Yesterday I criticised 3 big boom/ bust cycles that came from Bank action and establishment thinking. In each case they ignored money and credit.
The 1975 inflation high peak followed a doubling of broad money 1970-4 as a result of a badly supervised switch to competition and credit control policy by the Bank.
The 1992 inflation followed a 36% surge in broad  money 1989-92, brought on by the dangerous  European Exchange rate mechanism. IMF figures clocked broad money growth peaking  at 86% when the Bank and Treasury were creating billions of pounds  to try to keep the value  of the pound down to the permitted target. They then saw it plunge to a low of minus 28% when the Bank was busily buying in pounds trying to get the value back up to the target after the inflation sank the currency.
The 2008-9 banking boom followed and created a 66% surge in broad money Q1 2009 compared to Q 12005. Over the Labour years 1997 to 2010 money growth trebled.
The more recent inflation followed 30% money growth 2020 to 2023.
I set out the case against the European Exchange Rate Mechanism before we entered. I urged the government to turn down the Bank and Treasury advice. I explained it could lead  to  excessive money or too little. It led to both. I took the quoted company I led  out of the CBI because the CBI refused to accept ERM membership would be damaging.
In the run up to the crash of 2009 I supported the Opposition in Parliament who regularly  warned of excessive credit expansion and government overborrowing.
This time round I warned against the continuation of QE during 2021-2 as inflationary. More recently I switched to warning against excessive bond sales as recessionary.
Why do the Bank and Treasury persist with boom/ bust policies?
April 16, 2024
Good morning.
The simple answer to that question is, they don’t !
I think each example our kind host gives has to be taken in isolation. They were all, in their own way, different times.
In the 1970’s the UK had an industrial economy and a lot of Council Housing. The 1980’s saw much change. From a large industrial base to a Service based economy we saw London grow whilst the rest of the country fell behind. The late 90’s saw the growth of MASS IMMIGRATION and more power going to the EU and the ECB. Whilst this did not affect us as much as others, we still had to maintain certain rules.
Today we are led to believe that we are out of the EU. But even so, we still follow many of their rules.
Against this backdrop of massive changes, our economic models have to be revised. Models are always relying on ‘past’ data and changes in political authority mean that they are always trying to catch up.
What is needed is stability. But you will not get that from a political party and government that has changed is PM 5 times in 14 years.
April 16, 2024
”In each case they ignored money and credit.” Hullo… Money supply, government borrowing… household and industry debt…
I must be in a different dimension.
Not long ago our host was suggesting BoE held Gilts should be written off, or Netted, as they were effectively borrowing from themselves. Not at all inflationary…..
Someone is confused…
April 16, 2024
So every factor was different – apart from the quantity of money introduced to the system.
Even so you refuse to learn from JR.
If we understood why you remain so obdurate or incapable of learning, we might understand why the BOE, your fellow traveller, regularly crashed the British economy.
April 16, 2024
Sir John Redwood. A voice in the wilderness.
April 16, 2024
@Mark B – elected to serve then refuse, required to manage then refuse. But, the Conservative Government while maliciously refusing to manage the economy and their expenditure they certainly know how to tax. A tax and spend with a pure Socialist mentality, determined to leave nothing for us minions to use to recover.
April 16, 2024
Yes but the article makes clear that this hasn’t only happened over the past 14 years. Somehow more successful economies have managed to avoid cash losing value like the ÂŁ, whilst maintaining lower and more stable interest rates. Our host doesn’t mention external shocks-oil in 1975, sub-prime in 08, energy, lockdown in 20-21.
Every time it seems that instead of buffeting against these shocks, the UK has managed to amplify them. Sunak printing and wasting during an unnecessary lockdown, Brown propping up hopeless RBS and bullying Lloyds into a ridiculous takeover, Major having no buffet against the ÂŁ rollercoasting on its ERM journey, and the UK as an oil economy being somehow unable to sell forward into the oil shock of the early 70s.
