argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Covid-19 Update — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Social Welfare
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The point is that the Prime Minister asked me to withdraw remarks, when what we had done was speak truth to power. However, there were several things that the Prime Minister said that were quite simply incorrect in relation to both myself and the deputy Leader of the Opposition, most importantly on the issue of poverty. Figures from the House of Commons Library and, indeed, from the United Nations confirm that poverty in this country has increased, and we need to stop the situation where the Prime Minister can come and make up his facts in the House of Commons.
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
Alyn Edward Smith (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): A good new year to you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and to colleagues I, too, am grateful for sight of the statement by the Secretary of State. Trade deals are the ultimate curate’s egg—there are things to admire and things to dislike in all of them. There are things to admire in this deal. I am grateful for that, and I welcome such progress as has been made. In the European Parliament, I was in favour of ambitious trade deals, and often found myself voting against the deals that had been negotiated because I thought that they could go further on environmental standards, human rights and climate change. In this deal, there really is a missed opportunity on climate change. It could have gone an awful lot further with one of the key countries in the world in the fight against climate change, and the standards could have been an awful lot higher I am struck, as ever, by the capacity of Government Members to become giddy with excitement about the upsides and hypothetical benefits of Brexit while ignoring the real-world consequences in the cost and heartache of leaving the European Union—in Scotland’s case, very much against our will. In the best-case scenario, taking the Government’s figures at their best, this deal will increase UK GDP by 0.08% by 2035. That is not nothing—and I welcome it—but the Office for Budget Responsibility, by contrast, has calculated that we will lose a full 4% of GDP. We need to look at that in the round, and Members need to see the deal in context This is not the last time that we will discuss this issue, so I will limit my remarks to agriculture and future scrutiny. I quote Martin Kennedy, the president of the National Farmers Union of Scotland: "The final deal…shows a complete dearth of proper consultation with farming and food sector interests across the UK. While we are not against free trade, this deal appears to be very one sided, with little to no advantage for Scottish farmers" I could not have said it better. If covid and Brexit have taught us anything it is that indigenous food production across these islands—indeed, across this continent—and short supply chains are vital to our national security and national resilience, however we define "national". Anything that undermines that will be viewed with extreme scepticism by SNP Members On scrutiny, to what extent can anyone influence a deal that has already been signed? If the Trade and Agriculture Commission makes a recommendation against part of this deal, what happens? That is a genuine question. What input will there be for the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Senedd and the Northern Ireland Assembly. If any of them says no to any part of the deal, what happens?
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Doogan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Fair play to Canberra, because they have no’ half scored a great deal with this one. It must be delicious to have scored such a great trade deal over your former overlords in London. I look forward to the benefits that this will bring to Scottish distilling—gin and whisky—but if exports of lamb and sheep meat from Australia to the United Kingdom are so insignificant to the Australians, why did you not write them out of the deal, because it is what you are getting the most heat on—
UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Foreign Trade
David Michael Doogan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I beg your pardon, Madam Deputy Speaker. Why did the Minister not seek to write those exports out of the deal, and will she take a second opportunity to answer the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Stirling (Alyn Smith) about what she will do if she finds herself at odds with the devolved Administrations in the devolved nations? Will she simply ram through her agenda with the UK United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020?
New Nuclear Power — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): When it comes to new nuclear, there is not a single successful EPR plan operational anywhere in the world. The regulated asset base—RAB—model has not been shown to work for new nuclear, so why does the Minister think that it is a good investment of £63 billion of bill payers’ money to sign up for Sizewell C when it is just going to be another white elephant?
Scottish Businesses: UK Government — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Foreign Trade
Steven Bonnar (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Just last week, the Federation of Small Businesses flagged up the grim realities of Brexit, citing that 74% have experienced a sharp fall in international sales and exports because of import checks on trade with the EU, yet that reality is completely at odds with the outpourings of Lord Frost who used the new year honours list to purport an opaquely upbeat metric on the success of businesses across these isles. How are Scottish businesses supposed to feel any shred of confidence in this Government when such comments are completely at odds with what is happening on the ground? Even Baroness Davidson, the face of the Scottish Tories for the past decade, says that "I despair when I see people—even those of my own party—dismissing business or disrespecting the herculean efforts that people have gone to".—[Official Report, House of Lords, 9 December 2021; Vol. 816, c. 2021.]
