MPs are often accused of pulling their punches or not telling the truth. In practice an MP is always speaking as an MP and may anytime be picked up for what he or she has said, even if it were a private observation born of frustration, anger or whatever. When you talk you need to bear in mind the views of your constituents , the view of the government, and the views of your party. If the government, party and constituents all hold broadly the same view it is easy and you are lucky. Where they differ, you need to tread a careful path understanding how each will criticise you. You must of course exercise your own judgement and provide a lead, but it must be a lead informed by your view of the greater  good. Sticking with the party line can leave you looking stupid or forced to do a U turn. Listen to the difficulties for Labour interviewees over the Diane Abbott saga. How to answer if you want to be loyal but do not know whether she is out or in?
My best advice to a new MP is your word needs to be a strong reliable currency. Repeat too many twists, turns and U turns you are given to say and soon your word is debased. Those who put you in a hole may not rescue you.
I always felt very responsible as an MP even though I was usually having to defend or criticise others for doing and saying things I would not have said. It was a rare event to be given a straight interview on my own views. The interview particularly if from the BBC usually plunged into getting you to condemn a fellow Conservative for a foolish statement or deed. Often the BBC just wanted you to play a role in their script and frequently cancelled when they realised your view was not the one they wanted. I increasingly responded by saying they should interview the out of line speaker,  not me if that was their main interest.
I did feel bad about the way various public services let people down, and did work hard behind the scenes with my staff to remedy. Whilst I had clear views and opinions of my own, often the task was to distil the best or the consensus amongst my constituents to frame a response. It is frustrating to have to repeat public sector promises of better conduct and improved service, when you have heard them before and doubt whether this time will be different. You do not want to condemn the many public staff that do a good job and mean well, but you do need to speak out for improvement when well paid senior public sector managers fail to deliver a good service.I often used the formula that the service has said/ promised, adding I would try to get them to deliver if necessary.
Talking straight is a difficult balance. Not having a view and principles leads to weak and contradictory speech which is bad. Just having a strong view of your own means you do not represent many of your constituents much of the time and places you in regular dispute those you need to work with. The skill lies in backing the right causes and campaigns, and in dealing fairly with constituents of all persuasions. It also lies in finding ways to express problems and propose their resolution that wins over more people than it upsets. Politics may indeed be the art of the possible, but that should not become an excuse to settle for the mediocre or bad.
May 31, 2024
We returned a brilliant, proper Conservative MP. He was newly in the House when, at short notice 25 minutes I believe, a Cabinet Minister asked him âto make a speech I was going to make, but canât because I have to rush offâŠâ
Trusting that the speech was accurate and good enough for a Cabinet Minister to deliver, my (lawyer) MP absorbed the brief, stood and delivers it with gusto. He hoped to impress the Minister and expedite promotion.
But he found that the speech was wrong in fact. Misled the House, Made a fool of him and marked him out as a useful tool.
Have your own thoughts, write your own speeches, own your own words. Trust nobody! I believe that has been the Redwood secret of survival.
May 31, 2024
There is also the problem of avoiding answering a question that is asked repeatedly. Michael Howard and Paxman plus Edward Davey on the Post Office/ Horizon scandal are examples.
May 31, 2024
‘I refer you to my previous answer’ is an appropriate response.
May 31, 2024
Othe whole government is misleading the public, the liblabcon are all in favour of mass immigration, net zero and various other debilitating policies.
Fishy talks of reducing immigration by 300 000 when it is still 3 times the amount when you took office. Traitorous May imposed net zero out of the blue with no debate
Both these policies have the ability to bankrupt us but we know even if the conservatives were to win they would carry on full speed ahead
Fishy and his sidekick are making noises about reducing taxes when the have bee responsible for the highest taxes in history. Not one sentence about reducing public spending.
Charlatans the lot of them and Starmergeddon will be worse.
May 31, 2024
++
100%
YesâŠand all those years when I at least had no idea that our wonderful democracy was quite happy to sell us off to international bodies.
I knew all the âconspiracyâ theories but didnât really believe our govt. would do that to us.
WellâŠthey did. Gagged and gift wrapped.
May 31, 2024
The whole of the ‘West’ is failing – and becoming toxic in the eyes of the rest of the world(ie the other c85% of the global population.And the populations of the West are getting to understand this.Look at this poll(conducted April 1-7 by the highly respected Pew Research Center in the USA) taken from from the Survey titled:”Many say China,Russia and Iran are gaining influence but most see the US and European nations as in decline” dated 8/5/24:
Getting stronger/Staying about the same/Getting weaker
China………….71/17/9
Russia………..48/25/24
Iran…………….39/41/16
India…………..35/50/10
Germany…….18/58/19
Brazil………….16/64/16
USA……………14/29/54
France………..12/60/24
UK………………12/53/31
NATO………….23/45/28
May 31, 2024
” the liblabcon are all in favour of mass immigration, net zero and various other debilitating policies.”
To thr detriment of the indegĂšnes.
June 1, 2024
spot on
The Conservative Party implemented massive changes to this country with Zero democratic mandate. They deserve to be wiped out.
Labour and LibDems are exactly the same. The public and MPs are fools for believing their empty manifestos will be any different than the Conservatives.
At least the Greens come out and tell us one of their policies is to take us back to the middle ages. Even then there are foolish and feckless voters.
May 31, 2024
Absolutely, Peter! If any MP won’t answer a direct question – respect and trust falls away. What are they hiding?
May 31, 2024
The problem is that the unsaid becomes the unsay-able eventually. The march of political correctness.
If only Labour had (or will be) so magnanimous in victory and John Redwood to constituents who did not vote for them.
