You are here at last, and most welcome.
We want a new beginning. We want to restore our democracy, and to change it for the better.
It is fitting that many of us have boundless ambition for our country. We know that independent the UK can be richer, freer, and more of a force for good.
Restored to our rightful place at the top tables and councils of the world, the UK will have more capacity to help shape the future.
Able to make our own decisions about who to welcome here, we can be fair to people from all round the world and no longer have to discriminate against the non Europeans.
Lets make 2016 a great year to rank alongside 1660 and 1688 when our freedoms were increased by political actions.
Bruised and battered the old year goes out amidst war, floods and the usual political recriminations about the role and cost of the state.
All was not lost, as 2015 at least broached some of the big issues that we need to confront to restore our democracy and find justice for England.
It is true that on offering England her voice, it was muffled badly by the Hague reforms. Our devolution settlement remains too lop sided as well as under continuous pressure from the SNP.
2015 has usefully highlighted some of the ways the British people and their Parliament have lost control. The inability to change our VAT on tampons exploded the myth that we can still choose our taxes. The failure to restrict benefits to economic migrants show how one of Labours red lines with the EU has been wiped out. The powerlessness to achieve the very popular government target for net inward migration stands as a prime example of our lack of power and authority as a country.
These matters roll into this year in search of a solution. 2015 will not have been in vain if we decide to leave the EU, the cause of so much damage to our democracy.
January 1, 2016
Mr Redwood, Happy New Year and let me take this opportunity to thank you for your outstanding blog which is so very well researched and so full of interesting facts and ideas.
It is much appreciated.
January 1, 2016
I would have thought complacent rather than powerless would be a more accurate word to describe the government you support. It could not give a toss about multi nationals paying their fair share of tax. They only decide to cough up when their customers decide to take their business elsewhere e.g. one well known chain of coffee shops. You really think HMG has its hands tied behind its back with regard to non EU immigration? Thats just as delusional as to believing that the UK can be ‘Restored to our rightful place at the top tables and councils of the world”. Whats backing that Trident and aircraft less aircraft
carriers behind it?
January 1, 2016
You make some pertinent observations Ma’am. Our government of course is fully committed to the EU, globalisation and destroying our British heritage.
January 1, 2016
Happy New Year, John. I hope the things you wish for,come true.
January 1, 2016
Personally I’d be happy with the freedom to choose my own doctor and choose my kids school.
January 1, 2016
Indeed leave the tax with the tax payer and let them choose where to spend it, or at least give them a voucher they may use to pay, or part pay.
January 1, 2016
And a happy and successful New Year to you too, Mr Redwood, and to all who look to your daily comments to enlighten them on the great issues of the day. A true statesman sees farther, wider and deeper than the rest of us; which other public figure, I wonder, takes such pains to fulfil his duty to educate and inform?
January 1, 2016
Yes , thanks Mr Redwood , for the information the BBC & others don`t want us to hear, Very much appreciated.
January 1, 2016
Hear, hear.
January 1, 2016
(allegations of establishment cover up about another matter ed)
It is important therefore that the government does not try to suppress any documents which would otherwise have been released before the 2016/17 referendum that relate to the period leading up to the signing of the Single European Act in February 1986.
Who has decided to delay the release of these documents?
I suspect there is widely held belief that the UK electorate were wilfully misled and deceived by establishment figures during mid-1980s , as they were at the time of the EC Common Market referendum in 1975, and government leaders need to come clean about this and not continue to suppress it for generations to come.
If the Conservative party wishes to avoid a permanent split, they need to release all these documents timeously.
January 1, 2016
I deleted your reference to a Church scandal because I have not myself studied it and do not wish to get involved in publishing allegations which may or may not be true. The fact that some of these allegations are in newspapers means you can read them there, and they have the benefit of expensive lawyers to defend them in case of need.
January 1, 2016
Reply to JR’s point above: There are no allegations here, John.
