"My Lords, the period from 1970 to 1990 was a time of rapidly increasing productivity, of rapidly increasing Japanese investment in particular, and of great reduction in trade union restrictive practices, which the Japanese would not put up with. What lessons does he draw from that for today?..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"Does the Minister know why we turned down the Moroccan offer of about 3.2 gigawatts of green electricity from a colossal solar development in Morocco, for which they were prepared to offer very attractive prices, since we are certainly going to need it in due course?..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"Given that Hinkley, the French-designed nuclear project, has been billed as the most expensive the world has ever seen, and the plan is to repeat that in a replica at Sizewell, can the Minister tell us what thoughts the Government had on an alternative design at Sizewell of small reactors, …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, we should concentrate on and give priority to building smaller nuclear reactors, as the Minister’s noble friend has suggested, which can be built in two years, rather than building the gigawatt giants, which apparently we are dedicated to doing, which take years to build and are far more …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, bond markets obviously charge for their lending to certain countries, on the basis of differing judgments on the health of the borrower, on the prospects and on the signs of coherent strategy and direction. Could we interpret the movement of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury over to …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, I declare an interest as a former Minister for the Civil Service—although it was an awfully long time ago. The record shows that the biggest increase in output and productivity in the Civil Service and the biggest fall in numbers in modern times occurred between about 1972 and …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"The question is: what areas are the Government going to look at now to remove functions from the state sector, which will be the sure way to increase productivity and reduce numbers?..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"My Lords, in addition to more pension saving, the Chancellor talked the other night at the Mansion House about encouraging more retail investment in the stock markets and wider share ownership generally. This is an excellent cause and one that all parties should support. Will we see more measures from …..." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech
"On all sides, the international rule of law and rules of war are being broken, and for that, above all, we must be alert, prepared and defended...." Lord Howell of Guildford - View Speech