Energy Transition Projects — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Allan Hopkins Dorans (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I thank the Minister for his response and his kind wishes. The UK Government have decided not to rethink and reverse their decision not to fund the carbon capture, utilisation and storage facility at St Fergus, and the Chancellor has failed to match the Scottish Government’s £500 million investment in a just transition fund for the north-east and Moray. By deploying CCUS, hydrogen and direct air capture technology in Scotland, the Scottish cluster would support an average of 15,100 jobs between 2022 and 2050. Do major Scottish projects only have priority in the months ahead of an independence referendum?
Energy Transition Projects — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Of course, it is not just on carbon capture underground storage where the UK Government have betrayed Scotland’s interests. As the Minister will be acutely aware, Scottish renewables projects continue to pay the highest level of grid charging anywhere in the entirety of Europe. Indeed, I was speaking to an operator just recently who told me that over the lifespan of his project, he anticipates that it will pay £1 billion in grid charging; meantime, a project in East Anglia will not pay a single penny. Is that a Union of equals?
Energy Transition Projects — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Of course, the Minister’s continual deflection to Ofgem fails to meet the needs of businesses in Scotland. He will also be acutely aware that under the Energy Act 2004—section 185, I believe it is—he could take action to change the status quo, but he chooses not to, and the reason is quite clear. The National Grid is clear that in a couple of years Scottish projects will pay £465 million into the grid, while projects in England and Wales will cumulatively get a subsidy of £30 million—a renewables robbery in plain sight. Is it not the case that while Scotland has the energy as part of this United Kingdom, it does not have the power?
Downing Street Garden Event — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Government Operations
Ian Blackford (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I congratulate the right hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne (Angela Rayner) on obtaining this urgent question, but let us look around: where is the Prime Minister? The Prime Minister should be here to answer these serious questions. Where are the Government Front Benchers? Indeed, where are the Government Back Benchers This is the most serious of matters: this is a Prime Minister who has been accused of breaking a law that he himself set. It could not be more serious. I have sympathy with the Minister, the fall guy who has to answer the debate today. The harsh reality is that people around these islands watched loved ones dying and missed funerals, and the PM and his staff partied behind the walls of his private garden On that very day, on 20 May, there was a tweet from the Metropolitan police reminding people of their responsibilities, "You may meet only one person outside". The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in the Cabinet, gave a press conference at No. 10 at 5 pm to reiterate that message. There was one rule for the rest of us and another rule for those in No. 10. The Minister seeks to hide behind the investigation, but let me ask him: was Sue Gray one of those invited to that party on 20 May, and did she attend This is a Prime Minister who has lost his moral authority. He does not deserve the respect and trust of the people of these islands. If he will not do the decent thing and recognise that he ought to resign, I say to the Minister and to the Conservative Back Benchers that they will have to do what the Prime Minister has failed to do—force him from office, and do it now.
Downing Street Garden Event — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Government Operations
James Neale Hanvey (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): There is an expression, "the buck stops at the top," which is usually applied by people in leadership when they take responsibility. In April last year my 58-year-old friend Ray lost his battle with covid and died. We went to his funeral online via video link. In August my father passed away and I was fortunate enough to be in the room to hold his hand as he passed away. In the intervening months, I lost count of the number of conversations I had with families and council officers who were trying to negotiate more than six or eight people at a funeral. Will the Paymaster General please explain why the Downing Street social world is more important than those lives and the law of the land?
Downing Street Garden Event — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Government Operations
Ronald Jack Cowan (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): We work within a system in which the Prime Minister appoints the independent adviser and the Prime Minister is responsible for applying the ministerial code, but this Prime Minister has demeaned his position by becoming a law unto himself. He refuses to observe the Nolan principles, so who among this Government is going to be brave enough to tell the Prime Minister that the party is finally over?
