Today I cease to be an MP. I can now tell you more of what it is like, free of criticism that what I say is to put a favourable spin on how I undertook the tasks.As we embark on choosing new MPs we should discuss what we want them to do and how they should behave.
I never saw it as a job but an important part of my life. You are an MP 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year. It is not a 9-5 office job with holidays as some seem to think it should be.
You are on call all the time. You dread one of those calls that there has been a big fire, or train crash or other disaster because you want nothing to go wrong. If one occurs, as I remember only too vividly, you need to be present but must not get in the way of the emergency services. You need to brief and be briefed so the people coming to help know the local circumstances and you grasp their expertise and way of handling the crisis. You may be able to call up additional resources or to offer comfort to those affected.
You are the complaints department for anything to do with public services. People annoyed with government do not readily distinguish between Council, central government or independent quango and see the MP as the person to sort it out. During my weekly walkabouts and drives I went to see for myself. Resolving problems with local services and national services supplied locally was an important part of the task and you need to see the impact they are having locally. The email and post bag is a good guide to when things go wrong, but personal visits also reveal additional issues more directly.
You are part of the chain gang with the King’s Representatives and Mayors to be present at important events and ceremonies. Annually we meet to mourn the lives lost by armed forces personnel. We meet to commemorate national anniversaries. Communities and individuals do like recognition and public thanks.
You need to be a self starter with an enquiring mind. The whips and your party leadership will give you an agenda and ask you to back their judgement, but you need to read and see for yourself and where necessary disagree. You need to be vigilant for anything about to happen that may do harm to your constituents, and lobby, speak out or ask questions to head it off. Where need arises you should run a campaign to get support for something you and your constituents need to be changed. Your party has no monopoly of wisdom and no immunity from error. You need numbers of MPs to support a good cause as well as good arguments to get action.
There are 650 different ways of being an MP. There is no one single  right way but there are some wrong ways. I have been amazed at how many MPs have lost office through ill judged comments, bad behaviour, and criminal activity. Do not become an MP if you want to take drugs, get drunk or bad mouth people. I have been dismayed when the occasional MP is laid low by false allegations.
There is said to be some disagreement over whether an MP should be more like the people they represent or whether their behaviour should be better and more discrete. I always found it was good to seek to understand the point of view of whoever you were dealing with, and to be courteous in reply even when you were being provoked or abused. As I regularly explained, I would represent everyone where they had a case or cause, whatever their view. That did not mean however I could agree with everyone. I had views of what was best, set out in an election prospectus. Constituents disagree a lot with each other so there is rarely a unified constituency view. An MP does need to provide a lead and provide a consistent general view of where we are aiming to go, whilst making sure the minority view can be put to authority and answered by them.
A large volume of email correspondence takes the form of special campaigns organised by lobby groups. These are usually minority views and some are the worst kind of special pleading. Increasingly they relate to policy and attitudes in foreign countries where a UK MP’s writ does not run. An MP Â should engage but remember that they are not usually the majority view. It is also important to remind correspondents that the view of an individual UK MP is unlikely to change the action of a foreign government. The UK government may have some power of influence but will use it only where it will not make things worse and is a justified attempted interference in another country’s affairs.
May 30, 2024
You have done the job exceptionally well and been an outstanding MP. The House will be a poorer place without you.
May 30, 2024
Hear, hear.
May 30, 2024
Interesting. You had a very good attitude towards the role of MP. I wonder if you have noticed any changes over the decades amongst fellow members of parliament ?
It seems to me there are now less conviction politicians. Older Labour politicians from the school of hard knocks, with a trade union background have virtually disappeared. They have been largely replaced by middle class types – lawyers, managers, academics etc. Conservatives have changed too. Fewer Monday Club people. More centrists selected by HQ.
I donât think so many old-school MPs used to have a drink, drugs or promiscuity issues before they became MPs. The temptations were just there while they were in office. Nowadays moral relativism at best, lack of a sense of right and wrong and self indulgence are more commonplace.
I also believe there are MPs who only see it as a short term role – whether or not they are re-elected. They see it as a good thing to do for a while, maybe appear on Question Time (if they are BBC material) and then go off to do other things.
With regard to the last paragraph lobbies can be a menace – especially powerful ones. More so in the USA than here. So many representatives are owned because of campaign funds and have to consult donors on their issues. The worst of the American lobbies does not even have to register as acting on behalf of a foreign agent.
May 30, 2024
Good luck in the future
I hope you start some consultancy ti hold the government to account.
Britain is not a better place for you retiring.
May 30, 2024
+1
Sad that the Tories have become pushers of ever higher taxes, the net zero lunacy, open door to generally low skilled immigration and endless waste combined with appalling and still declining public services police, roads, nhs, law and order, social services, housing, defenceâŠ
Just like Labour but without the pathetic & spiteful VAT on private school fees. (Though Gove even wanted this).
