The PM will search in vain for growth from more trade with China. Our exports to China were a lowly £30bn in 2024 so a 10% boost would only be 0.1% of our GDP. Meanwhile our imports were a much larger £72.5bn, more than double our exports. A 10% increase in those would cut our GDP by 0.2%. In practice the PM claims a derisory boost of just £50 m a year to our exports in a £3 trillion economy! He doesn’t forecast the increase in our imports which are likely to exceed that tiny total, meaning less overall GDP for UK. Our trade in goos saw our exports down to £19 bn and their goods exports at £67 bn, three times as much.
The truth is there is not much we produce that China needs. Meanwhile the government’s deindustrialisation policies of dear energy, bans and high taxes in the name of net zero create plenty of scope for China to export to us. China dominates the supply of solar panels. It is big in wind towers and turbines, and is coming to dominate in batteries and battery cars. These are the products that lead our lists of imports, assisted by miscellaneous manufactures as UK industry is driven to closure by high taxes and costs.
China does want to copy our success in creating great universities, in generating plenty of innovations, in financial services, in culture and entertainment and the other service exports we are good at. It will pick up much useful insight by sending some of its brightest and best students to the UK and by getting them onto important research projects for further degrees. It will encourage some UK firms to collaborate, including supplying their best intellectual property. Some Chinese business people simply copy western brands and technologies without paying royalties or buying the rights.
China is following a China first policy. It intends to control the intellectual property, own the raw materials and set up the manufacturing facilities at home. The UK government is misguided if it thinks the UK can win large amounts of goods orders from China and sustain their role as a long term supplier, given the domestic focus of Chinese policy.
January 30, 2026
Good morning.
This is about global if not regional dominance. Weakening a our nation, and in particular the Commonwealth, is China’s game. The US did much the same thing post WWII. It wanted to be the dominate global player and so sought concessions from the UK such as dismantling the Empire and handing over leases for Island bases.
The UK, post WWII, has lurched from the arms of one would be suitor to another, being spurned or mistreated in each case. It is time we stopped acting like a great power and set our own path rather than trying to imitate others or pretending to be ‘friends’. We are competitors and, the sooner we realise this and set up our nation to be competitive we will once again gain respect.
January 30, 2026
We are not competitors, we are supplicants.
Most of the Commonwealth are so poor and backward that the King has always avoided visiting. The Dominions are attacked and destroyed by the WEF and the EU.
Australia is about to sign a ‘trade agreement’ with the EU which will include ‘freedom of movement’.
More will need to be spent on bigger and faster rubber dinghies to facilitate this.
Reeves not in China with the PM, crying on the front bench again.
Is she finished at last?
January 30, 2026
Meanwhile, various newspapers report Trump saying Starmer’s visit to China is ‘very dangerous’.
Starmer has come away with little. There is the laughable agreement to try to prevent Chinese motors from powering the dinghy people who head for our shores.
On the subject of ‘very dangerous’, the weekend approaches and the US carrier fleet is now within striking distance of Iran. Trump has threatened violence and Iran is not prepared to bow to Trump’s terms. There is speculation that Iran has weapons from China and Russia capable of disabling, but not sinking an aircraft carrier. Israel is still keen on an attack and it would also distract from bad publicity over ICE in Minnesota and the lack of progress with Epstein issues.
January 30, 2026
Iran has asked to talk. The 90 million hostages must be freed.
January 30, 2026
And now we have the EU trying to systematically destroy our motor industry in retaliation for Brexit. This is on top of milibrains letting China floid the market with EVs.
2TK breathlessly announced tariffs on whisky down from 10 to 5%. What a plank.
But still he’s been able to reassure them that he will keep trying to give away Chagos and allow thousands of Chinese artisans in to complete the spy centre.
January 30, 2026
@Mark B – ‘ is China’s game’ or is it the UK Parliaments game? The UK Parliament has the option to stop it but refuse
January 30, 2026
The visit is a charade, as today’s post indicates. China wants remarkably little from us that it can’t easier and cheaper get elsewhere. We’re just a quaint place to visit for looking at palaces, and a potential source of western security secrets.
Everyone knows they are a massive, expanding economy, but the public is being duped that a trade deal with China will necessarily bring Chinese-size economic benefits to us. It doesn’t work that way, and Starmer knows it.
January 30, 2026
What did the new, naive head UK trade negotiator give away this time? I do hope he treated this is a learning, not doing, visit. Was the trip worth giving away the new Chinese spy embassy?
Looking forward to a detailed analysis of the wins and giveaways in his report the parliament.
Meanwhile businesses in UK closing and people losing gainful employment, does 2TK worry?
January 30, 2026
“China wants remarkably little from us”
indeed, it just wants access to our Market, Universities, and the continuance of our net Zero policies.
The new embassy will aid further information collection.
I see Astra Zeneca are now investing in China, and Starmer calls this visit a success !
January 30, 2026
As The MAIL front page headline says ‘IS THAT IT?’
Brits can visit China on a visa for 30 days….what did they get before?
January 30, 2026
Oh! so you don’t need a visa for a holiday there. Will we get killed in the rush.?
Thank you so much – what a result Starmer.
January 30, 2026
Yes visit and get a State Buddy following you around 24 hours a day, and do not take your normal phone with you, ref the advice to all those who were on the official visit.
