Time for government to treat taxpayers better.
President Trump is struggling with an Iran war that will not end as he wants it to. He came out with a new offer to try to woo voters in the upcoming mid term elections. The state will give every adult $5000 if they choose a Republican House and Senate again. The Democrats and the left this side of the channel were outraged, and some immediately called it a bribe. Lawfare is now so often the left’s first resort, not their last. They turned to see if he could be prosecuted for a crime.
I am as strongly against bribery in politics as the left claim to be. Of course no candidate or funder of a party in an election should offer individual voters money in return for voting for them. It is rightly a crime to do so. It is also difficult to see how it would work. Presumably the money would only be paid after seeing a photo of the duly completed ballot paper. People who were going to vote for that candidate anyway might claim the money, whilst people reluctant to vote for them might see they would be committing a crime to take the cash.It would not guarantee winning.
The left, however, are guilty of their usual asymmetry when it comes to tax cuts versus spending. To them the offer of a tax cut for all or for certain categories of taxpayer in an election Manifesto is a “bribe” whilst the offer of more free services or grants and benefits for preferred voter groups is not. The truth is both left and right seek to win votes from large numbers of people by either offering them more public spending for their benefit, or less taxation. Indeed the left is more prone to this mercenary approach. Their electoral strategies are often based on trying to create coalitions of different groups of people dependent on the state for services and benefit incomes.
In the UK left wing parties all offer more money and the recruitment of a larger public sector workforce as they seek to expand what they think should be their very own voter base. Conservatives face less competition to represent the taxpayers, the private sector workers, the savers and the investors who have to pay for the ever growing state.Conservatives also appeal to public sector workers who want good management, quality and value for money in their offices.
It would be good to extend the Trump idea of a dividend or rebate if government has done well with the economy to the provision of public services. The UK public sector today is clumsy, bossy, and inattentive to good customer service in too many cases. Bad surgeries see patients as a nuisance and seek to make it very difficult to book an appointment. Bad hospitals cancel operations at short notice, keep people waiting in outpatients clinics, and try to cover up bad clinical errors. Nationalised Network Rail causes too many delays and train cancellations. The Post office imprisoned its staff on wrongful accusations and lacks a successful business plan to provide better services. Lib Dem and Labour highways authorities go out of their way to inconvenience the car and van drivers whose taxes pay for the roads. Many public bodies demand you communicate through poor websites under threat of imprisonment if you do not follow their contorted required path.
Wouldn’t it be good if alongside the productivity revolution we need in public service there was a customer service revolution? Indeed, the two can work together. Having fewer mistakes and cancellations will bring fewer customer complaints and frustrations. Look after people well and get things right first time and you will find things are easier to run.
The public sector should look at the model of the great supermarkets that sell us our food. They never run out. They stay open long hours so working people can also use them, where most public services shut down every evening and week end. They work away at keeping prices down, offer discounts, promotions and loyalty schemes to make shopping cheaper. The public sector is always claiming it does not spend enough on provision and is always demanding more tax revenue or higher fees and charges. The food shops are very careful to avoid contamination and food poisoning, with high standards of hygiene and refrigeration. The public sector has a poor record over contaminated blood, the death of babies in some hospitals, and delays and congestion owing to inadequate and often partially closed roads.
So how could this change? How could the public sector regain the trust of the users by doing a better job? Why not offer a discount on Council tax for prompt and reliable payment? Why not allow use of Post Office counters for dealing with government for those who find the websites too difficult or hostile? Why demand annual re registration for both Council tax single person discounts and electoral registration? Just require people to report changes.
The government says it wants more building and construction yet planning delays and excess bureaucracy get in the way. Why not offer half price planning permissions if an application does not attract any objections? This would make it cheaper and faster to agree many applications where the neighbours have agreed and where the wider community sees the point . For larger schemes it encourages developers to offer compensation and to consult in advance. Less contentious planning applications should be set faster timetables. Large and more contentious schemes should not require detailed studies of how local wildlife might need to adjust unless a rare species at risk of extinction is involved.
Highways authorities should review their often extreme and excessive rules and controls to reduce the number of ways drivers can get fined. Speed limits should be realistic . Low limits should only apply in places and at times when pedestrians especially children can be at risk. Double yellow line control to stop parked cars blocking roads needs to be combined with more free parking nearby. Pay parking needs to have clear rules and to accept cash, card or app payment. There should be more free parking days in state/council owned parks near shopping centres to promote High Streets.
