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Daniel Kawczynski MP: More must be done to help British businesses export their goods into foreign markets

By Daniel Kawczynski MP

Our country's historic wealth came from our ability to export goods around the world. Today many British businesses are deeply concerned about the levels of commercial assistance from British Embassies. All too often Commercial attachés are inexperienced with little or no high level commercial pedigree. Many do not have adequate resources to support the numbers of British businesses looking for their help. They have too few high-ranking business contacts and in some cases lack motivation to help British businesses cut through local red tape.

I am currently writing a report which I intend to present to David Cameron and William Hague on the situation. We are taking evidence from high-ranking British Chief Executives and Export Directors about their experiences of trying to get assistance, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

The report will show just how small our total exports are to some key strategic countries and demonstrate the lost opportunities. It will then go on to recommend what needs to be done to change the situation so that Embassies around the world are matching their French and German counterparts resource for resource and helping British businesses to export on comparable levels to France and Germany.

With the right staff in British Embassies and the right resources our country could easily be exporting tens of billions of pounds more than we currently are, gaining  the hard currency which will be vital to our country in these difficult times. Increasing the calibre and size of Commercial attaché support will cost the State a tiny fraction of what we will get back from additional export revenues. I hope that my report will also be able to demonstrate the need to recruit highly experienced retired businessmen who have successfully exported to assist us in this task.

If any reader has their own evidence of trying to get assistance from an Embassy to help them export I would be grateful if they could email me with their experiences.

Daniel Kawczynski MP: An open letter to David Miliband demanding that he meet the mother of PC Yvonne Fletcher

Daniel Kawczynski MP, Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Libya, writes an open letter the Foreign Secretary

Dear David,

Following the release of the Lockerbie bomber to the Libyan authorities, I am sure that you will agree that the time has come to press the Libyans for the release of the killer of PC Yvonne Fletcher. 

I have been in contact with PC Yvonne Fletcher’s mother, Mrs Queenie Fletcher, and sister and they are very keen to meet with you. Regrettably, their previous letters to you on this urgent matter have gone unanswered, leaving them very disappointed and disillusioned with the Foreign Office.

I am sure you will agree, that our country must send out an unequivocal message that any murder of a British police officer will lead to a determined resolve to bring their killers to justice, at any cost.

I look forward to hearing from you shortly to arrange this meeting.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Kawczynski MP

Daniel Kawczynski MP: An open letter to the Scottish Justice Secretary

By Daniel Kawczynski MP, Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Libya 

Dear Mr MacAskill,

By potentially handing over Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi to the Libyans without the UK Government getting the murderer of PC Yvonne Fletcher in return, our country is being made to look weak and ineffective. For you alone to make this decision without ensuring a fair exchange take place is deeply concerning. We cannot just look at Lockerbie as a separate issue, but as part of an overall package of outstanding issues between the UK and Libya which includes PC Fletcher and Libyan funding for the IRA and the need to get compensation for those families affected by IRA atrocities from the Libyans. I am taking a delegation of DUP MPs to Libya shortly to discuss this issue about which they feel so strongly.

We have a prisoner exchange programme signed between the UK and Libya. Why have you not asked the UK Government to ensure that this is implemented so that an exchange can take place? Failure here will mean that the killer of PC Yvonne Fletcher will go unpunished. Please understand that the parents of PC Yvonne Fletcher desperately want the killer of their daughter to be brought to justice. This series of issues can only be negotiated at government-to-government level between the UK and Libya. By making a decision on Al-Megrahi now you are in effect throwing away a major bargaining chip for us in these protracted negotiations. Met Police officers have been to Tripoli on three occasions and have identified the killer of PC Yvonne Fletcher.

