argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Immigration
Questions: My former constituent Ahmad Zeidan, who is a British national, is currently serving a nine-year custodial sentence in the United Arab Emirates. Mr Zeidan’s family have informed me that, while in prison, he has been subjected to brutal beatings and threats of physical and sexual violence by police officers. Mr Zeidan maintains that he is innocent, and that he was coerced into signing a confession written in Arabic, a language that he cannot read. Will the Minister meet me, and representatives of Mr Zeidan’s family, to see what can be done to help secure his early release?; Given the appalling suffering that Ebola caused in 2014 and 2015, what steps is the United Kingdom taking to ensure that it is permanently addressed in west Africa?; I commend Ministers for their prompt and proactive response to the dreadful news from Chennai yesterday morning that my constituent Ray Tindall and the other men on the Seaman Guard Ohio had been sentenced to five years in prison. May I suggest, however, that it would be proactive now for the highest level of the British Government to contact the highest level of the Indian Government to find a political solution to bring the lads home, given that the legal processes have not necessarily worked well?; Increased diplomatic and political co-operation is vital in settling international and regional disputes in the Asia-Pacific region. What steps are the Government taking to progress the strategic partnership between Japan and the UK?; Ahead of his visit to Sri Lanka shortly, will the Minister give an undertaking to the House to raise with the Sri Lankan Government, notwithstanding the progress they are making, the recent allegations of human rights abuses, the demilitarisation of the north, political detainees and, crucially, the international involvement of judges and prosecutors to give everyone the confidence we need that people will be brought to justice for human rights violations and war crimes?; What assessment has the Minister made of the role of regional airports—for example, Southampton airport in my constituency—in increasing trade links and growing prosperity across Africa?
Kirsten Frances Oswald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I have spoken about my constituent William Irving in this place on a number of occasions and have written to the Secretary of State and his colleagues urging the UK Government to assist, but, as we have heard, yesterday Billy and his colleagues from the Seaman Guard Ohio were sentenced to five years’ hard imprisonment in an Indian jail, despite their consistently protesting their innocence. Can the Secretary of State please assure me that the UK Government will leave absolutely no stone unturned in getting Billy and his colleagues back home as soon as possible?
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Civil Rights
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am grateful, Mrs Laing So, this is what an English Parliament looks like. It looks pretty much like the unitary UK Parliament to me. This is a remarkable day. It is worth noting how significant and historic this is. For the first time in the history of this House and this Parliament, Members of Parliament will be banned from participating in Divisions of this House, based on nationality and the geographic location of their constituencies.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Civil Rights
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman tempts me. I will say a couple of things to him. First, I was elected on the same basis as him. My constituents expect me to participate in all debates and all legislation in this House. I am now denied that opportunity. Secondly, if he thinks that going down such a route as this, whereby Scottish Members of Parliament are banned from voting on certain issues that are considered English only, will save his Union, he has another think coming. Nothing has infuriated the Scottish people more than the measures on English votes for English laws.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I did not know whether I was a Member of this House or an international observer, but I will take the initial one as your favour—thank you, Mrs Laing Let me say to the right hon. Member for Wokingham (John Redwood) that we have a Parliament in Scotland that determines and decides on these matters—he is right; we do that in Scotland. We do those things in this House too, but what he wants, and what has been created today, is a quasi-English Parliament within the confines of the unitary Parliament of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. That is the nub of the issue, and that is why this first meeting today is so significant and remarkable.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): We have no great interest in this Bill. [Interruption.] I do not know why that comes as a surprise to the hon. Gentleman. Let me say it again, in case he missed it: we have no great interest in this Bill. He is right to say that we did not vote on Second Reading or any of the proceedings that we were allowed to participate in, because we respect the right of English Members of Parliament to determine issues on that basis—of course that is their right.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am not giving way again—I am answering the hon. Gentleman’s point That is why we took no interest and stayed away on those Divisions. However, the creation of this Legislative Grand Committee—again, I am astounded that Conservative Members do not understand this—has created two classes of Members of Parliament of this House. One class is able to participate in every Division in this House, as we are about to see, while other Members of Parliament, such as my hon. Friends on the Benches behind me, are not able to participate in all parts of the Bill. That is what hon. Members have done.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Here is something for the hon. Lady, for whom I have a great deal of respect, to consider: how about if we all retain equality in the House of Commons? How about we retain the same rights and privileges, just as we did just a few short weeks ago? The hon. Lady and all her hon. Friends obviously feel very strongly about this. I understand the passion of English Members of Parliament on this issue. How about they create a Parliament? How about designing a Parliament in their own image, where they can look after these issues like we do in the Scottish Parliament? Why do not they not have a Parliament, one that does not necessarily sit in this House but in one of the other great cities throughout the United Kingdom, where democracy could be seen in action? How about that as a solution? We could then come back together to this House as equal Members and consider the great reserved issues of foreign affairs, defence and international relations. That is how most other nations do it. It is called federalism and it seems to work quite adequately in most other nations What Conservative Members have done today is create this absolute mess—a bourach, a guddle. Nobody even understands how it works! We have just rung the Division bells to suspend proceedings, so that the Speaker can scurry off and consult the Clerks to decide whether it is necessary to recertify certain pieces of proposed legislation. This is what has happened to the business of this great Parliament. This is what we have resorted to today.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Civil Rights
