pay for all of your own advertising, tools etc.
If borrowing money then often the Bank will want surety of your house, so that is also a possible risk !
Then on average earn the median/average wage.
May 18, 2023
Indeed. Then the Tory’s complain that fifty somethings are retiring early. Why not? The tax take keeps growing on earnings, savings and investment. We’re all now looking at tax avoidance to stop the greedy state giving it to the feckless, idle and minimum wage imports the Tory’s refuse to stop.
May 18, 2023
The period of privatisations under Thatcher did indeed see benefits, but subsequent developments took the privatised industries increasingly under the control of foreign asset management companies. Their priority is shareholder value, often obtained by asset-stripping. They also tend to depend on the state for taxpayer-funded investment, then take the profits. What needs to be considered is whether areas like public utilities and public transport should prioritise shareholder value, over affordable service to the public.
May 18, 2023
Yes quite – how has the privatisation of the water industry worked out?
Maybe pure privatisation and pure nationalisation are both equally misguided? Extremes usually are…
Reply Nothing pure about water privatisation. They created regulated monopolies that were only a bit better than the dirty nationalised industry it replaced which fouled our beaches regularly.
May 18, 2023
And not even regulated properly. Fair enough, I stand corrected. Another absurdity?
Out of interest, though, how would you describe National investment in Private enterprise? Only British companies though. And only if they stay British.
May 18, 2023
Railtrack. Not an advance.
May 18, 2023
EU policy. We were compelled to create Railtrack in place of a capitalist privatisation.
May 19, 2023
Nothing in the original (1991), then First (2001), Second (2004), Third (2007) or Fourth (2016) so-called Railway Packages (consilium.europa.eu) ‘compelled the UK to create Railtrack in place of a capitalist privatisation’.
The original state-operated railway system was privatised as Railtrack in 1996 and appeared on the LSE within the FTSE100. It was a profitable company for some years till the Hatfield train crash in 2000. Railtrack had to provide compensation to the train operators (£580 m) for the long delays fixing the many problems found during the investigation (lack of or deficient maintenance, reduced workforce, contractors bungling jobs).
Then the enormous cost involved in modernising the West Coast Main Line (it was projected to bring a debt of £7-8 bn) put the final nails in Railtrack’s coffin, as most shareholders had left.
So if anything, this sad story is a perfect illustration of a capitalist privatisation.
May 18, 2023
Mrs Thatcher privatised the nationalised industries with the government holding a Golden share , which gave them a final say in the company . It was John Major and Gordon Brown who removed the Golden shares , ostensibly because they contravened EU competition rules , but it was soon after that our companies became a pass the parcel , first them being flogged off to American concerns, then sold onto European companies.
May 20, 2023
‘Ostensibly because they contravened EU competition rules’: It was more complex than this comment (uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com, 24/08/2001 ‘Golden shares compatible with EU law’; mondaq.com 30/08/2002 ‘The legality of Golden Shares in the European Union’; uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com, 23/05/2003 ‘Golden shares: Getting tarnished?). And for a big read see repository.ihu.edu.gr 21/12/2013 ‘Golden shares and the jurisprudence of the ECJ’ (76 pp) with the conclusion that:
‘In vital industries Member States will have to take great care to identify exactly which aspects of the activities of an entreprise they need to control. They will then have to devise a transparent legal mechanism clearly restricted to these aspects. Defence, energy and public health appear to be the main sectors where this is feasible’.
Could it be that the UK Government of the time could not have cared less about putting a proper defence of the golden shares in the recently privatised ‘utilities’?
Reply As the originator of golden share protections in privatisations it was clear to me it was EU pressure which led to their abandonment . The UK was always scared of EU rules.
May 18, 2023
The Tory’s need to understand we need to manufacture goods with cheap home generated energy and grow our own food, not increasing GDP by minimum wage population growth. Net stupid is only making us all poorer for NO reason. CO2 capture is the most ridiculous policy on the planet. I’m happy to blow a few balloons for nothing and have a bridge to sell the Tory’s.