It also requires new attitudes by the government and Councils as employers. Staff should have clear but fewer targets to hit, and should be paid bonuses for achieving them. There should also be bonus payments for staff coming up with good ideas on how to improve the quality and lower the costs of the service. There should be far fewer managers, with managers that have real powers to change the delivery of service and to mentor, monitor and promote good staff. Senior managers should be able to earn larger bonuses than at present, but should know poor performance will means at the least no bonus at all and in bad cases dismissal.
Where the state is levying a tax, imposing a monopoly charge or demanding a license fee its aim should be to make it as easy to pay and comply as it is to pay for another parcel from Amazon. It should not threaten you or treat you as potential criminal unless you fail to pay or behave badly. Ministers should control quangos better and not let them increase fees and charges unless there is a strong case and an offer of better service.
What a difference it would make if the state cared about taxpayers, license applicants and service users. It has much to learn from the customer focus of the best private sector companies.
September 20, 2026
Good morning.
Competition! Competition! Competition!
If Public Service providers were both charged for poor service and rewarded for good then that might help as this provided a good feed back mechanism. But also allowing people to pick and be charged for services they only use. Another is to offer what services can be outsourced to the Private Sector and make the Public Sector compete. I have suggested that making private healthcare and non-taxable benefit would encourage companies and employees to have plans and so grow the market in that area. Having a direct competitor to the NHS would allow us to compare the two services and encourage the NHS to improve.
We here, JR have on numerous occasions made suggestions on how to improve services without the need for massive reforms, restructuring and spending. Alas it seems, it is all for nought as no one seems able to grasp the nettle and understand the core problems, let alone form solutions and policies.
Reply Yes, competition and choice drive quality and vfm.,I am relaunching this as even some Labour Ministers are getting frustrated with the lack of delivery and high costs of the public sector.
September 20, 2026
Your very own vision of utopia which sadly the public sector shun
Many jobs are counter productive and add no value to the country or peoples lives
I’m afraid nothing will change until the legacy parties are swept away which will become ever more difficult as they expand and import their client state
Britain is in need of a revolution or probably a civil war to redress the balance of producers and consumers
September 20, 2026
To reply:- Remind me what of any positive value they do actually deliver? Nothing much to me other than taxes, fines, motorist muggings, road blocking… they did not even take the rubbish last month from a building I own and even a public loo I needed when in Cranbrook, Kent the other week (which has been there for at least 40 years has now been closed too (for lack of funds). It seems they prefer people just to piss round the back of it!
They do not even run decent defence forces, border controls, law and order or a half decent justice system.
September 20, 2026
Nor a decent energy system, monetary system, fiscal system, healthcare system, transport system, housing system, school system, university system…
September 20, 2026
TIM Shipman in the Spectator this week is good on the appalling error Burnham and Miliband have made in picking a damaging and idiotic fight with Israel and the USA. Also it is free on the Spectator Out Loud podcast.
September 20, 2026
Lord Redwood makes the news in today’s Daily Telegraph :-
“Only outsiders are prepared to challenge ‘uniparty’ support for the unsustainable pension pledge”
I await a Lifelogic reverse Allister Heath comment
‘Dominic Lawson is surely wrong in today’s Telegraph”
A hint ‘starter for ten’ for the Philosopher Kings’ University of Science – It’s very ‘uniparty’ to punish the voting majority for the earlier mistakes of government.
Outsiders challenge that approach.
Reply This is a muddled response. It is official Conservative, Labour and Reform policy to keep the triple lock. I agree with them.
September 20, 2026
You ask:- So how could this change? Well with the supermarket and private businesses they only get paid when customer pay them for something they wanted to buy. They thus get a meaningful vote every time they shop. With the state sector they take the money of you in taxes in advance they get it whether you wanted anything or received any service of value or not. Your only votes is every few years with a distorted FPTP voting system for only two or perhaps three candidate with any chance who anyway will rarely even try to do as promised ones elected.
Very often they take your taxes and spend it on thing that do vast net damage like HS2, excessive red tape enforcement, suppression of free speech, net harm Covid vaccines and lockdowns, absurdly convicting and imprisoning nurse Letby, gain of function lab experiments, net zero lunacy, rigging markets like transport, health care, education, banking, energy, housing, heating… paying healthy people to encourage them not to work and live off others’ labours…
It is often worse still as they pass laws to damage and rig much of the private sector activity too. Over restrictive planning, licensing and endless other red tape, OTT building controls, what cars you can sell, what boilers you can buy, what fuels you can extract…
Even now moronically forcing the unnatural drug “folic acid” into flour when it is clear over all it will do more harm than good.