January 30, 2026
The Chinese, so I have read, are masters at studying and copying.
What we think we are good at now, they will carefully study, replicate and overtake the market.
A series of articles a few years back in The Salisbury Review written by an Australian journalist, showed how China
first played the ‘friend’ and co-operative partnership card but once they’d learned all they could, played the investment card to the point of them being dominant and relied upon, then they tried to turn the soft power into a more dictatorial one.
Isn’t that what they are doing globally?
January 30, 2026
Michelle,
In the 90’s China ordered 1800 roof supports for coal mines from Dowty Mining. After delivery Dowty set up a factory in China. UK government killed coal mining in the U.K. Dowty Mining went out of business or sold out. China makes its own roof supports and mines coal like mad.
January 30, 2026
Lessons learned ……NOT
January 30, 2026
What the chinese have learned is, to increase growth you need cheap fossil fuel energy and a big manufacturing base
January 30, 2026
as I’ve said before ‘they are happy to play the long game’ steps now pay off later.
January 30, 2026
There is no plan to grow the economy. Everything Labour is doing is damaging it and weakening the United Kingdom.
His little jaunt to China appears to me to have two purposes:
1. An attempt to, politically, position the UK closer to China and further away from the USA …. in order to turn us into a Chinese-style surveillance state with no freedom of speech and a social credit system to control dissenters
2. To demonstrate his “credentials” for a Globalist role when he’s kicked out of No.10 …. probably at the ICJ, where China has a great deal of influence.
“Growing the economy” doesn’t come into it.
January 30, 2026
It’s been thin gruel so far in terms of benefits for the UK, in exchange for the new Chinese spying embassy in London and continuing commitment to the Chagos giveaway.
January 30, 2026
Labour politicians and left-wing commentators and Remainiacs always see trade and export/imports purely in terms of goods while ignoring services which have become UK’s speciality. By flooding UK universities with their students China are looking to make inroads into that area too.
January 30, 2026
This tells us all we need to know about China.
It also makes a lot more sense the aims that Trump is following.
It will be interesting to see what we gave away to China to obtain the no-visa travel arrangements.
As for balancing the trade deficit with China it’s more likely that she will continue to trample all over us.
January 30, 2026
The deficit will simply get larger, lets just wait and see how large, and how quickly after this visit !
January 30, 2026
I agree with you Sir John but this Government are clutching at expensive straws – and I assume the Foreign Office support their view.
January 30, 2026
“The NHS ranks in the bottom third – 141 out of 205 countries – for deaths from “adverse effects of medical treatment”
This leaves the UK trailing other European countries, with per-capita deaths more than twice as high as Switzerland’s, and ranking globally below countries such as Sudan”
as reported by GB News
surely it is time for politicians to say what they really think about the NHS?
January 30, 2026
They think it is to be worshipped and never questioned. It provides a lo5 of employment for the Doctors, lawyers and engineers from abroad.
January 30, 2026
The China agenda that JR outlines seems rather sensible from China’s point of view. The Two Tier Kier and Reeves agenda seems totally insane for the UK’s interests. Perhaps at least never here Kier will learn something from China and Trump – loads of cheap reliable on demand energy please and ditch Miliband & net zero now!
January 30, 2026
Two Tier Kier stated/lied in a July 2025 to a liaison committee meeting that there is “lots of available housing” asked where? He said he did not know – but would come back in writing – nothing from him so far it seems! Is he short of staff. A short letter saying sorry the PM was just lying from a minion would perhaps be best.
January 30, 2026
If you wish to talk about the Conservatives go onto a Conservative website. I write fortnightly for Conservative Home if you wish to comment on my views on these topics.
January 30, 2026
In China copyright – means the ‘right to copy’
January 30, 2026
The UK Parliament, its Government in it desire to protect us online by ensuring ‘they’ and ‘their’ authorities have access to personal, business and industrial online accounts through a back door, also gave the whole World the same access. They cant stop it, remove security, remove encryption means it is removed for all including those that mean harm.
I would be surprised if the UK Defence Industry, the MOD, the Armed Forces could do or act on anything without China & Russia to name just 2 nefarious actors having full knowledge in tandem. This UK Parliament doesn’t want to protect the people or the Nation, because they fight for ultimate control they live in fear of the people and handing over the nations secrets are to them just a penalty they are comfortable with
January 30, 2026
Patents, design rights, and Copyright protections can do some good but also do much harm to an economy. The whole field makes lots of money for lawyers, patent agents, IP experts, tax experts and the governments in licence fees etc. it can in theory encourage new innovation but we do not have the balance right currently. I suspect it does more economic harm than good as currently structured!
January 30, 2026
Not to the owner of the innovation.
January 30, 2026
Do you remember when the Japanese toured our factories, took pictures etc and copied Austin and called the copy ‘Datsun’ – even the D was the A on it’s side.
Reply The UK helped re establish VW as a leading car maker after the war.
January 30, 2026
@Lynn Atkinson – the first BMW and Nissan cars were made from kits supplied by Austin. As Sir John said VW was British-administered manufacturer set up by Major Ivan Hirst then transferred to the German Government.
Of course they don’t need to spy by turning up at facilities nowadays, the UK Parliament has opened a back door to all our facilities for any one to just walk in and remove what they want – they call it protection for our security, that’s the last thing it could ever be. Don’t be surprised if the so-called hyper-sonic missiles now being touted by bad actors aren’t identical in engineering terms to those developed in the UK
January 30, 2026
We don’t have hypersonics weapons, we need to tour the Russian factories with hidden cameras to steal that technology.