For decades we could not talk about immigration. The Left were allowed to defame the majority of the British public who’d done a good job of assimilating newcomers – the Tories did nothing to defend their voters against such smears.
Not-saying has failed and the Tory party now faces abolition. It will never form a government again.
From council houses to water privatisation – we see the catastrophe in gory detail.
May 31, 2024
Good morning.
I think this particular situation goes beyond what we are seeing. The Left always eats its own and, what we are witnessing is akin to a purge of the ‘old guard’. Diane Abbott has not helped herself and may prove problematic in the future. Clearly the Leader of the Labour Party’s strings are being pulled.
May 31, 2024
And she had ties with Corbyn I think.
Maybe a mark against her?
Leftist revenge is pretty awfulâŠlook at Trump.
May 31, 2024
Starmer will surely have to let her stand in the end.
May 31, 2024
Long ago interviewers adopted a deferential tone towards politicians. Then things changed and abrasiveness and rudeness were seen as being signs of a tough and searching interview. I think Robin Day pioneered this style.
John Nott handled it well by removing the microphone and walking off.
In the entertainment field, the pop group the BeeGees destroyed Clive Andersenâs career by walking off and leaving his programme with nothing more to offer, after his interview became a series of sarcastic jokes at their expense.
May 31, 2024
One of the reasons I could no longer stand to watch any political panel programmes when I had a TV years ago, was precisely because of the journo’s with ego types/celebrity journalist, and of course the outrageous political bias.
Even if the interview is with a politician I can’t agree with, I want to hear what they have to say and not what a journalist deems I can hear with their constant interruptions.
I remember the Bee Gee incident, and good on them, I thought Anderson was yet another over rated, smug non-entity.
May 31, 2024
Robin Day was a splendid interrogator, but John Nott turned his âhere today, gone tomorrowâ jape into a âpull off the microphone and instant exitâ response with even greater effect.
May 31, 2024
Well as I recall he forgot to disconnect the microphone and the question was pursuing cuts in defence expenditure, in particular Royal Navy, Day and posed the question: “Why should the public on this issue believe you, a transient, here today and, if I may say so, gone tomorrow politician rather than a senior officer of many years’ experience?”
Seems a perfectly reasonable question to me and once which John Nott (who was better than most politicians even at the time) should surely have given a sensible and civil answer. But perhaps he had had a bad day. After all we cannot trust anything most politicians promise nowadays. Be it on cutting taxes, immigrations levels, IHT thresholds, stopping the boats, reducing NHS waiting lists, repaying the debts, on âunequivocallyâ Covid vaccine safetyâŠ
May 31, 2024
â It is frustrating to have to repeat public sector promises of better conduct and improved service, when you have heard them before and doubt whether this time will be different.â
âLessons will be learnedâ used to be the stock response.
May 31, 2024
If only the response was the public sector should decease from doing what it does badly, and leave it to the private sector.
May 31, 2024
What you have written seems to be a good arguement for a Parliament full of independents and the abandonment of political parties. I would always prefer an MP who was clear and honest in what they said than ones who were not. Take Angela Raynor on Diane Abbott against the weasel words of her leader on almost any subject. Politically I might not agree with either of them, but at least with Angela I know where she is coming from. Frank Field, Enoch Powel, and Anne Widdicome were and are politicians who had the courage to say things as they saw them. All suffered from the weak and mealy mouthed who surrounded them.
That is the strength and leadership that Nigel Farage offers. He says it as he sees it and as a large swathe of people experience it. Irrespective of his Conservative underlying views, which he does not hide, people of all political persuasions can find common cause with him because they too are conservative, whether they realise it or not.
In terms of leadership, a cause you might only believe in 75%, but espouse with conviction, is more likely to resonate with those you are encouraging to follow than the yes but if reaction and change your mind half way, of the current Labour leader.
I learnt this after military service when leading young men/teenagers through physical and mental challenges totally new to their lives, never before imagined. Then again you cannot afford the luxury of debate in a force 8/9, mid Channel in a 37 foot yacht, heading for the Chanel du Four.
If you think you can lead the country, with its enormous challenges, in a less than clear way, trying to please everyone you are much mistaken. As examples I cite Winston and Margaret. Both made their share of mistakes, but when push came to shove they were there. Those with them were in little doubt as to their intentions even when they may have had private doubts. That is what real leadership is about.
May 31, 2024
You might know where Angela Raynor is coming from, but does she know where she is when she arrives? At a meeting in Gillingham & Rainham she announced how delighted she was to be in âGillingham & Raynorâ!
May 31, 2024
Might have been a shot at humour.
May 31, 2024
So a Parliament of Independents. Should work for the Armed forces too, because both are fighting forces.
You propose an âintellectual fighting forceâ exclusively of Generals?
May 31, 2024
@Agricola – political parties are not democracies people are a democracy. Political parties should be just a reflection of a view point like all religions. All those viewpoints do not reflect the actual need in all situations and circumstance, meaning no single grouping by their very nature can have the monopoly on right, truth, and the purpose of serving communities and the country.
Starmer summed up the warped thinking of Political Groups in an interview with the BBC inferring organisations such as the WEF, should be the creators of our laws through the international court arena. Also suggesting the HoC was not the right place to be the UK’s legislators. Meaning your MP should not be part of the process of creating, amending and repealing the Laws that the UK has to live by. Also meaning the UK Voter should be disenfranchised of purpose.
May 31, 2024
Who said or implied that political parties were democracies. They seem to be an attempt to cover a broader church of political views than an adjacent party and therefore gather more support at election time. Afterwards they divide internally into factions that fight each other for power and quickly lose sight of their manifesto pledges in the process, losing power and direction. Their achievements are failure and a trail of detritus, sometimes called potholes, in everythig they touch.