Reply. fine. Glad crimes have been uncovered and reported. I still do not myself have any knowledge of the case and so do not wish to run that story here. you say it us well documented elsewhere.
January 1, 2016
The left say they are the social justice warriors, believe in the freedom of the individual, democracy, human rights and progressive values. Yet what they practice amounts to the total opposite. In that they;-
1) Force PC down our throats so as to shut down debate so only their opinions are heard.
2) Refuses England the right to devolved government that they insist the rest of the UK should and must have.
3) Are against free market capitalism which does the most to lift people out of poverty. Is the best system yet devised that delivers goods and services efficiently and is the least wasteful of resources and the most cost effective. Is totally democratic as the people are given freedom of choice on which they can vote upon every day with their feet and wallet.
4) They seek to impose equality not just equality of opportunity by not seeking after excellence but by imposing a one fits all policy so that everything is dumbed down as the only way to do that is through the lowest common denominator.
5) Are promoters of increasing the roles and authority of the state to centrally control and make our decisions for us.
6) Defend human rights which of course all should but in a way that usually entails sticking up for one group at the expense of a more deserving group.
7) Denigrate against standards, values and traditions that have made us what we are and have served us well. They wish not for us to incorporate other cultures standards, values and traditions that we respect and appreciate as being enriching which we have always done but to impose those that they deem we should. Promote multiculturalism and diversity which is divisive which in the long run causes social dislocation. Integration has always been the only way that different people can get along to together when they live in the same geographical location.
That list is not exhaustive and perhaps enthusiasm for the EU could be added but it is not exclusive to them as some on the right share that view. Nobody should share that view as the EU is most definitely a statism institution that fulfils roles that it does not need to because the same and better can be achieved in a much more efficient, cost effective and democratic way by other means.
January 1, 2016
Indeed the policies the left push (which are also largely pushed by Osborne) do not even help the poor let alone the rich and the hard working.
January 1, 2016
I would like to see and hear more from those in Parliament who believe we are better off in control of our own destiny, both as individuals and as a country.
I want the pressure seen to be put on Cameron, who is asking for nothing and will get nothing from the EU. He needs to be rudely exposed for the talking shop fraud he is. I want him left in no doubt that his career ends after a successful Brexit referendum. The last thing the country needs is Cameron trying to dilute a successful Brexit vote, and given the opportunity rest assured he will with the aid of a thwarted civil service.
Should some real Conservatives regain control of their party one of the first priorities is to put the SNP firmly back in their box. The muffled Hague reforms need replacing with an uncompromising EVEL.
This can be followed by the overdue bonfire of the quangos and the privatisation of those deemed worth retaining in a form that benefits the population.
Finally I would suggest that the EU should be exorcised from our legislation to be replaced by English law as it was before the EU existed. We are then in a position to improve upon English law as we see fit.
Wishing you ,your family, and like minded legislators a very happy and successful 2016.
January 1, 2016
Well put and a happy New Year to all.
January 1, 2016
Seconded.
January 1, 2016
Happy New Year to you Mr. Redwood MP, and to all my fellow contributors here.
🙂
January 1, 2016
An after thought prompted by just reading a piece in the Mises Daily blog. Another left wing ideology has come to mind which promotes governments interfering with what should be a free market through their central banks in this case interest rates that practice should be stopped. Not only that one but others as well however for now I concentrate on interest rates as they are heading us towards another bust due to occur at about 2020. This is because low interest rates are causing malinvestment once again the normal precursor to a bust.
The reasons Mises Daily comes up with this analysis and prediction is best found out by reading their blog on the subject. My explanation I fear would not do it justice and in fact would probably been found risible by the reader.
January 1, 2016
Indeed encouraging malinvestment is rather a government speciality as examples the green energy grants, the train and bus subsidies, interest rate interference, “free” virtual monopoly state schools and NHS, encouraging the feckless never to work, wage controls, the absurdly over complex tax systems and countless other ways.
