argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Northern Ireland Border — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Raymond Collins (Labour, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for repeating the Statement and I appreciate his comments about the Good Friday agreement, which were very clear. Certainly the Minister was very clear last week, too. Although he is clear, I am afraid that the Government appear less so, and certainly the bizarre comments from the Foreign Secretary have not helped the matter. Although we may find it amusing that he drew a parallel between London boroughs and the border between the Republic and Northern Ireland, it is simply not helpful. It is not a joking matter; it is serious In addition to the Foreign Secretary’s comments, we have his private memo to the Prime Minister, in which he says that, "it is wrong to see the task as maintaining no border", and that the Government’s task is to stop the border "becoming significantly harder". He goes on to say: "Even if a hard border is reintroduced, we would expect to see 95% + of goods", pass the border without checks. Just what are the Government considering here? Can the Minister tell us on what basis the figure of 95% was reached? What analysis was undertaken, and why are the Government considering this if, as the Minister repeated today, they are committed to the Good Friday agreement and a soft border It is also hard to understand why the Government are so critical of the EU’s proposals for a common regulatory area. The EU has been absolutely clear that this is a backstop if the Government fail to deliver on their very clear promise of no hard border. Does the Minister accept that most of us are struggling to understand how, without a customs union with the EU, the current border arrangements and the GFA can be maintained? Will he enlighten us? Will he be able to tell us how he can square this circle?
International Development Committee: Burma Visas — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Raymond Collins (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I thank the Minister for repeating the response to that Urgent Question. Clearly, the refusal of visas for the IDC is a shocking development. Stephen Twigg, chair of the IDC in the other place, said it was his belief that this was as a direct result of the intervention of Aung San Suu Kyi. During his interview yesterday on the BBC’s "Today" programme, the Foreign Secretary said that we need to understand the historic problem and how Aung San Suu Kyi feels the pressure. Surely our response now must be to exert more pressure, without, as he says, hurting those who need our help most Last October, in an Oral Question in this Chamber, I told the Minister that I welcomed the suspension of aid to the Burmese military but asked whether we should now consider the suspension of support to the DfID funding of parliamentary advice, as well as to the WFD funding of advice to the Myanmar Government. Surely now is the time to show our discontent and put pressure on those who have made this decision. The fact is that Myanmar is refusing access to the UN fact-finding mission and to the UN Refugee Agency, the only agency with the expertise and credibility to monitor the repatriation of the Rohingya people. What are the Government going to do? How do we ensure access, not only for the IDC but for the United Nations?
International Development Committee: Burma Visas — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
John Davies (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, following on from the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Collins, clearly we need to do something. The Minister has said that the Government have protested and are going to raise this matter in international fora but, as we all know, protests do not have much leverage on events. Some concrete incentives and deterrents—or punishments, if you like—are required I agree with the Government’s intention not to reduce their aid programme in Burma—we should not make the poor and starving people of Burma suffer for this—but an appropriate response might be a travel ban on Myanmar government and military officials.
International Development Committee: Burma Visas — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Alfred Dubs (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, it is shocking that the crisis of the Rohingya has been going on for 25 years or longer. I visited Cox’s Bazar before I became a Member of this House in the early 1990s. Are we the only country against which the Burmese Government have taken the kind of action they have in relation to our Select Committee, or have other countries also been discriminated against by the Burmese authorities?
