George Eustice MP: It's time to update our antiquated laws on political advertising

George Eustice is MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.

I am no fan of the ECHR and would abolish the Human Rights Act, so I think it is right that decisions about where to allow political advertising in Britain should be a matter for our own national Parliament.  However, those of us who no longer want to contract out decisions affecting people's rights to foreign courts must ensure that our own Parliament engages fully in such debates.  The case brought by Animal Defenders International has highlighted the woeful inadequacy of our current laws on broadcast political advertising.

Britain has some of the most draconian restrictions on political advertising in the free world.  It is not just the U.S which is usually cited.  Most other European countries allow some political advertising with the new democracies in central and eastern Europe generally being the most liberal.  Commonwealth countries such as Australia with the same political constitution as us also allow political advertising subject to certain limits.  In stark contrast, in Britain it is ok to advertise toys to young children at 6.30 am while their parents are still in bed - but advertising political ideas to grown adults is considered beyond the pale.  It’s time for change.

The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 and the Communications Act 2003 that followed represented an opportunity to revisit the approach we take to broadcast advertising but it was an opportunity squandered.  Once we had introduced strict limits on party spending, introduced longer terms for election periods and banned foreign donations altogether then the arguments against political advertising became largely redundant.  The current position in the UK is something of an anomaly.  The original principle predates the internet to start with which will drive future change.  We have also always allowed political advertising in cinemas.  Ten years ago, the no campaign against the euro spent over £1 million on a powerful advert seen by some 5 million cinema goers.

George Eustice MP: If you get statutory changes right, you can actually strengthen free speech

George Eustice is MP Member of Parliament for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.

When it comes to press regulation, the Conservative Party is not as divided as it might at first seem.   Most Conservative MPs could agree with elements of both the letters published in recent weeks.  We all believe passionately in liberty and free speech.  We all oppose state control of the press.  And we all agree that the status quo is not an option and there must now be a new regulator that is completely independent, both of the press and of politicians.  We agree on the aim, we just disagree over what is required to get there.

Throughout the Leveson Inquiry, there was one question that wouldn’t go away: how can you make a reality of an independent regulator that has teeth without some form of modest anchor in statute?  The flaws in the current proposal by Lord Hunt are clear: the power rests with the “industry funding body” which would have a veto over the appointment of the Chairman of the Trust and the power to sack the Chairman and press board members if they don’t like what they are doing.  There is far too much reliance on serving editors and executives and no role for real journalists working on the frontline.  Despite the headline claim that there would be fines of £1 million, the small print makes clear that these could rarely, if ever, be used.  And the whole system relies on voluntary contracts for just five years after which anyone could walk away or renegotiate.

Andrea Leadsom MP, Chris Heaton-Harris MP and George Eustice MP: Regional policy, employment law, energy policy...We want a fundamental renegotiation of the UK's relationship with the EU

Andrea Leadsom is MP for South Northamptonshire. Follow Andrea on Twitter. Chris Heaton-Harris is Member of Parliament for Daventry.  Follow Chris on Twitter.  George Eustice is MP Member of Parliament for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.

Events in Europe guarantee that the way the EU works is going to change significantly over the coming years. This is a golden opportunity for the UK finally to stand up for its own interests. We set up the Fresh Start Project to enable the Government to get the best possible deal for the British people.

Whatever happens to the Eurozone, the UK's relationship with the EU will change in years ahead. The UK must be clear about the future that it wants, and stand up for its national interest. The Fresh Start Project’s aim has been to research and propose a new relationship for the UK with the EU that will better meet the interests and aspirations of the British people.

At this time of existential crisis for the Eurozone countries, EU leaders need to understand that the UK has its own national interest. It is the sole responsibility of the UK government to promote and fight for this interest and we must do so with our European partners. Eurozone members must give serious consideration to the likelihood that non-euro members will need a different relationship with the EU.

George Eustice MP: The law must prioritise business rescue over business closure

George Eustice is MP Member of Parliament for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.

Individuals who put their own money on the line to create wealth are the lifeblood of a free market economy and those who give a bank security over their assets have a special right to be treated honourably. But most entrepreneurs need to discover how to lose money before they learn how to make money.  Failure is an important step on the way to success in terms of testing new ideas.

Sometimes, the failure of a business will be terminal and liquidation can be the right option for all concerned.  But, very often, a business that hits hard times can emerge from the other side of its troubles stronger than ever.  The value of failure can only be realised if a business is given the chance to survive.

The US has always had a better attitude towards failure than Britain.  Here, the banks hold all the cards and frequently exploit their bargaining position to bully their small business customers into accepting higher interest charges or less favourable terms.  It is time to rebalance the law in favour of enterprise and this is the subject of my paper - published yesterday by the Free Enterprise Group*.

George Eustice: Time to transform the CAP

George Eustice is Member of Parliament for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.

Because it has been an EU competence for so long, agricultural policy makes a good case study in what happens when you give up making policy decisions at a national level and instead subject yourself to the spirit crushing process of haggling behind closed doors in Brussels. 