May 30, 2024
Check out “Matt Goodwin – the UK’s Immigration Crisis in 10 charts” on YouTube.
Having “promised” in 2019 to control and reduce immigration, Johnson “liberalised” immigration which led to almost 3 million immigrants in just 4 years. Of these, only 15% came on high-skill work visas. The rest (85%) were the relatives of workers, students, the relatives of students, family re-unifation, humanitarian programmes from Hong Kong and Ukraine, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants; these were not subject to any earnings thresholds to enter the country and are not making a meaningful contribution to the British economy.
It’s no wonder the economy’s flat-lining. They’ve imported the flotsam and jetsam of the world and charged the bill to existing taxpayers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJacZgYSqFI
May 30, 2024
Indeed decreasing the wages of the existing population, reducing the tax take and increasing the benefits bill then they put tax rates up further. Overall living standards decline, benefits up even further, the wealthy and hard working leave so a positive feedback doom loop.
May 30, 2024
One problems with being an MP is so many feel they have to constantly lie and promise things they have or had no intention of delivering. Or even of trying to. Then, when they fail to deliver, they seems surprised that they become rather unpopular.
Things like:- Immigration to the tens of thousands, IHT thresholds of ÂŁ1M each, to lower taxes, to improve public services, Cameronâs cast iron Lisbon Treaty referendum promise, the promise of no border checks between the NI and the rest of the UK, the Sunak lies that the âVaccines are Unequivocally Safeâ and that they have cut taxes, are stopping the boats, are cutting NHS waiting lists, are reducing government debt and growing the economy⊠other idiotic promises like net zero which will clearly cost ÂŁ trillions, achieve nothing positive lots of negatives and in practice cannot even be done.
Finally Sunak cancelled most of HS2 and is now, just before an election, talking about cutting back on worthless degrees things I have be suggesting for about 14 years. He thinks 1 in 8 university places more like 3 in 4 that need to go.
May 30, 2024
Labour is going into this election by claiming they will pay for everything with VAT on private school fees and abolition of Non Dom Status. But both of these will raise far less than they cost and do huge economic and educational damage too. Yet another blatant lie as they must surely know.
The UK is at a point where higher tax rates will usually produce less tax overall not more. People will leave the UK, work less hard, live off benefitsâŠ
If one person working hard to pay for two kids to go to private school decides (due to the new VAT) to then send them to state school and then perhaps work far less as no longer needing to pay the fees. The state might lose about ÂŁ40k in tax and NI and have to pay for two extra state places too. So the state is ÂŁ60k worse off. So you need about 8 childrenâs parents to stay and pay the VAT just for the state to break even. Counterproductive insanity.
Very similar with Non Dom abolition. Why would anyone come to the UK to take up a job on say ÂŁ25Ok if it means you have to pay an extra ÂŁ300k on you private investments then have them steal 40% of your wealth off you on death. Or a similarly rich person stay.
May 30, 2024
He is struggling to say which are ‘worthless degrees’.
May 30, 2024
Anything that need less than circa BBB to get into for a start that would probably clear out 75%. Kill all the soft loans for everything but science, engineering, medicine or practical skills and similar. You could teach most subjects for next to nothing now using IT and videoed lectures anyway.
May 30, 2024
Lifelogic, you must have a boring life if you don’t have any creative pursuits or interests. Top-class music, art, TV drama & film, theatre, literature, design, architecture, just general imagination.
I get the feeling even Elon Musk enjoys the creative arts, STEAM A for arts helps people to develop empathy and social skills, problem solving and aid invention. I take nothing away from STEM and its necessity in the current and future economy but it would be a pretty boring place to live in. We should ensure Arts degrees are as competitive and hard to get into and rigorous and not over-train the number of candidates.
May 31, 2024
Oh I quite like my reading, music, opera, plays⊠though a bit less so now no longer living in London. I even used to pay classical guitar and piano a bit. I am not out to ban art subjects. Just stop nearly all the soft loans for most people.
May 30, 2024
Much talk on Talk Radio Mike Graham criticising the junior doctorâs strike. My relative who does not strike working in London (even after the NI cut) takes home ÂŁ2,720 PCM less rent on a small room in shared flat, council tax, interest on student loan, electricity, gas, water, insurance, commuting costs, pension, prof. fees⊠leaves him about ÂŁ6 a day for food, clothing, lunches, leisure, holidays, sport⊠this after more than a 40 hour hard working week with some shift work and on call work too. Plus additional studying. Boat people get more disposable income.
He can only do this with my continued support, I have supported him for 6+ years already. Even a couple of Doctors will often struggle to buy even a small flat in London until they are 35+ or so. Let alone have or afford any children. Without large parental help.
May 30, 2024
It always surprises me that hospital doctors and nurses aren’t given a hospital meal with the patients. Then again, how long will it take before patients have to pay extra for their meals and drinks?
