I am publishing this today as it contains unfinished business onĀ monetary and fiscal policy.Ā It appeared in the Telegraph before the Autumn Statement. My schedule got too crowded to fit it in ahead of the Autumn Statement, but the issues deserve a further airing, particularly on bond sales and public spending.
The official advice in the run up to the Autumn Statement has been well leaked. It all seems designed to stop as many tax cuts as possible, at a time when the public and the Conservative Party are desperate to turn the tide of rising taxes and unleash some growth.
There is the doctrine of headroom. We are told based on OBR forecasts of deficits that are likely to prove as overstated as the past that there is little or no headroom for tax cuts. They never comment that there is no headroom for spending increases, which continue week after week with inflation of costs, plunging productivity and Ministerial announcements.
There is the doctrine that tax cuts cause inflation. Apparently from media accounts of this thinking a cut in Inheritance Tax is not inflationary because the money goes to someone rich enough not to need it or spend it. Any tax cut that goes to someone who does need it and spends it is automatically assumed to be inflationary. Then the same must be true of increases in benefits. I think we can afford some better news for the many with tax cuts that help get inflation down
The official viewĀ is all very bad economics. Money and credit play an important part in inflation. The Uk public sector refuses to apologise for an independent Bank creating huge quantities of money and the state borrowing large sums at near zero interest to spend. Surely these lie at the heart of the inflation we are living through. Japan and China facing the same price risesĀ of energy and food on the back of the Ukraine war did not have the same inflation we and theĀ EU had. Their Central banks did not step up the money printing and bond buying.
If the state borrows to spend more on services than it collects in taxes that is not necessarily inflationary. Borrowing the money to pay the bills takes that money away from the person or company that has the savings so they cannot spend it. It is if the banks areĀ awash with Bank of England createdĀ money and then lend it out as they did for property and other asset purchases that you get inflation. They do not warn us that borrowing more money to spend on state services or benefits is inflationary yet that must be true if tax cuts are inflationary. The aim of state spending is to give employees and benefit recipients more money to spend.
What I want to see is the end to the aggressive selling of bonds by the Bank sending huge bills for the losses to the taxpayer. That drives rates including mortgage rates still higher and flattens the economy more.Ā I want the bank to be able to cut rates a bit to price mortgages back for people who want to buy a home and to lend to companies that want to expand.
To do so we need lower inflation. So Chancellor, suspend VAT on domestic fuel. Cut fuel duty of petrol and diesel. Suspend carbonĀ taxes on heavyĀ energy using industries. These will directly cut the inflation rate. These are tax cuts to bring inflation down sooner and more.
As this happens so the Bank will be able to ease the squeeze. The Chancellor will have some flexibility even on pessimistic OBR numbers. He can add to this by selling all the shares in Nat West. He can delay some spending on carbon capture or turn to the private sector to finance it. He can pursue a drive to get the lostĀ productivity back in the public services. A recent big fall has cost us around Ā£30 bn extra for doing the same things.
He needs to boost output and capacity in theĀ economy. More services and goods on offer will help bring inflation down. The quickest and cheapest way to do this is to lift the VAT threshold for small business. Many of them want to do more and have the ability to do so. They do not becauseĀ they cannot face all the costs and compliance of registering for VAT.
He should reverse the changes to IR 35 . This measure blocks self employed people from getting contracts from businessesĀ nervous about being caught up in an argument with HMRCĀ about the tax Status of their sub contractor. He could lower their National insurance as well to provide more incentive. We have lost almostĀ 800,000 self employed since February 2020. We need to help them back. They would give us more supply, more flexibility, more choice.
Halving inflation this year is welcome but it is not job done. Key to growth and future prosperity is getting it down faster. Then we can have a better money and credit policy to boost jobs and growth. Tax cuts are essential to competitiveness, to promoting self employment and helping small business. Cheaper energy helps everyone, giving hope of a better Christmas with more to spend on good food and presents thanks to lower heating and driving bills. Growth brings more capacity and choice, removing inflation creating shortages
If only the government would break free from the gloomy advice and models at OBR and Bank which have given such wrong forecasts. If we set the same business tax rate as Ireland we would see our business revenues shoot up. Ireland gets four times as much business tax per head as we do by setting a much lower rate of tax.
November 28, 2023
The truth bomb is that two policies have created a huge disaster for the UK and the West in general.
1. Feminism has created a situation where both partners were encouraged to go to work. This created higher wealth which pushed up the price of houses. This then meant both partners had to go to work. So what used to be an option became a necessity. This meant child care was costly and led to falling birth rates.
2. Mass migration of low skilled labour due to demand by both ruthless low pay business models (such as taxis or delivery van drivers) or family rights to pull over low skilled partners has led to dilution of fiscal spending.
We are now in a situation where as the higher productive members of society retire the unproductive mass migrants and over stretched families will see a fiscal decline in services. Social tensions will lead to a further brain drain, rises in crime and a further fall in the standard of living.
