Author: johnredwood

 

              David Cameron and Enoch Powell are or were very different kinds of politician. Dr Cable’s recent abuse of the Conservative party was designed to equate current Conservative  thinking on migration with the “rivers of blood” extremism of Mr Powell’s most infamous speech.  It shows a lack of respect for the Prime Minister he serves, and a lack of knowledge of Mr Powell’s general work on government and the EU.

              As always with people like Dr Cable his rude remarks are loaded with contradictions and errors. Two years ago Dr Cable was happy to sign up to a government decision to put off for another two years opening our borders fully to Bulgarians and Romanians. Why was it the case that two years ago this deed was neither damaging to our relationships with eastern European countries, nor Powell like?

               Now that Mr Cameron and Mrs May are trying to find legal ways to prevent overloading our welfare system by too many new arrivals, Dr Cable changes tack and accuses them of Powellite tendencies. They are seeking to implement the Coalition agreed policy of curbing immigration, something he signed up to at the beginning. How does he propose to hit the government’s target for reduced migration, as he disagrees with the measures needed to achieve it?   Where does he think the UK is suddenly going to get a large amount of extra public cash to provide generous public services and benefits to more new arrivals?  What is he suggesting we cut in our public budgets to make this extra cash available? One of the left of centre think tanks is already saying we do need to give more cash to local authorities likely to receive new  migrants.

                 Dr Cable is also clearly against the UK government seeking to change the EU rules to give a country like the UK more control over its own benefit system and  borders. Does he not read his emails or talk to his own constituents? I cannot believe his voters are keen on all this close EU integration that many people write to me to complain about.

 

       Thanks to all the contributors. Enjoy your day.

Sleigh Ride conjures images of Christmas, set to infectious music. It tells us “ These wonderful things are the things we remember all through our lives”. That song is part of the magic of Christmas. I always look forward to hearing local schoolchildren play it at the annual Carol concert.

On my recent visit to Bearwood School questions on the role of an MP soon became a more lively exchange about Christmas. Young eyes fired when I asked them for their view of Christmas. They all thought it was a time to be happy, to relax in the warmth of their families and to enjoy the special treats and presents that the season brings in most homes. As children get older so they learn the rhythms, traditions, words and music of Christmastide. It stays with them for the rest of their lives, though the wonder is probably brightest when it first fills a young mind.

All accept that at Christmas we should be friendly to others. We should say thank you for all those who have worked hard for us and our community. It is a time to remember service. It is also a time to extend friendship and kindness more widely. Visiting elderly neighbours or relatives who might be lonely, inviting people with no warm home to go to into our homes, ensuring young people who lack family support have presents and some cheer is all part of the tradition of the season.

I still love Christmas. Making the puddings, enjoying the turkey, decking the house, seeing the reflections of the tree lights in the bay window, exchanging presents and cards are all part of a special time. Betjeman painted a picture of Christmas that included some of his wry irreverence, but even he expressed the joy as well. “And girls in slacks remember Dad. And oafish louts remember Mum. And sleepless childrens hearts are glad. And Christmas morning bells say “Come””

I wish you and yours such a happy Christmas. Small acts of kindness, acts of love and memory are more important than the cost of the present. Christmas is a time to be generous to others in spirit, and to recognise the good in others. Let’s all try to add some magic and do something wonderful, so we will all share great memories of a Christmas well spent.

 

 I read in today’s Mail online something about what I am going to recommend on taxation when doing the policy work on the Manifesto. It was a very misleading piece that does not reflect my views.

 

The Sunday Times was not a lot better with its front page story on migration, though the media of course immediately assumed every word of it was correct!  The best source for my views and actions is here, for any journalist interested.

 

           The EU partners are pressing on rapidly with full union. The logic of the Euro requires ever more control to be taken to the centre over economic, fiscal and banking policy. The logic of ever closer union and the wish to harmonise their countries leads to outbreaks of integrationist policy. The EU view of mutual solidarity and support leads ineluctably to more sharing and pooling of power.

             This process has been going on for more than a decade since the Euro was established. Under Labour it was disguised. The then government usually signed up to it all, avoiding rows which would have highlighted its import. When challenged, as they regularly were by the Conservative opposition, they played down the importance. They always said they had established red lines which meant we controlled our own tax, benefit and borders policy, though it turns out we do not.

              The Lib Dems like to behave similarly, or sometimes wish to be more honest and to welcome ever closer union and more power for the EU. Mr Cameron does not, and seeks to use the Conservative position in  the coalition to limit the damage to the UK constitution. In recent days he has sought to keep the UK out of the impact of the banking union. He has argued against a defence union. He has sought to gain greater control over our benefit system. When will the other main parties in the UK wake up to the need to define a new relationship with the EU as the Euro area rushes on to full political union?

              The UK debate on the EU has been made more difficult  by the unwillingness of Labour to debate it openly and honestly. When the main opposition party is in denial about how much power they transferred, and how much power the EU would like to add to that transfer today, the public debate is enfeebled.  Today when the EU’s big role in benefits, borders and energy is at the centre of the UK political debate, we do not know what if anything Labour would want to do about all the power the EU wields over these crucial matters.

