The IMF like the left wing parties says there must be no unfunded tax cuts. Like them it does not complain about unaffordable wasteful  spending. Indeed it argues spending needs to go up. Why?
There is so much to be done by getting  a proper grip on spending. There is no need to let the Bank of England lose another £40 bn this week on top of the £49 bn they have already billed taxpayers. It is a needless disgrace.
There is the identified ÂŁ20 bn of lost public sector productivity the Treasury put in their last plans. Why is it taking so long to get it back? Why do they need to spend to save when the task is to get back to 2019 efficiency levels?
There is the announced sale of Nat West. Why are we waiting? Why are the proceeds spread over three years in the forecasts? That’s another ÂŁ8 bn. The OBR puts ÂŁ3.2 bn of the proceeds into 2025-26
The large losses and cash absorption by the railways needs controlling better, with a proper plan to increase fare revenues.ÂŁ33 bn of subsidy and investment spending is too high.
Introducing a ban on external recruitment to the civil service and public sector admin would help. Getting rid of bad quangos like UK Government Investments and selling off the British Investment Bank would be a good idea. Making a big reduction in legal migration would cut demand for more social housing and public service capacity .
April 19, 2024
Certainly “There is so much to be done by getting a proper grip on spending” so why do we seem to have to wait for Rachel to begin this?
April 19, 2024
You’ve had almost 15 years to sort this out
Let’s not forget our balance of payments when we’re Importing 20% of our electricity. Importing petrol and diesel because we’ve shutdown refining capacity with another on to go shortly.
Importing gas at spot prices when we’re sitting on 50 years worth minimum.
I could go on but no one is listening. 9 million on welfare most with spurious mental health problems.
April 19, 2024
Indeed and others not working because many have been seriously Covid Vaccines injured, other due to them waiting years on NHS waiting lists for operations. NHS dentistry almost impossible to find. Yet we have the highest taxes for 70+ years. The vast majority of which is being tipped down the drain on HS2, net harm Covid vaccines, pointless worthless degrees, migrant hotels, nets zero, HS2, ârenewablesâ, heat pumps, EV subsidiesâŠ
April 19, 2024
LL,
Look at your tax bill where HMRC kindly points out that some of your taxes are paying EU yearly! For leaving and giving them N.Ireland, fishing waters and share a fare share of illegal travellers. France lets them leave by dinghy when they reach half way they are collected by Border Force knowing their exact location! How come they were in no trouble the French half of the channel but become so a meter over the half way line!
Sunak gives ÂŁ2.5 billion to EU Horizon so it can promote EU interests and the EU might give some of our tax money back for UK projects! The man is an idiot not intelligent, what fool would agree that? What patriot would give away N.Ireland and put a border down the Irish Sea, check goods from one part of our country to another and pay for personnel to check compliance on behalf of the EU! No British PM would countenance such a thing we were told by Tory PMs! Liars.
Sunak gives WHO sovereignty over UK health policy, gives UN and ECHR more control over our borders and they decide who should stay or go! Lock step to act subordinate to EU to prevent divergence! I wonder why Sunak and his party has the lowest poll rating in history this week? I think I can guess. Idiot.
April 19, 2024
Indeed and he has an appalling rating against the even more appalling Starmer and Labour. Labour have the same dire policies but even worse still. Imagine if Starmer were a half decent leader and the Labour partly had some half decent MPs. Even Wes Streeting, one of the more sane Labour MPs, was appallingly cheering on the Mayor of Brussels in trying to kill free speech in that City!
April 22, 2024
I have never in my voting life considered not voting Conservative. I was happy to vote for the Party in 2019. I was full of joy when it won and Boris became PM but he and the entire Government totally squandered the massive 80-seat majority that we gave them. Since then, I have felt nothing but disappointment and despair. I will no longer vote Conservative and I would never vote Labour. The LibDems are sliding into obscurity and have nothing to offer so what on Earth do I do with my precious vote?
April 19, 2024
OUCH!
But this PCP is past caring. Look how many are lining up their next jobs. I bet Goldman’s and JPM are inundated with Tory MP CV’s. Good riddance.
I recently spoke with my UK pension provider about their investment plans, their weighting is to go 70% US, 20% UK rest of world 10%. People are voting with their money as usual.
April 19, 2024
What a good comment!
Presumably the ruinators canât wait to trot off and fulfil âglobal longingsâ?
(Leaving the carnage to JR et al, the mob in power and Reform).
April 19, 2024
Good morning.
As Dom has often told you, Sir John it is to maintain the Labour / Socialist State.
This is wrong. And I will tell you why I think so.
