Please find below the link to download my Speech at the Cambridge Union:
Author: johnredwood
Wokingham Borough consults, ignores, then blames someone else.
The Lib Dem Council refuses to accept responsibility for the chronic waste of money and the bad scheme for California Crossroads. Conservatives opposed this scheme, seeing its unpopularity when listening to public opinion. This Council approved it and decided to spend £5.5 million on it.
Lib Dems complain that as MP I did not regularly criticise the Council when it was Conservative controlled. That was for two reasons. The first is it was better run. The second is the Council invited me in or to zoom meetings with the Chief Executive to go through matters of common concern for the public. I had regular email and phone exchanges with the Leader so I knew what was going on and could influence it. I could work closely with the Council where they needed help from the government. When the new Lib Dem Council was elected I accepted an invitation to a preliminary meeting. I offered them the same behind the scenes support I had offered the previous administration. I said I would take up any sensibly argued proposal that needed government support or money. They have subsequently failed to take these offers up. I do not receive briefings about their financial condition, for example.
Despite this lack of normal co-operation I have taken up things I assume they want without their help or information to back my case. I have successfully persuaded the government with other MPs with similar problems to drop the top down housing targets that require too much building. I have explained this and urge the Council again to put out a local plan, as this is crucial under the new approach to offering protection to areas we do not want developed. They have failed to do so.
I have helped get more money for potholes. I want to see action using the enlarged road maintenance budget as there is a big rash of potholes.
I have helped get more money for social care, as this was an area in need of more funding.
I have helped get two new SEN schools where we need more provision.
I have offered public advice to the Council to not cut back spending on grounds maintenance and decent proper street cleaning and drain clearing. I have supported continuation of weekly bin collections.
I have helped get a substantial uplift in the main grant to the Council and in the totals including a range of other sources of public money.
It is a new low in Lib Dem propaganda to argue I want sewage dumped in our rivers. The government has set out proposals with the water industry to increase pipe and processing capacity which has to happen to handle increased volumes. In the meantime before the bigger pipes have gone in the choice is between letting the sewage into rivers or it backing up and polluting our roads and homes.
Instead of scaring people about the financial position when they inherited a strong one with £120 million in balances the Council should get on with the task of providing value for money and spending on the peoples priorities. It would be a good idea if next time they hold a consultation they drop or amend their unpopular plan instead of ploughing on with it regardless as they have been doing all too often so far.
A lack of energy
The government says it takes energy security seriously so it encourages more wind and solar. Opposition parties want a faster run down of the gas and coal power stations that have been keeping the lights on, and query biomass at Drax. This would destabilise us more.
On Sunday demand was about one third below peak but we were dependent for than a quarter of our electricity on imports. This is alarming and shows the dangers to security and self sufficiency from premature fossil fuel plant closures and undue reliance on intermittent renewables.
If government insists on more renewables it first needs to get someone to put in massive investment in some combination of
More grid capacity
Large battery stores
Conversion of power to hydrogen and its derivatives
More pump storage
Government claims renewables are cheaper than gas generation. They do not usually allow for the extra grid and storage costs, or for back up power. If this were true then some of the cost gain has to be spent on storage and transmission.
If it is as some expect that fully costed renewables are dearer government needs to tell us the extra costs and explain who pays.
Given the delays in rolling out hydrogen and large battery with extra grid it is probably necessary to add more combined cycle gas capacity for the transition. This is what Germany is now thinking of doing.
It is quite wrong to be so dependent in imports. It loses us jobs, costs us tax revenues, puts big strains on our balance of payments. The EU is energy short, so it is very dangerous to rely on imports from them.
The ideas that we can muddle through with insufficient power on low wind days rests on two dangerous assumptions. It assumes everyone will accept a smart meter and accept the use of differential pricing to shift power demand away from peaks when renewables are low. it assumes many more people will own an electric vehicle and will be prepared to plug it into their home and run down the battery to heat and fuel the home when renewable power is scarce. Many people are resisting having a smart meter as they do not like this idea. Most people are not ready to buy an electric car or cannot afford one, and few are volunteers to have one to act as an adjunct of the national power supply.
UK trade with EU
The Remain politicians always claimed leaving the EU would damage our trade in goods with the EU. I and others pointed out that as our trade was so heavily skewed to imports and as we are both members of WTO trade would not suffer.
