On Saturday morning I was in Shinfield with local Councillors to talk to people about local issues and any individual cases they wished to bring to my attention.
Author: johnredwood
All Saints flower festival
I visited the All saints flower festival on Saturday. The floral displays were of great quality, filling the church with armfuls of colour and symbolism.
Each of the main floral displays echoed the designs of new vestments commissioned for the Church from Julie Quinn of Croft Design. All Saints purchased twelve new fine robes for the clergy to wear at the appropriate seasons, from a bequest the Church has recently received.
The Advent display features the root of Jesse on the vestment, the Pentecost one a stunning tongues of fire design and Creation Time the fish, birds and animals of the earth. Each chasuble and stole is of pure silk and cloth of gold. The Church are grateful to the late Eric Rands for leaving them the money for this impressive purchase.
I congratulate all the flower arrangers involved, and thank the Church for inviting me to see the beauty of their new vestments and displays.
A simple question for Mr Hague
My question for Mr Hague, is will he act in support of the last Conservative Manifesto on the crucial question of the EU’s power?
The Manifesto we both fought on was crystal clear on the matter of the EU. It said in the opening paragraph that “We will work to bring back key powers over legal rights, criminal justice and social and employment legislation to the UK”. I saw no need to say something different in my personal manifesto on these items, other than to pledge to vote for a referendum.
The Manifesto went on to say:
“In future, the British people must have their say on any transfer of powers to the EU….We will introduce a UK Sovereignty bill to make it clear ultimate authority stays in this country, in our Parliament. The steady and unaccountable intrusion of the EU into almost every aspect of our lives has gone too far…”
Nest week I will willingly vote for a simple motion opting us out of all 133 Criminal Justice measures we can opt out from. I cannot vote for a motion to opt back into any them, especially something as fundamental as the European Arrest Warrant. We should opt out, and then negotiate arrangements for extradition between ourselves and the rest of the EU on a bilateral basis, as we do with other non EU countries. I do not wish this matter to be put under the control of the European Court, and to be put beyond our amendment or improvement in later years by incorporation as a sole EU competence or power.
I understand the government’s Lib Dem problem. They apparently will only vote for the opt out from the 133 if there is to be some opt back in, whilst many Conservatives have no wish to opt back in. It poses a difficult question for Ministers. I assume Labour will back the Lib Dems as they usually do. Both these parties it seems take delight in giving as much power away to Brussels as possible.
Well done Mr Osborne
George Osborne made a most important statement at the Treasury Committee on Thursday. He said a Conservative government if elected would not need more tax rises in the next Parliament. Further moves to get the deficit under control would be achieved by a slower pace of spending gr0wth, and by the natural buoyancy of existing taxes, not by more rises. I agree. The UK’s problem is not that tax rates are too low, or too few things are taxed.
Presumably Labour and Lib Dems will disagree with this approach. They seem to be busy trying to find more ways to tax us.
The Environment Agency and local flood issues
This week I held another review meeting with the Environment Agency to find out what further progress they are making on tackling flood threats in the area.
They have cleaned the Emm brook, and have committed to doing this regularly to try to prevent debris blocking or slowing the passage of the water.
I asked for a progress report on measures to alleviate flood threats along the Emm in Wokingham – with possible beneficial effects on Winnersh, and for a report on future schemes for the Loddon floodplain.
The new Director told me she would get back to me with considered answers and was grateful for the background briefing on the outstanding issues.
Mr Redwood’s intervention during the debate on the motion relating to Arms to Syria, 11 July
Mr John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree that it is even more important that Parliament should have its say and a vote before any such thing was considered (arming the rebels) because the British people are uneasy about the interventions made in their name in other places in the last decade?
Bill Wiggin (North Herefordshire) (Con): As always, I have no difficulty in agreeing with my right hon. Friend.
Money and the NHS
Public officials do know how to stoke the age old UK debate about “inadequate funding”. This week the media is alive with claims that the NHS will run out of money if it is not given large real increases to cater for rising demand and increasingly costly treatments.
Private sector industries never debate like this. You do not hear leaders of the mobile phone and smart phone industry on tv demanding higher allocations of future individual budgets to comunications, or threatening a shortage of capacity if prices do not rise. We used to have capacity and service quality problems with phones when we had a nationalised monopoly service, but have solved most of these by competition, choice and private capital. The changes to the range and types of service delivered, and the cost reductions owing to better technology and productivity have been stunning.
