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Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary, January 5, 2012

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

Latest post:

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all Chronicle readers and indeed everybody else. I hope this year proves to be a great one!

Published 06 Jan 12 • Read More

A wasteful solution to a rubbish problem

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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THE grinding noise beneath the car could have been something costly coming adrift or a particularly lethal bit of sabotage, either way in the darkness it sounded like bad news.

Published 11 Nov 11 • Read More

Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary, November 10, 2011

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

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LAST WEEK I was fortunate enough to host a reception with Lord Baker of Dorking on the House of Commons terrace for University Technical Colleges.

Published 11 Nov 11 • Read More

All kinds of everything going on in Irish election

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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THE biggest plus point for retaining the monarchy is that in my lifetime we're unlikely to see a George Dubya-type or a Bill Clinton - or even, God forbid, a President Blair, Cameron or Milibland - waving at us from the Buck House balcony.

Published 20 Oct 11 • Read More

Alok Sharma's Westminster Diary, October 20, 2011

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The Pensions Bill is making its passage through Parliament this week. I served on the committee for this piece of legislation and it is therefore of particular interest.

Published 20 Oct 11 • Read More

Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary: October 13, 2011

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

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GREAT news for education this week with the Government approving a new school to be set up in east Reading.

Published 14 Oct 11 • Read More

Lions are being led by a stampede of donkeys

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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ALMOST a lifetime ago, as a teenage cadet sergeant in the Air Training Corps, I recall preparing for an exercise with squadrons from all over the country during Easter camp at a Royal Air Force base in darkest Yorkshire.

Published 14 Oct 11 • Read More

Dave plays the tough guy...while billions go missing

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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HIP HIP hooray! One relatively successful war and Dave thinks he's A. Blair. And whether there was even a twitch of unease at the premature feel of that Tripoli victory parade, it must be uncomfortable realising that Libyan rebels still bitterly fighting in Sirte are not jousting with mere ghosts.

Published 30 Sep 11 • Read More

Alok Sharma's Westminster Diary: 08.09.2011

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MPs returned to Parliament this week and on the first day back, during Local Government questions, I raised the issue of Section 106 monies spent by Reading Council.

Published 09 Sep 11 • Read More

World of Sport

Our sports reporters wax lyrical in their new online soapbox

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Prudence is the key member of Sir John's squad

By Chronicle sports editor Anthony Smith JUST a few short months since Reading came within a goal post of the Premier League, chairman Sir John Madejski finds himself in the firing line.

Published 02 Sep 11 • Read More

I'd say bravo, NHS - if I was allowed to talk!

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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IT'S BEST not to argue when your boss warns that unless you make an appointment to see a doctor she'll make it for you.

Published 26 Aug 11 • Read More

How do we fight you? Let me count the days

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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IT SEEMS like only yesterday, but by my reckoning it's actually 161 yesterdays, since Le Petit Sarko announced that Gaddafi must go.

Published 05 Aug 11 • Read More

National insurance offers no health reassurance

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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SOME of you probably still can't believe how easily you fell for that con trick about a working lifetime's National Insurance contributions providing comfort and tranquillity through one's twilight years and into eternity.

Published 28 Jul 11 • Read More

Alok Sharma's Westminster Diary, July 28, 2011

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PARLIAMENT went into recess last week, but not before a "recall" on the first day for a statement by the Prime Minister on the telephone hacking saga followed by a debate on the subject, in which I spoke.

Published 28 Jul 11 • Read More

Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary, July 21, 2011

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

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ONE OF the joys of being an MP is exerting influence to get the best possible outcomes for your constituents.

Published 21 Jul 11 • Read More

Red kite at night, not to Grizzly Adams' delight

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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A COUPLE of mornings a week the silence in my back garden is almost deafening. Absent is the usual hubbub of chattering blue tits, squabbling sparrows or the self-contented chortling of blackbirds rooting around in the bushes.

Published 21 Jul 11 • Read More

Alok Sharma's Westminster Diary, July 14, 2011

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Together with local people, councillors and the excellent residents' Save Calcot Action Group (SCAG), I have been campaigning since 2008 to stop developer Blue Living's plans to dump 750 homes and commercial buildings on Pincents Hill.

Published 15 Jul 11 • Read More

Time for another round in Second Chance Saloon

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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NOW we know that Dave's turned Number 10 into the Second Chance Saloon he should probably own up and reveal exactly how many other unfortunates he's got in there toiling away on rehab.

Published 14 Jul 11 • Read More

Match point for Theresa or is it a foul ball?

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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HOW much does the BBC spend annually on its own version of a final salary pension scheme for a bunch of has-been, never-was or never-likely-to-be tennis 'stars'?

Published 08 Jul 11 • Read More

Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary, July 7, 2011

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

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I HEARD someone say on the radio that journalism is about to experience its own expenses scandal moment. If that's true, it's about to go through the fire and deservedly so.

Published 08 Jul 11 • Read More

Special mission for the world's 'top trumps'

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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IT MUST be a tad surreal when you're the most powerful nation on the planet and the only characters you can rustle up to challenge Barack for control of the White House answer to the name of Mitt, Newt, Rick, Jon, Flip, Chuck, Rock, Hank, Wizz or Trump.

Published 01 Jul 11 • Read More

How do we save las Malvinas now, Dave?

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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ONCE upon a time when gunboat diplomacy was in vogue, accusing someone's prime minister of "mediocrity bordering on stupidity" would have had everyone hurriedly pulling on their tin hats.

Published 24 Jun 11 • Read More

Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary 23.06.11

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

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The longer we are in Government the easier it becomes to expose how useless the last Labour Government was - it's quite difficult for the public to comprehend just how awful it all was.

Published 24 Jun 11 • Read More

Blair's old gloss can't paint over the Middle East cracks

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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IT WAS like old times. Tremor in the voice, glottals stopping like an intricate passage from Riverdance, that weird Anglo-Scottish hooray accent, mellowed with a mid-Atlantic tinge, and even a hint of the Middle East picked up from visitors spirited up in the private lift to the all-expenses- paid floor he occupies at Jerusalem's American Colony Hotel.

Published 16 Jun 11 • Read More

Alok Sharma's Westminster Diary, June 16, 2011

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It's the second year of the Coalition Government and we are having to make some very difficult decisions to fix the financial mess and record deficit Labour left behind.

Published 16 Jun 11 • Read More

How did we lose our basic instinct - simple humanity?

Maurice O'Brien, Reading's favourite columnist

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AS SCANDALS go it was hardly of tsunami proportions. Were the victims dogs or cats, or even a retired circus elephant, then the furore might well have been greater.

Published 03 Jun 11 • Read More

Alok Sharma's Westminster Diary, June 2, 2011

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Along with the Mayor of Reading and other local folk, I was lucky enough to be invited by Reading Football Club to watch the big match at Wembley on Monday.

Published 03 Jun 11 • Read More

Rob Wilson's Westminster Diary: May 26, 2011

Conservative MP for Reading East gives us insights into his Westminster diary.

Latest post:

THIS week President Obama visited Westminster and as I write this Westminster Hall is being prepared to receive him.

Published 26 May 11 • Read More