I thought this year I would hold a Christmas photo recognition competition. You can enter the competition through the 'About David Drew MP' tab. It is a privilege to work in such a beautiful and interesting area as the Stroud Constitiuency and I thought as I went round I would take some photographs to share with you. The instructions are hopefully straight forward. The closing date for entries is the 4th January 2009. Hopefully that gives you some time over Christmas to do some exploring.
I would like to invite everyone who has been knitting or sewing for Operation Christmas Child to a Tea Party on the 28th November from 3.00pm until 4.00pm in the George Room in the Subscription Rooms. I have invited a guest from Operation Christmas Child to come and meet us and take away our handy work.
I can’t wait to see the wonderful bears, clowns, hats, bags that people have been making for displaced and vulnerable children around the world. Knitting a hand puppet is much harder than a hat (for me anyway!) but each gift we make will send a message of hope to a child somewhere in the world bringing them some joy and happiness at Christmas and in the months to come.
You can drop you mittens and hats off in my office 5a Lansdown at any time. I hope to see you on the 28th November in the George Room so please come along and bring your friends.
'I welcome the Election of Barack Obama to the Presidency. In an article back in the summer I wrote that I feared that John McCain would win and I still believe that this would have been the case had not the economy turned so badly against President Bush - something that McCain could not dissociate himself from. Also his choice of Sarah Palin as running mate was bizarre and dangerous and he was rightly punished for this.
I hope President-elect Obama lives up to his promises and we start to see a rapid withdrawal from Iraq and a more measured approach to both domestic and foreign affairs long needed because of the dreadful Bush legacy quite simply the worst President in living memory.'
David Drew MP
There are many views on what caused the credit crunch and the inevitable recession that has followed it. There are even more arguments over who is to blame. For me whilst both will make for interesting history more important is what do we do now.
So if you want my own approach to the salvation of our economic difficulties it will be as follows;
First cut interest rates. Though not without its own perils this is the only way to really kick-start the economy. And this needs to happen now be radical and dramatic.
Second bring forward public sector led capital spending on housing, education, transport and community based projects. This may be classic Keynesian pump-priming - but it just happens to be right. Ignore those siren voices including the 16 economists who argued that this is wrong. Such voices were wrong in the 1930s and they are even more wrong now.
Third target help to small business and manufacturing to retain jobs and to start to restore local supply chains, vitally important to Stroud in particular. End the dependence upon the financial sector. Realise that the anti-industrial culture of finance in this country has cost us dear – we can now begin to roll back the wrongs of recent history and this cannot come too quickly as far as I am concerned.
Fourth look to boost the incomes of vulnerable groups such as pensioners by retying state pensions to earnings immediately. This will boost spending and start to uplift domestic demand.
Fifth and lastly work internationally to restore trust in the world monetary system wresting back control from global companies and financial institutions and seeking fair trade rather than free trade. Restore faith in the notion that individual governments can and should make a difference operating both unilaterally and where helpful multilaterally.
There is much more that could be done but the 5 point plan is in my opinion at least a good beginning. Now bring on the politics to underline the economics.
David Drew
MP for the Stroud Constituency
I would just like to take this opportunity to thank all of the good wishes that I have had from everyone after falling off my bike and possibly fracturing one of my ribs.
About three weeks ago I was riding down the back of Toadsmoor and I unfortunately came over the front of my handle bars. At first I thought I hurt my wrists it was only when I got home that I realised I'd hurt my rib.
I am now back on my bike again and getting back up to speed.