May 18, 2023
You need to accept that this won’t happen. Your party has undergone a revolution started, I’d say, around the time a certain ex-PM labelled it the nasty party. Stabbing your own organisation rarely ends well, and this is no exception. The time to step off this crazed roundabout for you and others was about 2010. UKIP had a strong ideas and campaigning base, but with 2 notable exceptions, no MPs had the guts or foresight to jump. You therefore joined a band of self-immolating MPs who started to run things. Cameron, May, Hague, supported by Major, Heseltine with hangers-on to help them. They won against woeful opposition in 2017 and 2019, so the bandwagon to socialism continued. Ironically Corbyn by failing has led to Corbynism, because the hidden agenda has been the destruction of party and country by the alternative.
Reply By sticking with the Conservatives we secured the EU referendum.
May 18, 2023
Reply to reply. UKIP secured it but irrelevant anyway when your party messed up the result and handed the country back over to Labour to rejoin. We’ll be back where we were but as even more of a supplicant to the EU than when Cameron cried off and an incompetent took over. You’re saying that {with sufficient guts and persuasion) as a UKIP government or very strong opposition you wouldn’t have both secured the referendum and broken properly from the EU? Lily livered seems to have won out.
Reply Not UKIP. It was myself and a few other Conservative MPs who persuaded David Cameron to grant the referendum
May 18, 2023
I confirm that Sir John reply is on the button. Moreover they fought tooth and nail for a ‘fair referendum’; who could vote, not a yes/no answer, etc etc. At that time UKIP was producing “No Campaign’ merch – ie that had already surrendered! It all had to be dumped.
Then before a vote had been counted, Farage conceded! If I had been within range I would have killed him! Thank God he was not the leader of ‘Brexit’ because at that point Remainers could have called off the count and taken the win.
Dangerous, stupid man.
Never forget that not 1 UKIP vote got us either the Referendum; the fair question and thus the win or saved the horrors of the May treachery that was scheduled to come to the House 5 times! (Twice she pulled the debate because she knew she would lose).
It was Tory (hard for them because they were fighting their own Government to big salute), the magnificent DUP and Mr Corbyn who proved a genius at politicking – he delivered the Remain Socialists for Brexit time and time again.
May 18, 2023
Not only did it take the Conservative back benchers to secure the manifesto promise of the referendum but it could not have been implemented without FPTP. UKIP wants and wanted PR with which we would never have got the Referendum.
May 18, 2023
+1 we would never again elect a government. They would count the votes and then get into a huddle and horse trade, producing something for which nobody would have voted.
May 18, 2023
Reply to JR reply
Really? Presumably you pointed out to Runaway Dave the danger that Ukip would destroy the Conservative party.
Reply No. David and I agreed UKIP would not win a single seat at a General Election. We were one out. He gave the referendum because I with a few other MPs mobilised many other Conservative MPs behind a referendum. He wanted to keep his job as Leader.
May 18, 2023
Excellent article and depressing reading as you realise how little chance there is of a change. Much of the instances of foolish policy you cite are of course driven by net zero, an over-arching policy framework which is subject to no debate or scrutiny.
But I have to remind everybody – it might be bad but this would all be much much worse under Labour.
An interesting new area is coming up now for policy making which will be pivotal for the U.K. – how AI is regulated. The EU looks set to take a highly restrictive approach, which will be likely to kill off much innovation and many nascent businesses in this area. Post-Brexit U.K. could go one of two ways – imitate the EU or do things differently. In 10 years time it’s going to make a massive difference which way we go. The omens are not good given the mood music in public debate, but this is an area where there is an opportunity for sensible MPs to insist we take a forward looking approach.
May 18, 2023
We all need to prepare for the coming Venezuelan UK as best we can. The inevitable regular energy blackouts worry me most. They have them in California but at least there the weather is generally warm. Here we need central heating in winter that works when needed. It’s going to be a cold future, what with George Monbiot as SPAD for Net Zero and Lifestyle Transformation and Caroline Lucas in Cabinet under the Labour led government. Still at least we should still have the Premier League for escapism in winter. Oh I forgot, the Tories are introducing a Regulator for that successful industry as well. Football too will become another symbol of successful Managed Decline.
May 18, 2023
Ha my recent bon mots are that now we are only good at soccer and pageantry. Perhaps we also need a pageantry regulator to ensure the correct ethnic and gender mixes are involved etc.?
May 18, 2023
Dear Sir John you were a main Government advisor in privatisation of national strategic utilities and are now clearly saying the system is no longer working. Perhaps old school privatisation and nationalisation thinking no longer works in todays world. We have to ask why China has made a great success of modern technology and has become a threat to the West.