September 20, 2026
Trump proposes his illegal and desperate $5000 voting bribe because his polling as the November mid-term elections approach is dire; Trump knows the GOP is going to lose in many previously “red” states. Badly.
Fiscal conservatives in Congress have expressed strong scepticism at Trump’s proposal
Direct cash distribution remains a documented issue in developing democracies or places with weak institutional oversight and has been broadly observed during election cycles in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, Brazil, South Africa, Nicaragua and Mexico. And now America!
The issue bothering Americans is, as always, the economy (high food and gasoline/diesel inflation). Unlike typical midterm election cycles, where domestic policy completely dominates, foreign policy has emerged as a major factor. Trump’s failed, ongoing, war with Iran has drastically shifted public sentiment, as it’s effects impact daily life
American polling for Trump is so dire that there is every chance that the Democrats will flip both the House of Representatives and the Senate – N Carolina, Kansas, Alaska, Texas, Iowa, Maine and Florida are likeliest to change to the Democrats.
Trump will be a lame duck president for the rest of his term. He will be investigated for corruption and probably impeached for an unprecedented third time.
September 20, 2026
Any other foreign news you want to share with us, SG?
September 20, 2026
Trump’s escalating war against Iran has sent autumn fossil fuel prices skyrocketing, making renewable energy the UK’s ultimate shield against the coming global economic chaos.
By breaking the UK’s dependency on volatile foreign oil and gas, homegrown wind and solar power deliver immediate national energy security. British energy bills should not be decided by Middle Eastern conflicts.
Swapping hyper-inflated fossil fuels for low-cost, domestic green energy stops fuel poverty and stabilizes the economy
The UK’s massive investment in clean infrastructure has sparked thousands of high-skilled green jobs across the country. Wind and solar power provide a predictable, inflation-proof energy supply that completely bypasses global market shocks in fossil fuel prices.
Accelerating the clean transition transforms Trump’s geopolitical crisis into a massive victory for the global climate
Reply Renewable energy is dearer when you take into account the need to pay for back up gas power and adjust for green subsidies and carbon taxes
September 20, 2026
To replay. Also the vast grid investments needed in moving from a hub and spokes system to a mess of multiple remote and often at sea energy sources. Can be about 180 times more expensive and these we have the huge grid stability issues caused by renewables.
To Sakara:- “By breaking the UK’s dependency on volatile foreign oil and gas, homegrown wind and solar power deliver immediate national energy security. British energy bills should not be decided by Middle Eastern conflicts.
Swapping hyper-inflated fossil fuels for low-cost, domestic green energy stops fuel poverty and stabilizes the economy”
Nothing dirty about CO2 plant food and substitute “stabilizes” for “wrecks”. Where do you copy this green crap drivel from? Please get real.
September 20, 2026
A “mesh” rather not a “mess” though it is also a complex vastly costly mess too.
September 20, 2026
The myth that renewable energy is cheaper is just that, a myth. Every time a wind or solar farm is added the price to consumers goes up.
Repeating the mantra that it’s all the fault of gas is a downright lie. If renewable operators were paid what they bid at they would go bust.
Renewables are a recipe for endless subsidy. A total scam.
September 20, 2026
@Ian Wragg
The wholesale price of UK electricity shot up last week to £175.75/MWh. with the October 2026 futures contract at a humungous £181.40/MWh, thanks to the Ayatollah regime closing the Strait of Hormuz allowing the fossil fuel cartel to ramp up the price of crude. Again
Recently, Miliband secured an offshore wind AR7 strike price average of £91.20/MWh in England and Wales and £89.49/MWh in Scotland. Which means that almost as soon as the new capacity starts generating, large sums will be earned by the Treasury under the CfD scheme
“Tricky Dicky” Tice and his Reform ‘Leader’, the dreadful Nigel Farage, have been ranting on again about how it’s net zero that is going to bankrupt us. And definitely not Big Oil’s blatant price gouging at the pumps.
Do try and follow the geopolitical developments in the current global price gouging by Big Oil, before you post, there’s a good chap
September 20, 2026
SG. But you forget to mention that the only reason we use gas is because wind and solar are unreliable. It’s no good quoting prices of £90 per mwh when we are paying in some instances up to £6500 per mwh to import because renewables are absent from parade
September 20, 2026
Today there is a surplus of wind and we’re exporting at £3.47 per mwh. Please explain how the geopolitical situation is causing this
Literally giving away power rather than pay constraint payments
September 20, 2026
‘Renewables generated a record 44% of the UK’s total electricity in 2025… Wind generation deliver[ed] almost 30% of electricity generation. Solar provide[d] nearly a third more than in 2024 to reach 6.5% of UK electricity. Gas generation represented 26.8% of UK power, with most supplies (79%) coming from the UK and Norwegian gas fields, followed by nuclear… [at] less than 12%.’ https://www.energy-uk.org.uk/insights/electricity-generation/
What was that about the Ayatollahs, SG?