It is true that the UK is wedded to the admirable principle that health care should be provided according to need, with much of it provided free at the point of provision. We pay for our health care over our lives, paying more in when we are healthy and successful, and less in when we are not. No main political party wishes to change this approach.
What we need from the officials who help Ministers lead and grow this crucial national service is constructive advice and help on how to adapt and develop the service, not screaming headlines of future crises imagined if more taxpayer money is not forthcoming. As we develop our NHS model, we need to ensure that it can embrace the innovation and productivity improvements that we rely on to keep the bills down in successful private services,without having to confont Granny with a bill when she visits the GP or hospital. I intend to look at ways to boost income , improve quality and performance and increase productivity over the next few days, without resiling from the popular underlying principle of “free” healthcare for all.
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European troubles again
The decision of the ECHR to prevent the UK keeping really violent and unpleasant criminals in prison for a long time will not go down well amongst Conservative MPs, nor in much of the rest of the country. The Lib Dems refuse to allow Conservative Ministers to tackle this unwarranted interference this Parliament. We will need robust proposals for tackling the wayward Court in our next Manifesto. I hear that will happen.
At the same time Mr Clegg and the Lib Dems have apparently refused to allow the Coalition government to get back the 133 powers granted under Labour’s Criminal Justice co-operation with the rest of the EU unless the government opts back into crucial federalist measures like the European Arrest Warrant. This too is being taken very badly by many Conservative MPs. We so rarely get a chance to get powers back from the EU, so we do not wish to miss the full opportunity.
The press drew attention to the happy spirit of unity the Conservative party achieved when as a united party we voted for a referendum last week. We had to cut loose from the shackles of coalition to do so, as the Lib Dems no longer supoprt an EU referendum. Next week it looks as if the Coalition is back in business, to the annoyance of Conservative MPs who want more power from Brussels and do not wish to lose any part of this opportunity to reassert control over our own criminal justice system.
It is easy to unite the Conservative party on the EU – it will always be united when we are working to make a reality of a “new relationship with the EU” that means we are able to govern ourselves again. The party was united in voting against Nice, Amsterdam and Lisbon, and was united in voting for a referendum on whether to stay in. Anytime the Coalition grants powers to the EU or fails to take powers back, it will be opposed by many Conservative MPs.
Wokingham Times
Last Friday MPs at last had a chance to vote for a referendum on the EU. The Commons Chamber was packed, an unusual sight on a Friday. It soon became clear that if we wanted to get a vote and a decision before the end of business, some of us had to be willing to miss out on giving a speech.
A few Labour MPs and one Liberal Democrat MP argued that we should not be going on about the EU. They thought we should concentrate on issues like jobs, the economy, welfare and immigration instead. The truth is we cannot sort out all those issues in the way we would like unless we negotiate a new relationship with the EU. The EU has so much power now to dictate policy to us, thanks to the big transfer of authority engineered under the last government in the Nice, Amsterdam and Lisbon treaties. Those of us who want cheaper energy for our homes and businesses, who want to be able to deport suspected criminals to stand trial elsewhere, who want to control the numbers of new migrants into our country, and wish to set fair and sensible benefit rules, need to change our relationship with the EU to be able to do these things.
They argued that offering a referendum would be bad for our country, as it created uncertainty. Gisela Stuart, one of Labour’s Eurosceptics, pointed out to them that on that argument we would never have a General Election, as that too creates uncertainty about our future government! Most speaking in the debate realised two central things. The first is that as the UK does not wish to join the Euro, we need a new relationship with the Euro bloc. To try to get their currency to work better they are going in for much more centralised government of a kind we cannot accept. The Euro forces us to find a new way of trading with them and being friends with them. The second is a majority of people in our country want a say in all of this. It is high time MPs let them have one.
The Bill achieved its second reading easily, with 304 of us voting for it, and none against. Liberal Democrats and Labour stayed away from the vote, implying they do not feel strongly that a referendum is a wrong idea.
Recently I have met senior management of both the local Health service and the local police, to pass on the comments and feedback I have received about these important public services.