The USA hopes to have a hypersonic by 2032.
January 30, 2026
@Lynn Atkinson – ‘Reaction Engines’ got there back in 1989, their tech has been sold, transferred etc due to lack of UK support. Now the company has been disolved the UK is belatedly resurecting thier tech as others have done. Same people same roots
January 30, 2026
I remember the three wheeled BMW, it was basically a Robin backwards. Two wheels at the front and one behind😂.
I have never owned a German car.
I am uncomfortable even travelling in one. A friend had a Beetle in brown so that he did not have to wash it ever time it rolled!
January 30, 2026
@Lynn Atkinson – the one to take on board is that the UK Motor Industry after WW2 was the 2nd largest in the World and the Worlds largest exporter of cars.
Then the UK encountered Socialism and the Labour Party. The UK Parliament despite knowing that the UK was the Worlds 2nd Largest producer, and the Worlds largest exporter of cars, so it must have been doing some thing right and extremely well. Decided that they, our Parliament ,without a brain cell between them and no knowledge of business or manufacturing would be the right people to run the industry, so they nationalised it. Seemingly so ego could be massaged and self-esteem preened. In less than a generation the UK Parliament destroyed a large export earner, destroyed and industry and lost thousands of jobs. Now they are at it again a Parliament full of Numpties.
That happened in and around the German Government although handed a ready made industry by the British stepped back and let it have its head.
January 30, 2026
Well we had by far the best cars. Everybody wanted one. Our designers and motor enthusiasts could produce unique and wonderful vehicles still. We should encourage them.
January 30, 2026
Actually Austin licenced early production of Austin cars and managers from Pressed Steel Fisher were seconded to Japan to commission tooling and overseee production Iniatially assembling knock down kits of the A40 Somerset in 1953, progressing to the A55 Cambridge the agreement was to source locally produced supplies to establish a business to be standalone after the 7 year deal terminated. The Japanese managed this within 5 years.
January 30, 2026
I did not know that. I know we had to sell everything but I would have sold nothing to the Nips after the horrors our men endured at their hands,
January 30, 2026
Oh yes JR, we gave Germany the D’Mark and VW.
They gave us 2 world wars and the EU.
January 30, 2026
I don’t know if you remember that wonderful man, Harry Beckhoff?
A committed ‘Brexiteer’ before the name was coined. We arranged his 100th birthday at an hotel where he gave a speech, he had forgotten nothing.
He was deployed in Germany after the war to get VW established and Germany on its feet.
January 30, 2026
The chinese copy of landrover is 99% exact ….only the logo name gives them away …..and both labour & tory have allowed this blatant copyright infringement
January 30, 2026
The Chinese government specialise in intellectual theft. The U.K. government specialise in the destruction of intellectual creativity, or giving it away for a bag of beans to all and sundry. For example,
1. Collossus, designed and created by Tommy Flowers, the world’s first computer. 8 out of 10 destroyed on Churchill’s orders after VE Day but given to the USA.
2. Radar given to the USA.
3. The WWW, created in the U.K. now exclusively exploited n the USA.
4. The jet engine, given to Russia and the world. Taken from its U.K. inventor and handed to Rolls Royce
No doubt others can think of many more. If you are creative in the U.K., the Chinese will steal it or our own government and civil service will do the same and then give it to the world for free with an instruction on the box saying copy , exploit, profit and dominate. The ultimate treason.
January 30, 2026
I don’t believe we gave the secret of Colossus to the USA.
But British people have emigrated to the USA where they have got just reward for their talent, and they took the Computer industry with them, especially after Wilson caused ICL to stop R&D by guaranteeing its sales.
The USSR was an ally during the war and after the war Britain was on its knees. We had to sell everything we had as we do today, to pay the massive debt.
Unfortunately if you are an employee and invent or discover something, it belongs to the company for which you work.
Our fault has been over-taxation and socialism which able people always flee. Our political class are not sharp enough to learn that repeated, painful lesson.
January 30, 2026
Of course the USA was also an ally and our crucial manufacturing hub which sustained our forces against the NAZIs. We shared and still share ‘intelligence’ and much else, radar technology was continued and refined by that and microwave technology was developed during the War as a result.
Strengthening Russia and China were critical, I believe they absorbed 85% of the German land war effort. Without that, with France a collaborator nation on our doorstep and the equivalent of the rubber boat invasion threatening, we did the right thing.
Our fathers paid that high price to be able to give us our island freehold, albeit mortgaged.
January 30, 2026
I think Tony Benn ( Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn) Minister of Technology in 1966 under Wilson), was involved in the struggle to merge numerous early British computer developers into ICL ( eventually absorbed into Fujitsu when in financial trouble).
Prior to this IBM had the advantage of USA market size, and better international sales, which allowed them to become a giant by comparison, the competition was lost by then irrespective of brain drain over the water.
January 31, 2026
ICL was formally ICT and thrived because it recruited the tech chaps from the riff-raff extensively, the Radar guys,
Ron George of ICT wrote the DoS (Disc Operating System) operating system which Gates ‘used as the basis’ of they operating system he was commissioned to write by IBM.