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In all candour, I have to say that that is not what it feels like on this side of the House. If a Division is called, the hon. Gentleman will be able to vote and express his view as a legitimately elected Member of Parliament. My hon. Friends and I, as equally legitimate Members of Parliament recently elected at the general election, will not be allowed to vote. We will be banned. We will be barred. We will be effectively banished from that process.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I do not know whether I am grateful or not to the hon. Lady for her intervention. I think she is saying that she wants great dollops of cake so she can spend her time eating it and having a singularly English Parliament. Let us just use the House of Commons to accommodate that. The thing that has been created here is a quasi-English Parliament, but this Parliament belongs to me as much as to her. It belongs to the Scottish people as much as to the English people. What has happened today with the Legislative Grand Committee is that she will be able to represent her constituents in all Divisions, but my hon. Friends and I will not.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I knew his would be one of the quality interventions of the debate. He is absolutely right. The only thing I would say to him is this: where on earth is his Front-Bench team? They are not even prepared to make a speech or statement. Why are they not participating? Labour Members used to be stalwarts of this debate. I remember when we had 50-odd Labour Members for Scotland. They would have been making a fuss and standing up for Scotland’s interests, yet today there is absolute silence from the Labour Benches.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Maybe. It is with great fascination that we hear from the one and only Scottish Labour Member of Parliament. Perhaps the reason the hon. Gentleman is in such a diminished position is the Labour party’s silence on these issues. The fact that Labour Members have ignored them all the way through speaks volumes about the attitude of the Labour party. I do not know whether it is due to the particular chaos it is going through, but we need to hear from Labour Members to find out their view about what has happened.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Speaking as someone who was here in the wee small hours, I can say that Labour Members were notable for their absence, being far too busy clawing their own eyes out at the time. It is a bit of a cheek for them to seek to lecture us here.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Other
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am grateful to my hon. Friend for reminding us that that was the night of the long reshuffle, so I suppose we should be grateful that any Labour Members were there. I do not wish to take up any more time.
Connaught Income Fund — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Kirsten Frances Oswald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that, after five years, the regulatory authorities appear to have made little progress on securing justice for the 1,500 investors, including my constituent George Devon, who lost money in what should have been a secure investment fund? They have made even less progress on working out who to hold to account for the disappearance of more than £100 million. Will he join me in calling for a comprehensive review of the regulatory framework, which is supposed to protect small-scale investors but fails to do so?
Connaught Income Fund — House of Commons, 2016-01-12
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Kirsten Frances Oswald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. In response to a written question I was referred to the record of ministerial meetings to find out when a Treasury Minister last met representatives of the FCA. Does the Minister understand my astonishment at finding not a single bilateral meeting between the Treasury at ministerial level and the FCA in the two years from October 2013 to September 2015? Does she appreciate that her Government seem to be asleep at the wheel as the FCA fails to clean up the financial services sector?
City Deals: Scotland — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Housing
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I would first like to offer the condolences of the Scottish National party to the family and friends of Harry Harpham. He was passionate about housing, and he would no doubt have wanted to be here today to question the Government The Aberdeen city and shire deal submitted a bid for £2.9 billion of investment, but that ambition was not matched by the Tory Government, who stumped up only £125 million for the deal. Can the Minister understand why the people of Aberdeen city and shire feel disappointed and let down by this Tory Government?
Syria Crisis: UK Response — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Immigration
Stuart Campbell McDonald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State appropriately highlights the work that is done with people immediately on their arrival into Europe, but the key question remains about what happens after that. What do the Government think should happen with the 1 million people who arrived in 2015, and who should do it?
Flood Insurance for Businesses — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Public Lands
John Joseph McNally (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): As the recently appointed chair of the all-party parliamentary group on flood prevention, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that we had discussions with the hon. Member for York Central (Rachael Maskell) on this on, I think, 26 January. It became apparent in the debate, which was interrupted several times so that we could vote in the Chamber, that there was a great divide on whether there was evidence to show that businesses had been affected. Does he agree that the APPG should visit the sites so that we can witness the problem and speak to the businesses that have been affected by flooding?
Flood Insurance for Businesses — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Public Lands
Stuart Blair Donaldson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I apologise to the hon. Member for Calder Valley (Craig Whittaker) and to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for arriving late. The hon. Gentleman has made an important point about the ABI. Does he agree that another way to help businesses and communities affected by flooding is for the Government to apply to the EU solidarity fund to ensure that more support is available for those businesses and communities?
Flood Insurance for Businesses — House of Commons, 2016-02-08
Topic: Public Lands
John Joseph McNally (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I have sent the Minister a letter inviting him to the next meeting of the all-party group on flood prevention, but he has not replied. It would be an opportune time for him to meet us after his other meeting.