May 31, 2024
Abbott was definitely targeted in a purge. She did nothing wrong. The same magic bullet that claimed Livingstone and Corbyn was used on her.
Unfortunately for Starmer she is standing as an MP, whether Labour like it or not, and she will be returned as an MP again.
Starmerâs rivals are also using the situation for their own personal advantage.
May 31, 2024
Oh how I wish the media would stop going on about Diane Abbott. Unless you’re a constituent of Hackney North and Stoke Newington why would you care?
Reply They go on about it because how Labour treats the left is an important national issue
May 31, 2024
An MP’s primary function is not protecting party interest but protecting the interests of all constituency members. Once this golden rule is violated CHILDREN ARE VIOLATED in the most HORRIFIC and BRUTAL MANNER. And we all know to what I am referring.
Silence not straight-talking is the real killer. The silence of elected politicians on specific issues to protect party interest shames our nation, shames themselves and corrupts our very souls
May 31, 2024
and note how our mainstream media stays silent too.
Soft interviews all round for Starmer and Rayner.
Any Conservative politician will have every word and deed no matter how trivial hauled out incessantly by mainstream media.
Still, the Conservatives allowed that bias to go on continually and in fact seemed terrified to challenge it.
We all lose by it though.
May 31, 2024
You mean Farage every time, not the Tory’s!!!
May 31, 2024
@Dom
And yet, when my conservative MP tried to speak up about the no-go areas in London; he was attacked from all sides, media, social media. He tried to go for London mayor and was stitched up (his words).
MPs shouldn’t have to put up with this kind of attack. He’s stepping down, and I wonder if this is why so many other conservatives are stepping down.
May 31, 2024
No because they are toast and know they need other work or retire.
May 31, 2024
Very True
May 31, 2024
I believe it to be important only to do live interviews with the BBC and other media. If you are recorded then your words are open to manipulation through editing. This was advice I got from a then well known BBC reporter/interviewer back in the 1970s. I doubt much has changed since then except for the worst.
May 31, 2024
Such practices as manipulating a person’s words for the political bias of what is supposed to be an impartial public service should have been stamped on, with great force.
There was an incident in my town a few years back and I was speaking to a woman who was very distraught at the media’s misrepresentation of her husbands, (who was a Conservative councillor) short speech.
It put him in a bad light and made it sound as if he blamed everything on the police, which she says was not what he was saying at all. That speech was heavily edited she claimed.
I reminded her to keep this in mind when watching interviews/news in general.
May 31, 2024
Panorama tried this on Michael O’Leary (to try and do a recorded interview). He said no to recorded but yes to live interview. There was a clip of O’Leary arguing his case. Great stuff because whilst he was arguing in his charming and provocative and direct way, he was gaining free publicity for his airline whilst making the BBC look daft. And he did it with a sense of humour! Don’t ever lose your sense of humour (otherwise you’ve lost and / or defending something you don’t believe in – and life is too short for all that nonsense!)
May 31, 2024
There is something about the humourlessness so often about the BBC that makes me want to wretch ..
May 31, 2024
Constituents often have opposite views and a hybrid response may be harmless in reflecting their opinions. However, loyalty to truth is the right answer and endures beyond othersâ attempts to destroy it.
Looking stupid is merely an illusion, lingering only until truth reveals what is better. Answers that misguided BBC interviewers or party line enforcers require are matters for them. Those who do wrong create shining paths leading back in every direction to reveal the source of their errors in stark light.
Referring to what has been promised and working to achieve delivery is a good response. If the party is repeatedly at fault, it should be shaken up from within to set it on the right path. It is better to leave than tolerate a party that cannot sort itself out.
May 31, 2024
Many voters in Britainâs most rural constituencies are worried about climate change and support net zero and local renewables
The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank poll this week finds more than half of voters in rural seats (58%) support new onshore wind in their local area, while% back a solar farm, with even higher levels of support among those who have swung from the Conservatives to Labour.
2019 Conservative voters who are planning to back Labour at this election have even higher levels of concern (81%) over climate change, and more than three quarters (77%) supported net zero
Nearly three quarters of voters in the most rural seats (73%) are concerned about climate change, while 68% of those in the countryside supported the UKâs net zero targets
And 80% of those polled thought farmers should grow food sustainably to increase wildlife and reduce pollution, even if it means food becomes a bit more expensive.
May 31, 2024
Self-delusion beyond repair.
Cooked polls produced by interested think-tanks are deeply embarrassing when contradicted by the ACTUAL votes – and the Greens are on 2% in spite of the Tory collapse.
Why should we tolerate lying âthink-tanksâ any more than lying politicians?
May 31, 2024
Can you tell us how many UK think tanks there are? And if possible what their leanings could be? And what is your definition of an âinterested think tankâ?
May 31, 2024
@ hefner – there are rather more than 150 – wikepeida has a list of think tanks in the United Kingdom.
Not least for tax relief and lobbying reasons most profess no political leanings. On a case by case basis a political bias can be seen but, clearly, to an extent that is in the eye of the beholder.
“Interested” arises out of the raison d’etre and, doubtless, the motivations of those (often less than clearly identified) who provide the funding.
So now that information is shown, perhaps Lynn Atkinson’s comment “Why should we tolerate lying âthink-tanksâ any more than lying politicians? can be seen to possess even more force.
May 31, 2024
As far as I can see there are at least 51 and they are political.
Political interest groups with charitable status.
Thus political interests.
Not good.
May 31, 2024
I went to the wrong website for info. Wikipedia lists a lot more.
But speaking of interest groupsâŠthis upcoming election seems to be getting hijacked by them. Or Labour is allowing it to be.
Maybe Sunak should really start banging on about the things that are of paramount interest to the voters?
