argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Engagements — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: I join the Prime Minister in adding that my thoughts, along with Wealden’s, are with New Yorkers. The shocking scenes in New York will have brought back awful memories of terrorist attacks here, and, as we degrade and destroy Daesh at its base, it will export its death cult ideology. Will my right hon. Friend urge our international partners to join with us in delivering the recent United Nations resolution to investigate and prosecute Daesh terrorists, so that we can hold them to account for their vile crimes?; On 22 August 2015, 11 men in my constituency tragically lost their lives in the Shoreham airshow disaster. More than 26 months later, no decision has been taken on criminal charges and the coroner’s inquest has been delayed again until November 2018. The families of the victims have just had their application for exceptional case funding rejected by the Legal Aid Agency, and they will likely be the only people at the inquest not to be legally represented. Will my right hon. Friend agree to look at the case again and to meet the families to ensure that they have proper access to justice? This exceptionally tragic case has a much wider public interest for safety at all airshows.
Theresa Mary May (Conservative, Centre-right): I have underlined the principle that lies behind universal credit, which I believe is a very important one. That is why when we look at the support that is given to people it is not just about the support they receive in financial terms on universal credit; it is also about the support they receive to help them to get into the workplace to ensure that they can actually meet the requirements of getting into the workplace and that when they are in the workplace they can keep more of the money they earn. That is an important principle. We will continue to roll out universal credit, looking carefully at its implementation as we do so, because we are doing this in a careful way, over a period of time. But the important principle is that universal credit is a simpler system that ensures people keep more as they earn more.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): I will move on in a moment to that very question. I would add that many of us also sat through Prime Minister’s questions, and I would simply refer the hon. Lady to the very powerful argument that the Prime Minister made in response to the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Rayleigh and Wickford (Mr Francois) on the very subject she has raised The second point this motion ignores is the impact of pay progression. Officers and other ranks are tied to incremental pay scales, and they routinely and regularly move up the bands. The hon. Member for Llanelli (Nia Griffith) talked about privates. The average private soldier starts on a salary of £18,673. After one year, through incremental pay alone—not including the 1% pay increase—that rises to £20,029, which is an increase of 7.26% in one year. After three years, the salary rises to £21,614, which is an increase of 15.8%, not including the 3% increase that would have been given. That is an increase in pay of almost 20% over the three years.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. No, the hon. Gentleman must not use that word. He is a person of felicitous phrase and extensive vocabulary, and he must find some other way to express his irascibility with or disapproval of the Minister.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. The hon. Member for North Durham (Mr Jones) should not keep hollering from a sedentary position in evident disapproval of the stance taken by the Minister. Apart from anything else—he is chuckling about it—it is marginally discourteous to his hon. Friend the Member for St Helens North (Conor McGinn), who had requested an intervention and had it granted, before it was ripped away from him by the hon. Gentleman’s unseemly behaviour.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): So we have a crucial marketing budget. Would that be scrapped? I am going to Catterick in two weeks to be the passing-off officer for the latest group of Gurkhas to pass off. That is a fully recruited course; not all courses are, but I am delighted to say that the last Sandhurst course was also fully recruited.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not sure whether we have seen a U-turn in Labour party policy—[Interruption.] So we have not seen a U-turn. Would Labour still scrap the marketing budget? Can we have some clarity? Is Labour proposing to scrap the marketing budget or not?
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Housing
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend makes a very powerful point It is worth being clear about what this programme entails. It will see us offering greater help to personnel, so that they can live in private accommodation and meet their aspirations for home ownership. It will see us develop a new employment offer for new joiners to the service from 2020, better meeting the expectations of future recruits and targeting resources on the people we need most.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Mark Gino Francois (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman’s researcher has clearly been on the ball. I know that in the United States service credit unions are far more advanced than here; there is a big movement in America. I for one would ask Ministers to look munificently on the hon. Gentleman’s point.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Mark Lancaster (Conservative, Centre-right): I am now feeling guilty for not giving way to the hon. Member for Harrow West (Gareth Thomas). He makes a very reasonable point. I am very pleased with the progress we have made with the credit unions, but there is always more we can do. I will look into this point, and write to the hon. Gentleman.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. It will be obvious to the House that a great many people want to take part in this important debate and that there is limited time. I am therefore putting on a formal time limit of seven minutes, which is likely to be reduced later if there are a great many interventions in everyone’s speeches. To speak without hesitation now is Kevan Jones.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Public Lands