Famously Seymour Cray went to CDC and developed supercomputers and one of my relations working in the team that designed and developed the printers and card and tape readers that fed them.
The U.K. Government alienated our people who created and developed the computer industry.
Repeated action of course, looks as though they might finish Britain off completely this time, because if the British are not in Britain it’s no longer Britain in my view.
January 30, 2026
@agricola – agree with most. I believe Collossus and its tech was as others suggested actualy destroyed. What we today understand to be a computer evolved from redumentary calculators from the 1930’s USA, US Army moved it on for targeting calculations in 1945.
But you could say Charles Babbage got there first and all other ideas expanded on his invention.
You missed ARM from your list, their systems powered probably 90% of the worlds devices, thrown away, discargarded by the UK State
January 31, 2026
Manchester University became the computer development centre and by 1948 had the ‘baby’ which had a memory and could retain a programme.
That is why Manchester is recognized as the birthplace of modern computers, Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams are names that should be familiar to us all. More brilliant Englishmen!
As they perfected computer memory with subsequent machines, the busses passing on the Moss Side Rd I believe, proved to be a big problem, the electronic disruption caused the computer to ‘lose its memory’. Manchester lead well into the ‘60s.
I remember how delicate were the computers on which I worked at a much later date. A single particle of smoke could crash the disc.
We were always ahead of IBM technically, it was always just a sales organization really, solid on the stock exchange and people who did not know what they were doing sourcing computers were ‘never fired for buying IBM’.
January 30, 2026
The PM adores going abroad and giving things away as the recipients heap praise him, shake his hand, pat him on the back and say what a wonderful chap he is which, from his point of view, is abundantly preferable to the opprobrium he faces here on his return.
At least he is showing a human trait of trying to please people – it’s just that it’s wrong people!
January 30, 2026
+1 – either he is extremely deluded or he really must hate and want to damage the UK!
Judging by his, Reeves, Phillipsons, Lammy and Miliband’s actions it must be one or the other surely or both!
January 30, 2026
There are not too many options when it comes to China.
Basically there are two options. We can either ignore China or we can engage with them.
The fundamentals of life in the 21st century demands we engage because China makes the bulk of modern manufactures and has the capacity to roll over every technical activity the West once controlled or specialised in.
What we do not need to do is pay for Kier Starmer to take a delegation into China seeking support for Chinese manufacturing activities here in the UK supported by grand state inducements from the already overburdened tax payers.
The image of a pointless disgraced British PM prostrating himself at the Chinese altar of commerce is pathetic and embarrassing.
Starmer would have his time more effectively spent championing oil and gas extraction here in the UK and reducing the cost of our domestic industries core inputs. He could be championing entrepreneurial activities by removing layer after layer of state licencing and red tape that is holding back our best and most commercially positive ideas.
He could be championing technical education and uplifting training colleges back to their previous respectable centres for technical training.
Sadly to do those things he would have to be based in the UK as opposed to his preferred arrangements, living overseas …..
January 30, 2026
Exactly and cutting out about 80% of degree that offer little of value often many little of value subjects. Certain very few degrees are worth three years and circa £60K of debt plus 7% interest to be repaid out of after tax income.
As of early 2026, over 700,000 UK graduates are out of work and claiming benefits, a 46% increase since 2019, with 400,000 on Universal Credit! Many are going to university with 2 A levels are D or E level or worse. How are they to benefit from a degree they should get a trade and learn on the job!
January 30, 2026
Lifelogic
Half of them it would appear do not want a job, they have so called mental issues the poor souls.
Really does make you wonder how many deluded students with an entitled attitude we now have in the younger generation.
Real life sometimes gets hard, the solution is to work through it.
January 31, 2026
TBH I’d be a bit depressed if I emerged from a second or third rate “university” with an oversold and pretty worthless degree, £50,000+ debt and very little hope of getting a graduate level job …. or even one in the retail or hospitality sector now that Labour’s destroying them as well.
January 30, 2026
Living on first class Jets, helicopters and in our UK embassies I assume) like Prince Charles’s Aston Martin they are converted to run off waste wine and cheese products?). Though economy tickets do create about 1/3 of the CO2 Kier, Emma Thompson and Miliband, ‘less you did not know!
January 30, 2026
The Prime Minister says he does not have to choose between China and the USA, but it is pretty clear from Mr Trump’s comments regarding this visit, that the barrier for choice is much narrower than the PM would like to think.
January 30, 2026
It is not just the finished item that is imported from China that gives them control, it is also the components installed by other nations manufacturers.
Modern vehicles, especially EV’s are controlled by the manufacturer not the owner or driver. My Audi as with all Audi’s is externally controlled, its wrong and they don’t take responsibility but that is how things are sold. So while some might think that the likes of BYD etc being Chinese is a core concern, into that mix come the VW Group (Audi etc), they all rely on China for the tech. The new JLR electric vehicles with batteries made in Somerset by the Chinese(the UK Parliament gave Tata £500 million of UK taxpayer money to get it started, then they deferred to China for components and expertise). Volvo and even King Charles’s Chinese made SUV, are all controlled in China and can be turned off at will by China
First discovered in Norway and now confirmed in the UK, here we have around 700 buses running our Public Transport network that can all be turned off by China – the ‘kill switch’.