May 31, 2024
Is that so. Well who are these rural folk? The majority being the only ones that can afford a rural idyll, the wealthy liberal/left wing who are escaping the cities they so craved to be multi-cultural havens. The type who say ‘England doesn’t exist’ as they clamber over each other to find what remains of it for them and their children.
They have taken over many of the small villages around my area, some only weekenders at present in their second homes, coming down in the big 4×4’s. Admittedly some have now gone electric, but of course again that is only affordable to those with the ‘luxury beliefs’ as Matt Goodwin rightly calls them.
It will be interesting to see how it all pans out once the onshore wind farms start popping up near them.
Rather like their commitment to mass immigration and multi-culture, they don’t actually mean that they personally wish to be so close to it!!!
They are by far some of the most hypocritical people I have ever encountered, and are actually too dim to notice it even if you held a mirror to them.
May 31, 2024
True many people have been conned by governments, international bodies, charities and the BBC into thinking manmade CO2 is causing some huge âclimate emergencyâ. These deluded people need to listen to some sensible physicists and get real. The climate has always changed and always will do. The solutions pushed rarely even save any or much CO2. Plus a bit more CO2 plant food is a net good anyway.
If you are worried about say flooding what is the best thing to do? A. some sensible flood relief schemes and river dredging or B. Cut the UKâs 1% of world manmade CO2 slightly wait say 50 years and see if that works? Clue B wonât work. The latter solution is idiotic. A mad net zero religion pushed by governments (and blatant King Charles/Sunak type hypocrites) to justify ever more taxation and more government powers over you.
May 31, 2024
‘The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank poll ‘
enuff sed……
They would say that, wouldn’t they!
May 31, 2024
Sorry , but your wrong, which is typical of city slickers who are totally ignorant of the working of the country. We country yokels know the country and the variables of the weather but over many years it all forms a pattern which has not changed in my life time of 80 yrs. only townies fall for the climate change scam! we see and use the weather all the Time. So Goldie stick to your knitting, then you will at least be productive. That reminds me!! Time to go dung spreading.
May 31, 2024
Farmers I’ve spoken to tell me that they need to know if they are required to grow food efficiently for an increasing population on a decreasing area of farmland (as it goes under housing development and/or solar arrays) or to provide set aside for environmental reasons.
If Net Zero relies on us using electric cars and ripping out our heating systems so heat pumps and larger bore pipes and radiators can be installed in millions of homes at huge cost with the scrapping of perfectly serviceable vehicles and boilers then it has the whiff of corruption about it. It will mean importing more resources (on electric ships?) as our own are being destroyed or sold off to foreign owners. I believe it won’t happen because, as people realise how it will drastically affect their lives, there will be social unrest and the politicians will pull back. Shades of the ineffective/harmful Covid measures that were inflicted on us and not allowed to be questioned.
I would be reluctant to vote for any Party who has this policy in their manifesto.
May 31, 2024
Forget about what is in a manifesto! Pay attention to the ‘direction of travel’ to judge where the Party is headed in spite of the fine words.
May 31, 2024
GREEN …..and the game is to do more, faster & bolder green than labour
May 31, 2024
SG :
Polling by climate activists, such as the oxymoron named Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (just like the naming of DESNZ) who are funded by the customary CIF, Bloomberg, Grantham, Rockefeller etc via the European Climate Foundation are not meaningful because so few people even today understand the difference between the environment and CAGW and have no idea of the privations and the drop in standard of living necessary to achieve net zero CO2 emissions.
Those polled should be asked to read first the government funded UK FIRES report and asked if they are willing to accept the electrification of their heating and transport coupled with rolling blackouts:
https://api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/api/core/bitstreams/75916920-51f6-4f9c-ade5-52cbf55d5e73/content
People should also check with their IDNO (Independent Distribution Network Operator) if all the houses on their local substation can run a 4 KW heat pump and a 7 KW ev charger continuously.
The biggest lies are that CO2, the very gas of life without which no life on the planet can exist, is a pollutant and its increase will cause CAGW and that our current population size can survive on renewable energy.
May 31, 2024
There is no doubt that the brainwashing has been successful.
May 31, 2024
They believe and support it as it is a religion not science fool.
May 31, 2024
Your post today reads like material for a much needed book on parliament and the media in recent times, SJR. Things are not good, if MPs are no longer interviewed for what they have to say, but to make them comment on dubious statements that others have made. When I think of some major issues of recent years, especially the lockdowns, Britain’s support for the Ukraine war, net zero and mass immigration, I don’t remember MPs being interviewed for views that went against government policy. Whereas years ago I do remember MPs who opposed the Iraq war and EU integration getting a chance to express themselves on the media. There may have been a change in the independence of the media in the last decade or so. If so, it would be good to know more from your perspective as someone once in the thick of it.
May 31, 2024
See Carl Bernstein’s article(originally published in Rolling Stone) from 20 October 1977:”The CIA and the Media”.
It’s a whole lot worse now.
May 31, 2024
+++
Exactly what I thought!
A book!!
âThe Gentle Art of Becoming an MPâ?
â Westminster Needs YOU!â?
Anyway something that encourages decent folk to go in for it.
May 31, 2024
Even if you say something sensible they will often cut out a section and use that to ridicule you. Michael Gove said:- âI think the people in this country have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.â but it get endlessly quoted as âwe have had enough of expertsâ. Not that I am a great fan of Socialist Gove. But surely we certainly have had enough of âexpertsâ who get it wrong, the Covid Vaccine experts and the Net Zero experts are still doing vast harm.
