Results 1-20 of 8,779 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Kenneth Clarke

Business, Innovation and Skills: Small and Medium-Sized Businesses (12 Nov 2009)

Kenneth Clarke: The Minister must be aware that August was the seventh consecutive month in which the net flow of finance to business fell, and that the figures for the third quarter of this year are the worst on record for the fall in lending to business. Will he not acknowledge that the Government's efforts to tackle this problem of credit for business over the last nine months—the worst of the...

Business, Innovation and Skills: Topical Questions (12 Nov 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: At a time when 51 companies are going bust every day in this country, and when, as we said a few moments ago, the credit position for small businesses is very difficult, does the Minister agree with Lord Sugar, the small business tsar, that struggling small business men are moaners and living in Disneyland, which he undoubtedly said. Is it not time for the Department's senior Minister in the...

Nato: Royal Mail (20 Oct 2009)

Kenneth Clarke: First, I join the Minister in hoping that management and trade unions find some way of resolving the dispute and avoiding a totally suicidal strike. They should return to the previously agreed programme of modernisation as quickly as possible, in the interests of both the customers and staff of Royal Mail. Does the Minister agree that we should welcome the management's announcement that, if...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Kenneth Clarke: rose—

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Kenneth Clarke: Apart from the automatic stabilisers, which we all accept and support, the only significant measure of fiscal support that I am aware the Government are giving is the VAT reduction, which they propose to withdraw at Christmas. Why is it right to withdraw the VAT reduction at Christmas, if any other reaction to the present fiscal deficit is a serious threat to our economy and the national future?

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009)

Kenneth Clarke: So far as I am aware, the only classic Keynesian capital scheme that has been advanced in the entire country is the dualling of a road in my constituency, and for that I am exceedingly grateful. The Government could not find any other shovel-ready schemes to put money into. This country has taken hardly any measures to introduce a fiscal stimulus to the economy, because we cannot afford it...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: While we are having this wander through history, may I move on to the rewriting of history? I opposed the fiscal stimulus of the VAT cut when I was a freelance Back Bencher—before I was on the Front Bench—on the basis that we could not afford it. The British Government have gone in for less fiscal stimulus than almost any other developed country because of the state of our public...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I beg to move, That this House recognises the jobs crisis facing thousands of households as unemployment continues to rise with nearly 2,000 people a day losing their job; regrets the UK's declining competitiveness; further regrets the Government's failure to roll out effective recession schemes to offer support to the struggling small and medium-sized enterprises sector; calls on the...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I will give way in a moment, but I do not know whether my right hon. Friend read The Sunday Times last weekend. I am indebted to it for a short story showing that the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills is mainly concentrating on the branding of the confused range of schemes that he has produced, using the Government's party political slogans in various publications, which...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I always used 2.5 per cent., but was always tempted to put it up because the combination of our supply side reforms and globalisation in the mid-1990s made me think that 2.75 per cent. might be possible. The Government finally started accepting 2.75 per cent. in the middle of a crazy boom, which they were taking credit for, but they have collapsed from that. I must say that since my right...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: Yes, I think I would. The publicly owned banks have to have regard to the understandable sensitivities of public opinion about bonuses. The important thing about bonuses is to make them long term and genuinely based on out-of-the-ordinary performance. They should be fully realised only when long-term improvements have been delivered and should be capable of being clawed back if those...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry).

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: There will be a wave of pleasure when I say that my hon. Friend has just given about the next 10 minutes of my speech, if I go at my ordinary pace. Having talked about the problems of accessing credit, I was going to make exactly that point and say what we would have done differently, and would still do, to make things more useful. However, I will first give way to my hon. Friend the Member...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I cannot answer for the Secretary of State. The problem is real and it is as described by my hon. Friend, but that reality has not been addressed properly, as my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury also said. We have been quite clear for several months about what we believe should be done. We have proposed that £50 billion should be devoted to a loan guarantee scheme, whereby the...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: We have to start tackling the deficit as soon as possible; we have no realistic choice about that, and we will pay a great penalty if people begin to believe that we are not going to do that. The background to the debate is that the Government have proceeded, despite our warnings, on the basis that they are going to carry on increasing public spending by about £30 billion next year. That...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: With anything of that kind, we are going to say, "Where are you finding the money from?" I shall leave it to my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs. May), who is winding up the debate, to describe the package that will be essential to tackle the real needs of the unemployed now and through this recession. We have addressed the question of how we would finance it and what it...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: If I heard the right hon. Lady properly, she said that this was going to be financed by "additional borrowing". I must say that nothing causes me deeper dismay than to hear a Treasury Minister get to her feet— [ Interruption. ] She is no longer a Treasury Minister; I am sorry. Nothing causes me deeper dismay than to hear a distinguished former Treasury Minister get to her feet at the...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I have given way, and I will do so again in a bit, but I must make some progress. I am in danger of making one of my longer speeches in a debate in which there is a time limit for everyone else. Let me just get through the things that will be required to restore growth, apart from tackling the credit market problems and the problems of the public debt that loom so heavily over everyone. When...

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: That is the question I use when people complain to me about European regulations! What I would repeal is the whole system that requires companies and voluntary bodies to go through a process of vetting the records of more than 5 million citizens if they are likely to meet children in the course of their work or their daily activity. I am thinking of recent examples; otherwise, the hon....

Opposition Day — [18th Allotted Day]: Economic Recovery and Welfare (19 Oct 2009) has video

Kenneth Clarke: I will give way one last time, which might give me more time to think of another regulation for abolition.