Monthly Archives: March 2008

Not all bigger classes are wrong

By johnredwood | Published: March 21, 2008

Let me wind you up this morning, by supporting a Labour Minister who is thought to have made a gaffe. Jim Knight dared to say he saw a very good lesson being taught by a charismatic teacher to a large class – I think he may have said as many as 70 pupils. He did [...]

Posted in Blog | 9 Comments

The banks – lend them the money

By johnredwood | Published: March 20, 2008

Today the Regulators start their search for the bear raiders who spread false rumours yesterday. Meanwhile, the Bank of England should repeat that as the apex of our large and strong banking system, it will make enough liquidity available on a continuing basis so the markets function better and bear raiders have less chance to [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 5 Comments

The Post Office – a large pension fund with a company attached

By johnredwood | Published: March 20, 2008

Yesterday the Commons debated Post Office closures. This century the Post office has been struggling to make a profit on both its counters businesses, and in its main mail delivery activity. The former has been damaged by the government’s decision to switch a lot of its business away from Post Offices to automated systems using [...]

Posted in Blog | 2 Comments

House price crash?

By johnredwood | Published: March 19, 2008

The oddest thing about this slowdown and credit crunch is the delayed reaction – or the lack of reaction – of the UK housing market. Shares have slumped. Commercial property prices have fallen substantially. Retailers have complained about the squeeze on their customers. Yet house prices are still slightly up on a year ago, and [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 24 Comments

John Redwood Speaks on Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation debate

By johnredwood | Published: March 18, 2008

Please find below the text of John Redwood’s speech to the House of Commons from yesterday’s Budget Resolutions and Economic Stuation debate. Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): It has been interesting to be present at this debate, which is a bit like “Groundhog Day”. We had a themed debate rather like it as part of [...]

Posted in Press Releases | 2 Comments

Parliament finally detaches from reality

By johnredwood | Published: March 18, 2008

Yesterday Parliament continued with what this government laughingly calls a budget debate. It wanted to ignore the fear that stalks the markets (See my post of March 15th). Outside the cocoon of the Commons chamber fear continued to spook the markets. Large sums of money were made available to the banks to ease them through [...]

Posted in Blog | 11 Comments

The Bear and the Rock – 2 different styles of rescue

By johnredwood | Published: March 17, 2008

A quick haggle, a visit to the lawyers, and a bank is bought and rescued over a week-end in New York. That’s the way to do it. It makes the UK’s attempted private sector rescue of Northern Rock look ham fisted, long winded and ultimately unsuccessful in comparison. The US authorities have once again acted [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 17 Comments

Tax and waste – to cut or not to cut, that is the question.

By johnredwood | Published: March 16, 2008

It is a good job I don’t eat cornflakes for breakfast. If I did, I would doubtless have choked on them when read the bald Sunday Telegraph headline “Tory tax cut ruled out for four years”. After all I had put into the Economic Competitiveness Report to make the case for lower taxes, after the [...]

Posted in Blog | 14 Comments

Don’t they know there’s a credit crisis?

By johnredwood | Published: March 15, 2008

The budget looked insignificant and irrelevant the day it was announced. It looks absurd this morning. The near collapse of the 5th largest investment bank in the US and the rapid action taken by the US authorities to avert a crash in the wider mortgage and banking markets matters to us as well as to [...]

Posted in Blog, Northern Rock | 6 Comments

Reading Evening Post

By johnredwood | Published: March 14, 2008

So how was the budget for you? Few are pleased that drinks are going up a lot, whilst the tax attack on motoring is postponed rather than cancelled. The headlines were understandably taken by the bad news on whisky, wine and wicked cars. Beneath the front page stories the Chancellor shuffled a few hundred million [...]

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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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