             UKIP supporters will continue to protest that all can be solved by their party, by simple withdrawal. However, the polls continue to point to most people voting in General Elections  for parties that welcome further EU integration, or for the Conservatives, the only Eurosceptic party with MPs capable of doing anything to resist the tide of EU power. We need to force the federalist parties to explain how much power they have given away, and to come clean about how little scope there now is for an elected UK government to alter great swathes of policy.

Because it is nearly Christmas, today we have a fairy story.

Once upon a time, not so long ago,  Jacques was a French farmer who lived with his mother. Their farm was not providing them with a decent living, and poor Jacques struggled every day to provide for the family.

Jacques was not stupid. He has heard the old English fairy story of Jack and the beanstalk. He was  not going to sell his last cow for magic beans, as he is not sure he believes in those. Nor does he like the sound of the giant very much, even though the giant’s hatred was specifically reserved for Englishmen, which Jacques can understand. There is no guarantee, thought Jacques, that he would like Frenchmen much more, or that the giant’s wife would be successful in hiding him.

One day Jacques could not get his sums to add up at all. He went to his mother and said he had been offered the chance to share their money and currency with the Germans over the border. He thought this could be a good idea. He pointed out that the Germans had plenty of gold. They seemed much richer than Jacques and the other French locals. If we joined the Germans, Jacques, said, we surely would be able to share some of their wealth and success. It was even rumoured that just like the old giant in the story, the Germans had a goose that laid golden eggs. Maybe they would share it with him.

His mother was sceptical. She didn’t like the Germans very much, because she heard bad things about them in the past. Jacques soon put her right. Modern Germans, he said, are very different. They are nice people now. They do want to help. They have said we can share our currency. They are not like old Blunderbore the giant.

His mother was won over. She consoled herself by thinking, at least my son doesn’t want to give our last cow away for a silly magic bean like Jack in that old tale. Maybe there is something in what he says. She didn’t have a better answer to how they could make a living, and the thought of all that German gold was very enticing. She didn’t really believe they had a golden goose, but she had read of big German gold hoards. There was no telling how they had got those.

So Jacques and all the other locals agreed to share their currency with the Germans. The Germans wanted to do it, as they could then sell many more of all those wonderful things they made so  well to all the other people in their currency zone. it meant they could sell more and save all the profits.

       The others  lived well for a few years, mainly by borrowing money to spend whenever they wanted to. Being associated with the Germans meant they could suddenly get cheap credit. They all wanted to buy lovely new German motor cars, which they did by borrowing.  Then one day when Jaques went to the bank to borrow some more so his family could have a holiday, the bank manager said No. He said the Germans were not sending him the money he needed to make all the loans, which had proved ever so popular.

Jaques went home and told his mum and friends. They said he would have to go to see the big German bank manager, and ask him nicely to keep sending the money to their local banks. After all, they did all share the same currency and had all agreed to look after each other.

So Jaques set off the see the German bank manager. He didn’t really believe the manager would be anything like the giant in the story, but as he got near to the office he thought he heard someone with a loud voice chanting

Fee fi fo fum
I smell the blood of a Frenchman
be he alive or be he dead
I’ll not part with my gold to buy his bread

That was probably all in Jaques imaginings, but when he got into the office a very polite normal sized bank manager confirmed that Germany was no longer willing to send lots of money to help everyone else in the currency zone. He said charity began at home. He said the Germans had worked very hard and had earned their gold. They did not have a magic goose that laid gold eggs, contrary to rumour. He was being kind by telling them there was no more money, so they could turn too and work harder. That had made the Germans more prosperous and so it should them.

So there was no golden goose after all. Or if there was, the Germans were being nasty and would not share it. If the Germans were right that they had got all that gold by hard work, how were Jacques and his French friends to catch up? The Germans said they had made all their gold by selling things to all the other people in their currency zone. The French couldn’t do the same because the Germans had already satisfied the market. Now the other people in the currency zone, like Jacques himself, had run out of money and could not buy lots more goods. Only the Germans could afford to buy more goods, but they refused to.

So what were Jaques and all the others to do? They had relied on all that German gold. Some of them really thought the Germans did have a golden goose. Some were morally indignant that the Germans did not want to send them any more. They thought the least the Germans could do, having taken so much money from them in the past for the goods they sold, would be to send some of that money back.

This fairy tale could have a happy ending. Some say the Germans relented and sent Jaques and the rest some of the German gold and they all lived happily ever after. Some say the whole area found a golden goose after all. It was a modern kind of goose called quantitative easing, so they could simply print enough money for everyone. Some say the Germans dug in saying if necessary there would be the break up of the currency. The others all had to go back to their farms, cut their costs and try to make a living after years of neglecting the hard work they needed.

I can’t tell you the ending, because, you see, this fairy tale is not yet over. Perhaps you can help me by telling me your idea of how we can end it happily.