argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): The Conservative party is, of course, the Conservative and Unionist party and I believe in equality across the Union. Many young people in my constituency might like the idea of votes at 16. Does my hon. Friend agree that it would be unfair if 16-year-olds had them in Scotland and in Wales, but not in England, and that instead of raising such topics at the last minute time should be given to consider whether they are deliverable?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is important that we go back and look at how we got to where we are in order to understand where we are going next. I am sorry about the history lesson, but it was in 2008 that the campaign started gathering momentum, simply because the Liberal Democrats were saying, "Only we will give you the choice." I do not remember then or any time in between, until now, when it seems politically expedient, that any party campaigned to revoke. All of us, on whichever side of the in/out binary argument we stood, were free to campaign, hence the divide and the fact that there are Members with firmly held views, either for remain or leave, on each side of the House. Now the House and the political groupings have turned it into a party political campaign, and that is the problem.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I assume that the word "you" was directed not at you, Mr Speaker, but at me, so I do not expect you to answer the hon. Gentleman’s question and tell us why you are not changing the date to the 9th, but I will answer it and say that I do not think the public will care one way or another. We have a tradition in this country of holding elections on Thursdays, but as for the guff and nonsense that we have heard in this place about people going to Christmas parties and school plays and all the rest of it, the public will think that that is a pretty trivial argument. I do not think it amounts to a hill of beans now: I think that the public are absolutely fed up.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): May I finish this point first? Otherwise I could be speaking for hours, and I am sure the House would rather I did not detain it for that long People came up to that market stall and said that they were for leave or for remain. I did not ask them, "Do you vote Liberal Democrat, do you vote Green, do you vote Labour?" Indeed, members of the Labour party have suggested that they agree with my views, while members of the Conservative party, such as my right hon. Friend the Member for Wantage (Mr Vaizey), probably disagreed with my views at the time. All of us, at the time—well, I believe that the Liberal Democrats said that they would respect the vote—gave the impression that it was a once-in-a-lifetime choice, and a once-in-a-lifetime decision on which we would not renege and which we would not revoke: it would be delivered. It then came to a Parliament whose members were subsequently elected on the basis of their own political tribes.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Andrew Campbell Bowie (Conservative, Centre-right): Just about everyone in the Chamber said that they respected the result of the 2016 referendum and stood on manifestos in 2017 saying that they would honour that result. Why does my hon. Friend think they have backtracked and are retreating into their political tribes in respect of this very important issue?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I can only hazard a guess that certain parties saw it as politically expedient to suggest or imply, in 2008 in the case of the Liberal Democrats or in 2017 in the case of the Conservatives and the Labour party, that they would indeed offer, or respect, a referendum. Now too many of the parties are finding it politically difficult This is not about us. It is not about individual parts of the United Kingdom and individual constituencies. That is not how the referendum campaign went. Nobody came and asked us questions on a constituency-by-constituency, country-by-country or region-by-region basis. We are in this mess now because we have turned the issue into a political football.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I will give way in a moment; I am in great demand. First, however, I will respond to my right hon. Friend’s intervention on referendums. It is important that we recognise that people voted in that referendum who had never voted before. I spoke to people in St Albans—and I am sure that this experience was replicated across the House—and they had a fixed view; it was not a political view, but it was a fixed view on whether they wanted in or out. Some people wanted help in making their minds up, and some changed their mind, but they had a fixed view, and I had numerous people say to me, "Politicians are all the same," but on this matter all the political parties came together to ask the same question.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I am glad the hon. Gentleman asked me that because my answer to my constituents then, now and in the future is that I completely respect democracy, and whatever democratic outcome was delivered I would respect. I am not here to argue against it or for it; I am here to argue to deliver it. And I hope, since the political make-up of the hon. Gentleman’s seat is very like mine—I do not dispute that in any way whatsoever—that he will be arguing, as I do, that the British public, as we need to heal—
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): No; I said no, and I say no twice. Mr Speaker made a ruling on this earlier on, so the answer is no What I will be arguing, as indeed we are arguing, is that we gave the in/out choice, regardless of political parties, and the in/out choice was delivered. Some people did not like it, and some constituencies did not match up with what their MP wanted, but that is not what it is about; what it is about—
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, we are discussing a Bill about having a general election. My point is that we need a general election because we have moved so far away from the original concept of the referendum, which was a choice between in and out, not a party political choice. Now, we are in a sclerotic position. We cannot move forward in here, and the only obvious answer is to ask the public to decide.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not blame you at all for unleashing a vial across anybody, Mr Speaker. I understand the hon. Gentleman’s point, but the point is that the people were asked. We cannot now say we should not have asked the question. Plenty of colleagues went around the country framing the arguments—plenty of colleagues framed the arguments for, and plenty of colleagues framed the argument against I come back to the point that the only reason we need a general election now is that the public have seen how we have behaved in here. The public have seen which party is the most likely to honour its pledges made to the British people in 2017, which party came out with a deal that this House found favour with, and which party remembers that we are only here to carry out the referendum, not to ignore it or to change it.