See the recent excess deaths post vaccines study in Cyprus:- Google Excess mortality in Cyprus during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
May 31, 2024
Nigel Farage on Question-time Lockdowns were âOne of the worse historical mistakes of our lifetimesâ – they certainly were Nigel, but the net harm Covid Vaccines, coerced even into young people and even people who had had Covid already was very many times worse. Vast net harm was done yet Sunak still lies to the house they are were âunequivocally safeâ is Sunak really so daft that he actually believes this? Is he so bonkers he even believes in the Net Zero religion too? Or does he just think he has to take this line for political reasons. That is wrong too.
May 31, 2024
Yes these are life negotiations not just for MPs. Too many, as we see from a few of your contributors, just trumpet their own views incessantly, irrespective of the topic of the day, and of course achieve nothing.
Re your last sentence it is apposite that the DWP was lambasted by a judge yesterday for gross inefficiency losing us umpteen tens of millions, indeed notably enriching a town in Bulgaria.
The public is rightly fed up with this to the extent that our politicians have zero credibility and it has to be said with all the negotiating, balancing of interests that you have set out, fundamentally you have failed in this respect.
Even now you fence sit praising rightly the good public sector workers but then give us a sop about those that need improvement.
This is a continuing recipe for failure/mediocrity, why arenât those responsible named and shamed and sanctioned as in the private sector. What hold has it over politicians and even now, you that nothing changes?
May 31, 2024
Indeed huge ÂŁ millions of losses at the DWP with gross incompetence. It would have been so easy to stop but what do they care, it is not their money they are wasting?
May 31, 2024
A ÂŁ54 million fraud it seems, plus the cost of courts and prison. So the taxes of about 6000 average tax payers thrown down the drain just in this tip of the iceberg.
May 31, 2024
@ Nigl – Although you indicate understanding with your opening remark âYes these are life negotiations not just for MPs â you then undo that by asserting âEven now you fence sit praising rightly the good public sector workers but then give us a sop about those that need improvementâ.
Did you not weigh and then recall Sir Johnâs words âWhilst I had clear views and opinions of my own, often the task was to distil the best or the consensus amongst my constituents to frame a responseâ and âYou must of course exercise your own judgement and provide a lead, but it must be a lead informed by your view of the greater goodâ perhaps?
May 31, 2024
I caught a bit of Sunakâs speed at the Nifty Lift Platform factory in Milton Keynes.
Asked about Net Zero he came out with I want to prioritise energy security so we are are not at risk from hostile nations like Russia. Well switching to wind is a disaster in that regard Sunak. Unreliable, expensive, intermittent, not even low in CO2 with all those diesel ship and concrete needed to construct and maintain them. Also the Russians could easily disable them in no time at all by cutting the under sea cables.
He then waffled on about his daughters and leaving the world a better place. The war on CO2 will cost ÂŁ Trillions and make the world a far worse place you dope. Plus you are clearly to total King Charles type of private jet hypocrite Sunak. He says âThe choice at this election is how to get to net zeroâ he says. The intelligent question is why on earth are we even aiming for net zero when it cost trillions and does net harm.
He even made reference to a hydrogen fuel cell Nifty powered lift to save the world. Almost certainly this will be far more expensive and produce more CO2 than just using a conventional diesel or petrol powered one when you do the maths on the Hydrogen production, storage and manufacture of the fuel cells etc. We have no hydrogen mines Rishi.
Does Rishi still claim the Covid Vaccines are âunequivocally safeâ I though he claimed to be good at maths? If he were good at physics too (and world climate history) he would know that the net zero energy agenda is lunacy.
Then he was asked how Nifty could compete against China? Not very easy with energy at 3+ times the price, vast tax levels, lack of housing, high wages, daft employment laws, the steel industry being deliberately exported due to the net zero religionâŠ
People say Rishi is very bright – so why is he so totally deluded on net zero, the vaccines, immigration levels, tax levels and the economy?
May 31, 2024
As the perfect pendant to your diary piece today, Sir John, there’s Mark Logan’s interview with the BBC. He has nothing much to say except that he’s joining the Labour party, and that he wouldn’t rule out (translation: “Rather fancies”) standing for them at a future point as an MP. And apparently his local constituency party didn’t think he spent enough time there. But he gets Sky news interview and his 15 minutes of fame by ditching the party he once stood for. Altogether, not a record to be proud of.
May 31, 2024
I can appreciate the difficulty in having to tread carefully with words as an MP.
This is only going to get worse as we now have a nation that has such vastly different cultures/customs, I see it as almost impossible not to offend. The political class only have themselves to blame on that score as it is they that have created that state of affairs.
It has been a great frustration of mine over many years now, that nothing has been done to curtail the outrageous political bias of mainstream media.
Politicians should not really have to worry about the unfair and deliberate policy of the media to skew the words of some, while buffing up the words of others to appear as something handed down from on high on a tablet.
The soft interviews of some, while others are literally ambushed, set upon and outnumbered (often with a rent a lefty mob in the audience!!!)
Currently, why is it there seems to be no one reminding Starmer that he too played a part in the lock down and all the subsequent knock on effects we are suffering? Although Andrew Bridgen I believe has made a montage of Starmer and his many flip flops and denials of previous words and staunch stances. That won’t see the light of day on mainstream I doubt, so the masses go like dumb sheep to the polls without this in mind.
Why is the mainstream ignoring Rayners appeal for the Muslim vote and the wider consequences of that.
Bias media does not make for informed choice. It keeps some MPs always checking over their shoulder and afraid to be frank, which is best practice, while others can do and say as they please and it will all be smoothed away.
Again, 14 years of Conservatives and this was allowed to carry on. In fact further curtailment on free speech so as not to ‘offend’ even if it saves lives, and having ‘protected characteristics’ has only made free and frank discussion even harder, all courtesy of 14 yrs of Conservatives.