September 20, 2026
I assume your figures included burning young coal (wood) at Drax (an insane policy) is included as “renewables” in your figures to make up the figures with Hydro ! Note there is no such thing as “renewable” electricity some last longer than other but non are renewable.
September 20, 2026
A blatant lie would be more accurate a myth too perhaps.
September 20, 2026
‘The myth that renewable energy is cheaper is just that, a myth’
– that statement is a logical fallacy (I think they call it an example of antanaclasis – I’m not sure)!
September 20, 2026
“Renewable” energy is worth far less as it is not on demand. How much more would you pay for a replacement for your flat tyre or takeaway meal if it came immediately rather than at some random time in the next month of their choosing?
It is of course not “renewable” either and when analysed properly it is not even that low in CO2 should that bother you. Tend just to export the CO2 and even to bring it forwards to construct the wind farms, batteries, solar panels and all the extra grid needed.
Bio (wood young coal) burning at Drax is negative in CO2 and cost terms compared to coal.
September 20, 2026
“The UK’s massive investment in clean infrastructure has sparked thousands of high-skilled green jobs across the country. Wind and solar power provide a predictable, inflation-proof energy supply that completely bypasses global market shocks in fossil fuel prices”
I know you like facts SG – so please give us the net change in “high-skilled jobs” in the energy sector e.g how many ‘green’ jobs have been gained vs how many ‘fossil’ jobs have been lost? I’m reminded of that BBC report that stated 3000 NHS nurses had returned to Europe since the Brexit vote – omitting to state that 3,200 has also arrived… a net gain of 200. I’d be really surprised if you can show a net gain…
September 20, 2026
The problem with weather dependent, chaotically intermittent, renewables, prone to long periods with low or even close to zero power is that achieving an ever higher percentage of renewable generated electricity requires an ever increasing overbuild (and replacement/maintenance) cost of renewable and grid infrastructure together with an ever increasing cost of building and maintaining the backup system because, although it is used infrequently, must be both immediately available and sized for peak demand to prevent a total collapse of the supply of electricity made ever more critical as the goal to electrification is completed. This is known as the firming problem. It is quite clear from NESO’s Clean Power 2030 report Table 2 that they intend to solve the chaotic intermittency of renewables not simply by expensively making 35 GW of unabated gas generation permanently held in readiness when needed but also by intending to use up to 12 GW of rolling blackouts, euphemistically called “Demand Side Flexibility”, plus unreliable interconnectors. The batteries in Table 2 are only of sufficient capacity to provide the 60GW peak demand for 2 hours and the LDES (Long Duration Energy Storage) does not exist. In addition, the ERoEI for renewables is so low, particularly for solar which is below zero, that they must be manufactured using fossil fuels and are only economic because we are relying upon China, a state described by our security services as “hostile”, for their manufacture and who use as well as fossil fuels, slave labour and ignore all the environmental damage caused by mining, manufacturing tailing lakes and the illegal logging in the Amazon for the balsa wood for wind turbine blades. Relying upon China supplied renewables is not a recipe for energy security or for reliable, abundant, affordable energy. It is a recipe for disaster.
September 20, 2026
The UK, like Germany, needs a plan to rebuild our medieval and old buildings in our towns and cities as well as design more aesthetically-pleasing brick and stone buildings to bring people back into the high street and also to rejuvenate our towns and cities and the economy in general.
So many people complain that their town or city is a dump. That can be changed. Of course, our great country is in financial woes at the moment. But something we need to seriously think about more and plan for more. Hardly ever gets discussed – if ever.
And having aesthetically-pleasing buildings, towns and cities is part of what makes a country great, part of patriotism and makes life a lot more enjoyable as well as a big boost to the economy (not just the construction of such buildings but also enticing people to spend more time in them and around them).
Reply Our old buildings including churches, halls, tudor and Georgian shops are often the highlights of a town centre.
September 20, 2026
Alas the current appalling CofE leadership like to deter much church attendance in the UK and close churches to safe money and then to pay £million in “reparations” for slavery etc. Then honour fans of the 9/11 terrorisms albeit this now withdrawn. Do we really want these appalling unelected Bishops in the Lords. They never say anything even half sensible just pathetic platitudes and hugely misguided climate alarmism and DEI lefty drivel.
