Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 12th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I understand my hon. Friend’s concern, but I have to be frank with him: the Government do not have plans to introduce legislation to reform the law on abortion. The issue was debated at some length in the previous Parliament. However, if he wants a debate on it, he may like to approach the Backbench Business Committee, because I appreciate that strong views are held on both sides of the argument.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

As the Leader of the House is having so much trouble filling parliamentary time, why has he not been able to allow the Prime Minister to fulfil his promise of having a debate and a vote on fox hunting? Might that be because the Leader of the House is not looking very hard for that time?

Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

The rules to which my hon. Friend refers are exactly the same as those that pertained under the previous regime, and which we inherited from the outgoing Government. I will draw his concern to the attention of the relevant Department and see whether there is any role for the responsible Minister to play, but I have to say that, by and large, conversion to academy status has been welcomed by local communities.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

May we have a debate on Lords reform? I do not know whether the Leader of the House is a fan of “I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!”, but would not one interim solution to the overcrowding he is causing down the other end of this building be a new reality TV show, perhaps called “Peer Pressure”, as that would provide an efficient and entertaining way to cull the rapidly increasing population of the unelected?

[Sir George Young]

The hon. Gentleman may find that when his parliamentary career here finishes he does not end up in the upper House. I say to him that one of the problems that we inherited from the outgoing Government was the total failure—[Hon. Members: “Oh no.”] Oh yes. We inherited their total failure, after three elections where there had been overwhelming Labour majorities, to deliver on their election manifesto and reform the upper House. We have a draft Bill going through at the moment, which is being examined by a Joint Committee—I am sure that it will be interested in the hon. Gentleman’s views. The person who increased the size of the House of Lords more than anybody else was Tony Blair.

Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 10th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I would welcome such a debate. Of course, if fares were cut, that might have a read-across to the capital programme, including Crossrail and the tube upgrades. I am sure that Londoners are far too sophisticated to be misled by the sort of piece of paper of which my hon. Friend was the recipient earlier this week.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

The “Not in my Cuppa” campaign by the World Society for the Protection of Animals was successful in defeating a mega-dairy proposal in Nocton, Lincolnshire, but we now discover that a vote by six councillors in Powys, against officers’ advice, means that one may be built in Wales. May we have a debate on protecting animal welfare and resisting these mega-dairies?

[Sir George Young]

I think that that is more a matter for Ministers at the Department for Communities and Local Government or, if it is a delegated matter, for the Welsh Assembly. I will draw the hon. Gentleman’s concern to the attention of the relevant Minister, but we are anxious to devolve decisions and we believe that most of those decisions are best taken at local level rather than here in Whitehall.

Cabinet Secretary Report (Government Response)

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Wednesday 19th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I did not say that I did not think that he was a lobbyist but that the Cabinet Secretary did not think that he was a lobbyist. When we publish the consultation paper next month, we will be open to consultation on what a lobbyist is. In the view of many people, the definition should include Mr Werritty.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Leaving political differences aside, it is a genuine shame that one of the few members of the Government from an ordinary background has been forced to resign. Will the Leader of the House tell us how many donations were solicited by the former Defence Secretary, how much those donations were valued at and why he solicited them?

[Sir George Young]

I am grateful for what the hon. Gentleman said about my right hon. Friend the Member for North Somerset (Dr Fox), but he was not forced to resign. He chose to resign last Friday and set out the reasons for that in his letter.

Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 13th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I understand why all our local papers are anxious to have access to next year’s Olympics. I will certainly raise this with Department for Culture, Media and Sport Ministers, although it might be a matter for the organisers of the Olympics. I understand my hon. Friend’s concern, and I will pass it on.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

May we have an urgent statement on whether any Conservative candidate at the last general election received illegal funding for foreign travel from foreign organisations linked to Adam Werritty?

[Sir George Young]

If there is any evidence that anything illegal has taken place, the hon. Gentleman should notify the police.

Procedure Committee Reports

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 13th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Knight]

I hope that some male Members are also capable of multi-tasking, but I am grateful to my hon. Friend for her support.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

In considering how to refresh and enliven the Chamber, did the Committee consider ensuring that the Chamber has wireless reception so that we can communicate more quickly using our electronic devices?

