Sworn in as MP for Wokingham

Today I was sworn in as the newly elected MP for Wokingham. It was privilege. The solemn ceremony is designed to remind MPs of the seriousness of their job, and the role of Parliament is making government and authority accountable to the people.

 

I am most grateful to all those who voted for me. I wish to live up to their trust. I am also conscious that it is my duty to represent all the people of my constituency, however they voted. I will be taking up the issues which emerged strongly in the election, including money for schools and for social care.

39 Comments

  1. Lifelogic
    June 14, 2017

    The solemn ceremony is designed to remind MPs of the seriousness of their job, and the role of Parliament is making government and authority accountable to the people.

    A shame so many MPs treat this with such complete contempt as we saw will the expenses racket and endless failure to keep promises.

    The people of Wokingham are very lucky to have an MP as sound, diligent and sensible as you are. How can we get more please, and get rid of the career politicians, crooks and other dross?

    Unfortunately q

    1. Hope
      June 14, 2017

      Lucky Wokingham. Wish you well.

      Will there be efficiency savings in the number of MPs this parliament as we were promised? And will the be efficiency savings as you are all part-time? £77,000 plus expenses and exemptions from tax seems excessive for a non qualified part-time post when public sector pay (for the workers not chiefs) capped at 1 percent for years.

      Can we also expect a raise in standards of behaviour, right to recall for both MPs and Lords and proper judicial investigations for wrong doing rather than the continual cover ups and kick into the long grass?

      Let us start with a review of the Govt minister culpability of the three recent atrocities in Manchester and London. Who is responsible for securing borders, control orders, deportations, Border Agency and policing? Home Secretary Rudd? Fair society for all I think May pledged. Now let us see the walk to go with the talk. People died, people maimed and people with life changing injuries. It is right govt take responsibility for our safety as its first priority. It failed now the minister should be held responsible.

      1. Dennis Zoff
        June 16, 2017

        I am guessing “Hope” is all that is left to fulfill your/our wishes! I personally, do not have past experiences to suggest your wishes will be effectuated any day soon?

  2. acorn
    June 14, 2017

    As you have been technically unemployed at least eight times in the last twenty seven years, does the MP’s Pension fund credit you with being continuously employed, for those twenty seven years? There are a lot of people in Defined Benefit Pension Schemes who become unemployed, who will be interested in how the MP’s Scheme treats its contributing members in such cercumstances.

    Reply I am not contributing to the scheme

    1. Dame Rita Webb
      June 14, 2017

      The parliamentary scheme is an interesting arrangement. As far as I am aware the lifetime allowance does not apply to MPs (nor judges for that matter). The LTA is one of the biggest reasons I know why doctors are taking early retirement. Whats the point of continuing to work if my pension fund is going to be so heavily taxed? The annual allowance is another feature that puts off doctors from working overtime too. As always the government wants to be penny wise and pound foolish. It would be interesting to see how much the HMRC is pulling in extra tax and how much Mr Hunt is forking out on locums and importing doctors? Something to think about while you are waiting for an appointment and Jeremy is hoping you have forgotten about his “seven day NHS”.

      Reply The same tax rules apply to MPs!

      1. Hope
        June 15, 2017

        You have exemptions to tax. Do not pretend otherwise. i.e. Benefits in kind. We pay tax MPs do not. List the oother exemptions please, starting with allowances on second homes etc.

      2. Lifelogic
        June 15, 2017

        To reply:-

        Not really they get expenses for travelling to work and other tax free benefits. Also defined benefit pensions (which state sector pensions mainly are) get preferential treatment in calculating the £1M CAP.

        Members of the House of Lords can opt to receive a £300 per day tax free allowance, plus travel expenses and subsidised restaurant facilities just for turning up of a few minutes. So that is about three times the average salary per day and tax free so that is about five times.

        reply MPs do not get expenses travelling to Westminster from London homes or rooms where they stay.Employees of firms get travel expenses to work other than at the office where they usually go. Everyone gets the same calculation for employer pension funds.

  3. alan jutson
    June 14, 2017

    Your election result showed the Conservatives can win, but only if candidates promote the correct policies and show human concern about poor ones.

    1. Jerry
      June 15, 2017

      Total nonsense.

      1. alan jutson
        June 15, 2017

        Jerry

        Please explain what part of my comment is nonsense.

        Are you suggesting poor policies and no concern would give a better outcome for a Party candidate.?

  4. agricola
    June 14, 2017

    The elected representing all their constituents is a major feature of a working democracy. A truism not appreciated in all countries claiming to be democratic, having gone through the process of an open election. It was the case in Egypt prior to the military taking over. It was true in Spain until recently, where winning parties considered it was their turn at the trough. Attaining such a level of democracy is a task in progress throughout much of the EU and at it’s heart in the Commission. We in the UK should not get complacent because true democracy still has a long way to go here despite technology giving us the means.

