The veteran Eurosceptic John Redwood has received a knighthood in the New Year honours list, prompting accusations that Theresa May is using the honours system to smooth the way for her Brexit deal.
With the vote on the prime minister’s deal due to take place in the week of 14 January, the Conservative backbencher and former Wales secretary is one of three MPs to be knighted.
It’s about par for the course in the gongs list, isn’t it? Actually, Redwood could fairly expect a peerage – not inevitably gain one, but fairly expect. So, not much of a bribe at all.
If it was a bribe, he’s had her hook, line and sinker…
http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/12/28/10-big-wins-from-leaving-in-march-on-wto-terms/
The peerage would be to get him to give up his safe seat for a mate of the PM. In the current climate there probably aren’t any safe seats so they can’t risk a by-election.
I should think that Redwood might of all the members of the HoC be the least susceptible to inducements.
Belated good wishes to all & sundry.
Yarp to the blokes above. John Redwood is one of the very few MP’s I’d trust to hold my wallet. He’s basically the political answer to Rick Astley and is never gonna let you down.
I reckon Treeza would love to bribe her way out of this mess she’s created, but sometimes a gong is just a gong.
This a device to show that Theresa the Turd is not bribing people with bribes.
What on earth is the point of bribing someone by handing out a Knighthood *before* the vote? A bribe could be the promise of a knighthood after it.
The Grauniad is smeary as usual but not intelligent.
If I credited May with the cunning of Machiavelli (I don’t) I would posit that May has deliberately crafted a deal so awful that even Europhiles won’t touch it, hence getting a clean Brexit through a europhile Parliament. Though I doubt she needs any bribes to persuade JR to keep his nerve.
I’ve wondered the same Pat, but then there is the saying along the lines of to never ascribe to malice what can be explained by sheer incompetence
John Redwood’s a bag of wind. I wouldn’t be surprised if he now voted for May’s surrender agreement. He wasn’t exactly forthcoming in putting his paper in to attempt to oust her, if he ever did.
The only hope for the Conservative party is to appoint JRM as leader. And, if he says he doesn’t want to be leader, tell him he has no choice. We’re getting to the stage where we need a Churchill figure. JRM has those attributes. Get on with it or face oblivion.
John Redwood is a brilliant debater and writer whose personal oddity has prevented greater success .He represents a majority remain constituency with large Liberal and Labour minorities . It used to have a growing UKIP vote of about 5000 all of which Mr Redwood hoovered up , by allying with his anti-immigrant populists replacing his lost Remain Conservative votes
It is hard to think of a politician who has behaved as irresponsibly. When the National debt was 40% he was arguing that the country was over spending . Now it is over 80% he pretends we can write off QE argues for ( even ) lower interest rates and supports any sort of spending ( to cover up the Brexit recession). When Carney acted to avert the Brexit referendum recession he whined so as not to be responsible for the damage to savers .
He still pretends there is a Brexit bonus , risks endless jobs by supporting a WTO only, sotto voce defends European Fascists Trump and any other unsavoury idiot he can find . Overall he treats his constituency as merely a handy platform from which his voice can be heard in the “ National Conversation”
For all these reason and many more his ennoblement is a fitting moment of Gilbert and Sullivan Farce stumbling through the wreckage of a country that is now a source of shame to the majority.
It does show how our system is buckling under the stain of a new Political word in which Remain and Brexit loyalties are stronger than Party loyalties and many of have no representation whatsoever
Pah ….. excuse me that is not”Marian Newman”- its me Newmania ( she is Mrs N actually )
ooopps!!!
his ennoblement is a fitting moment
Knights aren’t nobles.
Now, if Redwood had written a report saying there was no anti-semitism in Labour he would be entitled to his knighthood
And the prose style was your signature, Newmania.
I’ve followed on and off Mr. Redwoods blog for some time now and I think the parallels with Mr. Spock from Star Trek are not too far off.
He comes across far better in writing than he does perhaps in person (I’ve never met him).