The dire diversity appointment Arch. Bishop of Canterbury was unable to hand him the award as he would not accept it from a women so it was handed to his wife (we are told – you could not see her). So I assume it is OK for his wife to take them. Much no hand shaking with women at degree award ceremonies now too.
September 20, 2026
I agree.
But my comment was more designed, in mind, with how the Germans have been / are rebuilding their old towns and cities in particular Frankfurt (including knocking down ugly, modern buildings to replace with the original medieval etc).
September 20, 2026
(And why do the Germans get to have a German car industry with German-branded cars and rebuilding their old towns and cities. Patriotism! Why can’t we do that here in the UK?!)
September 20, 2026
The German car industry is DEAD,
They dis a lot of rebuilding post war because their losses. So the ‘old’ buildings are new.
September 20, 2026
Also, it’s not just about the ‘German car industry’ but the German car industry venturing into new related technologies.
September 21, 2026
No. The German car industry has far more to it than WWII.
Let’s be more ambitious for our great country instead of finding excuses!
September 20, 2026
Er, why would I want to see ‘rebuilt’ medieval buildings? Then again, I suppose if someone had bombed them first, the analogy with Germany might be OK.
September 20, 2026
Not just medieval but Georgian etc.
Our towns and cities have been bombed, literally and metaphorically, by three main sources:
1) The Nazis
2) Shopping-mall enthusiasts and related ugly architecture based on what you see in USA
3) Town planners, in particular from 1950’s to 1980’s – and still – with no idea or taste
September 20, 2026
Hello sir,
Take Basingtoke, a medieval and Georgian market town that’s be ruined.
No-one, from Hampshire, wants to go there now unless they have to.
If they want to enjoy charmed medieval/Georgian architecture and vibe, to a certain degree, and charmed shopping and restaurants and cafes etc, they’ll head to Winchester, Alresford of Stockbridge.
Imagine if Jane Austen could see Basingstoke now.
And there are Basingstokes all over the country.
September 20, 2026
In terms of energy security, traditional N Sea oil and gas infrastructure is defined by concentrated, high-volume single points of failure. The UK relies on more than 200 high-visibility platforms and a handful of massive trunklines, such as the Langeled pipeline supplying the bulk of UK gas imports (90%) from Norway. A targeted kinetic attack or underwater explosive sabotage – as demonstrated by the Nord Stream bombings – instantly triggers a severe national energy crisis and catastrophic ecological fallout. Furthermore, these rigs carry highly volatile hydrocarbons, making them acutely vulnerable to airborne drones and explosive chain reactions.
Conversely, Britain’s onshore and offshore wind and solar networks benefit from massive structural redundancy. The thousands of individual turbines manufactured across Humberside and Lincolnshire are highly dispersed; destroying a handful of wind towers has negligible impact on the wider grid.
Ultimately, while an oil rig attack threatens immediate resource depletion and an environmental disaster, a wind farm attack presents a purely electrical disruption mitigated by massive system redundancies.
Reply When there is no wind and sun renewables all shut down. Shifting to electricity with too much unreliable UK generation makes us dependent on imported electricity via a handful of big cables!
September 20, 2026
To reply:- indeed and there is no Solar well over 50% of the time. And little wind much of the time too, this often coinciding with maximum demand on cold winter days and nights.
September 20, 2026
To reply also causes grid instability which can and does kill as it did in Spain recently. Take time to get the grid going again usually too. See the excellent Kathryn Porter who know her subject unlike the DoE ministers non of whom seem to have a clue.
September 20, 2026
The grid instability can be solved by maintaining spinning flywheels.
The problem in Spain was caused by insufficient inertia.
September 20, 2026
@Dave Andrews
There are other, more high-tech solutions to the inertia problem than expensive spinning flywheels – tho Ireland does operate them. And some simple, straightforward ones;
Wind turbines can be operated slightly below their maximum possible output (de-loaded) to keep a reserve of kinetic energy stored in their massive, rotating blades. When the grid frequency drops, this stored energy can be rapidly released into the network
Utility-scale battery installations are paired with rapid-response controllers. They detect frequency drops instantly and inject power into the grid in under a second – often much faster than mechanical systems – reducing the overall amount of physical inertia the grid actually requires
Grid-forming inverters utilise advanced power electronics and are used in solar, wind, and battery systems, employing software control algorithms rather than physical weight. Unlike traditional “grid-following” inverters that only copy existing frequency, grid-forming inverters actively project a voltage waveform and can inject or absorb real power within milliseconds, to emulate physical inertia during a disturbance
Old tech synchronous inverters spin in sync with the grid to provide heavy physical rotational inertia and adjust reactive power, stabilizing voltage and frequency without burning fuel
As more and more battery storage systems are coupled with onshore solar output, the inertia problem goes away. Particularly while massive renewable feedstock plants such as Drax are still in operation.