[Mr Knight]

I believe that in such matters it is better to take one step at a time, but we may return to that, subject to the House’s conclusion today.

--- Later in debate ---

[Luciana Berger]

I thank the hon. Gentleman, who makes two points on which I shall elaborate in a few moments. As I said, I believe that Twitter, for the reasons I outlined, allows our constituents to hold us to account better.

A number of Members have said that if the public want to know what is going on, they should watch our proceedings on television. However, as @Scarletstand said, people “can’t all watch” it “on TV”. Not everyone has access to a television or a computer for internet TV, although they may have internet access to sites like Twitter on their mobile phones. It also less likely that the public would choose to watch the Parliament channel. The right hon. Member for Bermondsey and Old Southwark (Simon Hughes) expressed in an earlier intervention his worry about what people might think as they watched us on television, but according to BARB—the Broadcasters Audience Research Board—the average weekly viewing per person of BBC Parliament is just one minute.

[Kevin Brennan]

That much?

[Luciana Berger]

That much. I think it is when they flick through to get to another channel. As @Scarletstand went on to say, tweeting from the Chamber

“helps voters gauge mood & tone”.

--- Later in debate ---

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

I support the proposal ably put forward by my right hon. Friend the Member for East Yorkshire (Mr Knight)—and he is my friend. He has recently printed an excellent book, “Dishonourable Insults”, in which I appear on page 163, and I thank him for that, too—[Interruption.] It is available in all good book shops and I wish him every success. When I intervened on him earlier, I suggested that in addition to his proposals we should ensure that we have wireless reception in the House of Commons Chamber. Not so long ago, when I was trying to live tweet during Prime Minister’s questions—I had advertised the fact that I would try to do so in advance—I failed completely because of the poor reception we sometimes get here for electronic devices. I apologise, Mr Deputy Speaker, if, in doing so and in making that admission, I was breaking some rules of the House at the time.

May I clarify one thing? I had a little contretemps in the Chamber earlier this year with the hon. Member for Cambridge (Dr Huppert), who told us with his characteristic modesty that he was the first MP ever to sign up for Twitter—

[Dr Huppert]

rose—

[Kevin Brennan]

I see I have provoked him into intervening, and I cannot say no after I mentioned him, can I?

[Dr Huppert]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for praising my modesty—that is very kind of him. We did have that discussion, but I think things have moved on. I wanted to be clear in case I misspoke earlier: of the current MPs, I believe I was the first. I was certainly not the first MP on Twitter. I do not know who has that honour, although I am sure they will claim it later.

[Kevin Brennan]

I am very grateful for the hon. Gentleman’s intervention because he has highlighted the fact that what I said about his modesty was meant to be ironic, and Hansard does not pick that up very well, so this gives me the opportunity to make that clear. Let me repeat a proposal that I have made in the past—that irony should be put in italics in Hansard so that everybody outside reading it can understand what exactly was meant.

The contretemps that the hon. Gentleman and I had was in relation to a point of order that I raised while you were in the Chair, Mr Deputy Speaker. At that time, your ruling was interpreted as a ban on the use of Twitter in the Chamber, but I know, having had subsequent talks with you, that that was not exactly what you meant.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle)]

Order. For clarification, it is not that what I said was not what I meant—it was that people had not listened, I think.

[Kevin Brennan]

I stand corrected, Mr Deputy Speaker. As ever, what you said was very wise indeed.

Returning to the point about the hon. Member for Cambridge, my point of order related to his use of Twitter in the Chamber during a debate when he was disputing something that was being said from the Dispatch Box by another Member. I think that some very reasonable concerns have been raised by opponents of the motion on how it could impact on the quality of debate. I have always thought that if one has a point of dispute or question about what is being said by someone who has the Floor of the House or other Chamber, one should attempt to intervene before one starts putting out messages disputing what they are saying on Twitter. I think that is the kind of courtesy and common sense that the Chairman and his Committee are calling for in their recommendations.

Yesterday, I met a delegation from the central committee school of the Communist party of China, who were very interested in what I had to say about communications and Twitter and the way that MPs use them. If I tell the House that the delegation was somewhat sceptical about my advocating the use of Twitter, hon. Members might understand that I think it is a force for good, for democracy, for free speech and for communication with our constituents, and not a source for bad. I understand the concerns held by many hon. Members on the Government side but I think they might find themselves embracing this means of communication in the near future as a good way of getting their messages about politics and their views out there and of engaging in interactive discussion with their constituents and others.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

I agree with everything the hon. Gentleman has said. Does he agree that social media such as Twitter and Facebook give MPs the chance to broadcast to their constituents without relying on broadcasters?

