argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Andrew Griffith (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my right hon. Friend for his answer. Many businesses in Arundel and South Downs, such as hospitality, events, beauty and wedding venues, have been hit terribly hard by the pandemic. It is no exaggeration to say that the support he has offered so far has been an absolute lifeline. But as my constituents now find themselves in tier 2, with all the uncertainty and restrictions, will he continue to do what he can to protect the very enterprises this nation will need—
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to champion his local businesses, something he knows well from his own experience. I can give him that reassurance. I know it has been a very difficult time for his small and medium-sized companies. They have my assurance that I will keep working hard to support them. He knows, better than most, that they will drive our recovery.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I am happy to provide that information. The new national infrastructure bank will invest in projects like transport, digital infrastructure and renewable energy through a series of loans, guarantees, equity and other hybrid products. The levelling-up fund will fund what I call the infrastructure of everyday life—projects up to £20 million that can be delivered quickly—make a tangible difference to our constituents and increase the pride we feel in the places we call home.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Neil Peter Hammerton Hudson (Conservative, Centre-right): The Government’s financial support for people and businesses during the pandemic has been a lifeline, but many people have not been able to access support, such as some self-employed people, business owners, freelancers and company directors, including many in the tourism and hospitality sectors, which are so important in Cumbria and are now struggling to survive. Will the Government work to find a way to support these individuals, perhaps on a loss of income basis similar to the discretionary grants or hardship schemes that were devised for the dairy sector?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alexander Jesse Norman (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right to focus on the specific impact that he and we all, as constituency MPs, have in our constituencies. I think he knows—we have discussed this at some length—that we are always happy to look for more schemes and more suggestions, if he would like to write to me with some details of what he has in mind. He will also be aware that, as I said, I am meeting the Federation of Small Businesses, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and, in due course, I hope the all-party group to discuss these issues in more detail.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Elliot Colburn (Conservative, Centre-right): Carshalton and Wallington businesses, particularly pubs and restaurants, have been in touch and while they welcome the support that has been offered so far, they are concerned about having a road map to reopening and, indeed, the support over Christmas. Does the Minister anticipate, as we begin to roll out several vaccines, that we will have the road map to reopening, and will he look again at tiering restrictions, particularly in tier 2?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert Henry Halfon (Conservative, Centre-right): Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thank my right hon. Friend for the financial package worth more than £150 million to support Harlow businesses and hard-working residents, but will he recognise the difficulties that are being faced by my constituents, particularly freelancers and directors of limited companies, who have been without any form of financial support—or almost any form of financial support—for eight months now? This is having a detrimental impact on my constituents’ livelihoods and mental health, so will the Minister outline what steps he is taking to ensure that these individuals, who have so far found themselves excluded from covid-19 support schemes, are able to access some significant financial assistance?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Rishi Sunak (Conservative, Centre-right): I know about the difficulties that the hospitality sector is experiencing at the moment. The hon. Lady will know that the various measures she spoke about—the business rates holiday and the VAT cut—last all the way through to next spring, so they will provide support during the winter, and we have in place a grants programme that provides grants to businesses in the hospitality sector, whether they are open in tier 2 or closed, with further support provided to local authorities for discretionary support, as they see fit.
