Results 1-20 of 7,485 for speaker:Gordon Brown

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: Let me start this speech by paying tribute, as the Leader of the Opposition did, to the two members of our armed forces who have died in Afghanistan in the course of the last week: from 7th battalion, Rifleman Andrew Fentiman, who was on attachment to 3rd Battalion the Rifles; and from 33 Engineer Regiment, Corporal Loren Marlton-Thomas. In our thoughts and in our prayers, we will remember...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: If my hon. Friend's question is about Afghanistan, the action that we are taking-and the action proposed in the McChrystal report-is designed to minimise the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan. Our strategy is not counter-terrorism; it is counter-insurgency. It is to win the support of the Afghan people and then to ensure that the Afghan people can run their own affairs. This is not...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: That is because we announced in July new measures to put £1.2 billion into social housing and building new houses. We gave local authorities power to build houses again, and at the same time we said that we would build new social housing for people in this country to rent. I have to tell the hon. Gentleman that in first 10 years we modernised 2 million houses, repairing and refurbishing...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: The first thing that we have done is raise the top rate of tax. I have not heard the Opposition parties say that they would support us in that course. Perhaps the Leader of the Opposition will indicate that he will support us. We have taken action to remove the tax reliefs for pensions. We have taken action to raise national insurance by half a per cent. from next year. We have taken the...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: I will.

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: For 12 years the Conservative party asked us to deregulate. It asked us to have less regulation. It opposed the Financial Services Authority. It wanted us to deregulate, but I believe that the answer we must take from the crisis of the last few years is that we need to have global supervision of our financial institutions, and that is what I want to talk about today. Last year, we were...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman's question is about the European Union, although I rather suspect that it is so, but his argument is not with me; it is with the Leader of the Opposition.

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: You see, Mr. Speaker, they are back to the old ways. The Conservative party cannot stop arguing about Europe; and far from the Leader of the Opposition being able to hold his party together, it is rent asunder by the very issue of European union. [Interruption.] The financial services- [Interruption.] Mr. Speaker, this is the Leader of the Opposition who gave a cast-iron commitment to hold a...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: The hon. Gentleman should understand that under the arrangement for the rise in the BBC licence fee-when it did happen-the BBC would contribute funds to maintaining and improving the digital infrastructure of the country; when the licence fee was negotiated there was an agreement that the BBC would contribute to people being online and to the digital changes that we are bringing about. We are...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: I was coming to that, so I hope that the hon. Gentleman would just listen to me. The dominant issue is, as he says, jobs; it is helping people be secure in their jobs and it is finding jobs for young people who are unemployed. We must not only act for the future, as we are doing with the digital and energy Bills, but we must do more to act now. In the last quarter, employment has risen. Even...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: We have helped 200,000 businesses, including many in the hon. Gentleman's constituency, with their cash-flow problems during this recession. That has helped 200,000 businesses, been worth about £4 billion and enabled businesses to keep going. I believe that if he talks to the Federation of Small Businesses and other business organisations, such as the CBI and the Institute of Directors,...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: I was explaining that even during these difficult economic times, even after questions about the Conservative party's priorities and even after the Leader of the Opposition's speech last week in which he said that the gap between the rich and poor was too great, that inequality was a problem that had to be dealt with and that differences in wealth contribute to our social problems, he has...

Outlawries Bill: Debate on the Address — [1st Day] (18 Nov 2009)

Gordon Brown: That intervention tells us two things. One is the absolute fixation with Europe on the part of the Conservatives. Secondly, they cannot ask questions about policy; it is all about personalities. When will they realise that when it comes to the choice in this country, it will be a choice about the policies that we pursue as a country? At no point during the Leader of the Opposition's speech...