[Kevin Brennan]

I do. Further than that, it can also lead to opportunities to broadcast through the more conventional media. For example, as some hon. Members will know, yesterday in Welsh questions I asked the Welsh Secretary to ask the Prime Minister, when he was sitting next to her, to make sure that the Welsh flag was flying over No. 10 Downing street this weekend, just as the flag of St George flew last year during the World cup, to acknowledge the achievements of the Welsh rugby team. After Prime Minister’s questions I was invited on to a phone-in on Radio Wales on which there was a very lively discussion about this proposition. By five o’clock in the evening the Prime Minister had quite rightly agreed that the flag could be flying, and I give him credit for that. So, very quickly, Twitter, conventional media and the use of this Chamber altogether were involved in getting a result for constituents. I think that is a good example of how this technology can be beneficial.

[Jo Swinson]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Kevin Brennan]

I will give way for the last time because I had not intended to take up my full time.

[Jo Swinson]

I am very grateful. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that although Twitter can certainly be useful for broadcasting, the real value of that kind of interaction is that it is not solely about broadcasting, with MPs sending out messages to constituents, but that it allows two-way communication and can really engage people in the political process?

[Kevin Brennan]

I just about heard the hon. Lady over the twittering of her colleagues at the Bar. She is absolutely right. I was about to make that point, but I will not do so in the interests of brevity, because she has made it for me.

I wrote an article, alongside the hon. Member for North Wiltshire (Mr Gray), in Total Politics magazine a few months ago in which we debated these issues. I think I made it clear in that article that I respect and understand where he is coming from. Like other right hon. and hon. Government Members who have spoken about the issue, he wants to maintain the reputation of the House for the quality of its debates and to ensure that our debates do not descend into a simple parade of read-out speeches. I agree that it would be the death of debate in the House if that happened, but their fears are misplaced.

One can embrace and use such technology and such devices while enlivening and enhancing our debates by bringing in information—yes, from outside, but what is wrong with that? If Ministers can get in-flight refuelling from the officials’ box, why cannot Back Benchers get in-flight refuelling electronically during their speeches if a useful fact can be drawn from outside? I see nothing wrong in being able to draw on all the expertise and information that is available from outside the Chamber.

In our exchange of articles, the hon. Gentleman made some very interesting points, but I will end by simply saying that there is nothing new in political communication in trying to get a message across in a pithy, memorable way, as Twitter enables us to do. In fact, I think that it was a certain Winston Churchill who said:

“Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”—[Official Report, 20 August 1940; Vol. 364, c. 1167.]

If that statement was issued as a tweet, it would leave 66 of the 140 characters available on Twitter still to play with. That goes to show that those who want to fight the onslaught of technology on the beaches will find that the tide is turning against them.

Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 14th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I am sorry to hear of my hon. Friend’s problems. I understand that the director of operations at IPSA has offered a meeting with my hon. Friend, which I hope addresses his particular concerns. As he knows, we have just set up a Committee to look at the legislation that covers IPSA. He will have an opportunity to feed in to the work of that Committee his suggestions as to how we might make future changes.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Can the Leader of the House imagine the reaction there would have been if Tony Hayward, the then chief executive officer of BP, refused to appear before the congressional committee in the US? My hon. Friend the Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) has pointed out to the Leader of the House that he has the power to introduce a motion that would require the witnesses who are refusing to come to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee to attend, and for the Serjeant at Arms to go and fetch them. Will he at least pledge today, on the Floor of the House, that he will use whatever powers are at his disposal to ensure that those witnesses turn up next week?

[Sir George Young]

I understand the hon. Gentleman’s concern. My view is that that is a matter for the House rather than for the Government.

Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation Bid for BSkyB

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Wednesday 13th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Whittingdale]

I recall vividly the evidence given by Rebekah Brooks to the Committee when the right hon. Gentleman was its Chairman. It included matters that he rightly says might turn out to be criminal, and I am certain that the judicial inquiry will want to examine them. I have no doubt that some of my colleagues on the Select Committee, who are extremely robust on these matters, might well wish to ask questions about those matters as well, should they have the chance to do so.

