argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Social Care Reform — House of Commons, 2021-06-23
Topic: Social Welfare
Martyn Day (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is noticeable that while the UK Tory Government failed to mention social care reform in last month’s Queen’s Speech and have yet to deliver the long-awaited social care Bill, by contrast, under limited devolution, the SNP Government are establishing a national care service backed by a 25% increase in social care investment. What lessons has the Minister learned from this Scottish example? What recent consideration have the UK Government given to exempting the Scottish Government’s £500 thank-you payment for health and social care staff from tax and benefit deductions? As the settled status deadline fast approaches, the SNP is calling on the UK Government to automatically grant post-Brexit residence status to prevent a cliff edge for EU nationals and a black hole in Scotland’s care sector. Will the Minister urgently discuss this with Cabinet colleagues?
Net Zero Emissions by 2050 — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Energy
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): We cannot understate the importance of the delivery of carbon capture and underground storage to the UK’s and Scotland’s journey to net zero. Let me be clear: the Acorn project should be in the vanguard of that process. I hear the warm words from the Minister, but warm words only go so far, particularly when we frame them within this Government’s record on sustainable projects in Scotland. If we look at the likes of offshore wind, we see that SSEN—Scottish and Southern Electricity Networks—has produced another report highlighting the fact that Scottish renewables projects continue to pay the highest grid charges in not only the UK, but the entirety of Europe. What is he going to do, as the new energy Minister, to end that renewables robbery?
Data Breach: ARAP Applicants in Afghanistan — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Government Operations
Carol Frances Monaghan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Following on from the question from the right hon. Member for New Forest East (Dr Lewis), pretty much every MP uses a caseworker system, a piece of simple software that costs a few hundred pounds per year which ensures that mistakes of this nature cannot happen. Is the Secretary of State looking at using similar, and if not, why not?
Salisbury Incident 2018: Update — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: International Affairs
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Home Secretary for advance sight of her statement and for the opportunity to have a briefing from the Minister for Security and Borders, the right hon. Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds) I welcome the ongoing investigation into the Salisbury poisonings and the charging of a third suspect. Every avenue and every effort must be made to bring these killers to justice I also welcome this morning’s judgment by the European Court of Human Rights on the murder of Alexander Litvinenko. For those remaining few who apparently still needed convincing, this judgment is firm and final confirmation of Russian state murder on this island. There are no ifs, no buts and no maybes. Whether the Litvinenko murder or the attacks in Salisbury, these were acts of state-sponsored terrorism on the streets of the United Kingdom. We are still uncovering the level and depth of Russian interference across liberal democracies, because the Litvinenko murder began the process of lifting the lid on the sheer scale of Russian money laundering, political interference and, ultimately, violence that had gone either unseen or, worse, unchallenged. The attacks in Salisbury in March 2018 show that the lid may have been lifted but that the state-sponsored terrorism continues to this very day I have a number of questions for the Home Secretary on how we meet all the layers of this Russian threat. The Foreign Ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council will meet tomorrow. What stance and what sanction will the Foreign Secretary take with her Russian counterpart at that meeting so that these suspects are forced to face justice The Intelligence and Security Committee’s report on Russian subversion found that successive Governments welcomed the oligarchs and their money with open arms, with allies of the Kremlin easily laundering illegal Russian money in what they refer to as "Londongrad". Will this Government finally launch a full independent investigation into where this illegal Russian money has gone, including money that has been funnelled into companies, assets and, indeed, political parties? As part of this, we need to tighten up the legislation on Scottish limited partnerships Finally, it is self-evident that co-operation with NATO allies is crucial to our defence against the Russian threat. The Prime Minister assured me last week that the AUKUS arrangement had the blessing of NATO, which clearly is not the case. Are the Government now willing to open up the agreement to include other NATO allies?
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: International Affairs
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Member is making a number of incredibly important points in an articulate fashion. However, would she not agree that much of what she has covered up to this point is also a consequence of Brexit? Will she therefore condemn the fact that the Government took us out of the European Union during the middle of a pandemic?
