Imagine the fear and the adrenaline rush for those young men in 1944 as the landing craft beached and opened them to German fire for the first time. There were many who had to brave the privations and dangers of the soldiers life as the…
I attended the Wokingham Conservatives selection meeting on Friday 31 May. We interviewed three candidates proposed by CCHQ from their approved list. I agreed with the majority view that Lucy Demery was the best candidate for the vacancy.…
I helped persuade the Sunak government to take action to cut legal migration last year. This January they took some steps to do so. Now I read Labour too want to bring it down. They decline to tell us how or by how much. Meanwhile they…
The U.K. needs to go further than adopting a more realistic rhetoric about getting to net zero. It needs to keep recent policy changes and add additional ones 1 Policies to keep It needs to extract more U.K. oil and gas in place of more…
The ideas of Labour, Greens and Lib Dems offering us a future abundance of cheap renewable electricity is a dangerous deceit. We lack the guard capacity to shift more to electrical operation and to handle more renewable generation from far…
The Conservative government since 2019 has let in too many people, mainly by granting visas for legal entry. The Labour, SNP and Lib Dem opposition has vigorously opposed some measures to clamp down on illegal migrants, leaving our borders…
Quite a lot of MP s get into trouble over money. A few extreme individuals turn out to be thieves or fraudsters. Submitting false invoices to be paid or cheating people or the state out of money is common theft and will end in tears. Many…
MPs are often accused of pulling their punches or not telling the truth. In practice an MP is always speaking as an MP and may anytime be picked up for what he or she has said, even if it were a private observation born of frustration,…
Today I cease to be an MP. I can now tell you more of what it is like, free of criticism that what I say is to put a favourable spin on how I undertook the tasks.As we embark on choosing new MPs we should discuss what we want them to do…
Packing up is never easy. There are many reminders of old battles fought and won or fought and lost as I tidy the papers and take away personal effects from the office . There are friends and colleagues to say Au Revoir to. Today I wish to…
Labour is declining to promise much for fear of letting people down if it wins. Its biggest of just six first steps or pledges is to set up Great British Energy, bringing bills down by £300. There is no way such a body could cut bills. The…
Labour and Liberal like to blame the government for the Councils that go bankrupt or have to cut essential services to make ends meet. It is easy to just say government should give them more money. The truth is many of the Councils get…
I am considering changes to the website and content once we know the results of the General election. I will be providing an analysis of the run up to the election by the Conservatives soon after the election. Knowing the result will…
I have been critical of the government for putting up with unacceptable losses by the Bank of England, the railways, the Post Office, HS 2 and other nationalised concerns. I have criticised the handling and reporting of high borrowings and…
The Uk imports too much energy, making us reliant on the goodwill of foreigners. All parties to the election should renounce the mad carbon accounting which says if you use your own gas you are adding to world CO 2 but if you import the…
I have decided not to put my name forward in the forthcoming election. I have other things I wish to do. It has been a privilege to represent Wokingham in nine Parliaments. I have drawn many of my campaigns from the views I have heard on…
The government is taking action to reduce legal migration. The main Opposition parties do not want to cu back substantially on migration. Cutting the number of visa applications across skilled worker, health and care and sponsored study by…
You can find my interview starting at 5:00:00. I gave a talk to Legatum setting out the need for change at the Bank of England. I highlighted their wrong models, poor forecasting of inflation, excessive money creation and their more recent…
Some years ago I was asked to speak to the local British Legion. Whilst praising them for the sacrifices our armed services have made, I chose to speak about how we could and should fight fewer wars. We can learn from past wars which were…
I visited Wade in Wokingham to talk to the users of the Centre and to thank the staff. It was a flower arranging day when I visited with some lovely blooms available for display. Wade makes a good contribution to our community, enriching…
This week we read taxpayers will be slapped with a bill for £10 bn for the NHS using contaminated blood when treating patients. It has taken years to enquire into what went wrong, and to offer people compensation. We await the full bills…
I keep hearing from the Lib Dem Council that Wokingham gets little money from central government. I will use a few blogs to set out again what Wokingham Council is receiving from government. These are often areas where I have put the case…
The forces of Ukraine face a larger enemy and need plenty of help from NATO with weapons, ammunition and financial support. So far the leading money donors, the EU and US, and the leading provider of military items, the USA have given…
The UK has fought all too many wars in Europe. Often we were fighting to defend the right of another country to govern itself, or to support political and religious freedoms. We had to fight Philip II of Spain, Napoleon and Hitler for our…
Sir John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): I am pleased that the Minister and the Prime Minister are keen on promoting more home-grown food. As the transition occurs, what proportion of total subsidies paid will be for promoting food? It still…
The local elections were ignored by a large majority of the electorate. Whilst polls usually show enthusiasm for more devolution and more local decision making, when people are offered a chance to vote for local representatives most choose…
Sir John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): We voted in a referendum to end the rule of EU law throughout the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland. Given the muddle that the courts are creating, is not the only way out of this an urgent,…
The Opposition parties in Parliament would still like to surrender more powers of self government to the EU. Meanwhile there are three issues currently before Ministers which pose the same question, should we govern ourselves? Labour and…
Sir John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Will the Minister then publish the amendments that the Government are seeking? He says, rightly, that he needs a very different treaty from the one that we see on offer. He needs to persuade other…