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is right to raise this important issue. The Treasury recognises the role that enterprise zones play in our economy. This is an area specifically of interest to me and I will be delighted to meet him to discuss it further.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed, and I will come in just a moment to what more we hope to do for pubs, restaurants and everybody in the hospitality sector, whose anguish and difficulties everybody in this Chamber understands and appreciates I hope the House is clear what I am not asking for today. This is not another lockdown, nor is this the renewal of existing measures in England. The tiers that I am proposing would mean that from tomorrow, everyone in England, including those in tier 3, will be free to leave their homes for any reason. When they do, they will find the shops open for Christmas, the hairdressers open, the nail bars open, and gyms, leisure centres and swimming pools open.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I want to make a little bit of progress, because I want to say something now about our hospitality sector, which I know the House will want to hear. We all accept that the burden on the hospitality sector has been very great, and we feel this deeply, because our pubs, our hotels and our restaurants are, in many ways, the heart of our communities and part of the fabric of our identity as a country. Everybody can see that the hospitality industry has borne a disproportionate share of the burden in this crisis. There is no question about it. That is obviously because we want to keep schools open and we have to take such measures as we can. I just remind the House, however, that we are not alone in that: in France, bars, restaurants and gyms will not reopen until 20 January at the earliest; and in Germany, the hospitality sector will remain closed in its entirety over Christmas We will do everything in our power to support our hospitality sector throughout this crisis. We have already extended the furlough scheme for all businesses until the end of March. We have provided monthly grants of up to £3,000 for premises forced to close and £2,100 for those that remain open but have suffered because of reduced demand. We have allocated £1.1 billion for local authorities to support businesses at particular risk. Today, we are going further, with a one-off payment of £1,000 in December to wet pubs—that is, pubs that do not serve food, as the House knows—recognising how hard they have been hit by this virus in what is typically their busiest month. We will also work with the hospitality sector in supporting their bounce back next year. I want to stress that the situation is profoundly different now, because there is an end in sight. I am not seeking open-ended measures this afternoon; on the contrary, the regulations come with a sunset clause at the end of 2 February, at which point we will have sufficient data to assess our position after Christmas. Though I believe that these types of restrictions will be needed until the spring, they can be extended beyond 2 February only if this House votes for them.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed, I can certainly give my right hon. Friend that assurance: we will look in as much granular detail as we can at the incidence throughout the country. These points have been made with great power by Members from all parties. We will review the allocation of tiers every 14 days, starting on 16 December.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I just want to make an important point to my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) and to all Members who are rightly concerned about the position of their constituencies—our constituencies—in these tiers. Members have it in their power—in our power—to help to move our areas down the tiers by throwing their full weight—throwing our full weight as leaders in our communities—behind community testing and seizing the opportunity to encourage as many people as possible to take part.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Other
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. and learned Gentleman is doing a very good job—it is his job to criticise the Government, and of course mistakes have been made—but a credible Opposition would have a plan of their own. What is the plan of the Labour party?
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Other
Bernard Christison Jenkin (Conservative, Centre-right): I have to say that, although there are many points of merit in what the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Keir Starmer) has just raised, he has left the House and the public with the impression that he is happy for these restrictions to go through, he just will not vote for them. As for the idea that that is the kind of atmosphere the public want or that they will be encouraged to comply and co-operate when there is disagreement between the main parties on these fundamental issues that cannot be resolved in a sensible way, I think the public will be disappointed with that.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Graham Stuart Brady (Conservative, Centre-right): May I say at the outset that I think the Prime Minister’s instincts in this matter are not so different from mine, and that I recognise the difficulty and the burden that he carries? This is a difficult matter and there are difficult decisions to take Freedom is not an absolute, but it should be regarded as precious. There should be always the strongest possible presumption in its favour. If the Government are to take away fundamental liberties from the people whom we represent, they must demonstrate beyond question that they are acting in a way that is both proportionate and absolutely necessary. Today, I believe the Government have failed to make that compelling case. The benefit of the doubt that this House extended to Government in March and since is harder to take for granted in December. Six weeks ago, many of us made the case that the curfew policy at 10 pm was not just unnecessary, but counter- productive. Today, the