May 31, 2024
A most concerning sight that has happened in the HoC on more than one occasion is MPs leaving the Chamber en masse when Andrew Bridgen is presenting evidence on the mRNA vaccine harms. If he is presenting a false narrative then let it be debated. Walking away lets the country down and discredits Parliament.
May 31, 2024
FYI Andrew Bridgen did a long interview with ‘Doc. Malik’ [a former surgeon] on that and other matters. It is on Rumble. I assume it is there because censorship has been all too prevalent since 2020/21 on the main video-sharing channel. I think a lot of people are slowly waking up to reality, in all kinds of ways.
May 31, 2024
A few days ago,again interviewed by Doc Malik,Bridgen spoke of why Sunak called the election so soon:
AB:”Rishi has told the generals he doesn’t want to be a wartime prime minister.”
DM:”Really?So who’s calling the shots then,is it the generals,or the pm or someone else?”
AB:”It’s someone above Rishi.You don’t really think that Rishi and Starmer…..the whole thing’s a pantomime in parliament.”
Elsewhere there was also a terrific,bold statement by the deeply impressive Georgian PM,Irakli Kobakhidze, last week:
“Both America and the EU need de-oligarchization.
The Law On Transparency of Foreign Influence (Foreign Agents Law) adopted by parliament is only an excuse for the west to demand Georgia to open a ‘second front’ with Russia.
Since the beginning of 2022,there has been serious interest in opening a second front in Georgia which would weaken Russia’s position but would also destroy our country.
There is a ‘global war party’;this party is not interested in the fate of Georgia.Their only interest is in weakening Russia.”
No Zelensky,he,then!He’s also accused his own President of treason-quite correctly I would say.When you look at her CV,the only thing Georgian about her is the sound of her name;she was a French citizen – and former French ambassador to Georgia and earlier had worked for that warmonger Brzezinski.
May 31, 2024
Indeed and he was clearly telling the truth supported by very many statistics from all around the world. Unlike Mr Rishi “unequivocally safe” Sunak’s blatant lies.
See the latest Cyprus excess deaths study over the Covid vaccination period.
May 31, 2024
“Politics may indeed be the art of the possible, but that should not become an excuse to settle for the mediocre or bad.”
Indeed, and if we contrast the Parliamentary intakes from the 80s (including our esteemed host) with those from recent years, we can be forgiven for concluding that the aptitude for exercising reasoned individual judgment has given way to the ability to parrot the party line and to do as they are told. Stand up and take a bow, CCHQ’s candidates’ department. For every Miriam Cates who slips through the net, we appear to have 20 identikit Mr/Ms Rubber-Stamp.
May 31, 2024
To have any chance in this election Mr Sunak needs to swing his bat. Whatâs to lose when 20 points behind? I think the idea promoted here in the past of giving the BBC to license holders is an excellent one. One share per license holder, with the govt keeping a golden share and perhaps a rule that no one shareholder can own more than 5% to stop the inevitable leftist shrieks about Mr Murdoch buying it. This could be billed as âtake back controlâ of the BBC. There are about 25 million license fee payers. Current turnover is ÂŁ6 billion approx. A move from a license fee to a subscription model can be presented both as a tax cut and a commercial opportunity. Even at first, each share should be worth in the range ÂŁ500 – ÂŁ1,000. This could really move the dial, along perhaps with moves like abolishing inheritance tax.
What Rishi really needs to do is stop trying to win the votes of leftwing people. They are not going to vote Conservative, so letâs get out the vote from the silent majority.
May 31, 2024
Sir John
Isnât the problem, you could even suggest the corruption of UK Politics â Loyalty!
Start with the basics, we see democracy as âgovernment for the people by the peopleâ. Where in that suggestion does it come up with âGovernment for a political gang, on behalf of a political gangâ ?
While these gangs/parties demonstrate a leaning on thinking, is each one of them the master on all thoughts and all directions. They are in practice just religious cults, bully gangs something we decry when it appears elsewhere.
If people in a constituency are to vote for someone to serve the community and the country and once elected, they have empowered that individual and they get to pay that individuals wages so expect them to act on their behalf, where does a party, a cult, a gang figure into the equation? They donât, they (the gangs) in their methods of control and discipline are persistently corrupting the very purpose of suggesting there is a democracy in the UK.
So the question is should Loyalty be with the ones that empower and pay, the constituents, or the power broking egotistical gang leaders?
Reply But an MP to get anything done needs other MPs to vote for it. Parties assist in bringing together like minded groups to deliver promises. An independent MP can promise anything but nothing happens unless a governing majority takes it up.
May 31, 2024
To reply:- and the “governing majority” tend to take up only mad or crony capitalist policies – the lockdowns, net zero, the climate change act, the net harm vaccines for people who did not even need them, joining the EU & burying us further into the EU, VAT on School fees it seems, the ECHR, legal aid for lawyer, the endless attack on landlords, endless tax increases, pay increases for MPs, Blair’s counter productive wars. all will go to university policies, ever more levels of government… these are the types of things that get governing majority support. So rarely does anything sensible or any reductions in tax or government.
May 31, 2024
Good Lord! Donât you know what Capitalism is? Nothing whatsoever to do with lockdowns, net zero etc.
Look up âCorporatismâ.
May 31, 2024
Capitalism with fair trade and real and fair competition or crony capitalism in league with the government. Far too much os the latter and far too little of the former. Corruption essentially.
June 1, 2024
âCrony capitalismâ is Corporatism. Donât sully our life saving system with the corruption of it from the God-forsaken Continental system. They are as different as chalk and cheese.
May 31, 2024
The halfway house to what you are both discussing is propotional representation. An essential step is that the constituency selects the possible candidates not the political party. There must be an end to the party owning the candidate. After the general election the MPs loyalty is first to his electorate.