What is true is that when Politicians get involved in Engineering there is never a good long term result.
Development and innovation needs investment. That is the starting point.
Does this come from the tax payer or private investor. In theory there is no reason why the tax payer can’t make a profit.
The problem is risk that the investment will loose the investors money.
The reason things get developed faster in the US is there is more potential investors. But the same outcome is occurring in China.
Maybe both use there own natural resources as a starting point and not too worried about climate change.
The British are very creative but just don’t have the money or production skills. We were in fact leaders at one time in telecommunications going back well over 100 years. We must not forget Bletchley Park and Churchill giving unlimited funds to invent the Computer. We sold this to the US to pay for the second world war though, so did not make much of a profit on that as usual.
Reply Privatisation worked very well when private capital was disciplined by competition as with telephones, allowing a huge investment in new capacity and new technology at no cost to taxpayers.Failure to introduce competition into water and rail blunted the advantages of private capital, though both got more capital than they have been allowed under state finances.
May 18, 2023
@ John McDonald
I agree – national investment in technology companies would be a great idea. I would be happy to pay into some kind of National Investment Fund. That would generate a return and a virtuous circle.
May 18, 2023
Sir John, you have to admit that this only worked because telecoms and other utilities were sold off cheaply to attract investment. Also you then did not allow The Post Office(BT) to operate freely and forced it not to compete and allowed other companies to make use of it’s network but BT cannot still use other companies networks.
It was past governments that wanted to control telecommunications and was not simply a lack of government investment.
If you had two Nationalised companies competing against each other i am sure this would spur development. Really solely on private investment does not always work in the long term especially for the strategic infrastructure which supports the whole economy. This is very evident now. Tax payer owned industries can work if you can keep Union and Government Politics out of them.
May 18, 2023
Efficiency needs competition. However, octopoid industries running competitive lines in parallel increases idiocy. Even single lines for gas, oil, water, sewage, broadband and much else have to cross to reach. Joining only 3 pipe services to 3 homes crosses paths. Maintaining only one digs at others.
Competition for funding is often oblique: limited to shareholder profit between shares in a water, rail or other linear service provider vs those in entirely different markets, such as confectionery.
Competition on the basis of tender virtually enables winners to run a monopoly for the duration of their contract, as with rail. Passengers seeking a train are faced with ‘tolerate or don’t go’. If a chocolate bar doesn’t taste right, the provider has to improve fast or instantly lose. Choice forces better service for consumer satisfaction.
May 18, 2023
“The Conservative government is adopting too many Labour policies” People must stop calling this a Conservative Government, it isn’t in any of its pontifications. Luckily they are all talk and no trousers.
Each day a Government Minister hits the Media and shoots the Conservative Party in the head with further dreamed up Socialist ideas, Centralist Control aspirations, one size fits each and every situation in the UK. They (this Conservative Government) are playing at being the EU Commission and a Labour Government all rolled into one.
Each and every commitment made to get elected has been broken.
What they wont do, is let people of the leash, let UK business get on with things and thrive – the list is endless. This is a 100% Tax and spend out of control Government – it needs to go.
May 18, 2023
Power is like heroin. It is an addiction. The Conservatives have been on power now for twenty years. It shows.
But the Labour party?
Or the Lib Dems? Or the Greens?
May 18, 2023
Nationalisation ought to work, in that there is no bleeding to shareholders and resources can all be diverted back into investment. It doesn’t work in practice because human nature leads to excessive expectations from the workforce who go on strike, and the management with a job for life mentality lack initiative. Indeed initiative of any kind is frowned upon (everyone hates a smartarse). The government ends up as the effective owners and they are useless as well.
Capitalism doesn’t work either, because essential services end up being denied to people who can’t afford them. What use a privatised healthcare system if people have to die because they can’t afford perhaps a modest cost for their treatment? Capitalism is fine for things people want but don’t need.
What would be better is a different form of public ownership that incorporates the benefits of capitalism. Rather than sell British Gas so the government has some money for the next election bribe, convert the ownership of British Gas to shares owned by the customers which they get for free because they own it already. That never happened of course. If the company runs up a surplus, the customers get a reduction in their bills rather than the money siphoned off to foreign asset management companies and their shareholders. If the workforce has a grievance about their lot, their argument is with the customers not the government.
Reply Free and discounted shares were offered to employees.