November 28, 2023
Two worker households have no advantage which means that all households need t be two worker households.
If childcare was not provided in the name of equality and opportunity then fewer people would work because those two jobs are not paying for themselves.
Withdrawing support for nursery places for 0-5 year olds would go someway to redressing the balance as would household tax thresholds rather than individual tax thresholds. It can not be right that a couple earning Ā£60K keeps their child benefit and two NI and tax free amounts while a single Ā£60K earner pays 40% tax on a portion, loses child benefit and only gets one tax and NI free amount.
This is punitive not fair.
November 29, 2023
Final para is so inequitable.
November 29, 2023
They now both go out to earn half a wage each. We have no more workers than before. Either everyone in a family works or nobody does.
November 28, 2023
All to plan it seems. I know many in governing bodies and politics in general aren’t too bright, but surely the writing was on the wall for all to see of how such policies would play out.
I was left open mouthed at the cost of child care recently when talking to some young women my husband works with. They can really only be left with a paltry sum to contribute to the household after they’ve paid someone else to look after their children.
I was so shocked and thought maybe they were exaggerating that I did a bit of digging around to get an average.
They were not exaggerating.
November 28, 2023
JR, your party/govt. do not have enough time to con the public. Your best hope is the other half of your party under Starmer does something stupid and Reform give you a deal, like last time.
The record reflects false promises, project fear- Cameron is back, lies and deceit. It will not wash anymore. Sunak still not explained why your party deliberately lied (against many promises over many years) to allowed over 1-2 million into the country over the last two years! Boat people were not mentioned until Farage made it an issue, your party deliberately turned a blind eye- contrary to recent feigned concerned over their plight.
November 28, 2023
Your second point ā with all the Tory MPs now demanding a reduction in both legal & illegal migration, why did our dear leader pronounce yesterday the induction of a new work-visa to encourage even more into our country !
November 28, 2023
1. Agree, a consequence but many women who took twenty years out of their careers to raise their children have problems now with poor retirements. Perhaps we should encourage these women, once their children are in school, into childcare and social care by making the pay more attractive and following through with Truss’ ratios, they used to be able to do child-minding as an extra income but now it is too onerous to bother.
November 28, 2023
Dear Javelin,
That is a very succinct analysis of the state of affairs.
One might add:
1)Since 2005, UK business investment as a per cent of GDP has plunged to the lowest in the G7 and, on the latest comparison, total capital investment ranks 35th of the 38 OECD member countries, ahead of only Poland, Luxembourg and Greece. Investment is often the main engine of productivity growth and a fall in investment usually brings a fall in living standards.
2) Lockdown aside, we in the UK have consistently consumed more than we produce for 30 years or more . As a result, we owe ever more to people overseas and they own ever more of UK business and property.
November 28, 2023
1. also led to wealth initially increasing amongst those born approximately 1920-1965. That wealth is now draining away through retirement, tax on investment income, paying twice for healthcare, education etc., CGT and finally IHT, and draining through to 2. viz younger folk on benefits, building white elephants like HS2, working in white elephant services like the NHS, other public sector frippery jobs.
If you wanted a country to become poorer over 2-3 generations, it’s almost an ideal model.
November 28, 2023
I would suggest that successive governments desire for growth and the endless deregulation of credit is the main reason for house price growth. It used to be 10% deposit and 2.5 times one salary. Then they added 2.5 times one salary plus one times another. By the time New Labour and Northern Rock were in full swing, we were up to 5 times joint salary and no deposit. Then we had the ābanking crisisā and, horror of horror, the housing market stalled and prices fell. So they moved bank base rate down to as close to zero as makes no difference.
Now the housing market is stalling again. You can be certain the government is screaming at the BOE to lower base rate. One thing they canāt have is borrowing slowing down. We must al borrow to create growth.
November 28, 2023
Javelin: … points 1 & 2 are well made, but …
In my opinion you can’t ignore successive governments policies of destroying the currency and promoting credit rather than stable prices and a savings culture.
Inflation has completely destroyed the financial base of this country. House prices going up? Inflation. And it’s inflation of the currency that has made it impossible for a couple to survive on one salary alone.
Credit only pulls forward future demand. and excessive credit makes the situation worse. We’ve been on a never before seen ( in magnnitude ) credit binge over the last sixty years. But now both the individual and State is borrowed to the maximum. And in the case of the US government, is approaching the situation where interest payments on its debt will be more than its tax revenue.
This might of course, just be part of the plan. When the currency collapses, introduce the CBDC that the Bank of England has waiting in the wings.
Welcome to your new serfdom.
November 28, 2023
Javelin,
Spot on. Today the state loads the dice against married women who stay at home. What is particularly egregious is that a mother and father are no taxed as a family. This is in contrast to Germany where there is much less pressure for a mother to go out to work.