Remain insisted on locking us into a so called Free Trade Agreement, but still moaned that trade would be down as it would not match membership. This seemed bizarre.
So what has happened?
Since the vote in 2016, and since final exit early in 2020, our trade has increased with the EU. There is nothing on the chart to show a Brexit hit.
Exports were £37 bn in Q 3 2016 at the time of the vote. They were £38.8bn in Q1 2020 as we left. They have now risen by a fifth to £46.2 bn.
Imports were already at a high £60.8bn in Q3 2016.They were at £59.3 bn in Q1 2020 but soared to £77.8 bn in Q 3 2023. This is a rise of 30%.
The bad news is we are still running a big trade deficit in goods with them as we did all the time we were in the EU. It shows the need for better policies to promote home grown food and fish, more domestic energy and more UK manufactures.
To leavers it was not about trade. It was about making our own decisions and spending our own money. The biggest wins so far are saving our large financial contributions, not having to agree to help repay Euro 800 bn of new EU borrowing, and avoiding another 7000 laws.
Reflections on the Cambridge debate
There were meant to be four lead speakers on each side. Those proposing belief in the United States of Europe did have four senior people. Two were former UK MEPs, one was the founder and co-President of a pan European party, and one was a fellow in European Politics at LSE.
The Opposition had myself and a Professor who was sceptical about the feasibility and desirability of the USE. Two able students joined us. I was the only one of the four who thought Brexit a good idea though I had no plans to raise that. The others all wanted to raise Brexit, so that was 7 against 1.
Whilst it was an improvement on the referendum debates that the pro EU side did not deny a United States of Europe is a possible and desirable outcome, I was struck by their lack of detail. There was no blueprint for how the remaining tasks to build the bigger budget and larger tax base might work, how big the army need be, how and when the EU/USE would take responsibility for its own defence and how and when it would create peace in Europe. There was no exploration of how and when the EU growth plan would work and whether it was impeded at all by member state differences. There was plenty of hatred for Putin’s Russia and of a Trump led USA but no diplomatic path for better relations with these powers. The advocates clearly want a USE in Cold war with Russia and with the USA if they do not approve of its President.
Much of the tone of the debate was very narrow in attitude, repeating well known general platitudes about unity, democracy, solidarity with no understanding of how far the current structure is from delivering this.
There was no attempt to respond to the facts and figures I gave them on the huge gap between the US and the EU over growth, per capita GPD and for the growth of great companies. When I highlighted the importance of the great US digital corporations it led to hostility to capitalism though all these people do depend on Microsoft, Apple, Meta, Alphabet ,Amazon Web and Nividia to lead their own lives and to get their degrees. Their approach like the EU is to rely on US companies whilst condemning them.
Will the new intelligentsia wake up to reality? Europe has a lot of catching up to do. The world does not owe it a living. There is a huge gap between the high ideals they assert and the reality of what the EU is doing.
The Cambridge Union debates a United States of Europe
I offer below a speech similar to the one I made on Thursday night at the Cambridge Union. I spoke spontaneously and was not given enough time to say what I wanted. This recreation captures some of what I said then and adds a bit.
This House should not believe in a United States of Europe
It is good to see that some eight years after we had our great debate about whether to stay in the EU on its journey to ever closer union Cambridge wakes up to what the argument is all about
It would be quite a turn round for Remainers in the UK to believe in a United States of Europe.
They spent the last 50 years telling us the EU had no such plans.
It is just a single market they told us.
We will not lose more sovereignty they said .
Successive federalising Treaties were tidying up exercises. Nothing to see here
It is true I never believed them.
It was always clear to me the aim was a United States of Europe.
I could hear it in the speeches of many on the continent who were more honest about their direction.
I could read it in the Treaties themselves as they set out on their course of ever closer union.
We went from common market to single market
We went from European Economic Community to European Union
We went from the Treaty of Rome to the Treaty of European Union via Maastricht, Lisbon and Amsterdam.
The aim was always to create a United States of Europe
Many wanted to rival or outshine the United States of America
Today I can tell you there is still a gap between plan and reality.
I know both the USA and the EU fairly well.
I have travelled and worked in both.
I can assure you that for all its federalising and centralising
The EU is no United States of Europe in the way the USA is the United States of America.
