I said the OBR deficit forecast this spring for this year Ā was likely to prove an underestimate. Yesterday the OBR put it up by 75%.
I said all summer we would go into recession unless they changed policy. The OBR did not forecast that in the spring. Now they are forecasting a recession all next year.
Last year I argued to end Quantitative easing by the Bank and Treasury to avoid inflation taking off. They went for another Ā£150 bn of money printing and we now have a nasty inflation.
I now argue for some offset to the monetary tightening the Bank is doing and want them to stop selling bonds at a loss into Ā the market. I fear they will carry on and make the recession worse.
I see the government are offering some offset to the recession policies with a boost to public spending this year and next. The money given to people and companies to help with energy bills and offset inflation will as the OBR says reduce the depth of the slowdown.
It would have been better to include some tax cuts to do this, VAT cuts help cut the inflation rate. Cuts in tax on business and incomes help confidence and may even grow the revenues faster.
The OBR have upped the ante with their bloated figures for debt interest including non cash items. These should come tumbling down as inflation falls. The Chancellor has done just what the OBR wanted. Their Ā£50 bn black hole is bizarre. No one can say what the deficit will be in five years time. If we followed a more pro growth policy it would be lower than the 0BR say and could vanish altogether. If the Bank and OBR continue to dictate the black Hole will be bigger, driven there by a worse recession. Ā£50 bn is less than the large revisions to OBR deficit forecasts in each of the last three years.
Steering the economy by OBR five year forecasts is like relying on a medieval map to get to a modern city.
November 18, 2022
Good morning.
To me the budget looked a little like this :
Those that strive, get up early in the morning to go to work, come home late and try to do all the right things will have less for their troubles. Whilst those that stay in bed all day, watch telly and contribute nothing have had a nice increase.
Both I and others here have earmarked various areas where spending cuts could be made without any loss to core public services. Yet these sacred cows in which we are pouring literally tens of billions of pounds for absolutely no return go not only untouched, but completely ignored.
Your party, Sir John has a death wish. And the sooner we are able to fulfill it we will.
I wish you a long and happy retirement.
November 18, 2022
+1
November 18, 2022
Well said Mark.
Sunak, Hunt and Wallace (and Tory MPs) should feel ashamed at their self harming treachery. Transferring the ship building of our war ships to a nationalised company in Spain is despicable. The skills, knowledge and work should be retained in the UK, ie Scotland.
Net stupid is now going to happen quicker and fuel duty put up by 23% in March!! How is the UK going to build ships or make steel for national security? It is clear Sunak and Hunt do not care. This treacherous duo are on a mission to make our country poor, hungry and cold like Sri Lanka in double quick time. I am not sure we can wait two years to get rid of them. They need to go now.
November 18, 2022
Two occasions in my life where the govt has caused me to worry about my finances. Tory govt.s not Labour. The first was Major where he hit my pocket for my mortgage where thousands lost heir home and businesses went bust- no good reason other than for his fanatical ERM EU membership- and the second is today particularly for my working children.
The treachery over Brexit by May and her cohorts, including Hunt, and now the economic harm by punishing people for working hard, striving and saving to be punished by a virtue signalling socialist govt. to shower money around the world. No mention of overseas aid being cut, no mention of the Ā£11.6 billion Sunak gave away last week for climate scam, no mention of him stopping the investigation of his school boy errors in wasting Ā£11.8 billion, no mention of giving away billions to corrupt Ukraine, second to US more than the whole of EU and giving away the building our war ships to Spain!
Energy self inflicted harm by Tories who refuse to produce our own oil, gas, coal and fracked gas but happy to import from around the world! Even by their own arguments that is not helping the planet. Giving away jobs and industry to Huntās beloved China who should be sanctioned for breaching Hong Kong treaty, covid, human rights, colonisation of world etc. Nothing but help and support!
November 19, 2022
I’ve never wondered if my outgoings would become more than my income, yet I had a mortgage until 66, raised 3 children, my wife worked while all 3 went to universities with virtually no debt on them. I could always have us eat well, leave lights on, turn the heating up in chilly weather and always on in winter.
Now I have to wonder if meeting my council tax, my power bill, running a 12 year old car for 6000 miles, being anxious about what we buy to eat, no longer buying clothing without hesitating, and praying for no device or home breakdowns. Things like covering dental and optician bills, hairdressing and yes the Sky tv bill are pushing me into the red. This winter I hope we won’t see ice on the inside of our double glazing, but remember vividly dreading going upstairs to a freezing room and bed with extra blankets and a coat on it, waking up to icy windows, and dad praying the pipes wouldn’t burst.
This feels like going back over 65 years and I dread it – a long miserable cold winter for months.
Bring on climate change soon !
November 18, 2022
Yes, quite so. I would invite our host to tell us who he thinks the Conservative Party voters are now? The occupants of Downing St, are clearly not conservatives, they are the puppets of the internationalists, seemingly mis-managing the nation for the benefit of someone other than those that vote in this country. Come the next election, our country will be weaker, poorer and more angry, and the party in power today will be expunged from our society.
November 18, 2022
Did anyone hear watch Michelle Dewberry and then Nigel Farage last night in Southampton?
In reply to the question, if there was a new party to vote for, would any here vote for it, everyone in the room said yes.
To them and a lot of others itās obvious that Hunt and Sunak are either willingly, or are being threatened to kill off the British economy.
Thereās now too many statements being bandied about by too many people in āauthorityā to not see that all this destruction- is definitely deliberate!
November 18, 2022
Thanks to your, the tories’, and his brexit, the country is fighting global problems with one arm tied behind its back.
“You’ve Never Had It So Bad”
November 18, 2022
Yes, it’s deliberate: they are implementing The Great Reset. In order to Build Back Better (better for them) they first have to cause chaos; make people poorer, insecure and fearful which will weaken any resistance.
If you watch Mark Steyn on GB News yesterday you will learn that Leaders of the Group of 20 (G20) have issued a joint declaration promoting a global standard on proof of vaccination for international travel and calling for the establishment of āglobal digital health networksā that build on existing digital COVID-19 vaccine passport schemes.
āWe acknowledge the importance of shared technical standards and verification methods, under the framework of the IHR (2005), to facilitate seamless international travel, interoperability, and recognizing digital solutions and non-digital solutions, including proof of vaccinations,ā the G20 joint declaration reads.
Welcome to Global Surveillance and a Social Credit system.
November 18, 2022
Too many U-turns on EU subjects not to think the Hunt Sunak duo are making sure UK stays in lockstep with EU and is not more competitive.
Tories deliberately failed to deliver Brexit, deliberately failed to deliver on immigration, and deliberately destroying the economy. JRās blog today makes it clear he has known for a very long time the govt, his govt and party, are on a self destroying course.
I thought Angel Reynarās partner was in charge of OBR and Reeves husband in charge of economic policy unit in No.10.! Is this correct JR? Your party and govt keeps following Labour policy and hiring former Labour ministers. It is not a mistake this goes back to Osborne days. They tried to get EU loving left wing Odonis!
Hunt has taken over your govt on behalf of a pro remain cabal. Would you agree? I want to know what Tory Brexit MPs are going to do. If they vote this budget through there is no coming back.
November 18, 2022
It seems clear the UK is now run by OBR socialists put in place by Osborne.
A new party would be Trumped out.
Agree – deliberate.
November 18, 2022
Sharon. Yes I watched it. Very good as usual and yes, my hand would have gone up too.
November 18, 2022
Sharon : Saw some of it. The difference in the usual general public audience of his ‘At Large’ programme was that this one included ( or was meant to include ) mainly business people and local small business owners. He had particularly asked that those attending be from that cohort. The question remains, why is this government not fighting this corner which is so valuable. With all that we see going on it just leaves people, perhaps reluctantly, agreeing with your suggestion that much of what’s emerging is indeed deliberate.
November 18, 2022
There is clearly significant support for a genuinely-patriotic new party. Although all those in the room with Farage are a self-selecting group, they are virtually all ex-Conservatives (like me) and there is no doubt that around 20% of the 2019 Tory voters are ripe for defection. This will kick the Tories out of office. Yes, this is likely to result in a Labour government, but SO WHAT? Starmer is NOT Corbyn. Labour will NOT take us back into the EU (he couldn’t, even if he wanted to, which he doesn’t). Starmer will NOT form an alliance with the SNP and will NOT allow another Scottish independence referendum (which, in any case, the SNP would lose as their complaint of always being subservient to English Tories will have been proved untrue). On both economic and social policy Labour is NO WORSE than the Conservatives. Or, put another way, the Tories now, under the Sunak & Hunt duumvirate (or rather, DUMBvirate) are NO BETTER than Labour.
One term out of office will force the Conservative Party to accept that it cannot win by betraying the patriotic vote. They will have to change leader (which always happens after an electoral defeat anyway) and choose one that the membership – which is more in tune with the national mood than the parliamentary party – actually wants. With a new leader, and a new set of patriotic policies, the party may well win the following election, and at least then we’ll be governed the way we want to be, and not be stabbed in the back by frauds and traitors.
November 18, 2022
Hunt praised mayors! He will impose mayors on the rest of the country and bring back Prescottās regional assemblies. The public and nation voted against these in 2004! Undoubtedly this is to divide and conquer Englandās opposing voice. It was the EU idea of regionalisation.
November 18, 2022
+1 Sharon
November 18, 2022
PW,
More are questioning who exactly this government is working for. Conservative Woman site describes them as ācivil servants for a Davos governmentā.
They are more difficult to read than Boris Johnson who would do anything that benefitted him personally or was a vanity project.
However, I donāt accept :-
āMake no mistake, they are sincere. Sunak, Hunt and party grandees werenāt bribed, blackmailed or ordered to act by Klaus Schwab. That is not how it works. They believe in what they are doing.ā
I think they see where power lies and look to become members of the global elite for the rest of their careers. Neither of them is unaware of the charges against them. They just donāt care.
November 18, 2022
Peter Wood
Sooty and Sweep could do a better job.
At least the man behind them was there and his agenda there for all to see.
November 18, 2022
Mark, I agree – and feel like weeping at the obstinate economic and social blindness of the Conservative government since Cameron became Leader. Sadly, there appears to be no other truly feasible Party to take over at the next GE.
November 18, 2022
Reform UK is the natural home for disaffected Tories ā they have over 600 candidates ready and waiting for the next election. I would love to see some real Tory MPs jump ship to Reform UK now.
