Kwasi Kwarteng: Democracy lacks roots in Egypt – and it's time we got real about it

Kwasi Kwarteng is MP for Spelthorne

The events in Egypt in the past couple of weeks have stunned the world. The army forced President Morsi to leave office, barely a year after he was elected in Egypt’s first democratic election.

The army’s motives are unclear. Some people feel that they intervened because they were frightened by the militant Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood. Others have suggested that the army, which is believed to control up to 40 per cent of the Egyptian economy, acted swiftly to protect its interests. Whatever the reasons, the army’s intervention has been decisive and unambiguous.

I visited Egypt many times before I was elected to Parliament, and again as a member of the Conservative Middle East Council. I have been struck by how much Koranic principles, with regard to women’s clothing etc., have taken root in the past 15 years. The country I first visited in 1998 had been shocked by terrorist outrages but remained a bustling, secular nation.

Egypt today is a country in which Islam is the most dominant political force. The Muslim Brotherhood won about 50 per cent share of the vote in parliamentary elections last year. The Salafists, an even more uncompromising Islamic party, got about 25 per cent. This shocked the international liberal elite, who rarely stray beyond the confines of Cairo and the nightspots of the Zamalek district.

The second big power block, almost acting as a counter balance to this strong Islamic presence, is the Egyptian army. It was very quickly apparent visitors to Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring that the future of Egypt would be determined by these two big interest groups. 

Kwasi Kwarteng MP: The middle class will drag us out of recession if we don't drag them into high tax bands

Kwasi Kwarteng is Member of Parliament for Spelthorne.

I was very pleased to see Tim’s reaction to our paper “Motivating the Middle” (bottom of this post). Tim is right to say that we should be looking at relief in difficult times for many people on low incomes who are going out to work.

Obviously, as a low tax party, we should strive to reduce taxation, wherever we can, in a way that does not imperil the public finances. We should be seeking to lower taxes across all levels of income, so that individuals can exercise more control over the fruits of their own endeavours.

While wishing to lower taxes across the board, we should recognise that it’s the middle class upon whom the heavy burden of taxation has increased most dramatically in the last 30 years. The increase in public spending has been paid for by more and more people, who are not rich, paying a tax rate originally designed to be paid by the genuinely wealthy. I do think that it is a matter of concern that, according to the IFS (Institute for Fiscal Studies), the number of people expected to pay the 40p rate is expected to rise from 3.7m in 2011 to 5m in 2014. In the long term, this could sap the spirit of ambition.  

Kwasi Kwarteng MP: Why the Government must end national pay bargaining

Kwasi Kwarteng is the MP for Spelthorne

This morning, The Times (£) published a letter from 25 economists. These academics argued that we should stop the current practice of setting uniform national pay rates in the public sector. Instead, we should allow wages to be negotiated individually. Any savings made would be kept by the local area, and used to further enhance public services.

At first glance, this may seem like an obscure issue. However, it has important implications for the structure of the British economy. Too many areas of the country are becoming dominated by the public sector. In the short term, this is bad for unemployment. In the long term, it is dangerous both for our economy and the quality of our public service.

As anyone who has moved to London will tell you, the cost of living varies across the country. This means that paying the same wages nationally allows some to have a much higher standard of living than others. Private sector companies, offering lower local market rates, cannot hope to compete.

Chris Skidmore MP, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Dominic Raab MP, and Priti Patel MP: Britain’s best days are not behind us

By Chris Skidmore MP, Kwasi Kwarteng MP, Dominic Raab MP, and Priti Patel MP.

Our new rivals in the world economy are working harder than us, taking their studies more seriously, keeping their debt low, and taking more risks. If Britain is to remain competitive, we must learn from their example. Britannia Unchained is a rallying cry for the 21^st Century.

Britannia Unchained backs the current government’s deficit reduction strategy as a vital first step to restoring economic growth. Here our model should be that of Canada in the 1990s. Between 1992 and 2000, Canada converted an annual deficit of 9% of GDP to a surplus of 3%, cutting federal spending by around 20% between 1992 and 1997. In contrast, British public spending has continued to grow since 2007, and the deficit has been reduced by a quarter.

On education, we should be looking eastwards for positive role models, to arrest our decline in the PISA world rankings - we have fallen as low as 28^th in maths. Britain has the lowest proportion of students studying maths post-16 of any developed country, at 15%. By contrast, in Japan, 85% of students achieve the equivalent of maths A-level, and Indian students study maths and science for twice as long each week at high school as their British counterparts.

On innovation, Britain can emulate the success of Israel, in supporting high tech entrepreneurship, and the USA, in accepting the benefits of risk-taking and losing our fear of failure. The difference between Silicon Valley and Britain is astonishing. In 2005, 3,867 patents were awarded to businesses and individuals in San Jose, a city of fewer than a million people. The total number of patents awarded in Britain the following year was only 2,978.

