argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Resume your seat. I do not require any lectures in democracy from the hon. Gentleman; I will advise him of precisely what the position is, and it will brook of no contradiction First, the hon. Gentleman was rather laggardly and slow in rising when I had already called the right hon. Member for West Dorset—untypically so, I readily acknowledge Secondly, I say to the hon. Gentleman, in terms of crystal clarity, that if he wishes to raise a point of order he will of course have an opportunity to do so; I challenge him to identify any occasion upon which I have sought to deny him, and I do not do so. I am simply saying that I will take the application first. There is subsequently a ten-minute rule motion before we proceed to any debate, if there be such. The hon. Gentleman is never knowingly understated or not heard when he wishes to be; I will hear him. Patience, sir; it will be rewarded. I call Sir Oliver Letwin.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. Gentleman clearly enjoys the support of the House. I will go further; I will be my normal generous self to the hon. Member for Wellingborough (Mr Bone) in advertising for those who did not hear it that he was robustly objecting, which he is absolutely entitled to do. People need be in no doubt that there was an objection. In these circumstances, it is necessary for at least 40 Members to rise in their places to support the application. There is a very much larger number than 40 Members rising in support, so the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin) has obtained the leave of the House The debate will be held today as the first item of public business. It will last for up to three hours—that is to say, if it starts before seven o’clock—and it will arise on a motion that the House has considered the specified matter set out in the application by the right hon. Gentleman We now come to the ten-minute rule motion. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Wellingborough is gesticulating—I will not even say chuntering—in a mildly eccentric manner from a sedentary position, and I am all agog to learn more of what he wishes to raise in his point of order.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. It was really just a procedural point, and I draw your attention to Standing Order No. 24 on page 33 of the Standing Orders. When a Standing Order No. 24 application is notified on a Tuesday, this has to be done by 10.30 in the morning. I inquired in the Vote Office after 10.30 this morning and was told that no Standing Order No. 24 application had yet been made, although they were expecting one. So it seemed to me that in those circumstances, this application could not be heard today and that it should have been heard tomorrow. That was why I was trying to make my point so early on, so that we did not have to go through with it. That seems very clear.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I understand the hon. Gentleman’s rationale, and I thank him for explaining his agitation to raise his point at an early stage. However, I must advise him—I must admit I thought he would have known this, because he is a keen partisan of parliamentary opportunities for Back Benchers—that the responsibility of a Member seeking to make such an application is to lodge that application with the Speaker. I can advise the hon. Gentleman that the application was lodged with me and my office yesterday evening, so it was well in time. Moreover, I hope that I carry the House with me in observing that, whatever people think of the right hon. Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), his courtesy is unsurpassed by any other Member of this House, and it was partly on account of that courtesy and because he wanted his intentions to be entirely intelligible that he was keen that his motion, if judged orderly, should be published as early as possible. It was published some hours ago. So the hon. Member for Wellingborough has had a good try, but I think that his efforts on this occasion on that point have been exhausted. I would suggest that the courteous thing to do now would be to proceed with the ten-minute rule motion, for which the hon. Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp) has been patiently waiting.
Clean Air — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. This is most unfair on the hon. Gentleman, who is raising an important matter. May I please appeal to hon. and right hon. Members who are not as keenly attentive to the contents of the ten-minute rule motion as I would like to be to continue their conversations outside the Chamber? It is only fair that the hon. Gentleman, who has booked his slot, should be heard in speaking up for his cause and his constituents.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a brilliant and incisive point and is absolutely right We need to examine what is being put forward to the House and to consider the concerning and odd fact that it is actually being permitted in the first place. Let us look at Standing Order No. 24 and the approach we are taking. As you know, Mr Speaker, I take an interest in the rules of the House.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. and learned Friend is very learned but his learning does not always lead him in the right direction. The Prorogation is completely routine. When I was first—and, indeed, last—at this Dispatch Box, the Opposition Front Bench was asking for the Session to be brought to an end. We were merely being our obliging selves in leading forth to a new Queen’s Speech in the general course of events.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Mixed Topics
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): No. We are going to have to wait for this informing and educating. We are all bating our breath for it, but I like to keep people on tenterhooks for the time being, because I wish to talk about our old friend "Erskine May", which sets out your role, Mr Speaker. The chief characteristics attached the office of Speaker in the House of Commons are authority and impartiality. It would be disorderly, wrong and not my intention to question your impartiality, Mr Speaker, but, as with the umpires at Edgbaston who saw eight of their decisions sent for review and overturned, accepting somebody’s impartiality is not the same as accepting their infallibility It is worth noting what a wise and scholarly Speaker once said—indeed, this wise and scholarly Speaker said as recently as last year that a debate held under Standing Order No. 24 could be held on a substantive and amendable motion only if the Standing Order is itself amended. In April 2018, in the light of two emergency debates on the UK’s decision to take military action in Syria, you yourself, Mr Speaker, said that "it is perfectly open to the House to amend Standing Order No. 24, of which there is some uncertainty and often incomprehension. It could be amended to allow for the tabling of substantive motions in circumstances of emergency, which could also be amendable and on which the House could vote. If there are Members who are interested in that line of inquiry, they could usefully raise it with the Chair of the Procedure Committee".—[Official Report, 19 April 2018; Vol. 639, c. 475.] As far as I am aware, no change has been made to Standing Order No. 24, yet the decision has changed—varius et mutabilis semper dictor.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman knows the procedures of this House only too well. He knows that we are about to go, in some cases, to the seaside for party conferences—in the case of my party, to a major city centre. That is why we are taking four or five days of parliamentary time and simply going over the normal recess. That is not in any sense an abuse.