Mr J Longworth

Chairman Independent Business Network of family businesses. entrepreneur and businessman and former MEP.

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

Wes Streeting fires warning shot at PM: Fund defence or nothing else will matter https://t.co/IZ1WVyEA4G

[George Richardson @ga_richardson]

CANZUK isn’t just a lobby group or an empire’s ghost. #CANZUK is 4 democracies running the same institutions — Westminster parliaments, common law, shared military & diplomatic culture. That means our coordination costs are structurally lower than any other group of democracies. We don’t need to merge. We need to act like the society we already are: #CANZUKsociety.

[Mr J Longworth @john4IBN]

And yet Bambi Burnham would rather fund the idle & the feckless

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

The head of MI5 has warned that Britain faces more danger now than it did in 2001.

Sir Ken McCallum, the intelligence service’s director general, said the UK was contending with threats from hostile states as well as the dangers of Islamic extremism.

🔗 https://t.co/Wsv6lQJf2Y

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

Labour mayors across England are planning to impose a 5pc holiday tax despite businesses and Andy Burnham’s own backbenchers describing the policy as “anti-growth”.

Families now face paying an extra £99 for a week-long break in the capital, or £198 for a summer holiday, trade group UKHospitality said ⤵️

https://t.co/BsRGBaMJ2O

[Mr J Longworth @john4IBN]

Unfortunately, any good news from two months ago is now being blown away by the fresh headwinds coming from energy prices and the bond markets. So much for re industrialisation. Energy costs/Net Zero are a disaster. The EU single mkt doesn’t include our excellent service sector. So much for EU reset

[Julian Jessop @julianHjessop]

Some comments on this morning's GDP data...

The UK economy was still holding up better than most had expected in July, but this may just be the calm before the next storm.

The recent strength in services partly reflects some tailwinds that are already fading, including the initial boost to consumer spending from the hot weather.

The persistent weakness of the construction sector confirms that the government has yet to “fix the foundations”.

Other tailwinds may last longer, notably the surge in spending on AI-related goods and services. This goes some way towards explaining the recent improvements in some of the productivity data.

Unfortunately, any good news from two months ago is now being blown away by the fresh headwinds coming from energy prices and the bond markets.

The UK economy is still lurching from crisis to crisis. The surge in the cost of government borrowing will heap more pressure on the Chancellor, who is far more likely to respond by raising taxes further than by cutting spending.

It is also hard to see how the Bank of England can continue to keep official interest rates on hold when inflation is set to rise further above target.

The government needs a much bolder strategy to boost growth by freeing up the supply side of the economy, rather than adding to the burdens of tax and regulation.

John Healey did say some of the right things in his "Growth Speech" on Monday, but the gap between rhetoric and reality seems as wide as ever.

[Independent Business Network @IndBusNet]

We already have the best trading relationship of any third country with the EU.

The UK needs to focus on becoming more competitive, business friendly and attractive for investors and not spend years tinkering with EU deals.

We voted to leave.

https://t.co/AZVoyOkWu1

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Real gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.4% in the three months to July 2026 compared with the three months to April 2026.
This follows growth of 0.4% in the three months to June 2026 and 0.6% in the three months to May 2026.
This is a decent enough growth performance in a low-growth era for most major economies.
The good news is that our world-class service sector continues to power ahead: it grew by 0.6%, after growing by 0.5% in the three months to June 2026.
The bad news is that production output (manufacturing, largely) fell by 0.5%, following no growth in the three months to June 2026. So much for reindustrialisation.
While construction output fell by 0.5%. So much for record housebuilding.

[Allison Pearson @AllisonPearson]

Many ministers in the Seventies had served in the war. Denis Healey was highly decorated.
Men like him understood that life can be a brutal struggle of the fittest and national security is imperative.
Burnham and co are silly little boys by comparison.

[POLITICOEurope @POLITICOEurope]

British PM Andy Burnham says he wants a big new Brexit deal to boost economic growth.

Don’t expect it at this year’s EU-U.K. summit.
https://t.co/Nw7YxaWmpr

[Douglas Carswell🇬🇧🇺🇸 @DouglasCarswell]

After years of Thatcher, Britain was prosperous.
After years of Blairites, Britain is poorer than Mississippi.

[Opros Politics 🇺🇦 @OprosUK]

Westminster Voting Intention:

LAB: 24% (-2)
REF: 23% (+1)
CON: 22% (-1)
LDM: 12% (+1)
GRN: 9% (=)
RES: 6% (+2)

via @Moreincommon_, 4-6 Sep

(Changes with 31 Aug)

[Mr J Longworth @john4IBN]

ADHD benefits claimants outnumber soldiers https://t.co/QXB6fhNBaw

[Mr J Longworth @john4IBN]

What nonsense. And typical of the hypocrite europhile Carney

[Frid 🇪🇺🦌 @Frid45]

According to Bloomberg, the EU is now prioritising Canada over the UK.

Britain left the EU to build “Global Britain” and an Anglosphere.

Canada is turning towards Europe, Washington towards itself, Australia is 15000 km away.

Global Britain may end up as Britain Alone.