November 28, 2023
‘There is the doctrine that tax cuts cause inflation’. Yes, this is indeed a State bureaucracy lie to justify maintaining a tight grip on our cash rather than handing it back to those who earn it and are indeed the moral owners of this liquidity.
The State’s become a parasitic vested interest with a political and ideological agenda and this authoritarian construct demands higher taxes. They can justify this by arguing tax cuts are inflationary but we know this is blatant scam, scummy lie.
if inflation is too much money chasing too few goods then the State spending our money as opposed to the people saving any income given back in tax cuts then we can see that it is the State itself that is by and large to blame for inflation not the civil population who spend their own money in a wise and prudent manner
It is quite simple. Keynesian Socialism is a cancer, always has been and always will be and those who promote the Keynesian doctrine are a direct threat to our freedom
Odd really, when you think Keynes was a very successful speculator in stocks and yet wrote so much crap about finance. A proper split personality but then that’s your average Socialist limpet, full of crap
November 28, 2023
Nicely put.
November 28, 2023
It is our money earned by the sweat of our own brow and people simply do not realise this. I suppose it’s because they don’t see it in their hands or bank account that they are easily lulled into believing it’s none of their business, and the government has every right to waste it as it sees fit. All the tax credits and child care credits handed out is only people being ‘allowed’ to have some of their own money back. That’s if you’re lucky.
This goes hand in hand with so many people stuck in the mindset that those we lend our vote to have every right to then dictate to us on every level.
Imagine if tax wasn’t taken at source and invoices sent through every month detailing what you had to pay for the upkeep of mass immigration, for fantasy vanity projects that went over budget and no one wanted, for consultants perks, quango’s and the hangers on salaries…..the list is endless, and people wouldn’t be quite so docile about it.
November 28, 2023
Tax cuts could only possibly be inflationary if they increased the money supply but the government is doing quite well in that department all by itself with all its money printing and borrowing. Maybe stop giving so much money away in benefits. Inflation is reducing yet 6.7% has already been awarded in benefits increases from April – that must be inflationary and that is our money.
10% increase in the minimum wage and the differentials that will need to be maintained in higher salaries. The supermarket pride themselves on paying about minimum wage so we will ay more for our shopping.
Let us keep our own money and choose what to spend it on rather than having it taken from us with threat.
Governments have no money, only what they can take from taxpayers.
November 28, 2023
Yet more dreadful excess death figures from all around the Covid vaccinated world. See latest Dr John Campbell video. Yet still many countries push them even at babies. Still no proper UK investigations into this nor the excess baby deaths timing with mothers vaccinations.
So Sunak claims immigration numbers are “slowing” I thouht he was supposed to be good at maths. Numbers go up (increase) or come down (decrease) or stay the same Rishi. What exactly do you mean by “slowing”. Inflation still going up a 2.5 tines the target is that Slowing too?
November 28, 2023
Keep the pressure on, SJR, and stop this heist. For starters we’ve got to disentangle ourselves from the IMF, UN, BIS, WEF, WHO and the ECHR.
November 28, 2023
Yes! No need for us to co-operate with anyone, we can solve all the problems we face by just passing laws in Westminster. Such as small boats – that didn’t exist before Brexit, when we had Treaties of co-operation that addressed the issue, but now do exist. Just pass a law to tell them to stop, eh?
November 28, 2023
Stop paying the French to look the other way, and we should push back the small boats mid-channel, telling the French we will not let them come here accept them back.
November 28, 2023
Lemming: “when we had Treaties of co-operation that addressed the issue,”
This article in the Independent dated from 2016, gives the lie to your assertion. There were ‘asylum seekers’ before Brexit and they were getting across the channel either via the Tunnel or in boats.
By the way, the treaties of co-operation with France, operated outside the auspices of the European Union. As far as I’m aware they were bilateral agreements between France and the UK. But as usual, France doesn’t care to stem the flow of ‘asylum seekers’, because if they are the UK’s problem, they are no longer France’s problem.
November 29, 2023
No boats Lemming, there were enough Ferry stowaways in Irish Lorries, still happening but to a much smaller %. We need to do more to check our cargo lorries in winter from Calais because you can’t trust the French authorities to do what we pay them to do and guard their own border.
November 28, 2023
Indeed and all the Net Zero religion that Sunak is so fooled by.
But in his speech yesterday Sunak finally seem to have realised that:-
āThe purest expression of this governmentās economic philosophyā¦
ā¦is that people and businesses make far better decisions about their own moneyā¦
ā¦than any government could.
And I believe that by allowing you to keep more of the return on your capitalā¦ā
But he is still clearly doing the complete reverse.
He also claims āAnd make no mistake, we are cutting taxesā So clearly Sunak is deluded or just blatantly lying. Taxes are still going up hugely mate as you surely must know.