It all reeks of expediency and incompetence by PMs and Chancellors guided by unelected bureaucrats.
April 17, 2024
A successful economy is much easier to manage. It naturally creates enough economic surplus to fund government spending to cover current spending and amortisation of assets (I.e. depreciation and interest) out of taxation. It runs a trade surplus that allows the funding of overseas investments that over time produce an investment return in a virtuous circle. There is no pressure on the exchange rate, and inflation is controlled by diverting surplus money into investment which has to be sound enough to earn a real return.
The economy of the Industrial Revolution or modern China. However, impose costs via strikes, furlough for no work, high cost energy, excessive green imposition on farming, high cost transport, low productivity medical care etc. and the economy soon becomes unmanageable and uncompetitive, with the exchange rate under pressure from a chronic trade deficit only financed by selling off and mortgaging the country’s assets, and deficit financing constantly threatening leakage into an inflationary spiral.
April 18, 2024
âHowever, impose costs via strikes, furlough for no work, high cost energy, excessive green imposition on farming, high cost transport, low productivity medical careâ
Indeed plus vast over regulation everywhere, mad employment laws, open door immigration & the many other cost of net zero all of which Sunakâs moronic government seems to delight in
April 17, 2024
Well, you might expect a government to change leader 3 times in a 14-year period as election periods only last five years max. The other two were rather careless đ When people quit what can you do?
April 16, 2024
Andrew Bailey was a poor appointment as Bank of England Governor.
Clearly the staff at the bank have been crying out for a Governor with the right credentials.
April 16, 2024
Very poor indeed he had already been a disaster as head of the FCA giving everyone 40% to 78% personal rip off overdrafts demonstrating just how unsuitable he was, but he does know a bit about the history of the Cotton Industry in Lancashire it seems. Mark Carney PPE was a climate alarmist pushing disaster too.
April 16, 2024
Mr Redwood dare not call for his replacement or any other poor leader.
I hear that Liz Truss is brave enough however. Presumably Mr Redwood ought to criticise her as he has others who go for names.
April 16, 2024
The views of the last Governor but one (Mervyn King) seem pretty sensible, perhaps unusual for a central banker. In his 2016 book he strongly criticised fractional reserve banking which, in the early/mid 20th.C was not seen as the right way to go. Alternatives to it would have *stopped bank runs*. He opined that democracy gets sacrificed if countries attempt to transfer any major powers to supranational organisations.
He put his name to a 2022 Lords report suggesting that a CBDC may well not work and could cause financial instability. Instability … that’s just what we need 6 years post-peak oil. Matters look pretty unstable anyway due to falling living standards, especially among the ‘bottom 90%’.
April 17, 2024
There must be a pool of reasonably competent quangocrats and bankers who would do a better job than the DIEed in the wool ESGulfed incumbents. It is a key issue to identify them and be prepared to have them take over in future.
April 16, 2024
Exactly and why indeed do the Bank amd Treasury persist with boom and bust policies? Incompetence, group think, self interest, corruption?
April 16, 2024
Power! And they are personally unaffected – or maybe they are not? There is a lot of money to be made if you dodge the bust and buy in before the boom.
April 16, 2024
@Lifelogic – wielding unaccountable political power that this Conservative Government is tolerating, then taxing us more to pay up – for fear of being usurped, briefed against and undermined. A Government in fear of what they see as their boss
April 16, 2024
Sunakâs smoking ban bill today is clearly mad let us hope as many as possible reject this lunacy.
The BBC Today programme had Prof. Sir Chris Whitty (Chief Medical Officer) on about 8.12am. They asked him about the mad smoking and vapes bill then about the Cass Report (which basically point out the blindingly obvious irreversible harms that have been done to many young children).
Also on obesity levels but, needless to say, the BBC chose not to ask Sir Chris about the vastly larger problems caused by Covid âVaccinesâ coerced into people and children who often had zero need of the and have clearly done appalling net damage to hundreds of thousands.
When will we get a Cass style review on the appalling errors made with the net harm Covid Vaccines.
