argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Craig Whittaker (Conservative, Centre-right): Racism, racist bullying and any form of bullying is completely unacceptable, and I hope my hon. Friend uses all her powers to stamp down on such behaviour. On divisiveness in our society, it appears it has become about whether or not people take the knee. Does she agree that the single biggest cause of divisiveness is the lack of tolerance and respect from both sides of the argument, equally? It does not matter whether someone chooses to take the knee. What matters is that they have tolerance and respect for those who choose to and, equally, for those who choose not to.
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Victoria Atkins (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has defined what it is to live in a free country. We abide by the principles of free speech, within the genuine and legitimate confines of legislation such as hate crime legislation. We have a wonderfully diverse football team with enormous talent and enormous skills. Just as they have acted with tolerance, respect and humility in the face of the nation’s joy and adoration, we should extend that to each other and treat each other with tolerance and respect.
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Victoria Atkins (Conservative, Centre-right): I have not seen that report, but my memory of Raheem Sterling is the story he told of growing up in the shadow of the Wembley arch and imagining himself playing under that arch—instead of being outside the stadium, being inside the stadium. Of course, he has done exactly that That shows that in this country there is the opportunity and the chance, if you have the talents of Mr Sterling and others, to succeed. I very much hope that is the message that comes out of our debate both this afternoon and more generally in relation to the horrendous hate crimes we saw over the weekend.
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Richard John Holden (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Minister agree that this should be a matter where both sides of the House and all parties come together to ensure we put an end to racist abuse once and for all? Will she highlight how, through the online safety Bill, this will actually happen?
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Victoria Atkins (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. By working together, we are so much stronger. Today we have seen that there is great unity of intent and will across the House to ensure that those who express racist views are held to account and brought to justice, and that each part of society plays its part, including online companies.
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Victoria Atkins (Conservative, Centre-right): I am going to temper the hon. Lady’s remarks with some facts. The Home Secretary did not say that she supported football fans booing England players for taking the knee. The Prime Minister was clear in saying that the public should be cheering our team, not booing them. We have to be very careful with how we handle the facts; we are presenting our plans for the future to help to eradicate racism and our plans for taming the internet, and that is how we will achieve things. A little bit of back and forth at the Dispatch Box is welcome and part of our rich tapestry of democracy, but I do hope that the hon. Lady will stick to facts next time.
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Aaron Stuart Bell (Conservative, Centre-right): I draw the Minister’s attention to the paradox identified by Sunder Katwala, the director of British Future: there are far fewer overt racists in Britain today than there were 20 or 30 years ago, which is a very good thing, and there are far fewer racist attitudes in Britain, but because of social media and the fact that everyone is always online, individuals from black and ethnic minority communities experience far more racism on a day-to-day basis than they did then. That is why fixing this needs to be a public policy priority and why people at Twitter and Facebook need to step up. They need to stop people who are banned opening new accounts, and they need to address the algorithms that promote that material, and in that way we can rebuild community cohesion.
Racist Abuse on Social Media — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will make a statement on the prevalence of racist abuse on social media.