November 18, 2022
But given the first past the post system that pertains and the many āalways have always will vote X or Y votersā they will be very lucky to win even a single seat.
November 19, 2022
As opposed to what? Voting for the same old anti-UK socialist eco-loon parties? If you vote for them, you are supporting them and agreeing with what they do. I cannot believe that of you, LL.
November 21, 2022
LL: Well they won’t if everyone just sticks with the same old stance of voting in fear of the other lot getting in. There are many who will simply be unable to contemplate giving their previous Con vote to Lib/Lab/Green. I think we are at a turning point after what we are seeing where many now are feeling they don’t care anymore but still want change. Reform UK hardly likely to get a majority but If change is what is wanted it calls for a change and boldness from the electorate to give it a go, not waste a vote and try to at least get some new voices into parliament.
November 18, 2022
@NanT That is who I will likely be voting for at the next election.
The Conservatives have taken its supporters for granted for far too long. Promising us what we want, but failing to deliver.
Enough is enough.
November 18, 2022
I am both extremely surprised and also disappointed that at least half a dozen patriotic Tory MPs have not defected to Reform. There are a number of reasons why they should do so:
(i) The current Conservative Party does not represent them. Worse still, it prevents them from actually speaking their minds. They are prisoners deprived of their freedom of speech. What self-respecting MP would accept that?
(ii) If they intend to retire at the next general election, then they have nothing to lose.
(iii) If they intend to stand again then they must see that the polls indicate they will lose under the Conservative banner. They might well also lose under Reform, with a new Conservative candidate against them, but by remaining in the Conservative Party they will face a Reform candidate, so the two balance out and by switching to Reform they at least will go down (if that’s the result) standing for what they truly believe and not having to embarrassingly defend the indefensible;
(iv) By being one of a small group of Reform MPs they will elevate their profile nationally, getting a lot more press and TV attention, and therefore make themselves more likely to retain their seat.
(v) Being a Reform MP they will immediately become one of the party’s most senior members and will be able to shape its policies.
For all these reasons I believe that the likes of our host, together with the Esther McVeys, Philip Davies’, JRMs, Bill Cashes, Desmond Swaynes, Christopher Chopes and other similar patriots should now defect en masse. The shockwaves and the lasting impact would be enormous and they would certainly be doing themselves – as well as the country – a huge favour.
November 18, 2022
+10
November 18, 2022
+100
November 18, 2022
Appointing Fishy killed off the tories, Hunt just buried them.
Gordon Brown would have been proud.
RIP.
November 18, 2022
A long interview with Jeremy Hunt just now on the Today Programme. What the deluded man seemed to be saying was roughly:- This government are going to continue with huge net migration of hundreds of thousands. This to depress/undercut UK wage rates, lower GDP per head, lower productivity and increase pressure on housing, schools, the NHS, the police, roads, social services… The only way we can stop this is if we re-skill many of the UK workers so until then (which is unlikely) huge immigration it is so tough. Oh and yes he seems to want to get back into the EU but does not think he can quite admit this yet! Plus he has scrapped the promised cap on private provision for social care but we really promise it for after the election. Sure we all believe you mate!
November 18, 2022
SM
Anyone other than the LibLabCON ‘is’ the only sensible alternative. Voting for any of those three only confirms that you agree with what is happening.
Your vote matters, as does everyone else’s.
November 18, 2022
+1 but we certainly do not want to see him retire not for many years yet.
November 18, 2022
+1 our problems are caused because this obdurate parliamentary party REFUSE TO DEPLOY THE TALENTED ON THEIR BENCHES!
They are going to die of WOKE, a disease far more deadly than CV19.
November 18, 2022
+ 100
November 18, 2022
Mark B.
I know someone like you describe in your first paragraph. Therefore I was very surprised to hear that benefit recipients, who got Ā£650 to help with the cost of living this year, are to get an additional Ā£900 next April.
I see that many recipients are to be encouraged to meet with their Work Coaches, to try harder to get into employment. This doesn’t always work, as they cite health problems , ie: bi – polar, stress, anxiety, and other problems, that can be difficult to prove.
November 18, 2022
Cheshire Girl,
Have you not heaard of diversity and inclusion? Some companies and all of the public sector will be falling over themselves to recruit more staff with these sorts of issues. Does wonders for their diversity statistics.
Agree with Mark B though. Autumn Statement gives more to those who draw from the State and takes more from those who pay for the State. It incentivises the wrong behaviours.
November 18, 2022
Trouble is, once those many small and medium businesses have closed for ever, where will those people find other jobs? They probably wonāt. So theyāll get to draw benefitsā¦ will basic universal income with digital currency then be introduced?
What we are seeing is a Cold War against the people.
November 18, 2022
++
I read or heard a long time ago that our govtās strategy was a war against us.
Thought it sounded barmy.
But obviously it was true.
Now they are applying the thumbscrews.
Next thing will be NO POWER.
November 18, 2022
A winter of discontent is becoming raging years of it!
November 18, 2022
Over half of GDP down to small businesses. The large corporations that pay no tax will be laughing with joy!
November 18, 2022
@PeteB+1 diversity and inclusion? The highest form of discrimination and bigotry yet invented. No ideals of the ābest-of-the-bestā for the State, second rate is good enough for the surfs
November 18, 2022
Cheshire Girl
It is my belief that work should always be made to pay.
When I was made redundant due in part to the ERM fiasco I went looking for work. Any job will do – cleaner, shop assistant etc. Me coming from being a qualified engineer. I like to think I have a good work ethic.
November 18, 2022
++
I too have a similar little window.
Many plans for fuel bunce to be spent on the latest iPhone etc.
+apparently unfortunate conditions, such as you mention, confer the role of āexpertā on the benefit recipient sufferer and lead to āunder the radarā very generous hourly rate employment.
November 18, 2022
Once people are on disability benefits, their illness becomes psycho-somatic as they depend on it for their survival. They might have got better, but the brain won’t let them. They aren’t fit enough to do a job that will pay better than benefits.
This is a pernicious aspect of the benefits system, and I don’t know what the answer is.
November 18, 2022
I know of an unmarried mother with 2 children who used the money to buy her boy friend a new set of golf clubs and her son a bouncy castle to use in the garden.
It should be drip-fed with the benefit payments, rather than given out in a huge chunk.
November 18, 2022
I was surprised to find that second home owners are getting the Ā£400 energy rebate on both homes! (I think itās Ā£400 for pensioners, I might be wrong on the amount.)
November 18, 2022
Mark B
Reminiscent of the cry rumbling round the engineers lobby after a new plan delivered by the managers.
Another CFLB.
CHARTER FOR LAZY BA####DS
November 18, 2022
Mark B
You are right.
I have said it countless times, Politicians and Governments do not take account, or seem to understand Human Nature.
I also forecast that the strivers, the business risk takers (using their own money) and the self employed would get hammered again, and sadly I have been proved right again.
No I am not any sort of expert, you simply just need to follow the average politicians thought process for the decades, which has been to raise tax, time and time and time again, and widen it’s grasp time and time and time again.
Until we get someone like JR in control, it will never be any different.
The public sector will keep their safe jobs, but perhaps with a slightly more restricted pay rise, but with guaranteed generous pensions and sickness pay, the rest of those working in the private sector can fight out what is left of the real economy between them.
Those pensioners who thought they had done the right thing over the years, of living within their means and putting a little away for their old age, now know they did the wrong thing with many now looking forward to pay tax on the State pension (Government Claw Back) but have just a little too much to get any further help.
What a miserable future for all in the UK.
Perhaps we should ask the government to put us all up in hotels, with all bills paid ?
November 18, 2022
I agree with the comments by Mark B.
How many grants and handouts do those on benefits already receive, in comparison to those in work.
Housing benefit.
Free prescriptions and dental care.
Council tax relief.
Help with energy costs.
Cost of living paymemts.
Help with school uniform costs and free school meals.
(I’m sure there are more entitlements on top of this list)
On top of money of any benefits money paid.
How much is all the above worth to someone on benefits?
It is high time the Government established the root causes of why people are ‘poor’.
If someone is poor because of a genuine illness, or disability, or a less well off Pensioner, then I’m all for helping them.
If someone is poor because they can’t be bothered to do a days work, then I’m not in favour of helping them, or chucking ever more ‘free’ money in their direction.
What incentives are there to go out and work, when those on who are fit and able and on benefits are receiving FAR more than those that pay for those ‘perks’.
Those who are fit and able and bother to contribute to society are faced with higher mortgages, higher energy costs and more money to travel to work.
This Government needs to stop being the Labour Party lite and start being a Conservative one.
November 18, 2022
Why are the Tories so hell bent on penalising anyone who has worked hard saved, didnāt waste money and paid off their mortgage? Why am I paying council tax on the size of my house and not the number of people in it and the income. No I donāt want to downsize. I want my children and grandchildren to visit and stay. Always rewards for feral lazy people and their feral offspring. Just keep spanking me for more. Always money to support criminality and blood sucking lawyers. Money for all. Unless you work.
November 18, 2022
@Mark B +1 To think Globalists and the World Economic Forum governing World events is suggested by those involved in this targedy as a myth, a conspiracy theory.
November 18, 2022
Indeed. I feel sorry for Sir John. A true conservative lead by a bunch of second rate green lib dums. A truly awful socialist budget, totally tone deaf to obvious HS2 cuts, welfare increases for the feckless, and attacking the strivers. Nothing to offer the middle classes just more net stupid, leave our natural resources in the ground, import the same from the rest of the world. I also wish you a happy retirement, the Tory’s are toast, long live Reform!
November 18, 2022
Mark B
+ 1000
I’m already looking at cutting back three days work a month and quitting my job sooner rather than later… what’s the point ?
Tories reward all the wrong behaviours and so we have more wrong behaviour.
My own family:
Doctor and research Chemist in their mid twenties both in single rooms, no kids, no spare cash, paying through the nose to get to work and for student loans.
Their single parent cousins in their mid twenties, never worked, five kids between them (all with ADHD – to get max benefits, obviously) each in their own council houses.
The Tories are the party of gloom, indolence, irresponsibility, crushed aspiration and the importer of murderous mafia gangsters who will be coming to a town near you soon.
We have nothing to fear from Labour by not voting at all.
