Results 1-20 of 1,257 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Michael Connarty

Business of the House (9 Jul 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: Will the Leader of the House arrange for the Business Secretary to make a statement on the operation of the guidelines on the recently passed amendment to the National Minimum Wage Act 1998? That amendment forbids the use of tips, gratuities, service charges and cover charges to pay the minimum wage. She will know, because I gave her a copy, that it is almost the sixth anniversary of my...

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Lending (Small Businesses) (17 Jun 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: Is my hon. Friend aware that many company owners who come to me complain that the terms and conditions of the enterprise finance guarantee are horrendous, as has been said? Furthermore, they are being asked to put up their family homes as a guarantee for the loans, although they have substantial equity in their own companies. Is it not unacceptable that people should be asked to put forward...

Business of the House (11 Jun 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I am grateful to the Leader of the House for organising a general debate on European affairs. Can she arrange for the right hon. Member for Tottenham (Mr. Lammy), who has been working very hard in the European Councils to try to get an amendment on the extension of copyright for recording artists, to be at that debate? Is she aware that a meeting of COREPER takes place today and that the...

Opposition Day: [Un-alloted half-day] — Dissolution of Parliament (10 Jun 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: It might be useful to look at what the Government did to save the Scottish economy at the same time. More than £60 billion went into saving the two Scottish banks that basically caused the crisis. As Lord Myners said last week in his evidence to the European Scrutiny Committee, we must not forget that the cause of the collapse of the economy lies with the banks, particularly the Scottish...

Opposition Day: [Un-alloted half-day] — Dissolution of Parliament (10 Jun 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I have heard this a few times. People say that things are going to change and be structurally different, and that we are waiting for it to happen. My understanding is that a document was sent to every single Member saying that the House has decided—led, I believe, by the Prime Minister—that there will be no more allowances for anyone to purchase any furniture, so even Members who...

Opposition Day: [Un-alloted half-day] — Dissolution of Parliament (10 Jun 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (6 May 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: The Prime Minister— [Interruption.]

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Engagements (6 May 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I have always recommended that the Prime Minister treats everything from the Opposition as a joke. The Prime Minister will recall meeting me and my hon. Friends the Members for Paisley and Renfrewshire, North (Jim Sheridan) and for East Lothian (Anne Moffat) to hear our arguments against the use of service charges and tips to pay the minimum wage. What are the Government going to do to end...

Industry and Exports (Financial Support) Bill: Use of the Chamber (United Kingdom Youth Parliament) (16 Mar 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: As my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol, East (Kerry McCarthy) would tell the hon. Gentleman, most young people know the difference between twitter and twaddle. When they look at some of the contributions to this debate, they will well understand that it is mainly twaddle that we are listening to now. When people are trying to get engaged in politics—whether it be a woman, a person...

Opposition Day — [7th Allotted Day]: European Working Time Directive (10 Mar 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: Apart from mentioning the Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament who voted against the interests that the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Mr. Reid) has set out, may we return to a point made by the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb)? He said that the Royal College of Surgeons should be listened to and that it had a point. However, what it called for was a limit of 65...

Opposition Day — [7th Allotted Day]: European Working Time Directive (10 Mar 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: The hon. Gentleman should be clear, because if he is arguing for a sectoral opt-out, he is arguing for a compulsory 56 hours. He seems now to be arguing against an individual opt-out, but he was previously arguing for a sectoral opt-out.

Opposition Day — [7th Allotted Day]: European Working Time Directive (10 Mar 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: My right hon. Friend well illustrates the fact that the Opposition motion is false and a posture. The intervention of the hon. Member for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne) showed that they do not understand. What would threaten retained firefighters has nothing to do with the opt-out; it is the fact that they are on call, that their on-call time would be counted and that they would therefore have no time...

Opposition Day — [5th Allotted Day]: Royal Mail (11 Feb 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. If he had heard the opening speech by the right hon. and learned Member for Rushcliffe (Mr. Clarke), he would know that the right hon. and learned Gentleman pointed out that although he was a big beast supported by Tarzan, Mrs. Thatcher would not privatise the Post Office because she knew that that would be a death blow—a suicide note—for the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Scotland: Claimant Count (4 Feb 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: As people begin to get worried about the rising claimant count, does my right hon. Friend accept that there are concerns in the oil and gas industry and energy companies such as INEOS, which he visited recently with me? However, those concerns are covered in Scotland by the national agreement for the engineering construction industry, or NAECI—made by the companies and Unite—under...

[Ann Winterton in the Chair] — Palestinian Territories (Economic Aid) (27 Jan 2009)

Michael Connarty: Nothing is new in the treatment of Israel and the attitude of the BBC to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people. When I first went to the occupied territories, in 1988, before I came into the House, I saw the fruit on the trees rotting because the Israeli Government would not allow the people of Hebron to pick their fruit to sell it. That was happening throughout the occupied...

Financial Crisis: That this House takes note of European Union Documents No. 15299/08, Commission Communication Review of EU-Russia Relations and No. 15300/08, Commission Staff Working Document accompanying the Commission Communication Review of EU-Russia Relations; and supports the Government's policy on the future of the relationship in view of recent developments. (20 Jan 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I will try to stick to the issues that exercised the European Scrutiny Committee. I hope that the Chairman of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes), to whom we refer the substance and merits of such matters, will be called. Let me quickly run through the history, because we have had far too short a time to talk about a relationship...

Financial Crisis: Financial Management (20 Jan 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: European debates are a bit like buses—we wait for one for ages, then three come along at the same time. For the first time, we are holding the debates on a Tuesday—they normally happen on a Wednesday to ensure that many members of the European Scrutiny Committee have to choose between its Committee meetings and the debates in the Chamber. Today is a Tuesday—it coincidentally...

Financial Crisis: Financial Management (20 Jan 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I echo that absolutely; we want to have that 100 per cent. We want to establish the credibility of accounts by having the ability to follow the accounts' income and expenditure to verify that the accounts are proper according to the rules and that the sums are spent in the right area. That is what we try to achieve when we have audit discussions and when we make negative comments—we...

Financial Crisis: Financial Management (20 Jan 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I will leave the last part of the hon. Gentleman's assessment to the auditors and the fraud office, but all I can plead in my own defence is that I have been Chair of the ESC for only two years and things have improved vastly in that time. I do not claim any correlation between those two facts, however. One of the great difficulties in defending the EU is that people often look at it with a...

Financial Crisis (20 Jan 2009) has video

Michael Connarty: I am always amazed at the Conservatives and how they view the world in which they live. They appear not to realise that there is a wolf at the door, but are much happier talking about a bogey man in the cupboard. In reality, we are facing an international collapse in financial credibility and the banking system, so we should be endorsing what the European Union, of which we are a part in...