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
George Foulkes (Labour, Centre-left): That is the constant refrain from the leavers. We heard it all through the referendum campaign: "It’s our money". It is money from all the European countries that comes in according to their ability to pay and goes out to different parts of the European Union according to their needs, and rural areas, transition areas and less developed areas are those which get it. But that is not the argument here; we have had that argument. It has been made and we can have it in another place Wherever it comes from, that money is within the European Union budget at the moment and is then allocated to these projects in different parts of the United Kingdom. We are asking for an assurance—we need a guarantee—that, if we leave the European Union, this money will go to the same projects and be funded by the United Kingdom Government. I hope that the Minister will be able to give us that guarantee; such projects will otherwise have an uncertain future. People’s livelihoods depend on them; people who have put their lives into developing them are now faced with uncertainty. The only way in which they can be given some certainty is if the Government accept my amendment or something like it, and make sure that the money that they currently get from those European Union funds will come in future from Her Majesty’s Government.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Frank Ashcroft Judd (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I warmly thank my noble friend for having put this amendment before the Committee. I should explain that I live in Cumbria and I understand very directly some of the things that have been said in this debate. It always gives me great heart when I see the European sign on tangible projects in an otherwise not too prosperous county, as an indication of European solidarity and a determination that people should stand together in making sure that a decent life is available to everyone. I do not think that, historically, we can overestimate the significance, the sadness, of what we are losing in that concept of European solidarity The other point I will make is that there have been references to reassurances and so on. Forgive me, I do not mean to be critical of those who have used the word, but I do not think that is enough. Possibilities have been created through our membership of the European Union. I believe that we have to have very firm guarantees from the Government that nothing is going to be lost in the context of what may be about to happen and that they will ensure that any work already in train, and any expectations already generated, will be fulfilled. There really is a growing sense of injustice and unfairness in many parts of the country. The south-west is one example, and certainly the north is another example, not least Cumbria. There is a deep frustration—and in some instances it is not an exaggeration to say "anger"—about the disparities between what is available in the south and the south-east and what is not. I agree most warmly with the point made earlier in the debate that there is a feeling that our Government is a Government of the south-east and not a Government of the totality of British life. In that context, for Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and indeed for English regions, we need those guarantees from the Government tonight.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: Environment
Barbara Young (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I add my support to Amendment 23, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, from an environmental perspective. These funds have been hugely beneficial in helping bring environmental progress, together with economic and social progress, to these very deprived areas The ERDF is big and it is substantial—you can see it from the moon. Four of its 11 thematic objectives are environmental: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation, wider environmental protection and sustainable transport. The thematic approach has really helped mainstream environmental considerations into development in these areas and encouraged more sustainable development strategies and schemes that provide local employment and economic activity, often in areas that have absolutely nothing but their natural resources to rely on. That has been a hugely valuable process I particularly commend the Interreg process as part of the EDRF. This focuses on cross-border environmental protection projects and has provided for projects that have struggled to get funding elsewhere because they span administrative and governmental boundaries. It is quite telling, as the noble Lord, Lord Wallace, said, that Norway participates in Interreg, and I encourage the Government to consider remaining in the Interreg process. It is hugely innovative and facilitates cross-border work which simply will not be done by a "Britain going it alone" process, as is the case with many of the issues that we will face in the future outside the European Union. This is particularly important in environmental areas because, of course, the environment does not recognise governmental or administrative boundaries I therefore ask the Minister whether she would consider how a strategy could be brought forward to fill the gap post-Brexit. It needs two elements. First, it needs to recognise that these funds are absolutely crucial and that that level of funding needs to be continued, because so many other sources of funding for these sorts of projects are diminishing. Local authority money is going, lottery money is going, the Government themselves are broke and the charities are not too well-off either Secondly, there is the whole issue of stability. If the funds are reshaped along Barnett formula lines—and if they are simply locked into the block grant and not ring-fenced—key areas of high need will lose out. Currently, these funds are allocated on the basis of need and merit proposals, and we would not see a degree of stability going forward if they were simply dealt with on a pre-existing formula. I therefore hope the Government will come forward with a strategy; this is a splendid proposition.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Andrew Adonis (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I am afraid we again get into the Alice in Wonderland world here, as we were in the debates on Erasmus and Euratom. My understanding from discussions with the European Investment Bank when I was chair of the National Infrastructure Commission is that if the Government were to wish to stay a member of the European Investment Bank, that might be possible. There are lots of legal issues which would need to be addressed, but it might be possible. However, it is the Government’s policy, as a matter of principle, that we will withdraw from the European Investment Bank because it is seen as a European institution and apparently the instruction from the British people two years ago was that we must withdraw from it for exactly the same reason that we must withdraw from Euratom: it is seen as a European institution and we are supposed be withdrawing from all of them or else Brexit does not mean Brexit We are engaging in self-inflicted harm purely for an ideological purpose by choosing not to be part of an institution which has "Europe" in the title. What has concerned the Committee so much in our debates is that sector by sector, area by area, we are committing to policies that are going to make the country worse off bit by bit. The cumulative effect of all this is going to be immensely serious. Where it is possible to not engage in that self-inflicted harm, it seems to me to be just a matter of common sense not to do so. I would be very grateful if the Minister could tell the Committee the Government’s policy in respect of lending currently made by the European Investment Bank and whether it might still be open I am constantly encouraging, and we have the more emollient face of the Government responding to the debate in the noble Baroness. I always have very high hopes of her because she sounds so reasonable when she replies. It may just be that she is so practised at doing these things, but I very much hope that she might give us a commitment that the Government will consider remaining a part of the European Investment Bank and not putting this essential investment in the future infrastructure of the country at risk, as appears to be happening at the moment.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: Macroeconomics
George Foulkes (Labour, Centre-left): With respect, these are fine words beautifully delivered, but the word "guarantee", which my noble friend Lord Judd mentioned, has not appeared so far. Will all those projects, three or four of which I described, and which reasonably expected funding right up to 2020, be guaranteed funding under the strategy described by the noble Baroness?