I’m afraid we’re going to have to try to take the long way around and scrap the Tory Party before things can get better. Every Tory MP has to go. Every single one of them.
PS, When did they legalise cannabis behind our backs ? The stench is everywhere and the police back users up in this vicinity – a knowing ticking off by a PCSO “Ignore the boomer once he’s around the corner.” *wink* (there are no real coppers) at worst.
November 18, 2022
@ Mark B
Correct, Strivers need incentives not scroungers.
November 18, 2022
Mark B : āWhilst those that stay in bed all day, watch telly and contribute nothing have had a nice increase.ā
The Net Zero Strategy of meagre, expensive and intermittent wind energy is designed to make life even more expensive and more difficult for those that work.
Those who donāt work will be able to take full advantage of the cheaper rates of electricity during the day and will be able to avoid cooking, washing etc. during the very expensive peak hours of 16:00 to 19:00 and can even arrange to be out when the blackouts take place.
November 18, 2022
Agree entirely.
November 18, 2022
A somewhat obvious question.
But the government clearly needs independent forecasters for its plans. Who would you propose they use who would be more respected by markets than the OBR?
Also, you can’t blame forecasters for being wrong. They can only provide an informed opinion based on reasonable assumptions and historical data. They are not a crystal ball, but they are the best we have.
Finally, I hear the OBR have been criticised for the optimism of their growth forecasts this time. Perhaps this will go some way to offset your previous criticisms about it being overly pessimistic.
November 18, 2022
@Mark B; “Whilst those [of working age and ability] that stay in bed all day, watch telly and contribute nothing have had a nice increase.”
Surely only true of those on JSA/UC who can hoodwink the benefits fraud investigators!
Of course the question never asked (by the hard right) is why so many of working age are now so grossly under-employed, not all those on Universal Credit are unemployed, many claiming UC and other benefits are the working poor, often on the NMW and minimum hours contracts [1]. Many would love to have a 39+ hour week, even more so with regular overtime at time-and-half, but such employment practices no longer sit well with the wishes of shareholders and investment fund managers etc wanting to maximize their pwn incomes. Want lower taxes, stop allowing financially healthy companies from socializing their hourly paid wages so they can pay better dividends…
[1] that, effectively, all but prevent second jobs
November 19, 2022
Hunt of course has extensive financial experience that amply qualifies him as finance minister.
If you don’t want to end up spitting blood, don’t go and read his CV on Wiki.
His qualification for the job seems to be teaching English as a foreign language in Japan. On return to the UK, tried ( I presume unsuccessfully ) to sell marmalade to Japan.
That is the guy who the Tory party has entrusted with the finances of the country.
It would be a joke, but the mess he claims to be clearing up, has been caused by his boss, Rishi Sunak, who until recently held a green card for the US. Obviously, a guy who has thrown his lot in with the success of the UK.
November 19, 2022
@APL; I take it you bailed out of reading Hunt’s Wiki bio at the point of his failed attempt to sell marmalade to Japan, thus missing the reference to his role in successfully setting up (along with one other) an educational guidance company, that was later sold for Ā£30m. Now compare that with the early career of the man chosen by Thatcher to be her second Chancellor, and still very much the darling of the hard right, what qualifications did Lawson have to be in such a post if Hunt has non?…
As for the current mess, the damage to the UK economy is such, short of war, no Chancellor could have achieved it within just two years! Whilst the tax cutting agenda of Ms Truss caused damage, and might well have been the tipping point, our eventual and massive economic contraction has been on a slow boil since at least 2010, if not longer. It is not the personalities that are the problem but basic long standing Tory (monetarist) polices.
November 18, 2022
Exactly right.
Hunt and Sunak have clearly decided to go to war with anyone who works or employs people. The main problem the UK has is too little incentive to work (after tax, NI, student loan repayments, child care, commuting costs…) over just living on benefits. Hunt just made this position far, far worse. This agenda will depress growth and reduce the tax take (not increase it) over time. At least they did not destroy the Non Dom regime which would have done even more to damage the economy.
Rachael Reaves was quite right in saying “This government has forced our economy into a doom loop” ā low growth leads to higher tax rates but less tax take, decreased investment, fewer actually working, the rich leaving & disinvesting and the throttling of the future tax base.
The Conservative Party is clearly at war with its natural supporters, it is economic and politically lunacy. A doom loop indeed & with the appalling prospect of the even worse Labour/SNP/LibDems in 2024 to make matters even worse.
Hunt and Sunak made choices they clearly prefer to piss money down the drain on HS2, net zero, pointless degrees, woke lunacy, migrants, climate reparations, overseas aid, bloated and wasteful government and vastly increase taxes so as to enter this doom loop.
November 18, 2022
LL,
This is because we voted leave and Hunt is going to teach us a lesson! They all forget they are there to serve us not us to serve them. Tories need to be buried. The sooner the better.
November 18, 2022
Tory Doom Loop
That’s catchy.
November 18, 2022
PS, Lifelogic
The most incredible thing offered by Hunt is the 10% ‘pay’ rise for welfare claimants (tax free) when workers are lucky if they get 5% (taxed)… and then there’s fiscal drag to consider for middle earners.
You’re far better off cutting your hours or taking better conditions (ie less work) over pay.
This is deliberate sabotage of our country. It’s a putsch.
November 19, 2022
Indeed stop, working claim benefits here is barter or cash in hand economy. If you want to work hard or start a business best leave the UK.
November 18, 2022
Also in Hunt’s Today interview he said “Sound Money mattered more than tax cuts” – has he asked Sunak why he so debased Stirling then? Debasing the currency is yet another tax on top of all the others.
He also said HS2 was important for long term growth. So stupidity or dishonesty? Value is perhaps 10% of what it is costing at best and will not open for perhaps 11 more years!
He admitted the projections assumes +205,000 net migration PA so clearly they plan for rather more than Cameron’s tens of thousands many on very low pay so who will buy/build houses, school places, health care for them and their extended families?
Being the BBC they did not ask him about the real cause of the rip off energy prices and vast economic damage – net zero, green levies and the insane energy policy we suffer under. So we get a road tax for EV cars as they produce far more CO2 than keeping your old car with the tax be higher than for old petrol cars then?
November 18, 2022
Now we get tax on EV cars as expected. But EV cars do not pay circa Ā£1000 of tax PA on fuel as ICU car owners do. Also they are heavier and thus cause more road damage and finally they cause more CO2 compared to keeping a small old ICU car (mainly in construction of the new car and often short lived battery and also at the power station for charging).
So a fair payment would actually be about Ā£1,250 PA so as to have a fair & unrigged market. Can we have this please.
November 18, 2022
+1 factually accurate.
Sunak said he would serve with integrity and implement 2019 manifesto! I can only conclude he tells lies.
November 18, 2022
At the end of each post you could shorten that to āplus my usual rantā.
November 18, 2022
+1
November 18, 2022
The government havenāt listened to you for some time now, or the people of this once wonderful country. We even have a PM that was rejected twice. All the back slapping after the statement made me want to be sick. So he gave the triple lock. Bully for him. Now he will starve the councils of their grant so the poll tax increases will wipe any benefits away.
Not a word on the enormous amount of waste so often highlighted here. Not a word. They really do not understand the anger by life long Tory voters who are deserting. I donāt think ex Tories will vote for other parties I donāt think they will vote at all. There is nothing on offer as the gravy train and massive burden of government costs rolls on untouched. I do believe voter apathy in the next election will lose you your seat to the Liberals.
So how much money that we donāt have are we giving away to foreign governments next year. Billions more for the NHS to treat the world that lands here instead of the reform it so desperately needs. They will be able now to employ so many more managers and diversity advisers to dream up useless courses. All this while I wait until from first reporting in October to March just to see a consultant. Which I expect will be cancelled or further delayed. No worries though. We are all in this together. Doesnāt that make you fell all warm and cosy.
November 18, 2022
You use the word reform, well there is the answer Reform UK and a huge amount of former Conservatives are switching.
Hopefully all the former Labour voters who have seen the light will too.
Nothing to lose now n taking a chance.
November 18, 2022
Hear, hear, Michelle. I am heartened by the number of people on social media now looking for a new political home and Reform appears to be coming out on top. The main parties have deceived and betrayed us far too often!
November 18, 2022
Shirley. That’s music to my ears.
November 18, 2022
Michelle:
Instead of wasting their vote, disgruntled Conservative voters used to switch their support to Screaming Lord Sutch. He was the longest-serving party leader and the OMRLP had many sensible policies.
In contrast, todayās Conservative leadership is idiotic with bad intent. Now The Reform Party is a much more serious contender, long-prepared in readiness to gain power.
November 18, 2022
Shirley all these well meaning people simply donāt have the gravitas to launch a viable alternative party. There are 408 registered political parties in the U.K. but until the Tories split, and the Conservative section offers conservatism, attracts high quality candidates, there will be no alternative.
Frankly until JR see that leaving the hijacked party and sticking with Conservatism is what is required, we are done with the ballot box.
The day the Tory Party splits, millions of us will rally and pour out blood sweat and tears campaigning and fighting for the seats, free of charge, just as we always used to do.
Come on JR! Itās Conservatism that is precious! Bugger the party machine!
November 18, 2022
BW
The worst thing the ex Tories can do is sit on their hands and not vote.
I was bought up that you must vote because millions have died to give you that privilege.
So that said I will be voting for Reform.
Old TQ training slide:
There are those who make it happen
There are those who want it to happen
There are those that wondered what the #### happened.
You want change make it happen JFDI
November 19, 2022
They will vote all right, but it ain’t gonna be for the ruling economy destroying militants.
November 18, 2022
The killer for the Tories will be not that there is nothing on offer for Tory voters but that there is nothing to fear by not voting for them anymore.
“Keep Labour Out” cannot be used a la Project Fear as it was before.
November 19, 2022
‘Keep Conservatives out’ is likley to be the call for the next GE.
November 18, 2022
The vital things good governments should dn o for a sound economy are good defenses, law and order and the protection of private property rights. Yet It seem this fake “Conservative” Government does not even attempt to control our borders. It is not only not protecting property rights it has actually become the main agent doing the all the systematic serial thieving of private property. It will not end well.
November 18, 2022
Is the sensible wing of the Conservative Party in Parliament going to do anything stop or limit the damage of this insanely damaging budget?