EU Withdrawal: Effects on Human Rights — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Richard Arkless (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State for Justice recently told the Select Committee on Justice that, as far he was concerned, the framework of human rights across the UK was a reserved matter. Given that the Attorney General advises the Government on legal issues, will he explain why the Government’s view is that the human rights framework is reserved when it is not included in the exhaustive list of reservations in schedule 5 to the Scotland Act 1998?
State Pension Age — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: This is about women and equalities. We know that a woman born in early 1953 will already have retired; a woman born in early 1954 will not retire until the second half of 2019—two and a half years later. That cannot be right. In a spirit of fairness, will the Minister look at this again and give some solace to the women who have to wait an unbelievably long time to collect what is rightly and fairly theirs?
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for his response, but what is the purpose of the Department and, indeed, of the women and equalities ministerial role if they do not address the inequalities that exist? We have had four parliamentary debates on the issue, MPs have asked dozens of questions, 186,000 people have signed a petition and we voted in this House to agree that the policy is unfair, so after all that, why is the Minister still prepared to defend an indefensible position?
Gender Pay Gap — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Martyn Day (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Last July, the Prime Minister promised that companies with more than 250 employees would have to disclose their gender pay gap. This has already been pushed back by two months. A survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has found that only one in four firms has done any analysis of this. Does the Minister think that progress in this area is good enough, and what will be done about it?
Welfare Reform and Disabled People — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the effect on equality for disabled people of the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016.
Margaret Ferrier (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): A Lords Select Committee report published last month said that the Government had hurt disabled people disproportionately through inaction on the provisions of the Equality Act 2010, through spending cuts and cuts to legal aid, and through removing protections with their red tape challenge. Will the Government apologise for their lack of respect for disabled people and for the complete contempt in which they hold them?
Iraq Inquiry Report — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter Wishart (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am reluctant to interrupt, because I am very much enjoying the powerful case that the right hon. Gentleman is making, but I invite him to ignore the representations of his colleague, the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell), because this war is bound up with one key individual: Tony Blair. For ever and a day, he will be associated with this particular war. It was personalised around the personality of that Prime Minister. As far as I am concerned, he could have a tattoo across his forehead reading "Iraq", such is his legacy. This will be a comment and a statement about his day. I was in this House when we voted to go to war, as was the right hon. Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis), and I had to listen to the nonsense and drivel that was that former Prime Minister’s case for war. Please let us make sure that where blame is to be apportioned, it is apportioned rightly.
Iraq Inquiry Report — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Other
William Arthur Roger Mullin (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): On the point about Maxwellisation, people such as myself who, in other lives, have written reports in academia and the like are at times puzzled by this process. It is one thing to get people to comment on the accuracy of facts, but it is entirely another thing to give people the opportunity to comment on the interpretation of those facts. The big concern that many people, including me, have is how this report from Chilcot can be truly independent if he allows people to challenge his interpretations.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The statistic the right hon. Gentleman read out about programmes produced by black and ethnic minority people is shocking. I would support his argument by pointing out that when a population of 60,000—I am talking about the Gaelic speakers of Scotland—is given the opportunity, tremendous talent comes forward and great programmes are made. I think the point he is making is that if that opportunity was available to others, the same would happen. I support him in that.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I want to help the hon. Lady by saying that I hope her ambition is greater than just matching the voice of people from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I hope that the ethnic minority voice will be stronger than ours, which we sometimes feel is not strong at all. I wish her well.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I congratulate the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr Lammy) on starting the debate with a powerful and thoughtful speech. I also congratulate the other speakers, who touched on an incredible range of diversity needs. My hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar (Mr MacNeil) talked about the need for language diversity and for Gaelic to be taken seriously, and I am particularly grateful to him for mentioning Kingussie and shinty I was struck by the words of the hon. Member for Heywood and Middleton (Liz McInnes) about the important issue of disabled people and their dramatic under-representation. They should be represented much more thoroughly. She mentioned the words "inform", "educate" and—I have forgotten the other one. [Hon. Members: "Entertain".] Entertain! It is the important one for the theme of my speech, so I should have remembered it. I am also grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald), who raised the issue of women’s representation in the BBC, for mentioning the incredible interest that people have in the BBC and its duty to represent people. She also mentioned Scotland’s contribution to the BBC licence fee and the Scottish people’s rating of the BBC Today, a row is erupting between the Scottish professional football league and the BBC that has the potential to stop broadcasts of football in Scotland. The chairman of the SPFL, Ralph Topping, is asking the BBC for £3 million to £4 million for Scottish football rights. The figure is currently just over £1 million. That is around half Gary Lineker’s salary. The BBC has the ability to do football extremely well.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am sure I speak for many Scottish MPs when I say that Ralph Topping has our full support. As far as I understand it, not only is it about half Gary Lineker’s salary, but one production of "Match of the Day" costs as much as the BBC puts into Scottish football annually. More power to Ralph Topping’s elbow!