Government apparently agree that the 10 pm curfew makes no sense. A month ago, the Government insisted that golf, tennis, bowls and gyms were unsafe. Now it seems that they are not Before the second lockdown, I invited the House to consider whether Government had the right to make it illegal for people to see their children, their grandchildren or their elderly relatives, and whether Government had the right to ban collective worship or to take away the right to work to support your family. Different people—different Members of this House—will draw the line in different places, but we must all accept that these are fundamental freedoms of our constituents, and we should insist on compelling evidence before we allow them to be compromised. That is why I asked for an impact assessment a month ago, for transparent publication of the criteria that would be used to decide in which tier our constituents would be placed, but also—crucially—for the weighting that would be applied to each of those criteria My constituents in the borough of Trafford have been placed unfairly in tier 3 in spite of covid test figures that are well below the average for England. Currently, the rate is 127.7 per 100,000 and falling rapidly, but I looked in vain at the document published late yesterday for any explanation or any route being set out as to how we would reach that lower tier. There was no serious attempt in that document to provide an answer. In the absence of that serious and compelling case, I have no choice but to oppose these measures.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Steven John Baker (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is not enough for the Government merely to refrain from coercing people—they also have to pay attention to implicit coercion whereby they turn a blind eye to allowing businesses like airlines and restaurants to refuse to let people in unless they have had the vaccination? The Government have to decide whether they are willing to allow people to discriminate on that basis.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Desmond Angus Swayne (Conservative, Centre-right): That would be discrimination. It would be vaccinationism, which we must of course resist The other thing that any kind of coercion would do is to set the seal on this Government’s reputation as the most authoritarian since the Commonwealth of the 1650s; but it is as nothing to the enthusiasm that we have seen from the Opposition Front Bench for even more coercive and restrictive measures.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Hon. Members have been very brief and well-behaved this afternoon, but we are trying to get in as many people as possible. Therefore, after the next hon. Gentleman, the time limit will be reduced to three minutes, but with four minutes to speak, I call Alex Sobel.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Other
Adam Afriyie (Conservative, Centre-right): Apologies for the interruption, but I saw the so-called impact assessment and I have to say that it would not pass through the boardroom of a small business. It really was not up to it. Does my hon. Friend share that view?
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Lucy Allan (Conservative, Centre-right): I want to start by thanking the Prime Minister for steadfastly battling to get us through this crisis. Anyone in his position would have no option but to take the measures he is proposing today, and he has my support Each and every one of us in this place cares passionately about the lives and livelihoods of our constituents, and in a liberal democracy such as ours, it is right for MPs to challenge accepted narratives, explore alternative perspectives, examine the facts and seek to form an opinion. In so doing, we are serving our country and our constituents, and I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Mr Baker). It is our right and our duty to engage in critical thought and to come to different conclusions, and then feel free to speak in this place Throughout lockdown, it has been a repeated assertion about those who question the science and refer to the terrible costs of lockdown and its impact on our communities that, "They just want to let the virus rip, kill granny, prioritise profit", and about those who want the hardest possible lockdown, "They’re the good, responsible people who care about lives". This has become a divisive narrative, which is inhibiting proper debate. We must be free to take different perspectives, and we must not demean those who do. It is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that this place is a bastion of free speech. Whatever other freedoms covid has taken from us, we should not let it take that The state has sought to control the minutiae of our daily lives with the arbitrary, the capricious and the prescriptive—whether we can eat chips or beer, or who should cook the turkey at Christmas. The more arbitrary the rules, the more inured people become to rule breaking, and when it comes to the really important rules, like isolating when we get a positive test, these rules too become much easier to break. If the Prime Minister were not such a libertarian and if he were not the freedom-loving man I know him to be, I too would find it very hard to support these measures this evening, but I firmly believe that anyone in the Prime Minister’s shoes would have no option but to bring forward these proposals I would just caution the Minister, for whom I have huge admiration: please can we show some humility? We are not going to be getting everything right. We are doing our best. We are doing everything we can to get the country through this time. Our constituents understand that, and it does not diminish our standing to show some humility. It shows our humanity. I should be grateful to her if she would take that back to her Department. This is a new science and we do not have all the answers.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Other