September 20, 2026
Current grid battery capacity is approx 2 hours.
In comparison Gas storage is approx 12 days and Oil storage is approx 90 days.
September 21, 2026
Of course there are many other solutions to grid stability but all are relatively expensive and usually waste energy too. Much more complex to balance numerous wind and solar generators than having a few gas, oil, coal or hydro generators. This becomes more and more of an issue as a higher proportion comes from so called intermittent renewables.
So they make renewables even more expensive in practice.
September 20, 2026
Cash for votes? At least it’s transparent and transactional, even if distasteful.
Instead, how about delivering election promises in return for votes? We should try that some day.
September 20, 2026
I like what you are seeing John, but how do you get it implemented? Imaginative people who might do the things you say are few and far between. In reality it’s activists that put themselves forward for election, not sensible people who are busy running their successful businesses. Even if you do get someone into office who actually cares about making things better for ordinary people, they will soon discover major pushback from public sector departments that like the way they do things, the officiousness and the bureaucracy.
September 20, 2026
Royalty is all over the news again – it’s a waste of time space and money and a public service we don’t need. So here’s for proportional represenration in all voting matters including for the four hundred members to a new upper house assembly – but do turkeys vote for Christmas?
September 20, 2026
Your proposal ensures there will never be a Christmas again.
September 20, 2026
Absolutely nothing from this blog about the government’s announcement late last year of a 90% reduction in electricity network charges for high-consumption industries, including steel, glass and cement. Around 500 of the UK’s most energy-intensive businesses were set to save up to £420 million per year on their electricity bills from April 2026
Some of the companies which will benefit from the change include Tata Steel at Port Talbot and INEOS in the Scottish town of Grangemouth. Even greater energy savings could have been made if businesses had shifted more production to summer weekends, where many energy companies were offering absolutely free solar electricity during the day. Some energy companies were actually paying firms to take electricity during these periods
Labour’s decision on energy costs has been completely ignored by the net stupid anti-swans Reform limited company and the Conservatives. Farage and Badenoch are still sticking to their discredited claim that our high electricity costs are “caused by net zero” and non-existent “subsidies” for our huge renewables sector. And definately not our dependence on volatile imported “natural” gas
Let’s hear the truth about the falling costs of electricity, which is good for Britain – and less of the fossil fuel lobby propaganda put out by Big Oil funded right-wing think tanks
September 20, 2026
SG
Sounds good but…there are some very complex rules to qualify and most energy intensive industries have closed in the UK or switched production to cheaper energy countries.
PS
Energy intensive companies run 24/7/365 as kilns ovens and furnaces need to be kept hot.
Your idea of switching to summer weekends isn’t practical.
September 20, 2026
You can look at what the founding fathers of the Labour party wanted, and what they fought for. It is there in writing in their pamphlets etc. It is nothing like what Labour in power has done since then.
Actually much from those pamphlets would make a winning manifesto today, but its miles away from what the Labour party say and do nowadays.
September 20, 2026
Surely if tax was just simple equitable to pay for the services and infrastructure that the country and it people need to get on with life, instead of being a manipulative tool used by extremists this discussion wouldn’t come about.
And what do we get in the UK tax driven by prejudice, malicious and incompetence. Tax so contrived and convoluted the costs just to extract it is in itself a burden and a hindrance to the growth of the county.
September 20, 2026
From the Internet. In the mid-19th century (around 1858), the British Empire 450million people, 50 Colonies all run from London by a mere 62 employees. Although some theories say 4,000 State Employees in total.
Today we have 6.3 million expensive state employees that cant get to grips with running the country.
Clearly ‘Tax’ is not the answer. The answer to all questions is the ability to earn.
September 20, 2026
“Imaginative people who might do the things you say are few and far between”
Unfortunately all too true Dave – and those few we do have seem to be busy working out where else to go – or have already upped and gone.
Who’d have thought a few years back we’d be struggling to compete with Greece ….
September 20, 2026
No Politician in today’s UK would admit it, but the Political Groups and their Gang Bosses have polluted the meaning of Democracy. Put simply at all elections we are asked to vote for a single candidate to represent us(a Constituency) in Parliament – that’s how we get government for the people by the people, the only real meaning of democracy. At no time is the electorate asked which gang do you want to run Parliament, the Government – its not on the ballot paper
It goes wrong when a gang and its boss from outside that constituency want to dictate and ‘bribe’ the outcome of the vote in that constituency. As such the distortion starts with a Gang Boss seeking to control the outcome by endorsing the candidate that is most loyal to them, then funding that candidate disproportionality to what a ‘locally’ supported candidate could possible receive.