On major questions like Brexit, Nett Zero, business models for Energy or the NHS, etc the decision must be put to a referendum that is binding upon government to enact. Decisions to hold such should not be in the hands of political parties or government. We need a big debate on the future of democracy.
May 31, 2024
Adendum.
This was a reply to Ian B and SJR. The site displaced it.
May 31, 2024
The full ‘on house’ would be local people get to choose who would best support them and the Country in Parliament, without external influence or money.
FPTP is the only version of voting that gives the majority the choice.
It could be said with 79 Conservatives no longer able to defend this version of a Conservative Government, then having the leadership and his CCHQ choosing their personal loyal socialist servants for constituencies that haven’t asked for them entirety lacks integrity and creditability.
All Governments have to and must be ‘challenged’ on their ‘thinking’ and ‘direction’ in the HoC from all benches, all of the time, only allowing loyal servants to sit in that place is an attempt to distort the will of the people and democracy.
May 31, 2024
We proposed the MP signing a âcontractâ which was effectively the Oath of Allegiance – with his electorate in p,ace of HM. HM is âThe King in Parliamentâ I.e the People but neither the people nor the MPs know that anymore. So they break their Oath to the King who cannot sack them.
We need to simplify the complexities and niceties. We need no longer to find a reason to keep the Monarchy as they have gone awol and must go when the HOL is closed. We can also kick the expensive Commonwealth into touch – time they gave us our independence.
May 31, 2024
@Reply
There is a big difference between like-minded people working together, than having a gang leader demanding loyalty to them personally as opposed to the democratic purpose of loyalty and service to constituents and country.
I know we now have a full-on Presidential election this time and MPs serving communities is off the table. In this election there is little point of constituents voting, itâs all about party servants being forced on constituents due to their devotion and loyalty to their gang leader. Constituents and country are left far behind. That is why the Country is in a mess, its about preserving the self-serving ego of gang leaders before anything else. Even the Conservative Party isnât allowed to choose its own leader let alone the people.
May 31, 2024
Or in other words do we get to vote for someone to serve a constituency and country, or an agent of political party leader that is there to do their(the leaders’) bidding?. One sounds like democracy the other a dictatorship
May 31, 2024
Choose your own Candidate. That is the answer, if high quality people chosen by those who know them in their constituency are returned, then they will find they are in accord on most things. That will reduce the Whip to its former roll – to give the PM the bad news.
May 31, 2024
An MP selected just for furthering the situation of constituents via involvement in local matters misses the bigger picture and bigger impact matters chosen by the PM/Cabinet (and those who advise them from further up the food chain). That being the case it can be argued that the MP ought to concern themself with policies advocated by the PM/Cabinet, or seek to modify them.
May 31, 2024
One thing about Sir John that has always impressed me is that he has rarely, if ever, put a foot wrong and found himself in hot water.
When you have strong views, (and often your political party leaders are not putting forward proper Conservative policies), that is extraordinarily difficult, yet Sir John has successfully walked that tightrope for several decades.
The party would not be staring electoral defeat in the face, had Sunak, Hunt, and several predecessors put forward right-of-centre policies.
I only hope that the losses from the election fall disproportionally on the “One Nation” group and Sunak rapidly departs for California.
May 31, 2024
Israel is on the road to disaster. This is what many Orthodox and atheist Jews say about Secular Israel.
I support moderate Zionism about what we are seeing is not moderate.
So if disaster does occur, you can be sure this will spill over into the UK. Either in refugees or financial rescue packages or both – on a big scale.
June 1, 2024
Israel is going to survive again. But it cannot continue to allow those who openly demand the extinction of all Jews and Gentiles to live off its labours. The Arabs must provide for themselves in the vast majority of âPalestineâ – Jordan etc., and NOT be allowed back into Gaza.
Britain should note that Israel is always punished for its generosity. Why do we think we will be different?
June 1, 2024
I hadn’t noticed Israel being ‘punished’. What would punishment look like, Lynn? Britain and the US no longer providing it with bombs to drop on refugee camps? Starmer and others resigning from Friends of Israel? Or Israel not being allowed to participate in the Eurovision song contest? No, not even that will ever happen.
May 31, 2024
But you also need the strength of character to say what you believe without fear of persecution from the media & social media âŠ.often MPs appear weak in front of media backlash, so much so, that the media & social media set the agenda, pace & direction of policy
I like the approach of Lee Anderson, Farage & Trump for pushing back those boundaries
May 31, 2024
when you say their approach – I take it you mean being honest and telling it how it is, no fudges ?
May 31, 2024
There may be 650 ways to operate as an M.P. but today’s diary shows why it is a highly skilled job if done properly.
May 31, 2024
At the risk of stating the obvious, you canât represent the views of all your constituents – they have such different views. All you can do is what you promised when you were elected. For example, you promised immigration down to the tens of thousands. You didnât do that. You promise lower taxes. You promised to get Brexit done. You should keep your promises. You havenât.
May 31, 2024
When you stand for election, you represent the party closest to your views. Until the emergence of another party that has a realistic chance of forming a goverment or coalition that is a closer match.
I will be supporting the Conservatives because the only alternative government is Labour. I do so with no enthusiasm, but all Reform are going to do is cost Conservative seats and gain none of their own.
The country is small c conservative. Had we had administrations led by the likes of our host, rather than the One Nation group, who should be in the Lib Dims, Starmer would not get a look in.
The only way forward is to rebuild the Conservative party using proper Conservative policies.
May 31, 2024
How can you vote Tory and expect change when they will see it as an endorsement of their Liberal policies!
