Former Secretary of State, beamed live around the world : excerpts from our ‘Global Discussion Forum’

In a no-holds barred address to our Global Discussion Forum former cabinet minister Sir John Redwood delivers an impassioned case for urgent economic reform to cure the United Kingdom of its current ills.

This event was live-streamed around the world from London, Sydney, and the South of France, and is a GDF co-production between Facts4EU.Org,  CommandingTheNarrative.com, and CIBUK.Org.

From migration and Net Zero to taxation and mass immigration, Sir John gives us his ‘five point plan for success.’

To watch the discussion in full, please click on the video-link which can be found beneath the written summary.

1. On central banking

“We’ve just lived through an era of dreadful central banking in the main western central areas.”  Sir John slams the Fed, the ECB and the Bank of England’s record during Covid.

“They overdid the easy money…for far too long… and they then lurched, realised they triggered a big inflation in each of those three main locations.”

“Controlling money matters a lot. If you don’t have enough of it, you have a recession. If you have too much debt, you have an inflation.” 

2. On fiscal policy

‘You need to control the tentacles of the state.’  Sir John emphasises the need to reign in ever-increasing government expenditure.

“As a result of the COVID lockdowns, we had a productivity collapse in the public services.”  Sir John slams the appalling productivity record in the public sector.

“You don’t need as many officials as they often recruit, and you certainly don’t need as many regulations as they pour out on top of us.”  Sir John exposes the huge over-regulation of the UK economy.

3. On backing the digital revolution

‘You don’t have to subsidise people to buy an iPad or a mobile phone.’  Sir John compares the dynamism of bottom-up US digital revolution with EU’s slow, top-down approach.

4. On the green revolution

“Don’t be so stupid. Let the market decide what are the green products and how people want to buy them.”  Sir John warns of the folly of government’s dash to Net Zero.

5. On lower taxes

“There is a very good fit between those countries and territories that have the courage to have low taxes … and the more communist or socialist states that go in for higher taxes…and you find you don’t get the growth, they fall further behind the living standards of the successful low tax economies.”

Sir John on the effects of net-zero on economic growth

“If you have the wrong sort of net zero policies, they will be anti-growth and too many of them are.”

Sir John on the dire state of British politics

“The only reason [Labour] got a landslide was the Conservative incumbent government made itself even more unpopular and the Conservatives managed to pull off the feat of halving their vote.”

On measures to tackle the small boats

“Why isn’t the surveillance of the beaches leading to more effective treatment so that you could simply puncture the rubber bags before they started to leave?”

On the dire economic effects of mass immigration

“It doesn’t increase per capita growth. It actually lowers per capita growth”

On challenging the establishment

“Thanks to the wonderful digital revolution, we don’t just have to take top-down media anymore, we can generate our own media.”

“Use the digital opportunities …to show the rest of the world that it is possible to do better than the current incumbent parties and governments are doing.”

On the state of Western democracy

“The reason great parties in different Western democracies have been humiliated every time they have to face an election is they’re on the wrong side of the arguments on net zero and on migration.”

On renegotiating terms with the EU

“I would say to the government, don’t be naive. Don’t think there’s an easy deal to do.”  Sir John slams government plans to ‘re-negotiate’ terms with the EU

“As single market minister, I found it was one of the worst jobs I ever had.” Sir John recalls his time fending off useless and damaging EU legislation.

“I would say to the United Kingdom government, you’re negotiating with the wrong block about the wrong things in the wrong way.”

“What you need to do to speed up British growth is my five points. And you can learn an awful lot from American Digital.”  Sir John sums up his prospectus for Britain.

To watch the discussion in full please click on the video link here.