Indeed distracting people from being productive and forcing them to malinvest often seems to be the main activity of government other than paying and pensioning themselves too well.
January 1, 2016
Yes A New Year.
Shame we cannot start from scratch in many ways, but we are where we are, on an island which needs to trade, but not in control of that trade, or indeed even the rules for trading amongst ourselves.
Can we move forward, and will we move forward is the question.
Only if attitudes change, and the people force that change on those whom are at present in control and seemingly do not want to change.
Its about time we had some political honesty from all politicians and political Parties , with regards to separating real facts from fiction, and their lopsided dreams and promises.
The internet is helping, but the real power still lies with the established media.
Let s us hope like many of us, they can see the the right road ahead, instead of the dead ends and road blocks of the past.
Let us hope it will prove to be a Happy New Year to all.
January 1, 2016
Will the endless scare stories, about the dangers of leaving , emanating from the EU, the government, most parties, the BBC, big business and the rest of the usual suspects succeed in tricking the voters into staying?
Will Cameron actually give us a fair referendum if he thinks it will be an out vote and he will lose and have to go? I am not convinced he will look as his record of serial ratting and he pathetic, fake, non renegotiation.
Will he or his replacement even respect the result if it is for out?
If the UK do escape how will we ensure a real, sound low tax government at heart replaces Cameron and Osborne’s tax borrow and waste greencrap socialism? This seems very unlikely, given that Cameron’s policy of trying to trick people into staying will have failed so abjectly. His MPs are, apart from perhaps 100 or so, largely career politician and followers of Cameron’s foolish approach of more bloated and inept government, green drivel, over regulation, pro EU, high tax, no nation, anti-democratic Tories. The lack of a sensible opposition from Labour, with the potty Corbynomics, makes things even worse I suspect.
January 1, 2016
Just how much of a Tory is George Osborne asks Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph today ?
Clearly he is not remotely a Tory in any sense. With his record of endless tax increases, endless state borrowing, his attacks on tenants and landlords, attacks on private pensions and the private sector in general he is just another a socialist, redistributionist, interventionist, tax borrow and waste merchant.
His attack on non-doms are counter productive for the economy, his absurd stamp duty and CGT rates likewise. Perhaps most galling of all is his totally dishonest claim to be “keeping his IHT promise” made many years back and ratted on for years. What he is proposing is not even close to it, nor has it even yet been put in place. Even when it is it might be changed just weeks later by the next government.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/pensions/12076601/Just-how-much-of-a-Tory-is-George-Osborne.html
He is not doing the wrong things for a strong economy and it is a strong economy that will win the next election. The economy needs a much smaller state sector, far lower taxes, far fewer regulations, cheap energy and no EU.
January 2, 2016
Our best hope is to join the Conservative Party so we can vote for someone other than Osborne in the leadership election. I know the Conservatives think they are worth more than £3, but even at £25, getting rid of Osborne would be cheap at the price.
January 1, 2016
To our kind host, who I had the pleasure of meeting in Oxford, and everyone who contributes to making this such an interesting blog, I wish you a happy and prosperous New Year.
With a little luck and a fair wind, we will have a lot more good news to celebrate at the end of 2016.
January 1, 2016
We shall see how many bucket loads of scare stories about leaving the EU the BBC, the EU, government, big business and the usual suspect can come up with, and if the voters will be deceived once again. Even if they do vote for out is will be hard to get out properly with all the vested interests and the Clark, Heseltine, Osborne, Major, Libdims & Cameron types.
January 1, 2016
Lifelogic – You are right. The buckets of scare stories will do for the Out campaign.
January 1, 2016
The 1688 date is very important to the English and why you must fight against the British Bill of Rights superseding it on statute, we know who will loose their rights as currently laid down in statute in the process, Blair’s Mob wanted to get rid of it but were not brave enough.