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am a bit concerned that the Minister has not actually read the motion on the Order Paper. This is about people who are in work. I absolutely agree that people have been kept in work as a result of the schemes that are being scrapped—that is the case—but the thing is that if people are not being paid the living wage and are not being paid enough money to actually live on, they are going to continue to be in poverty no matter whether or not they are in work.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Macroeconomics
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): This could not be a more timely debate. My constituents and people across the country are looking with great apprehension at the winter to come, fearful about how they will make ends meet. I welcome the Minister to his post, and I appreciate what he said about the economic support offered, but that is not unique to this Government or any other. Governments around the world have sought to support their citizens through this pandemic, and many have done so more compassionately and more competently than those sitting across from us on the Tory Benches Many have done that from a better starting point, too, without public services stripped bare from a decade of austerity and a welfare state that punishes people for their circumstances, and without the worst inequality in north-west Europe. And none of them has embarked upon a project so thoroughly deficient and self-defeating as Brexit, which has left businesses carrying higher costs, shelves empty, and skilled people—our neighbours and friends—leaving this island in their droves because this UK Tory Government have made them feel so unwelcome. Scotland voted for none of this To the here and now, Madam Deputy Speaker. We have food shortages and price rises, inflation increasing, cuts to universal credit and tax credits, the end of the pensions triple lock, a regressive national insurance hike, the end of furlough and the self-employment income support scheme—for people who were lucky enough to be eligible for that scheme rather than excluded from it—and now the prospect of spiralling energy bills as we head into the depths of winter.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Is it not the case that even the schemes that are meant to help the poorest, such as the warm home discount, the eco scheme that helps with some energy-efficiency measures, are paid for by other energy users, so they are actually regressive? Those who can least afford their energy bills are paying to try to support other people, so it is a circular argument that goes nowhere. Is it not also outrageous that in the highlands of Scotland, people pay up to £400 more a year as a levy on their electricity while exporting energy to the rest of the UK?
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Agriculture
Deidre Leanne Brock (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Will the hon. Lady share with us the solution to the seasonal agricultural workers scheme, which is not adequate for farmers to be able to employ enough people to pick crops in the field and to avoid the situation that we are seeing in Scotland where many fields of crops are just being left to rot because of the lack of workers?
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Alison Emily Thewliss (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Member is making an interesting point about support for families. Does she agree that the UK Government’s two-child benefit cap punishes those who have a larger family and puts them in a position where they cannot work their way out of poverty?
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is a delight to follow my Procedure Committee colleague, the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell). It is helpful because we are ideologically opposed on every single matter, so I can pretty much stand up and say exactly the opposite of what he said, and it will be grand. Mr Deputy Speaker, I want to take to take you back to 1915. In 1915, my great-great-grandfather John Murray was killed when his steam herring drifter was cut in half by a British warship. My great-granny’s mother Barbra Helen Murray, who was known as Babeellen, was left to raise five girls by herself. When she was left in that situation of abject poverty, there was no Government funding to help her. She had no support from the Government to get through that very immediate crisis. Her sister stepped up and offered to take the youngest child off her hands—offered to give that child a home and pay for that child’s upbringing. Imagine having to make such a choice about whether to keep her child. Imagine being forced into that choice of whether to keep that child, whether in 1915, or in 2021 with the rape clause. Imagine having that choice. Thankfully, she chose to keep her child, and she brought up my great-grandmother The family were helped: they were helped by the church, their friends and their relatives. However, the reality was that people did not have a lot to spare and people did not have a lot they could give in such charitable situations, so the family really had very little money. This was despite the fact that my great-granny’s mother worked in every single job she could find. She knitted things, she sewed things and she mended things. She cleaned every building she could possibly get access to and that she could convince people to pay her for cleaning. She did not get any money at all from the Government until she turned 70, when she got 7 shillings and sixpence for her pension, which was an absolute fortune to her. She had spent 37 years working in every job she could have and in every moment she could find in insecure employment—like people are being forced to do in the current system; trying to work every single hour in multiple part-time jobs just so that they can try to put food on the table.