argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Cleveland Bridge: Weight Limit — House of Commons, 2020-11-17
Topic: Transportation
Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Next year will see the very latest technology deployed to save the 1920s concrete structure. The danger is that bringing back the heaviest lorries will hasten the collapse of the deck, destroying the listed asset forever. With continuing heavy lorries, it is estimated that the current repairs may last for only 15 years. Therefore, without a permanent weight restriction, my concern is that while progress will be slow on an upgrade to the A350, Cleveland bridge will again be in need of urgent, serious repairs very soon. We cannot let that happen. It is absolutely essential that we set a weight limit that the bridge can sustain for the long term The Department for Transport has expressed its view that the A350, as the major north-south link, is a viable option, and in Bath neither I nor the council would disagree. However, the Department for Transport has not done enough so far to create a consensus among councils and MPs in the Wiltshire constituencies to take this option forward to its final completion. It would be interesting to hear from the Minister whether the Government are actually looking into any other viable options In the meantime, people in Bath have waited for years for a solution. So, while we are waiting, the first thing that I would like to happen is for the Department for Transport to allow Bath and North East Somerset Council to have the power of decision making over its own infrastructure and keep the current 18-tonne limit. The council does not have that power on its own We are looking for the Government to consent to a permanent 18-tonne weight limit on Cleveland bridge. That is my ask to the Minister. The co-operation of the Government would benefit not only the people of Bath but the whole nation, and safeguard our heritage for future generations. The impact of a weight restriction would help to reduce air pollution across the city, in line with the Government’s important aim to improve people’s health. Last but not least, it would work in tandem with the Government’s ambition to improve their strategic A350 network and the overall economic benefits to the region. I look forward to the Minister’s response.
Cleveland Bridge: Weight Limit — House of Commons, 2020-11-17
Topic: Transportation
Wera Benedicta Hobhouse (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Minister for elaborating on the funds that are available. As I mentioned in my speech, the problem is that if the bridge continues to have heavy goods vehicles on it even after the repair, it will very quickly need repairs again. Is it not a false economy not to put a permanent weight restriction on the bridge?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Technology
Jamie Hume Stone (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The unanimous decision by Highland Council planning to grant consent for the UK’s vertical space launch site in Sutherland is clearly extremely good news. I hope that the Prime Minister agrees that this will be extremely good for the local economy of the highlands, and will provide a huge opportunity for the UK economy in the international satellite market.
EU Exit: End of Transition Period — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Transportation
Christine Anne Jardine (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The road haulage industry has been talked about a lot, and its workers have kept food on supermarket shelves and medicines in our pharmacies through the recent crisis. The statement says the Government have put aside £80 million for customs agents. How many agents do we have at the moment? How many will we need on 1 January? How many will this training provide on 1 January to ensure that the haulage industry can keep operating?
EU Exit: End of Transition Period — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Foreign Trade
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The London School of Economics estimates that a no-deal Brexit could lead to a 63% decrease in exports to the European Union. For the salmon farmers, the crofters producing lamb and the shellfishermen in my constituency, that could be absolutely ruinous. What comfort can the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster give to the people in my constituency whose livelihoods depend on that export market?
Overseas Operations (Service Personnel And Veterans) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Surely, the debate of the past five or 10 minutes has exposed the truth of this matter, which is that it is easy to build consensus in the House on provisions relating to civil actions—there is very little exception to that. However, may I take the Secretary of State back to the answer he gave to the right hon. Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell)? He is right in what he says about torture, but the logic of his argument is that torture should be listed in the first schedule to the Bill. He is right to put sexual offences in that schedule because, as the Government says, there are no circumstances in which sexual offences can be tolerated in war, but the logic of not including torture suggests that there are some circumstances in which torture is accepted. That is the logic. Will the Secretary of State tell the House what those circumstances are?
Overseas Operations (Service Personnel And Veterans) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The exclusion of torture from schedule 1 raises the inference for any court that—and this is a matter of logic, not of law—there are circumstances in which torture is acceptable. All the Secretary of State needs to do is include torture in schedule 1, and the Bill would have no difficulty.
Overseas Operations (Service Personnel And Veterans) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Obviously not, because murder is dealt with by the common law of this country. The Secretary of State is perfectly aware that such a case could still be brought under the exceptional circumstances provisions. The problem he has is that there is no such thing as unexceptional torture.