May 30, 2024
Indeed their visitors already get ripped off for parking. We also pay for prescriptions, long term care and NHS dentistry assuming you can even find any?
May 30, 2024
Only in England, Wales free since 2018. The English are being mugged if the other nations within the united kingdom get away with it.
May 30, 2024
Back me for lower interest rates says Sunak. So why did he call the election six months early then? He clearly has little confidence that things will get better at all or he would surely have waited to get the credit.
The main cause of the high interest rates and inflation Suank are the net harm lockdowns, the vast government waste all over the place, the vast QE while he was chancellor, furlough, the net zero insanity, a benefit system out of control, the net harm vaccines, lack of confidence in the UK future government âŠ
May 30, 2024
Losing the war in Ukraine and possible escalation by the west. Thatâs why he called the election – to get out of the very soon to be Very Hot Seat. Of course that means the economy will tank too.
May 30, 2024
Rather likely. Clearly rather little confidence in the future. We certainly cannot fight a war using so called ârenewablesâ. Nor can we afford one if we waste ÂŁ trillions on the lunacy of net zero.
May 30, 2024
+1 with immense thanks.
I wish I could contribute more but I have an increasing need to switch off whenever I can. I work in Islington and of late have been finding respite following volcanic activity in Iceland – a magical country I visited not so long ago but won’t assume you would know more . I will share the remark of an Icelandic volcanologist a couple of months ago when activity exceeded expectations: ” It goes to show you never can tell”.
Your resignation came as a shock but I hope it you affords you the ability to ‘switch off’ from time to time.
May 30, 2024
Good morning.
The one thing I believe you lose when becoming an MP, is your own voice. Your voice is that of your party and your constituents. You speak for others. To me that is a hard thing to do, not being able to speak your mind on issues. We here have that luxury (within site guidelines) and can express ourselves free from any political and / or employment consequences. Many, including myself, speak from the heart and get frustrated as to why things just don’t happen, even when it is obvious to many for sometime. Parliament and government move far too slow for a rapidly changing world and to me is becoming more and more remote and of less use. This is a danger.
For wrongs to be righted, as in the case of the Post Office Masters, voices need to be heard, even if what is being said is difficult to hear. I hope that here at least this continues as our kind host has intimated and I, and I hope others will contribute to this.
Reply Yes, you need to speak out against injustices like the PO. I did back the Parly campaign to stop the PO attacks on the innocent from its early days.
May 30, 2024
I first learned of the Horizon scandal on this website.
May 30, 2024
Thank you for that analysis. Your constituents were fortunate to have the benefit of your service.
Over the years I have occasionally raised issues with my MP with mixed results. On a couple I had significant and useful engagement including comprehensive replies from the responsible minister ot shadow minister. On others I have had what amounted to brush offs with boiler plate replies obviously written by junior staff. The latter usually occurred when I challenged the CAGW orthodoxy (as it started out) and the absurd policy responses Labour and Conservative governments deemed necessary to counter it. Since then the language of fear evolved from “CAGW”, first to “global warming” and later to “climate change”, in order to present a moving and more difficult target. UK policy in this area, with its profoundly negative consequences for the UK, must count as one of the most disastrous in its long history. Your efforts to counter the prevailing orthodoxy is to your lasting credit.
May 30, 2024
David Andrews : âOn others I have had what amounted to brush offs with boiler plate replies obviously written by junior staff. The latter usually occurred when I challenged the CAGW orthodoxy (as it started out) and the absurd policy responses Labour and Conservative governments deemed necessary to counter it.â
This is also my experience and it is impossible to get an answer from the Chief Scientific Adviser to the DESNZ even to purely technical, not policy, questions.
The irony is that despite CAGW being initially a Communist hoax to sabotage the Westâs access to cheap, abundant reliable energy, which was then taken up by capitalist grifters who saw the way to riches through bountiful subsidies of useless technology, it could be possible that it is an incoming Labour administration who cancels Net Zero as a result of pressure from the unions who are now realising that de-industrialisation and the privations of Net Zero are not of benefit to their members. This is of course provided that the unions are still the major funders of Labour which may no longer be the case now that Sir Keir has told us that he prefers Davos to Westminster.
Labour cancelling Net Zero would be the Conservatives worst nightmare as the economy would then boom with much improved living standards so the Conservatives will be fighting against any change in our unilateral Net Zero stance.
May 30, 2024
Indeed I would vote Labour (I never have done in my life so far not for the LibDims) if they promised to ditch net zero and their counterproductive attacks on private schools, landlords and non-doms. All four are total disasters for taxes, tenants and the economy.
May 30, 2024
If they also promised to scrap the current sick joke covid inquiry and have criminal one into how the net harm vaccines were pushed at people who never even needed protection (even had they been safe and effective) then that would be another plus as would a promise to cut net immigration to less than 100k PA and only for the highly skilled. It is very clear people should be sent to jail just as they should have been with the blood contamination scandal. But this is 30+ times larger.