I am writing to you to ask you to ensure that a release of Al-Megrahi is part of a prisoner exchange programme and that you work with Westminster to ensure this happens.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Kawczynski MP

Daniel Kawczynski MP: Why I am challenging the Electoral Reform Society to debate changing the voting system

By Daniel Kawczynski MP

The Electoral Reform Society is a well-funded, well-resourced and influential organisation. It seeks to change the voting system for parliamentary elections in the UK to a model of proportional representation. The favoured model of the Society is the Single Transferable Vote (STV).

The Society is making a great deal of headway in its efforts to lobby the Prime Minister on this subject.  This is a matter of real and immediate concern, and cannot be left at the mercy of back-room deals in smoke-filled rooms.

So, as Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on First Past the Post (FPTP) – the electoral system currently in place – I have been in touch with the Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society to challenge him to a public debate on electoral reform.

Such a debate is urgently needed, for there is a strong possibility that Gordon Brown, who has no personal mandate from the people of Great Britain, could use the dying months of his administration to engineer a referendum on electoral reform, to take place on the same day as the General Election.

Daniel Kawczynski MP: Local planning decisions must not be overruled by unelected, unaccountable quangos

Daniel Kawczynski MP writes an open letter to David Cameron seeking an assurance that a Conservative Government would change the law to ensure that locally-made planning decisions cannot be overturned.

Dear David,

You have long talked about the existing imbalance of responsibility and power that has developed under this current Government, and championed the need for people to be given a meaningful say in the decisions that affect them.  I should like to draw to your attention an issue that has occurred in my constituency of Shrewsbury & Atcham.  It is an issue that not only highlights the despicable flaws in the current top-down planning system, but which also demonstrates why local people feel such apathy towards the British political system.

After reading this letter, I hope you will agree that our planning system needs to be overhauled radically so that it is built upwards on the wishes of local residents.  Only when there is a democratic, accountable, and decentralised planning system in Britain can people feel empowered over the local decisions that most affect them.  I also hope you share my belief that, only if elected politicians and councillors are given substantive authority over all local planning issues, can they be effective representatives of the communities they act on behalf of.   We can have a Planning inspectorate if needs be but they should only have authority to overturn local council's decision if they are of national strategic importance. At present this inspectorate can intervene and challenge decisions on the smallest of development plans.

The next Speaker must disregard seniority when calling MPs to speak in the Commons

By Daniel Kawczynski, MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham

On all sides of the House and across the country it is accepted that, whoever fills the Speaker’s Chair, he or she needs to be a reformer .One area in which there is huge scope for reform is that of the complex, pompous, and in many instances outdated, protocols of the House.

A case in point is the way in which Members are called to speak in debates. Constituents might reasonably expect those contributing to have a profound interest in the subject of discussion, be an expert in the field, or be representing some of them personally.

But, alas, this is not the case. Backbench Members speak in order of seniority. It is the old grandees and old timers that are always called on to contribute first.

And yet, it is a fundamental principle of our democracy, that all people are created equal. All constituents are equal. But not all Members are equal before the Chair. This fundamentally undermines democratic representation. If a constituent’s Member is a ‘grandee’, he or she can raise their case on the floor of the House with ease. If their Member is new or relatively new, their voice will often go unheard.

Daniel Kawczynski MP: An open letter to Polish President Kaczyński, urging him to withhold his signature from the Lisbon Treaty

Below is the letter which Daniel Kawczynski, Conservative MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, sent yesterday to the President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, urging him to "be a friend to the British people" and withhold his signature from the Lisbon Treaty until a Conservative Government is elected and has the opportunity to hold a referendum on the matter.

Dear President Kaczyński,

I write to you to acknowledge Britain’s debt of gratitude to the Polish people and to ask you for assistance.

The history of Polish heroism and support for the British people is long and glorious. During our darkest hours in World War Two, when the Battle of Britain hung in the balance, the contribution of Polish airmen helped tip the balance in the Allies’ favour. Eight Polish fighter squadrons formed within the RAF shot down 629 Axis aircraft by May 1945, with the Polish 303 Fighter Squadron claiming more kills than any other squadron during the war.