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Peter William Bone (Conservative, Centre-right): Will the Leader of the House go back to his point about Standing Order No. 24? It seems to me that he is absolutely correct—as Mr Speaker was correct in his previous statement—that this could not be on a substantive motion. If the motion, which appears to be substantive, is carried tonight, it seems to me that the Government would have every right to declare it ultra vires and ignore it.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I know that the hon. Gentleman will not presume to argue with the judgment of the Chair, entitled as he is to the possession and expression of his opinion. What I say to him in order to help him and to assist the Leader of the House is this: if, in the judgment of the Chair, a motion under Standing Order No. 24 is expressed in neutral terms, it will not be open to amendment—if it is judged to be expressed in neutral terms. The reality of the matter is that there have been previous occasions upon which there have been Standing Order No. 24 motion debates which have contained what I would prefer to call evaluative motions, notably on 18 March 2013 and on 11 December 2018 with which I feel sure the Leader of the House is familiar. It is in conformity with that practice that I have operated. I have taken advice of a professional kind, and I am entirely satisfied that the judgment that I have made is consistent with that advice. My attitude is simply to seek to facilitate the House. The Leader of the House rightly referred to my responsibility as grave and solemn, and I completely accept that as well as I accept his right to his own view about my judgment in this matter. I have sought to exercise my judgment in discharging my responsibility to facilitate the House of Commons—to facilitate the Legislature. I have done it, I am doing it, and I will do it to the best of my ability without fear or favour—or, to coin a phrase, come what may, do or die.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful, as always, Mr Speaker, for your contribution to the debate. It is always very useful that your words are referred to and that the House should be reminded of them. It was suggested by you that this matter should be referred to the Procedure Committee and that the motion should be amended, which it has not been.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Civil Rights
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): Sovereignty in this House comes from the British people. The idea that we can overrule 17.4 million people is preposterous, and the idea that our rules do not exist to protect the people from arrogant power grabs is mistaken. Those rules are there for the protection of the people.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not wish to be pedantic, but one of the constitutional niceties is that we are Her Majesty’s Government, not mine, and we are led by my right hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson). The important issue here is that Prorogation is a routine start for a new Session, and we are losing a similar number of days to the number we would lose in a normal Prorogation.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): Mr Speaker, you will be glad to know that I am drawing gently to a close, and therefore I fear that time for interventions, except from my very old friend, the right hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier), the Chair of the very distinguished Committee that she is the Chair of. [Laughter.]
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
Jacob William Rees-Mogg (Conservative, Centre-right): I am afraid that I disagree with the hon. Lady, and I must confess that I am astonished that she is not a right hon. Member. Something must have gone wrong with the Privy Council, of which I am now Lord President, for that not to be the case. [Interruption.] Oh, the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) feels that he has also not been justly promoted; I am sorry.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I do not think that the Leader of the House was planning to invite the hon. Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Meg Hillier) to join him in Balmoral, so I am not sure that it makes a great deal of difference in the immediate circumstances.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. After we have heard from the Father of the House, whom I intend shall speak next, it will be necessary for there to be a time limit on Back-Bench speeches, imposed by me in the name of trying to accommodate the maximum number of colleagues in this important debate. I call Mr Kenneth Clarke.
European Union (Withdrawal) — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Mixed Topics
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): I put it to the hon. Member for Edinburgh East (Tommy Sheppard) that the very question that he wants to put to the British people again is the question that was on the ballot paper in the 2016 referendum. The then Prime Minister made it clear in debates on television that if the country voted to leave, that decision would be implemented: article 50 would be invoked and after two years we would be out—out of the single market and out of the customs union. That is what he said, so I do not see any need to run the thing again I merely rise on the occasion of this debate to observe that what some people, including you, Mr Speaker, call a "constitutional outrage"—it is a little novel for the Speaker to enter into the debate quite so openly, but there we are; that is another novelty taking place in our constitution—other people refer to as a perfectly normal decision In truth it is neither, but this controversy reflects the evolving and changing nature of the relationship between Parliament, Government and people. That is a permanent evolution in our constitution, and two measures in particular have led to a substantial sea change in the relationship between Parliament and Government. The first is the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, which was sold to a perhaps rather unsuspecting House as a means of limiting Executive power, but in the event of a statutory no-confidence vote the Act is silent on what happens afterwards, except for the 14-day period. The Prime Minister may no longer be able to call a general election, but he is no longer obliged to resign either—at least not for 14 days. That has the effect of strengthening the incumbency of a sitting Prime Minister. Of course, that is exactly what it was intended to do—it was intended to cement the coalition in place—but it has left the House with the option to wound rather than kill Governments. I do not think that that has improved the accountability of Governments to Parliament in any way at all The second thing that has happened to cause this sea change is the increase in the frequency of the use of referendums. That has consequences too, as many warned, not for the sovereignty of Parliament but, as my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox) said, for legitimacy, because we now have competing legitimacies in our constitution. What we are hearing is a bitter dispute about whether the representative nature of our democracy is a superior legitimacy to the direct—
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. It is very rude for Members—[Interruption.] Order. I say to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster that, when he turns up at our children’s school as a parent, he is a very well-behaved fellow. He would not dare to behave like that in front of Colin Hall, and neither would I. Do not gesticulate. Do not rant. Spare us the theatrics. Behave yourself. Be a good boy, young man. Be a good boy. [Interruption.] Yes, we know the theatrics that the right hon. Gentleman perfected in the Oxford Union. We are not interested. Be quiet.