It does not matter if you have full or restricted legal or illegal immigration, if they cannot access ANY public services, social housing or even purchase housing below ÂŁ1m and only rent then there would be no pressure.
It is the kind of thinking that our kind host and his colleagues in the HoC, the HoL, the CS and the Establishment, who are not affected by MASS IMMIGRATION, have, and that is allowing non-UK citizens access to the above which is why we are in such a mess.
I do not have a problem with people coming here to work. So long as they work and provide for themselves at no expense to me and my fellow citizens.
After all, why should I subsidies my replacement ?
April 19, 2024
Mark,
The 3.5 million allowed in by Tory party over the last 2 years are welfare claimants and net detriments to our country and taxpayer. We know this because only 2,700 golden visas were issued. That is 2,700 of the brightest and best, then we have hundreds of thousands illegal criminals roaming around not knowing who they are or where they are, lost to the Home Office system! May lost over 250,000 when she was Home Secretary, the Manchester bombing did not stir this rotten Tory party into action it ramped up the amount!! It even lies to say net migration knowing it has no say whatsoever of who leaves the country! This was and is deliberate not accident. How many of 3.5 million pay for true costs of health, education and housing? GB news highlighting Albanians making videos how to commit drug crime here!
April 19, 2024
All the political parties (except Reform) and the public sector are out of control.
The only way this will correct itself is either a massive majority for Reform (which wonât happen) or a catastrophic economic collapse.
April 19, 2024
Agreed.
April 19, 2024
I’d like to know why the EU/UK are proposing free movement of 18-30 year olds (reported this morning on BBC) ….what part of brexit does this tory government not understand
April 19, 2024
That sounds like a good case to take to the ECHR – Age discrimination..!!!
April 19, 2024
The UK Government, however, said the terms for continued participation offered by the EU were not in the taxpayer’s interests. In December 2020, the then-Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced the UK would no longer participate in the Erasmus+ programme and would establish the Turing Scheme as a replacement.30 Aug 2023 From September 2021, the UK is replacing Erasmus+ with the Turing scheme. Which is more of a swap scheme than a UK funding EU students in Higher education scheme.
While the Turing Scheme will part-fund living costs of up to ÂŁ545 per month (2021), it has recently been revealed (in March 2021) that the new Turing Scheme will not fund tuition fees or travel costs for students.
The UK government wrote on the Turing Scheme’s website: “Turing Scheme funding is not available for tuition fees. There is an expectation that higher education (HE) providers will agree tuition fee waivers with their partner HE providers, in order to facilitate student study placements.â
However, there will be additional support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds which may cover travel expenses of up to ÂŁ1,360.
In 2021 Williamson MP said it cost the UK ÂŁ2bn to run.
April 19, 2024
As a follow up: Liontrust, the fund manager, has reported an outflow of ÂŁ4 billion from its UK focused funds in the past year. It follows an earlier FT report that funds invested in UK securities have experienced outflows for 34 straight months. Investors are not waiting for the next general election. They are voting now with their wallets. Equity finance is draining away from the UK.
April 19, 2024
Indeed well the UK has v. high and still increasing taxes, restrictive planning, OTT regulation, expensive property, high crime levels, restrictive employment laws, net zero, rip off energy, a deluded PM & government to be followed by even worse perhaps for 3+ terms in a few months⊠why invest in the UK?
April 19, 2024
Once head of the IMF Christine Lagarde, now her successor at the IMF Kristalina Georgieva. Both EU maniacs and both anti-Brexit fruitcakes.
The IMF does the bidding of the EU empire and propagandize on its behalf. Tax cuts are seen as libertarian and create competition between member nations for limited capital flows.
With Labour now being openly courted by both the EU and the IMF we can see that the possibility of the UK being dragged back into the EU now significantly higher with the clowns in government quite literally handing the keys to power to Labour, a party now so dripping in class and race hate that we should all fear what they intend, to replicate Obama’s racial revolution.
Thanks Tory clowns for dragging our nation into the woke shit
April 19, 2024
The EU does not want us but it is prepared to turn a blind eye in order to get our huge financial contributions back.
April 19, 2024
The EU still gets huge amounts of our taxes by the billion each year and Sunak signed up to pay more!! Read your tax bill to where it goes, HMRC does not hide the percentage of your taxes paid to the EU.
April 19, 2024
This government should be honest and tell people what savings there have been from dropping out of EU schemes like Erasmus.
How much are we still paying over each year updating this – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/51110096
How much has been saved from not paying 80% EU import tax from the rest of the world
How much has been saved by not paying the EU taxes on prostitution and drugs since 2021?
April 19, 2024
I wonder if all of thisâŠwhich brings us true misery and sufferingâŠis just a side show.
