Monthly Archives: December 2011

Extradition and Ministerial statements

          Yesterday was another day for backbench business in the Commons. This has been Mr Cameron’s best reform so far, enabling Parliament to be more relevant, and to have more impact upon the agenda and debates of the nation.          The Committee decided to allow two issues to be aired. The first was a [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 24 Comments

Mr Redwood’s interventions during the Opposition Day debate on Living Standards, 30 Nov 2011

Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con) rose — Mr Byrne (Birmingham Hodge Hill) (Lab): I shall give way in a moment. The weakness in the jobs market is not abstract; it shows up in people’s pay packets. That is exactly what the Office for Budget Responsibility confirmed yesterday. Earnings, it says, are now set to fall [...]

Posted in Debates | 2 Comments

Wokingham Times

This week we are waiting for the Autumn Statement from the Chancellor, due on Tuesday 29th November. Amidst all the red ink, as the Chancellor accepts there will be less revenue and more public spending than planned, there should be some good news to try to get the economy growing more quickly. I am looking [...]

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Wokingham Times, 11 Nov

Things changed after the vote on a European referendum a couple of weeks ago in Parliament. The government recognised the force of feeling amongst Conservative MPs and in the country. Instead of condemning us for disagreeing, they announced they are going to draw up a list of powers and functions they want to get back [...]

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Wokingham Times, 23 Oct

No wonder politics has a bad name. This week all three main parties whipped their MPs to stop a referendum on EU matters which many in the public want. In an attempt to make politics closer to people this government launched two excellent innovations. It allowed backbench MPs to choose the business on certain Parliamentary [...]

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If not now, when?

I read that the government does not think the current Euro crisis is the best time to renegotiate the UK’s relationship with the EU. Sometimes we are told there is no urgent need for a new Treaty, so there is no opportunity to renegotiate. Sometimes I read there will be changes to the Treaty, but [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 126 Comments

Austerity, the cuts and the reality

Many western countries have been living well beyond their means for several years. The US and the UK have been spending 10% of National Income more than they earn on public spending. Most now agree we cannot carry on like this. The substantial overspend in the public sector follows hard on the heels of a [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 122 Comments

Can you help write the end game?

We were told it was weeks to save the Euro. That came and went. Now we have apparently another few days. Mrs Merkel seems to think there is plenty of time to sort out the problems of governance, transfer payments, and control of taxes and spending. Mr Sarkozy seems to be in more of a [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 192 Comments

Don’t be afraid of trade – the EU needs us more than we need them

The tired old Foreign Office and Lib Dem line is we have to go along with what the EU wants for the trade. It bedevils the debate again about whether we can negotiate a better relationship for ourselves, or whether the UK would be better off out. We constantly hear the refrain that we have [...]

Posted in Uncategorized | 98 Comments

Transport improvements for Thames Valley

The Autumn Statement confirmed that the Reading Station improvements will be completed a year early by 2015. By the following year there will electric train services to Oxford, Newbury and Bristol. The Coalition government has announced a plan to expand capacity on the M3 in Surrey which serves people to the south of the Wokingham [...]

Posted in Wokingham and West Berkshire Issues | 1 Comment
  • 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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