Let us look at some of the differences
The USA has a powerful President elected by the voters of the whole nation
The EU has five Presidents jostling for authority. Not one of them is elected by a pan European electorate.
If any government in the world wants to talk to the USA, they ring the President in the White House.
Who are they meant to ring if they want to talk to the European Union?
If the USA wishes to meet a foreign country at senior level the President meets the Head of the other state.
If the EU wants to meet they often send a couple of their Presidents who argue over who is senior
The USA backs its foreign policy with the world’s most powerful army, navy and airforce.
The EU’s small forces cluster under the NATO umbrella and rely on US protection
The EU says it promotes peace
So what went wrong with its interventions in the Balkans?
How is it promoting peace in Ukraine?
The EU claims to be democratic
In Poland the new government is busy locking up Ministers from the government of 2007 despite a Presidential pardon
Germany has put the AFD Opposition under surveillance
The EU backed Spain in sending Catalan nationalist politicians to prison
The EU seems happy with stopping critics of its scheme from standing for election
The European Parliament has no organised Opposition saying the EU’s policies are wrong and offering an alternative
The EU says it promotes free trade
Yet it is slow to reach agreements with other countries
And quick to impose protections at home
The EU’s idea of a single market is
Laws telling everyone what they can make and how they can make them
No wonder innovation withers
All they needed was the simple rule that if you sold a product in your home country
Then you could also offer it for sale in any member state
The EU claims to foster a digital revolution
So how come all the world’s main technology companies are in China and the USA?
The EU claims to be good for growth
So how is it that the fifteen largest quoted companies in the world are all American – yes 15
How come the USA has outgrown the EU so much in recent years?
US GDP has now hit $80,000 a head
That almost double the EU’s $41,000
Time to ask who has the better model for growth?
Where the USA gives us great digital innovations and services
The EU taxes and fines US companies for daring to supply what the public and business want
The USA creates an exciting 21st century of opportunity and investment
The EU is stuck in the last century worrying that innovation brings threats
The EU wants many to buy battery cars
Pity they will largely be imported as China corners production of batteries
The EU poses as kind to migrants and asylum seekers
Yet it and its member states have been in recent years busy building more border wall and fence than Donald Trump
The EU promotes trans European networks.
All the time we were in the EU no trans European train turned up at Wokingham station
Whilst HS 2 was ground down by cost overruns and extreme delays
The EU’s energy policy has left it short of energy and facing high bills
Germany’s bad decision to close all her nuclear stations did not help
The worse decision to build pipelines to make themselves dependent on Russian gas followed
The EU has a great idea to put in more solar and wind energy
Such a pity China will supply much of the kit
Meanwhile the EU has not worked out how to store renewable power when plentiful
Or how to use electricity in planes and trucks
The USA under Biden as well as Trump carries on drilling for more oil and gas
So they can send gas to Europe to keep the lights on
The EU’s farming policy became so hostile to producing food
That a Dutch government fell because of it
The EU fishing policy is great at allowing supertrawlers to hoover up far too much fish
Damaging fishing grounds and sea bed
The Euro is the jewel in the federal crown
The chosen means to complete the Union
It has been a currency in search of a country to love it
Now the EU is making progress with the common budget, common taxes and common borrowing a USE needs
The Germans agreed to the Euro on grounds that it would take a tough anti inflation stance
They wanted no return to currency printing and debasement that so damaged Germany 100 years ago
In recent years the ECB did turn to money printing and ended up with high inflation
Germany agreed to monetary union on the basis that all states would need to keep their debts and deficits down.
Those rules are now suspended and most countries are way over the borrowing limits
One of the main constraints on fast progress to complete the United States of Europe is the huge costs it will impose
The EU itself is trying to overcome the cash shortage by its own huge borrowing spree
It aims to add a short trillion euros to EU debts
Which will fall to be guaranteed by the member states
The EU is a long way off commanding the mighty resources of the USA
The Euro is still no match for the dollar
As the EU worries about its defence and security, worries about its long and exposed borders, worries about its cash need, worries about where to find extra tax revenue from highly taxed people the US storms ahead with the digital revolution
I warn you
Do not be a small business in the EU – they will regulate and tax you too much
Do not be an entrepreneur in the EU – they will make innovation difficult and impose high taxes
Do not be a believer in freedom in the EU as they have a law for everything
Do not believe the emerging United States of Europe will outshine the USA
History tells us the attempts at European unions fail
The Holy Roman Empire broke up
The Scandinavian union broke up
The USSR broke up
To say nothing of the forced unions some European countries sought to impose on others that caused so much harm and loss of life
So EU
You do want to be the USE
But you are nothing like the USA
Why would anyone believe in this lopsided underfunded over regulated legal structure?