January 1, 2016
“2015 will not have been in vain if we decide to leave the EU”
I suppose much the same could be said about the many previous years during which quite small numbers of active opponents of the EU have been trying to inform the rest of the population and persuade them that we should leave it, against the massive weight of the pro-EU establishment in its various guises.
It has always been an uphill struggle, and whether we can win an “In-Out” referendum against such heavy odds remains to be seen. However it seems unlikely that there would ever be another referendum if we lost that one, and maybe it would help if we kept that constantly in our minds.
January 2, 2016
There will be at least some satisfaction even in “losing” a referendum, in that it will be clear that a nation which votes to extinguish fully its right to decide its own affairs, and instead to pay a sizeable part of its wealth to be told what to do by unelected foreigners, deserves to perish and fade into history.
January 3, 2016
Indeed they do and will if they vote the wrong way.
January 1, 2016
A prosperous and happy New Year to you Dr. JR and to all your responders . The blog this morning outlines all of my wishes and I am grateful of the opportunity to say so within this post . Throughout the year , day after day , you have provided a great deal of food for thought ; the priorities exposed – particularly that of the need to regain our sovereignty , no-one in their right mind , could argue with . Most of all , the blogs have given the responders the chance to let their opinions be known to a wide audience .I admire your ability to keep this vibrant and thought provoking range of subjects going in tandem with your role as a busy MP .
January 1, 2016
Interesting that you mention 1660 and 1688. For 300 years we had a proud an independent nation, mostly a force for good in the world, despite what some fashionable commentators would have you think and who want us to apologise for everything we achieved. We need to do more than come out of the EU, we need a new system here at home as well.
For the last 50 years, the political class have been trying and succeeding in downgrading our democracy and selling us out to foreigners with whom we only really want to trade and not be governed by. What wars have failed to achieve, our own traitorous representatives have handed away for nothing. In fact we have to pay for the privilege of having a trading loss with the EU. What other nation would accept that?
It is often said that there is honour in both arguments for and against the EU, but really, there is nothing honourable about what has been done by so few for mostly their own ends.
Even now, The Conservative Party, of all people, are trying to get the Freedom Of Information Act watered down and shackle a free press so that we can longer find out about the nefarious goings on of officialdom. That they cite the cost of FOI requests as being a valid reason shows how shallow this once great party has become under the vacuous leadership we now have and why there is need for a new party like UKIP. The modern top Tories know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
Let us be clear for the likes of CMD and his cronies, who have difficulty with the concept, freedom is without price, the right of the people who pay his wages to know what is done on their behalf is priceless. It cannot all be laid out in a balance sheet or sold for a few baubles for a few people.
January 2, 2016
You are right in what you say, except at the end, for it I suspect it WILL be ” sold for a few baubles”. “Cannot” should read, as is often the case, “Should not.”
January 1, 2016
What a splendid first journal entry for the New Year, JR! Thank you.
In some of your entries in late 2015 you pulled your punches less and less. What struck me about your entry about NGOs/Quangos/’Independent Bodies’ was that these people are so indicative of a general malaise.
How absurd that so little of the Environment Agency’s budget goes on actual work to improve the environment, for example. How absurd that the directors of Network Rail think it’s okay to bet on financial derivatives. How absurd that the EU’s accounts haven’t been given a clean audit for the last 20 years. How absurd that foreign recipients of Oxford scholarships think it’s acceptable to airbrush out history. How absurd that the German Chancellor thinks it’s reasonable to make unilateral decisions, abrogating EU law and affecting all of Europe, and then condemn other countries for not following her warped policies. I could go on…
It seems to me that it comes down to a lack of plain speaking generally. It’s almost as if we read about the latest disgrace in public administration and must simply sigh in response. In years gone by we would have expected heads to roll and dramatic changes to be made. Now it appears that we just accept the unacceptable, as a matter of course. The British resolve becoming the Gallic shrug, so to speak.
One of my hopes for 2016 is that good men and women stand tall and say it like it is. In particular I hope all of our Parliamentarians speak out in plain language against some of the nonsense we see and hear daily.