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): I have, and the worst impact is the absolute uncertainty surrounding investment in our jobs and businesses. People do not know whether they can trade, whether they have to stockpile goods or what the arrangements will be because the dates keep moving. That is the worst thing All this flummery about Brexit is hiding the fact that we are not getting the business of this House done. Almost no one was here to talk about the Environment Bill, yet people are marching against plastic.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Richard Michael John Ogilvie Graham (Conservative, Centre-right): To return to the Second Reading of this Bill, my hon. Friend faces a challenge from the Liberal Democrats in St Albans. Does she agree that, during the referendum, every household in the country received a letter saying "The Government will implement what you decide" Does she remember the previous leader of the Liberal Democrats saying that, even if it were by one vote, the result should still stand? And did she hear the other day—
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I say very gently to the hon. Gentleman that there is a difference between a brief intervention and what one might call leisurely musing. I fear that what should be a brief intervention has elided, surely inadvertently, into leisurely musing and therefore his triple-hatted inquiry is, I feel sure, reaching its zenith.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): The right hon. Gentleman tempts me, because the culture and heritage goes back to the Romans in St Albans and I could talk about it for a very long time. Indeed, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and I have a wonderful picture of the new St Albans museum, in the centre of my beautiful city; before he was Prime Minister, he came to St Albans and congratulated the Conservative-led council on delivering a fabulous museum, which is to the absolute enhancement of my constituency I will move on to the general election—[Interruption.] Is shouting down democracy something we agree with in this House? As far as I can see, this House says it wants more time to debate things, but when an hon. Member stands on her hind legs and starts debating things, they do not want her to have that amount of time—they want to run on to other Opposition groups or to other Members in the House. On something as important as this, the people need to know, even if it is Brenda of Bristol, why on earth we are troubling them yet again with another election.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Anne Margaret Main (Conservative, Centre-right): He has risen to right. hon—I am so sorry and I apologise. He wishes to speak. When we are going out on the doorstep, we should remember that that person who voted in or out did not vote Conservative, Green, Labour or Liberal—they voted in or out. We need to respect that. We gave them a choice. It is insulting the public to say that we should not have given them the choice, as someone on the Opposition Benches has said, that they were too stupid to make the choice, as some have said, or that some of them are dead now and so we will ask people again. So may I make the plea that tonight we go for a general election, even though it or the timing may not suit all of us? What it should do is resolve this issue of a zombie Parliament incapable of action and deliver a Conservative Government who will deliver on their promise, their mandate and their pledge to uphold democracy.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Marcus John Hudson Fysh (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the hon. Lady agree that people outside might think it a little disingenuous of some Members to say that they want to vote for an election, while seeking to add wrecking amendments, such as votes for children or for EU nationals?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I thought that I heard the Leader of the House say that one reason for keeping the House going until 6 November was to get that Bill through. It would be iniquitous if we do not get this Bill through, because people in Northern Ireland really require to have it passed.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Gregory Knight (Conservative, Centre-right): I am most grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. Under the previous Labour Government when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister, was not the question of giving voting rights to overseas citizens living here raised and looked at by Lord Goldsmith, who concluded that full voting rights should be given only to UK citizens?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I just say very gently to the hon. Lady that a copy of prospective amendments has been made available, but the time for debate upon amendments is at the Committee stage for which they are intended. Therefore, briefly to animadvert to a possible amendment is orderly, but to dilate upon it is not.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I am not sure whether that was done in an arch way. It was advertised, and it has attracted the attention of the Clerk at the Table and of the Chair, but in any case I know that the hon. Lady will unfailingly sign up to the nostrum that two wrongs do not make a right.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Absolutely, Mr Speaker I would like to discuss the issue of European citizens, which has already been mentioned during the debate. It would be very difficult to add 3 million voters to the electoral register at short notice, and the relative size of constituencies would be affected. It is notable that some, like my hon. Friend the Member for Isle of Wight (Mr Seely), who was here earlier, have constituencies of more than 100,000 people, while others have constituencies of just 20,000 people. I know that there has been an effort by the Boundary Commission to introduce changes that would even those up, but suddenly adding European voters would have an impact on the relative value of an individual’s vote. It is also notable that none of the EU27 member states allows citizens not from their country to vote in a general election, and with free movement and elections at different times one can rather see why that might be Other speakers have discussed votes at 16. As a paediatrician, I have over time seen and treated a number of young people at 16. I have met some very, very mature 16-year-olds with great life experience who no doubt have the knowledge and maturity to vote, but I have also met 16-year-olds who do not. It is worth looking at the international—