Winston Churchill, as ever, expressed this debt most compellingly, when he said of the Battle of Britain that, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”

As we commemorate the Normandy landings on their 65th anniversary, we in Britain should remember that Poles fought there with us, as your countrymen did in so many theatres of operation. Often forgotten are the less publicised contributions, of Polish spies who are estimated to have contributed as much as 45 per cent of all intelligence reports from continental Europe, and Polish cryptographers, who, in helping to break the Enigma code, assisted in one of the key turning points in the war.

Daniel Kawczynski MP: The case for keeping First Past The Post

By Daniel Kawczynski MP, Chairman of All Party Group for the Promotion of First Past the Post

In January of this year, two Green MSPs managed to prevent the passing of a new budget in the Scottish Parliament. They are two out of 129 MSPs in Parliament, elected by Proportional Representation. Proponents of the system argue it is by far the fairest way to reflect the voting intentions of the people as a whole. Indeed, this argument has some merit: by reflecting the proportion of the votes cast, the legislative assembly is more truly the ‘representation’ of the people. It is, by extension, more democratic, more legitimate and has the potential to produce more balanced legislation. That is until it actually has to do anything.

Back to January in Holyrood. The SNP has bumbled through as a minority Government since it was elected in 2007, struggling to operate effectively having failed to get an overall majority from the Scottish population. In January, however, it was humbled by those two, suddenly extremely powerful, Green MSPs. The SNP even offered an £11 million sop to the Greens, which they turned down. The entire budget was thrown out the window. Proportional Representation provides a perfectly colour-coded debating chamber: yellow, orange, red and blue all neatly distributed. For all that, during the vote on the budget, the chamber might as well have been painted completely green, such was the influence that that party wielded.

It is no wonder then, given the experience of the Scottish Parliament, that Scottish members of the Westminster Parliament are some of the most enthusiastic supporters of the All Party Parliamentary Group for the Continuation of First Past the Post - indeed the member for Central Ayrshire is the co-Chairman of the Group. They have seen the mayhem in Scotland and are best placed to know an unworkable mess when they see one. There are many different types of PR, but the one proposed by Alan Johnson recently, much to the annoyance of the Justice Secretary, is known as ‘Alternative Vote plus’. In this system voters have two ballot papers, one for their constituency representative and another for their favoured party. It is seen as a good compromise between keeping the link between constituency MPs and providing a more accurate representation of the will of the people.

Justice for Equitable Life policy-holders must be delayed no longer

By Daniel Kawczynski MP

Even by the standards of the peculiar atmosphere that has descended on the Commons, it is fair to say that MPs on all sides reacted with incredulity when Yvette Cooper found a further, “deeply disappointing” way to delay justice for Equitable Life policy-holders.

I have sought to harness this sense of genuine disbelief and injustice among colleagues by establishing an All-Party Group on Equitable Life. Our aim is simple: to block all Government attempts to lose this issue in the thick rough. We already have 100 Members.

There is insufficient space here to run through the full timeline of delays and dead ends that policyholders have been put through. The Government needs no reminding that these poor people have pursued justice at the highest levels, from the House of Lords, to the European Parliament and through our own Parliamentary Ombudsman. Yet the Government could not be shamed into belated action, even following a finding by the Public Administration Select Committee that Ministers’ actions have been “shabby, constitutionally dubious and procedurally improper”.

The Prime Minister promised me in the House that we would have a proper statement from the Treasury at some point last year. Mr Brown’s word proved nothing more than a further stalling tactic. Parliament did not get its statement. This year, Alistair Darling eventually caved in to pressure and asked his number two, Ms Cooper, to make a statement. Incredibly, the statement rejected the Parliamentary Ombudsman’s central recommendation that payment should be made to policyholders to reflect the relative loss resulting from maladministration, subject to the state of public finances.

