argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-28
Topic: Macroeconomics
Ruth Stephanie Nicole George (Labour, Centre-left): After seven years of Conservative-led Government and seven years of austerity, my constituents in rural Derbyshire will tell this House that austerity is not working. Both our hospitals are facing closure. Three nurseries have already closed, and more are saying that they cannot continue. Schools are being squeezed by 5% cuts and saying that they cannot continue and are having to lose teachers. We have lost more than 400 police officers in Derbyshire. There are not enough to respond to serious incidents; there are not even enough to police Buxton carnival. And our firefighters have been reduced to a retained service Austerity is hitting us hard—it is hitting every community hard—but it is not working. After seven years of telling us that we must not borrow to invest in public services, the Conservatives are borrowing up to the hilt. The national debt clock, which they were so keen to talk about at the time of the 2010 election, now stands at £1.95 trillion. They have almost doubled the national debt, and what have we got to show for it? We have public services that are on their knees. We have public servants who cannot afford a house. We have millions of people on benefits visiting food banks. That is an absolute disgrace We in the Labour party believe that we should borrow, but that we should borrow to invest. We should borrow to invest in our economy, in our public services, in our workers, in our jobs and in our communities. Then we would see an economy that could grow. People would be able to spend in their local businesses, and businesses would be able to thrive. Communities would be able to prosper once again. Instead, all that this Budget has offered us is more of the same—more of the same cuts and more of the same poverty—and we ain’t seen nothing yet. The little Red Book has shown that we are just at the start of those cuts. We have another four years of freezes to benefits and school budgets, and cuts to our police, to our hospitals and to the NHS communities. That is what is happening. This Budget was a chance for the Government to come up with big new ideas, but they did not. This Government need to make way for one that can.
Cyber-Warfare Defence — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Mary Helen Creagh (Labour, Centre-left): Tweets are cheaper than tanks, and Russia, Iran and other state and non-state actors are increasingly looking to cyber and to social media as a cheap, effective way of destabilising the west. The Foreign Secretary told this House that he had seen no evidence of Russian interference in UK elections or the referendum. Has the Minister?
Service Families — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Social Welfare
Mian Faisal Rashid (Labour, Centre-left): The tri-service families continuous attitude survey 2017 found that one in three spouses did not even know where to go for services that provide welfare support while their partner is deployed. Does the Minister agree it is vital that service families know where help is available? What steps are the Department taking to ensure that that is the case?
Forensic Evidence: Alleged Manipulation — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Law and Crime
Diane Julie Abbott (Labour, Centre-left): (Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the developments surrounding the alleged manipulation of forensic evidence at the Randox and Trimega laboratories in Manchester.
Forensic Evidence: Alleged Manipulation — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Law and Crime
David George Hanson (Labour, Centre-left): In passing, it is worth noting that when my right hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Mr Campbell) and I were Home Office Ministers, we ruled out the privatisation of the Forensic Science Service. But my question to the Minister is this: if wrongdoing by a private sector company is found in due course, what penalties will be levied against it?
Forensic Evidence: Alleged Manipulation — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Law and Crime
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister accuses Labour of politicising the forensic service, yet it was his Government who chose to privatise it out of the mistaken and ideologically bankrupt view that everything is better when it is done in the private sector for the profit motive. Will he now distance himself from that ideology and recognise that public confidence in the justice system requires public servants?
Forensic Evidence: Alleged Manipulation — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Law and Crime
Graham Eric Stringer (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister does himself no credit when he says that this is a tribal issue. I direct him to three reports—not one or two—by the cross-party Science and Technology Committee that criticised his Government’s Home Office for not consulting Professor Silverman, who was the scientific adviser to the Home Office. I also suggest that he reads the evidence—three times—from Dr Tully, the Forensic Science Regulator, who said that murderers and rapists will go free because of the changes that the Government made. Not one party but all parties came to that conclusion. Given what appears to have happened in my constituency, will the Minister, after the courts have dealt with the matter, look into conducting a full review of forensic science services?
Forensic Evidence: Alleged Manipulation — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Law and Crime
Anthony Joseph Lloyd (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister does not seem to be aware that senior police officers think that the Forensic Science Service has been a mess ever since privatisation, with long delays affecting victims and the wider justice system. One reality of the current situation is that there will have to be significant retesting, which will cause further delays. The Government have to look into this matter and reviewing the decision to privatise needs to be central to that process.