In regard to the takeover of BSkyB—which is, after all, the matter that we are supposed to be debating this afternoon—it has always been the case that there are more stringent tests for the acquisition of a media company in this country. That is right; it is a reflection of the power of the media that they should be subject to greater tests. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, my right hon. Friend the Member for South West Surrey (Mr Hunt), who has been utterly scrupulous in his handling of this matter. I believe that he has acted on the basis of independent advice at every stage, and it is difficult to find fault with the way in which he has conducted himself.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

Speaking as a former competition Minister, may I ask the hon. Gentleman to accept that it was open to the Secretary of State to make a choice to stick with his original conclusion that he was minded to refer the matter to the Competition Commission? Had he done that, we could have been saved a lot of trouble.

[Mr Whittingdale]

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State acted on the basis of the advice that he received from Ofcom. The original advice was that he should refer the bid, but Ofcom then came back and said that the undertakings being given by News Corporation were sufficient and that there was no longer a need to do so. At every stage, he has acted on the advice of the independent regulator.

I want to say a few words about BSkyB, which has been an extraordinarily successful company. It has pioneered choice in television and introduced the personal video recorder, high-definition television and 3D television. It has recently passed the 10 million home mark. It has been incredibly successful. It is right that its ownership should be subject to very close scrutiny. I would also like to commend it on its most recent announcement of £600 million of annual investment in UK content, which will do a tremendous amount of good.

The test that my right hon. Friend the Culture Secretary put up to be examined was that of plurality. That is about Sky News. It is worth saying that throughout this saga, Sky News has displayed the same objectivity and independence in its coverage of matters concerning its parent company—or the company that sought to become its parent company—as it has in other matters.

Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 7th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

I understand what my hon. Friend says, and he may have seen the exchange that took place on 30 June, when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport answered an urgent question. He said:

“Before coming to such a view”—

on the application before him—

“I will of course seek once again the advice of the independent external regulators.”—[Official Report, 30 June 2011; Vol. 530, c. 1107.]

That includes Ofcom and, of course, the Office of Fair Trading.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

We need that urgent debate on the BSkyB/News Corp takeover because yesterday we had the ludicrous spectacle of the Culture Secretary communicating with the House of Commons by whispering in the ear of the Government’s lawyer, as if he were on trial at the Old Bailey. Should not the Culture Secretary man up and take the stand himself by making an urgent statement today at the Dispatch Box?

[Sir George Young]

I think the hon. Gentleman is somewhat unfair. My right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General was intervening in a debate and speaking about his own responsibilities. He generously took questions that related to another Minister’s responsibilities and, in answering them, he sensibly took advice. As the Prime Minister has said, Ministers in this Government talk to each other.

Business of the House

Kevin Brennan Excerpts

Thursday 30th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Sir George Young]

That is indeed an important engine for growth, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for raising the matter. He will know that we have raised the lifetime limit on capital gains qualifying for entrepreneurs’ relief to £10 million, and I hope that that will make the UK a more attractive location for entrepreneurs by encouraging those who want to expand their business and reinvest in growth to do so here.

[Kevin Brennan (Cardiff West) (Lab)]

May we have a statement on Ministers’ replies to Members’ correspondence? I have received an e-mail from the Under-Secretary of State for International Development, the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr O'Brien), in which he says that it is not the policy of the Department for International Development to respond to “similar items” of correspondence that MPs send to it, because

“this places a burden on DFID’s resources which would be better directed towards the poor.”

I do not recall the code of conduct on Ministers replying to Members’ correspondence containing that kind of provision, and I would be grateful if we could have a statement and perhaps some consultation on this matter, to clarify the extent to which Ministers can pick and choose to which MPs’ letters they reply.

[Sir George Young]

Every Member of Parliament is entitled to a prompt and courteous response from Ministers to the letters that they send, but if a Member sent 1,500 identical cards to a Minister, for example, it would be reasonable for the Minister to send one reply and ask the Member to notify the constituents who had sent all the cards to him. It does not follow that every single identical letter sent to a Minister is entitled to a personal reply, but each individual subject should certainly get an answer from the appropriate Minister.