May 18, 2023
We all blame this Conservative Government for trying to micro-managing everything, but in reality it is all talk, they don’t manage anything other than the tax take.
We must however, blame the Conservative Party, a nationwide organisation selling ideas that they themselves broke by allowing numpties without a brain to shove Socialism down our throats. The People, the electorate was sold a pup by the Conservative Party, they chose Socialist to stand as MP’s and they then allowed them to high-jack the party and form a Socialist cabal.
As someone here as already said the electorate has now no choice just a Uni-Party abstention is the only choice on offer.
May 18, 2023
We are not alone…
Lord Frost, who last weekend launched his bid to become an MP as he was placed on the Conservative candidate list, said it reflected a trend of growing state interference in “every activity and every choice”.
“Let’s not forget what that means. The endless hectoring, the constant suggestion that the Government has the right to dictate how you behave
“We won’t win elections as the party of the self-satisfied and the entitled. We must be the party of opportunity and the party of the future.”
On and on, The Conservative Government is now presiding and creating the very being of the UK let alone the ideals of Conservatism
May 18, 2023
Sir John, Is anybody listening to you?
Liz Truss did enormous damage through her incompetence. But she seems to have been saying the right things which are now dismissed as ridiculous.
The scandal of the water boards which have been making a lot of money and not working on the infrastructure show what happens to government money (aka taxes) when it is splashed around generously. The NHS has slurped up billions too. Where is the result?
And then there is the Sue Grey Civil Service…
May 18, 2023
@Anselm – was it Liz Truss or the ‘Blob’ that briefed against her. The majority of the real faults laid at her door, had been in the system for years. Her tenure permitted others to get let of the hook and they still remain along with their culture of orthodoxy that is dragging the Country down. The Media is not the voice of truth but a promoter of a good story
May 18, 2023
Ian B – its a stretch to think that just 44 days could cause unaided havoc. Take the problem with Pension Funds at the time it was the use of LDIs as a get out of jail mechanism, the flaw with those was pointed out in around 2016. Andrew Bailey was in charge of correcting it back then, but was to busy. So suddenly being able to pass the buck…. and so on. I would guess a lot of people in the collective ‘Blob’ saw their jobs disolving so faught back in the way they have done with EU retianed Laws etc
May 18, 2023
+1
May 18, 2023
Sir John,
I share your frustration. Many Labour voters who had voted Tory against family tradition in the last GE were fed up with socialist policies imposed on their lives that stifled their own wealth creation efforts. The sons and daughters of the workers of the nationalised industries that were doomed in the 80s did not want a repeat performance now. But here we are.
I well remember Heath (who governs Britain) strong arming the country (with the help of some Labour rebels) into the EEC without a referendums as if this would solve the country’s economic problems.
When will they ever learn?
PS There is massive frustration with the NHS out there too. In the last few years (while the Tories have been in) the NHS has become a massive state monopoly that creates obscure rules and regulations on patients like in a Communist state.
May 18, 2023
Will those invaders caught out working in a car wash and their employer by GB News and the local residents be put on the first plane out of here for breaking the rules as laid down?
I think not.
How many times is this happening across the Country?
Extracting the urine or what?
May 18, 2023
By their actions they have demonstrated that they’re economic migrants.
If you were genuinely fleeing a country and have found a safe haven, the last thing you’d do is jeopardise your case for asylum by blatantly breaking the rules.
But this cowardly Government STILL won’t dare deport them.
May 18, 2023
What you say is undeniable to most conservative thinking people but, sadly, this does not include the great majority of the current Parliamentary Conservative Party, who would be equally, if not more, happy on the other side of the House.
I think that what you and your few like minded Conservative colleagues are advocating, can now only be achieved by a new and different party.
May 18, 2023
Long-term sick leave is at an all-time high in this country, far worse than in any other Western nation. Mental illness amongst youngsters is off the charts. This is what happens when you reward bad behaviour with your something-for-nothing attitude. Wokeness with constant handouts and reaffirming beliefs that people are victims and don’t need to work for a living has made this country weak.
This country is sadly in decline but it has been brought on by our education system and liberal politicians. The race for Net Zero is a vote loser and a self-inflicted disaster. I don’t believe our leaders are stupid as some say, I believe they are following instructions to destroy our economy. I’ve said many times that to achieve their Build Back Better goal they have to destroy what we currently have. It’s just a shame people keep voting for our own demise.