Those who make catastrophic decisions and who are funded by your taxes and mine should expect to be called out and criticised in the strongest terms, unambiguously. And they should expect summary dismissal in many cases.
Things are so bad in so many quarters that it will take very simple, undiplomatic, and un-Parliamentary language to ram home some pure common sense into those whose incomes depend on the taxes from our hard work. I really hope that the culture is moving in this direction.
The biggest challenge for 2016 (and probably 2017) is of course the EU Referendum. Unlike many of your correspondents I think the vote would be 65/35 if it happened tomorrow, much like in 1975. In other words we’d lose, we’d stay in the EU, and you and I would soon lose our country and nationality.
Yes, I’ve read all the opinion polls but I’d bet anyone £1000 they’re wrong right now, if we actually had a vote. The PM and most of the Cabinet will come out to remain, as will the majority of the Shadow Cabinet, and all the SNP and Libdems. The BBC and almost all other media are pro-EU. And the Leave campaigns so far have been lamentable. In my view we’re really up against it.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we started to see our elected representatives speaking out strongly for what they believed in? JR, you do this and I applaud you for it.
However you don’t always do it in terms that the media take notice of. I know it’s not really your style but I hope you will make more provocative statements in 2016, so that we all see and hear you more on TV, on the radio, and in the press. You may not think of yourself as the most media-friendly person in our increasingly emotive/celebrity/gleaming-white-smile world, but you speak the truth and you have the authority of talking from a knowledgeable standpoint based on decades of experience.
Strangely, even the most uninformed amongst our electorate might find what you have to say would seep into their consciousness. Just a thought….
Wishing a very Happy New Year to you and to all your readers.
January 2, 2016
A pithy and well presented post, AC. A successful New Year to all contributors.
January 1, 2016
Agreed. The UK is coming to a fork in the road. One, the Remain choice, leads to a cul de sac. The other, the Leave choice, leads to the open road. For me the choice is clear – it is
the open road.
January 1, 2016
We want (what very little is left of) our residual democracy returned to the people to whom it belonged. This after Heath, Wilson, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and Cameron gave it slowly away & without any proper authority from the owners. All egged on by the appalling BBC, most of the state sector, big business, some charities and the many other vested interests.
I enjoyed reading Rod Liddle in the Spectator this morning he is surely quite right.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/01/the-political-wisdom-of-people-who-dont-even-know-what-a-circle-is/
January 1, 2016
Thanks Lifelogic for drawing attention to that illiberal start to the year.
January 1, 2016
John – here is another item showing just how little influence has our Parliament, because the EU has sneaked in a new law making it illegal to catch a single sea Bass. It applies not just to inshore fishing boats but to even those beach fishing, in or out of the water. It wasn’t debated in Parliament, nor has anything been heard from DEFRA about it, it simply appeared via a ‘statutory instrument’, which seems to be the way of far too many laws being imposed on an unsuspecting parliament and people.
Anglers can now be fined up to £50k for landing a single sea Bass. It is apparently a conservation measure but only applies to small inshore boats and onshore anglers, not the huge EU trawler fleet of course, who are allowed to catch up to 1.3 tonnes of Bass a month.
It will mean the ruination of our small boat fleet, those who arrange fishing trips for a living, which of course follows on from the ruination of our once proud fishing trawler fleets so callously surrendered by Heath to the EU monster. Please tell me how and why it is that Parliament lets this sort of legislation appear on the statute books without ever considering what it means, or even whether it makes any practical sense? I believe that there are more anglers in the UK than there are those who watch football and I hope that they get together and start telling their MP to get a grip. I’ll wager that this item will be ignored across the rest of the EU but be savagely imposed on our UK anglers by yet another bunch of jobsworths.
January 1, 2016
Martin, if you have a link I would send in to the Angling Times and any other fishing connected magazine or programme, this might be the Sprat that catches the EUSSR Shark.