Then again having left the UK my vote would count in Hampstead – so not a vote Labour will need.
May 30, 2024
‘LL anyone voting for Labour….. Would be voting for a massive financial Iceberg hidden from plain sight as they intend to finance more new “independent” quangos and new “Institutions” and projects by aping the EU shadow mega debt that is hidden, unpublished and is a stealthy legacy burden for future tax payers.
Read Bob Lyddon’s articles Decoding (Labour’s ex BOE) Rachel Reeves economics. She reminds me of Ed Balls and Gordon Brown’s gobbledy talk of …. “Post neoclassical endogenous growth theory”… but more dangerous on steroids, like Corbyn’s thinking turbocharged.
May 30, 2024
I think you left just in time. There is no point in being in opposition before you retire.
I also think MPs will be losing a lot of their power under Labour. As I pointed out there are 5 types of society
Nomadic
Tribal
Feudal
Democratic
Globalist
I predict (and I never predict unless Iâm certain) Kier Starmer will be pushing harder for a Globalist society and to remove a large amount of democracy from the UK and MPs.
May 30, 2024
SKS will be going diametrically opposite to most other countries if he does. The people are done with greedy globalist.
May 30, 2024
Lots of memories Mr Redwood but now is the time to write your Magnum Opus or if you wish autobio. Dish the dirt, expose the corruption and lies, empty your soul not that it would have effect on the horrors awaiting our nation should the Marxists take control
As an aside. Starmer’s made the startling public admission that he’s a Socialist. I suspect he’s playing to Labour’s Marxists and the voter’s free-lunch tendencies while Reeves panders to the ‘bosses’ and Rayner’s on her hands and knees begging Muslims for their vote. I haven’t seen her in white, working class communities begging forgiveness. Labour was praising Thatcher only last month. This party is simply lying through its teeth to try and appeal and appease to all and sundry, to cause confusion.
And voters for 16 year old. God if that isn’t a red flag then I don’t know what it is. Shameless Socialist grifters. 16 years old can barely wipe their own backsides. Labour’s gonna rig create a voting demographic that keeps them in power for generations. The odious Obama’s doing the same in the US. Hands across the ocean
May 30, 2024
@ DOM – your unrelenting optimism once again shines though your remarks.
May 30, 2024
I wonder if Labour have figured in the risk of 16 year olds voting against them as part of some viral Tik Tok campaign? Perhaps they are counting on teachers to tell them how to vote, and perhaps on harvesting postal votes.
May 30, 2024
Then repeal the knife, alcohol and tobacco laws for sixteens. Let them drive cars too.
May 30, 2024
@Dom “horrors awaiting our nation should the Marxists take control” Labour intend to finance their pet projects like more quangos etc by aping the hidden secret EU mega Debt ponzie scheme.
May 30, 2024
Thank you. The reality as opposed to armchair critics doing nothing but dumping their own views ad nauseum.
With your new found freedom I hope to read about the balance between collective responsibility allegedly to ensure government works (with the censorship of the threat of deselection) and democracy (eg both May on Brexit. Hiding information and then forcing it through via acolytes and migration, Treasury over ruling/ignoring manifesto, HS 2 almost certainly âliesâ told re the business case) where the voter feels rightly they are ignored except at elections.
Equally the naked ambition/desperation to climb the greasy pole and again the omertĂ of âbeing on the booksâ I do not believe my vote(views) has been represented owing to my MP being a (junior) minister for many years.
On a day where yet another parliamentary committee reports, again utterly condemning the Home Office tell us why this is allowed to happen/never changes. Broken public sector services yet again, egregious waste/poor output.
Are the Mandarins unsackable/incapable? Are Ministers aware/challenging/inquisitive etc. Operationally why is the public sector management light years behind the efficiencies of major private sector companies.
May 30, 2024
It would seem to be, like a benevolent listening god while being in reciept of the arrows of outrageous fortune, with very limited power of correction. The ombudsman of life for every one of the 75,000 of your constituents.
In such circumstances it is surprising that the right people can be found to do the job. It eliminates the university, parliamentary gopher, MP with no real life experience route, and equally the single subject fanatic. However too many travel such courses to success because it suits the party management. The criteria reminds me of the qualities set out for a military commission circa 1955. Intelligence, initiative, and the ability to lead in difficult situations. In reality that was the very last thing the survivers of WW2, in charge of the military wanted. Drive and leadership gets you killed, and others as well. In recent times look at what happened to Liz and Kwasi when the establishment closed ranks.
It is often said of people of political initiative that they should get elected, but as described that is a route to the dilution of political initiative. I suspect that Nigel has realised that he can have far greater influence on the direction of the UK outside the constraints of Parliament. He can openly respond to the public mood and express himself unfettered by party constraints. Leadership with the intellectual freedom to lead.