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is incredible, given the current cost-of-living crisis, that the UK Government seem to be incapable of doing anything different. The Chief Secretary reeled off a list of measures that the Government were already taking, but there was nothing new in his speech. There was nothing about what the Government are doing to tackle the current crisis, and they need to think again We have already seen the broken promises about lower energy bills post Brexit. Now all the Tory Back Benchers who campaigned for lower VAT on energy bills are queuing up to back the Government not to introduce a VAT holiday, and that makes no sense either. The fact is that without Government action, a real crisis looms. It is not credible for the energy cap to rise to approximately £2,000 a year in April. National Energy Action estimates that there are already 4.5 million fuel-poor households in the UK, which is a disgrace, and if the cap rises, as is predicted, the number will rise to 6 million. The Government really need to think about that, and take action to prevent it It is also worth looking at how the cap operates at present. It does provide protection for the vulnerable, but not enough protection. A constituent of mine who is on the standard variable tariff is struggling to pay her bills. Because the cap is based on average energy units, she is already paying £200 more per annum than the predicted cap. I urge the Government and Ofgem to look at how the cap works in reality As has been said, raising the cap to the extent that the average user will pay £600 more per annum would be so damaging that it cannot happen. I therefore support the calls for Government loans to be used to help energy companies to smooth over the transitional costs over, say, 10 years. I certainly support further direct intervention to mitigate any fuel rises. On that basis, I am happy to support the VAT holiday proposed in the Labour motion, although the predicted £89 annual saving will be wiped out if the Government do not take action to mitigate the cap.
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): Let me come to the next part of my speech, which will address that point. I am absolutely incredulous that, as the hon. Gentleman pointed out, Labour MPs were whipped to vote for that Bill, which will add billions of pounds to electricity bills. The Bill’s impact assessment, published by Ministers, shows an upper estimate of £63 billion for the capital costs and financing of a new nuclear power station. That is to be paid for by bill payers. That is not low cost: it is a burden of something like £40 billion to £60 billion added to our energy bills—and Labour voted for it. How can Labour MPs talk about lowering energy bills when they just voted to add £50 billion to our bills as bill payers? It is nonsensical and they need to rethink their nuclear policy rapidly On nuclear, the Chancellor allocated £1.7 billion for the development of Sizewell C to the final investment stage. That sum of money could pay for the Coire Glas pumped hydro storage scheme in Scotland, as well as the Cruachan dam extension. Those projects could be delivered quicker than Sizewell, they do not come with a £50 billion capital finance burden, and further investment in pumped hydro storage would save £700 million per year in operational costs compared with a reliance on nuclear Greater imagination is required in energy policy. The policies from both major UK parties sum up Scotland’s place in the Union: the Scottish CCS project has been relegated to reserve status; Scottish bill payers are having to pay for a new nuclear power station; and we are stuck paying the highest grid charges in Europe, which not only disadvantages Scottish renewable projects but means higher bills for everybody across Great Britain. Meanwhile, the Scottish oil and gas industry is asked to pay to mitigate high fuel bills throughout the UK. What about demanding that at least some of the additional oil and gas revenues are released to match fund the Scottish Government’s £500 just transition fund for the north-east of Scotland?
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The Business Minister said it was a "mistake" for the UK Government to withdraw support for the UK’s gas storage site in 2017. That site provided 70% of UK storage capacity and helped to protect consumers from price shocks; we now have some of the lowest gas-storage capacity in Europe. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Minister should have acknowledged that and apologised when he was on his feet?
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I agree wholeheartedly. It is interesting that the Government are now revisiting the Rough gas-storage scheme. Yes, there has been a global impact on wholesale prices and prices would have risen, but it is clear that storage facilities would help to provide a buffer for the UK in times of need If we look at the history of North sea exploration, Scotland has paid £375 billion of oil and gas revenues to the Exchequer, which has been squandered by successive UK Governments. For all these years, the SNP has called for an oil and gas fund to be set up, which could have been utilised in this time of need. Norway did not start its oil fund until 1990, yet it is already the largest sovereign wealth fund in the world. It grew by £90 billion during 2020—one of the covid years—and now has assets worth well over $1 trillion. That is the kind of long-term strategic planning that has been missing in the UK but that would create a buffer when required.
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I will make it clear for the hon. Gentleman: yes, our ambition is to be an independent country and yes, we want to join the EU. The vote today is about a temporary VAT holiday. The argument could be made that that could not happen under the EU, but energy policy would be reserved to Scotland so we would have much fairer policies. We would be able to do more and make other decisions, which would not rely on us having to back a 5% VAT holiday in Westminster. We would be able to do a lot more as an independent country, even in the EU.
