argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I completely agree. The issue has been picked up by James Dornan, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, who has Hampden Park in his constituency, and who, reflecting on the fact that Scotland pays 10% of the licence fee, said: "The future of Scottish football is very important, and our domestic game needs a proportionate share of money in order to help build for the future." He pointed out that football accountancy experts estimate that Scottish football rights are worth 10 times what is being paid for them It is not that the BBC cannot do a good job with Scottish football. Three of my favourite games in recent years have been the 2012 Scottish cup final, when Heart of Midlothian—I declare an interest as a fan—beat Hibs 5-1 in a terrific game; the 2015 Scottish cup final, which I am delighted to say was in my constituency, when Inverness Caledonian Thistle beat Falkirk 2-1; and this year’s league cup final, when Ross County beat Hibs 2-1. I mention those games for a good reason—because there is a great deal of exciting stuff going on in Scottish football just now: the split, the play-offs, the question of whether people will get promoted in the championship, the interest in the Scottish premiership, with Aberdeen and Hearts, and, as I said, Caley Thistle winning the Scottish cup and Ross County holding the league cup In my view, BBC radio coverage has been pretty good, but "Sportscene", the BBC’s television coverage of Scottish football, is absolutely appalling. It operates on a Sunday night—a day later than England gets its football coverage—with a tiny budget. It is a blink-and-you-miss-it highlights programme. The camera angles would frustrate anyone watching premiership games in England. There might be a seagull’s eye view, from one fixed position, of a goal being scored. That is not good enough, and football fans are reacting. These are the people who are expecting to be entertained by the BBC. Only today, on the Hearts forum "Jambos Kickback", "Doctor Jambo" said: "I don’t even watch it anymore. It used to be a staple in our house. I record the games on ALBA." As we heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, even BBC Alba is under threat. "Doctor Jambo" added: "Sitting up to watch it then filtering through all the manure for 1 minute of Hearts footage? Nah." Inverness Caley Thistle fans say that it is even worse for them. Evelyn, a constituent of mine, says: "If you are a fan of a team in the Highlands, even though the Highlands hold the League and Scottish cups and are well established Premiership teams the level of coverage is beyond poor." Ralph Topping, the SPFL chairman, has pointed out that the BBC pays £68 million a year for the rights to the English premiership and other leagues, as opposed to £1 million for football rights in Scotland. The BBC’s director of sport, Barbara Slater, has admitted that there has been "inequality".
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Absolutely. I could not agree more with my hon. Friend, and I am grateful to him for making that point. There has been a long period of injustice: this is not just about the last couple of years.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s intervention, because it allows me to highlight once again that Scotland is paying 10% of the licence fee. The BBC is paying what it believes is a market price of £68 million for the premiership and other league rights in England, yet it is unwilling to pay more than £1 million or so when the marketable value is estimated to be about £10 million. All that is being asked for is between £3 million and £4 million. That is a serious inequity.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It should also be pointed out that the BBC is driving that market. The BBC has actually eclipsed the market, because without the public money coming from television licence fees in both Scotland and England, that price would not be achieved by football. Licence payers’ money is beating the market to produce that £68 million, and 10% of the money that is spent in England should, as a matter of natural justice, be spent in Scotland.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): No, I will press on and finish my speech, because I have been given the icy stare by the Deputy Speaker This is a long-standing injustice, as will be clear to anyone who speaks about football to fans in Scotland. Heaven forfend, by the way, that what has happened to the international game at the top level should also happen to women’s football, and that we should lose it to public broadcasting altogether. However, that is a side issue The inequity in Scottish football has been going on for far too long. We have had to put up with coverage that does not encourage people to watch the games, and does not encourage young people to get involved in the sport. Football is a huge source of advertising, and everyone knows how that works around the world. It is about time that the BBC addressed this injustice, and corrected the position for the fans of Scottish football and, indeed, the people of Scotland.
BBC: Diversity — House of Commons, 2016-04-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The ambitions of Scotland are higher. We do not want to play just across this island. We want to dominate in Europe again, as Celtic did so magnificently in 1967, being the first non-Latin team to win the European cup. But the Scottish team will do that only if it gets the funding. The broadcasters have to step up to the mark to make sure that the money is coming in as it should.
