Category: Press Releases

Emmbrook School has walked away with the John Redwood Cup for debating for the second year in a row, following the hotly-contested final of the Wokingham Schools Debating Competition on Friday the 28th November at Wokingham Town Hall.

After a hard fought contest on the subject of “This House believes the Government has created the credit crunch”, Adam Connell and Florence Curtis of the Emmbrook narrowly defeated Lawrence Hill and Dominic Murray-Vaughan of the Willink. The teams had previously debated issues such as house prices, climate change and energy prices, and education over three rounds of debating in October and November.

Adam Connell and Florence Curtis have therefore secured for the Emmbrook School the John Redwood Cup for the second year running, as well as an overhead projector kindly donated by 3M. In addition, all four finalists will receive a day at the Houses of Parliament with John Redwood, where they will have lunch and get the opportunity to see Prime Minister’s Questions live from the viewing gallery. The other participants from St. Crispin’s, the Holt, Luckley Oakfield, Padworth and Maiden Erlegh all received prizes from the House of Commons gift shop and certificates for their participation in the contest.

Speaking about the competition, John Redwood said: “After two months of hard-fought debate we now have our winners. I would like to congratulate Adam Connell and Florence Curtis for winning the contest for the Emmbrook for the second year in a row.”

“The judges had a very difficult job all the way through the contest and the standard of debating amongst all the participants was very high.”

“I am pleased that we are able to provide this opportunity for Wokingham pupils to hone their public speaking and debating schools, and give them the opportunity to develop important skills for the world of business and politics.”

The final of the contest was judged by Sally Bryant from the Wokingham Times, Donald MacDonald from the RBS, and Ian Graham from Clifton Ingram, and was sponsored by generous donations from RBS, Classicstone Properties, Bill Clark, Clifton Ingram, 3M and Ticheners.

For more information, including photographs of the winning team for media purposes, please contact Carl Thomson on 020 7219 4205

In a speech to the Social Market Foundation earlier this month, the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith claimed that “as she goes round the country, she regularly has people coming up to her and saying they don’t want to wait” to be issued with the Government’s new Identity Cards. The Government has suggested that there is a demand for Identity Cards, and that they will prove to be popular amongst the British people.

However, a series of Parliamentary Questions tabled by the Rt. Hon John Redwood MP has revealed that of the 3,073 items of correspondence regarding Identity Cards and the National Identity Database received by the Identity and Passport Service between November 2006 and October 2008, just 1,142 were recorded under the theme of “Wants an Identity Card”, or just over a third.

It is likely the true scale of people’s opposition is even higher than that claimed by the Government. In their answer to John Redwood’s Parliamentary Question, the Home Office only included correspondence sent to the Identity and Passport Service, and not letters sent directly to the Home Secretary or her officials. It may also be that letters recorded under the subject of “Wants an Identity Card” will include enquiries from people who believe they are required to obtain a card now, or those making enquiries about how they can obtain one in the future to comply with new requirements to be placed on foreign students and spouses from outside the EU. These should not necessary be taken as indications of support for the Government’s policy.

John Redwood says: “It is astonishing that, even after putting the best possible spin on the numbers and neglecting to fully provide the information requested, the only figure the Government can come up with is a third of people wishing to receive an Identity Card. This makes it much more difficult to believe the Home Secretary’s claim that there is a demand for Identity Cards from the British public.”

“In fact, public opinion is likely to be much more strongly against Identity Cards than the Minister’s figures suggest. People who are opposed to this measure are not likely to have written to the Identity and Passport Service but to the Minister or her officials directly at the Home Office. It is telling that the Minister has neglected to tell us how many members of the public have written to her directly to express their opposition to this unnecessary and expensive gimmick. The Minister claims this information is not recorded. I suspect that, had there been deluge of correspondence supporting the Government’s plans, she would have been only too happy to tell us about it.”

“Poll after poll has shown that the British people do not want Identity Cards. We do not need Identity Cards, and we certainly do not need the Government’s draconian National Identity Database. They will be costly and ineffective, and will do nothing to protect our civil liberties, defend against terrorism or help clamp down on illegal immigration.”

