Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 15 Mar 2012 Scotland Bill
"The noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, has drawn attention to a point of principle here. Creating special categories is, by definition, undesirable. It is probably the case that every single person who meets the three categories listed here would qualify as having a close connection under the other tests of what …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"My Lords, I follow exactly what the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, is doing but it gets worse and worse. The best answer would be to remove these special categories altogether. Other countries have gone down the road of having special treatment for the public sector nomenklatura and singling it out …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"I am lost. I fear that I do not understand this no-detriment principle. I may be showing my ignorance coming late to this subject. I thought that I understood the rationale for the Scottish rate: the UK system would remain the same but there would be this variable—take 10 per …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"That is marvellous news. I do not have a house in Scotland now but I need to get up there fast and get a close connection. If, on the Minister’s example, the allowances improve, that will suit me personally, but the Scottish Government and the First Minister will have more …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"May I ask the noble Lord about the economic benefits of the change and the reduction in the tax take, and to confirm that it would not suffer a reduction in its tax take?..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for trying to cast light into my ignorance, but it is getting worse; the fog is getting thicker. Does the no-detriment principle have a reciprocal? If not, why not? Should there not be a reciprocal? Let us suppose there was a tax change …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"My position is diametrically opposed to that of the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, on the general power. I agree with him that it would be good not to have the accountability element so heavily dependent simply on the extra tranche of income tax. However, it is up to the Scots …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"As always, the noble Lord, Lord Forsyth, follows precisely the recommendations of the Scottish Parliament committee...." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech
"I will not follow the noble Lord, Lord Foulkes, into his trenchant criticism because most of it seems to apply to the role of the credit rating agencies in respect to private issuers; I will stick to the sovereign risk role which is discussed in the admirable report from the …..." Lord Kerr of Kinlochard - View Speech