The questions of bribery keeps raising its head all the time outsiders to the constituency try buy the answer to an election, whether that a political group, the Unions, Business or an Individual. Why buy someone a new wardrobe, new glasses etc if you were not try to buy influence?
I know its not going to happen because the corruption is now embedded in the UK Parliament, and turkeys don’t vote for Christmas. There should be only one single avenue of political candidate funding that should be permitted and that is singly from within a Constituency, by those in that Constituency for the candidates that were selected by that Constituencies Electorate. The Elected Candidate is in Parliament to represent those that voted them first.
Political Party’s are themselves corrupting they are religions of ideology, not doing what is right for their electorate, not a single one of them has a doctrine that suits all and every situation. They bend and twist the meaning of democracy to fit themselves, not to enable the country and its people to advance
September 20, 2026
The UK public sector is enormous, constituting about 25% of the economy. Mostly, they export nothing, earn no income for the economy and cost the taxpayer a fortune in salary and pension arrangements. Along with QUANGO’s, (which get to spend about 30% of government income) who provide well paid jobs for the Latin speaking old boys and girls three or four days a month. Sooner rather than later, the bond vigilantes will price them out of the labour market
These people’s jobs are now unsustainable. As AI takes over much of the repetitive, boring things these jobsworths do, they are going to have to find alternative sources of income. Lolling about all day in the garden while WFH, or drinking tea in their libraries while answering the odd email or attending virtual meetings using American software packages will soon be history
What we have to do is to return to the principle that we need to earn our living by exporting value added products that the rest of the world wants to buy. Burnham and Healey should be taking Adam Smith’s book “The Wealth of Nations” as their bedtime reading each night. There is much truth in it.
September 20, 2026
If you mean manufacturing SG, then having energy costs many times that of China and USA makes it very difficult to succeed.
September 20, 2026
Or even impossible.
September 20, 2026
Probably the main underlying reason for the breakdown of the two party system is the failure of the Conservative Party to improve the economy or even to reduce taxes and the failure of Labour to help the poor or even to improve public services by taxing more. The new parties have switched the emphasis to other things, Reform to a kind of nationalism and the Greens to woke notions – both are superseding failed economics with appeals to people’s
other emotions.
I like the Trump approach on donating money to all adults for two reasons, first because it is likely to be successful in a democracy where all can vote (especially if Trump keeps the promise, it is likely others will more credibly be doing the same in future elections) and second it creates a need and a dynamic that generally hasn’t existed before for downsizing the state.
However I say if one wants to make the public sector as efficient for the customer as the private sector, one needs to ensure there is competition and financial discipline and financial incentive for owners and managers to do this and that in reality can only be achieved by making those presently publicly operated things (so far as possible) privately (contractually though with individual consumer choice) operated even if they are still to be publicly financed.
September 20, 2026
Helicopter money is surely no more of a “bribe” than promising rent controls, more benefits, more workers right etc. Better as it goes to all not just tenants and benefit recipients. WORKERS rights actually harms workers indirectly and tenants rights harms tenants.
September 20, 2026
Mrs Gold reports that food shortages have started already in the supermarkets. This week, no pre-packed roast potatoes – not even Aunt Bessie’s Goose Fat ones.
The British Onion Producers’ Association reported that this is the “most challenging season ever” due to extreme drought in East Anglia. The total domestic onion yield is down by roughly 40%. While retailers are trying to source them from Europe or the Southern hemisphere, local shelf gaps are apparently severe. Particularly red skin onions
The domestic English pea harvest collapsed by two thirds this season. This has directly choked off the supply of fresh, locally grown peas to supermarket produce aisles. Similarly, there are no brussels sprouts available this month. Or broccoli.
Like many water-heavy gourds and brassicas, domestic marrow harvests have been hit hard by near-empty reservoirs and strict irrigation restrictions imposed by foreign-owned water companies across UK farms this summer. There are no marrows on supermarket shelves
JR has repeatedly commented on the need to grow more of our own food. It’s such a pity that hundreds of square miles of good farmland are being permenantly taken out of cultivation because it’s more profitable to sell the land to housing developers.
Reply The main problems are too few farm reservoirs and our import dependence on dear imported fertiliser now net zero has closed bi chunks of our domestic chemical industry. Solar farms are taking more farmland than housing.