November 18, 2022
@Lifelogic. No they have morpehed into the new collective TINOS tories in name only. The UK will never see a Conservative Party again, they will never see freedom
November 18, 2022
Kenrick now telling us he’ll place the illegals in the Countryside. No attempts to deport any of them. Tells you their true intentions. They want them. All part of their hidden mass immigration policy.
November 19, 2022
Does he want them, Timaction? Or is he drawing everyone’s attention to the problem, not just people living in places like Stoke on Trent? Until every Conservative MP supports them, those who want to do something about this are powerless and will go on taking the blame.
November 18, 2022
If you wish to keep it brief, and yesterdays effort outlines the true future of conservatism, stick it where the sun never shines.
November 18, 2022
Rachel Reeves is basically right in her criticisms of 12 years of this fake misdirected Tory Government.
Britain is indeed “a great country, with fantastic strengths. But, because of this governmentās mistakes, we are being held back.”
She forget to say however that, for all the very many things the May/Boris/Sunak Tories got very wrong, (net zero, the road blocking, the bloated wasteful state, the second rate NHS, the pointless degrees, the money printing currency debasements, the very high tax rates, the vaccines, test and trace, the lack of incentives to work or invest, the lockdowns, over regulation of everything, HS2…) but Labour wanted and indeed still wants even more of these appalling “mistake”.
https://labour.org.uk/press/rachel-reeves-response-to-the-chancellors-autumn-statement/
November 18, 2022
Agreed mostly but the antivaxx stuff is nonsense. We would be in a far worse position as indeed would the whole world without the vaccines!
November 19, 2022
i am only against vaccines that do net harm (is not everyone). If you look at the statistics the Covid vaccines seem to be rather ineffective and rather dangerous. For children and the young they certainly did net harm as they were never even at any serious risk.
November 19, 2022
You can only assess ‘net harm’ if sufficient have the vaccine and results analysed.
I’d have expected someone with your qualifications to have worked that out.
November 19, 2022
That’s why proper vaccines are trialled over a long-ish period of time, MT, gaining public confidence in them as a result. This time was different.
November 19, 2022
yes it was but speaking of the Oxford vaccine, read the book!, it passed numerous staging of testing they all should go through – yet in a much shortened time frame. It saved possibly 100,000 lives in the UK, and possibly 500,000 severe cases of Covid.
Everyone I know all prayed to get that vaccine – it felt like a life saver, and even the EU countrIes were jealous that we got protected first.
November 19, 2022
Richard1, you may want to look into how the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA treatments obtained their classification as ‘vaccines’ in the USA and the EU. (Because of obsessive Whitehall secrecy, it’s hard to do that in this country.) It was clearly an exceptional measure designed to deal with what had been falsely presented as an existential threat to the population. It was not the normal procedure by which new vaccines are first properly tested and licensed. Serious questions are now being asked in the European Parliament of the EMA, the EU’s vaccine licensing authority.
I have taken vaccines at various times in my life when necessary. Not this time.
November 18, 2022
Duplicate post.
November 18, 2022
Jacob Rees-Mogg recanted his claim that the new Prime Minister is a āsocialistā, so given this appalling budget will Mogg now recant his recantation? He was very clearly spot on first time.
Hunt and Sunak are both deluded, green crap pushing, open borders, tax, borrow, waste & currency debase socialists.
November 18, 2022
LL
The two leading this country are just puppets, other power groups and faceless people are pulling their strings.
November 18, 2022
This government is suicidal. What do they hope to gain by destroying our economy? This party has already destroyed our society and our culture over the last 12 years. Everyone seems to be anti-white and anti-British these days! We are still accused (and found guilty) of ‘white privilege’ and every other sin of people over the ages! Thank goodness I am old. I really don’t like what our country is becoming.
I suppose our economy was the last item on their destructive agenda! Who do they work for, because it isn’t THIS country, or its people!
November 18, 2022
You ask who they work for, Shirley. You mean you don’t know?
November 18, 2022
R. Grange: But why? Why kill the golden goose? What do the participants in this government gain from alienating the people who pay them? What do they gain from making themselves unelectable? The only answer appears to be the destruction of democracy so that they have nothing to fear from the electorate that they are deliberately impoverishing.
November 18, 2022
The problem is Shirley, that Hunt has delayed the real pain for after the 2025 election, in effect he has kicked the can down the road, which Labour or whoever gets in next will need to resolve, a bit like Brown deliberately fixing and introducing the 45% tax rate, literally weeks before his departure.
We have now reached a level of Party political point scoring, policy manipulation, and inaccurate information/forecasts/statements, that it not only undermines democracy, but is verging on the point of being dishonest.
Manifesto’s are for the bird’s, and are proving to be the work of absolute fiction (all Parties)
Sorry JR you may have to moderate this posting, I have tried to use sensible language, but that is how I feel.
You have tried to give your views, we out here ahave tried to give ours, but no one is listening.
November 18, 2022
Think of what it could be like for your grand-children if nothing is done, Shirley.
Vote Reform.
November 19, 2022
My grandchildren are watching this unfolding Brian Rix farce with interest mixed with scorn. Some will be entitled to vote if the idiots hold out to the bitter end to grant a GE. How on earth they can be expected to assess who should get their X on the ballot is beyond me.
November 18, 2022
It needs to be spelt out.
Yesterday was the triumph of globalist socialism. Having hijacked power in the Commons, you now present us with the bill. It is totally lacking in inspiration or aspiration, and has no place in the future of the UK.
Having politically blocked blocked the UK to its own sources of cheap power, no gas storage, no maritime gas, no fracked gas, no coal, no mention of SMRs from RR, just another black hole for ten years at Sizewell to rival HS2. Not forgetting continued exposure to the world of volatile expensive power and a better target by Ā£1000 for the power companies to aim for. The false god of Nett Zero remains. To finish it off, the EV you bought in good faith at twice the price of a normal one will now be taxed, surprise, surprise.
You continue to disincentivise SMEs with creeping taxation of every kind. If they survive these hurdles there is top rate and the ever lowering IHT to get them in case they are successful. Yesterdays effort will expand the Black Economy and emmigration to more welcoming tax regimes.
The lumbering, expensive, and unproductive civil service remains untouched, a leach on the backs of the enterprising. Why, because the present Commons incumbants like political power off piste, create another quango and give them a “K”.
Meanwhile no resolution to the NIP, the festering remains of Brexit, illegal immigrants who having filled our hotels are now destined to invade the countryside. One can only guess at what this will do for the tourist industry.
Having denied your own members by killing off their choice, you now confirm your illigitimacy.
I make no apology for the length of this piece, you have brought it on yourselves. To misquote the late Sir Arthur Harris, you can now reap the whirlwind.
November 18, 2022
+ many Agricola. I also agree with your earlier post. The CONS can stick it where the sun don’t shine.
November 18, 2022
Agreed. I will go further and actively fund, campaign, leaflet drop, put adverts in the local papers to remove this poisonous undemoncratic party from existence. They’ve done nothing conservative in 12.5 years of mis rule. Just got in the way of democracy.
November 18, 2022
Shirley,
Everyone needs to make sure to Pay for everything in cash. Do not let them take control of your bank account.
November 18, 2022
++++many
Lovely post!!
Spot on!!
November 18, 2022
A rare very good piece. ‘Bomber Harris’ laid waste the towns and cities – ripe for rebuilding. So your analogy where bombing will go on – but not to buildings – instead the basic means of supporting ourselves via work.
Arbeit macht frei ….no work, no freedom.
November 18, 2022
Agreed Agricola, Hunt had the infernal cheek to refer to EDF when talking about a new reactor , a Froggy company. I suppose like May did , the Chinese will have their hand in the purse too!
November 18, 2022
Well you wanted it short so here it is. Vote Reform.
November 18, 2022
+1 to voting Reform UK
November 18, 2022
Yes, Nigel on GB News is their warm up act, and very good too. I want to see Reform emerging above the parapet assuming national media gives them air time and column inches. This government will feed them events to respond to on a daily basis.
November 18, 2022
It is said that Reform is the āTory Lifeboatā.
Which maybe suggests we will see a few bailouts?
Years ago I posted on a very eminent Toryās newspaper blog that the then Tory PM was a socialist. I was immediately shot down in flames by the grandeee himself.
But we all know now that we have been fooled for a very long time by these fake cons ( obviously a few exceptions).
November 18, 2022
We know how this works. If Reform gain traction the national media will ridicule their leaders, deny them a voice, and play the ‘wasted vote’ card while the Conservatives will steal their policies for the manifesto with no intention of implementing them.
Encourage your friends, family and work colleagues to watch GB News.
November 18, 2022
Agricola. On Mondays to Thursdays email Barrage the Farage and insist they start to give Reform a slot on the programme to get the message out there. He interviews plenty of people from the Conservative and Labour parties so let’s see some of Reform and their sensible policies being discussed.
November 18, 2022
And there is the probem Agricola. The media only recognise the socialist parties. Especially our sacred BBC.
November 18, 2022
F U S & Sharon
AÄŗl one can hope is three fringe parties Reform, UKIP, Reclaim meet up before next weekend behind closed doors and thrash out a Direction Statement the way forward together to ensure there is not split voting. Its the only way they can have a big impact on FPTP.
They could have a big impact just as Farage did in the European elections.
Real change has been a long time coming. This could be the one and only time to break the circle for the good of this country and its people.
November 18, 2022
Defect to Reform.
November 18, 2022
@FUS; Vote Reform, get a Lab/SNP coalition…
November 19, 2022
Jerry. Who else is there to vote for then Clever Clogs?
November 19, 2022
@FUS; If we really must have a Labour govt surely far better for there to be a majority Labour govt, rather than a minority Labour govt who has to panda to parties even further to the left?!
Whilst I totally reject what the Tory party stands for at the moment, I’ll likely still vote for my sitting Tory MP, as the next likely person to be elected will be a LD candidate. Voting on-mass for any Reform candidate in my constituency will risk giving the seat to the LDs, we have already had our first ever LD Local Authority due to the UKIP effect and I admit, I was party to blame for those wasted years and our taxes…
November 18, 2022
FUS
Iāve made a donation to Reform and Iāve joined the party, itās our only hope
November 18, 2022
This country can no longer be described as a Democracy. It’s a Quangocracy with unelected, unaccountable Quangocrats acting as tin-pot Dictators.
