argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-11-20
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): The withdrawal agreement has expressed the terms for the implementation period and the present political declaration has indicated where negotiations will begin, but where they will end is a wholly different matter. It is a case of saying that it is a work in progress and we will have to await the outcome of that further negotiation.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-11-20
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): My understanding, as I said before, is that the Prime Minister is going to be meeting with Mr Juncker in the very foreseeable future and that the discussions are going to be taken forward. As to when the final political statement will be concluded, I cannot give a specific date but the intention is, as previously stated, that it should be available by the end of November. I cannot say when it will come before Parliament; at this stage I cannot give a definitive date from the Dispatch Box, but I am quite willing to write to the noble Lord if I have any further information on that point The noble Lord, Lord Kerr of Kinlochard, mentioned Article 50 and has previously observed that he had a hand in its drafting. As a general rule of law, one does not submit subjective evidence over the construction of a contractual provision, and there are very good and compelling reasons for that. However, I note what he has to say about the idea of the EU 27 being prepared to stop the clock. With great respect, it appears to me that the indication is: "Let us get on with it. Let us go forward. We have an agreement for withdrawal. Let us implement that. Let us then address how you are going to leave"—because we are going to leave the European Union on 29 March 2019 The noble Lord, McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown, made his maiden speech today. I thank him for that and compliment him on his contribution to the debate. It was suggested that he should not have used a maiden speech to be controversial, but I would not take issue on that. It is a matter of deep concern to the noble Lord and his fellow Peers from Northern Ireland that we should address the matter of the border and the integrity of the union in this context, and I fully understand his concerns, but I cannot accept that Northern Ireland is either a hostage or a sacrifice in the circumstances. Far from it: our concerns lie in maintaining the union. In so far as he suggested that a hard border was a fictitious idea and could be managed, I do not disagree with him. That is one reason why we anticipate that the backstop will not be required. But, as it is, the people of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland have spoken as a United Kingdom, and their decision is that we should leave the European Union The noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, pointed out that the role of Parliament must be remembered. Like him, perhaps, I am a Burkean on the issue of representative democracy. He said, and I agree, that there should be no running back to the people. It is for Parliament to consider the present withdrawal agreement. It is for Parliament to accept or reject that withdrawal agreement. It is for Parliament to address the consequences of its actions, and it answers to the people in a representative democracy. I agree with much of what he said about the process that we should be going through in this context.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-11-20
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): I am obliged to the noble Lord for reminding me of his question. Under the provisions of the withdrawal agreement, if there is a question as to the interpretation of a point of EU law, the interpretation must be given by the arbitration panel to the Court of Justice of the European Union, which will determine that point. The application of that interpretation of European law will be a matter for the arbitration panel, not the court. That is why we have an independent arbitration panel and it is why I took issue with the way in which the noble Lord sought to characterise the matter. At the end of the day, the issues that the arbitration panel will be addressing will, no doubt, involve mixed questions of fact and law. The panel will be masters of the fact, apply the law and make a determination on that mixed basis I am told that I have three minutes left. That being so—I know that noble Lords would want me to have another 30 minutes—I will quickly go through some of the issues which were touched upon but which I have not yet addressed. Many noble Lords talked about a people’s referendum. I hope that I have made the point that that simply does not accord with our democratic principles, nor does it reflect the will of the people when they voted in the referendum. I was quite taken by the observation of the noble Lord, Lord Warner. He said that only 38% of the electorate voted to leave. That is 17.4 million people and, under our democratic traditions, is what we call a majority.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-11-20
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): Every year is a new year The noble Lord, Lord Judd, made the prescient point that the political declaration is vital and that until we have that declaration we will not have a clear picture of where we are going to be with our future relationship. This is a staged process. We have the withdrawal agreement in draft; we are capable of taking that forward. We are capable of having a Brexit that works for both the EU 27 and ourselves. We will have an implementation period and we will then have the opportunity to lay out the precise terms of our future relationship with the EU 27 The noble Lord, Lord Anderson of Ipswich, talked about an extension of the Article 50 process. It is not the policy of this Government that the Article 50 process should be interrupted. Notice has been given; the date of exit is determined; we will follow that through to a conclusion. The noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, raised a number of issues relating to Written Questions. I do not have the answer, but I will arrange for a letter to be written and will put a copy in the Library. I do not know what the present status of various Questions to that department is Finally, the noble Lord, Lord Dobbs, referred to a deliberate act of punishment on the part of the EU. I cannot accept that. The EU 27 are negotiating in the best interests of the EU 27. We are negotiating in the interests of the entire United Kingdom. It is going to be a demanding negotiation but, at the end of the day, we will have an ongoing, civilised and mutually beneficial relationship with the EU 27 after we have left I am obliged to noble Lords for their attention.