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Civil Rights
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I do not think we need to conduct a debate on that matter across the Floor of the House—it is not a matter for adjudication by the Chair—but the right hon. Lady has made her own point in her own way, with her customary force. It is on the record, and she will doubtless wish to return to it in times to come Census (Return Particulars and Removal of Penalties) Bill [Lords] Bill to be considered tomorrow.
Business without Debate — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I must inform the House that Nicky Morgan has given me notice of her resignation as Chair of the Treasury Committee. I declare the Chair vacant. Nominations should be submitted by 12 noon on Tuesday 10 September. Only members of the Conservative party may be candidates in this Select Committee Chair election. The ballot will take place on Wednesday 11 September from 10 am to 1.30 pm.
Sheep Farming: No-deal EU Exit — House of Commons, 2019-09-03
Topic: Mixed Topics
Charles George Eustice (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government have already made it clear that because of the particular sensitivity, we will apply full MFN tariffs on lamb, so there will not be any additional imports to the UK beyond those we already have. There is a splitting of the existing TRQ for New Zealand lamb between the UK and New Zealand—a combined total of around 250,000 tonnes—but there will be no additional lamb because we will apply full MFN tariffs outside that TRQ.
Speaker’s Statement — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. It will be for the convenience of Members to be aware that, unusually, our House photographer will take several photos from the Bar of the House and from behind the Chair today, tomorrow and, as appropriate, on Monday.
Armed Forces Veterans — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend will be aware that there is a consultation going on, as he has referred to. The Northern Ireland Office is looking at the Northern Ireland challenges on legacy. These are very sensitive issues—the system is not working, and we will be reporting back to this House over the coming weeks.
Armed Forces Veterans — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Peter James Bottomley (Conservative, Centre-right): In the 30 years since I attended the Remembrance service at Enniskillen after the tragedy and atrocity there, there has been recognition of the service by nationalists, Catholics and Irish people in the great war and in the second world war. Will my right hon. Friend do all he can to encourage the joint remembrance of a joint sacrifice?
Armed Forces Veterans — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Other
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right hon. Lady for her question and pay tribute to her for the work she did in that role. I am aware that there is more to do, which is why we have been consulting on how the covenant is being implemented. There are things to improve, and we will make sure that we improve them.
Leaving the EU: Peace in Northern Ireland — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions:   How many of the Government’s additional 20,000 police officers have been allocated to Northern Ireland, and what flexibility is there if the security situation deteriorates in the light of the deal?
Julian Richard Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman is absolutely correct. My conversations with young people in Northern Ireland are the most moving and humbling I have ever had, and I will do everything I can to ensure that the opportunities those women and men have are maintained and can flourish. All the young people I have met in Northern Ireland so far in this job show every hope for a successful future for Northern Ireland.
Customs Regulations — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: What steps the Government have taken to ensure that customs regulations are the same in Northern Ireland as in the rest of the UK.
Laurence Anthony Robertson (Conservative, Centre-right): May I return to the question asked by my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson)? Could we not consider the mutual recognition and mutual implementation proposals in much the same way as we administer the common travel area?
Northern Ireland in the UK — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Other
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): It is clear that we have agreement across the House on how important this issue is, and we are doing everything we can to move forward on it. I will certainly have those conversations, and I hope that the hon. Gentleman will also have those conversations with the usual channels on his side of the House.
Leaving the EU: Withdrawal Agreement — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Thomas Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): Heysham in my constituency is the nearest mainland UK port to Northern Ireland. Does the Minister agree that my area could be a boomtown if we had a free port, as 10% of the north-west’s GDP comes in through our port, and it will be 20% once this withdrawal agreement has been finalised?
Welfare Mitigation Payments — House of Commons, 2019-10-30
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas Richard Hurd (Conservative, Centre-right): This is an incredibly serious issue. Thousands of people in Northern Ireland benefit from these mitigations, and there is a sunset provision for the end of March 2020. The hon. Gentleman will know that alternative mechanisms are available to the devolved Administration to extend the mitigations, but that is not ideal. The best way would be to change the legal framework, which is best done in Northern Ireland by a Northern Ireland Executive, and the day when it is restored cannot come too soon.