Kwasi Kwarteng MP: Ideas from the Free Enterprise Group to cut the size of the state

Kwasi Kwarteng is the MP for Spelthorne

Earlier this week the Free Enterprise Group, a group of largely new Tory MPs, along with the IEA hosted a "Growth Forum".  It was a short affair which lasted little more than two and a half hours, but there was an energy - an excitement even - which was palpable to everybody.

People often wonder what the point is of endless meetings and forums. I thought this week's event was an excellent example of how effective this sort of thing can be. Journalists, politicians, think tank people and academics all came together to articulate ways in which the British economy can prosper.

The inspiration behind the Free Enterprise Group is the enormous expansion of the state which occurred during Labour’s years of government. In 1997 government spending was about 37% of GDP. Today that figure is 49.4%, an increase of almost a third.  Whereas the budget was balanced at £315bn in 1997, last year spending reached £710bn. Our tax receipts were only about £590bn, hence the large deficit.

Kwasi Kwarteng MP: Aviation - In the short term, expand current airports. In the long term, build Boris Island

Kwasi Kwarteng is the Member of Parliament for Spelthorne.

“When the facts change, I change my mind... what do you do Sir?” said John Maynard Keynes to criticism that he had changed his mind on monetary policy during the Great Depression. The circumstances of 2012 are clearly very different from those in the middle of the last Parliament, when we had experienced 15 years of continuous growth.

Our current economic situation, with all its difficulties, has made aviation policy a central topic of discussion. The growth of emerging markets, coupled with the relative economic stagnation of Europe, has focused minds on the need for Britain to develop business relations with the wider world. You don’t need the logic of a Jesuit to appreciate that aviation is important to fostering links with those emerging economies outside Europe.

Kwasi Kwarteng MP: We need additional aviation capacity to help grow the UK economy

Kwasi Kwarteng is MP for Spelthorne and a member of the Transport Select Committee.

One of the great things about being a Member of Parliament is the ability to conduct research and find out more about subjects which interest you.
I am the Member of Parliament for Spelthorne which, being situated 500 yards south of Heathrow Airport, is very dependent on aviation. The needs of the aviation industry consequently are something which interest me greatly.

I was privileged to host a number of people from the industry, as well as a number of colleagues, at an ‘Aviation Forum’ the other week. We talked about various things, and particularly the role aviation plays in the British economy. More than 70% of people who travel to Britain from overseas come by air.  The largest proportion of our international flights go to America, about 13% of all flights, but more people are flying to our shores from Brazil, Russia, India and China, the so called BRIC countries.

The Forum discussed the need for more aviation in Britain to accompany the economic growth, which we all want to occur. Nobody at the Forum suggested that we could grow the country’s economy without some increase in aviation capacity.

This view is not universally shared. I am sure that my Green colleague in Parliament, Caroline Lucas, will have other views. I am convinced, however, that the majority of people in Britain recognise the ongoing need for aviation and its connection to our economic progress.

Kwasi Kwarteng: After a pantomime Pre-Budget Report, serious steps are needed to cut taxes and spending

Kwasi Kwarteng was Conservative Candidate for Brent East at the General Election of 2005, Chairman of the Bow Group in 2006 and a candidate for the  London Assembly in 2008. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from Cambridge University, has worked as an investment analyst, and is currently writing Ghosts of Empire, a book about the international legacy of the British Empire.

It’s only two weeks before Christmas, so my mind takes me back to Christmases when I was a child. I loved pantomimes and I remember the various fairy tales and children’s stories; Jack and the Beanstalk, Dick Whittington, that kind of thing. And Alistair Darling’s effort on Wednesday afternoon reminded me of another pantomime which some people may not have seen. It went something like this...

In a distant kingdom, far away, there was an old king who had two sons. The first son was slow of body and mind, a dull plodder. The second son, from a second marriage, was 15 years younger. He was a free spirit who enjoyed travel and speaking to learned men from all over the kingdom and beyond.

The old king was constantly fighting wars and ran up huge debts. He kept a very lavish household, which was run by unruly barons. He had dozens of cooks, almoners, chamberlains, jugglers and falconers. It was a very extravagant court. The wars he fought were also expensive. The kingdom seemed to be fighting constantly and the cost of running the household and fighting at the same time became very high.

As the king approached his eightieth year, he realised that he was not going to live much longer, so he called his sons to his bedside and said, “I have done my best to keep the kingdom strong, but, as you can see, I have run up huge debts and leave you a bad inheritance: the treasury is empty and foreign money lenders are pressing to be repaid. As is our custom, I will leave each of you half of my kingdom, and each of you will have to govern your part in the way you see fit”.

Kwasi Kwarteng was Conservative Candidate for Brent East at the General Election of 2005, Chairman of the Bow Group in 2006 and a candidate for the  London Assembly in 2008. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from Cambridge University, has worked as an investment analyst, and is currently writing Ghosts of Empire, a book about the international legacy of the British Empire.