Maybe what we now see playing out on the world stage has been the real agenda since at least 2001.
Or perhaps 1945??
April 19, 2024
+1
April 19, 2024
Nearly all government spending is wasteful. Much of it is entirely pointless and does net harm. The âunequivocallyâ save net harm vaccines for example, road blocking, net zero, HS2, the Covid Lockdowns, the vast open migration level costs legal and illegal, the soft loans worthless degrees circa 75% of themâŠ
Excellent speech to an almost empty chamber and crowded cheering public chamber by Andrew Bridgen and an excellent on too by Dr Malhotra (Helsinki) both on Dr John Campbell You Tube)
April 19, 2024
Safe (not save) sorry.
Surely a total disgrace that the excellent and spot on Bridgen speech was almost unattended by MPs is this top down orders from their parties. The pathetic acting speaker even threatening to evict the public for clapping and cheering. So when is Sunak going to correct his âunequivocally safeâ lie or (total delusion)? Hard to think it is the latter as the government are very clearly & actively hiding the statistics. If they showed they were safe then why not release them to show this? Same reason that the âTory Scumâ MP one Rachael Reeves does not publish her CGT tax returns, PPR elections, rental returns if applicable and her tax advice.
Labour MPs now defending Rayner on the grounds that it is too late nowxto prosecute her! So thats OK then is it. It was a trivial matter made much larger by Rayner not coming clean early. Rishi should think about this in relation to his false vaccines are âunequivocally safeâ assurances to the house.
April 19, 2024
It should not stop the Labour Party sacking her for breaking the law. What does this say about their standards or lack of them? 2008/09 they also promised to clean up parliament and their party. Unfortunately some of those who paid back, to you and me fiddled their expenses, are on the front opposition bench. ( Individual cases cited ed) They are intelligent people so why? Cooper and Miliband in heavy leave constituents, suggest their voters boot both out at the next election for trying to overturn leaving the EU after the public demanded the UK leave the EU. Same for Starmer who would not accept the vote result.
April 19, 2024
Rishi want to attack the vast levels sick note skiving as he should be why has he let it get to this point.
But then taxes are so high and with student loan interest, commuting costs, high rents & perhaps child care too then work (very often) simply does not pay. Even for Junior Doctors on ÂŁ35k. Better off on the sick with a bit of cash in hand or some bartering and far more free time to shop, DIY & cook more efficiently. Or perhaps collect and dry wood to save on gas & electric bills ready for the winter.
People behaving rationally given your rip off tax system and the lunacy of Net Zero Sunak.
April 19, 2024
If the government was still paying out SSP they wouldn’t have let it get to this point. They passed the cost on to business, not just the administration of it but the payment of it and sickness holiday pay 1 day every 9 days sick. Rayner has promised to put up the cost of SSP and from day 1 of sickness.
Public sector now disguise sick leave with duvet, doona and family days and it should be recorded just how much paid absence is provided in the public sector because they’re having a laugh at our expense all under darkness, people are actually encouraged to take long weekends off to rejuvenate, its no wonder Fridays are becoming unproductive and dead days.
April 19, 2024
LL,
Reported in papers this week that men gathered to chat were having housing costs paid for plus ÂŁ1300 per month and they stated it did not pay to work. This is in addition to the Tory govt trial scheme to pay people a minimum of ÂŁ1600 per month on benefits. Welsh govt. wanting to extend the Tory govt. scheme to illegal boat people!! Sunak simply cannot be believed or trusted. At this point he is desperate because he knows he will face the embarrassment of wiping out his party. Good, well deserved. Little Usurper should have had some foresight when his party members rejected him and Hunt. Both rejected men running the country, you could not make it up. We hear little criticism of Hunt from JR with all his blogs on finance.
April 19, 2024
Yes, the left wing IMF, like the left wing hedge funds and the left wing international money markets, brought down Liz Truss, but good to know you want to make exactly the same mistakes again. Tell us, will Ms Truss be your preferred choice to succeed Mr Sunak?
Reply Silly comment. If you read what I wrote you would know I disagreed with the Truss spending plans and with the Damaging Bank of England actions. I do not want Truss back as leader.
April 19, 2024
Reply to reply. Sound as usual.
April 19, 2024
REPLY TO REPLY …so who do you want?
That should be known BEFORE we consider voting for you in Wokingham.
April 19, 2024
I do not want Truss back but it was not Kwasiâs budget that crashed things the trap was already set by Sunak as Chancellor and Andrew Bailey with their lockdowns, QE and waste waste. But Truss has now got basically the right policies having slowly moved from being a PPE Libdim at Oxford. She just needs to move to ditch net zero in full – rather than just delay!
