Category Archives: Articles

Debt is easy to get into, but difficult to get out of. In 2008-9 the debt crisis was all about people who had borrowed too much on mortgage, and banks which had lent too much. On both sides of the Atlantic that is being sorted out. Gradually people are paying off debts, and taking out [...]

Last week Parliament felt better about itself. Parties and politicians who had been craven before the media suddenly found voices. They united to speak out against the Murdoch press. Labour and Coalition jostled to be the more demanding. By the end of the week Parliament had got what it said it wanted – an Inquiry [...]

In recent days politicians have had old age on their minds. The Commons turned down a proposal for tax relief for health insurance for people after they have retired during the Committee stages of the Finance Bill. That helped keep us debating high finance until 1.30 in the morning. The public sector held a series [...]

                  It was always going to take a long time to turn round the financial and economic mess this country was in. So far the Coalition government has put taxes up – VAT and National Insurance – to start to bring the deficit down. Now they are meant to move on to getting more [...]

This week I am writing to the company set up to develop Wokingham’s town centre. There is plenty of good will behind the idea that Wokingham needs a facelift. The town has attractive buildings around the Market Place, and it serves a well populated area. Today it does need some new retailers and some new [...]

The best innovation in this new Parliament is the creation of days when backbenchers can choose the business to be debated. I held one of the first debates under this scheme last year on the need to promote economic growth. On Tuesday I was one of the instigators of a debate on the bail outs [...]

Both sides in the referendum campaign tried to use non politicians to get out their message. They wanted to portray a different kind of politics. Both sides ended up spending large sums of money retailing highly contentious claims in a desperate attempt to grab some headlines and make this rather abstract topic interesting and important [...]

When 250,000 people march in Central London to complain about cuts the government should listen, and should engage with their leaders in a sensible dialogue. There are many things I felt I wanted to say had I been invited to talk to them as Mr Miliband was able to do. I would have started with a [...]

Public spending is still going up by 6% a year, though there are plenty  of discussions about cuts. One of the reasons is the surge in interest payments we now have to make, as so much has been borrowed in the last couple of years. It makes controlling the deficit all the more critical, as we [...]

The problem with Coalition governments is you can end up with policies that neither party wanted and few electors voted for. The Alternative Vote is one such idea. I fought the Wokingham election against changing the electoral system. The Lib Dems fought it in favour of a proportional system. We both agreed the AV system [...]