Sunak and Hunt know they are destroying the striving classes in favour of layabouts; criminal migrants and the public sector. They are following instructions from the UN/WEF/OBR and are operating a scorched-earth policy.
The next election will see the CONs wiped out. Those who want Socialism will vote for the real deal.
November 18, 2022
Donna
Well said.
Is it beyond imagination and common sense to set a cap on benefits that nobody can claim more that the average wage?
November 18, 2022
The Conservative Party is clearly beyond reform. It’s time real Conservatives left it – all they do is add the veneer of legitimacy.
This is a putsch. An imposter Government.
November 18, 2022
@Donna; Many came to that conclusion some 40 odd years ago, given how much (local and/or devolved) democracy here in the UK feed through from open council meetings, trade union membership/meetings, even those old style ‘working class’ social clubs (that ever aspiring comic did their apprenticeships in…). Even the TV was more democratic, with both ITV and the BBC having to give over broadcast time to community made programmes.
Stop bleating about what you voted for!
November 18, 2022
Donna. Add the WHO to that as they are talking about vaccine passports for free movement. If they insist on this then there will be trouble and rightly so.
November 18, 2022
That is exactly why I voted socialist after the treachery of Maastricht having been a very active Conservative throughout the Thatcher years.
As we were going to have socialism with no alternative available, I though we should be able to blame the named socialists for the disaster.
Returned of course to trap Cameron into the in/out election.
November 18, 2022
Asking people to pay more council tax who can’t make their payments now is pointless.
Review the council tax so that it looks at ability to pay and home income.
November 18, 2022
The council tax rise (and other cost increases) will claw back any rises given to pensioners and hammer the working class even more. The benefits of working are slowly being eroded by this government, that is if there are any employers still in the country after the CONS have had their way. Many will go bust, or move abroad, as intended!
What do the CONS have up their sleeve? They surely don’t think their party can survive their imposition of such destruction upon our country. Are they the ‘sacrificial lamb’ for implementation of world government, or do they plan to totally destroy democracy? CONS and Labour are pretty much identical now. Are the CONS happy for Labour to take over as it will keep their ‘masters’ happy either way?
November 18, 2022
Many will think why work at all? After income tax, council tax, NI, student loan repayments, pension contributions, child care costs, commuting costs, work, work lunch and coffees, rent/mort int., lack of time to shop, DIY or cook efficiently then you might as well not bother to. The others taxpayers can then pay all these this for you. Use the time to collect wood to keep you warm and foraging for wild food perhaps or shooting a few rabbits and pigeons. Or rather more likely help a mate decorate his home, pick his kids up or fix his car for cash in hand.
For many this will be far preferable. But a doom loop for the economy and tax revenues.
November 18, 2022
Scrap it altogether and pay on a service required/received basis.
Take away the power of these dreadful councils.
I canāt see that we (here) get more than rubbish collection and thatās only needed because govts have allowed the packaging scam to proliferate.
November 18, 2022
@Stephen Reay; “ability to pay and home income”
You mean, rather than have the local authority tax based on either property value or a residency test (the Poll Tax), instead have a local income tax, those who earn the most pay the most?
November 18, 2022
Do it on sales
Like America
November 19, 2022
@P2; So you want local sales (VAT) taxes, presumably on top of the national rate of VAT.
A local purchase tax would be even more regressive than either the existing Council Tax or a Poll Tax, removing even more from the purchasing power of the less well off, and if implemented as in the USA I suspect it would be the final nail for many a local direct sales retailer.
Or did you mean upon the sale of the property, but wouldn’t that be contrary to the hard rights wish to reduce Stamp Duty, and what woudl local councils do for income if the property market has low churn or stagnates?
November 19, 2022
The hard right wish to reduce Stamp Duty…..
You do come up with some nonsense Jerry
November 19, 2022
@P2; Really, so on your political compass how would you describe The Taxpayers’ Alliance for example, given their continuous and on going objections to Stamp Duty, along with many other taxes?
November 19, 2022
Are you really labelling this group as hard right?
If that is your best example then I would give up Jerry.
Stamp Duty is a generally unpopular tax since its recent large increases.
It has had a negative effect on the property market.
November 20, 2022
@P2; Either reply to what I said and asked or troll off… I asked you were you think the TPA stand politically, for all anyone knows you might be annoyed at me for being to wet on them, calling them hard-right, because you think they are of the far-right – who knows?!
November 18, 2022
Stephen Reay
Yet more socialism ?
I can easily earn less, you know. By working less. And that is the point of all the posts above. I can spend a lot less in town too.
You’ve just described the Tory Doom Loop perfectly.
The Zombie Party.
The Infected.
November 18, 2022
I listened to the whole of Hunt’s statement. It was not a return to austerity at all because he didn’t announce a single spending cut – not one – just more money for the NHS, Schools etc. and maintained spending levels for absolutely everything else including HS2, Net Zero etc. etc. Some vague suggestion spending would fall after the next election when Labour will be in power anyway so that was easy for him to say.
Plus a 26% increase in fuel duty next March in the small print not announced in the speech and not briefed to the newspapers in advance. I wonder why not ?
As a pensioner partly dependent on investment dividends and capital gains outside tax wrappers I am being doubly hammered, with the crazy 6% increase in corporation tax next year set to reduce dividends further. Labour for me next time – they literally couldn’t do any worse and are in fact likely to do quite a bit better.
November 18, 2022
While I sympathise with your situation your solution is lie down and think of England while a different bunch of socialists screw you.
November 19, 2022
Or leave, or as many with do work less, go on benefits with perhaps a bit of bartering or illegal cash in hand work. Result less tax take and an even smaller tax base for next year!
November 18, 2022
Quite – not one difficult decision taken. Everything deferred with some words and frozen thresholds.
Should have stuck with Prime Minister Truss. We would have ridden out the markets by now.
November 19, 2022
Truss/Kwateng never has a chance too many MPs, civil servants and people at the BoE determined to execute the coup.
I rather like Kwateng but as Energy Sec. he pushed the absurd net zero religious energy policies. He should not have taken the Job unless he was given a free hand for rational policies. He clearly had little understanding of energy, climate, electricity generation…as he so often demonstrated while whittering on about becoming the Saudi Arabia of Wind while idiotically burning wood at Drax, pretending it was “environmental” and produced less CO2.
November 18, 2022
Yes they could do worse – out of the frying pan…
November 18, 2022
+1
Could I suggest Reform party as your fist choice if no candidate then Any other to wipe out Tories.
November 19, 2022
Yes, Hope, this has to be the strategy. Anyone voting Conservative in the next election is effectively saying they approve of more state power, more state spending, more obedience to UN directives, and open borders. They are also saying they don’t want the Tories to change direction.
Reform UK will be standing in most constituencies at the next general election and also in plenty of local elections. We know what to do.
November 18, 2022
Exactly. The Ā£18 per week increase in the basic pension will only cover the increased cost of heating the home plus the 5% Council Tax rise. The fuel duty rise is just another nail in the Pensioner coffin.
And that of the Conservative Party at the next Election.
November 19, 2022
+1 many pensioners will be cold this winter and will have to sit under electric blankets or similar all day. Or will have to go collecting wood to keep one room warm perhaps. Not really due to Putin’s evil war but due almost entirely to Sunak’s money printing & currency trashing/debasing by Sunak and the Net Zero religion which almost all parties fully support.
November 18, 2022
That’s a 26% tax rise on already inflated fuel prices. You can guarantee that far more of that fuel is being used to either, get to or to be at work. So largely another tax on working.
Part of the Tory Doom Loop of misery and anti aspiration.
The Zombie Government
The Infected.
November 19, 2022
Junior Doctor on a starting salary Ā£29K at the NHS with student debts of Ā£150K plus interest on this debt of circa Ā£10K. After tax/NI/pension deduction, rent, commuting costs, rent of about Ā£12K for one room in a shared flat, interest on the student debt is thus left with about Ā£2,000 PA to pay for heat, light, clothing, food, insurance, holidays, entertainment… if he/she spends more than that they will be worse off at the end of the year than at the start. This for someone very bright who has given up six years of income to qualify.
Is it any wonder 25% drop out in year one and about 50% do in total within a few years? Or that the NHS is short of staff? Often treated very badly by the dire NHS too.
November 18, 2022
There was a time when I voted Labour but that was when they actually represented working people. Now, they seem to represent anybody except those who work. There was a time when I voted Conservative but that was when they actually represented conservatives. Now they don’t seem to know who they represent. There has never been a time when I voted Lib Dem, because they’ve never represented anyone. Is there anyone with the determination to represent working conservative people, to get back to small government, to deliver efficent, good value-for-money public services. I’m afraid not but I’d vote for them if there were.
November 18, 2022
You left out “more flexibility ” for Council tax.
November 18, 2022
Yes Labour will be better for us personally especially if you live in the North where they want their seats back. Also Huntās slide back to the EU is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE.
November 19, 2022
Lynn
Kindly explain how Hunt is sliding back?
November 19, 2022
Starmer and co aren’t sliding back to the EU: they are fully resolved on it but not frightening the horses by saying too much about it.
November 18, 2022
Good news for the British shipbuilding industry. The MoD has announced (at last) that a contract to produce three Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fleet Solid Support ships has been placed with British-led Team Resolute – comprising BMT, Harland & Wolff and Navantia UK.
BMTĀ will be responsible for the design of the three 216-metre-long vessels ahead of manufacture and will deliver the integrated logistic support package. BMT’s experience provides the best possible foundation for delivering an FSS design that will comply with the project requirements and embed world-class environmental standards. Final outfitting, the entire final assembly, integration of blocks, modules and sensitive systems – as well as all testing and commissioning – will take place atĀ Harland & Wolff.
Harland & Wolff has two of Europeās largest drydocks in Belfast, has a rich heritage of shipbuilding experience, and provides the best opportunity from which to enhance UK shipbuilding across it’s various UK Delivery Centres
November 18, 2022
Why is there still VAT on gas and electricity bills? Could it be the malign influence of the level playing field and regulatory alignment?
I am livid that benefits recipients and pensioners have been protected from inflation whereas workers have to take their chances with whatever they can negotiate.
A level playing field would be to increase benefits and pensions by average wage rises.
November 18, 2022
Why is there still an EU invented VAT at all
November 19, 2022
To keep us aligned and ready for rejoining.
