argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): The hon. Gentleman has been a doughty champion of the fans of Coventry City football club and the people of Coventry regarding the maladministration of their club. It is tragic that a club that was in the top flight for so long has been run into the ground as it has been. The football administrators have stood back and watched that happen, and it cannot be allowed to continue. I believe my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) has been acting as an intermediary, and I support him in his work. The Committee has spoken about that issue strongly in the past, and it may do so in the future. We speak up for supporters whose clubs are being run into the ground As a parent, I see what some grassroots football facilities are like, and we have had representations about that. At this time of the year, too many boys and girls are playing on heavily waterlogged pitches and at training grounds or in parks where there are no changing facilities and no amenities at all. They look at the great wealth within the game and ask how that can be true. Although we welcome the fact that the FA facilities fund invests £22 million—a lot of money for a lot of sports—in facilities, that is a tiny amount of money in football. Twenty-two million pounds would not buy a quarter share in Paul Pogba. Given the huge wealth that exists in football, we all believe it could do a lot more Financial scandals have affected the game, and we are concerned that they have not been properly investigated. Lord Stevens led a review into allegations of scandals and misappropriated payments in the football transfer market, and he was unable to sign off on 17 of the transfers that he investigated to say that no suspicious payments had been made. Some of those transfers then involved a future England manager. People will ask, "Why aren’t these things being properly investigated? What is wrong with the administration of financial conduct and ethics in football?
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Jason McCartney (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bradford South (Judith Cummins). In a previous life, I reported on both Bradford City and their run in the Intertoto cup—we had a trip to see Zenit Saint Petersburg—and the Bradford Bulls in their successful time, with grand final wins, world club challenges and Challenge cups. I welcome her passion for the sporting clubs in the great city of Bradford I refer to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I must also declare that, as a Huddersfield Town fan, I am delighted that my team is still in the FA cup, but slightly perplexed that the television companies have not picked our mouth-watering fifth round tie at home to Manchester City for live broadcast. Perhaps they will cover us in the quarter finals, when we might be playing Sutton United I must also put on record my thanks to the FA’s delivery partner, the Football Foundation, which has invested almost £600,000-worth of grants in my Colne Valley constituency. That includes £340,000 to Hepworth United for a new changing pavilion, and a grant of £53,000 for Honley cricket club and Honley junior football club for the refurbishment and extension of existing changing pavilion facilities. I was involved in both bids and supported both community projects My hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins), the Culture, Media and Sport Committee Chairman, covered much of the ground. I want to focus on the fans. I am very lucky to support a club with a wonderful owner who is a genuine fan, Dean Hoyle. He has introduced many wonderful initiatives at my club, including season tickets for just £179. On Boxing day, two parents and two kids could see Huddersfield Town play for just £12—we won as well. The Huddersfield Town Foundation provides thousands of healthy breakfast clubs at schools, and the "Keep It Up" campaign of fans has organised bike rides that have raised more than £1 million for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the Town Academy Not all fans are so lucky. Blackpool, Blackburn Rovers and Coventry fans will testify to that. That is why we need reform.
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Jason McCartney (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely. My hon. Friend has probably read my next comment. I back the Football Supporters Federation recommendations, which include a minimum of five supporters’ representatives on the FA Council and, more crucially, a supporter representative on the board. Hopefully, that supporter representation could help to increase the diversity of the top decision-making levels in English football As we have heard, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, of which I am a member, has been looking at FA governance for many years. I welcome some of Greg Clarke’s early comments—he took over as chairman of the FA last August following his successful six-year spell at the Football League. The Committee report of 2011 highlighted key concerns that, over the years, have got worse. Arguably, the most worrying thing is the disproportionate influence exerted by the Premier League over the FA owing to its wealth, but other concerns are the increased lack of clarity on the ownership of clubs and, as I have just said, the lack of progress in getting supporters more influence in their clubs. As the right hon. Member for Leicester East (Keith Vaz) said, another concern is the lack of women and black and minority ethnic representation not only on FA boards and committees, but in coaching roles. I must declare my involvement in a small FA committee working at St George’s Park on increasing BAME representation in coaching at football clubs. A lot more needs to be done I want a successful England football team. I want it to give us the feel-good factor that the Olympics and Paralympics have given us. Just as the lottery millions have been well distributed to nurture talent, participation and medal success, it is important that the FA should be able to do the same for football with some of the Premier League’s billions. Club ownership, safe standing, Twenty’s Plenty, kick-off times, disabled access and tackling homophobia are all issues that need to be addressed by a reformed FA. With more supporter input, I hope that will now happen I hope that this debate will show that we are serious about reform. The Government are serious about reform, the DCMS Committee is serious about reform and the fans are serious about reform. It is now time for the FA’s executive board and the council to crack on and deliver those reforms.