Overseas Operations (Service Personnel And Veterans) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-09-23
Topic: Law and Crime
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Is it not part of the problem that, where suspicion exists, there requires to be an investigation, and that if that investigation produces evidence, there should be a prosecution? By putting barriers in the way of prosecution, we do no favours to those who are accused of criminal acts in the first place, because no line is ever drawn underneath it for them.
Public Health Restrictions: Government Economic Support — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: Education
Timothy James Farron (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I will do my best, Mr Speaker Outdoor education centres are a crucial part of our visitor economy. There are 60-plus of them in Cumbria, employing hundreds of talented people whose jobs are, I am afraid, now seriously at risk. Outdoor education centres provide huge benefits in personal development, education, and physical and mental health, which are particularly valuable, even essential, at this time. They are as safe to reopen as schools, yet they face imminent closure and ruin. Will the Minister meet with me and the heads of outdoor education centres so we can take urgent action to save them?
Fisheries Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: Agriculture
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The question is not about territorial waters; it is about operation within the exclusive economic zone, from 12 miles to 200 miles. The incidents off Shetland demonstrate beyond peradventure that there is no meaningful protection for our fishermen in those areas. Yes, the Minister is right that fishing is a dangerous industry, but it should not be made more dangerous by the sort of recklessness that we keep seeing, and if the Maritime and Coastguard Agency has no powers to enforce that, it is only going to get worse. And by the way, it is not a probing amendment.
Fisheries Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: Agriculture
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I rise to speak to new clauses 11 and 12, standing in my name. It is a great pleasure to follow the hon. Member for South East Cornwall (Mrs Murray). I listened very carefully to her remarks, as I always do on matters related to the fishing industry, and I absolutely understand her background and family history, which has brought her to a very close interest in fishing safety over the years. I am grateful to her—enormously grateful to her—for accepting that I am well intentioned. I would hope, as I am a vice-chair of the all-party group on fisheries, of which she is the chair, that she would have expected nothing less I am afraid I was not entirely persuaded by the hon. Lady’s reasoning, however, and on this occasion I will stick with the views of the representatives of the fishing industry, who say that amendments such as new clauses 11 and 12 are necessary. I say to the Minister, who has obviously been told that they are probing amendments, that they are no such thing. Unless I am able to hear any reason or persuasive arguments as to why I should not push them to a vote, then with your agreement, Madam Deputy Speaker, I will certainly seek to test the views of the House on new clause 12 at least The hon. Lady’s proposition was an interesting one. She said that we should rely on the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 and also on the licensing provisions. I am actually a great fan of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act. It is legislative poetry. A whole body of case law and regulations have been born and grown up out of it, of which I am not always a great admirer, but the Act itself is very simple.
Fisheries Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: International Affairs
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): There will be no provision in licensing that will deal with the dangerous and reckless conduct that we have seen west of Shetland, and that we will see in other territorial waters, I think, in the next few months as the political heat is turned up in relation to fishing and the changes that are going to come in on 1 January I want to make a couple of points before dealing in detail with the reason why new clauses 11 and/or 12 are necessary. The first is on Government amendment 36, which I raised with the Minister in her opening comments. I understand the reasons why a lot of late Government amendments to the Bill have come and I have sympathy with them, knowing the to and fro that there has been between the Minister’s Department and the various devolved Administrations, but the Bill is not new. We had the Bill go through all its stages in this House—certainly the Public Bill Committee—once already. It started then in the other place and it has been through Committee here, so introducing at this late stage—when, frankly, there is little opportunity for meaningful scrutiny of it—a provision that strikes at a fairly important constitutional point in relation to the Channel Islands as dependent territories requires further explanation from the Minister Essentially, the difficulty is that saying that this is just a backstop power is one thing, but the Government giving themselves a backstop power that can be used unilaterally—possibly without any consultation, although I accept that that is unlikely—takes us down a very difficult and dangerous constitutional path. I think that this requires greater scrutiny than this House is able to give it today, because once I have given way to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Sir Robert Neill), I will not say much more about it.
