Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. Today in Parliament, with the FairFuelUK campaign, I am launching a new All-Party Parliamentary Group to look at the high cost of petrol. When the fuel protests broke out in the year 2000, we were worried about 80p per litre, and the damage it might do to our economy. […]
Robert Halfon is Conservative MP for Harlow. When I was a child, I remember going to regularly to Great Ormond Street Hospital, where a doctor would bang my knee with a short stick which had a rubber on the end. Unfailingly, like Pavlov's dog, my knee always jolted. I thought of that knee jolt after […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. I know it’s hard. But put Bob Crow and his ilk in a box for one moment. Cast your mind away from strikes or union militancy and consider the real role of Trade Unions. Unions are the very core of the Big Society, rooted in their communities. Behind all […]
Robert Halfon is the MP for Harlow. I am open-minded about an elected House of Lords – though I think that the Second Chamber must be either wholly elected or wholly appointed. Halfway houses never work, and a part-elected house will create a two tier class of Peer: those who electioneer and have constituents to […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow and tweets @halfon4harlowMP 1. Treat Social Networking like a religion. If you're going to Tweet, Tweet properly. Twitter reqiuires faith. There is no point in joining social networking sites and rarely providing updates. If you're going to do it, you have to believe in it and update regularly. Tweet […]
Robert Halfon is Conservative MP for Harlow. Some immediate reflections: First, America has shown yet again how important she is for freedom and civilisation. We must be thankful that the US is the world's superpower. Second, the death of Bin Laden is as much symbolic as practical. This represents a huge defeat for extreme totalitaruian […]
By Robert Halfon MP Is it time for a United Nation resolution on Syria? Whilst world attention has invariably been focused on Libya, the Assad Baathist Regime has been busy murdering its own citizens all around the country. In March, security forces fired on protesters, including at a funeral in Dara. A few days ago, […]
By Robert Halfon MP Why shouldn't everyone have a right to an iPad? The answer to this question depends whether you agree with Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who recently argued that access to the Internet is a basic human right. If you do concur, then the logical extension is that, if the internet is a right, […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. I am a member of a Trade Union – Prospect – and in no way should we link anarchists' riots to the legitimate rights of the TUC to protest. It would have helped if some had behave more responsibly – comparing the demo to Martin Luther King et al […]
By Robert Halfon MP I have a special interest in wishing to see the back of Colonel Gaddafi. My late grandfather, Renato Halfon, was a member of a small but thriving community of Italian Tripolitanian Jews who lived in Libya when Gaddafi came to power in the 1960s. Gaddafi's henchmen seized all Jewish businesses and […]
by Robert Halfon The progressive left's appeasement – and in some cases support – for Gadaffi is akin to those British Aristocrats who actively sympathised with Fascism in the 1930s. The latest relevations in the Times (£) today make shocking reading. Not only was the London School of Economics accepting blood money from the Gadaffi […]
By Robert Halfon MP Following my post a few days ago, I thought it would be useful to Conservative Home readers, to set out the links between Libya and the London School of Economics going back to 2003. 2003 onwards Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi, the second son of Colonel Gaddafi enrolls at the LSE in […]
By Robert Halfon MP Events in Libya hold special meaning for our family, as my late grandfather (an Italian Tripolitanian Jew), was one of the many thousands of Jews in Libya who had their property confiscated and businesses appropriated by the Gadaffi regime. My grandfather left Libya for Italy, and later came to England. He […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. As 'The Big Society' seems to be dominating our airwaves at the moment – with much discussion as to its meaning, I thought I would offer my own three pennies worth: The Big Society says social capital – the glue that strengthens community – and binds communities together – […]
Robert Halfon is MP for Harlow. Today is Vocational Qualifications day, and yet a skills deficit has blighted our economy for many years. Just one in three British workers now qualify as apprentices, or with technical skills. Whereas in France, it is one in two. And Germany are even better, with two out of three […]