Dear Julia

         I was disappointed  to read your latest fatalistic email asking me to tell the public how bad things are with possibilities  of both droughts  and floods. The immediate necessity is for you and the water companies to replenish the reservoirs quickly now there is plenty of rain and rivers are often running full. The authorities and companies need to ensure full capacity and plenty of supplies in case there is another dry summer. What action are you taking to put in more reservoir capacity? We cannot keep on accepting more people into the country and building more homes without putting in more water supply.

         I also would like an up to date report on the work underway in the Thames basin to contain excess water at times of high rainfall and potential flood. The main burden of flood prevention should rest with the authorities, not with individual householders. Whenever a Council is considering granting planning permission on flood plain I expect your Agency to write in as a Statutory consultee to strongly advise against such construction or to insist on flood control works as part of the development. Older properties were usually built above any autumn flood line.

Yours sincerely

John Redwood

To become a President or the leader of a majority party modern democrats need to assimilate enough populism to win. The elite establishment view is based around the iron discipline of accelerated progress to net zero, whilst  including political correctness and  the boom/bust lurches of their economic advice. The elite currently favour recession to tame the inflation their damaging over extended experiment in money printing brought us. This is not a winning ticket.

Populists of the so called right have been adopting some socialist policy features, favouring price controls on basics, subsidies and even  windfall taxes. Their more unique and positive remedy of lower taxes is a good selling point, as is  their opposition to government lecturing and regulating so many aspects of our lives. They see use of a car as part of our freedoms, and resent culture war thought controls.

Populists of the left want to tax the rich more. Their selling point is the offer of more free money to more people, as they work away at proposals to shorten working weeks, offer minimum incomes and promise ever more “free” public services on a universal basis. They are happy with taxing and regulating cars off the road and with making it more and more difficult to run a free enterprise business.They recruit plenty of thought police.

An incoming leader like Rishi Sunak has difficult judgements to make. He sits at the top of an establishment official and quango ridden government which will wish to expunge populist traits from his policy mix. If he lets them do this he will not rescue the opinion polls. If he insists on too much populism the elite will seek its revenge.

Both Priti Patel and Suella Braverman have sought to implement a popular policy of ending people trafficking and the large flows of young men from safe European countries into the UK. Both have encountered substantial resistance from officials, the legal profession and the courts. We need to ask why.

No one can doubt both women want to stop the dangerous trade No one can doubt their energy and determination. Both had or have backing to legislate to make clear the policy and ensure all the powers are in place for enforcement. It is odd they need to as by definition illegal migrants are already breaking the law and the authorities already have  enforcement powers.
Every time Ministers get people booked on a plane for removal because they are criminals last minute  legal procedures intervene. The Home Office allows a huge backlog of asylum claims to build up for people who have come from France and often got to France from a country that posed no risk to them. Why cannot they reach correct but quick decisions about these cases? It is not fair on the migrant to keep them waiting for many months unable to work and unsure if they can stay. It is certainly not fair on taxpayers who have to pay ballooning hotel bills to keep them in idleness.

It is time the official machine accepted that ending dangerous journeys and illegal economic migration is a worthy aim. The  politicians speak for the majority as they should. They deserve support and help. They  are not as some seem to think the problem. The new Home Secretary has promised legislation to again clarify to officials and courts this trade has to stop. She will need to make sure this time the law is watertight as so many seem to want to stop the implementation of this popular policy.

Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): Can the Chief Secretary explain why the bank is investing in a very expensive cable electricity link between the United Kingdom and Germany, given that we are in the same time zone and have similar weather, and both countries are chronically short of electricity capacity? It does not sound like a good idea to me.

Rt Hon Sir John Redwood MP (Wokingham) (Con): What urgent action will the Government take so that we grow more of our own food, produce more of our own oil and gas, and refill our depleted reservoirs? Having more domestic supply of the basics is now fundamental to national security, given the obvious threats from Russia and others.

Tom Tugendhat MP, Minister of State for Security: I will not comment on the details of the taskforce, but I think I can safely say that that is a little beyond even what I was hoping for. I will not go into details, except to say that my right hon. Friend is absolutely right: the reality is that supply chains in our country and around the world have changed as covid has influenced different issues, and sadly the nature of the decoupling that some states have sought to pursue has changed the way in which we must consider our own security.