An open letter to Gordon Brown on Equitable Life from Daniel Kawczynski MP

Dear Prime Minister,

As you will be aware, the Parliamentary Ombudsman, Anne Abraham, yesterday laid a second report on Equitable Life before Parliament under section 10 (3) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967.

The Parliamentary Ombudsman has described the Government’s response to her 2008 report ‘Equitable Life: a decade of regulatory failure’ as “deeply disappointing”, and has stated explicitly that the injustices highlighted in her original report will not be remedied by this Government’s response.

Because of this the Parliamentary Ombudsman has taken the extraordinary decision to publish a second report under section 10 (3) of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967. Section 10 (3) provides the Ombudsman with the right of reply when the response of the Government will clearly not remedy the injustices originally highlighted by the Ombudsman’s original report. The fact that this mechanism has only been used four times since the establishment of the Parliamentary Ombudsman 42 years ago underscores just how inadequate the Government’s response on Equitable Life has been.

This Government has consistently failed to face up to the suffering caused by the regulatory failure of Equitable Life, and it is as a direct result of this new report by the Parliamentary Ombudsman that I write to you today in my capacity as co-Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders to ask that a Minister of the Crown come urgently to the House to make a statement on this matter.

Yours sincerely,

Daniel Kawczynski MP

We must review the list of countries eligible to receive British overseas aid

By Daniel Kawczynski MP.

I recently returned from an International Development Select Committee trip to Kenya and Tanzania.

We currently give Kenya and Tanzania £50 million and £150 million respectively each year in international aid, yet a great deal of what our money is being used for in Kenya could easily be provided by Microfinance.

All the local newspapers in Nairobi during our stay had stories about how the President and senior ministers are about to spend £100 million on buying new  helicopters for themselves from Russia.

Can an incoming Conservative government really continue to give so much to Kenya?

British pensioners are cutting back on meals to save money as Kenya spends so much on luxuries for its government. And guess what the monthly salary and expenses package is for a Kenyan MP? It is £8,000!

The Conservative pledge today not to cut back on aid must therefore come with a review of which countries continue to get it.



The All Party Group for Justice for Equitable Life Policy Holders

By Daniel Kawczynski MP.

When Equitable Life, the word’s oldest mutual insurance company (Established in 1762) nearly collapsed in 2000 it had to greatly reduce the size of payouts to its customers. Some customers, including constituents of mine, saw their savings reduced by as much 50 percent. These people were not just let down by the company they had trusted to assure their quality of life after retirement, they were also let down by the Labour government who were supposed to ensure the proper regulation of companies like Equitable Life.

In the wake of various enquires into the Equitable Life scandal, the Parliamentary Ombudsman reported last summer that there was evidence of “serial regulatory failure” on the part of the now defunct Department of Trade and Industry, the Financial Services Authority and the Government Actuary’s Department. The Ombudsman ultimately made two recommendations: that the government should apologise to Equitable Life customers who have lost out, and that they should establish a system of compensation to help those who have lost their savings.

It has now been almost a year since the Ombudsman originally made her recommendations, and whilst the Government has apologised, those who lost money in Equitable Life are still no closer to being properly compensated by this Government for their loss. Having taken over six months to respond, the Government have come to the table with an almost total rejection of the ombudsman’s report, and have offered a piecemeal hardship fund in the place of the compensation fund recommended by Parliament’s Ombudsman. 

Why I voted against the Tory whip - and partial privatisation of the Royal Mail - this week

By Daniel Kawczynski MP.

I know that in 2005, when I was elected as MP for Shrewsbury and Atcham, many people in the constituency voted for my party ticket rather than for me as an individual.  I continue to be very aware of this fact.  I am also in the fortunate position of agreeing, in a pragmatic and ideological sense, with the Conservative leadership on both the great issues of the day and the long-standing policies of our party.