April 21, 2024
She thinks we can beat Russia and China! She is off her rocker!
April 19, 2024
A good piece by Jacob Rees-Mogg on growth and the relative costs of energy on his GBNews programme.
Needless to the the UK has rip off energy, endless net zero lunacy and almost zero growth.
April 19, 2024
Apparently, allegedly the reason they have been turning themselves inside out to impose smart meters has been because they are bringing in different energy pricing for different times of the day ( âsurgeâ or some equally stupid name) and it canât to done without said meters.
Wonder how the they did that âEnergy 7âthing where electricity was cheaper at night?
April 19, 2024
Everhopeful
There always was a hidden agenda, same with ULEZ camera’s, speed camera’s and the like.
Control and fines if you disobey.
Rest assured it will get worse, freedom of speech freedom of movement all going to be curtailed/recorded in some way, at some time in the future.
April 19, 2024
+++
Agree entirely.
Am presently wondering why, what with the Great Reset initial emphasis on remote buying there is now a reluctance to deliver garden compost.
Simply govt.-hiked fuel prices or prep for 15 min cities ( but how will they get ANY deliveries..oh electric lorries LOL?) ?
Or is it about âŠNO MORE GARDENS?
They derive their power from us with tricks and subterfuge and now they use it to destroy our world. And as they love to point outâŠwe only have ONE PLANET!
April 19, 2024
Peat based composts are now banned from sale, I believe.
April 19, 2024
Mark – You’re correct, this tory government loves to ‘ban’ things
April 19, 2024
Indeed as we see in Scotland and with a Mayor of Brussels, the BBC and Ofcom all are against free speech.
April 19, 2024
We do not need mayors nor did we vote for them. They are imposed by Tory socialists after the country rejected them!! Another cost to our taxes. Same for police commissioners. The public confidence in policing at its lowest in history, why has intelligent Sunak not grasped the nettle with costs to the taxpayer and commissioners proving they have no value whatsoever to policing!
April 19, 2024
Yes that is correct, that’s the reason smart meters are being installed. They are pushing them on the basis that they will reduce your current electricity bills but how can they ? I got one installed and my energy bills didn’t change at all because my electricity usage didn’t change at all (except for a small increase to run the smart meter). I’m surprised the Advertising Standards people haven’t taken a look at smart meter marketing and their little disclaimer right down at the end “consumer action required”.
April 19, 2024
+++
April 19, 2024
They even use electricity to run the meter though not that much! To save electricity switch things off, use led lighting and gas for cooking, kettles, hot water, heating and wash clothes on cold. Keep your old petrol car do not get a heat pump.
April 19, 2024
My supplier’s bribe smart-meter bribe has just gone up to ÂŁ150 – about two months’ energy bills. I’ll take it – but only because I’m planning on moving within the year.
April 19, 2024
+++
April 21, 2024
Letâs hope the owners of the house you want to buy did not do the same thing.
April 19, 2024
The difference is that Smart Meters are controllable remotely by the Energy Companies. They can just turn off your energy if they deem it appropriate/necessary.
Energy 7 levied a different charge per KW hour for a specified period – overnight. Surge pricing via Smart Meters will be charged in half-hour periods: ie every half hour the price for the energy you are using could change. So for household tasks which take a long time (roast dinner, washing cycle, charging a car etc) what may start as a cheaper rate may well not end as one. It will be impossible to plan your household activities knowing the price you will pay.
It’s about control; reducing energy consumption through pricing and desperately attempting to “keep the lights on” since the Eco Nutters in the Establishment have decided reliable energy is less important than their “green” wet dream.
April 19, 2024
+++Thanks for explanation.
Dear me! Worse than ever.
Candles, wind up and solar torches for us then?
Outdoor ovens?
Cold maggot sandwiches?
April 19, 2024
Wind up torches – so that is human food powered lighting then. Not very efficient especially for meat eaters – fossil fuel fertiliser, to grain to pig to gut, to muscles, to butcher to meat to packaging, to freezer to frying pan to mouth, to gut, to muscles, to dynamo, to battery, to LED. Walking and cycling not so efficient either if you do the sums.
At least the LED are efficient.
April 19, 2024
LL
The more I think about it the more Iâd like to live right near a lovely hot spring!
Geothermal or hydrothermal heating?
Set up a pipe circuit for central heating, hot water taps and swimming pool. And electricity could be generated from the steam I believe.
All freeâŠ
Wouldnât ever have to worry about sun or wind or muscle power.
The Romans were not daft!
April 19, 2024
Lifelogic
Will save the gym fees though, not that I use them, would sooner do some gardening and get my exercise that way, or wash the car myself, that way saves me paying for a gardener, a car wash, and gym fees !
