Monthly Archives: October 2011

What powers would you like back?

                We read this week-end that the government is responding to the vote on Monday. We hear the Foreign Office is masterminding an exercise to ask all government departments what powers they would like to regain, with a view to drawing up a possible negotiating brief.                  Reading between the lines , there is [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 167 Comments

Welfare questions

  The  John Humphrys BBC welfare documentary on Thursday night was well made. It reminded us how Beveridge wished to slay the five dragons that included the dragon of Idleness. It told us that the public  overwhelmingly wants a safety net so no-one need be homeless or short of food. Voters  do not want a generous [...]

Posted in Blog | 135 Comments

How do you turn 13 bn Euros into a trillion?

  Amidst all the talk of a Euro 1 trillion fund to bail out ailing Euro countries, it might help to look at what they done so far. They set up the European Financial Stabilisation Fund as a Luxembourg regulated Special Purpose Vehicle or company on 9 May 2010. It is  owned by the Euro [...]

Posted in Blog | 57 Comments

Flooding measures

I held one of my periodic review meetings with the Environment Agency this week, to discuss progress with flood protection for the constituency. They told me the work to help protect homes in Winnersh is now completed. The scheme to hold excess water in a bund near Tesco in Wokingham on the Emm requires Council [...]

Posted in Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues | 6 Comments

Soundbites to sum up a week – and a gripping democratic argument

1. The single currency The Euro is the Exchange Rate Mechnism you cannot get out of. A single currency needs a single country to love it and pay for it. Joining a single currency is like taking out a bank account with the neighbours. You inevitably fall out over the overdraft. A single currency starts as [...]

Posted in Blog | 99 Comments

"We have a deal" versus "There is no money left" – the future of the Euro

                Some today will heave a sigh of relief . They will say that Greece is saved. Now she has agreement to write off one quarter of her debt she can go off and borrow some more from the IMF and EU. Her debt burden is temporarily cut.              They will say the EU banks [...]

Posted in Blog | 129 Comments

Can you spare 2 trillion Euros to save an unloved currency?

  In July we were told 440 billion Euros would fix it. More recently we were told 3 trillion would do the job and would be available last Sunday. Then we were told  2 trillion was enough, to be confirmed today. Now we are told there might be just 1 trillion along sometime soon. The [...]

Posted in Blog | 92 Comments

The curious case of the vanishing revenue

                     This September Income Tax receipts were £9.5 billion.  In September 2010, a year ago, Income receipts were £10.3 billion.                   An 8% fall in Income Tax revenue is unusual. The government hopes there are special factors. Perhaps you should not read too much into one month’s figures.                    The problem is, there is [...]

Posted in Blog | 143 Comments

John Redwood’s contribution to the Backbench Debate on a National Referendum on the European Union, 24 Oct

Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): There have been many powerful speeches already rightly saying that this debate is about democracy. Democracy is fundamental to the House—the mother of Parliaments, an example to the world—which has been through a bad time. It has been humbled by its failure to listen carefully enough to the people and [...]

Posted in Debates | 8 Comments

More voices than votes

                  Yesterday Parliament staged a good debate. Voice after voice was raised to condemn the lack of democracy in EU government. MP after MP warned their leaderships that too much power has passed to Brussels without gaining the consent of the British people.  MPs asked their leaders what part of the 80% public opposition [...]

Posted in Blog | 204 Comments
  • 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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