September 20, 2026
To reply:- Indeed economic vandalism in every direction you care to look from Labour, Starmer and Burnham surely we had quite enough from Blair through to Sunak already?
September 20, 2026
It doesn’t help the government beating up farmers with inheritance tax, so viable businesses have to be liquidated to pay it.
I read that Labour intend to do a U-turn on the farmer’s tax. This would be welcome. If they are concerned about people using farm investment to avoid inheritance tax, adjust the rules so there’s no bill to pay when the farmer passes the farm to people whose livelihood it is.
Do the same with businesses generally – allow them to be passed on to those who live off the business without tax implications, rather than liquidate and lose good jobs.
September 20, 2026
The UK’s last ammonia production company was CF Fertilisers (UK) Ltd in Billingham. Ammonia is the core feedstock for fertilizer manufacturing
CF Fertilisers UK made the proposal to shut their ammonia plant due to a forecast in 2023 that producing ammonia at Billingham would not be cost-competitive for the long-term, compared to importing cheaper American ammonia. Primarily due to high “natural” gas prices in the UK relative to other regions and the impact of EU imposed carbon costs.
Additionally, shutdowns in recent years of CF’s industrial customers’ UK operations – which had consumed significant ammonia volumes – created a supply-demand imbalance for ammonia production at the Billingham complex. Which, when it was owned by ICI was the powerhouse of the UK’s chemical industry
The company believed that ample global availability of ammonia for import, including from CF Industries’ North American production network, would enable more cost-competitive and efficient fertilizer production. Sales of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and nitric acid for it’s U.K. agriculture and chemicals customers will be supplied from it’s American plant moving forward.
So just like Cadbury’s chocolate, they have closed the last British fertilizer factory to concentrate production in America. Nothing to do with net zero whatsoever. Just the high price of “natural” gas here as compared to America
September 20, 2026
“Nothing to do with Net Zero…hilarious SG
September 20, 2026
so MrGold is so absorbed in producing his daily rhubarb that poor MrsGold has to do all the shopping.
I have three supermarkets all within 15minutes and never go without.On the other hand she may order
on line which may.on occassion,limit some offerings.
Back to the topic(Ish).Nowadays change of approach:for a great part of my life the ethos was what can I do
for my country.A more prevalent attitude today it’s what can the state do for me!
September 20, 2026
SI,
Maybe the gardener’s wife could be employed as a cook. Then the Gold household might not have to put up with processed food?
Or maybe they could grow their own potatoes in a vegetable patch and avoid supermarket offerings?
September 20, 2026
But how can you have more homes without a consolidated plan to get all the infrastructure up to scratch. Currently we are seeing homes squeezed in to every possible empty space, between other houses and on odd pieces of land, increasing demands for all types of resources in the areas affected.
The most obvious example of government neglect and lack of planning is on the roads. Just look at the jams we face on a daily basis, even when major roads have no accidents traffic is often too solid to move. There are a host of road improvements that should have been instigated decades back to improve traffic flow, but they have been ignored deliberately. Those that could do something about such problems give not a damn.
The major problem with our congested roads is that no extra capacity has been built to accommodate the ever increasing number of new cars coming onto our roads – something successive successive governments have encouraged. Time we got innovative about moving people around to where they need to be rather than making it ever more impossible, especially with pointless LTNs and inane 20MPH limits.
To say that successive governments have failed us is to under-state the neglect involved. Why have they been so busy wasting our resources, making us poor and following directions form international organisations that want to take us down a path that enriches only the political elite.
Democracy has been infiltrated and broken from within – time for something better.
September 20, 2026
Aberdeen getting ride of it hydrogen bus fleet, now New York City is getting rid of its 650 electric bus fleet ..https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2026/09/19/nyc-turns-back-to-gas-buses-after-finding-out-the-hard-way-that-the-electric-versions-have-big-problems/#more-93020 …..net-zero doesn’t work
September 20, 2026
😂🤣pleased the horrific New York Mayor has done some good.
September 20, 2026
What can one say?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/09/20/redwood-triple-lock-uniparty-establishment/
Better to ignore, its part of the European owned Daily Telegraph campaign against UK Pensioners. Foreign money trying to influence UK Internal Politics. Isn’t that similar to the same perversion a bribery? Donald Trump has just taken exception to the false stories, accusing that News Group of writing “fiction or lies” so has banned them from the Whitehouse.
September 21, 2026
Where are these magical supermarkets that never run out?
I regularly find that I return home with an item or two on my shopping list not being purchased due to it being out of stock.