[Mr J Longworth @john4IBN]

2)
Our new PM Burnham, seems obsessed with the past, accusing PM Thatcher of creating our present ills, suggesting Brexit added to these. And yet he seems not to recognise that there is nothing new under the sun when it comes to human behaviour and the exercise of power. A fools paradise is just that. 

‘As the Russians and the Chinese discovered, capitalism is the engine of wealth creation, a superior method of the allocation of resources. They have exercised what we seem to have forgotten, or in the case of the Industrial Revolution that Britain created, are ashamed of. 

‘If we are to preserve our way of life it is essential that the state create an enterprise friendly environment in which entrepreneurialism can flourish, innovation can create growth and through creative disruption, spawn wealth. The winners will pick themselves and undoubtedly there will be winners and losers, but we will all be better off and more secure as a consequence. 

‘John Longworth is an entrepreneur and businessman, Chairman of the Independent Business Network of family businesses and a former MEP.

[Mr J Longworth @john4IBN]

‘Nothing New

‘It was generally said in my household when I was growing up that “there is nothing new under the sun” . Never have truer words been spoken than now. Every generation seems to like to think it is the custodian of a gilded age in which patterns of the past are broken irrevocably and a new and special understanding of our lot has been born. The truth is that there has been no “end of history” for: human frailty, ambition, greed, avarice, kindness, and nativity never changes. To be flawed is to be human, perfection is for the divine. 

‘Never have these sentiments been more true looking upon the state of the world today, upon its leaders and upon our small corner of the globe and our polyglot Parliamentarians. 

‘We live in a dangerous world. Like a cornered animal President Putin is lashing out in his pursuit of Russian past glories and power. A cornered animal with nuclear weapons. 

‘President Xi of China has presided over a remarkable resurgence of China’s greatness, usurping the country’s post Mao capitalist route to power and recruiting it as part of a state controlled dictatorship, an economic model more akin to National Socialism than to collectivist Marxism. 

‘Meanwhile Iran continues its brand of religious dictat that would be recognisable in a medieval world.

‘There are also many other nations that would crush our way of life, our democracy, free speech, the rule of law and free markets, given the opportunity. One hundred years ago Pax Britannica still set the global system and held sway over a quarter of the globe. It is now long gone and Pax Americana is itself under threat and as a consequence has itself become an aberration. 

‘What is absolutely true is that under the sun, in order to be secure, it is necessary to be wealthy, resourceful and strong willed. In the words of the US President Eisenhower , it is important to speak softly but also to carry a big stick. 

‘Those of the woke liberal/left in Britain appear to be almost uniquely, certainly rarely, of an overwhelmingly naive disposition. The daylight robbery of the gifting of  the Chagos islands and paying for the privilege, is as provocative to our enemies as was the Danegeld of the early medieval era. It didn’t keep the Vikings at bay, they came back for more and more. It advertises weakness and bullies swarm to weakness, witness the Argentine. 

‘The delusion that state control and the public sector can boost productivity, economic growth and wealth creation is a dangerous fiction that could only be perpetrated by politicians: red, green or yellow, whose parties are devoid of people who have been in, run or created businesses. 

‘The importance of this should not be underestimated. Wealth creation is essential if the people of our country are to enjoy its fruits, but it is also essential for law and order, national security, even national survival. 

‘Romantic nonsense such as the determination to reach national Net Zero at all costs, destroying industry, exporting: jobs, production and wealth to foreign powers such as China. It is predicated on maintaining  the fiction that this helps global climate change when clearly Chinese fossil fuel production continues apace. It puts the U.K. at risk for a tiny percentage of global emissions. As such it is a crime against the British people, a sort of modern treason.

[Independent Business Network @IndBusNet]

Our Chair @john4IBN says that the government needs to focus on the future.

The state must create an enterprise-friendly environment in which entrepreneurialism can flourish, innovation can create growth and, through creative disruption, spawn wealth.

https://t.co/4dTZAhTpDR

[electionmapsuk @electionmapsuk]

Westminster Voting Intention:

LAB: 26% (=)
RFM: 23% (+2)
CON: 18% (-2)
GRN: 12% (-2)
LDM: 12% (+2)
SNP: 3% (=)

Via @FindoutnowUK, 9 Sep.
Changes w/ 2 Sep.

[Daily Mail @DailyMail]

QUENTIN LETTS: The BBC used to scrutinise politicians with calm balance. The Leftist aggression of its so-called star interviewer Emma Barnett toward Kemi Badenoch was just snooty and crass https://t.co/MnWVt41V88

[TaxPayers' Alliance @the_tpa]

Taxpayers will roll their eyes at this vanity project.

No 10 North already looks like another gimmick dressed up as reform, and taxpayers should not be forced to fund the government's political stage sets.

https://t.co/c43mkRWx56

[Independent Business Network @IndBusNet]

The UK does need cheaper energy, while renewables do generate energy, it is not meeting our needs and falling well short of what was promised.

We need a mixed energy supply, Oil, Gas and renewables. It is time for pragmatism over ideology.

https://t.co/MGPcLNfofp