Nigel Martin Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Before I call Rachael Maskell, if anybody is on the call list who does not intend to take part in the debate and who has not withdrawn already, please get the message through to the Speaker’s Office so we can better manage the rest of the debate.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Richard Quentin Fuller (Conservative, Centre-right): A month ago, my reasons for not supporting a second lockdown were that the measures represented a gross overreach of Government powers over our basic freedoms, that the tiers provided a more targeted response and needed more time, and that the information provided by Government was inadequate and unpersuasive. I made the following requests of the Government: to operationalise rapid testing on a community and venue basis; to put covid into context with other illnesses, so that they did not appear disappeared in terms of their importance; and to make available to Members of Parliament a full assessment of policy consequences before we are asked to make decisions In the intervening period, the Government have indeed progressed on many of those fronts. Thankfully, freedom of communal worship has been restored. Freedom to trade has been substantially restored. More needs to be done on freedom to associate. Rapid testing is being deployed, but more needs to be done, particularly to restore confidence in events, in the travel industry and in theatres The Government have been kind enough at last to give us the criteria and the data on the decisions about restrictions and we have had a stab at an impact assessment. I have to say to the Minister that the impact assessment has all the hallmarks of an essay crisis, with all possible factors raised, but few of them investigated with any rigour. This is important because for too long the decisions of Government have been in thrall to the medical profession alone, and the trade-offs of the medical profession are always likely to be more precautionary than the broader considerations of Members of Parliament. But we can work with this to help us inform our future decisions A month ago, I wrote to constituents to say: "I am sure we are all irritated that restrictive measures are being proposed, but irritation is not a sufficient basis for a Member of Parliament to oppose them We are all irritated that perhaps some of us have been placed in higher tiers than we should have been. We are irritated that the geographies are broader than we think they should be. We are irritated that the Government have, in a sense, put us in a place where we are looking backwards rather than forward, but irritation is not a sufficiency for an alternative policy. We will be able to make tweaks, we will be able to make suggestions, but I return to my conclusion of a month ago that the continuation of the tiered approach is the right policy. We must, however, ask the Government to challenge clause 3.11 of the impact assessment, where they talk about the NHS being overwhelmed in terms of the loss of life, saying such a scenario is considered intolerable. The best way to do that is through scenarios of hospital occupancy to March being made available.
Public Health — House of Commons, 2020-12-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sally-Ann Hart (Conservative, Centre-right): I have struggled, like many other MPs, over the decision on the new tiering system. Beautiful Hastings and Rye entered into lockdown in tier 1 and comes out in tier 2. Lockdown prevented small independent shops from opening, missing out on retail sales in the run-up to Christmas. It prevented people from going to church, to the gym and so on, but this is not a global conspiracy, and Government measures around the world have been successful in squashing the curve of the virus and reducing the overall death rate. But there is no doubt that there have been economic and other costs to the measures taken to counter covid, and many MPs, myself included, have highlighted the concerns and the need for evidence showing that these restrictive measures have more benefits than costs to people and to businesses. It is, however, worth acknowledging that no one knows the alternative facts on which to base these cost-benefit analyses. How do we know that loosening restrictions would be the only way to get our economy back on its feet? We cannot measure public confidence, for example, and how that would be impacted if alternative or no restrictive measures were taken It is clear from what we have seen this year that targeted policies that are balanced, taking into account the spread of the disease and economic costs, are needed, and the Prime Minister has listened and made several specific policy changes, such as extending the 10 pm curfew and opening up non-essential retail, which will be a lifeline to small independent shops in Hastings and Rye in the run-up to Christmas. The Government have made considerable adjustments to the tiering recommendations and, accordingly, they are less detrimental than they might have been for Hastings and Rye, which finds itself in tier 2. I want to highlight hospitality businesses, particularly wet pubs, and I am grateful for the extra support for wet pubs promised today by the Prime Minister. I also want to highlight again freelancers and limited company directors, who have been largely excluded from coronavirus support schemes The costs of lockdown depend on the scale and type of intervention. There is no doubt that there are benefits from the interventions that our Government have been pursuing to repress the virus and mitigate the impacts of covid, but we shall never have a true grasp of what these benefits are because we do not know what the alternative would have been. What is clear from the restrictions put in place is that the Government have put a high value on human life. Saving lives comes at a greater economic cost, and the Government clearly hold all life as equal, irrespective of age, gender, race and so on, and that is irreproachable On balance, although I rile against the seemingly authoritarian nature of these restrictions, I agree with the Government that these covid measures are needed to reduce infection, subsequent hospitalisation and possible deaths, and to protect our long-term economy.