Again like so many things Parliament has become complacent and lazy and doesn’t ask the questions, they prefer to sit on their hand, take the money, occasionally pontificate some WOKE message for the sake of ego, take orders from Foreign masters, if they are moved to action it is to fight the UK Citizen and the Nation. What they refuse at all time is their job, to keep us safe, serve the people and the nation – how else did we get in such a mess?
January 30, 2026
It doesn’t end with cars, all modern TV’s are monitoring you by default unless ‘you’ stop them. A YouTube video give access to all, it Google/Alphabet and the video creators get to watch and listen to all those that view their video/content – that facility is on by default unless you turn it off.
Then you get so-called ‘Home Security’ a lot of it monitors you as much as it does the surroundings. If equipment isn’t approved by the Police Crime Prevention Initiatives ( previously the ACPO) you can bet you are not as safe as you think
January 30, 2026
It would be much easier to join the club again – the EU club – and let them sort the ways and means of promoting trade without all of this self torture stuff we seem to be putting ourselves through. After all according to Donald J Trump the world is now divided into spheres of global influence and even yesterday has warned UK off about having new trade relations with China – so are there any real time visionaries out there who can say how things will be in say twenty or thirty years time? I would love to hear as It’s quite likely Donald J is correct in this regard and the world will be divided into global spheres – so we need to have that grown ups discussion.
Re[ply putting another EU level government into the argument and having to agree everything with 27 countries is ,not the answer as we found out when we were in the EU. Why do you want us to have to put more tariffs on things we buy and do not make or grow for ourselves? Stupid self harm.
January 30, 2026
henceforth, do you honestly really believe that is a solution to our problems ?
January 30, 2026
@henceforth – the unaccountable unelected bureaucrats ruling is a shoddy example, especialy we we have the people the inginuety that could cause us to prosper – we just dont have a democracy and our so-called Pariliament is made up of lazy free-loaders. They dont know who to manage
January 30, 2026
To me, time and time again we appear to be blaming just Individuals, the Government, the Executive. But surely as a Parliamentary System of power (we can no longer call it a Parliamentary Democracy, they, Parliament banned that), the Government is chosen and held to account by this Parliament.
The reality is that more than 325 of our MPs own the outcomes and are in support of what their chosen Leadership is doing. Parliament still has the powers to stop things in there tracks.
Parliament could allow elections, trade with whoever, ensure jury trials, keep hold of sovereign territory and so on. Each individual in that House owns its outcomes that includes the directions of its own chosen executive/government and the individuals in it.
January 31, 2026
We no longer choose who sits in Parliament.
They are chosen to serve the parties and not the people.
Ergo, no resistance.
January 30, 2026
Managed decline…
January 30, 2026
Yes but even that is not managed very well.
January 30, 2026
@G – is it even managed anymore, or a reckless pursuit of ideolagy and destruction
January 31, 2026
Free fall.
January 30, 2026
Sir John, you can clearly see it; most of the comments show the writers get it, so why is our PM so thick that he can’t see it? China will smile to your face while knifing you in the back. The Chinese leadership must love a short-sighted, naive, pathetic UK PM.
Also, how stupid is AstraZeneca to spend £11 billion in China? They will have a few good years, and then, when China has learnt everything it needs to know, it will simply take over the factories and make the medicines itself.
Is there no one with a brain in this Labour Government or the Civil Service?
The damage the Blair government caused has taken a few years to become clear, but with Starmer’s government, you can see it now!
January 30, 2026
But don’t forget Cameron oiling the wheels of China dumping to destroy our industries.
Ahead of a visit to Beijing in 2013, Cameron promised the U.K. would be the country’s strongest advocate in the West. In 2015 Cameron told state-run propaganda outlet China Central Television that the U.K. would benefit from “investment into our infrastructure”. Cameron hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to the U.K. in October 2015. That involved a banquet in Xi’s honor, hosted by the late Queen Elizabeth II, and a two-night stay in Buckingham Palace. He and Ji posed for a selfie with then Manchester City football player Sergio Agüero. (the rather odd link to the football, one of the Manchester Utd match balls, being presented to Ji in Starmer’s trip.
Responding to a national security outcry, Huawei equipment was later banned from vital infrastructure by the government in 2020, leaving British telecoms companies with the logistical nightmare of replacing the technology.
And it continues….
January 31, 2026
I hope China takes all of Astra Zeneca’s medicine.
January 30, 2026
Correct, Lord John. We don’t know why Sir Keir Starmer has gone to China. We will not be told and we’ll never know. It certainly wasn’t to boost our exports and with a knowledge of his history and current policies/actions his visit will not be to the benefit of the UK. The 30-day visa free travel will be used by China to send many more of its people to live and work for it in the UK as we have no system employed to check if they leave. We already have 150,000 “students” in our universities and research centres. There’s nothing we manufacture that China wants or needs or, even if their population would want, they would allow to enter their market without complete control. We’ve never applied reciprocity to our international or commercial relations with foreign countries, even hostile ones. To survive as an independent nation we need to be able to develop and build our own energy and strategic industries but unfortunately thanks to the Uniparty we’re travelling in the wrong direction. In the long-term we need to reduce our reliance on China’s cheap manufacturing by developing a circular economy such as with repair rather than renew for basic goods and by developing 3D printing for numerous household items.
January 30, 2026
Laying down your country for your life and personal ambitions has precedents, particularly on the extreme left. But this is quite a spectacular example.