The IK Brunels and Dysons of this World can offer greater benefit to humanity than the majority of MPs. They gave us GWR and effective dirt erradication. MPs gave us the Groundnut scheme, the Dome, and HS2, and I would add of late, a total inability to run the UK.
You were in a minority of those who believed in supporting their constituents and could ,given the opportunity, run aspects of the UK. A great pity that those around you who had grubbed their way to even greater power considered it too much of a risk, mostly to them. Enjoy the freedom of being outside the tent.
May 30, 2024
The fossil fuel lobby can fool all of the public some of the time. They can fool some of the public all of the time. But what they can’t do is to fool all of the public all of the time – unless this cohort post on Sir John’s blog
May 30, 2024
It is the pushing of the deluded ânet zeroâ religion that is the gigantic fraud against the people. Please listen to some of the many sensible physicists Prof. William Happer is a good starting point.
May 30, 2024
The Green blob doesn’t need to lobby government. It gets into government.
The Green blob doesn’t need to fool the people. The media will do that for them.
The Green blob does need a lot of money, taxpayers’ money and energy customers’ money. But that’s also voters’ money.
I’ll be voting for a party that wants Green energy to pay its way, not rely on subsidies and high fuel bills.
May 30, 2024
Indeed I cannot vote Tory as Sunak is fully behind the net zero insanity. He is also a serial liar, he has not cut taxes, not stopped the boats or even tried to, is not for fewer migrants and the vaccines were not remotely or âunequivocally safeâ not even effective or even needed by most people. Sunak also kicked out Andrew Bridgen one of the few decent MPs from the party – for the crime of telling the Truth and quoting an Israeli doctor.
May 30, 2024
You do seem to be able to fool yourself on the net zero and energy issues most of the time.
Where do you get all your misinformation from? People who often do not even know or understand the difference between energy and power or their units very often.
May 30, 2024
Going by the traffic passing our house continually, the appetite for foreign holidays and the general desire to keep warm during the winter with gas-fired central heating, the fossil fuel lobby is the public.
May 30, 2024
+1
May 30, 2024
And neither can you SG.
May 30, 2024
The Green lobby have certainly fooled Ed Miliband and most energy ministers over at least the past 25 years. I withhold judgement on Coutinho: she was starting to show signs of common sense, but will not have the opportunity to take them further.
They have the benefit of ÂŁ4bn p.a. in propaganda spending by the BBC which includes their views across all of its programming.
May 30, 2024
SG :
As Galileo discovered it is not possible to change the minds of those whose convictions are based upon a religious belief rather than by a reasoned argument.
Especially for the CAGW cult where its followers know so little physics that they cannot even understand the difference between energy and power let alone the physics of GHG warming and consequently fall prey to the propaganda that if you tell a big enough lie often enough it will be believed.
For these people, as Jonathan Swift said :
âYou cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place.â
May 31, 2024
The danger is in “religious” fanatics on both sides who prevent any rational and objective approach being planned or taken.
And then there are the useful idiots who against change .. for whatever personal interests.
May 30, 2024
Your EV has plastics which are made from Fossil Fuels.
Just saying. đ
May 31, 2024
I wonder if future generations will curse these generations for simply burning vast quantities of complex hydrocarbons instead of using them as feedstock for more useful and recyclable plastics, pharmaceuticals and other chemicals.
May 30, 2024
âAnyone who disagrees with me has been fooled and is stupid but I see the truth and am very cleverâ. The Remainiac cry repurposed for Net Zero.
âThe fossil fuel lobbyâ is just the latest conspiracy theory, like Big Food and the Ultra-Processed food junk science. Both appeal to Communists who think the real problem is CAPITALISM.
May 30, 2024
Thanks, Sir John, for this very informative account of what a good MP’s role should be. It made me realise how much of your time was taken up with matters that had nothing to do with politics. To be re-elected twice after 2016 in a reportedly Remain-leaning constituency, your work in that role must have been widely appreciated, regardless of your pro-Brexit politics. For myself, someone previously in your constituency but now ‘redrawn’ out of it, I can only say that on the occasion I needed your assistance it was promptly forthcoming, and effective.
May 30, 2024
Thank you, Sir John. You are one of the good guys and have worked tirelessly in the service of the public for decades.
I always enjoy your perspectives on British Politics, and look forward to continuing to read them.
Thank you.
May 30, 2024
Interesting artical thanks for your service. Put your feet up and enjoy your retirement.
May 30, 2024
No! We need a very strong grassroots Conservative movement that will develop into a Party for the post-Starmer era. We need all the wit and wisdom of JR deployed to it uttermost. No constraints.
Iâm afraid there is no retirement in prospect for any of us Sir John, our greatest challenge is coming at us in our dotage. And we MUST all answer the call.