November 19, 2022
Agreed, Glen. It is designed with fraudsters in mind, and tons of unnecessary admin for every VAT registered business. What other tax can give you a cash tax refund BEFORE you even pay the tax? Why don’t they give VAT credits instead of cash, for those who haven’t actually forked out the tax when claiming it back.
November 18, 2022
This would have been an ideal moment to take stock of how much government should actually be doing.
The increasing tax take that does not cover government expenditure suggests massive overreach or too many non-contributors.
Either way a zero based approach to government involvement in life is long overdue.
Stop trying to get re-elected and start responsible governing. Tough decisions will be unpopular, you will lose the next election but history will judge you well.
November 18, 2022
Clever move front loading some goodies up to the election and back loading the pain till after the election. That way he puts the Labour Party “behind the eight ball” should they win the next election. Or, an election approved Conservative manifesto to reduce the, so called national debt, by shrinking the economy even further. Either way, the market’s tail is now wagging the sovereign dog totally.
November 18, 2022
It is very plain to see the childish strategy.
OBR = anti Brexit. OBR even tweets itās dislike of the democratic decision.
WHY IS THAT OK??
Brexit ā¦six years ago and scarcely implemented.
So how can it be responsible for our present crisis?
MANUFACTURED CRISES to āproveā Brexit is bad.
They are crashing the economy on ANY excuse to drag us back in!!
November 18, 2022
Here is a list of quangos and government departments who are failing us.
The BOE who have an amateur as itās Governor.
The OBR who have no idea of where we are.
OFG who have screwed up the energy market.
OFW who are allowing the privatised water companies to pollute our rivers,streams and the seas.
All Our Councils who control local services.
The Envioroment Agenncy .
We are now a third world country.Just travel our roads.
I rest my case.
November 18, 2022
As far as I am aware and have said for a very long time.
HS2 IS AN EU PROJECT. (Core Network).
Probably always has been.
They will not drop it because the whole lot of them intend to take us back in.
THEY HAVE DESTROYED OUR LIVES TO DO SO!
November 18, 2022
I fear you are correct – and only the reform party have said they’d cancel it
November 18, 2022
This budget will accelerate the number of private landlords who will evict tenants and sell their properties. Many landlords will want to bank the current rate of capital gains tax. Why bother with the pain of being a landlord with all the expensive costs coming soon when you can now get a half decent return from putting cash in a savings account? For those who need to rent from the private sector they have a very bleak future. The number of rental properties in recent years has plummeted and SERCO is hovering up what remains for the invaders.
This government seems to be destroying the country and the only explanation is that they are working on behalf of the WEF not the British people.
If real conservatives don’t support the Reform party soon then our country is doomed.
November 18, 2022
No attempt to cut the cost of the state sector. No effort to find out where the vast expenditure on Track & Trace went, who got the money and why. At least 30 billion for what? No incentives or motivation for business to be more productive. Just more and more tax and control. Ridiculous dependence on OBR forecasts that are about as reliable as climate change guesswork. You might as well hand the levers of power back to Brussels, they could hardly do worse.
November 18, 2022
Roy.
Ah yes fuel duty to rise, so hammer the motorist yet again, Plus Vat on it as well.
Electric cars to also pay some tax from 2025 I understand as well, but no figures announced to my knowledge.
So now we have, buy an expensive electric car with no real charging infrastructure, and no idea of future taxation rates, or stick with an ICE vehicle and I will continue to charge you more for that fuel.
Then of course we have the proposed Euro 7 emissions due to be finalised in 2025 where brake and tyre wear are forecast to be part of the new calculation, and which current and exempt Euro 6 vehicles will fail, so will then have to pay a daily charge in many Towns and Cities.
What an incentive to purchase any sort of new vehicle !
November 18, 2022
Who elected the OBR to run the UK economy, – āno oneā. Who is responsible and accountable when they get things wrong, – āno oneā.
Who is believing their projections, especially when time and time again they have been proved so wrong its an embarrassment to every one in this Country, – Rishi & Jeremy. What does that say about their own personal creditability?
November 18, 2022
This financial statement, combined with other recent government measures, represents by a wide margin the most brutal attack on enterprise, job and economic growth creation and private investment ever made by a Conservative government, albeit one not worthy of the name.
Public sector spending is to rise by 1% in real terms. Even those on a state pension, and certainly most of us on a salary or self-employed, wonāt match that. The share-owning democracy is to be killed off by a savage reduction in the CGT allowance which already looked pitiful with no indexation, so that it has become almost entirely a tax on inflation. Dividends have already faced huge tax rises over the last five years, and this latest raid gives another kick in the teeth to small shareholders. And even before this statement corporation tax was increased by a staggering 31%. For good measure the government has made clear its contempt for small businesses by freezing the VAT registration threshold despite inflation of 10%.
Such are the incentives for contributing to economic growth.
Come back Tony Blair, all is forgiven.
November 18, 2022
Dan Wootton yesterday summed things up on hearing the Autumn Statement, this shower are TINOS (Tories In Name Only).
People have been saying they wouldnāt vote for Conservatives again. Then others point out the alternative.. Now though does it make any difference? We all have to take the punishment of clearing out the swamp.
Remainers have finally killed the Conservative Party
November 18, 2022
I’m surprised so many contributors to this site think the Reform Party is going to be a saviour. Some thought the same of Boris Johnson when he finally came out in favour of leaving the EU, and when he was elected PM in 2019. Reform believe in proportional representation. We all know how that turns out from the experience of other countries governed under PR.
November 18, 2022
Stepping back to 2014, this was the year when Douglas Carswell triggered the Brexit revolution by resigning from the Conservatives, joining UKIP and winning the subsequent by-election. David Cameron could not then continue to ignore the growing popular dissent about government from Brussels, and called the referendum. The rest was history.
Today we are witnessing growing popular dissent about government from Davos, in circumstances where there are arguably far more damaging practical effects than the “mere affront” of government from Brussels. With two years to go before what is likely to be a grim GE, might there be scope for one or more Conservative MPs to denounce current economic policy now by following in the Carswell footsteps, this time for Reform?
November 18, 2022
An OBR 5-year Forecast reminds me of the numerous USSR 5-year Plans…always disastrous.
November 18, 2022
The Autumn Statement was about tax, tax and more tax. Nothing about creating a Budget that would pull State expenditure into line with income āearnedā
Then as if the usual recognition the UK Tax system is busted, corrupt, not fit for purpose, the tax on enterprise and productivity – Corporation Tax is not paid equally. Another fudge had to be invented, the Bank surcharge rate comes in to effectively reduce the Corporation Tax they(the banks pay) pay.
So one section of the economic community is paying more to subsidies the other – We are not all in this together. The smaller the enterprise the more you pay, the more you pay to keep large internationals out of the cycle of punishment. A Conservative fair and equal society?
November 18, 2022
It seems the slogan for the next election will have to be along the lines of āLabour would be Slightly Worse!ā Letās hope itās inspiring enough to get the vote out and swing a few marginals our way.
November 19, 2022
To be slightly more accurate, I think the slogan will be: āLabour would be slightly worse, because they really believe in what weāre doingā. I would welcome this because it would achieve what Iāve been urging for some time, namely for the government to show honesty and transparency in explaining what its policies are all about.
November 18, 2022
The Chancellor said he had to make hard decisions, but I seemed to have missed what they were. Here are some decisions which to my mind aren’t that hard, but would help the finances.
First up, do a root and branch search through the big spending departments to identify and remove waste (impossible with a cabinet full of degrees in political theory I know).
Sell the country’s HS2 shares and allow the executive to raise the finances from private investment.
Return illegal immigrants to their home countries forthwith.
Relieve the NHS of the responsibility to treat lifestyle diseases, and introduce a workplace health scheme for people to opt out of the NHS with tax incentives.
Relieve local councils of the responsibility to provide care homes, and introduce an insurance scheme instead.
Ration pensions and benefits out of what’s left after all the other spending commitments have been satisfied.
Impose a corporation withholding tax on money multinationals pull out of their UK operations.
November 18, 2022
In his statement Hunt said “So, with just under half of the Ā£55 billion consolidation coming from tax, and just over half from spending, this is a balanced plan for stability.” He then listed various measures which greatly increase the tax burden on working people (ignoring non-doms), failed to mention an increase in fuel duty to come in next year and add 12p to a litre of petrol but did not detail any cuts in public spending – rather he boasted that he was continuing with vanity projects such as HS2. If there was a real economic crisis, not just a confected one to get rid of Liz Truss, why werenāt immediate cuts in spending announced starting with HS2?
November 18, 2022
I agree with pretty much everything that I have read above. The honest working population are to be screwed in order to buy votes from the generally older population. It stinks! Stealth taxes in abundance with no hint of where the savings are to come from. Not unlike Kwai Kartings (spelling apologies) mini budget really. But this time itās different as itās Rishi and Jeremy this time.
November 18, 2022
More money for the NHS ! Is this to repay the Ā£12B bridge-over that was supposedly and initially to be spent by Social Services.
November 19, 2022
And they don’t even have to plead ‘Please sir, can I have some more?’
November 18, 2022
Sorry but I’m still trying to work out if Mr Hunt’s mini budget was intended to help or just wreck the economy further, I suspect the latter, the Tories knowing they are very likely to be in opposition (not necessarily the official opposition either…) after the next election.
November 18, 2022
At 1.19, Ā£ has now risen vs the USD by 15% since the post mini budget low. May we expect Continuity Remainās mr carney to pop up on the BBC and in the FT to point out that the UKās economy has grown from 13% to 16% of the USās during the last few weeks? Looking at the world as he does, Mr Carney must surely feel this is a massive endorsement of the UKās Conservative govt?
November 18, 2022
We write as if the whole budget thing is done and dusted. It may not be that simple. This weekend MPs will return to their constituencies where chairmen and party members will have reactions to impart. Papers will be read and broadcast comment heard. The unblinkered among them will question the wisdom of letting many aspects, if not the whole concept of this budget pass through the Commons unscathed or at all. The final judgement on MPs will be which involved interest they put first, the people, the country, or the conservative party. I will observe forthcoming days in the Commons with interest.
November 18, 2022
How many of your ideas from Tuesday have they adopted?
When the forecasts are wrong again, will you hold the Chancellor or the OBR to account? In particular, I cannot see the corporation tax rise raising nearly the amount they say it will. Reducing the top rate threshold will result in higher earners moving to lower-tax countries.