Golf (Economic Contribution) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the right hon. Gentleman for mentioning my local golf course; I am the MP for Royal Troon, and we look forward to welcoming people in July. Will the Secretary of State discuss with Front-Bench colleagues a regional strategy for smaller airports—at Prestwick, people fly in over Royal Troon—and, while the Chancellor is in a listening mood, will they consider a VAT reduction for rural tourism, which would help many constituencies across the UK?
Golf (Economic Contribution) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): This is the first opportunity in Parliament to put on the record our total revulsion at and condemnation of the terrorist atrocities in Brussels, as well as our solidarity with everybody affected. We join the Secretary of State for Scotland in that The promotion of the Ryder cup in Scotland was a huge achievement for the Scottish Government and the then First Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Gordon (Alex Salmond). Today is the last sitting day of the Scottish Parliament. Given that he is standing down from Holyrood, may I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for his remarkable tenure as an MSP and as First Minister, and pay tribute to all other MSPs from all parties who are retiring? Does the Secretary of State agree that there is much that can be built on following the success of the Ryder cup? How does he plan to contribute to that?
Golf (Economic Contribution) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I will try to remain on the fairway, Mr Speaker Tourism is one of Scotland’s most important industries, and golf and whisky are key drivers for people visiting the country. Does the Secretary of State welcome local initiatives better to promote iconic Scottish regions and locations, such as Speyside? What encouragement would he give to public and private sector partners in making the most of Scotland’s world-class potential as a tourism draw?
Engagements — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Questions: I am sure the Prime Minister is as appalled as I am that incidents involving anti-Semitism are on the rise. Does he agree that all organisations, public and private, should root out anti-Semitism, without hesitation?
Angus Robertson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): When terrorists attack Brussels or Paris or London or Glasgow, we are as one in our condemnation of the atrocities, as we equally condemn the killings of Yazidis, of Kurds, of Syrians and of Iraqis by Daesh and others extremists. We owe a huge debt of gratitude to those who work here and abroad to protect us in the face of the ongoing terrorist threat, so will the Prime Minister confirm that absolutely everything is being done to help the Belgian authorities and the people of Belgium in the wake of the Brussels attacks?
Brussels Terrorist Attacks — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Stuart Campbell McDonald (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Secretary of State has provided some welcome reassurance about the work under way to track and disrupt the movement of terrorists. Will she tell us specifically about any work under way, both here and across Europe, to disrupt the flow of weapons and explosives? That work is also crucial to our safety.
High Speed Rail (London – West Midlands) Bill — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Other
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I wonder whether we could have a tidying-up of the procedures of the House. In the light of English votes for English laws, Health questions and Education questions, as they are termed, are actually English Health questions and English Education questions. It would be better for voters up and down the length of the current UK if they understood that.
Scotland Bill — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Going back to the previous intervention, it was obvious from the voices on the Scottish National party Benches that all the other Ministers, especially those from the Treasury, spoke for interests other than those of Scotland. Is it not time to move away from this form of devolution, whereby we effectively get the crumbs from the table at Westminster, to a model that Copenhagen shares with the Faroe Islands and Greenland, in which the larder is always open and they get to choose their own powers. Instead of taking the crumbs from Westminster, we should be able to take the powers that we want from Westminster when we want them.
Construction Companies (Fatal Accidents) — House of Commons, 2016-03-23
Topic: Mixed Topics
Steven Alexander Paterson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the article in the Sunday Herald from 6 March 2016, entitled "Huge drop in construction safety inspections triggers fears for workers"? An academic from Stirling University in my constituency, Professor Andrew Watterson, who is part of the occupation and environmental health research group at the university, said: "Westminster has savagely cut the budgets of the enforcement agency, the HSE, over many years…HSE increasingly looks and sounds like a toothless tiger—a lot of noise and increasingly little action." Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that description?
EU Renegotiation — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Richard Arkless (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): In my view, the legal position surrounding the so-called renegotiation is confused at best. It appears to me that this confusion may be delaying potential withdrawal from the European convention on human rights. Do the Government intend to hold the EU referendum before addressing the UK’s membership of the ECHR?