Victoria Atkins (Conservative, Centre-right): We all acknowledge the echo chamber that social media provides, and the fact that being available online across the world perhaps enables just a single person to have far more volume added to their voice than would be the case if they were known, as they usually are, to be sitting in their bedroom rather pathetically tapping away on their laptop or phone. We must build resilience among our young people in schools to prepare them to understand that torrents of abuse like this may represent only a tiny number of people, and very much build on education and the cultural attitudes that we are seeking to address through relationships, health and sex education in schools to ensure that people understand the principles of tolerance and kindness in being able to debate without hatred. There are many ways of tackling racism. I look forward to debating them in the months and years to come, but we do not need to take chunks out of one another while we are debating.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): We are committed to addressing the unresolved legacy of Northern Ireland’s past so that communities can reconcile and heal. That is what the Command Paper we will publish today sets out. I suggest the hon. Lady has a look at it; she will see that some of the issues she raised are the issues we have been talking to people about and cover in that Command Paper. As I said, we are determined that anything we do is article 2 compliant The hon. Lady referred to Operation Kenova, which has done excellent work with victims of families to get to the bottom of the truth. In the four or five years that has been functioning, there have been no prosecutions, but there is a model in Operation Kenova about how these things can work, which gives is a clear indication of how to get to information as we move forward. That is the kind of process that it would be constructive for us to look at and deal with On Stormont House, it is increasingly clear—I was frank about this in my opening remarks—that any approach to dealing with the legacy of the past that focuses on criminal investigations will be unlikely to deliver the outcomes that people hope for. There comes a point when we in this House need to be honest with people about the very painful and difficult reality of where we are today, as recent cases have shown us. That is probably why the previous Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland made the comment that some of those things were simply unworkable. We are also clear that we will never accept any moral equivalence between those who upheld the law in Northern Ireland, who served their country, and those on all sides who sought to destroy it Let me gently say to hon. Lady that she stood there and talked about engagement, but some of the people she criticised me for not engaging with we engaged with just last week, as part of a wide range of engagement over the past 18 months that will continue. The paper is part of the tools that are ongoing and will continue in the weeks ahead In the light of not hearing from the hon. Lady a single thing about what the Labour party would propose as a way forward, I will finish, as I did in my opening statement, with a quote: "Instead of releasing the sort of politics that can ensure the success of the Good Friday agreement, the party is an obstacle to progressive political development." That is a quote today from Boyd Black, the secretary of the Labour party in Northern Ireland.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): I absolutely agree with the hon. Gentleman about making sure that we are able to get to the truth and get to information. Nobody in this House ever wants to see again a situation like the Ballymurphy case, where the families have had to wait 50 years to get to the truth. We have to find a better way forward. The current system is failing everybody, so to do nothing simply is not an option that will deliver for people in Northern Ireland. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right We do want to engage. We have been engaging, and not just over the past 18 months. Even last week, my officials and I engaged with victims’ groups on these very issues. In the weeks ahead, with the Command Paper for people to read through and engage with, that engagement will continue, including with the political parties and our partners in the Irish Government.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): I appreciate that the hon. Gentleman tends in this House, as we saw yesterday, to use emotive comments for soundbites, often for his own social media outlet. To use somebody’s harrowing experience and loss in that way says much about him. I would happily meet any victims to talk to them about the experience they have been through and why we need to be honest with them about what is achievable and how we help Northern Ireland to move forward in a positive way, rather than continuing to use harrowing experiences like that for political ends in the way he has done in the past 24 hours.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Other
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, absolutely. I do not underestimate, and I do appreciate, as I said in my opening remarks, the fact that this is a very difficult, sensitive and complex situation. I appreciate that we are asking people to take a very big step. That is why we want to engage intensively over the weeks ahead, but we are being very honest with people: we need to do something different. The status quo has failed and we need to find a different way forward. I hope we will be able to do that in the weeks ahead, before we legislate in the autumn.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Sunderland (Conservative, Centre-right): I have had the privilege of working closely alongside the Secretary of State on legacy for much of the past six months, and I believe he is on to something. This is difficult work and it involves compromise, so I am slightly baffled by some of the negativity that I have encountered, both today and previously, with regard to the statute. I think that we in Westminster have a responsibility to get behind my right hon. Friend. Does he agree that his emerging statute will not just unpick and end this unpalatable cycle of vexatious behaviour, but help to create a strategic environment in Northern Ireland whereby truth, reconciliation and alternative forms of dispute resolution can flourish, for the benefit of future peace and stability?