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Nigel Paul Huddleston (Conservative, Centre-right): A foreign observer could be forgiven for looking at football in this country and wondering whether it can really be the case that the sport is poorly governed. After all, we have the most watched, admired and financially lucrative top division in world football, with attendances of over 90% every week at premier league stadiums As has already been pointed out, the Football Association performs some great work throughout the country, investing more than £65 million a year in grassroots football. My constituency is one of many that benefit from that. I think we should also acknowledge the great work that Greg Clarke is doing in trying to reform the FA. As a relatively new chairman, he has given some extremely encouraging signals about the direction in which he would like to take it in the coming years The problem is this. For many years, we have heard again and again from the FA that it recognises the deficiencies and challenges and intends to change—in fact, it has been talking about reform for 50 years—but change has not come, and time is running out. I have a great deal of respect for Greg Clarke, but I also have a feeling that his hands are tied, and that a sense of institutional inertia pervades the governance of football in this country In 2011 and 2013 the Culture, Media and Sport Committee produced reports on football governance and finance, and it has also highlighted problems with diversity.
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nigel Paul Huddleston (Conservative, Centre-right): Indeed. As I think is clear from the tone of all the speeches that we have heard so far, we do not want to hinder the progress of football; we want to help. I agree with the hon. Gentleman that a great deal of work is being done Some commentators have fairly and reasonably pointed out that it is a bit rich for a largely "pale, male and stale" Select Committee to lecture another organisation about diversity. It is true that there are more gentlemen called Nigel on our Committee than there are women. In fairness, however, I would respectfully point out that we deal every day with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and speak to a female parliamentary private secretary, who reports to a female sport Minister, who reports to a female Secretary of State, who reports to a female Prime Minister. I might add that our last two reports were on, respectively, access to stadiums for disabled people and homophobia in sport It seems to me that the main purpose of the motion is to fire a warning shot across the bows of the FA. On its own, it will not change the structure of football governance—we all know that—but the fact that we are having this debate will hopefully communicate, in no uncertain terms, just how important the issue is to MPs and our constituents, and will instil a sense of urgency within the FA board and council. I am well aware that the FA is coming up with its own proposals for reform, and I look forward to seeing them As I have said, my intention is not to hinder Greg Clarke and the FA’s own reform agenda, but to help. As a Tory MP, I am not greatly enthusiastic about Governments’ becoming involved in anything unless they absolutely have to, but let us be clear: if we have to intervene, we will. Talk without action is no longer an option.
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Robert John Blackman (Conservative, Centre-right): It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bassetlaw (John Mann) I grew up in the shadow of Wembley stadium and its twin towers. I followed my local football club and I ran a Sunday football team. I am, of course, a fanatical football fan—my father helped to set up "Match of the Day", so I think that I can speak as a true football fanatic. I am a season ticket holder—home and away—for my favourite team The reality is that football in this country is in the hands of the Premier League. It has the power and the finance, and it has sold out to the TV companies, which now dictate when games are played, which days they are played on and what time they kick off. Of course, huge amounts come in as a result At the same time, as we have heard, grassroots football across this country is not seeing that money transferred down to it, because premier league clubs are keeping the money to themselves. The FA does not do its job in representing grassroots football, in controlling the game, and in making sure that the money flows from the top to the bottom so that we can develop the young players—male and female—right across this country who we all want to see playing the beautiful game positively and in the right way. Without a change, we face stagnation in our national game and our England football team being unable to win trophies—we would all like to see them win trophies—and we do not have the quality of football that we would all want Wembley stadium has always been our national stadium. It is the shrine to which we go for FA cup finals, League cup finals, internationals and other events. However, it is now being transformed, with not only Tottenham playing there for a year, but Chelsea potentially playing its home matches there for three years. That, to me, is wrong, because it is an abuse of our national stadium, which should be kept for those all-important matches that fans want to see. Turning it into a stadium for clubs to use for perhaps four years or longer, is an abuse of our national stadium and we should not allow it. However, the FA, which is in charge of that national stadium, seems to be an amateur in dealing with high finance in football. We should encourage professionalism in the FA, as well as reform to it so that the situation does not get ever worse. I will conclude with this statement: it is important that the FA understands that if it does not transform itself, Government action will be required.