  5. ian wragg
    June 14, 2017

    An MP in a beleaguered government. Remainiacs in charge after a PM deliberately throwing the election as she is against Brexit.
    Forgive the public at large for being disillusioned with the establishment as they treat us like fools.
    Well done on Vine radio 2 today. Chukka Unna talked a load of nonsense indicating that the UK wasn’t capable of ruling itself and we are where we are due to the munificence of Brussels.
    people like him make me puke.

    1. Lifelogic
      June 14, 2017

      Indeed, but I do not think T May deliberately threw the election as she is against Brexit.

      She is really not that clever, it was just incompetence.

      1. Anonymous
        June 15, 2017

        Nothing *clever* needed.

        To make Brexit work = work very hard at Brexit

        To sabotage Brexit = don’t work very hard at Brexit

        Up to the general election we had delay, delay, delay. When the Miller case failed we thought Phew ! We’re through. Nothing can stop it now.

        Wrong.

        No-one was anticipating a general election, much less one fought so very badly and for so long.

        We were told by the Tories that we were to have a Remain leader because she was the only one with competence ergo she knew full well what she was doing ! (And so did they.)

        1. Lifelogic
          June 15, 2017

          Perhaps, but I am not convinced, surely she just was totally incompetent, dim and had lacked any personality.

          Then again she certainly seemed to do everything possible to throw the election. The punishment Manifesto was absurd.

    2. Know-Dice
      June 14, 2017

      And from Mr Unna’s view point it’s ok for the EU to threaten us with a bill of 50 to 100 Billion Euro, but we can’t threaten to walk away if we are not offered a good deal…

      And Vine totally pre-occupied with Hard / Soft Brexit…

    3. Jerry
      June 14, 2017

      @Ian Wragg; Had the over riding concern of the electorate been Brexit, never mind the one UKIP wanted, they would have voted for either eurosceptic Conservatives or UKIP, but they did not, so the majority do not want what you want, get over it, its called democracy.

      1. Bob
        June 15, 2017

        That’s not true Jerry.
        You always choose to ignore the effect polarisation of politics between high tax & spend and magic money tree economics.

        The Tories lost votes because they miscalculated how people feel about assets they’ve spent a lifetime paying for out of already over taxed income.

        The split wasn’t between Remain or Leave, because if it were, Tim Farron would now be Prime Minister.

      2. Hope
        June 15, 2017

        Utter rubbish. The majority voted for Brexit parties i.e. 86 percent. Can you add up?

        1. ian wragg
          June 15, 2017

          Jerry is an EU troll who feels it necessary to rubbish my every comment. This began when I pointed out that I was a submariner on nuclear boats during the cold war.
          Ignore him.

      3. Edward2
        June 15, 2017

        Labour also promised leaving the EU and single market so one can say that those that voted Labour also want to leave.
        That’s over 80%

  6. Javelin
    June 14, 2017

    Did Corbyn swear allegiance to the Queen?

  7. Norman
    June 14, 2017

    Thank you for all your hard work, John, both on your own patch, and for the Eurosceptic cause. Thank you also for your excellent blog ‘speaking for England’, and your generous and fair moderation of comments. I have learnt a lot from it – including that I had no need to keep paying the TV Licence fee after age 75!
    Today, however, we all keenly feel the terrible devastation and trauma from the fire in London, the latest in a line of tragedies. The only thing I can say at this point is that Londoners of all roles and ethnic backgrounds displayed something of the lovable qualities of our people. I also thought the front-line BBC reporters were very professional, too.
    I wish you well in the new parliament.

  8. eeyore
    June 14, 2017

    Welcome news in a tough week. And a reminder that one of the few things that protect Britain from its first ever Marxist administration is an oath of allegiance to the Queen that seven Sinn Fein MPs refuse on principle to swear.

    Henri IV famously thought Paris “worth a mass”. Let’s hope Sinn Fein don’t think Westminster worth an oath.

  9. Vagrant
    June 14, 2017

    The ones who voted fro JR this time was 33,806 which is 1477 more than last time. On the other side of the equation, 25884 voted for other parties and 24.9% of people didn’t vote at all. I would go to live in JR’s Constituency but I would need to sort out which neighbourhood and street. There does seem quite a few puddled minds there.

  10. graham1946
    June 14, 2017

    Congratulations on being an MP officially again.

    I have plenty to say on here and you are always polite and put up with a lot. I know you are one of the ‘good guys’ and will do your best with what is, mostly, a trying and sometimes inexplicable system. Thanks for what you do.

  11. Anonymous
    June 14, 2017

    Well done.

  12. ian
    June 14, 2017

    You cannot be much of a business man, because you don’t know when your being coned.