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman has highlighted some of the challenges in how we deal with such issues and move forward in this difficult reality. As we work through some of the details in the weeks ahead, we will talk to victims’ groups, political parties and people such as him to take things on board to ensure that, when we do legislate, we can help Northern Ireland move forward and have everything dealt with in a genuinely holistic way so that if we say we will end the unfair cycle of investigations that is serving nobody, we can do so properly.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Member for Slough (Mr Dhesi) has just demonstrated that he has paid no real attention to what we have been talking about, and is clearly not up to speed with what we have been discussing with parties, victims groups and veterans in relation to these proposals. I suggest that he has a look at the Command Paper, because quite the opposite is true. The very fact that those victims have not been able to get to the truth is the issue with which we need to deal, and it is why the information recovery part of this is so important. I suggest that the hon. Gentleman looks carefully at the Command Paper and also looks at what I said in my opening statement, which he should have done before standing up and making a comment that was so far from the truth that it almost did not bear answering.
Legacy of Northern Ireland’s Past — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Brandon Kenneth Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend has huge expertise and experience in these matters. The Select Committee report is indeed very clear, and goes into great detail about how this can work. My right hon. Friend is also absolutely right—which should surprise none of us—in his understanding of why the information recovery, truth and reconciliation part of this is so important. Not only is it the means for us to move Northern Ireland forward, but—here I return to what I said at the beginning of my statement—it is the means to ensure that what we do is compliant with human rights and article 2. To that end, we need to ensure that the information recovery mechanism is very clear, very focused and able to deliver, and, as we know from examples such as Operation Kenova, that can be done I thank my right hon. Friend for the expertise and advice that he has been able to provide, in the Committee’s report and subsequently. What he has said is absolutely right.
Transport Decarbonisation — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Luke Morgan Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the Secretary of State’s shiny new plan. I, too, hold a shiny new plan from the midlands engine: a 10-point plan for green growth released this month. Point 2 is about net zero transport. I am proud that, as a midlands MP, the midlands has an automotive industry that employs 293,000 people and 16 of the world’s top 20 automotive suppliers. Will he meet me and people from the midlands engine to discuss how Bosworth, Leicestershire and, indeed, the country could benefit from both our plans?
Transport Decarbonisation — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Grant Shapps (Conservative, Centre-right): A small but important sub-clause to my announcement that we will be consulting to outlaw the sale of diesel HGVs by 2040 is that by 2035—five years earlier—we will already have done that for lorries up to 26 tonnes. A 26-tonner is a very considerable size of lorry, so my hon. Friend’s prayers may well be answered much sooner than he fears.
Transport Decarbonisation — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): I warmly welcome my right hon. Friend’s statement. Will he go further on what we will do to ensure a sustainable maritime fleet, for example by ensuring that around our coastal communities there is opportunity for plug-in processes for boats and ships, particularly for fishing around our coastal waters? In the long-term, will he look at alternative fuels that can power the long-distance fleets?
Sandbach Cemetery — House of Commons, 2021-07-14
Topic: Public Lands
Fiona Claire Bruce (Conservative, Centre-right): I rise to present a petition on behalf of residents of Sandbach in my constituency. It asks for provision for the existing Sandbach cemetery to be extended I have met a number of local people who are very concerned that in a short time Sandbach residents will no longer have access to cemetery space in their own town and will have to travel some miles out of the town for burials and to visit relatives’ gravesides, unless an extension or alternative cemetery provision in the town is not secured A petition with similar wording that has been circulated by volunteer campaigners in Sandbach has been signed by more than 4,400 people—a very substantial number for a town the size of Sandbach. I hope that my presentation of this petition in the House today will serve to highlight the extent of the concerns deeply held by local residents and constituents more widely The petition states: The petition of the residents of the United Kingdom, Declares that Sandbach cemetery is nearly full so future burials would take place several miles out of town; notes that a local petition calling for an extension to the cemetery land has received over 4,400 signatures The petitioners therefore urge the House of Commons to request Cheshire East Council to reconsider their decision not to extend burial provision in Sandbach And the petitioners remain etc [P002676]
Mandatory Vaccine Passports — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: With reference to his Department's “COVID-19 Response: Autumn and Winter Plan 2021”, if his Department will publish scientific evidence in support of the efficacy of mandatory vaccine passports.