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House I will repeat the Answer to an Urgent Question which was given by my honourable friend Robin Walker, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Department for Exiting the European Union. The Statement is as follows: "Mr Speaker, I recognise this was a question which was the subject of much discussion and some speculation yesterday. I hope to be able to put honourable Members’ concerns at ease Put simply, in keeping with the clear intention of the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, the Government will ensure that the question of whether to accept an agreement is brought back to this House before 21 January. If Parliament accepts that deal, we will introduce the EU withdrawal agreement Bill to implement the withdrawal agreement in domestic legislation. If Parliament chooses to reject the deal, the Government will be required to make a Statement on their proposed next steps and table a Motion in neutral terms on that Statement. Following the passage of the amendment to the Business of the House Motion last week, that Motion will be amendable. So it is our clear intention that this House will consider this matter before 21 January and have the opportunity to decide on the deal But let me also say this clearly: in the unlikely and highly undesirable circumstances that as of 21 January there is no deal before the House, the Government would bring a Statement to the House and arrange for a debate, as specified by the law. I am confident that we will have a deal the House can support, but I hope the Statement puts to rest the concerns of honourable Members about the Government’s commitment to meet the spirit, as well as the letter, of the withdrawal Act and to respect the will of the House".
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Government Operations
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I do not accept the allusion to uncertainty that the noble Baroness referred to. We are following a discernible course of action in order to implement a demanding issue in accordance with the will of the people of the United Kingdom. As regards the idea that it will be six weeks, no time limit has been fixed for the period in which this matter will be the subject of further assurance and in which it will be brought back to Parliament. What we have said is that 21 January is a date beyond which we will not go.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Kerr, has said many things with regard to Article 50, but the Court of Justice of the European Union has given its ruling on its interpretation of Article 50, and it speaks for itself.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): It will of course be for the Government to determine what legislation is brought forward and when. The Government remain confident that there is sufficient time to bring forward the necessary legislation for our exit from the European Union as at 29 March of next year.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): I gently remind the noble Lord that what he refers to as the people’s vote is actually a second referendum; that the first referendum had on the paper the question of whether or not we remain in the European Union; and that that question has been answered.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the matter of the present agreement is still the subject of ongoing discussion with members of the EU 27 and with the institutions of the European Union. Once those discussions are completed, of course the agreement will be brought back to this Parliament.
European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: International Affairs
Richard Keen (Conservative, Centre-right): In the event that the House of Commons resolves not to approve the withdrawal agreement, in accordance with the provisions of Section 13, it will be a requirement that a Minister of the Crown will, within a period of 21 days, make a Statement to the House with regard to our intentions.
Online Pornography (Commercial Basis) Regulations 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Government Operations
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): That the draft Regulations laid before the House on 10 October be approved Special attention drawn to the instrument by the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, 38th Report, 4th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee (Sub-Committee B).
Online Pornography (Commercial Basis) Regulations 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Technology
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their contributions and for the myriad questions which I will try to answer, in a slightly random order. It is important that we take a bit of time to discuss these; as many noble Lords have said, this is the start of something quite complicated. As I said at the beginning, we ought to bear in mind that we are trying to protect children. In the debates during the passage of the Digital Economy Bill, the Government always acknowledged that they would not have a complete solution, as many noble Lords said and as I mentioned during my opening remarks. We will take on board noble Lords’ comments. Indeed, we have shown—this is a partial answer to the question of why it has taken so long—that we have consulted quite widely; we have discussed the wording of the regulations themselves and the guidelines; and the Secretary of State’s guidelines to the BBFC, which the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, mentioned, were available during the passage of the Digital Economy Bill We have tried to involve people, which is right given that we are at the beginning of something unique in the world. When we come to talk—I put a certain amount of emphasis on this—about social media and some of the areas that we do not cover in these regulations, we will look at those either in the review to come within 12 to 18 months or in the online harms White Paper. We are still discussing that White Paper and are still open to ideas about what it should include. I am pleased to say that the Secretary of State will make a meeting available to all Peers to discuss what they think should be in the White Paper. We will do that as soon as we can; I will let Peers know about it in due course.