    1. Anonymous
      June 15, 2017

      It’s of no consequence as he’s not an ice cream salesman.

  13. Ian Pennell
    June 14, 2017

    Congratulations, Mr Redwood. Your constituents are fortunate to have as their Member of Parliament a man who upholds integrity and who serves their interests and concerns well. I am just sad that were 30 other Conservative MPs, who also served their constituents well (like your colleague Edward Timpson who served Crewe and Nantwich and Peter Jackson who served Peterborough), but who lost their Seats on a tide of populist anger whipped up by Jeremy Corbyn which the Tories inept (and toxic) Campaign did nothing to effectively rebuff, let alone win further support.

    Theresa May is going to need all the support she can get, at least until Brexit negotiations are well under way, because she is now in as bad a situation as John Major was in the mid 1990’s just before Tony Blair’s landslide. And Jeremy Corbyn is likely to have a similar landslide victory in a year or two if the Tories don’t take firm control over their situation and have Theresa May deposed and replaced with the much more popular, charismatic Heineken Tory Boris Johnson who connects with Voters well- but only after Brexit has been voted on.

    If we get voted down in the Queen’s Speech we have to get rid of Theresa May ASAP, get Boris Johnson in place and have a much better Manifesto pledging to use the monies currently going to the EU and the Foreign Aid money to put much more into Public Services (and get rid of those toxic policies) without having to raise taxes or add to the National Debt. This injection of £20 billion per annum would also help the economy by pumping up demand. This will be needed for the new General Election that would follow- so that we have a real chance of regaining our Majority.

    We should play Jeremy Corbyn at his own game: All the £25 billion stake the Government still has in HBOS- sell it and use the proceeds to give EVERY man woman and child in Britain £400 for Christmas! That would have MASSIVE APPEAL, boost the ailing economy and boost Government tax revenues which can be put to paying down some of the National Debt!

    By the way, Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to Carry on Campaigning in Tory Marginals;- what plans have the Tories got in place to campaign in the same-said Marginal Seats to stop him in his tracks? Just something to ponder, because we should realise the seriousness of what engulfs our Party and do everything possible to forestall Jeremy Corbyn by really exposing what Jeremy Corbyn’s Tax-the-Rich policies would mean for our economy.

    1. alan jutson
      June 15, 2017

      Ian

      Absolutely right with regards to constant campaigning, the drip, drip, drip of blame for everything, will be planted against the evil Conservative austerity loving capitalists.

      I see some Labour members, and even Corbyn himself, are now using the fire tragedy in London as an opportunity to have a dig.

      So very sad that this is what politics has come to in recent years.

      It seems no amount of money spent is enough to satisfy the Marxists, Communist, Socialist elite.

  14. The Way of the World
    June 14, 2017

    Tim Farron quits as LibLeader seems worthy to speak about today by the media. It is to do with sex.Few people, if any, myself included, will care a jot about his ideas on sex, or wish to hear them. Generally ,sex is private unless you do it in public, which on balance is perhaps not a good idea.
    # Today, a Sky News journalist apologised due to people emailing and tweeting because he referred to fighfighters as firemen. He said he sincerely apologised and says he should have said firemen and firewomen. I am not certain whether the men AND women dead at the fire would have quibbled. We shall never know. But let us all mind our ps and qs by all means as, people get burnt to death.
    We seem to have lost our way.

    1. Lifelogic
      June 15, 2017

      I shall continue to say firemen, it covers both just as the word “chairman” does and Dear Sir, does. Only PC idiots & the BBC object.

      Anyway 95+ % are actually men.

  15. Freeborn John
    June 15, 2017

    Why is Theresa May making unilateral concessions on brexit through the front page of today’s Daily Telegraph? Such “good will” gestures never work with the EU who will simply pocket the concession. If she is going to offer unlimited migration for non-EU spouses of EU citizens she needs to make clear that something is expected in return. This reeks of the old practice of the UK pre-conceding to one EU demand after another without ever getting anything in return. This negotiating naivety how we got into such a bad deal with the EU in the first place and why a complete reset on WTO terms would be such an improvement.

  16. Little Englander
    June 15, 2017

    33,806 ! Enough said.

  17. Christine
    June 15, 2017

    Congratulations John you are a great example of what an MP should be. I read your diary every day and it makes me feel so much better about the future of our country outside of the EU. I only wish that Mrs May would see what an asset you would be to her cabinet and make you the Chancellor.

    1. rose
      June 15, 2017

      Hear, hear!

    2. Lifelogic
      June 15, 2017

      Or resign and make him PM. How on earth could all Tory MPs actually prefer the pathetic, dim, failure that was John Major?

  18. Dennis Zoff
    June 16, 2017

    Congratulations John, please keep up the good work!

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