January 30, 2026
There is trade and then there is trade, not everyone is playing to equal rules not that there should be rules in a ‘free-market’. But there should be that thing called reciprocity, protecting home markets yet wanting other to buy your output, is not ‘free-trade’. Yes, there is the so-called WTO agreement but that has now become so distorted by malicious players that is has become redundant.
The WTO classes China a developing Country and suggests it should be rewarded with better terms than the mature UK.
The EU understands the WTO agreement, so it then goes off and creates a different sort of protection based on standards & rules. So, the EU gets to protect its home market while still complying with the WTO.
The bit where the UK Parliament fights the UK People and the Nation as whole, is they allow the purchase of UK Companies by companies that are ‘protected in their home markets’, as such can’t be bought and have their competition thwarted in their home market. How that works against us is that certain industries we rely on for our own safety, security, defence become foreign owned. The trend is once bought, these companies go into decline, then the same product has to come from the buying companies own home market, these are additional costs to the UK in more ways than one. It was always about removing competition, removing the ‘free-market’, for the companies and countries. If you relate to just ‘steel’ the UK Parliament got rid of steel production in the UK to Foreign owners, then to rub it in Parliament banned quality steel production in the UK. Now for our defence industry, our infrastructure industry to carry on Parliament have forced them to buy from Foreign Governments and organisations just to build ships, warships, railway lines.
We know the PM headed to China to avoid being in the UK, nothing else. He has a ‘Plan’, a ‘Plan’ to destroy the UK that is supported by Parliament. By being out of the Country he avoids himself and his crowd of charlatans being exposed to their hypocrisy.
January 30, 2026
A significant chunk of our export to China has been North Sea oil, with Chinese investors like Nexen and CNOOC choosing to ship oil back to China rather than sell it to more local refiners like Grangemouth. Of course, that is now in sharp decline as Miliband shuts the North Sea.
The suboptimal trade indicates the lengths the Chinese go to to try to destroy Western industry. It would be much cheaper for them to sell into Europe and buy supply from the Arabian Gulf instead.
January 30, 2026
China buy now from Russia and Venezuela, the Middle East can’t supply their massive demand. A direct pipeline like Turkstream, Nordstream etc is being built from Russia to China so that our control of the sea can’t disrupt their supply.
That’s why Putin has no worries about the EUs ‘gas and oil independence day’ and why Trump wants to deny China Venezuelan oil.
January 30, 2026
Hi. Immigration real problem in this county, but something people aren’t talking about enough are:
1) Our native population isn’t procreating enough to maintain older generation
2) Much of our procreation is taking place outside stable family units leading to big social dysfunction
3) Much of our native, tattooed, not-shy-of-a-drink native population are UNPRODUCTIVE to a fair degree
So how do we fill the gap of productive workers needed for our economy (if not our economy sinks bigly)?
Also, if we cut down on welfare (which I believe we should), at what point, though, does the country spill over into anarchy – affecting tax payers even more and, likely, sending younger people abroad to work and live.
How to square the circle? Any ideas?
January 30, 2026
It costs a native British couple not on benefits £240,000 to raise a child to the age of 18.
That is an effective cap on native British children and a massive burden on married couples causing break-ups.
As Milton Friedman argued, you can have open borders if there is no welfare. People will only come if they believe they will do better than they do in their own country.
What you can’t have is open borders AND a welfare state.
So that’s the problem, it’s causing all the native British people whom you despise to be hopeless and helpless, many jobs in the BBC, Government etc are NOT available to whites ie natives.
Depression is endemic, in fact it’s a pandemic, a real one, and of course the migrants are NOT productive economically.
January 31, 2026
We spent a fortune on our mother’s private health care at home – most of it going into the pockets of the carers (not the agency) but NO native people would do this very-high salaried job (actually we found one native worker to do a short stint but she was useless). See the problem here? Relatively low productivity from native population for a really well high-paid job. Nigel Farage and co are RIGHT to talk about the dire need of tackling immigration but offer no solutions about how to make our native population more productive (and to fix the problem of low procreative levels from the native population and when they do procreate often producing dysfunctional, low-productive families) to feed the need of our economy for workers. In other words, he’s virtue-signally. He’s not really serious about solving the problem of immigration but just to attract attention and win votes. The difference between Nigel and others and and me is that I am offering solutions (to all problems that are all related – not just immigration). In fact, offer solutions to all problems and immigration crumbles!
January 31, 2026
If we stop paying people not to work there would soon be a queue to care for your mother.
No matter how much you pay, you can’t compete with the Government.
As soon as the immigrants get citizenship, they stop working too. So we only get 5 years work out of them max.
I’m not interested in Farage and I have never read a solution proposed by your good self.
January 31, 2026
Well said Lynn.
Many (not all) of the native working class used to live in proud, settled communities where there were plenty of hard but decent jobs and people “looked out for each other.”
In the space of one lifetime the “hard” but decent jobs disappeared and new ones were not created. And at the same time the Establishment ramped up the process of destroying their communities via immigration. The mass immigration of the last two decades has changed those proud, settled communities permanently and irreversibly. In Gorton and Denton 30% of the electorate is now Asian/Muslim.
The Establishment never misses an opportunity to denigrate and sneer at the white working class. A depressed, demoralised and despised group of people is easily disposed of. Why would they breed when they have no hope for the future.
