Oct 02 2007
The Telegraph debate at Conference today.
The Telegraph newspapers laid on sandwiches, a large room, and a huge audience for their annual Conference debate. Ed Vaizey and I were the two MPs asked to explain how the Conservatives could beat Gordon Brown in a General Election.
When it came to a lively question and answer session it was apparent the audience was ready for the battle and knew they had to enter it with heads held high and with plenty of determination. It was clear that they were happy with the latest commitment to lower tax policies, and the strong campaign for a refererendum on the EU constitution. Irwin Stelzer wisely advised us to make the referendum issue one of trust - Gordon Brown broke his word given in the last Gneneral Election. We need to get home that simple message, that Gordon is all spin when it comes to the things that really matter.
There was some division of opinion over how bad Gordon’s economic record has been, but general agreement that the pension crisis is down to him and has damaged many people’s future or present retirement.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
GB is all spin in all things, not just the things which really matter. If you saw the sick session with Mariella Frostrup you will have noticed a number of superficial seventies student mannerisms, which were pure Blair - presumably because the mask was supposedly off in that cosy and congenial company.
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I hope you mentioned the Conservative policy of removing his right to vote on his ‘priorities’ of health and education.
It should be made abundantly clear that he has no mandate on English matters where the concomitant legislation is the responsibility of the Scottish Parliament.
Drowning him out with cries of no mandate ever time he takes to the dispatch box and talks about English matters.
Alternatively, in order to prevent the overturning of democracy, why don’t English MPs simply physically obstruct Scottish MPs passing through the lobby on English only matters? This would;
a) cause a stink and indelibly highlight the issue
b) cock-up Parliamentary timetables and thus inconvenience the Government
c) cause the (Scottish!) speaker to take action, ultimately calling in the Serjeant, excluding English MPs and getting the whole thing top-billing on the television news, and
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I agree that it is very difficult to articulate concerns over Brown’s economy based on pure supposition. Debt-driven demand has created transient growth but in the long-term I fear that we will have to pay for this with inflation. My two main worries are that if sterling depreciates significantly inflation will take off and that the BOE will not be able to curb that inflation by raising interest rates because of the interest-dynamic incurred on the massive volumes of debt used to fuel Gordon Brown’s growth. If interest rates go up it will increase the demand for more money that doesn’t already exist in the shape of interest-incurred and the only way out will be to completely bust the economy. Gordon Brown claims to have ended boom and bust but in the end I fear there will have to be a huge crash to cool down Brown’s debt-driven economy.
Reply: Brown has certainly not ended boom and bust. He encouraged it, with the easy money of 2003-5 and the much tighter money of 2007, which led to a run on a mortgage bank and the collapse of a smaller mortgage business. We also see a continuing queue of manufacturers seeking to take production out of the country, with Cadburys as the latest and most famous.
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It is important we do not JUST pin things on Mr Brown’s head. We need to attack the whole Government and Labour party to ensure the public do not trust the Labour PARTY rather than the Labour LEADER.
Many would still vote for Labour even without trusting Brown as they support their local Labour MP, but if we turn Labour’s reputation as a whole around - on the economy for instance - then we will win convincingly.
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Hello! Found your blog on yahoo - thanks for the article but i still don’t get it.
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