April 19, 2024
@ Donna
I suspect the water meters may go the same way. Currently, water boards can install a water meter without permission, so long as it is not on your land. However, from talking to a friend, who had one fitted, without their permission, water through the meter costs half what it is without. So for most people it’s a no-brainer!
My thought is, that once pretty much everyone has a meter, the amount of water we are ‘allowed’ at the lower rate, will reduce. Therefore, we will be either on a reduced amount of water or paying through the nose for the required amount of water.
Maybe I’m being cynical….
April 19, 2024
They shouldn’t be able to disconnect your supply without a court warrant the same as those without meters.
April 19, 2024
Everhopeful : âWonder how the they did that âEnergy 7âthing where electricity was cheaper at night?â
With electricity supplied by chaotically intermittent renewables with no grid-scale backup as currently planned by the CCC, there is no way of knowing in advance when energy will be abundant and cheap or in short supply and expensive. So cheaper energy at any particular time, such as at night, particularly if evs will be charged at night, will simply not exist.
The plan is to make our electricity as intermittent and expensive as a third world country whilst claiming on P19 of the Net Zero Strategy that we will have electricity available âat the flick of a switch from abundant, cheap British renewablesâŠ.â
A delusion or a blatant lie?
April 19, 2024
+++
The latter without a doubt!
I remember listening to SA cousins regarding their electricity âoutagesâ.
Couldnât believe it!
I can now.
April 19, 2024
He is right that net zero should be abandoned forthwith and emphasis placed on securing cheap energy to make the economy competitive and grow.
April 19, 2024
Meanwhile according to the TelegraphâŠ
âHMRC refers hundreds to Samaritans after âimpossible demandsâ
All brought to us by someone who thinks tax cuts â unconservativeâ and who criticises Lawsonâs tax cutting.
We had a country, a nation. We had banks and shops and roads and LIVES.
We had freedom and room to breathe and hotels and police and safety.
Much less reason to kill ourselves!
April 19, 2024
I heard this morning that our PM is going to stop the sick note culture… An Admiral ambition but, how will he do that until he sorts out the NHS? Sort out the NHS, and the numbers on sickness benefits will fall. How can making people wait for months for treatment achieve anything other than making the patient worse and perhaps beyond being treatable?
I would suggest that almost all our nation’s woes are caused by the same thing… Incompetent financial management and spending on the wrong things. Take the NHS as a prime example… How many patients will an expensive rainbow painted crossing in a car park make better compared to a hip operation? A rainbow crossing in a car park will get no one back to work whereas, a hip replacement would get someone back to work.
The Gangster State needs to stop blaming the disabled and the elderly for the incompetence of the public sector’s management.
April 19, 2024
The reason is that the NHS is run by Arts graduates. The administration of this country needs to be deep-cleansed of people with no problem solving skills ie Arts graduates who selected courses involving nothing more than inducting useless information including Marxist propaganda and regurgitating it at exam time. Why recruit such people to run the country? Why would they be any good at it?
April 19, 2024
Wasn’t it Napoleon who said De temps en temps il faut tuer un admiral pour encourager less autres?
April 19, 2024
Sir John, Sunak keeps insisting that “his plan” is working. That is because “his plan” is to deliver the WEF’s objectives. They want a completely different economic model and a Digital Currency, complete with a Social Credit System so that “the peasants” can be controlled in a similar manner to the way the Chinese Government controls its population.
We are in the destructive period of the plan. Sunak, the Treasury, the B of E and the OBR are deliberately loading us with debt and wrecking the economy because they believe that is how they will achieve their objective – a CBDC.
You cannot Built Back Better if you haven’t first destroyed what is currently there.
April 19, 2024
@Donna + 1
April 19, 2024
A story I hope you will cover soon Sir John is that of the wasted money on stopping illegal migration now that it has emerged that there is an agreement between Sunak and Macron to co-operate.
No need to look for people traffickers. They are there for all to see, Sunak and Macron.
April 19, 2024
I’ve been saying this for a long time. There is a secret “deal” …. I suspect part of the Brino negotiations …. that we will “take our fair share” of the criminal migrants. For the sake of appearances, Sunak pretends he wants to stop them and Macron pretends he is trying.
April 19, 2024
Exactly. Otherwise the solution is obvious. Same day returns/turnarounds stops the boat people problem and traffickers within weeks They’d have to come up with another strategy. Even the people of Calais would benefit as they dispersed. Rwanda is just and always was a scam!
April 19, 2024
Indeed Timaction, a very expensive scam to distract us from the real government policy of MASS MIGRATION.
April 19, 2024
Most of it via our airports rather than by rubber boat too.