That is no new successful country
It is the comfortable well paid redoubt of an elite that is fast losing it with many voters.
Yours sincerely
My answer to the emails I received on the Gaza votes
Thank you for your email concerning the Hamas/Israel war. I was in Parliament for the proceedings and was frustrated that we were not allowed to vote on the motion and amendments. This was owing to an error by the Speaker, who wanted to put the Labour amendment first which ran the danger that no vote would then be possible on the original SNP motion. He apologised after the event for his mistake. As a result no recorded votes were undertaken on the issues. The chair said the House passed the Labour amendment unanimously. Many MPs in practice cried No to this amendment and objected to the procedure. No division lobby vote was allowed to demonstrate it was not unanimous.
What matters is what happens in Gaza. A vote in the House of Commons is not going to change the conduct of Hamas and Israel. I have throughout said I would like to see a ceasefire and pointed out this can only occur if the two sides in the conflict negotiate the terms of one, whether temporary or permanent. The UK government is speaking for the whole country when it uses its diplomatic powers to support Qatar and Egypt as they seek to bring the two sides together. It is good news to hear from the US Secretary of State that he thinks progress has been made in crucial talks to try to bring the two sides to a ceasefire.
The issues over the vote on Gaza
At the heart of the row in the Commons over the Gaza vote was a bitter feud between the SNP and Labour.
For many years the Standing Orders have been followed which state that on an Opposition Day the Opposition party that is given that day can table a motion for debate and require a vote on it. This was done to prevent the government tabling an amendment, voting through the amendment and thereby preventing a vote on the Opposition party motion. It is an exception to normal procedure on an amendment where we vote on it first then vote on the motion as amended or unamended depending on the outcome of the amendment vote.
Labour gets many more Opposition days than the SNP as allocation depends on number of MPs in the party. They chose not to use recent days to debate and vote a Labour motion on Gaza. The SNP motion went too far in criticising Israel for the Labour leadership. They were worried about Labour MPs voting for the SNP motion, and concerned Front benchers would resign to do so.
Seeing the SNP Motion the government as it is entitled to do tabled its policy as an amendment to the SNP motion expecting Parliament to first vote on the SNP motion followed by a vote on the government amendment when the SNP motion was defeated. Labour also tabled an amendment.
The Speaker wanted all 3 positions to be heard but his decision to allow priority to voting the Labour amendment meant the SNP motion would not be voted if the Labour amendment passed. The government then said they would withdraw their amendment expecting the Speaker to restore Standing Orders by requiring a prior vote on the SNP motion followed by a vote on the Labour amendment. Instead the Speaker determined to continue with priority for the Labour amendment. It also meant in the debate the Shadow Foreign Secretary took priority in responding to the SNP over the government.
Conservative backbenchers used up the remaining time so the Labour amendment had not been put to the vote by 7 pm when following the resolution of the House proceedings should have ended. Instead the chair put the Labour amendment after 7. There were howls of protest against putting it and cries of No against the amendment. The chair declared the amendment passed unanimously.
This was a bad day for Parliament. Meanwhile the Israeli Parliament voted against a two state solution for Gaza and Palestine. That was a vote that matters. It should remind UK MPs that what matters in Gaza is the views of Hamas and Israel.
Conservative Home article on mutualising parts of the public sector
Everyone an owner. There’s a popular Conservative policy that reaches out across the divide. An owner can be a self employed person setting up and running their own business. They can be a shareholder in a company they work for. It can be a left of centre idea in the form of a co-operative or mutual where workers and or customers own the concern. It can be home ownership, as attractive to many Labour voters as to Conservative.
Time was when past Conservative governments made great strides in extending ownership. As a Minister I helped the miners of Tower Colliery take on the ownership of their mine against a reluctant Coal Board. I freed parts of the Property Services Agency from within government so the managers could take it on and sell their skills more widely than the public sector. As an adviser I helped the lorry drivers of National Freight take over their old nationalised industry and transform it into a successful transport business.
