argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Government Operations
George Edward Howarth (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Member for North Dorset (Mr Walter) said that he was still waiting to hear what Labour’s proposals were, but if he had taken the trouble to attend the opening of the debate, he would have heard from my right hon. Friend the shadow Chancellor precisely what we intend to do The shadow Chancellor’s opening speech contained many quotes from Shakespeare. It is a little known fact that there is a strong connection between Shakespeare and Knowsley. The sixth Earl of Derby was a patron of William Shakespeare, and "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" was written for his wedding and performed before Elizabeth I in Knowsley hall, so I thought a quote from "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" might be appropriate. Earlier today the Chief Secretary to the Treasury sought to put some distance between the Liberal Democrats and their coalition partners, and I think the quote might sum that up: "So we grew together, Like to a double cherry, seeming parted, But yet an union in partition, Two lovely berries molded on one stem" That perfectly sums up how the Liberal Democrats cannot realistically distance themselves from everything that has gone on over the last five years My hon. Friend the Member for Halton (Derek Twigg) made a very good speech, including a passionate plea on local government finance and how that has affected his constituents during this Government’s time in office. He made some important points that bear repetition.
Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Government Operations
John Derek Twigg (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his reference to my speech and the issue of local government finance. Does he agree that the scale and viciousness of the cuts to the most deprived authorities in England beggars belief? Merseyside has suffered particularly badly.
Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Government Operations
George Edward Howarth (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman is quite right, but my point is that, even if we are substituting those houses with new ones, we are still not building enough additional properties, net, to solve the problem The Chancellor sees himself as the champion of devolution and the northern powerhouse, and that is a fair claim for him to make. I am very much in favour of greater devolution and the development of city regions, and there are many problems in our city region that need to be addressed. Time forbids me to go into them all, but, for example, we need to get 42,000 more people into employment and an increase in income of about £1,700 per head if we are to close the gap between us and the UK average. The Chancellor said that in his view there is no one-size-fits-all solution to leadership for city regions, yet the evidence of Manchester suggests that there is a favoured option—an elected mayor The key to unlocking more resources and powers appears to involve agreeing to have an elected mayor. Regardless of my views on elected mayors, there is no consensus on this on Merseyside. I do not think it should be for the Government to insist on people having one thing before they can get another. There should be a referendum so that the people can have their say on the matter. I hope that progress on devolution to city regions will not be sacrificed purely on the basis that there is no consensus on an elected mayor for the Liverpool city region.
Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Macroeconomics
Iain David Wright (Labour, Centre-left): As the shadow Chancellor says, the only way is up. We have just won two games on the trot, which is unusual for us. We are only four points away from the next team up, so we have everything to play for My hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) told us that this Government’s tax and benefit changes mean that families are on average £1,127 a year worse off. She has been a fantastic champion of the NHS, and she mentioned how A and E and the rest of the NHS is at breaking point. She said that Oldham never had a food bank until 2012, which is very similar to my experience in Hartlepool and to the experience elsewhere around the country. I particularly pay tribute to her for being a champion in tackling late payments to contractors, which can be a blight on small businesses trying to pay their way in the economy Several hon. Members who spoke are leaving the House voluntarily; I imagine that several others will leave involuntarily. I pay tribute to the hon. Members for Dudley South (Chris Kelly) and for North Warwickshire (Dan Byles). I am genuinely sorry that they have decided not to stand again, but I look forward to welcoming the excellent Natasha Millward to the House, and to Mike O’Brien coming back. I also pay tribute to the right hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole (Annette Brooke), who has been a fantastic champion for park homes, on which we have worked closely together I want to single out the hon. Member for Northampton South (Mr Binley), who has just walked into the Chamber. I consider him a real friend to me and to business in this country, as he is very knowledgeable. Before he leaves this place, I hope that we can have a pint and celebrate the great work that he has done, and the great work he will continue to do.
Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Macroeconomics
Edward Michael Balls (Labour, Centre-left): Will the hon. Lady confirm that on the statistical measure she has just cited, between the first quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of this year—from the beginning to the end of the Parliament—living standards have fallen not risen?