William Peter Wragg (Conservative, Centre-right): I welcome the new ministerial team, and look forward to working with them constructively in the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee. I am sure that they share that enthusiasm ahead of any forthcoming appearances May I reiterate to my right hon. Friend—whom I congratulate on his appointment—that vaccine certification is useless now and will no doubt be useless then? We have fresh pairs of eyes in the Department, and fresh perspectives. Can we please just bin it now?
Policy Decisions: Use of Data — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stephen Paul Barclay (Conservative, Centre-right): I would have thought that, when talking about data, we would have been talking about the fiscal support that has been offered to Scotland, about the way in which the Scottish Government’s powers have not been used and about how we can get better delivery from the Scottish Government in areas such as education and drugs policy, where the data are absolutely chronic at the moment. I would hope that the Scottish Government will welcome the data strategy, as it will ensure that policy making is informed by good quality data and focused on good outcomes.
Office for Veterans’ Affairs — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Claire Coryl Julia Coutinho (Conservative, Centre-right): Recent events in Afghanistan are yet another reminder of veterans’ dedication and sacrifice, and I think the whole House will recognise the support that they need after serving their country. Will the Minister set out the steps he is taking to help veterans, particularly those who suffer from substance and alcohol misuse?
Office for Veterans’ Affairs — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Housing
Richard Michael Bacon (Conservative, Centre-right): Is the Minister aware that veterans are disproportionately likely to be homeless? Will he undertake to work with the new Secretary of State for Housing to ensure that veterans have every opportunity to get service plots of land to bring forward schemes of their own, as has already been successfully demonstrated in Plymouth?
Voter ID Requirements: Turnout and Enfranchisement — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential effect of proposed voter ID requirements on voter turnout in general elections.
Michael Tyrone Ellis (Conservative, Centre-right): Mr Speaker, I add my congratulations about Chorley. I look forward to seeing your cameo appearance on "Coronation Street", perhaps with Speaker Pelosi Following his appointment, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is now responsible for this policy. As I think the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Kirsten Oswald) knows, in Northern Ireland there has been a requirement for photographic identification at polling stations since 2003, and it operates with ease and is a proven and effective way of tackling fraud. It has improved voter confidence in Northern Ireland, and everyone who is eligible to vote will continue to have the opportunity to do so.
Voter ID Requirements: Turnout and Enfranchisement — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential effect of proposed voter ID requirements on voter turnout in general elections.
Michael Tyrone Ellis (Conservative, Centre-right): I am happy to offer the hon. Lady some reassurance. Ninety-eight per cent. of the electorate already own an accepted form of photographic identification, including 99% of black, Asian and minority ethnic electors and 99% of young electors aged 18 to 29. The Electoral Commission’s survey on this matter offers reassurance because the majority of the public say that a requirement to show identification when voting at polling stations would make them more confident, and 66% of people want more confidence in the security of the system. She really ought to read the 2015 Tower Hamlets election court judgment, where she will see the nature of the problem at hand.
Voter ID Requirements: Turnout and Enfranchisement — House of Commons, 2021-09-23
Topic: Civil Rights
Questions: What recent discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on the potential effect of proposed voter ID requirements on voter turnout in general elections.
Mark James Harper (Conservative, Centre-right): I strongly support what the Paymaster General has said, and I welcome the team to their positions When I had responsibility for these matters, I visited and spoke to the electoral officials in Northern Ireland, which has had this system for 18 years and where it works perfectly well. People in Northern Ireland are perfectly capable of using it, and I have no doubt that it will be a great success when we roll it out in the rest of the United Kingdom. Frankly, these scare stories are more likely to depress voter turnout than the introduction of voter ID.