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not know whether the Minister will be able to be on her feet by 4.50, but that is what she would like, and I know she has a fair bit to say. We will see how we get on.
Football Association Governance — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Damian Noel Thomas Collins (Conservative, Centre-right): The message from this debate is absolutely clear: no change is no option. The debate on this issue has been running for too long, and the FA, to use a football analogy, is not only in extra time but at the end of extra time; it is in Fergie time and it is 1-0, down and if it does not pick up quickly and reform itself, reform will be delivered to it Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That this House has no confidence in the ability of the Football Association (FA) to comply fully with its duties as a governing body, as the current governance structures of the FA make it impossible for the organisation to reform itself; and calls on the Government to bring forward legislative proposals to reform the governance of the FA.
Holocaust Memorial Museum — House of Commons, 2017-02-09
Topic: Public Lands
Edward Julian Egerton Leigh (Conservative, Centre-right): That is a perfectly fair point, but I believe that because of the severely constrained site, there might be difficulties with the sheer number of visitors. I make the separate point that we are talking about a decant of Parliament, and many services may be based in Victoria Tower gardens. There are all sorts of other problems that I think my hon. Friend should consider, although I hear what he says. After all, we are talking about the Imperial War Museum, which is very close indeed Given the constraints of Victoria Tower gardens, the concept proposed for the site has already had to be scaled down from an entire learning campus to a few underground rooms. I say to my hon. Friend that it will not be like the Washington DC memorial; it will be much smaller. Why should we scale it down? We think it is really important, so we should make a proper memorial like the ones in Berlin and Washington. What the architects have proposed is simply insufficient to convey the enormity of the horrendous crime we are seeking to commemorate, and it fails in its scale to respect the dead whom we seek to remember We would be much wiser to take our example from the memorial museum in Washington, which is a proven exemplar when it comes to imprinting the importance of the holocaust upon the minds of future generations, and a place to preserve historical recollections, but also a place to remember the dead. Given the seriousness of what we are commemorating, we need to make sure that this is done properly To sum up, the Victoria Tower gardens site is too small for what is needed. Further development there would threaten a UNESCO world heritage site and set a dangerous precedent for green spaces in the care of the Royal Parks Agency. Meanwhile, just a short distance away, still in the very centre of London, we have a permanent exhibition already devoted to the study of and teaching about the holocaust. There is a chance for synergy; we can build on those connections and create an integrated experience based on the example that works so well in Washington. This proposal, which is supported by me and many others, including the Imperial War Museum, will allow the United Kingdom to have a proper place to remember the holocaust and to educate future generations about this enormous crime.
Low-carbon Economy — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nicholas Richard Hurd (Conservative, Centre-right): Between 1990 and 2015 the UK’s emissions have fallen by over a third while our economy has grown by over 60%. Since 2010, Government policy has contributed to a trebling of renewable electricity capacity and encouraging the take-up of low-carbon heating and ultra-low emission vehicles.
Low-carbon Economy — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): The Minister will be aware that we in the south-west do not share the Scottish National party’s negative view of the Hinkley Point power station project, but will he reassure me about what work the Government will do to ensure that young people have the skills to take the jobs that will become available in these industries?
Oil and Gas Sector — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alexander Jesse Norman (Conservative, Centre-right): I am unsure whether I entirely caught the hon. Gentleman’s remarks, but the Government have been clear in their support not just for the UK continental shelf and the companies on it, but for Aberdeen through the £250 million city deal.