That is why, up to this point, I have so faithfully followed my party line on each and every one of the issues upon which I have spoken and voted in Parliament.  However, this week, for the first time in my Parliamentary career, I voted against the Conservative whip.  I had no choice, for my conscience will not let me support the privatisation – whether in part or whole – of the Royal Mail.

Over the last four years, I have built up contacts, friendships and a broad base of understanding within our local Royal Mail sorting office.  It is a tight, efficient and well-run unit, where day in, day out over 800 Royal Mail employees work hard to provide a communications link with the most remote parts of the constituency, and indeed much of the rest of the UK.  Indeed, this sorting office has responsibility for a truly enormous area, stretching into Wales as well as covering Shropshire.  The work these people do is of extraordinary benefit to the community and wider economy.

Against this background, I could do nothing else but give my commitment to the workers of the Shrewsbury sorting office that I would oppose privatisation of the Royal Mail, in any form.  They have convinced me that privatisation is not the solution to dealing with the problems Royal Mail is facing.  That is why I had to keep that promise and vote accordingly in the House of Commons on Wednesday night.

Melanie Phillips must be the most incompetent journalist in Britain

This person lambasts me on the report published yesterday from the International Development Select Committee of which I am a member without even bothering to pick up a phone to check her facts. Why do people accept such lazy and inaccurate reporting. I enclose below two communications I have had with the Chairman of this Committee.

Guardian's sloppy journalism needs to be checked

This week Conservative MPs have published expenses online. I nearly choked on my cornflakes when I read in the Guardian that I had claimed over £945 for the last three months in food allowances. As I was the only one mentioned for food claims in the article it clearly gave the inference that I must have claimed more for food than any other Conservative MP. I knew this could not be true and checked with the Commons Finance Office. They confirmed to me that I had claimed a total of £526.62 significantly below the published figure, below the average so not worthy of exceptional reporting in article.

I urge the Guardian to get its facts straight in future cases as such sloppy journalism creates great confusion and potential cause for redress. Mr Patrick Wintour, Political Editor of Guardian has confirmed that the Guardian has made a mistake and put my name in print instead of another MP. He has assured me that an apology and correction will appear in the Guardian and I look forward to seeing that.

Belgium and Holland boycotting British cattle imports

I am gravely concerned by the unofficial boycott of British cattle imports by Belgium and the Netherlands as a result of the imports testing positive for bovine TB. These two countries account for more that 40% of all British cattle exports and this move is extremely disturbing. In light of the unofficial boycott by Belgium and the Netherlands, I will be writing to the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barrosso, demanding that a full investigation is carried out into the legitimacy of the ban imposed by the two Member States and for the relevant action to be taken.

There are also talks in the EU Parliament of a move towards an EU-wide ban on exports of British cattle by the end of next week which is deeply worrying. The National Farmers’ Union is working with British officials in Brussels for any bans to remain voluntary. I am extremely concerned that if an official ban is imposed, it could take months for it to be lifted, and will have a terrible impact on the beef and dairy sector.

Mandelson must remember his place

Might I be one of the first on Conservative Home to ask Mr Mandelson politely to think a little before speaking out in the way he does. He has escalated the public feud with the President of France by writing in the Sunday Telegraph to criticise leaders who take "populists and self-serving" stances to secure their positions domestically while ignoring the needs of the world as a whole.

Mr Mandelson has crossed the Rubicon in his latest criticism of the French President and is opening a Pandora’s Box in this matter. He is precipitating a situation whereby democratically elected Heads of State within the EU can be contradicted and challenged in the most public way as a matter of course by totally unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats such as Mr Mandelson.

Chairman of All Party Group for Dairy Farmers to fight Government over inaction on Bovine TB

As Chairman of the All Party Group for Dairy Farmers I am devastated at the news on Bovine TB announced today by the BBC. Reports claim that on Monday the government will announce that they intend to ignore official expert advice to have a limited cull of badgers. Predictions across the country are that this year alone up to 40,500 cows will have to be slaughtered as a result of Bovine TB costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of pounds in compensation to farmers affected. Many readers will know the emotional stress and misery that this disease is bringing to our rural communities and the extraordinarily damaging effect it is having on our farmers' livelihoods.