Truss seems broadly right in her BBC podcast interview with Chris Mason (Newscast). Chris is a BBC lefty but for a BBC person, is clearly rather brighter than most of their dopes. Geography at Christâs College Camb. it seems. He goes on about the political sensitivity of the word âchoiceâ choice (and free, fair & unrigged markets) always seems rather better than âno choiceâ to me.
April 16, 2024
Just why would the BBC have Chris Whittey on the programme and not ask him a single question about the vast Covid Vaccines harms. Would he, for example, agree with Rishi Sunak that the vaccines were âunequivocally safeâ depite all the very clear statistics showing the complete reverse. Was this lack of âVaccineâ questioning agreed in advance by Whitty and the absurd BBC propaganda outfit? Or did these question not occur to the BBC interviewer (Martha Kearny I think) that this might be a good and informative line of inquiry.
April 16, 2024
Sorry not Martha Kearny.
April 16, 2024
Good news that the pupil who took legal action over their right to pray at Michaela School has lost. So some UK judges do ocasionally make sensible decisions. The bad news is that they were funded by ÂŁ150k of legal aid it seems. So the bill and wasted teachers time (for both sides) is for taxpayers. So as to enrich, largely parasitic, lawyers. Doubtless the fight will continue right up to the ECHR will we have to pay for all this too?
Plus how on earth can it cost ÂŁ150k to make such a simple clear cut decision. You can build a house for less than ÂŁ150k.
April 16, 2024
Truss threatened to sack Bailey. Evidently she recognised Bailey wanted to bring her down. Bailey had entered into politics with malicious intent. She should ( have sacked him ed)She didn’t. She bottled it. Davos wins again, we pick up the cost in fewer freedoms and higher taxes.
There’s a war taking place and it ain’t in the ME. That war’s happening right on our doorstep between Globalist slime (the Sunak, Hunt and Starmers of the world) and their totalitarian agenda and those who believe individualism, democracy and sovereignty
April 16, 2024
Those who believe in individual rights, democracy and sovereignty have to box clever, Dom. There aren’t many of them in Parliament, granted, but were we to condemn Parliament as useless, we would be doing what the ‘globalist slime’ want, which is sidelining national institutions in favour of supra-national decision-making. As we saw with Brexit and Johnson’s 2019 election victory, national parliaments are also capable of expressing a particular nation’s wishes, outside of globalist control. So from a globalist point of view, they’re potentially dangerous. To fight back, it’s essential to vote for a party, or individual MPs, who express their support for national sovereignty and opposition to globalist agendas. That has happened in other countries recently. We in this country have to regain the momentum of ‘taking back control’ that a majority voted for in 2016.
April 16, 2024
I watched Truss on Farage last night and again on YT with Fraser Nelson this morning.
Whilst I’m sure that she made mistakes (and clearly underestimated the forces lined up against her) but I’m also sure that she makes some very valid claims about what actually happened at that time. I’ve never believed in the narrative that “Truss crashed the economy” or was responsible for higher mortgage rates either. Gilts had been in steady decline since the beginning of that year and the mini budget was really just a blip, they carried on down after she had been deposed. LDIs were a distaster waiting to happen and both the BoE and TPR should have been all over them. Truss wasn’t around long enough to “wreck the economy”, it’s simply nonsense.
However, if half of what she claims is correct, then we all have good reason to be both depressed and very worried about our future. Starmer will only make things far worse of course.
April 16, 2024
@DOM +1
April 16, 2024
Indeed seems so and also for âfreedom to chooseâ.
April 16, 2024
The only lifeline as I see it was to support the Tory Party members and take the ride with Truss…..warts and all.
Now the insane divided pretend Tory MPs ganged up and backed the calls to sack.
Let the schoolboy fighting continue they chose, and it will humiliate the Party maybe just a few months away.
After the meltdown, perhaps Tice, Farage, Truss etc might pull together a new Reform party which could defeat the inevitable shambles of an odds on Labour term.