During yesterday’s questions to the Chancellor of the Exchequer after the announcement of the Pre-Budget Report, John Redwood highlighted the staggering levels of debt we are now seeing in the economy, and pressed the Government to be more transparent about its borrowing. John was also very critical of the fact that there was no proper debate scheduled for after the Pre-Budget Report, given the dire state of the public finances.

The full text of John’s contribution, taken from Hansard, now follows:

Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): In his speech, the Chancellor said that this year’s borrowing would be £78 billion, but the Budget book tells us that central Government need to borrow £153 billion this year—£93 billion more than at the Budget forecast. As he believes in transparency, why did he leave out so much of the borrowing?

Mr. Darling: I gave the House the borrowing figures, as the House would expect. I am also laying before the House the pre-Budget book. It is all there, and I am happy for hon. Members to look at it. Equally, I would be happy to listen to proposals from Conservative Members. The only proposal that I recall from the right hon. Gentleman recently related to the deregulation of the mortgage market, which I do not think would be a very good idea.

Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): As we have just heard a pre-Budget report that turned out to be a Budget with an urgent and big tax change, will the Minister give us guidance from the Treasury Benches on how soon we will be able to debate and vote on the huge VAT change? It is very unusual to have a Budget, yet not be able to proceed to a Division on it.

Mr. Deputy Speaker (Sir Alan Haselhurst): Order. I do not see the relevance of that point to the motion before the House.

Mr. Peter Lilley (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Deputy Speaker. My right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood) none the less raises an important point on which I would like your guidance. We have effectively just had a massive Budget—bigger than many of the real Budgets through which I have sat over the past 25 years, all of which have been followed by five days’ debate. Have you received any indication, Mr. Deputy Speaker, that there is to be a change in House business to allow us to debate that Budget, or is democracy at an end in this place?

The Emmbrook School and the Willink were the winners of the semi-final of the Wokingham Schools’ Debating Competition, held last week on Thursday the 20th November at Wokingham Town Hall.

In a series of lively debates chaired by the Rt. Hon John Redwood MP, who organises the competition for local schools every year, Adam Connell and Florence Curtis of the Emmbrook and Lawrence Hill and Dominic Murray-Vaughan of the Willink scored victories over their opponents from St. Crispin’s and the Holt School. They will now proceed to the final round, held this Friday the 28th November in Wokingham Town Hall at 7pm, to battle it out for the John Redwood Cup and a chance to visit the Houses of Parliament.

The motion that will be debated this Friday is “This House believes the Government has created the Credit Crunch”, a very topical subject with the economy being so high on the political agenda.

The winning team will receive the John Redwood Cup for their school, which will also receive an overhead projector donated by 3M. Both teams will also get the opportunity to have lunch with John Redwood in the House of Commons next year and see Prime Minister’s Questions from the viewing gallery. All participants will receive certificates and small prizes from the House of Commons gift shop at a prize giving ceremony held after the final round on Friday.

Speaking about the semi-final, John Redwood said: “Once again the quality of debate was very high. All the teams had obviously put a great deal of effort into preparing their arguments, and they also showed an ability to think on their feet and respond well to the cases made by their opponents”.

“These are valuable life skills and I am glad to be able to give Wokingham pupils the chance to hone these by organising the competition, which is very popular amongst all the participants”.

For more information please contact Carl Thomson on 020 7219 4205, and for photographs of the participating pupils (for media purposes only), please contact Christine Hill on 0118 962 9501

Speaking during the parliamentary debate on the Government’s proposals to bring regional select committees into the House of Commons yesterday, John Redwood strongly criticised plans to introduce yet another unnecessary lawyer of bureaucracy and the attempts to divide England into unwanted regions.

The full text of John Redwood’s contribution to the debate, taken from Hansard, follows:

Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): What part of “no” does the Leader of the House not understand following the referendum result in the north-east on elected regional government? Does she not understand that the people of England do not want to be balkanised and regionalised at their own expense?