January 1, 2016
Yosarian – thanks. Hadn’t thought of that, thinking perhaps many, many others would see this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3380828/Brussels-Britain-s-anglers-Happy-New-Year-writes-RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-nicked.html
Will have to look up some relevant fishing-oriented sites and see if it is already ‘on the wires’ as it were….
January 1, 2016
Martyn. Thanks for this. Have just read it. As usual Farage is the only person letting us know what is going on under the radar. He should be commended for the way he tells us what is happening but instead the media and other politicians run him down. If it weren’t for him and others like him we would all be in the dark. I am horrified that this kind of thing is going on and it shows us all just what a mess we will be in if the UK votes to stay in this sham. It is an utter disgrace. Just what is Cameron thinking of by telling us we should all be staying in? There is some kind of a conspiracy going on here. Just what is their motive for encouraging membership of the EU??? Traitors the lot of them.
January 1, 2016
Farage actually fishes for bass .
(Cameron unlikely to fish for bass ed)
January 1, 2016
Just found this link on a government website.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-protections-for-sea-bass
January 2, 2016
Indeed, I find it plain odd that there should be such enthusiasm amongst our lords and masters to remain in the E.U.
Somehow, the arguments for remaining never seem to warrant the enthusiasm for remaining. A lot of people sense that there are some other reasons, some furtive and secret, unrevealed reasons that there is such support. But what can they be?
I can understand big business wanting a pool of unquestioning cheap labour.
I can see that there are tempting and lucrative sinecures for aspiring politicians.
But why should sandalled Liberals, luvvy actors and BBC media heroes be so adamant that the E.U. is so desirable?
What is going on?
January 1, 2016
Good link, well worth reading. Lots of fishermen and fisherwomen out there to hopefully vote for out. How on earth are the EU able to get this endless nonsense through without even a debate?
January 1, 2016
I caught a few bass from the shore of Hayling Island this year .
Released all but one which was deep hooked but over minimum length .
Found the bass fishing better this year than the last couple .
There has been a ban on taking silver eels for a few years now which is generally respected .
Ironically , the Republic of Ireland (which correct me if I’m wrong is in the EU) unilaterally implemented laws on inshore commercial bass fishing and recreational bass angling within 10 miles of the coast . They did more to help bass stocks recover than anyone else and have seen their 2 bass in 24 hour bag limit over-ruled .
The Republic of Ireland’s bass fishing related tourism industry worth more than 100m Euros per year .
The harvesting of sand eels on the UK East Coast for feed for farmed fish has had massive impacts on stocks of cod and other fish and also encouraged cormorants to fly inland and devastate roach and wild trout populations .
This latest development must be considered the thin edge of the wedge .
How long before recreational sea anglers are forced to buy a license ?
January 1, 2016
Happy New Year John. I see Dave doesn’t mention immigration or Europe in his 2016 vision.
Who could argue with what you write but we all know it doesn’t fit in the government agenda.
Daily your ministers will give more and more powers to Brussels until there is nothing left.
USE here we come.
January 1, 2016
I share John Redwood’s view – getting out of the Eu and as an added bonus seeing the back of Mr Slippery is something to welcome in 2016.
Tim Montgomerie’s view is that Cameron is in early pre-election mode pushing back un-popular measures in order to create a feel good factor to push through his wish for an IN vote. Tax credits uncut, defence spending increases and other goodies that ignore the fact we are living way beyond our means.
His strategy is more inspired by Charles Ponzi than Maynard Keynes but it is clear Cameron and Osborne are willing to throw the kitchen sink at the Eu referendum to get their way.
My view is that those sceptics in the Conservative party need to take the gloves off and put some real heat on David Cameron – the referendum is our last chance to save Britain. This is bigger than party loyalty – the debate has all been a bit too cosy for my liking. The lack of public critique of Cameron’s shifty and underhand non-negotiation is troubling.