We live in hope that something might rise from the ashes.
April 16, 2024
Truss in her book promoting interviews now seems to have sound policies on everything. The only thing she got wrong was she said âweâ have been on a journey. She might well have from being a LibDim PPE lass at Oxford but I have largely had these policies almost all my life:- Small government, low taxes, freedom of choice, ditch net zero, a bonfire of red tape, fair un-rigged competition, law and order – with suitable deterrents, make work pay, good defence, no woke lunacy and sensible levels of quality only immigrationâŠ
April 16, 2024
Why threaten? She was PM. Why not just do it?
April 17, 2024
She needed to have an appointee ready to go when she took over. Also a plan to replace the OBR, and probably plans for dealing with other over-mighty quangos and departments.
April 16, 2024
As for “Why do the Bank and Treasury persist with boom/ bust policies?” we must recall there are very wicked people in both institutions.
My question though would be why do office holders not listen more closely to you? I have, to my benefit.
April 16, 2024
I imagine that keeping the economy on an even keel requires the skill, finesse and interpretive ability of a musical conductor.
They just donât have it and they are blowed if they will go cap in hand to an expert. That just might save the country.
Plus they are fully onboard the good ship Windmill.
Totally immersed in that voyage.
April 16, 2024
Why?
Because there are some very powerful people who are drunk on power and want more of it. And they’re making a great deal of money out of it and want more of that as well.
Bailey and chums in the B of E and the puppets in No.10 and 11 are doing what they are required to do by their controllers.
April 16, 2024
This is my first post on this site, so not sure if I have just posted this comment and it is being moderated.
I live in Rough Common, Canterbury, just 400 metres from Kent College. My late wife, who taught there for a while, said that the older teachers regarded you as âthe brightest student they had ever taughtâ. It shows here on your Diary, which I often read, as well as in the books of yours that I have read. I do hope that you are not displaced in the coming General Election. Please keep up your Diary.
April 16, 2024
+++đș
What a lovely, lovely comment.
April 16, 2024
Welcome.
April 16, 2024
+1. And a very well deserved First. Pity MT was swayed by age and not ability. Should have been Chancellor.
April 16, 2024
Well, speaking for the âman in the streetâ: âYouâre the government, why do you let them?â
April 16, 2024
Good question …..’why do you let them’
April 16, 2024
Your final words, a question and an appeal: you have made this point over and over again (and I agree with you). But why has HMG never acted on this? What would make them listen and act?
April 16, 2024
It seems they were not paying attention to what you were saying – I don’t know why you bother
April 16, 2024
Reform could do with you as their chancellor.
April 16, 2024
Gets my vote
April 17, 2024
Britain could do with JR as Chancellor. Reform is too shallow to get any of what they proclaim they want.
April 17, 2024
‘shallow?’ what word would you use for the masses of Tory MPs?
April 16, 2024
I do not know the answer to the question you pose. I do believe the UK economy is in an extremely precarious situation. I do believe that current government policies are more likely to make it worse than better. I do believe that the anticipated Labour government will definitely make it worse. That view is based on the flight of UK quoted companies from London, the shortage of liquidity to finance and support emerging AIM companies and the retirement or exit of so many CEOs before Labour party taxes take an even bigger chunk of their earnings. Apart from that higher taxes, greater regulation, higher interest rates, unreliable and expensive energy are all inimical to a growing, productive economy. The prevailing culture is anti business. The UK is already paying the price in declining living standards and unaffordable public services. That price will only get higher in the years ahead. I have no confidence that the current political establishment and the institutions that support it have either the wit or capacity to turn things around.
April 16, 2024
I propose a different reason for boom/bust cycles.
When things pick up, perhaps after a season of austerity during the which the population have been tightening their belt and appreciating the value of hard work, the better finances for the government mean they have more to spend. Seeing this as popular in the electorate, they then proceed to borrow to fund further sweeteners, the interest on which they can rely on the strength of the economy. In process of time, the good times come to their natural end with the population taking it easy and forgetting the value of hard work, leaving the government with lower tax receipts, yet large financial obligations on the bloated state and interest payments. Borrowing then becomes uneconomic and a bust ensues when the government takes the country once again back into austerity.