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Energy
Alan Brown (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The right hon. Gentleman seems easily confused, but of course he is a climate change sceptic. If Scotland was in charge of its own energy policy, there would be more investment in renewables and greater hydrogen development, and we would not be paying for nuclear power. I have already said that the nuclear power stations will put up to £63 billion on to our bills; that is the estimate. We would have a much better energy policy that we could implement as an independent country and we would not have the highest grid charges in the whole of Europe.
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: International Affairs
David Melvyn Linden (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am looking on with a degree of bemusement—the hon. Member for South Thanet (Craig Mackinlay) is engaging in a debate about Scottish independence. Does my hon. Friend welcome the fact that the Government are finally engaging in the debate about Scottish independence? Perhaps the hon. Member for South Thanet will come up and campaign in the coming referendum.
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Macroeconomics
Thomas Sheppard (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): The last two years have been brutal and miserable for millions of people in this country, but not everyone has had a bad pandemic. Last year the number of millionaires in Britain increased by 10% and the number of billionaires increased by 15%. In fact, The Sunday Times estimates that, between them, the 171 billionaires in the United Kingdom are worth £600 billion, which is enough for them by themselves to fund every single pound of Government covid support over the last two years and still be the richest people in the country.
Household Energy Bills: VAT — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Macroeconomics
Thomas Sheppard (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): I am not sure of the relevance of that intervention. I was describing the manifest economic injustice apparent in our country, and that is the context against which we need to examine rising energy prices It might be thought that any Government would want to do something about the extremes of wealth and poverty in Britain, but in fact this Government are making it worse. Last autumn they chose to cut the household income of the 6 million poorest families in the United Kingdom by £1,000 a year—that was a political choice. They are now preparing to introduce tax increases this April, and tax is always a political choice. One could choose to make the wealthiest pay more or one could choose to tax accumulated wealth and capital, but no. This Government are increasing taxes for average and low earners in order to avoid increasing tax for the wealthiest people in the land, for whom tax is at a historically low level. That is the moral tapestry against which we should judge this The Government need to take serious action, because standing aside and doing nothing about the cost of living crisis would be to abdicate government. Of course there should be a cut in VAT on energy bills. In fact, consider what it means not to do that. It means that families the length and breadth of the land will face the misery of higher gas and electricity bills and, at the same time, the Government will profit from that misery by bringing in more money from the tax levied on those bills. That is immoral, and of course this proposal should be supported. Two other things are required. First, the energy cap must be maintained and the Government must take action to make sure energy suppliers are capable of delivering on it. Secondly, as a matter of priority, the Government need to make a heating and energy payment to low-income families that will allow them to deal with the increases that have already happened I would hope that these are reasonable asks of the Government of the United Kingdom, but I do not doubt what is going to happen. I know those asks will be ignored, and I know this Government think their 80-seat majority makes them impervious to reason and logic, so they will continue as they wish. That is why, in Scotland, people will be looking again at whether we have to forever be hitched to this Government—whether we have to go along with them and these policies, which benefit the well-off at the expense of the poorer—or whether it is time to take matters into our own hands and, through the political agency of being an independent country, be able to deliver things in a better way, and build an energy supply system and an economy based on fairness and community solidarity.
Reducing Costs for Businesses — House of Commons, 2022-01-11
Topic: Foreign Trade
Stephen Mark Flynn (Scottish National Party, Centre-left): It is a pleasure to take part in this important debate, and, of course, to see so many Members on the Government Front Bench. That contrasts starkly with what we saw earlier today, when the Conservatives were seeking to defend their Prime Minister—or not, as it so happens Given that this is such an important debate, I for one am a bit surprised by its content so far. We heard from the Minister that the Government had done everything that they possibly could to assist businesses throughout the pandemic, but what the Minister did not say—and what the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Stalybridge and Hyde (Jonathan Reynolds), did not seem to reflect on either—was that at the height of the pandemic, what the UK Government chose to do was leave the world’s biggest single market. What we have not heard about at any point during the debate so far is the impact of Brexit on businesses in Scotland and, indeed, throughout the United Kingdom. It is the proverbial elephant in this Chamber. All of us, every single one of us, will have businesses in our constituencies that are facing challenges, and the vast bulk of those challenges emanate from Brexit. We all know that the headline will be our figures relating to the 4% hit to the UK’s economy. We all know about the trade deficits that we have seen, the impact on exports and imports, the problems caused by labour shortages. The right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) shakes his head, but that is the reality of the situation.