By your recent posts Sir John it doesn’t sound like even you would vote for this government.
May 18, 2023
+1
May 18, 2023
The conservative government, undemocratic in its creation, is not CONSERVATIVE, it is consocialist, hence the joy of Labour.
The trade union movement is working feeverishly via industrial action to render the government inoperable, ably abetted by our civil service. All three are fighting for their survival, a fight in which the interests of the electorate, the people, and the country are not considered. None of these three elements, government, trade unions, or civil service ars fit for purpose.
The only institution in the UK that is seen to work, despite civilian missmanagement, is the military. Everything else that is in any way government controlled or influenced is an utter disgrace in supposedly the sixth biggest economy in the World. As everyone experiences it on a daily basis I will not write a book itemising it. It strikes me that within almost everything government touches there is a malign gene that guarantees disaster for the governed. Until I see a political party that plans to actually govern and correct the shambles we live in, my vote stays in my pocket.
May 18, 2023
It should be obvious to anybody with half a brain that in Sir John’s third paragraph the bit ‘Introducing competition and therefore giving consumers more choice … let to much greater innovation’ does not apply to water and sewage service companies.
As for the peroration it is the same old: no idea about the technical problems to be solved, just the same old ‘cut the high taxes and allow competition and private capital to do the rest in these crucial industries’. Over at least thirty years we have been watching the results of ‘competition and private capital’ and most of it ranges from more expensive, poor customer service, to frankly dismal (and not worth of a so-called first-world country).
Reply The government refused to introduce competition into water
May 18, 2023
Reply to reply: competition into water would have been competition on price, possibly on service handling consumer complaints, unlikely on fixing the sources of the problems, not on the quality of water distributed to households, nor on dealing with pollution/effluents because not one company would have felt responsible for any technical problem affecting one particular household.
Proof is how Thames Water after decades of leaks in various parts of Wokingham constituency keeps coming patching up a few metres of pipes here there and everywhere with the problem reappearing within six months. And it is not all because of Victorian-era pipes: those along the west side of the U.Reading campus or on Beech Lane must be from the 1950s, those along Lower Earley Way must have been set up at the end of the 1970s.
The technical aspects of water distribution and sewage removal have been blanked out by financial arguments, even right now, when £10 bn are promised over 10 years (ie, £1 bn/year) where profits distributed as dividends were £1.4 bn in 2022 (FT, 06/05/2023, Guardian 18/05/2023 ‘Down the drain: How billions of pounds are sucked out of England’s water system’).
Since 1991’s privatisation of water, debts of water companies have increased to £54 bn while over the same period £57 bn have been distributed as dividends (FT, 12/10/2018 ‘Investors benefit from water groups’ borrowing at expense of customers’).
The problem is not new: what has Parliament and successive Governments done to at least try to alleviate it?
May 18, 2023
Wrong! The Market never produces with a monopoly or a monopsony. A private Monopoly or Monopsony is as bad and as far from Capitalism as a State Monopoly or Monopsony.
‘Privatisation’ was distorted, it should have meant freeing the market but in many cases (the ones that failed) it did not.
May 19, 2023
Well said Hefner
You are always right.
But I reckon you already know that.
May 18, 2023
This is all so obvious, it makes me despair! There are clearly large number of people that would like to vote for a conservative party in the next election, because they dont like the other parties either. But there isnt one.
One of the several reasons I have wanted to leave the EU for the last 10 or 15 years is the democratic deficit in the EU. That is probably what has happened to the civil service and the “blob” in general. The concept of a democracy where the people elect a government to act on their behalf is now alien to them. Only strong government can put this right, and we don’t have one.
May 18, 2023
Too much interference and intervention, too many daft decisions and diktats, all are made possible by cheap money.
If money isn’t scarce then reality doesn’t have to be faced, tough decisions can be side-stepped.
May 18, 2023
I knew the Net Zero was costing us an arm and a leg, but I didn’t have the figures to say how much. An article in the Spectator puts our electricity costs at double those in Europe and three times that in the USA. With energy the base cost of anything and everything we do is it no wonder we are up the creek?