Many many Tory MPs telling me that have âno hopeâ of holding their seats. Not even worth trying. Some have good Conservative instincts but have proven âweakâ on occasion. Nevertheless we need all of them to give the next generation. Hope and promote those in the next generation to be proper Conservative MPs.
May 30, 2024
I agree with Abigail, the first post. Thank you for all you have done for our nation.
May 30, 2024
PS Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro is one of the most intelligent men I’ve ever listened to (the way he discusses politics – and he is hugely admired by atheists, Christians, Muslims and fellow Jews). I think (I might be wrong) Sir John R would be interested to hear / listen to the rabbi on Zionism / Israel for this reason alone.
May 30, 2024
You did the job exceptionally well Sir John, since you understood your role was to represent your Constituents in Parliament.
OUR problem is that more recent cohorts of MPs are chosen by the Party Machine in order to represent the Party in the Constituency.
Their priority has been reversed and those who ask difficult questions or rock the boat are sidelined, as you were in recent years.
Electing the same cohort of weak, easily “bought” lobby fodder isn’t going to fix our problems, let alone the country’s.
May 30, 2024
Explaining what it is like provides interesting insight. Prospective MPs should read it and understand what is required to meet and maintain high standards.
MPs swear the Oath of Allegiance, yet well before that they should set their minds to commit to embracing the finer points of loyalty to truth, personal behaviour, moderate language, empathy, courtesy, effectiveness and the other qualities SJR maintains with distinction.
Those who do will serve our country well.
May 30, 2024
They need to be drug-free too.
May 30, 2024
Free at last!
I have been astonished by your industry. That you and others like you are willing to serve the people with such dedication clearly contributes very significantly to the well-being of our country.
Nowadays, alas, âill judged comments, bad behaviour, and criminal activityâ have become all too normal from amongst those elected.
May 30, 2024
Sir John, your ceasing to be an MP is certainly a loss to Parliament and to the residents of Wokingham. I wish you all the best in your forthcoming endeavours and I look forward to your future contributions âfree of criticism that what I say is to put a favourable spin on how I undertook the tasks.â
If Labour win the next GE, and you have not already done so, you may consider it prudent to join the Free Speech Union.
May 30, 2024
That was an extremely interesting post. I suspect you will find suddenly stopping being on call every hour of the day leaves quite a blank feeling at first, and could be quite difficult to deal with.
May 30, 2024
Seems quite like a Doctor, Lawyer, Vicar,
Vet, Nurse, Policeman, Soldier, Sailor, Teacher, Airman, Lifeboatman.
May 30, 2024
the examples you list bear little similarity to Sir John’s committment these last 37 years.
May 30, 2024
Sir John Redwood has described what it is like being a diligent modern M.P. which is an unfortunate legacy of ‘community politics’ introduced about 60 years ago as virtually the only way they with very little core voter support the Liberal Party could get anybody elected. One cost of that is that M.P.s staff has mushroomed from one secretary or shared secretary to in most cases several employees. The bigger cost is that M.P.s have become overworked and even worse largely diverted from their primary responsibility which is to consider and influence legislation and the governance of the country (which incidentally Sir John did a lot of). I don’t know what the answer is – perhaps at elections constituencies should be electing two people, one with a vote in Parliament and the other as a community champion with direct access to ministers and top civil servants but I am not confident even that would work.
May 30, 2024
It is of course a large part of the work of the constituency office to handle many of the details, following up on cases and drafting replies etc. I suspect Sir John does more of this himself than most MPs. I think it would be an idea to consider a formal local ombudsman who might take on more of the work perhaps as a running mate to the MP. The MP would still get access to the constituency postbag, but would be freer to concentrate on legislation.
May 30, 2024
I am intrigued by how you ( and others if you shed light on it) deal with the special pleading from minority views (some might say zealots).
Do they get a stock response or do you try to encourage them to think of the majority need?
May 30, 2024
Did any of the grocery majors have a covid crisis by working through the pandemic that never was?
No they didn’t. They all carried on normally with no adverse effects and yet for some strange reason, you never noticed that what the liars Johnson, Hancock, Whitty etc said was completely different to what you saw around you!
May 30, 2024
It’s all politics . Every institution , every business , every social situation is based on politics. Politics isn’t simply about what happens in a defined structure but it rather stretches out into everybody’s daily life. Organisations box politics into categories and social sciences , but when we are at work or in any collective situation we all feel the energies of politics , the dumbing down of some and elevation of others , the manipulation , the greed and in occasional circumstances the altruism of others. It’s what goes on in the ‘ polis.’
Politics assumes that some know better than others at organisation and management and they see gold plated Rolls Royce’s and assume that these figures are better socially because they have money ,but looking out to global politics , we now see and feel the impact in our country of other failed places to be born in and live and yet their politics go on destroying our daily life .
At least you have understood the machinations and can see our past in comparison to the here and now.