Amendment of the Law — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Labor
Alexander Cunningham (Labour, Centre-left): I welcome any jobs that are created in my constituency, but the statistics I referred to showed that hundreds of people have disappeared from the jobseeker’s allowance lists. Nobody knows where they have gone and whether they have died, left the country or something else. Is there any explanation for where those hundreds of people missing from the JSA lists have gone?
Shooters Hill Mobile Phone Mast (Stoke-on-Trent) — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Technology
Robert Charles Douglas Flello (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful to the Minister for giving way and I appreciate that, having given him a lot of time to reply, I am now taking some of it back. I absolutely agree with what he has just said, which is why the residents were prepared to be extremely reasonable, despite the 30 years of hurt, as he describes it, and wait until such time as EE was able to make sure that people did not lose signal.
Cross-boundary Local Authority Co-ordination — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Fiona Margaret Mactaggart (Labour, Centre-left): In recent months I have been contacted by more than 20 parents, all of them with children who have been housed in the borough of Slough by other local authorities because of the workings of benefit caps and the like. Parents are having real problems getting their children to school, using family networks and so on. What will the Secretary of State do to help them, and help local authorities to communicate better with each other about families who are dumped from other boroughs?
Local Government Funding — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Michael Joseph Patrick Kane (Labour, Centre-left): The Public Accounts Committee report in January looking into the sustainability of local government finance clearly stated that the 10 most deprived areas in England and Wales have had cuts 10 times greater than those of the 10 wealthiest areas. Does that prove that we are not all in this together?
Local Government Funding — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Questions: Despite being ranked in the top 10 in terms of deprivation, Hull city council has funding cuts of £279 per head, but Beverley in the East Riding, which is ranked 202 in terms of deprivation, has a cut of just £89 per head.; Does the Minister agree with the conclusions of the Audit Commission, the National Audit Office and the International Monetary Fund, all of which say that the most deprived areas have been hit by the greatest cuts? Coventry is probably going to lose about 1,000 jobs and make cuts of about £75 million in the next two or three years, which will affect its basic services.
Andrew Sawford (Labour, Centre-left): In December 2010, the Secretary of State told the House: "I have sought to achieve a fair and sustainable settlement for local government".—[Official Report, 13 December 2010; Vol. 520, c. 679.] How does the Minister now respond to all the evidence from the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee and the Communities and Local Government Select Committee that those cuts have been neither fair nor sustainable? And will he come clean about the bleak future that councils would face if the Tories were to press on with their plan to return Britain to the 1930s?
Business Rates — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): Will the Minister give a guarantee to the House that the criteria for the recently announced review of business rates will include the fact that there will not be a single penny’s reduction in funding to local councils as a result of that review?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Heidi Alexander (Labour, Centre-left): In the light of today’s admission by the Minister without Portfolio, the right hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield (Grant Shapps)—or perhaps I should say Michael Green—that he continued with a second job after his election as an MP, is the Secretary of State satisfied that it did not continue while the right hon. Gentleman served as a Minister in his Department, and can he confirm that the ministerial code was followed properly in respect of declaring any registrable interests? [Interruption.]
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: Today an agreement will be completed for the stock transfer of its housing by Gloucester city council to Gloucester City Homes. The new charity will enable £390 million-worth of improvements and the first new social housing on our city council housing estate for a generation. I am grateful to the housing Minister and his predecessors for their help, as well as to the Treasury for writing off £50 million of housing debt. Will the housing Minister join me in congratulating my city council, Gloucester City Homes and its tenants, led by Andrew Harley, on their vision, hard work and attention in seeing through this vital change to bring about a new and bright era for social housing in Gloucester?
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): Before the last election, the then Leader of the Opposition said: "Any Cabinet minister...who comes to me and says ‘here are my plans and they involve front line reductions’ will be sent back to their department to go away and think again." Yet we now know that the social care front line has been cut, including the simple act of giving a hot meal to elderly people living at home alone, with 220,000 fewer elderly people receiving meals on wheels compared with 2010, when that promise was made. I have a very simple question for the Secretary of State: why is that?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Social Welfare
Questions: Today an agreement will be completed for the stock transfer of its housing by Gloucester city council to Gloucester City Homes. The new charity will enable £390 million-worth of improvements and the first new social housing on our city council housing estate for a generation. I am grateful to the housing Minister and his predecessors for their help, as well as to the Treasury for writing off £50 million of housing debt. Will the housing Minister join me in congratulating my city council, Gloucester City Homes and its tenants, led by Andrew Harley, on their vision, hard work and attention in seeing through this vital change to bring about a new and bright era for social housing in Gloucester?