Detainees: Pregnancy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Immigration
Callum McCaig (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I draw the Minister’s attention to the all-party parliamentary group’s report of 2014 on immigration detention, which dealt with the issue of women in detention centres more widely. Many women had been subject to quite horrific violence, including sexual violence. What steps is she taking to ensure that detained women, whether pregnant or not, are safe? Does she agree with me that these centres should not be detaining women at all and that detention should very much be a last resort?
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patrick John Grady (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): That is a fair point. It is important to recognise the huge achievement of all the astronauts of various heritages and from various parts of the United Kingdom. There is certainly no intention to play trumps.
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Angus Brendan MacNeil (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman will be aware of the press stories today mentioning Stornoway. Indeed, the name David Bowie is linked with it as well. Just a little bit north of Malin Head, the hon. Gentleman will see the Outer Hebrides. It is a fantastic place—near Northern Ireland—for such space adventures.
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the hon. Gentleman for his substantive point about engaging young girls and women with these industries, and I absolutely subscribe to that view. As I have said—I will continue to repeat it here until we get it right—this is an issue that we need to tackle together to ensure that girls are able to take advantage of these opportunities.
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): My hon. Friend is absolutely right that education is the key. I mentioned the science skills academy, and the idea behind it is to influence children as they develop and give them these opportunities, but also to try to reach out to society in general and to say to parents and grandparents that they need to talk about this. It is also about saying to education professionals and to those who make the investments that lead to their recruitment that this issue has to be taken incredibly seriously Stakeholder activities going on at the moment are to be encouraged. For example, I congratulate The Telegraph on creating the women in space jobs resource, which includes educational resources encouraging women into STEM subjects. Another example is the Royal Society of Aviation, which established the women in aerospace and aviation committee in 2009 On solutions, we need to increase public awareness of the UK space industry and its value to the economy. We need to increase engagement with young people through projects such as Scottish Space School. There will doubtless be others of which I am not aware, but we need to make sure that this sort of thing carries on. I support calls for the need to concentrate funding on research and development projects. We absolutely need to stop thinking about what is happening today and start thinking about the opportunities for tomorrow. We need to work to increase peer support to encourage female graduates to enter and remain in the sector Let me finish by citing Professor Alan Smith, head of the department of space and physics at University College London, who acted as rapporteur for an event hosted by the Scottish Government and the Civil Aviation Authority. He said: "Scotland has embraced space. Space feels at home in Scotland." Let us make sure that all of us and all our children get the opportunity to feel at home in space, too.
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey (Drew Hendry). He made some excellent points about women and equality in the industry. As a civil engineer, that chimes with me. My profession has seen a lack of women over the years, although it is doing its best to try to remedy it by engaging with schools. My hon. Friend has shown, both yesterday and today, that he is a great advocate for technology, and his enthusiasm certainly shone through in his speech. I congratulate, too, my hon. Friends the Members for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford) and for Glasgow North (Patrick Grady) on bringing forward this timely debate. I welcome the chance to participate in it Let me start with a confession. Anyone who knows me personally will probably be somewhat surprised that I have chosen to speak in a space-related debate. Unlike the Members who have spoken previously, when I was growing up I never had the same fascination with space. Science fiction movies did not do it for me. Although I was born in 1970, I have still not watched the early "Star Wars" movies—[Hon. Members: "Shame!"] Now I have got that confession out of the road, I should have everybody on my side. At least it shows they were listening to me.
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Carol Frances Monaghan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Absolutely. It is really important that science fiction writers continue to write, because they often provide ideas and encouragement for creativity and development Satellites are also important in other areas. I have mentioned television; I could also mention communications, and weather and climate monitoring. It was satellites up in space that first photographed the issues with the polar ice cap, and we have now been able to compare the photographs that were taken 30 years ago with those that are being taken now, which are showing the real impacts on the ice cap.
Space Policy — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Andrew Egan Henderson Hendry (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Minister is outlining an exciting programme of opportunities and economic development. He has heard from a number of Members today about the need to encourage girls and young women to get involved in the industry. Will he take that message away to the Government and do something practical to promote that?