Ms Harman: We are not proposing to the House what was proposed in the north-east.

Mr. Redwood rose—

Ms Harman: If the right hon. Gentleman will allow me, I can get on and explain what our proposals are.

Mr. Redwood: Does my right hon. Friend understand that the Labour Government seem to have this awful fear of England? They devolved power to Wales and to Scotland, but they will not devolve any power to England. Instead, they want to break it up.

Mrs May: My right hon. Friend’s point leads neatly into my next comment, which is that the unwritten intention behind the Prime Minister’s proposal was to find a solution to the West Lothian question. The message we should send clearly to the Leader of the House is that whatever else the expensive new structure will do, it will not answer the West Lothian question.

The Rt. Hon John Redwood MP has thrown his weight behind a campaign to help blind and visually impaired people receive a higher classification of disability benefit that would make it easier for them to get around and travel.

At present, blind people are excluded from receiving a benefit called the Higher Rate Mobility Component of Disability Living Allowance. This is a small sum of money paid to help people who have difficulties getting around on their own and aims to help with extra mobility costs they face as a result of being disabled, such as paying for taxis or private hire vehicles. However, despite facing some of the biggest challenges to travelling independently, blind people are not included in the list of people who are eligible for this benefit.

The Royal National Institute for the Blind has argued that making blind people eligible for this benefit would cost around £30 million, a relatively small sum compared to other areas of Government expenditure. After meeting with and talking to some of his constituents who support this campaign, John Redwood has given it his support. He has signed a parliamentary motion calling on the Government to end the exclusion of blind people from the list of those eligible for this benefit, and has sent a letter to the Minister for Disabled People at the Department of Work and Pensions arguing the case.

Speaking about the campaign, John Redwood said: “The Government is apparently able to find billions and billions to spend on regional assemblies, unwanted Identity Cards, bank bailouts and Whitehall bureaucrats. I therefore do not think it is unreasonable to ask, even in the current economic climate, that they find the small sum of money that would be required so blind and visually impaired people can receive some of the help they need in order to get around, visit their friends and family and go about their daily business”.

The Emmbrook School, the Holt, St. Crispin’s and the Willink all advanced to the semi-finals in the annual Wokingham Schools’ Debating Competition organised by the Rt. Hon John Redwood MP. The first round of the competition, held at the Emmbrook on Thursday the 9th October, saw the home team of Adam Connell and Florence Curtis join Anna Carter and Charlotte Lesbirel of the Holt go through to the semi-final. A week later, on Thursday the 16th October, Albert Bezman and Stephen Gillespie of St. Crispin’s and Lawrence Hill and Dominic Murray-Vaughan of the Willink also made it through.

The first two rounds were chaired by the former leader of Wokingham Borough Council, Mr. Frank Browne, who presided over proceedings. A panel of judges made up of Conservative Councillor Annette Drake, Liberal Democrat Beth Rowland and Wokingham News journalist Rebecca Johnson ranked the winners based on a number of criteria including the clarity of their arguments and the ability to think on their feet.

Speaking about the result, John Redwood said: “The judges probably had the hardest job of the evening as the standard of debating amongst all participants was very high. The participants demonstrated an ability to formulate their arguments and argue their case in front of an audience. These are valuable life skills that will be appreciated by any future employer”.

The semi-final of the debating competition will take place at 7pm on Thursday the 20th November at Wokingham Town Hall. The participating teams in the semi-final will be given the motions to be debated a two weeks before the event. The two winning teams will progress to the final on Friday the 28th November at Wokingham Town Hall, where the winning team will receive the John Redwood Cup for debating and the opportunity to spend a day in the House of Commons with John Redwood.

The debating competition was made possible by the generosity of the sponsors Royal Bank of Scotland, Classicstone Properties, Mr. Bill Clark, Clifton Ingram, 3M and Ticheners.

For more information and for photographs of the participating students, please contact Carl Thomson on 020 7219 4205.