Sunak even allows anyone from a global top fifty university to freely come to the UK. So sociology or theology at say Manchester might even qualify on some university rankings? But not maths, engineering, medicine or physics at say Southampton, Warwick, Glasgow, Birminghamā¦ what mad arbitrary lunacy is this Suank?
November 28, 2023
Correction, the scheme seems to exclude UK universities as there are other routes for these graduates but loads of duff degrees at overseas universities would qualify.
It also seems it has to be a new degree within 2 years so an engineer, medical doctor or physicist who qualifies three years back finds his degree has expired but a sociology student 1 year back fine cone in.
November 28, 2023
Yes Radar, agreed. And anyone with any connection at all to WEF should be ineligible for public office.
November 28, 2023
So many on that list are deeply entrenched in our institutions. They’ve had years to bed in, with little to no resistance. They are very adept at ousting their enemies by any means. I think we’ve just witnessed their handiwork with Braverman’s sacking.
The media is used to full effect to whip up a storm and have anyone removed that may be a danger to the power of those on your list.
November 28, 2023
I see several countries are now pulling out of the WHO treaty changes including New Zealand stating that they will lose sovereignty over their health care. Our Government blindly continues to support these treaty changes, they will then wring their hands once they have lost the power to control this organisation which is run by certain billionaires and pharma corporations for their own benefit. We need to continue to put pressure on the sheep in parliament to speak out about this betrayal of the British people.
November 28, 2023
+1 it is appallig that Sunak supports his lunacy.
November 28, 2023
Good article it todays Telegraph highlights the Liberal vision of mass immigration us falling apart.
As the country is flooded with more third world immigrants the public services will fall to their level.
Whole swathes of employment has been taken over by Immigrants which effectively bars our own from getting on the employment ladder.
A British citizen in universal credit cannot afford to get a minimum wage job as he won’t be protected by his extended family.
There will be trouble ahead.
November 28, 2023
We pay billions to all those alphabet soup organisation so that they can tell us what to do ā¦.madness
November 28, 2023
And NATO.
November 28, 2023
I admire you for trying Sir John, but you’re flogging a dead horse.
Blair and Brown created a politicised and institutionally left wing Civil Service/Quangocracy and their Heirs, Cameron and Osborne, reinforced and extended it. The LibCONs who dominate the Not-a-Conservative-Party don’t WANT to change it, which is why Cameron has been brought back.
We haven’t had a Conservative Prime Minister since Mrs Thatcher was ousted. Sunak is a Globalist and, as we heard in his comments yesterday inviting yet more immigrants to come here, he just considers the UK to be an Economy which can be propped up with ever-more immigration. He has no interest in the NATION or the British people.
A NATION is defined as “a large body of people united by common descent, history, culture, or language, inhabiting a particular country or territory.”
The LibCONs are destroying the UK’s common descent, history and culture. The Globalists want to destroy western nation states and Sunak is their willing executioner in the UK.
November 28, 2023
Sunak claims to be the son in law of India. With so many relatives actually living there is there not a conflict of interest where he insists on immigration linked to trade deal with India? Trade deals have nothing to do with immigration!
The election cannot come soon enough to get rid of theses lib socialists. I cannot even bear to watch ministers like Atkinson talking! I have to change channels. Even Trott speaking rot about immigration, did she look at the national breakdown of numbers before speaking utter crap?
November 28, 2023
Well said!
A catastrophic deception.
Nothing short of blatant fraud really.
And nobody thought to inform the electorate until it was too late!
November 28, 2023
Good Morning,
Well, just a bit more tinkering around the edges rather than addressing the real problems. Why not look at the largest expenses of government and see what’s not needed, can be moved to the private sector or made more efficient.
1. Net Zero — has this been costed, how much are we spending this year and the next 5 years?
2. The Civil Service — at least Sir J has this on his radar, but is anybody listening?
3. The NHS — keep shovelling money at it, because it sounds good. Top down review and make it efficient.
4. Foreign Aid — we have to borrow every penny we send abroad and to foreign agencies — STOP IT.
There’s a start, I’m sure others have better ideas.
PS control of Money Supply is the main driver of interest rates…
November 28, 2023
Dodgy data and dodgy reasoning are at the heart of too much government policy as you point out. They are the ruin of the nation.
November 28, 2023
A PM and Chancellor who would have carried out something like this programme were dumped out of office after only a few weeks last year. That tells us what anyone trying to reform the dysfunctional political economy of this country will face.
‘Who runs the country?’ used to be the question to be asked vis-a-vis the government and the unions. Now the question is whether elected politicians will decide what happens, or a cabal of globalist financiers. It’s looking very much like the latter. Sir John’s efforts to promote the economic interests of people in this country are not getting an audience in the corridors of power because that’s not what’s wanted. A prosperous, sovereign Britain being rewarded economically for breaking free of the EU cannot be allowed, from a globalist perspective. Otherwise other European countries would follow, threatening the model in which an integrated Europe is easier to direct, than a lot of countries taking their own decisions.