The only way out of the recession is aggressive supply-side reform; to fix the supply-side recession. But I cannot see this happening: fracking banned, planning complicated as ever, EU rules and expensive childcare rules remain. The rules add barriers to newcomers but stifle innovation. But the argument will always be won by incumbents as they have the ears of ministers.
November 18, 2022
Sir John
I note recently that it has been rare for a day to go by without you railing against the Bankās proposal(?) to embark upon monetary tightening with the sale of bonds at an enormous cost to us all. Are you a lone voice on this issue in Parliament? Whilst you argue itās not necessary, especially at this time, has the Bank articulated anywhere why it is essential and why it would be supported by the Treasury?
November 18, 2022
Hunt is doing well with his autumn statement, acting as a recruiting officer for Reform UK. So from that point of view, let’s hope we’ll see more like this, especially in the March budget, a few weeks before the next council elections. There is no other way for the Tories to get the message that people hate them for what they are doing. They will not stop until their own jobs are on the line.
November 18, 2022
Socialist OBR (ex JRF) and the European Commission know what they’ve achieved with their GDP forecasts. Ireland forecasted over 3% growth thanks to low tax, no UK trade restrictions. Malta, Romania, Bulgaria, from low bases rise 1-2.8% UK predicted to drop 1.4% thanks to Sunak/Hunt PATHETIC.
November 18, 2022
The timing of much of the pain from this budget is post the general election (I have seen said) so unless Ms. Reeves is intent on exacerbating the Sunak Slump, much of it might be avoided in fact. There is the silver lining to give us all hope.
November 18, 2022
…and is akin to the way that great communist state, the USSR, did things.
Isn’t parliament meant to vet the bank and the OBR to make sure they are performing well – I can only imagine the appraisals are a whitewash, because it should be clear they are not just under-performing, they are mis-performing – Something is seriously wrong in these quangos and heads should roll
November 18, 2022
The OBR run the budget
The BoE run the treasury
The Markets run the cabinet
The Media run the backbenches
The EU run our politics
The UN run our net-zero & energy
The Chinese run our industry & supply
Whereās the democracy
November 19, 2022
@glen cullen
Spot on…
Democracy is all but dead.
November 18, 2022
If your analysis is correct, how is it that the BofE and OBR appear to be so consistently inept? Suspiciously so….
Maybe they have the most modern of maps, but where do they want to take us, and why?
November 18, 2022
Like many I am trying to understand this morning how the Budget will affect me . I am one of the “Older Pensioners” who will not receive the extent of increase that had been indicated ; as such I feel badly let down . The number of years of my contributions to the State Pension seem to have been overlooked and , as such , I feel somewhat robbed . The other shock is the revelation that petrol and fuel prices are to massively increase next year ; why did Hunt not mention this in his Commons statement yesterday ?. Overall a huge disappointment . The CP now have an enormous problem on their hands .
November 18, 2022
It is very sad, two multi-millionaires who have no idea what it is like to live on an ordinary income, no vision, no ideas, no thought about reducing the cost of government, both rejected by the party, end up as our two leaders! Neither of them has a conservative thought in their brains, and neither is capable of independent thought, they will do what unelected Civil Servants tell them! As a result you get a totally negative budget which will do nothing to lift the UK economy or use our Brexit freedoms to focus on growth. Could Labour be any worse?
November 18, 2022
So … the OBR has had difficulty with the accuracy of its deficit forecast.
Instead, maybe it should be instructed not to produce a figure but to produce a range of figures ….. a maximum and a minimum. If the final deficit is outside that range then the OBR is sacked … closed down. If the OBR lacks confidence in its forecast then it can make its range as wide as it likes.
November 18, 2022
Unfortunately the true Conservative wing of the Conservative part, best articulated by our host, has blown its one chance of developing a sensible economic strategy with Liz Truss.
Most of what she wanted to do was sensible but we learned two things from the experience :
1. No government can make economic policy on the hoof without having the data and believeable forecasts to back it up.
2. The Truss government brought home just how little freedom of action there is on economic policy while the markets continue to insist on governments slavishly following the traditional policies expoused by Bailey, Carney and Co. This is deeply worrying and none of us, especially Liz Truss, appreciated just what an economic straitjacket has been created.
Sunak and Hunt had no choice other than to go down the route they have chosen. Anything else would have spooked the markets and their government would not have lasted a week. We would then have had a period of complete chaos, a deeply damaging run on the pound, and a Labour/LibDim/SNP coalition which would be infinitely worse than anything the Conservatives would ever do.
We can argue around the edges – I thought Esther McVey was absolutely right to call for the abandonment of HS2, for example. Hunt has foolishly chosen to carry on with this white elephant. An expensive mistake.
I firmly believe that the Ā£50bn black hole is a great exaggeration, the extreme measures Hunt and Sunak are taking will therefore prove to be far to restrictive and will cause a much longer and deeper recession than necessary. But that is what the markets want and demand.
Until we get ourselves out of the mire almost 100% caused by Putin and the aftermath of the pandemic, no change in economic policy is going to be possible.
November 18, 2022
McVey was Hunts running mate, sheās soon changed her tune.
November 18, 2022
Esther has always been against HS2
November 19, 2022
Because it runs through her constituency without any benefit to them.
HS2 is happening whoever is in government, it is a European rail integration project, the track will enable EU trains to run on it without interference from Britain.
November 19, 2022
Iām not sure the markets forced the Chancellor to announce a 1% real terms increase in government spending, or to increase taxes on wealth creators which will disincentivise contributions to economic growth out of all proportion to the amount of tax revenue they will raise.
November 18, 2022
I heard the Chancellor on the radio. He wants cost efficiency in the NHS.
How much does the NHS pay for paracetamol? Is there a good reason why we are being so obscenely over-charged for one of the cheapest pills going? Or is this what you would call profiteering?
Who is behind it, and where are their yachts moored?
November 18, 2022
Sir John, you constantly argue in favour of growth, but let’s face it – your government aren’t interested. The Green movement has been opposed to it ever since its founding text, ‘Limits to Growth’, was written in the 1970s. The PM was coerced into attending the Great Green Gabfest recently, so you know whose agenda he has to work for. People can connect the dots:
– Look at the WEF website to see where the emphasis is – ‘green and inclusive growth’, ‘focusing growth on the most vital markets of tomorrow’ (vital for whom?).
https://www.weforum.org/communities/gfc-on-the-new-agenda-for-economic-growth-and-recovery
– At COP 26, Carney implied cutting off funding for investment project that do not subscribe to the net zero agenda, or as he put it ‘robust assessments of the alignment with net zero of financial portfolios’.
– When Truss explicitly went for growth, she was deposed. That’s the lesson politicians are supposed to learn, if they wish to survive in office as ‘civil servants of Davos’, to quote TCW today.
I cannot believe that you and the more intelligent among your colleagues are unaware of this. So what are you going to do about it?
November 18, 2022
My sister who is 60 and a widow is working 48 hours a week doing permanent nights looking after dementia patients. She’s on minimum wage and gets no sick pay. It’s hard at times. She has had the council tax rebate and is getting the money towards her energy bill that everyone is getting. Other than that she has had nothing. Compare her situation to those on benefits who are receiving much more help. There are thousands like my sister wondering why they bother to work.
November 18, 2022
Sir John,
As others here have eloquently stated, there is now a vacuum in politics on the Right. Nature abhors a vacuum, so I wonder how many of those who put Hunt and then Sunak in their present positions will be ousted by a new Political Party?
November 18, 2022
Sir JR
What happened when Kwateng left the OBR. Completely out in the dark??
November 18, 2022
Did he eubilly?
Is the OBR the only office that must be believed?
No one else?
In effect those in the OBR must be obeyed and therefore run the our economy.
November 19, 2022
Peter 2
Are you having your own debate?
November 19, 2022
No Billy
Just pointing out your post was nonsense.
November 19, 2022
Peter 2
My question asked a very relevant point on why K failed but you obviously missed the point again
November 19, 2022
It was an empty question billy.
The OBR are just one body giving research data to the government.
If you think only the OBR must be believed and followed then they are in charge of economic policy.
November 19, 2022
Peter 2
It’s not about the OBR is to believed they were set up to monitor as an independent institution to monitor the government economic policies, but you have missed that point as well.
You are getting very low marks
November 18, 2022
As someone on social media said, I do not want to live in a country which locks up old men for selling mince pies (Cloudside shooting club case) but puts Albanians in 5 star hotels at my expense.
November 18, 2022
And yet you keep battling on! When you approach the chancellor and Co do they give you any hint that you may be right.
November 18, 2022
I think the government needs to go back to annual budgets. People are putting off spending in fear of what the next budget brings. The people deserve better, cancelling HS2 may have made bigger saving with less impact on people. HS2 only serves a minority of people.
Now there’s talk of fuel duty going up next year, more purchases will be put off until then.
November 19, 2022
Stand by for the December mini-budget, statement, retraction etc.
November 18, 2022
Sir John spared us his attempt today in defending his government – just to remind you he has publicly declared his loyalty to Sunak ( and the rest of course ). Just having a go at the OBR instead ( again).
What will tomorrow bring? It won’t be Sir John’s resignaton from the Tory party. Will he stand at the next general election, will he still be a Tory then? Does day follow night?
Even if a Tory leader demanded the imprisonment of every first-born, Sir John would still stay loyal saying he would try to change the party from within.
And how long will he defend the party? It won’t be long before the EU rejoiners get their way openly.
November 19, 2022
Part of his role as an MP should be to scrutinise the likes of the OBR and Bank of England. If MPs cannot do this, who should?
November 18, 2022
The strap line for your blog reads āfor freedom and prosperityā does this still hold true?
November 18, 2022
“Hunt denied that his economic strategy was un-Conservative, saying sound money was more important than low taxes. What I would say to my Conservative colleagues is there is nothing Conservative about spending money that you havenāt got,ā he said. āThere is nothing Conservative about not tackling inflation, there is nothing Conservative about ducking difficult decisions that put the economy on track.” Guardian
What I would say back is; why does it have to be fixed in two years, Hunt? Leave the mess for Labour, they always do! If the rulers have decreed that the Tories are to hand over the reins soon then you should have promoted growth, and tried recovery over austerity, instead, people will duck and cover.