Hilary James Benn (Labour, Centre-left): If I may say so, that was an overly firm denial of the Secretary of State’s responsibility for what has gone on. Let me ask him about another promise to the elderly that was made in 2010—by him. In December that year, the right hon. Gentleman assured the House that the local government settlement was "providing councils with sufficient resources to protect people’s access to care".—[Official Report, 13 December 2010; Vol. 520, c. 680.] Yet the National Audit Office says that spending on adult social care is being cut, most of all in the areas of greatest need, which have also seen the biggest reductions in Government funding. Is it not the truth that the Secretary of State has also broken his promise to the elderly people of England and that it has happened because in the past five years he has taken decisions about funding that have been unfair to councils and because, as many councils of all parties think, he has failed to stand up for local government?
Counter-Terrorism (Statutory Instruments) — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Keith Anthony Vaz (Labour, Centre-left): I am delighted that the Minister chose the hon. Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert) over me, because there is not a cigarette paper between us when it comes to these issues I warmly welcome the Minister’s decision, which was recommended by the Home Affairs Committee, but may I press him to go a little further? We also recommended a fundamental review of the operation of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000, because we felt that it was time for that to happen.
Counter-Terrorism (Statutory Instruments) — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Keith Anthony Vaz (Labour, Centre-left): I shall be brief. It seems clear that the House will approve the orders moved by the Minister today. He began by putting the situation and the reasons behind the orders in context. He knows, as Security Minister, that the country faces a severe threat Last week, the Select Committee on Home Affairs, in one of our last sessions of this Parliament, heard the evidence of the relatives of Shamima, Amira and Khadiza, three young ladies aged 16, 15 and 15 who left Tower Hamlets and went to Syria. Only this morning, I met the families of two of the young men who have just returned from Istanbul. The families are wonderful people, hard working and dedicated to this country, and were as shocked as any of us would have been that their children had left the country and, in the case of the girls from Tower Hamlets, reached Syria and, in the case of the three young men, been brought back yesterday. I commend the police for their work, and the Turkish authorities in the latter case The Turkish ambassador gave us very good evidence last week, with a timeline. The situation was much better second time around, with phone calls being made instead of e-mails being sent. We need to commend people when things go right and this is a good news story in the fight against terrorism. We do not have many of them, but everyone worked together and we commend them for what they are doing.
Counter-Terrorism (Statutory Instruments) — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Keith Anthony Vaz (Labour, Centre-left): I look forward to looking at the Minister’s further instruments when they become available for scrutiny On the point about communities and families, having looked carefully at this subject, the lesson that the Committee has learned over the past 10 days is that they should not be afraid to come forward and speak to the authorities, because the authorities will deal with them sympathetically and they will not be stigmatised. We are all in this together to fight those who seek to seduce and groom young men and women and take them out of our country.
Counter-Terrorism (Statutory Instruments) — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
Diana Ruth Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): I am grateful that the Minister will write to me, but I made strenuous efforts to get hold of the responses, including getting the Vote Office to look for them and having a good search of the Home Office website myself. Perhaps it is time for the website to undergo a review to make sure it is as accessible as possible.
Counter-Terrorism (Statutory Instruments) — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Law and Crime
Keith Anthony Vaz (Labour, Centre-left): The Minister is always generous in giving way, which helps the scrutiny of such measures. I am sorry if I missed this, but did he give the House a figure for how much is owed to the Home Office in civil penalties in total? I am eager to take him for supper before we close on 30 March.