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: Transportation
Frank Ashcroft Judd (Labour, Centre-left): The noble Baroness says it is unreasonable to expect figures, and there is a certain amount of sympathy with her on that. However, is she really telling us that she cannot guarantee that any projects in train, those planned on the basis of agreements, or any undertakings will be fulfilled?
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
George Foulkes (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, this debate has ranged rather more widely than I had expected, and the noble Baroness has given us a very comprehensive answer, for which I am grateful. I was particularly intrigued by the reference by the noble Lord, Lord Wallace of Saltaire, to George Thomson, who I remember very well. I see that the noble Lord, Lord Steel, is here; he will remember George Thomson, who represented Dundee before he became a Commissioner and was responsible for this major development within the European Community that we are talking about today He once told me that he was very excited at being selected as the candidate for the Member of Parliament for Dundee. He was employed by DC Thomson at the time and went to tell his employer that he had been selected as the prospective parliamentary candidate. He thought that his employer would be delighted. Instead, his employer said, "You realise if you’d stayed with us you could have gone on to be the editor of the Beano". So instead of being editor of the Beano, he went on, thankfully, to do a very good job in the European Community.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
George Foulkes (Labour, Centre-left): How can I contradict a son-in-law? Without my noble friend Lord Liddle being present to advise me, I am not able to do so. I thought that my original story was quite funny; I wish it had been true. To return to the serious matter, because this is a serious matter, George Thomson left us a great legacy The noble Baroness has covered a lot of the issues. She has gone two-thirds of the way towards answering the points that I raised. She has given a very detailed and careful outline of the Government’s strategy, for which we are grateful, and has indicated that projects in the pipeline will be supported to the end of the current funding period, but it is beyond that that we are concerned about. We are concerned about continuity. That is something we need to pursue The noble Baroness also helped us a little on the UK shared prosperity fund and said that the Government would engage with that issue later this year. That could take us almost to the exit date, which will be a few months beyond that, so we need to be told about that soon. I hope that through a Written Answer or further discussion we might get a clearer indication of the timescale, otherwise, there will be a vacuum and hiatus there I will talk with my noble friend Lady Hayter outwith the Committee but we need to look at the Minister’s very comprehensive reply in detail and consider whether it would be appropriate to table an amendment along these lines on Report. I will withdraw my amendment but this is yet another example of the many dozens, if not hundreds, that we are discussing in this Chamber and outwith it where it would be an awful lot better if we just stayed in the European Union. Why are we having to deal with all these difficulties and problems all around the country, and in this case in the poorest areas of the country, when it could be completely unnecessary? In the next year and a bit, we may have the opportunity to give the British people a chance to re-examine whether we should continue to be members of the European Union. That point is not irrelevant to this amendment, but I beg leave to withdraw it.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: Environment
Margaret Beryl Jones (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I added my name to Amendment 28, although my colleagues the noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and the noble Baroness, Lady Brown, have made the case for it very eloquently. We have rehearsed many times before in this Chamber that 80% of UK environmental law derives from the EU, so we have a particular interest in ensuring that those same environmental protections are fully transposed and are not weakened by either omission or design in the transposition. Our concern is that the current wording of Clause 4 does not give us that guarantee. The tablers of Amendment 26 attempted to address that ambiguity in one way and we have attempted to address it in a different way, but I think we are aiming to achieve the same outcome Crucially, the amendment concerns the issue of whether the rights, powers, obligations et cetera derived from EU law are incorrectly or incompletely transposed, and the duty to remedy that deficiency. The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, gave some examples of that. For example, under current directives there is an expectation of reporting