Kwasi Kwarteng was Conservative Candidate for Brent East at the General Election of 2005, Chairman of the Bow Group in 2006 and a candidate for the  London Assembly in 2008. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from Cambridge University, has worked as an investment analyst, and is currently writing Ghosts of Empire, a book about the international legacy of the British Empire.

Kwasi Kwarteng: Britain needs a manufacturing base - and pure free markets cannot be relied on to deliver it

Kwasi Kwarteng was Conservative Candidate for Brent East at the General Election of 2005, Chairman of the Bow Group in 2006 and a candidate for the  London Assembly in 2008. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from Cambridge University, has worked as an investment analyst, and is currently writing Ghosts of Empire, a book about the international legacy of the British Empire.

It’s not often I find myself agreeing with Lord Mandelson, but during his interview on the Today programme yesterday morning he did say something with which many Conservatives would agree: Mandelson said that he thought we should, as a nation, have a manufacturing base, as well as a financial one.

This is common sense. We tell people in tough times to learn new skills. We tell communities to diversify their sources of income. This also applies to countries. Sovereign nations like Kenya are constantly being told by the IMF not to rely on coffee or a few basic commodities, but to develop other industries and revenue streams.

What is the situation, however, of our own country, UK plc? We were the manufacturing nation of the world in the nineteenth century, but towards the end of the twentieth century we became reliant, to a very considerable degree, on financial services. Where did that lead us?

I believe the City of London to be one of the greatest achievements in the history of capitalism. We should all be proud of our traditions of finance. Yet saying this does not mean we should neglect manufacturing.

For too long, a crude free market ideology has prevailed in which badly run companies like British Leyland were allowed to disappear. Tory figures like Lord Heseltine, who famously boasted about intervening “before breakfast, at lunchtime, in the evening”, were lampooned by the high priests of free trade.

Kwasi Kwarteng was Conservative Candidate for Brent East at the General Election of 2005, Chairman of the Bow Group in 2006 and a candidate for the  London Assembly in 2008. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from Cambridge University, has worked as an investment analyst, and is currently writing Ghosts of Empire, a book about the international legacy of the British Empire.

Kwasi Kwarteng: Four policies to kickstart the economy

Kwasi Kwarteng was Conservative Candidate for Brent East at the General Election of 2005 and Chairman of the Bow Group in 2006. He holds a doctorate in Economic History from Cambridge University, has worked as an investment analyst, and is currently writing Ghosts of Empire, a book about the international legacy of the British Empire.

There is a lot of confusion now about our economic mess. Where do we go from here? I have four suggestions. These aren’t a quick fix solution; we have hard times ahead, but they are a start.

Firstly, we should slash business taxes. Capital formation, the ability of businessmen and women to start up new businesses, is crucial in any recovery. That’s why the government wants to keep up lending. We should help businesses by cutting their tax burdens. It seems crazy to increase lending to business, while keeping their tax burdens the same. We should be cutting these tax burdens, even before trying to lend more money. The private sector is the key to recovery. Cutting taxes for business acknowledges this.

Secondly, we should nationalise the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds and get them lending again. The situation of the banks is insane. Last October, we committed £37bn to them. Their share prices have almost halved. More than £10bn of taxpayers’ money has evaporated in the last three months. We have just committed a further £25bn to RBS. We are guaranteeing up to a staggering £325 billion of bad assets for this one bank.

Kwasi Kwarteng: The machines are set to win again in American politics

Kwasi Kwarteng, 32, was a Conservative candidate in Brent East in 2005 and Chairman of the Bow Group, a centre-right think tank, in 2005-2006. He is currently writing a book, Ghosts of Empire, a look at the legacy of the last days of the British Empire.

The US election has been exciting.  I have just come from Florida to New York, having seen the Florida primary firsthand. I even went to a McCain rally and managed to get his autograph in Tampa, Florida.

Despite the real excitement, the election is now taking a predictable course. The two front runners in their respective parties, John McCain and Hillary Clinton, are Washington insiders. McCain has been on Capitol Hill since 1982. Mrs Clinton has been in Washington as “first lady” and a senator for the last 16 years. This isn’t surprising. The costs of running a campaign, where it costs US$1m to run a week of television advertising in a large state, just for a primary, mean that only extremely well-established, or multi-millionaire, candidates can play the game.

In Florida, the Republican establishment started to rally around McCain. The endorsement of Florida’s slick, silver-haired Governor, Charlie Crist,  on Saturday was a big boost for McCain. Going forward, the collapse of Rudy Giuliani’s campaign has been damaging for Romney. It leaves Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher and Governor of Arkansas in the race. He is splitting the Conservative vote of which Romney is now posing as the Champion. McCain and Huckabee like each other. It sometimes seems they have a silent compact against the rich kid on the block, Romney.