The most striking thing about officials and trade bodies who spend their days on the EU treadmill is that they lose interest in the quest for genuinely powerful ideas and instead get bogged down in arcane arguments about what they need to offer Poland in order to try to outmanoeuvre France and get some minor advance which might just favour Britain on a good day.  It means that throughout Europe, there is a poverty of vision for agriculture and policy makers just plod away like blinkered shire horses.

Compare that with something like education.  Political parties study the evidence from alternative education systems around the world.  They can borrow ideas from the US, Sweden, Singapore or anywhere else that seems to be succeeding.  They then fuse the best ideas in a policy that they judge might work for Britain.  Then there are furious arguments in parliament about whether or not it is the right approach.  In the end, the government has the power to act.  If their idea doesn’t work, the country can change course.  If it does work, other countries will learn from our success.

George Eustice MP: For €urosceptics to succeed, the Conservative party has to be united - votes need to be won rather than lost in parliament

George Eustice is the MP for Camborne, Redruth, and Hayle. He has proposed an amendment to the current motion on an EU referendum. Here is a full list of current signatories to George's amendment.

Two years ago I took part in a “war gaming” exercise with around half a dozen other politicos which sought to predict some of the challenges that would present themselves to a possible future Cameron government.  One conclusion was that within the first eighteen months there would be an EU crisis and possible melt down within the parliamentary party and that the party leadership would be completely ill prepared for it having tried to avoid discussion of the issue.

So, here we are.  The debate in parliament tomorrow has become so contentious because Conservative MPs have an uneasy suspicion that the government has no intention of trying to sort out the EU any time soon and that the Foreign Office will just continue to drift along the path of least resistance and fall back on the timid “events, dear boy, events” mindset that has corrupted it for half a century.   

The urgent need to get our economy moving again becomes clearer by the day.  The sheer burden of debt within the economies of the developed world threatens a decade of austerity and economic stagnation.  There are no easy ways out of the current mess.  We need radical thinking to get this country moving again and that should include pressing the reset button on the morass of silly EU laws and regulations which were designed for easy times but are now dragging our economy into the ground. 

George Eustice MP: Why journalists should welcome clearer regulation

George Eustice is MP for Camborne and Redruth.

There is rarely a good time for politicians to broach the contentious issue of media regulation.  Who wants to incur the wrath of swaggering newspaper editors who protect the status quo with such zeal?  But, as is often the case, the reluctance to tackle a situation that has been out of control for far too long means that the issue itself has finally decided to force itself on our politics. The era in which accountability applied to everyone except the media themselves is finally over.  Journalists are wrong to fear this because improving accountability will actually strengthen the standing of their own profession and protect them from the coercive abuse of power which has gone on for decades by anachronistic “press barons”.

Despite the short term discomfort that this crisis might cause David Cameron, it has also reunited him with his natural instincts regarding the media and the current context now allows him to do something about it.  After one year he is doing what Labour failed to do in a decade.  We all have a role to play.  Senior politicians do not need to attack the media Alastair Campbell-style but, through their actions, they should aim to quietly puncture the inflated self importance of both editors and proprietors and to simultaneously boost the status of real journalism.  Invitations to speak at News Corp’s annual conference and the many press awards ceremonies should be politely declined.  Shrill leader columns should be ignored as one might ignore a child’s tantrum.  There should be fewer cosy dinners with editors and proprietors but more access to journalists and columnists to talk about real issues.  

George Eustice MP: It should become a key objective of British foreign policy to break the power of centralised European institutions like the European Court of Justice

George Eustice was one of fourteen Conservative MPs who signed last week's letter to the FT setting out a 'Mainstream Euroscepticism'. Yesterday's Independent on Sunday reported that George Eustice is forming a new parliamentary grouping with, perhaps, 100 members, that will "ensure that the current crisis in the eurozone is a beneficial crisis, not just a painful one." Here he calls on Conservative Eurosceptics to put aside their weariness and "have one last go" at far-reaching reform of the EU.

At times of crisis, the future belongs to those with both a plan and the political will to drive that plan through. The EU’s flagship policy, the euro, is currently in crisis and we need to ensure that, in the final analysis, it turns out to be a beneficial crisis, not just a painful one.

Rewriting EU treaties to provide for the gradual breaking up of the euro would require negotiations which could place the very shape of the EU up for grabs and it is an opportunity which we must not squander but must plan for. It should become a key objective of British foreign policy to break the power of centralised European institutions like the European Court of Justice and to streamline the EU so that it does far less but actually delivers in the areas where it is capable of adding value.

For many years, there was a tension between the conflicting agendas of expanding the EU or delivering deeper integration among fewer members. The more countries you have, the harder it is to get agreement and the fewer things the EU can do collectively. The expansion of the EU to 27 member states ought to have been a triumph for British foreign policy but weakness and confusion in the Blair era meant that Britain never followed this success through to re-order the EU in the way that was required. Instead, the jaded 70’s agenda of “ever closer union” survived and, as a result, today the EU is a failing institution with a questionable future.

George Eustice MP: Is First Past the Post really unfair to Lib Dems?

George Eustice is MP for Camborne and Redruth.