May 18, 2023
Ian Moore,
Give or take a small amount the cost
of extracting gas and oil is In the UK much the same wherever it is done in the World under similar geological and drilling conditions. In the UK I am willing to bet we tax it more heavily than any other country. What we in the UK do in terms of a supply chain to get it to the customer only adds expense. One garage in Shropshire sells petrol at £0.20 less than the supermarkets which leads to the conclusion that the supermarkets are profiteering. Petrol in Spain last week was £0.20 less than it was in the UK. Whichever aay you look the customer is being ripped off.
May 18, 2023
Gas futures are now less than oil futures. 70p per therm and a while ago it hit £1.70.
Prices are going to drop. Put off signing new energy contracts if your can.
May 18, 2023
I am trying to refrain from refilling my oil tank any time soon.
May 18, 2023
Sir John, given the excellent points you regularly raise on your blog, I would like to know if you considered participating in the Conservative Democratic Organisation conference this week. That was an opportunity for voices like yours, wishing the Tory party to return to Conservative values, to be heard.
Reply I was not invited
May 18, 2023
Might have been a blessing in disguise as ‘The Conservative Democratic Organisation’ looks as democratic as the German Democratic Republic was in its time.
May 18, 2023
That was probably just as well, SJR, going on the review of the event I’ve just read on the Daily Sceptic site, by Dr David McGrogan.
May 18, 2023
It’s all been said. We have a government masquerading as Conservatives. Historically disappointing that the 80 seat majority they were given has been squandered. What a great pity, when so much could have been achieved. Doubtless they will be given short shrift at the next election, and deservedly so.
May 18, 2023
Your party in government need not be concerned about these criticisms as you will always support them and thus this is all empty. Sir John is now the supporter of a socialist party by his own admission here. We the people who suffer will continue to suffer as the economy is trashed and we are deceived. A new Conservative party is needed.
I suspect this will be yet another comment of mine which is prohibited as Sir John cannot tolerate this kind of comment as he cannot admit to mistakes.
May 18, 2023
Hopefully we’ll see Farage coming back and taking the reins of some common sense outfit to usurp this bunch of losers.
May 18, 2023
Ah – the Hope Strategy! Farage can’t win a seat for himself! And remember he has the choice of ‘most likely’ seats and deploys ‘disproportionate’ funding in his own interest. When they see him, the people rumble him.
May 18, 2023
Allister Heath wrote a great summing up yesterday: ’Deluded Tories are blind to the scale of the disaster to come. They are heading for a big defeat. It is little wonder given their shocking failures in government’ — https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/17/deluded-tories-brought-coming-disaster-on-themselves/
May 18, 2023
You say privatisation works, but how does Rail privatisation work? What alternative rail provider could step in if the company that would take Northerners down to the FA Cup aren’t working? If it is still a subsidised monopoly, then it isn’t private in any absolute sense.
May 18, 2023
The Sunak / Hunt programme completely overlooks the natural advantages of boosting the economy through lower taxation and enterprise ; it has allowed the BoE to damage industry and commerce and to make the cost of living for all families difficult – and in some cases , impossible . I despair that the ranks in the Conservative Party do not act and re-establish the confidence that voters badly need .
May 18, 2023
Converting a State Monopoly into a Private Monopoly does not do the consumer any favours, as these private monopolists use regulatory capture to keep out the competition.
BTW I think ‘Smart’ meters are one of the biggest rip-offs that Cameron loaded onto us.
May 18, 2023
I’m sorry JR, usually I am in agreement with most of your comments.
However, in regards to price fixing/capping as far as energy and fuel are concerned, it is needed as the companies involved just aren’t playing fair.
Take fuel prices. Diesel is 159.9p a litre at BP Shepherds House Hill in Earley situated on the busy A4. Yet a BP station in Benson, Wallingford charges 146.9p for a litre of Diesel. A 13p a litre difference at a filling station in a relatively rural area. Even then, at the Benson filling station, there is a difference of just 3p between Diesel and Unleaded. In Earley, the difference is still around 15-18p between Diesel and Unleaded.
There is clearly some ‘ripping off’ going on in the Reading/Wokingham area.
When we have also seen recently that a fuel station in Shropshire is charging as little as 131.9p a litre for Diesel (and still making a profit), then we are all being taken for idiots regarding prices nationally.
Petrol companies have had it too good for too long. Quick enough to raise prices, but drag their heels when it comes to bringing prices down.
Inflated fuel prices does nothing to help the cost of living situation, or driving down costs for business and inflation generally.