The solution is for the population to elect sensible politicians, who realise the value of hard work and spend wisely when times are good, to invest in restoring what has gotten old and in new technology. The reality is the electorate always vote for jam today, abandoning wisdom in favour of sweet lies.
Maybe this is the reason countries like China didn’t experience the same inflation we saw here. Their regime can take the longer view, as they aren’t bound by a capricious voting population. One of their longer views is the destruction of Western industry, and they appear to be very successful on that project. I still prefer the parliamentary democracy, but we need better voters.
April 17, 2024
At the last election the voting population pressed the right rudder pedal hard enough to produce a large majority government. They have since found that the linkage with steering the ship of state is utterly broken. It maintains a parallel course with the EU for the rocks of net zero and mass immigration and subjugation to UN treaties not supported by voters.
April 16, 2024
Smoking BAN vote today in the commons
This past decade will be known as the decade that the Tories banned everything and moved away from their philosophy of ‘freedom of choice’
April 16, 2024
Social Engineering Tories
April 16, 2024
Good morning Sir John
Repeating myself –
From the MsM – âTaxpayers will have to foot a ÂŁ150bn bill to cover cumulative losses on the Bank of Englandâs bond buyingâ – That is money lost, kicked out the door, never used to improve, taken from the taxpayers pockets removed from the economy. More frustrating there was never any reason to do it, commercial or otherwise. It went from our pockets on the personal vanity and political ambitions of the BoE. The Conservative Government they don’t care, they refuse to manage else they would have plugged the hole years ago, they authorise the throw away by providing it.
Yet other areas of expenditure while not producing results because the Sunak/Hunt duo refuses to manage are not just throwing money away, they are just not managed….
âNHS cost to the taxpayer 2022/23 was ÂŁ181.7 billion.â
âUK yearly spending on Defence 2024 â ÂŁ51.7 billionâ 1/3 of what the BoE throws away and here we have peoples lives being put on the line.
April 16, 2024
You ask why.
In my opinion, it is because the economic establishment are eschewing monetarist economics that you adher to in favour of revisiting the post-war consensus based on Keynesianism, Nationalisation and State Intervention.
And we know where that got us.
April 16, 2024
I don’t know if much of our political leadership since WWII has been malevolent, incompetent, or, probably, just muddling through whatever situation arose with whatever seemed expedient at the time. The biggest mistakes we have made are the Suez debacle (Eisenhower), granting too much in benefits that we cannot afford to pay and which it is political suicide to rescind, and failing to be truthful about the pros and cons of EEC membership in the 1970s. Those good people we have had (which includes you) were not high enough, supported enough, or in office for long enough (Thatcher excepted). We came close to restoration with Brexit, only for our MPs in the House to block and hobble it, for which in earlier times they would be in the Tower. And Blair’s creation of a Supreme Court and negation of the Lord Chancellor’s powers wrecked our constitution. Fools or bad actors?
April 16, 2024
“Why do they persist in the boom and bust cycles” you ask?
It is the same mindset that persists in Net Zero. It is group think. The people notionally in charge are not operating as independent thinkers. They just go with the flow. The current nonsense investment strategies pushed by huge influencers such as Blackrock, Major’s employer post his premiership, are the actual decision makers.
With the ESG policy now running into the sand as investors pull their money out and authorities finally demand honest advice rather than follow the leader investments based on tax payer funded returns. It may be too late, for many, as tax payer commitments are now completely overburdened and cheap government borrowing no longer exists.
What a pity the Old Lady with centuries of experience didn’t see it coming.
April 16, 2024
Liz Truss: âThe people who claim I crashed the economy are either very stupid or very malevolentâ
It has been suggested that the âBlobâ, the BoE briefed and did their upmost to undermine her at every stage. The actions from the BoE alone confirms this was true.