May 30, 2024
Time to consider the abolishen of all political parties. These broad churches have become bastions of none achievement. We could be better off with committed to public servants of integrity finding a consensus based on the views of their constituents. Alternatively proportional representation with the necessary compromises might get us closer to the wishes of the people. For sure moving from one extreme party ti another and back again produces very poor outcomes for the UK .
May 30, 2024
No manifesto then, and no chance of getting any policy enacted.
May 31, 2024
But the manifestos are ignored by the parties once in power, or are you claiming this outgoing government did it’s best to deliver on the past manifestos commitments or did it’s best for the people of this country?
May 30, 2024
‘I had views of what was best, set out in an election prospectus.’
Is that prospectus distinct from the party one?âOnly Steve Baker MP recently wrote:
‘During a General Election campaign, policy is not decided by ministers on the advice of officials and collectively agreed: it is decided by the Leader supported by political advisers unknown.â(Liberty is always freedom from the government – Mises poster.)âCandidates are not involved and even relevant secretaries of state are taken by surprise when policy is announced.âIt is perhaps the worst aspect of the democratic process and I have no reason to think it is not common to the Labour party.’ â https://www.stevebaker.info/2024/05/where-i-stand-for-liberty-under-the-rule-of-law-now-always/
Reply I always sent a personal addition and or amendment to the official Conservative Manifesto to electors. I had for example to rule out Mrs May’s care policy which she then dumped herself during the campaign following pressure, and included a referendum on EU before that became official policy. I added items important to Wokingham as others do for their areas. I modified net zero statements as I did not vote for the Climate Change legislation.
June 1, 2024
Thank you for replying.âI shall pay attention to leaflets from the Conservative MP seeking re-election here to see if he too deviates.âIt would generally seem a good idea to show you’re your ‘own man’ in part.âI wonder how common it is across MP seeking re-election, and whether a survey of that would show factions and their size within and across parties.
May 30, 2024
Now that you can speak freely, I’d love to know your thoughts about compulsory maths for all 16 to 18-year-olds and, if you support it, the justification for that.
National Service or national voluntary weekends for all 18-year-olds, and if you support it, can you explain why only 18-year-olds and not everyone?
Also, what you think of global juristocracy that Alastair Heath warns of.
These authoritarian removal of freedoms and personal choice are a problem for me.
May 30, 2024
Forcing people to do maths after 16 if they do not want to is idiotic. Sunak himself clearly cannot do maths as he thinks the vaccines were âunequivocallyâ safe.
Compulsory âvolunteeringâ is work with 100% tax or modern slavery.
Heath is right as usual another evil.
Freedom of choice and fair competition please.
May 30, 2024
Sunakâs policies are mostly aimed at replacing parents by the state: tobacco ban, vape ban, national service, tinkering with A Levels, etc. and with no mandate to do any of those things as they werenât in the manifesto. It would be interesting to hear from a psychologist why heâs fixated on issues like that.
May 30, 2024
Yes Roy, thatâs what it is, he must think he is a better parent than most and knows whatâs best for everyone.
May 31, 2024
How do you know that is what he “thinks”. Such statements are common from government where herd immunity is crucial.
BTW does this mean you cannot do maths either?
Early in the pandemic I recall you repeatedly demanding the taxpayer fund an unrestricted provision of ventillators at vast expense, yet studies have shown that treatment to have been the cause of many unnecessary deaths.
May 30, 2024
Swimming in any sea is a tricky thing ; above all it obliges one to keep afloat – no matter what . Principles are always important whether one is Right or Left , surrendering to outside pressures is wrong . There have been few MPs as capable as Sir John and I trust others will follow his standards .
May 30, 2024
Difficult not to agree with Nigel Farage 30/05/2024 âThe Conservatives will be in opposition. They wonât be the Opposition. They canât be the opposition. They donât agree on anything. The party is completely split. It serves no real purpose of any kind at this moment in time. They pretty much all hate each other.â
May 30, 2024
The One Nation Conservative rump in the next parliament canât be the opposition because they agree with Starmerâs policies. Itâs just that unlike Rory Stewart theyâre not allowed to say so openly.
May 30, 2024
Our GDP per capita (ppp) is about EU average. 80% of this GDP is composed of services which include the least cost effective healthcare in Europe and a concentration on financial services that dominates the SE region.
Our parliamentary system uses the first Past the Post Electoral system which now confronts the electorate with a choice between two parties that have either failed abysmally or are anticipated to fail even more (if that is possible).
We have an upper chamber whose method of selection would be impossible to explain to a foreigner because it doesn’t have a clearly identifiable basis other than bunging cash to a political party nor the fact that the qualification for the continuance of membership is a detectable heartbeat.