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Stories like this belong 100 years ago; stories like this do not belong in the 21st century. We should not have constituents who are in absolute poverty coming into our constituency offices This motion is about the working poor. My great-granny’s mother did not have money to buy what she saw as necessities; she obviously did not have enough money to buy food and stuff but was helped out in that, but she also could not go to church because she could not buy clothes for church. She had her working clothes but could not buy Sunday best clothes to go to church; that was her biggest regret about not having money. Nowadays, people on UC may not be able to afford internet access, which they need to get their UC, or to afford other things we see as necessities. Not many people are wanting a Sunday outfit to go to church—some are, but not that many—but they desperately need access to the most basic of services so they can get their UC and make their claims, and so that they can speak to friends and family and not be hugely isolated A cut of £80 a month is a huge amount. For a lot of people, £80 a month is their council tax bill, or two mobile phone bills, or—goodness knows—one pair of shoes for the kid, maybe two pairs for those who are particularly lucky and their child is going to wear something a bit cheaper. It is a huge amount of money, not pennies; it means people will have to cut back on a big, major bill when this cut is implemented. My great-granny remembered her mother crying because winter was coming and she could not afford to buy shoes for the children. That was over 100 years ago; this should not be happening today—we should not be having single parents crying because they cannot afford to buy winter shoes for their children.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Worrying—exactly. Worrying and thinking about what on earth they are going to do tomorrow, and what they are going to do the next day. Half of people who go to Trussell Trust food banks are in debt to the DWP because the universal credit system is so rubbish. People are in debt because they have had to take crisis loans due to the universal credit system That is before we talk about the £20-a-week cut. That is absolutely a cut for people who have been going through the hardest times. Government Members can talk about the £6 billion all they like, but the reality is that the damage that this cut will cause to people—the number of hospital admissions we will see and the number of people who will die as a result of the cut—will be far more and cost far more than £6 billion.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Margaret Ferrier (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I have heard from One Parent Families Scotland that single parents are often overlooked and stigmatised, and that an overwhelming number of one-parent families are headed by single mothers. On top of the day-to-day worries of increased energy and food costs, they also worry about providing a happy Christmas or a fun birthday for their children, and will push themselves into debt to do so. The £20 universal credit uplift is a lifeline for single parents. Does the Member agree that it is not enough to be barely getting by, and that it is also about quality of life?
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Labor
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that it is disrespectful of the Secretary of State to say that such people can just pick up another couple of hours of work? A working mother already on part-time hours because of childcare cannot just suddenly become an HGV driver overnight or pick up a couple of extra hours; that is not how it works.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Richard Gordon Thomson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman makes a succinct and powerful point about how people voted in good faith for something that has turned out to be a fiction and a fantasy. I would always argue for more money to help those who are most in need—there is also an economic benefit to that in the boosting of consumption—but one of the first steps we could take is not to take money away. If the hon. Gentleman waits patiently, he may hear that I have more to say on that later in my speech, but he makes a powerful point In the Minister’s response to the opening speech of the hon. Member for Houghton and Sunderland South (Bridget Phillipson), he spoke of the need to make tough choices. It is that macho rhetoric—fine, easy words that fall a great deal harder on those on whom those choices impact than they do on the perennial Conservative and Unionist party’s self-conceit of being a party of low taxation, which it seldom ever lives up to in office in any meaningful way Those tough choices come with very long-standing consequences: they impact on people’s children; they impact on family life and well-being; they impact on a person’s health; they impact on their self-esteem; they impact on their opportunities; and they impact on life chances, and they do so across generations In the past fortnight alone, we have seen the triple lock gone, removing the link between earnings and pensions. We have seen the end of furlough. We have seen the £1,040 cut to universal credit. We have seen a breaking of the manifesto promise not to increase national insurance, in a move that will hit the youngest and the poorest the hardest and that will embed generational and geographical inequalities and bake them into our social and economic reality for generations to come. As has been said, this has all been exacerbated by Brexit, with the shortages of products that that will bring, allied to an accompanying increase in prices.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Macroeconomics
Richard Gordon Thomson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I could not agree more with my hon. Friend. I was deficient—I should have said what a magnificent speech she made earlier on, encapsulating as it did what it really means to be without and to be in search of that dignity. She is absolutely correct in what she says: this is absolutely the worst time to be taking away that support. It is almost like the Chancellor has gone out to the pub for a round of drinks. He has carried the drinks away from the bar—it was a very complicated order—and staggered across the floor with a big tray, and when he is about one yard from the table, he drops the whole lot, and leaves it smashed on the floor. It is the same with the economy, having carried it thus far. It is inept to say the least.