‘Taking back control’ is not only unfinished business, it’s an existential struggle, and it’s seen as such by those in international finance who want to keep control.
November 28, 2023
“…. a time when the public and the Conservative Party are desperate to turn the tide of rising taxes and unleash some growth”.
Bit of a bold claim there John – where’s the evidence that the Conservative Party want to do that ? I mean they’re in power with a majority so there’s nothing to stop them if they actually wanted to do that.
The BoE have noticed that they attract bad publicity when they put up interest rates directly so they have switched to putting up rates indirectly by selling bonds which is a mechanism that fewer people, including the media, understand but has exactly the same effect. I assume Sunak/Hunt understand it but are happy to keep quiet because they agree with it.
November 28, 2023
Tax cuts by their very nature leave those who pay tax, with more income to spend.
Inheritance tax cuts do not benefit the rich, because they by virtue of that tax they are dead, the inheritance goes to those who are younger and probably less well off, and so is thus more likely to be spent.
With money being spent or even saved, tax will be still be paid in many ways by those whom sell a variety of goods or services, even savers pay tax on invested income, thus even with tax cuts the Government coffers still get filled, but in a more variable and indirect way.
Disposable money spent keeps businesses and service industries moving, keeps people employed, and should mean fewer benefit payment are needed.
Much better to have a low tax system that allows money to circulate, especially when it is taxed on virtually every transaction with VAT, taxed on employment of people NI, taxed on wages paid, Income Tax, taxed on premises Business Rates and Council Tax, Taxed on personal Savings, in fact we are already taxed to death IHT.
When is enough not enough ?
When the Government wastes so much !
November 28, 2023
Sadly there is nothing to show for highest taxation in 70 years! Just historic debts and debt interest!
November 28, 2023
A recent big fall costing us 30bn may seem difficult to balance. However, if we sell back the Elgin Marbles to Greece with all the other artefacts they have exported to us we may be in credit. Tatty holiday souvenirs like clay bowls are naturally part of their land and belong in their country of origin. A rebate on those and doner kebabs may be a healthy improvement.
November 28, 2023
Our search for UK growth is about as rewarding as looking for UFOs.
November 28, 2023
Good to see GB news airing on prime time the scandal of mass import of cheap workers from India, and by implication abuse of intra company transfer visas, way too many indefinite leave to remain visas being issued simply for working here a while.
As for rishis latest wheeze that “anyone from one of the top 50 universitys in the world can bring their family here for two years” he can get stuffed, the last thing we need is more PPE grads and family. No way.
Let’s have some elections. Leadership election. General election. Anything but this lying.
November 28, 2023
It is frightening to think people making decisions about the UK finances are so ignorant of basic economics.
In all the discussions, you never hear the PM, Chancellor or the majority of MPs calling for serious reductions in Government spending. That is the root of the problem, they are addicted to spending and lack the courage and determination to say NO! The Government has spent more than its income for 20-plus years, and still, they don’t get it. Where there is no vision, the people perish!
November 28, 2023
What really holds back growth is the delusion that government can do anything but hinder the economy. Every time you come up with some policy that allows private industry to do better all it is in reality is reducing the interference and theft. The boom time under Maggie was a slight relaxation of the death grip bureacracy and the inland revenue had on the country. Industry and enterprise is now staggering under the massive weight of Westminster and Whitehall and their enormous dual assault of the covid fraud and the climate fraud. Add to that the death toll from the vaccine fraud and it’s astonishing that there isn’t total collapse.
November 28, 2023
I look upon it perhaps simplisticly, do not spend what you do not have. Government has tax in all its myriad forms, some of it second time around tax on the already taxed, such as IHT. There may be a case for government to borrow to fund legitimate capital projects after rigorous cost benefit analysis. HS2 is the antithesis of this, a ribbon cutting project of little virtue. Government must end the bond means of paying for things that tax doesn’t cover. Bonds are ultimately tax that falls on the individual, credit he cannot afford, and along with money printing they reduce the value of assets and add to inflation. Too much chasing too little equals inflation. An economy orchestrated by idiots.
November 28, 2023
@ agricola“… do not spend what you do not have” – you just lost the Keynsians!
November 28, 2023
Sir John, you are talking into the wind and this Government is just ignoring you. Surely you can see by now that Sunak and his cronies have no desire to improve our country. These people whose masters are global organisations are just sucking the last of the wealth out of our country. Your party has been destroyed from within. What a shame that voters gave you an 80+ majority and you have squandered in on inane net zero and woke policies.
November 28, 2023
You show once again that things do not have to be the bad way they are.
November 28, 2023
On the Bank’s bond losses, my own M.P. has failed to respond at all since I provided a copy of your 23rd., September diary so alas it is still 649 to 1 of parilamentarians looking out for the people. I continue to chase an answer.