Both sides of the debate on whether to change our voting system agree on one thing: that the primary effect of the AV system is to give the Lib Dems a head start in future elections. That is why it was the bottom line for Nick Clegg in the coalition negotiations and why the Lib Dems are running the Yes Campaign.

But is our current system unfair to the Lib Dems?  During the last election in my own seat of Camborne and Redruth, we couldn't understand why so many Lib Dem posters were put up in the wrong place and why so many leaflets were being delivered in the wrong constituency. Leaflets intended for the neighbouring Truro and Falmouth seat were regularly delivered in Camborne and Redruth.

It turned out that the reason for this was that the Lib Dems had sent in a by-election team drawn from elsewhere in the country to run the campaign to defend a seat where they already had a sitting MP with a 3,500 majority.  Why do Lib Dem activists from Nottingham, Manchester or Newcastle get in the yellow campervan to Cornwall at election time? Why don't they get out and knock on doors in their home towns like the two main parties do?

George Eustice MP: Let's try shorter, more frequent party political broadcasts

George Eustice was elected MP for Camborne and Redruth at the general election.

We are just under six months away from a referendum on whether or not to fundamentally change the way we elect MPs to Westminster, but the public have virtually no understanding of what is being proposed.  In research carried out by the Electoral Commission, people thought that the “Alternative Vote” might be something to do with voting by text or online, or was maybe a way of making sure that there were not queues outside polling stations again.  Some even thought it was a way of making sure we don’t get a hung parliament in future.  They would end up pretty disappointed if they voted “yes” on that basis.

So what can be done to educate and inform people about the choice they will soon be asked to make?  I think that next year’s referendum provides a fantastic opportunity to experiment with a complete overhaul of the rules that currently apply to our system of Party Political Broadcasts.

It is fashionable among political activists to deride Political Broadcasts and claim that no one watches them anyway and that the internet has now taken over.  This is not borne out by the evidence.  Research by Ofcom after the 2005 election showed that Party Election Broadcasts were a very important source of information for voters, second only to the broadcast news bulletins and ahead of both national newspapers and local radio.  Of course, politically active people can’t bear them and turn over because they have closed minds.  But genuine floating voters who only really engage with politics at election time value them.  Could we make them more effective?

George Eustice MP: How we should rebalance the law in favour of enterprise

George Eustice MP won Camborne and Redruth at this year's general election and is sponsoring the Secured Lending Reform Bill after coming twentieth in the Private Member's Bill ballot.

There is only one way out of this recession and that is through enterprise.  We need talented individuals to have a go, take risks and try to turn new ideas into industry.  The sorts of people who, under the last government, had a safe job working for some government quango talking about “stakeholders” and passing trendy advice on to small businesses are the sorts of people who must now develop the confidence to fly the nest and do it themselves.

But an integral part of enterprise is risk and how the law regards risk is important.  If we want to rebalance our economy, then first we must rebalance the law in favour of enterprise.  My Secured Lending Reform Bill is designed to protect the economic recovery by encouraging a rescue culture and greater responsibility in the banking industry.  At its heart is a simple premise: that if a borrower gives a lender security over their property, they have a special right to be treated honourably by the lender.  This will protect not only the borrower but also the interests of employees and other unsecured creditors.

There are cases where conscientious business people have offered their home as security to a bank in order to garner the financial support to develop their ideas.  But people who make this extraordinarily generous gesture have no real protection under the law.   Since the 1980s, banks have exploited loop-holes in the law to contractually extend their powers through mortgage agreements. As a result, they can and do enforce their security recklessly and prematurely, without regard for either the entrepreneur, their employees or other unsecured creditors.

George Eustice MP: Lessons for Labour from the Tories' 2005 cathartic leadership contest

George Eustice was the Conservative Party's Head of Media from 2004 until the 2005 General Election and Press Secretary to David Cameron from 2005 until 2007. He is now MP for Camborne, Redruth and Hayle.

There are few things more draining than the morning after an election defeat.  In 2005, having had only a couple of hours sleep, I was woken by a call at 6.30am from Michael Howard’s Political secretary, Rachel Whetstone, to tell me that he was about to resign.

On the way to Putney, where he would drop this bombshell, there were frantic efforts to persuade him to stay on. By the time he got there he had added to his statement that he would stay on until the party had considered a change to its constitution. He discussed it further with advisers and ended up announcing his decision to resign on the last day of the Conservative Party Conference later that year. In doing so he deliberately unleashed a completely unpredictable debate about the future of the party. It culminated in five days during that 2005 conference where this process took place in the full glare of the national media and with the whole country watching.

At the time it was seen as a risky strategy, doomed to be a public relations disaster. But it turned out to be a masterstroke which transformed the fortunes of the Conservative Party. It was arguably one of the most important decisions Michael Howard ever took.

The only time a political party can completely let go of the reins and see where the debate leads is in the immediate aftermath of an election defeat.  The Conservative Party used the months after the 2005 General Election to create the space in which a new vibrancy was able to develop. In the most visible way possible, by the beginning of December when the new leader was announced, the party had chosen to change itself under David Cameron’s leadership. By contrast the Labour Party has played it safe, stifled discussion and the result has been a stale debate, petty squabbling and an entirely uninspiring affair.