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): I am reminded of the fact that when people start to get personal towards the Prime Minister or others, it is because they do not have a political argument to make It is useful to look at international norms. The United Nations, which we are part of, sees 18-year-olds as adults. Internationally, refugees are seen as children if they are less than 18 years old. We are part of the Five Eyes group, along with Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada, all of which allow votes only from 18. All EU member states, apart from Austria, allow votes only from 18. As a children’s doctor—
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. I ask the hon. Lady to resume her seat. Either entirely of her own initiative—which is perfectly credible, because she is a most assiduous parliamentarian—or because she has been exhorted by others, or maybe a judicious combination of the two, she seems inclined to do precisely what I told her she should not do, which is to dilate on matters that, as things stand, are outwith the scope of the Bill. I cannot in all conscience encourage her to persist with her global tour, and potentially her intergalactic tour, in pursuit of evidence that she wishes to adduce on the matter of the appropriate age at which people should vote. What I have tried to tell her courteously, and which I now tell her courteously but bluntly, is that those matters are not currently up for discussion. It will not suffice for her to smile at me and say, "Mr Speaker, I am most grateful for your guidance," with a view then to comprehensively ignoring it.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Caroline Elizabeth Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): Thank you, Mr Speaker; I appreciate your guidance on this matter. I hope you will not mind my responding to the comments made by the leader of the Liberal Democrats, the hon. Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson), who said that our children should have a vote because it matters to their future. This will affect my four, eight and 12-year-olds’ futures even more, but that is not a rational argument for them to vote I am concerned that the amendments that have been tabled are wrecking amendments, because they are trying to change the franchise just before an election. Were that to happen against the Electoral Commission’s advice, we would not be able to have an election in December.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I am most grateful to the hon. Lady. May I politely suggest that colleagues have care and concern for each other? Each of them wishes to speak. It is not necessary or desirable for one person to speak at inordinate length and then say, either openly or to themselves, "Whoops! Sorry. I stopped someone else doing so." It is better to avoid that grisly fate.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Order. May I just very gently say, because the right hon. Gentleman implied that he would be brief—I hope, mercifully, that he will be brief, brilliant though he is—that there is no need for him to make either a pro-European or an anti-European speech, or a speech anywhere between the two? There is a need for him to make a speech about whether there should or should not be an early general election, nothing more. It will be delivered with an eloquence worthy of Demosthenes and an intellect to rival Einstein’s, I feel certain.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Robert Andrew Raymond Syms (Conservative, Centre-right): It will be a small intervention, Mr Speaker. I do not wholly agree with my right hon. Friend, but this place would be poorer if he were not a Member of a future Parliament. I hope that he gets the Whip back and we can hear more brilliant speeches about science and all the other things that he has championed in this place.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I appreciate the right hon. Gentleman’s very kind and gracious remarks, and I will not forget them I am afraid that to accommodate the remaining colleagues who are on the list, I will have to introduce a three-minute time limit with immediate effect—[Interruption.] Otherwise, people will not get in—I cannot help it, but there is injury time, as the hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) knows.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): Under the Order of the House of today, we shall now—for which I may have to substitute "shortly"—move to a Committee of the whole House I say this as much for the benefit of people outside the elected Chamber as for anybody else. I have collected the voices, as the Speaker is required to do, and it is clear that there is an overwhelming majority in support of Second Reading. From Second Reading, we proceed to Committee. When the House sits in Committee, the Speaker does not occupy the Chair. That responsibility is taken by A. N. Other, who will be wending his or her way to the Chamber as I speak. I say with some confidence that another Chair will arrive ere long to take up his or her important duties.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
John Simon Bercow (Conservative, Centre-right): I agree. On the matter of exemplary behaviour, we can all learn from the hon. Lady. I know she did not seek that tribute, but I proffer it gratis in any case, because it has the advantage of being justified.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Mixed Topics
Nigel Martin Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): I remember the leader of the Scottish National party saying last Thursday that we could not have an election on 12 December because it would be cold, dark and wet. Has my hon. Friend been in touch with the Met Office to find out how much warmer and how much lighter it will be three days earlier on 9 December?
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Andrew Theakstone Percy (Conservative, Centre-right): It does not matter in the Humber if it is 9 or 12 December—I can guarantee it will be a bit windy and probably a bit damp. More importantly, will the Minister dismiss the Opposition’s amendment for what it is—a shameful attempt to divide? That is what it is about. The Opposition are trying to build resentment in a group of the electorate that they think are susceptible to their message. It is disgraceful and shameful to try to separate students from the rest of the population, when everyone knows that people can vote by post and by proxy in every election. The Opposition will divide, divide, divide throughout the election campaign, because that is what they do.
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Civil Rights
Victoria Grace Ford (Conservative, Centre-right): On the issue of votes for 16 and 17-year-olds, I believe that all men and women are born equal and that everybody in this place should be equal. Amendment 10, which fortunately was not selected today, would have given 16 and 17-year-olds in Scotland and Wales the vote, but—
Early Parliamentary General Election Bill — House of Commons, 2019-10-29
Topic: Other
Andrew Theakstone Percy (Conservative, Centre-right): No, I will not give way to the hon. Lady Some want to talk about promises made in a referendum campaign about whether people would be poorer or richer afterwards, but I am afraid we will take no lectures from the SNP on this matter.