November 28, 2023
The points Sir John raises in his article once again highlight why he should have more influence in the economic management of the country ; why his knowledge is disregarded is a great mistake . Too many errors of judgement have been made by the BoE and the OBR resulting in a higher cost of living for everyone and , now , the inevitable consequence of a Labour win . Japan is a good example of sticking to reliable economic practices resulting in a stable growth pattern and continuity of their manufacturing and employment . The entire community of the UK is crying out for stimulation and our present rot has to be eliminated.
November 28, 2023
“… at a time when the public and the Conservative Party are desperate to turn the tide of rising taxes and unleash some growth”
Hmmm. Really? Which part of the Conservative Party would that be then?
Last time I checked that same party had a massive majority. The Chancellor is a Conservative Party member. The entire government in fact. So they could make whatever they believe come true.
The grass roots membership may think that, but clearly the parliamentary party don’t.
Oh wait – perhaps you weren’t counting them? But then, why would you – after all, they’re 90% Lib Dems.
November 28, 2023
+1
Spot on
November 28, 2023
Isn’t it remarkable that twitter is showing corrections to the home secretarys statements, clearly laying out why they are wrong.
Far better holding politicians to account than we get from the opposition or main stream media.
November 28, 2023
One of my responsibilities way back was to prepare and monitor a budget of around Ā£15m pa. It was capital and maintenance in property.
Base expentures were constant. We did a regular number of projects, each would run a year, or two. On maintenance we did annual maintenance and repair inspections of each property. Totals varied of course when submitted but with experience I could chop a bit off or add bits to the gross totals without identifying which jobs would be too optimistic and which would be underestimated.
We were not ruined by politicians grandstanding and wanting to change things to get themselves attention.
Nation management costs are pretty constant. If we take road potholes. It ought to be known how much is needed annually. It is known to be essential and vital work, but clearly polititians local or national dare not commit and protect it. Clearly any allocation is subject to raids. Everything will fail if nothing is built in.
After a while it became quite easy. I knew the nature of the work they were doing and I was only little sums adrift one way or the other each year.
And why does the country not have a Sovereign Fund? If we had created one when we left the EU and put into it an annual sum around what we had been paying to EU each year it would be quite big now.
I said no-one would notice the benefits in not having one and they do not.
We are led by incompetents, cowards and braggarts.
November 28, 2023
Hang on a carbon picking mo though.
Donāt our true leaders believe that TAXES are the primary tool to make businesses more sustainable?
So every resource ā¦every useless little carbon belching unit of consumption must be taxed to the hilt.
And sadly that means us.
Goodness knows what use the blinking planet will be when we have all been taxed into oblivion.
November 28, 2023
In response to Michael Gove mentioning that many people (surely correctly) think Covid was a lab leak after gain of function experiments the KC suggested this was not something the enquiry wished to explore. But this is hugely relevant to the covid response. What a sick joke this vastly expensive enquiry is.
The question they should mainly address are.
Was it a lab leak, who was funding this experimentation, if so was it accidental or deliberate? Who else is doing such dangerous thing and why.
Did the UK and other lock downs do more harm than good? Clearly yes.
Why did the preplanning say no to lockdowns but then the government switched to pro-lockdowns. Why and who made this huge mistake.
Did the vaccines do more harm than good? Clearly yes looking at the excess death figure, baby deaths, the timings, heart issue, cancer and other evidence.
Why was the NHS so poorly prepared?
How can we do better in future.
November 28, 2023
Another sick joke:-
āVirgin Atlantic plane powered by a blend of waste cooking oil, animal fats and other unorthodox fuels took off from Londonās Heathrow airport bound for New York on Tuesday, a flight the aviation industry hailed as a milestone in its complex and controversial push to decarbonise.ā in the FT today.
Do these dopes at Virgin & in the āaviation industryā really think this makes any sense or ādecarbonisesā even using animal fat too? How many cows fat is needed for London to new york and how many acres to grow them. I assume just a moronic PR stunt for the gullible. Makes even less sense scientifically and environmentally that our King of Climate Hypocrisy running his Aston Martin on waste wine and cheese which is hard to beat!
November 28, 2023
Sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) are defined as renewable or waste-derived aviation fuels that meets sustainability criteria. Technical analysis done at International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) which is a United Nations agency
(1) The UN again controlling world events
(2) Its very very very very expensive
November 28, 2023
Oh come on …. it was “magic oil” that didn’t require acres of land to produce, either as Palm Oil, Rapeseed, sunflower or animal fats.
Perhaps the Eco Nutters will next suggest that we return to using whale oil.
November 28, 2023
Did people living near Heathrow smell fish & chips in the air?
November 28, 2023
Javelin,
Spot on. Today the state loads the dice against married women who stay at home. What is particularly egregious is that a mother and father are no taxed as a family. This is in contrast to Germany where there is much less pressure for a mother to go out to work.