The other major country with the First Past the Post system is the USA which purely coincidentally also only has two political parties vying for election and whose foreign policy is determined by a clique in the US State department which remains in place following a change in government. What is even worse is that not only are those people regime change fanatics and warmongers but that we as members of NATO which is actually the US’ European occupation force since WWII are being used by them as their attack dogs because as members of NATO we cannot have our own independent foreign policy which would likely differ from that of the US which is purely concerned with promoting its own economic and political interests and doesn’t give a hoot about us despite the Tory Party’s naive adherence to the ‘special relationship’ myth.
It is impossible to conclude that our relative failure as a state despite our advantages is as a result of something other than our failed electoral system which prevents newer parties evolving and emerging to replace those that have failed and to give us policies designed to benefit us rather than the US, the third world, the planet etc.
Reply Our GDP per head is 20% above the EU average. The EU average is just half the US
May 30, 2024
Reply to reply.
I am not bothered about how we relate to the EU in terms of of personal GDP. In the real world we are 21st or worse in the international table of personal GDP.
If we are around 6th in terms of national GDP, who is creaming off the difference. How can the nation be up there, but the people who are creating the success be way down the personal league. The cake is being unfairly cut.
May 30, 2024
@ forthurst “It is impossible to conclude ….is as a result of something other than our failed electoral system…” – even a meagre additional amount of imagination would overcome such impossibility, as would recognizing that the electoral system has yielded many advantages not least in avoiding the fractured mess that has been Germany’s fate in recent times. Grand coalitions forsooth!
May 30, 2024
Why should politicians have an easy ride to the detriment to the welfare of the people unless you believe politics is not a means to an end but the end itself?
May 30, 2024
This was the tories last day to change their leader for the election; I can’t believe you all believe you’re going to win with Sunak ……he’ll be off to the USA within weeks
May 30, 2024
The fascinating thing about the Count in South Africa is that they are doing it the British way. Emptying a polling box. Counting the ballots upside down (which must tally with the polling stations count),then turning them over and sorting them into party bundles.
Likely to be a pretty accurate Count.
Just that they do it in the floor instead of in tables.
America needs to relearn that lesson to recover faith in the elections held there.
My family queued for 6 hours to vote yesterday. Only my Aunt, in her 100th year, skipped the queue. Indelible ink mark in the thumbs to prevent multiple voting.
May 30, 2024
Wow, that sounds rigorous. Instead we have a situation where people and students with multiple properties could vote a couple of times and how would it be tied up if in different constituencies.
May 30, 2024
Do MPs have to sign a contract detailing their brief? I very much doubt it, as there would be a line of them waiting for their P45s for failure to meet their targets. Clearly, the proper job of an MP is to serve his/her constituency and not to go off on a self-serving ego trip as has been the case for some of them over the past 5 years.
May 30, 2024
An idea of what duplicity the UK Citizen faces.
“Rishi Sunak has said he wonât force people to change their cars as part of premature net zero schemes.” but I will ensure that any manufacturer not selling you an electric vehicle is fined at ÂŁ15K for each one that isn’t.
Jeremy Hunt has accused Labour of having a secret plan to raise VAT – but he knows that is untrue we are tied to what his and their masters in the EU will allow. However, Hunt will ensure by 2028 taxes under him will be higher than the already 70 year high.
Starmer in the meantime suggests the WEF is where he gets his direction from as he doesn’t like the UK Parliament, doesn’t like Parliament being the UK’s legislators – international law is best
The rot in the swamp permeates through every nook and cranny of everything that is evil.
May 30, 2024
Sir John,
Good luck in the future.
And thank you for retiring.
May 30, 2024
May I wish you well for the future.
May 30, 2024
So how many tory MPs where/are actual labour party supports, many seem to be ‘coming-out’ as labour
May 30, 2024
âDo not become an MP if you want to take drugs, get drunk or bad mouth people.â
I wonder what % of MPs meet all those three requirements ? Quite low I would expect – single figures ? Indeed it has been reported that drug taking is quite commonplace amongst all who work in the Palace of Westminster and I quite believe it.
May 30, 2024
You only had to do three things and weâd have forgiven you everything else (1) do brexit (2) lower immigration and (3) stop net-zero âŠ.its not that we donât believe you; we now donât trust you
May 30, 2024
You will be sadly missed John. You are one of the very few excellent MPs who work tirelessly for their constituents. You worked so hard for Brexit and we are so thankful to you. You are honest and decent and I have enjoyed your daily emails updating me with invaluable information.
Thank you so much John and I wish you every happiness in your retirement.
May 31, 2024
I’d be interested to see a statistical breakdown of postbag topics. I imagine complaints about the NHS must be fairly high up the rankings from ordinary people?
Reply Postbags are dominated by campaign emails. Gaza has been a big topic. NHS very little.
May 31, 2024
Many thanks indeed for all the sterling service you have given to this constituency and we have been so encouraged by all the common sense regularly transmitted in your diary. Also so grateful for many helpful replies you have given to us over the years when we have petitioned over something. You will be a very hard act to replace. With every good wish for the future, John & Mary Angliss.