How many Conservatives would have voted Cameron leader if he had been clear in his ‘barnstorming speech that he wishes to stay in the Eu under almost ANY circumstances. Where is the anger amongst Conservatives over this deception ?.
Dr Redwood you were perhaps a little slow to come out from a ‘wait and see’ position on the sham Eu non- negotiation . Perhaps now you can start landing some heavier punches on the IN lobby.
If you succeed and can tip the axis of the debate away from Cameron’s woolly logic you will be a national hero.
January 2, 2016
The problem is that there is no longer a Conservative party (unless it be UKIP). There is instead a Liberal/Leftleaning party which harbours the bitter remnants of a true Conservative party, and an awful lot of people “out there” in the popular phrase, who are disillusioned, rudderless, and who feel unrepresented and betrayed.
January 1, 2016
Seems that some of the recent flooding may have been aggravated by the EU clean water directive which either bans or significantly reduces dredging. Thus the water courses get overwhelmed quicker.
January 1, 2016
Great piece to start the year John
A very happy and properous new year to you, your family and all the readers of this blog.
Every thing you seem to want and aspire to achieve always seems to be underminded by CMD and the cabinet. You only have to studt the Honours List and see which way they are heading. Six gongs for renewable energy people who have done more as a collective organisation have destroyed swathes of the countryside and put millions into fuel debt and poverty.
What signals it sends out to the youngsters, head up a quango organisation, fail in the task set, get moved to another for a repeat performance and get given a knighthood or some other honour.
When will failure be recognised for what it is, failure and treated accordingly?
Methinks that CMD is or has rapidly lost the plot. No more is it about new plans whatever it is about the actual leadership
,
January 1, 2016
I wish only that the referendum be framed truthfully and in plain language:
An EU government OR a British one ? An EU superstate OR Britain ? You will not have both. The result of the referendum is permanent and irreversible.
If the result is Out then it must be made clear that the British government is to be a regional council of the EU. Our MPs must be reduced from hundreds to a few tens.
Happy New Year to you and your readers and thanks for all the good work.
January 1, 2016
Rephrase:
… if the result is In then it must be made clear that the British government is to be a regional council…
I mistakenly typed Out instead in my comment submitted at 1:49
January 1, 2016
A very Happy New Year to you John and everyone reading this diary.
I hope we vote to leave the EU this year and that we get an English parliament so that the SNP cannot continue to overrule what is best for England!!
Thanks for all your great work last year John. I really don’t know how you manage it all. Sincerely.
January 1, 2016
A Happy New Year to JR and all those constructive readers of his inestimable blog, for which all due thanks.
“Able to make our own decisions about who to welcome here, we can be fair to people from all round the world and no longer have to discriminate against the non Europeans.”
We do not have a duty of fairness towards anyone to whom we do not have an obligation, and in general, we have no obligation to permit any of seven billion of the world’s people to enter our country on any basis whatsoever. Furthermore, we are full and so are houses, schools, hospitals, roads.
The obligation we have to foreigners is not to do them harm whilst they are not trying to harm us; we do not have to send them £12 billion of taxpayers money and we certainly do not need to send them death and destruction on the say so of a bunch of congenital psychopaths that control US foreign policy.
Sadly, our country has paid a very heavy price for allowing a small treacherous minority to dictate policies which have allowed foreigners to control our country, our economy, our foreign policy, our identity. We have to awake ourselves and our fellow countrymen to act in their’s and our country’s best interests by voting to Leave the EU.
January 1, 2016
Leaving the EU so you can seat round tables around the world talking rubbish because if you knew what to do this country would not be where it is today, the only way to impress the world is by showing them how well you run your country and how little it costs it people and that you have new ideas for the problems that you have now.
If I may say so, problems that have been put a upon the people of this country by politicians in this country who are at this minute taking instruction from tops tables and councils from around the world on what to do this year.
Your politicians do not like working for the people of this country they like working for the world.