November 28, 2023
Correct ā Weāre all going to be a long time dead when the covid inquiry concludes that they were just following the science and their best efforts at the time
November 29, 2023
Anyone who ignores the MSM, particularly the BBC, and does a bit of digging already knows the answer to the lab leak question and who was funding it (hint … the same people who participated in email debates about how they were going to manage the situation and suppress debate). They also know who was doing it and why.
Of course, all this was declared to be dis-information and any scientist or medic who deviated from the official narrative was traduced and cancelled.
If you genuinely don’t know the answer to these questions, I suggest you start with Senator Rand Paul’s questioning of Anthony Fauci on You Tube.
November 28, 2023
What the story with Gove and his animated arm/hands at the covid inquiry
November 28, 2023
Dear Sir John,
On the latest numbers, Natwest shares yield the Government about 7.5 per cent dividend income, well above the current cost of government debt. So why is it in taxpayers’ financial interest to sell the shares at current prices in order to reduce headline borrowing?
November 28, 2023
+1
November 28, 2023
@ outsider – might it not be prudent to sell whilst the share price holds up? Retail banks may not have a bright future.
November 29, 2023
It’s not, it is idealogical. The Tories hate anything owned by the nation, unless of course the nations doing owning are foreign. We’ve sold off the family silver and have nothing to show for it – all wasted. We bought the Natwest shares at a high price and now they are making profits they want to sell them at a huge loss rather than keep them. The money raised would just be wasted again, like our oil revenues and all the privatisations, most of which have been disastrous. WEF says ‘you will own nothing and be happy’. The country now owns virtually nothing and we are not happy.
November 28, 2023
Oh look, Cameron telling us that Brexit would put a bomb under our economy, just before 30 minutes in here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001sx3x/politics-live-28112023
He must have known that was not true, but now he is back in government and well placed to feed us more lies.
November 28, 2023
I’ve just been listening to this chap, who was raised to GCMG in the 2016 New Year Honours list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Fraser_(diplomat)
stating as proven facts that the EU is our biggest market – it isn’t , because for UK producers by far their biggest market is the UK home market – and Brexit has already caused severe economic damage – it hasn’t, because the economic impact of EU membership has always been marginal, and probably marginally negative – and getting worse – it isn’t, because UK businesses are gradually adapting to whatever limited disruption that it caused.
November 28, 2023
“The Conservative Party are desperate to turn the tide of rising taxes and unleash some growth.”
If that is true John, why was not Truss given a chance? Could it be that the need appear as a tax-cutting party in time for the coming election is more important than the county’s prosperity?
November 28, 2023
and growth of an unusual kind-
Finland is closing its entire Russian border after accusing Moscow of deliberately helping asylum seekers get to crossing points. Seven of eight have already shut since a rise in crossings earlier this month.
The government now says the last one, located in the Arctic Circle, will close on Thursday for two weeks.
According to Finland, around 900 asylum seekers entered Finland from Russia in November, up from fewer than one a day on average previously.
They come from countries including Morocco, Pakistan and Syria, authorities say.
Finland is “determined to put an end to the crossings”, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said in a statement.
The government says Russia is channelling asylum seekers towards Finland in what it calls an “influence operation” and “hybrid attack”, and has progressively closed more and more border posts.
November 29, 2023
The Barents Observer reports (16/11) that next year all Russian high schools will introduce the compulsory subject of “Basics of Security and Protection of the Motherland”.According to Minister of Enlightenment,Sergei Krasov,this will include military theory and drone flying.
Russia is being militarised somewhat on the Chechen model.I’ve just watched film of another large Chechen formation moving out of the Caucasus on it’s way to Ukraine (armed to the teeth- a most fearsome sight)to cries of “Allahu Akbar”,reflecting the religious overtones of this war.
November 28, 2023
All this, while good to read, is however largely irrelevant, and tinkering at improvements needed to failures brought about by a strata of elites who have no understanding of the real world on the ground here. England does not exist in their minds or bodies of course, as they never mention its name.
Revolution and destruction of them is the only thing which will get improvements and attention as they will not change. We need protection.
Our nation and society are being destroyed deliberately in organisations through elevating people not because of any proven superior ability. It is because they are not like us and don’t wish to be, and often because of their appalling views. Evidence is all around and government encourages it.
And those who object and criticise are vilified by media and polititians, or arrested by our morally, politically and religiously corrupted police. Mass immigration is getting its ways adopted, and acceptance of their insults is forced on us while appeasing their daily threats, because our leaders and authorities are afraid of them.
November 28, 2023
UK Growth? Yes I can see much of it under this government. Growth in Civil Service power and growth in numbers employed in just about every Government Department.
Growth in the economy? Not necessary, when we can print our own money. Now was that the guiding principle supporting our QE programme? It certainly seems so, now.