January 31, 2026
Donna I am hopeful for our boys now. They are finding a purpose – ‘defending our women and children’. They speak on social media of not leaving the country in order to undertake this task. A man’s work!
The government replaced fathers with state dependency, but the Government is NOT prepared to defend ‘our women and children’.
It’s not over yet but another disastrous situation. I just hope we pull through. It’s very worrying, even my incredibly well balanced husband is depressed and tells me ‘he has never been so terrified in his life’, so I don’t feel too bad admitting same.
January 31, 2026
And problem isn’t just with working classes here but middle classes too.
For example, our middle class kids are struggling with university debt (and so many with relatively useless degrees) and simply can’t afford to get onto the housing market. Their parents should be paying off their student debts and helping them get on the housing market (I know some who are and at personal sacrifice to themselves).
But instead, so many just hang onto their money whilst their kids struggle and then the parents die and so much of their inheritance gets gobbled up by inheritance tax.
How can you be truly patriotic without first being patriotic / loving / kind / fair-minded to your struggling kids!
January 31, 2026
Large student debt and relatively useless degrees are the result of bad choices – made by the students themselves and probably with the encouragement of their parents.
However, I agree when it comes to helping your offspring get a foothold on the housing ladder … if you’re in a position to do it. I’ve helped mine, by doubling the amount they saved for a deposit (fortunately they’ve both got high paid jobs so were able to save a reasonable amount). That both incentivised and helped them.
January 31, 2026
Good on you. Respect.
January 31, 2026
I think it’s an impertinence to instruct parents how to behave. You have no idea of what goes on in families or why they make decisions.
Typical politician. Demanding the redistribution of wealth.
January 30, 2026
The main problem in this country (and the West overall) isn’t political but EXISTENTIAL (90% – and only about 10% is political).
We’e greatly lost our Judaeo-Christian / the best of our Graeco-Roman values. That’s the real problem.
I know Queen Elizabeth I would agree with me if she were alive today. She wasn’t a saint but was still a good, (flawed) Christian woman (even though she did things that by our standards today would be considered barbaric and wrong) and rooted, also, in the best of our Graeco-Roman values. And millions and millions of British people would too from the past. I speak for the people from the past as opposed to an overly-secularised, individualistic, overly-self-interested and greedy (and I’m no saint either) as well as polluted by socialism and WOKE etc world that we live in today.
The only solution is for Tories to work closer with the church (in particular The Church of England), and those in education, the media and the arts to try and restore more our traditional Judaeo-Christian values (work ethic, depending on family over state, responsibly for self, patriotism, family values etc) and the best of our Graeco-Roman values.
To over-focus on politics to solve all the great problems is like trying to paper over a crack in the world – and that crack is just getting bigger and bigger (but not too late to fix and make the room amazing again)!
January 30, 2026
The political problems are existential for the west.
If you want Christianity you will not find it in the Anglican Church where the Archbishop is commonly known as the Chief Abortionist due to her track record and previous activity.
January 30, 2026
‘The political problems are existential for the west’ – agreed.
‘Archbishop is commonly known as the Chief Abortionist due to her track record and previous activity’ – scary
But I think we need to get more of a Conservative presence in the C of E so that C of E does practical stuff to help people become more independent and less dependant on the state etc
January 31, 2026
It’s not the Churches job to give material things. Currently they want £100 million tax free (from us) to give to as wage their conscience for slavery.
It’s the Churches job to provide guidance and support and encouragement to those at the sharp end struggling to hold the line.
They can no longer achieve that because they are a politicised entity and have no discernible faith in God. The Archbishop has contributed personally to the dirty of British babies because of her activity in encouraging abortion on a grand scale – some would call it murder especially as it’s lawful to kill a baby on the day of it’s birth.
All those you rely on to come together to reinforce that nation have already become the force that destroys the nation. The Church of England, educators, the media and the arts are quite literally, the enemy of everything you wish to protect.
January 31, 2026
‘It’s not the Churches job to give material things.’ – Obviously not! That would be completely daft!
Not saying that. I’m saying politicians need to work with churches (and those in education and the media and the arts) to change people’s ATTITUDES (not put money in their pockets!).
A T T I T U D E. It’s all about attitude. Work Ethic. Being responsible for self. Depending on family instead of self. Patriotism. These are all states of mind. In the old days, the churches (and other institutions) were feeding people with positive attitudes (not always) compared to now when it is not happening and society is collapsing into relative dysfunction and chaos (same in rest of Western World).
But this is an issue with culture / civilisation (not strictly politics although overlaps with politics) in which politicians need to work with those in the churches (and the arts and media and education) to help change (not indoctrinate) people’s attitudes in a positive way.
And if we don’t, then everything is greatly affected – including our economy and British way of life overall.
January 31, 2026
‘They can no longer achieve that because they are a politicised entity and have no discernible faith in God’ – I agree with you but better to try and work with something than not at all!
‘All those you rely on to come together to reinforce that nation have already become the force that destroys the nation. The Church of England, educators, the media and the arts are quite literally, the enemy of everything you wish to protect’ – well put. But what do we do about it? We can’t just give up?! And we can’t just rely on politicians alone. They have a duty to take a lead here for sure but the problem is far more than politics.