Forensic Evidence: Alleged Manipulation — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Social Welfare
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): Children’s social services and judges make decisions on adoption and fostering on the basis of forensic science services. What assurance can the Minister give, especially in relation to adoptions since 2010, that children have not been removed from families on the basis of false forensic information? What conversations has he had with Ministers in the Welsh Government about the failings of the Forensic Science Service with respect to Welsh adoptions?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Foreign Trade
Rachel Jane Reeves (Labour, Centre-left): Industrial strategy, particularly in sectors such as the automotive sector, depends on a model of just-in-time delivery. One concern of that sector, in particular, is that things will be held up at ports if we leave the European Union and the customs union. What assurances can the Secretary of State give businesses that we will have frictionless as well as tariff-free trade after we leave the European Union? Without that, productivity will deteriorate even further.
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Chuka Harrison Umunna (Labour, Centre-left): The publication of the strategy is welcome, but I have two asks of the Secretary of State. First, for this to succeed in the long term, it has to be able to survive changes of Government. Is it not about time that we set up a cross-party commission to build the political consensus needed to produce further iterations of the strategy? Secondly, let us be honest and recognise that the biggest institutional barrier to what he is proposing is the Treasury. Treasury orthodoxy has never properly got behind the concept of an industrial strategy. Is it not time to change his Department into a proper Ministry of economic reform that takes on all non-fiscal economic policy, across the Government, and which is equal to, not subordinated to, the Treasury?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Dennis Edward Skinner (Labour, Centre-left): Does the Secretary of State seriously think that it is possible to convince the country that a Tory Government—I repeat, a Tory Government—have got the capacity to introduce a decent industrial strategy? In 18 Tory years while I was in the House, they closed down most of the shipbuilding industry, they got rid of a lot of the steel industry, they closed every single pit and now they are buying 40 million tonnes of coal from countries we do not even trust. These are the actions of a Tory Government, and—remember—let us stop this nonsense about trying to tell the people that unemployment is now lower than it was after a Labour Government, because during the Labour Government after the second world war, it was down to 2.2%, or 440,000, and when it hit 1 million, Ted Heath was in government. What a lousy bunch!
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Foreign Trade
Alison McGovern (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State answered my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds West (Rachel Reeves) elegantly, but all he really did was restate the premise of her question, so let me give him another chance. Page 202 of the White Paper refers to a "programme that will target areas where businesses need to improve to match the best in Europe." The problem with competing with businesses in Europe is that they will be members of the single market and, according to the Government, we will not. Has he made representations to the Prime Minister, asking her to change her position?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Nicholas Dakin (Labour, Centre-left): I absolutely applaud the industrial strategy for saying that we need to build on our strengths. One of our great strengths is our foundation industries, such as steel. Will the Government get on with energetically pursuing a sector deal with the steel industry, so we can add it to the other four deals he announced today?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
John Timothy Grogan (Labour, Centre-left): Given the important chapter in "Industrial Strategy" about devolution, will the Secretary of State agree to meet the 17 council leaders in Yorkshire from all parties who are advocating a "one Yorkshire" devolution settlement, so they can work in partnership with the Government to deliver an effective industrial strategy for the county?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Education
Anthony Joseph Lloyd (Labour, Centre-left): The Secretary of State will recognise that further education and apprenticeships are fundamental if towns such as Rochdale are to be part of the productivity change he wants to achieve. Will he, then, consider Greater Manchester’s long-held demand that the post-16 education and training budget be devolved to Greater Manchester?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Energy
Graham Eric Stringer (Labour, Centre-left): The key to any successful industrial policy must be low and competitive energy costs. Energy costs in the United States have halved, and the reductions in China and India have been similar, but ours have gone up. How will the Secretary of State change that damaging trend?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Transportation
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): To improve growth and prosperity in this country, we need to ensure fair transport investment in all parts of the country. I have just received a written ministerial answer showing that the disparity in investment between the south and the north has widened since 2012. What is the Secretary of State going to do to get the Department for Transport on board with his strategy?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Energy
Paul Phillip Flynn (Labour, Centre-left): How many pages of the Secretary of State’s strategy deal with the immense value of tidal power? It is non-carbon, it is green, it is British, it is eternal in its duration and, unlike other renewables, it is entirely predictable. Will he temper his manic enthusiasm and optimism by reading the National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee reports on Hinkley Point, which say that it will cost us £30 billion in subsidies that will be paid for by the poorest consumers?
