John Redwood tells victims of cuts to “put on a jumper”

The return of the Nasty Party.

By James Macintyre Published 24 June 2010 18:09

The Daily Mail is reporting that John Redwood, the wealthy ex-banker, second-home flipper and Tory cutter-in-chief, has written this on his blog:

If you are living a middle-class lifestyle and your income goes down by 10 per cent you have plenty of options.

You can holiday nearer home and cut out the foreign trip. You can eat at home more than in restaurants. You can trade down for a cheaper car.

You can draw some money out of the savings account to tide you over until your income goes up again.

You can buy more of the value items at the supermarket and put more vegetarian dishes into menus.

You can discover home entertainment to keep the leisure bill down. You can turn down the thermostat a little and put on a jumper.

Oddly, however, the words currently don't appear on Redwood's blog. Did someone tell him to take them off? I am trying to get hold of Redwood to find out what's been going on.

Meanwhile, to read Mehdi Hasan's column on the return of the "Nasty Party", click here.

UPDATE:

It turns out that the blog post the Mail is reporting tonight is from 21 June. You can read it here.

UPDATE:

Redwood has now posted a fresh blog, entitled, "The Mail gets it wrong . . .":

The Mail have put up a piece suggesting I have been giving post-Budget advice about family budgets. Far from it. I have offered no such advice.

Well before the Budget I was talking here about the state cutting down its middle-class lifestyle -- too many foreign trips and consultants. I drew an analogy with what middle-income shoppers have done if their income falls. I made it clear that if you are on a low budget you cannot cut easily.

They should try reading it instead of twisting it.

More from James Macintyre

22 comments

Thu, 2010-06-24 20:20 — Rai (not verified)

Douglas Clarke,

People don't have to tighten their belts. We have to get rid of Trident and stop the wars.
Are your precious WMDs worth so much more than people's quality of life? Isn't excessive military spending what tipped the USSR into collapse?

Or are you, like most on the right, more interested in punishing the poor to score some twisted moral point?

Sat, 2010-06-26 13:18 — Nick (not verified)

On Redwood's site, you can see how he declares a monthly sum of £3950.27 from Haldex for an average of 8 hours work, £537 per month from lecturing fees, £22,877 from Evercore (a nice quarterly sum), up to £5,000 from the Daily Telegraph. These being in addition to other payments and of course on TOP of his MP salary and expenses and whatever else this hard up man may bring in (which includes a nice bottle of brandy I see!).

My word he's bound to be bundling loads of 9p baked bean tins into his trolley eh! Should we not all send him a jumper so the poor thing can get though the winter without contracting hypothermia?

Thu, 2010-06-24 23:21 — thinkov

to the ergo user
err go and get stuffed

Thu, 2010-06-24 23:14 — Red Rag

This from the man who earned over £150,000 above his wage for being an MP last year. The only good use for Redwood is he is the public unacceptable(ugly?) face of Thatcherism.

http://redrag1.blogspot.com/2010/06/red-rag-upset-about-losing-money-in....

Thu, 2010-06-24 23:14 — Nick9

Someone wants to tell that dumb and out of touch idiot that many people seeking advice on their financial affairs are not just the poor but the middle class. Many of them haven't had a holiday in ages, they are already buying cheap own branded foods from cut price supermarkets, they've not been able to put the heating on in the coldest of winters and they don't have any savings! It's all very well people like Redwood, spoilt and arrogant brat that he is, giving condescending advice like this when he has the comfort buffer of a wealth no doubt handed down to him by equally arrogant parents. Redwood should take a step into the real world; anyone defending him shouldn't feel too smug; unless of course they are equally well off!

Thu, 2010-06-24 23:21 — jeremiah

Put on your jumper and look for work...

Fri, 2010-06-25 10:06 — davidk1

Lower than vermin, as Bevin said.

Sat, 2010-06-26 23:52 — Nick (not verified)

It's quite revealing how Redwood has an inherent knack of finding himself a wealthy woman. Why oh why do they always go for the nasty ones?

He seems to have totally hacked off his former wife, then he meets up with a wealthy model/politician before moving on to lording it up with his latest bit on the side 'precious'. She's an accountant no less, very wealthy by all accounts and no doubt very handy to have around when it comes to completing those expense forms i suspect.

Oh I do hope Mr 'tighten your belt' Redwood is being as up front about his interests in 'Harehatch Holdings' as he is on his advice to people on how to survive the financial crisis. My guess is Mr Redwood and good old 'precious' do rather nicely out of all the cash that comes flooding in from what I suspect to be a rather lucrative property firm. Probably quite handy being such a prominent MP when it comes to getting all the necessary planning consents too I guess!

How is these people feel qualified to tell people how to live on nothing when they have everything!

Sun, 2010-06-27 04:53 — farcalled

How odd, I thought my mother was the last person in the English speaking community to call a sweater a "jumper".

Now you're all doing it.

How sweet, how middle classy.

Sun, 2010-06-27 10:10 — swatantra nandanwar

Cardigans? Where the does the old cardie figure in this class structure? And are 'tank tops' classless?

Sun, 2010-06-27 12:06 — Nick (not verified)

It's the new found Tory way of defining what class we belong to. By Redwood asking everyone to don a jumper, we'll all appear as though we look like Tories; those lesser mortals who wear tee shirts will become a frowned upon segment of this newly defined division of society.

I wonder how many jumpers Redwood has in his wardrobe?

Tue, 2010-07-06 19:21 — middlesbroughphil (not verified)

There are 1000 years of coal reserves beneath our feet, 120 billion in tax evasion is owed the treasury. We are awash with wealth, The Redwoods we have now, had before and will have in the future, merely engage in the ongoing struggle to keep those they represent in control of that wealth. WE need only hold to the truth that 'history, like revolution, never ends'.

Fri, 2010-06-25 17:40 — swatantra nandanwar

Jumpers? Could be the answer to all these airborn respiratory problems caused by living in an insulated box and Gas Cntral Heating.
We might actually come out the better for it, provided we don't freeze to death.

Fri, 2010-06-25 22:56 — Nick9

Nice one Swatantra. Why didn't the coalition think of this before. The answer to our economic plight is simple; wear a jumper!

I don't know why Redwood denies it, it was still on his website today!

Thu, 2010-06-24 18:19 — Douglas Clarke (not verified)

How is it "nasty" to tell the truth?

We cannot afford x public spending.
ergo
Public spending must fall
ergo
People must tighten their belts.

I suspect your trouble, Mr Macintyre, is that you found your feet under Blair, and hence believe the idea that difficult decisions can be abolished.

Thu, 2010-06-24 18:40 — Roger Roger (not verified)

But he's right!
I tell my better half to put a Jumper on when she complains she wants the heating on, in fact quite a few couples do. When I was *really* skint I had to sleep in thick jumpers. (Now I'm just skint)