April 20, 2024
Do not forget the Republic of Ireland route, no checks at borders.
April 19, 2024
@Donna +1
April 19, 2024
I see Sunak is on his hobby horse again about sick note Britain, with people shirking work.
Perhaps he should look at all Government departments attendance record and get them back in the offices first before preaching to others.
Report recently that less that half of HMRC staff now go into the office, and many at home with nothing to do, then we hear we need to recruit more inspectors at even more cost.
I note the staff at home still getting the London weighting allowance WHY ?
April 19, 2024
I can confirm 1 hour waits to talk to a person. We’re still waiting for our 22-23 self assessment return and tax rebate, submitted and received by HMRC in October. Useless working from home culture, as all public services still are.
April 19, 2024
Timeaction
You are not alone, apparently it is being reported that 840,000 calls were not answered last month.
On track to beat last years record of 10,000,000 calls not answered in 12 months.
Then they wanted to close the on line help desk, but think that has been dropped now.
April 19, 2024
BA
Well said. It’s called shirking from home!
April 19, 2024
The IMF tried to tell four countries how to manage their fiscal affairs: Britain, the USA, China, and Italy. Not France. Yet France has a higher debt-to-GDP ratio than us, according to the FT. Monsieur Macron must be doing things the international bankers like. I wonder what they are.
The IMF is not wrong – this country’s national debt has been allowed to balloon out of control. But that should be dealt with anyway, not in response to the IMF’s seemingly biased agenda.
April 19, 2024
Who do you suggest we vote for to achieve these spending cuts ? I mean obviously not the Conservatives who were responsible for all that spending in the first place, so who ?
April 19, 2024
‘… lost public sector productivity…’ The MoD is STILL pushing out Civil Service job-openings offering up to 40% ‘WFH’ – even though the jobs involve VERY HIGHLY CLASSIFIED work. Just WTH are ministers doing to stop this? Nothing, it seems. They’re either frightened or lazy – and that’s why they’ll be unemployed at the end of the year.
P.S. Reform of sickness assessments today? Good the system needs it. But I’ll be looking to see action and results BEFORE the general election.
April 19, 2024
Once high secure workplaces agreed to working from home during covid how can they say no now after four years of doing it. It is an employment law minefield. Those working on secure work should never have been allowed to work from home unless all their household was security cleared and then you don’t know who is visiting during working time.
April 19, 2024
The Labour Party has hired a knight of the blob to advise it on tax. A knight who describes pensioners as âcodgersâ and says they need to pay more tax. The knight is a pensioner himself, but not a common or garden one but one with an inflation proof public sector one, doubtless a large multiple of that of most codgers.
I donât blame Labour for hiring the blobite sir troupe, those are the sort of people who tell it what it wants to hear, nor the blobite for wanting to further promote the left-statist approach which has done so much for him and his ilk.
But the rest of us should wake up – we may not be happy with Mr Sunakâs govt and think it should do more, but Labour will be far worse – turbocharging the statist agenda and yet further empowering the blob.
April 19, 2024
Yes, we have two types of codger, those who have to save for themselves and need to be taxed more and civil servants who don’t and who will be exempt from the taxation and get the benefits of index-linking.
Abolish final salary pensions for the civil service so they have some skin in the UK which they are packing with state dependent immigrants.
April 19, 2024
@ Richard1 – so a known rotten Sunak government must be sustained in power since a Labour replacement might follow the same course only slightly faster?
April 19, 2024
Yes – although I think Labour would be much worse
April 19, 2024
@ Richard1 – well so long as only speed and not direction is considered, your advice may have some merit. Not really worth waking up for though, I regret to say/
April 19, 2024
Richard1 :
Yes, Labour, who are expected to be or lead the next (pretend) administration will be far worse than the current set up. But voting for the existing Conservative Party will result in Conservative MPs who are so close to Labour that they will be unable to provide any sort of viable opposition to their major policies such as high taxation, high spending and high immigration and will continue to support the Harikiri economic policy aka the Net Zero Strategy, a futile gesture to net zero our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions.
April 19, 2024
How has this debacle been allowed to happen? Who is benefiting from this mismanagement of taxpayers funds? Surely it’s time to name & shame those who are incompetent &/or.corrupt!
April 19, 2024
There is never any accountability for officials.
April 19, 2024
Sir John
There are too many, âtalking-headsâ, the âI wannabe noticedâ and to top it all this Conservative Government that are so wound up about eking out new and more contrived ways of taxing, that whether they like it or not they are the destructors of society and economies. They are so far left it is getting unbearable.