I have sat with a farmer in my constituency who has been brought to his knees by Bovine TB and I do not mind admitting that I cried for the first time in 20 years when I heard what had happened to him and his livelihood. I will fight to the end to protect my farmers and feel so very angry about the Socialists' total disregard for our farming community. Hillary Benn, Margaret Beckett, David Milliband and all the others have shown nothing but shallow platitudes to me and others whilst happily ignoring our deep concerns and wilfully taking no action to address the crisis.

I am incensed that as usual we have to hear this news from the BBC rather than from government itself. Yet another leak to the media shows the contempt that DEFRA Ministers have for us. I have tried to go through all appropriate channels to raise this issue with the government by securing numerous debates in the Commons on Bovine TB and asking many official parliamentary questions on the matter, all to no avail.  That is why we have no option but to go to the High Court to seek a judicial review over Government inaction. I shall be approaching various business people and sympathetic organisations to secure the funding for such a review and will fight the Socialists through the Courts until our dairy farmers have justice.

Challenging the campaign against the arms trade

In a healthy democracy like ours organisations like "Campaign Against Arms Trade" have the right to scrutinise government over their export policies. We in Parliament however have not done enough to scrutinise organizations like this one and seem to have taken their objectives for granted with very little probing. With this in mind I have arranged for a representative of this organisation to meet with me today to discuss their objectives and to hear some of my concerns about their actions.

Of course we are all united in our opposition to the exports of weapons of any kind to despotic regimes that brutalise their own people. Concerns would also be shared if British firms were exporting to very poor neighbouring countries like Ethiopia and Eritrea engaged in a very costly border dispute. As a member of the International Development Select committee I have concerns about some of the poorest countries spending vast sums on arms which in many cases they can ill afford.

There is however a huge difference in exporting weapons to a regime like Zimbabwe where the President is using foreign imported weapons to suppress his people and exporting tanks and aircraft to a stable democracy like the Czech Republic. Many countries that have recently joined NATO for the mutual security this organisations provides need to purchase new equipment to start to improve standards up to NATO levels. Does the Campaign Against Arms Trade object to such exports as well to fellow NATO partners? This is one question I will be putting to them today.

EU Ban on Pesticides will affect us in a detrimental way

The EU plans to curb the use of pesticides have caused concern in communities across the UK.

The proposals stem from an agreement reached by European agriculture ministers this week which substantially changes the criteria for pesticides approval. The shift is from a risk-based assessment of the impact of pesticides, to criteria based on the hazards presented by the pesticide with no account taken of how substances are used by operators. This appears to me to show a lack of common sense.

Potentially, the changes could lead to between 5 and 15 per cent of pesticides being removed from the market, having widespread implications for horticulturalists across the UK, not least for Shrewsbury, which has a long history of horticultural excellence.

EU Regulations in every aspect of our daily lives

I went into my local garden centre in Shrewsbury to ask for some solution to kill off the carrot fly which has infested my carrots. I was told that the EU had banned the substance I needed. It is this very fact that they are getting into every single aspect of our lives which is so very annoying and totally unacceptable. Why should these faceless unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats decide how we in Shropshire should deal with our kitchen gardens!?

I have 16 raised beds and am very proud of being able to grow all of our own vegetables for the family. Everything is grown naturally without fertilizers and I have not used any chemicals at all this year. This is the first time this summer that I have needed to do something like this to save a crop and the EU has prevented me! I become so desperately disillusioned with the EU when these types of things happen!

Please see below some information on carrot fly and the chemical 'dieldrin' which used to be used to treat it, but is now banned under the EU directive 79/117/EEC.