In Sunak/Hunt the âBlobâ and the BoE have their servants, their unending money stream.
April 16, 2024
+1
April 16, 2024
Sir John
Again, parliament has refused the right for us to be defended from the invasion from across the Channel.
My Question, how much money does the EU or the French EU State put into the pockets of these criminals, how many 4-star hotels are they occupying in the EU? This side of the channel people talk of an International Law, there isnât one, that says we have to fund these people escaping Europe. If there was such an âInternationalâ Law then the EU and France would also be compelled to comply with it – they donât.
The only people on the side of this invasion from Europe are our Conservative Government and the HoC â the dishonesty of our elected chamber, beggars belief. All illegal entry by our own laws, offers time in jail and return to the last safe country or what ever home they came from. Our Conservative Government refuses the existence of our own Laws.
Someone needs to wake up and respect the Human Rights of the UK Citizen
April 17, 2024
+1
It ISN’T the fault of the ECHR; that is just a very convenient excuse. It IS the fault of the British Establishment which REFUSES to take the actions which would stop (or at the very least significantly decrease) the slo-mo invasion.
April 16, 2024
I have always found it interesting that not even Mrs Thatcher was able to control the Bank, and Nigel Lawson, who was otherwise an exceptional Chancellor, was brainwashed by the Treasury into shadowing the DM in an effort to align us with the ERM and EMU. Anyone who tries to defeat the Treasury Blob needs to be fully aware how deeply engrained their misguided ideas and theories are. Failure to face up to this is what sank Liz Truss.
April 17, 2024
Liz Truss is completely incompetent and lacklustre. She would be fine as a secondary school teacher, perhaps a deputy, maybe, headmistress, or working as a mid level civil servant or maybe a local bank manager. But that’s it. She’s way over ambitious for her talents / abilities (or lack of talents / abilities for what she wants) (and doesn’t mean squat she went to Oxford. I know lots of smart people who can barely tie their shoe laces).
April 16, 2024
Let’s face it there are limited answers:
-incompetence;
-dogma;
-stupidity and ignorance;
-dishonesty;
-disenfranchised;
-not working for the good of the UK / deceitful.
It strikes me the last answer is all too real.
April 16, 2024
âWhy do the Bank and Treasury persist with boom/ bust policies?â
Because theyâre run by the same Marxist and WEF/Feudalist saboteurs and their useful idiots and grifters that are intent upon ending social and national cohesion with massive immigration and destroying the economy with unilateral Net Zero. China, India and Indonesia et many al can continue with cheap, abundant, reliable hydrocarbon energy.
The irony is that the IPCCâs false âbestâ estimate of 3 degrees C warming for a doubling of CO2 (1 degree C from increased CO2 and 2 degrees C from water vapour feedback which isnât happening because there is no evidence for increased humidity, particularly at the top of the troposphere where it matters) would be very good for all life on the planet with the prospect of less deaths from cold and increasing crop yields from both increasing temperature and increasing CO2. In Roman times vines were grown in Scotland, even further north than Hadrianâs Wall and in Medieval times the Icelandic Norsemen colonised Greenland for 500 years before the onset of the Little Ice Age cooling. Both required temperatures around 5 degrees C warmer than today. In addition a warmer planet will bring fewer and less intense storms as the energy for storms arises from the temperature difference between the equator and the higher latitudes/the poles and a warmer planet reduces this temperature difference and consequently the energy for storms.
April 16, 2024
It is is all like the “Wrong type of Snow/Leaves on the Railways” – except this time it is the “Wrong type of economists”. No expert is omniscient, hence they should advise but not govern.
April 16, 2024
Who listens ? who can really change things for the better ? . The whole world is in turmoil and we ordinary people are powerless it seems . The domination that a few people have exert conditions that invoke suffering across the whole world ; systems and organisations that exist to maintain peace and control have little or no effect . The public expect those it elects to act in an appropriate manner for the betterment of lives – “democracy ” is the word that is supposed to work efficiently – does it ?.