What is needed is the same amount of energy put into to âgood housekeepingâ getting expenditure under control, ensure funding achieves its aims, ensure the economy grows so as to be able to fund all the wish lists. If you want to fund something via the taxpayer, tax growth should come from growth in the economy not new traps to steal from those that produce and who could grow the economy. Above all things must be balanced, government when they talk of budget must start to budget themselves.
Itâs called Conservatism, something that has alluded this Country this Century
April 19, 2024
“wasteful spending”, there might be some wasteful spending to be cut, but it comes down to ministers, and heads of the departments!
What is actually needed, and is not a distraction, is Reform, and in some cases major Reforms!
E.G. Cutting benefits will help no one, accept idiots! Reforming the benefit system, making it worth while working, again, and reducing the cost to live would be the way to go! Only idiots within the Conservative Party think in Work benefits, like Universal Credit, works as a system! But, this will take time, time you haven’t got any more!
E.G. You’re Party does not have time enough to repeal the ECHR, it would take 6 months prior warning to the EU, and a Bill through Parliament!
If not Liz Truss, then whom? Sunak is not supportable, has strings attached to some old bloke, and is, anyway, a Lefty, One Nation Tory! One of the major problems this country has is the cost, and source, of Energy! This cannot be solved by the Eco Nuts, One Nation, Remainers! We are importing Energy, at an over inflated cost! The sooner Sunak leaves, the better the chance someone has of convincing the British People of their plan!
RDM.
April 19, 2024
If UK leaves ECHR the EU can cancel the leaving agreement. The public would want it but Sunak and the remainer Tories would not. It is written in the agreement. Is this correct JR? If so Sunak hinting leaving is another fraud on the public.
April 19, 2024
John, how much are we saving not funding Erasmus each year, not funding the free higher education for EU students in Scotland when English kids had to pay up there, not funding the maintenance loans to live in the UK, the tuition fee loans in England.
If all those students go back after four years how did the loan company attach the attachment of earnings in the UK to get the 9% based on salary back? How many default and don’t pay anything back?
I read that Erasmus from 2021 to 2027 amounted to 26.2 billion euros complemented by 2.2 billion from the EUs external instruments. If Labour just sign back up to this or this awful Tory cabinet we have at the moment, shouldn’t we be told how one of the biggest benefits to the EU of us being a member is going to be funded and how we get not only the forward graduate taxes back but the back graduate taxes.
The Turing scheme is available on quid pro quo one student in, one student out funded by their respective country why is that not enough?
April 19, 2024
I know an increasing number of people who will not be voting at all. It seems to them that we now live in a technocracy where, with few exceptions, our politicians are compliant or unaware of what is happening. our immigration level is determined by the OBR in order to keep our GDP growing, while we plummet towards poverty. (The UK was 5 in GDP per capita in 1990 – we are now 25!) We are told we are getting highly skilled immigrants but we are getting 85% low skilled people who demand or will demand state support. Our climate commission determines energy policy based on a threat that will not be impacted that anything we do. Our civil service, working with lawyers and the BBC can dismiss prime ministers and ministers and demonise regular viewpoints as far-right. Our schools are full of gender theory and critical race theory…
Q. WHERE IS THE CHANCELLOR? WHERE IS THE ENERGY SECRETARY? WHERE IS THE EDUCATION SECRETARY?
A. TAKING ORDERS FROM OUR REAL GOVERNMENT
April 19, 2024
How interesting – today the right wing media is reporting that the recent stonking 18% price rise in crude oil (and hence petrol/diesel here) is down to Angela Raynor, and not the fossil fuel cartel exercising it’s power over us again.
The lady remains defiant and refuses to kowtow to the dystopian and obsessive failure types at CCHQ – and admit that she was once reprimanded by a police officer for living in a council house. Disgraceful
April 19, 2024
I sometimes wonder what news sources you read. Recent oil prices have been driven by events in the Middle East.
April 19, 2024
Why is parliament and the government ignoring the facts presented to it on mRNA?
A certain MP has delivered these facts several times, but nobody takes any notice — HOW dare MPs be so pig ignorant!
Well, OK, we know they only get briefed on official data, but that is no excuse for not investigating, and digging for the actual real data!
They refuse to even look!… There is none so blind as those who will not look.
Instead, one brave man fighting against the tide of misinformation is slandered and made the enemy for revealing the truth.
April 19, 2024
Removing most of the EU’s control through Brexit has not stopped the Government’s impotency but it has shown that our own institutions, quangos, and the Civil Service have been marched through and occupied.âThe Government has little ability to enact its desires if they don’t align.
