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I won’t support Labour on fuel duty – or duck the issue of spending

Today, we’ll be debating an Opposition Day motion on fuel duty, which I want cut. It’s shocking that 60% of the pump price of petrol is tax. Nevertheless I won’t be supporting Labour. It’s one thing to be supported by Labour on a important constitutional point — Parliament’s control over our EU budget contribution, for example — but it is another to support them on an Opposition Day designed to injure the Government. In any case, fuel is 10p a [...]

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Labour rigour and high standards for all

Via House of Commons Hansard Debates for 21 Jun 2012, remarks you would not make up: We on the Opposition Benches believe in rigour and high standards for all, but we also believe in a broad curriculum that prepares young people for work, so we will set a series of tests to ensure that the changes meet both. First, Labour wants higher literacy and numeracy standards. The key is to raise teaching quality across the board. Is there any reason to [...]

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The crucial fallacy underlying Labour’s rhetoric

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Having just read Chuka Umunna’s speech yesterday, I am sorry I was not able to make the debate. There is one particular fallacy underlying Labour’s rhetoric and this particular speech’s bluster: government cannot live forever beyond its means. Evidence I have presented elsewhere shows that the total tax burden has been around 42% of GDP for 40 years, whoever has been in power. It looks like there is a practical limit to how much of national income the state can [...]

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Red Ed – already trying to rewrite history

N.B. Tim Hewish is my Parliamentary Researcher. I asked him to comment on Ed Miliband’s conference speech. I have just listened to Ed Miliband’s first official speech as leader of the Labour Party. I am struck by the attempted hoodwink he is trying to pull. He talks about the optimism of the Labour Party: The optimism of Tony and Gordon who took on the established thinking and reshaped our country…We are the optimists in politics today…We are the optimists and together [...]

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Labour’s legacy

A new video from the Party: Sayeeda Warsi, Co-Chairman of Conservative Party, has written: Labour’s incompetent handling of our economy will hit all of our pockets. The cuts to come are Labour’s cuts. So, it’s only fair that the people responsible should share some of the pain. That’s why today I have written to each of Labour’s leadership candidates asking them to voluntarily give up their severance pay, worth £20,000 each. Forfeiting this pay would be the first step towards rehabilitation, [...]

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From the BFP – Tory: Coalition partners Lib Dems could ‘disappear’

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Via Tory: Coalition partners Lib Dems could ‘disappear’ (From Bucks Free Press): SUGGESTIONS the Lib Dems could ‘disappear’ because of the ‘shift in politics’ have been dismissed by the party’s Wycombe leader – following a neighbouring councillor’s defection. There is an excellent explanation of the structure of political ideas in the author’s preface to Living with Leviathan (David B Smith, IEA, 2006). Smith posits as a replacement for the conventional and flawed left/right spectrum what he calls Hayek’s Triangle: On this scheme: The [...]

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Labour’s Legacy

Open publication – Free publishing

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CentreRight: Labour’s legacy is a choice between unpleasant cuts in public spending, a sovereign debt crisis or currency debasement

ConservativeHome have kindly invited me to contribute to CentreRight. In my first article, I debunk potential reasons for Labour’s self-righteous indignation: Since my arrival in Parliament, the Chamber has been characterised by a torrent of self-righteous indignation from Labour and their thoroughgoing lack of remorse about the state of the public finances. There is a sense that Labour think they are on the side of the angels. Giving our opponents the benefit of the doubt, I can think of two [...]

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Engineering, politics, Labour and reality

As I sit here on the train, reading a book on ethics, I am mindful of being an engineer in politics. Engineers are quintessentially pragmatic. We get things done, in the circumstances we face, with the resources we have. We may accept falling short of perfection, but we deliver things which work and improve them. However, we don’t flounder around uninformed. Aeroplanes do not fly thanks to fairy dust and software does not write itself. Aerospace engineering requires the application of [...]

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The State Opening of Parliament

Today, I found myself standing by the exit into the aye lobby for the state opening of Parliament. The text of the Queen’s Speech, for which I was lucky to be able to enter the House of Lords, may be found here: The Queen, seated on the Throne and attended by Her Officers of State, commanded that the Yeoman Usher should let the Commons know that it was Her Majesty’s pleasure that they attend Her immediately in this House. When [...]

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Steve Baker is MP for Wycombe. He was previously an RAF officer then a business software consultant. Find out more...

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