I fully support proposals for a ‘Pumpwatch’ regulator.
May 18, 2023
Yes, and privatisation hasn’t worked either.
Over 20 years ago we were being told that we were paying high water bills to clean up the sewage system, yet we are now being told that we must pay high water bills to clean up the sewage system. We have already paid, so are entitled to a refund for work that has been paid for but not done.
May 18, 2023
Dear Sir John
I wonder why you keep bangng your head against the brick wall of the Conservative Party. It has obviously moved a long way since the day you felt able to stand for the leadership (and I felt able to vote for it).
Do you not feel that it’s time to lend your weight to a new party? What are you doing, remaining in this shambolic and unprincipled organisation?
May 18, 2023
Somebody mentioned that it is now nearly seven years since we voted to leave the EU, and that is longer than the Second World War lasted, and I wondered how quickly our aircraft production had been ramped up:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_aircraft_production
Doubled from 7,940 in 1939 to 15,049 in 1940, another big increase to 20,094 in 1941, peaking at 26,461 in 1944.
We could do that then, but now we have a government which is so useless that it can’t even make sure that we will be able to produce the batteries needed for the electric cars that it says we must have.
And I don’t really care if the quickest way to do that was though a state owned company.
May 18, 2023
Hi john
The conservatives are determined to kill the country , and then at the next general election labour will bury The country
And the world will dance on our graves
RIP THE UK .
May 18, 2023
Indeed.
May 18, 2023
There are some things that should never be privatised or at the very least price should be capped
Water the giver of life
Fresh air we breathe
Transportation meaning for rail and buses
Council housing
Energy heating and cooking prices capped
Staple foods like potatoes cabbage some meats and fish prices capped
Soap and detergent prices capped
children’s shoes subsidised
School books subsidised
Communications broadband prices capped
You can see I am not a great believer in the free market for all things
May 18, 2023
‘Nationalisation does not work’ – IDEOLOGY!
Of course, nationalism in many cases does NOT work i.e. national airlines: sell ’em!
But in other cases, it’s more black and white: Rail, Post, Water etc .. Where you probably need a mixture of both (and really studying the cases studies in other countries about what’s worked / not worked). Where the government will never be ‘free’ of not having to keep a tight reign on these things. As people CAN be as corrupt in the private sector as in the public sector … However, this corruption can be scaled according to the type of private industry you’re talking about. If it’s a start-up, run by highly intelligent entrepreneurs, and in say the high tech industry, there’s no room for corruption (the risks are too great in comparison to what they could lose, also these types of people are as much inspired by the thrill of the chase as by the results – so being corrupt is a possibility but greatly reduced) – compared to say if you’re the boss or a mid manager in a water company … Where you don’t really love what you do – compared to an entrepreneur in a high tech company – and it’s all about profit as quickly as possible.
May 18, 2023
“Nationalisation does not work”
Decades of evidence of natural monopolies (utilities, railways) suggests that privatisation, at least in the form implemented by the Conservatives, doesn’t work either.
That isn’t to say that private companies don’t have a role to play in providing services but why, for example, isn’t the rest of the rail network run in the same manner as TfL. As a TfL customer/user/passenger/whatever, I only have to deal with TfL for surface rail, underground and bus travel. There are lots of private companies running and providing services for TfL, but us customers don’t have to deal with them directly, making our travel experience a much simpler and seamless experience.
Reply Rail, water, energy are not natural monopolies
May 20, 2023
Reply to reply: that’s playing with words. Water is not a natural monopoly, as any source then river could be used as a water provider to some community. In other countries, water is dealt with with all sorts of ownerships: Public but also cooperatives, municipal councils, private companies, … The UK appears to be one country where only one type (privatisation) has been allowed since 1989.
The present UK problem with water is the botched privatisation that has created a number of regional monopolies badly regulated under privatisation. Furthermore and interestingly, why has the role of the private equity companies not appeared in this discussion about privatisation. When privatised, most utilities had no or little debt. Within 20 years they had funnily enough practically accumulated as much debt as they had paid as dividends. Is that how capitalism should work? Or is that what a particular type of capitalism that only benefits shareholders of private equity and CEOs of utilities, but not the consumers, does?
Being the advocate of privatisation without defining more precisely how it should work and be checked is … a bit sloppy.