Fisheries Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: Agriculture
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman. My experience of Government is that there are issues that sometimes just dot around the civil service waiting for a Minister who is prepared to pick them up and give them a go. This issue is not new. I know that the Minister’s predecessor, the right hon. Member for Scarborough and Whitby (Mr Goodwill), faced a similar dilemma and reached a very different conclusion. I strongly suspect that this has been slipped in at the last minute because officials somewhere wanted to advance it. The Minister should have resisted this. I say to her gently that this will not just be nodded through when the Bill gets to the other place. It will require and get more substantial scrutiny there As the hon. Member for Edinburgh North and Leith (Deidre Brock), who spoke for the Scottish nationalists, said at the start of her speech, there is a lot of uncertainty around the fishing industry at the moment, and that uncertainty is very damaging. It is worth reminding the House that the reason for that uncertainty was the decision by the former Prime Minister, and the current Prime Minister, to enter into a withdrawal agreement that put an agreement on fishing into the political declaration. When that decision was made by the former Prime Minister, I remember that the hon. Members for South East Cornwall and for Moray (Douglas Ross), and others, were rather unhappy about it, as was I, and we are now reaping the whirlwind of that somewhat ill-advised decision.
Fisheries Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: Agriculture
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I hope that the hon. Gentleman feels better for having got some of that off his chest. May I invite him, though, to return to the paths of positivity? He says that he wants to follow the wishes of fishing communities. Look at my new clause 11, which is supported by fishermen, doubtless in his own constituency as well. There is a real need to act on this. Will he join me in urging his own Front Bench to take this seriously, and come forward with serious proposals on it?
Fisheries Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2020-10-13
Topic: International Affairs
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman share my concern that there is no provision for consultation of any sort in the Bill? This is something that could be done unilaterally. Is that really the way we should be gearing our relationship with the Channel Islands?
The Economy — House of Commons, 2020-09-24
Topic: Labor
Christine Anne Jardine (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I hope that you can hear me this time, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank the Chancellor for early sight of his statement, which I cautiously welcome, to the extent that he has listened to calls from Liberal Democrats to extend furlough and create some flexibility based on the German Kurzarbeit model, but what about the 3 million people who have had no support for six months and will still be excluded from financial help? Where are the job creation plans to tackle unemployment and for those who cannot work for a third of the time? Where are the incentives for manufacturing and industry to invest in this country and create new jobs—the green revolution—allowing us to compete with our European neighbours, who are already moving ahead of us?
Belarus: Presidential Elections — House of Commons, 2020-09-24
Topic: International Affairs
Layla Michelle Moran (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Foreign Secretary for his statement and the substance of it, and I add the voice of the Liberal Democrats to the solidarity shown across the House. It is so important that we stand together in our fight for democracy and against those who want to undermine human rights. I am glad also that the Foreign Secretary is now flexing his muscles when it comes to Magnitsky sanctions. It shows what can be done. Can I press him to continue to flex those muscles in other parts of the world so that global Britain is consistent in its approach? I press him in particular to act against those who commit human rights abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Yemen — House of Commons, 2020-09-24
Topic: International Affairs
Layla Michelle Moran (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the hon. Gentleman for leading the debate; he is making it clear just how heartbreaking the situation is for the people on the ground in Yemen. Does he agree that that is why we should stand proud and firm by the 0.7% of gross national income that this country gives in aid to other countries? It is so sorely needed, especially during this pandemic.
