Ed Vaizey

Apparently I have been “tagged” by Dizzy as part of a blog “meme” (the inverted commas are meant to indicate that I still have very little understanding of blogging sub-culture) to list the seven best things that I have done/happened to me this year (why seven?).  This is too tempting, and of course foolhardy for a politician, so here goes.

1. baby Joseph being born.  Three months today.  Wins hands down.

2. Becoming Shadow Arts Minister

3.Winding up Shaun Woodward (see above)

4.Helping to start Didcot First - a concrete achievement, a lobbying group which I hope will help transform Didcot’s image

5.Winning a Charity Champions Award for my campaign to save the Park Hospital in Oxford (which failed!)

6. Buying our first house

7. Starting a blog (this is an obligatory entry for all bloggers)

It’s not just extremists who seek to introduce Sharia law into Britain - now the great and the good are at it.  Read Perry Worsthorne HERE on the subject.  Yes, the way to solve the problem of the permissive society is to follow where Iran has led - along with presumably the repression of the press and free speech, the jailing of dissidents and so on. 

Any one who read my post on Brown and biodiesel (December 12th) and knew any thing about the subject will have seen I completely missed the point.  Sorry.  Sorry, sorry.  Brown, of course, actually  increased duty on biodiesel by 1.25p, the same as the duty increase for petrol.  Got that?  This supposedly environmental budget treated biodiesel exactly the same as petrol.  Now, if any one out there still believes (a) Brown presents his Budgets in a straightforward way and (b) Brown has any interest at all in the environment, I would like them to call me.  I want to introduce them to Santa Claus.

Boris Johnson has an article in today’s Telegraph attacking the new cultural test for British films.

You can read this week’s debate on the cultural test HERE.  At the very end, Woodward admits the Government put through the original test in March while still negotiating with the Commission…and if you are really fascinated, you can read the debate HERE in March when the Government put forward their own test - before they had checked with the Commission!

Tom Watson’s SITE has a post on a “small but expanding” group of girls who have put up a fan site for Alan Milburn.  This has to be a mickey take … doesn’t it?

UPDATE: I’ve just looked at the Tony Blair one.  This is all very odd.

In an otherwise excellent report on Conservative Home on Iain Duncan Smith’s superb analysis of social breakdown in Britain, the following rather odd phrase appears: “Yesterday [David Cameron] gave unequivocal backing to Iain Duncan Smith’s analysis and sided with the traditionalists on marriage, rather than the modernisers”.

Er, since when have modernisers been against marriage?  I certainly am not, and I have been more than happy to criticise a benefits system that forces couples apart.  I am also well aware of - and agree with  - the evidence that marriages create a much more stable family.  The key point, as Iain Duncan Smith found out at the week end, is that the Conservatives make clear that this is an analysis of the problem, which will lead to support for the institution of marriage and families in general.  It is not a moralising attack on the way people choose to live their lives.  Incidentally, David Cameron did not come out in favour of marriage yesterday - he made clear his support for marriage and family friendly policies from the moment he started to campaign for the leadership.

The wheels have pretty much come off Gordon Brown’s so-called Green Pre-Budget Report.  It is quite clear that the measures he took, such as doubling airport departure tax, are nothing to do with helping the enviornment and everything to do with raising money.

Just before Brown stood up last week, I asked the Prime Minister what he planned to do to increase the use of biodiesel.  Blair had visited a company called Regenatec in my constituency which produces technology to allow engines to be adapted to use pure plant oil.  When Brown stood up, he gestured towards me as he proudly announced he was extending the fuel duty rebate for biodiesel.

You could not get a better illustration of Brown completely missing the point.  Duty on diesel is 48p; duty on Biodiesel is 28p.  So you would expect the latter to be 20p cheaper than the former.  Not so.  Biodiesel (surprise, surprise) costs more to produce - about 20p more!  So they cost the same at the pump!

Worse, bus operators are allowed to claim back duty on both diesel and biodeisel, so it diesel actually costs THEM 10p less than biodiesel.  No bus operator will move to biodiesel until this barmy situation is changed.  

Our transport system is slowly sinking into the abyss.  Not so much a return to Victorian values, as a return to eighteenth century speeds of travel.  I have been inundated with complaints from my constituents about the new timetable from Didcot, where the trains now arrive 15 minutes late and there is standing room only.  The London Underground is also routinely failing.  This morning, they surpassed themselves.  A tube station was closed because there was a “fault with the platform”.  Eh?

Yesterday’s debate on the new film regulations was very interesting.  The films minister, Shaun Woodward, had no defence for the Government’s mess up, and admitted that the Government had passed the original regulations before they had been cleared by Europe, which is pretty astonishing.

But the debate became even more interesting for another reason.  Most MPs turn up to a Committee because they have been asked to by the whips.  Glenda Jackson was there, but clearly had no intention of speaking.  However, after John Whittingdale, the Chairman of the Select Committee, said what an honour it was to debate the issue with her present, the great lady was moved to rise.  I am told that this is the first time that she has spoken on film in the House (this may well be wrong) and she was eloquent and, of course, very knowledgeable.  Perhaps now her appetite has been whetted, she may return as film minister under a new administration…

One of the problems with this Government is its sheer incompetence.  It’s a difficult theme to campaign on - “look, we’d simply be better at the job” - but it’s true.  Take the on-going saga of tax incentives for British films.  Later this afternoon, I will be speaking for the Conservatives when we debate the new definition of a British film.  As The Times reports today, the Government have made a real mess of this one.  We had a perfectly good tax break, whcih ran unchanged between 1992 and 1997.  The the Government changed it - three times.  Oh, and had to tighten it up four times to stop it being used for tax avoidance.  Then they abolished it and will bring in a new break in January.

As the tax break counts as state aid, Europe insists that there is a definition of what is a “British Film”.  The Government put through its test in March, but didn’t bother to check with the European Commission.  The Commission promptly called it in and completely changed it.  Now, the new test could make it very difficult to make Hollywood films in Britain - at a time when we are competing with Eastern Europe.  Even quintessentially British films (such as the Carry On Series) might not get made unless they are “set” in Britain.  It’s all a terrible muddle.  But it’s not down to the Government being wrong - simply incompetent.