Oil and Gas Sector — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Other
Questions: Is my hon. Friend aware that at this very moment crude is trading at just $48.31? Has he read the OECD report which states that and many other structural factors mean that an independent Scotland would have a worse debt to population ratio than even Greece?
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. A cerebral Minister is at the box responding to a pertinent inquiry, and the hon. Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Philip Boswell) is behaving in a mildly boorish fashion—very uncharacteristically. I am sure that this is an exceptional case.
Exiting the EU: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Margot Cathleen James (Conservative, Centre-right): Although support for businesses in Scotland is largely devolved, the British Business Bank funds a vast number of companies in Scotland. It has provided £415 million of finance for Scottish companies, including through start-up loans. In addition, more than 1,600 companies in Scotland benefit from the enterprise finance guarantee scheme.
Exiting the EU: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Rebecca Faye Clark (Pow) (Conservative, Centre-right): Small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the south-west, and much effort is being put into upping productivity in the region. We in Taunton Deane welcome recent Government investment in a lot of infrastructure and the work that is being done on skills. However, to give us a real fillip, will the Minister, or perhaps someone else from the Department, agree to come to Taunton’s annual business conference on 6 June to give a boost to the things that the Government can help us with?
Exiting the EU: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): One advantage for small businesses of the United Kingdom leaving the EU is that the House will be free to repeal unwanted EU regulations. What steps is the Minister taking to consult small businesses so that she can identify those regulations?
Exiting the EU: Small Businesses — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Margot Cathleen James (Conservative, Centre-right): I assure my hon. Friend that we consult small businesses all the time. The Department for Exiting the European Union regularly engages with the Federation of Small Businesses. We will, in due course, ask that Department to hold a roundtable for small businesses to discuss the very issues that he raises.
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Margot Cathleen James (Conservative, Centre-right): I am glad that the hon. Lady is so keen to hear my answer to this question We support small business growth by ensuring that small businesses can access finance and wider support. The British Business Bank is already supporting more than 54,000 smaller businesses with £3.4 billion of finance, and I am leading a taskforce to enable SMEs to accelerate their growth potential and realise their growth prospects quicker.
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Housing
Mark Julian Francis Pawsey (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that Rugby is a great place to run a business, but many small businesses continue to tell me that an obstacle to their expansion is still a shortage of suitable industrial premises. At a time when our authority is preparing its local plan, what discussions has my hon. Friend had with her counterparts in the Department for Communities and Local Government to ensure that adequate land is allocated for the development of business units?
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Housing
Margot Cathleen James (Conservative, Centre-right): We work closely with the Department for Communities and Local Government, and I recently co-chaired a successful roundtable with my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning and providers of finance. We will be having a further meeting, and I shall obviously consider the needs of businesses in Rugby for more space.
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Ben Howlett (Conservative, Centre-right): Last week’s announcement on business rates by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor will provide welcome relief to hundreds of independent small businesses in my constituency. Will the Minister join me in congratulating our tourist management organisation, Visit Bath, as it focuses more attention on the marketing of our independent small businesses in Bath in domestic and international markets, which will bring jobs and growth to my constituency?
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Margot Cathleen James (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for her excellent question. I work closely with the Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work, who is leading huge initiatives to improve opportunities for people with disabilities. I will raise with my hon. Friend the specific question of entrepreneurs with disabilities.
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Richard Quentin Fuller (Conservative, Centre-right): The truth is that the Government have to show a lot more love for small businesses to reinforce the truth that the Conservatives are the party for entrepreneurs. Will my hon. Friend start that by eliminating the time limits on the enterprise investment scheme for small businesses, and by finding a way, after we leave the EU, of reducing the compliance with regulations for small businesses to a single check mark?
Small Business Growth — House of Commons, 2017-03-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Margot Cathleen James (Conservative, Centre-right): As my hon. Friend knows, I am a great lover of small businesses and entrepreneurs, and I think that I can speak for the rest of the Government in that regard. He knows that the EU governs time limits and caps on the EIS at the moment. What happens following the Brexit negotiations will be a matter for the Treasury.