They like to be first in spending money when they are only number five in the world spending rankings and when it come to the nhs in spending rankings in Europe I not think they in the top 5 and you could say the same for pension for working people.
Happy
January 1, 2016
Mr. Redwood,
I wish you a Happy New Year and thank you for your diary and efforts to promote our leaving of the EU.
Unfortunately, however, I do not think any of your above wishes can be realised unless and until England stops voting for the existing Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat and Green Parties.
In other words, there will first need to be an enormous shift in the way England votes.
January 1, 2016
2016 needs to be a year when the English turn to rage.
January 1, 2016
Happy New Year to you and all your readers.
As usual, you are bang on Mr R.
A big year coming up, and I hope your years of service to this country come to fruition this year.
I can only do so much to help, but may I remind you that there are hundreds of thousands of servicemen and policemen and others who stand ready to sacrifice everything for the UK, and that there are millions of people who love and are proud of this country, and they’re all behind you and your like-minded colleagues.
Let’s hope this time next year that we are free of the EU, and that England is on the way to being granted fairness.
January 1, 2016
Whilst waiting for Mr. Cameron’s official unveiling of the “British Model” for the EU, known within the EU as Associate Membership, we will be fed a diet of pro EU speeches where the truth is the exact opposite of the claims made by the Europhiles.
Recent examples are :
Mr.Major claiming that the UK would be in “splendid isolation” and we would lose our power and influence” if we were not members of the EU when in fact our leaving the EU would mean a return to the world stage rather than being represented by the EU together with 27 differing nations.
Mr. Hague claiming that the UK could be split up if it voted to leave the EU when in fact it is EU policy to dismantle the UK and replace it with a number of separate EU regions, one of which is even combined with a part of France.
Or that we would be in financial difficulties when in fact we could save £12billion/year in net payments to the EU and avoid all the problems associated with a common currency.
Or that we would be safer in an EU where enormous cultural changes are about to occur through the expansion of the EU to include a non-European country and the admittance into the EU of millions of non-Europeans.
January 1, 2016
Thank you for your blog. The long historical perspective is helpful. Yes, 1660 was a good year – though like many I have an admiration for Oliver Cromwell! We need those Ironsides if we are to repulse the army of Brussels!
January 1, 2016
This time of year is always tinged with sadness – another year has slipped by and with it another piece of a familiar, proud & independent country we were happy to call Great Britain. Hoping 2016 can be the year when this changes.
Wishing Mr Redwood a happy and successful new year.
January 2, 2016
There is little hope of the SNP being diminished in 2016. Labour is
weakened, at both UK and Scottish level, by the worst leaders they have ever had and there is no sign of the new fundamentalist party, for immediate
Scottish independence, gaining any support . Since many SNP voters oppose
the EU, as much as they oppose the UK, there is the possibility of the EU referendum flushing them out, I suppose and forcing a split in the party.
I regret the BBC’s decision not to make the News channel online or England-only and to expand the BBC News at Ten. There is more reason to shorten the UK-wide national news. If a market like the USA, of 300 million people, only needs 22 minutes of national news, excluding adverts, in peak time, then the UK, with a fifth of the US population, should only require national bulletins of 4-and-a-half minutes duration! The rest of only a half hour, instead of a whole ‘6pm hour’, should be regional news. Then devolved politics would be under more relative
scrutiny’ especially if the shorter bulletins promoted an increase in viewing figures.
January 2, 2016
Thank you for the effort you put in to this blog, I agree with the sentiment of an earlier commenter that you provide your readers an extensive perspective and education in matters that is so lacking in the likes of the biased BBC and MSM.
I wish you and your commenters a happy and prosperous 2016.
Time to tighten the screws on Cameron and his complacent bunch.
January 3, 2016
Happy New Year, wishing you much luck, peace and good health for 2016 your Country needs you to speak well and defend our interests. Thank you for your blog thoroughly enjoyable and informative.