Occupied Palestinian Territories — House of Commons, 2020-09-24
Topic: International Affairs
Layla Michelle Moran (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I thank the Backbench Business Committee, but also the hon. Member for Aberavon (Stephen Kinnock) for leading this debate and the other Members who have brought it to the House. It is incredibly important—I thank those who have contributed—and I think many of the facts and figures that have been thrown around are well understood. I rise as the first British Palestinian MP, and I thought the best thing I could do would be to give some human colour to the debate When I saw Trump’s peace plan, which we asked to debate back in March, my heart sank. The reason why it sank was that there is no one more than me and my family, and my cousins and aunts and uncles back home, who wants peace. We want peace—of course we want peace—and Hamas does not speak for me. I stand here as a friend of Israel as much as I am a daughter of Palestine. To those who suggest that this is in some way a weird thing for a Palestinian to say, I reply that most Palestinians I know actually say that. All Palestinians I know recognise Israel and all Palestinians I know want peace. This is not some black-and-white situation; that is where we want to get to In that plan there was mention of Jericho. My family is a Greek Orthodox family, and we had a long history of living in Jerusalem within the city walls, but after 1967, the family moved away because it was no longer safe to raise my mother there. She and her five siblings went to live in Jericho, which is where she grew up. The plan that Trump was putting forward would essentially have meant a suffocation of Jericho. A farmer in Jericho would, under this plan, have had to seek a permit to go and tend to their land. When Members say—I noted the words of the right hon. Member for Preseli Pembrokeshire (Stephen Crabb)—in the old ways of thinking, "Why don’t people just engage?" it is the equivalent of someone going to where they have grown up and saying to them, "We are going to suffocate the very village where you grew up or where your mother grew up, and you should be grateful that we have come up with this great plan for your family." In response, Members would turn around and go, "No!", yet that is what is going on in this case It is very obvious that this plan was never going to work. It is very obvious that the peace plan between the UAE, Bahrain and Israel—good for them; all peace is good, and the more peace, the better—is not going to help Palestine. Let us not fool ourselves. What we can do in this House and what this Government can do is recognise my other country, the one I love equally with this one. What that would do is give hope, because ultimately that is what keeps being eroded with every annexation, with every so-called peace plan and with every intervention by Trump. Frankly, he does not believe in peace; he just wants to be re-elected. What we need now is hope, and that is what is in the gift of this Government.
Future Homes Standard — House of Commons, 2020-10-05
Topic: Environment
Sarah Jane Olney (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): If I cannot persuade the Minister to be more ambitious in his deadline, perhaps I could encourage him to use the time to be more ambitious in his target. Instead of a target of reducing carbon emissions by 75%, will the Government set a target of net zero carbon for new builds?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-10-05
Topic: Education
Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): In ensuring that children with special educational needs and disabilities have the provision that they need locally, the London Borough of Richmond is running a cumulative deficit of some £15 million in the high needs element of its dedicated schools budget, putting wider council finances and services at risk. Will the Secretary of State agree to meet me, representatives of the council and the Department for Education to find a workable solution to this untenable situation? Our discussions with the DFE have proved fruitless so far.
CCRC Decision on 44 Post Office Prosecutions — House of Commons, 2020-10-05
Topic: Government Operations
Sarah Jane Olney (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Two post offices in my constituency are threatened with closure because of the difficulty of recruiting new sub-postmasters or sub-postmistresses. What impact does the Minister think the appalling case of Horizon has had on recruitment? Is he anxious about the future of post offices, particularly rural ones but even those in urban constituencies such as mine? What is the Department doing to work with the Post Office on this issue?
CCRC Decision on 44 Post Office Prosecutions — House of Commons, 2020-10-05
Topic: Government Operations
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I welcome the progress that we have made thus far in getting at least an element of judicial oversight of this inquiry. Like others, I remain sceptical about whether it will be sufficient, but to proceed on the basis that it is, and that the undertakings that the Minister has given the House today are sufficient to do the job, will he now look at the damage that has been done to the availability of postmasters as a whole across the whole of the country? Communities such as mine rely on them very heavily, and it is becoming more and more difficult with every month that passes to fill those very important positions.
Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Bill — House of Commons, 2020-10-05
Topic: Agriculture
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): The Minister has reeled off an impressive number of statistics, which justify the use of CHIS operations. How many or what proportion of the operations were undertaken by the Food Standards Agency, which will also come under the ambit of this Bill?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-09-10
Topic: Environment
Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): WWF has today published the "Living Planet" report, which paints a shocking picture of global biodiversity loss. However, it also finds that we can restore nature by taking urgent action on conservation and on how we produce and consume food. The Secretary of State mentioned his manifesto commitments on maintaining high environmental standards in trade deals. How can we trust those commitments when this Government cannot even stand by international law?
Electoral Commission — House of Commons, 2020-09-10
Topic: Government Operations
Alexander Morrison Carmichael (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I am grateful to the hon. Member for his answer. Would he agree with me that, while we can probably all think of occasions where we disliked adjudications from the commission, the fact that the Government—or the governing party—clearly want to be rid of it is an indication that probably, as an independent body, it is doing rather a good job?