November 28, 2023
Questions are often asked here about the BoE – why doesn’t the Bank do X? Why does it continue with Y? etc
This piece may give some insight:
https://unherd.com/2023/11/the-bank-of-england-is-out-of-control-andrew-bailey/
I would be interested in our host’s views on this. If there’s any element of truth in this, it would make for an interesting piece on this site?
November 28, 2023
Cameron back in government is great news. Now, at last, he can crack on with the Bonfire of the QUANGOS and, of course, he is THE MAN to get immigration down to the ātens of thousandsā. We are blessed and lucky to have him.
November 28, 2023
Lol
November 29, 2023
MW: He’s reported today also to be sorting out Spain & Gibraltar already. Just like that ! Emerging at the same time are hints of a big welcome back UK from the mighty Brussels…..
November 29, 2023
“Call me Dave” has been in Brussels today, doing in the side entrance as he doesn’t want photos of him going in put in the papers.
November 29, 2023
Forelocks duly tugged.
November 28, 2023
It is not we who need convincing, Sir John. It is your colleagues, who even with an 80-seat majority cannot summon up the moral courage to defend the Union, stop the Treasury, OBR and BoE between them from trashing the economy, leave the ECHR and UNWRA, reduce immigration, and replace the judiciary – for the truth is that none of these issues will be solved as long as those who have profited for a lifetime from the fees earned by lawyers and politicians from UK legal aid and court-ordered compensation as well as EU and international human rights tribunals and quangos will ever rule against those interests.
November 29, 2023
+1
November 29, 2023
Yes, a simple fact never seems to occur to people: lawyers don’t make money when people agree.
Nor do they make any money when legislation is clear.
The legal profession is a self-perpetuating one, which seems to operate behind a code of silence on the above statements (shhh – don’t tell them that we write legislation so that it can be argued over later).
I regularly have to review contracts and request that clauses are amended/reviewed. I often marvel at the fatc that anyone would write a clause so stupid in a contract, almost begging to be removed. And of course, the other parties have to consult their legal people and the meter is running…
We could do with a realisation of this in parliament. Perhaps part of an “MP training course”. If MPs are going to suggest amendments to legislation, this seems an essential skill (which 99% of them don’t have).
December 2, 2023
John, we have a real problem that the background culture of controlled economic decline, industrial sabotage and cultural self-destruction is all we have been capable in the last forty years. We need a major shift in policies and a major change in mind-set across all the leaders of Parliament, big-business, civil-service, media and education to rescue us.
We need to get personal and business taxes down, the cost of energy down, get UK youth in a position where the young men can work in manufacturing, science and engineering jobs to make stuff here. Manual labour should pay enough to afford accommodation, food, clothing and support for an entire family. The advent of stupid woke subjects in education, mass immigration, unbalanced trade deals favouring mass importation of goods and food from abroad and stupid climate based industry stifling policies at home are to blame. We do need a GREAT RESET, but not the one envisaged by Claus Schwabb at the WEF, those at the UN in agenda 2030 nor our King.
We need a back to the future, Thatcherite take us back the 1980s Great Reset. The current ideologies and policies on everything are destroying the culture, economy and future of this country. We need food grown here with our people in the fields and farmers using the best machinery and tech to help them. We need to focus on nuclear and fossil fuel energy and ensure we secure long-term supplies from domestic mines/wells and from long-term overseas partners in politically and economically stable countries.
We need an end to woke in government, in business, the civil service and education… it forces economic and cultural post-modern neo-Marxism on us and when it isn’t doing that it is fixated on allowing Islamism to take us over. It all needs to be swept away. If it is not done soon we will either be a third-world country living under Sharia or the remaining capable people, realising that democracy has failed them, will need to rise up and try to save themselves by other more direct means.
* Drop taxes
* Drop interest rates
* Drop government spending
* Stop issuing immigration visas of any kind
* Really incentivise people economically and socially to marry and have kids
* Collect and send back all people arriving by boat across the channel to where they departed from within hours, with no right to appeal.
* Leave all charters, pacts, treaties etc on climate, on refugees etc with the UN, EU or other
* Disband all QUANGOs and funding to NGOs and be very careful of following advice from single-issue think-tanks and ‘expert groups’ pushing political / policy outcomes.
* Look to get energy and food security from how it is sourced and how the energy system is operated
> Electricity generated from coal, gas and nuclear
> GB coal mining, gas and oil extraction and have our own refining capacity and transport networks; Long term contracts with reserves overseas at fixed long-term prices
> Build up agricultural and industry / manufacturing capacity to mine, refine, manufacture in GB and employ British people.
> Educate people to stop worrying about EDI and ESG nonsense and get on with learning how to do stuff useful to making Britain great economically, industrially and culturally again. Enough of the diversity based destruction of our country.
> Change the BBC charter and School Syllabus to teach about real history, how great GB and European history is, to love our culture and values and to love STEM subjects too. End the dominance and tyranny of WOKE.
Then we can be great again