Industrial Strategy — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Labor
Christopher Philip James Elmore (Labour, Centre-left): I am sure that the Secretary of State is aware that I chair the all-party parliamentary group for the coalfield communities—if he was not, he is now—and the group has done significant work on trying to look at the regeneration of such communities. In relation to the White Paper, how does he intend to bring jobs and investment to those communities, which have suffered over successive generations in terms of job losses, economic growth and, indeed, health outcomes?
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Christopher Michael Leslie (Labour, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. You may have noticed that in the past half hour the Department for Exiting the European Union has finally given in following the resolution of this House of Commons that insisted that the 58 Brexit impact assessments—the Government call them "sectoral analyses"—should be published to the Brexit Committee. This is an overdue moment, but I seek your guidance, because these sectoral analyses cover many, many areas of interest to all Members of the House, whatever Committees they serve on. With no disrespect to members of the Brexit Committee, I wonder what you could do—perhaps make representations to the Chair of the Brexit Committee or to the Government, or to both—to ensure that all those sectoral analyses can be published and made available to all hon. Members. We are talking about aerospace, agriculture, the automotive sector, chemicals, construction, defence, the creative sector, financial services, pharmaceuticals, telecoms, tourism and manufacturing. These are issues that the whole country deserves to know about.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Michael John Gapes (Labour, Centre-left): Given that even the Foreign Secretary does not have the power to change geography, what is he going to do to relocate the United Kingdom from Europe—being linked to the European land mass—to south-east Asia or the middle of the Pacific?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Rosena Chantelle Allin-Khan (Labour, Centre-left): Last week I returned from the border of Bangladesh and Myanmar, where I heard of unspeakable crimes being committed against the Rohingya people. At this crucial time, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has had its budget slashed, and I am worried about the effect this will have on our ability to prevent future crimes against humanity. I would like to share my findings with the Secretary of State, so will he kindly agree to meet me to discuss the evidence of genocide in Myanmar?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): I am delighted to join the Foreign Secretary in congratulating Prince Henry of Wales and Meghan Markle on their forthcoming marriage. However, I was disappointed that the Foreign Secretary did not feel it appropriate to acknowledge a recent sad event. I want to ensure that all of us in the House join in sending our thoughts to the families of all of the hundreds killed, including 27 children, and injured in Friday’s horrific terrorist attack on al-Rawda mosque in north Sinai. It is a brutal reminder that by far the biggest targets and the highest number of victims of jihadi terrorists are people of the Muslim faith, and that the inhuman evil that is Daesh, which worships no gods but death and publicity, must be wiped from the face of the earth For reasons lost in the past, Budget debates have often been the occasion for some degree of light-hearted exchange over the years. However, not least in the light of the events in Egypt and the serious situation in which we currently find ourselves as a country economically, diplomatically and militarily, I do not believe that levity is in order today. Especially when it comes to the Foreign Secretary, all the jokes have worn just a bit thin of late I am nevertheless glad that the Foreign Secretary is leading today’s debate. Back in March he acknowledged how rare that was, because never under David Cameron’s Government did a Foreign Secretary lead a Budget debate. In the first two Budgets under the new Prime Minister and Chancellor, however, the Foreign Secretary has been given that honour. Perhaps this is their way of dipping his hands in the blood, as the economic impact of his Brexit plan becomes ever clearer, or perhaps, to be slightly less Shakespearian, it is their way of rubbing the nose of a wild, carefree puppy in the mess he has made.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): I will of course give way to the right hon. Gentleman, but I wonder whether we could do it this way: if he has a question for me, I have a question for him. Of the 32 taxes listed in the Red Book’s table of current receipts, which one is forecast to take in less money year on year over the next six years?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): The table on page 82 shows that only one of the 32 taxes listed will fall, and that is the bank levy. That tells us all we need to know about the Government’s priorities in the Budget As for what the Government’s plans are and what they are doing to the country, let me turn to the substance of the Budget and today’s theme of global Britain. In recent years the Treasury has taken great pleasure in writing a section of the Red Book entitled "The Global Economy", which is usually used to trumpet the fact that Britain’s economy was the envy of the western world.