Online Pornography (Commercial Basis) Regulations 2018 — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Technology
Thomas Ashton (Conservative, Centre-right): I had not forgotten that. It would obviously be difficult for me to commit to finding the necessary time but I will take that back to the department. I am not sure that it is currently within the plans of the Chief Whip to bring forward that legislation but I will ask. I understand the point that is being made but, as I said, the issue may well be covered within the review. I am afraid I cannot go any further than that tonight As for ancillary service providers, the BBFC and the DDCMS have been engaging with several companies. They have already agreed to act, as doing so is in line with their current terms of service. Therefore, we are optimistic that the voluntary approach will work, and of course that will be reviewed. The right reverend Prelate, the noble Earl, Lord Erroll, and others talked about the rationale for choosing one-third of content as the appropriate threshold. During the passage of the Bill, it was established that the focus should be on commercial pornography sites and not on social media. There were good reasons for that but I do not want to revisit them—that is what was decided. The one-third threshold was regarded as proportionate in introducing this new policy where sites make pornography available free of charge. However, websites that market themselves as pornographic will also be required to have age verification, even if less than a third of the content is pornographic A third is an arbitrary amount. It was discussed and consulted on, and we think that it is a good place to start on a proportionate basis. We will keep this matter under review and, as I said, it will be one of the obvious things to be taken into account during the 12 to 18-month review. The noble Lord, Lord Morrow, asked how it will be measured. It will be measured by assessing the number of pieces of content rather than the length of individual videos. It will include all pornographic images, videos and individual bits of content, but the point to remember is that the threshold is there so that a decision can be made on whether it is reasonable for the regulator to assume that pornographic content makes up more than one-third of the entire content. This will be done by sampling the various sites The noble Earl, Lord Erroll, asked about ISP blocking and suggested that everyone would try to game the system to get out of meeting the requirements. That is not what we believe. The BBFC has already engaged with ISPs and we are confident that this will be an effective sanction. The wording in the guidance indicates that the regulator should take a "proportionate approach". However, we are grateful for the noble Earl’s help. I am sure that he will also help during the review and later in the process when it comes to online harms. I see that he wants to help now.
Operation Conifer — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Law and Crime
Alastair Cooke (Conservative, Centre-right): That this House regrets the failure by Her Majesty’s Government to institute an independent inquiry into Operation Conifer conducted by the Wiltshire police into allegations of child sex abuse against Sir Edward Heath; and calls on Her Majesty’s Government to make proposals for an independent review of the seven unsubstantiated allegations left unresolved at the end of Operation Conifer.
Operation Conifer — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Law and Crime
Stephen Sherbourne (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I too pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Lexden, who, as others have said, has been indefatigable in this cause, as indeed have many other Members of the House. I welcome to the Front Bench my noble friend Lady Barran. This is her first debate The question which concerns us this evening is: how did we allow the reputation of a former Prime Minister to be so damaged by unsubstantiated allegations, lies, fantasies, false statements, possible perjury and the shamefully prejudicial language of a chief constable? This has happened step by step: allegations are made, so a police officer, who should know better, deliberately positions himself outside the home of Edward Heath, in front of the television cameras, and calls upon victims—that was the word he used, not complainants—to come forward. We then have, as has been said, the then chief constable of Wiltshire, Mike Veale, being quoted as saying he was 120% sure of Edward Heath’s guilt. The man formerly known as Nick—now named as Carl Beech—is finally charged with perjury and perverting the course of justice We have witnessed a saga of fiction created by fantasies, aided and abetted by gullible police officers, and shockingly given credence by an overzealous chief constable. It is a catalogue of shame. It besmirched the reputation of a former Prime Minister, and throughout, the Government stood idly by. There has been debate after debate in this House, question after question, but from this Government—a Conservative Government— no help or support at all. It is, to put it at its mildest, deeply disappointing The way that Operation Conifer was managed, or rather, mismanaged, and looking at how other investigations have damaged other people’s reputations—Lord Bramall, Cliff Richard, the late Lord Brittan—raises very serious questions which cause grave disquiet. There is the question of whether and when the police should investigate allegations made against a deceased person. How clear is the guidance as to the circumstances which would justify such investigations? When are they necessary or prudent? When would they be fruitless or, worse still, needlessly damaging to the reputation of a deceased person who cannot defend themselves?