Andrew Campbell Bowie (Conservative, Centre-right): In about two weeks’ time, millions of people around this country and around the Commonwealth will pause for various public, private, simple and not-so-simple acts of remembrance to remember those who, in the words of the Kohima epitaph, gave their today for our tomorrow. For example, my great-uncle Samuel Coyle fell aged 19 at Gallipoli in 1915 and now lies alongside 600 other British and Commonwealth soldiers at the Pink Farm cemetery in Turkey Over the past 12 years or so, I have been lucky enough to have attended many moving remembrance services. In 2008, I was just along the road at the Cenotaph as part of the team that organised the 90th anniversary commemoration of the end of the great war. As a young sub-lieutenant fresh out of Dartmouth, it was incredibly humbling to meet Harry Patch, Henry Allingham and Bill Stone—the three remaining veterans from that incredible generation who endured so much. In 2015, I stood, with colleagues from the European Parliament, in Loos in northern France, taking part in a simple but solemn act of remembrance with local mayor and townspeople as a grey dawn broke across the row upon row of gleaming white headstones, illuminating some 20,000 names of officers and men who fell in that one battle—600 of whom were from the Gordon Highlanders from the north-east of Scotland However, the place I think of more than any other at this time is the San Carlos cemetery in the Falkland Islands. I was there in 2007 as young midshipman on my first deployment. It was 17 June and we were commemorating the 25th anniversary of the conflict. Standing there in near sub-zero temperatures, with freezing rain swirling around—I remember it well—I was surrounded by veterans of that war, including Paras, Marines and Welsh Guardsmen, who less than a quarter of a century before had been storming through the freezing waves and upwards on to the rough terrain. Along with islanders who had lived through the terrifying invasion, we stood shoulder to shoulder with the sailors of HMS Sheffield, HMS Ardent and HMS Antelope. Standing there, thousands of miles from the UK, brought home for the first time how much we truly owe to those who were and still are prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice to defend us, our country and our way of life.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Housing
Robert Alexander Courts (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my hon. Friend agree that the approach to this debate carries the danger that it becomes very simplistic? Evidence tends to suggest that other issues, such as accommodation—the RAF housing at Carterton in my constituency very much needs attention—and the effect on family life, are more important than pay alone.
Armed Forces Pay — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
John Luther Mercer (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend agree that if we were to broaden this debate, the Opposition would find wide support for challenging a lot of the pertinent issues. Their narrow focus on this one issue makes it impossible for us to focus on the constructive argument around it.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): In a moment We have always tried to strike the right balance between those two commitments, and we intend to continue to do that in our response to the motion before us. I shall start by taking each part of the motion in turn.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): I am not going to speak for the Opposition Front-Bench team, but I take the hon. Gentleman’s concerns seriously, because what is being proposed needs to be checked against a number of significant issues relating to the national interest and, indeed, the responsibilities of Ministers of the Crown in respect of the information that we hold.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Brett Charles Anthony Elphicke (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is making a powerful and persuasive argument. I notice a flurry of activity on the Labour Benches while the Chairman of the Select Committee, the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), is asked to confirm his interest in this matter. Does my hon. Friend agree that the right process has not been followed? The right process would be for the Select Committee to discuss this, make the request and then come to this House to ask for the information. The Opposition should not try to short-circuit it. What they are doing is a misuse of the House’s processes.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very grateful to the Minister for his excellent speech. He has told us that the Government will not seek to vote against the motion. On that basis, the motion will be passed. In that event, what will the Government then do?
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): It is not my job to interpret the procedures of the House; that is a matter for the House itself. As I have said, we will take note of whatever the House decides on this matter.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his point of order. The immediate answer is, no, it would not be possible at this moment to have a ruling from the Chair. The fact is that the Minister has answered the question. I appreciate that he does not like the Minister’s answer. The right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry) asked a straight question, and the Minister gave a straight answer. It is not for the Chair to decide how the Minister should answer the question.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. Lady knows that the Chair will not become involved in an argument between one Front Bench and the other, or one side of the House and the other. The Minister has—[Interruption.] Order! Do not shout when I am speaking from the Chair. The Minister has the floor and he has heard the points that are being made. It is for the Minister to answer those points.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
George Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I notice that a right hon. Gentleman is reading all your documents over your shoulder. Is it in order for somebody to read the advice that you are getting? He is doing it right now. I think that is rather out of order.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I am extremely grateful for the protection of the right hon. Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Mr Duncan Smith). It is quite in order and normal for a Member to approach the Chair. It is not normal for anyone to read my papers while I am on my feet.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): The House will be aware that the motion before us is a Humble Address to be presented to Her Majesty. That is the motion before the House. We are currently debating that motion and it is absolutely correct that there should be differences of opinion about the effect of the motion, the way in which it should be debated and what should happen to it. At this stage, I would say only that a motion of this kind has in the past been seen as effective or binding. That does not mean that I am making a ruling at this point about the nature of the motion before us today I will reiterate what I said before. While it is correct for the Chair to make a ruling on what happens here in the Chamber, it is for the Government to decide how they will proceed, having considered the opinions of the House. It would, of course, be quite wrong for the Government not to pay any attention to a decision taken by the House, but the way in which the Minister interprets what he and his colleagues should do after the House has expressed an opinion is a matter not for the Chair but for the Minister.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for directing me to page 819 of "Erskine May", which I will look at as soon as I have an opportunity so to do, but he will be aware of the rules on privilege, as I am, and the way in which those rules can be interpreted. Like him, not long ago I served for many weeks on a Committee considering the way in which privilege can be applied. If I were to say that it is a grey area, that would not be an exaggeration. There is no black and white in the way in which privilege is applied. But I thank the hon. Gentleman for drawing to my attention to that particular point in "Erskine May".