April 16, 2024
I think that the Marxist view is that boom and bust is the natural cycle of capitalism.
During a boom, banks make borrowing cheap and easy and then people over-invest ( malinvestment).
At some point apparently confidence is lost and goods produced during the boom remain unsold.
All the time the central banks are dishing out or printing or clawing back money using all their fiscal instruments.
So really maybe it does all come down to the skill of central banks in smoothing the capitalist path?
Weâve been caught in these cycles since the mid 1800sâŠ.and still the banks have not learned?
Are they silently upending capitalism?
Now we hear that there are morally good and desperately evil investments and the evil ones must be cancelled!
April 17, 2024
Corporatism, NOT Capitalism of which they are terrified, because Capitalism is The Market – the People.
April 16, 2024
Many years ago I was taught that, in simple terms, ‘inflation’ was caused by too much money chasing too few goods. And deflation, the result of too many goods chasing too little money.
Surely that simplification should be the basic rule that the BoE should have adopted? They magicked too much money without ensuring industry would produce enough goods to satisfy the demand, so they ought to have foreseen the end result. But they, like so many in important positions today, refused to accept their actions would produce the obvious and damaging results that evolved and went ahead anyway.
It is now so clear, even to us plebs, that the BoE and the OBR are no longer fit for purpose and must be, at the very least, culled, with the incompetent replaced by real experts, in order to save our country from further economic damage at their hands.
April 16, 2024
This is plain wrong. The recent bout of inflation was clearly caused by the Ukraine war and the spike in energy inputs.
That is why we saw inflation across much of the world, unless you are suggesting the global economy was affected by the BoE’s increase in money supply.
Reply China No 2 economy and Japan No 3 economy did not have the inflation nor did Switzerland. The UK inflation rate was 3 times target before the invasion began
April 16, 2024
Off Topic.
Brussels police have told the BBC they will enforce an order to close down the National Conservatism Conference. Organisers say the event in the Belgian capital is continuing, but guests are no longer allowed to enter. Local authorities raised concerns over the safety of the public, saying the conference should not go ahead.
The conference aims to bring together right-wing politicians across Europe, including Nigel Farage and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Former UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman and far-right French politician Eric Zemmour were also listed as keynote speakers.
Organised by a think-tank called the Edmund Burke Foundation, the National Conservatism Conference is a global movement which espouses what it describes as traditional values, which it claims are being “undermined and overthrown”. It also opposes further European integration.
The conference said it aimed to bring together “public figures, journalists, scholars and students” who understood the connection between conservatism and the idea of nationhood and national traditions.
Free speech, eh?
April 17, 2024
The police were acting under orders from left-wing mayors of Brussels and particular districts where the NatCons tried to hold their conference.
I don’t understand why the Edmund Burke Foundation chose Brussels as the venue. OK, good transport links, but there must be similar places where the woke left aren’t in power locally, that could have been chosen.
April 17, 2024
âA limitless tolerance can only bring the disappearance of tolerance. If we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the assault of the intolerants, then the tolerant will be annihilated and with it toleranceâ, Karl Popper, 1945, âThe Open Society and its Enemiesâ.
April 17, 2024
Are you referring to intolerance at this Brussels conference hefner?
The cancellation of it by politicians who simply dislike those with different views to them seems a very good example of intolerance.
April 21, 2024
You should get an update: the National Conservative conference was not cancelled as the Belgian PM found the Brussels mayorâs action unacceptable.
BTW a conference on Palestine with the rector of Glasgow University (a surgeon who had recently been working in Gaza) and Y.Varoufakis was cancelled by the Berlin police.
Have you some comment about that?
April 17, 2024
True but irrelevant, Hefner. The National Conservatives believe in an open society, their enemies believe in closing it down, e.g. the local Mayor who called in the Brussels police: he was expelled from the Socialist party for his extremist views.
April 16, 2024
Freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of travel & freedom of choice âŠ.not under this tory government; what the hell has happened to the conservative & unionist party ?