Operation Conifer — House of Lords, 2018-12-11
Topic: Law and Crime
Alastair Cooke (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I perform the traditional duty of thanking all participants in this debate with particular strength and great sincerity. Like many others, I commiserate with my noble friend, who had the task of replying to this debate. She will realise at once that she leaves the House entirely and completely dissatisfied Across the House, we have been of one accord, united in a common purpose and determined to see justice done in this exceptionally important case, which has quite rightly attracted widespread public attention. A Conservative statesman has been traduced. We must have the truth, and we will get it I asked the Government four specific detailed questions about the conduct of Operation Conifer, its dire consequences and the need for an inquiry. What has been said in reply to this debate does not suffice by way of answer. I trust that I will have full answers to all four questions and that they will be sent as soon as possible to all those who have taken part in this debate and placed in the Library of the House. The most important of the four, as I stressed, was the last on the seven unsubstantiated allegations. They simply must be examined and cleared up Those who care about the reputation of Ted Heath today; those who write and lecture today, this generation and the generations to come, as historians—and I speak as an historian—must have the full, definitive facts. We must have an accurate historical record. Those who have debated this Motion have made clear their absolute support for it. Among those who have spoken, the Contents have had it without a single Not-Content—and I am content with that clear moral victory this evening in this important debate. I beg leave to withdraw the Motion.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-11-15
Topic: International Affairs
Natalie Evans (Conservative, Centre-right): First, I am very happy to tell the House that I fully support the Prime Minister and I back this deal. I would not be standing here if I did not—and I am very grateful that everyone seems so happy to see me The noble Lord and the noble Baroness asked about the outline political declaration. Negotiations will now continue to finalise the full political declaration, focusing on adding detail, defining further what balance of rights and obligations should apply in the context of trading goods and identifying which additional operational capabilities should be prioritised for consideration in the context of internal security. We are determined to conclude a full political declaration by the end of November, bringing the Article 50 negotiations to a close. Once agreed, we will bring that deal to Parliament. We have agreed, as the outline document shows, the scope of a future relationship, signalling the ambition on both sides. We have agreed to the creation of a free trade area for goods, combining deep regulatory and customs co-operation with zero tariffs and no fees, charges or quantitative restrictions across all goods sectors—the first such agreement between an advanced economy and the EU. Common ground has been reached on our intention to have a close relationship on services and investment, including financial services; on the desire for wide-ranging sectoral co-operation, including on transport and energy; and on fisheries, recognising that the UK will be an independent coastal state The noble Lord asked about the European arrest warrant. He is correct that it is still under negotiation, but the EU and UK have agreed to swift and effective arrangements enabling the UK and member states to extradite suspected and convicted persons efficiently and expeditiously. Both the UK and EU recognise the continued importance of close and effective operational co-operation and recognise the risks of reverting to the Council of Europe conventions. I am afraid to say to the noble Lord that we will not be holding a second referendum.
Brexit: Negotiations — House of Lords, 2018-11-15
Topic: International Affairs
Michael Bruce Forsyth (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, can my noble friend assist me? The deal that has been agreed involves spending £39 billion in return for having less say over employment policies, agricultural policies, environment and taxation. It has resulted in headlines across Europe—the most dramatic perhaps being in Ireland: "Victory in Dublin, chaos in London"— and the humiliation of our country. How can it be presented as being in the national interest to have brought about such a circumstance?