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Civil Rights
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me time. I must say it would not matter whether "Erskine May" was written in black and white, or green and yellow, or purple and orange. The fact is that the rules on privilege are not a matter that can be decided immediately without consideration of all of the circumstances. I am not going to make a ruling here and now about the way in which the Minister and his colleagues should interpret what is happening in the House today.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
George Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative, Centre-right): Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. "Erskine May" is quite clear. The reference to the Canadian position was in the event that the Government chose to ignore what the House had said and called for. The Government have made it clear already, in the Minister’s opening remarks, that they have not chosen to ignore this particular outcome, whatever that outcome is. That is clear. The word "ignore" is very clear. It means to disregard and to refuse to reflect on. The Government have made it clear that they will not ignore it and therefore this tautological debate should now end.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the right hon. Member for his point of order. The difference of opinion between him, the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) and the right hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), whom I can hear making further points on my right, simply proves the point that I have made to the House, which is that privilege is not a black and white matter. Privilege and the way in which it is interpreted is a matter that takes some consideration, and I reiterate that I will not make any ruling from the Chair which has an effect right now on this Minister in this Chamber. But I am now making a ruling that this is a short debate, that there are many matters to be discussed, and that I have a long list of names of people who wish to participate in this debate, and I will take no further tautological points of order. I want to hear what the Minister has to say, and I suspect that everyone else wants to hear what the Minister has to say.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is good to know that someone wants to hear what the Minister has to say DExEU Ministers have been engaging with businesses up and down the country. That includes attendance at 50 roundtables and over 250 bilateral meetings, as well as many more meetings with other Departments. Those interactions help to inform and supplement our analysis.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way to the hon. Member for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr (Jonathan Edwards), who I promised to give way to, and then to the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell). I am afraid that that will then be it.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): If the hon. Lady will allow me to finish the point on business engagement, I will be happy to give way, as I promised to do These interactions with business in every part of the country help to inform and supplement our analysis. It is an important point, which should not be glossed over lightly, that much of the information that businesses share with the Government on these issues is highly commercially sensitive. They have a right and an expectation that that information will be treated in the utmost confidence, and in none of our meetings and engagements was it suggested that the information provided by businesses could be published as part of a Government analysis.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. In addition to not having lots of tautological points of order, we will also not have any more extremely long interventions. Short interventions are—[Interruption.] Order. We will not have any more extremely long interventions, because it is simply not fair to the people who want to speak later in the debate.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robin Caspar Walker (Conservative, Centre-right): If the hon. Gentleman will give me one moment, I should say that I look forward to hearing from the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn), and perhaps from the right hon. and learned Member for Holborn and St Pancras, what discussions the latter had with the Select Committee before this motion was tabled. Perhaps the Chair of the Committee, in his comments later on, could provide some suggestions to the House as to how the Committee could safeguard the confidentiality of information that might be sensitive or prejudicial.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Housing
John Alan Redwood (Conservative, Centre-right): On property, if there was an entirely bogus forecast of big job losses and a collapse in commercial property, it would be silly to publish that, as, first, it would be wrong and, secondly, it would be negative for our position.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. Before the hon. Member for Hornsey and Wood Green (Catherine West) answers that intervention, Mr Deputy Speaker has just made it clear, and I reiterate it, that if people make long interventions at this point in the debate, they are depriving someone else who has been sitting here all afternoon of the opportunity to speak at all.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Immigration
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my hon. Friend not accept that it is becoming clear that a number of promises made to people who voted leave will not be kept and that, in fact, the opposite is happening? Those people will not get £350 million a week for the NHS; they will not see the scrapping of all the regulations and so on, because they will be embodied in British law; they will not see a particular reduction in immigration; and, arguably, they will not be better off. It is not that they were stupid by any means—they were simply conned.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Eleanor Fulton Laing (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his point of order. I can answer the practical part of it very simply by saying that the Chair has received no such amendment. As far as I am concerned—and I can be very positive about this—the matter that is currently being debated is exactly the wording in the motion before us on the Order Paper. The way in which the Opposition interpret that might be different from the way in which the Government interpret it. That is what this Chamber is here for: to discuss those differences and come to a conclusion.
Exiting the EU: Sectoral Impact Assessments — House of Commons, 2017-11-01
Topic: Other
Anna Mary Soubry (Conservative, Centre-right): On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Is it in order for the Government to disclose to members of the media what they plan to do in relation to the documents we are discussing? I have just seen a tweet from the rather excellent political correspondent from The Sun newspaper, who says that he understands that the Government will release the documents, albeit heavily redacted.