"I am glad to follow the hon. Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris), who always manages to sound a little more cheerful than some of his colleagues in his constructive contributions. I congratulate the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright) on introducing this timely and necessary debate. I have a …..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"That is partly true, particularly in retail and parts of the construction industry. It is not true in some of our exporting industries, which are still finding demand and achieving sales in many parts of the world. Clearly, we want to increase demand. What we cannot do is simply pump …..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"Am I to understand from what the hon. Lady is saying that the Labour party is making a costed commitment to remove the tax from pasties, and to ensure that there is no anomaly by also removing it from fish and chips and from every other foodstuff as well?..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"I declare an interest as chairman of the Historic Chapels Trust, which is restoring a Catholic church in Blackpool. Does the hon. Gentleman recognise that when alterations were taxed differently from repairs there was a perverse incentive to alter rather than merely repair, but that the Government could help a …..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"T9. I thank the Chief Secretary to the Treasury for his help in securing the extension of the north-east enterprise zone into Northumberland, which could bring jobs to my constituents in south-east Northumberland. Will enhanced capital allowances be available within the extended area?..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"My constituents who have worked for Northern Rock, and people throughout the north-east who care about the new institution having its headquarters there, will be astonished at Labour’s opposition to the deal, as it is designed to give a future to a bank that failed on Labour’s watch, when guarantees …..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"May I return to the point that was made a moment ago? Does it not appear that the structure set up for Arch Cru was designed to ensure that the FSA did not notice what was going on, although the setting up of the structure should have been noticed by …..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"How does the hon. Gentleman deal with the fact that, even with Labour’s slower rate of deficit reduction, he could not have avoided a significant decrease in the number of public sector jobs to meet his party’s own projections of how it would reduce the deficit?..." Lord Beith - View Speech
"Does the Chancellor realise that our constituents were very angry indeed at having to bail out mismanaged British banks, and will be even angrier at having to bail out even more irresponsibly managed Irish banks? Will he not have to give a clearer picture of some of the consequences for …..." Lord Beith - View Speech