Monthly Archives: November 2007

Big money politics takes more victims

The prompt resignation of the Labour party General Secretary implies this is a big problem for Labour. Much of the money passed to the Labour party after Gordon Brown had taken over. There are many questions to answer: 1. Harriet Harman received money for her deputy leadership campaign from similar sources. Was this properly reported? [...]

Posted in Blog | 6 Comments

The Home Department ducks the questions

Yesterday the Home Secretary stumbled when David Davis asked her what we should do if our biometric identities are stolen or mislaid when in government possession. She also revealed complete ignorance of the work in her own department to have a common system of identity control throughout the EU. I asked a Home Office Minister [...]

Posted in Blog | 5 Comments

Website to miss

I was looking up something about schools and stumbled onto the Ed Balls website. If you dare do so, they warn you you become a "User". You automatically agree to "not publish,reproduce,store or retransmit any information contained in this website" as it remains "the property of Ed Balls…" Ed, please keep it. I see from [...]

Posted in Blog | 1 Comment

Mr Cable is nasty about Virgin and Northern Rock sharebuyers

Why does Mr Cable want to wreck any proposal to solve the Northern Rock crisis? Today he sought to belittle the Branson bid, telling people it was unlikely to go ahead. I won’t repeat what he said about the risks to the taxpayer as the statement was unacceptable. He also accused sharebuyers of being "spivs [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 1 Comment

The Clegg and Huhne race – closing stages

What have we learned during this race? "Calamity" Clegg and "Euro" Huhne have slugged it out, only to hear from the former Leader, Charles Kennedy, unflattering judgements. He does not think either of them have made their positions clear, in a way which will rally the Lib Dem cause. He does not feel motivated enough [...]

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Virgin on the Rock

Today we hear Richard Branson has become the preferred bidder for Northern Rock. It is good news that there is some movement, and there could be an outcome which keeps some of the Northern Rock staff trading with a new owner and looking after the customers and loans. The scheme outlined on the radio implies [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 4 Comments

Australia signs Kyoto – what has changed?

The new government in Australia announces a change with the past by saying it will sign Kyoto promptly. The real question is what will the government do to cut carbon output? We have several countries in the EU who signed up to Kyoto, but whose carbon output has been rising. Gestures are easy – takign [...]

Posted in Blog | 7 Comments

The Conservative policy review warned of a crisis in regulating UK banking.

Over the last decade I have made many speeches trying to point out that Gordon Brown did not make the Bank of England independent, and did weaken the Bank’s ability to respond to financial crises. I reminded any audience willing to listen that in 1997 he took away the Bank’s power to regulate individual banks, [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 4 Comments

“International credit squeeze is now hitting UK smaller companies” BBC

Typical of the BBC to protect Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling by inserting the word "international" in front of "credit squeeze" when correctly reporting this morning that the credit squeeeze is now hitting the "real economy". Do you remember all those pompous commentaries from "experts" when the credit crunch first hit, assuring us this was [...]

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Mr Cable’s campaign shows another lack of judgement

Mr Cable is being praised by the BBC for his "success" as acting Lib dem Leader. This "success" is to pursue a nasty campaign against the shareholders and management of Northern Rock, in an attempt to politicise a difficult situation and force a nationalisation of the bank. Mr Cable seems to want to wipe out [...]

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  • About John Redwood

    John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College, and has a DPhil from All Souls, Oxford. A businessman by background, he has been a director of NM Rothschild merchant bank and chairman of a quoted industrial PLC.
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