obligations, which will cease on Brexit day and are not part of the provisions that will be transposed. Although the Government have promised to create a UK body to oversee future standards and reporting obligations, we have not seen the detail of that, so we are being asked to make a decision blind. We need a substitute for that current arrangement to be spelled out Equally, the principles and preambles that underpin EU environmental legislation have an important but amorphous status that needs to be underwritten with guarantees as we transfer. Such provisions set out, for example, the aims and purposes of directives. They include Article 1 of the environmental liability directive, which refers to the "polluter pays" principle, and Article 1 of the habitats directive, which sets out the aim to contribute to biodiversity conservation. These things are important; they are not about to be transposed automatically, and we need extra provision to make sure that they can be followed through, which we believe our amendment does Finally, I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, who described matters not having been being dealt with by the courts as a rather odd way of defining what should and should not be transposed. He made the case much better than I could, but he is spot on and I hope that the Minister is able to answer those points.
European Union (Withdrawal) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-02-28
Topic: International Affairs
Jeremy Hugh Beecham (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I start by affirming that we on these Benches—or what is left of us—support the thrust of Amendments 26 and 28, which deal with significant issues raised in Clause 4. As the Constitution Committee avers, as drafted, "Clause 4 will … domesticate all directly effective treaty provisions, whether or not they will be capable of meaningful application" What is the point of such an outcome? What is the point of creating a situation under which in the case of domesticated provisions which have, "no practical application, or makes provision for reciprocal arrangements or rights which no longer exist or are no longer appropriate once the UK has left the EU, statutory instruments can be brought forward to repeal or amend the provisions" More substantively, what is the Government’s response to the damning conclusions of the committee in paragraphs 37 and 38 of its report? These describe the implications of the Bill for reciprocal rights as "uncertain" and state: "The full impact of Brexit on reciprocal rights will not be known until the UK’s future relationship with the EU is determined" What is the Government’s position on this issue Given the concerns of the committee, what, if any, estimate have the Government made of the consequences of the Bill’s impact in this area, and what is their response to the committee’s observation that: "The ambiguities in the interpretation and effect of clause 4 will inevitably cause legal uncertainty about a fundamental provision of the Bill. This will undermine one of the Government’s main objectives in bringing forward this Bill" The committee concludes its observations on this part of the Bill by stating starkly: "The ambiguities need to be resolved" Does the Minister agree that there are ambiguities? If so, how and when will the Government address the problem?
Privileges and Conduct Committee: First Report — House of Lords, 2018-05-01
Topic: Government Operations
John McFall (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, this report addresses the conduct of the noble Lord, Lord Bassam of Brighton, who referred himself to the independent Commissioner for Standards following media allegations that he had wrongly claimed the Lords’ travel allowance, paid by the House, and the Lords’ officeholder’s allowance, paid by the Cabinet Office The commissioner found that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, should have used the officeholder’s allowance to cover some of his daily travel costs and therefore should not have claimed as much in Lords’ travel allowances as he did. In so claiming, the noble Lord breached provisions in the House of Lords Code of Conduct. The commissioner found that there was a lack of clarity and guidance surrounding the relationship between the Lords’ officeholder’s allowance and the Lords’ travel allowance. She concluded that although the noble Lord broke the Code of Conduct by making the claims, he did so mistakenly, not dishonestly, and therefore did not breach provisions requiring Members to act on their personal honour In its report, the Privileges and Conduct Committee recommends that the noble Lord, Lord Bassam, should repay £15,737 in overclaimed travel allowance. The noble Lord has written to the chair of the sub-committee to apologise and arrangements have been made for the money to be repaid. The Committee for Privileges and Conduct has sought reassurance that guidance will be clarified and procedures altered to ensure that no similar confusion can arise in the future.