Monthly Archives: April 2009

David Cameron made an excellent speech yesterday, calling for a new approach to public spending. He called for value for money across all departments. He demanded a culture change at the top, where Ministers are rewarded for spending less, not encouraged to spend more. He wishes to see better schools and hospitals, and to strengthen [...]

Today we may hear more about the Home Secretary’s proposals to snoop on all our emails and web activities. I have commented before on this disagraceful attack upon our liberty. If she had any understanding of how the public feels, and any belief in freedom, she would send the computer salesmen packing. The answer must [...]

The government wishes to make second jobs an issue in the argument over allowances, requiring MPs to state how much time they spend on their second jobs. This is another boomerang for Labour. A backbench MP has a full time job in the sense that you could not do it properly in less than 40 [...]

Someone sent me this speech by Cromwell to dissolve Parliament. I can’t think why I should be sent this now. It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye [...]

The decision to raise the higher rate of tax from 40p in the £1 to 50p is a spectacular boomerang. Those intellectual giants, Brown and Balls, plotting in the bunker at Number 10 thought a 50p tax rate would split the Tories and with luck unite all but the very rich against the Conservatives. If [...]

On Monday, after too long an Easter break, MPs wanted to hear from the Home Secretary. We wanted to know why Damian Green had been interviewed and his office and papers searched, why he had been told he faced lifetime imprisonment, when after a long delay no charges were brought. I would liked to have [...]

The BBC headline today says the CBI thinks we are past the worst of the recession., I thought this unlikely so I read their press release. Its headline states “UK manufacturers suffer worst fall in demand”. It went on to say they “expect the pace of decline to moderate slightly”. The other words were in [...]

Some of you are asking what my thoughts are on the Prime Minister’s latest wheeze, the daily attendance allowance for MPs who make it to their main place of work. Last night I was asked to speak at a Saint George’s Day dinner held in the magnificent surroundings of the HAC headquarters in the City. [...]

You have to say one thing for Labour. They still have an icy grip over journalists on their papers and in the BBC. During a very busy day yesterday my phone did not stop ringing from journalists acting as Labour’s poodles, wanting me to condemn the Tory leadership or to say things on top tax [...]