I am delighted that on Friday evening Wycombe Conservative Association re-selected me as their candidate for the 2015 general election. In the course of the past three years, I have worked on a wide variety of national and local issues from healthcare, education and welfare to transport, defence, foreign affairs and […]
Read MorePost Tagged with: "Democracy"
Reform the Council of Europe and abolish the EU
Via Angela Merkel: Brussels should return powers – Telegraph: Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has raised Conservative hopes for David Cameron’s European policy by saying that the European Union should discuss returning powers from Brussels to national governments. Good, though I am not surprised. Having had breakfast recently with the German […]
Read More
LearnLiberty: Why Do Politicians All Sound the Same?
Via LearnLiberty, In a two-party, majority rule system, moving toward the center is not likely to alienate the voters on the ends because they feel there is not another viable candidate to vote for instead. This means, there really isn’t any penalty for a candidate chooses to move toward the […]
Read More
Report: The EU’s impact on UK micro-business
The Fresh Start Project has recently produced a paper on the EU and the UK’s micro-business: Constraining What should be Nurtured. Written by my colleagues Anne Marie Morris and Andrea Leadsom, the report argues that national governments must retain the right to implement their own definitions of what constitutes a […]
Read MoreThe Finance Bill 2013 – How to promote special interest lobbying
Yesterday, I spoke against Clause 35 and schedules 15 to 17 of the Finance Bill 2013. They introduce tax relief for “high-end” television production (that is, posh drama and comedy) and video games development. They’re industries I’d like to see flourish but not by granting special privileges. It’s special privilege which is […]
Read More
An absolute Conservative commitment to an EU referendum
You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government. I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence “democracy”, and the other “tyranny”. — Karl Popper Before the Lisbon Treaty, I had no interest in being an MP. That Treaty was introduced to sidestep […]
Read More
Polling stations open now in Bucks CC election
Polling is in progress today across the country. In Wycombe, we have elections for Bucks County Council and a by-election for Disraeli ward of Wycombe District Council. The BFP reports that our Town Crier has made a final appeal for people to vote. So far, turnout appears to be consistent […]
Read More Bucks County Council is working hard to encourage voter turnout
Chris Williams, Chief Executive, Buckinghamshire County Council has said: Anyone presented with the opportunity to influence the running of an organisation with a customer base of more than half a million, and an £849 million budget, would kick themselves if they missed it. So I want to make sure every one of the […]
Read More BFP launch its ‘get out and vote’ campaign (From Bucks Free Press)
The excellent Bucks Free Press are doing their bit to encourage participation in the County Council elections: ELECTION time is looming. There is less than a month before residents go to the ballot boxes for the Bucks County Council elections and the Free Press has launched its ‘get out and vote […]
Read More
The Intelligence and Security Committee should have an elected Chair
Earlier today, I moved amendments tabled by Andrew Tyrie MP to make provision for an elected chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee which scrutinises MI5, MI6 and GCHQ. At present, the ISC is a Government committee of parliamentarians. The Bill makes it a Parliamentary committee whose members are appointed by the […]
Read More