The work I did for Margaret Thatcher led to the option of self invested pension funds instead of having to join a multi member big fund. It beefed up company share ownership schemes, and launched popular issues of discounted and free shares in the big privatisations. Incentives and help to own your own home were improved. Schemes to allow self build and homesteading, taking on and improving a run down public sector property were extended. We made it easier to be self employed and to set up a business. We raised the VAT threshold so small businesses did not have to wrestle with that extra cost and complexity.
Today we could find new ways to extend ownership. The public sector has become bloated and it has a deep productivity problem. It would be a good idea to explore ways in which employees in nationalised businesses, in independent public bodies and in parts of the administration of state departments could have a stake in what they do and more reward for improved performance.
The Post Office shows just how much can go wrong when the people running it do not have a stake in it. They have presided over the dreadful treatment of the sub postmasters for many years. Less remarked is that they also have accumulated a massive £1390 million loss for taxpayers. They have wiped out all the money taxpayers put in and left an effectively bankrupt business . It can only trade because it has guaranteed subsidy and cash made available by the government to meet all the losses.
HS 2 Ltd shows how overpaid senior executives there spent ever larger sums given freely by taxpayers with a much delayed result and with a huge cost overrun. Again they had no incentive from success and no downside if they got it wrong. If people want private sector large company levels of pay and bonus they should be expected to deliver good results for taxpayers, or should lose their ,jobs and or not get a bonus if they fail.
The railways are largely now nationalised. They have all the symptoms of nationalisation. Poor service, too many strikes, bad labour relations, huge losses to be paid by taxpayers are constant. There is no energetic business plan to win back lost passengers and provide new purpose for a system running high on overheads . Staff are often not treated well and do not benefit from success in attracting more passengers and earning more revenue. As the contracts to run train services end the state should reorganise. It should reconnect track with train services. It should offer shares in the new regional businesses to employees and to new providers of capital. It should allow other companies access to the tracks of the regional companies, with a competition regulator adjudicating if the regional company does not want to offer track capacity to others.
Much of the work of the Agencies, Councils and departments takes the form of contracts with providers. A Council sets a refuse or street cleaning or grounds maintenance policy and then sub contracts to a private provider. Quite often poor supervision of contract or poor policy choices lead to bad work or inefficiencies. More of the work done by the staff of the department, Council or Agency could be done by an external specialist concern, which could emerge from giving current staff teams contracts to do the work and the right to offer their services elsewhere. Once more is subject to competitive challenge so there will be more progress in raising productivity and quality and using innovations and new technology to improve service. The Minister or Council Committee should set the objectives and the budget.
The government needs a more generous policy towards self employment. The self employed provide so much of the crucial flexible personal service people need. They are prepared to work at week ends and evenings, come to your home to work, allow you to get in touch by phone or email without all the aggressive protective noise from larger companies. We have lost far too many of them since 2020. The government should scrap its changes to IR 35 which make it more difficult for self employed to win company business. Councils need to offer them a better deal on van access and parking to help the rest of us. Government should assist Councils to be business friendly in the interests of more and better services for their residents.
The government should improve its schemes to help service personnel and other key worker groups to own their own homes. Housing on public sector land, and created from modernising and adapting other public property would help. Mortgage contributions could be part of the salary package, with private capital brought in from building societies and banks. Where the state wants to keep the property when the person wishes to leave public employ, then it should buy back the home at a market adjusted price so the person has money to help with the purchase of a property for their new lives.
There are plenty of ways for government to help people own something. More of the public sector can be mutualised. More public property can be used to help create homes and businesses for people to own. This could give the state a new sense of purpose, raise quality and productivity, and help improve relations with the workforce. Let’s have a nation of owners, where the interests of workers, executives and owners are aligned because many more can directly participate in success.
My Intervention on employment in the Urgent Question on the UK Economy
John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con):
It is good news that unemployment has stayed low by European standards, and the economy is still generating plenty of job vacancies. Will the Government take more steps to help more people into those jobs, so that we can get faster growth, bring down the benefit bill and boost their incomes?
Bim Afolami:
The whole House knows that my right hon. Friend is somewhat of an expert on matters relating to the economy. To answer his point specifically, the national insurance tax cut was scored at the last fiscal event—the autumn statement—as significantly increasing the number of people in work. Although I will not speculate on fiscal events, that point has been very much noted by me and the whole Treasury.