Working People’s Finances: Government Policy — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Social Welfare
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): What would the Minister say to the working parent who is already trying to juggle hours around childcare and who cannot simply pick up another few hours of work a week? How are they going to make up this shortfall?
Business without Debate — House of Commons, 2021-09-21
Topic: Labor
Kirsty Ann Blackman (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I seek your advice because the Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the hon. Member for Mid Sussex (Mims Davies), has just left the Chamber The hon. Member said that she had checked and that I had not visited my local jobcentre in recent times. In fact, my local jobcentre was closed from the start of the pandemic until 26 April this year, when it was only allowing entry to people who had been requested to attend. I was contacted by the jobcentre recently, we had a "back and forth", and I asked if I could visit. The jobcentre refused me that opportunity, because it is only doing virtual tours at the moment. I would appreciate it if the hon. Member could confirm that I have not had an opportunity to visit my local jobcentre, but I will be taking part in a virtual tour and speaking to the manager on Monday.
Living Standards — House of Commons, 2021-09-07
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In 2016, the Tories promised that fuel bills would be lower for everyone on leaving the EU. The reality is that fuel bills are increasing while they make the heartless cut to universal credit. In order to tackle fuel poverty, will the Minister use the net zero review to cut VAT on energy efficiency products, keep new nuclear off electricity bills, provide direct funding for heat decarbonisation and sort out the unfair grid charges on Scottish renewables?
Living Standards — House of Commons, 2021-09-07
Topic: Social Welfare
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): According to Save the Children, more than 3 million children living in low-income households across the United Kingdom are likely to be affected by the £20 universal credit cut, with half of claimants saying that they will face significant financial impacts as a result and one in seven worrying about affording food. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that the cut will push 500,000 people below the poverty line. Will the Minister explain how this squares with the Government’s so-called levelling-up agenda?
Helping Young People into Work: Covid-19 — House of Commons, 2021-09-07
Topic: Social Welfare
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Government announced the kickstart scheme to much fanfare. However, at the moment they publish the kickstarter statistics breakdown by gender and perhaps by race, but why do they not do so by disability? Will the Chancellor rectify that?
Health and Social Care — House of Commons, 2021-09-07
Topic: Social Welfare
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Thank you, Mr Speaker. When we have an attack on devolution, we have the baying mob of the Tories trying to shout down the voices from Scotland Government briefings in advance of the statement on social care told us that this was supposedly a key part of securing the Prime Minister’s legacy in office. Well, the Prime Minister is certainly creating a legacy, but it is definitely not the one in his vivid imagination. The real legacy of this Government is now well defined: a Tory Government who blatantly break manifesto promises and blatantly break international law It is telling that as we hopefully emerge from the covid crisis, the first act of this Prime Minister is to impose this regressive tax. The scandal of the tax hike is that it will fall hardest on the young and the lowest paid—the two groups that have suffered the worst economic consequences of the pandemic. Pre-covid and post covid, the pattern is the same, and this Government have learned nothing. Westminster keeps adding to the growing burden that young people face while stripping them of the benefits that previous generations enjoyed The unfairness of this tax hike will be especially felt in Scotland. The Scottish Government are responsible for social care and already funds provision—including SNP policies such as free personal and nursing care—from existing budgets and tax receipts. We have done it. As the Prime Minister well knows, by raising this levy across the UK, the Tories are taxing Scottish workers twice and forcing them to pay the bill for social care in England as well as at home in Scotland. This is the Prime Minister’s poll tax on Scottish workers to pay for English social care. Scottish people remember that it is this Prime Minister who said that "a pound spent in Croydon was of far more value to the country than a pound spent in Strathclyde." Can the Prime Minister explain to the people of Strathclyde and across Scotland why he is now going after the pounds in their pockets to solve a social care problem in Westminster, which has failed to fix problems in Croydon and right across England? If their pound is really of less value, as the Prime Minister claims, why are we paying the price? Is he willing to stand up and explain to the families in Scotland why we are being hit by another Tory poll tax?