It’s a sad reflection of our culture that charisma and personal charm are more important to a politician than ability, consistency and a willingness to reflect the will of the electorate.
The results we can see with ‘cast iron’ Dave and lately our Treeza, whos never had an original thought herself and is obstinately trying to stuff a shit sandwich down all our throats at the behest of the Civil Service.
It was touched on in another thread.
Where Germans companies often have engineers, Phds, economists etc, etc on their boards. We get some well connected Oxbridge twat with a PPE whos only talent is to bullshit their way up the greasy pole.
Our politicians often reflect that trend. Never done anything, no vision, no drive, no talent, no ability, no track record.
If people really get the politicians we deserve, then we’re fucked.
Where Germans companies often have engineers, Phds, economists etc, etc on their boards.
No main verb here
We get some well connected Oxbridge twat with a PPE whos only talent is to bullshit their way up the greasy pole.
Unrecognised relative pronoun in the subordinate clause area.
I’ve followed on and off Mr. Redwoods blog for some time now and I think the parallels with Mr. Spock from Star Trek are not too far off.
Yarp. He’s on the spectrum. Which is ok, the autistically-inclined have a lot to offer when they use that focus on the right things.
Treeza and “personal charm” though? She looks like a half-melted Spitting Image puppet of Maggie, and has all the charisma of a cold cup of Dettol.
What amuses is that I write – in this very language – for a living and I’ve no clue at all what you’ve just said.
A knighthood is not a peerage. A Peer of the realm is at least a Baron, titled as “Lord”.
Redwood is one of the very few Tory politicians wouldn’t get me enthusiastically clamouring to see ritually disembowelled. So count me as mildly favourable.
@ Newmania
It is very easy to think of a politician who has behaved more irresponsibly than John Redwood (if one is capable of thought, of course): I should start with Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Blunkett, Jacqui Smith, Chris Huhne, Jeremy Thorpe – and I have not yet got within a score of Donald Trump.
It is a simple fact that the Labour Government was overspending when the National Debt was 40% of GDP – that is *why* National Debt is now over 80% of GDP. When I was 8 years old I could have grasped that, so why cannot you?
I will endevour to engage brain before putting pen to paper so to speak.
Too much Christmas spirit and all that….
I have nothing against well educated Oxbridge types who try to expand the sum total of human knowledge. I am simply aiming a barb at an increasingly common example of humanity who is well connected, well educated (but not necessarily smart) and goes into politics or the third sector.
They start out young and have no track record of achievement in anything of any note. Little life experience and what appears to be few morals or any integrity.
They want more power and influence over the rest of us without the faintest idea of what to do with it.
Mr. Redwoods political viewpoint is at least consistent and well argued. And for his troubles he is consigned to the the back benches and marginalised.
As for Treeza, she is both lucky and obstinate.
Lucky in that Corbyn is perhaps one of the worst Leaders of the Opposition in memory and lucky in that nobody wants the responsibility of being Prime Minster at this point in time.
One of the reasons that I voted for Brexit is that if none of our pols. want the responsibility of leading, then we should get shot of the lot of them and bring in a new cohort.
Finally, a thank you to our host,Tim and a Happy New Year all!
May the New Year bring you everything you deserve.
@ BlokeInBrum
Thank you. Some of us do try but rarely are we appreciated.
And, I may add, it is possible to be well-educated without going to Oxbridge – one of my friends chose to go to Birminghan University to my surprise so he explained that he wanted to study Metallurgy for which there was not (certainly at that time) a course at Oxford.
@ BlokeInBrum
Yes, thanks for that second post. I think that today’s aspirant politicos are more united by their sharp elbows and single-mindedness than by their education.
The apprenticeships they serve as unpaid bag-carriers and ‘advisers’ mean that professional MPs have little practical experience of the world and an inflated estimation of their wisdom and intelligence.
They all, irrespective of party allegiance, wish to control rather than serve their fellow man which is why Conservatism has died.