June 1, 2024
I agree. If you want to sack the Tories – because we know they cannot be ârebuiltâ until we have dismantled them, have the courage to vote Labour. By trashing your vote on the Greens/Lib Dems etc you give them false hope and they swagger about and push their agenda onto the bigger parties.
We need to tray the corrupt Tories this election, and rebuild grassroots up.
Then we can trash Labour next election.
We might just make it by the skin of our teeth, and have 2 patriotic parties in two elections time, and save democracy.
June 1, 2024
If sufficient numbers of disenchanted voters support Reform, they may acquire sufficient status to beat Labour in the following GE. Tactical voting merely hides the truth.
June 1, 2024
Chris S : âI will be supporting the Conservatives because the only alternative government is Labour.â
You are correct that labour will be worse. But after nearly 60 years of always voting Conservative I will not do so this time as my vote will be taken by the Conservatives as a vote to continue with mass immigration and Net Zero, two major policies with which I do not agree.
Furthermore, as Ian B has pointed out below, the Conservative HQ are parachuting themselves into all the safe seats and hence a Conservative opposition will be providing little, if any, opposition to Labourâs immigration and Net Zero policies. In fact, the PMâs sudden call for a GE may well have been a method to quickly mop up the safe seats having already decided that there was no way to win the next GE.
May 31, 2024
@Mike Wilson – but you can represent and serve them all equally
May 31, 2024
The integrity and forthright stance of any representative is essential otherwise his or her position of trust would falter . All bodies whether business or parliamentary must have a long term plan established before action occurs and the day to day procedures that follow are ingredients of that plan . The public can only sit and watch what happens . Democracy has many weaknesses and changes made do not always keep the ship on a direct course .
May 31, 2024
Sir John
I believe and itâs been shown you have served us in Wokingham well over the years.
However, todayâs political scene in Westminster seems opposed to democracy, discourse, discussion, it fights selection of out spoken views. Yet alternative views are the necessary part of challenging polarised group think even among the like minded. Candidates for election seem now to be the good and loyal being given a pat on the back and awarded with so-called safe seats. Those that canât get safe seats find lucrative homes in pointless ever-growing Quangos.
It is no longer about serving the people and the country. Other wise we wouldnât have run away uncontrolled expenditure and the high taxes and borrowing to âtryâ to hide the failure and support the self-gratifying egos of those that want to call themselves leadership. In other words, the trend is to cover up those that fail to serve, fail to manage.
If there was such a thing as service, to the people and the country service, we would not have Net-Zero and its punishment regime certainly and not placed above common-sense and the existence of the UK and its People. We must never forget 95% of the World is not involved in the NetZero attrition Laws our so-called overlords have place on the UK and without explicit consent. Ask people do they want less World pollution and the answer is Yes. Ask the same people are they prepared to lose their jobs, their income, wealth, send it directly to the rest of the World, so they(The World) can flourish and keep releasing pollution on the World, and at the same time the UK has poverty and decline forced up on it, then the answer is No.
Why are the UK Citizens punished and all our Competitor Nations Citizens just allowed to get on and thrive and prosper? The only conclusion is deluded people looking for self-gratification before anything else. The state of what we call Parliament, serving themselves before the people of the Country
May 31, 2024
The MsM has also picked up on this corruption of our Country, no longer good MPs to serve a constituency and the Country but good servants of would be Presidents – today’s media observations of Sunak loyal gang below. That said Starmer is doing similar. We wont find Government by the people for the people in the UK.
“With scores of seats left to fill before the election, Mr Sunakâs allies have been accused of âoperating a chumocracyâ in âparachutingâ special advisers and people close to the inner circle around the prime minister for winnable seats in the general election.”
“David Goss, the prime ministerâs deputy political secretary, became the latest high profile figure from Downing Street to be selected for a winnable seat in Wellingborough and Rushden, recently lost to Labour in a gruelling by-election.”
“He followed former army officer James Clark, a special adviser to defence secretary Grant Shapps, being selected for Great Yarmouth last night.”
“Others to get winnable seats include former Home Office special adviser Katie Lam landing the Weald of Kent constituency last year.”
That is not the making of a good Government for the people or the Country, it puts the UK Leadership on par with Putins form of Control of the State. Yes men only allowed here
June 1, 2024
and our long and faithful MP was given Wokingham in much the same way!
May 31, 2024
Two very able politicians, grammar school educated, Enoch Powell and Edward Heath competed for the leadership of the Tory Party. One had a vision of the UK as an independent state making it’s own laws, the other a vision of the UK becoming a component of a European super state (although this was not what was actually told to the electorate, needless to say). Despite Enoch Powell being by far the more popular in the country, the reverse was the case in Parliament.
Under any sensible electoral system, there would have been a schism in the Tory leading to the formation of two viable alternative parties which could make their cases to the nation at election time. Unfortunately, we do not have a sensible electoral system which means there has been continuous strife in the Tory party over Europe and a great deal of deceit of the electorate.
Despite disagreeing on many fundamental issues with his own party, JR persisted in belonging to the Tory Party because he had no alternative having wished for a career in British politics; however, his lack of preferment can be put down entirely to the fact that the globalist Europhile wing of the Tory party was in the ascendant during this time and still is and has added free movement with the third world to that of East European gangsters.
May 31, 2024
Righteousness exalteth a nation:
but sin is a reproach to any people.
Proverbs 14:34
AKJV
June 1, 2024
Your comments on the game the BBC plays with interviewees is instructive. I do not understand why the BBC has so many enterprises that have nothing to do with broadcasting, or which can hardly be described as public service – i.e. popular music.
I suppose we’ll have to sit and watch (I never do) as it asks no probing questions for next few years while Labour is in power and it promotes its narratives on climate change, gender, open borders and Brexit as the ur-cause of all ills. Oh, and of course, Tory sleaze.