April 19, 2024
âThe IMF like the left wing parties says there must be no unfunded tax cuts.â
The far left IMF is simply echoing the wishes of the Marxist and Feudal WEF Parliament and Government. Of course there must be no tax cuts as the wasteful state must continue to grow and in so doing diminish the wealth producing private sector and thereby impoverish the country.
The more wasteful the spending the quicker will be the eventual outcome and to achieve this Parliament has deliberately ceded control to the Civil Service, quangos, regulators, NGOs, institutions, think tanks, pressure groups and lawyers. The biggest example of wasteful spending is of course the unilateral Net Zero Strategy designed to impoverish using the hoax that the Westâs (not Chinaâs) burning of hydrocarbons is already causing the ocean to boil (Al Gore) and the planet to boil (UN Sec Gen).
The only way out of this undemocratic hole is to push for referendums before itâs too late and we become an authoritarian state. Elections to our uni-party Parliament is already largely a sham
April 19, 2024
The answer is simple: State spending is more power the The State. If spending choices are left the the people, that is power to them, which is anathema to those in Government who must hold the purse strings. You would have thought that the function of a Conservative Government would be to reverse this, but that is clearly now a pipe dream.
April 19, 2024
It seems that small parties are effectively excluded from being PCC candidates due to the ÂŁ5,000 deposit – so we are stuck with the big 3.
ÂŁ5,000 is excessive for a deposit when for MPs it is ÂŁ500, demonstrating an effort to make sure no small parties break through.
When are we going to see “NONE OF THE ABOVE” on the ballot card.
I would never vote for libdem or labour, meaning I am effectively forced to vote for someone I have little faith in.
Nice set up
April 19, 2024
They seem to be Political Control Commissioners, especially when combined with being a metropolitan mayor. I have a choice between a Labour incumbent and a jejeune paper candidate. I am seriously thinking about filing a spoilt ballot in my village hall.
April 19, 2024
The IMF like most international quangos is part of the great reset movement, following WEF plans and guiding us to economic oblivion.
Yes, please lets get rid of bad quangos, but there are more than 1.
A sensible government would stop funding most international quangos, with the IMF top of the queue, and then start on national ones.
Everything has gone down hill since quangos started to rule our lives, and still they want more power over us.
April 19, 2024
Not spending upwards of ÂŁ16b on the war in Ukraine would have been a good start?
And cancelling Hs2 would have saved a few pounds
April 19, 2024
@Lester ++++16billion
April 19, 2024
Things are truly in a mess and it is essential that our leadership is changed in order to re-establish confidence and trust . LIke many bodies the IMF has made forecasts that have not been trusted and proved right ; they do have a role to play in international affairs but the position they take must always be scrutinised for validity and accuracy .
April 19, 2024
Sunak speaks in front of a board proclaiming it to be âthe Centre for Social Justiceâ.
I canât vote for this. This is not even have a distant relation of conservatism.
Reply The CSJ was set up by Iain Duncan Smith and does brilliant work. It has made the for example that work is often a good therapy for some kinds of mental illness
April 19, 2024
Quite correct. It is only spending which requires “funding”, not tax cuts. This simple piece of logic should be proclaimed loudly by the Tories…but they are now Big State Spendthrifts like Labour.
April 19, 2024
O/T: a long but very good item by the FTâs consumer editor, Claer Barrett âHow did customer service get so bad?â 18/04/2024.
Accessible from the site of The Institute of Customer Service (or the FTâs).
April 19, 2024
Again, I agree with John Redwood’s entire blog. I haven’t usually commented when I agree with John’s blog but today and yesterday John has been making significant and I very much believe correct comments that the government clearly isn’t but should be being guided by.
April 19, 2024
“Making a big reduction in legal migration……”
This is just an irritation to Mr Redwood, just a matter of administration. Not a subject requiring any serious attention, far too difficult to get involved in. Never mind what most peoole want.
Reply Stop lying about me. I have energetically pursued lower legal migration
April 19, 2024
I know there are millions like me who are uncomfortably aware that there is massive waste across many areas of UK civil service life. We can do nothing about it but moan and groan. Such a shame for marriages and families generally! Things could be much sweeter. The main problem is – of course – that once top dogs are in their roles, there is nothing which can prise them from them. This is unfair. Also bad for the nation, including morale and any feelgood factor (What? Don’t make me larf). The fact that rubbish higher-ups mostly get in by hovering around for years waiting their turn is truly a sad state of affairs. Everyone..ie everyone has to be ‘sackable’. Whatever civil-type role that person occupies. Civil and private sector should be the same on this principle. If you’re rubbish. ie not up to the job, then out ye go. Once this notion is brought in (to law), there’ll be much more efficiency and UK citizens will feel much better, sigh with relief and go and spend spend spend via the new fair+incentivising tax situation which coincided…