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Transportation
Dawn Primarolo (Labour, Centre-left): With this, it will be convenient to discuss the following: New clause 2—TfL assets (constraints on developments)— "(1) Tfl, or any subsidiary of TfL, shall not lease land to third parties which: (a) has been used in the preceding 10 years, (b) has been considered by TfL in the preceding 10 years as suitable, or (c) is adjacent to land in use or in use in the preceding 10 years, for the provision or maintenance of transport services for passengers (2) Before TfL, or any subsidiary of TfL, enters into a contract involving the development of land for other than the provision or maintenance of transport services for passengers, it must carry out a public consultation seeking views on the impact of so doing (3) Any consultation under subsection (2) must include consultation with: (a) local communities likely to be affected (b) the Greater London Authority (c) London boroughs (d) the City of London (e) relevant trade unions." Amendment 21, page 6, in schedule, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph (c), at end add "subject to the Secretary of State’s satisfaction that TfL has undertaken, or caused to be undertaken, an effective risk assessment in respect of the impact on public heath of such use." Amendment 22, in page 6, paragraph 1, leave out sub-paragraph (d) Amendment 23, page 6, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph (i), at end add "provided such property is not located within the curtilage of a bus, rail or underground station." Amendment 24, page 6, paragraph 1, sub-paragraph (o), at end add "provided such property is not located within the curtilage of a bus, rail or underground station." Amendment 25, in page 6, paragraph 1(k), line 19, after "machines", insert "and other property which is exploited for commercial purposes other than within stations." Amendment 26, page 6, paragraph 1(k), line 19, leave out from the first "stations" to the end of the sub-paragraph. Amendment 27, page 6, paragraph 1, leave out sub-paragraph (k) Amendment 28, page 6, paragraph 1, leave out sub-paragraph (m) Amendment 29, page 6, paragraph 1, leave out sub-paragraph (n).
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
John Martin McDonnell (Labour, Centre-left): I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests with particular regard to donations from trade unions to my constituency party. We are now in a long campaign period and although these donations are to my constituency party and are not personal donations, I wish to declare them. They will pay for leaflets in the election campaign bearing my photograph—that will probably cost me votes! I thought I had better declare those interests tonight Through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and on behalf of myself and colleagues who drafted amendments to the Bill, I would like to thank and congratulate the Clerk on the advice he provided to us throughout. He took our original ideas and my own poor drafts and turned them into the amendments that have been selected today I will happily curtail this debate right now if the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), representing the Bill’s promoters, can inform us whether Transport for London is willing to accept all the amendments. If it is, we will not need to spend any further time on the issue this evening. I am happy to give way to the hon. Gentleman if he is willing to advise us of TfL’s position.
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Transportation
Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (Labour, Centre-left): I was very disappointed to hear the answer from the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman). I am not one for re-telling rumours, but I heard tell that TfL wanted to discuss some of these issues with us. Perhaps the promoter of the Bill could tell us at what point TfL expects to have serious discussions through which constituency MPs can deal with the often very detailed concerns that we might have to raise in this debate.
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
John Martin McDonnell (Labour, Centre-left): I am concerned about the Bill’s implications for all our London constituents and constituencies. As I have said, given that the debate has lasted for four years, I would expect a dialogue to have taken place by now, along with acceptance of some of the arguments, to allow at least a degree of compromise to be reached.
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Transportation
John Martin McDonnell (Labour, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman and I have worked and campaigned on the third runway issue in close co-operation. I am grateful to him for all his support, and respect him for it. However, I think that the responsibility of a Member of Parliament is to reflect the concerns expressed to him by his constituents, and in this instance—given that we have a general accountability to Londoners overall—by the Londoners who have petitioned against the Bill. That is why the amendments have been drafted very specifically on the basis of the views expressed in the Opposed Private Bill Committee, which were not fully taken into account following the Committee’s recommendations. I had to draft the amendments, in consultation with some of the petitioners, to ensure that I captured their main concerns.
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Government Operations
John Martin McDonnell (Labour, Centre-left): That is a valid point, which I will try to address when we turn to the specific amendments. I thought there were issues on which we could have had compromise; the main thrust of the first group of amendments is to secure openness, transparency and, most importantly, a consultative decision-making process. I have sat down with each of the petitioners. The whole point of these amendments is the need for consultative engagement by TfL and its subsidiaries when dealing with sites in their areas.
Transport for London Bill [Lords] — House of Commons, 2015-03-16
Topic: Transportation
Andrew Francis Slaughter (Labour, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is making a powerful case. The Bill as currently drafted will be bad for the fare payer, and for the taxpayer in general, but it is also likely to be bad for those who work for Transport for London and for the communities in which the developments are likely to take place. This extraordinary cocktail of poor ideas is being pushed through, and I am not surprised to hear him say that it is being done in an atmosphere of secrecy.