November 18, 2022
If Reform do emerge as a serious party, I do hope they have vetted their candidates to make sure they have no nutters enlisted. Our rancid media will trawl through each candidateās past looking for former BNP members and those who believe in eugenics etc.
November 19, 2022
Can the same be done to examine the current Tory MPs and at the next GE all the new proposed ones?
November 18, 2022
From the Telegraph
Jeremy Hunt appeared to call for closer economic ties with the EU.
Mr Hunt said: āI think having unfettered trade with our neighbours and countries all over the world is very beneficial to growth.
Sir John Redwood -āWe ought to be rebuilding at home,ā he said. āI want growth, I want success, I want prosperity. Iām fed up with all this socialism, the subsidies, all this control ā it doesnāt work.ā
Greg Smith, a member of the European scrutiny committee, warned: āThere must be no backsliding from the Brexit we have secured.ā
The the OBR (yes them again) says the UK needs! Over 200,000 immigrants as without more people coming taxes will have to go higher. – The same question as previous who is the elected Government of the UK
November 18, 2022
Has anyone told the OBR that according to the ONS we have 1.2 million unemployed, maybe just maybe we could train them back to work so we don’t need any immigrants
November 19, 2022
Train them ?? Is it that difficult to clean floors and wards in hospital? To move wheelie bins to the juggernaut cruising at the kerb? To use mowers on the roadside verges? To dig up roads and pavements that are surrounded by cones for days, even weeks before the spade men arrive? To wave trains off on platforms? To assist teachers with 4/5/6 year olds reading to and back? To do reception duties in all manner of over-run public buildings? To read off scripts over the telephone? And pick up litter and scrub graffiti?
November 18, 2022
Sir John there is no point in preaching to us ad nauseum we have played our part, we have given you back control, given you an eighty majority in the House, so what more do you expect from us. Why don’t you politicians just go and do your job – if necessary resign from the party – resign your seat in protest – am sick and tired of all this BS about the ORB etc
November 18, 2022
Looking at the Treasury, BoE and OBR’s behaviour over the last few years I can see only one conclusion…
We have a 5th column in our midst, infiltrating our organisations and actively working against the interests of this country.
The Conservative Party is already beyond redemption, the only hope is a new small-c conservative party which selects its candidates much more carefully. Reform UK may be that, time will tell, but for now they are the only hope, the only non-socialist party.
As a lifelong Conservative voter, all I can say is that not only will I not vote for that party again, but I will actively vote against them. That party needs to die and be replaced.
I see polls on voting intention and I can tell you that they are not remotely relecting the opinion of the people I speak to who are all in a very dark and bloody-minded mood. Sunak as PM and Hunt as Chancellor? You cannot be serious.
The job of all conservatives (small-c) now is to ensure that the Conservative party not only fails at the next election, to which they have already resigned themselves anyway, but also that they fail at every subsequent election until they are no longer a political force.
November 18, 2022
Having now read the OBR report that forms the the Chancellor’s fiscal statement, I can tell you it is full of detailed analysis of little relevance to a country that issues its own currency. Alas, the myth is perpetuated that a sovereign currency issuing government, has to “borrow” back from the non-government sector, its own previously created and issued currency, into that same non-government sector; before it has any currency to spend. That is the issue of Gilts; risk free, interest paying, saving certificates for pension funds and insurance companies. Think tanks like the IFS also perpetuate the “borrowing” myth, it would be out of business as the media’s first point of contact if it didn’t.
November 18, 2022
Yet when Truss tried to expand borrowing via money supply creation the world markets moved to restrict her.
How does that effect your endless Magic Money Tree theory?
November 19, 2022
The magic money tree (The National Loans Fund NLF) has paid out to the government’s current account (The Consolidated Fund CF) Ā£506 billion in the last two Covid fiscal years. All the Gilts in issue are a liability of the NLF, but the CF reimburses the NLF, for the net interest payments it hands out; Ā£37 billion this year and Ā£39 billion the year before.
The really magic bit is, if there were no Gilts whatsoever, The NLF would continue to finance the government’s yearly deficits. Fiat currency economies are self financing, simples!
November 19, 2022
Until the market says you’ve gone too far.
Which was my point which you have not addressed.
November 20, 2022
Then could you explain your phrase “expand borrowing via money supply creation”.
November 18, 2022
Acorn, the OBR is just Huntās cover, unelected, no power. Sunak/Hunt and our MPs are all in cahoots.
Remember these big parties seem to turn on their own voters, it was Blair who put in tuition fees for English kids; that brought in private dentistry; struck up the majority of PFI contracts; that removed weekend and evening GP cover for no loss of income in 2004 with a new generous package, they didnāt even have to rota cover any longer locally.
Now its the Tories turn to do a lot of unpopular anti-Tory voter moves just in time to put lots of money back into the system for the next socialist governments to spend on their fellow civil servants who are all striking against the people to help this transition.
November 18, 2022
Never mind the OBR. The budget is the creation of the Sunak/Hunt axis. Michael Foot is no longer the record holder of the longest suicide note in history.
Failure to adjust the income tax thresholds for inflation will create a massive amount of fiscal drag. No Government that does that can possibly claim to be tax cutting at heart.
November 18, 2022
Precisely!
November 18, 2022
off topic.
Mince Pie gate…
A 72-year-old has been hospitalised following a heart attack he suffered in prison. Maurice Sxxxxxxx was jailed for perverting the course of justice having been discovered serving mince pies during lockdown.
According to ChesireLive, he has reportedly been handcuffed to his hospital bed and refused visitors. Maurice Sxxxxxxx broke coronavirus lockdown rules by serving wine and mince pies at Cloudside Shooting Club near Congleton.
– butterfly on a wheel?
November 18, 2022
Why have you asterisked out his name?
November 19, 2022
Readers do not need to know, but can check the stories out if they feel the need.
To be named for such a trivial offence compared to the dozens who were not named over Downing St partygate seems so wrong.
Name all of them on here and I will happily name this man.
November 19, 2022
https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/11/10/how-selling-mince-pies-landed-a-pensioner-in-prison/ Theyāve clarified that he was actually jailed for āperverting the course of justiceā by trying to cover up his ācrime of selling mince pies and wine just over the border in a tier 3 lockdown areaā grassed by neighbours who didnāt like his club. The judge said in his summing up this old man was anti-establishment. Heās been on the NHS waiting list for a heart operation, and since being locked up, 5 days later heās had a heart attack. I hope the judge is satisfied that heās done the right punishment. Community service and a big fine would have been a big punishment enough for this man.
Are we on this blog anti-establishment? Be afraid.
November 18, 2022
If Maurice lived in Congleton his MP is Fiona Bruce, Iām really surprised Ms Bruce hasnāt got involved in this travesty of justice. In the same week two men assaulted a young man, slashing a bottle on his head and stabbed him with the shards of glass, https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/thugs-smashed-beer-bottle-strangers-25524761 they AVOIDED JAIL and our court put an old man in Prison for SIX MONTHS for selling Mince Pies on the border of stupid tier 2/tier 3 lockdowns implemented by MPs that were breaking the same rules. We are so accommodating and turn a blind eye to this. What would you do if it was your Dad? What can we do?
November 18, 2022
I am absolutely seething, having just read this Daily Mail report on the unbelievable incompetence of the NHS. Despite being better funded and with more staff than in 2019, in Jan.-Sept. 2022 NHS England performed 600,000 fewer operations than in the same period in that year.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11429557/Why-NHS-doing-costing-MORE.html
This in the same week as the autumn statement! What is Jeremy Hunt, who was once a health minister and should know something about the NHS, doing about this, as Chancellor? Continuing to shovel more taxpayers’ money into a bottomless pit?
November 19, 2022
Has anyone asked the question? What will the extra money be spent on?
November 19, 2022
There are endless ways to give away money, honestly and fraudulently being the main two.
November 19, 2022
@R.Grange, and what did this Chanceelor do? He promised more money to the NHS on top of the unaccoutable spend todate and no one will be held to account for were and how the money is used. Taxpayers are just idiotic fodder to this Conservative Government
November 18, 2022
Sir JR
How much of our lack of growth is due to Brexit. And not also using the few advantages that could Brexit could have brought us
November 18, 2022
EUbilly
How much of Europe and USA’s lack of growth is due to brexit?
November 19, 2022
Peter 2
You ask very Intelligent questions keep it up
November 19, 2022
Well dodged Billy
There is a lack of growth and inflation in most European nations and in America.
But that isn’t caused by Bbrexit which you think all the UKs economic problems are.
Do you not see the obvious weakness in your argument?
November 19, 2022
Peter 2
You missed the point again
I asked how much lack of growth was due to Brexit that is all
On the growth issue your second point
The majority of northern European countries France and the US have more growth than we this year.
Once again you missed the point and again have not done your homework.
Nothing new to note.
November 19, 2022
Inflation, unemployment and growth in your beloved EU is poor.
You refuse to see reality.
Miss the point…hilarious eu billy
November 18, 2022
Any future lack of growth is due to the tory parliamentary party sacking Liz
November 18, 2022
With growing incredulity I listened to the Chancellor on the Today programme this morning. He used OBR forecasts for immigration to justify government policy! Such forecasts have proved wildly inaccurate in the past. Why does this Chancellor believe OBR forecasts?
November 18, 2022
Last week, when I wrote to friends about the England of my childhood compared to where itās now headed, it became very clear to me how much we’d been blessed through the prayers of the generations, which had now run their course. This began long ago with the providence of God to all the nations, as cited in Acts 14 by Paul and Barnabas to the idolatrous people of Lystra: ‘We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein: who in times past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.’ What a far cry from the pernicious vanities of the globalist Babel of the Net Zero religion!
November 19, 2022
I note from the DMO remit that we have the following upcoming redemptions of gilts:
Ā£33.8bn 0.125% in Jan
Ā£34.6bn 0.75% in Jul
Ā£35.9bn 2.25% in Sep average coupon about 1%
Replace at 3.5% yield gives an increase in interest bill of about Ā£2.5bn, plus the interest on fresh borrowing of another Ā£5bn including a small uplift for the indexation of index linked coupon payments gives a real increase in interest cost of about Ā£7.5bn. Bad enough as it us. I note the DMO seems to be planning to indulge in shorter average duration of new issues and reducing the volume of index linked offering. That may well come back to bite them as interest rates continue to normalise, and it will make life harder for pension funds in a high inflation environment.