House of Lords Reform — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Other
Martin John Docherty-Hughes (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for a good laugh, but the answer is no As per convention, I shall name no names, but I direct hon. Members to acquaint themselves with the debate held in Westminster Hall on this very day one year ago, where the record of the peerage is seen to be damning indeed.
House of Lords Reform — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Other
Christopher Murray Alexander Law (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am delighted to join the Chamber to hear my hon. Friend’s speech at such late notice. Does he agree not only that this debate is vital—it is a sheer disappointment that more Members are not here—but that it is incredibly perverse that we are about to reduce the number of democratically elected MPs in this Chamber from 650 to 600, at the same time as the House of Lords is ever increasing?
House of Lords Reform — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Civil Rights
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): As a practising Christian, I must say that I am not comfortable with defining any nation as a Christian nation, or indeed as a Jewish or an Islamic nation. Is it not more correct these days to say that we are a group of nations historically ruled by people who in their words purported to follow Christianity, but whose actions were very far from the true teachings of Christ?
House of Lords Reform — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Steven Alexander Paterson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point, and we must move to democracy. That means that the hereditary peers—they really do stick in the craw—will be among many who have to go. We should have elections to determine that, and perhaps we should be holding conversations about how, not whether, we do that. I would certainly like us to move towards that point.
House of Lords Reform — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I absolutely agree with what the hon. Gentleman has just said. When people talk to us on the doorstep, their priorities are of course job security, benefit sanctions and putting food on the table, but if we scratch the surface, we find that the House of Lords is universally hated, across the UK in my view. There might be small pockets of support among what might be called traditionalists, but for the ordinary man and woman in the street, the House of Lords is an affront to modern democracy What I am about to say has already been mentioned earlier in the debate. That is one of the disadvantages of being so far down the speaking list. It is bad enough that the House of Lords is unelected, but it really is quite incredible to think that we are the only state in the world apart from Iran that has clerics pontificating on legislation. That further illustrates the absurdity of this relic Despite all the plaudits and feeble attempts to justify the other place, perhaps by those who have pals or cronies there or those who seek to retire there themselves when the voters reject them, it cannot be justified to retain those who are unelected. They have often been actively rejected by the voters. It is arguably worse that some of them have shied away from presenting themselves to the voters at any time at all, despite having political ambitions. That really makes the House of Lords a laughing stock in the eyes of the rest of the world.
House of Lords Reform — House of Commons, 2016-01-14
Topic: Other
Peter Grant (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I commend the Backbench Business Committee for making time for this debate and congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Martin John Docherty) on his outstandingly passionate speech. I hope he will not mind my mentioning that he has had other reasons over the past week for earning our warm congratulations and best wishes. We all wish him well in the new life that he is leading. All the best to him My hon. Friend started the preparations for the birthday of Robert Burns by quoting from not only the greatest work that Robert Burns ever wrote, but arguably the greatest humanitarian work in the history of literature. I was a bit disappointed because I thought he was going to continue with a section of that song that would almost sum up this debate in a few words: Ye see yon birkie ca’d a lord, Wha struts, an’ stares, an’ a’ that, Tho’ hundreds worship at his word, He’s but a cuif for a’ that." I have to confess, Madam Deputy Speaker, that I was very careful indeed not to check the dictionary before I came in here because I have a nasty feeling that if I had done, I would have realised that the word "cuif" could not be used in the Chamber. I am not entirely sure what it means.
Ebola: Sierra Leone — House of Commons, 2016-01-19
Topic: Mixed Topics
Patrick John Grady (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): We echo the dismay at the new case and the tributes that have been paid to those involved in the response Bearing in mind the International Development Committee report, what more can the Secretary of State say about the steps DFID is taking to monitor the situation in the wider region? What contact does she currently have with service providers such as MSF on the ground to pick up early warnings? What consideration will she give to the recent report from the US National Academy of Medicine’s commission on creating a global health risk framework for the future, which called for WHO reform, including a permanent emergency centre and global investment of £3 billion a year in pandemic response?