Tag: Keir Starmer

Ukraine and the Economy

It is good to see Donald Trump taking a vigorous approach to settling the war in the Ukraine. I have written on the subject of the Ukraine before – for example here in 2022: https://roliscon.blog/2022/03/08/ukraine-a-more-balanced-view/ . My view has not changed. There is now little chance of Ukraine winning the war militarily so they should settle for the best peace terms achievable. An enormous amount of money is being wasted on this war – including billions of pounds by the UK.

Keir Starmer has announced he is “ready and willing” to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine to enforce any peace deal. What lunacy is this? He is pretending to be able to act like a world power such as the USA when we are not. Simply delusional. Our economy can simply not support thousands of troops stationed overseas. The British army only has about 75,000 full time personnel and the number has been falling for years. One wag suggested that with all these unaccompanied male illegal immigrants they should be conscripted into the army – a good idea. You give them the option – join the army or be repatriated to where they came from!

If we want to have a growing economy we need to have a peace settlement in Europe where we stop wasting money on military equipment and munitions, and reduce the cost of energy by consuming Russian gas.

The TaxPayers Alliance recently made a very good point. The country’s GDP figures may be slightly positive overall (so small to be within the range of statistical accuracy), but individually we are getting poorer – see their press release here:  https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/taxpayers_alliance_declares_personal_recession_in_response_to_gdp_figures

Our economy is in deep doo-doo in reality with Reeve’s rise in NI meaning many companies are reducing staff and profits are falling. High taxes are leading to economic doom as the TaxPayers Alliance frequently points out. It is an organisation well worth supporting. See https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/donate

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://x.com/RogerWLawson  )

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Keir Starmer’s Speech

I watched most of Keir Starmer’s speech to the Labour Party Conference yesterday – generally a quite lacklustre affair with no jokes. It was desperately short of substance on how he was going to fix the UK’s problems such as the underperforming NHS, the shortage of housing, the excessive migration using up resources and other problems.

It gave the distinct impression of having been written by a professional speechwriter who included many feel-good soundbites but ultimately the speech lacked much substance. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper’s speech was very similar – perhaps they use the same speechwriter?

These two ministers are clearly playing the game of promising action but not any that might offend someone.

Meanwhile the Taxpayer’s Alliance have been highlighting the excessive and growing Government debt that we have in the UK – see their comments on Starmer’s speech here: https://www.taxpayersalliance.com/taxpayers_alliance_responds_to_keir_starmer_s_first_speech_at_labour_conference_as_prime_minister

The first sentence says: “Taxpayers will receive little joy from a speech that sounded more like a protracted shopping list for ever more public spending than a platform for genuine change and reform” which is a good summary.

Roger Lawson (Twitter: https://twitter.com/RogerWLawson  )

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