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): I am not going to In 2016 that section of the Red Book ran to a full 10 paragraphs, beginning with the boast that: "Britain is forecast to grow faster than any other major advanced economy" Well, what a difference a year makes. Now that section runs to just one measly paragraph, on page 13, and it does not state how much Britain will grow compared with the rest of the world. For that comparison, we must turn to the OBR, which has stated: "The pattern of strengthening growth across the other major advanced economies this year contrasts with the slower pace of growth in the UK." While it has slashed its forecast for UK growth up to 2022, it has upgraded its forecast for the rest of the world. George Osborne used to boast in every Budget that Britain was winning "the global race." We now have a Government lagging along at the back of the global field and falling ever further behind. So much for global Britain If anyone thinks that growth figures are just numbers on a spreadsheet with no real-world implications, they should turn to two areas where the downgrading of Britain’s growth is already having direct and immediate effects: our spending on defence and on development.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): Is my right hon. Friend aware that in the past 35 minutes the Secretary of State for Exiting the EU has written to the Select Committee to say that the reports being provided are not complete and do not actually contain anything that might be commercially sensitive, thus adding very strongly to the point she is making? The Government are taking on the most significant economic challenge the country has faced since the second world war without a modicum of the basic detail they need to take on the task. Does it not shame the Government and Parliament that we are facing this kind of catastrophe without any serious information?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): The national debt, as I understand it, has more than doubled under this Government, so we take no lessons from them. Surely it is important to borrow to invest in order to grow our economy. It is, essentially, a different attitude to economics Let us hope the Minister goes further and corrects one major omission from the Budget on the issue of spending. On the Labour Benches, we welcomed last week’s guarantee that the increase in nurses’ pay would be funded through additional money from the Treasury with no cuts elsewhere to the NHS budget. We will hold the Government to that guarantee. Can we have the same assurances over the much needed and long-overdue increases in paying for our armed forces? It would be entirely wrong and self-defeating if those increases were to be paid for by further cuts in personnel, equipment or living conditions, so I hope the City Minister will be able to give us an assurance on that.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Grahame Mark Morris (Labour, Centre-left): Does my right hon. Friend believe that the Government are doing enough, as set out in the Budget, to tackle tax avoiders and tax evaders, some of whom are resident in British overseas territories and dependencies, to ensure that the Treasury has enough resource to pay nurses and others?
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: Macroeconomics
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Studies have been made, have they not, of the amount that each tax inspector can bring in to HMRC? Cutting back on the number of people is simply counterproductive.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): I gave way to the right hon. Gentleman once before. I am sure he will be able to cover any points he wants to make in his speech Across the world, this is a precarious time for investment in international development. The US Congress is battling to limit Donald Trump’s proposed cuts to foreign aid and the global fight against malaria, but still the only question is the size of the eventual cuts, not whether they will go ahead. Closer to home, the EU’s proposed 2018 budget includes a 6% cut in development spending, a cut that dwarfs any proposed increase in spending on humanitarian aid.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Emily Thornberry (Labour, Centre-left): I simply refer the hon. Lady to the Red Book, where she will see that there is less money being spent on international development. It is a great worry to us all and I know it will be a great worry to her. I therefore hope she will join us in speaking to the Chancellor about our responsibilities, because we are at a time of great difficulty internationally. As I have been attempting to outline, there are cuts not only from the United States but the EU. If we are, in effect, spending less money, too, at such a precarious time, that should cause us all concern. It was extraordinary that the Chancellor of the Exchequer chose not to mention it at all in his speech.
Budget Resolutions — House of Commons, 2017-11-27
Topic: International Affairs
Roberta Carol Blackman-Woods (Labour, Centre-left): Does my right hon. Friend agree that what the Government and the Conservative party do not recognise is that the commitment is to 0.7% of GDP, so when GDP falls, as we learned it did in the Budget, the amount of money going to international aid also falls? The Chancellor should have made that clear last week. [Interruption]