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Tory tax rise means thousands more families to lose their child benefit Up to an extra 750,000...

Tory tax rise means thousands more families to lose their child benefit   Up to an extra 750,000 people will become higher rate taxpayers tomorrow (Wednesday), meaning that thousands more families will lose their child benefit in 2013 Labour will warn today.   Following changes announced in last June’s Budget by George Osborne [...]

17 March 2011 Alan Johnson voted in favour of the below Opposition Motion tabled by the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury last night to reverse the Government’s VAT rise on petrol and diesel. The motion was defeated. “That this House recognises that rising world oil, food and commodity prices are increasing [...]

                 As an MP I have always thought I should be loyal to my constituents, to my country and to my party – in that order. I have always taken seriously what I promised electors at the last Election and done my best to further those aims. When the Conservative [...]

  On March 3rd, the Public Administration Select Committee heard from Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude. here are a selection on uncorrected exchanges. Tremble for the future of the country.     Q194  Paul Flynn: I think I feel inspired by this born‑again socialism that we are hearing this morning.  You do not believe in [...]

This evening for the first time ever, MPs forced a division of the House of Commons for an in/out EU referendum.Defeated by 26 to 295, the result is nonetheless significant because it marks an important change in what it means to be a Eurosceptic. For two decades, Euroscepticism has [...]

  It was like asking questions of history. A trinity of Cabinet Secretaries faced the Public Administration Committee this morning. I confess to being slightly awe-struck. Their very names are a thunderous roll-call of power, Lord Armstrong of Ilminster GCB, CVO, Lord Wilson of Dinton, GCB and Lord Turnbull of Enfield, KCB, [...]

CARDIFF West MP, Kevin Brennan, has hit out at the Government's proposed cuts to Police forces across Britain following the news that the South Wales Police force could lose 256 Police Officers.According to a report in the Western Mail newspaper the four Welsh police forces could shed 1,600 officers and [...]

                 This week the changes to the NHS have at last come centre stage in the UK political debate. I am starting to receive emails disagreeing with  the government’s plans.                There are two common criticisms of the Lansley proposals which I need to dismiss before we can begin intelligent discussion of [...]

Mr Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): The Crown was sovereign once. It is intriguing that we are more than two hours into this debate but so far we have talked only about parliamentary sovereignty, even though the sovereignty technically still belongs to the Crown in Parliament. We all know about the events [...]

  This is today’s blog  for www.johnredwood.com which technical  problems  stopped me posting. I apologise to readers for the delay. I can also now catch up with contributions – I have been unable to ac cess the moderator’s pages.              I am glad the Conservatives and Lib Dems formed a stable government [...]

AN EXCHANGE in the Scottish Parliament this week: John Scott (Ayr) (Con): As the minister knows, the UK tourism minister is on record as saying that moving the clocks forward permanently by one hour would give a boost to leisure industries. Although that might be the case, can the minister confirm [...]

                 On Thursday I will be leading a one day debate in the Commons on the UK economy and economic growth. This is possible owing to the excellent reform that gives a Backbench Committee the right to allocate debates for one day a week. I asked for this wide ranging debate [...]

FOR many years I’ve enjoyed a reputation for being a “right winger” in the Labour Party, whatever that term even means nowadays. Some of my detractors will even go so far as suggesting I defect to the Conservative Party, so far from the Labour Party orthodoxy have I wandered. I think [...]

David talking to Action for Children in Birmingham’s ICC at this year’s Conservative Party Conference. Picture taken by Jamie Jones. To find out more visit Action for Children’s webite. [...]

RENEWAL of Trident was supported by the 65 per cent of the electorate who voted either Labour or Tory in May. Ah, but you see, that was before the era of The New Politics of democracy, accountability and transparency. Which actually means that in order to keep the minority coalition partner, the [...]

JS: Alan Johnson’s told us that this letter is just a wheeze got up by Conservative Party central office. Do you feel part of a wheeze? MV: No not really. JS: Who asked you to sign? MV: Who asked me to sign? I think, you know I have several friends there who…but I agree with the [...]

THERE are still lines which Labour MPs are not allowed to cross, it seems. Last night I ReTweeted a message from Peter Watt, wishing Margaret Thatcher a heavily caveated happy 85th birthday. The response from some party members, particularly on my Facebook site, has been pretty extreme: “evil” and “hate” were [...]

THEM CHEEKY young scamps over at Political Scrapbook have put together this entertaining video based on Dave’s inspiring [ahem!] conference speech. Watch it to the very end where Yours Truly puts in a short appearance and PS hit upon an ace idea for a compilation album. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBQunIVbIBI [...]

I’ve been catching up with David Cameron’s speech from Wednesday and I was particularly interested to see him mention Harry Beckhough, a lifelong Conservative Party member and someone who worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. David Cameron’s speech had some glowing words for Harry Beckhough, saying: “Harry joined our [...]

Yesterday I gave a speech to the Conservative Party Conference on my plans for a Schools Olympics as a lasting legacy for 2012. Not only was I was joined on stage by Olympic gold medal winner James Cracknell but also local Farnham resident and Paralympic gold [...]