FT, 17/06/2018 ‘Private equity and utilities don’t mix’.
dieterhelm.co.uk 18/10/2022 ´Water: A new start’. (Really interesting …)
Guardian 19/10/2022 English water firms’ big debts of concern as interest rate rise, says expert’.
Guardian 30/12/2022 ´More than 70% of English water industry is in foreign ownership’.
May 18, 2023
The Conservative Party has been taken over by Socialists. It must remove the whip from Socialist MPs, including some ministers and the Prime Minister. It must also stop the civil service interfering with the running of government.
This is urgent.
After removing the socialists, even a minority government is better than the current regime, which is ruining the country.
May 18, 2023
Probably best to have Labour in power when the government of the day has to abandon the 2030 ban on petrol vehicles, abandon the ban on gas boilers, and impose power cuts because we don’t have enough generation capacity.
May 18, 2023
.. and call in the IMF to slash the State sector.
May 18, 2023
Off topic, Rishi Sunak claims to have removed any sense of an Irish Sea border, so what is all this about?
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/european-spotlight-on-future-movement-of-livestock-to-ni/
“European spotlight on future movement of livestock to NI”
May 18, 2023
Nationalisation or State Subsidy …..the same thing, both stop competition
May 18, 2023
Home Office – 17 May 2023
Illegal Immigrants – 285
Boats – 6
….we’re being invaded
May 18, 2023
Thats another six (6) averaged sized hotels fully booked by the taxpayer
May 18, 2023
De-Nationalisation was they key to Thatcher’s miracle for the UK, 40+ years ago. The Iron Lady gained respect from around the world for going against the socialist grain and proving correct with her new Conservative strategies.
Sadly, for us and our country, her proven policies have been abandoned by the very party she led and at the time changed us to the better with the country no longer called the sickman of Europe but a global miracle.
The pseudo conservatives now forming our government are reverting to the disastrous policies that led to our denigrating status of the “Sick man of Europe” but seem not to appreciate the damage they are doing here.
Is it possible for the Back Benchers to visibly and audibly protest in Parliament for them to revert to proper Conservative policies to save not just the Party but also the Country and us citizens. And not stop until they do?
We’ve had enough and it is clear, we’re now heading towards another unwanted but the currently deserved and deprecating title of the “Sickman of Europe”, again. What a legacy to leave to Labour this time.
May 18, 2023
A government that implements the communist Net Zero scam against Western democracies cannot move further left.
May 18, 2023
What a load of sewerage with the coverage of the water pollution scandal.
I think I am missing something here. For over 50 years I have dutifully paid my water bills through thick and thin.
Even after Privatisation paid my dues and watched the my money going out to the directors and shareholders.
To hear that the directors and shareholders will not be hit for the costs of providing a world class service expected in 2023 and all I got is an apology with confirmation all consumers will be paying for the sorely needed upgrades.
Someone is having a cocking laugh.
What a joke. Where are the mass resignations? Enough is enough.
May 18, 2023
To attain the one billion tonne coal production target by the fiscal year 2025–26, state-run Coal India Ltd has developed 52 new coal mining projects, a company official said. In India, energy security comes first.
May 18, 2023
“Italy formally backed plans to reintroduce nuclear power plants into Italy’s energy mix this week. With worldwide energy consumption expected to grow by 50 percent by 2050, reliance on wind and solar alone to meet that demand is a pipe dream.”
May 18, 2023
This blog has given many examples that illustrate that not just nationalisation but the whole public sector as a general rule does not work in practice in economic terms. That is not just about a ‘Conservative’ outlook but is about pure economic reality and economic fact. There are at least two underlying, inherent reasons for this:
1) Under public sector ‘control’ there is no genuine financial discipline. While the private sector ultimately has to make a financial profit and so have at least that amount of financial discipline to continue to exist there is no such financial control mechanism in the public sector which results in losses (often indeterminate and uncontrollable losses) being funded by taxpayers.
2) Whereas in the private sector the owners (and usually the most senior managers as well) personally benefit financially from attracting and keeping customers combined with financial efficiency, in general in the public sector practically nobody cares too much about operational efficiency because nobody has anything much to personally gain financially from efficiency or lose through inefficiency – a recipe for inefficiency and economic disaster.
Contradicting the above points is economic unreality and mere emotive or sentimental nonsense.
May 19, 2023
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