At end of day, this is the choice, Lynn:
1) We do nothing (and that includes just leaving it all to politicians to sort out the problem with our culture and civilisation – when they simply can’t – impossible – they can only do so much) and just drift into the iceberg
2) We turn to a dictatorship (but power goes to people’s head and you end up with all kinds of horrors). So that’s not just an option. For moral reasons. But also from what we know from the horrors of history.
3) We get politicians, one way or another, to work with those in the churches, arts, education and media to change people’s attitudes so that they 1. Don’t depend so much on state and instead more on family 2. Of being more responsible for self 3. Patriotism 4. Being more family minded.
At end of day this isn’t just about what’s best for our economy and country. It’s also about what’s best for our people as individuals. And people need help and encouragement and inspiration – NOT TALKING ABOUT MONEY – which they should be getting from their culture / civilisation from their 1. churches 2. those in education 3. those in media 4. those in the arts – with politicians taking a lead here, working with these institutions to foster all this.
Best
REPLY
January 31, 2026
And I am not putting Sir John under pressure. He has worked hard. And deserves to enjoy his retirement (and work hard too still if he wants – that’s his choice – but also his choice to sit back and enjoy retirement or retirement age).
But I would please ask Sir John to chat with his contacts, his age, on this issue, including with contacts in the House of Lords. In fact, it is probably, The House of Lords that should be taking a leading position on this issue as they have the wisdom and the time (compared to MPs) to work on things like this.
January 31, 2026
In the “woke” Church of England, Judeo-Christian “values” are inconvenient. I can’t imagine the new Archbishop of Canterbury preaching a sermon based on 2 Thessalonians 3:10:
“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you: that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”
Instead, the Christmas story of the Holy Family fleeing to TEMPORARY and justified sanctuary in Egypt is distorted by the C of E to support the permanent importation of tens of thousands of criminal, economic males, for a life of “free everything.”
January 31, 2026
The family were RETURNING to their homeland, the place of Joseph’s birth, to register. They were not ‘refugees’.
Reply, No, nor were they homeless. They were being inconvenienced and robbed by a tax thieving government.
January 31, 2026
‘Instead, the Christmas story of the Holy Family fleeing to TEMPORARY and justified sanctuary in Egypt is distorted by the C of E to support the permanent importation of tens of thousands of criminal, economic males, for a life of “free everything.’ – well said.
January 30, 2026
Elephants will fly before we get anything from China
January 30, 2026
It’s not government that makes the quality brands that sell abroad but private business!
The UK needs to focus on becoming leaders in new types of high quality brands (and/or expand more into). From tech (both physical and digital tech – and the services around this) to jewellery and cars and fashion and chocolate and clocks etc———brands that are high quality (in terms of product and how they are branded) and can’t easily be replicated abroad.
So how do we do that? I think government needs to get more involved in encouraging more young entrepreneurs, to reduce red tape for entrepreneurs, to host more conferences and education for entrepreneurs, to invite the super rich to help out (some of the super rich want to pay back by helping young people in business), help Cambridge become even more important in high tech, encourage more students to do practical third-level courses instead of dumb ones etc that are also a waste of money etc
January 31, 2026
It’s the Government that kills the quality brands that sell.
We need the Government to stop strangling Britain.
They need to butt out!
January 30, 2026
I would not be surprised if our Dear Leader, Sir Keir Starmer, went to China to ask if they could provide all the kit necessary for us to achieve Net Zero by 2050 or before and even to supply the workforce to implement it. Hence the need for the mega embassy.
January 30, 2026
I cannot help feeling we need some Hoover dam projects now. as that dam was built as much to help Employment and stoke the economy, we need some similar now here.
January 31, 2026
The jobs will be given to immigrants.
Do we need more immigrants?
February 1, 2026
Help create Cambridge (and Oxford) into world’s second Silicon Valley with beautiful fast train service to Cambridge with beautiful iconic rounded-red double-decker trains from London to Cambride, underground some of way, with beautiful iconic train station to really turn Cambridge into a business / cultural destination (not just the university) with a beautiful iconic terminal platform in King’s Cross for Cambridge. And new housing etc in Cambridge area with small Queen-Anne style houses ranging in size according to budget. And more (including connections to Oxford in time). Therefore a real financial hub between London, Cambridge and Oxford (with Oxford focusing on more digital / creative tech and Cambridge on more hard / high tech)
Reply More than half the improved rail line Oxford to Cambridge was complete by the last government and this government has said it will complete entire line. Both governments have put more housing into the plans for area.
February 1, 2026
‘Reply More than half the improved rail line Oxford to Cambridge was complete by the last government and this government has said it will complete entire line. Both governments have put more housing into the plans for area.’ – this is all good, sir.
Also, when Cambridge (and Oxford) more developed here and the economy really growing in this part of the country then we need to look to north of England – in particular Manchester / Leeds / Sheffield triangle to help more heavy tech to develop in particular we’ve got to have some kind of auto industry with British branded cars to rival the German cars and other manufacturers. Not just sports cars but good quality, stylish cars that the average well-to-do consumer can buy and that we can export to the Chinese etc!
And we can do it! – Cambridge, Oxford and North of England economic developments (We were behind the internet, first programmable computer, the mini, the JCB, the spitfire, the steam engine etc).
(And not forgetting al the money and great jobs that can be made from services based around all this high tech and tech in general – IBM is a great example of this. It makes most of its money from services based around its high tech – mainframe servers, storage systems and so on.